ROMANCES AND NARRATIVES BY
DANIEL DEFOE
EDITED BY GEORGE A. AITKEN
IN SIXTEEN VOLUMES
VOL. VI
CAPTAIN SINGLETON
First Edition 1895
Second Edition 1900
Third Edition 1904
Life, Adven-
tures, &f Piracies of
the Famous CAPTAIN
SINGLETON * * * By
DANIEL DEFOE
Edited by GEORGE A. AITKEN
with
Illustrations by J. B. YEATS
LONDON * * * * Published by
J. M DENT & CO, Aldine House
29 fc? 30 Bedford Street, W.C.
MDCCCCIV
$
jyoV
C35^
/?D/
875006
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
WE FOUND THE WATER FRESH AND PLEA
SANT TO DRINK .... Frontispiece
LASHING THE SHIP'S BOWSPRIT FAST TO
OUR MAINMAST .... Page 1 73
KEPT A LITTLE SHOP IN THE MlNORIES . ., 31 I
INTRODUCTION.
A FORTNIGHT after the appearance of the
f\ " Memoirs of a Cavalier," Defoe published, on
the 4th of June 1720, "The Life, Adventures,
and Piracies of the famous Captain Singleton : con
taining an account of his being set on shore in the Island
of Madagascar, his settlement there, with a description
of the place and inhabitants ; of his passage from thence
in a paraguay [j/V] to the mainland of Africa, with an
account of the customs and manners of the people : his
great deliverances from the barbarous natives and wild
beasts : of his meeting with an Englishman, a citizen
of London, amongst the Indians. The great riches he
acquired, and his voyage home to England. As also
Captain Singleton's return to sea, with an account of
his many adventures, and piracies with the famous
Captain Avery, and others." The story thus set forth
was reprinted in successive numbers of the Exeter
Post Master or Loyal Mercury, beginning with Nov.
4, 1720, and the book was reissued in September
1721, by Nathaniel Mist, who had probably bought
the remainder. The real second edition which con
tained many verbal alterations was not published until
1737, after Defoe's death; and the third edition is
dated 1768. Mr. H. H. Sparling made the story
Vlll INTRODUCTION.
better known by editing it for the Camelot Classics, in
1887 ; it is now reprinted for the first time in accord
ance with the only edition published in Defoe's life
time.
Defoe had already written a pamphlet upon Captain
Avery's exploits (Dec. 1719); and it is probable
that " Captain Singleton " was composed about the
same time. It is an admirable tale of adventure,
and is very entertaining; but it is on a lower level
than " Robinson Crusoe " or " The Journal of the
Plague Year." It lacks something of the unity of
purpose and the high tone of those masterpieces, and
the hero is a man so entirely wanting in principle that
it is difficult to take much interest in him. Yet the
story is made eminently readable by the author's powers
of invention, and it contains one character, that of the
Quaker William, which is among the best that Defoe
created. The book abounds, it may be added, in the
author's favourite words and phrases, and hasty com
position is shown by the frequency with which sentence*
begin with the familiar " However." " Frighted " and
" to fright " are of constant occurrence, and on one page
(p. 87) we find " frighted creatures," " frighted them,"
and "they were so frighted," besides "the fright."
Bob Singleton was stolen from a nursemaid while
he was a baby, and sold to a gipsy woman, by whom
he was named. The gipsy happening to be hanged,
Singleton was cast upon the parish ; and at the age
of twelve he was sent to sea. After three or four
voyages he was taken prisoner by an Algerine rover
(1695), and was ill-used by the Turks ; but the rover
was in its turn captured by the Portuguese. At
Lisbon, Singleton agreed to be cabin-boy on a voyage
to the East Indies. He began to steal, and learned
everything that was wicked among the Portuguese.
He had never heard much of virtue or religion ; yet
INTRODUCTION. IX
he felt abhorrence of the vileness of his associates.
At Goa he escaped the Inquisition by becoming a
Roman Catholic ; and at Madagascar he promoted a
mutiny among the crew, and was left on shore with
twenty-seven of the men. Singleton was then seven
teen or eighteen. After various adventures on the
island, the men made a vessel out of a wreck which
they found, and managed to reach the continent of
Africa, after a voyage of twenty-four days. They
then " took one of the rashest and wildest and most
desperate resolutions that was ever taken by man, or
any number of men, in the world," viz., to travel from
Mozambique to Angola or Guinea, through a " dark
continent " of at least 1 800 miles.
Of this wondrous journey I shall have to speak again ;
here it is enough to say that Singleton, after gaining
much treasure, reached the Gold Coast, and obtained a
passage thence to England, where he fell into bad com
pany and lost all his money in two years. He then
joined a vessel sailing for Cadiz, and took part, but
without success, in a plot to seize the ship. His fellow-
conspirators on another vessel secured their prize, and the
whole party set sail, Singleton being made a lieutenant.
When a Spanish sloop was captured, some of the crew
manned it, and for two years the pirates in both vessels
were busily occupied. Singleton then took command
of a frigate, and one of his comrades was a ' very
merry fellow " named William Walters, a Quaker and
surgeon, who had been taken on board a prize, and
was not unwilling to accompany Singleton if it was
represented that he was carried away by force. The
privateers met at Madagascar, where they found the
redoubtable pirate, Captain Avery ; and there Single
ton had a difference with his colleague Wilmot, who
left him and took away all the spoil. Singleton, how
ever, had a ship of forty-four guns, besides a sloop, and
X INTRODUCTION.
he decided to imitate A very' s exploits in the Eastern
seas.
In the course of their adventures, William met
with a Japanese priest, who said there were in his
country thirteen Englishmen ; they had been wrecked
on their way from Greenland and the North Pole.
This amazed the pirates, who knew of the infinite
attempts made to discover a North- West passage ; but
when they inquired again for the priest at Formosa,
they found that his ship had sailed. " This put an
end to our inquiry after them, and perhaps may have
disappointed mankind of one of the most noble dis
coveries that ever was made, or will again be made,
in the world, for the good of mankind in general ; but
so much for that."
The pirates had now made so much money that
they determined to go homewards. After further
adventures William and Singleton left the ship at
Surat, ostensibly with the object of trading to Bassorah,
but in reality without any intention of rejoining their
comrades. Having got away, by a trick, with a great
quantity of valuable property, Singleton's conscience
at length began to trouble him thanks to William's
admonitions and he felt little satisfaction in the
possession of his riches. By the use of disguises
Singleton and William reached Europe, and William
entered into correspondence with a sister, a widow
with four children, who kept a little shop in the
Minories. They sent some of their money to her,
but were so burdened with fears that they delayed
their return to England for a further period of two
years. At length, however, they came to London,
and Singleton, having married William's sister, lived
in retirement, and was, he says, much happier than
he deserved.
Such, in brief, was Singleton's life. The two
INTRODUCTION. XI
matters of greatest interest in the book the journey
across Africa, and the character of the Quaker William
demand a somewhat fuller notice.
It has been said that Defoe anticipated in " Captain
Singleton" the most striking of the discoveries made
in Central Africa in recent years, and there has been
much discussion as to whether the particulars he gives
are the result of his imagination, or of the study of
the experiences of some traveller or travellers whose
existence has been forgotten. The whole question was
gone into fully by the late Professor Minto in Mac-
millans Magazine for October 1878, and the account
which follows is based chiefly upon that paper.
Singleton landed at a point 12 35' south of the
equator ; and his journey across Africa began some
fifty miles further north, where, he says, the river
Quilloa joined the sea. After following this river about
200 miles, the party came to the first of a series of great
cataracts, which are, it is said, much like the cataracts
on East African rivers. The first cataract might be
the Victoria Falls on the Zambesi, and the cataracts
higher up resemble those on the Shire. Defoe may
have heard particulars of these falls, or he may have
come across some one who was acquainted with the
river Rufiji, of which so little is known even now.
After travelling westward about 700 miles, Singleton
came to a high ridge of mountains, and beyond that
to a gloomy desert. On the ninth day's journey across
this wilderness a great lake was sighted, and next
day they reached the southern point of this lake, and
travelled three days by the side of it. If a line is
drawn on a modern map due west from the mouth
of the Rufiji (which seems to be the river known to
old geographers as the Quilloa), we are brought to
the south point of the Lake Tanganyika, of whose
existence and position Defoe thus appears to have
Xil INTRODUCTION.
been aware. But if we turn to seventeenth-century
maps such as Dapper's, which is reproduced in
Stanley's " Through the Dark Continent " we shall
find many things indicated which are not represented
on the maps of the earlier half of this century, and
among them is a Lake Zafflan, whose southern extremity
was represented as being in the same latitude as the
river Quilloa. Defoe, then, so far as regards this
lake, was merely repeating the common knowledge of
his time knowledge based, no doubt, on the travels
of Portuguese traders or Arab slave-dealers. The
ancients had some inkling of great lakes Zafflan,
and Zembre or Zaire in Central Africa,* and it
was not until 1700 that the geographer Guillaume
Delisle removed them from the map. From then
until the days of Speke, Grant, and Livingstone, it
was assumed that the details on the old maps were
the result of imagination ; explorers have since been
engaged in ascertaining what element of truth there
was in the old traditions.
Before proceeding with Singleton's journey, it is
necessary to say that the mouth of the Quilloa was,
according to seventeenth-century maps, in 8 south
latitude, not a few miles only north of 12 35'. The
place now known as Kiloa is in about 9 south lati
tude. The arguments given above are based on the
assumption that the journey began where the Quilloa
actually joined the ocean. If we supposed the party to
start at the latitude given by Defoe, or even as far
* See Dr Birdwood's paper in the " Journal " of the Bombay
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 7, 1865 ; papers by
M. L. Cordeiro in vol. 2 of the "Bulletin" of the Lyons
Geographical Society (1879) ; and Mr Cooley's papers in the
" Journal" of the Royal Geographical Society, vols. 16 and 17.
Defoe was acquainted with the hints of a great lake in Don
Santos's " Ethiopia Oriental," of which there is an abridgment
in Purchas's " Pilgrims."
V
INTRODUCTION. Xlll
north as 1 1 , where the river Rovuma enters the sea, we
should have to conclude that the first great lake they
saw was Nyassa, and not Tanganyika. This, how
ever, could hardly be the case, because Defoe expressly
says that Singleton came upon the lake at its southern
extremity, and the southern end of Lake Nyassa is
too far south to agree with what we are told. More
over, the existence of Lake Nyassa seems to have
been quite unknown to the old map-makers, whom
Defoe undoubtedly consulted.
Nineteen days after passing the great lake, the
party, travelling due west, came to a ridge of hills,
beyond which was a green country (noo miles from
the coast), and a rapid river which they called the
Golden River. This river, which may have been the
Lualaba, the beginning of the Congo, ran northward,
and the gunner thought it was the Nile, or that it ran
into the great lake out of which the Nile was said
to take its rise. When they resumed their journey,
they went westwards for ten days, travelling twenty
to twenty-five miles a day, until they came to some
hills. Beyond all seemed to be water, and when they
reached the shore they found the water was fresh.
Turning northwards, they travelled for twenty-three
days, until they saw land on the other side of the
water, and after a further journey of eight days they
found that this great sea, or lake, ended in a great
river, running north, or north by east. Hereupon
the gunner said that this, and not the river already
mentioned, must be the Nile. When they had crossed
this river they were in 6 22' south latitude, and had
travelled 1000 miles without meeting any people.
After passing the river, Singleton met with negroes
who informed him that he must turn northwards, be
cause another lake was in the way. In two days they
were in sight of this lake, which forced them to travel
XIV INTRODUCTION.
northwards until they passed the line. The gunner
said that when they had rounded this lake they ought
to incline a little to the south, when they would reach
the great river Congo. Was Defoe, then, aware of
the Victoria Nyanza and the Albert Nyanza, and of
the fact that the Congo runs north of the line a
fact first established in our time by Stanley's journey
through Africa in 1877 ?
Singleton did not reach the Congo, because a great
desert forced him to turn northwards, thus gaining
the sea in due time at the Gold Coast ; but the
gunner, who was a Portuguese, was correct as regards
the course of the great river. Defoe makes the party
travel 1 300 miles westwards from a point on the coast
12 35' south latitude, before arriving at their second
great lake. This point is 1000 miles from the
Victoria Nyanza, but it corresponds with the Lake
Zaire of the old geographers. Defoe's lake, then,
is simply the Lake Zaire which is found on all the
seventeenth-century maps, and which is shown in
Dapper as the source of the Nile. Defoe places
another lake across the line, which is not on the old
maps, and no such lake has been found in the longi
tude suggested. The old authorities usually show the
Congo as flowing in a nearly straight line from Lake
Zaire or Zembre to the ocean ; but in an article
in Nature for June 6, 1878, it is stated that on a
Spanish globe of 1530 or 1540 in the Bibliotheque
Nationale at Paris the course of the Congo is shown
in a manner very similar to what Stanley found it
to be, and to what Defoe suggests. The Portuguese
had settlements on both the east and west coasts, and
their traders probably penetrated for some considerable
distance into the interior in each direction, but knew
little of the central regions. The old map-makers
were very credulous, and freely inserted " elephants for
INTRODUCTION. XV
want of towns ; " it was therefore well to have a
blank in place of the legendary or conjectural lakes,
until trustworthy explorers could find out the truth
about this mysterious continent.
In this account of Singleton's journey nothing has
been said of the wondrous details which give life and
verisimilitude to Defoe's narrative. We read with deep
interest of great herds of elephants, of their teeth, of
the discovery and search for gold on the Golden River,
of the manner in which the camp was attacked by and
protected against ravenous creatures, tigers, lions, and a
beast "of an ill-gendered kind, between a tiger and a
leopard." Later on, there is the discovery among the
negroes of an Englishman who had been captured,
but had, after making his escape, met with a friendly
tribe, with whom he lived in a savage state. This man
became guide to the party, and enabled them to acquire
great wealth in gold and ivory ; but his own share having
been afterwards lost through the capture by the French
of the ship by which the treasure was sent to Europe,
he died of grief at a Dutch factory on the Gold Coast.
With all this, there are accounts of dreary deserts and
frightful forests, and hints of many " very remarkable
incidents " among the savages, including the restoration
of a negro prince to his kingdom, "which, perhaps, might
contain three hundred subjects." An account of these
matters, as Defoe makes Singleton say of the lonely
Englishman's experiences, " would indeed be, in itself,
the subject of an agreeable history, and would be as long
and as diverting as our own, having in it many strange
and extraordinary incidents ; but we cannot have room
here to launch out into so long a digression."
Defoe had not improbably studied De Flacourt's
Histoire de Madagascar (1661), and Ogilby's "De
scription of Africa" (1670), an English version of
the work by Dapper, whose map has been already
XVI INTRODUCTION.
mentioned. Henry Kingsley suggested that Defoe
had read of Robert Everard's adventures in Mada
gascar, and that they formed the nucleus of the whole
story ; but Everard's " Relation of Three Years' Suf
ferings " seems to have been printed for the first time
in Churchill's " Collections of Voyages," published in
1732, after Defoe's death; and I cannot find in this
' Relation " anything which was used by Defoe. In
the latter part of " Captain Singleton " there is a long
account of Captain Robert Knox's captivity in Ceylon,
taken from Knox's " Historical Relation of the Island
of Ceylon" (1681), a book which was in Defoe's
library. The portion of the work which is of interest
to readers of " Captain Singleton " has been reprinted
in full in the first volume of Prof. Arber's " English
Garner."
It remains to say a word of William the Quaker.
"He was," says Singleton, "a comic fellow indeed,
a man of very good solid sense, and an excellent sur
geon ; but what was worth all, very good-humoured
and pleasant in his conversation, and a bold, stout
fellow too, as any we had among us." It is William
who lends the chief interest to the second half of
Singleton's adventures ; his advice was invaluable to
the pirates, though they sometimes resented at first
the "dry rubs" which this "gibing creature" gave
them. When necessity called, William did not
hesitate to help in securing a prize, though the shot
flew thick about his head ; and when the enemy was
disabled he would come up to Singleton, saying very
calmly, " Friend, what dost thou mean ? Why dost
thou not visit thy neighbour in the ship, the door being
open for thee ? " Yet he " did not care for directing
us neither;" whether for conscience' sake or from
prudential motives, Singleton could not at first deter
mine. William was an excellent man of business, and
INTRODUCTION. XVII
could upon occasion dispose of a ship-load of negroes
at good prices by telling " a very plausible tale ; " but
he always proceeded on the supposition that his acts
were done under compulsion, and he was always in
favour of gaining the end desired, if possible, without
fighting.
After much conversation with William, at whose
tears his comrade laughed for some time, Singleton
was brought to think of the future, and of the need
of repentance. The pirate said, very naturally, that
he was at home where he was ; he had no friends.
" I came out of England a child, and never was in it
but once since I was a man ; and then I was cheated
and imposed upon, and used so ill that I care not if I
never see it more." But before long William per
suaded Singleton to break off his " wretched course,"
as a first step towards reformation, and this resolve
caused William to be " so swallowed up with joy he
could not speak." Singleton's conscience was now
troubled at the manner in which his wealth had been
obtained, and it became like dirt under his feet. In
this emergency William's prudence enabled him to
take the steps which were necessary to preserve their
effects, and even themselves. He was " a wise and
wary man," and he quieted Singleton's doubts and
fears of the vengeance of Heaven by pointing out
that they could not restore their wealth to its rightful
owners, and that their proper course, therefore, was
" to keep it carefully together, with a resolution to do
what right with it " might be possible. Singleton had
always Jed a vagrant life, and William was all the
comfort he had. He naturally knew little of religion ;
" I was little Bob of Bussleton, and went to school to
learn my Testament. However, it pleased God to
make William the Quaker everything to me." The
story is certainly not wanting in pathos, and perhaps
XV111 INTRODUCTION.
too much has been made by the critics of the sudden
ness of Singleton's reformation, after he had become
rich. The influence of William the first Christian
with whom he had conversed would naturally be
very great upon a man who had had so few advantages.
Those who have spoken of William as "a professed
Quaker," by way of explaining any improbability, as
Lee says, in Singleton's connection with one of that
body, have missed a great part of Defoe's meaning.
It is true that William was a pirate, distinguished by
the worldly wisdom which has never been unusual
among Quakers; but there can be no doubt of the
genuineness of his religion, and of the beneficent in
fluence which he exercised over Singleton.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON
THE
LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES
OF
CAPTAIN SINGLETON
AS it is usual for great persons, whose lives have been
J~\ remarkable, and whose actions deserve recording
to posterity, to insist much upon their originals,
give full accounts of their families, and the histories
of their ancestors, so, that I may be methodical, I
shall do the same, though I can look but a very little
way into my pedigree, as you will see presently.
If I may believe the woman whom I was taught
to call mother, I was a little boy, of about two years
old, very well dressed, had a nursery-maid to attend
me, who took me out on a fine summer's evening into
the fields towards Islington, as she pretended, to give
the child some air ; a little girl being with her, of
twelve or fourteen years old, that lived in the neigh
bourhood. The maid, whether by appointment or
otherwise, meets with a fellow, her sweetheart, as I
suppose ; he carries her into a public-house, to give
her a pot and a cake ; and while they were toying in
the house the girl plays about, with me in her hand,
A
2 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
in the garden and at the door, sometimes in sight,
sometimes out of sight, thinking no harm.
At this juncture comes by one of those sort of people
who, it seems, made it their business to spirit away
little children. This was a hellish trade in those
days, and chiefly practised where they found little
children very well dressed, or for bigger children, to
sell them to the plantations.
The woman, pretending to take me up in her arms
and kiss me, and play with me, draws the girl a good
way from the house, till at last she makes a fine story
to the girl, and bids her go back to the maid, and tell
her where she was with the child ; that a gentlewoman
had taken a fancy to the child, and was kissing of it,
but she should not be frighted, or to that purpose ; for
they were but just there ; and so, while the girl went,
she carries me quite away.
From this time, it seems, I was disposed of to a
beggar woman that wanted a pretty little child to set
out her case ; and after that, to a gipsy, under whose
government I continued till I was about six years old.
And this woman, though I was continually dragged
about with her from one part of the country to another,
yet never let me want for anything ; and I called her
mother ; though she told me at last she was not my
mother, but that she bought me for twelve shillings of
another woman, who told her how she came by me,
and told her that my name was Bob Singleton, not
Robert, but plain Bob ; for it seems they never knew
by what name I was christened.
It is in vain to reflect here, what a terrible fright
the careless hussy was in that lost me; what treat
ment she received from my justly enraged father and
mother, and the horror these must be in at the thoughts
of their child being thus carried away ; for as I never
knew anything of the matter, but just what I have
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 3
related, nor who my father and mother were, so it
would make but a needless digression to talk of it
here.
My good gipsy mother, for some of her worthy
actions no doubt, happened in process of time to be
hanged ; and as this fell out something too soon for
me to be perfected in the strolling trade, the parish
where I was left, which for my life I can't remember,
took some care of me, to be sure ; for the first thing
I can remember of myself afterwards, was, that I went
to a parish school, and the minister of the parish used
to talk to me to be a good boy ; and that, though
I was but a poor boy, if I minded my book, and
served God, I might make a good man.
I believe I was frequently removed from one town
to another, perhaps as the parishes disputed my supposed
mother's last settlement. Whether I was so shifted
by passes, or otherwise, I know not ; but the town
where I last was kept, whatever its name was, must be
not far off from the seaside ; for a master of a ship
who took a fancy to me, was the first that brought
me to a place not far from Southampton, which I
afterwards knew to be Bussleton ; and there I attended
the carpenters, and such people as were employed in
building a ship for him ; and when it was done,
though I was not above twelve years old, he carried
me to sea with him on a voyage to Newfoundland.
I lived well enough, and pleased my master so well
that he called me his own boy; and I would have
called him father, but he would not allow it, for he
had children of his own. I went three or four
voyages with him, and grew a great sturdy boy, when,
coming home again from the banks of Newfoundland,
we were taken by an Algerine rover, or man-of-war ;
which, if my account stands right, was about the year
1695, for you may be sure I kept no journal.
4 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
I was not much concerned at the disaster, though
I saw my master, after having been wounded by a
splinter in the head during the engagement, very
barbarously used by the Turks ; I say, I was not
much concerned, till, upon some unlucky thing I said,
which, as I remember, was about abusing my master,
they took me and beat me most unmercifully with a
flat stick on the soles of my feet, so that I could
neither go or stand for several days together.
But my good fortune was my friend upon this
occasion ; for, as they were sailing away with our ship
in tow as a prize, steering for the Straits, and in sight
of the bay of Cadiz, the Turkish rover was attacked
by two great Portuguese men-of-war, and taken and
carried into Lisbon.
As I was not much concerned at my captivity, not
indeed understanding the consequences of it, if it had
continued, so I was not suitably sensible of my deli
verance ; nor, indeed, was it so much a deliverance
to me as it would otherwise have been, for my roaster,
who was the only friend I had in the world, died at
Lisbon of his wounds ; and I being then almost re
duced to my primitive state, viz., of starving, had this
addition to it, that it was in a foreign country too,
where I knew nobody and could not speak a word of
their language. However, I fared better here than I
had reason to expect ; for when all the rest of our
men had their liberty to go where they would, I, that
knew not whither to go, stayed in the ship for several
days, till at length one of the lieutenants seeing me,
inquired what that young English dog did there, and
why they did not turn him on shore.
I heard him, and partly understood what he meant,
though not what he said, and began then to be in a
terrible fright ; for I knew not where to get a bit of
bread ; when the pilot of the ship, an old seaman,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 5
seeing me look very dull, came to me, and speak
ing broken English to me, told me I must be gone.
" Whither must I go ? " said I. " Where you will,"
said he, " home to your own country, if you will."
" How must I go thither ? " said I. " Why, have
you no friend ? " said he. " No/' said I, " not in the
world, but that dog," pointing to the ship's dog (who,
having stolen a piece of meat just before, had brought
it close by me, and I had taken it from him, and ate
it), "for he has been a good friend, and brought me
my dinner."
"Well, well," says he, "you must have your
dinner. Will you go with me ? " " Yes," says I,
" with all my heart." In short, the old pilot took me
home with him, and used me tolerably well, though
I fared hard enough ; and I lived with him about two
years, during which time he was soliciting his business,
and at length got to be master or pilot under Don
Garcia de Pimentesia de Carravallas, captain of a
Portuguese galleon or carrack, which was bound to
Goa, in the East Indies ; and immediately having
gotten his commission, put me on board to look after
his cabin, in which he had stored himself with
abundance of liquors, succades, sugar, spices, and other
things, for his accommodation in the voyage, and laid in
afterwards a considerable quantity of European goods,
fine lace and linen; and also baize, woollen cloth,
stuffs, &c., under the pretence of his clothes.
I was too young in the trade to keep any journal
of this voyage, though my master, who was, for a
Portuguese, a pretty good artist, prompted me to it ;
but my not understanding the language was one hin
drance ; at least it served me for an excuse. How
ever, after some time, I began to look into his charts
and books ; and, as I could write a tolerable hand,
understood some Latin, and began to have a little
6 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
smattering of the Portuguese tongue, so I began to
get a superficial knowledge of navigation, but not such
as was likely to be sufficient to carry me through a
life of adventure, as mine was to be. In short, I
learned several material things in this voyage among
the Portuguese ; I learned particularly to be an arrant
thief and a bad sailor ; and I think I may say they
are the best masters for teaching both these of any
nation in the world.
We made our way for the East Indies, by the
coast of Brazil ; not that it is in the course of sailing
the way thither, but our captain, either on his own
account, or by the direction of the merchants, went
thither first, where at All Saints' Bay, or, as they call
it in Portugal, the Rio de Todos los Santos, we
delivered near a hundred tons of goods, and took in
a considerable quantity of gold, with some chests of
sugar, and seventy or eighty great rolls of tobacco,
every roll weighing at least a hundredweight.
Here, being lodged on shore by my master's order,
I had the charge of the captain's business, he having
seen me very diligent for my own master ; and in
requital for his mistaken confidence, I found means to
secure, that is to say, to steal, about twenty moidores
out of the gold that was shipped on board by the
merchants, and this was my first adventure.
We had a tolerable voyage from hence to the Cape
de Bona Speranza ; and I was reputed as a mighty
diligent servant to my master, and very faithful. I
was diligent indeed, but I was very far from honest ;
however, they thought me honest, which, by the way,
was their very great mistake. Upon this very mistake
the captain took a particular liking to me, and employed
me frequently on his own occasion ; and, on the other
hand, in recompense for my officious diligence, I
received several particular favours from him ; par-
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 7
ticularly, I was, by the captain's command, made a
kind of a steward under the ship's steward, for such
provisions as the captain demanded for his own table.
He had another steward for his private stores besides,
but my office concerned only what the captain called
for of the ship's stores for his private use.
However, by this means I had opportunity particu
larly to take care of my master's man, and to furnish
myself with sufficient provisions to make me live much
better than the other people in the ship ; for the captain
seldom ordered anything out of the ship's stores, as
above, but I snipt some of it for my own share. We
arrived at Goa, in the East Indies, in about seven
months from Lisbon, and remained there eight more ;
during which time I had indeed nothing to do, my
master being generally on shore, but to learn everything
that is wicked among the Portuguese, a nation the most
perfidious and the most debauched, the most insolent
and cruel, of any that pretend to call themselves Chris
tians, in the world.
Thieving, lying, swearing, forswearing, joined to the
most abominable lewdness, was the stated practice of
the ship's crew ; adding to it, that, with the most in
sufferable boasts of their own courage, they were, gene
rally speaking, the most complete cowards that I ever
met with ; and the consequence of their cowardice was
evident upon many occasions. However, there was
here and there one among them that was not so bad
as the rest ; and, as my lot fell among them, it made
me have the most contemptible thoughts of the rest, as
indeed they deserved.
I was exactly fitted for their society indeed ; for I
had no sense of virtue or religion upon me. I had
never heard much of either, except what a good old
parson had said to me when I was a child of about
eight or nine years old; nay, I was preparing and
8 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
growing up apace to be as wicked as anybody could be,
or perhaps ever was. Fate certainly thus directed my
beginning, knowing that I had work which I had to do
in the world, which nothing but one hardened against
all sense of honesty or religion could go through ; and
yet, even in this state of original wickedness, I enter
tained such a settled abhorrence of the abandoned vile-
ness of the Portuguese, that I could not but hate them
most heartily from the beginning, and all my life after
wards. They were so brutishly wicked, so base and
perfidious, not only to strangers but to one another,
so meanly submissive when subjected, so insolent,
or barbarous and tyrannical, when superior, that I
thought there was something in them that shocked
my very nature. Add to this that it is natural
to an Englishman to hate a coward, it all joined
together to make the devil and a Portuguese equally
my aversion.
However, according to the English proverb, he that
is shipped with the devil must sail with the devil ; I
was among them, and I managed myself as well as I
could. My master had consented that I should assist
the captain in the office, as above ; but, as I understood
afterwards that the captain allowed my master half a
moidore a month for my service, and that he had my
name upon the ship's books also, I expected that when
the ship came to be paid four months' wages at the
Indies, as they, it seems, always do, my master would
let me have something for myself.
But I was wrong in my man, for he was none of
that kind ; he had taken me up as in distress, and his
business was to keep me so, and make his market of
me as well as he could, which I began to think of after
a different manner than I did at first, for at first I thought
he had entertained me in mere charity, upon seeing my
distressed circumstances, but did not doubt but when
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 9
he put me on board the ship, I should have some wages
for my service.
But he thought, it seems, quite otherwise ; and when
I procured one to speak to him about it, when the ship
was paid at Goa, he flew into the greatest rage ima
ginable, and called me English dog, young heretic, and
threatened to put me into the Inquisition. Indeed, of
all the names the four-and-twenty letters could make
up, he should not have called me heretic ; for as I
knew nothing about religion, neither Protestant from
Papist, or either of them from a Mahometan, I could
never be a heretic. However, it passed but a little,
but, as young as I was, I had been carried into the
Inquisition, and there, if they had asked me if I was
a Protestant or a Catholic, I should have said yes to
that which came first. If it had been the Protestant
they had asked first, it had certainly made a martyr of
me for I did not know what.
But the very priest they carried with them, or chap
lain of the ship, as we called him, saved me ; for seeing
me a boy entirely ignorant of religion, and ready to do
or say anything they bid me, he asked me some ques
tions about it, which he found I answered so very
simply, that he took it upon him to tell them he would
answer for my being a good Catholic, and he hoped he
should be the means of saving my soul, and he pleased
himself that it was to be a work of merit to him ; so he
made me as good a Papist as any of them in about a
week's time.
I then told him my case about my master ; how, it
is true, he had taken me up in a miserable case on board
a man-of-war at Lisbon ; and I was indebted to him
for bringing me on board this ship ; that if I had been
left at Lisbon, I might have starved, and the like ; and
therefore I was willing to serve him, but that I hoped
he would give me some little consideration for my
10 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
service, or let me know how long he expected I should
serve him for nothing.
It was all one ; neither the priest nor any one else
could prevail with him, but that I was not his servant
but his slave, that he took me in the Algerine, and that
I was a Turk, only pretended to be an English boy to
get my liberty, and he would carry me to the Inquisi
tion as a Turk.
This frighted me out of my wits, for I had nobody
to vouch for me what I was, or from whence I came ;
but the good Padre Antonio, for that was his name,
cleared me of that part by a way I did not understand ;
for he came to me one morning with two sailors, and
told me they must search me, to bear witness that I was
not a Turk. I was amazed at them, and frighted,
and did not understand them, nor could I imagine what
they intended to do to me. However, stripping me,
they were soon satisfied, and Father Antony bade me
be easy, for they could all witness that I was no Turk.
So I escaped that part of my master's cruelty.
And now I resolved from that time to run away
from him if I could, but there was no doing of it there,
for there were not ships of any nation in the world in
that port, except two or three Persian vessels from
Ormus, so that if I had offered to go away from him,
he would have had me seized on shore, and brought on
board by force ; so that I had no remedy but patience.
And this he brought to an end too as soon as he could,
for after this he began to use me ill, and not only to
straiten my provisions, but to beat and torture me in a
barbarous manner for every trifle, so that, in a word,
my life began to be very miserable.
The violence of this usage of me, and the impos
sibility of my escape from his hands, set my head a-
working upon all sorts of mischief, and in particular I
resolved, after studying all other ways to deliver myself,
>uld
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. II
and finding all ineffectual, I say, I resolved to murder
him. With this hellish resolution in my head, I spent
whole nights and days contriving how to put it in exe
cution, the devil prompting me very warmly to the fact.
I was indeed entirely at a loss for the means, for I had
neither gun or sword, nor any weapon to assault him
with ; poison I had my thoughts much upon, but knew
not where to get any ; or, if I might have got it, I did
not know the country word for it, or by what name to
ask for it.
In this manner I quitted the fact, intentionally, a
hundred and a hundred times ; but Providence, either
for his sake or for mine, always frustrated my designs,
and I could never bring it to pass ; so I was obliged to
continue in his chains till the ship, having taken in
her loading, set sail for Portugal.
I can say nothing here to the manner of our voyage,
for, as I said, I kept no journal ; but this I can give an
account of, that having been once as high as the Cape
of Good Hope, as we call it, or Cabo de Bona Sper-
anza, as they call it, we were driven back again by a
violent storm from the W.S.W., which held us six
days and nights a great way to the eastward, and after
that, standing afore the wind for several days more, we
at last came to an anchor on the coast of Madagascar.
The storm had been so violent that the ship had re
ceived a great deal of damage, and it required some
time to repair her ; so, standing in nearer the shore,
the pilot, my master, brought the ship into a very good
harbour, where we rid in twenty-six fathoms water,
about half a mile from the shore.
While the ship rode here there happened a most des
perate mutiny among the men, upon account of some
deficiency in their allowance, which came to that height
that they threatened the captain to set him on shore, and
go back with the ship to Goa. I wished they would with
12 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
all my heart, for I was full of mischief in my head, and
ready enough to do any. So, though I was but a boy,
as they called me, yet I prompted the mischief all I
could, and embarked in it so openly, that I escaped
very little being hanged in the first and most early part
of my life ; for the captain had some notice that there
was a design laid by some of the company to murder
him ; and having, partly by money and promises, and
partly by threatening and torture, brought two fellows
to confess the particulars, and the names of the persons
concerned, they were presently apprehended, till, one
accusing another, no less than sixteen men were seized
and put into irons, whereof I was one.
The captain, who was made desperate by his danger,
resolving to clear the ship of his enemies, tried us all,
and we were all condemned to die. The manner of
his process I was too young to take notice of ; but the
purser and one of the gunners were hanged immediately,
and I expected it with the rest. I do not remember
any great concern I was under about it, only that I
cried very much, for I knew little then of this world,
and nothing at all of the next.
However, the captain contented himself with exe
cuting these two, and some of the rest, upon their
humble submission and promise of future good be
haviour, were pardoned ; but five were ordered to be
set on shore on the island and left there, of which I
was one. My master used all his interest with the
captain to have me excused, but could not obtain it ;
for somebody having told him that I was one of them
who was singled out to have killed him, when my
master desired I might not be set on shore, the captain
told him I should stay on board if he desired it, but
then I should be hanged, so he might choose for me
which he thought best. The captain, it seems, was
particularly provoked at my being concerned in the
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 13
treachery, because of his having been so kind to me, and
of his having singled me out to serve him, as I have
said above ; and this, perhaps, obliged him to give my
master such a rough choice, either to set me on shore
or to have me hanged on board. And had my master,
indeed, known what good- will I had for him, he would
not have been long in choosing for me; for I had
certainly determined to do him a mischief the first
opportunity I had for it. This was, therefore, a good
providence for me to keep me from dipping my hands
in blood, and it made me more tender afterwards in
matters of blood than I believe I should otherwise
have been. But as to my being one of them that was
to kill the captain, that I was wronged in, for I was
not the person, but it was really one of them that were
pardoned, he having the good luck not to have that
part discovered.
I was now to enter upon a part of independent life,
a thing I was indeed very ill prepared to manage, for
I was perfectly loose and dissolute in my behaviour,
bold and wicked while I was under government, and
now perfectly unfit to be trusted with liberty, for I
was as ripe for any villainy as a young fellow that had
no solid thought ever placed in his mind could be sup
posed to be. Education, as you have heard, I had none ;
and all the little scenes of life I had passed through
had been full of dangers and desperate circumstances ;
but I was either so young or so stupid, that I escaped
the grief and anxiety of them, for want of having a
sense of their tendency and consequences.
This thoughtless, unconcerned temper had one felicity
indeed in it, that it made me daring and ready for doing
any mischief, and kept off the sorrow which otherwise
ought to have attended me when I fell into any mis
chief ; that this stupidity was instead of a happiness to
me, for it left my thoughts free to act upon means of
14 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
escape and deliverance in my distress, however great it
might be ; whereas my companions in the misery were
so sunk by their fear and grief, that they abandoned
themselves to the misery of their condition, and gave
over all thought but of their perishing and starving,
being devoured by wild beasts, murdered, and perhaps
eaten by cannibals, and the like.
I was but a young fellow, about seventeen or eighteen ;
but hearing what was to be my fate, I received it with
no appearance of discouragement ; but I asked what
my master said to it, and being told that he had used
his utmost interest to save me, but the captain had
answered I should either go on shore or be hanged on
board, which he pleased, I then gave over all hope of
being received again. I was not very thankful in my
thoughts to my master for his soliciting the captain for
me, because I knew that what he did was not in kind
ness to me so much as in kindness to himself; I mean,
to preserve the wages which he got for me, which
amounted to above six dollars a month, including what
the captain allowed him for my particular service to
him.
When I understood that my master was so appa
rently kind, I asked if I might not be admitted to
speak with him, and they told me I might, if my master
would come down to me, but I could not be allowed
to come up to him ; so then I desired my master might
be spoke to to come to me, and he accordingly came
to me. I fell on my knees to him, and begged he
would forgive me what I had done to displease him ;
and indeed the resolution I had taken to murder him
Jay with some horror upon my mind just at that time,
so that I was once just a-going to confess it, and beg
him to forgive me, but I kept it in. He told me he
had done all he could to obtain my pardon of the cap
tain, but could not ; and he knew no way for me but
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 15
to have patience, and submit to my fate ; and if they
came to speak with any ship of their nation at the
Cape, he would endeavour to have them stand in, and
fetch us off again, if we might be found.
Then I begged I might have my clothes on shore
with me. He told me he was afraid I should have
little need of clothes, for he did not see how we could
long subsist on the island, and that he had been told
that the inhabitants were cannibals or men-eaters
(though he had no reason for that suggestion), and
we should not be able to live among them. I told
him I was not so afraid of that as I was of starving
for want of victuals ; and as for the inhabitants being
cannibals, I believed we should be more likely to eat
them than they us, if we could but get at them. But
I was mightily concerned, I said, we should have no
weapons with us to defend ourselves, and I begged
nothing now, but that he would give me a gun and a
sword, with a little powder and shot.
He smiled, and said they would signify nothing to
us, for it was impossible for us to pretend to preserve
our lives- among such a populous and desperate nation
as the people of this island were. I told him that,
however, it would do us this good, for we should not
be devoured or destroyed immediately; so I begged
hard for the gun. At last he told me he did not
know whether the captain would give him leave to
give me a gun, and if not, he durst not do it ; but he
promised to use his interest to obtain it for me, which
he did, and the next day he sent me a gun, with some
ammunition, but told me the captain would not suffer
the ammunition to be given us till we were set all on
shore, and till he was just going to set sail. He also
sent me the few clothes I had in the ship, which
indeed were not many.
Two days after this, we were all carried on shore
1 6 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
together; the rest of my fellow-criminals hearing I
had a gun, and some powder and phot, solicited for
liberty to carry the like with them, which was also
granted them ; and thus we were set on shore to shift
for ourselves.
At our first coming into the island we were terrified
exceedingly with the sight of the barbarous people,
whose figure was made more terrible to us than it
really was by the report we had of them from the
seamen ; but when we came to converse with them
awhile, we found they were not cannibals, as was
reported, or such as would fall immediately upon us
and eat us up ; but they came and sat down by us,
and wondered much at our clothes and arms, and
made signs to give us some victuals, such as they had,
which was only roots and plants dug out of the ground
for the present, but they brought us fowls and flesh
afterwards in good plenty.
This encouraged the other four men that were with
me very much, for they were quite dejected before ;
but now they began to be very familiar with them,
and made signs, that if they would use us kindly, we
would stay and live with them ; which they seemed
glad of, though they knew little of the necessity we were
under to do so, or how much we were afraid of them.
However, upon second thoughts we resolved that
we would only stay in that part so long as the ship
rid in the bay, and then making them believe we were
gone with the ship, we would go and place ourselves,
if possible, where there were no inhabitants to be seen,
and so live as we could, or perhaps watch for a ship
that might be driven upon the coast as we were.
The ship continued a fortnight in the roads, re
pairing some damage which had been done her in the
late storm, and taking in wood and water ; and during
this time, the boat coming often on shore, the men
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 17
brought us several refreshments, and the natives be
lieving we only belonged to the ship, were civil
enough. We lived in a kind of a tent on the shore,
or rather a hut, which we made with the boughs of
trees, and sometimes in the night retired to a wood a
little out of their way, to let them think we were gone
on board the ship. However, we found them bar
barous, treacherous, and villainous enough in their
nature, only civil from fear, and therefore concluded
we should soon fall into their hands when the ship was
gone.
The sense of this wrought upon my fellow-sufferers
even to distraction ; and one of them, being a carpenter,
in his mad fit, swam off to the ship in the night, though
she lay then a league to sea, and made such pitiful
moan to be taken in, that the captain was prevailed
with at last to take him in, though they let him lie
swimming three hours in the water before he con
sented to it.
Upon this, and his humble submission, the captain
received him, and, in a word, the importunity of this
man (who for some time petitioned to be taken in,
though they hanged him as soon as they had him) was
such as could not be resisted ; for, after he had swam
so long about the ship, he was not able to reach the
shore again ; and the captain saw evidently that the
man must be taken on board or suffered to drown,
and the whole ship's company offering to be bound
for him for his good behaviour, the captain at last
yielded, and he was taken up, but almost dead with
his being so long in the water.
When this man was got in, he never left impor
tuning the captain, and all the rest of the officers,
in behalf of us that were behind, but to the very
last day the captain was inexorable ; when, at the
time their preparations were making to sail, and orders
B
1 8 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
given to hoist the boats into the ship, all the seamen
in a body came up to the rail of the quarter-deck,
where the captain was walking with some of his
officers, and appointing the boatswain to speak for
them, he went up, and falling on his knees to the cap
tain, begged of him, in the humblest manner possible,
to receive the four men on board again, offering to
answer for their fidelity, or to have them kept in
chains till they came to Lisbon, and there to be de
livered up to justice, rather than, as they said, to have
them left to be murdered by savages, or devoured by
wild beasts. It was a great while ere the captain took
any notice of them, but when he did, he ordered the
boatswain to be seized, and threatened to bring him to
the capstan for speaking for themi
Upon this severity, one of the seamen, bolder than
the rest, but still wjth all possible respect to the cap
tain, besought his honour, as he called him, that he
would give leave to some more of them to go on
shore, and die with their companions, or, if possible,
to assist them to resist the barbarians. The captain,
rather provoked than cowed with this, came to the
barricade of the quarter-deck, and speaking very
prudently to the men (for had he spoken roughly,
two-thirds of them would have left the ship, if not
all of them), he told them, it was for their safety as
well as his own that he had been obliged to that
severity ; that mutiny on board a ship was the same
thing as treason in a king's palace, and he could not
answer it to his owners and employers to trust the
ship and goods committed to his charge with men
who had entertained thoughts of the worst and blackest
nature ; that he wished heartily that it had been any
where else that they had been set oa shore, where they
might have been in less hazard from the savages ; that,
if he had designed they should be destroyed, he could
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 1 9
as well have executed them on board as the other two ;
that he wished it had "been in some other part of the
world, where he might have delivered them up to the
civil justice, or might have left them among Christians ;
but it was better their lives were put in hazard than
his life, and the safety of the ship ; and that though
he did not know that he had deserved so ill of any
of them as that they should leave the ship rather than
do their duty, yet if any of them were resolved to do
so unless he would consent to take a gang of traitors
on board, who, as he had proved before them all, had
conspired to murder him, he would not hinder them,
nor for the present would he resent their importunity ;
but, if there was nobody left in the ship but himself,
he would never consent to take them on board.
This discourse was delivered so well, was in itself
so reasonable, was managed with so much temper, yet
so boldly concluded with a negative, that the greatest
part of the men were satisfied for the present. How
ever, as it put the men into juntos and cabals, they
were not composed for some hours ; the wind also
slackening towards night, the captain ordered not to
weigh till next morning.
The same night twenty-three of the men, among
whom was the gunner's mate, the surgeon's assistant,
and two carpenters, applying to the chief mate told
him, that as the captain had given them leave to go on
shore to their comrades, they begged that he would
speak to the captain not to take it ill that they were
desirous to go and die with their companions ; and
that they thought they could do no less in such an
extremity than go to them ; because, if there was
any way to save their lives, it was by adding to their
numbers, and making them strong enough to assist one
another in defending themselves against the savages,
till perhaps they might one time or other find means
20 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
to make their escape, and get to their own country
again.
The mate told them, in so many words, that he
durst not speak to the captain upon any such design,
and was very sorry they had no more respect for him
than to desire him to go upon such an errand ; but, if
they were resolved upon such an enterprise, he would
advise them to take the long-boat in the morning be
times, and go off, seeing the captain had given them
leave, and leave a civil letter behind them to the cap
tain, and to desire him to send his men on shore for
the boat, which should be delivered very honestly, and
he promised to keep their counsel so long.
Accordingly, an hour before day, those twenty-
three men, with every man a firelock and a cutlass,
with some pistols, three halberds or half-pikes, and
good store of powder and ball, without any provision
but about half a hundred of bread, but with all their
chests and clothes, tools, instruments, books, &c.,
embarked themselves so silently, that the captain got
no notice of it till they were gotten half the way on
shore.
As soon as the captain heard of it he called for the
gunner's mate, the chief gunner being at the time sick
in his cabin, and ordered to fire at them ; but, to his
great mortification, the gunner's mate was one of the
number, and was gone with them ; and indeed it was
by this means they got so many arms and so much
ammunition. When the captain found how it was,
and that there was no help for it, he began to be a
little appeased, and made light of it, and called up the
men, and spoke kindly to them, and told them he was
very well satisfied in the fidelity and ability of those
that were now left, and that he would give to them,
for their encouragement, to be divided among them,
the wages which were due to the men that were gone,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 21
and that it was a great satisfaction to him that the ship
was free from such a mutinous rabble, who had not
the least reason for their discontent.
The men seemed very well satisfied, and particularly
the promise of the wages of those who were gone went
a great way with them. After this, the letter which
was left by the men was given to the captain by his
boy, with whom, it seems, the men had left it. The
letter was much to the same purpose of what they had
said to the mate, and which he declined to say for
them, only that at the end of their letter they told the
captain that, as they had no dishonest design, so they had
taken nothing away with them which was not their own,
except some arms and ammunition, such as were abso
lutely necessary to them, as well for their defence against
the savages as to kill fowls or beasts for their food,
that they might not perish ; and as there were con
siderable sums due to them for wages, they hoped he
would allow the arms and ammunition upon their
accounts. They told him that, as to the ship's long
boat, which they had taken to bring them on shore,
they knew it was necessary to him, and they were very
willing to restore it to him, and if he pleased to send
for it, it should be very honestly delivered to his men,
and not the least injury offered to any of those who
came for it, nor the least persuasion or invitation made
use of to any of them to stay with them ; and, at the
bottom of the letter, they very humbly besought him
that, for their defence, and for the safety of their lives,
he would be pleased to send them a barrel of powder
and some ammunition, and give them leave to keep the
mast and sail of the boat, that if it was possible for
them to make themselves a boat of any kind, they
might shift off to sea, to save themselves in such part
of the world as their fate should direct them to.
Upon this the captain, who had won much upon the
22 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
rest of his men by what he had said to them, and was
very easy as to the general peace (for it was very true that
the most mutinous of the men were gone), came out
to the quarter-deck, and, calling the men together, let
them know the substance of the letter, and told the men
that, however they had not deserved such civility from
him, yet he was not willing to expose them more than
they were willing to expose themselves ; he was inclined
to send them some ammunition, and as they had desired
but one barrel of powder, he would send them two
barrels, and shot, or lead and moulds to make shot, in
proportion ; and, to let them see that he was civiller to
them than they deserved, he ordered a cask of arrack
and a great bag of bread to be sent them for subsistence
till they should be able to furnish themselves.
The rest of the men applauded the captain's gene
rosity, and every one of them sent us something or other,
and about three in the afternoon the pinnace came on
shore, and brought us all these things, which we were very
glad of, and returned the long-boat accordingly ; and
as to the men that came with the pinnace, as the
captain had singled out such men as he knew would not
come over to us, so they had positive orders not to
bring any one of us on board again, upon pain of death ;
and indeed both were so true to our points, that we
neither asked them to stay, nor they us to go.
We were now a good troop, being in all twenty-
seven men, very well armed, and provided with every
thing but victuals ; we had two carpenters among us, a
gunner, and, which was worth all the rest, a surgeon or
doctor ; that is to say, he was an assistant to a surgeon
at Goa, and was entertained as a supernumerary with
us. The carpenters had brought all their tools, the
doctor all his instruments and medicines, and indeed
we had a great deal of baggage, that is to say, on the
whole, for some of us had little more than the clothes
r as
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 23
on our backs, of whom I was one ; but I had one thing
which none of them had, viz., I had the twenty-two
moidores of gold which I had stole at the Brazils, and
two pieces of eight. The two pieces of eight I showed,
and one moidore, and none of them ever suspected that
I had any more money in the world, having been known
to be only a poor boy taken up in charity, as you have
heard, and used like a slave, and in the worst manner
of a slave, by my cruel master the pilot.
It will be easy to imagine we four that were left at
first were joyful, nay, even surprised with joy at the
coming of the rest, though at first we were frighted,
and thought they came to fetch us back to hang us ;
but they took ways quickly to satisfy us that they were
in the same condition with us, only with this addi
tional circumstance, theirs was voluntary, and ours by
force.
The first piece of news they told us after the short
history of their coming away was, that our companion
was on board, but how he got thither we could not ima
gine, for he had given us the slip, and we never imagined
he could swim so well as to venture off to the ship, which
lay at so great a distance ; nay, we did not so much as
know that he could swim at all, and not thinking any
thing of what really happened, we thought he must
have wandered into the woods and was devoured, or
was fallen into the hands of the natives, and was
murdered ; and these thoughts filled us with fears
enough, and of several kinds, about its being some time
or other our lot to fall into their hands also. But
hearing how he had with much difficulty been received
on board the ship again and pardoned, we were much
better satisfied than before.
Being now, as I have said, a considerable number of
us, and in condition to defend ourselves, the first thing
we did was to give every one his hand that we would not
24 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
separate from one another upon any occasion whatso
ever, but that we would live and die together ; that, we
would kill no food, but that we would distribute it in
public ; and that we would be in all things guided by the
majority, and not insist upon our own resolutions in
anything if the majority were against it ; that we would
appoint a captain among us to be our governor or leader
during pleasure ; that while he was in office we would
obey him without reserve, on pain of death ; and that
every one should take turn, but the captain was not to
act in any particular thing without advice of the rest,
and by the majority.
Having established these rules, we resolved to enter
into some measures for our food, and for conversing
with the inhabitants or natives of the island for our
supply. As for food, they were at first very useful to
us, but we soon grew weary of them, being an ignorant,
ravenous, brutish sort of people, even worse than the
natives of any other country that we had seen ; and we
soon found that the principal part of our subsistence
was to be had by our guns, shooting of deer and other
creatures, and fowls of all other sorts, of which there
is abundance.
We found the natives did not disturb or concern
themselves much about us; nor did they inquire, or
perhaps know, whether we stayed among them or not,
much less that our ship was gone quite away, and had
cast us off, as was our case; for the next morning,
after we had sent back the long-boat, the ship stood
away to the south-east, and in four hours' time was out
of our sight.
The next day two of us went out into the country
one way, and two another, to see what kind of a land
we were in ; and we soon found the country was very
pleasant and fruitful, and a convenient place enough to
live in ; but, as before, inhabited by a parcel of creatures
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 25
scarce human, or capable of being made social on any
account whatsoever.
We found the place full of cattle and provisions ;
but whether we might venture to take them where we
could find them or not, we did not know ; and though
we were under a necessity to get provisions, yet we
were loth to bring down a whole nation of devils upon us
at once, and therefore some of our company agreed to try
to speak with some of the country, if we could, that we
might see what course was to be taken with them.
Eleven of our men went on this errand, well armed
and furnished for defence. They brought word that
they had seen some of the natives, who appeared very
civil to them, but very shy and afraid, seeing their guns,
for it was easy to perceive that the natives knew what
their guns were, and what use they were of.
They made signs to the natives for some food, and
they went and fetched several herbs and roots, and some
milk ; but it was evident they did not design to give it
away, but to sell it, making signs to know what our
men would give them.
Our men were perplexed at this, for they had no
thing to barter ; however, one of the men pulled out a
knife and showed them, and they were so fond of it
that they were ready to go together by the ears for the
knife. The seaman seeing that, was willing to make a
good market of his knife, and keeping them chaffering
about it a good while, some offered him roots, and others
milk ; at last one offered him a goat for it, which he
took. Then another of our men showed them another
knife, but they had nothing good enough for that,
whereupon one of them made signs that he would go
and fetch something ; so our men stayed three hours
for their return, when they came back and brought him
a small-sized, thick, short cow, very fat and good meat,
and gave him for his knife.
26 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
This was a good market, but our misfortune was we
had no merchandise ; for our knives were as needful to
us as to them, and but that we were in distress for food,
and must of necessity have some, these men would not
have parted with their knives.
However, in a little time more we found that the
woods were full of living creatures, which we might
kill for our food, and that without giving offence to
them ; so that our men went daily out a- hunting, and
never failed in killing something or other ; for, as to
the natives, we had no goods to barter ; and for money,
all the stock among us would not have subsisted us long.
However, we called a general council to see what money
we had, and to bring it all together, that it might go as
far as possible ; and when it came to my turn, I pulled
out a moidore and the two dollars I spoke of before.
This moidore I ventured to show, that they might
not despise me too much for adding too little to the
store, and that they might not pretend to search me ;
and they were very civil to me, upon the presumption
that I had been so faithful to them as not to conceal
anything from them.
But our money did us little service, for the people
neither knew the value or the use of it, nor could they
justly rate the gold in proportion with the silver; so that
all our money, which was not much when it was all put
together, would go but a little way with us, that is to
say, to buy us provisions.
Our next consideration was to get away from this
cursed place, and whither to go. When my opinion
came to be asked, I told them I would leave that all
to them, and I told them I had rather they would
Jet me go into the woods to get them some provisions,
than consult with me, for I would agree to whatever
they did ; but they would not agree to that, for they
would not consent that any of us should go into the
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 2J
woods alone ; for though we had yet seen no lions or
tigers in the woods, we were assured there were many
in the island, besides other creatures as dangerous, and
perhaps worse, as we afterwards found by our own
experience.
We had many adventures in the woods, for our
provisions, and often met with wild and terrible beasts,
which we could not call by their names ; but as they
were, like us, seeking their prey, but were themselves
good for nothing, so we disturbed them as little as
possible.
Our consultations concerning our escape from this
place, which, as I have said, we were now upon, ended
in this only, that as we had two carpenters among us,
and that they had tools almost of all sorts with them,
we should try to build us a boat to go off to sea with,
and that then, perhaps, we might find our way back to
Goa, or land on some more proper place to make our
escape. The counsels of this assembly were not of
great moment, yet as they seem to be introductory of
many more remarkable adventures which happened
under my conduct hereabouts many years after, I
think this miniature of my future enterprises may not
be unpleasant to relate.
To the building of a boat I made no objection, and
away they went to work immediately; but as they
went on, great difficulties occurred, such as the want
of saws to cut our plank ; nails, bolts, and spikes, to
fasten the timbers ; hemp, pitch, and tar, to caulk and
pay her seams, and the like. At length, one of the
company proposed that, instead of building a bark or
sloop, or shallop, or whatever they would call it, which
they found was so difficult, they would rather make a
large periagua, or canoe, which might be done with
great ease.
It was presently objected, that we could never make
28 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
a canoe large enough to pass the great ocean, which we
were to go over to get to the coast of Malabar ; that it
not only would not bear the sea, but it would never
bear the burden, for we were not only twenty-seven
men of us, but had a great deal of luggage with us, and
must, for our provision, take in a great deal more.
I never proposed to speak in their general consulta
tions before, but finding they were at some loss about
what kind of vessel they should make, and how to
make it, and what would be fit for our use, and what
not, I told them I found they were at a full stop in
their counsels of every kind ; that it was true we could
never pretend to go over to Goa on the coast of Malabar
in a canoe, which though we could all get into it, and
that it would bear the sea well enough, yet would not
hold our provisions, and especially we could not put
fresh water enough into it for the voyage ; and to make
such an adventure would be nothing but mere running
into certain destruction, and yet that nevertheless I was
for making a canoe.
They answered, that they understood all I had said
before well enough, but what I meant by telling them
first how dangerous and impossible it was to make our
escape in a canoe, and yet then to advise making a
canoe, that they could not understand.
To this I answered, that I conceived our business
was not to attempt our escape in a canoe, but that, as
there were other vessels at sea besides our ship, and
that there were few nations that lived on the sea- shore
that were so barbarous, but that they went to sea in
some boats or other, our business was to cruise along
the coast of the island, which was very long, and to
seize upon the first we could get that was better than
our own, and so from that to another, till perhaps we
might at last get a good ship to carry us wherever we
pleased to go.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 29
" Excellent advice," says one of them. " Admirable
advice," says another. " Yes, yes," says the third
(which was the gunner), "the English dog has given
excellent advice; but it is just the way to bring us
all to the gallows. The rogue has given us devilish
advice, indeed, to go a-thieving, till from a little vessel
we came to a great ship, and so we shall turn down
right pirates, the end of which is to be hanged."
" You may call us pirates," says another, *' if you
will, and if we fall into bad hands, we may be used
like pirates ; but I care not for that, I'll be a pirate, or
anything, nay, I'll be hanged for a pirate rather than
starve here, therefore I think the advice is very good."
And so they cried all, " Let us have a canoe." The
gunner, over-ruled by the rest, submitted ; but as we
broke up the council, he came to me, takes me by the
hand, and, looking into the palm of my hand, and into
my face too, very gravely, " My lad," says he, " thou
art born to do a world of mischief; thou hast com
menced pirate very young ; but have a care of the
gallows, young man ; have a care, I say, for thou wilt
be an eminent thief."
I laughed at him, and told him I did not know
what I might come to hereafter, but as our case was
now, I should make no scruple to take the first ship
I came at to get our liberty ; I only wished we could
see one, and come at her. Just while we were talking,
one of our men that was at the door of our hut, told us
that the carpenter, who it seems was upon a hill at a
distance, cried out, " A sail ! a sail ! "
We all turned out immediately ; but, though it was
very clear weather, we could see nothing; but the
carpenter continuing to halloo to us, " A sail ! a
sail ! " away we run up the hill, and there we saw
a ship plainly ; but it was at a very great distance,
too far for us to make any signal to her. However,
30 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
we made a fire upon the hill, with all the wood we
could get together, and made as much smoke as
possible. The wind was down, and it was almost
calm ; but as we thought, by a perspective glass which
the gunner had in his pocket, her sails were full, and
she stood away large with the wind at E.N.E., taking
no notice of our signal, but making for the Cape de
Bona Speranza ; so we had no comfort from her.
We went, therefore, immediately to work about
our intended canoe ; and, having singled out a very
large tree to our minds, we fell to work with her;
and having three good axes among us, we got it down,
but it was four days' time first, though we worked very
hard too. I do not remember what wood it was, or
exactly what dimensions, but I remember that it was a
very large one, and we were as much encouraged when
we launched it, and found it swam upright and steady,
as we would have been at another time if we had had
a good man-of-war at our command.
She was so very large, that she carried us all very,
very easily, and would have carried two or three tons
of baggage with us ; so that we began to consult about
going to sea directly to Goa ; but many other con
siderations checked that thought, especially when we
came to look nearer into it ; such as want of provisions,
and no casks for fresh water ; no compass to steer by ;
no shelter from the breach of the high sea, which
would certainly founder us ; no defence from the heat
of the weather, and the like ; so that they all came
readily into my project, to cruise about where we were,
and see what might offer.
Accordingly, to gratify our fancy, we went one
day all out to sea in her together, and we were in a
very fair way to have had enough of it ; for when
she had us all on board, and that we were gotten about
half a league to sea, there happening to be a pretty
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 3!
high swell of the sea, though little or no wind, yet
she wallowed so in the sea, that we all of us thought
she would at last wallow herself bottom up ; so we
set all to work to get her in nearer the shore, and
giving her fresh way in the sea, she swam more steady,
and with some hard work we got her under the land
again.
We were now at a great loss; the natives were
civil enough to us, and came often to discourse with
us ; one time they brought one whom they showed
respect to as a king with them, and they set up a long
pole between them and us, with a great tassel of hair
hanging, not on the top, but something above the
middle of it, adorned with little chains, shells, bits
of brass, and the like ; and this, we understood aft< r-
wards, was a token of amity and friendship ; and they
brought down to us victuals in abundance, cattle, fowla,
herbs, and roots ; but we were in the utmost confusion
on our side ; for we had nothing to buy with, or
exchange for ; and as to giving us things for nothing
they had no notion of that again. As to our money,
it was mere trash to them, they had no value for it ;
so that we were in a fair way to be starved. Had
we had but some toys and trinkets, brass chains,
baubles, glass beads, or, in a word, the veriest trifles
that a shipload of would not have been worth the
freight, we might have bought cattle and provisions
enough for an army, or to victual a fleet of men-of-war ;
but for gold or silver we could get nothing.
Upon this we were in a strange consternation. I
was but a young fellow, but I was for falling upon
them with our firearms, and taking all the cattle from
them, and send them to the devil to stop their hunger,
rather than be starved ourselves ; but I did not con
sider that this might have brought ten thousand of
them down upon us the next day; and though we
32 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
might have killed a vast number of them, and perhaps
have frighted the rest, yet their own desperation, and
our small number, would have animated them so that,
one time or other, they would have destroyed us all.
In the middle of our consultation, one of our men
who had been a kind of a cutler, or worker in iron,
started up and asked the carpenter if, among all his
tools, he could not help him to a file. " Yes," says
the carpenter, " I can, but it is a small one." " The
smaller the better," says the other. Upon this he
goes to work, and first by heating a piece of an old
broken chisel in the fire, and then with the help of
his file, he made himself several kinds of tools for his
work. Then he takes three or four pieces of eight,
and beats them out with a hammer upon a stone, till
they were very broad and thin ; then he cuts them out
into the shape of birds and beasts ; he made little
chains of them for bracelets and necklaces, and turned
them into so many devices of his own head, that it
is hardly to be expressed.
When he had for about a fortnight exercised his
head and hands at this work, we tried the effect of
his ingenuity ; and, having another meeting with the
natives, were surprised to see the folly of the poor
people. For a little bit of silver cut in the shape of
a bird, we had two cows, and, which was our loss,
if it had been in brass, it had been still of more value.
For one of the bracelets made of chain-work, we
had as much provision of several sorts, as would fairly
have been worth, in England, fifteen or sixteen pounds ;
and so of all the rest. Thus, that which when it
was in coin was not worth sixpence to us, when thus
converted into toys and trifles, was worth a hundred
times its real value, and purchased for us anything we
had occasion for.
In this condition we lived upwards of a year, but all
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 33
of us began to be very much tired of it, and, whatever
came of it, resolved to attempt an escape. We had
furnished ourselves with no less than three very good
canoes ; and as the monsoons, or trade- winds, generally
affect that country, blowing in most parts of this island
one six months of a year one way, and the other six
months another way, we concluded we might be able
to bear the sea well enough. But always, when we
came to look into it, the want of fresh water was the
thing that put us off from such an adventure, for it is a
prodigious length, and what no man on earth could be
able to perform without water to drink.
Being thus prevailed upon by our own reason to set
.the thoughts of that voyage aside, we had then but two
things before us ; one was, to put to sea the other way ;
viz., west, and go away for the Cape of Good Hope,
where, first or last, we should meet with some of our
own country ships, or else to put for the mainland of
Africa, and either travel by land, or sail along the
coast towards the Red Sea, where we should, first or
last, find a ship of some nation or other, that would
take us up ; or perhaps we might take them up, which,
by-the-bye, was the thing that always ran in my head.
It was our ingenious cutler, whom ever after we
called silversmith, that proposed this ; but the gunner
told him, that he had been in the Red Sea in a Malabar
sloop, and he knew this, that if we went into the Red
Sea, we should either be killed by the wild Arabs, or
taken and made slaves of by the Turks ; and therefore
he was not for going that way.
Upon this I took occasion to put in my vote again.
" Why," said I, do we talk of being killed by the
Arabs, or made slaves of by the Turks ? Are we not
able to board almost any vessel we shall meet with in
those seas ; and, instead of their taking us, we to take
them ? " " Well done, pirate," said the gunner (he
c
34 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
that had looked in my hand, and told me I should
come to the gallows), " I'll say that for him," says he,
" he always looks the same way. But I think, of my
conscience, it is our only way now." " Don't tell
me," says I, "of being a pirate; we must be pirates,
or anything, to get fairly out of this cursed place."
In a word, they concluded all, by my advice, that
our business was to cruise for anything we could see.
" Why then," said I to them, " our first business is to
see if the people upon this island have no navigation,
and what boats they use ; and, if they have any better
or bigger than ours, let us take one of them." First,
indeed, all our aim was to get, if possible, a boat with
a deck and a sail ; for then we might have saved our
provisions, which otherwise we could not.
We had, to our great good fortune, one sailor among
us, who had been assistant to the cook; he told us,
that he would find a way how to preserve our beef
without cask or pickle ; and this he did effectually by
curing it in the sun, with the help of saltpetre, of which
there was great plenty in the island ; so that, before we
found any method for our escape, we had dried the
flesh of six or seven cows and bullocks, and ten or
twelve goats, and it relished so well, that we never
gave ourselves the trouble to boil it when we ate it, but
either broiled it or ate it dry. But our main difficulty
about fresh water still remained ; for we had no vessel
to put any into, much less to keep any for our going
to sea.
But our first yoyage being only to coast the island,
we resolved to venture, whatever the hazard or conse
quence of it might be, and in order to preserve as much
fresh water as we could, our carpenter made a well
athwart the middle of one of our canoes, which he
separated from the other parts of the canoe, so as to
make it tight to hold the water, and covered so as we
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 35
might step upon it ; and this was so large that it held
near a hogshead of water very well. I cannot better
describe this well than by the same kind which the
small fishing-boats in England have to preserve their
fish alive in ; only that this, instead of having holes to
let the salt water in, was made sound every way to
keep it out ; and it was the first invention, I believe, of
its kind for such an use ; but necessity is a spur to in
genuity and the mother of invention.
It wanted but a little consultation to resolve now
upon our voyage. The first design was only to coast
it round the island, as well to see if we could seize
upon any vessel fit to embark ourselves in, as also to
take hold of any opportunity which might present for
our passing over to the main ; and therefore our resolu
tion was to go on the inside or west shore of the island,
where, at least at one point, the land stretching a great
way to the north-west, the distance is not extraordinary
great from the island to the coast of Africa.
Such a voyage, and with such a desperate crew, I
believe was never made, for it is certain we took the
worst side of the island to look for any shipping, especially
for shipping of other nations, this being quite out of the
way ; however, we put to sea, after taking all our pro
visions and ammunition, bag and baggage, on board ; we
had made both mast and sail for our two large periaguas,
and the other we paddled along as well as we could ;
but when a gale sprung up, we took her in tow.
We sailed merrily forward for several days, meeting
with nothing to interrupt us. We saw several of the
natives in small canoes catching fish, and sometimes we
endeavoured to come near enough to speak with them,
but they were always shy and afraid of us, making in
for the shore as soon as we attempted it ; till one of
our company remembered the signal of friendship which
the natives made us from the south part of the island,
36 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
viz., of setting up a long pole, and put us in mind that
perhaps it was the same thing to them as a flag of truce
to us. So we resolved to try it ; and accordingly the
next time we saw any of their fishing-boats at sea we
put up a pole in our canoe that had no sail, and rowed
towards them. As soon as they saw the pole they
stayed for us, and as we came nearer paddled towards
us ; when they came to us they showed themselves very
much pleased, and gave us some large fish, of which we
did not know the names, but they were very good. It
was our misfortune still that we had nothing to give them
in return ; but our artist, of whom I spoke before, gave
them two little thin plates of silver, beaten, as I said
before, out of a piece of eight ; they were cut in a dia
mond square, longer one way than the other, and a hole
punched at one of the longest corners. This they were
so fond of that they made us stay till they had cast their
lines and nets again, and gave us as many fish as we
cared to have.
All this while we had our eyes upon their boats,
viewed them very narrowly, and examined whether
any of them were fit for our turn, but they were poor,
sorry things ; their sail was made of a large mat, only
one that was of a piece of cotton stuff fit for little, and
their ropes were twisted flags of no strength ; so we
concluded we were better as we were, and let them
alone. We went forward to the north, keeping the
coast close on board for twelve days together, and
having the wind at east and E.S.E., we made very
fresh way. We saw no towns on the shore, but often
saw some huts by the water-side upon the rocks, and
always abundance of people about them, who we could
perceive run together to stare at us.
It was as odd a voyage as ever man went ; we were
a little fleet of three ships, and an army of between
twenty and thirty as dangerous fellows as ever they
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 37
had amongst them ; and had they known what we
were, they would have compounded to give us every
thing we desired to be rid of us.
On the other hand, we were as miserable as nature
could well make us to be, for we were upon a voyage
and no voyage, we were bound somewhere and no
where ; for though we knew what we intended to do,
we did really not know what we were doing. We
went forward and forward by a northerly course, and
as we advanced the heat increased, which began to be
intolerable to us, who were on the water, without any
covering from heat or wet ; besides, we were now in
the month of October, or thereabouts, in a southern
latitude; and as we went every day nearer the sun,
the sun came also every day nearer to us, till at last
we found ourselves in the latitude of 20 degrees ;
and having passed the tropic about five or six days
before that, in a few days more the sun would be in
the zenith, just over our heads.
Upon these considerations we resolved to seek for
a good place to go on shore again, and pitch our
tents, till the heat of the weather abated. We had
by this time measured half the length of the island,
and were come to that part where the shore tend
ing away to the north-west, promised fair to make
our passage over to the mainland of Africa much
shorter than we expected. But, notwithstanding that,
we had good reason to believe it was about 120
leagues.
So, the heats considered, we resolved to take har
bour ; besides, our provisions were exhausted, and we
had not many days' store left. Accordingly, putting
in for the shore early in the morning, as we usually did
once in three or four days for fresh water, we sat down
and considered whether we would go on or take up our
standing there; but upon several considerations, too
38 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
long to repeat here, we did not like the place, so we
resolved to go on a few days longer.
After sailing on N.W. by N. with a fresh gale at
S.E., about six days, we found, at a great distance, a
large promontory or cape of land, pushing out a long
way into the sea, and as we were exceeding fond of
seeing what was beyond the cape, we resolved to double
it before we took into harbour, so we kept on our way,
the gale continuing, and yet it was four days more
before we reached the cape. But it is not possible to
express the discouragement and melancholy that seized
us all when we came thither ; for when we made the
headland of the cape, we were surprised to see the
shore fall away on the other side as much as it had
advanced on this side, and a great deal more ; and
that, in short, if we would venture over to the shore
of Africa, it must be from hence, for that if we went
further, the breadth of the sea still increased, and to
what breadth it might increase we knew not.
While we mused upon this discovery, we were sur
prised with very bad weather, and especially violent
rains, with thunder and lightning, most unusually ter
rible to us. In this pickle we run for the shore, and
getting under the lee of the cape, run our frigates into
a little creek, where we saw the land overgrown with
trees, and made all the haste possible to get on shore,
being exceeding wet, and fatigued with the heat, the
thunder, lightning, and rain.
Here we thought our case was very deplorable in
deed, and therefore our artist, of whom I have spoken
so often, set up a great cross of wood on the hill which
was within a mile of the headland, with these words,
but in the Portuguese language :
" Point Desperation. Jesus have mercy."
We set to work immediately to build us some huts,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 39
and to get our clothes dried ; and though I was young
and had no skill in such things, yet I shall never forget
the little city we built, for it was no less, and we for
tified it accordingly ; and the idea is so fresh in my
thought, that I cannot but give a short description
of it.
Our camp was on the south side of a little creek on
the sea, and under the shelter of a steep hill, which
lay, though on the other side of the creek, yet within
a quarter of a mile of us, N.W. by N., and very
happily intercepted the heat of the sun all the after
part of the day. The spot we pitched on had a little
fresh water brook, or a stream running into the creek
by us ; and we saw cattle feeding in the plains and low
ground east and to the south of us a great way.
Here we set up twelve little huts like soldiers' tents,
but made of the boughs of trees stuck in the ground,
and bound together on the top with withies, and such
other things as we could get ; the creek was our defence
on the north, a little brook on the west, and the south
and east sides were fortified with a bank, which entirely
covered our huts ; and being drawn oblique from the
north-west to the south-east, made our city a triangle.
Behind the bank or line our huts stood, having three
other huts behind them at a good distance. In one
of these, which was a little one, and stood^ further off,
we put our gunpowder, and nothing else, for fear of
danger ; in the other, which was bigger, we dressed our
victuals, and put all our necessaries ; and in the third,
which was biggest of all, we ate our dinners, called
our councils, and sat and diverted ourselves with such
conversation as we had one with another, which was
but indifferent truly at that time.
Our correspondence with the natives was absolutely
necessary, and our artist the cutler having made abun
dance of those little diamond-cut squares of silver, with
40 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
these we made shift to traffic with the black people for
what we wanted ; for indeed they were pleased wonder
fully with them, and thus we got plenty of provisions.
At first, and in particular, we got about fifty head of
black cattle and goats, and our cook's mate took care
to cure them and dry them, salt and preserve them for
our grand supply ; nor was this hard to do, the salt and
saltpetre being very good, and the sun excessively hot ;
and here we lived about four months.
The southern solstice was over, and the sun gone
back towards the equinoctial, when we considered of
our next adventure, which was to go over the sea of
Zanguebar, as the Portuguese call it, and to land, if
possible, upon the continent of Africa.
We talked with many of the natives about it, such
as we could make ourselves intelligible to, but all that
we could learn from them was, that there was a great
land of lions beyond the sea, but that it was a great way
off. We knew as well as they that it was a long way,
but our people differed mightily about it ; some said it
was 150 leagues, others not above 100. One of our
men, that had a map of the world, showed us by his
scale that it was not above eighty leagues. Some said
there were islands all the way to touch at, some that
there were no islands at all. For my own part, I knew
nothing of this matter one way or another, but heard
it all without concern, whether it was near or far off;
however, this we learned from an old man who was
blind and led about by a boy, that if we stayed till the
end of August, we should be sure of the wind to be
fair and the sea smooth all the voyage.
This was some encouragement; but staying again
was very unwelcome news to us, because that then the
sun would be returning again to the south, which was
what our men were very unwilling to. At last we
called a council of our whole body ; their debates were
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 41
too tedious to take notice of, only to note, that when it
came to Captain Bob (for so they called me ever since
I had taken state upon me before one of their great
princes), truly I was on no side; it was not one
farthing matter to me, I told them, whether we went
or stayed ; I had no home, and all the world was alike
to me ; so I left it entirely to them to determine.
In a word, they saw plainly there was nothing to be
done where we were without shipping; that if our
business indeed was only to eat and drink, we could not
find a better place in the world ; but if our business
was to get away, and get home into our country, we
could not find a worse.
I confess I liked the country wonderfully, and even
then had strange notions of coming again to live there ;
and I used to say to them very often that if I had but
a ship of twenty guns, and a sloop, and both well
manned, I would not desire a better place in the world
to make myself as rich as a king.
But to return to the consultations they were in about
going. Upon the whole, it was resolved to venture
over for the main ; and venture we did, madly enough,
indeed, for it was the wrong time of the year to under
take such a voyage in that country ; for, as the winds
hang easterly all the months from September to March,
so they generally hang westerly all the rest of the year,
and blew right in our teeth ; so that, as soon as we had,
with a kind of a land-breeze, stretched over about fif
teen or twenty leagues, and, as I may say, just enough
to lose ourselves, we found the wind set in a steady
fresh gale or breeze from the sea, at west, W.S.W.,
or S.W. by W., and never further from the west ; so
that, in a word, we could make nothing of it.
On the other hand, the vessel, such as we had,
would not lie close upon a wind ; if so, we might have
stretched away N.N.W., and have met with a great
42 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
many islands in our way, as we found afterwards ; but
we could make nothing of it, though we tried, and by
the trying had almost undone us all; for, stretching
away to the north, as near the wind as we could, we
had forgotten the shape and position of the island of
Madagascar itself; how that we came off at the head
of a promontory or point of land, that lies about the
middle of the island, and that stretches out west a great
way into the sea ; and that now, being run a matter of
forty leagues to the north, the shore of the island fell
off again above 200 miles to the east, so that we were
by this time in the wide ocean, between the island and
the. main, and almost 100 leagues from both.
Indeed, as the winds blew fresh at west, as before,
we had a smooth sea, and we found it pretty good
going before it, and so, taking our smallest canoe in
tow, we stood in for the shore with all the sail we
could make. This was a terrible adventure, for, if the
least gust of wind had come, we had been all lost, our
canoes being deep and in no condition to make way in
a high sea.
This voyage, however, held us eleven days in all ;
and at length, having spent most of our provisions, and
every drop of water we had, we spied land, to our
great joy, though at the distance of ten or eleven
leagues ; and as, under the land, the wind came off
like a land-breeze, and blew hard against us, we were
two days more before we reached the shore, having all
that while excessive hot weather, and not a drop of
water or any other liquor, except some cordial waters,
which one of our company had a little of left in a case
of bottles.
This gave us a taste of what we should have done if
we had ventured forward with a scant wind and uncer
tain weather, and gave us a surfeit of our design for the
main, at least until we might have some better vessels
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 43
under us ; so we went on shore again, and pitched our
camp as before, in as convenient manner as we could,
fortifying ourselves against any surprise; but the natives
here were exceeding courteous, and much more civil
than on the south part of the island ; and though we
could not understand what they said, or they us, yet
we found means to make them understand that we were
seafaring men and strangers, and that we were in dis
tress for want of provisions.
The first proof we had of their kindness was, that
as soon as they saw us come on shore and begin to
make our habitation, one of their captains or kings, for
we knew not what to call them, came down with five
or six men and some women, and brought us five goats
and two young fat steers, and gave them to us for
nothing ; and when we went to offer them anything,
the captain or the king would not let any of them touch
it, or take anything of us. About two hours after
came another king, or captain, with forty or fifty men
after him. We began to be afraid of him, and laid
hands upon our weapons ; but he perceiving it, caused
two men to go before him, carrying two long poles in
their hands, which they held upright, as high as they
could, which we presently perceived was a signal of
peace; and these two poles they set up afterwards,
sticking them up in the ground ; and when the king
and his men came to these two poles, they struck all
their lances up in the ground, and came on unarmed,
leaving their lances, as also their bows and arrows,
behind them.
This was to satisfy us that they were come as friends,
and we were glad to see it, for we had no mind to
quarrel with them if we could help it. The captain
of this gang seeing some of our men making up their
huts, and that they did it but bunglingly, he beckoned
to some of his men to go and help us. Immediately
44 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
fifteen or sixteen of them came and mingled among us,
and went to work for us ; and indeed, they were better
workmen than we were, for they run up three or four
huts for us in a moment, and much handsomer done
than ours.
After this they sent us milk, plantains, pumpkins,
and abundance of roots and greens that were very good,
and then took their leave, and would not take anything
from us that we had. One of our men offered the
king or captain of these men a dram, which he drank
and was mightily pleased with it, and held out his hand
for another, which we gave him ; and in a word, after
this, he hardly failed coming to us two or three times
a week, always bringing us something or other ; and
one time sent us seven head of black cattle, some of
which we cured and dried as before.
And here I cannot but remember one thing, which
afterwards stood us in great stead, viz., that the flesh
of their goats, and their beef also, but especially the
former, when we had dried and cured it, looked red,
and ate hard and firm, as dried beef in Holland ; they
were so pleased with it, and it was such a dainty to
them, that at any time after they would trade with us
for it, not knowing, or so much as imagining what it
was; so that for ten or twelve pounds' weight of
smoke-dried beef, they would give us a whole bullock,
or cow, or anything else we could desire.
Here we observed two things that were very material
to us, even essentially so ; first, we found they had a
great deal of earthenware here, which they made use of
many ways as we did ; particularly they had long, deep
earthen pots, which they used to sink into the ground,
to keep the water which they drunk cool and pleasant ;
and the other was, that they had larger canoes than
their neighbours had.
By this we were prompted to inquire if they had
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 45
no larger vessels than those we saw there, or if any
other of the inhabitants had not such. They signified
presently that they had no larger boats than that they
showed us ; but that on the other side of the island
they had larger boats, and that with decks upon them,
and large sails ; and this made us resolve to coast round
the whole island to see them ; so we prepared and
victualled our canoe for the voyage, and, in a word,
went to sea for the third time.
It cost us a month or six weeks' time to perform
this voyage, in which time we went on shore several
times for water and provisions, and found the natives
always very free and courteous ; but we were surprised
one morning early, being at the extremity of the nor
thernmost part of the island, when one of our men
cried out, " A sail ! a sail ! " We presently saw a
vessel a great way out at sea ; but after we had looked
at it with our perspective glasses, and endeavoured all
we could to make out what it was, we could not tell
what to think of it ; for it was neither ship, ketch,
galley, galliot, or like anything that we had ever seen
before ; all that we could make of it was, that it went
from us, standing out to sea. In a word, we soon lost
sight of it, for we were in no condition to chase any
thing, and we never saw it again ; but, by all that we
could perceive of it, from what we saw of such things
afterwards, it was some Arabian vessel, which had
been trading to the coast of Mozambique, or Zanzi
bar, the same place where we afterwards went, as you
shall hear.
I kept no journal of this voyage, nor indeed did I
all this while understand anything of navigation, more
than the common business of a foremast-man ; so I can
say nothing to the latitudes or distances of any places
we were at, how long we were going, or how far we
sailed in a day ; but this I remember, that being now
46 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
come round the island, we sailed up the eastern shore
due south, as we had done down the western shore due
north before.
Nor do I remember that the natives differed much
from one another, either in stature or complexion, or
in their manners, their habits, their weapons, or indeed
in anything ; and yet we could not perceive that they
had any intelligence one with another ; but they were
extremely kind and civil to us on this side, as well as
on the other.
We continued our voyage south for many weeks,
though with several intervals of going on shore to get
provisions and water. At length, coming round a
point of land which lay about a league further than
ordinary into the sea, we were agreeably surprised with
a sight which, no doubt, had been as disagreeable to
those concerned, as it was pleasant to us. This was
the wreck of an European ship, which had been cast
away upon the rocks, which in that place run a great
way into the sea.
We could see plainly, at low water, a great deal of
the ship lay dry ; even at high water, she was not
entirely covered ; and that at most she did not lie above
a league from the shore. It will easily be believed that
our curiosity led us, the wind and weather also permit
ting, to go directly to her, which we did without any
difficulty, and presently found that it was a Dutch-built
ship, and that she could not have been very long in that
condition, a great deal of the upper work of her stern
remaining firm, with the mizzen-mast standing. Her
stern seemed to be jammed in between two ridges of
the rock, and so remained fast, all the fore part of the
ship having been beaten to pieces.
We could see nothing to be gotten out of the wreck
that was worth our while ; but we resolved to go on
shore, and stay some time thereabouts, to see if perhaps
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 47
we might get any light into the story of her ; and we
were not without hopes that we might hear something
more particular about her men, and perhaps find some
of them on shore there, in the same condition that we
were in, and so might increase our company.
It was a very pleasant sight to us when, coming on
shore, we saw all the marks and tokens of a ship-
carpenter's yard ; as a launch-block and cradles, scaf
folds and planks, and pieces of planks, the remains of
the building a ship or vessel ; and, in a word, a great
many things that fairly invited us to go about the same
work ; and we soon came to understand that the men
belonging to the ship that was lost had saved them
selves on shore, perhaps in their boat, and had built
themselves a barque or sloop, and so were gone to sea
again ; and, inquiring of the natives which way they
went, they pointed to the south and south-west, by
which we could easily understand they were gone away
to the Cape of Good Hope.
Nobody will imagine we could be so dull as not
to gather from hence that we might take the same
method for our escape ; so we resolved first, in general,
that we would try if possible to build us a boat of one
kind or other, and go to sea as our fate should direct.
In order to this our first work was to have the two
carpenters search about to see what materials the
Dutchmen had left behind them that might be of use ;
and, in particular, they found one that was very useful,
and which I was much employed about, and that was
a pitch-kettle, and a little pitch in it.
When we came to set close to this work we found
it very laborious and difficult, having but few tools,
no ironwork, no cordage, no sails ; so that, in short,
whatever we built, we were obliged to be our own
smiths, rope-makers, sail-makers, and indeed to prac
tise twenty trades that we knew little or nothing of.
48 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
However, necessity was the spur to invention, and we
did many things which before we thought imprac
ticable, that is to say, in our circumstances.
After our two carpenters had resolved upon the
dimensions of what they would build, they set us all to
work, to go off in our boats and split up the wreck of
the old ship, and to bring away everything we could ;
and particularly that, if possible, we should bring away
the mizzen-mast, which was left standing, which with
much difficulty we effected, after above twenty days'
labour of fourteen of our men.
At the same time we got out a great deal of iron
work, as bolts, spikes, nails, &c., all of which our
artist, of whom I have spoken already, who was now
grown a very dexterous smith, made us nails and
hinges for our rudder, and spikes such as we wanted.
But we wanted an anchor, and if we had had an
anchor, we could not have made a cable ; so we con
tented ourselves with making some ropes with the help
of the natives, of such stuff as they made their mats of,
and with these we made such a kind of cable or tow-
line as was sufficient to fasten our vessel to the shore,
which we contented ourselves with for that time.
To be short, we spent four months here, and worked
very hard too ; at the end of which time we launched
our frigate, which, in a few words, had many defects,
but yet, all things considered, it was as well as we could
expect it to be.
In short, it was a kind of sloop, of the burthen of
near eighteen or twenty tons ; and had we had masts
and sails, standing and running rigging, as is usual in
such cases, and other conveniences, the vessel might
have carried us wherever we could have had a mind to
go ; but of all the materials we wanted, this was the
worst, viz., that we had no tar or pitch to pay the
seams and secure the bottom ; and though we did what
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 49
we could, with tallow and oil, to make a mixture to
supply that part, yet we could not bring it to answer
our end fully; and when we launched her into the
water, she was so leaky, and took in the water so fast,
that we thought all our labour had been lost, for we
had much ado to make her swim ; and as for pumps,
we had none, nor had we any means to make one.
But at length one of the natives, a black negro-man,
showed us a tree, the wood of which being put into the
fire, sends forth a liquid that is as glutinous and almost
as strong as tar, and of which, by boiling, we made a
sort of stuff which served us for pitch, and this an
swered our end effectually ; for we perfectly made our
vessel sound and tight, so that we wanted no pitch or
tar at all. This secret has stood me in stead upon
many occasions since that time in the same place.
Our vessel being thus finished, out of the mizzen-mast
of the ship we made a very good mast to her, and fitted
our sails to it as well as we could ; then we made a
rudder and tiller, and, in a word, everything that our
present necessity called upon us for ; and having vic
tualled her, and put as much fresh water on board as
we thought we wanted, or as we knew how to stow (for
we were yet without casks), we put to sea with a fair
wind.
We had spent near another year in these rambles,
and in this piece of work ; for it was now, as our men
said, about the beginning of our February, and the sun
went from us apace, which was much to our satis
faction, for the heats were exceedingly violent. The
wind, as I said, was fair ; for, as I have since learned,
the winds generally spring up to the eastward, as the
sun goes from them to the north.
Our debate now was, which way we should go, and
never were men so irresolute ; some were for going to
the east, and stretching away directly for the coast of
50 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
Malabar; but others, who considered more seriously
the length of that voyage, shook their heads at the
proposal, knowing very well that neither our provisions,
especially of water, or our vessel, were equal to such
a run as that is, of near 2000 miles without any land
to touch at in the way.
These men, too, had all along had a great mind to
a voyage for the mainland of Africa, where they said
we should have a fair cast for our lives, and might be
sure to make ourselves rich, which way soever we went,
if we were but able to make our way through, whether
by sea or by land.
Besides, as the case stood with us, we had not much
choice for our way ; for, if we had resolved for the
east, we were at the wrong season of the year, and
must have stayed till April or May before we had
gone to sea. At length, as we had the wind at S.E.
and E.S.E., and fine promising weather, we came all
into the first proposal, and resolved for the coast of
Africa ; nor were we long in disputing as to our coast
ing the island which we were upon, for we were now
upon the wrong side of the island for the voyage we
intended ; so we stood away to the north, and, having
rounded the cape, we hauled away southward, under
the lee of the island, thinking to reach the west point
of land, which, as I observed before, runs out so far
towards the coast of Africa, as would have shortened
our run almost 100 leagues. But when we had sailed
about thirty leagues, we found the winds variable under
the shore, and right against us, so we concluded to
stand over directly, for then we had the wind fair, and
our vessel was but very ill fated to lie near the wind,
or any way indeed but just before it.
Having resolved upon it, therefore, we put into the
shore to furnish ourselves again with fresh water and
other provisions, and about the latter end of March,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 51
with more courage than discretion, more resolution
than judgment, we launched for the main coast of
Africa.
As for me, I had no anxieties about it, so that we
had but a view of reaching some land or other, I cared
not what or where it was to be, having at this time no
views of what was before me, nor much thought of
what might or might not befall me ; but with as little
consideration as any one can be supposed to hare at my
age, I consented to everything that was proposed, how
ever hazardous the thing itself, however improbable the
success.
The voyage, as it was undertaken with a great deal
of ignorance and desperation, so really it was not car
ried on with much resolution or judgment ; for we
knew no more of the course we were to steer than this,
that it was anywhere about the west, within two or
three points N. or S., and as we had no compass with
us but a little brass pocket compass, which one of our
men had more by accident than otherwise, so we could
not be very exact in our course.
However, as it pleased God that the wind continued
fair at S.E. and by E., we found that N.W. by W.,
which was right afore it, was as good a course for us
as any we could go, and thus we went on.
The voyage was much longer than we expected ;
our vessel also, which had no sail that was propor
tioned to her, made but very little way in the sea, and
sailed heavily. We had, indeed, no great adventures
happened in this voyage, being out of the way of every
thing that could offer to divert us ; and as for seeing
any vessel, we had not the least occasion to hail any
thing in all the voyage ; for we saw not one vessel,
small or great, the sea we were upon being entirely out
of the way of all commerce ; for the people of Mada
gascar knew no more of the shores of Africa than we
52 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
did, only that there was a country of lions, as they call
it, that way.
We had been eight or nine days under sail, with a
fair wind, when, to our great joy, one of our men cried
out " Land ! " We had great reason to be glad of
the discovery, for we had not water enough left for
above two or three days more, though at a short allow
ance. However, though it was early in the morning
when we discovered it, we made it near night before
we reached it, the wind slackening almost to a calm,
and our ship being, as I said, a very dull sailer.
We were sadly baulked upon our coming to the
land, when we found that, instead of the mainland of
Africa, it was only a little island, with no inhabitants
upon it, at least none that we could find ; nor any
cattle, except a few goats, of which we killed three
only. However, they served us for fresh meat, and we
found very good water ; and it was fifteen days more
before we reached the main, which, however, at last
we arrived at, and which was most essential to us, as
we came to it just as all our provisions were spent.
Indeed, we may say they were spent first, for we had
but a pint of water a day to each man for the last two
days. But, to our great joy, we saw the land, though
at a great distance, the evening before, and by a plea
sant gale in the night were by morning within two
leagues of the shore.
We never scrupled going ashore at the first place we
came at, though, had we had patience, we might have
found a very fine river a little farther north. How
ever, we kept our frigate on float by the help of two
great poles, which we fastened into the ground to moor
her, like poles ; and the little weak ropes, which, as I
said, we had made of matting, served us well enough
to make the vessel fast.
As soon as we had viewed the country a little, got
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 53
fresh water, and furnished ourselves with some victuals,
which we found very scarce here, we went on board
again with our stores. All we got for provision was
some fowls that we killed, and a kind of wild buffalo
or bull, very small, but good meat : I say, having got
these things on board, we resolved to sail along the
coast, which lay N.N.E., till we found some creek or
river, that we might run up into the country, or some
town or people ; for we had reason enough to know
the place was inhabited, because we several times saw
fires in the night, and smoke in the day, every way at
a distance from us.
At length we came to a very large bay, and in it
several little creeks or rivers emptying themselves into
the sea, and we ran boldly into the first creek we came
at ; where, seeing some huts and wild people about
them on the shore, we ran our vessel into a little cove
on the north side of the creek, and held up a long
pole, with a white bit of cloth on it, for a signal of
peace to them. We found they understood us pre
sently, for they came flocking to us, men, women, and
children, most of them, of both sexes, stark naked.
At first they stood wondering and staring at us, as if
we had been monsters, and as if they had been frighted ;
but we found they inclined to be familiar with us after
wards. The first thing we did to try them, was, we
held up our hands to our mouths, as if we were to
drink, signifying that we wanted water. This they
understood presently, and three of their women and
two boys ran away up the land, and came back in
about half a quarter of an hour, with several pots,
made of earth, pretty enough, and baked, I suppose, in
the sun ; these they brought us full of water, and set
them down near the sea-shore, and there left them,
going back a little, that we might fetch them, which
we did.
54 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
Some time after this, they brought us roots and
herbs, and some fruits which I cannot remember, and
gave us ; but as we had nothing to give them, we found
them not so free as the people in Madagascar were.
However, our cutler went to work, and, as he had
saved some iron out of the wreck of the ship, he made
abundance of toys, birds, dogs, pins, hooks, and rings ;
and we helped to file them, and make them bright for
him, and when we gave them some of these, they
brought us all sorts of provisions they had, such as
goats, hogs, and cows, and we got victuals enough.
We were now landed upon the continent of Africa,
the most desolate, desert, and inhospitable country in
the world, even Greenland and Nova Zembla itself not
excepted, with this difference only, that even the worst
part of it we found inhabited, though, taking the nature
and quality of some of the inhabitants, it might have
been much better to us if there had been none.
And, to add to the exclamation I am making on the
nature of the place, it was here that we took one of the
rashest, and wildest, and most desperate resolutions
that ever was taken by man, or any number of men, in
the world; this was, to travel overland through the
heart of the country, from the coast of Mozambique,
on the east ocean, to the coast of Angola or Guinea,
on the western or Atlantic Ocean, a continent of land
of at least 1800 miles, in which journey we had ex
cessive heats to support, unpassable deserts to go over,
no carriages, camels, or beasts of any kind to carry our
baggage, innumerable numbers of wild and ravenous
beasts to encounter with, such as lions, leopards, tigers,
lizards, and elephants ; we had the equinoctial line to
pass under, and, consequently, were in the very centre
of the torrid zone ; we had nations of savages to en
counter with, barbarous and brutish to the last degree ;
hunger and thirst to struggle with, and, in one word,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 55
terrors enough to have daunted the stoutest hearts that
ever were placed in cases of flesh and blood.
Yet, fearless of all these, we resolved to adven
ture, and accordingly made such preparations for our
journey as the place we were in would allow us, and
such as our little experience of the country seemed to
dictate to us.
It had been some time already that we had been
used to tread barefooted upon the rocks, the gravel, the
grass, and the sand on the shore ; but as we found the
worst thing for our feet was the walking or travelling on
the dry burning sands, within the country, so we pro
vided ourselves with a sort of shoes, made of the skins
of wild beasts, with the hair inward, and being dried in
the sun, the outsides were thick and hard, and would
last a great while. In short, as I called them, so I
think the term very proper still, we made us gloves for
our feet, and we found them very convenient and very
comfortable.
We conversed with some of the natives of the
country, who were friendly enough. What tongue
they spoke I do not yet pretend to know. We talked
as far as we could make them understand us, not only
about our provisions, but also about our undertaking,
and asked them what country lay that way, pointing
west with our hands. They told us but little to our
purpose, only we thought, by all their discourse, that
there were people to be found, of one sort or other,
everywhere ; that there were many great rivers, many
lions and tigers, elephants, and furious wild cats (which
in the end we found to be civet cats), and the like.
When we asked them if any one had ever travelled
that way, they told us yes, some had gone to where the
sun sleeps, meaning to the west, but they could not tell
us who they were. When we asked for some to guide
us, they shrunk up their shoulders as Frenchmen do
56 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
when they are afraid to undertake a thing. When we
asked them about the lions and wild creatures, they
laughed, and let us know that they would do us no
hurt, and directed us to a good way indeed to deal with
them, and that was to make some fire, which would
always fright them away ; and so indeed we found it.
Upon these encouragements we resolved upon our
journey, and many considerations put us upon it, which,
had the thing itself been practicable, we were not so
much to blame for as it might otherwise be supposed ;
I will name some of them, not to make the account too
tedious.
First, we were perfectly destitute of means to work
about our own deliverance any other way; we were
on shore in a place perfectly remote from all European
navigation ; so that we could never think of being
relieved, and fetched off by any of our own countrymen
in that part of the world. Secondly, if we had
adventured to have sailed on along the coast of
Mozambique, and the desolate shores of Africa to the
north, till we came to the Red Sea, all we could hope
for there was to be taken by the Arabs, and be sold
for slaves to the Turks, which to all of us was little
better than death. We could not build anything of a
vessel that would carry us over the great Arabian Sea to
India, nor could we reach the Cape de Bona Speranza,
the winds being too variable, and the sea in that latitude
too tempestuous ; but we all knew, if we could cross
this continent of land, we might reach some of the great
rivers that run into the Atlantic Ocean ; and that, on
the banks of any of those rivers, we might there build
us canoes which would carry us down, if it were
thousands of miles, so that we could want nothing but
food, of which we were assured we might kill sufficient
with our guns ; and to add to the satisfaction of our
deliverance, we concluded we might, every one of us,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 57
get a quantity of gold, which, if we came safe, would
infinitely recompense us for our toil.
I cannot say that in all our consultations I ever
began to enter into the weight and merit of any
enterprise we went upon till now. My view before
was, as I thought, very good, viz., that we should
get into the Arabian Gulf, or the mouth of the
Red Sea ; and waiting for some vessel passing or
repassing there, of which there is plenty, have seized
upon the first we came at by force, and not only have
enriched ourselves with her cargo, but have carried
ourselves to what part of the world we had pleased ;
but when they came to talk to me of a march of 2000
or 3000 miles on foot, of wandering in deserts among
lions and tigers, I confess my blood ran chill, and I
used all the arguments I could to persuade them
against it.
But they were all positive, and I might as well
have held my tongue ; so I submitted, and told them
I would keep to our first law, to be governed by the
majority, and we resolved upon our journey. The
first thing we did was to take an observation, and see
whereabouts in the world we were, which we did,
and found we were in the latitude of 1 2 degrees 3 5
minutes south of the line. The next thing was to
look on the charts, and see the coast of the country
we aimed at, which we found to be from 8 to 1 1
degrees south latitude, if we went for the coast of
Angola, or in 12 to 29 degrees north latitude, if we
made for the river Niger, and the coast of Guinea.
Our aim was for the coast of Angola, which, by
the charts we had, lying very near the same latitude
we were then in, our course thither was due west ;
and as we were assured we should meet with rivers,
we doubted not but that by their help we might ease
our journey, especially if we could find means to cross
58 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
the great lake, or inland sea, which the natives call
Coalmucoa, out of which it is said the river Nile has
its source or beginning ; but we reckoned without our
host, as you will see in the sequel of our story.
The next thing we had to consider was, how to
carry our baggage, which we were first of all determined
not to travel without ; neither indeed was it possible
for us to do so, for even our ammunition, which was
absolutely necessary to us, and on which our subsistence,
I mean for food, as well as our safety, and particularly
our defence against wild beasts and wild men, depended,
I say, even our ammunition was a load too heavy
for us to carry in a country where the heat was such
that we should be load enough for ourselves.
We inquired in the country, and found there was
no beast of burthen known among them, that is to
say, neither horses or mules, or asses, camels, or
dromedaries ; the only creature they had was a kind of
buffalo, or tame bull, such a one as we had killed ;
and that some of these they had brought so to their
hand, that they taught them to go and come with
their voices, as they called them to them, or sent them
from them ; that they made them carry burthens ; and
particularly that they would swim over rivers and
lakes upon them, the creatures swimming very high
and strong in the water.
But we understood nothing of the management
of guiding such a creature, or how to bind a burthen
upon them ; and this last part of our consultation
puzzled us extremely. At last I proposed a method
for them, which, after some consideration, they found
very convenient ; and this was, to quarrel with some of
the negro natives, take ten or twelve of them prisoners,
and binding them as slaves, cause them to travel with
us, and make them carry our baggage ; which I alleged
would be convenient and useful many ways as well
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 59
to show us the way, as to converse with other natives
for us.
This counsel was not accepted at first, but the
natives soon gave them reason to approve it, and also
gave them an opportunity to put it in practice; for,
as our little traffic with the natives was hitherto upon
the faith of their first kindness, we found some knavery
among them at last; for having bought some cattle
of them for our toys, which, as I said, our cutler
had contrived, one of our men differing with his
chapman, truly they huffed him in their manner, and,
keeping the things he had offered them for the cattle,
made their fellows drive away the cattle before his
face, and laugh at him. Our man crying out loud of
this violence, and calling to some of us who were
not far off, the negro he was dealing with threw a
lance at him, which came so true, that, if he had
not with great agility jumped aside, and held up his
hand also to turn the lance as it came, it had struck
through his body ; and, as it was, it wounded him
in the arm ; at which the man, enraged, took up his
fuzee, and shot the negro through the heart.
The others that were near him, and all those that
were with us at a distance, were so terribly frighted,
first, at the flash of fire ; secondly, at the noise ; and
thirdly, at seeing their countryman killed, that they
stood like men stupid and amazed, at first, for some
time ; but after they were a little recovered from their
fright, one of them, at a good distance from us, set
up a sudden screaming noise, which, it seems, is the
noise they make when they go to fight ; and all the
rest understanding what he meant, answered him, and
ran together to the place where he was, and we not
knowing what it meant, stood still, looking upon one
another like a parcel of fools.
But we were presently undeceived ; for, in two or
60 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
three minutes more, we heard the screaming roaring
noise go on from one place to another, through all
their little towns ; nay, even over the creek to the
other side ; and, on a sudden, we saw a naked multi
tude running from all parts to the place where the
first man began it, as to a rendezvous ; and, in less
than an hour, I believe there was near 500 of them
gotten together, armed some with bows and arrows,
but most with lances, which they throw at a good
distance, so nicely that they will strike a bird flying.
We had but a very little time for consultation, for
the multitude was increasing every moment ; and I
verily believe, if we had stayed long, they would have
been 10,000 together in a little time. We had
nothing to do, therefore, but to fly to our ship or
bark, where indeed we could have defended ourselves
very well, or to advance and try what a volley or two
of small shot would do for us.
We resolved immediately upon the latter, depending
upon it that the fire and terror of our shot would soon
put them to flight; so we drew up all in a line, and
marched boldly up to them. They stood ready to
meet us, depending, I suppose, to destroy us all with
their lances ; but before we came near enough for them
to throw their lances, we halted, and, standing at a
good distance from one another, to stretch our line as
far as we could, we gave them a salute with our shot,
which, besides what we wounded that we knew not of,
knocked sixteen of them down upon the spot, and three
more were so lamed, that they fell about twenty or thirty
yards from them.
As soon as we had fired, they set up the horridest
yell, or howling, partly raised by those that were
wounded, and partly by those that pitied and condoled
the bodies they saw lie dead, that I never heard any
thing like it before or since.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 6 1
We stood stock still after we had fired, to load our
guns again, and finding they did not stir from the jtface
we fired among them again ; we killed about nine o f
them at the second fire ; but as they did not stand so
thick as before, all our men did not fire, seven of us
being ordered to reserve our charge, and to advance
as soon as the other had fired, while the rest loaded
again ; of which I shall speak again presently.
As soon as we had fired the second volley, we
shouted as loud as we could, and the seven men
advanced upon them, and, coming about twenty yards
nearer, fired again, and those that were behind having
loaded again with all expedition, followed ; but when
they saw us advance, they ran screaming away as if
they were bewitched.
When we came up to the field of battle, we saw a
great number of bodies lying upon the ground, many
more than we could suppose were killed or wounded ;
nay, more than we had bullets in our pieces when we
fired ; and we could not tell what to make of it ; but
at length we found how it was, viz., that they were
frighted out of all manner of sense ; nay, I do believe
several of those that were really dead, were frighted to
death, and had no wound about them.
Of those that were thus frighted, as I have said,
several of them, as they recovered themselves, came
and worshipped us (taking us for gods or devils, I
know not which, nor did it much matter to us) : some
kneeling, some throwing themselves flat od the ground,
made a thousand antic gestures, but all with tokens
of the most profound submission. It presently came
into my head, that we might now, by the law of arms,
take as many prisoners as we would, and make them
travel with us, and carry our baggage. As soon as I
proposed it, our men were all of my mind; and accord
ingly we secured about sixty lusty young fellows, and
62 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
let them know they must go with us ; which they
seemed very willing to do. But the next question we
had among ourselves, was, how we should do to trust
them, for we found the people not like those of Mada
gascar, but fierce, revengeful, and treacherous ; for
which reason we were sure that we should have no
service from them but that of mere slaves ; no subjec
tion that would continue any longer than the fear of us
was upon them, nor any labour but by violence.
Before I go any farther, I must hint to the reader,
that from this time forward I began to enter a little
more seriously into the circumstance I was in, and
concerned myself more in the conduct of our affairs ;
for though my comrades were all older men, yet I
began to find them void of counsel, or, as I now call
it, presence of mind, when they came to the execution
of a thing. The first occasion I took to observe this,
was in their late engagement with the natives, when,
though they had taken a good resolution to attack
them and fire upon them, yet, when they had fired the
first time, and found that the negroes did not run as
they expected, their hearts began to fail, and I am
persuaded, if their bark had been near hand, they
would every man have run away.
Upon this occasion I began to take upon me a little
to hearten them up, and to call upon them to load
again, and give them another volley, telling them that
I would engage, if they would be ruled by me, I'd
make the negroes run fast enough. I found this heart
ened them, and therefore, when they fired a second
time, I desired them to reserve some of their shot for
an attempt by itself, as I mentioned above.
Having fired a second time, I was indeed forced to
command, as I may call it. " Now, seigniors," said
I, "let us give them a cheer." So I opened my
throat, and shouted three times, as our English sailors
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 63
do on like occasions. " And now follow me," said I
to the seven that had not fired, " and I'll warrant you
we will make work with them," and so it proved
indeed ; for, as soon as they saw us coming, away they
ran, as above.
From this day forward they would call me nothing
but Seignior Capitanio ; but I told them I would not
be called seignior. "Well, then," said the gunner,
who spoke good English, " you shall be called Captain
Bob ; " and so they gave me my title ever after.
Nothing is more certain of the Portuguese than this,
take them nationally or personally, if they are animated
and heartened up by anybody to go before, and encour
age them by example, they will behave well enough ;
but if they have nothing but their own measures to
follow, they sink immediately : these men had cer
tainly fled from a parcel of naked savages, though even
by flying they could not have saved their lives, if I had
not shouted and hallooed, and rather made sport with
the thing than a fight, to keep up their courage.
Nor was there less need of it upon several occasions
hereafter ; and I do confess I have often wondered
how a number of men, who, when they came to the
extremity, were so ill supported by their own spirits,
had at first courage to propose and to undertake the
most desperate and impracticable attempt that ever men
went about in the world.
There were indeed two or three indefatigable men
among them, by whose courage and industry all the
rest were upheld ; and indeed those two or three were
the managers of them from the beginning ; that was the
gunner, and that cutler whom I call the artist ; and the
third, who was pretty well, though not like either of
them, was one of the carpenters. These indeed were
the life and soul of all the rest, and it was to their
courage that all the rest owed the resolution they
64 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
showed upon any occasion. But when those saw me
take a little upon me, as above, they embraced me,
and treated me with particular affection ever after.
This gunner was an excellent mathematician, a good
scholar, and a complete sailor ; and it was in con
versing intimately with him that I learned afterwards
the grounds of what knowledge I have since had in all
the sciences useful for navigation, and particularly in
the geographical part of knowledge.
Even in our conversation, finding me eager to under
stand and learn, he laid the foundation of a general
knowledge of things in my mind, gave me just ideas of
the form of the earth and of the sea, the situation of
countries, the course of rivers, the doctrine of the
spheres, the motion of the stars ; and, in a word,
taught me a kind of system of astronomy, which I
afterwards improved.
In an especial manner, he filled my head with
aspiring thoughts, and with an earnest desire after
learning everything that could be taught me ; con
vincing me, that nothing could qualify me for great
undertakings, but a degree of learning superior to what
was usual in the race of seamen ; he told me, that to
be ignorant was to be certain of a mean station in the
world, but that knowledge was the first step to prefer
ment. He was always flattering me with my capacity
to learn ; and though that fed my pride, yet, on the
other hand, as I had a secret ambition, which just at
that time fed itself in my mind, it prompted in me an
insatiable thirst after learning in general, and I resolved,
if ever I came back to Europe, and had anything left
to purchase it, I would make myself master of all the
parts of learning needful to the making of me a complete
sailor ; but I was not so just to myself afterwards as to
do it when I had an opportunity.
But to return to our business ; the gunner, when he
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 65
saw the service I had done in the fight, and heard my
proposal for keeping a number of prisoners for our
march, and for carrying our baggage, turns to me
before them all. " Captain Bob," says he, " I think
you must be our leader, for all the success of this enter
prise is owing to you." <* No, no," said I, " do not
compliment me ; you shall be our Seignior Capitanio,
you shall be general ; I am too young for it." So, in
short, we all agreed he should be our leader ; but he
would not accept of it alone, but would have me joined
with him ; and all the rest agreeing, I was obliged to
comply.
The first piece of service they put me upon in this
new command was as difficult as any they could think
of, and that was to manage the prisoners ; which,
however, I cheerfully undertook, as you shall hear
presently. But the immediate consultation was yet of
more consequence ; and that was, first, which way
we should go ; and secondly, how to furnish ourselves
for the voyage with provisions.
There was among the prisoners one tall, well-shaped,
handsome fellow, to whom the rest seemed to pay
great respect, and who, as we understood afterwards,
was the son of one of their kings ; his father was, it
seems, killed at our first volley, and he wounded with
a shot in his arm, and with another just on one of his
hips or haunches. The shot in his haunch being in a
fleshy part, bled much, and he was half dead with the
loss of blood. As to the shot in his arm, it had
broke his wrist, and he was by both these wounds
quite disabled, so that we were once going to turn him
away, and let him die ; and, if we had, he would have
died indeed in a few days more : but, as I found the
man had some respect showed him, it presently occurred
to my thoughts that we might bring him to be useful to
us, and perhaps make him a kind of commander over
E
66 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
them. So I caused our surgeon to take him in hand,
and gave the poor wretch good words, that is to say, I
spoke to him as well as I could by signs, to make him
understand that we would make him well again.
This created a new awe in their minds of us, be
lieving that, as we could kill at a distance by something
invisible to them (for so our shot was, to be sure), so
we could make them well again too. Upon this the
young prince (for so we called him afterwards) called
six or seven of the savages to him, and said something
to them ; what it was we know not, but immediately
all the seven came to me, and kneeled down to me,
holding up their hands, and making signs of entreaty,
pointing to the place where one of those lay whom we
had killed.
It was a long time before I or any of us could under
stand them ; but one of them ran and lifted up a dead
man, pointing to his wound, which was in his eyes, for
he was shot into the head at one of his eyes. Then
another pointed to the surgeon, and at last we found it
out, that the meaning was, that he should heal the
prince's father too, who was dead, being shot through
the head, as above.
We presently took the hint, and would not say we
could not do it, but let them know, the men that were
killed were those that had first fallen upon us, and
provoked us, and we would by no means make them
alive again ; and that, if any others did so, we would
kill them too, and never let them live any more : but
that, if he (the prince) would be willing to go with
us, and do as we should direct him, we would not let
him die, and would make his arm well. Upon this he
bid his men go and fetch a long stick or staff, and lay
on the ground. When they brought it, we saw it was
an arrow ; he took it with his left hand (for his other
was lame with the wound), and, pointing up at the sun,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 67
broke the arrow in two, and set the point against his
breast, and then gave it to me. This was, as I under
stood afterwards, wishing the sun, whom they worship,
might shoot him into the breast with an arrow, if ever
he failed to be my friend ; and giving the point of the
arrow to me was to be a testimony that I was the
man he had sworn to : and never was Christian more
punctual to an oath than he was to this, for he was
a sworn servant to us for many a weary month after
that.
When I brought him to the surgeon, he immediately
dressed the wound in his haunch or buttock, and found
the bullet had only grazed upon the flesh, and passed,
as it were, by it, but it was not lodged in the part, so
that it was soon healed and well again ; but, as to his
arm, he found one of the bones broken, which are in
the fore-part from the wrist to the elbow ; and this
he set, and splintered it up, and bound his arm in a
sling, hanging it about his neck, and making signs to
him that he should not stir it ; which he was so strict
an observer of, that he set him down, and never moved
one way or other but as the surgeon gave him leave.
I took a great deal of pains to acquaint this negro
what we intended to do, and what use we intended to
make of his men ; and particularly to teach him the
meaning of what we said, especially to teach him some
words, such as yes and no, and what they meant, and
to inure him to our way of talking ; and he was very
willing and apt to learn anything I taught him.
It was easy to let him see that we intended to carry
our provision with us from the first day ; but he made
signs to us to tell us we need not, for we should find
provision enough everywhere for forty days. It was
very difficult for us to understand how he expressed
forty ; for he knew no figures, but some words that
they used to one another that they understood it by.
6S LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
At last one of the negroes, by his order, laid forty
little stones one by another, to show us how many days
we should travel, and find provisions sufficient.
Then I showed him our baggage, which was very
heavy, particularly our powder, shot, lead, iron, car
penters' tools, seamen's instruments, cases of bottles,
and other lumber. He took some of the things up
in his hand to feel the weight, and shook his head at
them ; so I told our people they must resolve to divide
their things into small parcels, and make them portable ;
and accordingly they did so, by which means we were
fain to leave all our chests behind us, which were eleven
in number.
Then he made signs to us that he would procure
some buffaloes, or young bulls, as I called them, to
carry things for us, and made signs, too, that if we
were weary, we might be carried too ; but that we
slighted, only were willing to have the creatures, be
cause, at last, when they could serve us no farther for
carriage, we might eat them all up if we had any
occasion for them.
I then carried him to our bark, and showed him
what things we had here. He seemed amazed at
the sight of our bark, having never seen anything of
that kind before, for their boats are most wretched
things, such as I never saw before, having no head
or stern, and being made only of the skins of goats,
sewed together with dried guts of goats and sheep,
and done over with a kind of slimy stuff like rosin
and oil, but of a most nauseous, odious smell ; and they
are poor miserable things for boats, the worst that any
part of the world ever saw ; a canoe is an excellent
contrivance compared to them.
But to return to our boat. We carried our new
prince into it, and helped him over the side, because of
his lameness. We made signs to him that his men
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 69
must carry our goods for us, and showed him what
we had ; he answered, " Si, Seignior," or, " Yes, sir "
(for we had taught him that word and the meaning of
it), and taking up a bundle, he made signs to us, that
when his arm was well he would carry some for us.
I made signs again to tell him, that if he would
make his men carry them, we would not let him carry
anything. We had secured all the prisoners in a
narrow place, where we had bound them with mat
cords, and set up stakes like a palisado round them ;
so, when we carried the prince on shore, we went with
him to them, and made signs to him to ask them if
they were willing to go with us to the country of
lions. Accordingly he made a long speech to them,
and we could understand by it that he told them, if
they were willing, they must say, " Si, Seignior," telling
them what it signified. They immediately answered,
" Si, Seignior," and clapped their hands, looking up to
the sun, which, the prince signified to us, was swearing
to be faithful. But as soon as they had said so, one
of them made a long speech to the prince ; and in
it we perceived, by his gestures, which were very
antic, that they desired something from us, and that
they were in great concern about it. So I asked him,
as well as I could, what it was they desired of us ;
he told us by signs that they desired we should clap
our hands to the sun (that was, to swear) that we
would not kill them, that we would give them chia-
ruck, that is to say, bread, would not starve them,
and would not let the lions eat them. I told him
we would promise all that ; then he pointed to the
sun, and clapped his hands, signing to me that I
should do so too, which I did; at which all the
prisoners fell flat on the ground, and rising up again,
made the oddest, wildest cries that ever I heard.
I think it was the first time in my life that ever any
70 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
religious thought affected me ; but I could not refrain
some reflections, and almost tears, in considering how
happy it was that I was not born among such creatures as
these, and was not so stupidly ignorant and barbarous ;
but this soon went off again, and I was not troubled
again with any qualms of that sort for a long time after.
When this ceremony was over, our concern was to
get some provisions, as well for the present subsistence
of our prisoners as ourselves ; and making signs to our
prince that we were thinking upon that subject, he
made signs to me that, if I would let one of the
prisoners go to his town, he should bring provisions,
and should bring some beasts to carry our baggage.
I seemed loth to trust him, and supposing that he
would run away, he made great signs of fidelity, and
with his own hands tied a rope about his neck, offering
me one end of it, intimating that I should hang him if
the man did not come again. So I consented, and he
gave him abundance of instructions, and sent him away,
pointing to the light of the sun, which it seems was to
tell him at what time he must be back.
The fellow ran as if he was mad, and held it till he
was quite out of sight, by which I supposed he had a
great way to go. The next morning, about two hours
before the time appointed, the black prince, for so I
always called him, beckoning with his hand to me, and
hallooing after his manner, desired me to come to him,
which I did, when, pointing to a little hill about two
miles off, I saw plainly a little drove of cattle, and
several people with them ; those, he told me by signs,
were the man he had sent, and several more with him,
and cattle for us.
Accordingly, by the time appointed, he came quite
to our huts, and brought with him a great many cows,
young runts, about sixteen goats, and four young bulls,
taught to carry burthens.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 7 I
This was a supply of provisions sufficient ; as for
bread, we were obliged to shift with some roots which
we had made use of before. We then began to con
sider of making some large bags like the soldiers'
knapsacks, for their men to carry our baggage in, and
to make it easy to them ; and the goats being killed,
I ordered the skins to be spread in the sun, and they
were as dry in two days as could be desired ; so we
found means to make such little bags as we wanted,
and began to divide our baggage into them. When
the black prince found what they were for, and how
easy they were of carriage when we put them on, he
smiled a little, and sent away the man again to fetch
skins, and he brought two natives more with him, all
loaded with skins better cured than ours, and of other
kinds, such as we could not tell what names to give
them.
These two men brought the black prince two lances,
of the sort they use in their fights, but finer than
ordinary, being made of black smooth wood, as fine as
ebony, and headed at the point with the end of a long
tooth of some creature we could not tell of what
creature ; the head was so firm put on, and the tooth
so strong, though no bigger than my thumb, and sharp
at the end, that I never saw anything like it in any
place in the world.
The prince would not take them till I gave him
leave, but made signs that they should give them to
me; however, I gave him leave to take them himself,
for I saw evident signs of an honourable just principle
in him.
We now prepared for our march, when the prince
coming to me, and pointing towards the several quarters
of the world, made signs to know which way we in
tended to go ; and when I showed him, pointing to
the west, he presently let me know there was a great
72 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
river a little further to the north, which was able to
carry our bark many leagues into the country due west.
I presently took the hint, and inquired for the mouth
of the river, which I understood by him was above a
day's march, and, by our estimation, we found it about
seven leagues further. I take this to be the great river
marked by our chart- makers at the northmost part of
the coast of Mozambique, and called there Quilloa.
Consulting thus with ourselves, we resolved to take
the prince, and as many of the prisoners as we could
stow in our frigate, and go about by the bay into the
river; and that eight of us, with our arms, should march
by land to meet them on the river side; for the prince,
carrying us to a rising ground, had showed us the river
very plain, a great way up the country, and in one place
it was not above six miles to it.
It was my lot to march by land, and be captain of
the whole caravan. I had eight of our men with me,
and seven-and-thirty of our prisoners, without any
baggage, for all our luggage was yet on board. We
drove the young bulls with us ; nothing was ever so
tame, so willing to work, or carry anything. The
negroes would ride upon them four at a time, and they
would go very willingly. They would eat out of our
hand, lick our feet, and were as tractable as a dog.
We drove with us six or seven cows for food ; but
our negroes knew nothing of curing the flesh by salting
and drying it till we showed them the way, and then
they were mighty willing to do so as long as we had
any salt to do it with, and to carry salt a great way
too, after we found we should have no more.
It was an easy march to the river side for us that
went by land, and we came thither in a piece of a day,
being, as above, no more than six English miles ;
whereas it was no less than five days before they came
to us by water, the wind in the bay having failed them,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 73
and the way, by reason of a great turn or reach in the
river, being about fifty miles about.
We spent this time in a thing which the two strangers,
which brought the prince the two lances, put into the
head of the prisoners, viz., to make bottles of the goats'
skins to carry fresh water in, which it seems they knew
we should come to want ; and the men did it so dexter
ously, having dried skins fetched them by those two
men, that before our vessel came up, they had every
man a pouch like a bladder, to carry fresh water in,
hanging over their shoulders by a thong made of other
skins, about three inches broad, like the sling of a
fuzee.
Our prince, to assure us of the fidelity of the men in
this march, had ordered them to be tied two and two
by the wrist, as we handcuff prisoners in England ; and
made them so sensible of the reasonableness of it, that
he made them do it themselves, appointing four of them
to bind the rest ; but we found them so honest, and
particularly so obedient to him, that after we were gotten
a little further off of their own country, we set them at
liberty, though, when he came to us, he would have
them tied again, and they continued so a good while.
All the country on the bank of the river was a high
land, no marshy swampy ground in it ; the verdure
good, and abundance of cattle feeding upon it wherever
we went, or which way soever we looked ; there was
not much wood indeed, at least not near us ; but further
up we saw oak, cedar, and pine-trees, some of which
were very large.
The river was a fair open channel, about as broad
as the Thames below Gravesend, and a strong tide of
flood, which we found held us about sixty miles ; the
channel deep, nor did we find any want of water for a
great way. In short, we went merrily up the river
with the flood and the wind blowing still fresh at
74 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
E. and E.N.E. We stemmed the ebb easily also,
especially while the river continued broad and deep;
but when we came past the swelling of the tide, and
had the natural current of the river to go against, we
found it too strong for us, and began to think of quitting
our bark ; but the prince would by no means agree to
that, for, finding we had on board pretty good store
of roping made of mats and flags, which I described
before, he ordered all the prisoners which were on
shore to come and take hold of those ropes, and tow
us along by the shore side ; and as we hoisted our sail
too, to ease them, the men ran along with us at a very
great rate.
In this manner the river carried us up, by our com
putation, near 200 miles, and then it narrowed apace,
and was not above as broad as the Thames is at Wind
sor, or thereabouts ; and, after another day, we came to
a great waterfall or cataract, enough to fright us, for
I believe the whole body of water fell at once perpen
dicularly down a precipice above sixty foot high, which
made noise enough to deprive men of their hearing, and
we heard it above ten miles before we came to it.
Here we were at a full stop, and now our prisoners
went first on shore ; they had worked very hard and
very cheerfully, relieving one another, those that were
weary being taken into the bark. Had we had canoes
or any boats which might have been carried by men's
strength we might have gone two hundred miles more
up this river in small boats, but our great boat could go
no farther.
All this way the country looked green and pleasant,
and was full of cattle, and some people we saw, though
not many ; but this we observed now, that the people
did no more understand our prisoners here than we
could understand them ; being, it seems, of different
nations and of different speech. We had yet seen no.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 75
wild beasts, or, at least, none that came very near us,
except two days before we came to the waterfall, when
we saw three of the most beautiful leopards that ever
were seen, standing upon the bank of the river on the
north side, our prisoners being all on the other side of
the water. Our gunner espied them first, and ran to
fetch his gun, putting a ball extraordinary in it ; and
coming to me, "Now, Captain Bob," says he,
" where is your prince ? " So I called him out.
" Now," says he, " tell your men not to be afraid ;
tell them they shall see that thing in his hand
speak in fire to one of those beasts, and make it kill
itself."
The poor negroes looked as if they had been all
going to be killed, notwithstanding what their prince
said to them, and stood staring to expect the issue,
when on a sudden the gunner fired ; and as he was
a very good marksman, he shot the creature with
two slugs, just in the head. As soon as the leopard
felt herself struck, she reared up on her two hind-legs,
bolt upright, and throwing her forepaws about in
the air, fell backward, growling and struggling, and
immediately died ; the other two, frighted with the
fire and the noise, fled, and were out of sight in an
instant.
But the two frighted leopards were not in half the
consternation that our prisoners were ; four or five of
them fell down as if they had been shot ; several others
fell on their knees, and lifted up their hands to us ;
whether to worship us, or pray us not to kill them,
we did not know ; but we made signs to their prince
to encourage them, which he did, but it was with
much ado that he brought them to their senses. Nay,
the prince, notwithstanding all that was said to prepare
him for it, yet when the piece went off, he gave a
start as if he would have leaped into the river.
7 6 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
When we saw the creature killed, I had a great
mind to have the skin of her, and made signs to the
prince that he should send some of his men over to
take the skin off. As soon as he spoke but a word,
four of them, that offered themselves, were untied,
and immediately they jumped into the river, and swam
over, and went to work with him. The prince having
a knife that we gave him, made four wooden knives so
clever, that I never saw anything like them in my life ;
and in less than an hour's time they brought me the
skin of the leopard, which was a monstrous great one,
for it was from the ears to the tale about seven foot,
and near five foot broad on the back, and most admir
ably spotted all over. The skin of this leopard I
brought to London many years after.
We were now all upon a level as to our travelling,
being unshipped, for our bark would swim no farther,
and she was too heavy to carry on our backs ; but as
we found the course of the river went a great way
farther, we consulted our carpenters whether we could
not pull the bark in pieces, and make us three or four
small boats to go on with. They told us we might
do so, but it would be very long a-doing ; and that,
when we had done, we had neither pitch or tar to
make them sound to keep the water out, or nails to
fasten the plank. But one of them told us that as
soon as he could come at any large tree near the river,
he would make us a canoe or two in a quarter of the
time, and which would serve us as well for all the
uses we could have any occasion for as a boat ; and
such, that if we came to any waterfalls, we might
take them up, and carry them for a mile or two by
land upon our shoulders.
Upon this we gave over the thoughts of our frigate,
and hauling her into a little cove or inlet, where a
small brook came into the main river, we laid her up
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 77
for those that came next, and marched forward. We
spent indeed two days dividing our baggage, and load
ing our tame buffaloes and our negroes. Our powder
and shot, which was the thing we were most careful
of, we ordered thus : First, the powder we divided
into little leather bags, that is to say, bags of dried
skins, with the hair inward, that the powder might
not grow damp ; and then we put those bags into
other bags, made of bullocks' skins, very thick and
hard, with the hair outward, that no wet might come
in ; and this succeeded so well, that in the greatest
rains we had, whereof some were very violent and
very long, we always kept our powder dry. Be
sides these bags, which held our chief magazine, we
divided to every one a quarter of a pound of powder,
and half a pound of shot, to carry always about us ;
which, as it was enough for our present use, so we
were willing to have no weight to carry more than
was absolutely necessary, because of the heat.
We kept still on the bank of the river, and for that
reason had but very little communication with the people
of the country ; for, having also our bark stored with
plenty of provisions, we had no occasion to look
abroad for a supply; but now, when we came to
march on foot, we were obliged often to seek out for
food. The first place we came to on the river, that
gave us any stop, was a little negro town, containing
about fifty huts, and there appeared about 400 people,
for they all came out to see us, and wonder at us.
When our negroes appeared the inhabitants began to
fly to arms, thinking there had been enemies coming
upon them ; but our negroes, though they could not
speak their language, made signs to them that they had
no weapons, and were tied two and two together as
captives, and that there were people behind who came
from the sun, and that could kill them all, and make
78 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
them alive again, if they pleased ; but that they would
do them no hurt, and came with peace. As soon as
they understood this they laid down their lances, and
bows and arrows, and came and stuck twelve large
stakes in the ground as a token of peace, bowing them
selves to us in token of submission. But as soon as
they saw white men with beards, that is to say, with
mustachios, they ran screaming away, as in a fright.
We kept at a distance from them, not to be too
familiar ; and when we did appear it was but two or
three of us at a time. But our prisoners made them
understand that we required some provisions of them ;
so they brought us some black cattle, for they have
abundance of cows and buffaloes all over that side of
the country, as also great numbers of deer. Our cutler,
who had now a great stock of things of his handi
work, gave them some little knick-knacks, as plates of
silver and of iron, cut diamond fashion, and cut into
hearts and into rings, and they were mightily pleased.
They also brought several fruits and roots, which we
did not understand, but our negroes fed heartily on
them, and after we had seen them eat them, we did
so too.
Having stocked ourselves here with flesh and root
as much as we could well carry, we divided the
burthens among our negroes, appointing about thirty to
forty pounds weight to a man, which we thought indeed
was load enough in a hot country; and the negroes
did not at all repine at it, but would sometimes help
one another when they began to be weary, which did
happen now and then, though not often ; besides, as
most of their luggage was our provision, it lightened
every day, like jEsop's basket of bread, till we came
to get a recruit. Note, when we loaded them we
untied their hands, and tied them two and two together
by one foot.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 79
The third day of our march from this place our
chief carpenter desired us to halt, and set up some
huts, for he had found out some trees that he liked,
and resolved to make us some canoes ; for, as he told
me, he knew we should have marching enough on
foot after we left the river, and he was resolved to
go no farther by land than needs must.
We had no sooner given orders for our little camp,
and given leave to our negroes to Jay down their loads,
but they fell to work to build our huts ; and though
they were tied as above, yet they did it so nimbly as
surprised us. Here we set some of the negroes quite
at liberty, that is to say, without tying them, having
the prince's word passed for their fidelity ; and some
of these were ordered to help the carpenters, which
they did very handily, with a little direction, and
others were sent to see whether they could get any
provisions near hand ; but instead of provisions, three
of them came in with two bows and arrows, and five
lances. They could not easily make us understand
how they came by them, only that they had surprised
some negro women, who were in some huts, the men
being from home, and they had found the lances and
bows in the huts, or houses, the women and children
flying away at the sight of them, as from robbers.
We seemed very angry at them, and made the prince
ask them if they had not killed any of the women or
children, making them believe that, if they had killed
anybody, we would make them kill themselves too ;
but they protested their innocence, so we excused
them. Then they brought us the bows and arrows
and lances ; but, at a motion of their black prince, we
gave them back the bows and arrows, and gave them
leave to go out to see what they could kill for food ;
and here we gave them the laws of arms, viz., that if
any man appeared to assault them, or shoot at them
8o LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
to offer any violence to them, they might kill them ;
but that they should not offer to kill or hurt any that
offered them peace, or laid down their weapons, nor
any women or children, upon any occasion whatsoever.
These were our articles of war.
These two fellows had not been gone out above
three or four hours, but one of them came running to
us without his bow and arrows, hallooing and whoop
ing a great while before he came at us, " Okoamo,
okoamo ! " which, it seems, was, " Help, help ! "
The rest of the negroes rose up in a hurry, and by
twos, as they could, ran forward towards their fellows,
to know what the matter was. As for me, I did not
understand it, nor any of our people; the prince
looked as if something unlucky had fallen out, and
some of our men took up their arms to be ready on
occasion. But the negroes soon discovered the thing,
for we saw four of them presently after coming along
with a great load of meat upon their backs. The case
was, that the two who went out with their bows and
arrows, meeting with a great herd of deer in the plain,
had been so nimble as to shoot three of them, and then
one of them came running to us for help to fetch them
away. This was the first venison we had met with in
all our march, and we feasted upon it very plentifully ;
and this was the first time we began to prevail with
our prince to eat his meat dressed our way ; after
which his men were prevailed with by his example,
but before that, they ate most of the flesh they had
quite raw.
We wished now we had brought some bows and
arrows out with us, which we might have done ; and
we began to have so much confidence in our negroes,
and to be so familiar with them, that we oftentimes let
them go, or the greatest part of them, untied, being
well assured they would not leave us, and that they
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 8 1
did not know what course to take without us; but
one thing we resolved not to trust them with, and that
was the charging our guns : but they always believed
our guns had some heavenly power in them, that
would send forth fire and smoke, and speak with a
dreadful noise, and kill at a distance whenever we
bid them.
In about eight days we finished three canoes, and
in them we embarked our white men and our baggage,
with our prince, and some of the prisoners. We also
found it needful to keep some of ourselves always on
shore, not only to manage the negroes, but to defend
them from enemies and wild beasts. Abundance of
little incidents happened upon this march, which it is
impossible to crowd into this account; particularly,
we saw more wild beasts now than we did before,
some elephants, and two or three lions, none of which
kinds we had seen any of before ; and we found our
negroes were more afraid of them a great deal than
we were ; principally, because they had no bows and
arrows, or lances, which were the particular weapons
they were bred up to the exercise of.
But we cured them of their fears by being always
ready with our firearms. However, as we were will
ing to be sparing of our powder, and the killing of
any of the creatures now was no advantage to us,
seeing their skins were too heavy for us to carry, and
their flesh not good to eat, we resolved therefore to
keep some of our pieces uncharged and only primed ;
and causing them to flash in the pan, the beasts, even
the lions themselves, would always start and fly back
when they saw it, and immediately march off.
We passed abundance of inhabitants upon this upper
part of the river, and with this observation, that almost
every ten miles we came to a separate nation, and
every separate nation had a different speech, or else
F
82 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
their speech had differing dialects, so that they did
not understand one, another. They all abounded in
cattle, especially on the river- side ; and the eighth day
of this second navigation we met with a little negro
town, where they had growing a sort of corn like rice,
which ate very sweet ; and, as we got some of it of
the people, we made very good cakes of bread of it,
and, making a fire, baked them on the ground, after the
fire was swept away, very well ; so that hitherto we had
no want of provisions of any kind that we could desire.
Our negroes towing our canoes, we travelled at a
considerable rate, and by our own account could not
go less than twenty or twenty-five English miles a
day, and the river continuing to be much of the same
breadth and very deep all the way, till on the tenth
day we came to another cataract ; for a ridge of high
hills crossing the whole channel of the river, the water
came tumbling down the rocks from one stage to
another in a strange manner, so that it was a con
tinued link of cataracts from one to another, in the
manner of a cascade, only that the falls were some
times a quarter of a mile from one another, and the
noise confused and frightful.
We thought our voyaging was at a full stop now ;
but three of us, with a couple of our negroes, mounting
the hills another way, to view the course of the river,
we found a fair channel again after about half a mile's
march, and that it was like to hold us a good way
further. So we set all hands to work, unloaded our
cargo, and hauled our canoes on shore, to see if we
could carry them.
Upon examination we found that they were very
heavy ; but our carpenters, spending but one day's
work upon them, hewed away so much of the timber
from their outsides as reduced them very much, and
yet they were as fit to swim as before. When this
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 83
was done, ten men with poles took up one of the
canoes and made nothing to carry it. So we ordered
twenty men to each canoe, that one ten might relieve
the other ; and thus we carried all our canoes, and
launched them into the water again, and then fetched
our luggage and loaded it all again into the canoes,
and all in an afternoon; and the next morning early
we moved forward again. When we had towed about
four days more, our gunner, who was our pilot, began
to observe that we did not keep our right course so
exactly as we ought, the river winding away a little
towards the north, and gave us notice of it accordingly.
However, we were not willing to lose the advantage
of water-carriage, at least not till we were forced to
it ; so we jogged on, and the river served us for about
threescore miles further ; but then we found it grew
very small and shallow, having passed the mouths of
several little brooks or rivulets which came into it ;
and at length it became but a brook itself.
We towed up as far as ever our boats would swim,
and we went two days the farther having been about
twelve days in this last part of the river by lightening
the boats and taking our luggage out, which we made
the negroes carry, being willing to ease ourselves as
long as we could ; but at the end of these two days, in
short, there was not water enough to swim a London
wherry.
We now set forward wholly by land, and without
any expectation of more water-carriage. All our con
cern for more water was to be sure to have a supply
for our drinking ; and therefore upon every hill that
we came near we clambered up to the highest part to
see the country before us, and to make the best judg
ment we could which way to go to keep the lowest
grounds, and as near some stream of water as we could.
The country held verdant, well grown with trees,
84 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
and spread with rivers and brooks, and tolerably well
with inhabitants, for about thirty days' march after our
leaving the canoes, during which time things went
pretty well with us; we did not tie ourselves down
when to march and when to halt, but ordered those
things as our convenience and the health and ease of
our people, as well our servants as ourselves, required.
About the middle of this march we came into a low
and plain country, in which we perceived a greater
number of inhabitants than in any other country we
had gone through ; but that which was worse for us,
we found them a fierce, barbarous, treacherous people,
and who at first looked upon us as robbers, and gathered
themselves in numbers to attack us.
Our men were terrified at them at first, and began to
discover an unusual fear, and even our black prince
seemed in a great deal of confusion ; but I smiled at him,
and showing him some of our guns, I asked him if he
thought that which killed the spotted cat (for so they
called the leopard in their language) could not make a
thousand of those naked creatures die at one blow ?
Then he laughed, and said, yes, he believed it would.
" Well, then," said I, "tell your men not to be afraid
of these people, for we shall soon give them a taste of
what we can do if they pretend to meddle with us."
However, we considered we were in the middle of a
vast country, and we knew not what numbers of people
and nations we might be surrounded with, and, above
all, we knew not how much we might stand in need of
the friendship of these that we were now among, so
that we ordered the negroes to try all the methods they
could to make them friends.
Accordingly the two men who had gotten bows and
arrows, and two more to whom we gave the prince's
two fine lances, went foremost, with five more, having
Jong poles in their hands ; and after them ten of our
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 85
men advanced toward the negro town that was next
to us, and we all stood ready to succour them if there
should be occasion.
When they came pretty near their houses our negroes
hallooed in their screaming way, and called to them as
loud as they could. Upon their calling, some of the
men came out and answered, and immediately after the
whole town, men, women, and children, appeared ; our
Degrees, with their long poles, went forward a little,
and stuck them all in the ground, and left them, which
in their country was a signal of peace, but the other did
not understand the meaning of that. Then the two
men with bows laid down their bows and arrows,
went forward unarmed, and made signs of peace to
them, which at last the other began to understand;
so two of their men laid down their bows and arrows,
and came towards them. Our men made all the signs
of friendship to them that they could think of, putting
their hands up to their mouths as a sign that they
wanted provisions to eat ; and the other pretended to
be pleased and friendly, and went back to their fel
lows and talked with them a while, and they came
forward again, and made signs that they would bring
some provisions to them before the sun set; and so
our men came back again very well satisfied for that
time.
But an hour before sunset our men went to them
again, just in the same posture as before, and they
came according to their appointment, and brought
deer's flesh, roots, and the same kind of corn, like
rice, which I mentioned above ; and our negroes, being
furnished with such toys as our cutler had contrived,
gave them some of them, which they seemed infinitely
pleased with, and promised to bring more provisions
the next day.
Accordingly the next day they came again, but our
86 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
men perceived they were more in number by a great
many than before. However, having sent out ten men
with firearms to stand ready, and our whole army
being in view also, we were not much surprised ; nor
was the treachery of the enemy so cunningly ordered
as in other cases, for they might have surrounded our
negroes, which were but nine, under a show of peace ;
but when they saw our men advance almost as far as
the place where they were the day before, the rogues
snatched up their bows and arrows and came running
upon our men like so many furies, at which our ten men
called to the negroes to come back to them, which
they did with speed enough at the first word, and stood
all behind our men. As they fled, the other advanced,
and let fly near a hundred of their arrows at them,
by which two of our negroes were wounded, and one
we thought had been killed. When they came to the
five poles that our men had stuck in the ground, they
stood still awhile, and gathering about the poles, looked
at them, and handled them, as wondering what they
meant. We then, who were drawn up behind all,
sent one of our number to our ten men to bid them
fire among them while they stood so thick, and to
put some small shot into their guns besides the ordi
nary charge, and to tell them that we would be up
with them immediately.
Accordingly they made ready ; but by the time they
were ready to fire, the black army had left their wan
dering about the poles, and began to stir as if they
would come on, though seeing more men stand at some
distance behind our negroes, they could not tell what
to make of us ; but if they did not understand us be
fore, they understood us less afterwards, for as soon
as ever our men found them to begin to move for
ward they fired among the thickest of them, being about
the distance of 120 yards, as near as we could guess.
eat
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 87
It is impossible to express the fright, the screaming
and yelling of those wretches upon this first volley.
We killed six of them, and wounded eleven or twelve,
I mean as we knew of; for, as they stood thick,
and the small shot, as we called it, scattered among
them, we had reason to believe we wounded more
that stood farther off, for our small shot was made
of bits of lead and bits of iron, heads of nails, and
such things as our diligent artificer, the cutler, helped
us to.
As to those that were killed and wounded, the other
frighted creatures were under the greatest amazement
in the world, to think what should hurt them, for they
could see nothing but holes made in their bodies they
knew not how. Then the fire and noise amazed all
their women and children, and frighted them out of
their wits, so that they ran staring and howling about
like mad creatures.
However, all this did not make them fly, which was
what we wanted, nor did we find any of them die as it
were with fear, as at first ; so we resolved upon a second
volley, and then to advance as we did before. Where
upon our reserved men advancing, we resolved to fire
only three men at a time, and move forward like an
army firing in platoon ; so, being all in a line, we fired,
first three on the right, then three on the left, and so
on ; and every time we killed or wounded some of
them, but still they did not fly, and yet they were so
frighted that they used none of their bows and arrows,
or of their lances ; and we thought their numbers in
creased upon our hands, particularly we thought so by
the noise. So I called to our men to halt, and bid them
pour in one whole volley and then shout, as we did
in our first fight, and so run in upon them and knock
them down with our muskets.
But they were too wise for that too, for as soon as
88 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
we had fired a whole volley and shouted, they all ran
away, men, women, and children, so fast that in a few
moments we could not see one creature of them except
some that were wounded and lame, who lay wallowing
and screaming here and there upon the ground as they
happened to fall.
Upon this we came up to the field of battle, where
we found we had killed thirty-seven of them, among
which were three women, and had wounded about sixty-
four, among which were two women ; by wounded I
mean such as were so maimed as not to be able to go
away, and those our negroes killed afterwards in a
cowardly manner in cold blood, for which we were
very angry, and threatened to make them go to them if
they did so again.
There was no great spoil to be got, for they were all
stark naked as they came into the world, men and
women together, some of them having feathers stuck
in their hair, and others a kind of bracelet about their
necks, but nothing else ; but our negroes got a booty
here, which we were very glad of, and this was the
bows and arrows of the vanquished, of which they
found more than they knew what to do with, belong
ing to the killed and wounded men ; these we ordered
them to pick up, and they were very useful to us after
wards. After the fight, and our negroes had gotten
bows and arrows, we sent them out in parties to see
what they could get, and they got some provisions ;
but, which was better than all the rest, they brought
us four more young bulls, or buffaloes, that had been
brought up to labour and to carry burthens. They
knew them, it seems, by the burthens they had carried
having galled their backs, for they have no saddles to
cover them with in that country.
Those creatures not only eased our negroes, but
gave us an opportunity to carry more provisions ; and
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 9
our negroes loaded them very hard at this place with
flesh and roots, such as we wanted very much after
wards.
In this town we found a very little young leopard,
about two spans high ; it was exceeding tame, and
purred like a cat when we stroked it with our hands,
being, as I suppose, bred up among the negroes like a
house-dog. It was our black prince, it seems, who,
making his tour among the abandoned houses or huts,
found this creature there, and making much of him,
and giving a bit or two of flesh to him, the creature
followed him like a dog ; of which more hereafter.
Among the negroes that were killed in this battle
there was one who had a little thin bit or plate of gold,
about as big as a sixpence, which hung by a little bit
of a twisted gut upon his forehead, by which we sup
posed he was a man of some eminence among them ;
but that was not all, for this bit of gold put us upon
searching very narrowly if there was not more of it to
be had thereabouts, but we found none at all.
From this part of the country we went on for about
fifteen days, and then found ourselves obliged to march
up a high ridge of mountains, frightful to behold, and
the first of the kind that we met with ; and having no
guide but our little pocket-compass, we had no advan
tage of information as to which was the best or the
worst way, but was obliged to choose by what we saw,
and shift as well as we could. We met with several
nations of wild and naked people in the plain country
before we came to those hills, and we found them
much more tractable and friendly than those devils we
had been forced to fight with ; and though we could
learn little from these people, yet we understood by the
signs they made that there was a vast desert beyond
these hills, and, as our negroes called them, much lion,
much spotted cat (so they called the leopard); and
90 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
they signed to us also that we must carry water with
us. At the last of these nations we furnished ourselves
with as much provisions as we could possibly carry, not
knowing what we had to suffer, or what length we had
to go ; and, to make our way as familiar to us as possible,
I proposed that of the last inhabitants we could find we
should make some prisoners and carry them with us for
guides over the desert, and to assist us in carrying pro
vision, and, perhaps, in getting it too. The advice
was too necessary to be slighted ; so finding, by our
dumb signs to the inhabitants, that there were some
people that dwelt at the foot of the mountains on the
other side before we came to the desert itself, we
resolved to furnish ourselves with guides by fair means
or foul.
Here, by a moderate computation, we concluded
ourselves 700 miles from the sea-coast where we began.
Our black prince was this day set free from the sling
his arm hung in, our surgeon having perfectly restored
it, and he showed it to his own countrymen quite well,
which made them greatly wonder. Also our two
negroes began to recover, and their wounds to heal
apace, for our surgeon was very skilful in managing
their cure.
Having with infinite labour mounted these hills, and
coming to a view of the country beyond them, it was
indeed enough to astonish as stout a heart as ever was
created. It was a vast howling wilderness not a tree,
a river, or a green thing to be seen ; for, as far as the
eye could look, nothing but a scalding sand, which, as
the wind blew, drove about in clouds enough to over
whelm man and beast. Nor could we see any end of it
either before us, which was our way, or to the right hand
or left ; so that truly our men began to be discour
aged, and talk of going back again. Nor could we
indeed think of venturing over such a horrid place as
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 9!
that before us, in which we saw nothing but present
death.
I was as much affected at the sight as any of them ;
but, for all that, I could not bear the thoughts of going
back again. I told them we had marched 700 miles
of our way, and it would be worse than death to
think of going back again ; and that, if they thought
the desert was not passable, I thought we should rather
change our course, and travel south till we came to the
Cape of Good Hope, or north to the country that lay
along the Nile, where, perhaps, we might find some
way or other over to the west sea ; for sure all Africa
was not a desert.
Our gunner, who, as I said before, was our guide as
to the situation of places, told us that he could not tell
what to say to going for the Cape, for it was a mon
strous length, being from the place where we now were
not less than 1 500 miles ; and, by his account, we were
now come a third part of the way to the coast of Angola,
where we should meet the western ocean, and find ways
enough for our escape home. On the other hand, he
assured us, and showed us a map of it, that, if we went
northward, the western shore of Africa went out into
the sea above 1000 miles west, so that we should
have so much and more land to travel afterwards ;
which land might, for aught we knew, be as wild,
barren, and desert as this. And therefore, upon the
whole, he proposed that we should attempt this desert,
and perhaps we should not find it so Jong as we
feared ; and however, he proposed that we should see
how far our provisions would carry us, and, in parti
cular, our water ; and we should venture no further
than half so far as our water would last ; and if we
found no end of the desert, we might come safely back
again.
This advice was so reasonable that we all approved
92 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
of it ; and accordingly we calculated that we were able
to carry provisions for forty-two days, but that we
could not carry water for above twenty days, though
we were to suppose it to stink, too, before that time
expired. So that we concluded that, if we did not
come at some water in ten days' time, we would return ;
but if we found a supply of water, we could then travel
twenty-one days ; and, if we saw no end of the wilder
ness in that time, we would return also.
With this regulation of our measures, we descended
the mountains, and it was the second day before we
quite reached the plain ; where, however, to make us
amends, we found a fine little rivulet of very good water,
abundance of deer, a sort of creature like a hare, but
not so nimble, but whose flesh we found very agreeable.
But we were deceived in our intelligence, for we found
no people ; so we got no more prisoners to assist us
in carrying our baggage.
The infinite number of deer and other creatures
which we saw here, we found was occasioned by the
neighbourhood of the waste or desert, from whence
they retired hither for food and refreshment. We
stored ourselves here with flesh and roots of divers
kinds, which our negroes understood better than we,
and which served us for bread ; and with as much
water as (by the allowance of a quart a day to a man
for our negroes, and three pints a day a man for our
selves, and three quarts a day each for our buffaloes)
would serve us twenty days ; and thus loaded for a
long miserable march, we set forwards, being all sound
in health and very cheerful, but not alike strong for so
great a fatigue ; and, which was our grievance, were
without a guide.
In the very first entrance of the waste we were exceed
ingly discouraged, for we found the sand so deep, and
it scalded our feet so much with the heat, that after we
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 93
had, as I may call it, waded rather than walked
through it about seven or eight miles, we were all
heartily tired and faint; even the very negroes laid
down and panted like creatures that had been pushed
beyond their strength.
Here we found the difference of lodging greatly
injurious to us; for, as before, we always made us
huts to sleep under, which covered us from the night
air, which is particularly unwholesome in those hot
countries. But we had here no shelter, no lodging,
after so hard a march ; for here were no trees, no, not
a shrub near us ; and, which was still more frightful,
towards night we began to hear the wolves howl, the
lions bellow, and a great many wild asses braying, and
other ugly noises which we did not understand.
Upon this we reflected upon our indiscretion, that
we had not, at least, brought poles or stakes in our
hands, with which we might have, as it were, palisa-
doed ourselves in for the night, and so we might have
slept secure, whatever other inconveniences we suffered.
However, we found a way at last to relieve ourselves a
little ; for first we set up the lances and bows we had,
and endeavoured to bring the tops of them as near to
one another as we could, and so hung our coats on the
top of them, which made us a kind of sorry tent. The
leopard's skin, and a few other skins we had put to
gether, made us a tolerable covering, and thus we laid
down to sleep, and slept very heartily too, for the first
night ; setting, however, a good watch, being two of
our own men with their fuzes, whom we relieved in an
hour at first, and two hours afterwards. And it was
very well we did this, for they found the wilderness
swarmed with raging creatures of all kinds, some of
which came directly up to the very enclosure of our
tent. But our sentinels were ordered not to alarm us
with firing in the night, but to flash in the pan at them,
94 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
which they did, and found it effectual, for the creatures
went off always as soon as they saw it, perhaps with
some noise or howling, and pursued such other game as
they were upon.
If we were tired with the day's travel, we were all
as much tired with the night's lodging. But our black
prince told us in the morning he would give us some
counsel, and indeed it was very good counsel. He
told us we should be all killed if we went on this
journey, and through this desert, without some covering
for us at night ; so he advised us to march back again
to a little river-side where we lay the night before, and
stay there till we could make us houses, as he called
them, to carry with us to lodge in every night. As he
began a little to understand our speech, and we very
well to understand his signs, we easily knew what he
meant, and that we should there make mats (for we
remembered that we saw a great deal of matting or bass
there, that the natives make mats of) I say, that we
should make large mats there for covering our huts or
tents to lodge in at night.
We all approved this advice, and immediately re
solved to go back that one day's journey, resolving,
though we carried less provisions, we would carry mats
with us to cover us in the night. Some of the nimblest
of us got back to the river with more ease than we had
travelled it the day before; but, as we were not in
haste, the rest made a halt, encamped another night,
and came to us the next day.
In our return of this day's journey, our men that
made two days of it met with a very surprising thing,
that gave them some reason to be careful how they
parted company again. The case was this : The
second day in the morning, before they had gone half
a mile, looking behind them they saw a vast cloud of
sand or dust rise in the air, as we see sometimes in the
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 95
roads in summer when it is very dusty and a large
drove of cattle are coming, only very much greater ;
and they could easily perceive that it came after them ;
and it came on faster as they went from it. The cloud
of sand was so great that they could not see what it was
that raised it, and concluded that it was some army of
enemies that pursued them ; but then considering that
they came from the vast uninhabited wilderness, they
knew it was impossible any nation or people that way
should have intelligence of them or the way of their
march ; and therefore, if it was an army, it must be
of such as they were, travelling that way by accident.
On the other hand, as they knew that there were no
horses in the country, and that they came on so fast,
they concluded that it must be some vast collection of
wild beasts, perhaps making to the hill country for food
or water, and that they should be all devoured or
trampled under foot by their multitude.
Upon this thought, they very prudently observed
which way the cloud seemed to point, and they turned
a little out of their way to the north, supposing it might
pass by them. When they were about a quarter of a
mile, they halted to see what it might be. One of the
negroes, a nimbler fellow than the rest, went back a
little, and came in a few minutes running as fast as the
heavy sands would allow, and by signs gave them to
know that it was a great herd, or drove, or whatever it
might be called, of vast monstrous elephants.
As it was a sight our men had never seen, they were
desirous to see it, and yet a little uneasy at the danger
too ; for though an elephant is a heavy unwieldy creature,
yet in the deep sand, which is nothing at all to them,
they marched at a great rate, and would soon have tired
our people, if they had had far to go, and had been
pursued by them.
Our gunner was with them, and had a great mind to
96 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
have gone close up to one of the outermost of them, and
to have clapped his piece to his ear, and to have fired
into him, because he had been told no shot would pene
trate them ; but they all dissuaded him, lest upon the
noise they should all turn upon and pursue us ; so he
was reasoned out of it, and let them pass, which, in our
people's circumstances, was certainly the right way.
They were between twenty and thirty in number, but
prodigious great ones ; and though they often showed
our men that they saw them, yet they did not turn out
of their way, or take any other notice of them than, as
we might say, just to look at them. We that were
before saw the cloud of dust they raised, but we had
thought it had been our own caravan, and so took no
notice ; but as they bent their course one point of the
compass, or thereabouts, to the southward of the east, and
we went due east [? west], they passed by us at some little
distance ; so that we did not see them, or know any
thing of them, till evening, when our men came to us
and gave us this account of them. However, this was
a useful experiment for our future conduct in passing the
desert, as you shall hear in its place.
We were now upon our work, and our black prince
was head surveyor, for he was an excellent mat-maker
himself, and all his men understood it, so that they soon
made us near a hundred mats ; and as every man, I
mean of the negroes, carried one, it was no manner of
load, and we did not carry an ounce of provisions the
less. The greatest burthen was to carry six long poles,
besides some shorter stakes ; but the negroes made an
advantage of that, for carrying them between two, they
made the luggage of provisions which they had to carry
so much the lighter, binding it upon two poles, and so
made three couple of them. As soon as we saw this,
we made a little advantage of it too ; for having three
or four bags, called bottles (I mean skins to carry
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 97
water), more than the men could carry, we got them
filled, and carried them this way, which was a day's
water and more, for our journey.
Having now ended our work, made our mats, and
fully recruited our stores of all things necessary, and
having made us abundance of small ropes of matting for
ordinary use, as we might have occasion, we set forward
again, having interrupted our journey eight days in all,
upon this affair. To our great comfort, the night before
we set out there fell a very violent shower of rain, the
effects of which we found in the sand ; though the heat
of one day dried the surface as much as before, yet it
was harder at bottom, not so heavy, and was cooler to
our feet, by which means we marched, as we reckoned,
about fourteen miles instead of seven, and with much
more ease.
When we came to encamp, we had all things ready,
for we had fitted our tent, and set it up for trial, where
we made it ; so that, in less than an hour, we had a
large tent raised, with an inner and outer apartment,
and two entrances. In one we lay ourselves, in the
other our negroes, having light pleasant mats over us,
and others at the same time under us. Also we had a
little place without all for our buffaloes, for they deserved
our care, being very useful to us, besides carrying forage
and water for themselves. Their forage was a root,
which our black prince directed us to find, not much
unlike a parsnip, very moist and nourishing, of which
there was plenty wherever we came, this horrid desert
excepted.
When we came the next morning to decamp, our
negroes took down the tent, and pulled up the stakes ;
and all was in motion in as little time as it was set up.
In this posture we marched eight days, and yet could
see no end, no change of our prospect, but all looking
as wild and dismal as at the beginning. If there
G
98 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
was any alteration, it was that the sand was nowhere so
deep and heavy as it was the first three days. This we
thought might be because, for six months of the year
the winds blowing west (as for the other six they blow
constantly east), the sand was driven violently to the
side of the desert where we set out, where the moun
tains lying very high, the easterly monsoons, when they
blew, had not the same power to drive it back again ;
and this was confirmed by our finding the like depth of
sand on the farthest extent of the desert to the west.
It was the ninth day of our travel in this wilderness,
when we came to the view of a great lake of water ;
and you may be sure this was a particular satisfaction to
us, because we had not water left for above two or three
days more, at our shortest allowance ; I mean allowing
waterfor our return, if we had been driven to the necessity
of it. Our water had served us two days longer than
expected, our buffaloes having found, for two or three
days, a kind of herb like a broad flat thistle, though
without any prickle, spreading on the ground, and
growing in the sand, which they ate freely of, and
which supplied them for drink as well as forage.
The next day, which was the tenth from our setting
out, we came to the edge of this lake, and, very happily
for us, we came to it at the south point of it, for to the
north we could see no end of it ; so we passed by it
and travelled three days by the side of it, which was a
great comfort to us, because it lightened our burthen,
there being no need to carry water when we had it in
view. And yet, though here was so much water, we
found but very little alteration in the desert ; no trees,
no grass or herbage, except that thistle, as I called it,
and two or three more plants, which we did not under
stand, of which the desert began to be pretty full.
But as we were refreshed with the neighbourhood of
this lake of water, so we were now gotten among a pro-
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 99
digious number of ravenous inhabitants, the like whereof,
it is most certain, the eye of man never saw ; for as I
firmly believe that never man nor body of men passed
this desert since the flood, so I believe there is not the
like collection of fierce, ravenous, and devouring creatures
in the world ; I mean not in any particular place.
For a day's journey before we came to this lake, and
all the three days we were passing by it, and for six or
seven days' march after it, the ground was scattered
with elephants' teeth in such a number as is incredible ;
and as some of them have lain there for some hundreds
of years, so, seeing the substance of them scarce ever de
cays, they may lie there, for aught I know, to the end of
time. The size of some of them is, it seems, to those to
whom I have reported it, as incredible as the number ;
and I can assure you there were several so heavy as the
strongest man among us could not lift. As to number, I
question not but there are enough to load a thousand sail
of the biggest ships in the world, by which I may be
understood to mean that the quantity is not to be con
ceived of ; seeing that as they lasted in view for above
eighty miles' travelling, so they might continue as far
to the right hand, and to the left as far, and many times
as far, for aught we knew ; for it seems the number
of elephants hereabouts is prodigiously great. In one
place in particular we saw the head of an elephant, with
several teeth in it, but one of the biggest that ever I
saw ; the flesh was consumed, to be sure, many hundred
years before, and all the other bones ; but three of our
strongest men could not lift this skull and teeth ; the
great tooth, I believe, weighed at least three hundred
weight ; and this was particularly remarkable to me, that
I observed the whole skull was as good ivory as the
teeth, and, I believe, altogether weighed at least six
hundredweight ; and though I do not know but, by
the same rule, all the bones of the elephant may be
100 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
ivory, yet I think there is this just objection against
it from the example before me, that then all the other
bones of this elephant would have been there as well as
the head.
I proposed to our gunner, that, seeing we had travelled
now fourteen days without intermission, and that we had
water here for our refreshment, and no want of food yet,
nor any fear of it, we should rest our people a little, and
see, at the same time, if perhaps we might kill some
creatures that were proper for food. The gunner, who
had more forecast of that kind than I had, agreed to
the proposal, and added, why might we not try to
catch some fish out of the lake ? The first thing we
had before us was to try if we could make any hooks,
and this indeed put our artificer to his trumps ; how
ever, with some labour and difficulty, he did it, and we
catched fresh fish of several kinds. How they came
there, none but He that made the lake and all the
world knows ; for, to be sure, no human hands ever put
any in there, or pulled any out before.
We not only catched enough for our present refresh
ment, but we dried several large fishes, of kinds which
I cannot describe, in the sun, by which we lengthened
out our provision considerably ; for the heat of the sun
dried them so effectually without salt that they were
perfectly cured, dry, and hard, in one day's time.
We rested ourselves here five days; during which
time we had abundance of pleasant adventures with the
wild creatures, too many to relate. One of them was
very particular, which was a chase between a she-lion,
or lioness, and a large deer ; and though the deer is
naturally a very nimble creature, and she flew by us
like the wind, having, perhaps, about 300 yards the
start of the lion, yet we found the lion, by her strength,
and the goodness of her lungs, got ground of her.
They passed by us within about a quarter of a mile, and
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. IOI
we had a view of them a great way, when, having given
them over, we were surprised, about an hour after, to
see them come thundering back again on the other side
of us, and then the lion was within thirty or forty yards
of her ; and both straining to the extremity of their
speed, when the deer, coming to the lake, plunged into
the water, and swam for her life, as she had before run
for it.
The lioness plunged in after her, and swam a little
way, but came back again ; and when she was got upon
the land she set up the most hideous roar that ever I
heard in my life, as if done in the rage of having lost
her prey.
We walked out morning and evening constantly ; the
middle of the day we refreshed ourselves under our tent.
But one morning early we saw another chase, which
more nearly concerned us than the other ; for our black
prince, walking by the side of the lake, was set upon by
a vast, great crocodile, which came out of the lake upon
him ; and though he was very light of foot, yet it was
as much as he could do to get away. He fled amain
to us, and the truth is, we did not know what to do,
for we were told no bullet would enter her ; and we
found it so at first, for though three of our men fired
at her, yet she did not mind them ; but my friend the
gunner, a venturous fellow, of a bold heart, and great
presence of mind, went up so near as to thrust the
muzzle of his piece into her mouth, and fired, but let
his piece fall, and ran for it the very moment he had
fired it. The creature raged a great while, and spent
its fury upon the gun, making marks upon the very iron
with its teeth, but after some time fainted and died.
Our negroes spread the banks of the lake all this
while for game, and at length killed us three deer, one
of them very large, the other two very small. There
was water -fowl also in the lake, but we never came near
102 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
enough to them to shoot any ; and as for the desert,
we saw no fowls anywhere in it but at the lake.
We likewise killed two or three civet cats ; but
their flesh is the worst of carrion. We saw abundance
of elephants at a distance, and observed they always go
in very good company, that is to say, abundance of
them together, and always extended in a fair line of
battle ; and this, they say, is the way they defend them
selves from their enemies ; for if lions or tigers, wolves
or any creatures, attack them, they being drawn in a
line, sometimes reaching five or six miles in length,
whatever comes in their way is sure to be trod under
foot, or beaten in pieces with their trunks, or lifted up
in the air with their trunks ; so that if a hundred lions
or tigers were coming along, if they meet a line of
elephants, they will always fly back till they see room
to pass by the right hand or the left ; and if they did
not, it would be impossible for one of them to escape ;
for the elephant, though a heavy creature, is yet so
dexterous and nimble with his trunk, that he will not
fail to lift up the heaviest lion, or any other wild
creature, and throw him up in the air quite over his
back, and then trample him to death with his feet.
We saw several lines of battle thus ; we saw one so long
that indeed there was no end of it to be seen, and I
believe there might be 2000 elephants in row or line.
They are not beasts of prey, but live upon the herbage
of the field, as an ox does ; and it is said, that though
they are so great a creature, yet that a smaller quantity
of forage supplies one of them than will suffice a
horse.
The numbers of this kind of creature that are in
those parts are inconceivable, as may be gathered from
the prodigious quantity of teeth which, as I said, we
saw in this vast desert ; and indeed we saw a hundred
of them to one of any other kind.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 103
One evening we were very much surprised. We
were most of us laid down on our mats to sleep, when
our watch came running in among us, being frighted
with the sudden roaring of some lions just by them,
which, it seems, they had not seen, the night being
dark, till they were just upon them. There was, as it
proved, an old lion and his whole family, for there was
the lioness and three young lions, besides the old king,
who was a monstrous great one. One of the young ones
who were good, large, well-grown ones too leaped
up upon one of our negroes, who stood sentinel, before
he saw him, at which he was heartily frighted, cried
out, and ran into the tent. Our other man, who had a
gun, had not presence of mind at first to shoot him,
but struck him with the butt-end of his piece, which
made him whine a little, and then growl at him fear
fully ; but the fellow retired, and, we being all alarmed,
three of our men snatched up their guns, ran to the tent
door, where they saw the great old lion by the fire
of his eyes, and first fired at him, but, we supposed,
missed him, or at least did not kill him ; for they went
all off, but raised a most hideous roar, which, as if they
had called for help, brought down a prodigious number
of lions, and other furious creatures, we know not what,
about them, for we could not see them ; but there was
a noise, and yelling and howling, and all sorts of such
wilderness music on every side of us, as if all the beasts
of the desert were assembled to devour us.
We asked our black prince what we should do
with them. "Me go," says he, "and fright them
all." So he snatches up two or three of the worst
of our mats, and getting one of our men to strike
some fire, he hangs the mat up at the end of a pole,
and set it on fire, and it blazed abroad a good while ;
at which the creatures all moved off, for we heard
them roar, and make their bellowing noise at a great
104 LIFE > ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
distance. " Well," says our gunner, " if that will do,
we need not burn our mats, which are our beds to lay
under us, and our tilting to cover us. Let me alone,"
says he. So he comes back into our tent, and falls
to making some artificial fireworks and the like ;
and he gave our sentinels some to be ready at hand
upon occasion, and particularly he placed a great piece
of wild-fire upon the same pole that the mat had been
tied to, and set it on fire, and that burnt there so long
that all the wild creatures left us for that time.
However, we began to be weary of such company ;
and, to be rid of them, we set forward again two days
sooner than we intended. We found now, that though
the desert did not end, nor could we see any appearance
of it, yet that the earth was pretty full of green stuft
of one sort or another, so that our cattle had no want ;
and secondly, that there were several little rivers which
ran into the lake, and so long as the country continued
low, we found water sufficient, which eased us very
much in our carriage, and we went on still sixteen
days more without yet coming to any appearance of
better soil. After this we found the country rise a
little, and by that we perceived that the water would
fail us ; so, for fear of the worst, we filled our bladder-
bottles with water. We found the country rising
gradually thus for three days continually, when, on the
sudden, we perceived that, though we had mounted
up insensibly, yet that we were on the top of a very
high ridge of hills, though not such as at first.
When we came to look down on the other side
of the hills, we saw, to the great joy of all our hearts,
that the desert was at an end ; that the country was
clothed with green, abundance of trees, and a large
river ; and we made no doubt but that we should find
people and cattle also; and here, by our gunner's
account, who kept our computations, we had marched
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 105
about 400 miles over this dismal place of horror, having
been four-and-thirty days a-doing of it, and conse
quently were come about 1 1 oo miles of our journey.
We would willingly have descended the hills that
night, but it was too late. The next morning we
saw everything more plain, and rested ourselves under
the shade of some trees, which were now the most
refreshing things imaginable to us, who had been
scorched above a month without a tree to cover us.
We found the country here very pleasant, especially
considering that we came from ; and we killed some
deer here also, which we found very frequent under
the cover of the woods. Also we killed a creature
like a goat, whose flesh was very good to eat, but it
was no goat ; we found also a great number of fowls
like partridge, but something smaller, and were very
tame ; so that we lived here very well, but found no
people, at least none that would be seen, no, not for
several days' journey ; and to allay our joy, we were
almost every night disturbed with lions and tigers ;
elephants, indeed, we saw none here.
In three days' march we came to a river, which we
saw from the hills, and which we called the Golden
River ; and we found it ran northward, which was
the first stream we had met with that did so. It ran
with a very rapid current, and our gunner, pulling out
his map, assured me that this was either the river Nile,
or run into the great lake out of which the river Nile
was said to take its beginning ; and he brought out his
charts and maps, which, by his instruction, I began to
understand very well, and told me he would convince
me of it, and indeed he seemed to make it so plain to
me that I was of the same opinion.
But I did not enter into the gunner's reason for this
inquiry, not in the least, till he went on with it farther,
and stated it thus : " If this is the river Nile, why
106 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
should not we build some more canoes, and go down
this stream, rather than expose ourselves to any more
deserts and scorching sands in quest of the sea, which
when we are come to, we shall be as much at a loss
how to get home as we were at Madagascar?"
The argument was good, had there been no objec
tions in the way of a kind which none of us were
capable of answering ; but, upon the whole, it was
an undertaking of such a nature that every one of us
thought it impracticable, and that upon several accounts ;
and our surgeon, who was himself a good scholar and
a man of reading, though not acquainted with the
business of sailing, opposed it, and some of his reasons,
I remember, were such as these : First, the length
of the way, which both he and the gunner allowed, by
the course of the water, and turnings of the river,
would be at least 4000 miles. Secondly, the in
numerable crocodiles in the river, which we should
never be able to escape. Thirdly, the dreadful deserts
in the way ; and lastly, the approaching rainy season,
in which the streams of the Nile would be so furious,
and rise so high spreading far and wide over all the
plain country that we should never be able to know
when we were in the channel of the river and when
not, and should certainly be cast away, overset, or run
aground so often that it would be impossible to proceed
by a river so excessively dangerous.
This last reason he made so plain to us that we
began to be sensible of it ourselves, so that we agreed '
to lay that thought aside, and proceed in our first
course, westwards towards the sea ; but, as if we had
been loth to depart, we continued, by way of refreshing
ourselves, to loiter two days upon this river, in which
time our black prince, who delighted much in wander
ing up and down, came one evening and brought us
several little bits of something, he knew cot what, but
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 107
he found it felt heavy and looked well, and showed
it to me as what he thought was some rarity. I took
not much notice of it to him, but stepping out and
calling the gunner to me I showed it to him, and told
him what I thought, viz., that it was certainly gold.
He agreed with me in that, and also in what followed,
that we would take the black prince out with us the
next day, and make him show us where he found it ;
that if there was any quantity to be found we would
tell our company of it, but if there was but little we
would keep counsel, and have it to ourselves.
But we forgot to engage the prince in the secret,
who innocently told so much to all the rest, as that
they guessed what it was, and came to us to see.
When we found it was public, we were more concerned
to prevent their suspecting that we had any design to
conceal it, and openly telling our thoughts of it, we
called our artificer, who agreed presently that it was
gold ; so I proposed that we should all go with the
prince to the place where he found it, and if any
quantity was to be had, we would lie here some time
and see what we could make of it.
Accordingly we went every man of us, for no man
was willing to be left behind in a discovery of such a
nature. When we came to the place we found it was
on the west side of the river, not in the main river,
but in another small river or stream which came from
the west, and ran into the other at that place. We
fell to raking in the sand, and washing it in our hands ;
and we seldom took up a handful of sand but we
washed some little round lumps as big as a pin's head,
or sometimes as big as a grape stone, into our hands;
and we found, in two or three hours' time, that every
one had got some, so we agreed to leave off, and go
to dinner.
While we were eating, it came into my thoughts
108 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
that while we worked at this rate in a thing of such
nicety and consequence, it was ten to one if the gold,
which was the make-bait of the world, did not, first
or last, set us together by the ears, to break our good
articles and our understanding one among another,
and perhaps cause us to part companies, or worse;
I therefore told them that I was indeed the youngest
man in the company, but as they had always allowed
me to give my opinion in things, and had sometimes
been pleased to follow my advice, so I had something
to propose now, which I thought would be for all our
advantages, and I believed they would all like it very
well. I told them we were in a country where we all
knew there was a great deal of gold, and that all the
world sent ships thither to get it ; that we did not indeed
know where it was, and so we might get a great deal,
or a little, we did not know whether ; but I offered
it to them to consider whether it would not be the
best way for us, and to preserve the good harmony
and friendship that had been always kept among us,
and which was so absolutely necessary to our safety,
that what we found should be brought together to one
common stock, and be equally divided at last, rather
than to run the hazard of any difference which might
happen among us from any one's having found more
or less than another. I told them, that if we were
all upon one bottom we should all apply ourselves
heartily to the work ; and, besides that, we might
then set our negroes all to work for us, and receive
equally the fruit of their labour and of our own, and
being all exactly alike sharers, there could be no just
cause of quarrel or disgust among us.
They all approved the proposal, and every one
jointly swore, and gave their hands to one another,
that they would not conceal the least grain of gold
from the rest ; and consented that if any one or more
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 1 09
ihould be found to conceal any, all that he had should
be taken from him and divided among the rest ; and
one thing more was added to it by our gunner, from
considerations equally good and just, that if any one
of us, by any play, bet, game, or wager, won any
money or gold, or the value of any, from another,
during our whole voyage, till our return quite to
Portugal, he should be obliged by us all to restore it
again on the penalty of being disarmed and turned out
of the company, and of having no relief from us oa
any account whatever. This was to prevent wagering
and playing for money, which our men were apt to do
by several means and at several games, though they
had neither cards nor dice.
Having made this wholesome agreement, we went
cheerfully to work, and showed our negroes how to
work for us; and working up the stream on both
sides, and in the bottom of the river, we spent about
three weeks' time dabbling in the water ; by which
time, as it lay all in our way, we had gone about six
miles, and not more ; and still the higher we went,
the more gold we found; till at last, having passed
by the side of a hill, we perceived on a sudden that
the gold stopped, and that there was not a bit taken
up beyond that place. It presently occurred to my
mind, that it must then be from the side of that little
hill that all the gold we found was worked down.
Upon this, we went back to the hill, and fell to
work with that. We found the earth loose, and of
a yellowish loamy colour, and in some places a white
hard kind of stone, which, in describing since to some
of our artists, they tell me was the spar which is found
by ore, and surrounds it in the mine. However, if
it had been all gold, we had no instrument to force
it out; so we passed that. But scratching into the
loose earth with our fingers, we came to a surprising
110 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
?lace, where the earth, for the quantity of two bushels,
believe, or thereabouts, crumbled down with little
more than touching it, and apparently showed us that
there was a great deal of gold in it. We took it all
carefully up, and washing it in the water, the loamy
earth washed away, and left the gold dust free in our
hands ; and that which was more remarkable was,
that, when this loose earth was all taken away, and
we came to the rock or hard stone, there was not
one grain of gold more to be found.
At night we all came together to see what we had
got ; and it appeared we had found, in that day's heap
of earth, about fifty pounds' weight of gold dust, and
about thirty-four pounds' weight more in all the rest of
our works in the river.
It was a happy kind of disappointment to us, that
we found a full stop put to our work ; for, had the
quantity of gold been ever so small, yet, had any at all
come, I do not know when we should have given over ;
for, having rummaged this place, and not finding the
least grain of gold in any other place, or in any of the
earth there, except in that loose parcel, we went quite
back down the small river again, working it over and
over again, as long as we could find anything, how
small soever ; and we did get six or seven pounds
more the second time. Then we went into the first
river, and tried it up the stream and down the stream,
on the one side and on the other. Up the stream we
found nothing, no, not a grain ; down the stream we
found very little, not above the quantity of half an
ounce in two miles' working ; so back we came again to
the Golden River, as we justly called it, and worked it
up the stream and down the stream twice more apiece,
and every time we found some gold, and perhaps might
have done so if we had stayed there till this time ; but
the quantity was at last so small, and the work so much
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. Ill
the harder, that we agreed by consent to give it over,
lest we should fatigue ourselves and our negroes so as
to be quite unfit for our journey.
When we had brought all our purchase together, we
had in the whole three pounds and a half of gold to a
man, share and share alike, according to such a weight
and scale as our ingenious cutler made for us to weigh
it by, which indeed he did by guess, but which, as he
said, he was sure was rather more than less, and so it
proved at last ; for it was near two ounces more than
weight in a pound. Besides this, there was seven or
eight pounds' weight left, which we agreed to leave in
his hands, to work it into such shapes as we thought
fit, to give away to such people as we might yet meet
with, from whom we might have occasion to buy pro
visions, or even to buy friendship, or the like ; and
particularly we gave about a pound to our black prince,
which he hammered and worked by his own indefati
gable hand, and some tools our artificer lent him, into
little round bits, as round almost as beads, though not
exact in shape, and drilling holes through them, put
them all upon a string, and wore them about his black
neck, and they looked very well there, I assure you ;
but he was many months a-doing it. And thus ended
our first golden adventure.
We now began to discover what we had not troubled
our heads much about before, and that was, that, let
the country be good or bad that we were in, we could
not travel much further for a considerable time. We
had been now five months and upwards in our journey,
and the seasons began to change ; and nature told us,
that, being in a climate that had a winter as well as
a summer, though of a different kind from what our
country produced, we were to expect a wet season,
and such as we should not be able to travel in, as well
by reason of the rain itself, as of the floods which it
112 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
would occasion wherever we should come ; and though
we had been no strangers to those wet seasons in the
island of Madagascar, yet we had not thought much of
them since we began our travels ; for, setting out when
the sun was about the solstice, that is, when it was at
the greatest northern distance from us, we had found
the benefit of it in our travels. But now it drew near
us apace, and we found it began to rain ; upon which
we called another general council, in which we debated
our present circumstances, and, in particular, whether
we should go forward, or seek for a proper place upon
the bank of our Golden River, which had been so
lucky to us, to fix our camp for the winter.
Upon the whole, it was resolved to abide where we
were ; and it was not the least part of our happiness
that we did so, as shall appear in its place.
Having resolved upon this, our first measures were
to set our negroes to work, to make huts or houses
for our habitation, and this they did very dexterously ;
only that we changed the ground where we at first
intended it, thinking, as indeed it happened, that the
river might reach it upon any sudden rain. Our camp
was like a little town, in which our huts were in the
centre, having one large one in the centre of them also,
into which all our particular lodgings opened ; so that
none of us went into our apartments but through a
public tent, where we all ate and drank together, and
kept our councils and society ; and our carpenters
made us tables, benches, and stools in abundance, as
many as we could make use of.
We had no need of chimneys, it was hot enough
without fire ; but yet we found ourselves at last obliged
to keep a fire every night upon a particular occasion.
For though we had in all other respects a very
pleasant and agreeable situation, yet we were rather
worse troubled with the unwelcome visits of wild
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 113
beasts here than in the wilderness itself; for as the
deer and other gentle creatures came hither for shelter
and food, so the lions and tigers and leopards haunted
these places continually for prey.
When first we discovered this we were so uneasy
at it that we thought of removing our situation ; but
after many debates about it we resolved to fortify our
selves in such a manner as not to be in any danger from
it ; and this our carpenters undertook, who first pali
saded our camp quite round with long stakes, for we had
wood enough, which stakes were not stuck in one by
another like pales, but in an irregular manner ; a great
multitude of them so placed that they took up near
two yards in thickness, some higher, some lower, all
sharpened at the top, and about a foot asunder : so
that had any creature jumped at them, unless he had
gone clean over, which it was very hard to do, he
would be hung upon twenty or thirty spikes.
The entrance into this had larger stakes than the rest,
so placed before one another as to make three or four
short turnings which no four-footed beast bigger than
a dog could possibly come in at ; and that we might
not be attacked by any multitude together, and con
sequently be alarmed in our sleep, as we had been, or
be obliged to waste our ammunition, which we were
very chary of, we kept a great fire every night without
the entrance of our palisade, having a hut for our two
sentinels to stand in free from the rain, just within the
entrance, and right against the fire.
To maintain this fire we cut a prodigious deal of
wood, and piled it up in a heap to dry, and with the
green boughs made a second covering over our huts,
so high and thick that it might cast the rain from the
first, and keep us effectually dry.
We had scarcely finished all these works but the
rain came on so fierce and so continued that we had
114 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
little time to stir abroad for food, except indeed that
our negroes, who wore no clothes, seemed to make
nothing of the rain ; though to us Europeans, in those
hot climates, nothing is more dangerous.
We continued in this posture for four months, that
is to say, from the middle of June to the middle of
October ; for though the rains went off, at least the
greatest violence of them, about the equinox, yet, as
the sun was then just over our heads, we resolved to
stay awhile till it passed a little to the southward.
During our encampment here we had several adven
tures with the ravenous creatures of that country ; and
had not our fire been always kept burning, I question
much whether all our fence, though we strengthened
it afterwards with twelve or fourteen rows of stakes
or more, would have kept us secure. It was always
in the night that we had the disturbance of them, and
sometimes they came in such multitudes that we
thought all the lions and tigers, and leopards and
wolves of Africa were come together to attack us.
One night, being clear moonshine, one of our men
being upon the watch, told us that he verily believed
he saw ten thousand wild creatures of one sort or
another pass by our little camp, and ever as they saw
the fire they sheered off, but were sure to howl or
roar, or whatever it was, when they were past.
The music of their voices was very far from being
pleasant to us, and sometimes would be so very dis
turbing that we could not sleep for it ; and often our
sentinels would call us that were awake to come and
look at them. It was one windy, tempestuous night,
after a rainy day, that we were indeed called up ; for
such innumerable numbers of devilish creatures came
about us that our watch really thought they would
attack us. They would not come on the side where
the fire was ; and though we thought ourselves secure
hat
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 1 15
everywhere else, yet we all got up and took to our
arms. The moon Vas near the full, but the air full of
flying clouds, and a strange hurricane of wind to add
to the terror of the night ; when, looking on the back
part of our camp, I thought I saw a creature within
our fortification, and so indeed he was, except his
haunches, for he had taken a running leap, I suppose,
and with all his might had thrown himself clear over
our palisades, except one strong pile, which stood
higher than the rest, and which had caught hold of
him, and by his weight he had hanged himself upon it,
the spike of the pile running into his hinder haunch or
thigh, on the inside ; and by that he hung, growling
and biting the wood for rage. I snatched up a lance
from one of the negroes that stood just by me, and
running to him, struck it three or four times into him,
and despatched him, being unwilling to shoot, because
I had a mind to have a volley fired among the rest,
whom I could see standing without, as thick as a
drove of bullocks going to a fair. I immediately
called our people out, and showed them the object of
terror which I had seen, and, without any further con
sultation, fired a full volley among them, most of our
pieces being loaded with two or three slugs or bullets
apiece. It made a horrible clutter among them, and
in general they all took to their heels, only that we
could observe that some walked off with more gravity
and majesty than others, being not so much frighted
at the noise and fire ; and we could perceive that some
were left upon the ground struggling as for life, but we
durst not stir out to see what they were.
Indeed they stood so thick, and were so near us,
that we could not well miss killing or wounding some
of them, and we believed they had certainly the smell
of us, and our victuals we had been killing ; for we
had killed a deer, and three or four of those creatures
Il6 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
like goats the day before ; and some of the offal had
been thrown out behind our camp, and this, we suppose,
drew them so much about us ; but we avoided it for
the future.
Though the creatures fled, yet we heard a frightful
roaring all night at the place where they stood, which
we supposed was from some that were wounded, and as
soon as day came we went out to see what execution
we had done. And indeed it was a strange sight ; there
were three tigers and two wolves quite killed, besides
the creature I had killed within our palisade, which
seemed to be of an ill-gendered kind, between a tiger
and a leopard. Besides this there was a noble old
lion alive, but with both his fore-legs broke, so that
he could not stir away, and he had almost beat himself
to death with struggling all night, and we found that
this was the wounded soldier that had roared so loud
and given us so much disturbance. Our surgeon,
looking at him, smiled. " Now," says he, " if I could
be sure this lion would be as grateful to me as one of
his majesty's ancestors was to Androcles, the Roman
slave, I would certainly set both his legs again and
cure him." I had not heard the story of Androcles,
so he told it me at large ; but as to the surgeon, we
told him he had no way to know whether the lion
would do so or not, but to cure him first and trust to
his honour ; but he had no faith, so to despatch him
and put him out of his torment, he shot him in the
head and killed him, for which we called him the
king-killer ever after.
Our negroes found no less than five of these ravenous
creatures wounded and dropped at a distance from our
quarters ; whereof, one was a wolf, one a fine spotted
young leopard, and the other were creatures that we
knew not what to call them.
We had several more of these gentlefolks about after
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 117
that, but no such general rendezvous of them as that
was any more ; but this ill effect it had to us, that it
frighted the deer and other creatures from our neigh
bourhood, of whose company we were much more
desirous, and which were necessary for our subsistence.
However, our negroes went out every day a-hunting,
as they called it, with bow and arrow, and they scarce
ever failed of bringing us home something or other ;
and particularly we found in this part of the country,
after the rains had fallen some time, abundance of wild
fowl, such as we have in England, duck, teal, widgeon,
&c. ; some geese, and some kinds that we had never
seen before ; and we frequently killed them. Also we
catched a great deal of fresh fish out of the river, so
that we wanted no provision. If we wanted anything,
it was salt to eat with our fresh meat ; but we had a
little left, and we used it sparingly; for as to our
negroes, they could not taste it, nor did they care to
eat any meat that was seasoned with it.
The weather began now to clear up, the rains were
down, and the floods abated, and the sun, which had
passed our zenith, was gone to the southward a good
way ; so we prepared to go on our way.
It was the I2th of October, or thereabouts, that
we began to set forward ; and having an easy country
to travel in, as well as to supply us with provisions,
though still without inhabitants, we made more despatch,
travelling sometimes, as we calculated it, twenty or
twenty-five miles a day; nor did we halt anywhere
in eleven days' march, one day excepted, which was
to make a raft to carry us over a small river, which,
having swelled with the rains, was not yet quite down.
When we were past this river, which, by the way,
ran to the northward too, we found a great row of hills
in our way. We saw, indeed, the country open to the
right at a great distance ; but, as we kept true to our
Il8 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
course, due west, we were not willing to go a great
way out of our way, only to shun a few hills. So we
advanced ; but we were surprised when, being not
quite come to the top, one of our company, who, with
two negroes, was got up before us, cried out, " The
sea ! the sea ! " and fell a-dancing and jumping, as
signs of joy.
The gunner and I were most surprised at it, because
we had but that morning been calculating that we must
have yet above 1000 miles on the sea side, and that
we could not expect to reach it till another rainy season
would be upon us ; so that when our man cried out,
" The sea," the gunner was angry, and said he was
mad.
But we were both in the greatest surprise imaginable,
when, coming to the top of the hill, and though it was
very high, we saw nothing but water, either before us
or to the right hand or the left, being a vast sea, with
out any bounds but the horizon.
We went down the hill full of confusion of thought,
not being able to conceive whereabouts we were or
what it must be, seeing by all our charts the sea was
yet a vast way off.
It was not above three miles from the hills before
we came to the shore, or water-edge of this sea, and
there, to our further surprise, we found the water fresh
and pleasant to drink ; so that, in short, we knew not
what course to take. The sea, as we thought it to be,
put a full stop to our journey (I mean westward), for
it lay just in the way. Our next question was, which
hand to turn to, to the right hand or the left, but this
was soon resolved ; for, as we knew not the extent of
it, we considered that our way, if it had been the sea
really, must be on the north, and therefore, if we went
to the south now, it must be just so much out of our
way at last. So, having spent a good part of the day
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. IIQ
in our surprise at the thing, and consulting what to do,
we set forward to the north.
We travelled upon the shore of this sea full twenty-
three days before we could come to any resolution
about what it was ; at the end of which, early one
morning, one of our seamen cried out, " Land ! " and
it was no false alarm, for we saw plainly the tops of
some hills at a very great distance, on the further side
of the water, due west ; but though this satisfied us
that it was not the ocean, but an inland sea or lake,
yet we saw no land to the northward, that is to say, no
end of it, but were obliged to travel eight days more,
and near 100 miles farther, before we came to the end
of it, and then we found this Jake or sea ended in a
very great river which ran N. or N. by E., as the other
river had done which I mentioned before.
My friend the gunner, upon examining, said that he
believed that he was mistaken before, and that this was
the river Nile, but was still of the mind that we were
of before, that we should not think of a voyage into
Egypt that way ; so we resolved upon crossing this
river, which, however, was not so easy as before, the
river being very rapid and the channel very broad.
It cost us, therefore, a week here to get materials to
waft ourselves and cattle over this river ; for though
here were stores of trees, yet there was none of any
considerable growth sufficient to make a canoe.
During our march on the edge of this bank we met
with great fatigue, and therefore travelled a fewer miles
in a day than before, there being such a prodigious
number of little rivers that came down from the hills on
the east side, emptying themselves into this gulf, all
which waters were pretty high, the rains having been
but newly over.
In the last three days of our travel we met with some
inhabitants, but we found they lived upon the little hills
120 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
and not by the water-side ; nor were we a little put to
it for food in this march, having killed nothing for four
or five days but some fish we caught out of the lake,
and that not in such plenty as we found before.
But, to make us some amends, we had no disturbance
upon all the shores of this lake from any wild beasts ;
the only inconveniency of that kind was, that we met
an ugly, venomous, deformed kind of a snake or serpent
in the wet grounds near the lake, that several times pur
sued us as if it would attack us ; and if we struck or
threw anything at it, it would raise itself up and hiss
so loud that it might be heard a great way. It had
a hellish ugly deformed look and voice, and our men
would not be persuaded but it was the devil, only that
we did not know what business Satan could have there,
where there were no people.
It was very remarkable that we had now travelled
1000 miles without meeting with any people in the
heart of the whole continent of Africa, where, to be
sure, never man set his foot since the sons of Noah
spread themselves over the face of the whole earth.
Here also our gunner took an observation with his fore-
staff, to determine our latitude, and he found now, that
having marched about thirty-three days northward, we
were in 6 degrees 22 minutes south latitude.
After having with great difficulty got over this river,
we came into a strange wild country that began a little
to affright us ; for though the country was not a desert
of dry scalding sand as that was we had passed before,
yet it was mountainous, barren, and infinitely full of
most furious wild beasts, more than any place we had
passed yet. There was indeed a kind of coarse
herbage on the surface, and now and then a few trees,
or rather shrubs. But people we could see none, and
we began to be in great suspense about victuals, for we
had not killed a deer a great while, but had lived
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 121
chiefly upon fish and fowl, always by the water-side,
both which seemed to fail us now; and we were in
the more consternation, because we could not lay in a
stock here to proceed upon, as we did before, but
were obliged to set out with scarcity, and without
any certainty of a supply.
We had, however, no remedy but patience ; and
having killed some fowls and dried some fish, as much
as, with short allowance, we reckoned would last us
five days, we resolved to venture, and venture we did ;
nor was it without cause that we were apprehensive of
the danger, for we travelled the five days and met
neither with fish nor fowl, nor four-footed beast, whose
flesh was fit to eat, and we were in a most dreadful ap
prehension of being famished to death. On the sixth
day we almost fasted, or, as we may say, we ate up all
the scraps of what we had left, and at night lay
down supperless upon our mats, with heavy hearts,
being obliged the eighth day to kill one of our poor
faithful servants, the buffaloes that carried our baggage.
The flesh of this creature was very good, and so
sparingly did we eat of it that it lasted us all three
days and a half, and was just spent ; and we were on
the point of killing another when we saw before us a
country that promised better, having high trees and
a large river in the middle of it.
This encouraged us, and we quickened our march
for the river-side, though with empty stomachs, and
very faint and weak ; but before we came to this river
we had the good hap to meet with some young deer,
a thing we had long wished for. In a word, having
shot three of them, we came to a full stop to fill our
bellies, and never gave the flesh time to cool before we
ate it ; nay, it was much we could stay to kill it and
had not eaten it alive, for we were, in short, almost
famished.
122 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
Through all that inhospitable country we saw con
tinually lions, tigers, leopards, civet cats, and abun
dance of kinds of creatures that we did not understand;
we saw no elephants, but every now and then we met
with an elephant's tooth lying on the ground, and some
of them lying, as it were, half buried by the length of
time that they had lain there.
When we came to the shore of this river, we found
it ran northerly still, as all the rest had done, but
with this difference, that as the course of the other
rivers were N. by E. or N.N.E., the course of this
lay N.W.N.
On the farther bank of this river we saw some sign
of inhabitants, but met with none for the first day ; but
the next day we came into an inhabited country, the
people all negroes, and stark naked, without shame,
both men and women.
We made signs of friendship to them, and found
them a very frank, civil, and friendly sort of people.
They came to our negroes without any suspicion, nor
did they give us any reason to suspect them of any vil
lainy, as the others had done ; we made signs to them
that we were hungry, and immediately some naked
women ran and fetched us great quantities of roots,
and of things like pumpkins, which we made no scruple
to eat ; and our artificer showed them some of his
trinkets that he had made, some of iron, some of silver,
but none of gold. They had so much judgment as to
choose that of silver before the iron ; but when we
showed them some gold, we found they did not value it
so much as either of the other.
For some of these things they brought us more pro
visions, and three living creatures as big as calves, but
not of that kind ; neither did we ever see any of them
before ; their flesh was very good ; and after that they
brought us twelve more, and some smaller creatures like
>n-
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 123
hares ; all which were very welcome to us, who were
indeed at a very great loss for provisions.
We grew very intimate with these people, and indeed
they were the civillest and most friendly people that
we met with at all, and mightily pleased with us ; and,
which was very particular, they were much easier to
be made to understand our meaning than any we had
met with before.
At last we began to inquire our way, pointing to
the west. They made us understand easily that we
could not go that way, but they pointed to us that we
might go north-west, so that we presently understood
that there was another lake in our way, which proved
to be true ; for in two days more we saw it plain, and
it held us till we passed the equinoctial line, lying all the
way on our left hand, though at a great distance.
Travelling thus northward, our gunner seemed very
anxious about our proceedings ; for he assured us, and
made me sensible of it by the maps which he had been
teaching me out of, that when we came into the lati
tude of six degrees, or thereabouts, north of the line,
the land trended away to the west to such a length
that we should not come at the sea under a march of
above 1500 miles farther westward than the country
we desired to go to. I asked him if there were no
navigable rivers that we might meet with, which,
running into the west ocean, might perhaps carry us
down their stream, and then, if it were 1 500 miles, or
twice 1500 miles, we might do well enough if we
could but get provisions.
Here he showed me the maps again, and that there
appeared no river whose stream was of any such a length
as to do any kindness, till we came perhaps within 200
or 300 miles of the shore, except the Rio Grande, as
they call it, which lay farther northward from us, at
least 700 miles ; and that then he knew not what kind
124 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
of country it might carry us through ; for he said it
was his opinion that the heats on the north of the line,
even in the same latitude, were violent, and the country
more desolate, barren, and barbarous, than those of the
south ; and that when we came among the negroes in
the north part of Africa, next the sea, especially those
who had seen and trafficked with the Europeans, such
as Dutch, English, Portuguese, Spaniards, &c., they
had most of them been so ill-used at some time or other
that they would certainly put all the spite they could
upon us in mere revenge.
Upon these considerations he advised us that, as soon
as we had passed this lake, we should proceed W.S. W.,
that is to say, a little inclining to the south, and that in
time we should meet with the great river Congo, from
whence the coast is called Congo, being a little north of
Angola, where we intended at first to go.
I asked him if ever he had been on the coast of
Congo. He said, yes, he had, but was never on shore
there. Then I asked him how we should get from
thence to the coast where the European ships came,
seeing, if the land trended away west for 1500 miles,
we must have all that shore to traverse before we could
double the west point of it.
He told me it was ten to one but we should hear of
some European ships to take us in, for that they often
visited the coast of Congo and Angola, in trade with
the negroes ; and that if we could not, yet, if we could
but find provisions, we should make our way as well
along the sea-shore as along the river, till we came to
the Gold Coast, which, he said, was not above 400 or
500 miles north of Congo, besides the turning of the
coast west about 300 more ; that shore being in the
latitude of six or seven degrees ; and that there the
English, or Dutch, or French had settlements or fac
tories, perhaps all of them.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 125
I confess I had more mind, all the while he argued,
to have gone northward, and shipped ourselves in the
Rio Grande, or, as the traders call it, the river Negro
or Niger, for I knew that at last it would bring us down
to the Cape de Verd, where we were sure of relief;
whereas, at the coast we were going to now, we had a
prodigious way still to go, either by sea or land, and
no certainty which way to get provisions but by force ;
but for the present I held my tongue, because it was my
tutor's opinion.
But when, according to his desire, we came to turn
southward, having passed beyond the second great lake,
our men began all to be uneasy, and said we were now
out of our way for certain, for that we were going
farther from home, and that we were indeed far enough
off already.
But we had not marched above twelve days more,
eight whereof were taken up in rounding the lake, and
four more south-west, in order to make for the river
Congo, but we were put to another full stop, by
entering a country so desolate, so frightful, and so
wild, that we knew not what to think or do ; for,
besides that it appeared as a terrible and boundless
desert, having neither woods, trees, rivers, or inhabi
tants, so even the place where we were was desolate
of inhabitants, nor had we any way to gather in a
stock of provisions for the passing of this desert, as
we did before at our entering the first, unless we had
marched back four days to the place where we turned
the head of the lake.
Well, notwithstanding this, we ventured; for, to
men that had passed such wild places as we had done,
nothing could seem too desperate to undertake. We
ventured, I say, and the rather because we saw very
high mountains in our way at a great distance, and we
imagined, wherever there were mountains there would
126 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
be springs and rivers; where rivers there would be
trees and grass ; where trees and grass there would be
cattle ; and where cattle, some kind of inhabitants. At
last, in consequence of this speculative philosophy, we
entered this waste, having a great heap of roots and
plants for our bread, such as the Indians gave us, a
very little flesh or salt, and but a little water.
We travelled two days towards those hills, and still
they seemed as far off as they did at first, and it was
the fifth day before we got to them ; indeed, we
travelled but softly, for it was excessively hot; and
we were much about the very equinoctial line, we
hardly knew whether to the south or the north of it.
As we had concluded, that where there were hills
there would be springs, so it happened ; but we were
not only surprised, but really frighted, to find the first
spring we came to, and which looked admirably clear
and beautiful, to be salt as brine. It was a terrible
disappointment to us, and put us under melancholy
apprehensions at first ; but the gunner, who was of a
spirit never discouraged, told us we should not be dis
turbed at that, but be very thankful, for salt was a bait
we stood in as much need of as anything, and there
was no question but we should find fresh water as well
as salt ; and here our surgeon stepped in to encourage
us, and told us that if we did not know he would
show us a way how to make that salt water fresh,
which indeed made us all more cheerful, though we
wondered what he meant.
Meantime our men, without bidding, had been
seeking about for other springs, and found several ;
but still they were all salt; from whence we con
cluded that there was a salt rock or mineral stone in
those mountains, and perhaps they might be all of
such a substance ; but still I wondered by what witch
craft it was that our artist the surgeon would make
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 127
this salt water turn fresh, and I longed to see the
experiment, which was indeed a very odd one ; but
he went to work with as much assurance as if he had
tried it on the very spot before.
He took two of our large mats and sewed them
together, and they made a kind of a bag four feet
broad, three feet and a half high, and about a foot
and a half thick when it was full.
He caused us to fill this bag with dry sand and
tread it down as close as we could, not to burst the
mats. When thus the bag was full within a foot,
he sought some other earth and filled up the rest
with it, and still trod all in as hard as he could.
When he had done, he made a hole in the upper
earth about as broad as the crown of a large hat, or
something bigger about, but not so deep, and bade a
negro fill it with water, and still as it shrunk away
to fill it again, and keep it full. The bag he had
placed at first across two pieces of wood, about a foot
from the ground; and under it he ordered some of
our skins to be spread that would hold water. In
about an hour, and not sooner, the water began to
come dropping through the bottom of the bag, and, to
our great surprise, was perfectly fresh and sweet, and
this continued for several hours ; but in the end the
water began to be a little brackish. When we told
him that, " Well, then," said he, "turn the sand out,
and fill it again." Whether he did this by way of
experiment from his own fancy, or whether he had
seen it done before, I do not remember.
The next day we mounted the tops of the hills,
where the prospect was indeed astonishing, for as far
as the eye could look, south, or west, or north
west, there was nothing to be seen but a vast howling
wilderness, with neither tree nor river, nor any green
thing. The surface we found, as the part we passed
128 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
the day before, had a kind of thick moss upon it, of
a blackish dead colour, but nothing in it that looked
like food, either for man or beast.
Had we been stored with provisions to have entered
for ten or twenty days upon this wilderness, as we were
formerly, and with fresh water, we had hearts good
enough to have ventured, though we had been obliged
to come back again, for if we went north we did not
know but we might meet with the same ; but we neither
had provisions, neither were we in any place where it
was possible to get them. We killed some wild ferine
creatures at the foot of these hills ; but, except two
things, like to nothing that we ever saw before, we met
with nothing that was fit to eat. These were creatures
that seemed to be between the kind of a buffalo and a
deer, but indeed resembled neither ; for they had no
horns, and had great legs like a cow, with a fine head,
and the neck like a deer. We killed also, at several
times, a tiger, two young lions, and a wolf; but, God
be thanked, we were not so reduced as to eat carrion.
Upon this terrible prospect I renewed my motion of
turning northward, and making towards the river Niger
or Rio Grande, then to turn west towards the English
settlements on the Gold Coast ; to which every one most
readily consented, only our gunner, who was indeed our
best guide, though he happened to be mistaken at this
time. He moved that, as our coast was now northward,
so we might slant away north-west, that so, by crossing
the country, we might perhaps meet with some other
river that run into the Rio Grande northward, or down
to the Gold Coast southward, and so both direct our way
and shorten the labour ; as also because, if any of the
country was inhabited and fruitful, we should probably
find it upon the shore of the rivers, where alone we could
be furnished with provisions.
This was good advice, and too rational not to be
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 129
taken ; but our present business was, what to do to get
out of this dreadful place we were in. Behind us was
a waste, which had already cost us five days' march, and
we had not provisions for five days left to go back again
the same way. Before us was nothing but horror, as
above ; so we resolved, seeing the ridge of the hills we
were upon had some appearance of fruitfulness, and that
they seemed to lead away to the northward a great way,
to keep under the foot of them on the east side, to go
on as far as we could, and in the meantime to look
diligently out for food.
Accordingly we moved on the next morning ; for
we had no time to lose, and, to our great comfort, we
.came in our first morning's march to very good springs
of fresh water ; and lest we should have a scarcity again,
we filled all our bladder bottles and carried it with us.
I should also have observed that our surgeon, who made
the salt water fresh, took the opportunity of those salt
springs, and made us the quantity of three or four pecks
of very good salt.
In our third march we found an unexpected supply
of food, the hills being full of hares. They were of a
kind something different from ours in England, larger
and not as swift of foot, but very good meat. We shot
several of them, and the little tame leopard, which I told
you we took at the negro town that we plundered, hunted
them like a dog, and killed us several every day ; but she
would eat nothing of them unless we gave it her, which,
indeed, in our circumstance, was very obliging We
salted them a little and dried them in the sun whole,
and carried a strange parcel along with us. I think it
was almost three hundred, for we did not know when
we might find any more, either of these or any other
food. We continued our course under these hills very
comfortably for eight or nine days, when we found, to
our great satisfaction, the country beyond us began to
130 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
look with something of a better countenance. As for
the west side of the hills, we never examined it till this
day, when three of our company, the rest halting for
refreshment, mounted the hills again to satisfy their
curiosity, but found it all the same, nor could they see
any end of it, no, not to the north, the way we were
going ; so the tenth day, finding the hills made a turn,
and led as it were into the vast desert, we left them and
continued our course north, the country being very
tolerably full of woods, some waste, but not tediously
long, till we came, by our gunner's observation, into
the latitude of eight degrees five minutes, which we
were nineteen days more in performing.
All this way we found no inhabitants, but abundance
of wild ravenous creatures, with which we became so
well acquainted now that really we did not much mind
them. We saw lions and tigers and leopards every
night and morning in abundance ; but as they seldom
came near us, we let them go about their business :
if they offered to come near us, we made false fire with
any gun that was uncharged, and they would walk off
as soon as they saw the flash.
We made pretty good shift for food all this way ;
for sometimes we killed hares, sometimes some fowls,
but for my life I cannot give names to any of them,
except a kind of partridge, and another that was like
our turtle. Now and then we began to meet with
elephants again in great numbers ; those creatures
delighted chiefly in the woody part of the country.
This long-continued march fatigued us very much,
and two of our men fell sick, indeed, so very sick that
we thought they would have died ; and one of our
negroes died suddenly. Our surgeon said it was an
apoplexy, but he wondered at it, he said, for he could
never complain of his high feeding. Another of them
was very ill ; but our surgeon with much ado persuading
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 131
him, indeed it was almost forcing him to be let blood,
he recovered.
We halted here twelve days for the sake of our sick
men, and our surgeon persuaded me and three or four
more of us to be let blood during the time of rest,
which, with other things he gave us, contributed very
much to our continued health in so tedious a march and
in so hot a climate.
In this march we pitched our matted tents every
night, and they were very comfortable to us, though
we had trees and woods to shelter us in most places.
We thought it very strange that in all this part of the
country we yet met with no inhabitants ; but the prin
cipal reason, as we found afterwards, was, that we,
having kept a western course first, and then a northern
course, were gotten too much into the middle of the
country and among the deserts ; whereas the inhabi
tants are principally found among the rivers, lakes, and
lowlands, as well to the south-west as to the north.
What little rivulets we found here were so empty
of water, that except some pits, and little more than
ordinary pools, there was scarcely any water to be
seen in them ; and they rather showed that during the
rainy months they had a channel, than that they had
really running water in them at that time, by which it
was easy for us to judge that we had a great way to
go ; but this was no discouragement so long as we had
but provisions, and some seasonable shelter from the
violent heat, which indeed I thought was much greater
now than when the sun was just over our heads.
Our men being recovered, we set forward again,
very well stored with provisions, and water sufficient,
and bending our course a little to the westward of the
north, travelled in hopes of some favourable stream
which might bear a canoe ; but we found none till
after twenty days' travel, including eight days' rest ;
132 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
for our men being weak, we rested very often, especially
when we came to places which were proper for our
purpose, where we found cattle, fowl, or anything to
kill for our food. In those twenty days' march we
advanced four degrees to the northward, besides some
meridian distance westward, and we met with abundance
of elephants, and with a good number of elephants'
teeth scattered up and down, here and there, in the
woody grounds especially, some of which were very
large. But they were no booty to us ; our business was
provisions, and a good passage out of the country ; and
it had been much more to our purpose to have found a
good fat deer, and to have killed it for our food, than
a hundred ton of elephants' teeth ; and yet, as you
shall presently hear, when we came to begin our passage
by water, we once thought to have built a large canoe,
on purpose to have loaded it with ivory ; but this was
when we knew nothing of the rivers, nor knew any
thing how dangerous and how difficult a passage it was
we were likely to have in them, nor had considered
the weight of carriage to lug them to the rivers where
we might embark.
At the end of twenty days' travel, as above, in the
latitude of three degrees sixteen minutes, we discovered
in a valley, at some distance from us, a pretty tolerable
stream, which we thought deserved the name of a river,
and which ran its course N.N.W., which was just what
we wanted. As we had fixed our thoughts upon our
passage by water, we took this for the place to make
the experiment, and bent our march directly to the
valley.
There was a small thicket of trees just in our way,
which we went by, thinking no harm, when on a sudden
one of our negroes was dangerously wounded with an
arrow shot into his back, slanting between his shoulders.
This put us to a full stop ; and three of our men, with
%
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 133
two negroes, spreading the wood, for it was but a small
one, found a negro with a bow, but no arrow, who would
have escaped, but our men that discovered him shot him
in revenge of the mischief he had done ; so we lost the
opportunity of taking him prisoner, which, if we had
done, and sent him home with good usage, it might
have brought others to us in a friendly manner.
Going a little farther, we came to five negro huts or
houses, built after a different manner from any we had
seen yet ; and at the door of one of them lay seven
elephants' teeth, piled up against the wall or side of the
hut, as if they had been provided against a market.
Here were no men, but seven or eight women, and
near twenty children. We offered them no incivility
of any kind, but gave them every one a bit of silver
beaten out thin, as I observed before, and cut diamond
fashion, or in the shape of a bird, at which the women
were overjoyed, and brought out to us several sorts of
food, which we did not understand, being cakes of a
meal made of roots, which they bake in the sun, and
which ate very well. We went a little way farther
and pitched our camp for that night, not doubting but
our civility to the women would produce some good
effect when their husbands might come home.
Accordingly, the next morning the women, with
eleven men, five young boys, and two good big girls,
came to our camp. Before they came quite to us, the
women called aloud, and made an odd screaming noise
to bring us out ; and accordingly we came out, when
two of the women, showing us what we had given
them, and pointing to the company behind, made such
signs as we could easily understand signified friendship.
When the men advanced, having bows and arrows,
they laid them down on the ground, scraped and threw
sand over their heads, and turned round three times
with their hands laid up upon the tops of their heads.
134 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
This, it seems, was a solemn vow of friendship. Upon
this we beckoned them with our hands to come nearer ;
then they sent the boys and girls to us first, which, it
seems, was to bring us more cakes of bread and some
green herbs to eat, which we received, and took the
boys up and kissed them, and the little girls too ; then
the men came up close to us, and sat them down on
the ground, making signs that we should sit down by
them, which we did. They said much to one another,
but we could not understand them, nor could we find
any way to make them understand us, much less whither
we were going, or what we wanted, only that we easily
made them understand we wanted victuals ; whereupon
one of the men, casting his eyes about him towards a
rising ground that was about half a mile off, started up
as if he was frighted, flew to the place where they had
laid down their bows and arrows, snatched up a bow
and two arrows, and ran like a racehorse to the place.
When he came there, he let fly both his arrows, and
comes back again to us with the same speed. We, seeing
he came with the bow, but without the arrows, were
the more inquisitive ; but the fellow, saying nothing to
us, beckons to one of our negroes to come to him, and
we bid him go ; so he led him back to the place, where
lay a kind of deer, shot with two arrows, but not quite
dead, and between them they brought it down to us.
This was for a gift to us, and was very welcome, I
assure you, for our stock was low. These people were
all stark naked.
The next day there came about a hundred men to
us, and women making the same awkward signals of
friendship, and dancing, and showing themselves very
well pleased, and anything they had they gave us.
How the man in the wood came to be so butcherly
and rude as to shoot at our men, without making any
breach first, we could not imagine ; for the people were
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 135
simple, plain, and inoffensive in all our other conversa
tion with them.
From hence we went down the banks of the little
river I mentioned, and where, I found, we should see
the whole nation of negroes, but whether friendly to us
or not, that we could make no judgment of yet.
The river was no use to us, as to the design of
making canoes, a great while ; and we traversed the
country on the edge of it about five days more, when
our carpenters, finding the stream increased, proposed
to pitch our tents, and fall to work to make canoes ;
but after we had begun the work, and cut down two or
three trees, and spent five days in the labour, some of
our men, wandering further down the river, brought us
word that the stream rather decreased than increased,
sinking away into the sands, or drying up by the heat
of the sun, so that the river appeared not able to carry
the least canoe that could be any way useful to us;
so we were obliged to give over our enterprise and
move on.
In our further prospect this way, we marched three
days full west, the country on the north side being
extraordinary mountainous, and more parched and dry
than any we had seen yet ; whereas, in the part which
looks due west, we found a pleasant valley running a
great way between two great ridges of mountains. The
hills looked frightful, being entirely bare of trees or
grass, and even white with the dryness of the sand ;
but in the valley we had trees, grass, and some creatures
that were fit for food, and some inhabitants.
We passed by some of their huts or houses, and saw
people about them, but they ran up into the hills as
soon as they saw us. At the end of this valley we
met with a peopled country, and at first it put us to
some doubt whether we should go among them, or
keep up towards the hills northerly ; and as our aim
136 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
was principally as before, to make our way to the river
Niger, we inclined to the latter, pursuing our course by
the compass to the N.W. We marched thus without
interruption seven days more, when we met with a
surprising circumstance much more desolate and dis
consolate than our own, and which, in time to come,
will scarce seem credible.
We did not much seek the conversing, or acquaint
ing ourselves with the natives of the country, except
where we found the want of them for our provision,
or their direction for our way; so that, whereas we
found the country here begin to be very populous,
especially towards our left hand, that is, to the south,
we kept at the more distance northerly, still stretching
towards the west.
In this tract we found something or other to kill
and eat, which always supplied our necessity, though
not so well as we were provided in our first setting
out ; being thus, as it were, pushing to avoid a peopled
country, we at last came to a very pleasant, agreeable
stream of water, not big enough to be called a river,
but running to the N.N.W., which was the very
course we desired to go.
On the farthest bank of this brook, we perceived
some huts of negroes, not many, and in a little low
spot of ground, some maize, or Indian corn, growing,
which intimated presently to us, that there were some
inhabitants on that side Jess barbarous than what we
had met with in other places where we had been.
As we went forward, our whole caravan being in a
body, our negroes, who were in the front, cried out,
that they saw a white man ! We were not much sur
prised at first, it being, as we thought, a mistake of the
fellows, and asked them what they meant ; when one
of them stepped to me, and pointing to a hut on
the other side of the hill, I was astonished to see a
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 137
white man indeed, but stark naked, very busy near the
door of his hut, and stooping down to the ground with
something in his hand, as if he had been at some work ;
and his back being towards us, he did not see us.
I gave notice to our negroes to make no noise, and
waited till some more of our men were come up, to
show the sight to them, that they might be sure I was
not mistaken ; and we were soon satisfied of the truth,
for the man, having heard some noise, started up, and
looked full at us, as much surprised, to be sure, as we
were, but whether with fear or hope, we then knew
not.
As he discovered us, so did the rest of the inhabi
tants belonging to the huts about him, and all crowded
together, looking at us at a distance, a little bottom,
in which the brook ran, lying between us ; the white
man, and all the rest, as he told us afterwards, not
knowing well whether they should stay or run away.
However, it presently came into my thoughts, that if
there were white men among them, it would be much
easier to make them understand what we meant as to
peace or war, than we found it with others ; so tying
a piece of white rag to the end of a stick, we sent two
negroes with it to the bank of the water, carrying
the pole up as high as they could ; it was presently
understood, and two of their men and the white man
came to the shore on the other side.
However, as the white man spoke no Portuguese,
they could understand nothing of one another but by
signs ; but our men made the white man understand
that they had white men with them too, at which they
said the white man laughed. However, to be short,
our men came back, and told us they were all good
friends, and in about an hour four of our men, two
negroes, and the black prince, went to the river-side,
where the white man came to them.
138 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
They had not been half a quarter of an hour, but
a negro came running to me, and told me the white
man was Inglese, as he called him ; upon which I
ran back, eagerly enough, you may be sure, with him,
and found, as he said, that he was an Englishman;
upon which he embraced me very passionately, the
tears running down his face. The first surprise of
his seeing us was over before we came, but any one
may conceive it by the brief account he gave us after
wards of his very unhappy circumstances, and of so un
expected a deliverance, such as perhaps never happened
to any man in the world, for it was a million to one
odds that ever he could have been relieved ; nothing
but an adventure that never was heard or read of be
fore could have suited his case, unless Heaven, by
some miracle that never was to be expected, had
acted for him.
He appeared to be a gentleman, not an ordinary-
bred fellow, seaman, or labouring man ; this showed
itself in his behaviour in the first moment of our con
versing with him, and in spite of all the disadvantages
of his miserable circumstances.
He was a middle-aged man, not above thirty-seven
or thirty-eight, though his beard was grown ex
ceedingly long, and the hair of his head and face
strangely covered him to the middle of his back and
breast ; he was white, and his skin very fine, though
discoloured, and in some places blistered, and covered
with a brown blackish substance, scurfy, scaly, and
hard, which was the effect of the scorching heat of
the sun ; he was stark naked, and had been so, as he
told us, upwards of two years.
He was so exceedingly transported at our meeting
with him, that he could scarce enter into any dis
course at all with us that day ; and when he could
get away from us for a little, we saw him walking
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 139
alone, and showing all the most extravagant tokens
of an ungovernable joy ; and even afterwards he was
never without tears in his eyes for several days, upon
the least word spoken by us of his circumstances, or
by him of his deliverance.
We found his behaviour the most courteous and
endearing I ever saw in any man whatever, and most
evident tokens of a mannerly, well-bred person ap
peared in all things he did or said, and our people
were exceedingly taken with him. He was a scholar
and a mathematician ; he could not speak Portuguese
indeed, but he spoke Latin to our surgeon, French to
another of our men, and Italian to a third.
He had no leisure in his thoughts to ask us whence
we came, whither we were going, or who we were ;
but would have it always as an answer to himself, that
to be sure, wherever we were a-going, we came from
Heaven, and were sent on purpose to save him from
the most wretched condition that ever man was re
duced to.
Our men pitching their camp on the bank of a little
river opposite to him, he began to inquire what store
of provisions we had, and how we proposed to be sup
plied. When he found that our store was but small,
he said he would talk with the natives, and we should
have provisions enough ; for he said they were the
most courteous, good-natured part of the inhabitants
in all that part of the country, as we might suppose
by his living so safe among them.
The first things this gentleman did for us were indeed
of the greatest consequence to us ; for, first, he perfectly
informed us where we were, and which was the pro-
perest course for us to steer ; secondly, he put us in the
way how to furnish ourselves effectually with provisions ;
and thirdly, he was our complete interpreter and peace
maker with all the natives, who now began to be very
140 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
numerous about us, and who were a more fierce and
politic people than those we had met with before ; not
so easily terrified with our arms as those, and not so
ignorant as to give their provisions and corn for our
little toys, such as, I said before, our artificer made ;
but as they had frequently traded and conversed with
the Europeans on the coast, or with other negro nations
that had traded and been concerned with them, they
were the less ignorant and the less fearful, and con
sequently nothing was to be had from them but by
exchange for such things as they liked.
This I say of the negro natives, which we soon
came among ; but as to these poor people that he lived
among, they were not much acquainted with things,
being at the distance of above 300 miles from the
coast ; only that they found elephants' teeth upon the
hills to the north, which they took and carried about
sixty or seventy miles south, where other trading negroes
usually met them, and gave them beads, glass, shells,
and cowries, for them, such as the English and Dutch
and other traders furnish them with from Europe.
We now began to be more familiar with our new
acquaintance ; and first, though we made but a sorry
figure as to clothes ourselves, having neither shoe,
or stocking, or glove, or hat among us, and but very
few shirts, yet as well as we could we clothed him ;
and first, our surgeon having scissors and razors, shaved
him, and cut his hair ; a hat, as I say, we had not in
all our stores, but he supplied himself by making him
self a cap of a piece of a leopard-skin, most artificially.
As for shoes or stockings, he had gone so long without
them that he cared not even for the buskins and foot-
gloves we wore, which I described above.
As he had been curious to hear the whole story of
our travels, and was exceedingly delighted with the
relation, so we were no less to know, and pleased with,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 141
the account of his circumstances, and the history of his
coming to that strange place alone, and in that condition
which we found him in, as above. This account of his
would indeed be in itself the subject of an agreeable
history, and would be as long and diverting as our own,
having in it many strange and extraordinary incidents ;
but we cannot have room here to launch out into so
long a digression : the sum of his history was this :
He had been a factor for the English Guinea Com
pany at Sierra Leone, or some other of their settlements
which had been taken by the French, where he had
been plundered of all his own effects, as well as of
what was entrusted to him by the company. Whether
it was that the company did not do him justice in
restoring his circumstances, or in further employing
him, he quitted their service, and was employed by
those called separate traders, and being afterwards out
of employ there also, traded on his own account; when,
passing unwarily into one of the company's settlements,
he was either betrayed into the hands of some of the
natives, or, somehow or other, was surprised by them.
However, as they did not kill him, he found means to
escape from them at that time, and fled to another
nation of the natives, who, being enemies to the other,
entertained him friendly, and with them he lived some
time ; but not liking his quarters or his company, he
fled again, and several times changed his landlords :
sometimes was carried by force, sometimes hurried by
fear, as circumstances altered with him (the variety of
which deserves a history by itself), till at last he had
wandered beyond all possibility of return, and had taken
up his abode where we found him, where he was well
received by the petty king of the tribe he lived with ;
and he, in return, instructed them how to value the
product of their labour, and on what terms to trade
with those negroes who came up to them for teeth.
142 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
As he was naked, and had no clothes, so he was
naked of arms for his defence, having neither gun,
sword, staff, or any instrument of war about him, no,
not to guard himself against the attacks of a wild beast,
of which the country was very full. We asked him
how he came to be so entirely abandoned of all concern
for his safety ? He answered, that to him, that had
so often wished for death, life was not worth defending ;
and that, as he was entirely at the mercy of the negroes,
they had much the more confidence in him, seeing he
had no weapons to hurt them. As for wild beasts, he
was not much concerned about that, for he scarce ever
went from his hut ; but if he did, the negro king and
his men went all with him, and they were all armed
with bows and arrows, and lances, with which they
would kill any of the ravenous creatures, lions as well
as others ; but that they seldom came abroad in the
day ; and if the negroes wander anywhere in the night,
they always build a hut for themselves, and make a fire
at the door of it, which is guard enough.
We inquired of him what we should next do to
wards getting to the seaside. He told us we were
about one hundred and twenty English leagues from
the coast, where almost all the European settlements
and factories were, and which is called the Gold
Coast ; but that there were so many different nations
of negroes in the way, that it was ten to one if we
were not either fought with continually, or starved
for want of provisions ; but that there were two other
ways to go, which, if he had had any company to go
with him, he had often contrived to make his escape
by. The one was to travel full west, which, though
it was farther to go, yet was not so full of people,
and the people we should find would be so much the
civiller to us, or be so much the easier to fight with ;
or that the other way was, if possible, to get to the
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 143
Rio Grande, and go down the stream in canoes. We
told him, that was the way we had resolved on before
we met with him ; but then he told us there was a
prodigious desert to go over, and as prodigious woods
to go through, before we came to it, and that both
together were at least twenty days' march for us, travel
as hard as we could.
We asked him if there were no horses in the coun
try, or asses, or even bullocks or buffaloes, to make
use of in such a journey, and we showed him ours, of
which we had but three left. He said no, all the coun
try did not afford anything of that kind.
He told us that in this great wood there were im
mense numbers of elephants ; and upon the desert,
great multitudes of lions, lynxes, tigers, leopards, &c. ;
and that it was to that wood and that desert that the
negroes went to get elephants' teeth, where they never
failed to find a great number.
We inquired still more, and particularly the way
to the Gold Coast, and if there were no rivers to ease
us in our carriage ; and told him, as to the negroes
fighting with us, we were not much concerned at that ;
nor were we afraid of starving, for if they had any
victuals among them, we would have our share of it ;
and, therefore, if he would venture to show us the
way, we would venture to go ; and as for himself, we
told him we would live and die together there should
not a man of us stir from him.
He told us, with all his heart, if we resolved it,
and would venture, we might be assured he would
take his fate with us, and he would endeavour to guide
us in such a way as we should meet with some friendly
savages who would use us well, and perhaps stand by
us against some others, who were less tractable ; so,
in a word, we all resolved to go full south for the
Gold Coast.
144 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
The next morning he came to us again, and being
all met in council, as we may call it, he began to talk
very seriously with us, that since we were now come,
after a long journey, to a view of the end of our
troubles, and had been so obliging to him as to offer
to carry him with us, he had been all night revolving
in his mind what he and we all might do to make our
selves some amends for all our sorrows ; and first, he
said, he was to let me know that we were just then
in one of the richest parts of the world, though it was
really otherwise but a desolate, disconsolate wilder
ness ; " for," says he, " there is not a river but runs
gold not a desert but without ploughing bears a crop
of ivory. What mines of gold, what immense stores
of gold, those mountains may contain, from whence
these rivers come, or the shores which these waters
run by, we know not, but may imagine that they must
be inconceivably rich, seeing so much is washed down
the stream by the water washing the sides of the land,
that the quantity suffices all the traders which the
European world send thither." We asked him how
far they went for it, seeing the ships only trade upon
the coast. He told us that the negroes on the coast
search the rivers up for the length of 150 or 200
miles, and would be out a month, or two, or three at
a time, and always come home sufficiently rewarded ;
" but," says he, " they never come thus far, and yet
hereabouts is as much gold as there." Upon this he
told us that he believed he might have gotten a hundred
pounds' weight of gold since he came thither, if he had
employed himself to look and work for it ; but as he
knew not what to do with it, and had long since de
spaired of being ever delivered from the misery he
was in, he had entirely omitted it. " For what ad
vantage had it been to me," said he, " or what richer
had I been, if I had a ton of gold dust, and lay and
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 145
wallowed in it ? The richness of it," said he, " would
not give me one moment's felicity, nor relieve me in
the present exigency. Nay," says he, " as you all see,
it would not buy me clothes to cover me, or a drop of
drink to save me from perishing. It is of no value
here," says he ; " there are several people among
these huts that would weigh gold against a few glass
beads or a cockle-shell, and give you a handful of
gold-dust for a handful of cowries." N.B. These
are little shells which our children call blackamoors'
teeth.
When he had said thus he pulled out a piece of an
earthen pot baked hard in the sun. " Here," says he,
" is some of the dirt of this country, and if I would I
could have got a great deal more ; " and, showing it to
us, I believe there was in it between two and three
pounds weight of gold-dust, of the same kind and
colour with that we had gotten already, as before.
After we had looked at it a while, he told us, smiling,
we were his deliverers, and all he had, as well as his
life, was ours; and therefore, as this would be of
value to us when we came to our own country, so he
desired we would accept of it among us ; and that was
the only time that he had repented that he had picked
up no more of it.
I spoke for him, as his interpreter, to my comrades,
and in their names thanked him ; but, speaking to them
in Portuguese, I desired them to defer the acceptance
of his kindness to the next morning; and so I did,
telling him we would further talk of this part in the
morning ; so we parted for that time.
When he was gone I found they were all wonder
fully affected with his discourse, and with the gene
rosity of his temper, as well as the magnificence of his
present, which in another place had been extraordinary.
Upon the whole, not to detain you with circumstances,
K
146 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
we agreed that, seeing he was now one of our number,
and that as we were a relief to him in carrying him out
of the dismal condition he was in, so he was equally
a relief to us, in being our guide through the rest of
the country, our interpreter with the natives, and our
director how to manage with the savages, and how to
enrich ourselves with the wealth of the country ; that,
therefore, we would put his gold among our common
stock, and every one should give him as much as would
make his up just as much as any single share of our
own, and for the future we would take our lot together,
taking his solemn engagement to us, as we had before
one to another, that we would not conceal the least
grain of gold we found one from another.
In the next conference we acquainted him with the
adventures of the Golden River, and how we had
shared what we got there, so that every man had a
larger stock than he for his share; that, therefore,
instead of taking any from him, we had resolved every
one to add a little to him. He appeared very glad
that we had met with such good success, but would
not take a grain from us, till at last, pressing him very
hard, he told us, that then he would take it thus :
that, when we came to get any more, he would have
so much out of the first as should make him even,
and then we would go on as equal adventurers ; and
thus we agreed.
He then told us he thought it would not be an
unprofitable adventure if, before we set forward, and
after we had got a stock of provisions, we should
make a journey north to the edge of the desert he
had told us of, from whence our negroes might bring
every one a large elephant's tooth, and that he would
get some more to assist; and that, after a certain
length of carriage, they might be conveyed by canoes
to the coast, where they would yield a very great profit.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 147
I objected against this on account of our other
design we had of getting gold-dust; and that our
negroes, who we knew would be faithful to us, would
get much more by searching the rivers for gold for
us than by lugging a great tooth of a hundred and
fifty pounds weight a hundred miles or more, which
would be an insufferable labour to them after so hard
a journey, and would certainly kill them.
He acquiesced in the justice of this answer, but
fain would have had us gone to see the woody part
of the hill and the edge of the desert, that we might
see how the elephants' teeth lay scattered up and down
there ; but when we told him the story of what we
had seen before, as is said above, he said no more.
We stayed here twelve days, during which time
the natives were very obliging to us, and brought us
fruits, pompions, and a root like carrots, though of
quite another taste, but not unpleasant neither, and
some guinea-fowls, whose names we did not know.
In short, they brought us plenty of what they had,
and we lived very well, and we gave them all such
little things as our cutler had made, for he had now
a whole bag full of them.
On the thirteenth day we set forward, taking our
new gentleman with us. At parting, the negro king
sent two savages with a present to him of some dried
flesh, but I do not remember what it was, and he gave
him again three silver birds which our cutler helped
him to, which I assure you was a present for a king.
We travelled now south, a little west, and here we
found the first river for above 2000 miles' march,
whose waters run south, all the rest running north or
west. We followed this river, which was no bigger
than a good large brook in England, till it began to
increase its water. Every now and then we found
our Englishman went down as it were privately to the
148 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
water, which was to try the land ; at length, after a
day's march upon this river, he came running up to
us with his hands full of sand, and saying, " Look
here." Upon looking we found that a good deal of
gold lay spangled among the sand of the river. " Now,"
says he, " I think we may begin to work ; " so he
divided our negroes into couples and set them to work,
to search and wash the sand and ooze in the bottom
of the water where it was not deep.
In the first day and a quarter our men all together
had gathered a pound and two ounces of gold or there
abouts, and as we found the quantity increased the farther
we went, we followed it about three days, till another
small rivulet joined the first, and then searching up
the stream, we found gold there too ; so we pitched
our camp in the angle where the rivers joined, and
we diverted ourselves, as I may call it, in washing
the gold out of the sand of the river, and in getting
provisions.
Here we stayed thirteen days more, in which time
we had many pleasant adventures with the savages, too
long to mention here, and some of them too homely
to tell of, for some of our men had made something
free with their women, which, had not our new guide
made peace for us with one of their men at the price
of seven fine bits of silver, which our artificer had cut
out into the shapes of lions, and fishes, and birds, and
had punched holes to hang them up by (an inestimable
treasure), we must have gone to war with them and
all their people.
All the while we were busy washing gold-dust out
of the rivers, and our negroes the like, our ingenious
cutler was hammering and cutting, and he was grown
so dexterous by use that he formed all manner of
images. He cut out elephants, tigers, civet cats,
ostriches, eagles, cranes, fowls, fishes, and indeed what-
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 149
ever he pleased, in thin plates of hammered gold, for
his silver and iron were almost all gone.
At one of the towns of these savage nations we were
very friendly received by their king, and as he was
very much taken with our workman's toys, he sold
him an elephant cut out of a gold plate as thin as a
sixpence at an extravagant rate. He was so much
taken with it that he would not be quiet till he had
given him almost a handful of gold-dust, as they call
it ; I suppose it might weigh three-quarters of a pound ;
the piece of gold that the elephant was made of might
be about the weight of a pistole, rather less than more.
Our artist was so honest, though the labour and art
were all his own, that he brought all the gold and
put it into our common stock ; but we had, indeed,
no manner of reason in the least to be covetous, for,
as our new guide told us, we that were strong enough
to defend ourselves, and had time enough to stay (for
we were none of us in haste), might in time get
together what quantity of gold we pleased, even to
an hundred pounds weight each man if we thought
fit ; and therefore he told us, though he had as much
reason to be sick of the country as any of us, yet if
we thought to turn our march a little to the south-east,
and pitch upon a place proper for our headquarters,
we might find provisions plenty enough, and extend
ourselves over the country among the rivers for two
or three years to the right and left, and we should
soon find the advantage of it.
The proposal, however good as to the profitable part
of it, suited none of us, for we were all more desirous
to get home than to be rich, being tired of the excessive
fatigue of above a year's continual wandering among
deserts and wild beasts.
However, the tongue of our new acquaintance had
a kind of charm in it, and used such arguments, and
150 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
had so much the power of persuasion, that there was no
resisting him. He told us it was preposterous not to
take the fruit of all our labours now we were come to
the harvest ; that we might see the hazard the Euro
peans run with ships and men, and at great expense, to
fetch a little gold, and that we, that were in the centre
of it, to go away empty-handed was unaccountable ;
that we were strong enough to fight our way through
whole nations, and might make our journey afterward
to what part of the coast we pleased, and we should never
forgive ourselves when we came to our own country to
see we had 500 pistoles in gold, and might as easily
have had 5000 or 10,000, or what we pleased; that
he was no more covetous than we, but seeing it was in
all our powers to retrieve our misfortunes at once, and
to make ourselves easy for all our lives, he could not
be faithful to us, or grateful for the good we had done
him, if he did not let us see the advantage we had in
our hands ; and he assured us he would make it clear
to our own understanding, that we might in two years'
time, by good management and by the help of our
negroes, gather every man a hundred pounds weight of
gold, and get together perhaps two hundred ton of teeth ;
whereas, if once we pushed on to the coast and separated,
we should never be able to see that place again with
our eyes, or do any more than sinners did with heaven,
wish themselves there, but know they can never
come at it.
Our surgeon was the first man that yielded to his
reasoning, and after him the gunner ; and they too,
indeed, had a great influence over us, but none of the
rest had any mind to stay, nor I neither, I must con
fess ; for I had no notion of a great deal of money, or
what to do with myself, or what to do with it if I
had it. I thought I had enough already, and all the
thoughts I had about disposing of it, if I came to
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 151
Europe, was only how to spend it as fast as I could,
buy me some clothes, and go to sea again to be a drudge
for more.
However, he prevailed with us by his good words
at last to stay but for six months in the country, and
then, if we did resolve to go, he would submit ; so
at length we yielded to that, and he carried us about
fifty English miles south-east, where we found several
rivulets of water, which seemed to come all from a great
ridge of mountains, which lay to the north-east, and
which, by our calculation, must be the beginning that
way of the great waste, which we had been forced
northward to avoid.
Here we found the country barren enough, but yet we
had by his direction plenty of food; for the savages round
us, upon giving them some of our toys, as I have so
often mentioned, brought us in whatever they had ; and
here we found some maize, or Indian wheat, which
the negro women planted, as we sow seeds in a garden,
and immediately our new provider ordered some of our
negroes to plant it, and it grew up presently, and by
watering it often, we had a crop in less than three
months' growth.
As soon as we were settled, and our camp fixed,
we fell to the old trade of fishing for gold in the rivers
mentioned above, and our English gentleman so well
knew how to direct our search, that we scarce ever
lost our labour.
One time, having set us to work, he asked if we
would give him leave, with four or five negroes, to go
out for six or seven days to seek his fortune, and see
what he could discover in the country, assuring us
whatever he got should be for the public stock. We
all gave him our consent, and lent him a gun ; and
two of our men desiring to go with him, they took
then six negroes with them, and two of our buffaloes
152 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
that came with us the whole journey ; they took about
eight days' provision of bread with them, but no flesh,
except about as much dried flesh as would serve them
two days.
They travelled up to the top of the mountains I
mentioned just now, where they saw (as our men after
wards vouched it to be) the same desert which we
were so justly terrified at when we were on the farther
side, and which, by our calculation, could not be less
than 300 miles broad and above 600 miles in length,
without knowing where it ended.
The journal of their travels is too long to enter upon
here. They stayed out two-and-fifty days, when they
brought us seventeen pound and something more (for
we had no exact weight) of gold-dust, some of it in much
larger pieces than any we had found before, besides
about fifteen ton of elephants' teeth, which he had,
partly by good usage and partly by bad, obliged the
savages of the country to fetch, and bring down to
him from the mountains, and which he made others
bring with him quite down to our camp. Indeed,
we wondered what was coming to us when we saw
him attended with above 200 negroes ; but he soon
undeceived us, when he made them all throw down
their burdens on a heap at the entrance of our camp.
Besides this, they brought two lions' skins, and five
leopards', skins, very large and very fine. He asked
our pardon for his long stay, and that he had made no
greater a booty, but told us he had one excursion more to
make, which he hoped should turn to a better account.
So, having rested himself and rewarded the savages
that brought the teeth for him with some bits of silver
and iron cut out diamond fashion, and with two shaped
like little dogs, he sent them away mightily pleased.
The second journey he went, some more of our men
desired to go with him, and they made a troop of ten
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 153
white men and ten savages, and the two buffaloes to
carry their provisions and ammunition. They took
the same course, only not exactly the same track, and
they stayed thirty-two days only, in which time they
killed no less than fifteen leopards, three lions, and
several other creatures, and brought us home four-and-
twenty pound some ounces of gold-dust, and only six
elephants' teeth, but they were very great ones.
Our friend the Englishman showed us that now our
time was well bestowed, for in five months which
we had stayed here, we had gathered so much gold-
dust that, when we came to share it, we had five pound
and a quarter to a man, besides what we had before,
and besides six or seven pound weight which we had
at several times given our artificer to make baubles with.
And now we talked of going forward to the coast to
put an end to our journey ; but our guide laughed at
us then. " Nay, you can't go now," says he, " for
the rainy season begins next month, and there will be
no stirring then." This we found, indeed, reasonable,
so we resolved to furnish ourselves with provisions, that
we might not be obliged to go abroad too much in the
rain, and we spread ourselves some one way and some
another, as far as we cared to venture, to get provisions ;
and our negroes killed us some deer, which we cured
as well as we could in the sun, for we had now no salt.
By this time the rainy months were set in, and we
could scarce, for above two months, look out of our
huts. But that was not all, for the rivers were so
swelled with the land-floods, that we scarce knew the
little brooks and rivulets from the great navigable
rivers. This had been a very good opportunity to
have conveyed by water, upon rafts, our elephants'
teeth, of which we had a very great pile ; for, as we
always gave the savages some reward for their labour,
the very women would bring us teeth upon every
154 LIFE ) ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
opportunity, and sometimes a great tooth carried be
tween two ; so that our quantity was increased to about
two-and-twenty ton of teeth.
As soon as the weather proved fair again, he told us
he would not press us to any further stay, since we did
not care whether we got any more gold or no ; that we
were indeed the first men he ever met with in his life
that said they had gold enough, and of whom it might
be truly said, that, when it lay under our feet, we
would not stoop to take it up. But, since he had
made us a promise, he would not break it, nor press us
to make any further stay ; only he thought he ought to
tell us that now was the time, after the land- flood,
when the greatest quantity of gold was found; and
that, if we stayed but one month, we should see
thousands of savages spread themselves over the whole
country to wash the gold out of the sand, for the Euro
pean ships which would come on the coast ; that they
do it then, because the rage of the floods always works
down a great deal of gold out of the hills ; and, if we
took the advantage to be there before them, we did not
know what extraordinary things we might find.
This was so forcible, and so well argued, that it
appeared in all our faces we were prevailed upon ; so we
told him we would all stay : for though it was true we
were all eager to be gone, yet the evident prospect of so
much advantage could not well be resisted; that he
was greatly mistaken, when he suggested that we did
not desire to increase our store of gold, and in that we
were resolved to make the utmost use of the advantage
that was in our hands, and would stay as long as any
gold was to be had, if it was another year.
He could hardly express the joy he was in on this
occasion ; and the fair weather coming on, we began,
just as he directed, to search about the rivers for more
gold. At first we had but little encouragement, and
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 155
began to be doubtful ; but it was very plain that the
reason was, the water was not fully fallen, or the rivers
reduced to their usual channel ; but in a few days we
were fully requited, and found much more gold than at
first, and in bigger lumps ; and one of our men washed
out of the sand a piece of gold as big as a small nut,
which weighed, by our estimation for we had no small
weights almost an ounce and a half.
This success made us extremely diligent ; and in little
more than a month we had altogether gotten near sixty
pound weight of gold ; but after this, as he told us,
we found abundance of the savages, men, women, and
children, hunting every river and brook, and even the
dry land of the hills for gold ; so that we could do
nothing like then, compared to what we had done
before.
But our artificer found a way to make other people
find us in gold without our own labour ; for, when
these people began to appear, he had a considerable
quantity of his toys, birds, beasts, &c., such as before,
ready for them ; and the English gentleman being
the interpreter, he brought the savages to admire them ;
so our cutler had trade enough, and, to be sure, sold
his goods at a monstrous rate ; for he would get an
ounce of gold, sometimes two, for a bit of silver, per
haps of the value of a groat ; nay, if it were iron and if
it was of gold, they would not give the more for it ;
and it was incredible almost to think what a quantity
of gold he got that way.
In a word, to bring this happy journey to a con
clusion, we increased our stock of gold here, in three
months' stay more, to such a degree that, bringing it all
to a common stock, in order to share it, we divided
almost four pound weight again to every man ; and
then we set forward for the Gold Coast, to see what
method we could find out for our passage into Europe.
156 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
There happened several remarkable incidents in this
part of our journey, as to how we were, or were not,
received friendly by the several nations of savages
through which we passed ; how we delivered one
negro king from captivity, who had been a benefactor
to our new guide ; and now our guide, in gratitude, by
our assistance, restored him to his kingdom, which,
perhaps, might contain about 300 subjects ; how he
entertained us ; and how he made his subjects go with
our Englishmen, and fetch all our elephants' teeth
which we had been obliged to leave behind us, and to
carry them for us to the river, the name of which I
forgot, where we made rafts, and in eleven days more
came down to one of the Dutch settlements on the Gold
Coast, where we arrived in perfect health, and to our
great satisfaction. As for our cargo of teeth, we sold
it to the Dutch factory, and received clothes and other
necessaries for ourselves, and such of our negroes as we
thought fit to keep with us ; and it is to be observed,
that we had four pound of gunpowder left when we
ended our journey. The negro prince we made per
fectly free, clothed him out of our common stock, and
gave him a pound and a half of gold for himself, which
he knew very well how to manage ; and here we all
parted after the most friendly manner possible. Our
Englishman remained in the Dutch factory some time,
and, as I heard afterwards, died there of grief; for he
having sent a thousand pounds sterling over to England,
by the way of Holland, for his refuge at his return to
his friends, the ship was taken by the French and the
effects all lost.
The rest of my comrades went away, in a small
bark, to the two Portuguese factories, near Gambia, in
the latitude of fourteen; and I, with two negroes which
I kept with me, went away to Cape Coast Castle,
where I got passage for England, and arrived there in
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 157
September ; and thus ended my first harvest of wild
oats ; the rest were not sowed to so much advantage.
I had neither friend, relation, nor acquaintance in
England, though it was my native country ; I had con
sequently no person to trust with what I had, or to
counsel me to secure or save it ; but, falling into ill
company, and trusting the keeper of a public-house in
Rotherhithe with a great part of my money, and hastily
squandering away the rest, all that great sum, which I
got with so much pains and hazard, was gone in little
more than two years' time ; and, as I even rage in my
own thoughts to reflect upon the manner how it was
wasted, so I need record no more ; the rest merits to
be concealed with blushes, for that it was spent in all
kinds of folly and wickedness. So this scene of my
life may be said to have begun in theft, and ended in
luxury ; a sad setting-out, and a worse coming home.
About the year I began to see the bottom of
my stock, and that it was time to think of further
adventures ; for my spoilers, as I call them, began to
let me know, that as my money declined, their respect
would ebb with it, and that I had nothing to expect
of them further than as I might command it by the
force of my money, which, in short, would not go
an inch the further for all that had been spent in their
favour before.
This shocked me very much, and I conceived a just
abhorrence of their ingratitude; but it wore off; nor
had I met with any regret at the wasting so glorious a
sum of money as I brought to England with me.
I next shipped myself, in an evil hour to be sure, on
a voyage to Cadiz, in a ship called the , and in
the course of our voyage, being on the coast of Spain,
was obliged to put into the Groyn, by a strong south
west wind.
Here I fell into company with some masters of
158 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
mischief; and, among them, one, forwarder than the
rest, began an intimate confidence with me, so that we
called one another brothers, and communicated all our
circumstances to one another. His name was Harris.
This fellow came to me one morning, asking me if
I would go on shore, and I agreed ; so we got the
captain's leave for the boat, and went together. When
we were together, he asked me if I had a mind for an
adventure that might make amends for all past mis
fortunes. I told him, yes, with all my heart ; for I
did not care where I went, having nothing to lose, and
no one to leave behind me.
He then asked me if I would swear to be secret, and
that, if I did not agree to what he proposed, I would
nevertheless never betray him. I readily bound my
self to that, upon the most solemn imprecations and
curses that the devil and both of us could invent.
He told me, then, there was a brave fellow in the
other ship, pointing to another English ship which
rode in the harbour, who, in concert with some of the
men, had resolved to mutiny the next morning, and
run away with the ship; and that, if we could get
strength enough among our ship's company, we might
do the same. I liked the proposal very well, and he
got eight of us to join with him, and he told us, that as
soon as his friend had begun the work, and was master
of the ship, we should be ready to do the like. This
was his plot ; and I, without the least hesitation, either
at the villainy of the fact or the difficulty of performing
it, came immediately into the wicked conspiracy, and
so it went on among us ; but we could not bring our
part to perfection.
Accordingly, on the day appointed, his correspondent
in the other ship, whose name was Wilmot, began the
work, and, having seized the captain's mate and other
officers, secured the ship, and gave the signal to us.
CAPTAIN SINGLETOX. 159
We were but eleven in our ship, who were in the con
spiracy, nor could we get any more that we could
trust ; so that, leaving the ship, we all took the boat,
and went off to join the other.
Having thus left the ship I was in, we were enter
tained with a great deal of joy by Captain Wilmot and
his new gang ; and, being well prepared for all manner
of roguery, bold, desperate (I mean myself), without
the least checks of conscience for what I was entered
upon, or for anything I might do, much less with any
apprehension of what might be the consequence of it ;
I say, having thus embarked with this crew, which at
last brought me to consort with the most famous pirates
of the age, some of whom have ended their journals at
the gallows, I think the giving an account of some of
my other adventures may be an agreeable piece of
story ; and this I may venture to say beforehand, upon
the word of a pirate, that I shall not be able to re
collect the full, no, not by far, of the great variety
which has formed one of the most reprobate schemes
that ever man was capable to present to the world.
I that was, as I have hinted before, an original thief,
and a pirate, even by inclination before, was now in
my element, and never undertook anything in my life
with more particular satisfaction.
Captain Wilmot (for so we are now to call him)
being thus possessed of a ship, and in the manner as
you have heard, it may be easily concluded he had
nothing to do to stay in the port, or to wait either the
attempts that might be made from the shore, or any
change that might happen among his men. On the
contrary, we weighed anchor the same tide, and stood
out to sea, steering away for the Canaries. Our ship
had twenty-two guns, but was able to carry thirty ;
and besides, as she was fitted out for a merchant-ship
only, she was not furnished either with ammunition or
l6o LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
small-arms sufficient for our design, or for the occasion
we might have in case of a fight. So we put into Cadiz,
that is to say, we came to an anchor in the bay ; and
the captain, and one whom we called young Captain
Kidd, who was the gunner, [landed,] and some of the
men who could best be trusted, among whom was my
comrade Harris, who was made second mate, and my
self, who was made a lieutenant. Some bales of English
goods were proposed to be carried on shore with us
for sale, but my comrade, who was a complete fellow
at his business, proposed a better way for it ; and
having been in the town before, told us, in short, that
he would buy what powder and bullet, small-arms, or
anything else we wanted, on his own word, to be
paid for when they came on board, in such English
goods as we had there. This was much the best
way, and accordingly he and the captain went on
shore by themselves, and having made such a bargain
as they found for their turn, came away again in
two hours' time, and bringing only a butt of wine and
five casks of brandy with them, we all went on board
again.
The next morning two barcos longos came off to
us, deeply laden, with five Spaniards on board them,
for traffic. Our captain sold them good pennyworths,
and they delivered us sixteen barrels of powder, twelve
small rundlets of fine powder for our small-arms, sixty
muskets, and twelve fusees for the officers ; seventeen
ton of cannon-ball, fifteen barrels of musket-bullets,
with some swords and twenty good pair of pistols.
Besides this, they brought thirteen butts of wine (for
we, that were now all become gentlemen, scorned
to drink the ship's beer), also sixteen puncheons of
brandy, with twelve barrels of raisins and twenty
chests of lemons ; all which we paid for in English
goods ; and, over and above, the captain received six
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. l6l
hundred pieces of eight in money. They would have
come again, but we would stay no longer.
From hence we sailed to the Canaries, and from
thence onward to the West Indies, where we com
mitted some depredation upon the Spaniards for pro
visions, and took some prizes, but none of any great
value, while I remained with them, which was not
long at that time ; for, having taken a Spanish sloop
on the coast of Carthagena, my friend made a motion
to me, that we should desire Captain Wilmot to put us
into the sloop, with a proportion of arms and ammu
nition, and let us try what we could do; she being
much fitter for our business than the great ship, and a
better sailer. This he consented to, and we appointed
our rendezvous at Tobago, making an agreement, that
whatever was taken by either of our ships should be
shared among the ship's company of both ; all which
we very punctually observed, and joined our ships
again, about fifteen months after, at the island of
Tobago, as above.
We cruised near two years in those seas, chiefly
upon the Spaniards ; not that we made any difficulty
of taking English ships, or Dutch, or French, if they
came in our way ; and particularly, Captain Wilmot
attacked a New England ship bound from the Madeiras
to Jamaica, and another bound from New York to
Barbados, with provisions ; which last was a very
happy supply to us. But the reason why we meddled
as little with English vessels as we could, was, first,
because, if they were ships of any force, we were sure
of more resistance from them ; and, secondly, because
we found the English ships had less booty when taken,
for the Spaniards generally had money on board, and
that was what we best knew what to do with. Cap
tain Wilmot was, indeed, more particularly cruel when
he took any English vessel, that they might not too
L
1 62 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
soon have advice of him in England ; and so the men-
of-war have orders to look out for him. But this
part I bury in silence for the present.
We increased our stock in these two years consider
ably, having taken 60,000 pieces of eight in one vessel,
and 100,000 in another; and being thus first grown
rich, we resolved to be strong too, for we had taken a
brigantine built at Virginia, an excellent sea-boat, and
a good sailer, and able to carry twelve guns ; and a
large Spanish frigate-built ship, that sailed incompar
ably well also, and which afterwards, by the help of
good carpenters, we fitted up to carry twenty-eight
guns. And now we wanted more hands, so we put
away for the Bay of Campeachy, not doubting we
should ship as many men there as we pleased; and
so we did.
Here we sold the sloop that I was in ; and Captain
Wilmot keeping his own ship, I took the command
of the Spanish frigate as captain, and my comrade
Harris as eldest lieutenant, and a bold enterprising
fellow he was, as any the world afforded. One cul-
verdine was put into the brigantine, so that we were
now three stout ships, well manned, and victualled for
twelve months ; for we had taken two or three sloops
from New England and New York, laden with flour,
peas, and barrelled beef and pork, going for Jamaica
and Barbados ; and for more beef we went on shore
on the island of Cuba, where we killed as many black
cattle as we pleased, though we had very little salt to
cure them.
Out of all the prizes we took here we took their
powder and bullet, their small-arms and cutlasses ; and
as for their men, we always took the surgeon and the
carpenter, as persons who were of particular use to us
upon many occasions ; nor were they always unwilling
to go with us, though for their own security, in case of
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 163
accidents, they might easily pretend they were carried
away by force ; of which I shall give a pleasant ac
count in the course of my other expeditions.
We had one very merry fellow here, a Quaker,
whose name was William Walters, whom we took out
of a sloop bound from Pennsylvania to Barbados.
He was a surgeon, and they called him doctor ; but
he was not employed in the sloop as a surgeon, but
was going to Barbados to get a berth, as the sailors
call it. However, he had all his surgeon's chests on
board, and we made him go with us, and take all his
implements with him. He was a comic fellow in
deed, a man of very good solid sense, and an excellent
surgeon ; but, what was worth all, very good-humoured
and pleasant in his conversation, and a bold, stout, brave
fellow too, as any we had among us.
I found William, as I thought, not very averse to
go along with us, and yet resolved to do it so that it
might be apparent he was taken away by force, and to
this purpose he comes to me. " Friend," says he,
" thou sayest I must go with thee, and it is not in my
power to resist thee if I would ; but I desire thou wilt
oblige the master of the sloop which I am on board to
certify under his hand, that I was taken away by force
and against my will." And this he said with so much
satisfaction in his face, that I could not but understand
him. " Ay, ay," says I, " whether it be against your
will or no, I'll make him and all the men give you a
certificate of it, or I'll take them all along with us, and
keep them till they do." So I drew up a certificate
myself, wherein I wrote that he was taken away by
main force, as a prisoner, by a pirate ship ; that they
carried away his chest and instruments first, and then
bound his hands behind him and forced him into their
boat ; and this was signed by the master and all his
164 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
Accordingly I fell a-swearing at him, and called to
my men to tie his hands behind him, and so we put him
into our boat and carried him away. When I had
him on board, I called him to me. " Now, friend,"
says I, " I have brought you away by force, it is true,
but I am not of the opinion I have brought you away
so much against your will as they imagine. Come,"
says I, " you will be a useful man to us, and you shall
have very good usage among us." So I unbound his
hands, and first ordered all things that belonged to him
to be restored to him, and our captain gave him a
dram.
" Thou hast dealt friendly by me," says he, " and I
will be plain with thee, whether I came willingly to
thee or not. I shall make myself as useful to thee as
I can, but thou knowest it is not my business to meddle
when thou art to fight." " No, no," says the captain,
" but you may meddle a little when we share the
money." "Those things are useful to furnish a
surgeon's chest," says William, and smiled, "but I
shall be moderate."
In short, William was a most agreeable companion ;
but he had the better of us in this part, that if we were
taken we were sure to be hanged, and he was sure to
escape ; and he knew it well enough. But, in short,
he was a sprightly fellow, and fitter to be captain than
any of us. I shall have often an occasion to speak of
him in the rest of the story.
Our cruising so long in these seas began now to be
so well known, that not in England only, but in France
and Spain, accounts had been made public of our
adventures, and many stories told how we murdered
the people in cold blood, tying them back to back, and
throwing them into the sea ; one half of which, how
ever, was not true, though more was done than is fit
to speak of here.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 165
The consequence of this, however, was, that several
English men-of-war were sent to the West Indies,
and were particularly instructed to cruise in the Bay
of Mexico, and the Gulf of Florida, and among the
Bahama islands, if possible, to attack us. We were
not so ignorant of things as not to expect this, after so
long a stay in that part of the world ; but the first
certain account we had of them was at Honduras,
when a vessel coming in from Jamaica told us that two
English men-of-war were coming directly from Jamaica
thither in quest of us. We were indeed as it were
embayed, and could not have made the least shift to
have got off, if they had come directly to us ; but, as
it happened, somebody had informed them that we
were in the Bay of Campeachy, and they went directly
thither, by which we were not only free of them, but
were so much to the windward of them, that they
could not make any attempt upon us, though they had
known we were there.
We took this advantage, and stood away for Cartha-
gena, and from thence with great difficulty beat it up
at a distance from under the shore for St. Martha, till
we came to the Dutch island of Curagoa, and from
thence to the island of Tobago, which, as before, was
our rendezvous ; which, being a deserted, uninhabited
island, we at the same time made use of for a retreat.
Here the captain of the brigantine died, and Captain
Harris, at that time my lieutenant, took the command
of the brigantine.
Here we came to a resolution to go away to the
coast of Brazil, and from thence to the Cape of Good
Hope, and so for the East Indies ; but Captain Harris,
as I have said, being now captain of the brigantine,
alleged that his ship was too small for so long a
voyage, but that, if Captain Wilmot would consent,
he would take the hazard of another cruise, and he
1 66 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
would follow us in the first ship he could take. So we
appointed our rendezvous to be at Madagascar, which
was done by my recommendation of the place, and the
plenty of provisions to be had there.
Accordingly, he went away from us in an evil hour ;
for, instead of taking a ship to follow us, he was taken,
as I heard afterwards, by an English man-of-war, and
being laid in irons, died of mere grief and anger before
he came to England. His lieutenant, I have heard,
was afterwards executed in England for a pirate ; and
this was the end of the man who first brought me into
this unhappy trade.
We parted from Tobago three days after, bending
our course for the coast of Brazil, but had not been
at sea above twenty-four hours, when we were separated
by a terrible storm, which held three days, with very
little abatement or intermission. In this juncture Cap
tain Wilmot happened, unluckily, to be on board my
ship, to his great mortification ; for we not only lost
sight of his ship, but never saw her more till we came
to Madagascar, where she was cast away. In short,
after having in this tempest lost our fore-topmast, we
were forced to put back to the isle of Tobago for
shelter, and to repair our damage, which brought us
all very near our destruction.
We were no sooner on shore here, and all very busy
looking out for a piece of timber for a topmast, but we
perceived standing in for the shore an English man-of-
war of thirty-six guns. It was a great surprise to us
indeed, because we were disabled so much ; but, to our
great good fortune, we lay pretty snug and close among
the high rocks, and the man-of-war did not see us, but
stood off again upon his cruise. So we only observed
which way she went, and at night, leaving our work,
resolved to stand off to sea, steering the contrary way
from that which we observed she went ; and this, we
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 1 67
found, had the desired success, for we saw him no
more. We had gotten an old mizzen-topmast on board,
which made us a jury fore-topmast for the present ;
and so we stood away for the isle of Trinidad, where,
though there were Spaniards on shore, yet we landed
some men with our boat, and cut a very good piece of
fir to make us a new topmast, which we got fitted up
effectually ; and also we got some cattle here to eke
out our provisions ; and calling a council of war among
ourselves, we resolved to quit those seas for the present,
and steer away for the coast of Brazil.
The first thing we attempted here was only getting
fresh water, but we learnt that there lay the Portu
guese fleet at the bay of All Saints, bound for Lisbon,
ready to sail, and only waited for a fair wind. This
made us lie by, wishing to see them put to sea, and,
accordingly as they were with or without convoy, to
attack or avoid them.
It sprung up a fresh gale in the evening at S.W. by
W., which, being fair for the Portugal fleet, and the
weather pleasant and agreeable, we heard the signal
given to unmoor, and running in under the island of
Si , we hauled our mainsail and foresail up in the
brails, lowered the topsails upon the cap, and clewed
them up, that we might lie as snug as we could, expect
ing their coming out, and the next morning saw the
whole fleet come out accordingly, but not at all to our
satisfaction, for they consisted of twenty- six sail, and
most of them ships of force, as well as burthen, both
merchantmen and men-of-war ; so, seeing there was no
meddling, we lay still where we were also, till the fleet
was out of sight, and then stood off and on, in hopes of
meeting with further purchase.
It was not long before we saw a sail, and immediately
gave her chase ; but she proved an excellent sailer, and,
standing out to sea, we saw plainly she trusted to her
1 68 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
heels that is to say, to her sails. However, as we were a
clean ship, we gained upon her, though slowly, and had
we had a day before us, we should certainly have come
up with her ; but it grew dark apace, and in that case
we knew we should lose sight of her.
Our merry Quaker, perceiving us to crowd still after
her in the dark, wherein we could not see which way
she went, came very dryly to me. " Friend Singleton,"
says he, ' dost thee know what we are a-doing ? " Says
I, " Yes ; why, we are chasing yon ship, are we not ? "
" And how dost thou know that ? " says he, very
gravely still. " Nay, that's true," says I again ; " we
cannot be sure." " Yes, friend," says he, " I think
we may be sure that we are running away from her, not
chasing her. I am afraid," adds he, " thou art turned
Quaker, and hast resolved not to use the hand of power,
or art a coward, and art flying from thy enemy."
" What do you mean ?" says I (I think I swore at
him). " What do you sneer at now ? You have always
one dry rub or another to give us."
" Nay," says he, " it is plain enough the ship stood
off to sea due east, on purpose to lose us, and thou mayest
be sure her business does not lie that way ; for what
should she do at the coast of Africa in this latitude,
which should be as far south as Congo or Angola ?
But as soon as it is dark, that we would lose sight of
her, she will tack and stand away west again for the
Brazil coast and for the bay, where thou knowest she
was going before ; and are we not, then, running away
from her ? I am greatly in hopes, friend," says the
dry, gibing creature, " thou wilt turn Quaker, for I see
thou art not for fighting."
" Very well, William," says I ; " then I shall make
an excellent pirate." However, William was in the
right, and I apprehended what he meant immediately ;
and Captain Wilmot, who lay very sick in his cabin,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 1 69
overhearing us, understood him as well as I, and called
out to me that William was right, and it was our best
way to change our course, and stand away for the bay,
where it was ten to one but we should snap her in the
morning.
Accordingly we went about-ship, got our larboard
tacks on board, set the top-gallant sails, and crowded
for the bay of All Saints, where we came to an anchor
early in the morning, just out of gunshot of the forts ;
we furled our sails with rope-yarns, that we might haul
home the sheets without going up to loose them, and,
lowering our main and fore-yards, looked just as if we
had lain there a good while.
In two hours afterwards we saw our game standing
in for the bay with all the sail she could make, and she
came innocently into our very mouths, for we lay still
till we saw her almost within gunshot, when, our fore
most gears being stretched fore and aft, we first ran up
our yards, and then hauled home the topsail sheets, the
rope-yarns that furled them giving way of themselves ;
the sails were set in a few minutes ; at the same time
slipping our cable, we came upon her before she could
get under way upon the other tack. They were so
surprised that they made little or no resistance, but
struck after the first broadside.
We were considering what to do with her, when
William came to me. " Hark thee, friend," says he,
*' thou hast made a fine piece of work of it now, hast
thou not, to borrow thy neighbour's ship here just at
thy neighbour's door, and never ask him leave ? Now,
dost thou not think there are some men-of-war in the
port ? Thou hast given them the alarm sufficiently ;
thou wilt have them upon thy back before night, de
pend upon it, to ask thee wherefore thou didst so."
Truly, William," said I, " for aught I know, that
may be true ; what, then, shall we do next ? " Says
iyo LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
he, " Thou hast but two things to do : either to go in
and take all the rest, or else get thee gone before they
come out and take thee ; for I see they are hoisting a
topmast to yon great ship, in order to put to sea imme
diately, and they won't be long before they come to talk
with thee, and what wilt thou say to them when they
ask thee why thou borrowedst their ship without
leave?"
As William said, so it was. We could see by our
glasses they were all in a hurry, manning and fitting
some sloops they had there, and a large man-of-war,
and it was plain they would soon be with us. But we
were not at a Joss what to do ; we found the ship we
had taken was laden with nothing considerable for our
purpose, except some cocoa, some sugar, and twenty
barrels of flour ; the rest of her cargo was hides ; so
we took out all we thought fit for our turn, and, among
the rest, all her ammunition, great shot, and small-arms,
and turned her off. We also took a cable and three
anchors she had, which were for our purpose, and some
of her sails. She had enough left just to carry her into
port, and that was all.
Having done this, we stood on upon the Brazil coast,
southward, till we came to the mouth of the river
Janeiro. But as we had two days the wind blowing
hard at S.E. and S.S.E., we were obliged to come to
an anchor under a little island, and wait for a wind. In
this time the Portuguese had, it seems, given notice over
land to the governor there, that a pirate was upon the
coast ; so that, when we came in view of the port, we
saw two men-of-war riding just without the bar, whereof
one, we found, was getting under sail with all possible
speed, having slipped her cable on purpose to speak with
us ; the other was not so forward, but was preparing to
follow. In less than an hour they stood both fair after
us, with all the sail they could make.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. iyi
Had not the night come on, William's words had
been made good ; they would certainly have asked us
the question what we did there, for we found the fore
most ship gained upon us, especially upon one tack, for
we plied away from them to windward ; but in the dark
losing sight of them, we resolved to change our course
and stand away directly for sea, not doubting that we
should lose them in the night.
Whether the Portuguese commander guessed we
would do so or no, I know not ; but in the morning,
when the daylight appeared, instead of having lost him,
we found him in chase of us about a league astern; only,
to our great good fortune, we could see but one of the
two. However, this one was a great ship, carried six-
and-forty guns, and an admirable sailer, as appeared by
her outsailing us ; for our ship was an excellent sailer
too, as I have said before.
When I found this, I easily saw there was no re
medy, but we must engage ; and as we knew we could
expect no quarter from those scoundrels the Portuguese,
a nation I had an original aversion to, I let Captain
Wilmot know how it was. The captain, sick as he
was, jumped up in the cabin, and would be led out
upon the deck (for he was very weak) to see how it
was. Well," says he, " we'll fight them ! "
Our men were all in good heart before, but to see the
captain so brisk, who had lain ill of a calenture ten or
eleven days, gave them double courage, and they went
all hands to work to make a clear ship and be ready.
William, the Quaker, comes to me with a kind of a
smile. " Friend," says he, " what does yon ship follow
us for ? " " Why," says I, " to fight us, you may be
sure." "Well," says he, "and will he come up with
us, dost thou think ? " " Yes," said I, " you see she
will." " Why, then, friend," says the dry wretch,
" why dost thou run from her still, when thou seest she
1 72 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
will overtake thee ? Will it be better for us to be
overtaken farther off than here ? " " Much as one for
that," says I ; " why, what would you have us do ? "
" Do ! " says he ; " let us not give the poor man more
trouble than needs must ; Jet us stay for him and hear
what he has to say to us." " He will talk to us in
powder and ball," said I. " Very well, then," says
he, " if that be his country language, we must talk to
him in the same, must we not ? or else how shall he
understand us ? " " Very well, William," says I, " we
understand you." And the captain, as ill as he was,
called to me, " William's right again," says he ; " as
good here as a league farther." So he gives a word o
command, " Haul up the main-sail ; we'll shorten sail
for him."
Accordingly we shortened sail, and as we expected
her upon our lee- side, we being then upon our starboard
tack, brought eighteen of our guns to the larboard side,
resolving to give him a broadside that should warm him.
It was about half-an-hour before he came up with us,
all which time we luffed up, that we might keep the
wind of him, by which he was obliged to run up under
our lee, as we designed him; when we got him upon
our quarter, we edged down, and received the fire of
five or six of his guns. By this time you may be sure
all our hands were at their quarters, so we clapped our
helm hard a- weather, let go the lee-braces of the main
top sail, and laid it a-back, and so our ship fell athwart
the Portuguese ship's hawse; then we immediately
poured in our broadside, raking them fore and aft, and
killed them a great many men.
The Portuguese, we could see, were in the utmost
confusion ; and not being aware of our design, their
ship having fresh way, ran their bowsprit into the fore
part of our main shrouds, as that they could not easily
get clear of us, and so we lay locked after that manner.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 173
The enemy could not bring above five or six guns,
besides their small-arms, to bear upon us, while we
played our whole broadside upon him.
In the middle of the heat of this fight, as I was very
busy upon the quarter-deck, the captain calls to me, for
he never stirred from us, " What the devil is friend
William a-doing yonder ? " says the captain ; " has he
any business upon deck?" I stepped forward, and
there was friend William, with two or three stout
fellows, lashing the ship's bowsprit fast to our main
mast, for fear they should get away from us ; and
every now and then he pulled a bottle out of his
pocket, and gave the men a dram to encourage them.
The shot flew about his ears as thick as may be sup
posed in such an action, where the Portuguese, to give
them their due, fought very briskly, believing at first
they were sure of their game, and trusting to their
superiority ; but there was William, as composed, and
in as perfect tranquillity as to danger, as if he had been
over a bowl of punch, only very' busy securing the
matter, that a ship of forty-six guns should not run
away from a ship of eight-and-twenty.
This work was too hot to hold long; our men
behaved bravely : our gunner, a gallant man, shouted
below, pouring in his shot at such a rate, that the
Portuguese began to slacken their fire; we had dis
mounted several of their guns by firing in at their
forecastle, and raking them, as I said, fore and aft.
Presently comes William up to me. " Friend," says
he, very calmly, " what dost thou mean ? Why dost
thou not visit thy neighbour in the ship, the door being
open for thee ? " I understood him immediately, for
our guns had so torn their hull, that we had beat two
port- holes into one, and the bulk-head of their steerage
was split to pieces, so that they could not retire to
their close quarters ; so I gave the word immediately to
174 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
board them. Our second lieutenant, with about thirty
men, entered in an instant over the forecastle, followed
by some more with the boatswain, and cutting in pieces
about twenty-five men that they found upon the deck,
and then throwing some grenadoes into the steerage,
they entered there also ; upon which the Portuguese
cried quarter presently, and we mastered the ship, con
trary indeed to our own expectation ; for we would
have compounded with them if they would have
sheered off: but laying them athwart the hawse at first,
and following our fire furiously, without giving them
any time to get clear of us and work their ship ; by
this means, though they had six-and-forty guns, they
were not able to fight above five or six, as I said above,
for we beat them immediately from their guns in the
forecastle, and killed them abundance of men between
decks, so that when we entered they had hardly found
men enough to fight us hand to hand upon their deck.
The surprise of joy to hear the Portuguese cry
quarter, and see their ancient struck, was so great to
our captain, who, as I have said, was reduced very
weak with a high fever, that it gave him new life.
Nature conquered the distemper, and the fever abated
that very night ; so that in two or three days he was
sensibly better, his strength began to come, and he was
able to give his orders effectually in everything that was
material, and in about ten days was entirely well and
about the ship.
In the meantime I took possession of the Portuguese
man-of-war ; and Captain Wilmot made me, or rather
I made myself, captain of her for the present. About
thirty of their seamen took service with us, some of
which were French, some Genoese ; and we set the
rest on shore the next day on a little island on the
coast of Brazil, except some wounded men, who were
not in a condition to be removed, and whom we were
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 175
bound to keep on board ; but we had an occasion
afterwards to dispose of them at the Cape, where, at
their own request, we set them on shore.
Captain Wilmot, as soon as the ship was taken,
and the prisoners stowed, was for standing in for the
river Janeiro again, not doubting but we should meet
with the other man-of-war, who, not having been able
to find us, and having lost the company of her comrade,
would certainly be returned, and might be surprised by
the ship we had taken, if we carried Portuguese colours ;
and our men were all for it.
But our friend William gave us better counsel, for
he came to me, << Friend," says he, " I understand
the captain is for sailing back to the Rio Janeiro, in
hopes to meet with the other ship that was in chase
of thee yesterday. Is it true, dost thou intend it ? "
"Why, yes," says I, "William, pray why not?"
"Nay," says he, "thou mayest do so if thou wilt."
"Well, I know that too, William," said I, "but the
captain is a man will be ruled by reason ; what have
you to say to it ? " " Why," says William gravely,
* I only ask what is thy business, and the business of
all the people thou hast with thee ? Is it not to get
money ? " " Yes, William, it is so, in our honest
way." " And wouldest thou," says he, " rather have
money without fighting, or fighting without money ?
I mean which wouldest thou have by choice, suppose
it to be left to thee ? " " O William," says I, " the
first of the two, to be sure." " Why, then," says he,
" what great gain hast thou made of the prize thou
hast taken now, though it has cost the lives of thirteen
of thy men, besides some hurt ? It is true thou hast
got the ship and some prisoners ; but thou wouldest
have had twice the booty in a merchant-ship, with not
one quarter of the fighting ; and how dost thou know
cither what force or what number of men may be in
176 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
the other ship, and what loss thou raayest suffer, and
what gain it shall be to thee if thou take her ? I
think, indeed, thou mayest much better let her alone."
" Why, William, it is true," said I, and I'll go tell
the captain what your opinion is, and bring you word
what he says." Accordingly in I went to the captain
and told him William's reasons ; and the captain was
of his mind, that our business was indeed fighting when
we could not help it, but that our main affair was
money, and that with as few blows as we could. So
that adventure was laid aside, and we stood along shore
again south for the river De la Plata, expecting some
purchase thereabouts ; especially we had our eyes upon
some of the Spanish ships from Buenos Ayres, which
are generally very rich in silver, and one such prize
would have done our business. We plied about here,
in the latitude of south, for near a month, and
nothing offered ; and here we began to consult what
we should do next, for we had come to no resolution
yet. Indeed, my design was always for the Cape de
Bona Speranza, and so to the East Indies. I had
heard some flaming stories of Captain Avery, and the
fine things he had done in the Indies, which were
doubled and doubled, even ten thousand fold ; and
from taking a great prize in the Bay of Bengal, where
he took a lady, said to be the Great Mogul's daughter,
with a great quantity of jewels about her, we had a
story told us, that he took a Mogul ship, so the foolish
sailors called it, laden with diamonds.
I would fain have had friend William's advice
whither we should go, but he always put it off with
some quaking quibble or other. In short, he did not
care for directing us neither ; whether he made a piece
of conscience of it, or whether he did not care to venture
having it come against him afterwards or no, this I
know not ; but we concluded at last without him.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 177
We were, however, pretty long in resolving, and
hankered about the Rio de la Plata a long time. At
last we spied a sail to windward, and it was such a sail
as I believe had not been seen in that part of the world
a great while. It wanted not that we should give it
chase, for it stood directly towards us, as well as they
that steered could make it ; and even that was more
accident of weather than anything else, for if the wind
had chopped about anywhere they must have gone with
it. I leave any man that is a sailor, or understands
anything of a ship, to judge what a figure this ship
made when we first saw her, and what we could
imagine was the matter with her. Her maintop-mast
was come by the board about six foot above the cap,
and fell forward, the -head of the topgallant- mast hang
ing in the fore-shrouds by the stay ; at the same time
the parrel of the mizzen-topsail-yard by some accident
giving way, the mizzen-topsail-braces (the standing part
of which being fast to the main- topsail shrouds) brought
the mizzen-topsail, yard and all, down with it, which
spread over part of the quarter-deck like an awning ; the
fore-topsail was hoisted up two-thirds of the mast, but
the sheets were flown ; the fore- yard was lowered down
upon the forecastle, the sail loose, and part of it hang
ing overboard. In this manner she came down upon
us with the wind quartering. In a word, the figure
the whole ship made was the most confounding to men
that understood the sea that ever was seen. She had
no boat, neither had she any colours out.
When we came near to her, we fired a gun to bring
her to. She took no notice of it, nor of us, but came
on just as she did before. We fired again, but it was
all one. At length we came within pistol-shot of one
another, but nobody answered nor appeared ; so we
began to think that it was a ship gone ashore some
where in distress, and the men having forsaken her, the
M
178 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
high tide had floated her off to sea. Coming nearer to
her, we ran up alongside of her so close that we could
hear a noise within her, and see the motion of several
people through her ports.
Upon this we manned out two boats full of men,
and very well armed, and ordered them to board her
at the same minute, as near as they could, and to enter
one at her fore-chains on the one side, and the other
amidships on the other side. As soon as they came
to the ship's side, a surprising multitude of black sailors,
such as they were, appeared upon deck, and, in short,
terrified our men so much that the boat which was to
enter her men in the waist stood off again, and durst
not board her ; and the men that entered out of the
other boat, finding the first boat, as they thought,
beaten off, and seeing the ship full of men, jumped all
back again into their boat, and put off, not knowing
what the matter was. Upon this we prepared to pour
in a broadside upon her ; but our friend William set
us to rights again here ; for it seems he guessed how it
was sooner than we did, and coming up to me (for it
was our ship that came up with her), " Friend," says
he, " I am of opinion that thou art wrong in this matter,
and thy men have been wrong also in their conduct.
I'll tell thee how thou shalt take this ship, without
making use of those things called guns." " How can
that be, William ? " said I. " Why," said he, " thou
mayest take her with thy helm ; thou seest they keep
no steerage, and thou seest the condition they are in ;
board her with thy ship upon her lee quarter, and so
enter her from the ship. I am persuaded thou wilt
take her without fighting, for there is some mischief
has befallen the ship, which we know nothing of."
In a word, it being a smooth sea, and little wind, I
took his advice, and laid her aboard. Immediately
our men entered the ship, where we found a large
er to
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 179
ship, with upwards of 600 negroes, men and women,
boys and girls, and not one Christian or white man on
board.
I was struck with horror at the sight ; for immedi
ately I concluded, as was partly the case, that these
black devils had got loose, had murdered all the white
men, and thrown them into the sea ; and I had no
sooner told my mind to the men, but the thought so
enraged them that I had much ado to keep my men
from cutting them all in pieces. But William, with
many persuasions, prevailed upon them, by telling them
that it was nothing but what, if they were in the
negroes' condition, they would do if they could ; and
that the negroes had really the highest injustice done
them, to be sold for slaves without their consent ; and
that the law of nature dictated it to them ; that they
ought not to kill them, and that it would be wilful
murder to do it.
This prevailed with them, and cooled their first
heat ; so they only knocked down twenty or thirty of
them, and the rest ran all down between decks to their
first places, believing, as we fancied, that we were their
first masters come again.
It was a most unaccountable difficulty we had next ;
for we could not make them understand one word we
said, nor could we understand one word ourselves that
they said. We endeavoured by signs to ask them
whence they came ; but they could make nothing of
it. We pointed to the great cabin, to the round-house,
to the cook-room, then to our faces, to ask if they had
no white men on board, and where they were gone ;
but they could not understand what we meant. On
the other hand, they pointed to our boat and to their
ship, asking questions as well as they could, and said a
thousand things, and expressed themselves with great
earnestness ; but we could not understand a word
1 80 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
of it all, or know what they meant by any of their
signs.
We knew very well they must have been taken on
board the ship as slaves, and that it must be by some
European people too. We could easily see that the
ship was a Dutch-built ship, but very much altered,
having been built upon, and, as we supposed, in France ;
for we found two or three French books on board, and
afterwards we found clothes, linen, lace, some old shoes,
and several other things. We found among the provi
sions some barrels of Irish beef, some Newfoundland
fish, and several other evidences that there had been
Christians on board, but saw no remains of them. We
found not a sword, gun, pistol, or weapon of any kind,
except some cutlasses ; and the negroes had hid them
below where they lay. We asked them what was be
come of all the small-arms, pointing to our own and
to the places where those belonging to the ship had
hung. One of the negroes understood me presently,
and beckoned to me to come upon the deck, where,
taking my fuzee, which I never let go out of my hand
for some time after we had mastered the ship I say,
offering to take hold of it, he made the proper motion
of throwing it into the sea ; by which I understood, as
I did afterwards, that they had thrown all the small-
arms, powder, shot, swords, &c., into the sea, believing,
as I supposed, those things would kill them, though the
men were gone.
After we understood this we made no question but
that the ship's crew, having been surprised by these
desperate rogues, had gone the same way, and had been
thrown overboard also. We looked all over the ship
to see if we could find any blood, and we thought we
did perceive some in several places ; but the heat of the
sun, melting the pitch and tar upon the decks, made
it impossible for us to discern it exactly, except in the
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. l8l
round-house, where we plainly saw that there had
been much blood. We found the scuttle open, by
which we supposed that the captain and those that
were with him had made their retreat into the great
cabin, or those in the cabin had made their escape up
into the round-house.
But that which confirmed us most of all in what
had happened was that, upon further inquiry, we found
that there were seven or eight of the negroes very much
wounded, two or three of them with shot, whereof one
had his leg broken and lay in a- miserable condition,
the flesh being mortified, and, as our friend William
said, in two days more he would have died. William
was a most dexterous surgeon, and he showed it in this
cure ; for though all the surgeons we had on board
both our ships (and we had no less than five that
called themselves bred surgeons, besides two or three
who were pretenders or assistants) though all these
gave their opinions that the negro's leg must be cut off,
and that his life could not be saved without it ; that the
mortification had touched the marrow in the bone, that
the tendons were mortified, and that he could never
have the use of his leg if it should be cured, William
said nothing in general, but that his opinion was other
wise, and that he desired the wound might be searched,
and that he would then tell them further. Accord
ingly he went to work with the leg ; and, as he desired
that he might have some of the surgeons to assist him,
we appointed him two of the ablest of them to help,
and all of them to look on, if they thought fit.
William went to work his own way, and some of
them pretended to find fault at first. However, he
proceeded and searched every part of the leg where he
suspected the mortification had touched it ; in a word,
he cut off a great deal of mortified flesh, in all which
the poor fellow felt no pain. William proceeded
1 82 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
till he brought the vessels which he had cut to bleed,
and the man to cry out ; then he reduced the splinters
of the bone, and, calling for help, set it, as we call it,
and bound it up, and laid the man to rest, who found
himself much easier than before.
At the first opening the surgeons began to triumph ;
the mortification seemed to spread, and a long red
streak of blood appeared from the wound upwards to
the middle of the man's thigh, and the surgeons told
me the man would die in a few hours. I went to look
at it, and found .William himself under some surprise ;
but when I asked him how long he thought the poor
fellow could live, he looked gravely at me, and said,
" As long as thou canst ; I am not at all appre
hensive of his life," said he, " but I would cure him,
if I could, without making a cripple of him." I found
he was not just then upon the operation as to his leg,
but was mixing up something to give the poor creature,
to repel, as I thought, the spreading contagion, and to
abate or prevent any feverish temper that might happen
in the blood ; after which he went to work again, and
opened the leg in two places above the wound, cutting
out a great deal of mortified flesh, which it seemed was
occasioned by the bandage, which had pressed the parts
too much ; and withal, the blood being at the time in
a more than common disposition to mortify, might assist
to spread it.
Well, our friend William conquered all this, cleared
the spreading mortification, and the red streak went off
again, the flesh began to heal, and matter to run ; and
in a few days the man's spirits began to recover, his
pulse beat regular, he had no fever, and gathered
strength daily ; and, in a word, he was a perfect sound
man in about ten weeks, and we kept him amongst us,
and made him an able seaman. But to return to the
ship : we never could come at a certain information
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 183
about it, till some of the negroes which we kept on
board, and whom we taught to speak English, gave
the account of it afterwards, and this maimed man in
particular.
We inquired, by all the signs and motions we could
imagine, what was become of the people, and yet we
could get nothing from them. Our lieutenant was for
torturing some of them to make them confess, but
William opposed that vehemently ; and when he heard
it was under consideration he came to me. " Friend,"
says he, " I make a request to thee not to put any of
these poor wretches to torment." " Why, William,"
said I, " why not ? You see they will not give any
account of what is become of the white men."
"Nay," says William, "do not say so; I suppose
they have given thee a full account of every particular
of it." " How so ? " says I ; " pray what are we the
wiser for all their jabbering ? " "Nay," says William,
"that may be thy fault, for aught I know; thou
wilt not punish the poor men because they cannot
speak English ; and perhaps they never heard a word
of English before. Now, I may very well suppose
that they have given thee a large account of everything ;
for thou seest with what earnestness, and how long,
some of them have talked to thee ; and if thou canst
not understand their language, nor they thine, how
can they help that ? At the best, thou dost but sup
pose that they have not told thee the whole truth of
the story ; and, on the contrary, I suppose they have ;
and how wilt thou decide the question, whether thou
art right or whether I am right ? Besides, what can they
say to thee when thou askest them a question upon the
torture, and at the same time they do not understand
the question, and thou dost not know whether they say
ay or no ? "
It is no compliment to my moderation to say I was
184 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
convinced by these reasons ; and yet we had all much
ado to keep our second lieutenant from murdering some
of them, to make them tell. What if they had told ?
He did not understand one word of it ; but he would
not be persuaded but that the negroes must needs
understand him when he asked them whether the
ship had any boat or no, like ours, and what was be
come of it.
But there was no remedy but to wait till we made
these people understand English, and to adjourn the
story till that time. The case was thus : where they
were taken on board the ship, that we could never
understand, because they never knew the English
names which we give to those coasts, or what nation
they were who belonged to the ship, because they
knew not one tongue from another ; but thus far the
negro I examined, who was the same whose leg
William had cured, told us, that they did not speak
the same language as we spoke, nor the same our
Portuguese spoke ; so that in all probability they must
be French or Dutch.
Then he told us that the white men used them
barbarously ; that they beat them unmercifully ; that
one of the negro men had a wife and two negro chil
dren, one a daughter, about sixteen years old ; that a
white man abused the negro man's wife, and afterwards
his daughter, which, as he said, made all the negro
men mad ; and that the woman's husband was in a
great rage ; at which the white man was so provoked
that he threatened to kill him ; but, in the night, the
negro man, being loose, got a great club, by which he
made us understand he meant a handspike, and that
when the same Frenchman (if it was a Frenchman)
came among them again, he began again to abuse the
negro man's wife, at which the negro, taking up the
handspike, knocked his brains out at one blow ; and
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 185
then taking the key from him with which he usually
unlocked the handcuffs which the negroes were fettered
with, he set about a hundred of them at liberty, who,
getting up upon the deck by the same scuttle that the
white men came down, and taking the man's cutlass
who was killed, and laying hold of what came next
them, they fell upon the men that were upon the deck,
and killed them all, and afterwards those they found
upon the forecastle ; that the captain and his other
men, who were in the cabin and the round-house,
defended themselves with great courage, and shot out
at the loopholes at them, by which he and several
other men were wounded, and some killed ; but that
they broke into the round-house after a long dispute,
where they killed two of the white men, but owned
that the two white men killed eleven of their men
before they could break in ; and then the rest, having
got down the scuttle into the great cabin, wounded
three more of them.
That, after this, the gunner of the ship having
secured himself in the gun-room, one of his men
hauled up the long-boat close under the stern, and
putting into her all the arms and ammunition they
could come at, got all into the boat, and afterwards
took in the captain, and those that were with him,
out of the great cabin. When they were all thus
embarked, they resolved to lay the ship aboard again,
and try to recover it. That they boarded the ship in
a desperate manner, and killed at first all that stood
in their way ; but the negroes being by this time all
loose, and having gotten some arms, though they under
stood nothing of powder and bullet, or guns, yet the
men could never master them. However, they lay
under the ship's bow, and got out all the men they
had left in the cook-room, who had maintained them
selves there, notwithstanding all the negroes could do,
1 86 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
and with their small-arms killed between thirty and
forty of the negroes, but were at last forced to leave
them.
They could give me no account whereabouts this was,
whether near the coast of Africa, or far off, or how
long it was before the ship fell into our hands ; only,
in general, it was a great while ago, as they called it ;
and, by all we could learn, it was within two or three
days after they had set sail from the coast. They told
us that they had killed about thirty of the white men,
having knocked them on the head with crows and hand
spikes, and such things as they could get ; and one
strong negro killed three of them with an iron crow,
after he was shot twice through the body ; and that he
was afterwards shot through the head by the captain
himself at the door of the round-house, which he had
split open with the crow ; and this we supposed was
the occasion of the great quantity of blood which we
saw at the round-house door.
The same negro told us that they threw all the
powder and shot they could find into the sea, and they
would have thrown the great guns into the sea if they
could have lifted them. Being asked how they came
to have their sails in such a condition, his answer was,
" They no understand ; they no know what the sails
do ; " that was, they did not so much as know that it was
the sails that made the ship go, or understand what they
meant, or what to do with them. When we asked him
whither they were going, he said they did not know,
but believed they should go home to their own country
again. I asked him, in particular, what he thought we
were when we first came up with them ? He said they
were terribly frighted, believing we were the same white
men that had gone away in their boats, and were come
again in a great ship, with the two boats with them, and
expected they would kill them all.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 187
This was the account we got out of them, after we had
taught them to speak English, and to understand the
names and use of the things belonging to the ship which
they had occasion to speak of; and we observed that
the fellows were too innocent to dissemble in their rela
tion, and that they all agreed in the particulars, and were
always in the same story, which confirmed very much
the truth of what they said. ,
Having taken this ship, our next difficulty was, what
to do with the negroes. The Portuguese in the Brazils
would have bought them all of us, and been glad of the
purchase, if we had not showed ourselves enemies there,
and been known for pirates ; but, as it was, we durst
not go ashore anywhere thereabouts, or treat with any
of the planters, because we should raise the whole
country upon us ; and, if there were any such things as
men-of-war in any of their ports, we should be as sure
to be attacked by them, and by all the force they had
by land or sea.
Nor could we think of any better success if we went
northward to our own plantations. One while we
determined to carry them all away to Buenos Ayres,
and sell them there to the Spaniards ; but they were
really too many for them to make use of; and to carry
them round to the South Seas, which was the only
remedy that was left, was so far that we should be no
way able to subsist them for so long a voyage.
At last, our old, never-failing friend, William,
helped us out again, as he had often done at a dead
lift. His proposal was this, that he should go as
master of the ship, and about twenty men, such as we
could best trust, and attempt to trade privately, upon
the coast of Brazil, with the planters, not at the prin
cipal ports, because that would not be admitted.
We all agreed to this, and appointed to go away
ourselves towards the Rio de la Plata, where we had
1 88 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
thought of going before, and to wait for him, not there,
but at Port St Pedro, as the Spaniards call it, lying at
the mouth of the river which they call Rio Grande,
and where the Spaniards had a small fort and a few
people, but we believe there was nobody in it.
Here we took up our station, cruising off and on, to
see if we could meet any ships going to or coming from
the Buenos Ayres or the Rio de la Plata ; but we met
with nothing worth notice. However, we employed
ourselves in things necessary for our going off to sea ;
for we filled all our water-casks, and got some fish for
our present use, to spare as much as possible our ship's
stores.
William, in the meantime, went away to the north,
and made the land about the Cape de St Thomas ;
and betwixt that and the isles De Tuberon he found
means to trade with the planters for all his negroes, as
well the women as the men, and at a very good price
too ; for William, who spoke Portuguese pretty well,
told them a fair story enough, that the ship was in
scarcity of provisions, that they were driven a great
way out of their way, and indeed, as we say, out of
their knowledge, and that they must go up to the
northward as far as Jamaica, or sell there upon the
coast. This was a very plausible tale, and was easily
believed ; and, if youbbserve the manner of the negroes'
sailing, and what happened in their voyage, was every
word of it true.
By this method, and being true to one another,
William passed for what he was I mean, for a very
honest fellow ; and by the assistance of one planter, who
sent to some of his neighbour planters, and managed the
trade among themselves, he got a quick market ; for
in less than five weeks William sold all his negroeSj
and at last sold the ship itself, and shipped himself and
his twenty men, with two negro boys whom he had
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 189
left, in a sloop, one of those which the planters used
to send on board for the negroes. With this sloop
Captain William, as we then called him, came away,
and found us at Port St Pedro, in the latitude of
32 degrees 30 minutes south.
Nothing was more surprising to us than to see a
sloop come along the coast, carrying Portuguese
colours, and come in directly to us, after we were
assured he had discovered both our ships. We fired
a gun, upon her nearer approach, to bring her to an
anchor, but immediately she fired five guns by way ot
salute, and spread her English ancient. Then we
began to guess it was friend William, but wondered
what was the meaning of his being in a sloop, whereas
we sent him away in a ship of near 300 tons ; but he
soon let us into the whole history of his management,
with which we had a great deal of reason to be very
well satisfied. As soon as he had brought the sloop
to an anchor, he came aboard of my ship, and there he
gave us an account how he began to trade by the help
of a Portuguese planter, who Jived near the seaside ;
how he went on shore and went up to the first house
he could see, and asked the man of the house to sell
him some hogs, pretending at first he only stood in
upon the coast to take in fresh water and buy some
provisions ; and the man not only sold him seven fat
hogs, but invited him in, and gave him, and five men
he had with him, a very good dinner ; and he invited
the planter on board his ship, and, in return for his
kindness, gave him a negro girl for his wife.
This so obliged the planter that the next morning
he sent him on board, in a great luggage-boat, a cow
and two sheep, with a chest of sweetmeats and some
sugar, and a great bag of tobacco, and invited Captain
William on shore again ; that, after this, they grew
from one kindness to another ; that they began to talk
190 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
about trading for some negroes ; and William, pre
tending it was to do him service, consented to sell him
thirty negroes for his private use in his plantation, for
which he gave William ready money in gold, at the
rate of five-and-thirty moidores per head ; but the
planter was obliged to use great caution in the bring
ing them on shore ; for which purpose he made
William weigh and stand out to sea, and put in again,
about fifty miles farther north, where at a little creek
he took the negroes on shore at another plantation,
being a friend's of his, whom, it seems, he could trust.
This remove brought William into a further inti
macy, not only with the first planter, but also with his
friends, who desired to have some of the negroes also ;
so that, from one to another, they bought so many, till
one overgrown planter took 100 negroes, which was
all William had left, and sharing them with another
planter, that other planter chaffered with William for
ship and all, giving him in exchange a very clean,
large, well-built sloop of near sixty tons, very well
furnished, carrying six guns ; but we made her after
wards carry twelve guns. William had 300 moidores
of gold, besides the sloop, in payment for the ship ;
and with this money he stored the sloop as full as she
could hold with provisions, especially bread, some pork,
and about sixty hogs alive ; among the rest, William
got eighty barrels of good gunpowder, which was very
much for our purpose ; and all the provisions which
were in the French ship he took out also.
This was a very agreeable account to us, especially
when we saw that William had received in gold coined,
or by weight, and some Spanish silver, 60,000 pieces
of eight, besides a new sloop, and a vast quantity of
provisions.
We were very glad of the sloop in particular, and
began to consult what we should do, whether we had
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. igi
not best turn off our great Portuguese ship, and stick to
our first ship and the sloop, seeing we had scarce men
enough for all three, and that the biggest ship was
thought too big for our business. However, another
dispute, which was now decided, brought the first to a
conclusion. The first dispute was, whither we should
go. My comrade, as I called him now, that is to say,
he that was my captain before we took this Portuguese
man-of-war, was for going to the South Seas, and
coasting up the west side of America, where we could
not fail of making several good prizes upon the Spaniards ;
and that then, if occasion required it, we might come
home by the South Seas to the East Indies, and so go
round the globe, as others had done before us.
But my head lay another way. I had been in the
East Indies, and had entertained a notion ever since
that, if we went thither, we could not fail of making
good work of it, and that we might have a safe retreat,
and good beef to victual our ship, among my old friends
the natives of Zanzibar, on the coast of Mozambique,
or the island of St Lawrence. I say, my thoughts
lay this way ; and I read so many lectures to them all
of the advantages they would certainly make of their
strength by the prizes they would take in the Gulf of
Mocha, or the Red Sea, and on the coast of Malabar,
or the Bay of Bengal, that I amazed them.
With these arguments I prevailed on them, and we
all resolved to steer away S.E. for the Cape of Good
Hope ; and, in consequence of this resolution, we con
cluded to keep the sloop, and sail with all three, not
doubting, as I assured them, but we should find men
there to make up the number wanting, and if not, we
might cast any of them off when we pleased.
We could do no less than make our friend William
captain of the sloop which, with such good manage
ment, he had brought us. He told us, though with
192 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
much good manners, he would not command her as a
frigate ; but, if we would give her to him for his share
of the Guinea ship, which we came very honestly by,
he would keep us company as a victualler, if we com
manded him, as long as he was under the same force
that took him away.
We understood him, so gave him the sloop, but upon
condition that he should not go from us, and should be
entirely under our command. However, William was
not so easy as before ; and, indeed, as we afterwards
wanted the sloop to cruise for purchase, and a right
thorough-paced pirate in her, so I was in such pain for
William that I could not be without him, for he was
my privy counsellor and companion upon all occasions ;
so I put a Scotsman, a bold, enterprising, gallant fellow,
into her, named Gordon, and made her carry twelve
guns and four petereroes, though, indeed, we wanted
men, for we were none of us manned in proportion to
our force.
We sailed away for the Cape of Good Hope the
beginning of October 1 706, and passed by, in sight of
the Cape, the I2th of November following, having met
with a great deal of bad weather. We saw several
merchant-ships in the roads there, as well English as
Dutch, whether outward bound or homeward we could
not tell ; be it what it would, we did not think fit to
come to an anchor, not knowing what they might be,
or what they might attempt against us, when they knew
what we were. However, as we wanted fresh water,
we sent the two boats belonging to the Portuguese man-
of-war, with all Portuguese seamen or negroes in them,
to the watering-place, to take in water ; and in the
meantime we hung out a Portuguese ancient at sea, and
lay by all that night. They knew not what we were,
but it seems we passed for anything but really what
we was.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 1 93
Our boats returning the third time loaden, about five
o'clock next morning, we thought ourselves sufficiently
watered, and stood away to the eastward ; but, before
our men returned the last time, the wind blowing an
easy gale at west, we perceived a boat in the grey of
the morning under sail, crowding to come up with us,
as if they were afraid we should be gone. We soon
found it was an English long-boat, and that it was
pretty full of men. We could not imagine what the
meaning of it should be ; but, as it was but a boat, we
thought there could be no great harm in it to let them
come on board ; and if it appeared they came only to
inquire who we were, we would give them a full account
of our business, by taking them along with us, seeing
we wanted men as much as anything. But they saved
us the labour of being in doubt how to dispose of them ;
for it seems our Portuguese seamen, who went for water,
had not been so silent at the watering-places as we
thought they would have been. But the case, in short,
was this : Captain (I forbear his name at present,
for a particular reason), captain of an East India mer
chant-ship, bound afterwards for China, had found
some reason to be very severe with his men, and had
handled some of them very roughly at St Helena ; in
somuch, that they threatened among themselves to leave
the ship the first opportunity, and had long wished
for that opportunity. Some of these men, it seems,
had met with our boat at the watering-place, and
inquiring of one another who we were, and upon what
account, whether the Portuguese seamen, by faltering
in their account, made them suspect that we were out
upon the cruise, or whether they told it in plain English
or no (for they all spoke English enough to be under
stood), but so it was, that as soon as ever the men
carried the news on board, that the ships which lay by
to the eastward were English, and that they were going
N
194 LI FE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
upon the account, which, by they way, was a sea term for
a pirate ; I say, as soon as ever they heard it, they went
to work, and getting all things ready in the night, their
chests and clothes, and whatever else they could, they
came away before it was day, and came up with us
about seven o'clock.
When they came by the ship's side which I com
manded we hailed them in the usual manner, to know
what and who they were, and what their business.
They answered they were Englishmen, and desired to
come on board. We told them they might lay the
ship on board, but ordered they should let only one
man enter the ship till the captain knew their business,
and that he should come without any arms. They said,
Ay, with all their hearts.
We presently found their business, and that they
desired to go with us; and as for their arms, they
desired we would send men on board the boat, and
that they would deliver them all to us, which was
done. The fellow that came up to me told me how
they had been used by their captain, how he had
starved the men, and used them like dogs, and that,
if the rest of the men knew they should be admitted,
he was satisfied two-thirds of them would leave the
ship. We found the fellows were very hearty in their
resolution, and jolly brisk sailors they were ; so I told
them I would do nothing without our admiral, that
was the captain of the other ship ; so I sent my pinnace
on board Captain Wilmot, to desire him to come on
board. But he was indisposed, and being to leeward,
excused his coming, but left it all to me ; but before
my boat was returned, Captain Wilmot called to me
by his speaking-trumpet, which all the men might hear
as well as I ; thus, calling me by my name, " I hear
they are honest fellows ; pray tell them they are all
welcome, and make them a bowl of punch."
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 195
As the men heard it as well as I, there was no need
to tell them what the captain said ; and, as soon as
the trumpet had done, they set up a huzza, that showed
us they were very hearty in their coming to us ; but
we bound them to us by a stronger obligation still
after this, for when we came to Madagascar, Captain
Wilmot, with consent of all the ship's company, ordered
that these men should have as much money given them
out of the stock as was due to them for their pay in
the ship they had left ; and after that we allowed them
twenty pieces of eight a man bounty money ; and thus
we entered them upon shares, as we were all, and
brave stout fellows they were, being eighteen in number,
whereof two were midshipmen, and one a carpenter.
It was the 28th of November, when, having had
some bad weather, we came to an anchor in the road
off St Augustine Bay, at the south-west end of my
old acquaintance the isle of Madagascar. We lay
here awhile and trafficked with the natives for some
good beef; though the weather was so hot that we
could not promise ourselves to salt any of it up to
keep ; but I showed them the way which we practised
before, to salt it first with saltpetre, then cure it by
drying it in the sun, which made it eat very agreeably,
though not so wholesome for our men, that not agreeing
with our way of cooking, viz., boiling with pudding,
brewis, &c., and particularly this way, would be too
salt, and the fat of the meat be rusty, or dried away
so as not to be eaten.
This, however, we could not help, and made our
selves amends by feeding heartily on the fresh beef
while we were there, which was excellent, good and
fat, every way as tender and as well relished as in
England, and thought to be much better to us who
had not tasted any in England for so long a time.
Having now for some time remained here, we began
196 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
to consider that this was not a place for our business ;
and I, that had some views a particular way of my
own, told them that this was not a station for those
who looked for purchase ; that there were two parts
of the island which were particularly proper for our
purposes ; first, the bay on the east side of the island,
and from thence to the island Mauritius, which was
the usual way which ships that came from the Malabar
coast, or the coast of Coromandel, Fort St George,
&c., used to take, and where, if we waited for them,
we ought to take our station.
But, on the other hand, as we did not resolve to
fall upon the European traders, who were generally
ships of force and well manned, and where blows must
be looked for; so I had another prospect, which I
promised myself would yield equal profit, or perhaps
greater, without any of the hazard and difficulty of
the former ; and this was the Gulf of Mocha, or the
Red Sea.
I told them that the trade here was great, the ships
rich, and the Strait of Babelmandel narrow ; so that
there was no doubt but we might cruise so as to let
rothing slip our hands, having the seas open from the
Red Sea, along the coast of Arabia, to the Persian
Gulf, and the Malabar side of the Indies.
I told them what I had observed when I sailed
round the island in my former progress ; how that, on
the northernmost point of the island, there were several
very good harbours and roads for our ships ; that the
natives were even more civil and tractable, if possible,
than those where we were, not having been so often ill-
treated by European sailors as those had in the south
and east sides ; and that we might always be sure of
a retreat, if we were driven to put in by any necessity,
either of enemies or weather.
They were easily convinced of the reasonableness
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 197
of my scheme ; and Captain Wilmot, whom I now
called our admiral, though he was at first of the mind
to go and lie at the island Mauritius, and wait for
some of the European merchant-ships from the road
of Coromandel, or the Bay of Bengal, was now of my
mind. It is true we were strong enough to have
attacked an English East India ship of the greatest
force, though some of them were said to carry fifty
guns ; but I represented to him that we were sure to
have blows and blood if we took them ; and, after we
had done, their loading was not of equal value to us, be
cause we had no room to dispose of their merchandise ;
and, as our circumstances stood, we had rather have
taken one outward-bound East India ship, with her
ready cash on board, perhaps to the value of forty or fifty
thousand pounds, than three homeward-bound, though
their loading would at London be worth three times
the money, because we knew not whither to go to
dispose of the cargo ; whereas the ships from London
had abundance of things we knew how to make use of
besides their money, such as their stores of provisions
and liquors, and great quantities of the like sent to the
governors and factories at the English settlements for
their use ; so that, if we resolved to look for our own
country ships, it should be those that were outward-
bound, not the London ships homeward.
All these things considered, brought the admiral to
be of my mind entirely ; so, after taking in water and
some fresh provisions where we lay, which was near
Cape St Mary, on the south-west corner of the island,
we weighed and stood away south, and afterwards
S.S.E., to round the island, and in about six days' sail
got out of the wake of the island, and steered away
north, till we came off Port Dauphin, and then north
by east, to the latitude of 1 3 degrees 40 minutes, which
was, in short, just at the farthest part of the island j and
198 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
the admiral, keeping ahead, made the open sea fair to
the west, clear of the whole island ; upon which he
brought to, and we sent a sloop to stand in round the
farthest point north, and coast along the shore, and see
for a harbour to put into, which they did, and soon
brought us an account that there was a deep bay, with a
very good road, and several little islands, under which
they found good riding, in ten to seventeen fathom
water, and accordingly there we put in.
However, we afterwards found occasion to remove
our station, as you shall hear presently. We had now
nothing to do but go on shore, and acquaint our
selves a little with the natives, take in fresh water and
some fresh provisions, and then to sea again. We
found the people very easy to deal with, and some
cattle they had ; but it being at the extremity of the
island, they had not such quantities of cattle here.
However, for the present we resolved to appoint this
for our place of rendezvous, and go and look out.
This was about the latter end of April.
Accordingly we put to sea, and cruised away to the
northward, for the Arabian coast. It was a long run,
but as the winds generally blow trade from the S.
and S.S.E. from May to September, we had good
weather ; and in about twenty days we made the island
of Socotra, lying south from the Arabian coast, and
E.S.E. from the mouth of the Gulf of Mocha, or the
Red Sea.
Here we took in water, and stood off and on upon
the Arabian shore. We had not cruised here above
three days, or thereabouts, but I spied a sail, and gave
her chase ; but when we came up with her, never was
such a poor prize chased by pirates that looked for
booty, for we found nothing in her but poor, half-naked
Turks, going a pilgrimage to Mecca, to the tomb of
their prophet Mahomet. The junk that carried them
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 199
had no one thing worth taking away but a little rice
and some coffee, which was all the poor wretches had
for their subsistence ; so we let them go, for indeed we
knew not what to do with them.
The same evening we chased another junk with two
masts, and in something better plight to look at than
the former. When we came on board we found them
upon the same errand, but only that they were people
of some better fashion than the other ; and here we got
some plunder, some Turkish stores, a few diamonds in
the ear-drops of five or six persons, some fine Persian
carpets, of which they made their saffras to lie upon,
and some money ; so we let them go also.
We continued here eleven days longer, and saw
nothing but now and then a fishing-boat ; but the
twelfth day of our cruise we spied a ship : indeed I
thought at first it had been an English ship, but it
appeared to be an European freighted for a voyage
from Goa, on the coast of Malabar, to the Red Sea,
and was very rich. We chased her, and took her
without any fight, though they had some guns on board
too, but not many. We found her manned with Portu
guese seamen, but under the direction of five merchant
Turks, who had hired her on the coast of Malabar
of some Portugal merchants, and had laden her with
pepper, saltpetre, some spices, and the rest of the load
ing was chiefly calicoes and wrought silks, some of
them very rich.
We took her and carried her to Socotra ; but we
really knew not what to do with her, for the same
reasons as before ; for all their goods were of little or
no value to us. After some days we found means to
let one of the Turkish merchants know, that if he
would ransom the ship we would take a sum of money
and let them go. He told me that if I would let one
of them go on shore for the money they would do it ;
200 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
so we adjusted the value of the cargo at 30,000 ducats.
Upon this agreement, we allowed the sloop to carry him
on shore, at Dofar, in Arabia, where a rich merchant
laid down the money for them, and came off with our
sloop ; and on payment of the money we very fairly
and honestly let them go.
Some days after this we took an Arabian junk, going
from the Gulf of Persia to Mocha, with a good quantity
of pearl on board. We gutted him of the pearl, which
it seems was belonging to some merchants at Mocha,
and let him go, for there was nothing else worth our
taking.
We continued cruising up and down here till we
began to find our provisions grow low, when Captain
Wilmot, our admiral, told us it was time to think of
going back to the rendezvous ; and the rest of the men
said the same, being a little weary of beating about for
above three months together, and meeting with little or
nothing compared to our great expectations ; but I was
very loth to part with the Red Sea at so cheap a
rate, and pressed them to tarry a little longer, which at
my instance they did ; but three days afterwards, to
our great misfortune, understood that, by landing the
Turkish merchants at Dofar, we had alarmed the
coast as far as the Gulf of Persia, so that no vessel
would stir that way, and consequently nothing was to
be expected on that side.
I was greatly mortified at this news, and could
no longer withstand the importunities of the men to
return to Madagascar. However, as the wind con
tinued still to blow at S.S.E. by S., we were obliged
to stand away towards the coast of Africa and the
Cape Guardafui, the winds being more variable under
the shore than in the open sea.
Here we chopped upon a booty which we did not
look for, and which made amends for all our waiting ;
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 2OI
for the very same hour that we made land we spied a
large vessel sailing along the shore to the southward.
The ship was of Bengal, belonging to the Great
Mogul's country, but had on board a Dutch pilot,
whose name, if I remember right, was Vandergest, and
several European seamen, whereof three were English.
She was in no condition to resist us. The rest of her
seamen were Indians of the Mogul's subjects, some
Malabars and some others. There were five Indian
merchants on board, and some Armenians. It seems
they had been at Mocha with spices, silks, diamonds,
pearls, calico, &c., such goods as the country afforded,
and had little on board now but money in pieces of
eight, which, by the way, was just what we wanted ;
and the three English seamen came along with us, and
the Dutch pilot would have done so too, but the two
Armenian merchants entreated us not to take him, for
that he being their pilot, there was none of the men
knew how to guide the ship ; so, at their request, we
refused him ; but we made them promise he should not
be used ill for being willing to go with us.
We got near 200,000 pieces of eight in this vessel ;
and, if they said true, there was a Jew of Goa, who
intended to have embarked with them, who had
200,000 pieces of eight with him, all his own ; but his
good fortune, springing out of his ill fortune, hindered
him, or he fell sick at Mocha, and could not be ready
to travel, which was the saving of his money.
There was none with me at the taking this prize
but the sloop, for Captain Wilmot's ship proving leaky,
he went away for the rendezvous before us, and arrived
there the middle of December; but not liking the
port, he left a great cross on shore, with directions
written on a plate of lead fixed to it, for us to come
after him to the great bays at Mangahelly, where he
found a very good harbour ; but we learned a piece of
202 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
news here that kept us from him a great while, which
the admiral took offence at ; but we stopped his mouth
with his share of 200,000 pieces of eight to him and
his ship's crew. But the story which interrupted our
coming to him was this. Between Mangahelly and
another point, called Cape St Sebastian, there came on
shore in the night an European ship, and whether by
stress of weather or want of a pilot I know not, but
the ship stranded and could not be got off.
We lay in the cove or harbour, where, as I have
said, our rendezvous was appointed, and had not yet
been on shore, so we had not seen the directions our
admiral had left for us.
Our friend William, of whom I have said nothing
a great while, had a great mind one day to go on
shore, and importuned me to let him have a little troop
to go with him, for safety, that they might see the
country. I was mightily against it for many reasons ;
but particularly I told him he knew the natives were but
savages, and they were very treacherous, and I desired
him that he would not go ; and, had he gone on much
farther, I believe I should have downright refused him,
and commanded him not to go.
But, in order to persuade me to let him go, he told
me he would give me an account of the reason why he
was so importunate. He told me, the last night he
had a dream, which was so forcible, and made such
an impression upon his mind, that he could not be quiet
till he had made the proposal to me to go ; and if I
refused him, then he thought his dream was significant ;
and if not, then his dream was at an end.
His dream was, he said, that he went on shore with
thirty men, of which the cockswain, he said, was one,
upon the island ; and that they found a mine of gold,
and enriched them all. But this was not the main
thing, he said, but that the same morning he had
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 203
dreamed so, the cockswain came to him just then, and
told him that he dreamed he went on shore on the
island of Madagascar, and that some men came to him
and told him they would show him where he should
get a prize which would make them all rich.
These two things put together began to weigh with
me a little, though I was never inclined to give any
heed to dreams ; but William's importunity turned me
effectually, for I always put a great deal of stress upon
his judgment ; so that, in short, I gave them leave to
go, but I charged them not to go far off from the sea-
coast ; that, if they were forced down to the seaside
upon any occasion, we might perhaps see them, and
fetch them off with our boats.
They went away early in the morning, one-and-thirty
men of them in number, very well armed, and very stout
fellows ; they travelled all the day, and at night made
us a signal that all was well, from the top of a hill,
which we had agreed on, by making a great fire.
Next day they marched down the hill on the other
side, inclining towards the seaside, as they had pro
mised, and saw a very pleasant valley before them,
with a river in the middle of it, which, a little farther
below them, seemed to be big enough to bear small
ships ; they marched apace towards this river, and were
surprised with the noise of a piece going off, which, by
the sound, could not be far off. They listened long,
but could hear no more ; so they went on to the
river-side, which was a very fine fresh stream, but
widened apace, and they kept on by the banks of it,
till, almost at once, it opened or widened into a good
large creek or harbour, about five miles from the sea ;
and that which was still more surprising, as they
marched forward, they plainly saw in the mouth of the
harbour, or creek, the wreck of a ship.
The tide was up, as we call it, so that it did not
204 LIFE J ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
appear very much above the water, but, as they made
downwards, they found it grow bigger and bigger ;
and the tide soon after ebbing out, they found it lay dry
upon the sands, and appeared to be the wreck of a
considerable vessel, larger than could be expected in
that country.
After some time, William, taking out his glass to
look at it more nearly, was surprised with hearing a
musket-shot whistle by him, and immediately after
that he heard the gun, and saw the smoke from the
other side ; upon which our men immediately fired
three muskets, to discover, if possible, what or who
they were. Upon the noise of these guns, abundance
of men came running down to the shore from among
the trees ; and our men could easily perceive that they
were Europeans, though they knew not of what nation ;
however, our men hallooed to them as loud as they
could, and by-and-by they got a long pole, and set it
up, and hung a white shirt upon it for a flag of truce.
They on the other side saw it, by the help of their
glasses, too, and quickly after our men see a boat
launch off from the shore, as they thought, but it was
from another creek, it seems ; and immediately they
came rowing over the creek to our men, carrying also
a white flag as a token of truce.
It is not easy to describe the surprise, or joy and
satisfaction, that appeared on both sides, to see not
only white men, but Englishmen, in a place so remote ;
but what then must it be when they came to know
one another, and to find that they were not only
countrymen but comrades, and that this was the very
ship that Captain Wilmot, our admiral, commanded,
and whose company we had lost in the storm at Tobago,
after making an agreement to rendezvous at Mada
gascar !
They had, it seems, got intelligence of us when
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 2O$
they came to the south part of the island, and had been
a-roving as far as the Gulf of Bengal, when they met
Captain Avery, with whom they joined, took several
rich prizes, and, amongst the rest, one ship with the
Great Mogul's daughter, and an immense treasure in
money and jewels ; and from thence they came about
the coast of Coromandel, and afterwards that of Mala
bar, into the Gulf of Persia, where they also took
some prize, and then designed for the south part of
Madagascar ; but the winds blowing hard at S.E. and
S.E. by E., they came to the northward of the isle,
and being after that separated by a furious tempest from
the N.W., they were forced into the mouth of that
creek, where they lost their ship. And they told us,
also, that they heard that Captain Avery himself had
lost his ship also not far off.
When they had thus acquainted one another with
their fortunes, the poor overjoyed men were in haste to
go back to communicate their joy to their comrades ;
and, leaving some of their men with ours, the rest went
back, and William was so earnest to see them that he and
two more went back with them, and there he came to
their little camp where they lived. There were about a
hundred and sixty men of them in all ; they had got their
guns on shore, and some ammunition, but a good deal of
their powder was spoiled ; however, they had raised a fair
platform, and mounted twelve pieces of cannon upon
it, which was a sufficient defence to them on that side
of the sea ; and just at the end of the platform they
had made a launch and a little yard, and were all hard
at work, building another little ship, as I may call it,
to go to sea in ; but they put a stop to this work upon
the news they had of our being come in.
When our men went into their huts, it was surpris
ing, indeed, to see the vast stock of wealth they had got,
in gold and silver and jewels, which, however, they
206 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
told us was a trifle to what Captain Avery had,
wherever he was gone.
It was five days we had waited for our men, and no
news of them ; and indeed I gave them over for lost,
but was surprised, after five days' waiting, to see a ship's
boat come rowing towards us along shore. What to
make of it I could not tell, but was at least better satis
fied when our men told me they heard them halloo
and saw them wave their caps to us.
In a little time they came quite up to us ; and I saw
friend William stand up in the boat and make signs to
us ; so they came on board ; but when I saw there
were but fifteen of our one-and-thirty men, I asked
him what had become of their fellows. " Oh," says
William, " they are all very well ; and my dream is
fully made good, and the cockswain's too."
This made me very impatient to know how the case
stood ; so he told us the whole story, which indeed
surprised us all. The next day we weighed, and stood
away southerly to join Captain Wilmot and ship at
Mangahelly, where we found him, as I said, a little
chagrined at our stay ; but we pacified him afterwards
with telling him the history of William's dream, and
the consequence of it.
In the meantime the camp of our comrades was
so near Mangahelly, that our admiral and I, friend
William, and some of the men, resolved to take the
sloop and go and see them, and fetch them all, and
their goods, bag and baggage, on board our ship,
which accordingly we did, and found their camp, their
fortifications, the battery of guns they had erected, their
treasure, and all the men, just as William had related
it ; so, after some stay, we took all the men into the
sloop, and brought them away with us.
It was some time before we knew what was become
of Captain Avery; but after about a month, by the
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 207
direction of the men who had lost their ship, we sent
the sloop to cruise along the shore, to find out, if
possible, where they were ; and in about a week's
cruise our men found them, and particularly that
they had lost their ship, as well as our men had lost
theirs, and that they were every way in as bad a con
dition as ours.
It was about ten days before the sloop returned, and
Captain Avery with them ; and this was the whole
force that, as I remember, Captain Avery ever had
with him ; for now we joined all our companies
together, and it stood thus : We had two ships and
a sloop, in which we had 320 men, but much too few
to man them as they ought to be, the great Portuguese
ship requiring of herself near 400 men to man her
completely. As for our lost, but now found comrade,
her complement of men was 1 80, or thereabouts ; and
Captain Avery had about 300 men with him, whereof
he had ten carpenters with him, most of which were
taken aboard the prize they had taken ; so that, in a
word, all the force Avery had at Madagascar, in the
year 1699, or thereabouts, amounted to our three ships,
for his own was lost, as you have heard ; and never
had any more than about 1 200 men in all.
It was about a month after this that all our crews
got together, and as Avery was unshipped, we all
agreed to bring our own company into the Portuguese
man-of-war and the sloop, and give Captain Avery
the Spanish frigate, with all the tackles and furniture,
guns and ammunition, for his crew by themselves ; for
which they, being full of wealth, agreed to give us
40,000 pieces of eight.
It was next considered what course we should take.
Captain Avery, to give him his due, proposed our
building a little city here, establishing ourselves on
shore, with a good fortification and works proper to
208 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
defend ourselves ; and that, as we had wealth enough,
and could increase it to what degree we pleased, we
should content ourselves to retire here, and bid defiance
to the world. But I soon convinced him that this
place would be no security to us, if we pretended to
carry on our cruising trade; for that then all t
nations of Europe, and indeed of that part of t
world, would be engaged to root us out ; but if
resolved to live there as in retirement, and plant in the
country as private men, and give over our trade of
pirating, then, indeed, we might plant and settle our
selves where we pleased. But then, I told him, the
best way would be to treat with the natives, and buy
a tract of land of them farther up the country, seated
upon some navigable river, where boats might go up
and down for pleasure, but not ships to endanger us ;
that thus planting the high ground with cattle, such as
cows and goats, of which the country also was full, to
be sure we might live here as well as any men in the
world ; and I owned to him I thought it was a good
retreat for those that were willing to leave off and lay
down, and yet did not care to venture home and be
hanged ; that is to say, to run the risk of it.
Captain Avery, however he made no positive dis
covery of his intentions, seemed to me to decline my
notion of going up into the country to plant ; on the
contrary, it was apparent he was of Captain Wilmot's
opinion, that they might maintain themselves on shore,
and yet carry on their cruising trade too ; and upon
this they resolved. But, as I afterwards understood,
about fifty of their men went up the country, and settled
themselves in an inland place as a colony. Whether
they are there still or not, I cannot tell, or how many
of them are left alive ; but it is my opinion they are
there still, and that they are considerably increased,
for, as I hear, they have got some women among them,
,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 209
though not many ; for it seems five Dutch women and
three or four little girls were taken by them in a Dutch
ship, which they afterwards took going to Mocha ; and
three of those women, marrying some of these men, went
with them to live in their new plantation. But of this
I speak only by hearsay.
As we lay here some time, I found our people
mightily divided in their notions ; some were for going
this way, and some that, till at last I began to foresee
they would part company, and perhaps we should not
have men enough to keep together to man the great
ship ; so I took Captain Wilmot aside, and began to
talk to him about it, but soon perceived that he inclined
himself to stay at Madagascar, and having got a vast
wealth for his own share, had secret designs of getting
home some way or other.
I argued the impossibility of it, and the hazard he
would run, either of falling into the hands of thieves
and murderers in the Red Sea, who would never let
such a treasure as his pass their hands, or of his falling
into the hands of the English, Dutch, or French, who
would certainly hang him for a pirate. I gave him an
account of the voyage I had made from this very place
to the continent of Africa, and what a journey it was
to travel on foot.
In short, nothing could persuade him, but he would
go into the Red Sea with the sloop, and where the
children of Israel passed through the sea dry-shod, and,
landing there, would travel to Grand Cairo by land,
which is not above eighty miles, and from thence he
said he could ship himself, by the way of Alexandria,
to any part of the world.
I represented the hazard, and indeed the impossi
bility, of his passing by Mocha and Jiddah without being
attacked, if he offered it by force, or plundered, if he
went to get leave ; and explained the reasons of it so
210 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
much and so effectually, that, though at last he would
not hearken to it himself, none of his men would go
with him. They told him they would go anywhere
with him to serve him, but that this was running him
self and them into certain destruction, without any pos
sibility of avoiding it, or probability of answering his
end. The captain took what I said to him quite wrong,
and pretended to resent it, and gave me some buccaneer
words upon it ; but I gave him no return to it but this :
that I advised him for his advantage ; that if he did
not understand it so, it was his fault, not mine ; that I
did not forbid him to go, nor had I offered to persuade
any of the men not to go with him, though it was to
their apparent destruction.
However, warm heads are not easily cooled. The
captain was so eager that he quitted our company, and,
with most part of his crew, went over to Captain Avery,
and sorted with his people, taking all the treasure with
him, which, by the way, was not very fair in him, we
having agreed to share all our gains, whether more or
less, whether absent or present.
Our men muttered a little at it, but I pacified them
as well as I could, and told them it was easy for us
to get as much, if we minded our hits ; and Captain
Wilmot had set us a very good example ; for, by the
same rule, the agreement of any further sharing of
profits with them was at an end. I took this occasion
to put into their heads some part of my further designs,
which were, to range over the eastern sea, and see if we
could not make ourselves as rich as Mr Avery, who,
it was true, had gotten a prodigious deal of money,
though not one-half of what was said of it in Europe.
Our men were so pleased with my forward, enter
prising temper, that they assured me that they would go
with me, one and all, over the whole globe, wherever
I would carry them ; and as for Captain Wilmot, they
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 211
would have nothing more to do with him. This came
to his ears, and put him into a great rage, so that he
threatened, if I came on shore, he would cut my throat.
I had information of it privately, but took no notice
of it at all ; only I took care not to go unprovided for
him, and seldom walked about but in very good com
pany. However, at last Captain Wilmot and I met,
and talked over the matter very seriously, and I offered
him the sloop to go where he pleased, or, if he was not
satisfied with that, I offered to take the sloop and leave
him the great ship ; but he declined both, and only
desired that I would leave him six carpenters, which I
had in our ship more than I had need of, to help his
men to finish the sloop that was begun before we came
thither, by the men that lost their ship. This I con
sented readily to, and lent him several other hands that
were useful to them ; and in a little time they built a
stout brigantine, able to carry fourteen guns and 200
men.
What measures they took, and how Captain Avery
managed afterwards, is too long a story to meddle with
here ; nor is it any of my business, having my own
story still upon my hands.
We lay here, about these several simple disputes,
almost five months, when, about the latter end of
March, I set sail with the great ship, having in her
forty-four guns and 400 men, and the sloop, carrying
eighty men. We did not steer to the Malabar coast,
and so to the Gulf of Persia, as was first intended, the
east monsoons blowing yet too strong, but we kept
more under the African coast, where we had the wind
variable till we passed the line, and made the Cape
Bassa, in the latitude of four degrees ten minutes ;
from thence, the monsoons beginning to change to the
N.E. and N.N.E., we led it away, with the wind large,
to the Maldives, a famous ledge of islands, well known
212 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
by all the sailors who have gone into those parts of the
world ; and, leaving these islands a little to the south,
we made Cape Comorin, the southernmost land of the
coast of Malabar, and went round the isle of Ceylon.
Here we lay by a while to wait for purchase ; and here
we saw three large English East India ships going
from Bengal, or from Fort St George, homeward for
England, or rather for Bombay and Surat, till the
trade set in.
We brought to, and hoisting an English ancient and
pendant, lay by for them, as if we intended to attack
them. They could not tell what to make of us a good
while, though they saw our colours ; and I believe at
first they thought us to be French ; but as they came
nearer to us, we let them soon see what we were, for
we hoisted a black flag, with two cross daggers in it,
on our main-top-mast head, which let them see what
they were to expect.
We soon found the effects of this ; for at first they
spread their ancients, and made up to us in a line, as if
they would fight us, having the wind off shore, fair
enough to have brought them on board us ; but when
they saw what force we were of, and found we were
cruisers of another kind, they stood away from us
again, with all the sail they could make. If they had
come up, we should have given them an unexpected
welcome, but as it was, we had no mind to follow
them ; so we let them go, for the same reasons which
I mentioned before.
But though we let them pass, we did not design to
let others go at so easy a price. It was but the next
morning that we saw a sail standing round Cape Como
rin, and steering, as we thought, the same course with
us. We knew not at first what to do with her, because
she had the shore on her larboard quarter, and if we
offered to chase her, she might put into any port or
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 213
creek, and escape us ; but, to prevent this, we sent the
sloop to get in between her and the land. As soon as
she saw that, she hauled in to keep the land aboard,
and when the sloop stood towards her she made right
ashore, with all the canvas she could spread.
The sloop, however, came up with her and engaged
her, and found she was a vessel of ten guns, Portuguese
built, but in the Dutch traders' hands, and manned by
Dutchmen, who were bound from the Gulf of Persia
to Batavia, to fetch spices and other goods from thence.
The sloop's men took her, and had the rummaging of
her before we came up. She had in her some European
goods, and a good round sum of money, and some
pearl ; so that, though we did not go to the gulf for
the pearl, the pearl came to us out of the gulf, and we
had our share of it. This was a rich ship, and the
goods were of very considerable value, besides the
money and the pearl.
We had a long consultation here what we should do
with the men, for to give them the ship, and let them
pursue their voyage to Java, would be to alarm the
Dutch factory there, who are by far the strongest in
the Indies, and to make our passage that way imprac
ticable ; whereas we resolved to visit that part of the
world in our way, but were not willing to pass the
great Bay of Bengal, where we hoped for a great deal
of purchase ; and therefore it behoved us not to be
waylaid before we came there, because they knew we
must pass by the Straits of Malacca, or those of Sunda ;
and either way it was very easy to prevent us.
While we were consulting this in the great cabin,
the men had had the same debate before the mast ;
and it seems the majority there were for pickling up
the poor Dutchmen among the herrings ; in a word,
they were for throwing them all into the sea. Poor
William, the Quaker, was in great concern about this,
214 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
and comes directly to me to talk about it. " Hark
thee," says William, "what wilt thou do with these
Dutchmen that thou hast on board ? Thou wilt not
let them go, I suppose," says he. " Why," says I,
" William, would you advise me to let them go ? "
" No," says William, " I cannot say it is fit for thee
to let them go ; that is to say, to go on with their
voyage to Batavia, because it is not for thy turn that
the Dutch at Batavia should have any knowledge of
thy being in these seas." " Well, then," says I to
him, " I know no remedy but to throw them over
board. You know, William," says I, " a Dutchman
swims like a fish ; and all our people here are of the
same opinion as well as I." At the same time I
resolved it should not be done, but wanted to hear
what William would say. He gravely replied, " If
all the men in the ship were of that mind, I will never
believe that thou wilt be of that mind thyself, for I
have heard thee protest against cruelty in all other
cases." "Well, William," says I, "that is true;
but what then shall we do with them ? " " Why,"
says William, " is there no way but to murder them ?
I am persuaded thou canst not be in earnest." " No,
indeed, William," says I, " I am not in earnest ; but
they shall not go to Java, no, nor to Ceylon, that is
certain." " But," says William, " the men have done
thee no injury at all ; thou hast taken a great treasure
from them ; what canst thou pretend to hurt them
for?" "Nay, William," says I, "do not talk of
that ; I have pretence enough, if that be all ; my
pretence is, to prevent doing me hurt, and that is as
necessary a piece of the law of self-preservation as any
you can name ; but the main thing is, I know not what
to do with them, to prevent their prating."
While William and I were talking, the poor Dutch
men were openly condemned to die, as it may be called,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 21$
by the whole ship's company ; and so warm were the
men upon it, that they grew very clamorous; and
when they heard that William was against it, some of
them swore they should die, and if William opposed
it, he should drown along with them.
But, as I was resolved to put an end to their cruel
project, so I found it was time to take upon me a little,
or the bloody humour might grow too strong; so I
called the Dutchmen up, and talked a little with them.
First, I asked them if they were willing to go with us.
Two of them offered it presently ; but the rest, which
were fourteen, declined it. "Well, then," said I,
" where would you go ? " They desired they should
go to Ceylon. No, I told them I could not allow
them to go to any Dutch factory, and told them very
plainly the reasons of it, which they could not deny
to be just. I let them know also the cruel, bloody
measures of our men, but that I had resolved to save
them, if possible ; and therefore I told them I would
set them on shore at some English factory in the Bay
of Bengal, or put them on board any English ship I
met, after I was past the Straits of Sunda or of Malacca,
but not before ; for, as to my coming back again, I
told them I would run the venture of their Dutch
power from Batavia, but I would not have the news
come there before me, because it would make all their
merchant-ships lay up, and keep out of our way.
It came next into our consideration what we should
do with their ship ; but this was not long resolving ;
for there were but two ways, either to set her on fire,
or to run her on shore, and we chose the last. So we set
her foresail with the tack at the cat-head, and lashed
her helm a little to starboard, to answer her head-sail,
and so set her agoing, with neither cat or dog in her ;
and it was not above two hours before we saw her run
right ashore upon the coast, a little beyond the Cape
2l6 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
Comorin ; and away we went round about Ceylon, for
the coast of Coromandel.
We sailed along there, not in sight of the shore
only, but so near as to see the ships in the road at Fort
St David, Fort St George, and at the other factories
along that shore, as well as along the coast of Golconda,
carrying our English ancient when we came near the
Dutch factories, and Dutch colours when we passed
by the English factories. We met with little purchase
upon this coast, except two small vessels of Golconda,
bound across the bay with bales of calicoes and muslins
and wrought silks, and fifteen bales of romals, from the
bottom of the bay, which were going, on whose account
we knew not, to Acheen, and to other ports on the coast
of Malacca. We did not inquire to what place in
particular ; but we let the vessels go, having none but
Indians on board.
In the bottom of the bay we met with a great junk
belonging to the Mogul's court, with a great many
people, passengers as we supposed them to be : it
seems they were bound for the river Hooghly or
Ganges, and came from Sumatra. This was a prize
worth taking indeed ; and we got so much gold in her,
besides other goods which we did not meddle with
pepper in particular that it had like to have put an end
to our cruise ; for almost all my men said we were rich
enough, and desired to go back again to Madagascar.
But I had other things in my head still, and when I
came to talk with them, and set friend William to talk
with them, we put such further golden hopes into
their heads that we soon prevailed with them to let us
go on.
My next design was to leave all the dangerous
straits of Malacca, Singapore, and Sunda, where we
could expect no great booty, but what we might light
on in European ships, which we must fight for; and
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 217
though we were able to fight, and wanted no courage,
even to desperation, yet we were rich too, and resolved
to be richer, and took this for our maxim, that while
we were sure the wealth we sought was to be had with
out fighting, we had no occasion to put ourselves to the
necessity of fighting for that which would come upon
easy terms.
We left, therefore, the Bay of Bengal, and coming
to the coast of Sumatra, we put in at a small port,
where there was a town, inhabited only by Malays;
and here we took in fresh water, and a large quantity
of good pork, pickled up and well salted, notwith
standing the heat of the climate, being in the very
middle of the torrid zone, viz., in three degrees
fifteen minutes north latitude. We also took on
board both our vessels forty hogs alive, which served
us for fresh provisions, having abundance of food for
them, such as the country produced, such as guams,
potatoes, and a sort of coarse rice, good for nothing
else but to feed the swine. We killed one of these
hogs every day, and found them to be excellent meat.
We took in also a monstrous quantity of ducks, and
cocks and hens, the same kind as we have in England,
which we kept for change of provisions ; and if I re
member right, we had no less than two thousand of
them ; so that at first we were pestered with them
very much, but we soon lessened them by boiling,
roasting, stewing, &c., for we never wanted while we
had them.
My long-projected design now lay open to me,
which was to fall in amongst the Dutch Spice Islands,
and see what mischief I could do there. Accordingly,
we put out to sea the 1 2th of August, and passing the
line on the iyth, we stood away due south, leaving the
Straits of Sunda and the isle of Java on the east, till
we came to the latitude of eleven degrees twenty
2l8 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
minutes, when we steered east and E.N. E., having
easy gales from the W.S.W. till we came among the
Moluccas, or Spice Islands.
We passed those seas with less difficulty than in
other places, the winds to the south of Java being
more variable, and the weather good, though some
times we met with squally weather and short storms;
but when we came in among the Spice Islands them
selves we had a share of the monsoons, or trade- winds,
and made use of them accordingly.
The infinite number of islands which lie in these
seas embarrassed us strangely, and it was with great
difficulty that we worked our way through them ;
then we steered for the north side of the Philippines,
when we had a double chance for purchase, viz., either
to meet with the Spanish ships from Acapulco, on the
coast of New Spain, or we were certain not to fail of
finding some ships or junks of China, who, if they
came from China, would have a great quantity of
goods of value on board, as well as money ; or if we
took them going back, we should find them laden with
nutmegs and cloves from Banda and Ternate, or from
some of the other islands.
We were right in our guesses here to a tittle, and
we steered directly through a large outlet, which they
call a strait, though it be fifteen miles broad, and to an
island they call Dammer, and from thence N.N.E. to
Banda. Between these islands we met with a Dutch
junk, or vessel, going to Amboyna: we took her with
out much trouble, and I had much ado to prevent
our men murdering all the men, as soon as they heard
them say they belonged to Amboyna : the reasons I
suppose any one will guess.
We took out of her about sixteen ton of nutmegs,
some provisions, and their small-arms, for they had no
great guns, and let the ship go : from thence we sailed
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 2 19
directly to the Banda Island, or Islands, where we
were sure to get more nutmegs if we thought fit. For
my part, I would willingly have got more nutmegs,
though I had paid for them, but our people abhorred
paying for anything ; so we got about twelve ton more
at several times, most of them from shore, and only a
few in a small boat of the natives, which was going to
Gilolo. We would have traded openly, but the Dutch,
who have made themselves masters of all those islands,
forbade the people dealing with us, or any strangers
whatever, and kept them so in awe that they durst not
do it ; so we could indeed have made nothing of it if
we had stayed longer, and therefore resolved to be gone
for Tern ate, and see if we could make up our loading
with cloves.
Accordingly we stood away north, but found our
selves so entangled among innumerable islands, and
without any pilot that understood the channel and
races between them, that we were obliged to give it
over, and resolved to go back again to Banda, and see
what we could get among the other islands there
abouts.
The first adventure we made here had like to have
been fatal to us all, for the sloop, being ahead, made
the signal to us for seeing a sail, and afterwards another,
and a third, by which we understood she saw three
sail ; whereupon we made more sail to come up with
her, but on a sudden were gotten among some rocks,
falling foul upon them in such a manner as frighted
us all very heartily; for having, it seems, but just
water enough, as it were to an inch, our rudder struck
upon the top of a rock, which gave us a terrible shock,
and split a great piece off the rudder, and indeed dis
abled it so that our ship would not steer at all, at least
not so as to be depended upon ; and we were glad to
hand all our sails, except our fore-sail and main-top-
220 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
sail, and with them we stood away to the east, to see
if we could find any creek or harbour where we might
lay the ship on shore, and repair our rudder ; besides,
we found the ship herself had received some damage,
for she had some little leak near her stern-post, but a
great way under water.
By this mischance we lost the advantages, whatever
they were, of the three sail of ships, which we after
wards came to hear were small Dutch ships from
Batavia, going to Banda and Amboyna, to load spice,
and, no doubt, had a good quantity of money on board.
Upon the disaster I have been speaking of you may
very well suppose that we came to an anchor as soon
as we could, which was upon a small island not far
from Banda, where, though the Dutch keep no factory,
yet they come at the season to buy nutmegs and mace.
We stayed there thirteen days ; but there being no
place where we could lay the ship on shore, we sent
the sloop to cruise among the islands, to look out for a
place fit for us. In the meantime we got very good
water here, some provisions, roots, and fruits, and a
good quantity of nutmegs and mace, which we found
ways to trade with the natives for, without the know
ledge of their masters, the Dutch.
At length our sloop returned ; having found another
island where there was a very good harbour, we ran in,
and came to an anchor. We immediately unbent all
our sails, sent them ashore upon the island, and set up
seven or eight tents with them ; then we unrigged our
top-masts, and cut them down, hoisted all our guns out,
our provisions and loading, and put them ashore in the
tents. With the guns we made two small batteries, for
fear of a surprise, and kept a look-out upon the hill.
When we were all ready, we laid the ship aground
upon a hard sand, the upper end of the harbour, and
shored her up on each side. At low water she lay
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 221
almost dry, so we mended her bottom, and stopped the
leak, which was occasioned by straining some of the
rudder irons with the shock which the ship had against
the rock.
Having done this, we also took occasion to clean
her bottom, which, having been at sea so long, was
very foul. The sloop washed and tallowed also, but
was ready before us, and cruised eight or ten days
among the islands, but met with no purchase ; so that
we began to be tired of the place, having little to
divert us but the most furious claps of thunder that
ever were heard or read of in the world.
We were in hopes to have met with some purchase
here among the Chinese, who, we had been told, came
to Ternate to trade for cloves, and to the Banda Isles
for nutmegs ; and we would have been very glad to
have loaded our galleon, or great ship, with these two
sorts of spice, and have thought it a glorious voyage ;
but we found nothing stirring more than what I have
said, except Dutchmen, who, by what means we could
not imagine, had either a jealousy of us or intelligence
of us, and kept themselves close in their ports.
I was once resolved to have made a descent at the
island of Dumas, the place most famous for the best
nutmegs ; but friend William, who was always for doing
our business without fighting, dissuaded me from it, and
gave such reasons for it that we could not resist ; par
ticularly the great heats of the season, and of the place,
for we were now in the latitude of just half a degree
south. But while we were disputing this point we were
soon determined by the following accident : We had
a strong gale of wind at S. W. by W., and the ship had
fresh way, but a great sea rolling in upon us from the
N.E., which we afterwards found was the pouring in of
the great ocean east of New Guinea. However, as I
said, we stood away large, and made fresh way, when,
222 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
on the sudden, from a dark cloud which hovered over
our heads, came a flash, or rather blast, of lightning,
which was so terrible, and quivered so long among us,
that not I only, but all our men, thought the ship was
on fire. The heat of the flash, or fire, was so sensibly
felt in our faces, that some of our men had blisters raised
by it on their skins, not immediately, perhaps, by the
heat, but by the poisonous or noxious particles which
mixed themselves with the matter inflamed. But this
was not all ; the shock of the air, which the fracture in
the clouds made, was such that our ship shook as when
a broadside is fired ; and her motion being checked, as
it were at once, by a repulse superior to the force that
gave her way before, the sails all flew back in a moment,
and the ship lay, as we might truly say, thunder-struck.
As the blast from the cloud was so very near us, it was but
a few moments after the flash that the terriblest clap of
thunder followed that was ever heard by mortals. I
firmlybelieve a blast of a hundred thousand barrels of gun
powder could not have been greater to our hearing ; nay,
indeed, to some of our men it took away their hearing.
It is not possible for me to describe, or any one to
conceive, the terror of that minute. Our men were in
such a consternation, that not a man on board the ship
had presence of mind to apply to the proper duty of a
sailor, except friend William ; and had he not run very
nimbly, and with a composure that I am sure I was not
master of, to let go the fore-sheet, set in the weather-
brace of the fore- yard, and haul down the top-sails, we
had certainly brought all our masts by the board, and
perhaps have been overwhelmed in the sea.
As for myself, I must confess my eyes were open to
my danger, though not the least to anything of applica
tion for remedy. I was all amazement and confusion,
and this was the first time that I can say I began to feel
the effects of that horror which I know since much
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 223
more of, upon the just reflection on my former life. I
thought myself doomed by Heaven to sink that moment
into eternal destruction ; and with this peculiar mark of
terror, viz., that the vengeance was not executed in the
ordinary way of human justice, but that God had taken
me into His immediate disposing, and had resolved to be
the executer of His own vengeance.
Let them alone describe the confusion I was in who
know what was the case of [John] Child, of Shadwell,
or Francis Spira. It is impossible to describe it. My
soul was all amazement and surprise. I thought myself
just sinking into eternity, owning the divine justice of
my punishment, but not at all feeling any of the
moving, softening tokens of a sincere penitent ; afflicted
at the punishment, but not at the crime ; alarmed at
the vengeance, but not terrified at the guilt ; having the
same gust to the crime, though terrified to the last degree
at the thought of the punishment, which I concluded I
was just now going to receive.
But perhaps many that read this will be sensible of
the thunder and lightning, that may think nothing of
the rest, or rather may make a jest of it all ; so I
say no more of it at this time, but proceed to the story
of the voyage. When the amazement was over, and
the men began to come to themselves, they fell a-calling
for one another, every one for his friend, or for those
he had most respect for ; and it was a singular satisfac
tion to find that nobody was hurt. The next thing
was to inquire if the ship had received no damage, when
the boatswain, stepping forward, found that part of the
head was gone, but not so as to endanger the bowsprit ;
so we hoisted our top-sails again, hauled aft the fore-
sheet, braced the yards, and went our course as before.
Nor can I deny but that we were all somewhat like the
ship ; our first astonishment being a little over, and that
we found the ship swim again, we were soon the same
224 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
irreligious, hardened crew that we were before, and I
among the rest.
As we now steered, our course lay N.N.E., and we
passed thus, with a fair wind, through the strait or
channel between the island of Gilolo and the land of
Nova Guinea, when we were soon in the open sea or
ocean, on the south-east of the Philippines, being the
great Pacific, or South Sea, where it may be said to
join itself with the vast Indian Ocean.
As we passed into these seas, steering due north, so
we soon crossed the line to the north side, and so
sailed on towards Mindanao and Manilla, the chief of
the Philippine Islands, without meeting with any pur
chase till we came to the northward of Manilla, and then
our trade began ; for here we took three Japanese ves
sels, though at some distance from Manilla. Two of
them had made their market, and were going home with
nutmegs, cinnamon, cloves, &c., besides all sorts of
European goods, brought with the Spanish ships from
Acapulco. They had together eight-and-thirty ton
of cloves, and five or six ton of nutmegs, and as much
cinnamon. We took the spice, but meddled with very
little of the European goods, they being, as we thought,
not worth our while ; but we were very sorry for it
soon after, and therefore grew wiser upon the next
occasion.
The third Japanese was the best prize to us ; for he
came with money, and a great deal of gold uncoined, to
buy such goods as we mentioned above. We eased him
of his gold, and did him no other harm, and having no
intention to stay long here, we stood away for China.
We were at sea above two months upon this voyage,
beating it up against the wind, which blew steadily from
the N.E., and within a point or two one way or other ;
and this indeed was the reason why we met with the
more prizes in our voyage.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 225
We were just gotten clear of the Philippines, and
we purposed to go to the isle of Formosa, but the
wind blew so fresh at N.N.E. that there was no
making anything of it, and we were forced to put back
to Laconia, the most northerly of those islands. We
rode here very secure, and shifted our situation, not in
view of any danger, for there was none, but for a better
supply of provisions, which we found the people very
willing to supply us with.
There lay, while we remained here, three very
great galleons, or Spanish ships, from the south seas ;
whether newly come in or ready to sail we could not
understand at first ; but as we found the China traders
began to load and set forward to the north, we con
cluded the Spanish ships had newly unloaded their
cargo, and these had been buying; so we doubted
not but we should meet with purchase in the rest
of the voyage, neither, indeed, could we well miss
of it.
We stayed here till the beginning of May, when we
were told the Chinese traders would set forward ; for
the northern monsoons end about the latter end of
March or beginning of April ; so that they are sure
of fair winds home. Accordingly we hired some of
the country boats, which are very swift sailers, to go
and bring us word how affairs stood at Manilla, and
when the China junks would sail ; and by this in
telligence we ordered our matters so well, that three
days after we set sail we fell in with no less than
eleven of them; out of which, however, having by
misfortune of discovering ourselves, taken but three,
we contented ourselves and pursued our voyage to
Formosa. In these three vessels we took, in short,
such a quantity of cloves, nutmegs, cinnamon, and
mace, besides silver, that our men began to be of my
opinion, that we were rich enough ; and, in short,
226 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
we had nothing to do now but to consider by what
methods to secure the immense treasure we had got.
I was secretly glad to hear that they were of this
opinion, for I had long before resolved, if it were pos
sible, to persuade them to think of returning, having
fully perfected my first projected design of rummaging
among the Spice Islands ; and all those prizes, which were
exceeding rich at Manilla, was quite beyond my design.
But now I had heard what the men said, and how
they thought we were very well, I let them know by
friend William, that I intended only to sail to the island
of Formosa, where I should find opportunity to turn
our spices and Europe goods into ready money, and that
then I would tack about for the south, the northern
monsoons being perhaps by that time also ready to set
in. They all approved of my design, and willingly
went forward ; because, besides the winds, which would
not permit until October to go to the south, I say,
besides this, we were now a very deep ship, having near
two hundred ton of goods on board, and particularly,
some very valuable ; the sloop also had a proportion.
With this resolution we went on cheerfully, when,
within about twelve days' sail more, we made the island
Formosa, at a great distance, but were ourselves shot
beyond the southernmost part of the island, being to
leeward, and almost upon the coast of China. Here
we were a little at a loss, for the English factories were
not far off, and we might be obliged to fight some of
their ships, if we met with them ; which, though we were
able enough to do, yet we did not desire it on many
accounts, and particularly because we did not think it
was our business to have it known who we were, or
that such a kind of people as we had been seen on the
coast. However, we were obliged to keep to the
northward, keeping as good an offing as we could with
respect to the coast of China.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 227
We had not sailed long but we chased a small
Chinese junk, and having taken her, we found she was
bound to the island of Formosa, having no goods on
board but some rice and a small quantity of tea ; but
she had three Chinese merchants in her ; and they told
us that they were going to meet a large vessel of their
country, which came from Tonquin, and lay in a river
in Formosa, whose name I forgot; and they were
going to the Philippine Islands, with silks, muslins, cali
coes, and such goods as are the product of China, and
some gold ; that their business was to sell their cargo,
and buy spices and European goods.
This suited very well with our purpose ; so I re
solved now that we would leave off being pirates and
turn merchants ; so we told them what goods we had
on board, and that if they would bring their super
cargoes or merchants on board, we would trade with
them. They were very willing to trade with us, but
terribly afraid to trust us ; nor was it an unjust fear,
for we had plundered them already of what they had.
On the other hand, we were as diffident as they, and
very uncertain what to do ; but William the Quaker
put this matter into a way of barter. He came to me
and told me he really thought the merchants looked like
fair men, that meant honestly. " And besides," says
William, "it is their interest to be honest now, for, as
they know upon what terms we got the goods we are
to truck with them, so they know we can afford good
pennyworths ; and in the next place, it saves them
going the whole voyage, so that the southerly monsoons
yet holding, if they traded with us, they could im
mediately return with their cargo to China ; " though,
by the way, we afterwards found they intended for
Japan ; but that was all one, for by this means they
saved at least eight months' voyage. Upon these
foundations, William said he was satisfied we might
228 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
trust them ; " for," says William, " I would as soon
trust a man whose interest binds him to be just to me
as a man whose principle binds himself." Upon the
whole, William proposed that two of the merchants
should be left on board our ship as hostages, and that
part of our goods should be loaded in their vessel, and
let the third go with it into the port where their ship
lay ; and when he had delivered the spices, he should
bring back such things as it was agreed should be
exchanged. This was concluded on, and William the
Quaker ventured to go along with them, which, upon
my word, I should not have cared to have done, nor
was I willing that he should, but he went still upon the
notion that it was their interest to treat him friendly.
In the meantime, we came to an anchor under a
little island in the latitude of 23 degrees 28 minutes,
being just under the northern tropic, and about twenty
leagues from the island. Here we lay thirteen days,
and began to be very uneasy for my friend William,
for they had promised to be back again in four days,
which they might very easily have done. However,
at the end of thirteen days, we saw three sail coming
directly to us, which a little surprised us all at first,
not knowing what might be the case ; and we began
to put ourselves in a posture of defence ; but as they
came nearer us, we were soon satisfied, for the first
vessel was that which William went in, who carried
a flag of truce ; and in a few hours they all came
to an anchor, and William came on board us with
a little boat, with the Chinese merchant in his com
pany, and two other merchants, who seemed to be
a kind of brokers for the rest.
Here he gave us an account how civilly he had been
used ; how they had treated him with all imaginable
frankness and openness ; that they had not only given
him the full value of his spices and other goods which
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 229
he carried, in gold, by good weight, but had loaded
the vessel again with such goods as he knew we were
willing to trade for ; and that afterwards they had re
solved to bring the great ship out of the harbour, to lie
where we were, that so we might make what bargain
we thought fit ; only William said he had promised, in
pur name, that we should use no violence with them,
nor detain any of the vessels after we had done trading
with them. I told him we would strive to outdo them
in civility, and that we would make good every part of
his agreement ; in token whereof, I caused a white flag
likewise to be spread at the poop of our great ship,
which was the signal agreed on.
As to the third vessel which came with them, it
was a kind of bark of the country, who, having intel
ligence of our design to traffic, came off to deal with
us, bringing a great deal of gold and some provisions,
which at that time we were very glad of.
In short, we traded upon the high seas with these
men, and indeed we made a very good market, and yet
sold thieves' pennyworths too. We sold here about
sixty ton of spice, chiefly cloves and nutmegs, and
above two hundred bales of European goods, such as
linen and woollen manufactures. We considered we
should have occasion for some such things ourselves,
and so we kept a good quantity of English stuffs, cloth,
baize, &c., for ourselves. I shall not take up any of
the little room I have left here with the further parti
culars of our trade ; it is enough to mention, that,
except a parcel of tea, and twelve bales of fine China
wrought silks, we took nothing in exchange for our
goods but gold ; so that the sum we took here in that
glittering commodity amounted to above fifty thousand
ounces good weight.
When we had finished our barter, we restored the
hostages, and gave the three merchants about the quan-
230 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
tity of twelve hundredweight of nutmegs, and as many
of cloves, with a handsome present of European linen
and stuff for themselves, as a recompense for what we
had taken from them ; so we sent them away exceed
ingly well satisfied.
Here it was that William gave me an account, that
while he was on board the Japanese vessel, he met with
a kind of religious, or Japan priest, who spoke some
words of English to him ; and, being very inquisitive
to know how he came to learn any of those words, he
told him that there was in his country thirteen English
men ; he called them Englishmen very articulately and
distinctly, for he had conversed with them very fre
quently and freely. He said that they were all that
were left of two-and-thirty men, who came on shore
on the north side of Japan, being driven upon a great
rock in a stormy night, where they lost their ship, and
the rest of their men were drowned ; that he had per
suaded the king of his country to send boats off to the
rock or island where the ship was lost, to save the rest
of the men, and to bring them on shore, which was
done, and they were used very kindly, and had houses
built for them, and land given them to plant for pro
vision ; and that they lived by themselves.
He said he went frequently among them, to persuade
them to worship their god (an idol, I suppose, of their
own making), which, he said, they ungratefully refused ;
and that therefore the king had once or twice ordered
them all to be put to death ; but that, as he said, he had
prevailed upon the king to spare them, and let them
live .their own way, as long as they were quiet and
peaceable, and did not go about to withdraw others
from the worship of the country.
I asked William why he did not inquire from
whence they came. " I did," said William ; " for
how could I but think it strange," said he, "to hear
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 231
him talk of Englishmen on the north side of Japan ? "
" Well," said I, " what account did he give of it ? "
" An account," said William, " that will surprise thee,
and all the world after thee, that shall hear of it, and
which makes me wish thou wouldst go up to Japan and
find them out." " What do you mean ? " said I.
" Whence could they come ? " " Why," says William,
" he pulled out a little book, and in it a piece of paper,
where it was written, in an Englishman's hand, and in
plain English words, thus ; and," says William, " I
read it myself: * We came from Greenland, and from
the North Pole.' " This, indeed, was amazing to us
all, and more so to those seamen among us who knew
anything of the infinite attempts which had been made
from Europe, as well by the English as the Dutch, to
discover a passage that way into those parts of the
world ; and as William pressed as earnestly to go on to
the north to rescue those poor men, so the ship's com
pany began to incline to it ; and, in a word, we all
came to this, that we would stand in to the shore of
Formosa, to find this priest again, and have a further
account of it all from him. Accordingly, the sloop
went over ; but when they came there, the vessels were
very unhappily sailed, and this put an end to our inquiry
after them, and perhaps may have disappointed man
kind of one of the most noble discoveries that ever was
made, or will again be made, in the world, for the good
of mankind in general ; but so much for that.
William was so uneasy at losing this opportunity,
that he pressed us earnestly to go up to Japan to find
out these men. He told us that if it was nothing but
to recover thirteen honest poor men from a kind of
captivity, which they would otherwise never be re
deemed from, and where, perhaps, they might, some
time or other, be murdered by the barbarous people,
in defence of their idolatry, it were very well worth
232 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
our while, and it would be, in some measure, making
amends for the mischiefs we had done in the world ;
but we, that had no concern upon us for the mischiefs
we had done, had much less about any satisfactions to
be made for it, so he found that kind of discourse
would weigh very little with us. Then he pressed
us very earnestly to let him have the sloop to go by
himself, and I told him I would not oppose it ; but
when he came to the sloop none of the men would
go with him ; for the case was plain, they had all a
share in the cargo of the great ship, as well as in thae
of the sloop, and the richness of the cargo was such
that they would not leave it by any means; so poor
William, much to his mortification, was obliged to give
it over. What became of those thirteen men, or whether
they are not there still, I can give no account of.
We are now at the end of our cruise ; what we
had taken was indeed so considerable, that it was not
only enough to satisfy the most covetous and the most
ambitious minds in the world, but it did indeed
satisfy us, and our men declared they did not desire
any more. The next motion, therefore, was about
going back, and the way by which we should perform
the voyage, so as not to be attacked by the Dutch
in the Straits of Sunda.
We had pretty well stored ourselves here with
provisions, and it being now near the return of the
monsoons, we resolved to stand away to the south
ward ; and not only to keep without the Philippine
Islands, that is to say, to the eastward of them, but to
keep on to the southward, and see if we could not leave
not only the Moluccas, or Spice Islands, behind us, but
even Nova Guinea and Nova Hollandia also ; and so
getting into the variable winds, to the south of the
tropic of Capricorn, steer away to the west, over the
great Indian Ocean.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 233
This was indeed at first a monstrous voyage in its
appearance, and the want of provisions threatened us.
William told us in so many words, that it was im
possible we could carry provisions enough to subsist us
for such a voyage, and especially fresh water ; and that, as
there would be no land for us to touch at where we
could get any supply, it was a madness to undertake it.
But I undertook to remedy this evil, and therefore
desired them not to be uneasy at that, for I knew that
we might supply ourselves at Mindanao, the most
southerly island of the Philippines.
Accordingly, we set sail, having taken all the pro
visions here that we could get, the 28th of September,
the wind veering a little at first from the N.N.W. to
the N.E. by E., but afterwards settled about the N.E.
and the E.N.E. We were nine weeks in this voyage,
having met with several interruptions by the weather,
and put in under the lee of a small island in the
latitude of 1 6 degrees 1 2 minutes, of which we never
knew the name, none of our charts having given any
account of it : I say, we put in here by reason of a
strange tornado or hurricane, which brought us into
a great deal of danger. Here we rode about six
teen days, the winds being very tempestuous and the
weather uncertain. However, we got some provisions
on shore, such as plants and roots, and a few hogs.
We believed there were inhabitants on the island,
but we saw none of them.
From hence, the weather settling again, we went
on and came to the southernmost part of Mindanao,
where we took in fresh water and some cows, but
the climate was so hot that we did not attempt
to salt up any more than so as to keep a fortnight
or three weeks ; and away we stood southward,
crossing the line, and, leaving Gillolo on the starboard
side, we coasted the country they call New Guinea,.
234 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
where, in the latitude of eight degrees south, we put
in again for provisions and water, and where we found
inhabitants ; but they fled from us, and were altogether
inconversable. From thence, sailing still southward,
we left all behind us that any of our charts and maps
took any notice of, and went on till we came to the
latitude of seventeen degrees, the wind continuing still
north-east.
Here we made land to the westward, which, when
we had kept in sight for three days, coasting along the
shore for the distance of about four leagues, we began
to fear we should find no outlet west, and so should
be obliged to go back again, and put in among the
Moluccas at last; but at length we found the land
break off, and go trending away to the west sea, seem
ing to be all open to the south and south-west, and a
great sea came rolling out of the south, which gave us
to understand that there was no land for a great way.
In a word, we kept on our course to the south, a
little westerly, till we passed the south tropic, where
we found the winds variable ; and now we stood away
fair west, and held it out for about twenty days, when
we discovered .land right ahead, and on our larboard
bow ; we made directly to the shore, being willing to
take all advantages now for supplying ourselves with
fresh provisions and water, knowing we were now en
tering on that vast unknown Indian Ocean, perhaps the
greatest sea on the globe, having, with very little inter
ruption of islands, a continued sea quite round the globe.
We found a good road here, and some people on
shore ; but when we landed, they fled up the country,
nor would they hold any correspondence with us, nor
come near us, but shot at us several times with arrows
as long as lances. We set up white flags for a truce,
but they either did not or would not understand it ;
on the contrary, they shot our flag of truce through
CAPTAIN SINGLETON.
2 35
several times with their arrows, so that, in a word, we
never came near any of them.
We found good water here, though it was something
difficult to get at it, but for living creatures we could
see none ; for the people, if they had any cattle, drove
them all away, and showed us nothing but themselves,
and that sometimes in a threatening posture, and in
number so great, that made us suppose the island to be
greater than we first imagined. It is true, they would
not come near enough for us to engage with them, at
least not openly ; but they came near enough for us to
see them, and, by the help of our glasses, to see that
they were clothed and armed, but their clothes were
only about their lower and middle parts; that they
had long lances, half pikes, in their hands, besides
bows and arrows ; that they had great high things on
their heads, made, as we believed, of feathers, and
which looked something like our grenadiers' caps in
England.
When we saw them so shy that they would not
come near us, our men began to range over the island,
if it was such (for we never surrounded it), to search
for cattle, and for any of the Indian plantations, for
fruits or plants ; but they soon found, to their cost,
that they were to use more caution than that came to,
and that they were to discover perfectly every bush
and every tree before they ventured abroad in the
country ; for about fourteen of our men going farther
than the rest, into a part of the country which seemed
to be planted, as they thought, for it did but seem so,
only I think it was overgrown with canes, such as we
make our cane chairs with I say, venturing too far,
they were suddenly attacked with a shower of arrows
from almost every side of them, as they thought, out
of the tops of the trees.
They had nothing to do but to fly for it, which,
236 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
however, they could not resolve on, till five of them
were wounded ; nor had they escaped so, if one of
them had not been so much wiser or thoughtfuller
than the rest, as to consider, that though they could
not see the enemy, so as to shoot at them, yet perhaps
the noise of their shot might terrify them, and that
they should rather fire at a venture. Accordingly, ten
of them faced about, and fired at random anywhere
among the canes.
The noise and the fire not only terrified the enemy,
but, as they believed, their shot had luckily hit some
of them ; for they found not only that the arrows,
which came thick among them before, ceased, but they
heard the Indians halloo, after their way, to one an
other, and make a strange noise, more uncouth and
inimitably strange than any they had ever heard, more
like the howling and barking of wild creatures in the
woods than like the voice of men, only that sometimes
they seemed to speak words.
They observed also, that this noise of the Indians
went farther and farther off, so that they were satisfied
the Indians fled away, except on one side, where
they heard a doleful groaning and howling, and where
it continued a good while, which they supposed was
from some or other of them being wounded, and
howling, by reason of their wounds ; or killed, and
others howling over them : but our men had enough
of making discoveries ; so they did not trouble
themselves to look farther, but resolved to take this
opportunity to retreat. But the worst of their adven
ture was to come ; for as they came back, they passed
by a prodigious great trunk of an old tree ; what tree
it was, they said, they did not know, but it stood like
an old decayed oak in a park, where the keepers in
England take a stand, as they call it, to shoot a deer ;
and it stood just under the steep side of a great rock,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 237
or hill, that our people could not see what was be
yond it.
As they came by this tree, they were of a sudden
shot at, from the top of the tree, with seven arrows
and three lances, which, to our great grief, killed two
of our men, and wounded three more. This was the
more surprising, because, being without any defence,
and so near the trees, they expected more lances and
arrows every moment ; nor would flying do them any
service, the Indians being, as appeared, very good
marksmen. In this extremity, they had happily this
presence of mind, viz., to run close to the tree, and
stand, as it were, under it; so that those above could
not come at, or see them, to throw their lances at
them. This succeeded, and gave them time to con
sider what to do ; they knew their enemies and
murderers were above ; they heard them talk, and
those above knew those were below ; but they below
were obliged to keep close for fear of their lances
from above. At length, one of our men, lopking a
little more strictly than the rest, thought he saw the
head of one of the Indians just over a dead limb of
the tree, which, it seems, the creature sat upon. One
man immediately fired, and levelled his piece so true
that the shot went through the fellow's head ; and
down he fell out of the tree immediately, and came
upon the ground with such force, with the height of
his fall, that if he had not been killed with the shot,
he would certainly have been killed with dashing his
body against the ground.
This so frightened them, that, besides the howling
noise they made in the tree, our men heard a strange
clutter of them in the body of the tree, from whence
they concluded they had made the tree hollow, and
were got to hide themselves there. Now, had this
been the case, they were secure enough from our men 7
238 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
for it was impossible any of our men could get up the
tree on the outside, there being no branches to climb
by; and, to shoot at the tree, that they tried several
times to no purpose, for the tree was so thick that no
shot would enter it. They made no doubt, however,
but that they had their enemies in a trap, apd that a
small siege would either bring them down, tree and all,
or starve them out ; so they resolved to keep their post,
and send to us for help. Accordingly, two of them
came away to us for more hands, and particularly desired
that some of our carpenters might come with tools, to
help to cut down the tree, or at least to cut down other
wood and set fire to it; and that, they concluded, would
not fail to bring them out.
Accordingly, our men went like a little army, and
with mighty preparations for an enterprise, the like of
which has scarce been ever heard, to form the siege of
a great tree. However, when they came there, they
found the task difficult enough, for the old trunk was
indeed a very great one, and very tall, being at least
two-and-twenty feet high, with seven old limbs stand
ing out every way from the top, but decayed, and very
few leaves, if any, left on it.
William the Quaker, whose curiosity led him to
go among the rest, proposed that they should make a
ladder, and get upon the top, and then throw wild-fire
into the tree, and smoke them out. Others proposed
going back, and getting a great gun out of the ship,
which would split the tree in pieces with the iron
bullets ; others, that they should cut down a great deal
of wood, and pile it up round the tree, and set it on
fire, and burn the tree, and the Indians in it.
These consultations took up our people no less than
two or three days, in all which time they heard nothing
of the supposed garrison within this wooden castle,
nor any noise within. William's project was first
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 239
gone about, and a large strong ladder was made, to
scale this wooden tower ; and in two or three hours'
time it would have been ready to mount, when, on a
sudden, they heard the noise of the Indians in the
body of the tree again, and a little after, several of
them appeared at the top of the tree, and threw some
lances down at our men ; one of which struck one of
our seamen a-top of the shoulder, and gave him such
a desperate wound, that the surgeons not only had a
great deal of difficulty to cure him, but the poor man
endured such horrible torture, that we all said they had
better have killed him outright. However, he was
cured at last, though he never recovered the perfect
use of his arm, the lance having cut some of the
tendons on the top of the arm, near the shoulder,
which, as I supposed, performed the office of motion
to the limb before ; so that the poor man was a cripple
all the days of his life. But to return to the desperate
rogues in the tree ; our men shot at them, but did not
find they had hit them, or any of them ; but as soon
as ever they shot at them, they could hear them huddle
down into the trunk of the tree again, and there, to be
sure, they were safe.
Well, however, it was this which put by the pro
ject of William's ladder ; for when it was done, who
would venture up among such a troop of bold creatures
as were there, and who, they supposed, were desperate
by their circumstances ? And as but one man at a
time could go up, they began to think it would not do ;
and, indeed, I was of the opinion (for about this time
I was come to their assistance) that going up the
ladder would not do, unless it was thus, that a man
should, as it were, run just up to the top, and throw
some fireworks into the tree, and come down again ;
and this we did two or three times, but found no effect
of it. At last, one of our gunners made a stink-pot,
240 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
as we called it, being a composition which only smokes,
but does not flame or burn ; but withal the smoke of
it is so thick, and the smell of it so intolerably nauseous,
that it is not to be suffered. This he threw into the
tree himself, and we waited for the effect of it, but
heard or saw nothing all that night or the next day ;
so we concluded the men within were all smothered ;
when, on a sudden, the next night we heard them
upon the top of the tree again shouting and hallooing
like madmen.
We concluded, as anybody would, that this was to
call for help, and we resolved to continue our siege ;
for we were all enraged to see ourselves so baulked by a
few wild people, whom we thought we had safe in our
clutches ; and, indeed, never were there so many con
curring circumstances to delude men in any case we
had met with. We resolved, however, to try another
stink-pot the next night, and our engineer and gunner had
got it ready, when, hearing a noise of the enemy on the
top of the tree, and in the body of the tree, I was not
willing to let the gunner go up the ladder, which, I
said, would be but to be certain of being murdered.
However, he found a medium for it, and that was to go
up a few steps, and, with a long pole in his hand, to
throw it in upon the top of the tree, the ladder being
standing all this while against the top of the tree ; but
when the gunner, with his machine at the top of his
pole, came to the tree, with three other men to help
him, behold the ladder was gone.
This perfectly confounded us ; and we now con
cluded the Indians in the tree had, by this piece of
negligence, taken the opportunity, and come all down
the ladder, made their escape, and had carried away
the ladder with them. I laughed most heartily at
my friend William, who, as I said, had the direction
of the siege, and had set up a ladder for the garrison,
,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 241
as we called them, to get down upon, and run away.
But when daylight came, we were all set to rights
again ; for there stood our ladder, hauled up on the top
of the tree, with about half of it in the hollow of the
tree, and the other half upright in the air. Then we
began to laugh at the Indians for fools, that they could
Dot as well have found their way down by the ladder,
and have made their escape, as to have pulled it up by
main strength into the tree.
We then resolved upon fire, and so to put an end to
the work at once, and burn the tree and its inhabitants
together; and accordingly we went to work to cut
wood, and in a few hours' time we got enough, as we
thought, together ; and, piling it up round the bottom
of the tree, we set it on fire, waiting at a distance to see
when, the gentlemen's quarters being too hot for them,
they would come flying out at the top. But we were
quite confounded when, on a sudden, we found the fire
all put out by a great quantity of water thrown upon it.
We then thought the devil must be in them, to be sure.
Says William, " This is certainly the cunningest piece
of Indian engineering that ever was heard of; and there
can be but one thing more to guess at, besides witchcraft
and dealing with the devil, which I believe not one
word of," says he; "and that must be, that this is an
artificial tree, or a natural tree artificially made hollow
down into the earth, through root and all ; and that
these creatures have an artificial cavity underneath it,
quite into the hill, or a way to go through, and under the
hill, to some other place ; and where that other place
is, we know not ; but if it be not our own fault, I'll
find the place, and follow them into it, before I am two
days older." He then called the carpenters, to know
of them if they had any large saws that would cut
through the body ; and they told him they had no saws
that were long enough, nor could men work into such
Q,
242 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
a monstrous old stump in a great while ; but that they
would go to work with it with their axes, and under
take to cut it down in two days, and stock up the root
of it in two more. But William was for another way,
which proved much better than all this ; for he was for
silent work, that, if possible, he might catch some of
the fellows in it. So he sets twelve men to it with large
augers, to bore great holes into the side of the tree, to
go almost through, but not quite through ; which holes
were bored without noise, and when they were done he
filled them all with gunpowder, stopping strong plugs,
bolted crossways, into the holes, and then boring a
slanting hole, of a less size, down into the greater hole,
all of which were filled with powder, and at once blown
up. When they took fire, they made such a noise, and
tore and split up the tree in so many places, and in such
a manner, that we could see plainly such another blast
would demolish it ; and so it did. Thus at the second
time we could, at two or three places, put our hands in
them, and discovered a cheat, namely, that there was a
cave or hole dug into the earth, from or through the
bottom of the hollow, and that it had communication
with another cave farther in, where we heard the voices
of several of the wild folks, calling and talking to one
another.
When we came thus far we had a great mind to get
at them ; and William desired that three men might
be given him with hand-grenadoes ; and he promised
to go down first, and boldly he did so ; for William,
to give him his due, had the heart of a lion.
They had pistols in their hands, and swords by
their sides ; but, as they had taught the Indians before
by their stink-pots, the Indians returned them in their
own kind ; for they made such a smoke come up out of
the entrance into the cave or hollow, that William and
his three men were glad to come running out of the
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 243
cave, and out of the tree too, for mere want of breath ;
and indeed they were almost stifled.
Never was a fortification so well defended, or
assailants so many ways defeated. We were now for
giving it over, and particularly I called William,
and told him I could not but laugh to see us spin
ning out our time here for nothing ; that I could not
imagine what we were doing ; that it was certain that
the rogues that were in it were cunning to the last
degree, and it would vex anybody to be so baulked by a
few naked ignorant fellows ; but still it was not worth
our while to push it any further, nor was there anything
that I knew of to be got by the conquest when it was
made, so that I thought it high time to give it over.
William acknowledged what I said was just, and that
there was nothing but our curiosity to be gratified in
this attempt ; and though, as he said, he was very
desirous to have searched into the thing, yet he would
not insist upon it ; so we resolved to quit it and come
away, which we did. However, William said before
we went he would have this satisfaction of them, viz.,
to burn down the tree and stop up the entrance into the
cave. And while doing this the gunner told him he
would have one satisfaction of the rogues ; and this
was, that he would make a mine of it, and see which
way it had vent. Upon this he fetched two barrels of
powder out of the ships, and placed them in the inside
of the hollow of the cave, as far in as he durst go to
carry them, and then filling up the mouth of the cave
where the tree stood, and ramming it sufficiently hard,
leaving only a pipe or touch-hole, he gave fire to it,
and stood at a distance to see which way it would
operate, when on a sudden he found the force of the
powder burst its way out among some bushes on the
other side the little hill I mentioned, and that it came
roaring out there as out of the mouth of a cannon.
244 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
Immediately running thither, we saw the effects of the
powder.
First, we saw that there was the other mouth of
the cave, which the powder had so torn and opened,
that the loose earth was so fallen in again that nothing
of shape could be discerned ; but there we saw what
was become of the garrison of the Indians, too, who
had given us all this trouble, for some of them had no
arms, some no legs, some no head ; some lay half
buried in the rubbish of the mine that is to say, in
the loose earth that fell in ; and, in short, there was a
miserable havoc made in them all ; for we had good
reason to believe not one of them that were in the
inside could escape, but rather were shot out of the
mouth of the cave, like a bullet out of a gun.
We had now our full satisfaction of the Indians ; but,
in short, this was a losing voyage, for we had two
men killed, one quite crippled, and five more wounded ;
we spent two barrels of powder, and eleven days' time,
and all to get the understanding how to make an Indian
mine, or how to keep garrison in a hollow tree ; and
with this wit, bought at this dear price, we came away,
having taken in some fresh water, but got no fresh
provisions.
We then considered what we should do to get back
again to Madagascar. We were much about the latitude
of the Cape of Good Hope, but had such a very long
run, and were neither sure of meeting with fair winds
nor with any land in the way, that we knew not what
to think of it. William was our last resort in this case
again, and he was very plain with us. " Friend," says
he to Captain Wilmot, *' what occasion hast thou to
run the venture of starving, merely for the pleasure of
saying thou hast been where nobody has been before ?
There are a great many places nearer home, of which
thou mayest say the same thing at less expense. I see
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 245
no occasion thou hast of keeping thus far south any
longer than till you are sure you are to the west end of
Java and Sumatra ; and then thou mayest stand away
north towards Ceylon, and the coast of Coromandel and
Madras, where thou mayest get both fresh water and
fresh provisions ; and to that part it is likely we may
hold out well enough with the stores we have already."
This was wholesome advice, and such as was not to
be slighted ; so we stood away to the west, keeping
between the latitude of 31 and 35, and had very good
weather and fair winds for about ten days 7 sail ; by
which time, by our reckoning, we were clear of the
isles, and might run away to the north ; and if we did
not fall in with Ceylon, we should at least go into the
great deep Bay of Bengal.
But we were out in our reckoning a great deal ; for,
when we had stood due north for about fifteen or six
teen degrees, we met with land again on our starboard
bow, about three leagues' distance ; so we came to an
anchor about half a league from it, and manned out our
boats to see what sort of a country it was. We found
it a very good one ; fresh water easy to come at, but
no cattle that we could see, or inhabitants ; and we
were very shy of searching too far after them, lest we
should make such another journey as we did last ; so
that we let rambling alone, and chose rather to take
what we could find, which was only a few wild man
goes, and some plants of several kinds, which we knew
not the names of.
We made no stay here, but put to sea again, N.W.
by N., but had little wind for a fortnight more, when
we made land again ; and standing in with the shore,
we were surprised to find ourselves on the south shore
of Java ; and just as we were coming to an anchor we
saw a boat, carrying Dutch colours, sailing along-shore.
We were not solicitous to speak with them, or any other
246 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
of their nation, but left it indifferent to our people,
when they went on shore, to see the Dutchmen or not
to see them ; our business was to get provisions, which,
indeed, by this time were very short with us.
We resolved to go on shore with our boats in the
most convenient place we could find, and to look out a
proper harbour to bring the ship into, leaving it to our
fate whether we should meet with friends or enemies ;
resolving, however, not to stay any considerable time,
at least not long enough to have expresses sent across
the island to Batavia, and for ships to come round from
thence to attack us.
We found, according to our desire, a very good
harbour, where we rode in seven fathom water, well
defended from the weather, whatever might happen ;
and here we got fresh provisions, such as good hogs
and some cows ; and that we might lay in a little store,
we killed sixteen cows, and pickled and barrelled up
the flesh as well as we could be supposed to do in the
latitude of eight degrees from the line.
We did all this in about five days, and filled our
casks with water ; and the last boat was coming off
with herbs and roots, we being unmoored, and our fore-
topsail loose for sailing, when we spied a large ship to
the northward, bearing down directly upon us. We
knew not what she might be, but concluded the worst,
and made all possible haste to get our anchor up, and
get under sail, that we might be in a readiness to see
what she had to say to us, for we were under no great
concern for one ship, but our notion was, that we should
be attacked by three or four together.
By the time we had got up our anchor and the boat
was stowed, the ship was within a league of us, and, as
we thought, bore down to engage us ; so we spread our
black flag, or ancient, on the poop, and the bloody flag
at the top-mast-head, and having made a clear ship, we
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 247
stretched away to the westward, to get the wind of
him.
They had, it seems, quite mistaken us before, expect
ing nothing of an enemy or a pirate in those seas ; and,
not doubting but we had been one of their own ships,
they seemed to be in some confusion when they found
their mistake, so they immediately hauled upon a wind
on the other tack, and stood edging in for the shore,
towards the easternmost part of the island. Upon this
we tacked, and stood after him with all the sail we could,
and in two hours came almost within gunshot. Though
they crowded all the sail they could lay on, there was
no remedy but to engage us, and they soon saw their
inequality of force. We fired a gun for them to bring
to ; so they manned out their boat, and sent to us with
a flag of truce. We sent back the boat, but with this
answer to the captain, that he had nothing to do but to
strike and bring his ship to an anchor under our stern,
and come on board us himself, when he should know
our demands ; but that, however, since he had not yet
put us to the trouble of forcing him, which we saw we
were able to do, we assured them that the captain should
return again in safety, and all his men, and that, supply
ing us with such things as we should demand, his ship
should not be plundered. They went back with this
message, and it was some time after they were on board
before they struck, which made us begin to think they
refused it ; so we fired a shot, and in a few minutes
more we perceived their boat put off; and as soon as
the boat put off the ship struck and came to an anchor,
as was directed.
When the captain came on board, we demanded an
account of their cargo, which was chiefly bales of
goods from Bengal for Bantam. We told them our
present want was provisions, which they had no need of,
being just at the end of their voyage ; and that, if they
248 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
would send their boat on shore with ours, and procure
us six-and-twenty head of black cattle, threescore hogs,
a quantity of brandy and arrack, and three hundred
bushels of rice, we would let them go free.
As to the rice, they gave us six hundred bushels,
which they had actually on board, together with a parcel
shipped upon freight. Also, they gave us thirty mid
dling casks of very good arrack, but beef and pork they
had none. However, they went on shore with our men,
and bought eleven bullocks and fifty hogs, which were
pickled up for our occasion ; and upon the supplies of
provision from shore, we dismissed them and their ship.
We lay here several days before we could furnish
ourselves with the provisions agreed for, and some of
the men fancied the Dutchmen were contriving our
destruction ; but they were very honest, and did what
they could to furnish the black cattle, but found it im
possible to supply so many. So they came and told us
ingenuously, that, unless we could stay a while longer,
they could get no more oxen or cows than those
eleven, with which we were obliged to be satisfied,
taking the value of them in other things, rather than
stay longer there. On our side, we were punctual with
them in observing the conditions we had agreed on ;
nor would we let any of our men so much as go on
board them, or suffer any of their men to come on board
us ; for, had any of our men gone on board, nobody
could have answered for their behaviour, any more than
if they had been on shore in an enemy's country.
We were now victualled for our voyage ; and, as
we mattered not purchase, we went merrily on for the
coast of Ceylon, where we intended to touch, to get
fresh water again, and more provisions ; and we had
nothing material offered in this part of the voyage, only
that we met with contrary winds, and were above a
month in the passage.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 249
We put in upon the south coast of the island, desir
ing to have as little to do with the Dutch as we could ;
and as the Dutch were lords of the country as to com
merce, so they are more so of the sea-coast, where
they have several forts, and, in particular, have all the
cinnamon, which is the trade of that island.
We took in fresh water here, and some provisions,
but did not much trouble ourselves about laying in any
stores, our beef and hogs, which we got at Java, being
not yet all gone by a good deal. We had a little
skirmish on shore here with some of the people of the
island, some of our men having been a little too familiar
with the homely ladies of the country ; for homely,
indeed, they were, to such a degree, that if our men
had not had good stomachs that way, they would scarce
have touched any of them.
I could never fully get it out of our men what they
did, they were so true to one another in their wicked
ness, but I understood in the main, that it was some
barbarous thing they had done, and that they had like
to have paid dear for it, for the men resented it to the
last degree, and gathered in such numbers about them,
that, had not sixteen more of our men, in another boat,
come all in the nick of time, just to rescue our first
men, who were but eleven, and so fetch them off by
main force, they had been all cut off, the inhabitants
being no less than two or three hundred, armed with
darts and lances, the usual weapons of the country, and
which they are very dexterous at the throwing, even
so dexterous that it was scarce credible ; and had our
men stood to fight them, as some of them were bold
enough to talk of, they had been all overwhelmed and
killed. As it was, seventeen of our men were wounded,
and some of them very dangerously. But they were
more frighted than hurt too, for every one of them
gave themselves over for dead men, believing the lances
250 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
were poisoned. But William was our comfort here
too ; for, when two of our surgeons were of the same
opinion, and told the men foolishly enough that they
would die, William cheerfully went to work with them,
and cured them all but one, who rather died by drink
ing some arrack punch than of his wound ; the excess
of drinking throwing him into a fever.
We had enough of Ceylon, though some of our
people were for going ashore again, sixty or seventy
men together, to be revenged ; but William persuaded
them against it ; and his reputation was so great among
the men, as well as with us that were commanders,
that he could influence them more than any of us.
They were mighty warm upon their revenge, and
they would go on shore, and destroy five hundred of
them. " Well," says William, " and suppose you do,
what are you the better ?" " Why, then," says one of
them, speaking for the rest, " we shall have our satis
faction." " Well, and what will you be the better for
that ? " says William. They could then say nothing to
that. " Then," says William, " if I mistake not, your
business is money ; now, I desire to know, if you con
quer and kill two or three thousand of these poor
creatures, they have no money, pray what will you get ?
They are poor naked wretches ; what shall you gain by
them ? But then," says William, " perhaps, in doing
this, you may chance to lose half-a-score of your own
company, as it is very probable you may. Pray, what
gain is in it ? and what account can you give the cap
tain for his lost men ? " In short, William argued so
effectually, that he convinced them that it was mere
murder to do so ; and that the men had a right to their
own, and that they had no right to take them away ;
that it was destroying innocent men, who had acted no
otherwise than as the laws of nature dictated ; and that
it would be as much murder to do so, as to meet a man
CAPTAIN SINGLETON.
251
on the highway, and kill him, for the mere sake of it,
in cold blood, not regarding whether he had done any
wrong to us or no.
These reasons prevailed with them at last, and they
were content to go away, and leave them as they found
them. In the first skirmish they killed between sixty
and seventy men, and wounded a great many more ;
but they had nothing, and our people got nothing by it,
but the loss of one man's life, and the wounding sixteen
more, as above.
But another accident brought us to a necessity of
further business with these people, and indeed we had
like to have put an end to our lives and adventures all
at once among them ; for, about three days after our
putting out to sea from the place where we had that
skirmish, we were attacked by a violent storm of wind
from the south, or rather a hurricane of wind from all
the points southward, for it blew in a most desperate
and furious manner from the S.E. to the S.W., one
minute at one point, and then instantly turning about
again to another point, but with the same violence ; nor
were we able to work the ship in that condition, so
that the ship I was in split three top-sails, and at last
brought the main-top-mast by the board ; and, in a
word, we were once or twice driven right ashore ; and
one time, had not the wind shifted the very moment it
did, we had been dashed in a thousand pieces upon a
great ledge of rocks which lay off about half-a-league
from the shore ; but, as I have said, the wind shifting
very often, and at that time coming to the E.S.E., we
stretched off, and got above a league more sea-room in
half-an-hour. After that, it blew with some fury S.W.
by S., then S.W. by W., and put us back again a great
way to the eastward of the ledge of rocks, where we
found a great opening between the rocks and the land,
and endeavoured to come to an anchor there, but we
252 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
found there was no ground fit to anchor in, and that
we should lose our anchors, there being nothing but
rocks. We stood through the opening, which held
about four leagues. The storm continued, and now
we found a dreadful foul shore, and knew not what
course to take. We looked out very narrowly for some
river or creek or bay, where we might run in, and
come to an anchor, but found none a great while. At
length we saw a great headland lie out far south into
the sea, and that to such a length, that, in short, we
saw plainly that, if the wind held where it was, we
could not weather it, so we ran in as much under the
lee of the point as we could, and came to an anchor in
about twelve fathom water.
But the wind veering again in the night, and blow
ing exceedingly hard, our anchors came home, and the
ship drove till the rudder struck against the ground ;
and had the ship gone half her length farther she had
been lost, and every one of us with her. But our sheet-
anchor held its own, and we heaved in some of the cable,
to get clear of the ground we had struck upon. It was
by this only cable that we rode it out all night ; and
towards morning we thought the wind abated a little ;
and it was well for us that it was so, for, in spite of
what our sheet-anchor did for us, we found the ship
fast aground in the morning, to our very great surprise
and amazement.
When the tide was out, though the water here ebbed
away, the ship lay almost dry upon a bank of hard sand,
which never, I suppose, had any ship upon it before.
The people of the country came down in great numbers
to look at us and gaze, not knowing what we were, but
gaping at us as at a great sight or wonder at which they
were surprised, and knew not what to do.
I have reason to believe that upon the sight they im
mediately sent an account of a ship being there, and of
CAPTAIN SINGLETON.
253
the condition we were in, for the next day there ap
peared a great man ; whether it was their king or no I
know not, but he had abundance of men with him, and
some with long javelins in their hands as long as half-
pikes ; and these came all down to the water's edge,
and drew up in a very good order, just in our view.
They stood near an hour without making any motion ;
and then there came near twenty of them, with a man
before them carrying a white flag. They came forward
into the water as high as their waists, the sea not going
so high as before, for the wind was abated, and blew off
the shore.
The man made a long oration to us, as we could see
by his gestures ; and we sometimes heard his voice, but
knew not one word he said. William, who was always
useful to us, I believe was here again the saving of all
our lives. The case was this : The fellow, or what I
might call him, when his speech was done, gave three
great screams (for I know not what else to say they
were), then lowered his white flag three times, and
then made three motions to us with his arm to come
to him.
I acknowledge that I was for manning out the
boat and going to them, but William would by no
means allow me. He told me we ought to trust
nobody ; that, if they were barbarians, and under their
own government, we might be sure to be all murdered;
and, if they were Christians, we should not fare much
better, if they knew who we were; that it was the
custom of the Malabars to betray all people that they
could get into their hands, and that these were some
of the same people ; and that, if we had any regard to
our own safety, we should not go to them by any means.
I opposed him a great while, and told him I thought
he used to be always right, but that now I though:
he was not ; that I was no more for running needless
254 LIFE J ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
risks than he or any one else; but I thought all
nations in the world, even the most savage people,
when they held out a flag of peace, kept the offer of
peace made by that signal very sacredly ; and I gave
him several examples of it in the history of my African
travels, which I have here gone through in the begin
ning of this work, and that I could not think these
people worse than some of them. And, besides, I told
him our case seemed to be such that we must fall into
somebody's hands or other, and that we had better fall
into their hands by a friendly treaty than by a forced
submission, nay, though they had indeed a treacherous
design ; and therefore I was for a parley with them.
"Well, friend," says William very gravely, "if
thou wilt go I cannot help it; I shall only desire to
take my last leave of thee at parting, for, depend upon
it, thou wilt never see us again. Whether we in the
ship may come off any better at last I cannot resolve
thee ; but this I will answer for, that we will not give
up our lives idly, and in cool blood, as thou art going
to do ; we will at least preserve ourselves as long as we
can, and die at last like men, not like fools, trepanned
by the wiles of a few barbarians."
William spoke this with so much warmth, and yet
with so much assurance of our fate, that I began to
think a little of the risk I was going to run. I had no
more mind to be murdered than he ; and yet I could
not for my life be so faint-hearted in the thing as he.
Upon which I asked him if he had any knowledge
of the place, or had ever been there. He said, No.
Then I asked him if he had heard or read anything
about the people of this island, and of their way of
treating any Christians that had fallen into their hands ;
and he told me he had heard of one, and he would tell
me the story afterward His name, he said, was Knox,
commander of an East India ship, who was driven on
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 255
shore, just as we were, upon this island of Ceylon,
though he could not say it was at the same place, or
whereabouts ; that he was beguiled by the barbarians,
and enticed to come on shore, just as we were invited
to do at that time ; and that, when they had him, they
surrounded him, and eighteen or twenty of his men,
and never suffered them to return, but kept them
prisoners, or murdered them, he could not tell which ;
but they were carried away up into the country, sepa
rated from one another, and never heard of afterwards,
except the captain's son, who miraculously made his
escape, after twenty years' slavery.
I had no time then to ask him to give the full
story of this Knox, much less to hear him tell it me ;
but, as it is usual in such cases, when one begins to be
a little touched, I turned short with him. "Why
then, friend William," said I, " what would you have
us do ? You see what condition we are in, and what
is before us ; something must be done, and that im
mediately." "Why," says William, "I'll tell thee
what thou shalt do ; first, cause a white flag to be
hanged out, as they do to us, and man out the long
boat and pinnace with as many men as they can well
stow, to handle their arms, and let me go with them,
and thou shalt see what we will do. If I miscarry,
thou mayest be safe ; and I will also tell thee, that if
I do miscarry, it shall be my own fault, and thou shalt
learn wit by my folly."
I knew not what to reply to him at first ; but, after
some pause, I said, "William, William, I am as loth
you should be lost as you are that I should ; and if
there be any danger, I desire you may no more fall
into it than I. Therefore, if you will, let us all keep
in the ship, fare alike, and take our fate together."
"No, no," says William, "there's no danger in
the method I propose ; thou shalt go with me, if
256 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
thou thinkest fit. If thou pleasest but to follow the
measures that I shall resolve on, depend upon it,
though we will go off from the ships, we will not a
man of us go any nearer them than within call to
talk with them. Thou seest they have no boats to
come off to us ; but," says he, " I rather desire thou
wouldst take my advice, and manage the ships as I
shall give the signal from the boat, and let us concert
that matter together before we go off."
Well, I found William had his measures in his
head all laid beforehand, and was not at a loss what
to do at all ; so I told him he should be captain for
this voyage, and we would be all of us under his
orders, which I would see observed to a tittle.
Upon this conclusion of our debates, he ordered
four-and-twenty men into the long-boat, and twelve
men into the pinnace, and the sea being now pretty
smooth, they went off, being all very well armed.
Also he ordered that all the guns of the great ship,
on the side which lay next the shore, should be loaded
with musket-balls, old nails, stubs, and such-like pieces
of old iron, lead, and anything that came to hand ;
and that we should prepare to fire as soon as ever we
saw them lower the white flag and hoist up a red one
in the pinnace.
With these measures fixed between us, they went
off towards the shore, William in the pinnace with
twelve men, and the long-boat coming after him with
four-and-twenty more, all stout resolute fellows, and
very well armed. They rowed so near the shore as
that they might speak to one another, carrying a white
flag, as the other did, and offering a parley. The
brutes, for such they were, showed themselves very
courteous ; but finding we could not understand them,
they fetched an old Dutchman, who had been their
prisoner many years, and set him to speak to us. The
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 257
sum and substance of his speech was, that the king of
the country had sent his general down to know who
we were, and what our business was. William stood
up in the stern of the pinnace, and told him, that as to
that, he, that was an European, by his language and
voice, might easily know what we were, and our con
dition ; the ship being aground upon the sand would
also tell him that our business there was that of a ship
in distress; so William desired to know what they
came down for with such a multitude, and with arms
and weapons, as if they came to war with us.
He answered, they might have good reason to come
down to the shore, the country being alarmed with the
.appearance of ships of strangers upon the coast ; and as
our vessels were full of men, and as we had guns and
weapons, the king had sent part of his military men,
that, in case of any invasion upon the country, they
might be ready to defend themselves, whatsoever might
be the occasion.
" But," says he, " as you are men in distress, the
king has ordered his general, who is here also, to give
you all the assistance he can, and to invite you on
shore, and receive you with all possible courtesy."
Says William, very quick upon him, " Before I give
thee an answer to that, I desire thee to tell me what
thou art, for by thy speech thou art an European."
He answered presently, he was a Dutchman. " That
I know well," says William, " by thy speech ; but
art thou a native Dutchman of Holland, or a native of
this country, that has learned Dutch by conversing
among the Hollanders, who we know are settled upon
this island?"
"No," says the old man, " I am a native of Delft,
in the province of Holland, in Europe."
" Well," says William, immediately, " but art thou
a Christian or a heathen, or what we call a renegado ? "
258 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
"I am," says he, "a Christian." And so they
went on, in a short dialogue, as follows :
William. Thou art a Dutchman, and a Christian,
thou sayest ; pray, art thou a freeman or a servant ?
Dutchman. I am a servant to the king here, and in
his army.
IV. But art thou a volunteer, or a prisoner ?
D. Indeed I was a prisoner at first, but am at
liberty now, and so am a volunteer.
W. That is to say, being first a prisoner, thou hast
liberty to serve them ; but art thou so at liberty that
thou mayest go away, if thou pleasest, to thine own
countrymen ?
D. No, I do not say so ; my countrymen live a
great way off, on the north and east parts of the
island, and there is no going to them without the
king's express license.
W. Well, and why dost thou not get a license to
go away ?
D. I have never asked for it.
W. And, I suppose, if thou didst, thou knowcst
thou couldst not obtain it.
D. I cannot say much as to that ; but why do you
ask me all these questions ?
W. Why, my reason is good ; if thou art a Christian
and a prisoner, how canst thou consent to be made an
instrument to these barbarians, to betray us into their
hands, who are thy countrymen and fellow-Christians ?
Is it not a barbarous thing in thee to do so ?
D. How do I go about to betray you ? Do I not
give you an account how the king invites you to come
on shore, and has ordered you to be treated courteously
and assisted ?
W. As thou art a Christian, though I doubt it
much, dost thou believe the king or the general, as
thou callest it, means one word of what he says ?
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 259
D. He promises you by the mouth of his great
general.
W. I don't ask thee what he promises, or by whom ;
but I ask thee this : Canst thou say that thou believest
he intends to perform it ?
D. How can I answer that ? How can I tell what
he intends ?
W. Thou canst tell what thou believest.
D. I cannot say but he will perform it ; I believe
he may.
W. Thou art but a double-tongued Christian, I
doubt. Come, I'll ask thee another question : Wilt
thou say that thou believest it, and that thou wouldst
advise me to believe it, and put our lives into their
hands upon these promises ?
Z>. I am not to be your adviser.
W. Thou art perhaps afraid to speak thy mind,
because thou art in their power. Pray, do any of
them understand what thou and I say? Can they
speak Dutch ?
D. No, not one of them ; I have no apprehensions
upon that account at all.
W. Why, then, answer me plainly, if thou art a
Christian : Is it safe for us to venture upon their
words, to put ourselves into their hands, and come on
shore ?
D. You put it very home to me. Pray let me ask
you another question: Are you in any likelihood of
getting your ship off, if you refuse it ?
W. Yes, yes, we shall get off the ship ; now the
storm is over we don't fear it.
D. Then I cannot say it is best for you to trust
them.
W. Well, it is honestly said.
Z). But what shall I say to them ?
W. Give them good words, as they give us.
260 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
D. What good words ?
W. Why, let them tell the king that we are
strangers, who were driven on his coast by a great
storm ; that we thank him very kindly for his offer of
civility to us, which, if we are further distressed, we
will accept thankfully ; but that at present we have no
occasion to come on shore ; and besides, that we can
not safely leave the ship in the present condition she is
in ; but that we are obliged to take care of her, in order
to get her off; and expect, in a tide or two more, to
get her quite clear, and at an anchor.
D. But he will expect you to come on shore, then,
to visit him, and make him some present for his civility.
W. When we have got our ship clear, and stopped
the leaks, we will pay our respects to him.
D. Nay, you may as well come to him now as
then.
W. Nay, hold, friend; I did not say we would
come to him then : you talked of making him a pre
sent, that is to pay our respects to him, is it not ?
D. Well, but I will tell him that you will come on
shore to him when your ship is got off.
W. I have nothing to say to that ; you may tell him
what you think fit.
D. But he will be in a great rage if I do not.
W. Who will he be in a great rage at ?
Z>. At you.
W. What occasion have we to value that ?
D. Why, he will send all his army down against
you.
W. And what if they were all here just now?
What dost thou suppose they could do to us ?
Z). He would expect they should burn your ships
and bring you all to him.
W. Tell him, if he should try, he may catch a
Tartar.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 26 1
D. He has a world of men.
W. Has he any ships ?
Z). No, he has no ships.
W. Nor boats?
D. No, nor boats.
W. Why, what then do you think we care for his
men ? What canst thou do now to us, if thou hadst a
hundred thousand with thee ?
D. Oh ! they might set you on fire.
W. Set us a-firing, thou meanest ; that they might
indeed; but set us on fire they shall not; they may
try, at their peril, and we shall make mad work with
your hundred thousand men, if they come within reach
of our guns, I assure thee.
D. . But what if the king gives you hostages for your
safety ?
W. Whom can he give but mere slaves and servants
like thyself, whose lives he no more values than we an
English hound ?
D. Whom do you demand for hostages ?
W. Himself and your worship.
D. What would you do with him ?
W. Do with him as he would do with us cut his
head off.
Z). And what would you do with me ?
W. Do with thee ? We would carry thee home
into thine own country ; and, though thou deservest
the gallows, we would make a man and a Christian of
thee again, and not do by thee as thou wouldst have
done by us betray thee to a parcel of merciless,
savage pagans, that know no God, nor how to show
mercy to man.
D. You put a thought in my head that I will speak
to you about to-morrow.
Thus they went away, and William came on board,
and gave us a full account of his parley with the old
262 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
Dutchman, which was very diverting, and to me in
structing; for I had abundance of reason to acknowledge
William had made a better judgment of things than I.
It was our good fortune to get our ship off that
very night, and to bring her to an anchor at about a
mile and a half farther out, and in deep water, to our
great satisfaction ; so that we had no need to fear the
Dutchman's king, with his hundred thousand men ;
and indeed we had some sport with them the next day,
when they came down, a vast prodigious multitude of
them, very few less in number, in our imagination, than
a hundred thousand, with some elephants ; though, if it
had been an army of elephants, they could have done us
no harm ; for we were fairly at our anchor now, and out
of their reach. And indeed we thought ourselves more
out of their reach than we really were ; and it was ten
thousand to one that we had not been fast aground again,
for the wind blowing off shore, though it made the
water smooth where we lay, yet it blew the ebb farther
out than usual, and we could easily perceive the sand,
which we touched upon before, lay in the shape
of a half-moon, and surrounded us with two horns
of it, so that we lay in the middle or centre of it,
as in a round bay, safe just as we were, and in deep
water, but present death, as it were, on the right hand
and on the left, for the two horns or points of the sand
reached out beyond where our ship lay near two miles.
On that part of the sand which lay on our east
side, this misguided multitude extended themselves ; and
being, most of them, not above their knees, or most of
them not above ankle-deep in the water, they as it
were surrounded us on that side, and on the side of
the mainland, and a little way on the other side of the
sand, standing in a half- circle, or rather three-fifths of
a circle, for about six miles in length. The other horn,
or point of the sand, which lay on our west side, being
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 263
not quite so shallow, they could not extend themselves
upon it so far.
They little thought what service they had done us,
and how unwittingly, and by the greatest ignorance,
they had made themselves pilots to us, while we, having
not sounded the place, might have been lost before we
were aware. It is true we might have sounded our
new harbour before we had ventured out, but I cannot
say for certain whether we should or not ; for I, for
my part, had not the least suspicion of what our real
case was ; however, I say, perhaps, before we had
weighed, we should have looked about us a little. I
am sure we ought to have done it ; for, besides these
armies of human furies, we had a very leaky ship, and
all our pumps could hardly keep the water from grow
ing upon us, and our carpenters were overboard, working
to find out and stop the wounds we had received, heeling
her first on the one side, and then on the other ; and it
was very diverting to see how, when our men heeled
the ship over to the side next the wild army that
stood on the east horn of the sand, they were so
amazed, between fright and joy, that it put them into
a kind of confusion, calling to one another, hallooing
and skreeking, in a manner that it is impossible to
describe.
While we were doing this, for we were in a great
hurry you may be sure, and all hands at work, as well
at the stopping our leaks as repairing our rigging and
sails, which had received a great deal of damage, and
also in rigging a new main-top-mast and the like ; I
say, while we were doing all this, we perceived a body
of men, of near a thousand, move from that part of the
army of the barbarians that lay at the bottom of the
sandy bay, and came all along the water's edge, round
the sand, till they stood just on our broadside east, and
were within about half-a-mile of us. Then we saw the
264 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
Dutchman come forward nearer to us, and all alone,
with his white flag and all his motions, just as before,
and there he stood.
Our men had but just brought the ship to rights
again as they came up to our broadside, and we had
very happily found out and stopped the worst and most
dangerous leak that we had, to our very great satis
faction ; so I ordered the boats to be hauled up and
manned as they were the day before, and William to
go as plenipotentiary. I would have gone myself if I
had understood Dutch, but as I did not, it was to no
purpose, for I should be able to know nothing of what
was said but from him at second-hand, which might
be done as well afterwards. All the instructions I
pretended to give William was, if possible, to get the
old Dutchman away, and, if he could, to make him
come on board.
Well, William went just as before, and when he
came within about sixty or seventy yards of the shore,
he held up his white flag as the Dutchman did, and
turning the boat's broadside to the shore, and his men
lying upon their oars, the parley or dialogue began
again thus :
William. Well, friend, what dost thou say to us
now ?
Dutchman. I come of the same mild errand as I did
yesterday.
W. What! dost thou pretend to come of a mild
errand with all these people at thy back, and all the
foolish weapons of war they bring with them ? Prithee,
what dost thou mean ?
D. The king hastens us to invite the captain and
all his men to come on shore, and has ordered all his
men to show them all the civility they can.
W. Well, and are all those men come to invite us
ashore ?
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 265
D. They will do you no hurt, if you will come on
shore peaceably.
W. Well, and what dost thou think they can, do to
us, if we will not ?
D. I would not have them do you any hurt then,
neither.
W. But prithee, friend, do not make thyself fool
and knave too. Dost not thou know that we are out
of fear of all thy army, and out of danger of all that
they can do ? What makes thee act so simply as well
as so knavishly ?
D. Why, you may think yourselves safer than you
are ; you do not know what they may do to you. I
can assure you they are able to do you a great deal of
harm, and perhaps burn your ship.
W. Suppose that were true, as I am sure it is false ;
you see we have more ships to carry us off (pointing
to the sloop).
\_N.B. Just at this time we discovered the sloop
standing towards us from the east, along the shore, at
about the distance of two leagues, which was to our
particular satisfaction, she having been missing thirteen
days.]
D. We do not value that ; if you had ten ships,
you dare not come on shore, with all the men you
have, in a hostile way ; we are too many for you.
W. Thou dost not, even in that, speak as thou
meanest ; and we may give thee a trial of our hands
when our friends come up to us, for thou nearest they
have discovered us.
[Just then the sloop fired five guns, which was to
get news of us, for they did not see us.]
D. Yes, I hear they fire ; but I hope your ship
will not fire again ; for, if they do, our general will
take it for breaking the truce, and will make the army
let fly a shower of arrows at you in the boat. >
266 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
W. Thou mayest be sure the ship will fire that the
other ship may hear them, but not with ball. If thy
general knows no better, he may begin when he will ;
but thou mayest be sure we will return it to his cost.
D. What must I do, then ?
W. Do ! Why, go to him, and tell him of it before
hand, then ; and let him know that the ship firing is
not at him nor his men ; and then come again, and
tell us what he says.
D. No ; I will send to him, which will do as
well.
W. Do as thou wilt, but I believe thou hadst better
go thyself; for if our men fire first, I suppose he will
be in a great wrath, and it may be at thee ; for, as to
his wrath at us, we tell thee beforehand we value it
not.
D. You slight them too much ; you know not what
they may do.
W. Thou makest as if these poor savage wretches
could do mighty things : prithee, let us see what you
can all do, we value it not; thou mayest set down
thy flag of truce when thou pleasest, and begin.
D. I had rather make a truce, and have you all part
friends.
W. Thou art a deceitful rogue thyself, for it is plain
thou knowest these people would only persuade us on
shore to entrap and surprise us ; and yet thou that art a
Christian, as thou callest thyself, would have us come
on shore and put our lives into their hands who know
nothing that belongs to compassion, good usage, or
good manners. How canst thou be such a villain ?
D. How can you call me so ? What have I done
to you, and what would you have me do ?
W. Not act like a traitor, but like one that was
once a Christian, and would have been so still, if you
had not been a Dutchman.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 267
D. I know not what to do, not I. I wish I were
from them ; they are a bloody people.
W. Prithee, make no difficulty of what thou shouldst
do. Canst thou swim ?
D. Yes, I can swim ; but if I should attempt to
swim off to you, I should have a thousand arrows and
javelins sticking in me before I should get to your boat.
W. I'll bring the boat close to thee, and take thee
on board in spite of them all. We will give them but
one volley, and I'll engage they will all run away from
thee.
D. You are mistaken in them, I assure you ; they
would immediately come all running down to the shore,
and shoot fire-arrows at you, and set your boat and
ship and all on fire about your ears.
W. We will venture that if thou wilt come off.
D. Will you use me honourably when I am among
you?
W. I'll give thee my word for it, if thou provest
honest.
D. Will you not make me a prisoner ?
W. I will be thy surety, body for body, that thou
shalt be a free man, and go whither thou wilt, though I
own to thee thou dost not deserve it.
Just at this time our ship fired three guns to answer
the sloop and let her know we saw her, who immedi
ately, we perceived, understood it, and stood directly
for the place. But it is impossible to express the
confusion and filthy vile noise, the hurry and universal
disorder, that was among that vast multitude of people
upon our firing off three guns. They immediately all
repaired to their arms, as I may call it ; for to say they
put themselves into order would be saying nothing.
Upon the word of command, then, they advanced
all in a body to the seaside, and resolving to give us
one volley of their fire-arms (for such they were),
268 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
immediately they saluted us with a hundred thousand
of their fire-arrows, every one carrying a little bag of
cloth dipped in brimstone, or some such thing, which,
flying through the air, had nothing to hinder it taking
fire as it flew, and it generally did so.
I cannot say but this method of attacking us, by a
way we had no notion of, might give us at first some
little surprise, for the number was so great at first, that
we were not altogether without apprehensions that they
might unluckily set our ship on fire, so that William
resolved immediately to row on board, and persuade us
all to weigh and stand out to sea ; but there was no
time for it, for they immediately let fly a volley at the
boat, and at the ship, from all parts of the vast crowd
of people which stood near the shore. Nor did they
fire, as I may call it, all at once, and so leave off; but
their arrows being soon notched upon their bows, they
kept continually shooting,so that the air was full of flame.
I could not say whether they set their cotton rag on
fire before they shot the arrow, for I did not perceive
they had fire with them, which, however, it seems they
had. The arrow, besides the fire it carried with it,
had a head, or a peg, as we call it, of bone ; and some
of sharp flint stone ; and some few of a metal, too soft
in itself for metal, but hard enough to cause it to enter,
if it were a plank, so as to stick where it fell.
William and his men had notice sufficient to lie
close behind their waste-boards, which, for this very
purpose, they had made so high that they could easily
sink themselves behind them, so as to defend them
selves from anything that came point-blank (as we call
it) or upon a line ; but for what might fall perpendicu
larly out of the air they had no guard, but took the
hazard of that. At first they made as if they would
row away, but before they went they gave a volley of
their fire-arms, firing at those which stood with the
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 269
Dutchman ; but William ordered them to be sure to
take their aim at others, so as to miss him, and they
did so.
There was no calling to them now, for the noise
was so great among them that they could hear nobody,
but our men boldly rowed in nearer to them, for they
were at first driven a little off, and when they came
nearer, they fired a second volley, which put the
fellows into great confusion, and we could see from
the ship that several of them were killed or wounded.
We thought this was a very unequal fight, and there
fore we made a signal to our men to row away, that we
might have a little of the sport as well as they ; but the
arrows flew so thick upon them, being so near the shore,
that they could not sit to their oars, so they spread a
little of their sail, thinking they might sail along the
shore, and lie behind their waste- board ; but the sail
had not been spread six minutes till it had five hundred
fire-arrows shot into it and through it, and at length set
it fairly on fire ; nor were our men quite out of the
danger of its setting the boat on fire, and this made
them paddle and shove the boat away as well as they
could, as they lay, to get farther off.
By this time they had left us a fair mark at the
whole savage army ; and as we had sheered the ship
as near to them as we could, we fired among the
thickest of them six or seven times, five guns at a
time, with shot, old iron, musket-bullets, &c.
We could easily see that we made havoc among
them, and killed and wounded abundance of them,
and that they were in a great surprise at it ; but yet
they never offered to stir, and all this while their fire-
arrows flew as thick as before.
At last, on a sudden their arrows stopped, and the
old Dutchman came running down to the water-side
all alone, with his white flag, as before, waving it as
270 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
high as he could, and making signals to our boat to
come to him again.
William did not care at first to go near him, but the
man continuing to make signals to him to come, at last
William went; and the Dutchman told him that he
had been with the general, who was much mollified by
the slaughter of his men, and that now he could have
anything of him.
" Anything ! " says William ; " what have we to
do with him ? Let him go about his business, and
carry his men out of gunshot, can't he ? "
"Why," says the Dutchman, "but he dares not
stir, nor see the king's face ; unless some of your men
come on shore, he will certainly put him to death."
" Why, then," says William, " he is a dead man ;
for if it were to save his life, and the lives of all the
crowd that is with him, he shall never have one of us
in his power. But I'll tell thee," said William, " how
thou shalt cheat him, and gain thy own liberty too, if
thou hast any mind to see thy own country again, and
art not turned savage, and grown fond of living all thy
days among heathens and savages."
" I would be glad to do it with all my heart," says
he ; ' but if I should offer to swim off to you now,
though they are so far from me, they shoot so true
that they would kill me before I got half-way."
" But," says William, " I'll tell thee how thou shalt
come with his consent. Go to him, and tell him I
have offered to carry you on board, to try if you could
persuade the captain to come on shore, and that I would
not hinder him if he was willing to venture."
The Dutchman seemed in a rapture at the very first
word. " I'll do it," says he ; "I am persuaded he
will give me leave to come."
Away he runs, as if he had a glad message to carry,
and tells the general that William had promised, if he
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 271
would go on board the ship with him, he would per
suade the captain to return with him. The general
was fool enough to give him orders to go, and charged
him not to come back without the captain ; which he
readily promised, and very honestly might.
So they took him in, and brought him on board,
and he was as good as his word to them, for he never
went back to them any more ; and the sloop being
come to the mouth of the inlet where we lay, we
weighed and set sail ; but, as we went out, being pretty
near the shore, we fired three guns, as it were among
them, but without any shot, for it was of no use to us
to hurt any more of them. After we had fired, we
gave them a cheer, as the seamen call it ; that is to say,
we hallooed at them, by way of triumph, and so carried
off their ambassador. How it fared with their general,
we know nothing of that.
This passage, when I related it to a friend of mine,
after my return from those rambles, agreed so well
with his relation of what happened to one Mr Knox,
an English captain, who some time ago was decoyed
on shore by these people, that it could not but be very
much to my satisfaction to think what mischief we
had all escaped ; and I think it cannot but be very
profitable to record the other story (which is but
short) with my own, to show whoever reads this what
it was I avoided, and prevent their falling into the like,
if they have to do with the perfidious people of Ceylon.
The relation is as follows :
The island of Ceylon being inhabited for the greatest
part by barbarians, which will not allow any trade or
commerce with any European nation, and inaccessible
by any travellers, it will be convenient to relate the
occasion how the author of this story happened to go
into this island, and what opportunities he had of being
fully acquainted with the people, their laws and customs,
272 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
that so we may the better depend upon the account,
and value it as it deserves, for the rarity as well as the
truth of it ; and both these the author gives us a brief
relation of in this manner. His words are as follows :
In the year 1657, the Anne frigate, of London,
Captain Robert Knox, commander, on the 2ist day
of January, set sail out of the Downs, in the service
of the honourable East India Company of England,
bound for Fort St George, upon the coast of Coro-
mandel, to trade for one year from port to port in
India ; which having performed, as he was lading his
goods to return for England, being in the road of
Masulipatam, on the I9th of November 1659, there
happened such a mighty storm, that in it several ships
were cast away, and he was forced to cut his mainmast
by the board, which so disabled the ship, that he could
not proceed in his voyage ; whereupon Cottiar, in the
island of Ceylon, being a very commodious bay, fit for
her present distress, Thomas Chambers, Esq., since Sir
Thomas Chambers, the agent at Fort St George, or
dered that the ship should take in some cloth and
India merchants belonging to Porto Novo, who might
trade there while she lay to set her mast, and repair
the other damages sustained by the storm. At her
first coming thither, after the Indian merchants were
set ashore, the captain and his men were very jealous
of the people of that place, by reason the English never
had any commerce or dealing with them ; but after
they had been there twenty days, going ashore and
returning again at pleasure, without any molestation,
they began to lay aside all suspicious thoughts qf the
people that dwelt thereabouts, who had kindly enter
tained them for their money.
By this time the king of the country had notice of
their arrival, and, not being acquainted with their in
tents, he sent down a dissauva, or general, with an
CAPTAIN SINGLETON.
273
army, to them, who immediately sent a messenger to
the captain on board, to desire him to come ashore to
him, pretending a letter from the king. The captain
saluted the message with firing of guns, and ordered
his son, Robert Knox, and Mr John Loveland, mer
chant of the ship, to go ashore, and wait on him.
When they were come before him, he demanded who
they were, and how long they should stay. They
told him they were Englishmen, and not to stay above
twenty or thirty days, and desired permission to trade
in his Majesty's port. His answer was, that the king
was glad to hear the English were come into his
country, and had commanded him to assist them as
they should desire, and had sent a letter to be delivered
to none but the captain himself. They were then
twelve miles from the seaside, and therefore replied,
that the captain could not leave his ship to come so
far ; but if he pleased to go down to the seaside, the
captain would wait on him to receive the letter ; where
upon the dissauva desired them to stay that day, and
on the morrow he would go with them ; which, rather
than displease him in so small a matter, they consented
to. In the evening the dissauva sent a present to the
captain of cattle and fruits, &c., which, being carried
all night by the messengers, was delivered to him in
the morning, who told him withal that his men were
coming down with the dissauva, and desired his com
pany on shore against his coming, having a letter from
the king to deliver into his own hand. The captain,
mistrusting nothing, came on shore with his boat, and,
sitting under a tamarind tree, waited for the dissauva.
In the meantime the native soldiers privately sur
rounded him and the seven men he had with him, and
seizing them, carried them to meet the dissauva, bear
ing the captain on a hammock on their shoulders.
The next day the long-boat's crew, not knowing
274 L I FE J ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
what had happened, came on shore to cut down a tree to
make cheeks for the mainmast, and were made prisoners
after the same manner, though with more violence, because
they were more rough with them, and made resistance ;
yet they were not brought to the captain and his com
pany, but quartered in another house in the same town.
The dissauva having thus gotten two boats and
eighteen men, his next care was to gain the ship ; and
to that end, telling the captain that he and his men were
only detained because the king intended to send letters
and a present to the English nation by him, desired he
would send some men on board his ship to order her to
stay ; and because the ship was in danger of being fired by
the Dutch if she stayed long in the bay, to bring her up
the river. The captain did not approve of the advice,
but did not dare to own his dislike ; so he sent his son
with the order, but with a solemn conjuration to return
again, which he accordingly did, bringing a letter from
the company in the ship, that they would not obey the
captain, nor any other, in this matter, but were resolved
to stand on their own defence. This letter satisfied
the dissauva, who thereupon gave the captain leave to
write for what he would have brought from the ship,
pretending that he had not the king's order to release
them, though it would suddenly come.
The captain seeing he was held in suspense, and the
season of the year spending for the ship to proceed
on her voyage to some place, sent order to Mr John
Burford, the chief mate, to take charge of the ship, and
set sail to Porto Novo, from whence they came, and
there to follow the agent's order.
And now began that long and sad captivity they all
along feared. The ship being gone, the dissauva was
called up to the king, and they were kept under guards
a while, till a special order came from the king to part
them, and put one in a town, for the conveniency of
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 275
their maintenance, which the king ordered to be at the
charge of the country. On September 16, 1660, the
captain and his son were placed in a town called Bon
der Coswat, in the country of Hotcurly [ ? Hewarrisse
Korle], distant from the city of Kandy northward
thirty miles, and from the rest of the English a full
day's journey. Here they had their provisions brought
them twice a day, without money, as much as they could
eat, and as good as the country yielded. The situation
of the place was very pleasant and commodious ; but
that year that part of the land was very sickly by agues
and fevers, of which many died. The captain and his
son after some time were visited with the common dis
temper, and the captain, being also loaded with grief for
his deplorable condition, languished more than three
months, and then died, February 9, 1661.
Robert Knox, his son, was now left desolate, sick,
and in captivity, having none to comfort him but God,
who is the Father of the fatherless, and hears the groans
of such as are in captivity ; being alone to enter upon
a long scene of misery and calamity ; oppressed with
weakness of body and grief of soul for the loss of
his father, and the remediless trouble that he was like
to endure ; and the first instance of it was in the burial
of his father, for he sent his black boy to the people of
the town, to desire their assistance, because they under
stood not their language ; but they sent him only a rope,
to drag him by the neck into the woods, and told him
that they would offer him no other help, unless he
would pay for it. This barbarous answer increased
his trouble for his father's death, that now he was like
to lie unburied, and be made a prey to the wild beasts
in the woods ; for the ground was very hard, and they
had not tools to dig with, and so it was impossible for
them to bury him ; and having a small matter of money
left him, viz., a pagoda and a gold ring, he hired a
276 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
man, and so buried him in as decent a manner as their
condition would permit.
His dead father being thus removed out of his sight,
but his ague continuing, he was reduced very low, partly
by sorrow and partly by his disease. All the comfort
he had was to go into the wood and fields with a book,
either the "Practice of Piety" or Mr Rogers's "Seven
Treatises," which were the only two books he had,
and meditate and read, and sometimes pray ; in which
his anguish made him often invert Elijah's petition,
that he might die, because his life was a burden to him.
God, though He was pleased to prolong his life, yet He
found a way to lighten his grief, by removing his ague,
and granting him a desire which above all things was
acceptable to him. He had read his two books over
so often that he had both almost by heart ; and though
they were both pious and good writings, yet he longed
for the truth from the original fountain, and thought it
his greatest unhappiness that he had not a Bible, and
did believe that he should never see one again ; but,
contrary to his expectation, God brought him one after
this manner. As he was fishing one day with his black
boy, to catch some fish to relieve his hunger, an old
man passed by them, and asked his boy whether his
master could read ; and when the boy had answered
yes, he told him that he had gotten a book from the
Portuguese, when they left Colombo ; and, if his master
pleased, he would sell it him. The boy told his master,
who bade him go and see what book it was. The boy
having served the English some time, knew the book,
and as soon as he got it into his hand, came running
to him, calling out before he came to him, " It is the
Bible ! " The words startled him, and he flung down
his angle to meet him, and, finding it was true, was
mightily rejoiced to see it ; but he was afraid he should
cot have enough to purchase it, though he was resolved
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 277
to part with all the money he had, which was but one
pagoda, to buy it; but his black boy persuading him to
slight it, and leave it to him to buy it, he at length
obtained it for a knit cap.
This accident he could not but look upon as a great
miracle, that God should bestow upon him such an
extraordinary blessing, and bring him a Bible in his
own native language, in such a remote part of the world,
where His name was not known, and where it was
never heard of that an Englishman had ever been be
fore. The enjoyment of this mercy was a great comfort
to him in captivity, and though he wanted no bodily
convenience that the country did afford; for the king,
immediately after his father's death, had sent an express
order to the people of the towns, that they should be
kind to him, and give him good victuals ; and after he
had been some time in the country, and understood the
language, he got him good conveniences, as a house and
gardens; and falling to husbandry, God so prospered
him, that he had plenty, not only for himself, but to
lend others ; which being, according to the custom of
the country, at 50 per cent, a year, much enriched him :
he had also goats, which served him for mutton, and
hogs and hens. Notwithstanding this, I say, for he
lived as fine as any of their noblemen, he could not so
far forget his native country as to be contented to dwell
in a strange land, where there was to him a famine of
God's word and sacraments, the want of which made
all other things to be of little value to him ; therefore,
as he made it his daily and fervent prayer to God, in
His good time, to restore him to both, so, at length, he,
with one Stephen Rutland, who had lived with him two
years before, resolved to make their escape, and, about
the year 1673, meditated all secret ways to compass it.
They had before taken up a way of peddling about the
country, and buying tobacco, pepper, garlic, combs, and
278 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
all sorts of iron ware, and carried them into those parts of
the country where they wanted them ; and now, to pro
mote their design, as they went with their commodities
from place to place, they discoursed with the country
people (for they could now speak their language well)
concerning the ways and inhabitants, where the isle was
thinnest and fullest inhabited, where and how the watches
lay from one country to another, and what commodities
were proper for them to carry into all parts; pretend
ing that they would furnish themselves with such wares
as the respective places wanted. None doubted but
what they did was upon the account of trade, because
Mr Knox was so well seated, and could not be supposed
to leave such an estate, by travelling northward, because
that part of the land was least inhabited; and so, fur
nishing themselves with such wares as were vendible
in those parts, they set forth, and steered their course
towards the north part of the islands, knowing very
little of the ways, which were generally intricate and
perplexed, because they have no public roads, but a
multitude of little paths from one town to another, and
those often changing ; and for white men to inquire
about the ways was very dangerous, because the people
would presently suspect their design.
At this time they travelled from Conde Uda as far as
the country of Nuwarakalawiya, which is the further
most part of the king's dominions, and about three days'
journey from their dwelling. They were very thankful
to Providence that they had passed all difficulties so
far, but yet they durst not go any farther, because they
had no wares left to traffic with ; and it being the first
time they had been absent so long from home, they
feared the townsmen would come after them to seek for
them ; and so they returned home, and went eight or ten
times into those parts with their wares, till they became
well acquainted both with the people and the paths.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 279
In these parts Mr Knox met his black boy, whom
he had turned away divers years before. He had now
got a wife and children, and was very poor ; but being
acquainted with these quarters, he not only took direc
tions of him, but agreed with him, for a good reward,
to conduct him and his companions to the Dutch. He
gladly undertook it, and a time was appointed between
them ; but Mr Knox being disabled by a grievous
pain, which seized him on his right side, and held him
five days that he could not travel, this appointment
proved in vain ; for though he went as soon as he was
well, his guide was gone into another country about his
business, and they durst not at that time venture to run
away without him.
These attempts took up eight or nine years, various
accidents hindering their designs, but most commonly
the dry weather, because they feared in the woods they
should be starved with thirst, all the country being in
such a condition almost four or five years together for
lack of rain.
On September 22, 1679, they set forth again, fur
nished with knives and small axes for their defence,
because they could carry them privately and send all
sorts of wares to sell as formerly, and all necessary
provisions, the moon being twenty-seven days old, that
they might have light to run away by, to try what
success God Almighty would now give them in seek
ing their liberty. Their first stage was to Anurad-
hapoora, in the way to which lay a wilderness, called
Parraoth Mocolane, full of wild elephants, tigers, and
bears ; and because it is the utmost confines of the
king's dominions, there is always a watch kept.
In the middle of the way they heard that the
governor's officers of these parts were out to gather up
the king's revenues and duties, to send them up to the
city ; which put them into no small fear, lest, finding
280 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
them, they should send them back again ; whereupon
they withdrew to the western parts of Ecpoulpot, and
sat down to knitting till they heard the officers were
gone. As soon as they were departed, they went
onwards of their journey, having got a good parcel of
cotton-yarn to knit caps with, and having kept their
wares, as they pretended, to exchange for dried flesh,
which was sold only in those lower parts. Their way
lay necessarily through the governor's yard at Kalluvilla,
who dwells there on purpose to examine all that go and
come. This greatly distressed them, because he would
easily suspect they were out of their bounds, being
captives ; however, they went resolutely to his house,
and meeting him, presented him with a small parcel of
tobacco and betel ; and, showing him their wares, told
him they came to get dried flesh to carry back with
them. The governor did not suspect them, but told
them he was sorry they came in so dry a time, when no
deer were to be catched, but if some rain fell, he would
soon supply them. This answer pleased them, and
they seemed contented to stay ; and accordingly, abid
ing with him two or three days, and no rain falling,
they presented the governor with five or six charges of
gunpowder, which is a rarity among them ; and leaving
a bundle at his house, they desired him to shoot them
some deer, while they made a step to Anuradhapoora.
Here also they were put in a great fright by the coming
of certain soldiers from the king to the governor, to
give him orders to set a secure guard at the watches,
that no suspicious persons might pass, which, though it
was only intended to prevent the flight of the relations
of certain nobles whom the king had clapped up, yet
they feared they might wonder to see white men here,
and so send them back again ; but God so ordered it
that they were very kind to them and left them to
their business, and so they got safe to Anuradhapoora.
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 281
Their pretence was dried flesh, though they knew
there was none to be had ; but their real business was
to search the way down to the Dutch, which they
stayed three days to do ; but finding that in the way to
Jaffnapatam, which is one of the Dutch ports, there was
a watch which could hardly be passed, and other in
conveniences not surmountable, they resolved to go
back, and take the river Malwatta Oya, which they had
before judged would be a probable guide to lead them
to the sea ; and, that they might not be pursued, left
Anuradhapoora just at night, when the people never
travel for fear of wild beasts, on Sunday, October 1 2,
being stored with all things needful for their journey,
viz., ten days' provision, a basin to boil their provision
in, two calabashes to fetch water in, and two great
tallipat leaves for tents, with jaggery, sweetmeats,
tobacco, betel, tinder-boxes, and a deerskin for
shoes, to keep their feet from thorns, because to
them they chiefly trusted. Being come to the river,
they struck into the woods, and kept by the side of
it ; yet not going on the sand (lest their footsteps
should be discerned), unless forced, and then going
backwards.
Being gotten a good way into the wood, it began to
rain ; wherefore they erected their tents, made a fire,
and refreshed themselves against the rising of the moon,
which was then eighteen days old ; and having tied deer
skins about their feet, and eased themselves of their
wares, they proceeded on their journey. When they had
travelled three or four hours with difficulty, because
the moon gave but little light among the thick trees,
they found an elephant in their way before them, and
because they could not scare him away, they were
forced to stay till morning ; and so they kindled a fire,
and took a pipe of tobacco. By the light they could
not discern that ever anybody had been there, nothing
282 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
being to be seen but woods ; and so they were in great
hopes that they were past all danger, being beyond
all inhabitants ; but they were mistaken, for the river
winding northward, brought them into the midst of a
parcel of towns, called Tissea Wava, where, being in
danger of being seen, they were under a mighty terror ;
for had the people found them, they would have beat
them, and sent them up to the king ; and, to avoid it,
they crept into a hollow tree, and sat there in mud and
wet till it began to grow dark, and then betaking them
selves to their legs, travelled till the darkness of night
stopped them. They heard voices behind them, and
feared it was somebody in pursuit of them ; but at
length, discerning it was only an hallooing to keep the
wild beasts out of the corn, they pitched their tents by
the river, and having boiled rice and roasted meat for
their suppers, and satisfied their hunger, they committed
themselves to God's keeping, and laid them down to
sleep.
The next morning, to prevent the worst, they got
up early and hastened on their journey ; and though
they were now got out of all danger of the tame Chian-
gulays, they were in great danger of the wild ones, of
whom those woods were full ; and though they saw
their tents, yet they were all gone, since the rains had
fallen, from the river into the woods ; and so God kept
them from that danger, for, had they met the wild men,
they had been shot.
Thus they travelled from morning till night several
days, through bushes and thorns, which made their
arms and shoulders, which were naked, all of a gore
blood. They often met with bears, hogs, deer, and
wild buffaloes ; but they all ran away as soon as they
saw them. The river was exceedingly full of alliga
tors ; in the evening they used to pitch their tents,
and make great fires both before and behind them, to
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 283
affright the wild beasts ; and though they heard the
voices of all sorts, they saw none.
On Thursday, at noon, they crossed the river Coronda
[? Kannadera Oya], which parts the country of the Mala
bar s from the king's, and on Friday, about nine or ten
in the morning, came among the inhabitants, of whom
they were as much afraid as of the Chiangulays before ;
for, though the Wanniounay, or prince of this people,
payeth tribute to the Dutch out of fear, yet he is better
affected to the King of Kandy, and, if he had took
them, would have sent them up to their old master ;
but not knowing any way to escape, they kept on their
journey by the river-side by day, because the woods
were not to be travelled by night for thorns and wild
beasts, who came down then to the river to drink. In
all the Malabar country they met with only two Brah
mins, who treated them very civilly; and for their
money, one of them conducted them till they came
into the territories of the Dutch, and out of all danger
of the King of Kandy, which did not a little rejoice
them ; but yet they were in no small trouble how to
find the way out of the woods, till a Malabar, for the
lucre of a knife, conducted them to a Dutch town,
where they found guides to conduct them from town to
town, till they came to the fort called Aripo, where
they arrived Saturday, October 18, 1679, an< ^ there
thankfully adored God's wonderful providence, in thus
completing their deliverance from a long captivity of
nineteen years and six months.
I come now back to my own history, which grows
near a conclusion, as to the travels I took in this part
of the world. We were now at sea, and we stood
away to the north for a while, to try if we could get a
market for our spice, for we were very rich in nutmegs,
but we ill knew what to do with them ; we durst not
284 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
go upon the English coast, or, to speak more properly,
among the English factories to trade ; not that we were
afraid to fight any two ships they had, and, besides that,
we knew that, as they had no letters of marque, or of
reprisals from the government, so it was none of their
business to act offensively, no, not though we were
pirates. Indeed, if we had made any attempt upon
them, they might have justified themselves in joining
together to resist, and assisting one another to defend
themselves ; but to go out of their business to attack a
pirate ship of almost fifty guns, as we were, it was plain
that it was none of their business, and consequently it
was none of our concern, so we did not trouble our
selves about it ; but, on the other hand, it was none of
our business to be seen among them, and to have the
news of us carried from one factory to another, so that
whatever design we might be upon at another time, we
should be sure to be prevented and discovered. Much
less had we any occasion to be seen among any of the
Dutch factories upon the coast of Malabar ; for, being
fully laden with the spices which we had, in the sense
of their trade, plundered them of, it would have told
them what we were, and all that we had been doing ;
and they would, no doubt, have concerned themselves
all manner of ways to have fallen upon us.
The only way we had for it was to stand away for
Goa, and trade, if we could, for our spices, with the
Portuguese factory there. Accordingly, we sailed al
most thither, for we had made land two days before,
and being in the latitude of Goa, were standing in fair
for Margaon, on the head of Salsat, at the going up
to Goa, when I called to the men at the helm to bring
the ship to, and bid the pilot go away N.N.W., till we
came out of sight of the shore, when William and I
called a council, as we used to do upon emergencies,
what course we should take to trade there and not be
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 285
discovered ; and we concluded at length that we would
not go thither at all, but that William, with such trusty
fellows only as could be depended upon, should go in
the sloop to Surat, which was still farther northward,
and trade there as merchants with such of the English
factory as they could find to be for their turn.
To carry this with the more caution, and so as not
to be suspected, we agreed to take out all her guns, and
put such men into her, and no other, as would promise
us not to desire or offer to go on shore, or to enter into
any talk or conversation with any that might come on
board ; and, to finish the disguise to our mind, William
documented two of our men, one a surgeon, as he him
self was, and the other, a ready-witted fellow, an old
sailor, that had been a pilot upon the coast of New
England, and was an excellent mimic ; these two
William dressed up like two Quakers, and made them
talk like such. The old pilot he made go captain of
the sloop, and the surgeon for doctor, as he was, and
himself supercargo. In this figure, and the sloop all
plain, no curled work upon her (indeed she had not
much before), and no guns to be seen, away he went
for Surat.
I should, indeed, have observed, that we went, some
days before we parted, to a small sandy island close
under the shore, where there was a good cove of deep
water, like a road, and out of sight of any of the fac
tories, which are here very thick upon the coast. Here
we shifted the loading of the sloop, and put into her
such things only as we had a mind to dispose of there,
which was indeed little but nutmegs and cloves, but
chiefly the former ; and from thence William and his
two Quakers, with about eighteen men in the sloop,
went away to Surat, and came to an anchor at a dis
tance from the factory.
William used such caution that he found means to go
286 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
on shore himself, and the doctor, as he called him
a boat which came on board them to sell fish, rowed
with only Indians of the country, which boat he after
wards hired to carry him on board again. It was not
long that they were on shore, but that they found
means to get acquaintance with some Englishmen, who,
though they lived there, and perhaps were the com
pany's servants at first, yet appeared then to be traders
for themselves, in whatever coast business especially
came in their way ; and the doctor was made the first
to pick acquaintance ; so he recommended his friend,
the supercargo, till, by degrees, the merchants were as
fond of the bargain as our men were of the merchants,
only that the cargo was a little too much for them.
However, this did not prove a difficulty long with
them, for the next day they brought two more mer
chants, English also, into their bargain, and, as William
could perceive by their discourse, they resolved, if they
bought them, to carry them to the Gulf of Persia upon
their own accounts. William took the hint, and, as he
told me afterwards, concluded we might carry them
there as well as they. But this was not William's
present business .; he had here no less than three-and-
thirty ton of nuts and eighteen ton of cloves. There
was a good quantity of mace among the nutmegs, but
we did not stand to make much allowance. In short,
they bargained, and the merchants, who would gladly
have bought sloop and all, gave William directions, and
two men for pilots, to go to a creek about six leagues
from the factory, where they brought boats, and un
loaded the whole cargo, and paid William very honestly
for it ; the whole parcel amounting, in money, to about
thirty-five thousand pieces of eight, besides some goods
of value, which William was content to take, and two
large diamonds, worth about three hundred pounds
sterling.
i, in
._j
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 287
When they paid the money, William invited them
on board the sloop, where they came ; and the merry
old Quaker diverted them exceedingly with his talk, and
" thee'd " them and " thou'd " them till he made them
so drunk that they could not go on shore for that night.
They would fain have known who our people were,
and whence they came ; but not a man in the sloop
would answer them to any question they asked, but in
such a manner as let them think themselves bantered
and jested with. However, in discourse, William said
they were able men for any cargo we could have
brought them, and that they would have bought twice
as much spice if we had had it. He ordered the merry
.captain to tell them that they had another sloop that
lay at Margaon, and that had a great quantity of
spice on board also ; and that, if it was not sold when
he went back (for that thither he was bound), he would
bring her up.
Their new chaps were so eager, that they would
have bargained with the old captain beforehand.
"Nay, friend," said he, "I will not trade with thee
unsight and unseen ; neither do I know whether the
master of the sloop may not have sold his loading
already to some merchants of Salsat ; but if he has not
when I come to him, I think to bring him up to thee."
The doctor had his employment all this while, as
well as William and the old captain, for he went
on shore several times a day in the Indian boat, and
brought fresh provisions for the sloop, which the men
had need enough of. He brought, in particular, seven
teen large casks of arrack, as big as butts, besides
smaller quantities, a quantity of rice, and abundance of
fruits, mangoes, pompions, and such things, with fowls
and fish. He never came on board but he was deep
laden ; for, in short, he bought for the ship as well as
for themselves ; and, particularly, they half-loaded the
288 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
ship with rice and arrack, with some hogs, and six or
seven cows, alive ; and thus, being well victualled,
and having directions for coming again, they returned
to us.
William was always the lucky welcome messenger to
us, but never more welcome to us than now ; for where
we had thrust in the ship, we could get nothing, except
a few mangoes and roots, being not willing to make
any steps into the country, or make ourselves known
till we had news of our sloop ; and indeed our men's
patience was almost tired, for it was seventeen days
that William spent upon this enterprise, and well be
stowed too.
When he came back we had another conference
upon the subject of trade, namely, whether we should
send the best of our spices, and other goods we had in
the ship, to Surat, or whether we should go up to the
Gulf of Persia ourselves, where it was probable we
might sell them as well as the English merchants of
Surat. William was for going ourselves, which, by
the way, was from the good, frugal, merchant-like
temper of the man, who was for the best of everything ;
but here I overruled William, which I very seldom
took upon me to do ; but I told him, that, considering
our circumstances, it was much better for us to sell all our
cargoes here, though we made but half-price of them,
than to go with them to the Gulf of Persia, where we
should run a greater risk, and where people would be
much more curious and inquisitive into things than they
were here, and where it would not be so easy to manage
them, seeing they traded freely and openly there, not by
stealth, as those men seemed to do ; and, besides, if
they suspected anything, it would be much more diffi
cult for us to retreat, except by mere force, than here,
where we were upon the high sea as it were, and could
be gone whenever we pleased, wkhout any disguise, or,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 289
indeed, without the least appearance of being pursued,
none knowing where to look for us.
My apprehensions prevailed with William, whether
my reasons did or no, and he submitted ; and we
resolved to try another ship's loading to the same mer
chants. The main business was to consider how to get
off that circumstance that had exposed them to the Eng
lish merchants, namely that it was our other sloop ; but
this the old Quaker pilot undertook ; for being, as I
said, an excellent mimic himself, it was the easier for
him to dress up the sloop in new clothes ; and first, he
put on all the carved work he had taken off before ; her
stern, which was painted of a dumb white or dun colour
before, all flat, was now all lacquered and blue, and I
know not how many gay figures in it ; as to her quarter,
the carpenters made her a neat little gallery on either
side; she had twelve guns put into her, and some
petereroes upon her gunnel, none of which were there
before; and to finish her new habit or appearance,
and make her change complete, he ordered her sails
to be altered ; and as she sailed before with a half-
sprit, like a yacht, she sailed now with square-sail
and mizzen-mast, like a ketch ; so that, in a word, she
was a perfect cheat, disguised in everything that a
stranger could be supposed to take any notice of that
had never had but one view, for they had been but once
on board.
In this mean figure the sloop returned; she had
a new man put into her for captain, one we knew
how to trust ; and the old pilot appearing only as a
passenger, the doctor and William acting as the super
cargoes, by a formal procuration from one Captain
Singleton, and all things ordered in form.
We had a complete loading for the sloop ; for,
besides a very great quantity of nutmegs and cloves,
mace, and some cinnamon, she had on board some
2pO LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
goods which we took in as we lay about the Philippine
Islands, while we waited as looking for purchase.
William made no difficulty of selling this cargo also,
and in about twenty days returned again, freighted with
all necessary provisions for our voyage, and for a long
time; and, as I say, we had a great deal of other
goods : he brought us back about three-and-thirty
thousand pieces of eight, and some diamonds, which,
though William did not pretend to much skill in, yet
he made shift to act so as not to be imposed upon, the
merchants he had to deal with, too, being very fair
men.
They had no difficulty at all with these merchants,
for the prospect they had of gain made them not at all
inquisitive, nor did they make the least discovery of
the sloop ; and as to the selling them spices which were
fetched so far from thence, it seems it was not so much
a novelty there as we believed, for the Portuguese had
frequently vessels which came from Macao in China,
who brought spices, which they bought of the Chinese
traders, who again frequently dealt among the Dutch
Spice Islands, and received spices in exchange for such
goods as they carried from China.
This might be called, indeed, the only trading
voyage we had made ; and now we were really very
rich, and it came now naturally before us to consider
whither we should go next. Our proper delivery port,
as we ought to have called it, was at Madagascar, in
the Bay of Mangahelly; but William took me by
myself into the cabin of the sloop one day, and told me
he wanted to talk seriously with me a little ; so we
shut ourselves in, and William began with me.
"Wilt thou give me leave," says William, "to
talk plainly with thee upon thy present circumstances,
and thy future prospect of living ? and wilt thou pro
mise, on thy word, to take nothing ill of me ? "
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 291
" With all my heart," said I. " William, I have
always found your advice good, and your designs have
not only been well laid, but your counsel has been very
lucky to us; and, therefore, say what you will, I pro
mise you I will not take it ill."
" But that is not all my demand," says William ;
" if thou dost not like what I am going to propose to
thee, thou shalt promise me not to make it public among
the men."
"I will not, William," says I, "upon my word; "
and swore to him, too, very heartily.
"Why, then," says William, "I have but one
thing more to article with thee about, and that is, that
thou wilt consent that if thou dost not approve of it
for thyself, thou wilt yet consent that I shall put so
much of it in practice as relates to myself and my new
comrade doctor, so that it be nothing to thy detriment
and loss."
" In anything," says I, " William, but leaving me,
I will ; but I cannot part with you upon any terms
whatever."
"Well," says William, "I am not designing to part
from thee, unless it is thy own doing. But assure me
in all these points, and I will tell my mind freely."
So I promised him everything he desired of me in
the solemnest manner possible, and so seriously and
frankly withal, that William made no scruple to open
his mind to me.
"Why, then, in the first place," says William,
"shall I ask thee if thou dost not think thou and all
thy men are rich enough, and have really gotten as
much wealth together (by whatsoever way it has been
gotten, that is not the question) as we all know what
to do with ? "
"Why, truly, William," said I, "thou art pretty
right; I think we have had pretty good luck."
2Q2 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
" Well, then," says William, " I would ask whether,
if thou hast gotten enough, thou hast any thought of
leaving off this trade ; for most people leave off trading
when they are satisfied of getting, and are rich enough ;
for nobody trades for the sake of trading ; much less
do men rob for the sake of thieving."
" Well, William," says I, " now I perceive what it
is thou art driving at. I warrant you," says I, " you
begin to hanker after home."
"Why, truly," says William, "thou hast said it,
and so I hope thou dost too. It is natural for most
men that are abroad to desire to come home again at
last, especially when they are grown rich, and when
they are (as thou ownest thyself to be) rich enough,
and so rich as they know not what to do with more if
they had it."
" Well, William," said I, " but now you think you
have laid your preliminary at first so home that I should
have nothing to say; that is, that when I had got
money enough, it would be natural to think of going
home. But you have not explained what you mean
by home, and there you and I shall differ. Why, man,
I am at home ; here is my habitation ; I never had any
other in my lifetime ; I was a kind of charity school
boy ; so that I can have no desire of going anywhere
for being rich or poor, for I have nowhere to go."
"Why," says William, looking a little confused,
' art not thou an Englishman ? "
" Yes," says I, " I think so : you see I speak
English ; but I came out of England a child, and
never was in it but once since I was a man ; and then
I was cheated and imposed upon, and used so ill that I
care not if I never see it more."
" Why, hast thou no relations or friends there ? "
says he ; " no acquaintance none that thou hast any
kindness or any remains of respect for ? "
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 293
" Not I, William," said I ; "no more than I have
in the court of the Geat Mogul."
" Nor any kindness for the country where thou wast
born? "says William.
"Not I, any more than for the island of Mada
gascar, nor so much neither ; for that has been a for
tunate island to me more than once, as thou knowest,
William," said I.
William was quite stunned at my discourse, and held
his peace ; and I said to him, " Go on, William ; what
hast thou to say farther ? for I hear you have some pro
ject in your head," says I ; " come, let's have it out."
" Nay," says William, " thou hast put me to silence,
and all I had to say is overthrown ; all my projects are
come to nothing, and gone."
"Well, but, William," said I, "let me hear what
they were ; for though it is so that what I have to
aim at does not look your way, and though I have
no relation, no friend, no acquaintance in England,
yet I do not say I like this roving, cruising life so
well as never to give it over. Let me hear if thou
canst propose to me anything beyond it."
" Certainly, friend," says William, very gravely,
"there is something beyond it;" and lifting up his
hands, he seemed very much affected, and I thought
I saw tears stand in his eyes; but I, that was too
hardened a wretch to be moved with these things,
laughed at him. " What ! " says I, " you mean death,
I warrant you : don't you ? That is beyond this
trade. Why, when it comes, it comes ; then we are
all provided for."
" Ay," says William, " that is true ; but it would
be better that some things were thought on before that
came."
" Thought on ! " says I ; " what signifies thinking
of it ? To think of death is to die, and to be always
2p4 LIF E, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
thinking of it is to be all one's life long a-dying.
time enough to think of it when it comes."
You will easily believe I was well qualified for a
pirate that could talk thus. But let me leave it upon
record, for the remark of other hardened rogues like
myself, my conscience gave me a pang that I never
felt before when I said, " What signifies thinking of
it ? " and told me I should one day think of these
words with a sad heart ; but the time of my reflection
was not yet come ; so I went on.
Says William very seriously, " I must tell thee,
friend, I am sorry to hear thee talk so. They that
never think of dying, often die without thinking of it."
I carried on the jesting way a while farther, and
said, "Prithee, do not talk of dying; how do we
know we shall ever die ? " and began to laugh.
" I need not answer thee to that," says William ;
" it is not my place to reprove thee, who art com
mander over me here ; but I would rather thou wouldst
talk otherwise of death ; it is a coarse thing."
" Say anything to me, William," said I ; " I will
take it kindly." I began now to be very much moved
at his discourse.
Says William (tears running down his face), "It
is because men live as if they were never to die, that
so many die before they know how to live. But it
was not death that I meant when I said that there
was something to be thought of beyond this way of
living."
" Why, William," said I, " what was that ? "
" It was repentance," says he.
"Why," says I, "did you ever know a pirate
repent ? "
At this he startled a little, and returned, " At the
gallows I have [known J one before, and I hope thou
wilt be the second."
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 295
He spoke this very affectionately, with an appearance
of concern for me.
" Well, William," says I, " I thank you ; and I
am not so senseless of these things, perhaps, as I make
myself seem to be. But come, let me hear your
proposal."
"My proposal," says William, "is for thy good as
well as my own. We may put an end to this kind of
life, and repent ; and I think the fairest occasion offers
for both, at this very time, that ever did, or ever will,
or, indeed, can happen again."
" Look you, William," says I ; "let me have your
proposal for putting an end to our present way of living
first, for that is the case before us, and you and I will
talk of the other afterwards. I am not so insensible,"
said I, " as you may think me to be. But let us get
out of this hellish condition we are in first."
" Nay," says William, " thou art in the right there ;
we must never talk of repenting while we continue
pirates."
" Well," says I, " William, that's what I meant ;
for if we must not reform, as well as be sorry for what
is done, I have no notion what repentance means ;
indeed, at best I know little of the matter ; but the
nature of the thing seems to tell me that the first step
we have to take is to break off this wretched course ;
and I'll begin there with you, with all my heart."
I could see by his countenance that William was
thoroughly pleased with the offer ; and if he had tears
in his eyes before, he had more now ; but it was from
quite a different passion ; for he was so swallowed up
with joy he could not speak.
" Come, William," says I, " thou showest me plain
enough thou hast an honest meaning ; dost thou think
it practicable for us to put an end to our unhappy way
of living here, and get off? "
296 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
" Yes," says he, " I think it very practicable for
me ; whether it is for thee or no, that will depend
upon thyself."
" Well," says I, " I give you my word, that as I
have commanded you all along, from the time I first
took you on board, so you shall command me from
this hour, and everything you direct me I'll do."
" Wilt thou leave it all to me ? Dost thou say this
freely?"
" Yes, William," said I, " freely ; and I'll perform
it faithfully."
" Why, then," says William, " my scheme is this :
We are now at the mouth of the Gulf of Persia ; we
have sold so much of our cargo here at Surat, that we
have money enough ; send me away for Bassorah with
the sloop, laden with the China goods we have on
board, which will make another good cargo, and I'll
warrant thee I'll find means, among the English and
Dutch merchants there, to lodge a quantity of goods
and money also as a merchant, so as we will be able to
have recourse to it again upon any occasion, and when
I come home we will contrive the rest; and, in the
meantime, do you bring the ship's crew to take a
resolution to go to Madagascar as soon as I return."
I told him I thought he need not go so far as Bassorah,
but might run into Gombroon, or to Ormuz, and
pretend the same business.
" No," says he, " I cannot act with the same free
dom there, because the Company's factories are there,
and I may be laid hold of there on pretence of inter
loping."
" Well, but," said I, " you may go to Ormuz, then ;
for I am loth to part with you so long as to go to the
bottom of the Persian Gulf." He returned, that I
should leave it to him to do as he should see cause.
We had taken a large sum of money at Surat, so
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 297
that we had near a hundred thousand pounds in money
at our command, but on board the great ship we had
still a great deal more.
I ordered him publicly to keep the money on board
which he had, and to buy up with it a quantity of
ammunition, if he could get it, and so to furnish us
for new exploits ; and, in the meantime, I resolved to
get a quantity of gold and some jewels, which I had
on board the great ship, and place them so that I might
carry them off without notice as soon as he came back ;
and so, according to William's directions, I left him
to go the voyage, and I went on board the great ship,
in which we had indeed an immense treasure.
We waited no less than two months for William's
return, and indeed I began to be very uneasy about
William, sometimes thinking he had abandoned me,
and that he might have used the same artifice to have
engaged the other men to comply with him, and so
they were gone away together ; and it was but three
days before his return that I was just upon the point
of resolving to go away to Madagascar, and give him
over ; but the old surgeon, who mimicked the Quaker
and passed for the master of the sloop at Surat, per
suaded me against that, for which good advice and
apparent faithfulness in what he had been trusted with,
I made him a party to my design, and he proved very
honest.
At length William came back, to our inexpressible
joy, and brought a great many necessary things with
him ; as, particularly, he brought sixty barrels of
powder, some iron shot, and about thirty ton of lead ;
also he brought a great deal of provisions ; and, in
a word, William gave me a public account of his
voyage, in the hearing of whoever happened to be
upon the quarter-deck, that no suspicions might be
found about us.
298 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
After all was done, William moved that he might
go up again, and that I would go with him ; named
several things which we had on board that he could
not sell there ; and, particularly, told us he had been
obliged to leave several things there, the caravans being
not come in ; and that he had engaged to come back
again with goods.
This was what I wanted. The men were eager for
his going, and particularly because he told them they
might load the sloop back with rice and provisions ;
but I seemed backward to going, when the old surgeon
stood up and persuaded me to go, and with many
arguments pressed me to it ; as, particularly, if I did
not go, there would be no order, and several of the
men might drop away, and perhaps betray all the rest ;
and that they should not think it safe for the sloop to
go again if I did not go ; and to urge me to it, he
offered himself to go with me.
Upon these considerations I seemed to be over-
persuaded to go, and all the company seemed to be
better satisfied when I had consented ; and, accord
ingly, we took all the powder, lead, and iron out of
the sloop into the great ship, and all the other things
that were for the ship's use, and put in some bales of
spices and casks or frails of cloves, in all about seven
ton, and some other goods, among the bales of which
I had conveyed all my private treasure, which, I assure
you, was of no small value, and away I went.
At going off I called a council of all the officers in
the ship to consider in what place they should wait for
me, and how long, and we appointed the ship to stay
eight-and-twenty days at a little island on the Arabian
side of the Gulf, and that, if the sloop did not come in
that time, they should sail to another island to the
west of that place, and wait there fifteen days more,
and that then, if the sloop did not come, they should
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 299
conclude some accident must have happened, and the
rendezvous should be at Madagascar.
Being thus resolved, we left the ship, which both
William and I, and the surgeon, never intended to see
any more. We steered directly for the Gulf, and
through to Bassorah, or Balsara. This city of Balsara
lies at some distance from the place where our sloop
lay, and the river not being very safe, and we but ill
acquainted with it, having but an ordinary pilot, we
went on shore at a village where some merchants live,
and which is very populous, for the sake of small
vessels riding there.
Here we stayed and traded three or four days, land
ing all our bales and spices, and indeed the whole
cargo that was of any considerable value, which we
chose to do rather than go up immediately to Balsara
till the project we had laid was put in execution.
After we had bought several goods, and were pre
paring to buy several others, the boat being on shore
with twelve men, myself, William, the surgeon, and
one fourth man, whom we had singled out, we con
trived to send a Turk just at the dusk of the evening
with a letter to the boatswain, and giving the fellow a
charge to run with all possible speed, we stood at a
small distance to observe the event. The contents of
the letter were thus written by the old doctor :
" BOATSWAIN THOMAS, We are all betrayed. For
God's sake make off with the boat, and get on board,
or you are all lost. The captain, William the Quaker,
and George the reformade are seized and carried
away : I am escaped and hid, but cannot stir out ; if I
do I am a dead man. As soon as you are on board cut
or slip, and make sail for your lives. Adieu. R.S."
We stood undiscovered, as above, it being the dusk
300 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
of the evening, and saw the Turk deliver the letter,
and in three minutes we saw all the men hurry into the
boat and put off, and no sooner were they on board
than they took the hint, as we supposed, for the next
morning they were out of sight, and we never heard
tale or tidings of them since.
We were now in a good place, and in very good
circumstances, for we passed for merchants of Persia.
It is not material to record here what a mass of ill-
gotten wealth we had got together : it will be more to
the purpose to tell you that I began to be sensible of
the crime of getting of it in such a manner as I had
done ; that I had very little satisfaction in the pos
session of it ; and, as I told William, I had no
expectation of keeping it, nor much desire ; but, as I
said to him one day walking out into the fields near
the town of Bassorah, so I depended upon it that it
would be the case, which you will hear presently.
We were perfectly secured at Bassorah, by having
frighted away the rogues, our comrades ; and we had
nothing to do but to consider how to convert our
treasure into things proper to make us look like mer
chants, as we were now to be, and not like freebooters,
as we really had been.
We happened very opportunely here upon a Dutch
man, who had travelled from Bengal to Agra, the
capital city of the Great Mogul v and from thence was
come to the coast of Malabar by land, and got ship
ping, somehow or other, up the Gulf; and we found
his design was to go up the great river to Bagdad
or Babylon, and so, by the caravan, to Aleppo and
Scanderoon. As William spoke Dutch, and was of
an agreeable, insinuating behaviour, he soon got ac
quainted with this Dutchman, and discovering our
circumstances to one another, we found he had con
siderable effects with him ; and that he had traded
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 301
long in that country, and was making homeward to
his own country ; and that he had servants with him ;
one an Armenian, whom he had taught to speak
Dutch, and who had something of his own, but had
a mind to travel into Europe ; and the other a Dutch
sailor, whom he had picked up by his fancy, and
reposed a great trust in him, and a very honest fellow
he was.
This Dutchman was very glad of an acquaintance,
because he soon found that we directed our thoughts
to Europe also ; and as he found we were encumbered
with goods only (for we let him know nothing of our
money), he readily offered us his assistance to dispose
of as many of them as the place we were in would put
off, and his advice what to do with the rest.
While this was doing, William and I consulted
what to do with ourselves and what we had ; and
first, we resolved we would never talk seriously of our
measures but in the open fields, where we were sure
nobody could hear ; so every evening, when the sun
began to decline and the air to be moderate we
walked out, sometimes this way, sometimes that, to
consult of our affairs.
I should have observed that we had new clothed
ourselves here, after the Persian manner, with long
vests of silk, a gown or robe of English crimson cloth,
very fine and handsome, and had let our beards grow
so after the Persian manner that we passed for Persian
merchants, in view only, though, by the way, we could
not understand or speak one word of the language of
Persia, or indeed of any other but English and Dutch ;
and of the latter I understood very little.
However, the Dutchman supplied all this for us ;
and as we had resolved to keep ourselves as retired as
we could, though there were several English merchants
upon the place, yet we never acquainted ourselves with
302 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
one of them, or exchanged a word with them ; by
which means we prevented their inquiry of us now, or
their giving any intelligence of us, if any news of our
landing here should happen to come, which, it was
easy for us to know, was possible enough, if any of our
comrades fell into bad hands, or by many accidents
which we could not foresee.
It was during my being here, for here we stayed
near two months, that I grew very thoughtful about my
circumstances; not as to the danger, neither indeed
were we in any, but were entirely concealed and unsus
pected ; but I really began to have other thoughts of
myself, and of the world, than ever I had before.
William had struck so deep into my unthinking
temper with hinting to me that there was something
beyond all this ; that the present time was the time of
enjoyment, but that the time of account approached ;
that the work that remained was gentler than the labour
past, viz., repentance, and that it was high time to
think of it ; I say these, and such thoughts as these,
engrossed my hours, and, in a word, I grew very sad.
As to the wealth I had, which was immensely great,
it was all like dirt under my feet ; I had no value for
it, no peace in the possession of it, no great concern
about me for the leaving of it.
William had perceived my thoughts to be troubled
and my mind heavy and oppressed for some time ; and
one evening, in one of our cool walks, I began with
him about the leaving our effects. William was a wise
and wary man, and indeed all the prudentials of my
conduct had for a long time been owing to his advice,
and so now all the methods for preserving our effects,
and even ourselves, lay upon him ; and he had been
telling me of some of the measures he had been taking
for our making homeward, and for the security of
our wealth, when I took him very short. "Why,
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 303
William," says I, "dost thou think we shall ever be
able to reach Europe with all this cargo that we have
about us ? "
"Ay," says William, " without doubt, as well as
other merchants with theirs, as long as it is not pub
licly known what quantity or of what value our cargo
consists."
"Why, William," says I, smiling, "do you think
that if there is a God above, as you have so long been
telling me there is, and that we must give an account to
Him, I say, do you think, if He be a righteous Judge,
He will let us escape thus with the plunder, as we may
call it, of so many innocent people, nay, I might say
nations, and not call us to an account for it before we
can get to Europe, where we pretend to enjoy it ? "
William appeared struck and surprised at the ques
tion, and made no answer for a great while ; and I
repeated the question, adding that it was not to be
expected.
After a little pause, says William, "Thou hast
started a very weighty question, and I can make no
positive answer to it ; but I will state it thus : first,
it is true that, if we consider the justice of God, we
have no reason to expect any protection ; but as the
ordinary ways of Providence are out of the common
road of human affairs, so we may hope for mercy still
upon our repentance, and we know not how good He
may be to us ; so we are to act as if we rather de
pended upon the last, I mean the merciful part, than
claimed the first, which must produce nothing but
judgment and vengeance."
" But hark ye, William," says I, " the nature of re
pentance, as you have hinted once to me, included
reformation; and we can never reform; how, then,
can we repent ? "
"Why can we never reform ?" says William.
304 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
" Because," said I, " we cannot restore what we have
taken away by rapine and spoil."
" It is true," says William, " we never can do that,
for we can never come to the knowledge of the owners."
" But what, then, must be done with our wealth,"
said I, " the effects of plunder and rapine ? If we keep
it, we continue to be robbers and thieves ; and if we
quit it we cannot do justice with it, for we cannot
restore it to the right owners."
"Nay," says William, "the answer to it is short.
To quit what we have, and do it here, is to throw it
away to those who have no claim to it, and to divest
ourselves of it, but to do no right with it ; whereas we
ought to keep it carefully together, with a resolution to
do what right with it we are able ; and who knows
what opportunity Providence may put into our hands to
do justice, at least, to some of those we have injured ?
So we ought, at least, to leave it to Him and go on.
As it is, without doubt our present business is to go to
some place of safety, where we may wait His will."
This resolution of William was very satisfying to me
indeed, as, the truth is, all he said, and at all times, was
solid and good ; and had not William thus, as it were,
quieted my mind, I think, verily, I was so alarmed at
the just reason I had to expect vengeance from Heaven
upon me for my ill-gotten wealth, that I should have
run away from it as the devil's goods, that I had nothing
to do with, that did not belong to me, and that I had
no right to keep, and was in certain danger of being
destroyed for.
However, William settled my mind to more prudent
steps than these, and I concluded that I ought, how
ever, to proceed to a place of safety, and leave the event
to God Almighty's mercy. But this I must leave upon
record, that I had from this time no joy of the wealth
I had got. I looked upon it all as stolen, and so indeed
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 305
the greatest part of it was. I looked upon it as a hoard
of other men's goods, which I had robbed the innocent
owners of, and which I ought, in a word, to be hanged
for here, and damned for hereafter. And now, indeed,
I began sincerely to hate myself for a dog ; a wretch
that had been a thief and a murderer ; a wretch that
was in a condition which nobody was ever in ; for I
had robbed, and though I had the wealth by me, yet
it was impossible I should ever make any restitution ;
and upon this account it ran in my head that I could
never repent, for that repentance could not be sincere
without restitution, and therefore must of necessity be
damned. There was no room for me to escape. I
went about with my heart full of these thoughts, little
better than a distracted fellow; in short, running head
long into the dreadfullest despair, and premeditating
nothing but how to rid myself out of the world ; and,
indeed, the devil, if such things are of the devil's imme
diate doing, followed his work very close with me, and
nothing lay upon my mind for several days but to shoot
myself into the head with my pistol.
I was all this while in a vagrant life, among infidels,
Turks, pagans, and such sort of people. I had no
minister, no Christian to converse with but poor Wil
liam. He was my ghostly father or confessor, and he
was all the comfort I had. As for my knowledge of
religion, you have heard my history. You may sup
pose I had not much ; and as for the Word of God, I
do not remember that I ever read a chapter in the Bible
in my lifetime. I was little Bob at Bussleton, and
went to school to learn my Testament.
However, it pleased God to make William the
Quaker everything to me. Upon this occasion, I took
him out one evening, as usual, and hurried him away
into the fields with me, in more haste than ordinary;
and there, in short, I told him the perplexity of my
306 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
mind, and under what terrible temptations of the devil
I had been ; that I must shoot myself, for I could not
support the weight and terror that was upon me.
" Shoot yourself! " says William; "why, what will
that do for you ? "
"Why," says I, "it will put an end to a miserable life."
" Well," says William, " are you satisfied the next
will be better?"
"No, no," says I ; " much worse, to be sure."
"Why, then," says he, "shooting yourself is the
devil's motion, no doubt; for it is the devil of a reason,
that, because thou art in an ill case, therefore thou must
put thyself into a worse."
This shocked my reason indeed. "Well, but,"
says I, " there is no bearing the miserable condition I
am in."
" Very well," says William ; " but it seems there is
some bearing a worse condition ; and so you will shoot
yourself, that you may be past remedy ? "
" I am past remedy already," says I.
" How do you know that ? " says he.
" I am satisfied of it," said I.
"Well," says he, "but you are not sure; so you
will shoot yourself to make it certain ; for though on
this side death you cannot be sure you will be damned
at all, yet the moment you step on the other side of
time you are sure of it ; for when it is done, it is not
to be said then that you will be, but that you are
damned."
" Well, but," says William, as if he had been be
tween jest and earnest, " pray, what didst thou dream
of last night ? "
"Why," said I, "I had frightful dreams all night;
and, particularly, I dreamed that the devil came for me,
and asked me what my name was ; and I told him.
Then he asked me what trade I was. Trade ? ' says
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 307
I ; * I am a thief, a rogue, by my calling : I am a
pirate and a murderer, and ought to be hanged.' * Ay,
ay,' says the deyil, ' so you do ; and you are the man I
looked for, and therefore come along with me.' At
which I was most horribly frighted, and cried out so
that it waked me ; and I have been in horrible agony
ever since."
" Very well," says William ; " come, give me the
pistol thou talkedst of just now."
" Why," says I, " what will you do with it ? "
" Do with it ! " says William. " Why, thou needest
not shoot thyself ; I shall be obliged to do it for thee.
Why, thou wilt destroy us all."
" What do you mean, William ? " said I.
"Mean! " said he; "nay, what didst thou mean,
to cry out aloud in thy sleep, ' I am a thief, a pirate, a
murderer, and ought to be hanged ' ? Why, thou wilt
ruin us all. 'T was well the Dutchman did not under
stand English. In short, I must shoot thee, to save my
own life. Come, come," says he, " give me thy pistol."
I confess this terrified me again another way, and I
began to be sensible that, if anybody had been near
me to understand English, I had been undone. The
thought of shooting myself forsook me from that time ;
and I turned to William, " You disorder me extremely,
William," said I ; " why, I am never safe, nor is it
safe to keep me company. What shall I do ? I shall
betray you all."
" Come, come, friend Bob," says he, I'll put an
end to it all, if you will take my advice."
"How's that?" said I.
"Why, only," says he, "that the next time thou
talkest with the devil, thou wilt talk a little softlier, or
we shall be all undone, and you too."
This frighted me, I must confess, and allayed a
great deal of the trouble of mind I was in. But
308 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
William, after he had done jesting with me, entered
upon a very long and serious discourse with me about
the nature of my circumstances, and about repentance ;
that it ought to be attended, indeed, with a deep abhor
rence of the crime that I had to charge myself with ;
but that to despair of God's mercy was no part of re
pentance, but putting myself into the condition of the
devil ; indeed, that I must apply myself with a sincere,
humble confession of my crime, to ask pardon of God,
whom I had offended, and cast myself upon His mercy,
resolving to be willing to make restitution, if ever it
should please God to put it in my power, even to the
utmost of what I had in the world. And this, he told
me, was the method which he had resolved upon him
self; and in this, he told me, he had found comfort.
I had a great deal of satisfaction in William's dis
course, and it quieted me very much ; but William was
very anxious ever after about my talking in my sleep,
and took care to lie with me always himself, and to
keep me from lodging in any house where so much as
a word of English was understood.
However, there was not the like occasion afterward ;
for I was much more composed in my mind, and re
solved for the future to live a quite different life from
what I had done. As to the wealth I had, I looked
upon it as nothing ; I resolved to set it apart to any
such opportunity of doing justice as God should put
into my hand ; and the miraculous opportunity I had
afterwards of applying some parts of it to preserve a
ruined family, whom I had plundered, may be worth
reading, if I have room for it in this account.
With these resolutions I began to be restored to
some degree of quiet in my mind ; and having, after
almost three months' stay at Bassorah, disposed of some
goods, but having a great quantity left, we hired boats
according to the Dutchman's direction, and went up
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 309
to Bagdad, or Babylon, on the river Tigris, or rather
Euphrates. We had a very considerable cargo of
goods with us, and therefore made a great figure there,
and were received with respect. We had, in particular,
two-and-forty bales of Indian stuffs of sundry sorts,
silks, muslins, and fine chintz ; we had fifteen bales of
very fine China silks, and seventy packs or bales of
spices, particularly cloves and nutmegs, with other
goods. We were bid money here for our cloves, but
the Dutchman advised us not to part with them, and
told us we should get a better price at Aleppo, or in
the Levant ; so we prepared for the caravan.
We concealed our having any gold or pearls as
much as we could, and therefore sold three or four
bales of China silks and Indian calicoes, to raise money
to buy camels and to pay the customs which are taken
at several places, and for our provisions over the
deserts.
I travelled this journey, careless to the last degree
of my goods or wealth, believing that, as I came by
it all by rapine and violence, God would direct that it
should be taken from me again in the same manner ;
and, indeed, I think I might say I was very willing
it should be so. But, as I had a merciful Protector
above me, so I had a most faithful steward, counsellor,
partner, or whatever I might call him, who was my
guide, my pilot, my governor, my everything, and took
care both of me and of all we had ; and though he
had never been in any of these parts of the world, yet
he took the care of all upon him ; and in about nine-
and-fifty days we arrived from Bassorah, at the mouth
of the river Tigris or Euphrates, through the desert,
and through Aleppo to Alexandria, or, as we call it,
Scanderoon, in the Levant.
Here William and I, and the other two, our faith
ful comrades, debated what we should do ; and here
310 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
William and I resolved to separate from the other two,
they resolving to go with the Dutchman into Holland,
by the means of some Dutch ship which lay then in
the road. William and I told them we resolved to go
and settle in the Morea, which then belonged to the
Venetians.
It is true we acted wisely in it not to let them
know whither we went, seeing we had resolved to
separate ; but we took our old doctor's directions how
to write to him in Holland, and in England, that we
might have intelligence from him on occasion, and
promised to give him an account how to write to us,
which we afterwards did, as may in time be made out.
We stayed here some time after they were gone, till at
length, not being thoroughly resolved whither to go till
then, a Venetian ship touched at Cyprus, and put in at
Scanderoon to look for freight home. We took the
hint, and bargaining for our passage, and the freight of
our goods, we embarked for Venice, where, in two-
and-twenty days, we arrived safe, with all our treasure,
and with such a cargo, take our goods and our money
and our jewels together, as, I believed, was never
brought into the city by two single men, since the
state of Venice had a being.
We kept ourselves here incognito for a great while,
passing for two Armenian merchants still, as we had
done before ; and by this time we had gotten so much
of the Persian and Armenian jargon, which they talked
at Bassorah and Bagdad, and everywhere that we came
in the country, as was sufficient to make us able to talk
to one another, so as not to be understood by anybody,
though sometimes hardly by ourselves.
Here we converted all our effects into money, settled
our abode as for a considerable time, and William and
I, maintaining an inviolable friendship and fidelity to
one another, lived like two brothers ; we neither had
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 311
or sought any separate interest ; we conversed seriously
and gravely, and upon the subject of our repentance
continually ; we never changed, that is to say, so as to
leave off our Armenian garbs ; and we were called, at
Venice, the two Grecians.
I had been two or three times going to give a detail
of our wealth, but it will appear incredible, and we had
the greatest difficulty in the world how to conceal it,
being justly apprehensive lest we might be assassinated
in that country for our treasure. At length William
told me he began to think now that he must never see
England any more, and that indeed he did not much
concern himself about it ; but seeing we had gained so
great wealth, and he had some poor relations in Eng
land, if I was willing, he would write to know if they
were living, and to know what condition they were in,
and if he found such of them were alive as he had some
thoughts about, he would, with my consent, send them
something to better their condition.
I consented most willingly ; and accordingly Wil
liam wrote to a sister and an uncle, and in about five
weeks' time received an answer from them both, directed
to himself, under cover of a hard Armenian name that
he had given himself, viz., Signore Constantine Alexion
of Ispahan, at Venice.
It was a very moving letter he received from his
sister, who, after the most passionate expressions of joy
to hear he was alive, seeing she had long ago had an
account that he was murdered by the pirates in the
West Indies, entreats him to let her know what cir
cumstances he was in ; tells him she was not in any
capacity to do anything considerable for him, but that
he should be welcome to her with all her heart ; that
she was left a widow, with four children, but kept a
little shop in the Minories, by which she made shift to
maintain her family ; and that she had sent him five
312 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
pounds, lest he should want money, in a strange coun
try, to bring him home.
I could see the letter brought tears out of his eyes as
he read it ; and, indeed, when he showed it to me, and
the little bill for five pounds, upon an English merchant
in Venice, it brought tears out of my eyes too.
After we had been both affected sufficiently with the
tenderness and kindness of this letter, he turns to me ;
says he, "What shall I do for this poor woman?" I
mused a while ; at last says I, " I will tell you what
you shall do for her. She has sent you five pounds, and
she has four children, and herself, that is five ; such a
sum, from a poor woman in her circumstances, is as
much as five thousand pounds is to us ; you shall send
her a bill of exchange for five thousand pounds English
money, and bid her conceal her surprise at it till she
hears from you again ; but bid her leave off her shop,
and go and take a house somewhere in the country, not
far off from London, and stay there, in a moderate
figure, till she hears from you again/'
" Now," says William, " I perceive by it that you
have some thoughts of venturing into England."
" Indeed, William," said I, " you mistake me ; but
it presently occurred to me that you should venture, for
what have you done that you may not be seen there ?
Why should I desire to keep you from your relations,
purely to keep me company ? "
William looked very affectionately upon me. " Nay,"
says he, " we have embarked together so long, and come
together so far, I am resolved I will never part with
thee as long as I live, go where thou wilt, or stay
where thou wilt ; and as for my sister," said William,
" I cannot send her such a sum of money, for whose
is all this money we have ? It is most of it thine."
" No, William," said I, " there is not a penny of it
mine but what is yours too, and I won't have anything
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 313
but an equal share with you, and therefore ypu shall
send it to her ; if not, I will send it."
"Why," says William, "it will make the poor
woman distracted ; she will be so surprised she will go
out of her wits."
"Well," said I, "William, you may do it pru
dently ; send her a bill backed of a hundred pounds,
and bid her expect more in a post or two, and that you
will send her enough to live on without keeping shop,
and then send her more."
Accordingly William sent her a very kind letter,
with a bill upon a merchant in London for a hundred
and sixty pounds, and bid her comfort herself with the
hope that he should be able in a little time to send her
more. About ten days after, he sent her another bill
of five hundred and forty pounds ; and a post or two
after, another for three hundred pounds, making in all
a thousand pounds ; and told her he would send her
sufficient to leave off her shop, and directed her to take
a house as above.
He waited then till he received an answer to all the
three letters, with an account that she had received the
money, and, which I did not expect, that she had not
let any other acquaintance know that she had received
a shilling from anybody, or so much as that he was
alive, and would not till she had heard again.
When he showed me this letter, " Well, William,"
said I, "this woman is fit to be trusted with life or
anything ; send her the rest of the five thousand pounds,
and I'll venture to England with you, to this woman's
house, whenever you will."
In a word, we sent her five thousand pounds in good
bills ; and she received them very punctually, and in a
little time sent her brother word that she had pretended
to her uncle that she was sickly and could not carry on
the trade any longer, and that she had taken a large
314 LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF
house about four miles from London, under pretence
of letting lodgings for her livelihood ; and, in short,
intimated as if she understood that he intended to come
over to be incognito, assuring him he should be as retired
as he pleased.
This was opening the very door for us that we
thought had been effectually shut for this life ; and, in
a word, we resolved to venture, but to keep ourselves
entirely concealed, both as to name and every other
circumstance ; and accordingly William sent his sister
word how kindly he took her prudent steps, and that
she had guessed right that he desired to be retired, and
that he obliged her not to increase her figure, but live
private, till she might perhaps see him.
He was going to send the letter away. " Come,
William," said I, "you shan't send her an empty
letter ; tell her you have a friend coming with you
that must be as retired as yourself, and I'll send her
five thousand pounds more."
So, in short, we made this poor woman's family
rich ; and yet, when it came to the point, my heart
failed me, and I durst not venture ; and for William, he
would not stir without me ; and so we stayed about two
years after this, considering what we should do.
You may think, perhaps, that I was very prodigal of
my ill-gotten goods, thus to load a stranger with my
bounty, and give a gift like a prince to one that had
been able to merit nothing of me, or indeed know
me ; but my condition ought to be considered in this
case; though I had money to profusion, yet I was
perfectly destitute of a friend in the world, to have the
least obligation or assistance from, or knew not either
where to dispose or trust anything I had while I Jived,
or whom to give it to if I died.
When I had reflected upon the manner of my
getting of it, I was sometimes for giving it all to
mce
CAPTAIN SINGLETON. 315
charitable uses, as a debt due to mankind, though I was
no Roman Catholic, and not at all of the opinion that
it would purchase me any repose to my soul ; but I
thought, as it was got by a general plunder, and which
I could make no satisfaction for, it was due to the
community, and I ought to distribute it for the general
good. But still I was at a loss how, and where, and
by whom to settle this charity, not daring to go home
to my own country, lest some of my comrades, strolled
home, should see and detect me, and for the very spoil
of my money, or the purchase of his own pardon, be
tray and expose me to an untimely end.
Being thus destitute, I say, of a friend, I pitched
thus upon William's sister ; the kind step of hers to
her brother, whom she thought to be in distress, signify
ing a generous mind and a charitable disposition ; and
having resolved to make her the object of my first
bounty, I did not doubt but I should purchase something
of a refuge for myself, and a kind of a centre, to which I
should tend in my future actions ; for really a man that
has a subsistence, and no residence, no place that has
a magnetic influence upon his affections, is in one of
the most odd, uneasy conditions in the world, nor is it
in the power of all his money to make it up to him.
It was, as I told you, two years and upwards that
we remained at Venice and thereabout, in the greatest
hesitation imaginable, irresolute and unfixed to the last
degree. William's sister importuned us daily to come to
England, and wondered we should not dare to trust her,
whom we had to such a degree obliged to be faithful ;
and in a manner lamented her being suspected by us.
At last I began to incline ; and I said to William,
" Come, brother William," said I (for ever since our
discourse at Bassorah I called him brother), "if you
will agree to two or three things with me, I'll go home
to England with all my heart."
316 ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN SINGLETON.
Says William, " Let me know what they are."
"Why, first," says I, "you shall not disclose your
self to any of your relations in England but your sister
no, not one ; secondly, we will not shave off our
mustachios or beards " (for we had all along worn our
beards after the Grecian manner), " nor leave off our
long vests, that we may pass for Grecians and foreigners ;
thirdly, that we shall never speak English in public
before anybody, your sister excepted ; fourthly, that
we will always live together and pass for brothers."
William said he would agree to them all with all his
heart, but that the not speaking English would be the
hardest, but he would do his best for that too ; so, in
a word, we agreed to go from Venice to Naples, where
we converted a large sum of money into bales of silk,
left a large sum in a merchant's hands at Venice, and
another considerable sum at Naples, and took bills of
exchange for a great deal too ; and yet we came with
such a cargo to London as few American merchants
had done for some years, for we loaded in two ships
seventy-three bales of thrown silk, besides thirteen
bales of wrought silks, from the duchy of Milan,
shipped at Genoa, with all which I arrived safely;
and some time after I married my faithful protectress,
William's sister, with whom I am much more happy
than I deserve.
And now, having so plainly told you that I am
come to England, after I have so boldly owned what
life I have led abroad, it is time to leave off, and say
no more for the present, lest some should be willing to
inquire too nicely after your old friend CAPTAIN BOB.
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & Co.
Edinburgh & London
HI Defoe, Daniel
3404 The life, adventirres,
C35 & piracies of the famous
1904 Captain Singleton
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