“2. That if the ship is or may be recovered, you will carry me and my man to England, passage free.”
He gave me all the assurance that the invention and faith of a man could devise, that he would comply with these most reasonable demands, and besides would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it upon all occasions as long as he lived.
“Well then,” said I, “here are three muskets for you, with powder and ball; tell me next what you think is proper to be done.” He shewed all the testimony of his gratitude that he was able; but offered to be wholly guided by me: I told him, I thought it was hard venturing any thing, but the best method I could think of, was to fire upon them at once, as they lay; and if any were not killed at the first volley, and offered to submit, we might save them, and so put it wholly upon God’s providence to direct the shot.
He said, very modestly, that he was loath to kill them, if he could help it; but that those two were incorrigible villains, and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the ship; and if they escaped, we should be undone still; for they would go on board, and bring the whole ship’s company, and destroy us all. “Well then,” said I, “necessity legitimates my advice; for it is the only way to save our lives.” However, seeing him still cautious of shedding blood, I told him, they should go themselves, and manage as they found convenient.
In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, and soon after we saw two of them on their feet. I asked him, if either of them were the men who he had said were the heads of the mutiny? He said, No. “Well then,” said I, “you may let them escape, and Providence seems to have wakened them on purpose to save themselves.”—“Now,” said I, “if the rest escape you, it is your fault.”
Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him in his hand, and pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, with each man a piece in his hand: the two men, who were with him, going first,made some noise, at which one of the seamen, who was awake, turned about, and seeing them coming, cried out to the rest; but it was too late then; for the moment he cried out, they fired, I mean the two men, the captain wisely reserving his own piece: they had so well aimed their shot at the men they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the other very much wounded; but not being dead he started up on his feet, and called eagerly for help to the other; but the captain, stepping to him, told him it was too late to cry for help; he should call upon God to forgive his villany; and with that word knocked him down with the stock of his musket, so that he never spoke more: there were three more in the company, and one of them was also slightly wounded. By this time I was come; and when they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they begged for mercy. The captain told them, he would spare their lives, if they would give him any assurance of their abhorrence of the treachery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to him in recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to Jamaica, from whence they came. They gave him all the protestations of their sincerity that could be desired, and he was willing to believe them, and spare their lives, which I was not against; only I obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot while they were upon the island.
While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain’s mate to the boat, with orders to secure her, and bring away the oars and sail, which they did; and by and by, three straggling men, that were (happily for them) parted from the rest, came back upon hearing the guns fired; and seeing their captain, who before was their prisoner, now their conqueror, they submitted to be bound also; and so our victory was complete.
It now remained, that the captain and I should inquire into one another’s circumstances: I began first, and told him my whole history, which he heard withan attention even to amazement, and particularly at the wonderful manner of my being furnished with provisions and ammunition; and indeed, as my story is a whole collection of wonders, it affected him deeply; but when he reflected from thence upon himself, and how I seemed to have been preserved there on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down his face, and he could not speak a word more.
After this communication was at an end, I carried him and his two men into my apartments, leading them in just where I came out, viz. at the top of the house; where I refreshed them with such provisions as I had, and shewed them all the contrivances I had made during my long, long inhabiting that place.
All I shewed them, all I said to them, was perfectly amazing; but, above all, the captain admired my fortification; and how perfectly I had concealed my retreat with a grove of trees, which, having now been planted near twenty years, and the trees growing much faster than in England, was become a little wood, and so thick, that it was impassable in any part of it, but at that one side where I had reserved my little winding passage into it: this I told him was my castle, and my residence; but that I had a seat in the country, as most princes have, whither I could retreat upon occasion, and I would shew him that too another time; but at present our business was to consider how to recover the ship. He agreed with me as to that; but told me, he was perfectly at a loss what measure to take; for that there were still six-and-twenty hands on board, who having entered into a cursed conspiracy, by which they had all forfeited their lives to the law, would be hardened in it now by desperation; and would carry it on, knowing that, if they were reduced, they should be brought to the gallows as soon as they came to England, or to any of the English colonies; and that therefore there would be no attacking them with so small a number as we were.
I mused for some time upon what he had said, and found it was a very rational conclusion, and that thereforesomething was to be resolved on very speedily, as well to draw the men on board into some snare for their surprise, as to prevent their landing upon us, and destroying us. Upon this it presently occurred to me, that in a little while the ship’s crew, wondering what was become of their comrades, and of the boat, would certainly come on shore in their other boat to see for them; and that then perhaps they might come armed, and be too strong for us: this he allowed was rational.
Upon this I told him, the first thing we had to do was to stave the boat, which lay upon the beach, so that they might not carry her off; and taking every thing out of her, leaving her so far useless as not to be fit to swim; accordingly we went on board, took the arms which were left on board out of her, and whatever else we found there, which was a bottle of brandy, and another of rum, a few biscuit cakes, an horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar in a piece of canvas; the sugar was five or six pounds; all which was very welcome to me, especially the brandy and sugar, of which I had had none left for many years.
When we had carried all these things on shore, (the oars, mast, sail, and rudder of the boat were carried before as above,) we knocked a great hole in her bottom, that if they had come strong enough to master us, yet they could not carry off the boat.
Indeed it was not much in my thoughts, that we could be capable to recover the ship; but my view was, that if they went away without the boat, I did not much question to make her fit again to carry us away to the Leeward Islands, and call upon our friends the Spaniards in my way, for I had them still in my thoughts.
While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first by main strength heaved the boat up upon the beach, so high that the tide would not float her off at high water mark; and, besides, had broken a hole inher bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were sat down musing what we should do; we heard the ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft with her ancient, as a signal for the boat to come on board; but no boat stirred; and they fired several times, making other signals for the boat.
At last, when all their signals and firings proved fruitless, and they found the boat did not stir, we saw them (by the help of our glasses) hoist another boat out, and row towards the shore; and we found, as they approached, that there were no less than ten men in her, and that they had fire-arms with them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view of them as they came, and a plain sight of the men, even of their faces; because the tide having set them a little to the east of the other boat, they rowed up under shore, to come to the same place where the other had landed, and where the boat lay.
By this means, I say, we had a full view of them, and the captain knew the persons and characters of all the men in the boat; of whom he said that there were three very honest fellows, who he was sure were led into this conspiracy by the rest, being overpowered and frighted: but that for the boatswain, who, it seems, was the chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were as outrageous as any of the ship’s crew; and were, no doubt, made desperate in their new enterprise; and terribly apprehensive he was, that they would be too powerful for us.
I smiled at him, and told him, that men in our circumstances were past the operations of fear: that seeing almost every condition that could be was better than that we were supposed to be in, we ought to expect that the consequence, whether death or life, would be sure to be a deliverance: I asked him, what he thought of the circumstances of my life, and whether a deliverance were not worth venturing for? “And where, Sir,” said I, “is your belief of my being preserved here on purpose to save your life, which elevated you a little while ago? For my part,” said I,“there seems to be but one thing amiss in all the prospect of it.”—“What’s that?” says he. “Why,” said I, “’tis that as you say, there are three or four honest fellows among them, which should be spared; had they been all of the wicked part of the crew, I should have thought God’s providence had singled them out to deliver them into your hands; for, depend upon it, every man of them that comes ashore, are our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us.”
As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance, I found it greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our business. We had, upon the first appearance of the boat’s coming from the ship, considered of separating our prisoners, and had indeed secured them effectually.
Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three (delivered men) to my cave, where they were remote enough, and out of danger of being heard or discovered, or of finding their way out of the woods, if they could have delivered themselves; here they left them bound, but gave them provisions, and promised them, if they continued there quietly, to give them their liberty in a day or two; but that if they attempted their escape, they should be put to death without mercy. They promised faithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were very thankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and a light left them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know but that he stood centinel over them at the entrance.
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept pinioned indeed, because the captain was not free to trust them; but the other two were taken into my service upon their captain’s recommendation, and upon their solemnly engaging to live and die with us; so, with them and the three honest men, we were seven men well armed; and I made no doubt weshould be able to deal well enough with the ten that were a-coming, considering that the captain had said, there were three or four honest men among them also.
As soon as they got to the place where their other boat lay, they ran their boat into the beach, and came all on shore, hauling the boat up after them, which I was glad to see; for I was afraid they would rather have left the boat at an anchor, some distance from the shore, with some hands in her to guard her; and so we should not be able to seize the boat.
Being on shore, the first thing they did, they ran all to the other boat; and it was easy to see they were under a great surprise to find her stripped as above, of all that was in her, and a great hole in her bottom.
After they had mused awhile upon this, they set up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all their might, to try if they could make their companions hear; but all was to no purpose: then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of their small arms, which indeed we heard, and the echoes made the woods ring; but it was all one: those in the cave, we were sure, could not hear; and those in our keeping, though they heard it well enough, yet durst give no answer to them.
They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again to their ship, and let them know there, that the men were all murdered, and the long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched the boat again, and got all of them on board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded at this, believing they would go on board the ship again and set sail, giving their comrades up for lost, and so he should still lose the ship, which he was in hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as much frighted the other way.
They had not been long put off with the boat, but we perceived them all coming on shore again; but with this new measure in their conduct, which it seemsthey consulted together upon; viz. to leave three men in the boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into the country to look for their fellows.
This was a great disappointment to us; for now we were at a loss what to do; for our seizing those seven men on shore would be no advantage to us if we let the boat escape, because they would then row away to the ship; and then the rest of them would be sure to weigh, and set sail, and so our recovering the ship would be lost.
However, we had no remedy but to wait and see what the issue of things might present. The seven men came on shore, and the three who remained in the boat put her off to a good distance from the shore, and came to an anchor to wait for them; so that it was impossible for us to come at them in the boat.
Those that came on shore kept close together, marching towards the top of the little hill, under which my habitation lay; and we could see them plainly, though they could not perceive us; we could have been very glad they would have come nearer to us, so that we might have fired at them; or that they would have gone farther off, that we might have come abroad.
But when they were come to the brow of the hill, where they could see a great way in the valley and woods, which lay towards the north-east part, and where the island lay lowest, they shouted and hallooed till they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far from the shore, nor far from one another, they sat down together under a tree, to consider of it: had they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as the other party of them had done, they had done the job for us; but they were too full of apprehensions of danger, to venture to go to sleep, though they could not tell what the danger was they had to fear neither.
The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation of theirs; viz. that perhaps they would all fire a volley again, to endeavour to make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally upon them, just at the juncture when their pieces were alldischarged, and they would certainly yield, and we should have them without bloodshed: I liked the proposal, provided it was done while we heard, when they were presently stopped by the creek, where the water being up, they could not get over, and called for the boat to come up, and set them over, as indeed I expected.
When they had set themselves over, I observed, that the boat being gone up a good way into the creek, and as it were, in a harbour within the land, they took one of the three men out of her to go along with them, and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to the stump of a little tree on the shore.
This was what I wished for, and immediately leaving Friday and the captain’s mate to their business, I took the rest with me, and crossing the creek out of their sight, we surprized the two men before they were aware; one of them lying on shore, and the other being in the boat; the fellow on shore, was between sleeping and waking, and going to start up, the captain who wasforemost, ran in upon him, and knocked him down, and then called out to him in the boat, to yield, or he was a dead man.
There needed very few arguments to persuade a single man to yield, when he saw five men upon him, and his comrade knocked down; besides, this was it seems one of the three who were not so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the crew, and therefore was easily persuaded, not only to yield, but afterwards to join very sincere with us.
In the mean time, Friday and the captain’s mate so well managed their business with the rest, that they drew them by hollooing and answering, from one hill to another, and from one wood to another, till they not only heartily tired them but left them, where they were very sure they could not reach back to the boat, before it was dark; and indeed they were heartily tired themselves also by the time they came back to us.
We had nothing now to do, but to watch for them,in the dark, and to fall upon them, so as to make sure work with them.
It was several hours after Friday came back to me before they came back to their boat; and we could hear the foremost of them, long before they came quite up, calling to those behind to come along; and could also hear them answer, and complain how lame and tired they were, and not being able to come any faster, which was very welcome news to us.
At length they came up to the boat; but it is impossible to express their confusion, when they found the boat fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two men gone: we could hear them call to one another in a most lamentable manner, telling one another they were gotten into an enchanted island; that either there were inhabitants in it, and they should all be murdered; or else there were devils or spirits in it, and they should be all carried away and devoured.
They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their names a great many times, but no answer: after some time, we could see them, by the little light there was, run about wringing their hands, like men in despair; and that sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves, then come ashore, and walk about again, and so the same thing over again.
My men would fain have had me given them leave to fall upon them at once in the dark; but I was willing to take them at some advantage, so to spare them, and kill as few of them as I could; and especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing any of our men, knowing the other men were very well armed: I resolved to wait to see if they did not separate; and therefore, to make sure of them, I drew my ambuscade nearer; and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon their hands and feet as close to the ground as they could, that they might not be discovered, and get as near them as they could possibly, before they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture, till theboatswain, who was the principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shewn himself the most dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them with two more of the crew; the captain was so eager, at having the principal rogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to let him come so near as to be sure of him; for they only heard his tongue before: but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting up on their feet, let fly at them.
The boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man was shot in the body, and fell just by him, though he did not die till an hour or two after; and the third ran for it.
At the noise of the fire, I immediately advanced with my whole army, which was now eight men; viz. myself generalissimo; Friday my lieutenant-general; the captain and his two men, and the three prisoners of war, whom he had trusted with arms.
We came upon them indeed in the dark, so that they could not see our number; and I made the man they had left in the boat, who was now one of us, to call them by name, to try if I could bring them to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce them to terms; which fell out just as we desired: for indeed it was easy to think, as their condition then was, they would be very-willing to capitulate; so he calls out, as loud as he could, to one of them, “Tom Smith, Tom Smith.” Tom Smith answered immediately, “Who’s that? Robinson?” For it seems he knew his voice. The other answered, “Ay, ay; for God’s sake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms, and yield, or you are all dead men this moment.”
“Who must we yield to? where are they?” says Smith again. “Here they are,” says he; “here is our captain and fifty men with him, have been hunting you this two hours; the boatswain is killed, Will Frye is wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if you do not yield, your are all lost.”
“Will they give us quarter then?” says Tom Smith, “and we will yield.”—“I’ll go and ask, if you promise to yield,” says Robinson. So he asked the captain, and the captain himself then calls out, “You Smith, you know my voice, if you lay down your arms immediately, and submit, you shall have your lives, all but Will Atkins.”
Upon this Will Atkins cried out, “For God’s sake, captain, give me quarter: what have I done? they have been all as bad as I,” (which by the way was not true, either; for it seems this Will Atkins was the first man that laid hold of the captain when they first mutinied, and used him barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him injurious language:) however, the captain told him he must lay down his arms at discretion, and trust to the governor’s mercy, by which he meant me; for they all called me governor.
In a word, they all laid down their arms, and begged their lives; and I sent the man that had parleyed with them, and two more, who bound them all; and then my great army of fifty men, which, particularly with those three, were all but eight, came up and seized upon them all, and upon their boat, only that I kept myself and one more out of sight, for reasons of state.
Our next work was to repair the boat, and to think of seizing the ship; and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, he expostulated with them upon the villany of their practices with him, and at length, upon the farther wickedness of their design; and how certainly it must bring them to misery and distress in the end, and perhaps to the gallows.
They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their lives: as for that, he told them they were none of his prisoners, but the commander’s of the island; that they thought they had set him on shore in a barren uninhabited island; but it had pleased God so to direct them, that the island was inhabited, and that the governor was an Englishman: that he might hang them all there, if he pleased; but as hehad given them all quarter, he supposed he would send them to England, to be dealt with there as justice required, except Atkins, whom he was commanded by the governor to advise to prepare for death; for that he would be hanged in the morning.
Though this was all a fiction of his own, yet it had its desired effect. Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the captain to intercede with the governor for his life; and all the rest begged of him for God’s sake, that they might not be sent to England.
It now occurred to me, that the time of our deliverance was come, and that it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to be hearty in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the dark from them, that they might not see what kind of a governor they had, and called the captain to me: when I called, as at a good distance, one of the men was ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, “Captain, the commander calls for you;” and presently the captain replied, “Tell his excellency I am just a-coming.” This more perfectly amused them; and they all believed that the commander was just by with his fifty men.
Upon the captain’s coming to me, I told him my project for seizing the ship, which he liked wonderfully well, and resolved to put it in execution the next morning.
But, in order to execute it with more art, and to be secure of success, I told him we must divide the prisoners, and that he should go and take Atkins, and two more of the worst of them, and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay: this was committed to Friday, and the two men who came on shore with the captain.
They conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison; and it was indeed a dismal place, especially to men in their condition.
The others I ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which I have given a full description; and as it wasfenced in, and they pinioned, the place was secure enough, considering they were upon their behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into a parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me, whether he thought they might be trusted or no, to go on board, and surprise the ship. He talked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they were brought to; and that though the governor had given them quarter for their lives, as to the present action, yet that if they were sent to England, they would all be hanged in chains, to be sure; but that if they would join in such an attempt as to recover the ship, he would have the governor’s engagement for their pardon.
Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by men in their condition: they fell down on their knees to the captain, and promised with the deepest imprecations, that they would be faithful to him to the last drop, and that they should owe their lives to him, and would go with him all over the world; that they would own him for a father to them as long as they lived.
“Well,” says the captain, “I must go and tell the governor what you say, and see what I can do to bring him to consent to it.” So he brought me an account of the temper he found them in; and that he verily believed they would be faithful.
However, that we might be very secure, I told him he should go back again, and choose out five of them, and tell them, that they should see that they did not want men; but he would take out those five to be his assistants, and that the governor would keep the other two, and the three that were sent prisoners to the castle, (my cave) as hostages for the fidelity of those five; and that if they proved unfaithful in the execution, the five hostages should be hanged in chains alive upon the shore.
This looked severe, and convinced them that the governor was in earnest; however, they had no wayleft them but to accept it; and it was now the business of the prisoners, as much as of the captain, to persuade the other five to do their duty.
Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: 1. The captain, his mate, and passenger. 2. Then the two prisoners of the first gang, to whom, having their characters from the captain, I had given their liberty, and trusted them with arms. 3. The other two whom I kept till now in my bower pinioned; but, upon the captain’s motion, had now released. 4. These five released at last; so that they were twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners in the cave for hostages.
I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands on board the ship: for, as for me, and my man Friday, I did not think it was proper for us to stir, having seven men left behind; and it was employment enough for us to keep them asunder, and supply them with victuals.
As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast; but Friday went twice a day to them, to supply them with necessaries; and I made the other two carry provisions to a certain distance, where Friday was to take it.
When I shewed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain, who told them, I was the person the governor had ordered to look after them, and that it was the governor’s pleasure that they should not stir any where but by my direction; that if they did, they should be fetched into the castle, and be laid in irons; so that as we never suffered them to see me as governor, so I now appeared as another person, and spoke of the governor, the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions.
The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man them: he made his passenger captain of one, with four other men; and himself, and his mate, and five more, went in the other: and they contrived their business very well; for they came up to the shipabout midnight. As soon as they came within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and tell them he had brought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time before they had found them, and the like; holding them in a chat, till they came to the ship’s side; when the captain and the mate, entering first with their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter with the but end of their muskets; being very faithfully seconded by their men, they seemed all the rest that were upon the main and quarter decks, and began to fasten the hatches to keep them down who were below; when the other boat and their men, entering at the fore chains, secured the forecastle of the ship, and the skuttle which went down into the cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners.
When this was done, and all safe upon the deck, the captain ordered the mate with three men to break into the round-house, where the new rebel captain lay, and, having taken the alarm, was gotten up, and with two men and a boy had gotten fire arms in their hands; and when the mate with a crow split upon the door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket-ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but killed nobody.
The mate, calling for help, rushed, however, into the round-house, wounded as he was, and with his pistol shot the new captain through the head, the bullets entering at his mouth, and came out again behind one of his ears; so that he never spoke a word; upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually without any more lives being lost.
As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered seven guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed upon with me, to give me notice of his success; which you may be sure I was very glad to hear, having sat watching upon the shore for it, till near two of the clock in the morning.
Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid medown; and it having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound, till I was something surprised with the noise of a gun; and presently starting up, I heard a man call me by the name of governor, governor; and presently I knew the captain’s voice; when climbing up to the top of the hill, there he stood, and pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms: “My dear friend and deliverer,” says he, “there’s your ship, for she is all yours, and so are we, and all that belong to her.” I cast my eyes to the ship, and there she rode within a little more than half a mile of the shore; for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters of her; and the weather being fair, had brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of a little creek; and the tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace in near the place where I first landed my rafts, and so landed just at my door.
I was, at first, ready to sink down with the surprise; for I saw my deliverance indeed visibly put into my hands, all things easy, and a large ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to go; at first, for some time, I was not able to answer one word; but as he had taken me in his arms, I held fast by him, or I should have fallen to the ground.
He perceived the surprise, and immediately pulled a bottle out of his pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me: after I drank it, I sat down upon the ground, and though it brought me to myself, yet it was a good while before I could speak a word to him.
All this while the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only not under any surprise, as I was; and he said a thousand kind tender things to me, to compose and bring me to myself; but such was the flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion; at last it broke into tears, and in a little while after I recovered my speech.
Then I took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer; and we rejoiced together; I told him, Ilooked upon him as a man sent from Heaven to deliver me, and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders; that such things as these were the testimonies we had of a secret hand of Providence governing the world, and an evidence, that the eyes of an infinite Power could search into the remotest corner of the world, and send help to the miserable whenever he pleased.
I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to Heaven; and what heart could forbear to bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous manner provided for one in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but from whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed?
When we had talked awhile, the captain told me, he had brought me some little refreshments, such as the ship afforded, and such as the wretches who had been so long his masters, had not plundered him of. Upon this he called aloud to the boat, and bids his men bring the things ashore that were for the governor; and indeed it was a present, as if I had been one, not that I was to be carried along with them, but as if I had been to dwell upon the island still, and they were to go without me.
First, he had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent cordial waters; six large bottles of Madeira wine, the bottles held two quarts apiece; two pounds of excellent good tobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship’s beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of peas, and about a hundred weight of biscuit.
He brought me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of other things: but besides these, and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he brought me six clean new shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, and a very good suit of clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little. In a word, he clothed me from head to foot.
It was a very kind and agreeable present, as anyone may imagine, to one in my circumstances; but never was any thing in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at their first putting on.
After these ceremonies passed, and after all his things were brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether we might venture to take them away with us or no, especially two of them, whom we knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and the captain said, he knew they were such rogues, that there was no obliging them; and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first English colony he could come at; and I found that the captain himself was very anxious about it.
Upon this, I told him, that, if he desired it, I durst undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make their own request that he should leave them upon the island; “I should be very glad of that,” says the captain, “with all my heart.”
“Well,” said I, “I will send for them, and talk with them for you:” so I caused Friday and the two hostages, for they were now discharged, their comrades having performed their promise; I say, I caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep them there till I came.
After some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit, and now I was called governor again. Being all met, and the captain with me, I caused the men to be brought before me, and I told them, I had had a full account of their villanous behaviour to the captain, and how they had run away with the ship, and were preparing to commit farther robberies; but that Providence, had ensnared them in their own ways, and that they were fallen into the pit which they had digged for others.
I let them know, that by my direction the ship hadbeen seized, that she lay now in the road, and they might see by and by, that their new captain had received the reward of his villany; for that they might see him hanging at the yard-arm: that as to them, I wanted to know what they had to say, why I should not execute them as pirates taken in the fact, as by my commission they could not doubt I had authority to do.
One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing to say but this, that when they were taken, the captain promised them their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy: but I told them I knew not what mercy to shew them; for, as for myself, I had resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go for England: and as for the captain, he could not carry them to England, other than as prisoners in irons to be tried for mutiny, and running away with the ship; the consequence of which they must needs know, would be the gallows; so that I could not tell which was best for them, unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island; if they desired that, I did not care, as I had liberty to leave it; I had some inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they could shift on shore. They seemed very thankful for it; said they would much rather venture to stay there, than to be carried to England to be hanged; so I left it on that issue.
However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if he durst not leave them there: upon this I seemed to be a little angry with the captain, and told him, that they were my prisoners, not his; and that seeing I had offered them so much favour, I would be as good as my word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it, I would set them at liberty as I found them; and if he did not like that, he might take them again if he could catch them.
Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I accordingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire into the woods, to the place whence they came, and Iwould leave them some fire-arms, some ammunition, and some directions how they should live very well, if they thought fit.
Upon this, I prepared to go on board the ship; but told the captain, that I would stay that night to prepare my things; and desired him to go on board in the meantime, and keep all right in the ship, and send the boat on shore the next day for me; ordering him in the meantime to cause the new captain who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that these men might see him.
When the captain was gone, I sent for the men up to me to my apartment, and entered seriously into discourse with them of their circumstances: I told them, I thought they had made a right choice; that if the captain carried them away, they would certainly be hanged: I shewed them their captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had nothing less to expect.
When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told them, I would let them into the story of my living there, and put them into the way of making it easy to them: accordingly I gave them the whole history of the place, and of my coming to it: shewed them my fortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured my grapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy. I told them the story of the sixteen Spaniards that were to be expected; for whom I left a letter, and made them promise to treat them in common with themselves.
I left them my fire-arms; viz. five muskets, three fowling-pieces, and three swords: I had about a barrel of powder left; for after the first year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave them a description of the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk and fatten them, to make both butter and cheese.
In a word, I gave them every part of my own story; and I told them, I would prevail with thecaptain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder more, and some garden-seed, which I told them I would have been very glad of; also I gave them the bag of peas which the captain had brought me to eat, and bade them be sure to sow and increase them.
Having done all this, I left them the next day, and went on board the ship: we prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that night: the next morning early, two of the five men came swimming to the ship’s side, and making a most lamentable complaint of the other three, begged to be taken into the ship for God’s sake, for they should be murdered; and begged the captain to take them on board though he hanged them immediately.
Upon this the captain pretended to have no power without me; but after some difficulty, and after their solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on board, and were some time after soundly whipped and pickled; after which they proved very honest and quiet fellows.
Some time after this, I went with the boat on shore, the tide being up, with the things promised to the men, to which the captain, at my intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which they took, and were very thankful for: I also encouraged them, by telling them, that if it lay in my way to send a vessel to take them in, I would not forget them.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on board for relics the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots; also I forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain by me so long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver, till it had been a little rubbed and handled; and also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship.
And thus I left the island the nineteenth of December, as I found by the ship’s account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days: being delivered from the second captivity the same day of the month that I firstmade my escape in the barco-longo, from among the Moors of Sallee.
In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the eleventh of June, in the year 1687; having been thirty and five years absent.
When I came to England, I was a perfect stranger to all the world, as if I had never been known there: my benefactor, and faithful steward, whom I had left in trust with my money, was alive, but had had great misfortunes in the world, was become a widow the second time, and very low in the world: I made her easy as to what she owed me, assuring her I would give her no trouble; but on the contrary, in gratitude to her former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as my little stock would afford, which at that time would indeed allow me to do but little for her: but I assured her, I would never forget her former kindness to me; nor did I forget her, when I had sufficient to help her; as shall be observed in its place.
I went down afterwards into Yorkshire; but my father was dead, and my mother and all the family extinct; except that I found two sisters, and two of the children of one of my brothers: and as I had been long ago given over for dead, there had been no provision made for me, so that, in a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me; and that little money I had, would not do much for me as to settling in the world.
I met with one piece of gratitude indeed, which I did not expect; and this was, that the master of the ship, whom I had so happily delivered, and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having given a very handsome account to the owners, of the manner how I had saved the lives of the men, and the ship, they invited me to meet them and some other merchants concerned, and all together made me a very handsome compliment upon that subject, and a present of almost two hundred pounds sterling.
But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life, and how little way this wouldgo towards settling me in the world, I resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come by some information of the state of my plantation in the Brasils, and what was become of my partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had some years now given me over for dead.
With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in April following; my man Friday accompanying me very honestly in all these ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions.
When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my particular satisfaction, my old friend the captain of the ship, who first took me up at sea, off the shore of Africa: he was now grown old, and had left off the sea, having put his son, who was far from a young man, into his ship; and who still used the Brasil trade. The old man did not know me, and, indeed, I hardly knew him; but I soon brought myself to his remembrance, when I told him who I was.
After some passionate expressions of our old acquaintance, I inquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner; the old man told me, he had not been in the Brasils for about nine years; but that he could assure me, that when he came away, my partner was living; but the trustees, whom I had joined with him, to take cognizance of my part, were both dead; that, however, he believed that I would have a very good account of the improvement of the plantation; for that, upon the general belief of my being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in the account of the produce of my part of the plantation, to the procurator fiscal; who had appropriated it, in case I never came to claim it, one third to the king, and two thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine, to be expended for the benefit of the poor, and for the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith; but that if I appeared, or any one for me, to claim the inheritance, it would be restored; only that the improvement, or annual production, being distributed to charitable uses, could not be restored; buthe assured me, that the steward of the king’s revenue, (from lands) and the provedore, or steward of the monastery, had taken great care all along, that the incumbent, that is to say, my partner, gave every year a faithful account of the produce, of which they received duly my moiety.
I asked him, if he knew to what height of improvement he had brought the plantation; and whether he thought it might be worth looking after; or whether, on my going thither, I should meet with no obstruction to my possessing my just right in the moiety.
He told me, he could not tell exactly to what degree the plantation was improved; but this he knew, that my partner was growing exceeding rich upon the enjoying but one half of it; and that, to the best of his remembrance, he had heard, that the king’s third of my part, which was, it seems, granted away to some other monastery, or religious house, amounted to above two hundred moidores a year; that, as to my being restored to a quiet possession of it, there was no question to be made of that, my partner being alive to witness my title, and my name being also enrolled in the register of the county. Also he told me, that the survivors of my two trustees were very fair, honest people, and very wealthy, and he believed I would not only have their assistance for putting me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum of money in their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm, while their fathers held the trust, and before it was given up, as above, which, as he remembered, was about twelve years.
I shewed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and inquired of the old captain, how it came to pass, that the trustees should thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my will, and had made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c.
He told me that was true; but that, as there was no proof of my being dead, he could not act as executor, until some certain account should come of mydeath; and that, besides, he was not willing to intermeddle with a thing so remote: that it was true, he had registered my will, and put in his claim; and could he have given any account of my being dead or alive, he would have acted by procuration, and taken possession of theingenio, (so they called the sugarhouse) and had given his son, who was now at the Brasils, order to do it.
“But,” says the old man, “I have one piece of news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the rest; and that is, that believing you were lost, and all the world believing so also, your partner and trustees did offer to account to me in your name, for six or eight of the first years of profit, which I received; but there being at that time,” says he, “great disbursements for increasing the works, building aningenioand buying slaves, it did not amount to near so much as afterwards it produced: however,” says the old man, “I shall give you a true account of what I have received in all, and how I have disposed of it.”
After a few days farther conference with this ancient friend, he brought me an account of the six first years income of my plantation, signed by my partner, and the merchants’ trustees, being always delivered in goods; viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses, &c. which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I found by this account, that every year the income considerably increased: but, as above, the disbursement being large, the sum at first was small: however, the old man let me see, that he was debtor to me four hundred and seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar, and fifteen double rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his ship, he having been shipwrecked coming home to Lisbon, about eleven years after my leaving the place.
The good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and how he had been obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him a share in a new ship; “however, my old friend,” sayshe, “you shall not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son returns, you shall be fully satisfied.”
Upon this he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me two hundred Portugal moidores in gold; and giving me the writings of his title to the ship which his son was gone to the Brasils in, of which he was a quarter part owner, and his son another, he puts them both in my hands for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man, to be able to bear this; and remembering what he had done for me, how he had taken me up at sea, and how generously he had used me on all occasions, and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to me, I could hardly refrain weeping at what he said to me: therefore, first I asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare so much money at that time, and if it would not straiten him? He told me he could not say but it might straiten him a little; but, however, it was my money, and I might want it more than he.
Every thing the good man said was full of affection, and I could hardly refrain from tears while he spake. In short, I took one hundred of the moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them; then I returned him the rest, and told him, if ever I had possession of the plantation, I would return the other to him also, as indeed I afterwards did; and then, as to the bill of sale of his part in his son’s ship, I would not take it by any means; but that if I wanted the money, I found he was honest enough to pay me; and if I did not, but came to receive what he gave me reason to expect, I would never have a penny more from him.
When this was past, the old man began to ask me if he should put me in a method to make my claim to my plantation. I told him, I thought to go over to it myself. He said, I might do so if I pleased; but that if I did not, there were ways enough to securemy right, and immediately to appropriate the profits to my use; and as there were ships in the river of Lisbon, just ready to go away to Brasil, he made me enter my name in a public register, with his affidavit, affirming upon oath that I was alive, and that I was the same person who took up the land for the planting the said plantation at first.
This being regularly attested by a notary, and the procuration affixed, he directed me to send it with a letter of his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place; and then proposed my staying with him till an account came of the return.
Never any thing was more honourable than the proceedings upon this procuration; for in less than seven months I received a large packet from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, on whose account I went to sea, in which were the following particular letters and papers enclosed.
First, There was the account current of the produce of my farm, or plantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with my old Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to be 1171 moidores in my favour.
Secondly, There was the account of four years more while they kept the effects in their hands, before the government claimed the administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, which they callcivil-death; and the balance of this, the value of plantation increasing, amounted to 38892 crusadoes, which made 3241 moidores.
Thirdly, There was the prior of the Augustines account, who had received the profits for above fourteen years; but not being able to account for what was disposed to the hospital, very honestly declared he had 872 moidores not distributed, which he acknowledged to my account. As to the king’s part, that refunded nothing.
There was also a letter of my partner’s, congratulating me very affectionately upon my being alive; giving me an account how the estate was improved,and what it produced a year, with a particular of the number of squares or acres that it contained; how planted, how many slaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty crosses for blessings, told me he had said so many Ave Marias to thank the Blessed Virgin that I was alive; inviting me very passionately to come over and take possession of my own; and in the mean time to give him orders to whom he should deliver my effects, if I did not come my self; concluding with a hearty tender of his friendship, and that of his family, and sent me, as a present, seven fine leopard’s skins, which he had it seems received from Africa, by some other ship which he had sent thither, and who it seems had made a better voyage than I: he sent me also five chests of excellent sweetmeats, and an hundred pieces of gold uncoined, not quite so large as moidores.
By the same fleet, my two merchant trustees shipped me 1,200 chests of sugar, 800 rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole Account in gold.
I might well say, now indeed, that the latter end of Job was better than the beginning. It is impossible to express here the flutterings of my very heart, when I looked over these letters, and especially when I found all my wealth about me; for as the Brasil ships come all in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters, brought my goods; and the effects were safe in the river before the letters came to my hand. In a word, I turned pale, and grew sick; and had not the old man run and fetched me a cordial, I believe the sudden surprize of joy had overset nature, and I had died upon the spot.
Nay after that, I continued very ill, and was so some hours, ’till a physician being sent for, and something of the real cause of my illness being known, he ordered me to be let blood; after which, I had relief, and grew well: but I verily believe, if it had not been eased by a vent given inthat manner, to the spirits, I should have died.
I was now master, all on a sudden, of above 5000l. sterling in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the Brasils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in England: and in a word, I was in a condition which I scarce knew how to understand, or how to compose my self, for the enjoyment of it.
The first thing I did, was to recompense my original benefactor, my good old captain, who had been first charitable to me in my distress, kind to me in my beginning, and honest to me at the end: I shewed him all that was sent me, I told him, that next to the Providence of Heaven, which disposes all things, it was owing to him; and that it now lay on me to reward him, which I would do a hundred fold: so I first returned to him the hundred moidores I had received of him, then I sent for a notary, and caused him to draw up a general release or discharge for the 470 moidores, which he had acknowledged he owed me in the fullest and firmest manner possible; after which, I caused a procuration to be drawn, impowering him to be my receiver of the annual profits of my plantation, and appointing my partner to account to him, and make the returns by the usual fleets to him in my name; and a clause in the end, being a grant of 100 moidores a year to him, during his life, out of the effects, and 50 moidores a year to his son after him, for his life: and thus I requited my old man.
I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what to do with the estate that Providence had thus put into my hands; and indeed I had more care upon my head now, than I had in my silent state of life in the island, where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothing but what I wanted: whereas I had now a great charge upon me, and my business was how to secure it. I had ne’er a cave now to hide my money in, or a place where it might lie without lock or key, ’till it grew mouldy and tarnished before any bodywould meddle with it: on the contrary, I knew not where to put it, or who to trust with it. My old patron, the captain, indeed was honest, and that was the only refuge I had.
In the next place, my interest in the Brasils seemed to summon me thither, but now I could not tell, how to think of going thither, ’till I had settled my affairs, and left my effects in some safe hands behind me. At first I thought of my old friend the widow, who I knew was honest, and would be just to me; but then she was in years, and but poor, and for ought I knew, might be in debt; so that in a word, I had no way but to go back to England my self, and take my effects with me.
It was some months however before I resolved upon this; and therefore, as I had rewarded the old captain fully, and to his satisfaction, who had been my former benefactor, so I began to think of my poor widow, whose husband had been my first benefactor, and she, while it was in her power, my faithful steward and instructor. So the first thing I did, I got a merchant in Lisbon to write to his correspondent in London, not only to pay a bill, but to go find her out, and carry her in money, an hundred pounds from me, and to talk with her, and comfort her in her poverty, by telling her she should, if I lived, have a further supply: at the same time I sent my two sisters in the country, each of them an hundred pounds, they being, though not in want, yet not in very good circumstances; one having been married, and left a widow; and the other having a husband not so kind to her as he should be.
But among all my relations, or acquaintances, I could not yet pitch upon one, to whom I durst commit the gross of my stock, that I might go away to the Brasils, and leave things safe behind me; and this greatly perplexed me.
I had once a mind to have gone to the Brasils, and have settled my self there; for I was, as it were, naturalized to the place; but I had some little scruple in my mind about religion, which insensibly drew me back, of which I shall say more presently. However,it was not religion that kept me from going thither for the present; and as I had made no scruple of being openly of the religion of the country, all the while I was among them, so neither did I yet; only that now and then having of late thought more of it than formerly, when I began to think of living and dying among them, I began to regret my having professed myself a Papist, and thought it might not be the best religion to die in.
But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept me from going to the Brasils, but that really I did not know with whom to leave my effects behind me; so I resolved at last to go to England with them, where if I arrived, I concluded I should make some acquaintance, or find some relations, that would be faithful to me; and accordingly I prepared to go for England with all my wealth.
In order to prepare things for my going home, I first (the Brasil fleet being just going away) resolved to give answers suitable to the just and faithful account of things I had from thence; and first to the prior of St. Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks for his just dealings, and the offer of the eight hundred and seventy-two moidores, which was undisposed of, which I desired might be given, five hundred to the monastery, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, as the prior should direct, desiring the good Padre’s prayers for me, and the like.
I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all the acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty called for; as for sending them any present, they were far above having any occasion of it.
Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry in the improving the plantation, and his integrity in increasing the stock of the works, giving him instructions for his future government of my part according to the powers I had left with my old patron, to whom I desired him to send whatever became due to me, till he should hear from me more particularly; assuring him, that it was my intention, notonly to come to him, but to settle myself there for the remainder of my life. To this I added a very handsome present of some Italian silks for his wife and two daughters, for such the captain’s son informed me he had; with two pieces of fine English broad-cloth, the best I could get in Lisbon, five pieces of black bays, and some Flanders lace of a good value.
Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my effects into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was, which way to go to England. I had been accustomed enough to the sea, and yet I had a strange aversion to go to England by sea at that time; and though I could give no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon me so much, that though I had once shipped my baggage in order to go, yet I altered my mind, and that not once, but two or three times.
It is true, I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be one of the reasons. But let no man slight the strong impulses of his own thoughts in cases of such moment. Two of the ships which I had singled out to go in, I mean more particularly singled out than any other, that is to say, so as in one of them to put my things on board, and in the other to have agreed with the captain; I say, two of these ships miscarried, viz. one was taken by the Algerines, and the other was cast away on the Start, near Torbay, and all the people drowned except three; so that in either of those vessels I had been made miserable, and in which most, it was hard to say.
Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom I communicated every thing, pressed me earnestly not to go to sea; but either to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of Biscay to Rochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land to Paris, and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to Madrid, and so all the way by land through France.
In a word, I was so prepossessed against my going by sea at all, except from Calais to Dover, that Iresolved to travel all the way by land; which, as I was not in haste, and did not value the charge, was by much the pleasanter way; and to make it more so, my old captain brought an English gentleman, the son of a merchant in Lisbon, who was willing to travel with me; after which, we picked up two who were English, and merchants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, the last going to Paris only; so that we were in all six of us, and five servants, the two merchants and the two Portuguese contenting themselves with one servant between two, to save the charge; and as for me, I got an English sailor to travel with me as a servant, besides my man Friday, who was too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the place of a servant upon the road.
In this manner I set out from Lisbon; and our company being all very well mounted and armed, we made a little troop whereof they did me the honour to call me captain, as well because I was the oldest man, as because I had two servants, and indeed was the original of the whole journey.
As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so shall I trouble you with none of my land journals. But some adventures that happened to us in this tedious and difficult journey, I must not omit.
When we came to Madrid, we, being all of us strangers to Spain, were willing to stay some time to see the court of Spain, and to see what was worth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer, we hastened away, and set out from Madrid about the middle of October. But when we came to the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed at several towns on the way, with an account that so much snow was fallen on the French side of the mountains, that several travellers were obliged to come back to Pampeluna, after having attempted, at an extreme hazard, to pass on.
When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it so indeed; and to me that had been always used to a hot climate, and indeed to countries where we could scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable;nor, indeed, was it more painful than it was surprising: to come but ten days before out of the Old Castile, where the weather was not only warm, but very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenees mountains, so very keen, so severely cold, as to be intolerable, and to endanger benumbing and perishing of our fingers and toes, was very strange.
Poor Friday was really frighted when he saw the mountains all covered with snow, and felt cold weather, which he had never seen or felt before in his life.
To mend the matter, after we came to Pampeluna, it continued snowing with so much violence, and so long, that the people said, winter was come before its time; and the roads, which were difficult before, were now quite impassable: in a word, the snow lay in some places too thick for us to travel; and being not hard frozen, as is the case in northern countries, there was no going without being in danger of being buried alive every step. We staid no less than twenty days at Pampeluna; when (seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its being better, for it was the severest winter all over Europe that had been known in many years) proposed that we should all go away to Fontarabia, and there take shipping for Boardeaux, which was a very little voyage.
But while we were considering this, there came in four French gentlemen, who, having been stopped on the French side of the passes, as we were on the Spanish, had found out a guide, who traversing the country near the head of Languedoc, had brought them over the mountains by such ways, that they were not much incommoded with the snow; and where they met with snow in any quantity, they said it was frozen hard enough to bear them and their horses.
We sent for this guide, who told us, he would undertake to carry us the same way, with no hazard from the snow, provided we were armed sufficiently to protect us from wild beasts: for he said, upon thesegreat snows, it was frequent for some wolves to show themselves at the foot of the mountains, being made ravenous for want of food, the ground being covered with snow. We told him we were well enough prepared for such creatures as they were, if he would ensure us from a kind of two-legged wolves, which we were told we were in most danger from, especially on the French side of the mountains.
He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind in the way that we were to go: so we readily agreed to follow him; as did also twelve other gentlemen, with their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I said, had attempted to go, and were obliged to come back again.
Accordingly we all set out from Pampeluna, with our guide, on the fifteenth of November; and indeed I was surprised, when, instead of going forward, he came directly back with us, on the same road that we came from Madrid, above twenty miles; when having passed two rivers, and come into the plain country, we found ourselves in a warm climate again, where the country was pleasant, and no snow to be seen; but on a sudden, turning to the left, he approached the mountains another way; and though it is true, the hills and the precipices looked dreadfully, yet he made so many tours, such meanders, and led us by such winding ways, we insensibly passed the height of the mountains, without being much encumbered with the snow; and all on a sudden he shewed us the pleasant fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gascoigne, all green and flourishing; though indeed they were at a great distance, and we had some rough way to pass yet.
We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one whole day and a night, so fast, that we could not travel; but he bid us be easy, we should soon be past it all: we found, indeed, that we began to descend every day, and to come more north than before; and so, depending upon our guide, we went on.