Captain Singleton
Captain Singleton
Daniel Defoe
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THE LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PYRACIES, Of the Famous Captain SINGLETON: Containing
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, to the main Land 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,
among 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 Pyracies with the famous Captain Avery and others.
LONDON: Printed for J. Brotherton, at the Black Bull in Cornhill, J. Graves in
St. James's Street, A. Dodd, at the Peacock without Temple bar, and T. Warner,
at the Black Boy in Pater-Noster-Row. 1720.
As it is usual for great Persons whose Lives have been 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, tho' 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 dress'd, had a Nursery Maid to tend 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 Neighbourhood. The Maid, whether
by Appointment or otherwise, meets with a Fellow, her Sweet-heart, as I suppose;
he carries her into a Publick-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 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 drest, 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 Gypsey, under whose
Government I continued till I was about Six Years old; and this Woman, tho' I
was continually dragged about with her, from one Part of the Country to another,
yet never let me want for any thing, and I called her Mother; tho' 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 Christen'd.
It is in vain to reflect here, what a terrible Fright the careless Hussy was in,
that lost me; what Treatment she received from my justly enraged Father and
Mother, and the Horror these must be in at the Thoughts of their Child being
thus carry'd away; for as I never knew any thing of the Matter, but just what I
have related, nor who my Father and Mother were; so it would make but a needless
Digression to talk of it here.
My good Gypsey Mother, for some of her worthy Actions no doubt, happened in
Process of Time to be hang'd; 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 my self 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 tho' 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 Sea Side; 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 Busselton, and there I tended
the Carpenters, and such People as were employ'd in Building a Ship for him; and
when it was done, tho' 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.
I was not much concerned at the Disaster, tho' 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 Streights, and in Sight
of the Bay of Cadiz, the Turkish Rover was attack'd 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
Deliverance: Nor indeed was it so much a Deliverance to me, as it would
otherwise ha' been; for my Master, who was the only Friend I had in the World,
died at Lisbon of his Wounds; and I being then almost reduced to my primitive
State, viz. of Starving, had this Addition to it, that it was in a foreign
Country too, where I knew no body, 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, staid in the Ship for several Days, till at length one of the Lieutenants
seeing me, enquired 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, tho' 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, seeing me look very dull, came
to me, and speaking 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 stole a
Piece of Meat just before, had brought it close by me, and I had taken it from
him, and eat 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, tho' I fared hard enough, and I lived with him about two Years,
during which time he was solliciting his Business, and at length got to be
Master or Pilot under Don Garcia de Pimentesia de Carravallas, Captain of a
Portuguese Gallion, 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
Cabbin, 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 Linnen; and
also Bays, Woollen, Cloath, Stuffs, &c. under the Pretence of his Clothes.
I was too young in the Trade to keep any Journal of this Voyage, tho' my Master,
who was for a Portuguese a pretty good Artist, prompted me to it: But my not
understanding the Language, was one Hindrance; at least, it served me for an
Excuse. However, 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
Smattering of the Portuguese Tongue; so I began to get a little superficial
Knowledge of Navigation, but not such as was likely to be sufficient to carry me
thro' a Life of Adventure, as mine was to be. In short, I learnt several
material Things in this Voyage among the Portuguese: I learnt particularly to be
an errant 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 Brasil ; 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 an Hundred Ton 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 100 Weight.
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 Moydores out of the Gold that was Shipt 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 employ'd me frequently on his
own Occasions; and on the other Hand, in Recompence for my Officious Diligence,
I received several particular Favours from him; particularly, 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 particularly to take Care of my
Master's Man, and to furnish my self with sufficient Provisions to make me live
much better than the other People in the Ship; for the Captain seldom ordered
any thing 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 every thing that is wicked among
the Portuguese, a Nation the most perfidious and the most debauch'd, the most
insolent and cruel, of any that pretend to call themselves Christians, 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
unsufferable Boasts of their new Courage, they were generally speaking the most
compleat 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 growing up apace, to be as wicked as any Body 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 thro'; and yet even in this State of
Original Wickedness, I entertained such a settled Abhorrence of the abandon'd
Vileness of the Portuguese, that I could not but hate them most heartily from
the Beginning, and all my Life afterwards. 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
superiour, that I thought there was something in them that shock'd my very
Nature. Add to this, that 'tis 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 Shipp'd with the Devil
must sail with the Devil; I was among them, and I manag'd my self 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
Moydore 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 my
self.
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 meer Charity, upon
seeing my distrest Circumstances, but did not doubt, but when 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
imaginable, and called me English Dog, young Heretick, and threaten'd 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 Heretick; for as I knew nothing about
Religion, neither Protestant from Papist, or either of them from a Mahometan, I
could never be a Heretick. However, it pass'd but a little, but as young as I
was, I had been carried into the Inquisition; and there, if they had ask'd me,
if I was a Protestant or a Catholick, I should have said Yes to that which came
first. If it had been the Protestant they had ask'd first, it had certainly made
a Martyr of me for I did not know what.
But the very Priest they carried with them, or Chaplain of the Ship, as we call
him, saved me; for seeing me a Boy entirely ignorant of Religion, and ready to
do or say any thing they bid me, he ask'd me some Questions 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 Catholick; 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
starv'd, and the like: And therefore I was willing to serve him; but that I
hop'd he would give me some little Consideration for my Service, or let me know
how long he expected I should serve him for nothing.
It was all one; neither the Priest or 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 Inquisition as a Turk.
This frighted me out of my Wits; for I had no body 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 satisfy'd; and Father Anthony bad 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
offer'd 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