backs, of whom I was one;but I had one thing which none of them had, viz., I had the twenty-twomoidores of gold which I had stole at the Brazils, and two pieces ofeight. The two pieces of eight I showed, and one moidore, and none ofthem ever suspected that I had any more money in the world, having beenknown 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 cruelmaster 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 firstwe 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 samecondition with us, only with this additional circumstance, theirs wasvoluntary, and ours by force.
The first piece of news they told us after the short history of theircoming away was, that our companion was on board, but how he gotthither we could not imagine, for he had given us the slip, and we neverimagined he could swim so well as to venture off to the ship, which layat so great a distance; nay, we did not so much as know that he couldswim at all, and not thinking anything of what really happened, wethought he must have wandered into the woods and was devoured, orwas fallen into the hands of the natives, and was murdered; and thesethoughts filled us with fears enough, and of several kinds, about itsbeing some time or other our lot to fall into their hands also. Buthearing how he had with much difficulty been received on board the shipagain and pardoned, we were much better satisfied than before.
Being now, as I have said, a considerable number of us, and in conditionto defend ourselves, the first thing we did was to give every one hishand that we would not separate from one another upon any occasionwhatsoever, but that we would live and die together; that we would killno food, but that we would distribute it in public; and that we wouldbe in all things guided by the majority, and not insist upon our ownresolutions in anything if the majority were against it; that we wouldappoint 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 painof death; and that every one should take turn, but the captain was notto act in any particular thing without advice of the rest, and by themajority.
Having established these rules, we resolved to enter into some measuresfor our food, and for conversing with the inhabitants or natives of theisland for our supply. As for food, they were at first very useful tous, but we soon grew weary of them, being an ignorant, ravenous, brutishsort of people, even worse than the natives of any other country that wehad seen; and we soon found that the principal part of our subsistencewas to be had by our guns, shooting of deer and other creatures, andfowls of all other sorts, of which there is abundance.
We found the natives did not disturb or concern themselves much aboutus; nor did they inquire, or perhaps know, whether we stayed among themor not, much less that our ship was gone quite away, and had cast usoff, as was our case; for the next morning, after we had sent back thelong-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 twoanother, to see what kind of a land we were in; and we soon found thecountry was very pleasant and fruitful, and a convenient place enoughto live in; but, as before, inhabited by a parcel of creatures scarcehuman, or capable of being made social on any account whatsoever.
We found the place full of cattle and provisions; but whether we mightventure 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 lothto bring down a whole nation of devils upon us at once, and thereforesome 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 fordefence. They brought word that they had seen some of the natives, whoappeared 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 fetchedseveral herbs and roots, and some milk; but it was evident they did notdesign to give it away, but to sell it, making signs to know what ourmen would give them.
Our men were perplexed at this, for they had nothing to barter; however,one of the men pulled out a knife and showed them, and they were so fondof it that they were ready to go together by the ears for the knife. Theseaman seeing that, was willing to make a good market of his knife, andkeeping 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 nothinggood enough for that, whereupon one of them made signs that he wouldgo 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.
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 indistress for food, and must of necessity have some, these men would nothave parted with their knives.
However, in a little time more we found that the woods were full ofliving creatures, which we might kill for our food, and that withoutgiving offence to them; so that our men went daily out a-hunting, andnever failed in killing something or other; for, as to the natives, wehad no goods to barter; and for money, all the stock among us would nothave subsisted us long. However, we called a general council to see whatmoney we had, and to bring it all together, that it might go as far aspossible; and when it came to my turn, I pulled out a moidore and thetwo dollars I spoke of before.
This moidore I ventured to show, that they might not despise me too muchfor adding too little to the store, and that they might not pretend tosearch me; and they were very civil to me, upon the presumption that Ihad been so faithful to them as not to conceal anything from them.
But our money did us little service, for the people neither knewthe value or the use of it, nor could they justly rate the gold inproportion with the silver; so that all our money, which was not muchwhen it was all put together, would go but a little way with us, that isto say, to buy us provisions.
Our next consideration was to get away from this cursed place, andwhither to go. When my opinion came to be asked, I told them I wouldleave that all to them, and I told them I had rather they would let mego into the woods to get them some provisions, than consult with me, forI 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 woodsalone; for though we had yet seen no lions or tigers in the woods, wewere assured there were many in the island, besides other creaturesas dangerous, and perhaps worse, as we afterwards found by our ownexperience.
We had many adventures in the woods, for our provisions, and often metwith wild and terrible beasts, which we could not call by their names;but as they were, like us, seeking their prey, but were themselves goodfor nothing, so we disturbed them as little as possible.
Our consultations concerning our escape from this place, which, as Ihave said, we were now upon, ended in this only, that as we had twocarpenters among us, and that they had tools almost of all sorts withthem, we should try to build us a boat to go off to sea with, and thatthen, perhaps, we might find our way back to Goa, or land on some moreproper place to make our escape. The counsels of this assembly werenot of great moment, yet as they seem to be introductory of many moreremarkable adventures which happened under my conduct hereabouts manyyears after, I think this miniature of my future enterprises may not beunpleasant to relate.
To the building of a boat I made no objection, and away they went towork immediately; but as they went on, great difficulties occurred,such as the want of saws to cut our plank; nails, bolts, and spikes, tofasten the timbers; hemp, pitch, and tar, to caulk and pay her seams,and the like. At length, one of the company proposed that,
instead ofbuilding a bark or sloop, or shallop, or whatever they would callit, which they found was so difficult, they would rather make a largeperiagua, or canoe, which might be done with great ease.
It was presently objected, that we could never make a canoe large enoughto pass the great ocean, which we were to go over to get to the coastof Malabar; that it not only would not bear the sea, but it would neverbear the burden, for we were not only twenty-seven men of us, but hada great deal of luggage with us, and must, for our provision, take in agreat deal more.
I never proposed to speak in their general consultations before, butfinding they were at some loss about what kind of vessel they shouldmake, and how to make it, and what would be fit for our use, and whatnot, I told them I found they were at a full stop in their counsels ofevery kind; that it was true we could never pretend to go over to Goa onthe coast of Malabar in a canoe, which though we could all get intoit, and that it would bear the sea well enough, yet would not hold ourprovisions, and