Chapter 2: Slavery and Escape

by Daniel Defoe

　　That evil influence which carried me first away from my father'shouse - which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion ofraising my fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forciblyupon me as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to theentreaties and even the commands of my father - I say, the sameinfluence, whatever it was, presented the most unfortunate of allenterprises to my view; and I went on board a vessel bound to thecoast of Africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly called it, a voyage toGuinea.It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did notship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed have worked alittle harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I should havelearnt the duty and office of a fore-mast man, and in time mighthave qualified myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for amaster. But as it was always my fate to choose for the worse, so Idid here; for having money in my pocket and good clothes upon myback, I would always go on board in the habit of a gentleman; andso I neither had any business in the ship, nor learned to do any.It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company inLondon, which does not always happen to such loose and misguidedyoung fellows as I then was; the devil generally not omitting tolay some snare for them very early; but it was not so with me. Ifirst got acquainted with the master of a ship who had been on thecoast of Guinea; and who, having had very good success there, wasresolved to go again. This captain taking a fancy to myconversation, which was not at all disagreeable at that time,hearing me say I had a mind to see the world, told me if I would gothe voyage with him I should be at no expense; I should be hismessmate and his companion; and if I could carry anything with me,I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit;and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship withthis captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing man, I went thevoyage with him, and carried a small adventure with me, which, bythe disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, I increasedvery considerably; for I carried about 40 pounds in such toys andtrifles as the captain directed me to buy. These 40 pounds I hadmustered together by the assistance of some of my relations whom Icorresponded with; and who, I believe, got my father, or at leastmy mother, to contribute so much as that to my first adventure.This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all myadventures, which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friendthe captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of themathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep anaccount of the ship's course, take an observation, and, in short,to understand some things that were needful to be understood by asailor; for, as he took delight to instruct me, I took delight tolearn; and, in a word, this voyage made me both a sailor and amerchant; for I brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dustfor my adventure, which yielded me in London, at my return, almost300 pounds; and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts whichhave since so completed my ruin.Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly,that I was continually sick, being thrown into a violent calentureby the excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading beingupon the coast, from latitude of 15 degrees north even to the lineitself.I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my greatmisfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to go the samevoyage again, and I embarked in the same vessel with one who washis mate in the former voyage, and had now got the command of theship. This was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made; forthough I did not carry quite 100 pounds of my new-gained wealth, sothat I had 200 pounds left, which I had lodged with my friend'swidow, who was very just to me, yet I fell into terriblemisfortunes. The first was this: our ship making her coursetowards the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and theAfrican shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by aTurkish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail shecould make. We crowded also as much canvas as our yards wouldspread, or our masts carry, to get clear; but finding the pirategained upon us, and would certainly come up with us in a few hours,we prepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rogueeighteen. About three in the afternoon he came up with us, andbringing to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead ofathwart our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns tobear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him, which madehim sheer off again, after returning our fire, and pouring in alsohis small shot from near two hundred men which he had on board.However, we had not a man touched, all our men keeping close. Heprepared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves. Butlaying us on board the next time upon our other quarter, he enteredsixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting andhacking the sails and rigging. We plied them with small shot,half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our deck ofthem twice. However, to cut short this melancholy part of ourstory, our ship being disabled, and three of our men killed, andeight wounded, we were obliged to yield, and were carried allprisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to the Moors.The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first Iapprehended; nor was I carried up the country to the emperor'scourt, as the rest of our men were, but was kept by the captain ofthe rover as his proper prize, and made his slave, being young andnimble, and fit for his business. At this surprising change of mycircumstances, from a merchant to a miserable slave, I wasperfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back upon my father'sprophetic discourse to me, that I should be miserable and have noneto relieve me, which I thought was now so effectually brought topass that I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven hadovertaken me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas! thiswas but a taste of the misery I was to go through, as will appearin the sequel of this story.As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so Iwas in hopes that he would take me with him when he went to seaagain, believing that it would some time or other be his fate to betaken by a Spanish or Portugal man-of-war; and that then I shouldbe set at liberty. But this hope of mine was soon taken away; forwhen he went to sea, he left me on shore to look after his littlegarden, and do the common drudgery of slaves about his house; andwhen he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie inthe cabin to look after the ship.Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I mighttake to effect it, but found no way that had the least probabilityin it; nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational;for I had nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me -no fellow-slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman there butmyself; so that for two years, though I often pleased myself withthe imagination, yet I never had the least encouraging prospect ofputting it in practice.After about two years, an odd circumstance presented itself, whichput the old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again inmy head. My patron lying at home longer than usual without fittingout his ship, which, as I heard, was for want of money, he usedconstantly, once or twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weatherwas fair, to take the ship's pinnace and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he always took me and young Maresco with him to rowthe boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very dexterous incatching fish; insomuch that sometimes he would send me with aMoor, one of his kinsmen, and the youth - the Maresco, as theycalled him - to catch a dish of fish for him.It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm morning, a fogrose so thick that, though we were not half a league from theshore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or whichway, we laboured all day, and all the next night; and when themorning came we found we had pulled off to sea instead of pullingin for the shore; and that we were at least two leagues from theshore. However, we got well in again, though with a great deal oflabour and some danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh inthe morning; but we were all very hungry.But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more careof himself for the future; and having lying by him the longboat ofour English ship that he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishing any more without a compass and some provision; so heordered the carpenter of his ship, who also was an English slave,to build a little state-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a barge, with a place to stand behind it tosteer, and haul home the main-sheet; the room before for a hand ortwo to stand and work the sails. She sailed with what we call ashoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top of thecabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room for him tolie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with some smalllockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit todrink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing; and as I was mostdexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. Ithappened that he had appointed to go out in this boat, either forpleasure or for fish, with two or three Moors of some distinctionin that place, and for whom he had provided extraordinarily, andhad, therefore, sent on board the boat overnight a larger store ofprovisions than ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready threefusees with powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for thatthey designed some sport of fowling as well as fishing.I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the nextmorning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out,and everything to accommodate his guests; when by-and-by my patroncame on board alone, and told me his guests had put off going fromsome business that fell out, and ordered me, with the man and boy,as usual, to go out with the boat and catch them some fish, forthat his friends were to sup at his house, and commanded that assoon as I got some fish I should bring it home to his house; allwhich I prepared to do.This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into mythoughts, for now I found I was likely to have a little ship at mycommand; and my master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself,not for fishing business, but for a voyage; though I knew not,neither did I so much as consider, whither I should steer -anywhere to get out of that place was my desire.My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor,to get something for our subsistence on board; for I told him wemust not presume to eat of our patron's bread. He said that wastrue; so he brought a large basket of rusk or biscuit, and threejars of fresh water, into the boat. I knew where my patron's caseof bottles stood, which it was evident, by the make, were taken outof some English prize, and I conveyed them into the boat while theMoor was on shore, as if they had been there before for our master.I conveyed also a great lump of beeswax into the boat, whichweighed about half a hundred-weight, with a parcel of twine orthread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of which were of greatuse to us afterwards, especially the wax, to make candles. Anothertrick I tried upon him, which he innocently came into also: hisname was Ismael, which they call Muley, or Moely; so I called tohim - "Moely," said I, "our patron's guns are on board the boat;can you not get a little powder and shot? It may be we may killsome alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I knowhe keeps the gunner's stores in the ship." "Yes," says he, "I'llbring some;" and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch,which held a pound and a half of powder, or rather more; andanother with shot, that had five or six pounds, with some bullets,and put all into the boat. At the same time I had found somepowder of my master's in the great cabin, with which I filled oneof the large bottles in the case, which was almost empty, pouringwhat was in it into another; and thus furnished with everythingneedful, we sailed out of the port to fish. The castle, which isat the entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took no noticeof us; and we were not above a mile out of the port before wehauled in our sail and set us down to fish. The wind blew from theN.N.E., which was contrary to my desire, for had it blown southerlyI had been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at leastreached to the bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow whichway it would, I would be gone from that horrid place where I was,and leave the rest to fate.After we had fished some time and caught nothing - for when I hadfish on my hook I would not pull them up, that he might not seethem - I said to the Moor, "This will not do; our master will notbe thus served; we must stand farther off." He, thinking no harm,agreed, and being in the head of the boat, set the sails; and, as Ihad the helm, I ran the boat out near a league farther, and thenbrought her to, as if I would fish; when, giving the boy the helm,I stepped forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I stoopedfor something behind him, I took him by surprise with my arm underhis waist, and tossed him clear overboard into the sea. He roseimmediately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged tobe taken in, told me he would go all over the world with me. Heswam so strong after the boat that he would have reached me veryquickly, there being but little wind; upon which I stepped into thecabin, and fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it athim, and told him I had done him no hurt, and if he would be quietI would do him none. "But," said I, "you swim well enough to reachto the shore, and the sea is calm; make the best of your way toshore, and I will do you no harm; but if you come near the boatI'll shoot you through the head, for I am resolved to have myliberty;" so he turned himself about, and swam for the shore, and Imake no doubt but he reached it with ease, for he was an excellentswimmer.I could have been content to have taken this Moor with me, and havedrowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. When hewas gone, I turned to the boy, whom they called Xury, and said tohim, "Xury, if you will be faithful to me, I'll make you a greatman; but if you will not stroke your face to be true to me" - thatis, swear by Mahomet and his father's beard - "I must throw youinto the sea too." The boy smiled in my face, and spoke soinnocently that I could not distrust him, and swore to be faithfulto me, and go all over the world with me.While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood outdirectly to sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, thatthey might think me gone towards the Straits' mouth (as indeed anyone that had been in their wits must have been supposed to do): forwho would have supposed we were sailed on to the southward, to thetruly Barbarian coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure tosurround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we could not goon shore but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or moremerciless savages of human kind.But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course,and steered directly south and by east, bending my course a littletowards the east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having afair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sailthat I believe by the next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon,when I first made the land, I could not be less than one hundredand fifty miles south of Sallee; quite beyond the Emperor ofMorocco's dominions, or indeed of any other king thereabouts, forwe saw no people.Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and the dreadfulapprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I would notstop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuingfair till I had sailed in that manner five days; and then the windshifting to the southward, I concluded also that if any of ourvessels were in chase of me, they also would now give over; so Iventured to make to the coast, and came to an anchor in the mouthof a little river, I knew not what, nor where, neither whatlatitude, what country, what nation, or what river. I neither saw,nor desired to see any people; the principal thing I wanted wasfresh water. We came into this creek in the evening, resolving toswim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover the country; butas soon as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadful noises of thebarking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we knew notwhat kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, andbegged of me not to go on shore till day. "Well, Xury," said I,"then I won't; but it may be that we may see men by day, who willbe as bad to us as those lions." "Then we give them the shootgun," says Xury, laughing, "make them run wey." Such English Xuryspoke by conversing among us slaves. However, I was glad to seethe boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of our patron'scase of bottles) to cheer him up. After all, Xury's advice wasgood, and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay stillall night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or threehours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them)of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the water,wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure of coolingthemselves; and they made such hideous howlings and yellings, thatI never indeed heard the like.Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but we wereboth more frighted when we heard one of these mighty creatures comeswimming towards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hearhim by his blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast. Xurysaid it was a lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poorXury cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away; "No," says I,"Xury; we can slip our cable, with the buoy to it, and go off tosea; they cannot follow us far." I had no sooner said so, but Iperceived the creature (whatever it was) within two oars' length,which something surprised me; however, I immediately stepped to thecabin door, and taking up my gun, fired at him; upon which heimmediately turned about and swam towards the shore again.But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and hideouscries and howlings that were raised, as well upon the edge of theshore as higher within the country, upon the noise or report of thegun, a thing I have some reason to believe those creatures hadnever heard before: this convinced me that there was no going onshore for us in the night on that coast, and how to venture onshore in the day was another question too; for to have fallen intothe hands of any of the savages had been as bad as to have falleninto the hands of the lions and tigers; at least we were equallyapprehensive of the danger of it.Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere orother for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when andwhere to get to it was the point. Xury said, if I would let him goon shore with one of the jars, he would find if there was anywater, and bring some to me. I asked him why he would go? why Ishould not go, and he stay in the boat? The boy answered with somuch affection as made me love him ever after. Says he, "If wildmans come, they eat me, you go wey." "Well, Xury," said I, "wewill both go and if the wild mans come, we will kill them, theyshall eat neither of us." So I gave Xury a piece of rusk bread toeat, and a dram out of our patron's case of bottles which Imentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near the shore as wethought was proper, and so waded on shore, carrying nothing but ourarms and two jars for water.I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the comingof canoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a lowplace about a mile up the country, rambled to it, and by-and-by Isaw him come running towards me. I thought he was pursued by somesavage, or frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towardshim to help him; but when I came nearer to him I saw somethinghanging over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot,like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs; however, wewere very glad of it, and it was very good meat; but the great joythat poor Xury came with, was to tell me he had found good waterand seen no wild mans.But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water,for a little higher up the creek where we were we found the waterfresh when the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up; sowe filled our jars, and feasted on the hare he had killed, andprepared to go on our way, having seen no footsteps of any humancreature in that part of the country.As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very wellthat the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verde Islandsalso, lay not far off from the coast. But as I had no instrumentsto take an observation to know what latitude we were in, and notexactly knowing, or at least remembering, what latitude they werein, I knew not where to look for them, or when to stand off to seatowards them; otherwise I might now easily have found some of theseislands. But my hope was, that if I stood along this coast till Icame to that part where the English traded, I should find some oftheir vessels upon their usual design of trade, that would relieveand take us in.By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was must bethat country which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco'sdominions and the negroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except bywild beasts; the negroes having abandoned it and gone farther southfor fear of the Moors, and the Moors not thinking it worthinhabiting by reason of its barrenness; and indeed, both forsakingit because of the prodigious number of tigers, lions, leopards, andother furious creatures which harbour there; so that the Moors useit for their hunting only, where they go like an army, two or threethousand men at a time; and indeed for near a hundred milestogether upon this coast we saw nothing but a waste, uninhabitedcountry by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring of wildbeasts by night.Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe,being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries, andhad a great mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; buthaving tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, thesea also going too high for my little vessel; so, I resolved topursue my first design, and keep along the shore.Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we hadleft this place; and once in particular, being early in morning, wecame to an anchor under a little point of land, which was prettyhigh; and the tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go fartherin. Xury, whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine were,calls softly to me, and tells me that we had best go farther offthe shore; "For," says he, "look, yonder lies a dreadful monster onthe side of that hillock, fast asleep." I looked where he pointed,and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a terrible, greatlion that lay on the side of the shore, under the shade of a pieceof the hill that hung as it were a little over him. "Xury," saysI, "you shall on shore and kill him." Xury, looked frighted, andsaid, "Me kill! he eat me at one mouth!" - one mouthful he meant.However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie still, and Itook our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and loaded itwith a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it down;then I loaded another gun with two bullets; and the third (for wehad three pieces) I loaded with five smaller bullets. I took thebest aim I could with the first piece to have shot him in the head,but he lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that theslugs hit his leg about the knee and broke the bone. He startedup, growling at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down again;and then got upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar thatever I heard. I was a little surprised that I had not hit him onthe head; however, I took up the second piece immediately, andthough he began to move off, fired again, and shot him in the head,and had the pleasure to see him drop and make but little noise, butlie struggling for life. Then Xury took heart, and would have melet him go on shore. "Well, go," said I: so the boy jumped intothe water and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to shore withthe other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the muzzle ofthe piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again, whichdespatched him quite.This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was verysorry to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature thatwas good for nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have someof him; so he comes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet."For what, Xury?" said I. "Me cut off his head," said he.However, Xury could not cut off his head, but he cut off a foot,and brought it with him, and it was a monstrous great one.I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of him might,one way or other, be of some value to us; and I resolved to takeoff his skin if I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; butXury was much the better workman at it, for I knew very ill how todo it. Indeed, it took us both up the whole day, but at last wegot off the hide of him, and spreading it on the top of our cabin,the sun effectually dried it in two days' time, and it afterwardsserved me to lie upon.