by Daniel Defoe
stoppedby the creek, where the water being up, they could not get over, andcalled for the boat to come up and set them over; as, indeed, Iexpected. When they had set themselves over, I observed that the boatbeing gone a good way into the creek, and, as it were, in a harbourwithin the land, they took one of the three men out of her, to go alongwith them, and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to thestump of a little tree on the shore. This was what I wished for; andimmediately leaving Friday and the captain's mate to their business, Itook the rest with me, and crossing the creek out of their sight, wesurprised the two men before they were aware; one of them lying on theshore, and the other being in the boat. The fellow on shore was betweensleeping and waking, and going to start up; the captain, who wasforemost, ran in upon him, and knocked him down; and then called out tohim in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man. There needed very fewarguments to persuade a single man to yield, when he saw five men uponhim, and his comrade knocked down; besides, this was, it seems, one ofthe 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 tojoin very sincerely with us. In the mean time, Friday and the captain'smate so well managed their business with the rest, that they drew them,by hallooing and answering, from one hill to another, and from one woodto another, till they not only heartily tired them, but left them wherethey were very sure they could not reach back to the boat before it wasdark; and, indeed, they were heartily tired themselves also, by the timethey came back to us.
We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark, and to fallupon them, so as to make sure work with them. It was several hours afterFriday came back to me before they came back to their boat; and we couldhear the foremost of them, long before they came quite up, calling tothose behind to come along; and could also hear them answer, andcomplain how lame and tired they were, and not 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 boatfast 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 got into an enchanted island; that eitherthere were inhabitants in it, and they should all be murdered, or elsethere were devils and spirits in it, and they should be all carried awayand devoured. They hallooed again, and called their two comrades bytheir names a great many times; but no answer. After some time, we couldsee them, by the little light there was, run about, wringing theirhands like men in despair; and that sometimes they would go and sit downin the boat, to rest themselves: then come ashore again, and walk aboutagain, and so the same thing over again. My men would fain have had megive them leave to fall upon them at once in the dark; but I was willingto take them at some advantage, so to spare them, and kill as few ofthem as I could; and especially I was unwilling to hazard the killingany of our men, knowing the others were very well armed. I resolved towait, to see if they did not separate; and, therefore, to make sure ofthem, I drew my ambuscade nearer, and ordered Friday and the captain tocreep 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 couldpossibly, before they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture, when the boatswain, who was theprincipal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown himself the mostdejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them, withtwo more of the crew: the captain was so eager at having this principalrogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to lethim come so near as to be sure of him, for they only heard his tonguebefore: but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting upon 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 didnot die till an hour or two after; and the third run for it. At thenoise of the fire, I immediately advanced with my whole army,which was now eight men, viz. myself, generalissimo; Friday, mylieutenant-general; the captain and his two men, and the three prisonersof war, whom we had trusted with arms. We came upon them, indeed, in thedark, so that they could not see our number; and I made the man they hadleft in the boat, who was now one of us, to call them by name, to try ifI could bring them to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce them toterms; which fell out just as we desired: for indeed it was easy tothink, as their condition then was, they would be very willing tocapitulate. So he calls out as loud as he could, to one of them, "TomSmith! Tom Smith!" Tom Smith answered immediately, "Is that Robinson?"For it seems he knew the voice. The other answered, "Aye aye; for God'ssake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms and yield, or you are all dead menthis moment."--"Who must we yield to? Where are they?" says Smith again."Here they are," says he; "here's our captain and fifty men with him;have been hunting you these two hours: the boatswain is killed, Will Fryis wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if you do not yield, you are alllost."--"Will they give us quarter then?" says Tom Smith, "and we willyield."--"I'll go and ask, if you promise to yield," says Robinson: sohe asked the captain; and the captain himself then calls out, "You,Smith, you know my voice; if you lay down your arms immediately, andsubmit, you shall have your lives, all but Will Atkins."
Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake, captain, give mequarter; what have I done? They have all been as bad as I:" which, bythe way, was not true neither; for, it seems, this Will Atkins was thefirst man that laid hold of the captain, when they first mutinied, andused him barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him injuriouslanguage. However, the captain told him he must lay down his arms atdiscretion, 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 theirarms, and begged their lives; and I sent the man that had parleyed withthem, and two more, who bound them all; and then my great army of fiftymen, which, particularly with those three, were in all but eight, cameup and seized upon them, and upon their boat; only that I kept myselfand one more out of sight for reasons of state.
Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seizing the ship: andas for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, heexpostulated with them upon the villany of their practices with him, andat length upon the further wickedness of their design, and how certainlyit must bring them to misery and, distress in the end, and perhaps tothe gallows. They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for theirlives. As for that, he told them they were none of his prisoners, butthe commander's of the island; that they thought they had set him onshore in a barren, uninhabited island; but it had pleased God so todirect them, that it was inhabited, and that the governor was anEnglishman; 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 wascommanded by the governor to advise to prepare for death, for that hewould be hanged in the morning.
Though this was all but a fiction of his own, yet it had its desiredeffect: Atkins fell upon his knees, to beg the captain to intercede withthe governor for his life; and all the rest begged of him, for God'ssake, that they might not be sent to England.
It now occurred to me, that the time of our deliverance was come, andthat it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to behearty in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the dark fromthem, that they might not see what kind of a governor they had, andcalled the captain to me: when I called, as at a good distance, one ofthe men was ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, "Captain,the commander calls for you;" and presently the captain replied, "Tellhis excellency I am just a coming." This more perfectly amused them, andthey 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 theship, which he liked wonderfully well, and resolved to put it inexecution 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 Atki
ns, and two more of the worst ofthem, and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay. This wascommitted 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, adismal place, especially to men in their condition. The others Iordered to my bower, as I called it, of which I have given a fulldescription; and as it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place wassecure enough, considering they were upon their behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into aparley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he thoughtthey might be trusted or no to go on board and surprise the ship. Hetalked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they werebrought to, and that though the governor had given them quarter