The Eerie Adventures of the Lycanthrope Robinson Crusoe (29 page)

Having done all this, and warned yet again against the dark church, I left them the next day and went on board the ship. We prepared to sail, but did not weigh that night.

The next morning, two of the five men came swimming to the ship's side, and making a most lamentable complaint of the island, begged to be taken into the ship, for God's sake, for they should be taken by the dream lord Kathooloo, and begged Burke to take them on board e'en if he hanged them immediately.

Upon this, he pretended to have no power without me. After some difficulty, and after their solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on board, and were some time after whipped and pickled. After which they proved very honest and quiet fellows.

Some time after this, the long-boat was order'd on shore, the tyde being up, with the things promised to the men. Burke, at my intercession, caused their chests and cloathes to be added, which they took, and were very thankful for. I also encouraged them by telling them if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take them in, I would not forget them.

When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for a relique, the great goat-skin cap I had made, and also I forgot not to take the money I formerly mention'd, which had lain by me so long useless it was grown rusty or tarnish'd. Also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship. Friday brought naught but his great wooden sword, which he wore on his hip through his goat-skin belt.

And thus we left my sanctuary, my prison, the Island of Despair, the 19th of December, as I found by the ship's account, in the year 1686. I had been upon it seven and twenty years, two months, and nineteen days, deliver'd from this second captivity the same day of the month I first made my escape from among the Moors of Sallee.

In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the 11th of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty-five years absent. No less than five moons were spent on board, yet Burke did not see to question my sometimes solitary nature, nor would any cross Friday as he stood guard without my cabin with his great wooden sword.

When I came to England, I was as perfect a stranger to all the world as if I had never been known there. I went down afterwards into Yorkshire, but my father was dead and my mother and all the family extinct. I found two sisters and two nephews by the name of Marsh. As I had been long ago given over for dead, there had been no provision made for me. In a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me, and the 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. Burke, whom I had so happily deliver'd, and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, did give 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 the subject and a present of almost £200 sterling.

But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life, and how little way this would go towards settling me in the world, I resolv’d to go to Lisbon and see if I might not come by some information of the state of my plantation in the Brasils, and of what was become of my partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had some years past given me over for dead.

When I arrived, April following, in Lisbon I found, to my particular satisfaction, my friend Captain Amaral who first took me up at sea off the shore of Africk. He was now grown old, and had left off going to sea, having put his son, Zachary, who was far from a young man, into his ship and who still used the Brasil trade.

After some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance between us, I inquired after my plantation and my partner. Amaral told me he had not been in the Brasils for about nine years, but he could assure me when he came away my partner was living. The trustees, whom I had joined with him to take cognizance of my part, were both dead. However, he believed I would have a very good account of the improvement of the plantation. 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.

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.

Amaral told me he knew my partner was grown exceeding rich upon the enjoying his part of it. 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 country. Also the old captain told me the survivors of my two trustees were very fair honest people and very wealthy. 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.

I showed myself a little concerned at this account, and inquired of Amaral how it came to pass the trustees should thus dispose of my effects when he knew I had made my will and had made him my universal heir. He told me that was true, but as there was no proof of my being dead, he could not act as executor. Besides, he was not willing to intermeddle with a thing so remote.

"But," said the old man, "I have one piece of news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the rest. Believing you were lost, your partner and trustees did offer to account with me, in your name, for six or eight of the first years' profits, which I received. There being at that time great disbursements, it did not amount to near so much as afterwards it produced. However," said the old man, "I shall give you a true account of what I have received, and how I have disposed of it."

The good man then began to explain his misfortunes, having lost his ship coming home to Lisbon about eleven years after my leaving the place. 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," said he, "you shall not want a supply in your necessity. As soon as my son returns, you shall be fully satisfied." Upon this, he pulled out an old pouch, and gave me one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in gold and giving 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 put them both into 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. 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 how sincere a friend he was now to me, I could hardly refrain weeping at what he had said to me. I asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare so much money at that time, and if it would not straiten him?

"I could not say," he told me. "However, it is your money, and you might want it more than I."

"And your son? Shall he not be displeased to find his ship sold from beneath his heels?"

At which Amaral became most reflective, and confided in me that his son did have a great hatred of me already, which surprised me to no end, for I had never met the youth. "Fear often turns to hate over time," he told me, "and Zachary had much call to fear you as a child, as he often told me."

Still was I confused, and now worried Amaral had mistook me for some other acquaintance, and then he told me that before taking the Christian name of Zachary, after Zachariah, his adopted son had been called Xury, the boy he had bought from me and whom he had come to love as much as any father loves their son. As Xury had learnt more and better English, he had told his father of the
almustazeb
, and of the awful things he saw on our voyage along the coast of Africk, and sometimes the boy would wake screaming and in tears with fright.

This shamed me, for I had not given much thought to Xury over the years, tho' without him I would still be a prisoner of Sallee, or dead, and I had no words to express my sadness that he had been haunted by the beast for so many years.

At this, tho', my man Friday stepped forward, for he had been there at my side all along, and spoke sharply to my defense. "Master is good man," said he. "The best mans. The beast keep him alive on island and protect him and save many lifes." Even cloathed now in the good fashions of Europe, Friday was most intimidating, and still wore his great wooden sword.

His loud words did start Amaral for a moment, but the old captain shook them off and assured us he did not seek to lay blame or to expose secrets. He was a happy man who loved his son, and wish'd only to repay an old friend for bringing them together. While he knew of my hidden nature, he could not see evil in that which had brought a son to him, nor could he find any but love in his heart for me because of it.

Every thing the good man said was full of affection, and I could hardly refrain from tears while he spoke. I took one hundred of the moidores and return'd him the rest, and told him if ever I had possession of the plantation, I would return the other to him also. As to the bill of sale of his part in his son's ship, I would not take it by any means. If I wanted the money, I found he was honest enough to pay me. If I came to receive what he gave me reason to expect, I would never have a penny more from him. I also swore to write a letter to his son Zachary, who had been Xury, and beg the grown man's forgiveness for the fears of his childhood.

When this was pass'd, Amaral asked me if he should put me into 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. If I did not, there were ways enough to secure my right and to appropriate the profits to my use. 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 I was the same person who took up the land for the planting of said plantation at first.

Never was any thing more honourable than the proceedings upon this procuration. In less than seven months I received a large packet from the survivors of my trustees, 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 Captain Amaral, being for six years. The balance appeared to be 1,174 moidores in my favour.

Secondly, There was the account of four years more before the government claimed the administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, which they called civil death. The balance of this amounted to 19,446 crusadoes, being about 3,241 moidores.

Thirdly, There was the prior of Augustine's account, who had received the profits for above fourteen years. Not being able to account for what was disposed of by the hospital, declared he had 872 moidores not distributed, which he acknowledged to my account.

There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me upon my being alive, giving me an account how the estate was improved, and inviting me very passionately to come over and take possession of my own. It concluded with a hearty tender of his friendship and that of his family. Also he sent me, as a present, seven fine leopards' skins, five chests of sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces of gold uncoin'd, 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 was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand pounds 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. In a word, I was in a condition which I scarce knew how to understand, or how to compose myself for the enjoyment of it.

The first thing I did was to recompense my original benefactor, my good old Captain Amaral, who had been first charitable to me in my distress, kind to me in my beginning, and honest to me at the end. It now lay on me to reward him, which I would do a hundredfold. I first return'd to him the hundred moidores I had received of him. Then I sent for a notary and caused a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be my receiver of the annual profits of my plantation, and appointing my partner to account with him, with a clause in the end, being a grant of 100 moidores a year to him during his life and 50 moidores a year to his son, Zachary, for his life. Thus I requited my old man and my former savior.

I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what to do with the estate Providence had thus put into my hands. 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. I had now a great charge upon me, and my business was how to secure it. I had never a cave now to hide my money in, or a place where it might lie without lock or key, till it grew mouldy and tarnish'd before any body would meddle with it. On the contrary, I knew not where to put it, or whom to trust with it. My old patron, Captain Amaral, indeed, was honest, and was the only refuge I had.

I had once a mind to have gone to the Brasils, and have settled myself there, for I was, as it were, naturalized to the place. 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. It was some months, however, before I resolv’d upon this. I resolv’d, at last, to go to England with it, where, if I arrived, I concluded I should make some acquaintance, or find some relations that would be faithful to me. Accordingly, I prepared to go to England with all my wealth.

Having 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. It was an aversion the beast shared with me, as it had oft been disturbed by the dark church, and even Friday seemed put out by the idea. He and I spoke of this, and agreed that while some things were very strong on the island, it did not mean they could not be strong in other places and at other times.