Peace is not for Robinson, he hardly hatches in England for several years: thoughts about the island haunt him day and night. Age and prudent speeches of his wife for the time being keep him. He even buys a farm, intends to take up rural labor, to which he is so accustomed. The death of his wife breaks these plans. Nothing else keeps him in England. In January 1694, he sails on the ship of his nephew, the captain. With him is faithful Friday, two carpenters, a blacksmith, a certain "master of all sorts mechanical work and a tailor. It is difficult even to enumerate the cargo that he takes to the island, it seems that everything is provided for, right down to “brackets, loops, hooks”, etc. On the island, he expects to meet the Spaniards, whom he missed.
Looking ahead, he tells about life on the island everything that he learns later from the Spaniards. The colonists live unfriendly. Those three inveterate ones that were left on the island did not come to their senses - they are loafing, they are not engaged in crops and a herd. If they still keep themselves within the bounds of decency with the Spaniards, then they exploit their two compatriots mercilessly. It comes to vandalism - trampled crops, ruined huts. Finally, the Spaniards also lose patience and this trinity is expelled to another part of the island. Do not forget about the island and the savages: having learned that the island is inhabited, they run into large groups. There are bloody battles. Meanwhile, the restless trio begs the Spaniards for a boat and visits the nearest islands, returning with a group of natives, in which there are five women and three men. The British take women as wives (religion does not allow the Spaniards). The common danger (the biggest villain, Atkins, shows himself excellently in a fight with savages) and, perhaps, the beneficial female influence completely transforms the odious Englishmen (there are two of them left, the third died in the fight), so that by the time Robinson arrives, peace and harmony are established on the island .
Like a monarch (this is his comparison), he generously endows the colonists with inventory, provisions, clothes, and settles the last differences. Generally speaking, he acts like a governor, which he might well have been, if not for his hasty departure from England, which prevented him from taking out a patent. No less than the well-being of the colony, Robinson is concerned about establishing a "spiritual" order. With him is a French missionary, a Catholic, but the relationship between them is sustained in the educational spirit of religious tolerance. To begin with, they crown married couples living "in sin." Then the native wives themselves are baptized. In total, Robinson stayed on his island for twenty-five days. At sea they meet a flotilla of pirogues full of natives. A bloody slaughter flares up, Friday dies. There is a lot of blood shed in this second part of the book. In Madagascar, avenging the death of a rapist sailor, his comrades will burn and cut out an entire village. Robinson's indignation turns thugs against him, demanding to land him ashore (they are already in the Bay of Bengal). The captain's nephew is forced to yield to them, leaving two servants with Robinson.
Robinson meets with an English merchant who tempts him with the prospect of trade with China. In the future, Robinson travels by land, satisfying natural curiosity with outlandish customs and views. For the Russian reader, this part of his adventures is interesting because he returns to Europe through Siberia. In Tobolsk, he met the exiled "state criminals" and "not without pleasantness" spent long periods with them. winter evenings. Then there will be Arkhangelsk, Hamburg, The Hague, and, finally, in January 1705, after ten years and nine months of space, Robinson arrives in London.
Daniel Defoe
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSO,
constituting the second and last part of his life, and a fascinating account of his travels in three parts of the world, written by himself.
Folk proverb: what is in the cradle, such is in the grave found a full justification in the history of my life. If we take into account my thirty years of trials, the many various hardships I experienced, which probably fell to the lot of only a very few, seven years of my life spent in peace and contentment, finally, my old age - if I remember that I experienced the life of an average class in all its forms and found out which of them can most easily bring complete happiness to a person, then it would seem one could think that the natural tendency to vagrancy, as I have already said, which has taken possession of me from the very birth of my birth, must would weaken, its volatile elements would evaporate or at least thicken, and that at the age of 61 I should have had a desire for a settled life and keep me from adventures that threaten my life and my condition.
Moreover, for me there was no motive that usually prompts me to go on distant wanderings: I had nothing to achieve wealth, there was nothing to look for. If I had amassed another ten thousand pounds sterling, I would not have become richer, for I already had quite enough for myself and for those whom I had to provide for. At the same time, my capital apparently increased, since, not having a large family, I could not even spend all my income, except that I would spend money on the maintenance of many servants, carriages, entertainment, and similar things, which I do not know about. had no idea and to which he did not feel the slightest inclination. Thus, I could only sit quietly, use what I had acquired and observe the constant increase in my wealth.
However, all this had no effect on me and could not suppress in me the desire for wandering, which positively developed in me into a chronic illness. Particularly strong was my desire to look once more at my plantations on the island and at the colony I had left there. Every night I saw my island in a dream and dreamed about it for whole days. This thought hovered above all others, and my imagination developed it so diligently and intensely that I even talked about it in my sleep. In a word, nothing could knock out of my mind the intention to go to the island; it broke through so often in my speeches that it became boring to talk to me; I could not talk about anything else: all my conversations came down to the same thing; I got tired of everyone and noticed it myself.
I have often heard from sensible people that all sorts of stories and ghosts and spirits arise as a result of the ardor of the imagination and the intensified work of fantasy, that there are no spirits and ghosts, etc. According to them, people, recalling their past conversations with dead friends, they imagine them so vividly that in some exceptional cases they are able to imagine that they see them, talk to them and receive answers from them, while in reality there is nothing of the kind, and all this only seems to them.
I myself do not know to this day whether ghosts exist, whether people are different after their death, and whether such stories have a more serious basis than nerves, delirium of a free mind and a disordered imagination, but I know that my imagination often led me to that it seemed to me as if I were again on an island near my castle, as if in front of me were the old Spaniard, Father Friday, and the rebellious sailors whom I had left on the island. It seemed to me that I was talking to them and seeing them as clearly as if they were actually before my eyes. Often I myself became terrified - my imagination painted all these pictures so vividly. One day I dreamed with amazing vividness that the first Spaniard and Friday's father were telling me about the vile deeds of three pirates, about how these pirates tried to barbarously kill all the Spaniards and how they set fire to the entire supply of provisions laid aside by the Spaniards in order to starve them to death. I had never heard of anything like it, and yet it was all actually true. In my dream it appeared to me with such clarity and plausibility that up to the moment when I saw my colony in reality, it was impossible to convince me that all this was not true. And how I was indignant and indignant in a dream, listening to the complaints of the Spaniard, what a severe judgment I inflicted on the guilty, subjected them to interrogation and ordered all three to be hanged. How much truth was in all this - it will become clear in time. I will only say that, although I do not know how I got to this in a dream and what inspired such assumptions, there was a lot of truth in them. I cannot say that my dream was correct in every detail, but in general there was so much truth in it, the vile and base behavior of these three bastards was such that the resemblance to reality turned out to be striking, and in fact I had to severely punish them. Even if I had hanged them, I would have acted justly and would have been right before the divine and human law. But back to my story. So I lived for several years. For me there were no other pleasures, no pleasant pastimes, no diversions, but dreams of an island; my wife, seeing that my thoughts were occupied with him alone, told me one evening that, in her opinion, a voice from above resounds in my soul, commanding me to go back to the island. The only obstacle to this was, she said, my obligations to my wife and children. She said that she could not even allow the thought of parting with me, but since she was sure that if she died, I would first go to the island and that this had already been decided up there, she did not want to be a hindrance to me. And therefore, if I really consider it necessary and have already decided to go ... - then she noticed that I was carefully listening to her words and looking at her intently; which confused her and she stopped. I asked her why she did not finish, and asked her to continue. But I noticed that she was too excited and that there were tears in her eyes. “Tell me, dear,” I began, “do you want me to go?” “No,” she answered kindly, “I am far from wanting it. But if you decide to go, then I'd rather go with you than be a hindrance to you. Although I think that at your age and in your position it is too risky to think about it, ”she continued with tears in her eyes,“ but since it is already destined to be so, I will not leave you. If this is the will of heaven, it is pointless to resist. And if the sky wants you to go to the island, then it also indicates to me that it is my duty to go with you or arrange so that I do not serve as an obstacle for you.
The tenderness of my wife somewhat sobered me; after reflecting on my course of action, I curbed my wanderlust and began to reason with myself what meaning it could have for a man of sixty, behind whom lay a life full of so many hardships and hardships and ending so happily - what meaning, I say, could for such a man to go again in search of adventure and give himself up to chance, which only young people and the poor go to meet?
I also thought about the new obligations that I had taken on myself - that I have a wife and a child and that my wife is carrying another child under her heart - that I have everything that life could give me, and that I do not the need to risk oneself for the sake of money. I told myself that I was already in my declining years and it was more proper for me to think that I would soon have to part with everything I had acquired, and not about increasing my prosperity. I thought about the words of my wife, that this is the will of heaven and that therefore I must to go to the island, but personally I was not at all sure of this. Therefore, after much deliberation, I began to struggle with my imagination and ended up reasoning with myself, as, probably, everyone can do in such cases, if he only wants to. In a word, I suppressed my desires; I overcame them by arguments of reason, of which, in my then position, a great many could be cited. I especially tried to direct my thoughts to other subjects and decided to start some business that could distract me from my dreams of a trip to the island, since I noticed that they took possession of me mainly when I indulged in idleness, when I there was no business at all, or at least no urgent business.
Further adventures Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
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Title: The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe
About The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
“The folk proverb: what is in the cradle, such is in the grave, has found its full justification in the history of my life. If we take into account my thirty years of trials, the many various hardships I experienced, which probably fell to the lot of only a very few, seven years of my life spent in peace and contentment, finally, my old age - if I remember that I experienced the life of an average class in all its forms and found out which of them can most easily bring complete happiness to a person - then it would seem one could think that the natural tendency to vagrancy, as I have already said, which has taken possession of me from the very birth of my birth, must would weaken, its volatile elements would evaporate or at least thicken, and that at the age of 61 I should have had a desire for a settled life and keep me from adventures that threaten my life and my condition ... "
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Quotes from The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
So we had to carry our passengers farther and farther. About a week later we reached the shallows of Newfoundland, where we landed the French on a barge, which they contracted to bring them ashore, and then take them to France, if they could manage to stock up on provisions. When the French began to land, the young priest of whom I spoke, hearing that we were going to the East Indies, asked us to take him with us and land him on the banks of the Coromandel.
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Daniel Defoe
THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSO,
constituting the second and last part of his life, and a fascinating account of his travels in three parts of the world, written by himself
© The electronic version of the book was prepared by LitRes
* * *
Folk proverb: what is in the cradle, such is in the grave found a full justification in the history of my life. If we take into account my thirty years of trials, the many various hardships I experienced, which probably fell to the lot of only a very few, seven years of my life spent in peace and contentment, finally, my old age - if I remember that I experienced the life of an average class in all its forms and found out which of them can most easily bring complete happiness to a person - then it would seem one could think that the natural tendency to vagrancy, as I have already said, which has taken possession of me from the very birth of my birth, must would weaken, its volatile elements would evaporate or at least thicken, and that at the age of 61 I should have had a desire for a settled life and keep me from adventures that threaten my life and my condition.
Moreover, for me there was no motive that usually prompts me to go on distant wanderings: I had nothing to achieve wealth, there was nothing to look for. If I had amassed another ten thousand pounds sterling, I would not have become richer, for I already had quite enough for myself and for those whom I had to provide for. At the same time, my capital apparently increased, since, not having a large family, I could not even spend all my income - except that I would spend money on the maintenance of many servants, carriages, entertainment, and similar things, which I do not know. had no idea and to which he did not feel the slightest inclination. Thus, I could only sit quietly, use what I had acquired and observe the constant increase in my wealth.
However, all this had no effect on me and could not suppress in me the desire for wandering, which positively developed in me into a chronic illness. Particularly strong was my desire to look once more at my plantations on the island and at the colony I had left there. Every night I saw my island in a dream and dreamed about it for whole days. This thought hovered above all others, and my imagination developed it so diligently and intensely that I even talked about it in my sleep. In a word, nothing could knock out of my mind the intention to go to the island; it broke through so often in my speeches that it became boring to talk to me; I could not talk about anything else: all my conversations came down to the same thing; I got tired of everyone and noticed it myself.
I have often heard from sensible people that all sorts of stories and ghosts and spirits arise as a result of the ardor of the imagination and the intensified work of fantasy, that there are no spirits and ghosts, etc. According to them, people, recalling their past conversations with dead friends, they imagine them so vividly that in some exceptional cases they are able to imagine that they see them, talk to them and receive answers from them, while in reality there is nothing of the kind, and all this only seems to them.
I myself do not know to this day whether ghosts exist, whether people are different after their death, and whether such stories have a more serious basis than nerves, delirium of a free mind and a disordered imagination, but I know that my imagination often led me to that it seemed to me as if I were again on an island near my castle, as if in front of me were the old Spaniard, Father Friday, and the rebellious sailors whom I had left on the island. It seemed to me that I was talking to them and seeing them as clearly as if they were actually before my eyes. Often I myself became terrified - my imagination painted all these pictures so vividly. One day I dreamed with amazing vividness that the first Spaniard and Friday's father were telling me about the vile deeds of three pirates, about how these pirates tried to barbarously kill all the Spaniards and how they set fire to the entire supply of provisions laid aside by the Spaniards in order to starve them to death. I had never heard of anything like it, and yet it was all actually true. In my dream it appeared to me with such clarity and plausibility that up to the moment when I saw my colony in reality, it was impossible to convince me that all this was not true. And how I was indignant and indignant in a dream, listening to the complaints of the Spaniard, what a severe judgment I inflicted on the guilty, subjected them to interrogation and ordered all three to be hanged. How much truth was in all this - it will become clear in time. I will only say that, although I do not know how I got to this in a dream and what inspired such assumptions, there was a lot of truth in them. I cannot say that my dream was correct in every detail, but in general there was so much truth in it, the vile and base behavior of these three bastards was such that the resemblance to reality turned out to be striking, and in fact I had to severely punish them. Even if I had hanged them, I would have acted justly and would have been right before the divine and human law. But back to my story. So I lived for several years. For me there were no other pleasures, no pleasant pastimes, no diversions, but dreams of an island; my wife, seeing that my thoughts were occupied with him alone, told me one evening that, in her opinion, a voice from above resounds in my soul, commanding me to go back to the island. The only obstacle to this was, she said, my obligations to my wife and children. She said that she could not even allow the thought of parting with me, but since she was sure that if she died, I would first go to the island and that this had already been decided up there, she did not want to be a hindrance to me. And therefore, if I really consider it necessary and have already decided to go ... - then she noticed "that I carefully listen to her words and look at her intently; which confused her and she stopped. I asked her why she did not finish, and asked her to continue. But I noticed that she was too excited and that there were tears in her eyes. “Tell me, dear,” I began, “do you want me to go?” “No,” she answered kindly, “I am far from wanting it. But if you decide to go, then I'd rather go with you than be a hindrance to you. Although I think that at your age and in your position it is too risky to think about it,” she continued with tears in her eyes, “but since it is already destined to be so, I will not leave you. If this is the will of heaven, it is pointless to resist. And if the sky wants you to go to the island, then it also indicates to me that it is my duty to go with you or arrange so that I do not serve as an obstacle for you.
The tenderness of my wife somewhat sobered me; after reflecting on my course of action, I curbed my wanderlust and began to reason with myself what meaning it could have for a man of sixty, behind whom lay a life full of so many hardships and hardships and ending so happily - what meaning, I say, could for such a man to go again in search of adventure and give himself up to chance, which only young people and the poor go to meet?
I also thought about the new obligations that I had taken on myself - that I have a wife and a child and that my wife is carrying another child under her heart - that I have everything that life could give me, and that I do not the need to risk oneself for the sake of money. I told myself that I was already in my declining years and it was more proper for me to think that I would soon have to part with everything I had acquired, and not about increasing my prosperity. I thought about the words of my wife, that this is the will of heaven and that therefore I must to go to the island, but personally I was not at all sure of this. Therefore, after much deliberation, I began to struggle with my imagination and ended up reasoning with myself, as, probably, everyone can do in such cases, if he only wants to. In a word, I suppressed my desires; I overcame them by arguments of reason, of which, in my then position, a great many could be cited. I especially tried to direct my thoughts to other subjects and decided to start some business that could distract me from my dreams of a trip to the island, since I noticed that they took possession of me mainly when I indulged in idleness, when I had no business at all, or at least no urgent business.
To this end, I bought a small farm in the county of Bedford and decided to move there. There was a small comfortable house, and significant improvements could be made in the household. Such an occupation in many respects corresponded to my inclinations, moreover, this area was not adjacent to the sea, and there I could be calm that I would not have to see ships, sailors, and everything that reminded me of distant lands.
I settled on my farm, moved my family there, bought plows, harrows, a cart, a wagon, horses, cows, sheep, and seriously set to work. Six months later, I became a real farmer. My mind was completely absorbed in supervising the workers, cultivating the land, building fences, planting trees, etc. And this way of life seemed to me the most pleasant of all that one can get, for a person who has experienced nothing but adversity in life.
I hosted own land, - I did not have to pay rent, I was not constrained by any conditions, I could build or destroy at my discretion; everything that I did and undertook was for the benefit of me and my family. Having abandoned the idea of wandering, I did not endure any inconvenience in my life. Now it seemed to me that I had reached that golden mean, which my father so ardently recommended to me, a blissful life, similar to the one that the poet describes when singing the rural life:
Free from vices, free from worries,
Where old age does not know diseases, and youth does not know temptations.
But in the midst of all this bliss, I was struck by a heavy blow, which not only irreparably broke my life, but also revived my dreams of wandering again. And these dreams took possession of me with irresistible force, like a serious illness that suddenly returned late. And nothing could now drive them away. This blow was for me the death of my wife.
I am not going to write an elegy on the death of my wife, describe her virtues and flatter the weaker sex in general in a eulogy. I will only say that she was the soul of all my affairs, the center of all my enterprises, that by her prudence she constantly distracted me from the most reckless and risky plans swarming in my head, as was said above, and returned me to happy moderation; she knew how to tame my restless spirit; her tears and pleas affected me more than my mother's tears, my father's instructions, the advice of friends, and all the arguments of my own mind could. I felt happy giving in to her, and was completely dejected and unsettled by my loss.
After her death, everything around me began to seem bleak and unattractive. I felt even more alien in my soul. Here, than in the forests of Brazil when I first set foot on its shore, and as lonely as on my island, although I was surrounded by a crowd of servants. I didn't know what to do and what not to do. I saw people bustling around me; some of them worked for their daily bread, while others squandered what they had acquired in vile debauchery or vain pleasures, equally miserable, because the goal towards which they aspired was constantly moving away from them. People who pursued amusements were daily fed up with their vice and accumulated material for repentance and regret, while working people squandered their strength in the daily struggle for a piece of bread. And so life passed in a constant alternation of sorrows; they lived only in order to work, and worked in order to live, as if getting their daily bread was the only goal of their hard life and as if their working life had only the goal of providing their daily bread.
I remembered then the life I led in my kingdom, on the island, where I had to cultivate no more bread and raise no more goats than I needed, and where money lay in chests until it rusted, as for twenty years I never even deigned to look at them.
All these observations, if I used them in the way that reason and religion prompted me, should have shown me that in order to achieve complete happiness one should not look for pleasure alone, that there is something higher that constitutes the true meaning and purpose of life, and that we can achieve possession or hope to possess this meaning even before the grave.
But my wise adviser was no longer alive, and I was like a ship without a helmsman, rushing along at the behest of the wind. My thoughts went back to the old topics, and dreams of traveling to distant lands again began to spin my head. And all that served for me before as a source of innocent pleasures. The farm, the garden, the cattle, the family, which had previously completely owned my soul, lost all meaning and all attractiveness for me. Now they were to me like music to the deaf or food to the deaf: in short, I decided to give up farming, rent out my farm and return to London. And a few months later, I did.
Moving to London did not improve my state of mind. I did not like this city, I had nothing to do there, and I wandered the streets like an idler, about whom it can be said that he is completely useless in the universe, because no one cares whether he lives or dies. Such an idle pastime was extremely disgusting to me, as a person who always led a very active life, and often I said to myself: "There is no more humiliating state in life than idleness." And indeed, it seemed to me that I spent my time more usefully when I made one board for twenty-six days.
At the beginning of 1693, my nephew returned home from his first short trip to Bilbao, whom, as I have said before, I made a sailor and captain of a ship. He came to me and said that the merchants he knew were offering him a trip to the East Indies and China for goods. "If you, uncle," he said to me, "go with me, then I can land you on your island, since we will go to Brazil."
The most convincing proof of the existence of a future life and an invisible world is the coincidence of external reasons that prompt us to act as our thoughts inspire us, which we create in our soul completely independently and without telling anyone about them.
My nephew did not know anything about the fact that my morbid desire for wandering woke up in me with renewed vigor, and I did not at all expect that he would come to me with such a proposal. But this very morning, after much deliberation, I came to the decision to go to Lisbon and consult with my old friend the captain, and then, if he found it practicable and reasonable, to go again to the island to see what had become of my people. I rushed about with projects of settling the island and attracting settlers from England, I dreamed of taking out a patent for land and everything I dreamed of. And just at that moment my nephew comes with an offer to bring me to the island on the way to the East Indies.
Fixing his gaze on him, I asked: “Which devil gave you this disastrous thought?” This at first stunned my nephew, but he soon noticed that his proposal did not cause me much displeasure, and emboldened, "I hope it will not be disastrous," he said, an island where you once reigned more happily than most of the monarchs in this world."
In a word, his project fully corresponded to my mood, that is, to those dreams that possessed me and about which I have already spoken in detail; and I answered him in a few words that if he came to an agreement with his merchants, then I was ready to go with him, but perhaps I would not go further than my island. "Do you really want to stay there again?" he asked. "Can't you take me on the way back?" He replied that the merchants would by no means allow him to make such a detour with a ship loaded with goods of great value, since it would take at least a month, and maybe three or four months. “Besides, I can crash and not return at all,” he added, “then you will find yourself in the same position as you were before.”
It was very reasonable. But the two of us found a way to help our grief: we decided to take a disassembled boat with us to the ship, which, with the help of a few carpenters we had taken, could be assembled on the island and launched into the water in a few days.
I didn't think long. The unexpected proposal of my nephew was so in keeping with my own aspirations that nothing could prevent me from accepting it. On the other hand, after the death of my wife, there was no one to take care of me enough to persuade me to do one way or another, except for my good friend, the captain's widow, who seriously dissuaded me from traveling and urged me to take into account my years, material security, the dangers of a long unnecessary travel, and especially my little children. But all this had no effect on me slightest action. I felt an irresistible desire to visit the island and replied to my friend that my thoughts on this trip were of such an extraordinary character that to stay at home would be to rebel against providence. After that, she stopped trying to dissuade me and even began to help me herself, not only in preparations for my departure, but even in the arrangements for my family affairs and in the upbringing of my children.
In order to provide for them, I made a will and placed my capital in faithful hands, taking all measures to ensure that my children could not be offended, no matter what fate befell me. I entrusted their upbringing entirely to my friend the widow, appointing her a sufficient reward for her labors. She fully deserved this, for even a mother could not have taken more care of my children and better directed their upbringing, and as she lived to see my return, so I lived to thank her.
At the beginning of January, 1694, my nephew was ready to sail, and I, with my Friday, went on board at the Downs on January 8th. In addition to the said boat, I took with me a considerable amount of all kinds of things necessary for my colony, in case I found her in an unsatisfactory condition, for I decided at all costs to leave her in bloom.
First of all, I took care to take with me some of the workers whom I intended to settle on the island, or at least make to work at my own expense during my stay there, and then give them the choice either to remain on the island or return with me. . Among them were two carpenters, a blacksmith, and one nimble, smart fellow, a cooper by trade, but at the same time a master of all sorts of mechanical work. He knew how to make a wheel and a hand mill, was a good turner and potter, and could make absolutely everything that was made of clay and wood. That's why we called him "jack of all trades".
Moreover, I took with me a tailor who volunteered to go with my nephew to the East Indies, but then agreed to go with us to our new plantation and found himself most helpful person not only in what related to his craft, but also in many other things. For, as I said, need teaches everything.
The cargo which I took on board, as far as I can remember in general - I did not keep a detailed account - consisted of a considerable supply of linen and a certain amount of fine English fabrics for the clothing of the Spaniards whom I expected to meet on the island; all this, according to my calculation, was taken so much that it was enough for seven years. More than two hundred pounds worth of gloves, hats, boots, stockings and everything necessary for clothing, as far as I can remember, was taken, including several beds, bedding and household utensils, especially kitchen utensils: pots, boilers, pewter and copper utensils. etc. In addition, I carried with me a hundred pounds of iron products, nails of all kinds of tools, staples, loops, hooks, and various other necessary things that only came to my mind at that time.
I also took with me a hundred cheap muskets and guns, several pistols, a considerable amount of cartridges of all calibers, three or four tons of lead, and two copper cannons. And since I did not know how long I needed to stock up and what accidents might await me, I took a hundred barrels of gunpowder, a fair amount of sabers, cleavers and iron points for pikes and halberds, so that, in general, we had a large supply of all kinds of goods, persuaded his nephew to take with him in reserve two more small trench guns, in addition to those required for the ship, in order to unload them on the island and then build a fort that could protect us from attacks. At first, I was sincerely convinced that all this would be needed and even, perhaps, not enough to keep the island in our hands. The reader will see later on how right I was.
During this journey, I did not have to experience as many misfortunes and adventures as I usually did, and therefore I will rarely have to interrupt the story and divert the attention of the reader, who, perhaps, wants to quickly learn about the fate of my colony. However, this voyage was not without troubles, difficulties, contrary winds and bad weather, as a result of which the journey dragged on longer than I expected, and since out of all my travels I only once - namely, on my first trip to Guinea - arrived safely and returned at the appointed time, then even here I was already beginning to think that evil fate was still pursuing me and that I was already so arranged that I could not wait on land and always had bad luck at sea.
The contrary winds first drove us to the north, and we were forced to call at Pigeons, in Ireland, where we stood by the grace of an unfavorable wind for twenty-two days. But there was at least one consolation here: the extreme cheapness of provisions; besides, here it was possible to get anything you wanted, and during the whole time of the stay we not only did not touch the ship's stores, but even increased them. Here I also bought some pigs and two cows with calves, which I expected, in the event of a favorable move, to land on my island, but they had to be disposed of differently.
We left Ireland on the 5th of February and sailed for several days with a favorable wind. About February 20, I remember, late in the evening, the captain's assistant who was on duty came to the cabin and said that he had seen fire and heard a cannon shot; before he had time to finish the story, the cabin boy ran up with a notice that the boatswain had also heard the shot. We all rushed to the quarterdeck. At first we did not hear anything, but after a few minutes we saw a bright light and concluded that it must be a big fire. We will calculate the position of the ship and unanimously decide that in the direction where the fire appeared (west-northwest), there can be no land even at a distance of five hundred miles. It was obvious that this was a burning ship on the high seas. And since we had previously heard cannon shots, we concluded that this ship must not be far away, and headed straight in the direction where we saw the light; as we moved forward, the spot of light grew larger and larger, although, due to the fog, we could not distinguish anything but this spot. We walked with a favorable, though not strong, wind, and about half an hour later, when the sky cleared a little, we clearly saw that it was a big ship on fire on the high seas.
I was deeply moved by this misfortune, although I did not know the victims at all. I remembered the position in which I myself was when the Portuguese captain rescued me, and I thought that the situation of the people on this ship was even more desperate if there was no other ship nearby. I immediately ordered five cannon shots to be fired at short intervals to let the victims know that help was at hand and that they could try to escape by boat. For although we could see the flames on the ship, we could not be seen from the burning ship in the darkness of the night.
We contented ourselves with drifting while waiting for the dawn, conforming our movements to those of the burning ship. Suddenly, to our great horror - although this was to be expected - there was an explosion, and after that the ship immediately plunged into the waves. It was a terrible and amazing sight. I decided that the people who were on the ship either all died, or rushed into the boats and are now rushing along the waves of the ocean. In any case, their situation was desperate. Nothing could be seen in the darkness. But in order to help the victims to find us as much as possible and to let them know that there was a ship nearby, I ordered, wherever possible, to hang out lighted lanterns and shoot from cannons throughout the night.
At about eight o'clock in the morning, with the help of telescopes, we saw boats in the sea. There were two; both were crowded with people and sat deep in the water. We noticed that they, heading against the wind, were rowing towards our ship and making every effort to attract our attention to themselves. We immediately raised the stern flag and began to give signals that we were inviting them to our ship, and, adding sails, went to meet them. Less than half an hour passed before we drew level with them and took them on board. There were sixty-four of them, men, women and children, for there were many passengers on the ship.
We learned that it was a French merchant ship with a capacity of three hundred tons bound for France from Quebec in Canada. The captain told us in detail about the misfortunes that befell his ship. It caught fire near the steering wheel due to the negligence of the helmsman. The sailors who came running to his call seemed to have completely extinguished the fire, but it soon became clear that the sparks had hit such an inaccessible part of the ship that it was not possible to fight the fire. Along the boards and along the plating, the flame made its way into the hold, and there no measures could stop its spread.
There was no choice but to lower the boats. Fortunately for those on the ship, the boats were spacious enough. They had a longboat, a large sloop, and, besides, a small skiff, in which they stored supplies of fresh water and provisions. Getting into boats at such a great distance from the land, they harbored only a faint hope of salvation; their greatest hope was that some ship would meet them and take them on board. They had sails, oars and a compass and intended to sail towards Newfoundland. The wind favored them. Provisions and water they had so much that, spending it in the amount necessary to maintain life, they could survive for about twelve days. And during this period, if stormy weather and contrary winds had not interfered, the captain hoped to reach the shores of Newfoundland. They also hoped that during this time they might be able to catch some fish. But they were threatened by so many unfortunate accidents, such as storms that could capsize and sink their boats, rains and colds that make limbs numb and stiff, contrary winds that could keep them at sea so long that they would all die. from hunger, that their salvation would be almost miraculous.
The captain, with tears in his eyes, told me how during their meetings, when everyone was close to despair and ready to lose all hope, they were suddenly startled by hearing a cannon shot and, after the first, four more. It was five cannon shots, which I ordered fired when we saw the flames. These shots revived hope in their hearts and, as I expected, let them know that not far from them was a ship coming to their aid.
Hearing the shots, they removed the masts and sails, as the sound was heard from the windward side, and decided to wait until morning. After a while, not hearing any more shots, they themselves began to fire at large intervals from their muskets and fired three shots, but the wind carried the sound in the other direction, and we did not hear them.
All the more pleasant were these poor people when, after a while, they saw our fires and again heard cannon shots; as has already been said, I ordered to shoot throughout the night. This prompted them to take up the oars in order to come closer to us. And finally, to their indescribable joy, they made sure that we noticed them.
It is impossible to describe the various gestures and delights with which the saved expressed their joy at the occasion of such an unexpected deliverance from danger. It is easy to describe both sorrow and fear - sighs, tears, sobs and monotonous movements of the head and hands exhaust all their ways of expression; but excessive joy, delight, joyful amazement manifest themselves in a thousand ways. Some had tears in their eyes, others sobbed and moaned with such despair in their faces, as if they were experiencing the deepest grief. Some rioted and positively seemed bonkers. Others ran around the ship, stamping their feet or breaking curses. Some danced, a few people sang, others laughed hysterically, many were despondently silent, unable to utter a single word. Some people vomited, several people lay in a faint. Few were baptized and thanked the Lord.
It is necessary to give them justice - among them there were many who later showed true gratitude, but at first the feeling of joy in them was so stormy that they were not able to cope with it - the majority fell into a frenzy and some kind of peculiar madness. And only a very few remained calm and serious in their joy.
This may be partly due to the fact that they belonged to the French nation, which is generally recognized to be more changeable, passionate and lively in temperament, since its vital spirits are more mobile than other peoples. I am not a philosopher and do not undertake to determine the cause of this phenomenon, but until then I have not seen anything like it. Closest to these scenes was that joyful frenzy into which poor Friday, my faithful servant, fell when he found his father in the boat. Somewhat reminiscent of them was also the delight of the captain and his companions, whom I rescued when the scoundrel sailors landed them on the shore; in neither one nor the other and nothing that I had seen hitherto could be compared with what was happening now.
* * *
Folk proverb: what is in the cradle, such is in the grave found a full justification in the history of my life. If we take into account my thirty years of trials, the many various hardships I experienced, which probably fell to the lot of only a very few, seven years of my life spent in peace and contentment, finally, my old age - if I remember that I experienced the life of an average class in all its forms and found out which of them can most easily bring complete happiness to a person - then it would seem one could think that the natural tendency to vagrancy, as I have already said, which has taken possession of me from the very birth of my birth, must would weaken, its volatile elements would evaporate or at least thicken, and that at the age of 61 I should have had a desire for a settled life and keep me from adventures that threaten my life and my condition.
Moreover, for me there was no motive that usually prompts me to go on distant wanderings: I had nothing to achieve wealth, there was nothing to look for. If I had amassed another ten thousand pounds sterling, I would not have become richer, for I already had quite enough for myself and for those whom I had to provide for. At the same time, my capital apparently increased, since, not having a large family, I could not even spend all my income - except that I would spend money on the maintenance of many servants, carriages, entertainment, and similar things, which I do not know. had no idea and to which he did not feel the slightest inclination. Thus, I could only sit quietly, use what I had acquired and observe the constant increase in my wealth.
However, all this had no effect on me and could not suppress in me the desire for wandering, which positively developed in me into a chronic illness. Particularly strong was my desire to look once more at my plantations on the island and at the colony I had left there. Every night I saw my island in a dream and dreamed about it for whole days. This thought hovered above all others, and my imagination developed it so diligently and intensely that I even talked about it in my sleep. In a word, nothing could knock out of my mind the intention to go to the island; it broke through so often in my speeches that it became boring to talk to me; I could not talk about anything else: all my conversations came down to the same thing; I got tired of everyone and noticed it myself.
I have often heard from sensible people that all sorts of stories and ghosts and spirits arise as a result of the ardor of the imagination and the intensified work of fantasy, that there are no spirits and ghosts, etc. According to them, people, recalling their past conversations with dead friends, they imagine them so vividly that in some exceptional cases they are able to imagine that they see them, talk to them and receive answers from them, while in reality there is nothing of the kind, and all this only seems to them.
I myself do not know to this day whether ghosts exist, whether people are different after their death, and whether such stories have a more serious basis than nerves, delirium of a free mind and a disordered imagination, but I know that my imagination often led me to that it seemed to me as if I were again on an island near my castle, as if in front of me were the old Spaniard, Father Friday, and the rebellious sailors whom I had left on the island. It seemed to me that I was talking to them and seeing them as clearly as if they were actually before my eyes. Often I myself became terrified - my imagination painted all these pictures so vividly. One day I dreamed with amazing vividness that the first Spaniard and Friday's father were telling me about the vile deeds of three pirates, about how these pirates tried to barbarously kill all the Spaniards and how they set fire to the entire supply of provisions laid aside by the Spaniards in order to starve them to death. I had never heard of anything like it, and yet it was all actually true. In my dream it appeared to me with such clarity and plausibility that up to the moment when I saw my colony in reality, it was impossible to convince me that all this was not true. And how I was indignant and indignant in a dream, listening to the complaints of the Spaniard, what a severe judgment I inflicted on the guilty, subjected them to interrogation and ordered all three to be hanged. How much truth was in all this - it will become clear in time. I will only say that, although I do not know how I got to this in a dream and what inspired such assumptions, there was a lot of truth in them. I cannot say that my dream was correct in every detail, but in general there was so much truth in it, the vile and base behavior of these three bastards was such that the resemblance to reality turned out to be striking, and in fact I had to severely punish them. Even if I had hanged them, I would have acted justly and would have been right before the divine and human law. But back to my story. So I lived for several years. For me there were no other pleasures, no pleasant pastimes, no diversions, but dreams of an island; my wife, seeing that my thoughts were occupied with him alone, told me one evening that, in her opinion, a voice from above resounds in my soul, commanding me to go back to the island. The only obstacle to this was, she said, my obligations to my wife and children. She said that she could not even allow the thought of parting with me, but since she was sure that if she died, I would first go to the island and that this had already been decided up there, she did not want to be a hindrance to me. And therefore, if I really consider it necessary and have already decided to go ... - then she noticed "that I carefully listen to her words and look at her intently; which confused her and she stopped. I asked her why she did not finish, and asked her to continue. But I noticed that she was too excited and that there were tears in her eyes. “Tell me, dear,” I began, “do you want me to go?” “No,” she answered kindly, “I am far from wanting it. But if you decide to go, then I'd rather go with you than be a hindrance to you. Although I think that at your age and in your position it is too risky to think about it,” she continued with tears in her eyes, “but since it is already destined to be so, I will not leave you. If this is the will of heaven, it is pointless to resist. And if the sky wants you to go to the island, then it also indicates to me that it is my duty to go with you or arrange so that I do not serve as an obstacle for you.
The tenderness of my wife somewhat sobered me; after reflecting on my course of action, I curbed my wanderlust and began to reason with myself what meaning it could have for a man of sixty, behind whom lay a life full of so many hardships and hardships and ending so happily - what meaning, I say, could for such a man to go again in search of adventure and give himself up to chance, which only young people and the poor go to meet?
I also thought about the new obligations that I had taken on myself - that I have a wife and a child and that my wife is carrying another child under her heart - that I have everything that life could give me, and that I do not the need to risk oneself for the sake of money. I told myself that I was already in my declining years and it was more proper for me to think that I would soon have to part with everything I had acquired, and not about increasing my prosperity. I thought about the words of my wife, that this is the will of heaven and that therefore I must to go to the island, but personally I was not at all sure of this. Therefore, after much deliberation, I began to struggle with my imagination and ended up reasoning with myself, as, probably, everyone can do in such cases, if he only wants to. In a word, I suppressed my desires; I overcame them by arguments of reason, of which, in my then position, a great many could be cited. I especially tried to direct my thoughts to other subjects and decided to start some business that could distract me from my dreams of a trip to the island, since I noticed that they took possession of me mainly when I indulged in idleness, when I had no business at all, or at least no urgent business.
To this end, I bought a small farm in the county of Bedford and decided to move there. There was a small comfortable house, and significant improvements could be made in the household. Such an occupation in many respects corresponded to my inclinations, moreover, this area was not adjacent to the sea, and there I could be calm that I would not have to see ships, sailors, and everything that reminded me of distant lands.
I settled on my farm, moved my family there, bought plows, harrows, a cart, a wagon, horses, cows, sheep, and seriously set to work. Six months later, I became a real farmer. My mind was completely absorbed in supervising the workers, cultivating the land, building fences, planting trees, etc. And this way of life seemed to me the most pleasant of all that one can get, for a person who has experienced nothing but adversity in life.
I managed on my own land - I did not have to pay rent, I was not constrained by any conditions, I could build or destroy at my discretion; everything that I did and undertook was for the benefit of me and my family. Having abandoned the idea of wandering, I did not endure any inconvenience in my life. Now it seemed to me that I had reached that golden mean, which my father so ardently recommended to me, a blissful life, similar to the one that the poet describes when singing the rural life:
Free from vices, free from worries,
Where old age does not know diseases, and youth does not know temptations.
But in the midst of all this bliss, I was struck by a heavy blow, which not only irreparably broke my life, but also revived my dreams of wandering again. And these dreams took possession of me with irresistible force, like a serious illness that suddenly returned late. And nothing could now drive them away. This blow was for me the death of my wife.
I am not going to write an elegy on the death of my wife, describe her virtues and flatter the weaker sex in general in a eulogy. I will only say that she was the soul of all my affairs, the center of all my enterprises, that by her prudence she constantly distracted me from the most reckless and risky plans swarming in my head, as was said above, and returned me to happy moderation; she knew how to tame my restless spirit; her tears and pleas affected me more than my mother's tears, my father's instructions, the advice of friends, and all the arguments of my own mind could. I felt happy giving in to her, and was completely dejected and unsettled by my loss.
After her death, everything around me began to seem bleak and unattractive. I felt even more alien in my soul. Here, than in the forests of Brazil when I first set foot on its shore, and as lonely as on my island, although I was surrounded by a crowd of servants. I didn't know what to do and what not to do. I saw people bustling around me; some of them worked for their daily bread, while others squandered what they had acquired in vile debauchery or vain pleasures, equally miserable, because the goal towards which they aspired was constantly moving away from them. People who pursued amusements were daily fed up with their vice and accumulated material for repentance and regret, while working people squandered their strength in the daily struggle for a piece of bread. And so life passed in a constant alternation of sorrows; they lived only in order to work, and worked in order to live, as if getting their daily bread was the only goal of their hard life and as if their working life had only the goal of providing their daily bread.
I remembered then the life I led in my kingdom, on the island, where I had to cultivate no more bread and raise no more goats than I needed, and where money lay in chests until it rusted, as for twenty years I never even deigned to look at them.
All these observations, if I used them in the way that reason and religion prompted me, should have shown me that in order to achieve complete happiness one should not look for pleasure alone, that there is something higher that constitutes the true meaning and purpose of life, and that we can achieve possession or hope to possess this meaning even before the grave.
But my wise adviser was no longer alive, and I was like a ship without a helmsman, rushing along at the behest of the wind. My thoughts went back to the old topics, and dreams of traveling to distant lands again began to spin my head. And all that served for me before as a source of innocent pleasures. The farm, the garden, the cattle, the family, which had previously completely owned my soul, lost all meaning and all attractiveness for me. Now they were to me like music to the deaf or food to the deaf: in short, I decided to give up farming, rent out my farm and return to London. And a few months later, I did.
Moving to London did not improve my state of mind. I did not like this city, I had nothing to do there, and I wandered the streets like an idler, about whom it can be said that he is completely useless in the universe, because no one cares whether he lives or dies. Such an idle pastime was extremely disgusting to me, as a person who always led a very active life, and often I said to myself: "There is no more humiliating state in life than idleness." And indeed, it seemed to me that I spent my time more usefully when I made one board for twenty-six days.
At the beginning of 1693, my nephew returned home from his first short trip to Bilbao, whom, as I have said before, I made a sailor and captain of a ship. He came to me and said that the merchants he knew were offering him a trip to the East Indies and China for goods. "If you, uncle," he said to me, "go with me, then I can land you on your island, since we will go to Brazil."
The most convincing proof of the existence of a future life and an invisible world is the coincidence of external reasons that prompt us to act as our thoughts inspire us, which we create in our soul completely independently and without telling anyone about them.
My nephew did not know anything about the fact that my morbid desire for wandering woke up in me with renewed vigor, and I did not at all expect that he would come to me with such a proposal. But this very morning, after much deliberation, I came to the decision to go to Lisbon and consult with my old friend the captain, and then, if he found it practicable and reasonable, to go again to the island to see what had become of my people. I rushed about with projects of settling the island and attracting settlers from England, I dreamed of taking out a patent for land and everything I dreamed of. And just at that moment my nephew comes with an offer to bring me to the island on the way to the East Indies.
Fixing his gaze on him, I asked: “Which devil gave you this disastrous thought?” This at first stunned my nephew, but he soon noticed that his proposal did not cause me much displeasure, and emboldened, "I hope it will not be disastrous," he said, an island where you once reigned more happily than most of the monarchs in this world."
In a word, his project fully corresponded to my mood, that is, to those dreams that possessed me and about which I have already spoken in detail; and I answered him in a few words that if he came to an agreement with his merchants, then I was ready to go with him, but perhaps I would not go further than my island. "Do you really want to stay there again?" he asked. "Can't you take me on the way back?" He replied that the merchants would by no means allow him to make such a detour with a ship loaded with goods of great value, since it would take at least a month, and maybe three or four months. “Besides, I can crash and not return at all,” he added, “then you will find yourself in the same position as you were before.”
It was very reasonable. But the two of us found a way to help our grief: we decided to take a disassembled boat with us to the ship, which, with the help of a few carpenters we had taken, could be assembled on the island and launched into the water in a few days.
I didn't think long. The unexpected proposal of my nephew was so in keeping with my own aspirations that nothing could prevent me from accepting it. On the other hand, after the death of my wife, there was no one to take care of me enough to persuade me to do one way or another, except for my good friend, the captain's widow, who seriously dissuaded me from traveling and urged me to take into account my years, material security, the dangers of a long unnecessary travel, and especially my little children. But none of this had the slightest effect on me. I felt an irresistible desire to visit the island and replied to my friend that my thoughts on this trip were of such an extraordinary character that to stay at home would be to rebel against providence. After that, she stopped trying to dissuade me and even began to help me herself, not only in preparations for my departure, but even in the arrangements for my family affairs and in the upbringing of my children.
In order to provide for them, I made a will and placed my capital in faithful hands, taking all measures to ensure that my children could not be offended, no matter what fate befell me. I entrusted their upbringing entirely to my friend the widow, appointing her a sufficient reward for her labors. She fully deserved this, for even a mother could not have taken more care of my children and better directed their upbringing, and as she lived to see my return, so I lived to thank her.
At the beginning of January, 1694, my nephew was ready to sail, and I, with my Friday, went on board at the Downs on January 8th. In addition to the said boat, I took with me a considerable amount of all kinds of things necessary for my colony, in case I found her in an unsatisfactory condition, for I decided at all costs to leave her in bloom.
First of all, I took care to take with me some of the workers whom I intended to settle on the island, or at least make to work at my own expense during my stay there, and then give them the choice either to remain on the island or return with me. . Among them were two carpenters, a blacksmith, and one nimble, smart fellow, a cooper by trade, but at the same time a master of all sorts of mechanical work. He knew how to make a wheel and a hand mill, was a good turner and potter, and could make absolutely everything that was made of clay and wood. That's why we called him "jack of all trades".
Moreover, I took with me a tailor who volunteered to go with my nephew to the East Indies, but then agreed to go with us to our new plantation and turned out to be a most useful person, not only in his trade, but in many other things. . For, as I said, need teaches everything.
The cargo which I took on board, as far as I can remember in general - I did not keep a detailed account - consisted of a considerable supply of linen and a certain amount of fine English fabrics for the clothing of the Spaniards whom I expected to meet on the island; all this, according to my calculation, was taken so much that it was enough for seven years. More than two hundred pounds worth of gloves, hats, boots, stockings and everything necessary for clothing, as far as I can remember, was taken, including several beds, bedding and household utensils, especially kitchen utensils: pots, boilers, pewter and copper utensils. etc. In addition, I carried with me a hundred pounds of iron products, nails of all kinds of tools, staples, loops, hooks, and various other necessary things that only came to my mind at that time.
I also took with me a hundred cheap muskets and guns, several pistols, a considerable amount of cartridges of all calibers, three or four tons of lead, and two copper cannons. And since I did not know how long I needed to stock up and what accidents might await me, I took a hundred barrels of gunpowder, a fair amount of sabers, cleavers and iron points for pikes and halberds, so that, in general, we had a large supply of all kinds of goods, persuaded his nephew to take with him in reserve two more small trench guns, in addition to those required for the ship, in order to unload them on the island and then build a fort that could protect us from attacks. At first, I was sincerely convinced that all this would be needed and even, perhaps, not enough to keep the island in our hands. The reader will see later on how right I was.
During this journey, I did not have to experience as many misfortunes and adventures as I usually did, and therefore I will rarely have to interrupt the story and divert the attention of the reader, who, perhaps, wants to quickly learn about the fate of my colony. However, this voyage was not without troubles, difficulties, contrary winds and bad weather, as a result of which the journey dragged on longer than I expected, and since out of all my travels I only once - namely, on my first trip to Guinea - arrived safely and returned at the appointed time, then even here I was already beginning to think that evil fate was still pursuing me and that I was already so arranged that I could not wait on land and always had bad luck at sea.
The contrary winds first drove us to the north, and we were forced to call at Pigeons, in Ireland, where we stood by the grace of an unfavorable wind for twenty-two days. But there was at least one consolation here: the extreme cheapness of provisions; besides, here it was possible to get anything you wanted, and during the whole time of the stay we not only did not touch the ship's stores, but even increased them. Here I also bought some pigs and two cows with calves, which I expected, in the event of a favorable move, to land on my island, but they had to be disposed of differently.
We left Ireland on the 5th of February and sailed for several days with a favorable wind. About February 20, I remember, late in the evening, the captain's assistant who was on duty came to the cabin and said that he had seen fire and heard a cannon shot; before he had time to finish the story, the cabin boy ran up with a notice that the boatswain had also heard the shot. We all rushed to the quarterdeck. At first we did not hear anything, but after a few minutes we saw a bright light and concluded that it must be a big fire. We will calculate the position of the ship and unanimously decide that in the direction where the fire appeared (west-northwest), there can be no land even at a distance of five hundred miles. It was obvious that this was a burning ship on the high seas. And since we had previously heard cannon shots, we concluded that this ship must not be far away, and headed straight in the direction where we saw the light; as we moved forward, the spot of light grew larger and larger, although, due to the fog, we could not distinguish anything but this spot. We walked with a favorable, though not strong, wind, and about half an hour later, when the sky cleared a little, we clearly saw that it was a big ship on fire on the high seas.
I was deeply moved by this misfortune, although I did not know the victims at all. I remembered the position in which I myself was when the Portuguese captain rescued me, and I thought that the situation of the people on this ship was even more desperate if there was no other ship nearby. I immediately ordered five cannon shots to be fired at short intervals to let the victims know that help was at hand and that they could try to escape by boat. For although we could see the flames on the ship, we could not be seen from the burning ship in the darkness of the night.
We contented ourselves with drifting while waiting for the dawn, conforming our movements to those of the burning ship. Suddenly, to our great horror - although this was to be expected - there was an explosion, and after that the ship immediately plunged into the waves. It was a terrible and amazing sight. I decided that the people who were on the ship either all died, or rushed into the boats and are now rushing along the waves of the ocean. In any case, their situation was desperate. Nothing could be seen in the darkness. But in order to help the victims to find us as much as possible and to let them know that there was a ship nearby, I ordered, wherever possible, to hang out lighted lanterns and shoot from cannons throughout the night.
At about eight o'clock in the morning, with the help of telescopes, we saw boats in the sea. There were two; both were crowded with people and sat deep in the water. We noticed that they, heading against the wind, were rowing towards our ship and making every effort to attract our attention to themselves. We immediately raised the stern flag and began to give signals that we were inviting them to our ship, and, adding sails, went to meet them. Less than half an hour passed before we drew level with them and took them on board. There were sixty-four of them, men, women and children, for there were many passengers on the ship.
We learned that it was a French merchant ship with a capacity of three hundred tons bound for France from Quebec in Canada. The captain told us in detail about the misfortunes that befell his ship. It caught fire near the steering wheel due to the negligence of the helmsman. The sailors who came running to his call seemed to have completely extinguished the fire, but it soon became clear that the sparks had hit such an inaccessible part of the ship that it was not possible to fight the fire. Along the boards and along the plating, the flame made its way into the hold, and there no measures could stop its spread.
There was no choice but to lower the boats. Fortunately for those on the ship, the boats were spacious enough. They had a longboat, a large sloop, and, besides, a small skiff, in which they stored supplies of fresh water and provisions. Getting into boats at such a great distance from the land, they harbored only a faint hope of salvation; their greatest hope was that some ship would meet them and take them on board. They had sails, oars and a compass and intended to sail towards Newfoundland. The wind favored them. Provisions and water they had so much that, spending it in the amount necessary to maintain life, they could survive for about twelve days. And during this period, if stormy weather and contrary winds had not interfered, the captain hoped to reach the shores of Newfoundland. They also hoped that during this time they might be able to catch some fish. But they were threatened by so many unfortunate accidents, such as storms that could capsize and sink their boats, rains and colds that make limbs numb and stiff, contrary winds that could keep them at sea so long that they would all die. from hunger, that their salvation would be almost miraculous.
The captain, with tears in his eyes, told me how during their meetings, when everyone was close to despair and ready to lose all hope, they were suddenly startled by hearing a cannon shot and, after the first, four more. It was five cannon shots, which I ordered fired when we saw the flames. These shots revived hope in their hearts and, as I expected, let them know that not far from them was a ship coming to their aid.
Hearing the shots, they removed the masts and sails, as the sound was heard from the windward side, and decided to wait until morning. After a while, not hearing any more shots, they themselves began to fire at large intervals from their muskets and fired three shots, but the wind carried the sound in the other direction, and we did not hear them.
All the more pleasant were these poor people when, after a while, they saw our fires and again heard cannon shots; as has already been said, I ordered to shoot throughout the night. This prompted them to take up the oars in order to come closer to us. And finally, to their indescribable joy, they made sure that we noticed them.
It is impossible to describe the various gestures and delights with which the saved expressed their joy at the occasion of such an unexpected deliverance from danger. It is easy to describe both sorrow and fear - sighs, tears, sobs and monotonous movements of the head and hands exhaust all their ways of expression; but excessive joy, delight, joyful amazement manifest themselves in a thousand ways. Some had tears in their eyes, others sobbed and moaned with such despair in their faces, as if they were experiencing the deepest grief. Some rioted and positively seemed bonkers. Others ran around the ship, stamping their feet or breaking curses. Some danced, a few people sang, others laughed hysterically, many were despondently silent, unable to utter a single word. Some people vomited, several people lay in a faint. Few were baptized and thanked the Lord.
It is necessary to give them justice - among them there were many who later showed true gratitude, but at first the feeling of joy in them was so stormy that they were not able to cope with it - the majority fell into a frenzy and some kind of peculiar madness. And only a very few remained calm and serious in their joy.
This may be partly due to the fact that they belonged to the French nation, which is generally recognized to be more changeable, passionate and lively in temperament, since its vital spirits are more mobile than other peoples. I am not a philosopher and do not undertake to determine the cause of this phenomenon, but until then I have not seen anything like it. Closest to these scenes was that joyful frenzy into which poor Friday, my faithful servant, fell when he found his father in the boat. Somewhat reminiscent of them was also the delight of the captain and his companions, whom I rescued when the scoundrel sailors landed them on the shore; in neither one nor the other and nothing that I had seen hitherto could be compared with what was happening now.
