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8 Escape from the island |
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I was now in my twenty seventh year on the island, |
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And I did not want to be there for another year. |
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We worked hard to get the corn in, and to make a lot of bread. |
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We had dried fruit and salted meat, and big pots to keep water in. |
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One evening Friday went out to look for a turtle for meat and eggs. |
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But in less than an hour he was back, and he looked very afraid. |
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' Master! Master!' he cried. |
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' There' s a great ship near the island, and men are coming to the shore in a boat!' |
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I jumped up and ran with him down to the shore. |
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To my great surprise, I saw that it was an English ship! But why was it here? |
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English ships never came this way. Perhaps they were pirates! |
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' Don' t let them see you, Friday!' I called.' We' ll hide in the trees and watch.' |
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There were eleven men in the boat, but three of them were prisoners. |
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Their arms were tied with rope, but their legs were free and they could walk. |
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The other sailors pushed the three prisoners up the beach, |
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Laughing and shouting and hitting them. |
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Then some of them sat down on the sand and began to drink. |
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Others walked away to look at the island, and two men stayed to watch the boat. |
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The three prisoners walked slowly along the beach |
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And sat down under a tree, not far from us. They looked very unhappy. |
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Very quietly, I came up behind them through the trees, |
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And called out to them in English. |
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' Don' t be afraid,' I said.' I' m an English man. Perhaps I can help you.' |
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The three men turned and looked at me. |
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They did not answer at once they were too surprised. |
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Perhaps they thought I was a wild man myself, |
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In my strange homemade clothes of animals' skins, |
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And with my long hair and beard. Then the oldeast man spoke. |
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' I am the captain of that ship,' he said, |
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' And these two men are my first and second officers. |
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Last night there was a mutiny, and the seamen took the ship from me. |
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Now they' re going to leave the three of us here, to die on this island.' |
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' De these mutineers have guns?' |
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' Only two,' he answered,' and they' ve left those on the boat.' |
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' All right,' I said.' We' ll fight them, but if we get your ship back for you, |
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You must take me back to England.' |
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The captain agreed immediately and thanked me very warmly for my help. |
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Friday ran back to my house to get all the guns, and the captain and I made a plan. |
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The first part was easy because the seamen were not ready for a fight. |
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We shot the two men at the boat, and the captain shot another man. |
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This man, Tom Smith, was the worst of them all and he began the mutiny on the ship. |
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Then the captain talked to the other five men, and they agreed to help him. |
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They did not really want to be mutineers, but they were afraid of Tom Smith. |
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' Now,' I said to the captain,' we must get back your ship. |
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How many men are on it?' |
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' Twenty six,' the captain replied, |
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' And they will fight hard because they won' t want to go home. |
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It is death for all mutineers in England. But not all the men are bad. |
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I' m sure that some of them will help me.' |
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Just then we saw another boat, which was coming from the ship to the shore. |
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There were ten men in it, and they all had guns. We ran into the trees and waited. |
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It was a long hard fight, but by now it was dark and this helped us very much. |
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We ran here and there in the trees, calling and shouting. |
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The seamen could not see us and did not know how many men they were fighting. |
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In the end the first officer shouted to them: |
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' Put down your guns and stop fightng! |
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The captain has fifty island people to help him. We can kill you all!' |
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So the seamen stopped fighting and we took their guns. |
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Three of the men agreed to come back to the captain, |
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And we put the others in my cave. |
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Friday and I stayed to watch the prisoners, |
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While the captain and his men went back to fight for the ship. |
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All night we listened to the sound of guns and shouting, but in the morning, |
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When the sun came up, the captain was master of his ship again. |
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I went down to the shore to meet him. |
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' My dear friend,' he cried,' There' s your ship! |
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I' ll take you to the ends of the world in it!' |
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I put my arms round him, and we laughed and cried together. |
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How happy I was to leave the ialand! |
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My good friend Friday came with me, of course, |
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But we left the mutineers on the island. |
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We decided not to kill them they could begin a new life on the island. |
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I showed them my three houses, my cornfields and my goats, and all my tools. |
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Their life would he easy because of all my hard work for so many years. |
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And so, on the nineteenth of December 1689 |
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After twentyseven years, two months and nineteen days |
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I said goodbye to my island and sailed home to England. |