Daniel Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" - Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Robinson Crusoe becomes a merchant and is captured

In London



I was lucky enough to make some very good friends. One of them was the captain of a trading ship which had been on the Atlantic coast of Guinea



in Central Africa.



This friend was going there again and invited me to go with him. He told me that the voyage would cost me nothing. If I liked to take anything with me to sell, I could do so and might make a very good profit.

I accepted his offer and went on the voyage with him. I carried with me about forty pounds' worth of toys and other articles which the captain told me that I could easily sell. This voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant. I brought home from the voyage over five pounds of gold dust that I sold in London for three hundred pounds.

The success of this voyage encouraged me to go again. Although my friend the captain died soon after we returned, I decided to go to Africa again by the same ship. I left two hundred of my three hundred pounds' profit in the safe hands of the captain's widow. I took with me on the voyage nearly one hundred pounds' worth of goods to exchange for gold. I hoped this time to make an even bigger profit. It turned out to be one of the unhappiest voyages that I ever made.

As we were going towards the Canary Islands



a Turkish pirate ship chased us. We sailed as quickly as we could, but the pirate ship was much faster and caught us within a few hours. The pirates killed three of our men and wounded another eight. We were all taken prisoners.

The captain of the pirate ship made me his slave. At the end of the voyage he took me to his home, and I hoped that when he went to sea again he would take me with him. I thought that sooner or later he would be taken a prisoner himself by some Spanish or British men-of-war. Then I would be free. But when he went to sea, the captain left me to look after his garden and do the work in the house.

When he came home again, I was sent to live on board the ship to guard it. Here I began to think of ways of escaping, but had no opportunity at all until two years had passed. The captain often used to go fishing in the bay near his home. He would take one of the smaller boats belonging to his ship. I would go with him to row the boat with the help of one of his black servants. Sometimes, one of his relations, a Moor, would come instead of the captain.

It so happened that one day the pirate captain had some very important guests coming. He wanted to entertain them on board his ship, and so he sent to the ship a very much larger quantity of food than usual. I got everything ready and waited the next morning for the captain and his guests to arrive. But when he came on board the captain was alone. He told me that his guests were not coming after all. He ordered me to go out as usual with the Moor and catch some fish. I resolved that this was the time to escape, and so I began to prepare the boat, not for a fishing trip but for a voyage.

First of all I asked the Moor to get something for us to eat. I said that it was not good that we should eat the food our master had sent for his guests. The Moor said that this was true and went to fetch some biscuits and fresh water. While he was away, I hid in the fishing boat a large quantity of the captain's food. I also hid a gun, an axe, a saw and a hammer. With the food that the Moor would be bringing, the fishing boat now had plenty of food on board for quite a long voyage.

When all was ready, I set out on my fishing trip with the Moor and one servant. We passed the entrance to the harbour and continued until we were about a mile from the shore. We fished for a time, but caught nothing.

'This will not do,' I said to the Moor. 'We will never catch anything here. We must go further out to sea.'

He agreed, and I stepped forward in the boat to where the Moor was sitting. He believed that I was going to begin to row. I bent down as if I were going to pick up the oars, but instead took him by surprise and quickly tossed him out of the boat and into the sea. He rose to the surface at once and began to swim towards the boat. He would have reached it very quickly, but I fetched the gun I had hidden and pointed it at him.

'You can swim well enough to reach the shore from here,' I told him. 'If you do this, I will not harm you, but if you come any nearer to the boat I will shoot you.'

The Moor stared at me for some time as if he did not believe me, but I kept the gun pointing at him. At last he turned round and began to swim towards the shore. When he was gone, I turned to the servant who was called Xury.

'Xury, if you are faithful to me, I will make you a great man,' I promised. 'But if you do not swear to be true to me, I will throw you into the sea.'

Xury smiled at me and promised so earnestly to be faithful that I kept him in the boat as my companion.

As soon as it became dark, I put up the sail and sailed down the coast. I followed the line of the shore, and with a smooth sea and a following wind made very good progress. By next afternoon I knew that I was more than one hundred and fifty miles away from the pirate captain's home. I wanted to be quite sure that I was safe, and so I did not go ashore or put down an anchor until I had sailed for five days. I believed that if any ship had been following me they would by now have given up the chase.

One evening I anchored at the mouth of a small river. My plan was to wait until it became dark and then swim ashore. When it grew dark, there was a loud noise of wild animals barking and howling.



Xury was very frightened and begged me not to go ashore that night.

We had to go ashore somewhere as we had no more fresh water left in the boat, and so in the morning we set out. Xury had wanted to go ashore alone whilst I guarded the ship. I thought it best that we should both go, and in the end we went ashore, each carrying a gun and two jars for the fresh water. When we were ashore, Xury and I parted. I went straight inland, whilst Xury made his way up the coast. One or other of us was bound to find a stream of fresh water.

Very soon Xury came running back along the beach as fast as he could go. I thought that some wild animals must be chasing him, and went to him as quickly as I could. When I got nearer, I found that he was carrying over his shoulder a small animal which he had shot. We were very glad to have some fresh meat to eat again.

Several times during our voyage we had to land for fresh water. Once very early in the morning, when we were close to the shore, Xury noticed a lion.



'You can go ashore and shoot him,' I said.

'Not me,' said Xury, looking frightened. 'That lion would soon eat me.'

I said no more, but I raised my gun


and I took the best aim that I could. Unfortunately my first shot only broke the lion's leg. He got up on three legs and had a most frightening roar. I fired again, and this time I hit him in the head. Although the lion was no use for food, I thought that the skin might be of some value to us. So Xury and I started to skin him. We worked the whole day and at last finished. We spread the skin out to dry in the boat, and after two days it was ready to serve as a rug for me to lie upon.

On we sailed to the south for another three weeks. Suddenly one day Xury cried out, 'Master! Master! A big ship!'

I looked to where he pointed and saw a Portuguese ship. I turned our boat in its direction. It was going so quickly that I was afraid that it would pass by before I could make any signal. Fortunately somebody on board saw us through his telescope,



and the Portuguese ship slowed down. It took me three hours of hard sailing to overtake the ship and come alongside. At last I reached it and and caught hold of the rope which one of the sailors threw down. When it was safely tied, Xury and I climbed on board the big sailing ship.


QUESTIONS AND TASKS


1. What happened to Robinson Crusoe in London?

2. Was Robinson Crusoe's second voyage to Africa as successful as his first?

3. What did a slave have to do?

4. How did Robinson Crusoe escape from the Turkish captain?

5. Describe the adventures of Robinson Crusoe and Xury before they met the Portuguese ship.

6. What wild animals are you afraid of?

7. Watch the video about the telescope again and fill in the gaps:

Telescopes gather the light rays reflected from distant _______________ and reflect them into a focus for the viewer. _______________ enters the reflecting telescope and is reflected off a parabolic _______________. A flat mirror intercepts the reflection and redirects it towards the eyepiece. A lens in the eyepiece focuses the rays and magnifies the _______________ so that the distant object is observable.