CHAP. XVIII. I take leave of the island, and, after a long voyage arrive in England-go down into Yorkshire, and find the greater part of my family dead-resolve to go to Lisbon for information respecting my plantation at the Brazils-meet an old friend there, by whose means I become rich—set out for England over land—much annoyed by wolves on the road. WHEN I took leave of this island, I carried on board for relics the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots; also I forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain by me so long useless that it was grown rusty, or tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver, till it had been a little rubbed and handled; and also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship. year And thus I left the island the nineteenth of December, as I found by the ship's account, in the 1686, after I had been upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days: being delivered from the second captivity the same day of the month that I first made my escape in the barcolongo, from among the Moors of Salee. In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the eleventh of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty and five years absent. When I came to England, I was a perfect stranger to all the world, as if I had never been known there: my benefactor, and faithful steward, whom I had left in trust with my money, was alive, but had had great misfortunes in the world, was become a widow the second time, and very low in the world: I made her easy as to what she owed me, assuring her, I would give her no trouble; but, on the contrary, in gratitude to her former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as my little stock would afford, which at that time would indeed allow me to do but little for her but I assured her, I would never forget her former kindness to me; nor did I forget her, when I had sufficient to help her as shall be observed in its place. : : I went down afterwards into Yorkshire; but my father was dead, and my mother, and all the family extinct; except that I found two sisters, and two of the children of one of my hrothers: and as I had been long ago given over for dead, there had been no provision made for me; so that, in a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me; and that 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; and this was, that the master of the ship, whom I had so happily delivered, and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having given 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 that subject, and a present of almost two hundred pounds 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 resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come by some information of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and what was become of my partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had some years now given me over for dead. With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in April following; my man Friday accompanying me very honestly in all these ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions. When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my particular satisfaction, my old friend the captain of the ship, who first took me up at sea, off the shore of Africa: he was now grown old, and had left off the sea, having put his son, who was far from a young man, into his ship; and who still used the Brazil trade. The old man did not know me, and, indeed, I hardly knew him; but I soon brought myself to his remembrance, when I told him who I was. After some passionate expressions of our old acquaintance, I inquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner: the old man told me, he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years; but that he could assure me, that when he came away, my partner was living; but the trustees, whom I had joined with him, to take cognizance of my part, were both dead; that, however, he believed that I would have a very good account of the improvement of the plantation; for that, 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; but that if I appeared, or any one for me, to claim the inheritance, it would be restored; only that the improvement, or annual production, being distributed to charitable uses, could not be restored; but he assured me, that the steward of the king's revenue (from lands,) and the provedore, or steward of the monastery, had taken great care all along, that the incumbent, that is to say, my partner, gave every year a faithful account of the produce, of which they received duly my moiety. 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; or whether, on my going thither, I should meet with no obstruction to my possessing my just right in the moiety. He told me, he could not tell exactly to what degree the plantation was improved; but this he knew, that my partner was growing exceeding rich upon the enjoying but one half of it; and that, to the best of his remembrance, he had heard, that the king's third of my part, which was, it seems, granted away to some other monastery, or religious house, amounted to above two hundred moidores a-year; that, 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 he told me, that the survivors of my two trustees were very fair, honest people, and very wealthy, and 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, being the produce of the farm, while their fathers held the trust, and before it was given up, as above, which, as he remembered, was about twelve years. I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and inquired of the old captain, how it came to pass, that the trustees should thus dis pose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my will, and had made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c. He told me that was true; but that, as there was no proof of my being dead, he could not act as executor, until some certain account should come of my death; and that, besides, he was not willing to intermeddle with a thing so remote; that it was true, he had registered my will, and put in his claim; and could he have given any account of my being dead or alive, he would have acted by procuration, and taken possession of the ingenio, (so they called the sugar-house,) and had given his son, who was now at the Brazils, order to do it. 66 But," says the old man, "I have one piece of news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the rest; and that is, that believing you were lost, and all the world believing so also, your partner and trustees did offer to account to me in your name, for six or eight of the first years of profit, which I received; but there being at that time," says he, "great disbursements for increasing the works, building an ingenio, and buying slaves, it did not amount to near so much as afterwards it produced; however," says the old man, "I shall give you a true account of what I have received in all, and how I have disposed of it." After a few days further conference with this ancient friend, he brought me an account of the six first years' income of my plantation, signed by my partner, and the merchants' trustees, being always delivered in goods; viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses, &c. which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I found by this account, that every year the income considerably increased: but, as above, the disbursement being large, the sum at first was small: however, the old CRUSOE I. Ꮓ |