Chapter Six. "Going Home"
We waited for Friday's father and the Spanish man to come back. Then, after eight days, Friday came to me one morning and said:
‘Master! Master! They're coming!'
I ran to look at the sea. I could see a boat near the beach. It wasn't the boat Friday's father left with.
‘Are they friends, master?' asked Friday.
‘I don't know, Friday. Come with me. We'll go up the hill to see.'
We went up the hill and looked out at sea. There was a big ship. It was far from the beach, but I could see it was an English ship. The boat near the beach was their boat. Was I happy or sad? I didn't know. These men were from my country; but what was their business here, near my island? English ships didn't usually come to these parts. There was something wrong in all this, but I didn't know what.
I saw their boat on the beach now. There were eleven men. The hands and feet of three men weren't free and they were on the sand, face down. They were their prisoners. Friday was with me and asked:
‘Master, are these English savages, ready to eat those three men?'
‘No, Friday, but they're bad men,' I answered. ‘Those men are their prisoners.'
These men had guns; the savages didn't. I didn't know what to do. They left the three prisoners on the beach and went to look at the island. We stayed on the hill above my house. Then, when it was about two o'clock, we went home and I got my guns. I gave some to Friday too. He was good with a gun and I needed his help. It was very hot now.
‘Come Friday,' I said. ‘The bad men are sleeping under the trees.'
We went to the beach to the three prisoners. I called to them in English:
‘Don't worry, I'm a friend,' I said, when I was near them. ‘I'm English and I want to help you.'
‘I was captain of that ship out there,' said one man. ‘Then, these men took my ship from me. Now I'm their prisoner with these two good men you can see with me. They want to leave us on this island to die.'
‘We can catch them while they're sleeping. They'll be your prisoners and you'll have your ship again,' I said.
‘Thank you, my friend. We'll help you catch them. Tell us what to do,' said the captain.
‘OK! But you have to do two things for me. First, for the time we're on this island, you'll do what I say. Second, when you're captain again, you'll take me and my man, Friday, to England.'
‘Of course!' said the captain, ‘and I won't ask you to pay.'
‘Great!' I said. ‘Now, take these three guns. We have to be quick before they wake up.'
We went to the trees and soon you could hear the noise of our guns. Two men died. We told the others: ‘Choose to die or to work for your captain again on the ship.' They all wanted to go back to the ship, of course!
‘OK! But for now, on this island, you're my prisoners,' I said.
Friday and the captain's two men took the prisoners and watched them. The captain and I now had time to talk. I told him about my life on the island. When he heard about all the things I did every day, he said:
‘You're a clever man, Robinson Crusoe.'
Then I took him and his men home. I gave them some milk, bread and cheese. They also ate some grapes. Then we spoke about the ship. There were twenty-six men on the ship. They didn't know their captain was a free man again.
‘How can we get my ship from all these men?' the captain asked me.
‘First we'll go to the boat on the beach and take all the guns there. Then we'll use the boat to make a fire,' I said.
Then, we heard the noise of a gun from the ship.
‘They're calling their friends,' said the captain.
‘And when their friends don't answer, some of them will come here to look for them,' I said.
Soon after, we saw them coming. There were ten men in a small boat. They had guns. We waited for them behind the trees. We could see their faces. The captain told me that some of these men were very bad.
‘Don't worry,' I said. ‘They don't know we're waiting for them. Friday took the prisoners to a cave. He left them some food and water.
‘I'll come back soon,' said Friday. ‘Be good!'
The men from the ship came onto the beach with their boat. They looked for the other boat, but couldn't find it of course. They called their friends. Nobody answered. They thought their men were all dead. They went back into their boat to go back to the ship. Then, three men stayed in the boat and the others came back onto the beach. They went into the trees to look for their friends. This was difficult for us. Now, there were seven men on the island and three in the boat. We couldn't attack them all together.
We could only wait and watch. The seven men went up the hill and called their friends, but nobody answered. They sat under a tree to have a rest. We waited. Then, they went back down the hill to the beach.
‘What are they doing?' the captain asked.
‘I think they're going back to the boat to go to the ship,' I said.
The captain was very worried by this.
‘What about my ship? We'll never leave this island now!' he said.
‘Don't worry. Listen to me,' I said.
I told Friday to go up the hill and call out to the men on the boat. When they heard him, they were excited. They thought it was one of their friends. They ran up the beach. They came to a river. Friday called again. They called their men in the boat at the beach. They told them to come with the boat up the river. Two men came with the boat, one stayed on the beach. Friday called again. They couldn't see him. There were trees all around them. They were far from the beach now. They could only hear Friday. Now was the time to catch them. Our first prisoner was the man on the beach. He was easy to catch because there were five of us and only one of him! Then we got the two men in the boat. That was easy too. Friday called again. Then, one of the captain's men called from a different hill. Now the men didn't know where to go. They went up and down hill and were soon very tired. We waited in the dark, ready to catch them. They came back to their boat after many hours.
‘Where are our two men?' we heard them ask.
‘With us!' I said.
Then we ran at them. After an hour, two very bad men were dead and the others were our prisoners. Our next job was to get the ship. The captain spoke to the prisoners.
‘Help me get my ship back and you won't die,' he said.
‘Of course!' they all said.
They weren't very bad men. They were sorry and wanted to help the captain. Friday and I stayed on the island. The captain and his men went to the ship at midnight. Some men died. At two o'clock, Friday and I heard the ship's gun seven times. This told us that the captain had his ship again.
‘Hooray!' I said, and danced up and down the beach with Friday. ‘It's time to go home and our ship is waiting for us!' Then we slept, because we were very tired. Next morning, the captain came. We went up the hill to look out to sea.
‘Look, dear Robinson. There's the ship that will take you and your man, Friday, home!'
I wanted to say a lot of things, but no words came. Then, the captain gave me some things from his ship. He gave me sugar and lots of other nice things to eat. He also gave me clothes: six clean new shirts, two pairs of shoes, a hat, and a very good pair of trousers and a jacket. I was very happy, but at first it was difficult for me to wear them after many years with my island clothes. Then we spoke about our prisoners. We left two men on the island. The others came with us. Twenty-eight years on this island and now it was time to go home. I took Friday with me of course, and also my umbrella, my hat, my parrot and the money I had.
Before leaving, I showed the two men how to live on the island. I also left a letter for the Spanish men and told the others to be good to them. I showed the men my goats and how to get milk to make cheese and butter. I showed them my grain and told them how to make bread.
‘Thank you,' they said. ‘We'll have a good life here.'
We started our voyage home next morning, on the 19th December 1686. After a long voyage, we came to England, on 11th June 1687, thirty-five years after I first left my father and mother. Nobody knew me. I went to my home in Yorkshire but my mother and father were dead. I didn't have much money now, but the master of the ship was good to me. The captain told him how I helped him get his ship back. The master was very happy and gave me £200.
With this money I went to Lisbon with my man, Friday. In Lisbon, after all these years, I met my old friend the Portuguese captain. At first he didn't know me. I spoke about how he took Xury and I on his ship after finding us at sea. Then, he remembered me and my problems with the pirates. He didn't work between Brazil and Africa now, but he told me that my plantation was great.
‘The friends you left in Brazil work every day on your plantation. It's there, waiting for you,' said the old captain.
I was very happy to hear this. I wrote to my friends in Brazil. They were excited to hear I wasn't dead after all this time. They told me that they had a lot of money for me from the sugar plantation.
I was a rich man! They sent me money and other things on ships from Brazil. I now had £5000 and my sugar plantation in Brazil gave me £1000 a year. I gave some money to the old Portuguese captain. With this money he lived the last years of his life well. I didn't know what to do with all this money; where to put it or who to give it to. I wanted to go back to England, but I had some business to do. I wrote letters to my friends in Brazil. Then, I sent my bags to England by ship, but this time I didn't want to travel by sea. I don't know why. I chose a ship, then didn't go. Weeks later, they told me the ship never got to England and all the people on it died at sea. After this, I chose to go by road also because I had a lot of time to travel. I didn't have a job or a family. I could do what I wanted.
I left Lisbon with my man, Friday, and some other people. First, we rode to Madrid. We visited the city, then left near the end of October. We met lots of people on the road. They told us that there was a lot of snow in the French mountains. We came to the next town near the mountains. It was very cold and there was a lot of snow. It was very difficult to travel on the roads. We stayed in this town for twenty days. We waited for the snow to stop. We chose a different road. There was snow but not much. Sometimes there were animals. Our guns were always ready. We started on 15th November and rode for many days. We could hear animals in the night but we couldn't see them.
Then, one day we met a bear. We were on our horses when this big bear came out from behind the trees. Friday saw it and said:
‘Oh Master, don't worry. I'll play with the bear!'
Before I could speak, Friday ran to the bear. The bear saw Friday. Friday called the animal, then ran to a tree and went up it fast. The bear came after him. Now they were both up the tree. Friday was at the end of a long branch.
‘Come Mr. Bear, come and dance,' said Friday.
Friday danced up and down on the branch. The bear had big problems.
‘Oh Mr. Bear. Please dance with me!' said Friday.
The bear didn't know what to do. It was difficult to stay on the branch. We watched Friday and the bear. It was very funny. Friday was happy with his game. After some time, he got the bear with his gun.
Then, we started travelling again. After many days and nights in the mountains, we got to France. Then on 14th January, we came to Dover, in England. I was home! I wrote to my friends in Brazil to tell them I didn't want to come back. They were sad, but happy too, because they bought my plantation from me and it wasn't expensive.
For the next seven years, I lived with my dead brother's sons and sent them to school. One of them liked the sea and I gave him a ship. In 1694, I travelled on his ship to my island to visit the Spanish men there. I stayed for 20 days. I was happy to see that they lived well on my island. Yes, my island, because before, there was nothing; now they had everything they needed, thanks to me.
