Robinson Crusoe

 
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Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him lie close, for 
these were not the people we looked for, and that we 
might not know yet whether they were friends or 
enemies. In the next place I went in to fetch my 
perspective glass to see what I could make of them; and 
having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the 
hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of anything, 
and to take my view the plainer without being discovered. 
I had scarce set my foot upon the hill when my eye plainly 
discovered a ship lying at anchor, at about two leagues and 
a half distance from me, SSE., but not above a league and 
a half from the shore. By my observation it appeared 
plainly to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be 
an English long-boat. 
I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy 
of seeing a ship, and one that I had reason to believe was 
manned by my own countrymen, and consequently 
friends, was such as I cannot describe; but yet I had some 
secret doubts hung about me - I cannot tell from whence 
they came - bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first 
place, it occurred to me to consider what business an 
English ship could have in that part of the world, since it 
was not the way to or from any part of the world where 
the English had any traffic; and I knew there had been no 

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storms to drive them in there in distress; and that if they 
were really English it was most probable that they were 
here upon no good design; and that I had better continue 
as I was than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers. 
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of 
danger which sometimes are given him when he may 
think there is no possibility of its being real. That such 
hints and notices are given us I believe few that have made 
any observation of things can deny; that they are certain 
discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, 
we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be 
to warn us of danger, why should we not suppose they are 
from some friendly agent (whether supreme, or inferior 
and subordinate, is not the question), and that they are 
given for our good? 
The present question abundantly confirms me in the 
justice of this reasoning; for had I not been made cautious 
by this secret admonition, come it from whence it will, I 
had been done inevitably, and in a far worse condition 
than before, as you will see presently. I had not kept 
myself long in this posture till I saw the boat draw near the 
shore, as if they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the 
convenience of landing; however, as they did not come 
quite far enough, they did not see the little inlet where I 

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formerly landed my rafts, but ran their boat on shore upon 
the beach, at about half a mile from me, which was very 
happy for me; for otherwise they would have landed just 
at my door, as I may say, and would soon have beaten me 
out of my castle, and perhaps have plundered me of all I 
had. When they were on shore I was fully satisfied they 
were Englishmen, at least most of them; one or two I 
thought were Dutch, but it did not prove so; there were 
in all eleven men, whereof three of them I found were 
unarmed and, as I thought, bound; and when the first four 
or five of them were jumped on shore, they took those 
three out of the boat as prisoners: one of the three I could 
perceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty, 
affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the 
other two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands 
sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, but not to 
such a degree as the first. I was perfectly confounded at the 
sight, and knew not what the meaning of it should be. 
Friday called out to me in English, as well as he could, ‘O 
master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage 
mans.’ ‘Why, Friday,’ says I, ‘do you think they are going 
to eat them, then?’ ‘Yes,’ says Friday, ‘they will eat them.’ 
‘No no,’ says I, ‘Friday; I am afraid they will murder them, 
indeed; but you may be sure they will not eat them.’ 

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