A ship being ready to sail for Lisbon, my pious priest asked me leave to
go thither; being still, as he observed, bound never to finish any voyage
he began. How happy it had been for me if I had gone with him. But it
was too late now; all things Heaven appoints for the best: had I gone
with him I had never had so many things to be thankful for, and the
reader had never heard of the second part of the travels and adventures
of Robinson Crusoe: so I must here leave exclaiming at myself, and go on
with my voyage. From the Brazils we made directly over the Atlantic Sea
to the Cape of Good Hope, and had a tolerably good voyage, our course
generally south-east, now and then a storm, and some contrary winds; but
my disasters at sea were at an end--my future rubs and cross events were
to befall me on shore, that it might appear the land was as well prepared
to be our scourge as the sea.
Our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board, who was
to direct all her motions after she arrived at the Cape, only being
limited to a certain number of days for stay, by charter-party, at the
several ports she was to go to. This was none of my business, neither
did I meddle with it; my nephew, the captain, and the supercargo
adjusting all those things between them as they thought fit. We stayed
at the Cape no longer than was needful to take in fresh water, but made
the best of our way for the coast of Coromandel. We were, indeed,
informed that a French man-of-war, of fifty guns, and two large merchant
ships, were gone for the Indies; and as I knew we were at war with
France, I had some apprehensions of them; but they went their own way,
and we heard no more of them.
I shall not pester the reader with a tedious description of places,
journals of our voyage, variations of the compass, latitudes,
trade-winds, &c.; it is enough to name the ports and places which we
touched at, and what occurred to us upon our passages from one to
another. We touched first at the island of Madagascar, where, though the
people are fierce and treacherous, and very well armed with lances and
bows, which they use with inconceivable dexterity, yet we fared very well
with them a while. They treated us very civilly; and for some trifles
which we gave them, such as knives, scissors, &c., they brought us eleven
good fat bullocks, of a middling size, which we took in, partly for fresh
provisions for our present spending, and the rest to salt for the ship's
use.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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