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.
We were obliged to stay here some time after we had furnished
ourselves with provisions; and I, who was always too curious to
look into every nook of the world wherever I came, went on shore as
often as I could. It was on the east side of the island that we
went on shore one evening: and the people, who, by the way, are
very numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a
distance. As we had traded freely with them, and had been kindly
used, we thought ourselves in no danger; but when we saw the
people, we cut three boughs out of a tree, and stuck them up at a
distance from us; which, it seems, is a mark in that country not
only of a truce and friendship, but when it is accepted the other
side set up three poles or boughs, which is a signal that they
accept the truce too; but then this is a known condition of the
truce, that you are not to pass beyond their three poles towards
them, nor they to come past your three poles or boughs towards you;
so that you are perfectly secure within the three poles, and all
the space between your poles and theirs is allowed like a market
for free converse, traffic, and commerce. When you go there you
must not carry your weapons with you; and if they come into that
space they stick up their javelins and lances all at the first
poles, and come on unarmed; but if any violence is offered them,
and the truce thereby broken, away they run to the poles, and lay
hold of their weapons, and the truce is at an end.
It happened one evening, when we went on shore, that a greater