Accidents > Life and most surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, mariner, who lived eight and twenty years in an uninhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque

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ROBINSON CRUSOE.
vafs as our yards would fpreacj, or mafts carry, the
pirate gained upon us, and fo we prepared oprfelvcs
to fight. They had 18 guns, and we had but 12.
About three in the afternoon there was a dei'perate
engagement, wherein many were killed and wounds
ed on both fides; but finding ourfelves overpowered
with numbers, our ihip difa-bled^ and ourfelves too
impotent to have the lead: hopes of fuccefs, we were
forced to furrender, and accordingly were all carried
into the port of Sa/ee. Our men were fent to the
Emperor’s court to be fold there •, but the pirate
captain taking notice of me, kept me to be his own
flave.
In this condition I thought myfelf the mofi: mife-
rable creature on earth, and the prophecy of my fa¬
ther came afrefh-into my thoughts. As it happened,
my condition was better than I thought it to be, as
will foon appear. Some hopes indeed I had, that
my new patron would go to fea again, where he might
be taken by a Spanifh or Portugal man of war, and
then I fhould be fet at liberty. But in this I was
miftaken, for he never took me with him, but left
me to look after his little garden, and to the drudgery
of his houfe; and when he returned from fea, would
make me lie in the cabin, and look after the ihip.
I had no one that I could communicate my thoughts
to, which were continually meditating my efcape ;
no E‘ig!ifhma/!, Irijhtrian, or Scotchman here, but my¬
felf; and for two years I could fee nothing practi¬
cable, but only pleafe myfelf with the imagination.
After foroe length of time, my patron, as I
found, grew fo poor, that he could not fit out his
fhip as ufual: And then he ufed conilantly, once
or twice a week, if the weather was fair, to go out
a fidiing, taking me and a young Jplorefco boy to row
the boat; ^nd fo much pleafed was he with me for
my dexterity in catching the fiih, that he would’
often.'