A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before

by Daniel Defoe

He told him he had heard them talk of going to Ireland in their return, and, as he had been thirty years out of his own country, in such a remote part of the world, where it was never likely that he should ever see it again, the notion he had entertained that this ship was going thither, and might set him on shore there, that he might once more see his native country, and his family and friends, had filled his mind with such a surprising joy, that he could no longer contain himself; and that, therefore, if he would procure leave of the captain that he might come privately on board and take his passage home, he would willingly pay whatever the captain should desire of him, but that it must be done with the greatest secrecy imaginable, or else he was ruined; for that, if he should be discovered and stopped, he should be confined in the Jesuit's house there as long as he lived, without hope of redemption.

The surgeon told him the thing was easy to be done if he would give him leave to acquaint one man in the ship with it, which was not Captain Merlotte, but a certain Englishman, who was a considerable person in the ship, without whom the captain did nothing, and who would be more secure to trust, by far, than Captain Merlotte. The Padre told him, that, without asking him for any reasons, since he had put his life and liberty in his hands, he would trust him with the management of the whole, in whatever way he chose to conduct it.

The surgeon accordingly brought him on board to me, and making a confidence of the whole matter to me, I turned to the Padre, and told him in English, giving him my hand, that I would be under all the engagements and promises of secrecy that our surgeon had been in, for his security and satisfaction; that he had merited too well of us to wish him any ill, and, in short, that the whole ship should be engaged for his security. That, as to his coming on board and bringing anything off that belonged to him, he must take his own measures, and answer to himself for the success; but that, after he was on board, we would sink the ship under him, or blow her aloft in the air, before we would deliver him up on any account whatever.

He was so pleased with my frank way of talking to him, that he told me he would put his life into my hands with the same freedom as he had done before with my surgeon; so we began to concert measures for his coming on board with secrecy.

He told us there was no need of any proposals, for he would acquaint the head of the house that he intended to go on board the French ship in the road, and to go to St. Jago, where he had several times been in the same manner; and that, as they had not the least suspicion of him, he was very well satisfied that they would make no scruple of it.

But his mistake in this might have been his ruin; for though, had it been a Spanish ship, they would not have mistrusted him, yet, when he named the French ship in the road of Callao, they began to question him very smartly about it. Upon which, he was obliged to tell them, that, since they were doubtful of him, he would not go at all, telling them withal, that it was hard to suspect him, who had been so faithful to his vows, as to reside for near thirty years among them, when he might frequently have made an escape from them, if he had been so disposed. So, for three or four days, he made no appearance of going at all; but having had private notice from me the evening before we sailed, he found means to get out of their hands, came down to Callao on a mule in the night, and our surgeon, lying ready with our boat about half a league from the town, as by appointment, took him on board, with a negro, his servant, and brought him safe to the ship; nor had we received him on board half an hour, but, being unmoored and ready to sail, we put out to sea, and carried him clear off.

He made his excuses to me that he was come away naked, according to his profession; that he had purposed to have furnished himself with some provisions for the voyage, but that the unexpected suspicions of the head of their college, or house, had obliged him to come away in a manner that would not admit of it; for that he might rather be said to have made his escape than to have come fairly off.

I told him he was very welcome (and indeed so he was, for he had been already more worth to us than ten times his passage came to), and that he should be entered into immediate pay, as physician to both the ships, which I was sure none of our surgeons would repine at, but rather be glad of; and accordingly I immediately ordered him a cabin, with a very good apartment adjoining to it, and appointed him to eat in my own mess whenever he pleased, or by himself, on his particular days, when he thought proper.

And now it was impossible to conceal from him that we were indeed an English ship, and that I was the captain in chief, except, as has been said, upon occasion of coming to any particular town of Spain. I let him know I had a commission to make prize of the Spaniards, and appear their open enemy, but that I had chosen to treat them as friends, in a way of commerce, as he had seen. He admired much the moderation I had used, and how I had avoided enriching myself with the spoil, as I might have done; and he made me many compliments upon that head, which I excused hearing, and begged him to forbear. I told him we were Christians, and as we had made a very prosperous voyage, I was resolved not to do any honest man the least injustice, if I could avoid it.

But I must observe here, that I did not enter immediately into all this confidence with him neither, nor all at once; neither did I let him into any part of it, but under the same solemn engagements of secrecy that he had laid upon us, nor till I was come above eighty leagues south from Lima.