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A New Voyage Round the World by a Course Never Sailed Before
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- GenresBritish Literature
219 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1724
19 people want to read
About the author
Daniel Defoe
5,696 books1,998 followersDaniel Defoe was an English novelist, journalist, merchant, pamphleteer and spy. He is most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe, published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translations. He has been seen as one of the earliest proponents of the English novel, and helped to popularise the form in Britain with others such as Aphra Behn and Samuel Richardson. Defoe wrote many political tracts, was often in trouble with the authorities, and spent a period in prison. Intellectuals and political leaders paid attention to his fresh ideas and sometimes consulted him.
Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works—books, pamphlets, and journals—on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of business journalism and economic journalism.
Defoe was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than three hundred works—books, pamphlets, and journals—on diverse topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of business journalism and economic journalism.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 30, 2021
Since there is so little available of this book on the internet, in addition to my review I will leave a complete, detailed plot summary copy+pasted from my personal notes.
For those who have read other works by Daniel Defoe such as Captain Singleton, the King of Pirates, and of course both parts of Robinson Crusoe, much of the content of this book will seem to be very familiar. However that is not at all to say that this book doesn't have anything special over the other books by Defoe. For one thing, Defoe's other works about adventures at sea, such as Captain Singleton, may have interesting and diverting episodes of seafaring adventure and trade, but are marred by lengthy interludes of descriptions of the routes taken and how many degrees south were sailed along what exact latitude; however this book immediately does something special by going out of its way to not include any of that information whatsoever. The narrator actually, blatantly states in the first few pages that he will be writing this travelogue in this fashion. This is a godsend. However, unlike Defoe's other related works, it is not so much an early swashbuckler tale, but more akin to a real-life travelogue such as those collected by Richard Hakluyt. which were greatly influential and well-read at the time, and represented the contemporary concept of an exciting adventure story. As a result, the story is not about a group of pirates, but a crew of merchants who undertake a voyage around the world for trade, privateering, and exploration. Most of the story focuses on their interactions with South Seas natives and expeditions into South American territory. As for action, there is a ship mutiny, and a battle held between the merchants and the pirates of Captain Avery's crew stranded on Madagascar (which Defoe wrote about with an obsession in his sea-stories.)
Defoe has always went for realism in his books, and this one is the most realistic of all his sea-faring works; the main character, if he can even be called that, is the nameless merchant-captain who is writing the story, who is even absent from many of the most interesting adventures in the book. The exercise in realism seems to be taken from Hakluyt.
The weakest part of the book is an extended section in the middle where they explore South America and the Spanish colonies there; a Spaniard they meet dispells their misconception that the Spanish colonies in the new world are thriving, developed and strong; in fact, there are few Spaniards there and are hardly even defended. It feels like Defoe wrote this section only to entice England to attack the Spanish colonies in the new world--this section is boring and takes an incredibly long time; if it weren't for this, The best parts of it (the adventure in Patagonia is especially enthralling) would tempt me to call it an underrated work by Daniel Defoe, which in some respects it is, for its much more enjoyable than the King of Pirates, which has its own Dover edition, and this does not. The weakest part is that the book lacks a main identity in comparison to the other ones, which on one hand does lend to its realism, which to me makes it stand out but also keeps it from being a work of great fiction. I was surprised to see it had no didacticism to it at all unlike most of other Defoe’s works (except, I suppose, the King of Pirates.) Overall though I liked this book and did not regret reading it. I would prefer it if it had about fifty of the least eventful pages cut out though.
I am giving this book 4 stars, because although it has problems it does have some quite enjoyable segments compared to the utter obscurity it wallows in. (only 4 ratings as of writing this!) It is definitely an acquired taste, and only the more hardcore, completionist lovers of 18th-century adventure stories should read it. But those people I think will be surprised by it.
EDIT: (Nov. 29, 2021) I recently read a paper about this book which argued that it was actually Defoe trying to prove a series of arguments relating to English colonization and trade. Defoe had argued for a way for English ships to trade with the Spanish (by disguising themselves as French, which the characters do often in this book), Encourage trade amongst the natives in the South seas, (which is an extended part of the book), and encourage colonialization of South America and particularly Patagonia (which the characters in the book explore thoroughly in the last sixty-odd pages.) Defoe was also dispelling the belief that all of South America was under constrictive control by the Spaniards (Shown when the characters go to South America and see that it is less colonized by the Spanish than they thought.) The paper proved this by linking events in the book to opinions Defoe openly expressed in magazines in the years preceding the book's anonymous publishing. My conjecture that the book was an exercise in realism inspired by sea-stories like Voyages and Discoveries likely wasn't entirely untrue, because Defoe's writing was very accurate in his depictions of exotic locales and used these sea-stories as inspiration, but my presumption that he wrote this book out of love for them is likely not true. Instead the realism was made to make the story and by extension Defoe's arguments seem as believable as possible, as well as to introduce these concepts into the minds of the public. Taking that into account, the anonymous publishing of this book, and the pretense it puts up of being based on a real account (like a lot of books published at the time), making it indistinguishable from any other non-fiction round-the-world travelogue sold in bookstores, likely on the same shelf as a New Voyage at the same time feels wrong.
------------PERSONAL NOTES + SUMMARY--------------------
Page 17: argues that humankind and the position of the sun makes it impossible for humanity to ever spread across the whole globe
Page 24: cool description of mutinies
Pages 58-8 : Reference to Captain Avery's pirate colony on Madagascar… again. (The year is 1714.) It also even refers to the natives of Madagascar being well-using, similar to what is related (barely) in the King of Pirate, and, I believe, proving that Captain Charles Johnson was NOT Daniel Defoe. Although on page 69, when it is describing the pirates' palisado, it says; "...And stand covered from the enemies' lances, which was all they had to fear from the natives." This is the closest that the book, and Defoe in general, ever comes to suggesting they ever warred with the natives.
Page 110-111: he has no doubt there will be discovered a passage from the pacific to the Atlantic. Also, he mentions the great lakes and whether they "have any communication this way or not."
Page 112: "it was not proved yet whether this land of California was an island or a continent"
Page 132-133; two men, described as "unreasonable", schwindle a couple of natives out of their gold plate-earrings for a rusty hatchet. This seems to be the opposite of what we see in Captain Singleton, where the Europeans happily exchange trivial items for large boons; however, those men were trying to survive, and these two are simply heckling.
Page 142-143: describes the shape of the native Queen's breasts. "They are plump and round, not flaggy and hanging down, as it is general with all the indian women, some of whose breasts hang as low as their bellies, but hanging up as if they had been laced up with stays all around her body." Strange detail. Perhaps to show she is attractive by seeming comparably more "white" than the rest.
Page 193: Daniel Defoe’s opinion that natives become hostile only once they have been misused by whites, also seen in Captain Singleton
Page 363: The men come across a waterfall, which makes their canoes useless, so they disembark on the shore and empty all their provisions, and literally set one of their empty canoes adrift just “to have the pleasure” of watching it go off the side of the cliff and dash itself against the rocks below. They literally do it just for fun!
The book begins with an exciting opening paragraph as a number of Daniel Defoe’s works do. It then goes on to say something which personally excited me even more; that since many other travelogues have told mainly of their courses, directions, and degrees, and left out many of their sidequests with natives and Europeans, that this story would forego most of the technicalities and stick only to the adventure. The story begins with a group of merchants who decide to sail around the world. They leave England, sail along France, and then make across the eastern coast of South America, and then at some point in their voyage they meet with some Spanish, who are their enemies of course, but they get past them by imitating being French. They also purchase a ship off of them in this guise. Next, the men attempt to sail around the Cape of Good Hope but are blown so bad off course they make instead for Cape Horn, and are now off the coast of Africa. A disagreement happens between the captain and his men over whether they should sail to the Philippines and then into the south seas, and skip the philippines and go straight to the south seas. Some think that the Philippines voyage would be the most profitable and others think it is impossible and it will be their death. So it eventually comes to blows and a mutiny happens, which is a very cool scene, and the end of it is that there is a standoff on the main deck between the mutineers and the captain; the captain routes out all of the honest men among the glob of seamen called ‘mutineers’, and arrests the remaining bunch. Then the mutineers are talked to in the brig about how the voyage to the philippines actually is a good and practicable idea, which helps them to see that they were misinformed. They are offered a chance to be let free, but they are such honest people that they decide instead to be punished. Then they sail around to Madagascar, and embark onto a city at some point along the shore, talking to some people who tell them about Avery’s pirate colony. They say they are terrified of it, because they heard of the rumors from England that Avery has 40 ships and 12000 men and forts there, but the merchants have heard from others just at Madagascar that Avery’s men are just a group of desperate renegades, so they go there to see for themselves. When they do find Avery’s men in much the same position as was described. The palisade fort and the gun platform from the King of Pirates is corroborated here. The merchants offer some of the pirates a chance to escape onto their ships; a thing which all of the pirates want, but the merchants are uneasy about letting all of them aboard because it would likely cause a mutiny. They give all the men of the island provisions in exchange for their gold, and also as a punishment they let loose their old mutineers on the island. Under the cover of darkness they smuggle some of the pirates onto their ship. At daybreak, a misunderstanding occurs between some of the pirates and the merchants, wherein a battle breaks out between the merchants and the pirates, and shots are fired, men on both sides are killed, cannons are blown, canoes full of pirates are blasted out of the water, and it is an all-around action scene. Eventually though, it subsides due to communication between both sides, and after admitting as many of the pirates as they are pleased with, the merchants leave Madagascar for Ceylon. At Ceylon they trade with the natives some, The natives there are hucksters and aren’t so friendly with the merchants. Also a situation occurs wherein, admitting some of the natives onto their ship, a little boy runs under the deck and tries to steal a pair of scissors and is caught redhanded by the ship’s men, and is beaten for it, which the natives get angry at. The captain says the men had beaten the boy too harshly, and would have done worse if he hadn't stopped them. Another similar misunderstanding where the natives try to steal some of the merchant’s fowls results in shots being fired, spears being thrown, and a small skirmish arising, which is quickly settled and the merchants sail away. Then sailing to the Philippines, they then meet up with a Spainard there who welcomes them friendly-like, and buys a bunch of their wares for a bunch of gold. The men make a lot of money in this venture, and they also trade with the Japanese for their Japan-ware, as it is called. They then sail into the south seas, and spent about a 100 or more pages trafficking with the natives. This part of the book feels a lot like the island-hopping scenes in Captain Singleton. Most of the natives they come across are friendly. Every islander tribe they come across the men make motions towards their mouths asking for food, and most of the natives do indeed shill out their food in abundance. Defoe’s opinion from Captain Singleton is restated here, wherein natives are pure souls of nature who are good-natured and kind until they are corrupted by the evils of slave traders and the avarice of white Europeans. It seems though that the goodness of the natives is characterized mostly by the aid they provide to the white Europeans. Especially one island they find, an uncharted one, which is so big they disembark on to explore and see “if it may be a continent or an island”, spend the next better half of a 100 pages there with the natives who treat them very well. It all begins when, the ship nearing shore, they see an army of perhaps a hundred "black shapes" swimming towards the hull of the ship. The men pack in a smaller boat and see that they are not porpoises as they first suspected, but black women come to greet them. They bring two of them aboard, who are stark naked, and they clothe them in beautiful dress and give them jewelry and gifts, which they bring with love back to their own tribe. Going upriver in the island the men come across more of this tribe, who are very happy and very giving to them, grateful for their treatment of the two women. A shallop of 50 men is sent out even deeper into the island to look for gold, which the natives call “Arrah”, and claim comes from a volcano in the middle of the island. The men have a grand old adventure wherein they come across tribe after tribe giving them more and more and more food and supplies in exchange for “toys” that the merchants carry for just these situations. They also meet the King and Queen. The Queen’s breasts are described in strange detail. The men then go back, having found no gold. The merchants plan to leave the island, but a number of the men wish to stay for the rest of their lives, for the land is so rich and bountiful and the people so good and giving. But the captain stops them. However they sneak away with a few provisions in the middle of the night. When the captain sees what has happened the next morning, he dumps a load of supplies at one beach of the island and leaves a rock engraved with how to find the provisions left at where they first entered the island. After this they go pearl-fishing in the south seas and find a bunch of pearls worth a lot of money. They then make a prize of a Spanish vessel much bigger than themselves, but they don’t know what to do with the men who will probably rat on them, so they offer them money to shut their mouths and let them go free in some smaller ships, taking their ship. The men then sail to the Americas. Here is the most boring part of the book, which takes up about another 100 pages, or at least that’s what it felt like. For like 100 pages these merchants talk to literally like one Spanish guy on the coast of America about America and the merchants say America is controlled by the Spaniards and there’s hundreds of thousands of them living there but the Spaniard who is friendly to them demystifies to them that the Spaniards in America are few in number and could easily be taken over. It seems Daniel Defoe wanted to get this known so England can come and take over the new world. Anyway during those 100 boring pages, the captain and some men journey with the Spaniard and his friend ‘the chilean’ across some part of South America where they look for gold and they cross the Andes and they find a bunch of gold and they have a good time and they find a bunch of gold and they go back to their ship and it took like a 100 pages. Anyway the merchants go through the strait of magellan I think, and arrive at the other side of central america, or wait, do they? Because I think they are still within the vicinity of the spaniard from before... uh, anyway, the men disembark again to look for more gold, and the captain orders a crew of 50 of his men to journey into the interior to find gold and bring it back to the ship. Now, we are at about page 300 here, but this is actually the FINAL part of the adventure and one of the cooler parts of the book. The men venture into the interior and go pick up a bunch of gold off the ground as they walk like in Captain Singleton, and encounter difficulties as they build makeshift rafts and battle rising water levels and floods and storms where they almost get lost at sea, and they pitch tents near the river and are stuck for a week in the harsh rain, but a huge herd of bulls starts travelling across the river right to where they are encamped, and the men know it is dangerous to have a huge herd of bulls encamped with you so they have to shoot the bulls and they camp in the trees with their muskets and shoot them in the rain. They build makeshift canoes and go down river and stop by some shores and lakes positively full of gold and they go to a waterfall where they dismantle their canoes and travel down and they have to build new canoes again and they fight the floods again and have a grand adventure which feels like the best parts of Hakluyt’s Voyages and Discoveries, and the captain is not a part of ANY of it, and the men, camped out in the middle of god-knows-where, ragged and exhausted, see three "rockets" blast up into the air far away indicating a signal sent by the captain’s ship, so they send a couple of rockets off in response and they at last go back to their ship after weeks of gold hunting and add their gold to the prodigious pile of wealth they have accumulated. At this point there are literally 3 pages left in the book, which I guess makes sense because it said at the beginning that it would cut out most of the seatravel, and there isn’t much between America and Europe but the sea. Then they let some of the Madagascar pirates off on the East coast of South America and get back to England. There they deposit all their money and good fortune. The captain is sad to see that his merchant friend that encouraged him to begin the voyage had died. THE END.
For those who have read other works by Daniel Defoe such as Captain Singleton, the King of Pirates, and of course both parts of Robinson Crusoe, much of the content of this book will seem to be very familiar. However that is not at all to say that this book doesn't have anything special over the other books by Defoe. For one thing, Defoe's other works about adventures at sea, such as Captain Singleton, may have interesting and diverting episodes of seafaring adventure and trade, but are marred by lengthy interludes of descriptions of the routes taken and how many degrees south were sailed along what exact latitude; however this book immediately does something special by going out of its way to not include any of that information whatsoever. The narrator actually, blatantly states in the first few pages that he will be writing this travelogue in this fashion. This is a godsend. However, unlike Defoe's other related works, it is not so much an early swashbuckler tale, but more akin to a real-life travelogue such as those collected by Richard Hakluyt. which were greatly influential and well-read at the time, and represented the contemporary concept of an exciting adventure story. As a result, the story is not about a group of pirates, but a crew of merchants who undertake a voyage around the world for trade, privateering, and exploration. Most of the story focuses on their interactions with South Seas natives and expeditions into South American territory. As for action, there is a ship mutiny, and a battle held between the merchants and the pirates of Captain Avery's crew stranded on Madagascar (which Defoe wrote about with an obsession in his sea-stories.)
Defoe has always went for realism in his books, and this one is the most realistic of all his sea-faring works; the main character, if he can even be called that, is the nameless merchant-captain who is writing the story, who is even absent from many of the most interesting adventures in the book. The exercise in realism seems to be taken from Hakluyt.
The weakest part of the book is an extended section in the middle where they explore South America and the Spanish colonies there; a Spaniard they meet dispells their misconception that the Spanish colonies in the new world are thriving, developed and strong; in fact, there are few Spaniards there and are hardly even defended. It feels like Defoe wrote this section only to entice England to attack the Spanish colonies in the new world--this section is boring and takes an incredibly long time; if it weren't for this, The best parts of it (the adventure in Patagonia is especially enthralling) would tempt me to call it an underrated work by Daniel Defoe, which in some respects it is, for its much more enjoyable than the King of Pirates, which has its own Dover edition, and this does not. The weakest part is that the book lacks a main identity in comparison to the other ones, which on one hand does lend to its realism, which to me makes it stand out but also keeps it from being a work of great fiction. I was surprised to see it had no didacticism to it at all unlike most of other Defoe’s works (except, I suppose, the King of Pirates.) Overall though I liked this book and did not regret reading it. I would prefer it if it had about fifty of the least eventful pages cut out though.
I am giving this book 4 stars, because although it has problems it does have some quite enjoyable segments compared to the utter obscurity it wallows in. (only 4 ratings as of writing this!) It is definitely an acquired taste, and only the more hardcore, completionist lovers of 18th-century adventure stories should read it. But those people I think will be surprised by it.
EDIT: (Nov. 29, 2021) I recently read a paper about this book which argued that it was actually Defoe trying to prove a series of arguments relating to English colonization and trade. Defoe had argued for a way for English ships to trade with the Spanish (by disguising themselves as French, which the characters do often in this book), Encourage trade amongst the natives in the South seas, (which is an extended part of the book), and encourage colonialization of South America and particularly Patagonia (which the characters in the book explore thoroughly in the last sixty-odd pages.) Defoe was also dispelling the belief that all of South America was under constrictive control by the Spaniards (Shown when the characters go to South America and see that it is less colonized by the Spanish than they thought.) The paper proved this by linking events in the book to opinions Defoe openly expressed in magazines in the years preceding the book's anonymous publishing. My conjecture that the book was an exercise in realism inspired by sea-stories like Voyages and Discoveries likely wasn't entirely untrue, because Defoe's writing was very accurate in his depictions of exotic locales and used these sea-stories as inspiration, but my presumption that he wrote this book out of love for them is likely not true. Instead the realism was made to make the story and by extension Defoe's arguments seem as believable as possible, as well as to introduce these concepts into the minds of the public. Taking that into account, the anonymous publishing of this book, and the pretense it puts up of being based on a real account (like a lot of books published at the time), making it indistinguishable from any other non-fiction round-the-world travelogue sold in bookstores, likely on the same shelf as a New Voyage at the same time feels wrong.
------------PERSONAL NOTES + SUMMARY--------------------
Page 17: argues that humankind and the position of the sun makes it impossible for humanity to ever spread across the whole globe
Page 24: cool description of mutinies
Pages 58-8 : Reference to Captain Avery's pirate colony on Madagascar… again. (The year is 1714.) It also even refers to the natives of Madagascar being well-using, similar to what is related (barely) in the King of Pirate, and, I believe, proving that Captain Charles Johnson was NOT Daniel Defoe. Although on page 69, when it is describing the pirates' palisado, it says; "...And stand covered from the enemies' lances, which was all they had to fear from the natives." This is the closest that the book, and Defoe in general, ever comes to suggesting they ever warred with the natives.
Page 110-111: he has no doubt there will be discovered a passage from the pacific to the Atlantic. Also, he mentions the great lakes and whether they "have any communication this way or not."
Page 112: "it was not proved yet whether this land of California was an island or a continent"
Page 132-133; two men, described as "unreasonable", schwindle a couple of natives out of their gold plate-earrings for a rusty hatchet. This seems to be the opposite of what we see in Captain Singleton, where the Europeans happily exchange trivial items for large boons; however, those men were trying to survive, and these two are simply heckling.
Page 142-143: describes the shape of the native Queen's breasts. "They are plump and round, not flaggy and hanging down, as it is general with all the indian women, some of whose breasts hang as low as their bellies, but hanging up as if they had been laced up with stays all around her body." Strange detail. Perhaps to show she is attractive by seeming comparably more "white" than the rest.
Page 193: Daniel Defoe’s opinion that natives become hostile only once they have been misused by whites, also seen in Captain Singleton
Page 363: The men come across a waterfall, which makes their canoes useless, so they disembark on the shore and empty all their provisions, and literally set one of their empty canoes adrift just “to have the pleasure” of watching it go off the side of the cliff and dash itself against the rocks below. They literally do it just for fun!
The book begins with an exciting opening paragraph as a number of Daniel Defoe’s works do. It then goes on to say something which personally excited me even more; that since many other travelogues have told mainly of their courses, directions, and degrees, and left out many of their sidequests with natives and Europeans, that this story would forego most of the technicalities and stick only to the adventure. The story begins with a group of merchants who decide to sail around the world. They leave England, sail along France, and then make across the eastern coast of South America, and then at some point in their voyage they meet with some Spanish, who are their enemies of course, but they get past them by imitating being French. They also purchase a ship off of them in this guise. Next, the men attempt to sail around the Cape of Good Hope but are blown so bad off course they make instead for Cape Horn, and are now off the coast of Africa. A disagreement happens between the captain and his men over whether they should sail to the Philippines and then into the south seas, and skip the philippines and go straight to the south seas. Some think that the Philippines voyage would be the most profitable and others think it is impossible and it will be their death. So it eventually comes to blows and a mutiny happens, which is a very cool scene, and the end of it is that there is a standoff on the main deck between the mutineers and the captain; the captain routes out all of the honest men among the glob of seamen called ‘mutineers’, and arrests the remaining bunch. Then the mutineers are talked to in the brig about how the voyage to the philippines actually is a good and practicable idea, which helps them to see that they were misinformed. They are offered a chance to be let free, but they are such honest people that they decide instead to be punished. Then they sail around to Madagascar, and embark onto a city at some point along the shore, talking to some people who tell them about Avery’s pirate colony. They say they are terrified of it, because they heard of the rumors from England that Avery has 40 ships and 12000 men and forts there, but the merchants have heard from others just at Madagascar that Avery’s men are just a group of desperate renegades, so they go there to see for themselves. When they do find Avery’s men in much the same position as was described. The palisade fort and the gun platform from the King of Pirates is corroborated here. The merchants offer some of the pirates a chance to escape onto their ships; a thing which all of the pirates want, but the merchants are uneasy about letting all of them aboard because it would likely cause a mutiny. They give all the men of the island provisions in exchange for their gold, and also as a punishment they let loose their old mutineers on the island. Under the cover of darkness they smuggle some of the pirates onto their ship. At daybreak, a misunderstanding occurs between some of the pirates and the merchants, wherein a battle breaks out between the merchants and the pirates, and shots are fired, men on both sides are killed, cannons are blown, canoes full of pirates are blasted out of the water, and it is an all-around action scene. Eventually though, it subsides due to communication between both sides, and after admitting as many of the pirates as they are pleased with, the merchants leave Madagascar for Ceylon. At Ceylon they trade with the natives some, The natives there are hucksters and aren’t so friendly with the merchants. Also a situation occurs wherein, admitting some of the natives onto their ship, a little boy runs under the deck and tries to steal a pair of scissors and is caught redhanded by the ship’s men, and is beaten for it, which the natives get angry at. The captain says the men had beaten the boy too harshly, and would have done worse if he hadn't stopped them. Another similar misunderstanding where the natives try to steal some of the merchant’s fowls results in shots being fired, spears being thrown, and a small skirmish arising, which is quickly settled and the merchants sail away. Then sailing to the Philippines, they then meet up with a Spainard there who welcomes them friendly-like, and buys a bunch of their wares for a bunch of gold. The men make a lot of money in this venture, and they also trade with the Japanese for their Japan-ware, as it is called. They then sail into the south seas, and spent about a 100 or more pages trafficking with the natives. This part of the book feels a lot like the island-hopping scenes in Captain Singleton. Most of the natives they come across are friendly. Every islander tribe they come across the men make motions towards their mouths asking for food, and most of the natives do indeed shill out their food in abundance. Defoe’s opinion from Captain Singleton is restated here, wherein natives are pure souls of nature who are good-natured and kind until they are corrupted by the evils of slave traders and the avarice of white Europeans. It seems though that the goodness of the natives is characterized mostly by the aid they provide to the white Europeans. Especially one island they find, an uncharted one, which is so big they disembark on to explore and see “if it may be a continent or an island”, spend the next better half of a 100 pages there with the natives who treat them very well. It all begins when, the ship nearing shore, they see an army of perhaps a hundred "black shapes" swimming towards the hull of the ship. The men pack in a smaller boat and see that they are not porpoises as they first suspected, but black women come to greet them. They bring two of them aboard, who are stark naked, and they clothe them in beautiful dress and give them jewelry and gifts, which they bring with love back to their own tribe. Going upriver in the island the men come across more of this tribe, who are very happy and very giving to them, grateful for their treatment of the two women. A shallop of 50 men is sent out even deeper into the island to look for gold, which the natives call “Arrah”, and claim comes from a volcano in the middle of the island. The men have a grand old adventure wherein they come across tribe after tribe giving them more and more and more food and supplies in exchange for “toys” that the merchants carry for just these situations. They also meet the King and Queen. The Queen’s breasts are described in strange detail. The men then go back, having found no gold. The merchants plan to leave the island, but a number of the men wish to stay for the rest of their lives, for the land is so rich and bountiful and the people so good and giving. But the captain stops them. However they sneak away with a few provisions in the middle of the night. When the captain sees what has happened the next morning, he dumps a load of supplies at one beach of the island and leaves a rock engraved with how to find the provisions left at where they first entered the island. After this they go pearl-fishing in the south seas and find a bunch of pearls worth a lot of money. They then make a prize of a Spanish vessel much bigger than themselves, but they don’t know what to do with the men who will probably rat on them, so they offer them money to shut their mouths and let them go free in some smaller ships, taking their ship. The men then sail to the Americas. Here is the most boring part of the book, which takes up about another 100 pages, or at least that’s what it felt like. For like 100 pages these merchants talk to literally like one Spanish guy on the coast of America about America and the merchants say America is controlled by the Spaniards and there’s hundreds of thousands of them living there but the Spaniard who is friendly to them demystifies to them that the Spaniards in America are few in number and could easily be taken over. It seems Daniel Defoe wanted to get this known so England can come and take over the new world. Anyway during those 100 boring pages, the captain and some men journey with the Spaniard and his friend ‘the chilean’ across some part of South America where they look for gold and they cross the Andes and they find a bunch of gold and they have a good time and they find a bunch of gold and they go back to their ship and it took like a 100 pages. Anyway the merchants go through the strait of magellan I think, and arrive at the other side of central america, or wait, do they? Because I think they are still within the vicinity of the spaniard from before... uh, anyway, the men disembark again to look for more gold, and the captain orders a crew of 50 of his men to journey into the interior to find gold and bring it back to the ship. Now, we are at about page 300 here, but this is actually the FINAL part of the adventure and one of the cooler parts of the book. The men venture into the interior and go pick up a bunch of gold off the ground as they walk like in Captain Singleton, and encounter difficulties as they build makeshift rafts and battle rising water levels and floods and storms where they almost get lost at sea, and they pitch tents near the river and are stuck for a week in the harsh rain, but a huge herd of bulls starts travelling across the river right to where they are encamped, and the men know it is dangerous to have a huge herd of bulls encamped with you so they have to shoot the bulls and they camp in the trees with their muskets and shoot them in the rain. They build makeshift canoes and go down river and stop by some shores and lakes positively full of gold and they go to a waterfall where they dismantle their canoes and travel down and they have to build new canoes again and they fight the floods again and have a grand adventure which feels like the best parts of Hakluyt’s Voyages and Discoveries, and the captain is not a part of ANY of it, and the men, camped out in the middle of god-knows-where, ragged and exhausted, see three "rockets" blast up into the air far away indicating a signal sent by the captain’s ship, so they send a couple of rockets off in response and they at last go back to their ship after weeks of gold hunting and add their gold to the prodigious pile of wealth they have accumulated. At this point there are literally 3 pages left in the book, which I guess makes sense because it said at the beginning that it would cut out most of the seatravel, and there isn’t much between America and Europe but the sea. Then they let some of the Madagascar pirates off on the East coast of South America and get back to England. There they deposit all their money and good fortune. The captain is sad to see that his merchant friend that encouraged him to begin the voyage had died. THE END.
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