The Life, Adventures & Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton. Defoe Daniel
is summed up in this one saying: "Upon these foundations, William said he was satisfied we might trust them; for, says William, I would as soon trust a man whose interest binds him to be just to me, as a man whose principle binds himself" (p. 227). Extremely subtle is also this remark: "Why, says I, did you ever know a pirate repent? At this he started a little and returned, At the gallows I have known one repent, and I hope thou wilt be the second." The character of William the Quaker pirate is a masterpiece of shrewd humour. He is the first Quaker brought into English fiction, and we know of no other Friend in latter-day fiction to equal him. Defoe in his inimitable manner has defined surely and deftly the peculiar characteristics of the sect in this portrait. On three separate occasions we find William saving unfortunate natives or defenceless prisoners from the cruel and wicked barbarity of the sailors. At page 183, for example, the reader will find a most penetrating analysis of the dense stupidity which so often accompanies man's love of bloodshed. The sketch of the second lieutenant, who was for "murdering the negroes to make them tell," when he could not make them even understand what he wanted, is worthy of Tolstoy. We have not space here to dwell upon the scores of passages of similar deep insight which make "Captain Singleton" a most true and vivid commentary on the life of Defoe's times, but we may call special attention to the passage on page 189 which describe the sale of the negroes to the planters; to the description of the awakening of the conscience of Captain Singleton through terror at the fire-cloud (page 222); and to the extraordinarily picturesque conversation between William and the captive Dutchman (page 264). Finally, if the reader wishes to taste Defoe's flavour in its perfection let him examine carefully those passages in the concluding twenty pages of the book, wherein Captain Singleton is shown as awakening to the wickedness of his past life, and the admirable dry reasoning of William by which the Quaker prevents him from committing suicide and persuades him to keep his ill-gotten wealth, "with a resolution to do what right with it we are able; and who knows what opportunity Providence may put into our hands… As it is without doubt, our present business is to go to some place of safety, where we may wait His will." How admirable is the passage about William's sister, the widow with four children who kept a little shop in the Minories, and that in which the penitent ex-pirates are shown us as hesitating in Venice for two years before they durst venture to England for fear of the gallows.
"Captain Singleton" was published in 1720, a year after "Robinson Crusoe," when Defoe was fifty-nine. Twenty years before had seen "The True-Born Englishman" and "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters"; and we are told that from "June 1687 to almost the very week of his death in 1731 a stream of controversial books and pamphlets poured from his pen commenting upon and marking every important passing event." The fecundity of Defoe as a journalist alone surpasses that of any great journalist we can name, William Cobbett not excepted, and we may add that the style of "Captain Singleton," like that of "Robinson Crusoe," is so perfect that there is not a single ineffective passage, or indeed a weak sentence, to be found in the book.
The following is a list of Defoe's works: "New Discovery of Old Intrigue" (verse), 1691. "Character of Dr. Samuel Annesley" (verse), 1697. "The Pacificator" (verse), 1700. "True-Born Englishman" (verse), 1701. "The Mock Mourners" (verse), 1702. "Reformation of Manners" (verse), 1702. "New Test of Church of England's Loyalty," 1702. "Shortest Way with the Dissenters," 1702. "Ode to the Athenian Society," 1703. "Enquiry into Acgill's General Translation," 1703. "More Reformation" (verse), 1703. "Hymn to the Pillory," 1703. "The Storm" (Tale), 1704. "Layman's Sermon on the Late Storm," 1704. "The Consolidator; or, Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World in the Moon," 1704. "Elegy on Author of 'True-Born Englishman,'" 1704. "Hymn to Victory," 1704. "Giving Alms no Charity," 1704. "The Dyet of Poland" (verse), 1705. "Apparition of Mrs. Veal," 1706. "Sermon on the Filling-up of Dr. Burgess's Meeting-house," 1706. "Jure Divino" (verse), 1706. "Caledonia" (verse), 1706. "History of the Union of Great Britain," 1709. "Short Enquiry into a Late Duel," 1713. "A General History of Trade," 1713. "Wars of Charles III.," 1715. "The Family Instruction" (two eds.), 1715. "Hymn to the Mob," 1715. "Memoirs of the Church of Scotland," 1717. "Life and Death of Count Patkul," 1717. "Memoirs of Duke of Shrewsbury," 1718. "Memoirs of Daniel Williams," 1718. "The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner," 1719. "The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," 1719. "The Dumb Philosopher: or, Great Britain's Wonder," 1719. "The King of Pirates" (Capt. Avery), 1719. "Life of Baron de Goertz," 1719. "Life and Adventures of Duncan Campbell," 1720. "Mr. Campbell's Pacquet," 1720. "Memoirs of a Cavalier," 1720. "Life of Captain Singleton," 1720. "Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," 1720. "The Supernatural Philosopher; or, The Mysteries of Magick," 1720. Translation of Du Fresnoy's "Compleat Art of Painting" (verse), 1720. "Moll Flanders," 1722, "Journal of the Plague Year," 1722. "Due Preparations for the Plague," 1722. "Life of Cartouche," 1722. "History of Colonel Jacque," 1722. "Religious Courtship," 1722. "History of Peter the Great," 1723. "The Highland Rogue" (Rob Roy), 1723. "The Fortunate Mistress" (Roxana), 1724. "Narrative of Murders at Calais," 1724. "Life of John Sheppard," 1724. "Robberies, Escapes, &c., of John Sheppard," 1724. "The Great Law of Subordination; or, The Insolence and Insufferable Behaviour of Servants in England," 1724. "A Tour through Great Britain," 1724-6. "New Voyage Round the World," 1725. "Account of Jonathan Wild," 1725. "Account of John Gow," 1725. "Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business" (on Servants), 1725. "The Complete English Tradesman," 1725; vol. ii., 1727. "The Friendly Demon," 1726. "Mere Nature Delineated" (Peter the Wild Boy), 1726. "Political History of the Devil," 1726. "Essay upon Literature and the Original of Letters," 1726. "History of Discoveries," 1726-7. "The Protestant Monastery," 1726. "A System of Magic," 1726. "Parochial Tyranny," 1727. "Treatise concerning Use and Abuse of Marriage," 1727. "Secrets of Invisible World Discovered; or, History and Reality of Apparitions," 1727, 1728. "A New Family Instructor," 1728. "Augusta Triumphans," 1728. "Plan of English Commerce," 1728. "Second Thoughts are Best" (on Street Robberies), 1728. "Street Robberies Considered," 1728. "Humble Proposal to People of England for Increase of Trade, &c.," 1729. "Preface to R. Dodsley's Poem 'Servitude'" 1729. "Effectual Scheme for Preventing Street Robberies," 1731.
Besides the above-named publications a large number of further tracts by Defoe are extant, on matters of Politics and Church.
THE LIFE, ADVENTURES, AND PIRACIES OF CAPTAIN SINGLETON
As it is usual for great persons, whose lives have been remarkable, and whose actions deserve recording to posterity, to insist much upon their originals, give full accounts of their families, and the histories of their ancestors, so, that I may be methodical, I shall do the same, though I can look but a very little way into my pedigree, as you will see presently.
If I may believe the woman whom I was taught to call mother, I was a little boy, of about two years old, very well dressed, had a nursery-maid to attend me, who took me out on a fine summer's evening into the fields towards Islington, as she pretended, to give the child some air; a little girl being with her, of twelve or fourteen years old, that lived in the neighbourhood. The maid, whether by appointment or otherwise, meets with a fellow, her sweetheart, as I suppose; he carries her into a public-house, to give her a pot and a cake; and while they were toying in the house the girl plays about, with me in her hand, in the garden and at the door, sometimes in sight, sometimes out of sight, thinking no harm.
At this juncture comes by one of those sort of people who, it seems, made it their business to spirit away little children. This was a hellish trade in those days, and chiefly practised where they found little children very well dressed, or for bigger children, to sell them to the plantations.
The woman, pretending to take me up in her arms and kiss me, and play with me, draws the girl a good way from the house, till at last she makes a fine story to the girl, and bids her go back to the maid, and tell her where she was with the child; that a gentlewoman had taken a fancy to the child, and was kissing of it, but she should not be frighted, or to that purpose; for they were but just there; and so, while the girl went, she carries me quite away.
From this time, it seems, I was disposed of to a beggar woman that wanted a pretty little child to set out her case; and after that, to a gipsy, under whose government I continued till I was about six years old. And this woman, though I was continually dragged about with her from one part of the country to another, yet never let me want for anything; and I called her mother; though she told me at last she was not my mother, but that she bought me for twelve