ondon he made friends with a ship's captain, who had not long
before come home from a voyage to the Guinea Coast, as that part of
Africa was then called; and the Captain was so pleased with the money
he had made there, that he easily persuaded Robinson to go with him on
his next voyage.

So Robinson took with him toys, and beads, and other things, to sell
to the natives in Africa, and he got there, in exchange for these
things, so much gold-dust that he thought he was soon going in that
way to make his fortune.

And therefore he went on a second voyage.

But this time he was not so lucky, for before they reached the African
coast, one morning, very early, they sighted another ship, which they
were sure was a pirate. So fast did this other vessel sail, that
before night she had come up to Robinson's ship, which did not carry
nearly so many men nor so many guns as the pirate, and which therefore
did not want to fight; and the pirates soon took prisoner Robinson and
all the crew of his ship who were not killed, and made slaves of them.

The pirate captain took Robinson as his own slave, and made him dig in
his garden and work in his house. Sometimes, too, he made him look
after his ship when she was in port, but he never took him away on a
voyage.

For two years Robinson lived like this, very unhappy, and always
thinking how he might escape.

At last, when the Captain happened one time to be at home longer than
usual, he began to go out fishing in a boat two or three times a week,
taking Robinson, who was a very good fisher, and a black boy named
Xury, with him.

One day he gave Robinson orders to put food and water, and some guns,
and powder and shot, on a big boat that the pirates had taken out of
an English ship, and to be ready to go with him and some of his
friends on a fishing trip.

But at the last moment the Captain's friends could not come, and so
Robinson was told to go out in the boat with one of the Captain's
servants who was not a slave, and with Xury, to catch fish for supper.

Then Robinson thought that his chance to escape had come.

He spoke to the servant, who was not very clever, and persuaded him to
put more food and water on the boat, for, said Robinson, "we must not
take what was meant for our master." And then he got the servant to
bring some more powder and shot, because, Robinson said, they might as
well kill some birds to eat.

When they had gone out about a mile, they hauled down th