Chapter 8.
The English Ship Ten more days passed before we came across another human being.
The people we met were friendly and helpful.
They wore few clothes, and we did not speak the same language, but they were extremely generous.
They gave us food and water, even though we had nothing to trade.
Although the strange people were very kind, we still needed to find an English ship.
Our small boat was not prepared for heavy sailing.
The only chance we had to survive was being rescued.
I didn't tell Zuri that I was worried about us making it.
I didn't want him to be scared or upset.
We sailed onward.
Another week passed.
Finally, we came upon some landmarks I recognized.
About three leagues off the coast, I could see the Cape Verde Islands.
I let out a great whoop.
What is it, Robinson?
Zuri asked.
I pointed across the landscape.
Do you see that over there?
Those islands?
That's how we're going to get to England.
We're safe.
We're saved, Zuri, saved.
My smiles soon turned to frowns as I truly considered our situation.
If we sailed out into the open sea and got caught by the wrong wind, we would be swept away, never to be seen again.
I went inside to sit down in my small captain's cabin to consider our options.
Robinson, I heard Ziri call me from outside.
I see a ship!
I see a ship!
And true enough, there was a ship.
It looked Portuguese.
I took up the binoculars and watched carefully to see if it was bound for shore.
Alas, we were not that lucky.
The ship was sailing away from us.
Oh no, I thought.
I'm not letting them go without at least trying to get their attention.
Come on, Zuri, I yelled.
Let's try and catch them.
We mustered as much sail as our little boat could manage.
We chased the ship as fast as we could, but it soon became clear we would never catch up.
What do we do now, Robinson?
Zuri asked.
The guns, I said.
We need to fire the guns and hope they hear us.
We each ran to our guns and started firing.
I hoped and prayed the other ship would hear our distress signal.
The other ship shortened its sails and slowed down.
I smiled broadly at Ziri and said, They've heard our shots.
They're going to wait for us.
Come on, let's go.
It took us three hours to catch up to them.
When we arrived alongside, the men shouted off the deck to us in many different languages.
First, they tried Portuguese, then Spanish, then French, but we couldn't understand any of them.
Finally, a Scottish sailor on board piped up, "'Who are you?
What has happened?'
I explained I was an English sailor who had been captured by pirates.
I told him that I had spent the past few years in captivity as a slave.
The sailors were impressed that we managed to escape.
They took Zuri and me on board, and we were finally rescued.
The ship's captain was very kind.
When I offered him all of my worldly goods in exchange for a safe passage to Brazil, he simply smiled and said I will take you with us to Brazil.
There's no need for repayment.
I thanked him for his kindness.
The captain was also very nice to Ziri and promptly gave him a job as a sailor on the ship.
This pleased Zuri to no end, and just when I thought he couldn't be any nicer, he offered to buy our smaller boat.
I readily accepted his offer.
In addition to the boat, he bought quite a few of our other supplies, too.
We had a safe and happy journey to Brazil.
I had the money from the kind captain, which meant I wasn't completely penniless in a strange new land.
I stayed with one of the captain's friends who owned and operated a large sugar plantation.
The business of planting sugar looked interesting to me, so I tried to learn as much as I could.
Plantation life appealed to me.
With the money from the kind captain, I purchased a good chunk of land.
My plan was to build a sugar plantation just like the one where I had been staying.
There was so much opportunity for me in Brazil, but in order to stay I needed a letter of naturalization, which I found wasn't that hard to get.
