The Adventures of Roderick Random

Tumult and Plunder

In the midst of the uproar, the narrator goes below to secure his effects and finds the carpenter’s mate hewing down the purser’s cabin with a hatchet, whistling calmly as he claims he only wants to taste the purser’s rum. When the purser arrives and protests this injustice, the plunderer responds with deliberate indifference: “All’s one for that, let us live while we can.” The purser falls to his knees, begging heaven that they might not all perish for the sake of Jonas.

Securing Valuables

During this dialogue, the narrator clothes himself in his bed apparel, girds on his hanger, sticks his loaded pistols in his belt, and disposes of all his valuable moveables about his person. He then comes upon deck with a resolution to take the first opportunity to get on shore.

Escaping the Sloop

When day breaks, the shore appears at a distance of three miles ahead. Crampley, finding his efforts to get the ship off ineffectual, determines to save himself by entering the boat. The ship’s company follows so fast that the boat would have sunk alongside, had not someone wiser cut the rope and put off. The narrator makes several attempts to get into the boat but is always balked by Crampley, who excludes him with singular determination. Enraged at this inhuman partiality and seeing the rope cut, the narrator pulls a pistol, cocks it, and swears to shoot any man who obstructs his entrance. He leaps with full exertion and gets into the boat, though he loses the skin of his shins in the descent. Crampley strikes at him several times with a cutlass and orders the men to throw him overboard, but they are too anxious about their own safety to heed him.

Reaching the Shore

Though the boat is deeply loaded and the sea is terribly high, they manage to reach dry land in less than an hour after parting from the sloop.

Challenging Crampley to Combat

As soon as the narrator sets foot on terra firma, his long-boiling indignation against Crampley erupts. He immediately challenges the captain to single combat, presenting his pistols so that Crampley may take his choice of weapons.

The Duel

Crampley takes one pistol without hesitation and, before the narrator can cock the other, fires in his face and throws the pistol after the shot. The narrator feels himself stunned, imagining the bullet has entered his brain, but discharges his own pistol as quickly as possible so he will not die unrevenged. He then flies upon his antagonist, knocking out several of his fore-teeth with the butt-end of the piece. He would have finished him off, had Crampley not disengaged and seized his cutlass—previously given to his servant. The narrator draws his hanger and closes in fury, thrusting his weapon into Crampley’s mouth, enlarging it on one side to his ear. When Crampley staggers back, possibly due to the wound or uneven ground, the narrator follows and cuts the tendons of the back of his hand with one stroke. Crampley’s cutlass drops, leaving him defenceless.

Treacherously Attacked and Robbed

The narrator’s rage might have driven him to further cruelty had he not been felled to the ground by a blow on the back of his head, depriving him of all sensation. In this deplorable situation, exposed to an incensed barbarian and an inhuman crew, he remains for some time. When he recovers his senses, he finds himself alone in a desolate place, stripped of his clothes, money, watch, buckles, and everything except his shoes, stockings, breeches, and shirt. He had been worth sixty guineas in cash just an hour before.

A State of Despair

The narrator curses the hour of his birth, the parents who gave him being, the sea that did not swallow him up, the poniard of the enemy that could not find his heart, and the villainy of those who left him in such a miserable condition. In the ecstasy of despair, he resolves to remain where he is and perish.