Crusoe, having some money in his pockets, decided to travel to London by land. His decision was based partly on the fact that he was ashamed to go home and face his parents and that his neighbors might laugh at him. In London, he became more and more reluctant to go home and soon put all notion of returning out of his mind.
In London, it was his lot to fall in with some good company. One person he met was the master of a ship which was about to go to the Guinea coast of Africa for trading. The master took a fancy to young Crusoe and told him that he could come along at no expense. Thus, Crusoe entered "into a strict friendship with this captain, who was an honest and plain dealing man." On this first voyage, Crusoe carried forty pounds with him, which was invested in toys and trifles for trading. This was one of the most successful voyages that he ever had since he was able to trade his trifles for five pounds, nine ounces of gold dust, which yielded three hundred pounds.
After they returned to London, his friend, the captain, fell ill and died. Crusoe decided to go on his own again to the Guinea coast and took the other hundred pounds with him, leaving two hundred pounds with the captain's widow for safe keeping. This trip, however, was plagued with misfortune from the first. As the ship approached the Canary Islands, a Turkish Rover out of Sallee approached them in order to pirate them. They tried to give fight, but their ship had much less fighting equipment and not nearly as many men. The result was that the ship was captured and Crusoe was taken prisoner and carried to the port of Sallee.
Crusoe was not used as badly as were the other members of the crew. He was kept by the master of the ship and was made the master's personal slave. Thus, in a short time, Crusoe changed from a merchant to a "miserable slave." While his new master kept him on the shore to tend to his house when he went sailing, Crusoe constantly thought of his liberty, and, after about two years, he began to design possible means of escape.
