ROBINSON
CRUSOE
DANIEL DEFOE

1
ARTES
LIBRARY
1837.
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PLURIBUS UNUM
TUEBOR
SI QUÆRIS PENINSULAM·AMŒNAM.
CIRCUMSPICE
GIFT OF
REGENT LLHUBBARD
Hubbard
Imag. Voy.
PR
3403
AI
1903
THE LIFE AND SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE

LIKE A KING I DINED ATTENDED
BY MY SERVANTS.
P. 172.
THE LIFE AND SURPRISING
ADVENTURES OF . . .
ROBINSON
CRUSOE
By DANIEL DEFOE
With Eight Illustrations in Colour by
JOHN WILLIAMSON
London
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1903
des.
Regent L.L. Hubbard
48-37-14zł
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
My birth and parentage-At nineteen years of age I determine
to go to sea-Dissuaded by my parents-Elope with a
schoolfellow, and go on board ship-A storm arises, during
which I am dreadfully frightened-Ship founders-Myself
and crew saved by a boat from another vessel, and landed
near Yarmouth-Meet my companion's father there, who
advises me never to go to sea more, but all in vain.
CHAPTER II.
Make a trading voyage to Guinea very successfully-Death of
my Captain-Sail another trip with his mate-The vengeance
of Providence for disobedience to parents now overtakes me
-Taken by a Sallee rover and all sold as slaves-My
master frequently sends me a-fishing, which suggests an
idea of escape-Make my escape in an open boat, with a
Moresco boy
PAGE
18
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III.
Make for the southward, in hopes of meeting with some European
vessel-See savages along shore-Shoot a large leopard-
Am taken up by a merchantman-Arrive at the Brazils, and
buy a settlement there-Cannot be quiet, but sail on a
voyage of adventure to Guinea-Ship strikes on a sand-bank
in unknown land-All lost but myself, who am driven
ashore, half-dead
PAGE
33
CHAPTER IV.
Appearance of the wreck and country next day-Swim on board
of the ship, and, by means of a contrivance, get a quantity
of stores on shore-Shoot a bird, but it turns out perfect car-
rion-Moralize upon my situation-The ship blown off land,
and totally lost-Set out in search of a proper place for a
habitation-See numbers of goats-Melancholy reflections.
CHAPTER V.
I begin to keep a journal-Christen my desert island the Island
of Despair-Fall upon various schemes to make tools,
baskets, etc., and begin to build my house-At a great loss
of an evening for candle, but fall upon an expedient to
supply the want-Strange discovery of corn-A terrible
earthquake and storm
55
80
CHAPTER VI.
Observe the ship driven farther aground by the late storm-
Procure a vast quantity of necessaries from the wreck-
Catch a large turtle-I fall ill of a fever and ague-Terrible
dream, and serious reflections thereupon-Find a bible in one
of the seamen's chests thrown ashore, the reading whereof
gives me great comfort
96
CONTENTS.
vii
CHAPTER VII.
I begin to take a survey of my island-Discover plenty of
tobacco, grapes, lemons and sugar-canes, wild, but no human
inhabitants-Resolve to lay up a store of these articles, to
furnish me against the wet season-My cat, which I sup-
posed lost, returns with kittens-I regulate my diet, and
shut myself up for the wet season-Sow my grain, which
comes to nothing; but I discover and remedy my error-
Take account of the course of the weather
CHAPTER VIII.
+
Make a second tour through the island-Catch a young parrot,
which I afterwards teach to speak-My mode of sleeping at
night-Find the other side of the island much more pleasant
than mine, and covered with turtle and sea-fowl-Catch a
young kid which I tame-Return to my old habitation-
Great plague with my harvest
CHAPTER IX.
I attempt to mould earthen-ware, and succeed-Description of
my mode of baking-Begin to make a boat-After it is
finished, am unable to get it down to the water-Serious
reflections-My ink and biscuit exhausted, and clothes in a
bad state-Contrive to make a dress of skins
CHAPTER X.
I succeed in getting a canoe afloat, and set out on a voyage in
the sixth year of my reign, or captivity-Blown out to sea
-Reach the shore with great difficulty-Fall asleep, and
am awakened by a voice calling my name-Devise various
schemes to tame goats, and at last succeed
PAGE
114
126
140
•
159
Vlll
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XI.
Description of my figure-Also of my dwelling and enclosures
Dreadful alarm on seeing the print of a man's foot on the
shore-Reflections-Take every possible measure of pre-
caution
↓
PAUR
173
CHAPTER XII.
I observe a canoe out at sea-Find on the shore the remnant of
a feast of cannibals-Horror of mind thereon-Double arm
myself-Terribly alarmed by a goat-Discover a singular
cave or grotto, of which I form my magazine-My fears on
account of the savages begin to subside .
CHAPTER XIII.
Description of my situation in the twenty-third year of my resi-
dence-Discover nine naked savages round a fire on my side
of the island-My horror on beholding the dismal work
they were about-I determine on the destruction of the next
party, at all risks-A ship lost off the island-Go on board
the wreck, which I discern to be Spanish-Procure a great
variety of articles from the vessel
CHAPTER XIV.
Reflections-An extraordinary dream-Discover five canoes of
savages on shore-Observe from my station two miserable
wretches dragged out of their boats to be devoured-One of
them makes his escape, and runs directly towards me, pursued
by two others—I take measures so as to destroy his pursuers,
and save his life-Christen him by the name of Friday, and
he becomes a faithful and excellent servant
190
209
226
CONTENTS.
ix
CHAPTER XV.
I am at great pains to instruct Friday respecting my abhorrence
of the cannibal practices of the savages-He is amazed at the
effects of the gun, and considers it an intelligent being-
Begins to talk English tolerably-A dialogue-I instruct
him in the knowledge of religion, and find him very apt-
He describes to me some white men who had come to his
country, and still lived there .
PAOK
245
CHAPTER XVI.
I determine to go over to the continent--Friday and I construct
a boat equal to carry twenty men-His dexterity in managing
her-Friday brings intelligence of three canoes of savages
on shore-Resolve to go down upon them-Friday and I
fire upon the wretches, and save the life of a poor Spaniard
- List of the killed and wounded-Discover a poor Indian
bound in one of the canoes, who turns out to be Friday's
father
263
CHAPTER XVII.
I learn from the Spaniard that there were sixteen more of his
countrymen among the savages-The Spaniard and Friday's
father, well-armed, sail on a mission to the Continent-I
discover an English ship lying at anchor off the island-Her
boat comes on shore with three prisoners-The crew straggle
into the woods, their boat being aground-Discover myself
to the prisoners, who prove to be the captain and mate of the
vessel, and a passenger-Secure the mutineers .
283
X
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVIII
The ship makes signals for her boat-On receiving no answer,
she sends another boat on shore-Methods by which we
secure this boat's crew, and recover the ship
CONCLUSION
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR
PAGE
302
323
325
:
THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSO E.
CHAPTER I.
My Birth and Parentage-At nineteen years of age I determine to go to Sea-
Dissuaded by my Parents-Elope with a Schoolfellow, and go on board
Ship A Storm arises, during which I am dreadfully frightened-Ship
founders-Myself and Crew saved by a Boat from another Vessel, and
landed near Yarmouth-Meet my Companion's Father there, who advises
me never to go to Sea more, but all in vain.
1
WAS born, in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good
family, though not of that country, my father being a
foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good
estate by merchandise, and, leaving off his trade, lived after-
wards at York, from whence he had married my mother, whose
relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that
country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer;
but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now
called-nay, we call ourselves, and write our name-Crusoe ;
and so my companions always called me.
B
2
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I had two elder brothers, one of which was a lieutenant-
colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly
commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at
the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards; what became
of my second brother, I never knew, any more than my father
or mother did know, what was become of me.
Being the third son of the family, and not bred to any trade,
my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts.
My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent
share of learning, as far as house education and a country free
school generally go, and designed me for the law; but I would
be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination
to this led me so strongly against the will-nay, the commands
-of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions
of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be some-
thing fatal in that propension of nature, tending directly to the
life of misery which was to befall me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and
excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He
called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined
by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this
subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere
wandering inclination, I had for leaving my father's house and
my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had
a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry,
with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was only men
of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring superior
fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise
by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a
nature out of the common road; that these things were all
either too far above me, or too far below me; that mine was the
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
3
middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low
life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state
in the world—the most suited to human happiness, not exposed
to the miserics and hardships, the labour and sufferings, of the
mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride,
luxury, ambition, and envy, of the upper part of mankind. He
told me, I might judge of the happiness of this state, by this one
thing, namely, that this was the state of life which all other
people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserable
consequences of being born to great things, and wished they had
been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the
mean and the great; that the wise man gave his testimony to
this, as the just standard of true felicity, when he prayed to
have neither poverty nor riches.
He bade me observe it, and I should always find, that the
calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of
mankind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters,
and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or
lower part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so
many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as
those were who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances,
on one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean
or insufficient diet, on the other hand, bring distempers upon
themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living;
that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of
virtues, and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and plenty were
the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, moderation,
quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all
desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle
station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly
through the world, and comfortably out of it; not embarrassed
4
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
with the labours of the hands or of the head; not sold to a
life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with perplexed
circumstances, which rob the soul of peace and the body of
rest; not enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret
burning lust of ambition for great things—but in easy circum-
stances, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting
the sweets of living without the bitter; feeling that they are
happy, and learning, by every day's experience, to know it
more sensibly.
After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affec-
tionate manner, not to play the young man, or to precipitate
myself into miseries, which nature, and the station of life I was
born in, seemed to have provided against-that I was under
no necessity of seeking my bread-that he would do well for
me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life
which he had been just recommending to me; and that, if I
was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere
fate, or fault, that must hinder it; and that he should have
nothing to answer for, having thus discharged his duty, in
warning me against measures which he knew would be to my
hurt. In a word, that as he would do very kind things for me,
if I would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he would
not have so much hand in my misfortunes as to give me any
encouragement to go away-and, to close all, he told me, I had
my elder brother for my example, to whom he had used the
same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into the Low
Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires prompting
him to run into the army, where he was killed—and though he
said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture
to say to me, that if I did take this foolish step, God would not
bless me and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
5
having neglected his counsel, when there might be none to assist
in my recovery.
I observed, in this last part of his discourse, which was
truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did not know it to
be so himself—I say, I observed the tears run down his face
very plentifully, especially when he spoke of my brother who
was killed; and that when he spoke of my having leisure to
repent, and none to assist me, he was so moved, that he broke
off the discourse, and told me, his heart was so full he could
say no more to me.
I was sincerely afflicted with this discourse-as, indeed, who
could be otherwise ?-and I resolved not to think of going abroad
any more, but to settle at home according to my father's desire.
But, alas! a few days wore it all off; and, in short, to prevent
any of my father's further importunities, in a few weeks after, I
resolved to run quite away from him. However, I did not act
so hastily neither, as the first heat of my resolution prompted,
but I took my mother at a time when I thought her a little
pleasanter than ordinary, and told her, that my thoughts were
so entirely bent upon seeing the world, that I should never
settle to any thing with resolution enough to go through
with it, and my father had better give me his consent, than
force me to go without it-that I was now eighteen years
old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade, or clerk
to an attorney-that I was sure, if I did, I should never serve
out my time, but I should certainly run away from my master
before my time was out, and go to sea-and if she would speak
to my father to let me go one voyage abroad, if I came
home again, and did not like it, I would go no more, and I
would promise, by a double diligence, to recover the time I
aad lost.
6
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
This put my mother into a great passion; she told me she
knew it would be to no purpose to speak to my father upon any
such subject that he knew too well what was my interest, to
give his consent to any such thing so much for my hurt-and
that she wondered how I could think of any such thing, after
the discourse I had had with my father, and such kind and
tender expressions as she knew my father had used to me—and
that, in short, if I would ruin myself, there was no help for me;
but I might depend I should never have their consent to it-
that, for her part, she would not have so much hand in my
destruction and I should never have it to say, that my mother
was willing when my father was not.
Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet I
heard afterwards, that she reported all the discourse to him; and
that my father, after shewing a great concern at it, said to her,
with a sigh, "That boy might be happy if he would stay at
home; but if he goes abroad, he will be the most miserable
wretch that ever was born-I can give no consent to it."
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose,
though in the meantime I continued obstinately deaf to all
proposals of settling to business, and frequently expostulating
with my father and mother about their being so positively
determined against what they knew my inclinations prompted
me to. But being one day at Hull, whither I went casually,
and without any purpose of making an elopement that time-
but, I say, being there, and one of my companions being going
by sea to London, in his father's ship, and prompting me to go
with him, with the common allurement of a sea-faring man, that
it should cost me nothing for my passage, I consulted neither
father nor mother any more, nor so much as sent them word
of it; but leaving them to hear of it as they might, without
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
7
asking God's blessing or my father's, without any consideration
of circumstances or consequences, and, in an ill hour, God
knows, on the 1st of September 1651, I went on board a ship
bound for London. Never any young adventurer's misfortunes,
I believe, began sooner, or continued longer, than mine. The
ship was no sooner got out of the Humber, but the wind began
to blow, and the sea to rise in a most frightful manner; and as
I had never been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in
body, and terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect
upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the
judgment of Heaven for my wicked leaving my father's house,
and abandoning my duty; all the good counsel of my parents,
my father's tears and my mother's entreaties, came now fresh
into my mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to
the pitch of hardness to which it has been since, reproached me
with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God
and my father.
All this while the storm increased, and the sea went very
high, though nothing like what I have seen many times since
-no, nor what I saw a few days after; but it was enough to
affect me then, who was but a young sailor, and had never
known any thing of the matter. I expected every wave would
have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down,
as I thought it did, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we
should never rise more. In this agony of mind, I made many
vows and resolutions, that if it would please God to spare my
life in this one voyage, if ever I got once my foot upon dry
land again, I would go directly home to my father, and never
set it into a ship again while I lived; but I would take his
advice, and never run myself into such miseries as these any more.
Now I saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the
8
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
middle station of life, how easy, how comfortable, he had lived
all his days, and never had been exposed to tempests at sea, nor
trouble on shore; and, in short, I resolved that I would, like a
true repenting prodigal, go home to my father.
These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the
storm continued, and indeed some time after; but the next day
the wind was abated, and the sea calmer, and I began to be a
little inured to it. However, I was very grave for all that day,
being also a little sea-sick still; but towards night the weather
cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming fine even-
ing followed; the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so
the next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth
sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was, as I thought, the
most delightful that ever I saw.
((
I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-sick,
but very cheerful-looking with wonder upon the sea, that was
so rough and terrible the day before, and could be so calm and
so pleasant in so little a time after; and now, lest my good
resolutions should continue, my companion, who had indeed
enticed me away, comes to me. Well, Bob," says he, clapping
me upon the shoulder, "how do you do after it? I warrant
you were frightened, weren't you, last night, when it blew but
a capful of wind? "A capful d'ye call it ?" said I, "'t was a
terrible storm." "A storin, you fool you!" replies he, "do
you call that a storm? why it was nothing at all; give us but
a good ship and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a squall
of wind as that; but you're but a fresh-water sailor, Bob;
come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we'll forget all that :
d'ye see what charming weather 'tis now ?" To make short
this sad part of my story, we went the way of all sailors; the
punch was made, and I was made half drunk with it, and in

MY FATHER GAVE ME SERIOUS AND
EXCELLENT COUNSEL.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
9
that one night's wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my
reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for the
future. In a word, as the sea was returned to its smoothness
of surface, and settled calmness, by the abatement of that storm,
so, the hurry of my thoughts being over, my fears and appre-
hensions of being swallowed up by the sea being forgotten, and
the current of my former desires returned, I entirely forgot the
vows and promises that I made in my distress. I found,
indeed, some intervals of reflection; and the serious thoughts
did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I
shook them off, and roused myself from them, as it were from a
distemper; and, applying myself to drinking and company, soon
mastered the return of those fits (for so I called them); and I
had, in five or six days, got a complete victory over my
conscience, as any young fellow that resolved not to be troubled
with it could desire. But I was to have another trial for it
still; and Providence, as in such cases generally it does,
resolved to leave me entirely without excuse; for if I would
not take this for a deliverance, the next was to be such an one,
as the worst and most hardened wretch among us would confess
both the danger and the mercy.
The sixth day of our being at sea, we came into Yarmouth
roads; the wind having been contrary and the weather calm, we
had made but little way since the storm. Here we were obliged
to come to an anchor, and here we lay, the wind continuing
contrary, namely, at south-west, for seven or eight days; during
which time, a great many ships from Newcastle came into the
same roads, as the common harbour where the ships might wait
for a wind for the river.
We had not however, rid here so long, but we should have
tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too fresh; and
10
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
after we had lain four or five days, blew very hard.
However,
the roads being reckoned as good as a harbour, the anchorage
good, and our ground-tackle very strong, our men were uncon-
cerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger, but spent
the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the sea; but the
eighth day in the morning, the wind increased, and we had all
hands at work to strike our topmasts, and make every thing snug
and close, that the ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon,
the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rid forecastle in,
shipped several seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor
had come home; upon which our master ordered out the sheet
anchor; so that we rode with two anchors a-head, and the
cables veered out to the better end.
By this time, it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now, I
began to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the sea-
men themselves.
The master, though vigilant in the business
of preserving the ship, yet as he went in and out of his cabin by
me, I could hear him, softly to himself, say several times, "Lord
be merciful to us! we shall be all lost-we shall be all undone!"
and the like. During these first hurries, I was stupid, lying
still in my cabin, which was in the steerage, and cannot describe
my temper. I could ill resume the first penitence which I had
so apparently trampled upon, and hardened myself against: I
thought the bitterness of death had been past; and that this
would be nothing, too, like the first. But when the master
himself came by me, as I said just now, and said we should be
all lost, I was dreadfully frighted: I got up out of my cabin
and looked out; but such a dismal sight I never saw: the sea
went mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four
minutes; when I could look about, I could see nothing but
distress round us. Two ships that rid near us, we found, had
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
11
cut their masts by the board, being deep laden; and our men
cried out, that a ship, which rid about a mile a-head of us, was
foundered. Two more ships, being driven from their anchors,
were run out of the roads to sea, at all adventures, and that
with not a mast standing. The light ships fared the best, as
not so much labouring in the sea; but two or three of them
drove, and came close by us, running away with only their sprit-
sail out, before the win.
Towards the evening, the mate and boatswain begged the
master of our ship to let them cut away the foremast, which he
was very unwilling to do; but the boatswain protesting to him,
that if he did not the ship would founder, he consented; and
when they had cut away the foremast, the mainmast stood so
loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged to cut it
away also, and make a clear deck.
Any one must judge what a condition I must be in at all
this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in such a
fright before at but a little. But if I can express at this dis-
tance the thoughts I had about me at that time, I was in ten-
fold more horror of mind upon account of my former convictions,
and the having returned from them to the resolutions I had
wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself; and these,
added to the terror of the storm, put me into such a condition,
that I can by no words describe it. But the worst was not come
yet; the storm continued with such fury, that the seamen them-
selves acknowledged they had never seen a worse. We had a
good ship, but she was deep laden, and wallowed in the sea,
that the seamen every now and then cried out she would
founder. It was my advantage, in one respect, that I did not
know what they meant by founder, till I inquired. However,
the storm was so violent, that I saw, what is not often seen, the
12
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
master, the boatswain, and some others more sensible than the
rest, at their prayers, and expecting every moment when the
ship would go to the bottom. In the middle of the night, and
under all the rest of our distresses, one of the men that had been
down on purpose to see, cried out we had sprung a leak; another
said, there was four feet water in the hold. Then all hands
were called to the pump. At that very word, my heart, as I
thought, died within me; and I fell backwards upon the side of
my bed where I sat, into the cabin. However, the men roused
me, and told me that I, that was able to do nothing before, was
as well able to pump as another; at which I stirred up, and
went to the pump and worked very heartily. While this was
doing, the master seeing some light colliers, who, not able to
ride out the storm, were obliged to slip and run away to the
sea, and would come near us, ordered to fire a gun as a signal
of distress. I, who knew nothing what that meant, was so
surprised, that I thought the ship had broke, or some dreadful
thing happened. In a word, I was so surprised, that I fell
down in a swoon. As this was a time when everybody had
his own life to think of, nobody minded me, or what was
become of me; but another man stepped up to the pump, and,
thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I had been
dead; and it was a great while before I came to myself.
We worked on, but the water increasing in the hold, it was
apparent that the ship would founder; and though the storm
began to abate a little, yet as it was not possible she could swim
till we might run into a port, so the master continued firing
guns for help; and a light ship, who had rid it out just a-head
of us, ventured a boat out to help us. It was with the utmost
hazard the boat came near us; but it was impossible for us to
get on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship side, till at
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
13
last the men rowing very heartily, and venturing their lives to
save ours, our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy
to it, and then veered it out a great length, which they, after
much labour and hazard, took hold of, and we hauled them close
under our stern, and got all into their boat. It was to no
purpose for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think of
reaching to their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and
only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could; and our
master promised them, that if the boat was staved upon shore,
he would make it good to their master; so, partly rowing, and
partly driving, our boat went away to the northward, sloping
towards the shore almost as far as Winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of
our ship, but we saw her sink and then I understood, for the
first time, what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea. I
must acknowledge I had hardly eyes to look up, when the
seamen told me she was sinking; for, from that moment they
rather put me into the boat, than that I might be said to go in,
my heart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright,
partly with horror of mind, and the thoughts of what was yet
before me.
While we were in this condition, the men yet labouring at
the oar to bring the boat near the shore, we could see (when
our boat mounting the waves, we were able to see the shore) a
great many people running along the shore to assist us, when we
should come near; but we made but slow way towards the
shore, nor were we able to reach the shore, till being past the
light-house at Winterton, the shore falls off to the westward
towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a little the violence
of the wind. Here we got in, and, though not without much
difficulty, got all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot
14
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
to Yarmouth, where, as unfortunate men, we were used with
great humanity, as well by the magistrates of the town, who
assigned us good quarters, as by particular merchants and
owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient to carry us
either to London, or back to Hull, as we thought fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and
have gone home, I had been happy, and my father, an emblem
of our blessed Saviour's parable, had even killed the fatted calf
for me; for, hearing the ship I went in was cast away in
Yarmouth Roads, it was a great while before he had any
assurance that I was not drowned.
But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that
nothing could resist; and though I had several times loud calls
from my reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet
I had no power to do it. I know not what to call this, nor will I
urge that it is a secret, overruling decree, that hurries us on to
be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be
before us, and that we push upon it with our eyes open.
Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery
attending, and which it was impossible for me to escape, could
have pushed me forward against the calm reasonings and
persuasions of my most retired thoughts, and against two such
visible instructions as I had met with in my first attempt.
My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who
was the master's son, was now less forward than I. The first
time he spoke to me after we were at Yarmouth, which was not
till two or three days, for we were separated in the town to
several quarters—I say, the first time he saw me, it appeared
his tone was altered; and, looking very melancholy, and shaking
his head, asked me how I did; and telling his father who 1
was, and how I had come this voyage only for a trial, in order
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
15
to go farther abroad, his father, turning to me with a very
grave and concerned tone, "Young man," says he, "you ought
never to go to sea any more; you ought to take this for a plain
and visible token, that you are not to be a seafaring man.'
"Why, sir," said I, "will you go to sea no more?"
"That is
""
another case," said he; "it is my calling, and therefore my duty;
but as you made this voyage for a trial, you see what a taste
Heaven has given you of what you are to expect, if you persist:
perhaps all this has befallen us on your account, like Jonah in
the ship of Tarshish. Pray," continues he, "what are you?
and on what account did you go to sea?" Upon that I told
him some of my story; at the end of which he burst out with a
strange kind of passion: "What had I done," says he, "that
such an unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I would
not set my foot in the same ship with thee again for a thousand
pounds." This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of the
spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was
farther than he could have authority to go. However, he
afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorted me to go back
to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin; told me,
I might see a visible hand of Heaven against me: "And, young
man," said he, "depend upon it, if you do not go back,
wherever you go, you will meet with nothing but disasters and
disappointments. till your father's words are fulfilled upon
you.'
""
We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I
saw him no more: which way he went I know not. As for
me, having some money in my pocket, I travelled to London
by land; and there, as well as on the road, had many struggles
with myself, what course of life I should take, and whether
I should go home or go to sea.
16
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered
to my thoughts; and it immediately occurred to me how I should
be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be ashamed
to see, not my father and mother only, but even every body
else; from whence I have since often observed, how incongruous
and irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of
youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases,
namely, that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed
to repent; nor ashamed of the action for which they ought
justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning,
which only can make them be esteemed wise men.
In this state of life, however, I remained some time,
uncertain what measures to take, and what course of life to
lead. An irresistible reluctance continued to going home; and
as I staid a while, the remembrance of the distress I had been
in wore off; and, as that abated, the little motion I had in my
desires to a return wore off with it, till at last I quite laid aside
the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage.
That evil influence which carried me first away from my
father's house, that hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed those conceits
so forcibly upon me, as to make me deaf to all good advice, and
to the entreaties and even the command of my father-I say,
the same influence, whatever it was, presented the most un-
fortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I went on board
a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly
call it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune, that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; whereby, though I might
indeed have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet, at the
same time, I had learned the duty and office of a foremastman,
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
17
and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or lieutenant,
if not for a master. But as it was always my fate to choose
for the worse, so I did here; for, having money in my pocket,
and good clothes upon my back, I would always go on board in
the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had any business in
the ship, nor learned to do any.
(
18
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
CHAPTER II.
Make a trading voyage to Guinea very successfully-Death of my Captain--
Sail another trip with his Mate-The vengeance of Providence for
disobedience to parents now overtakes me-Taken by a Sallee rover,
and all sold as slaves-My master frequently sends me a-fishing, which
suggests an idea of escape-Make my escape in an open boat, with a
Moresco boy.
IT
was my lot, first of all, to fall into pretty good company in
London, which does not always happen to such loose and
unguided young fellows as I then was, the devil generally not
omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it was not
so with me. I first fell acquainted with the master of a ship
who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, having had
very good success there, was resolved to go again; and who,
taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not at all disa-
grecable at that time, hearing me say I had a mind to see the
world, told me, if I would go the voyage with him I should be
at no expense-I should be his messmate and his companion;
and, if I could carry anything with me, I should have all the
advantage of it that the trade would admit; and, perhaps, I
might meet with some encouragement.
I embraced the offer; and, entering into a strict friendship
with this captain, who was an honest and plain-dealing man, I
went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure with
me, which, by the disinterested honesty of my friend the
captain, I increased very considerably; for I carried about
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
19
forty pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me
to buy. This forty pounds I had mustered together by the
assistance of some of my relations, whom I corresponded with,
and who, I believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to
contribute so much as that to my first adventure.
This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, and which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got a
competent knowledge of the mathematics, and the rules of
navigation-learned how to keep an account of the ship's course,
take an observation, and, in short, to understand some things
that were needful to be understood by a sailor: for, as he took
delight to instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word,
this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant; for I
brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold dust for my
adventure, which yielded me in London, at my return, almost
three hundred pounds; and this filled me with those aspiring
thoughts which have since so completed my ruin.
Yet, even in this voyage, I had my misfortunes too; parti-
cularly that I was continually sick, being thrown into a violent
calenture by the excessive heat of the climate-our principal
trading being upon the coast, from the latitude of fifteen degrees
north, even to the Line itself.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to
my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to
go the same voyage again; and I embarked in the same vessel
with one who was his mate in the former voyage, and had now
got the command of the ship. This was the unhappiest voyage
that ever man made; for though I did not carry quite £100 of
my new gained wealth, so that I had £200 left, and which I
lodged with my friend's widow, who was very just to me, yet
20
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I fell into terrible misfortunes in this voyage; and the first was
this—namely, our ship, making her course towards the Canary
Islands, or rather between those islands and the African shore,
was surprised, in the grey of the morning, by a Moorish rover
of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make.
We crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread,
or our masts carry, to have got clear; but finding the pirate
gained upon us, and would certainly come up with us in a few
hours, we prepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and
the rover eighteen. About three in the afternoon he came up
with us, and bringing to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter,
instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we brought eight
of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon
him, which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot, from near two hundred men
which he had on board. However, we had not a man touched,
all our men keeping close. He prepared to attack us again,
and we to defend ourselves; but laying us on board the next
time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men upon our
decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the decks
and rigging. We plied them with small shot, half-pikes, powder-
chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of them twice.
However, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, our
ship being disabled, and three of our men killed, and eight
wounded, we were obliged to yield, and were carried all prisoners
into Sallee, a port belonging to the Moors.
The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I
apprehended: nor was I carried up the country to the emperor's
court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept by the captain
of the rover, as his proper prize, and made his slave, being
young and nimble, and fit for his business. At this surprising
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
21
change of my circumstances, from a merchant to a miserable
slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back
upon my father's prophetic discourse to me, that I should be
miserable, and have none to relieve me; which I thought was
now so effectually brought to pass, that I could not be worse-
that now the hand of Heaven had overtaken me, and I was
undone without redemption. But, alas! this was but a taste
of the misery I was to go through, as will appear in the sequel
of this story.
But this hope of
As my new patron or master had taken me home to his
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him when
he went to sea again, believing that it would be some time or
other his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal man-of-
war, and that then I should be set at liberty.
mine was soon taken away; for when he went to sea, he left
me on shore to look after his little garden and do the common
drudgery of slaves about his house; and when he came home
again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in the cabin, to look
after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method
I might take to effect it; but found no way that had the least
probability in it. Nothing presented to make the supposition.
of it rational; for I had nobody to communicate it to that
would embark with me-no fellow-slave, no Englishman, Irish-
man, or Scotsman there, but myself; so that for two years,
though I often pleased myself with the imagination, yet I
never had the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice.
After about two years, an odd circumstance presented itself,
which put the old thought of making some attempt for my
liberty again in my head: my patron lying at home longer
than usual, without fitting out his ship, which, as I heard, was
22
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
for want of money, he used constantly, once or twice a week,
sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the ship's
pinnace, and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he always
took me and a young Moresco with him to row the boat, we
made him very merry, and I proved very dexterous in catching
fish; insomuch that sometimes he would send me with a Moor,
one of his kinsmen, and the youth, the Moresco, as they called
him, to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time that going a-fishing with him in a
calm morning, a fog rose so thick, that though we were not
half a league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing
we knew not whither, or which way, we laboured all day, and
all the next night; and when the morning came, we found we
had pulled off to sea, instead of pulling in for the shore, and
that we were at least two leagues from the land: however, we
got well in again, though with a great deal of labour, and some
danger, for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning;
but, particularly, we were all very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take
more care of himself for the future; and having lying by him
the long-boat of our English ship which he had taken, he
resolved he would not go a-fishing any more without a compass
and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter of his ship,
who also was an English slave, to build a little state-room, or
cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a barge, with
a place to stand behind it to steer, and haul home the main-
sheet; and room before for a hand or two to stand and work
the sails. She sailed with what we call a shoulder-of-mutton
sail; and the boom jibbed over the top of the cabin, which lay
very snug and low, and had in it room for him to lie, with a
slave or two, and a table to eat on, with some small lockers to
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
23
put in some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to drink,
particularly his bread, rice, and coffee.
me.
We were frequently out with this boat a-fishing; and as I
was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without
It happened one day, that he had appointed to go out in
this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three
Moors of some distinction, and for whom he had provided
extraordinary; and had therefore sent on board the boat over
night a larger store of provisions than usual, and had ordered
me to get ready three fusils with powder and shot, which were
on board his ship; for that they designed some sport of fowling,
as well as fishing.
I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and every thing to accommodate his guests;
when by and by my patron came on board alone, and told me
his guests had put off going, upon some business that fell out,
and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with
the boat, and catch them some fish, for that his friends were to
sup at his house; he commanded me, too, that as soon as I
had got some fish, I should bring it home to his house all
which I prepared to do.
This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into
my thoughts, for now I found I was like to have a little ship
at my command; and my master being gone, I prepared to
furnish myself, not for fishing business, but for a voyage, though
I knew not, neither did I so much as consider, whither I would
steer; for any where to get out of that place was my way.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to
this Moor, to get something for our subsistence on board; for
I told him we must not presume to eat of our patron's bread.
24
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
He said, that was true; so he brought a large basket of rusk,
or biscuit of their kind, and three jars with fresh water, into the
boat. I knew where my patron's case of bottles stood, which
it was evident by the make were taken out of some Englisa
prize, and I conveyed them into the boat while the Moor was
on shore, as if they had been there before for our master: I
conveyed also a great lump of bees'-wax into the boat, which
weighed above half a hundred weight, with a parcel of twine or
thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all which were of
great use to us afterwards, especially the wax to make candles.
Another trick I tried upon him, which he innocently came into
also. His name was Ismael, whom they called Muly, or Moley;
so I called to him: "Moley," said I, "our patron's guns are
on board the boat; can you not get a little powder and shot?
It may be we may kill some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews)
for ourselves, for I know he keeps the gunner's stores in the
ship." Yes," says he, "I'll bring some;" and accordingly
he brought a great leather pouch, which held about a pound
and a half of powder, or rather more, and another with shot,
that had five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all into
the boat at the same time I had found some powder of my
master's in the great cabin, with which I filled one of the large
bottles in the case, which was almost empty, pouring what was
in it into another; and thus furnished with everything needful,
we sailed out of the port to fish. The castle, which is at the
entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took no notice of
us; and we were not above a mile out of the port before we
hauled in our sail, and set us down to fish. The wind blew
from the north-north-east, which was contrary to my desire;
for had it blown southerly, I had been sure to have made the
coast of Spain, and at least reached to the bay of Cadiz; but
66
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
25
4
my resolutions were, blow which way it would, I would be
gone from that horrid place where I was, and leave the rest
to fate.
After we had fished some time, and catched nothing-for
when I had fish on my hook I would not pull them up, that he
might not see them-I said to the Moor, "This will not do-
our master will not be thus served-we must stand farther off."
He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the head of the
boat, set the sails; and as I had the helm, I ran the boat out
near a league farther, and then brought her to as if I would
fish; when, giving the boy the helmn, I stepped forward to
where the Moor was, and making as if I stooped for something
behind him, I took him by surprise with my arm under his
twist, and tossed him clear overboard into the sea: he rose
immediately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged
to be taken in, told me he would go all over the world with
me. He swam so strong after the boat, that he would have
reached me very quickly, there being but little wind; upon
which I stepped into the cabin, and fetching one of the fowling-
pieces, I presented it at him, and told him, I had done him no
hurt, and if he would be quiet I would do him none-" But,"
said I, "you swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the
sea is calm-make the best of your way to shore, and I will
do you no harm; but if you come near the boat, I'll shoot
you through the head, for I am resolved to have my liberty".
so he turned himself about, and swam for the shore, and I make
no doubt but he reached it with ease, for he was an excellent
swimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor with
me, and have drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to
trust him. When he was gone, I turned to the boy, whom
26
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
they called Xury, and said to him, "Xury, if you will be
faithful to me, I'll make you a great man; but if you will not
stroke your face to be true to me (that is, swear by Mahomet
and his father's beard), I must throw you into the sea too."
The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently, that I
could not mistrust him; and swore to be faithful to me, and go
all over the world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sca with the boat, rather stretching to
windward, that they might think me gone towards the Straits'
mouth, as indeed any one that had been in their wits must have
been supposed to do; for who would have supposed we were
sailed on to the southward to the truly barbarian coast, where
whole nations of negroes were sure to surround us with their
canoes, and destroy us; where we could never once go on
shore, but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or more
merciless savages of human kind?
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my course
a little toward the east, that I might keep in with the shore ;
and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea,
I made such sail, that I believe by the next day at three o'clock
in the afternoon, when I first made the land, I could not be less
than one hundred and fifty miles south of Sallee, quite beyond
the Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or, indeed, of any other
king thereabouts, for we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors, and the
dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I
would not stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor, the wind
continuing fair, till I had sailed in that manner five days; and
then the wind shifting to the southward, I concluded also that
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
27
if any of our vessels were in chase of me, they also would now
give over; so I ventured to make to the coast, and come to an
anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what or where
-neither what latitude, what country, what nation, nor what
river: I neither saw, nor desired to see, any people-the
principal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into this
creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as soon as it
was dark, and discover the country; but as soon as it was quite
dark, we heard such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and
howling of wild creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the
poor boy was ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to
go on shore till day. "Well, Xury," said I, "then I wont;
but, it may be, we may see men by day, who will be as bad
to us as those lions." "Then we give them the shoot gun,'
says Xury, laughing, "make them run wey." Such English
Xury spoke by conversing among us slaves. However, I was
glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram out
of our patron's case of bottles, to cheer him up. After all,
Xury's advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our little
anchor, and lay still all night-1 say still, for we slept none-
for in two or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we
knew not what to call them) of many sorts, come down to the
sea-shore, and run into the water, wallowing and washing them-
selves for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and they made
such hideous howlings and yellings, that I never indeed heard
the like.
""
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but
we were both more frighted when we heard one of these mighty
creatures come swimming towards our boat. We could not see
him, but we might hear him by his blowing, to be a monstrous,
huge, and furious beast; Xury said it was a lion, and it might
28
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
be so for aught I know.
66
Poor Xury cried to me to weigh the
anchor, and row away. No," says I, "Xury, we can slip our
cable with a buoy to it, and go to sea; they cannot follow us far."
I had no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature (whatever
it was) within two oars' length, which something surprised me;
however, I immediately stepped to the cabin door, and taking
up my gun fired at him; upon which he immediately turned
about, and swam to the shore again.
But it was not possible to describe the horrible noises and
hideous cries and howlings, that were raised, as well upon the
edge of the shore, as higher within the country, upon the noise
or report of a gun; a thing I have some reason to believe
those creatures had never heard before. This convinced me
that there was no going on shore for us in the night upon that
coast; and how to venture on shore in the day, was another
question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the
savages, had been as bad as to have fallen into the paws of
lions and tigers; at least, we were equally apprehensive of the
danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore some-
where or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat;
when or where to get it was the point. Xury said if I would
let him go on shore with one of the jars he would find if there
was any water, and bring some to me. I asked him why he
would go, why I should not go, and he stay in the boat?
The boy answered with so much affection, that made me love
him ever after. Says he, "If wild mans come, they eat me,
you go away.' "Well, Xury," said I, "we will both go, and
if the wild mans come, we will kill them; they shall eat neither
of us." So I gave Xury a piece of rusk bread to eat, and a
dram out of our patron's case of bottles. which I mentioned
""
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
29
before; and we hauled the boat in as near the shore as we
thought was proper, and waded on shore, carrying nothing but
our arms, and two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the
coming of canoes with savages down the river: but the boy,
seeing a low place about a mile up the country, rambled to it;
and by and by I saw him come running towards me. I thought
he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with some wild
beast, and I ran forward towards him to help him; but when I
came nearer to him, I saw something hanging over his shoulders,
which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different
in colour, and longer legs: however, we were very glad of it,
and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury
came with, was to tell me he had found good water, and seen
no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains
for water, for a little higher up the creek where we were, we
found the water fresh when the tide was out, which flows but
a little way up; so we filled our jars, and feasted on the hare
we had killed, and prepared to go on our way, having seen no
footsteps of any human creature in that part of the country.
As I had been one voyage to the coast before, I knew very
well that the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verd
islands also, lay not far off from the coast. But as I had no
instruments to take an observation to know what latitude we
were in, and did not exactly know, or at least not remember,
what latitude they were in, and knew not where to look for
them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I
might now easily have found some of these islands.
But my
hope was, that if I stood along this coast till I came to that
part where the English traded, I should find some of their
30
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
vessels upon their usual design of trade, that would relieve and
take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was
must be that country, which, lying between the Emperor of
Morocco's dominions and the negroes, lies waste and uninhabited,
except by wild beasts; the negroes having abandoned it, and
gone farther south for fear of the Moors; and the Moors not
thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness-and,
indeed, both forsaking it because of the prodigious numbers of
tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures, which harbour
there; so that the Moors use it for their hunting only, where
they go like an army, two or three thousand men at a time—and,
indeed, for near an hundred miles together upon this coast, we
saw nothing but a waste uninhabited country by day, and heard
nothing but howlings and roaring of wild beasts by night.
Once or twice in the day-time I thought I saw the Pico of
Teneriffe, being the high top of the mountain Teneriffe in the
Canaries, and had a great mind to venture out, in hopes of
reaching thither; but having tried twice, I was forced in again
by contrary winds, the sea also going too high for my little
vessel; so I resolved to pursue my first design, and keep along
the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after
we had left this place; and once, in particular, being early in
the morning, we came to an anchor under a little point of land
which was pretty high; and the tide beginning to flow, we lay
still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes were more about him
than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me, that
we had best go farther off the shore: "For," says he, "look-
yonder lies a dreadful monster, on the side of that hillock, fast
asleep." I looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
31
66
indeed, for it was a terrible great lion that lay on the side of
the shore, under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung, as
it were, a little over him. Xury," says I, "you shall go on
shore and kill him." Xury looked frighted, and said, "Me kill!
he eat me at one mouth!"-one mouthful he meant: however,
I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie still, and I took
our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and loaded
it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid
it down; then I loaded another gun with two bullets; and the
third-for we had three pieces-I loaded with five smaller
bullets. I took the best aim I could with the first piece to
have shot him into the head, but he lay so with his leg raised
a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee
and broke the bone. He started up, growling at first, but
finding his leg broke, fell down again, and then got up
upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I
heard. I was a little surprised that I had not hit him on the
head; however, I took up the second piece immediately, and,
though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him into the
head, and had the pleasure to see him drop, and make but
little noise, but lie struggling for life. Then Xury took heart,
and would have me let him go on shore. "Well, go," said I;
so the boy jumped into the water, and, taking a little gun in
one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, and coming
close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and
shot him into the head again, which despatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I
was very sorry to lose three charges of powder and shot upon
a creature that was good for nothing to us. However, Xury
said he would have some of him; so he comes on board, and
asked me to give him the hatchet. "For what, Xury?" said
32
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I.
"Me cut off his head," said he. However, Xury could not
cut off his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him,
and it was a monstrous great one.
I bethought myself, however, that perhaps the skin of him
might, one way or other, be of some value to us; and I resolved
to take off his skin if I could. So Xury and I went to work
with him; but Xury was much the better workman at it, for I
knew very ill how to do it. Indeed, it took us both up the
whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and, spreading
it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it in two
days' time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
33
CHAPTER III.
Make for the southward, in hopes of meeting with some European vessel-
See savages along shore-Shoot a large leopard-Am taken up by a
merchantman-Arrive at the Brazils, and buy a settlement there-Cannot
be quiet, but sail on a voyage of adventure to Guinea-Ship strikes on a
sand-bank in unknown land-All lost but myself, who am driven ashore,
half-dead.
A
FTER this stop, we made on to the southward continually
for ten or twelve days, living very sparingly on our
provisions, which began to abate very much, and going no
oftener into the shore than we were obliged to do for fresh
water my design in this was, to make the river Gambia or
Senegal, that is to say, any where about the Cape de Verd,
where I was in hopes to meet with some European ship; and
if I did not, I knew not what course I had to take, but to seek
for the islands, or perish there among the negroes. I knew
that all the ships from Europe, which sailed either to the coast
of Guinea, or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, made this Cape,
or those islands; and, in a word, I put the whole of my fortune
upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship,
or must perish.
When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer,
as I have said, I began to see that the land was inhabited; and
in two or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand
upon the shore to look at us: we could also perceive they were
quite black, and stark naked. I was once inclined to go on
D
34
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
shore to them; but Xury was my better counsellor, and said to
me, “No go, no go." However, I hauled in nearer the shore
that I might talk to them, and I found they ran along the shore
by me a good way: I observed they had no weapons in their
hands, except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury
said was a lance, and that they would throw them a great way
with good aim; so I kept at a distance, but talked with them
by signs as well as I could, and particularly made signs for
something to eat; they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and
they would fetch me some meat. Upon this, I lowered the top
of my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country,
and in less than half an hour came back, and brought with them
two pieces of dry flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of
their country; but we neither knew what the one nor the other
was however, we were willing to accept it. But how to come
at it was our next dispute, for I was not for
to them, and they were as much afraid of us: but they took a
safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid it
down, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on
board, and then came close to us again.
venturing on shore
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to
make them amends; but an opportunity offered that very
instant to oblige them wonderfully; for while we were lying by
the shore, came two mighty creatures, one pursuing the other
(as we took it) with great fury from the mountains towards the
sea: whether it was the male pursuing the female, or whether
they were in sport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than
we could tell whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it
was the latter; because, in the first place, those ravenous
creatures seldom appear but in the night; and, in the second
place, we found the people terribly frighted, especially the
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
35
women.
The man that had the lance, or dart, did not fly from
them, but the rest did: however, as the two creatures ran
directly into the water, they did not seem to offer to fall upon
any of the negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and
swam about as if they had come for their diversion. At last
one of them began to come nearer our boat than at first I
expected; but I lay ready for him, for I had loaded my gun
with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load both the others.
As soon as he came fairly within my reach, I fired, and shot
him directly into the head: immediately he sank down into the
water, but rose instantly, and plunged up and down as if he
was struggling for life, and so indeed he was: he immediately
made to the shore; but between the wound, which was his
mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died just before
he reached the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor
creatures at the noise and the fire of my gun; some of them
were even ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with the
very terror.
But when they saw the creature dead, and sunk
in the water, and that I made signs to them to come to the
shore, they took heart, and came to the shore, and began to
search for the creature. I found him by his blood staining the
water, and by the help of a rope, which I slung round him, and
gave the negroes to haul, they dragged him on shore, and found
that it was a most curious leopard, spotted and fine to an
admirable degree, and the negroes held up their hands with
admiration to think what it was I had killed him with.
The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and the
noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the
mountains from whence they came, nor could I at that distance
know what it was. I found quickly the negroes were for
36
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
eating the flesh of this creature, so I was willing to have them
take it as a favour from me, which, when I made signs to them
that they might take him, they were very thankful for.
Immediately they fell to work with him, and though they had
no knife, yet, with a sharpened piece of wood, they took off his
skin as readily, and much more readily, than we could have
done with a knife. They offered me some of the flesh, which
I declined, making as if I would give it them, but made signs
for the skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought me a
great deal more of their provision, which, though I did not under-
stand, yet I accepted; then I made signs to them for some
water, and held out one of my jars to them, turning it bottom
upward, to show that it was empty, and that I wanted to have
it filled. They called immediately to some of their friends,
and there came two women, and brought a great vessel made of
earth, and burned, as I suppose, in the sun; this they set down
for me, as before, and I sent Xury on shore with my jars, and
filled them all three. The women were as stark naked as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was,
and water; and, leaving my friendly negroes, I made forward
for about eleven days more, without offering to go near the
shore, till I saw the land run out a great length into the sea,
at about the distance of four or five leagues before me; and the
sea being very calm, I kept a large offing to make this point:
at length, doubling the point, at about two leagues from the
land, I saw plainly land on the other side to sea-ward; then I
concluded, as it was most certain indeed, that this was the Cape
de Verd, and those the islands, called from thence Cape de Verd
Islands. However, they were at a great distance, and I could
not well tell what I had best to do; for, if I should be taken
with a fresh of wind, I might neither reach one nor the other.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
37
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the
cabin and sat me down, Xury having the helm, when, on a
sudden, the boy cried out, "Master, master, a ship with a sail!"
and the foolish boy was frighted out of his wits, thinking it
must needs be some of his master's ships sent to pursue us,
when I knew we were gotten far enough out of their reach. I
jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only the
ship, but what she was, namely, that it was a Portuguese ship,
and, as I thought, was bound to the coast of Guinea for negroes.
But when I observed the course she steered, I was soon con-
vinced they were bound some other way, and did not design to
come any nearer to the shore; upon which I stretched out
to sea as much as I could, resolving to speak with them if
possible.
With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able
to come in their way, but that they would be gone by before I
could make any signal to them; but after I had crowded to the
utmost, and began to despair, they, it seems, saw me by the
help of their perspective glasses, and that it was some European
boat, which, as they supposed, must belong to some ship that
was lost; so they shortened sail to let me come up.
I was
encouraged with this; and as I had my patron's ancient on
board, I made a waft of it to them for a signal of distress, and
fired a gun, both which they saw, for they told me they saw
the smoke, though they did not hear the gun. Upon these
signals they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me, and, in
about three hours' time, I came up with them.
They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in Spanish,
and in French; but I understood none of them: but, at last, a
Scots sailor, who was on board, called to me, and I answered
him, and told him I was an Englishman-that I had made my
38
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
escape out of slavery from the Moors at Sallee. They bade me
come on board, and very kindly took me in, and all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, as any one would believe,
that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from such a miserable
and almost hopeless condition as I was in, and immediately
offered all I had to the captain of the ship, as a return for my
deliverance; but he generously told me he would take nothing
from me, but that all I had should be delivered safe to me when
I came to the Brazils. "For," says he, "I have saved your
life on no other terms than I would be glad to be saved myself;
and it may one time or other be my lot to be taken up in the
same condition: besides," said he, "when I carry you to the
Brazils, so great a way from your own country, if I should take
from you what you have, you will be starved there, and then I
only take away that life I have given. No, no, Seignor Inglese,"
says he, "Mr. Englishman, I will carry you thither in charity,
and those things will help you to buy your subsistence there,
and your passage home again."
As he was charitable in his proposal, so he was just in the
performance to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen, that none
should offer to touch any thing I had: then he took every thing
into his own possession, and gave me back an exact inventory
of them, that I might have them; even so much as my earthen
jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one, and that he saw,
and told me he would buy it of me for the ship's use, and asked
ine what I would have for it? I told him he had been so
generous in every thing, that I could not offer to make any
price of the boat, but left it entirely to him; upon which he
told me, he would give me a note of his hand to pay me eighty
pieces of eight for it at Brazil; and when it came there, if any
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
39
one offered to give more, he would make it up: he offered me
also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which I was
loath to take; not that I was not willing to let the captain have
him, but I was very loath to sell the poor boy's liberty, who had
assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own.
However, when
I let him know my reason, he owned it to be just, and offered
me this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to set
him free in ten years, if he turned Christian. Upon this, and
Xury saying he was willing to go to him, I let the captain have
him.
We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and arrived in
the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in about
twenty-two days after. And now I was once more delivered
from the most miserable of all conditions of life; and what to do
next with myself I was now to consider.
The generous treatment the captain gave me, I can never
enough remember. He would take nothing of me for my
passage-gave me twenty ducats for the leopard's skin, and
forty for the lion's skin, which I had in my boat, and caused
every thing I had in the ship to be punctually delivered me;
and what I was willing to sell he bought, such as the case of
bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of bees'-wax,
for I had made candles of the rest-in a word, I made about two
hundred and twenty pieces of eight of all my cargo; and with
this stock I went on shore in the Brazils.
I had not been long here, but being recommended to the
house of a good honest man like himself, who had an ingenio,
as they call it that is, a plantation and a sugar-house-I lived
with him some time, and acquainted myself by that means with
the manner of their planting and making of sugar; and seeing
how well the planters lived, and how they grew rich suddenly,
40
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I resolved, if I could get license to settle there, I would turn
planter among them; resolving, in the meantime, to find out
some way to get my money, which I had left in London, remitted
to me. To this purpose, getting a kind of a letter of naturaliza-
tion, I purchased as much land that was uncured as my money
would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and settlement,
and such a one as might be suitable to the stock which I pro-
posed to myself to receive from England.
I had a neighbour, a Portuguese of Lisbon, but born of
English parents, whose name was Wells, and in much such
circumstances as I was. I call him neighbour, because his
plantation lay next to mine, and we went on very sociably
together. My stock was but low, as well as his; and we rather
planted for food, than any thing else, for about two years.
However, we began to increase, and our land began to come
into order; so that the third year we planted some tobacco,
and made each of us a large piece of ground ready for planting
canes in the year to come; but we both wanted help and now
I found, more than before, I had done wrong in parting with
my boy Xury.
But, alas! for me to do wrong, that never did right, was
no great wonder. I had no remedy but to go on-I was
gotten into an employment quite remote to my genius, and
directly contrary to the life I delighted in, and for which I forsook
my father's house, and broke through all his good advice—nay,
I was coming into the very middle station, or upper degree of
low life, which my father advised me to before; and which, if
I resolved to go on with, I might as well have staid at home,
and never have fatigued myself in the world as I had done; and
I used often to say to myself, I could have done this as well in
England among my friends, as have gone five thousand miles off
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
41
to do it among strangers and savages in a wilderness, and at
such distance, as never to hear from any part of the world that
had the least knowledge of me.
In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the
utmost regret. I had nobody to converse with, but now and
then this neighbour-no work to be done but by the labour of
my hands; and I used to say, I lived just like a man cast away
upon some desolate island, that had nobody there but himself.
But how just has it been, and how should all men reflect, that,
when they compare their present conditions with others that are
worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be
convinced of their former felicity by their experience-I say,
how just has it been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on in
an island of mere desolation should be my lot, who had so often
unjustly compared it with the life which I then led, in which,
had I continued, I had, in all probability, been exceeding pros-
perous and rich.
(6
I was, in some degree, settled in my measures for carrying
on the plantation, before my kind friend, the captain of the ship,
that took me up at sea, went back; for the ship remained there,
in providing his loading, and preparing for his voyage, near three
months; when, telling him what little stock I had left behind
me in London, he gave me this friendly and sincere advice:
Seignor Inglese," says he, for so he always called me, "if you
will give me letters, and a procuration here in form to me, with
orders to the person who has your money in London, to send
your effects to Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct, and in
such goods as are proper for this country, I will bring you the
produce of them, God willing, at my return; but, since human
affairs are all subject to changes and disasters, I would have you
give orders but for one hundred pounds sterling, which, you say,
42
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
is half your stock, and let the hazard be run for the first; so
that, if it come safe, you may order the rest the same way, and,
if it miscarry, you may have the other half to have recourse to
for your supply."
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that
I could not but be convinced it was the best course I could take;
so I accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom
I had left my money, and a procuration to the Portuguese
captain, as he desired.
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all my
adventures, my slavery, escape, and how I had met with the
Portugal captain at sea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what
condition I was now in, with all other necessary directions for
my supply; and when this honest captain came to Lisbon, he
found means, by some of the English merchants there, to send
over, not the order only, but a full account of my story, to a
merchant at London, who represented it effectually to her;
whereupon, she not only delivered the money, but, out of her
own pocket, sent the Portugal captain a very handsome present
for his humanity and charity to me.
The merchant in London vesting this hundred pounds in
English goods, such as the captain had writ for, sent them
directly to him at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to me
to the Brazils; among which, without my direction (for I was
too young in my business to think of them), he had taker. care
to have all sort of tools, iron-work, and utensils necessary for
my plantation, and which were of great use to me.
When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortune made, for I
was surprised with joy of it; and my good steward, the captain,
had laid out the five pounds, which my friend had sent him for
a present for himself, to purchase, and bring me over a servant
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
43
under bond for six years' service, and would not accept of any
consideration, except a little tobacco, which I would have him
accept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all; but my goods being all English manu-
factures, such as cloth, stuffs, baize, and things particularly
valuable and desirable in the country, I found means to sell
them to a very great advantage; so that I may say I had more
than four times the value of my first cargo, and was now
infinitely beyond my poor neighbour, I mean in the advancement
of my plantation; for the first thing I did, I bought me a negro
slave, and an European servant also-I mean another besides
that which the captain brought me from Lisbon.
But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the means of
our greatest adversity, so was it with me. I went on the next
year with great success in my plantation: I raised fifty great
rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more than I had disposed
of for necessaries among my neighbours; and these fifty rolls
being each of above a hundred weight, were well cured and laid
by against the return of the fleet from Lisbon.
And now,
increasing in business and in wealth, my head began to be full
of projects and undertakings beyond my reach; such as are,
indeed, often the ruin of the best heads in business.
Had I continued in the station I was now in, I had room
for all the happy things to have yet befallen me, for which my
father so earnestly recommended a quiet retired life, and of
which he had so sensibly described the middle station of life to
be full; but other things attended me, and I was still to be the
wilful agent of all my own miseries; and particularly to increase
my fault and double the reflections upon myself, which in my
future sorrows I should have leisure to make, all these mis-
carriages were procured by my apparent obstinate adhering to
44
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
my foolish inclination of wandering abroad, and pursuing that
inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself
good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects and those
measures of life which nature and Providence concurred to
present me with, and to make my duty.
As I had done thus in my breaking away from my parents,
so I could not be content now, but I must go and leave the
happy view I had of being a rich and thriving man in my new
plantation, only to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising
faster than the nature of the thing admitted; and thus I cast
myself down again into the deepest gulf of human misery that
ever man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent with life and a
state of health in the world.
To come, then, by just degrees, to the particulars of this
part of my story: you may suppose, that, having now lived
almost four years in the Brazils, and beginning to thrive and
prosper very well upon my plantation, I had not only learnt the
language, but had contracted acquaintance and friendship among
my fellow planters, as well as among the merchants at St. Salva-
dore, which was our port; and that in my discourse among them,
had frequently given them an account of my two voyages to the
coast of Guinea, the manner of trading with the negroes there,
and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast, for trifles-
such as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glass, and
the like-not only gold dust, Guinea grains, elephants' teeth, etc.,
but negroes for the service of the Brazils in great numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my discourses on
these heads, but especially to that part which related to buying
negroes, which was a trade at that time not only not far
entered into, but, as far as it was, had been carried on by the
assientos, or permission, of the kings of Spain and Portugal, and
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
45
engrossed in the public, so that few negroes were bought, and
those excessively dear.
It happened, being in company with some merchants and
planters of my acquaintance, and talking of those things very
earnestly, three of them came to me the next morning, and told
me they had been musing very much upon what I had discoursed
with them of the last night, and they came to make a secret
proposal to me; and, after enjoining me secrecy, they told me
that they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to Guinea; that
they had all plantations as well as I, and were straitened for
nothing so much as servants; that as it was a trade could not
be carried on, because they could not publicly sell the negroes
when they came home, so they desired to make but one voyage,
to bring the negroes on shore privately, and divide them among
their own plantations; and, in a word, the question was, whether
I would go their supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading
part upon the coast of Guinea? and they offered me, that I
should have my equal share of the negroes, without providing
any part of the stock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been
made to any one that had not had a settlement and plantation
of his own to look after, which was in a fair way of coming to
be very considerable, and with a good stock upon it. But for
me, that was thus entered and established, and had nothing to
do but go on as I had begun, for three or four years more, and
to have sent for the other hundred pounds from England, and
who, in that time and with that little addition, could scarce have
failed of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling,
and that increasing too-for me to think of such a voyage, was
the most preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances
could be guilty of.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more
resist the offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs,
when my father's good counsel was lost upon me. In a word,
I told them I would go with all my heart, if they would under-
take to look after my plantation in my absence, and would
dispose of it to such as I should direct, if I miscarried. This
they all engaged to do, and entered into writings, or covenants,
to do so; and I made a formal will, disposing of my plantation
and effects in case of my death, making the captain of the ship
that had saved my life as before, my universal heir, but obliging
him to dispose of my effects as I had directed in my will, one
half of the produce being to himself, and the other to be shipped
to England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects,
and keep up my plantation; had I used half as much prudence
to have looked into my own interest, and have made a judginent
of what I ought to have done, and not to have done, I had
certainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking,
leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and
gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its common hazards;
to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particular misfor-
tunes to myself.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my
fancy, rather than my reason: and accordingly, the ship being
fitted out, and the cargo furnished, and all things done as by
agreement by my partners in the voyage, I went on board in an
evil hour again, the 1st of September 1659, being the same day
eight years that I went from my father and mother at Hull, in
order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool to my own
interest.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden,
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
47
carried six guns, and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy,
and myself; we had on board no large cargo of goods, except
of such toys as were fit for our trade with the negroes, such as
beads, bits of glass, shells, and odd trifles, especially little
looking-glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets, and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away
to the northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch
over for the African coast, when they came about ten or twelve
degrees of northern latitude, which it seems, was the manner of
their course in those days. We had very good weather, only
excessively hot, all the way upon our own coast, till we came
to the height of Cape St. Augustino, from whence, keeping
farther off at sea, we lost sight of land, and steered as if we
were bound for the isle Fernand de Noronha, holding our course
north-east by north, and leaving those isles on the east. In this
course we passed the Line in about twelve days' time, and were,
by our last observation, in seven degrees twenty-two minutes
northern latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us
quite out of our knowledge: it began from the south-east, came
about to the north-west, and then settled into the north-east;
from whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for twelve
days together we could do nothing but drive, and, scudding
away before it, let it carry us whither ever fate and the fury of
the winds directed; and during those twelve days, I need not
say that I expected every day to be swallowed up, nor, indeed,
did any in the ship expect to save their lives.
In this distress, we had, besides the terror of the storm, one
of our men dead of the calenture, and one man and the boy
washed overboard. About the twelfth day, the weather abating
a little, the master made an observation as well as he could, and
found that he vas in about eleven degrees north latitude, but
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
that he was twenty-two degrees of longitude difference west from
Cape St. Augustino; so that he found he was gotten upon the
coast of Guinea, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the river
Amazons, toward that of the river Oroonoque, commonly called
the Great River, and began to consult with me what course he
should take; for the ship was leaky, and very much disabled,
and he was going directly back to the coast of Brazil.
I was positively against that, and, looking over the charts of
the sea-coasts of America with him, we concluded there was no
inhabited country for us to have recourse to, till we came within
the circle of the Caribbee Islands; and therefore resolved to
stand away for Barbadoes, which, by keeping off at sea, to avoid
the indraft of the bay or gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform,
as we hoped, in about fifteen days' sail : whereas we could not
possibly make our voyage to the coast of Africa, without some
assistance, both to our ship and ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and steered away
north-west by west, in order to reach some of our English
islands, where I hoped for relief: but our voyage was otherwise
determined; for, being in the latitude of twelve degrees,
eighteen minutes, a second storm came upon us, which carried
us away with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so
out of the very way of all human commerce, that, had all our
lives been saved as to the sea, we were rather in danger of
being devoured by savages than ever returning to our own
country.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our
men, early in the morning, cried out, "Land!" and we had no
sooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing
whereabouts in the world we were, but the ship struck upon a
sand, and, in a moment, her motion being so stopped, the sea
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
49
broke over her in such a manner that we expected we should
all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven
into our close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and
spray of the sea.
It is not easy for any one, who has not been in the like
condition, to describe or conceive the consternation of men in
such circumstances: we knew nothing where we were, or upon
what land it was we were driven-whether an island or the
main, whether inhabited or not inhabited; and as the rage of
the wind was still great, though rather less than at first, we
could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes
without breaking in pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of
miracle, should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat
looking one upon another, and expecting death every moment,
and every man acting accordingly, as preparing for another
world; for there was little or nothing more for us to do in this:
that which was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had,
was, that, contrary to our expectation, the ship did not break
yet, and that the master said the wind began to abate.
Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate,
yet, the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too
fast for us to expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful
condition indeed, and had nothing to do but to think of saving
our lives as well as we could. We had a boat at our stern just
before the storm; but she was first staved by dashing against
the ship's rudder, and, in the next place, she broke away, and
either sunk or was driven off to sea; so there was no hope from
her. We had another boat on board, but how to get her off into
the sea was a doubtful thing; however, there was no room to
debate, for we fancied the ship would break in pieces every
minute, and some told us she was actually broken already.
E
50
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
In this distress the mate of our vessel lays hold of the boat,
and, with the help of the rest of the men, they got her slung
over the ship's side, and getting all into her, let go, and com-
mitted ourselves, being eleven in number, to God's mercy and
the wild sea; for though the storm was abated considerably, yet
the sea went dreadfully high upon the shore, and might well be
called den wild zee, as the Dutch call the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw
plainly, that the sea went so high that the boat could not live,
and that we should be inevitably drowned. As to making sail,
we had none, nor, if we had, could we have done any thing with
it; so we worked at the oar towards the land, though with heavy
hearts, like men going to execution; for we all knew, that when
the boat came nearer the shore, she would be dashed in a
thousand pieces by the breach of the sea. However, we com-
mitted our souls to God in the most earnest manner; and the
wind driving us towards the shore, we hastened our destruction
with our own hands, pulling as well as we could towards land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep
or shoal, we knew not; the only hope that could rationally give
us the least shadow of expectation was if we might happen into
some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where, by great
chance, we might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of
the land, and perhaps made smooth water. But there was
nothing of this appeared; but, as we made nearer and nearer
the shore, the land looked more frightful than the sea.
After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a
half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came
rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect a watery grave.
In a word, it took us with such a fury, that it overset the boat
at once; and, separating us as well from the boat as from one
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
51
another, gave us not time hardly to say "Oh God!" for we were
all swallowed up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt
when I sank into the water; for though I swam very well, yet
I could not deliver myself from the waves so as to draw breath,
till that wave having driven me, or rather carried me, a vast way
on towards the shore, and, having spent itself, went back, and
left me upon the land almost dry, but half dead with the water
I took in. I had so much presence of mind, as well as breath
left, that, seeing myself nearer the mainland than I expected, I
got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the land
as fast as I could, before another wave should return and take
me up again. But I soon found it was impossible to avoid it;
for I saw the sea come after me as high as a great hill, and as
furious as an enemy, which I had no means or strength to con-
tend with my business was to hold my breath, and raise myself
upon the water, if I could; and so, by swimming, to preserve
my breathing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible-
my greatest concern now being, that the sea, as it would carry
me a great way towards the shore when it came on, might not
carry me back again with it when it gave back towards the sea.
The wave that came upon me again, buried me at once
twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body; and I could feel
myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness towards the
shore a very great way; but I held my breath, and assisted
myself to swim still forward with all my might. I was ready to
burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising up,
so, to my immediate relief, I found my head and hands shoot
out above the surface of the water; and though it was not two
seconds of time that I could keep myself so, yet it relieved me
greatly, gave me breath, and new courage. I was covered again
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
with water a good while, but not so long but I held it out; and,
finding the water had spent itself, and began to return, I struck
forward against the return of the waves, and felt ground again.
with my feet. I stood still a few moments to recover breath,
and till the water went from me, and then took to my heels, and
ran with what strength I had farther towards the shore. But
neither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which
came pouring in after me again; and twice more I was lifted
up by the waves, and carried forwards as before, the shore being
very flat.
The last time of these two had well near been fatal to me;
for the sea, having hurried me along as before, landed me, or
rather dashed me, against a piece of a rock, and that with such
force as it left me senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own
deliverance; for the blow taking my side and breast, beat the
breath, as it were, quite out of my body, and, had it returned
again immediately, I must have been strangled in the water;
but I recovered a little before the return of the waves, and,
seeing I should be covered again with the water, I resolved to
hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if
possible, till the wave went back. Now, as the waves were not
so high as at first, being near land, I held my hold till the wave
abated, and then fetched another run, which brought me so near
the shore, that the next wave, though it went over me, yet did
not so swallow me up as to carry me away; and the next run
I took I got to the mainland, where, to my great comfort, I
clambered up the clifts of the shore, and sat me down upon the
grass, free from danger, and quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look up
and thank God that my life was saved, in a case wherein there
was, some minutes before, scarce any room to hope. I believe
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
53
it is impossible to express to the life what the ecstasies and
transports of the soul are when it is so saved, as I may say, out
of the very grave; and I do not wonder, now, at that custom,
namely, that when a malefactor, who has the halter about his
neck, is tied up, and just going to be turned off, and has a
reprieve brought to him—I say, I do not wonder that they bring
a surgeon with it, to let him blood that very moment they tell
him of it, that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from
the heart, and overwhelin him:
For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.
I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands, and my
whole being, as I may say, wrapt up in the contemplation of my
deliverance, making a thousand gestures and motions which I
cannot describe-reflecting upon all my comrades that were
drowned, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself
-for, as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of
them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that
were not fellows.
I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and
froth of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far
off, and considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on
shore ?
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of
my condition, I began to look round me, to see what kind of
place I was in, and what was next to be done; and I soon
found my comforts abate, and that in a word, I had a dreadful
deliverance: for I was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor any
thing either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither did I see
any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger, or
being devoured by wild beasts; and that which was particularly
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
afflicting to me was, that I had no weapon either to hunt and
kill
any creature for my sustenance, or to defend myself against
any other creature that might desire to kill me for theirs-in a
word, I had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and
a little tobacco in a box; this was all my provision, and this
threw me into terrible agonies of mind, that, for a while, I ran
about like a madman. Night coming upon me, I began, with a
heavy heart, to consider what would be my lot if there were any
ravenous beasts in that country, seeing at night they always come
abroad for their prey.
All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time was,
to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, which grew
near me, and where I resolved to sit all night, and consider the
next day what death I should die, for as yet I saw no prospect
of life. I walked about a furlong from the shore to see if I
could find any fresh water to drink, which I did, to my great
joy; and having drunk, and put a little tobacco in my mouth to
prevent hunger, I went to the tree, and getting up into it,
endeavoured to place myself so as that if I should sleep I might
not fall; and having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon, for
my defence, I took up my lodging; and, having been excessively
fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept as comfortably as, I believe,
few could have done in my condition, and found myself the most
refreshed with it that I think I ever was on such an occasion.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
55
CHAPTER IV.
Appearance of the wreck and country next day-Swim on board of the ship,
and, by means of a contrivance, get a quantity of stores on shore-Shoot
a bird, but it turns out perfect carrion-Moralize upon my situation-The
ship blown off land, and totally lost-Set out in search of a proper piace
for a habitation-See numbers of goats-Melancholy reflections.
WH
THEN I waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and
the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell
as before; but that which surprised me most was that the ship
was lifted off in the night from the sand where she lay, by the
swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as far as the rock
which I first mentioned, where I had been so bruised by the
dashing me against it; this being within about a mile from the
shore where I was, and the ship seeming to stand upright still,
I wished myself on board, that, at least, I might save some
necessary things for my use.
When I came down from my apartment in the tree, I
looked about me again, and the first thing I found was the boat,
which lay as the wind and the sea had tossed her up upon the
land, about two miles on my right hand. I walked as far as I
could upon the shore to have got to her, but found a neck, or
inlet of water, between me and the boat, which was about half a
mile broad; so I came back for the present, being more intent
upon getting at the ship, where I hoped to find something for
my present subsistence.
56
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
A little after noon, I found the sea very calm, and the tide
ebbed so far out, that I could come within a quarter of a mile
of the ship; and here I found a fresh renewing of my grief:
for I saw evidently, that if we had kept on board, we had been
all safe that is to say, we had all got safe on shore, and I had
not been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all com-
fort and company, as I now was.
This forced tears from my
eyes again; but as there was little relief in that, I resolved, if
possible, to get to the ship-so I pulled off my clothes, for the
weather was hot to extremity, and took the water. But when
I came to the ship, my difficulty was still greater to know how
to get on board; for, as she lay aground and high out of the
water, there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of. I
swam round her twice, and the second time I spied a small
piece of a rope, which I wondered I did not see at first, hang
down by the fore-chains, so low as that with great difficulty I
got hold of it, and, by the help of that rope, got up into the
forecastle of the ship. Here I found that the ship was bulged,
and had a great deal of water in her hold, but that she lay so
on the side of a bank of hard sand, or rather earth, and her
stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low almost to
the water by this means all her quarter was free, and all that
was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my first work
was to search and to see what was spoiled, and what was free:
and first I found that all the ship's provisions were dry and
untouched by the water; and being very well disposed to eat, I
went to the bread-room and filled my pockets with biscuit, and
ate it as I went about other things, for I had no time to lose.
I also found some rum in the great cabin, of which I took a
large dram, and which I had indeed need enough of to spirit me
for what was before me. Now I wanted nothing but a boat, to

J. Williamso
WITH THIS CARGO I PUT
TO SEA.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
57
furnish myself with many things which I foresaw would be very
necessary to me.
It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be
had; and this extremity roused my application. We had several
spare yards, and two or three large spars of wood, and a spare
topmast or two in the ship; I resolved to fall to work with
these, and flung as many of them overboard as I could manage
of their weight, tying every one with a rope, that they might
not drive away.
When this was done, I went down to the
ship's side, and, pulling them to me I tied four of them fast
together at both ends as well as I could, in the form of a raft, and
laying two or three short pieces of plank upon them crossways,
I found I could walk upon it very well, but that it was not able
to bear any great weight, the pieces being too light; so I went
to work, and, with the carpenter's saw, I cut a spare topmast into
three lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great deal of
labour and pains: but hope of furnishing myself with necessaries
encouraged me to go beyond what I should have been able to
have done upon another occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable
weight my next care was what to load it with, and how to
preserve what I laid upon it from the surf of the sea; but I
was not long considering this. I first laid all the planks or
boards upon it that I could get, and having considered well what
I most wanted, I first got three of the seamen's chests, which I
had broken open and emptied, and lowered them down upon my
raft. The first of these I filled with provisions, namely, bread,
rice, three Dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goat's flesh, which
we lived much upon, and a little remainder of European corn,
which had been laid by for some fowls which we brought to sea
with us, but the fowls were killed. There had been some barley
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
and wheat together, but, to my great disappointment, I found
afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled it all. As for
liquors, I found several cases of bottles belonging to our skipper,
in which were some cordial waters, and in all above five or six
gallons of rack: these I stowed by themselves, there being no
need to put them into the chest, nor no room for them. While
I was doing this, I found the tide began to flow, though very
calm, and I had the mortification to see my coat, shirt, and
waistcoat, which I had left on shore upon the sand, swim away;
as for my breeches, which were only linen, and open-kneed, I
swam on board in them and my stockings: however, this put
me upon rummaging for clothes, of which I found enough, but
took no more than I wanted for present use, for I had other
things which my eye was more upon: as, first, tools to work
with on shore; and it was after long searching that I found out
the carpenter's chest, which was indeed a very useful prize to
me, and much more valuable than a ship-load of gold would have
been at that time. I got it down to my raft, even whole as it
was, without losing time to look into it, for I knew in general
what it contained.
My next care was for some ammunition and arms. There
were two very good fowling-pieces in the great cabin, and two
pistols; these I secured first, with some powder-horns, and a
small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. I knew there
were three barrels of powder in the ship, but knew not where
our gunner had stowed them; but with much search I found
them, two of them dry and good, the third had taken water
those two I got to my raft with the arms. And now I thought
myself pretty well freighted, and began to think how I should
get to shore with them, having neither sail, oar, nor rudder, and
the least capful of wind would have overset all my navigation.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
59
I had three encouragements: 1. A smooth, calm sea; 2.
The tide rising, and setting in to the shore; 3. What little wind
there was blew me toward the land: and thus, having found
two or three broken oars belonging to the boat, and, besides the
tools which were in the chest, I found two saws, an axe, and a
hammer; and with this cargo I put to sea. For a mile, or
thereabouts, my raft went very well, only that I found it drive.
a little distant from the place where I had landed before; by
which I perceived that there was some indraft of the water, and,
consequently, I hoped to find some creek or river there, which
I might make use of as a port to get to land with my cargo.
As I imagined, so it was there appeared before me a little
opening of the land, and I found a strong current of the tide
set into it, so I guided my raft as well as I could to keep in the
middle of the stream; but here I had like to have suffered a
second shipwreck, which, if I had, I think verily would have
broke my heart; for knowing nothing of the coast, my raft ran
aground at one end of it upon a shoal, and, not being aground
at the other end, it wanted but a little that all my cargo had
slipped off towards that end that was afloat, and so fallen into
the water. I did my utmost, by setting my back against the
chests, to keep them in their places, but could not thrust off the
raft with all my strength; neither durst I stir from the posture
I was in, but, holding up the chests with all my might, stood in
that manner near half an hour, in which time the rising of the
water brought me a little more upon a level; and, a little after,
the water still rising, my raft floated again, and I thrust her off
with the oar I had into the channel; and then, driving up higher,
I at length found myself in the mouth of a little river, with land
on both sides, and a strong current, or tide, running up. I
looked on both sides for a proper place to get to shore; for I
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSCE.
was not willing to be driven too high up the river, hoping, in
time, to see some ship at sea, and therefore resolved to place
myself as near the coast as I could.
At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek,
to which, with great pain and difficulty, I guided my raft, and at
last got so near as that, reaching ground with my oar, I could
thrust her directly in: and here I had like to have dipped all
my cargo in the sea again: for that shore lying pretty steep,
that is to say, sloping, there was no place to land but where one
end of the float, if it ran on shore, would lie so high, and the
other sink lower as before, that it would endanger my cargo
again all that I could do was to wait till the tide was at the
highest, keeping the raft with my oar like an anchor, to hold the
side of it fast to the shore, near a flat piece of ground, which I
expected the water would flow over; and so it did. As soon as
I found water enough-for my raft drew about a foot of water-
I thrust her on upon that flat piece of ground, and there fastened,
or moored her, by sticking my two broken oars into the ground
-one on one side, near one end, and one on the other side,
near the other end; and thus I lay till the water ebbed away,
and left my raft and all my cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to view the country, and seek a proper
place for my habitation, and where to stow my goods, to secure
them from whatever might happen. Where I was I yet knew
not; whether on the continent or on an island-whether in-
habited or not inhabited-whether in danger of wild beasts or
not. There was a hill not above a mile from me, which rose
up very steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some other
hills which lay as in a ridge from it northward. I took out one
of the fowling-pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder;
and thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the top of that
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
61
hill, where, after I had with great labour and difficulty got to the
top, I saw my fate to my great affliction, namely, that I was in
an island, environed every way with the sea-no land to be
seen, except some rocks which lay a great way off, and two small
islands less than this, which lay about three leagues to the west.
I found also, that the island I was in was barren, and, as I
saw good reason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild beasts,
of which, however, I saw none; yet I saw abundance of fowls,
but knew not their kinds; neither, when I killed them, could I
tell what was fit for food, and what not. At my coming back,
I shot at a great bird, which I saw sitting upon a tree on the
side of a great wood: I believe it was the first gun that had
been fired there since the creation of the world.
I had no
sooner fired, but, from all parts of the wood, there arose an in-
numerable number of fowls of many sorts, making a confused
screaming, and crying every one according to his usual note;
but not one of them of any kind that I knew. As for the
creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of a hawk, its colour and
beak resembling it, but had no talons, or claws, more than
common; its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing.
Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, and
fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up
the rest of that day: and what to do with myself at night I
knew not, nor indeed where to rest; for I was afraid to lie
down on the ground, not knowing but some wild beast might
devour me though, as I afterwards found, there was really no
need for those fears.
However, as well as I could, I barricadoed myself round with
the chests and boards that I had brought on shore, and made a
kind of a hut for that night's lodging. As for food, I yet saw not
which way to supply myself, except that I had seen two or three
creatures like hares run out of the wood where I shot the fowl.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I now began to consider that I might yet get a great many
things out of the ship, which would be useful to me, and parti-
cularly some of the rigging and sails, and such other things as
might come to land, and I resolved to make another voyage on
board the vessel, if possible; and as I knew that the first storm
that blew must necessarily break her all in pieces, I resolved to
set all other things apart, till I got every thing out of the ship
that I could get. Then I called a council (that is to say, in my
thoughts), whether I should take back the raft; but this appeared
impracticable; so I resolved to go as before, when the tide was
down, and I did so, only that I stripped before I went from my
hut, having nothing on but a checked shirt and a pair of linen
trousers, and a pair of pumps on my feet.
I got on board the ship as before, and prepared a second
raft; and having had experience of the first, I neither made this
so unwieldy, nor loaded it so hard, but yet I brought away
several things very useful to me; as first, in the carpenter's
stores, I found two or three bags full of nails and spikes, a great
screw-jack, a dozen or two of hatchets, and, above all, that most
useful thing called a grindstone: all these I secured, together
with several things belonging to the gunner, particularly two or
three iron crows, and two barrels of musket-balls, seven muskets,
and another fowling-piece, with some small quantity of powder
more; a large bag full of small shot, and a great roll of sheet
lead; but this last was so heavy, I could not hoist it up to get
it over the ship's side.
Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes that I
could find, and a spare foretop-sail, hammock, and some bedding;
and with this I loaded my second raft, and brought them all safe
on shore, to my very great comfort.
I was under some apprehensions during my absence from
the land, that at least my provisions might be devoured on shore ;
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
63
but, when I came back, I found no sign of any visitor, only
there sat a creature like a wild cat, upon one of the chests,
which, when I came towards it, ran away a little distance, and
then stood still: she sat very composed and unconcerned, and
looked full in my face, as if she had a mind to be acquainted
with me.
I presented my gun at her, but as she did not under-
stand it, she was perfectly unconcerned at it, nor did she offer
to stir away; upon which I tossed her a bit of biscuit, though,
by the way, I was not very free of it, for my store was not
great: however, I spared her a bit, I say, and she went to it,
smelled of it, and ate it, and looked, as pleased, for more; but I
thanked her, and could spare no more-so she marched off.
Having got my second cargo on shore, though I was fain to
open the barrels of powder, and bring them by parcels-for they
were too heavy, being large casks-I went to work to make me
a little tent, with the sail and some poles which I cut for that
purpose; and into this tent I brought every thing that I knew
would spoil, either with rain or sun; and I piled all the empty
chests and casks up in a circle round the tent, to fortify it from
any sudden attempt, either from man or beast.
When I had done this, I blocked up the door of the tent
with some boards within, and an empty chest set up on end with-
out, and, spreading one of the beds upon the ground, laying my
two pistols just at my head, and my gun at length by me, I went
to bed for the first time, and slept very quietly all night, for I was
very weary and heavy; as the night before I had slept little, and
had laboured very hard all day, as well to fetch all those things
from the ship as to get them on shore.
I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever was
laid up, I believe, for one man, but I was not satisfied still; for,
while the ship sat upright in that posture, I thought I ought to
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
get every thing out of her that I could: so every day, at low
water, I went on board, and brought away something or other;
but particularly the third time I went, I brought away as much
of the rigging as I could, as also all the small ropes and rope-twine
I could get, with a piece of spare canvas, which was to mend
the sails upon occasion, and the barrel of wet gunpowder; in a
word, I brought away all the sails first and last, only that I was
fain to cut them in pieces, and bring as much at a time as I
could; for they were no more useful to be sails, but as mere
canvas only.
But that which comforted me more still, was, that last of all,
after I had made five or six such voyages as these, and thought
I had nothing more to expect from the ship that was worth my
meddling with--I say, after all this, I found a great hogshead
of bread, and three large runlets of rum or spirits, and a box of
sugar, and a barrel of fine flour; this was surprising to me,
because I had given over expecting any more provisions, except
what was spoiled by the water. I soon emptied the hogshead
of that bread, and wrapt it up, parcel by parcel, in pieces of the
sails, which I cut out: and, in a word, I got all this safe on shore
also.
The next day I made another voyage; and now, having
plundered the ship of what was portable and fit to hand out, I
began with the cables; and cutting the great cable into pieces,
such as I could move, I got two cables and a hawser on shore,
with all the iron work I could get; and having cut down the
spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard, and every thing I could, to
make a large raft, I loaded it with all those heavy goods, and
came away but my good luck began now to leave me; for this
raft was so unwieldy and overladen, that, after I had entered
the little cove, where I had landed the rest of my goods, not
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
65
being able to guide it so handily as I did the others, it overset,
and threw me and all my cargo into the water. As for myself,
it was no great harm, for I was near the shore; but as to my
cargo, it was, great part of it, lost, especially the iron, which I
expected would have been of great use to me: however, when
the tide was out, I got most of the pieces of cable ashore, and
some of the iron, though with infinite labour; for I was fain to
dip for it into the water, a work which fatigued me very much.
After this, I went every day on board, and brought away
what I could get.
I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been eleven
times on board the ship; in which time I had brought away all
that one pair of hands could well be supposed capable to bring,
though I believe verily, had the calm held, I should have brought
away the whole ship, piece by piece: but preparing the twelfth
time to go on board, I found the wind began to rise; however
at low water, I went on board, and though I thought I had rum-
maged the cabin so effectually as that nothing more could be found,
yet I discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one of which I found
two or three razors, and one pair of large scissors, with some ten
or a dozen of good knives and forks; in another I found about
thirty-six pounds value in money, some European coin, some
Brazil, some pieces of eight, some gold, some silver.
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money. "O drug!"
said I, aloud, "what art thou good for? thou art not worth to
me-no, not the taking off of the ground; one of those knives is
worth all this heap; I have no manner of use for thee; even
remain where thou art, and go to the bottom as a creature whose
life is not worth saving." However, upon second thoughts I took
it away, and, wrapping all this in a piece of canvas, I began to
think of making another raft: but, while I was preparing this, I
F
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
found the sky overcast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter
of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. It presently
occurred to me, that it was in vain to pretend to make a raft
with the wind off shore, and that it was my business to be gone
before the tide of flood began, otherwise I might not be able to
reach the shore at all: accordingly, I let myself down into the
water, and swam across the channel which lay between the ship
and the sands, and even that with difficulty enough, partly with
the weight of things I had about me, and partly the roughness
of the water, for the wind rose very hastily, and, before it was
quite high water, it blew a storm.
But I was gotten home to my little tent, where I lay with
all my wealth about me very secure. It blew very hard all that
night, and in the morning when I looked out, behold, no more
ship was to be seen! I was a little surprised, but recovered
myself with this satisfactory reflection, namely, that I had lost
no time, nor abated no diligence, to get every thing out of her
that could be useful to me, and that indeed there was little left
in her that I was able to bring away if I had had more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of any
thing out of her, except what might drive on shore from her
wreck, as indeed divers pieces of her afterwards did; but those
things were of small use to me.
My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing my-
self against either savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts,
if any were in the island; and I had many thoughts of the
method how to do this, and what kind of dwelling to make-
whether I should make me a cave in the earth, or a tent upon
the earth; and, in short, I resolved upon both, the manner and
description of which it may not be improper to give an account
of.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
67
I soon found the place I was in was not for my settlement,
particularly because it was upon a low moorish ground near the
sea, and I believed would not be wholesome, and more parti-
cularly because there was no fresh water near it; so I resolved
to find a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation which I found
would be proper for me:-1st, Health and fresh water I just
now mentioned; 2dly, Shelter from the heat of the sun; 3dly,
Security from ravenous creatures, whether man or beast; 4thly,
A view to the sea, that, if God sent any ship in sight, I might
not lose any advantage for my deliverance, of which I was not
willing to banish all my expectation yet.
In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain on
the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was
steep as a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me
from the top; on the side of this rock there was a hollow place
worn a little way in, like the entrance or door of a cave, but
there was not really any cave or way into the rock at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I
resolved to pitch my tent: this plain was not above an hundred
yards broad, and about twice as long, and lay like a green before
my door, and at the end of it descended irregularly every way
down into the low grounds by the sea-side. It was on the north-
north-west side of the hill, so that I was sheltered from the
heat every day, till it came to a west-and-by-south sun, or there-
abouts, which in those countries is near the setting.
Before I set up my tent, I drew a half circle before the hollow
place, which took in about ten yards in its semidiameter from
the rock, and twenty yards in its diameter, from its beginning
and ending.
In this half circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
them into the ground till they stood very firm, like piles, the
biggest end being out of the ground about five feet and a half,
and sharpened on the top: the two rows did not stand above six
inches from one another.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship,
and laid them in rows, one upon another, within the circle be-
tween these two rows of stakes up to the top, placing other
stakes in the inside, leaning against them, about two feet and a
half high, like a spur to a post; and this fence was so strong,
that neither man nor beast could get into it or over it: this
cost me a great deal of time and labour, especially to cut the
piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and drive them into
the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be, not by a door,
but by a short ladder, to go over the top; which ladder, when
I was in, I lifted over after me; and so I was completely fenced
in, and fortified, as I thought, from all the world, and con-
sequently slept secure in the night, which otherwise I could not
have done; though, as it appeared afterward, there was no need
of all this caution from the enemies that I apprehended danger
from.
Into this fence, or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried all
my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which
you have the account above; and I made me a large tent, which,
to preserve me from the rains, that in one part of the year are
very violent there, I made double, namely, one smaller tent
within, and one larger tent above it, and covered the uppermost
with a large tarpaulin, which I had saved among the sails.
And now I lay no more, for a while, in the bed which I had
brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very
good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
69
Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and every thing
that would spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all my
goods, I made up the entrance, which till now, I had left open,
and so passed and repassed, as I said, by a short ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way into the
rock, and, bringing all the earth and stones that I dug down, out
through my tent, I laid them up within my fence in the nature of
a terrace, that so it raised the ground within about a foot and a
half; and thus I made me a cave just behind my tent, which
served me like a cellar to my house.
It cost me much labour and many days before all these things
were brought to perfection; and, therefore, I must go back to
some other things which took up some of my thoughts. At the
same time, it happened, after I had laid my scheme for the setting
up my tent, and making the cave, that a storm of rain falling
from a thick dark cloud, a sudden flash of lightning happened,
and after that a great clap of thunder, as is naturally the effect
of it. I was not so much surprised with the lightning as I was
with a thought which darted into my mind, as swift as the light-
ning itself: Oh, my powder! my very heart sank within me,
when I thought that, at one blast, all my powder might be
destroyed, on which, not my defence only, but the providing me
food, as I thought, entirely depended: I was nothing near so
anxious about my own danger, though, had the powder took fire,
I had never known who had hurt me.
Such impression did this make upon me, that after the storm.
was over, I laid aside all my works, my building and fortifying,
and applied myself to make bags and boxes, to separate the
powder, and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope
that, whatever might come, it might not all take fire at once, and
to keep it so apart, that it should not be possible to make one
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
part fire another. I finished this work in about a fortnight; and
I think my powder, which, in all, was about two hundred and
forty pounds weight, was divided in not less than a hundred
parcels. As to the barrel that had been wet, I did not appre-
hend any danger from that, so I placed it in my new cave, which,
in my fancy, I called my kitchen; and the rest I hid up and
down in holes among the rocks, so that no wet might come to
it, marking very carefully where I laid it.
In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out once
at least every day with my gun, as well to divert myself as to see
if I could kill any thing fit for food, and, as near as I could, to
acquaint myself with what the island produced. The first time
I went out, I presently discovered that there were goats in the
island, which was a great satisfaction to me; but then, it was
attended with this misfortune to me, namely, that they were so
shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot, that it was the most difficult
thing in the world to come at them. But I was not discouraged
at this, not doubting but I might now and then shoot one, as it
soon happened; for, after I had found their haunts a little, I
laid wait in this manner for them. I observed, if they saw me
in the valleys, though they were upon the rocks, they would run
away as in a terrible fright; but if they were feeding in the
valleys, and I was upon the rocks, they took no notice of me;
from whence I concluded, that, by the position of their optics,
their sight was so directed downward, that they did not readily
sec objects that were above them: so afterwards I took this
method; I always climbed the rocks first, to get above them,
and then had frequently a fair mark. The first shot I made
among these creatures, I killed a she-goat, which had a little kid
by her which she gave suck to, which grieved me heartily; but
when the old one fell, the kid stood stock still by her till I came
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
71
and took her up; and not only so, but, when I carried the old
one with me upon my shoulders, the kid followed me quite to
my enclosure; upon which I laid down the dam, and took the
kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have
bred it up tame; but it would not eat, so I was forced to kill it,
and eat it myself. These two supplied me with flesh a great
while, for I ate sparingly, and saved my provisions (my bread
especially) as much as possibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely neces-
sary to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn; and
what I did for that, as also how I enlarged my cave, and what con-
veniences I made, I shall give a full account of in its place; but
I must first give some little account of myself, and of my thoughts
about living, which, it may well be supposed, were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for, as I was not
cast away upon that island without being driven, as is said, by a
violent storm, quite out of the course of our intended voyage,
and a great way, namely, some hundreds of leagues, out of the
ordinary course of the trade of mankind, I had great reason
to consider it as a determination of Heaven, that, in this desolate
place, and in this desolate manner, I should end my life. The
tears would run plentifully down my face when I made those
reflections; and sometimes I would expostulate with myself why
Providence should thus completely ruin his creatures, and render
them so absolutely miserable, so without help abandoned, so
entirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful
for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check these
thoughts, and to reprove me; and, particularly, one day walking,
with my gun in my hand, by the sea-side, I was very pensive
upon the subject of my present condition, when reason, as it were,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
expostulated with me the other way, thus:-"Well, you are in
a desolate condition, it is true; but pray, remember, where are
the rest of you? Did not you come eleven of you into the boat?
Where are the ten? Why were they not saved, and you lost?
Why were you singled out? Is it better to be here or there?”
And then I pointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered
with the good that is in them, and with what worse attended
them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for
my subsistence, and what would have been my case if it had not
happened, which was an hundred thousand to one, that the ship
floated from the place where she first struck, and was driven so
near the shore that I had time to get all things out of her.
What would have been my case, if I had been to have lived in
the condition in which I at first came on shore, without neces-
saries of life, or necessaries to supply and procure them?
"Particularly," said I, loud, though to myself, "what should I
have done without a gun, without ammunition, without any tools
to make any thing or to work with-without clothes, bedding, a
tent, or any manner of covering ?" and that now I had all these to
a sufficient quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in
such a manner as to live without my gun when my ammunition
was spent; so that I had a tolerable view of subsisting without any
want, as long as I lived: for I considered, from the beginning,
how I should provide for the accidents that might happen, and for
the time that was to come, even not only after my ammunition
should be spent, but even after my health or strength should decay.
I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition
being destroyed at one blast, I mean, my powder being blown
up by lightning; and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to
me when it lightened and thundered, as I observed just now.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
73
And now, being about to enter into a melancholy relation
of a scene of silent life, such, perhaps, as was never heard of
in the world before, I shall take it from its beginning, and con-
tinue it in its order. It was, by my account, the 30th of Sep-
tember, when, in the manner as above said, I first set foot upon
this horrid island, when the sun being, to us, in its autumnal
equinox, was almost just over my head; for I reckoned myself,
by observation, to be in the latitude of nine degrees twenty-two
minutes north of the Line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came
into my thoughts, that I should lose my reckoning of time for
want of books, and pen and ink, and should even forget the
Sabbath days from the working days; but, to prevent this, I cut it
with my knife upon a large post, in capital letters, and making
it into a great cross, I set it up on the shore where I first
landed, namely, I came on shore here on the 30th of September
1659. Upon the sides of this square post, I cut every day a
notch with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long again
as the rest, and every first day of the month as long again as
that long one; and thus I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly,
and yearly, reckoning of time.
In the next place, we are to observe, that, among the many
things which I brought out of the ship in the several voyages,
which, as above mentioned, I made to it, I got several things of
less value, but not at all less useful to me, which I omitted setting
down before; as, in particular, pens, ink, and paper, several
parcels in the captain's, mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keeping,
three or four compasses, some inathematical instruments, dials,
perspectives, charts, and books of navigation, all which I huddled
together, whether I might want them or no. Also I found three
very good Bibles, which came to me in my cargo from England,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
and which I had packed up among my things; some Portuguese
books also, and among them two or three Popish prayer-books,
and several other books: all which I carefully secured. And
I must not forget, that we had in the ship a dog and two cats,
of whose eminent history I may have occasion to say something
in its place; for I carried both the cats with me; and as for the
dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself, and swam on shore to
me the day after I went on shore with my first cargo, and was
a trusty servant to me many years: I wanted nothing that he
could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to me—
I only wanted to have him talk to me; but that he could not do.
As I observed before, I found pen, ink, and paper, and I husbanded
them to the utmost; and I shall show, that while my ink lasted,
I kept things very exact; but after that was gone, I could not,
for I could not make any ink by any means that I could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things,
notwithstanding all that I had amassed together; and of these,
this of ink was one, as also spade, pick-axe, and shovel, to dig
or remove the earth; needles, pins, and thread. As for linen, I
soon learnt to want that without much difficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily, and
it was near a whole year before I had entirely finished my
little pale, or surrounded habitation: the piles, or stakes, which
were as heavy as I could well lift, were a long time in cutting
and preparing in the woods, and more by far in bringing home ;
so that I spent sometimes two days in cutting and bringing
home one of those posts, and a third day in driving it into the
ground; for which purpose I got a heavy piece of wood at
first, but at last bethought myself of one of the iron crows, which,
however, though I found it, yet it made driving those posts, or
piles, very laborious and tedious work.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
75
But what need I have been concerned at the tediousness of
any thing I had to do, seeing I had time enough to do it in?
Nor had I any other employment, if that had been over, at
least that I could foresee, except the ranging the island to seek
for food, which I did more or less every day.
I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the
circumstances I was reduced to, and I drew up the state of my
affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any that were
to come after me (for I was like to have but few heirs), as to
deliver my thoughts from daily poring upon them, and afflicting
my mind; and as my reason began now to master my despon-
dency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could, and to set
the good against the evil, that I might have something to dis-
tinguish my case from worse; and I stated it very impartially,
like debtor and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the
miseries I suffered, thus:-
EVIL.
I am cast upon a horrible desolate
island, void of all hope of recovery.
I am singled out and separated, as
it were, from all the world, to be
miserable.
I am divided from mankind, a
solitaire, one banished from human
society.
I have no clothes to cover me.
I am without any defence, or means
to resist any violence of man or beast.
e.
I have no soul to speak to, or relieve
GOOD.
But I am alive, and not drowned,
as all my ship's company was.
But I am singled out, too, from all
the ship's crew to be spared from
death; and IIe that miraculously saved
me from death, can deliver me from
this condition.
But I am not starved and perishing
on a barren place, affording no susten-
ance.
But I am in a hot climate, where, if
I had clothes, I could hardly wear them.
But I am cast on an island, where
I see no wild beasts to hurt me, as I
saw on the coast of Africa; and what
if I had been shipwrecked there?
But God wonderfully sent the ship
in near enough to the shore, that I
have gotten out so many necessary
things as will either supply my wants,
or enable me to supply myself, even
as long as I live.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that
there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable, but
there was something negative or something positive to be thankful
for in it; and let this stand as a direction from the experience
of the most miserable of all conditions in this world, that we
may always find in it something to comfort ourselves from, and
to set in the description of good and evil on the credit side of
the account.
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition,
and given over looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a ship-
I say, giving over these things, I began to apply myself to
accommodate my way of living, and to make things as easy to
me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was a tent,
under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of posts
and cables; but I might now rather call it a wall, for I raised
a kind of wall up against it of turfs, about two feet thick on the
outside; and after some time-I think it was a year and a
half-I raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock, and thatched
or covered it with boughs of trees, and such things as I could
get to keep out the rain, which I found at some times of the
year very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my goods into
this pale, and into the cave which I had made behind me: but
I must observe, too, that at first this was a confused heap of
goods, which, as they lay in no order, so they took up all my
place: I had no room to turn myself, so I set myself to enlarge
my cave and works further into the earth; for it was a loose
sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I bestowed on it
-and so, when I found I was pretty safe as to beasts of prey,
I worked sideways to the right hand into the rock; and then,
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77
turning to the right again, worked quite out, and made me a
door to come out, on the outside of my pale, or fortification.
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it were a back
way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to
stow my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary
things as I found I most wanted, particularly a chair and a table;
for without these I was not able to enjoy the few comforts I
had in the world—I could not write or eat, or do several things,
with so much pleasure without a table.
So I went to work; and here I must needs observe, that
as reason is the substance and original of the mathematics, so,
by stating and squaring every thing by reason, and by making
the most rational judgment of things, every man may be in
time master of every mechanic art. I had never handled a tool
in my life, and yet in time, by labour, application, and contriv-
ance, I found at last that I wanted nothing but I could have
made it, especially if I had had tools; however, I made abundance
of things even without tools, and some with no more tools than
an adze and a hatchet, which, perhaps, were never made that
way before, and that with infinite labour-for example, if I
wanted a board, I had no other way but to cut down a tree,
set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with
my axe, till I had brought it to be as thin as a plank, and then
dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, by this method I could
make but one board out of a whole tree; but this I had no
remedy for but patience, any more than I had for the prodigious
deal of time and labour which it took me up to make a plank
or board; but my time and labour were little worth, and so they
were as well employed one way as another.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed
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above, in the first place-and this I did out of the short pieces
of boards that I brought on my raft from the ship; but, when I
had wrought out some boards, as above, I made large shelves of
the breadth of a foot and a half one over another, all along one
side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and iron work, and in
a word, to separate every thing at large in their places, that I
might come easily at them. I knocked pieces into the wall of
the rock to hang my guns and all things that would hang up.
So that, had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a
general magazine of all necessary things; and I had every
thing so ready at my hand, that it was a great pleasure to me
to see all my goods in such order, and especially to find my
stock of all necessaries so great.
And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every
day's employment; for indeed at first I was in too much a
hurry and not only hurry as to labour, but in too much discom-
posure of mind, and my journal would have been full of many
dull things. For example, I must have said thus :-September
the 30th, after I got to shore, and had escaped drowning, in-
stead of being thankful to God for my deliverance, having first
vomited with the great quantity of salt water which was gotten
into my stomach, and recovering myself a little, I ran about
the shore, wringing my hands, and beating my head and face,
exclaiming at my misery, and crying out, I was undone,
undone! till, tired and faint, I was forced to lie down on the
ground to repose, but durst not sleep for fear of being devoured.
Some days after this, and after I had been on board the ship,
and got all that I could out of her, yet I could not forbear getting
up to the top of a little mountain, and looking out to sea, in hopes
of seeing a ship; then fancy at a vast distance I spied a sail-
please myself with the hopes of it—and then, after looking steadily
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79
till I was almost blind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep
like a child, and thus increase my misery by my folly.
But having gotten over these things in some measure, and
having settled my household stuff and habitation, made me
a table and a chair, and all as handsome about me as I could, I
began to keep my journal, of which I shall here give you the copy
(though in it will be told all these particulars over again) as long
as it lasted; for, having no more ink, I was forced to leave it
off.
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CHAPTER V.
I begin to keep a journal-Christen my desert island the Island of Despair-
Fall upon various schemes to make tools, baskets, etc., and begin to build
my house--At a great loss of an evening for candle, but fall upon an expedi-
ent to supply the want-Strange discovery of corn-A terrible earthquake
and storm.
I
THE JOURNAL.
September 30, 1659.
POOR miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwrecked, during
a dreadful storm in the offing, came on shore on this dismal
unfortunate island, which I called the Island of Despair; all the
rest of the ship's company being drowned, and myself almost
dead.
All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting myself at the
dismal circumstances I was brought to, namely, I had neither
food, house, clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to, and in despair
of any relief, saw nothing but death before me, either that I
should be devoured by wild beasts, murdered by savages, or
starved to death for want of food. At the approach of night I
slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures, but slept soundly,
though it rained all night.
October 1. In the morning I saw, to my great surprise,
the ship had floated with the high tide, and was driven on shore
again much nearer the island; which, as it was some comfort
on one hand, for seeing her sit upright, and not broken to pieces,
I hoped if the wind abated, I might get on board, and get some
food and necessaries out of her for my relief; so, on the other
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81
hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of my comrades, who, I
imagined, if we had all staid on board, might have saved the
ship, or at least that they would not have been all drowned as
they were; and that had the men been saved, we might perhaps
have built us a boat out of the ruins of the ship, to have carried
us to some other part of the world. I spent great part of this
day in perplexing myself on these things; but at length, seeing
the ship almost dry, I went upon the sand as near as I could,
and then swam on board. This day also it continued raining,
though with no wind at all.
From the 1st of October to the 24th.-All these days en-
tirely spent in many several voyages to get all I could out of
the ship, which I brought on shore, every tide of flood, upon
rafts. Much rain also in these days, though with some inter-
vals of fair weather; but it seems this was the rainy season.
Oct. 20.—I overset my raft, and all the goods I had got
upon it; but being in shoal water, and the things being chiefly
heavy, I recovered many of them when the tide was out.
Oct. 25.-It rained all night and all day, with some gusts of
wind; during which time the ship broke in pieces, the wind
blowing a little harder than before, and was no more to be seen
except the wreck of her, and that only at low water.
I spent
this day in covering and securing the goods which I had saved
that rain might not spoil them.
Oct. 26.—I walked about the shore almost all day, to find
out a place to fix my habitation, greatly concerned to secure
myself from any attack in the night, either from wild beasts or
men. Towards night I fixed upon a proper place under a rock,
and marked out a semicircle for my encampment, which I
resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, or fortification, made
of double piles, lined within with cable, and without with turf.
G
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSCE.
From the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in carrying
all my goods to my new habitation, though some part of the
time it rained exceedingly hard.
The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island with
my gun, to seek for some food, and discover the country; when
I killed a she-goat, and her kid followed me home, which I after-
wards killed also, because it would not feed.
November 1.-I set up my tent under a rock, and lay there
for the first night, making it as large as I could, with stakes
driven in to swing my hammock upon.
Nov. 2.—I set up all my chests and boards, and the pieces
of timber, which made my rafts, and with them formed a fence
round me, a little within the place I had marked out for my
fortification.
Nov. 3.-I went out with my gun, and killed two fowls
like ducks, which were very good food. In the afternoon went
to work to make me a table.
Nov. 4. This morning I began to order my times of work
-of going out with my gun, time of sleep, and time of diver-
sion: namely, every morning I walked out with my gun for two or
three hours, if it did not rain, then employed myself to work till
about eleven o'clock, then ate what I had to live on, and from
twelve to two I lay down to sleep, the weather being excessively
hot, and then in the evening to work again. The working part
of this day and of the next were wholly employed in making
my table; for I was yet but a very sorry workman, though time
and necessity made me a complete natural mechanic soon after,
as I believe it would do any one else.
Nov. 5. This day went abroad with my gun and my dog,
and killed a wild cat; her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good
for nothing every creature I killed I took off the skins, and
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83
preserved them. Coming back by the sea-shore, I saw many
sorts of sea-fowls, which I did not understand; but was sur-
prised, and almost frighted, with two or three seals, which, while
I was gazing at, not well knowing what they were, got into
the sea, and escaped me for that time.
Nov. 6. After my morning walk, I went to work with my
table again, and finished it, though not to my liking; nor was
it long before I learned to mend it.
Nov. 7.-Now it began to be settled fair weather. The
7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the 11th was
Sunday), I took wholly up to make me a chair, and, with much
ado, brought it to a tolerable shape, but never to please me;
and even in the making, I pulled it in pieces several times.-
Note. I soon neglected my keeping Sundays; for omitting my
mark for them on my post, I forgot which was which.
Nov. 13. This day it rained, which refreshed me exceed-
ingly, and cooled the earth; but it was accompanied with
terrible thunder and lightning, which frighted me dreadfully
for fear of my powder. As soon as it was over, I resolved to
separate my stock of powder into as many little parcels as
possible, that it might not be in danger.
Nov. 14, 15, 16.-These three days I spent in making little
square chests or boxes, which might hold about a pound, or two
pound at most, of powder; and so putting the powder in, I
stowed it in places as secure and remote from one another as
possible. On one of these three days I killed a large bird that
was good to eat, but I knew not what to call it.
Nov. 17. This day I began to dig behind my tent into the
rock, to make room for my further conveniency.-Note. Three
things I wanted exceedingly for this work, namely, a pick-axe,
a shovel, and a wheel-barrow or basket; so I desisted from my
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
work, and began to consider how to supply that want, and
make me some tools: as for a pick-axe, I made use of the iron
crows, which were proper enough, though heavy; but the next
thing was a shovel or spade; this was so absolutely necessary,
that indeed I could do nothing effectually without it, but what
kind of one to make I knew not.
Nov. 18.-The next day, in searching the woods, I found
a tree of that wood, or like it, which in the Brazils they call the
iron tree, for its exceeding hardness: of this, with great labour,
and almost spoiling my axe, I cut a piece, and brought it home
too with difficulty enough, for it was exceedingly heavy.
The excessive hardness of the wood, and having no other
way, made me a long while upon this machine; for I worked
it effectually by little and little into the form of a shovel or
spade, the handle exactly shaped like ours in England, only
that the broad part having no iron shod upon it at bottom, it
would not last me so long; however, it served well enough for
the uses which I had occasion to put it to; but never was a
shovel, I believe, made after that fashion, or so long a-making.
I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket or a wheelbarrow:
a basket I could not make by any means, having no such things
as twigs, that would bend to make wicker-ware, at least not yet
found out and as to a wheel-barrow, I fancied I could make all
but the wheel, but that I had no notion of, neither did I know
how to go about it: besides, I had no possible way to make the
iron gudgeons for the spindle, or axis, of the wheel, to run in,
so I gave it over; and so, for carrying away the earth which I
dug out of the cave, I made me a thing like a hod, which the
labourers carry mortar in when they serve the bricklayers.
This was not so difficult to me as the making the shovel;
and yet this, and the shovel, and the attempt which I made in
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
85
vain to make a wheelbarrow, took me up no less than four days
-I mean always excepting my morning walk with my gun,
which I seldom failed: and seldom failed also bringing home
something to eat.
Nov. 23. My other work having now stood still, because of
my making these tools, when they were finished I went on, and
working every day, as my strength and time allowed, I spent
eighteen days entirely in widening and deepening my cave, that
it might hold my goods commodiously.
Note. During all this time I worked to make this room, c.
cave, spacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse, or
magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room, and a cellar: as for my
lodging, I kept to the tent, except that sometimes, in the wet
season of the year, it rained so hard that I could not keep myself
dry, which caused me afterwards to cover all my place within my
pale with long poles in the form of rafters, leaning against the
rock, and load them with flags and large leaves of trees like a
thatch.
December 10.-I began now to think my cave, or vault,
finished, when on a sudden (it seems I had made it too large) a
great quantity of earth fell down from the top and one side, so
much that, in short, it frighted me, and not without reason too;
for if I had been under it, I had never wanted a grave-digger.
Upon this disaster I had a great deal of work to do over again;
for I had the loose earth to carry out, and, which was of more
importance, I had the ceiling to prop up, so that I might be
sure no more would come down.
Dec. 11.-This day I went to work with it accordingly, and
got two shores, or posts, pitched upright to the top, with two
pieces of boards across over each post; this I finished the next
day; and setting more posts up with boards, in about a week more.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I had the roof secured; and the posts, standing in rows, served
me for partitions to part off my house.
Dec. 17. From this day to the 20th I placed shelves, and
knocked up nails on the posts to hang every thing up that could
be hung up and now I began to be in some order within doors.
Dec. 20.-Now I carried every thing into the cave, and
began to furnish my house, and set up some pieces of boards like
a dresser, to order my victuals upon; but boards began to be
very scarce with me; also, I made me another table.
Dec. 24.-Much rain all night and all day; no stirring out.
Dec. 25.-Rain all day.
Dec. 26.-No rain, and the earth much cooler than before,
and pleasanter.
Dec. 27.-Killed a young goat, and lamed another, so that
I caught it, and led it home in a string: when I had it home, I
bound and splintered up its leg, which was broke. N.B. I took
such care of it, that it lived, and the leg grew well and as strong
as ever; but by nursing it so long it grew tame, and fed upon
the little green at my door, and would not go away.
This was
the first time that I entertained a thought of breeding up some
tame creatures, that I might have food when my powder and
shot was all spent.
Dec. 28, 29, 30.-Great heats, and no breeze; so that there
was no stirring abroad, except in the evening, for food. This
time I spent in putting all my things in order within doors.
January 1.—Very hot still; but I went abroad early and late
with my gun, and lay still in the middle of the day. This
evening, going farther into the valleys which lay towards the
centre of the island, I found there was plenty of goats, though
exceedingly shy and hard to come at; however, I resolved to try
if I could not bring my dog to hunt them down.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
87
Jan. 2.—Accordingly, the next day I went out with my dog,
and set him upon the goats; but I was mistaken, for they all faced
about upon the dog; and he knew his danger too well, for he
would not come near them.
Jan. 3.—I began my fence, or wall, which, being still jealous
of my being attacked by somebody, I resolved to make very
thick and strong.
N.B. This wall being described before, I purposely omit
what was said in the journal; it is sufficient to observe, that I
was no less time than from the 3d of January to the 14th of
April, working, finishing and perfecting this wall, though it was
no more than about twenty-four yards in length, being a half
circle from one place in the rock to another place about eight
yards from it, the door of the cave being in the centre behind it.
All this time I worked very hard, the rains hindering me
many days, nay, sometimes weeks together; but I thought I
should never be perfectly secure until this wall was finished; and
it is scarce credible what inexpressible labour every thing was
done with, especially the bringing piles out of the woods, and
driving them into the ground: for I made them much bigger
than I need to have done.
When this wall was finished, and the outside double fenced
with a turf wall raised up close to it, I persuaded myself, that
if any people were to come on shore there, they would not
perceive any thing like a habitation; and it was very well I
did so, as may be observed hereafter, upon a very remarkable
occasion.
During this time, I made my rounds in the woods for game,
every day, when the rain permitted me, and made frequent dis-
coveries, in these walks, of something or other to my advantage;
particularly, I found a kind of wild pigeons, who built, not as
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
wood pigeons, in a tree, but rather as house pigeons, in the holes
of the rocks; and taking some young ones, I endeavoured to breed
them up tame, and did so; but when they grew older they flew
away, which, perhaps, was at first for want of feeding them; for
I had nothing to give them. However, I frequently found their
nests, and go: their young ones, which were very good meat.
And now, in the managing my household affairs, I found
myself wanting in many things, which I thought at first it was
impossible for me to make, as indeed, as to some of them, it was
—for instance, I could never make a cask to be hooped. I had
a small runlet or two, as I observed before, but I could never
arrive to the capacity of making one by them, though I spent
many weeks about it; I could neither put in the heads, nor
joint the staves so true to one another as to make them hold
water, so I gave that also over.
In the next place, I was at great loss for candle, so that as
soon as ever it was dark, which was generally by seven o'clock,
I was obliged to go to bed. I remembered the lump of bees'-wax
with which I made candles in my African adventure, but I had
none of that now. The only remedy I had was, that, when I had
killed a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little dish made of
clay, which I baked in the sun, to which I added a wick of some
oakum, I made me a lamp; and this gave me a light, though not a
clear steady light like a candle. In the middle of all my labours,
it happened that, rummaging my things, I found a little bag,
which, as I hinted before, had been filled with corn for the feeding
of poultry, not for this voyage, but before, as I suppose, when the
ship came from Lisbon. What little remainder of corn had been
in the bag was all devoured with the rats, and I saw nothing in
the bag but husks and dust; and being willing to have the bag
for some other use-I think it was to put powder in, when I
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
89
divided it for fear of the lightning, or some such use-I shook
the husks of corn out of it, on one side of my fortification, under
the rock.
It was a little before the great rains, just now mentioned,
that I threw this stuff away, taking no notice of any thing, and
not so much as remembering that I had thrown any thing there;
when about a month after, or thereal out, I saw some few stalks
of something green shooting out of the ground, which I fancied
might be some plant I had not seen; but I was surprised
and perfectly astonished, when, after a little longer time, I saw
about ten or twelve cars come out, which were perfectly green
barley, of the same kind as our European-nay, as our English
barley.
It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion
of my thoughts on this occasion. I had hitherto acted upon no
religious foundation at all. Indeed, I had very few notions of
religion in my head, or had entertained any sense of any thing
that had befallen me, otherwise than as a chance, or, as we lightly
say, what pleases God; without so much as inquiring into the end
of Providence in these things, or his order in governing events
in the world. But after I saw barley grow there, in a climate
which I knew was not proper for corn, and especially, that I
knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely, and I
began to suggest, that God had miraculously caused this grain
to grow, without any help of seed sown; and that it so was
directed, purely for my sustenance on that wild miserable place.
This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my
eyes, and I began to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature
should happen upon my account; and this was the more strange
to me, because I saw near it still, all along by the side of the rock,
some other straggling stalks, which proved to be stalks of rice,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
and which I knew, because I had seen it grow in Africa, when
I was ashore there.
I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence
for my support, but, not doubting but that there was more in the
place, I went all over that part of the island where I had been
before, peeping in every corner, and under every rock, to sce
for more of it; but I could not find any. At last, it occurred to
my thought, that I had shook a bag of chicken's meat out in
that place, and then the wonder began to cease; and I must
confess, my religious thankfulness to God's providence began to
abate too, upon discovering that all this was nothing but what
was common, though I ought to have been as thankful for so
strange and unforeseen a providence, as if it had been miraculous ;
for it was really the work of Providence, as to me, that should.
order or appoint ten or twelve grains of corn to remain unspoiled,
when the rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it had been dropped
from Heaven-as also, that I should throw it out in that
particular place, where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it
sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it any where
else at that time, it had been burnt up and destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of corn, you may be sure, in their
season, which was about the end of June, and laying up every
corn, I resolved to sow them all again, hoping in time to have
some quantity sufficient to supply me with bread; but it was
not till the fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain
of this corn to eat, and even then but sparingly, as I shall say
afterwards in its order for I lost all that I sowed the first
season, by not observing the proper time-for I sowed it just
before the dry season, so that it never came up at all, at least
not as it would have done-of which in its place.
Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
91
stalks of rice, which I preserved with the same care, and whose
use was of the same kind, or to the same purpose, namely, to
make me bread, or rather food; for I found ways to cook it up
without baking, though I did that also after some time.
to return to my journal.
But
I worked excessively hard these three or four months to
get my wall done; and the 14th of April I closed it up, contriving
to go into it, not by a door, but over the wall by a ladder, that
there might be no sign in the outside of my habitation.
April 16.-I finished the ladder; so I went up with the
ladder to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it
down on the inside. This was a complete enclosure to me;
for within I had room enough, and nothing could come at me
from without, unless it could first mount my wall.
The
The very next day after this wall was finished, I had almost
had all my labour overthrown at once, and myself killed.
case was thus:As I was busy in the inside of it, behind my
tent, just in the entrance into my cave, I was terribly frighted
with a most dreadful surprising thing indeed; for on a sudden
I found the earth come crumbling down from the roof of my
cave, and from the edge of the hill, over my head, and two of
the posts I had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner.
I was heartily scared, but thought nothing of what was really
the cause, only thinking that the top of my cave was falling in,
as some of it had done before; and, for fear I should be buried
in it, I ran forward to my ladder, and not thinking myself safe
there neither, I got over my wall for fear of the pieces of the
hill, which I expected might roll down upon me. I was no
sooner stept down upon the firm ground, but I plainly saw it
was a terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood on shook three
times at about eight minutes' distance, with three such shocks,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
as would have overturned the strongest building that could be
supposed to have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the
top of a rock, which stood about half a mile from me, next the
sea, fell down with such a terrible noise as I never heard in all
my life: I perceived also the very sea was put into violent motion
by it; and I believe the shocks were stronger under the water
than on the island.
I was so amazed with the thing itself, having never felt the
like, or discoursed with any one that had, that I was like one
dead or stupified; and the motion of the earth made my stomach
sick, like one that was tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling
of the rock awaked me, as it were, and, rousing me from the
stupified condition I was in, filled me with horror, and I thought
of nothing then but the hill falling upon my tent and all my
household goods, and burying all at once; and thus sunk my
very soul within me a second time.
After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some
time, I began to take courage; and yet I had not heart enough
to get over my wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat
still upon the ground, greatly cast down and disconsolate, not
knowing what to do. All this while I had not the least serious
religious thought, nothing but the common " Lord have mercy
upon me!" and when it was over, that went away too.
While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and grow cloudy,
as if it would rain; soon after that, the wind rose by little and
little, so that in less than half an hour it blew a most dreadful
hurricane: the sea was all on a sudden covered over with foam
and froth, the shore was covered with the breach of the water,
the trees were torn up by the roots, and a terrible storm it was;
and this held about three hours, and then began to abate, and in
two hours more it was stark calm, and began to rain very hard.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
93
All this while I sat upon the ground, very much terrified
and dejected, when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that
these winds and rain being the consequence of the earthquake,
the earthquake itself was spent and over, and I might venture
into my cave again: with this thought my spirits began to
revive, and, the rain also helping to persuade me, I went in
and sat down in my tent; but the rain was so violent, that my
tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and I was forced tc
go into my cave, though very much afraid and uneasy, for fear
it should fall on my head.
This violent rain forced me to a new work, namely, to cut
a hole through my new fortification like a sink, to let water go
out, which would else have drowned my cave. After I had
been in my cave some time, and found still no more shocks of
the earthquake follow, I began to be more composed; and now,
to support my spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, I
went to my little store, and took a small cup of rum, which,
however, I did then, and always very sparingly, knowing I
could have no more when that was gone.
It continued raining all that night, and great part of the
next day, so that I could not stir abroad; but, my mind being
more composed, I began to think of what I had best do, con-
cluding, that if the island was subject to these earthquakes, there
would be no living for me in a cave, but I must consider of
building me some little hut in an open place, which I might
surround with a wall as I had done here, and so make myself
secure from wild beasts or men: but concluded, if I staid where
I was, I should certainly, one time or other, be buried alive.
With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from
the place where it stood, which was just under the hanging
precipice of the hill, and which, if it should be shaken again,
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would certainly fall upon my tent.
And I spent the two next
days, being the 19th and 20th of April, in contriving where and
how to remove my habitation.
The fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I never
slept in quiet, and yet the apprehension of lying abroad without
any fence was almost equal to it; but still, when I looked about,
and saw how every thing was put in order, how pleasantly
concealed I was, and how safe from danger, it made me very
loath to remove.
In the meantime, it occurred to me, that it would require a
vast deal of time for me to do this, and that I must be contented
to run the venture where I was, till I had formed a camp for
myself, and had secured it so as to remove to it. So, with this
resolution, I composed myself for a time, and resolved that I
would go to work with all speed, to build me a wall with piles
and cables, etc., in a circle, as before, and set my tent up in it
when it was finished; but that I would venture to stay where
I was till it was finished, and fit to remove to. This was the
21st.
April 22.-The next morning I began to consider of means
to put this resolve in execution, but I was at a great loss about
my tools.
I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets
(for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians); but,
with much chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were
all full of notches and dull; and, though I had a grindstone, I
could not turn it, and grind my tools too; this cost me as
much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand
point of politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man.
At length I contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my
foot, that I might have both my hands at liberty.-Note. I
had never seen any such thing in England, or at least not to
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95
take notice how it was done, though since I have observed it is
very common there; besides that, my grindstone was very large
This machine cost me a full week's work to bring
and heavy.
it to perfection.
April 28, 29.--These two whole days I took up in grinding
my tools, my machine for turning my grindstone performing
very well.
April 30.-Having perceived my bread had been low a
great while, now I took a survey of it, and reduced myself to
one biscuit cake a-day, which made my heart very heavy.
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CHAPTER VI.
Observe the ship driven farther aground by the late storm-- Procure a vast
quantity of necessaries from the wreck-Catch a large turtle-I fall ill of a
fever and ague—Terrible dream, and serious reflections thereupon-Find a
bible in one of the seamen's chests thrown ashore, the reading whereof gives
me great comfort.
MAY
AY 1.-In the morning, looking towards the sea-side, the
tide being low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger
than ordinary, and it looked like a cask. When I came to it,
I found a small barrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck of
the ship, which were driven on shore by the late hurricane ;
and, looking towards the wreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie
higher out of the water than it used to do. I examined the
barrel which was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel
of gunpowder, but it had taken water, and the powder was
caked as hard as a stone; however, I rolled it farther on shore
for the present, and went on upon the sands as near as I could
to the wreck of the ship, to look for more.
When I came down to the ship, I found it strangely removed:
the forecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up
at least six feet, and the stern (which was broke to pieces, and
parted from the rest by the force of the sea, soon after I had
left rummaging her) was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on one
side; and the sand was thrown so high on that side next her
stern, that whereas there was a great piece of water before,
so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile of the wreck
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97
without swimming, I could now walk quite up to her when the tide.
was out. I was surprised with this at first, but soon con-
c.uded it must be done by the earthquake; and, as by this
violence the ship was more broken open than formerly, so many
things came daily on shore, which the sea had loosened, and
which the winds and water rolled by degrees to the land.
This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of re-
moving my habitation; and I busied myself mightily, that day
especially, in searching whether I could make any way into the
ship; but I found nothing was to be expected of that kind, for that
all the inside of the ship was choked up with sand; however, as I
had learned not to despair of any thing, I resolved to pull every
thing to pieces that I could of the ship, concluding, that every thing
I could get from her would be of some use or other to me.
May 3.-I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam
through, which I thought held some of the upper part or quarter-
deck together, and when I had cut it through, I cleared away
the sand as well as I could from the side which lay highest; but
the tide coming in, I was obliged to give over for that time.
May 4.-I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I
durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport, when just going to
leave off, I caught a young dolphin. I had made me a long line
of some rope yarn, but I had no hooks, yet I frequently caught
fish enough, as much as I cared to eat; all which I dried in the
sun, and ate them dry.
May 5.-Worked on the wreck-cut another beam asunder,
and brought three great fir planks off from the decks, which I
tied together, and made swim on shore when the tide of flood
came on.
May 6.-Worked on the wreck-got several iron bolts out
of her, and other pieces of iron work; worked very hard, and
H
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came home very much tired, and had thoughts of giving it
over.
May 7.-Went to the wreck again, but with an intent not
to work, but found the weight of the wreck had broke itself
down, the beams being cut, that several pieces of the ship
seemed to lie loose, and the inside of the hold lay so open, that
I could see into it, but almost full of water and sand.
May 8.-Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to
wrench up the deck, which lay now quite clear of the water or
sand; I wrenched open two planks, and brought them on shore
also with the tide; I left the iron crow in the wreck for next day.
May 9. Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way
into the body of the wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened
them with the crow, but could not break them up: I felt also
the roll of English lead, and could stir it, but it was too heavy
to remove.
May 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.-Went every day to the wreck, and
got a great many pieces of timber, and boards, or plank, and two
or three hundredweight of iron.
May 15. I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not cut
a piece off the roll of lead, by placing the edge of one hatchet,
and driving it with the other, but as it lay about a foot and a
half in the water, I could not make any blow to drive the hatchet.
May 16. It had blown hard in the night, and the wreck
appeared more broken by the force of the water; but I staid so
long in the woods to get pigeons for food, that the tide prevented
me going to the wreck that day.
May 17.-I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore,
at a great distance, near two miles off me, but resolved to see
what they were, and found it was a piece of the head, but too
heavy for me to bring away.
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99
May 24.-Every day to this day I worked on the wreck, and
with hard labour I loosened some things so much with the crow,
that the first flowing tide several casks floated out, and two of
the seamen's chests; but the wind blowing from the shore,
nothing came to land that day but pieces of timber, and a hogs-
head, which had some Brazil pork in it; but the salt water and
the sand had spoiled it.
I continued this work every day to the 15th of June, except
the time necessary to get food, which I always appointed dur-
ing this part of my employment to be when the tide was up,
that I might be ready when it was ebbed out; and by this time
I had gotten timber, and plank, and iron work enough to have
built a good boat, if I had known how; and also I got at several
times, and in several pieces, near one hundredweight of the
sheet lead.
June 16.-Going down to the sea-side, I found a large tor-
toise or turtle; this was the first I had seen, which it seems was
only my misfortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity;
for had I happened to be on the other side of the island, I
might have had hundreds of them every day, as I found after-
wards, but perhaps had paid dear enough for them.
June 17th I spent in cooking the turtle: I found in her
three-score eggs; and her flesh was to me, at that time, the most
savoury and pleasant that ever I tasted in my life, having had
no flesh but of goats and fowls, since I landed in this horrid
place.
June 18.-Rained all day and I staid within. I thought at
this time the rain felt cold, and I was something chilly, which I
knew was not usual in that latitude.
June 19.—Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had
been cold.
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June 20.-No rest all night, violent pains in my head, and
feverish.
June 21. Very ill, frighted almost to death with the appre-
hensions of my sad condition, to be sick, and no help. Prayed to
God for the first time since the storm off Hull; but scarce knew
what I said, or why, my thoughts being all confused.
June 22.-A little better, but under dreadful apprehensions
of sickness.
June 23. Very bad again, cold and shivering, and then a
violent headache.
June 24.-Much better.
June 25.-An ague very violent; the fit held me seven.
hours, cold fit and hot, with faint sweats after it.
June 26. Better; and having no victuals to eat, took my
gun, but found myself very weak; however, I killed a she-goat,
and with much difficulty got it home, and broiled some of it,
and ate; I would fain have stewed it, and made some broth,
but had no pot.
June 27.-The ague again so violent that I lay a-bed all day,
and neither ate nor drank. I was ready to perish for thirst,
but so weak I had not strength to stand up, or to get myself any
water to drink. Prayed to God again, but was light-headed:
and when I was not I was so ignorant, that I knew not what to
say, only I lay, and cried, "Lord look upon me! Lord pity me!
Lord have mercy upon me!" I suppose I did nothing else for
two or three hours, till, the fit wearing off, I fell asleep, and did not
wake till far in the night: when I waked, I found myself much
refreshed, but weak and exceedingly thirsty: however, as I had
no water in my whole habitation, I was forced to lie till morning
and went to sleep again. In this second sleep I had this terrible
dream:
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101
I thought that I was sitting on the ground, on the outside of
my wall, where I sat when the storm blew after the earthquake,
and that I saw a man descend from a great black cloud, in a
bright flame of fire, and light upon the ground. He was all
over as bright as a flame, so that I could but just bear to look
towards him; his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful,
impossible for words to describe; when he stepped upon the ground
with his feet, I thought the earth trembled, just as it had done
before in the carthquake, and all the air looked to my apprchen-
sion as if it had been filled with flashes of fire.
He was no sooner landed upon the earth but he moved for-
ward towards me, with a long spear, or weapon, in his hand to kill
me; and when he came to a rising ground at some distance, he
spoke to me, or I heard a voice so terrible, that it is impossible
to express the terror of it; all that I can say I understood was
this" Seeing all these things have not brought thee to repent-
ance, now thou shalt die!" at which words, I thought he lifted
up the spear that was in his hand to kill me.
No one that shall ever read this account, will expect that I
should be able to describe the horrors of my soul at this terrible
vision—I mean, that even while it was a dream, I even dreamed
of those horrors; nor is it any more possible to describe the
impression that remained upon my mind when I awaked and
found it was but a dream.
I had, alas! no divine knowledge.
What I had received
by the good instruction of my father was then worn out by an
uninterrupted series, for eight years, of seafaring wickedness
and a constant conversation with nothing but such as were, like
myself, wicked and profane to the last degree. I do not
remember that I had, in all that time, one thought that so much
as tended either to looking upwards towards God, or inwards
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
towards a reflection upon my own ways. But a certain stupidity
of soul, without desire of good, or conscience of evil, had entirely
overwhelmed me, and I was all that the most hardened, unthink-
ing, wicked creature, among our common sailors, can be supposed
to be, not having the least sense, either of the fear of God in
danger, or of thankfulness to God in deliverances.
In the relating what is already past of my story, this will
be the more easily believed, when I shall add, that, through all
the variety of miseries that had to this day befallen me, I never
had so much as one thought of it being the hand of God, or
that it was a just punishment for my sin-my rebellious behaviour
against my father, or my present sins, which were great—or so
much as a punishment for the general course of my wicked life.
When I was on the desperate expedition on the desert shores of
Africa, I never had so much as one thought of what would
become of me, or one wish to God to direct me whither I should
go, or keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded
me, as well from voracious creatures as cruel savages: but I was
merely thoughtless of a God, or a Providence, acted like a mere
brute from the principles of nature, and by the dictates of
common sense only, and indeed hardly that.
When I was delivered and taken up at sea by the Portugal
captain, well used, and dealt justly and honourably with, as well
as charitably, I had not the least thankfulness in my thoughts.
When again I was shipwrecked, ruined, and in danger of
drowning on this island, I was as far from remorse, or looking on
it as a judgment-I only said to myself often, that I was an
unfortunate dog, and born to be always miserable.
It is true, when I got on shore first here, and found all my
ship's crew drowned, and myself spared, I was surprised with a
kind of ecstasy, and some transports of soul, which, had the grace
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
103
of God assisted, might have come up to true thankfulness; but
it ended where it began, in a mere common flight of joy, or, as I
may say, being glad I was alive, without the least reflection upon
the distinguishing goodness of the hand which had preserved me,
and had singled me out to be preserved when all the rest were de-
stroyed; or an enquiry why Providence had been thus merciful to
me: even just the same common sort of joy which seamen gene-
rally have, after they have got safe on shore from a shipwreck,
which they drown all in the next bowl of punch, and forget almost
as soon as it is over; and all the rest of my life was like it.
Even when I was afterwards, on due consideration, made
sensible of my condition, how I was cast on this dreadful place,
out of the reach of human kind, out of all hope of relief, or pros-
pect of redemption, as soon as I saw but a prospect of living,
and that I should not starve and perish for hunger, all the sense
of my affliction wore off, and I began to be very easy, applied
myself to the works proper for my preservation and supply, and
was far enough from being afflicted at my condition, as a judg-
ment from Heaven, or as the hand of God against me: these
were thoughts which very seldom entered into my head.
The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my journal, had
at first some little influence upon me, and began to affect me
with seriousness, as long as I thought it had something miracu-
lous in it; but as soon as ever that part of thought was removed,
all the impression which was raised from it wore off also, as I
have noted already.
Even the earthquake, though nothing could be more terrible in
its nature, or more immediately directing to the invisible Power,
which alone directs such things; yet no sooner was the first
fright over, but the impression it had made went off also. I had
no more sense of God or his judgments, much less of the present
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOL.
affliction of my circumstances being from his hand, than if I had
been in the most prosperous condition of life.
But now, when I began to be sick, and a leisurely view
of the miseries of death came to place itself before me; when
my spirits began to sink under the burden of a strong dis-
temper, and nature was exhausted with the violence of the fever,
conscience, that had slept so long, began to awake, and I began
to reproach myself with my past life, in which I had so evidently,
by uncommon wickedness, provoked the justice of God to lay
me under uncommon strokes, and to deal with me in so vindic-
tive a manner.
These reflections oppressed me from the second or third day
of my distemper; and in the violence, as well of the fever as of
the dreadful reproaches of my conscience, extorted some words
from me like praying to God, though I cannot say they were
either a prayer attended with desires or with hopes: it was rather
the voice of mere fright and distress: my thoughts were con-
fused, the convictions great upon my mind, and the horror of
dying in such a miserable condition raised vapours into my head.
with the mere apprehensions; and, in these hurries of my soul,
I knew not what my tongue might express: but it was rather
exclamation, such as, "Lord! what a miserable creature am I!
If I should be sick, I shall certainly die for want of help, and
what will become of me!" Then the tears burst out of my
eyes, and I could say no more for a good while.
In this interval, the good advice of my father came to my
mind, and presently his prediction, which I mentioned in the
beginning of this story; viz. that, if I did take this foolish step,
God would not bless me and I would have leisure hereafter to
reflect upon having neglected his counsel, when there might be
none to assist in my recovery. "Now," said I aloud, "my
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105
dear father's words are come to pass; God's justice has overtaken
me, and I have none to help or hear me. I rejected the voice
of Providence, which had mercifully put me in a posture or
station of life, wherein I might have been happy and easy; but
I would neither see it myself, nor learn to know the blessing of
it from my parents. I left them to mourn over my folly, and
now I am left to mourn under the consequences of it. I refused
their help and assistance, who would have lifted me into the
world, and would have made every thing easy to me, and now
I have difficulties to struggle with, too great for even nature
itself to support, and no assistance, no help, no comfort, no
advice." Then I cried out, "Lord, be my help; for I am in
great distress!"
This was the first
made for many years.
prayer, if I might call it so, that I had
But I return to my journal.
:
June 28. Having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep
I had had, and the fit being entirely off, I got up; and though
the fright and terror of my dream was very great, yet I con-
sidered that the fit of the ague would return again the next day,
and now was my time to get something to refresh and support
myself, when I should be ill and the first thing I did, I filled
a large square case-bottle with water, and set it upon my table
in reach of my bed; and to take off the chill or aguish disposition
of the water, I put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it, and
mixed them together; then I got me a piece of the goat's flesh,
and broiled it on the coals, but could eat very little. I walked
about, but was very weak, and withal very sad and heavy-hearted,
under a sense of my miserable condition, dreading the return of
my distemper the next day. At night, I made my supper off
three of the turtle's eggs, which I roasted in the ashes, and ate,
as we call it, in the shell; and this was the first bit of meat I
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
had ever asked God's blessing to, even, as I could remember, in
my whole life.
After I had eaten, I tried to walk, but found myself so weak
that I could hardly carry the gun (for I never went out without
that); so I went but a little way, and sat down upon the
ground, looking out upon the sea, which was just before me, and
very calm and smooth. As I sat here, some such thoughts as
these occurred to me :-
What is the earth and sea, of which I have seen so much?
Whence is it produced? And what am I, and all the other
creatures, wild and tame, human and brutal-whence are we?
Sure we are all made by some secret Power, who formed
the earth and sea, the air and sky--and who is that?
Then it followed most naturally: It is God that has made
it all. Well, but then-it came on strangely-If God has made
all these things, he guides and governs them all, and all things
that concern them; for the being that could make all things,
must certainly have power to guide and direct them.
If so, nothing can happen in the great circuit of his works,
either without his knowledge or appointment.
And if nothing happens without his knowledge, he knows that
I am here, and am in a dreadful condition: and if nothing happens
without his appointment, he has appointed all this to befal me.
Nothing occurred to my thoughts to contradict any of these
conclusions; and therefore it rested upon me with the greater
force, that it must needs be that God had appointed all this to
befal me that I was brought to this miserable circumstance by his
direction, he having the sole power, not of me only, but of every-
thing that happened in the world. Immediately it followed-
Why has God done this to me? what have I done to be
thus used?
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107
My conscience presently checked me in that inquiry, as if I
had blasphemed; and methought it spoke to me like a voice:-
"Wretch dost thou ask what thou hast done? Look back upon
a dreadful misspent life, and ask thyself what thou hast not
done? Ask why is it that thou wert not long ago destroyed?
Why wert thou not drowned in Yarmouth Roads? killed in
the fight, when the ship was taken by the Sallee man-of-war?
devoured by the wild beasts on the coast of Africa? or drowned
HERE, when all the crew perished but thyself? Dost thou ask,
What have I done?"
I was struck with these reflections, as one astonished, and
had not a word to say-no, not to answer to myself; but rose up,
pensive and sad, walked back to my retreat, and went up over
my wall, as if I had been going to bed; but my thoughts were
sadly disturbed, and I had no inclination to sleep, so I sat down
in my chair, and lighted my lamp, for it began to be dark,
Now, as the apprehensions of the return of my distemper
terrified me very much, it occurred to my thought, that the
Brazilians take no physic but their tobacco for almost all dis-
tempers; and I had a piece of a roll of tobacco in one of the
chests, which was quite cured, and some also that was green, and
not quite cured.
I went, directed by Heaven, no doubt; for in this chest I
found a cure both for soul and body. I opened the chest, and
found what I looked for, namely, the tobacco; and as the few
books I had saved lay there too, I took out one of the Bibles,
which I mentioned before, and which, to this time, I had not
found leisure, or so much as inclination, to look into-I say, I
took it out, and brought both that and the tobacco with me to
the table.
What use to make of the tobacco I knew not, as to my dis-
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temper, or whether it was good for it or no ; but I tried several
experiments with it, as if I was resolved it should hit one way
or other. I first took a piece of a leaf, and chewed it in my
mouth, which, indeed, at first, almost stupified my brain, the
tobacco being green and strong, and that I had not been much
used to it; then I took some, and steeped it an hour or two in some
rum, and resolved to take a dose of it when I lay down; and,
lastly, I burnt some upon a pan of coals, and held my nose close
over the smoke of it, as long as I could bear it, as well for the
heat as the virtue of it, and I held almost to suffocation.
In the interval of this operation I took up the Bible, and
began to read; but my head was too much disturbed with the
tobacco to bear reading, at least at that time; only having
opened the book casually, the first words that occurred to me
were these:- "Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will
deliver; and thou shalt glorify me.
The words were very apt to my case, and made some im-
pression upon my thoughts at the time of reading them, though
not so much as they did afterwards; for, as for being delivered,
the word had no sound, as I may say, to me. The thing was
so remote, so impossible, in my apprehension of things, that I
began to say, as the children of Israel did, when they were pro-
mised flesh to eat, "Can God spread a table in the wilderness ?"
So I began to say, "Can God himself deliver me from this place?"
And as it was not for many years that any hope appeared, this
prevailed very often upon my thoughts. But, however, the
words made a very great impression upon me, and I mused
upon them very often. It grew now late, and the tobacco had,
as I said, dozed my head so much, that I inclined to sleep, so
that I left my lamp burning in the cave, lest I should want any
thing in the night, and went to bed. But before I lay down, I
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109
did what I never had done in all my life-I kneeled down, and
prayed to God to fulfil the promise to me, that, if I called upon
him in the day of trouble, he would deliver me.
After my
broken and imperfect prayer was over, I drank the rum, in
which I had steeped the tobacco, which was so strong and rank
of the tobacco, that indeed I could scarce get it down. Imme-
diately upon this, I went to bed, and I found presently it flew up
into my head violently; but I fell into a sound sleep, and waked
no more, till, by the sun, it must necessarily be near three o'clock
in the afternoon the next day; nay, to this hour, I am partly of
the opinion, that I slept all the next day and night. and till
almost three the day after; for, otherwise, I know not how I
should lose a day out of my reckoning, in the days of the week,
as it appeared, some years after, I had done: for if I had lost it
by crossing and recrossing the Line, I should have lost more
than a day; but in my account it was lost, and I never knew
which way.
Be that, however, one way or other; when I awaked, I found
myself exceedingly refreshed, and my spirits lively and cheerful.
When I got up, I was stronger than I was the day before, and
my stomach better; for I was hungry; and, in short, I had no
fit the next day, but continued much altered for the better: this
was the 29th.
The 30th was my well day of course, and I went abroad
with my gun, but did not care to travel too far; I killed a sea-
fowl or two, something like a brand goose, and brought them
home, but was not very forward to eat them so I ate some
more of the turtle's eggs, which were very good. This evening I
renewed the medicine which I had supposed did me good the day
before, viz. the tobacco steeped in rum; only I did not take so
much as before, nor did I chew any of the leaf or hold my head
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
over the smoke; however I was not so well the next day, which
was the 1st of July, as I hoped I should have been; for I had
a little spice of the cold fit, but it was not much.
July 2.—I renewed the medicine all the three ways, and dozed
myself with it at first, and doubled the quantity which I drank.
July 3.-I missed the fit for good and all, though I did not
recover my full strength for some weeks after. While I was
thus gathering strength, my thoughts ran exceedingly upon this
scripture, "I will deliver thee;" and the impossibility of my de-
liverance lay much upon my mind, in bar of my ever expecting it :
but as I was discouraging myself with such thoughts, it occurred
to my mind, that I pored so much upon my deliverance from
the main affliction, that I disregarded the deliverance I had
received; and I was, as it were, made to ask myself such ques-
tions as these: viz. Have I not been delivered, and wonderfully
too, from sickness? from the most distressing condition that
could be, and that was so frightful to me? and what notice had
I taken of it? had I done my part? God had delivered me, but
I had not glorified him: that is to say, I had not owned and
been thankful for that as a deliverance; and how could I expect
greater deliverance?
This touched my heart very much, and immediately I
kneeled down, and gave God thanks aloud, for my recovery from
my sickness.
July 4.—In the morning I took the Bible; and beginning at
the New Testament, I began seriously to read it, and imposed
upon myself to read a while every morning and every night, not
tying myself to the number of chapters, but as long as my
thoughts should engage me. It was not long after I set
seriously to this work, but I found my heart more deeply and
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111
sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life. The
impression of my dream revived; and the words, "All these
things have not brought thee to repentance," ran seriously in
my thoughts. I was earnestly begging of God to give ine re-
pentance, when it happened providentially the very day, that,
reading the Scripture, I came to these words :-" He is exalted a
Prince, and a Saviour, to give repentance, and to give remission."
I threw down the book, and with my heart as well as my hand
lifted up to heaven, in a kind of ecstasy of joy, I cried out aloud,
Jesus, thou son of David! Jesus, thou exalted Prince and
Saviour, give me repentance!"
(6
This was the first time that I could say, in the true sense of
the words, that I prayed in all my life; for now I prayed with
a sense of my condition, and with a true Scripture view of hope,
founded on the encouragement of the word of God; and from this
time, I may say, I began to have hope that God would hear me.
:
Now I began to construe the words mentioned above, "Call
on me, and I will deliver thee," in a different sense from what
I had ever done before; for then I had no notion of any thing
being called deliverance, but my being delivered from the captivity
I was in for though I was indeed at large in the place, yet the
island was certainly a prison to me, and that in the worst sense
of the word; but now I learnt to take it in another sense.
Now I looked back upon my past life with such horror, and my
sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of God,
but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my
comfort. As for my solitary life, it was nothing; I did not so
much as pray to be delivered from it, or think of it; it was all
of no consideration in comparison of this; and I added this part
here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come
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to a true sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a
much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction.
But, leaving this part, I return to my journal.
My condition began now to be, though not less miserable as
to my way of living, yet much easier to my mind; and my
thoughts being directed, by a constant reading the Scripture,
and praying to God, to things of a higher nature, I had a great
deal of comfort within, which till now I knew nothing of: also
as my health and strength returned, I bestirred myself to furnish
myself with every thing that I wanted, and make my way of
living as regular as I could.
From the 4th of July to the 14th, I was chiefly employed
in walking about with my gun in my hand, a little and a little
at a time, as a man that was gathering up his strength after a
fit of sickness; for it is hardly to be imagined how low I was,
and to what weakness I was reduced. The application which
I made use of was perfectly new, and, perhaps, what had never
cured an ague before; neither can I recommend it to any one
to practise by this experiment; and though it did carry off the
fit, yet it rather contributed to weaken me, for I had frequent
convulsions in my nerves and limbs for some time.
I learnt from it also this, in particular, that being abroad in
the rainy season was the most pernicious thing to my health
that could be, especially in those rains which came attended
with storms and hurricanes of wind; for, as the rain which
came in a dry season was always most accompanied with such
storms, so I found this rain was much more dangerous than the
rain which fell in September and October.
I had been now in this unhappy island above ten months:
all possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to be
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113
entirely taken from me; and I firmly believed, that no human
shape had ever set foot upon that place. Having now secured
my habitation, as I thought, fully to my mind, I had a great
desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island, and to
see what other productions I might find, which yet I know
nothing of.
1
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CHAPTER VII.
I begin to take a survey of my island-Discover plenty of tobacco, grapes,
lemons and sugar-canes, wild, but no human inhabitants-Resolve to lay
up a store of these articles, to furnish me against the wet season-My cat,
which I supposed lost, returns with kittens-I regulate my diet, and shut
myself up for the wet season-Sow my grain, which comes to nothing;
but I discover and remedy my error-Take account of the course of the
weather
IT
T was the 15th of July that I began to take a more parti-
cular survey of the island itself. I went up the creek
first, where, as I hinted, I brought my rafts on shore. I found,
after I came about two miles up, that the tide did not flow any
higher, and that it was no more than a little brook of running
water, very fresh and good; but this being the dry season, there
was hardly any water in some parts of it, at least not enough to
run into any stream, so as it could be perceived.
On the banks of this brook I found many pleasant savannas
or meadows, plain, smooth, and covered with grass; and, on the
rising parts of them, next to the higher grounds (where the
water, as it might be supposed, never overflowed), I found a
great deal of tobacco, green, and growing to a great and very
strong stalk; there were divers other plants, which I had no
notion of, or understanding about, and might perhaps have virtues
of their own, which I could not find out.
I searched for the cassava root, which the Indians in all that
climate make their bread of, but I could find none. I saw large
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115
plants of aloes, but did not then understand them; I saw several
sugar-canes, but wild, and, for want of cultivation, imperfect.
I contented myself with these discoveries for this time, and came
back musing with myself what course I might take to know the
virtue and goodness of any of the fruits or plants which I should
discover, but could bring it to no conclusion; for, in short, I had
made so little observation while I was in the Brazils, that I
knew little of the plants of the field; at least, very little that
might serve me to any purpose now in my distress.
The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way again;
and, after going something farther than I had done the day
before, I found the brook and the savannas began to cease, and
the country became more woody than before. In this part I
found different fruits, and particularly I found melons upon the
ground in great abundance, and grapes upon the trees; the vines
had spread indeed over the trees, and the clusters of grapes
were now just in their prime, very ripe and rich.
This was a
surprising discovery, and I was exceedingly glad of them; but
I was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of them,
remembering that when I was ashore in Barbary, the eating of
grapes killed several of our Englishmen who were slaves there,
by throwing them into fluxes and fevers; but I found an excel-
lent use for these grapes, and that was to cure or dry them in
the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept,
which I thought would be, as indeed they were, as wholesome
and as agreeable to eat, when no grapes might be had.
I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my
habitation; which, by the way, was the first night, as I might
say, I had lain from home. In the night I took my first con-
trivance, and got up into a tree, where I slept well, and the
next morning proceeded upon my discovery, travelling near four
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miles, as I might judge by the length of the valley, keeping still
due north, with a ridge of hills on the south and north side of
me.
At the end of this march I came to an opening, where the
country seemed to descend to the west; and a little spring of
fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran
the other way, that is, due east; and the country appeared so
fres!, so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant
verdure, or flourish of spring, that it looked like a planted garden.
I descended a little on the side of that delicious valley, sur-
veying it with a secret kind of pleasure (though mixed with
other afflicting thoughts), to think that this was all my own, that
I was king and lord of all this country indefeasibly, and had a
right of possession; and, if I could convey it, I might have it
in inheritance, as completely as any lord of a manor in England.
I saw here abundance of cocoa trees, orange, and lemon, and
citron trees, but all wild, and few bearing any fruit; at least,
not then however, the green limes that I gathered were not
only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and I mixed their
juice afterwards with water, which made it very wholesome, and
very cool and refreshing.
I found now I had business enough to gather and carry
home; and resolved to lay up a store, as well of grapes as
limes and lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season, which I
knew was approaching.
In order to do this, I gathered a great heap of grapes in
one place, and a lesser heap in another place, and a great parcel
of limes and lemons in another place and taking a few of each
with me, I travelled homeward, and resolved to come again
and bring a bag or sack, or what I could make, to carry the rest
home,
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
117
Accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, I came
home (so I must now call my tent and my cave); but before I got
thither, the grapes were spoiled; the richness of the fruit and
the weight of the juice having broken them and bruised them,
they were good for little or nothing: as to the limes, they were
good, but I could bring but a few.
The next day, being the 19th, I went back, having made
me two small bags to bring home my harvest. But I was sur-
prised, when, coming to my heap of grapes which were so rich
and fine when I gathered them, I found them all spread abroad,
trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some there, and
abundance eaten and devoured. By this I concluded there.
were some wild creatures thereabouts, which had done this; but
what they were I knew not.
However, as I found there was no laying them up on heaps,
and no carrying them away in a sack, but that one way they
would be destroyed, and the other way they would be crushed with
their own weight, I took another course; for I gathered a large
quantity of the grapes, and hung them upon the out branches of
the trees, that they might cure and dry in the sun; and as for
the limes and lemons, I carried as many back as I could well
stand under.
When I came home from this journey, I contemplated with
great pleasure on the fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasant-
ness of the situation, the security from storms on that side of
the water, and the wood; and concluded, that I had pitched
upon a place to fix my abode, which was by far the worst
part of the country. Upon the whole, I began to consider of
removing my habitation, and to look out for a place, equally
safe as where I now was situated, if possible, in that pleasant,
fruitful part of the island.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
This thought ran long in my head, and I was exceedingly
fond of it for some time, the pleasantness of the place tempting
me; but when I came to a nearer view of it, and to consider
that I was now by the sea-side, where it was at least possible
that something might happen to my advantage, and that the
same ill fate that brought me hither, might bring some other
unhappy wretches to the same place; and though it was scarce
probable that any such thing should ever happen, yet, to inclose
myself among the hills and woods, in the centre of the island,
was to anticipate my bondage, and to render such an affair not
only improbable, but impossible; and that, therefore, I ought
not by any means to remove.
However, I was so enamoured with this place that I spent
much of my time there for the whole remaining part of the
month of July; and though, upon second thoughts, I resolved,
as above, not to remove, yet I built me a little kind of a bower,
and surrounded it, at a distance, with a strong fence, being a
double hedge, as high as I could reach, well staked, and filled
between with brushwood; and here I lay very secure, sometimes
two or three nights together, always going over it with a ladder,
as before; so that I fancied now I had my country house, and
my sea-coast house; and this work took me up the beginning of
August.
I had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my
labour, when the rains came on, and made me stick close to my
first habitation; for, though I had made me a tent like the other,
with a piece of sail, and spread it very well, yet I had not the
shelter of a hill to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me
to retreat into when the rains were extraordinary.
About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished my
bower, and begun to enjoy myself. The 3d of August I found
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
119
the grapes I had hung up were perfectly dried, and, indeed,
were excellent good raisins of the sun; so I began to take them
down from the trees, and it was very happy that I did so, for
the rains which followed would have spoiled them, and I had
lost the best part of my winter food; for I had above two hun-
dred large bunches of them. No sooner had I taken them all
down, and carried most of them home to my cave, but it began
to rain; and from thence, which was the 14th of August, it
rained more or less every day till the middle of October, and
sometimes so violently that I could not stir out of my cave for
several days.
In this season I was much surprised with the increase of my
family; I had been concerned for the loss of one of my cats,
who ran away from me, or, as I thought, had been dead; and
I heard no more tale or tidings of her, till, to my astonishment,
she came home, about the end of August, with three kittens.
This was the more strange to me, because, though I had killed
a wild cat, as I called it, with my gun, yet I thought it was a
quite different kind from our European cats; yet the young cats
were the same kind of house breed like the old one; and both
my cats being females, I thought it very strange; but from these
three cats, I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats, that
I was forced to kill them like vermin, or wild beasts, and to
drive them from my house as much as possible.
From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain, so
that I could not stir, and was now very careful not to be much
wet. In this confinement I began to be straitened for food;
but venturing out twice, I one day killed a goat; and the last
day, which was the 26th, found a very large tortoise, which was
a treat to me, and my food was regulated thus: I ate a bunch
of raisins for my breakfast, a piece of the goat's flesh, or of the
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turtle, for my dinner, broiled (for, to my great misfortune, I had
no vessel to boil or stew any thing), and two or three of the
turtle's eggs for supper.
During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I worked
daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave; and, by degrees,
worked it on towards one side, till I came to the outside of the
hill, and made a door or way out, which came beyond my fence,
or wall; and so I came in and out this way. But I was not
perfectly easy at lying so open; for, as I had managed myself
before, I was in a perfect enclosure, whereas now I thought I
lay exposed; and yet I could not perceive that there was any
living thing to fear, the biggest creature that I had ever seen
upon the island being a goat.
September the 30th.—I was now come to the unhappy anni-
versary of my landing-I cast up the notches on my post, and
found I had been on shore three hundred and sixty-five days.
I kept this day as a solemn fast, setting it apart to a religious
exercise, prostrating myself to the ground with the most serious
humiliation, confessing myself to God, acknowledging his righte-
ous judgment upon me, and praying to him to have mercy on
me, through Jesus Christ: and having not tasted the least re-
freshment for twelve hours, even till the going down of the sun,
I then ate a biscuit-cake, and a bunch of grapes, and went to
bed, finishing the day as I began it.
I had all this time observed no Sabbath day, for as at first
I had no sense of religion upon my mind, I had after some time,
omitted to distinguish the weeks, by making a longer notch than
ordinary for the Sabbath day, and so did not really know what
any of the days were; but now having cast up the days as
above, I found I had been there a year; so I divided it into
weeks, and set apart every seventh day for a Sabbath; though I
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
121
found, at the end of my account, I had lost a day or two of
my reckoning.
A little after this my ink began to fail me, and so I con-
tented myself to use it more sparingly, and to write down
only the most remarkable events of my life, without continuing
a daily memorandum of other things.
The rainy season and the dry season began now to appear
regular to me, and I learned to divide them so as to provide
for them accordingly. But I bought all my experience before
I had it; and this, I am going to relate, was one of the most
discouraging experiments that I made at all. I have mentioned
that I had saved the few ears of barley and rice which I had so
surprisingly found spring up, as I thought, of themselves, and
believe there were about thirty stalks of rice, and about twenty
of barley; and now I thought it a proper time to sow it after
the rains, the sun being in its southern position going from me.
Accordingly, I dug up a piece of ground, as well as I could,
with my wooden spade, and, dividing it into two parts, I sowed
my grain; but as it was sowing, it casually occurred to my
thought, that I would not sow it all at first, because I did not
know when was the proper time for it; so I sowed about two-
thirds of the seeds, leaving about a handful of each.
It was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did so, for
not one grain of that I sowed this time came to any thing; for
the dry months following, the earth having had no rain after the
seed was sown, it had no moisture to assist its growth, and never
came up at all, till the wet season had come again, and then it
grew as if it had been newly sown.
Finding my first seed did not grow, which I easily imagined
was by the drought, I sought for a moister piece of ground to
make another trial in; and I dug up a piece of ground near my
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new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed in February, a little
before the vernal equinox; and this, having the rainy months of
March and April to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and
yielded a very good crop; but having part of the seed left only,
and not daring to sow all that I had yet, I had but a small
quantity at last, my whole crop not amounting to above half a
peck of each kind.
But by this experience I was made master of my business,
and knew exactly when the proper season was to sow: and that
I might expect two seed-times and two harvests every year.
While this corn was growing, I made a little discovery,
which was of use to me afterwards. As soon as the rains were
over, and the weather began to settle, which was about the
month of November, I made a visit up the country to my bower,
where, though I had not been some months, yet I found all
things just as I left them. The circle or double hedge that
I had made, was not only firm and entire, but the stakes which
I had cut off of some trees that grew thereabouts, were all
shot out, and grown with long branches, as much as a willow tree
usually shoots the first year after lopping its head. I could not
tell what tree to call it that these stakes were cut from. I was
surprised, and yet very well pleased, to see the young trees
grow and I pruned them and led them up to grow as much
alike as I could-and it is scarce credible how beautiful a figure
they grew into in three years; so that, though the hedge made
a circle of about twenty-five yards in diameter, yet the trees,
for such I might now call them, soon covered it; and it was a
complete shade sufficient to lodge under all the dry season.
This made me resolve to cut some more stakes, and make
me a hedge like this in a semicircle round my wall, I mean that
of my first dwelling, which I did; and placing the trees, or stakes,
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
123
in a double row, at above eight yards' distance from my first
fence, they grew presently, and were at first a fine cover to my
habitation, and afterwards served for a defence also, as I shall
observe in its order.
I found now, that the seasons of the year might generally
be divided, not into summer and winter, as in Europe, but into
the rainy seasons and the dry seasons, which were generally
thus:
Half February...
March
Half April
Half April
May
June
July
Half August
Half August
September
Half October
Half October
November
December
January
...
...
...
Half February..
Rainy, the sun being then on, or near the equinox
Dry, the sun being then to the north of the Line.
-Rain, the sun being then come pack.
Dry, the sun being theu to the south of the Line.
The rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter, as the
winds happened to blow; but this was the general observation
I made. After I had found, by experience, the ill consequence
of being abroad in the rain, I took care to furnish myself with
provision beforehand, that I might not be obliged to go out; and
I sat within doors as much as possible during the wet months.
In this time I found much employment (and very suitable
also to the time), for I found great occasion of many things
which I had no way to furnish myself with, but by hard labour
and constant application; particularly, I tried many ways to
make myself a basket; but all the twigs I could get for the
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
purpose proved so brittle that they would do nothing. It
proved of excellent advantage to me now, that when I was a
boy I used to take great delight in standing at a basket-maker's
in the town where my father lived, to see them make their
wicker-ware; and being, as boys usually are, very officious to
help, and a great observer of the manner how they worked those
things, and sometimes lent a hand, I had by this means so full
knowledge of the methods of it, that I wanted nothing but
the materials; when it came into my mind, that the twigs of
that tree from whence I cut my stakes that grew, might possibly
be as tough as the sallows, and willows, and osiers, in England;
and I resolved to try.
Accordingly, the next day I went to my country-house, as
I called it, and, cutting some of the smaller twigs, I found them
to my purpose as much as I could desire; whereupon I came
the next time prepared with a hatchet to cut down a quantity,
which I soon found, for there was a great plenty of them: these
I set up to dry within my circle, or hedges, and when they
were fit for use, I carried them to my cave; and here, during
the next season, I employed myself in making (as well as I could)
a great many baskets, both to carry earth, or to carry or lay
up any thing, as I had occasion; and though I did not finish
them very handsomely, yet I made them sufficiently serviceable
for my purpose; and thus afterwards I took care never to be
without them and as my wicker-ware decayed, I made more;
especially I made strong deep baskets to place my corn in,
instead of sacks, when I should come to have any quantity of it.
:
Having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world of
time about it, I bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to supply
two wants: I had no vessels to hold any thing that was liquid,
except two runlets, which were almost full of rum, and some
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
125
glass bottles, some of the common size, and others, which were
case-bottles, square, for the holding of water, spirits, etc. I
had not so much as a pot to boil any thing in, except a great
kettle which I saved out of the ship, and which was too big for
such uses as I desired it for, namely, to make broth, and stew
a bit of meat by itself. The second thing I would fain have
had, was a tobacco-pipe, but it was impossible for me to make
one; however, I found a contrivance for that too at last.
I employed myself in planting my second rows of stakes of
piles, and in this wicker-work, all the summer or dry season,
when another business took me up more time than it could be
imagined I could spare.
:
}
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CHAPTER VIII.
Make a second tour through the island -Catch a young parrot, which I after-
wards teach to speak—My mode of sleeping at night-Find the other side
of the island much more pleasant than mine, and covered with turtle and
Sea-fowl-Catch a young kid, which I tame—Return to my old habita-
tion-Great plague with my harvest.
I
MENTIONED before, that I had a great mind to see the
whole island, and that I had travelled up the brook, and so on,
to where I built my bower, and where I had an opening quite to
the sea, on the other side of the island. I now resolved to travel
quite across to the sea-shore on that side. So, taking my gun
and hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity of powder and
shot than usual, with two biscuit-cakes, and a great bunch of
raisins in my pouch, for my store, I began my journey. When
I had passed the vale where my bower stood, as above, I came
within view of the sea to the west; and it being a very clear
day, I fairly descried land, whether an island or continent I
could not tell; but it lay very high, extending from the west
to the west-south-west, at a very great distance; by my guess it
could not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off.
I could not tell what part of the world this might be, other-
wise than that I knew it must be part of America; and, as I
concluded by all my observations, must be near the Spanish
dominions, and perhaps was all inhabited by savages, where, if
I should have landed, I had been in a worse condition than I
was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the dispositions of Provi-
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
127
dence, which I began now to own, and to believe ordered every
thing for the best-I say, I quieted my mind with this, and left
afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there.
Besides, after some pause upon this affair, I considered, that
if this land was the Spanish coast, I should certainly, one time
or other, see some vessels pass or repass one way or other: but
if not, then it was the savage coast, between the Spanish country
and Brazil, the inhabitants of which were indeed the worst
of savages; for they are cannibals, or men-eaters, and fail not
to murder and devour all the human bodies that fall into their
hands.
With these considerations I walked very leisurely forward.
I found that side of the island where I now was much pleasanter
than mine-the open or savanna fields sweet, adorned with
flowers and grass, and full of very fine woods. I saw abundance
of parrots, and fain would I have caught one, if possible, to
have kept it to be tame, and taught it to speak to me.
I did,
after some pains-taking, catch a young parrot; for I knocked it
down with a stick, and having recovered it, I brought it home;
but it was some years before I could make him speak. How-
ever, at last I taught him to call me by my name very
familiarly; but the accident that followed, though it be a trifle,
will be very diverting in its place.
I was exceedingly diverted with this journey: I found in
the low grounds, hares, as I thought them to be, and foxes, but
they differed greatly from all the other kinds I had met with;
nor could I satisfy myself to eat them, though I killed several
but I had no need to be venturous; for I had no want of food,
and of that which was very good too; especially these three
sorts, namely, goats, pigeons, and turtle, or tortoise, which, added
to my grapes, Leadenhall Market could not have furnished a
:
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better table than I, in proportion to the company; and though
my case was deplorable enough, yet I had great cause for thank-
fulness, that I was not driven to any extremities for food; but
rather plenty, even to dainties.
I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright
in a day, or thereabouts; but I took so many turns and returns
to see what discoveries I could make, that I came wearied enough
to the place where I resolved to sit down for all night; and
then either reposed myself in a tree, or surrounded myself with a
row of stakes set upright in the ground, either from one tree to
another, or so as no wild creature could come at me without
waking me.
As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to see
that I had taken up my lot on the worst side of the island; for
here, indeed, the shore was covered with innumerable turtles,
whereas, on the other side, I had found but three in a year and
a half.
Here was also an infinite number of fowls of many
kinds, some of which I had not seen before, and many of them
very good meat; but such as I knew not the names of, except
those called penguins.
I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very
sparing of my powder and shot; and therefore had more mind
to kill a she-goat, if I could, which I could better feed on: and
though there were many goats here, more than on the other
side of the island, yet it was with much more difficulty that I
could come near them-the country being flat and even, and
they saw me much sooner than when I was on the hills.
I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than
mine, but yet I had not the least inclination to remove; for, as
I was fixed in my habitation, it became natural to me, and I
seemed, all the while I was here, to be, as it were, upon a jour-
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129
ney, and from home; however, I travelled along the shore of
the sea towards the east, I suppose, about twelve miles; and
then, setting up a great pole upon the shore for a mark, I con-
cluded I would go home again: and the next journey I took
should be on the other side of the island, east from my dwelling,
and so round, till I came to my post again-of which in its place.
I took another way to come back than that I went, thinking
I could easily keep all the island so much in my view, that I
could not miss finding my first dwelling by viewing the country
-but I found myself mistaken; for, being come about two or
three miles, I found myself descended into a very large valley,
but so surrounded with hills, and those hills covered with woods,
that I could not see which was my way by any direction but
that of the sun, nor even then, unless I knew very well the
position of the sun at that time of the day.
It happened, to my further misfortune, that the weather
proved hazy for three or four days, while I was in this valley;
and not being able to see the sun, I wandered about very un-
comfortably, and at last was obliged to find out the sea-side,
look for my post, and come back the same way I went; and
then, by easy journeys, I turned homeward, the weather being
exceedingly hot, and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other
things very heavy.
In this journey, my dog surprised a young kid, and seized
upon it; and I running in to take hold of it, caught it, and
saved it alive from the dog. I had a great mind to bring it
home, if I could: for I had often been musing whether it might
not be possible to get a kid or two, and so raise a breed of
tame goats, which might supply me when my powder and shot
should be spent.
I made a collar for this little creature, and, with a string
K
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which I made of some rope-yarn, which I always carried about
me, I led him along, though with some difficulty, till I came to
my bower, and there I enclosed him, and left him, for I was
very impatient to be at home, from whence I had been absent
above a month.
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come
into my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed: this
little wandering journey, without a settled place of abode, had
been so unpleasant to me, that my own house, as I called it to
myself, was a perfect settlement to me compared to that; and
it rendered everything about me so comfortable, that I resolved
I would never go a great way from it again, while it should be
my lot to stay on the island.
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after
my long journey; during which, most of the time was taken up
in the weighty affair of making a cage for my poll, who began
now to be a mere domestic, and to be mighty well acquainted
with me.
Then I began to think of the poor kid which I had
pent in within my little circle, and resolved to go and fetch it
home, and give it some food; accordingly I went, and found it
where I left it; for, indeed, it could not get out, but was almost
starved for want of food. I went and cut boughs of trees, and
branches of such shrubs, as I could find, and threw it over, and
having fed it, I tied it as I did before, to lead it away; but it
was so tame with being hungry, that I had no need to have
tied it, for it followed me like a dog: and, as I continually fed
it, the creature became so loving, so gentle, and so fond, that
it became from that time one of my domestics also, and would
never leave me afterwards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come,
and I kept the 30th of September in the same solemn manner
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131
as before, being the anniversary of my landing on the island,
having now been there two years, and no more prospect of being
delivered than the first day I came there. I spent the whole
day in humble and thankful acknowledgments of the many
wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attended
with, and without which it might have been infinitely more
miserable. I gave humble and hearty thanks, that God had
been pleased to discover to me even that it was possible I might
be more happy in this solitary condition than I should have been
in a liberty of society, and in all the pleasures of the world—that
he could fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state,
and the want of human society, by his presence and the com-
munication of his grace to my soul, supporting, comforting, aud
encouraging me to depend upon his providence here, and hope
for his eternal presence hereafter.
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more
happy the life I now led was, with all its miserable circumstances,
than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part
of my days: and now, having changed both my sorrows and my
joys, my very desires altered, my affections changed their gust,
and my delights were perfectly new from what they were at my
first coming, or, indeed, for the two years past.
Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting or for
viewing the country, the anguish of my soul at my condition
would break out upon me on a sudden, and my very heart would
die within me to think of the woods, the mountains, the deserts
I was in; and how I was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal
bars and bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, with-
out redemption. In the midst of the greatest composures of my
mind, this would break out upon me like a storm, and made me
wring my hands, and weep like a child. Sometimes it would
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take me in the middle of my work, and I would immediately
sit down and sigh, and look upon the ground for an hour or two
together, and this was still worse to me; for if I could burst
out into tears, or vent myself by words, it would go off; and
the grief, having exhausted itself, would abate.
But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts-1
daily read the word of God, and applied all the comforts of it to
my present state. One morning, being very sad, I opened the
Bible upon these words, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee!" Immediately it occurred, that these words were to me;
why else should they be directed in such a manner, just at the
moment when I was mourning over my condition, as one for-
saken of God and man? "Well then," said I, "if God does not.
forsake me, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters
it though the world should all forsake me; seeing, on the other
hand, if I had all the world, and should lose the favour and
blessing of God, there would be no comparison in the loss?"
From this moment I began to conclude in my mind, that it
was possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary
condition, than it was probable I should have ever been in any
particular state in the world; and with this thought I was going
to give thanks to God for bringing me to this place.
I know not what it was, but something shocked my mind at
that thought, and I durst not speak the words. "How canst
thou be such an hypocrite," said I, even audibly, "to pretend
to be thankful for a condition, which, however thou mayst
endeavour to be contented with, thou wouldst rather pray
heartily to be delivered from ?" So I stopped there; but though
I could not say I thanked God for being there, yet I sincerely
gave thanks to God for opening my eyes, by whatever afflicting
providences, to see the former condition of my life, and to mourn
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133
for my wickedness, and repent. I never opened the Bible, or
shut it, but my very soul within me blessed God for directing
my friend in England, without any order of mine, to pack it up
among my goods, and for assisting me afterwards to save it out
of the wreck of the ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third
year; and though I have not given the reader the trouble of so
particular an account of my works this year as at the first, yet
in general it may be observed, that I was very seldom idle,
having regularly divided my time according to the several daily
employments that were before me-such as, first, my duty to
God, and reading the Scriptures, which I constantly set apart
some time for, thrice every day; secondly, the going abroad with
my gun for food, which generally took me up three hours every
morning when it did not rain; thirdly,-the ordering, curing,
preserving, and cooking what I had killed or catched for my
supply these took up great part of the day; also it is to be
considered, that in the middle of the day, when the sun was in
the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to stir out;
so that about four hours in the evening was all the time I could
be supposed to work in; with this exception, that sometimes I
changed my hours of hunting and working, and went to work
in the morning, and abroad with my gun in the afternoon.
To this short time allowed for labour, I desire may be added
the exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours which,
for want of tools, want of help, and want of skill, every thing
that I did took up out of my time-for example, I was full two-
and-forty days making me a board for a long shelf, which I
wanted in my cave; whereas, two sawyers, with their tools and
sawpit, would have cut six of them out of the same tree in half
a day.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
My case was this: it was to be a large tree which was to
be cut down, because my board was to be a broad one. The
tree I was three days of cutting down, and two more cutting off
the boughs, and reducing it to a log, or piece of timber. With
inexpressible hacking and hewing, I reduced both the sides of it
into chips, till it began to be light enough to move; then I
turned it, and made one side of it smooth and flat, as a board,
from end to end; then, turning that side downward, cut the
other side till I brought the plank to be about three inches thick,
and smooth on both sides. Any one may judge the labour of
my hands in such a piece of work; but labour and patience
carried me through that and many other things: I only observe
this in particular, to show the reason why so much of my time
went away with so little work, namely, that what might be a
little to be done with help and tools, was a vast labour, and
required a prodigious time, to do alone, and by hand.
But notwithstanding this, with patience and labour I went
through many things, and indeed every thing that my circum-
stances made necessary for me to do, as will appear by what
follows.
I was now in the months of November and December, ex-
pecting my crop of barley and rice. The ground I had man-
ured or dug up for them was not great; for, as I observed, my
seed of each was not above the quantity of half a peck, for I
had lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry season; but now
iny crop promised very well, when on a sudden I found I was in
danger of losing it all again by enemies of several sorts, which it
was scarce possible to keep from it; as first, the goats, and wild
creatures which I called hares, which, tasting the sweetness of
the blade, lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and
ate it so close that it could get no time to shoot up into stalks.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
135
This I saw no remedy for, but by making an enclosure
about it with a hedge, which I did with a great deal of toil;
and the more, because it required a great deal of speed, the
creatures daily spoiling my corn. However, as my arable land
was but small, suited to my crop, I got it totally well fenced in
about three weeks' time, and shooting some of the creatures in
the daytime, I set my dog to guard it at night, tying him up
to a stake at the gate, where he would stand and bark all night
long; so in a little time the enemies forsook the place, and the
corn grew very strong and well, and began to ripen apace.
But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in
the blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin me now, when it
was in the ear; for, going along by the place to see how it throve,
I saw my little crop surrounded with fowls of I know not how
many sorts, which stood, as it were, watching till I should be
gone. I immediately let fly among them (for I always had my
gun with me). I had no sooner shot, but there arose up a little
cloud of fowls, which I had not seen at all, from among the
corn itself.
This touched me sensibly; for I foresaw that, in a few days,
they would devour all my hopes; that I should be starved, and
never be able to raise a crop at all-and what to do I could
not tell; however, I resolved not to lose my corn, if possible,
though I should watch it night and day. In the first place, I
went among it to see what damage was already done, and found
they had spoiled a good deal of it; but that, as it was yet too
green for them, the loss was not so great, but the remainder
was like to be a good crop, if it could be saved.
I staid by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I
could easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me,
as if they only waited till I was gone away, and the event
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proved it to be so; for, as I walked off as if I was gone, I was
no sooner out of their sight, but they dropped down, one by one,
into the corn again. I was so provoked, that I could not have
patience to stay till more came on, knowing that every grain that
they ate now was, as it might be said, a peck loaf to me in the
consequence; but, coming up to the hedge, I fired again, and
killed three of them. This was what I wished for; so I took
them up, and served them as we serve notorious thieves in
England, namely, hanged them in chains for a terror to others.
It is impossible to imagine almost, that this should have such an
effect as it had; for the fowls would not only not come at the
corn, but, in short, they forsook all that part of the island, and I
could never see a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows
hung there.
This I was very glad of, you may be sure; and about the
latter end of December, which was our second harvest of the
year, I reaped my corn.
I was sadly put to it for a scythe or a sickle to cut it down,
and all I could do was to make one as well as I could, out of
one of the broadswords, or cutlasses, which I saved among the
arms out of the ship. However, as my crop was but small, I
had no great difficulty to cut it down in short, I reaped it my
way, for I cut nothing off but the ears, and carried it away in a
great basket which I had made, and so rubbed it out with my
hands; and, at the end of all my harvesting, I found, that, out
of my half peck of seed I had near two bushels of rice, and
above two bushels and a half of barley, that is to say, by my
guess, for I had no measure at that time.
However, this was a great encouragement to me; and I
foresaw that in time it would please God to supply me with
bread: and yet here I was perplexed again, for I neither knew
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137
how to grind nor make meal of my corn, nor, indeed, how to
clean it and part it; nor, if made into meal, how to make bread
of it; and if how to make it, yet I knew not how to bake it.
These things being added to my desire of having a good quantity
for store, and to secure a constant supply, I resolved not to taste
any of this crop, but to preserve it all for seed against the next
season, and in the meantime, to employ all my study and hours
of working to accomplish this great work of providing myself
with corn and bread.
It might be truly said, that I now worked for my bread.
It is a little wonderful, and what I believe few people have
thought much upon, namely, the strange multitude of little things
necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making,
and finishing this one article of bread.
I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this
to be my daily discouragement, and was made more and more
sensible of it every hour, even after I got the first handful of seed
corn, which, as I have said, came up unexpectedly, and indeed
to a surprise.
First, I had no plough to turn the earth, no spade or shovel
to dig it. Well, this I conquered by making a wooden spade,
as I observed before; but this did my work but in a wooden
manner; and though it cost me a great many days to make it,
yet, for want of iron, it not only wore out the sooner, but made
my work the harder, and made it be performed much worse.
However, this I bore with too, and was content to work it
out with patience, and bear with the badness of the performance.
When the corn was sowed, I had no harrow, but was forced to
go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it,
to scratch the earth, as it may be called, rather than rake or
harrow it.
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When it was growing, or grown, I have observed already
how many things I wanted, to fence it, secure it, mow or reap
it, cure or carry it home, thresh, part it from the chaff, and save
it. Then I wanted a mill to grind it, sieves to dress it, yeast
and salt to make it into bread, and an oven to bake it in; and all
these things I did without, as shall be observed; and yet the corn
was an inestimable comfort and advantage to me too. But all
this, as I said, made every thing laborious and tedious to me, but
that there was no help for: neither was my time so much loss
to me, because, as I had divided it, a certain part of it was
every day appointed to these works; and as I resolved to use
none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quantity by me, I
had the next six months to apply myself wholly, by labour and
invention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing
all the operations necessary for making the corn, when I had it,
fit for my use.
But first I was to prepare more land, for I had now seed
enough to sow above an acre of ground. Before I did this, I
had a week's work at least to make me a spade, which, when it
was done, was a very sorry one indeed, and very heavy, and
required double labour to work with it; however, I went through
that, and sowed my seeds in two large flat pieces of ground, as
near my house as I could find them to my mind, and fenced
them in with a good hedge, the stakes of which were all cut off
that wood which I had set before, which I knew would grow;
so that in one year's time I knew I should have a quick or liv-
ing hedge that would want but little repair. This work was not
so little as to take me up less than three months; because great
part of that time was in the wet season, when I could not go
abroad.
Within doors, that is, when it rained and I could not go out,
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139
I found employment on the following occasions; always observ-
ing, that all the while I was at work, I diverted myself with
talking to my parrot, and teaching him to speak; and I quickly
learnt him to know his own name, and at last to speak it out
pretty loud, POLL, which was the first word I ever heard spoken
in the island by any mouth but my own. This, therefore, was
not my work, but an assistant to my work; for now, as I said,
I had a great employment upon my hands, as follows: namely,
I had long studied, by some means or other, to make myself some
earthen vessels, which indeed I wanted sorely, but knew not
where to come at them: however, considering the heat of the
climate, I did not doubt but, if I could find out any suitable clay,
I might botch up some such pot as might, being dried by the
sun, be hard enough and strong enough to bear handling, and to
hold any thing that was dry, and required to be kept so; and
as this was necessary in preparing corn, meal, etc., which was
the thing I was upon, I resolved to make some as large as I
could, and fit only to stand like jars to hold what should be put
into them.
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CHAPTER IX.
I attempt to mould earthen-ware, and succeed-Description of my mode of
baking-Begin to make a boat-After it is finished, am unable to get it
down to the water-Serious reflections-My ink and biscuit exhausted,
and clothes in a bad state-Contrive to make a dress of skins.
IT
T would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me, to
tell how many awkward ways I took to raise this paste,
what odd, misshapen, ugly things I made; how many of them
fell in, and how many fell out, the clay not being stiff enough to
bear its own weight; how many cracked by the over-violent heat
of the sun, being set out too hastily; and how many fell to
pieces, with only removing, as well before as after they were
dried: and, in a word, how, after having laboured hard to find
the clay, to dig it, to temper it, to bring it home, and work it,
I could not make above two large earthen ugly things-I cannot
call them jars in about two months' labour.
However, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, I
lifted them very gently up, and set them down again in two
great wicker baskets, which I had made on purpose for them,
that they might not break; and, as between the pot and the
basket there was a little room to spare, I stuffed it full of the rice
and barley straw; and these two pots being to stand always
dry, I thought would hold my dry corn, and perhaps the meal
when the corn was bruised.
Though I miscarried so much in my design for large pots,
yet I made several smaller things with better success: such as
;
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141
little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any
thing my hand turned to; and the heat of the sun baked them
strangely hard.
But all this would not answer my end, which was to get an
earthen pot to hold what was liquid, and bear the fire, which
none of these could do. It happened after some time, making
a pretty large fire for cooking my ineat, when I went to put it
out, after I had done with it, I found a broken piece of one of
my earthen-ware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard as a stone,
and red as a tile. I was agreeably surprised to see it, and said
to myself, that certainly they might be made to burn whole, if
they would burn broken.
This set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make
it burn me some pots. I had no notion of a kiln such as the
potters burn in, or of glazing them with lead, though I had
some lead to do it with; but I placed three large pipkins, and
two or three pots, in a pile, one upon another, and placed my
firewood all round it, with a great heap of embers under them:
I plied the fire with fresh fuel round the outside, and upon the
top, till I saw the pots in the inside red hot quite through, and
observed that they did not crack at all: when I saw them clear
red, I let them stand in that heat about five or six hours, till I
found one of them, though it did not crack, did melt, or run;
for the sand which was mixed with the clay melted by the
violence of the heat, and would have run into glass, if I had gone
on; so I slacked my fire gradually, till the pots began to abate
of the red colour; and watching them all night that I might not
let the fire abate too fast, in the morning I had three very good,
I will not say handsome, pipkins, and two other earthen pots,
as hard burnt as could be desired, and one of them perfectly
glazed with the running of the sand.
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After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted no sort
of earthen-ware for my use; but I must needs say, as to the
shapes of them, they were very indifferent, as any one may sup-
pose, when I had no way of making them but as the children
make dirt pies, or as a woman would make pies that never learnt
to raise paste.
No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to
mine, when I found I had made an earthen pot that would bear
the fire; and I had hardly patience to stay till they were cold,
before I set one upon the fire again with some water in it, to
boil me some meat, which it did admirably well and with a
piece of kid, I made some very good broth, though I wanted
oatmeal, and several other ingredients requisite to make it so
good as I would have had it.
My next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp or
beat some corn in; for as to the mill, there was no thought of
arriving to that perfection of art with one pair of hands. To
supply this want, I was at a great loss; for, of all trades in the
world, I was as perfectly unqualified for a stone-cutter as for any
whatever; neither had I any tools to go about it with.
I spent
many a day to find out a great stone big enough to cut hollow,
and make fit for a mortar, and could find none at all, except
what was in the solid rock, and which I had no way to dig, or
cut out; nor indeed were the rocks in the island of hardness
sufficient, but were all of a sandy crumbling stone, which would
neither bear the weight of a heavy pestle, nor would break the
corn without filling it with sand; so, after a great deal of time
lost in searching for a stone, I gave it over, and resolved to look
out a great block of hard wood, which I found indeed much
easier; and getting one as big as I had strength to stir, I rounded
it, and formed it on the outside with my axe and hatchet; and
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145
then, with the help of fire and infinite labour, made a hollow
place in it, as the Indians in Brazil make their canoes. After
this I made a great heavy pestle, or beater, of the wood called
the iron-wood, and this I prepared and laid by against I had my
next crop of corn, when I proposed to myself to grind, or rather
pound, my corn, or meal, to make my bread.
This
My next difficulty was to make a sieve, or searce, to
dress my meal, and part it from the bran and the husk, without
which I did not see it possible I could have any bread.
was a most difficult thing, so much as but to think on; for, to
be sure, I had nothing like the necessary things to make it with
-I mean fine thin canvas, or stuff, to searce the meal through.
And here I was at a full stop for many months; nor did I really
know what to do: linen I had none left but what was mere rags;
I had goat's hair, but neither knew I how to weave or spin it;
and had I known how, here were no tools to work it with. All
the remedy that I found for this was, that at last I did remem-
ber I had among the seamen's clothes which were saved out of
the ship, some neckcloths of calico, or muslin; and with some
pieces of these I made three small sieves, but proper enough for
the work; and thus I made shift for some years.
afterwards, I shall show in its place.
How I did
The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and
how I should make bread when I came to have corn; for, first,
I had no yeast; as to that part, there was no supplying the
want, so I did not concern myself much about it. But for an
oven, I was, indeed, in great pain. At length I found out an
expedient for that also, which was this:-I made some earthen
vessels very broad, but not deep; that is to say, about two feet
diameter, and not above nine inches deep; these I burnt in the
fire, as I had done the others, and laid them by; and when I
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wanted to bake, I made a great fire upon the hearth, which I had
paved with some square tiles of my own making and burning
also-but I should not call them square.
When the firewood was burnt pretty much into embers, or
live coals, I drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to cover
it all over, and there I let them lie, till the hearth was very hot;
then, sweeping away all the embers, I set down my loaf, or
loaves, and whelming down the earthen pot upon them, drew
the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in, and add
to the heat and thus, as well as in the best oven in the world,
I baked my barley-loaves, and became in a little time a good
pastry-cook into the bargain; for I made myself several cakes
of the rice, and puddings: indeed, I made no pies, neither had I
any thing to put into them, supposing I had, except the flesh
either of fowls or goats.
It need not be wondered at, if all these things took me up
most part of the third year of my abode here; for it is to be
observed, that in the intervals of these things I had my new
harvest and husbandry to manage; for I reaped my corn in its
season, and carried it home as well as I could, and laid it up in
the ear, in my large baskets, till I had time to rub it out; for
I had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument to thrash it with.
And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really
wanted to build my barns bigger: I wanted a place to lay it
up in; for the increase of the corn now yielded me so much,
that I had of the barley about twenty bushels, and of the rice
as much, or more; insomuch, that I now resolved to begin to
use it freely, for my bread had been quite gone a great while ;
also I resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient for me
a whole year, and to sow but once a-year.
Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
145
and rice were much more than I could consume in a year: so
I resolved to sow just the same quantity every year that I sowed
the last, in hopes that such a quantity would fully provide me
with bread, etc.
All the while these things were doing, you may be sure my
thoughts ran many times upon the prospect of land which I had
seen from the other side of the island; and I was not without
secret wishes that I was on shore there, fancying that, seeing
the mainland and an inhabited country, I might find some way
or other to convey myself farther, and, perhaps, at last find
some means of escape.
But all this while I made no allowance for the dangers of
such a condition, and how I might fall into the hands of savages,
and, perhaps, such as I might have reason to think far worse
than the lions and tigers of Africa-that, if I once came into their
power, I should run a hazard more than a thousand to one of
being killed, and, perhaps, of being eaten; for I had heard that
the people of the Caribbean coasts were cannibals, or men-eaters;
and I knew by the latitude that I could not be far off from that
shore-that, suppose they were not cannibals, yet they might kill
me, as many Europeans who had fallen into their hands had been
served, even when they had been ten or twenty together; much
more I that was but one, and could make little or no defence.
All these things, I say, which I ought to have considered well
of, and I did cast up in my thoughts afterwards, yet took none
of my apprehensions at first; and my head ran mightily upon
the thoughts of getting over to that shore.
Now I wished for my boy Xury, and the long-boat with the
shoulder-of-mutton sail, with which I sailed above a thousand
miles on the coast of Africa; but this was in vain. Then I
thought I would go and look on our ship's boat, which, as I have
L
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said, was blown up upon the shore a great way in the storm,
when we were first cast away. She lay almost where she did
at first, but not quite, and was turned by the force of the waves
and the winds almost bottom upwards, against the high ridge of
a beachy rough sand, but no water about her as before.
If I had had hands to have refitted her, and have launched
her into the water, the boat would have done very well, and I
might have gone back into the Brazils with her easy enough;
but I might have easily foreseen, that I could no more turn her,
and set her upright upon her bottom, than I could remove the
island. However, I went to the wood, and cut levers and rollers,
and brought them to the boat, resolving to try what I could do,
suggesting to myself, that if I could but turn her down, I might
casily repair the damage she had received, and she would be a
very good boat, and I might go to sea in her very easily.
I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil, and
spent, I think, three or four weeks about it; at last, finding it
impossible to heave it up with my little strength, I fell to digging
away the sand to undermine it, and so to make it fall down,
setting pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in the fall.
But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up again,
or to get under it, much less to move it forwards towards the
water; so I was forced to give it over: and yet, though I gave
over the hopes of the boat, my desire to venture over for the
main increased, rather than decreased, as the means for it seemed
impossible.
This at length set me upon thinking whether it was not
possible to make myself a canoe, or periagua, such as the natives
of those climates make, even without tools, or, as I might say,
without hands, namely, of the trunk of a great tree. This I
not only thought possible, but easy; and pleased myself extremely
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
147
with the thoughts of making it, and with my having much more
convenience for it than any of the negroes or Indians; but not
at all considering the particular inconveniences which I lay
under more than the Indians did, namely, want of hands to
move it into the water when it was made a difficulty much
harder for me to surmount than all the consequences of want of
tools could be to them: for what was it to me that, when I
had chosen a vast tree in the woods, I might with great trouble
cut it down, if after I might be able with my tools to hew and
dub the outside into the proper shape of a boat, and burn or
cut out the inside to make it hollow, so as to make a boat of it—
if, after all this, I must leave it just there where I found it, and
was not able to launch it into the water.
One would have thought, I could not have had the least re-
flection upon my mind of my circumstances, while I was making
this boat, but I should have immediately thought how I should
get it into the sea; but my thoughts were so intent upon my
voyage over the sea in it, that I never once considered how I
should get it off the land: and it was really, in its own nature,
more easy for me to guide it over forty-five miles of sea, than
about forty-five fathoms of land, where it lay, to set it afloat in
the water.
I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that
ever man did who had any of his senses awake. I pleased my-
self with the design, without determining whether I was ever
able to undertake it: not but that the difficulty of launching my
boat came often into my head; but I put a stop to my own inquiries
into it by this foolish answer which I gave myself:-Let me
first make it, I'll warrant I'll find some way or other to get it
along when it is done.
This was a most preposterous method; but the eagerness
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of my fancy prevailed, and to work I went, and felled a cedar
tree-I question much whether Solomon ever had such a
one for the building the temple at Jerusalem. It was five
feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next the stump, and
four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two feet,
after which it lessened for a while, and then parted into branches.
It was not without infinite labour that I felled this tree: I was
twenty days hacking and hewing at it at the bottom; I was
fourteen more getting the branches and limbs, and the vast
spreading head of it, cut off, which I hacked and hewed through
with my axe and hatchet with inexpressible labour; after this it
cost me a month to shape it, and dub it to a proportion, and to
something like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright
as it ought to do. It cost me near three months more to clear
the inside, and work it out so as to make an exact boat of it;
this I did indeed without fire, by mere mallet and chisel, and
by the dint of hard labour, till I had brought it to be a very hand-
some periagua, and big enough to have carried six-and-twenty
men, and consequently big enough to have carried me and all my
cargo.
When I had gone through this work, I was extremely
delighted with it: the boat was really much bigger than I ever
saw a canoe or periagua, that was made of one tree, in my life;
many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be sure, for there
remained nothing but to get it into the water; and had I gotten
it into the water, I make no question but I should have begun
the maddest voyage, and the most unlikely to be performed, that
ever was undertaken.
But all my devices to get it into the water failed me, though
they cost infinite labour too.-It lay about one hundred yards
from the water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was,
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149
it was up hill towards the creek. Well, to take away this dis-
couragement, I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth, and
so make a declivity: this I began, and it cost me a prodigious
deal of pains; but who grudge pains that have their deliverance
in view? but when this was worked through, and this difficulty
managed, it was still much at one, for I could no more stir the
canoe than I could the other boat.
Then I measured the distance of ground, and resolved to cut
a dock, or canal, to bring the water up to the canoe, seeing I
could not bring the canoe down to the water; well, I began this
work, and when I began to enter into it, and calculated how
deep it was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff was to be thrown
out, I found that, by the number of hands I had, being none but
my own, it must have been ten or twelve years before I should
have gone through with it; for the shore lay high, so that at the
upper end it must have been at least twenty feet deep: so at
length, though with great reluctance, I gave this attempt over
also.
This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though too late, the
folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before
we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.
In the middle of this work I finished my fourth year in this
place, and kept my anniversary with the same devotion, and
with as much comfort, as ever before; for, by a constant study,
and serious application of the word of God, and by the assistance
of his grace, I gained a different knowledge from what I had
before; I entertained different notions of things; I looked now
upon the world as a thing remote, which I had nothing to do
with, no expectation from, and indeed no desires about: in a
word, I had nothing indeed to do with it, nor was ever like to
have; so I thought it looked as we may perhaps look upon it
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hereafter, namely, as a place I had lived in, but was come out
of it; and well I might say, as father Abraham to Dives,
"Between me and thee there is a great gulf fixed."
In the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness of
the world here. I had neither the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eye, nor the pride of life. I had nothing to covet, for I had
all I was now capable of enjoying; I was lord of the whole
manor, or, if I pleased, I might call myself king or emperor over
the whole country which I had possession of: there were no
rivals; I had no competitor, none to dispute sovereignty or
command with me; I might have raised ship-loadings of corn, but
I had no use for it, so I let as little grow as I thought enough
for my occasion; I had tortoises or turtles enough, but now and
then one was as much as I could put to any use; I had timber
enough to have built a fleet of ships; I had grapes enough to
have made wine, or to have cured into raisins, to have loaded
that fleet when they had been built.
But all I could make use of, was all that was valuable; I
had enough to eat, and to supply my wants, and what was all the
rest to me? If I killed more flesh than I could eat, the dog
must eat it, or the vermin; if I sowed more corn than I could
eat, it must be spoiled. The trees that I cut down were lying
to rot on the ground, I could make no more use of them than for
fuel-and that I had no occasion for but to dress my food.
In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to
me, upon just reflection, that all the good things of this world
are no farther good to us than as they are for our use; and
that, whatever we may heap up to give to others, we enjoy only
as much as we can use, and no more. The most covetous
griping miser in the world would have been cured of the vice of
covetousness, if he had been in my case; for I possessed infinitely
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151
more than I knew what to do with. I had no room for desire,
except it was of things which I had not, and they were but trifles,
though indeed of great use to me. I had, as I hinted before,
a parcel of money, as well gold as silver, about thirty-six pounds
sterling; alas! there the nasty, sorry, useless stuff lay; I had
no manner of business for it; and I often thought with myself,
that I would have given a handful of it for a gross of tobacco-pipes,
or for a handmill to grind my corn; nay, I would have given it
all for sixpenny-worth of turnip and carrot seed out of England,
or for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink: as it
was, I had not the least advantage by it, or benefit from it,
but there it lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp
of the cave, in the wet season; and if I had had the drawer
full of diamonds, it had been the same case, and they had been
of no manner of value to me, because of no use.
I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in itself
than it was at first, and much easier to my mind as well as to
my body. I frequently sat down to my meat with thankfulness,
and admired the hand of God's providence, which had thus spread
my table in the wilderness. I learnt to look more upon the
bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side, and to
consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted—and this
gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express
them—and which I take notice of here, to put those discon-
tented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably
what God hath given them, because they see and covet some-
thing that he has not given them all our discontents about
what we want, appeared to me to spring from the want of
thankfulness for what we have.
Another reflection was of great use to me, and, doubtless,
would be so to any one that should fall into such distress as
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mine was; and this was, to compare my present condition with
what I at first expected it should be-nay, with what it would
certainly have been-if the good providence of God had not
wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up near to the shore, where
I not only could come at her, but could bring what I got out of
her to the shore for my relief and comfort; without which I had
wanted tools to work, weapons for defence, or gunpowder and
shot for getting my food.
I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing
to myself, in the most lively colours, how I must have acted, if
I had got nothing out of the ship; how I could not have so
much as got any food, except fish and turtles; and that, as it
was long before I found any of them, I must have perished first
--that I should have lived, if I had not perished, like a mere
savage—that if I had killed a goat or a fowl by any contrivance,
I had no way to flay or open them, or part the flesh from the
skin and the bowels, or to cut it up; but must gnaw it with my
teeth, and pull it with my claws, like a beast.
These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of
Providence to me, and very thankful for my present condition,
with all its hardships and misfortunes; and this part also I can-
not but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt, in
their misery, to say, "Is any affliction like mine ?" Let them
consider how much worse the cases of some people are, and what
their case might have been, if Providence had thought fit.
I had another reflection, which assisted me also to comfort
my mind with hopes; and this was, comparing my present con-
dition with what I had deserved, and had therefore reason to
expect, from the hand of Providence. I had lived a dreadful life,
perfectly destitute of the knowledge and fear of God. I had
been well instructed by father and mother; neither had they

I GATHERED A GREAT HEAP OF GRAPES IN ONE PLACE AND A
GREAT PARCEL OF LIMES AND LEMONS IN ANOTHER.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
153
been wanting to me in their early endeavours to infuse a religious
awe of God into my mind, a sense of my duty, and of what
the nature and end of my being required of me. But alas!
falling early into the seafaring life, which, of all lives, is the most
destitute of the fear of God, though his terrors are always before
them-I say, falling early into the seafaring life, and into sea-
faring company, all that little sense of religion which I had
entertained was laughed out of me by my messmates-by a
hardened despising of dangers, and the views of death, which
grew habitual to me-by my long absence from all manner of
opportunities to converse with any thing but what was like myself,
or to hear any thing of what was good, or tended towards it.
So void was I of every thing that was good, or of the least
sense of what I was, or was to be, that in the greatest deliverance
I enjoyed, such as my escape from Sallee, my being taken up by
the Portuguese master of the ship, my being planted so well in
Brazil, my receiving the cargo from England, and the like, I
never once had the words "Thank God!" so much as on my
mind, or in my mouth; nor, in the greatest distress, had I so
much thought as to pray to him, nor as much as to say, "Lord,
have mercy upon me!" -no, not to mention the name of God,
unless it was to swear by, and blaspheme it.
I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months,
as I have already observed, on the account of my wicked and
hardened life past; and when I looked about me, and considered
what particular providences had attended me, since my coming
into this place, and how God had dealt bountifully with me--had
not only punished me less than my iniquity deserved, but had
so plentifully provided for me; this gave me great hopes that
my repentance was accepted, and that God had yet mercies in
store for me.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
With these reflections I worked my mind up, not only to
resignation to the will of God in the present disposition of my
circumstances, but even to a sincere thankfulness of my condition;
and that I, who was yet a living man, ought not to complain,
seeing I had not the due punishment of my sins-that I enjoyed
so many mercies, which I had no reason to have expected in that
place that I ought never more to repine at my condition, but
to rejoice, and to give daily thanks for that daily bread, which
nothing but a cloud of wonders could have brought—that I ought
to consider I had been fed even by a miracle, even as great as
that of feeding Elijah by ravens-nay, by a long series of
miracles; and that I could hardly have named a place in the
uninhabited part of the world, where I could have been cast more
to my advantage-a place where, as I had no society, which was
my affliction on one hand, so I found no ravenous beasts, no
furious wolves or tigers, to threaten my life; no venomous
creatures or poisonous, which I might have fed on to my hurt;
no savages to murder and devour me.
In a word, as my life was a life of sorrow one way, so it was
a life of mercy another; and I wanted nothing to make it a life
of comfort, but to be able to make my sense of God's goodness
to me, and care over me in this condition, be my daily consola-
tion; and after I made a just improvement of these things, I
went away, and was no more sad.
I had now been here so long, that many things which I
brought on shore for my help were either quite gone or very
much wasted, and near spent.
My ink, as I observed, had been gone for some time, all but
a very little, which I eked out with water a little and a little, till
it was so pale it scarce left any appearance of black upon the
paper; as long as it lasted, I made use of it to minute down the
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
155
days of the month on which any remarkable thing happened to
me; and first, by casting up times past, I remember that there
was a strange concurrence of days, in the various providences.
which befell me, and which, if I had been superstitiously inclined
to observe days as fatal or fortunate, I might have had reason
to have looked upon with a great deal of curiosity.
First, I had observed, that the same day that I broke away
from my father and my friends, and ran away to Hull, in order
to go to sea, the same day afterwards I was taken by the Sallee
man-of-war, and made a slave.
The same day of the year that I escaped out of the wreck.
of the ship in Yarmouth roads, that same day of the year after-
wards I made my escape from Sallee in the boat.
The same day of the year I was born on, namely, the 20th
of September, the same day I had my life so miraculously saved
twenty-six years after, when I was cast on shore in this island;
so that my wicked life, and solitary life, both began on a day.
The next thing to my ink's being wasted, was that of my
bread, I mean the biscuit which I brought out of the ship.
This I had husbanded to the last degree, allowing myself but
one cake of bread a-day, for above a year; and yet I was quite
without bread for a year, before I got any corn of my own;
and great reason I had to be thankful that I had any at all,
the getting it being, as it has been already observed, next to
miraculous.
My clothes too, began to decay mightily; as to linen, I had
none a good while, except some chequered shirts which I found
in the chests of the other seamen, and which I carefully pre-
served, because many times I could bear no other clothes on but
a shirt; and it was a very great help to me that I had, among
all the men's clothes of the ship, almost three dozen of shirts.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
There were also several thick watch-coats of the seamen, which
were left behind, but they were too hot to wear; and though it
is true that the weather was so violently hot that there was no
need of clothes, yet I could not go quite naked-no, though I
had been inclined to it, which I was not-nor could I abide the
thought of it, though I was all alone.
One reason why I could not go quite naked was, I could
not bear the heat of the sun so well when quite naked, as with
some clothes on-nay, the very heat frequently blistered my skin;
whereas, with a shirt on, the air itself made some motion, and,
whistling under the shirt, was twofold cooler than without it:
no more could I ever bring myself to go out in the heat of the
sun without a cap or a hat; the heat of the sun beating with
such violence as it does in that place, would give me the head-
ache presently, by darting so directly on my head, without a
cap or hat on, so that I could not bear it; whereas, if I put on
my hat, it would presently go away.
Upon these views I began to consider about putting the few
rags I had, which I called clothes, into some order; I had worn
out all the waistcoats I had, and my business was now to try if I
could not make jackets out of the great watch-coats which I had
by me, and with such other materials as I had-so I set to work
a-tailoring, or rather, indeed, a-botching-for I made most piteous
work of it. However, I made shift to make two or three waist-
coats, which I hoped would serve me a great while; as for breeches
or drawers, I made but very sorry shift indeed till afterwards.
I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the creatures
that I killed-I mean four-footed ones-and I had hung them
up stretched out with sticks in the sun; by which means some
of them were so dry and hard that they were fit for little; but
others, it seems, were very useful. The first thing I made of
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157
these was a great cap for my head, with the hair on the outside
to shoot off the rain: and this I performed so well, that after this
I made a suit of clothes wholly of those skins-that is to say, a
waistcoat and breeches open at the knees, and both loose; for
they were rather wanted to keep me cool, than to keep me
warm. I must not omit to acknowledge, that they were wretch-
edly made; for if I was a bad carpenter, I was a worse tailor:
however, they were such as I made a very good shift with; and
when I was abroad, if it happened to rain, the hair of the waist-
coat and cap being outmost, I was kept very dry.
After this, I spent a deal of time and pains to make me an
umbrella; I was, indeed, in great want of one, and had a great
mind to make one: I had seen them made in the Brazils, where
they are very useful in the great heats which are there; and
I felt the heats every jot as great here, and greater too, being
nearer the equinox; besides, as I was obliged to be much abroad,
it was a most useful thing to me, as well for the rains as the
heats. I took a world of pains at it, and was a great while
before I could make any thing likely to hold; nay, after I thought
I had hit the way, I spoiled two or three before I made one to
my mind; but at last I made one that answered indifferently
well. The main difficulty I found was to make it to let down;
I could make it to spread; but if it did not let down too, and
draw in, it would not be portable for me any way, but just over
my head, which would not do. However, at last, as I said, I
made one to answer: I covered it with skins, the hair upwards,
so that it cast off the rain like a penthouse, and kept off the
sun so effectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the
weather, with greater advantage than I could before in the
coolest; and, when I had no need of it, I could close it, and
carry it under my arm.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely
composed by resigning to the will of God, and throwing myself
wholly upon the disposal of his providence: this made my life
better than sociable; for when I began to regret the want of
conversation, I would ask myself, whether thus conversing mu-
tually with my own thoughts, and, as I hope I may say, with
even my Maker, by ejaculations and petitions, was not better
than the utmost enjoyment of human society in the world?
I cannot say, that, after this, for five years, any extraordinary
thing happened to me; but I lived on in the same course, in
the same posture and place, just as before. The chief thing
I was employed in, besides my yearly labour of planting my
barley and rice, and curing my raisins, of both which I always
kept up just enough to have a sufficient stock of the year's pro-
visions beforehand-I say, besides this yearly labour, and my
daily labour of going out with my gun, I had one labour to
make me a canoe, which at last I finished: so that by digging
a canal to it, six feet wide, and four feet deep, I brought it into
the creek almost half a mile. As for the first, that was so vastly
big, as I made it without considering beforehand, as I ought to
do, how I should be able to launch it; so, never being able to
bring it to the water, or bring the water to it, I was obliged to
let it lie where it was, as a memorandum to teach me to be wiser
next time. Indeed, the next time, though I could not get a
tree proper for it, and was in a place where I could not get the
water to it, at any less distance than, as I have said, of near
half a mile; yet as I saw it was practicable at last, I never gave
it over; and, though I was near two years about it, yet I never
grudged my labour, in hopes of having a boat to go off to sea
at last.
[.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
159
CHAPTER X.
I succeed in getting a canoe afloat, and set out on a voyage in the sixth year
of my reign, or captivity-Blown out to sea Reach the shore with great
difficulty-Fall asleep, and am awakened by a voice calling my name-
Devise various schemes to tame goats, and at last succeed.
H
OWEVER, though my little periagua was finished, yet the
size of it was not at all answerable to the design which I
had in view when I made the first-I mean of venturing over
to the terra firma, where it was above forty miles broad;
accordingly, the smallness of the boat assisted to put an end to
that design, and now I thought no more of it. But as I had a
boat, my next design was to make a tour round the island; for,
as I had been on the other side, in one place, crossing, as I have
already described it, over the land, so the discoveries I made in
that journey made me very eager to see the other parts of the
coast; and now I had a boat, I thought of nothing but sailing
round the island.
For this purpose, and that I might do every thing with dis-
cretion and consideration, I fitted up a little mast to my boat,
and made a sail to it out of some of the pieces of the ship's
sails, which lay in store, and of which I had a great store
by me.
Having fitted my mast and sail, and tried the boat, I found
she would sail very well. Then I made little lockers and boxes
at each end of my boat, to put provisions, necessaries, and
ammunition, etc., into, to be kept dry, either from rain, or the
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
spray of the sea and a little long hollow place I cut in the
inside of the boat, where I could lay my gun, making a flap to
hang down over it to keep it dry.
I fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern, like a mast,
to stand over my head, and keep the heat of the sun off me, like
an awning, and thus I every now and then took a little voyage
upon the sea, but never went far out, nor far from the little
creek; but at last, being eager to view the circumference of
my little kingdom, I resolved upon my tour, and accordingly I
victualled my ship for the voyage--putting in two dozen of my
loaves (cakes I should rather call them) of barley-bread, an
earthen pot full of parched rice (a food I ate a great deal of),
a little bottle of rum, half a goat, and powder and shot for
killing more, and two large watch-coats, of those which, as I
mentioned before, I had saved out of the seamen's chests: these
I took, one to lie upon, and the other to cover me in the night.
It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my reign, or
my captivity, which you please, that I set out on this voyage,
and I found it much longer then I expected; for though the
island itself was not very large, yet when I came to the east
side of it, I found a great ledge of rocks lie out about two
leagues into the sea, some above water, some under it; and
beyond this a shoal of sand, lying dry half a league more: so
that I was obliged to go a great way out to sea to double that
point.
When I first discovered them, I was going to give over my
enterprise, and come back again, not knowing how far it might
oblige me to go out to sea, and, above all, doubting how I should
get back again; so I came to an anchor, for I had made me a
kind of an anchor with a piece of broken grappling which I got
out of the ship.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
161
Having secured my boat, I took my gun, and went on shore.
climbing up a hill, which seemed to overlook that point, where
I saw the full extent of it, and resolved to venture.
In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I per-
ceived a strong, and indeed a most furious current, which ran to
the east, and even came close to the point; and I took the
more notice of it, because I saw there might be some danger,
that when I came into it, I might be carried out to sea by the
strength of it, and not be able to make the island again. And
indeed, had I not gotten first upon this hill, I believe it would
have been so; for there was the same current on the other side
of the island, only that it set off at a farther distance; and I saw
there was a strong eddy under the shore-so I had nothing to
do but to get out of the first current, and I should presently be
in an eddy.
I lay here, however, two days; because the wind blowing
pretty fresh (at east-south-east, and that being just contrary to
the said current), made a great breach of the sea upon the point;
so that it was not safe for me to keep too close to the shore for
the breach, nor to go too far off because of the stream.
The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated
overnight, the sea was calm, and I ventured; but I am a warn-
ing-piece again to all rash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner
was I come to the point, when I was not my boat's length
from the shore, but I found myself in a great depth of water and
a current like the sluice of a mill. It carried my boat along with
it with such a violence, that all I could do could not keep her so
much as on the edge of it: but I found it hurried me farther and
farther out from the eddy, which was on the left hand. There
was no wind stirring to help me, and all that I could do with
my paddles signified nothing; and now I began to give myself
M
162
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
per-
over for lost; for as the current was on both sides of the island,
I knew in a few leagues' distance they must join again, and
then I was irrecoverably gone-nor did I see any possibility of
avoiding it; so that I had no prospect before me but of
ishing-not by the sea, for that was calm enough, but of starving
for hunger. I had, indeed, found a tortoise on the shore, as big
almost as I could lift, and had tossed it into the boat; and
I had a great jar of fresh water, that is to say, one of my earthen
pots; but what was all this to be driven into the vast ocean,
where, to be sure, there was no shore, no mainland or island,
for a thousand leagues at least?
And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of God
to make the most miserable condition that mankind could be in
worse. Now, I looked back upon my desolate solitary island as
the most pleasant place in the world, and all the happiness
my heart could wish for was to be there again; I stretched out
my hands to it with eager wishes. "Oh happy desert!" said
1, "I shall never see thee more! Oh miserable creature !” said I,
"whither am I going?" Then I reproached myself with my
unthankful temper, and how I had repined at my solitary con-
dition; and now what would I give to be on shore there again?
Thus we never see the true state of our condition, till it is illus-
trated to us by its contraries; nor know how to value what we
enjoy, but by the want of it. It is scarce possible to imagine
the consternation I was in, being driven from my beloved island
(for so it appeared to me now to be) into the wide ocean, almost
two leagues, and in the utmost despair of ever recovering it
again; however, I worked hard, till indeed my strength was
almost exhausted, and kept my boat as much to the northward,
that is, towards the side of the current which the eddy lay on,
as possibly I could; when about noon, as the sun passed the
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
163
meridian, I thought I felt a little breeze of wind in my face,
springing up from the south-south-east. This cheered my heart
a little, and especially when, in about half an hour more, it blew
a pretty small gentle gale. By this time I was gotten at a
frightful distance from the island; and, had the least cloud or
hazy weather intervened, I had been undone another way too;
for I had no compass on board, and should never have known
how to have steered towards the island, if I had but once lost.
sight of it; but the weather continuing clear, I applied myself
to get up my mast again, and spread my sail, standing away to
the north as much as possible, to get out of the current.
Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began to
stretch away, I saw, even by the clearness of the water, some
alteration of the current was near; for where the current was so
strong, the water was foul: but perceiving the water clear, I
found the current abate, and presently I found, to the east, at
about half a mile, a breach of the sea upon some rocks: these
rocks I found caused the current to part again; and as the main
stress of it ran away more southerly, leaving the rocks to the
north-east, so the other returned by the repulse of the rock, and
made a strong eddy, which ran back again to the north-west
with a very sharp stream.
They who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to
them upon the ladder, or to be rescued from thieves just going
to murder them, or who have been in such like extremities, may
guess what my present surprise of joy was, and how gladly I put
my boat into the stream of this eddy; and the wind also
freshening, how gladly I spread my sail to it, running cheerfully
before the wind, and with a strong tide or eddy under foot.
This eddy carried me about a league in my way back again,
directly towards the island, but about two leagues more towards
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
the northward than the current lay, which carried me away at
first; so that when I came near the island, I found myself open
to the northern shore of it, that is to say, the other end of the
island, opposite to that which I went out from.
When I had made something more than a league of way, by
the help of this heavy current or eddy, I found it was spent,
and served me no farther. However, I found, that being be-
tween the two great currents, namely, that on the south side,
which had hurried me away, and that on the north, which lay
about two leagues on the other side-I say, between these two,
in the west of the island, I found the water at least still, and
running no way; and having still a breeze of wind fair for me,
I kept on steering directly for the island, though not making
such fresh way as I did before.
About four o'clock in the evening, being then within about
a league of the island, I found the point of the rocks which
occasioned this distance stretching out, as is described before, to
the southward, and, casting off the current more southwardly,
had, of course, made another eddy to the north; and this I
found very strong, but not directly setting the way my course
lay, which was due west, but almost full north. However,
having a fresh gale, I stretched across this eddy, slanting north-
west, and, in about an hour, came within about a mile of the
shore, where, it being smooth water, I soon got to land.
When I was on shore, I fell on my knees, and gave
God thanks for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside all thoughts
of my deliverance by my boat; and refreshing myself with such
things as I had, I brought my boat close to the shore, in a
little cove that I had espied under some trees, and laid me down
to sleep, being quite spent with the labour and fatigue of the
voyage.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
165
I was now at a great loss which way to get home with my
boat; I had run so much hazard, and knew too much the cause,
to think of attempting it by the way I went out; and what
might be at the other side (I mean the west side) I knew not,
nor had I any mind to run any more ventures; so I only resolved
in the morning to make my way westward along the shore, and
to see if there was no creek where I might lay up my frigate
in safety, so as to have her again if I wanted her. In about
three miles, or thereabouts, coasting the shore, I came to a very
good inlet, or bay, about a mile over, which narrowed till it
came to a very little rivulet, or brook, where I found a conve-
nient harbour for my boat, and where she lay as if she had been
in a little dock made on purpose for her: here I put in, and
having stowed my boat very safe, I went on shore to look about
me, and see where I was.
I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where
I had been before when I travelled on foot to that shore: so,
taking nothing out of my boat but my gun and my umbrella,
for it was exceedingly hot, I began my march. The way was
comfortable enough, after such a voyage as I had been upon,
and I reached my old bower in the evening, where I found
every thing standing as I left it; for I always kept it in good
order, being, as I said before, my country house.
I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade to rest
my limbs, for I was very weary, and fell asleep; but judge if
you can, you that read my story, what a surprise I must be in,
when I was awaked out of my sleep by a voice calling me by
my name several times, "Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe, poor
Robin Crusoe ! Where are you, Robin Crusoe? Where are
you! Where have you been?”
I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
paddling, as it is called, the first part of the day, and walking
the latter part, that I did not awake thoroughly; and dozing
between sleeping and waking, thought I dreamed that some-
body spoke to me; but as the voice continued to repeat, "Robin
Crusoe, Robin Crusoe !" at last I began to awake more perfectly,
and was at first dreadfully frighted, and started up in the utmost
consternation: but no sooner were my eyes open, but I saw my
Poll sitting on the top of the hedge, and immediately knew that
this was he that spoke to me; for just in such bemoaning lan-
guage I had used to talk to him, and teach him; and he had
learned it so perfectly, that he would sit upon my finger, and
lay his bill close to my face, and cry, "Poor Robin Crusoe,
where are you? Where have you been?
How came you
here?" and such things as I had taught him.
However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and that
indeed it could be nobody else, it was a good while before I
could compose myself. First, I was amazed how the creature
got thither, and then how he should just keep about the place,
and no where else; but as I was well satisfied it could be nobody
but honest Poll, I got it over; and, holding out my hand, and
calling him by his name, "Poll!" the sociable creature came to
me, and sat upon my thumb, as he used to do, and continued
talking to me"Poor Robin Crusoe!" and "How did I come
here?" and "Where had I been?" just as if he had been over-
joyed to see me again; and so I carried him home along with me.
I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some time, and
had enough to do for many days to sit still and reflect upon
the danger I had been in. I would have been very glad to
have had my boat again on my side of the island, but I knew
not how it was practicable to get it about: as to the east side
of the island, which I had gone round, I knew well enough
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
167
;
there was no venturing that way; my very heart would shrink,
and my very blood run chill, but to think of it; and as to the
other side of the island, I did not know how it might be there
but supposing the current ran with the same force against the
shore at the east, as it passed by it on the other, I might run
the same risk of being driven down the streain, and carried by
the island, as I had been before of being carried away from it.
So with these thoughts I contented myself to be without any
boat, though it had been the product of so many months' labour
to make it, and of so many more to get it into the sea.
In this government of my temper I remained near a year—
lived a very sedate retired life, as you may well suppose; and
my thoughts being very much composed as to my condition, and
fully comforted in resigning myself to the dispositions of Pro-
vidence, I thought I lived really very happily in all things,
except that of society.
I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic exercises
which my necessities put me upon applying myself to; and I
believe could, upon occasion, have made a very good carpenter,
especially considering how few tools I had.
Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection in my
carthen-ware, and contrived well enough to make them with a
wheel, which I found infinitely easier and better; because I
made things round and shapeable, which before were filthy things
indeed to look on. But I think I never was more vain of my
own performance, or more joyful for any thing I found out, than
for my being able to make a tobacco-pipe; and though it was a
very ugly clumsy thing when it was done, and only burnt red like
other earthen-ware, yet as it was hard and firm, and would draw
the smoke, I was exceedingly comforted with it-for I had been
always used to smoke, and there were pipes in the ship, but I
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
forgot them at first, not knowing there was tobacco in the
island; and afterwards, when I searched the ship again, I could
not come at any pipes at all.
In my wicker-ware I also improved much, and made abun-
dance of necessary baskets, as well as my invention showed me,
though not very handsome, yet convenient for my laying things
up in, or fetching things home in. For example, if I killed a
goat abroad, I could hang it up in a tree, flay it, and dress
it, and cut it in pieces, and bring it home in a basket; and the
like by a turtle; I could cut it up, take out the eggs, and a
piece or two of the flesh, which was enough for me, and bring
them home in a basket, and leave the rest behind me. Also
large deep baskets were my receivers for my corn, which I always
rubbed out as soon as it was dry, and cured, and kept it in great
baskets instead of a granary.
I began now to perceive my powder abated considerably ;
and this was a want which it was impossible for me to supply,
and I began seriously to consider what I must do when I should
have no more powder-that is to say, how I should do to kill
any goats. I had, as I observed, in the third year of my being
here, kept a young kid, and bred her tame; I was in hopes of
getting a he-kid, but I could not by any means bring it to pass,
till my kid grew an old goat; and I could never find in my
heart to kill her, till she died at last of mere age.
But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and,
as I have said, my ammunition growing low, I set myself to
study some art to trap and snare the goats, to see whether I
could not catch some of them alive; and, particularly, I wished
to possess a she-goat great with young.
To this purpose I made snares to hamper them, and believe
they were more than once taken in them; but my tackle was
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
169
not good, for I had no wire, and always found them broken,
and my bait devoured.
At length I resolved to try a pitfall; so I dug several large
pits in the earth, in places where I had observed the goats used
to feed, and over these pits I placed hurdles, of my own making
too, with a great weight upon them: and several times I put
ears of barley, and dry rice, without setting the trap; and I
could easily perceive that the goats had gone in, and eaten up
the corn, for I could see the marks of their feet: at length, I set
three traps in one night, and, going the next morning, I found
them all standing, and yet the bait eaten and gone.
This was
very discouraging; however, I altered my trap; and, not to
trouble you with particulars, going one morning to see my traps,
I found in one of them a large old he-goat; and in one of the
other, three kids, a male, and two feinales.
As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him; he
was so fierce, I durst not go into the pit to him-that is to say,
to go about to bring him away alive, which was what I wanted.
I could have killed him, but that was not my business, nor
would it answer my end; so I even let him out, and he ran
away as if he had been frightened out of his wits; but I did not
then know what I afterwards learned, that hunger would tame
a lion if I had let him stay there three or four days without
food and then have carried him some water to drink, and then
a little corn, he would have been as tame as one of the kids;
for they are mighty sagacious and tractable creatures, where
they are well used.
However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better at
that time; then I went to the three kids; and, taking them one
by one, I tied them with strings together, and with considerable
difficulty brought them all home.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
It was a good while before they would feed; but throwing
them some sweet corn, it tempted them, and they began to be
tame: and now I found that if I expected to supply myself with
goat's flesh, when I had no powder or shot left, breeding some
up tame was my only way, when, perhaps, I might have them
about my house like a flock of sheep.
But then it presently occurred to me, that I must keep the
tame from the wild, or else they would always run wild when
they grew up; and the only way for this was to have some
enclosed piece of ground, well fenced, either with hedge or pale,
to keep them in so effectually, that those within might not
break out, or those without break in.
This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands; yet as
I saw there was an absolute necessity for doing it, my first
piece of work was to find out a proper piece of ground, namely,
where there was likely to be herbage for them to eat, water for
them to drink, and cover to keep them from the sun.
Those who understand such enclosures, will think I had
very little contrivance, when I pitched upon a place very proper
for all these (being a plain open piece of meadow-land, or sa-
vanna, as our people call it in the western colonies), which had
two or three little rills of fresh water in it; and at one end
was very woody-I say, they will smile at my forecast, when I
shall tell them I began by enclosing of this piece of ground in
such a manner, that my hedge or pale must have been at least
two miles about: nor was the madness of it so great as to the
compass; for if it was ten miles about, I was like to have time
enough to do it in; but I did not consider, that my goats would
be as wild in so much compass, as if they had had the whole
island; and I should have so much room to chase them in, that
I should never catch them.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
171
My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe, about fifty
yards, when this thought occurred to me; so I presently stopped
short, and for the first beginning I resolved to enclose a piece
of about one hundred and fifty yards in length, and a hundred
yards in breadth, which, as it would maintain as many as I
should have in any reasonable time, so, as my flock increased, I
could add more ground to my enclosure.
This was acting with some prudence, and I went to work
with courage.
I was about three months hedging in the first
piece; and till I had done it, I tethered the three kids in the best
part of it, and used them to feed as near me as possible, to make
them familiar; and very often I would go and carry them some
ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and feed them out of my
hand; so that after my enclosure was finished, and I let them
loose, they would follow me up and down, bleating after me for
a handful of corn.
This answered my end, and in about a year and a half I had a
flock of about twelve goats, kids and all; and in two years more I
had three-and-forty, besides several that I took and killed for my
food; and after that I enclosed five several pieces of ground to
feed them in, with little pens to drive them into, to take them as I
wanted them, and gates out of one piece of ground into another.
But this was not all; for now I not only had got goat's
flesh to feed on when I pleased, but milk too, a thing which
indeed in my beginning I did not so much as think of, and
which, when it came into my thoughts, was really an agreeable
surprise; for now I set up my dairy, and had sometimes a
gallon or two of milk in a day. And as nature, who gives
supplies of food to every creature, dictates even naturally how
to make use of it, so I, that never milked a cow, much less a
goat, or saw butter or cheese made, very readily and handily,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
though after a great many essays and miscarriages, made inc
both butter and cheese at last, and never wanted it afterwards.
How mercifully can our great Creator treat his creatures,
even in those conditions in which they seem to be overwhelmed
in destruction! Ilow can he sweeten the bitterest providences,
and give us cause to praise him for dungeons and prisons!
What a table was here spread for me in a wilderness, where I
saw nothing at first but to perish for hunger!
It would have made a stoic sinile, to have seen me and my
little family sit down to dinner; there was ny majesty, the
prince and lord of the whole island; I had the lives of all my
subjects at absolute command; I could hang, draw, give life and
liberty, and take it away, and no rebels among all my subjects.
Then, to see how like a king I dined too, all alone, attended
by my servants! Poll, as if he had been my favourite, was the
only person permitted to talk to me; my dog, which was now
grown very old and crazy, and found no species to multiply hist
kind upon, sat always at my right hand; and two cats, one on
one side the table, and one on the other, expecting now and
then a bit from my hand, as a mark of special favour.
But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore
at first; for they were both of them dead, and had been interred
near my habitation by my own hands; but one of them having
multiplied by I know not what kind of creature, these were two
which I preserved tame, whereas the rest ran wild into the
woods, and became, indeed, troublesome to me at last; for they
would often come into my house, and plunder me too, till at last
I was obliged to shoot them, and did kill a great many; at length
they left me. With this attendance and in this plentiful manner,
I lived; neither could I be said to want anything but society, and
of that, in some time after this, I was like to have too much.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE
173
CHAPTER XI.
Description of my figure-Also of my dwelling and enclosures- Dreadful
alarm on seeing the print of a man's foot on the shore-Reflections-Take
every possible measure of precaution.
I
WAS something impatient, as I had observed, to have the
use of my boat, though very loath to run any more hazard;
and therefore sometimes I sat contriving ways to get her about
the island, and at other times I sat myself down contented
enough without her. But I had a strange uneasiness in my
mind to go down to the point of the island, where, as I have
said in my last ramble, I went up the hill to see how the shore
lay, and how the current set, that I might see what I had to do.
This inclination increased upon me every day, and at length I
resolved to travel thither by land, and, following the edge of
the shore, I did so; but had any one in England been to meet
such a man as I was, it must either have frightened him, or
raised a great deal of laughter; and as I frequently stood still
to look at myself, I could not but smile at the notion of my
travelling through Yorkshire with such an equipage, and in
such a dress. Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure as
follows:
I had a great high shapeless cap, made of goat's skin, with
a flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me
as to shoot the rain off from running into my neck; nothing
being so hurtful in these climates, as the rain upon the flesh
under the clothes.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming down
to about the middle of my thighs; and a pair of open-kneed
breeches of the same; the breeches were made of the skin of
an old he-goat, whose hair hung down such a length on either
side, that, like pantaloons, it reached to the middle of my legs.
Stockings and shoes I had none; but I had made me a pair of
something, I scarce knew what to call them, like buskins, to
flap over my legs, and lace on either side like spatterdashes,
but of a most barbarous shape, as indeed were all the rest of
my clothes.
I had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which I drew
together with two thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and
in a kind of a frog on either side of this, instead of a sword
and dagger, hung a little saw and a hatchet-one on one side,
one on the other; I had another belt not so broad, and fastened
in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder; and at the
end of it, under my left arın, hung two pouches, both made of
goat's skin too, in one of which hung my powder, in the other
my shot at my back I carried my basket, on my shoulder my
gun, and over my head a great clumsy ugly goat's skin umbrella,
but which, after all, was the most necessary thing I had about
me, next to my gun. As for my face, the colour of it was
really not so mulatto-like as one might expect from a man not
at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees of the
equinox. My beard I had once suffered to grow till it was
about a quarter of a yard long; but as I had both scissors and
razors sufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except what grew on
my upper lip, which I had trimmed into a large pair of Mahome-
tan whiskers, such as I had seen worn by some Turks whom I
saw at Sallee; for the Moors did not wear such, though the
Turks did; of these mustachios, or whiskers, I will not say they
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175
were long enough to hang my hat upon them; but they were
of length and shape monstrous enough, and such as in England
would have passed for frightful.
But all this is by the bye; for as to my figure, I had so
few to observe, that it was of no manner of consequence-so I
say no more to that part. In this kind of figure I went my new
journey, and was out five or six days. I travelled first along
the sea-shore directly to the place where I first brought my boat
to an anchor, to get upon the rocks; and, having no boat now
to take care of, I went over the land a nearer way, to the same
height that I was upon before; when, looking forward to the
point of the rock which lay out, and which I was to double
with my boat, as I said above, I was surprised to see the sea
all smooth and quiet; no rippling, no motion, no current, any
more there than in other places.
I was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved to
spend some time in the observing of it, to see if nothing from
the sets of the tide had occasioned it; but I was presently con-
vinced how it was; namely, that the tide of ebb setting from
the west, and joining with the current of waters from some
great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this current,
and that according as the wind blew more forcible from the west,
or from the north, this current came near, or went farther from
the shore; for, waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up to
the rock again, and then, the tide of ebb being made, I plainly
saw the current again as before, only that it ran farther off,
being near half a league from the shore; whereas in my case, it
set close upon the shore, and hurried me in my canoe along
with it, which at another time it would not have done.
This observation convinced me, that I had nothing to do
but to observe the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and 1
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might very easily bring my boat about the island again: but
when I began to think of putting it into practice, I had such a
terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the danger I had
been in, that I could not think of it again with any patience;
but, on the contrary, I took up another resolution, which was
more safe, though more laborious; and this was, that I would
build, or rather make, me another periagua, or canoe; and so
have one for one side of the island, and one for the other.
You are to understand, that now I had, as I may call it,
two plantations in the island; one, my little fortification or
tent, with the wall about it under the rock, with the cave behind
me, which by this time I had enlarged into several apartments
or caves, one within another. One of these, which was the
driest and largest, and had a door out beyond my wall or for-
tification—that is to say, beyond where my wall joined to the
rock—was all filled up with large earthen pots, of which I have
given an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which
would hold five or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores
of provision, especially my corn, some in the ear cut off short
from the straw, and the other rubbed out with my hands.
As for my wall, made as before with long stakes or piles,
those piles grew all like trees, and were by this time grown so
big, and spread so very much, that there was not the least
appearance, to any one's view, of any habitation behind them.
Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the
the land, and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn
ground, which I kept duly cultivated and sowed, and which duly
yielded me their harvest in its season: and whenever I had
occasion for more corn, I had more land adjoining, as fit as that.
Besides this, I had my country seat, and I had now a toler-
able plantation there also; for first, I had my little bower, as
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177
1 called it, which I kept in repair-that is to say, I kept the
hedge which circled it in constantly fitted up to its usual height,
the ladder standing always in the inside; I kept the trees, which
at first were no more than stakes, but were now grown very
firm and tall—I kept them always so cut, that they might spread,
and grow thick and wild, and make the more agreeable shade,
which they did effectually to my mind. In the middle of this
I had my tent always standing, being a piece of sail spread over
poles set up for that purpose, and which never wanted any
repair or renewing; and under this I had made me a squab, or
couch, with the skins of the creatures I had killed, and with other
soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our
sea-bedding, which I had saved, and a great watch coat to cover
me; and here, whenever I had occasion to be absent from my
chief seat, I took up my country habitation.
Adjoining to this, I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is
to say, my goats: and as I had taken an inconceivable deal of
pains to fence and enclose this ground, I was so uneasy to see
it kept entire, lest the goats should break through, that I never
left off, till, with infinite labour, I had stuck the outside of the
hedge so full of small stakes, and so near to one another, that it
was rather a pale than a hedge, and there was scarce room to
put a hand through between them, which afterwards, when those
stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy season, made the
enclosure strong like a wall, indeed, stronger than any wall.
This will testify for me that I was not idle; and that I
spared no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary
for my comfortable support; for I considered the keeping up a
breed of tame creatures thus at my hand, would be a living
magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and cheese, for me, as long as I
lived in the place, if it were to be forty years; and that keeping
N
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them in my reach depended entirely upon my perfecting my
enclosures to such a degree, that I might be sure of keeping
them together; which, by this method, indeed, I so effectually
secured, that when these little stakes began to grow, I had
planted them so very thick I was forced to pull some of them
up again.
In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I princi-
pally depended on for my winter store of raisins, and which I
never failed to preserve very carefully, as the best and most
agreeable dainty of my whole diet; and, indeed, they were not
agrecable only, but physical, wholesome, nourishing, and refresh-
ing, to the last degree.
As this was also about half way between my other habita-
tion and the place where I had laid up my boat, I generally
staid and lay here in my way thither; for I used frequently to
visit my boat, and I kept all things about or belonging to her
in very good order. Sometimes I went out in her to divert
myself; but no more hazardous voyages would I go, nor scarce
ever above a stone's cast or two from the shore, I was so
apprehensive of being hurried out of my knowledge again by
the currents, or winds, or any other accident. But now I come
to a new scene of my life.
It happened one day about noon, going towards my boat,
I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked
foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand;
I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an appari-
tion; I listened, I looked round me-I could hear nothing, nor
see anything; I went up to a rising ground to look farther; I
went up the shore and down the shore, but it was all one, I
could see no other impression but that one: I went to it again
to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be
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179
my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was
exactly the very print of a foot; toes, heel, and every part of
a foot how it came thither I knew not, nor could in the least
imagine. But after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man
perfectly confused, and out of myself, I came home to my forti-
fication, not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but
terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at every two or
three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying every
stump at a distance to be a man; nor is it possible to describe
how many various shapes an affrighted imagination represented
things to me in-how many wild ideas were formed every
moment in my fancy-and what strange unaccountable whimsies
came into my thoughts by the way.
When I came to my castle, for so I think I called it ever
after this, I fled into it like one pursued; whether I went over
by the ladder, at first contrived, or went in at the hole in the
rock, which I called a door, I cannot remember; for never
frighted hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of
mind than I to this retreat.
I had no sleep that night; the farther I was from the
occasion of my fright, the greater my apprehensions were;
which is something contrary to the nature of such things, and
especially to the usual practice of all creatures in fear. But I
was so embarrassed with my own frightful ideas of the thing,
that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to myself, even
though I was now a great way off it. Sometimes I fancied it
must be the devil: and reason joined in with me upon this
supposition. For how should any other thing in human shape
come into the place? Where was the vessel that brought
them? What marks were there of any other footsteps? And
how was it possible a man should come there? But then to
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think that Satan should take human shape upon him in such a
place, where there could be no manner of occasion for it but to
leave the print of his foot behind him, and that even for no
purpose too (for he could not be sure I should see it), this was
an amazement the other way; I considered that the devil might
have found out abundance of other ways to have terrified me,
than this of the single print of a foot; that, as I lived quite on
the other side of the island, he would never have been so simple
as to leave a mark in a place where it was ten thousand to one
whether I should ever see it or not, and in the sand too, which
the first surge of the sea upon a high wind would have defaced
entirely. All this seemed inconsistent with the thing itself, and
with all notions we usually entertain of the subtlety of the devil.
Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me
out of all apprehensions of its being the devil; and I presently
concluded that it must be some more dangerous creature-
namely, that it must be some of the savages of the mainland
over against me, who had wandered out to sea in their canoes,
and, either driven by the currents, or by contrary winds, had
made the island, and had been on shore, but were gone away
again to sea, being as loath, perhaps, to have staid in this
desolate island, as I would have been to have had them.
While these reflections were rolling upon my mind, I was
very thankful in my thought, that I was so happy as not to be
thereabouts at that time, or that they did not see my boat, by
which they would have concluded that some inhabitants had
been in the place, and perhaps have searched farther for me.
Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination, about their
having found my boat, and that there were people here; and
that if so, I should certainly have them come again in greater
numbers, and devour me; that if it should happen so that they
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181
should not find me, yet they would find my enclosure, destroy
all my corn, carry away all my flock of tame goats, and I should
perish at last for mere want.
Thus my fear banished all my religious hope: all that former
confidence in God, which was founded upon such wonderful
experience as I had had of his goodness, now vanished; as if
he that had fed me by miracle hitherto, could not preserve by
his power the provision which he had made for me by his good-
ness. I reproached myself with my laziness, that I would not
sow any more corn one year than would just serve me till the
next season, as if no accident could intervene to prevent my
enjoying the crop that was upon the ground.
the ground. And this I
thought so just a reproof, that I resolved for the future to have
two or three years' corn beforehand, so that, whatever might
come, I might not perish for want of bread.
How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of
man! And by what secret differing springs are the affections
hurried about, as differing circumstances present! To-day we
love what to-morrow we hate-to-day we seek what to-morrow
we shun-to-day we desire what to-morrow we fear, nay, even
tremble at the apprehensions of. This was exemplified in me
at this time in the most lively manner imaginable; for I, whose
only affliction was that I seemed banished from human society,
that I was alone, circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off
from mankind, and condemned to what I called a silent life;
that I was as one whom Heaven thought not worthy to be
numbered among the living, or to appear among the rest of his
creatures; that to have seen one of my own species would have
seemed to me a raising me from death to life, and the greatest
blessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme blessing of
salvation, could bestow-I say, that I should now tremble at
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the very apprehensions of seeing a man, and was ready to sink
into the ground at but the shadow, or silent appearance, of a
man's having set his foot on the island.
Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me
a great many curious speculations afterwards, when I had a
little recovered my first surprise; I considered that this was
the station of life the infinitely wise and good providence of God
had determined for me; that as I could not foresee what the
ends of divine wisdom might be in all this, so I was not to
dispute his sovereignty, who, as I was his creature, had an
undoubted right by creation to govern and dispose of me abso-
lutely as he thought fit; and who, as I was a creature who had
offended him, had likewise a judicial right to condemn me to
what punishment he thought fit: and that it was my part to
submit to bear his indignation, because I had sinned against him.
I then reflected, that God, who was not only righteous, but
omnipotent, as he had thought fit thus to punish and afflict me,
so he was able to deliver me; that if he did not think fit to
do it, it was my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely
and entirely to his will; and, on the other hand, it was my
duty also to hope in him, pray to him, and quietly to attend
the dictates and directions of his daily providence.
These thoughts took me up many hours, days-nay, I may
say, weeks and months; and one particular effect of my cogita-
tions on this occasion I cannot omit; namely, one morning
early, lying in my bed, and filled with thoughts about my danger
from the appearance of savages, I found it discomposed me very
much; upon which those words of the Scripture came into my
thoughts, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
""
Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was
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183
not only comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray
earnestly to God for deliverance. When I had done praying,
I took up my bible, and opening it to read, the first words that
presented to me were, "Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer,
and he shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord."
It is impossible to express the comfort this gave me; and in
return, I thankfully laid down the book, and was no more sad,
at least not on that occasion.
In the midst of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflec-
tions, it came into my thoughts one day, that all this might be
a mere chimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print
of my own foot when I came on shore from my boat. This
cheered me up a little too, and I began to persuade myself it
was all a delusion-that it was nothing else but my own foot;
and why might not I come that way from the boat, as well as
I was going that way to the boat? Again I considered also,
that I could by no means tell for certain where I had trod, and
where I had not; and that if at last this was only the print of
my own foot, I had played the part of those fools, who strive to
make stories of spectres and apparitions, and then are themselves
frighted at them more than any body else.
Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again—
for I had not stirred out of my castle for three days and nights,
so that I began to starve for provision; for I had little or
nothing within doors, but some barley-cakes and water. Then
I knew that my goats wanted to be milked too, which usually
was my evening diversion-and the poor creatures were in great
pain and inconvenience for want of it; and, indeed, it almost
spoiled some of them, and almost dried up their milk.
Heartening myself, therefore, with the belief that this was
nothing but the print of one of my own feet (and so I might be
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truly said to start at my own shadow), I began to go abroad
again, and went to my country house to milk my flock; but to
see with what fear I went forward, how often I looked behind
me, how I was ready, every now and then, to lay down my
basket, and run for my life, it would have made any one have
thought I was haunted with an evil conscience, or that I had
been lately most terribly frighted; and so indeed I had.
However, as I went down thus two or three days, and
having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder, and to think
there was really nothing in it but my own imagination; but I
could not persuade myself fully of this, till I should go down to
the shore again and see this print of a foot, and measure it by
my own, and see if there was any similitude or fitness, that I
might be assured it was my own foot. But when I came to
the place first, it appeared evidently to me, that when I laid up
my boat, I could not possibly be on shore any where there-
abouts. Secondly, when I came to measure the mark with my
own foot, I found my foot not so large by a great deal. Both
these things filled my head with new imaginations, and gave
me the vapours again to the highest degree; so that I shook
with cold like one in an ague, and I went home again, filled
with the belief that some man or men had been on shore there;
or, in short, that the island was inhabited, and I might be sur-
prised before I was aware; and what course to take for my
security I knew not.
Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed
with fear! It deprives them of the use of those means which
reason offers for their relief. The first thing I proposed to my-
self was, to throw down my enclosures, and turn all my tame
cattle wild into the woods, that the enemy might not find them,
and then frequent the island in prospect of the same, or the
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
185
like booty; then to the simple thing of digging up my two
corn fields, that they might not find such a grain there, and
still be prompted to frequent the island; then to demolish my
bower and tent, that they might not see any vestiges of my
habitation, and be prompted to look farther, in order to find out
the persons inhabiting.
These were the subjects of the first night's cogitation, after
I was come home again, while the apprehensions which had so
overrun my mind were fresh upon me, and my head was full of
vapours, as above. Thus, fear of danger is ten thousand times
more terrifying than danger itself, when apparent to the eyes;
and we find the burden of anxiety greater by much than the
evil which we are anxious about; but, which was worse than
all this, I had not that relief in this trouble, from the resigna-
tion I used to practise, that I hoped to have. I looked, I
thought, like Saul, who complained, not only that the Philistines
were upon him, but that God had forsaken him; for I did not
now take due ways to compose my mind, by crying to God in
my distress, and resting upon his providence, as I had done
before, for my defence and deliverance; which, if I had done, I
had at least been more cheerfully supported under this new
surprise, and perhaps carried through it with more resolution.
This confusion of my thoughts kept me waking all night,
but in the morning I fell asleep, and having, by the amusement
of my mind, been, as it were, tired, and my spirits exhausted,
I slept very soundly, and awaked much better composed than I
had ever been before. And now I began to think sedately;
and, upon the utmost debate with myself, I concluded that this
island, which was so exceeding pleasant, fruitful, and no farther
from the mainland than as I had seen, was not so entirely
abandoned as I might imagine; that although there were no
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stated inhabitants who lived on the spot, yet that there might
sometimes come boats off from the shore, who, either with
design, or perhaps never but when they were driven by cross
winds, might come to this place; that I had lived here fifteen
years now, and had not met with the least shadow or figure of
any people before; and that, if at any time they should be
driven here, it was probable they went away again as soon as
ever they could, seeing they had never thought fit to fix there
upon any occasion, to this time; that the most I could suggest
any danger from, was from any such casual accidental landing
of straggling people from the main, who, as it was likely, if they
were driven hither, were here against their wills; so they made
no stay here, but went off again with all possible speed, seldom
staying one night on shore, lest they should not have the help
of the tides and daylight back again; and that therefore I had
nothing to do but to consider of some safe retreat, in case I
should see any savages land upon the spot.
Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so
large as to bring a door through again, which door, as I said,
came out beyond where my fortification joined to the rock.
Upon maturely considering this, therefore, I resolved to draw
me a second fortification, in the manner of a semicircle, at a
distance from my wall, just where I had planted a double row
of trees about twelve years before, of which I made mention;
these trees having been planted so thick before, there wanted
but a few piles to be driven between them, that they should be
thicker and stronger, and my wall would be soon finished.
So that I had now a double wall, and my outer wall was
thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, and every thing I
could think of to make it strong; having in it seven little holes
about as big as I might put my arm out at. In the inside of
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187
this I thickened my wall to about ten feet thick, continually
bringing earth out of my cave, and laying it at the foot of the
wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven holes I con-
trived to plant the muskets, of which I took notice that I got
seven on shore out of the ship: these, I say, I planted like my
cannon, and fitted them into frames that held them like a
carriage, that so I could fire all the seven guns in two minutes'
time. This wall I was many a weary month in finishing, and
yet never thought myself safe till it was done.
When this was done, I stuck all the ground without my
wall, for a great way every way, as full with stakes or sticks of
the osier-like wood, which I found so apt to grow, as they could
well stand; insomuch, that I believe I might set in near twenty
thousand of them, leaving a pretty large space between them
and my wall, that I might have room to see an enemy, and
they might have no shelter from the young trees, if they
attempted to approach my outer wall.
Thus in two years' time I had a thick grove; and in five
or six years' time I had a wood before my dwelling, grown so
monstrous thick and strong, that it was, indeed, perfectly im-
passable; and no man, of what kind soever, would ever imagine
that there was any thing beyond it, much less a habitation. As
for the way I proposed myself to go in and out (for I left no
avenue), it was by setting two ladders; one to a part of the rock
which was low, and then broke in, and left room to place
another ladder upon that; so when the two ladders were taken
down, no man living could come down to me without mis-
chiefing himself; and if they had come down, they were still on
the outside of my outer wall.
Thus I took all the measures human prudence could sug-
gest for my own preservation; and it will be seen at length,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
that they were not altogether without just reason-though
I foresaw nothing at that time more than my mere fear
suggested.
}
While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my
other affairs, for I had a great concern upon me for my little
herd of goats; they were not only a present supply to me
upon every other occasion, and to be sufficient for me without
the expense of powder and shot, but also abated the fatigue of
my hunting after the wild ones; and I was loath to lose the
advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse up over
again.
To this purpose, after long consideration, I could think but
of two ways to preserve them: one was to find another con-
venient place to dig a cave under ground, and to drive them
into it every night; and the other was to enclose two or three
little bits of land, remote from one another, and as much con-
cealed as I could, where I might keep about half a dozen young
goats in each place, so that if any disaster happened to the flock
in general, I might be able to raise them again with little
trouble and time; and this, though it would require a great
deal of time and labour, I thought was the most rational design.
Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most retired
parts of the island; and I pitched upon one which was as private,
indeed, as my heart could wish, for it was a little damp piece
of ground in the middle of the hollow and thick woods, where, as
is observed, I almost lost myself once before endeavouring to
come back that way from the eastern part of the island. Here
I found a clear piece of land, near three acres, so surrounded
with woods that it was almost an enclosure by nature; at least,
it did not want near so much labour to make it so as the other
pieces of ground I had worked so hard at.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
189
I immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and
in less than a month's time I had so fenced it round that my
flock, or herd, call it which you please, which were not so wild
now as at first they might be supposed to be, were well enough
secured in it. So, without any farther delay, I removed ten
she-goats and two he-goats to this piece; and when there, I
continued to perfect the fence, till I had made it as secure as
the other, which, however, I did at more leisure, and it took
me up more time by a great deal.
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CHAPTER XII.
I observe a canoe out at sea-Find on the shore the reinnant of a feast of
cannibals—Horror of mind thereon-Double arm myself-Terribly alarmed
by a goat-Discover a singular cave or grotto, of which I form my
magazine-My fears on account of the savages begin to subside.
A
LL this labour I was at the expense of, purely from my
apprehensions on the account of the print of a man's foot
which I had seen; for as yet I never saw any human creature
come near the island, and I had now lived two years under
these uneasinesses, which, indeed, made my life much less com-
fortable than it was before, as may well be imagined by any
who know what it is to live in the constant snare of the fear of
man; and this I must observe with grief, too, that the dis-
composure of my mind had too great impressions also upon the
religious part of my thoughts; for the dread and terror of
falling into the hands of savages and cannibals lay so upon my
spirits, that I seldom found myself in a due temper for applica-
tion to my maker; at least, not with the sedate calmness and
resignation of soul which I was wont to do. I rather prayed
to God as under great affliction and pressure of mind, sur-
rounded with danger, and in expectation every night of being
murdered and devoured before the morning; and I must testify
from my experience, that a temper of peace, thankfulness, love,
and affection, is much more the proper frame for prayer than
that of terror and discomposure; and that under the dread of
mischief impending, a man is no more fit for a comforting
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191
performance of the duty of praying to God, than he is for
repentance on a sick-bed-for these discomposures affect the
mind as the others do the body—and the discomposure of the
mind must necessarily be as great a disability as that of the
body, and much greater; praying to God being properly an act
of the mind, not of the body.
But to go on. After I had thus secured one part of my
little living stock, I went about the whole island searching for
another private place to make such another deposit; when
wandering more to the west point of the island than I had ever
done yet, and looking out to sea, I thought I saw a boat upon
the sea at a great distance. I had found a perspective glass or
two in one of the seamen's chests which I saved out of our
ship; but I had it not about me, and this was so remote,
that I could not tell what to make of it, though I looked at it
till my eyes were not able to look any longer-whether it
was a boat or not, I did not know; but as I descended from
the hill, I could see no more of it, so I gave it over; only
I resolved to go no more without a perspective glass in my
pocket.
When I was come down the hill to the end of the island,
where indeed I had never been before, I was presently con-
vinced that the seeing the print of a man's foot was not such a
strange thing in the island as I imagined; and, but that it was
a special providence that I was cast upon the side of the island
where the savages never came, I should easily have known, that
nothing was more frequent than for the canoes from the main,
when they happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot
over to that side of the island for harbour; likewise, as they
often met, and fought in their canoes, the victors, having taken
any prisoners, would bring them over to this shore, where,
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according to their dreadful customs, being all cannibals, they
would kill and eat them—of which hereafter.
When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said
above, being the south-west point of the island, I. was perfectly
confounded and amazed; nor is it possible for me to express
the horror of my mind, at seeing the shore spread with skulls,
hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; and, particularly,
I observed a place where there had been a fire made, and a
circle dug in the earth like a cock-pit, where I supposed the
savage wretches had sat down to their inhuman feastings upon
the bodies of their fellow-creatures.
I was so astonished with the sight of these things that I
entertained no notions of any danger to myself from it for a
long while; all my apprehensions were buried in the thoughts
of such a pitch of inhuman, hellish brutality, and the horror of
the degeneracy of human nature; which, though I had heard
of often, yet I never had so near a view of before-in short, I
turned away my face from the horrid spectacle; my stomach
grew sick, and I was just at the point of fainting, when nature
discharged the disorder from my stomach, and having vomited
with an uncommon violence, I was a little relieved, but could
not bear to stay in the place a moment; so I got me up the
hill again with all the speed I could, and walked on towards my
own habitation.
When I came a little out of that part of the island, I stood
still a while as amazed; and then recovering myself, I looked
up with the utmost affection of my soul, and, with a flood of
tears in my eyes, gave God thanks, that had cast my first lot
in a part of the world where I was distinguished from such
dreadful creatures as these; and that, though I had esteemed
my present condition very miserable, had yet given me so
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193
many comforts in it, that I had still more to give thanks for
than to complain of; and this above all, that I had, even in
this miserable condition, been comforted with the knowledge of
himself, and the hope of his blessing, which was a felicity more
than sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which I had
suffered, or could suffer.
In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle,
and began to be much easier now, as to the safety of my cir-
cumstances, than ever I was before-for I observed, that these
wretches never came to this island in search of what they could
get-perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or not expecting, any
thing here, and having often, no doubt, been up in the covered
woody part of it, without finding any thing to their purpose.
I knew I had been here now almost eighteen years, and never
saw the least footsteps of a human creature there before; and
might be here eighteen more as entirely concealed as I was
now, if I did not discover myself to them, which I had no
manner of occasion to do, it being my only business to keep
myself entirely concealed where I was, unless I found a better
sort of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to.
Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches
that I have been speaking of, and of the wretched inhuman
custom of their devouring and eating one another up, that I
continued pensive and sad, and kept close within my own circle
for almost two years after this; when I say my own circle,
I inean by it my three plantations, namely, my castle my
country seat, which I called my bower, and my enclosure in the
woods; nor did I look after this for any other use than as an
enclosure for my goats; for the aversion which nature gave me
to these hellish wretches was such, that I was as fearful of see-
ing them as of seeing the devil himself; nor did I so much as
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go to look after my boat in all this time, but began rather to
think of making me another; for I could not think of ever
making any more attempts to bring the other boat round the
island to me, lest I should meet with some of those creatures at
sea, in which, if I had happened to have fallen into their hands,
I knew what would have been my lot.
Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no
danger of being discovered by these people, began to wear off
my uneasiness about them, and I began to live just in the same
composed manner as before; only with this difference, that I
used more caution, and kept my eyes more about me than I
did before, lest I should happen to be seen by any of them;
and particularly, I was more cautious of firing my gun, lest any
of them on the island should happen to hear it; and it was
therefore a very good providence to me, that I had furnished
myself with a tame breed of goats, that I had no need to hunt
any more about the woods, or shoot at them; and if I did
catch any more of them after this, it was by traps and snares,
as I had done before-so that for two years after this, I believe
I never fired my gun once off, though I never went out without
it; and, which was more, as I had saved three pistols out of
the ship, I always carried them out with me, or at least two of
them, sticking them in my goat-skin belt; I likewise furbished
up one of the great cutlasses that I had out of the ship, and
made me a belt to put it in also; so that I was now a most
formidable fellow to look at when I went abroad, if you add to
the former description of myself, the particular of two pistols,
and a great broadsword hanging at my side in a belt, but
without a scabbard.
Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed,
excepting these cautions, to be reduced to my former calm sedate
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195
way of living. All these things tended to show me more and
more how far my condition was from being miserable, compared
to some others—nay, to many other particulars of life, which it
might have pleased God to have made my lot. It put me upon
reflecting, how little repining there would be among mankind,
at any condition of life, if people would rather compare their
condition with those that are worse, in order to be thankful,
than be always comparing them with those which are better,
to assist their murmurings and complainings.
As in my present condition there was not really many things
which I wanted, so indeed I thought that the frights I had been
in about these savage wretches, and the concern I had been in
for my own preservation, had taken off the edge of my invention
for my own conveniences, and I had dropped a good design,
which I had once bent my thoughts upon; and that was, to try
if I could not make some of my barley into malt, and then try
to brew myself some beer. This was really a whimsical thought,
and I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it; for I pre-
sently saw there would be the want of several things necessary
to the making my beer, that would be impossible for me to
supply; as first, casks to preserve it in, which was a thing that,
as I have observed already, I could never compass—no, though
I spent not many days, but weeks, nay, months, in attempting
it, but to no purpose.
In the next place, I had no hops to
make it keep, no yeast to make it work, no copper or kettle
to make it boil; and yet, had not all these things intervened
-I mean the frights and terrors I was in about the savages—
I had undertaken it, and perhaps brought it to pass too; for I
seldom gave any thing over without accomplishing it, when I
once had it in my head enough to begin it.
But my invention now ran quite another way; for night
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and day I could think of nothing, but how I might destroy some
of these monsters in their cruel bloody entertainment, and, if
possible, save the victim they should bring hither to destroy.
It would take up a larger volume than this whole work is
intended to be, to set down all the contrivances I hatched, or
rather brooded upon in my thoughts, for the destroying these crea-
tures, or at least frightening them, so as to prevent their coming
hither any more; but all was abortive-nothing could be possible
to take effect, unless I was to be there to do it myself; and
what could one man do among them, when perhaps there might
be twenty or thirty of them together, with their darts, or their
bows and arrows, with which they could shoot as true to a mark
as I could with my gun?
Sometimes I contrived to dig a hole under the place where
they made their fire, and put in five or six pounds of gunpowder,
which, when they kindled their fire, would consequently take
fire, and blow up all that was near it; but as, in the first place,
I should be very loath to waste so much powder upon them, my
store now being within the quantity of a barrel, so neither could
I be sure of its going off at any certain time, when it might
surprise them; and, at best, that it would little more than just
blow the fire about their ears, and fright them, but not sufficient
to make them forsake the place; so I laid it aside, and then
proposed, that I would place myself in ambush, in some con-
venient place, with my three guns all double loaded, and in the
middle of their bloody ceremony, let fly at them, when I should
be sure to kill or wound perhaps two or three at every shot;
and then, falling in upon them with my three pistols, and my
sword, I inade no doubt but that, if there were twenty, I should
kill them all. This fancy pleased my thoughts for some
weeks, and I was so full of it that I often dreamed of it; and
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sometimes, that I was just going to let fly at them in my
sleep.
I went so far with it in my imagination, that I employed
myself several days to find out proper places to put myself in
ambuscade, as I said, to watch for them; and I went frequently
to the place itself, which was now grown more familiar to me;
and especially, while my mind was thus filled with thoughts of
revenge, and of a bloody putting twenty or thirty of them to
the sword, as I may call it; but the horror I had at the place,
and at the signals of the barbarous wretches devouring one
another, abated ny malice.
Well, at length I found a place in the side of the hill, where
I was satisfied I might securely wait till I saw any of the boats
coming, and might then, even before they would be ready to
come on shore, convey myself unseen into thickets of trees, in
one of which there was a hollow large enough to conceal me
entirely and where I might sit, and observe all their bloody
doings, and take my full aim at their heads, when they were
so close together as that it would be next to impossible that I
should miss my shot, or that I could fail wounding three or four
of them at the first shot.
In this place, then, I resolved to fix my design; and
accordingly, I prepared two muskets and my ordinary fowling-
piece. The two muskets I loaded with a brace of slugs each,
and four or five smaller bullets, about the size of pistol bullets,
and the fowling-piece I loaded with near a handful of swan-
shot, of the largest size; I also loaded my pistols with about
four bullets each; and in this posture, well provided with
ammunition for a second and third charge, I prepared myself
for my expedition.
After I had thus laid the scheme for my design, and in my
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imagination put it in practice, I continually made my tour every
morning up to the top of the hill, which was from my castle, as
I called it, about three miles or more, to see if I could observe
any boats upon the sea, coming near the island, or standing
over towards it; but I began to tire of this hard duty, after I
had for two or three months constantly kept my watch, but
came always back without any discovery, there having not in all
that time been the least appearance, not only on or near the
shore, but not on the whole ocean, so far as my eyes or glasses
could reach every way.
As long as I kept up my daily tour to the hill to look out,
so long also I kept up the vigour of my design, and my spirits
seemed to be all the while in a suitable frame for so outrageous
an execution as the killing twenty or thirty naked savages for
an offence, which I had not at all entered into a discussion of
in my thoughts, any farther than my passions were at first fired
by the horror I conceived at the unnatural custom of the people
of that country, who, it seems, had been suffered by Providence,
in his wise disposition of the world, to have no other guide than
that of their own abominable and vitiated passions; and con-
sequently were left, and perhaps had been for some ages, to act
such horrid things, and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing
but nature, entirely abandoned of Heaven, and actuated by some
hellish degeneracy, could have run them into; but now, when,
as I have said, I began to be weary of the fruitless excursion
which I had made so long and so far every morning in vain, so
my opinion of the action itself began to alter, and I began with
cooler and calmer thoughts, to consider what it was I was going
to engage in-what authority or call I had to pretend to be
judge and executioner upon these men as criminals, whom
Heaven had thought fit for so many ages to suffer unpunished
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199
to go on, and to be, as it were, the executioners of his judg-
ments upon one another; also, how far these people were
offenders against me, and what right I had to engage in the
quarrel of that blood which they shed promiscuously one upon
another. I debated this very often with myself thus:-How
do I know what God himself judges in this particular case?
It is certain these people do not commit this as a crime; it is
not against their own consciences reproving, or their light re-
proaching them. They do not know it to be an offence, and
then commit it in defiance of divine justice, as we do in almost
all the sins we commit. They think it no more a crime to kill
a captive taken in war than we do to kill an ox, nor to eat
human flesh than we do to eat mutton.
When I had considered this a little, it followed necessarily,
that I was certainly in the wrong in it-that these people were
not murderers in the sense that I had before condemned them
in my thoughts, any more than those Christians were murderers,
who often put to death the prisoners taken in battle; or more
frequently, upon many occasions, put whole troops of men to
the sword, without giving quarter, though they threw down
their arms and submitted.
In the next place, it occurred to me, that albeit the usage
they gave one another was thus brutish and inhuman, yet it
was really nothing to me; these people had done me no injury
-that if they attempted me, or I saw it necessary, for my
immediate preservation, to fall upon them, something might be
said for it; but that I was yet out of their power, and they had
really no knowledge of me, and consequently no design upon
me, and therefore, it could not be just for me to fall upon them
—that this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards, in all
their barbarities practised in America, where they destroyed
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millions of these people, who, however they were idolators and
barbarians, and had several bloody and barbarous rites in their
customs-such as sacrificing human bodies to their idols—were
yet, as to the Spaniards, very innocent people; and that the
rooting them out of the country is spoken of with the utmost
abhorrence and detestation, even by the Spaniards themselves,
at this time, and by all other Christian nations of Europe as a
mere butchery, a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty, unjusti-
fiable either to God or man, and such, as for which the very
name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be frightful and terrible to
all people of humanity, or of Christian compassion; as if the
kingdom of Spain were particularly eminent for the product of
a race of men who were without principles of tenderness, or the
common bowels of pity to the miserable, which is reckoned to be
a mark of a generous temper in the mind.
These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a
kind of a full stop; and I began by little and little to be off
my design, and to conclude I had taken a wrong measure in my
resolutions to attack the savages—that it was not my business
to meddle with them, unless they first attacked me, and this it
was my business, if possible, to prevent; but that, if I were
discovered and attacked, then I knew my duty.
On the other hand, I argued with myself that this really
was not the way to deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and
destroy myself; for unless I was sure to kill every one that not
only should be on shore at that time, but that should ever come
on shore afterwards-if but one of them escaped to tell their
country-people what had happened, they would come over
again by thousands to revenge the death of their fellows; and
I should only bring upon myself a certain destruction, which
at present I had no manner of occasion for.
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201
Upon the whole, I concluded, that neither in principles nor
in policy, I ought one way or other to concern myself in this
affair that my business was, by all possible means, to conceal
myself from them, and not to leave the least signal to them to
guess by that there were any living creatures upon the island,
I mean of human shape.
Religion joined in with this prudential resolution, and I
was convinced now many ways that I was perfectly out of my
duty, when I was laying all my bloody schemes for the destruc-
tion of innocent creatures-I mean, innocent as to me; as to
the crimes they were guilty of towards one another, I had
nothing to do with them; they were national punishments to
make a just retribution for national offences, and to bring public
judgments upon those who offended in a public manner, by such
ways as best please God.
This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing was a
greater satisfaction to me, than that I had not been suffered to
do a thing which I now saw so much reason to believe would
have been no less a sin than that of wilful murder, if I had
committed it; and I gave most humble thanks on my knees to
God, that had thus delivered me from blood-guiltiness, beseech-
ing him to grant me the protection of his providence, that I
might not fall into the hands of barbarians, or that I might not
lay my hands upon them, unless I had a more clear call from
Heaven to do it, in defence of my own life.
In this disposition I continued for near a year after this;
and so far was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these
wretches, that in all that time I never once went up the hill to
see whether there were any of them in sight, or to know
whether any of them had been on shore there or not, that I
might not be tempted to renew any of my contrivances against
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them, or be provoked, by any advantage which might present
itself, to fall upon them; only this I did-I went and removed
my boat, which I had on the other side of the island, and carried
it down to the east end of the whole island, where I ran it into.
a little cove which I found under some high rocks, and where I
knew, by reason of the currents, the savages durst not, at least
would not, come with their boats, upon any account whatsoever.
With my boat I carried away everything that I had left
there belonging to her, though not necessary for the bare going
thither-namely, a mast and sail, which I had made for her,
and a thing like an anchor, but indeed, which could not be
called either anchor or grappling-however, it was the best I
could make of its kind. All these I removed, that there might
not be the least shadow of any discovery, or any appearance of
any boat, or of any habitation upon the island.
Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than ever,
and seldom went from my cell, other than upon my constant
employment—namely, to milk my she-goats, and manage my
little flock in the wood, which, as it was quite on the other part of
the island, was quite out of danger; for certain it is, that these
savage people, who sometimes haunted this island, never came
with any thoughts of finding anything here, and consequently
never wandered off from the coast; and I doubt not but they
might have been several times on shore, after my apprehensions
of them had made me cautious, as well as before; and, indeed, I
looked back with some horror upon the thoughts of what my con-
dition would have been, if I had chopped upon them, and been
discovered before that, when naked and unarmed, except with
one gun, and that loaded often only with small shot. I walked
every where, peeping and peering about the island, to see what
I could get what a surprise should I have been in, if, when I
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203
discovered the print of a man's foot, I had instead of that seen
fifteen or twenty savages, and found them pursuing me, and, by
the swiftness of their running, no possibility of my escaping them.
The thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul within
me, and distressed my mind so much that I could not soon
recover it: to think what I should have done, and how I not
only should not have been able to resist them, but even should
not have had presence of mind enough to do what I might
have done, much less what now, after so much consideration
and preparation, I might be able to do. Indeed, after serious
thinking of these things, I would be very melancholy, and some-
times it would last a great while; but I resolved it at last all
into thankfulness to that Providence, which had delivered me
from so many unseen dangers, and had kept me from those
mischiefs which I could no way have been the agent in deliver-
ing myself from, because I had not the least notion of any such
thing depending, or the least supposition of its being possible.
This renewed a contemplation, which often had come to
ny thoughts in former time, when first I began to see the
merciful dispositions of Heaven, in the dangers we run through
in this life, how wonderfully we are delivered when we know
nothing of it-how, when we are in a quandary (as we call it),
a doubt or hesitation whether to go this way or that way, a
secret hint shall direct us this way, when we intend to go
another way-nay, when sense, our own inclination, and perhaps
business, has called to go the other way, yet a strange impres-
sion upon the mind, from we know not what springs, and by
we know not what power, shall overrule us to go this way;
and it shall afterwards appear, that had we gone that way
which we would have gone, and even to our imagination ought
to have gone, we should have been ruined and lost. Upon
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these, and many like reflections, I afterwards made it a certain
rule with me, that whenever I found those secret hints or
pressings of my mind, to doing or not doing any thing that
presented, or to going this way or that way, I never failed to
obey the secret dictate; though I knew no other reason for it,
than that such a pressure or such a hint hung upon my mind.
I could give many examples of the success of this conduct in
the course of my life, but more especially in the latter part of
my inhabiting this unhappy island; besides inany occasions
which it is very likely I might have taken notice of, if I had
seen with the same eyes then that I saw with now. But it is
never too late to be wise; and I cannot but advise all consider-
ing men, whose lives are attended with such extraordinary
incidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, not to
slight such secret intimations of Providence, let them come
from what invisible intelligence they will-that I shall not dis-
cuss, and perhaps cannot account for; but certainly they are a
proof of the converse of spirits, and the secret communication
between those embodied and those unembodied-and such a
proof as can never be withstood—of which I shall have occasion
to give some very remarkable instances, in the remainder of my
solitary residence in this dismal place.
I believe the reader of this will not think it strange, if I
confess that these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in,
and the concern that was now upon me, put an end to all in-
vention, and to all the contrivances that I had laid for my
future accommodations and conveniences. I had the care of my
safety more now upon my hands than that of my food. I cared
not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood now, for fear the
noise I should make should be heard-much less would I fire a
gun, for the same reason-and, above all, I was very uneasy
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205
at making any fire, lest the smoke, which is visible at a great
distance in the day, should betray me; and, for this reason, I
removed that part of my business which required fire, such as
burning of pots and pipes, etc., into my new apartment in the
wood; where, after I had been some time, I found to my
unspeakable consolation, a mere natural cave in the earth, which
went in a vast way, and where, I dare say, no savage, had he
been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venture in,
nor indeed would any man else, but one who, like me, wanted
nothing so much as a safe retreat.
The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great
rock, where, by mere accident (I would say, if I did not see an
abundant reason to ascribe all such things now to Providence),
I was cutting down some thick branches of trees to make char-
coal; and before I go on, I must observe the reason of my
making this charcoal, which was thus :-
I was afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as I
said before; and yet I could not live there without baking my
bread, cooking my meat, etc. so I contrived to burn some
wood here, as I had seen done in England under turf, till it
became chark, or dry coal; and then putting the fire out, I
preserved the coal to carry home, and perform the other services
which fire was wanting for at home, without danger or smoke.
But this by the by. While I was cutting down some
wood here, I perceived that, behind a very thick branch of
low brush-wood or underwood, there was a kind of hollow place;
I was curious to look into it, and getting with difficulty into
the mouth of it, I found it was pretty large, that is to say,
sufficient for me to stand upright in it, and perhaps another
with me; but I must confess to you, I made more haste
out than I did in, when, looking farther into the place, which
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was perfectly dark, I saw two broad shining eyes of some
creature, whether devil or man I knew not, which twinkled
like two stars, the dim light from the cave's mouth shining
directly in and making the reflection.
However, after some pause, I recovered myself, and began
to call myself a thousand fools, and tell myself, that he that was
afraid to see the devil was not fit to live twenty years in an
island all alone, and that I durst to believe there was nothing
in this cave that was more frightful than myself. Upon this,
plucking up my courage, I took up a large firebrand, and in I
rushed again, with the stick flaming in my hand; I had not
gone three steps in, but I was almost as much frightened as I
was before, for I heard a very loud sigh, like that of a man in
some pain, and it was followed by a broken noise, as if of words.
half expressed, and then a deep sigh again. I stepped back,
and was indeed struck with such a surprise that it put me
into a cold sweat; and if I had had a hat on my head, I will
not answer for it that my hair might not have lifted it off. But
still plucking up my spirits as well as I could, and encouraging
myself a little with considering that the power and presence
of God was every where, and was able to protect me; upon
this I stepped forward again, and by the light of the firebrand,
holding it up a little over my head, I saw lying on the ground
a most monstrous frightful old he-goat, just making his will, as
we say, gasping for life, and dying, indeed, of mere old age.
I stirred him a little, to see if I could get him out, and he
essayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself; and I
thought with myself, he might even lie there, for if he had
frightened me so, he would certainly fright any of the savages,
if any of them should be so hardy as to come in there, while
he had any life in him.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look
round me, when I found the cave was but very small; that is
to say, it might be about twelve feet over, but in no manner of
shape, either round or square, no hands having ever been
employed in making it but those of mere nature; I observed
also, that there was a place at the farther side of it that went
in farther, but so low, that it required me to creep upon my
hands and knees to get into it, and whither it went I knew
not: so, having no candle, I gave it over for some time, but
resolved to come again the next day, provided with candles and
a tinder-box, which I had made of the lock of one of the muskets,
with some wild fire in the pan.
Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large
candles of my own making, for I made very good candles now
of goats' tallow; and, going into this low place, I was obliged to
creep upon all-fours, as I have said, almost ten yards, which, by
the way, I thought was a venture bold enough, considering that
I knew not how far it might go, or what was beyond it.
When I was got through the strait, I found the roof rose
higher up, I believe near twenty feet; but never was such a
glorious sight seen in the island, I dare say, as it was, to look
round the sides and roof of this vault or cave. The walls rc-
flected an hundred thousand lights to me from my two candles;
what it was in the rock, whether diamonds or any other precious
stones, or gold, which I rather supposed it to be, I knew not.
The place I was in was a most delightful cavity, or grotto,
of its kind, as could be expected, though perfectly dark; the
floor was dry and level, and had a sort of small loose gravel upon it,
so that there was no nauseous creature to be seen: neither was
there any damp or wet on the sides of the roof: the only
difficulty in it was the entrance, which, however, as it was a place
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of security, and such a retreat as I wanted, I thought that was a
convenience, so that I was really rejoiced at the discovery, and
resolved, without any delay, to bring some of those things which
I was most anxious about to this place; particularly, I resolved
to bring hither my magazine of powder, and all my spare arms,
namely, two fowling pieces (for I had three in all), and three
muskets (for of them I had eight in all); so I kept at my
castle only five, which stood ready mounted, like pieces of
cannon, on my outmost fence, and were ready also to take out
upon any expedition.
Upon this occasion of removing my ammunition, I was
obliged to open the barrel of powder which I took up out of the
sea, and which had been wet, and I found, that the water had
penetrated about three or four inches into the powder on every
side, which, caking and growing hard, had preserved the inside
like a kernel in a shell, so that I had near sixty pounds of very
good powder in the centre of the cask; and this was an agree-
able discovery to me at that time: so I carried all away thither,
never keeping above two or three pounds of powder with me
in my castle, for fear of a surprise of any kind; I also carried
thither all the lead I had left for bullets.
I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants, which
were said to live in caves and holes in the rocks, where none
could come at them; for I persuaded myself while I was here,
if five hundred savages were to hunt me, they could never find
me out; or if they did, they would not venture to attack me here.
The old goat which I found expiring, died in the mouth of
the cave the next day after I made this discovery; and I found
it much easier to dig a great hole there, and throw him in and
cover him with earth, than to drag him out; so I interred him
there, to prevent offence to my nose.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE,
209
1
CHAPTER XIII.
Description of my situation in the twenty-third year of my residence-Discover
nine naked savages round a fire on my side of the island-My horror cn
beholding the dismal work they were about-I determine on the destruction
of the next party, at all risks-A ship lost off the island-Go on board the
wreck, which I discern to be Spanish-Procure a great variety of articles
from the vessel.
I
WAS now in my twenty-third year of residence in this
island, and was so naturalised to the place and to the
manner of living, that could I have but enjoyed the certainty
that no savages would come to the place to disturb me, I could
have been content to have capitulated for spending the rest of
my time there, even to the last moment, till I had laid me
down and died, like the old goat in the cave: I had also arrived
to some little diversions and amusements, which made the time
pass more pleasantly with me a great deal than it did before;
as, first, I had taught my Poll, as I noted before, to speak; and
he did it so familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain, that it
was very pleasant to me, and he lived with me no less than six-
and-twenty years: how long he might live afterwards I knew not,
though I know they have a notion in the Brazils, that they live a
hundred years; perhaps some of my Polls may be alive there still,
calling after Poor Robin Crusoe to this day: I wish no Englishman
the ill luck to come there and hear them; but if he did, he would
certainly believe it was the devil. My dog was a very pleasant
and loving companion to me for no less than sixteen years of
my time, and then died of mere old age. As for my cats, they
Р
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multiplied, as I have observed, to that degree, that I was obliged
to shoot several of them at first, to keep them from devouring
me and all I had; but at length, when the two old ones I brought
with me were gone, and after some time continually driving
them from me, and letting them have no provision with me,
they all ran wild into the woods, except two or three favourites,
which I kept tame, and whose young, when they had any, I
always drowned, and these were part of my family: besides
these, I always kept two or three household kids about me, which
I taught to feed out of my hand; and I had also more parrots,
which talked pretty well, and would all call Robin Crusoe, but
none like my first; nor, indeed, did I take the pains with any
of them that I had done with him. I had also several tame sca-
fowls, whose names I know not, which I caught upon the shore,
and cut their wings; and the little stakes which I had planted
before my castle wall being now grown up to a good thick grove,
these fowis all lived among these low trees, and bred there, which
was very agreeable to me; so that, as I said above, I began
to be very well contented with the life I led, if it might but have
been secured from the dread of savages.
But it was otherwise directed; and it might not be amiss
for all people, who shall meet with my story, to make this just
observation from it, namely, how frequently, in the course of
our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and
which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is
oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by which
alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen
into. I could give many examples of this in the course of my
unaccountable life; but in nothing was it more particularly
remarkable, than in the circumstances of my last years of solitary
residence in this island.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
211
It was now the month of December, as I said above,
in my twenty-third year; and this being the southern solstice
for winter I cannot call it was the particular time of my
harvest, and required my being pretty much abroad in the fields;
when, going out pretty early in the morning, even before it was
thorough day-light, I was surprised with seeing a light of some
fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of about two miles,
towards the end of the island where I had observed some savages
had been, as before: but not on the other side, but, to my great
affliction, it was on my side of the island.
I was, indeed, terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped
short within my grove, not daring to go out, lest I might be sur-
prised; and yet I had no more peace within, from the apprehen-
sions I had, that if these savages, in rambling over the island,
should find my corn standing, or cut, or any of my works and
improvements, they would immediately conclude that there were
people in the place, and would then never give over till they
found me out. In this extremity I went back directly to my
castle, pulled up the ladder after me, having made all things
without look as wild and natural as I could.
Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture
of defence: I loaded all my cannon, as I called them-that it
is to say, my muskets-which were mounted upon my fortifica-
tion, and all my pistols, and resolved to defend myself to the
last gasp; not forgetting seriously to recommend myself to the
divine protection and earnestly to pray to God to deliver me
out of the hands of the barbarians: and in this posture I con-
tinued about two hours, but began to be mighty impatient for
intelligence abroad, for I had no spies to send out.
After sitting a while longer, and musing what I should do
in this case, I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance longer;
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so, setting up my ladder to the side of the hill where there was
a flat place, as I observed before, and then pulling the ladder up
after me, I set it up again, and mounted to the top of the hill;
and pulling out my perspective glass, which I had taken on pur-
pose, I laid me down flat on my belly on the ground, and began
to look for the place. I presently found there were no less than
nine naked savages sitting round a small fire they had made;
not to warm them-for they had no need of that, the weather
being extremely hot-but, as I supposed, to dress some of their
barbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought with
them, whether alive or dead I could not know.
They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled up
upon the shore; and as it was then tide of ebb, they seemed
to me to wait the return of the flood to go away again. It is
not easy to imagine what confusion this sight put me into,
especially seeing them come on my side the island, and so near
me too; but when I observed their coming must be always
with the current of the ebb, I began afterwards to be more
sedate in my mind, being satisfied that I might go abroad with
safety all the time of tide of flood, if they were not on shore
before; and, having made this observation, I went abroad
about my harvest work with the more composure.
As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made
to the westward, I saw them all take boat, and row (or paddle,
as we call it) all away; I should have observed, that for an
hour and more before they went off, they went to dancing, and
I could easily discern their postures and gestures by my glasses;
I could only perceive, by my nicest observation, that they
were stark naked, and had not the least covering upon them;
but whether they were men or women, that I could not dis-
tinguish.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
213
As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two
guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols at my girdle, and my
great sword by my side, without a scabbard; and with all the
speed I was able to make, I went away to the hill, where I had
discovered the first appearance of all. As soon as I got thither,
which was not less than two hours (for I could not go apace,
being so loaded with arms as I was), I perceived there had
been three canoes more of savages on that place; and looking
out farther, I saw they were all at sea together, making over
for the main.
This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when, going to
the shore, I could see the marks of horror which the dismal
work they had been about had left behind it, namely, the blood,
the bones, and part of the flesh of human bodies, eaten and
devoured by those wretches with merriment and sport.
I was
so filled with indignation at the sight, that I began now to pre-
meditate the destruction of the next that I saw there, let them
be who or how many soever.
It seemed evident to me, that the visits which they thus
made to this island were not very frequent; for it was above
fifteen months before any more of them came on shore there
again that is to say, I never saw them, or any footsteps or
signals of them, in all that time; for as to the rainy seasons,
then they are sure not to come abroad, at least not so far; yet
all this while I lived uncomfortably, by reason of constant
apprehensions I was in of their coming upon me by surprise-
from whence I observe, that the expectation of evil is more
bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room to shake
off that expectation, or those apprehensions.
During all this time I was in the murdering humour, and
took up most of my hours, which should have been better
214 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
employed, in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon them
the very next time I should see them, especially if they should
be divided, as they were the last time, into two parties; nor
did I consider at all, that if I killed one party, suppose ten or
a dozen, I was still the next day, or week, or month, to kill
another, and so another, even ad infinitum, till I should be at
length no less a murderer than they were in being men-eaters,
and perhaps much more so.
I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety of
mind, expecting that I should one day or other fall into the
hands of those merciless creatures; if I did at any time venture
abroad, it was not without looking round me with the greatest
care and caution imaginable; and now I found, to my great
comfort, how happy it was that I had provided a tame flock
or herd of goats; for I durst not upon any account fire my gun,
especially near that side of the island where they usually came,
lest I should alarm the savages; and if they had fled from me
now, I was sure to have them come back again, with perhaps
two or three hundred canoes with them in a few days, and then
I knew what to expect.
However, I wore out a year and three months more before
I ever saw any more of the savages, and then I found them
again, as I shall soon observe. It is true, they might have
been there once or twice, but either they made no stay, or at
least I did not hear them; but in the month of May, as near
as I could calculate, and in my four and twentieth year, I had a
very strange encounter with them, of which in its place.
The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen or sixteen.
months' interval, was very great; I slept unquiet, dreamed
always frightful dreams, and often started out of my sleep in
the night; in the day great troubles overwhelmed my mind;
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
215
in the night I dreamed often of killing the savages, and the
reasons why I might justify the doing of it. But to waive all
this for a while; it was in the middle of May, on the sixteenth
day, I think, as well as my poor wooden calendar would reckon,
for I marked all upon the post still-I say, it was on the six-
teenth of May that it blew a great storm of wind all day, with
a great deal of lightning and thunder, and a very foul night
was after it; I know not what was the particular occasion of
it; but as I was reading in the Bible, and taken up with serious
thoughts about my present condition, I was surprised with the
noise of a gun, as I thought, fired at sea.
This was, to be sure, a surprise of a quite different nature
from any I had met with before; for the notions this put into
my thoughts were quite of another kind. I started up in the
greatest haste imaginable; and, in a trice, clapped up my
ladder to the middle place of the rock, and pulled it after me,
and, mounting it the second time, got to the top of the hill;
that very moment a flash of fire bade me listen for a second
gun, which, accordingly, in about half a moment, I heard, and,
by the sound, knew that it was from that part of the sea where
I was driven out with the current in my boat.
I immediately considered that this must be some ship in
distress, and that they had some comrade, or some other ship
in company, and fired these guns for signals of distress, and to
obtain help. I had this presence of mind that minute as to
think that though I could not help them, it might be they
might help me; so I brought together all the dry wood I could
get at hand, and, making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire
upon the hill.
The wood was dry, and blazed freely, and,
though the wind blew very hard, yet it burnt fairly out, so that
I was certain, if there was any such thing as a ship, they must
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
needs see it; and no doubt they did, for as soon as ever my
fire blazed up, I heard another gun, and after that several
others, all from the same quarter. I plied my fire all night
long till day broke; and when it was broad day, and the air
cleared up, I saw something at a great distance at sea, full east
of the island, whether a sail or a hull I could not distinguish,
no, not with my glasses, the distance was so great, and the
weather still something hazy also; at least it was so out at sea.
I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived
that it did not move, so I presently concluded that it was a
ship at anchor; and being eager, you may be sure, to be
satisfied, I took my gun in my hand, and ran towards the south-
cast side of the island, to the rocks, where I had been formerly
carried away with the current; and getting up there, the
weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see,
to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship cast away in the night
upon those concealed rocks which I found when I was out in
my boat; and which rocks, as they checked the violence of the
stream, and made a counter stream, or eddy, were the occasion
of my recovering then from the most desperate hopeless con-
dition that ever I had been in all my life.
Thus, what is one man's safety is another man's destruc-
tion; for it seems these men, whoever they were, being out of
their knowledge, and the rocks being wholly under water, had
been driven upon them in the night, the wind blowing hard at
cast and cast-north-east, Had they seen the island, as I must
necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I thought, have
endeavoured to have saved themselves on shore by the help of
their boat; but the firing of their guns for help, especially when
they saw, as I imagined, my fire, filled me with many thoughts;
first, I imagined that, upon seeing my light, they might have

J. Samen
THEY WERE DANCING ROUND
THE FIRE.
!
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
217
put themselves into their boat, and have endeavoured to make
the shore, but that the sea going very high, they might have
been cast away: other times I imagined, that they might
have lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways;
as particularly, by the breaking of the sea upon their ship,
which many times obliges men to stave or take in pieces their
boat, and sometimes to throw it overboard with their own.
hand: other times I imagined they had some other ship or ships
in company, who, upon the signals of distress they had made,
had taken them up and carried them off; other whiles I fancied
they were all gone off to sea in their boat, and being hurried
away by the current that I had been formerly in, were carried
out into the great ocean, where there was nothing but misery
and perishing; and that perhaps they might, by this time, be
starving, and in a condition to eat one another.
All these were but conjectures at best; so, in the condition
I was in, I could do no more than look upon the misery of the
poor men. and pity them; which had still this good effect upon
my side, that it gave me more and more cause to give thanks
to God, who had so happily and comfortably provided for me in
my desolate condition, and that, of two ships' companies, who
were now cast away upon this part of the world, not one life
should be spared but mine. I learned here again to observe,
that it is very rare that the providence of God casts us into any
condition of life so low, or any misery so great, but we may see
something or other to be thankful for, and may see others in
worse circumstances than our own.
Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could
not so much as see room to suppose any of them were saved;
nothing could make it rational so much as to wish or expect
that they did not all perish there, except the possibility only of
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their being taken up by another ship in company-and this was
but mere possibility indeed; for I saw not the least signal or
appearance of any such thing.
I cannot explain, by any possible energy of words, what a
strange longing, or hankering of desire, I felt in my soul upon
this sight-breaking out sometimes thus: "Oh that there had
been but one or two, nay, but one soul saved out of the ship, to
have escaped to me, that I might but have had one companion,
one fellow-creature, to have spoken to me, and to have conversed
with !" In all the time of my solitary life, I never felt so earnest,
so strong a desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so
deep a regret at the want of it.
There are some secret noving springs in the affections,
which, when they are set a-going by some object in view, or be
it some object though not in view, yet rendered present to the
mind by the power of imagination, that motion carries out the
soul by its impetuosity to such violent eager embracings of the
object, that the absence of it is insupportable.
Such were these earnest wishings that but one man had
been saved! Oh, that it had been but one! I believe I re-
peated the words, "Oh, that it had been but one!" a thousand
times; and my desires were so moved by it, that when I spoke
the words, my hands would clench together, and my fingers
press the palms of my hands, that if I had had any soft thing
in my hand, it would have crushed it involuntarily; and my
teeth in my head would strike together, and set against one
another so strong, that for some time I could not part them again.
Let the naturalist explain these things, and the reason and
manner of them; all I can say of them is, to describe the fact,
which was very surprising to me when I found it, though I
knew not from what it should proceed: it was doubtless the
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
219
effect of ardent wishes, and of strong ideas formed in my mind,
realising the comfort which the conversation of one of my fellow
Christians would have been to me.
But it was not to be; either their fate, or mine, or both,
forbade it; for till the last year of my being on this island, I
never knew whether any were saved out of that ship or no;
and had only the affliction, some days after, to see the corpse
of a drowned boy come on shore, at the end of the island which
was next the shipwreck: he had on no clothes but a seaman's
waistcoat, a pair of open knee'd linen drawers, and a blue linen
shirt; but nothing to direct me so much as to guess what
nation he was of. He had nothing in his pocket but two pieces
of eight, and a tobacco pipe: the last was to me of ten times
more value than the first.
It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in
my boat to this wreck, not doubting but I might find something
on board that might be useful to me; but that did not altogether
press me so much, as the possibility that there might be yet
some living creature on board, whose life I might not only save,
but might, by saving that life, comfort my own to the last
degree and this thought clung so to my heart, that I could not
be quiet night nor day, but I must venture out in my boat on
board this wreck; and committing the rest to God's providence,
I thought the impression was so strong upon my mind that it
could not be resisted, that it must come from some invisible
direction, and that I should be wanting to myself if I did not go.
:
Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my
castle, prepared every thing for my voyage, took a quantity of
bread, a great pot for fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle
of rum (for I had still a great deal of that left), a basket full of
raisins and thus loading myself with every thing necessary, I
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
went down to my boat, got the water out of her, and got her
afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and then went home again
for more; my second cargo was a great bagful of rice, the um-
brella to set up over my head for shade, another large potful of
fresh water, and about two dozen of my small loaves, or barley-
cakes, more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk, and a
cheese; all which, with great labour and sweat, I brought to
iny boat; and praying to God to direct my voyage, I put out,
and, rowing or paddling the canoe along the shore, I came at
last to the utmost point of the island on that side, namely,
north-east. And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and
either to venture or not to venture; I looked on the rapid
currents which ran constantly on both sides of the island, at a
distance, and which were very terrible to me, from the remem-
brance of the hazard I had been in before, and my heart began
to fail me; for I foresaw, that if I was driven into either of
those currents, I should be carried a vast way out to sea, and
perhaps out of reach or sight of the island again; and that
then, as my boat was but small, if any little gale of wind should
rise, I should be inevitably lost.
J
These thoughts so oppressed my mind, that began to give
over my enterprise; and having hauled my boat into a little
creek on the shore, I stepped out, and sat me down upon a
little spot of rising ground, very pensive and anxious, between
fear and desire, about my voyage; when, as I was musing, I
could perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood came on,
upon which my going was for so many hours impracticable:
upon this it presently occurred to me, that I should go up to
the highest piece of ground I could find, and observe, if I could,
how the sets of the tide or currents lay, when the flood came
in, that I might judge whether, if I was driven one way out, I
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
221
might not expect to be driven another way home, with the
same rapidness of the currents. This thought was no sooner
in my head, but I cast my eye upon a little hill which suffi-
ciently overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a
clear view of the currents, or sets of the tide, and which way I
was to guide myself in my return; here I found, that as the
current of the ebb set out close by the south point of the
island, so the current of the flood set in close by the shore of
the north side; and that I had nothing to do but to keep to the
north side of the island in my return, and I should do well
enough.
Encouraged with this observation, I resolved the next
morning to set out with the first of the tide; and, reposing
myself for that night in the canoe, under the great watch-coat
I mentioned, I launched out. I made first a little out to sea
full north till I began to feel the benefit of the current, which
set eastward, and which carried me at a great rate, and yet did
not so hurry me as the southern side current had done before,
and so as to take from me all government of the boat; but having
a strong steerage with my paddle, I went, I say, at a great
rate, directly for the wreck, and in less than two hours I came
up to it.
It was a dismal sight to look at: the ship, which by its
building was Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks;
all the stern and quarter of her was beaten to pieces with the
sea and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run
on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast were
brought by the board, that is to say, broken short off; but her
boltsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firm.
When I came close to her, a dog appeared upon her, which,
seeing me coming, yelped and cried, and as soon as I called
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
him, jumped into the sea to come to me, and I took him into
the boat, but found him almost dead for hunger and thirst; I
gave him a cake of my bread, and he ate it like a ravenous
wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow; I then
gave the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I
would have let him, he would have burst himself.
After this I went on board. The first sight I met with
was two men drowned in the cook-room, or forecastle of the
ship, with their arms fast about one another. I concluded, as
is, indeed, probable, that when the ship struck, it being in a
storm, the sea broke so high, and so continually over her, that
the men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the
constant rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been
under water. Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the
ship that had life, nor any goods that I could see, but what
were spoiled by the water; there were some casks of liquor,
whether wine or brandy I knew not, which lay lower in the
hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I could see; but
they were too big to meddle with; I saw several chests, which
I believed belonged to some of the seamen, and I got two of
them into the boat without examining what was in them.
Had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the forepart
broken off, I am persuaded I might have made a good voyage;
for, by what I found in these two chests, I had room to suppose
the ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and if I may
guess by the course she steered, she must have been bound
from Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part
of America, beyond the Brazils, to the Havanna, in the Gulf of
Mexico, and so, perhaps, to Spain: she had, no doubt, a great
treasure in her, but of no use at that time to anybody; and
what became of the rest of her people I then knew not.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
223
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about
twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficulty.
There were several muskets in the cabin, and a great powder-
horn, with about four pounds of powder in it; as for the inus-
kets, I had no occasion for them, so I left them, but took the
powder-horn. I took a fire-shovel and tongs, which I wanted
extremely, as also two little brass kettles, a copper-pot to make
chocolate, and a gridiron; and with this cargo, and the dog, I
came away, the tide beginning to make home again; and the
same evening, about an hour within night, I reached the island
again, weary and fatigued to the last degree.
I reposed that night in the boat, and in the morning I
resolved to harbour what I had gotten in my new cave, not to
carry it home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got all
my cargo on shore, and began to examine the particulars: the
cask of liquor I found to be a kind of rum, but not such as we
had at the Brazils; and, in a word, not at all good: but, when
I came to open the chests, I found several things which I wanted;
for example, I found in one a fine case of bottles, of an extra-
ordinary kind, and filled with cordial waters, fine and very
good; the bottles held about three pints each, and were tipped
with silver. I found two pots of very good succades, or sweet-
meats, so fastened also on the top, that the salt water had not
hurt them, and two more of the same, which the water had
spoiled: I found some very good shirts, which were very
welcome to me, and about a dozen and a half of white
linen handkerchiefs and coloured neckcloths; the former were
also very welcome, being exceedingly refreshing to wipe my
face in a hot day. Besides this, when I came to the till in the
chests, I found there three great bags of pieces of eight, which
held about eleven hundred pieces in all; and in one of them,
224
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:
wrapt up in a paper, six doubloons of gold, and some small
bars or wedges of gold; I suppose they might all weigh near
a pound.
The other chest I found had some clothes in it, but of little
value; but, by the circumstances, it must have belonged to the
gunner's mate, as there was no powder in it, but about two
pounds of glazed powder in the three flasks, kept, I suppose, for
charging their fowling-pieces on occasion. Upon the whole,
I got very little by this voyage that was of much use to me;
for, as to the money, I had no manner of occasion for it-it was
to me as the dirt under my feet; and I would have given it all
for three or four pair of English shoes and stockings, which were
things I greatly wanted, but had not had on my feet now for
many years: I had, indeed got two pair of shoes now, which I
took off the feet of the two drowned men whom I saw in the
wreck; and I found two pair more in one of the chests, which
were very welcome to me; but they were not like our English
shoes, either for ease or service, being rather what we call pumps
than shoes. I found in the seaman's chest about fifty pieces
of eight in royals, but no gold: I suppose this belonged to a
poorer man than the other, which seemed to belong to some
officer.
Well, however, I lugged the money home to my cave, and
laid it up, as I had done that before which I brought from our
own ship; but it was great pity, as I said, that the other
part of the ship had not come to my share, for I am satisfied I
might have loaded my canoe several times over with money,
which, if I had ever escaped to England, would have lain here
safe enough till I might have come again and fetched it.
Having now brought all my things on shore, and secured
them, I went back to my boat, and rowed or paddled her along
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
225
the shore to her old harbour, where I laid her up, and made
the best of my way to my old habitation, where I found every
thing safe and quiet; so I began to repose myself, live after
my old fashion, and take care of my family affairs; and for
a while I lived easy enough, only that I was more vigilant
than I used to be, looked out oftener, and did not go abroad so
much; and if at any time I did stir with any freedom, it was
always to the east part of the island, where I was pretty well
satisfied the savages never came, and where I could go without
so many precautions, and such a load of arms and ammunition
As I always carried with me, if I went the other way.
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CHAPTER XIV.
Reflections-An extraordinary dream-Discover five canoes of savages on shore
-Observe from my station two miserable wretches dragged out of their
boats to be devoured-One of them makes his escape, and runs directly
towards me, pursued by two others-I take measures so as to destroy his
pursuers, and save his life-Christen him by the name of Friday, and he
becomes a faithful and excellent servant.
I
LIVED in this condition near two years more; but
my
unlucky head, that was always to let me know it was born
to make my body miserable, was all these two years filled with
projects and designs how, if it were possible, I might get away
from this island-for sometimes I was for making another voyage
to the wreck, though my reason told me, that there was nothing
left there worth the hazard of my voyage-sometimes for a
ramble one way, sometimes another-and I believe verily, if I
had had the boat that I went from Sallee in, I should have
ventured to sea, bound any where, I knew not whither.
I have been, in all my circumstances, a memento to those
who are touched with that general plague of mankind, whence,
for aught I know, one half of their miseries flow-I mean, that
of not being satisfied with the station wherein God and nature
hath placed them-for, not to look back upon my primitive
condition, and the excellent advice of my father, the opposition
to which was, as I may call it, my original sin, my subsequent
mistakes of the same kind have been the means of my coming
into this miserable condition; for had that Providence, which
so happily had seated me at the Brazils as a planter, blessed me
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
227
'
with confined desires, and could I have been contented to have
gone on gradually, I might have been by this time—I mean in the
time of my being on this island-one of the most considerable
planters in the Brazils; nay, I am persuaded, that by the im-
provements I had made in that little time I lived there, and
the increase I should probably have made if I had staid, I might
have been worth a hundred thousand moidores: and what
business had I to leave a settled fortune, well stocked plantation,
improving and increasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea, to fetch
negroes, when patience and time would have so increased our
stock at home, that we could have bought them at our own
doors from those whose business it was to fetch them? And
though it had cost us something more, yet the difference of that
price was by no means worth saving at so great a hazard.
But as this is ordinarily the fate of young heads, so reflec-
tion upon the folly of it is as ordinarily the exercise of more
years, or of the dear bought experience of time-and so it was
with me now; and yet, so deep had the mistake taken root in
my temper, that I could not satisfy myself in my station, but
was continually poring upon the means and possibility of my
escape from this place; and that I may, with the greater plea-
sure to the reader, bring on the remaining part of my story, it
may not be improper to give some account of my first concep-
tions on the subject of this foolish scheme for my escape; and
how, and upon what foundation, I acted.
I am now to be supposed to be retired into my castle, after
my late voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up, and secured
under water as usual, and my condition restored to what it was
before. I had more wealth, indeed, than I had before, but was
not at all the richer; for I had no more use for it than the
Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards came thither.
228
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
It was one of the nights in the rainy season in March, the
four-and-twentieth year of my first setting foot on this island of
solitariness; I was lying in my bed, or hammock, awake, and
very well in health-had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness
of body, no, nor any uneasiness of mind more than ordinary,
but could by no means close my eyes, that is, so as to sleep;
no, not a wink all night long, otherwise than as follows:-
It is as impossible as needless to set down the innumerable
crowd of thoughts that whirled through that great thoroughfare
of the brain, the memory, in this night's time. I ran over the
whole history of my life in miniature, or by abridgment, as I
may call it, to my coming to this island; and also of that part
of my life since I came to this island. In my reflections upon
the state of my case, since I came on shore on this island, I
was comparing the happy posture of my affairs, in the first years
of my habitation here, to that course of anxiety, fear, and care,
which I had lived in ever since I had seen the print of a foot
in the sand; not that I did not believe the savages had fre-
quented the island even all the while, and might have been
several hundreds of them at times on the shore there, but as I
had never known it, and was incapable of any apprehensions
about it, my satisfaction was perfect, though my danger was the
same; and I was as happy in not knowing my danger, as if
I had never really been exposed to it. This furnished my
thoughts with many very profitable reflections, and particularly
this one:
How infinitely good that Providence is, which has
settled in its government of mankind such narrow bounds to his
sight and knowledge of things; and though he walks in the
midst of so many thousand dangers, the sight of which, if dis-
covered to him, would distract his mind and sink his spirits, he
is kept serene and calm, by having the events of things hid
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
229
from his eyes, and knowing nothing of the dangers which sur-
round him.
After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, I
came to reflect seriously upon the real danger I had been in for
so many years in this very island; and how I had walked
about in the greatest security, and with all possible tranquillity.
even, perhaps, when nothing but a brow of a hill, a great tree,
or the casual approach of night, had been between me and the
worst kind of destruction-namely, that of falling into the hands
of cannibals and savages, who would have seized on me with
the same view as I did on a goat or a turtle, and have thought
it no more a crime to kill and devour me than I did of a pigeon
or a curlew. I should unjustly slander myself, if I should
say I was not sincerely thankful to my great Prescrver, to
whose singular protection I acknowledged, with great humility,
that all these unknown deliverances were due, and without
which I should inevitably have fallen into their merciless
hands.
When these thoughts were over, my head was for some
time taken up in considering the nature of these wretched
creatures, I mean the savages; and how it came to pass in the
world, that the wise Governor of all things should give up any
of his creatures to such inhumanity-nay, to something so much
below even brutality itself—as to devour its own kind; but as
this ended in some (at that time fruitless) speculations, it occurred
to me to enquire what part of the world these wretches lived
in; how far off the coast it was from whence they came ;
what they ventured so far from home for; what kind of boats
they had; and why I might not order myself and my business,
so that I might be as able to go over thither as they were to
come to me.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I
should do with myself when I came thither; what should
become of me if I fell into the hands of the savages; or how I
should escape from them if they attempted to take me; no, nor
so much as how it was possible for me to reach the coast, and
not be attacked by some or other of them, without any possi-
bility of delivering myself; and, if I should not fall into their
hands, what I should do for provision, or whither I should bend
iny course; none of these thoughts, I say, so much as came in
my way; but my mind was wholly bent upon the notion of my
passing over in my boat to the mainland. I looked back upon
my present condition as the most miserable that could possibly
be; that I was not able to throw myself into anything but
death that could be called worse; that if I reached the shore of
the main, I might perhaps meet with relief; or I might coast
along, as I did on the shore of Africa, till I came to some in-
habited country, and where I might find some relief; and after
all, perhaps, I might fall in with some Christian ship that might
take me in; and if the worst came to the worst, I could but
die, which would put an end to all these miseries at once.
Pray, note, all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind-an im-
patient temper, made, as it were, desperate by the long con-
tinuance of ny troubles, and the disappointments I had met in
the wreck I had been on board of, and where I had been so
near the obtaining of what I so earnestly longed for, namely,
somebody to speak to, and to learn some knowledge from of the
place where I was, and of the probable means of my deliverance
-I say, I was agitated wholly by these thoughts.
All my
calm of mind in my resignation to Providence, and waiting the
issue of the dispositions of Heaven, seemed to be suspended;
and I had, as it were, no power to turn my thoughts to any-
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
231
thing but the project of a voyage to the main which came upon
me with such force, and such an impetuosity of desire, that it
was not to be resisted.
When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more,
with such violence that it set my very blood into a ferment,
and my pulse beat as high as if I had been in a fever, merely
with the extraordinary fervour of my mind about it, nature, as
if I had been fatigued and exhausted with the very thought of
it, threw me into a sound sleep; one would have thought I
should have dreamed of it; but I did not, nor of any thing
relating to it; but I dreamed, that as I was going out in the
morning, as usual, from my castle, I saw upon the shore two
canoes and eleven savages coming to land, and that they
brought with them another savage, whom they were going to
kill, in order to eat him, when on a sudden this savage that
they were going to kill jumped away, and ran for his life; then
I thought in my sleep, that he came running into my little
thick grove, before my fortification, to hide himself; and that I,
seeing him alone, and not perceiving that the others sought
him that way, showed myself to him, and, smiling upon him
encouraged him; that he kneeled down to me seeming to pray
me to assist him; upon which I showed my ladder, made him
go up it, and carried him into my cave, and he became my
servant; and that as soon as I got this man, I said to myself,
"Now I may certainly venture to the mainland; for this fellow
will serve me as a pilot, and will tell me what to do, and
whither to go for provisions, and whither not to go for fear of
being devoured; what places to venture into, and what to
escape." I waked with this thought, and was under such in-
expressible impressions of joy at the prospect of my escape in
my dream, that the disappointments which I felt upon coming
232
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
to myself, and finding that it was no more than a dream, werc
equally extravagant the other way, and threw me into a very
great dejection of spirit.
Upon this, however, I made this conclusion, that my only
way to go about an attempt for an escape was, if possible, to
get a savage in my possession; and, if possible, it should be
one of their prisoners whom they had condemned to be eaten
and should bring hither to kill; but these thoughts still were
attended with this difficulty, that it was impossible to effect this,
without attacking a whole caravan of them, and killing them
all; and this was not only a very desperate attempt, and might
miscarry, but, on the other hand, I had greatly scrupled the
lawfulness of it to myself, and my heart trembled at the thought
of shedding so much blood, though it was for my deliverance.
I need not repeat the arguments which occurred to me against
this, they being the same mentioned before; but though I had
other reasons to offer now, namely, that those men were enemies
to my life, and would devour me, if they could; that it was
self-preservation, in the high. st degree, to deliver myself from
this death of a life, and was acting in my own defence, as much
as if they were actually assaulting me, and the like; I say,
though these things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shed-
ding human blood for my deliverance were very terrible to me,
and such as I could by no means reconcile myself to a great
while.
However, at last, after many secret disputes with myself,
and after great perplexities about it (for all these arguments,
one way and another, struggled in my head a long time), the
eager prevailing desire of deliverance at length mastered all the
rest, and I resolved, if possible, to get one of these savages into
my hands, cost what it would. The next thing, then, was to

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OANNIBALS.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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}
contrive how to do it; and this indeed was very difficult to
resolve on; but as I could pitch upon no probable means for it,
so I resolved to put myself upon the watch to see them when
they came on shore, and leave the rest to the event, taking
such measures as the opportunity should present, let it be what
it would.
With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the
scout as often as possible, and indeed so often, till I was heartily
tired of it; for it was above a year and a half that I waited,
and for a great part of that time went out to the west end and
to the south-west corner of the island, almost every day, to see
the canoes, but none appeared. This was very discouraging, and
began to trouble me much; though I cannot say that it did
in this case, as it had done some time before that, namely, wear
off the edge of my desire to the thing: but the longer it seemed
to be delayed, the more eager I was for it; in a word, I was
not at first more careful to shun the sight of these savages, and
avoid being seen by them, than I was now eager to be upon them.
Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay two or
three savages, if I had them, so as to make them entirely slaves
to me, to do whatever I should direct them, and to prevent
their being able, at any time, to do me any hurt. It was a
great while that I pleased myself with this affair, but nothing
still presented; all my fancies and schemes came to nothing,
for no savages came near me for a great while.
About a year and a half after I had entertained these
notions, and by long musing had, as it were, resolved them all
into nothing, for want of an occasion to put them in execution,
I was surprised one morning early with seeing no less than five
canoes all on shore together, on my side the island, and the
people who belonged to them all landed, and out of my sight;
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
the number of them broke all my measures; for seeing so
many, and knowing that they always came four, or six, or some-
times, more, in a boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or
how to take any measures to attack twenty or thirty men single-
handed; so I lay still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted;
however, I put myself into all the same postures for an attack
that I had formerly provided, and was just ready for action if
any thing had presented. Having waited a good while, listen-
ing to hear if they made any noise, at length, being very im-
patient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered
up to the top of the hill by my two stages, as usual, standing
so, however, that my head did not appear above the hill, so that
they could not perceive me by any means. Here I observed,
by the help of my perspective glass, that they were no less than
thirty in number; that they had a fire kindled, and that they
had meat dressed; how they cooked it, that I knew not, or what
it was; but they were all dancing in I know not how many
barbarous gestures and figures, their own way, round the fire.
When I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my per-
spective, two miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where,
it seems, they were laid by, and were now brought out for the
slaughter: I perceived one of them immediately fall, being
knocked down, I suppose, with a club or wooden sword, for
that was their way; and two or three others were at work
immediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while the
other victim was left standing by himself, till they should be
ready for him. At that very moment, this poor wretch, seeing
himself a little at liberty, nature inspired him with hopes of life,
and he started away from them, and ran with incredible swift-
ness along the sands, directly towards me-I mean towards the
part of the coast where my habitation was.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
235
I was dreadfully frightened (that I must acknowledge) when
I perceived him to run my way, and especially when, as I
thought, I saw him pursued by the whole body; and now I
expected that part of my dream was coming to pass, and that
he would certainly take shelter in my grove; but I could not
depend, by any means, upon my dream for the rest of it,
namely, that the other savages would not pursue him thither,
and find him there. However, I kept my station, and my
spirits began to recover, when I found that there were not
above three men that followed him; and still more was I
encouraged when I found that he outstripped them exceedingly
in running, and gained ground of them-so that if he could
but hold it for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get
away from them all.
There was between them and my castle the creek, which I
mentioned often at the first part of my story, when I landed my
cargoes out of the ship, and this I knew he must necessarily
swim over, or the poor wretch would be taken there; but when
the savage escaping came thither, he made nothing of it, though
the tide was then up; but plunging in, swam through in about
thirty strokes, or thereabouts, landed, and ran on with exceeding
strength and swiftness. When the three pursuers came to the
creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third could
not, and that he, standing on the other side, looked at the
other, but went no farther; and soon after went softly back.
again, which, as it happened, was very well for him in the
main.
I observed, that the two who swam were yet more than
twice as long swimming over the creek as the fellow was that
fled from them. It came now very warmly upon my thoughts,
and indeed irresistibly, that now was my time to get a servant,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
and perhaps a companion, or assistant, and that I was called
plainly by Providence to save this poor creature's life. I im-
mediately got down the ladders with all possible expedition,
fetched my two guns, for they were both at the foot of the
ladder, as I observed above; and getting up again with the
same haste to the top of the hill, I crossed towards the sea;
and having a very short cut, and all down hill, clapped myself
in the way between the pursuers and the pursued, hallooing
aloud to him that fled, who, looking back, was at first perhaps
as much frightened at me as at them; but I beckoned with my
hand to him to come back-and in the meantime I slowly
advanced towards the two that followed-then rushing at once
upon the foremost, I knocked him down with the stock of my
piece I was loath to fire, because I would not have the rest
hear, though at that distance it would not have been easily
heard and being out of sight of the smoke too, they would
not have easily known what to make of it. Having knocked
this fellow down, the other who pursued him stopped, as if he
had been frightened, and I advanced apace towards him; but
as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow,
and was fitting it to shoot at ine; so I was then necessitated to
shoot at him first, which I did, and killed him at the first shot.
The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw both
his enemies fallen, and killed (as he thought), yet was so
frightened with the fire and noise of my piece, that he stood
stock-still, and neither came forward nor went backward, though
he seemned rather inclined to fly still than to come on. I
hallooed again to him, and made signs to come forward, which
he easily understood, and came a little way, then stopped again,
and then a little farther, and stopped again; and I could then
perceive, that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
237
prisoner, and had just been to be killed, as his two enemies
were. I beckoned him again to come to me, and gave him all
the signs of encouragement that I could think of; and he came
nearer and nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps, in
token of acknowledgment for saving his life. I smiled at him,
and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come still nearer.
At length he came close to me, and then he kneeled down
again, kissed the ground, and laid his head upon the ground,
and, taking me by the foot, set my foot upon his head. This,
it seems, was in token of swearing to be my slave for ever. I
took him up, and made much of him, and encouraged him all I
could. But there was more work to do yet; for I perceived
the savage whom I knocked down was not killed, but stunned.
with the blow, and began to come to himself; so I pointed to
him, and showed him the savage, that he was not dead; upon
this he spoke some words to me, and though I could not under-
stand them, yet I thought they were pleasant to hear, for they
were the first sound of a man's voice that I had heard, my own
excepted, for above five-and-twenty years. But there was no
time for such reflections now; the savage, who was knocked
down, recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground,
and I perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but when
I saw that, I presented my other piece at the man, as if I would
shoot him; upon this my savage, for so I called him now, made
a motion to me to lend him my sword, which hung naked in a
belt by my side-so I did; he no sooner had it, but he runs
to his enemy, and at one blow cuts off his head so cleverly, no
executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better,
which I thought very strange for one who, I had reason to
believe, never saw a sword in his life before, except their own
wooden swords; however, it seems, as I learned afterwards,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
they make their wooden swords so sharp, so heavy, and the
wood is so hard, that they will cut off heads even with them-
ay, and arms, and that at one blow too. When he had done
this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought
me the sword again, and, with abundance of gestures, which I
did not understand, laid it down, with the head of the savage
that he had killed, just before me.
But that which astonished him most was, to know how I
had killed the other Indian so far off; so, pointing to him, he
made signs to me to let him go to him; so I bade him go, as
well as I could. When he came to him, he stood like one
amazed, looking at him-turned him first on one side, then on the
other-looked at the wound the bullet had made, which, it seems,
was just in his breast, where it had made a hole, and no great
quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled inwardly, for
he was quite dead. Then he took up his bow and arrows, and
came back; so I turned to go away, and beckoned him to follow
me, making signs to him that more might come after them.
Upon this he signed to me that he should bury them with
sand, that they might not be seen by the rest, if they followed;
and so I made signs again to him to do so. He fell to work,
and in an instant he had scraped a hole in the sand with his
hands, big enough to bury the first in, and then dragged him
into it, and covered him, and did so also by the other; I believe
he had buried them both in a quarter of an hour; then calling
him away, I carried him not to my castle, but quite away to my
cave, on the farther part of the island; so I did not let my
dream come to pass in that part, namely, that he came into my
grove for shelter.
Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, and a
draught of water, which I found he was, indeed, in great distress
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
239
for, by his running; and, having refreshed him, I made signs
for him to go lie down and sleep, pointing to a place where I
had laid a great parcel of rice-straw, and a blanket upon it,
which I used to sleep upon myself sometimes; so the poor
creature lay down, and went to sleep.
He was a comely handsome fellow, perfectly well made,
with straight long limbs, not too large, tall, and well shaped,
and, as I reckon, about twenty-six years of age. He had a
very good countenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed
to have something very manly in his face, and yet he had all
the sweetness and softness of a European in his countenance
too, especially when he smiled; his hair was long and black,
not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large, and a
great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The colour
of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny, and yet not of
an ugly yellow nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians,
and other natives of America are, but of a bright kind of a dun
olive colour, that had in it something very agreeable, though
not very easy to describe. His face was round and plump, his
nose small, not flat like the negroes, a very good mouth, thin
lips, and his teeth fine, well set, and white as ivory. After he
had slumbered, rather than slept, above half an hour, he waked
again, and comes out of the cave to me, for I had been milking
my goats, which I had in the enclosure just by; when he espied
me, he came running to me, laying himself down again upon
the ground, with all the possible signs of an humble thankful
disposition, making many antic gestures to show it. At last he
lays his head flat upon the ground, close to my foot, and sets
my other foot upon his head, as he had done before; and, after
this, made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude, and sub-
mission imaginable, to let me know how much he would serve
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me as long as he lived. I understood him in many things, and
let him know I was very well pleased with him. In a little time
I began to speak to him, and teach him to speak to me; and
first, I made him know his name should be Friday, which was
the day I saved his life, and I called him so for the memory of
the time: I likewise taught him to say Master, and then let him
know that was to be my name; I likewise taught him to say
Yes and No, and to know the meaning of them. I gave him
some milk in an earthen pot, and let him see me drink it before
him, and sop my bread in it; and I gave him a cake of bread
to do the like, which he quickly complied with, and made signs
that it was very good for him.
I kept there with him all that night; but as soon as it was
day, I beckoned him to come with me, and let him know I
would give him some clothes, at which he seemed very glad, for
he was stark naked. As we went by the place where he had
buried the two men, he pointed exactly to the spot, and showed
me the marks that he had made to find them again, making
signs to me that we should dig them up again and eat them;
at this I appeared very angry, expressed my abhorrence of it,
made as if I would vomit at the thoughts of it, and beckoned
with my hand to him to come away, which he did immediately,
with great submission. I then led him up to the top of the
hill to see if his enemies were gone, and, pulling out my glass
I looked, and saw plainly the place where they had been, but
no appearance of them or of their canoes; so that it was plain
that they were gone, and had left their two comrades behind
them, without any search after them.
But I was not content with this discovery; but having now
more courage, and, consequently, more curiosity, I took my man
Friday with me, giving him the sword in his hand, with the bow
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
241
and arrows at his back, which I found he could use very dex-
terously, making him carry one gun for me, and I two for my-
self, and away we marched to the place where these creatures
had been; for I had a mind now to get some fuller intelligence
of them. When I came to the place, my very blood ran chill
in my veins, and my heart sank within me, at the horror of the
spectacle: indeed, it was a dreadful sight, at least it was so to
me, though Friday made nothing of it: the place was covered
with human bones, the ground dyed with the blood, great pieces.
of flesh left here and there, half eaten, mangled, and scorched
and, in short, all the tokens of a triumphant feast they had been
making there, after a victory over their enemies. I saw three
skulls, five hands, and the bones of three or four legs and feet,
and abundance of other parts of the bodies; and Friday, by his
signs, made me understand, that they brought over four pri-
soners to feast upon; that three of them were eaten up, and
that he, pointing to himself, was the fourth; that there had been
a great battle between them and their next king, whose subjects,
it seems, he had been one of; and that they had taken a great
number of prisoners, all which were carried to several places by
those that had taken them in the flight, in order to feast upon
them, as was done here by these wretches upon those they
brought hither.
I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and
whatever remained, and lay them together on a heap, and make
a great fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes. I found Friday
had still a hankering stomach after some of the flesh, and was
still a cannibal in his nature; but I discovered so much abhor-
rence at the very thoughts of it, and at the least appearance of
it, that he durst not discover it; for I had, by some means, let
air know that I would kill him if he offered it
Ꭱ
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When we had done this, we came back to our castle, and there
I fell to work for my man Friday; and first of all, I gave him a
pair of linen drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner's chest
I mentioned, and which I found in the wreck; and which, with
a little alteration, fitted him very well; then I made him a jerkin
of goat's skin, as well as my skill would allow, and I was now
grown a tolerably good tailor; and I gave him a cap, which I had
made of a hare's skin, very convenient, and fashionable enough;
and thus he was dressed, for the present, tolerably well, and mighty
well was he pleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his
master. It is true, he went awkwardly in these things at first;
wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves
of the waistcoat galled his shoulders and the inside of his arms;
but a little easing them where he complained they hurt him, and
using himself to them, at length he took to them very well.
The next day after I came home to my hutch with him, I
began to consider where I should lodge him; and that I might
do well for him, and yet be perfectly easy myself, I made a
little tent for him in the vacant place between my two fortifica-
tions, in the inside of the last, and in the outside of the first:
and as there was a door or entrance there into my cave, I made
a formal framed door-case, and a door to it of boards, and set it
up in the passage, a little within the entrance; and causing the
door to open on the inside, I barred it up in the night, taking
in my ladders too; so that Friday could no way come at me in
the inside of my innermost wall, without making so much noise
in getting over, that it must needs awaken me; for my first
wall had now a complete roof over it of long poles, covering all
my tent, and leaning up to the side of the hill, which was again
laid cross with small sticks instead of laths, and then thatched
over a great thickness with the rice straw, which was strong
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
243
like reeds; and at the hole or place which was left to go in or
out by the ladder, I had placed a kind of trap-door, which, if it
had been attempted on the outside, would not have opened at
all, but would have fallen down, and made a great noise; and
as to weapons, I took them all into my side every night.
But I needed none of all this precaution; for never man
had a more faithful, loving, sincere servant, than Friday was to
me; without passions, sullenness, or designs; perfectly obliging
and engaging; his very affections were tied to me like those of
a child to a father; and I dare say, he would have sacrificed
his life for the saving mine, upon any occasion whatsoever; the
many testimonies he gave me of this put it out of doubt, and
soon convinced me that I needed to use no precautions as to my
safety on his account.
This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with
wonder, that, however it had pleased God in his providence,
and in the government of the works of his hands, to take from
so great a part of the world of his creatures the best uses to
which their faculties and the powers of their souls are adapted;
yet that he has bestowed upon them the same powers, the same
reason, the same affections, the same sentiments of kindness
and obligation, the same passions and resentments of wrongs,
the same sense of gratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the
capacities of doing good, and receiving good, that he has given
to us; and that, when he pleases to offer them occasions of
exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more ready, to apply
them to the right uses for which they were bestowed, than we
are.
And this made me very melancholy sometimes, in reflect-
ing, as the several occasions presented, how mean a use we
make of all these, even though we have these powers enlight-
ened by the great lamp of instruction, the Spirit of God, and
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE,
by the knowledge of his word, added to our understanding;
and why it has pleased God to hide the like saving knowledge
from so many millions of souls, who, if I might judge by this
poor savage, would make a much better use of it than we did.
From hence I sometimes was led too far to invade the sove-
reignty of Providence, and, as it were, arraign the justice of so
arbitrary a disposition of things, that should hide that light from
some, and reveal it to others, and yet expect a like duty from
both; but I shut it up, and checked my thoughts with this
conclusion-first, that we do not know by what light and law
these should be condemned; but that, as God was necessarily,
and by the nature of his being, infinitely holy and just, so it
could not be but that, if these creatures were all sentenced to
absence from himself, it was on account of sinning against that
light, which, as the Scripture says, was a law to themselves,
and by such rules as their consciences would acknowledge to be
just, though the foundation was not discovered to us; and,
secondly, that still, as we are all clay in the hand of the potter,
no vessel could say to him, "Why hast thou formed me thus?"
But to return to my new companion. I was greatly
delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him every-
thing that was proper to make himself useful, handy, and help-
ful, but especially to make him speak, and understand me
when I spoke; and he was the aptest scholar that ever was;
and particularly was so merry, so constantly diligent, and so
pleased when he could but understand me, or make me under-
stand him, that it was very pleasant to me to talk to him. And
now my life began to be so easy, that I began to say to myself,
that could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared not
if I was never to remove from the place where I lived.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE
245
CHAPTER XV.
I am at great pains to instruct Friday respecting my abhorrence of the canni-
bal practices of the savages-He is amazed at the effects of the gun, and
considers it an intelligent being-Begins to talk English tolerably—A
dialogue-I instruct him in the knowledge of religion, and find him very
apt-He describes to me some white men who had come to his country,
and still lived there.
A
FTER I had been two or three days returned to my castle,
I thought, that in order to bring Friday off from his horrid
way of feeding, and from the relish of a cannibal's stomach, I
ought to let him taste other flesh; so I took him out with me
one morning to the woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill
a kid out of my own flock, and bring it home and dress it;
but as I was going, I saw a she-goat lying down in the shade,
and two young kids sitting by her. I catched hold of Friday:
"Hold," said I, "stand still;" and made signs to him not to
stir. Immediately I presented my piece, shot, and killed one
of the kids. The poor creature, who had at a distance indeed
seen me kill the savage his enemy, but did not know, or could
imagine how it was done, was sensibly surprised, trembled, and
shook, and looked so amazed, that I thought he would have
sunk down; he did not see the kid I had shot at, or perceived
I had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat, to feel if he was
not wounded; and, as I found, presently thought I was resolved
to kill him, for he came and kneeled down to me, and embra-
cing my knees, said a great many things I did not understand;
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but I could easily see that his meaning was to pray me not to
kill him.
I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no
harm; and taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and
pointing to the kid which I had killed, beckoned to him to run
and fetch it, which he did; and while he was wondering and
looking to see how the creature was killed, I loaded my gun
again, and by and by I saw a great fowl, like a hawk, sit upon
a tree within shot; so to let Friday understand a little what I
would do, I called him to me again, pointing at the fowl, which
was indeed a parrot, though I thought it had been a hawk-I
say, pointing to the parrot, and to my gun, and to the ground
under the parrot, to let him see I would make him fall, I made
him understand that I would shoot and kill that bird; accord-
ingly, I fired, and bid him look, and immediately he saw the
parrot fall. He stood like one frighted again, notwithstanding
all that I had said to him; and I found he was the more amazed,
because he did not see me put any thing into the gun, but
thought there must be some wonderful fund of death and de-
struction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or any
thing, near or far off; for the astonishment this created in him
was such as could not wear off for a long time and I believe,
if I would have let him, he would have worshipped me and
my gun. As for the gun itself, he would not so much as
touch it for several days after, but would speak to it, and talk
to it, as if it had answered him, when he was by himself; which,
as I afterwards learned of him, was to desire it not to kill
him.
Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, I
pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot, which he
did, but staid some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead,
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
247
had fluttered a good way off from the place where she fell;
however, he found her, took her up, and brought her to me;
and as I perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I took
this advantage to charge the gun again, and not let him see ine
do it, that I might be ready for any other mark that might
present; but nothing else offered at that time: so I brought
home the kid; and the same evening I took the skin off, and
cut it out as well as I could, and having a pot for that purpose,
I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good
broth. After I had begun to eat some, I gave some to my
man, who seemed very glad of it, and liked it very well; but
that which was strangest to him was, to see me eat salt with it.
He made a sign to me that the salt was not good to eat; and
putting a little into his own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and
would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh
water after it. On the other hand, I took some meat in my
mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for
want of salt, as fast as he had done at the salt; but it would not
do, he would never care for salt with meat, or in his broth ; at
least not a great while, and then but a very little.
Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was
resolved to feast him the next day with roasting a piece of the
kid; this I did by hanging it before the fire in a string, as I
had seen many people do in England, setting two poles up,
one on each side of a fire, and one cross on the top, and tying
the string to the cross stick, letting the meat run continually:
this Friday admired very much; but when he came to taste
the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how well he liked it,
that I could not but understand him; and at last he told me
he would never eat man's flesh any more, which I was very
glad to hear.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
The next day I set him to work to beating some corn
out, and sifting it in the manner I used to do, as I observed
before; and he soon understood how to do it as well as I, espe-
cially after he had seen what the meaning of it was, and that it
was to make bread of; for after that I let him see me make my
bread, and bake it too; and in a little time Friday was able to
do all the work for me, as well as I could do it myself.
I began now to consider, that, having two mouths to feed
instead of one, I must provide more ground for my harvest, and
plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to do; so I marked
out a larger piece of land, and began the fence in the same
manner as before, in which Friday not only worked very wil-
lingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully; and I told him
what it was for, that it was for corn to make more bread, because
he was now with me, and that I might have enough for him
and myself too; he appeared very sensible of that part, and let
me know that he thought I had much more labour upon me on
his account than I had for myself, and that he would work the
harder for me, if I would tell him what to do.
This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this
place. Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the
names of almost every thing I had occasion to call for, and of
every place I had to send him to, and talk a great deal to me;
so that, in short, I began now to have some use for my tongue
again, which indeed I had very little occasion for before-that
is to say, about speech. Besides the pleasure of talking to him,
I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself; his simple
unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day,
and I began really to love the creature; and on his side, I be-
lieve, he loved me more than ever it was possible for him ever
to love any thing before.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
249
I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination
to his own country again; and having learned him English so
well, that he could answer me almost any questions, I asked him
whether the nation that he belonged to never conquered in battle?
At which he smiled, and said, "Yes, yes, we always fight the
better”—that is, he meant, always get the better in fight-and
so we began the following discourse: You always fight the
better!" said I; "how came you to be taken prisoner, then,
Friday?"
Friday. My nation beat much for all that.
Master. How beat? If your nation beat them, how cane
you to be taken ?
Friday. They more than my nation in the place where me
was; they take one, two, three, and me: my nation overbeat
them in the yonder place, where me no was; there my nation
take one, two great thousand.
Master. But why did not your side recover you from the
hands of your enemies then?
Friday. They run one, two, three, and me, and make go in
the canoe; my nation have no canoe that time.
Master. Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with
the men they take? Do they carry them away, and eat them
as these did?
Friday. Yes, my nation eat mans too, eat all up.
Master. Where do they carry them?
Friday. Go to other place where they think.
Master. Do they come hither?
Friday. Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place.
Master. Have you been here with them?
Friday. Yes, I have been here (points to the north-west
side of the island, which, it seems, was their side).
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
By this I understood, that my man Friday had formerly
been among the savages who used to come on shore on the
farther part of the island, on the said man-eating occasions that
he was now brought for; and some time after, when I took the
courage to carry him to that side, being the same I formerly
mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told me, he was
there once, when they ate up twenty men, two women, and one
child; he could not tell twenty in English, but he numbered
them by laying so many stones in a row, and pointing to me to
tell them over.
I have told this passage because it introduces what follows;
that after I had had this discourse with him, I asked him how
far it was from our island to the shore, and whether the canoes
were not often lost-he told me there was no danger, no canoes
ever lost; but that after a little way out to sea, there was a
current and a wind always one way in the morning, the other
in the afternoon.
This I understood to be no more than the sets of the tide,
as going out, or coming in; but I afterwards understood it was
occasioned by the great draught and reflux of the mighty river
Oroonoque, in the mouth of which river, as I thought afterwards,
our island lay; and that this land which I perceived to the west
and north-west, was the great island Trinidad, on the north
point of the mouth of the river. I asked Friday a thousand
questions about the country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast,
and what nations were near-he told me all he knew, with the
greatest openness imaginable. I asked him the names of the
several nations of his sort of people, but could get no other name
than Caribs; from whence I easily understood, that these were
the Caribbees, which our maps place on that part of America which
reaches from the mouth of the river Oroonoque to Guinea, and
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
251
onwards to St. Martha. He told me, that up a great way beyond
the moon-that was, beyond the setting of the moon, which
must be west from their country-there dwelt white-bearded
men, like me, and pointed to my great whiskers, which I men-
tioned before; and that they had killed much mans-that was
his word-by which I understood he meant the Spaniards,
whose cruelties in America had been spread over whole countries,
and were remembered by all the nations from father to son.
I enquired if he could tell me how I might come from this
island, and get among those white men; he told me, "Yes, yes,
I might go into two canoe." I could not understand what he
meant by two canoe; till at last, with great difficulty, I found
he meant, that it must be in a large great boat as big as two
canoes.
This part of Friday's discourse began to relish with me very
well; and from this time I entertained some hopes, that one
time or other I might find an opportunity to make my escape
from this place, and that this poor savage might be a means to
help me to do it.
During the long time that Friday had now been with me,
and that he began to speak to me, and understand me, I was
not wanting to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in his
mind; particularly I asked him one time, Who made him?
The poor creature did not understand me at all, but thought I
had asked who was his father; but I took it by another handle,
and asked him, Who made the sea, the ground he walked on,
and the hills and woods? He told me it was one old Bena-
muckee, that lived beyond all: he could describe nothing of this
great person, but that he was very old-much older, he said,
than the sea or the land, than the moon or the stars. I asked
him, then, if this old person had made all things, why did not all
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
things worship him? He looked very grave, and, with a perfect
look of innocence, said, All things said O! to him. I asked
him if the people who die in his country went away any where;
He said, Yes, they all went to Benamuckee. Then I asked
him, whether those they ate up went thither too?
He said, Yes.
From these things I began to instruct him in the know-
ledge of the true God. I told him, that the great Maker of all
things lived there, pointing up towards heaven; that he governs
the world by the same power and providence by which he made
it; that he was omnipotent, could do every thing for us, give
every thing to us, take every thing from us; and thus, by
degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great attention,
and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being sent
to redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to God,
and his being able to hear us even in heaven; he told me one
day, that if our God could hear us up beyond the sun, he must
needs be a greater God than their Benamuckee, who lived but
a little way off, and yet could not hear, till they went up to the
great mountains, where he dwelt, to speak to him. I asked
him if ever he went thither to speak to him? He said, No,
they never went that were young men ; none went thither but
the old men, whom he called their Oowookakee; that is, as I
made him explain it to me, their religious, or clergy; and that
they went to say O! (so he called saying prayers), and then
came back, and told them what Benamuckee said.
By this I
observed, that there is priestcraft even among the most blinded
ignorant Pagans in the world; and the policy of making a
secret of religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the
people to the clergy, is to be found among all religions in the
world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages.
I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday,
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
253
and told him, that the pretence of their old men going up to
the mountains to say O! to their god Benamuckee, was a cheat;
and their bringing word from thence what he said, was much
more so; that if they met with any answer, or spoke with
any one there, it must be with an evil spirit; and then I
entered into a long discourse with him about the devil, the
original of him, his rebellion against God, his enmity to man,
the reason of it, his setting himself up in the dark parts of the
world to be worshipped instead of God, and as God, and the
many stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to their
ruin; how he had a secret access to our passions and to our
affections, to adapt his snares so to our inclinations as to cause
us even to be our own tempters, and to run upon our own
destruction by our own choice.
I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his
mind about the devil, as it was about the being of a God;
nature assisted all my arguments to evidence to him even the
necessity of a great First Cause, and overruling governing
Power, a secret directing Providence, and of the equity and
justice of paying homage to Him that made us, and the like;
but there appeared nothing of all this in the notion of an evil
spirit, of his original, his being, his nature, and, above all, of
his inclination to do evil, and to draw us in to do so too;
and the poor creature puzzled me once in such a manner, by a
question merely natural and innocent, that I scarce knew what
to say to him.
I had been talking a great deal to him of the power of God,
his omnipotence, his dreadful aversion to sin, his being a con-
suming fire to the workers of iniquity; how, as he had made
us all, he could destroy us, and all the world, in a moment;
and he listened with great seriousness to me all the while.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
After this, I had been telling him how the devil was God's
enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his malice and skill to
defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin the kingdom
of Christ in the world, and the like. "Well," says Friday,
"but you say God is so strong, so great, is he not much strong,
much might as the devil?" "Yes, yes," said I, " Friday, God
is stronger than the devil; God is above the devil; and there-
fore we pray to God to tread him under our feet, and enable us
to resist his temptations, and quench his fiery darts." "But,"
says he again, "if God much strong, much might, as the devil,
why God not kill the devil, so make him no more wicked?"
I was strangely surprised at his question; and, after all,
though I was now an old man, yet I was but a young doctor,
and ill enough qualified for a casuist, or a solver of difficulties;
and, at first, I could not tell what to say; so I pretended not
to hear him, and asked him what he said? But he was too
earnest for an answer to forget his question, so that he repeated
it in the very same broken words as above. By this time I
had recovered myself a little, and I said, "God will at last
punish him severely; he is reserved for the judgment, and is to
be cast into the bottomless pit to dwell with everlasting fire."
This did not satisfy Friday; but he returns upon me, repeating
my words," Reserve at last! me no understand; but why not
kill the devil now, not kill great ago?" "You may as well
ask me," said I, "why God does not kill you and me, when
we do wicked things here that offend him; we are preserved
to repent and be pardoned. He muses a while at this.
Well, well," says he, mighty affectionately, "that well; so
you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, God pardon all.'
Here I was run down again by him to the last degree, and it
was a testimony to me, how the mere notions of nature, though
(6
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255
they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God,
and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God,
as the consequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine reve-
lation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of a redemp-
tion purchased for us; of a Mediator; of a new covenant; and
of an Intercessor at the footstool of God's throne-I say,
nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form these in the
soul; and that therefore the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, I mean the Word of God, and the Spirit of God,
promised for the guide and sanctifier of his people, are the
absolutely necessary instructors of the souls of men in the
saving knowledge of God, and the means of salvation.
I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and
my man, rising up hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of
going out; then sending him for something a great way off, I
seriously prayed to God that he would enable me to instruct
savingly this poor savage, assisting, by his Spirit, the heart
of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of the know-
ledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to himself, and would
guide me to speak so to him from the word of God, as his
conscience might be convinced, his eyes opened, and his soul
saved. When he came again to me, I entered into a long dis-
course with him upon the subject of the redemption of man by
the Saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of the Gospel
preached from heaven, namely, of repentance towards God, and
faith in our blessed Lord Jesus; I then explained to him, as
well as I could, why our blessed Redeemer took not on him the
nature of angels but the seed of Abraham, and how, for that
reason, the fallen angels had no share in the redemption; that
he came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and the
like.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the
methods I took for this poor creature's instruction; and must
acknowledge, what I believe all that act upon the same principle
will find, that in laying things open to him, I really informed
and instructed myself in many things that either I did not know,
or had not fully considered before, but which occurred naturally
to my mind upon my searching into them for the information
of this poor savage; and I had more affection in my inquiry
after things upon this occasion than ever I felt before; so that,
whether this poor wild wretch was the better for me or no, I
had great reason to be thankful that ever he came to me. My
grief sat lighter upon me, my habitation grew comfortable to
me beyond measure; and when I reflected that in this solitary
life, which I had been confined to, I had not only been moved
myself to look up to Heaven, and to seek to the hand that
brought me thither, but was now to be made an instrument,
under Providence, to save the life, and, for aught I knew, the
soul, of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowledge of
religion and of the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ
Jesus, to know whom is life eternal-I say, when I reflected
upon all these things, a secret joy ran through every part of my
soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought to this
place, which I had often thought the most dreadful of all afflic-
tions that could possibly have befallen me.
In this thankful frame I continued all the remainder of my
time; and the conversation which employed the hours between
Friday and me was such as made the three years which we
lived there together perfectly and completely happy, if any such
thing as complete happiness can be found in a sublunary state.
The savage was now a good Christian, a much better than I;
though I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, that we
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
257
We
were equally penitent, and comforted, restored penitents.
had here the word of God to read, and no farther off from his
Spirit to instruct than if we had been in England.
I always applied myself to reading the Scripture, and to let
him know as well as I could the meaning of what I read; and
he again, by his serious inquiries and questions, made me, as I
said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture knowledge,
than I should ever have been by my own private reading.
Another thing I cannot refrain from observing here also from
experience, in this retired part of my life; namely, how infinite.
and inexpressible a blessing it is, that the knowledge of God,
and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus, is so plainly
laid down in the word of God, so easy to be received and under-
stood, that, as the bare reading the Scripture made me capable
of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to
the great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying
hold of a Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation
of practice, and obedience to all God's commands, and this
without any teacher or instructor (I mean human); so the
plain instruction sufficiently served to the enlightening this
savage creature, and bringing him to be such a Christian, as I
have known few equal to him in my life.
As to the disputes, wranglings, strife, and contention, which
have happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in
doctrines, or schemes of church government, they were all per-
fectly useless to us, as, for aught I can yet see, they have been
to all the rest in the world. We had the sure guide to heaven,
namely, the Word of God; and we had, blessed be God! com-
fortable views of the Spirit of God, teaching and instructing us
by his word, leading us into all truth, and making us both
willing and obedient to the instruction of his word; and I can-
S
258
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
not see the least use that the greatest knowledge of the dis-
puted points in religion, which have made such confusions in
the world, would have been to us, if we could have obtained it.
But I must go on with the historical part of things, and take
every part in its order.
After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and
that he could understand almost all I said to him, and speak
fluently, though in broken English, to me, I acquainted him
with my own story, or at least so much of it as related to my
coming into the place, how I had lived there, and how long; I
let him into the mystery (for such it was to him) of gunpowder
and bullets, and taught him how to shoot: I gave him a knife,
which he was wonderfully delighted with; and I made him a
belt with a frog hanging to it, such as in England we wear
hangers in; and in the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a
hatchet, which was not only as good a weapon in some cases,
but much more useful upon many occasions.
I described to him the countries of Europe, and particularly
England, which I came from; how we lived, how we worshipped
God, how we behaved to one another, and how we traded in
ships to all the parts of the world. I gave him an account of the
wreck which I had been on board of, and showed him, as near
as I could, the place where she lay; but she was all beaten in
pieces long before, and quite gone.
I showed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost when
we escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole strength
then, but was now fallen almost all to pieces. Upon seeing
this boat, Friday stood musing a great while, and said nothing;
I asked him what it was he studied upon? At last, says he,
"Me see such boat like come to place at my nation."
I did not understand him a good while; but at last, when
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
259
I had examined farther into it, I understood by him that a boat,
such as that had been, came on shore upon the country where
he lived that is, as he explained it, was driven thither by
stress of weather. I presently imagined that some European
ship must have been cast away upon their coast, and the boat
might get loose, and drive ashore but was so dull, that I never
once thought of men making escape from a wreck thither, much
less whence they might come-so I only inquired after a de-
scription of the boat.
Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought
me better to understand him, when he added, with some warmth,
"We save the white mans from drowni.” Then I presently
asked him, if there were any white mans, as he called them, in
the boat? "Yes," he said, "the boat full of white mans.
asked him, how many? He told upon his fingers seventeen.
I asked him, what became of them?
they dwell at my nation."
He told me,
(6
I
They live,
This put new thoughts into my head again; for I presently
imagined, that these might be the men belonging to the ship
that was cast away in sight of my island, as I now called it;
and who, after the ship was struck on the rock, and they saw
her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in their boat, and
were landed upon that wild shore among the savages.
Upon this I inquired of him more critically, what was
become of them? He assured me they lived still there, that
they had been there about four years, that the savages let them
alone, and gave them victuals to live. I asked him how it
came to pass they did not kill them, and eat them? He said,
'No, they make brother with them"-that is, as I understood
him, a truce; and then he added, "They eat no mans but
when make the war fight"-that is to say, they never eat any
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
men, but such as come to fight with them, and are taken in
battle.
It was after this some considerable time, that being on the
top of the hill, at the east side of the island, from whence, as I
have said, I had in a clear day discovered the main or continent
of America, Friday, the weather being very serene, looks very
earnestly towards the mainland, and, in a kind of surprise, falls
a-jumping and dancing, and calls out to me, for I was at some
distance from him: I asked him what was the matter?
"Oh,
joy!" says he, "Oh, glad! there see my country, there my
nation!"
I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in
his face, and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered
a strange eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own
country again; and this observation of mine put a great many
thoughts into me, which made me at first not so easy about my
new man Friday as I was before; and 1 made no doubt but
that if Friday could get back to his own nation, he would not
only forget all his religion, but all his obligations to me; and
would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of
me, and come back, perhaps, with an hundred or two of them,
and make a feast upon me, at which he might be as inerry as he
used to be with those of his enemies, when they were taken in war.
But I wronged the poor honest creature very much, for
which I was very sorry afterwards; however, as my jealousy
increased, and held me some weeks, I was a little more circum-
spect, and not so familiar and kind to him as before; in which
I was certainly in the wrong too, the honest grateful creature
having no thought about it but what consisted of the best prin-
ciples, both as a religious Christian and as a grateful friend, as
appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
261
Whilst ny jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was
every day pumping him, to see if he would discover any of the
new thoughts which I suspected were in him; but I found every
thing he said was so honest and so innocent, that I could find
nothing to nourish my suspicion; and in spite of all my uneasi-
ness, he made me at last entirely his own again-nor did he in
the least perceive that I was uneasy-and therefore I could not
suspect him of deceit.
One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being
hazy at sea, so that we could not see the continent, I called to
him, and said, “Friday, do not you wish yourself in your own
country, your own nation?” "Yes," he said, "I be much O
"What would you do there?”
glad to be at my own nation."
said I; "would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh again, and
be a savage as you were before?" He looked full of concern,
and, shaking his head, said, "No, no! Friday tell them to live
good, tell them to pray God, tell them to eat corn bread, cattle
flesh, milk, no eat man again.' Why, then," said I to him,
they will kill you!"
He looked grave at that, and then said,
No, they no kill me; they willing love learn"-he meant by
this, they would be willing to learn. He added, they learned
much of the bearded mans that came in the boat. Then I asked
him if he would go back to them? He smiled at that, and told
me he could not swim so far. I told him I would make a canoe
for him. He told me he would go, if I would go with him.
"I go!" said I, "why, they will eat me if I come there!"
"No, no!" says he, "me make them no eat you, me make they
much love you"-he meant he would tell them how I had killed
his enemies and saved his life, and so he would make them love me.
Then he told me how kind they were to seventeen white men, or
bearded men, as he called them, who came on shore in distress.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
From this time, I confess, I had a mind to venture over,
and see if I could possibly join with these bearded men, who, I
made no doubt, were Spaniards or Portuguese; not doubting but,
if I could, we might find some method to escape from thence,
being upon the continent, and a good company together, better
than I could from an island forty miles off the shore, and alone
without help. So, after some days, I took Friday to work again
by way of discourse, and told him I would give him a boat to
go back to his own nation; and accordingly, I carried him
to my frigate, which lay on the other side of the island; and
having cleared it of water (for I always kept it sunk in the
water), I brought it out, showed it him, and we both went into it.
I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it,
would make it go almost as swift and fast again as I could; so
when he was in, I said to him, "Well, now, Friday, shall we
go to your nation ?” He looked very dull at my saying so,
which it seems was because he thought the boat too small to
go so far.
I told him then I had a bigger; so the next day I
went to the place where the first boat lay which I had made,
but which I could not get into the water; he said that was
big enough; but then, as I had taken no care of it, and it had
lain two or three-and-twenty years there, the sun had so split
and dried it, that it was in a manner rotten. Friday told me
such a boat would do very well, and would carry "much enough
vittle, drink, bread"-that was his way of talking.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
263
CHAPTER XVI.
I determine to go over to the continent-Friday and I construct a boat equal
to carry twenty men-His dexterity in managing her-Friday brings intelli-
gence of three canoes of savages on shore-Resolve to go down upon them
-Friday and I fire upon the wretches, and save the life of a poor Spaniard
-List of the killed and wounded-Discover a poor Indian bound in one of
the canoes, who turns out to be Friday's father.
PON the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my design
UPON
U over
of going over with him to the continent, that I told him we
would go and make one as big as that, and he should go home
in it. He answered not one word, but looked very grave and
sad. I asked him, what was the matter with him? He asked
me again, thus, "Why you angry mad with Friday? what me
done?" I asked him what he meant? I told him I was not
angry with him at all. "No angry! no angry!" says he, repeating
the words several times; "why send Friday home away to my
nation ?" "Why," said I, "Friday, did you not say you wished
you were there?”
Yes, yes," says he, "wish be both there;
no wish Friday there, no master there." In a word, he would
not think of going there without me. "I go there, Friday!"
said I; "what should I do there?" He turned very quick
"You do great deal much good,” says he;
upon me at this.
(6
"Alas,
"you teach wild mans be good, sober, tame mans; you tell
them know God, pray God, and live new life."
Friday," said I, "thou knowest not what thou sayest; I am
but an ignorant man myself."
"Yes, yes," says he, "you
264
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
teechee me good, you teechee them good."
66
No, no, Friday,"
said I, " you shall go without me; leave me here to live by
myself, as I did before." He looked confused again at that
word, and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear,
he takes it up hastily, and gives it me. "What must I do with
this?" said I to him. "You take kill Friday," says he
"What must I kill you for?" said I again.
quick, "What you send Friday away for?
no send Friday away."
tears stand in his eyes.
He returns very
Take kill Friday,
This he spoke so earnestly, that I saw
In a word, I so
In a word, I so plainly discovered the
utmost affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in him, that
I told him then, and often after, that I would not send him
away from me, if he was willing to stay with me.
Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled
affection to me, and that nothing should part him from me, so
I found all the foundation of his desire to go to his own coun-
try was laid in his ardent affection to the people, and his hopes
of my doing them good-a thing which, as I had no notion of
nyself, so I had not the least thought, or intention, or desire of
undertaking it. But still I found a strong inclination to my
attempting an escape, as above, founded on the supposition
gathered from the former discourse-namely, that there were
seventeen bearded men there; and therefore, without delay, I
went to work with Friday, to find out a great tree proper to
fell, and make a large periagua, or canoe, to undertake the
voyage. There were trees enough in the island to have built
a little fleet, not of periaguas and canoes only, but of good large
vessels but the main thing I looked at, was to get one so near
the water that we might launch it when it was made, to avoid
the mistake I committed at first.
At last Friday pitched upon a tree, for I found he knew
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
265
much better than I what kind of wood was fittest for it; nor
can I tell to this day what wood to call the tree we cut down,
except that it was very like the tree we call fustic, or between
that and the Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same
colour and smell. Friday was for burning the hollow or cavity
of this tree out, to make it into a boat; but I showed him how
rather to cut it out with tools, which, after I showed him how to
use, he did very handily; and in about a month's hard labour
we finished it, and made it very handsome, especially when,
with our axes, which I showed him how to handle, we cut and
hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat. After this, how-
ever, it cost us near a fortnight's time to get her along, as it were,
inch by inch, upon great rollers, into the water; but when she
was in, she would have carried twenty men with great ease.
When she was in the water, and though she was so big, it
amazed me to see with what dexterity, and how swift, my man
Friday could manage her, turn her, and paddle her along; so
I asked him if he would, and if we might, venture over in her?
"Yes," he said, "he venture over in her very well, though
great blow wind." However, I had a farther design which he
knew nothing of, and that was, to make a mast and sail, and
to fit her with an anchor and cable. As to a mast, that was
easy enough to get: so I pitched upon a straight young cedar
tree, which I found near the place, and which there was a great
plenty of in the island; and I set Friday to work to cut it
down, and gave him directions how to shape and order it; but
as to the sail, that was my particular care; I knew I had old
sails, or rather pieces of old sails, enough; but as I had had
them now twenty-six years by me, and had not been very
careful to preserve them, not imagining that I should ever have
this kind of use for them, I did not doubt but that they were
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
all rotten-and, indeed, most of them were so; however I
found two pieces which appeared pretty good, and with these
I went to work, and with a great deal of pains, and awkward
tedious stitching (you may be sure) for want of needles, I at
length made a three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in
England a shoulder-of-mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom,
and a little short sprit at the top, such as usually our ships'
long-boats sail with, and such as I best knew how to manage;
because it was such a one as I used in the boat in which I
made my escape from Barbary, as related in the first part of
my story.
I was near two months performing this last work, namely,
rigging and fitting my mast and sails; for I finished them very
complete, making a small stay, and a sail or foresail to it, to
assist if we should turn to windward; and, which was more
than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern of her, to steer with; and
though I was but a bungling shipwright, yet as I knew the use-
fulness, and even necessity, of such a thing, I applied myself
with so much pains to do it, that at last I brought it to pass,
though, considering the many dull contrivances I had for it that
failed, I think it cost me almost as much labour as making the
boat.
After all this was done, I had my man Friday to teach as
to what belonged to the navigation of my boat; for though he
knew very well how to paddle the canoe, he knew nothing what
belonged to a sail and a rudder, and was the more amazed when
he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder,
and how the sail gibed and filled this way or that way, as the
course we sail changed-I say, when he saw this, he stood like
one astonished and amazed however, with a little use, I made
all these things familiar to him, and he became an expert sailor,
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
267
except that as to the compass I could make him understand
very little of that: on the other hand, as there was very little
cloudy weather, and seldom or never any fogs, in those parts.
there was the less occasion for a compass, seeing the stars were
always to be seen by night, and the shore by day, except in
the rainy seasons; and then nobody cared to stir abroad, either
by land or sea.
I was now entered on the seven-and-twentieth year of my
captivity in this place; though the three last years that I had
this creature with me ought rather to be left out of the account,
my habitation being quite of another kind than in all the rest
of my time. I kept the anniversary of my landing here with
the same thankfulness to God for his mercies as at first; and if
I had such cause of acknowledgment at first, I had much more.
so now, having such additional testimonies of the care of Pro-
vidence over me, and the great hopes I had of being effectually
and speedily delivered; for I had an invincible impression upon
my thoughts that my deliverance was at hand, and that I should
not be another year in this place. However, I went on with my
husbandry, digging, planting, and fencing, as usual; I gathered
and cured my grapes, and did every necessary thing as before.
The rainy season was in the meantime upon me, when I
kept more within doors than at other times; so I had stowed our
new vessel as secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek,
where, as I said in the beginning, I landed my rafts from the ship;
and, hauling her up to the shore, at high-water mark, I made my
man Friday dig a little dock, just big enough for her to float in ;
and then, when the tide was out, we made a strong dam across
the end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay dry, as to
the tide, from the sea; and, to keep the rain off, we laid a great
many boughs of trees so thick, that she was as well thatched as
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
a house; and thus we waited for the months of November and
December, in which I designed to make my adventure.
When the settled season began to come in, as the thought
of my design returned with the fair weather, I was preparing
daily for the voyage; and the first thing I did was to lay up a
certain quantity of provision, being the store for the voyage,
and intended, in a week or a fortnight's time, to open the dock.
and launch out our boat. I was busy one morning upon some-
thing of this kind, when I called to Friday, and bade him go
to the sea-shore and see if he could find a turtle, or tortoise, a
thing which we generally got once a week, for the sake of the
eggs as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone when
he came running back, and flew over my outward wall, or fence,
like one that felt not the ground or the steps he set his feet
on; and before I had time to speak to him, he cried out to
me, Oh, master! Oh, master! Oh, sorrow! Oh, bad!"
"What's the matter, Friday?" said I.
(6
((
Oh, yonder there,”
says he, "one, two, three canoe! one, two, three!" By this
way of speaking, I concluded there were six; but, on inquiry,
I found there were but three. "Well, Friday," said I, "do not
be frighted;" so I heartened him up as well as I could. How-
ever, I saw the poor fellow was most terribly scared; for nothing
ran in his head but that they were come to look for him, and
would cut him in pieces and eat him. The poor fellow trembled
so, that I scarce knew what to do with him. I comforted him
as well as I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he,
and that they would eat me as well as him. "But," said I,
Friday, we must resolve to fight them; can you fight, Friday ?"
"Me shoot," says he, "but there come many great number."
"No matter for that," said I again; "our guns will fright
them that we do not kill." So I asked him, whether, if I
(6
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
269
and do just as I bade him? He said,
resolved to defend him, he would defend me, and stand by me,
He said, "Me die when you bid
die, master." So I went and fetched a good dram of rum, and
gave him; for I had been so good a husband of my rum that
I had a great deal left. When he had drunk it, I made him
take the two fowling-pieces which we always carried, and load
them with large swan-shot as big as small pistol-bullets; then
I took four muskets, and loaded them with two slugs and five
small bullets each; and my two pistols I loaded with a brace
of bullets each—I hung my great sword, as usual, naked by
my side, and gave Friday his hatchet.
When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective
glass, and went up to the side of the hill to see what I could
discover; and I found quickly, by my glass, that there were
one-and-twenty savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; and
that their whole business seemed to be the triumphant banquet
upon these three human bodies-a barbarous feast, indeed, but
nothing more than, as I had observed, was usual with them.
I observed also that they were landed, not where they had
done when Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek,
where the shore was low, and where a thick wood came close
almost down to the sea-this, with the abhorrence of the
inhuman errand these wretches came about, so filled me with
indignation, that I came down again to Friday, and told him I
was resolved to go down to them and kill them all, and asked
him if he would stand by me. He was now gotten over his
fright, and his spirits being a little raised with the dram I had
given him, he was very cheerful, and told me as before, he
would die when I bid die.
In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms, which
I had charged, as before, between us: I gave Friday one pistol
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
to stick in his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder, and I
took one pistol and the other three myself; and in this posture
we marched out. I took a small bottle of rum in my pocket,
and gave Friday a large bag with more powder and bullets;
and as to orders, I charged him to keep close behind me, and
not to stir, shoot, or do any thing till I bade him; and, in the
meantime, not to speak a word. In this posture I fetched a
compass to my right hand of near a mile, as well to get over
the creek as to get into the wood; so that I might come within
shot of them before I could be discovered, which I had seen by
my glass it was easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former thoughts
returning, I began to abate my resolution-I do not mean that
I entertained any fear of their number; for as they were naked
unarmed wretches, it is certain I was superior to them, nay,
though I had been alone-but it occurred to my thoughts, what
call, what occasion, much less what necessity, I was in to go
and dip my hands in blood-to attack people who had neither
done nor intended me any wrong, who, as to me, were innocent,
and whose barbarous customs were their own disaster, being in
them a token indeed of God's having left them, with the other
nations of that part of the world, to such stupidity and to such
inhuman courses; but did not call me to take upon me to be a
judge of their actions, much less an executioner of his justice;
that whenever he thought fit, he would take the cause into his
own hands, and by national vengeance punish them for national
crimes, but that, in the mean time, it was none of my business
-that it was true, Friday might justify it, because he was a
declared enemy, and in a state of war with those very particular
people, and it was lawful for him to attack them; but I could
not say the same with respect to me. These things were so
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warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the way as I went, that
I resolved I would only go place myself near them, that I
might observe their barbarous feast, and that I would act then
as God should direct; but that, unless something offered that
was more a call to me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle
with them.
With this resolution I entered the wood, and, with all
possible wariness and silence (Friday following close at my
heels), I marched till I came to the skirt of the wood, on the
side which was next to them-only that one corner of the wood
lay between me and them-here I called softly to Friday,
showing him a great tree, which was just at the corner of the
wood; I bade him go to the tree, and bring me word if he
could see there plainly what they were doing: he did so, and
came immediately back to me, and told me they might be
plainly viewed there; that they were all about the fire, eating
the flesh of one of their prisoners; and that another lay bound
upon the sand, a little from them, whom he said they would
kill next, and which fired the very soul within me. He told
me it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men
whom he had told me of, who came to their country in
the boat. I was filled with horror at the very naming the
white-bearded man, and, going to the tree, I saw plainly, by
my glass, a white man, who lay upon the beach of the sea, with
his hands and his feet tied with flags, or things like rushes;
and that he was a European, and had clothes on.
There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it,
about fifty yards nearer to them than the place where I was,
which, by going a little way about, I saw I might come at
undiscovered, and that then I should be within half shot of
them; so I withheld my passion, though I was indeed enraged
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to the highest degree, and going back about twenty paces, I got
behind some bushes, which held all the way till I came to the other
tree, and then I came to a little rising ground, which gave me a
full view of them, at the distance of about eighty yards.
66
I had now not a moment to lose; for nineteen of the
dreadful wretches sat upon the ground all close huddled together,
and had just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian,
and bring him, perhaps limb by limb, to their fire; and they
were stooped down to untie the bands at his feet, I turned to
Friday: Now, Friday," said I, "do as I bid thee." Friday
said he would. "Then, Friday," said I, "do exactly as you
see me do; fail in nothing." So I set down one of the muskets
and the fowling-piece upon the ground, and Friday did the like
by his; and with the other musket I took my aim at the
savages, bidding him do the like. Then, asking him if he
was ready, he said, “Yes." "Then fire at them," said I; and
the same moment I fired also.
Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the side
that he shot he killed two of them, and wounded three more;
and on my side, I killed one and wounded two. They were,
you may be sure, in a dreadful consternation; and all of them
who were not hurt, jumped up upon their feet immediately, but
did not know which way to run, or which way to look; for
they knew not from whence their destruction came. Friday
kept his eyes close upon me, that, as I had bid him, he might
observe what I did; so as soon as the first shot was made, I
threw down the piece, and took up the fowling-piece, and Friday
did the like; he sees me cock and present-he did the same
again. "Are you ready, Friday?" said I. "Yes," says he,
"Let fly, then," said I, "in the name of God;" and with that
I fired again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday;

J. Silliamnsore
THERE HAPPENED A FIERCE ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE
SPANIARD AND ONE OF THE SAVAGES.
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273
and as our pieces were now loaded with what I called swan shot,
or small pistol bullets, we found only two drop; but so many
were wounded, that they ran about yelling and screaming like
mad creatures, all bloody, and miserably wounded most of them;
whereof three more fell quickly after, though not quite dead.
66
""
Now, Friday," said I, laying down the discharged pieces,
and taking up the musket, which was yet loaded, "follow me,'
said I-which he did with a deal of courage; upon which I
rushed out of the wood, and showed myself, and Friday close at
my foot as soon as I perceived they saw me, I shouted as loud
as I could, and bade Friday do so too; and running as fast as
I could, which by the way was not very fast, being loaded with
arms as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who
was, as I said, lying upon the beach or shore, between the place
where they sat and the sea; the two butchers who were just
going to work with him, had left him at the surprise of our first
fire, and fled in a terrible fright to the sea-side, and had jumped
into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the same way.
I turned to Friday, and bade him step forwards, and fire at them ;
he understood me immediately, and running about forty yards
to be near them, he shot at them, and I thought he had killed
them all; for I saw them all fall on a heap into the boat—
though I saw two of them up again quickly-however, he killed
two of them, and wounded the third, so that he lay down in the
bottom of the boat, as if he had been dead.
While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife,
and cut the flags that bound the poor victim; and, loosing his
hands and feet, I lifted him up, and asked him, in the Portu-
guese tongue, what he was? He answered in Latin, Christianus;
but was so weak and faint, that he could scarce stand or speak.
I took my bottle out of my pocket, and gave it him, making
T
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""
signs that he should drink, which he did; and I gave him a
piece of bread, which he ate: then I asked him what country-
man he was? and he said, "Espagnole ;" and being a little
recovered, let me know, by all the signs he could possibly make,
how much he was in my debt for his deliverance. "Seignor,'
said I, with as much Spanish as I could make up,
we will
talk afterwards, but we must fight now; if you have any strength
left, take this pistol and sword, and lay about you :" he took
them very thankfully, and no sooner had he the arms in his
hands, but, as if they had put new vigour into him, he flew upon
his murderers like a fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in
an instant; for the truth is, as the whole was a surprise to them,
so the poor creatures were so much frighted with the noise of
our pieces, that they fell down for mere amazement and fear,
and had no more power to attempt their own escape, than their
flesh had to resist our shot-and that was the case of those five
that Friday shot in the boat; for as three of them fell with the
hurt they received, so the other two fell with the fright.
I kept my piece in my hand still, without firing, being
willing to keep my charge ready, because I had given the Spa-
niard my pistol and sword; so I called to Friday, and bade him
run up to the tree from whence we first fired, and fetch the arms
which lay there, that had been discharged, which he did with
great swiftness; and then, giving him my musket, I sat down
myself to load all the rest again, and bade them come to me
when they wanted. While I was loading those pieces, there
happened a fierce engagement between the Spaniard and one of
the savages, who made at him with one of their great wooden
swords, the same weapon that was to have killed him before, if
I had not prevented it: the Spaniard, who was as bold and as
brave as could be imagined, though weak, had fought this Indian
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
275
a good while, and had cut him two great wounds on his head;
but the savage, being a stout lusty fellow, closing in with him,
had thrown him down (being faint), and was wringing my sword
out of his hand, when the Spaniard, though undermost, wisely
quitting his sword, drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the
savage through the body, and killed him upon the spot, before
I, who was running to help, could come near him.
Friday being now left at his liberty, pursued the flying
wretches with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with
that he despatched those three, who, as I said before, were
wounded at first, and fallen, and all the rest he could come up
with; and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I gave him
one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two of the
savages, and wounded them both: but, as he was not able to
run, they both got from him into the wood, where Friday pur-
sued them, and killed one of them; but the other was too nimble
for him; and, though he was wounded, yet he plunged into the
sea, and swam with all his might off to those who were left in
the canoe; which three in the canoe, with one wounded, who we
knew not whether he died or no, were all that escaped our hands
of one-and-twenty. The account of the rest is as follows:-
3 Killed at our shot from the tree.
2 Killed at the next shot.
2 Killed by Friday in the boat.
2 Killed by ditto, of those at first wounded.
1 Killed by ditto in the wood.
3 Killed by the Spaniard.
4 Killed, being found dropped here and there of their wounds,
or killed by Friday in his chase of them.
4 Escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead.
21 in all.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of
gun-shot; and, though Friday made two or three shots at them,
I did not find that he hit any of them. Friday would fain have
had me take one of their canoes, and pursue them; and, indeed, I
was very anxious about their escape, lest, carrying the news home
to their people, they should come back, perhaps with two or three
hundred of their canoes, and devour us by mere multitudes; so I
consented to pursue them by sea; and, running to one of their
canoes, I jumped in, and bade Friday follow me; but, when I
was in the canoe, I was surprised to find another poor creature
lie there alive, bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, for
the slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing what the
matter was; for he had not been able to look up over the side
of the boat he was tied so hard, neck and heels, and had
been tied so long, that he had really little life in him.
I immediately cut the twisted flags, or rushes, which they
had bound him with, and would have helped him up; but he
could not stand or speak, but groaned most piteously, believing,
it seems, still that he was only unbound in order to be killed.
When Friday came to him, I bade him speak to him, and tell
him of his deliverance; and, pulling out my bottle, made him
give the poor wretch a dram, which, with the news of his being
delivered, revived him, and he sat up in the boat; but when
Friday came to hear him speak, and looked in his face, it would
have moved any one to tears to have seen how Friday kissed
him, embraced him, hugged him, cried, laughed, hallooed, jumped
about, danced, sang, then cried again, wrung his hands, beat his
own face and head, and then sang and jumped about again like
a distracted creature. It was a good while before I could make
him speak to me, or tell me what was the matter; but when
he came a little to himself, he told me that it was his father.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
277
It was not easy for me to express how it moved me, to see
what ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this poor savage
at the sight of his father, and of his being delivered from death;
nor indeed can I describe half the extravagances of his affection
after this; for he went into the boat and out of the boat a great
many times; when he went in to him, he would sit down by
him, open his breast, and hold his father's head close to his
bosom, half an hour together, to nourish it; then he took his
arms and ankles, which were numbed and stiff with the binding,
and chafed and rubbed them with his hands; and I, perceiving
what the case was, gave him some rum out of my bottle to rub
them with, which did them a great deal of good.
:
This action put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the
other savages, who were now gotten almost out of sight and it
was happy for us that we did not; for it blew so hard within
two hours after, and before they could be gotten a quarter of
their way, and continued blowing so hard all night and that
from the north-west, which was against them, that I could not
suppose their boat could live, or that they ever reached to their
own coast.
But to return to Friday. He was so busy about his father,
that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some time;
but after I thought he could leave him a little, I called him to me,
and he came jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest
extreme. Then I asked him if he had given his father any
bread? He shook his head, and said, "None: ugly dog eat
all up self."
self." So I gave him a cake of bread out of a little pouch
I carried on purpose; I also gave him a dram for himself, but
he would not taste it, but carried it to his father: I had in my
pocket, also, two or three bunches of my raisins, so I gave him
a handful of them for his father. He had no sooner given his
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father these raisins, but I saw him come out of the boat, and
run away as if he had been bewitched. He ran at such a rate
-for he was the swiftest fellow of his feet that ever I saw-I
say, he ran at such a rate, that he was out of sight, as it were,
in an instant; and though I called, and hallooed too, after him,
it was all one: away he went, and in a quarter of an hour I
saw him come back again, though not so fast as he went; and
as he came nearer, I found his pace was slacker, because he had
something in his hand.
When he came up to me, I found he had been quite home
for an earthen jug, or pot, to bring his father some fresh water ;
and that he had got two more cakes, or loaves of bread. The
bread he gave me, but the water he carried to his father: how-
ever, as I was very thirsty too, I took a little sup of it. This
water revived his father more than all the rum or spirits I had
given him; for he was just fainting with thirst.
When his father had drunk, I called him, to know if there
was any water left. He said, "Yes;" and I bade him give it
to the poor Spaniard, who was in as much want of it as his
father; and I sent one of the cakes that Friday brought to the
Spaniard too, who was indeed very weak, and was reposing
himself upon a green place, under the shade of a tree, and whose
limbs were also very stiff, and very much swelled with the rude
bandage he had been tied with. When I saw that upon Friday's
coming to him with the water, he sat up and drank, and took
the bread, and began to eat, I went to him, and gave him a
handful of raisins; he looked up in my face with all the tokens
of gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in any counten-
ance but was so weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted
himself in the fight, that he could not stand upon his feet; he
tried to do it two or three times, but really was not able, his
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
279
ankles were so swelled and so painful to him; so I bade him
sit still, and caused Friday to rub his ankles, and bathe them
with rum, as he had done his father's.
I observed the poor affectionate creature, every two minutes,
or perhaps less, all the while he was here, turned his head
about, to see if his father was in the same place and posture
he left him sitting; and at last he found he was not to be seen;
at which he started up, and, without speaking a word, flew
with that swiftness to him, that one could scarce perceive his
feet to touch the ground as he went; but where came, he
only found he had laid himself doeases limbs; so
Friday came back to me presently, and I then spoke to the
Spaniard to let Friday help him up, if he could, and lead him
to the boat, and then he should carry him to our dwelling,
where I would take care of him; but Friday, a lusty young
fellow, took the Spaniard quite up upon his back, and carried
him away to the boat, and set him down softly upon the side
or gunnel of the canoe, with his feet in the inside of it, and
then lifted them quite in, and set him close to his father, and
presently stepping out again, launched the boat off, and paddled
it along the shore faster than I could walk, though the wind
blew pretty hard too; so he brought them safe into our creek;
and leaving them in the boat, runs away to fetch the other
As he passed me, I spoke to him, and asked him
whither he went? He told me, "Go fetch more boat;" so
away he went, like the wind; for sure never man or horse ran
like him, and he had the other canoe in the creek almost as
soon as I got to it by land; so he wafted me over, and then
went to help our new guests out of the boat, which he did, but
they were neither of them able to walk; so that poor Friday
knew not what to do.
canoe.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
To remedy this, I went to work in my thought, and calling
to Friday to bid them sit down on the bank while he came to
me, I soon made a kind of hand-barrow to lay them on, and
Friday and I carried them up both together upon it between
us; but when we got them to the outside of our wall or forti-
fication, we were at a worse loss than before; for it was im-
possible to get them over, and I was resolved not to break it
down; so I set to work again; and Friday and I, in about two
hours' time, made a very handsome tent, covered with old sails,
and above that with boughs of trees, being in the space with-
out our outward fence, and between that and the grove of
young wood which I had planted: and here we made two beds of
such things as I had; namely, of good rice-straw, with blankets
laid upon it to lie on, and another to cover them on each bed.
My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich
in subjects; and it was a merry reflection which I frequently
made, how like a king I looked: first of all, the whole country
was my own mere property, so that I had an undoubted right
of dominion; secondly, my people were perfectly subjected; I
was absolute lord and lawgiver; they all owed their lives to
me, and were ready to lay down their lives, if there had been
occasion for it, for me; it was remarkable too, I had but three
subjects, and they were of three different religions. My man
Friday was a Protestant, his father a Pagan and a cannibal,
and the Spaniard was a Papist; however, I allowed liberty of
conscience throughout my dominions; but this by the way.
As soon as I had secured my two weak rescued prisoners,
and given them shelter, and a place to rest them upon, I began
to think of making some provision for them; and the first thing
I did, I ordered Friday to take a yearling goat, betwixt a kid
and a goat, out of my particular flock, to be killed; then I cut
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
281
off the hind quarter, and chopping it into small pieces, I set
Friday to work to boiling and stewing, and made them a very
good dish, I assure you, of flesh and broth, having put some
barley and rice also into the broth; and as I cooked it without
doors (for I made no fire within my inner wall), so I carried it
all into the new tent; and having set a table there for them, I
sat down and ate my dinner also with them; and, as well as I
could, cheered them and encouraged them, Friday being my inter-
preter, especially to his father, and indeed to the Spaniard too;
for the Spaniard spoke the language of the savages pretty well.
After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered Friday to
take one of the canoes, and go and fetch our muskets and other
fire-arms, which for want of time, we had left upon the place
of battle; and the next day I ordered him to go and bury the
dead bodies of the savages, which lay open to the sun, and
would presently be offensive; and I also ordered him to bury
the horrid remains of their barbarous feast, which I knew were
pretty much, and which I could not think of doing myself;
nay, I could not bear to see them, if I went that way; all
which he punctually performed, and defaced the very appearance
of the savages being there; so that when I went again, I could
scarce know where it was, otherwise than by the corner of the
wood pointing to the place.
I then began to enter into a little conversation with my
two new subjects; and first, I set Friday to inquire of his
father, what he thought of the escape of the savages in that
canoe? and whether we might expect a return of them with
a power too great for us to resist? His first opinion was, that
the savages in the boat never could live out the storm which
blew that night they went off, but must of necessity be drowned
or driven south to those other shores, where they were as sure
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
to be devoured as they were to be drowned if they were cast
away; but as to what they would do if they came safe on shore,
he said he knew not; but it was his opinion, that they were so
dreadfully frighted with the manner of being attacked, the noise
and the fire, that he believed they would tell their people they
were all killed by thunder and lightning, and not by the hand
of man; and that the two which appeared (namely, Friday and
I) were two heavenly spirits or furies come down to destroy
them, and not men with weapons. This, he said, he knew,
because he heard them all cry out so in their language to one.
another; for it was impossible for them to conceive that a man
should dart fire, and speak thunder, and kill at a distance, with-
out lifting up the hand, as was done now. And this old savage
was in the right; for, as I understood since, by other hands,
the savages of that part never attempted to go over to the
island afterwards. They were so terrified with the accounts
given by these four men (for it seems they did escape the sea),
that they believed, whoever went to that enchanted island,
would be destroyed with fire from the gods.
This, however, I knew not, and therefore was under con-
tinual apprehensions for a good while, and kept always upon my
guard, I and all my army; for, as there were now four of us, I
would have ventured upon a hundred of them fairly in the open
field at any time.
In a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the
fear of their coming wore off; and I began to take my former
thoughts of a voyage to the main into consideration, being like-
wise assured by Friday's father, that I might depend upon good
usage from their nation on his account, if I would go.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
283
CHAPTER XVII.
I learn from the Spaniard that there were sixteen more of his countrymen
among the savages-The Spaniard and Friday's father, well armed, sail
on a mission to the Continent-I discover an English ship lying at anchor
off the island-Her boat comes on shore with three prisoners-The crew
straggle into the woods, their boat being aground-Discover myself to the
prisoners, who prove to be the captain and mate of the vessel, and a pas-
senger-Secure the mutineers.
BUT
UT my thoughts were a little suspended, when I had a
serious discourse with the Spaniard, and when I understood,
that there were sixteen more of his countrymen and Portuguese,
who having been cast away, and made their escape to that side,
lived there at peace indeed with the savages, but were very
sore put to it for necessaries, and indeed for life. I asked him
all the particulars of their voyage; and found they were a Spanish
ship, bound from the Rio de la Plata to the Havanna, being
directed to leave their loading there, which was chiefly hides
and silver, and to bring back what European goods they could
meet with there; that they had five Portuguese seamen on
board, whom they took out of another wreck that five of their
own men were drowned when first the ship was lost; and that
these escaped through infinite dangers and hazards, and arrived
almost starved on the cannibal coast, where they expected to
have been devoured every moment.
He told me they had some arms with them, but they were
perfectly useless; for that they had neither powder nor ball,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
the washing of the sea having spoiled all their powder, but a
little which they used at their first landing to provide them-
selves some food.
I asked him what he thought would become of them there;
and if they had formed no design of making any escape?
He
said they had many consultations about it; but that, having
neither vessel nor tools to build one, nor provisions of any kind,
their councils always ended in tears and despair.
I asked him how he thought they would receive a proposal
from me, which might tend towards an escape; and whether,
if they were all here, it might not be done? I told him with
freedom, I feared mostly their treachery and ill usage of me, if
I put my life in their hands; for that gratitude was no inherent
virtue in the nature of man; nor did men always square their
dealings by the obligations they had received, so much as they
did by the advantages they expected. I told him, it would be
very hard, that I should be the instrument of their deliverance,
and that they should afterwards make me their prisoner in New
Spain, where an Englishman was certain to be made a sacrifice,
what necessity, or what accident soever, brought him thither;
and that I had rather be delivered up to the savages, and be
devoured alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the priests,
and be carried into the Inquisition. I added, that otherwise I
was persuaded, if they were all here, we might, with so many
hands, build a bark large enough to carry us all away, either
to the Brazils southward, or to the islands or Spanish coast
northward; but that if in requital they should, when I had put
weapons into their hands, carry me by force among their own
people, I might be ill used for my kindness to them, and make
my case worse than it was before.
He answered, with a great deal of candour and ingenuity,
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
285
that their condition was so miserable, and that they were so
sensible of it, that he believed they would abhor the thought of
using any man unkindly that should contribute to their deliver-
ance; and that if I pleased, he would go to them with the old
man, and discourse with them about it, and return again, and
bring me their answer; that he would make conditions with
them upon their solemn oath, that they would be absolutely
under my leading, as their commander and captain; and that
they should swear upon the holy Sacraments and Gospel to be
true to me, and go to such Christian country as I should agree
to, and no other; and to be directed wholly and absolutely by
my orders, till they were landed safely in such country as I
intended; and that he would bring a contract from them under
their hands for that purpose.
Then he told me, he would first swear to me himself, that
he would never stir from me as long as he lived, till I gave
him order; and that he would take my side to the last drop of
blood, if there should happen the least breach of faith among
his countrymen.
He told me, they were all of them very civil honest men,
and they were under the greatest distress imaginable, having
neither weapons nor clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy
and discretion of the savages-out of all hopes of ever return-
ing to their own country; and that he was sure, if I would
undertake their relief, they would live and die by me.
Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve
them, if possible, and to send the old savage and this Spaniard
over to them to treat: but when he had gotten all things in
readiness to go, the Spaniard himself started an objection which
had so much prudence in it on one hand, and so much sincerity
on the other hand, that I could not but be very well satisfied
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
in it; and, by his advice, put off the deliverance of his comrades
for at least half a year.
The case was this:
He had been with us now about a month, during which
time I had let him see in what manner I had provided, with
the assistance of Providence, for my support; and he saw
evidently what stock of corn and rice I had laid up; which, as
it was more than sufficient for myself, so it was not sufficient,
at least without good husbandry, for my family, now it was in-
creased to number four; but much less would it be sufficient if
his countrymen, who were, as he said, fourteen still alive, should
come over; and least of all would it be sufficient to victual cur
vessel, if we should build one, for a voyage to any one of the
Christian colonies of America, So he told me, he thought it
would be more advisable, to let him and the other two dig and
cultivate some more land, as much as I could spare seed to sow;
and that we should wait another harvest, that we might have a
supply of corn for his countrymen when they should come; for
want might be a temptation to them to disagree, or not to
think themselves delivered, otherwise than out of one difficulty
into another. "You know," says he, "the children of Israel,
though they rejoiced at first at their being delivered out of
Egypt, yet rebelled even against God himself, that delivered
them, when they came to want bread in the wilderness."
His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, that
I could not but be very well pleased with his proposal, as well
as I was satisfied with his fidelity. So we fell to digging, all
four of us, as well as the wooden tools we were furnished with
permitted; and, in about a month's time, by the end of which
it was seed-time, we had gotten as much land cured and
trimmed up as we sowed twenty-two bushels of barley on, and
sixteen jars of rice, which was, in short, all the seed we had to
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
287
spare; nor indeed did we leave ourselves barley sufficient for
our own food for the six months that we had to expect our
crop, that is to say, reckoning from the time we set our seed
aside for sowing; for it is not to be supposed it is six months
in the ground in that country.
Having now society enough, and our number being suffi-
cient to put us out of fear of the savages, if they had come,
unless their number had been very great, we went freely all
over the island, wherever we found occasion; and as here we
had our escape or deliverance upon our thoughts, it was im-
possible, at least for me, to have the means of it out of mine.
To this purpose, I marked out several trees, which I thought
fit for our work, and I set Friday and his father to cutting them
down; and then I caused the Spaniard, to whom I imparted
my thoughts on that affair, to oversee and direct their work: I
showed them with what indefatigable pains I had hewed a large
tree into single planks, and I caused them to do the like, till they
had made about a dozen large planks of good oak, near two feet
broad, thirty-five feet long, and from two inches to four inches
thick; what prodigious labour it took up any one may imagine.
At the same time, I contrived to increase my little flock of
tame goats as much as I could; and to this purpose I made
Friday and the Spaniard to go out one day, and myself with
Friday the next day, for we took our turns; and by this means
we got about twenty young kids to breed up with the rest;
for, whenever we shot the dam, we saved the kids, and added
them to our flock: but, above all, the season for curing the
grapes coming on, I caused such a prodigious quantity to be
hung up in the sun, that I believe, had we been at Alicant,
where the raisins of the sun are cured, we should have filled
sixty or eighty barrels; and these, with our bread, were a great
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part of our food, and very good living too, I assure you; for it
is an exceedingly nourishing food.
It was now harvest, and our crop in good order; it was
not the most plentiful increase I had seen in the island; but,
however, it was enough to answer our end, for from twenty-
two bushels of barley, we brought in and threshed out above
two hundred and twenty bushels, and the like in proportion of
the rice, which was store enough for our food to the next
harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had been on shore
with me; or, if we had been ready for a voyage, it would very
plentifully have victualled our ship, to have carried us to any
part of the world, that is to say, of America. When we had
thus housed and secured our magazine of corn, we fell to work
to make more wicker-work, namely, great baskets, in which we
kept it; and the Spaniard was very handy and dexterous at
this part, and often blamed me that I did not make some things
for defence, of this kind of work; but I saw no need of it.
And now, having a full supply of food for all the guests expected,
I gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main, to see what
he could do with those he left behind him there: I gave him a
strict charge in writing not to bring any man with him, who
would not first swear, in the presence of himself and of the old
savage, that he would no way injure, fight with, or attack the
person he should find in the island, who was so kind to send
for them, in order to their deliverance; but that they would
stand by and defend him against all such attempts, and, wherever
they went, would be entirely under, and subjected to his com-
mand; and that this should be put in writing, and signed with
their hands; how we were to have this done, when I knew
they had neither pen nor ink, that, indeed, was a question
which we never asked.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
289
Y
Under these instructions, the Spaniard and the old savage
(the father of Friday) went away in one of the canoes, which
they might be said to come in, or rather were brought in, when
they came as prisoners to be devoured by the savages.
I gave each of them a musket with a firelock on it, and
about eight charges of powder and ball, charging them to be
very good husbands of both, and not to use either of them but
upon urgent occasions.
This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used by
me in view of my deliverance for now twenty-seven years and
some days. I gave them provisions of bread, and of dried
grapes, sufficient for themselves for many days, and sufficient
for their countrymen for about eight days' time; and, wishing
them a good voyage, I let them go, agreeing with them about
a signal they should hang out at their return, by which I should
know them again, when they came back, at a distance, before
they came on shore.
They went away with a fair gale on the day that the moon
was at full-by my account in the month of October-but as
for the exact reckoning of days, after I had once lost it, I could
never recover it again; nor had I kept even the number of
years so punctually as to be sure that I was right, though, as
it proved when I afterwards examined my account, I found I
had kept a true reckoning of years.
It was no less than eight days I waited for them, when a
strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like
has not, perhaps, been heard of in history. I was fast asleep
in my hutch one morning, when my man Friday came running
in to me, and called aloud, "Master, master, they are come,
they are come!"
I jumped up, and, regardless of danger, I went out as soon
U
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as I could get my clothes on, through my little grove-which,
by the way, was by this time grown to be a very thick wood-
I say, regardless of danger, I went without my arms, which was
not my custom to do; but I was surprised, when turning my
eyes to the sea, I presently saw a boat at about a league and
a half's distance, standing in for shore, with a shoulder-of-mutton
sail, as they call it, and the wind blowing pretty fair to bring
them in. Also I observed presently, that they did not come
from that side which the shore lay on, but from the southermost
end of the island. Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him
lie close, for these were not the people we looked for, and that
we did not know yet whether they were friends or enemies.
In the next place, I went in to fetch my perspective glass,
to see what I could make of them; and having taken the ladder
out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used to do when I
was apprehensive of any thing, and to take my view the plainer
without being discovered.
I had scarce set my foot on the hill, when my eye plainly
discovered a ship lying at an anchor, at about two leagues and a
half's distance from me, south-south-east, but not above a league
and a half from the shore. By my observation it appeared plainly
to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be an English
long-boat.
I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy of
seeing a ship, and one which I had reason to believe was manned
by my own countrymen, and consequently friends, was such
as I cannot describe; but yet I had some secret doubts hung
about me, I cannot tell from whence they came, bidding me
keep upon my guard. In the first place, it occurred to me to
consider what business an English ship could have in that part
of the world; since it was not the way to or from any part
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
291
of the world where the English had any traffic, and I knew
there had been no storms to drive them in there, as in distress;
and that if they were English really, it was most probable that
they were here upon no good design; and that I had better
continue as I was, than fall into the hands of thieves and
murderers.
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger
which sometimes are given him, when he may think there is no
possibility of its being real. That such hints and notices are
given us, I believe few that have made any observation of things
can deny; that they are certain discoveries of an invisible
world, and a converse of spirits, we cannot doubt; and if the
tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger, why should
we not suppose they are from some friendly agent (whether
supreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question), and
they are given for our good!
The present question abundantly confirms me in the justice
of this reasoning; for had I not been made cautious by this
secret admonition, come from whence it will, I had been undone
inevitably, and in a far worse condition than before, as you will
see presently.
I had not kept myself long in this posture, but I saw the
boat draw near the shore, as if they looked for a creek to thrust
in at for the convenience of landing; however, as they did not
come quite far enough, they did not see the little inlet where I
formerly landed my rafts, but ran their boat on shore upon the
beach, at about half a mile from me, which was very happy for
me; for otherwise they would have landed just, as I may say,
at my door, and would have soon beaten me out of my castle,
and, perhaps, have plundered me of all I had.
When they were on shore, I was fully satisfied they were
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Englishmen, at least most of them; one or two I thought were
Dutch, but it did not prove so. There were in all eleven men,
whereof three of them I found were unarmed, and (as I thought)
bound; and when the first four or five of them were jumped on
shore, they took those three out of the boat as prisoners. One
of the three I could perceive using the most passionate gestures
of entreaty, affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extrava-
gance; the other two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands some-
times, and appeared concerned indeed, but not to such a degree
as the first.
I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what
the meaning of it should be; Friday called out to me in English,
as well as he could, "Oh, master! you see English mans eat
prisoners as well as savage mans." "Why," said I, "Friday,
"Yes," says
No, no," said I, "Friday;
do you think they are going to eat them then?"
Friday, "they will eat them."
I am afraid they will murder them indeed: but you may be
sure they will not eat them.”
All this while I had no thought of what the matter really
was, but stood trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting
every moment when the three prisoners should be killed; nay,
once I saw one of the villains lift up his arm with a great cut-
lass (as the seamen call it) or sword, to strike one of the poor
men; and I expected to see him fall every moment, at which
all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in my veins.
I wished heartily now for our Spaniard, and the savage that
was gone with him; or that I had any way to have come undis-
covered within shot of them, that I might have rescued the
three men; for I saw no fire-arms they had among them: but
it fell out to my mind another way.
After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three
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293
men by the insolent seamen, I observed the fellows run scattering
about the land, as if they wanted to see the country. I observed
also, that the three other men had liberty to go where they
pleased; but they sat down all three upon the ground very
pensive, and looked like men in despair.
This put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore,
and began to look about me; how I gave myself over for lost,
how wildly I looked round me, what dreadful apprehensions I
had, and how I lodged in the tree all night, for fear of being
devoured by wild beasts.
As I knew nothing that night of the supply I was to receive
by the providential driving of the ship nearer the land by the
storms and tides, by which I have since been so long nourished
and supported; so these three poor desolate men knew nothing
how certain of deliverance and supply they were, how near it
was to them, and how effectually and really they were in a con-
dition of safety, at the same time they thought themselves lost,
and their case desperate.
So little do we see before us in the world, and so much reason
have we to depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world,
that he does not leave his creatures so absolutely destitute, but
that in the worst circumstances they have always something to
be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer their deliverance than
they imagine-nay, are even brought to their deliverance by the
means by which they seem to be brought to their destruction.
It was just at the top of high water when these people came
on shore, and while partly they stood parleying with the prisoners
they brought, and partly while they rambled about to see what
kind of place they were in, they had carelessly staid till the tide
was spent, and the water was ebbed considerably away, leaving
their boat aground.
+
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
They had left two men in the boat, who, as I found after-
wards, having drunk a little too much brandy, fell asleep; how-
ever, one of them waking sooner than the other, and finding
the boat too fast aground for him to stir it, hallooed for the rest
who were straggling about, upon which they all soon came to
the boat; but it was past all their strength to launch her, the
boat being very heavy, and the shore on that side being a soft
oozy sand, almost like a quicksand.
In this condition, like true seamen, who are, perhaps, the
least of all mankind given to forethought, they gave it over, and
away they strolled about the country again; and I heard one
of them say aloud to another (calling them off from the boat),
"Why, let her alone, Jack, can't ye? she'll float next tide."
By which I was fully confirmed in the main inquiry, of what
countrymen they were.
All this while I kept myself close, not once daring to stir
out of my castle, any farther than to my place of observation,
near the top of the hill; and very glad I was to think how well
it was fortified. I knew it was no less than ten hours before
the boat could be on float again, and by that time it would be
dark, and I might be more at liberty to see their motions, and
to hear their discourse, if they had any.
In the meantime, I fitted myself up for a battle, as before,
though with more caution, knowing I had to do with another
kind of enemy than I had at first: I ordered Friday also, whom
I had made an excellent marksman with his gun, to load him-
self with arms-I took myself two fowling-pieces and I gave him
three muskets. My figure, indeed, was very fierce: I had my
formidable goat-skin coat on, with the great cap I mentioned, a
naked sword, two pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each
shoulder.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
295
It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any
attempt till it was dark; but about two o'clock, being the heat
of the day, I found that in short they were all gone straggling
into the woods, and, as I thought, were all laid down to sleep.
The three poor distressed men, too anxious for their condition
to get any sleep, were, however, set down under the shelter of
a great tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me, and, as I
thought, out of sight of any of the rest.
Upon this I resolved to discover myself to them, and learn
something of their condition. Immediately I marched in the
figure above, my man Friday at a good distance behind me,
as formidable for his arms as I, but not making quite so staring
a spectre-like figure as I did.
I came as near them undiscovered as I could, and then,
before any of them saw me, I called aloud to them in Spanish,
"What are ye, gentlemen ?"
They started up at the noise, but were ten times more con-
founded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure that I made
-they made no answer at all, but I thought I perceived them
just going to fly from me, when I spoke to them in English:
Gentlemen," said I, "do not be surprised at me; perhaps you
may have a friend near you, when you did not expect it.'
"He must be sent directly from Heaven, then," said one of them
very gravely to me, pulling off his hat at the same time, "for
our condition is past the help of man." "All help is from
Heaven, sir!" said I: "but can you put a stranger in the way
how to help you, for you seem to me to be in great distress?
I saw you when you landed; and when you seemed to make
application to the brutes that came with you, I saw one of them
lift up his sword to kill you."
The poor man, with tears running down his face, and
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trembling, looking like one astonished, returned, "Am I talking
to God or man? Is it a real man or an angel?" "Be in no
fear about that, sir!" said I: "if God had sent an angel to relieve
you, he would have come better clothed, and better armed after
another manner than you see me in. Pray, lay aside your
fears: I am a man-an Englishman, and disposed to assist you;
you see I have one servant only—we have arms and ammunition;
tell us freely, can we serve you? What is your case?"
"Our case," said he, "sir, is too long to tell you while our
murderers are so near: but in short, sir, I was commander of
that ship; my men having mutinied against me, they have been
hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and at last have set me
on shore in this desolate place, with these two men with me,
one my mate, the other a passenger, where we expected to perish,
believing the place to be uninhabited, and know not yet what
to think of it."
"Where are those brutes, your enemies?" said I; "do you
know where they are gone?"
pointing to a thicket of trees;
have seen us, and heard you
certainly murder us all."
"There they are, sir," said he,
"my heart trembles for fear they
speak; if they have, they will
"Have they any fire-arms?" said I. He answered, “They
had only two pieces, and one which they left in the boat.'
"Well, then," said I, "leave the rest to me; I see they are
asleep; it is an easy thing to kill them all, but shall we rather
take them prisoners?" He told me there were two desperate
villains among them, that it was scarce safe to show any mercy
to; but if they were secured, he believed all the rest would
return to their duty: I asked him which they were? He told
me he could not at that distance describe them; but he would
obey my orders in any thing I would direct. "Well," said I, "let
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297
us retreat out of their view or hearing, lest they awake, and we
will resolve farther;" so they willingly went back with me,
till the woods covered us from them.
"Look you, sir," said I, "if I venture upon your deliverance,
are you willing to make two conditions with me?" He anticipated
my proposals by telling me, that both he and the ship, if
recovered, should be wholly directed and commanded by me in
every thing; and if the ship was not recovered, he would live
and die with me in what part of the world soever I would send
him; and the two other men said the same.
"Well," said I, "my conditions are but two: First, That
while you stay on this island with me, you will not pretend to
any authority here; and if I put arms into your hands, you
will upon all occasions give them up to me, and do no prejudice
to me or mine, upon this island, and in the meantime to be
governed by orders. Second, That if the ship is, or may be,
recovered, you will carry me and my man to England passage
free."
He gave me all the assurance that the invention or faith of
a man could devise, that he would comply with these most
reasonable demands; and besides would owe his life to me, and
acknowledge it upon all occasions as long as he lived.
"Well, then," said I, "here are three muskets for you,
with powder and ball; tell me next what you think is proper
to be done." He showed all the testimony of his gratitude
that he was able, but offered to be wholly guided by me: I
told him I thought it was hard venturing any thing, but the
best method I could think of was, to fire upon them at once as
they lay; and if any were not killed at the first volley, and
offered to submit, we might save them, and so put it wholly
upon God's providence to direct the shot.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
He said, very modestly, that he was loath to kill them i
he could help it; but that those two were incorrigible villains,
and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the ship, and, if
they escaped, we should be undone still; for they would go on
board, and bring the whole ship's company and destroy us all.
Well, then," said I, "necessity legitimates my advice; for
it is the only way to save our lives." However, seeing him
still cautious of shedding blood, I told him they should go them-
selves, and manage as they found convenient.
(6
(6
In the middle of this discourse, we heard some of them
awake, and soon after we saw two of them on their feet. I
asked him if either of them were the men who he had said were
the heads of the mutiny? He said,
He said, "No. "Well, then,"
said I, "you may let them escape, and Providence seems to have
wakened them on purpose to save themselves. Now," said I,
"if the rest escape you, it is your fault."
Animated with this he took the musket I had given him in
his hand, and pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with
him, with cach man a piece in his hand; the two men who
were with him going first, made some noise, at which one of
the seamen, who was awake, turned about, and, seeing them
coming, cried out to the rest; but it was too late then, for the
moment he cried out they fired, I mean the two men, the
captain wisely reserving his own piece; they had so well aimed
their shot at the men they knew, that one of them was killed
on the spot, and the other very much wounded; but not being
dead, he started up on his feet and called eagerly for help to
the other; but the captain stepping to him, told him it was too
late to cry for help, he should call upon God to forgive his
villany; and with that word knocked him down with the stock
of his musket, so that he never spoke more; there were three
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
299
more in the company, and one of them was also slightly
wounded. By this time I was come; and when they saw their
danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they begged for
mercy. The captain told them he would spare their lives, if
they would give him any assurance of their abhorrence of the
treachery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faith-
ful to him in recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying
her back to Jamaica, from whence they came. They gave him
all the protestations of their sincerity that could be desired, and
he was willing to believe them, and spare their lives, which I
was not against; only I obliged him to keep them bound, hand
and foot, while they were upon the island.
While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain's mate
to the boat, with orders to secure her, and bring away the oars
and sail, which they did; and by and bye, three straggling
men, that were (happily for them) parted from the rest, came
back upon hearing the guns fired; and seeing their captain,
who before was their prisoner, now their conqueror, they sub-
mitted to be bound also-and so our victory was complete.
It now remained that the captain and I should inquire into
one another's circumstances. I began first, and told him my
whole history, which he heard with an attention even to amaze-
ment, and particularly at the wonderful manner of my being
furnished with provisions and ammunition; and, indeed, as my
whole story is a collection of wonders, it affected him deeply;
but when he reflected from thence upon himself, and how I
seemed to have been preserved there on purpose to save his
life, the tears ran down his face, and he could not speak a word
more.
After this communication was at an end, I carried him and
his two men into my apartments, leading them in just where I
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
came out, namely, at the top of the house; where I refreshed
them with such provisions as I had, and showed them all the
contrivances I had made during my long, long inhabiting that
place.
All I showed them, all I said to them, was perfectly
amazing; but, above all, the captain admired my fortification;
and how perfectly I had concealed my retreat with a grove of
trees, which, having now been planted near twenty years, and
the trees growing much faster than in England, was become a
little wood, and so thick, that it was impassable in any part of
it, but at that one side where I had reserved my little winding
passage into it; this I told him was my castle, and my resi-
dence; but that I had a seat in the country, as most princes
have, whither I could retreat upon occasion, and I would show
him that too another time: but at present our business was to
consider how to recover the ship. He agreed with me as to
that, but told me he was perfectly at a loss what measures to
take; for that there were still six-and-twenty hands on board,
who, having entered into a cursed conspiracy, by which they
had all forfeited their lives to the law, would be hardened in it
now by desperation; and would carry it on, knowing that, if
they were reduced, they should be brought to the gallows as
soon as they came to England, or to any of the English colonies;
and that therefore there would be no attacking them with so
small a number as we were.
I mused for some time upon what he had said, and found
it was a very rational conclusion, and that therefore something
was to be resolved on very speedily, as well to draw the men on
board into some snare for their surprise, as to prevent their
landing upon us, and destroying us. Upon this, it presently
occurred to me, that in a little while the ship's crew, wonder-
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301
!
ing what was become of their comrades, and of the boat, would
certainly come on shore in their other boat to seek for them;
and that then perhaps they might come armed, and be too strong
for us this he allowed was rational.
Upon this I told him, the first thing we had to do was to
stave the boat, which lay upon the beach, so that they might
not carry her off; and taking every thing out of her, leave her
so far useless as not to be fit to swim: accordingly, we went
on board, took the arms which were left on board out of her,
and whatever else we found there-which was a bottle of
brandy and another of rum, a few biscuit cakes, a horn of powder,
and a great lump of sugar in a piece of canvas-the sugar was
five or six pounds; all which was very welcome to me, especi-
ally the brandy and sugar, of which I had had none left for
many years.
When we had carried all these things on shore (the oars,
mast, sail, and rudder of the boat were carried before as above),
we knocked a great hole in her bottom, that if they had come
strong enough to master us, yet they could not carry off the boat.
Indeed, it was not much in my thoughts, that we could be capable
to recover the ship; but my view was, that if they went away
without the boat, I did not much question to make her fit again,
to carry us away to the Leeward Islands, and call upon our
friends the Spaniards in my way, for I had them still in my
thoughts.
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CHAPTER XVIII.
The ship makes signals for her boat-On receiving no answer, she sends
another boat on shore-Methods by which we secure this boat's crew, and
recover the ship.
HILE we were thus preparing our designs, and had first
WHIL
by main strength heaved the boat up upon the beach, so
high that the tide would not float her off at high water mark,
and, besides, had broken a hole in her bottom too big to be
quickly stopped, and were sat down musing what we should do,
we heard the ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft with
her ancient, as a signal for the boat to come on board; but no
boat stirred; and they fired several times, making other signals
for the boat.
At last, when all their signals and firings proved fruitless,
and they found the boat did not stir, we saw them (by the help
of our glasses) hoist another boat out, and row towards the
shore and we found, as they approached, that there were no
less than ten men in her, and that they had fire-arms with
them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had
a full view of them as they came, and a plain sight of the men,
even of their faces; because the tide having set them a little
to the east of the other boat, they rowed up under shore, to
come to the same place where the other had landed, and where
the boat lay.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
303
By this means, I say, we had a full view of them, and the
captain knew the persons and characters of all the men in the
boat of whom he said that there were three very honest
fellows, who he was sure were led into this conspiracy by the
rest, being overpowered and frightened; but that for the boat-
swain, who, it seems, was the chief officer among them, and all
the rest, they were as outrageous as any of the ship's crew;
and were, no doubt, made desperate in their new enterprise ;
and terribly apprehensive he was that they would be too
powerful for us.
I smiled at him, and told him, that men in our circum-
stances were past the operations of fear; that seeing almost
every condition that could be was better than that we were
supposed to be in, we ought to expect that the consequence,
whether death or life, would be sure to be a deliverance; I
asked him, what he thought of the circumstances of my life,
and whether a deliverance were not worth venturing for? "And
where, sir,” said I, " is your belief of my being preserved here on
purpose to save your life, which elevated you a little while ago?
For my part," said I, "there seems to be only one thing amiss
in all the prospect of it.
"What's that!" says he. Why,"
said I, "'tis that, as you say, there are three or four honest
fellows among them, which should be spared; had they been
all of the wicked part of the crew, I should have thought
God's providence had singled them out to deliver them into
your hands; for depend upon it, every man of them that
comes ashore are our own, and shall die or live as they behave
to us."
66
As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful counte-
nance, I found it greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously
to our business. We had, upon the first appearance of the
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boat's coming from the ship, considered of separating our
prisoners, and had indeed secured them effectually.
Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than
ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three (delivered
men) to my cave, where they were remote enough, and out of
danger of being heard or discovered, or of finding their way
out of the woods, if they could have delivered themselves: here
they left them bound, but gave them provisions, and promised
them if they continued there quietly, to give them their liberty
in a day or two; but that if they attempted their escape, they
should be put to death without mercy. They promised faith-
fully to bear their confinement with patience, and were very
thankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions
and a light left them; for Friday gave them candles (such as
we made ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know
but that he stood sentinel over them at the entrance.
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were
kept pinioned indeed, because the captain was not free to trust
them; but the other two were taken into my service upon their
captain's recommendation, and upon their solemnly engaging to
live and die with us; so, with them and the three honest men,
we were seven men well armed; and I made no doubt we
should be able to deal well enough with the ten that were
a-coming, considering that the captain had said, there were three
or four honest men amongst them also.
As soon as they got to the place where their other boat lay,
they ran their boat into the beach, and came all on shore,
hauling the boat up after them, which I was glad to see; for I
was afraid they would rather have left the boat at an anchor,
some distance from the shore, with some hands in her to guard
her; and so we should not be able to seize the boat.

THE MUTINEERS CALLING TO
THEIR MATES.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE,
305
Being on shore, the first thing they did, they ran all to the
other boat; and it was easy to see they were under a great
surprise to find her stripped as above of all that was in her, and
a great hole in her bottom.
After they had mused a while upon this, they set up two
or three great shouts, hallooing with all their might, to try if
they could make their companions hear; but all was to no pur-
pose: then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of
their small arms, which, indeed, we heard, and the echoes made
the woods ring; but it was all one: those in the cave, we
were sure, could not hear; and those in our keeping, though
they heard it well enough, yet durst give no answer to them.
They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as
they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again
to their ship, and let them know there, that the men were
all murdered, and the long-boat staved; accordingly, they
immediately launched the boat again, and got all of them on
board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded at
this, believing they would go on board the ship again, and set
sail, giving their comrades up for lost, and so he should still
lose the ship, which he was in hopes we should have recovered;
but he was quickly as much frightened the other way.
They had not been long put off with the boat, but we
perceived them all coming on shore again; but with this
new measure in their conduct, which, it seems, they consulted
together upon, namely, to leave three men in the boat, and the
rest to go on shore, and go up into the country to look for their
fellows.
This was a great disappointment to us; for now we were
at a loss what to do; for our seizing those seven men on shore
X
306
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE,
would be no advantage to us if we let the boat escape, because
they would then row away to the ship: and then the rest of
them would be sure to weigh, and set sail, and so our recover-
ing the ship would be lost.
However, we had no remedy but to wait and see what the
issue of things might present. The seven men came on shore,
and the three who remained in the boat put her off to a good
distance from the shore, and came to an anchor to wait for
them; so that it was impossible for us to come at them in the
boat.
Those that came on shore kept close together, marching
towards the top of the little hill, under which my habitation
lay; and we could see them plainly, though they could not
perceive us; we could have been very glad they would have
come nearer to us, so that we might have fired at them; or
that they would have gone farther off, that we might have
come abroad.
But when they were come to the brow of the hill, where
they could see a great way in the valley and woods, which lay
towards the north-east part, and where the island lay lowest,
they shouted and hallooed till they were weary; and not caring,
it seems, to venture far from the shore, nor far from one another,
they sat down together under a tree to consider of it. Had
they thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as the other party
of them had done, they had done the job for us; but they were
too full of apprehensions of danger to venture to go to sleep,
though they could not tell what the danger was they had to
fear neither.
The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this
consultation of theirs, namely, that, perhaps, they would all fire
a volley again to endeavour to make their fellows hear, and that
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
307
we should all sally upon them just at the juncture when their
pieces were all discharged, and they would certainly yield, and
we should have them without bloodshed. I liked the proposal,
provided it was done while we were near enough to come up
to them before they could load their pieces again.
But this event did not happen, and we lay still a long time
very irresolute what course to take; at length I told them there
would be nothing to be done, in my opinion, till night; and
then, if they did not return to the boat, perhaps we might find
a way to get between them and the shore, and so might use
some stratagem with them in the boat to get them on shore.
We waited a great while, though very impatient for their
removing, and were very uneasy: when, after long consultations,
we saw them start all up and march down toward the sea; it
seems they had such dreadful apprehensions upon them of the
danger of the place, that they resolved to go on board the ship
again, give their companions over for lost, and so go on with
their intended voyage with the ship.
As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I imagined
it to be, as it really was, that they had given over their search,
and were for going back again; and the captain, as soon as I
had told him my thoughts, was ready to sink at the apprehen-
sions of it; but I presently thought of a stratagem to fetch them
back again, and which answered my end to a tittle.
I ordered Friday and the captain's mate to go over the little
creek westward, towards the place where the savages came on
shore when Friday was rescued; and as soon as they came to
a little rising ground, at about half a mile's distance, I bade
them halloo as loud as they could, and wait till they found the
seamen heard them; that as soon as ever they heard the sea-
men answer them, they should return it again, and then keeping
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
out of sight, take a round, always answering when the others
hallooed, to draw them as far into the island, and among the
woods as possible, and then wheel about again to me, by such
ways as I directed.
They were just going into the boat, when Friday and the
mate hallooed, and they presently heard them, and answering,
ran along the shore westward, towards the voice they heard,
when they were presently stopped by the creek, where the water
being up, they could not get over, and called for the boat to
come up and set them over, as indeed I expected.
When they had set themselves over, I observed that the
boat being gone up a good way into the creek, and, as it were,
in a harbour within the land, they took one of the three men
out of her to go along with them, and left only two in the boat,
having fastened her to the stump of a little tree on the shore.
This was what I wished for, and immediately leaving Friday
and the captain's mate to their business, I took the rest with
me, and, crossing the creek out of their sight, we surprised the
two men before they were aware, one of them lying on shore,
and the other being in the boat; the fellow on shore was between
sleeping and waking, and, going to start up, the captain, who
was foremost, ran in upon him and knocked him down, and then
called out to him in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man.
There needed very few arguments to persuade a single man
to yield, when he saw five men upon him, and his comrade
knocked down; besides, this was, it seems, one of the three
who were not so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the crew,
and therefore was easily persuaded not only to yield, but after-
wards to join very sincerely with us.
In the meantime, Friday and the captain's mate so well
managed their business with the rest, that they drew them, by
;
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309
hallooing and answering, from one hill to another, and from one
wood to another, till they not only heartily tired them, but left
them where they were, very sure they could not reach back to
the boat before it was dark; and, indeed, they were heartily
tired themselves also by the time they came back to us.
We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the
dark, and to fall upon them, so as to make sure work with them.
It was several hours after Friday came back to me before
they came back to their boat-and we could hear the foremost
of them, long before they came quite up, calling to those behind
to come along-and could also hear them answer, and complain
how lame and tired they were, and not being able to come any
faster, which was very welcome news to us.
At length they came up to the boat; but it is impossible
to express their confusion, when they found the boat fast aground
in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two men gone: we
could hear them call to one another in a most lamentable manner,
telling one another they were gotten into an enchanted island;
that either there were inhabitants in it, and they should all be
murdered; or else there were devils or spirits in it, and they
should be all carried away and devoured.
They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their
names a great many times, but no answer; after some time, we
could see them, by the little light there was, run about wringing
their hands, like men in despair; and that sometimes they would
go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves, then come ashore,
and walk about again, and so the same thing over again.
My men would fain have had me give them leave to fall
upon them at once in the dark; but I was willing to take them
at some advantage, so to spare them, and kill as few of them as
I could; and especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
any of our men, knowing the other men were very well armed:
I resolved to wait to see if they did not separate; and therefore,
to make sure of them, I drew my ambuscade nearer, and ordered
Friday and the captain to creep upon their hands and feet as
close to the ground as they could, that they might not be dis-
covered, and get as near them as they could possibly, before
they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture till the boatswain,
who was the principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now
shown himself the most dejected and dispirited of all the rest,
came walking towards them with two more of the crew; the
captain was so eager, at having the principal rogue so much in his
power, that he could hardly have patience to let him come so
near as to be sure of him: for they only heard his tongue before;
but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting up
on their feet, let fly at them.
The boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man
was shot in the body, and fell just by him, though he did not
die till an hour or two after; and the third ran for it.
At the noise of the fire, I immediately advanced with my
whole army, which was now eight men; namely, myself general-
issimo; Friday, my lieutenant-general; the captain and his two
men, and the three prisoners of war, whom we had trusted with
arms.
We came upon them indeed in the dark, so that they could
not see our number; and I made the man they had left in the
boat, who was now one of us, to call them by name, to try if I
could bring them to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce them to
terms, which fell out just as we desired; for indeed it was easy
to think, as their condition then was, they would be very willing
to capitulate; so he calls out as loud as he could to one of them,
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
311
"Tom Smith! Tom Smith !" Tom Smith answered imme-
diately, "Who's that? Robinson ?" For it seems he knew his
voice. The other answered, “Ay, ay; for God's sake, Tom
Smith, throw down your arms, and yield, or you are all dead
men this moment."
"Who must we yield to? where are they?" says Smith
again. "Here they are," says he; "here is our captain and
fifty men with him, have been hunting you this two hours; the
boatswain is killed, Will Fry is wounded, and I am a prisoner;
and if you do not yield, you are all lost."
"Will they give us quarter, then ?" says Tom Smith, “and
we will yield." "I'll go and ask, if you promise to yield,"
says Robinson. So he asked the captain, and the captain him-
self then calls out, "You, Smith, you know my voice; if you
lay down your arms immediately and submit, you shall have
your lives, all but Will Atkins."
Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake, captain,
give me quarter! what have I done? they have all been as bad
as I" (which, by the way, was not true either: for it seems
this Will Atkins was the first man that laid hold of the captain
when they first mutinied, and used him barbarously, in tying his
hands and giving him injurious language). However, the captain
told him he must lay down his arms at discretion, and trust to
the governor's mercy, by which he meant me; for they all
called me governor.
In a word, they all laid down their arms, and begged their
lives; and I sent the man that had parleyed with them and two
more, who bound them all; and then my great army of fifty
men, which, particularly with those three, were in all but eight,
came up and seized upon them all, and upon their boat; only
that I kept myself and one more out of sight, for reasons of state.
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Our next work was to repair the boat, and to think of seizing
the ship; and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley
with them, he expostulated with them upon the villany of their
practices with him, and at length, upon the further wickedness
of their design; and how certainly it must bring them to misery
and distress in the end, and perhaps to the gallows.
They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their
lives as for that, he told them they were none of his prisoners,
but the commander's of the island; that they thought they had
set him on shore in a barren uninhabited island, but it had pleased
God so to direct them, that the island was inhabited, and that
the governor was an Englishman; that he might hang them all
there, if he pleased; but as he had given them all quarter, he
supposed he would send them to England, to be dealt with there
as justice required, except Atkins, whom he was commanded by
the governor to advise to prepare for death; for that he would
be hanged in the morning.
Though this was all a fiction of his own, yet it had its desired
effect. Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the captain to
intercede with the governor for his life; and all the rest
begged of him, for God's sake, that they might not be sent to
England.
It now occurred to me, that the time of our deliverance was
come, and that it would be a most easy thing to bring these
fellows in to be hearty in getting possession of the ship; so I
retired in the dark from them, that they might not see what
kind of a governor they had, and called the captain to me:
when I called as at a good distance, one of the men was ordered
to speak again, and say to the captain, "Captain, the commander
calls for you;" and presently the captain replied, "Tell his
excellency I am just a-coming." This more perfectly amused
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
313
them; and they all believed that the commander was just by
with his fifty men.
Upon the captain's coming to me, I told him my project for
seizing the ship, which he liked wonderfully well, and resolved
to put it in execution the next morning.
But in order to execute it with more art, and to be secure
of success, I told him we must divide the prisoners, and that he
should go and take Atkins, and two more of the worst of them,
and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay: this
was committed to Friday and the two men who came on shore
with the captain.
They conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison; and it
was indeed a dismal place, especially to men in their condition.
The others I ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which
I have given a full description: and as it was fenced in, and they
pinioned, the place was secure enough, considering they were
upon their behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to
enter into a parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell
me whether he thought they might be trusted or no to go on
board, and surprise the ship. He talked to them of the injury
done him, of the condition they were brought to; and that though
the governor had given them quarter for their lives, as to the
present action, yet that if they were sent to England, they would
be all hanged in chains, to be sure; but that if they would join in
such an attempt as to recover the ship, he would have the gover-
nor's engagement for their pardon.
Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be
accepted by men in their condition: they fell down on their
knees to the captain, and promised, with the deepest impreca-
tions, that they would be faithful to him to the last drop, and
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
that they should owe their lives to him, and would go with him
all over the world; that they would own him for a father to
them as long as they lived.
66
Well," says the captain, "I must go and tell the governor
what you say, and see what I can do to bring him to consent
to it." So he brought me an account of the temper he found
them in; and that he verily believed they would be faithful.
However, that we might be very secure, I told him he should
go back again, and choose out five of them, and tell them, that
they should see that they did not want men; but he would take
out those five to be his assistants, and that the governor would
keep the other two, and the three that were sent prisoners to the
castle (my cave), as hostages for the fidelity of those five; and
that, if they proved unfaithful in the execution, the five hostages
should be hanged in chains alive upon the shore.
This looked severe, and convinced them that the governor
was in earnest; however, they had no way left but to accept
it; and it was now the business of the prisoners, as much as
of the captain, to persuade the other five to do their duty.
Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition :-
1. The captain, his mate, and passenger. 2. Then the two
prisoners of the first gang, to whom, having their characters
from the captain, I had given their liberty, and trusted them
with arms. 3. The other two whom I kept till now in my
bower pinioned, but, upon the captain's motion, had now been
released. 4. These five released at last; so that they were
twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners in the cave for
hostages.
I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these
hands on board the ship; for, as for me and my man Friday, I
did not think it was proper for us to stir, having seven men left
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
315
:
behind and it was employment enough for us to keep them
asunder, and supply them with victuals.
As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast;
but Friday went twice a day to them, to supply them with
necessaries; and I made the other two carry provisions to a
certain distance, where Friday was to take it.
When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the
captain, who told them I was the person the governor had
ordered to look after them, and that it was the governor's
pleasure that they should not stir any where but by my direction;
that if they did, they should be fetched into the castle, and be
laid in irons; so that as we never suffered them to see me as
governor, so I now appeared as another person, and spoke of
the governor, the garrison, the castle, and the like upon all
occasions.
The captain now had no difficulty before him but to furnishi
his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man them: he made
his passenger captain of one, with four other men, and himself
and his mate and five more, went in the other; and they con-
trived their business very well, for they came up to the ship
about midnight. As soon as they came within call of the ship,
he made Robinson hail them, and tell them he had brought off
the men and the boat, but that it was a long time before they had
found them, and the like, holding them in a chat till they came
to the ship's side; when the captain and the mate, entering
first with their arms, immediately knocked down the second
mate and carpenter with the butt end of their muskets. Being
very faithfully seconded by their men, they secured all the rest
that were upon the main and quarter decks, and began to fasten
the hatches to keep those down who were below; when the
other boat and their men, entering at the fore-chains, secured
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the forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle, which went down.
into the cockroom, making three men they found there prisoners.
When this was done, and all safe upon the deck, the captain
ordered the mate, with three men, to break into the round-
house, where the new rebel captain lay, and having taken the
alarm, was gotten up, and with two men and a boy, had gotten
fire-arms in their hands; and when the mate with a crow split
open the door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among
them, and wounded the mate with a musket-ball, which broke
his arm, and wounded two more of the men, but killed nobody.
The mate, calling for help, rushed, however, into the round-
house, wounded as he was, and with his pistol shot the new
captain through the head, the bullets entering at his mouth,
and came out again behind one of his ears, so that he never
spoke a word; upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was
taken effectually without any more lives being lost.
As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered
seven guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed upon with
me, to give me notice of his success; which, you may be sure,
I was very glad to hear, having sat watching upon the shore
for it till near two of the clock in the morning.
Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; and
it having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound
till I was something surprised with the noise of a gun; and
presently starting up, I heard a man call me by the name of
Governor, governor!" and presently I knew the captain's
voice; when, climbing up to the top of the hill, there he stood,
and pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms: "My
dear friend and deliverer!" says he, "there's your ship, for she
is all yours, and so are we, and all that belong to her." I cast my
eyes to the ship, and there she rode within a little more than
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
317
half a mile of the shore-for they had weighed her anchor as soon
as they were masters of her-and the weather being fair, had
brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of a little creek ;
and the tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace in
near the place where I first landed my rafts, and so landed just
at my door.
I was at first ready to sink down with the surprise; for I
saw my deliverance indeed visibly put into my hands, all things
easy, and a large ship just ready to carry me away whither I
pleased to go. At first, for some time, I was not able to
answer one word: but as he had taken me in his arms, I held
fast by him, or I should have fallen to the ground.
He perceived the surprise, and immediately pulled a bottle
out of his pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had
brought on purpose for me: after I drank it, I sat down upon
the ground, and though it brought me to myself, yet it was a
good while before I could speak a word to him.
All this while the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I,
only not under any surprise, as I was; and he said a thousand
kind tender things to me, to compose and bring me to myself;
but such was the flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my
spirits into confusion-at last it broke into tears, and in a little
while after I recovered my speech.
Then I took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer,
and we rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon him as a
man sent from Heaven to deliver me, and that the whole trans-
action seemed to be a chain of wonders; that such things as
these were the testimonies we had of a secret hand of Providence
governing the world, and an evidence that the eyes of an infinite
power could search into the remotest corner of the world, and
send help to the miserable whenever he pleased.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to Heaven;
and what heart could forbear to bless him who had not only
in a miraculous manner provided for one in such a wilderness,
and in such a desolate condition, but from whom every deliver-
ance must always be acknowledged to proceed?
When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had
brought me some little refreshments, such as the ship afforded,
and such as the wretches, who had been so long his masters,
had not plundered him of. Upon this he called aloud to the
boat, and bids his men bring the things ashore that were for
the governor;
and indeed it was a present as if I had been
one, not that I was to be carried along with them, but as if I
had been to dwell upon the island still, and they were to go
without me.
First, he had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent
cordial waters; six large bottles of Madeira wine, the bottles
held two quarts a-piece; two pounds of excellent good tobacco,
twelve good pieces of the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork,
with a bag of peas, and about a hundred weight of biscuit.
He brought me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag
full of lemons, and two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of
other things: but besides these, and what was a thousand times
more useful to me, he brought me six clean new shirts, six very
good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes, a hat, and
one pair of stockings, and a very good suit of clothes of his own,
which had been worn but very little. In a word, he clothed
me from head to foot.
It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may
imagine, to one in my circumstances; but never was any thing
in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy,
as it was to me to wear such clothes at their first putting on.
!
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
319
After these ceremonies passed, and after all his good things
were brought into my little apartment, we began to consult
what was to be done with the prisoners we had; for it was worth
considering whether we might venture to take them away with
us or no, especially two of them, whom we knew to be incor-
rigible and refractory to the last degree; and the captain said
he knew they were such rogues, that there was no obliging
them; and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as
malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first English
colony he could come at; and I found that the captain himself
was very anxious about it.
Upon this I told him, that if he desired it, I durst under-
take to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own
request that he should leave them upon the island. "I should
be very glad of that," says the captain, "with all my heart."
46
Well," said I, "I will send for them, and talk with them
for you" so I caused Friday and the two hostages-for they
were now discharged, their comrades having performed their
promise-I say, I caused them to go to the cave and bring up
the five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep
them there till I came.
After some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit,
and now I was called governor again. Being all met, and the
captain with me, I caused the men to be brought before me,
and I told them I had had a full account of their villanous
behaviour to the captain, and how they had run away with the
ship, and were preparing to commit further robberies; but that
Providence had ensnared them in their own ways, and that they
were fallen into the pit which they had digged for others.
I let them know, that by my direction the ship had been
seized, that she lay now in the road, and they might see by
320
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
and by, that their new captain had received the reward of
his villany; for that they might see him hanging at the
yard-arm: that as to them, I wanted to know what they had
to say, why I should not execute them as pirates taken in
the fact, as by my commission they could not doubt I had
authority to do.
One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they
had nothing to say but this, that when they were taken, the
captain promised them their lives, and they humbly implored
my mercy but I told them I knew not what mercy to show
them; for, as for my myself, I had resolved to quit the island
with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to
go for England; and, as for the captain, he could not carry
them to England, other than as prisoners in irons to be tried
for mutiny, and running away with the ship, the consequence
of which, they must needs know, would be the gallows; so
that I could not tell what was the best for them, unless they
had a mind to take their fate in the island: if they desired
that, I did not care, as I had liberty to leave it; I had some
inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they could
shift on shore. They seemed very thankful for it; said they
would much rather venture to stay there than to be carried to
England to be hanged: so I left it on that issue.
However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it,
as if he durst not leave them there: upon this I seemed to be a
little angry with the captain, and told him, that they were my
prisoners, not his; and that, seeing I had offered them so much
favour, I would be as good as my word; and that if he did not
think fit to consent to it, I would set them at liberty as I found
them; and if he did not like that, he might take them again
if he could catch them.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
321
Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I accordingly
set them at liberty, and bade them retire into the woods, to
the place whence they came, and I would leave them some fire-
arms, some ammunition, and some directions how they should
live very well, if they thought fit.
Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship, but told
the captain that I would stay that night to prepare my things;
and desired him to go on board in the meantime, and keep all
right in the ship, and send the boat on shore the next day for
me; ordering him, in the meantime, to cause the new captain,
who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that these men
might see him.
When the captain was gone, I sent for the men up to me
to my apartment, and entered seriously into discourse with
them of their circumstances. I told them I thought they had
made a right choice that, if the captain carried them away,
they would certainly be hanged: I showed them their captain
hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had
nothing less to expect.
:
When they all declared their willingness to stay, I then
told them I would let them into the story of my living there,
and put them into the way of making it easy to them accord-
ingly, I gave them the whole history of the place, and of my
coming to it; showed them my fortifications, the way I made
my bread, planted my corn, cured my grapes; and, in a word,
all that was necessary to make them easy. I told them the
story of the sixteen Spaniards that were to be expected; for
whom I left a letter, and made them promise to treat them in
common with themselves.
I left them my fire-arms, namely, five muskets, three
fowling-pieces, and three swords; I had about a barrel of
Y
322
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
powder left; for after the first year or two I used but little,
and wasted none. I gave them a description of the way I
managed the goats, and directions to milk and fatten them, to
make both butter and cheese.
In a word, I gave them every part of my own story; and
I told them I would prevail with the captain to leave them two
barrels of gunpowder more, and some garden-seed, which I told
them I would have been very glad of; also I gave them the
bag of peas which the captain had brought me to eat, and bade
them be sure to sow and increase them.
Having done all this, I left them the next day, and went
on board the ship. We prepared immediately to sail, but did
not weigh that night. The next morning early, two of the five
men came swimming to the ship's side, and, making a most
lamentable complaint of the other three, begged to be taken
into the ship for God's sake, for they should be murdered: and
begged the captain to take them on board, though he hanged
them immediately.
Upon this the captain pretended to have no power with-
out me; but, after some difficulty, and after their solemn
promises of amendment, they were taken on board, and were
some time after soundly whipped and pickled: after which they
proved very honest and quiet fellows.
Some time after this I went with the boat on shore, the
tide being up, with the things promised to the men, to which
the captain, at my intercession, caused their chests and clothes
to be added, which they took, and were very thankful for; I
also encouraged them, by telling them, that if it lay in my way
to send a vessel to take them in, I would not forget them.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
323
CONCLUSION.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on board for
relics the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and
one of my parrots; also, I forgot not to take the money I
formerly mentioned, which had lain by me so long useless that
it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could hardly pass for
silver till it had been a little rubbed and handled; and also
the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship.
And thus I left the island the 19th day of December, as I
found by the ship's account, in the year 1686, after I had been
upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days;
being delivered from the second captivity the same day of the
month that I first made my escape in the barcolongo from
among the Moors of Sallee.
In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the
11th of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty and five
years absent.
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
ERHAPS there exists no work, either of instruction or
PERI
entertainment, in the English language, which has been
more generally read, and more universally admired, than the
"Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe." It is difficult to say
in what the charm consists, by which persons of all classes and
denominations are thus fascinated; yet the majority of readers
will recollect it as among the first works which awakened and
interested their youthful attention; and feel, even in advanced
life, and in the maturity of their understanding, that there are
still associated with Robinson Crusoe the sentiments peculiar
to that period, when all is new, all glittering in prospect, and
when those visions are most bright which the experience of
afterlife tends only to darken and destroy.
This work was first published in April 1719; its reception,
as may be supposed, was universal. It is a singular circumstance,
that the author (the subject of our present memoir), after a
life spent in political turmoil, danger, and imprisonment, should
have occupied himself, in its decline, in the production of a
work like the present; unless it may be supposed that his
wearied heart turned with disgust from society and its institutions,
and found solace in picturing the happiness of a state, such as
326
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
he has assigned to his hero. Be this as it may, society is for ever
indebted to the memory of De Foe for his production of a work,
in which the ways of Providence are simply and pleasingly vin-
dicated, and a lasting and useful moral is conveyed through the
channel of an interesting and delightful story.
Daniel de Foe was born in London in the year 1661. His
father was James Foe, of the parish of St. Giles, butcher, but
Daniel prefixed De to the name, because he was ashamed of the
lowness of his origin, and conceived the De gave it a sound of
Norman dignity.
but it does not appear that his tenets were so strict as his sect
required. He was sent by his father, at twelve years old, to
the Newington Green Dissenting Academy, then kept by Mr.
Morton, where he remained about four years; and this appears
to have been all the education he ever received. When he was
done with the school, it would seem that, his genius not lying
towards the marrow-bone and cleaver, his father had put him
to some other trade, of what nature we are unable to learn,
Daniel himself being very reserved on the subject.
His family as well as himself were Dissenters,
This, however, had occupied but a short period of his
youth; for in 1685, when he was in his twenty-fourth year, he
took up arms in the cause of the Duke of Monmouth. On the
destruction of Monmouth's party, Daniel had the good fortune
to escape unpunished amidst the herd of greater delinquents;
but in his latter years, when the avowal was no longer
dangerous, he boasts himself much of his exploits, in "His
Appeal to Honour and Justice, being a true Account of his
Conduct in Public Affairs."
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
327
Three years afterwards (1688), De Foe was admitted a
Liveryman of London. As he had been throughout a steady
advocate for the Revolution, he had now the satisfaction of
witnessing that great event. Oldmixon says, that at a feast,
given by the Lord Mayor of London to King William, on the
29th October 1689, De Foe appeared gallantly mounted and
richly accoutred among the troopers commanded by Lord
Peterborough, who attended the King and Queen from White-
hall to the Mansion-house. All Daniel's horsemanship, how-
ever, united to the steady devotion of his pen to the cause of
William, were unable to procure him the notice of that monarch;
and our author was fain to content himself with the humble
occupation of a hosier in Freeman's Yard, Cornhill ;- -wisely
considering, that if the court could do without political tracts,
the people could not do without stockings.
With the ill fortune, however, attendant upon men of
genius, who cultivate their superior powers to the neglect of
that common sense which is requisite to carry a man creditably
through this every-day world, De Foe's affairs declined from bad
to worse; he spent those hours which he ought to have
devoted to his shop, in a society for the cultivation of polite
learning, and he was under the necessity of absconding from his
creditors in 1692. One of those creditors, who had less con-
sideration for polite learning, and more irritability than the rest,
took out a commission of bankruptcy against him; but, fortu-
nately for our author, this was superseded on the petition of
those to whom he was most indebted, and a composition was
accepted. This composition he punctually paid by efforts of
328
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
unwearied diligence; and some of the creditors, whose claims
had been thus satisfied, falling into distress themselves, he
waited upon them, and paid their debts in full. He was next
engaged in carrying on tile-works on the banks of the Thames,
near Tilbury, but with little success. United to his tile-making,
our author, stimulated by an active mind and embarrassed cir-
cumstances, devised many other projects. He wrote many
sheets about the English coin; he projected Banks for every
county, and Factories for goods; he exhibited a Proposal (very
feelingly, no doubt) for a commission of inquiry into bankrupts'
estates; he contrived a Pension-office for the relief of the poor,
and finished by publishing a long Essay upon projects them-
selves.
About this period (1695), our author's indefatigable
endeavours procured him some notice from the court, and he was
appointed accountant to the commissioners for managing the
duties on glass. Here also his usual ill luck attended him; he
was thrown out of his situation by the suppression of the tax
in 1699.
But the time at length arrived when the sun of royal
favour was to shine out upon our author's prospects. About
the end of 1699 there was published, what De Foe calls "an
horrid pamphlet, in very ill verse, written by one Tutchin, and
called The Foreigners:' in which the author fell personally
upon the king, then upon the Dutch nation, and, after having
reproached his majesty with crimes, that his worst enemies
could not think of without horror, he sums up all in the odious
name of Foreigner.' This filled me with rage against the
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
329
book, and gave birth to a trifle, which I never could hope
should have met with so general an acceptation."
""
The trifle which De Foe here alludes to, was his "True-
born Englishman;" a a poetical satire on "The Foreigners,
and a defence of King William and the Dutch; of which the
sale was great without example, and our author's reward pro-
portionate. He was even admitted to the honour of a personal
interview with the king, and became with more ardour than
ever a professed partisan of the court. In this composition the
satire was strong, powerful, and manly, upbraiding the English
Tories for their unreasonable prejudice against foreigners. The
first verses are well known:
"Wherever God erects a House of Prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there;
And 'twill be found upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation."
We do not mean to follow De Foe through the career
of his politics, and intend only to notice such works as, in
their consequences, materially affected his personal situation and
affairs, we shall therefore pass to the death of his sovereign and
patron, which took place 8th March 1702.
The accession of Anne having restored the line of Stuart,
to whom the politics and conduct of De Foe had been peculiarly
obnoxious, our author was shortly reduced, as before, to live on
the produce of his wits; and it is perhaps lucky for the world
that there is so much truth in the universal outcry against the
neglect of living authors; for there seems a certain laziness
concomitant with genius, which can only be incited to action
330
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
by the pressure of necessity. Had William lived, probably the
world would never have been delighted with the "Adventures
of Robinson Crusoe."
Whether De Foe found politics the most vendible produce
of the press, or, like Macbeth, felt himself
Stept in so far, that should he wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er,"-
we do not know; but he ventured to reprint his "Shortest
Way with the Dissenters;" and to publish several other
treatises, which were considered libellous by the Commons; and
on the 25th of February 1702-3, a complaint being made
in the House of this bock, the House "Resolved, that this book
being full of false and scandalous reflections on this Parliament,
and tending to promote sedition, be burnt by the hands of the
common hangman in New Palace-Yard."
Our unfortunate author's political sins were now all mustered
in array against him, and a tremendous catalogue they made.
He had been the favourite and panegyrist of William; he had
fought for Monmouth, and opposed James; he had vindicated
the Revolution, and defended the rights of the people; he had
bantered, insulted, and offended the whole Tory leaders of the
Commons, and after all, he could not be quiet, but must re-
publish his most offensive productions,
Thus overpowered, De Foe was obliged to secrete himself;
and we are indebted to a very disagreeable circumstance for the
following accurate description of his person. A proclamation
was issued by the Secretaries of State in January 1703, in the
following terms:
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
331
"St. James's, Jan. 10, 1702-3.
"Whereas Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is charged with
writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled, 'The
shortest Way with the Dissenters;' he is a middle-sized spare
man, about forty years old, of a brown complexion, and dark-
brown coloured hair, but wears a wig, a hooked nose, a sharp
chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth; was born in
London, and for many years was a hose-factor in Freeman's
Yard, in Cornhill, and now is owner of the brick and pantile works
near Tilbury-fort, in Essex; whoever shall discover the said
Daniel De Foe to one of her majesty's principal Secretaries of
State, or any of her majesty's justices of peace, so as he may be
apprehended, shall have a reward of £50, which her majesty
has ordered immmediately to be paid upon such discovery."
He was shortly after caught, fined, pilloried, and imprisoned.
"Thus," says he, "was I a second time ruined; for by this
affair I lost above £3500 sterling."
While he was confined in Newgate, he occupied his time
in correcting for the press a collection of his own writings, which
was published in the course of the year; and he even amused
himself by writing an "Ode to the Pillory;" of which he had
so lately been made the unwilling acquaintance. Hence Pope's
insulting verse, which classes De Foe with his Tory rival:
"Earless on high stood unbash'd De Foe,
And Tutchin flagrant from the scenes below."
Not satisfied with this unpleasant subject, he afterwards
wrote "a Hymn to the Gallows."
But the chief object to which the author directed his mind,
332
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
was the projection of "The Review." De Foe was the sole
writer. This work, which, when concluded, consisted of nine
thick volumes, treats of foreign and domestic intelligence, politics,
and trade; but as our author foresaw that it was not likely to
become popular unless amusing, he discusses various other topics,
under the head of a "Scandal Club;" Love, Marriage, Poetry,
Language, and the prevailing tastes and habits of the times.
Neither did these occupations find sufficient employment for his
active mind. While he was still in Newgate (1704), he pub-
lished "The Storm;" or a collection of the most remarkable
casualties which happened in the tempest, 26th November 1703.
Nor was this work a dry detail of disasters only, De Foe having
taken the occasion, with his usual felicity, to inculcate the truths
of religion, and the superintendency of Providence.
About the end of 1704, when, as our author tells us, he lay
ruined and friendless in Newgate, without hopes of deliverance,
Sir Robert Harley, then Secretary of State, of whom De Foe
had no previous personal knowledge, sent a verbal message to
him, desiring to know "what he could do for him." Our author
no doubt made a suitable reply; in consequence of which Sir
Robert took an opportunity to represent to the Queen his present
misery and unmerited sufferings. Anne, however, did not
immediately consent to his liberation, but she inquired into the
circumstances of his family, and sent, by Lord Godolphin, a
considerable sum to his wife. She afterwards, through the
same medium, conveyed a sum to himself, equal to the payment
of his fine and discharge, and thus bound him eternally to her
interest. He was liberated from Newgate the end of 1704, and
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
333
retired immediately to his family at St. Edmund's-Bury. He
was not allowed, however, to enjoy the quiet he courted. Book-
sellers, news-writers, and wits, circulated everywhere reports
that he had fled from justice, and deserted his security. He
despised their spite, and resumed his labours; the first fruits of
which were, a "Hymn to Victory," and a "Double Welcome
to the Duke of Marlborough;" the subjects for both of which
were furnished by the glorious achievements of that general.
Our author now continued his "Review," and his political
pamphleteering, for several years; in the course of which he
was subjected to much disquiet, and frequently to danger: but
the consciousness of his situation as an English freeholder, and a
liveryman of London, united to a considerable degree of resolu-
tion and personal courage, enabled him to encounter and over-
come the machinations of his enemies. It will scarcely be
believed, at this time of day, that, on a journey which his affairs
led him to take to the western parts of England, a project was
formed to kidnap and send him as a soldier to the army; that
the western justices, in the ardour of their party zeal, determined
to apprehend him as a vagabond; and that suits were commenced
against him in his absence for fictitious debts: yet all these
circumstances De Foe has asserted in his " Review;" and we
have not learnt that any attempt was ever made to controvert
the truth of his statements.
About this time (1706) a situation occurred for which our
author's abilities were peculiarly fitted. The cabinet of Queen
Anne was in want of a person of general commercial knowledge,
ready talents, and insinuating manners, to go to Scotland for
334
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
the purpose of promoting the great measure of the Union. Lord
Godolphin determined to employ De Foe; he accordingly carried
him to the Queen, by whom our author was graciously received,
and in a few days he was sent to Edinburgh. The particular
nature of his instructions has never been made public; but on
his arrival at Edinburgh, in October 1706, De Foe was recog-
nised as a character almost diplomatic. We must refer our
readers to his "History of the Union," for the various and inte-
resting particulars of this mission; the detail of which, here,
would occupy an extent beyond the limits of our biography.
During the troublous period which followed, until the con-
clusion of the war by the treaty of Utrecht, De Foe, wiser by
experience, lived quietly at Newington, publishing his Review.
He encountered, however, in the fulfilment of this task, much
contentious opposition and obloquy, which he manfully resisted
and retorted; but after the political changes by which his first
patron Sir Robert Harley, and next Lord Godolphin, were turned
out of power, his pecuniary allowance from the Treasury seems
to have ceased, and he was compelled, as before, to launch out
as a general writer for the supply of his necessities. The political
agitation of the times dictated his subjects; but, unfortunately
for De Foe, both Tories and Jacobites, in those days, were such
plain matter-of-fact men, that his raillery was misunderstood, and
he was arrested and committed to his old habitation, for several
squibs, which were obviously ironical.
The writings on which he was indicted were two: "What
if the Pretender should come ?" and "What if the Queen should
die ?" Nothing," says De Foe, "could be more plain, than
((
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
335
that the titles of these are amusements, in order to get the books
into the hands of those who had been deluded by the Jacobites.'
His explanation would not suffice; he was tried and found guilty,
fined in £800, and committed to Newgate. He was now com-
pelled to drop the publication of his "Review ;" and it is singular
that he did so while confined in Newgate, the very place in
which its idea had first entered his head nine years before.
After lying in jail a few months, he was liberated by the
Queen's order in November 1713.
Although thus released, and the innocence of his intentions.
admitted, if not established, nothing was done for him; and the
Queen's death, which took place shortly after (in July 1714), left
him defenceless to the attacks of his rancorous enemies.
66 No
sooner," says he, "was the Queen dead, and the King, as right
required, proclaimed, but the rage of men increased upon me to
that degree, that their threats were such as I am unable to
express; and though I have written nothing since the Queen's
death, yet a great many things are called by my name, and I
bear the answerer's insults." This was the darkest period of
our author's life. He had lost his appointment, whatever it
was: he had been obliged to give up his "Review;" every
thing he ventured to publish besides, was received with suspicion,
and he was on all hands overborne by faction, injury, and insult.
His health declined fast under these unmerited sufferings, but
the vigour of his mind remained; and he determined to assert
the innocence of his conduct, and to clear his blemished fame.
He accordingly published, in 1715, "An Appeal to Honour and
Justice, though it be of his worst Enemies, being a True Account
336
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
of his Conduct in Public Affairs.' This work contains a long
account and defence of his political conduct from the outset, and
a most affecting detail of his sufferings; but the subject had been
too much for him. When he reviewed what he had done, and
how he had been rewarded; how much he had deserved, and
how heavily he had suffered; the ardent spirit of De Foe sunk
before the picture, and he was struck with apoplexy before he
could finish his work. It was published, nevertheless, by his
friends, and the profits of its sale seem to have been the only
source of his support. This was the terminating period of our
author's political career. He recovered his health, but his mind
had changed its tone; and it was now that the history of Selkirk
first suggested to him the idea of "Robinson Crusoe." It has
been thought by some to detract from the merit of De Foe, that
the idea was not originally his own; but really the story of
Selkirk, which had been published a few years before in "Woodes
Rogers' Voyage Round the World," appears to have furnished our
author with so little beyond the bare idea of a man living upon
an uninhabited island, that it seems quite immaterial whether
he took his hint from that, or from any other similar story, of
which many were then current.
The sale of "Robinson Crusoe" was, as we have already
stated, rapid and extensive, and De Foe's profits were commen-
surate. The work was attacked on all sides by his ancient
opponents, whose labours have long since quietly descended with
their authors to merited oblivion; but De Foe, having the
public on his side, set them all at defiance; and the same year
he published a second volume with equal success. Thus far
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
337
"With steady bark and flowing sail
He ran before the wind;"
but, incited by the hope of further profit, and conceiving the theme
of Crusoe inexhaustible, he shortly after published "Serious
Reflections during the Life of Robinson Crusoe, with his Vision
of the Angelic World." These Visions and Reflections were
well received at the time, although by no means so much in
requisition now.
With the return of his good fortune, our author's health
was re-established, and the vigour of his mind restored. He
published, in 1720, "The Life and Piracies of Captain Single-
ton;" and finding it safer, it would seem, as well as more
profitable to amuse the public, than to reform them, he con-
tinued this course with little variation for the remainder of his
life.
His subsequent publications, to all of which a considerable
degree of popularity was attached, though none of them equalled
the reputation of "Robinson Crusoe," were "The Dumb Philoso-
pher," "History of Duncan Campbell," "Remarkable Life of
Colonel Jack," "Fortunate Mistress," and "New Voyage round
the World."
We are now to take leave of our author, who died on the 24th
April 1731, at the age of 70, in Cripplegate, London, leaving
a widow and large family in tolerable circumstances.
That De Foe was a man of powerful intellect and lively
imagination, is obvious from his works; that he was possessed
of an ardent temper, a resolute courage, and an unwearied spirit
of enterprise, is ascertained by the events of his changeful career;
Z
338
MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR.
and whatever may be thought of that rashness and improvidence
by which his progress in life was so frequently impeded, there
seems no reason to withhold from him the praise of as much,
nay more, integrity, sincerity, and consistency, than could have
been expected in a political author writing for bread, and whose
chief protector, Harley, was latterly of a different party from his
own. As the author of "Robinson Crusoe," his fame promises
to endure as long as the language in which he wrote.
THE END
PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.
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