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('RUSOE FINDING THE PRINT OF A MAN’S FOOT. 
 
THE 
 
 LIFE AND ADVENTURES 
 
 OF 
 
 ROBINSON CRUSOE 
 
 BY DANIEL DEFOE. 
 
 WITH TWENTY-ONE FULL PAGE COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 AND UPWARDS OF SEVENTY WOODCUTS, BY 
 EDWARD H. WEHNERT. 
 
 London : GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, 
 
 COVENT GARDEN. 
 1883. 
 
CHISWICK STEAM PRESS. 
 
 TEMPLE WORKS, CURSITOR STREET, E.C. 
 
■ . o ^ 1 - \ f X x-<-' ^ 
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 The Life and surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe is one of the boots 
 which seem to be written for all time. Like Shakspere, Pilgrim’s Progress, and, 
 if we may venture on the comparison, Holy Scripture, it never gets old, but is 
 ever fresh and racy ; the style is plain and homely, but beautiful and generally 
 clear— paragraph after paragraph occurs in which no word exceeds two syllables— 
 and though delightful to all classes, it addresses itself especially to those with the 
 simplest comprehension. The minuteness of detail, the leaf-painting, so to speak, 
 with wliich the hero’s occupations are described, his odd reflections and quaint 
 moralizing, but especially the characteristic energy with which he sets about 
 repairing the several disasters he meets with ; and the simplicity, not without 
 a httle unconscious bravado, with which he shoulders his two guns and girds on his 
 old ship’s cutlass ; and the ingenuity, not unmixed with simplicity, with which he 
 sets about the construction of his boat, and afterwards of his battery of old ship’s 
 muskets, when he discovers the visits of the cannibals to his island ; his attach- 
 ment to his goats and his parrot, and above all to Friday, are all so many 
 justifications of the favour he finds with seafaring men and boys, and with the 
 illiterate classes generally. 
 
 The reader’s attention is fixed by an artless chain of incidents natural under the 
 ^ supposed circumstances, and told in a concise manner without embellishment, but 
 a-* deriving interest from the mode of telling the story ; ‘‘under the guidance of natural 
 ^ reason,” to use the words of Marmontel, “ it points to the Almighty as the source 
 1 of man’s capabilities;” or as Sir Walter Scott has it in the Ballantyne Edition, 
 \ “ The ways of Providence are simply and pleasantly vindicated, and a lasting and 
 ^ useful moral conveyed through the channel of an interesting and delightful story.” 
 
 While no doubts exist about the literary parentage of the book — ^for Defoe was 
 the acknowledged author—it will ever remain a mystery whether it is a pure fictinr 
 
IV 
 
 Preface. 
 
 founded on the general idea of Selkirk’s story, or the result of a more minute 
 knowledge of Ins adventures in all their details. His own preface, in which he 
 assumes to be merely the Editor of the work, probably originated this later notion ; 
 it is very characteristic : “ If ever the story of any private man’s adventures in the 
 world were worth making public, the Editor of this work thinks that it will be so. 
 The wonders of his life exceed all that he thinks are to be found extant ; the life 
 of one man being scarce capable of greater variety. The story is told with 
 modesty, with seriousness, and with religious application of events to the uses to 
 which wise men always apply them, viz. to the instruction of others by example, 
 and to justify and honour the wisdom of Providence in all the variety of their 
 circumstances, let them happen how they will. The Editor believes the thing to 
 be a just history of facts, neither is there any appearance of fiction in it. However 
 this may be, for all such things may be disputed, he is of opinion that the improve- 
 ment of it, as well to the diversion as the instruction of the reader, will be the 
 same ; and as such, he tliinks, without further compliment to the world, he does 
 them a great service in the publication.” 
 
 Such was the slight veil with which Defoe himself sought to conceal the author- 
 ship of the work. In the preface to his Serious Reflections on the Life and Adven- 
 tures” which he pi^blished subsequently, he says that the story, though allegorical, 
 was also historical ; and after recounting a number of particulars which he tells us 
 nad a real foundation in history, he continues : The adventures of Robinson Crusoe 
 are one whole scene of a real life of eight and twenty years, spent in the most 
 wandering, desolate, and afflicting circumstances that ever a man went through ; 
 and in which I have lived so long a life of wonders, in continual storms, fought 
 with the worst kind of savages and man-eaters, by unaccountably surprising 
 accidents, fed by miracles greater than that of the ravens, sufiered all manner of 
 violences and oppressions, injurious reproaches, contempt of men, attacks of devils, 
 corrections from heaven, and oppositions on earth, have had innumerable ups and 
 downs in matters of fortune, been in worse than Turkish slavery, and escaped by 
 exquisite management, as in the story of Mully and the boat at Sallee, been taken 
 up at sea in distress, raised again, and again depressed, and that oftener perhaps 
 than ever was known before in one man’s life ; shipwrecked often, though more on 
 land than by sea ; in a word, there’s not a circumstance in the imaginary story, but 
 has its just allusion to a real story, and chimes in fact for fact, and step for step, 
 with the inimitable life of Robinson Crusoe.” 
 
 Here the Author seems almost to drop the veil and avow the fictitious character 
 of the work, and in doing so he seems also to identify himself with the adventurer, 
 speakmg in the first person in part of the paragraph. The truth probably is, that 
 the adventures of Alexander Selkirk, which had been making considerable noise 
 in the literary circles for some years previous to the appearance of Robinson 
 Crusoe, had made a strong impression on Defoe. As a literary man, lie could 
 
Preface. 
 
 hardly avoid picking up all that was known of Selkirks adventures, perhaps 
 talked with him. Other stories of maritime adventure were floating about ; and 
 out of these materials his was the g^ius especially qualified to construct the story 
 as it has reached us. Defoe’s own career was peculiar. His father a small London 
 tradesman, he himself was brought up to trade, and he entered into business as 
 a hosier, in which he failed. He afterwards turned to literature, and became the 
 great pamphleteer of his day— politics and other controversial polemics being his 
 favourite subjects. Twice he suffered imprisonment, which probably subdued 
 his fervour for political writing, for after his second imprisonment we find him 
 turning his attention to subjects strictly literary. He wrote the History of 
 the Plague, which is distinguished by the same matter-of-fact attention to detail 
 which distinguishes Robinson Crusoe. He afterwards produced five or six novels 
 of very considerable merit ; but probably his name would not have survived his 
 own epoch but for this remarkable tale. 
 
 Alexander Selkirk, or Seleraig as he is sometimes called, a native of Largo, 
 a fishing town on the coast of Fife, was born in 1676. A spoilt child, and a moody 
 and wayward man, he left home about 1695 and was absent five or six years, 
 having, it is said, been buccaneering in the -Spanish Main. He was again home in 
 1701, and shortly after we find him engaging with Captain Dampier for another 
 cruise, in the course of which the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez was 
 visited by the ships of the expedition to refit. Here a violent quarrel seems to 
 have taken place between Selkirk and his immediate commanding officer Stradling. 
 The ships return to the island after a short absence, and Selkirk determines to leave 
 them there rather than remain under the command of Stradling— bidding adieu to 
 his comrades, in September, 1704. Here he remained four years and four months, 
 when the ship Duke, Captain Rogers, happened to call at the island and released 
 him from his voluntary exile in February, 1709. He sailed in the Duke during 
 a long and fatiguing cruise, giving great satisfaction to his captain ; and, in 1711, 
 the ship returned to England : Selkirk having in the meantime realized jgSOO 
 in wages and prize-money. His story created a great sensation. Captain Rogers 
 published one account of his adventures on the island, and there would appear to 
 have been ten others issued. Sir Richard Steele visited him, and gives a short 
 narrative of his conversation with Selkirk, which reads not very unlike a chapter 
 of Robinson Crusoe. ‘‘ It was matter of gi’eat curiosity,” writes Sir Richard, ‘^to 
 hear him, as he is a man of good sense, give an account of flie different revolutions 
 in his mind in that long solitude. He was put ashore from a leaky vessel, with 
 the captain of which he had an irreconcilable quarrel ; his portion was a sea-chest, 
 his wearing clothes and bedding, a firelock, a pound of gunpowder, a parcel of 
 bullets, a flint and steel, a few pounds of tobacco, a hatchet, a knife, a kettle, 
 a Bible, and a few other books of devotion, with seme others concerning his 
 instruments.” 
 
VI 
 
 Preface, 
 
 Of the use Defoe made of these materials we gatlier from the Editor of a 
 modern edition of the work, ‘^That but for Defoe this man’s narrative would 
 not have outlived his own day. Robinson Crusoe,” he continues, “is a most 
 skilful romance, of which the first idea indeed may be borrowed from this strange 
 story ; but the incidents, reflections, and characters, as well as the arrangement 
 and execution, are truly and entirely Defoe’s ; and the same sort of criticism that 
 would detract fi-om the merit of its Author, would afiect all the most celebrated 
 epic, and almost all the dramatic, poems in the world. He took no more of 
 Robinson Crusoe from Selkirk’s story than Shakspere did of Macbeth and Hamlet 
 from Scotch and Danish clironicles, or of Romeo and Juliet from the Itahan 
 ballad.” 
 
 And such, no doubt, would have been the verdict of his contemporaries ; but as 
 a pohtical and controversial writer Defoe had numerous and bitter enemies. His 
 work, therefore, v/as assailed with envenomed and bitter satire, but no attack was 
 made impugning his integrity so long as he lived to repel it ; after his death, how- 
 ever, it was boldly asserted that he had possessed himself of Selkirk’s papers, and 
 surreptitiously applied them to his own use. This assertion has been sufficiently 
 disproved, but not imtil the calumny had been established in some respectable 
 channels. It is now, however, pretty well understood that the romance is entirely 
 • Defoe’s, based on the slight fabric fru-nished by Selkirk’s story. 
 
 Robinson Crusoe was published in April, 1719; the “Further Adventures” 
 being published four months later, and it has the credit, in common with some of 
 the most popular books in our language, of having been in the hands of every 
 leading publisher before one was found willing to incur the cost of printing it. At 
 length Mr. Taylor was fortunate enough to undertake its publication. The success 
 was wonderful ; in four months it had reached its fifth edition ; nearly every 
 printing office in London was employed in producing it, and the publisher is said 
 to have cleared £1,000 by it the first year. This great success produced a second 
 part, of which it is only necessary to say that, like most continuations, the Author’s 
 reputation and the character of the book would have been benefited had it never 
 appeared ; but having made its appearance, no edition of the work can now be 
 considered complete without it. Attempts were also made to invade the, Author’s 
 and Publisher’s rights by abridgment, which called forth bitter complaints from 
 both, and legal proceedings against the pubhshers of the abridgment. 
 
 Of its merits, the most eminent critics of all nations express the highest opinion. 
 Dr. Johnson, in conversation with Mrs. Thrale, says: “Was there ever anything 
 written by mere man that the reader wished to be longer excepting Don Quixote, 
 Robinson Crusoe, and Pilgrim’s Progress?” Blair says, — “No fiction in any 
 language was ever better supported ; while it is cai’ried on with that appearance 
 of truth and simplicity which takes a strong hold on the imagination, it suggests 
 at the same time very useful instruction, by showing how much the native r.v'wers 
 
i rejace, vii 
 
 of man may be exerted for surmounting difficulties.” Charles Lamb considers 
 
 the appearance of truth in the incidents and conversations to exceed every work 
 of fiction with which he was acquainted — it is perfect illusion. The Author never 
 appears in these self narratives, but the narrator chains us down to an implicit 
 belief in everything he says. There is all the minute detail of a log-book in it ; 
 facts are repeated over and over again in varying phrases, till you cannot choose 
 but believe them. It is like reading evidence in a court of justice ; and so anxious 
 is he that the truth should be clearly comprehended, that when he has related 
 the fact he repeats it again a few lines below with his favourite I say so and so'* 
 Marmontel says, Robinson Crusoe was the first book he read with exquisite 
 pleasure, and he believes that every boy in Europe may say the same thing. 
 While youth and ignorance have alike foiuid scope for entertainment in the inci- 
 dents told with the simplicity and the similitude of real life, it has commended 
 itself to the more enlightened as one of those rare efforts of genius which places 
 its Author in the first rank among writers of invention. As a narrative replete 
 with incident, it stands unrivalled for its natural and easy transitions ; its whole 
 machinery being strictly subservient to the main object of the story. Crusoe is 
 strictly a child of nature, assisted by circumstances that rise naturally out of 
 the peculiar events by which he is surrounded ; there is an air of plausibility, or 
 rather reahty, in all particulars of his story even to the minutest, so that the 
 reader reluctantly admits any part of the book to be fiction. 
 
 “Since we must have books,” writes Rousseau, “this is one which, in my opinion, 
 is a most excellent treatise on natural education. This is the first my Emilius 
 shall read, his whole library shall consist of this only ; it shall be the text on which 
 all our conversations on natural science are to serve only as comments ; it shall 
 guide us in our progress to maturity of judgment, and so long as our taste is 
 sophisticated, the perusal of this book shall afford us pleasure.” 
 
 More subdued in his commendations than the philosopher of Geneva, Dr. Beattie 
 says, — “ The work must be allowed by the rigid moralist to be one of those novels 
 which one may read not only with pleasure, but profit. It breathes throughout 
 a spirit of piety and benevolence, and sets in a very striking light the importance 
 of the mechanic arts ; it fixes in the mind a lively idea of the hoirors of solitude, 
 and of the sweets of social life, and of the blessings we derive from conversation 
 and mutual aid ; and it shows how by labouring with one’s hand one may secure 
 independence, and open for oneself many sources of health and contentment. I 
 agi*ee therefore with Rousseau, that this is one of the best books that can be put 
 into the hands of children.” 
 
 Innumerable have been the imitations of Robinson Crusoe in our own and 
 other languages ; it is almost the only English book which has been translated 
 into the Portuguese language. It has been translated into French, Dutch, German, 
 Russian, Greek and Latin, and the enterprising traveller, John Lewis Burckhardt 
 
viii Freface, 
 
 wrote the tale in Arabic, much to the delight of tlie children of the desert who 
 heard it. The idea was imitated by Philip Quarl, an Enghshman, who professes 
 to have spent fifty years of his life in similar solitude on an island of the Pacific, 
 like Robinson, 
 
 Monarch of all he surveyed. 
 
 Monsieur de Campe, taking some hints firom the book, produced a nouveau 
 Robinson Crusoe — a meagre imitation of the original. Probably the most suc- 
 cessful of these imitative efforts, however, is the Swiss Robinson Crusoe, the only 
 one of them which has a place in the literary marts in our day. 
 
 With respect to the present Edition, its chief recommendation will be Mr. 
 Wehnert’s numerous illustrations, and its beautiful typography. But some care 
 has also been bestowed upon the text. It has been reprinted from the best of the 
 old editions, and every effort has been made to correct such errors as had crept 
 into it from the imperfect typography of the period. 
 
THE LIFE AND ADVENTUEES 
 
 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 
 
 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 afterward 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 Ej:eutznaer ; but by the usual corruption of words in Eng- 
 land, we are now called, nay, we call ourselves, and write our name 
 Crusoe ; and so my companions always called me. 
 
 I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an 
 English regiment of Eoot in Elanders, 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 knew what became 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 thouglits. My father, who 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as 
 house education and a country free school generally goes, and designed 
 me for the law j hut I would he satisfied with nothing but going to sea ; 
 and my inclinatioli 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 he something fatal 
 in that propension of nature tending directly to the life of misery 
 which was to hefal me. 
 
 My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent 
 counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me oi\e 
 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 intro- 
 duced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and 
 industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was for 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 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 miseries 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 havo frequently lamented the miserable con- 
 sequences of being born to great things, and wish 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 neitfier 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 j but 
 that the middle station had the feAvest disasters, and Avas not exposed 
 to so many vicissitudes as the higher or loAver part of mankind ; nay, 
 they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses either 
 of body or mind, as those Avere who, by vicious living, luxury, and ex- 
 travagancies on one hand, or by hard labour, Avant of necessaries, and 
 
of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 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 em- 
 barrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold 
 to the 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 secret burning lust of ambition for 
 great things ; but in easy circumstances shding 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 affectionate 
 luanner, not to play the young man, not to precipitate myself into 
 iffiseries 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 hfe 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 an example, to whom he had used the 
 same earnest persuasions to keep him ftom going into the Low Country 
 wars, but coidd 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 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 him- 
 self, — I say, I observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, and 
 especially when he spoke of my brother who was killed ; and that when 
 
4 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 lie 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 affected 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. Eut, alas ! a few days 
 wore it all off ; and, in short, to prevent any of my father’s further im- 
 portunities, in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite away from him. 
 However, I did not act so hastily neither, as my first heat of resolution 
 ppmpted, 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 anything 
 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 j that I was sure, if I did, I should never serve out my 
 time, and 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 but 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 
 that time I had lost. 
 
 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 anything so much for my hurt, and that she wondered 
 how I could think of any such thing after such a discourse as I 
 had had from 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 j 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, as I 
 heard afterwards, she reported all the discourse to him, and that my 
 father, after showing 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 was ever born ; I 
 can give no consent to it.” 
 
 It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though in 
 the mean time I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of Settling 
 to business, and frequently expostulating with my father and mother 
 
5 
 
 of Bohinson Crusoe. 
 
 about their being so positively determined against what they knew 
 my inclinations prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, where 
 I went casually, and without any purpose of making an elopement 
 that time — but I say, being there, and one of my companions being 
 about to sail to London, in his father’s ship, and prompting me to go 
 with them, with the common allurement of seafaring men, namely, 
 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 asking God’s 
 blessing, or my father’s, without any consideration of circumstances 
 or consequences, and in an ill hour — God knows — on the first of 
 September, 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London. Hever 
 
 any young adventurer’s misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or 
 continued longer than mine. The ship was no sooner gotten out of 
 the Humber, but the wind began to blow, and the waves 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 refiect 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. 
 
(5 
 
 Hie Life and Adveraurcs 
 
 All this while the storm increased, and the sea, which I had never 
 been upon before, went very high, though notliing like what I have 
 seen many times since j no, nor like 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 anything of the matter. I expected every wave 
 would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down, 
 as I thought, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never rise 
 more ; and in this agony of. mind I made many vows and resolutions, 
 that if it would please God here to spare my life 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; that I 
 would take his advice and never run myself into such miseries as these 
 any more. iNow I saw plainly the goodness of his observations about 
 the middle station of life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived 
 all his days, and never had been exposed to tempests at sea, or troubles 
 on shore ; and 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 tine evening 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 dehghtful 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 time after. And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, 
 my companion, Avho 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 frighted, wanT you, last night, when 
 it bleAV but a cap full of wind ] ” “A cap full do you call it h ” said I. 
 “It was a terrible storm.’' “A storm, you fool you,” replies he, “do 
 you caU 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. Do you see what charming 
 weather it is now ? ” To make short this sad part of my story, we 
 went the old way of all sailors ; the punch was made, and I was made 
 
7 
 
 of Eohinson Cruse *. 
 
 drunk with it, and in that one night’s wickedness I drowned all my 
 7epentance, all my reflections upon my past conduct, and all my 
 resolutions for my future. In a word, as the sea w^as 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 myseK 
 from them as it were from a distemper, and applying myself to drink 
 and company, soon mastered the return of thoso fits, for so I called 
 tl\em, and I had in five or six days got as complete a victory over 
 ccfiscience as any , young fellow that resolved not to be troubled with 
 it fould desire. Eut I was to have another trial for it still ; and 
 J^’^idence, as in such cases generally it does, resolved to leave me 
 entirely without excuse. Eor if I would not take this for a deliverance, 
 the next was to be such a 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 Eoads ; 
 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 should have tided it up 
 the river, but that the wind blew too fresh, and 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 unconcerned, 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 top-masts, and make everything 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 t'vice 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 seamen themselves. The 
 
8 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 master, tlioiigh. vigilant in the business of preserving tlie sliip, yet as 
 lie went in and out of bis cabin by me, I could bear bim softly to 
 bimself 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 reassume 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 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 cut their 
 
 masts by the board, being deep loaden ; 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 cut 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 
 spritsail out before the wind. 
 
 Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our 
 ship to let them cut away the fore-mast, which he was very unwilhng 
 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 fore- 
 
CRUSOE SNVOONTNG AWAY. 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 9 
 
 mast, the mam- mast stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they 
 were obliged to cut her away also, and make a clear deck. 
 
 Any one may judge what a condition I must he in at all this, who 
 was hut a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at 
 but a little. But if I can express at this distance the thoughts I had 
 about me at that time, I was in tenfold 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 j 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 known a worse. We had a gogd 
 ship, but she was deep loaden, 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 master, the boatswain, and some others more sensible 
 j^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 foot water in the hold. Then aU 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 who 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 sea, and would not 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 liis 
 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 appa- 
 rent 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 
 
10 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 tha 
 ship’s side ; till at last, the men rowing very heartily, and venturing 
 their lives to save ours, our men cast them a rope over the stern with 
 the buoy to it, and. then veered it out a great length, which they, after 
 great 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 shij), 
 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 j so partly 
 rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to the northward, 
 slo]Ding towards the shore almost as far as Winterton-ISress. 
 
 We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship 
 before 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 oars 
 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 
 to Yarmouth, where, as unfortunate men, we were used with great 
 hunianity, 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 
 Saviours parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me ; for hearing 
 the ship I went away in was cast away in Yarmouth Eoad, it was a 
 great while before he had any assurance that I was not drowned. 
 
11 
 
 of Fiobinson Crusoe, 
 
 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 he the instruments of our own 
 destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush 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 
 lime 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 I was, and how I had come this voyage only for a trial, in 
 order to go farther abroad ; his father, turning to me with a very grave 
 and concerned tone, ‘‘Young man,” says h^, “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 
 
12 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 this is all befallen ns on your account, like Jonah, in the ship of Tarshish* 
 Pray,^’ continued 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, 
 ^Hhat 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.’’ 
 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. ' 
 
 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 everybody 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 ; not 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 stayed 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, til] 
 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 
 liouse, that hurried me into the wild notion of raising my fortune, 
 and that imprest 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 unfortunate of all enterprises to my view ; and I went on board 
 
of Robinson Crusoe. 13 
 
 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 fore-mast man 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. 
 
 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 disagreeable 
 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 adventurQ with me, which, by the dis- 
 interested honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very con- 
 siderably ; for I carried about 40^. in such toys and trifles as the 
 captain directed me to buy. This 40^. 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 un- 
 derstand 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 j for I brought 
 ilome five pounds nine ounces of gold dust for my adventure, which 
 
14 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 yielded mo in London at my return, almost 300^., 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 ; particularly, that 
 I was continually sick, being thrown into a violent fever by the ex- 
 cessive heat of the climate ; our principal trading being upon the cdast, 
 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 *2001, 
 left, and which I lodged with my friend’s widow, who was very just to 
 me, yet 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 Turkish 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 vdth 
 us in a few hours, we prepared to fight ; our ship having twelve guns. 
 
 and the rogue 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 
 
15 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 shot from near 200 men which, he had on hoard. However, we had 
 not a man touched, all oiir men keeping close. He prepared to attack 
 us again, and we to defend ourselves j hut laying us on hoard 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 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 v/as now so effectually 
 brought to pass, that I could not be worse j 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 the story. 
 
 As my new patron or master had taken me home to his house, so I 
 w:as in hopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea 
 again, believing that it would some time or other be his fate to be 
 taken by a Spanish or Portuguese man of war, and that then I should 
 be set at liberty. But this hope of 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 he 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 j for I had 
 nobody to communicate it to, that would embark with me ; no fellow- 
 slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman, 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 
 
16 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 out his ship, which, as I heard, was for want of money, he used con- 
 stantly, 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 Maresco 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 Maresco as they called him, to catch a 
 dish of fish for him. 
 
 It happened one time, that going a fishing in a stark 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 shore ; 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 he had taken, he resolved he would not go a fishing any 
 more without a compass and some provision ; so he ordered the car- 
 penter of his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a httle 
 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 hale home the main-sheet , 
 and room before for a hand or two to stand and work the sails. She 
 sailed with what we caU a shoulder of mutton sail ; and the boom 
 gibed 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 put in some bottles of such liquor as he 
 thought fit to drink, particularly his bread,- rice and coffee. 
 
 We went frequently out with this boat a fishing, and as I was most 
 dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. It hap- 
 pened that he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure 
 or for fish, with two or three Moors of some distinction in that place, 
 and for whom he had provided extraordinarily ; and had therefore sent 
 on board the boat over night a larger store of provisions than ordinary, 
 and had ordered me to get ready three fusees 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 directed, and waited the next morning 
 with the boat washed clean, her flag and pendants out, and everything 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 17 
 
 to accommodate his guests; when hy-and-hy 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 ; and commanded that as soon as I 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 com- 
 mand ; and my master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not 
 for a fishing business, but for a voyage ; though I knew not, neither 
 did I so much as consider, whither I should steer ; for anywhere to get 
 out of that place was my way. 
 
 My first contrivance was to make a pretence to sp^ak to this Moor, 
 to get something for our subsistence on board ; for I told him we must 
 not presume to eat of our patroff s bread : he said, that was true ; so he 
 brought a large basket of rusk or biscuit of their kind, and tliree 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 
 English 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 hundredweight, 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, who they call 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 fiUed 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 Ave 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 NII.E. 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 
 
16 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 reached to the hay of Cadiz ; but 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 w^ould 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 run the 
 boat out near a league farther, and then brought her to as if I would 
 fish, when giving the boy the helm, I stept 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 legs, and tossed him clear overboard 
 into the sea. He rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and calling 
 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 
 mil 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, who 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 fait^ul 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 sea 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 
 roast, where whole nations of Xegroes 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 'I ^ 
 
CJ^USOE THROWliVG THE MOOR 0\T:RB()^VRD. 
 
 t 
 
of Rohmson Crusoe. 1 S 
 
 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 mnd, 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 150 mdes south of Sallee ; quite beyond 
 the emperor of Morocco’s dominions, or indeed of any other king there- 
 abouts, 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 the wind shifting to the 
 southward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase of 
 me, they also would now give over ; so I ventured to make the coast, 
 and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what, 
 or Where ; neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what 
 river : I -;neither saw, or 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 
 won’t, but it may be we may see men by day, who will be as bad to us 
 as these lions. Then we give them the shoot gun, says Xury, laughing; 
 make them run way. 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 ; I 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 themselves for the pleasure of cooling 
 themselves ; and they made such hideous bowlings 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 be so for aught I know ; but poor 
 Xury cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away. Xo, says I, 
 
 c2 
 
£0 
 
 The Life and Aaventures 
 
 Xurj, we can slip our cable witb a buoy to it and go off 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 stept to the cabin-door, and 
 taking up my gun fired at him, upon which he immediately turned 
 about and swam towards the shore again. 
 
 But it is impossible to describe the horrible noises, and hideous cries 
 and bowlings, that w’ere raised, as well upon the edge of the shore, as 
 higher within the country, upon the noise or report of the 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 w^as 
 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 hands 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 somewhere 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 w’as 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 h The boy answered with so much affection that 
 mdde me love him ever after. Says he, If ^d mans come, they eat 
 me, you go way. 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 before ; and we hauled the boat in as near 
 the shore as we thought was proper, and waded on shore; carrying 
 nothing but our guns, 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 teU 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 highe" up the creek where we were, we found the 
 
21 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 water fresli when the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up ; 
 so W9 filled our jars and feasted on the hare we had killed, and 
 prepared to go on our way, having seen no foot-steps of any human 
 creature in that part of the comitry. 
 
 As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well 
 that the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Yerd 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 remember, what latitude they were in, I knew not 
 where to look for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them ; 
 otherwise I might now easily have found some o 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 vessels upon 
 their usual design of trade, that would relieve and take us in. 
 
 Bit the best of my calculation, that place where I now was, must be 
 that country, which lying between the emperor of Morocco’s dominion^ 
 and the E^egroes, lies waste, and uninhabited, except by wild beasts, 
 the E'egroes 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 number of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious 
 creatures which harbour there ; so that the Moors use it for their 
 hunting only, where they go lilve an army, two or three thousand men 
 at a time ; and indeed for near an hundred miles together upon this 
 
22 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 coast, we saw nothing but a waste uninhabited country by day \ and 
 heard nothing but bowlings and roaring of wild beasts by night. 
 
 Once or twice in the day-time I thought I saw the Peak of Tenerifife, 
 being the high top of the mountain Tpneriffe 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 ofi* 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 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 bung 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 1 he eat me at one mouth ; 
 one mouthful he meant. However, I said no more to the boy, but 
 bade him lie still; and took our biggest gun, which was almost 
 musqiiet-bore, and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with 
 two slugs, and laid it do^vn; then I loaded another gun with two 
 
23 
 
 of Rohmson Crusoe. 
 
 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 lay 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 
 the 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 dispatched 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 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 up both the whole day ; but at last we got 
 the hide off 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. 
 
 After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten 
 or twelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which began to 
 abate very much, and going no oftener into the shore than we were 
 obliged to for fresh water : my design in this was, to malce the river 
 Gambia or Senegal, that is to say anywhere about the Cape de Yerd, 
 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 Xegroes. I knew that all the ships from 
 Europe, which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to Brasil, or to 
 the East Indies, made this Cape, or those Islands ; and, in a word, I 
 
24 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 put tlie 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 j we could also perceive they were quite black, and stark 
 naked. I was once inclined to have gone on shore to them ; but 
 Xury was my better counsellor, and said to me, Xo 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, as is the produce of their country j 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 venturing on 
 shore tc 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. 
 
 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 rnountains 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 j and in the 
 second place, we found the people terribly frighted, especially the 
 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 
 
25 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 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 sunk 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 imposible 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 Xegroes to haul, they dragged him on shore, and 
 found that it was a most curious leopard, spotted and fine to an ad- 
 mirable degree, and the Negroes held up their hands with admira- 
 tion to think w’^hat 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 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 understand, 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 shew 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 burnt, 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. 
 
 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 
 
26 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 
 Yerd, and those the islands, called from thence Cape de Yerd Islands. 
 However, they were at a great distance, and I could not tell what I had 
 best do, for if I should be taken with a fresh of wind I might neither 
 reach one nor the other. 
 
 In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stept into the cabin and 
 set 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 that it was a Portuguese ship, and, as I thought, 
 was bound to the coast of Guinea for Xegroes. But when I observed 
 the course sl^e steered, I was soon convinced 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 they would be gone by before I could make any 
 signal to them. But after I had crowded to the utmost, and began to 
 
of Eoltmon Crusoe, 27 
 
 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 flag 
 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 Scottish sailor, 
 who was on board, called to me, and I answered him, aiid told him 
 I was an Englishman, that I had made my escape out of slavery from 
 the Moors at Sallee. Then they bade me come on board, and very 
 kindly took me in, and all my goods. 
 
 It was inexpressible joy to me, that 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 deliverence ; but he generously 
 told nie, he would take nothing from me, but that all I had should be 
 delivered safe to me when I came to the Brasils ; 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, says he, when I carry you to the Brasils, so 
 great a way from your own country, if I should take away from you 
 what you have, you will be starved there, and then I only take away 
 that life I have given. IN'o, no, Seignor, Mr. Englishman, I will carry 
 you thither in charity, and those things will help you to buy your sub- 
 sistence there, and your passage home again. 
 
 As he was charitable in his proposal, so he was just in the perform- 
 ance to a tittle, for he ordered the seamen, that none should offer to 
 touch anything I had ; then he took everything into his own possession, 
 and gave me back an exact inventory of them, that I might have them ; 
 even so much as my three 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 me what I 
 would have for it] I told him, he had been so generous to me 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 80 pieces of eight for it at Brasil ; and when it 
 came there, if any one offered to give more, he would make it up ; he 
 
28 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 offered me also 60 pieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which I was 
 loth to take ; not that I was not willing to let the captain have him, 
 but I was very loth 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 Brasils, and arrived in All-Saints- 
 Eay, in about twenty-two days after. And now I was once more de- 
 livered from the most miserable of all conditions of life, and what to 
 do next with myself I w^as 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 everything 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 w^ord, T made about 220 pieces 
 of eight of all my cargo, and with this stock I went on shore in the 
 Brasils. 
 
 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, 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 naturalization, 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 proposed 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 anything 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 
 
29 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 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 employ- 
 ment 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 ta» 
 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, 1 could have done this as well 
 in England among my friends, as have gone five thousand miles off 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 know- 
 ledge 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 neigh- 
 bour : 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 prosperous and rich. 
 
 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, 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 is half your stock, and let 
 
30 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 it 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 accord- 
 ingly 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 adven- 
 tures, 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 written for, sent them directly to him 
 at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to me to the Brasils ; among 
 which, without my directions (for T was too young in my business to 
 think of them), he had taken care to have all sorts 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 sur- 
 prised 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 him- 
 self, to purchase, and bring me over a servant 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 manufactures, 
 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 T 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 very means of our 
 greatest adversity, so it was with me. I went on the next year with 
 great success in my plantation ; I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on 
 
of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 31 
 
 njy own ground, more than I had disposed of for necessaries among 
 my neighbours ; and these fifty rolls, being each of above an 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 
 ^ooni 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 wus 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 miscarriages were procured by my 
 apparent obstinate adhering to 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 wdth, and to make my duty. 
 
 As I had done thus in 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 
 gulph 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 the just degrees to the particulars of this part of 
 my story ; you may suppose, that having now lived almost four years 
 in the Brasils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my 
 plantation, I had not only learned the language, but had contracted 
 acquaintance and friendship among my fellow planters, as well as 
 among the merchants at St. Salvadore, which was our port ; and that 
 
32 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 in my discourses among them I 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 heads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, hits of glass, and 
 the like, not only gold dust, Guinea grains, elephants^ teeth, &c., but 
 IS'egroes for the service of the Brasils, in great numbers. 
 
 They listened always very attentively to my discourses on these 
 heads, but especially to that part which related to the buying l^egroes, 
 which w’as 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 engrossed in the public, so that few 
 I^^egroes 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 eiyoinSig 
 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 wpfe 
 straitened for nothing so much as servants; that as this was a trah^Tja^t 
 could not be carried on, because they could not publicly sell *tne 
 jSTegroes when they came home ; so they desired to make but one 
 voyage, to bring the hTegroes on shore privately, and divide them 
 among their own plantations ; and in a word, the question w^as, 
 whether I would go as 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 l^egroes, 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 becoming 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. 
 
 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 
 
33 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 father’s good counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them 
 I would go with all my heart, if they would undertake to look after m.y 
 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 judgment 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 exp.ect 
 partic^ilar misfortunes to myself. 
 
 *Buyi 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, the 1st of 
 September — ^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 120 tons burthen, carried 6 guns, and 14 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 excessive hot, all the way upon our 
 own coast till we came 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 Eernand de Noronha, holding our course N.E. by N. 
 iind 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 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 or hurricane took ns 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 these 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 died of fever, and one man and the boy washed overboard. About " 
 the twelfth day, the weather abating a little, the master made an obser- 
 vation as well as he could, and found he was in about eleven degrees 
 north latitude, but 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 Brasil, beyond the river Amazones, 
 toward that of the river Oronoque, commonly called the Great River, 
 and began to consult with me what course he should take, for the ship 
 Avas leaky and very much disabled, and he was going directly back to 
 the coast of Brasil. 
 
 I was positively against that j and looking over the charts of the 
 sea-coast 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 ofiP at sea, to avoid the indraught of the bay or gulf 
 of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days’ 
 
of 'Robinson Crusoe. 35 
 
 sail j whereas, we could not possibly make our voyage to the coast of 
 Africa vdthout some assistance, both to our ship and to ourselves. 
 
 With this design we changed our course, and steered away K. W. by 
 W. 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 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 in- 
 habited; 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 expec- 
 tation the ship did not break yet, and that the master said the wind 
 began to abate. 
 
 How, though we found 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 wo 
 
36 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some told us 
 she was actually broken already. 
 
 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 committed ourselves, being eleven 
 in number, to God's mercy and the wild sea ; for though the storm was 
 abated considerably, yet the sea went dreadful 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, 
 ‘tf we had, could we have done anything 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 committed 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 a-stern of 
 us, and plainly bade us expect the coup-de-grace. 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 another, gave us not time hardly 
 to say, 0 God ! for we were all swallowed up in a moment. 
 
 Hothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I 
 sunk 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 main 
 land than I expected, I got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make 
 on towards the land as fast I could, before another wave should return 
 and take me up again. But I soon found it was impossible to avoid 
 
of Eohinson Crusoe. 37 
 
 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 contend with. 
 My business was to hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water, 
 if I could j 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 20 or 30 feet 
 deep in its own body, and I could feel myself carried with a mighty 
 force and swiftness towai’ds 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 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 not 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 hold my breath, if possible, 
 till the wave went back. hTow 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 main land, 
 where, to my great comfort, I clambered up the clefts of the shore, 
 
38 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 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. 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 con- 
 sidered, Lord ! how was it possible I could get on shore ! 
 
 After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my con- 
 dition, I began to look around 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 anything 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 afilicting 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 provisioji, and this threw me into terrible 
 agonies of mind, that for a while I ran about like a madman. Xight 
 coming upon me, I began with a hea\^ 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 drank, 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 1 
 
39 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 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, J 
 
 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. 
 
 When 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 eis 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 
 somethiog for my present subsistence. 
 
 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 
 
40 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 here I found a fresh renewing of my grief ; for I saw evidently, that if 
 we had kept on hoard, 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 he left entirely 
 destitute of all comfort and company, as I now was. This forced tears 
 from my eyes again, but as there was httle 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 a-ground, 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 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 tne 
 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, that 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 eat 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 
 
v' 
 
CRUSOE ON THE RAFT. 
 
41 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 indeed need enougli of to spirit me for what was before me. I^ow I 
 ';v^anted nothing but a boat to furnish myself 'wdth many things which 
 I foresaw would he very necessary to me. 
 
 It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to he had, and 
 this extremity roused my apphcation. We had several spare yards, and 
 two or three large spars of wood, and a spare top-mast or two in the 
 ship. I resolved to faU to work with these, and flung as many of them 
 overboard as I could manage for their weight, tying every one vdth a 
 rope that they might not drive away; when this was done I went down 
 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 cross-ways, 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 top-mast 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 ha\dng 
 considered well what I most wanted, I first got three of the seamen’s 
 chests, which T 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 Avith us, but the 
 fowls were killed. There had been some barley 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 about 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, svdm 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 
 
42 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 with on shore ; and it was after long searching thav I found out the 
 carpenter’s chest, which was indeed a very useful prize to me, and much 
 more valuable than a ship-loading 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 
 cap-full of wind would have overset all my navigation. 
 
 I had three encouragements : a smooth, calm sea, the tide rising and 
 setting into the shore, and what httle wind there was blew me towards 
 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 hke to have suffered a second shipweck, which, if I 
 had, I think verily would have broke my heart ; for knowing nothing 
 of the coast, my raft run a-ground at one end of it upon a shoal, and 
 not being a-ground 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 wTh the oar I had into the channel ; and 
 then driving up higher, I at length found myself in the mouth of a 
 
43 
 
 of JRohimon Crusoe, 
 
 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 was 
 not willing to he driven too liigh up the river, hoping in time to S€4 
 some ship at sea, and therefore resolved to place myself as near tho 
 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. Eut here I had hked 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, hut where one end of the float, if it run 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 j 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 th^m from what- 
 ever might happen. Where I was I yet knew not ; whether on the 
 continent or on an island, whether inhabited 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 over-top 
 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 an horn of powder^ 
 and thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the top of that 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 whom how- 
 ever 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 
 
44 . 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 the first gun that had been fired there since the creation of the world. 
 I had no sooner fired, hut from all parts of the wood there arose 
 an innumerable 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 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 barricaded 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, hke hares, run 
 out of the wood where I shot the bird. 
 
 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 particularly 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 
 
45 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 her all in pieces, I resolved to set all other things apart till I got 
 everything out of the ship that I conld get. Then I called a council, 
 that is to say, in my thoughts, whether I should take hack 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 chequered 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-bullets, 
 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 fore-top-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 ; 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 
 understand 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 it, 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 everything that I knew would spoil, either with rain or sun, 
 
45 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 without ; and 
 spreading one of the beds on 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 ; for 
 the night before I had slept httle, 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 were laid up, 
 I believe, for one man, but I was not satisfied still ; for while the ship 
 Bat upright in that posture, I thought I ought to get everything out of 
 ner 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, vdth a piece of spare canvas, 
 which was to mend the sails upon occasion, and the barrel of wet gun- 
 powder. 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. Tliis 
 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 wrapped it up, parcel by parcel, in pieces 
 of the sails, which I cut out; and, in a word, -I got aU 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 
 everything 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 ; fcr 
 ihis raft was so unwieldy and so overladen, that after I had entered the 
 ittle cove, where I had landed the rest of my goods, not being able to 
 guide it so handily as I did the other, it overset, and threw me and all 
 my cargo into the water. As for myself it was no great harm, for I 
 
47 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 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 be well supposed capable to bring ; though I believe verily, 
 had the calm weather 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 begin to rise ; however, at low water I went on board, and 
 though I thought I had rummaged the cabin so effectually, as that 
 nothing more could be found, yet I discovered a locker with drawers 
 in it, in one of wliich 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 Brasil, some jDieces of eight, some gold, some silver. 
 
 I smiled to myself at the sight of this money. 0 Drug ! ” said I, 
 aloud, what art thou good for ? thou art not worth to me, no, not the 
 taking off the ground. One of these 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 found the sky over-cast, 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 j 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 any diligence, to 
 
48 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 get everything out of her that could he useful to me j 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 myself 
 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, of the manner, and description of which it may not be 
 improper to give an account. 
 
 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 particularly 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. Health, and fresh water, I just now mentioned ; shelter 
 from the heat of the sun ; security from ravenous creatures, whether 
 man or beast ; 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 sidd 
 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 it descended irregularly every way down into the low grounds by 
 the sea-side. It was on the H.H.W. side of the hill, so that I was 
 sheltered from the heat every day, till it came to a W. and by S. sun, 
 or thereabouts, 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 semi-diameter, from the rock, a id 
 twenty yards in its diameter, from its beginning and ending. 
 
49 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 In this half circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving them 
 into the ground till they stood very firm, like piles, the biggest end 
 
 being out of the ground about five foot 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 between these two 
 rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes in the inside, leaning 
 against them, about two foot and a haK 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 j 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 consequently slept secure in the night, 
 which otherwise I could not have done ; though, as it appeared after- 
 wardj 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 
 
 E 
 
50 The Life and Adventures 
 
 it, and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin which I had s^red 
 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. 
 
 Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and everything that 
 would spoil by the wet ; and having thus inclosed 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 lightning itself : 0 my powder ! my very heart 
 sunk within me, when I thought, that at one blast all my powder ipight 
 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 w^as 
 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 part fire another. I finished this work in 
 about a fortnight ; and I think, my powder, which in all was about 
 240 pounds weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels. As 
 to the barrel that had been wet, I did not apprehend 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. 
 
CKITSOE KNT ICING THE KID, 
 
51 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out once at 
 least every day Avith my gun, as well to divert myself as to see if I could 
 kill anything 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 satis- 
 faction 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. Eut 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, 1 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 see objects that were 
 above them ] so afterward 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, wJiich 
 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 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 in- 
 closure, 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 eat sparingly, and saved my 
 provisions (my bread especially) as much as possibly I could. 
 
 Having now fixed my habitation, 1 found it absolutely necessary to 
 pro\dde a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn j and what I did 
 for that, as also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I made, 
 I shall give a full account of in its place ; but 1 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, 
 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 these 
 
52 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 reflections, and sometimes I would expostulate with, myself, why Pro- 
 vidence 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 j 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 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 vrere they not saved and you 
 lost ] Why were you singled out 1 Is it better to be here or there 'I and 
 then I pointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered with the good 
 that is in them, and with what worse attends them. 
 
 Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for my sub- 
 sistence, and what would have been my case if it had not happened, 
 which was a 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 these things out of her 1 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 necessaries of life or necessaries to supply and 
 procure them 'I Particularly, said I aloud (though to myself), wha^ 
 should I have done without a gun, without ammunition, without ah^ 
 tools to make anything, or to work with ; without clothes, bedding, a 
 tent, or any manner of covering 'I And that now I had all these te 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 T 
 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 suprising to me when it lightened 
 and thundered, as I observed just now. 
 
 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 continue it in its order. It wa^ 
 by my account, the 30th of September, when, in the manner as above 
 said, I first set foot upon this horrid island, wffien the sun being, to us. 
 
of Robinson Crusoe. 6S 
 
 ill its autumnal equinox, was almost just over my head ; for I reckoned 
 myself, by observation, to be in tbe latitude of 9 degrees and 22 minutes 
 north of tbe line. 
 
 After I bad 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 Imife upon a large 
 post ill capital letters, and making it into a great cross, I set it up on 
 
 the shore where I first landed, namely, I came ox shore here ox the 
 30th of sept. 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, montlily, 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 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 
 mathematical instruments, dials, perspective glasses, 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, 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 
 
54 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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, or any 
 company that he could make up to me ; I only wanted to have liim 
 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, notwithstand- 
 ing 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 learned to v/ant 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. 
 
 But what need I have been concerned at the tediousness of anything 
 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 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, 1 
 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. 
 
55 
 
 of Rohinsjon Crusoe. 
 
 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 my- 
 seK; so I set myself to enlarge my cave and works farther 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 
 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 backway 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, as particularly a chair and a table ; for without 
 these I was not able to enjoy the few comforts 1 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 everything by reason, and by making the most rational judg- 
 ment 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 contrivance, 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 a hedge 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 or labour was little worth, and so it was as well 
 employed one way as another. 
 
 However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above, in the 
 first place, and this I did out of the short pieces of boards which 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 everything a 
 large in their places, that I might come easily at them. I knocked 
 
66 The Life and Adventures 
 
 pieces into tlie wall of the rock to hang my gnns and all things that 
 wonld hang np. 
 
 So that had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a general magazine 
 of all necessary things ; and I had everything 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 hurry, and not only 
 hurry as to labour, but in too much discomposure of mind, and my 
 journal would have been full of many dull things. 
 
 I shall here give you the copy (though in it w^ill be told many 
 particulars over again) as long as it lasted ; for having no more ink, I 
 was forced to leave it off. 
 
 THE JOUEHAL. 
 
 Sept. 30, 1659. I, poor, miserable Eobinson Crusoe, being ship- 
 wrecked, 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 rehef, 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 or necessaries out of her for my 
 relief j so, on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of my 
 comrades, who I imagined if we had all stayed 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 
 
of Rohtnson Crusoe. 57 
 
 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 entirely spent 
 in making 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 intervals 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 blovdng 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 the 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 cables, and 
 without with turf. 
 
 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 
 exceeding hard. 
 
 The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island with my gun, 
 to see for some food, and discover the country, when I killed a she- 
 goat, and her kid followed me home ; which I afterwards kiUed 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. 4j. This morning, I began to order my times of work, of going 
 out with my gun, time of sleep, and time of diversion. Every morning 
 
58 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 eat what 
 I had to live on, and from twelve to two I lay down to sleep, the weather 
 being excessive 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. 
 
 JSov. 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 preserved them. Coming 
 back by the sea-shore I saw many sorts of sea-fowls, which I did not 
 understand ; but was surprised 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 tabla 
 again, and finished it, though not to my liking ; nor was it long before 
 I learned to mend it. 
 
 Nov. 7. ITow 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 piece^s several times. Note . — I soon neglected my keeping 
 Sundays, for omitting my mi\rk for them on my post, I forgot which 
 was which. 
 
of Rohinson Crusoe. 5\) 
 
 Nov, 13. This day it rained, which refreshed me exceedingly, and 
 cooled the earth ; hut 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 he 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 pounds 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 know not 
 what to call it. 
 
 Nov. 17. This day I began to dig behind my tent into the rock, to 
 make room for my farther conveniency. Note. Three things I wanted ex- 
 ceedingly for this work, namely, a pick-axe, a shovel, and a wheel-barrow 
 or basket, so I desisted from my 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 hea^y ; but the 
 next thing was a shovel or spade. This was so absolutely necessary, 
 that indeed I could do nothing effectually without it j but what kind 
 of one to make I knew not. 
 
 Nov. 1 8. The next day, in searching the woods, I found a tree of that 
 wood, or like it, which in the Brasils 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 diffculty enough, for it 
 was exceeding heavy. 
 
 The excessive hardness of the wood, and having no other way, made 
 me a long w^hile 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 wEich 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 wheel-barrow. A 
 basket I could not make by any means, having no such things as twigs 
 that would bend to make wicker ware, at least none yet found out j 
 and as to a wheel-barrow, I fancied I could make aU 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 
 
(50 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 a thing like a hod which the labourers carry mortar in, when the^ 
 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 vain to make 
 a wheel-barrow, took me up no less than four days, I mean always 
 excepting my morning walk with my gun, which I seldom failed ; and 
 very 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 or 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 gi’ave- 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 I had the roof secured ; 
 and the posts, standing in rows, served me for partitions to part off 
 my house. 
 
 Dec. 17. Trom this day to the twentieth I placed shelves, and knocked 
 up nails on the posts to hang everything up that could be hung up ; 
 and now I began to be in some order within doors. 
 
 Dec. 20. I^ow I carried everything 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. 
 
of Rolinson Crusoe. G1 
 
 Dec, 24. Much rain all night and all day ; no stirring out. 
 
 Dec. 25. Eain all day. 
 
 Dec. 26. E’o 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 exceeding shy and hard to 
 come atj however, I resolved to try if I could not bring my dog 
 to hunt them down. 
 
 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 
 
^ (32 The Life and Adventures 
 
 Tf,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 Aprils 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 everything 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 fence 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 an}i;hing like a 
 habitation ; and it was very well I did so, as may be observed here- 
 after 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 discoveries in 
 these walks of something or other to my advantage ; particularly I 
 found a kind of wild pigeons, who built not as 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 got their young ones, which were 
 very good meat. 
 
 And now, in the managing my household afiairs, 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, or 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 a 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 vdth 
 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 
 

 
CRUSOE SURPRISED AT THE BARLEY GROWING. 
 
63 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 I saved the tallow, and with a little dish made of clay, which 1 baked 
 in the sun, to which I added a wick of some oakum, I made me 
 a lamp ; and this gave me 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 1 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 thhik it was to put 
 powder in, when I 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 anything, and not so 
 much as remembering that I had thrown an^dhing there ; when about 
 a month after, or thereabouts, 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 tim^ I saw about ten or twelve ears come out, 
 which were perfect 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 anything 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 was so 
 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, 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 
 
6i 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 support, but not doubting but tbat 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 see for more of it, but I could 
 not find any ; at last it occured to my thought, that I had shook a bag 
 of chickens^ 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 un- 
 spoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it had bp-en 
 dropped from heaven \ as also, that I should throw it out in that par 
 ticular place, where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it sprang up 
 immediately ; whereas, if I had thrown it anywhere else at that time, 
 it had been burnt up and destroyed. 
 
 I carefully saved the ears of this 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 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. But to return to my journal. 
 
 I worked excessive 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. 
 
 A]pril 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 inclosure to me ; for within I had room enough, and 
 nothing could come at me from without, unless it could first mount 
 my wall 
 
 The very next day after this wall was finished, I had almost had all 
 my labour overthrown at once, and myself killed. The case was thus, 
 
65 
 
 of RoMnson Crusoe, 
 
 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 stepped 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 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 this 
 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 
 i:oots, and a terrible storm it was ; and this held about three hours, 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 and then began to abate, and in two hours more it was stark calm, and 
 began to rain very hard. 
 
 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 consequences of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was 
 pent and over, and I might venture into my cave again. With this 
 iiought my spirits began to re\uve, and the rain also helping to persuade 
 me, I went in and sat do^vn in my tent, but the rain was so violent, 
 that my tent was ready to . be beaten down with it ; and I was forced 
 to 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 lefc 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 sup 
 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, concluding, that if the island 
 was subjcet 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, would certainly fall upon my 
 tent. And I spent the next two 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 
 everything was put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and how 
 safe from danger, it made me very loth to remove. 
 
 In the mean time 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 vdth this resolution I composed 
 
. of Rohinson Crusoe. CJ 
 
 myself for a time, and resolved that I would go to work with all speed 
 to build me a wall with piles and cables, 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 grind-stone, 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 f(3ot. 
 
 that I might have both my hands at liberty. I had never seen any 
 such thing in England, or at least not to take notice how it was done, 
 though since I have observed it is very common there ; besides that, 
 my grind-stone was very large and heavy. This machine cost me a fidl 
 week’s work to bring it to perfection. 
 
 April 28, 29. These two whole days I took up in grinding my 
 tools, my machine for turning my grind-stone 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. 
 
 Alap 1. In the morning, looking towards the sea-side, the tide 
 
68 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 thq 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 
 fore-castle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at least six 
 feet ; and the stern, which was broken 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 place of 
 water before, so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile of the 
 wreck without swimming, I could now walk quite up to her when the 
 tide was out. I was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded 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 removing my 
 habitation ; and I busied myself mightily, that day especially, in search- 
 ing whether I could make 3ny 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 learnt not to despair of any 
 thing, I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I could of the ship, 
 concluding, that everything 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 j 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 eat them dry. 
 
69 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe, 
 
 May 5, Worked on tfee 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 fiood 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 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 vTenched 
 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 
 hundred weight 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 blowed 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. 
 
 May 24. Every day to thi^ day I worked on the wreck, and with 
 hard labour I loosened some things so much with the crow, that the 
 first blowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the seameffs 
 chests ; but the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came to land 
 that day but pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had some Brasil 
 pork in it, but the salt water and 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, during this part 
 
70 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 of my employment, to be when the tide was np, 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 a 
 hundred weight of the sheet-lead. 
 
 June 16. Going down to the sea-side, I found a large tortoise or 
 turtle ; this was the first I had seen, which it seems was only my mis- 
 
 fortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity; for had I ha]3pened to 
 be on the other side of the island, I might have had hundreds of them 
 every day; as I found afterwards; but perhaps had paid dear enough 
 for them. 
 
 June 17. I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in her threescore 
 eggs ; and her flesh was to me at that time the most savoury and 
 pleasant that ever I tasted in my hfe, having had no flesh, but of goats 
 and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place. 
 
 June 18. Rained aU day, and I stayed 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. 
 
 June 20. !No rest all night, violent pains in my head, and feverish. 
 
 June 21. Yery ill, frighted almost to death with the apprehensions 
 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. 
 
I! 
 
 CKUSOK’S I)KKA.\I. 
 
, of Rohimon Crusoe. 71 
 
 ! June 23. Yery bad again, cold and sbivering, and then a violent 
 Ihead-ach. 
 
 I June 24. Much better. 
 
 j June 25. An ague very violent ; the fit held me seven hours, cold 
 I fit and hot, with faint sweats after it. 
 
 Jicne 26. Better ; and having no victuals to eat, took my gun, but 
 j found myself very weak ; however, I killed a she-goat, and with much 
 f difficulty got it home, and broiled some of it, and ate j I would fain 
 [ have stewed it, and made some broth, but had no pot. 
 
 Jujie 27. The ague again so violent, that 1 lay a-bed all day, and 
 neither eat or 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, 
 j Prayed to God again, but was light-headed ; and when I was not, I was 
 j 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 exceeding 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. 
 
 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 alight 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 inexpressildy 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 earthquake, and all the air looked to 
 my apprehension as if it had been filled with flashes of fire. 
 
 He was no sooner landed upon the earth, but he moved forward 
 toward 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 repentance, now thou shalt die ; at which 
 words I thought he lifted up the spear that was in his hand to kill me. 
 
 Ho 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. 
 
72 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 considered, that the fit of tha 
 ague would return again next day, and now was my time to get some- 
 thing 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 of three of the 
 turtle’s eggs, which I roasted in the ashes, and eat, as we call it, in the 
 shell; and this was the first bit of meat I 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. 
 
 I 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. How as i he 
 apprehension of the return of my distemper terrified me very much, it 
 occurred to my thought, that the Erasilians take no physic but their 
 tobacco, for almost all distempers; 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 distemper, 
 or whether it was good for it or no ; but I tried several experiments 
 with it, as if I 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 
 
73 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 not been used to it ; then I took some, and steeped it an hour or twd 
 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 coidd bear 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 thee, and thou shalt glorify me.^’ 
 
 The words were very apt to my case, and made some impression 
 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 ap- 
 prehension of things, that I began to say as the children of Israel did 
 when they were promised 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 I left my lamp burning in the cave, 
 lest I should want anything in the night, and went to bed : but before 
 I lay down, I did what I never had done in aU my life; I kneeled down 
 
74 The Life and Adventures 
 
 ^nd 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. Immediately upon this I went to bed, and 
 I found presently it flew up into my head violently ; but I feU into a 
 sound sleep, and waked no more, till noon 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 knew 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 one day ; but 
 certainly I lost a day in my account, and never knew which way. 
 
 Ee that however one way or other, when I waked, 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 con- 
 tinued 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 eat 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, namely, 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 over the smoke. However, I was not so well 
 the next day, which was the first 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 dosed 
 myself with it at first, and doubled the quantity which I drank. 
 
 J uly 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 run exceedingly upon the scripture, I will 
 deliver thee ; ” and the impossibility of my deliverance 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 on my deliverance from the main affliction, that I disregarded 
 the deliverance I had received; and I was, as it were, made to ask 
 myseK such questions as these ; namely. Have I not been delivered, 
 and wonderfully too, from sickness % from the most distressed condition 
 that could be, and that was so frightful to me ] and what notice had I 
 
75 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 taken of it ] had I done my part ] ‘‘ God had delivered me : but 1 
 
 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 
 I^ew Testament, I began seriously to read it, and imposed upon myseK 
 to read awhile 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 sincerely affected Avith the wickedness of my past life. 
 
 How 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 anything being called 
 deliverance, but my being delivered from the captivity I wus 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 in the world ; but now I 
 learned to take it in another sense. How 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 add this part 
 here, to hint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a 
 true sense of things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater 
 blessing than deliverance from affliction. 
 
 Eut, 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 everything 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 imagiued how low I was, and to what weakness I 
 was reduced. The application which I made use of was perfectly new, 
 wid perhaps what had never cured an ague before; neither can I 
 
76 The Life and Admixtures 
 
 recommend it to any one to practice 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 hurri- 
 canes of wind ; for as the rain which came in the 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 possi- 
 bihty of deliverance from this condition seemed to be entirely taken 
 from me ; and I firmly beheved 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 I 
 yet knew nothing of. 
 
 It was on the 15th of July that I began to take a more particular 
 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 fiow any higher, and that it was no more than a 
 little brook of running water, and 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 in 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 not find none. I saw large 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 
 (^hat 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 httle observation while I was 
 in the Brasils, 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 1 6 th, I went up the same way again ; and, after 
 
77 
 
 of Rolinson Crusoe. 
 
 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 par- 
 ticularly 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 just now 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, re- 
 membering 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 excellent 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 flrst night, as I might say, I had lain€rom 
 home. In the night I took my first contrivance, and got up into a 
 tree, where I slept well, and the next morning proceeded upon my 
 discovery, travelling near four 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, 
 
78 The Life and Adventures 
 
 which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the other way, that 
 is, due east ; and the country appeared so fresh, so green, so flourishing, 
 everything being in a constant verdure or flourishing of spring, that it 
 looked like a planted garden. 
 
 I descended a little on the side of that delicious valley, surveying 
 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 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 home- 
 ward, and resolved to come again, and bring a bag or sack, or what I 
 could make, to carry the rest home. 
 
 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 j 
 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. 
 
 Tlie next day, being the 19th, I went back, having made me two 
 small bags to bring home my harvest. But I was surprised, 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 there- 
 abouts, 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 
 
of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 79 
 
 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 pleasantness 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 
 and fruitful part of the island. 
 
 This thought ran long in my head, and I was exceeding 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 
 enclose 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 of this place, that I spent much of my 
 '. time there for the whole remaining part of the month of July and 
 5 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 to the beginning of 
 August. 
 
 I had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my labour, 
 but 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 a sail, 
 and spread it very well, yet I had not the shelter of a liill 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 began to enjoy myself. The 3rd of August I found 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 
 
80 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 hundred 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 tidings of 
 her, till, to my astonishment, she came home about the end of August, 
 mth 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 con- 
 finement 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 ay 
 very large tortoise, which was a treat to me ; and my food was regulated* ' 
 thus : — I eat a bunch of raisins for my breakfast, a piece of the goat’s 
 flesh, or of the turtle, for my dinner, broiled (for to my great misfortune 
 I had no vessel to boil or stew anything), and two or three of the 
 turtle’s eggs for supper. 
 
 During this confinement in my co ver, by the rain, I worked daily two 
 or three hours at enlargiug 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 seen upon 
 the island being a goat. 
 
 September 30. I was now come to the unhappy anniversary 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 
 
81 
 
 of Ttohinson Crusoe. 
 
 on the ground with the most serious humiliation, confessing my sins to 
 God, acknowledging his righteous judgments upon me, and praying to 
 him to have mercy on me, through Jesus Christ ; and having not tasted 
 the least refreshment for twelve hours, even to 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 dis- 
 tinguish 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 found at the end of my account I had lost a day or 
 two in my reckoning. 
 
 A little after this my ink began to fail me, and so I contented 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 
 fb me, and I learned to divide them so as to provide for them accord- 
 ^ ingly. Eut 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 
 >^wenty 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 gTOund, as well as I could, with my 
 ' wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, I sowed my grain ; but as 
 I was sowing, it casually occured to my thought, that I would not sow 
 it air at first, because I did not know when was the proper time for it ; 
 so I sowed about twb-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 anything; for the diy 
 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 new bower, and 
 sowed the rest of my seed in February, a little before the vernal 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 ! had 
 yet, I had hut 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 
 )f use to me afterwards. As soon as the rains were over, and the 
 .Veather 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 surprise i 
 and yet very well pleased, to see the young trees grow ; and I prur se. 
 them, and led them to grow as much alike as I could, and it is soa.*'^ 
 credible, how beautiful a figure they grew into in three years so • 
 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 dwhU- 
 ing, which I did ; and placing the trees or stakes in a double row, at 
 about 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 ramy seasons 
 and the dry seasons, which were generally thus : 
 
 Half February, March, half April — Eainy, the sun being then on or 
 near the equinox. 
 
 Half April, May, June, July, half August — Dry, the sun being then 
 to the north of the line. 
 
 Half August, September, half October — Eainy, the sun then being 
 come back. 
 
 Half October, November, December, January, half February — Dtj 
 the Sun being then to the south of the line. 
 
83 
 
 of Rohimon Crusoe. 
 
 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 consequences of being abroad in the 
 rain, I took care to furnish myseK with provisions 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 for many things which I had no 
 way to furnish myself with, but by hard labour and constant appli- 
 3ation. Particularly, I tried many ways to make myself a basket ; but 
 ill the twigs I could get for the purpose proved so brittle, that they 
 should 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 lending a hand, I had by this means so full knowledge of 
 fhe methods of it, that I wanted nothing but the materials j 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 widows, 
 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 fouiid 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 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 of lay 
 up anything, 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 anything that was liquid, except two runlets, 
 which were almost full of rum, and some glass bottles, some of the 
 common size, and others, which were case-bottles, square, for the hold- 
 ing of waters, spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to boil anytliing 
 in, except a great kettle which I saved out of the ship, and which was 
 too big for such uses as I desired for it, namely, to make broth, and 
 stew a bit of meat by itselfi 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* or 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. 
 
 I mentioned before, that I had a great mind to see the whale 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 oth^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 W.S.W. 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, otherwise 
 'uhan 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 
 
85 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 in a worse condition than I was now ; and therefore I acquiesced in 
 the dispositions of Providence, which I began now to own, and to 
 believe, ordered everything 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 vessel pass or repass one way or other ; but if not, then it was 
 the savage coast between the Spanish country and Brazil, which is 
 inhabited by 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 fiowers and grass, and 
 full of very fine woods. I saw abundance of parrots, and fflin 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 taken, 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- 
 GT^er, 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. 
 
 . was exceedingly diverted with this journey. I found in the low 
 gr . ands, hares as I thought them to be, and foxes, but they differed 
 greatly from all 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, goats, pigeons, and turtle oi 
 tortoise ; which, added to my grapes, Leadenhall market could not have 
 furnished a 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 travelleijn 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 weary 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 or 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 
 
86 
 
 The LAfe and Adventures 
 
 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 more 
 goats here 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, so that 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 journey, 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 concluded 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 farther 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 uncomfortably, 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 exceeding hot ; and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and 
 other things very heavy. 
 
 In this journey my dog surpri^d a young kid, and seized upon it ; 
 and I running 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 
 
of Rohinson Crusoe. 87 
 
 been musing whether it might not he 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 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 wlfence 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 settle- 
 ment to me, compared to that ; and it rendered everything about me 
 so comfortable, that I resolved that 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 j 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 
 cir^e, 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 
 over to it ; and having fed it, I tied it as I did before to lead it 
 
88 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 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 sohtary 
 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 be^r in 
 society, and in all the pleasures of the world : that he couL fully 
 make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state and the want of 
 human society, by his presence, and the conmiunications of his grace 
 to my soul, supporting, comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon 
 his providence here, and hope for his eternal presence hereafter. 
 
 Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting, or for viewing tne 
 country, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break me 
 on a sudden, and my very heart would die within me, to thin] ' of the 
 woods, the mountains, the deserts I was in ; and how I was a p risoner, 
 locked up with the eternal bolts and bars of the ocean, in an un- 
 inhabited wilderness, without redemption. In the midst of the^reatest 
 composures of my mind, this would break out .upon me like a' storm, 
 and make me wring my hands, and weep like a child. Sometimes it 
 would take me in the middle of my work, and I would immediately 
 sit down and sigh, and look down upon the ground for an hour or two 
 together j 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 ; I daily 
 read the word of God, and applied aU the comforts of it to my present 
 state. One morning, being very sad, I opened the bible upon these words, 
 
 I will never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee ! Immediately it 
 occurred, that these words were to me, why else should they be 
 dhected in such a manner, just al^he moment when I was mourning 
 over my condition, as one forsaken of God and man ? Well then, said 
 I, if God does not forsake me, of what ill consequence can it be, or 
 
89 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 wliat matters it, tliougli 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. 
 
 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. 
 
 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 employmei^ts that were before me, such as first, my 
 duty to God, and reading the scriptures, which I constantly set apart 
 som^. 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 caught for my supply. These took up 
 great part of the day. Also it is to be considered, that in the middle 
 of the day, the violence of the heat was too great to stir out ; so that 
 ab^t four hours in the evening was aU the time I could be supposed 
 to \vork 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 ex- 
 ceeding laboriousness of my work ; the many hours which, for want of 
 tools, want of help, and want of skill, everytliing 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 
 sa\Yyers, with their tools and saw-pit, would have cut six of them out 
 of the same tree in half a day. 
 
 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 a 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 j 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 ftay judge the labour of my hands 
 Lu such a piece of work ; but labour and patience carried me through 
 that and many other things. 
 
90 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 I was now in the months of November and December, expecting my 
 crop of barley and rice. The groimd I had manured or dug up for 
 them was not great ; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not abovt 
 the quantity of half a peck ; for I had lost one whole crop by sowing 
 in the dry season ; but now my 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 ; at 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 eat it so close, that it could get no time to shoot up into stalks. 
 
 This I saw no remedy for, but by making an inclosure 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 in the 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 ^de, 
 so the birds were as like 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 proved it to be so ; for as I 
 walked off, as if I was gone, I wai no sooner out of their sight, but 
 they dropped down one by one into the corn again. I was so pro- 
 vokfKi, that I could not have patience to stay till more came on, 
 
91 
 
 of Bohmson Crusoe. 
 
 knowing that every grain that they eat now was, as it might he said, a 
 peck loaf to me in the consequence. Eut 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, that is, hanged them in chains, for a terror to others. It is 
 almost impossible to imagine, that this should have such an effect as it 
 had, for the fowls would not only not come at the corn, hut 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 he 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 broad- 
 swords, 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 Tny 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 how to grind or make meal 
 
92 
 
 The Life ani Adventures 
 
 of my corn, or 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 mean time to employ all my study and 
 hours of working to accomplish this great work of providing myself 
 vsdth corn and bread. 
 
 It might be truly said, that now I 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. 
 
 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 in but 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. 
 
 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 ad- 
 vantage to me too. But all this, as I said, made everything laborious 
 and tedious to me, but that there was no help for, neither was my 
 time so much loss to me, because 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 tiU I had a greater quantity by me, I had 
 the next six months to apply myself, whoUy by labour and invention, 
 to furnish myseK with utensils proper for the performing all the opera- 
 tions necessary for the 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 
 
 
93 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe, 
 
 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 ofi* that wood which I had set before, which I knew would 
 grow j so that in one year’s time I knew I should have a quick or 
 living 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-door, that is, when it rained, and I could not go out, I found 
 employment on the following occasion, always observing, 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 j 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 iny 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 : 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, 
 bi^t if I could find out any such clay, I might botch up some such 
 pot; as might, being dried by the sun, be hard enough, and strong 
 vi^-ehough, to bear handling, and to hold anything that was dry, and 
 required to be kept so ; and as this was necessary in preparing corn, 
 meal, &c., 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. 
 
 It 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 mis- 
 shapen 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 caU them jars, in about two months’ labour. 
 
 However, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, I lifted them 
 fcry gently up, and set them down again in two greater 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, 
 
94 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 I stuffed it full of tlie rice and barley straw; and these two pots being 
 to stand always dry, I thought it 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 little round 
 pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and anything 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 meat, when I went to put it out after I had done with it, 
 
 I found a broken piece of one of my earthenware 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 thrcilighj\ 
 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 «ne 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. 
 
 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 suppose, 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 
 
95 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 admiraljly well ; and with a piece of a 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 for 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 then, with the help of fire and infinite 
 labour, made a hollow place in it, as the Indians in Brasil make their 
 cipoes. After this, I made a great heavy pestle or beater, of the wood 
 iCdi-^ the iron- wood ; and this I prepared and laid by against I had my 
 'ne3[^Cl^.^. of corn, when I proposed to myself to grind, or rather pound, 
 n ccffncr meal to make my bread. 
 
 My next difficulty was to make a sieve, 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. This 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 canvass, or stuff, to sift 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 remember 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 
 %omQ years ; how I did afterwards, I shall shew in its place. 
 
 The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how I 
 shouli make bread when I came to have corn ; for, first, I had no 
 yeast. As to that part, as there was no supplying th want, so I did 
 
96 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 not concern myself mncli about it But for an oven, I was indeed in 
 great pain. At length I found out an experiment 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 other, and laid them by : 
 and when I 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 
 Uearth was very hot : then sweeping away all the embers, I set down 
 my loa:^ or loaves ; and whelming do\vn 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 pastry-cook into the 
 bargain, for I made myself several cakes of the rice, and puddings. . 
 
 It need not be wondered at, if aU 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 fioor to thrash it on, or instrument to* 
 thrash it with. ^ ^ 
 
 And now indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really w^ted ' 
 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 4he 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 and rice 
 Tvere 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. 
 
 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 main land, 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 
 
of Rohinson Crusoe, 97 
 
 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 oif from that shore. 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 j and my head ran mightily 
 upon the thoughts of getting over to that shore. 
 
 !N'ow 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 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. 
 
 Had I had hands to have refitted her, and have launched her into 
 the water, the boat would have done well enough, and I might have 
 gone back into the Erasils with her easily enough ; but I might have 
 easily foreseen, that I could no more turn her, and set her upright upon 
 I could remove the island. However I went to the 
 .'i^ind cut levers and rollers, and brought them to the boat, resolving 
 'to ir vrhat, I could do j suggesting to myself, that if I could but turn 
 
 her down, .1 might easily repair the damage she had received, and she 
 would be a very good boat, and I might go to sea in her very easily. 
 
 H 
 
 4 
 
98 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 vith 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 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 with my thoughts of making it, and with 
 my having much more convenience for it than any of the Negroes or 
 Indians j but not at all considering the particular inconveniences 
 which I lay under more th^n the Indians did, namely want of hand^ 
 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. 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 o Jei* 
 forty-five miles of sea, than about forty-five fathom of land, where it*] ■ /, 
 to set it afloat in the water. 
 
 I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever in'an 
 did, who had any of his senses awake. I pleased myself 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 will warrant I 
 will find some way or other to get it along when it is done. 
 
 This was a most preposterous method; but the eagerness 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 of 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 
 
99 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 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. 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 
 handsome 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, it was up hill towards 
 the creek. Well, to take away this discouragement, 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 difiiculty 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 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 reluctancy, 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, 
 ^nd kept my anniversary with the same devotion, and with as much 
 comfort, as ever before ; for by a constant study, and serious application 
 
 H 2 
 
100 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 of the word of God, and by the assistance of his grace, I gained a dif- 
 ferent knowledge from what I had before. I entertained different 
 notions of things ; I looked now npon 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 hereafter, namely as a place I had lived in, but was come out of it. 
 And well might I say, as Father Abraham to Dives, “Between me and 
 thee there is a great gulph 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, or 
 the pride of life : I had nothing to covet, for I had all I was now 
 capable of enjoying. I was lord of the manor j or, if I pleased, I flight 
 call myself king or emperor over the whole country which I had pos- 
 session 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 ; Mt 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. ‘ 
 
 I had, as I hinted before, a parcel of money, as well gold as silver, 
 about thirty-six pound 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 hand-mill to grind my corn ; nay, I would have given* 
 it all for six-penny worth of turnip and carrot seed out of England, or 
 for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink. 
 
 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 days of the 
 month on which any remarkable thing happened to me, and first, by 
 casting up times past, I remembered that there was a strange con- 
 currence of days, in the various providences which befel 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. 
 
101 
 
 of Rchinson Crusoe, 
 
 rirst, 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 that 
 ship in Yarmouth Eoads, that same day of the year afterwards I made 
 my escape from Sallee in the boat. 
 
 The same day of the year I was horn on, namely, the 30th of 
 September, the same day I had my life so miraculously saved 26 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 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 near a year 
 before I got any corn of my own ; and great reason I had to be thank- 
 ful that I had any at all, the getting it being, as has been already 
 observed, next to miraculous. 
 
 My , clothes too began to decay mightily : as to linen, I had had 
 f a good wEile, except some chequered shirts wEich I found in the 
 i^'^ests of the other seamen, and which I carefully preserved, because 
 li. any, times I could bear no oUier clothes on but a shirt ; and it w^as a 
 \ ry great help to me, that I had among all the men’s clothes of the 
 s' ip almost three dozen of shirts. There w^ere also several thick 
 Avitch-coats of the seamen’s, which were left indeed, but they were too 
 * h^pto wear ; and though it is true, that the weather was so violent 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 w^as not ; nor could I abide 
 the 'thoughts of it, though I w^as 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 wdth some clothes on ; 
 nay, the very heat frequently blistered my skin ; wEereas, with a shirt 
 on, the air itself made some motion, and whistling under the shirt, was 
 twofold cooler than without it. Ho more could I ever bring myself to 
 go out in the heat of the sun without a cap or hat ; the heat of the 
 sun beating with such violence as it does in that place, would give m& 
 the headach 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 
 w^ould presently go aw^ay. 
 
 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 
 
102 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 waistcoats, which I hoped would serve me 
 a great while ; as for breeches or drawers, I made but a 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 these was a great cap for my head, with the 
 hair on the outside to shoot off the raiu, 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. JjC 
 must not omit to acknowledge, that they were wretchedly madefy TO 
 if I was a bad carpenter, I was a worse tailor ; howeve^ they wer^uch 
 as I made very good shift with ; and when I was abroad, if it ht^pu 
 to rain, the hair of the waistcoat and cap being outmost, I was 
 very dry. 
 
 After this I spent a deal of time and pains to make me an umfe^ 
 
 I was indeed in great want of one, and had a great mind to make 
 I had seen them made in the Brasils, where they are very useful : 
 great heats which are there ; and I felt the heats every jot as great he 
 and greater too, being nearer the equinox j besides, as I was o^gj 
 be much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as well for tliiq^mns' 
 as the heats. I took a world of pains at it, and was a great- ^hile 
 before I could make anything 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 ansv^ered indiJBferently 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 pent-house, 
 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. 
 
 Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely composed 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 103 
 
 by resigning to the will of God, and throwing myself wholly upon the 
 disposal of his Providence. 
 
 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 sufficient stock of 
 the year’s provisions 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. 
 
 However, though my little periagua Avas finished, yet the size of it 
 was not at all answerable to the design which I had in vieAV, Avhen I 
 made the first ; I mean of venturing over to the terra firma, Avhere it 
 was above forty miles broad ; accordingly, the smallness of my boat, 
 assisted to put an end to that design, and noAV 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 other parts of the coast ; and 
 now I had a boat, I thought of nothing but sailing round the island. 
 
 Por this purpose, and that I might do everything with discretion 
 and consideration, I fitted up a little mast to my boat, and made a sail 
 
]04 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 fonnd she 
 would sail very well. Then I made little lockers and boxes at each end 
 of my boat, to put provisions, necessaries, and ammunition, &c. into, 
 to be kept dry, either from rain, or the 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 j putting 
 in two dozen of my loaves (cakes I should rather call them) of barley- 
 bread j 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^with shot for killiim 
 more, and two large 'watch-coats, of those which, as I mentioned befoi^ 
 I had saved out of the seamen’s chests ; these I took, one to lie |ip^ 
 and the other to cover me in the night. 
 
 It was the sixth of November, in the sixth year of my rei^.,^ 
 captivity, which ^ou please, that I set out on this voyage, and iH 
 
 it much longer than I expected : for though the islaild itself was"'^ 
 very large, yet when I came to the east side of it, I found a great ' 
 of rocks lie out about two leagues into the sea, some above water, 
 
 under it ; and beyond this a shoal of sand, lying dry half a Fvgue 
 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^ enter- 
 prise, 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 wdiich I got out of the ship. 
 
 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 fuU 
 extent of it, and resolved to venture. 
 
 In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I perceived 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 
 
105 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 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 it off at a farther distance ; and I 
 saw there was a strong eddy under the shore ; so I had nothing to do 
 hut to get out of the first current, and I should presently he in an eddy. 
 
 I lay here, however, two days ; because the wind blowing pretty fresh 
 (E. at S. E. and that being just contrary to the said current) made a 
 great breach of the sea upon the point j 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 over-night, 
 the sea was calm, and I ventured ; but I am a warning-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 hke the sluice of a mill. It 
 carried my boat along with it with such 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 my paddles signified nothing. And now I began to give myself 
 ?^r ll4.‘‘T(^t :.for, as the current was on both sides the island, I knew 
 .;n\ :^ew leagues’ distance they must join again, and then I was irre- 
 ‘'^verably gone ; nor did I see any possibility of avoiding it : so that I 
 i .ad no prospect before me but of perishing ; not by the sea, for that 
 weAfialm 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 
 irJ4k’ie boat ; and I had a great jar of fresh water, that is to say, one 
 
 fiiyi^arthen pots. But what was all this to being driven into the 
 vast ocean, where, to be sure, there was no shore, no main land 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 wo 7 ^se. [N’ow I 
 looked back upon my desolate solitary island, as the most pleasant place 
 in the world, and that aU the happiness my heart could wish for, was 
 to be there again. I stretched out my hands to it with eager wishes. 0 
 happy desert, said I, I shall never see thee more ! 0 miserable creature ! 
 said I, whither am I going ? Then I reproached myself with my unthank- 
 ful temper, and how I had repined at my solitary condition. 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 illustrated to us by its contraries ; 
 nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the w^ant of it. It is 
 
106 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 scarce possible to imagine the consternation I was now 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 meridian, 
 I thought I felt a little breeze of wind in my face, springing up from 
 the S. S. E. This cheered my heart a little, and especially when in 
 about half an hour more, it blew a pretty small gentle gale. Ey 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. 
 
 J ust 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 rocl^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 dhectly 
 towards the island, but about two leagues more towards 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 Eohmson Crusoe, 107 
 
 of this current or eddy, I found it was spent, and served me no farther. 
 However, I found, that being between 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, 1 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 stretched across this eddy, slanting north-west, and in about 
 an hour came within about a mile of the shore : it being smooth water, 
 I soon got to land. 
 
 When I was on shore, I fell on my knees, and gave God thanks foi 
 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. 
 
 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 case, 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 
 anymore 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 
 
108 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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, Avhich narrowed till it 
 came to a very little rivulet, or brook, where I found a convenient 
 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 exceeding 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 everything standing as I left it j 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 you, if you can, that 
 read my story, what a surprise I must be in, when I was awaked ^ut of 
 my sleep by a voice calling me by my name several times, Eobin, 
 Eobin, Eobin Crusoe, poor Eobin Crusoe ! “ \'\rhere are you, Eobin 
 
 Crusoe % ” "\^Tiere are you ? ” Where have you been 1 
 
 I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or 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 wakjng, 
 thought I dreamed that somebody spoke to me: but as the'^^oice 
 continued to repeat Eobin Crusoe, Eobin 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 language , 
 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 Eobin Crusoe, where are you*?” ‘AYhere 
 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 nowhere 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 
 
CKtJSOE’S PARROT WAKES HIM 
 

 r 
 
109 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 talking to me, Poor Eobin Crusoe, and how did I come here ? and 
 where had I been ? just as if he had been overjoyed to see me again ; 
 and so I carried him home along with me. 
 
 I had enough of rambling to sea for some time, and 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 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 stream, and carried by the island, as I had been before of 
 being carried aw§.y 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 •^is government of my temper I remained near a year, lived a very 
 sedate! retired life, as you may well suppose ; and my thoughts being 
 ‘ver;^mitch composed, as to my condition, and fully comforted in 
 resigning myself to the dispensations of Providence, I thought I lived 
 really very happily in all things except that of society. 
 
 I impro^d myself, in this time, in all the mechanic exercises which 
 my netessiflls 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 earthen- 
 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 anything 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 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 
 Sinj pipes at all. 
 
 In my wicker-ware I also improved much, and made abundance of 
 necessary baskets, as well as my invention shewed me, though not very 
 
110 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 handsome, yet convenient for my laying things np in, or fetching things 
 home in. Tor 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 : then I began 
 seriously to consider what I must do when I should have no more 
 powder ; that is to say, how should I 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 And 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 h^ve 
 said, my ammunition growing low, I set myself to study sotha art to 
 trap and snare the goats, to see whether I could not catch some of 
 them alive ; and particularly I wanted a she-goat great’^jvifc. young. 
 To this purpose I made snares to hamper them ; and believe fheyi^vere 
 more than once taken in them ; but my tackle was not good,¥c-r I had 
 no wire, and always found them broken, and my bait devouied. At 
 length I resolved to try a pit-fall; so I dug several large|pits in the 
 earth, in places where I had observed the goats used to feec^^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 mark 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 others, three kids, 
 a male and two females. 
 
 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 kiUed him, 
 but that was not my business, nor would it answer my end ; so I e'en 
 let him out, and he ran away as if he had been frightened out of his’ 
 
Ill 
 
 of JRohinson Crusoe, 
 
 witu ; 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, 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 some difficulty brought 
 them all home. 
 
 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 fiock 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 
 forced either with hedge or pale, to keep them in so effectually, that 
 thos^ within might not break out, or those without break in. 
 
 This was^ great undertaking for one pair of hands ; yet as I saw 
 there was an. absolute necessity of doing it, my first piece of work was 
 to htld out a’ proper piece of ground ; namely, where there was likely 
 to be herb^e for them to eat, water for them to drink, and cover to 
 kee^ theiiWrom the sun. 
 
 Those^yffio understand such enclosures, will think I had very little 
 contrivance, when I pitched upon a place very proper for aU these, 
 being a^ain open piece of meadow-land, or savanna (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 niy 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. 
 
 My hedge was began 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 150 yards 
 in length, and 100 yards in breadth, which as it would maintain as 
 
112 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 edging in the first piece j 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 
 Df about twelve goats, kids and all ; and in two years more I had 
 three-and-forty, besides several 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. 
 
 Eut this was not all ; for now I not only had goat’s-flesh to feed on 
 when I pleased, but milk too, a thing which indeed in my beginnii^j.' I 
 did not so much as think of, and which, when it came into my^thoughts, 
 was really an agreeable surprise ; for now I sat up my dairy^nd Md 
 sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day. And as ]^at3t*e. vho 
 gives supplies of food to every creature, dictates even naturally how4o 
 make use of it, so I, that had never milked a cow, much fess a ^(jat, 
 or seen butter or cheese made, very readily and handily, though r fter a 
 great many essays and miscarriages, made me both butter andl^he ;^e at 
 last, and never wanted it afterwards. 
 
 How mercifully can our great Creator treat his creatures, even^ those 
 conditions in which they seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction ! 
 How 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 smile, to have seen me and my little 
 family sit down to dinner : there was my majesty, the prince and lord 
 of the whole island ; I had the lives of aU my subjects at absolute 
 command ; I could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away, and no 
 rebels among all my subjects 1 
 
 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 old and crazy, 
 and found no species to multiply his kind upon, sat always at ni) 
 
113 
 
 of liohinson Crusoe, 
 
 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 ; 
 foi they were both of them dead, and had been interred near my 
 l_.bit^ioh by my own hands ; but one of them having multiplied by 
 J ktK^W'Uot what kind of creature, these were two w^hich I preserved 
 ta4e, whereas the rest ran wild into the woods, and became indeed 
 ■ tpu les^e to me at last ; for they would often come into my house, 
 a^^ plunder me too, till at last I was obliged to shoot them, and did 
 a. g^eat 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. 
 
 I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have the use of 
 my boat, though very loth 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 hiU 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 frighted them or raised a great deal 
 of laughter ; and, as I frequently stood still to look at myself, I could 
 
114 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 not but smile at the notion of mj travelling through Yorkshire with 
 such an equipage, and in such a dress. 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 j nothing being so hurtful in these climates as the rain upon the 
 flesh under the clothes. 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. Stock- 
 ings and shoes I had none j but I made me a pair of something, I 
 scarce know what to call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs, and 
 lace on either side like spatterdashes j 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 j and in a kind of 
 frog on either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung' a 
 little saw and hatchet ; one on one side, one on the other : I had 
 another belt not so broad, and fastened in the same manner, whjph 
 hung over my shoulder ; and at the end of it, under my left arm, 
 hung two pouches, both made of goat’s-skin too ; in one of ||yhi>, ’ v- ? 
 hung my powder, in the other my shot : at my back I car^j^iJ ^ 
 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 Soloui^ 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 Mahometan 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 were long enough to hang my hat upon them j 
 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 me that it was 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 up upon 
 
115 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 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 I was obliged 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 convinced 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 occa- 
 sion of this current ; and that according as the wind blew more forcibly 
 from the west, or from the north, this current came nearer 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 and my canoe along with it, which at another time it 
 )rfdld 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 I might very easily 
 tring my ^Doalrabout the island again. But when I began to think of 
 putting it in practice I had .such a terror upon my spirits at the remem- 
 brance of the danger I had been in, that I could not think of it again 
 with any patience j 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 planta- 
 tions in the island ; one, my little fortiflcation or tent, with the w^all 
 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 yet 
 beyond my wall or fortification, that is to say, be^^ond 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 
 
 i2 
 
116 27^e' Life and Adventures 
 
 Yery mncli, that there was not the least appearance, to any one's Anew, 
 of any habitation behind them. 
 
 Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land, and 
 upon lower ground, lay niy 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 tolerable planta- 
 tion there also ; for, first, I had my little bower, as I 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 my stakes, 
 hut 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 
 a^lireeahle shade, Avhich they did effectually to my mind. In the middle 
 of this I had my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread 
 ever 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 Avith other soft things,^ and 
 a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-hedding, Avhich I 
 had saved, and a great watch-coat to cover me ; and here, Avhenever I ' 
 had occasion to he absent from my chief seat, I took up my counti^ 
 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 
 
of Eohinson Crusoe. 117 
 
 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 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 principally 
 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 only agreeable, but physical, 
 whofesome, nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree. 
 
 As this was also about half way between my other habitation 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 cur- 
 rents, 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 ex- 
 ceedingly 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 thunder- 
 struck, or as if I had seen an apparition. 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 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 
 
118 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 of myself, I came home to my fortification, 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. 'Not 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, as 
 first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which I called a 
 door, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remember the next morning; 
 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 embarra'ssed with my 
 own frightful ideas of the thing, that I formed nothing but 
 imaginations to myself, even though I was now a great way off it.^ ^ 
 
 At last I concluded that it must be some more dangerous creature ; 
 namely, that it must be some of the savages of the main land 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 loth, 
 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 imaginations about their having found my boat, and that there 
 were people here; and that, if so, I should certainly have them come 
 again in great numbers, and devour me ; that if it should happen so 
 that they 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 ia God which was founded upon such wonderful experience 
 as I had had of his goodness, now vanished ; as if he that had fed me 
 
119 
 
 of Rohinson Gruso<t. 
 
 by miracle liitherto, could not preserve by his poTver the provision 
 which he had made for me by his goodness. I reproached myself 
 with my easiness^ that 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. 
 And this I thought so just a reproof, that I resolved for the future to 
 have two or three years’ corn hefore-hand, so that whatever might come, 
 I might not perish for want of bread. 
 
 These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say, weeks 
 and months ; and one particular effect of my cogitations 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.” 
 
 In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions and reflections, 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 
 b^t 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 teU 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 anybody else. 
 
 Is’ow 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 Ihe print of one of my own feet (and so I might be 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 
 
120 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 of 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 anyw^here 
 thereabouts. 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 surprised before I was aware ; and what course to take 
 for my security I knew not. 
 
 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 mysejf, 
 I concluded that this island, which was so exceeding pleasant, fruitful, 
 and no farther from the main land than as I had seen, was not so 
 entirely abandoned as I might imagine. That although there were no 
 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 day-light back again. And that therefore I had 
 
121 
 
 of EoMnson Crusoe, 
 
 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 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 finished. 
 
 So that I had now a double wall, and my outer wall was thickened 
 with pieces of timber, old cables, and everything I could think of to 
 
 make it strong ; having in it seven holes about as big as I might put 
 my arm out at. In the inside of 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 contrived 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 
 
122 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 wood, wliicli 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 impassable ; and no man of what 
 kind soever would ever imagine that there was anything 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 mischiefing 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 suggest for my 
 own preservation ; and it will be seen at length, 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 occasion^ and 
 began 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 convenient 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 concealed 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 And out the most retired parts of 
 ihe 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 
 
123 
 
 of Itohinson Crusoe, 
 
 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. 
 
 I immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and in lees 
 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 made it 
 ^s secure as the other, which, however, I did at more leisure, and it 
 took me up more time by a great deal. 
 
 All 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 comfortable 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. 
 
 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 seaman's chests, which 
 I saved out of our ship j 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 do 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 ind^d 
 I had never been before, I was presently convinced 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, according to 
 
124 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 S.W 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 it is 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 
 awhile as amazed ; and then, recovering myself, I looked up with the 
 utmost affection of my soul, and, with a fiood of tears in my eyes, gave 
 God thanks that had cast my first lot in a part of the world where I 
 
125 
 
 of Rohmson Crusoe, 
 
 was distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these , and, though 
 I had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet given me 
 so 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 circumstances, 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, nor 
 wanting, or not expecting anything here ; and having often, no doubt, 
 been up in the covered woody part of it without finding anything 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 years 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 con- 
 cealed 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 mean by it my three plantations, namely, 
 my castle, my country-seat, which I called my bower, and my enclosure 
 in the woods j 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 seeing them as of 
 seeing the devil himself ; nor did I so much as go to look after my 
 boat in all this time, but began rather to think of never making any 
 more attempts to bring the other boat round the island to me, lest I 
 should meet with some of these 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 
 
126 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 my giin, lest any of them being 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 with 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 descrip- 
 tion 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 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 murmuriugs and complainings. 
 
 As in my present condition there were not really many things which 
 I wanted, so indeed I thought 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 niy invention for my own conveniences ; and 
 I had dropt 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 
 presently saw there would be the want of several things necessary to 
 the making my beer, that it 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 ^ot many days, but 
 weeks, nay months, in attempting it, but to no purpose. In the next 
 place, I had no hops to make if 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 
 
of Bohinson Crusoe. 127 
 
 gave anytliing 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 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 creatures, or at least fiightening 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 guni 
 
 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 being now 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 
 do 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 myseK 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 tlnee pistols and my sword, I made 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 dreamt of 
 it, and sometimes, that I was just going to let fly at them in my sleep. 
 
 I went so far with it in my indignation, 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 my malice. 
 
 Well, at length I found a place in the side of the hill, where I was 
 
128 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 satisfied I might securely wait till I saw any of tlie 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 so that it would be next to impossible 
 that I should miss my shoot, or that I could fail wounding three ot four 
 of them at the first shoot. 
 
 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 am- 
 munition 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 imagina- 
 tion 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 w^ay. 
 
 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 further 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 mse disposition of the world, to have no other 
 guide than that of their own abominable and vitiated passions; and, 
 consequently, 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 heUish 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 
 
129 
 
 oj Txobinson Crusoe, 
 
 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, to go on, and 
 to be, as it were, the executioners of his judgments 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 promis- 
 cuously one upon another. I debated this very often with myself thus : 
 How do I know what God himself judges in this particular case 1 It 
 is certain these people do not commit this as a crime ; it is not against 
 theh* own consciences reproving, or their light reproaching 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 w^ar, 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 millions of these 
 people, who, however they were idolaters 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, unjustifiable 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 
 
130 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 eminent for tlie 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 land of a full 
 stop ; and I began by little and little to be off my design, and to con- 
 clude 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 the 
 way, not 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 j and I should only bring upon myself a certain destruction, 
 which at present I had no manner of occasion for. 
 
 Upon the whole, 1 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. " v. 
 
 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 destruction of innocent creatures, I 
 mean innocent as to me j as to the crimes they were guilty of towards 
 one another, I had nothing to do with them ; they were national, and 
 I ought to leave them to the justice of God, who is the governoi; of 
 nations, and knows how by national punishments to make a just 
 retribution for national offences ; and to bring public judgments upon 
 those who offend in a public manner, by such ways as best please him. 
 
 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 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 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 
 
of Robinson Crusoe. 131 
 
 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 belong- 
 ing 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 flnding 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 appre- 
 hensions of them had made me cautious, as well as before ; and indeed 
 II looked back with some horror upon the thoughts of what my condition 
 *would have been, if I had chopped upon them, and been discovered 
 when naked and unarmed, except with my gun, and that loaded often 
 only with small shot. I walked everywhere peeping and peeping about 
 the island, to see what I could get. What a surprise should I have been 
 in, if, when I 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. I 
 confess that these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in, and the 
 concern that was now upon me, put an end to all invention, 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 
 *ess would I fire a gun, for the same reason ; and above all, I was 
 intolerably uneasy 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, &c. into my new apartment in the woods ; where, 
 after I had been some time, I found, to my unspeakable consolationj a 
 mere natural cave in the earth, which went in a vast way, and where, 
 
 K 2 
 
132 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 nothmg 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 charcoal ; 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, &c. 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 
 ^he fire out, I preserved the coal to carry home, and perform the other 
 services which fire was wanting for at home, without danger of smoke. 
 
 But this is by the bye. While I was cutting down some wood here, 
 I perceived that behind a very thick branch of low brushwood, 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 
 ivas perfectly dark, I saw two broad shining eyes of some creature, 
 whether devil or man I knew not, which twinkled hke two stars, the 
 dim light from the cave’s mouth shining directly in, and making the 
 reflection. 
 
TUI': GOA'I' IN THE (-AYE. 
 

133 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 However, after some pause, I recovered myself, and began to call 
 myself a thousand fools, and tell myself, that he that Tvas 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 
 great fireband, 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 frighted 
 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 everywhere, and was able to protect 
 me ; upon this I stepped forward again, and by the light of the fire- 
 brand, 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, 
 and 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 he had frighted 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. 
 
 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 foot over, but in no manner of shape, either round or 
 square, no hands ever having 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 was so low, that it required me to creep 
 upon my hands and knees to go into it, and whither I 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 goat's 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, 
 nor what was beyond it. When I was got through the streight, 1 found 
 
134 ? 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 the roof rose higher up, I believe near twenty foot; 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 reflected 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 suppose 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 or venomous creature to be seen ; neither was there 
 any damp or wet on the sides or roof ; the only difficulty in it was the 
 entrance, which, however, as it was a place 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 took occasion to 
 open the barrel of powder which I took up out of the sea, and whioli 
 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 pound of very good powder in the centre of the cask ; and 
 this was an agreeable discovery to me at that time ; so I carried all 
 away thither, never keeping above two or three pound 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 are 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, whom I found expiriug, died in the mouth of the cave 
 the next da§r 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. 
 
 I was now in my. twenty-third year of residence in this island, and 
 
135 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 was so naturalized to the place, and to the manner of living, that could 
 I have hut enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come to thi 
 place to disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated foi 
 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 j 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 know not ; though I know they have 
 a notion in the Brasils, that they live a hundred years ; perhaps poor 
 Poll may be alive there still, calling after poor Eobin Crusoe to this 
 day ; I wish no Englishman the ill luck to come there and hear him ; 
 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 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 Eobin 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 sea-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 fowls 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 the savages. 
 
 But it was otherwise directed ; and it may 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 Eves, 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 
 
136 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 we are fallen into. I could give many examples of tliis in the course 
 of my unaccountable life ; but in nothing was it more particularly 
 remarkable than in the circumstances of my last two years of solitary 
 residence in this island. 
 
 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 
 sail 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 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 stepped short within 
 my grove, not daring to go out, lest I might be surprised ; and yet I 
 had no more peace within, from the apprehensions 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 had found me out. In this extremity I went back 
 directly to my castle, pulled up the ladder after me, having made aU 
 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 is to say, my 
 
of Eohinson Crusoe. 187 
 
 muskets, which were mounted upon my new fortification, and all my 
 pistols, and resolved to defend myself to the last gasp ; not forgetting 
 seriously to commend 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 continued 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; so setting up 
 my ladder to the side of the hiU, 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 purpose, I laid me down flat on my belly 
 on the ground, and began to look for the place. I presently found 
 there was 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 extreme 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 for 
 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 the 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 ofP, they went to dancing, and I could easily discern their 
 postures and gestures by my glasses : I could not perceive, by my nicest 
 "^observation, but that they were stark naked, and had not the least 
 covering upon them ; but whether they were men or women, that I 
 could not distinguish. 
 
 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. 
 And as soon as I got thither, which was not less than two hours (for I 
 
138 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 lookinf 
 fat farther, I saw they were all at sea together, making over for thr 
 main. 
 
 This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when going down 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 premeditate the destruction of the next that I sav/ 
 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 ; and I 
 found they did not come in the rainy season ; yet all this while I lived 
 uncomfortably, by reason of the constant apprehensions I was in of 
 their coming upon me by surprise. 
 
 However, I wore out a year and three months more, before I saw any 
 of the savages ; 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. In the day great troubles overwhelmed my 
 mind ; in the night I dreamed often of killing savages, and the reasons 
 why I might justify the doing of it. But, to waive all this for a while, 
 it was the middle of May, on the sixteenth day, I think, that it blew a 
 very great storm of wind all day, with a great deal of lightning and 
 thunder, and a very foul night it was. I know not what was the par- 
 ificular occasion of it, but as I was reading 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 quite a 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 moment a flash of fire bade me listen for a second gun, 
 which, accordingly, in about half a minute 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 bort. 
 
139 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 I immediately considered that this must he 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 thia 
 presence of mind at th»at minute, as to think, that though I could not 
 help them, it may be they might help me ; so I brought together all 
 the dry wood I could get at hand, and making a good sized 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 needs see it, 
 and no doubt they did, for as soon as 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 being 
 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-east 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 these 
 
 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 kind of 
 counter stream, or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering then from 
 the most desperate, hopeless condition that ever I had been in. 
 
140 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 Thus, what is one man’s safety is another man’s destruction; 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 very hard at E. and E.^^.E. 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. 
 
 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 
 on 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 learnt here again to observe, that it is very rare the 
 providence of God casts us into any condition of life so low, or any 
 misery so great, but 'we may see something to be thankful for, and may 
 see others worse than ourselves. 
 
 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 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 words, what a strange longing or hankering of 
 desires I felt in my soul upon this sight, breaking out sometimes thus : 
 — 0 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 have had one com- 
 panion, 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. 
 
 But it was not to be ; either their fate, or mine, or both, forbade it ; 
 for, till the last year of my being in this island, I never knew whether 
 any were saved out of the ship or no ; and had only the affliction, some 
 days after, to see the corpse of a drowned boy washed on shore, at the 
 end of the island which was next the shipwreck. He had on a 
 seaman’s waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed linen drawers, and a blue 
 linen shirt ; but nothing to direct me 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 of more value to me than the first. 
 
141 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 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 ; and possibly 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 or 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 everything for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a great 
 pot of 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 everything necessary, I 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 bag full 
 of rice, the umbrella to set up over my head for a shade, another pot 
 full 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 my boat, and praying 
 to God to direct my voyage, I put out ; and, rowing or paddhng the 
 canoe along the shore, I came at last to the utmost point of the island 
 on that side, namely, N.E. And now* I was to launch out into the 
 ocean, and either to venture or not 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 remembrance 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 these currents, I should be carried a 
 vast way out to sea, and perhaps out of reach, or sight, of the island 
 again ; and that, as my boat was but small, if any little gale of wind 
 should rise, I should be inevitably lost. 
 
 These thoughts so oppressed my mind, that I 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 imprac- 
 ticable. Upon this it presently occurred to me, that I should go up to 
 the highest piece of ground I could find, and observe, i If could, how 
 
142 The Life and Adventures 
 
 the sets of the tide or currents lay when the flood came in, that I might 
 judge Avhether, if I was driven one way out, I might not expect to be 
 driven another way home, Avith the same rapidness of the currents. 
 This thought was no sooner in my head, but I cast my eye upon a little 
 hill, which sufficiently 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 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 
 in the morning. I made first a little out to sea, full north, till I began 
 to feel the benefit of the current, wffiich 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 directly 
 for the wreck, and in less than two hours, 1 came up to it. 
 
 It was a dismal sight to look at ; the ship, which by the building 
 was Spanish, stuck fast jambed in between two rocks ; all the stern 
 and quarter of her was beaten to pieces with the sea ; and as her fore- 
 castle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence, her 
 main- mast and fore-mast were brought by the board, that is to say, 
 broken short off; but her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow 
 
 1 
 
143 
 
 of Eohinso7i Crusoe, 
 
 appeared firm. When I came close to her, a dog appeared upon her, 
 who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried ; and as soon as I called him, 
 jumped into the sea to come to me ; and I took him into the boat, and 
 found him almost dead for hunger and thirst. I gave him a cake of 
 my bread, and he eat it like a ravenous wolf that had been starving for 
 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 fore-castle 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 con- 
 tinually 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, or 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, wTiich 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, wliich 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 fore part 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 Eio de la Plata, in 
 the south part of America, beyond the Brasils, to the Havannah, in the 
 Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain. 
 
 I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about 
 twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difidculty. There 
 were several muskets in the cabin, and a great powder-horn, ^yith about 
 four pounds of powder in it ; as for the muskets, 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 
 agaiu, weary and fatigued to the last degree. 
 
 I reposed that night iu the boat, and in the morning I resolved to 
 harbour what I had gotten in my new cave, nol to carry it home to my 
 
144 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 castle. After refresliing myself, I got all my cargo on shore, and began 
 to examine it. The cask of liquor I found to be a kind of rum, but 
 not such as we had at the Brasils, and, in a word, not at all good. But 
 when I came to open the chests, I found several things I wanted : for 
 example, I found in one a fine case of bottles, of an extraordinary 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 sweetmeats, so fastened on 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 exceed- 
 ingly refreshing to wipe my face on in a hot dry day. Besides this, 
 when I came to the till in the chest, I found there three great bags of 
 pieces of eight, which held about eleven hundred pieces in all ; and in 
 one of them, wrapt up in a paper, six doubloons of gold, and some 
 small bars of gold j 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, 
 though there was no powder in it, but about two pounds of glazed 
 powder in three small 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, 
 ■svhich were things I greatly wanted, for I had not had a pair on my 
 feet for many years. I had, indeed, gotten two pair of shoes now, 
 which I took off the feet of the two men whom I found drowned 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. 1 
 found in this 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. 
 
 Having now brought all my things on shore, and secured them, I 
 went back to my boat, and rowed or paddled her along 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 everything 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 
 
145 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 abroad so much : and if 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 pre- 
 cautions, and such a load of arms and ammunition as I always carried 
 with me, if I went the other way. 
 
 One night, in the rainy season, in March, the four-and-twentieth 
 year of my first setting foot in this land of solitariness, I had the 
 following dream j namely, thut 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, wdiom they were going to kill, in order to eat him, when on a 
 sudden the savage that they were going to kill, made his escape, and 
 ran for his life : and then I thought in my sleep, that he came running 
 into my little grove, before my fortification, to hide himself ; and that 
 , I seeing him, and not perceiving that the others sought him that way, 
 showed myself to him, and encouraged him ; that he kneeled down to 
 me, seeming to pray to me to assist him ; upon which I showed him 
 my ladder, made him go up, and carried him into my cave, and he 
 became my servant ; and that as soon as I had got this man, I said to 
 myself, N’ow I may venture to the main land, for this fellow will serve 
 me as a pilot, and 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 awoke with this thought, and 
 was under such inexpressible impressions of joy at the prospect of my 
 escape in my dream, that the disappointment I felt upon coming to 
 myself, and finding it was no more than a dream, was really extravagant 
 the other way, and threw me into a very great dejection of spirits. 
 
 Upon this, however, I made this conclusion, that my only way to go 
 about an attempt for an escape, was to try to get a savage in my posses- 
 sion ; and, if possible, it should be one of their prisoners, whom they 
 had condemned to be eaten, and should bring hither to kill. 
 
 With these resolutions in rdy thoughts, I set myself upon the scout, 
 as often as possible, and indeed so often, till I was heartily tired of it. 
 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 
 what 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, 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 About a year and a half after I had entertained these notions, and by 
 long musing had, as it were, resolved to put them into execution, I was 
 surprised one morning early with seeing no less than five canoes all on 
 shore together, on my side of the island, and the people who belonged 
 to them all landed. The number of them broke all my measures, for 
 seeing so many, and knowing that they always came four, or sometimes 
 more, in a boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to take 
 my 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 anything had presented. Having waited a 
 good while, listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, being 
 very impatient, 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. I here observed, by the help of my per- 
 spective 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, round the fire. 
 
 While I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my perspective 
 glass, 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, cutting him open for their cookery, while 
 the other victim was left standing by himself, till they should be ready 
 for him. In 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 swiftness along the sands, directly 
 towards me, I mean towards that part of the coast where my habita- 
 tion was. 
 
 I was dreadfully frighted (that I must acknowledge,) when I per- 
 ceived him to run my way, and especially when, as I thought, I saw him 
 pursued by the whole body ; and I expected that part of my dream was 
 coming to pass, and that he would take shelter in my grove : but I 
 could not depend, by any means, upon my dream for the rest of it, 
 namely, that the 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 ; 
 still more was I encouraged, when I found that he outstripped 
 
147 
 
 of Eolinson Crxisoe, 
 
 them exceedingly in running, and gained ground of them, so that if he 
 could hut hold out for half an hour, I saw 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 pool 
 wretch would he taken there ; but when the savage who was escaping, 
 came thither, he made nothing of it, though the tide was then up, but 
 plunging in, he swam through it 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 others, but went no further, and soon after went softly back again, 
 which, as it happened, was very well for him. 
 
 I observed that the two who swam were yet 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 me a servant, and perhaps, a companion or assistant, and 
 that I was called plainly by Providence to save this poor creature’s 
 life. I immediately got down the ladders, fetched my two guns, for 
 they were both at the foot of the ladders, 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, 
 
 L 2 
 
148 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 who, looking back, was at first as much frighted at me, as at them : hnt 
 I beckoned with my hand to him to come hack, 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 to 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 known what to make of it. 
 Having knocked this fellow down, the other who followed him, stopped, 
 as if he had been frightened, and I advanced apace towards him ; hut 
 as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had a how and arrow, and 
 was fitting it to shoot at me, so I was then necessitated to shoot at fiim 
 first, which I did, and killed him at the first shot. The poor savage 
 who fled, hut had stopped, though he saw both his enemies fallen, and 
 killed (as he thought), yet was so frighted with the noise and fire of my 
 piece, that he stood stock-still, and neither came forward nor w^ent 
 backward, though he seemed rather inclined to fly still, than to come 
 on. I hallooed again to him, and made signs to him to come forward, 
 which he easily understood, and came a little way, then stopped again, 
 and then a little farther, and stopped again; and then he stood 
 trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been to 
 be killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned to 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, taking my foot, set it 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 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, showing 
 him the savage, that he was not dead ; upon this he spoke some words 
 to me, and though I could not understand 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 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 call him now, made a motion to me to lend him 
 my sword, which huno' naked in a belt by my side ; so I did. He no 
 
149 
 
 of Bohinson Crusoe. 
 
 sooner had it than he ran to his enemy, and, at one blow, cut 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 ter 
 believe, never saw a sword in his life before, except their own wooden 
 swords. However, it seems, as I learned afterwards, they make their 
 wooden swords so sharp, so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they 
 will cut off heads and arms with them, and at one blow too. When he 
 had done this, he came laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought 
 me the sword again, and laid it down, with the head of the savage he 
 had killed, just before me. 
 
 He was astonished how I had killed the other Indian, so far off ; and 
 going to him, he stood hke one amazed, looking at him, turning him, 
 first on one side, then on the other ; looked at the wound the bullet 
 had made, which was in the 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, 
 and I beckoned for us to go away, making signs 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 ; 
 so I made signs for him to do so ; he fell to work, and had them both 
 buried in the sand in about a quarter of an hour. I then called him 
 away, and took him not to my castle, but my cave, on the farther part 
 of the island ; so I did not let my dream come to pass in that respect, 
 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 he was 
 in great distress for, by his running; and having refreshed him, I made 
 signs for him to go to sleep, pointing to a place where I had laid a 
 great parcel of rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, w^hich 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, 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 sweet- 
 ness and softness of an 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 sparkhng sharp- 
 ness 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 Brasil- 
 ians, 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, 
 
150 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 thongh not very easy to describe. His face was round and plump, bis 
 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 
 about half an hour, he waked, and came out of the cave to me, for I 
 had been milking the goats in the enclosure just by. When he espied 
 me, he came running, and laid himself on the ground again, 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 submission imaginable, to let me know how much he 
 would serve me as long as he lived. I understood him in many things, 
 and let him know I was well pleased with him. In a little time I 
 began to speak to him, and teach him to speak to me ; and first, made 
 him know his name should be Friday, which was the day I saved his 
 life. I likewise taught him to say, “ Master,” and then let him know 
 that was to be my name. I also taught him to say, Yes,” and 
 and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk in an 
 earthen pot, and some bread, and let him see me drink some before 
 hinij and sop my bread in it, which he quickly imitated, 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 
 took him away with me. As we went by the place where he had 
 buried the two men, he pointed exactly to the spot, and showed me the 
 marks he had made to find them again, making signs to me that we 
 
151 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 should dig them up 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 
 immediately did, with great submission. I then led him 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 appear- 
 ance of them, or their canoes ; so they were quite gone. • 
 
 I then took my man Friday with me, giving him the sword in his 
 hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which I found he could 
 use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for me, and I two for 
 myself, and away we marched to the place where these creatures had 
 been. When I came there, my very blood ran chill in my veins, and 
 my heart sunk within me at the horror of the spectacle. Indeed, it 
 was a dreadful sight ; 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 the 
 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 
 prisoners to feast upon, that three of them were eaten, 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 of 
 which were carried to several places by those that had taken them in 
 the fight, in order to feast upon them, as was done here by these 
 wretches. 
 
 I caused Friday to gather all the bones and flesh that remained, and 
 lay them together in a heap, and burn them to ashes. I found that he 
 had still a hankering stomach, after the flesh, and was still a cannibal 
 in his nature, but I displayed such abhorrence at the very thoughts of 
 it, that he durst not discover it j for I let him know that I would kill 
 him if he offered it. 
 
 When we had done this, we came back to our castle, where I gave 
 Friday first of all a pair of linen drawers, which I had out of the poor 
 gunner’s chest 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 I was able ; and I gave him a cap, which. I had made of a hare’s 
 skin ; 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. He went awkwardly in these things at first ; wearing the 
 
152 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 drawers was very awkward to liim, and the sleeves of the jerkin galled 
 his shoulders, and the inside of his arms ; but he soon got used to 
 tliem. 
 
 The next day after I came home to my hut with him, I began to 
 consider where I should lodge him : so I made a httle tent for him in 
 the vacant place between the two fortifications, in the inside of the 
 last, and in the outside of the first ; and as there was an 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 in 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, jand leaning 
 up to the side of the hill, which was again laid across with small sticks 
 instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thickness with the 
 rice straw, which was strong 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. I took care to take all the weapons into my side every night. 
 
 But I needed none of these precautions, for never was a more faith- 
 ful, loving, sincere servant than Friday was to me ; without passions, 
 sullenness, or designs ; his very affections were tied to me, like those 
 of a child to its father, and, I dare say, he would have sacrificed his 
 life for. the saving of my own, upon any occasion whatever. 
 
 I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach 
 him everything that was proper and useful, and especially to make him 
 speak, and understand me when I spoke : and he was a very apt 
 scholar, and he was so merry, so diligent, and so pleased when he 
 could understand me, or make me understand him, that it w^as very 
 pleasant for me to talk to him. And now my life began to be very 
 easy and happy. 
 
 After 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 cannibabs stomach, I ought to let him taste other 
 flesh. So I took him out with me one morning to the woods, and I 
 saw a she-goat lying down in the shade, and two young kids close by 
 her. I catched hold of Friday ; Hold,’ ^ said I ; ‘^standstill;” and 
 made signs to him not to stir ; immediately I presented my piece, shot, 
 and killed one of the kids. The poor creature w^ho had, at a distance 
 
153 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 indeed, seen me kill the savage, his enemy, but did not know, nor 
 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, nor perceived I had 
 killed it, hut ripped up his waistcoat to. feel if he was not wounded ; 
 and, as I found, thought I was resolved to kill him ; for he came and 
 kneeled down to me, and embracing my knees, said a great many 
 things I did not understand, but I could see that his meaning was to 
 pray to 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 I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did ; 
 and whde he was 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 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 ; accordingly I fired, and bade him look, and immediately 
 he saw the parrot fall. He stood like one frightened again, notwith- 
 standing all I had said to him ; and I found he was the more amazed, 
 because he did not see me put anything into the gun ; but thought 
 there must be some wonderful fund of death and destruction in that 
 
154 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or any other thing, near or far off ; 
 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, 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, was 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 had perceived his ignorance about 
 the gun before, I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not 
 let him see me do it, that I might be ready for any other mark, but 
 nothing offered at that time. So I brought home the kjd, and the 
 same evening took the skin off, and cut it up 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 liim, 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 it, but it 
 would not do. 
 
 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 the fire, and one 
 across the top, and tying the string to the cross stick, letting the meat 
 turn continually. This Friday admired 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. 
 
 The next day I set him to work to beating some corn out, and sifting 
 it in the manner I used to do ; and he soon understood how to do it as 
 well as I, especially 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 
 
155 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 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 hard, but very cheerfully ; and I told him 
 that it was for com 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 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 
 everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had occasion 
 to send him to, and talk a great deal to me ; so that, in short, I began 
 to have some use for my tongue again. Besides the pleasure of talking 
 to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself : his simple, 
 unfeigned honesty appeared to be more and more every day, and I began 
 really to love the creature j and I believe he loved me as much as 
 possible. 
 
 I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination to his 
 own country ; 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 light 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 r’ 
 
 Friday. My nation beat much for all that. 
 
 Master. How beat h If your nation beat them, how came you to 
 be taken 1 
 
 Friday. They more than my nation in the place where me was : they 
 take one, two, three, and me. My nation over-beat them in 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 ? 
 
156 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 ■ Friday, Yes, yes, they come hither : come other else place. 
 
 Master, Have you been here with them h 
 
 Friday, Yes, I been here. (Points to the H.W. side of the island^ 
 which it seems was their side.) 
 
 By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among 
 the savages, who had used to come on shore on the farther parts of the 
 island, on the said man-eating occasions that he had been now brought 
 for : and some time after, when I took courage to carry him to that side, 
 he presently kneAV the place, and told me he was there once when they 
 eat up twenty men, two w’-omen, and one child. 
 
 After I had had this discourse with him, I asked him how far it was 
 from our island to the shore ; whether the canoes were not often lost 1 
 He told me that 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 thought 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 w^hich river, as I thought afterwards, our island lay ; and that this 
 land, which I perceived to the W. and KW., w^as 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 names than Caribs ; 
 from w^hence I easily understood that these w^ere the Caribbees, w^hich 
 our maps place on that part of America which reaches from the mouth 
 of the river Oroonoque to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told 
 me that up a great way beyond the moon, which must be west from 
 •their country, there dwelt white, bearded men, like me, and pointed to 
 my great whiskers, which I mentioned before, and that they had killed 
 ^^much mans,^^ that was his word. By all 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 inquired 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 in 
 two canoe.^^ I could not understand what he meant by “ two canoe, 
 till at last, with difficulty, I found he meant that it must be a large 
 boat, as big as two canoes. 
 
 This part of Friday’s discourse began to relish with me very well ; 
 
of Robinson Crusoe. 157 
 
 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. 
 
 I was now wanting to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in 
 Friday’s mind ; particularly I asked him one time who made him. The 
 poor creature did not understand me, hut thought I had asked him who 
 was his father. Eut I took it another way, and asked him who made 
 the sea, the ground he walked on, and the hills and woods. He told 
 me it was one old Eenamuckee, 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 person had made all things, why did not all 
 things worship him ] He looked very grave, and with a perfect look 
 of innocence said, “ All things said 0 to him.” I asked him if the 
 people who die in his country went away anywhere. He said, yes, they 
 all went to Eenamuckee. Then I asked him whether those they eat up 
 went thither too. He said, Yes.” 
 
 From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the 
 true God. I told him that the great Maker of all things lived up there, 
 pointing up towards heaven : that he governs the world by the same 
 power and providence by which he had made it : that he was omni- 
 potent, could do everything for us, give everything to us, take every- 
 thing from us : and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened 
 m£h 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 into 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 Eenamuckee, 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 Oowokakee, that is, as I made him explain it to me, their religious, 
 or clergy ; and that they went to say 0 (so he called saying prayers), 
 and then came back, and told them what Eenamuckee said. Ey this 
 I observed that there is priestcraft even amongst the most blinded 
 ignorant pagans in the world. 
 
 Sending him for something a great way off, I seriously prayed to God 
 that he would enable me to instruct this poor savage, assisting by his 
 Spirit the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of the 
 knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to himself, and would 
 
158 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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. AVlien he 
 came again to me, I entered into a long discourse with him upon the 
 subject of the redemption of man, by the Sa\iour 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 Eedeemer 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. 
 
 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 I either 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 confiu-ed 
 to, I had not only been moved myself to look up to heaven, ai. to 
 seek to the hand that brought me thither, but was now to be made tm 
 
159 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 instrument, under Providence, to save the life, and for aught T 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.” _ 
 
 In this thankful fr§^me I continued all the remainder of my time, 
 and the conversatiom 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 were equally penitent, and comforted restored 
 penitents. We 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 Scriptures, and to let him know, as well 
 as I could, the meaning of what I read. 
 
 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 history. I let 
 him into the mystery 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. 
 
 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 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 had all- been gone long ago. 
 
 I showed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost when I escaped, 
 and which was now fallen almost to pieces. Upon seeing this boat, 
 Friday stood musing some time, and said nothing. I asked him what 
 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 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 
 V dull that I never once thought of men making their escape from a 
 
loU The Life and Adventures 
 
 wreck thither, much less whence they might come, so I only inquired 
 after a description 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 drown. 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.’^ I asked him, How many ? He told me 
 upon his fingers seventeen. I asked him What became of them ? ” 
 He told me, “ They live, they dwell at my nation.’* 
 
 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, 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 savages. 
 
 Upon this I inquired of him more critically, what was become of 
 tliem ; he assured me they still lived 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 that they did not 
 kill them, and eat them. He said, ^‘Ho, they make brother with 
 them,” that is, as I understood him, a truce ; and then he added. 
 They no eat mans, but when make the war fight ; ” that is to say, 
 they never eat any 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 I had, in a clear 
 day, discovered the main, or continent of America, Friday, the weather 
 being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the main land, and in 
 a kind of surprise, falls a jumping and dancing, and calls out to me \ 
 I asked him what was the matter. 0 joy,” says he, 0 glad ! There 
 see my country ! there my nation 1 ” 
 
 I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appear in his face, 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 I made no 
 doubt, but that if Friday could get back to his own nation again, he 
 would not only forget all his religion, but all his obligations to me. 
 
 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 circumspect, and not so familiar and 
 kind to him as before, in which I was certainly in the wrong. 
 
161 
 
 of Bohinson Crusoe, 
 
 AVhilst my jealousy of him lasted, I was every day pumping him, to t 
 see if he would discover any of the new thoughts, which I suspected 
 'were in him; hut I found everything he said was honest, and so 
 innocent, that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion, and, in 
 spite of all my uneasiness, 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 hiip. and said, 
 ‘‘Friday, do not you wish yourself in your own country, your own 
 nation ] ’’ “ Yes,^’ he said ; “ I be much glad to be at my own natron.^' 
 
 “ What would you do there? ” said I ; “ would you turn wild again, eat 
 man^s flesh again, and be savage as you were before ? He looked full 
 of concern, and shaking his head, said, “Ho, 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, “Ho, they no 
 kni me ; they willing love learn. He meant by this they would be 
 wflling to learn ; he added they learned much of the bearded mans that 
 came in the boat. Then I asked 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. 
 
 “ Ho, no,’^ said he, “ me make them no eat you ; me make they much 
 love you.’^ He meant he would tell them how I had killed hi^ enemies, 
 and saved his life, and so he would make them much love me. 
 
 From this time, I confess, I had a mind to ventm’e 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 agaiu, by way of discourse, and told him I would give 
 him a boat to go back to his own nation; and accordingly carried him 
 to my frigate, which lay on the other side of the island, and having 
 cleared it of the water, I brought it out, showed it him, and we both 
 went into it. v 
 
 I found he was very dexterous at managing it, and would make it go 
 almost as swift again as I could ; so 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 ?^at was too small to go 
 
 M 
 
162 
 
 The Lij^e and Adventures 
 
 so far. I told him then I had a bigger ; so the very next day I went 
 to the place where the first boat lay, which I had made, but which 1 
 could not get into the water. He said that was big enough ; but as I 
 had taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three-and-twenty years 
 there, the sun had split and dried it, that it was in a manner rotten. 
 Friday told me that such a boat would do very well, and would carry 
 much enough vittle, drink, bread ; that was his way of talking. 
 
 Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my design 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. Ho 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 we both there ; no 
 wish Friday there, no master there.’* In a word, he would not think 
 of going there without me. You shall go without me ; leave me here 
 to live by myself as I did before.” He looked confused at this, 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 h ” said I to him. 
 "" You take kill Friday,” says he. “ What must I kill you for 1 ” said I 
 again. He returns very quick, What you sent Friday away for ? 
 
163 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 Take kill Friday ; no send Friday away.’^ As lie spoke, tears stood in 
 his eyes, and I was so affected, that I said I would never send him 
 away, if he was willing to stay with me. 
 
 I found that all the foundation of his desire to go to his own country 
 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 myself, so I 
 had not the least thought, or intention, or desire of undertaking it. 
 Eut still I found a strong inclination to attempting an escape, as above, 
 founded on the supposition gathered from the former discoui;se, namely, 
 that there were seventeen bearded men there ; and therefore, without 
 any more delay, I went to work with Friday, to find out a great "tree 
 proper to fell, and make a large periagua, or canoe, for the voyage. 
 After searching some time, Friday at last pitched upon a tree, for I 
 found he knew 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 Mcaragua 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 it 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, 
 however, 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 ease. 
 
 It amazed me to see with what dexterity, and how swift my man 
 Friday would 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, ‘‘me venture over in her very well, though great blow wind.” 
 However, I had a farther design that he knew nothing of, and that was 
 to make a mast and a sail, and to fit her with an anchor and cable. As to 
 the 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 
 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 pieces of old sails, but as I had 
 had them now twenty-six years by me, and not being very careful t(? 
 preserve them, they were nearly all rotten. However, I found two 
 pieces which appeared pretty good, and with a great deal of pains and 
 awkward, tedious stitching, for want of needles, I at length made a 
 
 M 2 
 
164 
 
 The Life and Jldventures 
 
 tkree-cornerecl- ugly thing, like what we call in England a shoulder-of- 
 mutton sail, to go with a boom at the 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 m the 
 boat in which I made my escape from Earbary. 
 
 I was near two months in rigging and fitting out my mast and sails, 
 for I fitted them very complete, makiug 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 hex* to steer with, and 
 though I was but a bungling shipwright, yet, as I knew the usefulness 
 and even necessity of such a thing, I applied myself with so muck 
 pains to do it, that at last I brought it to pass. 
 
 After all this was done, I had my man Eriday 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 how the sail gfbbed, and filled this way or that way, as 
 the course we sailed 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, except 
 that as to the compass I could make him understand very little of 
 that ; but there was not much occasion for the compass in these parts. 
 
 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 the 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 Providence 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 all my 
 work as usuaL 
 
 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 thus we waited 
 /or the months of November and December, in which I designed to 
 make my adventure. 
 
 When the settled season began to come in, the first thing I did was 
 to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being the store for our voyage ; 
 
163 
 
 of Hohmson Crusoe, 
 
 and I intended in a week or a fortnight’s time to open the dock 
 and launch out our boat, I was busy one morning upon something 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 ; and before I 
 had time to speak to him, he cried out to me, 0 master ! 0 master ! 
 O sorrow ! 0 bad ! ” What’s the matter, Friday ? ” said I. “0 
 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 
 frightened ; ” so I heartened him up as well as I could. However, I 
 saw the poor fellow was most terribly 'scared, for nothing ran in his head 
 but that they were come to look for Kim, and would cut him in pieces 
 and eat him ; and 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 h ” “ Me shoot,” says he ; “but there come many great 2 iiimber.” 
 “ Iso matter for that,” said I again, “ our guns will fright them that we 
 do not^kill.” So I asked him whether, if I resolved to defend him, he 
 would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as I bade him. He 
 said, “ Me die when you bid die, master.” So I gave him a good dram 
 of rum ; and when he had drunk it, I made him take the two fowling- 
 pieces, and load them with 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 twenty-one savages, three 
 prisoners, and three canoes; and that their whole business seemed to 
 be the triumphant banquet upon these three human bodies; but 
 nothing more than as I had observed as usual with them. 
 
 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 abhor- 
 rence of the inhuman errand these wretches came about, so filled me 
 with indignation, that I came down to Friday, and told him I was 
 
1G6 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 resolved to go down to them and kill them all, and asked him if he 
 would stand by me. He had now gotten over his fright, and his spirits 
 being a little raised with the dram I had given him, he was very cheer- 
 ful, 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 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, or shoot, or do anything 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 weU to get over the creek 
 as to get into the wood, so that I might come within^ a shot of them 
 before I should be discovered, which I had seen by my glass it was 
 easy to do. 
 
 I entered the wood with all possible wariness and silence (Friday 
 following close at my heels), and 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, and 
 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 kiU next, and which fired the very soul within me. He 
 told me it was not one of their own nation, but one of the bearded men 
 whom he had told me of, that 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 feet tied with flags, or things 
 like rushes, and that he was an 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 haK a shot of them. So I withheld my passion, and, 
 going back about twenty paces, I got behind some bushes, which held 
 aU the way till I came to the other tree, and then I came to a little 
 rising ground, which gave me a fuU view of them, at the distance of 
 about eighty yards. 
 

 
CRUSOE RESCUES A SPANIARD 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 167 
 
 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 : “I^ow, 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 the better than I, that on the side he 
 shot he killed two of them and wounded three more ; and, on my side, 
 I killed one and wounded two. They were in a dreadful consterna- 
 tion ; 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 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 1 ” said 
 I. “ Yes,” said he. Let fly, then,” said 1 5 and vdth that I fired 
 again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as our pieces 
 were now loaded with what I call swan-shot, or small pistol bullets, we 
 
168 
 
 ±fie Life and Adventures 
 
 found only two drop ; but so many were wounded, that they ran about 
 yelling and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody and wounded 
 most of them, and three more fell quickly after, but not quite dead. 
 
 “ISTow, Friday, said I, laying down the discharged pieces and taking 
 up the musket, which was yet loaded, “ follow me,” which he did with 
 a deal of courage j 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, 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 vray. I turned to Friday, and bade him step forwards and fire 
 at them. He understood me immediately, and, running about forty 
 yards to be nearer them, he shot at them, and I thought he had killed 
 them all, for I saw them all fall on a heap in 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 in the bottom of the boat as if he 
 had been' dead. 
 
 While 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 Portuguese 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 signs that he should drink, which he did ; 
 and I gave him a piece of bread, which he eat. Then I asked him 
 what countryman he was, and he said, Espagniole ; ” 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. I said, in as good 
 Spanish as I could, We will talk afterwards, but we must fight now ; 
 if you have any strength left, take the 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 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 they were so surprised and frightened, that they could make no 
 resistance, nor attempt to escape. 
 
 I kept my piece in Iny hand still, without firing, being willing to 
 keep my charge ready, because I had given the Spaniard my pistol and 
 sword ; so I called to Friday, and bade him run up to the tree from 
 
169 
 
 of Rohmson Crusoe. 
 
 whence we first fired, and fetch, the arms which lay there that had been 
 discharged, which he quickly did ; and then giving him my musket, I 
 sat down to load all the rest again, and bade them come to me wher. 
 they wanted. While I was loading these 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 very bold, though weak, had fought this Indian 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 liim down, and 
 was wringing my sword out of his hand, when the Spaniard, though 
 undermost, wisely quitted the sword, drew the pistol from his girdle, 
 and shot him dead on the spot. 
 
 Friday, being now left at his liberty, pursued the flying wretches 
 with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he dis- 
 patched those three who 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 pursued 
 them, and killed one of them, but the other was too nimble for him ; 
 and though he was wounded, yet had 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 w’ounded, we know not whether he died or no, 
 were all that escaped our hands of one-and-twenty. 
 
 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 multitude ;|fco I consented to pursue them by sea; and 
 running to one of their c^oes, I jumped in, and bade Friday follow me ; 
 but when I was in the canoe, I was suprised to find another poor 
 creature lie there ahve, 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, heck and heels, and had been tied so long, that he had 
 little life in him. 
 
 I immediately cut the twisted flags, or rushes, that bound him, and 
 would have helped him up ; but he could not stand or speak, but 
 
170 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 groaned most piteously, believing, it seems, still, that he was only un- 
 bound in order to be killed. When Friday came, I bade him speak to 
 him, and tell him of his dehverance ; and pulling out my bottle, made 
 him give the poor wretch a dram, which, with the news of his being de- 
 livered, 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, sung, then cried 
 again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and head, and then sung 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 said that it was his father. 
 
 It is not easy for mo 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 extravagance 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 ancles, 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 deal of good* 
 
 This action put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the other 
 
171 
 
 of Itohinson Crusoe, 
 
 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 he 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, 
 ‘‘Hone : ugly dog eat all up 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 him- 
 self, 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 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 foot 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 near I found his pace was slacker, because he had some- 
 thing in his hand. 
 
 When he came 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 ; however, as I was very thirsty too, 
 I took a little sup of it. The 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 to him to know if there was 
 any water left ; he said, “ Yes,’’ and I bade him give it to the poor 
 Spaniard, who was as much in 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 witL When I saw 
 that, upon Friday’s coming up to him Avith the water, he sat up and 
 drank, and took the bread and began to eat, I went up to him and gave 
 him a handful of raisins. He looked up in my face with all the tokens 
 
172 
 
 The Life anA Adventures 
 
 of gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in any countenance ; 
 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 was really not able, his ancles were so swelled and so 
 painful to him j so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday to rub his 
 ancles, 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 for 
 his father; and at last he missed him, 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 when he 
 came, he found he had only laid himself down to ease his limbs. So 
 Friday came back to me presently, and I then told him to help the 
 Spaniard to the boat ; so he took him upon his back, and carried him 
 beside his father in the boat, and 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 both safe into our creek, 
 and leaving them in the boat, runs away to fetch the other canoe. 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 \7alk, so that poor Friday knew not 
 what to do. 
 
 At last, we 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 fortification, we were at a 
 worse loss than before, for it was impossible 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 
 vdth old sails, and above with boughs of trees, being in the same space 
 without our outward fence, and between that and the grove of young 
 wood which I had planted ; and here we made them two beds of such 
 things as I had, namely, of good rice straw, vdth 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 the absolute lord and law- 
 
of Rohinson Crusoe. 173 
 
 giver : tl-ey all owed their lives to me, and were ready to lay down 
 their live^, if there had been occasion of it, for me. It was remarkable, 
 too, I had blit three subjects, and they were of three different religions : 
 my man Friday was a Protestant ; his father was a pagan and a cannibal ; 
 and the Spaniard was a Papist. However, I allowed liberty of conscience 
 to all my subjects. 
 
 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 off the hinder quarter, and chopping" it 
 into small pieces, I set Friday to work to boiling and stewing, and 
 made them a very good dish of flesh and broth, and we all enjoyed it 
 and eat heartily. 
 
 ■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 from 
 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 j and I also ordered him to bury the horrid 
 remains of their barbarous feast : all of which he punctually performed. 
 
 I then began to enter into a little conversation with my two new 
 mbjects ; 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 resis^t. 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 be drowned, or 
 
174 The Life and Adventures 
 
 driven south, to those other shores, where they were as sure to be 
 devoured as they were to be drowned, if they were cast away ; but as 
 to what they would do, if they came on shore, he said, he knew not ; 
 but it was his opinion that they were so dreadfully frightened with the 
 manner of their being attacked, the noise and the fire, that he believed 
 they would tell their people they were all killed by thunder and light- 
 ning, and not by the hand of man ; and that the two which appeared 
 (namely Friday and I) were two heavenly spirits and furies come down 
 to destroy them, and not with weapons. And this old savage was 
 right; for though they escaped the sea, they gave such dreadful 
 accounts in their own country (as I heard afterwards), that they never 
 ventured from that part to my island again. 
 
 But I was under continual apprehensions for some time, and kept 
 upon my guard, I and all my army ; for, as we were now four of us, I 
 would have ventured upon a hundred of them, in the open field. 
 
 In a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the fear of them 
 coming wore ofiF, and I began to take my former thoughts of a voyage 
 to the main into consideration, being likewise assured, by Friday’s 
 father, that I might depend upon good usage from their nation, on his 
 account, if I would go. 
 
 But my thoughts were a little suspended, when I had a serious dis- 
 course vuth 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 aU the particulars of their voyage, and found 
 they were a Spanish .ship, bound from the Eio de la Plata to the 
 Havannah, 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 ovti men 
 were drowned when first their ship was lost; and that these escaped 
 through infinite dangers and hazards, and arrived, almost starved, on the 
 cannibal coast, where they expected to be devoured every moment. 
 
 He told me they had some arms with them, but they were perfectly 
 useless, for they had neither powder nor ball, the washing of the sea 
 having spoiled all their powder, but a little, which they used at their 
 first landing to provide themselves some food. 
 
 I asked him what he thought would become of them there, and if 
 they had formed no design of making an escape. He said they had 
 many consultations about it, but having neither vessel, nor tools to 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 175 
 
 build one, nor provisions of any kind, their counsels 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 he done. 
 
 He told me they were all under the greatest distress imaginable, and 
 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 the 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 the one hand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, thadr I 
 could not but be well satisfied in it; and, by his advice, put off the 
 deliverance of his comrades for at least half-a-year. The case was 
 thus : — 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 increased to the number of four; but much less 
 would it be sufficient, if his countrymen, who were, as he said, fourteen, 
 stni alive, should come over ; and, least of all, would it be sufficient to 
 victual our vessel, if we should build one, for a voyage to any of the 
 Christian colonies of America. So he told me he thought it would be 
 more advisable to let him and the two others dig and cultivate more 
 land, as much as I could spare seed to sow; and that we should wait 
 another harvest, then we might have a supply of corn for his country- 
 men, when they should come ; for want might be a temptation to them 
 to disagree, or not think themselves delivered, otherwise than out of 
 one difficulty into another. 
 
 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 spare. 
 
 Having now society enough, and our number being sufficient to put 
 us out of fear of 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 we had our escape or deliverance upon our thoughts. 
 
176 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 it was impossible, 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 Triday and his father to cutting them down ; and then 
 I caused the Spaniard 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 
 doeen 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 Triday and the 
 Spaniard go out one day, and myself with Triday 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 thb 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 raisins are 
 cured, we should have filled sixty or eighty barrels ; and these with our 
 bread, was a great part of our 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 our twenty-two bushels of barley, we 
 brought in and thrashed out above two hundred and twenty bushels, 
 and the like in proportion of the xice, which was store enough for our 
 food to the next harvest, though all the fourteen Spaniards had been 
 on shore with me ; or, if we had heen 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 now, having a full supply of food for all the guests I expected, 
 I gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main, to see what he could 
 do with those he had left behind him there. I gave him strict charge 
 not to bring any man with him who would not first swear, in the 
 presence of himself and the old savage, that he would in no way injure, 
 fight with, or attack the person he should find in the island, who was so 
 kind as 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 command : and 
 that this should be put in writing, and signed with their hands. 
 
CRUSOE HARVESTING 
 
 m 
 
oj- Robinson Crusoe. 177 
 
 Under these instructions, the Spaniard and the old savage went away 
 in one of the canoes which they came in, when they were brought aSv 
 prisoners to be devoured by the savages. I gave each of them a 
 musket, and about eight charges of powder and ball, charging them to 
 be very careful of both, and not to use either of them, but upon very 
 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 them- 
 selves for many days, and sufficient for all their countrymen for about 
 eight days ; 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 the full, by my account, in the month of October, as near as I 
 could tell. 
 
 It was no less than eight days I waited for them, when a strange and 
 unforeseen occurrence intervened, of which, the like has not, perhaps, 
 been heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hut one morning, 
 when my man Triday came running in to me, and called aloud, Master, 
 master, they are come, they are come ! I jumped up, and, regardless 
 of danger, went out, as soon as I could get my clothes on, through my 
 little grove ; I went without my arms, which it was not my custom to 
 do ; but I was surprised, when, toning my eyes to the sea, I presently 
 
178 The Life and Adventures 
 
 saw a boat, at about a league and a half distance, standing in for the 
 shore, with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and the wind 
 blowing pretty fair to bring them in. Also, I observed, that they did 
 not come from that side which the shore lay on, but from the southern- 
 most 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 anything, 
 and to take my view plainer, without being discovered. I had scarce 
 set my foot on the hill, when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at 
 anchor, at about two leagues and a half distance from me, S.S.E., but 
 not above a league and a half from the shore. It appeared plainly to 
 be an English ship, and the boat an English long boat. 
 
 I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy of seeing 
 
 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 hanging about me, I cannot 
 tell from whence they came, bidding me to be on my guard. I began to 
 consider what business an English ship could have here ; since it was 
 not the way to or from any part of the world where the English had any 
 traffic ; and I knew there had been no storm to drive them in there, as 
 in distress ; and that if they were English really, it was probable 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. 
 
 I had not kept myself long in this posture, when I saw the boat draw 
 near the shore, as if they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the con- 
 venience 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 
 run 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 soon have 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 English- 
 men, 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 I 
 found were unarmed, and (as I thought) bound ; and when the first 
 four or five of them were jumped on shore, they took these three out of 
 the boat as prisoners. One of the three I could perceive using the 
 most passionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and despair ; the other 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 179 
 
 two lifted up their hands sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, 
 but not so much as the first. 
 
 I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the 
 meaning of it could be. Friday called out to me, in English, as well 
 as he could, 0 master, you see English mans eat prisoners as well as 
 savage mans.^' Why,” said I, do you think they are going to eat 
 them, then ? ” “ Yes,” says Friday, “ they will eat them.” E'o, no,” 
 
 said I, “ Friday, I am afraid they will murder them, indeed, but you 
 may be sure they will not eat them.” 
 
 All this while I had no thoughts of what the matter really was, but 
 expected every moment the three prisoners would be killed ; and once 
 I saw one of the villains lift up his arm, with a great cutlass or sword, 
 to strike one of the poor men, and I expected to see him fall every 
 moment. I wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the savage that 
 was gone with him ; or that I had any way to have come undiscovered 
 withhi ^hot of them, that I might have rescued the three men, for they 
 had no fire-arms that I saw. 
 
 After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by the 
 insolent seamen, I saw that the fellows ran 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 that they sat down 
 all three upon the ground, very pensive, and looked like men in despair. 
 
 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 stayed till the tide was spent, and the 
 water was ebbed considerably away, leaving the boat aground. They 
 had left two men in the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having drank 
 a little too much brandy, fell asleep. However, one of them wakening 
 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 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 obversation near the top of the 
 
 N 2 
 
180 The Life and Adventures 
 
 hill. I knew it would he no less than ten hours before the boat could 
 be afloat 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 mean time, 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 to load himself 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 have mentioned, a naked sword by my side, two 
 pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each shoulder. 
 
 It was my design, as I said before, not to have made any attempt 
 until it was dark ; but about two o’clock, being the heat of the day, I 
 found that 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, sat 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 with my man Friday at a 
 good distance behind me, as formidable for his arms as I, but not 
 making quite so staring a spectre-Hke 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 confounded 
 when they saw me, and the uncouth figure I made. They made no 
 
181 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 answer at all, but I thouglit 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 
 do not expect it/’ “ He must be sent directly from heaven, then,” said 
 one of them very gravely to me, and pulling off his hat at the same 
 time, “for our condition is past the help of mam” “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 be in some 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 lift up his sword to kill you.” 
 
 The poor man, with tears running down his face, and 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 armed after another manner, than you see me. 
 Pray lay aside your fears, T 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, sir,” said he, “is too long to tell you, while our mur- 
 derers are so near ; but, in short, sir, I was commander of that ship, 
 my men have mutinied against me, they have been hardly prevailed 
 upon 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?” saidT, “do you know 
 where they are gone?” “There they are, sir,” said he, pointing to 
 a thicket of trees, “ my heart trembles for fear they have seen us, and 
 heard you speak ; if they have, they will murder us all.” 
 
 “Have they any fire-arjns?” 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 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 anything I would direct. “Well,” said I, “let us 
 retreat out of their view or hearing, lest they awake, and we will 
 resolve farther.” So they wHlingly went back with me, tiU the woods 
 covered us from them. “Look you, sir,” said I, “if I venture upon 
 
182 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 he wholly directed and commanded by me i\ 
 everything; 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 others said the same. 
 
 ^‘Well,’^ said I, ^‘my conditions are hut two; first, that while you 
 stay on this island with me, you will not pretend to any authority 
 here ; and if I put arms in 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, be governed by my orders. Secondly, 
 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 assurances that 
 the invention and faith of 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 j but offered 
 to be wholly guided by me. I told him I thought it was hard ven- 
 turing anything, 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 Goffs providence to direct the shot. 
 
 He said, very modestly, that he was loath to kill them, if 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 
 necessity legitimates my advice ; for it is the only way to save om 
 lives.” However, seeing him still cautious of shedding blood, I told 
 him they should go themselves, and manage as they found convenient. 
 
 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, ^‘No.” “Well, then,” said I, “you may let them escape; 
 and Providence seems to have awakened them on purpose to save 
 ]hemselves.” “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 a pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, each 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
THR Cj\PTAJK OVRKPOWKBS THR MUTINREK 
 
of Rohinson Crusoe. 1 S3 
 
 man a piece in liis 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, the two men fired, thn 
 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 
 upon 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 viUany, and, with that word, knocked him 
 down with the stock of his musket, so that he never spoke more. 
 There were three 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 faithful 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 the bye, three straggling men, that were parted from 
 the rest, came back again upon hearing the guns fired ; and seeing 
 their captain, who was before their prisoner, now their conqueror, they 
 submitted to be bound also. 
 
 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 amazement, and particularly 
 at the wonderful manner of my being furnished with provisions and 
 ammunition ; and, indeed, as my story is a whole 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 hi^ face, and he could not speak a word more. 
 
 After this communciation was at an end, I carried him and his two 
 men into my apartment, leading them in just where I 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 inhabiting this place. 
 
J84 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 been now 
 planted near twenty years, and the trees growing much faster than, in 
 
 England, was become a little wood, and so thick 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 
 residence, 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 con- 
 spiracy, 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 it occurred to me, that, in a little while, 
 the ship’s crew, wondering what had become of their comrades, and of 
 the boat^ would certainly come on shore, in their other boat, to see for 
 them, and that then, perhaps, they might come armed, and be too 
 strong for us : this, he allowed, was rational. 
 
185 
 
 of liobinson Crusoe. 
 
 Upon tins, 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 everything 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 canvass ; the sugar 
 was five or six pounds : all which was very welcome to me, especially 
 the brandy and sugar, of which I had been without many years. 
 
 When we had carried aU these things on shore, we Imocked 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. 
 
 While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by main 
 strength, heaved the boat upon the beach, so high that the tide woidd 
 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 doAvn 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 my glasses) 
 hoist another boat off, 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. 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 as for the boatswain, 
 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. 
 
 We had, upon the first appearance of the boats’ 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 
 
]86 
 
 The Life and Adcentures 
 
 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. They 
 left them bound, but gave them provisions, and promised them, if thej 
 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 faithfully to bear their confinement with 
 patience. 
 
 The other prisoners had better usage ; two of them were kept 
 pinioned indeed, because the captain did not like to trust them, but 
 the other two were taken in to my service, upon their captain’s recom- 
 mendation. and upon their solemnly engaging to live and die with us. 
 
 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 and 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. 
 
 Being on shore, they ran all to the other boat ; and it was easy to see 
 they were under a great surprise to find her stripped, and a great hole 
 in the bottom. After this, they set up a great shout ; but it was all to 
 no purpose : then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of 
 their small arms, Avhich 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 surprised at this, as they told us afterwards, that 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; accord- 
 ingly, they immediately launched their 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 ; and they left three men in the boat, and 
 the rest went up into the country to look for their fellows. This was 
 a great disappomtment to us, for now we were at a loss what to do ; 
 for our seizing those seven men on shore would be no advantage to us 
 
of Rohinson Crusoe. 187 
 
 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 hope of recovering 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. And when they 
 were come to the brow of the hill, where they could see a great way 
 
 into the valleys and woods which lay towards the north-east part, and 
 where the island lay lowest, they shouted till they were weary, and then 
 they sat down to consider of it. Had they gone to sleep there, as the 
 other party did, they had done for us ; but they were too full of appre- 
 hension of danger to venture to go to sleep, though they could not tell 
 what the danger was. 
 
 The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation 
 of theirs, namely, that perhaps they would all fire a volley again, tc 
 endeavour to make their fellows hear, and that 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 hked the proposal, provided it was done while we were 
 
188 The Life and Adventures 
 
 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 use some stratagem with them 
 in the boat to get them on shore. 
 
 We waited a great while, and were very uneasy \ when, we saw them 
 all start up, and march towards 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 their intended voyage with the ship. 
 
 As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I imagined that 
 they had given over their search, and were for going back again; and 
 the captain was ready to sink when I told him my thoughts, 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 Friday was rescued, and at about 
 haK a mile distance, I bade them halloo as loud as they could, and as 
 soon as they heard the seamen answer them, they should return it again, 
 and then, keeping out of sight, take a round, 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, run along the 
 shore westward, towards the voice they heard, when they were stopped 
 by the creek, the water being up, they could not get over, and called 
 for the boat to come and set them over, as, indeed, I expected. 
 
 When they had set themselves over, I observed that they took one 
 of the three men out of her, and left only two in the boat, having 
 fastened her to a 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 the shore 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 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 men who were not so hearty 
 
of Eobinson Crusoe, 189 
 
 in tlie mutiny as the rest of the crew, and, therefore, was easily persuaded 
 not only to yield, hut afterwards to join very sincerely with us. 
 
 In the mean time, Friday and the captain’s mate so well managed 
 their business with the rest, that they drew them, by hallooing and 
 answering, from one wood to another, till they not only heartily tired 
 them, but left them where they were sure they could not reach back 
 before it was dark : and indeed they were heartily tired themselves also 
 by the time they came back to us. - 
 
 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 
 hear them answer, and complain how lame and tired they were, and 
 not 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, and 
 their two men gone ; we could hear them 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 carried away and devoured. 
 
 They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their names, 
 but got no answer. After some time, we could see them by the 
 little light there was run about like men in despair ; and that 
 sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves, 
 then come on shore again, and walk about, and so the same thing 
 over again. 
 
 My men would have fallen upon them in the dark, but I was willing 
 to spare them, and kO as few of them as I could, being unwilling to 
 hazard the killing any of our men, knowing the others were well 
 armed. I resolved to wait and make sure of them, and drew my 
 ambuscade nearer, and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon 
 their hands and knees, and get as near them as they possibly could 
 before they offered to fire. 
 
 They had not been long in that posture, when the boatswain, who 
 was the principal ringleader, and had now shown himself the most 
 dispirited of all the rest, walked towards them with two more of their 
 crew. The captain was so eager at haviug 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 he only heard his tongue before ; but 
 when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, startiug up on their 
 feet, let fly at them. 
 
 The boatswain was killed on the spot, the next was shot through the 
 
190 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 body, and fell just by bim, 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, generalissimo ; 
 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 he could bring them to 
 parley, which fell out just as we desired. So he calls out as loud as 
 he could to one of them, Tom Smith ! Tom Smith ! ” Tom Smith 
 answered immediately, AVho’s that, Eobinson ^ 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 h — ^where are they ? " says Tom Smith 
 again. Here they are,” says he. Here is our captain, and fifty 
 men with him, have been hunting you this two hours. The boat- 
 swain is killed. Will Frye is wounded, and I am a prisoner ; 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 Eobinson. 
 So he asked the captain, and the captain himself then called out, 
 ‘‘You, Smith, you know my voice ; if you lay down your arms 
 immediately, and submit, you shall aU 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 h They have all been as bad as I ! ” 
 which was not true, for it seems this Will Atkins was the first man 
 that laid hold of the captain when they first mutinied. 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 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 aU ; and then my great army of fifty men, which, par- 
 ticularly 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. • ' 
 
 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 
 
191 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 he expostulated with them upon the villany of their practices with 
 him, 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 that the governor was an Englishman, and 
 that he might hang them all there if he pleased ; but, as he had given 
 them quarter, he supposed he would send them to England, 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 the desired effect ; Atkins fell 
 upon his knees to beg the captain to intercede with the governor for 
 his bfe, and all the rest begged of him, for God’s sake, not to 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 to say to the captain. 
 Captain, the commander calls for you ; ” and presently the captain 
 replied, “ Tell his excellency I am just a-coming.’’ So they all believed 
 the com m ander was just by, with his fifty men. 
 
 Upon the captain’s coming to me, I told him my project for seizing 
 the ship,, which pleased him, and resolved to put it in execution th« 
 next morning. 
 
192 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 But in order to execute it withi more art, and to be sure of success^ 
 I told him we must divide the prisoners, and that he should go and 
 take Atkins and two more of the worse of them, and send them bound 
 to the cave where the others lay. So Friday, and the two men who 
 came on shore with the captain, conveyed them to the cave as to a 
 prison. The other I ordered to my bower, where they were pinioned, 
 and left secure enough. 
 
 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 all be hanged in chains ; bnt that if they 
 would join in so just an attempt as to recover the ship, he would have 
 the governor’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 deep imprecations, that they would be 
 faithful to him to the last drop, and 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. 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 he did not want men, but that 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 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 them 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 : — First, the captain, his mate, and 
 passenger. Second, 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. Third, the other two, whom I had 
 
of llohinsoji Crusoe, 1^3 
 
 kept in my bower, pinioned, these were now released. Fourth, these 
 five, released at last ; so that there were twelve in all, besides five we 
 kept in the cave, as hostages for the fidelity of the others. 
 
 I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with those hands 
 on board the ship ; for as for me and my man Friday, I did not think 
 it proper for ns to stir, having seven men left behind; and it was 
 employment enough for us to keep them asunder, and supply them 
 Avith victuals. 
 
 As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast ; but Friday 
 Avent tAvice a day to them, to supply them Avith necessaries ; and I 
 made the other tAVO carry provisions to a certain distance, Avhere Friday 
 was to take it. 
 
 When I shoAved myself to the tAVo hostages, it was Avith the captain, 
 Avho told them I was the person the governor had ordered to look after 
 them, and that it was the governor’s pleasure they should not stir any- 
 where, but by my direction ; that if they did, they should be fetched 
 to the castle and be laid in irons ; so that Ave never suffered them to 
 see me as governor, so noAV I appeared as another person, and spoke of 
 the governor, the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions. 
 
 The captain noAV had no difficulty before him but to furnish his tAvo 
 boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. He made his passenger, 
 captain of one, with four other men : he himself, with his mate, and 
 five more, Avent in the other. And they contrived their business very 
 Avell ; for they came up to the ship about midnight. As soon as they 
 came within call of the ship, he made Eobinson hail them, and tel] 
 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 chat 
 till they came to the ship’s side ; when the captain and the mate, 
 entering first Avith their arms, immediately knocked doAvn the second 
 mate and the 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 them down who Avere below, when the other boat, and their men 
 entering the forechains, secured the forecastle of the ship, and the 
 scuttle which went down into the cook-room, making three men they 
 found there prisoners. When this Avas done, and all safe upon the 
 deck, the captain ordered the mate with three men to break into the 
 round-house, where the neAV rebel captain lay; and he, having taken the 
 alarm, and gotten up, now stood with two men and a boy, haAong fire- 
 arms in their hands ; and Avhen the mate, with a crow, split open the 
 door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and wounded 
 
 0 
 
194 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 the mate with a musket-hall, 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 bullet 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 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 glad to hear, 
 having sat watching upon the shore for it till two o’clock in the 
 morning. 
 
 Having heard the signal plainly, I laid me down, and being very 
 much fatigued, I fell sound asleep, when shortly I was awoke by the 
 noise of a gun ; and, starting up, I heard a man call me by the name of 
 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 
 belongs to her.” I cast my eyes to the ship, and there she rode, about 
 half a mile off 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, they had brought the pinnace in near the place where I first 
 landed my rafts, and so landed just at my door. 
 
195 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 I was, at first, ready to sink down with, surprise, for I saw my 
 deliverance indeed visibly put into my bands, all things easy, and a 
 large ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to go. He 
 perceived my situation, and immediately pulls a bottle out of his 
 pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on pur- 
 pose for me. After I drank it, I sat down upon the ground, and it was 
 a good while before I could speak to him. 
 
 After some time, I came to myself, and then I embraced him in my 
 turn, as my dehverer, and we rejoiced together. I told him, I looked 
 upon him as a man sent from heaven to deliver me, and that the whole 
 transaction seemed, to be a chain of wonders ; and 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 ; nor did I forget to return thanks to 
 God for all his mercies. 
 
 When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought 
 me some little refreshment, 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 his men, and told them to bring the 
 things ashore that were for the governor : and it was a splendid pre- 
 sent. First, he had brought me a case of bottles full of cordial waters, 
 six large bottles of Madeira wine, two pounds of excellent 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 fiour, 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 very little ; but the clothes felt very 
 awkward and uneasy upon me at first. 
 
 After all these things were brought into my little apartment, we 
 began to consult what was to be done with the prisoners we had, and 
 whether we might venture to take them away with us or no, especially 
 two of them, whom we knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the 
 last degree, and the captain said he knew that 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. Upon this, I told him I durst 
 undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own 
 
 0 2 
 
196 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 request that he should leave them upon the island, of which the 
 captain said he should be very glad. I accordingly sent for them, and 
 entered seriously into discourse with them upon their circumstances. 
 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. Eut I told them I 
 knew not what mercy to show them ; for, as for myself, I had resolved 
 to quit the island with all my men, and had taken passage with the 
 captain to go to England \ and as for the captain, he would not carry 
 them to England, but 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 which was 
 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 could shift on shore. 
 They seemed very thankful for it ; and said they would rather venture 
 to stay there, than to be carried to England to be hanged. 
 
 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. Accordingly 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 Spaniards that were to be ex- 
 pected, for whom I left a letter, and made them promise to treat them 
 in common with themselves. 
 
 I left them five muskets, three fowling-pieces, and three swords. I 
 had about a barrel and a half of powder, which I left them. 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 pre- 
 vail with the captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder more, and 
 some garden seeds, 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, 
 and bade them to be sure to sow and increase them. 
 
 Having done this, I left them the next day, and went on board the 
 ship. The next morning 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. 
 
 The captain pretended to have no power without me ; but, after 
 some difficulty, and after their solemn promises of amendment, they 
 
of Robinson Crusoe. 197 
 
 were taken on board, and were shortly after soundly T\'hipped, 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, with which the captain, at 
 my intercession, sent their chests and clothes, which they took, and 
 were very thankful for. I also encouraged them, by telling them that 
 if it lay in my way to send any vessel to take them in, I would not 
 forget them. 
 
 When 1 quitted 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 
 fcrgot not to take the money I had had laid by me so long useless. 
 
 And thus I left the island, the 19th of December, by the ship’s 
 account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it twenty-eight years, 
 two months, and nineteen days ; being delivered from the second 
 captivity the same day of the month that I made my escape from among 
 the Moors at Sallee, 
 
 In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England, the 11th of 
 June, in the year 1687, having been thirty-five years absent. 
 
 When I came to England, I was as perfect a stranger as if I had never 
 been known there. My benefactor and faithful steward, whom I left 
 in trust with my money, was alive, but had had great misfortunes in 
 the world, was become a widow the second time, and was in very low 
 circumstances. I made her easy as to what she owed me, assuring her 
 I would give her no trouble : but, on the contrary, in gratitude to her 
 
198 
 
 / 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as much as my little 
 stock would afford, which at that time would indeed allow me to do hut 
 little for her ; but I assured her I would never forget her former kind- 
 ness to me ; nor did I forget her when I had sufficient to help her at a 
 future time. 
 
 I went down afterwards into Yorkshire ; but my father was dead, 
 and my mother, and all the family extinct, except two sisters, and two 
 of the children of one of my brothers j and, as I had been long ago 
 given over for dead, there had been no provision made for me, so that, 
 in a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me, and the little money 
 I had would not do much for me, as to settling in the world. 
 
 I met with one piece of gratitude, indeed, which I did not expect ; 
 and this was, that the master of the ship, whom I had so happily 
 delivered, having given a very handsome account to the owners of the 
 manner how I had saved the lives of the men and the ship, they 
 invited me to meet them and some other merchants concerned, and all 
 together made me a very handsome compliment upon the subject, and 
 a present of almost two hundred pounds sterling. 
 
 But, after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my 
 life, and how little way this would go towards settling me in the world, 
 I resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I could get any information of the 
 state of my plantation in the Brasils, and of what was become of my 
 partner, who, I supposed, had for some years now given me over 
 for dead. 
 
 With this view, I took shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in April 
 following; my man Friday accompanying me very honestly in all these 
 ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions. 
 When I came to Lisbon, I found out by inquiry, and to my particular 
 satisfaction, my old friend, the captain of the ship, who first took me 
 up at sea, off the shore of Africa. He was now grown old, and had 
 left off the sea, having put his son into the ship, and who still used 
 the Brasil trade. The old man did not know me, and I scarcely knew 
 him ; but he soon recollected me when I told him who I was. 
 
 After some passionate expressions of our old acquaintance, I enquired 
 after my plantation and my partner. The old man told me he had not 
 been in the Brasils for about nine years ; but that he could assure me, 
 that when he came away my partner was living, but that the trustees, 
 whom I had joined with him to take cognizance of my part, were both 
 dead; that, however, he believed that I should have a very good 
 account of the improvement of the plantation, for that, in the general 
 belief of my being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in the 
 
199 
 
 of Eobinson Crusoe, 
 
 account of the produce of my part of the plantation to the procurator- 
 fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case I never came to claim it, one 
 third to the king, and two- thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine, td 
 be expended for the benefit of the poor, and for the conversion of the 
 Indians to the Catholic faith ; but that if I appeared, or any one for 
 me, to claim the inheritance, it would be restored; only that the 
 improvement, or annual production, being, as he said, distributed to 
 charitable uses, he thought could not be restored. 
 
 I was a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and inquired 
 of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees should thus 
 dispose of my effects, when they knew that I had made my will, and 
 made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c. He told me 
 that was true, but as there was no proof of my being dead, he could 
 not act as executor, until some certain account should come of my death ; 
 and that, besides, he was not willing to intermeddle with a thing so 
 remote; that it was true, he had registered my will, and put in his 
 claim, and could he have given any account of my being dead or alive, 
 he would have acted by procuration, and taken possession of my ingenio 
 (the sugar-house), and given his son, who was now in the Brasil^ 
 orders to do it. 
 
 The old man then asked me if he should put me in a method to make 
 my claim to the plantation. I told him I thought to go over to it 
 myself. He said I might do so if I pleased ; but that if I did not there 
 were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately to appropriate 
 the profits to my use ; and as there were ships in the river of Lisbon 
 just ready to go to the Brasils, he made me enter my name in a public 
 register, with his affidavit, affirming, upon oath, that I was alive, and 
 that I was the same person who took up the land for planting the said 
 plantation at first. This being regularly attested by a notary, and a 
 procuration affixed, he directed me to send it, with a letter of his 
 writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place, and then 
 proposed my staying with him till an account came of the return. 
 
 Hever anything was more honourable than the proceedings upon this 
 procuration ; for in less than seven months I received a large packet 
 from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants for whose account I 
 went to sea ; and as the Brasil ships come all in fleets, the same ships 
 which brought my letters brought my goods, and the effects were safe 
 in the Tagus before the letters came to my hands. By these, it appeared 
 I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand pounds 
 sterling in m^oney, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the 
 Brasils, of above a thousand pounds a-year, as safe as any landed e'state 
 
200 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 in England ] in a word, I was in a condition wliicli I could scarcelt 
 understand, ox how to compose myself for its enjoyment. ' 
 
 The first thing I did was to recompense my original benefactor, my 
 good old captain, who had been first charitable to me in my distress, 
 kind to me in the beginning, and honest to me at the end. I showed 
 him all that was sent me. I told him that, next to the providence of 
 Heaven, which disposes all things, it was owing to him ; and that it 
 now lay on me to reward him. So I sent for a notary, and caused him 
 to draw a procuration, empowering him to be my receiver of the annual 
 profits of my plantation, and appointing my partner to account to him, 
 and make the returns by the usual fieets to him, in my name, adding a 
 clause in the end, being a grant of one hundred moidores a year during 
 his life, out of the effects ; and fifty moidores a year to his son after 
 him, for his life : and thus I requitted my old man. 
 
 I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and whaf 
 to do with the estate that Providence had thus put into my hands ; 
 and, indeed, I had more care upon my head now than I had in my 
 silent state of life on the island, where I wanted nothing but what I 
 had, and had nothing but what T wanted. 
 
 As I had rewarded the old captain fully, and to his satisfaction, wha 
 had been my former benefactor, so I began to think of my poor Avidow, 
 whose husband had been my first benefactor, and she, while it was in 
 her power, my faithful steward and instructor. So the first thing I did 
 I got a merchant in Lisbon to write to his correspondent in London, 
 not only to pay a bill, but to go find her out, and carry her in money 
 a hundred pounds from me, and to talk with her and comfort her in 
 her poverty, by telling her she should, if I lived, have a farther supply. 
 At the same time, I sent my two sisters in the country, each of them a 
 hundred pounds, they being, though not in want, yet not in very good 
 circumstances; one having been married, and left a widow, and the 
 other having a husband not so kind to her as he should be. But, among 
 all my relations or acquaintances, I could not yet pitch upon one to 
 whom I durst commit the gross of my stock. 
 
 I had once a mind to have gone to the Brasils, and have settled 
 myself there, for I was, as it were naturalized to the place, but that I 
 really did not know with whom to leave my effects behind me ; so I 
 resolved at last to go to England with them, where, if I arrived, I con- 
 cluded I should make some acquaintance, or find some relations that 
 would be faithful to me, and accordingly I prepared to go for England 
 ^vdth all my wealth. Having settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and 
 turned all my effects into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was 
 
201 
 
 of HoMnson Crusoe, 
 
 which way to go to England. I had been accustomed enough to the 
 sea, and yet I had a strange aversion to go to England by sea at that 
 time ; and though I could give no reason for it, yet the difficulty in- 
 creased upon me so much, that though I had once shipped my baggage 
 in order to go, yet I altered my mind, and that not once but two or 
 three times* 
 
 It is true I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be one 
 of my reasons ; but let no man strike the strong impulses of his own 
 thoughts in cases of such moment. Two ships, each of which I had 
 engaged to go in, but again withdrew my agreement, miscarried, 
 namely, one was taken by the Algerines, and the other was cast away 
 on the Start, near Torbay, and all the people drowned, except three ; so 
 that in either of those vessels I had been made miserable, and in 
 which most, it was hard to say. 
 
 Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom I 
 communicated everything, pressed me earnestly not to go by sea ; but 
 either to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of Biscay to 
 Eochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land to 
 Paris, and so to Calais and Dover ; or go up to Madrid, and so all the 
 way by land through Erance. In a word, I was so prepossessed against 
 my going by sea at all except from Calais to Dover, that I resolved to 
 travel all the way by land, which, as I was not in haste, and did not 
 value the charge, was by much the pleasanter way ; and to make it 
 more so, my old captain brought an English gentleman, the son of a 
 merchant in Lisbon, who was willing to travel with me ; after which 
 we picked up two more, who were English, and merchants also, and 
 two young Portuguese gentlemen, the last going to Paris only, so that 
 we were in aU six of us and five servants ; the two merchants, and the 
 two Portuguese, contenting themselves with one servant between two, 
 to save the charge ; and as for me, I got an English sailor to travel with 
 me as a servant, besides my man Eriday, who was too much a stranger 
 to be capable of supplying the place of a servant upon the road. 
 
 tn this manner we set out from Lisbon; and our company being 
 al^ very well mounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof they 
 did me the honour to call me captain, as well because I was the oldest 
 man as because I had two servants, and indeed was the originator of 
 the whole journey. 
 
 Four French gentlemen, who had been stopped on the French side 
 of the passes, as we were now on the Spanish, had found out a guide, 
 who had brought them over the mountains by such ways, that they 
 were not much incommoded with the snow ; and, where they met with 
 
202 The Life and Adventures 
 
 snow in any quantity, they said it was frozen hard enough to bear them 
 and their horses. 
 
 We sent for this guide, who told us that he would undertake to carry 
 us the same way, with no hazard from the snow, provided we were 
 armed sufficiently to protect us from wild beasts ; for, he said, upon 
 these snow regions it was common for wolves to show themselves at the 
 foot of the mountains, being made ravenous for want of food, while the 
 ground was covered with snow. We told him we were well enough 
 prepared for such creatures as they were, if he would ensure us from a 
 kind of two-legged wolves, from which we were told most danger was 
 to he apprehended, especially on the French side of the mountains. 
 
 He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind in the way that 
 we were to go. So we readily agreed to follow hiru, as did also twelve 
 other gentlemen, with their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, 
 as I said, had attempted to go, and were obliged to come hack again. 
 
 Accordingly, we all set out from Pampeluna, with our guide, on the 
 15th of FTovemher ; and, indeed, I was surprised, when, instead of 
 going forward, he came directly hack with us above twenty miles ; on 
 the same road by which we came from Madrid, when, having passed two 
 rivers, and come into the plain country, we found ourselves in a warm 
 climate again, where the country was pleasant, and no snow was to he 
 seen ; hut, on a sudden, turning to the left, he approached the moun- 
 tains by another way ; and though, it is true, the hills and the precipices 
 looked dreadful, yet he made so many tours, and meanders, and led us 
 
of Eoiinson Crusoe, 203 
 
 by such winding ways that we insensibly past the height of the moun- 
 tains without being much encumbered with the snow ; and, all on a 
 3udden, he showed us the pleasant fruitful provinces of Languedoc and 
 ^ Gascoigne, all green and flourishing, though indeed they were at a great 
 distance, and we had some rough way to pass yet. 
 
 We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed so 
 fast one whole day and night, that we could not travel ; but he bade 
 us be easy, we should soon be past it all. We found, indeed, that we 
 began to descend every day, and to come more north than before ; and 
 40, depending upon our guide, v/e went on. 
 
 It was about two hours before night, when our guide, being some- 
 .jiing before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous 
 
 wolves, and after them a bear, out of a hollow way, adjoining to a thick 
 wood. Two of the wolves flew upon the guide, and had he been half 
 a mile before us, he had been devoured, indeed, before we could have 
 helped him. One of them fastened upon his horse, and the other 
 attacked the man with that violence, that he had not time, or not pre- 
 sence of mind enough to draw his pistol, but hallooed and cried out to 
 us most lustily. My man Friday being next to me, I bade him ride 
 up, and see what was the matter. As soon as Friday came in sight of 
 the man, he hallooed as loud as the other, 0 master ! 0 master ! 
 but, like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the man, and, with a pistol, 
 shot the wolf that attacked him through the head. 
 
 It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday : for he, 
 having been used to that kind of creature in his country, had no fear 
 
204 
 
 / 
 
 The Life ayid Adventures 
 
 upon him, hut went up close to him, and shot him as above ; whereas, 
 any of us would have fired at a farther distance, and might, perhaps, 
 have either missed the wolf, or shot the man. 
 
 But it was enough to have terrified a holder man than I ; and indeed 
 it alarmed all our company, when, with the noise of Friday's pistol, we 
 heard on both sides the most dismal howling of wolves, and the noise 
 redoubled by the echo of the mountains. 
 
 My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up he 
 was helping him off from his horse, for the man was both hurt and 
 frightened, and indeed the last more than the first. 
 
 We had one dangerous place to pass, of which our guide told us, if 
 there were any more wolves in the country, we should find them there ; 
 and this was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and 
 '^a long, narrow defile, or lane, which we were to pass, to get through the 
 wood, and then we should come to a village where we were to lodge. 
 
 It was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the first wood ; 
 and a little after sunset we came into the plain. We met with nothing 
 in the first wood, except that, in a little plain, within the wood, which 
 was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the 
 road, full speed, one after another, as if they had been in chase of some 
 prey they had in view. They took no notice of us, and were gone, and 
 out of our sight in a few moments. 
 
 This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again, and that we might 
 lose no time, we kept going ; but we had little more than loaded our 
 fusils, and put ourselves into readiness, when we heard a terrible noise 
 in the wood on our left. 
 
 The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, which 
 made it the worse on our side ; but the noise increasing, we could easily 
 perceive that it was the howling of those ravenous creatures ; and, on 
 a sudden, we perceived two or three troops of wolves, one on our left, 
 one behind us, and one in our front, and we knew not what course to 
 take j but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us, in 
 hopes of prey ; and I verily believe there were three hundred of them. It 
 happened very much to our advantage, that, at the entrance into the wood 
 there lay some large timber trees, cut down, and I drew my little troop 
 in among these trees, and placing ourselves in a line, behind one long 
 tree, I advised them all to alight, and keeping that tree before us, for a 
 breast- work, to stand in a triangle or three fronts, enclosing our horses 
 in the centre. We did so ; and it was well we did, for never was a 
 more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in this place : 
 they came on us with a growling kind of noise, and mounted the piece 
 
ATTACKED BY WOLVES 
 
r 
 
 A;.*--*' 
 
of Rohinson Crusoe, 205 
 
 of timber, as if they were only rnsbing upon their prey ; and this fury 
 of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by their seeing our horses 
 behind us, which was the prey they aimed at. I ordered our men to 
 fire as before, every other man, and they took their aim so sure, that 
 they killed several wolves at the first volley ; but there was a necessity 
 to keep a continual firing, for they came on like devils, those behind 
 pushing on those before. When we had fired the second volley of our 
 fusils, we thought they stopped a little, and I hoped they would have 
 gone off, but it was but a moment, for others came forward again, so 
 we fired two volleys of our pistols, and, I believe, in these four firings, 
 we killed seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many ; 
 yet they came on again. 
 
 I was loath to spend *our last shot too hastily ] so I called my 
 servant, not Friday, but my other man, and, giving him a horn of 
 powder, I bid him lay a train all along the piece of timber, and let it 
 be a large train. He did so, and had but just time to get away, when 
 the wolves came up to it, and some were got upon it, when I, snapping 
 an uncharged pistol close to the powder, set it on fire. Those that 
 were upon the timber were scorched with it, and six or seven of them 
 fell, or rather jumped in among us, with the force and fright of the 
 fire. We despatched these in an instant, and the rest were so 
 frightened with the light, that they drew back a little. 
 
 Upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley, 
 and after that we gave a shout : upon this the wolves turned tail, and 
 we sallied immediately upon near twenty lame ones, whose dreadful 
 crying and howling scared the rest, so that they all fled, and left us. 
 
 I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage through 
 France ; nothing but what other travellers have given an account of, 
 with much more advantage than I can. I travelled from Thoulouse to 
 Paris, and, without any considerable stay, came to Calais, and landed 
 safe at Dover, the 14th of January, after having a severe cold season 
 to travel in. 
 
 I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had, in a little 
 time, all my new-discovered estate safe about me, the bills of exchange 
 which I had brought with me having been currently paid. My prin- 
 cipal guide and privy counsellor was my good old widow, who, in 
 gratitude for the money I had sent her, thought no pains too much, or 
 tare too great, to employ for me. 
 
 I began to think of leaving my effects with this woman, and setting 
 out for Lisbon, and so to the Brasils. But now another scruple came 
 in my way, and that was religion ; for as I had entertained some 
 
206 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 doubts about the Eoman religion, even while I was abroad, especially 
 in my state of solitude, so I knew there was no going to the Brasils 
 for me, much less going to settle there, unless I resolved to embrace 
 the Catholic religion, vuthout any reserve ; except, on the other hand, 
 I resolved to be a sacrifice to my principles, be a martyr for religion^ 
 and die in the Inquisition : so I resolved to stay at home, and, if I 
 could find means, to dispose of my plantation. 
 
 To this purpose I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who, in return, 
 gave me notice that he could easily dispose of it there ; but that, if I 
 thought fit to give him leave to offer it in my name to the two 
 merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in the Brasils, and 
 must fully understand the value of it, who lived just upon the spot, 
 and whom I knew to be very rich, so that he believed they would be 
 fond of buying it, he did not doubt but I should make four or five 
 thousand pieces of eight the more for it. 
 
 Accordingly I agreed, gave him orders to offer it to them, and he did 
 so ; and in about eight months more, the ships being then returned, he 
 sent me an account that they had accepted the offer, and had remitted 
 thirty-three tliousand pieces of eight to a correspondent of theirs at 
 Lisbon to pay for it. 
 
 In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which they 
 sent from Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who sent me bills of 
 exchange 'for thirty-two thousand eight hundred pieces of eight for the 
 estate, reserving the payment of one hundred moidores a-year to him, 
 the old man, during his life, and fifty moidores afterwards to his son 
 for his life, which I had promised them, and which the plantation was 
 to make good as a rent-charge. And thus I have given the first part 
 of a life of fortune and adventure, a life of Providence’s checker- work, 
 and of a variety which the world will seldom be able to show the like 
 of. Beginning foolishly, but closing much more happily than I had 
 ever any reason even to hope for. 
 
 Anyone would think that, in this state of complicated good fortune, 
 I was past running any more hazards ; but I was inured to a wandering 
 life, had no family, nor many relations, nor, however rich, had I con- 
 tracted much acquaintance j and though I had sold my estate in the 
 Brasils, yet I could not keep that country out of my head, and had a 
 great mind to be upon the Aving again, especially I could not resist the 
 strong inclination I had to see my island. 
 
 My true friend, the widoAV, earnestly dissuaded me from it, and so 
 far prevailed with me, that for almost seven years she prevented my 
 running abroad; during which time I took my two nephews, the 
 
of Eohinson Crusoe. 207 
 
 children of one of niy brothers, into my care. The eldest, having 
 something of his own, I bred up as a gentleman, and gave him a 
 settlement of some addition to his estate after my decease ; the other 1 
 put out to the captain of a ship, and, after five years, finding him a 
 sensible, bold, enterprising young fellow, I put him into a good ship, 
 and sent him to sea. And this young fellow afterwards drew me in, 
 old as I was, to farther adventures myself 
 
 In the meantime, I in part settled myself here. For, first of all, I 
 married, and had three children, two sons and one daughter. But my 
 wife dying, and my nephew coming home, with good success, from a 
 voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his importunity, pre- 
 vailed, and I engaged to go in his ship as a private trader to the East 
 Indies. In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw my 
 successors, the Spaniards ; had the whole story of their coming to and 
 adventures in the island, after my departure. All these things, vdth 
 some very surprising incidents, in some new adventures of my own, for 
 ten years more, I may, perhaps, give a farther account of hereafter. 
 
THE FAETHER ADVENTURES 
 
 OP 
 
 ROBINSON CRUSOE. 
 
 1 
 
 That homely proverb used on so many occasions in England, namely, 
 That what is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh, was never 
 more verified than iu the story of my life. Any one would think that 
 after thirty-five years’ affliction, and a variety of unhappy circumstances, 
 which few men, if any, ever went through before, and after near seven 
 years of peace and enjoyment in the fulness of all things ; grooving 
 old, and when, if ever, it might be allowed me to have had such 
 experience of every state of middle life, as to know which was most 
 adapted to make a man happy ; I say, after all this, any one would 
 have thought that the native propensity to rambling, which first sent 
 me out into the world, should be worn out, and that I might at 
 Bixty-one have been inclined to stay at home, and have done venturing 
 life and fortune any more. 
 
 Nay farther, the common motive for foreign adventures was taken 
 away in me ; for I had no fortune to make, I had nothing to seek : for, 
 if I had gained ten thousand pounds, I had been no richer ; for I had 
 already sufficient for my wants, and for those I had to leave it to ; and 
 that I had was visibly increasing ; for having no great family, I could 
 not spend what I had, unless I would set up for an expensive way of 
 living, such as a great family, servants, equipage, gaiety, and the like, 
 which were things I had no inclination to ; so that I had nothing 
 indeed to do but to sit still, enjoy what I had got, and see it increase 
 daily upon my hands. 
 
 Yet all these things had no effect upon me, or at least not enough 
 to resist the strong inclination I had to go abroad again, which hung 
 about me like a chronic distemper ; particularly the desire of seeing 
 my new plantation in the island, and the colony I left there, which 
 run in my head continually. I dreamed of it all night, and my 
 
The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. 209 
 
 imagination run upon it all day ; it was uppermost in all my thoughts, 
 and my fancy worked so steadily and strongly upon it, that I talked of 
 it in my sleep ; in short, nothing could move it from my mind ; it 
 even broke so violently into all my discourses, that it made my 
 conversation tiresome ; for I could talk of nothing else, all my dis- 
 course run into it, even to impertinence, and I saw this myself. One 
 time in my sleep I had the villany of three pirate sailors so vividly 
 related to me by the first Spaniard and Friday’s father, that it was 
 surprising ; they told me how they barbarously attempted to murder 
 all the Spaniards, and that they set fire to the provisions they had 
 laid up, on purpose to distress and starve them, things that I had 
 never heard of, and that indeed were never all of them true in fact : 
 but it was so warm in my imagination, and so realised to me, that to 
 the hour I saw them, I could not be persuaded but that it was or 
 would be trufe ; also how I resented it when the Spaniard complained 
 to me, and how I brought them to justice, tried them, and ordered 
 them all three to be hanged. What there was really in this, shall be 
 seen in its place ; for, however I came to form such things in my 
 dream, and what secret converse of spirits injected it, yet there was 
 very much of it true. 
 
 In this kind of temper I lived some years ; I had no enjoyment of my 
 life, no pleasant hours, no agreeable diversion but what had something 
 or other of this in it, so that my wife, who saw my mind so wholly 
 bent upon it, told me very seriously one night, that she believed there 
 was some powerful impulse of Providence upon me, which dragged 
 me thither again ; and that she thought nothing hindered my going 
 but thoughts of my wife and children. She told me it was true she 
 could not think of parting with me ; but she was assured, that if she 
 were to die it would be the first thing I would do ; so, as it seemed to 
 her that the thing was determined above, she would not be the only 
 obstruction to it : if I thought fit and resolved to go /^ — here she 
 found me very intent upon her words, and that I looked very earnestly 
 at her ; so that it a little disordered her, and she stopped. I asked 
 her why she did not go on, and say out what she was going to say ? 
 But I perceived her heart was too full, tears stood in her eyes. Speak 
 out, my dear,” said I, are you willing I should go ^ No,” says she, 
 very affectionately, I am far from willing ; but if you are resolved to 
 go,’^ says she, “ rather than I will be the only hindrance, I will go with 
 you ; for though I think it a preposterous thing for one of your years, 
 and in your condition, yet if it must be,” said she again, weeping, I 
 n^on’t leave you ; for if it be of Heaven, you must do it ; there is no 
 
 p 
 
210 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 resisting it ; and if Heaven makes it your duty to go, it is also mine to 
 go with you, or otherwise dispose of me, that I may not obstruct iV 
 
 This affectionate behaviour of my wife’s brought me a little out of 
 the vapours, and I began to consider what I was doing ; I corrected 
 my wandering fancy, and began to argue sedately with myself, what 
 business I had, after threescore years, and after such a life of sufferings 
 and disasters, closed in so happy and easy a manner, I say, what 
 business had I to rush into new hazards and adventures, fit only for 
 youth and poverty to run into 1 
 
 I considered also my new engagement ; that I had a wife, one child 
 already born, and my wife then great with another ; that I Had all the 
 world 'could give me, and had no need to seek hazards for gain : that 
 I was declining in years, and ought to think rather of leaving what I 
 had gained than of seeking to increase it ; that as to what my wife had 
 said, of its being an impulse from Heaven, and that it should be my 
 duty to go, I had no notion of that ; so after many of these cogitations, 
 I struggled with the power of my imagination, reasoned myself out of 
 it, as I believe people may always do in like cases, if they will ; and, 
 in a word, I conquered. I composed myself with such arguments 
 which my present condition furnished me plentifully with : and I 
 resolved to divert myself with other things, to engage in some business 
 that might effectually tie me up from any excursions of this kind ; for 
 I found the feeling return upon me chiefly when I was idle, and had 
 nothing to do, or anything of moment immediately before me. 
 
 To this purpose I bought a little farm in the county of Bedford, and 
 resolved to remove myself thither. I had a little convenient house upon 
 it, and the land about it I found was capable of great improvement, 
 and in many ways it suited my inclination, which delighted in culti- 
 vating, managing, planting, and improving of land ; and particularly, 
 being an inland country, I was removed from among ships, sailors, and 
 things relating to the remote parts of the world. 
 
 In a word, I farmed my own land, I had no rent to pay, was limited by 
 no articles, I could pull up or cut down as I pleased : what I planted was 
 for myself, and what I improved, was for my family ; and having thus 
 left off all thoughts of wandering, I had not the least discomfort in 
 any part of my life, as to this world. IN'ow I thought indeed, that I 
 enjoyed the middle state of life that my father so early recommended 
 to me, a kind of heavenly life, something like what is described by the 
 poet upon the subject of a country life. 
 
 Free from vices^free from care, 
 
 Age has no pain, and youth no snare. 
 
211 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoi:.. 
 
 But in the middle of all this felicity, one unforeseen blow from 
 Providence unhinged me at once ; and drove me, by its consequences, 
 into a deep relapse into the wandering disposition ; which, as I may 
 say, being born in my very blood, soon recovered its hold over me, 
 and, like the returns of a violent distemper, came on me with an 
 irresistible force ; so that nothing could remove it. This blow was the 
 loss of my wife. For a time Ijvas inconsolable. It is not my purpose 
 here to write an elegy upon my wife, to paint her particular virtues, 
 and make my court to the sex by the flattery of a funeral sermon. 
 She was, in a few words, the stay of my affairs, the centre of all my 
 enterprises, by her prudence I had been reduced to that happy compass 
 I was in, from the most extravagant and ruinous projects that fluttered 
 
 in my head as above ; she did more to guide my rambling genius, than 
 a mother’s tears, a father’s instructions, a friend’s counsel, or my own 
 reasoning powers could do. I was happy in listening to her arguments 
 and in being moved by her tears and entreaties. I was to the last 
 degree desolate and dislocated in the world by the loss of her. 
 
 ^Yhen she w^as gone, the world looked awkward around me ; I was 
 as much a stranger in it, in my thoughts, as I was in the Brasils when 
 I went first on shore there ; and as much alone, though surrounded 
 with servants, as I was in my island. I knew neither what to do, or 
 what not to do. I saw the world busy round me, one part labouring 
 for bread, and the other part squandering in vile excesses or empty 
 pleasures, both equally miserable, because the end they proposed still 
 
 p 2 
 
212 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 fled from them. The man of pleasure surfeited of his vice, heaped up 
 work for sorrow and repentance ; and the men of labour spent their 
 strength in daily strugglings for bread to maintain the vital strength 
 they laboured with ; so living in a daily circulation of sorrow, living 
 but to work, and working but to live, as if daily bread were the only 
 end of wearisome life, and a wearisome life the only occasion of daily 
 bread. 
 
 This led me to think of the life I lived in my kingdom, the island ; 
 where I suffered no more corn to grow than I wanted ; and bred no 
 more goats than I had use for : where the money lay in the drawer 
 till it grew mouldy. 
 
 All these things, had I improved them as I ought to have done, 
 and as reason and religion dictated, would have taught me to search 
 farther than human enjoyments for a full felicity. The reason and 
 end of life was something certainly superior to all these things, and 
 this was either to be possessed, or at least hoped for, on this side the 
 grave. 
 
 But my sage counsellor was gone ; I was like a ship without a pilot, 
 that could only run before the wind ; my thoughts run off again into 
 the old affair, my head was quite turned with the whimsies of foreign 
 adventure ; and all the pleasant innocent amusements of my farm and 
 my garden, my cattle, and my family, which before entirely possest 
 me, were now nothing to me, they had no relish, and were like music 
 to one that has no ear, or food to one that has no taste. In a word, I 
 resolved to leave off house-keeping, let my farm, and return to London : 
 and in a few months after I did so. 
 
 When I came to London, I was as uneasy as I was before; I 
 had no rehsh to the place, no employment in it, nothing to do but to 
 saunter about like an idle person, of whom it may be said, he is 
 perfectly useless in God’s creation, and it matters not to the rest of 
 his kind, whether he be dead or alive, a state of existence which of all 
 circumstances was the most my aversion, who had been all my days 
 used to an active life; I would often say to myself, ‘‘A state of idleness 
 is the very dregs of life;” and indeed I thought I was much more 
 suitably employed, when I was twenty-six days in making me a deal 
 board. 
 
 It was now the beginning of the year 1693 ; my nephew, who, as 
 I have observed before, I had brought up to the sea, and had made 
 hun commander of a ship, was come home from a short voyage to 
 Bilboa, being the first he had made ; he came to me, and told me, 
 that some merchants of his acquaintance had been proposing to him 
 
213 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 to go a voyage for them to the East Indies and to China as private 
 traders; ‘‘And now, nncle,'^ says he, “if you will go to sea with me, 
 I will engage to land you upon your old habitation in the island, for 
 we are to touch at the Brasils/’ 
 
 My nephew knew not how far my wandering propensities had re- 
 turned upon me, and I knew nothing of what he had in his thoughts ; 
 but that very morning before he came I had, in much confusion of 
 thought, and after revolving every part of my circumstances, come to 
 this resolution, namely, That I would go to Lisbon and consult mth 
 my old sea captain ; and, if it was rational and practicable, I would go 
 and see the island again, and see what had become of my people there. 
 I had been pleasing myself with the thoughts of peopling the place, 
 and carrying inhabitants from hence, getting a patent for the posses- 
 sion, and I know not what besides ; when in the middle of all this, in 
 comes my nephew, as I have said, with his project of carrying me 
 thither, in his way to the East Indies. 
 
 I paused at his words, and looking steadily at him, “ What devil,’’ 
 said I, “ sent you on this unlucky errand % ” My nephew stared, as if 
 he had been frighted at first ; but perceiving I was not much dis- 
 pleased with the. proposal, he recovered himself. “ I hope it may not 
 be an unlucky proposal, Sir,” says he; “I dare say you would be 
 pleased to see your new colony there, where you once reigned with 
 more felicity than most of your brother monarchs.” 
 
 In a word, the scheme hit so exactly with my temper, that I told 
 him, in few words, if he agreed with the merchants, I would go with 
 him : but I told him also, I would not promise to go any further than 
 my own island. “Why, Sir,” says he, “you don’t want to be left 
 there again, I hope?” “Can you not take me up again on your 
 return ? ” said L He told me it might be that the merchants would 
 not allow him to come that way with a laden ship of such value, it 
 being a month’s sail out of his way, and might be three or four. 
 “ Besides, Sir, if I should miscarry,” said he, “ and not return at all, 
 then you would be just reduced to the condition you were in before.” 
 
 This was very rational; but we soon found out a remedy for it, 
 which was to carry a framed sloop with us, which, being taken in 
 pieces and shipped on board the ship, might, by the help of some 
 carpenters, whom we also agreed to carry with us, be set up again in 
 the island ; and finished, fit to go to sea, in a few days. 
 
 I was not long in resolving ; for indeed the importunitie& of my 
 nephew joined in so effectually with my inclination, that nothing 
 could oppose them : on the other hand, my wife bemg dead, nobody 
 
214 
 
 The Life and Adveyitures 
 
 concerned themselves so much for me, as to persuade me one way or 
 other, except my ancient good friend the widow, who earnestly 
 entreated me to consider my years, my easy circumstances, and the 
 needless hazard of a long voyage ; and, above all, my young children : 
 but it was all to no purpose; I had an irresistible desire to the 
 voyage ; and such was the impression I had upon my mind for the 
 voyage, that I told her I thought it would he a kind of resisting 
 Providence, if I should attempt to stay at home ; after this she ceased 
 her expostulations, and joined with me, not only in making provision 
 for my voyage, hut also in settling my family affairs in my absence, 
 and providing for the education of my children. 
 
 In order to this, I made my will, and settled the estate I had in 
 such a manner for my children, and placed it in such hands, that I 
 was perfectly easy ; satisfied that they would have justice done them, 
 whatever might hefal me ; as for their education, I left it wholly to 
 my widow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for her care : all 
 which she richly deserved; for no mother could have taken more 
 care in their education, or understand it better ; and I lived to thank 
 her for it. 
 
 My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of January, 1694, 
 and I with my man Friday weiit on board in the Downs on the 8th, 
 having, besides the frame of that sloop which I mentioned above, a 
 very considerable cargo of all kinds of necessary things for my colony, 
 which, if I did not find in good condition, I resolved at least to 
 leave it so. 
 
 First, I carried with me some servants, whom I purposed to place 
 there, as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there upon my own 
 account, while I stayed, and either to leave them there, or carry them 
 forward, as they should appear willing ; particularly I carried two car- 
 penters, a smith, and a very handy ingenious fellow who was a cooper 
 by trade, but was also a general mechanic ; for he was dexterous at mak- 
 ing wheels, and handmills to grind corn, was a good turner, a good 
 pot-maker ; he also made any thing that was proper to make of earth, 
 or of wood; in a word, we called him our Jack of all trades.’^ 
 
 With these I carried a tailor, who had offered himself to go pas- 
 senger to the East Indies with my nephew, but afterwards consented 
 to stay on our plantation, and proved as handy a fellow as could be 
 desired, in many other businesses besides ; for, as I observed formerly, 
 necessity arms us for all employments. 
 
 My cargo, as near as I can recollect, for I have not kept an account 
 of the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen, and some 
 
215 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 bliin English stuffs, enough for clothing the Spaniards I expected to 
 find there, comfortably for the next seven years ; these materials, with 
 gloves, hats, shoes, stockings, and all such things as they could want 
 for wearing, amounted to above 200 pounds, including some beds, 
 bedding, and household-stuff, particularly kitchen utensils, with pots, 
 kettles, pewter, brass, &c. and near a hundred pound more in iron- 
 work, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks, hinges, and every 
 necessary thing I could think of. 
 
 I carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fusees, besides 
 some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes, and two 
 pieces of brass cannon ; and, because I knew not what time, and what 
 extremities I was providing for, I carried a hundred barrels of powder, 
 besides swords, cutlasses, and the iron part of some pikes and 
 halberts ; sp, that, in short, we had a large magazine of all sorts of 
 stores; and I made my nephew carry two small quarter-deck guns 
 more than he wanted for his ship, to leave behind, to assist us to 
 maintain possession of the island. 
 
 I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used to meet 
 with; yet some odd accidents, cross winds, and bad weather did 
 happen, which made the voyage longer than I expected ; and I, who 
 had never made but one voyage, namely, my first voyage to Guinea, in 
 which I might be said to come back again, as the voyage was at first 
 designed, began to think the same ill fate still attended me ; and that 
 I was born to be never contented with being on shore, and yet to be 
 always unfortunate at sea. 
 
 Contrary winds first put up to the northward, and we were obliged 
 to put in at Galway, in Ireland, were we lay wind-bound two-and- 
 twenty days ; but we had this satisfaction with the disaster, that 
 provisions were here exceeding cheap, and in the utmost plenty ; so 
 that while we lay here we never touched the ship’s stores, but rather 
 added to them ; here also I took in several live hogs, and two cows, 
 and calves, which I resolved, if I had a good passage, to put on shore 
 in my island ; but we found occasion to dispose otherwise of them. 
 
 We set out the 5 th of Eebruary, from Ireland, and had a very fair 
 gale of wind for some days. As I remember, it might be about the 
 “20th of Eebruary in the evening, late, when the mate having the 
 watch, came into the round-house, and told us he saw a flash of fire, 
 and heard a gun fired ; and while he was telling us of it, a boy came 
 in, and told us the boatswain heard another. This made us all run out 
 upon the quarter-deck, where for a while we heard nothing, but in a 
 few minutes we saw a very great light, and found that there was some 
 
216 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 very terrible fire at a distance ; immediately ^Ye liad recourse to ’Our 
 reckonings, and all agreed that there could be no land in the direction 
 of the fire, no, not for 500 leagues, for it appeared.at W.K’.W. Upon 
 this we concluded it must be some ship on fire at sea ; from the noise 
 of gun§, heard just before, we concluded it could not be far off, and 
 stood directly towards it. The farther we sailed, the greater the light 
 appeared, though the weather being hazy we could perceive nothing 
 but the flames for a while ; in about half an hour’s sailing, the wind 
 being fair for us, though not much of it, and the weather clearing up 
 a little, we could plainly discern a great ship on fire in the middle of 
 the sea. 
 
 I was most sensibly touched with this disaster j I recollected what 
 condition I was in when taken up by the Portuguese captain ; but how 
 much more deplorable the circumstances of the poor creatures belonging 
 to this ship must be if they had no other ship in company with them : 
 upon this I immediately ordered that five guns should be fired, one 
 soon after another, that, if possible, we might give notice to them that 
 there was help at hand, and that they might endeavour to save them- 
 selves in their boat ; for though we could see the flame of the ship, yet 
 they, it being night, could see nothing of us. 
 
 We lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burning ship 
 drove, waiting for day-light ; when on a sudden, to our great terror, 
 though we had re^on to expect it, the ship blew up in the air, and 
 immediately, that is to say, in a few minutes, all the fire was out, and 
 the rest of the ship sunk ; this was a terrible, and indeed afflicting 
 
217 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 siglit ; for the sake of the poor men, who, I concluded, must he either 
 all destroyed in the ship, or he in the utmost distress in their boat in 
 the middle of the ocean, which at present, by reason it was dark, I 
 could not see : however, to direct them as well as I could, I caused 
 lights to be hung out in all the parts of the ship ; and kept firing 
 guns all the night long ; letting them know by this, that there was a 
 ship not far off. 
 
 About eight o’clock in the morning, we discovered the shi 2 )’s boats, 
 by the help of our glasses ; there were two of them, both thronged with 
 people, and deep in the water ; we perceived they rowed, the wind being 
 against them ; that they saw our ship, and did their utmost to make 
 us see them. 
 
 We immediately spread our ancient, to let them know we saw them ; 
 and hung a waft out, as a signal for them to come on board ; and then 
 made more Sail, standing directly to them. In a little more than half 
 an hour, we came up with them, and, in a word, took them all in, being 
 no less than sixty-four men, women, and children ; for there were a 
 great many passengers. We found it was a French merchant-ship of 
 300 ton, homeward bound from Quebec. The master gave us a long 
 account of the distress of his ship, how the fire began in the steerage 
 by the negligence of one of the men ; it was, as everybody thought, 
 entirely put out : when they found that some sparks of the first fire 
 had gotten into another part of the ship, so difficult to come at, that 
 they could not quench it, till getting between the timbers, and within 
 the ceiling of the ship, it penetrated into the hold, and mastered all the 
 skill and application they were able to exert. They got into their 
 ^oats, which, to their great comfort, were pretty large : being a long 
 boat, and a great shallop, besides a small skiff, which was of no great 
 service to them, other than to carry some fresh water and provisions. 
 They had sails, oars, and a compass ; and were preparing to make the 
 best of their way back to I^Tewfoundland, the wind blowing an easy gale 
 at S.E. by E. They had as much provisions and water, as, with sparing 
 it so as to be next door to starving, might support them about twelve 
 days ; in which, if they had no bad weather, and no contrary winds, 
 the captain hoped he might reach the banks of Newfoundland. But 
 there were many chances against them ; storms to overset and founder 
 them ; rains and cold to benumb their limbs ; contrary winds to keep 
 them out and starve them ; that it must have been next to miraculous 
 if they had escaped in this way. In the midst of t^ir consultations, 
 every one being hopeless, and ready to despair, as tl^ captain told me 
 with tears in his eyes, the^y^ard the^guns which T caused to be fired 
 
218 The Life and Adventures 
 
 at first seeing the light : this revived their hearts, and gave then^ the 
 notice that there was a ship at hand for their help. Upon hearing 
 these guns, they took down their masts and sails ; and the sound 
 coming from the windward, they resolved to lie by till morning. Some 
 time after hearing no more guns, they fired three muskets, one a con- 
 siderable while after another; but these, the wind being contrary, we 
 never heard. Some time after that again, they were still moie agree- 
 ably surprised with seeing our lights, and hearing the guns which I 
 caused to be fired during the night : this set them to work with their 
 oars to keep their boats a-head, at least that we might the sooner come 
 up with them ; and at last, to their inexpressible joy, they found we 
 saw them. 
 
 It is impossible for me to express the strange ecstasies, the variety 
 of postures, which these poor people threw themselves into, to ex- 
 press the joy pf their souls at so unexpected a deliverance. Grief and 
 fear are easily described ; sighs, tears, groans, and a very few motions 
 of the head and hands, make up the Sum of its’ variety ; but an excess 
 of joy, a surprise of joy, has a thousand extravagances in it : they were 
 thrown into a kind of frenzy ; there were some in tears, some raging 
 and tearing themselves, as if they had been in the greatest agonies of 
 sorrow ; some stark raving and downright lunatic ; some ran about the 
 ship stamping with their feet, others wringing their hands ; some were 
 dancing, some singing, some laughing, more crying ; many quite dumb, 
 not able to speak a word ; others sick and vomiting, several swooning, 
 and ready to faint ; and a few were crossing themselves and giving God 
 thanks. ^ Perhaps the particular nation they belonged to had something 
 to do with this. The French are allowed to be more volatile, more 
 passionate, and more sprightly, and their spirits more fluid, than any 
 other nations. I am not philosopher enough to determine the cause, 
 but nothing I had ever seen before came up to it : the ecstasies poor 
 Friday, my trusty savage, was in, when he found his father in the 
 boat, came the nearest to it ; and the surprise of the master, and his 
 two companions, whom I delivered from the villains that set them on 
 shore in the island, came a little way towards it ; but nothing that 
 I saw either in Friday, or any where else in my life could compare 
 to this. 
 
 There were two priests among them, one an old man, and the other 
 a young one. As soon as the old man set his foot on board our ship, 
 and saw himseK^^afe, he dropped down stone-dead, to all appearance ; 
 not the least sign of life could be perceived in him ; our surgeon im- 
 mediately applied proper remedies to recover him : and was the only 
 
219 
 
 of Bohmson Urusoe: 
 
 man in the ship that believed he was not dead. He opened a vein in 
 his arm, having first chafed and rubbed the part, so as to warm it as 
 much as possible : upon this the blood, which only dropped at first, 
 flowed something freely ; in three minutes after, the man opened his 
 eyes ; and about a quarter of an hour after that, he spoke, grew better, 
 and was quite well ; after the blood was stopped, he walked about, told 
 us he was perfectly well, took a dram of cordial which the surgeon gave 
 him, and was what we call come to himself ; about a quarter of an hour 
 after, they came running into the cabin to the surgeon, who was bleed- 
 ing a Frenchwoman that had fainted ; and told him the priest had 
 gone stark mad. It seems he had begun to revolve the change of his 
 circumstances, and again this put him into an ecstasy of joy : his spirits 
 whirled about faster than the vessels could convey them ; the blood 
 grew hot and feverish ; and the man was as fit for Eedlam as any crea- 
 ture that ever was in it ; the surgeon would not bleed him again in that 
 condition, but gave him something to put him to sleep, which, after 
 some time, operated upon him, and he waked the next morning perfectly 
 composed and well. 
 
 The younger priest behaved with more self-command, and was really 
 an example of a serious well-governed mind ; at his first coming on 
 board the ship, he threw himself flat on his face, prostrating himself in 
 thankfulness for his deliverance ; in which I unhappily and unseason-' 
 ably disturbed him, really thinking he was in a swoon ; but he spake 
 calmly ; thanked me ; told me he was giving God thanks for his 
 dehverance ; begged me to leave him a few moments, and that, next 
 to his Maker, he would give me thanks also. He continued in that 
 posture about three minutes, or a little more, after I left him ; then 
 came to me, as he had said he would, and, with a great deal of 
 seriousness and aifection, but with tears in his eyes, thanked me, that 
 had, under God, given him, and so many miserable creatures, their 
 lives. After this he applied himself to his country folks ; laboured to 
 compose them ; persuaded, entreated, argued, reasoned with them, and 
 did his utmost to keep them within the exercise of their reason. With 
 some he had success, though others were, for a time, out of all govern- 
 ment of themselves. 
 
 We were something disordered by these extravagances among our 
 new guests for the first day ; but when they retired, lodgings being 
 provided for them as well as our ship would allow, and had slept 
 heartily, as most of them did, they were quite another sort of people 
 the next day. 
 
 Nothing of good manners, or civil acknowledgments for the kindness 
 
220 
 
 V 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 shown them, was wanting ; the Trench, it is known, are naturally apt 
 enough to exceed that way. The captain, and one of the priests, came 
 to me the next day ; and desiring to speak with me and my nephew, 
 the commander, began to consult wuth us what should be done with 
 them ; and first they told us, that, as we had saved their lives, so all 
 they had was little enough as a return to us for that kindness received. 
 The captain said they had saved some money and some things of value 
 in their boats, catched hastily up out of the flames ; and if we w^ould 
 accept it, they were ordered to make an offer of it all to us ; they only 
 desired to be set on shore somewhere in our way, whence they might 
 get passage to France. 
 
 My nephew was for accepting their money, but began to consider 
 what to do with them afterwards. I knew what it was to be set on 
 shore in a strange country ; and if the Portuguese captain that took me 
 up at sea had taken all I had for my deliverance, I must have starved, 
 or have been as much a slave at the Brasils, as I had been in Barbary ; 
 perhaps a Portuguese is not a much better master than a Turk, if not, 
 in some cases, a much worse. . v., 
 
 I therefore told the French captain, that it was our duty to relieve 
 them, as we were fellow-creatures, and as we would desire to be so 
 delivered, if we were in the like extremity ; that we had done nothing 
 for them, but what we believed they would have done for us if our cases 
 had been reversed, but that we took them up to save them, not to 
 plunder them ; or to set them on shore and leave them : that this would 
 be first to save them from death, and then kill them ourselves ; save 
 them from drowning, and then abandon them to starving ; and there- 
 fore nothing should be taken from them. As to setting them on shore, 
 our ship was bound to the East Indies ; and though we were driven 
 out of course to the westward a great way, directed perhaps by Heaven 
 for their deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully to change our 
 voyage ; nor could my nephew, the captain, answer it to the freighters, 
 with whom he was under charter-party to pursue his voyage by the 
 way of the Brasils ; all he could do for them was, to put ourselves in 
 the way of meeting with ships homeward-bound from the West Indies, 
 and getThem passage, if possible, to England or France. 
 
 The first part of the proposal was so generous and kind, they could 
 not but be very thankful for it : but they were in great consternation, 
 especially the passengers, at the notion of being carried away to the 
 East Indies. They entreated me, seeing that I was driven so far to the 
 westward before I met with them, I would at least keep on the same 
 course to the banks of IN’ewfoundland^ where it was probable I might 
 
of Robinson Crusoe. 221 
 
 meet with some ship or sloop that they might hire to carry them hack 
 to Canada, from whence they came. 
 
 I thought this was but a reasonable request on their part ; and there- 
 fore I inclined to agree to it ; for indeed I considered, that to carry this 
 whole company to the East Indies, would not only be an intolerable 
 severity upon the poor people, but would be ruining our whole voyage 
 by devouring all our provisions ; so I thought it no breach of charter- 
 party but what an unforeseen accident, in which no one could say we 
 were to blame, made absolutely necessary to us ; for the laws of God 
 and man would have forbid that we should refuse to take up two boats 
 full of people in such a distressed condition; and the nature of the 
 thing, as well respecting ourselves as the poor people, obliged us to set 
 them on shore somewhere or other for their deliverance ; so I consented 
 that we w^ould carry them to ETewfoundland, if wind and weather would 
 permit; and if not, to Martinico in the West Indies. 
 
 The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty good ; and 
 as the winds had continued in the points between H.E and S.E. a long 
 time, we missed several opportunities of sending them to France; for we 
 met several ships bound for Europe, whereof two were French from 
 St. Christopher’s ; but they had been so long beating up against the 
 wund, that they durst not take in passengers for fear of wanting pro- 
 visions for the voyage, as well for themselves as for those they should 
 take in ; so we were obliged to go on. It was about a week after this, 
 that we made the banks of Newfoundland, where, to shorten my story, 
 we put all our French people on board a bark, which they hired at sea 
 to put them on shore there, and afterwards to carry them to France : 
 when, I say, all the French went on shore, I should remember, that the 
 young priest I spoke of, hearing we were bound to the East Indies, 
 desired to go the voyage with us, and to be set on shore on the coast 
 of Coromandel, which I readily agreed to : for I wonderfully liked the 
 man, and had very good reason to do so, as will appear afterwards ; four 
 of the seamen also entered themselves into our ship, and proved very 
 useful fellows. 
 
 From hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steering away 
 S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together, sometimes with little 
 or no wind at all, when we met with another subject for our humanity 
 to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before. 
 
 It was in the latitude of twenty-seven degrees five minutes N. and the 
 19th day of March, 1694, when we spied a sail, our course being S.E. 
 and by S. We soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up 
 to us ; but could make nothing of her, till coming a little nearer, we found 
 
222 
 
 The Life and Adventures ^ 
 
 she had lost her main-top mast, foremast, and bowsprit; she was a ship 
 of Bristol, but had been blown out of the road at Barbadoes, a few days 
 before she was ready to sail, by a terrible hurricane, while the captain 
 and chief mate were both gone on shore ; they had been some weeks at 
 sea, and had already met with another storm ; they were almost starved 
 for want of provisions, besides the fatigues they had undergone ; their 
 bread and flesh was quite gone, they had not an ounce left in the ship, 
 and had had none for eleven days ; the only relief they had, was, that 
 their water was not all spent, and they had about half a barrel of flour 
 left, also sugar enough, and seven casks of rum. 
 
 There was a youth and his mother, and a maid-servant, on board, 
 who were going passengers, and thinking the ship was ready to sail, 
 unhappily came on board the evening before the hurricane began; and, 
 having no provisions of their own left, they were in a more deplorable 
 condition than the rest ; for the seamen being reduced to such an 
 extreme necessity themselves, had no compassion, we may be sure, for 
 the poor passengers ; and they were indeed in a condition that their 
 misery is very hard to describe. . - 
 
 immediately supplied them with what we could spare ; and indeed 
 I had so far over-ruled things with my nephew, that I would have 
 victualled them, though we had gone away to the coast of America to 
 have suppKed ourselves ; but there was no necessity for that. 
 
 But now they were in a new danger ; for they were afraid of eating 
 too much, even of that little we gave them : the second mate, now 
 commander, brought six men with him in his boat ; but these poor 
 VTotches looked like skeletons, and were so weak, they could hardly sit 
 to their oars : the mate himself was very ill, and half-starved ; for he 
 declared he had reserved nothing from the men, and went share and 
 share alike with them in every bit of food. I cautioned them to eat 
 sparingly while I set meat before them, not forgetting the staiudng crew 
 that were left on board, for I ordered my own boat to go on board the 
 ship, with my mate and twelve men, to carry them a sack of bread and 
 four or flve pieces of beef to boil. Our surgeon charged the men to cause 
 the meat to be boiled while they stayed, and to keep guard in the cook- 
 room to prevent the crew taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the 
 pot before it was well boiled, and then to give every man but a very 
 little at a time ; by this caution he saved the men, who would other- 
 wise have killed themselves with the very food that was given them to 
 save their lives. 
 
 At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great cabin, 
 and see what condition the passengers were in, and, if they were ahve, 
 
223 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 to comfort tliem and. give them what refreshment was proper ; tho 
 surgeon gmng him a large pitcher with some of the prepared broth 
 which he had given to the mate, and which he did not question would 
 restore them gradually. 
 
 hTot satisfied with this, hut having a great mind to see the scene of 
 misery which I knew the ship itself would present me with, in a more 
 lively manner than I could have it by report, I took the paptain of the 
 ship, as we now called him, with me, and went myself a little after in 
 their boat. 
 
 I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the victuals 
 out of the boiler before it was ready : but my mate observed his 
 orders, and kept a good guard at the cook-room door ; and the men he 
 placed there, after using all possible persuasion to them, to have 
 
 patience, kept them off by force ; however, he caused some biscuit 
 cakes to be dipped in the pot, and thus softened with the liquor of the 
 meat, which they call brewis, gave one to each of them, to stay their 
 stomachs, telling them it was for their own safety, that he was obliged 
 to give them but a little at a time. But it was all in vain, and had I 
 not come on board, with their own commander and officers, and with 
 good words and some threats also of giving them no more, I believe 
 they would have broke into the cook-room by force, and torn the meat 
 out of the furnace; for words are indeed of very small force with 
 a hungry belly : however, we pacified them, and fed them gi'adually 
 and cautiously for the first time, and the next time gave them more, 
 and at last filled their bellies, and the men did well enough. But the 
 
224 The Life and Adventures ^ 
 
 misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of another nature, and 
 far beyond the rest. 
 
 The poor mother, who was a woman of sense and good breeding, had 
 spared all she could get so affectionately for her son, that at last she 
 entirely sunk under it : and when the mate of our ship went in, she 
 sat upon the floor or deck, with her back up against the sides, between 
 two chairs, which were lashed fast, and her head sunk in between 
 her shoulders, like a corpse, though not quite dead. The mate said all 
 he could to revive and encourage her, and with a spoon put some broth 
 mto her mouth ; she opened her lips, and lifted up one hand, but 
 ould not speak ; yet she understood what he said, and made signs to 
 nim, intimating that it was too late for her, but pointed to her child, 
 as if she would have said they should take care of him. 
 
 However, the mate, who was much moved with the sight, en- 
 deavoured to get some of the broth into her mouth ; and, us he said, 
 got two or three spoonfuls down, though I question whether he could 
 be sure of it or not ; but it was too late, she died the same night. 
 
 The youth who was preserved at the price of this most affectionate 
 mother’s life, was not so far gone ; yet he lay in a cabin-bed stretched 
 out, with hardly any life left in him j he had a piece of an old glove 
 in his mouth, having eaten up the rest of it. However, being young, 
 and having more strength than his mother, the mate got something 
 down his throat, and he began sensibly to revive, but by giving him 
 some time after two or three spoonfuls extraordinary, he was very 
 sick, and brought it up again. 
 
 The next care was the poor maid : she lay all along the deck hard 
 by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen down with an 
 apoplexy, and struggled for life ; her limbs were distorted, one of 
 her hands was clasped round the frame of a chair, and she griped it so 
 hard that we could not easily make her let go ; her other arm lay over 
 her head, and her feet lay both together, set fast against the frame of 
 the cabin-table ; in short, she lay just like one in the last agonies of 
 death, and yet she v/as alive too. The poor creature was not only 
 starved with hunger, and terrified with the thoughts of death, but was 
 broken-hearted for her mistress, whom she loved most tenderly, and 
 whom she saw dying two or three days before. With great applica- 
 tion our surgeon recovered her as to life, but he had her upon his 
 hands as to her senses, for she was little less than distracted for a con- 
 siderable time after. 
 
 Our business, however, was to relieve the distressed ship’s crew, but 
 not to lie by for them ; and though they were willing to steer the same 
 
225 
 
 of Eolinson Crusoe, 
 
 course with us for some days, yet we could carry no sail to keep pace 
 with a ship that had no masts ; however, as their captain begged of us 
 to help him to set up a main top-mast, and a kind of a top-mast to his 
 jury fore-mast, we did, as it were, lie by him for three or four days ; 
 and then, having given him five barrels of beef, a barrel of pork, two 
 hogsheads of biscuit, and a proportion of peas, flour, and what other 
 things we could spare; and taking three casks of sugar, some rum, 
 and some pieces of eight of them for satisfaction, we' left them, 
 taking on board with us, at their own earnest request, the youth, and 
 the maid, and all their goods. 
 
 ]|I was now in the latitude of 19 deg. 32 min. and had hitherto had 
 a tolerable voyage as to weather, though at first the winds had been 
 contrary. Tor brevity’s sake I shall now only observe, that I came to 
 my old habitation, the island, on the 10th of April, 1694. It was 
 with no small difficulty that I found the place, for as I came to it 
 before, on the south and east side of the island, coming from the 
 Erasils, so now coming in between the main and the island, and 
 having no chart for the coast, nor any landmark, I did not know 
 it when I saw it. We beat about a great while, therefore, and went 
 on shore on several islands in the mouth of the great river Oroonoque, 
 but none for my purpose ; only this I learned by my coasting the 
 shore, that I was under a great mistake before, in supposing that the 
 land I saw from the island I lived in was a continent, it was in reality 
 a long island, or rather a group of islands, stretching from one to 
 the other side of the extended mouth of that great river ; and 
 that the savages who came to my island were not properly those 
 which we call Caribbees, but islanders, and other barbarians of the 
 same kind, who inhabited the islands on our side. In short, I visited 
 several of these islands to no purpose ; some I found were inhabited, 
 and some were not. On one of them I found some Spaniards, and 
 thought at first they lived there ; but speaking with them I found they 
 had a sloop in a small creek hard by, and that they came hither to 
 make salt, and catch pearl-muscles, but they belonged to the Island of 
 Trinidad, which lay further north, in latitude of 10 and 11 degrees. 
 
 At last, however, coasting from one island to another, sometimes 
 with the ship, sometimes with the Frenchmen’s shallop (which we had 
 found a convenient boat, and therefore kept with their very good will), 
 at length I came fair on the south side of my island, and I presently 
 knew the very countenance of the place ; so I brought the ship safe to 
 an anchor, broadside with the little creek where was my old habitation. 
 
 As soon as I saw the place, I called for Friday and asked him if he 
 
 o 
 
226 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 knew where he was ] He looked about a little, and presently clapping 
 his hands, cried, ‘^0 yes, 0 there, 0 yes, 0 there pointing to our 
 old habitation, and fell a dancing and capering like a mad fellow, and 
 I had much ado to keep him from jumping into the sea, to swim on 
 shore to the place. 
 
 Well, Friday,” says I, do you think we shall find anybody here, 
 or no ] and what do you think, shall we see your father ? ” The fellow 
 stood mute as a stock a good while ; but when I named his father, the 
 poor affectionate creature looked dejected, and the tears ran down his 
 face very plentifully. ‘^What is the matter, Friday?” said I. ^^Are 
 you troubled because you may see your father ? ” ‘‘ Ho, no,” says he, 
 
 shaking his head, “ no see him more, no ever more see again.” ‘‘ Why 
 so,” said I, “Friday, how do you know that?” “0 no, 0 no,” says 
 Friday, “he long die; long ago, he much old man.” “Well, well,” 
 says I, “ Friday, you don’t know ; but shall we see anyone else then ?” 
 The fellow, it seems, had better eyes than I, and he points just to the 
 hill above my old house ; and though we lay half a league off, he 
 cries out, “We see ! we see ! yes, we see much man there, and there, 
 and there.” I looked, but I could see nobody, no, not with the glass ; 
 which was, I suppose, because I could not hit the place ; for the fellow 
 was right, as I found upon inquiry the next day, five or six men stood 
 there to look at the ship, not knowing what to think of it. 
 
 As soon as Friday had told me he saw people, I caused the English 
 ancient to be spread, and fired three guns, to give them notice we were 
 friends; about half a quarter of an hour after, we perceived smoke 
 rising from the side of the creek ; so I immediately ordered a boat out, 
 taking Friday with me ; and, hanging out a white flag, or flag of truce, 
 I went directly on shore, taking with me the young priest I mentioned, 
 to whom I had told the whole story of my living there, and the man- 
 ner of it, and every particular, both of myself, and those I left there ; 
 which had made him extremely desirous to go with me. We had 
 besides about sixteen men very well armed, if we had found any new 
 guest there which we did not know of; but we had no need of 
 weapons. 
 
 As we went on shore upon the tide of flood, near high water, we 
 rowed directly into the creek ; and the first man I fixed my eye upon 
 was the Spaniard, whose life I had saved, and whom I knew by his face 
 perfectly well. I intended to go on shore first myself ; but there was 
 no keeping Friday in the boat : for the affectionate creature had spied 
 his father at a distance, a good way off from the Spaniards, where 
 indeed I saw nothing of him ; and if prevented from going on shore, 
 
CRUSOE’S vSECOND LANDING ON THE LSLANI). 
 
227 
 
 of Itohinson Crusoe. 
 
 he would have jumped into the sea. He was no sooner on shore, than 
 he flew to his father like an arrow out of a bow. It would have made 
 any man shed tears, in spite of the firmest resolution, to have seen 
 the first transports of this poor fellow’s joys, when he came to his 
 father ; how he embraced him, kissed him, stroked his face, took him 
 up in his arms, set him down upon a tree, and lay down by him ; then 
 stood and looked at him as any one would look at a strange picture, 
 for a quarter of an hour together ; then lie down upon the ground, and 
 stroke his legs and kiss them, and then get up again, and stare at him ; 
 one would have thought the fellow bewitched ; but it would have made 
 a dog laugh to see how the next day his passion run out another way. 
 In the morning he walked along the shore, to-and-again, with his father, 
 several hours, always leading him by the hand, as if he had been a 
 lady; and every now-and-then he would fetch something or other for 
 him from the boat, either a lump of sugar or a dram, a biscuit, or some- 
 thing or other that was good. In the afternoon his frolics ran another 
 way; for then he would set the old man down upon the ground, and 
 dance about him, and make a thousand antic postures and gestures ; 
 and aU the while he did this, he would be talking to him, and telling 
 him one story after another of his travels, and of what had happened 
 to him abroad, to divert him. In short, if the same fihal affection 
 were always found in Christians to their parents, one would be tempted 
 to say, there would have been hardly any need of the fifth com- 
 mandment. 
 
 It would be endless to take notice of all the ceremonies and civilities 
 that the Spaniards received me with. The first, whom I knew very 
 well, was he whose life I had saved : he came towards the boat, 
 attended by another, carrying a flag of truce also ; he did not know 
 me at first, had no notion even of its being me, till I spoke to him. 
 Seignor, said I in Portuguese, do you not know me ? He spoke not a 
 word ; but giving his musket to the man that was with him, threw his 
 arms abroad, and saying something in Spanish that I did not perfectly 
 hear, came forward and embraced me, telling me, he was inexcusable 
 not to know that face again that he had once seen, as of an angel from 
 heaven sent to save his life : he said abundance of very handsome 
 things, as a well-bred Spaniard always knows how ; and then beckon- 
 ing to the person that attended him, bade him go and call out his 
 comrades. He then asked me if I would walk to my old habitation, 
 where he would give me possession of my own house again, and where 
 I should see there had been but mean improvements. So I walked along 
 with him ; but, alas ! I could no more find the place, than if I had 
 
 Q 2 
 
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 The Life and Adventures 
 
 never been there ; for they had planted so many trees, and placed them 
 in such a posture, so thick and close to one another, that in ten years^ 
 time they had grown so big, that the place was inaccessible, except 
 by such windings, and blind ways, as those only who made them 
 could find. 
 
 I asked them, what put them upon all these fortifications ? He told 
 me, I would say there was need enough of it, when I learnt how they 
 had passed their time, especially after they found that I was gone. He 
 could not but have satisfaction in my good fortune, when he heard that 
 I had gone away in a good ship ; he had oftentimes a strong persuasion, 
 that one time or other he should see me again; but nothing that ever 
 befel him in his life, he said, was so surprising and afflicting to him at 
 first, as the disappointment he was under when he came back to the 
 island, and found I was not there. 
 
 As to the three barbarians (so he called them) that were left behind, 
 and of whom he said he had a long story to tell me ; the Spaniards all 
 thought themselves much better among the savages, only that their 
 number was so small. And, says he, had they been strong enough, we 
 had been all long ago in purgatory; and with that he crossed himself 
 on the breast. But, Sir, says he, I hope you will not be displeased, 
 when I shall tell you how, forced by necessity, we were obliged, for 
 our own preservation, to disarm them, and make them our subjects, 
 who would not be content with being moderately our masters, but 
 would be our murderers. I answered, I was heartily afraid of it when 
 I left them there ; and nothing troubled me at my parting from the 
 island, but that they were not come back, that I might have put them 
 in possession of everything first, and leave the other in a state of sub- 
 jection, as they deserved ; but if they had reduced them to it, I was 
 very glad, and should be very far from finding any fault with it ; for I 
 knew they were a parcel of refractory ungovernable savages, fit for any 
 manner of mischief. 
 
 While I was speaking, came the man whom he had sent back, and 
 with him eleven men more. In the dress they were in, it was impos- 
 sible to guess what nation they were of ; but he made aU clear both to 
 them and to me. First, he turned to me, and pointing to them, he 
 said. These, Sir, are some of the gentlemen who owe their lives to you ; 
 and then turning to them, and pointing to me, he let them know who 
 I was ; upon which they all came up one by one, not as if they had 
 been sailors, and ordinary fellows, and I the like, but really as if they 
 had been ambassadors or noblemen, and I a monarch, or a great con- 
 queror : their behaviour was to the last degree obliging and courteous. 
 
229 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 and yet mixed with a manly majestic gravity, which very well became 
 them; and, in short, they had so much more manners than I, that I 
 scarce knew how to receive their civihties, much less how to return 
 them in kind. 
 
 The history of their coming to, and conduct in the island, after my 
 going away, is so very remarkable, and has so many incidents, which 
 the former part of my relation will help the reader to understand, that 
 I cannot hut commit them to the reading of those that come after me. 
 I shall, however, no longer trouble them with a relation in the first 
 person, which will put me to the expense of ten thousand said I’s, and 
 said he’s, and he told me’s, and I told him’s, and the like ; hut I shall 
 collect the facts historically from memory, as they were related to me. 
 
 In order to do this succinctly, and as intelligibly as I can, I must go 
 back to the. circumstances in which I left the island, and in which the 
 persons were, of whom I am to speak. And first, it -is necessary to 
 repeat, that I had sent away Friday’s father and the Spaniard, the two 
 whose lives I had rescued from the savages ; I say, I had sent them 
 away in a large canoe to the main, as I then thought it, to fetch over 
 the Spaniard’s companions, whom he had left behind, in order to save 
 them from the like calamity that he had been in, and in order to suc- 
 cour them for the present, and that, if possible, we might together find 
 some way for our deliverance afterward. 
 
 When I sent them away, I had not the least room to hope for my 
 own deliverance any more than I had twenty years before ; much less 
 had I any foreknowledge of an English ship coming on shore there to 
 fetch me off ; and it could not but be a very great surprise to them, 
 when they came back, not only to find that I was ‘gone, but to find 
 three strangers left on the spot, possessed of all that I had left behind 
 me, which would otherwise have been their own. 
 
 ^The first thing, which I enquired into, was that he would give me a 
 particular account of his voyage back to his countrymen with the boat. 
 He told me there was little variety in that part ; for nothing remark- 
 able happened to them on the way, they having very calm weather, and 
 a smooth sea : for his countrymen, it could not be doubted, he said, 
 but that they were overjoyed to see him (it seems he was the principal 
 man among them, the captain of the vessel they had been shipwrecked 
 in having been dead some time): they were, he said, the more sur- 
 prised to see him, because they knew that he was fallen into the hands 
 of savages, who, they were satisfied, would devour him as they did all 
 the rest of their prisoners ; that when he told them the story of his 
 deliverance, and in what manner he was furnished for carrying them 
 
230 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 away, it was like a dream to them ; their astonishment, they said, was 
 something like that of J oseph’s brethren, when he toM them who he was, 
 and told them the story of his exaltation in Pharaoh’s court : but when 
 he showed them the arms, the powder, the ball, and the provisions 
 that he brought them for their voyage, they were restored to them- 
 selves, took a just share of the joy of their deliverance, and immediately 
 prepared to come away with him. 
 
 Their first business was to get canoes ; and in this they were obliged 
 to trespass upon their friendly savages, so far as to borrow two large 
 canoes or periaguas, on pretence of going out a-fishing. In these they 
 came away the next morning ; for they had no baggage, neither clothes, 
 or provisions, or anything in the world, but what they had on them, 
 
 and a few roots to eat, of which they used to make their bread. He 
 was in all three weeks absent, and in that time I had the occasion 
 offered for my escape, leaving three of the most impudent, hardened, un- 
 governable villains behind me, that a man could desire to meet with. The 
 only just thing the rogues did, when the Spaniards came on shore was, 
 to give my letter to them with provisions and other such relief, as I 
 had ordered them to do ; they gave them also the long paper of direc- 
 tions, which I had left with them, containing the particular methods 
 which I took for managing every part of my life there ; how I baked 
 my bread, bred up tame goats, and planted my corn; how I cured my 
 grapes, made my pots, in a word, everything I did : all this being 
 written down, they gave to the Spaniards, two of whom understand 
 
231 
 
 of Eolinson Crusoe. 
 
 English well enough; nor did they refuse to accommodate the 
 Spaniards with other things, for they agreed very well for some time ; 
 they gave them an equal admission into the house or cave, and they 
 began to live very sociably together ; the head Spaniard, who had seen 
 my method, and Friday’s father together, managed all their affairs : 
 for, as for the Enghshmen, they did nothing but ramble about the 
 island, shooting parrots, and catcliing tortoises : the Spaniards provided 
 their suppers for them, when they came home at night. 
 
 The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this, but the others 
 could not find in their heart to let them alone long ; like the dog in 
 the manger, they would not eat themselves, neither would they let 
 others eat. The differences, nevertheless, were at first but trivial, and 
 such as are not worth relating ; but at last it broke out into open war, 
 and it begun with all the rudeness and insolence that can be imagined, 
 without reason, without provocation, contrary to nature, and indeed to 
 common sense; and though the first relation of it came from the 
 Spaniards, whom I may call the accusers, yet when I came to examine 
 the fellows themselves, they could not deny a word of it. 
 
 But before I came to the particular of this part, I must supply a 
 defect in my former relation ; bearing upon these events, just as we 
 were weighing anchor to set sail, a quarrel broke out on board our ship, 
 which was likely to have produced a second mutiny; nor was it 
 appeased till the captain, interfering, parted them by force, putting two 
 of the most refractory fellows who had been active in the former 
 disorders, in irons ; threatening to carry them to England in that state, 
 and have them hanged there for mutiny and plotting to run away with 
 the ship. This frighted some other men in the ship ; and they put it 
 into the heads of the rest, that the captain only gave them good words 
 for the present, intending when he reached an English port that they 
 should be all put into gaol, and tried for their lives. The mate got 
 intelligence of this, and acquainted us with it ; upon which it was 
 desired, that I should go down and satisfy the men, that if they behaved 
 well during the rest of the voyage, all they had done for the time past 
 should be pardoned. So I went, and passing my honour to them to 
 that effect, caused the two men who were in irons to be released and 
 forgiven. 
 
 But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night, the 
 wind also falling calm, and next morning we found that our two men 
 who had been in irons, had stole each of them a musket, and other 
 weapons, with powder and shot, and had taken the ship’s pinnace, wliich 
 was not yet hauled up, and ran away with her to their companions in 
 
232 
 
 The Life and Adventures. 
 
 roguery on the shore. I ordered the long boat on shore, with twelve 
 men and the mate, to seek them, but they could not be found, for they 
 all fled into the woods when they saw the boat coming on shore. He 
 returned leaving everything as he found it, bringing the pinnace away. 
 
 These two additional men made their number five ; but the other 
 three villains were so much wickeder than these, that after they had 
 been two or three days together, they turned the new-comers out of 
 doors to shift for themselves. When the Spaniards came, they would 
 have persuaded the three English brutes to take in their two country- 
 men again, that, as they said, they might be all one family ; but they 
 would not hear of it ; so the two poor fellows lived by themselves, and 
 finding that by industry and application they could live very comfortably, 
 they pitched their tents on the north shore of the island, but a little 
 more to the west, so to be out of danger from the savages, who always 
 landed on the east parts. 
 
 Here they built themselves two huts, one to lodge in, and the other 
 to lay up their magazines and stores ; and the Spaniards having given 
 them some corn for seed, and especially some of the peas which I had 
 left, they dug, planted, and enclosed after the pattern I had set for 
 them, and began to live pretty weU. Their first crop of corn was on 
 the ground, and though it was but a little bit of land which they had 
 dug up at first, having had but little time, yet it was enough to relieve 
 them, and find them in bread or other eatables ; and one of the fellows, 
 being the cook’s mate of the ship, was very ready at making soup, 
 puddings, and such other preparations, as the rice and the milk, and 
 such little flesh as they got, furnished him with the means. 
 
 They were going on this little thriving way, when the three rogues, 
 their countrymen, in mere wanton humour, and to insult them, came 
 and bullied them, told them the island was theirs ; that the governor, 
 meaning me, had given them possession of it, and nobody else had any 
 right to it ; and, damn them, they should build no houses upon their 
 ground, unless they agree to pay them rent for it. 
 
 frhe two men thought them jesting at first ; asked them to come and 
 sit down, and see what fine houses they had built, asking what rent 
 they demanded : and one of them merrily added, since they were the 
 ground-landlords, he hoped if they built tenements upon the land, and 
 made improvements, they would, according to the custom of all landlords, 
 grant them a long lease ; and find them a scrivener to draw up the 
 writings. One of the three, in a rage, told them they should see it 
 was no jest ; and going to a little place at a distance, where the honest 
 men had made a fire to dress their victuals, he takes a fire-brand and 
 
233 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 claps it to the outside of their hut, and very fairly set it on tire ; and 
 it would have been all burnt down in a few minutes, if one of the two 
 had not run to the fellow, thrust him away, and trod the fire out with 
 his feet, and that not without some difficulty too. 
 
 The fellow turned upon him with a pole he had in his hand : and 
 had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into the hut, 
 he had ended his days at once. His comrade seeing 'the danger they 
 were both in, ran in after him, and immediately they both came out 
 wdth their muskets ; and the man that was first struck at with the pole, 
 knocked the fellow down, that had begun the quarrel, with the stock 
 of his musket, and that before the other two could come to help him ; 
 and then seeing the rest come at them, they stood together, and 
 presenting their pieces, bade them stand off. 
 
 The others had fire-arms with them too : but one of the two, bolder 
 than his comrade, told them if they offered to move hand or foot, they 
 were dead men ; and boldly commanded them to lay down their arms. 
 They did not indeed lay down their arms ; but, seeing him so resolute, 
 it brought them to a parley, and they consented to take their wounded 
 man with them, and begone. Indeed, it seems the fellow was wounded 
 sufficiently with the blow ; but they were much in the wrong not to 
 disarm them effectually, as they might have done, and have got imme- 
 diately to the Spaniards. Henceforth the three villains studied nothing 
 but revenge, and every day gave them some indication that they did so. 
 They trod down their corn, shot their three young kids, and a she-goat 
 which the poor men had bred up tame for their store ; and, in a word, 
 plagued them night and day, till the two men were driven to desperation, 
 and they resolved to fight them all three the first fair opportunity. 
 They resolved to go to the castle, as they called my old dwelling, where 
 the three rogues and the Spaniards all lived together at that time, 
 intending to have a fair battle, and that the Spaniards should stand by 
 to see fair play. So they got up one morning before day, and came to 
 the place, called out the Englishmen by their names, telling a Spaniard 
 that answered, that they wanted to speak with them. 
 
 It had so happened that the day before two of the Spaniards, having 
 been in the woods, had seen one of the two Englishmen, whom, for 
 distinction, I caU the honest men ; and he had made a sad complaint 
 to the Spaniards, of the barbarous usage they met with from their three 
 countrymen, how they had ruined their plantation, and destroyed their 
 corn, that they had laboured so hard to bring forward, and killed the 
 milch-goat, and their three kids, which was all they had provided for 
 their sustenance ; and that if he and his friends, meaning the Spaniards, 
 
234 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 did not assist them again, they would be starved. When the two 
 Spaniards came home at night, they reproved the three Englishmen, 
 though in very gentle and mannerly terms, asking how they could be so 
 cruel, the others being harmless inoffensive fellows, subsisting by their 
 own labour, and that it had cost them a great deal of pains to bring 
 things to the state they had reached. 
 
 One of the Englishmen asked very briskly, What had they to do 
 there ? They came on shore without leave, and should not plant or 
 build upon the island ; it was none of their ground.” “ Why,” says the 
 Spaniard, very calmly, Seignior Inglese, they must not starve.” The 
 Englishman replied, like a true rough-hewn tarpaulin, they might starve 
 for him, but they should not plant or build.” ‘^But what must they do 
 then, Seignior h ” says the Spaniard. Another of the brutes returned, 
 ‘‘ Do ! they should be our servants, and work for us.” But how can 
 you expect that of them % ” says the Spaniard, they are not bought 
 with your money ; you have no right to make them servants.” The 
 Englishmen answered, the island was theirs, the governor had given it 
 to them, and no man had anything to do there but themselves ; and 
 with that swore by his Maker, that they would go and burn all their 
 new huts j they should build none upon their land. 
 
 “ Why, Seignior,” says the Spaniard, by the same rule, we must be 
 your servants too.” Ay,” says the bold dog, and so you shall too, 
 before we have done with you,” mixing two or three oaths in the proper 
 intervals of his speech. The Spaniard only smiled at this, and made 
 him no answer. However, this little discourse had heated them ; and 
 starting up, one says to the other, I think it was he they called Will 
 Atkins, come. Jack, let us go and have another brush with them ; we 
 will demolish their castle, I warrant me ; they shall plant no colony in 
 our dominions.” 
 
 Upon this they went all trooping away, with every man a gun, a 
 pistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things among them- 
 selves, of what they could do with the Spaniards, too, when opportunity 
 offered ; but the Spaniards, it seems, did not so perfectly understand 
 their language as to know all these particulars ; only that, in general, 
 they were threatened for taking the part of the two Englishmen. 
 
 Whither they went, or how they bestowed their time that evening, 
 the Spaniards said they did not know ; but it seems they wandered 
 about the country part of the night; and then lying down in the 
 place which I used to call my bower, they were weary, and overslept 
 themselves. They seem to have- resolved on waiting till midnight, 
 and then to take the two poor men when they were asleep ; intending, 
 
235 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 as they acknowledged afterwards, to set fire to their huts while they 
 were in them, and either burn them in them, or murder them as they 
 came out : and, as mahce seldom sleeps very sound, it was very strange 
 they should not have kept themselves awake. 
 
 However, as the two men had also a design upon them, though a 
 much fairer one than that of humirig and murdering, it happened, 
 and very luckily for them all, that they were up and gone abroad, 
 before the bloody-minded rogues came to their huts. 
 
 When they came there and found the men gone, Atkins, who it 
 seems was the forwardest man, called out ta his comrades, “ Ha ! Jack, 
 
 here’s the nest ; but d n them, the birds are flown they mused 
 
 awhile to think what should be the occasion of their being gone abroad 
 so soon, and presently suggested that the Spaniards had given them 
 notice of their intention ; with that they shook hands, and swore to 
 one another that they would be revenged of the Spaniards. As soon 
 as they had made this bloody bargain, they fell to work with the poor 
 men’s habitation ; they did not set indeed fire to anything, but they 
 pulled down both their little houses, and pulled them so limb from 
 limb that they left not a stick standing, or scarce any sign on the 
 ground where they stood ; they tore all their little collected household 
 stuff in pieces, and threw everything about in such a manner, that the 
 poor men afterwards found some of their things a mile away from their 
 habitation. Having pulled up all the young trees the poor men had 
 planted, destroyed an enclosure they had made to secure their cattle 
 and their corn ; and, in a word, sacked and plundered everything as 
 completely as a herd of Tartars would have done ; they returned to 
 the old habitation. Had the parties met at this juncture, there 
 certainly would have been bloodshed among them ; for they were all 
 very stout resolute fellows, to give them their due. 
 
 When the three came back, like furious creatures, flushed with the 
 rage which the work they had been about put them into, they came up 
 to the Spaniards, and told them what they had done, by way of scoff 
 and bravado ; and one of them stepping up to one of the Spaniards, 
 as if they had been a couple of boys at play, takes his hat from his 
 head, and giving it a twirl about, fleering it in his face, says he to him, 
 “ And you. Seignior Jack Spaniard, shall have the same sauce, if you do 
 not mend your manners.” The Spaniard, who, though a quiet civil man, 
 was as brave as a man could desire to be, and withal a strong well- 
 made man, looked steadily at him for a good while ; and then, having 
 no weapon in Iris hand, stept gravely up to him, and with one blow of 
 his fist, knocked him down, as an ox is felled with a pole-axe. At this 
 
23G 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 one of the rogues fired his pistol at the Spaniard, missing his body 
 indeed, for the bullets went through his hair, but one of them touched 
 the tip of his ear, and he bled freely. The blood made the Spaniard 
 believe he was more hurt than he really was, and that put him into 
 some heat, for before he was perfectly calm ; but now resolving to go 
 through with his work, he stooped and took the fellow’s musket whom 
 he had knocked down, and was just going to shoot the man who had 
 fired at him j when the rest of the Spaniards, being in the cave, came 
 out, calling to him not to shoot ; they stept in, secured the other two, 
 and took their arms from them. 
 
 When they were thus disarmed, finding they had made the Spaniards 
 their enemies, as well as their own countrymen, they began to cool ; 
 and giving the Spaniards better words, would have had their arms 
 again j but the Spaniards considering the feud that was between them 
 and the other two Englishmen, thinking that would be the best method 
 they could take to keep them from killing one another, told them they 
 would do them no harm ; and if they would live peaceably they would 
 be very willing to assist and associate with them, as before ; but that 
 they could not think of giving them their arms again, while they 
 appeared so resolved to do mischief to their own countrymen. 
 
 The rogues being refused their arms, they went raving away, and 
 raging like madmen, threatening what they would do, though they had 
 no fire-arms : but the Spaniards, despising their threatening, told them 
 they should take care how they offered any injury to their plantations 
 or cattle ; for if they did, they would shoot them, as they would do 
 wild beasts, wherever they found them; and if they fell into their 
 hands alive, they should certainly hang them. This was far from 
 cooling them ; but away they went, raging and swearing hke furies. 
 As soon as they were gone, came back the two men in equal rage and 
 passion enough, though of another kind; for, having been at their 
 plantation, and finding it all demohshed and destroyed, they had 
 provocation enough ; they could scarce have room to tell their tale, so 
 eager the Spaniards were to tell them theirs ; and it was strange enough 
 to find, that three men thus bully nineteen, and receive no punishment 
 at all. The Spaniards indeed despised them, and especially after 
 having thus disarmed them, made light of all their threatenings ; but 
 the two Englishmen resolved to have their revenge against them, what 
 pains soever it might cost to find them out. 
 
 But the Spaniards interposed here too, and told them, that as they 
 had disarmed them, they could not consent that they should pursue 
 them with fire-arms, and perhaps kill them : but, said the grave 
 
of Rolinson Crusoe, 237 
 
 Spaniard, who was their governor, we will endeavour to make them 
 do you justice, if you will leave it to us, for, as there is no doubt but 
 they will come to us again when their passion is over, being unable to 
 subsist without our assistance, we promise you to make no peace with 
 them without having a full satisfaction for you ; and upon this condition 
 we hope .you will promise to use no violence to them, other than in 
 self-defence. The two Englishmen yielded to this proposal with great 
 reluctance ; but the Spaniards protested, they did it only to prevent 
 bloodshed, and to make all easy at last, for, said they, we are not so 
 many of us ; here is room enough for us all, and it is great pity we 
 should not be all good friends. At length they did consent, awaiting 
 the issue for some days with the Spaniards. In five days the three 
 vagrants, tired with wandering, and almost starved with hunger, having 
 chiefiy live,d on turtles* eggs all that while, came back to the grove ; 
 and finding my Spaniard, who, as I have said, was the governor, and 
 two more with him, walking by the side of the creek, they came up in 
 a humble submissive manner, and begged to be received again into the 
 family. The Spaniards treated them civilly, but told them they had 
 acted so unnaturally by their countrymen, and so very grossly by them 
 (the Spaniards), that they could not come to any conclusion without 
 consulting the two Englishmen, and the rest j but, however, they would 
 go to them, and discourse about it, and they should know the result in 
 half an hour. It may be guessed that they were very hard put to it ; 
 for it seems, as they were to wait this half-hour for an answer, they 
 begged he would send them out some bread in the mean time ; which 
 he did, sending them at the same time a large piece of goat’s flesh, and 
 a boiled parrot ; which they eat very heartily, for they were hungry 
 enough. 
 
 After half an hour’s consultation they were called in, and a long 
 debate ensued, their two countrymen charging them with the ruin of 
 all their labour, and a design to murder them ; all which they owned 
 before, and therefore could not deny now ; upon the whole, the 
 Spaniard acted the moderator between them ; and as they had urged 
 the two Englishmen not to hurt the three, while they were naked and 
 unarmed, so they now obliged the three to go and build their fellows 
 two huts, one to be of the same, and the other of larger dimensions 
 than they were before ; to fence their ground again, where they had 
 pulled up the fences, plant trees in the room of those pulled up, dig 
 up the land again for planting corn, where they had spoiled it ; and 
 in a word to restore everything to the same state in which they 
 found it, as near as they could; for entirely it could not be, the 
 
238 The Life and Adventures 
 
 season for corn, and the growth, of the trees and hedges, being beyond 
 recovery. 
 
 Well, they submitted to all this ; and as they had plenty of 
 provisions, they grew more orderly, and the whole society began to 
 live pleasantly and agreeably together ; only that these three fellows 
 could never be persuaded to work; I mean, for themselves, except 
 now and then a little, just as they pleased ; however, the Spaniards 
 told them plainly, that if they would be friendly and live sociably 
 together, and study the general welfare of the plantation, they would 
 be content to work for them, and let them walk about and be as idle 
 as they pleased ; having thus lived pretty well together for a month or 
 two, the Spaniards gave them their arms again, and gave them liberty 
 to go abroad with them as before. 
 
 It was not above a week after they had these arms, and got abroad, 
 before the ungrateful creatures began to be as insolent and troublesome 
 as before : but, an incident happening presently upon this, which 
 endangered the safety of them all, they were obliged to lay by all 
 private resentments, and look to the preservation of their lives. 
 
 It happened one night, that the Spaniard whose life I had saved, who 
 was now the captain, or leader, or governor of the rest, found himself 
 very uneasy in the night, and could by no means get any sleep ; he was 
 perfectly well in body, as he told me the story, only he found his 
 thoughts tumultuous ; his mind ran upon men fighting and killing of 
 one another, while he was broad awake, he could not by any means get 
 to sleep ; in short, he lay awake a great while ; but growing more and 
 more uneasy, he resolved to rise ; as they lay upon goat-skins, laid thick 
 upon such couches and pads as they had made for themselves, not in 
 hammocks and ship beds as I did, so they had little to do, when they 
 were willing to rise, but to get up on their feet, and perhaps put on a 
 dress, such as it was, and their shoes. Eeing up, he looked out ; but 
 could see little or nothing ; the darkness and the trees which I had 
 planted, were now grown tall, and intercepted his sight, so that he could 
 only look up, and see that it was a clear star-light night ; and, hearing 
 no noise, he returned and laid him down again ; but still he could not 
 sleep, nor could he compose himseK to anything like rest, his thoughts 
 were to the last degree uneasy, and yet he knew not why. 
 
 Having made some noise in rising and walking about, going out and 
 coming in, another of them waked, and calling, asked who it was that 
 was up % The governor told him, how it had been with him. Say 
 you so,^^ says the other Spaniard; ^^such things are not to be slighted; 
 there is certainly some mischief working near us;” and presently he 
 
239 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe, 
 
 asked ‘‘Where are the Englishmen They are all in their huts, 
 safe enough,’^ says he. It seems the Spaniards had kept possession of 
 the main apartment, making a place, where the three Englishmen, 
 since their last mutiny, always quartered by themselves, and could not 
 come at the rest. “Well,'^ says the Spaniard, “there is something in it, 
 I am persuaded from my own experience ; I am satisfied our embodied 
 spirits converse with, and receive intelligence from spirits unembodied 
 inhabiting the invisible world ; and that this friendly notice is given 
 for our advantage, if we only know how to make use of it.’’ “ Come,” 
 
 says he, “ let us go out and look abroad ; and if we find nothing to 
 justify our trouble, I will tell you a story to the purpose, that shall 
 convince you of the justice of my proposing it.” 
 
 ^ In a word, they went out to go up to the top of the hill, where I used 
 to go ; but being strong, and in good company, they used none of my 
 precautions of going up by the ladder, and then pulling it up to ascend 
 a second stage to the top, but were going round through the grove un- 
 concerned and unwary, when they were surprised by seeing a light as 
 of fire, a very little way ofi* from them, and hearing the voices of men, 
 not of one or two, but in great number. 
 
 In all the discoveries I had made of savages landing on the island, it 
 was my constant care to prevent them discovering that there were 
 inhabitants on the island ; and when they came to know it, they felt it 
 so effectually, that they who got away were scarce able to give any 
 account of it, for we disappeared quickly, nor did ever any that had 
 seen me escape to tell anyone else, except the three savages who jumped 
 into the boat, in our last encounter. It presently appeared of those 
 men, that so great a number as came now together, came ignorantly, 
 and by accident, on their usual bloody errand; and it was their business, 
 either to have concealed themselves, and avoid being seen at all, so 
 as to lead the savages to suppose there were no inhabitants in the 
 place, or to have fallen upon them so effectually, as that not a man 
 of them should have escaped, which could only have been done by 
 getting in between them and their boats ; but this presence of mind 
 was wanting, the consequence was the ruin of their tranquillity for a 
 great while. 
 
 The governor, and the man with him, surprised at what they saw, 
 ran back immediately, and raised their fellows, giving them an account 
 of the imminent danger they were all in ; they again as readily took the 
 alarm, but could not be persuaded to stay close where they were, they 
 must run out to see how things stood. 
 
 While it was dark, indeed, this was all well enough, and they had 
 
240 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 ♦ 
 
 opportunity enougli, or some hours, to view the savages by the light of 
 three fires they had made at some distance from one another ; what 
 they were doing was a mystery, and what to do themselves they knew 
 not; for, first, the enemy were too numerous to be cut off; and, secondly, 
 they did not keep together, but were divided into several parties along 
 the shore. 
 
 The Spaniards were in no small consternation at this sight ; and 
 finding that the fellows ran straggling all over the shore, they made no 
 doubt, but that, first or last, some of them would chop in upon some 
 place or other, where they would see the token of inhabitants ; they 
 were also in great perplexity for their flock ’of goats, for it would have 
 been little less than starving them, if they should be destroyed; so the 
 first thing resolved upon was to dispatch three men before it was light, 
 namely, two Spaniards and an Englishman, to drive all the goats away 
 to the great valley where the cave was, and, if need were, to drive them 
 into the very cave itself. 
 
 Could they have seen the savages in one body, and at a distance from 
 their canoes, they would have attacked them if they had been a 
 hundred; but that could not now be; they were some of them two miles 
 apart. After having mused a great while on the course they should 
 take, and beaten their brains in considering their present circumstances, 
 they resolved at last, while it was still dark, to send out the old savage 
 (Friday’s father) as a spy, to learn, if possible, something concerning 
 them, what they came for, and what they intended to do. The old man 
 readily undertook the task, and, stripping himself naked, as the savages 
 were, away he went : after he had been gone an hour or two, he brings 
 word, that he had been among them undiscovered, that he found they 
 were two parties, and of two several nations at war with one another, 
 they had had a great battle in their own country, and both sides, having 
 taken prisoners in the fight, they had by mere chance landed in the 
 island to feast upon their prisoners, and make merry; but coming to the 
 same place, had spoiled their mirth ; they were in great rage with one 
 another ; and being so near, he believed they would fight again as soon 
 as day-light appeared; but he did not perceive that they had any 
 notion of any body’s being on the island but themselves. He had 
 hardly made an end of his story, when it appeared by the unusual noise 
 they made, that the two little armies were engaged in a bloody fight. 
 
 Friday’s father used every argument he could to persuade our people 
 to lie close, and not be seen ; he told them, their safety required it, 
 that they had nothing to do but to lie still, and the savages would kill 
 one another to their hands, and then the rest would go away ; and 
 
241 
 
 of Eohimon Crusoe, 
 
 it would have happened so. But it was impossible to prevail, especially 
 upon the Englishmen ; their curiosity overcame all such pmdentials, 
 they must run out and see the battle ; however, they used some, caution 
 too, they went farther into the woods, and placed themselves to advan- 
 tage, where they might securely see the fight, and, as they thought, 
 remain unseen; but the savages did see them, as we shall find here- 
 after. 
 
 The battle was very fierce ; one of the Englishmen said he could 
 perceive among them were men of great bravery, of invincible spirit, 
 and of great policy in guiding the fight. The battle, he said, held two 
 hours, before they could guess which party would be beaten ; but then 
 it appeared that the party which was nearest our habitation was the 
 weakest, and after a time some of them began to fly ; this put our men 
 again into a great consternation, lest any of those that fled should run 
 for shelter into the grove before their dwelling, and thereby discover 
 the place. They resolved that they would stand to their arms within 
 the wall, and whoever came into the grove, they should sally out over 
 the wall and kill them, so that none should return to give an account 
 of it ; they ordered also, that it should be done with their swords, or 
 by knocking them down with the stock of the musket, but not by 
 shooting them, for fear of raising an alarm by the noise. 
 
 As was expected, so it fell out ; three of the routed army fled for 
 life, and crossing the creek, ran directly into the place, not in the least 
 knowing whither they went, but running as into a thick wood for 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 shelter ; the scout they kept abroad gave notice of this within, with 
 the addition, that the concfuerors had not pursued them, or seen which 
 way they went. Upon this the Spaniard governor, a man of humanity, 
 vvould not suffer them to kill the three fugitives ; but sending three 
 men out by the top of the hill, ordered them to go round, and come in 
 behind them, so as to surprise and take them prisoners, which was 
 done ; the residue of the conquered people fled to their canoes and 
 got off to sea ; the victors retired, making little or no pursuit, but 
 drawing themselves into a body, gave two great screaming shouts by 
 way of triumph, and so the fight ended ; the same day, about three 
 o’clock in the afternoon, they also marched to their canoes. And thus 
 the island was again free, and they saw no savages for several years 
 after. 
 
 When they were all gone, our people came out of their den ; and, 
 viewing the field of battle, they found about two-and-thirty dead bodies 
 upon the spot ; some were killed with great long arrows, some of which 
 were found sticking in their bodies ; but most of them were killed 
 with great wooden swords, sixteen or seventeen of which they found in 
 the field of battle, and as many bows, with a great many arrows. These 
 swords were great strange unwieldy things, and they must be very 
 strong men that used them : most of those that were killed with them 
 had their heads smashed to pieces, or, as we call it in English, their brains 
 knocked out, and several of their arms and legs broken ; so that it is 
 evident they fight with inexpressible rage and fury. We found not one 
 wounded man that was not stone dead ; for either they stay by their 
 enemy till they have quite killed them, or they carry all the wounded 
 away with them. 
 
 This deliverance tamed our Englishmen for a great while : the sight 
 had filled them with horror, and the consequences appeared terrible to 
 the last degree, even to them, if ever they should fall into the hands of 
 those creatures, who would not only kill them as enemies, but kill them 
 for food, as we kill our cattle. They professed to me, that the thoughts 
 of being eaten up like beef or mutton, though it was supposed it 
 was not to be till they were dead, had something in it so horrible, that- 
 it nauseated their very stomachs, made them sick when they thought 
 of it, and filled their minds with such unusual terror, that they were 
 not themselves for some weeks after. 
 
 This, as I said, tamed even the three English brutes I have been 
 speaking of ; and, for a great while after, they were very tractable, and 
 went about the common business of the society, they planted, sowed, 
 reaped, and all began to be naturalized to the country ; but some time 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 243 
 
 after this they fell again into such measures which brought them into 
 a great deal of trouble. 
 
 They had taken three prisoners, as I have observed; and these three 
 being lusty, stout young fellows, they made them servants, and taught 
 them to work for them ; and, as slaves, they did well enough ; but 
 they did not take their measures with them, as I did by my man 
 Friday ; they did not ensure their gratitude upon the principle of having 
 saved their lives, and then instruct them in the rational principles of 
 life, civilizing and reducing them by kind usage and affectionate 
 treatment ; but, as they gave them their food every day, so they gave 
 them their work too, and kept them fully employed in drudgery ; 
 therefore, they never had them to assist them and fight for them, as I 
 had my man Friday, who was as true to me as the very flesh upon my 
 bones. 
 
 Being now all good friends, they began to consider whether, seeing 
 the savages particularly haunted that side of the island, and that there 
 were more remote and retired parts of it equally adapted to their way 
 of living, they should U-ot rather remove their habitation, and plant 
 in some place of greater security for their cattle and corn. After long 
 debate, it was concluded that they would not remove their habitation ; 
 because some time or other they thought they might hear from then 
 governor again, meaning me ; and if I should send any one to seek 
 them, I should be sure to direct them to that side of the island, where, if 
 they should find the place demolished, it would be concluded that the 
 savages had killed u's all. But as to their corn and cattle, they agreed 
 to remove a part of them into the valley where my cave was, where 
 there was land enough, and to plant part of their corn there too, so that 
 if one part was destroyed, the other might be saved ; they never, 
 however, trusted the three savages, their prisoners, with a knowledge 
 of the plantation they had made in that valley, or of any cattle, much 
 less of the cave there, which they kept as a safe retreat in case of 
 necessity ; they carried thither also the two barrels of powder which I had 
 left them. They agreed also, as I had carefully covered it first with a 
 wall or fortification, and then with a grove of trees ; so they also set 
 to work to cover and conceal the place yet more effectually than before : 
 to this purpose, as I had planted trees for some good distance before the 
 entrance, they went on in the same manner, and filled up the rest of that 
 whole space of ground, from the trees I had set, quite down to the side 
 of the creek, where, as I said, I landed my floats, and even into the 
 very ooze where the tide floAved, not so much as leaving any place to 
 land, or any sign that there had been any landing thereabout. This they 
 
 R 2 
 
244 
 
 The Life and Adventures / 
 
 did by planting stakes as I had done, which being of wood very forward 
 to grow, they took care to have them generally much larger and taller 
 than those which I had planted, and as they planted them thick and 
 close together, when they had been growing three or four years there 
 was no piercing into the plantation with the eye to any considerable 
 way ; as for that part which I had planted, the trees were grown as 
 large as a man’s thigh ; and among them they placed so many other 
 short ones, and so thick, that in a word it stood a growing impenetrable 
 palisado for a quarter of a mile, a little dog could hardly get between the 
 trees, they stood so close. The same was done by all the ground to the 
 right hand, and to the left, and round even to the top of the hill ; leaving 
 no way, even for themselves to come out, but by the ladder placed up 
 to the side of the hill, which was lifted up after them, and placed 
 again from stage to stage up to the top. 
 
 They had lived two years after this in perfect retirement, and had 
 no more visits from the savages : they had indeed an alarm given early 
 one morning ; for some of the Spaniards being out on the west end of 
 the island, which, by the way, was that end where I never went for 
 fear of being discovered, they saw above twenty canoes of Indians just 
 coming on shore. 
 
 They made the best of their way home, in hurry enough, giving 
 the alarm to their comrades ; they kept close all that day and the next, 
 going out only at night to make observation ; but wherever the savages 
 went, they did not land that time on the island. Now, however, they 
 had another broil with the three Englishmen ; one of whom, a most 
 turbulent fellow, being in a rage with one of the three slaves, because 
 the fellow had not done something which he bid him do, and seeming 
 a little untractable on his showing him, drew a hatchet out of a frog- 
 belt, in which he wore it by his side, fell upon the poor savage, not to 
 correct, but to kill him. One of the Spaniards, who was by, seeing him 
 give the fellow a barbarous cut with the hatchet, which he aimed at his 
 head, but struck into his shoulder, so that he thought he had cut the 
 poor creature’s arm off, ran to him, and entreating him not to murder 
 the poor man, stepped in between him and the savage, to prevent 
 mischief. 
 
 The feUow, being enraged the more at this, struck at the Spaniard 
 wdth his hatchet, and swore he would serve him as he intended to serve 
 the savage ; which the Spaniard perceiving, avoided the blow, and with 
 j* shovel, which he had in his hand (for they all were working in the 
 field about their corn land), knocked the brute down : another of the 
 Englishmen, running at the same time to help his comrade, knocked 
 
245 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 the Spaniard down ; and then two more Spaniards coming to help their 
 man, the third Englishman fell in upon them. They had none of them 
 any fire-arms, or other weapons than hatchets and tools, excejjt this 
 third Englishman ; he had one of my old rusty cutlasses, with which 
 he made at the two last Spaniards and wounded them both. This fray 
 set the whole family in an uproar, and more help coming in, they took 
 the three Englishmen prisoners. The next question was. What should 
 be done with them % They had been so often mutinous, and were so 
 furious, so desperate, and so idle withal, that it was difficult to know 
 what course to take with them, for they were mischievous to the highest 
 degree, and valued not what hurt they did to any man ; so that, in 
 short, it was not safe to live with them. 
 
 The governor told them in so many words, that if they had been his 
 o’wn countiymen, he would have hanged them ; for all laws, and all 
 governors, were appointed to preserve society, and those who were 
 dangerous to the society ought to be expelled from it ; but as they were 
 Englishmen, and it was to the generous kindness of an Englishman that 
 they all owed their preservation and deliverance, he would use them 
 wdth all possible lenity, and leave them to the judgment of the other 
 two Englishmen, their fellow-countr^^men. 
 
 One of the two honest Englishmen stood up, and said, they desired 
 it might not be left to them ; for, says he, I am sure we ought to 
 sentence them to the gallows ; and with that he gives an account how 
 Will Atkins, one of the three, had proposed to have all the five 
 Englishmen join together and murder all the Spaniards wffien they 
 were in their sleep. 
 
 AYhen the Spanish governor heard this, he calls to William Atkins. 
 How, Seignior Atkins, says he, would you murder us all? What 
 have you to say to that ? That hardened villain was so far from deny- 
 ing it, that he said it was true, and declared with an oath that they 
 would do it still before they had done with them. Well, but Seignior 
 Atkins, said the Spaniard, what have we done to you that you will kill 
 us ? And what would you get by killing us % And what must we do 
 to prevent you killing us ? Must we kill you ? Why will you put us 
 to the necessity of this. Seignior Atkins ? says the Spaniard very calmly, 
 and smiling. 
 
 Seignior Atkins was in such a rage at the Spaniard’s making a jest 
 of it, that, had he not been withheld, and without weapons, he would 
 have attempted to kill the Spaniard in the middle of all the company. 
 
 This hair-brained carriage obliged them to consider seriously what 
 was to be done. The two Englishmen, and the Spaniard who saved the 
 
246 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 poor savage, were of opinion they should hang one of the three for an 
 example to the rest ; and that particularly it should be he that had 
 twice attempted to commit murder with his hatchet ; and indeed there 
 was some reason to believe he had done it, for the poor savage was in 
 such a miserable condition from the wound he had received, that it was 
 thought he could not live. 
 
 Eut the governor Spaniard still said, it was an Englishman that 
 had saved all their lives, and he would never consent to put an English* 
 man to death ; nay, he said, if he had been killed himself by an 
 Englishman, and had time left to speak, it should be a request that 
 they should pardon him. 
 
 This was so positively insisted on by the governor Spaniard, that 
 there was no gainsaying it ; and as merciful counsels are most apt to pre- 
 vail, -where they are so earnestly pressed, so they all came into it ; but 
 then it was to be considered what should be done to keep them from 
 doing the mischief they designed ; for all agreed, governor and^all, that 
 means were to be used for preserving the society from danger. After 
 a long debate it was agreed, first, that the three should be disarmed, 
 and not permitted to have either gun, or powder, or shot, or swo^d, or 
 other weapon, and that they should be turned out of the society, and 
 left to live where they would, and how they could, by themselves ; but 
 that none of the rest, either Spaniards or English, should converse or 
 have any thing to do with them ; that they should be forbid to come 
 within a certain distance of the place where the rest dwelt ; and that 
 if they offered to commit any disorder, so as to spoil, burn, kill, or 
 destroy any of the corn, plantings, buildings, fences, or cattle belonging 
 to the society, that they should be shot down wherever they could find 
 them. 
 
 The governor, a man of great humanity, musing over this sentence, 
 turned to the two honest Englishmen, and said, Hold ; you must reflect, 
 that it will be long ere they can raise corn and cattle of their own, and 
 they must not starve ; we must therefore allow them provisions. So 
 he caused to be added to it that they should have a proportion of corn 
 given them to last them eight months, and seed to sow, by which time 
 they might be supposed to raise some of their own ; that they should 
 have six milch-goats, four he-goats, and six kids, given them, as well 
 for present subsistence as for a store ; and that they should have tools 
 given them for their work in the field, such as, six hatchets, an axe, a 
 saw, and the like ; but they should have none of these tools or pro- 
 visions, unless they would swear solemnly that they would not use 
 them to the hurt or injury of the coniTnunity. 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 247 
 
 Thus they dismissed them the society, and turned them out to shift 
 for themselves. They went away sullen and refractory, neither con- 
 iented to go away or to stay ; hut as there was no remedy, they went, 
 pretending to go and choose a place where they should plant and live 
 Dy themselves : provisions being given them, but no weapons. 
 
 About four or five days after, they came again for some victuals, and 
 gave the governor an account where they had pitched their tents, and 
 marhed themselves out a habitation and plantation. It was a very con- 
 • venient place indeed, on the remotest part of the island, X.E. much 
 about the place where I landed in my first voyage, when I was driven 
 out to sea, the Lord knows whither, in my attempt to sail round the 
 island. 
 
 Here they built themselves two handsome huts, close under the side 
 of a hill, having some trees growing already to the three sides of it ; so 
 that by planting others, it would be very easily concealed from the 
 sight, unless narrov ly searched for. They desired some dried goat-skins 
 for beds and covering, which were given them ; and upon giving their 
 words that they would not disturb the rest, or injure any of their 
 plantations, hatchets were given them, and what other tools could be 
 spared : some peas, barley, and rice, for sowing, and, in a word, all they 
 wanted except arms and ammunition. 
 
 They lived in this separate condition about six months, and had got 
 in their first harvest, though the quantity was but small, the quantity 
 of land they had planted being but little ; for, indeed, having all their 
 plantation to form, they had a great deal of work upon their hands ; 
 and when they came to make boards, and pots, and such things, they 
 were quite out of their element, and could make nothing of it. When 
 the rainy season came on, for want of a cave in the earth, they could 
 not keep their grain dry, and it was in great danger of spoiling, and 
 this humbled them much ; so they came and begged the Spaniards to 
 •help them, which they very readily did, and in four days worked a 
 ■ great hole in the side of the hill for them, big enough to secure their 
 corn and other things from the rain ; but it was but a poor place at 
 best, compared to mine, and especially as mine was then, for the 
 Spaniards had greatly enlarged it, and made several new apartments 
 in it. 
 
 About three quarters of a year after this separation, a new frolic 
 took these rogues, which, together with their former villany, brought 
 _ mischief enough upon them, and had very near been the ruin of the 
 whole colony. The three associates began, it seems, to be weary of the 
 laborious life they led, seeing no hope of bettering it ; and a whim 
 
248 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 took tkem, that they would make a voyage to the continent from 
 whence the savages came, and try if they could not seize upon some 
 prisoners among the natives there, and bring them home, so as to make 
 them do the laborious part of the work for them. 
 
 ";:8^he project was not so preposterous, if they had gone no further ; 
 but they did nothing, and proposed nothing, that had not either 
 mischief in the design, or mischief in the event ; so the three fellows 
 came down to the Spaniards one morning, and in very humble terms 
 desired to be admitted to speak with them. The Spaniards very readily 
 heard what they had to say, which was this : that they were tired of 
 living in the manner they did ; that they were not handy enough to 
 provide the necessaries they wanted ; and that having no help, they 
 found they should be starved ; but if the Spaniards would give them 
 leave to take one of the canoes which they came over in, and give them 
 arms and ammunition proportioned for their defence, they would go 
 over to the main to seek their fortune, and so deliver them from the 
 trouble of supplying them with any other provisions. 
 
 The Spaniards were glad enough to be rid of them ; but yet very 
 honestly represented to them the certain destruction they were running 
 into ; told them they had suffered such hardships upon that very spot, 
 that they could, without any spirit of prophecy, tell them that they 
 would be starved or murdered, and bade them consider well of it. 
 They replied audaciously that they should be starved if they stayed 
 here, for they could not work and would not work, and they could 
 but be starved abroad ; and if they were murdered, there was an end 
 of them, they had no wives or children to cry after them ; and, in 
 short, insisted importunately upon their demand, declaring that they 
 would go, whether they would give them arms or no. The Spaniards 
 told them, with great kindness, that if they were resolved to go, they 
 should not go like naked men, in no condition to defend themselves ; 
 and though they could ill spare their fire-arms, having not enough 
 for themselves, yet they would let them have two muskets, a pistol, 
 and a cutlass, and each man a hatchet, which they thought sufiicient 
 for them. 
 
 In a word, they accepted the offer ; and having baked them bread 
 enough to serve for a month, and given them as much goat’s flesh as 
 they could eat while it was sweet, and a great basket full of dried 
 grapes, a pot full of fresh water, and a young kid alive to kiU, they 
 boldly set out in a canoe for a voyage over the sea, where it was 
 at least forty miles broad. 
 
 The boat was indeed a large one, and would have very well carried 
 
1 
 
 of Uobinson Crusoe. 249 
 
 fifteen or twenty men, a'nd therefore was rather too big for them to 
 manage \ but as they had a fair breeze and the flood-tide with them, 
 they did well enough : they made a mast of a long pole, and a sail of 
 four large goat-skins dried, which they had sewed or laced together, 
 and away they went merrily enough : the Spaniards called after them 
 Eon Yeajo, and no man ever thought of seeing them again. The 
 Spaniards and the two honest Enghshmen would often congratulate 
 each other on the quiet and comfortable life they led now those 
 turbulent fellows were gone ; as for their ever coming again, that was 
 the rem6test thing from their thoughts ; when, behold, after twenty- 
 two days’, absence, one of the Englishmen being abroad upon his 
 planting-work, sees three strange men coming towards him at a distance, 
 two of them with guns upon their shoulders. 
 
 Away ran the Englishman as if he was bewitched, coming frighted 
 and amazed to the governor ' Spaniard, and tells him they were all 
 undone, for there were strangers landed upon the island ; they could 
 not tell who. The Spaniard, pausing awhile, says to him. How do you 
 mean, you cannot tell who % They are the savages to be sure. No, 
 no, says the Englishman ; they are men in clothes with arms. Hay, 
 then, says the Spaniard, why are you concerned] If they are not 
 savages, they must be friends ; for there is no Christian nation upon 
 earth but vdll do us good rather than harm. 
 
 While they were debating thus, came the three Englishmen, and 
 standing without the wood which was new planted, hallooed to them ; 
 they presently knew their voices, and so all their wonder ceased. Eut 
 now the admiration was turned upon another question, viz. What 
 could be the matter, and what had brought them back again. 
 
 It was not long before the men were brought in ; and inquiring 
 where they had been, and what they had been doing, they gave them 
 a full account of their voyage — in a few words, they reached the land in 
 two days, or something less ; but finding the people alarmed at their 
 coming, and preparing with bows and arrows to fight them, they durst 
 not go on shore, but sailed on to the northward six or seven hours, till 
 they came to a great opening, by which they perceived that the land 
 they saw from our island was not the main, but an island. Entering 
 that opening of the sea, they saw another island on the right hand to 
 the north, and several more to the west ; being resolved to land some- 
 where, they put over to one of the islands which lay west, and went 
 boldly on shore ; and found the people very courteous and friendly to 
 them, giving them roots, and some dried fish, and appearing very 
 sociable ; the women, as well as the men, being very forward to supply 
 
250 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 them with anything they could get for them to eat, bringing it to them 
 a great way upon their heads. 
 
 ^ They continued here four days, and inquired, as well as they could 
 of them by signs, what nations were this way, and that way ; and were 
 told of several fierce and terrible races that lived almost every way ; 
 who, as they made signs to them, used to eat men ; but as for them- 
 selves, they said, they never eat men or women, except only such as 
 they took in war, and then they owned that they made a great feast 
 and eat their prisoners. 
 
 The Englishmen inquired when they had a feast of that kind ; and 
 they told them about two moons ago, pointing to the moon, and then 
 to two fingers ; and that their great king had two hundred prisoners 
 now, which he had taken in his war ; and they were feeding them to 
 make them fat for the next feast. The Englishmen seemed mighty 
 desirous to see those prisoners ; but the other mistaking them, thought 
 they were desirous to have some of them to carry away for their own 
 eating. So they beckoned to them, pointing to the setting sun, and 
 then to the rising ; which was to signify, that the next morning, at 
 sun-rising, they would bring some for them ; and accordingly, the next 
 morning, they brought down five women and eleven men, and gave 
 them to the Englishmen to carry with them on their voyage, just as we 
 would bring so many cows and oxen down to a sea-port town to victual 
 a ship. 
 
 Brutish and barbarous a» these fellows were at home, their stomachs 
 
251 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 turned at this sight, and they did not know what to do : to refuse the 
 prisoners would have been the highest affront to the savage gentry that 
 offered them ; and what to do with them they knew not. However, 
 after consultation, they resolved to accept of them ; and in return, they 
 gave the savages that brought them one of their hatchets, an old key, 
 a knife, and six or seven of their bullets, which, though they did not 
 understand, they seemed extremely pleased with : and then, tying the 
 poor creatures^ hands behind them, they (the people) dragged the poor 
 prisoners into the boat. 
 
 The Englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as they received 
 them, otherwise they would certainly have been expected to kill two or 
 three of them the next morning, inviting the donors at the same time 
 to dinner. Having taken their leave with all the ceremonies that could 
 pass between people, neither of whom understood a word said, they put 
 off, and came back towards the first island, where they set eight of their 
 prisoners at liberty. In their voyage they endeavoured to communicate 
 with their prisoners, but they could not be made to understand anything ; 
 when unbound the poor creatures screamed out, especially the women, 
 as if they had just felt the knife at their throats ; for they immediately 
 concluded they were unbound on purpose to be killed. If they gave 
 them anything to eat, it was the same thing, it was given :»or fear they 
 should sink in flesh ; if they looked at one of them more particularly, it 
 was to see whether he or she was fattest and fittest to kill j nay, when 
 they began to use them kindly, and treat them well, still they expected 
 every day to make a dinner or a supper for their new masters. 
 
 When the three wanderers had given this unaccountable history of 
 their voyage, the Spaniard asked them where their new family was ? 
 And being told that they had brought them on shore, and put them into 
 one of their huts, and were come up to beg some victuals for them, the 
 whole colony resolved to go down to the place and see them, taking 
 Friday’s father with them. 
 
 AYhen they came into the hut, there they sat all bound ; for when 
 they had brought them on shore, they bound their hands that they 
 might not make their escape ; there, I say, they sat, all of them stark- 
 naked ; first, there were three men, lusty, comely fellows, well-shaped, 
 straight and fair limbs, about thirty to thirty-five years of age, and five 
 women, whereof two might be from thirty to forty, two more not above 
 four or five and twenty, and the fifth, a tall, comely maiden, about six- 
 teen or seventeen. The women were well-favoured agreeable persons, 
 both in shape and features, only tawny ; and two of them, had they been 
 white, would have passed for very handsome women, having very 
 
252 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 agreeal^le countenances, and a very modest behaviour, especially when 
 they came afterwards to be clothed and dressed, though the dress waip 
 a very indifferent one. 
 
 The sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to our Spaniards, 
 who were men of the most calm, sedate tempers, and perfect good 
 humour that "ever I met with, and-, in particular, of great modesty, 
 as will presently appear. A say the sight was very uncouth, to see 
 three naked men, and five naked women, all together bound, and 
 expecting every moment to be dragged out and have their brains 
 knocked out, and then to be eaten up like a calf that is killed for a 
 dainty. 
 
 The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian, Friday’s^ father, 
 to go in and see if he knew any of them ; and then, if he understood 
 their speech. As soon as the old man came in, he looked seriously at 
 them, but knew none of them ; neither could any of them understand 
 a word he said, or a sign he could make, except one of the women. 
 This was enough, however ; he soon satisfied them that they had fallen 
 into Christian hands, who abhorred eating men or women, and 
 assured them they would not be killed j at this they discovered such 
 joy, and by such awkward and several ways, as is hard to describe, for 
 it seems they were of several nations. The woman who interpreted 
 was now bid to ask them if they were willing to be servants, and to 
 work for the men who had brought them away. At which they all fell 
 a dancing ; and presently one fell to taking up this, and another that, 
 anything that lay next, to carry on their shoulders, as an intimation 
 that they were 'willing to work. 
 
 The governor, who feared that having the women among them would 
 presently be attended with some inconveniency, and that it might 
 occasion strife, and perhaps blood, asked the three men what they in- 
 tended to do with these women, and whether they intended them for 
 servants or wives. One of the Englishmen answered very boldly and 
 readily, that they would use them as both. To which the governor 
 said, I am not going to restrain you from it ; you are your own masters 
 as to that, but to avoid disorders and quarrels among you, I desire that 
 you will all engage that if any of you take any of these women as 
 wife, that he shall take but one, and that, having taken one, none else 
 should touch her ; for it is but reasonable that each should maintain 
 the woman he takes. All this appeared so just that every one agreed 
 to it without any difficulty. 
 
 Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they designed to take 
 any of them ? But every one of them answered, 'Nb ; some of them 
 
253 
 
 of Bobinson Crusoe, 
 
 said they had wives in Spain, and the others did not like women that 
 were not Christians, and all together declared that they would not 
 touch one of them ; on the other hand, the five Englishmen took them 
 every one a wife, and so they set up a new form of living, for the 
 Spaniards and Friday’s father lived as before in my old habitation, 
 which they had enlarged exceedingly within. The three servants which 
 they had taken in the late battle of the savages, lived with them ; and 
 these carried on the main part of the colony, supplying all the rest 
 with food, and assisting them in anything as they could, as necessity 
 required. 
 
 But the wonder of this story was, how five such refractory, ill- 
 matched fellows should agree about these women, and that two of them 
 should not pitch upon the same, especially seeing two or three of 
 them were/ without comparison, more agreeable than the others ; but 
 they took a good way enough to prevent quarrelling among themselves, 
 for they set the five women by themselves in one of their huts, while 
 they went all into the other and drew lots among themselves who 
 should choose first. 
 
 When the poor women saw themselves set in a row thus, and 
 fetched out one by one, the terrors of their condition returned upon 
 them again, and they firmly believed that they were now going to be 
 devoured ; accordingly, when the English sailor came in and fetched 
 out one of them, the rest set up a most lamentable cry, and hung 
 about her, and took their leave of her with such agonies and such 
 affection, as would have grieved the hardest heart in the world ; nor 
 w'as it possible for the Englishman to satisfy them that they were not 
 to be immediately murdered, till they fetched the old man, Friday’s 
 father, who instantly let them know, that the five men who had 
 fetched them out one by one, had chosen them for their wives. 
 
 "When they had done, and the fright the women were in was a little 
 over, the men went to work, and the Spaniards came and helped 
 them ; and, in a few hours, they had built them every one a new hut 
 or tent for their lodging apart, for those they had already were crowded 
 with their tools, household stuff, and provisions. The three wicked 
 ones had pitched farthest off, and the two honest on6s nearer, but both 
 on the north shore of the island, so that they continued separated as 
 before ; and thus my island was peopled in three places, and, as I 
 might say, three towns were planted. 
 
 And here it is very well worth observing that, as it often happens 
 in the world, the two honest fellows had the two worst wives, and the 
 three reprobates, that were scarce Avorth hanging, had three clever, 
 
2o4 
 
 - I 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 diligent, careful, and ingenious wives ; not tliat the two first were bad 
 wives as to their temper or humour, for all the five were most willing, 
 quiet, passive creatures, rather like slaves than \vives, but they were 
 not alil^e capable, ingenious, or industrious, or alike cleanly and neat. 
 Another observation I must make in honour of a diligent application 
 on one hand, and to the disgrace of a slothful, negligent, idle temper 
 on the other ; when I came to the place, and viewed the several im- 
 provements, the two men had far outdone the three ; they had indeed 
 both of them as much ground laid out for corn as they wanted, for 
 nature dictated that it was to no purpose to sow more corn than 
 they wanted ; but the difference of the cultivation, of the planting, of 
 the fences, and, indeed, of everything else, was easy to be seen at 
 a glance. 
 
 The two men had innumerable young treec planted about their huts, 
 and though they had twice had their plantation demolished, once by 
 their own countrymen, and once by the enemy, yet they had restored 
 it again, and everything was thriving and flourishing about them ; 
 they had grapes planted in order, and managed like a vineyard. They 
 had also found out a retreat in the thickest part of the woods, where 
 though there was no natural cave, as I had found, yet they had made 
 one with the incessant labour of their hands, where they secured their 
 wives and children from the enemy, having, by sticking innumerable 
 stakes and poles of quick growing wood, made the wood impassable, 
 except in one place, where they climbed up to get over the outside parf, 
 and then went in by ways of their own making. 
 
 As to the other three, though they were more civilized and much less 
 quarrelsome, having not the same opportunity, yet one of the certain 
 companions of a profligate mind never left them, and that was their 
 idleness. It is true they planted corn and made fences ; but Solomon’s 
 words were never better verified than in them — I went by the vine- 
 yard of the slothful, and it was overgrown with thorns for when the 
 Spaniards came to view their crop, they could not see it in some places 
 for weeds ; the hedge had several gaps in it, where the wild goats had 
 got in and eaten up the corn ; perhaps here and there a dead bush was 
 crammed in to stop them out for the present, but it was only shutting 
 the stable door after the steed was stolen; whilst the two verified Solo- 
 mon’s words in another place, ‘^That the diligent hand makes rich 
 for everything grew and thrived, and they had plenty within and 
 without ; they had more tame cattle than the other, more utensils and 
 necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure and diversion too. 
 
 It is true, the wives of the three were very handy arid cleanly 
 
255 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 witliin doors ; and liaving learned the English ways of dressing and 
 cooking from one of the Englishmen, who, as I said, was cook’s mate 
 on board the ship, they dressed their husbands^ victuals very nicely 
 indeed, whereas the other could not be brought to understand it ; but 
 then the husband, who, as I say, had been cook’s mate, did it himseK ; 
 but the meji themselves loitered about, fetched turtle’s- eggs, and caught 
 fish and birds : in a word, anything but labour, and they fared accord- 
 ingly : the diligent lived well and comfortable, and the slothful lived 
 hard and beggarly ; and so I believe, generally speaking, it is all over 
 the world. 
 
 Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of Indians, 
 or savages, call them which you please ; and there is no room to doubt 
 they came upon the old errand of feeding upon their prisoners, but 
 that part was now so familiar to the Spaniards, and to our men too, 
 that they did not concern themselves much about it, their only business 
 was to lie concealed, and if they were not seen by any of the savages, 
 they would go off again quietly when their business was done, having 
 as yet not the least notion of there being any inhabitants in the island. 
 But an accident spoiled all their measures, and made it known among 
 the savages that there were inhabitants there, which in the end led to 
 the desolation of the whole colony. After the canoes with the savages 
 had gone off, the Spaniards peeped abroad again, and some of them 
 had the curiosity to go to the place where they had been to see what 
 they had been doing. Here, to their great surprise, they found three 
 savages left behind, lying fast asleep upon the ground ; it was supposed 
 that they had either been so gorged with their inhuman feast, that, 
 like beasts, they fell asleep, and would not stir when the others went, or 
 they had wandered into the woods, and did not come back in time. 
 
 The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight, and perfectly at 
 a loss what to do : the Spaniard governor, as it happened, was with 
 them, and his advice was asked ; but he professed he knew not what to 
 do : as for slaves, they had enough already ; and as to killing them, 
 they were none of them inclined to that. The Spaniard governor told 
 me thpy could not think of shedding innocent blood ; for as to them 
 —^B^oor creatures had done them no wrong, invaded none of their 
 property, and they thought they had no just quarrel against them 
 to justify them in taking away their lives. 
 
 After some consultation, therefore, they resolved that they would he 
 still a while longer, till, if possible, these three men might be gone ; but 
 then the governor Spaniard recollected that the three savages had no 
 boat, and that if they were left to rove about the island, they would 
 
256 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 certainly discover that there were inhabitants in it, and so they should 
 be undone again in that way. 
 
 £ pon this they went back again, and. found the fellows fast asleep 
 ; so they resolved to waken them, and take them prisoners, and 
 did so : the poor fellows were strangely frighted when they were 
 seized upon and bound, they were afraid, like the women, that they 
 should be murdered and eaten. 
 
 It was very fortunate that they did not carry them home to their 
 castle, I mean to my palace under the hill ; but to the bower, where 
 was the chief country work, such as the keeping the goats, planting 
 the corn, &c., and afterwards they carried them to the habitation of the 
 two Englishmen. 
 
 Here they were set to work, though it was not much they had for 
 them to do ; and whether it was by negligence in guarding them, or that 
 they thought the fellows could not mend themselves, I know not, but 
 one of them run away ; and, taking to the woods, they never saw him 
 more. They had good reason to believe, however, that he got home in 
 some other boats or canoes of savages, who came on shore three or four 
 weeks afterwards, on one of their revels, and went.olf again in two days^ 
 time. This incident terrified them all exceedingly ; for they concluded, 
 and that not without good cause, that if this fellow got home among 
 his comrades, he would certainly give report that there were people in 
 the island, and how weak and few they were ; for this savage, as I 
 observed before, had never been told, and it was very happy he had not, 
 how many they were in all or where they lived, nor had he ever seen 
 or heard the report of their guns, he knew nothing of the cave in the 
 valley, or of the new retreat which the two Englishmen had made. 
 
 About two months after this, six canoes of savages, with about seven 
 or eight, or ten men in a canoe, came rowing along the north side of 
 the island, where they never used to come before, landing about an 
 hour after sun-rise, at a convenient place, a mile or so from the habita- 
 tion of the two Englishmen, where the man had been kept. As the 
 Spaniard governor said, had they been all there, the damage would not 
 have been so much, for not a man of them would have escaped ; but 
 the case differed now very much, for two men to fifty was great odds. 
 The two men had the happiness to discover them about a league off, so 
 that it was above an hour before they landed ; and as they landed a 
 mile from the huts, it was some time before they could come at them. 
 How having great reason to believe that they were betrayed, the first 
 thing they did was to bind the two slaves which were left, and cause 
 two of the three men, brought with the women, who, it seems, proved 
 
'4 
 
 
 
 
 
 
BrUNlNG [IU1\S 
 
of Eohimon Crusoe, 257 
 
 very faithful to them, to lead them with their two wives, and whatever 
 they could carry away with them, to their retirement in the woods, and 
 there to bind the two fellows hand and foot till they heard farther. 
 
 In the next place, seeing the savages all come on shore, and that they 
 bent their course directly that way, they opened the fences where their 
 milch-goats were kept, and drove them all out to straggle into the 
 woods, whither they pleased, that the savages might think they were 
 all bred wild. When the two poor frighted men had secured their 
 wives and goods, they sent the other slave they had of the three, who 
 came with the women, and who was at their place by accident, away to 
 the Spaniards with all speed, to give the alarm, and desire speedy help ; 
 and in the meantime they took their arms, and what ammunition they 
 had, and retreated towards the place in the wood where their wives 
 were sent, keeping at a distance ; yet so that they might see, if possible, 
 which way the savages took. 
 
 They had not gone so far, but that from a rising ground, they could 
 see the little army of their enemies come on directly to their habitation, 
 and in a moment more could see all their huts and household-stuff 
 flaming up together, to their great grief and mortification ; for they 
 sustained a loss, to them irretrievable, at least for some time. They 
 kept their station, however, till they found the savages, like wild beasts, 
 spread themselves aU over the place, rummaging every way, and every 
 place they could think of, in search for prey ; and, in particular, for the 
 people, of whom it now plainly appeared they had had intelligence. 
 Seeing this, the two Englishmen, not thinking themselves secure where 
 they were, thought it proper to make another retreat about half a mile 
 farther, believing, as it afterwards happened, that the farther they 
 strolled, the fewer of the savages would be found together. 
 
 The next halt was at the entrance of a very thick-grown part of the 
 woods, where stood an old trunk of a tree, which was hollow, and 
 vastly large ; in this tree they both took their stand, resolving to see 
 what might offer. 
 
 They had not stood there long, when two of the savages appeared 
 running directly that way, as if they had already had notice where they 
 stood, and were coming up to attack them. A little farther off they 
 spied three more, coming after them, and five more beyond them, all 
 coming the same way ; besides this, they saw seven or eight more at a 
 distance running another way ; in a word, they ran in every direction, 
 like sportsmen beating for game. 
 
 The poor men were now in great perplexity, whether they should 
 stand, and keep their posture, or fly ; but after a very short debate with 
 
 s 
 
258 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 themselves, they considered, that if the savages ranged the country 
 thus, before help came, they might, perhaps, find out their retreat in 
 the woods, and then all would be lost ; so they resolved to wait for 
 them there ; and if there were too many to deal with, then they would 
 get to the top of the tree, from whence they doubted not their ability 
 to defend themselves, fire excepted, as long as their ammunition lasted, 
 even though all the savages who landed, which was near fifty, were to 
 attack them. 
 
 Having resolved upon this, they next considered whether they should 
 fire at the first two, or wait for the three, and so take the middle party : 
 by which the two and the five that followed would be separated ; and 
 they resolved to let the two first pass by, unless they should spy them 
 in the tree, and come to attack them. The two first savages confirmed 
 them in this resolution, by turning away towards another part of the 
 wood ; but the three, and the five after them, came forward directly to 
 the tree, as if they had known the Englishmen were there. Seeing 
 them come so straight towards them, they resolved to take them in a 
 line as they came, and fire one at a time, perhaps the first shot might 
 hit them all three ; to which purpose, the man who was to fire, put 
 three or four small bullets into his piece, and having a fair loophole, as 
 
 it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a sure aim, without 
 being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty yards of the tree, 
 so that he could not miss. As the savages came on, they plainly saw 
 that one of the three was the runaway savage that had escaped from 
 
259 
 
 of Boiinson Crusoe, 
 
 them ; they both knew him distinctly, and resolved that he should not 
 escape ; so the other stood ready with his piece, to fire a second, in 
 case he did not drop at the first shot. But the first was too good a 
 marksman to miss. As the savages kept near one another, in a line, he 
 fired, and hit two of them directly : the foremost was killed outright, 
 being shot in the head ; the second, which was the runaway Indian, 
 was shot through the body, and fell, but was not quite dead j and the 
 third had a little scratch in the shoulder, perhaps by the same ball that 
 went through the body of the second ; and being dreadfully frighted, 
 though not much hurt, he sat down upon the ground, screaming and 
 yelling in a hideous manner. 
 
 The five that were behind, more frighted by the noise than sensible 
 of the danger, stood still at first ; for the woods made the sound a 
 thousand times bigger than it really was ; the echoes rattling from one 
 side to another, and the fowls rising from all parts, screaming and 
 making every sort of noise, according to .their kind. 
 
 All being silent again, however, and not knowing what the matter 
 was, they came on unconcerned till they came to the place where their 
 companions lay, in a condition miserable enough j and here the poor 
 ignorant creatures, not sensible that they were within reach of the 
 same mischief, stood huddled over the wounded man, talking, and, as 
 may be supposed, inquiring of him how he came to be hurt : he told 
 them that a flash of fire first, and immediately after that, thunder from 
 their gods, had killed those two, and wounded him. Our two men, 
 though, as they confessed to me, it grieved them to kill so many poor 
 creatures, who at the same time had no notion of their danger ; yet, 
 having them all thus in their power, and the first having loaded his 
 piece again, resolved to let fly both together among them ; and, singling 
 out by agreement which to aim at, they shot together, and killed, or 
 very much wounded, four of them ; the fifth, frighted even to death, 
 though not hurt, fell with the rest ; so that our men, seeing them all 
 fall together, thought they had killed them all. 
 
 This belief made our two men come boldly out from the tree before 
 they had charged their guns again, which was a wrong step ; and they 
 were under some surprise, •when they came to the place, and found no 
 less than four of the men still alive, and of these, two very little hurt, 
 and one not at aU : this obliged them to fall upon them with the 
 stocks of their muskets, and first they made sure of the runaway 
 savage, that had been the cause of all the mischief; and of another 
 that was hurt in the knee, they put them out of their pain ; then the 
 man that was not hurt at all came and kneeled before them, with his 
 
260 The Life and Adventures 
 
 two liaiids lield up, and made a piteous appeal to them by gestures and 
 signs, for bis life; but could not say one word to them that they 
 understood. 
 
 However, they signed to him to sit down at the foot of a tree 
 thereby ; and one of the Enghshmen, with a piece of rope-twine, 
 which he had- by great chance in his pocket, tied his two feet fast 
 together, and his two hands behind him, and there they left him ; 
 and with what speed they could, made after the other two which were 
 gone before, fearing that they, or some other of them, should find the 
 way to their covered place in the woods, where their wives and goods 
 they had left lay ; they came once in sight of the two men, but it was 
 at a great distance ; however, they had the satisfaction to see them 
 cross over a valley, towards the sea, in a direction quite contrary to 
 that which led to their retreat, satisfied with this, they went back to 
 the tree where they had left their prisoner ; but he was gone, and the 
 two pieces of rope-yarn, with which they had bound him, lay just at 
 the foot of the tree. 
 
 They were now as greatly concerned as before, not knowing what 
 course to take, or how near the. enemy might be, or in what numbers ; 
 so they resolved to go towards the place were their wives were, to see 
 if all was well there, and relieve their anxiety; for though the savages 
 were their own country folk, yet they were terribly afraid of them, the 
 more, perhaps, for the knowledge they had of them. 
 
 When they reached it, they found the savages had been in the 
 wood, and very near the place, but had not found it ; for it was indeed 
 rendered all but inaccessible, the trees standing so thick before it, that 
 it could only be found by persons seeking it, directed by those that 
 knew it : they found everything very safe, only the women in a 
 terrible fright. Here they had the comfort of seeing seven of the 
 Spaniards come to their assistance ; the other ten, with their servants, 
 and old Eriday, I mean Friday's father, were gone in a body to defend 
 their bower, and the corn and cattle kept there, in case the savages 
 should have roved over to that side of the country; but they did not 
 spread so far. With the seven Spaniards, came one of the three 
 savages, who, as I said were their prisoners formerly, and with them 
 also came the savage the Englishmen had left bound hand and foot at 
 the tree ; for it seems they came that way, saw the slaughter of the 
 seven men, and unbound the eighth, and brought h/m along with them, 
 where, however, they were obliged to bind him again, as they had the 
 two others, who were left when the third ran away. 
 
 The prisoners began now to be a burden to them ; and they were so 
 
261 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe, 
 
 afraid of their escaping, that they were resolving to kill them all, 
 believing they were under an absolute necessity to do so, for their own 
 preservation ; but the Spaniard governor would not consent to it ; 
 he ordered, for the present, that they should be sent to my old cave in 
 the valley, and kept there, with two Spaniards to guard them. They 
 were bound there hand and foot for that night. 
 
 The two Englishmen were so encouraged by the presence of the 
 Spaniards, that they were not inclined to stay any longer there ; but 
 taking five of the Spaniards, with four muskets and a pistol among 
 them, and two stout quarter-staves, away they went in quest of the 
 savages ; first, they came to the tree where the men lay that had been 
 killed ; but it was easy to see, that some more of the savages had 
 been there ; for they had attempted to carry their dead men away, 
 and had dragged two of them a good way, but had given it over ; 
 from thence they advanced to the first rising ground, whence they had 
 seen their camp destroyed, and where they had the mortification still 
 to see the smoke rising ; but neither could they here see any of the 
 savages : they then resolved, though with all possible caution, to go 
 forward towards their ruined plantation ; but before reaching it, 
 coming in sight of the sea-shore, they plainly saw the savages em- 
 barking in their canoes. They were sorry at first to find there was no 
 way to come at them, to give them a parting blow; but upon the 
 whole, they were very well satisfied to be rid of them. 
 
 The poor Englishmen being thus a second time ruined, and all 
 their property destroyed, the others agreed to help them to rebuild, 
 and to assist them with needful supplies. Their three countrymen, 
 not noted for any inclination to do good, nevertheless, when they 
 heard of their misfortune (for they, living remote eastward, knew 
 nothing of the matter till all was over, offered their help and assis- 
 tance, and did very friendly work for several days, to restore their 
 
 habitation, and prepare necessaries for them ; and thus, in a little 
 
 time, they were set upon their legs again. 
 
 Two days after this, they had the farther satisfaction of seeing three 
 of the savages’ canoes come driving on shore, and at some distance 
 from them, two drowned men ; by which they had reason to believe, 
 that they had met with a storm at sea, which had overset some of 
 them ; for it had blown very hard the very night after they went off. 
 
 It was five or six months after this, before they heard any more of 
 the. savages, in this time our men were in hopes they had either forgot 
 their former disasters or given up all hopes of better success, when, on 
 a sudden, the island was invaded by a formidable fleet, of no less than 
 
262 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 eight and twenty canoes full of savages, armed with hows and arrows, 
 great clubs, wooden swords, and such like engines of war ; they were 
 in such numbers that it threw all our people into the utmost con- 
 sternation. 
 
 As they landed in the evening, and at the easternmost side of ’ the 
 island, our men had that night to consult and consider what to do ; in 
 the first place, knowing that their being entirely concealed was their 
 only safety formerly, so it would be much more so now, when their 
 enemies were so numerous. They resolved, therefore, first of all to pull 
 down the huts which were built for the two Englishmen, and drive 
 away their goats to the old cave ; supposing that the savages would go 
 directly thither, as soon as it was day, to play the old game over again, 
 though they did not now land within two leagues of it. 
 
 In the next place, they drove away all the flock of goats they had 
 at the old bower, as I called it, which belonged to the Spaniards, in 
 short, they left as little appearance of inhabitants anywhere as was 
 possible ; and the next morning early they posted themselves, with all 
 their force, at the plantation of the two men, to wait for their coming. As 
 they guessed, so it happened ; these new invaders, leaving their canoes 
 at the east end of the island, came ranging along the shore, directly 
 towards the place, to the number of two hundred and fifty, as near as 
 our men could judge. Our force was small indeed; but what was 
 worse, they had not arms for all their number. The whole account, it 
 seems, stood thus. Eirst as to men. 
 
 Seventeen Spaniards, five EngHshmen, one Old Friday, or Eriday^s 
 father ; three the three slaves, taken with the women, who proved very 
 faithful ; three other slaves who lived with the Spaniards. 
 
 To arm these they had eleven muskets, five pistols, three fowling- 
 pieces, five muskets, or fowling-pieces, which were taken by me from 
 the mutiQOUs seamen whom I reduced ; two swords, three old halberts. 
 
 To the slaves they did not give either musket or fusil, but they had 
 every one a halbert, or a long staff, like a quarter-staff, with a great 
 spike of. iron fastened into each end of it, and by his side a hatchet : 
 also every one of our men had hatchets. Two of the women could not 
 be prevailed upon, but they would come into the fight ; and they had 
 J!)ows and arrows, which the Spaniards had taken from the savages, when 
 the first action happened, which I have spoken of, where the Indians 
 fought with one another ; the women had hatchets too. 
 
 The Spaniard governor, who I have described so often, commanded 
 the whole; and Wm. Atkins, who, though a dreadful fellow for wicked- 
 ness, was a bold daring fellow, commanded under him. The savages 
 
263 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 ^ame forward like lions, and our men,, which was the worst of their 
 fate, had no advantage in their situation ; only that Will Atkins, who 
 now proved a most useful fellow, with six men, was planted just behind 
 a small thicket of hushes, as an advanced guard, with orders to let the 
 first band of them pass by, and then fire into the middle of them ; re- 
 treating as nimbly as he could, as soon as he had fired, round a part of 
 the wood and so coming in behind the Spaniards, who stood with a 
 thicket of trees also before them. 
 
 When the savages came on, they ran straggling about in every 
 direction without order; Atkins let about fifty of them pass; then, seeing 
 the rest coming in a very thick throng, he orders three of his men to 
 fire, having loaded their muskets with six or seven bidlets a-piece, 
 each about as big as large pistol bullets. How many they killed or 
 wounded they never knew ; but the consternation and surprise among 
 the savages was inexpressible ; they were frighted to the last degree, 
 to hear such a dreadful noise, and see their men killed, and others 
 wounded, but seeing nobody that did it ; while in the middle of their 
 fright, Atkins, and his other three, let fiy again among the thickest 
 of them ; and in less than a minute, the other three being again loaded, 
 gave them a third volley. Had Atkins and his men retired immediately, 
 as soon as they had fired, as they were ordered to do ; or had the rest of 
 the body been at hand to have poured in their shot continually, the 
 savages had now been effectually routed ; for their terror principally 
 arose from the superstitious dread that they were killed by the gods 
 with thunder and lightning, not seeing by whom they were hurt ; but 
 Atkins, staying to load again, revealed the cheat ; some of the savages, 
 who were at a distance, spying them, came upon them behind ; and 
 though Atkins and his men fired at them also, two or three times, and 
 killed above twenty, retiring as fast as they could, yet they wounded 
 Atkins himself, and killed one of his fellow Englishmen with their 
 arrows, as they did afterwards one Spaniard, and one of the Indian 
 slaves who came with the women. This slave was a most gallant 
 fellow, and fought most desperately, killing five of them with his 
 OAvn hand, he having no weapon but one of the armed staves, and a 
 hatchet. 
 
 Our men being thus hard laid at, Atkins woimded, and two other men 
 killed, they retreated to a rising ground in the wood ; and the Spaniards, 
 after fii*ing three volleys upon them, retreated also ; for their number 
 was so great, that though above fifty of them were killed, and more 
 wounded, yet they came on in the teeth of our men, fearless of danger, 
 and snot their arrows like a cloud ; and it was observed, that their 
 
264 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 l^vounded men, when not quite disabled, were made outrageous by their 
 wounds, and fought like madmen. 
 
 ||[\Yhen our men retreated, they left the Spaniard and the Enghshman, 
 that were killed, behind them ; and the savages, when they came up to 
 them, vented their rage on their bodies in a wretched manner, breaking 
 their arms, legs, and heads, with their clubs and wooden sw^ords, like 
 true savages. But finding our men were gone, they did not seem 
 inclined to pursue them ; but drew themselves up in a kind of a ring, 
 which is, it seems, their custom, and shouted twice, in token of their 
 victory ; after which, they had the mortification of seeing several of 
 their w^ounded men fall, dying with the mere loss of blood. 
 
 The Spaniard governor having drawn his little body up together, 
 upon a rising ground, Atkins, though he was wounded, would have had 
 him march, and charge them again all together at once; but the 
 prudent Spaniard replied. Seignior Atkins, you see how their wounded 
 men fight ; let them alone till morning ; all these w^ounded men wdll 
 be stiff and sore with their wounds, and faint with the loss of blood ; 
 and so we shall have the fewer to engage. The advice was good ; but 
 Will Atkins replied merrily. That is true. Seignior, and so shall I be too ; 
 and that is the reason I w^ould go on, while I am warm. Well, Seignior 
 Atkins, says the Spaniard, you have behaved gallantly, and done your 
 part ; w^e wall fight for you, if you cannot come on ; but I think it best 
 to stay till morning ; so they waited. 
 
 But as it was a clear moonlight night, and they found the savages 
 in great disorder about their dead and wounded, and great apparent 
 confusion and noise among them where they lay, it w^as resolved to fall 
 upon them in the night, especially if they could give them but one 
 volley before they were discovered, which they had a fair opportunity of 
 doing, for one of the two Englislimen, in whose quarter the fight 
 began, led them round between the woods and the seaside, w^estward, 
 and then turning short south, they came so near where the thickest of 
 them lay, that before they were seen or heard, eight muskets were fired 
 in among them, and did dreadful execution ; in half a minute more 
 eight others followed, pouring in their small shot ^ in such a quantity, 
 that abundance were killed and wounded ; and all this wEile they were 
 not able to see who hurt them, or which way to fly. 
 
 The Spaniards charged again, wuth the utmost expedition, and then 
 divided themselves into three bodies, resolved to fall in among them 
 all together ; they in each body eight persons, that is to say, twenty- 
 four, wEereof w^ere twenty-tw^o men and two w^omen, who, by the way, 
 fought desperately. 
 
MEN RETURNING TO BOATS. 
 
265 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 They divided the fire-arms equally in each party, and so of the 
 halberts and staves. They would have had the women keep back ; bid 
 they said they were resolved to die with their husbands. Having 
 thus formed their little army, they marched out from among the trees, 
 and came up to the very teeth of the enemy, shouting and hallooing as 
 loud as they could ; the savages stood all together, "but in the utmost 
 confusion, hearing the noise of our men shouting from three quarters 
 together ; they would have fought if they had seen us ; and, as soon 
 as we came near enough to be seen, some arrows were shot, and poor 
 old Triday was wounded, though not dangerously. But our men gave 
 them no time ; running up to them they fired among them three ways, 
 and then fell in with the butt-ends of their muskets, their swords, 
 armed staves, and hatchets, and laid about them so well, that, in a 
 . word, the savages set up a dismal screaming and howling, and fled in 
 all dhections to save their lives. 
 
 Our men were tired with the execution ; they kdled or mortally 
 wounded, in the two fights, about 1 80 of them ; the rest being frighted 
 out of their wits, scoured through the woods, and over the hills, with 
 all the speed fear and nimble feet could give them ; and, as we did not 
 trouble ourselves much to pursue them, they got all together to the 
 seaside, where they had landed, and where their canoes still lay. But 
 their disaster was not at an end ,yetyr for it blew a terrible storm of 
 wind that evening from the seaward, so that it was impossible for them 
 to go off ; nay, the storm continuing all night, when the tide came up, 
 their canoes were most of them driven by the surge of the sea so high 
 upon the shore that it required infinite toil to get them off again ; and 
 some of them were even dashed to pieces against the beach, or against 
 one another. 
 
 Our men, though cheered by victory, yet got little rest that night ; 
 but having refreshed themselves as well as they could, they resolved to 
 march to that part of the island where the savages had fled. This 
 necessarily led them over the place where the fight took place, where 
 they found several of the poor creatures not quite dead, and yet past 
 recovery ; a sight disagreeable enough to generous minds. The savages, 
 who were their servants, despatched those poor creatures with their 
 hatchets. At length they came in view of the miserable remains of 
 the army of savages. There appeared to be about 100 still; their 
 posture was generally sitting upon the ground, with their knees up 
 towards their mouth, and the head put between the two hands, 
 leaning down upon the knees. When our men came within two 
 musket shot of them, the Spaniard governor ordered two muskets to 
 
2G6 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 be fired witbout ball, to alarm them ; tbis be did, tbat by tbeir coun- 
 tenance be might know wbat to expect, namely, wbetber they were 
 still in heart to fight, or were so heartily beaten, as to be dispirited 
 and discouraged. The stratagem took ; for as soon as the savages 
 heard the first gun, and saw the flash of the second, they started up 
 to their feet in the greatest consternation imaginable ; and as our men 
 advanced swiftly towards them, they all ran away screaming and 
 yawling, with a kind of a howling noise which our men did not 
 understand, never having heard it before ; and thus they ran up the 
 hills into the country. At first, our men had much rather that the 
 weather had been calm, and that they all had got away to sea ; but 
 they did not then consider, that this would probably have been the 
 occasion of their coming again in such multitudes as to be irresistible, 
 or, at least, in such numbers, and so often, as to desolate the island, 
 and starve them out. Will Atkins therefore, who, notwithstanding his 
 wound, kept always with them, proved the best counsellor in this 
 case I his advice was, to take the advantage that offered, and clap in 
 between them and their boats, and so deprive them of the capacity of 
 ever returning any more to plague the island. 
 
 They consulted long about this, some were against it, for fear of 
 making the wretches fly into the woods, and become desperate j when 
 they would have to hunt ‘them down like wild beasts, having their 
 plantations continually rifled, and their tame goats destroyed. 
 
 Will Atkins told them, they had better have to do with 100 
 men, than with 100 nations; that as they must destroy their boats, 
 so they must destroy the men, or be destroyed themselves. In a 
 word, he showed them the necessity of it so plainly, that they aU 
 came into his plan ; they went to work immediately with the boats, 
 and, getting some dry wood together from a dead tree, they tried to 
 set some of them on fire ; but they were so wet, that they would not 
 burn. However, the fire so burned the upper part, that it soon 
 made them unfit for -swimming in the sea as boats. When the Indians 
 saw what they w^ere about, some of them came running out of the 
 woods, and coming as near as they could to our men, kneeled down 
 and cried, Oa, Oa, Waramakoa^ and some other words of their lan- 
 guage, which none of the others understood; but as they made 
 pitiful gestures, and strange noises, it was easy to see they begged to 
 have their boats spared, and that they would be gone, and never come 
 there again. 
 
 But our men were now satisfied that they had no way to preserve 
 themselves, or to save their colony, but effectually to prevent any of 
 
of Rohinson Crusoe, 267 
 
 these people from ever going home again ; depending upon this, that 
 if ever one of them got hack to tell the story, the colony was undone ; 
 so that letting them know that they should not have any mercy, they 
 fell to work with their canoes, and destroyed every one that the storm 
 had not destroyed before ; at this sight, the savages raised a hideous 
 cry in the woods ; after which they ran about the island like distracted 
 men ; so that, in a word, our men did not know what to do with 
 them. 
 
 While they thus made those people desperate, the Spaniards did 
 not, as they ought to have done, keep good guard upon their planta- 
 tions ; for though they had driven away the cattle, and the Indians 
 did not find out their main retreat, namely, my old castle at the hill, 
 nor the cave in the valley ; yet they found out the bower, and pulled 
 it all to pieces, breaking all the fences and planting about it \ trod all 
 the corn under foot ; tore up the vines and grapes, then almost ripe ; 
 and did an inestimable damage, though, to themselves, not one 
 farthing worth of service. Though our men were able to fight them 
 upon all occasions, yet they were in no condition to pursue them; 
 they were too nimble of foot for our men when they found them 
 singly, and our men durst not go about singly, for fear of being sur- 
 rounded by numbers ; fortunately, they had no weapons ; for though 
 they had bows, they had no arrows left, nor any materials to make 
 them. 
 
 The distress they were reduced to was indeed deplorable ; but our 
 men were also very much harassed ; for though their retreats were 
 preserved, yet their provision was destroyed, and their harvest spoiled; 
 
268 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 and what to do they knew not ; the only refuge they had was, the stock 
 of cattle in the valley by the cave, and some little corn which grew 
 there, and the plantation of the three Englishmen, now reduced to two, 
 one of them being killed by an arrow, which struck him on the side of 
 his head, just under the temples, so that he never spoke more. 
 
 f Che first thing concluded upon was to drive them up to the farther 
 t of the island, so that if any more savages came on shore, they might 
 not find one another; then, that they would daily hunt and harass 
 them, and kill as many of them as they could come at, till they had 
 reduced their number ; and if they could at last tame them, they would 
 give them corn, and teach them how to plant, and live upon their daily 
 labour. In order to this, they followed them, and so terrified them 
 with their guns, that if any of them fired a gun at an Indian, even if 
 he did not hit him, he would fall down from fear. So dreadfully 
 frighted they were, that they kept out of sight, farther and farther, tiU 
 at last our men, following them, and every day killing or wounding 
 some of them, they kept so much up in the woods and hollow places, 
 that they were reduced to the utmost misery for want of food ; and 
 many were afterwards found dead in the woods, starved to death. 
 
 When our men found this, it made their hearts relent, and pity 
 especially moved the Spaniard governor, who was a gentlemanly 
 generous-minded man. He proposed, if possible, to take one of them 
 alive, and bring him to act as interpreter, to go among his fellows and 
 see if they might be brought to some conditions, that might lead to 
 saving their lives. One of them was at last surprised, weak, and half- 
 starved. He was sullen at first, and would neither eat nor drink ; but 
 finding himself kindly treated, and no violence offered him, he at last 
 grew tractable. They brought old Friday to him, who talked often 
 with him, and told him how kind the others would be to them all ; that 
 they would not only save their lives, but would give them a part of 
 the island to live in, provided they would agree to keep in their own 
 bounds, and not come beyond it, to injure or prejudice others ; that 
 they should have corn given them to plant and grow for their bread, 
 bread also for their present subsistence ; and old Friday bade the fellow 
 go and talk with his countrymen, and see what they said to it ; assuring 
 them, that if they did not agree immediately they should be all 
 destroyed/ 
 
 The poor wretches, humbled, and reduced in number to about thirty- 
 seven, closed with the proposal at the first offer, and begged to have 
 some food given them ; upon which twelve Spaniards and two English- 
 men, well armed, with three Indian slaves, and old Friday, marched to 
 
269 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 tlie place Avhere they were ; the three Indian slaves carried them a large 
 quantity of bread, some rice boiled up to cakes, and dried in the sun, 
 and three live goats ; and they were ordered to go to the side of a hill, 
 where they sat down, eat the provisions very thankfully, and turned out 
 most faithful fellows to their words ; for, except when they came to 
 beg victuals, they never came out of their bounds. 
 
 They had been taught both to plant corn, make bread, breed tame 
 goats, and milk them ; they wanted nothing but wives, and they soon 
 would have been a nation : they were confined to a neck of land, sur- 
 rounded by high rocks behind them, and a plain lying towards the sea 
 before them, on the south-east corner of the island ; they had land 
 enough, and it was very good and fruitful ; about a mile and a haK 
 broad, and three or four miles in length. Our men had taught them to 
 make wooden, spades, such as I had made for myself ; and gave them 
 twelve hatchets, and three or four knives ; and there they lived, the 
 most harmless, innocent creatures that ever were heard of. After this 
 the colony enjoyed a perfect tranquillity from attacks of the savages ; 
 not but that now and then some canoes of savages came on shore for 
 their triumphal, unnatural feasts ; but as they were of several nations, 
 and, perhaps, had never heard of those that came before, or the reason 
 of it, they did not make any search or inquiry after their countrymen ; 
 and if they had, it would have been very hard to have found them out. 
 
 Thus, I have given a full account of all that had happened to the 
 time of my return, at least, that was worth notice. The Indians, or 
 savages, were wonderfully civilized by them; they frequently went 
 among them, but forbid, on pain of death, any one of the Indians 
 coming to them, because they would not have their settlement betrayed 
 again. 
 
 One thing was very remarkable, namely, that they taught the savages 
 to make wicker-work, or baskets ; but they soon outdid their masters ; 
 for they made abundance of most ingenious things in wicker-work ; 
 particularly all sorts of baskets, sieves, bird-cages, cupboards, &:c. as also 
 chairs to sit on, stools, beds, couches, and abundance of other things, 
 being very ingenious at such work, when they were once put in the 
 way of it. 
 
 My coming was a particular relief to these people, because we fur- 
 nished them with knives, scissors, spades, shovels, pick-axes, and all 
 things of that kind which they could want. 
 
 With the help of these tools they were so very handy, that they 
 came, at last, to build up their huts, or houses, very handsomely ; rad- 
 dling, or working it up like basket-work all the way round, which was 
 
270 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 a veiy extraordinary piece of ingenuity, and looked very odd ; but was 
 an exceeding good fence, as well against beat as against all sorts of 
 vermin ; and our men were so taken with it, that they got the savages 
 to come and do the like for them ; so that when I came to see the two 
 Enghshmen’s colonies, they looked, at a distance, as if they lived like 
 bees in a hive ; and as for Atkins, who was now become a very in- 
 dustrious, necessary, and sober fellow, he had made himself such a tent 
 of basket-work, as I believe was never seen. It was 120 paces round 
 in the outside, as I measured by my steps ; the walls were as close 
 worked as a basket, in panels or squares, of thirty-two in number, 
 and very strong, standing about seven foot high : in the middle was 
 another not above twenty-two paces round, but built still stronger, being 
 eight square in its form, and in the eight corners stood eight very strong 
 posts, round the top of which he laid strong pieces, pinned together with 
 wooden pins, from which he raised a pyramid for a roof of eight rafters,, 
 very handsome, I assure you, and very well joined together, though he 
 had no nails, and only a few iron spikes, which he made himself, out 
 of the old iron that I had left there ; and indeed, this fellow showed 
 abundance of ingenuity in several things ; he made a forge, with a pair 
 of wooden bellows to blow the fire : he made himself charcoal for his 
 work, and he formed out of one of the iron crows a middling good anvil 
 to hammer upon ; in this manner he made many things, but especially 
 hooks, staples and spikes, bolts and hinges. But to return to the 
 house ; after he had pitched the roof of his innermost tent, he worked 
 it up between the rafters with basket-work, so firm, and thatched that 
 over again so ingeniously with rice straw, and over that a large leaf of 
 a tree, which covered the top, that his house was as dry as if it had 
 been tiled or slated. He owned, indeed, that the savages made the 
 basket-work for him. 
 
 The outer circuit was covered, as a lean-to, all round this hiner 
 apartment, and long rafters lay from the two and thirty angles to the 
 top posts of the inner house, being about twenty foot distant ; so that 
 there was a space like a walk within the outer wicker- wall, and without 
 the inner, near twenty foot wide. 
 
 The inner place he partitioned off with the same wicker-work, but 
 much fairer, and divided it into six apartments, so that he had six 
 rooms on a floor, and out of every one of these there was a door; first, 
 into the entry, or coming into the main tent ; and another door into 
 the space or walk that was round it ; so that walk was also divided 
 into six equal parts, which served not only for retreat, but to store up 
 any necessaries which the family had occasion for. These six spaces 
 
271 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 not taking up the whole circumferencey what other apartments the outer ' 
 circle had, were thus ordered : as soon as you were in at the door of 
 the outer circle, you had a short passage straight before you to the door 
 of the inner house ; but on either side was a wicker partition, and a 
 door in it, by which you went, first, into a large room or store-house, 
 twenty foot wide, and about thirty foot long, and through that into 
 another not quite so long : so that in the outer circle were ten hand- 
 some rooms, six of which were only to be come at through the apart- 
 ments of the inner t^nt, and served as closets or retiring rooms to the 
 res^^ective chambers of the inner circle : and four large warehouses or 
 barns, or what you please to call them, which went in through one 
 another, two on either hand of the passage that led through the outer 
 door to the inner tent. 
 
 Such a piece of basket-work, I believe, was never seen in the world 
 before ; nor a house or tent so neatly contrived, much less so built : in 
 this great bee-hive lived the three families ; that is to say, W. Atkins, 
 and his companion ; the third was killed, but his wife remained with 
 three children; for she was, it seems, big with child when he .died; 
 and the other two were not at all backward to give the widow her full 
 share of everything, I mean, as to their corn, milk, grajDes, &c. ; and 
 when they killed a kid, or found a turtle on the shore ; so that they 
 all lived well enough, though it was true, they were not so industrious 
 as the other two, as has been observed already. 
 
 Having made myself thoroughly acquainted with the state of the 
 colony. I entered into a serious discourse with the Spaniard, whom 
 I called governor, about their stay in the island ; for as I was 
 not come to carry any of them off, so it would not be just to take 
 some and leave others. 
 
 On the other hand, I told him, I came to establish them there, not 
 to remove them ; and then I let them all know, that I had brought 
 with me relief of sundry kinds for them. That I had been at a great 
 charge to supply them with all things necessary, as well for their con- 
 venience as their defence ; and that I had such and such particular 
 persons with me, as well to increase and recruit their number, as by the 
 particular necessary employments which they were bred to, bemg 
 artificers, to assist them in those things, in which, at joresent, they 
 were to seek. 
 
 .^hey were all together when I talked thus to them ; and before I 
 dmivered to them the stores I had brought, I asked them one by 
 one, if they had entirely forgot and buried their early animosities, and 
 would shake hands with one . another, and engage in a strict friendship, 
 
272 The Life and Adventures 
 
 and union of interests, so tliat there might he no more misunderstand- 
 ings or jealousies. 
 
 Will Atkins, with abundance of frankness and good- humour, said, 
 they had met with afflictions enough to make them all sober, and 
 enemies enough to make them all friends. That, for his part, he would 
 live and die with them j and was so far from designing anything against 
 the Spaniards, that, he owned, they had done nothing but what his own 
 mad humour made necessary, and that he would have done, perhaps, 
 much worse, in their case : and that he would ask their pardon, if I 
 desired it, for the foohsh and brutish things he had done to them ; he 
 was willing and desirous of living on terms of entire friendship and. 
 union with them ; and would do anything that lay in his power to con- 
 vince them of it ; as for going to England, he cared not if he did not 
 go thither this twenty years. 
 
 The Spaniairds said, they had indeed, at first, disarmed and excluded 
 Will Atkins, and his two countrymen, for their bad conduct. And they 
 appealed to me, for the necessity they were under to do so ; but that 
 Will Atkins had behaved himself so bravely in the great fight they had 
 with the savages, and on several occasions since, and had showed him- 
 self so faithful to, and so concerned for the general interest, that they 
 had forgotten all that was past, and thought he merited as much to be 
 trusted with arms, and supplied with necessaries, as any of them ; and 
 that they had testified their satisfaction in him, by committing the 
 command to him, next to the governor himself ; and as they had an 
 entire confidence in him, and all his countrymen, so they acknowledged, 
 they had merited that confidence, by all the methods that honest men 
 could merit to be valued and trusted : and they most heartily embraced 
 the occasion of giving me this assurance, that they would never have 
 any interest separate from one another. 
 
 ^ Upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we appointed 
 the next day to dine all together ; and, indeed, we made a splendid feast. 
 
 I caused the ship’s cook and his mate to come on shore, and dress our 
 dinner ; and the old cook’s mate we had on shore assisted. We brought 
 on shore six pieces of good beef, and four pieces of pork, out of the 
 ship’s provision, with our punch bowl, and materials to fill it ; and in 
 particular, I gave them ten bottles of Erench claret, and ten bottles of 
 English beer ; things that neither the Spaniards, or the Englishmen had 
 tasted for many years ; and which, it may be supposed were exceeding 
 acceptable. 
 
 The Spaniards added to our feast five whole kids, which the cooks 
 roasted ; and three of them were sent covered up close, bn board the 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 273 
 
 ship to the seamen, that they might feast on fresh meat from the shore, 
 as we did with their salt meat from on hoard. 
 
 After this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, I brought 
 out my cargo of goods, wherein, that there might be no dispute about 
 dividing, I showed them that there was sufficient for them all j desired, 
 that they might all take an equal quantity of the goods that were for 
 wearing ; that is to say, equal when made up. 
 
 Then 1 presented to them the people I had brought with me ; par- 
 ticularly the tailor, the smith, and the two carpenters, all of them most 
 necessary people ; but above all, my general artificer, than whom they 
 could not name anything that was more useful to them ; and the tailor, 
 to show his concern for them, went to work immediately, and with my 
 
 leave, made them every one a shirt the first thing he did j and what 
 was still more, he taught the women not only how to sew and stitch, 
 and use the needle, but made them assist to make the shirts for their 
 husbands, and for aU the rest. 
 
 As to the carpenters, I scarce need mention how useful they were, 
 for they took in pieces all my clumsy, unhandy things, and made them 
 clever, convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, shelves, 
 and everything they wanted of that kind. 
 
 Then I brought them out all my store of tools, and gave every man 
 a digging spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had no harrows or 
 ploughs ; and to every separate place, a pick-axe, a crow, a broad-axe, 
 and a saw j always appointing, that as often as any was broken, or 
 
 T 
 
274 The Life and Adventures 
 
 worn-out, they should be supplied without grudging, out of the general 
 stores that I left behind. 
 
 iN’ails, staples, liinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and all sorts 
 of tools and iron- work, they had without tale, as they required ; for no 
 man would care to take more than they wanted; and he must be a fool 
 that would waste or spoil them, on any account whatever. And for the 
 use of the smith, I left two tons of unwought iron for a supply. 
 
 The magazine of powder and arms I had brought with me was in 
 such profusion that they could not but rejoice ; for now every man 
 could march as I used to do, with a musket upon each shoulder, if 
 there was occasion ; and were able to fight 1,000 savages, if they had 
 but some little advantages of situation. 
 
 I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was starved 
 to death, and the maid also; she was a sober, well-educated, religious 
 young woman, and behaved so inoffensively, that every one gave her a 
 good word. They had both of them come to me, and desired I 
 would give them leave to remain on the island, and be entered among 
 my family, as they called it. I agreed readily ; and they had a little 
 plot of ground allotted to them, where they had three tents or houses 
 set up, surrounded with a basket-work, palisado’d like Atkins’s, adjoining 
 to his plantation ; their tents were contrived so, that they had each of 
 them a room apart to lodge in, and a middle tent, like a great store- 
 house, to lay all their goods in, and to eat and drink in. And now the 
 other two Englishmen removed their habitation to the same place ; and so 
 the island was divided into three colonies, and no more ; namely. The 
 Spaniards, with old Friday, and the first servants, at my old habitation 
 under the hill, which was, in a word, the capital city, and where they 
 had so enlarged and extended their works, as well under as on the 
 outside of the hill, that they lived,, though perfectly concealed, yet full 
 at large. jN’ever was there such a little city in a wood, and so hid, I 
 believe, in any part of the world. For I verily believe 1,000 men 
 might have ranged the island a month, and, if they had not known 
 there was such a thing, and looked on purpose for it, they would not 
 have found it. 
 
 The other colony was that of W. Atkins’s, where there were four 
 families of Englishmen, I mean those I had left there, with their wives 
 and children. Three savages, that were slaves, the widow and children 
 of the Englishman that was killed ; the young man and the maid ; and, 
 by the way, we made a wife of her also, before we went away. There 
 were also the two carpenters and the tailor I brought with me for them ; 
 and the smith also, who was a very necessary man to them, especially 
 
of Bohmson Crusoe, 275 
 
 as a gunsmith, to take care of their arms ; and my other man, whom I 
 called Jack of all trades ; who was in himself as good almost as twenty 
 men, for he was not only a very ingenious fellow, hut very merry 
 withal ; and, before I went away, we married him to the honest maid 
 that came with the youth in the ship, I mentioned before. 
 
 And now I speak of marrpng, it brings me naturally to say some- 
 thing of the French ecclesiastic I had taken out of the ship burnt at 
 sea. This man was a Eoman, perhaps of the most possible type in the 
 eyes of Protestants ; first he was a Papist ; secondly, a Popish priest ; 
 and, thirdly, a French Popish priest. Put justice demands of me to 
 give him a due character ; and I must say, he was a grave, sober, pious, 
 and most religious person ; exact in his life, extensive in his charity, 
 and exemplary in almost everything he did. 
 
 The first hour that I began to converse with him, after he had agreed 
 to go with me to the East Indies, I found reason to delight exceedingly 
 in his conservation. He first began to converse with me about religion, 
 in the most obliging manner imaginable. Sir,” says he, you have 
 not only, under God (and at that he crossed his breast), saved my 
 life, but you have admitted me to go this voyage in your ship, and 
 by your obliging civility, have taken me into your family, giving me an 
 opportunity of free conversation. How sir,” says he, ‘^you see by 
 my habit what my profession is ; and I guess your’s by your nation. 
 I may think it my duty, and doubtless it is so, to use my utmost 
 endeavours, on all occasions, to bring all the souls I can to embrace the 
 Catholic doctrine ; but, as I am under your permission, and in your 
 family, I am bound in justice to your kindness, as well as in decency 
 and good manners, to be under your government. ; and therefore I shall 
 not, without your leave, enter into any debates on religion, in. which 
 we may not agree, farther than you shall give me leave.” 
 
 I told him, his carriage was so modest, that I could not but acknow- 
 ledge it ; that it was true, we were such people as they call heretics ; 
 ^^but that he was not the first Catholic that I had conversed with, 
 without carrying the questions to any height in debate ; that he should 
 not find himself the worse used for being of a different opinion 
 from us.” 
 
 Having thus arranged the terms of our intercourse, he gave me a most 
 diverting account of his life, and of the many extraordinary events of 
 it ; of many adventures which had befallen him in the few years that 
 he had been abroad in the world ; he had been five times shipped and 
 unshipped on his present voyage, and never been able to reach the 
 place whither the ships he was in were at first designed. His first 
 
 T 2 
 
27G 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 intent was, to liave gone to Martinico ; and went on toard a ship bound 
 thither at St. Maloe; hut was forced into Lisbon by bad weather, the 
 ship received some damage, by running aground in the mouth of the 
 river Tagus, and was obliged to unload her cargo there. Finding a 
 Portugues^e ship there, bound to the Madeiras and ready to sail, he went 
 on board, but the master being an indifferent mariner, had been out in 
 his reckoning, and they drove to Pial, where he sold his cargo. He was 
 then as far as the Banks, wdiere he met with a French ship bound from 
 France to Quebec, and from thence to Martinico. But when he came 
 to Quebec, the master of the ship died, and the ship proceeded no 
 farther. So the next vo^^age he shipped himself for France, in the ship 
 that was burnt, when we took them up at sea, and then shipped with 
 us for the East Indies. iHe now came to me one morning, and told me 
 with a very grave couiitenance, that he had, for two or three days, 
 desired an opportunity of some discourse with me, which, he hoped, 
 should not be displeasing to me, because he thought it might, in some 
 measure, correspond with my general design, which was the prosperity 
 of my new colony ; and, perhaps, might put it, at least more than he yet 
 thought it was, in the way of God’s blessing. 
 
 I looked a little surprised at his discourse; and after a long con- 
 versation, in which 1 was compelled more than ever to admire this man’s 
 pious and self-sacrificing spirit, I learned that his conscience was 
 shocked to find the five Englishmen living on with the five women 
 though unmarried, and he urged me to put an end to this unholy 
 union. 
 
 Sir,” said he, “ the essence of the sacrament of matrimony consists 
 not only in the mutual consent of the parties to take one another as 
 man and wife, but in the formal and legal obligation that there is in 
 the contract, to compel the man and woman, at all times, to own and 
 acknowledge each other; obliging the man to abstain from all the other 
 women, to engage in no other contract while these subsist. 
 
 And how shall a blessing succeed your endeavours in this placq^ 
 however good in themselves, and however sincere in your design, while 
 these men, who at present are your subjects, under your absolute govern- 
 ment and dominion, are allowed by you to live in open adultery] 
 
 Again, sir,” said he, “ though I do not acknowledge your religion, 
 or you mine, yet we should be glad to see even the devil’s servants 
 taught to know the general principles of the Christian religion ; that 
 they might at least hear of God, and of a Eedeemer, and of the resur- 
 rection, and of a future state, things which we all believe ; they would 
 at least be so much nearer coming into the bosom of the true church, 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 277 
 
 than they are now, in the public profession of idolatry, and devil- 
 worship. 
 
 0, sir,’’ he added, “ this thing is not your fault, nor is it too late 
 yet. Give me leave to talk with those poor men about it, and then 
 leave them to the mercy of Christ. It is our business to assist them, 
 encourage them, and instruct them ; and, if you will give me leave, and 
 God His blessing, I do not doubt but the poor ignorant souls shall be 
 brought into the great circle of Christianity.” 
 
 And now came his concluding petition. It is a maxim, sir, that is, 
 or ought to be, received among all Christians, of what church, or pre- 
 tended church soever, namely, the Christian knowledge ought to be 
 propagated by all possible means, and on all possible occasions. It is 
 on this principle that our church sends missionaries into Persia, India, 
 and China ; and that our clergy, even of the superior sort, willingly 
 engage in the most hazardous voyages, and the most dangerous residence, 
 among murderers and barbarians, to teach them the knowledge of the 
 true God, and to bring them over to embrace the Christian faith. How, 
 sir, you have such an opportunity, here are six or seven-and-thirty poor 
 savages to be brought over from idolatry to the knowledge of Cod, theii 
 Maker and Eedeemer.” 
 
 I explained to him my engagements in regard to the ship, and the 
 impossibility of my undertaking the office he would thrust upon me. 
 
 It is a valuable thing,” said I, to be an instrument in God’s hand, 
 to convert seven-and-thirty heathens to the knowledge of Christ ; but 
 as you are an ecclesiastic, and are given over to the work, so that it 
 seems naturally to fall into the way of your profession, how is it that 
 you do not rather offer yourself to undertake it, than press me to it ? ” 
 
 Upon this he faced about, just before me, as we walked along, and, 
 putting me to a full stop, made me a very low bow. I most heartily 
 thank Cod, and you, sir,” says he, for giving me so evident a call to 
 so .blessed a work ; and if you think yourself discharged from it, and 
 desire me to undertake it, I will most readily do it, and think it a 
 happy reward for all the hazards and difficulties of such a broken, dis- 
 appointed voyage as I have met with, that I may be dropped at last 
 into so glorious a work.” 
 
 I discovered a kind of rapture in his face, while he spoke this to me ; 
 his eyes sparkled like fire, his face glowed, and his colour came and 
 went, as if he had been falling into fits : in a word, he was fired with 
 the joy of being embarked in such a work. 
 
 ‘‘Yes, sir,” says he, “I would give Christ and the Blessed Virgin 
 thanks all my days, if I could be made the least happy instrument of 
 
278 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 saving the souls of these poor men, though I was never to set my foot 
 off of this island, or see my native country any more : but since yo^-» 
 will honour me,’^ says he, ^‘with putting me into this work, I have one 
 humble petition to you besides.” What is that]” said I. “It is, 
 that you will leave your man Friday with me, to be my interpreter to 
 them, and to assist me ; for, without some help, I cannot speak to them,, 
 or they to me.” 
 
 I was sensibly troubled at his requesting Friday, because I could not 
 think of parting with him, and that for many reasons : he had been the 
 companion of my travels ; he was faithful and affectionate to the last 
 degree ; and I had resolved to do something considerable for him, if he 
 out-lived me. Then I knew, that as I had bred Friday up to be a 
 Protestant, he would never embrace another profession or believe his 
 old master to be a heretic. However, a sudden thought relieved me in 
 this strait, and it was this : I told him I could not say that I was 
 willing to part with Friday, though a work, that to him was of more 
 value than his life, ought to be to me of much more value than the 
 Jieeping or parting with a servant. But, on the other hand, I was per- 
 suaded that Friday would by no means consent to leave me. I had 
 promised I would never put him away ; and he had promised and 
 engaged to me that he would never leave me. He seemed very much 
 concerned at this ; for h-e had no rational access to these poor people^ 
 seeing he did not understand one word of their language, or they one 
 word of his. To remove this difficulty, I told him that Friday’s father 
 had learned Spanish, which I found he also understood, and would 
 serve him for an interpreter ; but Providence gave another and very 
 happy turn to all this. 
 
 When we came to the Englishmen, to whose quarter I was going 
 when this conversation took place, I sent for them all together ; and 
 after reminding them what I had done for them, I talked to them 
 about their wives. 
 
 They ail gave me the answer that I expected, namely, that there was- 
 nobody to marry them ; that they agreed before the governor to keep' 
 them as their wives ; and they thought, as things stood with them, 
 they were as legally married as if they had been married by a parson,, 
 and with aU the formalities in the world. 
 
 I told them, that no doubt they were married in the sight of God ; 
 but the laws of man being otherwise, I could not think it was convenient 
 they should continue together as man and wife ; for that it was both 
 scandalous to men, and offensive to God, who never could bless them» 
 if they went on thus. 
 
279 
 
 oj Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 All this went on as I expected ; and they told me, especially Will 
 Athins, who seemed now to speak for the rest, that they loved their 
 wives as well as if they had been born in their own native country, and 
 would not leave them upon any account whatever j and they did verily 
 believe their wives were as virtuous and as modest as any women co^ild 
 possibly be ; and they would not part with them on any account. 
 
 This was just as I would have it ; the priest was not with me at that 
 moment, but was not far off. So, to try him farther, I told him I had 
 a clergyman with me, and, if he was sincere, I would have him married 
 the next morning ; and bid him consider of it, and talk with the rest. 
 He said, as for himself, he need not consider of it at all ; for he was 
 very ready to do it, and was glad I had a minister with me ; and he 
 
 believed they would be all willing also. I then told him, that my 
 friend, the minister, was a Frenchman, and could not speak English ; 
 but that I would act as clerk between them. He never so much as 
 asked me whether he was a Papist or Protestant ; which was indeed 
 what I was afraid of. And so we parted. I went back to my clergy- 
 man, and Will Atkins went in to talk with his companions. 
 
 Before I went from their quarter, they all came to me, and told me 
 they had been considering what I had said ; that they were very glad 
 to hear I had a clergyman in my company ; and they were very willing 
 to give me the satisfaction I desired, and would be formally married as 
 soon as I pleased ; for they were far from desiring to part with their 
 wives ; and that they meant nothing but what was very honest, w^hen 
 
280 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 they chose them. The women were easily made sensible of the meaning 
 of the thing, and were very well satisfied with it, as, indeed, they had 
 reason to be ; so they failed* not to attend all together, at my apartment, 
 the next morning, where I brought out my clergyman : and though 
 he had not on a minister's gown, after the manner of England, or the 
 habit of a priest, after the manner of France j yet having a black vest, 
 something like a cassock, with a sash round it, he did not look very 
 unlike a minister ; and as for his language, I was his interpreter. 
 
 After a most Christian-like discourse, which I interpreted to the men, 
 in which they were exhorted to persuade their wives to embrace 
 Christianity, he married three couple ; but Will Atkins and his wife 
 were not yet come in. After this, my clergyman, waiting a while, was 
 curious to know where Atkins was gone ; and, turning to me, says he, 
 
 I entreat you, sir, let us walk out of your labyrinth here, and look ; 
 I dare say we shall find this poor man somewhere or other, talking 
 seriously to his wife, and teaching her already something of religion." 
 I began to be of the same mind ; so we went out together ; and I 
 carried him by a way which none knew but myself, and where the 
 trees were so tliick set, that it was not easy to see through the thicket 
 of leaves, and far harder to see in, than to see out ; when coming to the 
 edge of the wood, I saw Atkins, and his tawny savage wife, sitting under 
 the shade of a bush, very eager in discourse. I stopped short, till my 
 clergyman came up to me ; and then, having showed him where they 
 were, we stood and looked very steadily at them a good while. 
 
 We observed him very earnest with her, pointing up to the sun and 
 to every quarter of the heavens ; then down to the earth, then out to 
 the sea, then to himself, then to her, to the woods, to the trees. 
 
 IN’ow," says my clergyman, you see my words are made good ; the 
 man preaches to her ; mark him ; now he is telling her that God has 
 made him, and her, and the heavens, the earth, the sea, the woods, the 
 trees." ‘‘ I believe he is," said I. Immediately after we perceived 
 Will Atkins start up upon his feet, fall down on his knees, and lift 
 up both his hands ; we suppose he said something, but we could not 
 hear him : it was too far for that : he did not continue kneeling half a 
 minute, but comes and sits down again by his wife, and talks to her 
 again. We perceived then the woman very attentive; but whether 
 she said any thing or no, we could not tell. While the poor fellow was 
 upon his knees, I could see the tears run plentifully down my clergy- 
 man's cheeks ; and I could hardly forbear myself ; but it was a great 
 affliction to us both, that we were not near enough to hear any thing 
 that passed between them. 
 
281 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe. 
 
 Well, however, we could come no nearer, for fear of disturbing 
 them : so we resolved to see an end of this piece of still conversation ; 
 and it spoke loud enough to us, without the help of voice. He sat 
 down again, as I have said, close by her, and talked again earnestly to 
 her j and two or three times we could saw him embrace her most pas- 
 sionately j another time we saw him take out his handkerchief, and 
 wipe her eyes, and then kiss her again, with a kind of transport very 
 unusual ; and after several of these things, we saw him on a sudden jump 
 up again, and lend her his hand to help her up ; when immediately 
 leading her by the hand a step or two, they both kneeled down together, 
 and continued so about two minutes. 
 
 My friend could bear it no longer, but cries out aloud, ‘‘ St. Paul, 
 St. Paul ! behold he prayeth ! I was afraid Atkins would hear him ; 
 therefore I entreated him to withhold himself awhile, that we might see 
 an end of the scene, which to me, I must confess, was the most affecting 
 and yet the most agreeable, that ever I saw in my life. This continue^v 
 about half a quarter of an hour, and then they walked away ; so that 
 we could see no more of them in that situation. 
 
 Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business there was 
 over ; so we went back our own way ; and when we came back, we 
 found them waiting to be called in. Observing this, I asked my clergy- 
 man if we should discover to him that we had seen him under the bush, 
 or no ; and it was his opinion we should not ; but that we should talk 
 to him first, and hear what he would say to us : so we called him in 
 alone nobody being in the place but ourselves. 
 
282 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 The result of our q^uestioning was that Atkins confessed that his 
 father had been a clergyman, that liis own mcked behaviour had 
 brought his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave, and that now his con- 
 science vras awakened he was full of remorse and repentance for his 
 past conduct ; in fact, he was truly penitent, and although it was no 
 easy thing to make the wife understand the doctrines of Christianity, 
 it at length appeared that she so far comprehended them as to wish for 
 baptism before they married. 
 
 This was explained to me by my priest, who, turning hhnself to me, 
 said he believed there must be more to do with this woman than to 
 marry her ; that she ought to be baptized first. 
 
 I agreed with him in that part readily, and was for going about it 
 presently. !N’o, no ! hold. Sir,” said he, though I would have her 
 be baptized by all means, yet I must observe, that Will Atkins, her 
 husband, has brought her, in a wonderful manner, to embrace a religious 
 life; and has given her just ideas of the being of a God, of His power, 
 justice, mercy ; yet I desire to know of him, if he has said anything 
 to her of Jesus Christ, and of the salvation of sinners ; of the nature 
 of faith in Him ; and redemption by Him ; of the Holy Si3irit, the 
 resurrection, the last judgment, and a future state.” 
 
 I called Will Atkins again, and asked him : but the poor fellow fell 
 immediately into tears ; he told us, he had said something to her of all 
 those things, but that he was himself so wicked a creature, and his own 
 conscience so reproached him with his ungodly life, that he trembled 
 at the apprehensions, that her knowledge of him should lessen the 
 attention she should give to those things, and make her rather contemn 
 religion than receive it ; but he was assured, he said, that her mind 
 was so disposed to receive due impressions of all those things, that if 
 I would but discourse with her, she would make it appear to my satis- 
 faction, that my labour would not be lost upon her. 
 
 Accordingly I called her in, and placing myself as interpreter, the 
 good man explained them with the sincerity of a Christian, and without 
 any of the Koman Catholic errors. In a word, he brought the poor 
 woman to embrace the knowledge of Christ, and of redemption by Him, 
 not with wonder and astonishment only, as she did the first notions of 
 a God, but with joy and faith, with an affection, and a surprising degree 
 of understanding, scarce to be imagined, much less to be expressed ; 
 and at her own request she was baptized. 
 
 When he was preparing to baptize her, I entreated him, that he 
 would perform that office with some caution, that the man might not 
 perceive he was of the Homan church, because of other ill consequences 
 
283 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 which, might attend a difference among ns in that very religion, which 
 we were instructing the other in. He told me that as he had no con- 
 secrated chapel, no proper things for the office, I should see he would 
 do it in a manner that I should not know by it that he was a Eonian 
 Catholic myself, if I had not known it before : and so he did ; foi 
 saying only some words over to himself in Latin, which I could not 
 understand, he poured a whole dish full of water upon the woman^s 
 head, pronouncing in French very loud, Mary — ^which was the name 
 her husband desired me to give her, for I was her godfather — I baptize 
 thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
 Ghost ; so that none could know anything by it, what religion he was 
 of : he gave the benediction afterwards in Latin ; but either Will 
 
 Atkins did not know but it was in French, or else did not take notice 
 ^ it at that time. 
 
 m As soon as this was over, we married them ; and after the marriage 
 was over, he turned himself to Will Atkins, and in a very affectionate 
 manner exhorted him not only to persevere in that good disposition he 
 was in, but to support the convictions that were upon him, by a 
 resolution to reform his life : told him, it was in vain to say he 
 repented, if he did not forsake his crimes ; represented to him, how 
 God had honoured him with being the instrument of bringing his wife 
 to the knowledge of the Christian religion ; and that he should be 
 careful he did not dishonour the grace of God ; and that if he did, he 
 would see the heathen a better Christian than himself. 
 
284 
 
 The Life and Adcentures 
 
 Haying thus brought the affair of the island to a narrow compass, I 
 was preparing to go on board the ship, when the young man, whom I had 
 taken out of the famished ship’s company, came to me, and told me, 
 he understood I had a clergyman with me, and that he had a match 
 too, which he desired might be finished before I went, between two 
 Christians ; which he hoped would not be disagreeable to me. 
 
 I knew this must be the young woman who was his mother’s servant, 
 for there was no other Christian woman on the island ; so I began to 
 persuade him not to do anything of that kind rashly; but he interrupted 
 me, smiling, and told me, with a great deal of modesty, that I was 
 mistaken in my guesses ; that he had nothing of that kind in his 
 thoughts. In fact he told me it was my Jack of all trades, and his 
 maid Susan, he wished to see married. 
 
 1 1 was most agreeably surprised when he named the match ; for 
 indeed I thought it very suitable. The character of that man I have 
 given already ; and as for the maid, she was a very honest, modest, 
 sober, and religious young woman ; had a very good share of sense ; was 
 agreeable enough in her person ; spoke very handsomely, and to the 
 purpose. 
 
 The match being proposed in this manner, we married them the 
 same day ; and, as I was father at the altar, as I may say, and gave her 
 away, so I gave her a portion ; for I appointed her and her husband a 
 handsome large space of ground for their plantation. 
 
 One thing I must not omit to mention among the arrangements I 
 completed before I left them. And this is, that being now settled in 
 a kind of commonwealth among themselves, and having much business 
 in hand, it seemed odd to have seven-and-thirty Indians live in a nook 
 of the island, independent, and unemployed; for, excepting the pro- 
 viding themselves food, which they had difficulty enough in too, some- 
 times, they had no manner of employment. I proposed therefore to 
 the governor Spaniard, that he should visit them with Friday’s father, 
 and propose to them to remove, and either plant for themselves, or take 
 them into their several families as servants, to be maintained for their 
 labour, but without being slaves ; for they had their liberty given them 
 by capitulation, and, as it were, articles of surrender, which ought not 
 to be broken. They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came 
 aU very cheerfully along with him ; so we allotted them land and 
 plantations, which three or four accepted of, but all the rest chose to be 
 employed as servants in the several families we had settled. 
 
 All the east end of the island was still left uninhabited, that if any 
 of the savages should come on shore there, for their usual customary 
 
285 
 
 of Rcbinson Crusoe. 
 
 barbarities, they might come and go ; if they disturbed nobody, nobody 
 would disturb them; and no doubt but they were often ashore, and 
 went away again; for I never heard that the planters were ever 
 attacked or disturbed any more. 
 
 It now came into my thoughts, that I had hinted to my friend the 
 clerg}nnan, that the work of converting the savages might, perhaps, be 
 set on foot in his absence, to his satisfaction. I told him, we would 
 either call them all together, and leave it in charge with them, or go to 
 them one by one, which he thought best ; so we divided it, he to speak 
 to the Spaniards, who were all Papists, and I to the English, who 
 were all Protestants ; and we recommended it earnestly to them, and 
 made them promise, that they would never make any distinction of 
 Papist or Protestant, in their exhorting the savages to turn Christians. 
 
 When I came to W. Atkins’s house — I may call it so ; for such a 
 house, or suet a piece of basket-work, I believe was not standing in the 
 world again ; I say when I came there, I found the young woman I 
 have mentioned above, and W. Atkins’s wife were become intimates ; 
 and this prudent, religious young woman had perfected the work Will 
 Atkins had begun ; and though it was not above four days after what 
 I have related, yet the new baptized woman was such a Christian, as I 
 have seldom heard of any like her. 
 
 It came next into my mind, in the morning, before I went to them, 
 that amongst all the needful things I had to leave with them, I had 
 not left them a bible ; in which I showed myself less considerate for 
 them, than my good friend the widow was when she sent me the cargo 
 of an hundred pounds from Lisbon, where she packed up thre^ '>ibles 
 and a prayer-book. However the good woman’s charity had a greater 
 extent than ever she imagined ; for they were reserved for the comfort 
 and instruction of those that made much better use of them than I 
 had done. 
 
 I took one of the bibles in my pocket, and when I came to Will 
 Atkins’s tent, or house, I found the young woman, and Atkins’s baptized 
 wife, had been discoursing of rehgion together ; for WiU Atkins told 
 it me, with a great deal of joy. I asked if they were together now ? 
 And he said ‘‘ yes ; ” so I went into the house, and he with me, and we 
 found them together, very earnest in discourse. “ 0, Sir,” says Will 
 Atkins, when God has sinners to reconcile to Himself^ and aliens to 
 bring home. He never wants a messenger. My wife has got a new 
 instructor ; I knew I was unworthy, as I was incapable of that work ; 
 that young woman has been sent hither from Heaven ; she is enough 
 to convert a whole island of savages.” The young woman blushed, and 
 
286 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 rose up to go away, but I desired her to sit still; I told her ‘‘she had a 
 good work upon her hands, and I hoped God would bless her in it.” 
 
 And now I have done with the island. I left them all in good cir- 
 cumstances, and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my ship 
 again, having been flve-and-twenty days among them ; and as they were 
 all resolved to stay upon the island till I came to remove them. After 
 talking a little, I put my hand in my pocket, and pulled out my bible. 
 “ Here, Atkins,” said I, “ I have brought you an assistant you had not 
 before.” The man was confounded, and, turning to his wife with the 
 book in his hand, “ Here, my dear,” said he, “ did not I tell you our 
 God, though He lives above, could hear what we said ] Here is the 
 book I prayed for.” And tears of joy ran down his face, for he cried 
 like a child. 
 
 The next day, giving them a salute of flve guns at parting, we set 
 sail, and arrived at the bay of All Saints, in the Brasils, in about 
 twenty-two days : meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but this. 
 That about three days after we sailed, being becalmed, and the current 
 setting strong to the E.H.E. running as it were into a bay on the 
 land-side, we were driven something out of our course ; and once or 
 twice our men cried out. Land to the eastward ; but whether it was 
 the continent, or islands, we could not tell by any means.. But the 
 third day, towards evening, the sea smooth and the weather calm, we 
 saw the sea, as it were, covered, towards the land, with something very 
 black, not being able to discover what it was; till, after some time, our 
 chief mate going up the main shrouds a little way, and looking at them 
 with a glass, cried out, it was an army. I could not imagine what he 
 meant by an army, and spoke a little hastily, calling the fellow a fool, 
 or some such word. ‘^Hay, Sir,” says he, “do not be angry, for it is an 
 army, and a fleet too ; for I believe there are a thousand canoes, and you 
 may see them paddle along, and they are coming towards us too, apace.” 
 
 I was a little surprised, but I told the sailors they had nothing to 
 fear but Are ; and therefore they should get their boats out, and fasten 
 them, one close by the head, and the other by the stern, and man them 
 both well, and wait the issue in that posture : this I did, that the men 
 in the boats might be ready, with sheets and buckets, to put out any 
 fire these savages might endeavour to fix to the outside of the ship. 
 
 In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they came 
 up with us, but never was such a horrid sight seen by Christians. My 
 mate was much mistaken in his calculation of their number, I mean of 
 a thousand canoes ; the most we could make of them when they came 
 
CRUSOE GIVING THE BIBLE TO WILL ATKINS 
 
of Eohmson Crusoe, 287 
 
 up, being about a hundred and twenty-six, and enough of them too ; 
 for some of them had sixteen or seventeen men in them, and some 
 more, and the least of them six or seven. When they came nearer to 
 us, they seemed to be struck with wonder and astonishment. They came 
 boldly up, however, very near, and seemed about to row round us ; but 
 we called to our men in the boats, not to let them come too near them. 
 
 Tills very order brought us to an engagement with them, without 
 our designing it; for five or six of their large canoes came so near our 
 long-boat, that our men beckoned with their hands to them to keep 
 them back; which they understood very well, and went back; but in 
 their retreat about fifty arrows came on board us from those boats ; and 
 one of our men in the long-boat was very much wounded. I called to 
 them not to fire by any means ; but we handed down some deal board 
 into the boat, and the carpenter presently set up a kind of a fence, like 
 waste boards, to cover them from the arrows of the savages, if they 
 should shoot again. 
 
 About half an hour afterwards they came all up in a body astern of, 
 and pretty near us, so near that we could easily discern them, though 
 we could not tell their design. I now found they were some of my old 
 friends, the same sort of savages that I had been used to engage with; 
 and in a httle time more they rowed a little farther out to sea, till they 
 tame directly broadside with us, and then rowed down straight upon 
 us, coming so near that we could hear them speak. I ordered all my 
 men to keep close, lest they should shoot any more arrows, and make 
 all^ our guns ready ; but being so near as to be within hearing, I made 
 Friday go out upon the deck, and call out aloud to them in his language 
 
288 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 to know what they meant; which accordingly he did. Whether they 
 understood him or not, I know not; hut, as soon as he had called to 
 them, six of them, who were in the foremost boats, exhibited a gesture 
 of great contempt. Whether this was done as a defiance or a challenge, 
 or as a signal to the rest, we knew not ; hut immediately Friday cried 
 out, They are going to shoot ; and unhappily for him they let flj 
 about 300 of their arrows; and, to my inexpressible grief, killed poor 
 Friday, no other man being in their sight. The poor fellow was shot 
 with no less than three arrows, and about three more fell very near 
 him; such unlucky marksmen they were. 
 
 I was so enraged with the loss of my old servant, the companion of 
 all my sorrows and solitudes, that I immediately ordered five guns to 
 be loaded with small shot, and four with great ; and gave them such a 
 broadside as they had never heard in their lives before, to be sure. 
 
 They were not above half a cable length off when we fired ; and our 
 gunners took their aim so well, that three or four of their canoes were 
 overset, as we had reason to believe, by one shot only. 
 
 I can neither tell how many we killed, or how many we wounded, 
 at this broadside ; but surely such a fright and hurry was never seen 
 among such a multitude ; there were thirteen or fourteen of their canoes 
 split, and overset in all; and the men all swimming about; the rest, 
 frightened out of their wits, scoured away as fast as they could, taking 
 but little care to save those whose boats were split or spoiled with our 
 shot; so I suppose they were many of them lost; and our men picked 
 up one poor fellow swimming for his life, above an hour after they 
 were all gon^e. 
 
 The small shot from our cannon must needs have killed and wounded 
 a great many; but, in short, we never knew anything how it went 
 with them; for they fled so fast, that, in three hours, or thereabouts, 
 we could not see above three or four straggling canoes ; nor did we ever 
 see more of them; for a breeze springing up the same evening, we 
 weighed and set sail for the Erasils. 
 
 We had a prisoner indeed, but the creature was so sullen, that he 
 would neither eat nor speak ; and we all fancied he would starve himself 
 to death; but I took a way to cure him, for I made them take him into 
 the long-boat, and make him believe they would toss him into the sea 
 again, and so leave him where they found him, if he would not speak : 
 they really did throw him into the sea, and come away from him, and 
 then he followed them, for he swam hke a cork, and called to them in 
 his tongue, though they knew not one word of what he said. However, 
 at last, they took him in again, and then he began to be more tractable. 
 
289 
 
 of Rohmson Crusoe. 
 
 were now under sail again, but I was disconsolate for my man 
 Friday. We bad one prisoner, as I have said; but it was a long while 
 before we could make him understand anything; but, in time, our men 
 taught him some English, and he began to be a little tractable : after- 
 wards we inquired what country he came from, but could make nothing 
 of what he said ; for his speech was so odd, all gutturals, and spoke in 
 the throat in such a hollow odd manner, that we could never form a 
 word after him. 
 
 And now I must take my last leave of poor honest Friday 1 We 
 buried him with all the decency and solemnity possible, by putting him 
 into, a coffin, and throwing him into the sea ; and I caused them to fire 
 eleven guns over him : and so ended the life of the most grateful, 
 faithful, honest, and most affectionate servant that ever man had. 
 
 We went now away with a fair wind for Brasil, and, in about twelve 
 days^ time, we made land in the latitude of five degrees south of the 
 hne, being the no:^th-eastermost land of all that part of America. We 
 kept on S. by E. in sight of the shore four days, when we made the 
 Cape St. Augustine, and in three days more came to an anchor off of 
 the bay of All Saints, the old place of my deliverance, from whence 
 came both my good and evil fate. 
 
 Here, my honest and truly pious clergyman left me ; a ship being 
 ready to go to Lisboi\, he asked me leave to go thither in her ; being 
 still, as he observed, bound never to finish any voyage he began. How 
 happy had it been for me, if I had gone with him. But it was too late 
 now ; all things Heaven appoints are best ; had I gone with him, I 
 had never had so many things to be thankful for, and you had never 
 heard of the second part of the Travels and Adventures of Eobin 
 Crusoe ; so I must leave here the fruitless exclaiming at myself, and 
 go on with my voyage. 
 
 From the Brasils we made directly away over the Atlantic sea, to the 
 Cape of Good Hope ; and had a tolerable good voyage. Our ship w^as 
 on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on board, who was to direct 
 all her motions, after she arrived at the Cape. We made therefore no 
 stay, longer than was needful to take in fresh water, but made the best 
 of our way for the coast of Coromandel; we were indeed informed that 
 a French man-of-war of fifty guns, and two large merchant ships, were 
 gone for the Indies ; and, as I knew we were at war with France, I 
 had some apprehensions of them ; but they went their own way, and 
 we heard no more of them. 
 
 We touched first at the island of Madagascar, where, though the 
 people are fierce and treacherous, and, in particular, very well armed 
 
 u 
 
290 The Life and Adventures 
 
 with lances and bows, which they use with inconceivable dexterity, yet 
 we fared very well with them awhile ; they treated us very civilly ; 
 and for some trifles which we gave them, such as knives, scissors, &c. 
 they brought us eleven good fat bullocks, middling in size, but very 
 good in flesh ; which we took in, partly for fresh provisions foy our 
 present spending, and the rest to salt for the ship’s use. 
 
 |iWe were obliged to stay here some time, after we had furnished 
 ourselves with provisions ; and I, that was always too curious to look 
 into every nook of the world wherever I came, was for going on shore 
 as often as I could. It was on the east side of the island that we went 
 on shore one evening ; and the people, who, by the way, are very 
 numerous, came thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a 
 distance ; but as we had traded freely with them, and had been kindly 
 used, we thought ourselves in no danger j but when we saw the people, 
 we cut three boughs out of a tree, and stuck them at a distance from 
 us, which, it seems,, is a mark in the country, not only of truce and 
 friendship, but when it is accepted, the other side set up three poles, 
 or boughs also ; which is a signal that they accept the truce too ; but 
 then this is a known condition of the truce, that you are not to pass 
 beyond their three i')oles towards them, nor they to come past your 
 
 three poles or boughs tov/ards you ; so that you are perfectly secure 
 within the three poles : and all the space between your poles and 
 theirs, is market for free converse, traffic, and commerce. When 
 you go there you must not carry your weapons with you ; and if they 
 come into that space, they stick up their javelins and lances at the first 
 poles, and come on unarmed. 
 
291 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 It happened one evening, when we went on shore, that a greater 
 number than usual of these people came down, but aU was very friendly 
 and civil, and they brought in several kinds of provisions, for which we 
 satisfied them with such toys as we had ; their women also brought us 
 milk and roots, and several things very acceptable to us, and all was 
 quiet ; and we made us a little tent, or hut, of some boughs of trees, 
 and lay on shore all night. I know not why, but I was not so well 
 satisfied to lie on shore as the rest ; and the boat riding at an anchor 
 about a stone cast from the land, with two men in her, I made one of 
 them come on shore, to get some boughs of trees to cover us, and 
 spreading the sail on the bottom of the boat, I lay with them all night 
 in the boat under the boughs. 
 
 About two o’clock in the morning we heard a terrible noise on 
 shore, one of our men calling out for God’s sake to bring the boat in, 
 and come and help them, for they were all like to be murdered; at the 
 same time, five muskets were discharged, and that three times over ; 
 rousing immediately, I caused the boat to be thrust in, and with the three 
 fusils we had on board, hastened to assist our men. We got the boat 
 soon to the shore ; and our men plunged into the water, to get to the 
 boat with all the expedition they could, being pursued by between three 
 and four hundred natives. Our men were but nine in all, and only five 
 of them had fusils with them ; the rest had indeed pistols and swords, 
 but they were of small use to them. We took up seven of them, and 
 with difiiculty enough too, three of them being badly wounded ; and 
 what was worse, while we stood in the boat, we were in as much danger 
 as they were on shore ; for they poured their arrows in upon us so thick, 
 that we were fain to barricade the side of the boat with benches, and 
 two or three loose boards, which we had, by mere accident, or providence, 
 in the boat. Had it been daylight, they are, it seems, such exact 
 marksmen, that if they could have seen but the least part of any of us, 
 they would have been sure of us. We had a little sight of them, bj 
 the light of the moon, as they stood pelting us from the shore vdth 
 darts and arrows ; and, having got ready our fire-arms, we gave them a 
 volley. We could hear by their cries, that we had wounded several ; 
 however, they stood thus in battle array on the shore till break of day, 
 while we could not tell how to weigh our anchor, or set up our sail, 
 because we must needs stand up in the boat, where we were sure to be 
 hit ; we made signals of distress to the ship, which rode a full league 
 off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearing our firing, and perceiving by 
 the glasses the postoe we lay in, pretty well understood our positions, 
 and weighing anchor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as he 
 
 u 2 
 
292 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 durst with, the ship, and then sent another boat, with ten hands in her, 
 to our assistance, and one of the men, taking the end of a tow-line in 
 his hand, and keeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that 
 they could not perfectly see him, swam on board us, and made the line 
 fast to the boat; upon which we slipt our little cable, leaving oui 
 anchor behind ; they soon towed us out of reach of the arrows ; we 
 all the while lying close behind the barricade we had made. 
 
 As soon as we could get from between the ship and the shore, she 
 laid her broadside to it, and run along just by them, pouring in a broad- 
 side loaded with pieces of iron and lead, small bullets and such like 
 stuff, besides the great shot, which made a terrible havoc among them. 
 
 When we got on board, and were fairly out of danger, we had time 
 to examine into the occasion of this fray; it came out, that an old 
 woman, who had come to sell us some milk, brought a young woman 
 with her, who also brought some roots or herbs ; and while the old 
 woman was selling us the milk, one of our men offered some rudeness 
 to the younger one ; at which the old woman made a great noise. The 
 seaman would not quit his prize, but carried her out of her sight, among 
 th-e trees, it being almost dark; and now the old woman made an 
 outcry among the people she came from ; who attacked us as we have 
 seen ; and it was great odds that we had not all been destroyed. 
 
 One of our men was killed with a lance that was thrown at him, just 
 at the beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the tent they had set 
 up ; the rest came off free, all but the fellow who was the occasion of 
 the mischief, who paid dear enough for his black mistress, for we didn’t 
 hear what became of him for a great while. We lay upon the shore 
 for two days though the wind was fair, and made signals for him ; our 
 boat sailed up and down shore, for several leagues, but in vain ; so we 
 were obliged to give him over ; and if he alone had suffered, the loss 
 had been the less. 
 
 I could not feel satisfied myself, however, without venturing on shore 
 once more, to try if I could learn anything of him ; it was the third 
 night after the action before I ventured, and I was careful to do it in 
 the dark, lest we should be attacked again ; but I ought indeed to have 
 been sure, that the men I went with had been under my command, 
 oefore I engaged in a thing so hazardous and mischievous. We started 
 twenty stout fellows with us as any in the ship, besides the supercargo 
 and myself ; and we landed two hours before midnight, at the same 
 place where the natives stood drawi up the evening before. My design 
 was to surprise one or two of them, perhaps we might get our man 
 again, by way of exchange. 
 
293 
 
 of Eohmson Crusoe. 
 
 We landed without noise, and divided the men into two bodies, 
 whereof the boatswain commanded one, and I the other. We neither 
 saw nor heard anybody stir when we landed ; and marched up one body 
 at a distance from the other, to the place, but at first could see nothing, 
 it being very dark ; by and by, however, our boatswain, that led the 
 first party, stumbled and fell over a dead body. This made them halt 
 for my coming up here ; when the moon began to rise, we could 
 easily discern the havoc we had made among them. We told two-and- 
 thirty bodies upon the ground, whereof two were not quite dead. 
 Some had an arm, and some a leg, shot off; and one his head. Those 
 that were slightly wounded, we supposed they had carried away. 
 
 'V\Tien we had made, as I thought, a full discovery of all we could 
 come at, I was resolved on going on board ; but the boatswain and his 
 party sent me ^ord, that they were resolved to make a visit to the 
 Indian town, where these dogs, as they called them, dwelt, and asked 
 me to go along with them ; and if they could find them as still they 
 fancied they should, they did not doubt getting a good booty ; and it 
 might be, they might find Tom Jeffry there. 
 
 Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough what 
 answer to have given them ; for I should have commanded them 
 instantly on board ; but as they sent me word they were resolved to 
 go, and only asked me and my company to go along with them, I posi- 
 tively refused it, and rose up in order to go back to the boat. One or 
 two of the men began to importune me to go ; and, when I refused 
 positively, began to grumble, and say they were not under my com- 
 mand, and they would go. ‘‘ Come, Jack,” says one of the men, will 
 you go with me I will go for one.” Jack said he would ; and 
 another followed ; and then another ; and, in a word, they all left me 
 but one, who was persuaded to stay : so the supercargo and I, with the 
 third man, went back to the boat, where we told them, we would stay 
 for them, and take in as many of them as should be left ; for I told 
 them, it was a mad thing they were going about, and supposed most of 
 them would run the fate of Tom Jeffry. 
 
 ^Well, they all went away, and though the attempt was desperate, and 
 such as none but madmen would have gone about, yet, to give them 
 their due, they went about it as warily as boldly. They went on a little 
 way, and found a cow tied to a tree ; this they presently concluded 
 would be a good guide to them. In a word, the cow led them directly 
 to the town, which, as they report, consisted of above two hundred 
 houses, or huts ; and in some of these they found several families living 
 together. Here they found all in silence, as profound as sleep, and a 
 
294 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 country that had never seen an enemy, could mak^e them. While they 
 were holding counsel what course to take, three of them, that were a 
 little before the rest, called out aloud, that they had found Tom Jelfry ; 
 they all ran up to the place, and so it was indeed, for there they found 
 the poor fellow, hanged up naked by one arm, and his throat cut. 
 The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, that they 
 swore to one another, that not an Indian that came into their hands 
 should have quarter ; and to work they went immediately. Their 
 first care was to get something that would soon take fire. As soon 
 as the fire began to blaze, the poor frighted creatures rushed out 
 to save their lives ; but met with their fate in the attempt, and 
 especially at the door, where they drove them back, the boatswain 
 himself killing one or two with his pole-axe. The house being large, and 
 many in it, he did not care to go in, but called for a hand-grenade, and 
 threw it among them, which at first frighted them ; but when it burst, 
 made such havoc among them, that they cried out in a hideous manner. 
 
 In short, most of the principal natives who were in the open part of 
 the house were killed or hurt with the grenade, two or three more, who 
 pressed to the dooi, which the boatswain and two more kept, with the 
 bayonets in the muzzles of their pieces, were despatched in that way. 
 
 But there was another apartment in the house, where the prince, or 
 King, and several others, were, and these they kept in, till the house, 
 which was by this time a mass of flame, fell in upon them, and they 
 were smothered, or burnt together. 
 
 AU this while they fired not a gun, because they would not waken 
 the people faster than they could master them ; but the fire now began 
 
295 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 to waken them fast enough, so that our fellows were glad to keep 
 together ; for the fire grew so raging, all the houses being made of light 
 combustible stuff, that they could hardly bear the street between them ; 
 and their business was to follow the fire for the surer execution. As 
 fast as the fire forced the people out of the burning houses, our people 
 were ready at their doors to knock them on the head, still calling and 
 hallooing to one another to remember Tom Jeffrys. 
 
 While this was doing, I was very uneasy, and especially when I saw 
 the flames of the town, which, it being night, seemed to be close by. 
 My nephew too, who was roused by his men, seeing such a fire, and 
 not knowing what exigence we might be in, he takes another boat, and 
 with thirteen more men, comes himself on shore to me. Finding how 
 matters stood, he determined to go to the assistance of his men, ^ only 
 regretting he had left so many men in the ship ; for he could not think 
 of having his men lost for want of help. And away he went. ISTor 
 was I more able to stay behind. The captain ordered two men to row 
 back in the pinnace, and fetch twelve men more, leaving the long-boat 
 at anchor ; six of the men now sent for, were to keep the two boats, 
 and six more come after us ; which left only sixteen men in the ship ; 
 for the whole ship’s company were now brought into this mischief. 
 
 The first object we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or rather 
 the ashes of it, for the house was consumed ; and just before it lay 
 four men and three women killed. In short, there were instances of 
 rage altogether barbarous, and of a fury something more than human : 
 we thought it impossible our men could have been guilty of it. My 
 very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my veins 
 when I saw this ; however, we took means to let the poor creatures 
 know that we would not hurt them, and they came to us with piteous 
 lamentation to save them, and crept all together in a huddle, close 
 behind us, as for protection. I left my men drawn up together, and 
 charged them to hurt nobody, but, if possible, to get at some of our 
 people, and see what devil it was possessed them, and what they in- 
 tended to do j and, in a word, to command them off ; assuring them, 
 that if they stayed till daylight, they would have a hundred thousand 
 men about their ears. While I was issuing my orders to the men, 
 four of them made their appearance, with the boatswain at their 
 head, roving over the heaps of bodies they had killed, all covered 
 with blood and dust, and looking for more people to massacre ; our 
 men hallooed to them, and with much ado, one of them made them 
 hear. As soon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a shout of 
 triumph, Captain,” says he, ‘‘noble captain, I am glad you are come; 
 
296 
 
 I 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 we have not half done yet ; the villanons hell-hound dogs ! I will kill 
 as many of them as poor Tom had hairs upon his head \ we have sworn 
 to spare none of them ; we will root out the very nation of them from 
 the earth and thus he ran on, out of breath too with action, and 
 would not give me leave to speak a word. 
 
 At last, raising my voice that I might silence him a little. Bar- 
 barous dog ! what are you doing ? I will not have one creature 
 more touched upon pain of death. I charge you, upon your life, to 
 stop your hands, and stand still there, or you are a dead man.^' 
 
 ‘‘ Why, sir,’^ says he, “ do you know what they have done ? If you 
 want a reason for what we have done, come hither ; and with that he 
 showed me the poor fellow hanging upon a tree, with his throat cut. 
 
 I confess I was urged on then myself, and when the men I carried 
 with me saw the sight, I had much to do to restrain them; nay, my 
 nephew himself fell in with them, and told me, in their hearing, that 
 he was only fearful of the men being overpowered. Upon these words, 
 away ran eight of my men with the boatswain and his crew, to com- 
 plete their bloody work. It was quite out of my power to restrain them, 
 and I came away pensive and sad ; for I could not bear the sight, much 
 less the horrible noise and cries of the poor wretches that fell into 
 their hands. 
 
 By the time the men got to the shore again vath the pinnace, our 
 men began to appear ; they came dropping in, not in two bodies, and 
 in form, as they went, but all in small knots, straggling here and there 
 in such a manner, that a small force of resolute men might have cut 
 them all off. But the dread of them was upon the whole country. 
 The next day we set sail ) so we never heard any more of it. One 
 would think this should have been enough to have warned us against 
 going on shore again among heathens and barbarians ; but it Js impos- 
 sible to make mankind wise, except at their own expense ; and their 
 experience seems to be always of most use to them, when it is dearest 
 bought, and most valued when it comes too late. 
 
 We were now bound to the guK of Persia, and from thence to the 
 coast of Coromandel, only to touch at Surat ; but the chief of the super- 
 cargo’s trading lay at the bay of Bengal, where if he missed of his market, 
 he was to go on to China, and return to this coast as he came home. 
 
 The first disaster that befel us was in the gulf of Persia, where five 
 of our men, venturing on shore on the Arabian side of the gulf, were 
 surrounded by the Arabians, and either all killed, or carried away into 
 slavery ; the rest of the boat’s crew not being able to rescue them, and 
 had but just time to get off themselves. I began to upbraid them with 
 
of Robinson Crusoe, 297 
 
 tlie just retribution of Heaven in this case, but the boatswain very 
 warmly told me be tliouglit I went farther in my censures than I could 
 show any warrant for ; that none of those five men, who were now lost, 
 were of the number of those who went on shore to the massacre of 
 Madagascar (so I always called it, though our men could not bear the 
 word massacre with any patience) : and, indeed, this last circumstance, 
 as I have said, put me to silence for the present. But my frequent 
 preaching to them on this subject had worse consequences than I 
 expected ; . and the boatswain, who had been the head of the attempt, 
 came up boldly to me one time, and told me, he found that I con- 
 tinually brought that affair upon the stage; that I made unjust reflec- 
 tions upon it, and had used the men very ill on that account, and 
 himself in particular ; that as I was but a passenger, and had no com- 
 mand in the. ship, or concern in the voyage, they were not obliged to 
 bear it ; that they did not know but I might have some ill design in 
 my head, and, perhaps, to call them to an account for it, when they 
 came to England ; and that, therefore, unless I would resolve to have 
 done with it, and also not to concern myself any farther with him, or 
 any of his affairs, he would leave the ship; for he did not think it was 
 safe to sail with me among them. 
 
 I heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then told him, 
 that I did confess that I had all along opposed the massacre of Mada- 
 gascar, for such I would always call it ; and that I had on all occasions 
 spoken my mind freely about it, though not more upon him than any 
 of the rest ; that as to my having no command in the ship, that was 
 true, nor did I exercise any authority, I only took the liberty of speak- 
 ing my mind in things which publicly concerned us all ; and what 
 concern I had in the voyage, that was none of his business ; that I was 
 a considerable owner of the ship, and in that claim I conceived I had 
 a right to speak, even farther than I had yet done, and would not be 
 accountable to him, or any one else; and began to be a little warm 
 with him. He made but little reply to me at that time, and I thought 
 that affair had been over, but I was mistaken. We were at this time 
 on the road to Bengal ; and, being arrived there and wishing to see 
 the place, I went on shore with the supercargo, to divert myself ; and 
 towards evening was preparing to go on board, when one of the men 
 came to me, and told me, he would not have me trouble myself to come 
 down to the boat, for they had orders not to carry me on board again. 
 Any one may guess what a surprise I was in at so insolent a message ; 
 and I asked the man who bade him deliver that errand to me ? He 
 told me the coxswain. I said no more to the fellow, but bade him let 
 
298 The Life and Adventures 
 
 them know he had delivered his message, and that I had given him no 
 answer to it. 
 
 I immediately went, and found out the supercargo, and told him the 
 story, adding, what I presently foresaw, namely, that there would certainly 
 be a mutiny in the ship; and entreated him to go immediately on 
 board the ship in an Indian boat, and acquaint the captain of it ; but 
 I might have spared this intelligence, for, before I had spoken to him 
 on shore, the matter was effected on board : the boatswain, the gunner, 
 the carpenter, and in a word, all the inferior officers, as soon as I was 
 gone off in the boat, came up to the quarter-deck, and desired to speak 
 with the captain ; and there the boatswain, making a long harangue (for 
 the fellow talked very well), and repeating all he had said to me, told 
 the captain in few words, that as I was now gone peaceably on shore, 
 they were loth to use any violence with me ; which, if I had not gone 
 on shore, they would otherwise have done, to oblige me to have gone. 
 They, therefore, thought fit to tell him, that as they shipped themselves 
 to serve in the ship under his command, they would perform it well 
 and faithfully; but if I would not quit the ship, or the captain oblige 
 me to quit it, they would all leave the ship, and sail no farther with 
 him ; and at that word all, he turned his face about towards the main- 
 mast, which was, it seems, the signal agreed on between them ; at which 
 all the seamen being got together there, cried out, “ One and all. One 
 and ALL ! 
 
 My nephew was a man of spirit, and of great presence of mind, and 
 though he was surprised, you may be sure, at the thing, yet he told 
 them calmly he would consider of the thing ; but that he could do 
 nothing in it till he had spoken to me about it : he used some 
 arguments with them, to show them the unreasonableness and injustice 
 of the thing ; but it was all in vain ; they swore, and shook hands 
 round, before his face, that they would go all on shore, unless he 
 would engage to them, not to suffer me to come any more on board 
 the ship. To bring this disagreeable subject to a conclusion, my 
 nephew came on shore to me, and it was arranged that aU my things 
 and as much money as I wanted should be sent on shore, and that I 
 should find my way to England as well as I might. 
 
 I was now alone in the remotest part of the world, as I think I may 
 call it ; for I was near three thousand leagues, by sea, farther off from 
 England than I was at my island ; only, it is true, I might travel 
 here by land, over the Great Mogul’s country to Surat, might go from 
 thence to Bassora by sea, up the gulf of Persia, and from thence 
 might take the way of the caravans over the desert of Arabia to Aleppo 
 
299 
 
 of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 ^nd Scanderoon ; from thence^ by sea, again to Italy, and so overland 
 throngb France. And tbis put together, might he at least a full diameter 
 of the globe ; but, if it were to be measured, I suppose it would appear 
 to be a great deal more. 
 
 I had another way before me, which was to wait for an English ship^ 
 coming to Bengal from Achin, in the island of Sumatra, and get a 
 passage on board them for England, but as I came hither without any 
 concern with the English East India Company, so it would be difficult 
 to go from hence without their licence, or by favour of the captains 
 of the ships, or of the company’s factors j and to all I was an utter 
 stranger. 
 
 Here I had the particular pleasure, speaking by contraries, to see 
 the ship set sail without me ; a treatment, I think, a man in my 
 circumstances scarce ever met with before, except from pirates running 
 away with the ship, and setting those that would not agree with their 
 villany on shore : indeed, this was the next door to it, both ways. 
 However, my nephew left me a companion, and a servant ; the first 
 was clerk to the purser, who engaged to go with me \ and the other 
 was his own servant. I took a lodging in the house of an English 
 woman, where several merchants lodged, some French, two Italians, 
 or rather Jews, and one Englishman. After a long stay here, and 
 many proposals made for my return to England, but none falling 
 out to my mind, the English merchant, with whom I had now 
 contracted an intimate acquaintance, came to me one morning : 
 ‘^Countryman,” says he, “I have a project to communicate to you, 
 which may, for aught I know, suit with your wishes, when you 
 shall have thoroughly considered it. Here we are posted, you by 
 accident, and I by my own choice, in a part of the world very re- 
 mote from our own country ; but it is in a country where, by us who 
 understand trade and business, a great deal of money is to be got : 
 if you will put a thousand pound to my thousand pound, we will hire 
 a ship here, the first we can get to our minds ; you shall be captain, 
 I will be merchant, and we will go a trading voyage to China : for 
 what should we stand still for h The whole world is in motion, rolling 
 round and round ; all the creatures of God, heavenly bodies and earthly, 
 are busy and diligent : why should we be idle ] There are no drones 
 in the world but men : why should we be of that number 
 
 I liked his proposal very well ; and the more so, because it seemed 
 to be expressed with so much good-wiU, and in so friendly a manner. 
 I will not say, but that I might, by my loose and unhinged circum- 
 stances, be the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, or, indeed, for 
 
300 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 anything else; whereas, otherwise, trade was none of my element. 
 However, I might, perhaps, say, with some truth, that if trade was not 
 my element, rambling was ; and no proposal for seeing any part of the 
 world which I had never seen before, could possibly come amiss to 
 me. It was, however, some time before we could get a ship to our 
 minds ; and when we got a vessel, it was not easy to get English 
 sailors ; that is to say, so many as were necessary to govern the voyage, 
 and manage the sailors which we should pick up. After some time 
 we got a mate, a boatswain, and a gunner, English ; a Dutch carpenter, 
 and three Portuguese foremast- men ; with these, we found we could 
 do well enough, having Indian seamen, such as they are, to make up. 
 We made the voyage to Achin, in the island of Sumatra, and from thence 
 to Siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for opium, and some 
 arrack ; the first, a commodity which bears a great price among the 
 Chinese, and which, at that time, was very much wanted there ; in a 
 word, we went up to Chushan ; made a very great voyage ; were eight 
 months out ; and returned to Bengal : and I was very well satisfied 
 with my adventure, and got so much money by it, and such an insight 
 into the method of getting more, that, had I been twenty years 
 younger, I should have been tempted to have stayed here, and sought 
 no farther for making my fortune. 
 
 But I had a kind of impatience upon me to be nearer home, and yet 
 the most unsettled resolution imaginable which way to go. In the 
 interval of these consultations, my friend, who was always upon the 
 search for business, proposed another voyage to me, among the Spice 
 Islands; and to bring home a loading of cloves from the Manillas, or 
 thereabouts; places where, indeed, the Dutch do trade, but islands 
 belonging partly to the Spaniards ; though we went not so far, but to 
 some other, where they have not the whole power as they have at 
 Batavia. 
 
 But to be short with my speculations, I must here refer to one that 
 brought us into great trouble. A little while after this, there came in 
 a Dutch ship from Batavia ; she was a coaster, not an European trader, 
 and of about two hundred ton burden : the men, as they pretended, 
 having been so sickly, that the captain had not men enough to go to 
 sea with, he lay by at Bengal ; and, having got money enough, or being 
 willing, for other reasons, to go to Europe, he gave public notice, that 
 he would sell his ship : this came to my ears and I had a great mind 
 to buy it. So I goes home to my partner, and told him of it : he consi- 
 dered awhile, for he was no rash man neither ; but musing some time, 
 he replied, “ She is a little too big ; but, however, we will have her.'^ 
 
301 
 
 of Eohinson Crusoe. 
 
 Accordingly we bought the ship ; and, agreeing with the master, we 
 paid for her, and took possession ; when we had done so, we resolved 
 to induce the men, if we could, to join her with those we had, for the 
 pursuing our business ; but on a sudden, they having received no 
 wages, not one of them was to be found. We inquired much about 
 them, and at length were told, that they were all gone together, by land, 
 to Agra, the great city of the Mogul’s residence ; and from thence were 
 to travel to Surat, and so by sea to the gulf of Persia. The very 
 ground over which I wanted to go myself, and nothing had so heartily 
 troubled me a good while, as that I missed the opportunity^f going 
 with them ; but I was much better satisfied a few days after, when I 
 came to know what sort of fellows they were ; for, in short, their 
 history was, that this man they called captain was the gunner only, not 
 the commander j that they had been a trading voyage, in which they 
 were attacked on shore by some of the Malaccans, who had killed the 
 captain and three of his men ; and that after the captain was killed, 
 these men, eleven in number, had resolved to run away with the ship, 
 which they did ; and had brought her in at the bay of Bengal, leaving 
 the mate and five men more on shore ; of whom we shall hear farther. 
 
 Well ; let them come by the ship how they would, we came honestly 
 by her, as we thought ; though we did not, I confess, exanune into 
 things so exactly as we ought. 
 
 But having picked up some more English seamen here after this 
 and some Dutch, we now resolved for a second voyage to the south- 
 
302 The Life and Adventures 
 
 east, for cloves, &c. ; that is to say, among the Philippine and Molucca 
 isles. 
 
 In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and. down 
 a great while in the straits of Malacca, and among the islands, we were 
 no sooner got clear of those difficult seas, but we found our ship had 
 sprung a leak, and we were not able, by all our industry, to find out 
 where it was. This forced us to make for some port ; and my partner, 
 who knew the country better than I did, directed the captain to put 
 into the river of Cambodia ; for I had made the English mate, one Mr. 
 Thompson, captain, not being willing to take the charge of the ship 
 upon myself. 
 
 While we were here, and going often on shore for refreshment, 
 there comes to me one day an Englishman, and he was, it seems, a 
 gunner’s mate on board an Enghsh East India ship, which rode in the 
 same river, up at or near the city of Cambodia. What brought him 
 hither we knew not at the time \ but he comes up to me, and, speaking 
 English, Sir,” says he, you are a stranger to me, and I to you ; but 
 I have something to tell you, that very nearly concerns you.” 
 
 I looked steadily at him a good while, and thought at first I had 
 kno^vn him, but I did not. If it very nearly concerns me,” said I, 
 and not yourself, what moves you to tell it me ? ” I am moved,” 
 says he, by the imminent danger you are in ; and, for aught I see, 
 you have no knowledge of it.” I know no danger I am in,” said I, 
 but that my ship is leaky, and I cannot find the leak out ; but I 
 purpose to lay her aground to-morrow, to see if I can find it.” ‘‘But, 
 sir,” says he, “ leaky o-r not leaky, find it or not find it, you will be 
 wiser than to lay your ship on shore to-morrow, when you hear what 
 I have to say to you. Do you know, sir,” said he, “the toA\m of 
 Cambodia lies about fifteen leagues up this river % And there are two 
 large English ships about five leagues on this side, and three Dutch.” 
 “ Well,” said I, “ and what is that to me ? ” “ AYhy, sir,” says he, “ is 
 it for a man that is upon such adventures as you are, to come into a 
 port, and not examine first what ships there are there, and whether he 
 is able to deal with them*? I suppose you do not think you are a 
 match for them ^ ” I was amused very much at his discourse, but not 
 amazed at it ; for I could not conceive what he meant ; and I turned 
 short upon him, and said, “ Sir, I wish you would explain yourself ; I 
 cannot imagine what reason I have to be afraid of any Company’s ships, 
 or Dutch ships ; I am no interloper ; what can they have to say 
 to me h ” 
 
 He looked like a man half an^ry, lialf pleased ; and, pausing awhile, 
 
303 
 
 of liohinson Crusoe, 
 
 but smiling, “ Well, sir/’ says be, if you think yourself secure, you 
 must take your chance ; I am sorry your fate should blind you against 
 good advice ; but assure yourself, if you do not put to sea immediately, 
 you will the very next tide be attacked by five long-boats full of men } 
 and, perhaps, if you are taken, you will be hanged for a pirate, and the 
 particulars be examined afterwards. I thought, sir,” added he, “ I 
 should have met with a better reception than this, for doing you a piece 
 of service of such importance.” I can never be ungrateful,” said I, 
 for any service, or to any man that offers me any kindness ; but it is 
 past my comprehension what they should have such a design upon me 
 for. However, since you say there is no time to be lost, and that there 
 is some villanous design in hand against me, I will go on board this 
 minute, and put to sea immediately, if my men can stop the leak, or if 
 we can swim without stopping it. But, sir,” said 1, ‘‘ shall I go away 
 ignorant of the reason of all this ? Can you give me no further light 
 into it h ” 
 
 I can tell you part of the story, sir,” says he ; but I have a Dutch 
 seaman here with me, and, I believe, I could persuade him to tell you 
 the rest ; but there is scarce time for it. But the short of the story is 
 this, the first part of which, I suppose, you know well enough, namely, 
 that you was with this ship at Sumatra ; that there your captain was 
 murdered by the Malaccans, with three of his men ; and that you, or 
 some of those that were on board with you, ran away with the ship, 
 and are since turned pirates .|5 This is the sum of the story, and you 
 wull all be seized as pirates, I can assure you, and executed with very 
 little ceremony ; for you know merchants’ men show but little law to 
 pirates, if they get them into their power.” 
 
 /^How you speak plain English,” said I, and I thank you; and, 
 though I know nothing that we have done to deserve the character we 
 .seem to have, but came honestly and fairly by the ship ; yet hearing 
 what you say, and that you seem to mean honestly, I will be upon my 
 guard.” IN'ay, sir,” says he, do not talk of being upon your guard ; 
 the best defence is to be out of the danger : if you have any regard to 
 your life, and the lives of your men, put out to sea without fail at high- 
 water ; and as you have a whole tide before you, you will be too far 
 out before they can come down ; for they only came away at high- 
 water ; and as they have twenty miles to come, you get near two hours 
 of them by the difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of the 
 way ; besides, as they are only in boats, they will not venture to follow 
 you far out to sea, especially if it blows.” 
 
 Well,” says I, ^‘you have been very kind in this : what shall I do 
 
304 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 for you to make you amends ? Sir/^ says lie, you may not be so 
 willing to make me any amends, because you may not be convinced of 
 the truth of it : I will make an offer to you ; I have nineteen months’ 
 
 pay due to me on board the ship , in which I came out from 
 
 England ; and the Dutchman, that is with me, has seven months’ pay 
 due to him ; if you will make good our pay to us, we will go along with 
 you. If you find nothing more in it, we will desire no more ; but if 
 we convince you, that we have saved your lives, and the ship, and the 
 lives of all the men in her, we will leave the rest to you.” 
 
 I consented readily to this, and went immediately on board, and the 
 two men with me. As soon as I came to the ship’s side, my partner, 
 who was on board, came on the quarter-deck, and called to me with 
 great joy, singing out, “We have stopped the leak! we have stopped 
 the leak!” “Say you so?” said I; “thank God; but weigh the anchor 
 then immediately.” “Weigh!” says he, “what do you mean by 
 that ? What is the matter ? ” “ Ask no questions,” says I, “ but all 
 
 hands up anchor without losing a minute.” He was surprised ; but 
 called the captain, and he immediately ordered the anchor to be got up ; 
 and a little land-breeze blowing, we stood out to sea ; then I called him 
 into the cabin, and told him the story at large ; and we called in the 
 men, and they told us the rest of it ; but as it took us up a great deal 
 of time before we had done, a seaman comes to the cabin-door, and calls 
 out to us, that the captain bade him tell us, we were chased. “ Chased ! ” 
 said I, “ by whom, and by what ?” “ Ey five sloops, or boats,” says the 
 fellow, “full of men.” “ Yery well,” said I ; “then there is something 
 in it.” I now ordered all the men to be mustered, and told them 
 briefly that there was a design to seize the ship, and to take us for 
 pirates ; and asked them, if they would stand by us, and by one 
 another ? The men answered, cheerfully, that one and all, they w^ould 
 live and die with us. Then I asked the captain what way he thought 
 best for us to manage a fight with them ; for resist them I was resolved 
 we would, and that to the last drop. He said, readily, that the way 
 was to keep them off with our great shot as long as we could, and then 
 to fire at them with our small arms, as long as we could ; if they were 
 too strong for us, then we should retire to our close quarters ; perhaps 
 they had not materials to break open our bulk-heads, or get in upon us. 
 
 The gunner had, in the mean time, trained two guns to bear fore and 
 aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and loaded them with musket- 
 bullets, and small pieces of old iron, and whatever came to hand ; and 
 thus we made ready for fight ; but all the while keeping out to sea. 
 We could see, at a distance, five large long boats following us, with aD 
 
305 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe, 
 
 the sail they could make. Two we could see, by our glasses, which 
 were English, out-sailed the rest, and were nearly two leagues a-head 
 of the others, and gained upon us considerably, and likely to come up 
 with us. We fired a gun therefore without a shot, to intimate that 
 they should bring to ; and we put out a flag of truce as a signal for 
 parley ; but they kept crowding after us, till they came within shot. 
 Upon this we took in our white flag, they having made no answer to it, 
 hung out the red flag, and fired at them with a shot. iUotwithstanding 
 this, they came on till we could call to them with a speaking trumpet, 
 ordering them to keep off at their peril. They still crowded after us, 
 and endeavoured to come under our stern, so to board us on our quarter. 
 Seeing them resolute for mischief, I ordered the ship to bring to, so 
 that they lay upon our broadside, when we fired five guns at them ; one 
 of them had been levelled so truly as to carry away the stern of the 
 hindermost boat, and compel them to take down their sail, all running 
 to the head of the boat to keep her from sinking ; she lay by, having 
 had enough of it j but the foremost boat still crowding after us, we made 
 ready to receive her. 
 
 While this was going on, another of the three boats made up to the 
 boat which we had disabled, to relieve her ; and we could afterwards 
 see her take out the men. We called again to the foremost boat, and 
 asked her business with us, but had no answer ; only she crowded close 
 under our stern. Upon this our gunner, a dexterous fellow, run out 
 his two chase guns, and again fired at her ; but the shot missing, the 
 men in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came on ] getting 
 quicldy ready again, the gunner fired among them the second time ; 
 one shot fell among the men, and as we could easily see, had done a 
 great deal of mischief ; taking no notice of that we weared the ship 
 again, and brought our quarter to bear upon them ; and, firing three 
 more guns, the boat was split almost to pieces, her rudder, and a piece 
 of her stern, shot away ; so they handed their sail immediately, and were 
 in great disorder. Our gunner let fly two more guns at them again ; 
 where he hit them we could not see, but seeing the boat was sinking, 
 and some of the men already in the water, I manned the pinnace, 
 which was kept close by our side, with orders to pick up as many as 
 they could before the boats came up. Three men were picked up, one 
 of whom was just drowning, and it was a good while before we could 
 recover him. As soon as they were on board we crowded all the sail, 
 and stood farther out to sea. When the other three boats came up to 
 the first two, they gave over their chase. 
 
 Eeing thus delivered from a great danger, we changed our course, so 
 
 X 
 
306 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 as to conceal whither we were going ; so we stood out to sea eastward, 
 quite out of the course of all European ships, whether they were 
 bound to China, or anywhere else, within the commerce of the Euro- 
 pean nations. 
 
 When at sea we learnt from the two seamen the meaning of all that 
 had passed ; we found also that we had the credit of being a set of 
 pirates who had already taken an English and two Dutch ships very 
 richly laden. This was a report which required immediate refutation ; 
 this could only be done by returning at once to Bengal, from whence 
 we came, without putting in at any port whatever ; there we could 
 give account of ourselves, could prove where we were when the ship 
 put in, who we bought her of, and the like ; we should be sure to 
 have some justice, and not be hanged first and judged afterwards. But 
 then came the consideration that we were on the wrong side of the 
 straits of Malacca ; and that if the alarm were given, we should be 
 waylaid by the Dutch of Batavia as well as the English elsewhere ; 
 that if we should be taken, as it were, running away, we should even 
 condemn ourselves, and there would want no more, evidence to 
 destroy us. 
 
 This danger a little startled my partner, and it was resolved to go 
 away to the coast of Tonquin, and so on to the coast of China ; and 
 pursuing the first design, as to trade, find some way or other to dispose 
 of the ship, and come back in some of the vessels of the country. 
 Accordingly we steered away IST.^N'.E. keeping above fifty leagues off 
 from the usual course to the eastward. My partner, who was well 
 acquainted with the coast, was to put into some port on the coast of 
 Cochin-china, or the bay of Tonquin ; intending to go afterwards to 
 Macao, a town once in the possession of the Portuguese, and where 
 still a great many European families resided, particularly the mis- 
 sionary priests who usually went thither, in order to their going for- 
 ward to China. And accordingly, though after a tedious and irregular 
 course, and very much straitened for provisions, we came within sight 
 of the coast very early one morning. Upon reflection we resolved to 
 put into a small river, which, however, had depth enough of water for 
 us, and to see if we could, either overland or by the ship’s pinnace, 
 come to know what ships were in the port thereabouts. This happy 
 step was, indeed, our deliverance ; for, though we did not immediately 
 see any European ships in the bay, yet the next morning there came 
 two Dutch ships, and a third without colours, which we believed to be 
 a Dutchman, also passed by at about two leagues’ distance, steering for 
 the coast of China \ and in the afternoon two English ships passed, 
 
of Eohfnson Crusoe, 307 
 
 steering the same course. The place we were in was wild and bar- 
 barous, the people thieves, even by occupation or profession. !N^ever- 
 theless, as our ship had never quite recovered her trim after the leak 
 which we succeeded in stopping so fortunately, we resolved, while we 
 were in this place, to lay her on shore, take out what heavy things we 
 had on board, which were not many, and to wash and clean her bottom, 
 and if possible, to find out where the leaks were. Accordingly, having 
 lightened the ship, and brought all our guns, and other moveable 
 things, to one side, we tried to bring her down, that we might come at 
 her bottom ; but, on second thoughts, we did not care to lay her dry 
 on ground, neither could we find out a proper place for it. The in- 
 habitants, seeing the ship down on one side in such a manner, and 
 heeling towards the shore, and not seeing our men, who were at work 
 on her bottom, with stages, and with their boats on the off side, they 
 presently concluded that the ship was cast away. 
 
 On this supposition they came all about us in two or three hours' 
 time, with ten on twelve large boats, having some of them eight, some 
 ten men in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have come on board and 
 plundered the ship ; and if they found us there, to have carried us 
 away for slaves. When they came to the ship, however, and began to 
 row round her, they discovered us all hard at work on the outside of 
 the ship's bottom and side, washing and graving, and stopping, as 
 every seafaring man knows how. They stood for a while gazing at us, 
 and we, who were a little surprised, could not imagine what their 
 design was ; but being willing to be sure, we sent some of the hands 
 into the skip, to hand down arms and ammunition to those that were 
 at work to defend themselves with, if there should be occasion ; and 
 it was no more than need ; for they agreed, it seems, that the ship 
 was really a wreck ; that we were all at work, endeavouring to save 
 her, or to save our fives by the help of our boats; and when we 
 handed our arms into the boats, they concluded, by that motion, that 
 we were endeavouring to save some of our goods. Upon this they 
 came down upon us, as if it had been in a fine of battle. Our men, 
 seeing so many of them, were frighted at first ; for we lay in a bad 
 posture to fight, but I called to the men who worked upon the stages, 
 to slip down, and get up the side into the ship ; and those in the boats 
 I ordered to row round and come on board, while the few of us who 
 were on board, worked with all the strength we had, to bring the ship to 
 rights ; but neither the men upon the stage nor those in the boats could 
 do as they were ordered, before the enemy were upon them. Two of 
 their boats boarded our long-boat, and attempted to lay hold of the men. 
 
 X 2 
 
308 Tlie Life and Adventures 
 
 The first man they laid hold of was an Englisn seaman, a stout 
 fellow, who, having a musket in his hand, laid it down in the boat, 
 like a fool, as I thought. But he knew what he was about ; for he 
 grappled his antagonist, and dragged him by main force out into our 
 boat, where, taking him by the two ears, he beat his head so against 
 the boat’s gunnel that the fellow died in his hands. In the mean time, 
 a Dutchman, who stood next, took up the musket, and with the butt- 
 end of it, knocked down five , of those who attempted to enter the boat. 
 But this was doing little towards resisting thirty or forty men, who, 
 fearless, because ignorant of their danger, began to throw themselves 
 into the long-boat,, where we had but five men to defend it ; but an 
 accident gave our men a complete victory, which deserved our laughter 
 rather than anything else ; and that was this. 
 
 The carpenter was preparing to grave the outside of the ship, and 
 pay the seams where he had caulked her, to stop the leaks, and had 
 
 two kettles, one filled with boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, 
 tallow, and oil, just ready to let down into the boat ; and the carpen- 
 ter’s assistant had a great iron ladle in his hand, with which he supplied 
 the men that were at work with the stuff. Two of the enemy’s men 
 entered the boat just where this fellow stood, being in the fore-sheets ; 
 he immediately saluted them with a ladleful of the stuff, boiling hot, 
 which, being half naked, so burnt and scalded them that they roared 
 out like two bulls, and leaped both into the sea. The carpenter saw 
 the result with great satisfaction, and cried out, Well done. Jack, 
 
809 
 
 ^ of Bohinson Crusoe. 
 
 give them some more of it ; and stepping forward himself, takes a 
 mop, and dipping it into the pitch-pot, he threw it among them sc 
 plentifully, that they were scalded and burnt in a most frightful 
 manner, and made such a howling as never was heard before ; for it is 
 worth observing that though pain naturally makes all people cry out, 
 yet every nation has a particular mode of exclamation, and makes 
 noises as different from one another as is their speech. The noise these 
 creatures made was howling, for I never heard anything more like the 
 noise of the wolves which I heard in the forest of Languedoc. 
 
 I was never better pleased with a victory, for we obtained it almost 
 without bloodshed ; our danger was imminent ; but I was sick of 
 killing these poor wretches, even in my own defence, for they knew no 
 better, and in attacking us followed their instincts ; and I thought it 
 was a sad life, which could only be preserved by killing our fellow- 
 creatures. While this was doing, we had with great dexterity brought 
 the ship almost to rights ; and, having shipped the guns again, the 
 gunner called to me, to bid our boat get out of the way, for he would 
 let fly among them. I requested him not to fire, for the carpenter 
 would do the work with the help of another pitch-kettle, which the cook 
 was preparing. But the enemy had enough of it in their first attack, 
 they would not come on again ; and seeing the ship afloat, as it were, 
 and upright, begun to see their mistake, and gave over the enterprise. 
 Thus we got clear of this merry fight ; and, having got some rice, and 
 some roots and bread, with about sixteen good big hogs, on board, two 
 days before, we resolved to stay here no longer, but go forward, whatever 
 came of it, having no desire to ply our pitch-kettle in a second attack. 
 
 We therefore got all our things on board the same evening, and the 
 next day, having finished our work on board, and finding our ship was 
 perfectly cured of her leaks, we set sail, keeping to the I^.E. towards 
 the isle of Formosa, where we came to an anchor, in order to get 
 water and fresh provisions. From hence we sailed still north,^ keep- 
 ing the coast of China, till we knew we were beyond all the ports, 
 where European ships usually come. Being now in latitude of 
 30°, we resolved to stand in for the shore ; a boat came off two 
 leagues to us, with an old Portuguese pilot on board, who came 
 to offer his service. We took him on board; upon which, with- 
 out asking us whither we would go, he dismissed the boat. Think 
 ing that we might take the old man where we would, I began to 
 talk with hi m about carrying us to the gulf of Nanquin, which 
 he readily agreed to, and while we were still in discourse, the ship 
 went forward, and, in about thirteen days’ sail, came to anclior in 
 
SIO 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 tlie south-west point of the .great gulf of Nanquin. 'When we came 
 on shore, the old pilot, who was now a firm friend, got us a lodging, 
 and also a warehouse for our goods ; he also brought, us acquainted 
 with three missionary Eomish priests, who were in town, and who had 
 been there some time. One of these was a Frenchman, father Simon ; 
 he was a jolly well-conditioned man, very free in his conversation, not 
 seeming so serious and grave as the others, a Portuguese and a Genoese ; 
 but father Simon was courteous, easy in his manner, and very agreeable 
 company ; the other two were more reserved, seemed rigid and austere, 
 and applied seriously to the work they came about. 
 
 Father Simon was appointed to go up to Pekin, the royal seat of 
 the Chinese emperor; and waited only for another priest, who was 
 ordered to come to him from Macao, to go along with him ; and we . 
 scarce ever met, Avithout an urgent invitation to accompany him on his 
 journey. He would show me all the glorious things of that mighty 
 empire ; and among the rest, the greatest city in the world ; a city,’’ 
 said he, ‘‘ that your London, and our Paris, put together, cannot be 
 equal to.” This was the city of Pekin. Dining with him one day, 
 and being very merry together, I showed some little inchnation to go 
 with him, and he pressed me and my partner very hard, and with a 
 great many persuasions, to consent. “ Why, father Simon,” says my 
 partner, why should you desire our company so much ^ You know 
 we are heretics, and you do not love us, nor can you keep^us company 
 with any pleasure.” “0 !” says he, ‘‘you may, perhaps, be good catho- 
 lics in time; my business here is to convert heathens; and who knows 
 but I may convert you too'^” “Very well, father,” said I, “so you 
 
311 
 
 of Robinson Orusoe. 
 
 will preach to us all the way/^ I will not be troublesome to you/' 
 says he ; “ our religion does not divest us of good manners ; " besides, 
 says he, we are here like countrymen ; and so we are, compared to 
 the place we are in /' and if you are Huguenots, and I a Catholic, we 
 may he all Christians at last; at least," said he, ‘‘we are aU gentlemen, 
 and we may converse so, without being uneasy to one another." In 
 the meantime we had our ships and merchandize to dispose of ; our 
 old Portuguese pilot brought a Japan merchant to us, who bought all 
 our opium, and gave us a very good price for it, paying us in gold by 
 weight, some in small pieces of their own coin, and some in small 
 wedges, of about ten or eleven ounces each. While we were dealing 
 with him for our opium, it came into my head that he might, perhaps, 
 deal with us for the ship too ; and I ordered the interpreter to 
 propose it to him. He shrunk up his shoulders at it, when it 
 w^as first proposed to him ; but, in a few days after, he came to me, 
 with one of the missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me, 
 he had a proposal to make to me, it was this ; He had bought a 
 great quantity of goods of us when he had no thoughts of buying 
 the ship ; and that, therefore, he had not money enough to pay for 
 the ship ; but if I would let the same men who were in the ship 
 navigate her, he would hire the ship to go to Japan, and would send 
 them from thence to the Philippine islands with another loading, 
 which he would pay the freight of, before they went from J apan ; and 
 that, at their return from that voyage, he would buy the ship. I 
 began to listen to this proposal ; and so eager did my head still run 
 upon rambling, that I began to entertain a notion of going myself with 
 him, and so to sail from the Philippine islands away to the South 
 Seas ; and accordingly I asked the Japanese merchant, if he would not 
 hire us to the Philippine islands, and discharge us there. He said, no, 
 he could not do that ; for then he could not have the return of his 
 ca^o ; but he would discharge us in Japan, he said, at the ship’s 
 return. Well, still I was for taking him at that proposal, and going 
 myself; but my partner, wiser than I, persuaded me from it, represent- 
 ing the dangers, as well of the seas as of the Japanese, who are a 
 false, cruel, and treacherous people ; and then of the Spaniards at the 
 Philippines ; more false, more cruel, and more treacherous than they. 
 
 We were now on shore in China. In the meantime, we visited the 
 city of Nanquin, a ten days’ journey into the interior, and at a future 
 period we accompanied father Simon to Pekin, w^hich occupied us 
 twenty-four days. The people we found haughty, imperious and in- 
 solent, in the midst of the grossest simplicity and ignorance ; for all 
 
312 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 their famed ingenuity is no more. And my friend, father Simon, and 
 I used to he very merry upon these occasions, to see the beggarly pride 
 of these people : for example, coming by the house of a country gentle- 
 men, as father Simon called him, about ten leagues off of the city of 
 ISTanquin, we had, first of all, the honour to ride with the master of 
 the house about two miles ; the state he rode in, being a strange 
 mixture of pomp and poverty. The habit of this greasy Don was very 
 proper for a scaramouch, or merry-andrew, being a dirty calico, with all 
 the tawdry and trapping of a fool’s coat, such as hanging sleeves, 
 tassels, and cuts and slashes almost on every side ; it covered a taffety 
 vest, as greasy as a butcher, and which testified, that his honour must 
 needs be a most exquisite sloven. 
 
 His horse was a poor, lean, starved, hobbling creature, such as in 
 England might sell for about thirty or forty shillings ; and he had two 
 slaves following him on foot, to drive the poor creature along : he had 
 a whip in his hand, and he belaboured the beast as fast about the head 
 as his slaves did about the tail ; and thus he rode by us with about 
 ten or twelve servants ; and we were told he was going from the city 
 to his country seat, about half a league before us. We travelled on 
 gently, but this figure of a gentleman rode away before us ; and as we 
 stopped at a village about an hour to refresh us, when we came by the 
 country seat of this great man, we saw him in a little place before his 
 door, eating his repast ; it was a kind of a garden, but he was easy to 
 be seen ; and we were given to understand, that the more we looked 
 on him, the better he would be pleased. 
 
 At length we arrived at Pekin : I had nobody with me but tha 
 
313 
 
 of Rohmson Crusoe. 
 
 ^'outh, whom my nephew the ca^Dtain had left to attend upon me as a 
 servant, and who proved very trusty and diligent ; and my partner had 
 nobody with him but one servant, who was a kinsman. As for the 
 Portuguese pilot, he being desirous to see the court, we bore his 
 charges and used him as an interpreter, for he understood the language 
 of the country, and spoke good French and a little English ; and, 
 indeed, this old man was most useful to us everywhere, for we had 
 not been above a week at Pekin when he came to us laughing : “ Ah, 
 Seignior Inglese,^^ says he, “ I have something to tell you, will make 
 your heart glad.’^ ‘‘ What can that be % ’’ says I j “ I do not know 
 anything in this country that can either give me joy or grief.” “ Yes, 
 yes,” said the old man in broken English, ‘‘make you glad, me sorrow;” 
 sorry he would have said. This made me more inquisitive. “ Why,” 
 said I, “will it make you sorry “Because,” said he, “you have 
 brought me here twenty -five days’ journey, and wiU leave me to go 
 back alone ; and which way shall I get to my port afterwards, without 
 a ship, without a horse, without pecune ? ” So he called money, in 
 his broken Latin, of which he had abundance to make us merry 
 withal. 
 
 In short, he told us there was a great caravan of Muscovite and 
 Polish merchants in the city, and they were preparing to journey, by 
 land, to Muscovy, and he was sure we would take the opportunity to go 
 with them. I confess I was surprised with this news ; a secret joy 
 spread itself over my whole soul, which I cannot describe ; at last I 
 turned to him — “ How do you know this ? ” said I. Says he, “ I met 
 this morning an old acquaintance of mine, an Armenian, or one you 
 call a Greek, who is among them ; he came last from Astracan, and 
 was designing to go to Tonquin, but has altered his mind, and is now 
 resolved to go with the caravan to Moscow, and so down the river 
 Wolga to Astracan. “Well, seignior,” says I, “do not be uneasy 
 about being left to go back alone ; if I return to England by this 
 means it shall be your fault if you go back to Macao at all.” We then 
 consulted together ; my partner told me he would do just as I would ; 
 for he had settled all his afiairs so well at Bengal, and left his effects 
 in such good hands, and had made so good a voyage here, if he could 
 vest it in China silks, wrought and raw, such as might be worth the 
 carriage, he would be content to go to England, and make his voyage 
 back to Bengal by one of the company’s ships. 
 
 Having resolved upon this, we agreed, that if our Portugal pilot 
 would go with us, we would not only bear his charges to Moscow, or 
 to England, but we agreed to give him a quantity of coined gold for 
 
314 The Life and Adventures 
 
 h-is services, which, as I compute it, came to about 175 pounds sterling 
 between us. 
 
 It was the beginning of Tebruaiy, our style, when we set out from 
 Pekin. I had bought ninety pieces of fine damasks, with about two 
 hundred pieces of other very fine silks, of several sorts, some mixed 
 with gold. Besides this we bought a very large (Quantity of raw silk, 
 and some other goods, which loaded in all eiglfteen camels for our 
 share, besides those we rode upon ; which, with two or three spare 
 horses, and two horses loaded with provisions, made us, in short, twenty- 
 six camels and horses in our retinue. The company was very great, 
 and as near as I can remember, made between three and four hundred 
 horse, and upward of a hundred and twenty men, very well armed, and 
 provided for all events. Por, as the eastern caravans are subject to be 
 attacked by the Arabs, so are these by the Tartars. There were people 
 of several nations, Muscovites chiefly ; for there were above sixty of 
 them who were merchants or inhabitants of ‘Moscow, though of them 
 some were Livonians ; and, to our particular satisfaction, five of them 
 were Scots, who appeared also to be men of great experience, and 
 of very good substance. 
 
 When we had travelled one day’s journey, the guides, who were five 
 in number, called all the gentlemen and merchants to a great council, 
 as they called it. At this great council every one deposited a certain 
 quantity of money to a common stock, for the necessary expense of 
 buying forage on the way, where it was not otherwise to be had, and 
 for satisfying the guides, getting horses, and the like. And here they 
 constituted the journey, as they called it, namely : they named cap- 
 tains and officers to draw us all up, and give the command in case of 
 an attack, and gave every one their turn of command. 
 
 In two days more we passed the great China wall, made for protection 
 against the Tartars ; and a very great work it is, going over hills and 
 mountains where the rocks are impassable, and over precipices such as 
 no enemy could possibly climb. They tell us its length is near a thou- 
 sand English miles ; but that the country is five hundred, in a straight 
 measured line, which the wall bounds, without measuring the windings 
 and turnings it takes ; it is about four fathom high, and as many thick 
 in some places. 
 
 After we had passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, we began to 
 find the country thinly inhabited, and the people living in fortified 
 towns and cities, being subject to the inroads aiid depredations of 
 the Tartars, who rove about in troops or hordes, keeping no order, and 
 understanding no discipline ; their horses are poor, lean, starved 
 
315 
 
 of Rohinson Crusoe. 
 
 creatures, taught nothing, and fit for nothing. Our leader for the day 
 gave leave for about sixteen of us to go a hunting, as they call it ; and 
 what was this but a hunting of sheep ! However, it may be called 
 hunting, too ; for the creatures are the wildest and swiftest of foot that 
 ever I saw of tteir kind ; only they will not run a great way, and you 
 are sure of sport when you begin the chase ; for they appear generally 
 thirty or forty in a flock, and, like true sheep, always keep together 
 when they fly. 
 
 iln pursuit of this odd sort of game, it was our hap to meet with 
 a'ffout forty Tartars. Whether they were hunting mutton as we were, 
 or whether they looked for another kind of prey, I know not ; but as 
 soon as they saw us one of them blew a kind of a horn very loud, but 
 with a barbarous sound that I had never heard before ; and, by the way, 
 never care to hear again. One of the Scots merchants of Moscow 
 happened to be amongst us, and told us that we had nothing to do but 
 to charge them immediately, without loss of time ; and drawing us up 
 in a line, he asked if we were ready to follow him, and rode directly 
 up to them. They stood gazing at us, but as soon as they saw us 
 advance they let fly their arrows, which, however, missed us very 
 happily. 
 
 We halted, and fired, sending them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, 
 following our shot full gallop, sword in hand ; for so our bold Scot 
 directed. He showed such vigour, bravery, and cool courage on this 
 occasion, that I never saw any man in action fitter for command. .As 
 soon as we came up to them, we fired our pistols in their faces, and then 
 drew j but they fled in the greatest confusion imaginable ; the only 
 stand any of them made was on our right, where three, having a kind 
 of scimitar in their hands, and their bows hanging at their backs, 
 by signs, called the rest to come back. Our brave commander gallops 
 up close to them, and with his fusil knocks one of them off his horse, 
 killed the second with his pistol, and the third ran away ; and thus 
 ended our fight j but all our mutton got away. We had not a man 
 killed or hurt ; but, as for the Tartars, there were about five of them 
 killed ; who were wounded, we knew not. 
 
 We were all this while in the Chinese dominions, but in about five 
 days we entered a vast great wild desert, which held us three days and 
 nights’ march ; and we were obliged to carry our water with us in great 
 leather bottles, and to encamp all night. A kind of border that might 
 be called Ho Man’s Land ; being a part of the Great Karakathy, or 
 Grand Tartary. 
 
 We saw two or three times little parties of the Tartars, and once a 
 
316 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 party of tliem came so near as to stand and gaze at us, doubtful, 
 apparently, whether to attack us or not. We travelled near a month 
 after this, the ways being not so good as at first, though still in the 
 dominions of the Emperor of China ; but lay, for the most part, iJ^ 
 villages, some of which were fortified, because of the incursions of the 
 Tartars. 
 
 At one of these towns, wishing to buy a camel, and having agreed 
 for the price, I was coming away, when, on a sudden, came up five 
 Tartars on horseback ; two of them seized the feUow leading the camel, 
 while the other three stepped up to me and my old pilot ; seeing us, as 
 it were, unarmed, for I had no weapon about me but my sword, which 
 could but iU defend me against three horsemen. The first that came up 
 stopped short upon my drawing my sword ; but a second coming upon 
 my left, gave me a blow on the head, which I never felt till afterwards, 
 and wondered, when I came to myself, what was the matter with me, 
 and where I was, for he laid me flat on the ground ; but my never- 
 
 fading old pilot, the Portuguese, having a pistol in his pocket, and 
 seeing me down, stepped up to the fellow that had struck me, and 
 pulling him by main force a little towards him with the other, he shot 
 him in the head, laying him dead on the spot ; he then stepped up to 
 him who had stopped us. made a blow at him with his scimitar, but 
 missing the man, cut his horse into the side of his head, cut one of his 
 ears off by the root, and a great slice down the side of his face. The 
 poor beast, enraged with the wound, was no more to be governed by his 
 rider ; but away he flew, and carried him quite out of the pilot’s reach ; 
 
of Eohinson Crusoe. 317 
 
 and at some distance, rising np upon liis hind legs, threw down the 
 Tartar, and fell upon him. 
 
 In this interval the poor Chinese seeing the Tartar down, and his 
 horse fallen upon him, he runs to him, and seizing upon an ugly ill- 
 favoured weapon he had by his side, something like a pole-axe, he 
 wrenched it from him, and made shift to knock his Tartarian brains out 
 with it. But my old man had the third Tartar to deal with still ; he 
 did not fly, nor did he come on to fight, but stands stock still. The old 
 man falls to work with his tackle to charge his pistol ; but as soon as 
 the Tartar saw the pistol away he scoured, and left my pilot, — my 
 champion, as I called him afterward, a complete victor. 
 
 By this victory we lost a camel and gained a horse. When we came 
 Dack to the village the man demanded to be paid for the camel ; I 
 disputed it, and it was brought to a hearing before the Chinese judge 
 of the place. To give him his due, he acted with a great deal of pru- 
 dence and impartiality ; and having heard both sides, he gravely asked 
 the Chinese man that went with me to buy the camel, whose servant 
 he was ] I am no servant,” says he, ‘‘ but went with the stranger. 
 
 ‘‘ At whose request ” says the justice. “ At the stranger’s request,’^ 
 says he. “Why, then,” said the justice, ‘^you were the stranger’s 
 servant for the time, and the camel being delivered to his servant, it 
 was delivered to him, and he must pay for it.” I confess the thing 
 was so clear, that I had not a word to say ; I paid willingly for the 
 camel, and sent for another. 
 
 We were now approaching the city of ^laum, a frontier town of the Chi- 
 nese empire ; they call it fortified, and so it is, as fortifications go there. 
 We wanted above two days’ journey of this city, when messengers 
 arrived to tell all travellers and caravans to halt, till they had a guard 
 sent for them ; for that an unusual body of Tartars, ten thousand in 
 all, had appeared about thirty miles from the city. Accordingly, two 
 days after, we had two hundred soldiers sent us from a garrison of 
 the Chinese on our left, and three hundred more from the city of 
 Xaum, and with those we advanced boldly ; the three hundred soldiers 
 from hlaum marched in our front, the two hundred in our rear, and our 
 men on each side of our camels with our baggage, and the whole 
 raravan in the centre. Early one morning we marched from a little 
 town called Changu, where we had to ferry across a river, beyond 
 Vhich we entered upon a desert of about fifteen or sixteen miles ; there, 
 ^y the cloud of dust raised, we saw an enemy was at hand, and they 
 were at hand, indeed, for they came on upon the spur. 
 
 The Chinese, our guard on the front, who had talked so big the day 
 
318 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 before, began to stagger, the soldiers frequently looked behind them ; 
 which is a certain sign in a soldier that he is just ready to run away. 
 My old pilot was also of my mind : Seignior Inglese,’^ says he, those 
 fellows must be encouraged, or they will ruin us all ; for if the Tartars 
 come on, they will never stand.^^ I am of your niind,’^ said I, ‘‘but 
 what must be done?^’ “Done,” said he; “let fifty of our men 
 advance, and flank them on each wing, and encourage them, and they 
 will fight like brave fellows in brave company ; but without, every 
 man will turn his back. Accordingly fifty of us marched to the right 
 wing, and fifty to the left, and the rest made a line of support ; and 
 BO we marched, leaving the last two hundred men as a reserve to guard 
 the camels, and, if need were, to assist the last fifty. 
 
 The Tartars came on in an innumerable company. They viewed our 
 posture, traversing the ground in the front of our line ; and as we 
 found them within gun-shot, our leader ordered the two wings to 
 advance swiftly, and give them a salvo on each wing with their shot, 
 which was done ; but they went ofiP, I suppose to give an account of 
 the reception they had met with ; for the party halted, stood awhile, 
 as if to consider, and, wheeling off to the left, they gave over their 
 design. 
 
 Two days after this we came to the city of Naun, or IS’aum. We 
 thanked the governor for his care for us, and collected to the value of 
 one hundred crowns, or thereabouts, which we gave to the soldiers sent 
 to guard us ; and here we rested one day. After this we passed several 
 great rivers, and two dreadful deserts, one of which we were sixteen 
 days passing over, and which, as I said, was to be called ISTo Man’s 
 Land ; and on the 13th of April we came to the frontiers of the 
 Muscovite dominions. I think the first city, or town, or fortress, 
 whatever it might be ■ called, that belonged to the Czar of Muscovy, 
 was called Argun, being on the west side of the river Argun. 
 
 I could not but feel an infinite satisfaction that I was arrived in a 
 Christian country, or, at least, in a country governed by Christians ; 
 for though the Muscovites do, in my opinion, but just deserve the name 
 of Christians, it is a blessing to be brought into a country where the 
 name of God, and of a Eedeemer, is known, worshipped, and adored. 
 
 Yet I soon found out that while the garrisons a'nd governor of these 
 countries were Eussians, and professed Christians, the inhabitants 
 of the country were mere pagans, sacrificing to idols, and worshipping 
 the sun, moon, and stars, or all the host of heaven; and not only 
 so, but were, of all the heathens and pagans that ever I met with, 
 the most barbarous, except only that they did not eat man’s flesh, 
 
of liohinson Crusoe, SiU 
 
 as our savages of America did. Between Arguna, where we entered 
 the Muscovite dominions, and tl.e mixed Eussian and Tartar city of 
 Kertzinskay, which took us twenty days, I got so disgusted with the 
 mummeries performed before one of their idols, at a village near the 
 town, that I rode up to the image or monster, call it what you will, 
 and with my sword cut the bonnet that was on its head in two in the 
 middle, so that it hung down by one of the horns ; and one of our 
 men that was with me, took hold of the sheep- skin that covered it, and 
 pulled at it, when, behold, a most hideous outcry and howling run 
 through the village, and two or three hundred people came about my 
 ears, so that I was glad to scour for it ; for we saw some had bows 
 and arrows ; but I resolved from that moment to visit them again. 
 Accordingly, when our caravan rested three nights at ETertzinskay, 
 which was about four miles off, I communicated my project to the 
 Scots merchant of Moscow, of whose courage I had had sufficient 
 testimony. I told him what I had seen, and my indignation, and my 
 resolution. If I could get but four or five men well armed to go with 
 me to go and destroy that abominable idol ; and let them see that it 
 had no power to help itself, much less help them that offered sacrifices 
 to it. 
 
 He laughed at me, but finding me resolute, he told me, he would go 
 with me ; and bring a stout fellow, one of his countrymen, to go also 
 with us j one, says he, as famous for his zeal as you can desire. In a 
 word, he brought me his comrade, a Scotsman, whom he called Captain 
 Eichardson ; and we agreed to go, only us three, and my only man 
 servant, and the very next night about midnight, the caravan being to 
 set forward in the morning, the Scots merchant brought a Tartarus robe 
 of sheep-skins, and a bonnet, with a bow and arrows, and had provided 
 the same for himself and his countryman, so that the people, if they 
 saw us, should not be able to determine who we were. Having mixed 
 up some combustible matter with aqua- vitas, gunpowder, and such other 
 materials as wo could get, and having a good quantity of tar in a little 
 pot, about an hour after night set in, we set out upon our expedition. 
 
 We came to the place about eleven o’clock at night, and found that 
 the people had not the least jealousy of danger attending their idol ; 
 the night was cloudy, yet the moon gave us light enough to see that 
 the idol stood just in the same posture and place that it did before. 
 The people seemed to be all at their rest; only that in the great hut, 
 wrsaw the three priests, and some five or six with them.! we concluded, 
 therefore, that if we set the wild-fire to the idol, these men would 
 come out immediately, and run up to the place to rescue it from the 
 
320 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 destruction that we intended for it. It was too bulky to be carried away, 
 so we were at a loss again. Well then/’ said the Scots merchant, 
 I will tell you what we will do ; we will try to take them prisoners, 
 tie their hands behind them, and make them stand still, and see their 
 idol destroyed.” 
 
 We knocked gently, and seized them as they came out, and imme- 
 diately tied them. The last of them stepping back, and crying out, my 
 Scots merchant went in after him, and taking out a composition we had 
 made, that would only smoke and stink, he set fire to it, and threw it 
 among them s by that time the other Scotsman and my man taking 
 charge of the two men who were already bound, and tied together also by 
 the arm, led them away to the idol, and left them there. The fuze we had 
 thrown in, soon filled the hut with so much smoke, that they were almost 
 sufibcated; we then threw in a small leather bag of another kind, which 
 flamed like a candle, and, following it in, we found there were but four 
 
 people left, two men and two women, engaged, as we supposed, about 
 some of their diabolic sacrifices. They appeared, in short, frighted to 
 death, at least so as to sit trembling and stupid, and not able to speak,, 
 neither, for the smoke. We bound them as we had the other, and all 
 without any noise. When we had done this, and carried them all together 
 to the idol, we fell to work, and first daubed it all over with tar, and 
 such other stuff as we had, then we stopped his eyes, and ears, and 
 mouth with gunpowder ; and wrapped up a great piece of wild-fire in 
 his bonnet j and then sticking all the combustibles we had brought 
 with us upon him, we looked about to see if we could find anything 
 
. '•“' " •'' o' 
 
 ■ *s 
 
THE Thf?KE TARTAR MESSENGERS. 
 
321 
 
 of Hobinson Crusoe. 
 
 else to help to bmn him ; when my man remembered, that by the tent, 
 Dr hut, where the men were, there lay a heap of dry forage, which he and 
 one of the Scotsmen run and fetched their arms full of. Now we 
 took all our prisoners, and brought them, having untied their feet and 
 ungagged their mouths, and set them just before their monstrous idol, 
 and then set fire to the whole. 
 
 We stayed by it a quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, till the powder 
 in the eyes, and mouth, and ears of the idol blew up, and, we could 
 perceive, had split and deformed the shape ; and, in a word, till we 
 saw it burn into a mere block or log of wood ; and then setting the 
 dry forage. to it, we found it would be quite consumed ; when we began 
 to think of going away ; but the Scotsman said, “ No, we must not go ; 
 for these poor deluded wretches will all throw themselves into the fire, 
 and burn themselves with the idol.” So we resolved to stay till the 
 forage was burnt down too, and then we came away and left them. 
 
 In the morning we appeared among our fellow travellers, exceeding 
 busy in getting ready for our journey; nor could any man suppose that 
 we had been anywhere but in our beds. Eut it did not end so ; the 
 next day came a great multitude of the country people, not only of this 
 village, but of a hundred more, for aught I know, to the town gates ; 
 and, in a most outrageous manner, demanded satisfaction of the Eussian 
 governor, for the insulting their priests, and burning their great Cham- 
 Chi-Thaungu. 
 
 The governor told them there was a caravan gone towards Eussia 
 that morning, and the caravan having a hint from the governor, 
 marched two days and two nights without any considerable stop, 
 fortunately taking the south side of the Lake Schanhs Oscer, while 
 the pursuers took the north. After journeying three days, they 
 found their mistake, and came pouring in upon us, towards the dusk 
 one evening. The enemy did not come on us like thieves, as we 
 expected, but sent three messengers to demand the men to be delivered 
 to them, that had abused their priests. The leader of the caravan sent 
 word that he was well assured it was not done by any of our camp ; 
 that we were peaceable merchants, and we had done no harm to them, 
 or to any one else; and that therefore thay must look farther for their 
 enemies. They were far from being satisfied with this for an answer ; 
 but a cunning fellow, a Cossack, in the pay of the Muscovites, relieved 
 us from this great danger. Taking his bow and arrows, and getting 
 on horseback, he rides away from our rear back, taking a great circuit, 
 and coming to the army of the Tartars, as if he had been sent- express 
 aftei them, he tells them that the people who had burnt their Cham- 
 
 Y 
 
322 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 Chi-Thaungu were gone to Sibeilka, a town four or five days to the 
 south, with another caravan. In less than three hours they were 
 entirely out of our sight, and we never heard any more of them, hut 
 passed safely on to the city of Jarawena. From this city we had a 
 frightful desert, which held us three-and-twenty days’ march. After 
 we had passed this desert, we came into a country pretty well inhabited. 
 After this we had to pass the nation of the Tongueses. Having passed 
 through this country, and another desert of at least four hundred miles, 
 we came to Janezay, a Muscovite city or station, on the great river of that 
 name, which, they told us, parted Europe from Asia. From this river to 
 the great river Ohy, we crossed a wild uncultivated country, whither 
 the Muscovite criminals, that are not put to death, are banished. 
 
 I have nothing material to say of my particular affairs, till I’ came 
 to Tobolsk!, the capital city of Siberia, where I thought it much my 
 better way to let the caravan go on, and to make provision to winter 
 where I was, in the latitude of sixty degrees. This being the country 
 where the state criminals of Muscovy are all banished, this city was 
 full of noblemen, princes, gentlemen, colonels, and, in short, all degrees 
 of the nobility, gentry, soldiery, and courtiers of Muscovy. Here was 
 the famous Prince Galitzen, the old general Eobostisky, and several 
 other persons of note, and some ladies. 
 
 By means of my Scots merchant, who, nevertheless, I parted with 
 here, I made an acquaintance with several of these gentlemen, and 
 some of them of the first rank ; and from these, in the long winter 
 nights, in which I stayed here, I received several very agreeable visits. 
 
 Among others the Prince , one ,of the banished ministers of 
 
 state belonging to the Czar of Muscovy. My measures being fixed, for 
 Archangel, and not for Muscovy, or the Baltic, about the latter end of 
 May, I began to pack up. Before leaving I sent my servant to the prince, 
 with a small present of tea, and two pieces of China damask, and four 
 little wedges of Japan gold, which did not all weigh above six ounces, 
 or thereabout ; but were far short of the value of his sables, which, 
 indeed, when I came to England, I found worth near two hundred 
 pounds. He accepted the tea and one piece of the damask, and one of 
 the pieces of gold, which had a fine stamp upon it, of the Japan 
 coinage, which I found he took for the rarity of it, but would not take 
 any more, and he sent word by my servant that he desired to speak 
 with me. Thinking how easy it would have been to have taken any 
 of these exiles with me, I had proposed to the prince to make his 
 escape with me, engaging to put him on board an English or Dutch 
 ship, which he had declined. 
 
of Robinson Crusoe. H23 
 
 When I came to him, he told me, I knew what had passed between 
 us, and hoped I would not move him any more in that affair ; but that 
 since I had made such a generous offer to him, he asked me if I had 
 kindness enough to offer the same to another person that he would 
 name to me, in whom he took a great interest. I told him that I could 
 not say I inclined to do so much for any one but himself, for whom I 
 had a particular respect, and should have been glad to have been the 
 instrument of his deliverance ; however, if he would please to name 
 the person to me, I would give him my answer, and hoped he would 
 not be displeased with me, if he was with my answer. He told me it 
 was only his son, who, though I had not seen, was in the same condition 
 with himself, and above two hundred miles from him, on the other side 
 the Oby ; but that, if I consented, he would send for him. 
 
 I made no hesitation, ^but told him I would do it. I made some 
 ceremony in letting him understand that it was wholly on his account ; 
 and that seeing I could not prevail on him, I would show my respect 
 to him by my concern for his son ; but these things are too tedious to 
 repeat here. He sent away the next day for his son, and in about 
 twenty days he came back with the messenger, bringing six or seven 
 horses loaded with very rich furs, and which, in the whole, amounted 
 to a very great value. His servants brought the horses into the 
 town, but left the young lord at a distance till night, when he came 
 incognito into our apartment, and his father presented him to me ; and, 
 in short, we concerted there the manner of our travelling, and every 
 thing proper for the journey. 
 
 It was the beginning of J une when I left this remote place, a city, 
 I believe, little heard of in the world ; and, indeed, it is so far out of 
 the road of commerce, that I know not how it should be talked of. 
 We now formed a very small caravan, being only thirty- two horses and 
 camels in all, and all of them passed for mine, though my new guest 
 was proprietor of eleven of them. It was most natural, also, that I 
 should take more servants with me than I had before, and the young 
 lord passed for my steward ; what great man I passed for myself I 
 forget now. We had here the worst and the largest desert to pass 
 over that we met with in all the journey ; indeed I call it the worst, 
 because the way was very deep in some places, and very uneven in 
 others ; the best we had to say for it, was, that we thought we 
 had no troops of Tartars and robbers to fear, for they never came 
 on this side the river Oby, or at least but very seldom ; but we found 
 it otherwise. 
 
 My young lord had with him a faithful Muscovite servant, or rather 
 
324 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 a Siberian servant, who was perfectly acquainted with the country ; 
 and led us by private roads, so that we avoided coming into the prin- 
 cipal towns and cities upon the great road, such as Tumen, Soloy 
 Kamaskoy, and several others ; where the Muscovite garrisons are 
 very curious and strict in their observation upon travellers, fearing 
 lest any of the banished persons of note should make their escape 
 that way into Muscovy ; by this means, as we were kept out of the 
 cities, so our whole journey was through a desert, and we were obliged 
 to encamp and lie in our tents. 
 
 We entered Europe, having passed the river Kama, which, in these 
 parts, is the boundary between Europe and Asia ; and the first city on 
 the European side was called Soloy Kamaskoy, the great city on the river 
 Kama ; beyond this, we had a vast desert to pass, which, by relation, 
 is near seven hundred miles long in some places, and covered with 
 forests. In passing this forest, after all our danger had in imagination 
 disappeared, I thought we must have been plundered and robbed, and 
 even murdered by a troop of thieves ; of what country they were, whether 
 the roving bands of the Ostiachi, or wild people on the bank of the 
 Oby, who had ranged thus far ; or whether they were the sable-hunters 
 of Siberia, I am at a loss to know ; but they were all on horseback, 
 carried bows and arrows, and were at first about five-and-forty in 
 number ; they came within about two musket shot of us, surrounding 
 us with their horse, and looked very earnestly upon us ; upon which 
 we drew up in a little line before our camels, being sixteen men in all. 
 I did not feel that we were quite safe where we were, but at about a 
 quarter of a mile’s distance off on our left, was a little grove or clump of 
 trees, which stood close together, and very near the road ; I immediately 
 resolved to advance to those trees, and fortify ourselves there as well 
 as we could. We advanced immediately with what speed we. could, 
 and gained that little wood, the Tartars making no attempt to hinder 
 us. When we came thither, we found, to our great satisfaction, that 
 it was a swampy, springy piece of ground, and, on the one side, a 
 very great spring of water, which running out in a little rill or brook, 
 was a little farther off joined by another of the like bigness; it was, in 
 short, the head or source of a considerable river, called the Wirtska. 
 The trees growing about this spring were -not above two hundred, 
 but were very large and stood pretty thick ; so that as soon as we got 
 in, we saw ourselves perfectly safe from the enemy, unless they alighted 
 and attacked us on foot. 
 
 Eut to make this more difficult, our Portuguese, with indefatigable 
 application, cut down great arms of the trees, and laitl them hanging, 
 
of Bohinson Crusoe, 325 
 
 not cut quite off, from one tree to another ; so that he made a continued 
 fence almost round us. 
 
 We stayed here, waiting the motion of the enemy some hours, without 
 perceiving they made any motion ; when about two hours before night, 
 they came down directly upon us ; and though we had not perceived 
 it, we now found, that they had been joined by some more, so that 
 they were near fourscore horse, whereof, however, we fancied some 
 were women. They came on till they were within half shot of our 
 little wood, when we fired one musket without ball, and called to them 
 in the Eussian tongue, to know what they wanted, and bid them keep ‘ 
 off ; but they came on with a double fury directly up to the wood-side, 
 not imagining we were barricaded that they could not break in ; our 
 old pilot was our captain, as well as he had been our engineer ; and 
 desired us not to fire upon them till they came within pistol shot, 
 and that we might be sure to kill : he gave the word to fire when 
 some of them were only within two pikes’ length of us, and we aimed 
 
 so true, that we killed fourteen of them, and wounded several others as 
 also several of their horses ; for we had all of us loaded our pieces 
 with two or three bullets. 
 
 They were terribly surprised with our fire, and retreated immediately 
 about one hundred rods from us ; in which time we loaded our pieces 
 again, and seeing them keep that distance, we sallied out, and catched 
 four or five of their horses, whose riders, we suppose, were killed ; and 
 coming up to the dead, we could easily perceive they were Tartars, 
 
326 
 
 The Life and Adventures 
 
 but knew not from what country, or how they came to make an 
 excursion such an unusual length. 
 
 About an hour after, they made a motion to attack us again, and 
 rode round our little wood, to see where else they might break in; but 
 finding us always ready to face them, they went off again. We slept 
 little, you may be sure ; but spent the most part of the night in 
 strengthening our situation, and barricading the entrances into the 
 wood ; keeping a strict watch, we waited for day-light, and, when it 
 came, it gave us a very unwelcome discovery indeed : for the enemy, 
 who, we thought, were discouraged with the reception they had met 
 with, were now increased to no less than three hundred, and had set 
 up eleven or twelve huts and tents, as if they were resolved to besiege 
 us ; and this little camp they had pitched upon the open plain, at 
 about three quarters of a mile from us. This was a terrible discovery ; 
 I gave myself over for lost. As for my partner he was raging : he 
 declared, that to lose his goods would be his ruin ; and he would rather 
 die than be starved ; and he was for fighting it out. The young lord 
 also, as gallant as ever flesh showed itself, was for fighting to the last 
 also ; and my old pilot was of opinion that we were able to resist them 
 all ; but towards evening, we found that the number of our enemies still 
 increased : perhaps, as they were abroad in several parties for prey, the 
 first had sent out scouts to call for help, and to acquaint the others of 
 the booty; and we did not know but by the morniug they might still 
 be a greater number ; so I began to inquire of those people we had 
 brought from Tobolsk!, if there was no other or more private ways, by 
 which we might avoid them in the night, and perhaps, either retreat to 
 some town, or get help to guard us over the desert. 
 
 The Siberian told us, if we wished to avoid them, and not fight, he 
 would engage to carry us off in the night to a way that went north 
 towards the Petraz, by which he made no question but we might get 
 away, and the Tartars never the wiser ; but he said, his lord had told 
 him he would not retreat, but would rather fight. Having satisfied 
 him that his master knew better than to require sixteen men to fight 
 four hundred, we prepared for departure. As soon as it began to 
 be dark, we kindled a fire in our little camp, which we kept burning, 
 and prepared so as to make it burn all night, that the Tartars might 
 conclude we were still there ; but, as soon as we could see the stars 
 (for our guide would not stir before), having all our horses and camels 
 ready laden, we followed our new guide, who, I soon found, steered 
 himself by the pole, or north star, all the country being level for a 
 long way. ^ 
 
MOVING OFF ^\T DARK 
 
% 
 
827 
 
 of liohinson Crusoe. 
 
 When we had travelled very hard for two hours, it began to be 
 lighter still ; not that it was quite dark all night, but the moon began 
 to rise,’ so that, in short, it was rather lighter than we wished it to be; 
 but by six o’clock the next morning we were forty miles off, though 
 the truth is, we almost spoiled our horses. Here we found a Russian 
 village, named Kirmazinskoy, where we rested, and heard nothing of 
 the Kalmuck Tartars that day. About two hours before night we set 
 ■out again, and travelled till eight the next morning, though not quite so 
 hard as before ; and about seven o’clock we passed a little river, called 
 Kirtza, and came to a large towm inhabited by Russians, and very 
 populous, called Ozomys. There we heard, that several troops, or 
 hordes of Kalmucks had been abroad upon the desert, but that we 
 were now completely out of danger from them. Here we were obliged 
 to get some fresh horses, and having need enough of rest, we stayed five 
 days; my partner and I agreeing to give the honest Siberian, who 
 brought us thither, the value of ten pistoles for his conduct. 
 
 In five days more we came to Yeussima, upon the river Witzogda, 
 and running into the Dwina ; we were very happily near the end of 
 our travels by land, that river being navigable in seven days’ passage to 
 Archangel: from hence we came to Lawrenskoy, the third of July; 
 and providing ourselves with two luggage-boats, and a barge, for our 
 own convenience, we embarked the seventh, and arrived all safe at Arch- 
 angel the eighteenth, having been a year and five months and three 
 days on the journey, including our stay of eight months and odd days 
 at Tobolski. 
 
 We were obliged to stay at this place six weeks for the arrival of 
 the ships, and must have tarried longer, had no*t a Hamburgher come 
 in above a month sooner than any of the English ships ; considering 
 that the city of Hamburgh might happen to be as good a market for 
 our goods as London, we all took freight with him ; and having put my 
 goods on board, it was most natural for me to put my steward on board 
 to take care of them ; by which means my young lord had a sufficient 
 opportunity to conceal himself, never coming on shore in all the time 
 we stayed there ; and this he did, that he might not be seen in the city, 
 where some of the Moscow merchants would certainly have seen and 
 discovered him. 
 
 We sailed from Archangel the twentieth of August the same year; 
 and, after no extraordinary bad voyage, arrived in the Elbe the 
 thirteenth of September. Here my partner and I found a very 
 good sale for our goods, as well those of China as the sables, &c. of 
 Siberia ; and dividing the produce of our effects, my share amounted 
 
328 The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 
 
 to £3,475 175. Zd. notwithstanding so many losses we had sustained, 
 and charges we had been at; only remenihering that I had included 
 in this about six hundred pounds worth of diamonds which I had 
 purchased at Bengal 
 
 Here the young lord took his leave of us, and went up the Elbe, in 
 order to go to the court of Yiema, where he resolved to seek protection, 
 and where he could corresponowith those of his father’s friends who 
 were left alive. He did not part without all the testimonies he could 
 give me of gratitude for the service I had done him, and his sense of- 
 my kindness to the prince his father. 
 
 To conclude : having stayed near four months in Hamburgh, I came 
 from thence overland to the Hague, where I embarked in the packet, 
 and arrived in London the 10th of January, 1705, having been gone 
 from England ten years and nine months. 
 
 And here, resolving to harass myself no more, I am preparing for a 
 longer journey than aU these, having lived seventy-two years a life of 
 infinite variety, and learned sufficiently to know the value of retirement, 
 and the blessing of ending our days in peace. 
 
 THE END.