CHAPTER I - START IN LIFE
I 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
afterwards at York, from whence he had married my
mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very
good family in that country, and from whom I was called
Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of
words in England, we are now called - nay we call
ourselves and write our name - Crusoe; and so my
companions always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-
colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders,
formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart,
and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the
Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never
knew, any more than my father or mother 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
thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me
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a competent share of learning, as far as house-education
and a country free school generally go, and designed me
for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but
going to sea; and my inclination to this led me so strongly
against the will, nay, the commands of my father, and
against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and
other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in
that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of
misery which was to befall me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and
excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design.
He called me one morning into his chamber, where he
was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly
with me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons,
more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving
father's house and my native country, where I might be
well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune
by application and industry, with a life of ease and
pleasure. He told me it was 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
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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 - viz.
that this was the state of life which all other people envied;
that kings have frequently lamented the miserable
consequence of being born to great things, and wished
they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes,
between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave
his testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he
prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.
He bade me observe it, and I should always find that
the calamities of life were shared among the upper and
lower part of mankind, but that the middle station had the
fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many
vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay,
they were not subjected to so many distempers and
uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those were who,
by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one
hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or
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insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper upon
themselves by the natural consequences of their way of
living; that the middle station of life was calculated for all
kind of virtue and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and
plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that
temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all
agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the
blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way
men went silently and smoothly through the world, and
comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours of
the hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for
daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances,
which rob the soul of peace and the body of rest, nor
enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burning
lust of ambition for great things; but, in easy
circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and
sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter;
feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's
experience to know it more sensibly,
After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most
affectionate manner, not to play the young man, nor to
precipitate myself into miseries which nature, and the
station of life I was born in, seemed to have provided
against; that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread;
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that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me
fairly into the station of life which he had just been
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 from going
into the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his
young desires prompting him to run into the army, where
he was killed; and though he said he would not cease to
pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that if I
did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I
should 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 himself - I say, I observed the tears run down
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his face very plentifully, especially when he spoke of my
brother who was killed: and that when he spoke of my
having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so
moved that he broke off the discourse, and told me his
heart was so full he could say no more to me.
I was sincerely affected with this discourse, and, indeed,
who could be otherwise? and I resolved not to think of
going abroad any more, but to settle at home according to
my father's desire. But alas! a few days wore it all off; and,
in short, to prevent any of my father's further
importunities, in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite
away from him. However, I did not act quite so hastily as
the first heat of my resolution prompted; but I took my
mother at a time when I thought her a little more pleasant
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; that I was sure if I did I should never serve
out my time, but I should certainly run away from my
master before my time was out, and go to sea; and if she
would speak to my father to let me go one voyage abroad,
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if I came home again, and did not like it, I would go no
more; and I would promise, by a double diligence, to
recover the time that 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 the discourse I had had with my father,
and such kind and tender expressions as she knew my
father had used to me; and that, in short, if I would ruin
myself, there was no help for me; but I might depend I
should never have their consent to it; that for her part she
would not have so much hand in my destruction; and I
should never have it to say that my mother was willing
when my father was not.
Though my mother refused to move it to my father,
yet I heard afterwards that she reported all the discourse to
him, and that my father, after 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 ever was born: I can give no
consent to it.'
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It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose,
though, in the meantime, I continued obstinately deaf to
all proposals of settling to business, and frequently
expostulated with my father and mother about their being
so positively determined against what they knew my
inclinations prompted me to. But being one day at Hull,
where I went casually, and without any purpose of making
an elopement at 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, 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 1st of September 1651, I
went on board a ship bound for London. Never any
young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe, began sooner,
or continued longer than mine. The ship was no sooner
out of the Humber than the wind began to blow and the
sea to rise in a most frightful manner; and, as I had never
been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body
and terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect
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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
counsels 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 since, reproached me with the
contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God
and my father.
All this while the storm increased, and the sea went
very high, though nothing like what I have seen many
times since; no, nor what I saw a few days after; but it was
enough to affect me then, who was but a young sailor, and
had never known anything of the matter. I expected every
wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time
the ship fell down, as I thought it did, in the trough or
hollow of the sea, we should never rise more; in this
agony of mind, I made many vows and resolutions that if
it would please God to spare my life in this one voyage, if
ever I got once my foot upon dry land again, I would go
directly home to my father, and never set it into a ship
again while I lived; that I would take his advice, and never
run myself into such miseries as these any more. Now I
saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the
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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 lasted, and indeed some time after; but the next
day the wind was abated, and the sea calmer, and I began
to be a little inured to it; however, I was very grave for all
that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards night
the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a
charming fine 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 delightful that ever
I saw.
I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-
sick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea
that was so rough and terrible the day before, and could be
so calm and so pleasant in so little a time after. And now,
lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion,
who had 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, wer'n't you, last night,
when it blew but a capful of wind?' `A capful d'you call
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it?' said I; ``twas a terrible storm.' `A storm, you fool you,'
replies he; `do you call that a storm? why, it was nothing
at all; give us but a good ship and sea-room, and we think
nothing of such a squall of wind as that; but you're but a
fresh-water sailor, Bob. Come, let us make a bowl of
punch, and we'll forget all that; d'ye see what charming
weather `tis now?' To make short this sad part of my story,
we went the way of all sailors; the punch was made and I
was made half drunk with it: and in that one night's
wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my
reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for
the future. In a word, as the sea was returned to its
smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the
abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts
being over, my fears and apprehensions of being
swallowed up by the sea being forgotten, and the current
of my former desires returned, I entirely forgot the vows
and promises that I made in my distress. I found, indeed,
some intervals of reflection; and the serious thoughts did,
as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I
shook them off, and roused myself from them as it were
from a distemper, and applying myself to drinking and
company, soon mastered the return of those fits - for so I
called them; and I had in five or six days got as complete a
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victory over conscience as any young fellow that resolved
not to be troubled with it could desire. But I was to have
another trial for it still; and Providence, as in such cases
generally it does, resolved to leave me entirely without
excuse; for if I would not take this for a deliverance, the
next was to be such a one as the worst and most hardened
wretch among us would confess both the danger and the
mercy of.
The sixth day of our being at sea we came into
Yarmouth Roads; the wind having been contrary and the
weather calm, we had made but little way since the storm.
Here we were obliged to come to an anchor, and here we
lay, the wind continuing contrary - viz. at south-west - for
seven or eight days, during which time a great many ships
from Newcastle came into the same Roads, as the
common harbour where the ships might wait for a wind
for the river.
We had not, however, rid here so long but we should
have tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too
fresh, and 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
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mirth, after the manner of the sea; but the eighth day, in
the morning, the wind increased, and we had all hands at
work to strike our topmasts, and make everything snug
and close, that the ship might ride as easy as possible. By
noon the sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode
forecastle in, shipped several seas, and we thought once or
twice our anchor had come home; upon which our master
ordered out the sheet-anchor, so that we rode with two
anchors ahead, and the cables veered out to the bitter 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 master, though vigilant in the
business of preserving the ship, yet as he went in and out
of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly to himself say,
several times, `Lord be merciful to us! we shall be all lost!
we shall be all undone!' and the like. During these first
hurries I was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in
the steerage, and cannot describe my temper: I could ill
resume the first penitence which I had so apparently
trampled upon and hardened myself against: I thought the
bitterness of death had been past, and that this would be
nothing 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
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looked out; but such a dismal sight I never saw: the sea ran
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 rode near us, we found,
had cut their masts by the board, being deep laden; and
our men cried out that a ship which rode about a mile
ahead of us was foundered. Two more ships, being driven
from their anchors, were run out of the Roads to sea, at all
adventures, and that with not a mast standing. The light
ships fared the best, as not so much labouring in the sea;
but two or three of them drove, and came close by us,
running away with only their 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 unwilling to do; but the boatswain
protesting to him that if he did not the ship would
founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the
fore-mast, the main-mast stood so loose, and shook the
ship so much, they were obliged to cut that away also, and
make a clear deck.
Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all
this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in
such a fright before at but a little. But if I can express at
this distance the thoughts I had about me at that time, I
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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; 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 themselves
acknowledged they had never seen a worse. We had a
good ship, but she was deep laden, and wallowed in the
sea, so 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 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
to see cried out we had sprung a leak; another said there
was four feet water in the hold. Then all hands were called
to the pump. At that word, my heart, as I thought, died
within me: and I fell backwards upon the side of my bed
where I sat, into the cabin. However, the men roused me,
and told me that I, that was able to do nothing before, was
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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 come near us, ordered to fire a
gun as a signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what they
meant, thought the ship had broken, or some dreadful
thing happened. In a word, I was so surprised that I fell
down in a swoon. As this was a time when everybody had
his own life to think of, nobody minded me, or what was
become of me; but another man stepped up to the pump,
and thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I
had been dead; and it was a great while before I came to
myself.
We worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it
was apparent that the ship would founder; and though the
storm began to abate a little, yet it was not possible she
could swim till we might run into any port; so the master
continued firing guns for help; and a light ship, who had
rid it out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help us.
It was with the utmost hazard the boat came near us; but it
was impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to lie
near the ship's side, till at last the men rowing very
heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men
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cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then
veered it out a great length, which they, after much labour
and hazard, took hold of, and we hauled them close under
our stern, and got all into their boat. It was to no purpose
for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think of
reaching their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and
only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could; and
our master promised them, that if the boat was staved
upon shore, he would make it good to their master: so
partly rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to
the northward, sloping towards the shore almost as far as
Winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out
of our ship till 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 the
moment that they rather put me into the boat than that I
might be said to go in, my heart was, as it were, dead
within me, partly with fright, partly with horror of mind,
and the thoughts of what was yet before me.
While we were in this condition - the men yet
labouring at the oar to bring the boat near the shore - we
could see (when, our boat mounting the waves, we were
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able to see the shore) a great many people running along
the strand 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 lighthouse 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 humanity, as well by the magistrates of the
town, who assigned us good quarters, as by particular
merchants and owners of ships, and had money given us
sufficient to carry us either to London or back to Hull as
we thought fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull,
and have gone home, I had been happy, and my father, as
in our blessed Saviour's parable, had even killed the fatted
calf for me; for hearing the ship I went away in was cast
away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great while before he
had any assurances that I was not drowned.
But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy
that nothing could resist; and though I had several times
loud calls from my reason and my more composed
judgment to go home, yet I had no power to do it. I
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know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret
overruling decree, that hurries us on to be the instruments
of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and
that we rush upon it with our eyes open. Certainly,
nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery, which
it was impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me
forward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my
most retired thoughts, and against two such visible
instructions as I had met with in my first attempt.
My comrade, who had helped to harden me before,
and who was the master's son, was now less forward than
I. The first time he spoke to me after we were at
Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for we
were separated in the town to several quarters; I say, the
first time he saw me, it appeared his tone was altered; and,
looking very melancholy, and shaking his head, he 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
further abroad, his father, turning to me with a very grave
and concerned tone `Young man,' says he, `you ought
never to go to sea any more; you ought to take this for a
plain and visible token that you are not to be a seafaring
man.' `Why, sir,' said I, `will you go to sea no more?'
`That is another case,' said he; `it is my calling, and
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therefore my duty; but as you made this voyage on trial,
you see what a taste Heaven has given you of what you
are to expect if you persist. Perhaps this has all befallen us
on your account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray,'
continues he, `what are you; and on what account did you
go to sea?' Upon that I told him some of my story; at the
end of which he burst out into a strange kind of passion:
`What had I done,' says he, `that such an unhappy wretch
should come into my ship? I would not set my foot in the
same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds.' This
indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which
were yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther
than he could have authority to go. However, he
afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorting me to go
back to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin,
telling 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 knew 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
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many struggles with myself what course of life I should
take, and whether I should go home or 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 - viz. 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 away 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 return wore off with it, till
at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out
for a voyage.
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CHAPTER II - SLAVERY AND
ESCAPE
THAT evil influence which carried me first away from
my father's house - which hurried me into the wild and
indigested notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed
those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to
all good advice, and to the entreaties and even the
commands 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 a vessel
bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly
called it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might
indeed have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at
the same time I should have learnt 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
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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 misguided 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 got 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. This captain 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, plain-
dealing man, I went the voyage with him, and carried a
small adventure with me, which, by the disinterested
honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very
considerably; for I carried about 40 pounds in such toys
and trifles as the captain directed me to buy. These 40
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pounds I had mustered together by the assistance of some
of my relations whom I corresponded with; and who, I
believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to
contribute so much as that to my first adventure.
This was the only voyage which I may say was
successful in all my adventures, which I owe to the
integrity and honesty of my friend the captain; under
whom also I got a competent knowledge of the
mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how to
keep an account of the ship's course, take an observation,
and, in short, to understand some things that were needful
to be understood by a sailor; for, as he took delight to
instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word, this
voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant; for I
brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for
my adventure, which yielded me in London, at my return,
almost 300 pounds; and this filled me with those aspiring
thoughts which have since so completed my ruin.
Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too;
particularly, that I was continually sick, being thrown into
a violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate;
our principal trading being upon the coast, from latitude
of 15 degrees north even to the line itself.
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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 pounds of my new-gained wealth, so
that I had 200 pounds left, which I had lodged with my
friend's widow, who was very just to me, yet I fell into
terrible misfortunes. The first was this: 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 get clear; but finding the pirate gained
upon us, and would certainly come up with us in a few
hours, we prepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns,
and the 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
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small shot from near two hundred men which he had on
board. However, we had not a man touched, all our men
keeping close. He prepared to attack us again, and we to
defend ourselves. But laying us on board the next time
upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men upon our
decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the
sails 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 was now so
effectually brought to pass that I could not be worse; for
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now the hand of Heaven had overtaken me, and I was
undone without redemption; but, alas! this was but a taste
of the misery I was to go through, as will appear in the
sequel of this story.
As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to
his house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with
him when he went to sea again, believing that it would
some time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or
Portugal 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 lie in the cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what
method I might take to effect it, but found no way that
had the least probability in it; nothing presented to make
the supposition of it rational; for I had nobody to
communicate it to that would embark with me - no
fellow-slave, no Englishman, 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.
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After about two years, an odd circumstance presented
itself, which put the old thought of making some attempt
for my liberty again in my head. My patron lying at home
longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I
heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to
take the ship's pinnace and go out into the road a- fishing;
and as he always took me and 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 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 we were all very hungry.
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But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take
more care of himself for the future; and having lying by
him the longboat of our English ship that he had taken, he
resolved he would not go a- fishing any more without a
compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter
of his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little
state-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long- boat, like
that of a barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer, and
haul home the main-sheet; the room before for a hand or
two to stand and work the sails. She sailed with what we
call a shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed 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; and 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 happened 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 overnight a larger store
of provisions than ordinary; and had ordered me to get
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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 had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told
me his guests had put off going from 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 likely to have a
little ship at my command; and my master being gone, I
prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing business, but for
a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much as
consider, whither I should steer - anywhere to get out of
that place was my desire.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to
this Moor, to get something for our subsistence on board;
for I told him we must not presume to eat of our patron's
bread. He said that was true; so he brought a large basket
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of rusk or biscuit, and three jars of 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
beeswax into the boat, which weighed about half a
hundred-weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a
hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of 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, which they call Muley, or
Moely; so I called to him - `Moely,' 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 a pound and a half of powder, or rather more;
and another with shot, that had five or six pounds, with
some bullets, and put all into the boat. At the same time I
had found some powder of my master's in the great cabin,
with which I filled one of the large bottles in the case,
which was almost empty, pouring what was in it into
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another; and thus furnished with everything needful, we
sailed out of the port to fish. The castle, which is at the
entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took no
notice of us; and we were not above a mile out of the port
before we hauled in our sail and set us down to fish. The
wind blew from the N.N.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 reached to the bay 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 caught nothing - for
when I had fish on my hook I would not pull them up,
that he might not see them - I said to the Moor, `This will
not do; our master will not be thus served; we must stand
farther off.' He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in
the head of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I
ran the boat out near a league farther, and then brought
her to, as if I would fish; when, giving the boy the helm, I
stepped forward to where the Moor was, and making as if
I stooped for something behind him, I took him by
surprise with my arm under his waist, and tossed him clear
overboard into the sea. He rose immediately, for he swam
like a cork, and called to me, begged to be taken in, told
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me he would go all over the world with me. He swam so
strong after the boat that he would have reached me very
quickly, there being but little wind; upon which I stepped
into the cabin, and fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I
presented it at him, and told him I had done him no hurt,
and if he would be quiet I would do him none. `But,' said
I, `you swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the
sea is calm; make the best of your way to shore, and I will
do you no harm; but if you come near the boat I'll shoot
you through the head, for I am resolved to have my
liberty;' so he turned himself about, and swam for the
shore, and I make no doubt but he reached it with ease,
for he was an excellent swimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor
with me, and have drowned the boy, but there was no
venturing to trust him. When he was gone, I turned to the
boy, whom 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 distrust him, and
swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the world with
me.
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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 coast, where whole nations of negroes were sure
to surround us with their canoes and destroy us; where we
could not go on shore but we should be devoured by
savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind.
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed
my course, and steered directly south and by east, bending
my course a little towards the east, that I might keep in
with the shore; and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a
smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the
next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, when I first
made the land, I could not be less than one hundred and
fifty miles south of Sallee; quite beyond the Emperor of
Morocco's dominions, or indeed of any other king
thereabouts, for we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken of 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
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manner five days; and then 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 to the coast, and came to an anchor in
the mouth of a little river, I knew not what, nor where,
neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what
river. I neither saw, nor desired to see any people; the
principal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into
this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as
soon as it was dark, and discover the country; but as soon
as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadful noises of the
barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we
knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die
with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore till day.
`Well, Xury,' said I, `then I won't; but it may be that we
may see men by day, who will be as bad to us as those
lions.' `Then we give them the shoot gun,' says Xury,
laughing, `make them run wey.' Such English Xury spoke
by conversing among us slaves. However, I was glad to see
the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of our
patron's case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all, Xury's
advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our little
anchor, and lay still all night; I say still, for we slept none;
for in two or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we
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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 howlings and yellings, that I
never indeed heard the like.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too;
but we were both more frighted when we heard one of
these mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat;
we could not see him, but we might hear him by his
blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast. Xury
said it was a lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but
poor Xury cried to me to weigh the anchor and row
away; `No,' says I, `Xury; we can slip our cable, with the
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 stepped
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 horrid noises, and
hideous cries and howlings that were raised, as well upon
the edge of the shore as higher within the country, upon
the noise or report of the gun, a thing I have some reason
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to believe those creatures had never heard before: this
convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in
the night on that coast, and how to venture on shore in
the day was another question too; for to have fallen into
the hands of any of the savages had been as bad as to have
fallen into the hands of the 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 and where to get to it was the point.
Xury said, if I would let him go on shore with one of the
jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some
to me. I asked him why he would go? why I should not
go, and he stay in the boat? The boy answered with so
much affection as made me love him ever after. Says he,
`If wild mans come, they eat me, you go wey.' `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 so waded on shore, carrying nothing but our
arms and two jars for water.
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I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the
coming of canoes with savages down the river; but the
boy seeing a low place about a mile up the country,
rambled to it, and by-and-by I saw him come running
towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or
frighted with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards
him to help him; but when I came nearer to him I saw
something hanging over his shoulders, which was a
creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in
colour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it,
and it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor
Xury came with, was to tell me he had found good water
and seen no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such
pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where we
were we found the water fresh when the tide was out,
which flowed but a little way up; so we filled our jars, and
feasted on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go on
our way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature
in that part of the country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew
very well that the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de
Verde Islands also, lay not far off from the coast. But as I
had no instruments to take an observation to know what
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latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at least
remembering, 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 of these islands. But my hope was, that if I stood
along this coast till I came to that part where the English
traded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usual
design of trade, that would relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now
was must be that country which, lying between the
Emperor of Morocco's dominions and the negroes, lies
waste and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes
having abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the
Moors, and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by
reason of its barrenness; and indeed, both forsaking it
because of the prodigious 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
like an army, two or three thousand men at a time; and
indeed for near a hundred miles together upon this coast
we saw nothing but a waste, uninhabited country by day,
and heard nothing but howlings and roaring of wild beasts
by night.
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Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico
of Teneriffe, being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe
in the Canaries, and had a great mind to venture out, in
hopes of reaching thither; but having tried twice, I was
forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too
high for my little vessel; so, I resolved to pursue my first
design, and keep along the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after
we had left this place; and once in particular, being early
in morning, we came to an anchor under a little point of
land, which was pretty high; and the tide beginning to
flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes were
more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to
me, and tells me that we had best go farther off the shore;
`For,' says he, `look, yonder lies a dreadful monster on the
side of that hillock, fast asleep.' I looked where he
pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a
terrible, great lion that lay on the side of the shore, under
the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little
over him. `Xury,' says I, `you shall on shore and kill him.'
Xury, looked frighted, and said, `Me kill! he eat me at one
mouth!' - one mouthful he meant. However, I said no
more to the boy, but bade him lie still, and I took our
biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and loaded it
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with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and
laid it down; then I loaded another gun with two bullets;
and the third (for we had three pieces) I loaded with five
smaller bullets. I took the best aim I could with the first
piece to have shot him in 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 broken, fell down
again; and then got 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 in the head, and had the
pleasure to see him drop and make but little noise, but lie
struggling for life. Then Xury took heart, and would have
me let him go on shore. `Well, go,' said I: so the boy
jumped into the water and taking a little gun in one hand,
swam to shore with the other hand, and coming close to
the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and
shot him in the head again, which despatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I
was very sorry to lose three charges of powder and shot
upon a creature that was good for nothing to us.
However, Xury said he would have some of him; so he
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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 both up the whole day, but at last we got off the
hide of him, and spreading it on the top of our cabin, the
sun effectually dried it in two days' time, and it afterwards
served me to lie upon.
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CHAPTER III - WRECKED ON
A DESERT ISLAND
AFTER this stop, we made on to the southward
continually for ten or twelve days, living very sparingly on
our provisions, which began to abate very much, and
going no oftener to the shore than we were obliged to for
fresh water. My design in this was to make the river
Gambia or Senegal, that is to say anywhere about the
Cape de Verde, where I was in hopes to meet with some
European ship; and if I did not, I knew not what course I
had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there
among the negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe,
which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to Brazil, or
to the East Indies, made this cape, or those islands; and, in
a word, I put the whole of my fortune upon this single
point, either that I must meet with some ship or must
perish.
When I had pursued this resolution about ten days
longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land was
inhabited; and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we
saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we could
also perceive they were quite black and naked. I was once
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inclined to have gone on shore to them; but Xury was my
better counsellor, and said to me, `No go, no go.'
However, I hauled in nearer the shore that I might talk to
them, and I found they ran along the shore by me a good
way. I observed they had no weapons in their hand,
except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said
was a lance, and that they could 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 dried
flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their
country; but we neither knew what the one or the other
was; however, we were willing to accept it, but how to
come at it was our next dispute, for I would not venture
on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of us; but
they took a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the
shore and laid it down, and went and stood a great way off
till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us
again.
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We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing
to make them amends; but an opportunity offered that
very instant to oblige them wonderfully; for while we
were lying by the shore came two mighty creatures, one
pursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the
mountains towards the sea; whether it was the male
pursuing the female, or whether they were in sport or in
rage, we could not tell, any more than we could tell
whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it was the
latter; because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures
seldom appear but in the night; and, in the second place,
we found the people terribly frighted, especially the
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 offer to fall upon
any of the negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea,
and swam about, as if they had come for their diversion; at
last one of them began to come nearer our boat than at
first I expected; but I lay ready for him, for I had loaded
my gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load
both the others. As soon as he came fairly within my
reach, I fired, and shot him directly in the head;
immediately he sank down into the water, but rose
instantly, and plunged up and down, as if he were
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struggling for life, and so indeed he was; he immediately
made to the shore; but between the wound, which was his
mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died just
before he reached the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these
poor creatures at the noise and 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, and
began to search for the creature. I found him by his blood
staining the water; and by the help of a rope, which I
slung round him, and gave the negroes to haul, they
dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most
curious leopard, spotted, and fine to an admirable degree;
and the negroes held up their hands with admiration, to
think what it was I had killed him with.
The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and
the noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly
to the mountains from whence they came; nor could I, at
that distance, know what it was. I found quickly the
negroes wished to eat 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
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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, pointing
out that 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 provisions, which, though I did not
understand, yet I accepted. I then made signs to them for
some water, and held out one of my jars to them, turning
it bottom upward, to show that it was empty, and that I
wanted to have it filled. They called immediately to some
of their friends, and there came two women, and brought
a great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as I supposed, in
the sun, this they set down to me, as before, and I sent
Xury on shore with my jars, and filled them all three. The
women were as naked as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it
was, and water; and leaving my friendly negroes, I made
forward for about eleven days more, without offering to
go near the shore, till I saw the land run out a great length
into the sea, at about the distance of four or five leagues
before me; and the sea being very calm, I kept a large
offing to make this point. At length, doubling the point, at
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about two leagues from the land, I saw plainly land on the
other side, to seaward; then I concluded, as it was most
certain indeed, that this was the Cape de Verde, and those
the islands called, from thence, Cape de Verde Islands.
However, they were at a great distance, and I could not
well tell what I had best to do; for if I should be taken
with a fresh of wind, I might neither reach one or other.
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into
the cabin and sat 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, but I knew we were 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 negroes.
But, when I observed the course she 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 that they would be gone by
before I could make any signal to them: but after I had
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crowded to the utmost, and began to despair, they, it
seems, saw by the help of their glasses that it was some
European boat, which they supposed must belong to some
ship that was lost; so they shortened sail to let me come
up. I was encouraged with this, and as I had my patron's
ancient on board, I made a waft of it to them, for a signal
of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw; for they
told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the
gun. Upon these signals they very kindly brought to, and
lay by for me; and in about three hours; time I came up
with them.
They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in
Spanish, and in French, but I understood none of them;
but at last a Scotch sailor, who was on board, called to me:
and I answered him, and told him I was an Englishman,
that I had made my escape out of slavery from the Moors,
at Sallee; they then bade me come on board, and very
kindly took me in, and all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will
believe, that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from
such a miserable and almost hopeless condition as I was in;
and I immediately offered all I had to the captain of the
ship, as a return for my deliverance; but he generously told
me he would take nothing from me, but that all I had
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should be delivered safe to me when I came to the Brazils.
`For,' says he, `I have saved your life on no other terms
than I would be glad to be saved myself: and it may, one
time or other, be my lot to be taken up in the same
condition. Besides,' said he, `when I carry you to the
Brazils, so great a way from your own country, if I should
take from you what you have, you will be starved there,
and then I only take away that life I have given. No, no,'
says he: `Seignior Inglese' (Mr. Englishman), `I will carry
you thither in charity, and those things will help to buy
your subsistence there, and your passage home again.'
As he was charitable in this proposal, so he was just in
the performance to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen that
none should touch anything that 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 to
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 his ship's use; and
asked me what I would have for it? I told him he had been
so generous to me in everything 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 hand
to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at Brazil; and when
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it came there, if any one offered to give more, he would
make it up. He offered me also sixty pieces of eight more
for my boy Xury, which I was loth to take; not that I was
unwilling 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 Brazils, and I arrived
in the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in
about twenty-two days after. And now I was once more
delivered from the most miserable of all conditions of life;
and what to do next with myself I was 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 to me; and what I was willing to sell he bought
of me, such as the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a
piece of the lump of beeswax - for I had made candles of
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the rest: in a word, I made about two hundred and twenty
pieces of eight of all my cargo; and with this stock I went
on shore in the Brazils.
I had not been long here before I was 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 planting and making of
sugar; and seeing how well the planters lived, and how
they got rich suddenly, I resolved, if I could get a licence
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 letter of naturalisation, I
purchased as much land that was uncured as my money
would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and
settlement; 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 my 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
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about two years. However, we began to increase, and our
land began to come into order; so that the third year we
planted some tobacco, and made each of us a large piece
of ground ready for planting canes in the year to come.
But we both wanted help; and now I found, more than
before, I had done wrong in parting with my boy Xury.
But, alas! for me to do wrong that never did right, was
no great wonder. I hail no remedy but to go on: I had got
into an employment quite remote to my genius, and
directly contrary to the life I delighted in, and for which I
forsook my father's house, and broke through all his good
advice. Nay, I was coming into the very middle station, or
upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to
before, and which, if I resolved to go on with, I might as
well have stayed at home, and never have fatigued myself
in the world as I had done; and I used often to say to
myself, I could have done this as well in England, among
my friends, as have gone five thousand miles off to do it
among strangers and savages, in a wilderness, and at such a
distance as never to hear from any part of the world that
had the least knowledge of me.
In this manner I used to look upon my condition with
the utmost regret. I had nobody to converse with, but
now and then this neighbour; no work to be done, but by
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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, in providing his lading and
preparing for his voyage, nearly three months - when
telling him what little stock I had left behind me in
London, he gave me this friendly and sincere advice:-
`Seignior Inglese,' says he (for so he always called me), `if
you will give me letters, and a procuration 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
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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 the hazard be run for the first; so that, if it
come safe, you may order the rest the same way, and, if it
miscarry, you may have the other half to have recourse to
for your supply.'
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly,
that I could not but be convinced it was the best course I
could take; so I accordingly prepared letters to the
gentlewoman with whom I had left my money, and a
procuration to the Portuguese captain, as he desired.
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all
my adventures - my slavery, escape, and how I had met
with the Portuguese 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 in
London, who represented it effectually to her; whereupon
she not only delivered the money, but out of her own
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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 Brazils; among which, without my
direction (for I was too young in my business to think of
them), he had taken care to have all sorts of tools,
ironwork, and utensils necessary for my plantation, and
which were of great use to me.
When this cargo arrived I thought my fortune made,
for I was surprised with the joy of it; and my stood
steward, the captain, had laid out the five pounds, which
my friend had sent him for a present for himself, to
purchase and bring me over a servant, 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; for my goods being all English
manufacture, such as cloths, stuffs, baize, and things
particularly valuable and desirable in the country, I found
means to sell them to a very great advantage; so that I
might say I had more than four times the value of my first
cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbour
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- 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 my own ground, more
than I had disposed of for necessaries among my
neighbours; and these fifty rolls, being each of above a
hundredweight, were well cured, and laid by against the
return of the fleet from Lisbon: and now increasing in
business and wealth, my head began to be full of projects
and undertakings beyond my reach; such as are, indeed,
often the ruin of the best heads in business. Had I
continued in the station I was now in, I had room for all
the happy things to have yet befallen me for which my
father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life, and
of which he had so sensibly described the middle station of
life to be full of; but other things attended me, and I was
still to be the wilful agent of all my own miseries; and
particularly, to increase my fault, and double the
reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows I
should have leisure to make, all these miscarriages were
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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 with, and to make my duty.
As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my
parents, so I could not be content now, but I must go and
leave the happy view I had of being a rich and thriving
man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and
immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the
thing admitted; and thus I cast myself down again into the
deepest gulf of human misery that ever man fell into, or
perhaps could be consistent with life and a state of health
in the world.
To come, then, by the just degrees to the particulars of
this part of my story. You may suppose, that having now
lived almost four years in the Brazils, and beginning to
thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation, I had
not only learned the language, but had contracted
acquaintance and friendship among my fellow-planters, as
well as among the merchants at St. Salvador, which was
our port; and that, in my discourses among them, I had
frequently given them an account of my two voyages to
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the coast of Guinea: the manner of trading with the
negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the
coast for trifles - such as beads, toys, knives, scissors,
hatchets, bits of glass, and the like - not only gold-dust,
Guinea grains, elephants' teeth, &c., but negroes, for the
service of the Brazils, in great numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my discourses
on these heads, but especially to that part which related to
the buying of negroes, which was a trade at that time, not
only not far entered into, but, as far as it was, had been
carried on by assientos, or permission of the kings of Spain
and Portugal, and engrossed in the public stock: so that
few negroes were bought, and these 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 next
morning, and told me they had been musing very much
upon what I had discoursed with them of the last night,
and they came to make a secret proposal to me; and, after
enjoining me to secrecy, they told me that they had a
mind to fit out a ship to go to Guinea; that they had all
plantations as well as I, and were straitened for nothing so
much as servants; that as it was a trade that could not be
carried on, because they could not publicly sell the
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negroes when they came home, so they desired to make
but one voyage, to bring the negroes on shore privately,
and divide them among their own plantations; and, in a
word, the question was whether I would go their
supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading part upon
the coast of Guinea; and they offered me that I should
have my equal share of the negroes, without providing any
part of the stock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it
been made to any one that had not had a settlement and a
plantation of his own to look after, which was in a fair
way of coming to be very considerable, and with a good
stock upon it; but for me, that was thus entered and
established, and had nothing to do but to 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 father' good counsel was lost upon me.
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In a word, I told them I would go with all my heart, if
they would undertake to look after my plantation in my
absence, and would dispose of it to such as I should direct,
if I miscarried. This they all engaged to do, and entered
into writings or covenants to do so; and I made a formal
will, disposing of my plantation and effects in case of my
death, making the captain of the ship that had saved my
life, as before, my universal heir, but obliging him to
dispose of my effects as I had directed in my will; one half
of the produce being to himself, and the other to be
shipped to England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my
effects and to 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 expect particular misfortunes to
myself.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of
my fancy rather than my reason; and, accordingly, the ship
being fitted out, and the cargo furnished, and all things
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done, as by agreement, by my partners in the voyage, I
went on board in an evil hour, the 1st September 1659,
being the same day eight years that I went from my father
and mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their
authority, and the fool to my own interests.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons
burden, carried six guns and fourteen men, besides the
master, his boy, and myself. We had on board no large
cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit for our
trade with the negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells,
and other 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 we came about
ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude, which, it
seems, was the manner of course in those days. We had
very good weather, only excessively hot, all the way upon
our own coast, till we came to the height of Cape St.
Augustino; from whence, keeping further off at sea, we
lost sight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the
isle Fernando de Noronha, holding our course N.E. by
N., and leaving those isles on the east. In this course we
passed the line in about twelve days' time, and were, by
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our last observation, in seven degrees twenty-two minutes
northern latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane,
took us quite out of our knowledge. It began from the
south-east, came about to the north-west, and then settled
in 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 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 die of the calenture, and one man and the
boy washed overboard. About the twelfth day, the
weather abating a little, the master made an observation as
well as he could, and found that he 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 upon the coast of Guiana, or the
north part of Brazil, beyond the river Amazon, toward
that of the river Orinoco, commonly called the Great
River; and began to consult with me what course he
should take, for the ship was leaky, and very much
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disabled, and he was going directly back to the coast of
Brazil.
I was positively against that; and looking over the charts
of the sea-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 off at sea, to avoid the indraft of the Bay or Gulf
of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in
about fifteen days' sail; whereas we could not possibly
make our voyage to the coast of Africa without some
assistance both to our ship and to ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and steered
away N.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 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
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had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes
of seeing whereabouts in the world we were, than 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 inhabited.
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 into pieces,
unless the winds, by a kind of miracle, should turn
immediately about. In a word, we sat looking upon one
another, and expecting death every moment, and every
man, accordingly, preparing for another world; for there
was little or nothing more for us to do in this. That which
was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had, was
that, contrary to our expectation, the ship did not break
yet, and that the master said the wind began to abate.
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Now, though we thought that the wind did a little
abate, yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and
sticking too fast for us to expect her getting off, we were
in a dreadful condition indeed, and had nothing to do but
to think of saving our lives as well as we could. We had a
boat at our stern just before the storm, but she was first
staved by dashing against the ship's rudder, and in the next
place she broke away, and either sunk or was driven off to
sea; so there was no hope from her. We had another boat
on board, but how to get her off into the sea was a
doubtful thing. However, there was no time to debate, for
we fancied that 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 laid hold of the
boat, and with the help of the rest of the men 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 ran dreadfully high upon
the shore, and might be well 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
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making sail, we had none, nor if 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 near
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 find 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 like this appeared;
but as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land
looked more frightful than the sea.
After we had rowed, or rather driven about a league
and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-
like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect
the COUP DE GRACE. It took us with such a fury, that
it overset the boat at once; and separating us as well from
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the boat as from one another, gave us no time to say, `O
God!' for we were all swallowed up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I
felt when I sank into the water; for though I swam very
well, yet I could not deliver myself from the waves so as to
draw breath, till that wave having driven me, or rather
carried me, a vast way on towards the shore, and having
spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost
dry, but half dead with the water I took in. I had so much
presence of mind, as well as breath left, that seeing myself
nearer the mainland than I expected, I got upon my feet,
and endeavoured to make on towards the land as fast as I
could before another wave should return and take me up
again; but I soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I
saw the sea come after me as high as a great hill, and as
furious as an enemy, which I had no means or strength to
contend with: my business was to hold my breath, and
raise myself upon the water if I could; and so, by
swimming, to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself
towards the shore, if possible, my greatest concern now
being that the sea, as it would carry me a great way
towards the shore when it came on, might not carry me
back again with it when it gave back towards the sea.
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The wave that came upon me again buried me at once
twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body, and I could
feel myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness
towards the shore - a very great way; but I held my
breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all
my might. I was ready to burst with holding my breath,
when, as I felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief,
I found my head and hands shoot out above the surface of
the water; and though it was not two seconds of time that
I could keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me
breath, and new courage. I was covered again 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 waters went from me, and then took to
my heels and ran with what strength I had further 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
forward as before, the shore being very flat.
The last time of these two had well-nigh been fatal to
me, for the sea having hurried me along as before, landed
me, or rather dashed me, against a piece of rock, and that
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with such force, that it left me senseless, and indeed
helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the blow taking my
side and breast, beat the breath as it were quite out of my
body; and had it returned again immediately, I must have
been strangled in the water; but I recovered a little before
the return of the waves, and seeing I should be covered
again with the water, I resolved to hold fast by a piece of
the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible, till the
wave went back. Now, as the waves were not so high as at
first, being nearer land, I held my hold till the wave
abated, and then fetched another run, which brought me
so near the shore that the next wave, though it went over
me, yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away;
and the next run I took, I got to the mainland, where, to
my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the shore
and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger and
quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look
up and thank God that my life was saved, in a case
wherein there was some minutes before scarce any room
to hope. I believe it is impossible to express, to the life,
what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are, when it is
so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave: and I do not
wonder now at the custom, when a malefactor, who has
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the halter about his neck, is tied up, and just going to be
turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him - I say, I do
not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him
blood that very moment they tell him of it, that the
surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart
and overwhelm him.
`For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.'
I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and
my whole being, as I may say, wrapped up in a
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 eye to the stranded vessel, when, the breach
and froth of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it
lay so far of; and considered, Lord! how was it possible I
could get on shore
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part
of my condition, I began to look round me, to see what
kind of place I was in, and what was next to be done; and
I soon found my comforts abate, and that, in a word, I had
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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 afflicting to me was, that I
had no weapon, either to hunt and kill any creature for
my sustenance, or to defend myself against any other
creature that might desire to kill me for theirs. In a word, I
had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a
little tobacco in a box. This was all my provisions; and this
threw me into such terrible agonies of mind, that for a
while I ran about like a madman. Night coming upon me,
I began with a heavy heart to consider what would be my
lot if there were any ravenous beasts in that country, as 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 into my mouth to prevent hunger, I
went to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to
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place myself so that if I should sleep I might not fall. And
having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon, for my
defence, I took up my lodging; and having been
excessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept as
comfortably as, I believe, few could have done in my
condition, and found myself more refreshed with it than, I
think, I ever was on such an occasion.
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CHAPTER IV - FIRST WEEKS
ON THE ISLAND
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 at first mentioned, where I had been
so bruised by the wave dashing me against it. This being
within about a mile from the shore where I was, and the
ship seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself on
board, that at least I might save some necessary things for
my use.
When I came down from my apartment in the tree, I
looked about me again, and the first thing I found was the
boat, which lay, as the wind and the sea had tossed her up,
upon the land, about two miles on my right hand. I
walked as far as I could upon the shore to have got to her;
but found a neck or inlet of water between me and the
boat which was about half a mile broad; so I came back
for the present, being more intent upon getting at the
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ship, where I hoped to find something 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 here I found a fresh renewing of
my grief; for I saw evidently that if we had kept on board
we had been all safe - that is to say, we had all got safe on
shore, and I had not been so miserable as to be left entirety
destitute of all comfort and company as I now was. This
forced tears to my eyes again; but as there was little relief
in that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so I pulled
off my clothes - for the weather was hot to extremity -
and took the water. But when I came to the ship my
difficulty was still greater to know how to get on board;
for, as she lay aground, and high out of the water, there
was nothing within my reach to lay hold of. I swam round
her twice, and the second time I spied a small piece of
rope, which I wondered I did not see at first, hung down
by the fore-chains so low, as that with great difficulty I got
hold of it, and by the help of that rope I got up into the
forecastle of the ship. Here I found that the ship was
bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold, but that
she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or, rather
earth, that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her
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head low, almost to the water. By this means all her
quarter was free, and all that was in that part was dry; for
you may be sure my first work was to search, and to see
what was spoiled and what was free. And, first, I found
that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by
the water, and being very well disposed to eat, I went to
the bread room and filled my pockets with biscuit, and ate
it as I went about other things, for I had no time to lose. I
also found some rum in the great cabin, of which I took a
large dram, and which I had, indeed, need enough of to
spirit me for what was before me. Now I wanted nothing
but a boat to furnish myself with many things which I
foresaw would be very necessary to me.
It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to
be had; and this extremity roused my application. We had
several spare yards, and two or three large spars of wood,
and a spare topmast or two in the ship; I resolved to fall to
work with these, and I flung as many of them overboard
as I could manage for their weight, tying every one with 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 together at both ends as well as I could,
in the form of a raft, and laying two or three short pieces
of plank upon them crossways, I found I could walk upon
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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 a carpenter's saw I cut a spare topmast into three
lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great deal of
labour and pains. But the hope of furnishing myself with
necessaries encouraged me to go beyond what I should
have been able to have done upon another occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable
weight. My next care was what to load it with, and how
to preserve what I laid upon it from the surf of the sea; but
I was not long considering this. I first laid all the planks or
boards upon it that I could get, and having considered
well what I most wanted, I got three of the seamen's
chests, which I had broken open, and emptied, and
lowered them down upon my raft; the first of these I filled
with provisions - viz. bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five
pieces of dried goat's flesh (which we lived much upon),
and a little remainder of European corn, which had been
laid by for some fowls which we brought to sea with us,
but the fowls were killed. There had been some barley 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,
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about five or six gallons of rack. These I stowed by
themselves, there being no need to put them into the
chest, nor any room for them. While I was doing this, I
found the tide begin to flow, though very calm; and I had
the mortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat,
which I had left on the shore, upon the sand, swim away.
As for my breeches, which were only linen, and open-
kneed, I swam on board in them and my stockings.
However, this set me on rummaging for clothes, of which
I found enough, but took no more than I wanted for
present use, for I had others things which my eye was
more upon - as, first, tools to work with on shore. And it
was after long searching that I found out the carpenter's
chest, which was, indeed, a very useful prize to me, and
much more valuable than a shipload of gold would have
been at that time. I got it down to my raft, 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;
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but with much search I found them, two of them dry and
good, the third had taken water. Those two I got to my
raft with the arms. And now I thought myself pretty well
freighted, and began to think how I should get to shore
with them, having neither sail, oar, nor rudder; and the
least capful of wind would have overset all my navigation.
I had three encouragements - 1st, a smooth, calm sea;
2ndly, the tide rising, and setting in to the shore; 3rdly,
what little 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; with this cargo I
put to sea. For a mile or thereabouts my raft went very
well, only that I found it drive a little distant from the
place where I had landed before; by which I perceived
that there was some indraft of the water, and consequently
I hoped to find some creek or river there, which I might
make use of as a port to get to land with my cargo.
As I imagined, so it was. There appeared before me a
little opening of the land, and I found a strong current of
the tide set into it; so I guided my raft as well as I could,
to keep in the middle of the stream.
But here I had like to have suffered a second
shipwreck, which, if I had, I think verily would have
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broken my heart; for, knowing nothing of the coast, my
raft ran aground at one end of it upon a shoal, and not
being aground at the other end, it wanted but a little that
all my cargo had slipped off towards the end that was
afloat, and to 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, I stood in that
manner near half-an-hour, in which time the rising of the
water brought me a little more upon a level; and a little
after, the water still-rising, my raft floated again, and I
thrust her off with the oar I had into the channel, and then
driving up higher, I at length found myself in the mouth
of a little river, with land on both sides, and a strong
current of tide running up. I looked on both sides for a
proper place to get to shore, for I was not willing to be
driven too high up the river: hoping in time to see some
ships at sea, and therefore resolved to place myself as near
the coast as I could.
At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the
creek, to which with great pain and difficulty I guided my
raft, and at last got so near that, reaching ground with my
oar, I could thrust her directly in. But here I had like to
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have dipped all my cargo into the sea again; for that shore
lying pretty steep - that is to say sloping - there was no
place to land, but where one end of my float, if it ran on
shore, would lie so high, and the other sink lower, as
before, that it would endanger my cargo again. All that I
could do was to wait till the tide was at the highest,
keeping the raft with my oar like an anchor, to hold the
side of it fast to the shore, near a flat piece of ground,
which I expected the water would flow over; and so it
did. As soon as I found water enough - for my raft drew
about a foot of water - I thrust her upon that flat piece of
ground, and there fastened or moored her, by sticking my
two broken oars into the ground, one on one side near
one end, and one on the other side near the other end;
and thus I lay till the water ebbed away, and left my raft
and all my cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to view the country, and seek a
proper place for my habitation, and where to stow my
goods to secure them from whatever might happen.
Where I was, I yet knew not; whether on the continent or
on an island; whether 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 overtop some other hills, which lay as in
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a ridge from it northward. I took out one of the fowling-
pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder; and
thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the top of that
hill, where, after I had with great labour and difficulty got
to the top, I saw any fate, to my great affliction - viz. 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, however, I saw none. Yet I saw
abundance of fowls, but knew not their kinds; neither
when I killed them could I tell what was fit for food, and
what not. At my coming back, I shot at a great bird which
I saw sitting upon a tree on the side of a great wood. I
believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since
the creation of the world. I had no sooner fired, than from
all parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number
of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused screaming and
crying, and 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
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resembling it, but it 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. 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 chest and boards that I had brought on shore, and
made a kind of hut for that night's lodging. As for food, I
yet saw not which way to supply myself, except that I had
seen two or three creatures like hares run out of the wood
where I shot the fowl.
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 her all in pieces, I resolved to set all other things
apart till I had got everything out of the ship that I could
get. Then I called a council - that is to say in my thoughts
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- whether I should take back the raft; but this appeared
impracticable: so I resolved to go as before, when the tide
was down; and I did so, only that I stripped before I went
from my hut, having nothing on but my chequered shirt, a
pair of linen drawers, 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 carpenters 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, another fowling-piece, with some small quantity
of powder more; a large bagful 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-topsail, a hammock, and some
bedding; and with this I loaded my second raft, and
brought them all safe on shore, to my very great comfort.
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I was under some apprehension, 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 at it, and ate it, and looked (as if 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; and I piled all the empty chests and casks up in
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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 upon the
ground, laying my two pistols just at my head, and my gun
at length by me, I went to bed for the first time, and slept
very quietly all night, for I was very weary and heavy; for
the night before I had slept little, and had laboured very
hard all day to fetch all those things from the ship, and to
get them on shore.
I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever
was laid up, I believe, for one man: but I was not satisfied
still, for while the ship sat upright in that posture, I
thought I ought to get everything out of her that I could;
so every day at low water I went on board, and brought
away something or other; but particularly the third time I
went I brought away as much of the rigging as I could, as
also all the small ropes and rope-twine I could get, with a
piece of spare canvas, which was to mend the sails upon
occasion, and the barrel of wet gunpowder. In a word, I
brought away all the sails, first and last; only that I was fain
to cut them in pieces, and bring as much at a time as I
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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, three large runlets of
rum, or spirits, a box of sugar, and a barrel of fine flour;
this was surprising to me, because I had given over
expecting any more provisions, except what was spoiled
by the water. I soon emptied the hogshead of the bread,
and wrapped it up, parcel by parcel, in pieces of the sails,
which I cut out; and, in a word, I got all this safe on shore
also.
The next day I made another voyage, and now, having
plundered the ship of what was portable and fit to hand
out, I began with the cables. Cutting the great cable into
pieces, such as I could move, I got two cables and a
hawser on shore, with all the ironwork I could get; and
having cut down the spritsail-yard, and the mizzen- yard,
and everything I could, to make a large raft, I loaded it
with all these heavy goods, and came away. But my good
luck began now to leave me; for this raft was so unwieldy,
and so overladen, that, after I had entered the little cove
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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 was near the shore; but as to my
cargo, it was a 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 the cable ashore, and some of the iron, though with
infinite labour; for I was fain to dip for it into the water, a
work which fatigued me very much. After this, I went
every day on board, and brought away what I could get.
I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been
eleven times on board the ship, in which time I had
brought away all that one pair of hands could well be
supposed capable to bring; though I believe verily, had the
calm 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 began to rise: however, at low
water I went on board, and though I thought I had
rummaged the cabin so effectually that nothing more
could be found, yet I discovered a locker with drawers in
it, in one of which I found two or three razors, and one
pair of large scissors, with some ten or a dozen of good
knives and forks: in another I found about thirty-six
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pounds value in money - some European coin, some
Brazil, some pieces of eight, some gold, and some silver.
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money: `O drug!'
said I, aloud, `what art thou good for? Thou art not worth
to me - no, not the taking off the ground; one of those
knives is worth all this heap; I have no manner of use for
thee - e'en remain where thou art, and go to the bottom
as a creature whose life is not worth saying.' 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
overcast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter of an
hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. It presently
occurred to me that it was in vain to pretend to make a
raft with the wind offshore; 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 the
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.
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But I had got home to my little tent, where I lay, with
all my wealth about me, very secure. It blew very hard all
night, and in the morning, when I looked out, behold, no
more ship was to be seen! I was a little surprised, but
recovered myself with the satisfactory reflection that I had
lost no time, nor abated any diligence, to get everything
out of her that could be useful to me; and that, indeed,
there was little left in her that I was able to bring away, if I
had had more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of
anything 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; the manner and description of which,
it may not be improper to give an account of.
I soon found the place I was in was not fit for my
settlement, because it was upon a low, moorish ground,
near the sea, and I believed it would not be wholesome,
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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 he proper for me: 1st, health and fresh water,
I just now mentioned; 2ndly, shelter from the heat of the
sun; 3rdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether man
or beast; 4thly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship
in sight, I might not lose any advantage for my
deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my
expectation yet.
In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain
on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little
plain was steep as a house-side, so that nothing could
come down upon me from the top. On the one side of
the 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 a
hundred yards broad, and about twice as long, and lay like
a green before my door; and, at the end of it, descended
irregularly every way down into the low ground by the
seaside. It was on the N.N.W. side of the hill; so that it
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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, and twenty yards in its diameter
from its beginning and ending.
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 above five
feet and a half, and sharpened on the top. The two rows
did not stand above six inches from one another.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the
ship, and laid them in rows, one upon another, within the
circle, between these two rows of stakes, up to the top,
placing other stakes in the inside, leaning against them,
about two feet and a half high, like a spur to a post; and
this fence was so strong, that neither man nor beast could
get into it or over it. This cost me a great deal of time and
labour, especially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them
to the place, and drive them into the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be, not by a
door, but by a short ladder to go over the top; which
ladder, when I was in, I lifted over after me; and so I was
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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 afterwards, 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 a large
tent, which to preserve me from the rains that in one part
of the year are very violent there, I made double - one
smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it; and
covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which I had
saved among the sails.
And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I
had brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was
indeed a very good one, and belonged to the mate of the
ship.
Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and
everything that would spoil by the wet; and having thus
enclosed all my goods, I made up the entrance, which till
now I had left open, and so passed and repassed, as I said,
by a short ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way into
the rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug
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down out through my tent, I laid them up within my
fence, in the nature of a terrace, so that 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 the
thought which darted into my mind as swift as the
lightning itself - Oh, my powder! My very heart sank
within me when I thought that, at one blast, all my
powder might be destroyed; on which, not my defence
only, but the providing my food, as I thought, entirely
depended. I was nothing near so anxious about my own
danger, though, had the powder took fire, I should never
have known who had hurt me.
Such impression did this make upon me, that after the
storm was over I laid aside all my works, my building and
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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 the 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 two hundred and forty
pounds weight, was divided in not less than a hundred
parcels. As to the barrel that had been wet, I did not
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.
In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out
once at least every day with my gun, as well to divert
myself as to see if I could kill 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
satisfaction to me; but then it was attended with this
misfortune to me - viz. that they were so shy, so subtle,
and so swift of foot, that it was the most difficult thing in
the world to come at them; but I was not discouraged at
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this, not doubting but I might now and then shoot one, as
it soon happened; for after I had found their haunts a little,
I laid wait in this manner for them: I observed if they saw
me in the valleys, though they were upon the rocks, they
would run away, as in a terrible fright; but if they were
feeding in the valleys, and I was upon the rocks, they took
no notice of me; from whence I concluded that, by the
position of their optics, their sight was so directed
downward that they did not readily see objects that were
above them; so afterwards I took this method - I always
climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and then had
frequently a fair mark.
The first shot I made among these creatures, I killed a
she-goat, which had a little kid by her, which she gave
suck to, which grieved me heartily; for 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 enclosure; upon which I laid down the dam, and took
the kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes
to have bred it up tame; but it would not eat; so I was
forced to kill it and eat it myself. These two supplied me
with flesh a great while, for I ate sparingly, and saved my
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provisions, my bread especially, as much as possibly I
could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely
necessary to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to
burn: and what I did for that, and also how I enlarged my
cave, and what conveniences I made, I shall give a full
account of in its place; but I must now 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, viz. 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
reflections; and sometimes I would expostulate with
myself why Providence should thus completely ruin His
creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable; so
without help, abandoned, so entirely depressed, that it
could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
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But something always returned swift upon me to check
these thoughts, and to reprove me; and particularly one
day, walking with my gun in my hand by the seaside, 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 in the boat? Where are
the ten? Why were they not saved, and you lost? Why
were you singled out? Is it better to be here or there?' And
then I pointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered
with the good that is in them, and with what worse
attends them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was
furnished for my subsistence, and what would have been
my case if it had not happened (which was a hundred
thousand to one) that the ship floated from the place
where she first struck, and was driven so near to the shore
that I had time to get all these things out of her; what
would have been my case, if I had been forced 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? `Particularly,' said I, aloud (though to
myself), `what should I have done without a gun, without
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ammunition, without any tools to make anything, or to
work with, without clothes, bedding, a tent, or any
manner of covering?' and that now I had all these to
sufficient quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself
in such a manner as to live without my gun, when my
ammunition was spent: so that I had a tolerable view of
subsisting, without any want, as long as I lived; for I
considered from the beginning how I would 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 and strength should decay.
I confess I had not entertained any notion of my
ammunition being destroyed at one blast - I mean my
powder being blown up by lightning; and this made the
thoughts of it so surprising to me, when it lightened and
thundered, as I observed just now.
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 was by my
account the 30th of September, when, in the manner as
above said, I first set foot upon this horrid island; when the
sun, being to us in its autumnal equinox, was almost over
my head; for I reckoned myself, by observation, to be in
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the latitude of nine degrees twenty-two minutes north of
the line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it
came into my thoughts that I should lose my reckoning of
time for want of books, and pen and ink, and should even
forget the Sabbath days; but to prevent this, I cut with my
knife upon a large post, in capital letters - and making it
into a great cross, I set it up on the shore where I first
landed - `I came on shore here on the 30th September
1659.'
Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a
notch with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long
again as the rest, and every first day of the month as long
again as that long one; and thus I kept my calendar, or
weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoning of time.
In the next place, we are to observe that among the
many things which I brought out of the ship, in the
several voyages which, as above mentioned, I made to it, I
got several things of less value, but not at all less useful to
me, which I omitted setting down before; as, in particular,
pens, ink, and paper, several parcels in the captain's,
mate's, gunner's and carpenter's keeping; three or four
compasses, some mathematical instruments, dials,
perspectives, charts, and books of navigation, all which I
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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. And I must not forget
that we had in the ship a dog and two cats, of whose
eminent history I may have occasion to say something in
its place; for I carried both the cats with me; and as for the
dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself, and swam on
shore to me the day after I went on shore with my first
cargo, and was a trusty servant to me many years; I wanted
nothing that he could fetch me, nor any company that he
could make up to me; I only wanted to have him talk to
me, but that would not do. As I observed before, I found
pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost;
and I shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept things
very exact, but after that was gone I could not, for I could
not make any ink by any means that I could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things
notwithstanding all that I had amassed together; and of
these, ink was one; as also a spade, pickaxe, and shovel, to
dig or remove the earth; needles, pins, and thread; as for
linen, I soon learned to want that without much difficulty.
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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 my 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, 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 now began to consider seriously my condition, and
the circumstances I was reduced to; and I drew up the
state of my affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to
any that were to come after me - for I was likely to have
but few heirs - as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring
over them, and afflicting my mind; and as my reason
began now to master my despondency, I began to comfort
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myself as well as I could, and to set the good against the
evil, that I might have something to distinguish my case
from worse; and I stated very impartially, like debtor and
creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I
suffered, thus:-
Evil: I am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of
all hope of recovery.
Good: But I am alive; and not drowned, as all my ship's
company were.
Evil: I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all
the world, to be miserable.
Good: But I am singled out, too, from all the ship's
crew, to be spared from death; and He that miraculously
saved me from death can deliver me from this condition.
Evil: I am divided from mankind - a solitaire; one
banished from human society.
Good: But I am not starved, and perishing on a barren
place, affording no sustenance.
Evil: I have no clothes to cover me.
Good: But I am in a hot climate, where, if I had
clothes, I could hardly wear them.
Evil: I am without any defence, or means to resist any
violence of man or beast.
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Good: But I am cast on an island where I see no wild
beasts to hurt me, as I saw on the coast of Africa; and what
if I had been shipwrecked there?
Evil: I have no soul to speak to or relieve me.
Good: But God wonderfully sent the ship in near
enough to the shore, that I have got out as many necessary
things as will either supply my wants or enable me to
supply myself, even as long as I live.
Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony
that there was scarce any condition in the world so
miserable but there was something negative or something
positive to be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a
direction from the experience of the most miserable of all
conditions in this world: that we may always find in it
something to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in the
description of good and evil, on the credit side of the
account.
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my
condition, and given over looking out to sea, to see if I
could spy a ship - I say, giving over these things, I begun
to apply myself to arrange my way of living, and to make
things as easy to me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was a
tent under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong
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pale of posts and cables: but I might now rather call it a
wall, for I raised a kind of wall up against it of turfs, about
two feet thick on the outside; and after some time (I think
it was a year and a half) I raised rafters from it, leaning to
the rock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees,
and such things as I could get, to keep out the rain; which
I found at some times of the year very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my goods
into this pale, and into the cave which I had made behind
me. But I must observe, too, that at first this was a
confused heap of goods, which, as they lay in no order, so
they took up all my place; I had no room to turn myself:
so I set myself to enlarge my cave, and work 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 was a back way
to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to
store my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such
necessary things as I found I most wanted, particularly a
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chair and a table; for without these I was not able to enjoy
the few comforts I had in the world; I could not write or
eat, or do several things, with so much pleasure without a
table: so I went to work. And here I must needs observe,
that as reason is the substance and origin of the
mathematics, so by stating and squaring everything by
reason, and by making the most rational judgment of
things, every man may be, in time, master of every
mechanic art. I had never handled a tool in my life; and
yet, in time, by labour, application, and 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 an edge before me,
and hew it flat on either side with my axe, till I brought it
to be 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
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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 that I brought on my raft from the ship.
But when I had wrought out some boards as above, I
made large shelves, of the breadth of a foot and a half, one
over another all along one side of my cave, to lay all my
tools, nails and ironwork on; and, in a word, to separate
everything at large into their places, that I might come
easily at them. I knocked pieces into the wall of the rock
to hang my guns and all things that would hang up; so
that, had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a general
magazine of all necessary things; and 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; for example, I must have said
thus: `30TH. - After I had got to shore, and escaped
drowning, instead of being thankful to God for my
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deliverance, having first vomited, with the great quantity
of salt water which had got into my stomach, and
recovering myself a little, I ran about the shore wringing
my hands and beating my head and face, exclaiming at my
misery, and crying out, `I was undone, undone!' till, tired
and faint, I was forced to lie down on the ground to
repose, but durst not sleep for fear of being devoured.'
Some days after this, and after I had been on board the
ship, and got all that I could out of her, yet I could not
forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain and
looking out to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship; then fancy at
a vast distance I spied a sail, please myself with the hopes
of it, and then after looking steadily, till I was almost blind,
lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus
increase my misery by my folly.
But having gotten over these things in some measure,
and having settled my household staff and habitation,
made me a table and a chair, and all as handsome about
me as I could, I began to keep my journal; of which I shall
here give you the copy (though in it will be told all these
particulars over again) as long as it lasted; for having no
more ink, I was forced to leave it off.
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CHAPTER V - BUILDS A
HOUSE - THE JOURNAL
SEPTEMBER 30, 1659. - I, poor miserable Robinson
Crusoe, being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the
offing, came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island,
which I called `The Island of Despair"; all the rest of the
ship's company being drowned, and myself almost dead.
All the rest of the day I spent in afflicting myself at the
dismal circumstances I was brought to - viz. I had neither
food, house, clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to; and in
despair of any relief, saw nothing but death before me -
either that I should be devoured by wild beasts, murdered
by savages, or starved to death for want of food. At the
approach of night I slept in a tree, for fear of wild
creatures; but slept soundly, though it rained all night.
OCTOBER 1. - In the morning I saw, to my great
surprise, the ship had floated with the high tide, and was
driven on shore again much nearer the island; which, as it
was some comfort, on one hand - for, seeing her set
upright, and not broken to pieces, I hoped, if the wind
abated, I might get on board, and get some food and
necessaries out of her for my relief - so, on the other hand,
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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
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 many several voyages to get
all I could out of the ship, which I brought on shore every
tide of flood upon rafts. Much rain also in the 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 blowing a little harder than before, and was no
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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 exceedingly hard.
The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island
with my gun, to seek for some food, and discover the
country; when I killed a she-goat, and her kid followed
me home, which I afterwards killed also, because it would
not feed.
NOVEMBER 1. - I set up my tent under a rock, and
lay there for the first night; making it as large as I could,
with stakes driven in to swing my hammock upon.
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NOV. 2. - I set up all my chests and boards, and the
pieces of timber which made my rafts, and with them
formed a fence round me, a little within the place I had
marked out for my fortification.
NOV. 3. - I went out with my gun, and killed two
fowls like ducks, which were very good food. In the
afternoon went to work to make me a table.
NOV. 4. - This morning I began to order my times of
work, of going out with my gun, time of sleep, and time
of diversion - viz. every morning I walked out with my
gun for two or three hours, if it did not rain; then
employed myself to work till about eleven o'clock; then
eat what I had to live on; and from twelve to two I lay
down to sleep, the weather being excessively hot; and
then, in the evening, to work again. The working part of
this day and of the next were wholly employed in making
my table, for I was yet but a very sorry workman, though
time and necessity made me a complete natural mechanic
soon after, as I believe they would do any one else.
NOV. 5. - This day went abroad with my gun and my
dog, and killed a wild cat; her skin pretty soft, but her
flesh good for nothing; every creature that I killed I took
of the skins and preserved them. Coming back by the sea-
shore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowls, which I did not
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understand; but was surprised, and almost frightened, with
two or three seals, which, while I was gazing at, not well
knowing what they were, got into the sea, and escaped me
for that time.
NOV. 6. - After my morning walk I went to work
with my table again, and finished it, though not to my
liking; nor was it long before I learned to mend it.
NOV. 7. - Now it began to be settled fair weather.
The 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the 11th
was Sunday) I took wholly up to make me a chair, and
with much ado brought it to a tolerable shape, but never
to please me; and even in the making I pulled it in pieces
several times.
NOTE. - I soon neglected my keeping Sundays; for,
omitting my mark for them on my post, I forgot which
was which.
NOV. 13. - This day it rained, which refreshed me
exceedingly, and cooled the earth; but it was accompanied
with terrible thunder and lightning, which frightened me
dreadfully, for fear of my powder. As soon as it was over, I
resolved to separate my stock of powder into as many little
parcels as possible, that it might not be in danger.
NOV. 14, 15, 16. - These three days I spent in making
little square chests, or boxes, which might hold about a
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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 knew not
what to call it.
NOV. 17. - This day I began to dig behind my tent
into the rock, to make room for my further conveniency.
NOTE. - Three things I wanted exceedingly for this
work - viz. a pickaxe, a shovel, and a wheelbarrow or
basket; so I desisted from my work, and began to consider
how to supply that want, and make me some tools. As for
the pickaxe, I made use of the iron crows, which were
proper enough, though heavy; but the next thing was a
shovel or spade; this was so absolutely necessary, that,
indeed, I could do nothing effectually without it; but what
kind of one to make I knew not.
NOV. 18. - The next day, in searching the woods, I
found a tree of that wood, or like it, which in the Brazils
they call the iron- tree, for its exceeding hardness. Of this,
with great labour, and almost spoiling my axe, I cut a
piece, and brought it home, too, with difficulty enough,
for it was exceeding heavy. The excessive hardness of the
wood, and my having no other way, made me a long
while upon this machine, for I worked it effectually by
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little and little into the form of a shovel or spade; the
handle exactly shaped like ours in England, only that the
board part having no iron shod upon it at bottom, it
would not last me so long; however, it served well enough
for the uses which I had occasion to put it to; but never
was a shovel, I believe, made after that fashion, or so long
in making.
I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket or a
wheelbarrow. A basket I could not make by any means,
having no such things as twigs that would bend to make
wicker-ware - at least, none yet found out; and as to a
wheelbarrow, I fancied I could make all but the wheel;
but that I had no notion of; neither did I know how to go
about it; besides, I had no possible way to make the iron
gudgeons for the spindle or axis of the wheel to run in; so
I gave it over, and so, for carrying away the earth which I
dug out of the cave, I made me a thing like a hod which
the labourers carry mortar in when they serve the
bricklayers. This was not so difficult to me as the making
the shovel: and yet this and the shovel, and the attempt
which I made in vain to make a wheelbarrow, took me up
no less than four days - I mean always excepting my
morning walk with my gun, which I seldom failed, and
very seldom failed also bringing home something fit to eat.
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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
on 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 gravedigger. I had now 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.
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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 the house.
DEC. 17. - From this day to the 20th 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. - Now 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.
DEC. 24. - Much rain all night and all day. No stirring
out.
DEC. 25. - Rain all day.
DEC. 26. - No rain, and the earth much cooler than
before, and pleasanter.
DEC. 27. - Killed a young goat, and lamed another, so
that I caught it and led it home in a string; when I had it
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at 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 my 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. 28,29,30,31. - 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 were plenty
of goats, though exceedingly shy, and hard to come at;
however, I resolved to try if I could not bring my dog to
hunt them down.
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.
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JAN. 3. - I began my fence or wall; which, being still
jealous of my being attacked by somebody, I resolved to
make very thick and strong.
N.B. - This wall being described before, I purposely
omit what was said in the journal; it is sufficient to
observe, that I was no less time than from the 2nd of
January to the 14th of April working, finishing, and
perfecting this wall, though it was no more than about
twenty-four yards in length, being a half-circle from one
place in the rock to another place, about eight yards from
it, the door of the cave being in the centre behind it.
All this time I worked very hard, the rains hindering
me many days, nay, sometimes weeks together; but I
thought I should never be perfectly secure till 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 needed to have done.
When this wall was finished, and the outside double
fenced, with a turf wall raised up close to it, I perceived
myself that if any people were to come on shore there,
they would not perceive anything like a habitation; and it
was very well I did so, as may be observed hereafter, upon
a very remarkable occasion.
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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, which build, 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
affairs, I found myself wanting in many things, which I
thought at first it was impossible for me to make; as,
indeed, with 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 at the
capacity of making one by them, though I spent many
weeks about it; I could neither put in the heads, or join
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 candles; 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 beeswax with which I
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made candles in my African adventure; but I had none of
that now; the only remedy I had was, that when I had
killed a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little dish made
of clay, which I baked in the sun, to which I added a wick
of some oakum, I made me a lamp; and this gave me light,
though not a clear, steady light, like a candle. In the
middle of all my labours it happened that, rummaging my
things, I found a little bag which, as I hinted before, had
been filled with corn for the feeding of poultry - not for
this voyage, but before, as I suppose, when the ship came
from Lisbon. The little remainder of corn that had been in
the bag was all devoured by the rats, and I saw nothing in
the bag but husks and dust; and being willing to have the
bag for some other use (I think it was to put powder in,
when I 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, and not so
much as remembering that I had thrown anything 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
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longer time, 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, nor had
entertained any sense of anything that had befallen me
otherwise than as 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 for 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 His 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
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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 support, but not doubting that there
was more in the place, I went all over that part of the
island, where I had been before, peering in every corner,
and under every rock, to see for more of it, but I could
not find any. At last it occurred to my thoughts that I
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 the 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 to me, that should order or appoint that ten or
twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled, when the
rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it had been dropped
from heaven; as also, that I should throw it out in that
particular place, where, it being in the shade of a high
rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it
anywhere else at that time, it had been burnt up and
destroyed.
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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 for the same use, or to the same purpose - to make me
bread, or rather food; for I found ways to cook it 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 on the outside of
my habitation.
APRIL 16. - I finished the ladder; so I went up the
ladder to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it
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down in the inside. This was a complete enclosure to me;
for within I had room enough, and nothing could come at
me from without, unless it could first mount my wall.
The 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: As I was busy in the inside,
behind my tent, just at the entrance into my cave, I was
terribly frighted with a most dreadful, surprising thing
indeed; for all 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 fallen 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 had no sooner stepped do ground, than 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
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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 much amazed with the thing itself, having
never felt the like, nor discoursed with any one that had,
that I was like one dead or stupefied; 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 awakened
me, as it were, and rousing me from the stupefied
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 go 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.
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While I sat thus, I found the air overcast and grow
cloudy, as if it would rain. Soon after that the wind arose
by little and little, so that in less than half-an-hour it blew
a most dreadful hurricane; the sea was all on a sudden
covered over with foam and froth; the shore was covered
with the breach of the water, the trees were torn up by
the roots, and a terrible storm it was. This held about three
hours, and then began to abate; and in two hours more it
was quite 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 spent and over, and I might
venture into my cave again. With this thought my spirits
began to revive; and the rain also helping to persuade me,
I went in and sat down in my tent. But the rain was so
violent that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it;
and I was forced 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 - viz. to cut a hole
through my new fortification, like a sink, to let the water
go out, which would else have flooded my cave. After I
had been in my cave for some time, and found still no
more shocks of the earthquake follow, I began to be more
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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 subject to
these earthquakes, there would be no living for me in a
cave, but I must consider of building a 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; for I concluded, if I stayed 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 two next days, being the 19th and 20th of April,
in contriving where and how to remove my habitation.
The fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I
never slept in quiet; and yet the apprehension of lying
abroad without any fence was almost equal to it; but still,
when I looked about, and saw how everything was put in
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order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and how safe from
danger, it made me very loath to remove. In the
meantime, it occurred to me that it would require a vast
deal of time for me to do this, and that I must be
contented to venture where I was, till I had formed a
camp for myself, and had secured it so as to remove to it.
So with this resolution I composed myself for a time, and
resolved that I would go to work with all speed to build
me a wall with piles and cables, &c., 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. This was the 21st.
APRIL 22. - The next morning I begin to consider of
means to put this resolve into execution; but I was at a
great loss about my tools. I had three large axes, and
abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for
traffic with the Indians); but with much chopping and
cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of notches,
and dull; and though I had a grindstone, I could not turn
it and grind my tools too. This cost me as much thought
as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of
politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man. At
length I contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with
my foot, that I might have both my hands at liberty.
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NOTE. - 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
grindstone was very large and heavy. This machine cost
me a full 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 grindstone
performing very well.
APRIL 30. - Having perceived my bread had been low
a great while, now I took a survey of it, and reduced
myself to one biscuit cake a day, which made my heart
very heavy.
MAY 1. - In the morning, looking towards the sea
side, the tide being low, I saw something lie on the shore
bigger than ordinary, and it looked like a cask; when I
came to it, I found a small barrel, and two or three pieces
of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore by
the late hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I
thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water than it
used to do. I examined the barrel which was driven on
shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder; but it
had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a
stone; however, I rolled it farther on shore for the present,
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and went on upon the sands, as near as I could to the
wreck of the ship, to look for more.
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CHAPTER VI - ILL AND
CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN
WHEN I came down to the ship I found it strangely
removed. The forecastle, which lay before buried in sand,
was heaved up at least six feet, and the stern, which was
broke in 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 broke 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 searching whether I could make any way
into the ship; but I found nothing was to be expected of
that kind, for all the inside of the ship was choked up with
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sand. However, as I had learned not to despair of
anything, 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; but the tide coming in, I was
obliged to give over for that time.
MAY 4. - I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that
I durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport; when, just
going to leave off, I caught a young dolphin. I had made
me a long line of some rope- yarn, but I had no hooks; yet
I frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat;
all which I dried in the sun, and ate them dry.
MAY 5. - Worked on the wreck; cut another beam
asunder, and brought three great fir planks off from the
decks, which I tied together, and made to float on shore
when the tide of flood came on.
MAY 6. - Worked on the wreck; got several iron bolts
out of her and other pieces of ironwork. Worked very
hard, and came home very much tired, and had thoughts
of giving it over.
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MAY 7. - Went to the wreck again, not with an intent
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 it was almost full of water
and sand.
MAY 8. - Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow
to wrench up the deck, which lay now quite clear of the
water or sand. I wrenched open two planks, and brought
them on shore also with the tide. I left the iron crow in
the wreck for next day.
MAY 9. - Went to the wreck, and with the crow made
way into the body of the wreck, and felt several casks, and
loosened them with the crow, but could not break them
up. I felt also a roll of English lead, and could stir it, but it
was too heavy to remove.
MAY 10-14. - Went every day to the wreck; and got a
great many pieces of timber, and boards, or plank, and two
or three hundredweight of iron.
MAY 15. - I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not
cut a piece off the roll of lead by placing the edge of one
hatchet and driving it with the other; but as it lay about a
foot and a half in the water, I could not make any blow to
drive the hatchet.
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MAY 16. - It had blown hard in the night, and the
wreck appeared more broken by the force of the water;
but I stayed so long in the woods, to get pigeons for food,
that the tide prevented my 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 this day, I worked on the
wreck; and with hard labour I loosened some things so
much with the crow, that the first flowing tide several
casks floated out, and two of the seamen's chests; but the
wind blowing from the shore, nothing came to land that
day but pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had some
Brazil pork in it; but the salt water and the sand had
spoiled it. I continued this work every day to the 15th of
June, except the time necessary to get food, which I
always appointed, during this part of my employment, to
be when the tide was up, that I might be ready when it
was ebbed out; and by this time I had got timber and
plank and ironwork enough to have built a good boat, if I
had known how; and also I got, at several times and in
several pieces, near one hundredweight of the sheet lead.
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JUNE 16. - Going down to the seaside, I found a large
tortoise or turtle. This was the first I had seen, which, it
seems, was only my misfortune, not any defect of the
place, or scarcity; for had I happened to be on the other
side of the island, I might have had hundreds of them
every day, as I found afterwards; but perhaps had paid dear
enough for them.
JUNE 17. - I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in
her three- score eggs; and her flesh was to me, at that
time, the most savoury and pleasant that ever I tasted in
my life, having had no flesh, but of goats and fowls, since I
landed in this horrid place.
JUNE 18. - Rained all day, and I 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. - Very 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.
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JUNE 22. - A little better; but under dreadful
apprehensions of sickness.
JUNE 22. - Very bad again; cold and shivering, and
then a violent headache.
JUNE 24. - Much better.
JUNE 25. - An ague very violent; the fit held me seven
hours; cold fit and hot, with faint sweats after it.
JUNE 26. - Better; and having no victuals to eat, took
my gun, but found myself very weak. However, I killed a
she-goat, and with much difficulty got it home, and
broiled some of it, and ate, I would fain have stewed it,
and made some broth, but had no pot.
JUNE 27. - The ague again so violent that I lay a-bed
all day, and neither ate nor drank. I was ready to perish for
thirst; but so weak, I had not strength to stand up, or to
get myself any water to drink. Prayed to God again, but
was light-headed; and when I was not, I was so ignorant
that I knew not what to say; only I lay and cried, `Lord,
look upon me! Lord, pity me! Lord, have mercy upon
me!' I suppose I did nothing else for two or three hours;
till, the fit wearing off, I fell asleep, and did not wake till
far in the night. When I awoke, I found myself much
refreshed, but weak, and exceeding thirsty. However, as I
had no water in my habitation, I was forced to lie till
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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 light upon the ground. He was all over as bright as a
flame, so that I could but just bear to look towards him;
his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful,
impossible for words to describe. When he stepped upon
the ground with his feet, I thought the earth trembled, just
as it had done before in the 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 towards me, with a long spear or
weapon in his hand, to kill me; and when he came to a
rising ground, at some distance, he spoke to me - or I
heard a voice so terrible that it is impossible to express the
terror of it. All that I can say I understood was this:
`Seeing all these things have not brought thee to
repentance, now thou shalt die;' at which words, I
thought he lifted up the spear that was in his hand to kill
me.
No one that shall ever read this account will expect that
I should be able to describe the horrors of my soul at this
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terrible vision. I mean, that even while it was a dream, I
even dreamed of those horrors. Nor is it any more possible
to describe the impression that remained upon my mind
when I awaked, and found it was but a dream.
I had, alas! no divine knowledge. What I had received
by the good instruction of my father was then worn out
by an uninterrupted series, for eight years, of seafaring
wickedness, and a constant conversation with none but
such as were, like myself, wicked and profane to the last
degree. I do not remember that I had, in all that time, one
thought that so much as tended either to looking upwards
towards God, or inwards towards a reflection upon my
own ways; but a certain stupidity of soul, without desire of
good, or conscience of evil, had entirely overwhelmed
me; and I was all that the most hardened, unthinking,
wicked creature among our common sailors can be
supposed to be; not having the least sense, either of the
fear of God in danger, or of thankfulness to God in
deliverance.
In the relating what is already past of my story, this will
be the more easily believed when I shall add, that through
all the variety of miseries that had to this day befallen me, I
never had so much as one thought of it being the hand of
God, or that it was a just punishment for my sin - my
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rebellious behaviour against my father - or my present sins,
which were great - or so much as a punishment for the
general course of my wicked life. When I was on the
desperate expedition on the desert shores of Africa, I never
had so much as one thought of what would become of
me, or one wish to God to direct me whither I should go,
or to keep me from the danger which apparently
surrounded me, as well from voracious creatures as cruel
savages. But I was merely thoughtless of a God or a
Providence, acted like a mere brute, from the principles of
nature, and by the dictates of common sense only, and,
indeed, hardly that. When I was delivered and taken up at
sea by the Portugal captain, well used, and dealt justly and
honourably with, as well as charitably, I had not the least
thankfulness in my thoughts. When, again, I was
shipwrecked, ruined, and in danger of drowning on this
island, I was as far from remorse, or looking on it as a
judgment. I only said to myself often, that I was an
unfortunate dog, and born to be always miserable.
It is true, when I got on shore first here, and found all
my ship's crew drowned and myself spared, I was surprised
with a kind of ecstasy, and some transports of soul, which,
had the grace of God assisted, might have come up to true
thankfulness; but it ended where it began, in a mere
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common flight of joy, or, as I may say, being glad I was
alive, without the least reflection upon the distinguished
goodness of the hand which had preserved me, and had
singled me out to be preserved when all the rest were
destroyed, or an inquiry why Providence had been thus
merciful unto me. Even just the same common sort of joy
which seamen generally have, after they are got safe ashore
from a shipwreck, which they drown all in the next bowl
of punch, and forget almost as soon as it is over; and all the
rest of my life was like it. Even when I was afterwards, on
due consideration, made sensible of my condition, how I
was cast on this dreadful place, out of the reach of human
kind, out of all hope of relief, or prospect of redemption,
as soon as I saw but a prospect of living and that I should
not starve and perish for hunger, all the sense of my
affliction wore off; and I began to be very easy, applied
myself to the works proper for my preservation and
supply, and was far enough from being afflicted at my
condition, as a judgment from heaven, or as the hand of
God against me: these were thoughts which very seldom
entered my head.
The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my Journal,
had at first some little influence upon me, and began to
affect me with seriousness, as long as I thought it had
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something miraculous in it; but as soon as ever that part of
the thought was removed, all the impression that was
raised from it wore off also, as I have noted already. Even
the earthquake, though nothing could be more terrible in
its nature, or more immediately directing to the invisible
Power which alone directs such things, yet no sooner was
the first fright over, but the impression it had made went
off also. I had no more sense of God or His judgments -
much less of the present affliction of my circumstances
being from His hand - than if I had been in the most
prosperous condition of life. But now, when I began to be
sick, and a leisurely view of the miseries of death came to
place itself before me; when my spirits began to sink under
the burden of a strong distemper, and nature was
exhausted with the violence of the fever; conscience, that
had slept so long, began to awake, and I began to reproach
myself with my past life, in which I had so evidently, by
uncommon wickedness, provoked the justice of God to
lay me under uncommon strokes, and to deal with me in
so vindictive a manner. These reflections oppressed me for
the second or third day of my distemper; and in the
violence, as well of the fever as of the dreadful reproaches
of my conscience, extorted some words from me like
praying to God, though I cannot say they were either a
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prayer attended with desires or with hopes: it was rather
the voice of mere fright and distress. My thoughts were
confused, the convictions great upon my mind, and the
horror of dying in such a miserable condition raised
vapours into my head with the mere apprehensions; and in
these hurries of my soul I knew not what my tongue
might express. But it was rather exclamation, such as,
`Lord, what a miserable creature am I! If I should be sick, I
shall certainly die for want of help; and what will become
of me!' Then the tears burst out of my eyes, and I could
say no more for a good while. In this interval the good
advice of my father came to my mind, and presently his
prediction, which I mentioned at the beginning of this
story - viz. that if I did take this foolish step, God would
not bless me, and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect
upon having neglected his counsel when there might be
none to assist in my recovery. `Now,' said I, aloud, `my
dear father's words are come to pass; God's justice has
overtaken me, and I have none to help or hear me. I
rejected the voice of Providence, which had mercifully
put me in a posture or station of life wherein I might have
been happy and easy; but I would neither see it myself nor
learn to know the blessing of it from my parents. I left
them to mourn over my folly, and now I am left to mourn
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under the consequences of it. I abused their help and
assistance, who would have lifted me in the world, and
would have made everything easy to me; and now I have
difficulties to struggle with, too great for even nature itself
to support, and no assistance, no help, no comfort, no
advice.' Then I cried out, `Lord, be my help, for I am in
great distress.' This was the first prayer, if I may call it so,
that I had made for many years.
But to return to my Journal.
JUNE 28. - Having been somewhat refreshed with the
sleep I had had, and the fit being entirely off, I got up; and
though the fright and terror of my dream was very great,
yet I considered that the fit of the ague would return again
the next day, and now was my time to get something to
refresh and support myself when I should be ill; and the
first thing I did, I filled a large square case-bottle with
water, and set it upon my table, in reach of my bed; and
to take off the chill or aguish disposition of the water, I
put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it, and mixed
them together. Then I got me a piece of the goat's flesh
and broiled it on the coals, but could eat very little. I
walked about, but was very weak, and withal very sad and
heavy-hearted under a sense of my miserable condition,
dreading, the return of my distemper the next day. At
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night I made my supper of three of the turtle's eggs, which
I roasted in the ashes, and ate, as we call it, in the shell,
and this was the first bit of meat I had ever asked God's
blessing to, that 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 a gun, for I never went out without
that; so I went but a little way, and sat down upon the
ground, looking out upon the sea, which was just before
me, and very calm and smooth. As I sat here some such
thoughts as these occurred to me: What is this earth and
sea, of which I have seen so much? Whence is it
produced? And what am I, and all the other creatures wild
and tame, human and brutal? Whence are we? Sure we are
all made by some secret Power, who formed the earth and
sea, the air and sky. And who is that? Then it followed
most naturally, it is God that has made all. Well, but then
it came on strangely, if God has made all these things, He
guides and governs them all, and all things that concern
them; for the Power that could make all things must
certainly have power to guide and direct them. If so,
nothing can happen in the great circuit of His works,
either without His knowledge or appointment.
And if nothing happens without His knowledge, He
knows that I am here, and am in this dreadful condition;
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and if nothing happens without His appointment, He has
appointed all this to befall me. Nothing occurred to my
thought to contradict any of these conclusions, and
therefore it rested upon me with the greater force, that it
must needs be that God had appointed all this to befall me;
that I was brought into this miserable circumstance by His
direction, He having the sole power, not of me only, but
of everything that happened in the world. Immediately it
followed: Why has God done this to me? What have I
done to be thus used? My conscience presently checked
me in that inquiry, as if I had blasphemed, and methought
it spoke to me like a voice: `Wretch! dost THOU ask
what thou hast done? Look back upon a dreadful misspent
life, and ask thyself what thou hast NOT done? Ask, why
is it that thou wert not long ago destroyed? Why wert
thou not drowned in Yarmouth Roads; killed in the fight
when the ship was taken by the Sallee man-of-war;
devoured by the wild beasts on the coast of Africa; or
drowned HERE, when all the crew perished but thyself?
Dost THOU ask, what have I done?' I was struck dumb
with these reflections, as one astonished, and had not a
word to say - no, not to answer to myself, but rose up
pensive and sad, walked back to my retreat, and went up
over my wall, as if I had been going to bed; but my
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thoughts were sadly disturbed, and I had no inclination to
sleep; so I sat down in my chair, and lighted my lamp, for
it began to be dark. Now, as the apprehension of the
return of my distemper terrified me very much, it
occurred to my thought that the Brazilians take no physic
but their tobacco for almost all 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, 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 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, in my distemper, or whether it was good for it or no:
but I tried several experiments with it, as if I was resolved
it should hit one way or other. I first took a piece of leaf,
and chewed it in my mouth, which, indeed, at first almost
stupefied my brain, the tobacco being green and strong,
and that I had not been much used to. Then I took some
and steeped it an hour or two in some rum, and resolved
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to take a dose of it when I lay down; and lastly., I burnt
some upon a pan of coals, and held my nose close over the
smoke of it as long as I could bear it, as well for the heat as
almost for 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.' These 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 apprehension 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 hopes appeared, this
prevailed very often upon my thoughts; but, however, the
words made a 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
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want anything in the night, and went to bed. But before I
lay down, I did what I never had done in all my life - I
kneeled down, and prayed to God to fulfil the promise to
me, that if I called upon Him in the day of trouble, He
would deliver me. After my broken and imperfect prayer
was over, I drank the rum in which I had steeped the
tobacco, which was so strong and rank of the tobacco that
I could scarcely get it down; immediately upon this I went
to bed. I found presently it flew up into my head
violently; but I fell into a sound sleep, and waked no more
till, by the sun, it must necessarily be near three o'clock in
the afternoon the next day - nay, to this hour I am partly
of opinion that I slept all the next day and night, and till
almost three the day after; for otherwise I know not how I
should lose a day out of my reckoning in the days of the
week, as it appeared some years after I had done; for if I
had lost it by crossing and recrossing the line, I should
have lost more than one day; but certainly I lost a day in
my account, and never knew which way. Be that,
however, one way or the other, when I awaked I found
myself exceedingly refreshed, and my spirits lively and
cheerful; when I got up I was stronger than I was the day
before, and my stomach better, for I was hungry; and, in
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short, I had no fit the next day, but continued much
altered for the better. This was the 29th.
The 30th was my well day, of course, and I went
abroad with my gun, but did not care to travel too far. I
killed a sea-fowl or two, something like a brandgoose, and
brought them home, but was not very forward to eat
them; so I ate some more of the turtle's eggs, which were
very good. This evening I renewed the medicine, which I
had supposed did me good the day before - 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 as at first, and doubled the
quantity which I drank.
JULY 3. - I missed the fit for good and all, though I
did not recover my full strength for some weeks after.
While I was thus gathering strength, my thoughts ran
exceedingly upon this Scripture, `I will deliver thee"; and
the impossibility of my 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
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mind that I pored so much upon my deliverance from the
main affliction, that I disregarded the deliverance I had
received, and I was as it were made to ask myself such
questions as these - viz. 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 taken of it? Had I done my part?
God had delivered me, but I had not glorified Him - that
is to say, I had not owned and been thankful for that as a
deliverance; and how could I expect greater deliverance?
This touched my heart very much; and immediately I
knelt down and gave God thanks aloud for my recovery
from my sickness.
JULY 4. - In the morning I took the Bible; and
beginning at the New Testament, I began seriously to read
it, and imposed upon myself to read a while every
morning and every night; not tying myself to the number
of chapters, but long as my thoughts should engage me. It
was not long after I set seriously to this work till I found
my heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the
wickedness of my past life. The impression of my dream
revived; and the words, `All these things have not brought
thee to repentance,' ran seriously through my thoughts. I
was earnestly begging of God to give me repentance,
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when it happened providentially, the very day, that,
reading the Scripture, I came to these words: `He is
exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and to
give remission.' I threw down the book; and with my
heart as well as my hands lifted up to heaven, in a kind of
ecstasy of joy, I cried out aloud, `Jesus, thou son of David!
Jesus, thou exalted Prince and Saviour! give me
repentance!' This was the first time I could say, in the true
sense of the words, that I prayed in all my life; for now I
prayed with a sense of my condition, and a true Scripture
view of hope, founded on the encouragement of the
Word of God; and from this time, I may say, I began to
hope that God would hear me.
Now I began to construe the words mentioned above,
`Call on Me, and I will deliver thee,' in a different sense
from what I had ever done before; for then I had no
notion of anything being called DELIVERANCE, but my
being delivered from the captivity I was in; for though I
was indeed at large in the place, yet the island was
certainly a prison to me, and that in the worse sense in the
world. But now I learned to take it in another sense: now
I looked back upon my past life with such horror, and my
sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of
God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down
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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 to 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.
But, leaving this part, I return to my Journal.
My condition began now to be, though not less
miserable as to my way of living, yet much easier to my
mind: and my thoughts being directed, by a constant
reading the Scripture and praying to God, to things of a
higher nature, I had a great deal of comfort within, which
till now I knew nothing of; also, 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
imagined how low I was, and to what weakness I was
reduced. The application which I made use of was
perfectly new, and perhaps which had never cured an ague
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before; neither can I recommend it to any to practise, by
this experiment: and though it did carry off the fit, yet it
rather contributed to weakening me; for I had frequent
convulsions in my nerves and limbs for some time. I
learned from it also this, in particular, that being abroad in
the rainy season was the most pernicious thing to my
health that could be, especially in those rains which came
attended with storms and hurricanes of wind; for as the
rain which came in the dry season was almost always
accompanied with such storms, so I found that rain was
much more dangerous than the rain which fell in
September and October.
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CHAPTER VII -
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE
I HAD now been in this unhappy island above ten
months. All possibility of deliverance from this condition
seemed to be entirely taken from me; and I firmly believe
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 flow any higher, and that it was no more than a little
brook of running water, very fresh and good; but this
being the dry season, there was hardly any water in some
parts of it - at least not enough to run in any stream, so as
it could be perceived. On the banks of this brook I found
many pleasant savannahs or meadows, plain, smooth, and
covered with grass; and on the rising parts of them, next to
the higher grounds, where the water, as might be
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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, that might, perhaps,
have virtues of their own, which I could not find out. I
searched for the cassava root, which the Indians, in all that
climate, make their bread of, but I could find none. I saw
large plants of aloes, but did not understand them. I saw
several sugar-canes, but wild, and, for want of cultivation,
imperfect. I contented myself with these discoveries for
this time, and came back, musing with myself what course
I might take to know the virtue and goodness of any of
the fruits or plants which I should discover, but could
bring it to no conclusion; for, in short, I had made so little
observation while I was in the Brazils, that I knew little of
the plants in the field; at least, very little that might serve
to any purpose now in my distress.
The next day, the sixteenth, I went up the same way
again; and after going something further than I had gone
the day before, I found the brook and the savannahs cease,
and the country become more woody than before. In this
part I found different fruits, and particularly I found
melons upon the ground, in great abundance, and grapes
upon the trees. The vines had spread, indeed, over the
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trees, and the clusters of grapes were just now in their
prime, very ripe and rich. This was a surprising discovery,
and I was exceeding glad of them; but I was warned by
my experience to eat sparingly of them; remembering that
when I was ashore in Barbary, the eating of grapes killed
several of our Englishmen, who were slaves there, by
throwing them into fluxes and fevers. But I found an
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,
wholesome and agreeable to eat when no grapes could be
had.
I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my
habitation; which, by the way, was the first night, as I
might say, I had lain from home. In the night, I took my
first contrivance, and got up in a tree, where I slept well;
and the next morning proceeded upon my discovery;
travelling nearly 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,
which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the
other way, that is, due east; and the country appeared so
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fresh, so green, so flourishing, everything being in a
constant verdure or flourish of spring that it looked like a
planted garden. I descended a little on the side of that
delicious vale, surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure,
though mixed with my other afflicting thoughts, to think
that this was all my own; that I was king and lord of all
this country indefensibly, 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 very 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 I
resolved to lay up a store as well of grapes as limes and
lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season, which I
knew was approaching. In order to do this, I gathered a
great heap of grapes in one place, 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
homewards; resolving to come again, and bring a bag or
sack, or what I could make, to carry the rest home.
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Accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, I
came home (so I must now call my tent and my cave); but
before I got thither the grapes were spoiled; the richness of
the fruit and the weight of the juice having broken them
and bruised them, they were good for little or nothing; as
to the limes, they were good, but I could bring but a few.
The next day, being the nineteenth, 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, to find them all spread about, trod to pieces, and
dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance
eaten and devoured. By this I concluded there were some
wild creatures thereabouts, which had done this; but what
they were I knew not. However, as I found there was no
laying them up on heaps, and no carrying them away in a
sack, but that one way they would be destroyed, and the
other way they would be crushed with their own weight,
I took another course; for I gathered a large quantity of
the grapes, and hung them trees, that they might cure and
dry in the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, I carried as
many back as I could well stand under.
When I came home from this journey, I contemplated
with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley, and the
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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 looking out
for a place equally safe as where now I was situate, if
possible, in that pleasant, 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, I
considered that I was now by the seaside, where it was at
least possible that something might happen to my
advantage, and, by 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 of the remaining part of the month of July; and
though upon second thoughts, I resolved not to remove,
yet I built me a little kind of a bower, and surrounded it at
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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;
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, when the rains came on, and made me stick
close to my first habitation; for though I had made me a
tent like the other, with a piece of a sail, and spread it very
well, yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from
storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the
rains were extraordinary.
About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished
my bower, and began to enjoy myself. The 3rd of August,
I found the grapes I had hung up perfectly dried, and,
indeed, were excellent good raisins of the sun; so I began
to take them down from the trees, and it was very happy
that I did so, for the rains which followed would have
spoiled them, and I had lost the best part of my winter
food; for I had above two hundred large bunches of them.
No sooner had I taken them all down, and carried the
most of them home to my cave, than it began to rain; and
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from hence, 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
with three kittens. This was the more strange to me
because, though I had killed a wild cat, as I called it, with
my gun, yet I thought it was quite a different kind from
our European cats; but the young cats were the same kind
of house-breed as the old one; and both my cats being
females, I thought it very strange. But from these three
cats I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats that I
was forced to kill them like vermin or wild beasts, and to
drive them from my house as much as possible.
From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain, so
that I could not stir, and was now very careful not to be
much wet. In this confinement, I began to be straitened
for food: but venturing out twice, I one day killed a goat;
and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very large
tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food was
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regulated thus: I ate 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 my supper.
During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I
worked daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave, and
by degrees worked it on towards one side, till I came to
the outside of the hill, and made a door or way out, which
came beyond my fence or wall; and so I came in and out
this way. But I was not perfectly easy at lying so open; for,
as I had managed myself before, I was in a perfect
enclosure; whereas now I thought I lay exposed, and open
for anything to come in upon me; and yet I could not
perceive that there was any living thing to fear, the biggest
creature that I had yet seen upon the island being a goat.
SEPT. 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 for religious exercise, prostrating myself 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
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Jesus Christ; and not having tasted the least refreshment
for twelve hours, even till the going down of the sun, I
then ate a biscuit-cake and a bunch of grapes, and went to
bed, finishing the day as I began it. I had all this time
observed no Sabbath day; for as at first I had no sense of
religion upon my mind, I had, after some time, omitted to
distinguish the weeks, by making a longer notch than
ordinary for the Sabbath day, and so did not really know
what any of the days were; but now, having cast up the
days as above, I found I had been there a year; so I divided
it into weeks, and set apart every seventh day for a
Sabbath; though I 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 to me, and I learned to divide them so as to
provide for them accordingly; but I bought all my
experience before I had it, and this I am going to relate
was one of the most discouraging experiments that I made.
I have mentioned that I had saved the few ears of
barley and rice, which I had so surprisingly found spring
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up, as I thought, of themselves, and I believe there were
about thirty stalks of rice, and about twenty of barley; and
now I thought it a proper time to sow it, after the rains,
the sun being in its southern position, going from me.
Accordingly, I dug up a piece of ground as well as I could
with my wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, I
sowed my grain; but as I was sowing, it casually occurred
to my thoughts that I would not sow it all at first, because
I did not know when was the proper time for it, so I
sowed about two-thirds of the seed, leaving about a
handful of each. It was a great comfort to me afterwards
that I did so, for not one grain of what I sowed this time
came to anything: for the dry months following, the earth
having had no rain after the seed was sown, it had no
moisture to assist its growth, and never came up at all till
the wet season had come again, and then it grew as if it
had been but 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 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
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left only, and not daring to sow all that I had, I had but a
small quantity at last, my whole crop not amounting to
above half a peck of each kind. But by this experiment I
was made master of my business, and knew exactly when
the proper season was to sow, and that I might expect two
seed-times and two harvests every year.
While this corn was growing I made a little discovery,
which was of use to me afterwards. As soon as the rains
were over, and the weather began to settle, which was
about the month of November, I made a visit up the
country to my bower, where, though I had not been some
months, yet I found all things just as I left them. The circle
or double hedge that I had made was not only firm and
entire, but the stakes which I had cut out of some trees
that grew thereabouts were all shot out and grown with
long branches, as much as a willow-tree usually shoots the
first year after lopping its head. I could not tell what tree
to call it that these stakes were cut from. I was surprised,
and yet very well pleased, to see the young trees grow;
and I pruned them, and led them up to grow as much
alike as I could; and it is scarce credible how beautiful a
figure they grew into in three years; so that though the
hedge made a circle of about twenty-five yards in
diameter, yet the trees, for such I might now call them,
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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
semi-circle round my wall (I mean that of my first
dwelling), 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 rainy seasons and the dry seasons,
which were generally thus:- The half of February, the
whole of March, and the half of April - rainy, the sun
being then on or near the equinox.
The half of April, the whole of May, June, and July,
and the half of August - dry, the sun being then to the
north of the line.
The half of August, the whole of September, and the
half of October - rainy, the sun being then come back.
The half of October, the whole of November,
December, and January, and the half of February - dry, the
sun being then to the south of the line.
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The rainy seasons 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 myself 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. 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
application; particularly I tried many ways to make myself
a basket, but all the twigs I could get for the purpose
proved so brittle that they would do nothing. It proved of
excellent advantage to me now, that when I was a boy, I
used to take great delight in standing at a basket-maker's,
in the town where my father lived, to see them make their
wicker-ware; and being, as boys usually are, very officious
to help, and a great observer of the manner in which they
worked those things, and sometimes lending a hand, I had
by these means full knowledge of the methods of it, and I
wanted nothing but the materials, when it came into my
mind that the twigs of that tree from whence I cut my
stakes that grew might possibly be as tough as the sallows,
willows, and osiers in England, and I resolved to try.
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Accordingly, the next day I went to my country house, as
I called it, and cutting some of the smaller twigs, I found
them to my purpose as much as I could desire; whereupon
I came the next time prepared with a hatchet to cut down
a quantity, which I soon found, for there was great plenty
of them. These I set up to dry within my circle or hedge,
and when they were fit for use I carried them to my cave;
and here, during the next season, I employed myself in
making, as well as I could, a great many baskets, both to
carry earth or to carry or lay up anything, as I had
occasion; and though I did not finish them very
handsomely, yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for
my purpose; thus, afterwards, I took care never to be
without them; and as my wicker-ware decayed, I made
more, especially 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 holding
of water, spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to boil
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anything, except a great kettle, which I saved out of the
ship, and which was too big for such as I desired it - viz.
to make broth, and stew a bit of meat by itself. The
second thing I fain would have had was a tobacco-pipe,
but it was impossible to 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-working all the summer or dry season,
when another business took me up more time than it
could be imagined I could spare.
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CHAPTER VIII - SURVEYS HIS
POSITION
I MENTIONED before that I had a great mind to see
the whole island, and that I had travelled up the brook,
and so on to where I built my bower, and where I had an
opening quite to the sea, on the other side of the island. I
now resolved to travel quite across to the sea-shore on that
side; so, taking my gun, a 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 a continent I could
not tell; but it lay very high, extending from the W. 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 than that I knew it must be part of America,
and, as I concluded by all my observations, must be near
the Spanish dominions, and perhaps was all inhabited by
savages, where, if I had landed, I had been in a worse
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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 off afflicting myself
with fruitless wishes of being there.
Besides, after some thought 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 Brazils, where are found
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 savannah fields
sweet, adorned with flowers and grass, and full of very fine
woods. I saw abundance of parrots, and fain I would have
caught one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and
taught it to speak to me. I did, after some painstaking,
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; however, at
last I taught him to call me by name very familiarly. But
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the accident that followed, though it be a trifle, will be
very diverting in its place.
I was exceedingly diverted with this journey. I found in
the low grounds hares (as I thought them to be) and foxes;
but they differed greatly from all the other kinds I had met
with, nor could I satisfy myself to eat them, though I
killed several. But I had no need to be venturous, for I had
no want of food, and of that which was very good too,
especially these three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, and turtle,
or tortoise, which added to my grapes, Leadenhall market
could not have furnished a table better than I, in
proportion to the company; and though my case was
deplorable enough, yet I had great cause for thankfulness
that I was not driven to any extremities for food, but had
rather plenty, even to dainties.
I never travelled in this journey above two miles
outright in a day, or thereabouts; but I took so many turns
and re-turns to see what discoveries I could make, that I
came weary enough to the place where I resolved to sit
down all night; and then I either reposed myself in a tree,
or surrounded myself with a row of stakes set upright in
the ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no
wild creature could come at me without waking me.
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As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to
see that I had taken up my lot on the worst side of the
island, for here, indeed, the shore was covered with
innumerable turtles, whereas on the other side I had found
but three in a year and a half. Here was also an infinite
number of fowls of many kinds, some which I had seen,
and some which I had not seen before, and many of them
very good meat, but such as I knew not the names of,
except those called penguins.
I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very
sparing of my powder and shot, and therefore had more
mind to kill a she-goat if I could, which I could better
feed on; and though there were many goats here, more
than on my side the island, yet it was with much more
difficulty that I could come near them, the country being
flat and even, and they saw me much sooner than when I
was on the hills.
I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter
than mine; but yet I had not the least inclination to
remove, for as I was fixed in my habitation it became
natural to me, and I seemed all the while I was here to be
as it were upon a 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
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pole upon the shore for a mark, I concluded I would go
home again, and that 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.
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 wood, that I could not
see which was my way by any direction but that of the
sun, nor even then, unless I knew very well the position of
the sun at that time of the day. It happened, to my further
misfortune, that the weather proved hazy for three or four
days while I was in the valley, and not being able to see
the sun, I wandered about very uncomfortably, and at last
was obliged to find the seaside, 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 surprised a young kid, and
seized upon it; and I, running in to take hold of it, caught
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it, and saved it alive from the dog. I had a great mind to
bring it home if I could, for I had often been musing
whether it might not be possible to get a kid or two, and
so raise a breed of tame goats, which might supply me
when my powder and shot should be all spent. I made a
collar for this little creature, and with a string, which I
made of some rope-yam, which I always carried about me,
I led him along, though with some difficulty, till I came to
my bower, and there I enclosed him and left him, for I
was very impatient to be at home, from whence I had
been absent above a month.
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to
come into my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-
bed. This little wandering journey, without settled place of
abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that my own house,
as I called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me
compared to that; and it rendered everything about me so
comfortable, that I resolved I would never go a great way
from it again while it should be my lot to stay on the
island.
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself
after my long journey; during which most of the time was
taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my
Poll, who began now to be a mere domestic, and to be
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well acquainted with me. Then I began to think of the
poor kid which I had penned in within my little circle,
and resolved to go and fetch it home, or give it some
food; accordingly I went, and found it where I left it, for
indeed it could not get out, but was almost starved for
want of food. I went and cut boughs of trees, and branches
of such shrubs as I could find, and threw it over, and
having fed it, I tied it as I did before, to lead it away; but it
was so tame with being hungry, that I had no need to
have tied it, for it followed me like a dog: and as I
continually fed it, the creature became so loving, so
gentle, and so fond, that it became from that time one of
my domestics also, and would never leave me afterwards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now
come, and I kept the 30th of September in the same
solemn manner as before, being the anniversary of my
landing on the island, having now been there two years,
and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day
I came there, I spent the whole day in humble and
thankful acknowledgments of the many wonderful mercies
which my solitary condition was attended with, and
without which it might have been infinitely more
miserable. I gave humble and hearty thanks that God had
been pleased to discover to me that it was possible I might
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be more happy in this solitary condition than I should
have been in the liberty of society, and in all the pleasures
of the world; that He could fully make up to me the
deficiencies of my solitary state, and the want of human
society, by His presence and the communications of His
grace to my soul; supporting, comforting, and encouraging
me to depend upon His providence here, and hope for
His eternal presence hereafter.
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much
more happy this life I now led was, with all its miserable
circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I
led all the past part of my days; and now I changed both
my sorrows and my joys; my very desires altered, my
affections changed their gusts, and my delights were
perfectly new from what they were at my first coming, or,
indeed, for the two years past.
Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting or for
viewing the country, the anguish of my soul at my
condition would break out upon me on a sudden, and my
very heart would die within me, to think of the woods,
the mountains, the deserts I was in, and how I was a
prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the
ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, without redemption.
In the midst of the greatest composure of my mind, this
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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 upon the ground
for an hour or two together; and this was still worse to
me, for if I could burst out into tears, or vent myself by
words, it would go off, and the grief, having exhausted
itself, would abate.
But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts:
I daily read the word of God, and applied all the comforts
of it to my present state. One morning, being very sad, I
opened the Bible upon these words, `I will never, never
leave thee, nor forsake thee.' Immediately it occurred that
these words were to me; why else should they be directed
in such a manner, just at the moment when I was
mourning over my condition, as one forsaken of God and
man? `Well, then,' said I, `if God does not forsake me, of
what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it, though
the world should all forsake me, seeing on the other hand,
if I had all the world, and should lose the favour and
blessing of God, there would be no comparison in the
loss?'
From this moment I began to conclude in my mind
that it was possible for me to be more happy in this
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forsaken, solitary condition than it was probable I should
ever have been in any other particular state in the world;
and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God
for bringing me to this place. I know not what it was, but
something shocked my mind at that thought, and I durst
not speak the words. `How canst thou become such a
hypocrite,' said I, even audibly, `to pretend to be thankful
for a condition which, however thou mayest endeavour to
be contented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily to be
delivered from?' So I stopped there; but though I could
not say I thanked God for being there, yet I sincerely gave
thanks to God for opening my eyes, by whatever afflicting
providences, to see the former condition of my life, and to
mourn for my wickedness, and repent. I never opened the
Bible, or shut it, but my very soul within me blessed God
for directing my friend in England, without any order of
mine, to pack it up among my goods, and for assisting me
afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third
year; and though I have not given the reader the trouble
of so particular an account of my works this year as the
first, yet in general it may be observed that I was very
seldom idle, but having regularly divided my time
according to the several daily employments that were
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before me, such as: first, my duty to God, and the reading
the Scriptures, which I constantly set apart some time for
thrice every day; secondly, the going abroad with my gun
for food, which generally took me up three hours in every
morning, when it did not rain; thirdly, the ordering,
cutting, 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,
when the sun was in the zenith, the violence of the heat
was too great to stir out; so that about four hours in the
evening was all the time I could be supposed to work in,
with this exception, that sometimes I changed my hours of
hunting and working, and went to work in the morning,
and abroad with my gun in the afternoon.
To this short time allowed for labour I desire may be
added the exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many
hours which, for want of tools, want of help, and want of
skill, everything I did took up out of my time. For
example, I was full two and forty days in making a board
for a long shelf, which I wanted in my cave; whereas, two
sawyers, with their tools and a 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.
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This tree I was three days in cutting down, and two more
cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to a log or piece of
timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing I reduced
both the sides of it into chips till it began to be light
enough to move; then I turned it, and made one side of it
smooth and flat as a board from end to end; then, turning
that side downward, cut the other side til I brought the
plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth on both
sides. Any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a
piece of work; but labour and patience carried me through
that, and many other things. I only observe this in
particular, to show the reason why so much of my time
went away with so little work - viz. that what might be a
little to be done with help and tools, was a vast labour and
required a prodigious time to do alone, and by hand. But
notwithstanding this, with patience and labour I got
through everything that my circumstances made necessary
to me to do, as will appear by what follows.
I was now, in the months of November and
December, expecting my crop of barley and rice. The
ground I had manured and dug up for them was not great;
for, as I observed, my seed of each was not above the
quantity of half a peck, for I had lost one whole crop by
sowing in the dry season. But now my crop promised very
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well, when on a sudden I found I was in danger of losing
it all again by enemies of several sorts, which it was
scarcely possible to keep from it; as, first, the goats, and
wild creatures which I called hares, who, 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 stalk.
This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure
about it with a hedge; which I did with a great deal of toil,
and the more, because it required speed. 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 blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin me now,
when it was in the ear; for, going along by the place to see
how it throve, I saw my little crop surrounded with fowls,
of I know not how many sorts, who 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
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shot, but there rose 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 that the remainder was likely to be a good
crop if it could be saved.
I stayed 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 was no sooner out of their sight than they dropped
down one by one into the corn again. I was so provoked,
that I could not have patience to stay till more came on,
knowing that every grain that they ate now was, as it
might be said, a peck-loaf to me in the consequence; but
coming up to the hedge, I fired again, and killed three of
them. This was what I wished for; so I took them up, and
served them as we serve notorious thieves in England -
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hanged them in chains, for a terror to of them. It is
impossible to imagine that this should have such an effect
as it had, for the fowls would not only not come at the
corn, but, in short, they forsook all that part of the island,
and I could never see a bird near the place as long as my
scarecrows hung there. This I was very glad of, you may
be sure, and about the latter end of December, which was
our second harvest of the year, I reaped my corn.
I was sadly put to it for a scythe or sickle to cut it
down, and all I could do was to make one, as well as I
could, out of one of the broadswords, or cutlasses, which I
saved among the arms out of the ship. However, as my
first crop was but small, I had no great difficulty to cut it
down; in short, I reaped it in my way, for I cut nothing
off but the ears, and carried it away in a great basket which
I had made, and so rubbed it out with my hands; and at
the end of all my harvesting, I found that out of my half-
peck of seed I had near two bushels of rice, and about 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 of my corn, or
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indeed how to clean it and part it; nor, if made into meal,
how to make bread of it; and if how to make it, yet I
knew not how to bake it. These things being added to my
desire of having a good quantity for store, and to secure a
constant supply, I resolved not to taste any of this crop but
to preserve it all for seed against the next season; and in
the meantime to employ all my study and hours of
working to accomplish this great work of providing myself
with corn and bread.
It might be truly said, that now I worked for my bread.
I believe few people have thought much upon the strange
multitude of little things necessary in the providing,
producing, curing, dressing, making, and finishing this one
article of bread.
I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this
to my daily discouragement; and was made more sensible
of it every hour, even after I had got the first handful of
seed-corn, which, as I have said, came up unexpectedly,
and indeed to a surprise.
First, I had no plough to turn up the earth - no spade
or shovel to dig it. Well, this I conquered by making me a
wooden spade, as I observed before; but this did my work
but in a wooden manner; and though it cost me a great
many days to make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only
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wore out soon, but made my work the harder, and made
it be performed much worse. However, this I bore with,
and was content to work it out with patience, and bear
with the badness of the performance. When the corn was
sown, 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 it, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow
it. When it was growing, and grown, I have observed
already how many things I wanted to fence it, secure it,
mow or reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, 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; but all these things I did without, as
shall be observed; and yet the corn was an inestimable
comfort and advantage to me too. 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, as I had divided it, a certain part of it was every
day appointed to these works; and as I had resolved to use
none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quantity by
me, I had the next six months to apply myself wholly, by
labour and invention, to furnish myself with utensils
proper for the performing all the operations necessary for
making the corn, when I had it, fit for my use.
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CHAPTER IX - A BOAT
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 but a sorry one indeed, and
very heavy, and required double labour to work with it.
However, I got through that, and sowed my seed in two
large flat pieces of ground, as near my house as I could
find them to my mind, and fenced them in with a good
hedge, the stakes of which were all cut off that wood
which I had set before, and knew it would grow; so that,
in a year's time, I knew I should have a quick or living
hedge, that would want but little repair. This work did
not take me up less than three months, because a great part
of that time was the wet season, when I could not go
abroad. Within-doors, that is when it rained and I could
not go out, I found employment in the following
occupations - 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 taught him to know
his own name, and at last to speak it out pretty loud,
`Poll,' which was the first word I ever heard spoken in the
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island by any mouth but my own. This, therefore, was not
my work, but an assistance to my work; for now, as I said,
I had a great employment upon my hands, as follows: I
had long studied to make, by some means or other, some
earthen vessels, which, indeed, I wanted sorely, but knew
not where to come at them. However, considering the
heat of the climate, I did not doubt but if I could find out
any clay, I might make some pots that might, being dried
in the sun, be hard enough and strong enough to bear
handling, and to hold anything that was dry, and required
to be kept so; and as this was necessary in the preparing
corn, meal, &c., which was the thing I was doing, 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, misshapen, ugly things I made; how
many of them fell in and how many fell out, the clay not
being stiff enough to bear its own weight; how many
cracked by the over-violent heat of the sun, being set out
too hastily; and how many fell in 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
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not make above two large earthen ugly things (I cannot
call them jars) in about two months' labour.
However, as the sun baked these two very dry and
hard, I lifted them very gently up, and set them down
again in two great wicker baskets, which I had made on
purpose for them, that they might not break; and as
between the pot and the basket there was a little room to
spare, I stuffed it full of the rice and barley straw; and these
two pots being to stand always dry I thought would hold
my dry corn, and perhaps the meal, when the corn was
bruised.
Though I miscarried so much in my design for large
pots, yet I made several smaller things with better success;
such as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins,
and any things my hand turned to; and the heat of the sun
baked them quite 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
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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 some pots. I had no notion of a kiln, such as
the potters burn in, or of glazing them with lead, though I
had some lead to do it with; but I placed three large
pipkins and two or three pots in a pile, one upon another,
and placed my firewood all round it, with a great heap of
embers under them. I plied the fire with fresh fuel round
the outside and upon the top, till I saw the pots in the
inside red-hot quite through, and observed that they did
not crack at all. When I saw them clear red, I let them
stand in that heat about five or six hours, till I found one
of them, though it did not crack, did melt or run; for the
sand which was mixed with the clay melted by the
violence of the heat, and would have run into glass if I had
gone on; so I slacked my fire gradually till the pots began
to abate of the red colour; and watching them all night,
that I might not let the fire abate too fast, in the morning I
had three very good (I will not say handsome) pipkins, and
two other earthen pots, as hard burnt as could be desired,
and one of them perfectly glazed with the running of the
sand.
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After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted no
sort of earthenware 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 learned 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 on the fire again with some
water in it to boil me some meat, which it did admirably
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 as good as I would have
had it been.
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 at that perfection of art with one
pair of hands. To supply this want, I was at a great loss;
for, of all the 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
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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 neither would 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 Brazil make their
canoes. After this, I made a great heavy pestle or beater of
the wood called the iron-wood; and this I prepared and
laid by against I had my next crop of corn, which I
proposed to myself to grind, or rather pound into meal to
make bread.
My next difficulty was to make a sieve or searce, to
dress my meal, and to 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 even to think on, for
to be sure I had nothing like the necessary thing to make
it - I mean fine thin canvas or stuff to searce the meal
through. And here I was at a full stop for many months;
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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 how to weave it 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 proper enough for
the work; and thus I made shift for some years: how I did
afterwards, I shall show in its place.
The baking part was the next thing to be considered,
and how I should make bread when I came to have corn;
for first, I had no yeast. As to that part, there was no
supplying the want, so I did not concern myself much
about it. But for an oven I was indeed in great pain. At
length I found out an 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 burned 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 my hearth, which I had paved with
some square tiles of my own baking and burning also; but
I should not call them square.
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When the firewood was burned pretty much into
embers or live coals, I drew them forward upon this
hearth, so as to cover it all over, and there I let them lie till
the hearth was very hot. Then sweeping away all the
embers, I set down my loaf or loaves, and whelming down
the earthen pot upon them, drew the embers all round the
outside of the pot, to keep in and add to the heat; and thus
as well as in the best oven in the world, I baked my
barley-loaves, and became in little time a good pastrycook
into the bargain; for I made myself several cakes and
puddings of the rice; but I made no pies, neither had I
anything to put into them supposing I had, except the
flesh either of fowls or goats.
It need not be wondered at if all these things took me
up most part of the third year of my abode here; for it is to
be observed that in the intervals of these things I had my
new harvest and husbandry to manage; for I reaped my
corn in its season, and carried it home as well as I could,
and laid it up in the ear, in my large baskets, till I had time
to rub it out, for I had no floor to thrash it on, or
instrument to thrash it with.
And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really
wanted to build my barns bigger; I wanted a place to lay it
up in, for the increase of the corn now yielded me so
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much, that I had of the barley about twenty bushels, and
of the rice as much or more; insomuch that now I
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 were much more than I could consume in
a year; so I resolved to sow just the same quantity every
year that I sowed the last, in hopes that such a quantity
would fully provide me with bread, &c.
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 were on shore there,
fancying that, seeing the mainland, and an inhabited
country, I might find some way or other to convey myself
further, and perhaps at last find some means of escape.
But all this while I made no allowance for the dangers
of such an undertaking, 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 in their power, I should run a hazard of more
than a thousand to one of being killed, and perhaps of
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being eaten; for I had heard that the people of the
Caribbean coast were cannibals or man-eaters, and I knew
by the latitude that I could not be far from that shore.
Then, supposing they were not cannibals, yet they might
kill me, as many Europeans who had fallen into their
hands had been served, even when they had been ten or
twenty together - much more I, that was but one, and
could make little or no defence; all these things, I say,
which I ought to have considered well; and did come into
my thoughts afterwards, yet gave me no apprehensions at
first, and my head ran mightily upon the thought of
getting over to the shore.
Now I wished for my boy Xury, and the long-boat
with 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 at 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 upward, against a high ridge of beachy, rough
sand, but no water about her. If I had had hands to have
refitted her, and to have launched her into the water, the
boat would have done well enough, and I might have
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gone back into the Brazils with her easily enough; but I
might have foreseen that I could no more turn her and set
her upright upon her bottom than I could remove the
island; however, I went to the woods, and cut levers and
rollers, and brought them to the boat resolving to try what
I could do; suggesting to myself that if I could but turn her
down, I might repair the damage she had received, and
she would be a very good boat, and I might go to sea in
her very easily.
I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil,
and spent, I think, three or four weeks about it; at last
finding it impossible to heave it up with my little strength,
I fell to digging away the sand, to undermine it, and so to
make it fall down, setting pieces of wood to thrust and
guide it right in the fall.
But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up
again, or to get under it, much less to move it forward
towards the water; so I was forced to give it over; and yet,
though I gave over the hopes of the boat, my desire to
venture over for the main increased, rather than decreased,
as the means for it seemed impossible.
This at length put 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,
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as I might say, without hands, of the trunk of a great tree.
This I not only thought possible, but easy, and pleased
myself extremely with the thoughts of making it, and with
my having much more convenience for it than any of the
negroes or Indians; but not at all considering the particular
inconveniences which I lay under more than the Indians
did - viz. want of hands to move it, when it was made,
into the water - a difficulty much harder for me to
surmount than all the consequences of want of tools could
be to them; for what was it to me, if when I had chosen a
vast tree in the woods, and with much trouble cut it
down, if I had been able with my tools to hew and dub
the outside into the proper shape of a boat, and burn or
cut out the inside to make it hollow, so as to make a boat
of it - if, after all this, I must leave it just there where I
found it, and not be able to launch it into the water?
One would have thought I could not have had the least
reflection upon my mind of my circumstances while I was
making this boat, but I should have immediately thought
how I should get it into the sea; but my thoughts were so
intent upon my voyage over the sea in it, that I never
once considered how I should get it off the land: and it
was really, in its own nature, more easy for me to guide it
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over forty-five miles of sea than about forty-five fathoms
of land, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water.
I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that
ever man did who had any of his senses awake. I pleased
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 inquiries into it by this foolish answer which I
gave myself - `Let me first make it; I 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. I
felled a cedar-tree, and I question much whether Solomon
ever had such a one for the building of 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 spreading
head cut off, which I hacked and hewed through with axe
and hatchet, and inexpressible labour; after this, it cost me
a month to shape it and dub it to a proportion, and to
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something like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim
upright as it ought to do. It cost me near three months
more to clear the inside, and work it out so as to make an
exact boat of it; this I did, indeed, without fire, by mere
mallet and chisel, and by the dint of hard labour, till I had
brought it to be a very 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
ever I 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; 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 me 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
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grudge pains who have their deliverance in view?); but
when this was worked through, and this difficulty
managed, it was still much the same, 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 upon it, and
calculate how deep it was to be dug, how broad, how the
stuff was to be thrown out, I found that, by the number of
hands I had, being none but my own, it must have been
ten or twelve years before I could have gone through with
it; for the shore lay so high, 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, and kept my anniversary with the same
devotion, and with as much comfort as ever before; for,
by a constant study and serious application to the Word of
God, and by the assistance of His grace, I gained a
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different knowledge from what I had before. I entertained
different notions of things. I looked now upon the world
as a thing remote, which I had nothing to do with, no
expectations from, and, indeed, no desires about: in a
word, I had nothing indeed to do with it, nor was ever
likely to have, so I thought it looked, as we may perhaps
look upon it hereafter - viz. 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 is a great gulf
fixed.'
In the first place, I was removed from all the
wickedness of the world here; I had neither the lusts of the
flesh, the lusts of the eye, nor the pride of life. I had
nothing to covet, for I had all that I was now capable of
enjoying; I was lord of the whole manor; or, if I pleased, I
might call myself king or emperor over the whole country
which I had possession of: there were no rivals; I had no
competitor, none to dispute sovereignty or command with
me: I might have raised ship-loadings of corn, but I had
no use for it; so I let as little grow as I thought enough for
my occasion. I had tortoise or turtle enough, but now and
then one was as much as I could put to any use: I had
timber enough to have built a fleet of ships; and I had
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grapes enough to have made wine, or to have cured into
raisins, to have loaded that fleet when it had been built.
But all I could make use of was all that was valuable: I
had enough to eat and supply my wants, and what was all
the rest to me? If I killed more flesh than I could eat, the
dog must eat it, or vermin; if I sowed more corn than I
could eat, it must be spoiled; the trees that I cut down
were lying to rot on the ground; I could make no more
use of them but for fuel, and that I had no occasion for
but to dress my food.
In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated
to me, upon just reflection, that all the good things of this
world are no farther good to us than they are for our use;
and that, whatever we may heap up to give others, we
enjoy just as much as we can use, and no more. The most
covetous, griping miser in the world would have been
cured of the vice of covetousness if he had been in my
case; for I possessed infinitely more than I knew what to
do with. I had no room for desire, except it was of things
which I had not, and they were but trifles, though,
indeed, of great use to me. I had, as I hinted before, a
parcel of money, as well gold as silver, about thirty-six
pounds sterling. Alas! there the sorry, useless stuff lay; I
had no more manner of business for it; and often thought
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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 a sixpenny-worth
of turnip and carrot seed out of England, or for a handful
of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink. As it was, I had not
the least advantage by it or benefit from it; but there it lay
in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp of the cave
in the wet seasons; and if I had had the drawer full of
diamonds, it had been the same case - they had been of no
manner of value to me, because of no use.
I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in
itself than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as
well as to my body. I frequently sat down to meat with
thankfulness, and admired the hand of God's providence,
which had thus spread my table in the wilderness. I
learned to look more upon the bright side of my
condition, and less upon the dark side, and to consider
what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted; and this gave
me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express
them; and which I take notice of here, to put those
discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy
comfortably what God has given them, because they see
and covet something that He has not given them. All our
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discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring
from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
Another reflection was of great use to me, and
doubtless would be so to any one that should fall into such
distress as mine was; and this was, to compare my present
condition with what I at first expected it would be; nay,
with what it would certainly have been, if the good
providence of God had not wonderfully ordered the ship
to be cast up nearer to the shore, where I not only could
come at her, but could bring what I got out of her to the
shore, for my relief and comfort; without which, I had
wanted for tools to work, weapons for defence, and
gunpowder and shot for getting my food.
I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in
representing to myself, in the most lively colours, how I
must have acted if I had got nothing out of the ship. How
I could not have so much as got any food, except fish and
turtles; and that, as it was long before I found any of them,
I must have perished first; that I should have lived, if I had
not perished, like a mere savage; that if I had killed a goat
or a fowl, by any contrivance, I had no way to flay or
open it, or part the flesh from the skin and the bowels, or
to cut it up; but must gnaw it with my teeth, and pull it
with my claws, like a beast.
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These reflections made me very sensible of the
goodness of Providence to me, and very thankful for my
present condition, with all its hardships and misfortunes;
and this part also I cannot but recommend to the
reflection of those who are apt, in their misery, to say, `Is
any affliction like mine?' Let them consider how much
worse the cases of some people are, and their case might
have been, if Providence had thought fit.
I had another reflection, which assisted me also to
comfort my mind with hopes; and this was comparing my
present situation with what I had deserved, and had
therefore reason to expect from the hand of Providence. I
had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of the
knowledge and fear of God. I had been well instructed by
father and mother; neither had they been wanting to me
in their early endeavours to infuse a religious awe of God
into my mind, a sense of my duty, and what the nature
and end of my being required of me. But, alas! falling early
into the seafaring life, which of all lives is the most
destitute of the fear of God, though His terrors are always
before them; I say, falling early into the seafaring life, and
into seafaring company, all that little sense of religion
which I had entertained was laughed out of me by my
messmates; by a hardened despising of dangers, and the
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views of death, which grew habitual to me by my long
absence from all manner of opportunities to converse with
anything but what was like myself, or to hear anything
that was good or tended towards it.
So void was I of everything that was good, or the least
sense of what I was, or was to be, that, in the greatest
deliverances I enjoyed - such as my escape from Sallee; my
being taken up by the Portuguese master of the ship; my
being planted so well in the Brazils; my receiving the
cargo from England, and the like - I never had once the
words `Thank God!' so much as on my mind, or in my
mouth; nor in the greatest distress had I so much as a
thought to pray to Him, or so much as to say, `Lord, have
mercy upon me!' no, nor to mention the name of God,
unless it was to swear by, and blaspheme it.
I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many
months, as I have already observed, on account of my
wicked and hardened life past; and when I looked about
me, and considered what particular providences had
attended me since my coming into this place, and how
God had dealt bountifully with me - had not only
punished me less than my iniquity had deserved, but had
so plentifully provided for me - this gave me great hopes
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that my repentance was accepted, and that God had yet
mercy in store for me.
With these reflections I worked my mind up, not only
to a resignation to the will of God in the present
disposition of my circumstances, but even to a sincere
thankfulness for my condition; and that I, who was yet a
living man, ought not to complain, seeing I had not the
due punishment of my sins; that I enjoyed so many
mercies which I had no reason to have expected in that
place; that I ought never more to repine at my condition,
but to rejoice, and to give daily thanks for that daily bread,
which nothing but a crowd of wonders could have
brought; that I ought to consider I had been fed even by a
miracle, even as great as that of feeding Elijah by ravens,
nay, by a long series of miracles; and that I could hardly
have named a place in the uninhabitable part of the world
where I could have been cast more to my advantage; a
place where, as I had no society, which was my affliction
on one hand, so I found no ravenous beasts, no furious
wolves or tigers, to threaten my life; no venomous
creatures, or poisons, which I might feed on to my hurt;
no savages to murder and devour me. In a word, as my life
was a life of sorrow one way, so it was a life of mercy
another; and I wanted nothing to make it a life of comfort
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but to be able to make my sense of God's goodness to me,
and care over me in this condition, be my daily
consolation; and after I did make a just improvement on
these things, I went away, and was no more sad. I had
now been here so long that many things which I had
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 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
concurrence of days in the various providences which
befell me, and which, if I had been superstitiously inclined
to observe days as fatal or fortunate, I might have had
reason to have looked upon with a great deal of curiosity.
First, I had observed that the same day that I broke
away from my father and 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 Roads, that same day-year afterwards I made
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my escape from Sallee in a boat; the same day of the year I
was born on - viz. the 30th of September, that same day I
had my life so miraculously saved twenty-six years after,
when I was cast on shore in this island; so that my wicked
life and my solitary life began both 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 thankful that
I had any at all, the getting it being, as has been already
observed, next to miraculous.
My clothes, too, began to decay; as to linen, I had had
none a good while, except some chequered shirts which I
found in the chests of the other seamen, and which I
carefully preserved; because many times I could bear no
other clothes on but a shirt; and it was a very great help to
me that I had, among all the men's clothes of the ship,
almost three dozen of shirts. There were also, indeed,
several thick watch-coats of the seamen's which were left,
but they were too hot to wear; and though it is true that
the weather was so violently hot that there was no need of
clothes, yet I could not go quite naked - no, though I had
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been inclined to it, which I was not - nor could I abide
the thought of it, though I was alone. The reason why I
could not go naked was, I could not bear the heat of the
sun so well when quite naked as with some clothes on;
nay, the very heat frequently blistered my skin: whereas,
with a shirt on, the air itself made some motion, and
whistling under the shirt, was twofold cooler than without
it. No more could I ever bring myself to go out in the
heat of the sun without a cap or a hat; the heat of the sun,
beating with such violence as it does in that place, would
give me the headache presently, by darting so directly on
my head, without a cap or hat on, so that I could not bear
it; whereas, if I put on my hat it would presently go away.
Upon these views I began to consider about putting the
few rags I had, which I called clothes, into some order; I
had worn out all the waistcoats I had, and my business was
now to try if I could not make jackets out of the great
watch-coats which I had by me, and with such other
materials as I had; so I set to work, tailoring, or rather,
indeed, botching, for I made most piteous work of it.
However, I made shift to make two or three new
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.
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I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the
creatures that I killed, I mean four-footed ones, and I had
them hung 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 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 rain; and this I
performed so well, that after I made me a suit of clothes
wholly of these skins - that is to say, a waistcoat, and
breeches open at the knees, and both loose, for they were
rather wanting to keep me cool than to keep me warm. I
must not omit to acknowledge that they were wretchedly
made; for if I was a bad carpenter, I was a worse tailor.
However, they were such as I made very good shift with,
and when I was out, if it happened to rain, the hair of my
waistcoat and cap being outermost, I was kept very dry.
After this, I spent a great deal of time and pains to make
an umbrella; I was, indeed, in great want of one, and had a
great mind to make one; I had seen them made in the
Brazils, where they are very useful in the great heats there,
and I felt the heats every jot as great here, and greater too,
being nearer the equinox; besides, as I was obliged to be
much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as well for
the rains as the heats. I took a world of pains with it, and
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was a great while before I could make anything likely to
hold: nay, after I had thought I had hit the way, I spoiled
two or three before I made one to my mind: but at last I
made one that answered indifferently well: the main
difficulty I found was to make it let down. I could make it
spread, but if it did not let down too, and draw in, it was
not 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, and 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 could close it,
and carry it under my arm
Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being
entirely composed by resigning myself to the will of God,
and throwing myself wholly upon the disposal of His
providence. This made my life better than sociable, for
when I began to regret the want of conversation I would
ask myself, whether thus conversing mutually with my
own thoughts, and (as I hope I may say) with even God
Himself, by ejaculations, was not better than the utmost
enjoyment of human society in the world?
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CHAPTER X - TAMES GOATS
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, as before; the
chief things 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 one year's provisions beforehand; I say, besides
this yearly labour, and my daily pursuit of going out with
my gun, I had one labour, to make a canoe, which at last I
finished: so that, by digging a canal to it of six feet wide
and four feet deep, I brought it into the creek, almost half
a mile. As for the first, which was so vastly big, for I made
it without considering beforehand, as I ought to have
done, how I should be able to launch it, so, never being
able to bring it into the water, or bring the water to it, I
was obliged to let it lie where it was as a memorandum to
teach me to be wiser the next time: indeed, the next time,
though I could not get a tree proper for it, and was in a
place where I could not get the water to it at any less
distance than, as I have said, near half a mile, yet, as I saw
it was practicable at last, I never gave it over; and though I
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was near two years about it, yet I never grudged my
labour, in hopes of having a boat to go off to sea at last.
However, though my little periagua was finished, yet
the size of it was not at all answerable to the design which
I had in view when I made the first; I mean of venturing
over to the TERRA FIRMA, where it was above forty
miles broad; accordingly, the smallness of my boat assisted
to put an end to that design, and now I thought no more
of it. As I had a boat, my next design was to make a cruise
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 little 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.
For this purpose, that I might do everything with
discretion and consideration, I fitted up a little mast in my
boat, and made a sail too out of some of the pieces of the
ship's sails which lay in store, and of which I had a great
stock by me. Having fitted my mast and sail, and tried the
boat, I found she would sail very well; then I made little
lockers or boxes at each end of my boat, to put provisions,
necessaries, ammunition, &c., into, to be kept dry, either
from rain or the spray of the sea; and a little, long, hollow
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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 the 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. At last, being eager to view
the circumference of my little kingdom, I resolved upon
my cruise; and accordingly I victualled my ship for the
voyage, putting in two dozen of loaves (cakes I should call
them) of barley-bread, an earthen pot full of parched rice
(a food I ate a good deal of), a little bottle of rum, half a
goat, and powder and shot for killing more, and two large
watch-coats, of those which, as I mentioned before, I had
saved out of the seamen's chests; these I took, one to lie
upon, and the other to cover me in the night.
It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my
reign - or my captivity, which you please - that I set out
on this voyage, and I found it much longer than I
expected; for though the island itself was not very large,
yet when I came to the east side of it, I found a great ledge
of rocks lie out about two leagues into the sea, some
above water, some under it; and beyond that a shoal of
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sand, lying dry half a league more, so that I was obliged to
go a great way out to sea to double the point.
When I first discovered them, I was going to give over
my enterprise, and come back again, not knowing how far
it might oblige me to go out to sea; and above all,
doubting how I should get back again: so I came to an
anchor; for I had made a kind of an anchor with a piece of
a broken grappling which 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 full 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 island again; and indeed, had I not got first upon
this hill, I believe it would have been so; for there was the
same current on the other side the island, only that it set
off at a further distance, and I saw there was a strong eddy
under the shore; so I had nothing to do but to get out of
the first current, and I should presently be in an eddy.
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I lay here, however, two days, because the wind
blowing pretty fresh at ESE., and that being just contrary
to the current, made a great breach of the sea upon the
point: so that it was not safe for me to keep too close to
the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off, because of
the stream.
The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated
overnight, the sea was calm, and I ventured: but I am a
warning to all rash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner was I
come to the point, when I was not even my boat's length
from the shore, but I found myself in a great depth of
water, and a current like the sluice of a mill; it carried my
boat along with it with such 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 my left hand. There was no wind stirring to
help me, and all I could do with my paddles signified
nothing: and now I began to give myself over for lost; for
as the current was on both sides of the island, I knew in a
few leagues distance they must join again, and then I was
irrecoverably gone; nor did I see any possibility of
avoiding it; so that I had no prospect before me but of
perishing, not by the sea, for that was calm enough, but of
starving from hunger. I had, indeed, found a tortoise on
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the shore, as big almost as I could lift, and had tossed it
into the boat; and I had a great jar of fresh water, that is to
say, one of my earthen pots; but what was all this to being
driven into the vast ocean, where, to be sure, there was no
shore, no mainland or island, for a thousand leagues at
least?
And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of
God to make even the most miserable condition of
mankind worse. Now I looked back upon my desolate,
solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world and
all the happiness my heart could wish for was to be but
there again. I stretched out my hands to it, with eager
wishes - `O happy desert!' said I, `I shall never see thee
more. O miserable creature! whither am going?' Then I
reproached myself with my unthankful temper, and that 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 want of it. It is scarcely 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
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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 SSE. This cheered my heart a little, and especially
when, in about half- an-hour more, it blew a pretty gentle
gale. By this time I had got at a frightful distance from the
island, and had the least cloudy or hazy weather
intervened, I had been undone another way, too; for I had
no compass on board, and should never have known how
to have steered towards the island, if I had but once lost
sight of it; but the weather continuing clear, I applied
myself to get up my mast again, and spread my sail,
standing away to the north as much as possible, to get out
of the current.
Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began to
stretch away, I saw even by the clearness of the water
some alteration of the current was near; for where the
current was so strong the water was foul; but perceiving
the water clear, I found the current abate; and presently I
found to the east, at about half a mile, a breach of the sea
upon some rocks: these rocks I found caused the current
to part again, and as the main stress of it ran away more
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southerly, leaving the rocks to the north-east, so the other
returned by the repulse of the rocks, 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
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 underfoot.
This eddy carried me about a league on my way back
again, directly towards the island, but about two leagues
more to the northward than the current which carried me
away at first; so that when I came near the island, I found
myself open to the northern shore of it, that is to say, the
other end of the island, opposite to that which I went out
from.
When I had made something more than a league of
way by the help of this current or eddy, I found it was
spent, and served me no further. However, I found that
being between two great currents - viz. that on the south
side, which had hurried me away, and that on the north,
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which lay about a league on the other side; I say, between
these two, in the wake of the island, I found the water at
least still, and running no way; and having still a breeze of
wind fair for me, I kept on steering directly for the island,
though not making such fresh way as I did before.
About four o'clock in the evening, being then within a
league of the island, I found the point of the rocks which
occasioned this disaster stretching out, as is described
before, to the southward, and casting off the current more
southerly, had, of course, made another eddy to the north;
and this I found very strong, but not directly setting the
way my course lay, which was due west, but almost full
north. However, having a fresh gale, I stretched across this
eddy, slanting north-west; and in about an hour came
within about a mile of the shore, where, it being smooth
water, I soon got to land.
When I was on shore, God I fell on my knees and gave
God thanks for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside all
thoughts of my deliverance by my boat; and refreshing
myself with such things as I had, I brought my boat close
to the shore, in a little cove that I had spied under some
trees, and laid me down to sleep, being quite spent with
the labour and fatigue of the voyage.
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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
of 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 any more
ventures; so I resolved on the next morning to make my
way westward along the shore, and to see if there was no
creek where I might lay up my frigate in safety, so as to
have her again if I wanted her. In about three miles or
thereabouts, coasting the shore, I came to a very good
inlet or bay, about a mile over, which narrowed till it
came to a very little rivulet or brook, where I found a very
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
umbrella, for it was exceedingly hot, I began my march.
The way was comfortable enough after such a voyage as I
had been upon, and I reached my old bower in the
evening, where I found everything standing as I left it; for
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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 out of my sleep by a voice
calling me by my name several times, `Robin, Robin,
Robin Crusoe: poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you,
Robin Crusoe? Where are you? Where have you been?'
I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing,
or part of the day, and with walking the latter part, that I
did not wake thoroughly; but dozing thought I dreamed
that somebody spoke to me; but as the voice continued to
repeat, `Robin Crusoe, Robin Crusoe,' at last I began to
wake more perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frightened,
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 it 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 Robin Crusoe! Where are
you? Where have you been? How came you here?' and
such things as I had taught him.
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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 over it;
and holding out my hand, and calling him by his name,
`Poll,' the sociable creature came to me, and sat upon my
thumb, as he used to do, and continued talking to me,
`Poor Robin Crusoe! and how did I come here? and
where had I been?' just as if he had been overjoyed to see
me again; and so I carried him home along with me.
I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some
time, and had enough to do for many days to sit still and
reflect upon the danger I had been in. I would have been
very glad to have had my boat again on my side of the
island; but I knew not how it was practicable to get it
about. As to the east side of the island, which I had gone
round, I knew well enough 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
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the same risk of being driven down the stream, and carried
by the island, as I had been before of being carried away
from it: so with these thoughts, I contented myself to be
without any boat, though it had been the product of so
many months' labour to make it, and of so many more to
get it into the sea.
In this government of my temper I remained near a
year; and lived a very sedate, retired life, as you may well
suppose; and my thoughts being very much composed as
to my condition, and fully comforted in resigning myself
to the dispositions of Providence, I thought I lived really
very happily in all things except that of society.
I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic
exercises which my necessities put me upon applying
myself to; and I believe I should, 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 earthenware, and contrived well enough to make
them with a wheel, which I found infinitely easier and
better; because I made things round and shaped, which
before were filthy things indeed to look on. But I think I
was never more vain of my own performance, or more
joyful for anything I found out, than for my being able to
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make a tobacco-pipe; and though it was a very ugly,
clumsy thing when it was done, and only burned red, like
other earthenware, 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 thinking there was
tobacco in the island; and afterwards, when I searched the
ship again, I could not come at any pipes.
In my wicker-ware also I improved much, and made
abundance of necessary baskets, as well as my invention
showed me; though not very handsome, yet they were
such as were very handy and convenient for laying things
up in, or fetching things home. For example, if I killed a
goat abroad, I could hang it up in a tree, flay it, 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 the receivers of my
corn, which I always rubbed out as soon as it was dry and
cured, and kept it in great baskets.
I began now to perceive my powder abated
considerably; this was a want which it was impossible for
me to supply, and I began seriously to consider what I
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must do when I should have no more powder; that is to
say, how I should kill any goats. I had, as is observed in
the third year of my being here, kept a young kid, and
bred her up tame, and I was in hopes of getting a he-goat;
but I could not by any means bring it to pass, till my kid
grew an old goat; and as I could never find in my heart to
kill her, she died at last of mere age.
But being now in the eleventh year of my residence,
and, as I have said, my ammunition growing low, I set
myself to study some art to trap and snare the goats, to see
whether I could not catch some of them alive; and
particularly I wanted a she-goat great with young. For this
purpose I made snares to hamper them; and I do believe
they were more than once taken in them; but my tackle
was not good, for I had no wire, and I always found them
broken and my bait devoured. At length I resolved to try a
pitfall; so I dug several large pits in the earth, in places
where I had observed the goats used to feed, and over
those pits I placed hurdles of my own making too, with a
great weight upon them; and several times I put ears of
barley and dry rice without setting the trap; and I could
easily perceive that the goats had gone in and eaten up the
corn, for I could see the marks of their feet. At length I set
three traps in one night, and going the next morning I
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found them, all standing, and yet the bait eaten and gone;
this was very discouraging. However, I altered my traps;
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 bring him away alive, which was what I wanted. I
could have killed him, but that was not my business, nor
would it answer my end; so I even let him out, and he ran
away as if he had been frightened out of his wits. But I did
not then know what I afterwards learned, that hunger will
tame a lion. If I had let him stay 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
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they began to be tame. And now I found that if I expected
to supply myself with goats' flesh, when I had no powder
or shot left, breeding some up tame was my only way,
when, perhaps, I might have them about my house like a
flock of sheep. But then it occurred to me that I must
keep the tame from the wild, or else they would always
run wild when they grew up; and the only way for this
was to have some enclosed piece of ground, well fenced
either with hedge or pale, to keep them in so effectually,
that those within might not break out, or those without
break in.
This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands yet,
as I saw there was an absolute necessity for doing it, my
first work was to find out a proper piece of ground, where
there was likely to be herbage for them to eat, water for
them to drink, and cover to keep them from the sun.
Those who understand such enclosures will think I had
very little contrivance when I pitched upon a place very
proper for all these (being a plain, open piece of meadow
land, or savannah, as our people call it in the western
colonies), which had two or three little drills of fresh water
in it, and at one end was very woody - I say, they will
smile at my forecast, when I shall tell them I began by
enclosing this piece of ground in such a manner that, my
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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 begun and carried on, I believe, about
fifty yards when this thought occurred to me; so I
presently stopped short, and, for the beginning, I resolved
to enclose a piece of about one hundred and fifty yards in
length, and one hundred yards in breadth, which, as it
would maintain as many as I should have in any reasonable
time, so, as my stock increased, I could add more ground
to my enclosure.
This was acting with some prudence, and I went to
work with courage. I was about three months hedging in
the first piece; and, till I had done it, I tethered the three
kids in the best part of it, and used them to feed as near
me as possible, to make them familiar; and very often I
would go and carry them some ears of barley, or a handful
of rice, and feed them out of my hand; so that after my
enclosure was finished and I let them loose, they would
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follow me up and down, bleating after me for a handful of
corn.
This answered my end, and in about a year and a half I
had a flock of about twelve goats, kids and all; and in two
years more I had three-and-forty, besides several that I
took and killed for my food. After that, I enclosed five
several pieces of ground to feed them in, with little pens to
drive them to take them as I wanted, and gates out of one
piece of ground into another.
But 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 the beginning, I did not so much as think of,
and which, when it came into my thoughts, was really an
agreeable surprise, for now I set up my dairy, and had
sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day. And as
Nature, who gives supplies of food to every creature,
dictates even naturally how to make use of it, so I, that
had never milked a cow, much less a goat, or seen butter
or cheese made only when I was a boy, after a great many
essays and miscarriages, made both butter and cheese at
last, also salt (though I found it partly made to my hand by
the heat of the sun upon some of the rocks of the sea), and
never wanted it afterwards. How mercifully can our
Creator treat His creatures, even in those conditions in
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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 the wilderness, where I
saw nothing at first but to perish for hunger!
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CHAPTER XI - FINDS PRINT
OF MAN'S FOOT ON THE
SAND
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
all my subjects at my absolute command; I could hang,
draw, give liberty, and take it away, and no rebels among
all my subjects. Then, to see how like a king I dined, too,
all alone, attended by my servants! Poll, as if he had been
my favourite, was the only person permitted to talk to me.
My dog, who was now grown old and crazy, and had
found no species to multiply his kind upon, sat always at
my right hand; and two cats, one on one side of the table
and one on the other, expecting now and then a bit from
my hand, as a mark of especial favour.
But these were not the two cats which I brought on
shore at first, for they were both of them dead, and had
been interred near my habitation by my own hand; but
one of them having multiplied by I know not what kind
of creature, these were two which I had preserved tame;
whereas the rest ran wild in the woods, and became
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indeed troublesome to me at last, for they would often
come into my house, and plunder me too, till at last I was
obliged to shoot them, and did kill a great many; at length
they left me. With this attendance and in this plentiful
manner I lived; neither could I be said to want anything
but society; and of that, some time after this, I was likely
to have too much.
I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have
the use of my boat, though very loath to run any more
hazards; and therefore sometimes I sat contriving ways to
get her about the island, and at other times I sat myself
down contented enough without her. But I had a strange
uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the
island where, as I have said in my last ramble, I went up
the hill to see how the shore lay, and how the current set,
that I might see what I had to do: this inclination
increased upon me every day, and at length I resolved to
travel thither by land, following the edge of the shore. I
did so; but had any one in England met such a man as I
was, it must either have frightened him, or raised a great
deal of laughter; and as I frequently stood still to look at
myself, I could not but smile at the notion of my travelling
through Yorkshire with such an equipage, and in such a
dress. Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure, as follows.
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I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin,
with a flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun
from me as to shoot the rain off from running into my
neck, nothing being so hurtful in these climates as the rain
upon the flesh under the clothes.
I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming
down to about the middle of the thighs, and a pair of
open-kneed breeches of the same; the breeches were made
of the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung down such
a length on either side that, like pantaloons, it reached to
the middle of my legs; stockings and shoes I had none, but
had made me a pair of somethings, I scarce knew what to
call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on
either side like spatterdashes, but of a most barbarous
shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes.
I had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which I drew
together with two thongs of the same instead of buckles,
and in a kind of a frog on either side of this, instead of a
sword and dagger, hung a little saw and a hatchet, one on
one side and one on the other. I had another belt not so
broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over
my shoulder, and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung
two pouches, both made of goat's skin too, in one of
which hung my powder, in the other my shot. At my
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back I carried my basket, and on my shoulder my gun, and
over my head a great clumsy, ugly, goat's-skin umbrella,
but which, after all, was the most necessary thing I had
about me next to my gun. As for my face, the colour of it
was really not so mulatto-like as one might expect from a
man not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten
degrees of the equinox. My beard I had once suffered to
grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long; but as I had
both scissors and razors sufficient, I had cut it pretty short,
except what grew on my upper lip, which I had trimmed
into a large pair of Mahometan whiskers, such as I had
seen worn by some Turks at Sallee, for the Moors did not
wear such, though the Turks did; of these moustachios, or
whiskers, I will not say they were long enough to hang
my hat upon them, but they were of a 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 of no manner of
consequence, so I say no more of that. In this kind of dress
I went my new journey, and was out five or six days. I
travelled first along the sea-shore, directly to the place
where I first brought my boat to an anchor to get upon
the rocks; and having no boat now to take care of, I went
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over the land a nearer way to the same height that I was
upon before, when, looking forward to the points of the
rocks which lay out, and which I was obliged to double
with my boat, as is 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 it, to see if nothing from the sets of
the tide had occasioned it; but I was presently convinced
how it was - viz. that the tide of ebb setting from the
west, and joining with the current of waters from some
great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this
current, and that, according as the wind blew more
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 would not have done.
This observation convinced me that I had nothing to
do but to observe the ebbing and the flowing of the tide,
and I might very easily bring my boat about the island
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again; but when I began to think of putting it in practice, I
had such terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the
danger I had been in, that I could not think of it again
with any patience, but, on the contrary, I took up another
resolution, which was more safe, though more laborious -
and this was, that I would build, or rather make, me
another periagua or canoe, and so have one for one side of
the island, and one for the other.
You are to understand that now I had, as I may call it,
two plantations in the island - one my little fortification or
tent, with the wall about it, under the rock, with the cave
behind me, which by this time I had enlarged into several
apartments or caves, one within another. One of these,
which was the driest and largest, and had a door out
beyond my wall or fortification - that is to say, beyond
where my wall joined to the rock - was all filled up with
the 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
provisions, especially my corn, some in the ear, cut off
short from the straw, and the other rubbed out with my
hand.
As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or
piles, those piles grew all like trees, and were by this time
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grown so big, and spread so very much, that there was not
the least appearance, to any one's view, of any habitation
behind them.
Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within
the land, and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of
corn land, 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 plantation 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 encircled it in constantly fitted up
to its usual height, the ladder standing always in the inside.
I kept the trees, which at first were no more than stakes,
but were now grown very firm and tall, always cut, so that
they might spread and grow thick and wild, and make the
more agreeable shade, which they did effectually to my
mind. In the middle of this I had my tent always standing,
being a piece of a sail spread over poles, set up for that
purpose, and which never wanted any repair or renewing;
and under this I had made me a squab or couch with the
skins of the creatures I had killed, and with other soft
things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to
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our sea-bedding, which I had saved; and a great watch-
coat to cover me. And here, whenever I had occasion to
be absent from my chief seat, I took up my country
habitation.
Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle,
that is to say my goats, and I had taken an inconceivable
deal of pains to fence and enclose this ground. I was so
anxious to see it kept entire, lest the goats should break
through, that I never left off till, with infinite labour, I had
stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, and
so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a
hedge, and there was scarce room to put a hand through
between them; which afterwards, when those stakes grew,
as they all did in the next rainy season, made the enclosure
strong like a wall, indeed stronger than any wall.
This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I
spared no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared
necessary for my comfortable support, for I considered the
keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at my hand
would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and
cheese for me as long as I lived in the place, if it were to
be forty years; and that keeping them in my reach
depended entirely upon my perfecting my enclosures to
such a degree that I might be sure of keeping them
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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 that 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 medicinal, wholesome,
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 stayed 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, scarcely ever above a stone's cast or
two from the shore, I was so apprehensive of being
hurried out of my knowledge again by the currents or
winds, or any other accident. But now I come to a new
scene of my life. It happened one day, about noon, going
towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the
print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very
plain to be seen on the sand. I stood like one
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thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened,
I looked round me, but 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 print of a foot - toes, heel, and
every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor
could I in the least imagine; but after innumerable
fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out
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. Nor is it possible to describe
how many various shapes my affrighted imagination
represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were
found 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
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hole in the rock, which I had called a door, I cannot
remember; no, nor could I remember the next morning,
for never frightened hare fled to cover, or fox to earth,
with more terror of mind than I to this retreat.
I slept none that night; the farther I was from the
occasion of my fright, the greater my apprehensions were,
which is something contrary to the nature of such things,
and especially to the usual practice of all creatures in fear;
but I was so embarrassed with my own frightful ideas of
the thing, that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations
to myself, even though I was now a great way off.
Sometimes I fancied it must be the devil, and reason
joined in with me in this supposition, for how should any
other thing in human shape come into the place? Where
was the vessel that brought them? What marks were there
of any other footstep? And how was it possible a man
should come there? But then, to think that Satan should
take human shape upon him in such a place, where there
could be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the
print of his foot behind him, and that even for no purpose
too, for he could not be sure I should see it - this was an
amusement the other way. I considered that the devil
might have found out abundance of other ways to have
terrified me than this of the single print of a foot; that as I
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lived quite on the other side of the island, he would never
have been so simple as to leave a mark in a place where it
was ten thousand to one whether I should ever see it or
not, and in the sand too, which the first surge of the sea,
upon a high wind, would have defaced entirely. All this
seemed inconsistent with the thing itself and with all the
notions we usually entertain of the subtlety of the devil.
Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me
out of all apprehensions of its being the devil; and I
presently concluded then that it must be some more
dangerous creature - viz. that it must be some of the
savages of the mainland opposite who had wandered out
to sea in their canoes, and either driven by the currents or
by contrary winds, had made the island, and had been on
shore, but were gone away again to sea; being as loath,
perhaps, to have stayed in this desolate island as I would
have been to have had them.
While these reflections were rolling in my mind, I was
very thankful in my thoughts that I was so happy as not to
be thereabouts at that time, or that they did not see my
boat, by which they would have concluded that some
inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps have
searched farther for me. Then terrible thoughts racked my
imagination about their having found out my boat, and
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that there were people here; and that, if so, I should
certainly have them come again in greater numbers and
devour me; that if it should happen that they should not
find me, yet they would find my enclosure, destroy all my
corn, and carry away all my flock of tame goats, and I
should perish at last for mere want.
Thus my fear banished all my religious hope, all that
former confidence in God, which was founded upon such
wonderful experience as I had had of His goodness; as if
He that had fed me by miracle hitherto could not
preserve, by His power, the provision which He had made
for me by His goodness. I reproached myself with my
laziness, 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
beforehand; so that, whatever might come, I might not
perish for want of bread.
How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life
of man! and by what secret different springs are the
affections hurried about, as different circumstances present!
To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day we seek
what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-
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morrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions
of. This was exemplified in me, at this time, in the most
lively manner imaginable; for I, whose only affliction was
that I seemed banished from human society, that I was
alone, circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off from
mankind, and condemned to what I call silent life; that I
was as one whom Heaven thought not worthy to be
numbered among the living, or to appear among the rest
of His creatures; that to have seen one of my own species
would have seemed to me a raising me from death to life,
and the greatest blessing that Heaven itself, next to the
supreme blessing of salvation, could bestow; I say, that I
should now tremble at the very apprehensions of seeing a
man, and was ready to sink into the ground at but the
shadow or silent appearance of a man having set his foot in
the island.
Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded
me a great many curious speculations afterwards, when I
had a little recovered my first surprise. I considered that
this was the station of life the infinitely wise and good
providence of God had determined for me; that as I could
not foresee what the ends of Divine wisdom might be in
all this, so I was not to dispute His sovereignty; who, as I
was His creature, had an undoubted right, by creation, to
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govern and dispose of me absolutely as He thought fit; and
who, as I was a creature that had offended Him, had
likewise a judicial right to condemn me to what
punishment He thought fit; and that it was my part to
submit to bear His indignation, because I had sinned
against Him. I then reflected, that as God, who was not
only righteous but omnipotent, had thought fit thus to
punish and afflict me, so He was able to deliver me: that if
He did not think fit to do so, it was my unquestioned duty
to resign myself absolutely and entirely to His will; and, on
the other hand, it was my duty also to hope in Him, pray
to Him, and quietly to attend to the dictates and directions
of His daily providence,
These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I
may say weeks and months: and one particular effect of
my cogitations on this occasion I cannot omit. One
morning early, lying in my bed, and filled with thoughts
about my danger from the appearances of savages, I found
it discomposed me very much; upon which these words of
the Scripture came into my thoughts, `Call upon Me in
the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt
glorify Me.' Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed,
my heart was not only comforted, but I was guided and
encouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance: when
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I had done praying I took up my Bible, and opening it to
read, the first words that presented to me were, `Wait on
the Lord, and be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen
thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.' It is impossible to
express the comfort this gave me. In answer, I thankfully
laid down the book, and was no more sad, at least on that
occasion.
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 but my own foot; and why might I not come that
way from the boat, as well as I was going that way to the
boat? Again, I considered also that I could by no means
tell for certain where I had trod, and where I had not; and
that if, at last, this was only the print of my own foot, I
had played the part of those fools who try to make stories
of spectres and apparitions, and then are frightened at
them more than anybody.
Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad
again, for I had not stirred out of my castle for three days
and nights, so that I began to starve for provisions; for I
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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. Encouraging myself,
therefore, with the belief that this was nothing but the
print of one of my own feet, and that 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 made
any one have thought I was haunted with an evil
conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly
frightened; and so, indeed, I had. However, I went down
thus two or three days, and having seen nothing, I began
to be a little bolder, and to think there was really nothing
in it but my own imagination; but I could not persuade
myself fully of this till I should go down to the shore
again, and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my
own, and see if there was any similitude or fitness, that I
might be assured it was my own foot: but when I came to
the place, first, it appeared evidently to me, that when I
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laid up my boat I could not possibly be on shore anywhere
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.
Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when
possessed with fear! It deprives them of the use of those
means which reason offers for their relief. The first thing I
proposed to myself was, to throw down my enclosures,
and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, lest the
enemy should find them, and then frequent the island in
prospect of the same or the like booty: then the simple
thing of digging up my two corn-fields, lest they should
find such a grain there, and still be prompted to frequent
the island: then to demolish my bower and tent, that they
might not see any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted
to look farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting.
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These were the subject of the first night's cogitations
after I was come home again, while the apprehensions
which had so overrun my mind were fresh upon me, and
my head was full of vapours. Thus, fear of danger is ten
thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, when
apparent to the eyes; and we find the burden of anxiety
greater, by much, than the evil which we are anxious
about: and what was worse than all this, I had not that
relief in this trouble that from the resignation I used to
practise I hoped to have. I looked, I thought, like Saul,
who complained not only that the Philistines were upon
him, but that God had forsaken him; for I did not now
take due ways to compose my mind, by crying to God in
my distress, and resting upon His providence, as I had
done before, for my defence and deliverance; which, if I
had done, I had at least been more cheerfully supported
under this new surprise, and perhaps carried through it
with more resolution.
This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake 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 waked much
better composed than I had ever been before. And now I
began to think sedately; and, upon debate with myself, I
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concluded that this island (which was so exceedingly
pleasant, fruitful, and no farther from the mainland than as
I had seen) was not so entirely abandoned as I might
imagine; that although there were no 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 there fifteen
years now and had not met with the least shadow or figure
of any people yet; 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
here upon any occasion; that the most I could suggest any
danger from was from any casual accidental landing of
straggling people from the main, who, as it was likely, if
they were driven hither, were here against their wills, so
they made no stay here, but went off again with all
possible speed; seldom staying one night on shore, lest
they should not have the help of the tides and daylight
back again; and that, therefore, I had nothing to do but to
consider of some safe retreat, in case I should see any
savages land upon the spot.
Now, I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave
so large as to bring a door through again, which door, as I
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said, came out beyond where my fortification joined to
the rock: upon maturely considering this, therefore, I
resolved to draw me a second fortification, in the manner
of a semicircle, at a distance from my wall, just where I
had planted a double row of trees about twelve years
before, of which I made mention: these trees having been
planted so thick before, they wanted but few piles to be
driven between them, that they might be thicker and
stronger, and my wall would be soon finished. So that I
had now a double wall; and my outer wall was thickened
with pieces of timber, old cables, and everything I could
think of, to make it strong; having in it seven little holes,
about as big as I might put my arm out at. In the inside of
this I thickened my wall to about ten feet thick with
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 had got seven on shore out of the ship;
these I planted like my cannon, and fitted them into
frames, that held them like a carriage, so that 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.
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When this was done I stuck all the ground without my
wall, for a great length every way, as full with stakes or
sticks of the osier- like wood, which I found so apt to
grow, as they could well stand; insomuch that I believe I
might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a
pretty large space between them and my wall, that I might
have room to see an enemy, and they might have no
shelter from the young trees, if they attempted to approach
my outer wall.
Thus in two years' time I had a thick grove; and in five
or six years' time I had a wood before my dwelling,
growing so monstrously thick and strong that it was
indeed perfectly impassable: and no men, of what kind
soever, could ever imagine that there was anything beyond
it, much less a habitation. As for the way which I
proposed to 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 doing himself mischief; 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
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length that they were not altogether without just reason;
though I foresaw nothing at that time more than my mere
fear suggested to me.
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CHAPTER XII - A CAVE
RETREAT
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 ready supply to
me on every occasion, and began to be sufficient for me,
without the expense of powder and shot, but also without
the fatigue of 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.
For this purpose, after long consideration, I could think
of but two ways to preserve them: one was, to find
another convenient place to dig a cave underground, 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 good deal of time and
labour, I thought was the most rational design.
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Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most
retired parts of the island; and I pitched upon one, which
was as private, indeed, as my heart could wish: it was a
little damp piece of ground in the middle of the hollow
and thick woods, where, as is observed, I almost lost
myself once before, endeavouring to come back that way
from the eastern part of the island. Here I found a clear
piece of land, near three acres, so surrounded with woods
that it was almost an enclosure by nature; at least, it did
not want near so much labour to make it so as the other
piece of ground I had worked so hard at.
I immediately went to work with this piece of ground;
and in less than a month's time I had so fenced it round
that my flock, or herd, call it which you please, which
were not so wild now as at first they might be supposed to
be, were well enough secured in it: so, without any
further delay, I removed ten young she-goats and two he-
goats to this piece, and when they were there I continued
to perfect the fence till I had made it as secure as the
other; which, however, I did at more leisure, and it took
me up more time by a great deal. All this labour I was at
the expense of, purely from my apprehensions on account
of the print of a man's foot; for as yet I had never seen any
human creature come near the island; and I had now lived
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two years under this uneasiness, which, indeed, made my
life much less comfortable than it was before, as may be
well imagined by any who know what it is to live in the
constant snare of the fear of man. And this I must observe,
with grief, too, that the discomposure of my mind had
great impression also upon the religious part of my
thoughts; for the dread and terror of falling into the hands
of savages and cannibals lay so upon my spirits, that I
seldom found myself in a due temper for application to my
Maker; at least, not with the sedate calmness and
resignation of soul which I was wont to do: I rather
prayed to God as under great affliction and pressure of
mind, surrounded with danger, and in expectation every
night of being murdered and devoured before morning;
and I must testify, from my experience, that a temper of
peace, thankfulness, love, and affection, is much the more
proper frame for prayer than that of terror and
discomposure: and that under the dread of mischief
impending, a man is no more fit for a comforting
performance of the duty of praying to God than he is for a
repentance on a sick-bed; for these discomposures affect
the mind, as the others do the body; and the discomposure
of the mind must necessarily be as great a disability as that
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of the body, and much greater; praying to God being
properly an act of the mind, not of the body.
But to go on. After I had thus secured one part of my
little living stock, I went about the whole island, searching
for another private place to make such another deposit;
when, wandering more to the west point of the island
than I had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, I
thought I saw a boat upon the sea, at a great distance. I
had found a perspective glass or two in one of the
seamen's chests, which I saved out of our ship, but I had it
not about me; and this was so remote that I could not tell
what to make of it, though I looked at it till my eyes were
not able to hold 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 out without a perspective glass in my
pocket. When I was come down the hill to the end of the
island, where, indeed, I had never been before, I was
presently 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
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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 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 SW. 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 cockpit,
where I supposed the savage wretches had sat down to
their human 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 it often, yet I never had so near a
view of before; in short, I turned away my face from the
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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 uncommon
violence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stay
in the place a moment; so I got 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 flood of tears in my eyes, gave God thanks, that had
cast my first lot in a part of the world where I was
distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and
that, though I had esteemed my present condition very
miserable, had yet given me so 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
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these wretches never came to this island in search of what
they could get; perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or not
expecting anything here; and having often, no doubt, been
up 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 human
creature there before; and I might be 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
concealed where I was, unless I found a better sort of
creatures than cannibals to make myself known to. Yet I
entertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that
I have been speaking of, and of the wretched, inhuman
custom of their devouring and eating one another up, that
I continued pensive and sad, and kept close within my
own circle for almost two years after this: when I say my
own circle, I mean by it my three plantations - viz. my
castle, my country seat (which I called my bower), and my
enclosure in the woods: nor did I look after this for any
other use than 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. I did not so much as go to look after my boat all
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this time, but began rather to think of making another; for
I could not think of ever making any more attempts to
bring the other boat round the island to me, lest I should
meet with some of these creatures at sea; in which case, if
I had happened to have fallen into their hands, I knew
what would have been my lot.
Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in
no danger of being discovered by these people, began to
wear off my uneasiness about them; and I began to live
just in the same composed manner as before, only with
this difference, that I used more caution, and kept my eyes
more about me than I did before, lest I should happen to
be seen by any of them; and particularly, I was more
cautious of firing my gun, lest any of them, being on the
island, should happen to hear it. It was, therefore, a very
good providence to me that I had furnished myself with a
tame breed of goats, and that I had no need to hunt any
more about the woods, or shoot at them; and if I did catch
any of them after this, it was by traps and snares, as I had
done before; so that for two years after this I believe I
never fired my gun once off, though I never went out
without it; and what 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
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also furbished up one of the great cutlasses that I had out
of the ship, and made me a belt to hang it on also; so that I
was now a most formidable fellow to look at when I went
abroad, if you add to the former description of myself the
particular of two pistols, and a 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 were worse, in order to be
thankful, than be always comparing them with those
which are better, to assist their murmurings and
complainings.
As in my present condition there were not really many
things which I wanted, so indeed I thought that the frights
I had been in about these savage wretches, and the
concern I had been in for my own preservation, had taken
off the edge of my invention, for my own conveniences;
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and I had dropped a good design, which I had once bent
my thoughts upon, and that was to try if I could not make
some of my barley into malt, and then try to brew myself
some beer. This was really a whimsical thought, and I
reproved myself often for the simplicity of it: for I
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 not only many
days, but weeks, nay months, in attempting it, but to no
purpose. In the next place, I had no hops to make it keep,
no yeast to made it work, no copper or kettle to make it
boil; and yet with all these things wanting, I verily believe,
had not the frights and terrors I was in about the savages
intervened, I had undertaken it, and perhaps brought it to
pass too; for I seldom gave anything over without
accomplishing it, when once I had it in my head to began
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 the 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
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hatched, or rather brooded upon, in my thoughts, for the
destroying these creatures, or at least frightening them so
as to prevent their coming hither any more: but all this
was abortive; nothing could be possible to take effect,
unless I was to be there to do it myself: and what could
one man do among them, when perhaps there might be
twenty or thirty of them together with their darts, or their
bows and arrows, with which they could shoot as true to a
mark as I could with my gun?
Sometimes I thought if digging a hole under the place
where they made their fire, and putting 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 unwilling
to waste so much powder upon them, my store being now
within the quantity of one 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 myself in
ambush in some convenient 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
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wound perhaps two or three at every shot; and then falling
in upon them with my three 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 dreamed 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 imagination that I employed myself
several days to find out proper places to put myself in
ambuscade, as I said, to watch for them, and I went
frequently to the place itself, which was now grown more
familiar to me; but while my mind was thus filled with
thoughts of revenge and a bloody putting twenty or thirty
of them to the sword, as I may call it, the horror I had at
the place, and at the signals of the barbarous wretches
devouring one another, abetted my malice. Well, at length
I found a place in the side of the hill where I was satisfied I
might securely wait till I saw any of their boats coming;
and might then, even before they would be ready to come
on shore, convey myself unseen into some thickets of
trees, in one of which there was a hollow large enough to
conceal me entirely; and there I might sit and observe all
their bloody doings, and take my full aim at their heads,
when they were so close together as that it would be next
to impossible that I should miss my shot, or that I could
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fail wounding three or four of them at the first shot. In
this place, then, I resolved to fulfil my design; and
accordingly I prepared two muskets and my ordinary
fowling-piece. The two muskets I loaded with a brace of
slugs each, and four or five smaller bullets, about the size
of pistol bullets; and the fowling- piece I loaded with near
a handful of swan-shot of the largest size; I also loaded my
pistols with about four bullets each; and, in this posture,
well provided with ammunition for a second and third
charge, I prepared myself for my expedition.
After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, and in
my imagination put it in practice, I continually made my
tour every morning 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 on the
whole ocean, so far as my eye or glass could reach every
way.
As long as I kept my daily tour to the hill, to look out,
so long also I kept up the vigour of my design, and my
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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 any discussion of in my thoughts, any farther
than my passions were at first fired by the horror I
conceived at the unnatural custom of the people of that
country, who, it seems, had been suffered by Providence,
in His wise disposition of the world, to have no other
guide than that of their own abominable and vitiated
passions; and consequently were left, and perhaps had been
so for some ages, to act such horrid things, and receive
such dreadful customs, as nothing but nature, entirely
abandoned by Heaven, and actuated by some hellish
degeneracy, could have run them into. But now, when, as
I have said, I began to be weary of the fruitless excursion
which I had made so long and so far every morning in
vain, so my opinion of the action itself began to alter; and
I began, with cooler and calmer thoughts, to consider
what 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 one upon another; how far
these people were offenders against me, and what right I
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had to engage in the quarrel of that blood which they shed
promiscuously upon one another. I debated this very often
with myself thus: `How do I know what God Himself
judges in this particular case? It is certain these people do
not commit this as a crime; it is not against their own
consciences reproving, or their light 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 war than we do to kill an ox; or to eat
human flesh than we do to eat mutton.'
When I considered this a little, it followed necessarily
that I was certainly in the wrong; 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
although 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, or I saw it
necessary, for my immediate preservation, to fall upon
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them, something might be said for it: but that I was yet
out of their power, and they really had 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 idolators and
barbarians, and had several bloody and barbarous rites in
their customs, such as sacrificing human bodies to their
idols, were yet, as to the Spaniards, very innocent people;
and that the rooting them out of the country is spoken of
with the utmost abhorrence and detestation by even 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 for which the very name of a Spaniard is
reckoned to be frightful and terrible, to all people of
humanity or of Christian compassion; as if the kingdom of
Spain were particularly eminent for the produce 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 generous temper in the mind.
These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a
kind of a full stop; and I began by little and little to be off
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my design, and to conclude I had taken wrong measures in
my resolution to attack the savages; and 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 by them, 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, and I should only bring
upon myself a certain destruction, which, at present, I had
no manner of occasion for. Upon the whole, I concluded
that I ought, neither in principle nor in policy, 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 sign for them to guess by that
there were any living creatures upon the island - I mean of
human shape. Religion joined in with this prudential
resolution; and I was convinced now, many ways, that I
was perfectly out of my duty when I was laying all my
bloody schemes for the destruction of innocent creatures -
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I mean innocent as to me. As to the crimes they were
guilty of towards one another, I had nothing to do with
them; they were national, and I ought to leave them to
the justice of God, who is the Governor 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. This appeared so clear to me
now, that nothing was a greater satisfaction to me than
that I had not been suffered to do a thing which I now
saw so much reason to believe would have been no less a
sin than that of wilful murder if I had committed it; and I
gave most humble thanks on my knees to God, that He
had thus delivered me from blood-guiltiness; beseeching
Him to grant me the protection of His providence, that I
might not fall into the hands of the barbarians, or that I
might not lay my hands upon them, unless I had a more
clear call from Heaven to do it, in defence of my own life.
In this disposition I continued for near a year after this;
and so far was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon
these wretches, that in all that time I never once went up
the hill to see whether there were any of them in sight, or
to know whether any of them had been on shore there or
not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of my
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contrivances against them, or be provoked by any
advantage that might present itself to fall upon them; only
this I did: I went and removed my boat, which I had on
the other side of the island, and carried it down to the east
end of the whole island, where I ran it into a little cove,
which I found under some high rocks, and where I knew,
by reason of the currents, the savages durst not, at least
would not, come with their boats upon any account
whatever. With my boat I carried away everything that I
had left there belonging to her, though not necessary for
the bare going thither - viz. a mast and sail which I had
made for her, and a thing like an anchor, but which,
indeed, could not be called either anchor or grapnel;
however, it was the best I could make of its kind: all these
I removed, that there might not be the least shadow for
discovery, or appearance of any boat, or of any human
habitation upon the island. Besides this, I kept myself, as I
said, more retired than ever, and seldom went from my
cell except upon my constant employment, 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 out of
danger; for certain, it is that these savage people, who
sometimes haunted this island, never came with any
thoughts of finding anything here, and consequently never
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wandered off from the coast, and I doubt not but they
might have been several times on shore after my
apprehensions of them had made me cautious, as well as
before. Indeed, I looked back with some horror upon the
thoughts of what my condition would have been if I had
chopped upon them and been discovered before that;
when, naked and unarmed, except with one gun, and that
loaded often only with small shot, I walked everywhere,
peeping and peering 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 sank
my very soul within me, and distressed my mind so much
that I could not soon recover it, to think what I should
have done, and how I should not only have been unable
to resist them, but even should not have had presence of
mind enough to do what I might have done; much less
what now, after so much consideration and preparation, I
might be able to do. Indeed, after serious thinking of these
things, I would be melancholy, and sometimes it would
last a great while; but I resolved it all at last into
thankfulness to that Providence which had delivered me
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from so many unseen dangers, and had kept me from
those mischiefs which I could have no way been the agent
in delivering myself from, because I had not the least
notion of any such thing depending, or the least
supposition of its being possible. This renewed a
contemplation which often had come into my thoughts in
former times, when first I began to see the merciful
dispositions of Heaven, in the dangers we run through in
this life; how wonderfully we are delivered when we
know nothing of it; how, when we are in a quandary as
we call it, a doubt or hesitation whether to go this way or
that way, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when we
intended to go that way: nay, when sense, our own
inclination, and perhaps business has called us to go the
other way, yet a strange impression upon the mind, from
we know not what springs, and by we know not what
power, shall overrule us to go this way; and it shall
afterwards appear that had we gone that way, which we
should have gone, and even to our imagination ought to
have gone, we should have been ruined and lost. Upon
these and many like reflections I afterwards made it a
certain rule with me, that whenever I found those secret
hints or pressings of mind to doing or not doing anything
that presented, or going this way or that way, I never
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failed to obey the secret dictate; though I knew no other
reason for it than such a pressure or such a hint hung upon
my mind. I could give many examples of the success of
this conduct in the course of my life, but more especially
in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappy island;
besides many occasions which it is very likely I might have
taken notice of, if I had seen with the same eyes then that
I see with now. But it is never too late to be wise; and I
cannot but advise all considering men, whose lives are
attended with such extraordinary incidents as mine, or
even though not so extraordinary, not to slight such secret
intimations of Providence, let them come from what
invisible intelligence they will. That I shall not discuss, and
perhaps cannot account for; but certainly they are a proof
of the converse of spirits, and a secret communication
between those embodied and those unembodied, and such
a proof as can never be withstood; of which I shall have
occasion to give some remarkable instances in the
remainder of my solitary residence in this dismal place.
I believe the reader of this will not think it strange if I
confess that these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived
in, and the concern that was now upon me, put an end to
all invention, and to all the contrivances that I had laid for
my future accommodations and conveniences. I had the
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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 might make should be
heard: much less 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. 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 consolation, a mere natural cave in the earth,
which went in a vast way, and where, I daresay, no savage,
had he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to
venture in; nor, indeed, would any man else, but one
who, like me, wanted nothing so much as a safe retreat.
The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great
rock, where, by mere accident (I would say, if I did not
see 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 this - 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
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some wood here, as I had seen done in England, under
turf, till it became chark or dry coal: and then putting the
fire out, I preserved the coal to carry home, and perform
the other services for which fire was wanting, 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 in 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 that I made more haste out than I did in,
when looking farther into the place, and which was
perfectly dark, I saw two broad shining eyes of some
creature, whether devil or man I knew not, which
twinkled like two stars; the dim light from the cave's
mouth shining directly in, and making the reflection.
However, after some pause I recovered myself, and began
to call myself a thousand fools, and to think that he that
was afraid to see the devil was not fit to live twenty years
in an island all alone; and that I might well think there was
nothing in this cave that was more frightful than myself.
Upon this, plucking up my courage, I took up a firebrand,
and in I rushed again, with the stick flaming in my hand: I
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had not gone three steps in before I was almost as
frightened as 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 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, I stepped forward
again, and by the light of the firebrand, holding it up a
little over my head, I saw lying on the ground a
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 if
he had frightened me, so he would certainly fright any of
the savages, if any of them should be so hardy as to come
in there while he had any life in him.
I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to
look round me, when I found the cave was but very small
- that is to say, it might be about twelve feet over, but in
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no manner of shape, neither round nor square, no hands
having ever been employed in making it but those of mere
Nature. I observed also that there was a place at the farther
side of it that went in further, but was so low that it
required me to creep upon my hands and knees to go into
it, and whither it went I knew not; so, having no candle, I
gave it over for that time, but resolved to go 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
wildfire 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, but was hard set for candle-
wick, using sometimes rags or rope- yarn, and sometimes
the dried rind of a weed like nettles); 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 had got
through the strait, I found the roof rose higher up, I
believe near twenty feet; but never was such a glorious
sight seen in the island, I daresay, as it was to look round
the sides and roof of this vault or cave - the wall reflected
a hundred thousand lights to me from my two candles.
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What it was in the rock - whether diamonds or any other
precious stones, or gold which I rather supposed it to be -
I knew not. The place I was in was a most delightful
cavity, or grotto, though perfectly dark; the floor was dry
and level, and had a sort of a 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 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 - viz. two
fowling-pieces - for I had three in all - and three muskets
- for of them I had eight in all; so I kept in 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 happened to open the barrel of powder
which I took up out of the sea, and which had been wet,
and I found that the water had penetrated about three or
four inches into the powder on every side, which caking
and growing hard, had preserved the inside like a kernel in
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the shell, so that I had near sixty pounds of very good
powder in the centre of the cask. This was a very
agreeable discovery to me at that time; so I carried all
away thither, never keeping above two or three pounds of
powder with me in my castle, for fear of a surprise of any
kind; I also carried thither all the lead I had left for bullets.
I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants who
were said to live in caves and holes in the rocks, where
none could come at them; for I persuaded myself, while I
was here, that 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 expiring died in the mouth of the cave the next day
after I made this discovery; and I found it much easier to
dig a great hole there, and throw him in and cover him
with earth, than to drag him out; so I interred him there,
to prevent offence to my nose.
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CHAPTER XIII - WRECK OF A
SPANISH SHIP
I WAS now in the twenty-third year of my residence
in this island, and was so naturalised to the place and the
manner of living, that, could I but have enjoyed the
certainty that no savages would come to the place to
disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated
for spending the rest of my time there, even to the last
moment, till I had laid me down and died, like the old
goat in the cave. I had also arrived to some little diversions
and amusements, which made the time pass a great deal
more pleasantly with me than it did before - first, I had
taught my Poll, as I noted before, to speak; and he did it
so familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain, that it
was very pleasant to me; and he lived with me no less than
six-and-twenty years. How long he might have lived
afterwards I know not, though I know they have a notion
in the Brazils that they live a hundred years. My dog was a
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,
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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, whom I taught to feed out of my hand; and I
had two more parrots, which talked pretty well, and
would all call `Robin Crusoe,' but none like my first; nor,
indeed, did I take the pains with any of them that I had
done with him. I had also several tame sea-fowls, whose
name I knew not, that 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 he very well contented with the
life I led, if I could 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: How frequently, in the
course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to
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shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most
dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our
deliverance, by which alone we can be raised again from
the affliction we are fallen into. I could give many
examples of this in the course of my unaccountable life;
but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable than in
the circumstances of my last years of solitary residence in
this island.
It was now the month of December, as I said above, in
my twenty- third year; and this, being the southern
solstice (for winter I cannot call it), was the particular time
of my harvest, and required me to be pretty much abroad
in the fields, when, going out early in the morning, even
before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with
seeing a light of some fire upon the shore, at a distance
from me of about two miles, toward that part of the island
where I had observed some savages had been, as before,
and not on the other side; but, to my great affliction, it
was on my side of the island.
I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped
short within my grove, not daring to go out, lest I might
be 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
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any of my works or improvements, they would
immediately conclude that there were people in the place,
and would then never rest till they had found me out. In
this extremity I went back directly to my castle, pulled up
the ladder after me, and made all things without look as
wild and natural as I could.
Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a
posture of defence. I loaded all my cannon, as I called
them - that is to say, my 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. I continued in this posture about
two hours, and began to be 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 hill, where there was a flat place,
as I observed before, and then pulling the ladder after me,
I set it up again and mounted 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
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were no less than nine naked savages sitting round a small
fire they had made, not to warm them, for they had no
need of that, the weather being extremely hot, but, as I
supposed, to dress some of their barbarous diet of human
flesh which they had brought with them, whether alive or
dead I could not tell.
They had two canoes with them, which they had
hauled up upon the shore; and as it was then ebb of tide,
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 of the island, and so near to me; but when I
considered 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 flood of tide, 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) away. I should have observed, that for
an hour or more before they went off they were dancing,
and I could easily discern their postures and gestures by
my glass. I could not perceive, by my nicest observation,
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but that they were stark naked, and had not the least
covering upon them; but whether they were men or
women I could not distinguish.
As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two
guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols in my girdle, and
my great sword by my side without a scabbard, and with
all the speed I was able to make went away to the hill
where I had discovered the first appearance of all; and as
soon as I get thither, which was not in less than two hours
(for I could not go quickly, being so loaded with arms as I
was), I perceived there had been three canoes more of the
savages at that place; and looking out farther, I saw they
were all at sea together, making over for the main. This
was a dreadful sight to me, especially as, going down to
the shore, I could see the marks of horror which the
dismal work they had been about had left behind it - viz.
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 now began to premeditate the destruction
of the next that I saw there, let them be whom or how
many soever. It seemed evident to me that the visits which
they made thus to this island were not very frequent, for it
was above fifteen months before any more of them came
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on shore there again - that is to say, I neither saw them
nor any footsteps or signals of them in all that time; for as
to the rainy seasons, then they are sure not to come
abroad, at least not so far. Yet all this while I lived
uncomfortably, by reason of the constant apprehensions of
their coming upon me by surprise: from whence I
observe, that the expectation of evil is more bitter than the
suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off that
expectation or those apprehensions.
During all this time I was in a murdering humour, and
spent most of my hours, which should have been better
employed, in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon
them the very next time I should see them - especially if
they should be divided, as they were the last time, into
two parties; nor did I consider at all that if I killed one
party - suppose ten or a dozen - I was still the next day, or
week, or month, to kill another, and so another, even AD
INFINITUM, till I should be, at length, no less a
murderer than they were in being man-eaters - and
perhaps much more so. I spent my days now in great
perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting that I should
one day or other fall, into the hands of these merciless
creatures; and if I did at any time venture abroad, it was
not without looking around me with the greatest care and
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caution imaginable. And now I found, to my great
comfort, how happy it was that I had provided a tame
flock or herd of goats, for I durst not upon any account
fire my gun, especially near that side of the island where
they usually came, lest I should alarm the savages; and if
they had fled from me now, I was sure to have them come
again with perhaps two or three hundred canoes with
them in a few days, and then I knew what to expect.
However, I wore out a year and three months more
before I ever saw any more of the savages, and then I
found them again, as I shall soon observe. It is true they
might have been there once or twice; but either they
made no stay, or at least I did not see them; but in the
month of May, as near as I could calculate, and in my
four-and-twentieth year, I had a very strange encounter
with them; of which in its place.
The perturbation of my mind during this fifteen or
sixteen months' interval was very great; I slept unquietly,
dreamed always frightful dreams, and often started out of
my sleep in the night. In the day great troubles
overwhelmed my mind; and in the night I dreamed often
of killing the savages and of the reasons why I might
justify doing it.
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But to waive all this for a while. It was in the middle of
May, on the sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor
wooden calendar would reckon, for I marked all upon the
post still; I say, it was on the sixteenth of May 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 after it.
I knew not what was the particular occasion of it, but as I
was reading in the Bible, and taken up with very 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 quite of 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 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 the very moment that a flash of fire bid 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 down the current in my
boat. I immediately considered that this must be some ship
in distress, and that they had some comrade, or some other
ship in company, and fired these for signals of distress, and
to obtain help. I had the presence of mind at that minute
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to think, that though I could not help them, it might be
that they might help me; so I brought together all the dry
wood I could get at hand, and making a good handsome
pile, I set it on fire upon the hill. The wood was dry, and
blazed freely; and, though the wind blew very hard, yet it
burned 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 ever my fire blazed up, I heard
another gun, and after that several others, all from the
same quarter. I plied my fire all night long, till daybreak:
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 glass: the distance was so great, and the weather
still something hazy also; at least, it was so out at sea.
I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived
that it did not move; so I presently concluded that it was a
ship at anchor; and being eager, you may be sure, to be
satisfied, I took my gun in my hand, and ran towards the
south side of the island to the rocks where I had formerly
been carried away by the current; and getting up there,
the weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could
plainly see, to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship, cast
away in the night upon those concealed rocks which I
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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 from the most desperate, hopeless condition
that ever I had been in in all my life. 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
hard at ENE. 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 their firing off guns for help,
especially when they saw, as I imagined, my fire, filled me
with many thoughts. First, I imagined that upon seeing my
light they might have put themselves into their boat, and
endeavoured to make the shore: but that the sea running
very high, they might have been cast away. Other times I
imagined that they might have lost their boat before, as
might be the case many ways; particularly by the breaking
of the sea upon their ship, which many times obliged men
to stave, or take in pieces, their boat, and sometimes to
throw it overboard with their own hands. Other times I
imagined they had some other ship or ships in company,
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who, upon the signals of distress they made, had taken
them up, and carried them off. Other times I fancied they
were all gone off to sea in their boat, and being hurried
away by the current that I had been formerly in, were
carried out into the great ocean, where there was nothing
but misery and perishing: and that, perhaps, they might by
this time think of starving, and of being in a condition to
eat one another.
As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the
condition I was in, I could do no more than look on upon
the misery of the poor men, and pity them; which had still
this good effect upon my side, that it gave me more and
more cause to give thanks to God, who had so happily and
comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition;
and that of two ships' companies, who were now cast
away upon this part of the world, not one life should be
spared but mine. I learned here again to observe, that it is
very rare that the providence of God casts us into any
condition so low, or any misery so great, but we may see
something or other to be thankful for, and may see others
in worse circumstances than our own. Such certainly was
the case of these men, of whom I could not so much as
see room to suppose any were saved; nothing could make
it rational so much as to wish or expect that they did not
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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 sign or
appearance of any such thing. I cannot explain, by any
possible energy of words, what a strange longing I felt in
my soul upon this sight, breaking out sometimes thus: `Oh
that there had been but one or two, nay, or but one soul
saved out of this ship, to have escaped to me, that I might
but have had one companion, one fellow-creature, to have
spoken to me and to have conversed with!' In all the time
of my solitary life I never felt so earnest, so strong a desire
after the society of my fellow- creatures, or so deep a
regret at the want of it.
There are some secret springs in the affections which,
when they are set a-going by some object in view, or,
though not in view, yet rendered present to the mind by
the power of imagination, that motion carries out the soul,
by its impetuosity, to such violent, eager embracings of the
object, that the absence of it is insupportable. Such were
these earnest wishings that but one man had been saved. I
believe I repeated the words, `Oh that it had been but
one!' a thousand times; and my desires were so moved by
it, that when I spoke the words my hands would clinch
together, and my fingers would press the palms of my
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hands, so that if I had had any soft thing in my hand I
should have crushed it involuntarily; and the teeth in my
head would strike together, and set against one another so
strong, that for some time I could not part them again. Let
the naturalists explain these things, and the reason and
manner of them. All I can do is to describe the fact, which
was even surprising to me when I found it, though I knew
not from whence it proceeded; it was doubtless the effect
of ardent wishes, and of strong ideas formed in my mind,
realising the comfort which the conversation of one of my
fellow-Christians would have been to me. But it was not
to be; either their fate or mine, or both, forbade it; for, till
the last year of my being on this island, I never knew
whether any were saved out of that ship or no; and had
only the affliction, some days after, to see the corpse of a
drowned boy come on shore at the end of the island
which was next the shipwreck. He had no clothes on but
a seaman's waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed linen drawers,
and a blue linen shirt; but nothing to direct me so much as
to guess what nation he was of. He had nothing in his
pockets but two pieces of eight and a tobacco pipe - the
last was to me of ten times more value than the first.
It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out
in my boat to this wreck, not doubting but I might find
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something on board that might be useful to me. But that
did not altogether press me so much as the possibility that
there might be yet some living creature on board, whose
life I might not only save, but might, by saving that life,
comfort my own to the last degree; and this thought clung
so to my heart that I could not be quiet night 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), and a basket of raisins; and thus, loading myself with
everything necessary. I went down to my boat, got the
water out of her, got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her,
and then went home again for more. My second cargo
was a great bag of rice, the umbrella to set up over my
head for a shade, another large pot of water, and about
two dozen of small loaves, or barley cakes, more than
before, with a bottle of goat's milk and a cheese; all which
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with great labour and sweat I carried to my boat; and
praying to God to direct my voyage, I put out, and
rowing or paddling the canoe along the shore, came at last
to the utmost point of the island on the north-east side.
And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and either to
venture or not to venture. I looked on the rapid currents
which ran constantly on both sides of the island at a
distance, and which were very terrible to me from the
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 those currents, I should be carried a great
way out to sea, and perhaps out of my reach or sight of
the island again; and that then, as my boat was but small, if
any little gale of wind should rise, I should be inevitably
lost.
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 down upon
a rising bit of 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
come on; upon which my going was impracticable for so
many hours. Upon this, presently it occurred to me that I
should go up to the highest piece of ground I could find,
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and observe, if I could, how the sets of the tide or currents
lay when the flood came in, that I might judge whether, if
I was driven one way out, I might not expect to be driven
another way home, with the same rapidity of the currents.
This thought was no sooner in my head than 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
ebb set out close by the south point of the island, so the
current of the flood set in close by the shore of the north
side; and that I had nothing to do but to keep to the north
side of the island in my return, and I should do well
enough.
Encouraged by this observation, I resolved the next
morning to set out with the first of the tide; and reposing
myself for the night in my canoe, under the watch-coat I
mentioned, I launched out. I first made a little out to sea,
full north, till I began to feel the benefit of the current,
which set eastward, and which carried me at a great rate;
and yet did not so hurry me as the current on the south
side had done before, so as to take from me all
government of the boat; but having a strong steerage with
my paddle, I went at a great rate directly for the wreck,
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and in less than two hours I came up to it. It was a dismal
sight to look at; the ship, which by its building was
Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks. All the
stern and quarter of her were beaten to pieces by the sea;
and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on
with great violence, her mainmast and foremast were
brought by the board - that is to say, broken short off; but
her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow 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. I took
him into the boat, but found him almost dead with hunger
and thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, and he
devoured it like a ravenous wolf that had been starving a
fortnight in the snow; I then gave the poor creature some
fresh water, with which, if I would have let him, he
would have burst himself. After this I went on board; but
the first sight I met with was two men drowned in the
cook-room, or forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast
about one another. I concluded, as is indeed probable, that
when the ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke so
high and so continually over her, that the men were not
able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant
rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been under
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water. Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship
that had life; nor any goods, that I could see, but what
were spoiled by the water. There were some casks of
liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew not, which lay
lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out,
I could see; but they were too big to meddle with. I saw
several chests, which I believe belonged to some of the
seamen; and I got two of them into the boat, without
examining what was in them. Had the stern of the ship
been fixed, and the forepart broken off, I am persuaded I
might have made a good voyage; for by what I found in
those two chests I had room to suppose the ship had a
great deal of wealth on board; and, if I may guess from the
course she steered, she must have been bound from
Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of
America, beyond the Brazils to the Havannah, in the Gulf
of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain. She had, no doubt, a
great treasure in her, but of no use, at that time, to
anybody; and what became of the crew I then knew not.
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor,
of about twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with
much difficulty. There were several muskets in the cabin,
and a great powder-horn, with about four pounds of
powder in it; as for the muskets, I had no occasion for
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them, so I left them, but took the powder-horn. I took a
fire-shovel and tongs, which I wanted extremely, as also
two little brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate,
and a gridiron; and with this cargo, and the dog, I came
away, the tide beginning to make home again - and the
same evening, about an hour within night, I reached the
island again, weary and fatigued to the last degree. I
reposed that night in the boat and in the morning I
resolved to harbour what I had got in my new cave, and
not carry it home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I
got all my cargo on shore, and began to examine the
particulars. The cask of liquor I found to be a kind of rum,
but not such as we had at the Brazils; and, in a word, not
at all good; but when I came to open the chests, I found
several things of great use to me - 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 also on the top that the salt-water had not hurt
them; and two more of the same, which the water had
spoiled. I found some very good shirts, which were very
welcome to me; and about a dozen and a half of white
linen handkerchiefs and coloured neckcloths; the former
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were also very welcome, being exceedingly refreshing to
wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this, when I came to
the till in the chest, I found there three great bags of pieces
of eight, which held about eleven hundred pieces in all;
and in one of them, wrapped up in a paper, six doubloons
of gold, and some small bars or wedges of gold; I suppose
they might all weigh near a pound. In the other chest
were some clothes, but of little value; but, by the
circumstances, it must have belonged to the gunner's
mate; though there was no powder in it, except two
pounds of fine glazed powder, in three flasks, kept, I
suppose, for charging their fowling-pieces on occasion.
Upon the whole, I got very little by this voyage that was
of any use to me; for, as to the money, I had no manner of
occasion for it; it was to me as the dirt under my feet, and
I would have given it all for three or four pair of English
shoes and stockings, which were things I greatly wanted,
but had had none on my feet for many years. I had,
indeed, got two pair of shoes now, which I took off the
feet of two drowned men whom I saw in the wreck, and I
found two pair more in one of the chests, which were
very welcome to me; but they were not like our English
shoes, either for ease or service, being rather what we call
pumps than shoes. I found in this seaman's chest about
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fifty pieces of eight, in rials, but no gold: I supposed this
belonged to a poorer man than the other, which seemed
to belong to some officer. Well, however, I lugged this
money home to my cave, and laid it up, as I had done that
before which I had brought from our own ship; but it was
a great pity, as I said, that the other part of this ship had
not come to my share: for I am satisfied I might have
loaded my canoe several times over with money; and,
thought I, if I ever escape to England, it might lie here safe
enough till I come again and fetch it.
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CHAPTER XIV - A DREAM
REALISED
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. I
began now to repose myself, live after my old fashion, and
take care of my family affairs; and for a while I lived easy
enough, only that I was more vigilant than I used to be,
looked out oftener, and did not go abroad so much; and if
at any time I did stir with any freedom, it was always to
the east part of the island, where I was pretty well satisfied
the savages never came, and where I could go without so
many precautions, and such a load of arms and
ammunition as I always carried with me if I went the
other way. I lived in this condition near two years more;
but my unlucky head, that was always to let me know it
was born to make my body miserable, was all these two
years filled with projects and designs how, if it were
possible, I might get away from this island: for sometimes I
was for making another voyage to the wreck, though my
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reason told me that there was nothing left there worth the
hazard of my voyage; sometimes for a ramble one way,
sometimes another - and I believe verily, if I had had the
boat that I went from Sallee in, I should have ventured to
sea, bound anywhere, I knew not whither. I have been, in
all my circumstances, a memento to those who are
touched with the general plague of mankind, whence, for
aught I know, one half of their miseries flow: I mean that
of not being satisfied with the station wherein God and
Nature hath placed them - for, not to look back upon my
primitive condition, and the excellent advice of my father,
the opposition to which was, as I may call it, my
ORIGINAL SIN, my subsequent mistakes of the same
kind had been the means of my coming into this miserable
condition; for had that Providence which so happily seated
me at the Brazils as a planter blessed me with confined
desires, and I could have been contented to have gone on
gradually, I might have been by this time - I mean in the
time of my being in this island - one of the most
considerable planters in the Brazils - nay, I am persuaded,
that by the improvements I had made in that little time I
lived there, and the increase I should probably have made
if I had remained, I might have been worth a hundred
thousand moidores - and what business had I to leave a
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settled fortune, a well-stocked plantation, improving and
increasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea to fetch negroes,
when patience and time would have so increased our
stock at home, that we could have bought them at our
own door from those whose business it was to fetch them?
and though it had cost us something more, yet the
difference of that price was by no means worth saving at
so great a hazard. But as this is usually the fate of young
heads, so reflection upon the folly of it is as commonly the
exercise of more years, or of the dear-bought experience
of time - so it was with me now; and yet so deep had the
mistake taken root in my temper, that I could not satisfy
myself in my station, but was continually poring upon the
means and possibility of my escape from this place; and
that I may, with greater pleasure to the reader, bring on
the remaining part of my story, it may not be improper to
give some account of my first conceptions on the subject
of this foolish scheme for my escape, and how, and upon
what foundation, I acted.
I am now to be supposed retired into my castle, after
my late voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up and
secured under water, as usual, and my condition restored
to what it was before: I had more wealth, indeed, than I
had before, but was not at all the richer; for I had no more
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use for it than the Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards
came there.
It was one of the nights in the rainy season in March,
the four- and-twentieth year of my first setting foot in this
island of solitude, I was lying in my bed or hammock,
awake, very well in health, had no pain, no distemper, no
uneasiness of body, nor any uneasiness of mind more than
ordinary, but could by no means close my eyes, that is, so
as to sleep; no, not a wink all night long, otherwise than as
follows: It is impossible to set down the innumerable
crowd of thoughts that whirled through that great
thoroughfare of the brain, the memory, in this night's
time. I ran over the whole history of my life in miniature,
or by abridgment, as I may call it, to my coming to this
island, and also of that part of my life since I came to this
island. In my reflections upon the state of my case since I
came on shore on this island, I was comparing the happy
posture of my affairs in the first years of my habitation
here, with the life of anxiety, fear, and care which I had
lived in ever since I had seen the print of a foot in the
sand. Not that I did not believe the savages had frequented
the island even all the while, and might have been several
hundreds of them at times on shore there; but I had never
known it, and was incapable of any apprehensions about
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it; my satisfaction was perfect, though my danger was the
same, and I was as happy in not knowing my danger as if I
had never really been exposed to it. This furnished my
thoughts with many very profitable reflections, and
particularly this one: How infinitely good that Providence
is, which has provided, in its government of mankind,
such narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of things;
and though he walks in the midst of so many thousand
dangers, the sight of which, if discovered to him, would
distract his mind and sink his spirits, he is kept serene and
calm, by having the events of things hid from his eyes, and
knowing nothing of the dangers which surround him.
After these thoughts had for some time entertained me,
I came to reflect seriously upon the real danger I had been
in for so many years in this very island, and how I had
walked about in the greatest security, and with all possible
tranquillity, even when perhaps nothing but the brow of a
hill, a great tree, or the casual approach of night, had been
between me and the worst kind of destruction - viz. that
of falling into the hands of cannibals and savages, who
would have seized on me with the same view as I would
on a goat or turtle; and have thought it no more crime to
kill and devour me than I did of a pigeon or a curlew. I
would unjustly slander myself if I should say I was not
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sincerely thankful to my great Preserver, to whose singular
protection I acknowledged, with great humanity, all these
unknown deliverances were due, and without which I
must inevitably have fallen into their merciless hands.
When these thoughts were over, my head was for some
time taken up in considering the nature of these wretched
creatures, I mean the savages, and how it came to pass in
the world that the wise Governor of all things should give
up any of His creatures to such inhumanity - nay, to
something so much below even brutality itself - as to
devour its own kind: but as this ended in some (at that
time) fruitless speculations, it occurred to me to inquire
what part of the world these wretches lived in? how far off
the coast was from whence they came? what they
ventured over so far from home for? what kind of boats
they had? and why I might not order myself and my
business so that I might be able to go over thither, as they
were to come to me?
I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I
should do with myself when I went thither; what would
become of me if I fell into the hands of these savages; or
how I should escape them if they attacked me; no, nor so
much as how it was possible for me to reach the coast, and
not to be attacked by some or other of them, without any
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possibility of delivering myself: and if I should not fall into
their hands, what I should do for provision, or whither I
should bend my course: none of these thoughts, I say, so
much as came in my way; but my mind was wholly bent
upon the notion of my passing over in my boat to the
mainland. I looked upon my present condition as the most
miserable that could possibly be; that I was not able to
throw myself into anything but death, that could be called
worse; and if I reached the shore of the main I might
perhaps meet with relief, or I might coast along, as I did
on the African shore, till I came to some inhabited
country, and where I might find some relief; and after all,
perhaps I might fall in with some Christian ship that might
take me in: and if the worst came to the worst, I could but
die, which would put an end to all these miseries at once.
Pray note, all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind, an
impatient temper, made desperate, as it were, by the long
continuance of my troubles, and the disappointments I had
met in the wreck I had been on board of, and where I had
been so near obtaining what I so earnestly longed for -
somebody to speak to, and to learn some knowledge from
them of the place where I was, and of the probable means
of my deliverance. I was agitated wholly by these
thoughts; all my calm of mind, in my resignation to
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Providence, and waiting the issue of the dispositions of
Heaven, seemed to be suspended; and I had as it were no
power to turn my thoughts to anything but to the project
of a voyage to the main, which came upon me with such
force, and such an impetuosity of desire, that it was not to
be resisted.
When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or
more, with such violence that it set my very blood into a
ferment, and my pulse beat as if I had been in a fever,
merely with the extraordinary fervour of my mind about
it, Nature - as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with
the very thoughts of it - threw me into a sound sleep. One
would have thought I should have dreamed of it, but I did
not, nor of anything relating to it, but I dreamed that as I
was going out in the morning as usual from my castle, I
saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven savages coming
to land, and that they brought with them another savage
whom they were going to kill in order to eat him; when,
on a sudden, the savage that they were going to kill
jumped away, and ran for his life; and I thought in my
sleep that he came running into my little thick grove
before my fortification, to hide himself; and that I seeing
him alone, and not perceiving that the others sought him
that way, showed myself to him, and smiling upon him,
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encouraged him: that he kneeled down to me, seeming to
pray 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, `Now I may certainly venture to
the mainland, for this fellow will serve me as a pilot, and
will tell me what to do, and whither to go for provisions,
and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; what
places to venture into, and what to shun.' I waked with
this thought; and was under such inexpressible impressions
of joy at the prospect of my escape in my dream, that the
disappointments which I felt upon coming to myself, and
finding that it was no more than a dream, were equally
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 to attempt an escape was, to
endeavour to get a savage into my possession: and, if
possible, it should be one of their prisoners, whom they
had condemned to be eaten, and should bring hither to
kill. But these thoughts still were attended with this
difficulty: that it was impossible to effect this without
attacking a whole caravan of them, and killing them all;
and this was not only a very desperate attempt, and might
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miscarry, but, on the other hand, I had greatly scrupled
the lawfulness of it to myself; and my heart trembled at the
thoughts of shedding so much blood, though it was for my
deliverance. I need not repeat the arguments which
occurred to me against this, they being the same
mentioned before; but though I had other reasons to offer
now - viz. that those men were enemies to my life, and
would devour me if they could; that it was self-
preservation, in the highest degree, to deliver myself from
this death of a life, and was acting in my own defence as
much as if they were actually assaulting me, and the like; I
say though these things argued for it, yet the thoughts of
shedding human blood for my deliverance were very
terrible to me, and such as I could by no means reconcile
myself to for a great while. However, at last, after many
secret disputes with myself, and after great perplexities
about it (for all these arguments, one way and another,
struggled in my head a long time), the eager prevailing
desire of deliverance at length mastered all the rest; and I
resolved, if possible, to get one of these savages into my
hands, cost what it would. My next thing was to contrive
how to do it, and this, indeed, was very difficult to resolve
on; but as I could pitch upon no probable means for it, so
I resolved to put myself upon the watch, to see them
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when they came on shore, and leave the rest to the event;
taking such measures as the opportunity should present, let
what would be.
With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself
upon the scout as often as possible, and indeed so often
that I was heartily tired of it; for it was above a year and a
half that I waited; and for great part of that time went out
to the west end, and to the south- west corner of the
island almost every day, to look for canoes, but none
appeared. This was very discouraging, and began to
trouble me much, though I cannot say that it did in this
case (as it had done some time before) wear off the edge of
my desire to the thing; but the longer it seemed to be
delayed, the more eager I was for it: in a word, I was not
at first so careful to shun the sight of these savages, and
avoid being seen by them, as I was now eager to be upon
them. Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay,
two or three savages, if I had them, so as to make them
entirely slaves to me, to do whatever I should direct them,
and to prevent their being able at any time to do me any
hurt. It was a great while that I pleased myself with this
affair; but nothing still presented itself; all my fancies and
schemes came to nothing, for no savages came near me for
a great while.
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About a year and a half after I entertained these notions
(and by long musing had, as it were, resolved them all into
nothing, for want of an occasion to put them into
execution), I was surprised one morning by seeing no less
than five canoes all on shore together on my side the
island, and the people who belonged to them all landed
and out of my sight. The number of them broke all my
measures; for seeing so many, and knowing that they
always came four or six, 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
lay still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted.
However, I put myself into the same position 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. Here I observed, by the help of my perspective
glass, that they were no less than thirty in number; that
they had a fire kindled, and that they had meat dressed.
How they had cooked it I knew not, or what it was; but
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they were all dancing, in I know not how many barbarous
gestures and figures, their own way, round the fire.
While I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my
perspective, two miserable wretches dragged from the
boats, where, it seems, they were laid by, and were now
brought out for the slaughter. I perceived one of them
immediately fall; being knocked down, I suppose, with a
club or wooden sword, for that was their way; and two or
three others were at work immediately, cutting him open
for their cookery, while the other victim was left standing
by himself, till they should be ready for him. In that very
moment this poor wretch, seeing himself a little at liberty
and unbound, 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 habitation was. I
was dreadfully frightened, I must acknowledge, when I
perceived him run my way; and especially when, as I
thought, I saw him pursued by the whole body: and now I
expected that part of my dream was coming to pass, and
that he would certainly take shelter in my grove; but I
could not depend, by any means, upon my dream, that the
other savages would not pursue him thither and find him
there. However, I kept my station, and my spirits began to
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recover when I found that there was not above three men
that followed him; and still more was I encouraged, when
I found that he outstripped them exceedingly in running,
and gained ground on them; so that, if he could but hold
out for half-an-hour, I saw easily he would fairly get away
from them all.
There was between them and my castle the creek,
which I mentioned often in the first part of my story,
where I landed my cargoes out of the ship; and this I saw
plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the poor wretch
would be taken there; but when the savage escaping came
thither, he made nothing of it, though the tide was then
up; but plunging in, swam through in about thirty strokes,
or thereabouts, landed, and ran with exceeding strength
and swiftness. When the three persons came to the creek,
I found that two of them could swim, but the third could
not, and that, standing on the other side, he looked at the
others, but went no farther, and soon after went softly
back again; which, as it happened, was very well for him
in the end. I observed that the two who swam were yet
more than twice as strong swimming over the creek as the
fellow was that fled from them. It came very warmly upon
my thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was the
time to get me a servant, and, perhaps, a companion or
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assistant; and that I was plainly called by Providence to
save this poor creature's life. I immediately ran down the
ladders with all possible expedition, fetched my two guns,
for they were both at the foot of the ladders, as I observed
before, 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, placed myself in the way
between the pursuers and the pursued, hallowing aloud to
him that fled, who, looking back, was at first perhaps as
much frightened at me as at them; but I beckoned with
my hand to him to come back; and, in the meantime, I
slowly advanced towards the two that followed; then
rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked him down
with the stock of my piece. I was loath to fire, because I
would not have the rest hear; though, at that distance, it
would not have been easily heard, and being out of sight
of the smoke, too, they would not have known what to
make of it. Having knocked this fellow down, the other
who pursued him stopped, as if he had been frightened,
and I advanced towards him: but as I came nearer, I
perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, and was
fitting it to shoot at me: so I was then obliged to shoot at
him first, which I did, and killed him at the first shot. The
poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw
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both his enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was
so frightened with the fire and noise of my piece that he
stood stock still, and neither came forward nor went
backward, though he seemed rather inclined still to fly
than to come on. I hallooed again to him, and made signs
to come forward, which he easily understood, and came a
little way; then stopped again, and then a little farther, and
stopped again; and I could then perceive that he stood
trembling, as if he had been taken 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 laid his head
upon the ground, and taking me by the foot, set my foot
upon his head; this, it seems, was in token of swearing to
be my slave for ever. I took him up and made much of
him, and encouraged him all I could. But there was more
work to do yet; for I perceived the savage whom I had
knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the blow,
and began to come to himself: so I pointed to him, and
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showed 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 twenty-five years. But
there was no time for such reflections now; the savage
who was knocked down recovered himself so far as to sit
up upon the ground, and I perceived that my savage began
to be afraid; but when I saw that, I presented my other
piece at the man, as if I would shoot him: upon this my
savage, for so I call him now, made a motion to me to
lend him my sword, which hung naked in a belt by my
side, which I did. He no sooner had it, but he runs 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 to 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
even cut off heads with them, ay, and arms, and that at
one blow, too. When he had done this, he comes
laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought me the
sword again, and with abundance of gestures which I did
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not understand, laid it down, with the head of the savage
that he had killed, just before me. But that which
astonished him most was to know how I killed the other
Indian so far off; so, pointing to him, he made signs to me
to let him go to him; and I bade him go, as well as I
could. When he came to him, he stood like one amazed,
looking at him, turning him first on one side, then on the
other; looked at the wound the bullet had made, which it
seems was just in his breast, where it had made a hole, and
no great quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled
inwardly, for he was quite dead. He took up his bow and
arrows, and came back; so I turned to go away, and
beckoned him to follow me, making signs to him that
more might come after them. Upon this he made signs to
me that he should bury them with sand, that they might
not be seen by the rest, if they followed; and so I made
signs to him again to do so. He fell to work; and in an
instant he had scraped a hole in the sand with his hands
big enough to bury the first in, and then dragged him into
it, and covered him; and did so by the other also; I believe
he had him buried them both in a quarter of an hour.
Then, calling away, I carried him, not to my castle, but
quite away to my cave, on the farther part of the island: so
I did not let my dream come to pass in that part, that he
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came into my grove for shelter. Here I gave him bread
and a bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of water,
which I found he was indeed in great distress for, from his
running: and having refreshed him, I made signs for him
to go and lie down to sleep, showing him a place where I
had laid some rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which I
used to sleep upon myself sometimes; so the poor creature
lay down, and went to sleep.
He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well
made, with straight, strong limbs, not too large; tall, and
well-shaped; and, as I reckon, about twenty-six years of
age. He had a very good countenance, not a fierce and
surly aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in
his face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of a
European in his countenance, too, especially when he
smiled. His hair was long and black, not curled like wool;
his forehead very high and large; and a great vivacity and
sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The colour of his skin was
not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not an ugly,
yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians,
and other natives of America are, but of a bright kind of a
dun olive-colour, that had in it something very agreeable,
though not very easy to describe. His face was round and
plump; his nose small, not flat, like the negroes; a very
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good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and as
white as ivory.
After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half-
an-hour, he awoke again, and came out of the cave to me:
for I had been milking my goats which I had in the
enclosure just by: when he espied me he came running to
me, laying himself down again upon the ground, with all
the possible signs of an humble, thankful disposition,
making a great 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
he would serve me so long as he lived. I understood him
in many things, and let him know I was very well pleased
with him. In a little time I began to speak to him; and
teach him to speak to me: and first, I let him know his
name should be Friday, which was the day I saved his life:
I called him so for the memory of the time. I likewise
taught him to say Master; and then let him know that was
to be my name: I likewise taught him to say Yes and No
and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk
in an earthen pot, and let him see me drink it before him,
and sop my bread in it; and gave him a cake of bread to do
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the like, which he quickly complied with, and made signs
that it was very good for him. I kept there with him all
that night; but as soon as it was day I beckoned to him to
come with me, and let him know I would give him some
clothes; at which he seemed very glad, for he was stark
naked. As we went by the place where he had buried the
two men, he pointed exactly to the place, and showed me
the marks that he had made to find them again, making
signs to me that we should dig them up again and eat
them. At this I appeared very angry, expressed my
abhorrence of it, made as if I would vomit at the thoughts
of it, and beckoned with my hand to him to come away,
which he did immediately, with great submission. I then
led him up to the top of the hill, to see if his enemies were
gone; and pulling out my glass I looked, and saw plainly
the place where they had been, but no appearance of them
or their canoes; so that it was plain they were gone, and
had left their two comrades behind them, without any
search after them.
But I was not content with this discovery; but having
now more courage, and consequently more curiosity, I
took my man Friday with me, giving him the sword in his
hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which I found
he could use very dexterously, making him carry one gun
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for me, and I two for myself; and away we marched to the
place where these creatures had been; for I had a mind
now to get some further intelligence of them. When I
came to the place 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, at least it was so to me,
though Friday made nothing of it. The place was covered
with human bones, the ground dyed with their blood, and
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 up,
and that he, pointing to himself, was the fourth; that there
had been a great battle between them and their next king,
of whose subjects, it seems, he had been one, and that they
had taken a great number of prisoners; all which were
carried to several places by those who had taken them in
the fight, in order to feast upon them, as was done here by
these wretches upon those they brought hither.
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I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and
whatever remained, and lay them together in a heap, and
make a great fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes. I
found Friday had still a hankering stomach after some of
the flesh, and was still a cannibal in his nature; but I
showed so much abhorrence at the very thoughts of it,
and at the least appearance of it, that he durst not discover
it: for I had, by some means, let him know that I would
kill him if he offered it.
When he had done this, we came back to our castle;
and there I fell to work for my man Friday; and first of all,
I gave him a pair of linen drawers, which I had out of the
poor gunner's chest I mentioned, which I found in the
wreck, and which, with a little alteration, fitted him very
well; and then I made him a jerkin of goat's skin, as well as
my skill would allow (for I was now grown a tolerably
good tailor); and I gave him a cap which I made of hare's
skin, very convenient, and fashionable enough; and thus
he was clothed, for the present, tolerably well, and was
mighty well pleased to see himself almost as well clothed
as his master. It is true he went awkwardly in these clothes
at first: wearing the drawers was very awkward to him,
and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders and
the inside of his arms; but a little easing them where he
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complained they hurt him, and using himself to them, he
took to them at length very well.
The next day, after I came home to my hutch with
him, I began to consider where I should lodge him: and
that I might do well for him and yet be perfectly easy
myself, I made a little tent for him in the vacant place
between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last,
and in the outside of the first. As there was a door or
entrance there into my cave, I made a formal framed
door-case, and a door to it, of boards, and set it up in the
passage, a little within the entrance; and, causing the door
to open 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, and leaning up to the side of
the hill; which was again laid across with smaller 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 -
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as to weapons, I took them all into my side every night.
But I needed none of all this precaution; for never man
had a more faithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday was
to me: without passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly
obliged and engaged; his very affections were tied to me,
like those of a child to a father; and I daresay he would
have sacrificed his life to save mine upon any occasion
whatsoever - the many testimonies he gave me of this put
it out of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed to
use no precautions for my safety on his account.
This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that
with wonder, that however it had pleased God in His
providence, and in the government of the works of His
hands, to take from so great a part of the world of His
creatures the best uses to which their faculties and the
powers of their souls are adapted, yet that He has
bestowed upon them the same powers, the same reason,
the same affections, the same sentiments of kindness and
obligation, the same passions and resentments of wrongs,
the same sense of gratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the
capacities of doing good and receiving good that He has
given to us; and that when He pleases to offer them
occasions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more
ready, to apply them to the right uses for which they were
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bestowed than we are. This made me very melancholy
sometimes, in reflecting, as the several occasions presented,
how mean a use we make of all these, even though we
have these powers enlightened by the great lamp of
instruction, the Spirit of God, and by the knowledge of
His word added to our understanding; and why it has
pleased God to hide the like saving knowledge from so
many millions of souls, who, if I might judge by this poor
savage, would make a much better use of it than we did.
From hence I sometimes was led too far, to invade the
sovereignty of Providence, and, as it were, arraign the
justice of so arbitrary a disposition of things, that should
hide that sight from some, and reveal it - to others, and
yet expect a like duty from both; but I shut it up, and
checked my thoughts with this conclusion: first, that we
did not know by what light and law these should be
condemned; but that as God was necessarily, and by the
nature of His being, infinitely holy and just, so it could not
be, but if these creatures were all sentenced to absence
from Himself, it was on account of sinning against that
light which, as the Scripture says, was a law to themselves,
and by such rules as their consciences would acknowledge
to be just, though the foundation was not discovered to
us; and secondly, that still as we all are the clay in the hand
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of the potter, no vessel could say to him, `Why hast thou
formed me thus?'
But to return to my new companion. I was greatly
delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him
everything that was proper to make him useful, handy,
and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and
understand me when I spoke; and he was the aptest
scholar that ever was; and particularly was so merry, so
constantly diligent, and so pleased when he could but
understand me, or make me understand him, that it was
very pleasant for me to talk to him. Now my life began to
be so easy that I began to say to myself that could I but
have been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was
never to remove from the place where I lived.
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CHAPTER XV - FRIDAY'S
EDUCATION
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 cannibal's
stomach, I ought to let him taste other flesh; so I took him
out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed,
intending to kill a kid out of my own flock; and bring it
home and dress it; but as I was going I saw a she-goat
lying down in the shade, and two young kids sitting by
her. I catched hold of Friday. `Hold,' said I, `stand still;'
and made signs to him not to stir: immediately I presented
my piece, shot, and killed one of the kids. The poor
creature, who had at a distance, indeed, seen me kill the
savage, his enemy, but did not know, 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 shot at, or
perceive I had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel
whether he was not wounded; and, as I found presently,
thought I was resolved to kill him: for he came and
kneeled down to me, and embracing my knees, said a
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great many things I did not understand; but I could easily
see the meaning was to pray me not to kill him.
I soon found a way to convince him that I would do
him no harm; and taking him up by the hand, laughed at
him, and pointing to the kid which I had killed, beckoned
to him to run and fetch it, which he did: and while he was
wondering, and looking to see how the creature was
killed, I loaded my gun again. By-and-by I saw a great
fowl, like a hawk, sitting upon a tree within shot; so, to let
Friday understand a little what I would do, I called him to
me again, pointed at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot,
though I thought it had been a hawk; I say, pointing to
the parrot, and to my gun, and to the ground under the
parrot, to let him see I would make it 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,
notwithstanding 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 that there must be some
wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able
to kill man, beast, bird, or anything near or far off; and the
astonishment this created in him was such as could not
wear off for a long time; and I believe, if I would have let
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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 he would speak to it and talk to it, as if it
had answered him, when he was by himself; which, as I
afterwards learned of him, was to desire it not to kill him.
Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, I
pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot, which
he did, but stayed some time; for the parrot, not being
quite dead, had fluttered away a good distance 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 to let him see me do it, that
I might be ready for any other mark that might present;
but nothing more offered at that time: so I brought home
the kid, and the same evening I took the skin off, and cut
it out as well as I could; and having a pot fit for that
purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made
some very good broth. After I had begun to eat some I
gave some to my man, who seemed very glad of it, and
liked it very well; but that which was strangest to him was
to see me eat salt with it. He made a sign to me that the
salt was not good to eat; and putting a little into his own
mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and
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sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh water after it:
on the other hand, I took some meat into my mouth
without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for want
of salt, as much as he had done at the salt; but it would not
do; he would never care for salt with meat or in his broth;
at least, not for a great while, and then but a very little.
Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was
resolved to feast him the next day by roasting a piece of
the kid: this I did by hanging it before the fire on 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 very much; but
when he came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to
tell me how well he liked it, that I could not but
understand him: and at last he told me, as well as he could,
he would never eat man's flesh any more, which I was
very glad to hear.
The next day I set him to work beating some corn out,
and sifting it in the manner I used to do, as I observed
before; and he soon understood how to do it as well as I,
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
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Friday was able to do all the work for me as well as I could
do it myself.
I began now to consider, that having two mouths to
feed instead of one, I must provide more ground for my
harvest, and plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to
do; so I marked out a larger piece of land, and began the
fence in the same manner as before, in which Friday
worked not only very willingly and very hard, but did it
very cheerfully: and I told him what it was for; that it was
for corn to make more bread, because he was now with
me, and that I might have enough for him and myself too.
He appeared very sensible of that part, and let me know
that he thought I had much more labour upon me on his
account than I had for myself; and that he would work the
harder for me if I would tell him what to do.
This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this
place. Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the
names of almost everything I had occasion to call for, and
of every place I had to send him to, and talked a great deal
to me; so that, in short, I began now to have some use for
my tongue again, which, indeed, I had very little occasion
for before. Besides the pleasure of talking to him, I had a
singular satisfaction in the fellow himself: his simple,
unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every
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day, and I began really to love the creature; and on his side
I believe he loved me more than it was possible for him
ever to love anything before.
I had a mind once to try if he had any inclination for
his own country again; and having taught him English so
well that he could answer me almost any question, I asked
him whether the nation that he belonged to never
conquered in battle? At which he smiled, and said - `Yes,
yes, we always fight the better;' that is, he meant always
get the better in fight; and so we began the following
discourse:-
MASTER. - You always fight the better; how came
you to be taken prisoner, then, Friday?
FRIDAY. - My nation beat much for all that.
MASTER. - How beat? If your nation beat them, how
came you to be taken?
FRIDAY. - They more many than my nation, in the
place where me was; they take one, two, three, and me:
my nation over-beat them in the yonder place, where me
no was; there my nation take one, two, great thousand.
MASTER. - But why did not your side recover you
from the hands of your enemies, then?
FRIDAY. - They run, one, two, three, and me, and
make go in the canoe; my nation have no canoe that time.
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MASTER. - Well, Friday, and what does your nation
do with the men they take? Do they carry them away and
eat them, as these did?
FRIDAY. - Yes, my nation eat mans too; eat all up.
MASTER. - Where do they carry them?
FRIDAY. - Go to other place, where they think.
MASTER. - Do they come hither?
FRIDAY. - Yes, yes, they come hither; come other
else place.
MASTER. - Have you been here with them?
FRIDAY. - Yes, I have been here (points to the NW.
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 used to come on shore on
the farther part of the island, on the same man-eating
occasions he was now brought for; and some time after,
when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being
the same I formerly mentioned, he presently knew the
place, and told me he was there once, when they ate up
twenty men, two women, and one child; he could not tell
twenty in English, but he numbered them by laying so
many stones in a row, and pointing to me to tell them
over.
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I have told this passage, because it introduces what
follows: that after this discourse I had with him, I asked
him how far it was from our island to the shore, and
whether the canoes were not often lost. He told me there
was no danger, no canoes ever lost: but that after a little
way out to sea, there was a current and wind, always one
way in the morning, the other in the afternoon. This I
understood to be no more than the sets of the tide, as
going out or coming in; but I afterwards understood it was
occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty
river Orinoco, in the mouth or gulf of which river, as I
found afterwards, our island lay; and that this land, which I
perceived to be W. and NW., was the great island
Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the river. I
asked Friday a thousand questions about the country, the
inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations were near;
he told me all he knew with the greatest openness
imaginable. I asked him the names of the several nations of
his sort of people, but could get no other name than
Caribs; from whence I easily understood that these were
the Caribbees, which our maps place on the part of
America which reaches from the mouth of the river
Orinoco to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told
me that up a great way beyond the moon, that was
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beyond the setting of the moon, which must be west from
their country, there dwelt white bearded men, like me,
and pointed to my great whiskers, which I 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 the
whole country, and were remembered by all the nations
from father to son.
I inquired if he could tell me how I might go from this
island, and get among those white men. He told me, `Yes,
yes, you may go in two canoe.' I could not understand
what he meant, or make him describe to me what he
meant by two canoe, till at last, with great difficulty, I
found he meant it must be in a large boat, as big as two
canoes. This part of Friday's discourse I began to relish
very well; and from this time I entertained some hopes
that, one time or other, I might find an opportunity to
make my escape from this place, and that this poor savage
might be a means to help me.
During the long time that Friday had now been with
me, and that he began to speak to me, and understand me,
I was not wanting to lay a foundation of religious
knowledge in his mind; particularly I asked him one time,
who made him. The creature did not understand me at all,
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but thought I had asked who was his father - but I took it
up by another handle, and asked him who made the sea,
the ground we walked on, and the hills and woods. He
told me, `It was one Benamuckee, 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 land,
than the moon or the stars.' I asked him then, if this old
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 say O to him.' I asked him if
the people who die in his country went away anywhere?
He said, `Yes; they all went to Benamuckee.' 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 governed the world by the same power
and providence by which He made it; that He was
omnipotent, and could do everything for us, give
everything to us, take everything from us; and thus, by
degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great
attention, and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus
Christ being sent to redeem us; and of the manner of
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making our prayers to God, and His being able to hear us,
even in heaven. He told me one day, that if our God
could hear us, up beyond the sun, he must needs be a
greater God than their Benamuckee, who lived but a little
way off, and yet could not hear till they went up to the
great mountains where he dwelt to speak to them. 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 to me, their religious, or clergy;
and that they went to say O (so he called saying prayers),
and then came back and told them what Benamuckee said.
By this I observed, that there is priestcraft even among the
most blinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy
of making a secret of religion, in order to preserve the
veneration of the people to the clergy, not only to be
found in the Roman, but, perhaps, among all religions in
the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous
savages.
I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday;
and told him that the pretence of their old men going up
to the mountains to say O to their god Benamuckee was a
cheat; and their bringing word from thence what he said
was much more so; that if they met with any answer, or
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spake with any one there, it must be with an evil spirit;
and then I entered into a long discourse with him about
the devil, the origin of him, his rebellion against God, his
enmity to man, the reason of it, his setting himself up in
the dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of
God, and as God, and the many stratagems he made use of
to delude mankind to their ruin; how he had a secret
access to our passions and to our affections, and to adapt
his snares to our inclinations, so as to cause us even to be
our own tempters, and run upon our destruction by our
own choice.
I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in
his mind about the devil as it was about the being of a
God. Nature assisted all my arguments to evidence to him
even the necessity of a great First Cause, an overruling,
governing Power, a secret directing Providence, and of
the equity and justice of paying homage to Him that made
us, and the like; but there appeared nothing of this kind in
the notion of an evil spirit, of his origin, his being, his
nature, and above all, of his inclination to do evil, and to
draw us in to do so too; and the poor creature puzzled me
once in such a manner, by a question merely natural and
innocent, that I scarce knew what to say to him. I had
been talking a great deal to him of the power of God, His
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omnipotence, His aversion to sin, His being a consuming
fire to the workers of iniquity; how, as He had made us
all, He could destroy us and all the world in a moment;
and he listened with great seriousness to me all the while.
After this I had been telling him how the devil was God's
enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his malice and
skill to defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin
the kingdom of Christ in the world, and the like. `Well,'
says Friday, `but you say God is so strong, so great; is He
not much strong, much might as the devil?' `Yes, yes,' says
I, `Friday; God is stronger than the devil - God is above
the devil, and therefore we pray to God to tread him
down under our feet, and enable us to resist his
temptations and quench his fiery darts.' `But,' says he
again, `if God much stronger, much might as the wicked
devil, why God no kill the devil, so make him no more do
wicked?' I was strangely surprised at this question; and,
after all, though I was now an old man, yet I was but a
young doctor, and ill qualified for a casuist or a solver of
difficulties; and at first I could not tell what to say; so I
pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said;
but he was too earnest for an answer to forget his
question, so that he repeated it in the very same broken
words as above. By this time I had recovered myself a
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little, and I said, `God will at last punish him severely; he is
reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the
bottomless pit, to dwell with everlasting fire.' This did not
satisfy Friday; but he returns upon me, repeating my
words, ``RESERVE AT LAST!' me no understand - but
why not kill the devil now; not kill great ago?' `You may
as well ask me,' said I, `why God does not kill you or me,
when we do wicked things here that offend Him - we are
preserved to repent and be pardoned.' He mused some
time on this. `Well, well,' says he, mighty affectionately,
`that well - so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve,
repent, God pardon all.' Here I was run down again by
him to the last degree; and it was a testimony to me, how
the mere notions of nature, though they will guide
reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God, and of a
worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as
the consequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine
revelation can form the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of
redemption purchased for us; of a Mediator of the new
covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool of God's
throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can
form these in the soul; and that, therefore, the gospel of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I mean the Word of
God, and the Spirit of God, promised for the guide and
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sanctifier of His people, are the absolutely necessary
instructors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of
God and the means of salvation.
I therefore diverted the present discourse between me
and my man, rising up hastily, as upon some sudden
occasion of going out; then sending him for something a
good way off, I seriously prayed to God that He would
enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage; assisting,
by His Spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to
receive the light of the knowledge of God in Christ,
reconciling him to Himself, and would guide me so to
speak to him from the Word of God that his conscience
might be convinced, his eyes opened, and his soul saved.
When he came again to me, I entered into a long
discourse with him upon the subject of the redemption of
man by the Saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of
the gospel preached from Heaven, viz. of repentance
towards God, and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then
explained to him as well as I could why our blessed
Redeemer took not on Him the nature of angels but the
seed of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallen
angels had no share in the redemption; that He came only
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and the like.
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I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in
all the methods I took for this poor creature's instruction,
and must acknowledge, what I believe all that act upon
the same principle will find, that in laying things open to
him, I really informed and instructed myself in many
things that either I did not know or had not fully
considered before, but which occurred naturally to my
mind upon 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 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 have been confined to, I
had not only been moved to look up to heaven myself,
and to seek the Hand that had brought me here, but was
now to be made an instrument, under Providence, to save
the life, and, for aught I knew, the soul of a poor savage,
and bring him to the true knowledge of religion and of
the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, in
whom is life eternal; I say, when I reflected upon all these
things, a secret joy ran through every part of My soul, and
I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought to this place,
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which I had so often thought the most dreadful of all
afflictions that could possibly have befallen me.
I continued in this thankful frame all the remainder of
my time; and the conversation which employed the hours
between Friday and me was such as made the three years
which we lived there together perfectly and completely
happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can be
formed in a sublunary state. This 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, in reading the Scripture, to let him know, as well
as I could, the meaning of what I read; and he again, by
his serious inquiries and questionings, made me, as I said
before, a much better scholar in the Scripture knowledge
than I should ever have been by my own mere private
reading. Another thing I cannot refrain from observing
here also, from experience in this retired part of my life,
viz. how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the
knowledge of God, and of the doctrine of salvation by
Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid down in the Word of God,
so easy to be received and understood, that, as the bare
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reading the Scripture made me capable of understanding
enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great
work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of
a Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in
practice, and obedience to all God's commands, and this
without any teacher or instructor, I mean human; so the
same plain instruction sufficiently served to the
enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be
such a Christian as I have known few equal to him in my
life.
As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention
which have happened in the world about religion,
whether niceties in doctrines or schemes of church
government, they were all perfectly useless to us, and, for
aught I can yet see, they have been so to the rest of the
world. We had the sure guide to heaven, viz. the Word of
God; and we had, blessed be God, comfortable views of
the Spirit of God teaching and instructing by His word,
leading us into all truth, and making us both willing and
obedient to the instruction of His word. And I cannot see
the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed
points of religion, which have made such confusion in the
world, would have been to us, if we could have obtained
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it. But I must go on with the historical part of things, and
take every part in its order.
After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted,
and that he could understand almost all I said to him, and
speak pretty fluently, though in broken English, to me, I
acquainted him with my own history, or at least so much
of it as related to my coming to this place: how I had lived
there, and how long; I let him into the mystery, for such it
was to him, of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how
to shoot. I gave him a knife, which he was wonderfully
delighted with; and I made him a belt, with a frog hanging
to it, such as in England we wear hangers in; and in the
frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was
not only as good a weapon in some cases, but much more
useful upon other occasions.
I described to him the country of Europe, 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 was all beaten in pieces before, and gone. I
showed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost when we
escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole
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strength then; but was now fallen almost all to pieces.
Upon seeing this boat, Friday stood, musing a great while,
and said nothing. I asked him what it was he studied upon.
At last says he, `Me see such boat like come to place at my
nation.' I did not understand him a good while; but at last,
when I had examined further into it, I understood by him
that a boat, such as that had been, came on shore upon the
country where he lived: that is, as he explained it, was
driven thither by stress of weather. I presently imagined
that some European ship must have been cast away upon
their coast, and the boat might get loose and drive ashore;
but was so dull that I never once thought of men making
their escape from a 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 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 upon his
fingers seventeen. I asked him then what became of them.
He told me, `They live, they dwell at my nation.'
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This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently
imagined that these might be the men belonging to the
ship that was cast away in the sight of my island, as I now
called it; and who, after the ship was struck on the rock,
and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in
their boat, and were landed upon that wild shore among
the savages. Upon this I inquired of him more critically
what was become of them. He assured me they lived still
there; that they had been there about four years; that the
savages left them alone, and gave them victuals to live on.
I asked him how it came to pass they did not kill them and
eat them. He said, `No, they make brother with them;'
that is, as I understood him, a truce; and then he added,
`They 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
upon the top of the hill at the east side of the island, from
whence, as I have said, I had, in a clear day, discovered the
main or continent of America, Friday, the weather being
very serene, looks very earnestly towards the mainland,
and, in a kind of surprise, falls a jumping and dancing, and
calls out to me, for I was at some distance from him. I
asked him what was the matter. `Oh, joy!' says he; `Oh,
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glad! there see my country, there my nation!' I observed
an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face, and
his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange
eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country
again. 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 obligation to me,
and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an
account of me, and come back, perhaps with a hundred or
two of them, and make a feast upon me, at which he
might be as merry as he used to be with those of his
enemies when they were taken in war. But I wronged the
poor honest creature very much, for which I was very
sorry afterwards. However, as my jealousy increased, and
held some weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and not
so familiar and kind to him as before: in which I was
certainly wrong too; the honest, grateful creature having
no thought about it but what consisted with the best
principles, both as a religious Christian and as a grateful
friend, as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction.
While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was
every day pumping him to see if he would discover any of
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the new thoughts which I suspected were in him; but I
found everything he said was so 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 him, and said, `Friday, do not you wish yourself
in your own country, your own nation?' `Yes,' he said, `I
be much O glad to be at my own nation.' `What would
you do there?' said I. `Would you turn wild again, eat
men's flesh again, and be a savage as you were before?' He
looked full of concern, and shaking his head, said, `No,
no, Friday tell them to live good; tell them to pray God;
tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle flesh, milk; no eat man
again.' `Why, then,' said I to him, `they will kill you.' He
looked grave at that, and then said, `No, no, they no kill
me, they willing love learn.' He meant by this, they would
be willing to learn. He added, they learned much of the
bearded mans that came in the boat. Then I asked him if
he would go back to them. He smiled at that, and told me
that 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
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with him. `I go!' says I; `why, they will eat me if I come
there.' `No, no,' says he, `me make they no eat you; me
make they much love you.' He meant, he would tell them
how I had killed his enemies, and saved his life, and so he
would make them love me. Then he told me, as well as he
could, how kind they were to seventeen white men, or
bearded men, as he called them who came on shore there
in distress.
From this time, I confess, I had a mind to venture over,
and see if I could possibly join with those bearded men,
who I made no doubt were Spaniards and 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, alone and without help. So, after some
days, I took Friday to work again by way of discourse, and
told him I would give him a boat to go back to his own
nation; and, accordingly, I carried him to my frigate,
which lay on the other side of the island, and having
cleared it of water (for I always kept it sunk in water), I
brought it out, showed it him, and we both went into it. I
found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, and
would make it go almost as swift again as I could. So
when he was in, I said to him, `Well, now, Friday, shall
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we go to your nation?' He looked very dull at my saying
so; which it seems was because he thought the boat was
too small to go so far. I then told him I had a bigger; so
the next day I went to the place where the first boat lay
which I had made, but which I could not get into the
water. He said that was big enough; but then, as I had
taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three and
twenty years there, the sun had so split and dried it, that it
was rotten. Friday told me such a boat would do very
well, and would carry `much enough vittle, drink, bread;'
this was his way of talking.
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CHAPTER XVI - RESCUE OF
PRISONERS FROM
CANNIBALS
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, `Why you angry
mad with Friday? - what me done?' I asked him what he
meant. I told him I was not angry with him at all. `No
angry!' says he, repeating the words several times; `why
send Friday home away to my nation?' `Why,' says I,
`Friday, did not you 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. `I go there, Friday?' says I; `what shall I
do there?' He turned very quick upon me at this. `You do
great deal much good,' says he; `you teach wild mans be
good, sober, tame mans; you tell them know God, pray
God, and live new life.' `Alas, Friday!' says I, `thou
knowest not what thou sayest; I am but an ignorant man
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myself.' `Yes, yes,' says he, `you teachee me good, you
teachee them good.' `No, no, Friday,' says I, `you shall go
without me; leave me here to live by myself, as I did
before.' He looked confused again at that word; and
running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he
takes it up hastily, and gives it to me. `What must I do
with this?' says I to him. `You take kill Friday,' says he.
`What must kill you for?' said I again. He returns very
quick - `What you send Friday away for? Take kill Friday,
no send Friday away.' This he spoke so earnestly that I saw
tears stand in his eyes. In a word, I so plainly discovered
the utmost affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in
him, that I told him then and often after, that I would
never send him away from me if he was willing to stay
with me.
Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled
affection to me, and that nothing could part him from me,
so I found 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. But still I found a
strong inclination to attempting my escape, founded on
the supposition gathered from the discourse, that there
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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, to undertake the voyage. There were trees enough
in the island to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas or
canoes, but even of good, large vessels; but the main thing
I looked at was, to get one so near the water that we
might launch it when it was made, to avoid the mistake I
committed at first. At last Friday pitched upon a tree; for I
found he knew much better than I what kind of wood
was fittest for it; nor can I tell to this day what wood to
call the tree we cut down, except that it was very like the
tree we call fustic, or between that and the Nicaragua
wood, for it was much of the same colour and smell.
Friday wished to burn the hollow or cavity of this tree
out, to make it for a boat, but I showed him how to cut it
with tools; which, after I had showed him how to use, he
did very handily; and in about a month's hard labour we
finished it and made it very handsome; especially when,
with our axes, which I showed him how to handle, we
cut and hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat.
After this, however, it cost us near a fortnight's time to get
her along, as it were inch by inch, upon great rollers into
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the water; but when she was in, she would have carried
twenty men with great ease.
When she was in the water, though she was so big, it
amazed me to see with what dexterity and how swift my
man Friday could manage her, turn her, and paddle her
along. So I asked him if he would, and if we might
venture over in her. `Yes,' he said, `we venture over in her
very well, though great blow wind.' However I had a
further 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 a mast, that was easy enough to get; so I
pitched upon a straight young cedar-tree, which I found
near the place, and which there were great plenty of in the
island, and I set Friday to work to cut it down, and gave
him directions how to shape and order it. But as to the
sail, that was my particular care. I knew I had old sails, or
rather pieces of old sails, enough; but as I had had them
now six-and-twenty years by me, and had not been very
careful to preserve them, not imagining that I should ever
have this kind of use for them, I did not doubt but they
were all rotten; and, indeed, most of them were so.
However, I found two pieces which appeared pretty good,
and with these I went to work; and with a great deal of
pains, and awkward stitching, you may be sure, for want
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of needles, I at length made a three-cornered ugly thing,
like what we call in England a shoulder-of-mutton sail, to
go with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the
top, such as usually our ships' long-boats sail with, and
such as I best knew how to manage, as it was such a one as
I had to the boat in which I made my escape from
Barbary, as related in the first part of my story.
I was near two months performing this last work, viz.
rigging and fitting my masts and sails; for I finished them
very complete, making a small stay, and a sail, or foresail,
to it, to assist if we should turn to windward; and, what
was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern of her to
steer with. I was but a bungling shipwright, yet as I knew
the usefulness and even necessity of such a thing, I applied
myself with so much pains to do it, that at last I brought it
to pass; though, considering the many dull contrivances I
had for it that failed, I think it cost me almost as much
labour as making the boat.
After all this was done, I had my man Friday to teach as
to what belonged to the navigation of my boat; though he
knew very well how to paddle a canoe, he knew nothing
of what belonged to a sail and a rudder; and was the most
amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in
the sea by the rudder, and how the sail jibed, and filled
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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 of the compass I could make him understand very
little. On the other hand, as there was very little cloudy
weather, and seldom or never any fogs in those parts, there
was the less occasion for a compass, seeing the stars were
always to be seen by night, and the shore by day, except in
the rainy seasons, and then nobody cared to stir abroad
either by land or sea.
I was now entered on the seven-and-twentieth year of
my captivity in this place; though the three last years that I
had this creature with me ought rather to be left out of the
account, my habitation being quite of another kind than in
all the rest of 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. I went on,
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however, with my husbandry; digging, planting, and
fencing as usual. I gathered and cured my grapes, and did
every necessary thing as before.
The rainy season was in the meantime upon me, when
I kept more within doors than at other times. We had
stowed our new vessel as secure as we could, bringing her
up into the creek, where, as I said in the beginning, I
landed my rafts from the ship; and hauling her up to the
shore at high-water mark, I made my man Friday dig a
little dock, just big enough to hold her, and just deep
enough to give her water enough to float in; and then,
when the tide was out, we made a strong dam across the
end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay, dry as to
the tide from the sea: and to keep the rain off we laid a
great many boughs of trees, so thick that she was as well
thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the months of
November and December, in which I designed to make
my adventure.
When the settled season began to come in, as the
thought of my design returned with the fair weather, I was
preparing daily for the voyage. And the first thing I did
was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being the
stores for our voyage; and intended in a week or a
fortnight's time to open the dock, and launch out our
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boat. I was busy one morning upon something of this
kind, when I called to Friday, and bid him to go to the
sea-shore and see if he could find a turtle or a 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
outer wall or fence, like one that felt not the ground or
the steps he set his foot on; and before I had time to speak
to him he cries out to me, `O master! O master! O
sorrow! O bad!' - `What's the matter, Friday?' says I. `O
yonder there,' says he, `one, two, three canoes; one, two,
three!' By this way of speaking I concluded there were six;
but on inquiry I found there were but three. `Well,
Friday,' says 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 him, and would cut him in
pieces and eat him; and the poor fellow trembled so that I
scarcely 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,' says
I, `Friday, we must resolve to fight them. Can you fight,
Friday?' `Me shoot,' says he, `but there come many great
number.' `No matter for that,' said I again; `our guns will
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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 bid him. He said, `Me die
when you bid die, master.' So I went and fetched a good
dram of rum and gave him; for I had been so good a
husband of my rum that I had a great deal left. When we
had drunk it, I made him take the two fowling- pieces,
which we always carried, and loaded them with large
swan- shot, as big as small pistol-bullets. Then I took four
muskets, and loaded them with two slugs and five small
bullets each; and my two pistols I loaded with a brace of
bullets each. I hung my great sword, as usual, naked by my
side, and gave Friday his hatchet. When I had thus
prepared myself, I took my perspective glass, and went up
to the side of the hill, to see what I could discover; and I
found quickly by my glass that there were one-and-twenty
savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; and that their
whole business seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon
these three human bodies: a barbarous feast, indeed! but
nothing more than, as I had observed, was usual with
them. I observed also that they had 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 almost close down to the sea. This, with the
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abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches came
about, filled me with such indignation that I came down
again to Friday, and told him I was resolved to go down
to them and kill them all; and asked him if he would stand
by me. He had now got over his fright, and his spirits
being a little raised with the dram I had given him, he was
very cheerful, and told me, as before, he would die when I
bid die.
In this fit of fury I 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 guns 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 bid him, and in the meantime not to speak a
word. In this posture I fetched a compass to my right hand
of near a mile, as well to get over the creek as to get into
the wood, so that I could come within shot of them
before I should be discovered, which I had seen by my
glass it was easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former thoughts
returning, I began to abate my resolution: I do not mean
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that I entertained any fear of their number, for as they
were naked, unarmed wretches, it is certain I was superior
to them - nay, though I had been alone. But it occurred
to my thoughts, what call, what occasion, much less what
necessity I was in to go and dip my hands in blood, to
attack people who had neither done or intended me any
wrong? who, as to me, were innocent, and whose
barbarous customs were their own disaster, being in them
a token, indeed, of God's having left them, with the other
nations of that part of the world, to such stupidity, and to
such inhuman courses, but did not call me to take upon
me to be a judge of their actions, much less an executioner
of His justice - that whenever He thought fit He would
take the cause into His own hands, and by national
vengeance punish them as a people for national crimes,
but that, in the meantime, it was none of my business -
that it was true Friday might justify it, because he was a
declared enemy and in a state of war with those very
particular people, and it was lawful for him to attack them
- but I could not say the same with regard to myself.
These things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts
all the way as I went, that I resolved I would only go and
place myself near them that I might observe their
barbarous feast, and that I would act then as God should
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direct; but that unless something offered that was more a
call to me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with
them.
With this resolution I entered the wood, and, with all
possible wariness and silence, Friday following close at my
heels, I marched till I came to the skirts 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 their fire, eating the flesh of one of their
prisoners, and that another lay bound upon the sand a little
from them, whom he said they would kill next; and this
fired the very soul within me. He told me it was not one
of their nation, but one of the bearded men he had told
me of, that came to their country in the boat. I was filled
with horror at the very naming of the white bearded man;
and going to the tree, I saw plainly by my glass a white
man, who lay upon the beach of the sea with his hands
and his feet tied with flags, or things like rushes, and that
he was an European, and had clothes on.
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There was another tree and a little thicket beyond it,
about fifty yards nearer to them than the place where I
was, which, by going a little way about, I saw I might
come at undiscovered, and that then I should be within
half a shot of them; so I withheld my passion, though I
was indeed enraged to the highest degree; and going back
about twenty paces, I got behind some bushes, which held
all the way till I came to the other tree, and then came to
a little rising ground, which gave me a full view of them at
the distance of about eighty yards.
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 stooping down to untie the bands
at his feet. I turned to Friday. `Now, Friday,' said I, `do as
I bid thee.' Friday said he would. `Then, Friday,' says 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 to do
the like; then asking him if he was ready, he said, `Yes.'
`Then fire at them,' said I; and at the same moment I fired
also.
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Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the
side that he shot he killed two of them, and wounded
three more; and on my side I killed one, and wounded
two. They were, you may be sure, in a dreadful
consternation: and all of them that were not hurt jumped
upon their feet, but did not immediately know which way
to run, or which way to look, for they knew not from
whence their destruction came. Friday kept his eyes close
upon me, that, as I had bid him, he might observe what I
did; so, as soon as the first shot was made, I threw down
the piece, and took up the fowling-piece, and Friday did
the like; he saw me cock and present; he did the same
again. `Are you ready, Friday?' said I. `Yes,' says he. `Let
fly, then,' says I, `in the name of God!' and with 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 found only two drop; but
so many were wounded that they ran about yelling and
screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and most of them
miserably wounded; whereof three more fell quickly after,
though not quite dead.
`Now, Friday,' says I, laying down the discharged
pieces, and taking up the musket which was yet loaded,
`follow me,' which he did with a great deal of courage;
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upon which I rushed out of the wood and showed myself,
and Friday close at my foot. As soon as I perceived they
saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday do
so too, and running as fast as I could, which, by the way,
was not very fast, being loaded with arms as I was, I made
directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I said, lying
upon the beach or shore, between the place where they
sat and the sea. The two butchers who were just going to
work with him had left him at the surprise of our first fire,
and fled in a terrible fright to the seaside, and had jumped
into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the same
way. I turned to Friday, and bade him step forwards and
fire at them; he understood me immediately, and running
about forty yards, to be nearer them, he shot at them; and
I thought he had killed them all, for I saw them all fall of a
heap into the boat, though I saw two of them up again
quickly; however, he killed two of them, and wounded
the third, so that he lay down in the bottom of the boat as
if he had been dead.
While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my
knife and cut the flags that bound the poor victim; and
loosing his hands and feet, I lifted him up, and asked him
in the Portuguese tongue what he was. He answered in
Latin, Christianus; but was so weak and faint that he could
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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 ate.
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. `Seignior,' said I, with as
much Spanish as I could make up, `we will talk afterwards,
but we must fight now: if you have any strength left, take
this pistol and sword, and lay about you.' He took them
very thankfully; and no sooner had he the arms in his
hands, but, as if they had put new vigour into him, he
flew upon his murderers like a fury, and had cut two of
them in pieces in an instant; for the truth is, as the whole
was a surprise to them, so the poor creatures were so
much frightened with the noise of our pieces that they fell
down for mere amazement and fear, and had no more
power to attempt their own escape than their flesh had to
resist our shot; and that was the case of those five that
Friday shot at in the boat; for as three of them fell with the
hurt they received, so the other two fell with the fright.
I kept my piece in my hand still without firing, being
willing to keep my charge ready, because I had given the
Spaniard my pistol and sword: so I called to Friday, and
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bade him run up to the tree from whence we first fired,
and fetch the arms which lay there that had been
discharged, which he did with great swiftness; and then
giving him my musket, I sat down myself to load all the
rest again, and bade them come to me when they wanted.
While I was loading 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 weapon that was to have killed him before, if I had
not prevented it. The Spaniard, who was as bold and brave
as could be imagined, though weak, had fought the Indian
a good while, and had cut two great wounds on his head;
but the savage being a stout, lusty fellow, closing in with
him, had thrown him down, being faint, and was
wringing my sword out of his hand; when the Spaniard,
though undermost, wisely quitting the sword, drew the
pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through the body,
and killed him upon the spot, before I, who was running
to help him, could come near him.
Friday, being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying
wretches, with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet: and
with that he despatched those three who as I said before,
were wounded at first, and fallen, and all the rest he could
come up with: and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I
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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 himself into the sea,
and swam with all his might off to those two who were
left in the canoe; which three in the canoe, with one
wounded, that we knew not whether he died or no, were
all that escaped our hands of one-and-twenty. The
account of the whole is as follows: Three killed at our first
shot from the tree; two killed at the next shot; two killed
by Friday in the boat; two killed by Friday of those at first
wounded; one killed by Friday in the wood; three killed
by the Spaniard; four killed, being found dropped here
and there, of the wounds, or killed by Friday in his chase
of them; four escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded,
if not dead - twenty-one in all.
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
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come back perhaps with two or three hundred of the
canoes and devour us by mere multitude; so I consented
to pursue them by sea, and running to one of their canoes,
I jumped in and bade Friday follow me: but when I was in
the canoe I was surprised to find another poor creature lie
there, bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, for the
slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing what
was the matter; for he had not been able to look up over
the side of the boat, he was tied so hard neck and heels,
and had been tied so long that he had really but little life
in him.
I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes which they
had bound him with, and would have helped him up; but
he could not stand or speak, but groaned most piteously,
believing, it seems, still, that he was only unbound in
order to be killed. When Friday came to him I bade him
speak to him, and tell him of his deliverance; and pulling
out my bottle, made him give the poor wretch a dram,
which, with the news of his being delivered, revived him,
and he sat up in the boat. But when Friday came to hear
him speak, and look in his face, it would have moved any
one to tears to have seen how Friday kissed him,
embraced him, hugged him, cried, laughed, hallooed,
jumped about, danced, sang; then cried again, wrung his
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hands, beat his own face and head; and then sang and
jumped about again like a distracted creature. It was a
good while before I could make him speak to me or tell
me what was the matter; but when he came a little to
himself he told me that it was his father.
It is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see
what ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this poor
savage at the sight of his father, and of his being delivered
from death; nor indeed can I describe half the
extravagances of his affection after this: for he went into
the boat and out of the boat a great many times: when he
went in to him he would sit down by him, open his
breast, and hold his father's head close to his bosom for
many minutes together, to nourish it; then he took his
arms and ankles, which were numbed and stiff with the
binding, and chafed and rubbed them with his hands; and
I, perceiving what the case was, gave him some rum out
of my bottle to rub them with, which did them a great
deal of good.
This affair put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with
the other savages, who were now almost out of sight; and
it was happy for us that we did not, for it blew so hard
within two hours after, and before they could be got a
quarter of their way, and continued blowing so hard all
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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 their own coast.
But to return to Friday; he was so busy about his father
that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some
time; but after I thought he could leave him a little, I
called him to me, and he came jumping and laughing, and
pleased to the highest extreme: then I asked him if he had
given his father any bread. He shook his head, and said,
`None; ugly dog eat all up self.' I then gave him a cake of
bread out of a little pouch I carried on purpose; I also gave
him a dram for himself; but he would not taste it, but
carried it to his father. I had in my pocket two or three
bunches of 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, for he was the swiftest fellow on his feet
that ever I saw: I say, he ran at such a rate that he was out
of sight, as it were, in an instant; and though I called, and
hallooed out too after him, it was all one - away he went;
and in a quarter of an hour I saw him come back again,
though not so fast as he went; and as he came nearer I
found his pace slacker, because he had something in his
hand. When he came up to me I found he had been quite
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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 of it. The water revived his father more than all the
rum or spirits I had given him, for he was 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 in as much want of
it as his father; and I sent one of the cakes that Friday
brought to the Spaniard too, who was indeed very weak,
and was reposing himself upon a green place under the
shade of a tree; and whose limbs were also very stiff, and
very much swelled with the rude bandage he had been
tied with. When I saw that upon Friday's coming to him
with the water he sat up and drank, and took the bread
and began to eat, I went to him and gave him a handful of
raisins. He looked up in my face with all the tokens of
gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in any
countenance; but was so weak, notwithstanding he had so
exerted himself in the fight, that he could not stand up
upon his feet - he tried to do it two or three times, but
was really not able, his ankles were so swelled and so
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painful to him; so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday to
rub his ankles, and bathe them with rum, as he had done
his father's.
I observed the poor affectionate creature, every two
minutes, or perhaps less, all the while he was here, turn his
head about to see if his father was in the same place and
posture as he left him sitting; and at last he found he was
not to be seen; at which he started up, and, without
speaking a word, flew with that swiftness to him that one
could scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground as he
went; but when he came, he only found he had laid
himself down to ease his limbs, so Friday came back to me
presently; and then I spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday
help him up if he could, and lead him to the boat, and
then he should carry him to our dwelling, where I would
take care of him. But Friday, a lusty, strong fellow, took
the Spaniard upon his back, and carried him away to the
boat, and set him down softly upon the side or gunnel of
the canoe, with his feet in the inside of it; and then lifting
him quite in, he set him close to his father; and presently
stepping out again, launched the boat off, and paddled it
along the shore faster than I could walk, though the wind
blew pretty hard too; so he brought them both safe into
our creek, and leaving them in the boat, ran away to fetch
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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
walk; so that poor Friday knew not what to do.
To remedy this, I went to work in my thought, and
calling to Friday to bid them sit down on the bank while
he came to me, I soon made a kind of hand-barrow to lay
them on, and Friday and I carried them both up 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 with old sails, and above that with boughs of
trees, being in the 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 - viz. of good rice- straw, with blankets laid upon
it to lie on, and another to cover them, on each bed.
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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 property, so that I had an
undoubted right of dominion. Secondly, my people were
perfectly subjected - I was absolutely lord and lawgiver -
they all owed their lives to me, and were ready to lay
down their lives, if there had been occasion for it, for me.
It was remarkable, too, I had but three subjects, and they
were of three different religions - my man Friday was a
Protestant, his father was a Pagan and a cannibal, and the
Spaniard was a Papist. However, I allowed liberty of
conscience throughout my dominions. But this is by the
way.
As soon as I had secured my two weak, rescued
prisoners, and given them shelter, and a place to rest them
upon, I began to think of making some provision for
them; and the first thing I did, I ordered Friday to take a
yearling goat, betwixt a kid and a goat, out of my
particular flock, to be killed; when 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, I assure you, of flesh and broth; and as I cooked it
without doors, for I made no fire within my inner wall, so
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I carried it all into the new tent, and having set a table
there for them, I sat down, and ate my own dinner also
with them, and, as well as I could, cheered them and
encouraged them. Friday was my interpreter, especially to
his father, and, indeed, to the Spaniard too; for the
Spaniard spoke the language of the savages pretty well.
After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered Friday
to take one of the canoes, and go and fetch our muskets
and other firearms, which, for want of time, we had left
upon the place of battle; and the next day I ordered him
to go and bury the dead bodies of the savages, which lay
open to the sun, and would presently be offensive. I also
ordered him to bury the horrid remains of their barbarous
feast, which I could not think of doing myself; nay, I
could not bear to see them if I went that way; all which he
punctually performed, and effaced the very appearance of
the savages being there; so that when I went again, I could
scarce know where it was, otherwise than by the corner of
the wood pointing to the place.
I then began to enter into a little conversation with my
two new subjects; and, first, I set Friday to inquire of his
father what he thought of the escape of the savages in that
canoe, and whether we might expect a return of them,
with a power too great for us to resist. His first opinion
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was, that the savages in the boat never could live out the
storm which blew that night they went off, but must of
necessity be drowned, or driven south to those other
shores, where they were as sure to be devoured as they
were to be drowned if they were cast away; but, as to
what they would do if they came safe on shore, he said he
knew not; but it was his opinion that they were so
dreadfully frightened with the manner of their being
attacked, the noise, and the fire, that he believed they
would tell the people they were all killed by thunder and
lightning, not by the hand of man; and that the two which
appeared - viz. Friday and I - were two heavenly spirits, or
furies, come down to destroy them, and not men with
weapons. This, he said, he knew; because he heard them
all cry out so, in their language, one to another; for it was
impossible for them to conceive that a man could dart fire,
and speak thunder, and kill at a distance, without lifting up
the hand, as was done now: and this old savage was in the
right; for, as I understood since, by other hands, the
savages never attempted to go over to the island
afterwards, they were so terrified with the accounts given
by those four men (for it seems they did escape the sea),
that they believed whoever went to that enchanted island
would be destroyed with fire from the gods. This,
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however, I knew not; and therefore was under continual
apprehensions for a good while, and kept always upon my
guard, with all my army: for, as there were now four of us,
I would have ventured upon a hundred of them, fairly in
the open field, at any time.
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CHAPTER XVII - VISIT OF
MUTINEERS
IN a little time, however, no more canoes appearing,
the fear of their coming wore off; and I began to take my
former thoughts of a voyage to the main into
consideration; being 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 discourse with the
Spaniard, and when I understood that there were sixteen
more of his countrymen and Portuguese, who having
been cast away and made their escape to that side, lived
there at peace, indeed, with the savages, but were very
sore put to it for necessaries, and, indeed, for life. I asked
him all the particulars of their voyage, and found they
were a Spanish ship, bound from the Rio de la Plata to the
Havanna, being directed to leave their loading there,
which was chiefly hides and silver, and to bring back what
European goods they could meet with there; that they had
five Portuguese seamen on board, whom they took out of
another wreck; that five of their own men were drowned
when first the ship was lost, and that these escaped
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through infinite dangers and hazards, and arrived, almost
starved, on the cannibal coast, where they expected to
have been devoured every moment. He told me they had
some arms with them, but they were perfectly useless, for
that they had neither powder nor ball, the washing of the
sea having spoiled all their powder but a little, which they
used at their first landing to provide themselves with some
food.
I asked him what he thought would become of them
there, and if they had formed any design of making their
escape. He said they had many consultations about it; but
that having neither vessel nor tools to build one, nor
provisions of any kind, their councils always ended in tears
and despair. I asked him how he thought they would
receive a proposal from me, which might tend towards an
escape; and whether, if they were all here, it might not be
done. I told him with freedom, I feared mostly their
treachery and ill- usage of me, if I put my life in their
hands; for that gratitude was no inherent virtue in the
nature of man, nor did men always square their dealings by
the obligations they had received so much as they did by
the advantages they expected. I told him it would be very
hard that I should be made the instrument of their
deliverance, and that they should afterwards make me their
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prisoner in New Spain, where an Englishman was certain
to be made a sacrifice, what necessity or what accident
soever brought him thither; and that I had rather be
delivered up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than
fall into the merciless claws of the priests, and be carried
into the Inquisition. I added that, otherwise, I was
persuaded, if they were all here, we might, with so many
hands, build a barque large enough to carry us all away,
either to the Brazils southward, or to the islands or Spanish
coast northward; but that if, in requital, they should, when
I had put weapons into their hands, carry me by force
among their own people, I might be ill-used for my
kindness to them, and make my case worse than it was
before.
He answered, with a great deal of candour and
ingenuousness, that their condition was so miserable, and
that they were so sensible of it, that he believed they
would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly that
should contribute to their deliverance; and that, if I
pleased, he would go to them with the old man, and
discourse with them about it, and return again and bring
me their answer; that he would make conditions with
them upon their solemn oath, that they should be
absolutely under my direction as their commander and
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captain; and they should swear upon the holy sacraments
and gospel to be true to me, and go to such Christian
country as I should agree to, and no other; and to be
directed wholly and absolutely by my orders till they were
landed safely in such country as I intended, and that he
would bring a contract from them, under their hands, for
that purpose. Then he told me he would first swear to me
himself that he would never stir from me as long as he
lived till I gave him orders; and that he would take my
side to the last drop of his blood, if there should happen
the least breach of faith among his countrymen. He told
me they were all of them very civil, honest men, and they
were under the greatest distress imaginable, having neither
weapons nor clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy and
discretion of the savages; out of all hopes of ever returning
to their own country; and that he was sure, if I would
undertake their relief, they would live and die by me.
Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve
them, if possible, and to send the old savage and this
Spaniard over to them to treat. But when we had got all
things in readiness to go, the Spaniard himself started an
objection, which had so much prudence in it on one
hand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that I
could not but be very well satisfied in it; and, by his
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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, though it was
more than sufficient for myself, yet it was not sufficient,
without good husbandry, for my family, now it was
increased to four; but much less would it be sufficient if
his countrymen, who were, as he said, sixteen, still 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
other two dig and cultivate some more land, as much as I
could spare seed to sow, and that we should wait another
harvest, that we might have a supply of corn for his
countrymen, when they should come; for want might be a
temptation to them to disagree, or not to think themselves
delivered, otherwise than out of one difficulty into
another. `You know,' says he, `the children of Israel,
though they rejoiced at first for their being delivered out
of Egypt, yet rebelled even against God Himself, that
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delivered them, when they came to want bread in the
wilderness.'
His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good,
that I could not but be very well pleased with his proposal,
as well as I was satisfied with his fidelity; so we fell to
digging, all four of us, as well as the wooden tools we
were furnished with permitted; and in about a month's
time, by the end of which it was seed-time, we had got as
much land cured and trimmed up as we sowed two-and-
twenty bushels of barley on, and sixteen jars of rice, which
was, in short, all the seed we had to spare: indeed, we left
ourselves barely sufficient, for our own food for the six
months that we had to expect our crop; that is to say
reckoning from the time we set our seed aside for sowing;
for it is not to be supposed it is six months in the ground
in that country.
Having now society enough, and our numbers being
sufficient to put us out of fear of the savages, if they had
come, unless their number had been very great, we went
freely all over the island, whenever we found occasion;
and as we had our escape or deliverance upon our
thoughts, it was impossible, at least for me, to have the
means of it out of mine. For this purpose I marked out
several trees, which I thought fit for our work, and I set
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Friday and his father to cut them down; and then I caused
the Spaniard, to whom I imparted my thoughts on that
affair, to oversee and direct their work. I showed them
with what indefatigable pains I had hewed a large tree into
single planks, and I caused them to do the like, till they
made about a dozen large planks, of good oak, near two
feet broad, thirty-five feet long, and from two inches to
four inches thick: what prodigious labour it took up any
one may imagine.
At the same time I contrived to increase my little flock
of tame goats as much as I could; and for this purpose I
made Friday and the Spaniard go out one day, and myself
with Friday the next day (for we took our turns), and by
this means we got about twenty young kids to breed up
with the rest; for whenever we shot the dam, we saved the
kids, and added them to our flock. But above all, the
season for curing the grapes coming on, I caused such a
prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun, that, I
believe, had we been at Alicant, where the raisins of the
sun are cured, we could have filled sixty or eighty barrels;
and these, with our bread, formed a great part of our food
- very good living too, I assure you, for they are
exceedingly nourishing.
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It was now harvest, and our crop in good order: it was
not the most plentiful increase I had seen in the island,
but, however, it was enough to answer our end; for from
twenty-two bushels of barley we brought in and thrashed
out above two hundred and twenty bushels; and the like
in proportion of the rice; which was store enough for our
food to the next harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards
had been on shore with me; or, if we had been ready for a
voyage, it would very plentifully have victualled our ship
to have carried us to any part of the world; that is to say,
any part of America. When we had thus housed and
secured our magazine of corn, we fell to work to make
more wicker-ware, viz. great baskets, in which we kept it;
and the Spaniard was very handy and dexterous at this
part, and often blamed me that I did not make some things
for defence of this kind of work; but I saw no need of it.
And now, having a full supply of food for all the guests
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 a strict charge not to bring
any man 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
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their deliverance; but that they would stand by him 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 in their hands. How they were to have done this,
when I knew they had neither pen nor ink, was a question
which we never asked. Under these instructions, the
Spaniard and the old savage, the father of Friday, went
away in one of the canoes which they might be said to
have come in, or rather were brought in, when they came
as prisoners to be devoured by the savages. I gave each of
them a musket, with a firelock on it, and about eight
charges of powder and ball, charging them to be very
good husbands of both, and not to use either of them but
upon urgent occasions.
This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used
by me in view of my deliverance for now twenty-seven
years and some days. I gave them provisions of bread and
of dried grapes, sufficient for themselves for many days,
and sufficient for all the Spaniards - for about eight days'
time; and wishing them a good voyage, I saw 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.
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They went away with a fair gale on the day that the moon
was at full, by my account in the month of October; but
as for an exact reckoning of days, after I had once lost it I
could never recover it again; nor had I kept even the
number of years so punctually as to be sure I was right;
though, as it proved when I afterwards examined my
account, I found I had kept a true reckoning of years.
It was no less than eight days I had waited for them,
when a strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of
which the like has not, perhaps, been heard of in history. I
was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my man
Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, `Master,
master, they are come, they are come!' I jumped up, and
regardless of danger I went, as soon as I could get my
clothes on, through my little grove, which, by the way,
was by this time grown to be a very thick wood; I say,
regardless of danger I went without my arms, which was
not my custom to do; but I was surprised when, turning
my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a boat at about a league
and a half 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,
presently, that they did not come from that side which the
shore lay on, but from the southernmost end of the island.
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Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him lie close, for
these were not the people we looked for, and that we
might 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 the plainer without being discovered.
I had scarce set my foot upon the hill when my eye plainly
discovered a ship lying at anchor, at about two leagues and
a half distance from me, SSE., but not above a league and
a half from the shore. By my observation it appeared
plainly to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be
an English long-boat.
I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy
of seeing a ship, and one that I had reason to believe was
manned by my own countrymen, and consequently
friends, was such as I cannot describe; but yet I had some
secret doubts hung about me - I cannot tell from whence
they came - bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first
place, it occurred to me to consider what business an
English ship could have in that part of the world, since it
was not the way to or from any part of the world where
the English had any traffic; and I knew there had been no
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storms to drive them in there in distress; and that if they
were really English it was most probable that they were
here upon no good design; and that I had better continue
as I was than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers.
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of
danger which sometimes are given him when he may
think there is no possibility of its being real. That such
hints and notices are given us I believe few that have made
any observation of things can deny; that they are certain
discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits,
we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be
to warn us of danger, why should we not suppose they are
from some friendly agent (whether supreme, or inferior
and subordinate, is not the question), and that they are
given for our good?
The present question abundantly confirms me in the
justice of this reasoning; for had I not been made cautious
by this secret admonition, come it from whence it will, I
had been done inevitably, and in a far worse condition
than before, as you will see presently. I had not kept
myself long in this posture till I saw the boat draw near the
shore, as if they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the
convenience of landing; however, as they did not come
quite far enough, they did not see the little inlet where I
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formerly landed my rafts, but ran their boat on shore upon
the beach, at about half a mile from me, which was very
happy for me; for otherwise they would have landed just
at my door, as I may say, 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 Englishmen, at least most of them; one or two I
thought were Dutch, but it did not prove so; there were
in all eleven men, whereof three of them I found were
unarmed and, as I thought, bound; and when the first four
or five of them were jumped on shore, they took those
three out of the boat as prisoners: one of the three I could
perceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty,
affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the
other two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands
sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, but not to
such a degree as the first. I was perfectly confounded at the
sight, and knew not what the meaning of it should be.
Friday called out to me in English, as well as he could, `O
master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage
mans.' `Why, Friday,' says I, `do you think they are going
to eat them, then?' `Yes,' says Friday, `they will eat them.'
`No no,' says I, `Friday; I am afraid they will murder them,
indeed; but you may be sure they will not eat them.'
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All this while I had no thought of what the matter
really was, but stood trembling with the horror of the
sight, expecting every moment when the three prisoners
should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the villains lift up
his arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it, or sword,
to strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him
fall every moment; at which all the blood in my body
seemed to run chill in my veins. I wished heartily now for
the Spaniard, and the savage that had gone with him, or
that I had any way to have come undiscovered within shot
of them, that I might have secured the three men, for I
saw no firearms they had among them; but it fell out to
my mind another way. After I had observed the
outrageous usage of the three men by the insolent seamen,
I observed the fellows run scattering about the island, as if
they wanted to see the country. I observed that the three
other men had liberty to go also where they pleased; but
they sat down all three upon the ground, very pensive,
and looked like men in despair. This put me in mind of
the first time when I came on shore, and began to look
about me; how I gave myself over for lost; how wildly I
looked round me; what dreadful apprehensions I had; and
how I lodged in the tree all night for fear of being
devoured by wild beasts. As I knew nothing that night of
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the supply I was to receive by the providential driving of
the ship nearer the land by the storms and tide, by which I
have since been so long nourished and supported; so these
three poor desolate men knew nothing how certain of
deliverance and supply they were, how near it was to
them, and how effectually and really they were in a
condition of safety, at the same time that they thought
themselves lost and their case desperate. So little do we see
before us in the world, and so much reason have we to
depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world, that
He does not leave His creatures so absolutely destitute, but
that in the worst circumstances they have always
something to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer
deliverance than they imagine; nay, are even brought to
their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be
brought to their destruction.
It was just at high-water when these people came on
shore; and while they rambled about to see what kind of a
place they were in, they had carelessly stayed till the tide
was spent, and the water was ebbed considerably away,
leaving their boat aground. They had left two men in the
boat, who, as I found afterwards, having drunk a little too
much brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking a
little sooner than the other and finding the boat too fast
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aground for him to stir it, hallooed out 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 you? she'll float
next tide;' by which I was fully confirmed in the main
inquiry of what countrymen they were. All this while I
kept myself very close, not once daring to stir out of my
castle any farther than to my place of observation near the
top of the hill: and very glad I was to think how well it
was fortified. I knew it was no less than ten hours before
the boat could float again, and by that time it would be
dark, and I might be at more liberty to see their motions,
and to hear their discourse, if they had any. In the
meantime I fitted myself up for a battle as before, though
with more caution, knowing I had to do with another
kind of enemy than I had at first. I ordered Friday also,
whom I had made an excellent marksman with his gun, to
load himself with arms. I took myself two fowling-pieces,
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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 above, not to have made any
attempt till it was dark; but about two o'clock, being the
heat of the day, I found that they were all gone straggling
into the woods, and, as I thought, laid down to sleep. The
three poor distressed men, too anxious for their condition
to get any sleep, had, 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 as above, my
man Friday at a good distance behind me, as formidable
for his arms as I, but not making quite so staring a spectre-
like figure as I did. I came as near them undiscovered as I
could, and then, before any of them saw me, I called aloud
to them in Spanish, `What are ye, gentlemen?' They
started up at the noise, but were ten times more
confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure
that I made. They made no answer at all, but I thought I
perceived them just going to fly from me, when I spoke to
them in English. `Gentlemen,' said I, `do not be surprised
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at me; perhaps you may have a friend near when you did
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 to me; `for our condition is past
the help of man.' `All help is from heaven, sir,' said I, `but
can you put a stranger in the way 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 of them 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; I am a man, an Englishman, and disposed
to assist you; you see I have one servant only; we have
arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serve you?
What is your case?' `Our case, sir,' said he, `is too long to
tell you while our murderers are so near us; but, in short,
sir, I was commander of that ship - my men have
mutinied against me; they have been hardly prevailed on
not to murder me, and, at last, have set me on shore in
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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 these brutes, your
enemies?' said I; `do you know where they are gone?
There they lie, 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 certainly murder us all.'
`Have they any firearms?' said I. He answered, `They had
only two pieces, one of which they left in the boat.' `Well,
then,' said I, `leave the rest to me; I see they are all asleep;
it is an easy thing to kill them all; but shall we rather take
them prisoners?' He told me there were two desperate
villains among them that it was scarce safe to show any
mercy to; but if they were secured, he believed all the rest
would return to their duty. I asked him which they were.
He told me he could not at that distance distinguish them,
but he would obey my orders in anything I would direct.
`Well,' says I, `let us retreat out of their view or hearing,
lest they awake, and we will resolve further.' So they
willingly went back with me, till the woods covered us
from them.
`Look you, sir,' said I, `if I venture upon your
deliverance, are you willing to make two conditions with
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me?' He anticipated my proposals by telling me that both
he and the ship, if recovered, should be wholly directed
and commanded by me in 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 other
men said the same. `Well,' says I, `my conditions are but
two; first, that while you stay in 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 or
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 testimonies of his
gratitude that he was able, but offered to be wholly guided
by me. I told him I thought it was very hard venturing
anything; but the best method I could think of was to fire
on them at once as they lay, and if any were not killed at
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the first volley, and offered to submit, we might save
them, and so put it wholly upon God's 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,'
says I, `necessity legitimates my advice, for it is the only
way to save our lives.' However, seeing him still cautious
of shedding blood, I told him they should go 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 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 themselves. Now,' says 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, with each a piece in
his hand; the two men who were with him going first
made some noise, at which one of the seamen who was
awake turned about, and seeing them coming, cried out to
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the rest; but was too late then, for the moment he cried
out they fired - I mean the two men, the captain wisely
reserving his own piece. They had so well aimed their
shot at the men they knew, that one of them was killed on
the spot, and the other very much wounded; but not
being dead, he started up on his feet, and called eagerly for
help to the other; but the captain stepping to him, told
him it was too late to cry for help, he should call upon
God to forgive his villainy, 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 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 an
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 that I obliged him to keep
them bound hand and foot while they were on the island.
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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 sails, which they did; and by-and-by three
straggling men, that were (happily for them) parted from
the rest, came back upon hearing the guns fired; and
seeing the captain, who was before their prisoner, now
their conqueror, they submitted to be bound also; and so
our victory was complete.
It now remained that the captain and I should inquire
into one another's circumstances. I began first, and told
him my whole history, which he heard with an attention
even to 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 his face, and he could not speak a word
more. After this communication was at an end, I carried
him and his two men into my apartment, leading them in
just where I came out, viz. at the top of the house, where
I refreshed them with such provisions as I had, and
showed them all the contrivances I had made during my
long, long inhabiting that place.
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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
nearly twenty years, and the trees growing much faster
than in England, was become a little wood, so thick that it
was impassable in any part of it but at that one side where
I had reserved my little winding passage into it. I told him
this 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 conspiracy, by
which they had all forfeited their lives to the law, would
be hardened in it now by desperation, and would carry it
on, knowing that if they were subdued they would 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.
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I mused for some time on what he had said, and found
it was a very rational conclusion, and that therefore
something was to be resolved on speedily, as well to draw
the men on board into some snare for their surprise as to
prevent their landing upon us, and destroying us. Upon
this, it presently occurred to me that in a little while the
ship's crew, wondering what was become of their
comrades and of the boat, would certainly come on shore
in their other boat to look for them, and that then,
perhaps, they might come armed, and be too strong for us:
this he allowed to be rational. Upon this, I told him the
first thing we had to do was to stave the boat which lay
upon the beach, so that they might not carry her of, 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 canvas (the
sugar was five or six pounds): all which was very welcome
to me, especially the brandy and sugar, of which I had had
none left for many years.
When we had carried all these things on shore (the
oars, mast, sail, and rudder of the boat were carried away
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before), we knocked a great hole in her bottom, that if
they had come strong enough to master us, yet they could
not carry off the boat. Indeed, it was not much in my
thoughts that we could be able to recover the ship; but my
view was, that if they went away without the boat, I did
not much question to make her again fit to carry as to the
Leeward Islands, and call upon our friends the Spaniards in
my way, for I had them still in my thoughts.
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CHAPTER XVIII - THE SHIP
RECOVERED
WHILE we were thus preparing our designs, and had
first, by main strength, heaved the boat upon the beach, so
high that the tide would not float her off at high-water
mark, and besides, had broke a hole in her bottom too big
to be quickly stopped, and were set down musing what
we should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and make a
waft with her ensign 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 firing proved fruitless, and they found the boat
did not stir, we saw them, by the help of my glasses, hoist
another boat out and row towards the shore; and we
found, as they approached, that there were no less than ten
men in her, and that they had firearms with them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we
had a full view of them as the came, and a plain sight even
of their faces; because the tide having set them a little to
the east of the other boat, they rowed up under shore, to
come to the same place where the other had landed, and
where the boat lay; by this means, I say, we had a full
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view of them, and the captain knew the persons and
characters of all the men in the boat, of whom, he said,
there were three very honest fellows, who, he was sure,
were led into this conspiracy by the rest, being over-
powered 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;
and terribly apprehensive he was that they would be too
powerful for us. I smiled at him, and told him that men in
our circumstances were past the operation of fear; that
seeing almost every condition that could be was better
than that which we were supposed to be in, we ought to
expect that the consequence, whether death or life, would
be sure to be a deliverance. I asked him what he thought
of the circumstances of my life, and whether a deliverance
were not worth venturing for? `And where, sir,' said I, `is
your belief of my being preserved here on purpose to save
your life, which elevated you a little while ago? For my
part,' said I, `there seems to be but one thing amiss in all
the prospect of it.' `What is that?' say she. `Why,' said I, `it
is, that as you say there are three or four honest fellows
among them which should be spared, had they been all of
the wicked part of the crew I should have thought God's
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providence had singled them out to deliver them into
your hands; for depend upon it, every man that comes
ashore is our own, and shall die or live as they behave to
us.' As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful
countenance, I found it greatly encouraged him; so we set
vigorously to our business.
We had, upon the first appearance of the boat's coming
from the ship, considered of separating our prisoners; and
we had, indeed, secured them effectually. Two of them, of
whom the captain was less assured than ordinary, I sent
with Friday, and one of the three delivered men, to my
cave, where they were remote enough, and out of danger
of being heard or discovered, or of finding their way out
of the woods if they could have delivered themselves.
Here they left them bound, but gave them provisions; and
promised them, if they continued there quietly, to give
them their liberty in a day or two; but that if they
attempted their escape they should be put to death
without mercy. They promised faithfully to bear their
confinement with patience, and were very thankful that
they had such good usage as to have provisions and light
left them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made
ourselves) for their comfort; and they did not know but
that he stood sentinel over them at the entrance.
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The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were
kept pinioned, indeed, because the captain was not able to
trust them; but the other two were taken into my service,
upon the captain's recommendation, and upon their
solemnly engaging to live and die with us; so with them
and the three honest men we were seven men, well
armed; and I made no doubt we should be able to deal
well enough with the ten that were coming, considering
that the captain had said there were three or four honest
men among them also. As soon as they got to the place
where their other boat lay, they ran their boat into the
beach and came all on shore, hauling the boat up after
them, which I was glad to see, for I was afraid they would
rather have left the boat at an anchor some distance from
the shore, with some hands in her to guard her, and so we
should not be able to seize the boat. Being on shore, the
first thing they did, they ran all to their other boat; and it
was easy to see they were under a great surprise to find her
stripped, as above, of all that was in her, and a great hole
in her bottom. After they had mused a while upon this,
they set up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all
their might, to try if they could make their companions
hear; but all was to no purpose. Then they came all close
in a ring, and fired a volley of their small arms, which
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indeed we heard, and the echoes made the woods ring.
But it was all one; those in the cave, we were sure, could
not hear; and those in our keeping, though they heard it
well enough, yet durst give no answer to them. They
were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as they told
us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again to
their ship, and let them know that the men were all
murdered, and the long-boat staved; accordingly, 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 over 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, when
we perceived them all coming on shore again; but with
this new measure in their conduct, which it seems they
consulted together upon, viz. to leave three men in the
boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into the
country to look for their fellows. This was a great
disappointment to us, for now we were at a loss what to
do, as our seizing those seven men on shore would be no
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advantage to us if we let the boat escape; because they
would row away to the ship, and then the rest of them
would be sure to weigh and set sail, and so our 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.
We should have been very glad if they would have come
nearer us, so that we might have fired at them, or that
they would have gone farther off, that we might come
abroad. But 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 and hallooed till they
were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture far from
the shore, nor far from one another, they sat down
together under a tree to consider it. Had they thought fit
to have gone to sleep there, as the other part of them had
done, they had done the job for us; but they were too full
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of apprehensions of danger to venture to go to sleep,
though they could not tell what the danger was they had
to fear.
The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this
consultation of theirs, viz. that perhaps they would all fire
a volley again, to 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 liked this proposal, provided it was done
while we were near enough to come up to them before
they could load their pieces again. But this event did not
happen; and we lay still a long time, very irresolute what
course to take. At length I told them there would be
nothing done, in my opinion, till night; and then, if they
did not return to the boat, perhaps we might find a way to
get between them and the shore, and so might use some
stratagem with them in the boat to get them on shore. We
waited a great while, though very impatient for their
removing; and were very uneasy when, after long
consultation, we saw them all start up and march down
towards the sea; it seems they had such dreadful
apprehensions of the danger of the place that they resolved
to go on board the ship again, give their companions over
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for lost, and so go on with their intended voyage with the
ship.
As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I
imagined it to be as it really was that they had given over
their search, and were going back again; and the captain,
as soon as I told him my thoughts, was ready to sink at the
apprehensions of it; but I presently thought of a stratagem
to fetch them back again, and which answered my end to
a tittle. I ordered Friday and the captain's mate to go over
the little creek westward, towards the place where the
savages came on shore, when Friday was rescued, and so
soon as they came to a little rising round, at about half a
mile distant, I bid them halloo out, as loud as they could,
and wait till they found the seamen heard them; that as
soon as ever they heard the seamen answer them, they
should return it again; and then, keeping out of sight, take
a round, always answering when the others hallooed, to
draw them as far into the island and among the woods as
possible, and then wheel about again to me by such ways
as I directed them.
They were just going into the boat when Friday and
the mate hallooed; and they presently heard them, and
answering, ran along the shore westward, towards the
voice they heard, when they were stopped by the creek,
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where the water being up, they could not get over, and
called for the boat to come up and set them over; as,
indeed, I expected. When they had set themselves over, I
observed that the boat being gone a good way into the
creek, and, as it were, in a harbour within the land, they
took one of the three men out of her, to go along with
them, and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to
the stump of a little tree on the shore. This was what I
wished for; and immediately leaving Friday and the
captain's mate to their business, I took the rest with me;
and, crossing the creek out of their sight, we surprised the
two men before they were aware - one of them lying on
the shore, and the other being in the boat. The fellow on
shore was between sleeping and waking, and going to start
up; the captain, who was foremost, ran in upon him, and
knocked him down; and then called out to him in the
boat to yield, or he was a dead man. They needed very
few arguments to persuade a single man to yield, when he
saw five men upon him and his comrade knocked down:
besides, this was, it seems, one of the three who were not
so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the crew, and
therefore was easily persuaded not only to yield, but
afterwards to join very sincerely with us. In the meantime,
Friday and the captain's mate so well managed their
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business with the rest that they drew them, by hallooing
and answering, from one hill to another, and from one
wood to another, till they not only heartily tired them, but
left them where they were, very sure they could not reach
back to the boat before it was dark; and, indeed, they were
heartily tired themselves also, by the time they came back
to us.
We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in
the dark, and to fall upon them, so as to make sure work
with them. It was several hours after Friday came back to
me before they came back to their boat; and we could
hear the foremost of them, long before they came quite
up, calling to those behind to come along; and could also
hear them answer, and complain how lame and tired they
were, and not able to come any faster: which was very
welcome news to us. At length they came up to the boat:
but it is impossible to express their confusion when they
found the boat fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed
out, and their two men gone. We could hear them call
one to another in a most lamentable manner, telling one
another they were got into an enchanted island; that either
there were inhabitants in it, and they should all be
murdered, or else there were devils and spirits in it, and
they should be all carried away and devoured. They
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hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their
names a great many times; but no answer. After some time
we could see them, by the little light there was, run about,
wringing their hands like men in despair, and sometimes
they would go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves:
then come ashore again, and walk about again, and so the
same thing over again. My men would fain have had me
give them leave to fall upon them at once in the dark; but
I was willing to take them at some advantage, so as to
spare them, and kill as few of them as I could; and
especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing of any of
our men, knowing the others were very well armed. I
resolved to wait, to see if they did not separate; and
therefore, to make sure of them, I drew my ambuscade
nearer, and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon
their hands and feet, as close to the ground as they could,
that they might not be discovered, and get as near them as
they could possibly before they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture when the
boatswain, who was the principal ringleader of the
mutiny, and had now shown himself the most dejected
and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them,
with two more of the crew; the captain was so eager at
having this principal rogue so much in his power, that he
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could hardly have patience to let him come so near as to
be sure of him, for they only heard his tongue before: but
when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting up
on their feet, let fly at them. The boatswain was killed
upon the spot: the next man was shot in the body, and fell
just by him, though he did not die till an hour or two
after; and the third ran for it. At the noise of the fire I
immediately advanced with my whole army, which was
now eight men, viz. 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 I could bring them to a parley, and so
perhaps might reduce them to terms; which fell out just as
we desired: for indeed it was easy to think, as their
condition then was, they would be very willing to
capitulate. So he calls out as loud as he could to one of
them, `Tom Smith! Tom Smith!' Tom Smith answered
immediately, `Is that Robinson?' for it seems he knew the
voice. The other answered, `Ay, ay; for God's sake, Tom
Smith, throw down your arms and yield, or you are all
dead men this moment.' `Who must we yield to? Where
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are they?' says Smith again. `Here they are,' says he; `here's
our captain and fifty men with him, have been hunting
you these two hours; the boatswain is killed; Will Fry is
wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if you do not yield you
are all lost.' `Will they give us quarter, then?' says Tom
Smith, `and we will yield.' `I'll go and ask, if you promise
to yield,' said Robinson: so he asked the captain, and the
captain himself then calls out, `You, Smith, you know my
voice; if you lay down your arms immediately and submit,
you shall have your lives, all but Will Atkins.'
Upon this Will Atkins cried out, `For God's sake,
captain, give me quarter; what have I done? They have all
been as bad as I:' which, by the way, was not true; for it
seems this Will Atkins was the first man that laid hold of
the captain when they first mutinied, and used him
barbarously in tying his hands and giving him injurious
language. However, the captain told him he must lay
down his arms at discretion, and trust to the governor's
mercy: by which he meant me, for they all called me
governor. In a word, they all laid down their arms and
begged their lives; and I sent the man that had parleyed
with them, and two more, who bound them all; and then
my great army of fifty men, which, with those three, were
in all but eight, came up and seized upon them, and upon
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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 think of
seizing the ship: and as for the captain, now he had leisure
to parley with them, he expostulated with them upon the
villainy of their practices with him, and upon the further
wickedness of their design, and how certainly it must
bring them to misery and distress in the end, and perhaps
to the gallows. They all appeared very penitent, and
begged hard for their lives. As for that, he told them they
were not his prisoners, but the commander's of the island;
that they thought they had set him on shore in a barren,
uninhabited island; but it had pleased God so to direct
them that it was inhabited, and that the governor was an
Englishman; that he might hang them all there, if he
pleased; but as he had given them all quarter, he supposed
he would send them to England, to be dealt with there as
justice required, except Atkins, whom he was commanded
by the governor to advise to prepare for death, for that he
would be hanged in the morning.
Though this was all but a fiction of his own, yet it had
its desired effect; Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the
captain to intercede with the governor for his life; and all
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the rest begged of him, for God's sake, that they might not
be sent to England.
It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance
was come, and that it would be a most easy thing to bring
these fellows in to be hearty in getting possession of the
ship; so I retired in the dark from them, that they might
not see what kind of a governor they had, and called the
captain to me; when I called, at a good distance, one of
the men was ordered to speak again, and say to the
captain, `Captain, the commander calls for you;' and
presently the captain replied, `Tell his excellency I am just
coming.' This more perfectly amazed them, and they all
believed that the commander was just by, with his fifty
men. Upon the captain coming to me, I told him my
project for seizing the ship, which he liked wonderfully
well, and resolved to put it in execution the next
morning. But, in order to execute it with more art, and to
be secure of success, I told him we must divide the
prisoners, and that he should go and take Atkins, and two
more of the worst of them, and send them pinioned to the
cave where the others lay. This was committed to Friday
and the two men who came on shore with the captain.
They conveyed them to the cave as to a prison: and it was,
indeed, a dismal place, especially to men in their
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condition. The others I ordered to my bower, as I called
it, of which I have given a full description: and as it was
fenced in, and they pinioned, the place was secure
enough, considering they were upon their behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to
enter into a parley with them; in a word, to try them, and
tell me whether he thought they might be trusted or not
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; but
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 the deepest
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 as 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.'
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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 those five,
and tell them, that they might see he did not want men,
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 that if they
proved unfaithful in the execution, the five hostages
should be hanged in chains alive on 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, the two
prisoners of the first gang, to whom, having their character
from the captain, I had given their liberty, and trusted
them with arms; third, the other two that I had kept till
now in my bower, pinioned, but on the captain's motion
had now released; fourth, these five released at last; so that
there were twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners in
the cave for hostages.
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I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with
these hands on board the ship; but as for me and my man
Friday, I did not think it was proper for us to stir, having
seven men left behind; and it was employment enough for
us to keep them asunder, and supply them with victuals.
As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast, but
Friday went in twice a day to them, to supply them with
necessaries; and I made the other two carry provisions to a
certain distance, where Friday was to take them.
When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with
the captain, who told them I was the person the governor
had ordered to look after them; and that it was the
governor's pleasure they should not stir anywhere but by
my direction; that if they did, they would be fetched into
the castle, and be laid in irons: so that as we never suffered
them to see me as governor, I now appeared as another
person, and spoke of the governor, the garrison, the castle,
and the like, upon all occasions.
The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to
furnish his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man
them. He made his passenger captain of one, with four of
the men; and himself, his mate, and five more, went in the
other; and they contrived their business very well, for they
came up to the ship about midnight. As soon as they came
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within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and
tell them they had brought off the men and the boat, but
that it was a long time before they had found them, and
the like, holding them in a chat till they came to the ship's
side; when the captain and the mate entering first with
their arms, immediately knocked down the second mate
and carpenter with the butt-end of their muskets, being
very faithfully seconded by their men; they secured all the
rest that were upon the main and quarter decks, and began
to fasten the hatches, to keep them down that were below;
when the other boat and their men, entering at 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 was
done, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the
mate, with three men, to break into the round-house,
where the new rebel captain lay, who, having taken the
alarm, had got up, and with two men and a boy had got
firearms in their hands; and when the mate, with a crow,
split open the door, the new captain and his men fired
boldly among them, and wounded the mate with a musket
ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of the
men, but killed nobody. The mate, calling for help,
rushed, however, into the round-house, wounded as he
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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
more: 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 very glad to hear, having
sat watching upon the shore for it till near two o'clock in
the morning. Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid
me down; and it having been a day of great fatigue to me,
I slept very sound, till I was surprised with the noise of a
gun; and presently starting up, I heard a man call me by
the name of `Governor! Governor!' and presently I knew
the captain's voice; when, climbing up to the top of the
hill, there he stood, and, pointing to the ship, he embraced
me in his arms, `My dear friend and deliverer,' says he,
`there's your ship; for she is all yours, and so are we, and
all that belong to her.' I cast my eyes to the ship, and there
she rode, within little more than half a mile of the shore;
for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were
masters of her, and, the weather being fair, had brought
her to an anchor just against the mouth of the little creek;
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and the tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace
in near the place where I had first landed my rafts, and so
landed just at my door. I was at first ready to sink down
with the surprise; for I saw my deliverance, indeed, visibly
put into my hands, all things easy, and a large ship just
ready to carry me away whither I pleased to go. At first,
for some time, I was not able to answer him one word;
but as he had taken me in his arms I held fast by him, or I
should have fallen to the ground. He perceived the
surprise, and immediately pulled a bottle out of his pocket
and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on
purpose for me. After I had drunk it, I sat down upon the
ground; and though it brought me to myself, yet it was a
good while before I could speak a word to him. All this
time the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only not
under any surprise as I was; and he said a thousand kind
and tender things to me, to compose and bring me to
myself; but such was the flood of joy in my breast, that it
put all my spirits into confusion: at last it broke out into
tears, and in a little while after I recovered my speech; I
then took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer,
and we rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon him as
a man sent by Heaven to deliver me, and that the whole
transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders; that such
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things as these were the testimonies we had of a secret
hand of Providence governing the world, and an evidence
that the eye of an infinite Power could search into the
remotest corner of the world, and send help to the
miserable whenever He pleased. I forgot not to lift up my
heart in thankfulness to Heaven; and what heart could
forbear to bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous
manner provided for me in such a wilderness, and in such
a desolate condition, but from whom every deliverance
must always be acknowledged to proceed.
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 that had been so long
his masters had not plundered him of. Upon this, he called
aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring the things
ashore that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a
present as if I had been one that was not to be carried
away with them, but as if I had been to dwell upon the
island still. First, he had brought me a case of bottles full of
excellent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira wine
(the bottles held two quarts each), two pounds of excellent
good tobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship's beef, and
six pieces of pork, with a bag of peas, and about a
hundred-weight of biscuit; he also brought me a box of
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sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and two bottles
of lime-juice, and abundance of other things. But besides
these, and what was a thousand times more useful to me,
he brought me six new clean shirts, six very good
neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes, a hat,
and one pair of stockings, with a very good suit of clothes
of his own, which had been worn but very little: in a
word, he clothed me from head to foot. It was a very kind
and agreeable present, as any one may imagine, to one in
my circumstances, but never was anything in the world of
that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy as it was to
me to wear such clothes at first.
After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good
things were brought into my little apartment, we began to
consult what was to be done with the prisoners we had;
for it was worth considering whether we might venture to
take them with us or no, especially two of them, whom
he knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last
degree; and the captain said he knew they were such
rogues that there was no obliging them, and if he did carry
them away, it must be in irons, as malefactors, to be
delivered over to justice at the first English colony he
could come to; and I found that the captain himself was
very anxious about it. Upon this, I told him that, if he
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desired it, I would undertake to bring the two men he
spoke of to make it their own request that he should leave
them upon the island. `I should be very glad of that,' says
the captain, `with all my heart.' `Well,' says I, `I will send
for them up and talk with them for you.' So I caused
Friday and the two hostages, for they were now
discharged, their comrades having performed their
promise; I say, I caused them to go to the cave, and bring
up the five men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and
keep them there till I came. After some time, I came
thither dressed in my new habit; and now I was called
governor again. Being all met, and the captain with me, I
caused the men to be brought before me, and I told them
I had got a full account of their villainous behaviour to the
captain, and how they had run away with the ship, and
were preparing to commit further robberies, but that
Providence had ensnared them in their own ways, and that
they were fallen into the pit which they had dug for
others. I let them know that by my direction the ship had
been seized; that she lay now in the road; and they might
see by-and-by that their new captain had received the
reward of his villainy, and that they would see him
hanging at the yard-arm; that, as to them, I wanted to
know what they had to say why I should not execute
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them as pirates taken in the fact, as by my commission
they could not doubt but I had authority so to do.
One of them answered in the name of the rest, that
they had nothing to say but this, that when they were
taken the captain promised them their lives, and they
humbly implored my mercy. But I told them I knew not
what mercy to show them; for as for 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 could not carry them to England other than as prisoners
in irons, to be tried for mutiny and running away with the
ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know,
would be the gallows; so that I could not tell what was
best for them, unless they had a mind to take their fate in
the island. If they desired that, as I had liberty to leave the
island, I had some inclination to give them their lives, if
they thought they could shift on shore. They seemed very
thankful for it, and said they would much rather venture
to stay there than be carried to England to be hanged. So I
left it on that issue.
However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty
of it, as if he durst not leave them there. Upon this I
seemed a little angry with the captain, and told him that
they were my prisoners, not his; and that seeing I had
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offered them so much favour, I would be as good as my
word; and that if he did not think fit to consent to it I
would set them at liberty, as I found them: and if he did
not like it he might take them again if he could catch
them. Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I
accordingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire into
the woods, to the place whence they came, and I would
leave them some firearms, some ammunition, and some
directions how they should live very well if they thought
fit. Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship; but told
the captain I would stay that night to prepare my things,
and desired him to go on board in the meantime, and
keep all right in the ship, and send the boat on shore next
day for me; ordering him, at all events, to cause the new
captain, who was killed, to be hanged at the yard- arm,
that these men might see him.
When the captain was gone I sent for the men up to
me to my apartment, and entered seriously into discourse
with them on their circumstances. I told them I thought
they had made a right choice; that if the captain had
carried them away they would certainly be hanged. I
showed them the new captain hanging at the yard-arm of
the ship, and told them they had nothing less to expect.
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When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I
then told them I would let them into the story of my
living there, and put them into the way of making it easy
to them. 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 also of the
seventeen Spaniards that were to be expected, for whom I
left a letter, and made them promise to treat them in
common with themselves. Here it may be noted that the
captain, who had ink on board, was greatly surprised that I
never hit upon a way of making ink of charcoal and water,
or of something else, as I had done things much more
difficult.
I left them my firearms - viz. five muskets, three
fowling-pieces, and three swords. I had above a barrel and
a half of powder left; for after the first year or two I used
but little, and wasted none. I gave them a description of
the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk and
fatten them, and to make both butter and cheese. In a
word, I gave them every part of my own story; and told
them I should prevail with the captain to leave them two
barrels of gunpowder more, and some garden-seeds, which
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I told them I would have been very glad of. Also, I gave
them the bag of peas which the captain had brought me to
eat, and bade them be sure to sow and increase them.
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CHAPTER XIX - RETURN TO
ENGLAND
HAVING done all this I left them the next day, and
went on board the ship. We prepared immediately to sail,
but did not weigh that night. The next morning early,
two of the five men came swimming to the ship's side,
and making the most lamentable complaint of the other
three, begged to be taken into the ship for God's sake, for
they should be murdered, and begged the captain to take
them on board, though he hanged them immediately.
Upon this the captain pretended to have no power
without me; but after some difficulty, and after their
solemn promises of amendment, they were taken on
board, and were, some time after, soundly whipped and
pickled; after which they proved very honest and quiet
fellows.
Some time after this, the boat was ordered on shore,
the tide being up, with the things promised to the men; to
which the captain, at my intercession, caused their chests
and clothes to be added, which they took, and were very
thankful for. I also encouraged them, by telling them that
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if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take them in, I
would not forget them.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for
relics, the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella,
and one of my parrots; also, I forgot not to take the
money I formerly mentioned, which had lain by me so
long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could
hardly pass for silver till it had been a little rubbed and
handled, as also the money I found in the wreck of the
Spanish ship. And thus I left the island, the 19th of
December, as I found by the ship's account, in the year
1686, after I had been upon it eight-and-twenty years,
two months, and nineteen days; being delivered from this
second captivity the same day of the month that I first
made my escape in the long-boat from among the Moors
of Sallee. In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in
England the 11th of June, in the year 1687, having been
thirty-five years absent.
When I came to England I was as perfect a stranger to
all the world as if I had never been known there. My
benefactor and faithful steward, whom I had left my
money in trust with, was alive, but had had great
misfortunes in the world; was become a widow the second
time, and very low in the world. I made her very easy as
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to what she owed me, assuring her I would give her no
trouble; but, on the contrary, in gratitude for her former
care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as my little stock
would afford; which at that time would, indeed, allow me
to do but little for her; but I assured her I would never
forget her former kindness to me; nor did I forget her
when I had sufficient to help her, as shall be observed in
its proper place. I went down afterwards into Yorkshire;
but my father was dead, and my mother and all the family
extinct, except that I found two sisters, and two of the
children of one of my brothers; 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 that 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, and by the same means
saved the ship and cargo, 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 200 pounds sterling.
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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 might not come at some information
of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and of what
was become of my partner, who, I had reason to suppose,
had some years past 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
going to sea, having put his son, who was far from a
young man, into his ship, and who still used the Brazil
trade. The old man did not know me, and indeed I hardly
knew him. But I soon brought him to my remembrance,
and as soon brought myself to his remembrance, when I
told him who I was.
After some passionate expressions of the old
acquaintance between us, I inquired, you may he sure,
after my plantation and my partner. The old man told me
he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years; but
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that he could assure me that when he came away my
partner was living, but the trustees whom I had joined
with him to take cognisance of my part were both dead:
that, however, he believed I would have a very good
account of the improvement of the plantation; for that,
upon the general belief of my being cast away and
drowned, my trustees had given in the 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, to 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 distributed
to charitable uses, could not be restored: but he assured
me that the steward of the king's revenue from lands, and
the providore, or steward of the monastery, had taken
great care all along that the incumbent, that is to say my
partner, gave every year a faithful account of the produce,
of which they had duly received my moiety. I asked him if
he knew to what height of improvement he had brought
the plantation, and whether he thought it might be worth
looking after; or whether, on my going thither, I should
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meet with any obstruction to my possessing my just right
in the moiety. He told me he could not tell exactly to
what degree the plantation was improved; but this he
knew, that my partner was grown exceeding rich upon the
enjoying his part of it; and that, to the best of his
remembrance, he had heard that the king's third of my
part, which was, it seems, granted away to some other
monastery or religious house, amounted to above two
hundred moidores a year: that as to my being restored to a
quiet possession of it, there was no question to be made of
that, my partner being alive to witness my title, and my
name being also enrolled in the register of the country;
also he told me that the survivors of my two trustees were
very fair, honest people, and very wealthy; and he believed
I would not only have their assistance for putting me in
possession, but would find a very considerable sum of
money in their hands for my account, being the produce
of the farm while their fathers held the trust, and before it
was given up, as above; which, as he remembered, was for
about twelve years.
I showed myself 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,
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when he knew that I had made my will, and had made
him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c.
He told me that was true; but that 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,
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 the ingenio (so they call the sugar-
house), and have given his son, who was now at the
Brazils, orders to do it. `But,' says the old man, `I have one
piece of news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so
acceptable to you as the rest; and that is, believing you
were lost, and all the world believing so also, your partner
and trustees did offer to account with me, in your name,
for the first six or eight years' profits, which I received.
There being at that time great disbursements for increasing
the works, building an ingenio, and buying slaves, it did
not amount to near so much as afterwards it produced;
however,' says the old man, `I shall give you a true
account of what I have received in all, and how I have
disposed of it.'
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After a few days' further conference with this ancient
friend, he brought me an account of the first six years'
income of my plantation, signed by my partner and the
merchant-trustees, being always delivered in goods, viz.
tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses,
&c., which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I
found by this account, that every year the income
considerably increased; but, as above, the disbursements
being large, the sum at first was small: however, the old
man let me see that he was debtor to me four hundred and
seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar and
fifteen double rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his ship;
he having been shipwrecked coming home to Lisbon,
about eleven years after my having the place. The good
man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and how
he had been obliged to make use of my money to recover
his losses, and buy him a share in a new ship. `However,
my old friend,' says he, `you shall not want a supply in
your necessity; and as soon as my son returns you shall be
fully satisfied.' Upon this he pulls out an old pouch, and
gives me one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in
gold; and giving the writings of his title to the ship, which
his son was gone to the Brazils in, of which he was
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quarter-part owner, and his son another, he puts them
both into my hands for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness
of the poor man to be able to bear this; and remembering
what he had done for me, how he had taken me up at sea,
and how generously he had used me on all occasions, and
particularly how sincere a friend he was now to me, I
could hardly refrain weeping at what he had said to me;
therefore I asked him if his circumstances admitted him to
spare so much money at that time, and if it would not
straiten him? He told me he could not say but it might
straiten him a little; but, however, it was my money, and I
might want it more than he.
Everything the good man said was full of affection, and
I could hardly refrain from tears while he spoke; in short, I
took one hundred of the moidores, and called for a pen
and ink to give him a receipt for them: then I returned
him the rest, and told him if ever I had possession of the
plantation I would return the other to him also (as, indeed,
I afterwards did); and that as to the bill of sale of his part in
his son's ship, I would not take it by any means; but that if
I wanted the money, I found he was honest enough to pay
me; and if I did not, but came to receive what he gave me
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reason to expect, I would never have a penny more from
him.
When this was past, the old man asked me if he should
put me into a method to make my claim to my 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 away to Brazil, 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 the
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.
Never was anything 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,
in which were the following, particular letters and papers
enclosed:-
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First, there was the account-current of the produce of
my farm or plantation, from the year when their fathers
had balanced with my old Portugal captain, being for six
years; the balance appeared to be one thousand one
hundred and seventy-four moidores in my favour.
Secondly, there was the account of four years more,
while they kept the effects in their hands, before the
government claimed the administration, as being the
effects of a person not to be found, which they called civil
death; and the balance of this, the value of the plantation
increasing, amounted to nineteen thousand four hundred
and forty-six crusadoes, being about three thousand two
hundred and forty moidores.
Thirdly, there was the Prior of St. Augustine's account,
who had received the profits for above fourteen years; but
not being able to account for what was disposed of by the
hospital, very honestly declared he had eight hundred and
seventy-two moidores not distributed, which he
acknowledged to my account: as to the king's part, that
refunded nothing.
There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me
very affectionately upon my being alive, giving me an
account how the estate was improved, and what it
produced a year; with the particulars of the number of
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squares, or acres that it contained, how planted, how many
slaves there were upon it: and making two- and-twenty
crosses for blessings, told me he had said so many AVE
MARIAS to thank the Blessed Virgin that I was alive;
inviting me very passionately to come over and take
possession of my own, and in the meantime to give him
orders to whom he should deliver my effects if I did not
come myself; concluding with a hearty tender of his
friendship, and that of his family; and sent me as a present
seven fine leopards' skins, which he had, it seems, received
from Africa, by some other ship that he had sent thither,
and which, it seems, had made a better voyage than I. He
sent me also five chests of excellent sweetmeats, and a
hundred pieces of gold uncoined, not quite so large as
moidores. By the same fleet my two merchant-trustees
shipped me one thousand two hundred chests of sugar,
eight hundred rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole
account in gold.
I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job
was better than the beginning. It is impossible to express
the flutterings of my very heart when I found all my
wealth about me; for as the Brazil ships come all in fleets,
the same ships which brought my letters brought my
goods: and the effects were safe in the river before the
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letters came to my hand. In a word, I turned pale, and
grew sick; and, had not the old man run and fetched me a
cordial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset
nature, and I had died upon the spot: nay, after that I
continued very ill, and was so some hours, till a physician
being sent for, and something of the real cause of my
illness being known, he ordered me to be let blood; after
which I had relief, and grew well: but I verify believe, if I
had not been eased by a vent given in that manner to the
spirits, I should have died.
I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five
thousand pounds sterling in money, and had an estate, as I
might well call it, in the Brazils, of above a thousand
pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in England: and,
in a word, I was in a condition which I scarce knew how
to understand, or how to compose myself for the
enjoyment of it. 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
my beginning, and honest to me at the end. I showed him
all that was sent to me; I told him that, next to the
providence of Heaven, which disposed all things, it was
owing to him; and that it now lay on me to reward him,
which I would do a hundred-fold: so I first returned to
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him the hundred moidores I had received of him; then I
sent for a notary, and caused him to draw up a general
release or discharge from the four hundred and seventy
moidores, which he had acknowledged he owed me, in
the fullest and firmest manner possible. After which I
caused a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be
the receiver of the annual profits of my plantation: and
appointing my partner to account with him, and make the
returns, by the usual fleets, to him in my name; and by a
clause in the end, made a grant of one hundred moidores a
year to him during his life, out of the effects, and fifty
moidores a year to his son after him, for his life: and thus I
requited my old man.
I had now to consider which way to steer my course
next, and what 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 state of life in the
island where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had
nothing but what I wanted; whereas I had now a great
charge upon me, and my business was how to secure it. I
had not a cave now to hide my money in, or a place
where it might lie without lock or key, till it grew mouldy
and tarnished before anybody would meddle with it; on
the contrary, I knew not where to put it, or whom to trust
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with it. My old patron, the captain, indeed, was honest,
and that was the only refuge I had. In the next place, my
interest in the Brazils seemed to summon me thither; but
now I could not tell how to think of going thither till I
had settled my affairs, and left my effects in some safe
hands behind me. At first I thought of my old friend the
widow, who I knew was honest, and would be just to me;
but then she was in years, and but poor, and, for aught I
knew, might be in debt: so that, in a word, I had no way
but to go back to England myself and take my effects with
me.
It was some months, however, before I resolved upon
this; and, therefore, as I had rewarded the old captain fully,
and to his satisfaction, who had been my former
benefactor, so I began to think of the poor widow, 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
further supply: at the same time I sent my two sisters in
the country a hundred pounds each, they being, though
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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, that I might go away to the Brazils, and leave things
safe behind me; and this greatly perplexed me.
I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils and have
settled myself there, for I was, as it were, naturalised to the
place; but I had some little scruple in my mind about
religion, which insensibly drew me back. However, it was
not religion that kept me from going there for the present;
and as I had made no scruple of being openly of the
religion of the country all the while I was among them, so
neither did I yet; only that, now and then, having of late
thought more of it than formerly, when I began to think
of living and dying among them, I began to regret having
professed myself a Papist, and thought it might not be the
best religion to die with.
But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that
kept me from going to the Brazils, but that really I did not
know with whom to leave my effects behind me; so I
resolved at last to go to England, where, if I arrived, I
concluded that I should make some acquaintance, or find
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some relations, that would be faithful to me; and,
accordingly, I prepared to go to England with all my
wealth.
In order to prepare things for my going home, I first
(the Brazil fleet being just going away) resolved to give
answers suitable to the just and faithful account of things I
had from thence; and, first, to the Prior of St. Augustine I
wrote a letter full of thanks for his just dealings, and the
offer of the eight hundred and seventy-two moidores
which were undisposed of, which I desired might be
given, five hundred to the monastery, and three hundred
and seventy-two to the poor, as the prior should direct;
desiring the good padre's prayers for me, and the like. I
wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all
the acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty
called for: as for sending them any present, they were far
above having any occasion of it. Lastly, I wrote to my
partner, acknowledging his industry in the improving the
plantation, and his integrity in increasing the stock of the
works; giving him instructions for his future government
of my part, according to the powers I had left with my old
patron, to whom I desired him to send whatever became
due to me, till he should hear from me more particularly;
assuring him that it was my intention not only to come to
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him, but to settle myself there for the remainder of my
life. To this I added a very handsome present of some
Italian silks for his wife and two daughters, for such the
captain's son informed me he had; with two pieces of fine
English broadcloth, the best I could get in Lisbon, five
pieces of black baize, and some Flanders lace of a good
value.
Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and
turned all my effects into good bills of exchange, my next
difficulty was 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 the sea at that time, and yet I
could give no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased
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 the reasons; but let no man slight the
strong impulses of his own thoughts in cases of such
moment: two of the ships which I had singled out to go
in, I mean more particularly singled out than any other,
having put my things on board one of them, and in the
other having agreed with the captain; I say two of these
ships miscarried. One was taken by the Algerines, and the
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other was lost on the Start, near Torbay, and all the people
drowned except three; so that in either of those vessels I
had been made miserable.
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 Rochelle,
from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land
to Paris, and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to
Madrid, and so all the way by land through France. 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 English merchants also, and two young Portuguese
gentlemen, the last going to Paris only; so that in all there
were 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
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man Friday, who was too much a stranger to be capable of
supplying the place of a servant on the road.
In this manner I set out from Lisbon; and our company
being 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 origin of the whole journey.
As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals,
so I shall trouble you now with none of my land journals;
but some adventures that happened to us in this tedious
and difficult journey I must not omit.
When we came to Madrid, we, being all of us strangers
to Spain, were willing to stay some time to see the court
of Spain, and what was worth observing; but it being the
latter part of the summer, we hastened away, and set out
from Madrid about the middle of October; but when we
came to the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed, at several
towns on the way, with an account that so much snow
was falling on the French side of the mountains, that
several travellers were obliged to come back to
Pampeluna, after having attempted at an extreme hazard to
pass on.
When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it so
indeed; and to me, that had been always used to a hot
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climate, and to countries where I could scarce bear any
clothes on, the cold was insufferable; nor, indeed, was it
more painful than surprising to come but ten days before
out of Old Castile, where the weather was not only warm
but very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the
Pyrenean Mountains so very keen, so severely cold, as to
be intolerable and to endanger benumbing and perishing
of our fingers and toes.
Poor Friday was really frightened when he saw the
mountains all covered with snow, and felt cold weather,
which he had never seen or felt before in his life. To
mend the matter, when we came to Pampeluna it
continued snowing with so much violence and so long,
that the people said winter was come before its time; and
the roads, which were difficult before, were now quite
impassable; for, in a word, the snow lay in some places too
thick for us to travel, and being not hard frozen, as is the
case in the northern countries, there was no going without
being in danger of being buried alive every step. We
stayed no less than twenty days at Pampeluna; when
(seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its
being better, for it was the severest winter all over Europe
that had been known in the memory of man) I proposed
that we should go away to Fontarabia, and there take
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shipping for Bordeaux, which was a very little voyage.
But, while I was considering this, there came in four
French gentlemen, who, having been stopped on the
French side of the passes, as we were on the Spanish, had
found out a guide, who, traversing the country near the
head of Languedoc, had brought them over the mountains
by such ways that they were not much incommoded with
the snow; for where they met with 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 he would
undertake to carry us the same way, with no hazard from
the snow, provided we were armed sufficiently to protect
ourselves from wild beasts; for, he said, in these great
snows it was frequent for some wolves to show themselves
at the foot of the mountains, being made ravenous for
want of food, the ground being covered with snow. We
told him we were well enough prepared for such creatures
as they were, if he would insure us from a kind of two-
legged wolves, which we were told we were in most
danger from, especially on the French side of the
mountains. He satisfied us that there was no danger of that
kind in the way that we were to go; so we readily agreed
to follow him, as did also twelve other gentlemen with
their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I said,
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had attempted to go, and were obliged to come back
again.
Accordingly, we set out from Pampeluna with our
guide on the 15th of November; and indeed I was
surprised when, instead of going forward, he came directly
back with us on the same road that we came from Madrid,
about twenty miles; 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 to be seen; but, on a sudden, turning to his left,
he approached the mountains another way; and though it
is true the hills and precipices looked dreadful, yet he
made so many tours, such meanders, and led us by such
winding ways, that we insensibly passed the height of the
mountains without being much encumbered with the
snow; and all on a sudden he showed us the pleasant and
fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gascony, all green and
flourishing, though at a great distance, and we had some
rough way to pass still.
We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it
snowed one whole day and a night so fast that we could
not travel; but he bid us be easy; we should soon be past it
all: we found, indeed, that we began to descend every day,
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and to come more north than before; and so, depending
upon our guide, we went on.
It was about two hours before night when, our guide
being something before us, and not just in sight, out
rushed three monstrous wolves, and after them a bear,
from a hollow way adjoining to a thick wood; two of the
wolves made at the guide, and had he been far before us,
he would have been devoured before we could have
helped him; one of them fastened upon his horse, and the
other attacked the man with such violence, that he had
not time, or presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol,
but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. My man
Friday being next me, I bade him ride up and see what
was the matter. As soon as Friday came in sight of the
man, he hallooed out as loud as the other, `O master! O
master!' but like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the
poor man, and with his pistol shot the wolf in the head
that attacked him.
It was happy for the poor man that it was my man
Friday; for, having been used to such creatures in his
country, he had no fear upon him, but went close up to
him and shot him; whereas, any other of us would have
fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps either missed
the wolf or endangered shooting the man.
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But it was enough to have terrified a bolder 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, appeared to us as if there had been
a prodigious number of them; and perhaps there was not
such a few as that we had no cause of apprehension:
however, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other that had
fastened upon the horse left him immediately, and fled,
without doing him any damage, having happily fastened
upon his head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in
his teeth. But the man was most hurt; for the raging
creature had bit him twice, once in the arm, and the other
time a little above his knee; and though he had made some
defence, he was just tumbling down by the disorder of his
horse, when Friday came up and shot the wolf.
It is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday's pistol
we all mended our pace, and rode up as fast as the way,
which was very difficult, would give us leave, to see what
was the matter. As soon as we came clear of the trees,
which blinded us before, we saw clearly what had been
the case, and how Friday had disengaged the poor guide,
though we did not presently discern what kind of creature
it was he had killed.
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CHAPTER XX - FIGHT
BETWEEN FRIDAY AND A
BEAR
BUT never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such
a surprising manner as that which followed between
Friday and the bear, which gave us all, though at first we
were surprised and afraid for him, the greatest diversion
imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy creature, and
does not gallop as the wolf does, who is swift and light, so
he has two particular qualities, which generally are the rule
of his actions; first, as to men, who are not his proper prey
(he does not usually attempt them, except they first attack
him, unless he be excessively hungry, which it is probable
might now be the case, the ground being covered with
snow), if you do not meddle with him, he will not meddle
with you; but then you must take care to be very civil to
him, and give him the road, for he is a very nice
gentleman; he will not go a step out of his way for a
prince; nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to
look another way and keep going on; for sometimes if you
stop, and stand still, and look steadfastly at him, he takes it
for an affront; but if you throw or toss anything at him,
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though it were but a bit of stick as big as your finger, he
thinks himself abused, and sets all other business aside to
pursue his revenge, and will have satisfaction in point of
honour - that is his first quality: the next is, if he be once
affronted, he will never leave you, night or day, till he has
his revenge, but follows at a good round rate till he
overtakes you.
My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we
came up to him he was helping him off his horse, for the
man was both hurt and frightened, when on a sudden we
espied the bear come out of the wood; and a monstrous
one it was, the biggest by far that ever I saw. We were all
a little surprised when we saw him; but when Friday saw
him, it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow's
countenance. `O! O! O!' says Friday, three times, pointing
to him; `O master, you give me te leave, me shakee te
hand with him; me makee you good laugh.'
I was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased. `You
fool,' says I, `he will eat you up.' - `Eatee me up! eatee me
up!' says Friday, twice over again; `me eatee him up; me
makee you good laugh; you all stay here, me show you
good laugh.' So down he sits, and gets off his boots in a
moment, and puts on a pair of pumps (as we call the flat
shoes they wear, and which he had in his pocket), gives
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my other servant his horse, and with his gun away he flew,
swift like the wind.
The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle
with nobody, till Friday coming pretty near, calls to him,
as if the bear could understand him. `Hark ye, hark ye,'
says Friday, `me speakee with you.' We followed at a
distance, for now being down on the Gascony side of the
mountains, we were entered a vast forest, where the
country was plain and pretty open, though it had many
trees in it scattered here and there. Friday, who had, as we
say, the heels of the bear, came up with him quickly, and
took up a great stone, and threw it at him, and hit him just
on the head, but did him no more harm than if he had
thrown it against a wall; but it answered Friday's end, for
the rogue was so void of fear that he did it purely to make
the bear follow him, and show us some laugh as he called
it. As soon as the bear felt the blow, and saw him, he turns
about and comes after him, taking very long strides, and
shuffling on at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse
to a middling gallop; away reins Friday, and takes his
course as if he ran towards us for help; so we all resolved
to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man; though
I was angry at him for bringing the bear back upon us,
when he was going about his own business another way;
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and especially I was angry that he had turned the bear
upon us, and then ran away; and I called out, `You dog! is
this your making us laugh? Come away, and take your
horse, that we may shoot the creature.' He heard me, and
cried out, `No shoot, no shoot; stand still, and you get
much laugh:' and as the nimble creature ran two feet for
the bear's one, he turned on a sudden on one side of us,
and seeing a great oak-tree fit for his purpose, he
beckoned to us to follow; and doubling his pace, he got
nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground,
at about five or six yards from the bottom of the tree. The
bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a distance:
the first thing he did he stopped at the gun, smelt at it, but
let it lie, and up he scrambles into the tree, climbing like a
cat, though so monstrous heavy. I was amazed at the folly,
as I thought it, of my man, and could not for my life see
anything to laugh at, till seeing the bear get up the tree,
we all rode near to him.
When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to
the small end of a large branch, and the bear got about
half-way to him. As soon as the bear got out to that part
where the limb of the tree was weaker, `Ha!' says he to us,
`now you see me teachee the bear dance:' so he began
jumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began
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to totter, but stood still, and began to look behind him, to
see how he should get back; then, indeed, we did laugh
heartily. But Friday had not done with him by a great
deal; when seeing him stand still, he called out to him
again, as if he had supposed the bear could speak English,
`What, you come no farther? pray you come farther;' so
he left jumping and shaking the tree; and the bear, just as
if he understood what he said, did come a little farther;
then he began jumping again, and the bear stopped again.
We thought now was a good time to knock him in the
head, and called to Friday to stand still and we should
shoot the bear: but he cried out earnestly, `Oh, pray! Oh,
pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then:' he would have said
by-and-by. However, to shorten the story, Friday danced
so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had
laughing enough, but still could not imagine what the
fellow would do: for first we thought he depended upon
shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too
cunning for that too; for he would not go out far enough
to be thrown down, but clung fast with his great broad
claws and feet, so that we could not imagine what would
be the end of it, and what the jest would be at last. But
Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing the bear
cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be
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persuaded to come any farther, `Well, well,' says Friday,
`you no come farther, me go; you no come to me, me
come to you;' and upon this he went out to the smaller
end, where it would bend with his weight, and gently let
himself down by it, sliding down the bough till he came
near enough to jump down on his feet, and away he ran
to his gun, took it up, and stood still. `Well,' said I to him,
`Friday, what will you do now? Why don't you shoot
him?' `No shoot,' says Friday, `no yet; me shoot now, me
no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh:' and, indeed, so
he did; for when the bear saw his enemy gone, he came
back from the bough, where he stood, but did it very
cautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming
backward till he got into the body of the tree, then, with
the same hinder end foremost, he came down the tree,
grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time,
very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could set
his hind foot on the ground, Friday stepped up close to
him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot
him dead. Then the rogue turned about to see if we did
not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased by our
looks, he began to laugh very loud. `So we kill bear in my
country,' says Friday. `So you kill them?' says I; `why, you
have no guns.' - `No,' says he, `no gun, but shoot great
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much long arrow.' This was a good diversion to us; but
we were still in a wild place, and our guide very much
hurt, and what to do we hardly knew; the howling of
wolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the
noise I once heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have
said something already, I never heard anything that filled
me with so much horror.
These things, and the approach of night, called us off,
or else, as Friday would have had us, we should certainly
have taken the skin of this monstrous creature off, which
was worth saving; but we had near three leagues to go,
and our guide hastened us; so we left him, and went
forward on our journey.
The ground was still covered with snow, though not so
deep and dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous
creatures, as we heard afterwards, were come down into
the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, to seek for
food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages,
where they surprised the country people, killed a great
many of their sheep and horses, and some people too. We
had one dangerous place to pass, and our guide told us if
there were 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,
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which we were to pass to get through the wood, and then
we should come to the village where we were to lodge. It
was within half-an-hour of sunset when we entered the
wood, and a little after sunset when 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, and had it in view; they took no notice of
us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments. Upon
this, our guide, who, by the way, was but a fainthearted
fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture, for he believed
there were more wolves a-coming. We kept our arms
ready, and our eyes about us; but we saw no more wolves
till we came through that wood, which was near half a
league, and entered the plain. As soon as we came into the
plain, we had occasion enough to look about us. The first
object we met with was a dead horse; that is to say, a poor
horse which the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of
them at work, we could not say eating him, but picking
his bones rather; for they had eaten up all the flesh before.
We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast, neither
did they take much notice of us. Friday would have let fly
at them, but I would not suffer him by any means; for I
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found we were like to have more business upon our hands
than we were aware of. We had not gone half over the
plain when we began to hear the wolves howl in the
wood on our left in a frightful manner, and presently after
we saw about a hundred coming on directly towards us, all
in a body, and most of them in a line, as regularly as an
army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in
what manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves
in a close line was the only way; so we formed in a
moment; but that we might not have too much interval, I
ordered that only every other man should fire, and that
the others, who had not fired, should stand ready to give
them a second volley immediately, if they continued to
advance upon us; and then that those that had fired at first
should not pretend to load their fusees again, but stand
ready, every one with a pistol, for we were all armed with
a fusee and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this
method, able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time;
however, at present we had no necessity; for upon firing
the first volley, the enemy made a full stop, being terrified
as well with the noise as with the fire. Four of them being
shot in the head, dropped; several others were wounded,
and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I
found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat;
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whereupon, remembering that I had been told that the
fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of a man, I
caused all the company to halloo as loud as they could;
and I found the notion not altogether mistaken; for upon
our shout they began to retire and turn about. I then
ordered a second volley to be fired in their rear, which put
them to the gallop, and away they went to the woods.
This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and that
we might lose no time, we kept going; but we had but
little more than loaded our fusees, and put ourselves in
readiness, when we heard a terrible noise in the same
wood on our left, only that it was farther onward, the
same way we were to go.
The night was coming on, and the light began to be
dusky, which made it worse on our side; but the noise
increasing, we could easily perceive that it was the
howling and yelling of those hellish creatures; and on a
sudden we perceived three troops of wolves, one on our
left, one behind us, and one in our front, so that we
seemed to be surrounded with them: however, as they did
not fall upon us, we kept our way forward, as fast as we
could make our horses go, which, the way being very
rough, was only a good hard trot. In this manner, we
came in view of the entrance of a wood, through which
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we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain; but we
were greatly surprised, when coming nearer the lane or
pass, we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at
the entrance. On a sudden, at another opening of the
wood, we heard the noise of a gun, and looking that way,
out rushed a horse, with a saddle and a bridle on him,
flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolves after
him, full speed: the horse had the advantage of them; but
as we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate, we
doubted not but they would get up with him at last: no
question but they did.
But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to
the entrance where the horse came out, we found the
carcasses of another horse and of two men, devoured by
the ravenous creatures; and one of the men was no doubt
the same whom we heard fire the gun, for there lay a gun
just by him fired off; but as to the man, his head and the
upper part of his body was eaten up. This filled us with
horror, and we knew not what course to take; but the
creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us
presently, 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, but a little
way from it, there lay some large timber-trees, which had
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been cut down the summer before, and I suppose lay there
for carriage. I drew my little troop in among those 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 breastwork, 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 with a
growling kind of noise, and mounted the piece of timber,
which, as I said, was our breastwork, as if they were only
rushing upon their prey; and this fury of theirs, it seems,
was principally occasioned by their seeing our horses
behind us. I ordered our men to fire as before, every other
man; and they took their aim so sure that they killed
several of the 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 a second volley of our fusees, 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 had killed seventeen or
eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many, yet they came
on again. I was loth to spend our shot too hastily; so I
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called my servant, not my man Friday, for he was better
employed, for, with the greatest dexterity imaginable, he
had charged my fusee and his own while we were engaged
- but, as I said, I called my other man, and giving him a
horn of powder, I had 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 got upon it, when I, snapping an unchanged 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, which the night
- for it was now very near dark - made more terrible 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 that we found
struggling on the ground, and fell to cutting them with
our swords, which answered our expectation, for the
crying and howling they made was better understood by
their fellows; so that they all fled and left us.
We had, first and last, killed about threescore of them,
and had it been daylight we had killed many more. The
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field of battle being thus cleared, we made forward again,
for we had still near a league to go. We heard the
ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we went
several times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some of
them; but the snow dazzling our eyes, we were not
certain. In about an hour more we came to the town
where we were to lodge, which we found in a terrible
fright and all in arms; for, it seems, the night before the
wolves and some bears had broken into the village, and
put them in such terror that they were obliged to keep
guard night and day, but especially in the night, to
preserve their cattle, and indeed their people.
The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs
swelled so much with the rankling of his two wounds, that
he could go no farther; so we were obliged to take a new
guide here, and go to Toulouse, where we found a warm
climate, a fruitful, pleasant country, and no snow, no
wolves, nor anything like them; but when we told our
story at Toulouse, they told us it was nothing but what
was ordinary in the great forest at the foot of the
mountains, especially when the snow lay on the ground;
but they inquired much what kind of guide we had got
who would venture to bring us that way in such a severe
season, and told us it was surprising we were not all
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devoured. When we told them how we placed ourselves
and the horses in the middle, they blamed us exceedingly,
and told us it was fifty to one but we had been all
destroyed, for it was the sight of the horses which made
the wolves so furious, seeing their prey, and that at other
times they are really afraid of a gun; but being excessively
hungry, and raging on that account, the eagerness to come
at the horses had made them senseless of danger, and that
if we had not by the continual fire, and at last by the
stratagem of the train of powder, mastered them, it had
been great odds but that we had been torn to pieces;
whereas, had we been content to have sat still on
horseback, and fired as horsemen, they would not have
taken the horses so much for their own, when men were
on their backs, as otherwise; and withal, they told us that
at last, if we had stood altogether, and left our horses, they
would have been so eager to have devoured them, that we
might have come off safe, especially having our firearms in
our hands, being so many in number. For my part, I was
never so sensible of danger in my life; for, seeing above
three hundred devils come roaring and open- mouthed to
devour us, and having nothing to shelter us or retreat to, I
gave myself over for lost; and, as it was, I believe I shall
never care to cross those mountains again: I think I would
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much rather go a thousand leagues by sea, though I was
sure to meet with a storm once a-week.
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 Toulouse to Paris, and without any
considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover
the 14th of January, after having had 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 brought with me having
been currently paid.
My principal guide and privy-counsellor was my good
ancient widow, who, in gratitude for the money I had sent
her, thought no pains too much nor care too great to
employ for me; and I trusted her so entirely that I was
perfectly easy as to the security of my effects; and, indeed,
I was very happy from the beginning, and now to the end,
in the unspotted integrity of this good gentlewoman.
And now, having resolved to dispose of my plantation
in the Brazils, I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who,
having offered it to the two merchants, the survivors of
my trustees, who lived in the Brazils, they accepted the
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offer, and remitted thirty-three thousand 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 the 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 chequer-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
any part of it ever gave me leave so much as to hope for.
Any one would think that in this state of complicated
good fortune I was past running any more hazards - and
so, indeed, I had been, if other circumstances had
concurred; but I was inured to a wandering life, had no
family, nor many relations; nor, however rich, had I
contracted fresh acquaintance; and though I had sold my
estate in the Brazils, yet I could not keep that country out
of my head, and had a great mind to be upon the wing
again; especially I could not resist the strong inclination I
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had to see my island, and to know if the poor Spaniards
were in being there. My true friend, the widow, 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 children
of one of my 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 I placed with 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, as old as
I was, to further adventures myself.
In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first
of all, I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or
dissatisfaction, 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, prevailed,
and engaged me to go in his ship as a private trader to the
East Indies; this was in the year 1694.
In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island,
saw my successors the Spaniards, had the old story of their
lives and of the villains I left there; how at first they
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insulted the poor Spaniards, how they afterwards agreed,
disagreed, united, separated, and how at last the Spaniards
were obliged to use violence with them; how they were
subjected to the Spaniards, how honestly the Spaniards
used them - a history, if it were entered into, as full of
variety and wonderful accidents as my own part -
particularly, also, as to their battles with the Caribbeans,
who landed several times upon the island, and as to the
improvement they made upon the island itself, and how
five of them made an attempt upon the mainland, and
brought away eleven men and five women prisoners, by
which, at my coming, I found about twenty young
children on the island.
Here I stayed about twenty days, left them supplies of
all necessary things, and particularly of arms, powder, shot,
clothes, tools, and two workmen, which I had brought
from England with me, viz. a carpenter and a smith.
Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with them,
reserved to myself the property of the whole, but gave
them such parts respectively as they agreed on; and having
settled all things with them, and engaged them not to
leave the place, I left them there.
From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I
sent a bark, which I bought there, with more people to
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the island; and in it, besides other supplies, I sent seven
women, being such as I found proper for service, or for
wives to such as would take them. As to the Englishmen, I
promised to send them some women from England, with
a good cargo of necessaries, if they would apply themselves
to planting - which I afterwards could not perform. The
fellows proved very honest and diligent after they were
mastered and had their properties set apart for them. I sent
them, also, from the Brazils, five cows, three of them
being big with calf, some sheep, and some hogs, which
when I came again were considerably increased.
But all these things, with an account how three
hundred Caribbees came and invaded them, and ruined
their plantations, and how they fought with that whole
number twice, and were at first defeated, and one of them
killed; but at last, a storm destroying their enemies' canoes,
they famished or destroyed almost all the rest, and
renewed and recovered the possession of their plantation,
and still lived upon the island.
All these things, with some very surprising incidents in
some new adventures of my own, for ten years more, I
shall give a farther account of in the Second Part of my
Story.
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