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SCIENTIA
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OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
E PLURIBUS UNUM
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SI-QUÆRIS PENINSULAM-AMŒNAM.
CIRCUMSPICE
GIFT OF
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1
Hubbard
Imag. Voy.
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THE NOVELIST'S LIBRARY;
EDITED BY
THOMAS ROSCOE, Esq.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM DESIGNS ORIGINAL AND SELECTED,
BY JACOB GEORGE STRUTT, Esq.
66
AUTHOR OF SYLVA BRITANNICA.”
TO BE PUBLISHED IN MONTHLY VOLUMES.
(UNIFORM WITH THE WAVERLEY NOVELS.)
In commencing a SELECT SERIES of CLASSICAL NOVELS,
MESSRS. COCHRANE AND PICKERSGILL disclaim any intention of
trespassing on the ground occupied by other publishers. Whilst
the productions of writers of fiction, subsequent to the time of
FIELDING and SMOLLETT, are presented in a periodical form as
candidates for public favour, the Proprietors are encouraged to
extend the field of rational entertainment, by offering to English
readers CHEAP EDITIONS of the Works of those great paint-
ers of life and manners who reflect lustre on their respective
countries, comprehending only such NOVELS and ROMANCES,
as have been unequivocally stamped with popular regard, and
which, from their LONG ADMITTED SUPERIORITY OVER ALL COM-
PETITORS OF THEIR CLASS, and their translation into various lan-
guages, are for ever associated with the LITERATURE OF
WORLD.
THE NOVELIST'S LIBRARY
WILL EMBRACE THE FOLLOWING DISTINGUISHED WORKS:
Robinson Crusoe. DE FOE.
Tom Jones, FIELDING.
Joseph Andrews. Do.
Amelia. Do.
Roderick Random. SMOLLETT.
Peregrine Pickle. Do.
Humphrey Clinker. Do.
Vicar of Wakefield. GOLD-
SMITH.
Tristram Shandy. STERNE.
Gulliver's Travels. SwIFT.
VOL. I.
The Man of the World. MAC-
KENZIE.
The Man of Feeling. Do.
Julia de Roubigné. Do.
Evelina. MISS BURNEY.
Don Quixote. CERVANTES.
Gil Blas. LE SAGE.
Guzman d'Alfarache, or the
Spanish Rogue. Do.
Arabian Nights Entertain-
ments,
α
ii
THE NOVELIST'S LIBRARY.
with others of equal popularity, whose authors it is acknowledged
wrote "
for all time," and whose happy illustrations of character
and manners prove them to have been familiarly acquainted with
human nature in all its varieties, and capable of representing life
as they found it; thus furnishing an intellectual banquet, replete
at once with instruction and amusement. The great estimation in
which the productions of these powerful delineators of life are
justly regarded, has long ceased to be confined to the land of
their birth: they have been transplanted into every clime, ap-
pealing with the resistless voice of genius to the admiration of
all nations;-and they have been rewarded with imperishable
fame.
The best uniform Editions of these celebrated works have
hitherto been published in forms and at prices which have placed
them beyond the reach of any but the wealthier classes of read-
ers. To remove this inconvenience, and supply wants which the
Public have long felt, the Proprietors intend to publish the pre-
sent Edition in Monthly Volumes, beautifully printed, and em-
bellished with Plates, at the cheap price of five shillings per
volume, neatly bound. Each Author can be purchased sepa-
rately.
The Second Volume, completing DE FOE'S ROBINSON CRUSOE,
and similarly illustrated, will be published on the 1st of June.
London: Published by COCHRANE and PICKERSGILL, 11, Wa-
terloo Place, Pall Mall; and J. ANDREWS, 167, New Bond Street.
BELL and BRADFUTE, Edinburgh; JOIN SMITH and SON, Glasgow ;
W. F. WAKEMAN, Dublin; and by all respectable Booksellers
throughout the United Kingdom.
THE
NOVELIST'S LIBRARY:
EDITED BY
THOMAS ROSCOE, Esq.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS.
VOL. I.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
DE FOE.

DE FOE.
Engraved by Freeman.
Pondon, Published by Cochrane & Pickersgill, Waterloo Race. 1881
THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
WITH
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DE FOE,
WRITTEN EXPRESSLY FOR THIS EDITION,
AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM ORIGINAL DESIGNS.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
COCHRANE. AND
PICKERSGILL,
11, WATERLOO PLACE;
AND J. ANDREWS, 167, NEW BOND STREET.
1831.
PRINTED BY A. J. VALPY,
RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET,
ILLUSTRATIONS
TO THE FIRST VOLUME.
Page
FRONTISPIECE.-Portrait of De Foe
1. Xury and the lion
2. Robinson Crusoe shipwrecked
29
48
3.
4.
on his raft
reading in his cave
54
121
5.
discovers the print of a man's foot
164
6.
building a boat
243
•
17.
and his man Friday with the savages
250
8. Friday with the bear
316
'No fiction in any language was ever better supported than the
ADVENTURES of ROBINSON CRUSOE.'-Dr. BLAIR.
ROBINSON CRUSOE is the first book I ever read with plea-
and I believe every boy in Europe might say the same.'-
MARMONTEL.
sure;
Was there ever anything written by mere man, that was
wished longer by its readers, excepting DON QUIXOTE, ROBINSON
CRUSOE, and the PILGRIM'S PROGRESS.'-Dr. JOHNSON.
De Foe's style is every where beautiful, but plain and
homely. ROBINSON CRUSOE is delightful to all ranks and classes,
and worthy to find a shelf in the libraries of the wealthiest and
the most learned.'-CHARLES LAMB.
If it be inquired by what charm it is that these SURPRISING
ADVENTURES Should have instantly pleased, and always pleased,
it will be found that few books have ever so naturally mingled
amusement with instruction.'-CHALMERS.
<
Society is for ever indebted to the memory of De Foe, for his
production of a work, in which the ways of Providence are
simply and pleasingly vindicated, and a lasting and useful moral
is conveyed through the channel of an interesting and delightful
story.'-SIR WALTER SCOTT.
'ROBINSON CRUSOE must be allowed, by the most rigid mo-
ralist, to be one of those novels which one may read, not only
with pleasure, but also with profit. It breathes throughout a
spirit of piety and benevolence; it sets in a very striking light
the importance of the mechanic arts, which they, who know not
what it is to be without them, are so apt to undervalue; and it
fixes in the mind a lively idea of the horrors of solitude, and,
consequently, of the sweets of social life, and of the blessings we
derive from conversation and mutual aid.'-Dr. BEATTIE.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
OF
DE FOE.
To literary reputation may be applied the same re-
mark that the Grecian Sage made on human happi-
ness, when the prosperous career of an individual was
commented on, Wait till the end:' and certainly it
is only when a writer is removed from the possibility
of increasing his works, that the real merits of those he
leaves behind him are impartially ascertained. Time
is the test of excellence: all that is remembered inde-
pendent of the passions and interests of the period.
in which it was brought forth, must be remembered
solely for its intrinsic worth, and for its accordance
with those principles of truth, which, being inherent
in the nature of man, awaken his sympathies with the
same irresistible power, age after age, in all condi-
tions of society. Hence he who could be assured
that his name should be wafted by the breath of po-
pularity, even with only one of his works, stea-
dily down the stream of time, might be well con-
tented though all his other productions should be
VOL. I.
a
ii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
gradually swallowed up in its oblivious gulf. The
author of "Robinson Crusoe " may be deemed one
of the most remarkable instances of this concentration
of interest and renown in a single performance, that
ever appeared in the annals of literature. More than
two hundred publications flowed from his ever-ready
pen; all of them powerful and appropriate at the
time of their appearance; yet their interest has gra-
dually died away with the subjects which gave them
birth, and the greater proportion of them, till lately,
have been only to be found resting undisturbed in the
libraries of the curious, or chance-preserved, on the
humbler book-stall.
still forms the delight of all readers; the young and
old, the rich and poor: the celebrity of his adven-
tures has been extended not only through Germany,
France, Spain, Italy, and, indeed, the whole of po-
lished Europe, but even to the sandy plains of Arabia,
where, under the delicious title of " Dur El Bakur,"
"the pearl of the sea," in the translation of the in-
genious Burkhardt, it rivalled the long-cherished tra-
ditions of Sinbad the Sailor, which form so inter-
esting a portion of the stories that constitute the
"Arabian Nights' Entertainments.”
Robinson Crusoe," however,
""
It is then, principally in considering him as the
author of "Robinson Crusoe," that we wish to in-
quire into the history of Daniel de Foe, and to pre-
sent such a faithful portraiture of him as may in-
crease the interest of that work with its numerous
readers, by showing them the materials of mind out of
which it was formed, and the circumstances by which
OF DE FOE.
iii
those materials were shapen and brought into active
use.
Daniel de Foe was born in the parish of St. Giles,
Cripplegate, in the city of London, in 1661. His
parents were nonconformists, and the religious per-
secution under which they at that time consequently
laboured, was perhaps more than compensated to
them by the blessed effect it brought with it of
early imbuing the mind of their son with firmness,
independence, and a profound reverence for that re-
ligion, in the cause of which he saw those whom he
most respected and loved willing to "count all loss.
gain." Whilst yet a boy he employed himself in
copying the Bible in short hand, in obedience to
the wishes of his parents, who dreaded lest they
might be suddenly deprived of its consolations, by
some arbitrary decree of power, at a time when they
might be most wanted: he proceeded with great zeal
in his task as far as the Pentateuch, when his patience
and his fears alike subsided, and he was willing to
believe that further precaution was at that period
unnecessary.
It appears that De Foe was originally intended for
the ministry, to which he might have received an
early bias from the respect his parents bore towards
their favorite pastor, the Reverend Samuel Annesley,
LL.D., a distinguished presbyterian divine, who, having
been ejected from the living of Cripplegate, afterwards
preached, as a nonconformist, at a meeting-house in
Little St. Helen's, Bishopsgate Street. Of Dr. An-
nesley's worth, both as a minister and a Christian,
iv
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
De Foe long entertained an affectionate remem
brance; and he has drawn his character at length in
the form of an elegy, which may be found in the
collection of his writings. In the following lines he
identifies himself with the Doctor's congregation.
"His native candor, his familiar style,
Which did so oft his hearers' hours beguile,
Charm'd us with godliness; and while he spake,
We loved the doctrine for the preacher's sake;
While he inform'd us what those doctrines meant
By dint of practice more than argument."
At fourteen years of age Daniel De Foe was placed
under the charge of the Reverend Charles Morton, the
head of a respectable seminary at Newington Green ;
a gentleman distinguished as a polite and profound
scholar, and in whom his pupils found the advan-
tages of good society combined with those of sound
learning. De Foe always retained a grateful remem-
brance of this worthy man, whose name he has men-
tioned on various occasions with the respect it de-
serves, and whose voluntary exile from his native land
to America, in consequence of the persecutions to which
he was exposed on account of his religious principles,
must have been a subject of equal indignation and re-
gret to the ingenuous mind of his pupil. It is probable
that the frequent occurrence of similar acts of oppres-
sion might be one of the causes that operated to divert
De Foe from his original intention of entering the
ministry; and another might be found in that strong
predilection for politics, which early led him to ex-
press his opinions on the popular side with an ardour
A
OF DE FOE.
and boldness that would soon have been silenced from
the pulpit, but which rapidly raised him to distinction
through the medium of the press. The period in which
De Foe lived, immediately between the Restoration
and the accession of the House of Hanover, was one
peculiarly calculated to excite the full energy of a
mind like his, gifted equally with the powers of ob-
servation, and with activity to embody their results.
The court of Charles the Second presented the strange
and disgusting anomaly of unblushing profligacy of
manners, combined with the most heartless political
ingratitude and tyranny. It was impossible for a
staunch friend of liberty, civil and religious, to look
coolly on that arbitrary exercise of power which threat-
ened destruction to both. Hence, in the conflict of
parties from the reign of Charles the Second to the
accession of George the First, few persons took a
more active share than De Foe; and in the number
of his publications he probably outstripped all other
writers of his time. During ten of his busiest years,
and those the most factious in English history, he was
the sole writer of a periodical paper, which appeared
three times a week, under the title of "The Review,"
and contained many elaborate essays upon the most
important subjects in politics and commerce.
De Foe was about one-and-twenty when he com-
menced author, and he continued the employment,
with little interruption, for the space of half a cen-
tury. We have already remarked that his literary
labours amounted to two hundred acknowledged pub-
lications, besides anonymous ones; and, as has been
vi
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
"
observed by the biographer to whom the public is
recently indebted for the most perfect catalogue of
them, as well as for the most elaborate account of their
author that has yet appeared, even the bare titles
of them are in themselves a literary curiosity, and will
serve in a degree to illustrate the peculiar bent of the
writer's genius."
His first publication is commonly supposed to have
been called forth by the war between the Turks and
the Imperialists, in an anonymous treatise against the
Turks, which appeared in 1683; but before this he had
enlisted his pen in the political dissensions of the times,
and levelled a lampoon at one of the most factious of
its writers, the noted Roger L'Estrange. It was occa-
sioned by L'Estrange's "Guide to the Inferior Clergy,"
and bore the following title: "Speculum Crape-Gown-
orum; or, A Looking-glass for the Young Acade-
mies, New Foyl'd. With Reflections on some of the
late high-flown Sermons to which is added, an Essay
towards a Sermon of the newest fashion. By a Guide
to the Inferiour Clergie. Ridentem discere Verum
Quis vetat? London: Printed for E. Rydal. 1682.
4to. pp. 34." At twenty-four years of age, De Foe
joined the standard of the brave and unfortunate
Duke of Monmouth, on his landing at Lyme, in the
summer of 1685. In this perilous and ill-fated expe-
dition he acquitted himself courageously, but escap-
ing alike the horrible crueltics and legal persecutions
which followed close on the defeat of his leader,
he lived to narrate the ill-advised transaction and all
its melancholy consequences, forty years afterwards,
OF DE FOE.
vii
with a vigour and feeling that showed how forcibly
the remembrance of it revived that enthusiasm of
youth which had led him into the participation of its
dangers. The public execution of Monmouth, and
the total wreck of hope in his party, seems to have
acted for a time on the lively spirits of De Foe as a
sedative, under the influence of which he betook
himself to the peaceful occupation of a hosier, or ra-
ther of a factor in the hosiery line; for he has repelled,
somewhat indignantly, the idea of having been ap-
prenticed to the business, and his biographers have
done the same for him, as if there could be the
slightest disgrace, especially in difficult and troubled
times, in any laudable occupation whatsoever, parti-
cularly when entered on with the education of a gen-
tleman, and the independence of an honest man.
De Foe carried on the office of factor, or middle-
man, between the manufacturer and the retail dealer,
about ten years, during which time he took up his
freedom, to which he was entitled by birth, and was
admitted to the civic honor of liveryman of London
in January, 1687-8. At this time the nation was in
a state of feverish excitement respecting the repeal of
the test act, which James openly avowed should be
the sole condition of serving him in any capacity,
either civil or military. Protestant officers were re-
moved, Popish ones put in their place; shoals of Ca-
tholic priests imported; mass-houses erected; semina-
ries instituted; religious bigotry pervading every mea-
sure of the government; superstition and hypocrisy
reigning over one half of the people, fear and indigna-
1
viii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
tion over the other; whilst rancour was common to
both. In this state of things De Foe raised his pen
to put the dissenters on their guard against the king's
pretended zeal for liberty of conscience, exhorting
them not to accept even liberty itself at the expence
of their religious rights. That accomplished nobleman
and statesman, George Saville, the Marquis of Hali-
fax, whose political views coincided with those of De
Foe, published a pamphlet at the same period so similar
in subject and in the manner of treating it, as to pro-
cure De Foe the honor of being imagined its author.
During the middle of William's reign, De Foe was
comparatively little engaged in politics, and it appears
that he began to be sensible at this time, that, in help-
ing to settle the affairs of the nation, his attention had
been most injuriously diverted from his own. He had
been engaged some years in the Spanish and Portu-
guese trade, and he enlarged the sphere of his obser-
vation on men and manners by visiting those coun-
tries, as well as France, Holland, and Germany. It
is probable, however, that his travels were in some
measure connected with the increasing embarrassment
of his affairs, which, in 1692, obliged him to get out of
the way of his creditors. However the prudence or
foresight of De Foe might be impugned by his misfor-
tunes, for in those days the severity of the laws made
it a real misfortune to be a bankrupt, it is evident
that his integrity remained unimpeachable, from the
circumstance of the commission of bankruptcy, which
an angry creditor took out against him, being super-
seded on the petition of those to whom he was most
OF DE FOE.
IX
indebted, who accepted a composition on his single
bond; and well he repaid the consideration thus shown
to him, as he not only exerted the utmost efforts of
industry so far as punctually to fulfil the engagements
he thus entered on, but some years afterwards, when
his affairs had assumed a more prosperous aspect un-
der the revivifying influence of royal favor, he paid
the whole of their original demands to several of his
creditors, who, by the turn of fortune's wheel, were then
plunged into the same difficulties as he had extricated
himself from, by the most laudable application and
frugality. The practice of these virtues was the more
commendable in him, as they by no means formed any
component parts of his character: he had, therefore,
reason to be proud rather than ashamed of the charge
brought against him by Lord Haversham, of being
mercenary; to which he replies by a simple statement
of fact, more honorable to himself than any studied
panegyric by another could have been, saying that
"with a numerous family, and no help but his own
industry, he had forced his way, with undiscouraged
diligence, through a sea of misfortunes, and reduced
his debts, exclusive of composition, from seventeen
thousand to less than five thousand pounds." In a
subsequent work he expressed himself on this subject-
with an equal sense of religion and honor, "Never
think yourselves discharged in conscience," said he,
"though you may be discharged in law. The obli-
gation of an honest mind can never die. No title of
honor, no recorded merit, no mark of distinction, can
exceed that lasting appellation, an 'honest man.' He
X
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
that lies buried under such an epitaph, has more said of
him than volumes of history can contain. The payment
of debts, after fair discharges, is the clearest title to
such a character that I know; and how any man can
begin again, and hope for a blessing from heaven, or
favor from man, without such a resolution, I know not.”
Years afterwards, when he was suffering under the
obloquy and punishment of his famous ironical sa-
tire, entitled, "The Shortest Way with the Dissen-
ters," the following testimony to his honesty was
granted him by John Tutchin, one of his sharpest
and earliest antagonists, who entered the lists of con-
troversy with him, in a pamphlet intitled, "Dissen-
ter and Observator," and who afterwards, by an illi-
beral attack on King William, in a poem called
"The Foreigners," drew forth De Foe's indignant
reply, in his famous satire of " The True-born English-
man."
"I must do one piece of justice to the man,"
observes the writer," though I love him no better
than you do it is this, that meeting a gentleman in a
coffee-house, when I and every body else were railing
at him, the gentleman took us up with this short
speech, Gentlemen,' said he, I know this De
Foe as well as any of you, for I was one of his cre-
ditors, and compounded with him, and discharged
him fully. Several years afterwards he sent for me,
and though he was clearly discharged, he paid me all
the remainder of his debt voluntarily, and of his own
accord; and he told me, that as far as God should
enable him, he intended to do so with every body.
When he had done, he desired me to set my hand to a
:
<
OF DE FOE.
xi
››› We
paper to acknowledge it, which I readily did, and
found a great many names to the paper before me;
and I think myself bound to own it, though I am no
friend to the book he wrote, no more than you.
have dwelt the more fully on this subject, because,
thanks to the liberal spirit and enlarged views of mo-
dern times, the sole disgrace in the present day in
failing, seems to be that of failing for a small sum;
and it would be thought as ungentlemanly to remind
any one of a debt thus nominally liquidated, however
ruinous in its consequences to the creditor, as it would be
impolitic for the debtor himself to bring his bankruptcy
to recollection, by any old-fashioned prudence or de-
cency in altering his mode of living according to his
circumstances, or, as the homely wisdom of our ances-
tors concisely expressed it, "cutting his coat accord-
ing to his cloth."
The estimation in which De Foe's integrity was
held by his friends, manifested itself in an offer which
they made of settling him as a factor at Cadiz, on
highly advantageous terms; but all his misfortunes
had not taught him to attend to his own interests,
as he would have done by accepting the proposition;
instead of which he chose to remain in comparative
seclusion at home, employing himself with writing
"An Essay on Projects;" among which was a plan
for the ways and means of raising money for the war
just then begun with France, which he proposed to
do by a general assessment of personal property; and
so well satisfied was he of the efficacy of his scheme,
that he offered to farm the revenue arising from it
xii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
himself, at a rent of three millions annually, giving
good security for the payment. And when that is
done,” says he, "the nation would get three more
by paying it, which is very strange, but might easily
be made out." Such are the sunny visions that throw
their radiance over the path of the projector and poli-
tician, to the bewilderment of weaker optics, who see
with astonishment a rational being gazing on the stars
above his head, instead of avoiding the ditch at his
feet! In spite of himself, however, the circumstances
of De Foe began to assume a better aspect. He was
appointed by government, without any solicitation of
his own, accountant to the commissioners of the glass
duty, in which office he continued until the tax itself
was repealed in 1699. Much about the same time he
was made secretary to the tile and brick works at
Tilbury, in Essex, which employment he held for
several years, and those years might be termed the
most prosperous of his worldly career.
The accession of King William to the throne was
every way an important epoch in the life of De Foe.
He had, both in his public capacity as a writer, and
in his individual one as a dissenter, taken an intense
interest in the progress of the revolution. The general
bent of his productions could not fail to render him ac-
ceptable to William's government; and his poem of
"The True-born Englishman," procured him the
honor of an introduction to the monarch himself, by
whom he was ever afterwards treated with a degree
of consideration which added personal partiality to
political esteem; and he annually commemorated the
OF DE FOE.
xiii
•
4th of November, the day on which the king first
landed on British ground, in 1668, as one of the
most auspicious in the annals of our history. "A
day," says he, "famous on various accounts, and
every one of them dear to Britons who love their
country, value the protestant interest, or have an
aversion to tyranny and oppression. On this day he
was born; on this day he married the daughter of
England; and on this day he rescued the nation
from a bondage worse than that of Egypt, a bond-
age of soul, as well as bodily servitude; a slavery
to the ambition and raging lust of a generation set
on fire by pride, avarice, cruelty, and blood."
As the poem of "The True-born Englishman" had
perhaps a more decided influence on both the fortunes
and reputation of De Foe than any other of his pro-
ductions, it may not be amiss to make a few remarks
in this place on its origin and intention." During
this time," says he, "there came out a vile, abhorred
pamphlet, in very ill verse, written by one Mr. Tut-
chin, and called The Foreigners;' in which the
author, who he was I then knew not, fell personally
on the king himself, and then on the Dutch nation.
And after having reproached his majesty with crimes
that his worst enemies could not think of without
horror, he sums up all in the odious name of Foreigner.
This filled me with a kind of rage against the book,
and gave birth to a trifle, which I never could hope
should have met with so general an acceptance as it
did; I mean "The True-born Englishman."
In this poem De Foe satirizes the English, them-
1
xiv
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
selves the most mixed race in the world, for their
prejudices against foreigners, and lashes their ingra-
titude for overlooking all the benefits which King
William had conferred on their country, merely
because that country did not happen to be the one
which gave him birth. The opening lines of the
poem are well known.
"Wherever God erects a house of prayer,
The Devil always builds a chapel there;
And 'twill be found upon examination,
The latter has the largest congregation."
After tracing the most ancient families to their
origin, among those who marched under the banners
of the Norman invader, he proceeds to compliment
them and his countrymen at large in the following
lines:-
"These are the heroes who despise the Dutch,
And rail at new-come foreigners so much;
Forgetting that themselves are all derived
From the most scoundrel race that ever lived,
A horrid crowd of rambling thieves and drones,
Who ransack'd kingdoms, and dispeopled towns.
The Pict, and painted Briton, treach'rous Scot,
By hunger, theft, and rapine hither brought,
Norwegian pirates, buccaneering Danes,
Whose red-hair'd offspring every where remains;
Who, join'd with Norman-French, compound the breed,
From whence your true-born Englishmen proceed."
From searching into the origin of the race, he next,
in colours equally flattering, delineates its character-
istics :
OF DE FOE.
XV
"Fierce as the Briton, as the Roman brave,
And less inclined to conquer than to save;
Eager to fight, and lavish of their blood,
And equally of Fear and Forecast void.
The Pict has made 'em sour, the Dane morose,
False from the Scot, and from the Norman worse.
What honesty they have, the Saxons gave them,
And that, now they grow old, begins to leave them."
In terms equally forcible and biting, he runs over
the peerage as augmented by the natural children of
King Charles the Second, and other left-handed
sources, and concludes his poem, after warm pane-
gyrics on King William, his generals, and personal
friends, with an axiom, the truth of which must be
equally acknowledged by all ranks and in all ages:-
"Could but our ancestors retrieve their fate,
And see their offspring thus degenerate;
How we contend for birth and names unknown,
And build on their past actions, not our own;
They'd cancel records, and their tombs deface,
And then disown the vile degenerate race;
For fame of families is all a cheat,
"TIS PERSONAL VIRTUE ONLY MAKES US GREAT.'
The interest of the satire was no way lessened in
the estimation of King William, who knew as little
of the Muses as of the Graces, by the rough and
homely numbers in which it was conveyed; and the
run it had among the nation at large, praised by
some, abused by others, but read by all, was asto-
nishing. De Foe himself, in less than four years,
published nine editions of it at the price of one shil-
ling, and twelve other editions were printed without
xvi
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
his concurrence of these pirated editions no less than
80,000 were disposed of at a cheap rate in the streets
of London. By this unprincipled conduct De Foe
sustained a very considerable deduction in his profits,
which otherwise, according to his own calculation,
would have amounted to one thousand pounds, an
amazing sum certainly in those days for so small a
publication.
The favor in which De Foe was now held at court,
added to the esteem with which his mercantile in-
tegrity caused him to be regarded, procured him the
notice of many persons of rank and talent; and it was
probably to give himself some little additional conse-
quence among his new associates, or to restore it to
its Norman origin, that he took the De in addition
to his name, having before been known only as
Daniel Foe; nor would his antagonists ever compli-
ment him by addressing him with the foreign prefix.
De Foe resided several years at Tooting in
Surrey, where he rendered the Dissenters in that
neighbourhood the service of forming them into a
regular congregation, under the reverend and learned
Dr. Joshua Oldfield, author of a treatise on
Improvement of Human Reason.'
""
"The
The whole of the reign of King William afforded
perpetual invitation to the pen of a writer like De
Foe. The massacre of Glencoe, the question of oc-
casional conformity, of a standing army, the state of
morals, reformation of the stage, observance of the
sabbath, treaty of partition, act of settlement, and,
above all, the famous appeal of parliament known
OF DE FOE.
xvii
by the name of the " Legion Letter;" a statement
of grievances laid before them in the name of two
hundred thousand Englishmen, on the impeachment
of the leading Whig nobility;-were all treated on by
him with his accustomed vigour and independence.
The death of William in 1702 opened a fresh
field to him in vindicating both in prose and verse
the memory of that monarch, to whom he was cer-
tainly most devotedly attached, from the aspersions
of his enemies, and setting forth with all the lively
eloquence of grief quickened by indignation, the in-
numerable benefits conferred by him on a country
ungrateful enough to forget them before his remains
were cold. "Can an Englishman," says he, "go to
bed, or rise up, without blessing the very name of
King William? His perils have been our safety, his
labours our ease, his cares our comfort, his continued
harassing and fatigue our continued calm and tran-
quillity. When you sit down to eat, why have you
not soldiers quartered in your houses, to command
your servants and insult your tables? 'Tis because
King William subjected the military to the civil au-
thority, and made the sword of justice triumph over
the sword of war. When you lie down at night,
why do you not bolt and bar your chamber, to
defend the chastity of your wives and daughters from
the ungoverned lust of raging mercenaries? 'Tis
because King William restored the sovereignty and
dominion of the laws, and made the red-coat world
servants to those that paid them. When you re-
ceive your rents, why are not arbitrary defalcations
VOL. I.
b
xviii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
made on your tenants, arbitrary imposts laid on your
commerce, and oppressive taxes levied on your es-
tates, to support the tyranny that demands them, and
your bondage made strong at your own expense?
'Tis because King William re-established the essen-
tial security of your properties, and put you into that
happy condition, which few nations enjoy, of calling
your souls your own. How came you by a parlia-
ment, to balance between the governed and the go-
verning, but on King William's exalting liberty upon
the ruin of oppression? How came you ever to have
power to abuse your deliverer, but by the very de-
liverance he wrought for you? He gave you that
liberty you afterwards took to insult him, and sup-
ported you in those very privileges you ungratefully
bullied him with. You could not, with all your
brutish skill, provoke him to be a tyrant.
abhorred oppression, and scorned to practice it; and
he that had fire enough to assault all your oppressors,
and a hand strong enough to wrestle with an esta-
blished and confirmed tyrant, had yet meekness
enough to let you oppress him, because he would
not oppress you, and saw you ungrateful enough to
oppose, not your benefactor only, but your own feli-
city for his sake.”
He
The reign of Anne was fraught with trouble to the
dissenters; the queen advocated the cause of the high
church with firmness and moderation, but,
'It is the curse of kings to be attended
By slaves, that take their humors for a warrant
To break within the bloody house of life;
OF DE FOE.
xix
And, on the winking of authority,
To understand a law; to know the meaning
Of dangerous majesty, when, perchance, it frowns
More upon humor than advised respect."
<
The intemperance of the party thus patronized by the
queen soon threatened to elevate the mitre even above
the crown, and to mark all the humbler dissenters from
its dogmas as victims of persecution.
"I knew,"
says De Foe, in his Christianity of the High-church
considered,'" a person of the same principles with the
High-church, who, discoursing with me on the altering
the lieutenancy throughout the kingdom, was pleased
to say, Now, Sir, we have an opportunity, and don't
distrust our improving it: a little time and pains
shall compel all to be of one religion.' 'How can
that be,' added I; 'don't you find the Dissenters are
the most numerous and the richest persons in the
kingdom?' 'Tis no matter for that,' cried he, laugh-
ing; it will not be long before all Dissenters will be
out of office, and the magistracy in our hands; when
that dd liberty of conscience,' added he, biting
his lips, shall be snatched away, and they compelled
to conform.' 'I fancy,' said I, 'these things will not
happen in my time, nor in this reign, whatever they
may in the next.' Assure yourself that they will,'
added he; and as for those who are obstinate, I
hope Queen Mary's bonfires will blaze again in
Smithfield, that they may be all extirpated, and not
a soul left." Sentiments like these, unblushingly
expressed, were certain to lead to actions equally in-
temperate, insomuch that in a very short time the Dis-
6
XX
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
senters saw themselves exposed to insult in all public
places, their meeting-houses and religious assemblies
assaulted by the mob, and their ministers and preach-
ers scarcely free from violence in the streets.
Such a
state of things was calculated to excite the indignation
of far less fiery spirits than De Foe; it cannot therefore
be matter of surprise that he should attack it with the
sharpest weapons he had at command: among these
satire was ever ready; and he had now recourse to it
under its most delicate and dangerous form of irony.
He accordingly published his celebrated pamphlet,
entitled "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters,
or Proposals for the Establishment of the Church;"
in which, under the character of a high-churchman,
he so dexterously expounded the sentiments with
which Sacheverell, Leslie, and other licensed Tory
fanatics, had insulted true religion and common sense
from court pulpits, that, to use his own expression,
"the piece in its outward figure looked so natu-
ral, and was so like a brat of their own begetting,
that, like two apples, they could not know them
asunder." After pretended bitter reflections on the
Dissenters and their principles, and a retrospective
view of their conduct in the preceding reigns, affect-
ing implicit belief in all the factions and plots im-
puted to them, he proceeds to make as violent and
as ironical a panegyric on the virtues of the esta-
blished church, particularly complimenting it on its
lenity and moderation. "The first execution of the
laws against Dissenters in England," says he, "was
in the days of King James the First. And what did
OF DE Foe.
xxi
it amount to? Truly the worst they suffered was at
their own request, to let them go to New England,
and erect a colony, give them great privileges, defend
them against invaders, and receive no taxes or re-
venue from them. This was the cruelty of the church
of England. Fatal lenity! Had King James sent
all the puritans in England away to the West Indies,
we had been a national unmixed church. To requite
the lenity of the father, they took up arms against
the son; conquer, pursue, take, imprison, and at last
put to death the anointed of God, and destroy the
being of government! In the days of King Charles
the Second, how did the church reward their bloody
doings? With lenity and mercy. King Charles came
in all mercy and love, cherished them, preferred
them, withheld the rigour of the law, and oftentimes
against the advice of his parliament, gave them li-
berty of conscience. And how did they requite him
with the villainous contrivance to depose and murder
him and his successor at the Rye-plot? King James
the Second, as if mercy was the inherent quality of the
family, began his reign with unusual favour towards.
them. Nor could their joining the Duke of Mon-
mouth against him move him to do himself justice on
them but that mistaken prince thought to win them
by gentleness and love. How they requited him all
the world knows."
In examining the reasons urged in their favour, De
Foe says,
They are very numerous, they say, and
we cannot suppress them. To this may be answered,
1. They are not so numerous as the Protestants in
xxii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
France, and yet the French King effectually cleared
the nation of them at once, and we don't find that he
misses them at home. But I am not of opinion they
are so numerous as is pretended. Those mistaken
people of the church, who are misled and deluded by
the wheedling artifices to join with them, make their
party the greater. But these will open their eyes
when the government shall set heartily about the
work, and come off from them as some animals, which
they say always desert a house when it is likely to
fall. 2. The more numerous the more dangerous,
and, therefore, the more need to suppress them. 3. If
we are to allow them, only because we cannot sup-
press them, then it ought to be tried whether we can
or no. But I am of opinion, 'tis easy to be done,
and could prescribe ways and means, if it were pro-
per; but I doubt not the government will find effec-
tual methods for rooting the contagion from the face
of the land." He adds,
He adds, "We can never enjoy a set-
tled uninterrupted union and tranquillity in this na-
tion, till the spirit of whiggism, faction, and schism,
is melted down like the old money." To quicken the
work, De Foe tells his readers, "the time is come
which all good men have wished for. Here is the op-
portunity, and the only one perhaps that ever the
church had to secure herself, and destroy her enemies.
If ever you will establish the best Christian church in
the world; if ever you will suppress the spirit of en-
thusiasm; if ever you will free the nation from the
viperous brood that have so long sucked the blood of
their mother; if you will leave your posterity free
OF DE FOE.
xxiii
from faction and rebellion, this is the time. This is
the time to pull up this heretical weed of sedition,
that has so long disturbed the peace of our church,
and poisoned the good corn. But,' says another
hot and cold objector, this is renewing the fire and
faggot; this will be cruelty in its nature, and barba-
rous to all the world.' I answer, 'tis cruelty to kill a
snake or a toad in cold blood, but the poison of their
nature makes it a charity to our neighbours to destroy
those creatures, not for any personal injury received,
but for prevention; not for the evil they have done,
but the evil they may do. Serpents, toads, vipers, &c.
are noxious to the body, and poison the sensitive life;
these poison the soul, corrupt our posterity, ensnare
our children, destroy the vitals of our happiness, and
contaminate the whole mass. Shall any law be given
to such wild creatures? Some beasts are for sport,
and the huntsmen give them the advantage of ground;
but some are knocked on the head by all possible
ways of violence and surprise. I do not prescribe fire
and faggot; but, as Scipio said of Carthage, Delenda
est Carthago. They are to be rooted out of this na-
tion, if ever we will live in peace, serve God, or enjoy
our own. As for the manner, I leave it to those who
have a right to execute God's justice on the nation's
and the church's enemies."
De Foe adds, ""Tis vain to trifle in this matter.
The light foolish handling of them by fines is their
glory and advantage. If the gallows instead of the
compter, and the gallies instead of the fines, were the
reward of going to a conventicle, there would not be
xxiv
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
so many sufferers. The spirit of martyrdom is over.
They that will go to church to be chosen sheriffs
and mayors, would go to forty churches rather than
be hanged. If one severe law was made and punc-
tually executed, that whoever was found at a conven-
ticle should be banished the nation, and the preacher
be hanged, we should soon see an end of the tale ;
they would all come to church; and one age would
make us all one again. To talk of five shillings a
month for not coming to the sacrament, and one shil-
ling a week for not coming to church, is such a way of
converting people as was never known. This is sell-
ing them a liberty to transgress for so much money.
If it be not a crime, why don't we give full license?
And if it be, no price ought to compound for the com-
mitting it, for that is selling a liberty to people to sin
against God and the government. We hang men for
trifles, and banish them for things not worth naming;
but an offence against God and the church, against
the welfare of the world, and the dignity of religion,
shall be bought off for five shillings. This is such a
shame to a Christian government, that 'tis with regret
I transmit it to posterity."
The most remarkable circumstance attending this
satire was, that it offended all parties alike. The
high-church people did not find out that it was the
production of an enemy, and the dissenters did not
perceive that it was written by a friend. The church
party could not have committed a severer libel on
themselves than they did, in thus adopting as a serious
measure the advice to send all the dissenting minis-
OF DE Foe.
XXV
ters to the gallows, banish their people, and confiscate
their possessions; but the dissenters libelled them-
selves nearly as much by persisting to accuse the
author, even after De Foe was known to be the wri-
ter, of wishing to suggest arbitrary measures towards
them, to a government already too much inclined to
treat them with severity; forgetting that in that case,
as he observes, he must equally have invited persecu-
tion on the heads of an aged father and unoffending
wife, and six innocent children. It is certain, how-
ever, that the churchmen were universally deceived
by the work one, a fellow of a college in Cambridge,
having received it with a parcel of books from his
bookseller, was so delighted with its style and argu-
ments, that he wrote to thank the bookseller for hav-
ing sent it, in the following terms: "Sir, I received
yours, and with it that pamphlet which makes so
much noise, called 'The Shortest Way with the Dis-
senters,' for which I thank you. I join with that
author in all he says, and have such a value for the
book, that, next to the Holy Bible, and the sacred
comments, I take it for the most valuable piece I have.
I pray God put it into her Majesty's heart to put what
is there proposed into execution. Yours,
Yours, &c."
It may be imagined how deeply persons thus capa-
ble of canonizing a performance of this kind must
have been mortified, when they found it emanating,
in the most caustic spirit of satire, by his own acknow-
ledgment, from a dissenter, at once the champion and
oracle of his party. They blushed at the discovery
it had betrayed them into, of their intolerant spirit.
xxvi
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Their own reputation called on them to condemn the
book, and yet their resentment against its author in-
creased their hatred of his tenets. The whole nation
was in a blaze: even they who were most moderate in
their own principles condemned De Foe for throwing
such a firebrand among the inflammable materials of
party spirit; and the governing powers, being as ini-
mical to the man as to his book, it was resolved to
make this occurrence the "shortest way" of getting
rid of him altogether by crushing him beneath a state
prosecution.
De Foe saw the cloud beginning to darken over his
head, and prudently hid himself from the tempest. A
proclamation was then issued by government, offering a
reward of fifty pounds for the discovery of his retreat:
in this proclamation he is charged with "writing a scan-
dalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled, The shortest
Way with the Dissenters,"" and described as "a mid-
dle-sized spare man, about forty years old, of a brown
complexion, and dark-brown coloured hair, but wears
a wig; a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a
mole near the mouth." The book was next sentenced
to be burned by the hands of the common hangman ;
a measure more likely to promote the sale than the
suppression of the work; but when this procedure was
followed by the arrest of the writer and bookseller,
De Foe generously stepped forth from his conceal-
ment, resolved to brave the full fury of the storm,
rather than expose others to suffering for his error.
The short period of De Foe's retirement had been
spent in writing an apologetical explanation of the
OF DE FOE.
xxvii
work, but neither the respect he professed in it for the
Queen, his submission to the ruling powers, nor the
generosity he had displayed in coming forward to the
release of the innocent, could disarm faction of its
malice, or his enemies of their resentment.
He was
promised the protection of the Queen if he would
plead guilty to being the author of the obnoxious
pamphlet, and throw himself upon her mercy for par-
don. To this proposition he willingly acceded; but
having done so, he was basely forsaken by the court,
and weakly or wickedly found guilty by the jury of
composing and publishing a seditious libel, and con-
demned to pay a fine of 200 marks to the Queen,
stand three times in the pillory, be imprisoned during
the Queen's pleasure, and find sureties for his good
behaviour for seven years.
The infamous severity of this sentence, it has been
justly observed, reflected much more dishonor on the
court by which it was pronounced, than on De Foe,
on whom it was inflicted.
If it be easy, however, for those high in office to
pass sentences of disgrace, it is not always easy to
make them disgraceful. It was fortunately in the
midst of summer when De Foe was thus condemned to
make himself more conspicuous above others, than
either his friends or enemies had ever anticipated his
being destined to do. The populace adorned the pil-
lory with garlands, like votive offerings on the altar of
liberty; drank his health whilst they protected him
from insult during his exhibition; testified their joy
by shouts and acclamations when he was taken down,
xxviii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
and guarded him to a place of refuge, where refresh-
ments were prepared for him: that same day a " Hymn
to the Pillory" appeared from the pen of De Foe,
and the interest which was called forth on its first
publication by sympathy for the author, was con-
tinued through several editions by the generosity and
manliness of the sentiments it expressed.
The cruel and unjustifiable severity of government
towards De Foe was, nevertheless, a fatal blow to his
fortunes. Before his persecution he was in circum-
stances sufficiently prosperous to authorize him to keep
a coach and a proportionate establishment; but his
long imprisonment preventing him from looking after
his pantile works, which were the chief source of his
revenue, they were obliged to be given up; by which
a hundred labourers and their families were thrown
adrift, and De Foe, after losing three thousand five
hundred pounds, saw himself surrounded by a wife
whom he tenderly loved, and six children, with no
other means of supporting them than such as he might
be able to procure by his pen.
De Foe was now immured between prison walls;
his enemies attacking, his friends forsaking him, his
fortunes ruined, and temptations assailing him; for had
he chosen to abjure his party and his principles, in
one week the whole aspect of his fortunes might have
been changed. The very satire which now drew on
him the resentment of the governing powers, would
have been willingly paid for, had he consented to de-
vote it to their service. But this dark period of ad-
versity was that in which De Foe's virtues shone
or de Foe.
xxix
forth with the brightest lustre. He might, indeed, say,
“Till I die, I will not remove my integrity from me.
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go:
my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live."
He occupied his prison hours with various publica-
tions connected with the dissenting interests, and ga-
thered his works together into one uniform edition, as
well to secure those of which he was really the author
from piracy, as to disclaim others which were imputed
to him from malicious motives. Nor did his observa-
tion of men and manners forsake him in this compara-
tively limited field for its exercise. He seemed, like a
watchful sentinel, to survey from his fixed and narrow
station the movements of the enemy's line; and if he
could not say in the contemplative spirit of the author
of the Task,
""Tis pleasant through the loop-holes of retreat
To peep at such a world; to see the stir
Of the great Babel, and not feel the crowd;
To hear the roay she sends through all her gates
At a safe distance, where the dying sound
Falls a soft murmur on the uninjur'd ear
he yet might, in his own more homely numbers,
apply the consolations to himself, which he has de-
scribed in his Hymn to Peace, and which evidently
did not forsake him at this trying moment.
"Brought up in teaching sorrow's school,
In peace and patience I possess my soul;
Am master of my mind,
And there the heaven of satisfaction find.
XXX
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Let them ten thousand barbarous methods try,
When they'll no longer let me live, I'll die;
Of all their fury, I shall have
An uncontested conquest in the grave."
It was now also that he projected his periodical
work called "The Review," the first number of which
was published on Saturday, February 19, 1704.
combined news foreign and domestic, political contro-
versy, and disquisitions on trade and commerce, with
the lighter topics of literary criticism, gallantry and
anecdote. From its very nature, however, the chief
proportion of the work was connected with the topics of
the day, and consequently did not survive their ephe-
meral sources; insomuch that the nine quarto volumes
to which it extended are now no where to be found
except in detached parts; and are held in remem-
brance only as a prodigious effort of industry and
multifarious information in one man; particularly when
the various other productions emanating from the pen
of the same individual, and his divers active employ-
ments both political and commercial, during the same
period, are taken into consideration. Of the reward
of all this industry let the author himself speak at the
close of the first volume. "I have studied to direct
and inform the world," says he, "and what have I
had for my labour? Profit the press would not allow,
and therein I am not deceived, for I expected none.
But good manners and good language I thought I
might expect, because I gave no other; and it is but
just to treat mankind as they would be treated. But
neither has this been paid to me, in debt to custom
OF DE foe.
xxxi
and civility. How often have my ears, my hands,
and my head been to be pulled off? Impotent bullies;
that, attacked by truth and their vices stormed, fill the
air with rhodomontades and indecencies, but never
showed their face to the resentment truth had a just
cause to entertain for them! I have passed through
clouds of clamour, cavil, raillery, and objection; and
have this satisfaction, that truth being the design,
finis coronat, I am never forward to value my own
performances; but I cannot but own myself infinitely
pleased, and more than satisfied, that wise men read
this paper with pleasure, own the just observations in
it, and have voted it useful.”
Under these circumstances no wonder that he medi-
tated bringing the work to a close at the end of the
first volume; as, however, he was induced to continue
it by subscription for several years afterwards, it is to
be hoped that he finally gained something more by it
than the necessary charges of the press, which he had
the generosity to say he was sorry his circumstances
did not enable him to oblige his readers with, in addi-
tion to his own labours.
In the beginning of August 1704, De Foe was
restored to those precious gifts of heaven, liberty and
fresh air, through the interposition of Harley, Speaker
to the House of Commons; who, aware of the benefit
the new administration might derive from the variety
and readiness of his talents, wisely resolved to try
how far the sunbeams of prosperity might relax the
sternness of that independent spirit which the bitter
blasts of adversity had had no power to bend. The
xxxii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Queen accordingly, under the representations of her
minister, was enabled to gratify her natural goodness
of heart by releasing the unfortunate victim of party
cabal, sending him at the same time a sum of money
to pay his fine, and the expenses of his discharge, and
transmitting a considerable supply to his wife and
family through the hands of the lord treasurer Go-
dolphin.
Immediately on his release from prison, De Foe
went to Bury St. Edmonds, in Suffolk, to recruit his
health and recover his serenity. Here he occupied
himself in writing various works of more or less im-
portance, connected with the events of the day. In
the beginning of the ensuing year he was sent abroad,
probably under an assumed name, on some secret
mission by Harley, who had rightly calculated on
his being more easily worked upon by gratitude than
opposition. He acquitted himself so well in this kind
of agency as to procure him no small degree of favor
with government; but the violence with which reli-
gious and political fury raged during the latter part of
the reign of Anne, involved him, as usual, in all the
heat of controversy in which it seems to have been his
singular bad fortune to incur the hatred of opposing
parties, without gaining the confidence of his own.
The cause of this dislike and distrust may possibly
be found in De Foe's manner of treating his subjects,
as much as in the subjects themselves. Satire is at all
times a dangerous weapon to handle; irony the most
difficult part of it to manage, and it was that of which
De Foe was unfortunately most fond: the effect of it,
OF DE FOE.
xxxiii
1
as we have already seen in his "Shortest Way with
the Dissenters," too often was to bewilder his friends
without convincing his enemies. Whatever ill-will,
however, his principles or his tone of expressing them
might beget, yet the mode in which it was frequently
shown was base and cruel; in attacking him by means
of the press, he was only attacked with his own
weapons; and even the torrents of abuse thus poured
forth on him from that great public fount of good
and evil, might only be regarded as the missiles of
the day but in resorting to personal insults and
threats of violence as they did, his enemies disgraced
themselves; and in endeavoring to ruin him a second
time by law proceedings, sham actions and arrests,
trade debts compounded for seventeen years before,
and assignments of debts and collateral bonds eagerly
sought and purchased to be brought out against him,
with other unjustifiable artifices, they too evidently
showed, that by whatever denomination they might
express their Christian doctrine, its spirit and prac-
tice was far from them.
Under such usage De Foe might well complain,
as he affectingly does, that he stood alone in the
world, abandoned by those whom he had served, sold
and betrayed by friends, abused and cheated by bar-
barous and unnatural relations, sued for other men's
debts, and stripped naked by public injustice of what
should have enabled him to pay his own.
Such were
the results of his contest for liberty and religion, the
most sacred things under heaven; without which, man,
ceasing to be rational, becomes only a responsible
VOL. I.
C
xxxiv
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
brute. With so little to delight him at home, De Foe
willingly accepted an offer made him by the ministers
to go into Scotland on a mission respecting the union,
a subject on which he had bestowed considerable
thought, and which he had personally discussed many
years before with king William. His known princi-
ples, his insinuating address, and the variety of his
information in all matters connected with political
economy, added to the regard he had always ex-
pressed towards the Scotch, gained him an excellent
reception among "that sagacious people," until he
came to be consulted on the taxes and excise, when
the difficulty of dealing them out in such proportions as
suited at once the principles and purses of the parties
who were to pay them, speedily turned their " noble
nature into bitterness," and nearly procured him the
honor of martyrdom, as the framer of these un-
palatable measures, and the advocate of that union,
the advantages of which all their second-sightedness
did not enable them at that time to foresee.
The Scotch, however, were beholden to De Foe in
this and several subsequent visits for many valuable
suggestions respecting their trade, manufactories, and
shipping; he also complimented them with a long
poem in folio, entitled, “ Caledonia, a poem in honor
of Scotland and the Scots' nation, in three parts;"
and, in return, the Duke of Queensberry, the queen's
high-commissioner, complimented him with the title
of Esquire, and the exclusive privilege of selling his
eulogistic strains for the space of seven years it does
not appear, however, that this privilege was ever of
OF DE Foe.
XXXV
much utility to him, the sale barely extending beyond
the original subscription list. Nevertheless, his His-
tory of the Union of Great Britain, published in 1709,
in folio, pp. 685, is a valuable performance, at once
a faithful record of important historical events, and a
correct picture of the actors in them. When De Foe
returned to London, January 1708, after an absence
in Scotland of sixteen months, he was rewarded for
his services with some appointment to which was an-
nexed a fixed salary; probably a sinecure, as he does.
not appear to have been confined by it to any particu-
lar duties, or to have been required to comply with the
sacramental test, to which he uniformly objected.
When through the jealousies of the Marlborough
and Masham interests the queen was compelled to
dismiss her favorite Harley from her councils, De Foe
saw himself placed in a very painful and delicate di-
lemma. To Harley he owed his liberty, his pension,
and his consideration in society; to Godolphin,
who on the retirement of Harley was restored to the
queen's favor, he feared that on that very account he
could only be an object of distrust; fortunately how-
ever for him, both parties acquitted themselves with
equal generosity towards him; Harley releasing him.
from all supposed obligation which honor might
suggest to him, to follow the fortunes of his first pa-
tron rather than accept any employment from his suc-
cessor; and Godolphin retaining him in his situation,
without any way fettering his honest independence.
De Foe gives the following account of the trans-
action in his appeal to "Honor and Justice," pub-
xxxvi
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
lished seven years afterwards, in which he takes a
review of his political life under the different reigns
he had seen, and vindicates himself from the charge
of inconsistency. "When on that fatal breach the
Secretary of State was dismissed from the service, I
looked on myself as lost; it being a general rule in
such cases, when a great officer falls, that all who
came in by his interest fall with him. And resolving
never to abandon the fortunes of the man to whom I
owed so much of my own, I quitted the usual appli-
cations which I had made to my lord treasurer. But
my generous benefactor, when he understood it, frankly
told me that I should by no means do so; 'for,' said
he, in the most engaging terms, my lord treasurer
will employ you in nothing but what is for the public
service, and agreeable to your own sentiments of
things. And, besides, it is the queen you are serv-
ing, who has been very good to you. Pray apply
yourself as you used to do; I shall not take it ill
from you in the least.'
"On this, I went to wait on my lord treasurer,
who received me with great freedom, and told me,
smiling, he had not seen me a long while. I told his
lordship very frankly the occasion; that the un-
happy breach that had fallen out, had made me doubt-
ful whether I should be acceptable to his lordship;
that I knew it was usual, when great persons fall,
that all who were in their interest fell with them;
that his lordship knew the obligations I was under,
and that I could not but fear my interest in his lord-
ship was lessened on that account. Not at all, Mr.
OF DE Foe.
xxxvii
De Foe,' replied his lordship, I always think a man
honest, till I find to the contrary.' On this I at-
tended his lordship as usual; and being resolved to
remove all possible ground of suspicion that I kept
any secret correspondence, I never visited or wrote
to, or any way corresponded with my principal bene-
factor, for above three years; which he so well knew
the reason of, and so well approved that punctual
behaviour in me, that he never took it ill from me
at all.
"In consequence of this reception, my Lord Godol-
phin had the goodness, not only to introduce me for
the second time to her majesty, and to the honor of
kissing her hand, but obtained for me the continuance
of an appointment which her majesty had been pleased
to make me, in consideration of a former special ser-
vice I had done, and in which I had run as much risk.
of my life as a grenadier on the counterscarp; and
which appointment, however, was first obtained for
me at the intercession of my said first benefactor, and
is all owing to that intercession and her majesty's
bounty. On this second introduction, her majesty
was pleased to tell me, with a goodness peculiar to
herself, that she had much satisfaction in my former
services, that she had appointed me for another office,
which was something nice, and that my lord trea-
surer should tell me the rest; and so I withdrew.
The next day his lordship ordered me to attend, told
me that he must send me to Scotland, and gave me
but three days to prepare myself. Accordingly, I
went to Scotland, where neither my business, nor the
xxxviii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
manner of my discharging it, is material to this tract;
nor will it be ever any part of my character, that I
reveal what should be concealed.
And yet, my
errand was such as was far from being unfit for a
sovereign to direct, or an honest man to perform;
and for the service I did on that occasion, as it is
not unknown to the greatest man now in the nation,
under the king and the prince, so, I dare say, his
grace was never displeased with the part I had in it,
and I hope will not forget it."
On the fifth of November, 1709, the celebrated Dr.
Sacheverel preached his famous sermon at St. Paul's,
before the city magistrates, on the perils among false
brethren; in which he so out-Heroded Herod in the
promulgation of a passive obedience and non-resistance
and the divine right of kings, that the throne and the
high-church ought alike to have blushed at their advo-
cate, who seemed destined eventually to teach them that
an injudicious friend is the most injurious of enemies.
At the moment, however, his discourse had the effect
of setting the kingdom once more in a blaze: tumult
filled the streets, and violence threatened even private
dwellings. Forty thousand copies of the Doctor's ser-
mon were dispersed in a few weeks, whilst the author
was burnt in effigy by the whigs, and the tories re-
turned the compliment by ducking and whipping the
dissenting ministers under the same form. De Foe now
appealed to the public, and asked if he had exagge-
rated, in his Shortest Way with the Dissenters, the
views and feelings of the high-church party, who now,
through their trumpet, or tool, the Doctor, advocated in
OF DE Foe.
xxxix
earnest, as openly as they durst, the very measures they
had so warmly resented his imputing to them in jest.
It was soon, however, the Doctor's turn to stand
at the bar where De Foe had stood before him, being
impeached by the House of Commons, and put on his
trial to answer for the seditious and inflammatory na-
ture of his discourse. But Sacheverel had the good for-
tune to find a jury more lenient, though equally pusilla-
nimous; and merely being prohibited from preaching
for the term of three years, he was set at liberty to go
on a sort of fanatical crusade throughout the kingdom,
spreading dissension and ill-will wherever he went.
De Foe was not silent at this important juncture; he
devoted the chief part of his Review to the exposure
of Sacheverel's doctrines, and to calling on the
whigs and dissenters to stand up manfully for them-
selves at such an alarming crisis. Nevertheless, in all
his discussions he showed a degree of moderation and
candour the more to be admired, because he himself
was treated with so much virulence by the " Papists,
Jacobites, and High-flyers," as he terms them, as
even to have his life threatened by some of the most
infuriated among them. The effect of Dr. Sacheve-
rel's ultra-toryism was a complete change in the mi-
nistry, by which Harley was once more restored to
the most important offices in the state; and knowing
as he did the value of De Foe's services, he soon
availed himself of them again in sending him on vari-
ous secret commissions to Scotland and other places,
which took him much out of the way of the tumults
and dissensions of the metropolis: the intervening time
xl
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
he spent in comparative retirement at Stoke Newing-
ton, where he had a house for some years. Here he
seemed to be gradually weaning himself from politics,
and directing his mental powers to better things than
those ephemeral objects which ambition or avarice are
continually suggesting to the evil nature of man; but
whilst the events connected with them pass away like
vapours, and are no more remembered, the effects on
the actors in them. may remain, and become almost
imperishable.
The times were as yet, however, far too unsettled to
allow of a mind like De Foe's having any long rest; the
peace of Utrecht among other great political events, or
rather the conditions of it, drew forth his censures; and
with his accustomed ill-fortune he found that, as he
had before displeased the body of the people by advo-
cating a peace at all, so he now offended the ministers
by finding fault with the terms on which it was con-
cluded: treated as an apostate by his own party, and
regarded with an eye of suspicion by those whose in-
terests he was accused of secretly advocating, he with-
drew for a time from the field of action, and retired to
Halifax in Yorkshire, where, according to tradition,
he lodged at the sign of the Rose and Crown, in the
back lane, and divided his social hours chiefly be-
tween Dr. Nettleton, author of several professional
publications, and an essay entitled "Some Thoughts
concerning Virtue and Happiness," and Mr. Na-
thaniel Priestley, a dissenting minister, ancestor of
the celebrated Dr. Priestley. Neither philosophy,
however, nor divinity were sufficient to interest De
OF DE FOE.
xli
Foe, unless he could link them with his darling poli-
tics; and in this his comparative retirement he was
tempted again to have recourse to his favorite weapon,
ironical satire, of which it certainly, as wielded by
him, could not be said,
"That two-handed weapon at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."
It was, indeed, two-edged, as well as two-handed,
and speedily brought De Foe into the same situation
it had done before; namely, at the bar of the Queen's
Bench, there to explain the difference between jest
and earnest, for the benefit of all such solemn state
blockheads and shallow coffee-house politicians as
could not see any difference between one and the
other. The explanation cannot be better given than
in the words of the preamble to the pardon which her
majesty Queen Anne, with that good sense which
always distinguished her proceedings when they were
suffered to emanate from her own judgment and bene-
volence, was graciously pleased to grant him.-
'Whereas, in the term of the Holy Trinity last past
our Attorney-general did exhibit an information in
our Court of Queen's Bench at Westminster, against
Daniel De Foe, late of London, gent., for writing,
printing, and publishing, and causing to be written,
printed and published, three libels; the one entitled
'Reasons against the Succession of the House of
Hanover; with an enquiry how far the Abdication
of King James, supposing it to be legal, ought to af-
fect the person of the Pretender.' One other, entitled,
xlii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
· And what if the Pretender should come? or,
Some considerations of the advantages and real con-
sequences of the Pretender's possessing the Crown of
Great Britain.' And one other, entitled, 'An An-
swer to a question that nobody thinks of, viz. What
if the Queen should die ?'
"And whereas the same Daniel De Foe hath by his
humble petition represented to us that he, with a sin-
cere design to propagate the interest of the Hanover
succession, and to animate the people against the de-
signs of the Pretender, whom he always looked on as an
enemy to our sacred person and government, did publish
the same pamphlets; in all which books, although the
titles seemed to look as if written in favor of the Pre-
tender, and several expressions, as in all ironical
writings it must be, may be wrested against the true
design of the whole, and turned to a meaning quite
different from the intention of the author; yet the pe-
titioner humbly assures us, in the solemnest manner,
that his true and only design, in all the said books,
was, by an ironical discourse of recommending the
Pretender, in the strongest and most forcible manner
to expose his designs, and the ruinous consequences of
his succeeding therein, which, as the petitioner humbly
represents, will appear to our satisfaction by the
books themselves, where the following expressions are
very plain, viz.—That the Pretender is recommended
as a person proper to amass the English liberties into
one sovereignty; supplying them with the privilege of
wearing wooden shoes; easing them of the trouble of
choosing parliaments; and the nobility and gentry of
OF DE FOE.
xliii
the hazard and expense of winter journeys, by go-
verning them in that more righteous method, of his
absolute will, and enforcing the laws by a glorious
standing army; paying all the nation's debts at once,
by stopping the funds, and shutting up the exchequer ;
easing and quieting their differences in religion, by
bringing them to the union of Popery, or leaving
them at liberty to have no religion at all.' That these
were some of the very expressions in which the said
books, which the petitioner sincerely designed to ex-
pose, and oppose, as far as in him lies, the interest of
the Pretender, and with no other intention; neverthe-
less the petitioner, to his great surprise, has been misre-
presented, and his said books misconstrued, as if writ-
ten in favor of the Pretender; and the petitioner is now
under prosecution for the same; which prosecution,
if further carried on, will be the utter ruin of the peti-
tioner and his family. Wherefore the petitioner, hum-
bly assuring us of the innocence of his designs, as
aforesaid, flies to our clemency, and most humbly
prays our most gracious and free pardon.
"We, taking the premises and the circumstances of
the petitioner into our royal consideration, are graci-
ously pleased to extend our royal mercy to the peti-
tioner. Our will and pleasure therefore is, that you
prepare a bill for our royal signature, to pass our great
seal, containing our gracious and free pardon to him,
the same Daniel De Foe, of the offences aforemen-
tioned, and of all indictments, convictions, pains, pe-
nalties, and forfeitures, incurred thereby; and you are
to insert therein all such apt and beneficial clauses as
xliv
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
you shall judge requisite, to make this our intended
pardon more full, valid, and effectual; and for so do-
ing this shall be your warrant. Given at our Castle
at Windsor, the 20th day of November, 1713, in the
twentieth year of our reign. By her Majesty's com-
mand,
"BOLINGBROKE."
Thus harmlessly evaporated the effects of produc-
tions which Sir Thomas Powis, who had been made a
judge a short time before, had gravely asserted, con-
tained matter for which the author "might be hanged,
drawn, and quartered." It cannot be denied, how-
ever, that the frequent recurrence to this mode of
writing was not very creditable either to the judgment
or good feeling of De Foe, who must have seen that it
answered no other end than that of mystifying all par-
ties alike, and laying him equally open to the most
opposite charges. The whigs hated him for his ima-
gined attachment to the tories; the tories hated him
for his real attachment to the whigs: the Jacobites
hated him for advocating the Hanoverian succession;
and the Hanoverians hated him for adhering to his
early friend, Harley, Earl of Oxford, who was known.
to be in the Jacobite interest. Thus, as he acknow-
ledges himself, he lived "under universal contempt,"
though we must, in fairness, continue in his own
words, "which contempt I have learned to contemn,
and have one uninterrupted joy in my soul, not at my
being contemned, but that no crime can be laid to my
charge, to make this contempt my due." Certain it is,
however, that his political vacillation, or tergiversation,
OF DE FOE.
xlv
as his enemies more decidedly termed it, caused
him to be considered towards the latter part of his
career as a mere hireling, "an ambi-dexterous, merce-
nary scribbler," as Boyer the historian expresses it,
who prostituted his skill in "puzzling an argument by
verbose sophistry;" and it is evident that the facility
with which he could copy to the very life the tone of
thought and peculiarity of expressing it in any party,
whose arguments he wished for the moment to assume,
made others equally doubtful of his sincerity when he
uttered his own. The nicety of his imitation so closely
approached to intentional deception, that at length it
gained him the usual reward of habitual falsehood, not
to be believed when he should speak the truth. That
he keenly felt, however, the doubtful situation in
which his own vivacity of feeling, and to speak ac-
cording to its effects, unfortunate fluency, as it might
be styled, of expressing it, had placed him, is evident
from his vindication of himself in his " Appeal to Ho-
nor and Justice," wherein he says, "I know too much
and have learnt to
of the world to expect good in it,
value it too little to be concerned at the evil. I have
gone through a life of wonders, and am the subject of a
vast variety of providences. I have been fed more by
miracle than Elijah, when the ravens were his pur-
veyors. I have some time ago summed up the scenes
of my life in this distich :--
"No man has tasted differing fortunes more,
And thirteen times I have been rich and poor."
"In the school of affliction I have learnt more philo-
xlvi
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
sophy than at the academy, and more divinity than
from the pulpit; in prison I have learnt to know that
liberty does not consist in open doors, and the free
egress and regress of locomotion. I have seen the
rough side of the world as well as the smooth; and
have, in less than half a year, tasted the difference
between the closet of a king and the dungeon of New-
gate. I have suffered deeply for cleaving to princi-
ples, of which integrity I have lived to say, none but
those I suffered for ever reproached me with it. The
immediate causes of my suffering have been the being
betrayed by those I have trusted, and scorning to be-
tray those who trusted me. To the honor of English
gratitude, I have this remarkable truth to leave be-
hind me that I was never so basely betrayed as by
those whose families I had preserved from starving ;
nor so basely treated as by those I starved my own
family to preserve. The same chequer-work of for-
tune attends me still the people I have served, and
love to serve, cut my throat every day, because I will
not cut the throat of those that have served and as-
sisted me. Ingratitude has always been my aversion,
and, perhaps, for that reason it is my exercise.
Early disasters, and frequent turn of my affairs, have
left me incumbered with an insupportable weight of
debt; and the remarkable compassion of some creditors,
after continued offers of stripping myself naked, by
entire surrenders upon oath, have never given me more
trouble than they were able, or less than they knew
how; by which means most of the debts I have dis-
charged, have cost me forty shillings in the pound,
OF DE FOE.
xlvii
and the creditor half as much to recover. I have a
large family, a wife and six children, who never want
what they should enjoy, or spend what they ought to
Under all these circumstances, and many
spare.
others too long to write, my only happiness is this:
I have always been kept cheerful, easy, and quiet,
enjoying a perfect calm of the mind, clearness of
thought, and satisfaction not to be broken in upon by
whatever may happen to me. If any man ask me
how I arrived to it, I answer him, in short, by a con-
stant serious application to the great, solemn, and
weighty work of resignation to the will of heaven, by
which let no man think I presume."
This manly and spirited performance must have had
a more powerful effect on the minds of his contempo-
raries, in the vindication of its author's character, had
he not given so many proofs of being able to write
with equal elegance and force on subjects which had
no real foundation of conviction in his mind. In the
present instance, however, his physical powers bore
testimony to his mental sincerity, by sympathising in
the agitation it produced: an apoplectic stroke was the
consequence, and for six months he languished in an
almost hopeless state; from which, however, he was
gradually restored, and might every way be said to
enter a new state of life; for his political existence
seems to have terminated on the commencement of
the reign of George the First, and his literary charac-
ter gradually assumed a new feature, as his body
recovered its strength, and his mind its serenity. The
first fruits of De Foe's recovered health and altered
xlviii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
views were, “The Family Instructor," in three parts;
addressed, first, to fathers and children; second, mas-
ters and servants; third, husbands and wives. The
laudable object of this work was to impress on the
heads of families the solemn duty incumbent on them,
of instructing their children and dependents in the
principles of religion and virtue; and on the latter,
the duty of listening to those instructions with an
obedient spirit and a teachable disposition. These
instructions being thrown into the form of familiar
dialogue, at that time the most popular mode of con-
veying admonition, and enlivened by apt stories, re-
lated in that persuasive tone of reality in which the
author on all occasions showed himself so eminently
happy, it speedily became a favorite both with young
and old, and has passed through an almost countless
number of editions: it was indeed equally adapted to
delight and instruct all sects and conditions, being
written in that true spirit of Christianity, which says
not, “I am of Paul," or " of Cephas." It might lite-
rally be said to be equally adapted to the cottage and
the crown; and George the First, though he professed
no esteem for the author, yet honored the work by
including it in the list of books he wished to be used
in the education of his own family, and the original
copy thus selected may be seen among the literary
curiosities of the British Museum.
Four years after the "Family Instructor," appeared
from the same prolific pen the romance, which has
immortalised its author, of Robinson Crusoe, or as it
most attractively stood forth in the original title-page,
OF DE FOE.
xlix
"The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Ro-
BINSON CRUSOE, of York, mariner; who lived eight
and twenty years all alone in an uninhabited island on
the coast of Oronooque; having been cast on shore by
shipwreck, wherein all the men perished but himself.
With an account how he was at last strangely deliver-
ed by pirates. Written by Himself. London: printed
for W. Taylor, at the Ship, in Paternoster-row, 1719.
8vo. p. 364." To enter into any minute analysis or
studied eulogium on a work which continues to blazon
its own fame in successive editions to generation after
generation of readers, would, in this place at least,
be worse than useless; it would be impertinent and
injurious to analyze the foundation of that fame; and
laboriously to point out all those beauties on which
it rests, would only be to rob the reader of the plea-
sure of discovering them himself, and to convert the
delightful sympathies of his imagination into a cold
assent of judgment.
Blaire and Beattie, Charles Lamb and Sir Walter
Scott, critics and biographers innumerable, have all
told us why we are and why we ought to be de-
lighted with this captivating performance; but of all
the thousand eulogiums uttered on it, Johnson's, Mar-
montel's, and Rousseau's, are the shortest and the best,
and render all others indeed superfluous.
When De Foe first offered Robinson Crusoe to the
booksellers, he could with difficulty find a purchaser for
the work; in which difficulty he merely experienced
the same want of penetration on the part of these only
true Mæcenases as Johnson styles them, speaking of
d
VOL. I.
1
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
them as a body, which Milton had done before him
with respect to his Paradise Lost; and as many of
our best authors have done after him with respect to
works which have afterwards made the fortunes of the
very men by whom they were rejected in the first
instance. So it was with Robinson Crusoe. Taylor,
the fortunate purchaser, who probably calculated with
some distrust as to a few pounds more or less when
treating for the copyright, made a thousand pounds
by his bargain: the work acted on the public like a
charm; it made its way through all ranks, it won all
hearts; and in four months it passed through as many
editions. Nevertheless De Foe's pleasure at the suc-
cess of his work was far from coming to him unmixed
with mortification; and every argument that malice
could suggest was resorted to, to deteriorate from the
merits of the work, and obstruct the lawful profits of
the sale. When it was laid before the public as a
narrative of real occurrences, the local and chronologi-
cal circumstances were inquired into and compared,
geographical errors eagerly sought out; the probability
and even possibility of many of the events argued on,
and the whole scouted as a fiction and a romance; it
being alleged that there never was any such man,
or place, or circumstance in any man's life; that it
was formed and embellished by invention, to impose
on the world; but no sooner was it acknowledged to
be a fiction, written to please and instruct, than this
again was denied, and the author accused of retailing
facts of which he had unfairly possessed himself; in
short, of stealing them from the papers of one Alex-
OF DE Foe.
li
ander Selkirk, who had placed them in his hands for
the purpose of preparing them for the press; thus
gaining a reputation to which he had no claim, and
robbing another at once of the pleasure of standing
forth the hero of his own story, and also of the profits
that might have accrued to him therefrom. Then again,
when these charges fell harmless to the ground, dis-
proved by time and their own absurdity, others were
invented to prove that he had had nothing at all to
do with the work, fairly or unfairly, excepting to
father it, and that the real author was Arbuthnot, or
Lord Oxford, or somebody nobody knew who. So
ingenious are envy and malice to suggest arguments
which not even credulity itself would accept as te-
nable from less perverted sources.
There can be little doubt that De Foe was indebted
for the first idea of his work to the Narrative of Alex-
ander Selkirk, who, in consequence of a quarrel with
his commander, had been set on shore at his own request
on the uninhabited island of Juan Fernandez, where
he lived four years and four months in complete soli-
tude. His account of his mode of passing his time,
and the methods he had recourse to for procuring his
subsistence, speedily found their way to the press
through various channels, and among the rest through
that delightful writer Steele, whose pen gave attrac-
tions to every subject it touched on. He published
an interesting account of Selkirk in the 26th number
of his periodical paper called the Englishman. It
was impossible for so singular and interesting a state-
ment not to make a forcible impression on an observer
lii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
like De Foe, of "each change of many coloured life ;"
and turning it over in the alembic of his fruitful mind,
he brought out sterling metal, for the rough ore of which
he might indeed be indebted to Selkirk, but which he
shaped into current coin by the force of his own
genius. With the image of Selkirk before him, and
with that peculiar tact in imitating character which so
remarkably distinguished him, he wrote as Selkirk
would in all probability have written, as far as we
may judge by his viva voce narration delivered to Sir
Richard Steele, had he been a writing man, which
however it does not appear that he was; at any rate
not during his solitary sojourn at Juan Fernandez;
for even if we agree with Dogberry, "that reading
and writing come by nature," yet as he had neither
pen, ink, nor paper, all the time he remained there,
De Foe may safely be acquitted from the charge of
stealing what was not to be stolen; any more than
Tilburina could see the Spanish fleet when it was not
in sight. It is to be lamented, however, that this
opinion has gained such ground as to cause a preju-
dice against De Foe even in those who have most
admired his work; and it is melancholy to think how
many have heard of this groundless impeachment on
his honor, honesty, and humanity, who yet never
heard of the proofs of all those ennobling qualities
which he had given in his conduct towards his cre-
ditors, and in many of the relations of his private life;
so true it is that men's evil deeds, real or imputed, we
grave on brass,
Their virtues write on water."
OF DE FOE.
liii
In every point of view this far-famed romance may be
considered as the chef d'œuvre of its author; embody-
ing all the most valuable characteristics of his mind,
setting his principles in the most honorable light, and
consequently inspiring that respect and sympathy
towards himself which can never be excited by the
ebullitions of party spirit, or the tediousness of po-
lemical controversy. To his early reverence for reli-
gion, sanctified to him by many sorrows for its sake,
we are indebted for the fine delineations of the work-
ings of grace in the heart, and the devout reflections
which he puts into the mouth of his hero; from his ex-
perience of the world we derive his correct exhibition
of the various aspects of fortune; and to that aptness
in identifying himself with the character he assumed,
which he had so often indulged in to his cost, we owe
the exquisite naturalness of sentiment and feeling
which links us so closely with the solitary monarch of
all he surveys, and makes us every instant acknow-
ledge the truth of Terence's observation,
"Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto."
The success of Robinson Crusoe encouraged De Foe
to continue that kind of dramatic fiction, as it may be
termed, in which the characters develope themselves
through the vehicle of familiar dialogue; whilst the
descriptive and reflective parts of it come in as the
back-ground and accessories of the scene, giving that
exquisite air of naturalness which comes so home to
the heart of the reader, and in which De Foe stood
unrivalled. Next to "Robinson Crusoe," the "Me-
liv
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
moirs of a Cavalier" may be reckoned the most
pleasing of any of De Foe's fictitious narratives. It
is indeed, as has been observed by Mr. Chalmers,
a romance the likeliest to truth that ever was
written;" insomuch that it deceived Lord Chatham
into the belief of considering it an authentic history;
and as such he used to recommend it as the best
account extant of the civil wars. Though all De Foe's
performances are entitled to the praise of natural de-
lineation, yet on that account some of them, from the
very nature of their subjects, are more repulsive.
Such are his "Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll
Flanders," and his "Fortunate Mistress, or Life of
Roxana."
The Life and Piracies of Captain Singleton," and
"Robert's Voyages," can only be considered as infe-
rior imitations of Robinson Crusoe; whilst his Dick-
ory Crooke, Duncan Campbell, and various per-
formances of a similar order, may all be considered as
tales gone by, and not likely to awaken any interest
in the revival. Not so with his "History of the
Plague," one of the finest combinations of real parts,
with imaginary feelings and incidents, that ever was
penned; on a subject too not to be glanced on with-
out interest, and not to be contemplated without horror.
To enter into extracts from this work would be to be-
gin at the close of our brief memoirs-a theme which
might extend it to a volume. Sir Walter Scott has
pronounced that "had he not been the author of
Robinson Crusoe,' De Foe would have deserved im-
mortality for the genius which he has displayed in this
OF DE FOE.
Iv
work." It is well known to have furnished the ma-
chinery for a poem of great merit published at Edin-
burgh in 1816, and entitled, "The City of the Plague,"
by John Wilson, now Professor of moral philosophy
in the University of Glasgow, and author of many
other esteemed works. The praise of a writer of
such kindred genius, in affixing the stamp of nature
and truth to every thing that flows from his pen,
is eulogium sufficient on the merits of the work, with-
out having recourse to the testimonies which others
have borne to it, more especially by borrowing from
its pages wherewith to give interest to their own.
Next to De Foe's "Family Instructor," may be
placed, in respect both to merit and popularity, his
"Religious Worship," published four years after,
in which the important truth, that the holiness and
stability of conjugal love must have religion to rest
on for its basis, is enforced in domestic narrative, and
enlivened by a variety of interesting dialogues con-
nected with the subject.
Though De Foe was now advancing in years, and
declining in health, his habits of observation rendered
it almost necessary to him to continue taking a part in
all the occurrences of the day: hence we find him in
the very evening of his life still discussing, still pro-
´jecting, and, we may always add, still instructing.
Religion, metaphysics, astrology, apparitions, ma-
gic, matrimony, madness, visions of the angelic world,
history of the devil, conduct of servants, advice to
tradesinen, plans for suppressing robberies, founding
monasteries and London universities; tours round
lvi
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
I
Great Britain; suggestions for extending its trade,
commerce, and manufactures;-these were the occu-
pations of the fire-side, which he daily grew less un-
able and more unwilling to leave and if his later
productions show by comparison somewhat of the
feebleness of his declining state, it is only by com-
parison; and his apology for it must have more
than redeemed the difference in the mind of such
readers as had been delighted with the vigor of his
earlier productions.
De Foe's old age had few of these consolations,
and was moreover tried with afflictions to which
the vicissitudes and vexations of his youth were but
as things of a moment, the light sprinkling of an
April shower compared to the arrowy sleet of De-
cember's storms. He had to acknowledge from his
own sad experience,
"How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child."
His daughters appear to have been dutiful and af-
fectionate to him, and we have his own testimony that
Sophia, his youngest, who married Mr. Baker, a
gentleman of considerable scientific attainments, was
particularly endeared to him by her amiable quali-
ties. But his son was, as far as we may judge from
his father's melancholy mention of him, the afflict-
ing reverse of every thing which filial duty or even
common honesty called upon him to be. It seems
that De Foe, continually subject to the persecution
of some relentless creditor, had, in order to make a
provision for his wife and his two unmarried daugh-
OF DE FOE.
lvii
ters, conveyed his property to his son, with an under-
standing, fully acknowledged by the latter, that it
was to be for their benefit; but with a degree of tur-
pitude more calculated to send his father sorrowing
to the grave, than any mere bereavement of property
under other circumstances could have been, he appro-
priated it to his own use, and refused even a pittance of
it to the relief of those who had given him birth,
How keenly this abominable conduct was felt by
De Foe, may be seen in the following moving epistle
from him to his son-in-law Mr. Baker, written shortly
after he had been arrested at the suit of some unmer-
ciful creditor, and exposed again to the horrors of a
jail, a mortification, which, though it lasted only a
short time, was yet long enough to cover with dis-
grace the son who might have prevented it, and yet
withheld the means.
"Dear Mr. Baker,
"I have yo' very kind and affecc'onate letter
of the 1st, but not come to my hand till ye 10th;
where it had been delay'd I kno' not.
As your
kind manner and kinder thought, from wch it flows,
(for I take all you say to be as I always believed you
to be, sincere and Nathaniel like, without guile) was a
particular satisfacc'on to me; so the stop of a letter,
however it happened, deprived me of that cordial too
many days, considering how much I stood in need of
it, to support a mind sinking under the weight of an
afflicc'on too heavy for my strength, and looking on
myself as abandoned of every comfort, every friend,
Iviii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
•
and every relative, except such only as are able to
give me no assistance.
"I was sorry you should say at ye beginning of
your letter, you were debarred seeing me. Depend
upon my sincerity for this, I am far from debarring you.
On ye contrary, it would be a greater comfort to me
than any I now enjoy, that I could have yo' agree-
able visits wth safety, and could see both you and
my dearest Sophia, could it be without giving her the
grief of seeing her father in tenebris, and under ye
load of unsupportable sorrows. I am sorry I must open
my griefs so far as to tell her, it is not ye blow I recd
from a wicked, perjur'd, and contemptible enemy that
has broken in upon my spirit, wch, as she well knows,
has carried me on thro' greater disasters than these.
But it has been the injustice, unkindness, and, I must
say, inhuman feeling of my own son, wch has both
ruined my family, and, in a word, has broken my
heart; and as I am at this time under a weight of
very heavy illness, wch I think will be fever, I take
this occasion to vent my grief in yr breasts, who I
know will make a prudent use of it, and tell you that
nothing but this has conquered or could conquer me.
Et tu, Brute! I depended upon him, I trusted him,
I gave up my two dear unprovided children into his
hands; but he has no compassion, and suffers them
and their poor dying mother to beg their bread at his
hands; and to crave, as if it were an alms, what he is
bound under hand and seal, besides the most sacred
promises, to supply them with, himself at ye same
time living in a profusion of plenty. It is too much
OF DE FOE.
lix
for me.
Excuse my infirmity, I can say no more;
my heart is too full. I only ask one thing of you
as a dying request. Stand by them when I am gone,
and let them not be wrong'd while he is able to do
them right. Stand by them as a brother, and if you
have any thing within you owing to my memory, who
have bestowed on you the best gift I had to give, let
ym not be injured and trampled on by false pretences
and unnatural reflections. I hope they will want no
help but that of comfort and council, but that they
will indeed want, being too easie to be manag'd by
words and promises.
"It adds to my grief that it is so difficult to me to
see you.
I am at a distance from Lond", in Kent;
nor have I a lodging in London; nor have I been at
that place in the Old Bailey since I wrote you
I was
removed from it. At present I am weak, having had
some fits of a fever that have left me low. But those
things much more.
"I have not seen son or daughter, wife or child many
weeks, and kno' not which way to see them. They
dare not come by water, and by land here is no coach,
and I kno' not what to do.
"It is not possible for me to come to Enfield, unless
you could find a retired lodging for me, where I
might not be known, and might have the comfort of
seeing you both now and then; upon such a circum-
stance I could gladly give the days to solitude, to
have the comfort of half an hour now and then with
you both, for two or three weeks. But just to come
and look at you and retire immediately, 'tis a burden
1x
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
too heavy. The parting will be a price beyond the
enjoyment.
1
"I would say, (I hope) with comfort, that 'tis yet
well. I am so near my journey's end, and am hasten-
ing to the place where ye weary are at rest, and
where the wicked cease to trouble; be it that the
passage is rough and the day stormy, by what way
soever He please to bring me to the end of it, I desire
to finish life with this temper of soul in all cases:
Te Deum laudamus. I congratulate you on the oc-
casion of yor happy advance in yo' employment. May
all you do be prosperous, and all you meet with plea-
sant, and may you both escape the tortures and trou-
bles of uneasie life. May you sail ye dangerous
voyage of life with a forcing wind, and make the
port of heaven without a storm.
"It adds to my grief that I must never see the
pledge of your mutual love, my little grandson. Give
him my blessing, and may he be to you both your joy in
youth, and your comfort in age, and never add a sigh
to your sorrow. But, alas! that is not to be ex-
pected. Kiss my dear Sophy once more for me; and
if I must see her no more, tell her this is from a father
that loved her above all his comforts to his last
breath.
Yo' unhappy
D. F.
About two miles from Greenwich, Kent,
Tuesday, August 12th, 1730.
"P.S. I wrote you a letter some months ago, in
answer to one from you about selling y° house; but
OF DE FOE.
lxi
you never signified to me whether you received it. I
have not the policy of assurance; I suppose my wife
or Hannah may have it.
Idem,
" D. F."
When the drama of life begins to exhibit scenes
like these, it is time to drop the curtain. De Foe was
gently removed, in seeming lethargic calmness, from
this transient state into eternal life, on the 24th of
April, 1731. He died in the parish where he was
born, like the poor hunted hare, who terminates all its
anxious breathless windings at the spot where it was
first compelled to start from by its tormentors.
It now only remains to take a general view of the
character, moral and literary, of this extraordinary
man, whose fate it seemed to be, like that of Cassan-
dra, to foresee and to foretel, without the power of
inspiring belief in the truth of the prediction, or the
sincerity of the predictor. That his political writings
attracted considerable attention in the beginning of
his career, is evident from the unjustifiable means
that were resorted to in order to suppress them,
and to crush their author; but as we have already
remarked, the success with which he could assume
either side of an argument, seems gradually to have lost
him the confidence of all parties; for each in turn felt
more certain of his power to injure, than of his since-
rity in serving. It must be observed, however, that
there is no proof of Daniel De Foe ever having actu-
ally swerved from the principles he professed; and
the strong testimony in favor of his integrity, from
lxii
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Durston, his personal enemy and a rival journalist,
ought to weigh against a host of anonymous calum-
nies.
De Foe did not meet with much more liberality as a
projector than a politician; it is indeed the general fate
of speculatists to be looked on with envy, ridicule, and
dislike, rather than with the respect due to ingenuity
and disinterestedness. If the plan suggested fail, those
who never would have had skill or science sufficient to
suggest it, yet feel a sudden accession of both in the tri-
umphant declaration, that they had always foreseen it
would never succeed. Should success, on the con-
trary, crown the undertaking, envy is as busy in
pointing out reasons why it might have succeeded to a
still greater extent, or why it ought not to have suc-
ceeded at all.
Many of the suggestions of De Foe, which during
his life only held him up to ridicule as a visionary,
have been acted on in the present day to the advan-
tage of society at large; and the singularity by which
he is least known, and in which he has been least
imitated, is that of paying his debts in full, when he
was acquitted by his creditors for a part. This reflec-
tion brings us to the contemplation of the moral part
of his character of his honesty commercially consi-
dered, it would be cruel and unjust to doubt, after the
testimonies which even his enemies have borne to it:
his religious habits were fixed too early in life to for-
sake him afterwards, and consequently his troubles
and afflictions could only have the effect of making
him throw himself with more devout submission on
OF DE FOE.
lxiii
the support of that wise Disposer of all things, who
saw fit to visit him with them: of his domestic cha-
racteristics not much is known. The habits of the
Dissenters in his time were sufficiently rigid to make
them hold theatrical exhibitions and public entertain-
ments in dislike, but he does not appear to have been
of gloomy or censorial habits: that he was a tender
parent as well as dutiful son, is evident from
many
passages in his letters and writings, where he mentions
his father and his children; and that he was an affec-
tionate husband may be inferred not only from the
same evidence, but also from the high appreciation in
which he at all times held the female sex; and as he
who acknowledges a claim on love and admiration in
generals, is not likely to deny it in particulars, we
may fairly conclude that Daniel De Foe would not
belie his own taste and judgment, and that, having
chosen one according to the same standard, he would
not fail to treat her with the tenderness and respect he
acknowledges to be her due.
"is
“A woman of sense and manners," says he,
the finest and most delicate part of God's creation ;
the glory of her Maker, and the great instance of his
singular regard to man, to whom he gave the best gift
either God could bestow or man receive; and it is the
sordidest piece of folly and ingratitude in the world to
withhold from the sex the due lustre which the advan-
tages of education give to the natural beauty of their
minds. A woman well bred and well taught, fur-
nished with the additional accomplishments of know-
ledge and behaviour, is a creature without compari-
lxiv
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH of de foe.
son. Her society is the emblem of sublime enjoy-
ments; she is all softness and sweetness, love, wit,
and delight; she is every way suitable to the sub-
limest wish; and the man that has such a one to his
portion, has nothing to do but to rejoice in her, and to
be thankful."
That De Foe possessed natural benevolence of
heart, and amiability of temper, may be proved
from his writings, as well as from the acknowledge-
ments of some at least of those whom he had served:
in his fictions an author generally delineates the cha-
racteristic features of his own mind; and to judge his
by this rule, it affords a picture of many virtues. No
writer, since the days of Shakspeare, with the excep-
tion of Richardson, has shown so much knowledge of
the human heart, or delineated it with such exquisite
exactness of detail and truth of colouring; and if
some of his works are less known than others, it
is not because they are less true to nature, but that
they represent those objects in nature, which are
less pleasing to contemplate: he was always, how-
ever, equally intent on instructing, and in his
hands the very incidents of vice are so managed as to
produce lessons of virtue. Of him it may be said as
Johnson said of Goldsmith, that he left no species of
writing unattempted; and we may add that all the
separate excellencies of his character, attainments of
his mind, and his felicity in expressing them, may be
contemplated with benefit and delight little less than
is afforded by his "Robinson Crusoe."
THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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 gained a good estate by merchandise,
and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York;
from whence he had married my mother, whose re-
lations 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 ; so my companions
always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieute-
nant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flan-
ders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel
Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk
against the Spaniards. What became of my second
brother I never knew, any more than my father or
mother did know what was become of me.
VOL. I.
A
2
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
Being the third son of the family, and not bred to
any trade, my head began to be filled very early with
rambling thoughts: my father, who was very ancient,
had given me a competent share of learning, as far
as house-education and a country free-school gene-
rally 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 propension of nature, tending directly to the life
of misery which was to befall me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious
and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my
design. He called me one morning into his chamber,
where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated
very warmly with me on this subject: he asked me
what reasons more than a mere wandering inclination
I had for leaving my father's house and my native
country, where I might be well introduced, and had a
prospect of raising my fortune by application and in-
dustry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me
it was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or
of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went
abroad on adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make
themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of
the common road; that these things were all either
too far above me, or too far below me; that mine
was the middle state, or what might be called the
upper station of low life, which he had found, by
long experience, was the best state in the world, the
most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the
miseries and hardships, the labor 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 one thing, viz. that this was
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
3
the state of life which all other people envied; that
kings have frequently lamented the miserable conse-
quences of being born to great things, and wish they
had been placed in the middle of the two extremes,
between the mean and the great; that the wise man
gave his testimony to this, as the just standard of true
felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor
riches.
He bid me observe, and I should always find, that
the calamities of life were shared among the upper
and lower part of mankind; but that the middle sta-
tion had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to
so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of
mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many
distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind,
as those were, who, by vicious living, luxury, and
extravagances, on one hand, or by hard labor, want
of necessaries, and mean and insufficient diet, on the
other hand, bring distempers on themselves by the
natural consequences of their way of living; that the
middle station of life was calculated for all kind of
virtues and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and
plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that
temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all
agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were
the blessings attending the middle station of life; that
this way men went silently and smoothly through the
world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed
with the labors of the hands or of the head, not sold
to the life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with
perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace,
and the body of rest; not enraged with the passion of
envy, or secret burning lust of ambition for great
things; but, in easy circumstances, 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.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
(
After this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most
affectionate manner, not to play the young man, not
to precipitate myself into miseries, which nature, and
the station of life in which I was born, seemed to
have provided against; that I was under no necessity
of seeking my bread; that he would do well for me,
and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of
life which he had been just recommending to me; and
that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it
must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it;
and that he should have nothing to answer for, having
thus discharged his duty in warning me against mea-
sures 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 would have
leisure hereafter to reflect on having neglected his
counsel, when there might be none to assist in my
recovery.
I observed in this last part of his discourse, which
was truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did
not know it to be so himself; I say, I observed the
tears run down his face very plentifully, and espe-
cially when he spoke of my brother who was killed :
and that when he spoke of my having leisure to re-
pent, and none to assist me, he was so moved, that
he broke off the discourse, and told me, his heart
was so full he could say no more to me.
I was sincerely affected with this discourse, as
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
5
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 away from him. How-
ever, I did not act so hastily as my first heat of reso-
lution prompted, but I took my mother, at a time
when I thought her a little pleasanter than ordinary,
and told her, that my thoughts were so entirely bent
on seeing the world, that I should never settle to any
thing with resolution enough to go through with it,
and my father had better give me his consent than
force me to go without it; that I was now eighteen
years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a
trade, or clerk to an attorney; that I was sure, if I
did, I should never serve out my time, and I should
certainly run away from my master before my time
was out, and go to sea; and if she would speak to my
father to let me go one voyage abroad, if I came
home again, and did not like it, I would go no more,
and I would promise, by a double diligence, to reco-
ver that time I had lost.
This put my mother into a great passion: she told
me, she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to
my father on any such subject; that he knew too well
what was my interest to give his consent to any such
thing so much for my hurt; and that she wondered
how I could think of any such thing after such a dis-
course as 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 my-
self, 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 destruc-
tion; and I should never have it to say, that my mo-
ther was willing when my father was not.
Though my mother refused to move it to my father,
6
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
yet, as I have heard afterwards, she reported all the
discourse to him, and that my father, after showing a
great concern at it, said to her with a sigh, "That boy
might be happy if he would stay at home; but if he
goes abroad, he will be the most miserable wretch
that was ever born; I can give no consent to it.”
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke
loose, though, in the mean time, I continued obsti-
nately deaf to all proposals of settling to business,
and frequently expostulating with my father and mo-
ther about their being so positively determined against
that to which they knew my inclinations prompted me.
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 then going by sea to London, in his fa-
ther's ship, and prompting me to go with them, with
the common allurement of sea-faring men, viz. that it
should cost me nothing for my passage, I consulted
neither father nor mother any more, not so much as
sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it
as they might, without asking God's blessing, or my
father's, without any consideration of circumstances
or consequences, and in an ill hour, God knows, on
the first of September, 1651, I went on board a ship
bound for London. Never any young adventurer's
misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued
longer than mine. The ship was no sooner out of the
Humber, but the wind began to blow, and the waves
to rise in a most frightful manner; and, as I had never
been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in
body, and terrified in mind. I began now seriously to
reflect on what I had done, and how justly I was
overtaken by the judgment of heaven for wickedly
leaving my father's house, and abandoning my duty.
All the good counsel of my parents, my father's tears
and my mother's entreaties, came now fresh into my
mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to
OF ROBINSON crusoe.
the pitch of hardness to which it has been since,
reproached me with the contempt of advice, and the
breach of my duty to God and my father.
:
All this while the storm increased, and the sea,
on which I had never been before, went very high,
though nothing like what I have seen many times
since; no, nor like what I saw a few days after: but
it was enough to affect me, who was then but a young
sailor, and had never known any thing of the matter.
I expected every wave would have swallowed us up,
and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought,
in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never
rise more; and in this agony of mind I made many
vows and resolutions, that if it would please God here
to spare my life this one voyage, if ever I got once my
foot on 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 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 re-
solved that I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go
home to my father.
These wise and sober thoughts continued during
the storm, and indeed some time after; but the next
day, as the wind was abated, and the sea calmer, I
began to be a little inured to it: however, I was very
grave for all that day, being still a little sea-sick; 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 on it, the sight was, as I thought,
the most delightful that I ever saw.
►
I had slept well in the night, and was now no more
sea-sick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder on
8
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before,
and could be so calm and so pleasant in a little time
after. And now, lest my good resolutions should
continue, my companion, who had indeed enticed me
away, came to me and said, "Well, Bob," clapping
me on the shoulder, "how do you do after it? I
warrant you were frightened, wa'n't you, last night,
when it blew but a cap-full of wind?"-" A cap-full
do you call it?" said I; "it was a terrible storm."
“A storm, you fool you," replied 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; do you see what
charming weather it is now?" To make short this
sad part of my story, we went the old way of all
sailors; the punch was made, and I was made drunk
with it; and in that one night's wickedness I drowned
all my repentance, all my reflexions on my past con-
duct, and all my resolutions for my 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 de-
sires returned, I entirely forgot the vows and promises
that I made in my distress. I found, indeed, some
intervals of reflexion; and 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 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
OF ROBINSON CRusoe.
9
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 har-
dened wretch among us would confess both the dan-
ger 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
anchor, and here we lay, the wind continuing con-
trary, viz. at south-west, for seven or eight days, dur-
ing 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, rode here so long, but should
have tided it up the river, had the wind not blown
too fresh; and, after we had lain four or five days, it
blew very hard. However, the roads being reckoned
as good as a harbor, the anchorage good, and our
ground tackle very strong, our men were unconcerned,
and not in the least apprehensive of danger, but spent
the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the
sea; but the eighth day in the morning the wind in-
creased, and we had all hands at work to strike our
top-masts, and make every thing snug and close, that
the ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon the
sea went very high indeed, and our ship rode fore-
castle in, shipped several seas, and we thought once
or twice our anchor had come home; on which our
master ordered out the sheet-anchor; so that we rode
with two anchors a-head, and the cables veered out to
the better end.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and
now I began to see terror and amazement in the faces
even of the seamen themselves. The 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 say to himself several times, "Lord be
10
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
:
merciful to us! we shall be all lost; we shall be all
undone !" and the like. During these first hurries
I was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in
the steerage, and cannot describe my temper: I could
ill reassume the first penitence which I had so appa-
rently trampled on, and hardened myself against: I
thought that 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
frightened: I got up out of my cabin, and looked out;
but such a dismal sight I never saw; the sea went
mountains high, and broke on us every three or
four minutes when I could look about, I could see
nothing but distress around us; two ships near us, we
found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep
laden; and our men cried out, that a ship about a mile
a-head of us was foundered. Two more ships being
driven from their anchors, were run out of the roads
to sea, at all adventures, and that with not a mast
standing. The light ships fared the best, as not so
much laboring 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 her 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 that I
had about me at that time, I was in tenfold more
horror of mind on account of my former convictions,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
11
and the having returned from them to the resolu-
tions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at
death itself; and these, added to the terror of the
storm, put me in 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 known a
worse. We had a good ship, but she was deeply
laden, and wallowed in the sea, that the seamen every
now and then cried out she would founder. It was
my advantage in one respect, that I did not know
what they meant by founder, till I inquired. How-
ever, 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, expecting
every moment that the ship would go to the bottom.
In the middle of the night, and under all the rest of
our distresses, one of the men that had been down on
purpose to see, cried out, we had sprung a leak; an-
other said, there was four foot water in the hold. Then
all hands were called to the pump.
At that very
word my heart, as I thought, died within me, and I
fell backwards on the side of my bed where I sat,
into the cabin. However, the men roused me, and
told me, that I, that was able to do nothing before,
was as well able to pump as another; at which I
stirred up, and went to the pump and worked very
heartily. While this was doing, the master seeing
some light colliers, who, not able to ride out the storm,
were obliged to slip and run away to sea, and would
not come near us, ordered us to fire a gun as a signal
of distress. I, who knew nothing what that meant,
was so surprised, that I thought the ship had broke,
or some dreadful thing had 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
12
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking.
I had been dead; and it was a great while before I
came to myself.
We worked on; but the water increasing in the
hold, it was apparent that the ship would founder; and
though the storm began to abate a little, yet as it was
not possible she could swim till we might run into a
port, so the master continued firing guns for help; and
a light ship, who had rode it out just a-head of us,
ventured a boat out to help us. It was with the ut-
most hazard the boat came near us, but it was impos-
sible for us to get on board, or for the boat to lie near
the ship's side, till at last the men rowing very hear-
tily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men
cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and
then veered it out a great length, which they, after
great labor 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 on 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 before we saw her sink, and then I
understood for the first time what was meant by a ship
foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I had
hardly eyes to look up when the seamen told me she
was sinking; for from that moment they rather put
me into the boat, than that I may 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 la-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
13
boring at the oar to bring the boat near the shore, we
could see (when, our boat mounting the waves, we
were able to see the shore) a great many people run-
ning 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 it, till, being past
the light-house at Winterton, the shore falls off to the
westward, towards Cromer, and so the land broke off
a little the violence of the wind. Here we got in,
and, though not without much difficulty, got all safe
on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth,
where, as unfortunate men, we were used with great
humanity, as well by the magistrates of the town, who
assigned us good quarters, as by particular merchants
and owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient
to carry us either to London or back to Hull, as we
thought fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to
Hull, and have gone home, I had been happy, and
my father, an emblem of our blessed Saviour's para-
ble, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hear-
ing the ship I went away in was cast away in Yar-
mouth Roads, it was a great while before he had any
assurance that I was not drowned.
But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obsti-
nacy that nothing could resist; and though I had se-
veral times loud calls from my reason, and my more
composed judgment, to go home, yet I had no power
to do it. I know not what to call this, nor will I
urge that it is a secret overruling decree that hurries
us on to be the instruments of our own destruction,
even though it be before us, and that we rush on it
with our eyes open. Certainly, nothing but some such
decreed unavoidable misery attending, and which it
was impossible for me to escape, could have pushed
me forward against the calm reasonings and persua-
sions of my most retired thoughts, and against two
14
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
i
such visible instructions as I had met with in my first
attempt.
I
66
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;
say, the first time he saw me, it appeared his tone
was altered, and looking very melancholy, and shaking
his head, asked me how I did, and telling his father
who I was, and how I had come this voyage only
for a trial, in order to go farther abroad; his father
turning to me with a very grave and concerned tone,
Young man,
says he,
you ought never to go to
sea any more; you ought to take this for a plain and
visible token that you are not to be a seafaring man."
Why, Sir," said I, "will you go to sea no more?"
"That is another case," said he; "it is my calling,
and therefore my duty; but as you made this voyage
for a trial, you see what a taste Heaven has given you
of what you are to expect if you persist. Perhaps
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?”
I told him some of my story; at the end of which he
burst out with a strange kind of passion; What had
I done," says he, that such an unhappy wretch
should come into my ship? I would not set my foot
in the same ship with thee again for a thousand
pounds." This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of 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; told me I might see a visi-
ble hand of Heaven against me. And, young man,'
said he, depend on it, if you do not go back,
66
""
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
15
wherever you go, you will meet with nothing but dis-
asters and disappointments, till your father's words
are fulfilled on you."
We parted soon after; for I made him little
answer, and I saw him no more: which way he went,
I know not. As for me, having some money in my
pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as
well as on the road, had many struggles with myself,
what course of life I should take, and whether I
should go home, or go to sea.
As to going home, shame opposed the best notions
that offered to my thoughts; and it immediately oc-
curred to me how I should be laughed at among the
neighbors, and should be ashamed to see, not my
father and mother only, but even every body else
from whence I have since often observed, how incon-
gruous and irrational the common temper of man-
kind 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;
nor ashamed of the action for which they ought justly
to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the return-
ing, 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 con-
tinued to going home; and as I staid awhile, the
remembrance of the distress I had been in, wore off;
and as that abated, the little notion I had in
my de-
sires to a return wore off with it, till at last I quite
laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a
voyage.
That evil influence which carried me first away
from my father's house, that hurried me into the
wild and indigested notion of raising my fortune,
and that impressed those conceits so forcibly on me,
as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the
16
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
intreaties 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 call it, a voyage to
Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adven-
tures I did not ship myself as a sailor; whereby,
though I might indeed have worked a little harder
than ordinary, yet at the same time I had learned the
duty and office of a foremast-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 on my back, I would always
go on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so
I neither had any business in the ship, nor learned to
do any.
It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good
company in London, which does not always happen
to such loose and unguided young fellows as I then
was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some
snare for them very early but it was not so with me.
I first fell acquainted with the master of a ship
who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who,
having had very good success there, was resolved to
go again; and who taking a fancy to my conversa-
tion, 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 com-
panion; and if I could carry any thing with me,
I should have all the advantage of it that the trade
would admit; and perhaps I might meet with some
encouragement.
I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict
friendship with this captain, who was an honest and
plain-dealing man, I went the voyage with him, and
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
17
carried a small adventure with me, which, by the
disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, I
increased very considerably; for I carried about
407. in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me
to buy. This 40l. I had mustered together by the
assistance of some of my relations with whom I cor-
responded, 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 in which I may say I was
successful in all my adventures, and which I owe to
the integrity and honesty of my friend the captain;
under whom also I got a competent knowlege of the
mathematics and the rules of navigation, learned how
to keep an account of the ship's course, take an ob-
servation, 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
3007., and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts
which have 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 on the coast,
from the latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line
itself.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my
friend, to my great misfortune, dying soon after his
arrival, I resolved to go the same voyage again, and
I embarked in the same vessel with one who was his
mate in his former voyage, and had now got the com-
mand of the ship. This was the unhappiest voyage
that ever man made; for though I did not carry quite
1007. of my new-gained wealth, so that I had 2007.
VOL. I.
B
18
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
**
left, and which I lodged with my friend's widow, who
was very just to me, yet I fell into terrible misfortunes
in this voyage; and the first was this, viz. 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 canvass as
our yards would spread, or our masts carry to have
got clear; but finding the pirate gained on us, and
would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we
prepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and
the rover eighteen. About three in the afternoon he
came up with us, and bringing to, by mistake, just
athwart our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as
he intended, we brought eight of our guns to bear on
that side, and poured in a broadside on him, which
made him sheer off again, after returning our fire, and
pouring in also his small-shot from near 200 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 on our other quarter,
he entered sixty men on our decks, who immedi-
ately 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
19
my circumstances, from a merchant to a miserable
slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked
back on my father's prophetic discourse to me, that I
should be miserable, and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to
pass, that I could not be worse; that now the hand of
Heaven had overtaken me, and I was undone without
redemption: but, alas! this was but a taste of the mi-
sery 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 sometime or other be his fate to be taken by a
Spanish or Portuguese man of war; and that then I
should be set at liberty. But this hope of mine was
soon taken away; for when he went to sea, he left me
on shore to look after his little garden, and do the
common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when
he came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to
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 no-
body to communicate it to that would embark with
me, no fellow slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or
Scotchman there but myself; so that for two years,
though I often pleased myself with the imagination, yet
I never had the least encouraging prospect of putting
it in practice.
After about two years an odd circumstance present-
ed itself, which put the old thought of making some
attempt for my liberty again in my head. My pa-
tron lying at home longer than usual without fitting
out his ship, which, as I heard, was for want of money,
1
he used constantly, once or twice a-week, sometimes
oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the ship's
20
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
pinnace, and go out into the road to fish; and as he
always took me and a young Moresco with him to row
the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved very
dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes
he would send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen,
and the youth of Moresco, as they called him, to catch
a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going to fish in a stark
calm morning, a fog rose so thick, that though we were
not half a league from the shore we lost sight of it;
and rowing we knew not whither or which way, we
labored all day, and all the next night, and when the
morning came we found we had pulled off to sea in-
stead 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 labor and some
danger; for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in
the morning; but particularly we were all very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to
take more care of himself for the future; and having
lying by him the long-boat of our English ship he had
taken, he resolved he would not go out 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 mid-
dle of the long-boat, like that of a barge, with a place
to stand behind it to steer and haul home the main-
sheet; and room before for a hand or two to stand
and work the sails: she sailed with what we call a
shoulder of mutton sail; and the boom gibbed 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 cat on, with some small lockers to put in
some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to drink ;
and particularly his bread, rice, and coffee.
We went frequently out in this boat, and as I was
most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went
without me. It happened that he had appointed to go.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
21
out in this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with
two or three Moors of some distinction in that place,
and for whom he had provided extraordinarily, and
had therefore sent on board the boat over-night a lar-
ger store of provisions than ordinary; and had ordered
me to get ready three fuzees 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 en-
sign and pendants out, and every thing to accommo-
date his guests; when by and by my patron came on
board alone, and told me his guests had put off going,
on 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 dart-
ed into my thoughts, for now I found I was like to
have a little ship at my command; and my master
being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for fish-
ing business, but for a voyage; though I knew not,
neither did I so much as consider, whither I should
steer; for any where, to get out of that place, was my
way.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to
speak to this Moor, to get something for our subsist-
ence 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 of rusk or biscuit of their
kind, and three jars with fresh water, into the boat.
I knew where my patron's case of bottles stood, which
it was evident, by the make, were taken out of some
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
22
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
"
pow-
lump of bees-wax into the boat, which weighed above
half a hundred weight, with a parcel of twine or
thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all which
were of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax
to make candles. Another trick I tried on him,
into which he innocently came also; his name was
Ismael, whom they call Muley, or Moley; so I
called him: Moley," said 1," our patron's guns
are on board the boat; can you not get a little
der 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 leathern pouch which held about a pound and
a half of powder, or rather more; and another with
shot, that had five or six pounds, with some bullets,
and put all into the boat: at the same time I had
found some powder of my master's in the great cabin,
with which I filled one of the large bottles in the case,
which was almost empty, pouring what was in it into
another; and thus furnished with every thing 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 catched nothing,
for when I had fish on my hook I would not pull
them up, that he might not see them, I said to the
Moor, This will not do; our master will not be
thus served; we must stand farther off." He, think-
ing no harm, agreed, and being in the head of the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
23
boat set the sails; and as I had the helm I run the
boat out near a league farther, and then brought her
to as if I would fish; when giving the boy the helm,
I 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 immedi-
ately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me,
begged to be taken in, told me he would go all over
the world with me. He swam so strong after the
boat, that he would have reached me very quickly,
there being but little wind; on 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 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 he reached it with ease, for he was an excel-
lent 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 Maho-
met and his father's beard, "I must throw you into
the sea too." The boy smiled in my face, and spoke
so innocently, that I could not mistrust him; and
swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the world
with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swim-
ming, I stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather
stretching to windward, that they might think me
24
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 sur-
round us with the canoes, and destroy us; where we
could never once go on shore but we should be de-
voured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages
of human kind?
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I
changed my course, and steered directly south and
by east, bending my course a little toward the east,
that I might keep in with the shore; and having a
fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I
made such sail that I believe by the next day at
three o'clock in the afternoon, when I first made the
land, I could not be less than 150 miles south of
Sallee; quite beyond the Emperor of Morocco's do-
minions, or indeed of any other king thereabout, for
we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors,
and the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into
their hands, that I would not stop, or go on shore,
or come to an anchor; the wind continuing fair till
I had sailed in that manner five days; and then the
wind shifting to the southward, I concluded also that
if any of our vessels were in chase of me, they also
would now give over; so I ventured to make to the
coast, and come to an anchor in the mouth of a little
river, I knew not what, or where; neither what lati-
tude, what country, what nation, or what river: I
neither saw, or desired to see any people; the prin-
cipal 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
25
boy was ready to die with fear, and begged of me
not to go on shore till day." Well, Xury," said I,
"then I won't; but it may be we may see men by
day, who will be as bad to us as those lions."
"Then we give them the shoot gun," says Xury,
laughing, make them run way." Such English
Xury spoke by conversing among us slaves. How-
ever I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave
him a dram (out of our patron's case of bottles) to
cheer him up. After all, Xury's advice was good,
and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay
still all night; I say still, for we slept none; for in
two or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we
knew not what to call them) of many sorts, come
down to the sea-shore and run into the water, wal-
lowing 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 frightened, and indeed so was
I too; but we were both more frightened 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 (what-
ever 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; on
which he immediately turned about, and swam to-
wards the shore again.
But it is impossible to describe the horrible noises,
and hideous cries and howlings, that were raised, as
well on the edge of the shore as higher within the
.J
26
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
country, on the noise or report of the gun, a thing I
have some reason to believe those creatures had never
heard before this convinced me that there was no
going on shore for us in the night on that coast, and
how to venture on shore in the day was another ques-
tion too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of
the savages, had been as bad as to have fallen into the
paws of lions and tigers; at least we were equally
apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore
somewhere or other for water, for we had not a pint
left in the boat; when or where to get it, was the
point: Xury said, if I would let him go on shore
with one of the jars, he would find if there was any
water, and bring some to me. I asked him why he
would go? why I should not go, and he stay in the
boat? The boy answered with so much affection,
that made me love him ever after. Says he, “ If wild
mans come, they eat me, you go way.
"Well,
Xury," said I, we will both go, and if the wild
mans come, we will kill them, they shall eat neither
of us." So I gave Xury a piece of rusk bread to
eat, and a dram out of our patron's case of bottles
which I mentioned before; and we hauled the boat
in as near the shore as we thought was proper, and so
waded to shore; carrying nothing but our arms, and
two jars for water.
""
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing
the coming of canoes with savages down the river:
but the boy seeing a low place about a mile up the
country, rambled to it; and by and by I saw him
come running towards me. I thought he was pursued
by some savage, or frighted with some wild beast,
and I run 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; how-
ever, we were very glad of it, and it was very good
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
27
meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with,
was to tell me he had found good water, and seen no
wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such
pains for water, for a little higher up the creek where
we were, we found the water fresh when the tide was
out, which flows but a little way up; so we filled our
jars, and feasted on the hare we had killed, and pre-
pared 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 Verd islands also, lay not far off from
the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an
observation to know what latitude we were in, and
not exactly knowing, or at least remembering what
latitude they were in, and knew not where to look
for them, or when to stand off to sea towards them ;
otherwise I might now easily have found some of
these islands. But my hope was, that if I stood
along this coast till I came to that part where the
English traded, I should find some of their vessels on
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 think-
ing it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness;
and indeed both forsaking it because of the prodigious
numbers of tigers, lions, and leopards, and other furi-
ous creatures which harbor 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 in-
deed for near an hundred miles together on this
coast, we saw nothing but a waste, uninhabited coun-
28
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
try by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roar-
ing of wild beasts by night.
Once or twice in the day-time I thought I saw the
Pico of Teneriffe, being the high top of the Mountain
Teneriffe in the Canaries; and had a great mind to
venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but having
tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds,
the sea also going too high for my little vessel; so
I resolved to pursue my first design, and keep along
the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water,
after we had left this place; and once in particular,
being early in the morning, we came to an anchor un-
der 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 terri-
ble 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. CC
Xury," says I, “ you shall go on
shore and kill him." Xury looked frightened, and
said, “Me kill! he eat me at one mouth;" one mouth-
ful he meant however, I said no more to the boy, but
bad him lie still, and I took our biggest gun, which
was almost musket-bore, and loaded it with a good
charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it
down; then I loaded another gun with two bullets;
and the third (for we had three pieces) I loaded with
five smaller bullets. I took the best aim I could with
the first piece to have shot him 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
broke, fell down again, and then got up on three legs,
PlJ.p
27.

5.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
29
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 imme-
diately, 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 dispatched
him quite.
us.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food;
and I was very sorry to lose three charges of powder
and shot on a creature that was good for nothing to
However, Xury said he would have some of him ;
so he comes on board, and asked me to give him the
hatchet. "For what, Xury?" said I. "Me cut off
his head," said he. However, Xury could not cut off
his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with
him, and it was a monstrous great one.
I bethought myself however, that perhaps the skin
of him might one way or other be of some value to
us; and I resolved to take off his skin if I could.
So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury
was much the better workman at it, for I knew very
ill how to do it. Indeed it took us both up the whole
day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and spread-
ing it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried
it in two days' time, and it afterwards served me
to lie on.
After this stop, we made on to the southward con-
tinually for ten or twelve days, living very sparing
on our provisions, which began to abate very much,
and going no oftener into the shore than we were
obliged to for fresh water: my design in this was,
to make the river Gambia or Senegal, that is to say,
30
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
anywhere about the Cape de Verd, where I was in
hopes to meet with some European ship; and if I
did not, I knew not what course I had to take, but
to seek for the islands, or perish there among the
Negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe,
which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to
Brazil, or to the East Indies, made this Cape, or
those islands; and in a word, I put the whole of my
fortune on 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 on the shore to look
at us; we could also perceive they were quite black,
and stark naked. I was once inclined to have gone
on shore to them; but Xury was my better counsel-
lor, 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 run along the shore by me a good
way: I observed they had no weapons in their hands,
except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury
said was a lance, and that they would throw them a
great way with a 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. On this I lowered the top of
my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran up into the
country, and in less than half an hour came back, and
brought with them two pieces of dry flesh and some
corn, such as is the produce of their country; but we
neither knew what the one or the other was how-
ever, we were willing to accept it, but how to come
at it was our next dispute, for I was not for venturing
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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
31
a great way off till we fetched it on board, and then
came close to us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had
nothing to make them amends; but an opportunity
offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully;
for while we were lying by the shore came two
mighty creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took
it) with great fury from the 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; be-
cause, in the first place, those ravenous creatures
seldom appear but in the night; and in the second
place, we found the people terribly frightened, espe-
cially the women. The man that had the lance or
dart did not fly from them, but the rest did; how-
ever, as the two creatures ran directly into the water,
they did not seem to offer to fall on 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 I at first 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 sunk down into
the water, but rose instantly, and plunged up and
down, as if he was struggling for life, and so indeed
he was he immediately made to the shore; but be-
tween 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
32
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
signs to them to come to the shore, they took heart
and came to the shore, and began to search for the
creature. I found him by his blood staining the water;
and by the help of a rope, which I slung round him,
and gave the Negroes to haul, they dragged him on
shore, and found that it was a most curious leopard,
spotted, and fine to an admirable degree; and the
Negroes held up their hands with admiration, to think
what it was I had killed him with.
I
The other creature, frightened 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.
found quickly the Negroes were for eating the flesh
of this creature, so I was willing to have them take
it as a favor from me; which, when I made signs
to them that they might take him, they were very
thankful for. Immediately they fell to work with
him; and though they had no knife, yet, with a
sharpened piece of wood, they took off his skin as
readily, and much more readily, than we could have
done with a knife. They offered me some of the flesh,
which I declined, making as if I would give it
them, but made signs for the skin, which they gave
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 bot-
tom upward, to show that it was empty, and that I
wanted to have it filled. They called immediately to
some of their friends, and there came two women,
and brought a great vessel made of earth, and burned,
as I suppose, in the sun; this they set down to me, as
before, and I sent Xury on shore with my jars, and
filled them all three. The women were as stark naked
as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it
was, and water; and leaving my friendly Negroes, I
· OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
33
made forward for about eleven days more, without
offering to go near the shore, till I saw the land run
out a great length into the sea, at about the distance
of four or five leagues before me; and the sea being
very calm, I kept a large offing, to make this point.
At length, doubling the point, at about two leagues
from the land, I saw plainly land on the other side, to
seaward then I concluded, as it was most certain in-
deed, that this was the Cape de Verd, and those the
islands, called, from thence, Cape de Verd Islands.
However, they were at a great distance, and I could not
well tell what I had best do; for if I should be taken
with a gale of wind, I might neither reach one nor the
other.
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped
into the cabin, and sat me down, Xury having the
helm; when, on a sudden, the boy cried out, "Mas-
ter, master, a ship with a sail !" and the foolish boy
was frightened out of his wits, thinking it must needs
be some of his master's ships sent to pursue us, when I
knew we were gotten far enough out of their reach.
I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not
only the ship, but what she was, viz. 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: on which I stretched
out to sea as much as I could, resolving to speak with
them, if possible.
With all the sail I could make, I found I should
not be able to come in their way, but that they would
be gone by before I could make any signal to them:
but after I had crowded to the utmost, and began to
despair, they, it seems, saw me, by the help of their
perspective glasses, and thought it was some European
boat, which, they supposed, must belong to some ship
that was lost; so they shortened sail, to let me come
VOL. I.
C
34
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
up. I was encouraged with this, and as I had my pa-
tron's ensign 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. On 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, condi-
tion as I was in; and I immediately offered all I had
to the captain of the ship, as a return for my deliver-
ance; but he generously told me, he would take no-
thing from me, but that all I had should be delivered
safe to me, when I came to the Brazils.
For," says
he, "I have saved your life on no other terms than I
would be glad to be saved myself; and it may, one
time or other, be my lot to be taken up in the same
condition. Besides," continued 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, Seignior Inglese,'
(Mr. Englishman) says he; "I will carry you hither
in charity, and these things will help to buy your sub-
sistence 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 offer to touch any thing I
had then he took every thing into his own posses-.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
35
sion, and gave me back an exact inventory of them,
that I might have them, even so much as my three
earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that
he saw, and told me he would buy it of me for the
ship's use; and asked me what I would have for it? I
told him, he had been so generous to me in every
thing, that I could not offer to make any price of the
boat, but left it entirely to him: on 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 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 not willing to let the captain have him, but I
was very loth to sell the poor boy's liberty, who had
assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own.
How-
ever, 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: on this, and Xury saying he
was willing to go to him, I let the captain have him.
We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and
arrived in the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints'
Bay, in about twenty-two days after. And now I
was once more delivered from the most miserable of all
conditions of life; and what to do next with myself, I
was now to consider.
The generous treatment the captain gave me, I can
never enough remember: he would take nothing of me
for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leo-
pard's skin, and forty for the lion's skin, which I had
in my boat, and caused every thing I had in the ship
to be punctually delivered 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
bees-wax,-for I had made candles of the rest in a
word, I made about two hundred and twenty pieces of
36
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 ingeino as they call it, (that is, a planta-
tion and a sugar-house.) I lived with him some time,
and acquainted myself, by that means, with the man-
ner of planting and making of sugar and seeing how
well the planters lived, and how they got rich sud-
denly, I resolved, if I could get a licence to settle
there, I would turn planter among them: endeavou-
ring, in the mean time, to find out some way to get my
money, which I had left in London, remitted to me.
To this purpose, getting a kind of a letter of natura-
lization, 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 any thing else, for about two years. How-
ever, we began to increase, and our land began to
come into order; so that the third year we planted
some tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of
ground ready for planting canes in the year to come:
but we both wanted help; and now I found, more
than before, I had done wrong in parting with my boy
Xury.
But, alas! for me to do wrong, that never did
right, was no great wonder. I had no remedy, but
to go on I had got into an employment quite remote
to my genius, and directly contrary to the life I de-
lighted in, and for which I forsook my father's house,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
37
and broke through all his good advice: nay, I was
coming into the very middle station, or upper degree
of low life, which my father advised me to before; and
which, if I resolved to go on with, I might as well
have staid at home, and never have fatigued myself in
the world, as I had done: and I used often to say to
myself, I could have done this as well in England,
among my friends, as have gone five thousand miles
off to do it among strangers and savages, in a wil-
derness, and at such a distance as never to hear
from any part of the world that had the least know-
ledge of me.
In this manner, I used to look on my condition
with the utmost regret. I had nobody to converse
with, but now and then this neighbour; no work to
be done, but by the labour of my hands and I used
to say, I lived just like a man cast away on some
desolate island, that had nobody there but himself.
But how just has it been! and how should all men re-
flect, 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 for,
mer 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 pro-
bability, 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, near three months;
when telling him what little stock I had left behind
me in London, he gave me this friendly and sincere ad-
vice: "Seignior Inglese," says he, for so he always
called me, "if you will give me letters, and a procu-
38
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
ration here in form to me, with orders to the person
who has your money in London, to send your effects
to Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct, and in
such goods as are proper for this country, I will bring
you the produce of them, God willing, at my return;
but, since human affairs are all subject to changes and
disasters, I would have you give orders for but 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 left my
money, and a procuration to the Portuguese captain,
as he desired me.
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 at London, who
represented it effectually to her she not only deli-
vered the money, but, out of her own pocket, sent the
Portuguese 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
wrote for, sent them directly to him at Lisbon, and
he brought them all safe to me at the Brazils: among
which, without my direction, (for I was too young in
my business to think of them,) he had taken care to
´OF ROBINSON Crusoe.
39
have all sorts of tools, iron work, and utensils, ne-
cessary 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 good steward, the captain, had laid out the five
pounds, which my friend had sent him as 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 but my goods being all
English manufactures, 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, I mean in the ad-
vancement 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 adversity, so was it with me. I
went on the next year with great success in my plan-
tation; I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on my own
ground, more than I had disposed of for necessaries
among my neighbours; and these fifty rolls, being each
of above a hundred weight, were well cured, and laid
by against the return of the fleet from Lisbon : and
now, increasing in business and in wealth, my head
began to be full of projects and undertakings beyond
my reach; such as are, indeed, often the ruin of the
best heads in business. Had I continued in the sta-
tion I was now in, I had room for all the happy things
to have yet befallen me, for which my father so ear-
40
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
nestly recommended a quiet, retired life, and 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 mise-
ries; and, particularly, to increase my fault, and
double the reflexions on myself, which in my future
sorrows I should have leisure to make, all these mis-
carriages were procured by my apparent obstinate
adhering to my foolish inclination, of wandering
about, and pursuing that inclination, in contradic-
tion 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 con-
curred to present me with, and to make my duty.
As I had once done thus in breaking away from
my parents, so I could not be content now, but I
must go and leave the happy view I had of being a
rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to
pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster
than the nature of the thing admitted; and thus I
cast myself down again into the deepest gulf of hu-
man misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could
be consistent with life, and a state of health in the
world.
To come, then, by just degrees, to the particulars
of this part of my story :-You may suppose, that
having now lived almost four years in the Brazils,
and beginning to thrive and prosper very well on
my plantation, I had not only learned the language,
but had contracted an acquaintance and friendship
among my fellow-planters, as well as among the mer-
chants 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 the coast of
Guinea, the manner of trading with the Negroes there,
and how easy it was to purchase on the coast for
trifles-such as beads, toys, knives, scissars, hatchets,
OF ROBINSON crusoe.
41
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 dis-
courses on these heads, but especially to that part
which related to the buying Negroes; which was a
trade, at that time, not only not far entered into, but,
as far as it was, had been carried on by the assientos, or
permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal, and
engrossed from the public; so that few Negroes were
bought, and those excessive dear.
It happened, being in company with some mer-
chants and planters of my acquaintance, and talking
of those things very earnestly, three of them came to
me the next morning, and told me they had been
musing very much on 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 se-
crecy, 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 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, whe-
ther I would go their supercargo in the ship, to
manage the trading part on the coast of Guinea;
and they offered me that I should have an 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 a settlement and
plantation of his own to look after, which was in a fair
way of coming to be very considerable, and with a
good stock on it. But for me, that was thus en-
tered and established, and had nothing to do but go on
42
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 preposte-
rous 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's good counsel was
lost on me. 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 dis-
pose of it to such as I should direct, if I miscarried.
This they all engaged to do, and entered into wri-
tings 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 di-
rected 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 precaution 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 circum-
stance, and gone 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 dic-
tates of my fancy, rather than my reason: and ac-
cordingly, the ship being fitted out, and the cargo
furnished, and all things done as by agreement, by my
partners in the voyage, I went on board in an evil
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
43
.
hour again, the 1st of September, 1659, being the
same day eight years that I went from my father and
mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their au-
thority, and the fool to my own interest.
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 odd trifles, especially little looking-
glasses, knives, scissars, hatchets, and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing
away to the northward on our own coast, with design
to stretch over for the African coast. When they
came about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude,
which, it seems, was the manner of their course in
those days, we had very good weather, only excessive
hot all the way on our own coast, till we came to
the height of Cape St. Augustino: from whence, keep-
ing farther 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 our last observation,
in 7 degrees 22 minutes northern latitude, when a vio-
lent 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 ever fate and the fury of the winds directed;
and, during these twelve days, I need not say that I
expected every day to be swallowed up; nor, indeed,
did any in the ship expect to save their lives.
In this distress, we had, besides the terror of the
storm, one of our men died of the calenture, and one
man and a boy washed overboard. About the twelfth
44
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
day, the weather abating a little, the master made an
observation as well as he could, and found that he
was in about 11 degrees north latitude, but that he
was 22 degrees of longitude difference, west from
Cape St. Augustino; so that he found he was got
on the coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brazil,
beyond the river Amazons, toward that of the ri-
ver Oroonoque, commonly called the Great River;
and began to consult with me what course he should
take, for the ship was leaky and very much disabled,
and he was going directly back to the coast of
Brazil.
I was positively against that; and looking over the
charts of the sea-coast of America with him, we con-
cluded there was no inhabited country for us to have
recourse to, till we came within the circle of the Ca-
ribbee islands, and therefore resolved to stand away
for Barbadoes; which by keeping off to sea, to avoid
the in-draft of the bay or gulf of Mexico, we might
easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days'
sail; whereas we could not possibly make our voyage
to the coast of Africa without some assistance, both to
our ship and ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and
steered away 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 12 degrees 18 minutes, a second storm
came on us, which carried us away with the same im-
petuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very
way of all human commerce, that had all our lives
been saved, as to the sea, we were rather in danger of
being devoured by savages than ever returning to our
own country.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard,
one of our men early in the morning cried out, Land!
and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look
out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
45
were, but the ship struck on 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 dri-
ven 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 consterna-
tion of men in such circumstances; we knew nothing
where we were, or on what land it was we were driven,
whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or
not inhabited; and as the rage of the wind was still
great, though rather less than at first, we could not so
much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes,
without breaking in pieces, unless the wind, by a kind
of miracle, should immediately turn about.
In a
word, we sat looking on one another, and expecting
death every moment, and every man acting accord-
ingly, as preparing for another world; for there was
little or nothing more for us to do in this: that which
was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had,
was, that, contrary to our expectation, the ship did
not break yet, and that the master said the wind be-
gan to abate.
Now, though we thought that the wind did a little
abate, yet the ship having thus struck on the sand, and
sticking too fast for us to expect her getting off, we
were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had nothing
to do but to think of saving our lives as well as we
could. We had a boat at our stern just before the
storm, but she was first staved by dashing against the
ship's rudder, and, in the next place, she broke away,
and either sunk, or was driven off to sea; so there
was no hope from her: we had another boat on board,
but how to get her off into the sea was a doubtful
thing; however, there was no room to debate, for we
fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute,
and some told us she was actually broken already.
እ
46
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
In this distress, the mate of our vessel laid hold of
the boat, and with the help of the rest of the men, they
got her flung over the ship's side; and getting all into
her, let her go, and committed ourselves, being eleven
in number, to God's mercy, and the wild sea: for
though the storm was abated considerably, yet the
sea went dreadful high on 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 making sail, we had none; nor if
we had, could we have done any thing with it; so we
worked at the oar towards the land, though with
heavy hearts, like men going to execution; for we
all knew that when the boat came nearer to 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, whe-
ther steep or shoal-we knew not; the only hope that
could rationally give us the least shadow of expecta-
tion, was, if we might happen into some bay or gulf,
or the mouth of some river, where by great chance we
might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of the
land, and perhaps made smooth water. But there
was nothing of this appeared; and 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
the coup de grace. In a word, it took
us with such a fury, that it overset the boat at once;
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
47
and separating us, as well from the boat as from one
another, gave us not time hardly 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 sunk into the water; for though
I swam very well, yet I could not deliver myself
from the waves so as to draw my 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 on the land almost dry,
but half dead with the water I took in. I had so
much presence of mind, as well as breath left, that
seeing myself nearer the main land than I expected,
I got on my feet, and endeavoured to make on to-
wards 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 on the water, if I
could; and so, by swimming, to preserve my breath-
ing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible ;
my greatest concern now being, that the wave, as it
would carry me a great way towards the shore when
it came on, might not carry me back again with it
when it gave back towards the sea.
The wave that came on 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 met
48
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 re-
cover breath, and till the water went from me, and
then took to my heels, and ran with what strength I
had farther towards the shore. But neither would
this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which came
pouring in after me again; and twice more I was
lifted up by the waves and carried forwards as be-
fore, 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 a rock, and that with such force, that it left
me senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deli-
verance; 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
again be covered 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 the 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 main land;
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,

PL.II. p. 18.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
49
in a case where in there was, some minutes before,
scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible
to express, to the life, what the ecstasies and trans-
ports of the soul are, when it is so saved, as I may
say, out of the grave: and I did not wonder now at
that custom, viz. that when a malefactor, who has the
halter about his neck, is tied up, and just going to be
turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him; 1 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, wrapt up in the
contemplation of my deliverance; making a thousand
gestures and motions, which I cannot describe; re-
flecting on my comrades that were drowned, and
that there should not be one soul saved but myself;
for, as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any
sign of them, except three of their hats, one cap, and
two shoes that were not fellows.
I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel—when the
breach and froth of the sea being so big I could hardly
see it, it lay so far off-and considered, Lord! how
was it possible I could get on shore !
part of
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable
my
condition, I began to look round me, to
see what kind of place I was in, and what was next
to be done; and I soon found my comforts abate,
and that, in a word, I had a dreadful deliverance: for
I was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor any thing
either to eat or drink, to comfort me; neither did I
see any prospect before me, but that of perishing with
hunger, or being devoured by wild beasts: and that
which was particularly afflicting to me was, that I had
VOL. I.
D
50
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
no weapon, either to hunt and kill any creature for my
sustenance, or to defend myself against any other crea-
ture 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 pro-
vision; and this threw me into such terrible agonies
of mind, that, for a while, I ran about like a madman.
Night coming on me, I began, with a heavy heart,
to consider what would be my lot if there were any
ravenous beasts in that country, seeing at night they
always come abroad for their prey.
All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that
time, was, to get up into a thick bushy tree, like a fir,
but thorny-which grew near me, and where I re-
solved 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 hun-
ger, I went to the tree, and getting up into it, endea-
voured to place myself so, as that if I should sleep,
I might not fall; and having cut me a short stick,
like a truncheon, for my defence, I took up my
lodging; and having been excessively fatigued, I fell
fast asleep, and slept as comfortably as, I believe, few
could have done in my condition; and found myself
the most refreshed with it that I think I ever was on
such an occasion.
When I waked it was broad day, the weather
clear, and the storm abated, so that the sea did not
rage and swell as before; but that which surprised
me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the night
from the sand where she lay, by the swelling of
the tide, and was driven up almost as far as the
rock which I first mentioned, where I had been so
bruised by the 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
51
myself on board, that at least I might save some ne-
cessary 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, on the land, about two miles on my
right hand. I walked as far as I could on 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 pre-
sent, being more intent on getting at the ship,
where I hoped to find something for my present sub-
sistence.
sea very calm, and
could come within
and here I found a
A little after noon, I found the
the tide ebbed so far out, that I
a quarter of a mile of the ship
fresh renewing of my grief; for I saw evidently, that
if we had kept on board, we had been all safe; that
is to say, we had all got safe on shore, and I had not
been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all
comfort and company, as I now was.
This forced
tears from my eyes again; but as there was little relief
in that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so
I pulled off my clothes, for the weather was hot to
extremity, and took the water; but when I came to
the ship, my difficulty was still greater to know how
to get on board; for as she lay aground, and high out
of the water, there was nothing within my reach to lay
hold of. I swam round her twice, and the second
time I spied a small piece of a rope, which I wondered
I did not see at first, hang down by the fore-chains
so low, as that with great difficulty I got hold of it,
and by the help of that rope got 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 on the bank, and her head
low, almost to the water. By this means all her
52
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
quarter was free, and all that was in that part was
dry; for you may be sure my first work was to
search and to see what was spoiled and what was
free and, first, I found that all the ship's provisions
were dry and untouched by the water; and, being
very well disposed to eat, I went to the bread-room,
and filled my pockets with biscuit, and eat it as I
went about other things, for I had no time to lose. I
also found some rum in the great cabin, of which I
took a large dram, and which I had 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 top-mast or two in the
ship; I resolved to fall to work with these, and flung
as many 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 fast
together at both ends, as well as I could, in the form
of a raft, and laying two or three short pieces of plank
on them crossways, I found I could walk on it
very well, but that it was not able to bear any great
weight, the pieces being too light: so I went to work,
and with the carpenter's saw I cut a spare top-mast
into three lengths, and added them to my raft, with a
great deal of labour and pains. But the hope of fur-
nishing myself with necessaries, encouraged me to go
beyond what I should have been able to have done
on another occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any rea-
sonable weight. My next care was what to load it
with, and how to preserve what I laid on it from the
surf of the sea; but I was not long considering this.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
53
I first laid all the planks or boards on 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 on my
raft; these I filled with provisions, viz. bread, rice,
three Dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goats' flesh,
(which we lived much on,) and a little remainder of
European corn, which had been laid by for some fowls
which we had 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, about five or six gallons of rack. These I
stowed by themselves, there being no need to put them
into the chests, nor any room for them. While I was
doing this, I found the tide began to flow, though
very
calm; and I had the mortification to see my coat,
shirt, and waistcoat, which I had left on shore, on the
sand, swim away; as for my breeches, which were
only linen, and open-knee'd, I swam on board in
them, and my stockings. However, this put me on
rummaging for clothes, of which I found enough, but
took no more than I wanted for present use, for I had
other things which my eye was more on ; as, first, tools
to work with on shore: and it was after long searching
that I found the carpenter's chest, which was indeed a
very useful prize to me, and much more valuable than
a ship-lading of gold would have been at that time. I
got it down to my raft, even whole as it was, without
losing time to look into it, for I knew in general what
it contained.
My next care was for some ammunition and arms.
There were two very good fowling-pieces in the great
cabin, and two pistols; these I secured first, with
some powder-horns and a small bag of shot, and two
old rusty swords. I knew there were three barrels of
1
54
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
powder in the ship, but knew not where our gunner
had stowed them; but with much search I found them,
two of them dry and good, the third had taken water:
those two I got to my raft, with the arms. And now
I thought myself pretty well freighted, and began to
think how I should get to shore with them, having
neither sail, oar, nor rudder; and the least cap-full of
wind would have overset all my navigation.
For
I had three encouragements: 1st, A smooth, calm
sea: 2dly, The tide rising, and setting in to the shore ;
3dly, What little wind there was, blew me towards
the land. And thus, having found two or three bro-
ken oars belonging to the boat, and besides the tools
which were in the chest, I found two saws, an axe,
and a hammer; and with this cargo I put to sea.
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 conse-
quently 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 get into 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 broken my heart: for knowing nothing of the
coast, my raft ran aground at one end of it on a
shoal, and not being aground at the other end, it
wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off
towards that end that was afloat, and so fallen into the
water. I did my utmost, by setting my back against
the chests, to keep them in their places, but could not
thrust off the raft with all my strength; neither durst
I stir from the posture I was in, but holding up the
chests with all my might, I stood in that manner near

1
Pl. III. p.54
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
55
half an hour, in which time the rising of the water
brought me a little more on a level; and a little
after, the water still rising, my raft floated again, and
I thrust her off with the oar I had into the channel,
and then driving up higher, I at length found myself in
the mouth of a little river, with land on both sides,
and a strong current or tide running up. I looked on
both sides for a proper place to get to shore, for I was
not willing to be driven too high up the river; hoping,
in time, to see some ship at sea, and therefore resolved
to place myself as near the coast as I could.
At length I spied a little cove on the right shore
of the creek, to which with great pain and difficulty
I guided my raft, and at last got so near, as that
reaching ground with my oar, I could thrust her di-
rectly in; but here I had like to 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 on
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 hap-
pen. Where I was, I yet knew not; whether on the
continent, or on an island; whether inhabited, or not
56
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
inhabited; whether in danger of wild beasts, or not.
There was a hill, not above a mile from me, which
rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to
overtop some other hills, which lay as in a ridge
from it, northward. I took out one of the fowling-
pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder;
and thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the top
of that hill; where, after I had, with great labour
and difficulty, got up to the top, I saw my 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, ex-
cept 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 on a
tree, on the side of a great wood. I believe it was
the first gun that had been fired there since the crea-
tion of the world: I had no sooner fired, but from
all the parts of the wood there arose an innumerable
number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused
screaming, and crying, every one according to his
usual note; but not one of them of any kind that I
knew. As for the creature I killed, I took it to be a
kind of hawk, its colour and beak resembling it, but
had no talons or claws more than common. Its flesh
was carrion, and fit for nothing.
Contented with this discovery, I came back to my
raft, and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore,
which took me up the rest of that day: 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;
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
57
though, as I afterwards found, there was really no need
for those fears.
However, as well as I could, I barricadoed myself
round with the chests and boards that I had brought
on shore, and made a kind of a hut for that night's
lodging. As for food, I yet saw not which way to
supply myself, except that I had seen two or there
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
got every thing out of the ship that I could get. Then
I called a council, that is to say, in my thoughts,
whether I should take back the raft; but this ap-
peared impracticable: so I resolved to go as before,
when the tide was down; and I did so, only that I
stripped before I went from my hut; having nothing
on but a chequered shirt, 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 unwieldly nor loaded it so
hard, but yet I brought away several things very use-
ful to me; as, first, in the carpenter's stores, I found
two or three bags of nails and spikes, a great screw-
jack, a dozen or two of hatchets; and, above all, that
most useful thing called a grindstone. All these I
secured, together with several things belonging to the
gunner; particularly two or three iron crows, and
two barrels of musket bullets, seven muskets, and
another fowling-piece, with some small quantity of
powder more; a large bag-full of small shot, and a great
58
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
roll of sheet-lead; but this last was so heavy, I could
not hoist it up to get it over the ship's side.
Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes
that I could find, and a spare fore-top sail, a ham-
mock, and some bedding; and with this I loaded my
second raft, and brought them all safe on shore, to my
very great comfort.
I was under some apprehensions, during my ab-
sence 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 crea-
ture like a wild cat on one of the chests, which,
when I came towards it, ran away a little distance,
and then stood still. She sat very composed and un-
concerned, and looked full in my face, as if she had a
mind to be acquainted with me. I presented my gun
to her, but, as she did not understand it, she was per-
fectly unconcerned at it, nor did she offer to stir
away; on which I tossed her a bit of biscuit,
though, by the way, I was not very free of it, for my
store was not great: however, I spared her a bit, I
say, and she went to it, smelled of it, ate it, and
looked (as pleased) for more; but I thanked her, and
could spare no more: so she marched off.
Having got my second cargo on shore-though I
was fain to open the barrels of powder, and bring them
by parcels, for they were too heavy, being large casks
-I went to work to make me a little tent, with the
sail, and some poles, which I cut for that purpose;
and into this tent I brought every thing that I knew
would spoil either with rain or sun; and I piled
all the empty chests and casks up in a circle round
the tent, to fortify it from any sudden attempt either
from man or beast.
When I had done this, I blocked up the door of
the tent with some boards within, and an empty chest
set up on end without; and spreading one of the beds
on the ground, laying my two pistols just at my
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
59
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 labored very hard all day, as
well to fetch all those things from the ship, as to get
them on shore.
I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that
ever was laid up, I believe, for one man: but I was
not satisfied still, for while the ship sat upright in
that posture, I thought I ought to get every thing out
of her that I could so every day, at low water, I
went on board, and brought away something or other;
but particularly the third time I went, I brought
away as much of the rigging as I could, as also
all the small ropes and rope-twine I could get, with
a piece of spare canvass, which was to mend the
sails on occasion, and the barrel of wet gun-pow-
der. In a word, I brought away all the sails first
and last; only that I was fain to cut them in pieces,
and bring as much at a time as I could; for they
were no more useful to be sails, but as mere can-
vass only.
But that which comforted me still more, was, that,
last of all, after I had made five or six such voyages
as these, and thought I had nothing more to expect
from the ship that was worth my meddling with; I
say, after all this, I found a great hogshead of bread,
and three large runlets of rum or spirits, and a box of
sugar, and a barrel of fine flour; this was surprising
to me, because I had given over expecting any more
provisions, except what was spoiled by the water.
I soon emptied the hogshead of that bread, and wrap-
ped it up, parcel by parcel, in pieces of the sails,
which I cut out; and, in a word, I got all this safe on
shore also.
The next day I made another voyage, and now
having plundered the ship of what was portable and
fit to hand out, I began with the cables, and cutting
60
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
the great cable into pieces, such as I could move, I
got two cables and a hawser on shore, with all the
iron-work I could get; and having cut down the
spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard, and every thing I
could, to make a large raft, I loaded it with all those
heavy goods, and came away; but my good luck be-
gan now to leave me; for this raft was so unwieldy,
and so overladen, that after I had entered the little
cove, where I had landed the rest of my goods, not
being able to guide it so handily as I did the other, it
overset, and threw me and all my cargo into the
water; as for myself, it was no great harm, for I
was near the shore; but as to my cargo, it was
great part of it lost, especially the iron, which I
expected would have been of great use to me how-
ever, when the tide was out, I got most of the pieces
of cable ashore, and some of the iron, though with in-
finite labor; 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 ashore, 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 ca-
bin so effectually, as that nothing more could be found,
yet I discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one
of which I found two or three razors, and one pair
of large scissars, with some ten or a dozen of good
knives and forks; in another I found about thirty-
six pounds value in money, some European coin,
some Brazil, some pieces of eight, some gold, and
some silver.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
61
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 saving." However, on second
thoughts, I took it away; and wrapping all this in a
piece of canvass, 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 quar-
ter of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. It
presently occurred to me that it was in vain to pretend
to make a raft with the wind off shore; and that it
was my business to be gone before the tide of flood
began, otherwise I might not be able to reach the
shore at all. Accordingly I let myself down into the
water, and swam across the channel which lay be-
tween the ship and the sands, and even that with diffi-
culty 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.
But I was got home to my little tent, where I lay,
with all my wealth about me very secure. It blew
very hard all that night, and in the morning, when I
looked out, behold, no more ship was to be seen! I
was a little surprised, but recovered myself with this
satisfactory reflection, viz. that I had lost no time,
or abated no diligence, to get every thing out of her
that could be useful to me, and that, indeed, there was
little left in her that I was able to bring away, if I
had had more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or
of 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.
62
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
My thoughts were now wholly employed about se-
curing myself against either savages, if any should ap-
pear, 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 on the earth :
and in short, I resolved on 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 for my
settlement, particularly because it was on a low,
moorish ground, near the sea, and I believed it would
not be wholesome; and more particularly because
there was no fresh water near it: so I resolved to find
a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation, which I
found would be proper for me: 1st, Health and fresh
water, I just now mentioned: 2dly, Shelter from the
heat of the sun : 3dly, Security from ravenous crea-
tures, whether men or beasts: 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 expectation yet.
In search for a place proper for this, I found a lit-
tle 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 on me from the top.
On the side of this rock there was a hollow place,
worn a little way in, like the entrance or door of a
cave; but there was not really any cave, or way into
the rock, at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow
place, I resolved to pitch my tent. This plain was
not above 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 sea-side. It was on the
N.N.W. side of the hill; so that I was sheltered
V
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
63
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 about five feet and a half, and sharpened on
the top. The two rows did not stand above six inches
from one another.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I cut in the
ship, and laid them in rows, one on 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 nei-
ther man nor beast could get into it or over it. This
cost me a great deal of time and labor, especially to
cut the piles in the woods, bring them to the place,
and drive them into the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be not by a
door, but by a short ladder to go over the top; which
ladder, when I was in, I lifted over after me; and so
I was completely fenced in and fortified, as I thought,
from all the world, and 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 appre-
hended danger from.
Into this fence, or fortress, with infinite labor, 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, viz. one smaller tent within, and
?
64
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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
every thing that would spoil by the wet; and having
thus enclosed all my goods, I made up the entrance
which till now I had left open, and so passed and re-
passed, as I said, by a short ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way
into the rock, and bringing all the earth and stones
that I dug down out through my tent, I laid them
up within my fence in the nature of a terrace, 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 labor and many days, before all these
things were brought to perfection; and therefore I
inust 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 fal-
ling from a thick dark cloud, a sudden flash of
lightning happened, and after that, a great clap of
thunder, as is naturally the effect of it. I was not
so much surprised with the lightning, as I was with
a thought, which darted into my mind as swift as
the lightning itself: O my powder! My very heart
sunk within me when I thought that at one blast
all my powder might be destroyed; on which, not
my defence only, but the providing me food, as I
thought, entirely depended. I was nothing near so
anxious about my own danger, though, had the
powder took fire, I had never known who had
hurt me.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
65
Such impression did this make on me, that after
the storm was over, I laid aside all my works, my
building and fortifying, and applied myself to make
bags and boxes, to separate the powder, and to keep
it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope that what-
ever 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 240lbs. weight, was divided into 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 at least once every day with my gun, as
well to divert myself, as to see if I could kill any
thing fit for food; and as near as I could, to ac-
quaint 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 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 on the rocks, they
would run away as in a terrible fright; but if they
were feeding in the valleys, and I was on 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
VOL. I.
E
66
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
objects that were above them: so, afterwards, I took
this method—I always climbed the rocks first, to get
above them, and then had frequently a fair mark.
The first shot I made among these creatures, I killed
a she-goat, which had a little kid by her, which she
gave suck to, which grieved me heartily; but when
the old one fell, the kid stood stock still by her, till
I came and took her up; and not only so, but when
I carried the old one with me, on my shoulders, the
kid followed me quite to my enclosure; on 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 pre-
served my provisions (my bread especially) as much
as possibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it abso-
lutely necessary to provide a place to make a fire in,
and fuel to burn; and what I did for that, as also
how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I
made, I shall give a full account of in its proper
place: but I must first give some little account of
myself, and of my thoughts about living, which, it
may well be supposed, were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as
I was not cast away on 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 Pro-
vidence should thus completely ruin its creatures, and
render them so absolutely miserable; so abandoned
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
67
without help, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly
be rational to be thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift on me to
check these thoughts, and to reprove me: and par-
ticularly, one day, walking with my gun in my hand,
by the sea-side, I was very pensive on the subject of
my present condition, when reason, as it were, ex-
postulated with me the other way, thus: "
Well, you
are in a desolate condition, it is true; but, pray re-
member, where are the rest of you? Did not you
come eleven of you into the boat? Where are the
ten? Why were not they 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 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?
"Par-
ticularly," said I aloud (though to myself,) "what
should I have done without a gun, without ammu-
nition, without any tools to make any thing, or to
work with, without clothes, bedding, a tent, or any
manner of covering?" and that now I had all these
to a sufficient quantity, and was in a fair way to
provide myself in such a manner as to live without
my gun, when my ammunition was spent: so that
I had a tolerable view of subsisting, without any
want, as long as I lived; for I considered, from the
beginning, how I should provide for the accidents
that might happen, and for the time that was to
68
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
come, not only after my ammunition should be
spent, but even after my health or strength should
decay.
I confess, I had not entertained any notion of my
ammunition being destroyed at one blast, I mean my
powder being blown up by lightning; and this made
the thoughts of it so surprising to me, when it light-
ened and thundered, as I observed just now.
And now being 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 September, when, in the man-
ner as above said, I first set foot on this horrid island
when the sun being to us in its autumnal equinox,
was almost just over my head: for I reckoned myself,
by observation, to be in the latitude of 9 degrees 22
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 reck-
oning of time for want of books, and pen and ink,
and should even forget the Sabbath days from the
working days: but, to prevent this, I cut it with my
knife on a large post, in capital letters: and mak-
ing it into a great cross, I set it up on the shore where
I first landed, viz. "I came on shore here on the
30th of September, 1659." On 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.
But it happened, 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 found, some time after, in rummaging the
chests; as, in particular, pens, ink, and paper; seve-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
69
ral parcels in the captain's, mate's, gunner's, and car-
penter's keeping; three or four compasses, some ma-
thematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts,
and books of navigation; all which I huddled toge-
ther, 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 oc-
casion 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 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 for 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 hus-
banded them to the utmost; and I shall show that
while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact, but
after that was gone I could not; for I could not make
any ink, by any means that I could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things,
notwithstanding all that I had amassed together;
and of these, this of ink was one; as also a spade,
pick-axe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth ;
needles, pins, and thread: as for linen, I soon learned
to want that without much difficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on
heavily; and it was near a whole year before I had
entirely finished my little pale, or surrounded my habi-
tation. The piles or stakes, which were as heavy as
I could well lift, were a long time in cutting and pre-
paring in the woods, and more, by far, in bringing
home; so that I spent sometimes two days in cutting
70
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day
in driving it into the ground; for which purpose I got
a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last bethought.
myself of one of the iron crows; which, however, though
I found it, yet it made driving these posts or piles very
laborious and tedious work. But what need I have
been concerned at the tediousness of any thing I had
to do, seeing I had time enough to do it in? nor had I
any other employment, if that had been over, at least.
that I could foresee, except the ranging the island to
seek for food; which I did, more or less, every day.
I now began to consider seriously my condition,
and the circumstance I was reduced to; and I drew
up the state of my affairs in writing, not so much to
leave them to any that were to come after me, (for I
was like to have but few heirs,) as to deliver my
thoughts from daily poring on them, and afflicting
my mind; and as my reason began now to master my
despondency, I began to comfort 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 on a horrible,
desolate island, void of all
hope of recovery,
1
I am singled out and sepa-
rated, as it were, from all the
world, to be miserable.
I am divided from mankind,
a solitaire; one banished from
human society.
I have no clothes to cover
me.
I am without any defence,
GOOD.
But I am alive; and not
drowned, as all my ship's com-
pany were.
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.
But I am not starved, and
perishing in a barren place,
affording no sustenance.
But I am in a hot climate,
where, if I had clothes, I could
hardly wear them.
But I am cast on an island
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
71
or means to resist any violence
of man or beast.
I have no soul to speak to,
or relieve me.
where I see no wild beast to
hurt me, as I saw on the coast
of Africa: and what if I had
been shipwrecked there?
But God wonderfully sent
the ship in near enough to the
shore, that I have got out so
many necessary things as will
either supply my wants, or en-
able me to supply myself, even
as long as I live.
On the whole, here was an undoubted testi-
mony, that there was scarce any condition in the
world so miserable, but there was something nega-
tive, or something positive, to be thankful for in it:
and let this stand as a direction, from the experi-
ence 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 giving over looking out to sea, to
see if I could spy a ship; I say, giving over these
things, I began to apply myself to accommodate my
way of living, and to make things as easy to me as I
could.
I have already described my habitation, which was
a tent under the side of a rock, surrounded with a
strong pale of posts and cables; but I might now
rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall
against it of turfs, about two feet thick on the out-
side 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 vio-
lent.
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
72
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 labor I bestowed on it: and when I found I
was pretty safe as to the 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 in the outside of my
pale or fortification.
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it
were, a back-way to my tent and to my storehouse,
but gave me room to stow my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such
necessary things as I found I most wanted, particu-
larly a chair and a table; for without these I was
not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the
world; I could not write, or eat, or do several
things with so much pleasure, without a table: so
I went to work. And here I must needs observe,
that as reason is the substance and original of the
mathematics, so by stating and squaring every thing
by reason, and by making the most rational judg-
ment of things, every man may be, in time, master
of every mechanic art. I had never handled a tool
in my life; and yet, in time, by labor, application,
and contrivance, I found, at last, that I wanted no-
thing 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
labor. For example, if I wanted a board, I had
no other way but to cut down a tree, set it on an
edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with
my axe, till I had brought it to be as thin as a plank,
and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
73
by this method I could make but one board of a
whole tree; but this I had no remedy for but pa-
tience, any more than I had for a prodigious deal of
time and labor which it took me up to make a plank
or board: but my time or labor 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 ob-
served above, in the first place; and this I did out
of the short pieces of boards that I brought on my
raft from the ship. But when I had wrought out some
boards, as above, I made large shelves, of the breadth
of a foot and a half, one over another, all along one
side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and iron-
work on; and, in a word, to separate every thing at
large in their places, that I might easily come 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 seen, it looked like a general ma-
gazine of all necessary things; and I had every thing
so ready at my hand, that it was a great pleasure to
me to see all my goods in such order, and especially
to find my stock of all necessaries so great.
*
And now it was that I began to keep a journal of
every day's employment; for, indeed, at first, I was
in too much hurry, and not only hurry as to labour,
but in much discomposure of mind; and my journal
would, too, have been full of many dull things: for
example, I must have said thus- Sept. 30th. After
I had got to shore, and had escaped drowning, instead
of being thankful to God for my deliverance, having
first vomited, with the great quantity of salt water
which was gotten into my stomach, and recovering
myself a little, I ran about the shore, wringing my
hands, and beating my head and face, exclaiming at
my misery, and crying out, I was undone, undone !'
till, tired and faint, I was forced to lie down on the
ground to repose; but durst not sleep, for fear of
being devoured."
<
74
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
Some days after this, and after I had been on
board the ship, and got all that I could out of her,
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 that, at a vast distance, I spied
a sail, please myself with the hopes of it, and, 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 mea-
sure, and having settled my household-stuff and habi-
tation, 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.
THE JOURNAL.
September 30th, 1659. I, poor miserable Robin-
son Crusoe, being shipwrecked, during a dreadful
storm, in the offing, came on shore on this dismal
unfortunate island, which I called the ISLAND OF
DESPAIR; all the rest of the ship's company being
drowned, and myself almost dead.
All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting my-
self 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; that I should either
be devoured by wild beasts, murdered by savages,
or starved to death for want of food.
Åt the ap-
proach of night I slept in a tree, for fear of wild
creatures; but slept soundly, though it rained all
night.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
75
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 see-
ing her sit upright, and not broken in 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, it renewed my grief at
the loss of my comrades, who, I imagined, if we
had all staid on board, might have saved the ship, or
at least that they would not have been all drowned,
as they were; and that, had the men been saved, we
might perhaps have built us a boat, out of the ruins of
the ship, to have carried us to some other part of the
world. I spent great part of this day in perplexing
myself on these things; but, at length, seeing the
ship almost dry, I went on 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, on rafts. Much rain also in
these days, though with some intervals of fair wea-
ther: but, it seems, this was the rainy season.
Oct. 20. I overset my raft, and all the goods I
had got on it; but being in shoal water, and the
things being chiefly heavy, I recovered many of them
when the tide was out.
Oct. 25. It rained all night and all day, with some
gusts of wind; during which time the ship broke in
pieces (the wind blowing a little harder than before)
and was no more to be seen, except the wreck of her,
and that only at low water. I spent this day in co-
vering and securing the goods which I had saved, that
the rain might not spoil them.
. Oct. 26, I walked about the shore almost all
76
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 on a proper place, under a rock, and marked
out a semicircle for my encampment; which I re-
solved to strengthen with a work, wall, or fortifica-
tion, 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 see for some food, and disco-
ver 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 ham-
mock on.
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 I 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 ate what I had to live on; and from
twelve to two I lay down to sleep, the weather being
excessive hot; and then in the evening to work again.
The working part of this day and the next was wholly
employed in making my table, for I was yet but a
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
77
very sorry workman: though time and necessity made
me a complete natural mechanic soon after, as I be-
lieve they would any one else.
Nov. 5. This day went abroad with my gun and
dog, and killed a wild cat; her skin pretty soft, but
her flesh good for nothing of every creature that I
killed I took off the skins, and preserved them. Com-
ing back by the sea-shore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowl
which I did not understand; but was surprised, and
almost frightened, with two or three seals; which,
while I was gazing at them (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, according to my reckoning) 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 ac-
companied 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 mak-
ing little square chests or boxes, which might hold
about a pound, or two pounds at most, of powder:
and so, putting the powder in, I stowed it in places
78
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
as secure and as 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 farther con-
venience.
Note. Three things I wanted exceedingly for this
work, viz. a pick-axe, a shovel, and a wheel-barrow,
or basket; so I desisted from my work, and began to
consider how to supply these wants, and make me
some tools. As for a pick-axe, I made use of the
iron crows, which were proper enough, though heavy :
but the next thing was a shovel or spade; this was so
absolutely necessary, that, indeed, I could do nothing
effectually without it; but what kind of one to make
I knew not.
Nov. 18. The next day, in searching the woods, I
found a tree of that wood, or like it, which, in the
Brazils, they call the iron tree, from its exceeding
hardness of this, with great labor, and almost spoil-
ing 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 on this ma-
chine; for I worked it effectually, by little and little,
into the form of a shovel or spade; the handle exactly
shaped like ours in England, only that the broad part
having no iron shod on it at bottom, it would not
last me so long: however, it served well enough for
the uses which I had occasion to put it to; but never
was a shovel, I believe, made after that fashion, or so
long a-making.
I was still deficient: for I wanted a basket, or a
wheel-barrow. A basket I could not make by any
means, having no such things as twigs that would
bend to make wicker-ware; at least none yet found
out and as to the wheel-barrow, I fancied I could
make all but the wheel, but that I had no notion of;
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
79
neither did I know how to go about it: besides, I had
no possible way to make iron gudgeons for the spin-
dle or axis of the wheel to run in; so I gave it over :
and, for carrying away the earth which I dug out of
the cave, I made me a thing like a hod, which the la-
borers carry mortar in for the bricklayers.
This was
not so difficult to me as the making the shovel: and
yet this and the shovel, and the attempt which I made
in vain to make a wheel-barrow, took me up no less
than four days; I mean, always excepting my morn-
ing walk with my gun, which I seldom omitted, and
very seldom failed also bringing home something fit
to eat.
Nov. 23. My other work having now stood still,
because of my making these tools, when they were
finished I went on; and working every day, as my
strength and time allowed, I spent eighteen days
entirely in widening and deepening my cave, that it
might hold my goods commodiously.
Note. During all this time I worked to make this
room, or cave, spacious enough to accommodate me
as a warehouse or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room,
and a cellar. As for a 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 raf-
ters, leaning against the rock, and load them with flags
and large leaves of trees, like a thatch.
December 10. I began now to think my cave or
vault finished; when on a sudden (it seems I had
made it too large) a great quantity of earth fell down
from the top and on one side: so much, that, in short,
it frightened me, and not without reason too; for if I
had been under it, I should never have wanted a grave-
digger. On this disaster, I had a great deal of work
to do over again, for I had the loose earth to carry
out; and, which was of more importance, I had the
80
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
ceiling to prop up, so that I might be sure no more
would come down.
Dec. 11. This day I went to work with it accord-
ingly; and got two shores or posts pitched upright to
the top, with two pieces of board across over each
post; this I finished the next day; and setting more
posts up with boards, in about a week more I had the
roof secured; and the posts, standing in rows, served
me for partitions to part off my house.
Dec. 17. From this day to the 30th, I placed
shelves, and knocked up nails on the posts, to hang
every thing up that could be hung up; and now I
began to be in some order within doors.
Dec. 20. I carried every thing into the cave, and
began to furnish my house, and set up some pieces of
boards, like a dresser, to order my victuals on; 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 an-
other, so that I catched it, and led it home in a string:
when I had it home, I bound and splintered up its
leg, which was broke.
N. B. I took such care of it that it lived; and
the leg grew well, and as strong as ever: but, by
nursing it so long, it grew tame, and fed on 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.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
81
January 1. Very hot still; but I went abroad
early and late with my gun, and lay still in the mid-
dle of the day. This evening, going farther into the
valleys which lay towards the centre of the island, I
found there was plenty of goats, though exceeding
shy, and hard to come at; however, I resolved to try
if I could not bring my dog to hunt them down. Ac-
cordingly, the next day I went out with my dog,
and set him on the goats: but I was mistaken,
for they all faced about on the dog; and he knew
his danger too well, for he would not come near
them.
Jan. 3. I began my fence or wall; which, being
still jealous of my being attacked by somebody, I re-
solved to make very thick and strong.
N. B. This wall being described before, I pur-
posely omit what was said in the Journal: it is suffi-
cient to observe, that I was no less time than from
the 3rd of January to the 14th of April, working,
finishing, and perfecting this wall; though it was no
more than about 25 yards in length, being a half-
circle from one place in the rock to another place
about twelve yards from it, the door of the cave being
in the centre behind it.
All this time I worked very hard; the rains hin-
dering 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 labor every thing was done with, espe-
cially 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 persuaded myself that if any people were to come
on shore there they would not perceive any thing
like a habitation: and it was very well I did so, as
VOL. I.
F
82
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
may be observed hereafter, on a very remarkable
occasion.
:
During this time I made my rounds in the woods
for game every day, when the rain permitted me, and
made frequent discoveries, in these walks, of some-
thing or other to my advantage; particularly, I found
a kind of wild pigeons, who 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, as to some of them, it was:
for instance, I could never make a cask to be hooped.
I had a small runlet or two, as I observed before;
but I could never arrive to the capacity of making
one by them, though I spent many weeks about it:
I could neither put in the heads, nor 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 candle; so that as soon as it was dark,
which was generally by seven o'clock, I was obliged
to go to bed. I remembered the lump of bees-wax
with which I made candles in my African adventure;
but I had none of that now; the only remedy I had
was, that when I had killed a goat, I saved the
tallow; and with a little dish made of clay, which I
baked in the sun, to which I added a wick of some
oakum, I made me a lamp; and this gave me light,
though not a clear steady light like a candle. In the
middle of all my labors it happened, that in rum-
maging my things, I found a little bag; which, as I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
83
hinted before, had been filled with corn, for the feed-
ing of poultry; not for this voyage, but before, as
I suppose, when the ship came from Lisbon. What
little remainder of corn had been in the bag was
all devoured with the rats, and I saw nothing in the
bag but husks and dust; and being willing to have
the bag for some other use (I think it was to put
powder in, when I divided it for fear of the light-
ning, 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 rain just now men-
tioned, that I threw this stuff away; taking no notice
of any thing, and not so much as remembering that I
had thrown any thing there: when about a month
after, I saw some few stalks of something green
shooting out of the ground, which I fancied might be
some plant I had not seen; but I was surprised, and
perfectly astonished, when after a little longer time
I saw about ten or twelve 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 on no religious foundation at all;
indeed, I had very few notions of religion in my
head, nor had entertained any sense of any thing
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 in the world.
But after I saw barley grow there, in a climate
which I knew was not proper for corn, and
espe-
cially as I knew not how it came there, it startled me
strangely; and I began to suggest that God had mi-
raculously caused this grain to grow without any help
of seed sown, and that it was so directed purely for
my sustenance on that wild miserable place.
84
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 on my ac-
count: and this was the more strange to me, because
I saw near it still, all along by the side of the rock,
some other straggling stalks, which proved to be stalks
of rice, and which I knew, because I had seen it grow
in Africa, when I was ashore there.
I not only thought these the pure productions of
Providence for my support, but, not doubting that
there was more in the place, I went over all that
part of the island where I had been before, search-
ing in every corner, and under every rock, for more
of it; but I could not find any. At last it oc-
curred to my thoughts, that I had shook out a bag of
chickens'-meat 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,
on 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, as to me, that should order or
appoint that ten or twelve grains of corn should re-
main unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the
rest, as if it had been dropped from heaven; as also,
that I should throw it out in that particular place,
where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it sprang
up immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it any
where else at that time, it would have been burnt up
and destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may
be sure, in their season, which was about the end
of June; and laying up every corn, I resolved to
sow them all again; hoping, in time, to have some
quantity sufficient to supply me with bread. But it
was not till the fourth year that I could allow my-
self the least grain of this corn to eat, and even then
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
85
but sparingly, as I shall show afterwards in its
order; for I lost all that I sowed the first season,
by not observing the proper time; as I sowed just
before the dry season, so that it never came up at all,
at least not as it would have done; of which in its
place.
Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty
or thirty stalks of rice, which I preserved with the
same care; and whose use was of the same kind, or
to the same purpose, viz. to make me bread, or rather
food; for I found ways to cook it up without baking,
though I did that also after some time.-But to return
to my
Journal.
I worked excessively hard these three or four
months, to get my wall done; and the 14th of April
I closed it up; contriving to get 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
with the ladder to the top, and then pulled it up
after me, and let it 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 all my labor overthrown at once, and
myself killed; the case was thus :-As I was busy
in the inside of it, behind my tent, just at the en-
trance into my cave, I was terribly frightened 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 really
was the cause, only thinking that the top of my
cave was falling in, as some of it had done before:
and for fear I should be buried in it, I ran forward
86
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 on me.
I had no sooner stepped down on the firm 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 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 that the very sea was put into vio-
lent 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 stupified; and the
motion of the earth made my stomach sick, like one
that was tossed at sea: but the noise of the falling of
the rock awaked me, as it were; and rousing me from
the stupified condition I was in, filled me with horror,
and I thought of nothing but the hill falling on my
tent and my household goods, and burying all at
once 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; yet I had
not heart enough to go over my wall again, for fear
of being buried alive, but sat still on 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 on me! and when it was over, that
went away too.
While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and
grow cloudy, as if it would rain; and soon after the
wind rose by little and little, so that in less than half
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
87
an hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane: the sea
was all on a sudden covered 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 on the ground, very much terrified and dejected;
when on a sudden it came into my thoughts that
these winds and rain being the consequence of the
earthquake, the earthquake itself was spent and over,
and I might venture into my cave again. With this
thought my spirits began to revive; and the rain also
helping to persuade me, I went in, and sat down in
my tent; but the rain was so violent, that my tent
was ready to be beaten down with it; and I was
forced to get 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 drowned my
cave. After I had been in my cave for some time,
and found no more shocks of the earthquake follow,
began to be more composed. And now to support my
spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, I went to
my little store, and took a small sup of rum; which,
however, I did then, and always, very sparingly,
knowing I could have no more when that was gone.
+
I
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 sub-
ject to these earthquakes, there would be no living for
me in a cave, but I must consider of building me
some little hut in an open place, which I might sur-
round with a wall, as I had done here, and so make
myself secure from wild beasts or men: for if I staid
88
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 now stood, being just under
the hanging precipice of the hill, and which, if it
should be shaken again, would certainly fall on my
tent. 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 alive
affected me so, that I never slept in quiet; and yet
the apprehension of lying abroad, without any fence,
was almost equal to it: but still, when I looked about,
and saw how every thing was put in order, how plea-
santly I was concealed, and how safe from danger, it
made me very loth to remove. In the mean time, it oc-
curred to me that it would require a vast deal of time
for me to do this; and that I must be contented to
run the risk where I was, till I had formed a conve-
nient camp, and secured it so as to remove to it. 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 up my tent in it when it was
finished; but that I would venture to stay where I
was till it was ready, and fit to remove to. This was
the 21st.
April 22. The next morning I began to consider
of means to put this measure into execution; but I
was at a great loss about the tools. I had three large
axes, and abundance of hatchets, (for we carried the
hatchets for traffic with the Indians;) but with much
chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all
full of notches, and dull: and though I had a grind-
stone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too.
This cost me as much thought as a statesman would
have bestowed on a grand point of politics, or a judge
on the life and death of a man. At length I con-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
89
trived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot,
that I might have both my hands at liberty.
Note. I had never seen any such thing in England,
or at least not to take notice how it was done, though
since I have observed it is very common there: be-
sides 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 grind-
stone performing very well.
April 30. Having perceived that my bread had
been low a great while, I now 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 toward 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 ex-
amined the barrel that 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 the shore
for the present, and went on upon the sands, as
near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to look for
more.
When I came down to the ship, I found it strangely
removed. The forecastle, which lay before buried in
sand, was heaved up at least six feet: and the stern
(which was broke to pieces, and parted from the rest
by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummag-
ing 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 I could now walk quite up to her
90
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
when the tide was out; whereas there was a great
piece of water before, so that I could not come within
a quarter of a mile of the wreck without swimming. 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 no-
thing was to be expected of that kind, for all the
inside of the ship was choked up with sand. How-
ever, as I had learned not to despair of any thing, I
resolved to pull every thing to pieces that I could of
the ship, concluding that every thing I could get from
her would be of some use or other to me.
May 3. I began with my saw, and cut a piece of
a beam through, which I thought held some of the
upper part or quarter deck together; and when I had
cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I
could from the side which lay highest; but the tide
coming in, I was obliged to give over for that time.
May 4. I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish
that I durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport;
when, just going to leave off, I caught a young dol-
phin. I had made me a long line of some rope-yarn,
but I had no hooks; yet I frequently caught fish
enough, as much as I cared to eat; all which I dried
in the sun, and ate them dry.
May 5. Worked on the wreck: cut another beam
asunder, and brought three great fir-planks off from
the decks; which I tied together, and made swim on
shore when the tide of flood came on.
May 6. Worked on the wreck; got several iron
bolts out of her, and other pieces of iron-work; worked
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
91
very hard, and came home very much tired, and
had thoughts of giving it over.
May 7. Went to the wreck again, but 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
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 and sand. I wrenched up two
planks, and brought them on shore also with the tide.
I left the iron crow in the wreck for next day.
May 9. Went to the wreck, and with the crow
made way into the body of the wreck, and felt several
casks, and loosened them with the crow, but could
not break them up. I felt also the roll of English lead,
and could stir it; but it was too heavy to remove.
May 10-14. Went every day to the wreck; and
got a great many pieces of timber, and boards, or
plank, and two or three hundred weight of iron.
May 15. I carried two hatchets, to try if I could
not cut a piece off the roll of lead, by placing the edge
of one hatchet, and driving it with the other; but as it
lay about a foot and a half in the water, I could not
make any blow to drive the hatchet.
May 16. It had blown hard in the night, and the
wreck appeared more broken by the force of the
water; but I staid so long in the woods to get pi-
geons for food, that the tide prevented my going to
the wreck that day.
May 17. I saw some pieces of the wreck blown ou
shore at a great distance, two miles off me, but re-
solved 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 labor I loosened some things
92
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
1
so much with the crow, that the first blowing 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 gotten timber, and plank,
and iron-work, enough to have built a good boat, if I
had known how : and I also got, at several times, and
in several pieces, near one hundred weight of the
sheet-lead.
June 16. Going down to the sea-side, I found a
large tortoise, or turtle. This was the first I had seen ;
which, it seems, was only my misfortune, not any de-
fect 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 threescore eggs; and her flesh was to me, at that
time, the most savoury and pleasant that I ever tasted
in my life; having had no flesh, but of goats and fowls,
since I landed in this horrid place.
June 18. Rained all day, and I staid within. I
thought, at this time, the rain felt cold, and I was
somewhat 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; frightened 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
93
storm off Hull; but scarce knew what I said, or why,
my thoughts being all confused.
June 22. A little better; but under dreadful ap-
prehensions of sickness.
June 23. Very bad again; cold and shivering, and
then a violent head-ache.
June 24. Much better.
June 25. An ague very violent: the fit held me
seven hours; cold fit, and hot, with faint sweats af-
ter 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 with 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; I only lay and cried, 'Lord, look on
me! Lord, pity me! Lord, have mercy on 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 whole habitation,
I was forced to lie till morning and went to sleep
again. In this second sleep I had this terrible dream:
I thought that I was sitting on the ground, on the out-
side of my wall, where I sat when the storm blew after
the earthquake, and that I saw a man descend from a
great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and alight
on 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, impos-
94
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
sible for words to describe: when he stepped on 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 had no sooner landed
on 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 ex-
pect that I should be able to describe the horrors of
my soul at this terrible vision; I mean, that even
while it was a dream, I even dreamed of those hor-
rors; nor is it any more possible to describe the im-
pression that remained on my mind when I awaked,
and found it was but a dream.
I had, alas! no divine knowledge: what I had re-
ceived 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
had, in all that time, one thought that so much as
tended either to looking upward towards God, or in-
ward towards a reflection on my own ways: but a
certain stupidity of soul, without desire of good, or
consciousness 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 him
in deliverances.
In the relation of what is already past of my story,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
95
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 its being the hand of God, or that it
was a just punishment for my sin, my rebellious be-
haviour against my father, or my present sins, which
were great; or even as a punishment for the general
course of my wicked life. When I was on the des-
perate expedition on the desert shores of Africa, I
never had so much as one thought of what would be-
come of me; or one wish to God to direct me whither
I should go, or to keep me from the danger which ap-
parently surrounded me, as well from voracious creà-
tures as cruel savages; but I was quite 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 Portu-
guese captain, well used, and dealt with justly and
honorably, 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 mise-
rable.
:
*
It is true, when I first got on shore 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 common flight of joy; or, as I may
say, being glad I was alive, without the least reflec-
tion on the distinguished goodness of the hand which
had preserved me, and had singled me out to be pre-
served when all the rest were destroyed, or an inquiry
why Providence had been thus merciful to me: just
the same common sort of joy which seamen generally
96
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
have, after they have got safe ashore from a ship-
wreck, 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
into my head.
The growing of the corn, as is hinted in my Journal,
had at first some little influence on me, and began to
affect me with seriousness, as long as I thought it had
something miraculous in it; but as soon as that part of
the thought was removed, all the impression which
was raised from it wore off also, as I have noted al-
ready. 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 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 pre-
sent affliction of my circumstances being from his
hand, than if I had been in the most prosperous con-
dition of life. But now, when I began to be sick, and
a leisure 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 ex-
hausted with the violence of the fever; conscience,
that had slept so long, began to awake, and I re-
proached myself with my past life, in which I had so
evidently, by uncommon wickedness, provoked the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
97
justice of God to lay me under uncommon strokes, and
to deal with me in so vindictive a manner. These re-
flections 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 from me some words like praying to God:
though I cannot say it was a prayer attended either
with desires or with hopes; it was rather the voice of
mere fright and distress. My thoughts were confused;
the convictions great on my mind; and the horror of
dying in such a miserable condition, raised vapours in
my head with the mere apprehension 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
should have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having
neglected his counsel, when there might be none to
assist in my recovery.
Now," said I, aloud,
66 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 station of life wherein I might
have been happy and easy; but I would neither see it
myself, nor learn from my parents to know the bles-
sing of it. I left them to mourn over my folly; and
now I am left to mourn under the consequences of it:
I refused their help and assistance, who would have
pushed me in the world, and would have made every
thing easy to me; and now I have difficulties to
struggle with, too great for even nature itself to sup-
port; and no assistance, no comfort, no advice."
VOL. I.
66
Ꮐ
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 I return
to my Journal.
June 28. Having been somewhat refreshed with
the sleep I had had, and the fit being entirely off, I
got up; and though the fright and terror of my dream
was very great, yet I 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 my-
self when I should be ill. The first thing I did was
to fill a large square case-bottle with water; and set
it on 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 a piece of the goat's
flesh, and broiled it on the coals, but could eat very
little. I walked about; but was very weak, and
withal very sad and heavy-hearted under a sense of
my miserable condition, dreading the return of my
distemper the next day. At night, I made my supper
of three of the turtle's eggs; which I roasted in the
ashes, and ate, as we call it, in the shell: and this
was the first bit of meat I had ever asked God's
blessing to, as I could remember, in my whole life.
After I had eaten, I tried to walk; but found myself
so weak, that I could hardly carry the gun (for I
never went out without that;) so I went but a little
way, and sat down on the ground, looking out on 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? Surely,
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
1
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
99
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 with-
out his knowledge or appointment.
And if nothing happens without his knowledge, he
knows that I am here, and am in this dreadful condi-
tion and if nothing happens without his appoint-
ment, he has appointed all this to befall me. Nothing
occurred to my thought, to contradict any of these
conclusions: and therefore it rested on me with the
greatest force, that it must needs be that God had
appointed all this to befall me; that I was brought to
this miserable circumstance by his direction, he having
the sole power, not of me only, but of every thing that
happens 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 on a dreadful mis-
spent 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 thou
hast done?" I was struck dumb with these reflec-
tions, as one astonished, and had not a word to say ;
no, not to answer to myself; and, rising up pensive
and sad, walked back to my retreat, and went over
my wall, as if I had been going to bed: but my
thoughts were sadly disturbed, and I had no inclina-
tion to sleep; so I sat down in the chair, and lighted
my lamp, for it began to be dark. Now, as the ap-
100
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
prehension of the return of my distemper terrified me
very much, it occurred to my thought, that the Bra-
zilians 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, viz.
the tobacco; and as the few books I had saved lay
there too, I took out one of the Bibles which I men-
tioned before, and which to this time I had not found
leisure, or so much as inclination, to look into. I say,
I took it out, and brought both that and the tobacco
with me to the table. What use to make of the tobacco
I knew not, as to my distemper, nor whether it was
good for it or not; but I tried several experiments
with it, as if I was resolved it should hit one way or
other. I first took a piece of a leaf, and chewed it
in my mouth; which, indeed, at first, almost stupified
my brain; the tobacco being green and strong, and
such as I had not been much used to. Then I took
some and steeped it an hour or two in some rum, and
resolved to take a dose of it when I lay down: and,
lastly, I burnt some on 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 dis-
turbed 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 on my
thoughts at the time of reading them, though not so
much as they did afterwards; for, as for being deli-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
101
vered, the word had no sound, as I may say, to me;
the thing was so remote, so impossible in my appre-
hension of things, that, as the children of Israel said
when they were promised flesh to eat, "Can God
spread a table in the wilderness?" so I began to say,
Can even God himself deliver me from this place?
And as it was not for many years that any hopes ap-
peared, this prevailed very often on my thoughts :
but, however, the words made a great impression on
me, and I mused on them very often. It now grew
late; and the tobacco had, as I said, dozed my head
so much, that I inclined to sleep: so I left my lamp
burning in the cave, lest I should want any thing 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 on 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 to-
bacco, that indeed I could scarce get it down: imme-
diately on this I went to bed. I found presently the
rum 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 opi-
nion, 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 re-
crossing 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 exceed-
ingly 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;
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and, in short, I had no fit the next day, but con-
tinued much altered for the better. This was the 29th.
The 30th was my well day, of course; and I went
abroad with my gun, but did not care to travel too
far. I killed a sea-fowl or two, something like a
brand goose, and brought them home; but was not
very forward to eat them; so I ate some more of
the turtle's eggs, which were very good. This even-
ing I renewed the medicine, which I had supposed
did me good the day before, viz. the tobacco steeped
in rum; only I did not take so much as before, nor
did I chew any of the leaf, or hold my head over
the smoke: however, I was not so well the next day,
which was the 1st of July, as I hoped I should have
been; for I had a little 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 on this Scripture," I will
deliver thee;" and the impossibility of my deliver-
ance lay much on my mind, in bar of my ever ex-
pecting it but as I was discouraging myself with
such thoughts, it occurred to my mind that I pored
so much on my deliverance from the main affliction,
that I disregarded the deliverance I had received;
and I was, as it were, made to ask myself such ques-
tions as these, viz. Have I not been delivered, and
wonderfully too, from sickness; from the most dis-
tressed condition that could be, and that was so
frightful to me? and what notice have I taken of it?
Have I done my part? God has delivered me, but
I have not glorified him; that is to say, I have not
owned and been thankful for that as a deliverance:
and how can I expect a greater deliverance? This
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
103
touched my heart very much; and immediately I
knelt down, and gave God thanks aloud for my re-
covery 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 on myself to read awhile
every morning and every night; not binding myself
to the number of chapters, but as long as my thoughts
should engage me. It was not long after I set seri-
ously to this work, that 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 in my thoughts.
I was
earnestly begging of God to give me repentance, when
it happened providentially, the very same day, that,
reading the Scripture, I came to these words, " He
is exalted a Prince and a Saviour; to give repent-
ance, 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 ex-
alted Prince and Saviour! give me repentance!" This
was the first time in all my life I could say, in the
true sense of the words, that I prayed; for now I
prayed with a sense of my condition, and with a true
Scripture view of hope, founded on the encourage-
ment of the word of God: and from this time, I may
say, I began to have hope that God would hear me.
.
Now I began to construe the words mentioned
above, “ Call on me, and I will deliver thee,” in a
different sense from what I had ever done before; for
then I had no notion of any thing being called de-
liverance, but my being delivered from the captivity I
was in for though I was indeed at large in the place,
yet the island was certainly a prison to me, and that
in the worst sense in the world. But now I learned
to take it in another sense: now I looked back on
:
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
my past life with such horror, and my sins appeared
so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of God but
deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all
my comfort. As for my solitary life, it was nothing;
I did not so much as pray to be delivered from it, or
think of it; it was all of no consideration, in com-
parison with 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 afHiction. 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
constantly reading the Scripture and praying to God,
to things of a higher nature, I had a great deal of
comfort within, of which, till now, I knew nothing;
also, as my health and strength returned, I bestirred
me to furnish myself with every thing that I wanted,
and make my way of living as regular as I could.,
•
From the 4th of July to the 14th, I was chiefly
employed in walking about with my gun in my hand,
a little and a little at a time, as a man that was
gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness: for
it is hardly to be imagined how low I was, and to
what weakness I was reduced. The application which
I made use of was perfectly new, and perhaps what
had never cured an ague before; neither can I re-
commend it to any one to practise, by this experi-
ment: and though it did carry off the fit, yet it rather
contributed to weaken me; for I had frequent con-
vulsions 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
105
was almost always accompanied with such storms, so
I found that this rain was much more dangerous than
the rain which fell in September and October.
I had now been in this unhappy island above ten
months all possibility of deliverance from this con-
dition seemed to be entirely taken from me; and I
firmly believed that no human shape had ever set foot
on that place. Having 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, of which I yet
knew nothing.
:
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
any stream. 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 it
might be supposed, never overflowed,) I found a great
deal of tobacco, green, and growing to a very great
and strong stalk: and there were divers other plants,
of which I had no knowlege or understanding, and
that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which
I could not find out. I searched for the cassava root,
of which the Indians, in all that climate, make their
bread; 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
106
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 me to any
purpose now in my distress.
The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way
again; and after going something farther than I had
gone the day before, I found the brook and the savan-
nahs begin to cease, and the country become more
woody than before. In this part I found different
fruits; and particularly I found melons on the ground,
in great abundance, and grapes on the trees: the vines,
indeed, had spread over the trees, and the clusters of
grapes were now just in their prime, very ripe and
rich. This was a surprising discovery, and I was ex-
ceedingly 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.
I found, however, an excellent use for these grapes;
and that was, to cure or dry them in the sun,
and keep
them as dried grapes or raisins are kept; which I
thought would be (as indeed they were) as wholesome
and as agreeable to eat, when no grapes were to 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. At night, I
took my first contrivance, and got up into a tree,
where I slept well; and the next morning proceeded
on my discovery, travelling near four miles, as I might
judge by the length of the valley; keeping still due
north, with a ridge of hills on the south and north
sides 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,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
107
that is, due east; and the country appeared so fresh, SO
green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant
verdure, or flourish of spring, that it looked like a
planted garden. I descended a little on the side of
that delicious vale, surveying it with a secret kind of
pleasure (though mixed with other afflicting thoughts,)
to think that this was all my own; that I was king
and lord of this country indefeasibly, and had a right
of possession; and, if I could convey it, I might have
it in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor
in England. I saw here abundance of cocoa trees,
and orange, lemon, and citron-trees, but all wild, and
very few bearing any fruit; at least not then. How-
ever, 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 this, I
gathered a great heap of grapes in one place, a lesser
heap in another place; and a great parcel of limes and
melons in another place; and, taking a few of each
with me, I travelled homeward; and resolved to come
again, and bring a bag or sack, or what I could make,
to carry the rest home. 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
fruits, and the weight of the juice, having broken and
bruised them, they were good for little or nothing: as
to the limes, they were good, but I could bring only
a few.
The next day, being the 19th, I went back, having
made 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,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
I found them all spread abroad, trod to pieces, and
dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance
caten 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 in 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: I then
gathered a large quantity of the grapes, and hung them
on the out-branches of the trees, that they might
cure and dry in the sun; and as for the limes and
lemons, I carried as many back as I could well stand
under.
:
When I came home from this journey, I contem-
plated with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that
valley, and the pleasantness of the situation; the
security from storms on that side; the water and
the wood and concluded that I had pitched on a
place to fix my abode in, which was by far the
worst part of the country. On the whole, I began
to consider of removing my habitation, and to look
out for a place equally safe as where I was now si-
tuate, if possible, in that pleasant fruitful part of the
island.
This thought ran long in my head; and I was ex-
ceeding 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 sea-
side, where it was at least possible that something
might happen to my advantage, and that the same ill
fate which 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 im-
probable, but impossible; and that therefore I ought
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
109
not by any means to remove. However, I was so
enamoured of this place, that I spent much of my
time there for the whole remaining part of the month
of July; and though, on second thoughts, I resolved,
as above stated, not to remove; yet I built a little
kind of a bower, and surrounded it at a distance with
a strong fence, being a double hedge, as high as I
could reach, well staked, and filled between with
brushwood. Here I lay very secure, sometimes two
or three nights together; always going over it with a
ladder, as before so that I fancied now I had my
country and my sea-coast house. This work took me
up till 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 a tent like the other, with a piece of sail, and
spread it very well, yet I had not the shelter of a hill
to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me to re-
treat 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
3d of August, I found the grapes I had hung up were
perfectly dried, and indeed were excellent good rai-
sins of the sun so I began to take them down from
the trees; and it was very happy that I did so, as the
rains which followed would have spoiled them, and I
should have lost the best part of my winter food; for
I had above two hundred large bunches of them. No
sooner had I taken them all down, and carried most of
them home to my cave, but it began to rain: and from
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 in-
crease of my family. I had been concerned for the
loss of one of my cats, who ran away from me, or, as
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
I thought, had been dead; and I heard no more of
her, till, to my astonishment, she came home with
three kittens. This was the more strange to me, be-
cause, about the end of August, 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;
yet 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, I after-
wards 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 care-
ful 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. My food was now regulated thus: I ate
a bunch of raisins for my breakfast; a piece of the
goat's flesh, or of the turtle, broiled, for my dinner
(for, to my great misfortune, I had no vessel to boil
or stew any thing); and two or three of the turtle's
eggs for 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 yet I could not
perceive that there was any living thing to fear, the
biggest creature that I had yet seen on the island be-
ing a goat.
September 30. I was now come to the unhappy
anniversary of my landing. I cast up the notches on
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
111
my post, and found I had been on shore three hun-
dred 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 humilia-
tion, confessing my sins to God, acknowledging his
righteous judgments on me, and praying to him to
have mercy on me through Jesus Christ; and not hav-
ing tasted the least refreshment for twelve hours, even
till the going down of the sun, I then ate a biscuit
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
on my mind, I had, after some time, omitted to dis-
tinguish the weeks, by making a longer notch than
ordinary for the sabbath-day, and so did not really
know what any of the days were but now having
cast up the days, as above, I found I had been there
a year; so I divided it into weeks, and set apart every
seventh day for a sabbath: though I found, at the end
of my account, I had lost a day or two in my reckon-
ing. A little after this, my ink beginning to fail me,
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 what I am
going to relate was one of the most discouraging expe-
riments that I had made at all.
I have mentioned that I had saved the few ears of
barley, and rice, which I had so surprisingly found
sprung up, as I thought, of themselves. 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 a piece
112
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
:
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, be-
cause 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 and it was a great comfort
to me afterwards that I did so, for not one grain of
what I sowed this time came to any thing; for the
dry month following, and the earth having thus 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 from the drought,
I sought for a moister piece of ground to make an-
other 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. This,
having the rainy months of March and April to water
it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a very good
crop; but having only part of the seed left, and not
daring to sow all that I had, I got but a small quan-
tity 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 ex-
actly when was the proper time to sow; and that
I might expect two seed-times, and two harvests,
every year.
While this corn was growing, I made a little dis-
covery, which was of use to me afterwards. As soon
as the rains were over, and the weather began to
settle, which was about the month of November, I
made a visit up the country to my bower; where,
though I had not been some months, yet I found all
things just as I left them. The circle or double hedge
that I had made was not only firm and entire, but
the stakes which I had cut off of some trees that grew
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
113
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; but 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
to grow as much alike as I could: and it is scarcely
credible how beautiful a figure they grew into in three
years: so that, though the hedge made a circle of
about twenty-five yards in diameter, yet the trees, for
such I might now call them, soon covered it, and it
was a complete shade, sufficient to lodge under all the
dry season.
This made me resolve to cut some more
stakes, and make a hedge like this, in a semicircle
round my wall (I mean that of my first dwelling,)
which I did; and placing the trees or stakes 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 ge-
nerally be divided, not into summer and winter, as in
Europe, but into the rainy seasons and the dry sea-
sons, which were generally thus: From the middle of
February to the middle of April, rainy; the sun
being then on or near the equinox. From the middle
of April till the middle of August, dry; the sun being
then north of the line. From the middle of August
till the middle of October, rainy; the sun being then
come back to the line. From the middle of October
till the middle of February, dry; the sun being then
to the south of the line.
The rainy seasons held sometimes longer and some-
times 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
VOL. I.
H
114
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
with provisions beforehand, that I might not be
obliged to go out and I sat within doors as much as
possible during the wet months. In this time I found
much employment, and very suitable also to the time;
for I found great occasion for many things which I
had no way to furnish myself with, but by hard
labor 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 how they worked those things, and sometimes
lending a hand, I had by these means full knowledge
of the methods of it, so that I wanted nothing but the
materials; when it came into my mind, that the twigs
of that tree from whence I cut my stakes that grew,
might possibly be as tough as the sallows, willows,
and osiers, in England; and I resolved to try. Ac-
cordingly, 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 de-
sire: whereon 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, several baskets; both to carry
earth, or to carry or lay up any thing as I had occa-
sion for. Though I did not finish them very hand-
somely, yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for
my purpose and thus, afterwards, I took care never
to be without them; and as my wicker ware decayed,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
115
I made more; especially strong deep baskets, to keep
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 other wants.
I had no
vessel to hold any thing 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
waters, spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to
boil any thing; except a great kettle, which I saved
out of the ship, and which was too big for such use as
I desired it for, viz. to make broth, and stew a bit of
meat by itself. The second thing I would fain have
had, was a tobacco-pipe; but it was impossible for
me to make one; however, I found a contrivance for
that too at last. I employed myself in planting my
second row of stakes or piles, and also in this wicker-
working, all the summer or dry season; when another
business took me up more time than it could be ima-
gined I could spare.
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 had 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 quan-
tity of powder and shot than usual; with two biscuit-
cakes, and a great bunch of raisins in my pouch, for
my store; I began my journey. When I had passed
the vale where my bower stood, as above, I came
within view of the sea, to the west; and it being a
very clear day, I fairly descried land, whether an
island or continent I could not tell; but it lay very
high, extending from W. to W.S.W. at a very great.
116
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
distance; by my guess, it could not be less than fif-
teen 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 observa-
tions, must be near the Spanish dominions; and per-
haps was all inhabited by savages, where, if I should
have landed, I had been in a worse condition than
I was now. I therefore acquiesced in the disposi-
tions of Providence, which I began now to own and
to believe ordered every thing for the best; I say,
I quieted my mind with this, and left off afflicting
myself with fruitless wishes of being there.
Besides, after some pause on this affair, I con-
sidered 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 the Brazils, whose inhabitants are indeed the
worst of savages; for they are cannibals, or men-
eaters, and fail not to murder and devour all human
beings that fall into their hands.
With these considerations, walking very leisurely
forward, I found this side of the island, where I now
was, much pleasanter than mine; the open or savan-
nah fields sweetly adorned with flowers and grass,
and full of very fine woods. I saw abundance of
parrots; and fain would have caught one, if possi-
ble, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to
speak to me. I did, after taking some pains, catch
a young parrot: for I knocked it down with a stick,
and, having recovered it, I brought it home: but it
was some years before I could make him speak; how-
ever, at last I taught him to call me by my name very
familiarly. But the accident that followed, though it
be a trifle, will be very diverting in its place.
I was exceedingly amused with this journey. I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
117
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 my-
self 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. With these, added to my grapes, Leaden-
hall-Market could not have furnished a better table
than I, in proportion to the company; and though
my case was deplorable enough, yet I had great
cause for thankfulness; as I was not driven to any
extremities for food, but had rather plenty, even to
dainties.
I never travelled on this journey above two miles
outright in a day, or thereabouts; but I took so many
turns and returns, to see what discoveries I could
make, that I came weary enough to the place where
I resolved to sit down for the 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.
As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was sur-
prised to see that I had taken up my lot on the
worst side of the island: for here indeed the shore
was covered with innumerable turtles; whereas, on
the other side, I had found but three in a year and
a half. Here was also an infinite number of fowls
of many kinds; some of which I had seen, and some
of which I had not seen before, and many of them
very good meat; but such as I knew not the names
of, except those called penguins.
I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was
very sparing of my powder and shot; and therefore
had more mind to kill a she-goat, if I could, which I
could better feed on. But though there were many
goats here, more than on my side the island, yet it
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 plea-
santer than mine; 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 sea-shore to-
wards the east, I suppose about twelve miles; and
then setting up a great pole on 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 of which in its place.
I took another way to come back than that I went,
thinking I could easily keep so much of the island
in my view, that I could not miss my first dwelling
by viewing the country but I found myself mis-
taken; for being come about two or three miles, 1
found myself descended into a very large valley, but
so surrounded with hills, and those hills covered with
woods, that I could not see which was my way by
any direction but that of the sun, nor even then,
unless I knew very well the position of the sun at
that time of the day. And it happened to my far-
ther misfortune, that the weather proved hazy for
three or four days while I was in this valley; and
not being able to see the sun, I wandered about
very uncomfortably, and at last was obliged to find
out the sea-side, look for my post, and come back
the same way I went; and then by easy journeys I
turned homeward, the weather being exceeding hot,
and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other things
very heavy.
In this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and
seized it; and running to take hold of it, I caught it,
and saved it alive from the dog. I had a great mind
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
119
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 had made of some rope-
yarn, which I always carried about me, I led him
along, though with some difficulty, till I came to my
bower, and there I enclosed him and left him; for I
was very impatient to be at home, from whence I had
been absent above a month.
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me
to come into my old hutch, and lie down in my ham-
mock-bed. This little wandering journey, without a
settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to
me, that my own house, as I called it to myself, was
a perfect settlement to me, compared to that; and
it rendered every thing 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 Pol, who began now to be
more domestic, and to be mighty well acquainted
with me. Then I began to think of the poor kid
which I had penned within my little circle, and re-
solved to fetch it home, or give it some food: accord-
ingly 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 them 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 was from
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 for the many
wonderful mercies with which my solitary condition
was attended, and without which it might have been
infinitely more miserable. I gave humble and hearty
thanks to God for having been pleased to discover to
me, that it was possible I might be more happy even
in this solitary condition, than I should have been in
the enjoyment 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 communi-
cations of his grace to my soul; supporting, com-
forting, and encouraging me to depend upon his pro-
vidence here, and to hope for his eternal presence
hereafter.
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much
more happy the life I now led was, with all its mise-
rable circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abomi-
nable 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 gust,
and my delights were perfectly new from what they
were at my first coming, or indeed for the two years
past.
Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting,
or for viewing the country, the anguish of my soul
at my condition would break out 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

Pl N p 17
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
121
I was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and
bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, with-
out redemption.
In the midst of the greatest com-
posures of my mind, this would break out on me
like a storm, and make me wring my hands, and weep
like a child: sometimes it would take me in the mid-
dle of my work, and I would immediately sit down
and sigh, and look on the ground for an hour or
two together this was still worse to me; but if I
could burst into tears, or give vent to my feelings by
words, it would go off; and my grief being exhausted
would abate.
:
One
But now I began to exercise myself with new
thoughts; I daily read the word of God, and ap-
plied all the comforts of it to my present state.
morning, being very sad, I opened the Bible at these
words, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee :"
immediately it occurred that these words were to me;
why else should they be directed in such a manner,
just at the moment when I was mourning over my
condition, as one 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 forsake me; seeing on the other
hand, if I had all the world, and should lose the
favor and blessing of God, there would be no com,
parison in the loss?"
From this moment I began to conclude in my
mind that it was possible for me to be more happy
in this forsaken, solitary condition, than it was pro-
bable I should ever have been in any other particu-
lar state in the world; and with this thought I was
going to give thanks to God for bringing me to this
place. I know not what it was, but something
shocked my mind at that thought, and I durst not
speak the words. "How canst thou be such a hy-
pocrite," said I, even audibly, "to pretend to be
thankful for a condition, from which, however thou
122
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
mayest endeavour to be contented with it, thou
wouldest rather pray heartily to be delivered?" Here
I stopped but though I could not say I thanked
God for being here, yet I sincerely gave thanks to
God for opening my eyes, by whatever afflicting pro-
vidences, 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 ob-
served, that I was very seldom idle; but having re-
gularly divided my time, according to the several
daily employments that were 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, Going abroad with my gun for
food, which generally took me up three hours every
morning, when it did not rain: thirdly, Ordering,
curing, preserving, and cooking what I had killed or
catched for my supply: these took up great part of
the day; also it is to be considered, that in the mid-
dle 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 labor, I desire may
be added the exceeding laboriousness of my work
the many hours which, for want of tools, want of
help, and want of skill, every thing I did took up out
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
123
of my time for example, I was full two-and-forty
days making me a board for a long shelf, which I
wanted in my cave; whereas, two sawyers, with their
tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six of them out
of the same tree in half a day.
My case was this; it was a large tree which was
to be cut down, because my board was to be a broad
one. This tree I was three days cutting down, and
two more cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to
a log, or piece of timber. With inexpressible hack-
ing and hewing, I reduced both the sides of it into
chips, till it was light enough to move; then I turned
it, and made one side of it smooth and flat as a board,
from end to end; then turning that side downward,
cut the other side, till I brought the plank to be
about three inches thick, and smooth on both sides.
Any one may judge the labor of my hands in such a
piece of work; but labor 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 labor, and required a prodigious time to
do alone, and by hand. Notwithstanding this, with
patience and labor I went through many things; and
indeed, every thing that my circumstances made ne-
cessary for me to do, as will appear by what follows.
I was now in the months of November and Decem-
ber, expecting my crop of barley and rice. The
ground I had manured or dug up for them was not
great; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not
above the quantity of half a peck, having lost one
whole crop by sowing in the dry season: but now my
crop promised very well; when on a sudden I found
I was in danger of losing it all again by enemies of
several sorts, which it was scarce possible to keep
from it; as, first, the goats, and wild creatures which I
called hares, which, tasting the sweetness of the blade,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and
ate it so close, that it could get no time to shoot up
into stalks.
I saw no remedy for this, but by making an enclo-
sure 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 tolerably well fenced in about three
weeks' time; and shooting some of the creatures in
the day-time, 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, I know not of 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 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 staid by it to load my gun, and then coming
away, I could easily see the thieves sitting on all
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
125
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 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 they eat now was, as it might be said, a
peck-loaf to me in the consequence; so 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,
viz. hanged them in chains, for a terror to others.
is impossible to imagine that this should have such an
effect as it had; for the fowls not only never came
to 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 scare-crows 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.
It
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 broad-swords, or cutlasses,
which I saved among the arms out of the ship. How-
ever, as my first crop was but small, I had no great
difficulty to cut it down in short, I reaped it my
way, for I cut nothing off but the ears, and carried it
away in a great basket which I had made, and so
rubbed it out with my hands; and at the end of all
my harvesting, I found that out of my half-peck of
seed I had near two bushels of rice, and above two
bushels and a half of barley; that is to say, by my
guess, for I had no measure.
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 indeed how to clean it and part it; nor
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
if made into meal, how to make bread of it; and if
how to make it, yet I knew not how to bake it: these
things being added to my desire of having a good
quantity for store, and to secure a constant supply, I
resolved not to taste any of this crop, but to preserve
it all for seed against the next season; and, in the
mean time, to employ all my study and hours of work-
ing to accomplish this great work of providing myself
with corn and bread.
It might be truly said, that now I worked for my
bread. It is a little wonderful, and what I believe
few people have thought much on, viz. 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 a wooden spade, as I observed before; but this
did my work but in a wooden manner; and though it
cost me a great many days to make it, yet, for want of
iron, it not only wore out the sooner, but made my
work the harder, and performed it much worse. How-
ever, this I bore with, and was content to work it out
with patience, and bear with the badness of the per-
formance. When the corn was sown, I had no har-
row, 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
127
bread, and an oven to bake it; and yet all these
things I did without, as shall be observed; and the
corn was an inestimable comfort and advantage to
me; all this, as I said, made every thing laborious
and tedious to me, but that there was no help for ;
neither was my time so much loss to me, because, as
I had divided it, a certain part of it was every day
appointed to these works; and as I resolved to use
none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quantity
by me, I had the next six months to apply myself
wholly, by labor and invention, to furnish myself with
utensils proper for the performing all the operations
necessary for making corn fit for my use.
But now I was to prepare more land; for I had
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 labor to
work with it: however, I went 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 be-
fore, and knew it would grow; so that in one year's
time I knew I should have a quick or living hedge
that would want but little repair. This work took
me up
full three months; because a great part of the
time was in the wet season, when I could not go
abroad. Within doors, that is, when it rained, and I
could not go out, I found employment on the follow-
ing occasions; always observing, that while I was at
work, I diverted myself with talking to my parrot, and
teaching him to speak; and I quickly learned him to
know his own name, and at last to speak it out pretty
loud, Pol; which was the first word I had ever
heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own.
This, therefore, was not my work, but an assistant to
my work; for now, as I said, I had a great employ-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
ment upon my hands, as follows: I had long studied,
by some means or other, to make myself some earthen
vessels, which indeed I wanted much, 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 botch up some such pot as
might, being dried in the sun, be hard and strong
enough to bear handling, and to hold any thing that
was dry, and required to be kept so; and as this was
necessary in the preparing corn, meal, &c. which was
the thing I was on, 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.
fell
It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh
at me, to tell how many awkward ways I took to
raise this pastil; what odd, misshapen, ugly things I
made; how many of them fell in, and how many
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 ast
after they were dried and, in a word, how, after
having labored hard to find the clay, to dig it, to
temper it, to bring it home, and work it, I could not
make above two large earthen ugly things (I cannot
call them jars) in about two months' labor.
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,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
129
and pipkins, and any thing my hand turned to; and
the heat of the sun baked them very hard.
But all this would not answer my end, which was to
get an earthen pot to hold liquids, and bear the fire,
which none of these could do. It happened some
time after, 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 earthen-ware
vessels in the fire, burnt as hard as a stone, and red as
a tile. I was agreeably surprised to see it; and said
to myself, that certainly they might be made to burn.
whole, if they would burn broken.
This set me to study how to order my fire, so as to
make it burn 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 on another, and placed my fire-wood all
round it, with a great heap of embers under them. I
plied the fire with fresh fuel round the outside, and
on 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 watch-
ing them all night, that I might not let the fire abate
too fast, in the morning I had three very good, I will
not say handsome, pipkins, and two other earthen
pots, as hard burnt as could be desired; and one of
them perfectly glazed with the running of the sand.
After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted
no sort of earthen-ware for my use; but I must needs
say, as to the shapes of them, they were very indiffe-
rent, as any one may suppose, as I had no way of
VOL. I.
I
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 pa-
tience 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 so good as I would have had it.
My next concern was to get a stone mortar to
stamp or beat some corn in; for as to the mill, there
was no thought of arriving to that perfection of art
with one pair of hands. To supply this want I was at
a great loss; for of all trades in the world, I was as
perfectly unqualified for a stone-cutter, as for any
whatever; neither had I any tools to go about it with.
I spent many a day to find out a great stone big enough
to cut hollow, and make fit for a mortar; but could
find none at all, except what was in the solid rock,
and which I had no way to dig or cut out: nor, indeed,
were the rocks in the island of sufficient hardness, as
they were all of a sandy crumbling stone, which would
neither bear the weight of a heavy pestle, nor would
break the corn without filling it with sand: so, after
a great deal of time lost in searching for a stone, I
gave it over, and resolved to look out a great block of
hard wood, which I found indeed much easier; and
getting one as big as I had strength to stir, I rounded
it, and formed it on the outside with my axe and
hatchet; and then, with the help of fire, and infinite
labor, 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 iron-wood;
and this I prepared and laid by against I had my next
crop of corn, when I proposed to myself to grind,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
131
or rather pound, my corn into meal, to make my
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
but to think on; for I had nothing like the necessary
thing to make it; I mean fine thin canvass or stuff, to
searce the meal through. Here I was at a full stop
for many months; nor did I really know what to do ;
linen I had none left, but what was mere rags ; I had
goats'-hair, but neither knew how to weave it nor spin
it; and had I known how, here were no tools to work
it with all the remedy I found for this was, at last
recollecting I had, among the seamen's clothes which
were saved out of the ship, some neckcloths of calico
or muslin, 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 consi-
dered, 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
puzzled. At length I found out an expedient for that.
also, which was this; I made some earthen vessels,
very broad, but not deep, that is to say, about two
feet diameter, and not above nine inches deep: these
I 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 making and burning also; but
I should not call them square.
When the fire-wood was burned into embers, or
live coals, I drew them forward on the hearth, so
as to cover it all over, and there let them lie till the
hearth was very hot; then sweeping away all the
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
embers, I set down my loaf or loaves, and covering
them with the earthen pot, drew the embers all round
the outside of the pot, to keep in and add to the heat;
and thus, as well as in the best oven in the world, I
baked my barley loaves, and became, in a little time,
a good pastrycook into the bargain; for I made my-
self several cakes and puddings of the rice; but made
no pies, as I had nothing to put into them except the
flesh 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, in the intervals of these
things, I had my new harvest and husbandry to ma-
nage: I reaped my corn in its season, and carried it
home as well as I could, and laid it up in the ear,
in my large baskets, till I had time to rub it out; for
I had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument to thrash
it with.
And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I
really wanted to build my barns bigger: I wanted a
place to lay it up in; for the increase of the corn now
yielded me so much, that I had of the barley about
twenty bushels, and of rice as much, or more, inso-
much that now I resolved to begin to use it freely;
for my bread had been quite gone a great while:
I resolved also to see what quantity would be suffi-
cient for me a whole year, and to sow but once
a year.
On the whole, I found that the forty bushels of
barley and rice were much more than I could con-
sume 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 on the prospect
of land which I had seen from the other side of the
island and I was not without some secret wishes
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
133
that I was on shore there; fancying, that seeing the
main land, and an inhabited country I might find
some way or other to convey myself farther, and per-
haps at last find some means of escape.
But all this while I made no allowance for the
dangers of such a condition, and that 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 being eaten; for I had
heard that the people of the Caribbean coast were
cannibals, or man-eaters; and I knew, by the lati-
tude, that I could not be far off from that shore.
Then supposing they were not cannibals, yet that
they might kill me, as they had many Europeans who
had fallen into their hands, even when they have been
ten or twenty together; much more I, who was but
one, and could make little or no defence; all these
things, I say, which I ought to have considered well
of, and did cast up in my thoughts afterwards, took
up none of my apprehensions at first; yet my head
ran mightily on the thought of getting over to the
shore.
Now I wished for my boy Xury, and the long-boat
with the shoulder-of-mutton sail, with which I sailed
above a thousand miles on the coast of Africa; but
this was in vain: then I thought I would go and look
at our ship's boat, which, as I have said, was blown
up on the shore a great way, in the storm, when we
were first cast away. She lay nearly where she did
at first, but not quite; having 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, as before. If I had had hands to
have refitted her, and to have launched her into the
water, the boat would have done very well, and I
might have gone back into the Brazils with her easily
134
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
enough; but I might have foreseen, that I could no
more turn her and set her upright on 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; sug-
gesting to myself, that if I could but turn her down,
and repair the damage she had received, she would
be a very good boat, and I might venture to sea
in her.
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 her up with my
little strength, I fell to digging away the sand, to un-
dermine her, and so as to make her fall down, set-
ting pieces of wood to thrust and guide her right in
the fall.
But when I had done this, I was unable to stir her
up again, or to get under her, much less to move her
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 the main increased,
rather than diminished, as the means for it seemed
impossible.
At length, I began to think whether it was not
possible to make myself a canoe, or periagua, such as
the natives of those climates make, even without
tools, or, as I might say, without hands, of the trunk
of a great tree. This I not only thought possible, but
easy, and pleased myself extremely with the idea of
making it, and with my having much more conve-
nience 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.
the want of hands to move it into the water when it
was made, a difficulty much harder for me to sur-
mount than all the consequences of want of tools
could be to them: for what could it avail me, if, after
I had chosen my tree, and with much trouble cut it
OF ROBINSON CRusoe.
135
down, and might be able with my tools to hew and
dub the outside into the proper shape of a boat, and
burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow, so as to
make a boat of it; if, after all this, I must leave it
just where I found it, and was not able to launch it
into the water?
One would imagine, if I had had the least reflection
on my mind of my circumstances while I was making
this boat, I should have immediately thought how I
was to get it into the sea: but my thoughts were so
intent on my voyage in it, that I never once consi-
dered how I should get it off the land; and it was
really, in its own nature, more easy for me to guide it
over forty-five miles of sea, than the forty-five fathoms
of land, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water.
I went to work on 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 able to undertake it; not but that the
difficulty of launching my boat often came into my
head; but I put a stop to my own inquiries into it, by
this foolish answer: 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 at Jerusalem; it was five feet ten inches dia-
meter at the lower part next the stump, and four feet
eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two feet,
where it lessened, and then parted into branches. It
was not without infinite labor that I felled this tree;
I was twenty days hacking and hewing at the bottom,
and fourteen more getting the branches and limbs, and
the vast spreading head of it, cut off: after this, it
cost me a month to shape it and dub it to a propor-
tion, and to something like the bottom of a boat, that
136
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 labor, till I had brought it to be a
very handsome periagua, and big enough to have car-
ried 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 ex-
tremely 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 there remained no-
thing but to get it into the water; which, had I ac-
complished, I make no question but I should have be-
gun 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 inexpressible labor 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 discou-
ragement, I resolved to dig into the surface of the
earth, and so make a declivity: this I begun, and it
cost me a prodigious deal of pains; (but who grudge
pains that have their deliverance in view?) 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 on
it, and calculate how deep it was to be dug, how
broad, how the stuff was to be thrown out, I found
by the number of hands I had, having none but my
own, that it must have been ten or twelve years before
I could have gone through with it; for the shore lay so.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
137
high, that at the upper end it must have been at least
twenty feet deep; this attempt, though with great
reluctancy, I was at length obliged to give 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 before;
for, by a constant study and serious application to the
word of God, and by the assistance of his grace, I
gained a different knowledge from what I had before;
I entertained different notions of things; I looked now
on the world as a thing remote, which I had nothing
to do with, no expectation from, and, indeed, no de-
sires about: in a word, I had nothing to do with it,
nor was ever likely to have; I thought it looked, as
we may perhaps look on 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 here removed from all the
wickedness of the world; I had neither the lust of the
flesh, the lust of the eye, nor the pride of life. I had
nothing to covet, for I had all 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 so-
vereignty 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 occa-
sion. 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 grapes enough to have made wine, or to have
138
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
cured into raisins, to have loaded that fleet when it
had been built.
But all I could make use of was all that was valu-
able: I had enough to eat and supply my wants, and
what was 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 than for
fuel, and that I had no other occasion for but to dress
my food.
In a word, the nature and experience of things dic-
tated to me, on just reflection, that all the good things
of this world are of no farther good to us than for our
use; and that whatever we may heap up to give
others, we enjoy only as much as we can use, and no
more. The most covetous griping miser in the world
would have been cured of the vice of covetousness, if
he had been in my case; for I possessed infinitely
more than I knew what to do with. I had no room
for desire, except it was for things which I had not,
and they were comparatively but trifles, though indeed
of great use to me. I had, as I hinted before, a parcel
of money, as well gold as silver, about thirty-six
pounds sterling. Alas! there the nasty, sorry, use-
less stuff lay: I had no manner of business for it;
and I often thought within 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 sixpenny-worth of turnip and carrot
seed from 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.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
139
I had now brought my state of life to be much more
comfortable in itself than it was at first, and much
easier to my mind, as well as to my body. I fre-
quently sat down to meat with thankfulness, and ad-
mired the hand of God's providence, which had thus
spread my table in the wilderness: I learned to look
more on the bright side of my condition, and less on
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 dis-
contents 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 wonder-
fully ordered the ship to be cast up near to the shore,
where I not only could come at her, but could bring
what I got out of her to the shore, for my relief and
comfort; without which I had wanted 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 re-
presenting to myself, in the most lively colors, how I
must have acted if I had got nothing out of the ship.
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; 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
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the skin and the bowels, or to cut it up; but must
gnaw it with my teeth, and pull it with my claws,
like a beast.
These reflections made me very sensible of the
goodness of Providence to me, and very thankful for
my present condition, with all its hardships and mis-
fortunes 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 consi-
der 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 compar-
ing my present condition 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 my father and mother; neither
had they been wanting to me, in their endeavours to
infuse an early 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 desti-
tute 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 dan-
gers, and the views of death, which grew habitual to
me; by my long absence from all manner of opportu-
nities to converse with any thing but what was like
myself, or to hear any thing that was good, or tending
towards it.
So void was I of every thing that was good, or of
the least sense of what I was, or was tɔ be, that in the
greatest deliverances I enjoyed (such as my escape
from Sallee, my being taken up by the Portuguese
1
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
141
master of a ship, my being planted so well in the Bra-
zils, 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 on
me! no, nor to mention the name of God, unless it
was to swear by, and blaspheme it.
I had terrible reflections on 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 that my repentance was accepted, and that
God had yet mercies 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 won-
ders could have brought; that I ought to consider I
had been fed 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 or poison-
ous creatures which I might feed on to my hurt; no
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
savages to murder and devour me. In a word, as my
life was a life of sorrow one way, so it was a life of
mercy another; and I wanted nothing to make it a life
of comfort, but to make myself sensible of God's
goodness to me, and care over me in this condition;
and after I did make a just improvement of these
things, I went away, and was no more sad.
I had now been here so long, that many things
which I brought on shore for my help were either
quite gone, or very much wasted, and near spent.
My ink, as I observed, had been gone for some
time, all but a very little, which I eked out with
water a little and a little, till it was so pale, it scarce
left any appearance of black on 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 remember that there was a strange concurrence of
days in the various providences which befel me, and
which, if I had been superstitiously inclined to ob-
serve days as fatal or fortunate, I might have had
reason to have looked on with a great deal of curi-
osity.
First, I had observed, that the same day that I
broke away from my father and my friends, and ran
away to Hull, in order to go to sea, the same day
afterwards I was taken by the Sallee man of war,
and made a slave: the same day of the year that I
escaped out of the wreck of the ship in Yarmouth
Roads, that same day-year afterwards I made my
escape from Sallee in the boat: and the same day
of the year I was born on, viz. the 30th of Septem-
ber, 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 one day.
The next thing to my ink being wasted, was that
of my bread, I mean the biscuit which I brought out
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
143
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 mightily: as to
linen, I had none for a great while, except some
chequered shirts which I found in the chests of the
other seamen, and which I carefully preserved, be-
cause many times I could bear no 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 been inclined to it, which I was
not, nor could I abide the thought of it, though I
was all alone. The reason why I could not go quite
naked was, I could not bear the heat of the sun so
well when quite naked as with some clothes on;
nay, the very heat frequently blistered my skin:
whereas, with a shirt on, the air itself made some
motion, and whistling under the shirt, was twofold
cooler than without it. No more could I ever bring
myself to go out in the heat of the sun without a
cap or hat; the heat of the sun beating with such
violence as it does in that place, would give me the
head-ach 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 pre-
sently go away.
On these views, I began to consider about put-
ting the few rags I had, which I called clothes, into
some order: I had worn out all the waistcoats I had,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and my business was now to try if I could not make
jackets out of the great watch-coats that I had by me,
and with such other materials as I had; so I set to
work a tailoring, or rather, indeed, a botching, for I
made most piteous work of it. However, I made
shift to make two or three 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.
I have mentioned, that I saved the skins of all the
creatures that I killed, I mean four-footed ones; and
I had hung them up, stretched out with sticks, in the
sun, by which means some of them were so dry and
hard that they were fit for little, but others I found
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 this I made me a suit of clothes wholly of the
skins, that is to say, a waistcoat, and breeches open at
the knees, and both loose; for they were rather want-
ing to keep me cool than 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 abroad, if it happened to rain, the hair of
my waistcoat and cap being uppermost, I was kept
very dry.
After this I spent a great deal of time and pains to
make me an umbrella: I was indeed in great want of
one, and had a great mind to make one; I had seen
them made in the Brazils, where they were very use-
ful in the great heats which are there; and I felt the
heats every jot as great here, and greater too, being
nearer the equinox: besides, as I was obliged to be
much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as well
for the rains as the heats. I took a world of pains at
it, and was a great while before I could make any
thing likely to hold; nay, after I thought I had hit
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
145
the way, I spoiled two or three before I made one to
my mind; but at last I made one that answered indif-
ferently well; the main difficulty I found was to make
it to 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 1
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 to the will of God, and
throwing myself wholly on the disposal of his pro-
vidence. 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?
I cannot say that after this, for five years, any ex-
traordinary thing happened to me, but I lived on in
the same course, in the same posture and place, just
as before; the chief things I was employed in, besides
my yearly labor 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 pro-
vision beforehand; I say, besides this yearly labor,
and my daily pursuit of going out with my gun, I
had one labor, to make me 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, as I made it without considering before-
hand, as I ought to do, how I should be able to
VOL. I.
K
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
launch it, so, never being able to bring it into the wa-
ter, 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 dis-
tance 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 was near two years about it, yet I never
grudged my labor, 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 de-
sign 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 small-
ness of my boat assisted to put an end to that de-
sign, 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 jour-
ney 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 every thing with
discretion and consideration, I fitted up a little mast
in my boat, and made a sail to it out of some of the
pieces of the ship's sails which lay in store, and of
which I had a great 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
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.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
147
I fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern,
like a mast, to stand over my head, and keep the
heat of the sun off me, like an awning: and thus I
every now and then took a little voyage on 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 on my cruise; and accord-
ingly I victualled my ship for the voyage, putting in
two dozen of loaves (cakes I should rather call them)
of barley bread, an earthen pot full of parched rice (a
food I ate a great deal of,) a little bottle of rum, half
a goat, and powder and shot for killing more, and two
large watch-coats, of those which, as I mentioned
before, I had saved out of the seamen's chests; these
I took, one to lie on, 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 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 first I discovered them, I was going to give
over my enterprise, and come back again, not know-
ing how far it might oblige me to go out to sea, and
above all, doubting how I should get back again; so
I came to an anchor; for I had made me a kind of an
anchor with a piece of broken grappling which I got
out of the ship.
Having secured my boat, I took my gun and went
on shore, climbing up on a hill, which seemed to over-
look 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,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
I perceived a strong, and indeed a most furious cur-
rent, 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 on 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 farther dis-
tance, and I saw there was a strong eddy under the
shore; so I had nothing to do but to get out of the
first current, and I should presently be in an eddy.
I lay here, however, two days, because the wind
blowing pretty fresh at E.S.E. and that being just
contrary to the said current, made a great breach of
the sea on 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 over-night, the sea was calm, and I ventured:
but I am a warning-piece again to all rash and igno-
rant 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 for hunger. I had indeed found a tortoise on
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
149
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 main land or island,
for a thousand leagues at least?
And now I saw how easy it was for the providence
of God to make even the most miserable condition of
mankind worse. Now I looked back on my deso-
late 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 I going!" Then I reproached myself
with my unthankful temper, and how I had repined
at my solitary condition; and now what would I give
to be on shore there again! Thus we never see the
true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us
by its contraries, nor know how to value what we en-
joy, but by the want of it. It is scarce possible to
imagine the consternation I was now in, being driven
from my beloved island (for so it appeared to me now
to be) into the wide ocean, almost two leagues, and
in the utmost despair of ever recovering it again.
However, I worked hard, till indeed my strength was
almost exhausted, and kept my boat as much to the
northward, that is, towards the side of the current
which the eddy lay on, as possibly I could; when
about noon, as the sun passed the meridian, I
thought I felt a little breeze of wind in my face,
springing up from S.S.E. 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 was
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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
steered towards the island, if I had but once lost sight
of it; but the weather continuing clear, I applied my-
self 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 on some rocks:
these rocks I found caused the current to part again,
and as the main stress of it ran away more southerly,
leaving the rocks to the north-east, so the other re-
turned 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 on the ladder, or to be rescued from
thieves just going to murder them, or who have been
in such-like extremities, may guess what my present
surprise of joy was, and how gladly I put my boat
into the stream of this eddy; and the wind also
freshening, how gladly I spread my sail to it, running
cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong tide or
eddy under foot.
This eddy carried me about a league in my way
back again, directly towards the island, but about two
leagues more 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, oppo-
site 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 farther. However, I found
that being between two currents, viz. that on the south
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
151
side, which had hurried me away, and that on the
north, which lay about a league on the other side; I
say, between these two, in the wake of the island, 1
found the water at least still, and running no way;
and having still a breeze of wind fair for me, I kept
on steering directly for the island, though not making
such fresh way as I did before.
About four o'clock in the evening, being then
within 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. How-
ever, having a fresh gale, I stretched across this eddy,
slanting north-west and, in about an hour, came
within about a mile of the shore, where, it being
smooth water, I soon got to land.
When I was on shore, I fell on my knees, and
gave God thanks for my deliverance, resolving to lay
aside all thoughts of my deliverance by my boat; and
refreshing myself with such things as I had, I brought
my boat close to the shore, in a little cove that I had
spied under some trees, and laid me down to sleep,
being quite spent with the labor and fatigue of the
voyage.
I was now at a great loss which way to get home
with my boat I had run so much hazard, and knew
too much 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 only resolved
in the morning to make my way westward along the
shore, and to see if there was no creek where I might
lay up my frigate in safety, so as to have her again if
I wanted her. In about three miles, or thereabouts,
coasting the shore, I came to a very good inlet or
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 exceeding hot, I began
my march. The way was comfortable enough after
such a voyage as I had been on, and I reached my
old bower in the evening, where I found every thing
standing as I left it; for I always kept it in good or-
der, 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 1 must be in, when I was
awaked out of my sleep by a voice, calling me by
my name several times, Robin, Robin, Robin Cru-
soe; 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 paddling, as it is called, the first part of
the day, and with walking the latter part, that I did
not wake thoroughly; but dozing between sleeping
and waking, 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 Pol sitting on the
top of the hedge; and immediately knew 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 on my finger,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
153
and lay his bill close to my face, and cry,
" Poor
Robin Crusoe! Where are you? Where have you
been? How came you here?" and such things as I
had taught him.
However, even though I knew it was the parrot,
and that indeed it could be nobody else, it was a good
while before I could compose myself. First, I was
amazed how the creature got thither, and then, how
he should just keep about the place, and no where
else but as I was well satisfied it could be nobody
but honest Pol, I got over it; and holding out my
hand, and calling him by his name, Pol, the sociable
creature came to me, and sat on 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 now had enough of rambling to sea for some
time, and had enough to do for many days, to sit still,
and reflect on the danger I had been in. I would
have been very glad to have had my boat again on
my side of the island; but I knew not how it was
practicable to get it about. As to the east side of
the island, which I had gone round, I knew well
enough there was no venturing that way; my very
heart would shrink, and my very blood run chill, but
to think of it; and as to the other side of the island,
I did not know how it might be there; but supposing
the current ran with the same force against the shore
at the east as it passed by it on the other, I might
run the same risk of being driven down the stream,
and carried by the island, as I had been before of
being carried 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' labor to
make it, and of so many more to get it into the sea.
In this government of my temper I remained near
a year, lived a very sedate, retired life, as you may
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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, ex-
cept that of society.
I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic
exercises which my necessities put me on applying
myself to; and I believe I could, on occasion, have
made a very good carpenter, especially considering
how few tools I had.
Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection
in my earthen-ware, and contrived well enough to
make them with a wheel, which I found infinitely
easier and better; because I made things round and
shapable, 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 any thing I
found out, than for my being able to make a tobacco-
pipe; and though it was a very ugly clumsy thing
when it was done, and only burnt red, like other
earthen-ware, yet as it was hard and firm, and would
draw the smoke, I was exceedingly comforted with it,
for I had been always used to smoke: and there were
pipes in the ship, but I forgot them at first, not think-
ing that there was tobacco in the island; and after-
wards, when I searched the ship again, I could not
come at any pipes at all.
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 my 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
155
behind me.
Also large deep baskets were the re-
ceivers 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 con-
siderably; this was a want which it was impossible
for me to supply, and I began seriously to consider
what I must do when I should have no more powder;
that is to say, how I should do to kill any goats. I
had, as 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 pit-
fall: 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 on them; and several times I put
ears of barley and dry rice, without setting the trap;
and I could easily perceive that the goats had gone
in and eaten up the corn, for I could see the marks of
their feet. At length I set three traps in one night,
and going the next morning, I found them all stand-
ing, 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
he-goat, and in one of the others three kids, a male
and two females.
As to the old one, I knew not what to do with
him; he was so fierce, I durst not go into the pit to
him; that is to say, to go about to bring him away
alive, which was what I wanted: I could have killed
him, but that was not my business, nor would it an-
swer 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 hun-
ger will tame a lion. If I had let him stay there three
or four days without food, and then have carried him
some water to drink, and then a little corn, he would
have been as tame as one of the kids; for they are
mighty sagacious tractable creatures, where they are
well used.
However, for the present I let him go, knowing no
better at that time: then I went to the three kids,
and taking them one by one, I tied them with strings
together, and with some difficulty brought them all
home.
It was a good while before they would feed; but
throwing them some sweet corn, it tempted them, and
they began to be tame. And now I found that if I
expected to supply myself with goat's flesh when I
had no powder or shot left, breeding some up tame
was my only way; when, perhaps, I might have them
about my house like a 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
157
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 on 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 fore-
cast, when I shall tell them, I began my enclosing
this piece of ground in such a manner, that my hedge
or pale must have been at least two miles about. Nor
was the madness of it so great as to the compass,
for if it was ten miles about, I was like to have time
enough to do it in; but I did not consider that my
goats would be as wild in so much compass as if they
had had the whole island, and I should have so much
room to chase them in, that I should never catch
them.
My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe
about fifty yards, when this thought occurred to me;
so I presently stopped short, and, for the first begin-
ning, I resolved to enclose a piece of about 150 yards
in length, and 100 yards in breadth; which, as it
would maintain as many as I should have in any rea-
sonable 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 hedg-
ing in the first piece; and, till I had done it, I te-
thered the three kids in the best part of it, and used
them to feed as near me as possible, to make them
familiar; and very often I would go and carry them
some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and feed
them out of my hand: so that after my enclosure
was finished, and I let them loose, they would follow
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 into, 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 miscar-
riages, made me both butter and cheese at last, and
also salt (though I found it partly made to my hand
by the heat of the sun on some of the rocks of the
sea,) and never wanted it afterwards. How merci-
fully can our Creator treat his creatures, even in those
conditions in which they seem to be overwhelmed in
destruction! How can he sweeten the bitterest pro-
vidences, and give us cause to praise him for dungeons
and prisons! What a table was here spread for me in
a wilderness, where I saw nothing, at first, but to pe-
rish for hunger!
It would have made a stoic smile to have seen me
and my little family sit down to dinner there was my
majesty, the prince and lord of the whole island; I had
the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command;
I could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away;
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
159
and no rebels among all my subjects. Then to see
how like a king I dined too, all alone, attended by
my servants! Pol, as if he had been my favorite,
was the only person permitted to talk to me. My
dog, who was now grown very old and crazy, and had
found no species to multiply his kind on, 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 special favor.
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 run wild in the
woods, and became indeed troublesome to me at last;
for they would often come into my house, and plunder
me too, till at last I was obliged to shoot them, and did
kill a great many; at length they left me. With this
attendance, and in this plentiful manner, I lived;
neither could I be said to want any thing but society:
and of that, some time after this, I was like to have
too much.
But
I was something impatient, as I have observed, to
have the use of my boat, though very loth 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.
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 on 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 been to meet such a man as
I was, it must either have frightened him, or raised a
great deal of laughter; and as I frequently stood still
160
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
to look at myself, I could not but smile at the notion
of my travelling through Yorkshire with such an equi-
page, and in such a dress. Be pleased to take a
sketch of my figure, as follows:
I had a great high shapeless cap, made of 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 on the flesh, under the
clothes.
I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts com-
ing 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 pan-
taloons, it reached to the middle of my legs; stockings
and shoes I had none, but had made me a pair of
somethings, I scarce know 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 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 color 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 equi-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
161
nox. My beard I had once suffered to grow till it
was about a quarter of a yard long; but as I had both
scissars 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 mustachios or whiskers, I will not say they
were long enough to hang my hat on 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 to that part. In this
kind of figure I went my new journey, and was out
five or six days. I travelled first along the sea-shore,
directly to the place where I first brought my boat to
an anchor, to get on the rocks; and having no boat
now to take care of, I went over the land, a nearer
way, to the same height that I was on before; when
looking forward to the point 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 any 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 occa-
sion of this current; and that according as the wind
blew more forcibly from the west, or from the north,
this current came nearer, or went farther from the
shore; for waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up
to the rock again, and then the tide of ebb being
made, I plainly saw the current again as before, only
VOL. I.
L
162
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
:
that it ran farther off, being near half a league from
the shore; whereas in my case, it set close on 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 again but when I began to think of putting it
in practice, I had such a terror on 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 them, 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 provision, 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 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 on lower ground, lay my two
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
163
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 my stakes, but were now
grown very firm and tall, always cut so, that they might
spread and grow thick and wild, to 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 our sea-bedding, which I
had saved, and a great watch-coat to cover me; and
here, whenever I had occasion to be absent from my
chief seat, I took up my country habitation.
Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle,
that is to say, my goats; and as I had taken an in-
conceivable 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 labor I had stuck the outside of the
hedge so full of small stakes, and so near to one an-
other, 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 enclo-
sure strong like a wall,-indeed, stronger than any
wall.
This will testify for me that I was not idle, and
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
that I spared no pains to bring to pass whatever ap-
peared 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 keep-
ing them in my reach depended entirely on my per-
fecting my enclosures to such a degree, that I might
be sure of keeping them together; which, by this me-
thod, 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 rai-
sins, and which I never failed to preserve very care-
fully, 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 thi
ther; for I used frequently to visit my boat; and I
kept all things about, or belonging to her, in very
good order: sometimes I went out in her to divert
myself, but no more hazardous voyages would I go,
nor scarce ever above a stone's cast or two from the
shore, I was so apprehensive of being hurried out
of my knowlege again by the currents or winds, or
any other accident. But now I come to a new scene
of my life.
It happened one day, about noon, going towards
my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print
of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very
plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thun-
derstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition; I list-
ened, I looked round me, but I could hear nothing
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OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
165
nor see any thing; 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 impres-
sion 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 flutter-
ing thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out
of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feel-
ing, 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 fancy-
ing every stump at a distance to be a man. Nor is it
possible to describe how many various shapes my af-
frighted 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 hole in the rock, which I had called
a door, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remem-
ber 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 apprehen-
sions were; which is something contrary to the na-
ture of such things, and especially to the usual prac-
tice of all creatures in fear; but I was so embar-
rassed with my own frightful ideas of the thing, that
I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to myself,
even though I was now a great way off it. Some-
times I fancied it must be the Devil, and reason joined
in with me on this supposition; for how should
166
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
any other thing in human shape come into the place?
Where was the vessel that brought them? What
marks were there of any other footsteps? And how
was it possible a man should come there? But then
to think that Satan should take human shape on
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 amuse-
ment the other way. I considered that the Devil.
might have found out abundance of other ways to
have terrified me than this of the single print of a
foot; that as I lived quite on the other side of the
island, he would never have been so simple as to
leave a mark in a place where it was ten thousand to
one whether I should ever see it or not, and in the
sand too, which the first surge of the sea, on 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 subtilty of the
Devil.
Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue
me out of all apprehensions of its being the Devil;
and I presently concluded that it must be some more
dangerous creature, viz. that it must be some of the
savages of the main land over against me, who had
wandered out to sea in their canoes, and either driven
by the currents or by contrary winds, had made the
island, and had been on shore, but were gone away
again to sea; being as loth, perhaps, to have stayed
in this desolate island as I would have been to have
had them.
While these reflections were rolling on 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:
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
167
then terrible thoughts racked my imagination about
their having found my boat, and that there were people
here; and that if so, I should certainly have them
come again in greater numbers, and devour me; that
if it should happen so that they 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
on 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 would intervene to prevent
my enjoying the crop that was on the ground; and
this I thought so just a reproof, that I resolved for
the future to have two or three years' corn before-
hand; 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-morrow we fear, nay, even tremble at
the apprehensions of; this was exemplified in me, at
this time, in the most lively manner imaginable; for
I, whose only affliction was that I seemed banished
from human society, that I was alone, circumscribed
by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and
condemned to what I called silent life; that I was
as one whom Heaven thought not worthy to be num-
bered 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
168
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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's having set his foot on the
island.
Such is the uneven state of human life; and it af-
forded me a great many curious speculations after-
wards, when I had a little recovered my first sur-
prise. I considered that this was the station of life
the infinitely wise and good providence of God had
determined for me; that as I could not foresee what
the ends of divine wisdom might be in all this, so I
was not to dispute his sovereignty, who, as I was his
creature, had an undoubted right, by creation, to
govern and dispose of me 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 ab-
solutely and entirely to his will; and, on the other
hand, it was my duty also to hope in him, pray to
him, and quietly to attend the dictates and directions
of his daily providence.
These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay,
I may say, weeks and months; and one particular
effect of my 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; on
which these words of the Scripture came into my
thoughts, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
169
will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me." On
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 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 any body.
Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad
again, for 1 had not stirred out of my castle for three
days and nights, so that I began to starve for pro-
visions; for I had little or nothing within doors but
some barley-cakes and water: then I knew that my
goats wanted to be milked too, which usually was my
evening diversion; and the poor creatures were in
great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and,
indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, and almost
dried up their milk. 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
170
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
I
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, as I went down thus two or three
days, and having seen nothing, I began to be a little
bolder, and to think there was really nothing in it but
my own imagination; but I could not persuade my-
self fully of this till I should go down to the shore
again, and see this print of a foot, and measure it by
my own, and see if there was any similitude or fitness,
that I might be assured it was my own foot: but when
I came to the place, first, it appeared evidently to`
me, that when I laid up my boat, I could not possi-
bly be on shore any where 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 be-
fore I was aware; and what course to take for my
security I knew not.
O what ridiculous resolutions men take when pos-
sessed 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 en-
closures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the
woods, lest the enemy should find them, and then fre-
quent the island in prospect of the same or the like
booty then to the simple thing of digging up my two
corn fields, lest they should find such a grain there,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
171
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.
These were the subjects of the first night's cogita-
tions after I was come home again, while the appre-
hensions which had so overrun my mind were fresh
on me, and my head was full of vapours, as above.
Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terri-
fying than danger itself, when apparent to the eyes;
and we find the burthen 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 from the resignation I used to practise, that I
hoped to have. I looked, I thought, like Saul, who
complained not only that the Philistines were on 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 on 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 per-
haps 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, on
the utmost debate with myself, I concluded that this
island, which was so exceeding pleasant, fruitful, and
no farther from the main land than as I had seen, was
not so entirely abandoned as I might imagine; that
although there were no stated inhabitants who lived
on the spot, yet that there might sometimes come
boats off from the shore, who, either with design, or
perhaps never but when they were driven by cross
winds, might come to this place; that I had lived
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
here 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 on any occa-
sion; 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 no-
thing to do but to consider of some safe retreat, in case
I should see any savages land on the spot.
:
Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my
cave so large as to bring a door through again, which
door, as I said, came out beyond where my fortifica-
tion joined to the rock. On maturely considering this,
therefore, I resolved to draw me a second fortification,
in the same 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 be-
fore, 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 every thing I could
think of, to make it strong; having in it seven little
holes, about as big as I might put my arm out at. In
the inside of 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 walk-
ing on 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
crusoe.
173
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 my-
self safe till it was done.
When this was done, I stuck all the ground with-
out 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; in-
somuch, that I believe I might set in near twenty
thousand of them, leaving a pretty large space be-
tween 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 monstrous thick and strong,
that it was indeed perfectly impassable; and no men,
of what kind soever, would ever imagine that there
was any thing 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 lad-
ders, one to a part of the rock which was low, and
then broke in, and left room to place another ladder
on 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 length, that they were not altogether with-
out just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that
time more than my mere fear suggested to me.
While this was doing, I was not altogether care-
less of my other affairs; for I had a great concern on
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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and shot, but also without the fatigue of hunting after
the wild ones; and I was loth to lose the advan-
tage 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 under
ground, and to drive them into it every night; and
the other was, to enclose two or three little bits of
land, remote from one another, and as much con-
cealed as I could, where I might keep about half a
dozen young goats in each place; so that if any disas-
ter happened to the flock in general, I might be able
to raise them again with little trouble and time: and
this, though it would require a great deal of time and
labor, I thought was the most rational design.
Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the
most retired parts of the island; and I pitched on
one, which was as private, indeed, as my heart could
wish for it was a little damp piece of ground, in the
middle of the hollow and thick woods, where, as is
observed, I almost lost myself once before, endea-
vouring 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 labor to make it so as the other
pieces of ground I had worked so hard at.
I immediately went to work with this piece of
ground, and in less than a month's time I had so
fenced it round, that my flock, or herd, call it which
you please, which were not so wild now as at first they
might be supposed to be, were well enough secured in
it so, without any farther delay, I removed ten 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, how-
ever, I did at more leisure, and it took me up more
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
175
time by a great deal. All this labor I was at the
expense of, purely from my apprehensions on the ac-
count of the print of a man's foot which I had seen;
for, as yet, I never saw any human creature come
near the island; and I had now lived two years under
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 too great impressions also on the religious
part of my thoughts: for the dread and terror of fall-
ing into the hands of savages and cannibals lay so on
my spirits, that I seldom found myself in a due tem-
per 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 dan-
ger, and in expectation every night of being murdered
and devoured before morning; and I must testify
from my experience, that a temper of peace, thank-
fulness, 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 discompo-
sure of the mind must necessarily be as great a dis-
ability as that of the body, and much greater; pray-
ing 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 an-
other 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 on the sea
:
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 perspec-
tive-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 on the side
of the island where the savages never came, I should
easily have known that nothing was more frequent
than for the canoes from the main, when they hap-
pened 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 S. W. point of the island, I was
perfectly confounded and amazed; nor is it possible
for me to express the horror of my mind, at seeing
the shore spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other
bones of human bodies; and particularly I observed
a place where there had been a fire made, and a circle
dug in the earth, like a cock-pit, where I supposed
the savage wretches had sat down to their inhuman
feastings on 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
17
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 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 me up the hill again with all the
speed I could, and walked on towards my own habi-
tation.
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 knowlege of Himself, and the
hope of His blessing; which was a felicity more than
sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which I had
suffered, or could suffer.
In this frame of thankfulness, I went home to my
castle, and began to be much easier now as to the
safety of my circumstances, than ever I was before:
for I observed that these wretches never came to this
island in search of what they could get; perhaps not
seeking, not wanting, or not expecting, any thing
here; and having often, no doubt, been up in the
covered, woody part of it, without finding any thing
to their purpose. I knew I had been here now almost
eighteen years, and never saw the least footsteps of hu-
man creature there before; and I might be eighteen
VOL. I.
M
:
178
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
years more as entirely concealed as I was now, if İ
did not discover myself to them, which I had no man-
ner 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 abhor-
rence of the savage wretches that I have been speak-
ing 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 as an enclosure for my
goats; for the aversion which nature gave me to these
hellish wretches was such, that I was as fearful of
seeing them as of seeing the Devil himself. I did not
so much as go to look after my boat all this time, but
began rather to think of making me another; for I
could not think of ever making any more attempts to
bring the other boat round the island to me, lest I
should meet with some of these creatures at sea; in
which if I had happened to have fallen into their hands,
I knew what would have been my lot.
Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I
was in no danger of being discovered by these people,
began to wear off my uneasiness about them; and I
began to live just in the same composed manner as
before; only with this difference, that I used more
caution, and kept my eyes more about me, than I did
before, lest I should happen to be seen by any of
them; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing
my gun, lest any of them being on the island should
happen to hear it. It was therefore a very good pro-
vidence 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
179
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 off once, though
I never went out without it; and which was more, as
I had saved three pistols out of the ship, I always
carried them out with me, or at least two of them,
sticking them in my goat-skin belt. I 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 descrip-
tion of myself, the particular of two pistols, and a
great broad-sword 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
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 on 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; and I had dropped a good
design, which I had once bent my thoughts too much
on, 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 ob-
served 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 make it
work, no copper or kettle to make it boil; and
yet, with all these things wanting, I verily be-
lieve, 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
any thing over without accomplishing it, when once
I had it in my head to begin it. But my inven-
tion now ran quite another way; for, night and day,
I could think of nothing but how I might destroy
some of these monsters in their cruel, bloody enter-
tainment, and, if possible, save the victim they should
bring hither to destroy. It would take up a larger
volume than this whole work is intended to be, to set
down all the contrivances I hatched, or rather brooded
on, 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 of 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 on 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
181
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 wound
perhaps two or three at every shot; and then falling
in on 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 fami-
liar 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 hor-
ror I had at the place, and at the signals of the bar-
barous 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 fail wounding three or four
of them at the first shot. In this place, then, I re-
solved to fix my design; and, accordingly, I pre-
pared two muskets and my ordinary fowling-piece.
The two muskets I loaded with a brace of slugs each,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 up to the top of the
hill, which was from my castle, as I called it, about
three miles, or more, to see if I could observe any
boats on the sea, coming near the island, or stand-
ing 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 eyes or glasses 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 vigor of my design,
and my spirits seemed to be all the while in a suitable
form for so outrageous an execution as the killing
twenty or thirty naked savages, for an offence which
I had not at all entered into a discussion of in my
thoughts, any farther than my passions were at first
fired by the horror I conceived at the unnatural cus-
tom 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, conse-
quently, were left, and perhaps had been so for some
ages, to act such horrid things, and receive such dread-
ful 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
183
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 au-
thority or call I had to pretend to be judge and exe-
cutioner on these men as criminals, whom Heaven
had thought fit, for so many ages, to suffer, unpu-
nished, to go on, and to be, as it were, the execution-
ers of his judgments one on another. How far
these people were offenders against me, and what right
I had to engage in the quarrel of that blood which
they shed promiscuously on 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 di-
vine justice, as we do in almost all the sins we com-
mit. They think it no more a crime to kill a captive
taken in war, than we do to kill an ox; nor to eat
human flesh than we do to eat mutton.
When I considered this a little, it followed neces-
sarily that I was certainly in the wrong in it; that
these people were not murderers in the sense that I
had before condemned them in my thoughts, any
more than those Christians were murderers who often
put to death the prisoners taken in battle; or more
frequently, on 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 me, or I saw it
necessary, for my immediate preservation, to fall on
them, something might be said for it; but that I was
yet out of their power, and they really had no know-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
ledge of me, and consequently no design on me; and
therefore it could not be just for me to fall on them:
that this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards
in all their barbarities practised in America, where
they destroyed millions of these people; who, however
they were idolaters and barbarians, and had several
bloody and barbarous rites in their customs, such as
sacrificing human bodies to their idols, were yet, as to
the Spaniards, very innocent people; and that the
rooting them out of the country is spoken of with the
utmost abhorrence and detestation by even the Spa-
niards themselves at this time, and by all other Chris-
tian nations in 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 Spa-
niard 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 prin-
ciples 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 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 en-
tirely 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 after-
wards, if bút 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 fel-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
185
lows, and I should only bring on myself a certain
destruction, which, at present, I had no manner of
occasion for. On the whole, I concluded that neither
in principle nor in policy I ought, one way or other,
to concern myself in this affair; that my business was,
by all possible means, to conceal myself from them,
and not to leave the least signal to them to guess by
that there were any living creatures on the island, I
mean of human shape. Religion joined in with this
prudential resolution; and I was convinced now,
many ways, that I was perfectly out of my duty when
I was laying all my bloody schemes for the destruc-
tion of innocent creatures, I mean innocent as to me.
As to the crimes they were guilty of towards one
another, I had nothing to do with them; they were
national, 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
on 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 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
on 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 on 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
186
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
not be tempted to renew any of my contrivances
against them, or be provoked, by any advantage
which might present itself, to fall on 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 cur-
rents, the savages durst not, at least would not come,
with their boats, on any account whatever. With
my boat I carried away every thing 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 of any discovery, or any appearance of any
boat, or of any human habitation, on the island. Be-
sides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than
ever, and seldom went from my cell, other than on
my constant employment, viz. to milk my she-goats,
and manage my little flock in the wood, which, as it
was quite on the other part of the island, was quite
out of danger; for certain it is, that these savage
people, who sometimes haunted this island, never
came with any thoughts of finding any thing here,
and consequently never wandered off from the coast;
and I doubt not but they might have been several
times on shore after my apprehensions of them had
made me cautious, as well as before. Indeed, I looked
back with some horror on the thoughts of what my
condition would have been if I had chopped on
them, and been discovered before that, when, naked
and unarmed, except with one gun, and that loaded
often only with small shot, I walked every where,
peeping and peering about the island to see what I
could get; what a surprise should I have been in, if,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
187
1
when I discovered the print of a man's foot, I had,
instead of that, seen fifteen or twenty savages, and
found them pursuing me, and by the swiftness of their
running, no possibility of my escaping them! The
thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul within.
me, and distressed my mind so much, that I could
not soon recover it, 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 prepara-
tion, I might be able to do. Indeed, after serious
thinking of these things, I would be very melancholy,
and sometimes it would last a great while; but I re-
solved it all, at last, into thankfulness to that Provi-
dence which had delivered me from so many unseen
dangers, and had kept from me 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 contempla-
tion which often had come to my thoughts in former
time, when first I began to see the merciful dispo-
sitions 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 quan-
dary, (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 busi-
ness, has called to go the other way, yet a strange
impression on the mind, from we know not what
springs, and by we know not what power, shall over-
rule us to go this way; and it shall afterwards ap-
pear, 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. On
these, and many like reflections, I afterwards made.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
it a certain rule with me, that whenever I found those
secret hints or pressings of mind, to doing or not doing
any thing that presented, or going this way or that
way, I never failed to obey the secret dictate; though
I knew no other reason for it than that such a pres-
sure or such a hint hung on 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 in-
cidents 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 be-
tween those embodied and those unembodied, and
such a proof as can never be withstood; of which I
shall have occasion to give some very remarkable in-
stances in the remainder of my solitary residence in
this dismal place.
I
I believe the reader of this will not think it strange
if I confess that these anxieties, these constant dan-
gers I lived in, and the concern that was now on
me, put an end to all invention, and to all the con-
trivances that I had laid for my future accommoda-
tions and conveniences. I had the care of my safety
more now on my hands than that of my food.
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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
189
reason I removed that part of my business which re-
quired 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 con-
solation, a mere natural cave in the earth, which went
in a vast way, and where, I dare say, no savage, had
he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to
venture in; nor, indeed, would any man else, but
one who, like me, wanted nothing so much as a safe
retreat.
The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a
great rock, where by mere accident (I would say, if I
did not see 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 char-
coal, which was thus: I was afraid of making a smoke
about my habitation, as I said before; and yet I
could not live there without baking my bread, cook-
ing my meat, &c.; so I contrived to burn some wood
here, as I had seen done in England, under turf, till it
became chark, or dry coal: and then putting 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 by:-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, look-
ing 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. How-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
ever, 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. On this, plucking up my
courage, I took up a firebrand, and in I rushed again,
with the stick flaming in my hand: I had not gone
three steps in, but I was almost as much frightened as
I was before; for I heard a very loud sigh, like that
of a man in some pain, and it was followed by a broken
noise, as of words half expressed, and then a deep sigh
again. I stepped back, and was indeed struck with
such a surprise, that 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 encou-
raging myself a little with considering that the power
and presence of God was every where, and was able
to protect me; on this I stepped forward again, and
by the light of the firebrand, holding it up a little
over my head, I saw lying on the ground a most mon-
strous, 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
one 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 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
191
went in further, but was so low that it required me to
creep on my hands and knees to go into it, and whi-
ther it went I knew not: so having no candle, I gave
it over for that time; but resolved to come again the
next day, provided with candles and a tinder-box,
which I had made of the lock of one of the muskets,
with some wild fire in the pan.
Accordingly, the next day I came provided with
six large candles of my own making (for I made very
good candles now of goats' tallow, 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
on 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 dare say, as it was, to look round the
sides and roof of this vault or cave; the wall reflected
an hundred thousand lights to me from my two can-
dles. What it was in the rock, whether diamonds, or
any other precious stones, or gold, which I rather sup-
posed it to be, I knew not. The place I was in was a
most delightful cavity or grotto of its kind, as could
be expected, though perfectly dark; the floor was dry
and level, and had a sort of a small loose gravel on 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 en-
trance; which, however, as it was a place of security,
and such a retreat as I wanted, I thought that was a
convenience; so that I was really rejoiced at the dis-
covery, 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.
192
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
two fowling-pieces, for I had three in all, and three
muskets, for of them I had eight in all; so I kept
at my castle only five, which stood ready-mounted,
like pieces of cannon, on my outmost fence; and
were ready also to take out on any expedition. On
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 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 car-
ried all away thither, never keeping above two or three
pounds of powder with me in my castle, for fear of a
surprise of any kind: I also carried thither all the
lead I had left for bullets.
I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants,
which were said to live in caves and holes in the rocks,
where none could come at them; for I persuaded my-
self, 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 dis-
covery 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 pre-
vent offence to my nose.
I was now in the twenty-third year of my residence
in this island; and was so naturalized to the place,
and the manner of living, that could I have but en-
joyed 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
193
also arrived to some little diversions and amusements,
which made the time pass a great deal more_plea-
santly with me than it did before: as, first, I had
taught my Pol, 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; for I believe
no bird ever spoke plainer; 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 very pleasant and
loving companion to me for no less than sixteen years
of my time, and then died of mere old age.
As for
my cats, they multiplied, as I have observed, to that
degree, that I was obliged to shoot several of them at
first, to keep them from devouring me and all I had;
but at length, when the two old ones I brought with
me were gone, and after some time continually driving
them from me, and letting them have no provision
with me, they all ran wild into the woods, except two
or three favourites, which I kept tame, and whose
young, when they had any, I always drowned; and
these were part of my family. Besides these, I always
kept two or three household kids about me, 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
names I knew not, that I caught on the shore, and
cut their wings; and the little stakes which I had
planted before my castle wall being now grown up to
a good thick grove, these fowls all lived among these
low trees, and bred there, which was very agreeable
to me; so that, as I said above, I began to be very
well contented with the life I led, if I could have
been secured from the dread of the savages. But it
was otherwise directed; and it may not be amiss for
VOL. I.
N
194
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
all people who shall meet with my story, to make
this just observation from it, viz. How frequently, in
the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek
most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is
the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means
or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be
raised again from the affliction we are fallen into. I
could give many examples of this in the course of my
unaccountable life; but in nothing was it more parti-
cularly 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 my being
pretty much abroad in the fields: when going out
pretty early in the morning, even before it was tho-
rough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a light of
some fire on the shore, at a distance from me of about
two miles, towards the end of the island where I had
observed some savages had been, as before, 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 any of my works and
improvements, they would immediately conclude that
there were people in the place, and would then never
give over till they had found me out. In this extre-
mity, 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
OF ROBINSON CRusoe.
195
mounted on 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 mighty
impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had no spies to
send out. After sitting a while longer, and musing
what I should do in this, I was not able to bear sit-
ting in ignorance any 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 up
after me, I set it up again, and mounted to the top of
the hill; and pulling out my perspective-glass, which I
had taken on purpose, I laid me down flat on my
belly on the ground, and began to look for the place.
I presently found there 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 wea-
ther 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 on the shore; and as it was then tide of
ebb, they seemed to me to wait for the return of the
flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine
what confusion this sight put me into, especially seeing
them come on my side of the island, and so near me
too; but when I considered their coming must be
always with the current of the ebb, I began after-
wards to be more sedate in my mind, being satisfied
that I might go abroad with safety all the time of the
tide of flood, if they were not on shore before: and
having made this observation, I went abroad about my
harvest-work with the more composure.
As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the
tide made to the westward, I saw them all take boat,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and row (or paddle, as we call it) away. I should
have observed, that for an hour or more before they
went off, they went a dancing; and I could easily dis-
cern their postures and gestures by my glass. I could
not perceive, by my nicest observation, but that they
were stark naked, and had not the least covering on
them; but whether they were men
men or women, I
could not distinguish.
As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took
two guns on 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 got thither, which
was not in less than two hours (for I could not go
apace, being so loaden with arms as I was,) I per-
ceived there had been three canoes more of 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 indig-
nation 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 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 uncomfort-
ably, by reason of the constant apprehensions of their
coming on me by surprise from whence I observe,
that the expectation of evil is more bitter than the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
197
suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off
that expectation, or those apprehensions.
During all this time I was in the murdering humor,
and took up most of my hours, which should have
been better employed, in contriving how to circum-
vent and fall on 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 con-
sider 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 round me with the greatest care and caution
imaginable. And now I found, to my great comfort,
how happy it was that I had provided a tame flock or
herd of goats; for I durst not, on 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
of which in its place.
The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen or
sixteen months' interval, was very great; I slept un-
quiet, dreamed always frightful dreams, and often
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 the doing of it. But,
to wave 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
on 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 par-
ticular occasion of it, but as I was reading in the Bible,
and taken up with very serious thoughts about my pre-
sent condition, I was surprised with the noise of a gun,
as I thought, fired at sea. This was, to be sure, a sur-
prise 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 imme-
diately considered that this must be some ship in dis-
tress, and that they had some comrade, or some other
ship in company, and fired these guns for signals of
distress, and to obtain help. I had the presence of
mind, at that minute, to think, that though I could
not help them, it might be they might help me so I
brought together all the dry wood I could get at
hand, and making a good handsome pile, I set it on
fire on the hill. The wood was dry, and blazed
freely; and though the wind blew very hard, yet
it burnt fairly out, so that I was certain, if there was
any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it, and
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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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 some-
thing hazy also; at least it was so out at sea.
I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon per-
ceived 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 with
the current; and getting up there, the weather by this
time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to my
great sorrow, the wreck of a ship, cast away in the
night on those concealed rocks which I found when I
was out in my boat; and which rocks, as they checked
the violence of the stream, and made a kind of coun-
ter-stream, or eddy, were the occasion of my recover-
ing from the most desperate, hopeless condition that
ever I had been 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 on them in the night, the wind
blowing hard at E.N.E. Had they seen the island,
as I must necessarily suppose they did not, they must,
as I thought, have endeavoured to have saved them-
selves 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 on seeing my light, they might have
put themselves into their boat, and endeavoured to
make the shore; but that the sea going very high,
they might have been cast away: other times I ima-
200
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
gined that they might have lost their boat before, as
might be the case many ways; as, particularly, by the
breaking of the sea on their ship, which many times
obliges 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, who, on the signals of distress
they had 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 on my side, that it gave
me more and more cause to give thanks to God, who
had so happily and comfortably provided for me in my
desolate condition; and that of two ships' companies
who were now cast away on 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 pro-
vidence of God casts us into any condition of life so
low, or any misery so great, but we may see some-
thing or other to be thankful for, and may see others
in worse circumstances than our own. Such certainly
was the case of these men, of whom I could not so
much as see room to suppose any of them were saved;
nothing could make it rational so much as to wish or
expect that they did not all perish there, except the
possibility only of 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 or hankering
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
201
of desires I felt in my soul on this sight, breaking
out sometimes thus: "O 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 moving springs in the affec-
tions, which, when they are set a going by some ob-
ject in view, or, though not in view, yet rendered pre-
sent 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 ear-
nest wishings that but one man had been saved. I
believe I repeated the words, "O 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 hands, so that if I had had any soft thing
in my hand, it would 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 ex-
plain these things, and the reason and manner of
them: all I can say to them 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, realizing 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 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 crea-
ture 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 on my mind that it could not be resisted,
that it must come from some invisible direction, and
that I should be wanting to myself if I did not go.
Under the power of this impression, I hastened
back to my castle, prepared every thing for my voy-
age, 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 every thing
necessary, I went down to my boat, got the water out
of her, put 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 fresh water, and
about two dozen of my small loaves, or barley-cakes,
more than before, with a bottle of goat's milk and a
cheese all which, with great labor and sweat, I car-
ried to my boat; and praying to God to direct my
voyage, I put out; and rowing, or paddling, the canoe
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
203
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 remem-
brance of the hazard I had been in before, and my
heart began to fail me; for I foresaw that if I was
driven into either of those currents, I should be carried
a 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 me down on a rising bit of ground, very pen-
sive 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;
on which my going was impracticable for so many
hours. On this, presently it occurred to me, that I
should go up to the highest piece of ground I could
find, and observe, if I could, how the sets of the tide
or currents lay when the flood came in, that I might
judge whether, if I was driven one way out, I might
not expect to be driven another way home, with the
same rapidness of the currents. This thought was no
sooner in my head than I cast my eye on a little hill,
which sufficiently overlooked the sea both ways, and
from whence I had a clear view of the currents, or sets
of the tide, and which way I was to guide myself in
my return. Here I found, that as the current of the
ebb set out close by the south point of the island, so
the current of the flood set in close by the shore of
the north side; and that I had nothing to do but to
keep to the north side of the island in my return, and
I should do well enough.
1
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
Encouraged with 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 great 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, 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 Spa-
nish, stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks; all
the stern and quarter of her were beaten to pieces with
the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in the
rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast
and foremast were brought by the board, that is to
say, broken short off; but her bowsprit was sound, and
the head and bow appeared firm. When I came close
to her, a dog appeared on 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
cock-room, or forecastle of the ship, with their arms
fast about one another. I concluded, as is indeed
probable, that when the ship struck, it being in a
storm, the sea broke so high, and so continually over
her, that the men were not able to bear it, and were
strangled with the constant rushing in of the water, as
much as if they had been under water. Besides the
dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life;
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
205
nor any goods, that I could see, but what were spoiled
by the water. There were some casks of liquor, whe-
ther wine or brandy I knew not, which lay lower in
the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I
could see; but they were too big to meddle with. I
saw several chests, which I believed belonged to some
of the seamen; and I got two of them into the boat,
without examining what was in them. Had the stern
of the ship been fixed, and the fore-part broken off, I
am persuaded I might have made a good voyage; for,
by what I found in these two chests, I had room to
suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on board;
and, if I may guess 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 Havanna, in the Gulf of Mexico,
and so perhaps to Spain. She had, no doubt, a great
treasure in her, but of no use, at that time, to any
body; and what became of her crew, I then knew
not.
:
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of li-
quor, of about twenty gallons, which I got into my
boat with much difficulty. There were several mus-
kets 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 them, so I left them, but took the
powder-horn. I took a fireshovel 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 par-
ticulars. The cask of liquor I found to be a kind of
206
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 wel-
come to me; and about a dozen and a half of white
linen handkerchiefs and coloured neckcloths; the for-
mer were also very welcome, being exceeding refresh-
ing 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 small flasks, kept, I suppose,
for charging their fowling-pieces on occasion.” On
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 none on my feet for many
years. I had indeed got two pair of shoes now, which
I took off the feet of the two drowned men whom I
saw in the wreck, and I found two pair more in one
of the chests, which were very welcome to me; but
they were not like our English shoes, either for ease
or service, being rather what we call pumps tha……..
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
207
shoes. I found in this seaman's chest about fifty
pieces-of-eight in rials, but no gold: I suppose this
belonged to a poorer man than the other, which seemed
to belong to some officer. Well, however, I lugged
this money home to my cave, and laid it up, as I
had done that before which I brought from our own
ship: but it was 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 may come
again and fetch it.
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 every thing 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 reason told me that there was no-
thing left there worth the hazard of my voyage; some-
times for a ramble one way, sometimes another; and I
believe verily, if I had had the boat that I went from
Sallee in, I should have ventured to sea, bound any
208
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
where, 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 on 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 plan-
ter, 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 settled fortune, a well-stocked plantation,
improving and encreasing, to turn supercargo to Gui-
nea 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 re-
flection on 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 por-
ing on the means and possibility of my escape from
this place and that I may, with the greater pleasure
to the reader, bring on the remaining part of my story,
OF ROBINSON CRusoe.
209
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 on 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 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 on 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, compared to 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 it; my satisfaction was perfect, though my dan-
ger was the same, and I was as happy in not knowing
my danger as if I had never really been exposed to it.
VOL. I.
.0
210
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 on 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 no-
thing but the brow of a hill, a great tree, or the ca-
sual 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 a turtle, and have thought it no more a crime to kill
and devour me, than I did of a pigeon or curlew. I
would unjustly slander myself, if I should say I was
not sincerely thankful to my great Preserver, to whose
singular protection I acknowledged, with great humi-
lity, 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 specula-
tions, 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
OF ROBINSON CRUsoe.
211
over so far from home for? what kind of boats they
had? and why I might not order myself and my bu-
siness so, that I might be as 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 the savages; or how I should escape from them,
if they attacked. me; no, nor so much as how it was
possible for me to reach the coast, and not be attacked
by some or other of them, without any 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 on the notion of my passing over in my
boat to the main land. I looked on my present con-
dition as the most miserable that could possibly be;
that I was not able to throw myself into any thing, but
death, that could be called worse; and if I reached
the shore of the main, I might perhaps meet with re-
lief, 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 despe-
rate, as it were, by the long continuance of my trou-
bles, 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, viz. some-
body 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 resigna-
tion to Providence, and waiting the issue of the dis-
212
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
positions of Heaven, seemed to be suspended; and I
had, as it were, no power to turn my thoughts to any
thing but to the project of a voyage to the main;
which came on me with such force, and such an impe-
tuosity 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 fervor of my
mind about it, nature, as if I had been fatigued and
exhausted with the very thought of it, threw me into
a sound sleep. One would have thought I should
have dreamed of it, but I did not, nor of any thing
relating to it: but I dreamed that as I was going out
in the morning, as usual, from my castle, I saw on 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 on him, encouraged him that he kneeled
down to me, seeming to pray me to assist him; on
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 my-
self, "Now I may certainly venture to the main
land; 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 in-
expressible impressions of joy at the prospect of my
escape in my dream, that the disappointments which
I felt on coming to myself, and finding that it was no
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
213
more than a dream, were equally extravagant the
other way, and threw me into a very great dejection
of spirits.
On this, however, 'I made this conclusion; that
my only way to go about to attempt an escape was,
if possible, 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 at-
tended with this difficulty, that it was impossible to
effect this without attacking a whole caravan of them,
and killing them all; and this was not only a very
desperate attempt, and might miscarry, but, on the
other hand, I had greatly scrupled the lawfulness of
it to myself; and my heart trembled at the thoughts
of shedding so much blood, though it was for my de-
liverance. I need not repeat the arguments which
occurred to me against this, they being the same men-
tioned 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 my-
self from this death of a life, and was acting in my
own defence as much as if they were actually assault-
ing me, and the like; I say, though these things ar-
gued 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 those savages into
my hands, cost what it would. My next thing was to
contrive how to do it, and this indeed was very diffi-
cult to resolve on: but as I could pitch on no pro-
bable means for it, so I resolved to put myself on the
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
watch, to see them when they came on shore, and
leave the rest to the event; taking such measures as
the opportunity should present, let what would be.
With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself
on 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 discou-
raging, 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 on
them. Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one,
nay, two or three savages, if I had them, so as to
make them entirely slaves to me, to do whatever I
should direct them, and to prevent their being able
at any time to do me any hurt. It was a great while
that I pleased myself with this affair; but nothing
still presented; all my fancies and schemes came to
nothing, for no savages came near me for a great
while.
About a year and a half after I 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
early, with seeing no less than five canoes all on shore
together on my side the island, and the people who
belonged to them all landed, and out of my sight.
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 I lay
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
215
still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted: how-
ever, I put myself into all the same postures for an
attack that I had formerly provided, and was just
ready for action, if any thing had presented. Having
waited a good while, 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; stand-
ing 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 per-
spective-glass, that they were no less than thirty in
number; that they had a fire kindled, and that they
had meat dressed. How they had cooked it I knew
not, or what it was; but they were all dancing, in I
know not how many barbarous gestures and figures,
their own way, round the fire.
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 per-
ceived 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 mo-
ment, this poor wretch seeing himself a little at li-
berty, 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 cer-
tainly take shelter in my grove: but I could not de-
pend, by any means, on my dream for the rest of it,
:
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
viz. that the other savages would not pursue him
thither, and find him there. However, I kept my
station, and my spirits began to recover when I found
that there were not above three men that followed
him; and still more was I encouraged when I found
that he outstripped them exceedingly in running, and
gained ground of them; so that if he could but hold
it for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get
away from them all.
There was between them and my castle the creek,
which I mentioned often 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 on with exceeding strength and swift-
ness. 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 long
swimming over the creek as the fellow was that fled
from them. It came now very warmly on my thoughts,
and indeed irresistibly, that now was the time to get
me a servant, and perhaps a companion or assistant,
and that I was called plainly by Providence to save
this poor creature's life. I immediately 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 above, and getting up again, with the same
haste, to the top of the hill, I crossed towards the sea,
and having a very short cut, and all down hill, placed
myself in the way between the pursuers and the pur-
sued, hallooing aloud to him that fled, who, looking
back, was at first, perhaps, as much frightened at me
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
217
as at them; but I beckoned with my hand to him to
come back; and, in the mean time, I slowly advanced
towards the two that followed; then rushing at once
on the foremost, I knocked him down with the stock
of my piece. I was loth to fire, because I would not
have the rest hear; though, at that distance, it would
not have been easily heard, and being out of sight of
the smoke too, they would not have easily known
what to make of it. Having knocked this fellow
down, the other who pursued him stopped, as if he
had been frightened, and I advanced apace towards
him but as I came nearer, I perceived presently he
had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at
me; so I was then necessitated to shoot at him first,
which I did, and killed him at the first shot. The
poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw
both his enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet
was so frightened with the fire and noise of my piece,
that he stood stock-still, and neither came forward
nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclined
still to fly, than to come on. I hallooed again to him,
and made signs to come forward, which he easily un-
derstood, 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 on the ground, and taking
me by the foot, set my foot on 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
encouraged him all I could. But there was more
work to do yet; for I perceived the savage whom I
knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the
blow, and began to come to himself: so I pointed to
him, and showed him the savage, that he was not
dead; on 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 on 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:
on 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, aye, and arms, and that
at one blow too. When he had done this, he comes
laughing to me, in sign of triumph, and brought me
the sword again, and with abundance of gestures,
which I did not understand, laid it down, with the
head of the savage that he had killed, just before me.
But that which astonished him most, was to know
how I killed the other Indian so far off: so pointing
to him, he made signs to me to let him go to him; so
I bade him go as well as I could. When he came to
him, he stood like one amazed, looking at him, turn-
ing him first on one side, then on the other, looked at
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
219
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. On
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 buried them both in a quarter
of an hour. Then calling him away, I carried him,
not to my castle, but quite away to my cave, on the
farther part of the island; so I did not let my dream
come to pass in that part, viz. that he came into my
grove for shelter. Here I gave him bread and a
bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of water, which
I found he was indeed in great distress for, by 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 on it,
which I used to sleep on 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 some-
thing very manly in his face; and yet he had all the
sweetness and softness of an European in his counte-
nance 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 spark-
ling sharpness in his eyes. The color of his skin was
220
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not an ugly,
yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virgi-
nians, and other natives of America are, but of a
bright kind of a dun olive color, that had in it some-
thing very agreeable, though not very easy to describe.
His face was round and plump; his nose small, not
flat like the negroes; a very good mouth, thin lips,
and his 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 on the
ground, with all the possible signs of an humble thank-
ful disposition, making a great many antic gestures to
show it. At last he lays his head flat on the ground,
close to my foot, and sets my other foot on 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 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
221
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 ap-
pearance of them or their canoes; so that it was plain
they were gone, and had left their two comrades be-
hind them, without any search after them.
But I was not content with this discovery; but
having now more courage, and consequently more cu-
riosity, 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 for me, and I two for my-
self; and away we marched to the place where these
creatures had been; for I had a mind now to get some
fuller intelligence of them. When I came to the place,
my very blood ran chill in my veins, and my heart
sank within me, at the horror of the spectacle; indeed,
it was a dreadful sight, at least it was so to me, though
Friday made nothing of it. The place was covered
with human bones, the ground dyed with 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 on ; that three
of them were eaten up, and that he, pointing to him-
self, was the fourth; that there had been a great bat-
;
222
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
tle between them and their next king, whose subjects,
it seems, he had been one of, and that they had taken
a great number of prisoners; all which were carried to
several places by those who had taken them in the
fight, in order to feast on them, as was done here by
these wretches on those they brought hither.
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 on it, and burn them all
to ashes. I found Friday had still a hankering sto-
mach after some of the flesh, and was still a cannibal
in his nature; but 1 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 of-
fered it.
When he had done this, we came back to our cas-
tle; 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 al-
low (for I was now grown a tolerable 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 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
223
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 inner-
most wall, without making so much noise in getting
over that it must needs waken me; for my first wall
had now a complete roof over it of long poles, cover-
ing all my tent, and leaning up to the side of the hill;
which was again laid across with smaller sticks, in-
stead of lathes, and then thatched over a great thick-
ness 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; 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 faith-
ful, 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 dare say
he would have sacrificed his life for the saving mine,
on any occasion whatsoever: the many testimonies
he
gave me of this put it out of doubt, and soon con-
vinced me that I needed to use no precautions as to
my safety on his account.
This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and
that with wonder, that however it had pleased God,
in his providence, and in the government of the works
of his hands, to take from so great a part of the world
of his creatures the best uses to which their faculties
and the powers of their souls are adapted, yet that he
224
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
are.
has bestowed on them the same powers, the same
reason, the same affections, the same sentiments of
kindness and obligation, the same passions and resent-
ments of wrongs, the same sense of gratitude, sincerity,
fidelity, and all the capacities of doing good, and re-
ceiving good, that he has given to us; and that when
he pleases to offer them occasions of exerting these,
they are as ready, nay, more ready, to apply them to
the right uses for which they were bestowed, than we
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 instruc-
tion, 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 light from some, and re-
veal 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 them-
selves, 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 of the potter, no vessel
could say to him, Why hast thou formed me
thus ?"
66
But to return to my new companion :-I was
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
225
greatly delighted with him, and made it my business
to teach him every thing 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 to 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.
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 pre-
sented 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 sur-
prised, 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, he thought I
was resolved to kill him: for he came and kneeled
down to me, and embracing my knees, said a great
many things I did not understand; but I could 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,
VOL. I.
P
226
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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
on 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 imme-
diately 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 any thing 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 any thing near or far off; and the asto-
nishment this created in him was such, as could not
wear off for a long time; and I believe, if I would have
let him, he would have worshipped me and my gun.
As for the gun itself, he would not so much as touch
it for several days after; but 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 staid 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 per-
ceived 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
227
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 put-
ting a little into his own mouth, he seemed to nauseate
it, and would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth
with fresh water after it on the other hand, I took
some meat into my mouth without salt, and I pre-
tended to spit and sputter for want of salt, as fast as
he had done at the salt; but it would not do; he
would never care for salt with his 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 with 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 on the top, and tying the
string to the cross stick, letting the meat turn continu-
ally. 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 under-
stand 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 to beating some
corn out, and sifting it in the manner I used to do, as
I observed before; and he soon understood how to do
it as well as I, especially after he had seen what the
meaning of it was, and that it was to make bread of;
for after that I let him see me make my bread, and
bake it too; and in a little time Friday was able to
228
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
do all the work for me, as well as I could do it my-
self.
:
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 be-
fore, 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 ap-
peared very sensible of that part, and let me know
that he thought I had much more labor on 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 un-
derstand the names of almost every thing I had occa-
sion 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,
that is to say, about speech. Besides the pleasure of
talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the
fellow himself: his simple unfeigned honesty appeared
to me more and more every day, and I began really
to love the creature; and, on his side, I believe he
loved me more than it was possible for him ever to
love any thing before.
I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering
inclination to 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
229
better in fight; and so we began the following dis-
course:
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.
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
N.W. side of the island, which, it seems, was their
side.)
By this I understood that my man Friday had for-
merly 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 eat up twenty men, two women, and
230
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
one child: he could not tell twenty in English, but
he numbered them by laying so many stones in a row,
and pointing to me to tell them over.
I have told this passage, because it introduces what
follows; that after I had this discourse with him, I
asked him how far it was from our island to the shore,
and whether the canoes were not often lost. He told
me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost; but that,
after a little way out to sea, there was a current and
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 Oroonoko, in the
mouth or gulf of which river, as I found afterwards,
our island lay; and that this land which I perceived
to the W. and N.W. was the great island of Trinidad,
on the north point of the mouth of the river. I asked
Friday a thousand questions about the country, the in-
habitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations were
near: he told me all he knew, with the greatest open-
ness imaginable. I asked him the names of the seve-
ral nations of his sort of people, but could get no
other name than Caribs; from whence I easily under-
stood that these were the Caribbees, which our maps
place on the part of America which reaches from the
mouth of the river Oroonoko to Guiana, and onwards
to St. Martha. He told me that up a great way be-
yond the moon, that was, beyond the setting of the
moon, which must be west from their country, there
dwelt white-bearded men, like me, and pointed to my
great whiskers, which I 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 na-
tions, from father to son.
I inquired if he could tell me how I might go from
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
231
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 dis-
course began to relish with me very well; and from
this time I entertained some hopes that, one time or
other, I might find an opportunity to make my escape
from this place, and that this poor savage might be a
means to help me.
During the long time that Friday had now been
with me, and that he began to speak to me, and un-
derstand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation
of religious knowledge in his mind: particularly I
asked him one time, Who made him? The poor crea-
ture did not understand me at all, but thought I had
asked him 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 old Benamuckee, that lived be-
yond all; he could describe nothing of this great per-
son, but that he was very old, much older, he said,
than the sea or the land, than the moon or the stars.
I asked him then, if this old person had made all
things, why did not all things worship him? He
looked very grave, and with a perfect look of inno-
cence said, All things say O to him. I asked him if
the people who die in his own country went away
any where? He said, Yes; they all went to Bena-
muckee: then I asked him whether these 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 to-
wards heaven; that he governed the world by the
same power and providence by which he made it;
that he was omnipotent, and could do every thing for
232
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
us, give every thing to us, take every thing from us;
and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened
with great attention, and received with pleasure the
notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us, and of
the manner of making our prayers to God, and his
being able to hear us, even in heaven. He told me
one day, that if our God could hear us up beyond
the sun, he must needs be a greater God than their
Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet
could not hear till they went up to the great moun-
tains, where he dwelt, to speak to him. I asked him
if ever he went thither to speak to him? He said,
No; they never went that were young men; none
went thither but the old men, whom he called their
Oowokakee; that is, as I made him explain it to me,
their religious, or clergy; and that they went to say
O (so he called saying prayers,) and then came back,
and told them what Benamuckee said. By this I
observed that there is priestcraft even among the most
blinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy
of making a secret of religion, in order to preserve the
veneration of the people to the clergy, is not only to
be found in the Roman, but perhaps among all reli-
gions 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 spake with any one
there, it must be with an evil spirit: and then I en-
tered into a long discourse with him about the devil,
the original of him, his rebellion against God, his en-
mity 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
233
had a secret access to our passions and to our affec-
tions, and to adapt his snares to our inclinations, so
as to cause us even to be our own tempters, and run
on 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, and
over-ruling, governing Power, a secret, directing Pro-
vidence, and of the equity and justice of paying ho-
mage to him that made us, and the like; but there
appeared nothing of this kind in the notion of an evil
spirit; of his original, his being, his nature, and,
above all, of his inclination to do evil, and to draw
us in to do so too: and the poor creature puzzled me
once in such a manner, by a question merely natural
and innocent, that I scarce knew what to say to him.
I had been talking a great deal to him of the power
of God, his omnipotence, his 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 seri-
ousness 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 tempta-
tions, and quench his fiery darts.' But," says he
again, "if God much stronger, much might as the
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
66
""
234
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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
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 ever-
lasting fire." This did not satisfy Friday; but he
returns on me, repeating my words, "Reserve at
last! me no understand: but why not kill the devil
now; not kill great ago?"-" You may as well ask
me," said I, "why God does not kill you and me,
when we do wicked things here that offend him: we
are preserved to repent and be pardoned." He mused
some time on this: "Well, well," says he, mighty
affectionately, "that well: so you, I, devil, all wick-
ed, 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 redemp-
tion purchased for us, of a Mediator of the new cove-
nant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool of God's
throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven
can form these in the soul; and that, therefore, the
gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I mean
the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, promised
for the guide and sanctifier of his people, are the ab-
solutely necessary instructors of the souls of men in
the saving knowledge of God, and the means of sal-
vation.
I therefore diverted the present discourse between
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
235
me and my man, rising up hastily as on some sud-
den occasion of going out; then sending him for some-
thing 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 know-
ledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to himself,
and would guide me to speak so to him from the word
of God, as his conscience might be convinced, his
eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he came
again to me, I entered into a long discourse with him
on the subject of the redemption of man by the Sa-
viour 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.
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge
in all the methods I took for this poor creature's in-
struction, and must acknowledge, what I believe all
that act on 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 on searching into them, for
the information of this poor savage; and I had more
affection in my inquiry after things on this occasion
than ever I felt before: so that, whether this poor
wild wretch was the better for me or no, I had great
reason to be thankful that ever he came to me; my
grief sat lighter on me; my habitation grew com-
fortable to me beyond measure: and when I reflected,
that in this solitary life which I had been confined to,
I had not only been moved to look up to heaven
236
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
myself, and to seek to 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 eter-
nal; I say, when I reflected on all these things, a
secret joy ran through every part of my soul, and
I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought to this
place, which I had so often thought the most dread-
ful 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, re-
stored 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 Scriptures, 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 experi-
ence 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
reading the Scripture made me capable of under-
standing enough of my duty to carry me directly on
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
237
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 instruc-
tion 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 con-
tention which have happened in the world about re-
ligion, 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 hea-
ven, viz. the word of God; and we had, blessed be
God, comfortable views of the Spirit of God teaching
and instructing us by his word, leading us into all
truth, and making us both willing and obedient to the
instruction of his word. And I cannot see the least
use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points
of religion, which have made such confusions in the
world, would have been to us, if we could have ob-
tained 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 ac-
quainted, and he could understand almost all Ï said
to him, and speak pretty fluently, though in bro-
ken 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 here, 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
238
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
some cases, but much more useful on other occa-
sions.
I described to him the country of Europe, particu-
larly England, which I came from; how we lived,
how we worshipped God, how we behaved to one an-
other, 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 strength then ;
but it was now fallen almost all to pieces. On seeing
this boat, Friday stood musing a great while, and said
nothing. I asked him what it was he studied on? At
last, says he, Me see such boat like come to place
at my nation." I did not understand him a good
while; but, at last, when I had examined farther into
it, I understood by him, that a boat, such as that had
been, came on shore on the country where he lived;
that is, as he explained it, was driven thither by stress
of weather. I presently imagined that some Euro-
pean ship must have been cast away on 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 descrip-
66
tion of the boat.
Friday described the boat to me well enough; but
brought me better to understand him when he added
with some warmth, "We save the white mans from
drown." Then I presently asked him, if there were
any white mans, as he called them, in the boat?
"Yes," he said ; "the boat full of white mans." I
asked him how many? He told on his fingers seven-
teen. I asked him then what became of them? He
told me, "They live, they dwell at my nation."
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
239
}
pre-
This put new thoughts into my head; for I
şently imagined that these might be the men belong-
ing 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 on that wild shore among the savages. On
this, I inquired of him more critically what was be-
come of them; he assured me they lived still there;
that they had been there about four years; that the
savages let them alone, and gave them victuals to live
I asked him how it came to pass they did not
kill them, and eat them? He said,
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.
on.
It was after this some considerable time, that being
on the top of the hill, at the east side of the island,
from whence, as I have said, I had, in a clear day,
discovered the main or continent of America, Friday,
the weather being very serene, looks very earnestly
towards the main land, and, in a kind of surprise,
falls a jumping and dancing, and calls out to me, for
1 was at some distance from him. I asked him what
was the matter? "O joy!" says he; O glad!
there see my country, there my nation!" I ob-
served 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 country-
240
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
men an account of me, and come back perhaps with a
hundred or two of them, and make a feast on 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 me some weeks, I
was a little more circumspect, and not so familiar and
kind to him as before: in which I was certainly in
the wrong 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 dis-
cover any of the new thoughts which I suspected
were in him but I found every thing he said was so
honest and so innocent, that I could find nothing to
nourish my suspicion; and, in spite of all my uneasi-
ness, he made me at last entirely his own again; nor
did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy, and
therefore I could not suspect him of deceit.
C6
One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather
being hazy at sea, so that we could not see the con-
tinent, 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 wil-
ling love learn." He meant by this, they would be
""
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
241
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 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.
66
CC
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
on the continent, and a good company together, better
than I could from an island forty miles off the shore,
and alone, without help. So, after some days, I took
Friday to work again, by way of discourse; and told
him I would give him a boat to go back to his own
nation; and accordingly I carried him to my frigate,
which lay on the other side of the island, and having
cleared it of water (for I always kept it sunk in
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 we go to your nation?”
He looked very dull at my saying so; which, it
seems, was because he thought the boat too small to
go so far: I 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
Q
VOL. I.
242
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three-and-
twenty years there, the sun had split and dried it,
that it was in a manner rotten. Friday told me such
a boat would do very well, and would carry
"much
enough vittle, drink, bread;" that was his way of
talking.
On the whole, I was by this time so fixed on 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 be both there; no wish Friday there, no
master there." In a word, he would not think of go-
ing there without me. "I go there, Friday!" says I,
"what shall I do there?" He returned very quick on
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 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 I 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

J.G.S.
PL. VI. p. 243.
OF ROBINSON CRusoe.
243
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.
On the whole, as I found, by all his discourse, a
settled affection to me, and that nothing should part
him from me, so I found all the foundation of his de-
sire 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 my-
self, so I had not the least thought, or intention, or
desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong
inclination to my attempting an escape, as above,
founded on the supposition gathered from the dis-
course, viz. that there were seventeen bearded men
there: and, therefore, without any more delay, I
went to work with Friday, to find out a great tree
proper to fell, and make a large periagua, or canoe, 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 on 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 color and smell. Friday was
for burning 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
labor 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
;
244
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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, on great rollers into the water; but when she
was in, she would have carried twenty men with great
ease.
When she was in the water, and though she was so
big, it amazed me to see with what dexterity, and
how swift my man Friday would manage her, turn
her, and paddle her along. So I asked him if he
would, and if we might venture over in her.
"Yes,"
he said, we venture over in her very well, though
great blow wind." However, I had a farther design
that he knew nothing of, and that was to make a mast
and a sail, and to fit her with an anchor and cable.
As to a mast, that was easy enough to get; so I
pitched on a straight young cedar tree, which I found
near the place, and which there was 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 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 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,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
245
viz. rigging and fitting my mast and sails; for I
finished them very complete, making a small stay, and
a sail, or fore-sail, to it, to assist, if we should turn to
windward; and, which was more than all, I fixed a
rudder to the stern of her to steer with. 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 labor as making the boat.
เ
After all this was done, I had my man Friday to
teach as to what belonged to the navigation of my
boat; for, though, he knew very well how to paddle a
canoe, he knew nothing 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 gibbed, and filled this way, or that
way, as the course we sailed changed; I say, when
he saw this, he stood like one astonished and amazed.
However, with a little use, I made all these things
familiar to him, and he became an expert sailor, ex-
cept that as to the compass; I could make him under-
stand very little of that. On the other hand, as there
was very little cloudy weather, and seldom or never
any fogs in those parts, there was the less occasion for
a compass, seeing the stars were always to be seen by
night, and the shore by day, except in the rainy sea-
sons, 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
246
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 on my thoughts
that
my deliverance was at hand, and that I should
not be another year in this place. I went on, how-
ever, 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 mean time, on 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 pro-
visions, being the stores for our voyage; and in-
tended, in a week or a fortnight's time, to open the
dock, and launch out our boat. I was busy one morn-
ing on something of this kind, when I called to
Friday, and bid him go to the sea-shore, and see if he
could find a turtle, or tortoise, a thing which we ge-
nerally 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
247
wall or fence, like one that felt not the ground, or the
steps he set his feet on ; and before I had time to speak
to him, he 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, ca-
noe; one, two, three!" By this way of speaking, I con-
cluded there were six; but, on inquiry, I found it was
but three."6 Well, Friday," says I, "do not be fright-
ened." 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
scarce knew what to do with him. I comforted him
as well as 1 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 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 he drank 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;
248
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and that their whole business seemed to be the
triumphant banquet on these three human bodies; a
barbarous feast indeed! but nothing more than, as I
had observed, was usual with them. I observed also
that they were landed, not where they had done when
Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek:
where the shore was low, and where a thick wood
came almost close down to the sea. This, with the
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 took and divided the arms
which I had charged, as before, between us: I gave
Friday one pistol to stick in his girdle, and three guns.
on 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 pow-
der and bullets; and, as to orders, I charged him to
keep close behind me, and not to stir, or shoot, or do
any thing, till I bid him; and, in the mean time, not
to speak a word. In this posture, I fetched a compass
to my right hand of near a mile, as well to get over
the creek as to get into the wood, so that I might come
within shot of them before I 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 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
249
was in, to go and dip my hands in blood, to attack
people who had neither done nor intended me any
wrong; who, as to me, were innocent, and whose
barbarous customs were their own disaster; being, in
them, a token indeed of God's having left them, with
the other nations of that part of the world, to such
stupidity, and to such inhuman courses; but did not
call me to take on 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 mean
time, it was none of my business; that, it was true,
Friday might justify it, because he was a declared
enemy, and in a state of war with those very particu-
lar people, and it was lawful for him to attack them
but I could not say the same with respect to myself.
These things were so warmly pressed on 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 direct; but that, unless something of-
fered 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 fol-
lowing close at my heels, I marched till I came to
the skirt of the wood, on the side which was next to
them, only that one corner of the wood lay between
me and them. Here I called softly to Friday, 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 on
the sand, a little from them, which, he said, they
250
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
would kill next, and which fired the very soul within
me. He told me it was not one of their nation, but
one of the bearded men he had told me of, that came
to their country in the boat. I was filled with horror
at the very naming the white-bearded man; and, going
to the tree, I saw plainly, by my glass, a white man,
who lay on 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.
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 on 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 on
the ground, and Friday did the like by his; and with
the other musket I took my aim at the savages, bid-
ding him to do the like: then asking him if he was
ready, he said, "Yes." "Then fire at them," said
I; and the same moment I fired also.
Friday took his aim so much better than I, that
on the side that he shot, he killed two of them, and
wounded three more; and on my side, I killed one,

1
1
!
!
?
PL. VII. p. 250.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
251
and wounded two. They were, you may be sure, in
a dreadful consternation; and all of them who were
not hurt jumped on their feet, but did not imme-
diately know which way to run, or which way to
look, for they knew not from whence their destruc-
tion came. Friday kept his eyes close on 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 called swan-shot,
or small pistol-bullets, we found only two drop, but
so many were wounded, that they ran about yelling
and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and
most of them miserably wounded, whereof three more
fell quickly after, though not quite dead.
<<
Now, Friday," says I, laying down the dis-
charged pieces, and taking up the musket which was
yet loaded, "follow me;" which he did with a great
deal of courage; on 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 di-
rectly towards the poor victim, who was, as I said,
lying on 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 sur-
prise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright tơ
the sea-side, and had jumped into a canoe, and three
more of the rest made the same way. I turned to
Friday, and bade him step forwards, and fire at them;
he understood me immediately, and running about
મે
252
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 vic-
tim; and loosing his hands and feet, I lifted him
up, and asked him in the Portuguese tongue, what
he was.
He answered in Latin, Christianus; but
was so weak and faint that he could scarce stand or
speak. I took my bottle out of my pocket, and gave
it him, making signs that he should drink, which he
did; and I gave him a piece of bread which he eat.
Then I asked him what countryman he was and he
said, Espagniole; and being a little recovered, let me
know, by all the signs he could possibly make, how
much he was in my debt for his deliverance. "Seig-
nior," 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 vigor into him,
he flew on 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
1
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
253
called to Friday, and bade him run up to the tree
from whence we first fired, and fetch the arms which
lay there that had been discharged, which he did
with great swiftness; and then giving him my musket,
I sat down myself to load all the rest again, and
bade them come to me when they wanted. While
I was loading these pieces, there happened a fierce
engagement between the Spaniard and one of the
savages, who made at him with one of their great
wooden swords, the same-like 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 this Indian
a good while, and had cut him two great wounds on
his head; but the savage being a stout, lusty fellow,
closing in with him, had thrown 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 on 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 dispatched those three,
who, as I said before, were wounded at first, and
fallen, and all the rest he could come up with: and
the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I gave him one
of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two of
the savages, and wounded them both; but, as he was
not able to run, they both got from him into the
wood, where Friday 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 whe-
ther he died or no, were all that escaped our hands of
254
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 their 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 ca-
noes, and pursue them; and, indeed, I was very
anxious about their escape, lest carrying the news
home to their people, they should come back perhaps.
with two or three hundred of 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 crea-
ture lie there, bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard
was, for the slaughter, and almost dead with the 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
255
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 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 ecstacy 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
ancles, which were numbed and stiff with the bind-
ing, 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 got 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 con-
tinued blowing so hard all night, and that from the
north-west, which was against them, that I could not
suppose their boat could live, or that they ever reached
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
1
256
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest ex-
treme; 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 be-
witched, he ran at such a rate; for he was the swift-
est 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 home for an earthen jug, or pot, to
bring his father some fresh water, and that he had
two more cakes or loaves of bread; the bread he
gave me, but the water he carried to his father; how-
ever, as I was very thirsty too, I took a little
sup of
it. The water revived his father more than all the
rum or spirits I had given him, for he was just faint-
ing with thirst.
When his father had drank, 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 on 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, on Friday's coming to him with
OF ROBINSON CRUsoe.
257
the water, he sat up and drank, and took the bread,
and began to eat, I went to him and gave him a hand-
ful of raisins he looked up in my face with all the
tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that could ap-
pear in any countenance; but was so weak, notwith-
standing he had so exerted himself in the fight, that
he could not stand on his feet; he tried to do it
two or three times, but was really not able, his ancles
were so swelled and so painful to him; so I bade him
sit still, and caused Friday to rub his ancles, and
bathe them with rum, as he had done his father's.
I observed the poor affectionate creature, every
two minutes, or perhaps less, all the while he was
here, 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 per-
ceive 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 quite up on his back,
and carried him away to the boat, and set him down
softly on 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 the other canoe. As he passed me, I
spoke to him, and asked him whither he went.
told me,
"Go fetch more boat:" so away he went
like the wind, for sure never man or horse ran like
VOL. I.
R
He
258
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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
a hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I
carried them both up together on 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 on it, to lie on, and
another to cover them, on each bed.
My island was now peopled, and I thought myself
very rich in subjects; and it was a merry reflection,
which I frequently made, how like a king I looked.
First of all, the whole country was my own mere pro-
perty, 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 re-
markable, 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.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
259
prisoners, and given them shelter, and a place to rest
them on, 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, having put some barley and rice also into the
broth and as I cooked it without doors, for I made no
fire within my inner wall, so I carried it all into the
new tent, and having set a table there for them, I sat
down, and eat my dinner also with them, and, as well
as I could, cheered them, and encouraged them. Fri-
day 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 fire-arms, which, for want of
time, we had left on 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 knew were pretty much, and which I could not
think of doing myself; nay, I could not bear to see
them, if I went that way; all which he punctually
performed, and 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 in-
quire of his father what he thought of the escape of
the savages in that canoe, and whether we might ex-
pect a return of them, with a power too great for us to
resist. His first opinion was, that the savages in the
260
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 fright-
ened 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 light-
ning, 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,
however, I knew not; and therefore was under con-
tinual apprehensions for a good while, and kept always
on my guard, with all my army: for, as there were
now four of us, I would have ventured on a hundred
of them, fairly in the open field, at any time.
In a little time, however, no more canoes appear-
ing, 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 Fri-
day's father, that I might depend on 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
261
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 ne-
cessaries, and indeed for life. I asked him all the
particulars of their voyage, and found they were a
Spanish ship, bound from the Rio de la Plata to the
Havanna, being directed to leave their loading there,
which was chiefly hides and silver, and to bring back
what European goods they could meet with there;
that they had five Portuguese seamen on board, whom
they took out of another wreck; that five of their own
men were drowned, when first the ship was lost, and
that these escaped, through infinite dangers and
hazards, and arrived, almost starved, on the cannibal
coast, where they expected to have been devoured
every moment, He told me they had some arms with
them, but they were perfectly useless, for that they
had neither powder nor ball, the washing of the sea
having spoiled all their powder, but a little, which
they used, at their first landing, to provide themselves
some food.
I asked him what he thought would become of
them there, and if they had formed any design of
making their escape. He said they had many con-
sultations 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 pro-
posal from me, which might tend towards an escape;
and whether, if they were all here, it might not be
done. I told him with freedom, I feared mostly their
treachery and ill usage of me, if I put my life in their
hands; for that gratitude was no inherent virtue in
the nature of man, nor did men always square their
dealings by the obligations they had received, so
much as they did by the advantages they expected.
I told him it would be very hard that I should be the
262
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
instrument of their deliverance, and that they should
afterwards make me their prisoner in New Spain,
where an Englishman was certain to be made a sacri-
fice, what necessity, or what accident soever brought
him thither; and that I had rather be delivered up to
the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall into the
merciless claws of the priests, and be carried into the
Inquisition. I added, that otherwise I was persuaded,
if they were all here, we might, with so many hands,
build a bark large enough to carry us all away, either
to the Brazils, southward, or to the islands, or Spanish
coast, northward; but that if, in requital, they should,
when I had put weapons into their hands, carry me by
force among their own people, I might be ill used for
my kindness to them, and make my case worse than it
was before.
He answered, with a great deal of candor 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 un-
kindly 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 on their solemn oath, that
they should be absolutely under my leading, as their
commander and captain; and that they should swear
on the holy sacraments and gospel, to be true to me,
and go to such Christian country as that 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
263
his countrymen. He told me they were all of them
very civil, honest men, and they were under the great-
est distress imaginable, having neither weapons nor
clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy and discre-
tion of the savages; out of all hopes of ever return-
ing to their own country; and that he was sure, if I
would undertake their relief, they would live and'die
by me.
On these assurances, I resolved to venture to re-
lieve 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 pru-
dence 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 advice, put off the deliver-
ance 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 Pro-
vidence, 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 Chris-
tian colonies of America; so he told me he thought
it would be more adviseable 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
264
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 delivered
them, when they came to want bread in the wilder-
ness.
""
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 fide-
lity 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: nor, indeed,
we leave ourselves barley sufficient for our own food,
for the six months that we had to expect our crop ;
that is to say, reckoning from the time we set our
seed aside for sowing; for it is not to be supposed it
is six months in the ground in that country.
did
Having now society enough, and our number 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 here we had our escape or deliver-
ance on 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 Friday and his
father to cutting them down; and then I caused the
Spaniard, to whom I imparted my thoughts on that
affair, to oversee and direct their work. I showed
them with what indefatigable pains I had hewed a
large tree into single planks, and I caused them to
do the like, till they had made about a dozen large
planks of good oak, near two feet broad, thirty-five
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
265
feet long, and from two inches to four inches thick:
what prodigious labor 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 pro-
digious quantity to be hung up in the sun, that, I be-
lieve, 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, was a great part
of our food, and was very good living too, I assure
you, for it is exceeding nourishing.
It was now harvest, and our crop in good order :
it was not the most plentiful increase I had seen in
the island, but, however, it was enough to answer
our end; for from twenty-two bushels of barley we
brought in and threshed out above two hundred and
twenty bushels, and the like in proportion of the
rice; which was store enough for our food to the
next harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had
been on shore with me; or if we had been ready for
a voyage, it would very plentifully have victualled
our ship to have carried us to any part of the world,
that is to say, 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 de-
fence 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
266
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
over to the main, to see what he could do with those
he had left behind them there. I gave him a strict
charge not to bring any man with him who would not
first swear, in the presence of himself and the old
savage, that he would no way injure, fight with, or
attack the person he should find in the island, who
was so kind as to send for them in order to their de-
liverance; 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 with 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 come in, or rather were
brought in, when they came as prisoners to be de-
voured by the savages. I gave each of them a mus-
ket, with a firelock on it, and about eight charges of
powder and ball, charging them to be very good hus-
bands of both, and not to use either of them but on
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. 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
267
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 inter-
vened, 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, regard-
less of danger, I went out 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. On 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.
the next place, I went in to fetch my perspective-
glass, to see what I could make of them; and having
taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the
hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of any
thing, and to take my view the plainer, without being
discovered. I had scarce set my foot on the hill,
when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at an
anchor, at about two leagues and a half distance from
me, S.S.E. 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.
In
I cannot express the confusion I was in though
268
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
the joy of seeing a ship, and one that I had reason to
believe was manned by my own countrymen, and con-
sequently 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 on my
guard. In the first place, it occurred to me to consi-
der 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 storms to drive
them in there, as in distress: and that if they were
really English, it was most probable that they were
here on no good design; and that I had better con-
tinue as I was, than fall into the hands of thieves and
murderers.
$
{
That
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.
such hints and notices are given us, I believe few that
have made any observations 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 friend-
ly agent (whether supreme, or inferior and subordi-
nate, 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 cau-
tious by this secret admonition, come it from whence it
will, I had been undone inevitably, and in a far worse
condition than before, as you will see presently. I
had not kept myself long in this posture, but I saw the
boat draw near the shore, as if they looked for a creek
to thrust in at, for the convenience of landing; how-
ever, as they did not come quite far enough, they did
not see the little inlet where I formerly landed my
rafts, but run their boat on shore on the beach, at
..
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
269
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 mie
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 pri-
soners: 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 de-
gree 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."
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 prison-
ers should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the vil-
lains 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 my Spaniard, and the sa-
vage that was gone with him, or that I had any way
to have come undiscovered within shot of them, that
I might have rescued the three men, for I saw no fire-
270
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
arms they had among them; but it fell out to my
mind another way. After I had observed the out-
rageous 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 on 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 my-
self over for lost; how wildly I looked round me;
what dreadful apprehensions I had; and how I
lodged in the tree all night, for fear of being devoured
by wild beasts. As I knew nothing, that night, of
the supply I was to receive by the providential driv-
ing 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 cheer-
fully on the great maker of the world, that he does
not leave his creatures so absolutely destitute, but
that, in the worst circumstances, they have always
something to be thankful for, and sometimes are
nearer their deliverance than they imagine; nay, are
even brought to their deliverance by the means by
which they seem to be brought to their destruction.
It was just at the top of high water when these
people came on shore; and partly while they rambled
about to see what kind of a place they were in, they
had carelessly staid 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 drank a little too
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
271
much brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them wak-
ing a little sooner than the other, and finding the boat
too fast aground for him to stir it, hallooed out for the
rest, who were straggling about; on 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 observa-
tion, 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 mean time, I fitted
myself up for a battle, as before, though with more
caution, knowing I had to do with another kind of
enemy than I had at first. I ordered Friday also,
whom I had made an excellent marksman with his
gun, to load himself with arms. I took myself two
fowling-pieces, and I gave him three muskets. My
figure, indeed, was very fierce; I had my formidable
goat-skin coat on, with the great cap I have mentioned,
a naked sword by my side, two pistols in my belt, and
a gun on 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, in short, they
were all gone straggling into the woods, and, as I
thought, laid down to sleep. The three poor dis-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
tressed men, too anxious for their condition to get
any sleep, were, however, sat down under the shelter
of a great tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me,
and, as I thought, out of sight of any of the rest. On
this I resolved to discover myself to them, and learn
something of their condition; immediately I marched
in the figure as above, my man Friday at a good dis-
tance 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 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 how to help
you? for you seem to be in some great distress. I saw
you
when you landed ; and when you seemed to make
application to the brutes that came with you, I saw
one of them lift up his sword to kill you.
دو
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
1; "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
OF ROBINSON CRUsoe.
273
66
serve you? What is your case?". "Our case," said
he, Sir, 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 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 ene-
mies?" said I : "do you know where they are gone?”
"There they lie, Sir," said he, pointing to a
thicket of trees; (6
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
fire-arms?" 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 re-
turn 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 any thing 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.
66
"Look you, Sir," said I, "if I venture on your
deliverance, are you willing to make two conditions
with me?" He anticipated my proposals, by telling
me, that both he and the ship, if recovered, should be
wholly directed and commanded by me in every
thing; and, if the ship was not recovered, he would
live and die with me in what part of the world soever
I would send him; and the two other men said the
VOL. I.
S
274
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
<<
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, on all occasions,
give them up to me, and do no prejudice to me or
mine on this island; and, in the mean time, be go-
verned 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 on 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 grati-
tude that he was able, but offered to be wholly guided
by me. I told him I thought it was hard venturing
any thing; but the best method I could think of was
to fire on them at once, as they lay, and if any were
not killed at the first volley, and offered to submit,
we might save them, and so put it wholly on 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 com-
pany, 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 conve-
nient.
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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
275
""
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 the rest; but it was too
late then, for the moment he cried out they fired; I
mean the two men, the captain wisely reserving his own
piece. They had so well aimed their shot at the men
they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot,
and the other very much wounded; but not being
dead, he started up on his feet, and called eagerly for
help to the other; but the captain stepping to him,
told him it was too late to cry for help, he should
call on God to forgive his villany; and with that word
knocked him down with the stock of his musket, so
that he never spoke more: there were three more
in the company, and one of them was also slightly
wounded. By this time I was come; and when they
saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist,
they begged for mercy. The captain told them he
would spare their lives, if they would give him any
assurance of their abhorrence of the treachery they
had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to
him in recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying
her back to Jamaica, from whence they came. They
gave him all the protestations of their sincerity that
could be desired, and he was willing to believe them,
and spare their lives, which I was not against, only
that I obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot
while they were on the island.
While this was doing, I sent Friday with the cap-
tain's mate to the boat, with orders to secure her,
276
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and bring away the oars and sails, which they did :
and by and by three straggling men, that were (hap-
pily for them) parted from the rest, came back on
hearing the guns fired; and seeing the captain, who
before was 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 in-
quire 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 pro-
visions and ammunition; and, indeed, as my story is
a whole collection of wonders, it affected him deeply.
But when he reflected from thence on himself, and
how I seemed to have been preserved there on pur-
pose to save his life, the tears ran down his face, and
he could not speak a word more.
After this commu-
nication 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 re-
freshed them with such provisions as I had, and
showed them all the contrivances I had made, during
my long, long inhabiting that place.
All I showed them, all I said to them, was per-
fectly amazing; but, above all, the captain admired
my fortification, and how perfectly I had concealed
my retreat with a grove of trees, which, having been
now planted near twenty years, and the trees growing
much faster than in England, was become a little
wood, and so thick, 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 on occasion, and I would show him that too
another time but at present our business was to con-
sider how to recover the ship. He agreed with me as
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
277
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.
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 sur-
prise, as to prevent their landing on us, and destroying
us. On this, it presently occurred to me, that in a
little while the ship's crew, wondering what was be-
come of their comrades, and of the boat, would cer-
tainly 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. On this, I told him the first thing we
had to do was to stave the boat, which lay on the
beach, so that they might not carry her off and
taking every thing out of her, leave her so far use-
less as not to be fit to swim: accordingly we went on
board, took the arms which were left on board out of
her, and whatever else we found there, which was a
bottle of brandy, and another of rum, a few biscuit-
cakes, a horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar
in a piece of canvass (the sugar was five or six
pounds;) all which was very welcome to me, espe-
cially the brandy and sugar, of which I 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 before, as above,) we knocked a great
278
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 fit again to
carry us to the Leeward Islands, and call on our friends
the Spaniards in my way; for I had them still in my
thoughts.
While we were thus preparing our designs, and
had first, by main strength, heaved the boat on 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 saw her 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
fire-arms with them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore,
we had a full view of them as they came, and a plain
sight 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 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 overpowered and
frightened; but that as for the boatswain, who, it
seems, was the chief officer among them, and all the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
279
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 con-
sequence, 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
me but one thing amiss in all the prospect of it.".
"What is that?" says he. 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 providence had singled them out to
deliver them into your hands; for depend on it, every
man that comes ashore are 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.
66
We had, on the first appearance of the boat's
coming from the ship, considered of separating our
prisoners; and we had, indeed, secured them effec-
tually. 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
280
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
their liberty in a day or two; but that if they at-
tempted 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 centinel over
them at the entrance.
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them
were kept pinioned, indeed, because the captain was
not free to trust them; but the other two were taken
into my service, on the captain's recommendation, and
on 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 on 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, 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
OF ROBINSON CRusoe.
281
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 con-
founded 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, but
we perceived them all coming on shore again; but
with this new measure in their conduct, which it seems
they consulted together on, 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 advantage to us, if we let the boat escape; be-
cause they would then row away to the ship, and then
the rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail,
and so our recovering the ship would be lost. How-
ever, 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 impos-
sible for us to come at them in the boat. Those that
came on shore kept close together, marching towards
the top of the little hill under which my habitation
lay; and we could see them plainly, though they
could not perceive us. We could have been very
glad they would have come nearer to us, so that we
might have fired at them, or that they would have gone
farther off, that we might have come abroad. But
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 of 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 of apprehensions of
danger to venture to go to sleep, though they could
not tell what the danger was they had to fear neither.
The captain made a very just proposal to me on
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 on
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 un-
easy, when, after long consultations, we saw them all
start up, and march down towards the sea: it seems
they had such dreadful apprehensions on them of the
danger of the place, that they resolved to go on board
the ship again, give their companions over for lost,
and so go on with their intended voyage with the
ship.
As soon as I perceived them to go towards the
4
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
283
shore, I imagined it to be, as it really was, that they
had given over their search, and were for going back
again; and the captain, as soon as I 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
as soon as they came to a little rising ground, at about
half a mile distance, I bade 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 sea-
men answer them, they should return it again; and
then keeping out of sight, take a round, always an-
swering 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, run along the shore westward,
towards the voice they heard, when they were pre-
sently stopped by the creek, where the water being
up, they could not get over, and called for the boat to
come up and set them over; as, indeed, I expected.
When they had set themselves over, I observed that
the boat being gone 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
284
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and waking, and going to start up; the captain, who
was foremost, ran in on him, and knocked him down;
and then called out to him in the boat to yield, or he
was a dead man. There needed very few arguments
to persuade a single man to yield, when he saw five
men on 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
mean time, Friday and the captain's mate so well ma-
naged their 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 on 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 com-
plain how lame and tired they were, and not able to
come any faster; which was very welcome news to
At length they came up to the boat; but it is
impossible to express their confusion when they found
the boat fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out,
and their two men gone.
We could hear them call
to one another in a most lamentable manner, telling
one another they were 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 de-
youred. They hallooed again, and called their two
us.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
285
comrades by their names a great many times; but no
answer. After some time, we could see them, by the
little light there was, run about, wringing their hands
like men in despair; and that sometimes they would
go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves: then
come ashore again, and walk about again, and so the
same thing over again. My men would fain have had
me give them leave to fall on them at once in the
dark; but I was willing to take them at some advan-
tage, so to spare them, and kill as few of them as I
could; and especially I was unwilling to hazard the
killing 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 on 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 possi-
bly, before they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture, when the
boatswain, who was the principal ringleader of the mu-
tiny, 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 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 cap-
tain and Friday, starting up on their feet, let fly at
them. The boatswain was killed on 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 run for it. At the noise of the fire, I imme-
diately 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 on them, indeed, in the dark,
286
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
دو
so that they could not see our number; and I made
the man they had left in the boat, who was now one
of us, to call them by name, to try if I could bring
them to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce them to
terms; which fell out just as we desired: for indeed it
was easy to think, as their condition then was, they
would be very willing to capitulate. So he calls out
as loud as he could to one of them, "Tom Smith!
Tom Smith!" Tom Smith answered immediately,
"Is that Robinson ?" For it seems he knew the voice.
The other answered, "Aye aye; for God's sake, Tom
Smith, throw down your arms and yield, or you are
all dead men this moment.' —“Who must we yield
to? Where are they?" says Smith again. "" Here
they are," says he; "here'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," says 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.”
:
.
On 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 neither; 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 dis-
cretion, 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
287
great army of fifty men, which, particularly with
those three, were in all but eight, came up and seized
on them, and on 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 on the villany of their practices with him, and at
length on the further wickedness of their design, and
how certainly it must bring them to misery and dis-
tress in the end, and perhaps to the gallows. They
all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their
lives. As for that, he told them they were none of
his prisoners, but the commander's of the island;
that they thought they had set him on shore in a bar-
ren, uninhabited island; but it had pleased God so to
direct them, that it was inhabited, and that the go-
vernor 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 At-
kins, 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 on his knees, to
beg the captain to intercede with the governor for his
life; and all the rest begged of him, for God's sake,
that they might not be sent to England.
It now occurred to me, that the time of our deliver-
ance 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 go-
vernor they had, and called the captain to me: when
I called, as at a good distance, one of the men was
ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, "Cap-
tain, the commander calls for you;" and presently the
288
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
captain replied, "Tell his excellency I am just a
coming." This more perfectly amused them, and they
all believed that the commander was just by with his
fifty men. On the captain's coming to me, I told
him my project for seizing the ship, which he liked
wonderfully well, and resolved to put it in execution
the next morning. But, in order to execute it with
more art, and to be secure of success, I told him we
must divide the prisoners, and that he should go and
take Atkins, and two more of the worst of them, and
send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay.
This was committed to Friday, and the two men who
came on shore with the captain. They conveyed them
to the cave, as to a prison: and it was, indeed, a dis-
mal place, especially to men in their condition. The
others I ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which
I have given a full description; and as it was fenced
in, and they pinioned, the place was secure enough.
considering they were on their behavior.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who
was to enter into a parley with them; in a word, to
try them, and tell me whether he thought they might
be trusted or no to go on board and surprise the ship.
He talked to them of the injury done him, of the con-
dition they were brought to, and that though the go-
vernor 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, to be sure; but
that if they would join in so just an attempt as to re-
cover the ship, he would have the governor's engage-
ment 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 of blood, 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
289
as long as they lived. "Well," says the captain, "I
must go and tell the governor what you say, and see
what I can do to bring him to consent to it." So he
brought me an account of the temper he found them
in, and that he verily believed they would be faithful.
However, that we might be very secure, I told him
he should go back again and choose out those five,
and tell them that they might see he did not want
men, that he would take out those five to be his as-
sistants, 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 execu-
tion, 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 expe-
dition: first, The captain, his mate, and passenger :
second, Then 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 re-
leased fourth, These five released at last; so that
they were twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners
in the cave for hostages.
I asked the captain if he was willing to venture
with these hands on board the ship: 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 em-
ployment 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 necessa-
VOL. I.
T
290
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
ries; and I made the other two carry provisions to a
certair distance, where Friday was to take it.
When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was
with the captain, who told them I was the person the
governor had ordered to look after them; and that it
was the governor's pleasure they should not stir any
where 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 a go-
vernor, 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 busi-
ness very well, for they came up to the ship about mid-
night. As soon as they came within call of the ship,
he made Robionson 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 but end of their muskets,
being very faithfully seconded by their men; they se-
cured all the rest that were on 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 fore-chains, secured the forecastle
of the ship, and the scuttle which went down into the
cook-room, making three men they found there pri-
soners. When this was done, and all safe on 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 fire-arms in their hands;
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
291
a
1
1
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, aud wounded two more of the men,
but killed nobody. The mate calling for help, rushed,
however, into the round-house, wounded as he was,
and with his pistol shot the new captain through thẹ
head, the bullet entering at his mouth, and coming out
again behind one of his ears, so that he never spoke a
word more; on 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 on with me to give me notice of his success,
which you may be sure I was very glad to hear, hav-
ing sat watching on the shore for it till near two
o'clock in the morning. Having thus heard the sig-
nal plainly, I laid me down; and it having been a day
of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound, till I was
something surprised with the noise of a gun; and pre-
sently 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 em-
braced me in his arms. 66
My dear friend and deli-
verer," says he, "there's your ship, for she is all
your's, 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; and
the tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace
in near the place where I at 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
1
292
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 imme-
diately pulls a bottle out of his pocket, and gave me
a dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose
for me.
After I had drank it, I sat down on 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 ecstacy
as I, only not under any surprise, as I was; and he
said a thousand kind and tender things to me, to com-
pose and bring me to myself: but such was the flood
of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into con-
fusion; 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 re-
joiced together. I told him I looked on him as a man
sent from Heaven to deliver me, and that the whole
transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders; that
such things as these were the testimonies we had of a
secret hand of Providence governing the world, and
an evidence that the 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 acknow-
leged 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.
On 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
293
that was not to be carried away with them, but as if
I had been to dwell on 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 an hun-
dred weight of biscuit: he also brought me a box of
sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and two
bottles of lime juice, and abundance of other things.
But, besides these, and what was a thousand times
more useful to me, he brought me six 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 any thing 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 pri-
soners we had; for it was worth considering whether
we might venture to take them away with us or no,
especially two of them, whom he knew to be incorri-
gible and refractory to the last degree; and the cap-
tain said he knew they were such rogues, that there
was no obliging them; and if he did carry them away,
it must be in irons, as malefactors, to be delivered
over to justice at the first English colony he could
come at; and I found that the captain himself was
very anxious about it. On this I told him, that if he
desired it, I would undertake to bring the two men he
spoke of to make it their own request that he should
leave them on the island. I should be very glad of
that," says the captain, "with all my heart.".
•
294
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
66
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 go-
vernor 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 villanous
behaviour to the captain, and how they had run away
with the ship, and were preparing to commit farther
robberies, but that Providence had ensnared them in
their own ways, and that they had 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
villany, 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 them as pi-
rates, 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 my-
self, I had resolved to quit the island with all my
men, and had taken passage with the captain to go for
England; and as for the captain, he could not carry
them to England other than as prisoners, in irons, to
be tried for mutiny, and running away with the ship;
the consequence of which, they must needs know,
would be the gallows; so that I could not tell what
was best for them, unless they had a mind to take
their fate in the island; if they desired that, as I had
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
295
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 diffi-
culty of it, as if he durst not leave them there. On
this I seemed a little angry with the captain, and told
him that they were my prisoners, not his; and that
seeing I had offered them so much favor, 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. On this they ap-
peared very thankful, and I accordingly set them at
liberty, and bade them retire into the woods to the
place whence they came, and I would leave them
some fire-arms, some ammunition, and some directions
how they should live very well, if they thought fit.
On 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 mean
time, 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 dis-
course 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.
When they had all declared their willingness to
stay, I then told them I would let them into the story
296
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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
had ink on board, and was greatly surprised that I
never hit on a way of making ink of charcoal and
water, or of something else, as I had done things
much more difficult.
I
I left them my fire-arms, 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.
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 I
told them I would have been very glad of: also I
gave them the bag of peas which the captain had
brought me to eat, and bade them be sure to sow and
increase them.
Having done all this, I left them the next day, and
went on board the ship. We prepared immediately
to sail, but did not weigh that night. The next morn-
ing early, two of the five men came swimming to the
ship's side, and making a most lamentable complaint
of the other three, begged to be taken into the ship,
for God's sake, for they should be murdered, and
begged the captain to take them on board, though he
hanged them immediately. On this, the captain pre-
tended to have no power without me; but after some
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
297
difficulty, and after their solemn promises of amend-
ment, 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 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 reliques, 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 Decem-
ber, as I found by the ship's account, in the year
1686, after I had been on 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 Salee. In this vessel, after a long
voyage, I arrived in England the 11th of June, in the
year 1687, having been thirty-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 to what she owed me,
assuring her I would give her no trouble; but on the
contrary, in gratitude for her former care and faithful-
ness to me, I relieved her as my little stock would
298
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 after-
wards 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 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 on the subject, and a present of almost
2001. sterling.
But after making several reflections on the circum-
stances 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 by some informa-
tion 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 on 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
299
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 ac-
quaintance between us, I inquired, you may be sure,
after my plantation and my partner. The old man
told me he had not been in Brazils for about nine
years; but 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 cognizance of
my part, were both dead: that, however, he believed
I would have a very good account of the improve-
ment of the plantation; for that on 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 appro-
priated 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 re-
stored but he assured me that the steward of the
king's revenue from lands, and the provedore, 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 meet with any obstruction to
my possessing my just right in the moiety. He told
I
300
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
me he could not tell exactly to what degree the plan-
tation was improved; but this he knew, that my part-
ner was grown exceeding rich on 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 re-
ligious house, amounted to above two hundred moi-
dores 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, when he knew that I had made my will,
and had made him, the Portuguese captain, my uni-
versal 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 40
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 called 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 ac-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
301
ceptable 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 in-
genio, 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."
After a few days' farther conference with this an-
cient 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
or gold, besides sixty chests of sugar, and fifteen dou-
ble rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his ship; he
having been shipwrecked coming home to Lisbon,
about eleven years after my leaving 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.”
On 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 a
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 kind-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
ness of the poor man to be able to bear this; and re-
membering 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 weep-
ing 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.
Every thing the good man said was full of affec-
tion, 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 re-
turn 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 re-
ceive what he gave me 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 my-
self. 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,
on 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
303
his acquaintance at the place; and then proposed my
staying with him till an account came of the return.
Never was any thing more honorable than the pro-
ceedings on 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.
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 favor.
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 Augustine's ac-
count, who had received the profits for above four-
teen years; but not being to account for what was
disposed of by the hospital, very honestly declared he
had eight hundred and seventy-two moidores not dis-
tributed, which he acknowleged to my account: as to
the king's part, that refunded nothing.
There was a letter of my partner's congratulating
me very affectionately on my being alive, giving me
an account how the estate was improved, and what it
produced a year; with a particular of the number of
squares or acres that it contained, how planted, how
many slaves there were on 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
take possession of my own; and, in the mean time,
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 who, 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 moi-
dores. 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 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 on 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 be-
ing known, he ordered me to be let blood; after which
I had relief, and grew well: but I verily 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 thou-
sand 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
1
OF ROBINSON CRusoe.
305
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 Hea-
ven, 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 him
the hundred moidores I had received of him; then I
sent for a notary, and caused him to draw up a gene-
ral 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, em-
powering him to be my receiver of the annual profits
of my plantation, and appointing my partner 'to ac-
count with him, and make the returns by the usual
fleets to him in my name; and a clause in the end,
being 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 was now to consider which way to steer my
course next, and what to do with the estate that Pro-
vidence had thus put into my hands; and, indeed, I
had more care on my head now than I had in my
silent state of life in the island, where I wanted no-
thing but what I had, and had nothing but what I
wanted; whereas I had now a great charge on me,
and my business was how to secure it. I had never 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 any body would meddle with it: on
the contrary, I knew not where to put it, or whom to
trust 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
VOL. I.
U
306
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 ef-
fects with me.
It was some months, however, before I resolved on
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 my poor widow,
whose husband had been my first benefactor, and she,
while it was in her power, my faithful steward and in-
structor. 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 for 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 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 on 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 per-
plexed me.
I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils,
and have settled myself there, for I was, as it were,
naturalized 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 coun-
try all the while I was among them, so neither did I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
307
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 my
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 be-
hind me; so I resolved, at last, to go to England with
it, where, if I arrived, I concluded I should make
some acquaintance, or find 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 ac-
count of things I had from thence; and, first, to the
prior of St. Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks
for their just dealings, and the offer of the eight hun-
dred 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 ac-
knowledgment that so much justice and honesty called
for; as for sending them any present, they were far
above having any occasion for it. Lastly, I wrote to
my partner, acknowledging his industry in the im-
proving 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 pow-
ers 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 him, but to set-
tle myself there for the remainder of my life. To this
I added a very handsome present of some Italian silks
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
for his wife and two daughters, for such the captain's
son informed me he had; with two pieces of fine En-
glish broad-cloth, 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 sea at that
time; and though I could give no reason for it, yet the
difficulty increased on 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 to have agreed with the cap-
tain; I say, two of these ships miscarried, viz. one
was taken by the Algerines, and the other was cast
away on the Start, near Torbay, and all the people
drowned, except three; so that in either of those ves-
sels I had been made miserable.
Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old
pilot, to whom I communicated every thing, 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
309
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 man Friday,
who was too much a stranger to be capable of supply-
ing 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 original of the whole journey.
As I have troubled you with none of my sea jour-
nals, so I shall trouble you now with none of my
land journal; 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 to see 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
fallen on the French side of the mountains, that seve-
ral travellers were obliged to come back to Pampe-
luna, 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
to a hot 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 moun-
tains so very keen, so severely cold, as to be intoler-
able, 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 at 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 all go away to Fon-
tarabia, and there take shipping for Bourdeaux, which
was a very little voyage.
But while I was consider-
ing 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 Langue-
doc, 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
:
1
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
311
+
hazard from the snow, provided we were armed suf-
ficiently to protect ourselves from wild beasts; for,
he said, on 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 ensure 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, 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 ap
proached 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 fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gas-
cony, all green and flourishing, though, indeed, at a
great distance, and we had some rough way to pass
still.
1
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
312
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
should soon be past it all: we found, indeed, that
we began to descend every day, and to come more
north than before; and so depending on 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, out of 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 on his horse, and the other attacked
the man with that violence, that he had not time, or
presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, but hal-
looed 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 that attacked him in the
head.
L
It was happy for the poor man that it was my
man Friday; for he having been used to such crea-
tures in his country, he had no fear on him, but went
close up to him and shot him, as above; whereas any
other of us would have fired at a farther distance, and
have perhaps either missed the wolf, or endangered
shooting the man.
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 num-
ber of them; and perhaps there was not such a few
as that we had no cause of apprehensions; however,
as Friday had killed this wolf, the other that had
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
313
fastened on the horse left him immediately, and fled,
without doing him any damage, having happily fast-
ened on his head, where the bosses 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 as it
were 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.
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 par-
ticular 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 excessive 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
affront; but if you throw or toss any thing at him,
and it hits him, though it were but a bit of stick as
big as your finr, he thinks himself abused, and sets
all other business aside to pursue his revenge, and
will have satisfaction in point of honor;-this 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 from 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 vast monstrous one it was, the big-
gest 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: " 0, 0, 0!" 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."
66
دو
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 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 be-
ing come down on the Gascony side of the mountains,
we were entered a vast great forest, where the coun-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
315
try 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 takes up a great stone and throws 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 devilish long
strides, and shuffling on at a strange rate, so as would
have put a horse to a middling gallop; away runs
Friday, and takes his course as if he ran towards us
for help; so we all resolved to fire at once on the
bear, and deliver my man; though I was angry at
him heartily for bringing the bear back on us, when he
was going about his own business another way: and
especially I was angry that he had turned the bear on
us, and then run 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 gets nimbly up the tree,
laying his gun down on 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 to it,
but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the tree, climb-
ing 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 any thing to laugh at yet, till
seeing the bear get up the tree, we all rode near to
him.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 falls a jumping and shaking
the bough, at which the bear began 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 calls out to him again,
as if he had supposed the bear could speak English,
What, you come no farther? pray you come far-
ther :" 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 fell a 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 would shoot the bear:
but he cried out earnestly, "O pray! O 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 de-
pended on 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 clings 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 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 on this he goes out to the smaller end
of the bough, where it would bend with his weight,
and gently lets himself down by it, sliding down the

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Pl. p. 316
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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66
bough, till he came near enough to jump down on his
feet, and away he runs to his gun, takes it up, and
stands 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, as you will see presently; for when
the bear saw his enemy gone, he comes back from the
bough where he stood, but did it mighty 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 be-
fore 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 falls
a laughing himself 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 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 any thing 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 crea-
ture 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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, which 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, 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 first 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.
this our guide, who, by the way, was but a faint-
hearted 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 of him, but picking of
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 found we were like to have
more business on our hands than we were aware of.
On
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
319
We were not gone half over the plain, when we be-
gan 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 im-
mediately, if they continued to advance on us; and
then that those who had fired at first should not pre-
tend 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 on 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; whereon, remembering
that I had been told that the fiercest creatures were
terrified at the voice of a man, I caused all the com-
pany to halloo as loud as we could; and I found the
notion not altogether mistaken; for on 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.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 two or 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 on 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 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 open-
ing 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, at full speed; indeed
the horse had the heels 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, de-
voured 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 were 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 been cut down
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
321
the summer before, and I suppose lay there for car-
riage. 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 be-
fore 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 on 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 on
their prey; and this fury of theirs, it seems, was prin-
cipally 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 loath
to spend our shot too hastily; so I 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 bade 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 on it, when I, snapping an un-
charged pistol close to the powder, set it on fire:
those that were on 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
dispatched 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; on which I ordered our last pis-
tols to be fired off in one volley, and after that we
gave a shout on this the wolves turned tail, and we
sallied immediately on near twenty lame ones, that
we found struggling on the ground, and fell a cutting
them with our swords, which answered our expecta-
tion; 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 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 broke 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 Thou-
louse, where we found a warm climate, a fruitful
pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, nor any
thing like them but when we told our story at
Thoulouse, 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
323
ground; but they inquired much what kind of a
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 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 excessive 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
continued 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
that at last, if we had stood all together, and left
our horses, they would have been so eager to have
devoured them, that we might have come off safe,
especially having our fire-arms in our hands, and
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 moun-
tains again; I think I would much rather go a thou-
sand leagues by sea, though I was sure to meet with
a storm once a week.
us,
I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my
passage through France, nothing but what other tra-
vellers have given an account of, with much more
advantage than I can. I travelled from Thoulouse
to Paris, and without any considerable stay came to
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
Calais, and landed safe at Dover, the 14th of Jan.
after having a severe cold season to travel in.
I was now come to the centre of my travels, and
had in a little time all my new-discovered estate safe
about me; the bills of exchange which I brought with
me having been very 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 with every thing, 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 plan-
tation in the Brazils, I wrote to my old friend at Lis-
bon; who having offered it to the two merchants, the
survivors of my trustees, who lived in the Brazils,
they accepted the 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 32,800
pieces-of-eight for the estate; reserving the payment
of 100 moidores a year to him (the old man) during
his life, and 50 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 compli-
cated good fortune, I was past running any more.
hazards, and so indeed I had been, if other circum-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
325
stances had concurred: but I was inured to a wan-
dering life, had no family, nor many relations; nor,
however rich, had I contracted much 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 on the wing again; especially
I could not resist the strong inclination I 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 run-
ning abroad; during which time I took my two ne-
phews, 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 put out to a captain of a ship: and after five years,
finding him a sensible, bold, enterprising young fel-
low, 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 farther adventures myself.
In the mean time, 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 suc-
cess 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
whole story of their lives, and of the villains I left
there; how at first they insulted the poor Spaniards,
how they afterwards agreed, disagreed, united, sepa-
rated, 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
i
326
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
them an history, if it were entered into, as full of
variety and wonderful accidents as my own part: par-
ticularly also as to their battles with the Caribbeans,
who landed several times on the island, and as to the
improvement they made on the island itself; and how
five of them made an attempt on the main land, 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 sup-
plies of all necessary things, and particularly of arms,
powder, shot, clothes, tools, and two workmen, which
I 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 peo-
ple, to 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 them to send them
some women from England, with a good cargo of
necessaries, if they would apply themselves to plant-
ing; which I afterwards could not perform: the fel-
lows 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
327
that whole number twice, and were at first defeated
and one of them killed; but at last a storm destroy-
ing their enemies' canoes, they famished or destroyed
almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered the
possession of their plantation, and still lived on the
island.
All these things, with some very surprising inci-
dents in some new adventures of my own, for ten
years more, I shall give a farther account of in an-
other volume.
END OF VOL. I.
PRINTED BY A. J. VALPY, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

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