RO
Hubbard
Imaginary
Voyages
PR
3403
.AT
18386
LIBRARY


Aug Fax sculp
G. Cruikshank pinx
Frontispiece
Vol. 1, page 134

+
THE LIFE
AND
SURPRISING ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE,
OF YORK, MARINER.
ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS FROM
Drawings by George Cruikshank
VOLUME THE FIRST.
LONDON:
JOSEPH THOMAS, 1, FINCH LANE;
TEGG & SON; AND SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO.
1838.
"Robinson Crusoe must be allowed, by the most rigid moralist,
to be one of those novels which one may read, not only with plea-
sure, 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 with-
out them, are so apt to undervalue; 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; and it shows how, by labouring with one's own hands,
one may secure independence, and open for one's self many sources
of health and amusement. I agree, therefore, with Rousseau, that
it is one of the best books that can be put into the hands of chil-
dren.”—Dr. BEATTIE.
*
(
PALMER & CLAYTON, 9, Crane-court, Fleet-street.
*
ا محور
ADVERTISEMENT.
In presenting this Edition of ROBINSON CRUSOE as part
of the CHILD'S LIBRARY, the Editor begs to observe that
he has carefully preserved in it the language of Defoe; that
this immortal work is here merely pruned of its excess of
details, and wearisome repetitions of the same reflections;
and that those phrases and forms of expression only which
time and the growing graces of our language have rendered
old and not so inoffensive as in the days of our author are,
if not omitted, so modified as to be rendered unobjection-
able. The youthful admirer of adventure will still find the
very pith and marrow of the original story preserved for
his amusement and instruction; while the old lover of this
most admirable of all fictions may, in this epitome, refresh
his memory with the leading incidents and wonders of the
2*
iv
ADVERTISEMENT.
cherished book of his childhood, and miss little or nothing
which he would desire to remember.
The Editor, trusting that his care in his task will be per-
ceived, and his pious respect for the genius of the author
approved, commits his pleasant labour to those who are best
capable of appreciating its value-to the youthful Reader,
with a heart yet untired with life; and to the aged Reader,
who has still a young heart warmly beating in his bosom,
and can be again a boy when he recurs to the books and
delights of his boyish years.
W.

THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
I was born in 1632, in York, of a good family, my father being
a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull, got a good
estate by merchandize, and leaving off trade, lived afterwards
at York, from whence he had married my mother, of a family
named Robinson, and from whom I was called Robinson
VOL. I.
B
2
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England,
we are now named Crusoe; and so my companions always
called me.
I had two brothers, one a lieutenant-colonel of foot in Flan-
ders, who was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the
Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew,
any more than my father or mother knew what was become
of me.
Being the third son, and not bred to any trade, my
head was filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father
had given me a competent share of learning, and designed me.
for the law but I would be satisfied with nothing but going
to sea; and my inclination led me so strongly against the
commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and
persuasions of my mother, 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 excel-
lent counsel. He called me one morning into his chamber,
where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated with me :
he asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering incli-
nation, I had for leaving my native country, where I had a
prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry?
He told me it was either men of desperate fortunes, or of
aspiring fortunes, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
3
Co
1
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 experience, was the most
suited to human happiness not exposed to the hardships, the
labour, and the sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and
not embarrassed with the pride, ambition, and envy of the upper
part of mankind. I might judge of the happiness of this state
by this one thing—that it was the state of life which all other
people envied that kings have lamented the consequences of
being born to greatness, and wished they had been placed in
the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the
great; and that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as
the just standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither
poverty nor riches. He bade me observe it, and I should
always find that the middle station had the fewest disasters,
and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes; nay, they were
not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of
body or mind, as those were who, by vicious living and extra-
vagances on one hand, or by hard labour and mean or insuffi-
cient diet on the other hand, bring distempers upon them-
selves that the middle. station of life was calculated for all
kind of virtues and enjoyments; that peace and plenty were
·
*
4
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
the handmaids of a middle fortune; that temperance, modera-
tion, quietness, health, society, and all desirable pleasures,
were the blessings attending the middle station; that this way
men went silently, and smoothly through the world, and com-
fortably out of it, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through
it; sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter;
feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's expe-
rience to know it more sensibly. After this he pressed me, in
the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man, nor
to precipitate myself into miseries the station of life I was born
in seemed to have provided against; that I was under no
necessity of seeking my bread; that he would do well for me,
and if I was not easy and happy it must be my fault; and he
should have nothing to answer for, having discharged his duty
in warning me against measures which would be to my hurt:
in a word, that as he would do kind things for me if I would
settle at home, 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 eldest brother for an
example, to whom he had used the same persuasions to keep
him from the Low Country wars, but could not prevail; and
though, he said, he would not cease to pray for me, yet he
would venture to say that, if I did take this foolish step, God
would not bless me, and I would have leisure hereafter to
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
5
reflect upon having neglected his counsel, when there might
be none to assist me.
I observed in this part of his discourse, which was truly
prophetic, the tears run down his face very plentifully, espe-
cially when he spoke of my brother who was killed; and that
when he spoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to
assist me, he was so moved, that he broke off the discourse,
and told me his heart was so full he could say no more.
I was sincerely affected, (as indeed who could be otherwise ?)
and resolved to settle at home according to his desire. But,
alas! a few days wore it all off; and, to prevent any fur-
ther importunities, in a few weeks after I resolved to run
away from him. However, I did not act so hastily as the first
heat of my resolution prompted, but I took my mother, at a
time when I thought her a little pleasanter than ordinary, and
told her that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing
the world, that I should never settle to any thing with resolu-
tion enough to go through with it, and my father had better
give his consent than force me to go without it; that if he
would let me go one voyage abroad, if I came home again,
and did not like it, I would go no more, and I would promise,
by a double diligence, to recover the time I had lost. This
put my mother into a great passion: she told me it would be
to no purpose to speak to him upon any such subject;. that he
6
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
knew too well what was my interest to give his consent to any
thing so much for my hurt; and that she wondered how I could
think of any such thing after the discourse I had had with my
father, and such kind and tender expressions as she knew he
had used; and that, in short, if I would ruin myself, there was
no help for me, but I should never have their consent to it:
that, for her part, she would not have so much hand in my
destruction; and I should never have it to say that my mother
was willing when my father was not. I heard afterwards that
she reported all to him, and that he, after showing great con-
cern at it, said to her with a sigh, “That boy might be happy
if he would stay at home; but if he goes abroad, he will be
the most miserable wretch that ever was born. I can give no
.consent to it."
It was not till a year after this that I broke loose, though,
in the mean time, I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals
of settling to business. Being one day at Hull, whither I
went casually, one of my companions being going by sea to
London in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with
them, with the common allurement of a sea-faring man, that
it should cost me nothing for my passage, I consulted neither
father nor mother any more; 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,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
7
and in an ill hour, God knows, on the 1st of September,
1651, I went on board a ship bound for London.
Never any young adventurer's misfortunes began sooner,
or continued longer than mine. The ship was no sooner out
of the Humber than the wind began to blow, and the sea to
rise in a most frightful manner; and, as I had never been at
sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body, and terrified
in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had
done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of
Heaven for 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 fresh into my mind; and
my conscience reproached me with the contempt of advice,
and the breach of my duty to God and my father. All this
while the storm increased. I expected every wave would have
swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down, as I
thought it did, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should
never rise more. In this agony of mind I made many vows,
that if it pleased God to spare my life, if ever I got upon dry
land again, I would go home to my father, 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 ea
8
CO
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
or troubles on shore. In short, I resolved that I would, like
a repenting prodigal, go home to my father.
These sober thoughts continued all the while the storm
continued; but the next day the wind was abated, the sea
calmer, and I began to be a little inured to it: however, I
was very grave all day, being also a little sea-sick; but
towards night the weather cleared up, the wind was over, and
a charming evening followed; the sun went down perfectly
clear, and rose so the next morning; and having little or no
wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was
the most delightful that ever I saw.
I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-
sick, but cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that was
so rough and terrible the day before, and could be so calm and
so pleasant in so little a time after. And now, lest my good
resolutions should continue, my companion comes to me,
Well, Rob," says he, clapping me upon the shoulder, "how
do
you do after it? I warrant you were frighted, wer❜n't you,
last night, when it blew but a cap-full of wind?"
A cap-
'A
А
full d'ye call it?" said I, "'twas a terrible storm."
storm, you fool you," replies he, "do you call that a storm?
Why it was nothing at all! Give us but a good ship and sea-
room, and we think nothing of such a squall of wind as that;
but you're but a fresh-water sailor, Rob. Come, let us make a
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
9
bowl of punch, and we'll forget all that; d'ye see what charm-
ing weather 'tis now?" To make short this sad part of my
story, we went the way of all sailors: the punch was made,
and I was made half drunk with it; and in that one night's
wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections
upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for the future. The
hurry of my thoughts being over, my apprehensions of being
swallowed up being forgotten, and my former desires returned,
I entirely forgot the vows I had made in my distress. I found,
indeed, some intervals of reflection, and the serious thoughts
did endeavour to return sometimes; but I shook them off, and
applying myself to drinking and company, soon mastered them;
and I had in five or six days got as complete a victory over my
conscience, as any young fellow that resolved not to be trou-
bled with it could desire. But I was to have another trial for
it still; and Providence resolved to leave me entirely without
excuse for if I would not take this for a deliverance, the next
was to be such an one as the most hardened wretch would con-
fess both the danger and the mercy.
The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth
Roads: the wind having been contrary, and the weather calm,
we made but little way since the storm. Here we were obliged
to anchor, and here we lay, the wind continuing contrary, for
seven or eight days, during which time a great many ships
10
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 rid here so long, but we should have tided it up
the river, but that the wind blew too fresh; and, after we had
lain four or five days, blew very hard. However, the roads
being reckoned as good as an harbour, the anchorage good,
and our ground tackle very strong, our men were not in the
least apprehensive of danger, but spent the time in mirth, after
the manner of the sea; but the eighth day in the morning the
wind increased, and we had all hands at work to strike our
top-masts, and make every thing snug and close, that the ship
might ride as easy as possible. By noon the sea went very
high indeed, and our ship rid forecastle in, shipped several
seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor had come
home; upon which our master ordered out the sheet anchor;
so that we rode with two anchors a-head, and the cables
veered out to the better end. By this time it blew a terrible
storm; and I began to see terror in the faces even of the sea-
men themselves. The master, as he went in and out of his
cabin, I could hear softly say to himself several times, "Lord,
be merciful to us! We shall be all lost! We shall be all un-
done!" and the like. During these first hurries I was stupid,
lying still in my cabin, which was in the steerage. I could ill
resume the penitence which I had hardened myself against: I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
11
:
thought the bitterness of death had been past; but when the
master himself said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully
frighted: I got up, and looked out; but such a dismal sight
I never saw. The sea went mountains high, and broke upon us
every three or four minutes. I could see nothing but distress
round us two ships, that rid near us, we found had cut their
masts by the board, being deep laden; and our men cried out
that a ship which rid about a mile a-head of us was foundered.
Two more ships, being driven from their anchors, run out to
sea, at all adventures, and that with not a mast standing. The
light ships fared the best, as not so much labouring in the sea;
but two or three of them came close by us, running away with
only their spritsail out before the wind. Towards evening the
mate and boatswain begged the master to let them cut away
the foremast, which he was very unwilling to do: but the
boatswain protesting to him that, if he did not, the ship would
founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the 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 must judge what a condition I must be in at all
this. But if I can express at this distance the thoughts I had
about me at that time, I was in tenfold more horror of mind
upon account of my former convictions, than I was at death
12
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
itself;
and these added to the terror of the storm, put mé
into such a condition, that I can by no words describe it. But
the worst was not come yet; the storm continued with such
fury, that the seamen themselves acknowledged they had never
seen a worse. We had a good ship, but she was deep laden,
and wallowed in the sea, that the seamen every now and then
cried out she would founder. The storm was so violent, that
I saw what is not often seen, the master, the boatswain, and
some others, at their prayers, expecting every moment when
the ship would go the bottom. In the middle of the night,
and under all the rest of our distresses, one of the men cried
out "We had sprung a leak!" Another said There was four
feet water in the hold." Then all hands were called to the
pump. At that word my heart died within me, and I fell
backwards upon the side of my bed where I sat. 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 heartily.
While this was doing, the master seeing some light colliers,
who, not able to ride out the storm, were obliged to slip and
run away to sea, and would come near us, ordered to fire a
gun as a signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what they
meant, was so surprised, that I thought the ship had broke,
and I fell down in a swoon. As every body had his own life
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
13
to think of, nobody minded me, or what was become of me;
but another man stept up to the pump, and thrusting me aside
with his foot, let me lie, thinking I had been dead. The water
increasing in the hold, it was apparent that the ship would
founder; and though the storm began to abate, yet, as it was
not possible she could swim till we might run into a port,
the master continued firing guns for help; and a light ship,
who had rid it out just a-head of us, ventured a boat out to help
us. The boat came near us, but it was impossible for us to
get on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship's side, till at
last the men rowing very heartily, our men cast them a rope
over the stern, and then veered it out a great length, which
they 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 to think of reaching their own ship; so all agreed to let
her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore as much as
we could; and our master promised them that if the boat was
staved upon shore he would make it good to their master: so
partly rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to the
northward, sloping towards the shore almost as far as Win-
terton Ness.
We were not more than a quarter of an hour out of our
ship when we saw her sink, and then I understood what was
meant by a ship foundering in the sea. I had hardly eyes to
14
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
look
up
when the seamen told me she was sinking: my heart
was 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, we could see (when, our boat
mounting the waves, we were able to see the shore) a great
many people running along the strand to assist us when we
should come near; but we made but slow way towards the
shore; nor were we able to reach 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 got all safe on shore, and
walked on foot to Yarmouth, where, as unfortunate men, we
were used with great humanity, as well by the magistrates of
the town, as by 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 had the sense to have
happy, and my father, an
gone back to Hull I had been
emblem of our blessed Saviour's parable, had even killed the
fatted calf for me; for hearing the ship I went away in was
cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great while before he
had any assurances that I was not drowned. But my ill fate
pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist;
and though I had several times loud calls from my reason, and
my more composed judgment, to go home, yet I had no power
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
15
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 upon it with our eyes open.
My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, the
master's son, was now less forward than I. The first time
he spoke to me after we were at Yarmouth, it appeared his
tone was altered, and, looking very melancholy, and shaking
his head, he asked me how I did; and telling his father who I
was, and how I had come this voyage only for a trial, in order
to go 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 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?"
Upon that I told him 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?
16
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
I would not set my foot in the same ship with thee again for
a thousand pounds." However, he afterwards talked very
gravely to me, exhorting me to go back to my father, and not
tempt Providence to my ruin; told me I might see a visible
hand of Heaven against me, "And, young man," said he,
depend upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go, you
will meet with nothing but disasters, till your father's words
are fulfilled upon you.
“
sea.
We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and
I saw him no more. 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
As to going home, shame opposed the best motions
that offered to my thoughts; and it occurred to me how I
should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be
ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but every-
body else: from whence I have since observed how irrational
the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth, that
they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent;
not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be
esteemed fools, but ashamed of the returning, which only can
make them be esteemed wise men.
In this state, however, I remained some time, uncertain
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
17
what measures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irre-
sistible reluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed
awhile, the remembrance of the distress I had been in wore
off; and as that abated, the little motion I had in my desires
to a return wore off with it, till at last I quite laid aside the
thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage. That evil in-
fluence which carried me first away from my father's house,
and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me, as to
make me deaf to all advice, and the entreaties and even the
commands of my father, 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 call it, a voyage to Guinea. It was my great
misfortune that I did not ship myself as a sailor; whereby,
though I might have worked a little harder than ordinary,
yet at the same time I had learnt the duty and office of a fore-
mast-man, and in time might have qualified myself for a
mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was always
my fate to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having
money in my pocket, and good clothes upon my back, I would
always go on board in the habit of a gentleman; and so I
neither had any business in the ship, nor learnt 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
C
18
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
unguided young fellows, the devil generally not omitting
to lay some snare for them very early. I first fell acquainted
with the master of a ship who had been on the coast of
Guinea, and who, having had good success there, was re-
solved to go again: this captain, taking a fancy to my con-
versation, told me if I would go the voyage with him I should
be at no expense; I should be his messmate and companion;
and if I could carry any thing with me, I should have all the
advantages of it that the trade would admit. I embraced the
offer; and entering into friendship with this captain, who was
an honest, plain-dealing man, I went the voyage with him,
and carried a small adventure with me, which, by his dis-
interested honesty, I increased very considerably: for I carried
about £40 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed
me to buy. This £40 I had mustered together by the assist-
ance of some of my relations whom I corresponded with, and
who, I believe, got my father to contribute so much as that to
my first adventure.
This was the only voyage which was successful in all my
adventures, and this I owed to the integrity and honesty
of the captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge
of mathematics and navigation, learned how to keep an account
of the ship's course, take an observation, and to understand
some things needful to be understood by a sailor: for, as he
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
19
took delight to instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in
a word, this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant:
for I brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for
my adventure, which yielded me in London, at my return,
almost £300; and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts
which have since so completed my ruin. I was now set up
for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my great misfortune,
dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to go the same voyage
again, and I embarked in the same vessel with one who was
his mate in the former voyage, and had now got the command
of the ship. This was the unhappiest voyage that ever man
made; for though I did not carry quite £100 of my wealth,
so that I had £200 left, which I lodged with my friend's
widow, who was very just to me, yet I fell into terrible mis-
fortunes in this voyage. And the first was this: our ship,
making her course towards the Canary Islands, 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;
but finding the pirate gained upon us, we prepared to fight,
our ship having twelve guns and the rogue eighteen. About
three in the afternoon he came up, 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,
20
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and poured in a broadside upon him, which made him sheer
off again, after returning our fire. However, we had not a
man touched, all our men keeping close. He prepared to
attack us again, and we to defend ourselves; but laying us
on board the next time upon our other quarter, he entered
sixty men upon our decks. We plied them with small-shot,
half-pikes, 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 prisoners
into Sallee. The usage I had there was not so dreadful as
I apprehended; nor was I carried up the country to the
emperor's court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept by
the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and made his
slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business. At
this surprising change of my circumstances I was perfectly
overwhelmed; and now I looked back upon my father's
prophetic discourse to me, that I should be miserable, and
have none to relieve me; that now the hand of Heaven had
overtaken me, and I was undone without redemption: but
alas! this was but a taste of the misery I was to go through,
as will appear in the sequel of this story.
As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his
house, I was in hopes that he would take me with him when
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
ROBINSON
21
he went to sea, believing that it would some time or other be
his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal man-of-war, and
that then I should be set at liberty. But this hope of mine
was soon taken away; for when he went to sea he left me on
shore to look after his little garden, and do the common drud-
gery of slaves about his house. 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: I had nobody
to communicate it to that would embark with me, no fellow
slave, no Englishman there but myself; so that for two years,
though I often pleased myself with the imagination, yet I
never had the least prospect of putting it in practice. After
about two years, an odd circumstance presented itself, which
put the old thought of making some attempt for my liberty
again in my head. My patron lying at home longer than
usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I heard, was for
want of money, he used, once or twice a week, if the weather
was fair, to take the ship's pinnace, and go out into the road a
fishing; and as he always took me and a young Maresco with
him to row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved
dexterous in catching fish, insomuch that sometimes he would
send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and the Maresco, to
catch a dish of fish for him. It happened one time that, while
fishing in a stark calm morning, a fog rose so thick, that though
22
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
we were not half a league from the shore we lost sight of it; and
rowing we knew not whither, we found we had pulled off to sea,
and that we were at least two leagues from the shore: however,
we got well in again, though with a great deal of labour and some
danger, for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morn-
ing; 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
ship, he resolved he would not go a fishing any more without
a compass and some provision: so he ordered the carpenter
of his ship, who was also a slave, to build a little cabin in
the middle of the long-boat, like that of a barge, and room
for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with
some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as he
thought fit to drink, and particularly his bread, rice, and
coffee. We went frequently out with this boat, and as I was
most dexterous he never went without me. It happened that
he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or
for fish, with two or three Moors of some distinction, and for
whom he had sent on board overnight a larger store of pro-
visions 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 directed, and waited the next morning
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
23
with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and
every thing to accommodate his guests, when my patron came
on board alone, and told me his guests had put off going, upon
some business that fell out, and ordered me with the man and
boy, as usual, to go out with the boat and catch some fish, for
his friends were to sup at his house; all which I prepared to do.
This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my
thoughts, for now I found I was like to have a little ship at my
command; and my master being gone, I prepared to furnish
myself, not for fishing business, but for a voyage, though I knew
not, neither did I consider, whither I should steer; for
anywhere, to get out of that place, was my way. My first
contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor,
to get something for our subsistence on board; for I told him
we must not presume to eat 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, and I conveyed
them into the boat while the Moor was on shore: I conveyed
also a great lump of bees-wax, which weighed above half a
hundred weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a
saw, and a hammer, all of which were of great use to us after-
wards, especially the wax to make candles. Another trick I
tried upon him which he innocently came into also: his name
24
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
was Ismael, whom they call Muley, or Moely; so I called him,
Moely," said I,
our patron's guns are on board the boat;
can you not get a little powder and shot? It may be we may
kill some alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for
I know he keeps the gunner's stores in the ship." "Yes,"
says he, "I'll bring some;" and accordingly he brought a
great leather pouch which held about a pound and a half of
powder, 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. The castle, which is at the entrance, 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, 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
25
might not see them, I said to the Moor, "This will not do; our
master will not be thus served; we must stand farther off." He,
thinking no harm, agreed, and, being in the head of the boat,
set the sails; and as I had the helm, I run the boat out 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 twist, and
tossed him clear overboard into the sea. He rose immediately,
for he swam like a cork, begged to be taken in, and told me
he would go all over the world with me. He swam so strong
that he would have reached me very quickly, there being but
little wind; upon which I stepped into the cabin, and fetched.
one of the fowling-pieces. I presented it at him, and told him
if he would be quiet I would do him no hurt: "But," said I,
"you swim well enough to reach the shore, and the sea is
calm: make the best of your way, 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 about,
and swam for the shore, and I make no doubt but he reached
it with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer. I could have
been content to have taken this Moor with me, but there was
no venturing to trust him. When he was gone I turned to
the boy, whom they called Xury, and said, "Xury, if you will
26
LIFE AND ADVENTURES

JJADISON, Zu-
be faithful to me I'll make you a great man; but if you will
not stroke your face to be true to me," (that is, swear by
Mahomet and his fathers' beard), "I must throw you into the
sea too." The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently,
that I could not mistrust him, and swore to be faithful to me,
and go all over the world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
27
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching to
windward, that they might think me gone towards the Strait's
mouth; but as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed
my course, and steered directly south and by east, bending
my course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with
the shore: and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
quiet sea, I made such sail, that I believe by the next day at
three o'clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land, I
could not be less than 150 miles south of Sallee, quite beyond
the Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or indeed of any other
king thereabouts, for we saw no people. Yet such was the
fright I had taken at the Moors, that I would not come to an
anchor, the wind continuing fair, till I had sailed in that man-
ner five days; and then, the wind shifting to the southward, I
concluded that if any vessels were in chase of me, they also
would now give over; so I ventured to make to the coast, and
came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not
what, or where: I neither saw, nor desired to see any people;
the principal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came into
this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as soon
as it was dark, and discover the country; but, as soon as it
was quite dark, we heard such dreadful noises of the barking,
roaring, and howling of wild creatures, that the poor boy
was ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on
28
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
shore till day.
r
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 away."
Such English
However I was
Xury spoke by conversing often with me.
glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram to
cheer him up. After all, Xury's advice was good, and I took
it; we dropped our anchor, and lay still all night: I say still,
for we slept none; for in two or three hours we saw great
creatures (we knew not what to call them), of many sorts,
come down to the sea-shore and run into the water, wallowing
and washing for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and they
made such howlings and yellings that I never heard the like.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and so was I, 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: poor
Xury cried to me to weigh anchor and row away: No,"
says I, “Xury; we can slip our cable with the buoy to it, and
go off to sea; they cannot follow us far." I had no sooner
said so but I perceived the creature (whatever it was) within
two oars' length, which something surprised me; however,
I immediately stepped to the cabin-door, and taking up my
<<
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
29
gun fired at him; upon which he immediately turned about,
and swam towards the shore. But it is impossible to describe
the horrid noises, and hideous cries and howlings, that were
raised, upon the report of the gun, a thing I have some reason
to believe those creatures had never heard before: this con-
vinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the
night upon that coast, and how to venture in the day was
another question; for to have fallen into the hands of any of
the savages had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands
of lions and tigers. 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 bring some. I asked why he would go? why I
should not go, and he stay in the boat? The boy answered
with so much affection that he 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 to eat, and a dram, and we hauled
the boat in as near as we thought proper, and waded on shore,
carrying nothing but our arms, and two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the
coming of canoes with savages down the river: but the boy
30
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
seeing a low place, about a mile up the country, rambled to
it; and by and by I saw him come running towards me. I
thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with
some wild beast, and I ran forward to help him; but when I
came nearer, I saw something hanging over his shoulders,
which was a creature he had shot, like a hare, but different
in colour, and longer legs: however, we were glad of it, and
it was good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with
was to tell me he had found good water, and seen no wild
mans. We found afterwards that we need not take such
pains for water, for a little higher up the creek we found the
water fresh when the tide was out, which flowed but a little
way up: so we filled our jars, and feasted on the hare we
had killed, and prepared to go on our way, having seen no
footsteps of any human creature in that part of the country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew that
the Canaries, and the Cape de Verd islands also, lay not far
from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an
observation, and not exactly knowing what latitude they were
in, and where to look for them, or when to stand off to sea
towards them, my hope was, if I stood along this coast till
I came to that part where the English traded, I should find
some of their vessels, that would relieve and take us in. By
the best of my calculation, the place where I now was must be
OF ROBINSON CRusoe.
31
that country which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco's
dominions and the Negroes, is waste, and uninhabited except
by wild beasts, the Negroes having abandoned it, and gone
farther south for fear of the Moors; and the Moors not
thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness; and
both forsaking it because of the numbers of tigers, lions,
leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour there: SO
that the Moors use it for their hunting only, where they
go like an army, three thousand men at a time.
For an
hundred miles together we saw nothing but an uninhabited
country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring
of wild beasts by night. Once or twice in the daytime I
thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe, and had a 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 water after we had left this place; and
once in particular, early in the morning, we came to an anchor
under a little point of land which was pretty high; and the
tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury,
whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine were,
calls softly to me, and tells me that we had best go farther off
the shore; "For," says he, "look! yonder lies a dreadful
32
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
monster on the side of that hillock fast asleep." I looked,
and saw a monster indeed; for it was a lion that lay on the
side of the shore, under shade of a piece of the hill that hung
over him. "Xury," says I, "you shall go on shore and kill
him." Xury looked frighted, and said "Me kill! he eat me
at one mouth;" one mouthful he meant. However, I said no
more to the boy, but bade him lie still; and I took our biggest
gun, and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and 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 upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar that
ever I heard. I was a little surprised that I had not hit him
on the head; however, I took up the second piece immediately,
fired again, shot him in the head, 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 ROBINSON CRUSOE.
33
rr
of the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again, which
dispatched him quite. This was game indeed to us, but no
food; and I was very sorry to lose three charges of powder
and shot upon a creature that was good for nothing. How-
ever, Xury said he would have some of him; so he 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 the skin of him might be of value to us; and I resolved
therefore to take it off. So Xury and I went to work; but Xury
was much the better workman, for I knew very ill how to do
it. It took us the whole day, but at last we got off the hide,
and, spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun dried it in
two days' time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon.
After this stop, we made on to the southward for ten
days, living sparingly on our provisions, and going no oftener
into the shore than we were obliged for fresh water: my
design in this was to make the river Gambia or Senegal, 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 Cape Verd, or
D
34
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
those islands; and in a word, I put the whole of my fortune
upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship,
or perish. When I had pursued this resolution about ten days
longer, I began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two
or three places we saw people stand upon the shore to look at
us: we could also perceive they were quite black, and stark
naked. I was inclined to have gone on shore to them; but
Xury said to me "No go, no go." However, I hauled in
nearer, that I might talk to them, and I found they ran along
the shore by me a good way: I observed they had no wea-
pons in their hands, except one, who had a long slender stick,
which Xury said was a lance, and that they could throw them
a great way with good aim: so I kept at a distance, but
talked with them by signs, and particularly made signs for
something to eat they beckoned to me to stop, and they
would fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered my sail, and
lay by, and two of them ran up into the country, and came
back, and brought with them two pieces of dry flesh and some
corn; but we neither knew what the one or the other was:
however, we were willing to accept it, but how to come at it
was our next dispute, for I 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 a great way off till we fetched it on board,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
35
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 wonder-
fully for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty
creatures, one pursuing the other with great fury from the
mountains towards the sea. Whether it was the male pur-
suing the female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, we
could not tell, any more than we could tell whether it was
usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter: because, in
the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear but in
the night; and in the second place, we found the people ter-
ribly frighted, especially the women. The man that had the
lance did not fly from them, but the rest did; however, the
two creatures plunged themselves into the sea, and swam
about, as if they had come for their diversion: at last, one of
them began to come nearer our boat than at first I expected;
but I lay ready for him, for I had loaded my gun with all pos-
sible expedition, and bade Xury load both the others. As
soon as he came within reach I fired, and shot him in the
head. He sunk down into the water, but rose instantly, and
plunged up and down, as if struggling for life, and so indeed
he was he then made to the shore; but between the
wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the
water, he died just before he reached it. It is impossible to
36
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
express the astonishment of these poor creatures at the noise
and fire of my gun: some of them were ready to die for fear,
and fell down as dead with the terror; but when they saw the
creature dead, and that I made signs to them to come to the
shore, they took heart and came, and began to search for the
creature. I found him by his blood staining the water; and
by the help of a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the
Negroes to haul, they dragged him on shore, and found that
it was a most curious leopard, spotted, and fine to an admira-
ble degree; and the Negroes held up their hands with asto-
nishment to think what it was I had killed him with. The
other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and the noise of
the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the mountains
from whence they came, nor could I, at that distance, know
what it was. I found quickly the Negroes were for eating the
flesh of this creature, so I was willing to have them take it as
a favour from me, which they were thankful for. Immediately
they fell to work with him, and offered me some of the flesh,
which I declined, making as if I would give it them, but made
signs for the skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought
me a great deal more of their provisions. I then made signs
to them for water, and held out one of my jars, turning it
bottom upward, to show that it was empty, and that I wanted
it filled. They called immediately to some of their friends,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
37
and there came two women, and brought a great vessel made
of earth: this they set down 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 and water; and
leaving my friendly Negroes, I made forward for about eleven
days more, without offering to go near the shore, till I saw
the land run out a great length into the sea, at about the dis-
tance 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 indeed, that this was the
Cape de Verd, and those the islands called, from thence, Cape
de Verd Islands. However, they were at a great distance,
and I could not well tell what I had best to do; for if I should
be taken with a fresh of wind, I might neither reach one nor
the other. In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped
into the cabin, and sat me down, Xury having the helm; when,
on a sudden, the boy cried out "Master, master, a ship with a
sail!" and the foolish boy was frighted out of his wits, think-
ing it must needs be some of his master's ships sent to pursue
us, when I knew we were far enough out of their reach. I
jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only the
38
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
ship, but what she was, a Portuguese ship, and, as I thought,
bound to the Coast of Guinea, for negroes. But when I
observed the course she steered, I was convinced they were
bound some other way, and did not design to come nearer to
the shore: upon which I stretched out to sea, 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 after I had crowded to the utmost,
and began to despair, they, it seems, saw me, by the help of
their glasses, and that it was some European boat, which, they
supposed, must belong to some ship that was lost; so they
shortened sail, to let me come up. As I had my patron's
ancient on board, I made a waft of it to them, for a signal of
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
39
distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw; for they told
me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the gun.
Upon these signals, they brought to; and in about three
hours' time I came up with them. They asked me what I
was, in Portuguese, and in Spanish, and in French, but I
understood none of them; but at last a Scots sailor, who was
on board, called to me, and I answered him, and told him I
was an Englishman, and that I had made my escape 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 deli-
vered, as I esteemed it, from such a miserable, and almost
hopeless condition; and I offered all I had to the captain of
the ship, as a return for my deliverance; but he generously
told me he would take nothing, 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. Be-
sides," said he, "when I carry you to the Brazils, if I should
take from you what you have, you will be starved there, and
then I only take away that life I have given. No, no," says
he; “Senhor Inglese, I will carry you thither in charity, and
those things will help to buy your subsistence there, and your
<<
40
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 possession, and gave me
an exact inventory, 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 left it entirely to him: upon which he said he would
give me a note of hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it
at Brazil; and when we 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, but I was loth to sell the poor
boy's liberty who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring
my own. However, when I let him know my reason, he
owned it to be just, and offered me this medium, that he would
give the boy an obligation to set him free in ten years, if he
turned Christian: upon this, and Xury saying he was willing
to go to him, I let the captain have him.
We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and arrived in
All Saints' Bay in about twenty-two days. 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 con-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
41
sider. The generous treatment the captain gave me I can
never enough remember: he would take nothing for my pas-
sage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard's skin, and forty
for the lion's skin, 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 eight of all my cargo, and with this stock I
went on shore in the Brazils. I had not been long here before
I was recommended to the house of a good honest man, like
himself, who had an ingenio as they call it (that is, a planta-
tion and a sugar house.) I lived with him some time, and
acquainted myself, by that means, with the manner of planting
and making of sugar; and seeing how well the planters lived,
and how they got rich, I resolved, if I could get a licence to
settle there, I would turn planter among them-resolving, 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, get-
ting a letter of naturalization, I purchased as much land that
was uncured as my money would reach, and formed a plan for
my plantation and settlement, 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
42
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
born of English parents, whose name was Wells, and in much
such circumstances as I was. My stock was but low as well
as his, and we rather planted for food than any thing else for
about two years. However, we began to increase, and our
land to come into order; so that the third year we planted some
tobacco, and made 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 delighted in, and for
which I forsook my father's house, and broke through all his
good advice: nay, I was coming into the very middle station,
or upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to
before, and which, if I resolved to go on with, I might as
well have stayed at home, and never have fatigued myself in
the world, as I had done; and I used often to say to myself,
“I could have done this as well in England, among my friends, as
have gone five thousand miles off to do it among strangers
and savages, in a wilderness, and at such a distance as never
to hear from any part of the world that had the least know-
ledge of me." In this manner I used to look upon my con-
dition with the utmost regret. I had nobody to converse with
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
43
but this neighbour; no work to be done but by the labour of
my hands; and I used to say I lived just like a man cast-away
upon some desolate island. But how just has it been! and
how should all men reflect that, when they compare their pre-
sent conditions with others that are worse, Heaven may oblige
them to make the exchange, and be convinced of their former
felicity by their experience.
I was, in some degree, settled in my measures for carrying
on the plantation, before my kind friend the captain went
back; for the ship remained there, providing his lading, near
three months; when, telling him what little stock I had left
behind me in London, he gave me this friendly advice:
"Senhor Inglese," says he, for so he always called me, "if you
will give me letters, and a procuration here in form to me,
with orders to the person who has your money in London, to
send your effects to Lisbon to such persons as I shall direct,
and in such goods as are proper for this country, I will bring
you the produce of them, God willing, at my return; but,
since human affairs are all subject to changes and disasters, I
would have you give orders but for one hundred pounds ster-
ling, 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 whole-
{
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
44
some advice, that I could not but be convinced it was the best
course I could take; so I accordingly prepared letters to the
gentlewoman with whom I had left my money, and a procura-
tion to the Portuguese captain, as he desired. I wrote the
English captain's widow a full account of all my adventures
my slavery, escape, and how I had met with the Portugal cap-
tain at sea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what condition
I was in, with all other directions for my supply; and when
this honest captain came to Lisbon, he found means, by some
of the English merchants there, to send over, not the order
only, but a full account of my story to a merchant at London,
who represented it effectually to her: whereupon she not only
delivered the money, but, out of her own pocket, sent the
Portugal captain a very handsome present for his humanity
and charity to me.
The merchant in London, vesting this hundred pounds in
English goods, sent them directly to him at Lisbon, and he
brought them all safe to me to the Brazils: among which,
without my direction, he had taken care to have all sorts of
tools, iron work, and utensils, necessary for my plantation,
and which were of great use to me. When this cargo arrived
I thought my fortune made; and the captain had laid out the
five pounds, which my friend had sent him for a present, to
purchase and bring me over a servant, under bond for six
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
45
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 advancement of my plantation: for the first thing
I did I bought me a negro slave, and an European servant
also; I mean another besides that which the captain brought
me from Lisbon. But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made
the very means of our greatest adversity, so was it with me.
I went on the next year with great success: I raised fifty great
rolls of tobacco, 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, increasing in business and in
wealth, my head began to be full of projects and undertakings
beyond my reach, such as are often the ruin of the best heads
in business. Had I continued in the station I was now in, I
had room for all the happy things to have yet befallen me for
which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired
life; but other things attended me, and I was still to be the
wilful agent of all my own miseries; and, particularly, to increase
46
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
my fault, and double the reflections upon myself, which in my
future sorrows I should have leisure to make, all these mis-
carriages were procured by my apparent obstinate adhering to
my foolish inclination of wandering abroad, and pursuing that
inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views of doing
myself good in a plain pursuit of those prospects, and those
measures of life, which nature and providence concurred to
present me with, and to make my duty.
As I had done in breaking away from my parents, so I could
not be content now, but I must leave the happy view I had of
being a thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a
rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of
the thing admitted; and thus I cast myself down again into
the deepest gulph of human misery that ever man fell into.
To come, then, to the particulars of my story. Having lived
four years in the Brazils, and beginning to prosper well, I had
not only learned the language, but had contracted acquaintance
among my fellow-planters, as well as among the merchants at
St. Salvador, which was our port; and in my discourses I had
frequently given them an account of my two voyages to the
coast of Guinea, the manner of trading with the Negroes
there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast for
trifles (such as beads, toys, knives, scissars, hatchets, bits of
glass, and the like), not only gold dust, Guinea grains, ele-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
47
phants' teeth, &c. but negroes, for the service of the Brazils,
in great numbers. They listened attentively to my dis-
course, but especially to that part which related to the buying
negroes.
It happened, being in company with some merchants and
planters, and talking of those things very earnestly, three of
them came to me the next morning, and told me they had
been musing much upon what I had discoursed of the last
night, and they came to make a proposal to me: and, after
enjoining me secrecy, they told me that they had a mind to
fit out a ship to go to Guinea; that they had all plantations as
well as I, and were straitened for nothing so much as servants;
that as it was a trade 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 planta-
tions ; in a word, the question was, whether I would go
their supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading part upon
the coast of Guinea; and they offered me that I should have
my equal share of the negroes, without providing any part of
the stock. This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had
it been made to any one that had not had a settlement and
plantation of his own to look after. But for me, that was
thus established, and had nothing to do but go on as I had
48
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
+
begun for three or four years more, and who in that time
could scarce have failed of being worth three or four thousand
pounds sterling, and that increasing too, for me to think of
such a voyage was the most preposterous thing that ever man
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 upon 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 dispose of it to such as I should direct,
if I miscarried. This they entered into writings or covenants
to do; 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 my universal heir; but obliging
him to dispose of my effects as I had directed in my will,
one-half of the produce to himself, and the other to be shipped
to England. In short, I took all possible caution to preserve
my effects, and to keep up my plantation: had I used half as
much prudence to have looked into my own interest, and have
made a judgment of what I ought to have done and not to
have done, I had certainly never gone away from so prosperous
an undertaking. But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly
the dictates of my fancy, rather than my reason; and ac-
cordingly, the ship being fitted out, and the cargo furnished,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE..
49
and all things done as by agreement, I went on board in an
evil hour, the 1st of September, 1659, being the same day
eight years that I went from my father and mother at Hull,
in order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool to my
own interest.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden,
carried six guns, and fourteen men, besides the master, his
boy, and myself: we had on board no large cargo of goods,
except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the Negroes,
such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and odd trifles, especially
little looking-glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets, and the like.
We set sail, standing away to the northward, with design to
stretch over for the African coast. We had very good weather
all the way upon our own coast, till we came to the height of
Cape St. Augustino; from whence, keeping farther off, we
lost sight of land, and steered as if bound for the isle of
Fernando de Noronha, holding our course N.E. by N. and
leaving those isles on the E. In this course we passed the
line in about 12 days' time, and were, by our last observation,
in 7 deg. 22 min. N. lat., when a violent tornado, or hurricane,
took us quite out of our knowledge: it began from the S. E.,
came about to the N. W. and then settled in the N. E.; from
whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for 12 days
together we could do nothing but drive, and, scudding away
E
50
ADVENTURES
LIFE AND AND
before it, let it carry us whither fate and the fury of the
winds directed. In this distress, one of our men died of the
calenture, and one man and the boy were washed overboard.
About the twelfth day, the weather abating a little, the master
made an observation, and found that he was in about 11 deg.
N. lat., but that he was 22 deg. of long. difference W. from
Cape St. Augustino; so that he found he was gotten upon
the coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the
river Amazons, toward that of the river Oroonoque, commonly
called the Great River; and began to consult with me what
course he should take, for the ship was leaky and very much
disabled, and he was for going directly back to the coast of
Brazil. I was positively against that; and, looking over the
charts of the sea-coast of America with him, we concluded
there was no inhabited country for us to have recourse to, till
we came within the circle of the Caribbee islands, and there-
fore resolved to stand away for Barbadoes. 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 lat. of 12 deg. 18 min., a second storm came upon us,
which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward.
In this distress, the wind still blowing hard, one of our men
early in the morning cried out "Land!" and we had no
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
51
sooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing
whereabouts in the world we were, but the ship struck upon
a sand, and in a moment the sea broke over her in such
a manner that we expected we should all have perished
immediately.
It is not easy to describe the consternation of men in such
circumstances. We knew not upon what land it was we were
driven, whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or
not inhabited; and, as the rage of the wind was still great, we
could not hope to have the ship hold many minutes, unless
the winds, by a miracle, should turn immediately about. In
a word, we sat looking upon one another, expecting death
every moment, and every man acting accordingly, as preparing
for another world; for there was little or nothing more for
us to do in this: that which was our present comfort, and all
the comfort we had was, that the ship did not break yet, and
that the master said the wind began to abate. Now, though
we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the ship
having thus struck upon the sand, we were in a dreadful con-
dition, 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, broke away, and was
driven off to sea; so there was no hope from her: we had
52
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
N
another boat on board, but how to get her off was a doubtful
thing; however, there was no room to debate, for we fancied
the ship would break in pieces every minute. In this distress the
mate lays hold of the boat, and, with help, slung her over the
ship's side; and getting all into her, we committed ourselves,
being eleven in number, to God's mercy, and the wild sea.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw
plainly that the boat could not live. As to making sail, we
had none: so we worked at the oar, though with heavy hearts,
like men going to execution; for we all knew that when the
boat came nearer the shore she would be dashed in pieces.
However, we committed our souls to God in the most earnest
manner; and the wind driving us on, we hastened our destruc-
tion with our own hands, pulling as well as we could towards
land. What the shore was, whether rock or sand, steep or
shoal, we knew not; our only hope was that we might drive
into some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where we
might run our boat in, or get under the lee of the land, and
perhaps make smooth water. But as we made nearer and
nearer the shore, the land looked more frightful than the sea.
After we had driven about a league and a half, a raging wave,
mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, and bade us expect
the coup de grace. It took us with such a fury, that it overset
the boat at once; and separating us from one another, gave
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
53
us not time hardly to say "O God!" for we were all swal-
lowed up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I
felt when I sunk into the water; for though I swam well, yet
I could not deliver myself from the waves so as to draw
breath, till that wave having carried me a vast way on towards
the shore, and having spent itself, went back, and left me
upon the land almost dry, but half dead with the water I took
in. I had so much presence of mind, that I got upon my feet,
and endeavoured to make on before another wave should return
and take me up again. But I soon found it was impossible to
avoid it; for I saw the sea come after me as high as a great
hill, and as furious as an enemy which I had no means or
strength to contend with. My business was to hold my
breath, and raise myself upon the water, if I could, and so,
by swimming, to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself
towards the shore-my greatest concern now being, that the
sea, as it would carry me a great way towards the shore when
it came on, might not carry me back again with it when it gave
back towards the sea. The wave that came upon me again
buried me at once twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body,
and I could feel myself carried with a mighty force and swift-
ness towards the shore a very great way; but I held my
breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my
54
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
might. I was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as
I felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, I found my
head and hands shoot out above the surface of the water; and
though it was not two seconds of time that I could keep myself
so, yet it relieved me greatly, and 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 recoil
of the waves, and felt ground again with my feet. I stood
still a few moments, to recover breath, and till the waters
went from me, and then took to my heels and ran, with what
strength I had, farther towards the shore. But neither would
this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which came pouring
in after me again; and twice more I was lifted up by the
waves, and carried forwards as before, the shore being very
flat.
The last time of these two had well nigh been fatal to me;
for the sea having hurried me along, landed me, or rather
dashed me, against a piece of a rock, and that with such force,
as it left me senseless and helpless as to my own deliverance:
for the blow taking my side and breast beat the breath 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 wave; and seeing I should be covered
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
55

PESA MER
GCK
again with the water, I resolved to hold fast by a piece of the
rock, and keep my breath, if possible, till the wave went back.
Now as the waves were not so high as at first, being nearer
land, I held my hold till the wave abated, and then fetched
another run, which brought me so near the shore, that the
next wave, though it went over me, yet it 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
56.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 safe on shore, and began to look up and thank
God that my life was saved, in a case wherein there was scarce
any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to express to
the life what the ecstacies and transports of the soul are
when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave; and
I do not wonder now that when a malefactor is tied up, and
just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to
him, 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; reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned,
and that there should not be one soul saved but myself; for,
as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of
them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that
were not fellows. After I had solaced my mind with the
comfortable part of my condition, I began to look round me,
to see what kind of place I was in, and what was next to be
done; and I soon found my comforts abate, and that I had a
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
57
dreadful deliverance: for I was wet, had no clothes, nor any
thing to eat or drink; neither did I see any prospect but
that of perishing with hunger, or being devoured by wild
beasts; and that which was most afflicting to me was, that
I had no weapon, either to hunt for my sustenance, or to
defend myself against any creature that might desire to kill
me for theirs. I had nothing about me but a knife, a pipe,
and a little tobacco in a box. This was all my provision; and
this threw me into such agonies of mind, that, for a while,
I ran about like a madman. Night coming upon me, I began,
with a heavy heart, to consider what would be my lot if there
were any ravenous beasts in that country, seeing at night they
always come abroad for their prey. All the remedy that
offered to my thoughts was, to get up into a bushy tree,
like a fir, but thorny, which grew near, and where I resolved
to sit all night, and consider the next day what death I should
die, for as yet I saw no prospect of life. I walked about a
furlong from the shore, to see if I could find any fresh water
to drink, which I did, to my great joy; and having drank, and
put a little tobacco in my mouth to prevent hunger, I went to
the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to place myself
so that, if I should sleep, I might not fall; and having cut a
short stick, like a truncheon, for my defence, I took up my
lodging, and being excessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep.
58
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
I slept comfortably, and found myself refreshed with it.
When I waked it was broad day, and the storm abated, so that
the sea did not rage and swell as before; but what surprised
me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the night, by the
swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as far as the
rock which I at first mentioned, where I had been so bruised
by the wave dashing me against it. This being within a mile
from the shore where I was, and the ship seeming to stand
upright still, I wished myself on board, that I might save
some necessary things for my use. When I came down from
the tree, I looked about me, and the first thing I found was
the boat, which lay upon the land, about two miles on my
right. I walked as far as I could upon the shore to have got
to her, but found an inlet of water between me and the boat,
about half a mile broad; so I came back for the present, being
more intent upon getting at the ship, where I hoped to find
something for my present subsistence. At noon I found the
sea calm, and the tide ebbed so far out, that I could come
within a quarter of a mile of the ship. And here I found a
renewing of my grief; for I saw evidently that, if we had kept
on board, we had all got safe on shore, and I had not been
so miserable as to be left destitute of all comfort and company.
This forced tears from my eyes; but as there was little relief
in that, I resolved to get to the ship: so I pulled off my
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
59
clothes, 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 high out of the water, there was nothing within
reach to lay hold of. I swam round her twice, and the second
time spied a small piece of rope hang down by the fore-chains,
and by its help got up into the forecastle. I found that the
ship was bulged, and had a deal of water in her hold, but
that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, that her
stern was lifted up upon the bank, and her head low, almost
to the water. By this means all her quarter was free, and
all that was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my
first work was to search what was spoiled and what was free.
And, first, I found that the ship's provisions were untouched
by the water; and, being well disposed to eat, I went to the
bread-room, and filled my pockets with biscuit, and ate 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 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 would be necessary to me.
It
was in vain to 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,
60
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and flung as many of them overboard as I could manage for
their weight, tying every one with a rope, that they might not
drive away. When this was done, I went down the ship's
side, and pulling them to me, I tied four of them fast at both
ends, in the form of a raft, and laying two or three short
pieces of plank upon them crossways, I found I could walk
upon it very well, but that it was not able to bear any great
weight, the pieces being too light so I went to work, and
with the carpenter's saw I cut a spare top-mast into three
lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great deal of labour.
:
My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable
weight. My next care was what to load it with, and how
to preserve it from the surf of the sea; but I was not
long considering this. I first laid all the plank or boards
upon it 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 upon my raft; the first
of these I filled with bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five
pieces of dried goats' flesh, and a little European corn, which
had been lain by for some fowls which we brought to sea with
There had been some barley and wheat together, but I
found that the rats had spoiled it all. As for liquors, I found
several cases of bottles belonging to our skipper, in which were
some cordial waters, and about six gallons of rack. These I
us.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
61
stowed by themselves. While I was doing this, I found the
tide began to flow, though very calm; and I had the mortifi-
cation to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I had left on
shore upon the sand, swim away; as for my breeches, which
were only linen, and open-kneed, I swam on board in them
and my stockings. This put me upon rummaging for clothes,
of which I found enough, but took no more than I wanted for
present use, for I had other things which my eye was more
upon. As, first, tools to work with on shore; and it was
after long searching that I found the carpenter's chest, a very
useful prize, and much more valuable than a ship-lading of
gold would have been at that time. I got it down to my
raft, whole as it was, without losing time to look into it, for
I knew what it contained. My next care was for ammunition
and arms. There were two very good fowling-pieces in the
great cabin, and two pistols: these I secured, with some
powder-horns and a small bag of shot, and two rusty swords.
I knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but
knew not where; but with much search I found them, two
dry and good, the third had taken water. Those two I got
to my raft, with the arms. And now I thought myself well
freighted, and began to think how I should get to shore,
having neither sail, oar, nor rudder, and the least capful of
wind would have overset all. With this cargo I put to sea,
62
LIFE AND ADVENTURES

For a mile 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 hoped to find some creek there, which I might make use
of as a port, to get to land with my cargo. As I imagined so
it was there appeared before me a little opening of the land,
and I found a strong current of the tide set into it; so I guided
my raft, as well as I could, to keep in the middle of the stream.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
63
But here I had like to have suffered a second shipwreck ;
for knowing nothing of the coast, my raft ran aground at one
end of it upon a shoal, and not being aground at the other, 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 half an
hour, in which time the rising of the water brought me a little
more upon a level; and a little after, my raft floated again,
and I thrust her off with the oar I had into the channel, and
driving up higher, I found myself in the mouth of a little
river, and a strong current 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, to which, with great difficulty, I guided my
raft, and at last got so near as that, reaching ground with my
oar, I could thrust her in, and there I moored her, by sticking
my broken oars into the ground; and thus I lay till the water
ebbed, and left my raft and all my cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to seek a proper place for my habi
64
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
tation, and where to stow my goods. Where I was I knew
not; whether on continent, or island; whether inhabited,
or not inhabited; whether in danger of wild beasts, or not.
There was a hill, about a mile from me, which rose up steep
and high, and seemed to overtop some other hills, which lay
as in a ridge from it, northward. I took out one of the fowl-
ing-pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder; and
thus armed, I travelled up the hill, where, after I had got to
the top, I saw, to my great affliction, that I was in an island,
environed every way with the sea, no land to be seen, except
two small islands, less than this, which lay about three leagues
to the west. I found that the island I was in was barren, and,
as I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild
beasts, of which, however, I saw none; yet I saw abundance
of fowls, but knew not their kinds, I shot at a great bird,
which I saw sitting upon a tree, on the side of a wood. I
believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since the
creation of the world. I no sooner fired, but from all parts
of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls,
making a confused screaming and crying, every one according
to his usual note, but not one of them of any kind that I
knew. As for the creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of
a hawk, its colour and beak resembling it. Its flesh was car-
rion, and fit for nothing. Contented with this discovery, I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
65.
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, lest some wild beast
might devour me; though, as I afterwards found, there was
no need for those fears. However, as well as I could, I bar-
ricadoed myself round with the chests and boards I had
brought on shore, and made a kind of hut for that night's
lodging. As for food, I saw not which way to supply myself,
except that I had seen two or three creatures, like hares, run
out of the wood where I shot the fowl. I 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, as I knew that the first storm must break her
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, in my thoughts, whether I should take back the raft;
but this appeared impracticable: so I resolved to go as before,
when the tide was down; and I did so, only that I stripped
before I went from my hut, having nothing on but a che-
quered shirt, a pair of linen drawers, and a pair of pumps on
my feet. I got on board as before, and prepared a second
raft; and having had experience of the first, I neither made
this so unwieldy, nor loaded it so hard, but I brought away
.
F
66
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
several things very useful as two or three bags full of nails
and spikes, a screw-jack, a dozen of hatchets, and that most
useful thing a grindstone. All these I secured together, with
several things belonging to the gunner, particularly two or
three iron crows, two barrels of musquet bullets, seven mus-
quets, and another fowling-piece; a large bag-full of small
shot, and a great roll of sheet-lead, but this last was so heavy
I could not hoist it up to get it over the ship's side. Besides
these, I took all the men's clothes I could find, and a spare
fore-top sail, a hammock, and some bedding, and brought
them all safe on shore, to my very great comfort. I was under
some apprehensions, during my absence, that my provisions
might be devoured on shore: but when I came back, I found
no sign of any visitor, only there sat a creature like a wild cat
upon one of the chests, which, when I came towards it, ran
away a little distance, and then stood still. She sat very com-
posed and looked full in my face, as if she had a mind to be
acquainted with me. I presented my gun at her, but she was
perfectly unconcerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away;
upon which I tossed her a bit of biscuit, though, by the way,
I was not very free of it, for my store was not great: how-
ever, I spared her a bit, and she smelled at it, ate it, and
looked for more; but I thanked her, and could spare no
more: so she marched off.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
67
Having got my second cargo on shore, I went to work to
make me a little tent with the sail and some poles which I
cut for that purpose; 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
with some boards
this, I blocked up the door of the tent
within, and an empty chest set up an end without; and spread-
ing one of the beds upon the ground, laying my two pistols
just at my head, and my gun by me, I went to bed for the first
time, and slept very quietly, for I was weary, as the night
before I had slept little, and had laboured very hard all day.
I had the biggest magazine now that ever was laid up, I
believe, for one man: but while the ship lasted, I thought I
ought to get every thing out of her I could: so every day,
at low water, I went on board, and brought away something
or other
; as much of the rigging as I could, all the small
ropes and rope-twine I could get, a piece of spare canvass to
mend the sails, and the barrel of wet gunpowder. I brought
away all the sails, first and last, cut them in pieces, as much at
a time as I could, as mere canvass only. But that which com-
forted me more still was, that, after I had made five or six
such voyages, and thought I had nothing more to expect from
the ship, I found a hogshead of bread, and three large runlets
of rum, a box of sugar, a barrel of fine flour, and I got all
68
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
safe on shore. The next day I made another voyage; and now
having plundered the ship of what was portable, I began with
the cables, and cutting the great cable into pieces such as I
could move, I got two cables and a hawser, with all the iron-
work I could get; and having cut down the spritsail-yard,
and the mizen-yard, and every thing I could, to make a large
raft, I loaded it with all those heavy goods and came away.
But my good luck began to leave me; for this raft was so
unwieldy, that, not being able to guide it so handily as I did
the other, it overset, and threw me and all my cargo into the
water. As for myself, it was no great harm, for I was near
the shore; but as to my cargo, it was a great part of it lost,
especially the iron, which I expected would have been of great
use to me however, when the tide was out, I got some of
the iron, though I was fain to dip for it into the water, which
fatigued me very much.
I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been eleven
times on board the ship, in which time I had brought away
all that one pair of hands could well be supposed capable to
bring; and though I thought I had rummaged the cabin effec-
tually, yet I discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one of
which I found two or three razors, one pair of large scissors,
a dozen good knives and forks; and in another about thirty-
six pounds value in money. I smiled to myself at the sight
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
69
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 thing not worth saving." How-
ever, upon second thoughts, I took it away, and began to think
of making another raft; but while I was preparing, the sky
over-cast, the wind began to rise, and in a little while it blew
a fresh gale from the shore. It occurred to me that it was in
vain to make a raft with the wind off shore; and that it was
my business to be gone before the tide of flood began, other-
wise I might not be able to reach the shore at all. Accord-
ingly I let myself down into the water, and swam across the
channel which lay between the ship and the sands, and that
with difficulty, partly with the weight of the things I had
about me, and partly with the roughness of the water; for the
wind rose very hastily, and before high water it blew a storm.
But I was gotten home to my little tent, where I lay,
with all my wealth about me quite secure. It blew 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, that I
had got every thing out of her that could be useful to me.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of any
70
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
thing out of her, except what might drive on shore, from her
wreck, as divers pieces of her afterwards did. My thoughts
were now wholly employed about securing myself against
savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any were in
the island; and I had many thoughts how to do this, and
what kind of dwelling to make—whether I should make me
a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the earth: I resolved upon
both, the manner and description of which it may not be
improper to give an account of. I found the place I was in
was not for my settlement, because it was low, moorish ground,
and would not be wholesome, and because there was no fresh
water near it so I resolved to find a more healthy spot of
ground. I consulted several things which I found would be
proper for me: health and fresh water, shelter from the heat
of the sun, security from ravenous creatures; a view to the
sea, that, if God sent a ship in sight, I might not lose any
advantage for my deliverance. In search of a place proper
for this, I found a little plain on the side of a rising hill, whose
front towards this little plain was steep as a house-side, so
that nothing could come down upon me from the top. On
the side of this rock there was a hollow place, worn a little
way in, like the entrance or door of a cave; but there was not
really any cave, or way into the rock at all. On the flat of
the green, just before this hollow place, I resolved to pitch
*
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
71
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. 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 and
laid them in rows, one upon another, within the circle, between
these two rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes
in the inside, leaning against them, about two feet and a half
high, like a spur to a post; and this fence was so strong, that
neither man nor beast could get into it or over it. This cost
me a great deal of labour, especially to cut the piles in the
woods, bring them to the place, and drive them into the earth.
The entrance I made to be not by a door, but by a short ladder
to go over the top, which when I was in I lifted over after
me; and so I was completely fortified and slept secure, which
otherwise I could not have done. Into this fortress I carried
all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which you have
+
4
72
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
the account above; and I made me a large tent, which, to
preserve me from the rains, I made double, a smaller tent
within, and a 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 in the bed which I had brought on
shore, but in a hammock, which had 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 enclosed
all my goods, I made up the entrance, which till now I had
left open, and so passed and repassed 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 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 an half; and thus I made me a cave just behind my
tent, which served me like a cellar to my house.
It cost me
much labour before these things were brought to perfection.
It happened, after I had laid my scheme for the setting up my
tent, and making the cave, that a storm of rain falling from
a thick, dark cloud, a sudden flash of lightning happened, and
after that a great clap of thunder. I was not so much sur-
prised with the lightning, as I was with a thought, which
darted into my mind as swift as the lightning itself: "O my
powder!" My heart sunk within me when I thought that, at
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
73
one blast, all my powder might be destroyed; on which, not
my defence only, but the providing me food, entirely depended.
I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger, though,
had the powder took fire, I had never known who had hurt
me. Such impression did this make upon me, that I laid aside
all my works, and applied myself to make bags and boxes to
separate the powder, and keep it a little and a little in a parcel,
so apart that it should not be possible to make one part fire
another. I finished this work in about a fortnight; and my
powder, which in all was about 240lbs. weight, was divided in
not less than a hundred parcels. As to the barrel that had
been wet, I did not apprehend any danger from that; so I
placed it in my new cave, which 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 every
day with my gun, as well to divert myself, as to see if I could
kill any thing fit for food, and acquaint myself with what the
island produced. I discovered that there were goats in the
island, which was a great satisfaction to me; but they were so
shy, subtle, and swift of foot, that it was the most difficult thing
in the world to come at them: but I was not discouraged, not
doubting but I might now and then shoot one; for after I had
found their haunts a little, I laid wait in this manner for
74
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
them. I observed, if they saw me in the valley, though they
were upon the rocks, they would run away as in a terrible
fright; but if they were feeding in the valley, and I was upon
the rocks, they took no notice of me; from whence I con-
cluded, that, by the position of their optics, their sight was so
directed downward, that they did not readily see objects above
them so I took this method, I always climbed the rocks first,
to get above them, and then had a fair mark. The first shot

THØJ~ LETUSTA 615
I made among these creatures, I killed a she-goat, with a
little kid by her, which grieved me heartily; but when the old
one fell, the kid stood stock still till I came and took her up;
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
75
and when I carried the old one with me, upon my shoulders,
the kid followed me to my enclosure: upon which I laid down
the dam, and took the kid in my arms, and carried it over
my pale, in hopes to have bred it up tame; but it would not
eat, so I was forced to kill it, and eat it. These two sup-
plied me with flesh a great while, for I ate sparingly, and
saved my provisions as much as I could.
Having fixed my habitation, I found it necessary to provide
a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn; and what I did for
that, how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I made,
I shall give a full account of: 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 pro-
spect of my condition, for as I was driven 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 reflec-
tions; but something always returned swift upon me to check
these thoughts, and to reprove me: and particularly, one day,
walking by the sea-side, when I was pensive upon the subject
of my present condition, reason expostulated with me thus:
Well, you are in a desolate condition, it is true; but, pray
remember, where are the rest of you? Did not you come
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
76
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?" All evils are to be
considered with the good that is in them, and with what worse
attends them. Then it occurred to me how well I was fur-
nished for my subsistence: 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 the necessaries of life, or necessaries
to procure them ?
Particularly," said I aloud, though to
myself, "what should I have done without a gun, without am-
munition, tools to make any thing, clothes, bedding, a tent, or
any manner of covering ?"-and now I had all these in suffi-
cient 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 view of subsisting, without want,
as long as I lived; for I considered, from the beginning, how
I would provide for the accidents that might happen, and for
the time that was to come, even not only after my ammunition
should be spent, but even after my health and strength should
decay.
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 of Septem-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
77
ber when I first set foot upon this 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 deg. 22 min. north of the Line. After I had been there
about twelve days, it came into my thoughts that I should
lose my reckoning of time for want of books, and pen and

I came in liera for
#
30$p$ 1659 TEC
ink, and should even forget the sabbath-days from the work-
ing-days but to prevent this, I cut it with my knife
upon a
large post, in capital letters, and making it into a cross, 1 set
it up on the shore where I first landed, viz. "I CAME ON
SHORE HERE ON THE 30TH OF SEPTEMBER, 1659.” Upon
78
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
the sides of this post I cut every day a notch with my knife,
and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and
every first day of the month as long again as that long one;
and thus I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly
reckoning of time. In the next place, among the many
things which I brought out of the ship, I got several things
useful to me, which I omitted setting down, as pens, ink, and
paper, three or four compasses, some mathematical instru-
ments, dials, perspectives, charts, and books of navigation; all
which I huddled together, whether I might want them or no:
also I found three very good bibles, which came to me in my
cargo from England, and which I had packed up among my
things; and several other books, all which I carefully secured.
And I must not forget that we had in the ship a dog, and two
cats, of whose eminent history I may have occasion to say
something, in its place: for I carried both the cats with me;
and as for the dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself, and
swam on shore to me, and was a trusty servant many years:
I wanted nothing that he could fetch me, nor any company
that he could make up to me; I only wanted to have him talk
to me, but that he would not do. As I observed, I found pens,
ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost; and
while they lasted, I kept things exact, but after they were
gone I could not; for I could not make any ink by any means
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
79
that I could devise. And this puts me in mind that I wanted
many things, a spade, pick-axe, and shovel; needles, pins, and
thread as for linen, I soon learned to want that without much
difficulty. This want of tools made work go on heavily; and
it was near a year before I had surrounded my habitation.
The piles, which were as heavy as I could well lift, were a long
time in preparing in the woods, and more in bringing home;
so that I spent sometimes two days in cutting and bringing
home one of those posts, and a third in driving it into the
ground. But what need I have been concerned at the tedious-
ress of any thing I had to do, seeing I had time enough to do
it in ?
I now began to consider seriously the circumstances I was
reduced to; and I drew up the state of my affairs in writing,
to deliver my thoughts from daily poring upon them, and
afflicting my mind; and as my reason began to master my
despondency, I comforted myself as well as I could, and set
the good against the evil; and I stated it impartially, like
debtor and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the mise-
ries I suffered. Having brought my mind to relish my condi-
tion, I began to make things as easy as I could. I have
already described my habitation; I now raised a wall against
it of turfs, about two feet thick on the outside and after some
:
time I raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock, and covered
80
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
it with boughs of trees, to keep out the rain, which I found
sometimes very violent. I have observed, too, how I brought
my goods into this pale, and into the cave which I had made
behind. At first this was a confused heap, which, as they lay
in no order, I had no room to turn myself: so I set myself to
enlarge my cave; for it was a loose, sandy rock, which yielded
easily and so, when I found I was safe as to beasts of prey,
I worked sideways, to the right, into the rock, and then turn-
ing to the right again, worked quite out, and made a door to
come out on the outside of my pale or fortification.
:
And now I began to apply myself to make such things as I
found I wanted, such as a chair and table; for without these I
could not enjoy the few comforts I had. I could not write, or
eat, or do several things, without a table: so I went to work.
I had never handled a tool in my life; and yet, by contrivance,
I found, at last, that I wanted nothing but I could have made it,
if I had had tools. However, I made abundance of things with
no more tools than an adze and a hatchet. For example, if I
wanted a board, I had no other way but to cut down a tree,
set it on edge, and hew it flat with my axe, till I had brought
it to be thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze.
I made a table and chair in the first place; and this I did out
of the pieces of boards I brought from the ship. I made
shelves, one over another, all along one side of my cave, to
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
81
lay my tools, nails, and iron-work on, and to separate every
thing in their places, that I might come easily at them. I
knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my guns and
all things that would hang up; so that my cave looked like a
general magazine, and I had every thing so ready at my
hand, that it was a pleasure to see all my goods in such order,
and find my stock of necessaries so great. And now I began
to keep a journal of every day's employment; for, at first, I
was in too much hurry and discomposure of mind, and my
journal would have been full of dull things: for example, I
must have said thus: " Sept. the 30th. After I got to shore,
instead of being thankful to God for my deliverance, I ran
about the beach, wringing my hands, and beating my head
and face, exclaiming at my misery, and crying out I was
undone!' till, tired and faint, I was forced to lie down on
the ground, but durst not sleep, for fear of being devoured.”
Some few days after this, I could not forbear getting up
to the top of a little mountain, and looking out to sea,
in hopes of seeing a ship; then fancy, at a distance, I spied
a sail, please myself with the hopes of it, and then, after
looking steadily, till I was almost blind, lose it quite, and sit
down and weep like a child, and thus increase my misery.
But, having gotten over these things in some measure, and
settled my habitation, and all as handsome about me as I-
G
82
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
could, I began to keep my journal, of which I shall here give
you the copy as long as it lasted; for, having no more ink, I
was forced to leave off.
THE JOURNAL.
September 30th, 1659.-I, poor, miserable Robinson Crusoe,
being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm, in the offing, came
on shore on this island, which I called the ISLAND OF DEspair,
all the rest of the ship's company being drowned. The re-
mainder of that day I spent in afflicting myself at the dismal
circumstances I was brought to, that I had neither food, house,
clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to. At the approach of night.
I slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures; but slept soundly,
though it rained all night. [And here he repeats all the incidents
which have been previously related, bringing his journal down
to December 27.] Killed a young goat, and lamed another, so
as that I catched it, and led it home in a string, when I bound
up its leg, which was broke. I took such care of it that it lived;
and by my nursing it so long, it grew tame, and fed upon the
little green at my door, and would not go away. This was
the first time I entertained a thought of breeding up tame
creatures, that I might have food when my powder and shot
were all spent. [The journal then goes on narrating the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
83
events and labours of each day till it reaches the month
of April.]
I made my rounds in the woods for game every day when
the rain permitted me, and made frequent discoveries 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 rocks; and taking some
young ones, I endeavoured to breed them up tame; but when
they grew older they flew away: however, I frequently found
their nests, and got their young, which were good meat. And
now, in my household affairs, I found myself wanting in many
things, which I thought at first it was impossible for me to
make. I was at a great loss for candles; so that as soon as
it was dark, 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 oakum, I made me a lamp.
In the course of my labours it happened that, rummaging
my things, I found a little bag, which had been filled with
corn for the feeding of poultry; I saw nothing in the bag
but husks and dust; and being willing to have it for some
other use, I shook the husks of corn out of it on one side of
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
my fortification, under the rock. It was a little before the
great rains that I threw this stuff away, taking no notice, and
not 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 when, after
a little longer time, I saw about twelve ears come out, which
were perfect green barley of the same kind as our English
barley. It is impossible to express the astonishment of my
thoughts on this occasion: I had hitherto acted upon no
religious foundation at all; indeed, I had very few notions of
religion, nor had entertained any sense of anything that had
befallen me, otherwise than as chance, or, as we lightly say,
what pleases God. But after I saw barley grow there, in a
climate which I knew was not proper for corn, it startled me
strangely, and I began to suggest that God had miraculously
caused this grain to grow, and that it was so directed purely
for my sustenance, on that wild, miserable place. This touched ·
my
heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes, and I
began to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature should
happen upon my account. I not only thought these the pure
productions of Providence for my support, but, not doubting
but that there was more in the place, I went all over that part
of the island, peering in every corner, to see for more of it,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
85
but I could not find any. At last it occurred to my thoughts
that I had shook a bag of chicken's meat out in that place; and
then the wonder began to cease, and, I must confess, my
religious thankfulness to God began to abate too, upon the
discovering that all this was nothing but what was common,
though I ought to have been as thankful for so 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 remain unspoiled,
when the rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it had been
dropt from heaven.
I carefully saved the ears of this corn you may be sure,
in
their season, which was about the end of June; and resolved
to sow them all again, hoping, in time, to have sufficient to
supply me with bread. But it was not till the fourth year that
I could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat, and
even then but sparingly; for I lost all I sowed the first season,
by not observing the proper time. But to return to my
Journal: I worked excessive hard these three or four months
to get my wall done; and, the 14th of April, I closed it up,
contriving to go into it, not by a door, but over the wall,
by a ladder, that there might be no sign on the outside of my
habitation.
April 16. I finished the ladder. My place was now a com-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
plete enclosure to me; for nothing could come at me from
without, unless it could first mount my wall.
The next day after this wall was finished, I had almost all
my labour overthrown, and myself killed. The case was thus.
As I was busy in the inside, I was terribly frighted with a
most surprising thing indeed; for, all on a sudden, the earth
came crumbling down from the roof of my cave, and from the
edge of the hill over my head, and two of the posts I had set
up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner. I was heartily
scared; but thought nothing of what was really the cause. I
ran forward to my ladder, and not thinking myself safe there,
I got over my wall. I was no sooner stepped down, but I
plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake: for the ground I
stood on shook three times at about eight minutes' distance,
with three such shocks as would have overturned the strongest
building; and a great piece of the top of a rock, about half a
mile from me, fell down, with such a terrible noise as I never
heard in all my life. I perceived also the very sea was put
into violent motion by it; and I believe the shocks were
stronger under the water than on the land. I was so much
amazed, having never felt the like, that I was like one dead or
stupefied; and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick,
like one that was tossed at sea: but the noise of the falling
of the rock awaked me from the stupefied condition I was in,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
87
filled me with horror, and I thought of nothing then but the
hill falling upon my tent and burying all at once; and this
sunk my very soul within me a second time.
After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some
time, I began to take courage; and yet I had not heart enough
to go over my wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but
sat still upon the ground, greatly cast down, not knowing what
to do. All this while I had not the least religious thought;
nothing but the common Lord, have mercy upon me! and when
was over, that went away too. While I sat thus, I found
the air overcast, as if it would rain; soon after the wind rose,
so that in half an hour it blew a hurricane: the sea was covered
over with foam and froth; the trees torn up by the roots; and
a terrible storm it was. All this while I sat upon the ground,
very much terrified; when on a sudden it came into my
thoughts, that these being the consequences of the earthquake,
the earthquake itself was over, and I might venture into my
With this thought my spirits began to revive, and I
went in; but the rain was so violent, that my tent was ready
to be beaten down with it; and I was forced to go into my
cave, though very uneasy, for fear it should fall on my head.
After I found no more shocks of the earthquake, I began to be
composed. And now, to support my spirits, I went to my
little store, and took a small sup of rum, very sparingly,
cave.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
knowing I could have no more when that was gone. My
mind being more composed, I began to think of what I had
best do, concluding, that if the island was subject to these
earthquakes, there would be no living in a cave, but I must
consider of building a little hut in an open place, which I
might surround with a wall, as I had done here, and make
myself secure from wild beast or men. With these thoughts,
I resolved to remove my tent from the place where it now
stood; and I spent the two next days, the 19th and 20th of
April, in contriving where and how to remove my habitation.
The fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I never
slept in quiet. In the mean time it occurred to me that I
must be contented to run the venture where I was, till I had
formed a camp, and had secured it so as to remove to it. So
with this resolution I composed myself; and resolved that I
would go to work to build me a wall with piles and cables, &c.
in a circle as before, and set my tent up in it when it was
finished, but that I would stay where I was till it was finished.
The next morning I began to put this resolve into execution;
but I was at a great loss about tools. I had three axes, and
abundance of hatchets, but, with much cutting knotty hard
wood, they were full of notches; 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
89
upon a grand point of politics, or a judge upon the life and
death of a man. At length I contrived a wheel with a string,
to turn it with my foot, that I might have both my hands at
liberty.
In the morning of May 1st, the tide being low, I saw some-
thing lie on the shore bigger than ordinary; when I came to
it, I found a small barrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck
of the ship, driven up 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. When I came down to the
ship, I found it strangely removed: I could now walk quite
up to her when the tide was out. I 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 wind
and waters rolled by degrees to the land. This wholly diverted
my thoughts from the design of removing my habitation..
May 24. Every day, to this day, I worked on the wreck,
and loosened some things so much with the crow, that the
first blowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the
seamen's chests. I continued this work every day to the 15th
of June. Next day, going down to the sea-side, I found a
large tortoise or turtle. This was the first I had seen; but
had I happened to have been on the other side of the island,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
I might have had hundreds of them every day, as I found
afterwards. Her flesh was the most savoury and pleasant
that ever I tasted in my life, having had no meat, but of goats
and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place. On June 18, it
rained all day, and I felt chilly, which I knew was not usual
in that latitude. Next day very ill, and shivering, as if the
weather had been cold.
No rest all night; violent pains in
my head, and feverish. Next day, very ill: frighted to death
with apprehensions of my sad condition, to be sick, and no
help. Prayed to God, for the first time since the storm off
Hull, but scarce knew what I said, my thoughts being all con-
fused. 22. A little better; but under dreadful apprehensions.
23. Very bad; cold and shivering, and violent head-ache.
25. An ague, very violent: the fit held me seven hours; cold
fit, and hot, with faint sweats after it. 26. Better; having
no victuals to eat, took my gun, but found myself very weak :
killed a she-goat, and with much difficulty got it home, and
broiled some of it, and ate. 27. The ague so violent that I
lay a-bed all day, and neither ate nor drank. I was ready to
perish for thirst; but so weak, I had not strength to stand up,
or to get myself any water to drink. Prayed to God again,
but was light-headed, and when I was not, I was so ignorant
that I knew not what to say; only I lay and cried "Lord,
look upon me! Lord, pity me! Lord, have mercy upon
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
91
me!"
I suppose I did nothing else for two or three hours,
till the fit wearing off, I fell asleep. When I awoke, I found
myself much refreshed, but weak, and exceedingly thirsty:
however, as I had no water in my whole habitation, I was
forced to lie till morning, and went to sleep again. In this
second sleep I had this terrible dream: I thought I was sitting
on the ground, on the outside of my wall, and that I saw a
man descend from a great black cloud, in a bright flame of
*fire, and light upon the ground: he was all over as bright as
a flame, so that I could but just bear to look towards him:
his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful; when he
stepped upon the ground with his feet, I thought the earth
trembled, and all the air looked as if it had been filled with
flashes of fire. He was no sooner upon the earth, but he
moved towards me, with a long spear in his hand, to kill me;
and when he came to a rising ground, at some distance, he
spoke to me: "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 will expect that I should be able to describe the horrors of
my soul at this terrible vision; nor is it possible to describe
the impression that remained upon my mind when I awaked,
and found it was but a dream. I had, alas! no divine know-
ledge; what I had received by the good instruction of my
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
father was then worn out, by an uninterrupted series of sea-
faring wickedness, and a constant conversation with none but
such as were wicked and profane to the last degree. A certain
stupidity of soul, without desire of good, or conscience of
evil, had entirely overwhelmed me; and I was all that the
most hardened, unthinking, wicked creature among our com-
mon sailors can be supposed to be-not having the least
sense, either of the fear of God in danger, or of thankfulness
to God in deliverance.
June 28. Having been somewhat refreshed with sleep, and
the fit being off, I got up; and though the fright and terror
of my dream was very great, yet I considered that the ague
would return again next day, and now was my time to get
something to support myself when I should be ill. The first
thing I did I filled a large case-bottle with water, and set it
upon my table, in reach of my bed; and to take off the chill
of the water, I put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it.
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
weak, and withal very sad and heavy-hearted under a sense of
my miserable condition, dreading the return of my distemper.
At night, I made my supper of three of the turtle's eggs,
which I roasted in the ashes; and this was the first bit of
meat I had ever asked God's blessing to in my whole life.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
93
has made all.
After I had eaten, I tried to walk, but found myself so weak,
that I could hardly carry the gun; so I went but a little way,
and sat down upon the ground, looking out upon the sea, which
was 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 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
Well, but then, it came on strangely, if God
has made all these things, he guides and governs them all, and
all things that concern them, for the power that could make
all things must certainly have power to guide and direct them :
if so, nothing can happen, in the great circuit of his works,
either without his knowledge or appointment. And if nothing
happens without his knowledge, he knows that I am here, and
am in this dreadful condition; and if nothing happens without
his appointment, he has appointed all this to befall me. No-
thing occurred to my thought to contradict any of these con-
clusions; and therefore it rested upon me with the greater
force, that it must needs be that God had appointed all this to
befall me.
Immediately it followed, Why has God done this
to me? What have I done to be thus used? My conscience
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
presently checked me in that inquiry, as if I had blasphemed,
and methought it spoke to me like a voice, Wretch ! dost
thou ask what thou hast done? Look back upon a dreadful,
misspent life, and ask thyself what thou hast not done?" I
was struck dumb with these reflections, and had not a word to
say, but rose up, pensive and sad, walked back to my retreat,
and went up over my wall, as if I had been going to bed; but
I had no inclination to go to sleep, so I lighted my lamp, for
it began to be dark. Now, as the apprehension of the return
of my distemper terrified me, it occurred to me that the Bra-
zilians take no physic but tobacco for all distempers, and I had
a roll of tobacco in one of the chests. 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; and as the few books I had saved lay there too, I took
out one of the Bibles which I mentioned before, and which to
this time I had not found leisure to look into. I brought both
that and the tobacco to the table. I took up the Bible, and
began to read: the first words that occurred to me were
these "Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify me." The words made a great
impression upon me, and I mused upon them. It grew late,
and the tobacco had dozed my head so much that I inclined to
sleep; so I left my lamp burning in the cave, and went to bed.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
95
But before I lay down, I did what I never had done in all my
life: I kneeled, and prayed to God to fulfil the promise to me,
that if I called upon him in the day of trouble, he would deli-
ver me. When I awaked I found myself exceedingly refreshed,
and my spirits lively and cheerful; when I got up, I was
stronger than I was the day before, and my stomach better,
for I was hungry.
July 3. I missed the fit for good and all, though I did not
recover my full strength for some weeks. While I was thus
gathering strength, my thoughts ran exceedingly upon this
scripture" I will deliver thee;" but the impossibility of my
deliverance lay much upon my mind, and I was made to ask
myself such questions as these, viz. Have I not been delivered,
and wonderfully too, from sickness? from the most distressed
condition that could be, and that was so frightful to me; and
what notice had I taken of it? Had I done my part God
had delivered me, but I had not glorified him; that is to say,
I had not owned and been thankful for that as a deliverance ;
and how could I expect greater deliverance? This touched
my heart very much; and immediately I knelt down, and
gave God thanks aloud for my recovery from sickness.
July 4. I took the Bible and began seriously to read it, and
imposed upon myself to read awhile every morning and every
night. It was not long after I set seriously to this work, but
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES

~ARKOV1-
I found my heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the
wickedness of my past life. 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.
My condition began now to be, though not less miserable
as to my way of living, yet much easier to my mind. I had
been now in this island ten months: all possibility of deli-
verance from it seemed to be taken from me; and I firmly
believed that no human shape had ever set foot upon that
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
97
place. It was on the 15th of July that I began to take a more
particular survey of the island itself. I found many pleasant
savannahs or meadows, plain, smooth, and covered with grass;
tobacco, growing to a great and very strong stalk; and sugar-
canes, but wild, and imperfect. The next day, going some-
thing farther than the day before, I found different fruits,
and particularly melons and grapes. This was a discovery,
and I was exceeding glad of them. I spent all that evening
there, and went not back to my habitation, which was the
first night I had lain from home. In the night I took my first.
contrivance, and got up into a tree, where I slept well; and
the next morning proceeded upon my discovery. 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 surveyed it with pleasure, though mixed
with other afflicting thoughts, to think that this was all my
own; that I was king and lord of all this country, 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.
Having spent three days in this journey, I came home.
In my way home, I contemplated with pleasure the fruit-
fulness of a little valley, and the pleasantness of the situation;
and was so enamoured of it, that I spent much of my time
there for the remaining part of July; and though I resolved
H
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
4:
not to remove, yet I built a little kind of bower, and surrounded
it with a strong fence; and here I lay very secure, sometimes
two or three nights together; so that I now had my country
house and my sea-coast house.
In this season, I was much surprised with the increase of
my family. I had been concerned for the loss of one of my
cats who ran away from me, and I heard no more of her, till,
to my astonishment, she came home with three kittens. From
these three I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats, that
I was forced to drive them from my house as much as possible.
Sept. 30. I was now come to the unhappy anniversary of
my landing. I cast up the notches on my post, and found I
had been on shore 365 days. I kept this day as a solemn fast,
setting it apart to religious exercise, prostrating myself on the
ground with the most serious humiliation, confessing my sins
to God, acknowledging his righteous judgments upon me, and
praying to him to have mercy on me through Jesus Christ;
and not having tasted the least refreshment for twelve hours,
even till the going down of the sun, I then ate a biscuit-cake
and a bunch of grapes, and went to bed, finishing the day as
I began it.
A little after this, my ink began to fail me, and so I con-
tented myself to write down only the most remarkable events
of my life. The rainy season and the dry season began now
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
99
to appear regular to me, and I learned to divide them so as
to provide for them accordingly. The rainy season some-
times held longer or shorter as the winds happened to blow,
but this was the general observation I made. After I
had found by experience the ill consequences of being
abroad in the rain, I sat within-doors as much as possible
during the wet months. I found employment suitable to
the time; for I had occasion for many things, which I had no
way to furnish myself with but by labour and application. It
proved of advantage to me now, that, when I was a boy, I used
to take great delight in standing at a basket-maker's to see them
make their wicker-ware; and being a great observer how they
worked those things, I had full knowledge of the methods,
and wanted nothing but the materials. These I fortunately
found, and when they were fit for use, carried them to my
cave; and here I employed myself in making a great many bas-
kets, both to carry earth, or to lay up any thing, as I had
occasion; and though I did not finish them very handsomely,
yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose.
Having mastered this difficulty, I bestirred myself how to sup-
ply other wants. I had no vessel to hold any liquid, except
two runlets, which were almost full of rum. I had not so
much as a pot to boil any thing, except a great kettle, saved
out of the ship, too big for use. The second thing I fain would
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
have had was a tobacco-pipe; but it was impossible to me to
make one-however, I found a contrivance for that too at last.
I saw
if pos-
I did,
I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see the whole
island. I now resolved to travel quite across to the sea-shore
on the other side; so taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog,
I began my journey. When I had passed the vale where my
bower stood, I came within view of the sea; and, it being a very
clear day, fairly descried land. I found that side of the island
much pleasanter than mine, the savannah fields sweet, adorned
with flowers and grass, and full of very fine woods.
abundance of parrots, and fain would have caught one,
sible, to have kept it and taught it to speak to me.
after some pains, catch a young parrot, and brought it home;
but it was some years before I could make him speak: at last I
taught him to call me by name very familiarly. I was exceed-
ingly diverted with this journey. I had no want of food,
especially these three sorts-goats, pigeons, and turtle, or tor-
toise; which, added to my grapes, Leadenhall-market could
not have furnished a table better than I, in proportion to the
company. I never travelled in this journey above two miles
outright in a day, or thereabouts; but I took so many turns
and returns, 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,
OF ROBINSON CRusoe.
101
set upright in the ground, so as no wild creature could come
at me without waking me.
J
I travelled along the sea-shore towards the east, about
twelve miles, and then setting up a great pole for a mark, I
concluded I would go home again. In this journey my dog
surprised a young kid, and I saved it alive from him. I
made a collar to this little creature, and with a string of rope-
yarn I led him along, till I came to my bower, and there I left
him, for I was impatient to be at home, from whence I had
been absent a month. I cannot express what a satisfaction it
was to me to come into my old hutch, and lie down in my
hammock-bed. I reposed a week, to regale myself after my
long journey; during which, most of the time was taken up
in the weighty affair of making a cage for my Poll, who began
now to be mighty well acquainted with me. Then I began to
think of the poor kid which I had penned in within my little
circle, and resolved to go and fetch it home; accordingly I
went, and found it where I left it, almost starved. Having fed
it, I tied it as 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 grew
so loving and so gentle, that it became one of my domestics
also, and would never leave me afterwards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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.

JACKSONS
It was now that I began to feel how much more happy the
life I led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than the
abominable life I had led all the past part of my days. For-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
103
44
merly, my very heart would die within me to think how I was
a prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the
ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, without redemption. In
the midst of the greatest composures of my mind, this would
break out upon me like a storm, and make me wring my hands,
and weep like a child: sometimes it would take me in the
middle of my work, and I would sit down and sigh, and look
upon the ground for an hour together; and this was still
worse to me, for if I could burst into tears, or vent myself by
words, it would go off, and the grief having exhausted itself
would abate. But now I began to exercise myself with new
thoughts: I daily read the word of God, and applied all the
comforts of it to my present state. I never opened the Bible,
or shut it, but my very soul blessed God for directing my
friend in England, without any order of mine, to pack it among
my goods, and for assisting me afterwards to save it out of the
wreck of the ship. In this disposition of mind I began my
third year.
I was now, in the months of November and
December, expecting my crop of barley and rice. It promised
well, when, on a sudden, I found I was in danger of losing all
by enemies of several sorts; as first the goats, and wild
creatures which I called hares, who lay in it night and day,
and ate it so close, that it could get no time to shoot up into
stalk. This I saw no remedy for, but by making an enclosure
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
about it with a hedge. I got it fenced, in about three weeks'
time, and shooting some of the creatures, I set my dog to
guard it, tying him up to the gate, where he would bark all
night long so in a little time the enemies forsook the place,
and the corn grew well, and ripened apace. About the latter
end of December, I reaped my corn. I was sadly put to it for
a sickle to cut it down; and all I could do was to make one
as well as I could of one of the broadswords which I saved
among the arms out of the ship. At the end of 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.
This was my out-door work. Within-doors, when it rained,
I found employment, all the while I was at work diverting
myself with talking to my parrot, and teaching him to speak';
and I quickly learned him to know his own name, and to
speak it out pretty loud, "Poll!" which was the first word I
heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own.
All the while these things were doing, you may be sure my
thoughts ran many times upon the prospect of land which I
had seen from the other side of the island, and my head ran
mightily upon the thought of getting over to the shore. Now
I wished for my boy, Xury, and the long-boat with 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
105
thought I would go and look at our ship's boat, which was
blown upon the shore in the storm, when we were first cast
away. She lay almost where she did, but was turned bottom
upward. If I had had hands to have refitted and launched
her, I might have gone to the Brazils with her easily; but I
could no more turn her than I could remove the island. This
put me upon thinking whether it was not possible to make
myself a canoe, such as the natives of those climates make of
the trunk of a tree. I went to work upon this boat the most
like a fool that ever man did: the difficulty of launching it
came often into my head; but I put a stop to my enquiries into
it by this foolish answer: "Let's make it; “I'll warrant I'll
find some way 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.
When I had gone through this work I was extremely de-
lighted with it. The boat was really much bigger than I ever
saw a canoe in my life. Had I gotten it into the water, I
should have begun the maddest voyage that ever was under-
taken. But all my devices to get it into the water failed me;
and now I saw the folly of beginning a work before we count
the cost. In the middle of this work I finished my fourth
year in this place, and kept my anniversary with the same
devotion, and with as much comfort as ever. I had no room
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SHILL).
for desire, except of things which I had not, and they were
but trifles. I had, as I hinted before, a parcel of money,
about thirty-six pounds sterling. Alas! there the sorry,
useless stuff lay; I had no manner of business for it; and I
often thought that I would have given a handful of it for a
gross of tobacco-pipes, or a hand-mill to grind my corn; nay,
I would have given it all for sixpenny-worth of turnip and
carrot seed out of England, or a bottle of ink.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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I had now been here so long, that many things which I
brought on shore were either gone, or very near spent. My
ink, as I observed, had been gone some time, all but a very
little, which I eked out with water, a little and a little, till it
was so pale, it scarce left any appearance of black upon the
paper. The next thing to my ink being wasted, was that of
my bread. I had husbanded it to the last degree, allowing
myself but one cake of bread a day; and great reason I had
to be thankful that I had any at all. My clothes too began
to decay mightily: as to linen, I had had none a good while,
except some chequered shirts which I carefully preserved,
because many times I could bear no other clothes on but a
shirt; for though the weather was so hot that there was no
need of clothes, yet I could not go quite naked, though I was
all alone. No more could I bring myself to go out without
a cap or a hat. Upon those views, I began to consider about
putting the few rags I had into some order; so I set to work
tailoring, or rather botching, for I made most piteous work
of it.
I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the
creatures that I killed. 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 after this I made me a suit of clothes
wholly of these skins, that is to say, a waistcoat, and breeches
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open at the knees, and both loose, for they were rather wanting
to keep me cool than to keep me warm.
After this I spent a great deal of time to make me an um-
brella. I took a world of pains at it, and was a great while
before I could make any thing likely to hold; at last, 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 weather.
Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely com-
posed by resigning to the will of God, and throwing myself
wholly upon the disposal of his providence. I cannot say that
after this, for five years, any extraordinary thing happened to
me; but I lived on in the same course, in the same posture
and place, as before. But as my next design was to make a
tour round the island, I had a laborious task to make me a
canoe, which at last I finished; and launched, as it was smaller
than my first. I fitted up a little mast, and made a sail to it,
and found she would sail very well. I made little lockers, at
either end; and a little long hollow place in the inside of the
boat, where I could lay my gun. I fixed my umbrella also in a
step at the stern to stand over my head, and keep the heat of
the sun off me, like an awning.
a little voyage upon the sea;
And thus I now and then took
but at last
but at last I resolved upon my
tour, and accordingly I victualled my ship for the voyage.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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W
It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my reign,
or 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 above two
leagues into the sea, so that I was obliged to go a great way
out to sea to double the point. No sooner was I come to the
point, 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
could do could not keep her
There was no wind stirring,
it with such violence, that all I
so much as on the edge of it.
and all I could do with my paddles signified nothing; and
now I began to give myself over for lost, nor did I see any
possibility of avoiding it. I dreaded nothing less than being
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driven into the vast ocean, where there was no shore, no main-
land or island, for a thousand leagues at least. And now I
saw how easy it was for the providence of God to make the
most miserable condition worse. Now I looked back upon
my solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world.
I stretched out my hands to it, "O happy desert!" said I,
I shall never see thee more. O miserable creature," said I,
"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. By this time I was gotten at a frightful distance from
the land, and had the least hazy weather intervened, I had
been undone; for I had no compass on board, and should
never have known how to have steered towards the island, if
I had but once lost sight of it; but the weather continuing
clear, I applied myself to get up my mast again, and spread
my sail, standing away to the north as much as possible, to
get out of the current.
Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began
to stretch away, I saw, even by the clearness of the water,
some alteration of the current was near; and presently I
found to the east, at about half a mile, a breach of the sea
upon some rocks; these rocks I found caused the current
to part again, and made a strong eddy. This eddy car-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
111
་་་
ried me about a league in my way back again, directly
towards the island. However, having a fresh gale, I stretched
across it; and, in about an hour, came within a mile of
the shore, where I soon got to land.
When I was on
shore, I fell on my knees, and gave God thanks, resolving to
lay aside all thoughts of deliverance by my boat. I was now
at a great loss which way to get home: I had run too much
hazard to think of attempting it by the way I went out; so I
resolved 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. I
found a convenient harbour for my boat, and here I put in,
and 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 but my gun and umbrella, I began my march. I
reached my old bower in the evening, where I found every
thing standing as I left it. I got over the fence, and laid me
down to rest my limbs, for I was very weary, and fell asleep;
but judge you, if you can, that read my story, what a surprise
I must be in, when I was waked out of my sleep by a voice
calling me by my name several times, "Robin, Robin, Robin
Crusoe, poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you, Robin Crusoe ?
Where are you? Where have you been?" I was so dead
asleep at first, being fatigued, that I did not wake thoroughly;
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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!" I began to wake more
perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frighted, and started up
in the utmost consternation; but no sooner were my eyes
open, but I saw my Poll sitting on the top of the hedge, and
immediately knew that it was he that spoke to me: for just in
such bemoaning language I had used to talk to him, and teach
him; and he had learned it so perfectly, that he would sit
upon my finger, and lay his bill close to my face, and cry
"Poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you? Where have you
been? How came you here?" and such things as I had
taught him. However, even though I knew it was the parrot,
it was a good while before I could compose myself: first, I was
amazed how the creature got thither; and then, how he should
just keep about the place, and no where else: but as I was
well satisfied it could be nobody but honest Poll, I got it over;
and holding out my hand, and calling him by his name, Poll, the
sociable creature came to me, and sat upon my thumb, as he
used to do, and continued talking to me, “Poor Robin Crusoe !
and how did I come here? and where had I been?" just as if
he had been overjoyed to see me again; and so I carried him
home along with me.
I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some time,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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and had enough to do for many days to sit still, and reflect
upon the danger I had been in. In this government of my
temper I remained near a year, lived a very sedate, retired life,
as you may well suppose; and my thoughts being very much
composed, as to my condition, and fully comforted in resigning
myself to the dispositions of Providence, I thought I lived
really very happily in all things, except that of society. I
improved myself in this time in all the mechanic exercises.
But I think I was never more vain of my own performance
than for my being able to make a tobacco-pipe; and though
it was a very ugly thing when it was done, yet as it was hard
and firm, and would draw the smoke, I was exceedingly com-
forted with it: for I had been always used to smoke.
Being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and 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. To this purpose, I made snares to hamper them ;
and, not to trouble you with particulars, going one morning to
see my traps, I found in one of them a large old he-goat, and
in one of the others three kids, a male and two females.
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: I could
have killed him, but that was not my business, nor would it
I
As
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answer my end; so I e'en let him out, and he ran away as if
he had been frighted out of his wits.
Then I went to the three kids, and with some difficulty
brought them 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. I tethered the three kids in the
best part of an enclosure which I made for them, 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 bar-
ley, and feed them out of my hand: so that when I let them
loose, they would follow me up and down, bleating after me
for a handful of corn. This answered my end, and in about
a year and 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. What a table was
here spread for me in a wilderness, where I saw nothing, at
first, but to perish for hunger!
It would have made a stoic smile to have seen me and my
little family sit down to dinner. There was my majesty, the
prince and lord of the whole island. I had the lives of all my
subjects at my absolute command. I could hang, draw, give
liberty, and take it away; and no rebels among all my sub-
jects. Then to see how like a king I dined too, all alone,
attended by my servants! Poll, as if he had been my favourite,
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١٦١
was the only person permitted to talk to me. My dog, now
grown old and crazy, 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 spe-
cial favour. With this attendance, and in this plentiful man-
ner, I lived; neither could I be said to want any thing but
society. But had any one in England been to meet such a
man as I was, it must either have frighted them, or raised a
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great deal of laughter; and as I frequently stood still to look
at myself, I could not but smile at the notion of my travelling
through Yorkshire, with such an equipage, and in such a dress.
Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure, as follows:-I had a
great high shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin, with a flap
hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as to
shoot the rain off from running into my neck, nothing being
so hurtful in these climates as the rain upon the flesh under
the clothes. I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts
coming down to about the middle of my thighs; and a pair of
open-kneed breeches of the same: the breeches were made of
the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung down such a
length on either side, that, like pantaloons, it reached to the
middle of my legs; stockings and shoes I had none, but 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,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
ROBINSON
117
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 goat's-skin um-
brella, but which, after all, was the most necessary thing I had
about me, next to my gun. As for my face, the colour of it
was really not so mulatto-like as one might expect from a man
not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees
of the equinox. My beard I had once suffered to grow till it
was about a quarter of a yard long; but as I had both scissors
and razors sufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except what
grew on my upper lip, which I had trimmed into a large pair
of Mahometan whiskers, such as I had seen worn by some
Turks at Sallee: of these mustachios, or whiskers, I will not
say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them, but
they were of a length and shape monstrous enough, and such
as, in England, would have passed for frightful.
And now I come to a new scene of my life. It happened
one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was surprised
with the print of a man's naked foot, plainly to be seen in the
sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an
apparition. I listened, I looked round me, but I could hear
nothing, nor see anything. I went up to a rising ground,
to look farther; I went up the shore, and down the shore,
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one.
but it was all one; I could see no other impression but that
I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to
observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was no room
for that, for there was exactly the very print of toes, heel, and
every part of a foot. After innumerable fluttering thoughts,
like a man perfectly confused and out of my self, I came home
to my fortification, not feeling the ground, but terrified to the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
119
last degree, looking behind me at every two or three steps,
mistaking every bush, and fancying every stump at a distance
to be a man. When I came to my castle, I fled into it like
one pursued. I slept none that night. In the middle of my
apprehensions, it came into my thoughts 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. Heartening myself, therefore, with this belief, I
went abroad again. But I could not persuade myself fully
of this till I should go down to the shore again, and see this
print of a foot, and measure it by my own; but when I came
to measure the mark, I found my foot not so large by a great
deal. This 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.
I had lived here fifteen years now, and had not met with
the least shadow or figure of any people yet. But I took all
the measures human prudence could suggest for my preserva-
tion; and it will be seen that they were not altogether without
reason.
Two years afterwards, wandering more to the S. W. of the
island than I had ever done yet, I was presently convinced
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that seeing the print of a man's foot was not such a strange
thing as I imagined: it is not 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, par-
ticularly, I observed a place where there had been a fire made,
and a circle dug in the earth, where I suppose savage wretches
had sat down to their inhuman feastings upon the bodies of
their fellow-creatures. I turned away my face from the horrid
spectacle; my stomach grew sick, and I could not bear to
stay in the place a moment.
I had been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw
the least footsteps of human creature before; and I might be
eighteen more, if I did not discover myself to them, it being
my business to keep myself entirely concealed where I was,
unless I found a better sort of creatures than cannibals to make
myself known to. Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of
the savage wretches, and of the inhuman custom of eating one
another, that I continued pensive and sad for almost two years
after this. Time, however, 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 than I did before, so that for two years after this I
believe I never fired my gun once off, though I never went
out without it; and, as I had saved three pistols out of the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
121
Some-
ship, I always carried them out with me, sticking them in my
belt. Also I furbished up one of the cutlasses, and made me
a belt to put it in also; so that I was now a most formidable
fellow to look at when I went abroad. But night and day I
could think of nothing but how I might destroy some of these
monsters in their cruel entertainment, and, if possible, save
the victim they should bring hither to destroy. It would
take up a volume to set down all the contrivances I brooded
upon for destroying these creatures, or at least frightening
them so as to prevent their coming hither any more.
times I contrived to dig a hole under the place where they
made their fire, and put in some pounds of gunpowder, which
would consequently take fire, and blow up all that was near it.
Then I proposed to place myself in ambush with my three guns
double-loaded, and, in the middle of their bloody ceremony,
let fly at them, when I should be sure to kill or wound two or
three at every shot; and then, falling upon them with my
pistols, and sword, I made no doubt but 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.
After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, I made my
tour every morning to the top of the hill, which was from my
castle, as I called it, about three miles, or more, to see if I
could observe any boats upon the sea, coming near the island,
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or standing over towards it. So far, however, was I at last
from desiring to fall upon these wretches, that for some
months I never once went up the hill to see whether there
were any of them in sight, that I might not be tempted to
renew any of my contrivances against them, or be provoked,
by any advantage which might present itself, to fall upon
them. I believe the reader will not think it strange if I con-
fess that the concern that was now upon me put an end to all
the contrivances I had laid for my future accommodation. I
had the care of my safety more now upon my hands than that
of my food. I cared not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of
wood now for fear the noise I might make should be heard:
much less would I fire a gun, and I was uneasy at making any
fire, lest the smoke should betray me. For this reason I
removed that part of my business which required fire into a
new apartment in the woods; where I found, to my unspeak-
able consolation, a natural cave in the earth, which went in a
vast way. While I was cutting down some wood I perceived
that behind the under-wood there was a hollow place; and
getting with difficulty into it, I found it was pretty large,
sufficient for me to stand upright in it; but I made more haste
out than I did in, when, looking farther into the place, I saw
two broad shining eyes of some creature, whether devil or
man I knew not, which twinkled like two stars, the dim light
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
123
from the cave's mouth shining directly in, and making the
reflection. However, plucking up my courage, I took a fire-
brand, and in I rushed again, with the stick flaming in my
hand. I had not gone three steps, but I was almost as much
frighted as I was before; for I heard a very loud sigh, like
that of a man in pain, and it was followed by a broken noise,
as if of words half-expressed, and then a deep sigh again. I
stepped back, and was struck with such a surprise that it put
me into a cold sweat. But encouraging myself with con-
sidering that the power of God was able to protect me, I

stepped forward again, holding the light a little over my head.
I saw lying on the ground a most monstrous, frightful old he-
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goat, just making his will, as we say, and gasping for life,
dying of mere old age. Recovered from my surprise, I began
to look round, when I observed a place at the other side of it
that went in farther, but having no candle, I resolved to come
again with candles and a tinder-box. Accordingly next day
I came provided with six large candles of my own making, and
going into this low place, I was obliged to creep all fours
almost ten yards. When I had got through that strait, I found
the roof rose up near twenty feet; but never was such a glo-
rious sight seen in the island as it was to look round the sides
and roof of this cave: the wall reflected an hundred thousand
lights to me from my two candles. What it was in the rock,
whether diamonds, or gold, which I rather supposed it to be,
I knew not. I was rejoiced at the discovery, and resolved,
without delay, to bring some of those things I was most
anxious about to this place, for fear of a surprise of any kind.
I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants, which
were said to live in caves and holes where none could come at
them; for I persuaded myself, while I was here, if five hundred
savages were to hunt me, they could never find me out; or,
if they did, would not venture to attack me.
I was now in my twenty-third year of residence in this
island, and was so naturalized to the place, that could I have
but enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come to the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
125
place to disturb me, I could have been content to have spent
the rest of my time there, till I had laid me down and died,
like the old goat in the cave. I had also some little diversions
which made the time pass pleasantly with me: as, first, I had
taught my Poll to speak; and he did it so articulately, that it
was very pleasant to me; and he lived with me no less than
six and twenty years: how long he might live afterwards I
know not; perhaps poor Poll may be alive there still, calling
after poor Robinson Crusoe to this day. My dog was a very
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
all ran wild into the woods, except two or three, which I kept
tame. Besides these, I had two more parrots, which talked
pretty well, and would all call Robinson Crusoe.
It was now the month of December, in my twenty-third
year; and this, being the southern solstice, was the time of
my harvest, and required my being much abroad in the fields.
Going out early in the morning, before daylight, I was sur-
prised with seeing a light of some fire upon the shore, and, to
my great affliction, it was on my side of the island! I stopped
short, and 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 put myself in a posture of defence :
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I loaded all my muskets and pistols, and resolved to defend
myself to the last gasp; and in this posture I continued about
two hours; but I was unable to bear sitting in ignorance any
longer, so I mounted to the top of the hill, and pulling out
my glass, I laid me down flat on the ground, and began to
look for the place. I presently found there were nine naked
savages, sitting round a small fire they had made, as I sup-
posed, to dress some of their barbarous diet of human flesh.
It is not easy to imagine what confusion this sight put me
into. But as soon as the tide made to the westward, I saw
them all take boat, and paddle away. I should have observed,
that for an hour or more before they went off they took to
dancing; and I could easily discern their postures and gestures
by my glasses. As soon as I saw them gone, I took two
guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols at my girdle, and my
great sword by my side, and with all the speed I was able to
make, I went away to the hill where I had discovered them;
and I perceived there had been three canoes more of savages
on that place; and going down to the shore, I could see the
marks of horror, which the dismal work they had been about
had left behind it, the blood, bones, and part of the flesh of
human bodies, eaten and devoured by those wretches with
merriment and sport. I was so filled with indignation at the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
127
sight, that I now began to premeditate the destruction of
the next that I saw there, let them be who or how many
soever. But to waive all this for a while.
It was in the middle of May, some sixteen months after-
wards, that it blew a great storm of wind all day, with lightning
and thunder, and a foul night after it. As I was reading in
the Bible, I was surprised with the noise of a gun, fired at sea.
This was a surprise of a different nature from any I had met
with before. I started up in the greatest haste imaginable;
and, in a trice, 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. I immediately considered
that this must be some ship in distress, and I had the presence
of mind to think that though I could not help them, it might
be they could help me; so I brought together all the dry
wood I could get, and making a pile, I set it on fire. The
wood blazed freely; and though the wind blew hard, it burnt
fairly out, so that I was certain, if there was any such thing
as a ship, they must needs see it, and no doubt they did; for
as my fire blazed up I heard another gun, and after that
several others, all from the same quarter. I plied my fire till
daybreak: when I saw something at a great distance, whether
a sail or a hull I could not distinguish. Some days after, I
had the affliction to see the corpse of a drowned boy come on
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shore at the end of the island which was next the shipwreck,
for so I found it to be, and all souls lost. He had on no
clothes but a seaman's waistcoat, a pair of 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 there might be yet
some living creature on board, whose life I might not only
save, but might, by saving that life, comfort my own to the
last degree; and this thought clung so to my heart, that I
could not be quiet, but I must venture out in my boat on board
this wreck. It was a dismal sight to look at; the ship, which,
by its build, was Spanish, stuck fast jammed in between two
rocks. When I came close to her, a dog appeared upon her,
who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried; and as soon as I
called him, jumped into the sea to come to me, and I took him
into the boat, but found him almost dead for hunger and
thirst. I gave him a cake of bread, and he ate it like a 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
k
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in the cook-room, with their arms fast about one another.
Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that
had life.
I found a little cask full of liquor, and a great powder-horn.
I took a fire-shovel and tongs, which I wanted extremely, as
also two little brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate,
and a gridiron; and with this cargo and the dog I came
away. I found some good shirts, and a dozen of white linen
handkerchiefs and coloured neckcloths: the former were also
very welcome, being exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in
a hot day. I had gotten 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,
I am now to be supposed retired into my castle, after my
late voyage to the wreck. 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 solitariness, that I was lying in my
hammock, but could by no means close my eyes. It is as
impossible, as needless, to set down the innumerable crowd of
thoughts that whirled through that great thoroughfare of
the brain, the memory, in this night's time. I ran over the
whole history of my life in miniature, or by abridgment. This
furnished my mind with many very profitable reflections.
When these thoughts were over, my head was for some time
K
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taken up in considering the nature of those wretched crea-
tures the savages, and how it came to pass in the world that
the wise Governor of all things should give up any of his crea-
tures to something so much below even brutality itself as to
devour its own kind. When this had agitated my thoughts
for two hours or more, with such violence that it set my very
blood into a ferment, and my pulse beat as high as if I had
been in a fever, 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, from my castle, I saw upon the
shore two canoes and eleven savages coming to land, and that
they brought with them another savage, whom they were
going to kill, in order to eat him, when on a sudden, the
savage that they were going to kill jumped away, and ran for
his life; and I thought that he came running into the little
grove before my fortification, to hide himself; and that I
shewed myself to him, and, smiling upon him, encouraged
him that he kneeled down to me, seeming to pray to me
to assist him; upon which I shewed 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 gotten this man, I said to
myself "Now I may certainly venture to the main land; for
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this fellow will serve me as a pilot, and will tell me what to
do, and whither to go for provisions, and whither not to go
for fear of being devoured; what places to venture into, and
what to escape."
I waked with this thought, and was under
such inexpressible impressions of joy at the prospect of my
escape in my dream, that the disappointments I felt upon find-
ing that it was no more than a dream were equally extravagant
the other way, and threw me into a great dejection of spirit.
About a year and a half after I had entertained these
notions, I was surprised, one morning early, with seeing no
less than five canoes all on shore together on my side the
island. Seeing so many, and knowing that they always came
four, six, or more in a boat, I could not tell how to take my
measures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed: so
I lay still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted. 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, as usual;
standing so, however, that my head did not appear above the
hill, so that they could not perceive me by any means. Here
I observed, by the help of my perspective-glass, that they
were no less than thirty in number, that they had a fire kin-
dled, and that they were all dancing, in I know not how many
barbarous gestures and figures, round the fire.
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While I was thus looking on them, I perceived two miser-
able wretches dragged from the boats, and brought out for
slaughter. I perceived one of them immediately felled with a
club, and two or three others at work immediately, cutting him
open for their cookery, while the other victim was left till they
should be ready for him. In that moment, this poor wretch
seeing himself a little at liberty, nature inspired him with
hopes of life, and he started away from them, and ran with
incredible swiftness along the sands, directly towards that part
of the coast where my habitation was. I was dreadfully
frighted when I perceived him to run my way, and especially
when I saw him pursued by the whole body. However, my
spirits began to recover when I found there was not above
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
133
three men that followed him, and that he outstripped them
in running, and gained ground of them, so that I saw he
would fairly get away from them all. There was between
them and my castle the creek: when the savage escaping
came thither, he made nothing of it, but plunging in, swam
through in about thirty strokes, landed, and ran
on with
exceeding swiftness. When the three persons came to the
creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third
could not. I observed that the two who swam were yet more
than twice as long swimming over the creek as the fellow was
that fled from them. It came now very warmly upon my
thoughts that I was called plainly by Providence to save this
poor creature's life. I immediately got down the ladders with
all possible expedition, fetched my two guns, and clapped
myself in the way between the pursuers and the pursued,
hallooing aloud to him that fled, who, looking back, was at
first, perhaps, as much frighted at me 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 upon 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. Having knocked this fellow
down, the other who pursued with him stopped, and I ad-
vanced apace towards him; but as I came nearer I perceived
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presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot
at me; so I was then necessitated to fire at him, which I
did, and killed him at the first shot. The poor savage who
fled, though he saw both his enemies killed, as he thought,
yet was so frighted with the noise of my piece, that he stood
stock-still, though he seemed rather inclined to fly than to
come on. I hallooed again to him, and made signs to come
forward, which he easily understood, and came a little way;
then stopped, and then a little farther, and stopped again; and
I could then perceive that he stood trembling. I beckoned to
him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encou-
ragement that I could think of; and he came nearer and
nearer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps, in acknow-
ledgment for saving his life. I smiled at him, and beckoned
to him to come nearer; at length he came close to me, and
then he kneeled down again, and laid his head upon the ground,
and taking me by the foot, set it upon his head, in token of
swearing to be my slave for ever. I then took him up, and
made much of him, and encouraged him all I could.
But there was more work to do yet; for I perceived the
savage I had knocked down was not killed, but only stunned,
and began to come to; so I pointed to him, shewing him that
he was not dead. Upon this he spoke some words to me, and
though I could not understand them, yet I thought they were
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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pleasant to hear; for they were the first sounds of a man's
voice that I had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-
five years. But there was no time for such reflections now.
The savage who was knocked down recovered himself so far as
to sit up upon the ground, and I perceived that my savage began
to be afraid; but when I saw that, I presented my other piece
at the man, as if I would shoot him : upon this my savage,
for so I called him now, made a motion to me to lend him my
sword; so I did. He no sooner had it, but he runs to his
enemy, and, at one blow, cut-off his head as cleverly, no exe-
cutioner in Germany could have done it better. When he
had done this, he comes laughing to me, in sign of triumph,
and brought me the sword, and with abundance of gestures
laid it down, with the head of the savage that he had killed,
just before me. But that which astonished him most was to
know how I had killed the other Indian so far off: so he made
signs to me to let him go to him; so I bade him go, as well
as I could. When he came to him, he stood like one amazed,
looking at him, turned him first on one side, then on the
other, looked at the wound the bullet had made, took up his
bow and arrows, and came back; so I turned to go away, and
beckoned to him to follow me. Upon this he signed to me
that he should bury them with
sand, and he scraped a hole
with his hands, big enough to bury the first in, and covered
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
him; and did so also by the other: I believe he had buried
them both in a quarter of an hour. Then calling him away,
I carried him to my cave. Here I gave him bread and a
bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of water, which I found
he was in great distress for; and having refreshed him, I made
signs for him to go lie down and sleep: so the poor creature
laid down, and went to sleep.
He was a comely fellow, well made, with strong limbs, and,
as I reckoned, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very
good countenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed
to have something manly in his face; and yet he had all the
sweetness and softness of an European in his countenance too,
especially when he smiled. His hair was long and black, not
curled; his forehead high and large; and a great vivacity and
sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The colour of his skin was
not quite black, but very tawny; of a bright kind of a dun
olive colour, that had in it something agreeable, though not
easy to describe. His face was round and plump; his nose
small, and not flat, a very good mouth, thin lips, and his teeth
well set, and white as ivory.
After he had slumbered about half an hour, he waked, and
comes out of the cave to me: when he espied me, he came
running to me, laying himself down again upon the ground,
with all possible signs of an humble disposition, making a
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137
many antic gestures to shew it. I understood him in many
things, and let him know I was pleased with him. In a little
time I began to speak to him; and I made him know his name
should be FRIDAY, which was the day I saved his life. I
taught him to say Master; and let him know that was to be
my name: I likewise taught him to say Yes and No, and to
know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk in an
earthen pot, and let him see me drink it before him, and sop
my bread in it; and I gave him a cake of bread to do the
like, which he complied with, and made signs that it was very
good for him. As soon as it was day, I beckoned to him to
come with me, and I would give him some clothes. As we
went by the place where he had buried the two men, he
shewed me the marks he had made to find them again, making
signs to me that we should dig them up, and eat them. At
this I appeared angry, and expressed my abhorrence of it,
and beckoned to him to come away. I then led him to the
top of the hill, to see that his enemies were gone, leaving
their two comrades without any search after them. But having
now more courage, I took my Friday with me, making him
carry one gun, and away we marched to the place where these
creatures had been. When I came there my blood ran chill
in my veins, and my heart sunk within me, at the horror of the
spectacle: it was a dreadful sight, though Friday made nothing
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
of it. The place was covered with human bones, the ground
dyed with blood, and, in short, all the tokens of the trium-
phant feast they had been making there, after a victory over
their enemies. Friday, by his signs, made me understand that
they brought over four prisoners to feast upon; that three
were eaten, and that he was the fourth; that there had been
a great battle, and that they had taken a number of prisoners,
all which were carried to several places by those who had
taken them in the fight, in order to feast upon them. I caused
Friday to gather whatever remained, and make a great fire,
and burn them to ashes. I found Friday was still a cannibal
in his nature; but I betrayed so much abhorrence at the very
thoughts of it, that he durst not discover it. When we had
done this, we came back to our castle; and there I fell to work
for my man Friday. And, first of all, I gave him a pair of
linen drawers, which fitted him very well; then I made him
a jerkin of goat's-skin, as well as my skill would allow, and I
was now grown a tolerably good tailor; and I gave him a cap,
which I made of a hare-skin, very convenient and fashionable
enough; and thus he was clothed for the present, and was
mighty well pleased to see himself almost as well dressed as
his master. It is true, he went awkwardly in these things at
first; but using himself to them, at length he took to them
very well.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
139
Never man had a more faithful, loving servant than Friday
was to me; without passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly
obliging and engaging, his very affections were tied to me
like those of a child to a father; and I dare say he would have
sacrificed his life for the saving mine upon any occasion what-
soever. I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my
business to teach him every thing that was proper to make
him 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 was so merry, so 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.
This was the pleasantest year in this place: Friday began
to understand the names of almost every thing I had occasion
to call for, and talked a great deal to me; so that I began to
have some use for my tongue again, which I had very little
occasion for before. Besides the pleasure of talking to him,
I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself: his simple,
unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day,
and I began really to love the creature; and, on his side, I
believe he loved me more than it was possible for him ever to
love anything before. I asked Friday a thousand questions
about the country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
what nations were near: he told me all he knew, with the
greatest openness imaginable.
During the long time that Friday had now been with me, I
was not wanting to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in
his mind; particularly I asked him, one time, Who made
him? The poor creature 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
beyond all; he could describe nothing of this great person,
but that he was very old. I asked him, then, if this old person
had made all things, why did not all things worship him?
He looked very grave, and said, All things do say O to him.
From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge
of the true God. I found it was not easy to imprint right
notions in his mind about the being of a God. I always
applied myself, however, in reading the Scripture, to let him
know, as well as I could, the meaning of what I read; and
he again, by his serious inquiries and questionings, made me
a much better scholar in Scripture knowledge than I should
ever have been by my own mere private reading.
After Friday and I became more acquainted, and he could
understand almost all I said to him, and speak fluently to me,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
141
:
I acquainted him with my own story: 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, such as in England we wear hangers
in; and I gave him a hatchet, which was not only as good a
weapon, in some cases, but much more useful upon other
occasions. I described to him the country of Europe, parti-
cularly England, which I came from; how we lived, how we
worshipped God, how we behaved to one another; and how
we traded in ships to all parts of the world. I showed him
the ruins of our boat, which was now fallen to pieces. Upon
seeing this boat, Friday stood musing a great while, and said
nothing. I asked him what it was he studied upon; at last,
says he,
"Me see such boat like come to place at my nation."
I did not understand him a good while; but, when I had
examined farther, I understood that such a boat came on shore
upon the country where he lived. 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 white mans.
I asked him how many;
he told upon his fingers seventeen. I asked him then what
>>
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
in
became of them: he told me "They dwell at my nation." This
put new thoughts into my head; for I imagined that these
might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away
sight of my island. Upon this, I inquired of him what was
become of them; he assured me they had been there about
four years; that the savages let them alone, and gave them
victuals to live on.
From this time I confess I had a mind to venture over, and
see if I could possibly join with these bearded men, who, I
made no doubt, were Spaniards or Portuguese. 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. He answered not one word, but looked very sad. I
asked him what was the matter with him? He asked me,
Why you angry mad with Friday? what me done?" I told
him I was not angry. No angry! 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,
No, no,
wish be both there, no wish Friday there, no master there."
He would not think of going there without me.
Friday," says I, "you shall go without me; leave me here to
live by myself, as I did before." He looked confused at the
word, and running to one of the hatchets which he used
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
143
to wear, he takes it up hastily, comes and gives it to me.
"What must I do with this?" says I to him. "You take
What must I kill you for?" said I
What you send Friday away
kill Friday," says he.
again. He returns very quick,
for? Take kill Friday, no send Friday away." This he spoke
so earnestly, that I saw tears stand in his eyes. Upon the
whole, as I found a settled affection to me, and that nothing
should part him from me, so I found all his desire to go
to his own country was laid in his ardent affection to
his own people, and his hopes of my doing them good; a
thing which, as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the
least desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong
inclination to my attempting an escape, founded on the sup-
position that there were seventeen bearded men there; and,
therefore, without delay, I went to work with Friday to find
out a great tree proper to fell, and make a large canoe,
to undertake the voyage; I found one to my mind, and we
felled it, and in about a month's hard labour we finished
it, and made it very handsome.
After this it cost us a
fortnight's time to get her along, inch by inch, upon great
rollers into the water; but when she was in, she would have
carried twenty men with great ease. When she was in the
water, it amazed me to see with what dexterity my man Friday
would manage her, turn her, and paddle her along. So I
asked him if we might venture over in her. "Yes," he said,
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
he venture over in her very well, though great blow
wind."
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. The rainy season was, in the mean time,
upon me, when I kept more within doors than at other times;
so we stowed our new vessel as secure as we could, bringing
her up into the creek; and thus we waited for the months of
November and December, in which I designed to make my
adventure.
'What's
I was busy one morning upon something, when I called to
Friday, and bid him go to the sea-shore, and see if he could
find a turtle, for the sake of the eggs as well as the flesh.
Friday had not been long gone, when he came running back,
and flew over my outer wall, like one that felt not the ground,
and cried out, "O master! O sorrow, O bad!'
the matter?" says I. "O yonder, there," says he,
three canoe!" "Well, Friday," says I, "do not be frighted."
However, 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 com-
forted him as well as I could, and told him I was in as much
one, two,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
145
danger as he, and that they would eat me as well as him. So
I asked him whether, if I resolved to defend him, he would
stand by me, and do just as I bid. He said, "Me die, when
you bid die, Master." So I went and fetched him a good
dram of rum and gave him. When he had drank it, I made
him take the two fowling-pieces, and load them: then I took
four muskets, and loaded them; and my two pistols I loaded
also; I hung my great sword naked by my side, and gave
Friday his hatchet. When I had thus prepared myself, I
went up the hill to see what I could discover; and I found
by my glass that there were one-and-twenty savages, three
prisoners, and three canoes; and that their whole business
seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon these three human
bodies. Abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches
came about filled we with such indignation, that I came down
to Friday, and told him I was resolved to kill them all. He
was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits being a little
raised with the dram I had given him, he told me he would
die when I bid die. In this fit of anger, I divided the arms
which I had charged between us; and in this posture we
marched out.
With all possible wariness, Friday followed close at my
heels. I marched till I came to the skirt of the wood, on the
side which was next to them. Here I called softly to Friday,
L
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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 and told me that they were all about the fire,
eating the flesh of one of their prisoners, and that another lay
bound upon the sand, which they would kill next, and which
stirred all the very soul within me. He told me it was not one
of their nation, but one of the bearded men, whom he had told
me of, that came to their country in the boat. I was filled
with horror at the very naming the white bearded man; and,
going to the tree, I saw plainly, by my glass, a white man,
who lay upon the beach of the sea, with his hands and feet
tied, and that he had clothes on. There was another tree,
about fifty yards nearer to them, which I saw I might come
at undiscovered, and that then I should be within half shot
of them so I withheld my passion, though I was 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 I came to a little rising ground, at
the distance of about eighty yards. I had not a moment to
lose, for nineteen of the dreadful wretches sat upon the
ground, all close-huddled together, and had just sent the other
two to butcher the poor Christian, and they were stooped
down to untie the bands at his feet. I turned to Friday-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
147

sladici
Now, Friday," says I, "do exactly as you see me do; fail
in nothing." So I set down one of the muskets and the fowl-
ing-piece, and Friday did the like; and with the other musket
I took aim at the savages, bidding him to do the like; then
asking him if he was ready, he said, "Yes"-" Then fire at
them," said I; and the same moment I fired. Friday took
his aim so much better than I, that he killed two of them, and
wounded three more; and I killed one, and wounded two.
They were, you may be sure, in a dreadful consternation; and
all of them who were not hurt jumped up upon their feet, but
did not immediately know which way to run, or which way to
look, for they knew not from whence their destruction came.
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Friday kept his eyes close upon me; so, as soon as the first shot
was made, I threw down the piece, took up the fowling-piece, and
Friday did the like; he saw me cock and present; he did the
same again. Let fly," 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 loaden 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. "Now, Friday," says I,
laying down the discharged pieces, and taking up the musket
which was yet loaded, "follow me," which he did with a great
deal of courage; upon which I rushed out of the wood, and
Friday followed me. 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, made directly towards the poor
victim lying upon the beach. The two butchers had left him at
the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright to the
sea-side, and three more of the rest made the same way. I
turned to Friday, and bade him fire at them; he understood
me, and, running about forty yards to be near them, he shot
at them, and I thought he had killed them all, for I saw them
all fall of a heap into the boat: however, he killed two, and
wounded the third so that he lay down as if he had been
dead. While Friday fired at them, I cut the flags that bound
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the poor victim, and loosing his hands and feet, asked him, in
Portuguese, what he was. He answered, in Latin, Christianus ;
but was so faint that he could scarce speak. I took my bottle,
and making signs that he should drink, he did. Then I asked
him what countryman he was; and he said, "Espagnole.”
Senhor," said I, 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, and, as if they
had put new vigour into him, he flew upon his murderers like
a fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in an instant.
There happened, however, a fierce engagement between the
Spaniard and one of the savages. The Spaniard, though
weak, had fought this Indian a good while; but the savage
being a stout, lusty fellow, had thrown him down, and was
wringing my sword out of his hand, when the Spaniard
wisely drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through
the body, and killed him upon the spot. Friday being now
left to his liberty, pursued the flying wretches, with no weapon
in his hand but his hatchet; and in no long time twenty-one
of the savages lay dead on the shore: the rest took to their
canoes. Friday would fain have had me pursue them, lest
carrying the news home they should come back with two or
three hundred of their canoes, and devour us by mere multi-
tude: so I consented, and running to one of their canoes I
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jumped in, and bade Friday follow me; but when I was in the
canoe, I was surprised to find another poor creature there
bound hand and foot for the slaughter. I immediately cut the
twisted flags which bound him, and would have helped him
up; but he could not stand, and groaned most piteously,
believing that he was only unbound in order to be killed.
When Friday came to him, I bid him speak to him, and tell
him of his deliverance. But when Friday came to hear him
speak, and look in his face, it would have moved any one to
tears to have seen how he kissed him, embraced him, hugged
him, cried, laughed, hallooed, jumped about, danced, sung;
then cried again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and
head; and then sung and jumped about again, like a distracted
creature. It was a good while before I could make him 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; nor can I describe half the extra-
vagances of his affection. He would sit down by him, open his
breast, and hold his father's head close to his bosom, half an
hour together, to nourish it; then he took his arms and
ancles, which were numbed with the binding, and chafed them
with his hands; indeed, he was so busy about his father, that
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
151
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,
and he came jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest.
extreme. I then gave him a cake of bread, and a dram for
himself, but he would not taste them, but carried them to his
father. He had no sooner given his father these, but I saw
him come out of the boat, and run away, as if he had been
bewitched, he ran at such a rate; for he was the swiftest
fellow of his foot that ever I saw and though I hallooed after
him, away he went; and in a little while I saw him come
back, though not so fast as he went. When he came up, I
found he had been home for an earthen pot, to bring his father
some fresh water, and that he had got two more cakes or
loaves of bread: the bread he gave me, but the water he car-
ried to his father; however, as I was very thirsty too, I took
a little sup of it. This water revived his father more than all
the spirits I had given him, for he was fainting with thirst.
When his father had drank, I called 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
was reposing under a tree. He sat up and drank, and looked in
my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that
could appear in any countenance, but was so weak that he
could not stand: so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday to
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rub his ancles, as he had done his father's. I observed the
poor affectionate creature, 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 when he found he was not
to be seen, he flew with that swiftness to him that one could
scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground: but when he
found he had laid himself down to ease his limbs, he came
back presently; and then I spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday
help him up, and lead him to the boat, and then he should
carry him to our dwelling: but Friday, a lusty, strong fellow,
took the Spaniard quite up upon his back, and carried him
away, and set him down softly upon the gunnel of the canoe ;
and then set him close to his father; and stepping out again,
launched the boat, 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, runs
away to fetch the other canoe. As he passed me, I spoke to
him, and asked him whither he went.
He told me "Go fetch
more boat:" so away he went like the wind, for sure never
man or horse ran like him; and he had the other canoe in the
creek almost as soon as I got to it by land: so he wafted me
over, and then went to help our new guests out of the boat;
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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
153
in my thought, and soon made a kind of a hand-barrow to lay
them on, and Friday and I carried them up between us.
My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich
in subjects; and it was a merry reflection, which I frequently
made, how like a king I looked. First of all, the whole country
was my own mere property, so that I had an undoubted right
of dominion. Secondly, my people were perfectly subjected;
I was absolutely lord and law-giver; they all owed their lives.
to me, and were ready to lay down their lives for me.
It was
remarkable, too, I had but three subjects, and they were of
three different religions: my man Friday a Protestant, his
father a Pagan, and the Spaniard a Papist: however, I allowed
liberty of conscience throughout my dominions. As soon as I
had given my two rescued prisoners shelter, I began to think
of making provision for them. I ordered Friday to take a
yearling goat to be killed, when I cut off the hinder-quarter,
and chopping it into small pieces, I set Friday to work, boiling
and stewing, and made them a very good dish of flesh and
broth; and I ate my own dinner with them, and, as well as I
could, cheered them, and encouraged them, Friday being my
interpreter to his father, and the Spaniard too; for the
Spaniard spoke the language of the savages pretty well.
After we had dined, I ordered Friday to go and fetch our fire-
arms, which, for want of time, we had left upon the place of
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battle; and, the next day, I ordered him to bury the dead
bodies of the savages, the horrid remains of their barbarous
feast, which I could not think of doing myself; nay, I could
not bear to see them, if I went that way: all which he punc-
tually performed.
Having now society enough, and our number being sufficient
to put us out of fear of the savages, we went freely all over
the island, wherever we found occasion; and as here we had
our deliverance upon our thoughts, it was impossible for me
to have the means of it out of mine. To this purpose, I
marked out several trees which I thought fit, and I set Friday
and his father to cutting them down, and the Spaniard to
oversee their work. At the same time, I contrived to increase
my little flock of tame goats, and 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. It was now harvest, and
we brought in and threshed out above two hundred and twenty
bushels of barley, and the like in proportion of the rice; which
was store enough for our food to the next harvest, though
all the sixteen Spaniards, whom I had proposed to bring over
to our island, had been with me; or if we had been ready for
a voyage, it would plentifully have victualled our ship to any
part of America. And now having a full supply for all the
guests I expected, I gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
155
main, as he had proposed, to see what he could do with those
he had left behind him there. I gave him a strict charge
not to bring any man with him who would not first swear
that he would no way injure the person who was so kind as to
send for them in order to their deliverance; but that they
would stand by him, and defend him against all such attempts,
and, wherever they went, would be entirely under and subjected
to his commands. Under these instructions, the Spaniard
and the father of Friday went away in one of the canoes.
I
gave each of them a musket, and eight rounds of powder and
.ball, charging them not to use either of them but upon urgent
occasion. 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 sufficient for
themselves and all the Spaniards for about eight days; and
wishing them a good voyage, I saw them go.
It was no less than eight days I had waited for them, when
an unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not
perhaps been heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my
hutch one morning, when Friday came running in to me, and
cried “Master, they are come!" I jumped up, and went out
as soon as I could get my clothes on, and was surprised when
I presently saw a boat standing in for the shore, with a
shoulder-of-mutton sail. Upon this, I called Friday in, and
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
bade him lie close, for these were not the people we looked
for. I fetched my perspective-glass, to see what I could make
of them, and discovered a ship lying at anchor, and by my
observation, it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and
the boat an English long-boat. I cannot express the con-
fusion I was in; though the joy of seeing a ship manned by
my own countrymen was such as I cannot describe; but yet I
had some doubts about me, bidding me keep upon my guard.
It occurred to me to consider what business an English ship
could have in that part of the world, since it was not the way
to or from any part of it where the English had any traffic:
it was most probable, therefore, that they were here upon no
good design.
I had not kept myself long in this posture but I saw the
boat draw near the shore. When they were on shore, I was
fully satisfied that they were Englishmen: there were in all
eleven men, whereof three were unarmed, and, as I thought,
bound as prisoners: one of the three I could perceive using
the most passionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and despair;
the other two lifted up their hands sometimes, and appeared
concerned, but not to such a degree as the first..
I was
was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the
meaning of it should be. Friday called out to me, O master!
you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans."
'
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
157
No, no," says I,
Friday; I am afraid they will murder
them, 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 horror, expecting every moment when the three
prisoners should be killed. I wished heartily now for my
Spaniard and the savage that was gone with him, that I might
have rescued the three men, for I saw no fire-arms they had
among them; but it fell out to my mind another way. I
observed that the three men had liberty to go where they
pleased; but they sat down upon the ground, very pensive,
and looked like men in despair.
It was just at the top of high water when these people
came on shore; and while they stood parleying with the
prisoners, and rambled about to see what kind of a place they
were in, they had carelessly stayed till the tide was ebbed
away, leaving their boat aground. 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. All this while I kept myself very close. I knew
it was no less than ten hours before the boat could be afloat
again, and by that time it would be dark, and I might be at
liberty to see their motions. In the mean time I fitted myself
up for a battle. I ordered Friday, also, to arm himself. I
took myself two fowling-pieces, and I gave him three muskets.
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
My figure, indeed, was very fiery fierce: I had my formidable
goat-skin coat on, with my great cap, a naked sword by my
side, two pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each shoulder.
It was my design not to have made any attempt till it was
dark; but about two o'clock I found that they were all gone
straggling into the woods, and, as I thought, were laid down
to sleep. The three poor men, too anxious to get any sleep,
sat under a great tree, out of sight of the rest. Upon this I
resolved to discover myself, and learn something of their con-
dition: immediately I marched in the figure as above, my
man Friday behind me, as formidable for his arms as I, but
not quite so spectre-like a figure. I came as near them as I
could, and before they saw me, I called to them, in Spanish,
"What are ye, gentlemen?" They started up, and were con-
founded when they saw my uncouth figure. They made no
answer, but were just going to fly when I spoke to them in
English-Gentlemen, do not be surprised; perhaps you
may have a friend when you did not expect it." He must
be sent directly from Heaven, then," said one of them very
gravely, pulling off his hat 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 ?"
The poor man, with tears running down his face, looking
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
159
like one astonished, said, “Am I talking to God or man! Is
it a real man or an angel?" Be in no fear about that, Sir,”
(C
said I ;
if God had sent an angel to relieve you, he would
have come better clothed, and armed after another manner

than you see me: lay aside your fears; I am a man, an
Englishman, and disposed to assist you.
I serve you? What is your case?”
•
Tell me freely can
Our case," said he,
Sir, is too long to tell you: but, in short, Sir, I was com-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
mander 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.”
There they lie," said
Well," said I, "I see
"Where are your enemies?" said I.
he, pointing to a thicket of trees.
they are all asleep, it is an easy thing to kill them all. Let
us retreat out of hearing, and we will resolve further." So
they willingly went with me, till the woods covered us. I
then offered to deliver them from the hands of their enemies,
if they would assist in the work, which they promised, and
I then gave them arms. The captain was for sparing all but
the two ringleaders of the mutiny, which I consented should
be done, if possible.
In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them
awake, and saw two of them on their feet. I asked him if
either of them were of the men who were the heads of the
mutiny? He said, No.
He said, No. "Then," said I, "let them escape;
"if the rest escape you, it is your fault." With this, he took
the musket, and his two comrades with him, each man with a
piece in his hand. Making some noise, 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
+
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
161
cried out they fired. They had so well aimed their shot that
one of them was killed on the spot, and the other wounded;
he called eagerly for help to the other, but the captain told
him it was too late to cry for help, he should call upon God to
forgive his villany, and with that word knocked him down
with the stock of his musket, so that he never spoke more.
There were three more in company, and one of them was also
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, .
which I was not against, only that I obliged him to keep them
bound hand and foot while they were upon the island. Mean-
while I sent Friday to the boat, to secure her; and by and by
three men, that were parted from the rest, came back, and
seeing their 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 inquire into one another's circumstances. I began
first, and told him my whole history, which he heard with an
attention even to amazement; and as my story is a collection
of wonders, it affected him deeply. But when he reflected
from thence upon himself, and how I seemed to have been
preserved there on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down
his face, and he could not speak a word more.
M
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
Afterwards he told me he was at a loss what measures now
to take, for there were still six-and-twenty hands on board,
and there would be no attacking them with so small a number
as we were. I mused upon what he had said, and resolved to
draw the men on board into some snare for their surprise.
I told him the first thing we had to do was to stave their boat,
and leave her so as not to be fit to swim. This was done.
It was not much in my thoughts that we could recover the
ship; but my view was, that if they went away without the
boat, I could make her fit again to carry us to the Leeward
Islands, and call upon our friends the Spaniards in my way;
for I had them still in my thoughts. While we were thus
preparing our designs, we heard the ship fire a gun, 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
we saw them hoist another boat out, and I saw that there was
no less than ten men in her, and that they had fire-arms.
The captain said, there were three honest fellows, who were
led into this conspiracy by the rest; but that as for the boat-
swain and the others, they were as outrageous as any of the
ship's crew; and terribly apprehensive he was that they would
be too powerful for us. I told him that men in our circum-
stances were past the operation of fear; and to depend upon
it that every man that came ashore was our own, and should
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
163
die or live as he behaved 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. Two of our pri-
soners were kept pinioned, because the captain could not trust
them; the other two were taken into my service, upon their
solemnly engaging to live and die with us: so we were seven
men well armed. Thus prepared, we waited to see what the
issue of things might present; and not long afterwards we
observed seven men come on shore, while three more re-
mained in the boat; and those that came on shore marched
directly towards the little hill under which my habitation lay.
I resolved to wait, to see if they did not separate; and to
make sure of them, I drew my ambuscade nearer, and ordered
Friday and the captain to creep upon their hands and feet, as
close to the ground as they could, and get as near them as
they could, before they offered to fire. They had not been
long in that posture, but that the boatswain came walking
towards them, with two more of their crew: the captain was
so eager at having this rogue in his power, that he could hardly
let him come so near as to be sure of him, but he and Friday,
starting up, let fly at them. The boatswain was killed upon
the spot; the next man shot in the body, and the third run
for it. At the noise of the fire, I advanced with my whole
army, which was now eight men. We came upon the muti-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
neers in the dark, so that they could not see our number; and
I made a man, who was now one of us, to call them by name,
to try if I could bring them to a parley, and reduce them to
terms; which fell out just as we desired. So he calls out to
one of them, "Tom Smith!" Smith answered, for he knew
the voice. The other then said, "For God's sake, Tom,
throw down your arms and yield, or you are all dead men.'
Who must we yield to? Where are they?" says Smith.
Here they are," says
he;
here's our captain, and fifty men
with him, have been hunting you these two hours; the boat-
swain is killed, Will Fry is wounded, and I
am a prisoner ;
"Will they give
us quarter then ?" says Smith, "and we will yield.”
I'll go
and if you do not yield, you are all lost."
፡፡
and ask, if you promise to yield," says the other; so he asked
the captain, and the captain calls out, "You know my voice,
if you lay down your arms immediately, you shall have your
lives, all but Will Atkins." Upon this Will Atkins cried out,
What have I done? They have all been as bad as I!" But,
it seems, this Atkins was the first man that laid hold of the
captain, when they mutinied, and used him barbarously, in
tying his hands, and giving him injurious language. The
captain told him he must lay down his arms at discretion, and
trust to the governor's mercy, by which he meant me.
In a
word, they all begged their lives; and I sent the man that had
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
165
parleyed with them, and two more, who bound them all; and
then my great army came up and seized upon them, and
upon their boat; only that I kept myself and one more out of
sight, for reasons of state.
It now occurred to me, that it would be a most easy thing
to bring these fellows in to be hearty in getting possession of
the ship. To these in the morning I sent the captain, to enter
into a parley with them, and induce them to join in so just an
attempt as to recover the ship, upon promise of my pardon.
Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be
accepted by men in their condition: they fell down on their
knees, and promised that they would be faithful to him to the
last drop. The captain now had no difficulty before him, but
to furnish his two boats, and man them. He made his passen-
ger captain of one, with four men; and himself, and six more,
went in the other; and they contrived their business very
well, for they came up to the ship about midnight. As soon
as they came within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail
them, and tell them they had brought off the men and the
boat, holding them in chat till they came to the ship's side;
when the captain and the mate entering first, immediately
knocked down the second mate and carpenter with the butt-end
of their muskets, and being faithfully seconded by their men, they
secured all that were upon the main and quarter-decks, while
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
the other boat and their men, entering at the fore-chains, se-
cured the forecastle of the ship. The mate next rushed into the
round-house, and shot the new captain through the head, upon
which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually,
without any more lives lost. As soon as, the ship was secured,
the captain ordered seven guns to be fired, which was the
signal agreed upon to give me notice of his success. Having
heard this, I laid me down; and I slept very sound till I was
surprised with the noise of a gun, and starting up, heard a
man call me, and presently I knew the captain's voice: there
he stood, and pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his
arms. "My dear friend and deliverer," says he, there's
your ship, for she is all 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. I was
at first ready to sink down with surprise; for I saw my deliver-
ance, indeed, visibly put into my hands, all things easy, and a
large ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to
go. At first, for some time, I was not able to answer him
one word; but, as he had taken me in his arms, I held fast
by him, or I should have fallen to the ground. It was a good
while before I could speak to him. All this while the poor
man was in as great an ecstacy as I;
and he said a thousand
kind things to me, to compose me, and bring me to myself:
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
167
but such was the flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my
spirits into confusion; at last it broke out into tears, and in
a little while after I recovered my speech. Then I embraced
him as my deliverer, and we rejoiced together. When we
had talked awhile, the captain told me he had brought me
some presents, and, among other things, a good suit of clothes
of his own; in a word, he clothed me from head to foot: but
never was anything in the world so unpleasant, awkward, and
uneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at their first
putting on. Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship;
but told the captain that I would stay that night to prepare
my things, and desired him to go on board, and keep
all right in the ship, and send the boat on shore the next
day for me.
The next day, I went on board the ship. We prepared im-
mediately to sail, but did not weigh that night. The next
morning early, two of the five men, whom, for their mutinous
spirit and manifold offences, we had resolved upon leaving
behind us on the island, came swimming to the ship's side,
and making a most lamentable complaint of the other three,
begged to be taken into the ship, for God's sake, for they
should be murdered, and begged the captain to take them on
board though he hanged them immediately. Upon this the
captain pretended to have no power without me; but after
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
some difficulty, and their making solemn promises of amend-
ment, they were taken on board, and after being soundly
whipped, 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 abandoned 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, as also some money I found in the
wreck of the Spanish ship. And thus I left the island, the
19th of December, as I found by the ship's account, in the
year 1686, after I had been upon it eight-and-twenty years,
two months, and nineteen days, being delivered from this
second captivity the same day of the month that I first made
my escape in the long boat from among the Moors of Sallee.
In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the
11th of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty-and-five
years absent.
When I came to England, I was as perfect a stranger to all
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
169
the world as if I had never been known there. My benefactor
and faithful steward, whom I had left in trust with my money,
was alive, but a widow the second time, and very low in the
world. I made her easy as to what she owed me, assuring
her I would give her no trouble. I went down afterwards
into Yorkshire; but my father was dead, and my mother, and
all the family, except two sisters; and as I had been long ago
given over for dead, there had been no provision made for
me. I met with one piece of gratitude, indeed, which I did
not expect. The master of the ship whom I had so happily
delivered, having given a very handsome account to the
owners of the manner how I had saved the lives of the men
and the ship, they invited me to meet them, and some other
merchants concerned, and made me a handsome compliment
of £200 sterling. But reflecting 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 information of
the state of my plantation in the Brazils. With this view I
took shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in April following,
my man Friday accompanying me very honestly in all these
ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant upon all
occasions.
When I came to Lisbon, I found out my old friend the
captain of the ship who first took me up at sea off the
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shore of Africa. After some passionate expressions of our
old acquaintance, I inquired, you may be sure, after my plan-
tation and my partner. The old man told me he had not been
in the Brazils for nine years; but that when he came away
my partner was living, and that he gave every year a faithful
account of the produce, of which he received duly my moiety;
and that, believing I was lost, and all the world believing so
also, my partner accounted to him in my name, for six or
eight of the first years' profits, which he received; and the
old man let me see that he was debtor to me four hundred
and seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar,
and fifteen double rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his
ship, he having been wrecked coming home to Lisbon, about
eleven years after my leaving the place. The good man then
complained of his misfortunes, and how he had been obliged
to make use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him
a share in a new ship. However, my old friend," says he,
you shall not want a supply in your necessity; and as soon
as my son returns, you shall be fully satisfied." Upon this
he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me one hundred and
sixty Portugal moidores in gold; and taking up the writings
of his title to the ship, he puts them into my hands for security
of the rest. I was too much moved with the honesty and
kindness of the poor man to be able to bear this. Indeed,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
171
every thing the good man said was full of affection, and I
could hardly refrain from tears while he spoke. I took one
hundred of the moidores; and as to the bill of sale of his part
in his son's ship, I would not take it by any means.
Seven months after this, I received a large packet from the
survivors of my trustees, and a letter of my partner's, con-
gratulating me upon being alive; and 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 looked over these letters, and especially when I found all
my wealth about me. I turned pale, and grew sick; and had
not the old man run and fetched me a cordial, I believe the
sudden surprise of joy had overset nature, and I had died
upon the spot. I was now master of five thousand pounds
sterling in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it,
in the Brazils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as
an estate of lands in England; and, in a word, I was in a
condition which I scarce knew how to understand, or how to
compose myself for the enjoyment of it. The first thing I
did was to recompense my original benefactor, my good old
captain. I was now to consider what to do with the estate
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that Providence had thus put into my hands; in a word, I
had no way but to go back to England, and take my effects
with me.
It was some months, however, before I resolved
upon this.
Having 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 going to
England by sea at that time; and though I could give no
reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon me so much,
that though I had once shipped my baggage in order to go,
yet I altered my mind, and that not once, but two or three
times. In a word, I was so prepossessed against going by
sea at all, except from Calais to Dover, that I resolved to
travel all the way by land; which, as I was not in haste, and
did not value the charge, was by much the pleasanter way:
and to make it more so, my old captain brought an English
gentleman, the son of a merchant, who was willing to travel
with me; after which we picked up two more English mer-
chants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen: so that
we were in all six of us, and five servants; 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 supplying the place of a servant on the road. In this
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
173
manner I set out from Lisbon: and our company being well
mounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof they did
me the honour to call me captain.
When we came to Pampeluna, to me, that had been always
used to countries where we could scarce bear any clothes on,
the cold was insufferable. Poor Friday was really frighted
when he saw the mountains all covered with snow, and felt
cold weather, which he had never seen or felt before in his
life. 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. Upon these great snows it was frequent for
wolves to show themselves, being ravenous for want of food.
We set out from Pampeluna, with a guide, on the 15th of
November. It was about two hours before night, when our
guide being something before us, out rushed three monstrous
wolves, and after them a bear, out of a hollow way adjoining
to a thick wood: two of the wolves flew upon the guide, and
had he been half a mile before us, he had been devoured
before we could have helped him; one of them fastened upon
his horse, and the other attacked the man with that violence,
that he had not time, or not presence of mind enough, to draw
his pistol, but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. My
man Friday being next me, I bade him ride up, and see what
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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.
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 dismallest howling
of wolves. It is easy to suppose, that at the noise of Friday's
pistol we rode up to see what was the matter. As soon as we
came clear of the trees, we saw plainly 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, as that which
followed between Friday and the bear, which gave us all
the greatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is a heavy,
clumsy creature, so he has two particular qualities, which
generally are the rule of his actions: first, as to men, who are
not his proper prey, he does not usually attempt them, unless
they attack him; on the contrary, if you meet him in the
woods, 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
175
was.
afraid, you had best look another way, and keep going on; for
sometimes if you stop, and stand still, and look steadfastly at
him, he takes it for an affront; and if you throw anything at
him, and it hits him, he takes that too for an affront, and
sets all other business aside to pursue his revenge, for he will
have satisfaction in point of honour. This is his first quality.
The next is, that 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. On a sudden, we
espied the bear come out of the wood, and a monstrous one it
When Friday saw him, it was easy to see joy and cou-
rage in the fellow's countenance. "O! O! O!" says Friday,
three times, pointing to him: "O master! you give me te
leave, me shakee te hand with him; me makee you good
laugh." I was surprised to see the fellow so pleased; "You
fool," says I, "he will eat you up.”
"Eatee me up?" says
Friday, "Me eatee him up! Makee you good laugh; you all
stay here, me show you good laugh." So he gives my other
servant his horse, and with his gun away he flew. The bear
was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody, till
Friday 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. Friday, who had, as we say, the
heels of the bear, came up with him quickly, and takes up a
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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
shew us some laugh, as he called it. As soon as the bear
felt the blow, he turns about, and comes after him, taking
long strides, and shuffling along 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 run towards us for help; so we
all resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man,
though I was angry at him for bringing the bear back upon
us when he was going about his own business another way;
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 hears me, and cries out, "No shoot! Stand
still, you get much laugh!”—and as the nimble creature ran
two feet for the beast'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 he gets nimbly up the tree,
laying his gun down upon the ground. The bear soon came
to the tree, and, the first thing he did, he stopped at the
gun, smelt to it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the
tree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrously heavy. 1
was amazed at the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
177
not for my life see any thing to laugh at yet, till seeing the
bear get up the tree, we all rode nearer to him. When we
came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end of
a large limb of the tree, 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, "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 he sees him stand still, he
calls out to him again, as if he had supposed the bear could
speak English, What you no come farther ? pray you come
farther!" So he left jumping and shaking the tree; and the
bear, just as if he had 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 on 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 indeed, but still could not imagine what the
fellow would do: for, first, we thought he depended upon
N
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
shaking the bear off; but 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, so that we

شية
could not imagine what would be the end of it, and where 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
179
away
"
Friday, "you no come farther, me go, me go. You no come
to me, me go come to you ;" and upon this he goes out to the
smallest end of the bough, where it would bend with his
weight, and gently lets himself down by it, sliding down the
bough till he came near enough to jump down on his feet, and
he run to his gun, takes it up, and stands still. "Well,"
said I, “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 leisurely, looking behind
him every step, and coming backward till he got into the body
of the tree: then, with the same hinder end foremost, he came
down the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one
foot at a time, very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before
he could set his hind feet upon the ground, Friday stepped up
close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and
shot him dead as a stone. 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
So we
kill bear in my country," says Friday.
says I; "Why, you have no guns!"
gun, but shoot great much long arrow."
very loud.
"So you kill them?"
""
No," says he, “no
This was a good
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
diversion to us: but we were still in a wild place, and the
howling of wolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, I never
heard any thing that filled me with so much horror.
The ground was still covered with snow, though not so
deep and dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous
creatures, as we heard afterwards, were come down into the
forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, and had killed
a great many sheep, and some people too. We had one
dangerous place to pass, and this was a small plain, surrounded
with woods on every side. We met with nothing in the first
wood, except that we saw five great wolves cross the road at
full speed, as if they had been in chase of some prey; but they
took no notice of us, and were gone out of sight in a few
moments, Upon this our guide, who was a wretched, faint-
hearted fellow, bid us keep ready, for he believed there were
more wolves a-coming. We kept our eyes about us; but we
saw no more wolves till we entered the plain. Then we had
occasion enough to look about us. The first object we met
with was a poor horse which the wolves had killed, and at
least, a dozen of them at work.. 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 upon our hands than we were aware of. We
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
181
were not gone half over the plain, but we began to hear the
wolves howl in a frightful manner, and presently we saw about
a hundred coming on towards us 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
I ordered that only every other man should fire, and that the
others should stand ready to give them a second volley im-
mediately, if they continued to advance upon us. However,
upon firing the first volley, the enemy made a full stop, being
terrified with the noise and the fire: four of them dropped;
several others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we
could see by the snow. I found, however, that they did not
retreat: whereupon, remembering that I had been told that
the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of a man, I
caused all our company to halloo as loud as they could; and I
found the notion not altogether mistaken, for upon our shout
they began to retire, and turn about. Then I ordered a
second volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the
gallop, and away they went to the woods.
The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky;
but the noise increasing, on a sudden we perceived two or
three troops of wolves, one on our left, one behind us, and one
on our front, so that we seemed to be surrounded with them:
however, we kept our way forward, as fast as we could make
र
*
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
our horses go. In this manner we came in view of the
entrance of a wood, but were greatly surprised when we saw
a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance.
On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard the
noise of a gun, and looking that way, out rushed a horse, with
a saddle and a bridle on him, flying like the wind, and a pack of
wolves after him at full speed (see p. 188.) But here we had
a most horrible sight: for riding up to the entrance where the
horse came out, we found the carcase of another horse and of
two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures; and one of the
men was no doubt the same whom we heard fire the gun, for
there lay a gun just by him fired off. This filled us with horror,
and we knew not what course to take; but the creatures re-
solved us soon, for they gathered about us presently, in hopes.
of prey, and I verily believe there were three hundred of
them. It happened that, at the entrance into the wood, there
were some large timber-trees, which had been cut down the
summer before, and lay there for carriage. I drew my little
troop in among those trees, advised them to alight, and, keep-
ing one tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle,
or three fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre. We did
so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furious
charge than the creatures made upon us. I ordered our men
to fire as before, every other man; and they took their aim so
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
183

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. I
was loth to spend our shot too hastily; so I called my other
man, and giving him a horn of powder, I bade him lay a train
all along the piece of timber. He did so; and had just time
to get away, when the wolves came up, and some were got
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
upon it, when I, snapping an uncharged pistol close to the
powder, set it on fire: those that were upon the timber were
scorched with it, and six or seven of them fell among us, with
the force and fright of the fire: we dispatched these in an
instant, and the rest were so frighted with the light, which
the darkness made more terrible, that they drew back; upon
which I ordered our pistols to be fired in one volley, and after
that we gave a shout. Upon this the wolves turned tail, and
we sallied immediately upon near twenty lame ones, and fell a
cutting them with our swords, which answered our expectation ;
for the crying and howling they made was better understood
by their fellows, so that they all fled and left us.
We had, first and last, killed about threescore of them.
The field of battle being cleared, we made forward again, for
we had still a league to go; and in an hour more we came to
the town where we were to lodge, which we found all in
arms; for it seems that the night before the wolves and
bears had broke into the village, and put them in a terrible
fright.
The next morning our guide was so ill that we were obliged
to take a new guide there, and go to Toulouse, where we
found a warm climate, a pleasant country, and no snow, no
wolves, or any thing like them: but when we related our story
at Toulouse, they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
185
in the great forest at the foot of the mountains, especially
when the snow lay on the ground; but they inquired much
what kind of a guide we had gotten, that would venture to
bring us that way in such a severe season; and told us it was
very fortunate we were not all devoured.
I have nothing to take notice of in my passage through
France. I travelled from Toulouse to Paris, and without any stay
came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover, the 14th of January.
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 shew the like of-be-
ginning 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 my state of complicated good
fortune, I was past running more hazards, and so indeed I had
been, if other circumstances had concurred: but I was inured
to a wandering life, had no family, not 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 the country out of my head, and had a great mind to be
upon the wing again: especially, I could not resist the strong
inclination I had to see my island, and to know if the poor
Spaniards were in being there, and how the rogues I left there
had used them. My true friend, the widow, earnestly dis-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES
suaded me from it, and so far prevailed with me, that, for
almost seven years, she prevented my running abroad; during
which time I took my two nephews 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 that he was a sensible, bold, enterprising
young fellow, I put him into a good ship, and sent him to sea ;
and this young fellow afterwards drew me in, as old as I was,
to further adventures myself.
I in part settled: for, first of all, I married, and had three
children, two sons and one daughter; but my wife dying, and
my nephew coming home with good success from a voyage to
Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his importunity, pre-
vailed, and 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, separated, and how at last the Spaniards were obliged
to use violence with them; how they were subjected to the
Spaniards; how honestly the Spaniards used them: an his-
tory, if it were entered into, as full of variety and wonderful
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
187
accidents as my own part: particularly also as to their battles
with the Caribbeans, who landed several times upon the island,
and as to the improvement they had made upon the island
itself; and how five of them made an attempt upon 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
supplies 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, re-
served 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 brought there, with more people, 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 planting,
which I afterwards could not perform. The fellows proved
very honest and diligent, after they were mastered, and had
188
ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
their properties set apart for them.-But of these new adven-
tures of mine, for ten years more, I may perhaps give a further
account hereafter.

London: Palmer aud Clayton, 9, Crane Court, Fleet Street.