T-I-T-HTITH HIT ºr
A is , , , , , , Gºrriº
F.
--
-
----:-
E
|
:-
=
-
:
f
:
i.
s.
s-º
-
#
-
º:
º:
#º
Tź
i
|
–E.E
s-.
-
F.
#
-
ARD !
–––.”
i
-
I.T.
-
| | 1.


mag. Woy.
*..
f s,
** A.A .… *
** ...+-- : ; *;
;3.32° º: ‘….. . .
* t ºf . ,
% ſº %%.e… --
,，.，，，****

** .< *s
3 &
2%.2% 22* 2^*2
… .. 2. ;
/** Zºzzº. 22:22.
2’’
. . •
ºr
Af
_* ... ...--e:” – - - x- = . . ---. . º
_2^ . • . ’s ~,
/ `-->. S.,
# º > *
* , -- - - - - ------ * * * * * 2 #
2 x, f
-- /
--~
-** *

THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
J3 Y
DANIEL DE FOT.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED
A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.
EMBELLISHED WITH WOOD EN CUTS.
EDINBURGH :
Printed by James Ballantyne and Company,
JFOR
JOHN BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY.,
HANOVER-STREET,
18] 2.

**.
+
conte NTs.
*-º-º:
- RAGE,
Life of Daniel Le Foe. e go º © o º Q © tº © o Q xiii
chap. 1.
My Birth and Parentage—At Nineteen Years of Age I de-
termine to go to Sea—Dissuaded by my Parents—Elope
with a School-fellow, and go on board Ship—A Storm ari-
ses—Ship founders—Myself and Crew saved by a Boat
.ſrom another Wessel, and landed near Yarmouth—Meet
my Companion's Father there, who advises me never to go
to Sea more, but in vain. . . . . . . . . . . . .
CHAP. II.
Make a trading Voyage to Guinea very successfully—Death
of my Captain—Sail another Trip with his Mate—The
Wengeance of Providence for disobedience to Parents now
overtakes me—Taken by a Sallee Rover, and all sold as
Slaves—My Master frequently sends me a-fishing, which
suggests an idea of Escape—Make my Escape in an open
Boat, with a Moresco Boy. . . . . . . . . . .
CHAP. III.
Make for the Southward in hopes of meeting with some Eu-
ropean Vessel—See Savages along Shore–Shoot a large
Leopard–Am taken up by a Merchantman–Arrive at
the Brazils, and buy a Settlement there–Cannot be quiet,
but sail on a Voyage of Adventure to Guinea—Ship strikes
on a Sand-bank in unknown Land–All lost but myself,
who am driven ashore, half dead. . . . . . . . .
11
21
tº a º
‘Viºl CONTENTS.
CHAP. XIV.
- * > - PAGR,
Reflections—An extraordinary Dream—Discover five Ca-
noes of Savages on Shore—Observe from my Station two
miserable Wretches dragged' out of their Boats to be de-
voured—One of them makes his escape, and runs directly
towards me, pursued by two others—I take Measures so as
to destroy his Pursuers and save his Life—Christen him
by the name of Friday, and he becomes a faithful and ex-
cellent Servant. • . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
CHAP. XV.
I am at great pains to instruct Friday respecting my abhor-
rence of the Cannibal practices of the Savages—He is ama-
zed at the effects of the Gun, and considers it an intelli-
gent Being—Begins to talk English tolerably—A Dia-
logue—I instruct him in the knowledge of Religion, and
find him very apt—He describes to me some white Men who
had come to his Country, and still lived there. . . . . 157
‘CHAP. xvi.
I determine to go over to the Continent—Friday and I con-
struct a Boat equal to carry twenty Men—His deaterity
in managing her—Friday brings intelligenee of three Ca-
noes of Savages on Shore—Resolve to go down upon them
—Friday and I fire upon the Wretches, and save the Life
of a poor Spaniard—List of the killed and wounded—Dis-
cover a poor Indian bound in one of the Canoes, who turns
out to be Friday's Father. . . . . . . . . . . . 169
CHAP. XVII.
I learn from the Spaniard that there were sixteen more of his
Countrymen among the Savages—The Spaniard and Fri-
day’s Father, well armed, sail on a Mission to the Conti-
ment—I discover an English Ship lying at Anchor off the
Island—Her Boat comes on Shore with three Prisoners—
The Crew straggle into the Woods, their Boat being aground
-Discover myself to the Prisoners, who prove to be the
Captain and Mate of the Wessel, and a Passenger—Secure
the Mutineers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
CONTENTS.
CHAP. XVIII.
PAGE.
The Ship makes Signals for her Boat—On receiving no an-
swer, she sends another Boat on Shore—Methods by which
we secure this Boat’s Crew, and recover the Ship. . . . 194
CHAP. XIX.
I take leave of the Island, and, after a long Voyage, arrive
in England–Go down into Yorkshire, and find the great-
er part of my Family dead—Resolve to go to Lisbon for
information respecting my Plantation at the Brazils—
Meet an old Friend there, by whose means I become rich—
Set out for England over Land-Much annoyed by Wolves
on the road. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CHAP. XX. -
Strange Battle betwixt Friday and a Bear—Terrible En-
208
gagement with a whole Army of Wolves—Arrive in Eng-
land safely, and settle my Affairs there—I marry, and
have a Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
CHAP. XXI.
Reflections—Unsettled state of Mind, and Concersation with
my Wife thereon—Purchase a Farm in the County of Bed-
jord—Lose my Wife—I determine to revisit, my lsland,
and for that purpose settle all my Affairs in England—
219
Description of the Cargo I carried out with me—Save the
Crew of a Wessel burnt at Sea. . . . . . . . . .
CHAP. XXII.
\ -
Steer for the West Indies—Distressing Account of a Bristol
Ship, the Crew of which we save in a state of Starvation—
229
Arrive at my Island—Friday's joy on discovering it—Af.
fecting interview betwixt him and his Father on landing—
Narrative of the Occurrences on the Island during my ab-
$672C6, © o g *. Ç o iº º e e *...* o wº º • • tº - tº
CHAP. XXIII.
Narrative continued—Insolence of three of the Englishmen
to the Spaniards—They are disarmed and brought to order
—A great Body of Savages land upon the Island—They
345
X CONTENT'S e.
PAGEe
turn out to be two adverse Nations met there by chance-
4 bloody Battle betwixt them—Several of the vanquished
Party secured by the Spaniards. . . . . . . . . . 257
CHAP. XXIV.
Fresh Broils betwixt the turbulent Englishmen and the Spa-
niards—The English make a Voyage to the Main Land,
and return in twenty-two Days—Particulars of their Voy-
age—Description of the Men and Women they brought
with them—The Colony discovered by an unlucky accident
to the Savages, who invade the Island, but are defeated. . 269
CHAP. XXV.
The Island is invaded by a formidable Fleet of Savages—4
terrible Engagement, in which the Cannibals are utterly
routed—Thirty-seven Wretches, the survivors, are saved,
and employed by my People as Servants—Description of
Will Atkins’ ingenious Contrivances for his Accommodation. 288
CHAP. XXVI.
I hold Conversation with the Spaniards, and learn the His-
tory of their Situation among the Savages from which I re-
lieved them—I inform the Colony for what purpose I am
come, and what I mean to do for them—Distribution of
the Stores I brought with me—The Priest I saved at Sea
solemnizes the Marriages of the Sailors and Female In-
dians, who had hitherto lived together as Man and Wife... 298
CHAP. XXVII.
Sincere and worthy Character of the Priest—Dialogue with
Will Atkins and myself—Conversation betwirt Atkins and
his Indian Wife on the Subject of Religion—Her Baptism
–Settlement of the Commonwealth. . . . . . . . . . 324
CHAP. XXVIII.
Entertain the prospect of converting the Indians—Amiable
Character of the Young Woman we saved in a famished
State, at Sea—Her own Relation of her Sufferings from
Hunger—Sail from the Island for the Brazils—Encoun-
ter and rout a whole Fleet of Savages—Death of Friday—
Arrival at Brazil. . . . . . . . . . . . . . , 335
CONT ENTS.
xi
CHAP. XXIX.
PAGE.
I dispatch a Number of additional Recruits, and a Quantity
of extra Stores to the Island, and take my leave of it for
ever—I determine to go with the Ship to the East Indies—
Arrival at Madagascar—Lireadful Occurrences there. .
CHAP. XXX.
Difference with my Nephew on account of the Cruelties prac.
tised at Madagascar—Five Men lost on the Arabian Shore,
off the Gulf of Persia—The Seamen refuse to sail, if I con-
tinue on board, in consequence of which I am left on Shore
346
–Make a very advantageous trading Voyage in company
with an English Merchant, and purchase a Vessel, which,
it turns out, the Crew had mutinied and run away with. .
CHAP. XXXI.
Make a trading Voyage in this Ship—Put into the River of
Gambodia–Am warned of my Danger by a Countryman,
in consequence of which we set sail, and are pursued—
Great difficulty in making our Escape. . . . . . .
CHAP. XXXII.
Obliged to come to anchor on a Savage Coast, to repair our
Ship—We are attacked by the Natives, whom our Carpen-
ter disperses by a whimsical Contrivance—Serious Reflec-
tions upon our disagreeable Situation. . . . . . . .
CHAP. xxxiii.
We arrive in China in Safety—Dispose of the Ship—Descrip-
tion of the Inhabitants—Arrive at Pekin, and find an op-
portunity of returning to Europe. . . . . . . . .
CHAP. XXXIV.
Set out by the Caravan—Account of the valuable Effects we
took with us–Further Description of the Interior of China
—Pass the great Wall—Attacked by Tartars, who are dis-
persed by the resolution of a Scots Merchant—The old Pi-
#. saves my Life-We are again attacked, and defeat the
artars, “ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
360.
370.
377
389
399
xii CONTENTS.
CHAP. XXXV.
- - PAGE,
Further Account of our Journey—Description of an Idol;
which we Destroy—Great Danger we incur thereby—Ac-
count of our Travels through Museovy. . . . . . . 409
CHAP. XXXVI.
Conversations with a Russian Grandee-Set out on my Jour-
ney homewards—Harassed by Kalmucks on the Road—Ar-
rival at Archangel—Sail from thence, and arrive safely in
England. . • * * * * * * * * * * * * * • 434
THE LIFE
OF
DANIEL DE FOE.
Perhaps there exists no work, either of instruction or
entertainment, in the English language, which has been
more generally read, and more universally admired, than
the Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. It is diffi-
cult to say in what the charm consists, by which persons
of all classes and denominations are thus fascinated; yet
the majority of readers will recollect it as amongst the first
works which awakened and interested their youthful at-
tention; and feel, even in advanced life, and in the matu-
rity of their understanding, that there are still associated
with Robinson Crusoe, the sentiments peculiar to that
period, when all is new, all glittering in prospect, and
when those visions are most bright, which the experience
of after life tends only to darken and destroy.
This work was first published in April 1719; its recep-
tion, as may be supposed, was universal. It is a singular
circumstance, that the Author, (the subject of our present
Memoir,) after a life spent in political turmoil, danger, and
imprisonment, should have occupied himself, in its decline,
in the production of a work like the present; unless it
may be supposed, that his wearied heart turned with dis-
gust from society and its institutions, and found solace in
picturing the happiness of a state, such as he has assigned
to his hero. Be this as it may, society is for ever indebt-
ed to the memory of De Foe for his production of a work,
in which the ways of Providence are simply and pleasingly

xiw THE LIFE OF
vindicated, and a lasting and useful moral is conveyed
through the channel of an interesting and delightful story.
DANIEL DE FoE was born in London in the year 1663.
His father was James Foe, of the parish of St Giles’, but-
cher. Much curious speculation, with which we shall not
trouble our readers, has arisen from the circumstance of
Daniel’s having, in his own instance, perfixed the De to
the family name. We are inclined to adopt the opinion.
of that critical inquirer, who supposes, that Daniel did so,
being ashamed of the lowness of his origin. His family,
as well as himself, were Dissenters; but it does not appear
that his tenets were so strict as his sect required; for
he complains, in the Preface to his More Reformation,
“ that some Dissenters had reproached him, as if he had
said, that the gallows and the gallies ought to be the pe-
nalty of going to the conventicle; forgetting, that I must
design to have my father, my wife, six innocent children, and
myself, put into the same condition.”
De Foe’s education was rather circumscribed, which is
the more to be lamented, as, in so many instances, he has
exhibited proofs of rare natural genius. He was sent by
his father, at twelve years old, to the Newington Green Dis-
senting Academy, then kept by Mr Morton, where he re-
mained about four years; and this appears to have been all
the education he ever received. When he was remanded
from school, it would seem, that, his genius not lying to-
wards the marrow-bone and cleaver, his father had put
him to some other trade; of what nature we are unable
to learn, De Foe himself being very reserved on the sub-
ject. When charged by Tutchin” with having his breed-
ing as an apprentice to a hosier, he asserts, (May 1705)
“that he never was a hosier,t or an apprentice, but ad-
mits that he had been a trader.” -
This, however, had occupied but a short period of his
youth; for in 1685, when he was in his twenty-second
year, he took up arms in the cause of the duke of Mon-
* Tutchin, the publisher of the Observator, and a steady op-
ponent of De Foe's, both in politics and literature.
i Perhaps the salvo he laid to his conscience for this apparent-
ly ºnion, was, that though he dealt in hose, he did not
make them. -
DAN I E L DE, F O E, X-V
mouth. On the destruction of Monmouth's party, Daniel
had the good fortune to escape unpunished amidst the herd
of greater delinquents; but, in his latter years, when the
avowal was no longer dangerous, he boasts himself much
of his exploits, in His Appeal to Honour and Justice, be-
ing a true Account of his Conduct in Public Affairs.
Two years afterwards (1688,) De Foe was admitted a
Liveryman of London. As he had been throughout a
steady advocate for the revolution, he had now the satis-
faction of witnessing that great event. Oldmixon says,
(Works, Vol. II. p. 276) that at a feast, given by the
Lord Mayor of London to King William, on the 29th
October, 1689, De Foe appeared gallantly mounted, and
richly accoutred, amongst the troopers commanded by
Lord Peterborough, who attended the king and queen
from Whitehall to the Mansion-house. All Daniel’s horse-
manship, however, united to the steady devotion of his
pen to the cause of William, were unable to procure him
the notice of that cold charactered monarch; and our au-
thor was fain to content himself (as his adversary Tutchin
asserts) with the humble occupation of a hosier in Free-
man’s Yard, Cornhill;-wisely considering, that if the
court could do without political tracts, the people could
not do without stockings.
With the ill fortune, however, attendant upon those
men of genius, who cultivate their superior powers to the
neglect of that common sense, which is requisite to carry a
man creditably through this every-day world, De Foe's
affairs declined from bad to worse; he spent those hours,
which he ought to have devoted to his shop, in a society
for the cultivation of polite learning, and he was under
the necessity of absconding from his creditors in 1692.
One of those creditors, who had less consideration for
polite learning, and more irritability than the rest, took
out a commission of bankruptcy against him; but, fortunate-
ly for our author, this was superseded on the petition of
those to whom he was most indebted, and a composition
was accepted. This composition he punctually paid by
efforts of unwearied diligence; and some of the creditors,
whose claims had been thus satisfied, falling into distress
themselves, he waited upon them, and paid their debts in
full. He was next engaged in carrying on tile-works, on
S
xvi THE LIFE OF
the banks of the Thames, near Tilbury, but with little
success; for it was sarcastically said of him, that he did
not, “like the Egyptians, require bricks without straw,
but, like the Jews, required bricks without paying his la-
bourers.” United j. tile-making, our author, stimu-
lated by an active mind and embarrassed circumstances,
devised many other schemes, or, as he called them, projects.
He wrote many sheets about the English coin; he pro-
jected Banks for every county, and Factories for goods;
he exhibited a Proposal (very feelingly, no doubt) for a
commission of inquiry into bankrupt’s estates; he contri-
ved a Pension-office for the relief of the poor, and finish-
ed, by publishing a long Essay upon projects themselves.
About this period (1695), our author's indefatigable
endeavours procured him some notice from the court, and
he was appointed accountant to the commissioners for
managing the duties on glass. Here also his usual ill luck
attended him; he was thrown out of his situation by the
suppression of the tax in 1699.
But the time at length arrived when the sun of royal
favour was to shine out upon our author’s prospects. About
the end of 1699, there was published, what De Foe calls,
“an horrid pamphlet, in very ill verse, written by one
Tutchin, and called The Foreigners : in which the author
fell personally upon the king, then upon the Dutch na-
tion, and, after having reproached his majesty with crimes,
that his worst enemies could not think of without horror,
he sums up all in the odious name of Foreigner. This fill-
ed me with rage against the book, and gave birth to a
trifle, which I never could hope should have met with so
general an acceptation.”
The trifle, which De Foe here alludes to, was his True
Born Englishman ; a poetical satire on the Foreigners,
and a defence of King William and the Dutch ; of which
the sale was great without example, and our author’s re-
ward proportionate. He was even admitted to the ho-
nour of a personal interview with the king, and became
with more ardour than ever a professed partizan of the
COurt.
His first publication afterwards, was, The original Power
of the Collective Body of the People of England examin-
ed and asserted; next, An Argument to prove, that a stand.

DANIEL DE FOE. xvii
ing Army, with consent of Parliament, was not inconsistent
with a free Government ; but, as we do not mean to fol-
low De Foe through the career of his politics, and intend
only to notice such as, in their consequences, materially
affected his personal situation and affairs, we shall pass to
the death of his sovereign and patron, which took place
8th March, 1702.*
The accession of Anne having restored the line of Stu-
art, to whom the politics and conduct of De Foe had been
peculiarly obnoxious, our author was shortly reduced, as
before, to live on the produce of his wits: and it is per-
haps lucky for the world, that there is so much truth in the
universal out-cry against the neglect of living authors; for
there seems a certain laziness concomitant with genius,
which can only be incited to action by the pressure of ne-
cessity. Had William lived, probably the world would
never have been delighted with the Adventures of Robin-
son Crusoe.
Whether De Foe found politics the most vendible pro-
duce of the press, or, like Macbeth, felt himself
Stept in so far, that should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er,
we are yet to learn; but he ventured to reprint his Short-
est Way with the Dissenters ; and to publish several other
treatises, which were considered libellous by the Commons:
and on the 25th of February, 1702-3, a complaint being
made in the House, of a book, entitled, The Shortest Way
with the Dissenters ; and the folios 11, 18, and 26 being
read, “ Resolved, that this book, being full of false and
scandalous reflections on this Parliament, and tending to
promote sedition, be burnt by the hands of the common
hangman, in New Palace-Yard.”
Our unfortunate author’s political sins...were now all
mustered in array against him, and a tremendous catalogue
they made. He had been the favourite and panegyrist of
* Feb. 26. William, riding from Kensington towards Hamps
ton, was thrown from his horse, and broke his collar-bone. He
lingered till the morning of March 8th, when he died about eighs
o'clock, in the fifty-second year of his age.
xviii THE LIFE OF
William; he had fought for Monmouth, and opposed
James; he had vindicated the Revolution, and defended
the rights of the people; he had bantered, insulted, and
offended, the whole Tory leaders of the Commons; and,
after all, he could not be quiet, but must republish his
most offensive productions.
Thus overpowered, De Foe was obliged to secrete him-
self; and we are indebted to a very disagreeable circum-
stance for the following accurate description of his person,
A proclamation was issued by the secretaries of state, in
January 1703, in the following terms:
* St James’s, Jan. 10, 1702-3.
“Whereas Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is charged
with writing a scandalous and seditious pamphlet, entitled,
“The Shortest Way with the Dissenters:” he is a middle-
sized spare man, about forty years old, of a brown com-
plexion, and dark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig,
a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole
near his mouth ; was born in London, and for many years
was a hose-factor, in Freeman’s Yard, in Cornhill, and now
is owner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury-fort,
in Essex : whoever shall discover the said Daniel De Foe
to one of her majesty’s principal secretaries of state, or any
of her majesty’s justices of peace, so as he may be appre-
hended, shall have a reward of £50, which her majesty
has ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery.”
He was shortly after caught, fined, pilloried, and impri-
soned. “Thus,” says he, “was I a second time ruined;
for by this affair I lost above 283,500 sterling.”
While he was confined in Newgate, he occupied his
time in correcting for the press a collection of his own
writings, which was published in the course of the year;
and he even amused himself by writing an Ode to the Pil-
lory ; of which he had so lately been made the unwilling
acquaintance. But the chief object to which he directed
his mind, was the projection of The Review. The publi-.
cation of this periodical work commenced in 4to, on the
19th February, 1704, and continued at the rate of two
numbers a week, till March, 1705, when an additional
weekly number was published, and it was continued every
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, till May, 1713, forming
IDANIEL DE FO Ee xix.
in whole nine thick volumes. De Foe was the sole writer.
This work treats of foreign and domestic intelligence, po-
litics, and trade; but as our author foresaw that it was not
likely to become popular unless amusing, he discusses va-
rious other topics, under the head of a Scandal Club; Love,
Marriage, Poetry, Language, and the prevailing tastes and
habits of the times. Neither did these occupations find
sufficient employment for his active mind. While he was
still in Newgate, (1704,) he published The Storm ; or a
collection of the most remarkable casualities which hap-
pened in the tempest, 26th November, 1703. Nor was
this work a dry detail of disasters only, De Foe having ta-
ken the occasion, with his usual felicity, to inculcate the
truths of religion, and the superintendency of Providence.
About the end of 1704, when, as our author tells us, he
lay ruined and friendless in Newgate, without hopes of
deliverance, Sir Robert Harley, then secretary of state,
of whom De Foe had no previous personal knowledge, sent
a verbal message to him, desiring to know “what he could
do for him.” Our author, no doubt, made a suitable re-
ply; in consequence of which, Sir Robert took an oppor-
tunity to represent to the queen his present misery, and
unmerited sufferings. Anne, however, did not immediate-
ly consent to his liberation, but she inquired into the cir-
cumstances of his family, and sent, by Lord Godolphin, a
considerable sum to his wife. She afterwards, through
the same medium, conveyed a sum to himself, equal to the
payment of his fine and discharge, and thus bound him
eternally to her interest. He was liberated from Newgate
the end of 1704, and retired immediately to his family at
St Edmund’s-Bury. He was not allowed, however, to en-
joy the quiet he courted. Booksellers, news-writers, and
wits, circulated everywhere reports, that he had fled from
justice, and deserted his security. He despised their spite,
and resumed his labours; the first fruits of which were, a
Hymn to Victory, and a Double Welcome to the Duke of
Marlborough ; the subjects for both of which were furnish-
ed by the glorious achievements of that general.
Our author now continued his Review, and his political
pamphleteering, for several years; in the course of which
he was subjected to much disquiet, and frequently to dan-
ger; but the consciousness of his situation as an English
XX THE LIFE OF
freeholder, and a Liveryman of London, united to a con-
siderable degree of resolution and personal courage, ena-
bled him to encounter and overcome the machinations of
his enemies. It will scarcely be believed, at this time of
day, that, on a journey which his affairs led him to take to
the western parts of England, a project was formed to kid-
nap and º him as a soldier to the army; that the west-
ern justices, in the ardour of their party zeal, determined
to apprehend him as a vagabond; and that suits were com-
menced against him in his absence for fictitious debts: Yet
all these circumstances De Foe has asserted in his Review ;
and we have not learnt that any attempt was ever made to
controvert the truth of his statements.
About this time (1706) a situation occurred, for which
our author’s abilities were peculiarly fitted. The cabinet
of Queen Anne was in want of a person of general commer-
cial knowledge, ready talents, and insinuating manners, to
go to Scotland for the purpose of promoting the great mea-
sure of the Union. Lord Godolphin determined to employ
De Foe; he accordingly carried him to the queen, by
whom our author was graciously received, and in a few
days he was sent to Edinburgh. The particular nature of
his instructions has never been made public; but on his
arrival at Edinburgh, in October, 1706, De Foe was re-
cognized as a character almost diplomatic. We must re-
fer our readers to his History of the Union, for the various
and interesting particulars of this mission: the detail of
which, here, would occupy an extent beyond the limits of
our biography.
De Foe appears to have been no great favourite in Scot-
land, although, while there, he published Caledonia, a poem
in honour of the nation. He mentions many hair-breadth
'scapes, which, by “his own prudence, and God’s provi-
dence,” he effected ; and it is not wonderful, that where
almost the whole nation was decidedly averse to the Union,
a character like De Foe, sent thither to promote it by all
means, direct and indirect, should be regarded with dislike,
and even exposed to danger. The act for the Union was
passed by the Scotch Parliament in January, and De Foe
returned to London in February, 1707. It is believed
that his services were rewarded by a pension from Queen
Anne. . . .
I). ANIEL DE FOE. xxi
During the troublous period, at the conclusion of the
war by the treaty of Utrecht, De Foe, wiser by experi-
ence, lived quietly at Newington, publishing his Review.
He encountered, however, in the fulfilment of this task,
much contentious opposition and obloquy, which he man-
fully resisted and retorted; but, after the political changes,
by which his first patron Sir Robert Harley, and next Lord
Godolphin, were turned out of power, his pecuniary allow-
ance from the Treasury seems to have ceased, and he was
compelled, as before, to launch out as a general writer for
the supply of his necessities. The political agitation of the
times dictated his subjects; but, unfortunately for De Foe,
both Tories and Jacobites, in those days, were such plain
matter-of-fact men, that his raillery was misunderstood,
and he was arrested, and committed to his old habitation,
for several squibs, which were obviously ironical.
The writings on which he was indicted, were two;
What if the Pretender should come 2 and, What if the
Queen should die? “ Nothing,” says De Foe, “ could be
“more plain, than that the titles of these are amusements,
“in order to get the books into the hands of those who
“ had been deluded by the Jacobites.” His explanation
would not suffice; he was tried and found guilty, fined in
..f'800, and committed to Newgate. He was now com-
pelled to drop the publication of his Review; and it is sin-
gular, that he did so while confined in Newgate, the very
place in which its idea had first entered his head nine years
before.
After lying in jail a few months, he was liberated by the
queen's order in November, 1713.
Although thus released, and the innocence of his inten-
tions admitted, if not established, nothing was done for
him; and the queen’s death, which took place shortly
after, (in July, 1714) left him defenceless to the attacks
of his rancorous enemies. “No sooner,” says he, “was
“the queen dead, and the king, as right required, pro-
“claimed, but the rage of men increased upon me to that
“degree, that their threats were such as I am unable to
“express; and though I have written nothing since the
“queen’s death, yet a great many things are called by my
“name, and I bear the answerer’s insults.” This was the
darkest period of our author’s life. He had lost his ap-

xxii THE LIFE OF
£ointment, whatever it was ; he had been obliged to give
up his Review ; every thing he ventured to publish besides,
was received with suspicion, and he was on all hands over-
borne by faction, injury, and insult. His health declined
fast under these unmerited sufferings, but the vigour of his
mind remained; and he determined to assert the innocence
of his conduct, and to clear his blemished fame. He ac-
cordingly published, in 1715, “An Appeal to Honour and
Justice, though it be of his worst Enemies, being a True
Account of his Conduct in Public Affairs.” This work
contains a long account and defence of his political con-
duct from the outset, and a most affecting detail of his suf-
ferings; but the subject had been too much for him. When
he reviewed what he had done, and how he had been re-
warded; how much he had deserved, and how heavily he
had suffered; the ardent spirit of De Foe sunk before the
picture, and he was struck with apoplexy before he could
finish his work. It was published nevertheless by his friends,
and the profits of its sale seem to have been the only source
of his support. This was the terminating period of our
author’s political career. He recovered his health, but his
mind had changed its tone; and it was now that the his-
tory of Selkirk first suggested to him the idea of Robinson
Crusoe. It has been thought by some to detract from the
merit of De Foe, that the idea was not originally his own:
but really the story of Selkirk, which had been published
a few years before, in Woodes Rogers’ Voyage round the
World, appears to have furnished our author with so little
beyond the bare idea of a man living upon an uninhabited
island, that it appears quite immaterial whether he took
his hint from that, or from any other similar story, of
which many were then current.
The sale of Robinson Crusoe was, as we have already
stated, rapid and extensive, and De Foe’s profits were
commensurate. The work was attacked on all sides by his
ancient opponents, whose labours have long since quietly
descended with their authors to merited oblivion; but our
author, having the public on his side, set them all at de-
fiance; and the same year, he published a second volume
with equal success. Thus far,
“With steady bark and flowing sail,
“He ran before the wind;”
DAN IEL DE FOE. xxiii
but, incited by the hope of further profit, and conceiving
the theme of Crusoe inexhaustible, he shortly after pub-
lished Serious Reflections during the Life of Robinson Cru-
soe, with his Vision of the Angelic World. These Visions
and Reflections were well received at the time, although
by no means so much in requisition now.
With the return of his good fortune, our author’s health
was re-established, and the vigour of his mind restored.
He published, in 1720, The Life and Piracies of Captain
Singleton ; and finding it safer, it would seem, as well as
more profitable, to amuse the public, than to reform them,
he continued this course, with little variation, for the re-
mainder of his life.
His subsequent publications, to all of which a consider-
able degree of popularity was attached, though none of
them equalled the reputation of Robinson Crusoe, were
the Dumb Philosopher, History of Duncan Campbell, Re-
markable Life of Colonel Jack, Fortunate Mistress, and
New Voyage round the World.
We are now to take leave of our author, who died in
1731, at the age of 68, in Cripplegate, London, leaving a
widow and large family in tolerable circumstances.
It does not fall within our plan either to attempt a criti-
cal analysis of Robinson Crusoe, or a detailed view of the
character of Daniel De Foe ; the one is before our read-
ers, and the other may be estimated from his life. . That
De Foe was a man of powerful intellect and lively imagi-
mation, is obvious from his works; that he was possessed
of an ardent temper, a resolute courage, and an unwearied
spirit of enterprize, is ascertained by the events of his
changeful career: and whatever may be thought of that
rashness and improvidence by which his progress in life
was so frequently impeded, there seems no reason to with-
hold from him the praise of integrity, sincerity, and unva-
ried consistency. As the author of Robinson Crusoe, his
fame promises to endure as long as the language in which
he wrote.

THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
CHAP. I.
My Birth and Parentage—At Nineteen Years of Age I determine
to go to Sea—Dissuaded by my Parents—Elope with a School-
fellow, and go on board Ship—A Storm arises—Ship founders
—Myself and Crew saved by a Boat from another Vessel, and
landed near Yarmouth—Meet my Companion’s Father there,
/eho advises me never to go to Sea more, but in vain.
I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good
family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of
Bremen, who settled first at Hull: He got a good estate by mer-
chandize, and, leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from
whence he had married my mother, whose relations were named
Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I
was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the usual corruption of
words in England, we are now called, nay, we call ourselves, and
write our name, Crusoe; and so my companions always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of which was a lieutenant-colonel
to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly command-
ed by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle
near Dunkirk against the Spaniards: what became of my second.
‘brother, I never knew, any more than my father or mother did
know what was become of me, - .
Being the third son of the family, and not bred to any trade,
my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts: my
father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share
of learning, as far as house education, and a country free-school
A.
2 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
generally goes, and designed me for the law; but I would be satis-
fied with nothing but going to sea; and my inclination to this led
me so strongly against the will, may, the commands of my father,
and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and
other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that
propension of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which
was to befal me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excel-
lent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called
me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the
gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject:
He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering incli-
nation, I had for leaving my father’s house and my native coun-
try, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of
raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of
ease and pleasure: He told me it was men of desperate fortunes
on one hand, or of aspiring superior fortunes on the other, and
who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprize, and make
themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the com-
mon road; that these things were all either too far above me, or
too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might
be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by
long experience, was the best state in the world; the most suited
to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships,
the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and
not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of the
upper part of mankind. He told me, I might judge of the happi-
ness of this state, by this one thing: viz. That this was the state
of life which all other people envied; that kings have frequently
lamented the miserable consequences of being born to great things,
and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two ex-
tremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave
his testimony to this, as the just standard of true felicity, when
he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.
He bade me observe it, and I should always find, that the cala-
mities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of man-
kind; but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and
was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower
part of mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many dis-
tempers and uneasiness, either of body or mind, as those were,
who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagancies, on one hand,
or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or insufficient
diet, on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the .
natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle sta-
tion of life was calculated for all kind of virtues, and all kind of
enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle
fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society,
r - 5

OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. , 3
all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the bless-
ings attending the middle station of life; that this way men went
silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of
it; not embarrassed with the labours of the hands, or of the head;
not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with per-
plexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the body
of rest; not enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burn-
ing lust of ambition for great things; but in easy circumstances,
sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets
of living without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, and learn-
ing by every day’s experience to know it more sensibly.
After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate
manner, not to play the young man, or to precipitate myself into
miseries, which nature and the station of life I was born in, seem-
ed to have provided against; that I was under no necessity of
seeking my bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour
to enter me fairly into the station of life which he had been just
recommending to me; and that if I was not very easy and happy
in the world, it must be my mere fate, or fault, that must hinder
it; and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus
discharged his duty in warning me against measures which he knew
would be to my hurt : In a word, that as he would do very kind
things for me, if I would stay and settle at home as he directed;
so he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes, as to
give me any encouragement to go away : and to close all, he told
me, I had my elder brother for an example, to whom he had used
the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into the
Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires prompt-
ing him to run into the army, where he was killed; and though he
said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to
say to me, that if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless
me; and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having
neglected his counsel, when there might be none to assist in my
recovery.
I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly pro-
phetic, though I suppose my father did not know it to be so him-
self; I say, I observed the tears run down his face very plentifully,
especially when he spoke of my brother who was killed; and that
when he spoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to assist
me, he was so moved, that he broke off the discourse, and told me,
his heart was so full, he could say no more to me.
I was sincerely afflicted with this discourse, as indeed who could
be otherwise? and I resolved not to think of going abroad any more,
but to settle at home according to my father’s desire. But, alas ! a
few days wore it all off; and, in short, to prevent any of my fa-
ther’s farther importunities, in a few weeks after, I resolved to run
quite away from him. However, I did not act so hastily neither,

4. LIFE AND A DVENTURES
as the first heat of my resolution prompted, but I took my mother
at a time when I thought her a little pleasanter than ordinary;
and told her, that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing
the world, that I should never settle to any thing with resolution
enough to go through with it; and my father had better give me
his consent, than force me to go without it; that I was now
eighteen years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade,
or clerk to an attorney; that I was sure, if I did, I should never
serve out my time, but I should certainly run away from my mas-
ter before my time was out, and go to sea; and if she would speak
to my father to let me go one voyage abroad, if I came home
again, and did not like it, I would go no more, and I would pro-
mise, by a double diligence, to recover the time I had lost.
This put my mother into a great passion: she told me, she knew
it would be to no purpose to speak to my father upon any such
subject; that he knew too well what was my interest, to give his
consent to any such thing so much for my hurt; and that she won-
dered how I could think of any such thing, after the discourse I
had had with my father, and such kind and tender expressions,
as she knew my father had used to me; and that, in short, if I
would ruin myself, there was no help for me; but I might depend
I should never have their consent to it : that, for her part, she
would not have so much hand in my destruction; and I should
never have it to say, that my mother was willing, when my father
WaS not.
Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet I
heard afterwards, that she reported all the discourse to him ;
and that my father, after showing a great concern at it, said to
her, with a sigh, That boy might be happy, if he would stay at
home; but if he goes abroad, he will be the most miserable wretch
that ever was born; I can give no consent to it.
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though
in the mean time I continued obstimately deaf to all proposals of
settling to business, and frequently expostulating with my father
and mother, about their being so positively determined against what
they knew my inclinations prompted me to. But being one day
at Hull, whither I went casually, and without any purpose of ma-
king an elopement that time; but, I say, being there, and one of
my companions being going by sea to London, in his father's ship,
and prompting me to go with them, with the common allurement
of a seafaring man, that it should cost me nothing for my passage,
I consulted neither father or mother any more, nor so much as
sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it, as they
might, without asking God’s blessing, or my father's, without any
consideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour,
God knows, on the first of September, 1651, I went on board a
ship bound for London, Never any young adventurer’s misfor-
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE. 5
tunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued longer, than mine :
the ship was no sooner got out of the Humber, but the wind be:
gan to blow, and the sea to rise in a most frightful manner; and
as I had never been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick
in body, and terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect
upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the
judgment of heaven for my wicked leaving my father's house, and
abandoning my duty; all the good counsel of my parents, my fa-
ther’s tears and my mother’s entreaties, came now fresh into my
mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch
of hardness to which it has been since, reproached me with the
ºp of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my
ather.
All this while the storm increased, and the sea went very high,
though nothing like what I have seen many times since ; no, nor
what I saw a few days after: but it was enough to affect me then,
who was but a young sailor, and had never known any thing of
the matter. I expected every wave would have swallowed us up,
and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought it did, in the
trough or hollow of the sea, we should never rise more. In this
agony of mind, I made many vows and resolutions, that if it would
please God to spare my life in this one voyage, if ever I got once
Imy foot upon dry land again, I would go directly home to my fa-
ther, and never set it into a ship again while I lived; that I would
take his advice, and never run myself into such miseries as these
any more. Now I saw plainly the goodness of his observations
about the middle station of life, how easy, how comfortable he
had lived all his days, and never had been exposed to tempests at
Sea, or trouble on shore; and, in short, I resolved, that I would,
like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father.
These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the
storm continued, and indeed some time after; but the next day
the wind was abated, and the sea calmer, and I began to be a little
inured to it. However, I was very grave for all that day, being
also a little sea-sick still ; but towards might the weather cleared
up, the wind was quite over, and a charming fine evening follow-
ed; the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the next
morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun
shining upon it, the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful
that ever I saw.
I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-sick,
but very chearful; looking with wonder upon the Sea, that was so
rough and terrible the day before, and could be so calm and so
pleasant in so little a time after ; and now, lest my good resolutions
should continue, my companion, who had indeed enticed me
away, comes to me: Well, Bob, says he, clapping me upon the
shoulder, how do you do after it I warrant you were frighted,
6 LIFE AND AIDVENTURES
wer’n’t you, last night, when it blew but a capful of wind?—
A capful d'ye call it?' said I, 'twas a terrible storm.—A storm,
you fool you ! replies he, do you call that a storm? why it was no-
thing at all; give us but a good ship, and sea-room, and we think
nothing of such a squall of wind as that ; but you’re but a fresh-
water sailor, Bob ; come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we’ll,
forget all that; d'ye see what charming weather’tis now —To
make short this sad part of my story, we went the way of all
sailors; the punch was made, and I was made half drunk with it,
and in that one night’s wickedness I drowned all my repentance,
all my reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for the
future. In a word, as the sea was returned to its smoothness of
surface, and settled calmness, by the abatement of that storm, so,
the hurry of my thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions
of being swallowed up by the sea being forgotten, and the current
of my former desires returned, I entirely forgot the vows and pro-
mises that I made in my distress. I found indeed some intervals
of reflection; and the serious thoughts did, as it were, endeavour
to return again sometimes; but I shook them off, and roused my-
self from them, as it were from a distemper; and applying myself
to drinking and company, soon mastered the return of those fits
(for so I called them); and I had, in five or six days, got a com-
plete victory over my conscience, as any young fellow that resol-
ved not to be troubled with it, could desire. But I was to have
another trial for it still ; and Providence, as in such cases generally
it does, resolved to leave me entirely without excuse: for if I
would not take this for a deliverance, the next was to be such an
one, as the worst and most hardened wretch among us would 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
had made but little way since the storm. Here we were obliged to
come to an anchor, and here we lay, the wind continuing con-
trary, viz. at south-west, for seven or eight days; during which
time, a great many ships from Newcastle came into the same
roads, as the common harbour where the ships might wait for a
wind for the river. ->
We had not, however, rid here so long, but we should have tided
it up the river, but that the wind blew too fresh; and, after we
had lain four or five days, blew very hard. However, the roads
being reckoned as good as an harbour, the anchorage good, and
our ground-tackle very strong, our men were unconcerned, and
not in the least apprehensive of danger; but spent the time in rest
and mirth, after the manner of the sea; but the eighth day in the
morning, the wind increased, and we had all hands at work, to
strike our top-masts, and make every thing snug and close, that
the ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon, the sea went

OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE. 7
very high indeed, and our ship rid forecastle in, shipped several
seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor had come home;
upon which, our master ordered out the sheet anchor; so that we
rode with two anchors a-head, and the cables veered out to the
better end.
By this time, it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now, I began
to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen
themselves. The master, though vigilant in the business of pre-
serving the ship, yet as he went in and out of his cabin by me, I
could hear him, softly to himself, say several times, Lord be mer-
ciful to us ! we shall be all lost, we shall be all undone; and the
like.—During these first hurries, I was stupid, lying still in my
cabin, which was in the steerage, and cannot describe my temper.
I could ill resume the first penitence which I had so apparently
trampled upon, and hardened myself against; I thought the bit-
terness of death had been past; and that this would be nothing
too, like the first. But when the master himself came by me, as
I said just now, and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully
frighted: I got up out of my cabin, and looked out; but such a
dismal sight I never saw : the sea went mountains high, and broke
upon us every three or four minutes: when I could look about, I
could see mothing but distress round us. Two ships that rid near
us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep load-
en; and our men cried out, that a ship, which rid about a mile
a-head of us, was foundered. Two more ships, being driven from
their anchors, were run out of the roads to sea, at all adventures,
and that with not a mast standing. The light ships fared the best,
as not so much labouring in the sea; but two or three of them
drove, and came close by us, running away with only their sprit-
sail out, before the wind,
Towards the evening, the mate and boatswain begged the mas-
ter of our ship to let them cut away the foremast, which he was
very unwilling to do: but the boatswain protesting to him, that if
he did not the ship would founder, he consented; and when they
had cut away the 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,
who was but a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright
before at but a little. But if I can express at this distance the
thoughts I had about me at that time, I was in tenfold more hor-
ror of mind upon account of my former convictions, and the ha-
ving returned from them to the resolutions I had wickedly taken
at first, than I was at death itself; and these, added to the terror
of the storm, put me into such a condition, that I can by no
words describe it. But the worst was not come yet; the storm
continued with such fury, that the seamen themselves acknowled-

8 I, IFE AN E A DVENTURES
ged they had never seen a worse. We had a good ship, but she
was deep-loaden, and wallowed in the sea, that the seamen every
now and then cried out, she would founder. It was m y advantage
in one respect, that I did not know what they meant by founder,
till I inquired. However, the storm was so violent, that I saw
what is not often seen, the master, the boatswain, and some others.
more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and expecting every
moment when the ship would go to the bottom. In the middle
of the night, and under all the rest of our distresses, one of the
men that had been down on purpose to see, cried out we had
sprung a leak; another said, there was four feet water in the hold.
Then all hands were called to the pump. At that very word, my
heart, as I thought, died within me; and I fell backwards upon
the side of my bed where I sat, into the cabin. However, the men
roused me, and told me, that I that was able to do nothing before,
was as well able to pump as another; at which I stirred up, and
went to the pump, and worked very heartily. While this was do-
ing, the master seeing some light colliers, who, not able to ride
out the storm, were obliged to slip and run away to the sea, and
would come near us, ordered to fire a gun as a signal of distress.
I, who knew nothing what that meant, was so surprised, that I
thought the ship had broke, or some dreadful thing happened. In
a word, I was so surprised, that I fell down in a swoon. As this
was a time when every body had his own life 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; and it was a great while before I came
to myself.
We worked on, but the water increasing in the hold, it was
apparent that the ship would founder; and though the storm be-
gan to abate a little, yet as it was not possible she could swim till
we might run into a port, so the master continued firing guns for
help; and a light ship, who had rid it out just a-head of us, ventu-
red a boat out to help us. It was with the utmost hazard the boat
came near us; but it was impossible for us to get on board, or
for the boat to lie near the ship-side, till at last the men rowing
very heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men cast
them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then veered it
out a great length, which they, after much labour and hazard, took
hold of, and we hauled them close under our stern, and got all
into their boat. It was to no purpose for them or us, after we
were in the boat, to think of reaching to their own ship; so all
agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore as
much as we could; and our master promised them, that if the
boat was staved upon shore, he would make it good to their mas-
ter: so partly rowing, and partly driving, our boat went away to

OF ROBIN SON C R USOE. 9
the northward, sloping towards the shore, almost as far as Win-
terton-Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our
ship, but we saw her sink; and then I understood for the first
time, what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea. I must
acknowledge I had hardly eyes to look up, when the seamen told
me she was sinking; for, from that moment they rather put me
into the boat, than that I might be said to go in, my heart was, as
it were, dead within me, partly with fright, partly with horror of
mind, and the thoughts of what was yet before me. -
While we were in this condition, the men yet labouring at the
oar to bring the boat near the shore, we could see, (when our boat
mounting the waves we were able to see the shore,) a great many
people running along the shore to assist us, when we should come
near; but we made but slow way towards the shore, nor were
we able to reach it, till being past the light-house at Winter-
ton, the shore falls off to the westward towards Cromer, and so
the land broke off a little the violence of the wind. Here we
got in, and, though not without much difficulty, got all safe on
shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as un-
fortunate men, we were used with great humanity, as well by the
magistrates of the town, who assigned us good quarters, as by par-
ticular merchants and owners of ships, and had money given us
sufficient to carry us either to London, or back to Hull, as we
thought fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and have
gone home, I had been happy, and my father, an emblem of our
blessed Saviour’s parable, had even killed the fatted calf for me;
for, hearing the ship I went away in was cast away in Yarmouth
Road, it was a great while before he had any assurance that I was
not drowned.
But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that no-
thing could resist; and, though I had several times loud calls from
my reason and my more composed judgment to go home, yet I
had no power to do it. I know not what to call this, nor will I
urge, that it is a secret overruling decree that hurries us on to be
the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before
us, and that we push upon it with our eyes open. Certainly, no-
thing but some such decreed unavoidable misery attending, and
which it was impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me.
forward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my most
retired thoughts, and against two such visible instructions as I had
met with in my first attempt.
My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who
was the master’s son, was now less forward than I. The first time
he spoke to me after we were at Yarmouth, which was not till
two or three days, for we were separated in the town to several

A 2
IO LIFE AND ADVENTURES
quarters; I say, the first time he saw me, it appeared his tone
was altered; and, looking very melancholy, and shaking his head,
asked me how I did : And telling his father who I was, and how
I had come this voyage only for a trial, in order to go farther
abroad; his father, turning to me with a very grave and concerned
tone, Young man, says he, you ought never to go to sea any more;
you ought to take this for a plain and visible token, that you are
not to be a seafaring man,—Why, sir, said I, will you go to sea
no more?—That is another case, said he; it is my calling, and
therefore my duty; but as you made this voyage for a trial, you
see what a taste heaven has given you, of what you are to expect,
if you persist; perhaps all this has befallen us on your account,
like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray, continues he, what are
you? and on what account did you go to sea?—Upon that I told
him some of my story; at the end of which he burst out with a
strange kind of passion; What had I done, says he, that such an
linhappy wretch should come into my ship I would not set my
foot in the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds.-
This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were
yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could
have authority to go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely
to me, exhorted me to go back to my father, and not tempt Pro-
vidence 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 dis-
asters and disappointments, till your father’s words are fulfilled
upon you.
We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I saw
him no more; which way he went, I know not. As for me, ha-
ving some money in my pocket, I travelled to London by land ;
and there, as well as on the road, had many struggles with myself,
what course of life I should take, and whether I should go home,
or go to sea.
As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered
to my thoughts; and it immediately occurred to me how I should
be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be ashamed to
see, not my father and mother only, but even every body else ;
from whence I have since often observed, how incongruous and
irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth,
to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases, viz. that
they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent ; mor
ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be esteem-
ed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make
them be esteemed wise men.
In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain
what measures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irre-
sistible reluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed a

OF ROBIN SON C R U SOF . I 1
while, the remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off;
and as that abated, the little motion I had in my desires to a re-
turn wore off with it, till at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of
it, and looked out for a voyage.
That evil influence which carried me first away from my father’s
house, that hurried me into the wild and indigested motion of rai-
sing my fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly up-
on me, as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties
and even the command of my father; I say, the same influence,
whatever it was, presented the most unfortunate of all enterprizes
to my view; and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of
Africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune, that in all these adventures I did not
ship myself as a sailor; whereby, though I might indeed have
worked a little harder than ordinary, yet, at the same time, I had
learnt the duty and office of a foremastman; 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, or learnt to do any.
CHAP. II.
Make a trading Voyage to Guinea very successfully—Leath of
my Captain—Sail another Trip with his Mate—The Vengeance
of Providence for Disobedience to Parents now overtakes me—
Taken by a Sallee Rover, and all sold as Slaves—My Master
jrequently sends me a-fishing, which suggests an Idea of Escape
—Make my Escape in an open Boat, with a Moresco Boy.
IT was my lot, first of all, to fall into pretty good company in
London, which does not always happen to such loose and ungui-
ded young fellows as I them was, the devil generally not omitting
to lay some snare for them very early ; but it was not so with me.
I first fell acquainted with the master of a ship who had been on
the coast of Guinea; and who having had very good success there,
was resolved to go again; and who taking a fancy to my conver-
sation, which was not at all disagreeable at that time, hearing me
say I had a mind to see the world, told me, if I would go the voy-
age with him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate
and his companion; and if I could carry any thing with me, I
should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit;
and perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.
I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with
this captain, who was an honest and plain-dealing man, I went
12 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure with me,
which, by the disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, I
increased very considerably; for I carried about 40l. in such toys
and trifles as the captain directed me to buy. This 40]. I had
mustered together by the assistance of some of my relations, whom
I corresponded with, and who, I believe, got my father, or at least
my mother, to contribute so much as that to my first adventure.
This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all
my adventures, and which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my
friend the captain; under whom also I got a competent know-
ledge of the mathematics, and the rules of navigation; learned
how to keep an account of the ship’s course, take an observation,
and, in short, tº understand some things that were needful to be
understood by a sailor: For, as he took delight to instruct me, I
took delight to learn; and, in a word, this voyage made me both
a sailor and a merchant: For I brought home five pounds nine
ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in Lon-
don, at my return, almost 300l. ; and this filled me with those
aspiring thoughts which have since so completed my ruin.
Yet, even in this voyage, I had my misfortunes too; particu-
larly that I was continually sick, being thrown into a violent ca-
lenture by the excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading
being upon the coast, from the lat. of 15 degrees N. even to the
Line itself.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to
my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to go
the same voyage again; and I embarked in the same vessel with
one who was his mate in the former voyage, and had now got
the command of the ship. This was the unhappiest voyage that
ever man made; for though I did not carry quite 100l. of my new-
gained wealth, so that I had 200l. left, and which I lodged with
my friend’s widow, who was very just to me, yet I fell into
terrible misfortunes in this voyage; and the first was this: viz.
Our ship, making her course towards the Canary Islands, or ra-
ther between those islands and the African shore, was surprised,
in the grey of the morning, by a Moorish rover of Sallee, who
gave chace to us with all the sail she could make. We crowded
also as much canvas as our yards would spread, or our masts
carry, to have got clear; but finding the pirate gained upon us,
and would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we pre-
pared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rover
eighteen. Alout three in the afternoon he came up with us, and
bringing to, by mistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of
athwart our stern, as he intended, we brought eight of our guns
to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him, which
made him sheer off again, after returning our fire, and pouring in
also his small shot, from near two hundred men which he had on
OF ROBIN SO N C R USO E. 13
board. However, we had not a man touched, all our men keeping
close. He prepared to attack us again, and we to defend our.
selves; but laying us on board the next time upon our other
quarter, he entered sixty men upon our decks, who immediately
fell to cutting and haeking the decks and rigging. We plied
them with small shot, half-pikes, powder-chests and such like,
and cleared our deck of them twice. However, to cut short this
melancholy part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three
of our men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield,
and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to the
Moors.
The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I appre-
hended: nor was I carried up the country, to the emperor’s
court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept by the captain
of the rover, as his proper prize, and made his slave, being young
and nimble, and fit for his business. At this surprising change
of my circumstances,from a merchant to a miserable slave, I was
perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back upon my father’s
prophetic discourse to me, that I should be miserable, and have
none to relieveme; which I thought was now so effectually brought
to pass, that I could not be worse; that now the hand of heaven
had overtaken me, and I was undone without redemption. But,
alas ! this was but a taste of the misery I was to go through, as
will appear in the sequel of this story. *
As my new patron or master had taken me home to his house,
so I was in hopes that he would take me with him when he went
to sea again, believing that it would be some time or other his
fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal man of war; and that
then I should be set at liberty. But this hope of mine was soon
taken away; for when he went to sea, he left me on shore to
look after his little garden, and do the common drudgery of
slaves about his house; and when he came home again from his
cruize, he ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method
I might take to effect it; but found no way that had the least
probability in it. Nothing presented to make the supposition of
it rational; for I had nobody to communicate it to that would
embark with me; no fellow-slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or
Scotsman there, but myself; so that for two years, though I often
pleased myself with the imagination, yet I never had the least en-
couraging 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 libert
again in my head: My patron lying at home longer than usual,
without fitting out his ship, which, as I heard, was for want of
money, he used constantly, once or twice a week, sometimes
oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the ship's pinnace, and
14 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
go out into the road a-fishing; and as he always took me and a
young Moresco with him to row the boat, we made him very
merry, and I proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch,
that sometimes he would send me with a Moor, one of his kins-
men, and the youth, the Moresco, as they called him, to catch a
dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a-fishing with him in a calm
morning, a fog rose so thick, that though we were not half a
league from the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we knew
not whither, or which way, we laboured all day, and all the next
night; and when the morning came, we found we had pulled
off to sea, instead of pulling in for the shore; and that we were
at least two leagues from the land: However, we got well in again,
though with a great deal of labour, and some danger; for the
wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning; but, particularly,
we were all very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take
more care of himself for the future; and having lying by him the
long-boat of our English ship which he had taken, he resolved
he would not go a-fishing any more without a compass and some
provision; so he ordered the carpenter of his ship, who also was
an English slave, to build a little state-room, or cabin, in the
middle of the long-boat, like that of a barge, with a place to stand
behind it to steer, and haul home the main-sheet: and room be-
fore for a hand or two to stand and work the sails. She sailed
with what we call a shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jib-
bed over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and
had in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to
eat on, with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such
. as he thought fit to drink; particularly his bread, rice, and
COffee,
We were frequently out with this boat a-fishing; and as I
was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without
me. It happened one day, that he had appointed to go out in
this boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three Moors
of some distinction, and for whom he had provided extraordi-
narily; and had therefore sent on board the boat over night a
larger store of provisions than usual; and had ordered me to get
ready three fusils with powder and shot, which were on board his .
; for that they designed some sport of fowling, as well as
Sning.
I got all things ready, as he had directed; and waited the next
morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants
out, and every thing to accommodate his guests; when by and
by my patron came on board alone, and told me his guests had
put off going, upon some business that fell out; and ordered
me, with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with the boat, and
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO Ee 15.
catch them some fish, for that his friends were to sup at his
house; he commanded me too, that as soon as I had got some
º I should bring it home to his house: all which I prepared to
O.
This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into
my thoughts; for now I found I was like to have a little ship at
my command; and my master being gone, I prepared to furnish
myself not for fishing business, but for a voyage; though I knew
not, neither did I so much as consider, whither I would steer;
for any where to get out of that place was my way.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this
Moor, to get something for our subsistence on board; for I told
him we must not presume to eat of our patron’s bread; he said,
that was true : So he brought a large basket of rusk or biscuit of
their kind, and three jars with fresh water, into the boat. I knew
where my patron’s case of bottles stood, which, it was evident
by the make, were taken out of some English prize, and I con-
veyed them into the boat while the Moor was on shore, as if
they had been there before for our master: I conveyed also a
great lump of bees-wax into the boat, which weighed above half a
hundred weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a
saw, and a hammer, all which were of great use to us after-
wards, especially the wax to make candles. Another trick I tried
upon him, which he innocently came into also ; his name was
Ismael, whom they call Muly, or Moley; so I called to him :
Moley, said I, our patron’s guns are on board the boat; can you
not get a little powder and shot 2 it may be we may kill some al-
camies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he
keeps the gunner’s stores in the ship.–Yes, says he, I'll bring
some ; and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch, which
held about a pound and a half of powder, or rather more, and an-
other 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, pour-
ing what was in it into another; and thus furnished with every
thing needful, we sailed out of the port to fish. The castle,
which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took
no notice of us; and we were not above a mile out of the port
before we hauled in our sail, and set us down to fish. The wind
blew from the north-north-east, which was contrary to my desire;
for had it blown southerly, I had been sure to have made the coast
of Spain, and at least reached to the bay of Cadiz; but my reso-
lutions were, blow which way it would, I would be gone from
that horrid place where I was, and leave the rest to fate. -
After we had fished some time and catched nothing, for when I
had fish on my hook I would not pull them up, that he might not
16 LIFE AND AD VENTURES.
see them, I said to the Moor, This will not do; our master will
not be thus served; we must stand farther off. He, thinking no
harm, agreed, and being in the head of the boat, set the sails; and
as I had the helm, I run the boat out near a league farther, and
then brought her to as if I would fish ; when, giving the boy
the helm, I stepped forward to where the Moor was, and making
as if I stooped for something behind him, I took him by surprise.
with my arm under his twist, and tossed him clear overboard into.
the Sea: he rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and called
to me, begged to be taken in, told me he would go all over the
world with me. He swam so strong after the boat, that he would
have reached me very quickly, there being but little wind; upon
which I stepped into the cabin, and fetching one of the fowling-
pieces, I presented it at him, and told him, I had done him no
hurt, and if he would be quiet I would do him none : But, said

OF ROBIN SON CRU. S.O.E. 17
I, you swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the sea is
calm ; make the best of your way to shore, and I will do you no
harm ; but if you come near the boat, I’ll shoot you through the
head, for I am resolved to have my liberty: so he turned himself
about, and swam for the shore, and I make no doubt but he reach-
ed it with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor with me,
and have drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust
him. When he was gone, I turned to the boy, whom they called
Xury, and said to him, Xury, if you will be faithful to me I’ll
make you a great man; but if you will not stroke your face to be
true to me, (that is, swear by Mahomet and his father’s beard,) I
must throw you into the sea too. The boy smiled in my face,
and spoke so innocently, that I could not mistrust him; and
swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood
out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward,
that they might think me gone towards the Straits’ mouth, as
indeed any one that had been in their wits must have been sup-
posed to do; for who would have supposed we were sailed on to
the southward to the truly Barbarian coast, where whole nations
of Negroes were sure to surround us with their canoes, and destroy
us; where we could never once go on shore, but we should be
* by Savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human
ind:
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my course
a little toward the east, that I might keep in with the shore;
and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I
made such sail, that I believe by the next day at three o’clock
in the afternoon, when I first made the land, I could not be less
than 150 miles south of Sallee; quite beyond the emperor of Mo-
rocco's dominions, or indeed of any other king thereabouts, for
we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors, and the
dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I
would not stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor, the wind
continuing fair, till I had sailed in that manner five days; and
then the wind shifting to the southward, I concluded also that
if any of our vessels were in chase of me, they also would now
give over; so I ventured to make to the coast, and come to an an-
chor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what, or where ;
neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what river:
I neither saw, or desired to see, any people; the principal thing I
wanted was fresh water. We came into this creek in the evening,
resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover
the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such
18 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild
creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy was
ready to die with fear, and begged of me not to go on shore till
day. Well, Xury, said I, then I won’t; but it may be we may see
men by day, who will be as bad to us as those lions.—Then we
give them the shoot gun, says Xury, laughing, make them run
wey.—Such English Xury spoke by conversing among us slaves.
However, I was glad to see the boy so chearful, and I gave him a
dram (out of our patron’s case of bottles) to cheer him up. After
all, Xury's advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our little
anchor, and lay still all night; I say still, for we slept none; for
in two or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not
what to call them) of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore, and
run into the water, wallowing and washing themselves for the
pleasure of cooling themselves; and they made such hideous
howlings and yellings, that I never indeed heard the like.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but
we were both more frighted when we heard one of these mighty
creatures come swimming towards our boat; we could not see
him, but we might hear him by his blowing, to be a monstrous,
huge, and furious beast; Xury said it was a lion, and it might
be so for aught I know. Poor Xury cried to me to weigh the
anchor, and row away. No, says I, Xury, we can slip our cable
with a buoy to it, and go to sea; they cannot follow us far.
I had no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature (whatever it
was) within two oars length, which something surprised me; how-
ever, I immediately stept to the cabin-door, and taking up my
gun, fired at him; upon which he immediately turned about, and
swam to the shore again.
But it was not possible to describe the horrible noises, and
hideous cries and howlings, that were raised, as well upon the edge
of the shore, as higher within the country, upon the noise or
report of a gun; a thing I have some reason to believe those
creatures had never heard before. This convinced me, that there
was no going on shore for us in the might upon that coast; and
how to venture on-shore in the day, was another question too;
for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages, had been
as bad as to have fallen into the paws of lions and tigers; at
least we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere
or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat;
when or where to get it was the point: Xury said, if I would let
him go on shore with one of the jars, he would find if there
was any water, and bring some to me. I asked him why he would
go 2 why I should not go, and he stay in the boat ; The boy an-
swered with so much affection, that made me love him ever after.
Says he, if wild mans come, they eat me, you go wey-Well,
OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE, 19
Xury, said I, we will both go, and if the wild mans come, we will
kill them; they shall eat neither of us.—So I gave Xury a piece
of rusk-bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron’s case of
bottles, which I mentioned before; and we hauled the boat in
as near the shore as we thought was proper, and waded on shore,
carrying nothing but our arms, and two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the
coming of canoes with savages down the river: but the boy, seeing
a low place about a mile up the country, rambled to it; and by
and by I saw him come running towards me. I thought he was
pursued by some savage, or frighted with some wild beast, and I
run forward towards him to help him; but when I came nearer
to him, I saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a
creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and
longer legs; however, we were very glad of it, and it was very
good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to
tell me he had found good water, and seen no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for
water, for a little higher up the creek where we were, we found
the water fresh when the tide was out, which flows but a little
way up ; so we filled our jars, and feasted on the hare we had
killed, and prepared to go on our way, having seen no footsteps
of any human creature in that part of the country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very
well that the islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verd
islands also, lay not far off from the coast. But as I had no instru-
ments to take an observation to know what latitude we were in,
and did not exactly know, or at least not remember, what latitude
they were in, and knew not where to look for them, or when to
stand off to sea towards them ; otherwise I might now easily have
found some of these islands. But my hope was, that if I stood
along this coast till I came to that part where the English traded,
I should find some of their ºf upon their usual design of
trade, that would relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was,
must be that country, which, lying between the emperor of
Morocco's dominions and the Negroes, lies waste, and uninha-
bited, except by wild beasts; the Negroes having abandoned it,
and gone farther south for fear of the Moors; and the Moors
not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness;
and, indeed, both forsaking it because of the prodigious numbers
of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which har-
bour there ;-so that the Moors use it for their hunting only,
where they go like an army, two or three thousand men at a
time; and, indeed, for near an hundred miles together upon this
coast, we saw nothing but a waste uninhabited country by day,
and heard nothing biºiº. and roaring of wild beasts by night.
20 Liff E AND ADVENTURES
Once or twice in the day time I thought I saw the Pico of
Teneriffe, being the high top of the mountain Teneriffe in the
Canaries; and had a great mind to venture out in hopes of reach-
ing thither; but having tried twice, I was forced in again by con-
trary winds, the sea also going too high for my little vessel; so
I resolved to pursue my first design, and keep along the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we
had left this place; and once in particular, being early in the morn-
ing, we came to an anchor under a little point of land which was
pretty high ; and, the tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go
farther in. Xury, whose eyes were more about him than it seems
mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me, that we had best go
farther off the shore; For, says he, look, yonder lies a dreadful
monster on the side of that hillock fast asleep.–I looked where
he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a ter-
rible great lion that lay on the side of the shore, under the shade
of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little over him. Xury,
says I, you shall go on shore and kill him. Xury looked frighted,
and said, Me kill he eat me at one mouth ; one mouthful he
meant: however, I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie
still, and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore,
and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs,
and laid it down; then I loaded another gun with two bullets;
and the third, for we had three pieces, I loaded with five smaller
bullets. I took the best aim I could with the first piece to have
shot him into the head, but he lay so with his leg raised a little
above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee, and broke
the bone. He started up, growling at first, but finding his leg
broke, fell down again, and then got up upon three legs, and gave
the most hideous roar that ever Theard. I was a little surprised
that I had not hit him on the head; however, I took up the second
piece immediately, and, though he began to move off, fired again,
and shot him into the head, and had the pleasure to see him
drop, and make but little noise, but lie struggling for life. Then
Xury took heart, and would have me let him go on shore; Well,
go, said I; so the boy jumped into the water, and, taking a little
gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, and coming
close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and
shot him into the head again, which dispatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was
very sorry to lose three charges of powder and shot upon a crea-
ture that was good for nothing to us. However, Xury said he
would have some of him; so he comes on board, and asked me
to give him the hatchet.—For what, Xury said I.-Me cut off his
head, said he.—However, Xury could not cut off his head, but
he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was a monstrous
great One. -
G F ROBIN SON CRUSOE. 2}
I bethought myself, however, that perhaps the skin of him
might one way or other be of some value to us; and I resolved
to take off his skin, if I could. So Xury and I went to work with
him; but Xury was much the better workman at it, for I knew
very ill how to do it. Indeed, it took us both up the whole day,
but at last we got off the hide of him, and, spreading it on the
top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it in two days time, and
it afterwards served me to lie upon.
CHAP. III.
Make for the Southward in hopes of meeting with some European
Vessel—See Savages along Shore—Shoot a large Leopard—Am
taken up by a Merchantman—Arrive at the Brazils, and buy
a Settlement there—Cannot be quiet, but sail on a Voyage of
Adventure to Guinea—Ship strikes on a Sand-bank in un-
Known Land—All lost but myself, who am driven ashore, half
dead.
AFTER this stop, we made on to the southward continually for
ten or twelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which
began to abate very much, and going no oftener into the shore
than we were obliged to for fresh water: my design in this was,
to make the river Gambia or Senegal, that is to say, any where
about the Cape de Verd, where I was in hopes to meet with some
European ship; and if I did not, I knew not what course I had to
take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there among the Ne-
groes. I knew that all the ships from Europe, which sailed
either to the coast of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies,
made this Cape, or those islands; and, in a word, I put the whole
of my fortune upon this single point, either that I must meet
with some ship, or must perish.
When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I
have said, I began to see that the land was inhabited ; and in two
or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the
shore to look at us; we could also perceive they were quite black,
and stark naked. I was once inclined to have gone on shore to
them ; but Xury was my better counsellor, and said to me,
No go, no go. However, I hauled in nearer the shore that I might
talk to them, and I found they run along the shore by me a
good way: I observed they had no weapons in their hands, ex-
cept one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said was a
lance, and that they would throw them a great way with good
aim ; so I kept at a distance, but talked with them by signs as
well as I could, and particularly made signs for something to eat;
they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they would fetch me
22 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
some meat. . Upon this I lowered the top of my sail, and lay by,
and two of them ran up into the country, and in less than half an
hour came back, and brought with them two pieces of dry flesh
and some corn, such as is the produce of their country; but
we neither knew what the one nor the other was ; however, we
were willing to accept it, but how to come at it was our next dis-
pute, for I was not for venturing on shore to them, and they were
as much afraid of us: but they took a safe way for us all, for they
brought it to the shore, and laid it down, and went and stood a
great way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close
to us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make
them amends; but an opportunity offered that very instant to
oblige them wonderfully; for while we were lying by the shore,
came two mighty creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took
it) with great fury from the mountains towards the sea: whe-
ther it was the male pursuing the female, or whether they were in
sport or in rage, we couid 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 ap-
pear but in the night; and, in the second place, we found the
people terribly frighted, especially the women. The man that
had the lance, or dart, did not fly from them, but the rest did ;
however, as the two creatures ran directly into the water, they did
not seem to offer to fall upon any of the Negroes, but plunged
themselves into the sea, and swam about as if they had come for
their diversion. At last one of them began to come nearer our
boat than at first I expected; but I lay ready for him, for I had
loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load
both the others: as soon as he came fairly within my reach I
fired, and shot him directly into the head; immediately he sunk
down into the water, but rose instantly, and plunged up and down
as if he was struggling for life, and so indeed he was : he im-
mediately made to the shore; but between the wound, which
was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died
just before he reached the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor crea-
tures at the noise and the fire of my gun; some of them were even
ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror.
But when they saw the creature dead, and sunk in the water, and
that I made signs to them to come to the shore, they took heart,
and came to the shore, and began to search for the creature,
I found him by his blood staining the water, and by the help of
a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the negroes to haul,
they dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most cu.
rious leopard, spotted and fine to an admirable degree, and the
OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE, 23
Negroes held up their hands with admiration to think what it
was I had killed him with.
The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and the noise
of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the moun-
tains from whence they came, nor could I at that distance know
what it was. I found quickly the Negroes were for eating the
flesh of this creature, so I was willing to have them take it as a
favour from me, which, when I made signs to them that they
might take him, they were very thankful for. Immediately they
fell to work with him, and though they had no knife, yet with a
sharpened piece of wood they took off his skin as readily, and
much more readily, than we could have done with a knife. They
offered me some of the flesh, which I declined, making as if I
would give it them, but made signs for the skin, which they
gave me very freely, and brought me a great deal more of their
provision, which, though I did not understand, yet I accepted;
then I made signs to them for some water, and held out one of
my jars to them, turning it bottom upward, to show that it was
empty, and that I wanted to have it filled. They called imme-
diately to some of their friends, and there came two women, and
brought a great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as I suppose,
in the sun; this they set down for me, as before, and I sent
Xury on shore with my jars, and filled them all three. The wo-
men were as stark naked as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and
water; and, leaving my friendly Negroes, I made forward for
about eleven days more, without offering to go near the shore, till
I saw the land run out a great length into the sea, at about the
distance of four or five leagues before me; and the sea being very
calm, I kept a large offing to make this point: at length, doubling
the point at about two leagues from the land, I saw plainly land on
the other side to sea-ward; then I concluded, as it was most cer-
tain 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 bis wits, thinking it must needs be some.
of his master's ships sent to pursue us, when I knew we were
gotten far enough out of their reach. I jumped out of the cabin,
and immediately saw not only the ship, but what she was, viz. that
it was a Portugueze ship, and, as I thought, was bound to the
coast of Guinea for Negroes. But when I observed the course she
steered, I was soon convinced they were bound some other way,

24, LIFE AND A DVENTURES
and did not design to come any nearer to the shore; upon which
I stretched out to sea as much as I could, resolving to speak with
them, if possible.
With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able to
come in their way, but that they would be gone by before I could
make any signal to them; but after I had crowded to the utmost,
and began to despair, they, it seems, saw me by the help of their
perspective-glasses, and that it was some European boat, which, as
they supposed, must belong to some ship that was lost; so they
shortened sail to let me come up. I was encouraged with this; and
as I had my patron’s ancient on board. I made a waft of it to them
for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw, for
they told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the
gun; upon these signals they very kindly brought to, and lay by for
me, and in about three hours time I came up with them.
They asked me what I was, in Portugueze, and in Spanish, and
in French; but I understood none of them; but at last a Scots
sailor, who was on board, called to me, and I answered him,
and told him I was an Englishman... that I had made my escape
out of slavery from the Moors at Sallee. They bade me come on
board, and very kindly took me in, and all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, as any one would believe,
that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from such a misera-
ble and almost hopeless condition as I was in, and immediately
offered all I had to the captain of the ship, as a return for my
deliverance; but he generously told me, he would take nothing
from me, but that all I had should be delivered safe to me when
I came to the Brazils; For, says he, I have saved your life on
no other terms than I would be glad to be saved myself; and it
may one time or other be my lot to be taken up in the same con-
dition: besides, said he, when I carry you to the Brazils, so great
a way from your own country, if I should take from you what
you have, you will be starved there, and then I only take away
that life I have given. No, no, Seignor Inglese, says he, Mr Eng-
lishman, I will carry you thither in charity, and those things will
help you to buy your subsistence there, and your passage home
agal Il.
sº he was charitable in his proposal, so he was just in the per-
formance to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen, that none should
offer to touch any thing I had : then he took every thing into his
own possession, and gave me back an exact inventory of them,
that I might have them; even so much as my earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one, and that he saw, and
told me he would buy it of me for the ship’s use, and asked me
what I would have for it? I told him he had been so generous in
every thing, that I could not offer to make any price of the boat,
but left it entirely to him; upon which he told me, he would give
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE. 25
me a note of his hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at
Brazil; and when it came there, if any one offered to give more,
he would make it up: he offered me also sixty pieces of eight
more for my boy Xury, which I was loath to take; not that I was
not willing to let the captain have him, but I was very loath to
sell the poor boy’s liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in
procuring my own. However, when I let him know my reason,
he owned it to be just, and offered me this medium, that he would
give the boy an obligation to set him free in ten years, if he turn-
ed Christian. Upon this, and Xury saying he was willing to go to
him, I let the captain have him.
We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and arrived in the
Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in about twenty-two
days after. And now I was once more delivered from the most
miserable of all conditions of life; and what to do next with my-
self, I was now to consider.
The generous treatment the captain gave me, I can never enough
remember; he would take nothing of me for my passage, gave me
twenty ducats for the leopard’s skin, and forty for the lion’s skin
which I had in my boat, and caused every thing I had in the ship
to be punctually delivered me ; and what I was willing to sell he
bought, such as the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece
of the lump of bees-wax, for I had made candles of the rest; in a
word, I made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight of all
my cargo; and with this stock I went on shore in the Brazils.
I had not been long here, but being recommended to the house
of a good honest man like himself, who had an ingeino, as they
call it; that is, a plantation and a sugar-house; I lived with him
some time, and acquainted myself by that means with the manner
of their planting and making of sugar; and seeing how well the
planters lived, and how they grew rich suddenly, I resolved, if I
could get 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 pur-
pose, getting a kind of a letter of naturalization, I purchased as
much land that was uncured as my money would reach, and for-
med a plan for my plantation and settlement, and such a one as
might be suitable to the stock whichI proposed to myself to receive
from England. *
I had a neighbour, a Portugueze of Lisbon, but born of English
parents, whose name was Wells, and in much such circumstances
as I was. I call him neighbour, because his plantation lay next to
mine, and we went on very sociable together. My stock was but
low, as well as his ; and we rather planted for food, than anything
else, for about two years. However, we began to increase, and our
land began to come into order; so that the third year we planted
some tobacco, and made each of us a large piece of ground ready
B
26 LIFE AN D A DVENTURES
for planting canes in the year to come; but we both wanted help;
and now I found, more than before, I had done wrong in parting
with my boy Xury.
But, alas! for me to do wrong, that never did right, was no
great wonder: I had no remedy but to go on; I was gotten into
an employment quite remote to my genius, and directly contrary
to the life I delighted in, and for which I forsook my father’s
house, and broke through all his good advice; nay, I was coming
into the very middle station, or upper degree of low life, which my
father advised me to before; and which, if I resolved to go on with,
I might as well have staid at home, and never have fatigued myself
in the world as I had done; and I used often to say to myself, I
could have done this as well in England among my friends, as have
gone five thousand miles off to do it among strangers and Savages
in a wilderness, and at such distance, as never to hear from any
part of the world that had the least knowledge of me.
In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the utmost
regret. I had nobody to converse with, but now and then this
neighbour; no work to be done but by the labour of my hands;
and I used to say, 1 lived just like a man cast away upon some
desolate island, that had nobody there but himself. But how
just has it been, and how should all men reflect, that, when they
compare their present conditions with others that are worse, Hea-
ven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be convinced of
their former felicity by their experience; I say, how just has it
been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on in an island of mere
desolation should be my lot, who had so often unjustly compared
it with the life which I then led, in which, had I continued, I
had, in all probability, been exceeding prosperous and rich.
I was, in some degree, settled in my measures for carrying
on the plantation, before my kind friend, the captain of the ship,
that took me up at sea, went back; for the ship remained there,
in providing his loading, and preparing for his voyage, near three
months; when, telling him what little stock I had left behind me
in London, he gave me this friendly and sincere advice: Seignor
Inglese, says he, for so he always called me, if you will give
me letters, and a procuration here in form to me, with orders to
the person who has your money in London, to send your effects
to Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct, and in such goods as
are proper for this country, I will bring you the produce of
them, God willing, at my return; but, since human affairs are all
subject to changes and disasters, I would have you give orders but
for one hundred pounds sterling, which, you say, is half your
stock, and let the hazard be run for the first; so that if it come
safe, you may order the rest the same way; and if it miscarry, you
may have the other half to have recourse to for your supply.
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that I
10
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 27.
could not but be convinced it was the best course I could take;
so I accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom
I had left my money, and a procuration to the Portugueze cap-
tain, 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 Por-
tugal captain at sea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what con-
dition I was now in, with all other necessary directions for my
supply; and when this homest 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 humani-
ty and charity to me.
The merchant in London vesting this hundred pounds in Eng-
lish goods, such as the captain had writ for, sent them directly
to him at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to me to the Bra-
zils; among which, without my direction, (for I was too young
in my business to think of them) he had taken care to have all sort
of tools, iron-work, and utensils necessary for my plantation, and
which were of great use to me.
When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortune made, for I was
surprised with joy of it; and my good steward, the captain, had
laid out the five pounds, which my friend had sent him for a pre-
sent for himself, to purchase, and bring me over a servant under
bond for six years service, and would not accept of any consi-
deration, except a little tobacco, which I would have him ac-
cept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all; but my goods being all English manu-
factures, such as cloth, stuffs, baize, and things particularly valu-
aple and desirable in the country, I found means to sell them to
a very great advantage; so that I may say, I had more than
four times the value of my first cargo, and was now infinitely be-
yond my poor neighbour, I mean in the advancement of my planta-
tion ; 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 in my plantation: I raised fifty great rolls
of tobacco on my own ground, more than I had disposed of for
necessaries among my neighbours; and these fifty rolls, being
each of above a hundred weight, were well cured and laid by
against the return of the fleet from Lisbon. And now, increasing
in business and in wealth, my head began to be full of projects and
undertakings beyond my reach; such as are indeed often the ruin
of the best heads in business.
28 LIFE AND ADvENTUREs
Had I continued in the station I was now in, I had room for
all the happy things to have yet befallen me, for which my father
so earnestly recommended a quiet retired life, and of which he
had so sensibly described the middle station of life to be full;
but other things attended me, and I was still to be the wilful
agent of all my own miseries; and particularly to increase my
fault, and double the reflections upon myself, which in my future
sorrows I should have leisure to make: all these miscarriages
were procured by my apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish
inclination of wandering abroad, and pursuing that inclination,
in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself good in a
fair and plain pursuit of those prospects and those measures of
life, which nature and Providence concurred to present me with,
and to make my duty. .
As I had done thus in my breaking away from my parents,
so I could not be content now, but I must go and leave the
happy yiew I had of being a rich and thriving man in my new
plantation, only to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising
faster than the nature of the thing admitted; and thus I cast my-
self down again into the deepest gulf of human misery that ever
man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent with life and a state
of health in the world.
To come, then, by just degrees, to the particulars of this part
of my story; you may suppose, that, having now lived almost
four years in the Brazils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very
well upon my plantation, I had not only learnt the language,
but had contracted acquaintance and friendship among my fellow-
planters, as well as among the merchants at St Salvadore, which
was our port; and that in my discourse among them, I had fre-
quently 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, elephants teeth, &c., but Ne-
groes for the service of the Brazils in great numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my discourses on these
heads, but especially to that part which related to the buying Ne-
groes, which was a trade at that time not only not far entered
into, but, as far as it was, had been carried on by the Assi-
entos, or permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal, and en-
grossed in the public, so that few Negroes were bought, and those
excessive dear.
It happened, being in company with some merchants and plant-
ers of my acquaintance, and talking of those things very ear-
nestly, three of them came to me the next morning, and told me,
they had been musing very much upon what I had discoursed with
them of the last night, and they came to make a secret proposal


OF ROBINSON CRUSO E. 29
to me; and, after enjoining me secrecy, they told me, that they
had a mind to fit out a ship to go to Guinea; that they had all
plantations as well as I, and were straitened for nothing so much
as servants; that as it was a trade could not be carried on, be-
cause they could not publicly sell the Negroes when they came
home, so they desired to make but one voyage, to bring the
Negroes on shore privately, and divide them among their own
plantations; and, in a word, the question was, whether I would
go their supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading part upon
the coast of Guinea 2 and they offered me, that I should have my
equal share of the Negroes, without providing any part of the
stock. - - -
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made
to any one that had not had a settlement and plantation of his
own to look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very
considerable, and with a good stock upon it. But for me, that
was thus entered and established, and had nothing to do but
go on as I had begun, for three or four years more, and to have
sent for the other hundred pounds from England, and who in
that time, and with that little addition, could scarce have failed
of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling, and that
increasing too ; for me to think of such a voyage, was the most
preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances could
be guilty of.
But 1, 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 all en-
gaged to do, and entered into writings or covenants to do so; and
I made a formal will, disposing of my plantation and effects, in
case of my death, making the captain of the ship, that had saved
my life as before, my universal heir, but obliging him to dispose
of my effects as I had directed in my will, one half of the pro-
duce being to himself, and the other to be shipped to England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects, and
keep up my plantation: had I used half as much prudence to
have looked into my own interest, and have made a judgment of
what I ought to have done, and not to have done, I had cer-
tainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking, lea-
ving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and gone
upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its common hazards; to
say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particular misfortunes
to myself. # -
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my
fancy rather than my reason: and accordingly the ship being

30 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
fitted out, and the cargo furnished, and all things done as by
agreement by my partners in the voyage, I went on board in an
evil hour again, the 1st of September, 1659, being the same day
eight years that I went from my father and mother at Hull, in
order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool to my own
Interest.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty ton burden, carried
six guns, and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and my-
self; we had on board no large cargo of goods, except of such
toys as were fit for our trade with the Negroes, such as beads,
bits of glass, shells, and odd trifles, especially little looking-
glasses, knives, scissars, hatchets, and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the
northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for
the African coast, when they came about 10 or 12 degrees of
northern latitude, which it seems was the manner of their course
in those days. We had very good weather, only excessive hot, all
the way upon our own coast, till we came to the height of Cape
St Augustino, from whence keeping farther off at sea, we lost
sight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the isle Fer-
nand de Noronha, holding our course north-east by north, and
leaving those isles on the east. In this course we passed the Line
in about twelve days time, and were by our last observation in 7
degrees 22 minutes northern latitude, when a violent tornado, or
hurricane, took us quite out of our knowledge: it began from
the south-east, came about to the north-west, and then settled
into the north-east; from whence it blew in such a terrible man-
ner, that for twelve days together we could do nothing but drive;
and scudding away before it, let it carry us whither ever fate and
the fury of the winds directed ; and during these twelve days, I
need not say that I expected every day to be swallowed up, nor
indeed did any in the ship expect to save their lives.
In this distress, we had, besides the terror of the storm, one of
our men died of the calenture, and one man and the boy washed
overboard. About the twelfth day, the weather abating a little,
the master made an observation as well as he could, and found,
that he was in about 11 degrees north latitude, but that he was
22 degrees of longitude difference west from Cape St Augustino;
so that he found he was gotten upon the coast of Guinea, or the
north part of Brazil, beyond the river Amazons, toward that of
the river Oroonoque, commonly called the Great River, and be-
gan to consult with me what course he should take 3 for the ship
was leaky, and very much disabled, and he was for going directly
back to the coast of Brazil. º
I was positively against that, and looking over the charts of
the sea-coasts of America with him, we concluded, there was no
inhabited country for us to have recourse to, till we came within
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 31
the circle of the Caribbee Islands; and therefore resolved to stand
away for Barbadoes, which, by keeping off at sea, to avoid the
indraft of the bay or gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform,
as we hoped, in about fifteen days sail; whereas we could not
possibly make our voyage to the coast of Africa without some
assistance, both to our ship and to ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and steered away
N.W. by W., in order to reach some of our English islands,
where I hoped for relief: but our voyage was otherwise deter-
mined; for, being in the latitude of 12 deg. 18 min., a second
storm came upon us, which carried us away with the same impe-
tuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very way of all
human commerce, that, had all our lives been saved, as to the
sea, we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than
ever returning to our own country.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our
men, early in the morning, cried out, Land! and we had no
sooner run out of the cabin to lookout, in hopes of seeing where-

32 LIFE AND Adventures
abouts in the world we were, but the ship struck upon a sand,
and, in a moment, her motion being so stopped, the sea broke
over her in such a manner, that we expected we should all have
perished immediately; and we were immediately driven into our
close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the
Sea. -
It is not easy for any one, who has not been in the like condi-
tion, to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such cir-
cumstances: we knew nothing where we were, or upon what land
it was we were driven, whether an island or the main, whetherin-
habited or not inhabited; and as the rage of the wind was still
great, though rather less than at first, we could not so much as
hope to have the ship hold many minutes without breaking in
pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of miracle, should turn imme-
diately about. In a word, we sat looking one upon another, and
expecting death every moment, and every man acting accordingly,
as preparing for another world; for there was little or nothing
more for us to do in this: that which was our present comfort,
and all the comfort we had, was, that, contrary to our expecta-
tion, the ship did not break yet, and that the master said the
wind began to abate.
Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet
the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast
for us to expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition
indeed, and had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as
well as we could. We had a boat at our stern, just before the
storm; but she was first staved by dashing against the ship’s rud-
der, and in the next place she broke away, and either sunk or
was driven off to sea; so there was no hope from her. We had
another boat on board, but how to get her off into the sea was
a doubtful thing; however, there was no room to debate, for we
fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some
told us she was actually broken already.
In this distress, the mate of our vessel lays hold of the boat, and,
with the help of the rest of the men, they got her slung over the
ship's side, and getting all into her, let go, and committed our-
selves, being eleven in number, to God’s mercy, and the wild
sea; for though the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea
went dreadful high upon the shore, and might well be called den
wild zee, as the Dutch call the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plain-
ly, that the sea went so high, that the boat could not live, and
that we should be inevitably drowned. As to making sail, we had
none, nor, if we had, could we have done any thing with it; so
we worked at the oar towards the land, though with heavy hearts,
like men going to execution; for we all knew, that when the
boat came nearer the shore, she would be dashed in a thousand

OF ROBIN SON CRUS OE. 33
pieces by the breach of the sea. However, we committed our
souls to God in the most earnest manner; and the wind driving
us towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our own
hands, pulling as well as we could towards land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or
shoal, we knew not; the only hope that could rationally give us
the least shadow of expectation, was, if we might happen into some
bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where, by great chance,
we might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of the land,
and perhaps made smooth water. But there was nothing of this
appeared; but, as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land
looked more frightful than the sea.
After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a
half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came roll-
ing astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the coup-de-grace.
In a word, it took us with such a fury, that it overset the boat
at once; and, separating us as well from the boat, as from one
another, gave us not time hardly to say O God! for we were all
swallowed up in a moment. *
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt
when I sunk into the water ; for though I swam very well, yet
I could not deliver myself from the waves so as to draw breath,
till that wave having driven me, or rather carried me, a vast way
on towards the shore, and, having spent itself, went back, and
left me upon the land almost dry, but half dead with the water I
took in. I had so much presence of mind, as well as breath left,
that, seeing myself nearer the main land than I expected, I got
upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the land as
fast as I could, before another wave should return, and take me
up again. But I soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I
saw the sea come after me as high as a great hill, and as furious
as an enemy, which I had no means or strength to contend with ;
my business was to hold my breath, and raise myself upon the
water, if I could; and so, by swimming, to preserve my breath-
ing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible; my greatest
concern now being, that the sea, as it would carry me a great way
towards the shore when it came on, might not carry me back
again with it when it gave back towards the sea.
The wave that came upon me again, buried me at once twenty
or thirty foot deep in its own body; and I could feel myself car-
ried with a mighty force and swiftness towards the shore a very
great way; but I held my breath, and assisted myself to swim still
forward with all my might. I was ready to burst with holding my
breath, when, as I felt myself rising up, so, tomy 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 º greatly, gave me breath, and
- B
34 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
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 it-
self, and began to return, I struck forward against the return of
the waves, and felt ground again with my feet. I stood still a
few moments to recover breath, and till the water went from me,
and then took to my heels, and run, 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 for.
wards as before, the shore being very flat.
The last time of these two had well near been fatal to me;
for the sea having hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather
dashed me against a piece of a rock, and that with such force, as
it left me senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliver-
ance; for the blow taking my side and breast, beat the breath as

of Robinson CRUso E. 35
it were quite out of my body; and, had it returned again imme-
diately, I must have been strangled in the water; but I recovered
a little before the return of the waves, and seeing I should be co-
vered again with the water, I resolved to hold fast by a piece of
the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible, till the wave went
back. Now, as the waves were not so high as at first, being near
land, I held my hold till the wave abated, and then fetched an-
other run, which brought me so near the shore, that the next
wave, though it went over me, yet did not so swallow me up as to
carry me away; and the next run I took I got to the main land,
where, to my great comfort, I clambered up the clifts of the
shore, and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger, and
quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look up
and thank God that my life was saved in a case wherein there
was, some minutes before, scarce any room to hope. I believe it
is impossible to express to the life what the ecstasies and trans-
ports of the soul are, when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the
very grave; and I do not wonder, now, at that custom, viz. that
when a malefactor, who has the halter about his neck, is tied up,
and just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to
him ; I say, I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it,
to let him blood that very moment they tell him of it, that the
surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart, and over-
whelm 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 drown-
ed, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself; for,
as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them,
except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes, that were
not fellows.
I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and
froth of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far
º and considered, Lord how was it possible I could get on
SIlore .
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my
condition, I began to look round me, to see what kind of place I
was in, and what was next to be done; and I soon found my
comforts abate, and that, in a word, I had a dreadful deliverance:
for I was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor any thing either
to eat or drink to comfort me; neither did I see any prospect
before me, but that of perishing with hunger, or being devoured
by wild beasts; and that, which was particularly afflicting to me,
36 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
was, that I had no weapon either to hunt and kill any creature
for my sustenance, or to defend myself against any other crea-
ture that might desire to kill me for theirs: in a word, I had no-
thing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco
in a box; this was all my provision, and this threw me into ter-
rible agonies of mind, that, for a while, I run about like a mad-
man. Night coming upon me, I began, with a heavy heart, to
consider what would be my lot if there were any ravenous beasts
in that country, seeing at night they always come abroad for
their prey. “.
All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time, was,
to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, which
grew near me, and where I resolved to sit all night, and consider
the next day what death I should die, for, as yet, I saw no pro-
spect 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 hāving drank, and put a little tobacco in my mouth to pre-
vent hunger, I went to the tree, and getting up into it, endeavour-
ed to place myself so, as that if I should sleep I might not fall;
and having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon, for my defence,
I took up my lodging, and, having been excessively fatigued, I
fell fast asleep, and slept as comfortably as, I believe, few could
have done in my condition, and found myself the most refreshed
with it that I think I ever was on such an occasion. -
CHAP. IV.
Appearance of the Wreck and Country next Day—Swim on board
of the Ship, and, by means of a Contrivance, get a quantity of
Stores on Shore—Shoot a Bird, but it turns out perfect Carrion
–Moralize upon my Situation—The Ship blown off the Land
-Set out in search of a proper Place for a Habitation—See
numbers of Goats—Melancholy Reflections.
WHEN I waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and the
storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as before :
but that which surprised me most, was, that the ship was lifted
off in the night from the sand where she lay, by the swelling of
the tide, and was driven up almost as far as the rock which I first
mentioned, where I had been so bruised by the dashing me against
it; this being within about a mile from the shore where I was,
and the ship seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself on
board, that, at least, I mightsave some necessary things for my use.
When I came down from my apartment in the tree, I looked
about me again, and the first thing I found was the boat, which
lay as the wind and the sea had tossed her up upon the land,
OF ROBIN SON C1RUSOE, 37
about two miles on my right hand. I walked as far as I could
upon the shore to have got to her, but found a neck, or inlet of
water, between me and the boat, which was about half a mile
broad; so I came back for the present, being more intent upon
getting at the ship, where I hoped to find something for my pre-
sent subsistence.
A little after noon I found the sea very calm, and the tide
ebbed so far out, that I could come within a quarter of a mile of
the ship; and here I found a fresh renewing of my grief: for I
saw evidently, that if we had kept on board, we had been all safe,
that is to say, we had all got safe on shore, and I had not been so
miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all comfort and com-
pany, as I now was. ... This forced tears from my eyes again; but
as there was little relief in that, I resolved, if possible, to get to
the ship; so I pulled off part of my clothes, for the weather was
hot to extremity, and took the water; but when I came to the ship,
my difficulty was still greater to know how to get on board; for
as she lay aground, and high out of the water, there was nothing
within my reach to lay hold of. I swam round her twice, and the
second time I spied a small piece of a rope, which I wondered I
did not see at first, hang down by the fore-chains so low as that
with great difficulty I got hold of it, and, by the help of that
rope, got up into the fore-castle of the ship . Here I found that
the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold,
but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or rather
earth, and her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low
almost to the water: by this means all her quarter was free, and
all that was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my first
work was to search and to see what was spoiled, and what was
free: and first I found that all the ship's provisions were dry and
untouched by the water ; and being very well disposed to eat, I
went to the bread-room and filled my pockets with biscuit, and
ate it as I went about other things, for I had no time to lose. I
also found some run in the great cabin, of which I took a large
dram, and which I had indeed need enough of to spirit me for
what was before me. Now I wanted nothing but a boat to fur-
mish myself with many things which I foresaw would be very ne-
cessary to me. -
It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had;
and this extremity roused my application. We had several spare
yards, and two or three large spars of wood, and a spare topmast
or two in the ship; I resolved to fall to work with these, and
flung as many of them overboard as I could manage of their
weight, tying every one with a rope, that they might not drive
away. When this was done, I went down to the ship's side, and,
pulling them to me, I tied four of them fast together at both ends
as well as I could, in the form of a raft, and laying two or three
58 Li FE AND ADVENTURES
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 car-
penter’s saw, I cut a spare topmast into three lengths, and added
them to my raft, with a great deal of labour and pains; but hope
of furnishing myself with necessaries, encouraged me to go be-
yond what I should have been able to have done upon another
OCCàSIOIl.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight;
my next care was what to load it with, and how to preserve what
I laid upon it from the surf of the sea; but I was not long con-
sidering this: I first laid all the planks or boards upon it that I
could get, and having considered well what I most wanted, I
first got three of the seamen’s chests, which I had broken open
and emptied, and lowered them down upon my raft. The first
of these I filled with provisions, viz. bread, rice, three Dutch
cheeses, five pieces of dried goat’s flesh, which we lived much
upon, and a little remainder of European corn, which had been
laid by for some fowls which we brought to sea with us, but the
fowls were killed. There had been some barley and wheat toge-
ther, but, to my great disappointment, I found afterwards that
the rats had eaten or spoiled it all. As for liquors, I found seve-
ral cases of bottles belonging to our skipper, in which were some
cordial waters, and in all above five or six gallons of rack: these
I stowed by themselves, there being no need to put them into
the chest, nor no room for them. While I was doing this, I
found the tide began to flow, though very calm, and I had the
mortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I had
left on shore upon the sand, swim away; as for my breeches,
which were only linen, and open-knee’d, I swam on board in
them and my stockings: however, this put me upon rummaging
for clothes, of which I found enough, but took no more than I
wanted for present use, for I had other things which my eye was
more upon ; as, first, tools to work with on shore; and it was
after long searching that I found out the carpenter’s chest, which
was indeed a very useful prize to me, and much more valuable
than a ship-loading of gold would have been at that time: I got
it down to my raft, even whole as it was, without losing time to
look into it, for I knew in general what it contained.
My next care was for some ammunition and arms. There
were two very good fowling-pieces in the great cabin, and two
pistols: these I secured first, with some powder-horns, and a
small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. I knew there were
three barrels of powder in the ship, but knew not where our gun-
ner had stowed them ; but with much search I found them, two
of them dry and good, the third had taken water; those two I
got to my raft, with the arms.' And now I thought myself pretty
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 39
well freighted, and began to think how I should get to shore
with them, having neither sail, oar, or rudder, and the least cap-
ful of wind would have overset all my navigation.
I had three encouragements: 1. A smooth, calm Sea: 2. The
tide rising and setting in to the shore: 3. What little wind there
was blew me towards the land : and thus, having found two or
three broken oars belonging to the boat, and besides the tools
which were in the chest, I found two saws, an axe, and a ham-
mer; and with this cargo I put to sea: for a mile, or thereabouts,
my raft went very well, only that I found it drive a little distant
from the place where I had landed before; by which I perceived
that there was some indraft of the water, and consequently I
hoped to find some creek or river there, which I might make use
of as a port to get to land with my cargo.
As I imagined, so it was ; there appeared before me a little
opening of the land, and I found a strong current of the title set
into it, so I guided my raft as well as I could to keep in the middle
of the stream ; but here I had like to have suffered a second ship-
wreck, which, if I had, I think verily would have broke my heart;
for, knowing nothing of the coast, my raft run aground at one end
of it upon a shoal, and, not being aground at the other end, it
wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off towards that
end that was afloat, and so fallen into the water. I did my ut-
most, by setting my back against the chests, to keep them in their
places, but could not thrust off the raft with all my strength; nei-
ther durst I stir from the posture I was in, but, holding up the
chests with all my might, stood in that manner near half an hour,
in which time the rising of the water brought me a little more
upon a level; and, a little after, the water still rising, my raft
floated again, and I thrust her off with the oar I had into the
channel; and then, driving up higher, I at length found myself in
the mouth of a little river, with land on both sides, and a strong
current, or tide, running up. I looked on both sides for a proper
place to get to shore; for I was not willing to be driven too high
up the river, hoping, in time, to see some ship at sea, and there-
fore resolved to place myself as near the coast as I could.
At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek,
to which, with great pain and difficulty, I guided my raft, and at
ast got so near, as that, reaching ground with my oar, I could
thrust her directly in; but here I had like to have dipped all my
cargo in the sea again; for that shore lying pretty steep, that is
to say, sloping, there was no place to land, but where one end of
the float, if it run on shore, would lie so high, and the other sink
lower as before, that it would endanger my cargo again: all that
I could do, was to wait till the tide was at the highest, keeping
the raft with my oar like an anchor, to hold the side of it fast to
the shore, near a flat piece of ground, which I expected the
40 LIFE AND ADVENTUREs
water would flow over; and so it did. As soon as I found water
enough, for my raft drew about a foot of water, I thrust her on
upon that flat piece of ground, and there fastened or moored her,
by sticking my two broken oars into the ground; one on one
side near one end, and one on the other side near the other end;
and thus I lay till the water ebbed away, and left my raft and all
my cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to view the country, and seek a proper place
for my habitation, and where to stow my goods, to secure them
from whatever might happen. Where I was, I yet knew not;
whether on the continent or on an island, whether inhabited or
not inhabited, whether in danger of wild beasts or not. There
was a hill, not above a mile from me, which rose up very steep
and high, and which seemed to overtop some other hills which
lay as in a ridge from it northward: I took out one of the fowl-
ing pieces, and one of the pistols, and an horn of powder; and
thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the top of that hill,
where, after I had with great labour and difficulty got to the top,
I saw my fate to my great affliction, viz. that I was in an island
environed every way with the sea, no land to be seen, except
some rocks which lay a great way off, and two small islands less
than this, which lay about three leagues to the west.
I found also, that the island I was in was barren, and, as I saw
good reason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild beasts, of
which, however, I saw none; yet I saw abundance of fowls, but
knew not their kinds; neither, when I killed them, could I tell
what was fit for food, and what not. At my coming back, I
shot at a great bird, which I saw sitting upon a tree on the side
of a great wood: I believe it was the first gun that had been
fired there since the creation of the world. I had no sooner fired,
but, from all parts of the wood, there arose an innumerable num-
ber of fowls of many sorts making a confused screaming, and cry-
ing every one acording to his usual note; but not one of them of
any kind that I knew. As for the creature I killed, I took it to
be a kind of a hawk, its colour and beak resembling it, but had
no talons or claws more than common; its flesh was carrion, and
fit for nothing.
Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, and fell
to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up the rest
of that day; and what to do with myself at night I knew not,
nor indeed where to rest; for I was afraid to lie down on the
ground, not knowing but some wild beast might devour me;
º as I afterwards found, there was really no need for those
€al’S.
However, as well as I could, I barricadoed myself round with
the chests and boards that I had brought on shore, and made a
kind of a hut for that night’s lodging. As for food, I yet saw not
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 4.l
which way to supply myself, except that I had seen two or three
creatures like hares run out of the wood where I shot the fowl.
I now began to consider, that I might yet get a great many
things out of the ship, which would be useful to me, and parti-
cularly some of the rigging and sails, and such other things as
might come to land, and I resolved to make another voyage on
board the vessel, if possible; and as I knew that the first storm
that blew must necessarily break her all in pieces, I resolved to
set all other things apart, till I got every thing out of the ship
that I could get. Then I called a council, (that is to say, in my
thoughts) whether I should take back the raft; but this appeared
impracticable: so I resolved to go as before, when the tide was
down, and I did so, only that I stripped before I went from my
hut, having nothing on but a checked shirt and a pair of linen
trowsers, and a pair of pumps on my feet.
I got on board the ship, as before, and prepared a second raft;
and having had experience of the first, I neither made this so un-
wieldy, nor loaded it so hard, but yet I brought away several things
very useful to me; as first, in the carpenter’s stores, I found two
or three bags full of nails and spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen
or two of hatchets, and, above all, that most useful thing called a
grindstone: all these I secured, together with several things be-
longing to the gunner, particularly two or three iron crows, and
two barrels of musket-bullets, seven muskets, and another fowl-
ing-piece, with some small quantity of powder more; a large bag
full of small shot, and a great roll of sheet lead; but this last
was so heavy, I could not hoist it up to get it over the ship’s side.
Besides these things, I took all the men’s clothes that I could
find, and a spare fore-topsail, hammock, and some bedding; and
with this I loaded my second raft, and brought them all safe on
shore, to my very great comfort.
I was under some apprehensions, during my absence from the
land, that at least Iny 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 they stood
still; she sat very composed and unconcerned, and looked full in
my face, as if she had a mind to be acquainted with me. . I pre-
sented my gun at her, but as she did not understand it, she was
perfectly unconcerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away; upon
which I tossed her a bit of biscuit, though, by the way, I was not
very free of it, for my store was not great; however, I spared her
a bit, I say, and she went to it, smelled of it, and ate it, and look-
ed, as pleased, for more; but I thanked her, and could spare no
more; so she marched off.
Having got my second cargo on shore, though I was fain to
open the barrels of powder, and bring them by parcels, for they
42 I,IFE AND A DVENTURES
were too heavy, being large casks, I went to work to make me a
little tent, with the sail and some poles which I cut for that pur-
pose; and into this tent I brought every thing that I knew would
spoil, either with rain or sun; and I piled all the empty chests
and casks up m a circle round the tent, to fortify it from any sud-
den attempt, either from man or beast.
When I had done this, I blocked up the door of the tent with
some boards within, and an empty chest set up an end without,
and, spreading one of the beds upon the ground, laying my two
pistols just at my head, and my gun at length by me, I went to s
bed for the first time, and slept very quietly all night, for I was
very weary and heavy; as the night before I had slept little, and
had laboured very hard all day, as well to fetch all those things
from the ship, as to get them on shore.
I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever were laid
up, I believe, for one man; but I was not satisfied still; for, while
the ship sat upright in that posture, I thought I ought to get
every thing out of her that I could: so every day, at low water,
I went on board, and brought away something or other; but par-
ticularly the third time I went, I brought away as much of the
rigging as I could, as also all the small ropes and rope-twine I
could get, with a piece of spare canvas, which was to mend the
sails upon occasion, and the barrel of wet gunpowder: in a word,
I brought away all the sails first and last, only that I was faim to
cut them in pieces, and bring as much at a time as I could; for
they were no more useful to be sails, but as mere canvas only.
But that which comforted me inore still, was, that last of all,
after I had made five or six such voyages as these, and thought I
had nothing more to expect from the ship that was worth my
meddling with ; I say, after all this, I found a great hogshead of
bread, and three large runlets of rum or spirits, and a box of
sugar, and a barrel of fine flour; this was surprising to me, be-
cause I had given over expecting any more provisions, except
what was spoiled by the water: I soon emptied the hogshead of
that bread, and wrapped it up, parcel by parcel, in pieces of the
sails, which I cut out; and, in a word, I got all this safe on shore
also. *
The next day I made another voyage; and now, having plum-
dered the ship of what was portable and fit to hand out, I began
with the cables; and cutting the great cable into pieces, such as I
could move, I got two cables and a hawser on shore, with all the
iron work I could get; and, having cut down the spritsail-yard,
and the mizen-yard, and every thing I could to make a large raft,
Iloaded it with all those heavy goods, and came away : but my
good luck began now to leave me; for this raft was so unwieldy
and overladen, that, after I had entered the little cove, where I
had landed the rest of my goods, not being able to guide it so
handily as I did the other, it overset, and threw me and all my
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE. 43
eargo into the water. As for myself, it was no great harm, for
I was near the shore; but as to my cargo, it was great part of it
lost, especially the iron, which I expected would have been of
great use to me: however, when the tide was out, I got most of
the pieces of cable ashore, and some of the iron, though with in-
finite labour; for I was fain to dip for it into the water, a work
which fatigued me very much. After this, I went every day on
board, and brought away what I could get.
I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been eleven
times on board the ship; in which time I had brought away all
that one pair of hands could well be supposed capable to bring,
though I believe verily, had the calm weather held, I should have
brought away the whole ship, piece by piece : but, preparing the
twelfth time to go on board, I found the wind began to rise;
however, at low water I went on board, and though I thought
I had rummaged the cabin so effectually, as that nothing more
could be found, yet I discovered a locker with drawers in it, in
one of which I found two or three razors, and one pair of large
scissars, with some ten or a dozen of good knives and forks; in
another I found about thirty-six pounds value in money, some
European coin, some Brazil, some pieces of eight, some gold,
some silver.
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money.—O drug said .
I, aloud, what art thou good for 2 thou art not worth to me, no
not the taking off of the ground; one of those knives is worth
all this heap; I have no manner of use for thee, even remain
where thou art, and go to the bottom, as a creature whose life is
not worth saving.—However, upon second thoughts, I took it
away, and, wrapping all this in a piece of canvas, I began to think
of making another raft; but, while I was preparing this, I found
the sky overcast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter of
an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. It presently occur-
red to me, that it was in vain to pretend to make a raft with the
wind off shore, and that it was my business to be gone before the
tide of flood began, otherwise I might not be able to reach the
shore at all: accordingly, I let myself down into the water, and
swam cross the channel which lay between the ship and the
sands, and even that with difficulty enough, partly with the weight
of things I had about me, and partly the roughness of the water,
for the wind rose very hastily, and, before it was quite high water,
it blew a storm.
But I was gotten home to my little tent, where I lay with all
my wealth about me very secure. It blew very hard all that night,
and in the morning, when I looked out, behold, no more ship
was to be seen I I was a little surprised, but recovered myself
with this satisfactory reflection, viz. that I had lost no time, nor
abated no diligence, to get every thing out of her that could be
44 LIFE AND AID VENTURES
useful to me, and that indeed there was little left in her that I
was able to bring away, if I had had more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of anything
out of her, except what might drive on shore from her wreck, as
indeed divers pieces of her afterwards did; but those things were
of small use to me.
My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself
against either savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any
were in the island: and I had many thoughts of the method how
to do this, and what kind of dwelling to make ; whether I should
make me a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the earth: and, in
short, I resolved upon both, the manner and description of which
it may not be improper to give an account of.
I soon found the place I was in was not for my settlement, par-
ticularly because it was upon a low moorish ground near the sea,
and I believed would not be wholesome, and more particularly
because there was no fresh water near it; so I resolved to find a
more healthy and more convenient spot of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation which I found would
be proper for me: 1st, Health and fresh water I just now men-
tioned. 2dly, Shelter from the heat of the sun. 3dly, Security
from ravenous creatures, whether man or beast. 4thly, A view
to the sea, that, if God sent any ship in sight, I might not lose
any advantage for my deliverance, of which I was not willing to
banish all my expectation yet.
In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain on
the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was
steep as a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me
from the top : on the side of this rock there was a hollow place
worn a little way in, like the entrance of 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 resol-
ved to pitch my tent: this plain was not above an hundred yards
broad, and about twice as long, and lay like a green before my
door, and at the end of it descended irregularly every way down
into the low grounds by the sea-side. It was on the north-north-
west side of the hill, so that I was sheltered from the heat every
day, till it came to a west and by south sun, or thereabouts, which
in those countries is near the setting. R -
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 big-
gest end being oup of the ground about five foot and a half, and
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 45.
sharpened on the top: the two rows did not stand above six
inches from one another. -
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship,
and laid them in rows one upon another, within the circle be-
tween these two rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other
stakes in the inside, leaning against them, about two foot and a
half high, like a spur to a post; and this fence was so strong,
that neither man or beast could get into it, or over it: this cost
me a great deal of time and labour, especially to cut the piles in
the woods, bring them to the place, and drive them into the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be not by a door, but by
a short ladder, to go over the top ; which ladder, when I was in,
I lifted over after me: and so I was completely fenced in, and
fortified, as I thought, from all the world, and consequently slept
secure in the night, which, otherwise, I could not have done;
though, as it appeared afterward, there was no need of all this
caution from the enemies that I apprehended danger from.
Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried all my
riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which you
have the account above; and I made me a large tent, which, to
preserve me from the rains, that in one part of the year are very
violent there, I made double, viz. one smaller tent within, and
one larger tent above it, and covered the uppermost with a large
tarpaulin, which I had saved among the sails.
And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had
brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very
good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship.
- Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and every thing that
would spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all my goods,
I made up the entrance, which till now I had left open, and so
passed and repassed, as I said, by a short ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way into the rock,
and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug down, out through
my tent, I laid them up within my fence in the nature of a ter-
race, that so it raised the ground within about a foot and a half;
and thus I made me a cave just behind my tent, which served
me like a cellar to my house.
It cost me much labour, and many days, before all these things
were brought to perfection; and, therefore, I must go back to
some other things which took up some of my thoughts. At the
same time it happened, after I had laid my scheme for the setting
up my tent, and making the cave, that a storm of rain falling
from a thick dark cloud, a sudden flash of lightning happened,
and after that a great clap of thunder, as is naturally the effect of
it. I was not so much surprised with the lightning, as I was with
a thought which darted into my mind as swift as the lightning
itself: O my powder my very heart sunk within me, when I
§t.
46 ILIFE AN ID ADVENTURES
thought, that at one blast all my powder might be destroyed: on
which, not my defence only, but the providing me food, as I
thought, entirely depended: I was nothing near so anxious about
my own danger; though, had the powder took fire, I had never
known who had hurt ine.
Such impression did this make upon me, that, after the storm
was over, I laid aside all my works, my building and fortifying,
and applied myself to make bags and boxes to separate the pow-
der, and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope, that
whatever might come, it might not all take fire at once, and to
keep it so apart, that it should not be possible to make one part
fire another. I finished this work in about a fortnight; and I
think my powder, which in all was about two hundred and forty
pounds weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels.
As to the barrel that had been wet, I did not apprehend any dam-
ger from that, so I placed it in my new cave, which, in my fancy,
I called my kitchen; and the rest I hid up and down in holes
among the rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking very
carefully where I laid it.
In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out once
at least every day with my gun, as well to divert myself, as to see
if I could kill anything fit for food, and as near as I could to ac-
quaint myself with what the island produced. The first time I
went out, I presently discovered that there were goats in the
island, which was a great satisfaction to me; but then it was at-
tended with this misfortune to me, viz. that they were so shy, so
subtle, and so swift of foot, that it was the most difficult thing in
the world to come at them. But I was not discouraged at this,
not doubting but I might now and then shoot one, as it soon hap-
pened; for, after I had found their haunts a little, I laid wait in
this manner for them : I observed, if they saw me in the vallies,
though they were upon the rocks, they would run away as in a
terrible fright; but if they were feeding in the vallies, and I was
upon the rocks, they took no notice of me; from whence 1 con-
cluded, that, by the position of their optics, their sight was so di-
rected downward, that they did not readily see objects that were
above them : so afterward I took this method; I always climbed
the rocks first, to get above them, and then had frequently a fair
mark. The first shot I made among these creatures I killed a she-
goat, which had a little kid by her which she gave suck to, which
grieved me heartily; but when the old one fell, the kid stood
stock still by her till I came and took her up; and not only so,
but, when I carried the old one with me upon my shoulders, the
kid followed me quite to my enclosure; upon which I laid down
the dam, and ſº the kid in my arms, and carried it over my
pale, in hopes to have bred it up tame; but it would not eat; so
I was forced to kill it, and eat it myself. These two supplied me
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 47
with flesh a great while, for I ate sparingly, and saved my provi-
sions (my bread especially) as much as possibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely necess-
ary to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn; and
what I did for that, as also how I enlarged my cave, and what
conveniences I made, I shall give a full account of in its place;
but I must first give some little account of myself, and of my
º about living, which, it may well be supposed, were not
a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition ; for as I was not cast
away upon that island without being driven, as is said, by a vio-
lent storm, quite out of the course of our intended voyage, and
a great way, viz. Some hundred of leagues out of the ordinary
course of the trade of mankind, I had great reason to consider
it as a determination of Heaven, that, in this desolate place,
and in this desolate manner, I should end my life. The tears
would run plentifully down my face when I made these reflec-
tions; and sometimes I would expostulate with myself, why Pro-
vidence should thus completely ruin his creatures, and render
them so absolutely miserable, so without help abandoned, so en-
tirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful
for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check these
thoughts, and to reprove me; and, particularly, one day, walking
with my gun in my hand by the sea-side, I was very pensive upon
the subject of my present condition, when reason, as it were, ex-
postulated with me the other way, thus: Well, you are in a de-
solate condition, it is true; but, pray, remember, where are the
rest of you? Did not you come eleven of you into the boat 2
Where are the ten ? Why were they not saved, and you lost?
Why were you singled out 2 Is it better to be here or there :
And then I pointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered
with the good that is in them, and with what worse attended
them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for
my subsistence, and what would have been my case if it had not
happened, which was an hundred thousand to one, that the ship
floated from the place where she first struck, and was driven so
near the shore, that I had time to get all things out of her.
What would have been my case, if I had been to have lived in the
condition in which at first came on shore, without necessaries of
life, or necessaries to supply and procure them particularly, said
I, (loud, though to myself) what should I have done without a
gun, without ammunition, without any tools to make any thing, or
to work with ; without clothes, bedding, a tent, or any manner of
covering 2 and that now I had all these to a sufficient quantity, and
was in a fair way to provide myself in such a manner, as to live
48 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
without my gun when my ammunition was spent; so that I had
a tolerable view of subsisting without any want, as long as I
lived; for I considered from the beginning, how I should provide
for the accidents that might happen, and for the time that was to
come, even not only after my ammunition should be spent, but
even after my health or strength should decay.
I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition
being destroyed at one blast, I mean my powder being blown up
by lightning; and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me
when it lightened and thundered, as I observed just now.
And now, being about to enter into a melancholy relation of a
scene of silent life, such perhaps as was never heard of in the
world before, I shall take it from its beginning, and continue it in
its order. It was, by my account, the 30th of September, when,
in the manner as above said, I first set foot upon this horrid
island, when the sun being, to us, in its autumnal equinox, was
almost just over my head ; for I reckoned myself, by observation,
to be in the latitude of 9 degrees 22 minutes north of the Line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into
my thoughts, that I should lose my reckoning of time for want of
books, and pen and ink, and should even forget the sabbath days
from the working days; but, to prevent this, I cut it with my
knife upon a large post, in capital letters, and making it into a
great cross, I set it up on the shore where I first landed, viz.
I came on shore here on the 30th of September, 1659. Upon
the sides of this square post, I cut every day a notch with my
knife, and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and
every first day of the month as long again as that long one; and
thus I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckon-
ing of time.
In the next place, we are to observe, that, among the many
things which I brought out of the ship in the several voyages,
which, as above mentioned, I made to it, I got several things of
less value, but not at all less useful to me, which I omitted set-
ting down before; as, in particular, pens, ink, and paper, several
parcels in the captain’s, mate’s, gunner's, and carpenter’s keeping,
three or four compasses, some mathematical instruments, dials,
perspectives, charts, and books of navigation; all which I huddled
together, whether I might want them or no. Also, I found three
very good Bibles, which came to me in my cargo from England,
and which I had packed up among my things; some Portugueze
books also, and among them two or three popish prayer-books,
and several other books: all which I carefully secured. And I
must not forget, that we had in the ship a dog and two cats, of
whose eminent history I may have occasion to say something
in its place; for I carried both the cats with me; and as for the
dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself, and swam on shore to
OF ROBIN SON - CRU SOE, 49
me the day after I went on shore with my first cargo, and was a
trusty servant to me many years; I wanted nothing that he
could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to me;
I only wanted to have him talk to me, but that he could not do.
As I observed before, I found pen, ink, and paper, and I hus-
banded them to the utmost; and I shall show, that while my ink
lasted, I kept things very exact; but after that was gone I could
not, for I could not make any ink by any means that I could
devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things, notwith-
standing all that I had amassed together; and of these, this of
ink was one, as also spade, pickaxe, and shovel, to dig or remove
the earth; needles, pins, and thread. As for linen, I soon learnt
to want that without much difficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily, and
it was near a whole year before I had entirely finished my little
pale, or surrounded habitation: the piles, or stakes, which were as
heavy as I could well lift, were a long time in cutting and pre-
paring in the woods, and more by far in bringing home; so that
I spent sometimes two days in cutting and bringing home one of
those posts, and a third day in driving it into the ground; for
which purpose I got a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last be-
thought myself of one of the iron crows, which, however, though
I found it, yet it made driving those posts, or piles, very laborious
and tedious work.
But what need I have been concerned at the tediousness of
any thing I had to do, seeing I had time enough to do it in 2 Nor
had I any other employment, if that had been over, at least that
I could foresee, except the ranging the island to seek for food,
which I did more or less every day.
I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the cir-
cumstances I was reduced to, and I drew up the state of my
affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any that were
to come after me, (for I was like to have but few heirs,) as to
deliver my thoughts from daily poring upon them, and afflicting my
mind; and as my reason began now to master my despondency, I
began to comfort myself as well as I could, and to set the good
against the evil, that I might have something to distinguish my case
from worse; and I stated it very impartially, like debtor and cre-
ditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I suffered, thus:
IEvil. * Good.
I am cast upon a horrible de- But I am alive, and not
solate island, void of all hope drowned, as all my ship's com-
of recovery. pany was.
I am singled out and separa- But I am singled out too
C
50
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
Evil.
ted, as it were, from all the
world, to be miserable.
I am divided from mankind,
a solitaire, one banished from
human society.
I have no clothes to cover me.
I am without any defence,
or means to resist any violence
of man or beast.
Good. -
from all the ship's crew to be
spared from death ; and He
that miraculously saved me from
death, can deliver me from this
condition.
But I am not starved and pe-
rishing on a barren place, afford-
ing no sustenance.
But I am in a hot climate,
where, if I had clothes, I could
hardly wear them. -
But I am cast on an island,
where I see no wild beasts to
hurt me, as I saw on the coast
of Africa: and what if I had
been shipwrecked there 2
But God wonderfully sent
the ship in near enough to the
shore, that I have gotten out
so many necessary things as
will either supply my wants, or
enable me to supply myself even
as long as I live. .
I have no soul to speak to,
or relieve me.
Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that there
was scarce any condition in the world so miserable, but there was
something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it;
and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most
miserable of all conditions in this world, that we may always find
in it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set in the de-
scription of good and evil, on the credit side of the account.
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition,
and given over looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a ship ; I
say, giving over these things, I began to apply myself to accom-
modate my way of living, and to make things as easy to me as I
could. . -
I have already described my habitation, which was a tent,
under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of posts
and cables; but I might now rather call it a wall, for I raised a
kind of wall up against it of turfs, about two foot thick on the
outside; and after some time, I think it was a year and half, I
raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock, and thatched or cover-
ed it with boughs of trees, and such things as I could get to
keep out the rain, which I found at some times of the year very
violent. -
I have already observed hoy I brought all my goods into this
of ROBINSON CRUSOE. 51
pale, and into the cave which I had made behind me; but I
must observe too, that at first this was a confused heap of goods,
which as they lay in no order, so they took up all my place : I had
no room to turn myself; so I set myself to enlarge my cave and
works;farther into the earth; for it was a loose sandy rock, which
yielded easily to the labour I bestowed on it; and so when I
found I was pretty safe as to beasts of prey, I worked sideways to
the right hand into the rock; and then, turning to the right again,
worked quite out, and made me a door to come out, on the out-
side of my pale, or fortification.
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it were a back-
way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to stow
my goods. º
And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things
as I found I most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for with-
out these I was not able to enjoy the few comforts, I had in
the world; I could not write or eat, or do several things with
so much pleasure without a table.
So I went to work; and here I must needs observe, that as
reason is the substance and original of the mathematics, so, by
stating and squaring every thing by reason, and by making the
most rational judgment of things, every man may be in time mas-
ter of every mechanic art. I had never handled a tool in my life,
and yet in time, by labour, application, and contrivance, I found
at last that I wanted nothing but I could have made it, especially
if I had had tools; however, I made abundance of things, even
without tools, and some with no more tools than an adze and a
hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before, and that
with infinite labour: for example, if I wanted a board, I had no
other way but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and
hew it flat on either side with my axe, till I had brought it to be
as thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is
true, by this method I could make but one board out of a whole
tree; but this I had no remedy for but patience, any more than
I had for the prodigious deal of time and labour which it took
me up to make a plank or board: but my time or labour was little
worth, and so it was as well employed one way as another.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above,
in the first place ; and this I did out of the short pieces of boards
that I brought on my raft from the ship: but when I had wrought
out some boards, as above, I made large shelves of the breadth of
a foot and a half one over another, all along one side of my cave,
to lay all my tools, nails, and iron-work, and, in a word, to separate
every thing at large in their places, that I might come easily at
them. I knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my
guns, and all things that would hang up. g
So that, had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a general
8
5% LIFE AND ADVENTURES
magazine of all necessary things; and I had every thing so ready
at my hand, that it was a great pleasure to me to see all my
goods in such order, and especially to find my stock of all neces-
saries so great. - *. ‘.
And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every day’s
employment; for indeed at first I was in too much a hurry; and
not only hurry as to labour, but in too much discomposure of
mind, and my journal would have been full of many dull things.
For example, I must have said thus: September the 30th, after I
got to shore, and had escaped drowning, instead of being thank-
ful to God for my deliverance, having first vomited with the great
quantity of salt water which was gotten into my stomach, and
recovering myself a little, I ran about the shore, wringing my
hands, and beating my head and face, exclaiming at my misery,
and crying out, I was undone, undone ! till tired and faint, I was
forced to lie down on the ground to repose, but durst not sleep
for fear of being devoured.
Some days after this, and after I had been on board the ship,
and got all that I could out of her, yet I could not forbear get-
ting up to the top of a little mountain, and looking out to sea
in hopes of seeing a ship; then fancy, at a vast distance, I spied
a sail; please myself with the hopes of it; and then, after look-
ing steadily till I was almost blind, lose it quite, and sit down and
weep like a child, and thus increase my misery by my folly.
But having gotten over these things in some measure, and ha-
ving settled my household-stuff and habitation, made me a table
and a chair, and all as handsome about me as I could, I began
to keep my journal, of which I shall here give you the copy
(though in it will be told all these particulars over again) as
long as it lasted; for, having no more ink, I was forced to leave

it off.
CHAP. v.
I begin to keep a Journal—Christen my desart Island the Island
of Despair—Fall upon various Schemes to make Tools, Bas-
kets, &c., and begin to build my House—At a great loss of an
Fvening for Candle, but fall upon an expedient to supply the
want—Strange discovery of Corn—A terrible Earthquake,
and Storm.
THE JOURNAL.
September 30, 1659.
I, Poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwrecked, during
a dreadful storm in the offing, came on shore on this dismal un-
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 53

fortunate island, which I called the Island of Despair; all the rest
of the ship's company being drowned, and myself almost dead.
All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting myself at the dis-
mal circumstances I was brought to, viz. I had neither food,
house, clothes, weapon, or place to fly to, and in despair of any
relief, saw nothing but death before me, either that I should be
devoured by wild beasts, murdered by savages, or starved to death
for want of food. At the approach of night I slept in a tree, for
fear of wild creatures, but slept soundly, though it rained all
night.
ºber 1. In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, the
ship had floated with the high tide, and was driven on shore
again much nearer the island; which, as it was some comfort
on one hand, for, seeing her sit upright, and not broken to pieces, 2
I hoped, if the wind abated, I might get on board, and get some
food and necessaries out of her for my relief; so, on the other
hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of my comrades, who, I
imagined, if we had all staid on board, might have saved the ship,
or at least that they would not have been all drowned, as they
were; and that had the men been saved, we might perhaps have
built us a boat out of the ruins of the ship, to have carried us to
some other part of the world. I spent great part of this day in
perplexing myself on these things; but at length, seeing the ship.
almost dry, I went upon the sand as near as I could, and then
swam on board. This day also it continued raining, though with
no wind at all.
From the 1st of October to the 24th. All these days entirely
spent in many several voyages to get all I could out of the ship,
which I brought on shore, every tide of flood, upon rafts. Much
rain also in these days, though with some intervals of fair wea-
ther: but, it seems, this was the rainy season.
Oct. 20. I overset my raft, and all the goods I had got upon
it ; but being in shoal water, and the things being chiefly heavy,
I recovered many of them when the tide was out.
Oct. 25. It rained all night and all day, with some gusts of
wind; during which time the ship broke in pieces, the wind blow-
ing a little harder than before, and was no more to be seen, ex-
cept the wreck of her, and that only at low water. I spent this
day in covering and securing the goods which I had saved, that
rain might not spoil them.
Oct. 26. I walked about the shore almost all day, to find out
a place to fix my habitation, greatly concerned to secure myself
from any attack in the night, either from wild beasts or men.
Towards night I fixed upon a proper place under a rock, and mar-
ked out a semicircle for my encampment, which I resolved to
strengthen with a work, wall, or fortification, made of double
piles, lined within with cable, and without with turf.

54 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
From the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in carrying all
my goods to my new habitation, though some part of the time it
rained exceeding hard.
The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island with m
gun, to see for Some food, and discover the country; when I kill-
ed a she-goat, and her kid followed me home, which I after-
wards killed also, because it would not feed.
November 1. I set up my tent under a rock, and lay there
for the first night, making it as large as I could, with stakes dri-
ven in to swing my hammock upon.
Nov. 2. I set up all my chests and boards, and the pieces of tim-
ber which made my rafts, and with them formed a fence round
me, a little within the place I had marked out for my fortification.
Nov. 3. I went out with my gun, and killed two fowls like
ducks, which were very good food. In the afternoon went to
work to make me a table.
Nov. 4. This morning I began to order my times of work; of
going out with my gun, time of sleep, and time of diversion; viz.
every morning I walked out with my gun for two or three hours,
if it did not rain, then employed myself to work till about eleven
o'clock, then ate what I had to live on, and from twelve to two.
I lay down to sleep, the weather being excessive hot, and then in
the evening to work again: the working part of this day and of
the next were wholly employed in making my table; for I was yet
but a very sorry workman, though time and necessity made me a
complete natural mechanic soon after, as I believe it would do
any one else. ->
Nov. 5. This day went abroad with my gun and . dog, and
killed a wild cat; her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good for
nothing; every creature I killed I took off the skins, and preser-
ved them.—Coming back by the sea-shore, I saw many sorts of
sea-fowls, which I did not understand; but was surprised, and
almost frighted, with two or three seals, which, while I was gazing
at, not well knowing what they were, got into the sea, and es-
caped me for that time. sº
Nov. 6. After my morning walk, I went to work with my table
again, and finished it, though not to my liking; nor was it long
before I learnt to mend it.
Nov. 7. Now it began to be settled fair weather. The 7th, ,
8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th, (for the 11th was Sunday,) I
took wholly up to make me a chair, and, with much ado, brought it
to a tolerable shape, but never to please me; and even in the
making, I pulled it in pieces several times-Note, I soon ne-
glected my keeping Sundays; for omitting my mark for them on
my post, I forgot which was which, *
Nov. 13. This day it rained, which refreshed me exceedingly,
and cooled the earth; but it was accompanied with terrible thun-



OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE. 55
der and lightning, which frighted me dreadfully for fear of my
powder; as soon as it was over, I resolved to separate my stock
of powder into as many little parcels as possible, that it might not
be in danger. - - tº * *
Nov. 14, 15, 16. These three days I spent in making little
square chests or boxes, which might hold about a pound, or two
pound at most, of powder; and so putting the powder in, I stow-
ed it in places as secure and remote from one another as possible:
On one of these three days I killed a large bird that was good
to eat, but I knew not what to call it. -
Nov. 17. This day I began to dig behind my tent into the rock,
to make room for my farther conveniency-Note, Three things I
wanted exceedingly for this work, viz. a pickaxe, a shovel, and a
wheel-barrow or basket; so I desisted from my work, and began
to consider how to supply that want, and make me some tools:
as for a pickaxe, I made use of the iron-crows, which were proper
enough, though heavy; but the next thing was a shovel or spade;
this was so absolutely necessary, that indeed I could do nothing
effectually without it; but what kind of one to make I knew not.
Nov. 18. The next day in searching the woods, I found a tree
of that wood, or like it, which in the Brazils they call the Iron
Tree, for its exceeding hardness: of this, with great labour, and
almost spoiling my axe, I cut a piece, and brought it home too
with difficulty enough, for it was exceeding heavy. -
The excessive hardness of the wood, and having no other.
way, made me a long while upon this machine; for I worked it
effectually by little and little into the form of a shovel or spade,
the handle exactly shaped like ours in England, only that the
broad part having no iron shod upon it at bottom, it would not last
me so long; however, it served well enough for the uses which I
had occasion to put it to ; but never was a shovel, I believe, made
after that fashion, or so long a-making.
I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket or a wheel-barrow;
a basket I could not make by any means, having no such things
as twigs that would bend to make wicker-ware, at least none yet
found out; and as to a wheel-barrow, 1 fancied I could make all
but the wheel, but that I had no notion of, neither did I know
how to go about it; besides, I had no possible way to make the
iron gudgeons for the spindle, or axis, of the wheel, to run in, so I
gave it over; and so, for carrying away the earth, which I dug
out of the cave, I made me a thing like a hod, which the la-
bourers carry mortar in, when they serve the bricklayers.
This was not so difficult to me as the making the shovel; and
yet this, and the shovel, and the attempt which I made in vain to
make a wheel-barrow, took me up no less than four days, I mean
always excepting my morning walk with my gun, which I seldom
56 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
failed; and very seldom failed also bringing home something to
eat. * -
Nov. 23. My other work having now stood still, because of my
making these tools, when they were finished I went on, and
working every day, as my strength and time allowed, I spent
eighteen days entirely in widening and deepening my cave, that
it might hold my goods commodiously.
Note, During all this time, I worked to make this room, or
cave, spacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse or ma-
gazine, a kitchen, a dining-room, and a cellar: as for my lodging,
I kept to the tent, except that sometimes in the wet season of
the year, it rained so hard, that I could not keep myself dry,
which caused me afterwards to cover all my place within my pale
with long poles in the form of rafters, leaning against the rock,
and load them with flags and large leaves of trees like a thatch.
December 10. I began now to think my cave or vault finished,
when on a sudden (it seems I had made it too large) a great quan-
tity of earth fell down from the top and one side, so much, that,
in short, it frighted me, and not without reason too; for if I had
been under it, I had never wanted a grave-digger. Upon this
disaster I had a 'great deal of work to do over again; for I had
the loose earth to carry out, and, which was of more importance,
I had the ceiling to prop up, so that I might be sure no more
would come down.
Dec. 11. This day I went to work with it accordingly, and got
two shores, or posts, pitched upright to the top, with two pieces
of boards across over each post; this I finished the next day; and
setting more posts up with boards, in about a week more I had
the roof secured; and the posts, standing in rows, served me for
partitions to part off my house.
Dec. 17. From this day to the twentieth I placed shelves, and
knocked up nails on the posts to hang everything up that could
be hung up: and now I began to be in some order within doors.
Dec. 20. Now I carried every thing into the cave, and began
to furnish my house, and set up some pieces of boards like a
dresser, to order my victuals upon ; but boards began to be very
scarce with me: also I made me another table. .
Dec. 24. Much rain all night and all day; no stirring out.
Dec. 25. Rain all day. | -
Dec. 26. No rain, and the earth much cooler than before, and
pleasanter. *
Dec. 27. Killed a young goat, and lamed another, so that I
caught it, and led it home in a string; when I had it home, I
bound and splintered up its leg, which was broke. N. B. I took
such care of it, that it lived, and the leg grew well and as strong
as ever; but by nursing it so long, it grew tame, and fed upon
the little green at my door, and would not go away. This was
OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE. 57
the first time that I entertained a thought of breeding up some
tame creatures, that I might have food when my powder and shot
was all spent.
Dec. 28, 29, 30. Great heats, and no breeze; so that there
was no stirring abroad, except in the evening for food. This time
I spent in putting all mythings in order within doors. g
January 1, Very hot still; but I went abroad early and late with
my gun, and lay still in the middle of the day. This evening, going
farther into the vallies, which lay towards the centre of the island,
I found there was plenty of goats, though exceeding shy and hard
to come at; however, I resolved to try, if I could not bring my
dog to hunt them down.
Jan. 2. Accordingly, the next day I went out with my dog, and
set him upon the goats; but I was mistaken, for they all faced
about upon the dog: and he knew his danger too well; for he
would not come mear them,
Jan. 3. I began my fence, or wall, which, being still jealous of
my being attacked by somebody, I resolved to make verythick and
strong.
N. B. This wall being described before, I purposely omit what was
said in the Journal; it is sufficient to observe, that I was no less
time, than from the 3d of January to the 14th of April, work-
ing, finishing, and perfecting this wall, though it was no more
than about twenty-four yards in length, being a half-circle,
from one place in the rock, to another place about eight yards
from it, the door of the cave being in the centre behind it,
All this time I worked very hard, the rains hindering me many
days, nay, sometimes weeks together; but I thought I should
never be perfectly secure, until this wall was finished; and it is
Scarce credible what inexpressible labour every thing was done
with, especially the bringing piles out of the woods, and driving
them into the ground; for I made them much bigger than I need
to have done.
When this wall was finished, and the outside double-fenced
with a turf wall raised up close to it, I persuaded myself, that if
any people were to come on shore there, they would not per-
ceive anything like a habitation; and it was very well I did so,
as may be observed hereafter, upon a very remarkable occasion.
During this time, .I made my rounds in the woods for game,
every day, when the rain admitted me, and made frequent disco-
veries, in these walks, of something or other to my advantage;
particularly, I found a kind of wild pigeons, who built not as
wood pigeons, in a tree, but rather as house pigeons, in the holes
of the rocks; and taking some young ones, I endeavoured to breed
them up tame; and did so : but when they grew older, they flew
C 2
J8 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
away, which perhaps was at first for want of feeding them; forI
had nothing to give them. However, I frequently found their
nests, and got their young ones, which were very good meat.
And now, in the managing my household affairs, I found my-
self wanting in manythings, which H thought at first it was impos-
sible for me to make, as indeed as to some of them it was; for
instance, I could never make a cask to be hooped. I had a small
rumlet or two, as I observed before, but I could never arrive to
the capacity of making one by them, though I spent many weeks
about it; I could neither put in the heads, or joint the staves so
true to one another, as to make them hold water, so I gave that
also over. -
In the next place, I was at great loss for candle, so that as
Soon as ever it was dark, which was generally by seven o’clock,
I was obliged to go to bed. I remembered the lump of bees-wax,
with which I made candles in my African adventure; but I had
none of that now. The only remedy I had, was, that, when I had
killed a goat, I saved the tallow, and with a little dish made of
clay, which I baked in the sun, to which I added a wick of some
oakum, I made me a lamp; and this gave me light, though not a
clear steady light like a candle. In the middle of all my labours,
it happened, that, rummaging mythings, I found a little bag, which,
as I hinted before, had been filled with corn for the feeding of
poultry, not for this voyage, but before, as I suppose, when the
ship came from Lisbon. What little remainder of corn had been
in the bag, was all devoured with the rats, and I saw nothing in
the bag but husks and dust; and being willing to have the bag
for some other use, I think it was to put powder in, when I
divided it for fear of the lightning, or some such use, I shook the
husks of corn out of it, on one side of my fortification, under the
rock. w
It was a little before the great rains, just now mentioned, that
I threw this stuff away, taking no notice of any thing, and not so
much as remembering that I had thrown any thing there ; when
about a month after, or thereabout, I saw some few stalks of
something green shooting out of the ground, which I fancied might
be some plant I had not seen; but I was surprised, and perfectly
astonished, when, after a little longer time, I saw about ten or
twelve ears come out, which were perfect green barley, of the
same kind as our European, nay, as our English barley.
It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of
my thoughts on this occasion. I had hitherto acted upon no reli-
gious foundation at all. Indeed, I had very few notions of re-
ligion in my head, or had entertained any sense of any thing that
had befallen me, otherwise than as a chance, or, as we lightly
say, what pleases God; without so much as inquiring into the
end of Providence in these things, or his order in governing events
OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE, 59;
in the world. But after I saw barley grow there, in a climate
which I knew was not proper for corn, and especially that I knew
not how it came there, it startled me strangely, and I began to
suggest, that God had miraculously caused this grain to grow,
without any help of seed sown ; and that it was so directed pure-
ly for my sustenance on that wild miserable place.
This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my
eyes, and I began to bless myself, that such a prodigy of nature
should happen upon my account; and this was the more strange
to me, because I saw near it still, all along by the side of the
rock, some other straggling stalks, which proved to be stalks of
rice, and which I knew, because I had seen it grow in Africa,
when I was ashore there. -
I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence
for my support, but not doubting but that there was more in the
place, I went all over that part of the island, where I had been
before, peeping in every corner, and under every rock, to see for
more of it; but I could not find any. At last, it occurred to my
thought, that I had shook a bag of chicken’s meat out in that
place, and then the wonder began to cease; and I must confess,
my religious thankfulness to God’s providence began to abate too,
upon discovering, that all this was nothing but what was com-
mon, though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange and
unforeseen a providence, as if it had been miraculous; for it was
really the work of Providence, as to me, that should order or ap-
point ten or twelve grains of corn to remain unspoiled, when the
rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it had been dropped from
heaven: as also, that I should throw it out in that particular
place, where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it sprang up
immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it any where else at that
time, it had been burnt up and destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of corn, you may be sure, in their
season, which was about the end of June, and, laying up every
corn, I resolved to sow them all again, hoping in time to have
Some quantity sufficient to supply me with bread; but it was not
till the fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain of
this corn to eat, and even then but sparingly, as I shall say after-
wards in its order; for I lost all that I sowed the first season, by
not observing the proper time; for I sowed it just before the dry
Season, so that it never came up at all, at least not as it would
have done ; of which in its place. -
Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty
stalks of rice, which I preserved with the same care, and whose
use was of the same kind, or to the same purpose, viz. to make me
bread, or rather food; for I found ways to cook it up without
baking, though I did that also after some time. But to return to
my journal. *
60 I, IFE AND A DVENTURES
I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get
my wall done; and the 14th of April I closed it up, contriving to
go into it, not by a door, but over the wall by a ladder, that there
might be no sign in the outside of my habitation.
April 16. I finished the ladder; so I went up with the ladder
to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down on the
inside: this was a complete enclosure to me; for within I had
room enough, and nothing could come at me from without, un-
less it could first mount my wall.
The very next day after this wall was finished, I had almost
had all my labour overthrown at once, and myself killed. The
case was thus: As I was busy in the inside of it behind my tent,
just in the entrance into my cave, I was terribly frighted with a
most dreadful surprising thing indeed; for on a sudden I found
the earth come crumbling down from the roof of my cave, and
from the edge of the hill, over my head, and two of the posts I had
set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner: I was heartily
scared, but thought nothing of what was really the cause, only
thinking that the top of my cave was falling in, as some of it
had done before; and for fear I should be buried in it, I ran for-
ward to my ladder, and not thinking myself safe there neither, I
got over my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill, which I ex-
pected might roll down upon me... I was no sooner stept down
upon the firm ground, but I plainly saw it was a terrible earth-
quake, for the ground I stood on shook three times at about eight
minutes distance, with three such shocks, as would have over-
turned the strongest building that could be supposed to have
stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock, which
stood about half a mile from me next the sea, fell down with
such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life: I perceived
also the very sea was put into violent motion by it; and I believe
the shocks were stronger under the water than on the island.
I was so amazed with the thing itself, having never felt the
like, or discoursed with any one that had, that I was like one
dead or stupified; and the motion of the earth made my sto-
mach sick, like one that was tossed at sea; but the noise of the
falling of the rock awaked me, as it were, and rousing’me from
the stupified condition I was in, filled me with horror, and I
thought of nothing then but the hill falling upon my tent and all
my household goods, and burying all at once; and thus sunk my
ve; soul within me a second time.
fter the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some
time, I began to take courage; and yet I had not heart enough
to get over my wall again, for fear of being buried alive, but sat
still upon the ground, greatly cast down and disconsolate, not
knowing what to do. All this while I had not the least serious
religious thought, nothing but the common “Lord have mercy
upon me!” and when it was over, that went away too.

OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 61
While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and grow cloudy, as
if it would rain; soon after that, the wind rose by little and little,
so that in less than half an hour it blew a most dreadful hurri-
cane : the sea was all on a sudden covered over with foam and
froth, the shore was covered with the breach of the water, the
trees were torn up by the roots, and a terrible storm it was ; and
this held about three hours, and then began to abate, and in two
hours more it was stark calm, and began to rain very hard.
All this while I sat upon the ground, very much terrified and
dejected, when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these
winds and rain being the consequence of the earthquake, the
earthquake itself was spent and over, and I might venture into my
cave again: with this thought my spirits began to revive, and, the
rain also helping to persuade me, I went in and sat down in
my tent; but the rain was so violent, that my tent was ready to
be beaten down with it; and I was forced to go into my cave,
º very much afraid, and uneasy, for fear it should fall on my
ead.
This violent rain forced me to a new work, viz. to cut a hole
through my new fortification like a sink, to let water go out,
which would else have drowned my cave. After I had been in
my cave some time, and found still no more shocks of the earth-
quake follow, I began to be more composed; and now, to sup-
port my spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, I went to my
little store, and took a small cup of rum, which, however, I did
then, and always, very sparingly, knowing I could have no more
when that was gone.
It continued raining all that night, and great part of the next
day, so that I could not stir abroad; but, my mind being more
composed, I began to think of what I had best do, concluding,
that if the island was subject to these earthquakes, there would be
no living for me in a cave, but I must consider of building me
some little hut in an open place, which I might surround with a
wall as I had done here, and so make myself secure from wild
beasts or men: but concluded, if I staid where I was, I should
certainly, one time or other, be buried alive.
With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the
place where it stood, which was just under the hanging precipice
of the hill, and which, if it should be shaken again, would cer-
tainly fall upon my tent. And I spent the two next days, being
the 19th and 20th of April, in contriving where and how to re-
move my habitation.
The fear of being swallowed up alive, made me that I never
slept in quiet, and yet the apprehension of lying abroad without
any fence, was almost equal to it; but still, when I looked about,
and saw how every thing was put in order, how pleasantly con-
cealed I was, and how safe from danger, it made me very loath to
TCII) OVCs
6e , LIFE AN D A DV ENTURES
In the mean time, it occurred to me, that it would require a
vast deal of time for me to do this, and that I must be contented
to run the venture where I was, till I had formed a camp for my-
self, and had secured it so as to remove to it. So, with this
resolution, I composed myself for a time, and resolved that I would
go to work with all speed, to build me a wall with piles and ca-
bles, &c. in a circle, as before; and set my tent up in it when it
was finished, but that I would venture to stay where I was till it ".
was finished, and fit to remove to. This was the 21st.
April 22. The next morning I began to consider of means to
put this resolve in execution, but I was at a great loss about my
tools. I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets, (for we
carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians); but with much
chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of not-
ches and dull; and, though I had a grindstone, I could not turn
it, and grind my tools too : this cost me as much thought as a
statesmen would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics,
or a judge upon the life and death of a man. At length I con-
trived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I
might have both my hands at liberty.—Note, I had never seen
any such thing in England, or at least not to take notice how it
was done, though since I have observed it is very common there;
besides that, my grindstone was very large and heavy. This ma-
chine cost me a full week’s work to bring it to perfection.
April 28, 29. These two whole days I took up in grinding my
tools, my machine for turning my grindstone performing very well.
April 30. Having perceived my bread had been low a great
while, now I took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one bis-
cuit-cake a day, which made my heart very heavy.

CHAP. VI.
Observe the Ship driven further aground by the late Storm—
Procure a vast quantity of Necessaries from the Wreck—Catch
a large Turtle—I fall ill of a Fever and Ague—Terrible
Dream, and serious Reflections thereupon—Find a Bible in
one of the Seamen’s Chests thrown ashore, the reading whereof
gives me great Comfort. -- -
MAY 1. In the morning, looking towards the sea-side, the tide
being low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary;
and it looked like a cask. When I came to it, I found a small
barrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which
were driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards
the wreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie higher out of the wa-
ter than it used to do. I examined the barrel which was driven
OF ROBIN SON C R US OE, 63
on shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder, but it had
taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone;
however, I rolled it farther on shore for the present, and went on
upon the sands as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to
look for more.
When I came down to the ship, I found it strangely removed;
the forecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at
least six foot; and the stern, which was broke to pieces, and
parted from the rest by the force of the sea, soon after I had left
rummaging her, was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on one side,
and the sand was thrown so high on that side next her stern, that
whereas there was a great place of water before, so that I could
not come within a quarter of a mile of the wreck without swim-
ming, I could now walk quite up to her when the tide was out.
I was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it must be
done by the earthquake; and, as by this violence the ship was
more broken open than formerly, so many things came daily on
shore, which the sea had loosened, and which the winds and wa-
ter rolled by degrees to the land.
This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing
my habitation; and I busied myself mightily, that day especially,
in searching whether I could make any way into the ship; but I
found nothing was to be expected of that kind, for that all the
inside of the ship was choked up with sand; however, as I had
learnt not to despair of any thing, I resolved to pull every thing
to pieces that I could of the ship, concluding, that every thing I
could get from her would be of some use or other to me.
May 3. I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam
through, which I thought held some of the upper part or quarter-
deck together, and when I had cut it through, I cleared away
the sand as well as I could from the side which lay highest; but
the tide coming in, I was obliged to give over for that time.
May 4. I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I durst
eat of, till I was weary of my sport; when just going to leave
off, I caught a young dolphin. I had made me a long line of
some rope-yarn, but I had no hooks, yet I frequently caught fish
enough, as much as I cared to eat; all which I dried in the sun,
and ate them dry.
May 5. Worked on the wreck, cut another beam asunder, and
brought three great fir planks off from the decks, which I tied
together, and made swim on shore when the tide of flood came on.
May 6. Worked on the wreck, got several iron bolts out of
her, and other pieces of iron-work; worked very hard, and came
home very much tired, and had thoughts of giving it over.
May 7. Went to the wreck again, but with an intent not to
work, but found the weight of the wreck had broke itself down,
the beams being cut, that several pieces of the ship seemed to lie

64 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
loose, and the inside of the hold lay so open, that I could see into
it, but almost full of water and sand.
May 8. Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench
up the deck, which lay now quite clear of the water or sand; I
wrenched open two planks, and brought them on shore also with
the tide: I left the iron crow in the wreck for next day.
May 9. Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into
the body of the wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened them
with the crow, but could not break them up: I felt also the roll
of English lead, and could stir it, but it was too heavy to remove.
May 10, 11, 12, 18, 14. Went every day to the wreck, and got
a great many pieces of timber, and boards, or plank, and two or
three hundred weight of iron.
May 15. I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not cut a piece
off the roll of lead, by placing the edge of one hatchet, and dri-
ving it with the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in
the water, I could not make any blow to drive the hatchet.
May 16. It had blown hard in the night, and the wreck ap-
peared more broken by the force of the water; but I staid so
long in the woods to get pigeons for food, that the tide prevent-
ed me going to the wreck that day.
May 17. I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a
great distance, near two miles off me, but resolved to see what
they were, and found it was a piece of the head, but too heavy
for me to bring away.
May 24, Every day to this day I worked on the wreck, and,
with hard labour, I loosened some things so much with the crow,
that the first flowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the
seamen’s chests; but the wind blowing from the shore, nothing
came to land that day but pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which
had some Brazil pork in it, but the salt water and the sand had
spoiled it.
I continued this work every day to the 15th of June, except
the time necessary to get food, which I always appointed, du-
ring this part of my employment, to be when the tide was up,
that I might be ready when it was ebbed out; and by this time
I had gotten timber, and plank, and iron work enough to have
built a good boat, if I had known how ; and also I got at several
times, and in several pieces, near one hundred weight of the
sheet-lead.
June 16. Going down to the sea-side, I found a large tor-
toise, or turtle; this was the first I had seen, which, it seems, was
only my misfortune, not any defect of the place, or scareity; for
had I happened to be on the other side of the island, I might have
had hundreds of them every day, as I found afterwards; but per-
haps had paid dear enough for them. *:
June 17. I spent in cooking the turtle; I found in her three-

OF ROBIN SON CRU SOEe 65
score eggs ; and her flesh was to me at that time the most sa-
voury and pleasant that ever I tasted in my life, having had no
flesh, but of goats, and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place.
June 18. Rained all day, and I stayed within. I thought at
this time the rain felt cold, and I was something chilly, which I
ew was not usual in that latitude.
ºne 19. Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been
COIC,
J * 20. No rest all night, violent pains in my head, and fe-
WeIſISI!.
June 21. Very ill, frighted almost to death with the apprehen-
sions of my sad condition, to be sick, and no help. Prayed to
God, for the first time since the storm off Hull, but scarce knew
what I said, or why; my thoughts being all confused. .
June 22. A little better, but under dreadful apprehensions of
sickness.
June 23. Very bad again, cold and shivering, and then a vio-
lent headach.
June 24. Much better. z
June 25. An ague very violent; the fit held me seven hours,
cold fit and hot, with faint sweats after it.
June 26. Better; and having no victuals to eat, took my gun,
but found myself very weak; however, I killed a she-goat, and,
with much difficulty, got it home, and broiled some of it, and ate;
I would fain have stewed it, and made some broth, but had no

Ot.
P June 27. The ague again so violent, that I lay a-bed all day,
and neither ate nor drank; I was ready to perish for thirst, but
so weak I had not strength to stand up, or to get myself any wa-
ter to drink. Prayed to God again, but was light-headed; and
when I was not, I was so ignorant, that I knew not what to say,
only I lay, and cried, Lord look upon me! Lord pity me ! Lord
have mercy upon me !—I suppose I did nothing else for two or
three hours, till, the fit wearing off, I fell asleep, and did not
wake till far in the night; when I waked, I found myself much
refreshed, but weak, and exceeding thirsty: however, as I had no
water in my whole habitation, I was forced to lie till morning,
and went to sleep again. In this second sleep I had this terrible
dream.
I thought that I was sitting on the ground, on the outside of
my wall, where I sat when the storm blew after the earthquake,
and that I saw a man descend from a great black cloud, in a bright
flame of fire, and light upon the ground. He was all over as
bright as a flame, so that I could but just bear to look towards
him; his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful, impossible
for words to describe; when he stepped upon the ground with his
feet, I thought the earth trembled, just as it had done before in

66 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
the earthquake, and all the air looked to my apprehension as if it
had been filled with flashes of fire.
He was no sooner landed upon the earth, but he moved for-
ward towards me, with a long spear, or weapon, in his hand to
kill me; and when he came to a rising ground, at some distance,
he spoke to me, or I heard a voice so terrible, that it is impossi-
ble to express the terror of it ; all that I can say I understood
was this:—Seeing all these things have not brought thee to re-
pentance, now thou shalt die: at which words, I thought he lift-
ed up the spear that was in his hand to kill me.
No one, that shall ever read this account, will expect, that I
should be able to describe the horrors of my soul at this terrible
vision; I mean, that even while it was a dream, I even dreamed
of those horrors; nor is it any more possible to describe the im-
pression that remained upon my mind, when I awaked and found
it was but a dream. >
I had, alas ! no divine knowledge. What I had received by
the good instruction of my father was then worn out by an unin-
terrupted series, for eight years, of seafaring wickedness, and a
constant conversation with nothing but such as were, like my-
self, wicked and profane to the last degree. I do not remember,
that I had, in all that time, one thought, that so much as tended
either to looking upwards toward God, or inwards towards a re-
flection upon my own ways. But a certain stupidity of soul,
without desire of good, or conscience of evil, had entirely over-
whelmed me, and I was all that the most hardened, unthinking,
wicked creature, among our common sailors, can be supposed to
be, not having the least sense, either of the fear of God in dan-
ger, or of thankfulness to God in deliverances.
In the relating what is already past of my story, this will be
the more easily believed, when I shall add, that, through all the
variety of miseries that had to this day befallen me, I never had
so much as one thought of it being the hand of God, or that it
was a just punishment for my sin; my rebellious behaviour against
my father, or my present sins, which were great, or so much as
a punishment for the general course of my wicked life. When I
was on the desperate expedition on the desart shores of Africa, I
never had so much as one thought of what would become of me,
or one wish to God to direct me whither I should go, or to keep me
from the danger, which apparently surrounded ine, as well from
voracious creatures, as cruel savages: but I was merely thought-
less of a God, or a Providence, acted like a mere brute, from the
principles of nature, and by the dictates of common sense only, and
indeed hardly that. --
When I was delivered, and taken up at sea by the Portugal
captain, well used, and dealt justly and honourably with, as well
as charitably, I had not the least thankfulness in my thoughts,
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 67
When again. I was shipwrecked, ruined, and in danger of drown-
ing on this island, I was as far from remorse, or looking on it as
a judgment; I only said to myself often, that I was an unfortu-
nate dog, and born to be always miserable.
It is true, when I got on shore first here, and found all my
ship's crew drowned, and myself spared, I was surprised with a
kind of ecstasy, and some transports of soul, which, had the grace
of God assisted, might have coine up to true thankfulness; but
it ended where it begun, in a mere common flight of joy, or, as I
may say, being glad I was alive, without the least reflection upon
the distinguishing goodness of the Hand which had preserved me,
and had singled me out to be preserved, when all the rest were
destroyed; or an inquiry why Providence had been thus merciful
to me: even just the same common sort of joy which seamen ge-
nerally have, after they have got safe on shore from a shipwreck,
which they drown all in the next bowl of punch, and forget al-
most as soon as it is over; and all the rest of my life was like it.
Even when I was afterwards, on due consideration, made sen-
sible of my condition, how I was cast on this dreadful place, out
of the reach of human kind, out of all hope of relief, or prospect
of redemption, as soon as I saw but a prospect of living, and that I
should not starve and perish for hunger, all the sense of my afflic-
tion wore off, and I began to be very easy, applied myself to the
works proper for my preservation and supply, and was far enough
from being afflicted at my condition, as a judgment from Heaven,
or as the hand of God against me: these were thoughts which very
seldom entered into my head.
The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my journal, had at
first some little influence upon me, and began to affect me with Se-
riousness, as long as I thought it had something miraculous, in
it; but as soon as ever that part of thought was removed, all the
impression, which was raised from it, wore off also, as I have
noted already.
Even the earthquake, though nothing could be more terrible in
its nature, or more immediately directing to the invisible Power,
which alone directs such things, yet no sooner was the first fright
over, but the impression it had made went off also. I had no more
sense of God, or his judgments, much less of the present affliction
of my circumstances being from his hand, than if I had been in the
most prosperous condition of life. -
But now, when I began to be sick, and a leisurely view of the
miseries of death came to place itself before me; when my spi-
rits began to sink under the burden of a strong distemper, and
nature was exhausted with the violence of the fever, conscience,
that had slept so long, began to awake, and I began to reproach
myself with my past life, in which I had so evidently, by uncom-

68 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
mon wickedness, provoked the justice of God to lay me under
uncommon strokes, and to deal with me in so vindictive a manner.
These reflections oppressed me, from the second or third day
of my distemper; and in the violence, as well of the fever as of
the dreadful reproaches of my conscience, extorted some words
from me, like praying to God, though I cannot say they were either
a prayer attended with desires, of with hopes; it was rather the
voice of mere fright and distress; my thoughts were confused,
the convictions great upon my mind, and the horror of dying in
such a miserable condition raised vapours into my head with the
mere apprehensions; and, in these hurries of my soul, I knew
not what my tongue might express: but it was rather exclama-
tion, such as, Lord what a miserable creature am I | If I should
be sick, I shall certainly die for want of help, and what will be-
come of me ! Then the tears burst out of my eyes, and I could
say no more for a good while.
In this interval, the good advice of my father came to my mind,
and presently his prediction, which I mentioned in the beginning
of this story; viz. that, if I did take this foolish step, God would
not bless me; and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon
having neglected his counsel, when there might be none to assist
in my recovery. Now, said I aloud, my dear father’s words are
come to pass; God’s justice has overtaken me, and I have none
to help or hear me. I rejected the voice of Providence, which
had mercifully put me in a posture, or station of life, wherein
I might have been happy and easy; but I would neither see it
myself, nor learn to know the blessing of it from my parents. I
left them to mourn over my folly, and now I am left to mourn
under the consequences of it. I refused their help and assistance,
who would have lifted me into the world, and would have made
every thing easy to me, and now I have difficulties to struggle with,
too great for even nature itself to support, and no assistance, no
help, no comfort, no advice. Then I cried out, Lord, be my help;
for I am in great distress | -
This was the first prayer, if I might call it so, that I had made
for many years. . But I return to my journal. . . .
June 28. Having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep I had
had, and the fit being entirely off, I got up; and though the
fright and terror of my dream was very great, yet I considered,
that the fit of the ague would return again the next day, and
now was my time to get something to refresh and support myself,
when I should be ill; and the first thing I did, I filled a large
square case-bottle with water, and set it upon my table, in reach
of my bed; and to take off the chill or aguish disposition of the
water, I put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it, and mixed
them together; then I got me a piece of the goat’s flesh, and
broiled it on the coals, but could eat very little. I walked about,
ÖF ROBINSON CRUSO E. 69
but was very weak, and withal very sad and heavy-hearted, un-
der a sense of my miserable condition, dreading the return of my
distemper the next day. At night, I made my supper of three
of the turtle’s eggs, which I roasted in the ashes, and ate, as we
call it, in the shell ; and this was the first bit of meat I had ever
fººd God’s blessing to, even, as I could remember, in my whoke
€.
After I had eaten, I tried to walk, but found myself so weak,
that I could hardly carry the gun (for I never went out without
that); so I went but a little way, and sat down upon the ground,
looking out upon the sea, which was just before me, and very calm
and smooth. As I sat here, some such thoughts as these occurred
to me:—
What is the earth and sea, of which I have seen so much
Whence is it produced 2 And what am I, and all the other crea-
tures, wild and tame, human and brutal; whence are we?
Sure we are all made by some secret Power, who formed the
earth and sea, the air and sky; and who is that? -
Then it followed, most maturally :—It is God that has made
it all. Well, but then, it came on strangely, if God has made all
these things, he guides and governs them all, and all things that
concern them; for the Being, that could make alk 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 knowiedge or appointment.
And if nothing happens without his knowledge, he knows that
I am here, and am in a dreadful condition; and if nothing hap-
pens without his appointment, he has appointed all this to befal me.
Nothing occurred to my thoughts to contradict any of these
conclusions; and therefore it rested upon me with the greater
force, that it must needs be, that God had appointed all this to
befal me; that I was brought to this miserable circumstance by
his direction, he having the sole power, not of me only, but of
every thing that happened in the world. Immediately it followed,
Wy has God done this to me? What have I done to be thus
USeO -->
My conscience presently checked me in that inquiry, as if I
had ºlºphºne. and methought it spoke to me, like a voice:–
Wretch! dost thou ask what thou hast done 3 Look back upon a
dreadful mis-spent life, and ask thyself what thou hast not done :
Ask why is it that thou wert not long ago destroyed 3 Why wert
thou not drowned in Yarmouth Roads? killed in the fight, when
the ship was taken by the Sallee man of war? devoured by the
wild beasts on the coast of Africa : or drowned HERE, when all
the crew perished but thyself? Dost thou ask, What have I done 2
I was struck with these reflections, as one astonished, and had
not a word to say, no, not to answer to myself; but rose up

70 11FE AND ADve NTUREs
pensive and sad, walked back to my retreat, and went up over my
wall, as if I had been going to bed; but my thoughts were sadly
disturbed, and I had no inclination to sleep, so I sat down in my
chair, and lighted my lamp, for it began to be dark. Now, as the
apprehensions of the return of my distemper terrified me very
much, it occurred to my thought, that the Brasilians take no
physic but their tobacco, for almost all distempers; and I had a
piece of a roll of tobacco in one of the chests, which was quite
cured, and some also that was green, and not quite cured.
I went, directed by Heaven, no doubt; for in this chest I found
a cure both for soul and body. I opened the chest, and found
what I looked for, viz. the tobacco; and as the few books I had
saved lay there too, I took out one of the Bibles, which I men-
tioned before, and which, to this time, I had not fºund leisure,
or so much as inclination, to look into ; I say, I took it out, and
brought both that and the tobacco with me to the table.
What use to make of the tobacco I knew not, as to my dis-
temper, or whether it was good for it or no; but I tried several
experiments with it, as if I was resolved it should hit one way or
other. I first took a piece of a leaf, and chewed it in my mouth,
which indeed at first almost stupified my brain, the tobacco being
green and strong, and that I had not been much used to it;
then I took some, and steeped it an hour or two in some rum, and
resolved to take a dose of it, when I lay down; and lastly, I burnt
some upon a pan of coals, and held my nose close over the smoke
of it, as long as I could bear it, as well for the heat, as the virtue
of it, and I held almost to suffocation.
In the interval of this operation, I took up the Bible, and began
to read ; but my head was too much disturbed with the tobacco
to bear reading, at least at that time; only, having opened the
book casually, the first words that occurred to me were these :
“Call on me, in the day of trouble, and I will deliver; and thou
shalt glorify me.” -
The words were very apt to my case, and made some impres-
sion upon my thoughts at the time of reading them, though not
so much as they did afterwards; for, as for being delivered, the
word had no sound, as I may say, to me. The thing was so re-
mote, so impossible, in my apprehension of things, that I began
to say, as the children of Israel did, when they were promised
flesh to eat, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?” So I
began to say, Can God himself deliver me from this place : And
as it was not for many years that any hope appeared, this pre-
vailed very often upon my thoughts. But, however, the words
made a very great impression upon me, and I mused upon them
very often. It grew now late, and the tobacco had, as I said, dozed
my head so much, that I inclined to sleep, so that I left my
hamp burning in the cave, lest I should want any thing in the
bF ROBINSON CRUS OE. 71.
night, and went to bed. But before I lay down, I did what I
never had done in all my life, I kneeled down, and prayed to
God to fulfil the promise to me, that, if I called upon him in the
day of trouble, he would deliver me. After my broken and im-
perfect prayer was over, I drank the rum, in which I had steep-
ed the tobacco, which was so strong and rank of the tobacco, that
indeed I could scarce get it down. Immediately upon this, I went
to bed, and I found presently it flew up into my head violently;
but I fell into a sound sleep, and waked no more, till, by the
sun, it must necessarily be near three o’clock in the afternoon the
next day; nay, to this hour, I am partly of the opinion, that I
slept all the next day and night, and till almost three the day af.
ter; for, otherwise, I know not how I should lose a day out of
my reckoning, in the days of the week, as it appeared, some years
after, I had done : for, if I had lost it by crossing and recrossing
the Line, I should have lost more than a day; but in my account
it was lost, and I never knew which way.
Be that, however, one way or other; when I awaked, I found
myself exceedingly refreshed, and my spirits lively and chearful.
When I got up, I was stronger than I was the day before, and
my stomach better; for I was hungry, and, in short, I had no
fit the next day, but continued much altered for the better: this
was the 29th. *
The 30th was my well day of course, and I went abroad with
my gun, but did not care to travel too far: I killed a sea-fowl or
two, something like a brand goose, and brought them home, but
was not very forward to eat them : so I ate some more of the tur-
tle's eggs, which were very good. This evening Irenewed the me-
dicine, which I had supposed did me good the day before, viz. the
tobacco steeped in rum: only I did not take so much as before,
nor did I chew any of the leaf, or hold my head over the smoke;
however, I was not so well the next day, which was the ist of
July, as I hoped I should have been ; for I had a little spice of
the cold fit, but it was not much.
July 2. I renewed the medicine all the three ways, and dozed
myself with it as at first, and doubled the quantity which I drank.
July 3. I missed the fit for good and all, though I did not re-
cover my full strength for some weeks after. While I was thus
gathering strength, my thoughts ran exceedingly upon this scrip-
ture, “I will deliver thee;” and the impossibility of my deliver-
ance lay much upon my mind, in bar of my ever expecting it:
but as I was discouraging myself with such thoughts, it occurred to
my mind, that I pored so much upon my deliverance from the
main affliction, that I disregarded the deliverance I had received;
and I was, as it were, made to ask myself such questions as these:
viz. Have I not been delivered, and wonderfully too, from sick-
ness? from the most distressing condition that could be, and that
72 LIFE AND ADVENTUREs
was so frightful to me? and what notice had I taken of it? had
I done my part? God had delivered me, but I had not glorified
him : that is to say, I had not owned and been thankful for that
as a deliverance; and how could I expect greater deliverance?
This touched my heart very much, and immediately I kneeled
down, and gave God thanks aloud, for my recovery from my sick-
IlêSS.
July 4. In the morning I took the Bible: and, beginning at the
New Testament, I began seriously to read it, and imposed upon
myself to read a while every morning and every night, not tying
myself to the number of chapters, but as long as my thoughts
should engage me. It was not long after I set seriously to this work,
but I found my heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the
wickedness of my past life. The impression of my dream revived;
and the words, “All these things have not brought thee to re-
pentance,” ran seriously in my thoughts. I was earnestly beg-
ging of God to give me repentance, when it happened providen-
tially that very day, that, reading the Scripture, I came to these
words: “He is exalted a Prince, and a Saviour, to give repent-
ance, and to give remission.” J threw down the book, and with
my heart as well as my hand lifted up to heaven, in a kind of ec-
stacy of joy, I cried out aloud, Jesus, thou Son of David Jesus,
thou exalted Prince and Saviour, give me repentance 1
This was the first time that I could say, in the true sense of the
words, that I prayed in all my life; for now I prayed with a sense
of my condition, and with a true Scripture view of hope, founded
on the encouragement of the word of God; and from this time,
I may say, I began to have hope that. God would hear me.
Now I began to construe the words mentioned above, “Call
on me, and I will deliver thee,” in a different sense from what I
had ever done before; for then I had no notion of any thing
being called deliverance, but my being delivered from the capti.
vity. I was in : for, though I was indeed at large in the place, yet
the island was certainly a prison to me, and that in the worst sense
of the word; but now I learnt to take it in another sense. Now
I looked back upon my past life with such horror, and my sins
appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of God, but
deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort.
As for my solitary life, it was nothing; I did not so much as pray
to be delivered from it, or think of it; it was all of no considera-
tion in comparison of this; and I added this part here, to hint to
whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true sense of
things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing
than deliverance from affliction.
But, leaving this part, I return to my journal. -
My condition began now to be, though not less miserable as to
my way of living, yet much easier to my mind; and my thoughts

of Robinson CRUso E. 73'
being directed, by a constant reading the Scripture, and praying
to God, to things of a higher nature, I had a great deal of com-
fort within, which till now I knew nothing of: also, as my health
and strength returned, I bestirred myself to furnish myself with
every thing that I wanted, and make my way of living as regular
as I could. -
From the 4th of July to the 14th, I was chiefly employed in
walking about with my gun in my hand, a little and a little at a
time, as a man that was gathering up his strength after a fit of
sickness; for it is hardly to be imagined how low I was, and to
what weakness I was reduced. The application which I made
use of was perfectly new, and, perhaps, what had never cured
an ague before; neither can I recommend it to any one to prac-
tise by this experiment; and though it did carry off the fit, yet
it rather contributed to weaken me; for I had frequent convulsions
in my nerves and limbs for some time.
I learnt from it also this in particular, that being abroad in the
rainy season was the most pernicious thing to my health that
could be, especially in those rains which came attended with
storms and hurricanes of wind; for, as the rain which came in
a dry season was always most accompanied with such storms, so
I found this rain was much more dangerous than the rain which
fell in September and October.
I had been now in this unhappy island above ten months; all
possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to be entire-
ly taken from me; and I firmly believed, that no human shape had
ever set foot upon that place. Having now secured my habita-
tion, as I thought, fully to my mind, I had a great desire to make
a more perfect discovery of the island, and to see what other pro-
ductions I might find, which yet I knew nóthing of.
CHAP. VII.
I begin to take a survey of my Island—Discover plenty of To-
bacco, Grapes, Lemons, and Sugar Canes, wild, but no human
Inhabitants—Resolve to lay up a store of these Articles, to
.furnish me against the wet Season—My Cat, which I supposed
lost, returns with Kittens—I regulate my Diet, and shut my-
self up for the wet Season—Sow my Grain, which comes to no-
thing ; but I discover, and remedy my error—Take account of
the course of the Weather.
IT was the 15th of July that I began to take a more particular
Survey of the island itself. I went up the creek first, where, as I
hinted. I brought my rafts on shore. I found, after I came about
two miles up, that the tide did not flow any higher, and that it was
D
74 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
no more than a little brook of running water, very fresh and
good; but this being the dry season, there was hardly any water
in some parts of it, at least not enough to run into any stream, so
as it could be perceived.
On the bank of this brook I found many pleasant savannas or
meadows, plain, smooth, and covered with grass; and, on the
rising parts of them, next to the higher grounds, where the
water, as it might be supposed, never overflowed, I found a great
deal of tobacco, green, and growing to a great and very strong
stalk: there were divers other plants which I had no notion of,
or understanding about, and might perhaps have virtues of their
own, which I could not find out.
I searched for the cassave root, which the Indians in all that
climate make their bread of, but I could find none. I saw large
plants of aloes, but did not then understand them; I saw several
sugar-canes, but wild, and for want of cultivation, imperfect. I
contented myself with these discoveries for this time, and came
back musing with myself what course I might take to know the
virtue and goodness of any of the fruits or plants which I should
discover, but could bring it to no conclusion; for, in short, I had
made so little observation while I was in the Brazils, that I knew
little of the plants of the field, at least, very little that might serve
me to any purpose now in my distress.
The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way again; and, af-
ter going something farther than I had done the day before, I
found the brook and the savannas began to cease, and the country
became more woody than before. In this part I found different
fruits, and particularly I found melons upon the ground in great
abundance, and grapes upon the trees; the vines had spread in-
deed over the trees, and the clusters of grapes were just now in
their prime, very ripe and rich. This was a surprising discovery,
and I was exceeding glad of them; but I was warned by my ex-
perience to eat sparingly of them, remembering, that when I was
ashore in Barbary, the eating of grapes killed several of our
Englishmen who were slaves there, by throwing them into fluxes
and fevers: but I found an excellent use for these grapes, and
that was to cure or dry them in the sun, and keep them as dried
grapes or raisins are kept, which I thought would be, as indeed
they were, as whelesome, and as agreeable to eat, when nograpes
might be had.
I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my habita-
tion; which, by the way, was the first night, as I might say, I had
lain from home. In the night I took my first contrivance, and got
up into a tree, where Islept well, and the next morning proceed-
; upon my discovery, travelling near four miles, as I might judge
by the length of the valley, keeping still due-north, with a ridge
of hills on the south and north side of me.


OF ROBIN SON CRUS OE. 75
At the end of this march I came to an opening, where the
eountry seemed to descend to the west; and a little spring of
fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the
other way, that is, due east; and the country appeared so fresh,
so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant verdure,
or flourish of spring, that it looked like a planted garden.
I descended a little on the side of that delicious valley, survey-
ing it with a secret kind of pleasure (though mixed with other
afflicting thoughts,) to think that this was all my own, that I was
king and lord of all this country indefeasibly, and had a right of
possession; and, if I could convey it, I might have it in inherit-
ance, as completely as any lord of a manor in England. I saw
here abundance of cocoa-trees, orange and lemon, and citron
trees, but all wild, and few bearing any fruit; at least, not then:
however, the green limes that I gathered were not only pleasant
to eat, but very wholesome; and I mixed their juice afterwards
with water, which made it very wholesome, and very cool and
refreshing.
I found now I had business enough to gather and carry home;
and resolved to lay up a store, as well of grapes, as limes and
lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season, which I knew was
approaching. *
In order to do this, I gathered a great heap of grapes in one
place, and a lesser heap in another place, and a great parcel of
limes and lemons in another place; and taking a few of each with
me, I travelled homeward, and resolved to come again, and bring
a bag or sack, or what I could make, to carry the rest home.
Accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, I came
home (so I must now call my tent, and my cave;) but before I got
thither, the grapes were spoiled; the richness of the fruit, and
the weight of the juice, having broken them, and bruised them,
they were good for little or nothing: as to the limes, they were
good, but I could bring but a few.
The next day, being the 19th, I went back, having made me two
small bags to bring home my harvest. But I was surprised, when,
coming to my heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when
I gathered them, I found them all spread abroad, trod to pieces,
and dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten
and devoured. By this I concluded there were some wild crea-
tures thereabouts, which had done this; but what they were I
knew not. *
However, as I found there was no laying them up on heaps,
and no carrying them away in a sack, but that one way they would
be destroyed, and the other way they would be crushed with their
own weight, I took another course; for I gathered a large quan-
tity of the grapes, and hung them upon the out branches of the
trees, that they might cure and dry in the sun; and as for the

76 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
limes and lemons, I carried as many back as I could well stand
under. - -
When I came home from this journey, I contemplated, with
great pleasure, on the fruitfulness of that valley, and the plea-
santness of the situation, the security from storms on that side of
the water, and the wood; and concluded, that I had pitched upon
a place to fix my abode, which was by far the worst part of the
country. Upon the whole, I began to consider of removing my
habitation, and to look out for a place equally safe, as where I
now was situated, if possible, in that pleasant, fruitful part of the
island.
This thought ran long in my head, and I was exceeding fond
of it for some time, the pleasantness of the place tempting me;
but when I came to a nearer view of it, and to consider that I
was now by the sea-side, where it was at least possible that some-
thing might happen to my advantage, and that the same ill fate
that brought me hither, might bring some other unhappy wretches
to the same place; and though it was scarce probable that any
such thing should ever happen, yet, to enclose myself among the
hills and woods, in the centre of the island, was to anticipate my
bondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable, but im-
possible; and that therefore I ought not by any means to remove.
However, I was so enamoured with this place, that I spent
much of my time there for the whole remaining part of the month
of July; and though, upon second thoughts, I resolved as above,
not to remove, yet I built me a little kind of a bower, and sur-
rounded it, at a distance, with a strong fence, being a double
hedge, as high as I could reach, well staked, and filled between
with brushwood; and here I lay very secure sometimes two or
three nights together, always going over, it with a ladder, as be-
fore; so that I fancied, now I had my country house, and my
sea-coast house; and this work took me up the beginning of
August.
I had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my la-
bour, but the rains came on, and made me stick close to my first
habitation; for, though I had made me a tent like the other, with
a piece of sail, and spread it very well, yet I had not the shelter
of an hill to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me, to
retreat into when the rains were extraordinary. &
About the beginning of August, *} said, I had finished my
bower, and began to enjoy myself. e 3d of August I found
the grapes I had hung up were perfectly dried, and indeed were
excellent good raisins of the sun; so I began to take them down
from the trees, and it was very happy that I did so, for the rains
which followed would have spoiled them, and I had lost the best
part of my winter food; for I had above two hundred large bunches
of them. No sooner had I taken them all down, and carried

OF ROBIN SON CRU SO E. ~~ 77
most of them home to my cave, but it began to rain; and from
thence, which was the 14th of August, it rained more or less every
day, till the middle of October, and sometimes so violently that I
could not stir out of my cave for several days.
In this season I was much surprised with the increase of my
family: I had been concerned for the loss of one of my cats,
who ran away from me, or, as I thought, had been dead ; and I
heard no more tale or tidings of her, till to my astonishment she
came home about the end of August, with three kittens. This
was the more strange to me, because though I had killed a wild
cat, as I called it, with my gun, yet I thought it was a quite
different kind from our European cats; yet the young cats were
, the same kind of house breed like the old one ; and both my
cats being females, I thought it very strange: but from these three
cats, I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats, that I was
forced to kill them like vermin, or wild beasts, and to drive them
from my house as much as possible. -
From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain, so that I
could not stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. In
this confinement I began to be straitened for food; but venturing
out twice, I one day killed a goat; and the last day, which was
the 26th, found a very large tortoise, which was a treat to me, and
my food was regulated thus: I ate a bunch of raisins for my
breakfast, a piece of the goat's flesh, or of the turtle, for my din-
ner, broiled (for, to my great misfortune, I had no vessel to boil
or stew any thing); and two or three of the turtle's eggs for
supper.
During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I worked
daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave; and, by degrees,
worked it on towards one side, till I came to the outside of the
hill, and made a door or way out, which came beyond my fence
or wall; and so I came in and out this way. But I was not per-
fectly easy at lying so open ; for as I had managed myself be-
fore, I was in a perfect enclosure, whereas now I thought I lay
exposed; and yet I could not perceive that there was any living
thing to fear, the biggest creature that I had seen upon the
island being a goat.
September the 30th. I was now come to the unhappy anni-
versary of my landing: I cast up the notches on my post, and
found I had been on shore three hundred and sixty-five days. I
kept this day as a solemn fast, setting it apart to a religious ex-
ercise, prostrating myself to the ground with the most serious
humiliation, confessing myself to God, acknowledging his righteous
judgment upon me, and praying to him to have mercy on me,
through Jesus Christ; and having not tasted the least refresh-
ment for twelve hours, even till the going down of the sun, I
78 1, IFE AND A DV ENTURES
then ate a biscuit-cake and a bunch of grapes, and went to bed,
finishing the day as I began it.
I had all this time observed no Sabbath-day; for as at first I
had no sense of religion upon my mind, I had after some time
omitted to distinguish the weeks, by making a longer notch than
ordinary for the Sabbath-day, and so did not really know what any
of the days were ; but now, having cast up the days as above,
I found I had been there a year; so I divided it into weeks, and
set apart every seventh day for a Sabbath; though I found at the
end of my account I had lost a day or two of my reckoning.
A little after this my ink began to fail me, and so I contented
myself to use it more sparingly, and to write down only the most
remarkable events of my life, without continuing a daily memo-
randum of other things. -
The rainy season, and the dry season, began now to appear re-
gular to me, and I learned to divide them so as to provide for them
accordingly. But I bought all my experience before I had it; and
this I am going to relate, was one of the most discouraging experi-
ments that I made at all. I have mentioned, that I had saved
the few ears of barley and rice which I had so surprisingly found
spring up, as I thought, of themselves, and believe there were
about thirty stalks of rice, and about twenty of barley; and now
I thought it a proper time to sow it after the rains, the sun being
in its southern position going from me.
Accordingly I dug up a piece of ground, as well as I could, with
my wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, I sowed my
grain; but as I was sowing, it casually occurred to my thought,
that I would not sow it all at first, because I did not know
when was the proper time for it; so I sowed about two-thirds
of the seeds, leaving about a handful of each.
It was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did so, for not
one grain of that I sowed this time came to any thing; for the
dry months following, the earth having had no rain after the
seed was sown, it had no moisture to assist its growth, and never
came up at all, till the wet season had come again, and then it
grew as if it had been newly sown.
Finding my first seed did not grow, which I easily imagined
was by the drought, I sought for a moister piece of ground to
make another trial in; and I dug up a piece of ground near my
new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed in February, a little
before the vernal equinox; and this, having the rainy months of
March and April to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yield-
ed a very good crop; but having part of the seed left only, and
not daring to sow all that I had yet, I had but a small quantity
at last, my whole crop not amounting to above half a peck of
each kind. -
But by this experience I was made master of my business, and
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 79
**
knew exactly when the proper season was to sow; and that I
might expect two seed-times, and two harvests, every year.
While this corn was growing, I made a little discovery, which
was of use to me afterwards. As soon as the rains were over,
and the weather began to settle, which was about the month of
November, I made a visit up the country to my bower, where
though I had not been some months, yet I found all things just
as I left them. The circle or double hedge that I had made, was
not only firm and entire, but the stakes which I had cut off of
some trees that grew thereabouts, were all shot out, and grown
with long branches, as much as a willow tree usually shoots the
first year after lopping its head. I could not tell what tree to call
it that these stakes were cut from. I was surprised, and yet very
well pleased, to see the young trees grow; and I pruned them,
and led them up to grow as much alike as I could: and it is scarce
credible, how beautiful a figure they grew into in three years; so
that though the hedge made a circle of about twenty-five yards
in diameter, yet the trees, for such I might now call them, soon
covered it; and it was a complete shade, sufficient to lodge under
all the dry season.
This made me resolve to cut some more stakes, and make me
an hedge like this in a semicircle round my wall, I mean that of
my first dwelling, which I did; and placing the trees, or stakes,
in a double row, at above eight yards distance from my first
fence, they grew presently, and were at first a fine cover to my
habitation, and afterwards served for a defence also, as I shall ob-
serve in its order. -
I found now, that the seasons of the year might generally be
divided, not into summer and winter, as in Europe, but into the
rainy seasons and the dry seasons, which were generally thus:
Rainy, the sun being then on, or near, the
March, equinox.
Half April,
Half April,
Half º;
Dry, the sun being then to the north of the Lines
July,
Half August,
Half August, R
September, 5. Rain, the sun being then come back.
Half October, $
Half October,
November,
December, X. Dry, the sun being then to the south of the Line.
January,
Half February,
80 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
The rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter, as the
winds happened to blow; but this was the general observation I
made. After I had found, by experience, the ill consequence of
being abroad in the rain, I took care to furnish myself with pro-
vision beforehand, that I might not be obliged to go out; and I
sat within doors as much as possible during the wet months.
In this time I found much employment, (and very suitable also
to the time,) for I found great occasion of many things which I had
no way to furnish myself with, but by hard labour and constant
application; particularly, I tried many ways to make myself a
basket; but all the twigs I could get for the purpose proved so
brittle, that they would do nothing. It proved of excellent advan-
tage to me now, that when I was a boy I used to take great delight
in standing at a basket-maker’s in the town where my father lived,
to see them make their wicker-ware; and being, as boys usually
are, very officious to help, and a great observer of the manner how
they worked those things, and sometimes lent an hand, I had by
this means so full knowledge of the methods of it, that I wanted
nothing but the materials; when it came into my mind, that the
twigs of that tree from whence I cut my stakes that grew, might
possibly be as tough as the sallows, and willows, and osiers, in
England; and I resolved to try.
Accordingly the next day, I went to my country-house, as I call-
ed it ; and cutting some of the smaller twigs, I found them to my
purpose as much as I could desire; whereupon I came the next
time prepared with an hatchet to cut down a quantity, which I
soon found, for there was a great plenty of them : these I set up
to dry within my circle, or hedges; and when they were fit for use,
I carried them to my cave; and here, during the next season, I
employed myself in making (as well as I could) a great many bas-
kets, both to carry earth, or to carry or lay up any thing, as I had
occasion; and though I did not finish them very handsomely, yet I
made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose; and thus after-
wards I took care never to be without them: and as my wicker-
ware decayed I made more; especially I made strong deep baskets
to place my corn in, instead of sacks, when I should come to have
any quantity of it. - --
Having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world of time
about it, I bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to supply two
wants. I had no vessels to hold any thing that was liquid, except
two rundlets, which were almost full of rum, and some glass bot-
tles, some of the common size, and others which were case-bot-
tles square, for the holding of waters, spirits, &c. I had not so
much as a pot to boil anything in, except a great kettle which I
saved out of the ship, and which was too big for such uses as I
desired it for, viz. to make broth, and stew a bit of meat by itself.
The second thing I would fain have had, was a tobacco-pipe, but
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 8 I
it was impossible for me to make one; however, I found a con-
trivance for that too at last. -
I employed myself in planting my second rows of stakes of
piles, and in this wicker-work, all the summer, or dry season;
when another business took me up more time than it could be
imagined I could spare.
CHAP. VIII.
Make a second Tour through the Island—Catch a young Parrot,
which I afterwards teach to speak—My mode of sleeping at
Night—Fund the other side of the Island much more pleasant
than mine, and covered with Turtle and Sea;fowl—Catch a
young Kid, which I tame—Return to my old Habitation-Great
plague with my Harvest.
I MENTIONED before, that I had a great mind to see the whole
island, and that I had travelled up the brook, and so on to where
I built my bower, and where I had an opening quite to the sea
on the other side of the island. I now resolved to travel quite
across to the sea-shore on that side. So, taking my gun and
hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity of powder and shot
than usual, with two biscuit-cakes, and a great bunch of raisins in
my pouch, for my store, I began my journey. When I had pass-
ed the vale where my bower stood, as above, I came within view
of the sea, to the west; and it being a very clear day, I fairly
descried land, whether an island or continent I could not tell;
but it lay very high, extending from the west, to the W.S.W., at a
very great distance; by my guess it could not be less than fifteen'
or twenty leagues off.
I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise
than that I knew it must be part of America; and, as I concluded
by all my observations, must be near the Spanish dominions, and
perhaps was all inhabited by savages, where, if I should have land-
ed, I had been in a worse condition than I was now; and therefore
I acquiesced in the dispositions of Providence, which I began now
to own, and to believe, ordered every thing for the best; I say, I
quieted my mind with this, and left afflicting myself with fruitless
wishes of being there. • * *
: Besides, after some pause upon this affair, I considered, that if
this land was the Spanish coast, I should certainly, one time or
other, see some vessels pass or repass one way or other; but if
not, then it was the savage coast between the Spanish country and
Brazil, which were indeed the worst of savages; for they are can-
nibals, or men-eaters, and fail not to murder and devour all the
human bodies that fall into their hands.
82 LIFE A. N. D. A p"WENTURES
With these considerations I walked very leisurely forward, I
found that side of the island where I now was, much pleasanter
than mine, the open or savanna fields sweet, adorned with flowers
and grass, and full of very fine woods. I saw abundance of parrots,
and fain would I have caught one, if pessible, to have kept it to
be tame, and taught it to speak to me. I did, after some painš-
taking, catch a young parrot; for I knocked it down with a stick,
and having recovered it, I brought it home, but it was some years
before I could make him speak. However, at last I taught him
to call me by my name very familiarly : but the accident that
followed, though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in its place.
I was exceedingly diverted with this journey: I found in the
w grounds, hares, as I thought them to be, and foxes, but they
differed greatly from all the other kinds I had met with ; nor
could I satisfy myself to eat them, though I killed several : but I
had no need to be venturous; for I had no want of food, and of
that which was very good too; especially these three sorts, viz.
ats, pigeons, and turtle, or tortoise; which, added to my grapes,
adenhall-market could not have furnished a better table than I,
in proportion to the company: and though my case was deplorable
enough, yet I had great cause for thankfulness, that I was not
driven to any extremities for food; but rather plenty, even to
dainties.
I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright in a
day, or thereabouts; but I took so many turns and returns, to see
what discoveries I could make, that I came weary enough to the
place where I resolved to sit down for all night; and then either
reposed myself in a tree, or surrounded myself with a row of
stakes set upright in the ground, either from one tree to another,
or so as no wild creature could come at me without waking me.
As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to see that
I had taken up my lot on the worst side of the island; for here
indeed the shore was covered with innumerable turtles, whereas
on the other side I had found but three in a year and an half. Here
was also an infinite number of fowls of many kinds, some of which
I had not seen before, and many of them very good meat; but such
as I knew not the names of, except those called penguins.
I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very sparing of
my powder and shot: and therefore had more mind to kill a she-
goat, if I could, which I could better feed on ; and though there
were many goats here, more than on the other side of the island,
yet it was with much more difficulty that I could come near them;
the country being flat and even, and they saw me much sooner
than when I was on the hills. -
I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine,
but yet I had not the least inclination to remove; for as I was
fixed in my habitation, it became natural to me, and I seemed all
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 83
the while I was here, to be, as it were, upon a journey, and from
home: however, I travelled along the shore of the sea towards
the east, I suppose, about twelve miles; and then setting up a
#. pole upon the shore for a mark, I concluded I would go
ome again; and the next journey I took should be on the other
side of the island, east from my dwelling, and so round, till I came
to my post again : of which in its place. -
I took another way to come back than that I went, thinking. I
could easily keep all the island so much in my view, that I could
not miss finding my first dwelling by viewing the country: but I
found myself mistaken; for, being come about two or three miles,
I found myself descended into a very large valley; but so surround-
ed with hills, and those hills covered with woods, that I could not
see which was my way by any direction but that of the sun; nor
even then, unless I knew very well the position of the sun at that
time of the day.
It happened, to my farther misfortune, that the weather proved
hazy for three or four days, while I was in this valley; and not
being able to see the sun, I wandered about very uncomfortably,
and at last was obliged to find out the sea-side, look for my post,
and come back the same way I went ; and then by easy journies
I turned homeward, the weather being exceeding hot, and my
gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other things, very heavy.
In this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and seized upon
it; and I running in to take hold of it, caught it, and saved it
alive from the dog. I had a great mind to bring it home, if I
could : for I had often been musing whether it might not be pos-
sible to get a kid or two, and so raise a breed of tame goats, which
might supply me when my powder and shot should be spent.
I made a collar for this little creature, and with a string which
I made of some rope-yarn, which I always carried about me, I led
him along, though with some difficulty, till I came to my bower,
and there I enclosed him, and left him, for I was very impatient
to be at home. from whence I had been absent above a month.
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into
my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed : this little wan-
dering journey, without a settled place of abode, had been so un-
pleasant to me, that my own house, as I called it to myself, was a
perfect settlement to me, compared to that; and it rendered every
thing about me so comfortable, that I resolved I would never go a
º from it again, while it should be my lot to stay on the
1Slaï] G.
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after
my long journey; during which, most of the time was taken up
in the weighty affair of making a cage for my Pol, who began now
to be a mere domestic, and to be mighty well acquainted with me.
Then I began to think of the poor kid which I had pent in within
84 3. IFE AN ID ADVENTURES
my little circle, and resolved to go and fetch it home, and give it
some food; accordingly I went, and found it where I left it; for
indeed it could not get out, but was almost starved for want of
food. I went and cut boughs of trees and branches of such shrubs
as I could find, and threw it over, and having fed it, I tied it as I
did before to lead it away; but it was so tame with being hungry,
that I had no need to have tied it, for it followed me like a dog;
and as I continually fed it, the creature became so loving, so gen-
tie, and so fond, that it became from that time one of my domes-
tics also, and would never leave me afterwards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and
I kept the 30th of September in the same solemn manner as be-
fore, being the anniversary of my landing on the island, having
now been there two years, and no more prospect of being deliver-
ed than the first day I came there. I spent the whole day in hum-
ble and thankful acknowledgments of the many wonderful mer-
cies which my solitary condition was attended with, and without
which it might have been infinitely more miserable. I gave hum-
ble and hearty thanks, that God had been pleased to discover to
me even that it was possible I might be more happy in this soli-
tary condition than I should have been in a liberty of society, and
in all the pleasures of the world: that he could fully make up to
me the deficiencies of my solitary state, and the want of human
Society, by his presence, and the communication of his grace to
my soul, supporting, comforting, and encouraging me to depend
upon his providence here, and hope for his etermal presence
hereafter.
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy
the life I now led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than
the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my
days: and now, having changed both my sorrows and my joys,
my very desires altered, my affections changed their gust, and my
delights were perfectly new from what they were at first coming,
or indeed for the two years past.
Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting, or for viewing
the country, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break
out upon me on a sudden, and my very heart would die within me
to think of the woods, the mountains, the desarts I was in ; and
how I was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of
the ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, without redemption. In
the midst of the greatest composures of my mind, this would break
out upon me like a storm, and made me wring my hands, and
weep like a child. Sometimes it would take me in the middle of
my work, and I would immediately sit down and sigh, and look
upon the ground for an hour or two together, and this was still
worse to me; for if I could burst out into tears, or vent myself by
; OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 35
. it would go off; and the grief, having exhausted itself, would
abate.
But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts; I daily
read the word of God, and applied all the comforts of it to my
present state. One morning being very sad, I opened the Bible
upon these words, “I will never, never leave thee, nor forsake
thee!” Immediately it occurred, that these words were to me;
why else should they be directed in such a manner, just at the
moment when I was mourning over my condition, as one forsaken
of God and man 2 Well then, said I, if God does not forsake me,
of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it though the
world should all forsake me; seeing, on the other hand, if I had
all the world, and should lose the favour and blessing of God,
there would be no comparison in the loss :
From this moment I began to conclude in my mind, that it was
possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condi-
tion, than it was probable I should have ever been in any other
particular state in the world; and with this thought I was going
to give thanks to God for bringing me to this place.
I know not what it was, but something shocked my mind at
that thought, and I durst not speak the words. How canst thou
be such an hypocrite, said I, even audibly, to pretend to be thank-
ful for a condition, which, however thou mayst endeavour to be
contented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily to be delivered
from ? So I stopped there : but though I could not say I thanked
God for being there, yet I sincerely gave thanks to God for open-
ing my eyes, by whatever afflicting providences, to see the for-
mer condition of my life, and to mourn for my wickedness, and
repent. I never opened the Bible, or shut it, but my very soul
within me blessed God for directing my friend in England, with-
out any order of mine, to pack it up among my goods, and for as-
sisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year:
and though I have not given the reader the trouble of so particu-
lar an account of my works this year as at the first, yet in gene-
ral it may be observed, that I was very seldom idle, having regu-
larly divided my time according to the several daily employments
that were before ine: such as, first, my duty to God, and reading
the Scriptures, which I constantly set apart some time for, thrice
every day: secondly, the going abroad with my gun for food,
which generally took me up three hours every morning when it
did not rain: thirdly, the ordering, curing, preserving, and cook-
ing what I had killed or catched for my supply ; these took up
great part of the day: also it is to be considered, that in the mid-
dle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith, the violence of the
heat was too great to stir out; so that about four hours in the
evening was all the time I could be supposed to work in; with
86 LIFE AN ID A DVENTURES
this exception, that sometimes I changed my hours of hunting
and working, and went to work in the morning, and abroad with
my gun in the afternoon.
To this short time allowed for labour, I desire may be added the
exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours, which, for
want of tools, want of help, and want of skill, every thing that I
did took up out of my time: for example, I was full two-and-for-
ty days making me a board for a long shelf, which I wanted in my
cave; whereas, two sawyers, with their tools and sawpit, would
have cut six of them out of the same tree in half a day.
My case was this: it was to be a large tree which was to be cut
down, because my board was to be a broad one. The tree I was
three days a cutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs,
and reducing it to a log, or piece of timber. With inexpressible
hacking and hewing, I reduced both the sides of it into chips, till
it began to be light enough to move ; then I turned it, and made
one side of it smooth and flat, as a board, from end to end : then,
turning that sile downward, cut the other side till I brought the
plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth on both sides.
Any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a piece of
work; but labour and patience carried me through that and many
other things : I only observe this in particular, to show the rea-
son why so much of my time went away with so little work, viz.
that what might be a little to be done with help and tools, was a
i. labour, and required a prodigious time, to do alone, and by
land.
But, notwithstanding this, with patience and labour, I went
through many things, and indeed every thing that my circumstances
made necessary for me to do, as will appear by what follows.
I was now in the months of November and December, expect-
ing my crop of barley and rice. The ground I had manured or
dug up for them was not great; for, as I observed, my seed of
each was not above the quantity of half a peck; for I had lost one
whole crop by sowing in the dry season; but now my crop pro-
mised very well, when on a sudden I found I was in danger of
losing it all again by enemies of several sorts, which it was scarce
possible to keep from it; as first, the goats, and wild creatures
which I called hares, which, tasting the sweetness of the blade,
lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and ate it so close,
that it could get no time to shoot up into stalks.
This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about
it with a hedge, which I did with a great deal of toil; and the
more, because it required a great deal of speed; the creatures dail
spoiling my corn. However, as my arable land was but small,
suited to my crop, I got it totally well fenced in about three weeks
time, and shooting some of the creatures in the day time, I set
my dog to guard it in the night, tying him up to a stake at the

OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 87
gate, where he would stand and bark all night long; so in a little
time the enemies forsook the place, and the corn grew very strong
and well, and began to ripen apace.
But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in the
blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin me now, when it was in
the ear; for, going along by the place to see how it throve, I saw
my little crop surrounded with fowls of I know not how many
sorts, which stood as it were watching till I should be gone. I im-
mediately let fly among them (for 1 always had my gun with me.)
I had no sooner shot, but there arose up a littke cloud of fowls,
which I had not seen at all, from among the corn itself.
This touched me sensibly; for I foresaw, that in a few days they
would devour all my hopes; that I should be starved, and never
be able to raise a crop at all ; and what to do I could not tell:
however, I resolved not to lose my corn, if possible, though I
should watch it night and day. In the first place, I went among
it to see what damage was already done, and found they had
spoiled a good deal of it; but that, as it was yet too green for
them, the loss was not so great, but the remainder was like to be
a good crop, if it could be saved.
I stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I could
easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they
only waited till I was gone away, and the event proved it to be
so ; for, as I walked off as if I was gone, I was no sooner out of
their sight, but they dropped down one by one into the corn again.
I was so provoked, that I could not have patience to stay till more
came on, knowing that every grain that they ate now was, as it
might be said, a peck loaf to me in the consequence; but, coming
up to the hedge, I fired again, and killed three of them. This was
what I wished for; so I took them up, and served them as we
serve notorious thieves in England, viz. hanged them in chains for
a terror to others. It is impossible to imagine almost, that this
should have such an effect as it had ; for the fowls would not only
not come at the corn, but in short they forsook all that part of
the island, and I could never see a bird near the place as long as
my scarecrows hung there.
This I was very glad of, you may be sure; and about the latter
end of December, which was our second harvest of the year, I
reaped my corn. . gº #.
I was sadly put to it for a scythe or a sickle to cut it dow.
all I could do was to make one as well as I could out of ºg
the broad-swords, or cutlasses, which I saved among the arms oit
of the ship. However, as my crop was but small, I had no great
difficulty to cut it down: in short, I reaped it my way, for I cut
nothing off but the ears, and carried it away in a great basket which
I had made, and so rubbed it out with my hands: and, at the end
of all my harvesting, I found, that, out of my half-peck of seed I

38 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
had near two bushels of rice, and above two bushels and a half of
barley, that is to say, by my guess, for I had no measure at that
time. - - * .
. However, this was a great encouragement to me; and I fore-
saw, that in time it would please God to supply me with bread:
and yet here I was perplexed again; for I neither knew how to
grind or make meal of my corn, or indeed how to clean it and part
it; nor, if made into meal, how to make bread of it; and if how
to make it, yet I knew not how to bake it. These things being
added to my desire of having a good quantity for store, and to se-
cure a constant supply, I resolved not to taste any of this crop, but
to preserve it all for seed against the next season, and in the mean
time to employ all my study and hours of working, to accomplish
this great work of providing myself with corn and bread.
It might be truly said, that I now worked for my bread. It is
a little wonderful, and what I believe few people have thought
much upon ; viz. the strange multitude of little things necessary
in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making, and finish-
ing this one article of bread.
I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to be
my daily discouragement, and was made more and more sensible
of it every hour, even after I got the first handful of seed corn,
which, as I have said, came up unexpectedly, and indeed to a sur-
FISee
p First, I had no plough to turn the earth, no spade or shovel to
dig it. Well, this I conquered by making a wooden spade, as I
observed before; but this did my work but in a wooden manner ;
and though it cost me a great many days to make it, yet, for want
of iron, it not only wore out the sooner, but made my work the
harder, and made it be performed much worse.
However, this I bore with too, and was content to work it out
with patience, and bear with the badness of the performance.
When the corn was sowed, I had no harrow, but was forced to
go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it,
to scratch the earth, as it may be called, rather than rake or har-
row it. *
When it was growing, or grown, I have observed already how
many things I wanted, to fence it, secure it, mow or reap it, cure
or carry it home, thresh, part it from the chaff, and save it. Then
I wanted a mill to grind it, sieves to dress it, yeast and salt to make
it into bread, and an oven to bake it in; and all these things I did
without, as shall be observed ; and yet the corn was an inestima-
ble comfort and advantage to me too. But all this, as I said,
made every thing laborious and tedious to me, but that there was
no help for: neither was my time so much loss to me, because I
had divided it; a certain part of it was every day appointed to
these works; and as I resolved to use none o k the corn for bread
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 89
till I had a greater quantity by me, I had the next six months to
apply myself wholly, by labour and invention, to furnish myself
with utensils proper for the performing all the operations neces-
sary for making the corn, when I had it, fit for my use. -
But first I was to prepare more land, for I had now seed enough
to sow above an acre of ground. Before I did this, I had a week’s
work at least to make me a spade, which, when it was done, was
a very sorry one indeed, and very heavy, and required double la-
bour to work with it; however, I went through that, and sowed
my seeds in two large flat pieces of ground, as near my house as
I could find them to my mind, and fenced them in with a good
hedge, the stakes of which were all cut off that wood which I had
wet before, which I knew would grow ; so that in one year’s time
# knew I should have a quick or living hedge, that would want
but little repair. This work was not so little as to take me up
less than three months; because great part of that time was in
the wet season, when I could not go abroad.
Within-door, that is, when it rained, and I could not go out,
I found employment on the following occasion, always observing,
that all the while I was at work, I diverted myself with talking
to my parrot, and teaching him to speak; and I quickly learnt him
to know his own name; at last, to speak it out pretty loud, POL ;
which was the first word I ever heard spoken in the island by any
mouth but my own. This therefore was not my work, but an as-
sistant to my work; for now, as I said, I had a great employment
upon my hands, as follows: viz. I had long studied, by some means
or other, to make myself some earthen vessels, which indeed I
wanted sorely, but knew not where to come at them : however,
considering the heat of the climate, I did not doubt but, if I could
find out any such clay, I might botch up some such pot as might,
being dried by the sun, be hard enough and strong enough to bear.
handling, and to hold any thing that was dry, and required to be
kept so; and as this was necessary in preparing corn, meal, &c.
which was the thing I was upon, I resolved to make some as large
as I could, and fit only to stand like jars to hold what should be
put into them.
C HA Po IX.
I attempt to mould earthen Ware, and succeed–Description of
my mode of baking—Begin to make a Boat—After it is finish-
ed, am unable to get it down to the Water–Serious Reflections
—My Ink and Biscuit exhausted, and Clothes in a bad state-
Contrive to make a Dress of Skins. -
It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me, to
90 LIFE AND ADV ENTURES
tell how many awkward ways I took to raise this paste, what odd
mis-shapen ugly things I made, how many of them fell in, and how
many fell out, the clay not being stiff enough to bear its own
weight; how many cracked by the over-violent heat of the sun,
being set out too hastily; and how many fell to pieces with only
removing, as well before as after they were dried ; and, in a word,
how, after having laboured hard to find the clay, to dig it, to tem-
per it, to bring it home, and work it, I could not make above two
large earthen ugly things, I cannot call them jars, in about two
months labour.
However, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, I lift-
ed them very gently up, and set them down again in two great
wicker-baskets, which I had made on purpose for them, that they
might not break; and, as between the pot and the basket there
was a little room to spare, I stuffed it full of the rice and barley
straw; and these two pots being to stand always dry, I thought
would hold my dry corn, and perhaps the meal when the corn was
bruised. *.
Though I miscarried so much in my design for large pots, yet I
made several smaller things with better success; such as little
round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any thing my
hand turned to; and the heat of the sunbaked them strangely hard.
But all this would not answer my end, which was to get an
earthen pot to hold what was liquid, and bear the fire, which
none of these could do. It happened after some time, making a
pretty large fire for cooking my meat, when I went to put it out,
after I had done with it, I found a broken piece of one of my
earthen-ware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard as a stone, and red
as a tile. I was agreeably surprised to see it, and said to myself,
that certainly they might be made to burn whole, if they would
burn broken.
This set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make it burn
me Some pots. I had no notion of a kiln such as the potters
burn in, or of glazing them with lead, though I had some lead to
do it with ; but I placed three large pipkins, and two or three
pots, in a pile one upon another, and placed my fire-wood all round
it, with a great heap of embers under them: I plied the fire with
fresh fuel round the outside, and upon the top, till I saw the pots
in the inside red-hot quite º and observed that they did
not crack at all : when I saw them clear red, I let them stand
in that heat about five or six hours, till I found one of them, though
it did not crack, did melt or run ; for the sand which was mixed
with the clay melted by the violence of the heat, and would have
run into glass, if I had gone on ; so I slacked my fire gradually,
till the pots began to abate of the red colour; and watching them
all might that I might not let the fire abate too fast, in the morning
I had three very good, I will not say handsome pipkins, and two
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 9]
other earthen pots, as hard burnt as could be desired; and one
of them perfectly glazed with the running of the sand.
After this experiment I need not say that I wanted no sort of
earthen-ware for my use; but I must needs say, as to the shapes
of them, they were very indifferent, as any one may suppose,
when I had no way of making them, but as the children make
dirt-pies, or as a woman would make pies that never learnt to raise
paste.
No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine,
when I found I had made an earthen pot that would bear the fire;
and I had hardly patience to stay till they were cold, before I set
one upon the fire again with some water in it, to boil me some
meat, which it did admirably well; and with a piece of a kid I
made some very good broth, though I wanted oatmeal, and several
other ingredients requisite to make it so good as I would have
had it.
My next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp or
beat some corn in; for as to the mill, there was no thought of ar-
riving to that perfection of art with one pair of hands. To supply
this want, I was at a great loss; for of all trades in the world I
was as perfectly unqualified for a stone-cutter, as for any what-
ever; neither had I any tools to go about it with. I spent many
a day to find out a great stone big enough to cut hollow, and make.
fit for a mortar, and could find none at all except what was in
the solid rock, and which I had no way to dig or cut out; nor in-
deed were the rocks in the island of hardness sufficient, but were
all of a sandy crumbling stone, which would neither bear the
weight of an heavy pestle, nor would break the corn without fill-
ing it with sand; so, after a great deal of time lost in searching
for a stone, I gave it over, and resolved to look out a great block
of hard wood, which I found indeed much easier; and, getting one
as big as I had strength to stir, I rounded it, and formed it on the
outside with my axe and hatchet; and then with the help of fire
and infinite labour, made an hollow place in it, as the Indians in
Brazil make their canoes. After this, I made a great heavy pestle,
or beater, of the wood called the iron-wood, and this I prepared
and laid by against I had my next crop of corn, when I proposed
; myself to grind, or rather pound, my corn or meal to make my
read.
My next difficulty was to make a sieve or searce, to dress my
meal, and part it from the bran and the husk, without which I did
not see it possible I could have any bread. This was a most diffi-
cult thing, so much as but to think on ; for to be sure I had no-
thing like the necessary things to make it with ; I mean fine thin
canvass, or stuff, to searce the meal through. And here I was at
a full stop for many months; nor did I really know what to do:
linen I had none left but what was mere rags; I had goat’s hair,
92 I, IFE AN ID A DV ENTURES
but neither knew I how to weave or spin it; and had I known
how, here were no tools to work it with. All the remedy that I
found for this, was, that at last I did remember I had among the
seamen’s clothes which were saved out of the ship, some neck-
cloths of calico or muslin; and with some pieces of these I made
three small sieves, but proper enough for the work; and thus I
made shift for some years; how I did afterwards, I shall show in
its place.
The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how
I should make bread when I came to have corn; for, first, I had
no yeast: as to that part, there was no supplying the want, so I
did not concern myself much about it. But for an oven, I was
indeed in great pain. At length I found out an experiment for
that also, which was this: I made some earthen vessels very broad,
but not deep; that is to say, about two feet diameter, and not
above mine inches deep; these I burnt in the fire, as I had done
the others, and laid them by ; and when I wanted to bake, I made
a great fire upon the hearth, which I had paved with some square
tiles of my own making and burning also ; but I should not call
them square.
When the fire-wood was burnt pretty much into embers, or live
coals, I drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to cover it all
over; and there I let them lie, till the hearth was very hot; then
sweeping away all the embers, I set down my loaf, or loaves, and
whelming down the earthen pot upon them, drew the embers all
round the outside of the pot, to keep in, and add to the heat: and
thus, as well as in the best oven in the world, I baked my barley-
loaves, and became in a little time a mere pastry-cook into the
bargain; for I made myself several cakes of the rice, and puddings;
indeed I made no pies, neither had I any thing to put into them,
supposing I had, except the flesh either of fowls or goats.
It need not be wondered at, if all these things took me up most
part of the third year of my abode here; for it is to be observed,
that in the intervals of these things I had my new harvest and
husbandry to manage; for I reaped my corn in its season, and
carried it home as well as I could, and laid it up in the ear, in my
large baskets, till I had time to rub it out; for I had no floor to
thresh it on, or instrument to thresh it with.
And now indeed my stock of corn increasing, I really wanted
to build my barns bigger: I wanted a place to lay it up in ; for
the increase of the corn now yielded me so much, that I had of
the barley about twenty bushels, and of the rice as much, or more;
insomuch, that I now resolved to begin to use it freely, for my
bread had been quite gone a great while; also I resolved to see
what quantity would be sufficient for me a whole year, and to sow
but once a year. #
Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley and
OF ROBIN SON CRUISOE, 93
rice were much more than I could consume in a year: so I re-
solved to sow just the same quantity every year that I sowed the
last, in hopes that such a quantity would fully provide me with
bread, &c.
All the while these things were doing you may be sure my
thoughts ran many times upon the prospect of land which I had
seen from the other side of the island ; and I was not without se-
cret wishes, that I was on shore there, fancying that seeing the
main land, and an inhabited country, I might find some way or
other to convey myself farther, and perhaps at last find some
means of escape.
. But all this while I made no allowance for the dangers of such
a condition, and how I might fall into the hands of savages, and
perhaps such as I might have reason to think far worse than the
lions and tigers of Africa: that, if I once came into their power,
I should run an hazard more than a thousand to one of being kill-
ed, and perhaps of being eaten; for...I had heard that the people
of the Caribean coasts were cannibals, or men-eaters ; and I knew
by the latitude, that I could not he far off from that shore: that,
suppose they were not cannibals, yet they might kill me, as many
Europeans who had fallen into their hands had been served, even
when they had been ten or twenty together; much more I that
was but one, and could make little or no defence. All these things,
I say, which I ought to have considered well of, and I did cast up
in my thoughts afterwards, yet took none of my apprehensions
at first; and my head ran mightily upon the thoughts of getting
over to that shore. -
Now I wished for my boy Xury, and the long-boat, with the
shoulder-of-mutton sail, with which I sailed above a thousand
miles on the coast of Africa; but this was in vain. Then I thought
I would go and look on our ship's boat, which, as I have said,
was blown up upon the shore a great way in the storm, when we
were first cast away. She lay almost where she did at first, but
not quite; and was turned by the force of the waves and the winds,
almost bottom upwards, against the high ridge of a beachy rough
Sand, but no water about her as before.
If I had had hands to have refitted her, and have launched her
into the water, the boat would have done well enough, and I
might have gone back into the Brazils with her easy enough; but
I might have easily foreseen, that I could no more turn her, and
set her upright upon her bottom, than I could remove the island.
However, I went to the wood, and cut levers and rollers, and
brought them to the boat, resolving to try what I could do; sug-
gesting to myself, that if I could but turn her down, I might easily
repair the damage she had received, and she would be a very
good boat, and I might go to sea in her very easily. .
I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil, and
1
94 MLIFE AND ADVENTURES
spent, I think, three or four weeks about it; at last, finding it im"
possible to heave it up with my little strength, I fell to digging
away the sand to undermine it; and so to make it fall down, set-
ting pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in the fall.
But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up again, or
to get under it, much less to move it forwards towards the water;
so I was forced to give it over: and yet, though I gave over the
hopes of the boat, my desire to venture over for the main increa-
sed, rather than decreased, as the means for it seemed impossible.
This at length set me upon thinking whether it was not possi-
ble to make myself a canoe or periagua, such as the natives of
those climates make, even without tools, or, as I might say, with-
out hands, viz. of the trunk of a great tree. This I not only thought
possible, but easy; and pleased myself extremely with the thoughts
of making it, and with my having much more convenience for it
than any of the Negroes or Indians; but not at all considering the
particular inconveniences which I lay under more than the Indians
did, viz. want of hands to move it into the water, when it was
made; a difficulty much harder for me to surmount than all the
consequences of want of tools could be to them: for what was it
to me, that, when I had chosen a vast tree in the woods, I might
with great trouble cut it down, if after I might be able with my
tools to hew and dub the outside into a proper shape of a boat,
and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow, so as to make
a boat of it, if, after all this, I must leave it just there where I
found it, and was not able to launch it into the water?
One would have thought, I could not have had the least reflec-
tion upon my mind of my circumstances, while I was making this
boat, but I should have immediately thought how I should get it
into the sea; but my thoughts were so intent upon my voyage over
the sea in it, that I never once considered how I should get it off
the land: and it was really in its own nature more easy for me to
guide it over forty-five miles of sea, than about forty-five fathoms
of land, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water.
I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man
did, who had any of his senses awake. I pleased myself with the
design, without determining whether I was ever able to undertake
it; not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often
into my head; but I put a stop to my own inquiries into it by
this foolish answer, which I gave myself: Let me first make it,
I’ll warrant I’ll find some way or other to get it along, when it
is done.
This was a most preposterous method; but the eagerness of my
fancy prevailed, and to work I went, and felled a cedar tree: I
question much whether Solomon ever had such an one for the
building the temple at Jerusalem. It was five feet ten inches
diameter at the lower partnext the stump, and four feet eleven
OF ROBIN SON C R USO Ee 95
inches diameter at the end of twenty-two feet, after which it less-
ened for a while, and then parted into branches. It was not
without infinite labour that I felled this tree: I was twenty days
hacking and hewing at it at the bottom ; I was fourteen more
getting the branches and limbs, and the vast spreading head of
it, cut off which I hacked and hewed through with my axe and
hatchet, with inexpressible labour; after this it cost me a month
to shape it, and dub it to a proportion, and to something like the
bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright as it ought to do. It
cost me near three months more to clear the inside, and work it
out so as to make an exact boat of it; this I did indeed without
fire, by mere mallet and chissel, and by the dint of hard labour,
till I had brought it to be a very handsome periagua, and big
enough to have carried six-and-twenty men, and consequently big
enough to have carried me and all my cargo.
When I had gone through this work, I was extremely delighted
with it: the boat was really much bigger than I ever saw a canoe
or periagua, that was made of one tree, in my life; many a weary
stroke it had cost, you may be sure, for there remained nothing
but to get it into the water; and had I gotten it into the water,
I make no question but I should have begun the maddest voyage,
and the most unlikely to be performed, that ever was undertaken.
But all my devices to get it into the water failed me, though they
cost infinite labour too; it lay about one hundred yards from the
water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was up
hill towards the creek. Well, to take away this discouragement,
I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth, and so make a
declivity; this I began, and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains:
but who grudge pains, that have their deliverance in view but
when this was worked through, and this difficulty managed, it
was still much at one : for I could no more stir the canoe, than I
could the other boat.
Then I measured the distance of ground, and resolved to cut a
dock, or canal, to bring the water up to the canoe, seeing I could
not bring the canoe down to the water: well, I began this work,
and when I began to enter into it, and calculated how deep it was
to be dug, how broad, how the stuff to be thrown out, I found,
that by the number of hands I had, being none but my own, it
must have been ten or twelve years before I should have gone
through with it; for the shore lay high, so that at the upper end
it must have been at least twenty feet deep : so at length, though
with great reluctance, I gave this attempt over also.
This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though too late, the
folly of beginning a work bofore we count the cost, and before we
judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it.
In the middle of this work I finished my fourth year in this place,
and kept my anniversary with the same devotion, and with as much
96 LIFE AND Adventures
comfort, as ever before; for, by a constant study, and serious ap-
plication of the word of God, and by the assistance of his grace,
I gained a different knowledge from what I had before; I entertain-
ed different notions of things; I looked now upon the world as a
thing remote, which I had nothing to do with, no expectation from,
and indeed no desires about: in a word, I had nothing indeed to
do with it, nor was ever like to have; so I thought it looked as we
may perhaps look upon it hereafter; viz. as a place I had lived in,
but was come out of it; and well I might say, as father Abraham
to Dives, “Between me and thee there is a great gulf fixed.”
In the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness of
the world here: I had neither the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eye, or the pride of life: I had nothing to covet, for I had all I
was now capable of enjoying; I was lord of the whole manor, or,
if I pleased, I might call myself king or emperor over the whole
country which I had possession of; there were ho rivals; I had no
competitor, none to dispute sovereignty or command with me; I
might have raised ship-loadings of corn, but I had no use for it; so
I let as little grow as I thought enough for my occasion: I had
tortoises or turtles enough ; but now and then one was as much
as I could put to any use: I had timber enough to have built a
fleet of ships; I had grapes enough to have made wine, or to have
; into raisins, to have loaded that fleet when they had been
uilt.
But all I could make use of, was all that was valuable: I had
enough to eat, and to supply my wants, and what was all the rest
to me? If I killed more flesh than I could eat, the dog must eat
it, or the vermin; if I sowed more corn than I could eat, it must
be spoiled. The trees that I cut down were lying to rot on the
ground, I could make no more use of them than for fuel; and that
I had no occasion for, but to dress my food. -
In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to me,
upon just reflection, that all the good things of this world are no
farther good to us, than as they are for our use; and that whatever
we may heap up indeed to give to others, we enjoy as much as we
can use, and no more. The most covetous griping miser in the
world would have been cured of the vice of covetousness, if he
had been in my case; for I possessed infinitely more than I knew
what to do with. I had no room for desire, except it was of things
which I had not, and they were but trifles, though indeed of great
use to me. I had, as I hinted before, a parcel of money, as well
gold as silver, about thirty-six pounds sterling: alas ! there the nas-
ty, sorry, useless stuff lay; I had no manner of business for it; and
I often thought with myself, that I would have given an handful
of it for a gross of tobacco-pipes, or for an handmill to grind my
corn ; nay, I would have given it all for six-penny worth of turnip
and carrot seed out of England, or for an handful of peas and
of Robinson CRusoe. 97
beans, and a bottle of ink; as it was, I had not the least advan:
tage by it, or benefit from it; but there it lay in a drawer, and
grew mouldy with the damp of the cave, in the wet season; and
if I had had the drawer full of diamonds, it had been the same
case; and they had been of no manner of value to me, because of
I? O LISC,
I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in itself
than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well as to my
body. I frequently sat down to my meat with thankfulness, and
admired the hand of God’s providence, which had thus spread my
table in the wilderness: I learnt to look more upon the bright side
of my condition, and less upon the dark side; and to consider what
I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes
such secret comforts, that I cannot express them ; and which I
take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of
it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God hath given them, be-
cause they see and covet something that he has not given them :
all our discontents about what we want, appeared to me to spring
from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
Another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless would
be so to any one that should fall into such distress as mine was ;
and this was, to compare my present condition with what I at first
expected it should be; nay, with what it would certainly have been,
if the good providence of God had not wonderfully ordered the
ship to be cast up near to the shore, where I not only could come
at her, but could bring what I got out of her to the shore for my
relief and comfort; without which I had wanted tools to work,
weapons for defence, or gunpowder and shot for getting my food.
I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing to
myself, in the most lively colours, how I must have acted, if I
had got nothing out of the ship; how I could not have so much as
got any food, except fish and turtles; and that, as it was long be-
fore I found any of them, I must have perished first: that I should
have lived, if I had not perished, like a mere savage: that if I had
killed a goat or a fowl by any contrivance, I had no way to fley or
open them, or part the flesh from the skin and the bowels, or to
cut it up; but must gnaw it with my teeth, and pull it with my
claws, like a beast.
These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of
Providence to me, and very thankful for my present condition,
with all its hardships and misfortunes; and this part also I cannot
but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt in their mi-
sery to say, Is any affliction like mine : Let them consider, how
much worse the cases of some people are, and what their case might
have been, if Providence had thought fit. *
I had another reflection, which assisted me also to comfort my
mind with hopes; and this was, comparing my present condition
E
98 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
with what I had deserved, and had therefore reason to expect
from the hand of Providence. I had lived a dreadful life, perfect-
ly destitute of the knowledge and fear of God: I had been well in-
structed by father and mother; neither had they been wanting to
me in their early endeavours to infuse a religious awe of God into
my mind, a sense of my duty, and of what the nature and end of
my being required of me. But, alas! falling early into the sea-fa-
ring life, which of all lives is the most destitute of the fear of God,
though his terrors are always before them; I say, falling early in-
to the sea-faring life, and into sea-faring company, all that little
sense of religion which I had entertained was laughed out of me
by my messmates; by an hardened despising of dangers, and the
views of death, which grew habitual to me; by my long absence
from all manner of opportunities to converse with anything but
what was like myself, or to hear any thing of what was good or
tended towards it. # $.
So void was I of every thing that was good, or of the least sense
of what I was, or was to be, that in the greatest deliverance I en-
joyed, such as my escape from Sallee, my being taken up by the
Portugueze master of the ship, my being planted so well in Bra-
zil, my receiving the cargo from England, and the like, I never once
had the words, Thank God, so much as on my mind, or in my
mouth ; nor in the greatest distress had I so much thought as to
pray to him; nor so much as to say, Lord have mercy upon me !
no, not to mention the name of God, unless it was to swear by,
and blaspheme it.
I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, as I
have already observed, on the account of my wicked and hardened
life past ; and when I looked about me, and considered what
particular providences had attended me, since my coming into
this place, and how God had dealt bountifully with me; had not
only punished me less than my iniquity deserved, but had so
plentifully provided for me; this gave me great hopes that my
repentance was accepted, and that God had yet mercies in store
for me. -
With these reflections I worked my mind up, not only to resig-
nation to the will of God in the present disposition of my circum-
stances, but even to a sincere thankfulness of my condition ; and
that I, who was yet a living man, ought not to complain, seeing
I had not the due punishment of my sins; that I enjoyed so many
mercies, which I had no reason to have expected in that place, that
I ought never more to repine at my condition, but to rejoice, and
to give daily thanks, for that daily bread, which nothing but a
cloud of wonders could have brought: that I ought to consider I
had been fed even by a miracle, even as great as that of feeding
Elijah by ravens; nay, by a long series of miracles; and that I
could hardly have named a place in the uninhabited part of the
OF ROBINSON CRUSO E. 99
world, where I could have been cast more to my advantage: a
lace, where as I had no society, which was my affliction on one
j so I found no ravenous beasts, no furious wolves or tigers
to threaten my life; no venomous creatures or poisonous, which
I might have fed on to my hurt; no savages to murder and de-
WOUT Iſlee
In a word, as my life was a life of sorrow one way, so it was a
life of mercy another; and I wanted nothing to make it a life of
comfort, but to be able to make my sense of God’s goodness to me,
and care over me in this condition, be my daily consolation; and
after I made a just improvement of these things, I went away,
and was no more sad. - *
I had now been here so long, that many things which I brought
on shore for my help, were either quite gone, or very much wasted,
and near spent, -
My ink, as I observed, had been gone for some time, all but a
very little, which I eked out with water a little and a little, till it
was so pale it scarce left any appearance of black upon the paper:
as long as it lasted, I made use of it to minute down the days of
the month on which any remarkable thing happened to me; and
first, by casting up times past, I remember that there was a strange
concurrence of days, in the various providences which befel me,
and which, if I had been superstitiously inclined to observe days
as fatal or fortunate, I might have had reason to have looked upon
with a great deal of curiosity.
First, I had observed, that the same day that I broke away from
my father and my friends, and ran away to Hull in order to go to
sea, the same day afterwards I was taken by the Sallee man of
war, and made a slave.
The same day of the year that I escaped out of the wreck of
the ship in Yarmouth Roads, that same day of the year afterwards
I made my escape from Sallee in the boat.
The same day of the year I was born on, viz. the 20th of Sep-
tember, the same day I had my life so miraculously saved twenty-
six years after, when I was cast on shore in this island; so that
my wicked life, and solitary life, both began on a day.
The next thing to my ink’s being wasted, was that of my bread,
I mean the biscuit which I brought out of the ship. This I had
husbanded to the last degree, allowing myself but one cake of
bread a day, for above a year: and yet I was quite without bread
for a year before I got any corn of my own; and great reason I
had to be thankful that I had any at all, the getting it being, as
has been already observed, next to miraculous.
My clothes too began to decay mightily: as to linen, I had none
a good while, except some chequered shirts which I found in the
chests of the other seamen, and which I carefully preserved, be-
cause many times I could bear no other clothes on but a shirt;
IOO LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and it was a very great help to me, that I had among all the men's
clothes of the ship almost three dozen of shirts. There were also
several thick watch-coats of the seamen, which were left behind,
but they were too hot to wear; and though it is true, that the
weather was so violent hot, that there was no need of clothes,
yet I could not go quite naked; no, though I had been inclined to
it, which I was not; nor could I abide the thought of it, though
I was all alone.
One reason why I could not go quite naked, was, I could not
bear the heat of the sun so well when quite naked, as with some
clothes on; nay, the very heat frequently blistered my skin; where-
as, with a shirt on, the air itself made some motion, and, whistling
under the shirt, was twofold cooler than without it: no more could
I ever bring myself to go out in the heat of the sun without a cap
or a hat; the heat of the sun beating with such violence as it
does in that place, would give me the headach presently, by dart-
ing so directly on my head, without a cap or hat on, so that I
could not bear it; whereas, if I put on my hat, it would presently
go away.
Upon these views I began to consider about putting the few rags
I had, which I called clothes, into some order; I had worn out all
the waistcoats I had, and my business was now to try if I could
not make jackets out of the great watch-coats which I had by me,
and with such other materials as I had ; so I set to work a-tailor-
ing, or rather indeed a-botching; for I made most piteous work
of it. However, I made shift to make two or three waistcoats,
which I hoped would serve me a great while; as for breeches or
drawers, I made but very sorry shift indeed till afterwards.
I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the creatures that
I killed, I mean four-footed ones; and I had hung them up stretch-
ed out with sticks in the sun; by which means some of them were
so dry and hard, that they were fit for little; but others, it seems,
were very useful. The first thing I made of these, was a great cap
for my head, with the hair on the outside to shoot off the rain; and
this 1 performed so well, that after this I made a suit of clothes
wholly of those skins; that is to say, a waistcoat and breeches
open at the knees, and both loose; for they were rather wanted to
keep me cool, than to keep me warm. I must not omit to ac-
knowledge, that they were wretchedly made ; for if I was a bad
carpenter, I was a worse tailor; however, they were such as I
made a very good shift with ; and when I was abroad, if it happen-
ed to rain, the hair of the waistcoat and cap being outmost, I was
kept very dry.
. After this, I spent a deal of time and pains to make me an um-
brella: I was indeed in great want of one, and had a great mind
to make one: I had seen them made in the Brazils, where they
are very useful in the great heats which are there; and I felt the
OF ROBIN SO N C R US OE. 101
heats every jot as great here, and greater too, being nearer the
equinox; besides, as I was obliged to be much abroad, it was a
most useful thing to me, as well for the rains as the heats. I took
a world of pains at it, and was a great while before I could make
any thing likely to hold; nay, after I thought I had hit the way,
I spoiled two or three before I made one to my mind; but at last
I made one that answered indifferently well. The main difficulty
I found was to make it to let down: I could make it to spread;
but if it did not let down too, and draw in, it would not be porta-
ble for me any way, but just over my head, which would not do.
However, at last, as I said, I made one to answer; I covered it
with skins, the hair upwards, so that it cast off the rain like a pent-
house, and kept off the sun so effectually, that I could walk out ,
in the hottest of the weather, with greater advantage than I could
before in the coolest; and when I had no negd of it, I could close
it, and carry it under my arm. -
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 : this made my life better than
sociable; for, when I began to regret the want of conversation I
would ask myself, whether thus conversing mutually with my own
thoughts, and, as I hope I may say, with even my Maker, by eja-
culations and petitions, was not better than the utmost enjoyment
of human society in the world 2
I cannot say, that after this, for five years, any extraordinary
thing happened to me; but I lived on in the same course, in the
same posture and place, just as before. The chief thing I was em-
ployed in, besides my yearly labour of planting my barley and
rice, and curing my raisins, of both which I always kept up just
enough to have a sufficient stock of the year’s provisions before-
hand; I say, besides this yearly labour, and my daily labour of
going out with my gun, I had one labour to make me a canoe,
which at last I finished : so that by digging a canal to it, six feet
wide and four feet deep, I brought it into the creek, almost half a
mile. As for the first, that was so vastly big, as I made it without
considering beforehand, as I ought to do, how I should be able to
launch it ; so, never being able to bring it to the water, or bring
the water to it, I was obliged to let it lie where it was, as a me-
morandum to teach me to be wiser next time. Indeed, the next
time, though I could not get a tree proper for it, and was in a
place where I could not get the water to it, at any less distance
than, as I have said, of near half a mile ; yet as I saw it was prac-
ticable at last, I never gave it over; and though I was near two
years about it, yet I never grudged my labour, in hopes of having
a boat to go off to sea at last.
I O2 LIFE AND ' A DW ENTURES
CHAP. X.
I succeed in getting a Canoe afloat, and set out on a Voyage in
the sirth Year of my Reign, or Captivity—Blown out to Sea—
Reach the Shore with great difficulty—Fall asleep, and am awa-
kened by a Voice calling my Name—Devise various Schemes to
tame Goats, and at last succeed.
However, though my little periagua was finished, yet the size
of it was not at all answerable to the design which I had in view,
when I made the first ; I mean of venturing over to the Terra
Firma, where it was above forty miles broad; accordingly, the
smallness of my boat assisted to put an end to that design, and
now I thought no more of it. But as I had a boat, my next de-
sign was to make a tour round the island: for, as I had been on
the other side, in one place, crossing, as I have already described
it, over the land, so the discoveries I made in that journey made
me very eager to see the other parts of the coast; and now I had
a boat, I thought of nothing but sailing round the island.
For this purpose, and that I might do every thing with discretion
and consideration, I fitted up a little mast to my boat, and made
a sail to it out of some of the pieces of the ship's sails, which lay
in store, and of which I had a great store by me.
Having fitted my mast and sail, and tried the boat, I found she
would sail very well. Then I made little lockers and boxes at
each end of my boat, to put provisions, necessaries, and ammuni-
tion, &c. into, to be kept dry, either from rain, or the spray of the
sea; and a little long hollow place I cut in the inside of the boat,
where I could lay"my gun, making a flap to hang down over it to
keep it dry.
I fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern, like a mast, to
stand over my head, and keep the heat of the sun off me, like an
awning; and thus I every now and then took a little voyage upon
the sea, but never went far out, nor far from the little creek;
but at last, being eager to view the circumference of my little king-
dom, I resolved upon my tour, and accordingly I victualled my
ship for the voyage; putting in two dozen of my loaves (cakes I
should rather call them) of barley bread; an earthen pot full of
parched rice, a food I ate a great deal of, a little bottle of rum,
half a goat, and powder with shot for killing more, and two large
watch-coats, of those which, as I mentioned before, I had saved
out of the seamen's chests; these I took, one to lie upon, and the
other to cover me in the night.
It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my reign, or
my captivity, which you please, that I set out on this voyage, and
I found it much longer than I expected; for though the island
of Robinson crusoe. 103
itself was not very large, yet when I came to the east side of it,
I found a great ledge of rocks lie out about two leagues into the
sea, some above water, some under it; and beyond this a shoal
of sand, lying dry half a league more; so that I was obliged to go
a great way out to sea to double that point.
When I first discovered them, I was going to give over my en-
terprize, and come back again, not knowing how far it might
oblige me to go out to sea, and, above all, doubting how I should
get back again; so I came to an anchor, for I had made me a
kind of an anchor with a piece of broken grappling which I got
out of the ship.
Having secured my boat, I took my gun, and went on shore,
climbing up an hill, which seemed to overlook that point, where
I saw the full extent of it, and resolved to venture.
In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I perceived
a strong, and indeed a most furious current, which ran to the east,
even came close to the point; and I took the more notice of it,
because I saw there might be some danger, that when I came into
it, I might be carried out to sea by the strength of it, and not be
able to make the island again. And indeed, had I not gotten first
upon this hill, I believe it would have been so; for there was
the same current on the other side of the island, only that it set off
at a farther distance; and I saw there was a strong eddy under
the shore; so I had nothing to do but to get out of the first cur-
rent, and I should presently be in an eddy.
I lay here, however, two days; because the wind blowing pretty
fresh (at E. S. E., and that being just contrary to the said cur-
rent), made a great breach of the sea upon the point; so that it
was not safe for me to keep too close to the shore for the breach,
nor to go too far off because of the stream.
.The third day in the morning, the wind having abated over-
night, the sea was calm, and I ventured: but I am a warning-
piece again to all rash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner was I
come to the point, when I was not my boat’s length from the
shore, but I found myself in a great depth of water, and a current
like a sluice of a mill. It carried my boat along with it with such
a violence, that all I could do could not keep her so much as on
the edge of it: but I found it hurried me farther and farther out
from the eddy, which was on the left hand. There was no wind
stirring to help me, and all that I could do with my paddles sig-
nified nothing; and now I began to give myself over for lost;
for, as the current was on both sides the island, I knew in a
few leagues distance they must join again, and then I was irre-
coverably gone : nor did I see any possibility of avoiding it; so
that I had no prospect before me but of perishing; not by the
sea, for that was calm enough, but of starving for hunger. I
PO4 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
had indeed found a tortoise on the shore, as big almost as I could
lift, and had tossed it into the boat; and I had a great jar of fresh
water, that is to say, one of my earthen pots; but what was all
this to being driven into the vast ocean, where, to be sure, there
i. go shore, no main land or island for a thousand leagues at
east :
And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of God
to make the most miserable condition that mankind could be
in, worse. Now I looked back upon my desolate solitary island,
as the most pleasant place in the world, and all the happiness my
heart could wish for, was to be there again: I stretched out
my hands to it with eager wishes; O happy desart I said I,
I shall never see thee more | O miserable creature! said I,
whither am I going l—Then I reproached myself with my un-
thankful temper, and how I had repined at my solitary condi-
tion; and now what would I give to be on shore there again :
Thus we never see the true state of our condition, till it is illus-
trated to us by its contraries; nor know how to value what we
enjoy, but by the want of it. . It is scarce possible to imagine
the consternation I was in, being driven from my beloved island
(for so it appeared to me now to be) into the wide ocean, almost
two leagues, and in the utmost despair of ever recovering it again:
however, I worked hard, till indeed my strength was almost ex-
hausted; and kept my boat as much to the northward, that is, to-
wards the side of the current which the eddy lay on, as possibly
I could ; when about noon, as the sun passed the meridian, I
thought I felt a little breeze of wind in my face, springing up from
the S. S. E. This cheered my heart a little, and especially, when
in about half an hour more, it blew a pretty small gentle gale.
By this time I was gotten at a frightful distance from the island;
and, had the least cloud or hazy weather intervened, I had been
undone another way too; for I had no compass on board, and
should never have known how to have steered towards the island,
if I had but once lost sight of it; but the weather continuing
clear, I applied myself to get up my mast again, and spread my
sail, standing away to the north as much as possible, to get out
of the current.
Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began to
stretch away, I saw even by the clearness of the water, some al-
teration of the current was near; for where the current was so
strong, the water was foul : . but perceiving the water clear, I
found the current abate, and presently I found to the east, at
about half a mile, a breach of the sea upon some rocks: these
rocks I found caused the current to part again; and as the main
stress of it ran away more southerly, leaving the rocks to the
north-east, so the other returned by the repulse of the rock, and
OF ROBIN SON CR USO E. 105
made a strong eddy, which ran back again to the north-west with a
very sharp stream. L .
They who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to them
upon the ladder, or to be rescued from thieves just going to
murder them, or who have been in such-like extremities, may .
guess what my present surprise of joy was, and how gladly I put
my boat into the stream of this eddy; and the wind also freshen-
ing, how gladly I spread my sail to it, running chearfully before
the wind, and with a strong tide or eddy under foot.
This eddy carried me about a league in my way back again di-
rectly towards the island, but about two leagues more towards the
northward than the current lay, which carried me away at first;
so that when I came near the island, I found myself open to the
northern shore of it, that is to say, the other end of the island,
opposite to that which I went out from.
When I had made something more than a league of way by the
help of this heavy current or eddy, I found it was spent, and served.
me no farther. However, I found, that being between the two great
currents, viz. that on the south side which had hurried me away,
and that on the north which lay about two leagues on the other
side; I say, between these two, in the west of the island, I found
the water at least still, and running no way; and having still a
breeze of wind fair for me, I kept on steering directly for the
island, though not making such fresh way as I did before.
About four o’clock in the evening, being then within about a
league of the island, I found the point of the rocks which occa-
sioned this distance stretching out as is described before, to the
Southward, and casting off the current more southwardly, had of
course made another eddy to the north; and this I found very
strong, but directly setting the way my course lay, which was due
west, but almost full north. However, having a fresh gale, I
stretched across this eddy slanting north-west, and in about an:
hour came within about a mile of the shore, where, it being
Smooth water, I soon got to land.
When I was on shore, I fell on my knees, and gave God thanks,
for my deliverance, resolving to lay aside all thoughts of my deliver-
ance by my boat; and refreshing myself with such things as I had,
I brought my boat close to the shore, in a little cove that I had
espied under some trees, and laid me down to sleep, being quite
spent with the labour and fatigue of the voyage.
I was now at a great loss which way to get home with my boat;.
I had run so much hazard, and knew too much the cause, to.
think of attempting it by the way I went out; and what might be
at the other side (I mean the west side,) I knew not, nor had I
any mind to run any more ventures; so I only resolved in the
morning to make my way westward along the shore, and to see-
if there was no creek where I might lay up my frigate in safety, so,
E 2
106 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
as to have her again if I wanted her. In about three miles, or
thereabouts, coasting the shore, I came to a very good inlet, or
bay, about a mile over, which narrowed till it came to a very little
rivulet, or brook, where I found a convenient harbour for my boat,
and where she lay as if she had been in a little dock made on pur-
pose for her: here I put in, and having stowed my boat very
safe, I went on shore to look about me, and see where I was.
- I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where I
had been before when I travelled on foot to that shore; so, taking
nothing out of my boat but my gun and my umbrella, for it was
exceeding hot, I began my march: the way was comfortable enough
after such a voyage as I had been upon, and I reached my old
bower in the evening, where I found every thing standing as I left
it; for I always kept it in good order, being, as I said before,
my country-house.
I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade to rest
my limbs, for I was very weary, and fell asleep; but judge if you
can, you that read my story, what a surprise I must be in,
when I was awaked out of my sleep by a voice calling me by my
name several times, Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe, poor Robin
Crusoe Where are you, Robin Crusoe Where are you ? Where
have you been 2. -
I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or
paddling, as it is called, the first part of the day, and walking
the latter part, that I did not awake thoroughly ; and dozing
between sleeping and waking, thought I dreamed that somebody
spoke to me; but as the voice continued to repeat Robin Crusoe,
Robin Crusoe, at last I began to awake more perfectly, and was
at first dreadfully frighted, and started up in the utmost con-
sternation : but no sooner were my eyes open, but I saw my Pol
sitting on the top of the hedge, and immediately knew that this
was he that spoke to me; for just in such bemoaning language I
had used to talk to him, and teach him ; and he had learnt 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 2 and such things as I had
taught him. - -
However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and that
indeed it could be nobody else, it was a good while before I could
compose myself. First, I was amazed how the creature got
thither, and then how he should just keep about the place, and no
where else: but as I was well satisfied it could be nobody but
honest Pol, I got it over; and holding out my hand, and call-
ing him by his name, Pol, 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,
G F ROBIN SON CRU SOE. 107
where had I been 2 just as if he had been overjoyed to see me
again; and so I carried him home along with me. º -
I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some time, and
had enough to do for many days to sit still and reflect upon the
danger I had been in. I would have been very glad to have had
my boat again on my side of the island, but I knew not how it was
practicable to get it about: as to the east side of the island, which
I had gone round, I knew well enough there was no venturing that
way; my very heart would shrink, and my very blood run chill,
but to think of it: and to the other side of the island, I did not
know how it might be there; but supposing the current ran with
the same force against the shore at the east, as it passed by it on
the other, I might run the same risk of being driven down the
stream, and carried by the island, as I had been before of being
carried away from it. So with these thoughts I contented myself
to be without any boat, though it had been the product of Šo
many months labour to make it, and of so many more to get it
into the sea. -
In this government of my temper I remained near a year, lived
a very sedate retired life, as you may well suppose; and my
thoughts being very much composed, as to my condition, and fully
comforted in resigning myself to the dispositions of Providence, I
thought I lived really very happily in all things, except that of
society.
I improved myself in this time, in all the mechanic exercises
which my necessities put me upon applying myself to ; and I be-
lieve could, upon occasion, have made a very good carpenter, espe-
cially considering how few tools I had.
Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection in my earth-
en-ware, and contrived well enough to make them with a wheel,
which I found infinitely easier and better; because I made things
round and shapeable, which before were filthy things indeed to
kook on. But I think I never was more vain of my own perform-
ance, or more joyful for any thing I found out, than for my be-
ing able to make a tobacco-pipe; and though it was a very ugly
clumsy thing when it was done, and only burnt red like other
earthen ware, yet as it was hard and firm, and would draw the
smoke, I was exceedingly comforted with it; for I had been al-
ways used to smoke, and there were pipes in the ship, but I for-
got them at first, not knowing there was tobacco in the island;
and afterwards, when I searched the ship again, I could not come
at any pipes at all.
In my wicker-ware I also improved much, and made abundance
of necessary baskets, as well as my invention showed me, though
not very handsome, yet convenient for my laying things up in, or
fetching things home in. For example, if I killed a goat abroad,
I could hang it up in a tree, flay it, and dress it, and cut it in.

108 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
pieces, and bring it home in a basket: and the like by a turtle;
I could cut it up, take out the eggs, and a piece or two of the
flesh, which was enough for me, and bring them home in a basket,
and leave the rest behind me. Also large deep baskets were my
receivers for my corn, which I always rubbed out as soon as it
was dry, and cured; and kept it in great baskets instead of a
granary.
I began now to perceive my powder abated considerably; and
this was a want which it was impossible for me to supply, and I
began seriously to consider what I must do when I should have
no more powder; that is to say, how I should do to kill any goats.
I had, as I observed, in the third year of my being here, kept a
young kid, and bred her tame; I was in hopes of getting an he-
kid, but I could not by any means bring it to pass, till my kid
grew an old goat; and I could never find in my heart to kill her,
till she died at last of mere age.
But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and, as I
have said, my ammunition growing low, I set myself to study
some art to trap and snare the goats, to see whether I could not
catch some of them alive; and particularly I wanted a she-goat
great with young.
To this purpose I made snares to hamper them, and believe
they were more than once taken in them; but my tackle was not
good, for I had no wire, and always found them broken, and my
bait devoured.
At length I resolved to try a pitfall; so I dug several large pits
in the earth, in places where I had observed the goats used to
feed, and over these pits I placed hurdles of my own making too,
with a great weight upon them; and several times I put ears of
barley, and dry rice, without setting the trap; and I could easily
perceive, that the goats had gone in, and eaten up the corn, that
I could see the mark of their feet: at length, I set three traps in
one night, and going the next morning, I found them all standing,
and yet the bait eaten and gone. This was very discouraging;
however, I altered my trap; and, not to trouble you with particu-
lars, going one morning to see my traps, I found in one of them
a large old he-goat; and in one of the other, three kids, a male
and two females.
As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him; he was so
fierce, I durst not go into the pit to him ; that is to say, to go
about to bring him away alive, which was what I wantéd. I could
have killed him, but that was not my business, nor would it an-
swer my end; so I e'en let him out, and he ran away as if he had
been frightened out of his wits; but I did not then know what I
afterwards learnt, that hunger would tame a lion: if I had let him
stay there three or four days without food, and then have carried
him some water to drink, and then a little corn, he would have
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 109
been as tame as one of the kids; for they are mighty sagacious
tractable creatures, where they are well used.
However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better at
that time: then I went to the three kids; and, taking them one
by one, I tied them with strings together; and with some difficul-
ty brought them all home.
It was a good while before they would feed; but throwing them
some sweet corn, it tempted them, and they began to be tame:
and now I found, that if I expected to supply myself with goat’s
flesh, when I had no powder or shot left, breeding some up tame
was my only way, when perhaps I might have them about my house
like a flock of sheep.
But then it presently occurred to me, that I must keep the
fame from the wild, or else they would always run wild when they
grew up; and the only way for this was to have some enclosed
piece of ground, well fenced either with hedge or pale, to keep
them up so effectually, that those within might not break out, or
those without break in.
This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands; yet as I
saw there was an absolute necessity of doing it, my first piece of
work was to find out a proper piece of ground; viz. where there
was likely to be herbage for them to eat, water for them to drink,
and over to keep them from the sun.
Those who understand such enclosures, will think I had very
little contrivance, when I pitched upon a place very proper for all
these, being a plain open piece of meadow-land or savanna (as
our people call it in the western colonies), which had two or three
little drills of fresh water in it, and at one end was very woody;
I say, they will smile at my forecast, when I shall tell them I be-
gan my enclosing of this piece of ground in such a manner, that
my hedge or pale must have been at least two miles about: nor
\was the madness of it so great as to the compass; for if it was
ten miles about, I was like to have time enough to do it in ; but
I did not consider, that my goats would be as wild in so much
compass, as if they had had the whole island; and I should have
so much room to chase them in, that I should never catch them.
My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe, about fifty yards,
when this thought occurred to me; so I presently stopped short,
and for the first beginning I resolved to enclose a piece of about
one hundred and fifty yards in length, and a hundred yards in
breadth, which, as it would maintain as many as I should have in
any reasonable time, so, as my flock increased, I could add more
ground to my enclosure.
This was acting with some prudence, and I went to work with
courage. I was about three months hedging in the first piece;
and, till I had done it, I tethered the three kids in the best part of
it, and used them to feed as near me as possible, to make them
i IO LIFE AND A DVENTURES
familiar; and very often I would go and carry them some ears of
barley, or a handful of rice, and feed them out of my hand; so
that after my enclosure was finished, and I let them loose, they
would follow me up and down, bleating after me for a handful of
COTI). *
This answered my end, and in about a year and a half I had a
flock of about twelve goats, kids and all; and, in two years more,
I had three-and-forty, besides several that I took and killed for
my food; and after that I enclosed five several pieces of ground to
feed them in, with little pens to drive them into, to take them as
I wanted them; and gates out of one piece of ground into an-
other.
But this was not all; for now I not only had goat’s flesh to
feed on when I pleased, but milk too, a thing which indeed in my
beginning I did not so much as think of, and which, when it came
into my thoughts, was really an agreeable surprise; for now I set
up my dairy, and had sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day.
And as nature, who gives supplies of food to every creature, dic-
tates even naturally how to make use of it; so I, that never milk-
ed a cow much less a goat, or saw butter or cheese made, very
readily and handily, though after a great many essays and miscar-
riages, made me both butter and cheese at last, and never wanted
it afterwards.
How mercifully can our great Creator treat his creatures, even
in those conditions in which they seem to be overwhelmed in de-
struction How can he sweeten the bitterest providences, and
give us cause to praise him for dungeons and prisons ! What a
table was here spread for me in a wilderness, where I saw nothing
at first but to perish for hunger!
It would have made a stoic smile, to have seen me and my lit-
tle 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 absolute command; I could hang, draw, give life and liberty,
and take it away, and no rebels among all my subjects.
Then to see how like a king I dined too, all alone, attended
by my servants' Pol, as if he had been my favourite, as the only
person permitted to talk to me; my dog, which was now grown
very old and crazy, and found no species to multiply his kind
upon, sat always at my right hand; and two cats, one on one
side the table, and one on the other, expecting now and then a
bit from my hand, as a mark of special favour.
But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore at
first ; for they were both of them dead, and had been interred
near my habitation by my own hands; but one of them having
multiplied by I know not what kind of creature, these were two
which I preserved tame, whereas the rest ran wild into the woods,
and became indeed troublesome to me at last; for they would of.
© F ROBIN SON CR USO E. 111
ten come into my house, and plunder me too, till at last I was
obliged to shoot them, and did kill a great many : at length they
left me. With this attendance, and in this plentiful manner, I
lived; neither could I be said to want any thing but society, and
of that, in some time after this, I was like to have too much.
CHAP. XI.
Description of my Figure—Also of my Dwelling and Enclosures
—Dreadful alarm on seeing the Print of a Man’s Foot on the
Shore—Reflections—Take every possible Measure of precau-
tion.
I was something impatient, as I had observed, to have the
use of my boat, though very loath to run any more hazard; and
therefore sometimes I sat contriving ways to get her about the
island, and at other times I sat myself down contented enough
without her. But I had a strange uneasiness in my mind to go
down to the point of the island, where, as I have said in my last
ramble, I went up the hill to see how the shore lay, and how
the current set, that I might see what I had to do. This inclina-
tion increased upon me every day, and at length I resolved to
travel thither by land, and following the edge of the shore, I did
so: but had any one in England been to meet such a man as I
was, it must either have frighted them, or raised a great deal of
laughter; and as I frequently stood still to look at myself, I could
not but smile at the notion of my travelling through Yorkshire
with such an equipage, and in such a dress. Be pleased to take
a sketch of my figure as follows:
I had a great high shapeless cap, made of goat’s skin, with a
flap hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me, as to
shoot the rain off from running into my neck; nothing being so
hurtful in these climates, as the rain upon the flesh under the
clothes. -
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-knee’d breeches
of the same : the breeches were made of a skin of an old he-goat,
whose hair hung down such a length on either side, that, like
pantaloons, it reached to the middle of my legs. Stockings and
shoes I had none; but I had made me a pair of something, I
scarce knew what to call them, like buskins, to flap over my legs,
and lace on either side like spatterdashes; but of a most barbar-
ous 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,
112 - LIFE AND AIDVENTURES
hung a little saw and a hatchet ; one on one side, one on the
other: I had another belt not so broad, and fastened in the same
manner, which hung over my shoulder; and at the end of it, under
my left 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, on my shoulder my gun, and over my head a
great clumsy ugly goat’s skin umbrella; but which, after all, was
the most necessary thing I had about me, next to my gun. As for
my face, the colour of it was really not so Mulatto-like as one
might expect from a man not at all careful of it, and living with-
in nine or ten degrees of the equinox. My beard I had once suf-
fered to grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long ; but as I
had both scissars and razors sufficient, I had cut it pretty short,
except what grew on my upper lip, which I had trimmed into a
large pair of Mahometan whiskers, such as I had seen worn by
some Turks whom I saw at Sallee; for the Moors did not wear
such, though the Turks did : of these mustachios, or whiskers, I
will not say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them ;
but they were of length and shape monstrous enough, and such
as in England would have passed for frightful.
But all this is by the bye; for as to my figure, I had so few to
observe me, that it was of no manner of consequence; so I say
no more to that part. In this kind of figure I went my new jour-
ney, and was out five or six days. I travelled first along the sea-
shore directly to the place where I first brought my boat to an an-
chor, to get up upon the rocks; and, having no boat now to take
care of, I went over the land a nearer way, to the same height
that I was upon before; when looking forward to the point of
the rock which lay out, and which I was to double with my boat,
as I said above, I was surprised to see the sea all smooth and
quiet ; no rippling, no motion, no current, any more there than,
in other places. -
I was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved to spend
some time in the observing of it, to see if nothing from the sets
of the tide had occasioned it: but I was presently convinced how
it was ; viz. that the tide of ebb setting from the west, and join-
ing with the current of waters from some great river on the shore,
must be the occasion of this current, and that according as the
wind blew more forcible from the west, or from the north, this
current came near, or went farther from the shore; for, wait-
ing thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock again, and
then, the tide of ébb being made, I plainly saw the current again
as before, only that it ran farther off, being near half a league.
from the shore; whereas, in my case, it set close upon the shore,
and hurried me in my canoe along with it, which at another time
it would not have done. *
This observation convinced me, that I had nothing to do but to
OF ROBIN SON C R USOE, 113
observe the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and I might very
easily bring my boat about the island again: but when I began
to think of putting it in practice, I had such a terror upon my
spirits at the remembrance of the danger I had been in, that I
could not think of it again with any patience; but on the con-
trary, I took up another resolution, which was more safe, though
more laborious; and this was, that I would build, or rather make
me another periagua, or canoe; and so have one for one side of
the island, and one for the other.
You are to understand, that now I had, as I may call it, two
plantations in the island ; one, my little fortification or tent,
with the wall about it under the rock, with the cave behind me,
which by this time I had enlarged into several apartments or
caves, one within another. One of these, which was the driest
and largest, and had a door out beyond my wall or fortification,
that is to say, beyond where my wall joined to the rock, was all
filled up with largé earthen pots, of which I have given än account,
and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would hold five
or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores of provision, es-
pecially my corn, some in the ear cut off short from the straw,
and the other rubbed out with my hands.
As for my wall, made as before, with long stakes or piles, those
piles grew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big,
and spread so very much, that there was not the least appear-
ance, to any one’s view, of any habitation behind them.
Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land,
and upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn-ground: which
I kept duly cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me
their harvest in its season : and whenever I had occasion for
more corn, I had more land adjoining, as fit as that.
Besides this, I had my country-seat, and I had now a tolera-
ble plantation there also; for first, I had my little bower, as I
called it, which I kept in repair; that is to say, I kept the hedge
which circled it in, constantly fitted up to its usual height, the
ladder standing always in the inside; I kept the trees, which at
first were no more than stakes, but were now grown very firm and
tall,—I kept them always so cut, that they might spread and
grow thick and wild, and make the more agreeable shade, which,
they did effectually to my mind. In the middle of this I had my
tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread over poles set
up for that purpose, and which never wanted any repair or re-
newing; and under this, I had made me a squab or couch, with
the skins of the creatures I had killed, and with other soft things,
and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding,
which I had saved, and a great watch-coat to cover me; and here,
whenever I had occasion to be absent from my chief seat, I took
up my country habitation.
114 LIFE AND A DV ENT URES
Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to
say, my goats: and as I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains
to fence and enclose this ground, I was so uneasy to see it kept
entire, lest the goats should break through, that I never left off,
till with infinite labour I had stuck the outside of the hedge so
full of small stakes, and so near to one another, that it was ra-
ther a pale than a hedge, and there was scarce room to put a
hand through between them, which afterwards, when those stakes
grew, as they all did in the next rainy season, made the enclosure
strong, like a wall; indeed stronger than any wall.
This will testify for me that t was not idle, and that I spared
no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my com-
fortable support; for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame
creatures thus at my hand, would be a living magazine of flesh,
milk, butter, and cheese, for me, as long as I lived in the place,
if it were to be forty years; and that keeping them in my reach,
depended entirely upon my perfecting my enclosures to such a de-
gree, that I might be sure of keeping them together; which by
this method indeed I so effectually secured, that when these little
stakes began to grow, I had planted them so very thick, I was
forced to pull some of them up again.
In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally
depended on for my winter store of raisins, and which I never
failed to preserve very carefully, as the best and most agreeable
dainty of my whole diet; and indeed they were not agreeable only,
but physical, wholesome, nourishing, and refreshing to the last
degree.
As this was also about half-way between my other habitation
and the place where I had laid up my boat, I generally staid and
lay here in my way thither; for T used frequently to visit my boat,
and I kept all things about or belonging to her in very good order:
sometimes I went out in her to divert myself, but no more hazar-
dous voyages would I go, nor scarce ever above a stone's cast or
two from the shore, I was so apprehensive of being hurried out of
my knowledge again by the currents, or winds, or any other
accident. But now I came to a new scene of my life.
It happened one day about noon, going towards my boat, I was
exceedingly surprised with the print of a man’s naked foot on the
shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand : I stood like
one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition; I listened, I
looked round me, I could hear nothing, nor see anything; I went
up to a rising ground to look farther; I went up the shore and
down the shore, but it was all one, I could see no other impres-
sion but that one; I went to it again to see if there were any
more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was
no room for that, for there was exactly the very print of a foot,
toes, heel, and every part of a foot; how it came thither I knew
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, I 15
not, nor could in the least imagine. But after innumerable flut-
tering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused, and out of myself,
I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the ground
I went on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at
every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fan-
cying every stump at a distance to be a man; nor is it possible to
describe how many various shapes an affrighted imagination re-
presented things to me in ; how many wild ideas were formed
every moment in my fancy, and what strange unaccountable whim-
sies came into my thoughts by the way.
*
ºrs -
***********Miisum w
- as ºnly sv taxe--- - :* **ttes; we
--~~rº..."
**** 2. .*.*.*.*.*.*.*&
******** a sus-e- ~-st - * * *
-
"illi::: *::-----
illiºs---
*-s--- 22.2%
When I came to my castle, for so I think I called it ever after
this, I fled into it like one pursued; whether I went over by the
ladder, as first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which
I called a door, I cannot remember; for never frighted hare fled to
cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of mind than I to this re-
treat,


1 16 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
I had no sleep that night: the farther I was from the occasion
of my fright, the greater my apprehensions were ; which is some-
thing contrary to the nature of such things, and especially to the
usual practice of all creatures in fear. But I was so embarrassed
with my own frightful ideas of the thing, that I formed nothing
but dismal imaginations to myself, even though I was now a great
way off it. Sometimes I fancied it must be the devil; and reason
joined in with me upon this supposition. For how should any
other thing in human shape come into the place : Where was
the vessel that brought them : What marks were there of any
other footsteps ? And how was it possible a man should come
there : But then to think that Satan should take human shape
upon him in such a place, where there could be no manner of oc-
casion for it, but to leave the print of his foot behind him, and
that even for no purpose too, (for he could not be sure I should
see it.) this was an amazement the other way: I considered that
the devil might have found out abundance of other ways to have
terrified me, than this of the single print of a foot; that, as I lived
quite on the other side of the island, he would never have been
so simple to leave a mark in a place where it was ten thousand
to one whether I should ever see it or not, and in the sand too,
which the first surge of the sea upon an high wind would have
defaced entirely. All this seemed inconsistent with the thing
itself, and with all notions we usually entertain of the subtlety
of the devil. !
Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of
all apprehensions of its being the devil. And I presently conclu-
ded that it must be some more dangerous creature; viz. that it
must be some of the Savages of the main land over against me,
who had wandered out to sea in their canoes, and, either driven
by the currents, or by contrary winds, had made the island, and
had been on shore, but were gone away again to sea, being as
loath, perhaps, to have staid in this desolate island, as I would have
been to have had them. w
While these reflections were rolling upon my mind, I was very
thankful in my thought, that I was so happy as not to be there-
abouts at that time, or that they did not see my boat, by which they
would have concluded, that some inhabitants had been in the place,
and perhaps have searched farther for me. Then terrible thoughts
racked my imagination, about their having found my boat, and
that there were people here ; and that if so, I should certainly
have them come again in greater numbers, and devour me; that
if it should happen so that they should not find me, yet they
would find my enclosure, destroy all my corn, carry away all my
flock of tame goats, and I should perish at last for mere want.
Thus my fear banished all my religious hope ; all that for-
mer confidence in God, which was founded upon such wonderful
OF ROBIN SO N C R USOE. 117
experience as I had had of his goodness, now vanished; as if
He, that had fed me by niracle hitherto, could not preserve by his
power the provision which he had made for me by his goodness.
I reproached myself with my uneasiness, that I would not sow
any more corn one year, than would just serve me till the next
season, as if no accident could intervene to prevent my enjoying
the crop that was upon the ground. And this I thought so just a
reproof, that I resolved for the future to have two or three years
corn beforehand, so that, whatever might come, I might not pe-
rish for want of bread. -
How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man :
And by what secret differing springs are the affections hurried
about, as differing circumstances present ' To-day we love, what
to-morrow we hate; to-day we seek, what to-morrow we shun ;
to-day we desire, what to-morrow we fear; nay, even tremble at
the apprehensions of. This was exemplified in me at this time
in the most lively manner imaginable; for I, whose only affliction
was, that I seemed banished from human society, that I was alone,
circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind,
and condemned to what I call a silent life; that I was as one
whom Heaven thought not worthy to be numbered among the
living, or to appear among the rest of his creatures; that to have
seen one of my own species, would have seemed to me a raising
me from death to life, and the greatest blessing that Heaven it-
self, next to the supreme blessing of salvation, could bestow ; I
say, that I should now tremble at the very apprehensions of see-
ing a man, and was ready to sink into the ground, at but the sha-
dow, or silent appearance, of a man’s having set his foot on the
island. -
Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me a
great many curious speculations afterwards, when I had a little
recovered my first surprise: I considered that this was the sta-
tion of life the infinitely wise and good providence of God had
determined for me; that, as I could not foresee what the ends of
divine wisdom might be in all this, so I was not to dispute his
sovereignty, who, as I was his creature, had an undoubted right by
creation to govern and dispose of me absolutely as he thought fit;
and who, as I was a creature who º him, had likewise
a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment he thought
fit; and that it was my part to submit to bear his indignation, be-
cause I had sinned against him.
I then reflected, that God, who was not only righteous, but
omnipotent, as he had thought fit thus to punish and afflict me,
so he was able to deliver me ; that if he did not think fit to do it,
it was my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and en-
tirely to his will ; and on the other hand, it was my duty also to
I 18 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
hope in him, pray to him, and quietly to attend the dictates and
directions of his daily providence.
These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say,
weeks and months; and one particular effect of my cogitations
on this occasion I cannot omit: viz. one morning early, lying
in my bed, and filled with thoughts about my danger from the ap-
pearance of savages, I found it discomposed me very much ; upon
which those words of the Scripture came into my thoughts, “Call
upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify me.” -
Upon this, rising chearfully out of my bed, my hcart was not
only comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray ear-
nestly to God for deliverance. When I had done praying, I took
up my Bible, and opening it to read, the first words that present-
ed to me were, “Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and
he shall strengthen thy heart: Wait, I say, on the Lord.” It
is impossible to express the comfort this gave me; and in return,
I thankfully laid down the book, and was no more sad, at least not
on that occasion.
In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflec-
tions, it came into my thoughts one day, that all this might be a
mere chimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print
of my own foot, when I came on shore from my boat. This
‘cheered me up a little too, and I began to persuade myself it
was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but my own foot;
and why might not I come that way from the boat, as well as I
was going that way to the boat 2 Again, I considered also, that I
could by no means tell for certain where I had trod, and where
I had not; and that if at last this was only the print of my own
foot, I had played the part of those fools, who strive to make
stories of spectres and apparitions, and then are themselves fright-
ed at them more than any body else. -
Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again; for I
had not stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that
I began to starve for provision; for I had little or nothing within
doors, but some barley-cakes and water. Then I knew that my
goats wanted to be milked too, which usually was my evening
diversion ; and the poor creatures were in great pain and in-
convenience for want of it ; and indeed it almost spoiled some
of them, and almost dried up their milk.
Heartening myself therefore with the belief, that this was no-
thing but the print of one of my own feet, (and so I might be truly
said to start at my own shadow,) I began to go abroad again, and
went to my country-house to milk my flock; but to see with what
fear I went forward, how often I looked behind me, how I was
ready, every now and then, to lay down my basket, and run for my
life; it would have made any one have thought I was haunted with
OF ROBIN SON CRU SO E. I 19
an evil conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly fright-
ed; and so indeed I had.
However, as I went down thus two or three days, and having
seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder, and to think there was
really nothing in it but my own imagination ; but I could not per-
suade myself fully of this, till I should go down to the shore
again, and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my own,
and see if there was any similitude or fitness, that I might be as-
sured it was my own foot. But when I came to the place first, it
appeared evidently to me, that when I laid up my boat, I could
not possibly be on shore any where thereabouts. Secondly, when
I came to measure the mark with my own foot, I found my foot
not so large by a great deal. Both these things filled my head
with new imaginations, and gave me the vapours again to the
highest degree; so that I shook with cold, like one in an ague,
and I went home again, filled with the belief, that some man or
men had been on shore there; or, in short, that the island was
inhabited, and I might be surprised before I was aware; and what
course to take ſor my security, I knew not.
O what ridiculous resolutions men take, when possessed with
fear ! It deprives them of the use of those means which reason
offers for their relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was, to
throw down my enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into
the woods, that the enemy might not find them, and then fre-
quent the island in prospect of the same, or the like booty; then
to the simple thing of digging up my two corn-fields, that they
mightnot find such a grain there, and still be prompted to fre-
quent the island; then to demolish my bower and tent, that they
might not see any vestiges of my habitation, and be prompted to
look farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting.
These were the subjects of the first night’s cogitation, after I
was come home again, while the apprehensions which had so
over-run my mind were fresh upon me, and my head was full of
vapours, as above. Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times
more terrifying than danger itself, when apparent to the eyes;
and we find the burden of anxiety greater by much than the
evil which we are anxious about : but, which was worse than all
this, I had not that relief in this trouble from the resignation I
used to practise, that I hoped to have. I looked, I thought, like
Saul, who complained, not only that the Philistines were upon
him, but that God had forsaken him; for I did not now take
due ways to compose my mind, by crying to God in my distress,
and resting upon his providence, as I had done before, for my
defence and deliverance; which, if I had done, I had, at least,
been more chearfully supported under this new surprise, and per-
haps carried through it with more resolution. -
This confusion of my thoughts kept me waking all night; but
120 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
in the morning I fell asleep, and having, by the amusement of my
mind, been, as it were, tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept
very soundly, and awaked much better composed than I had ever
been before. And now I began to think sedately; and, upon the
utmost debate with myself, I concluded, that this island, which
was so exceeding pleasant, fruitful, and no farther from the main
land than as I had seen, was not so entirely abandoned as I might
imagine: that although there were no stated inhabitants who lived
on the spot; yet that there might sometimes come boats off from
the shore, who either with design, or perhaps never but when
they were driven by cross winds, might come to this place.
That I had lived here fifteen years now, and had not met
with the least shadow or figure of any people before; and that if
at any time they should be driven here, it was probable they went
away again as soon as ever they could, seeing they had never.
thought fit to fix there upon any occasion, to this time.
That the most I could suggest any danger from, was, from any
such casual accidental landing of straggling people from the main,
who, as it was likely, if they were driven hither, were here against
their wills; so they made no stay here, but went off again with all
possible speed, seldom staying one night on shore, lest they should
not have the help of the tides and daylight back again; and that
therefore I had nothing to do but to consider of some safe retreat,
in case I should see any savages land upon the spot.
Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large,
as to bring a door through again, which door, as I said, came
out beyond where my fortification joined to the rock. Upon ma-
turely considering this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a second
fortification, in the manner of a semi-circle, at a distance from
my wall, just where I had planted a double row of trees about
twelve years before, of which I made mention: these trees having
been planted so thick before, there wanted but a few piles to be
driven between them, that they should be thicker and stronger,
and my wall would be soon finished. -
So that I had now a double wall, and my outer wallºwas thick-
ened with pieces of timber, old cables, and every thing I could
think of to make it strong; having in it seven little holes, about
as big as I might put my arm out at. In the inside of this I thick-
ened my wall to about ten feet thick, continually bringing earth
out of my cave, and laying it at the foot of the wall, and walking
upon it; and through the seven holes I contrived to plant the mus-
kets, of which I took notice that I got seven on shore out of the
ship; these, I say, I planted like my cannon, and fitted them into
frames that held them like a carriage, that so I could fire all the
seven guns in two minutes time. This wall I was many a weary
º in finishing, and yet never thought myself safe till it was
OIlêe 6
OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE, 191
When this was done, I stuck all the ground without my wall,
for a great way every way, as full with stakes or sticks of the
osier-like wood, which I found so apt to grow, as they could well
stand; insomuch, that I believe I might set in near twenty thou-
sand of them, leaving a pretty large space between them and
my wall, that I might have room to see an enemy, and they might
have no shelter from the young trees, if they attempted to ap-
proach my outer wall.
Thus in two years time I had a thick grove ; and in five or six
years time I had a wood before my dwelling, grown so monstrous
thick and strong, that it was indeed perfectly impassable; and no
man of what kind soever would ever imagine that there was any
thing beyond it, much less an habitation. As for the way I pro-
posed myself to go in and out, (for I left no avenue,) it was by
setting two ladders; one to a part of the rock which was low, and
then broke in, and left room to place another ladder upon that;
so when the two ladders were taken down, no man living could
come down to me without mischiefing himself; and if they had
come down, they were still on the outside of my outer wall.
Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest
for my own preservation; and it will be seen at length, that they
were not altogether without just reason ; though I foresaw no-
thing at that time more than my mere fear suggested.
While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my other
affairs; for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd of
goats; they were not only a present supply to me upon every
other occasion, and to be sufficient for me, without the expence
of powder and shot, but also abated the fatigue of my hunting
after the wild ones; and I was loath to lose the advantage of
them, and to have them all to nurse up over again.
To this purpose, after long consideration, I could think but of
two ways to preserve them : one was to find another convenient
place to dig a cave under ground, and to drive them into it every
night; and the other was to enclose two or three little bits of
land, remote from one another, and as much concealed as I
could, where I might keep about half a dozen young goats in
each place; so that if any disaster happened to the flock in gene-
ral, I might be able to raise them again with little trouble and
time: and this, though it would require a great deal of time and
labour, I thought was the most rational design.
Accordingly I spent some time to find out the most retired
parts of the island; and I pitched upon one, which was as private
indeed as my heart could wish; for it was a little damp piece of
ground in the middle of the hollow and thick woods, where, as
is observed, I almost lost myself once before, endeavouring to
‘come back that way from the eastern part of the island. Here
I found a clear piece of land near three acres, so surrounded
F
192 LIFE AND AIDVENTURES
with woods, that it was almost an enclosure by nature; at least it
did not want near so much labour to make it so, as the other
pieces of ground I had worked so hard at.
I immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and in
less than a month's time I had so fenced it round, that my flock
or herd, call it which you please, which were not so wild now as
at first they might be supposed to be, were well enough secured
in it. So without any farther delay, I removed ten she-goats and
two he-goats to this piece; and when there, I continued to per-
fect the fence, till I had made it as secure as the other, which,
however, I did at more leisure, and it took me up more time by
a great deal.
CHAP. XII.
I observe a Canoe out at Sea—Find on the Shore the remnant
of a Feast of Cannibals—Horror of Mind thereon—Double
arm myself—Terribly alarmed by a Goat—Discover a singular
Cave, or Grotto, of which I form my Magazine—My fears on
account of the Savages begin to subside.
ALL this labour I was at the expence of, purely from my ap-
prehensions on the account of the print of a man’s foot which I had
seen; for as yet, I never saw any human creature come near the
island, and I had now lived two years under these uneasinesses,
which indeed made my life much less comfortable than it was
before; as may well be imagined, by any who know what it is to
live in the constant snare of the fear of man; and this I must ob-
serve with grief too, that the discomposure of my mind had too
great impressions also upon the religious part of my thoughts;
for the dread and terror of falling into the hands of savages and
cannibals lay so upon my spirits, that I seldom found myself in a
due temper for application to my Maker; at least, not with the
sedate calmness and resignation of soul which I was wont to do.
I rather prayed to God as under great affliction and pressure of
mind, surrounded with danger, and in expectation every night of
being murdered and devoured before the morning; and I must
testify from my experience, that a temper of peace, thankfulness,
love, and affection, is much more the proper frame for prayer,
than that of terror and discomposure; and that under the dread
of mischief impending, a man is no more fit for a comforting
performance of the duty of praying to God, than he is for re-
pentance on a sick-bed; for these discomposures affect the mind as
the others do the body; and the discomposure of the mind must
necessarily be as great a disability as that of the body, and much
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 193
greater; praying to God being properly an act of the mind, not
of the body.
But to go on : After I had thus secured one part of my little
living stock, I went about the whole island, searching for another
private place, to make such another deposit; when wandering
more to the west point of the island than I had ever done yet, and
looking out to sea, I thought I saw a boat upon the sea, at a
great distance; I had found a perspective glass or two in one of
the seamen’s chests, which I saved out of our ship; but I had it
not about me, and this was so remote, that I could not tell what
to make of it, though I looked at it till my eyes were not able to
look any longer: whether it was a boat, or not, I do not know;
but as I descended from the hill, I could see no more of it, so I
gave it over; only I resolved to go no more without a perspec-
tive glass in my pocket.
When I was come down the hill to the end of the island,
where indeed I had never been before, I was presently convinced,
that the seeing the print of a man’s foot, was not such a strange
thing in the island as I imagined; and, but that it was a special
providence that I was cast upon the side of the island where the
savages never came, I should easily have known, that nothing
was more frequent than for the canoes from the main, when
they happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot over to
that side of the island for harbour; likewise, as they often met,
and fought in their canoes, the victors, having taken any prison-
ers, would bring them over to this shore, where, according to
their dreadful customs, being all cannibals, they would kill and
eat them : of which hereafter.
When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above,
being the S. W. point of the island, I was perfectly confounded
and amazed; nor is it possible for me to express the horror of
my mind, at seeing the shore spread with skulls, hands, feet, and
other bones of human bodies; and, particularly, I observed a
place where there had been a fire made, and a circle dug in the
earth, like a cock-pit, where it is supposed the savage wretches
had sat down to their inhuman feastings upon the bodies of their
fellow creatures.
I was so astonished with the sight of these things, that I enter-
tained no notions of any danger to myself from it, for a long
while; all my apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such
a pitch of inhuman, hellish brutality, and the horror of the dege-
neracy of human nature; which, though I had heard of often, yet
I never had so near a view of before : in short, I turned away my
face from the horrid spectacle; my stomach grew sick, and I was
just at the point of fainting, when nature discharged the dis-
order from my stomach, and having vomited with an uncommon
violence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stay in the


194 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
place a moment; so I got me up the hill again with all the speed
I could, and walked on towards my own habitation.
When I came a little out of that part of the island, I stood still
awhile as amazed ; and then recovering myself, I looked up with
the utmost affection of my soul, and with a flood of tears in my
eyes, gave God thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of
the world where I was distinguished from such dreadful creatures
as these ; and that though I had esteemed my present condition
very miserable, had yet given me so many comforts in it, that I had
still more to give thanks for than to complain of; and this above
all, that I had, even in this miserable condition, been comforted
with the knowledge of himself, and the hope of his blessing,
which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to all the
misery which I had suffered, or could suffer.
In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle, and
began to be much easier now, as to the safety of my circum-
tances, than ever-I was before; for I observed, that these wretches
never came to this island in search of what they could get; per-
haps not seeking, not wanting, or not expecting, any thing here,
and having often, no doubt, been up in the covered woody part
of it, without finding any thing to their purpose. I knew I had
been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the least
footsteps of a human creature there before; and might be here
eighteen more as entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not dis-
cover myself to them, which I had no manner of occasion to do,
it being my only business to keep myself entirely concealed where
I was, unless I found a better sort of creatures than cannibals to
make myself known to. -
Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that
I have been speaking of, and qf the wretched inhuman custom of
their devouring and eating º up, that I continued pen-
sive and sad, and kept close within my own circle for almost
two years after this: when I say my own circle, I mean by it my
three plantations, viz. my castle, my country-seat, which I called
my bower, and my enclosure in the woods; nor did I look after
this for any other use than as an enclosure for my goats; for the
aversion which nature gave me to these hellish wretches was
such, that I was as fearful of seeing them as of seeing the devil
himself; nor did I so much as go to look after my boat in all this
time, but began rather to think of making me another; for I
could not think of ever making any more attempts to bring the
other boat round the island to me, lest I should meet with some
of those creatures at sea, in which, if I had happened to have
fallen into their hands, I knew what would have been my lot.
Time, however, and the satisfaction I had, that I was in no dan-
ger of being discovered by these people, began to wear off my un-
easiness about them; and I began to live just in the same com-
OF ROB I NS ON CRU SOE. 125
posed manner as before; only with this difference, that I used
more caution, and kept my eyes more about me than I did before,
lest I should happen to be seen by any of them ; and particular-
ly, I was more cautious of firing my gun, lest any of them on the
island should happen to hear it; and it was therefore a very good
providence to me, that I had furnished myself with a tame breed
of goats, that I had no need to hunt any more about the woods,
or shoot at them; and if I did catch any more of them after this,
it was by traps and snares, as I had done before, so that for two
years after this, I believe I never fired my gun once off, though I
never went out without it: and, which was more, as I had saved
three pistols out of the ship, I always carried them out with me,
or at least two of them, sticking them in my goat-skin belt: I
likewise furbished up one of the great cutlasses that I had out of
the ship, and made me a belt to put it in also: so that I was now
a most formidable fellow to look at when I went abroad, if you
add to the former description of myself, the particular of two
pistols, and a great broad-sword hanging at my side in a belt, but
without a scabbard.
Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed,
excepting these cautions, to be reduced to my former calm sedate
way of living. All these things tended to show me more and more
how far my condition was from being miserable, compared to some
others; nay, to many other particulars of life, which it might have
pleased God to have made my lot. It put me upon reflecting, how
little repining there would be among mankind, at any condition
of life, if people would rather compare their condition with those
that are worse, in order to be thankful, than be always comparing
them with those which are better, to assist their murmurings and
complainings. -
As in my present condition, there was not really many things
which I wanted, so indeed I thought that the frights I had been
in about these Savage wretches, and the concern I had been in for
my own preservation, had taken off the edge of my invention for
my own conveniences, and I had dropped a good design, which I
had once bent my thoughts upon; and that was, to try if I could
not make some of my barley into malt, and then try to brew my-
self some beer: this was really a whimsical thought, and I repro-
ved myself often for the simplicity of it: for I presently saw there
would be the want of several things necessary to the makin my
beer, that would be impossible for me to supply; as first, casks
to preserve it in, which was a thing that, as I have observed al-
ready, I could never compass; no, though I spent not many days
but weeks, may months, in atteinpting it, but to no purpose. ſº
the next place, I had no hopes to make it keep, no yeast to make
it work, no copper or kettle to make it boil; and yet, had not all
these things intervened, I mean the frights and terrors I was in
about the savages, I had undertaken it, and perhaps brought it tº

126 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
pass too; for I seldom gave anything over without accomplishing
it, when I once had it in my head enough to begin it.
But my invention now ran quite another way; for night and
day I could think of nothing, but how I might destroy some of
these monsters in their cruel bloody entertainment, and, if possi-
ble, save the victim they should bring hither to destroy. It would
take up a larger volume than this whole work is intended to be,
to set down all the contrivances I hatched, or rather brooded
upon in my thoughts, for the destroying these creatures, or at
least frightening them, so as to prevent their coming hither any
more: but all was abortive; nothing could be possible to take
effect, unless I was to be there to do it myself; and what could
one man do among them, when perhaps there might be twenty or
thirty of them together, with their darts, or their bows and ar-
rows, with which they could shoot as true to a mark as I could
with my gun ? *
Sometimes I contrived to dig a hole under the place where they
made their fire, and put in five or six pounds of gunpowder,
which, when they kindled their fire, would consequently take
fire, and blow up all that was near it; but as, in the first place,
I should be very loath to waste so much powder upon them, my
store being now within the quantity of a barrel, so neither could
I be sure of its going off at any certain time, when it might sur-
prise them; and, at best, that it would do little more than just
blow the fire about their ears, and fright them, but not sufficient
to make them forsake the place; so I laid it aside, and then pro-
posed, that I would place myself in ambush in some convenient
place, with my three guns all double-loaded, and in the middle
of their bloody ceremony let fly at them, when I should be sure
to kill or wound perhaps two or three at every shoot; and then
falling in upon them with my three pistols, and my sword, I made
no doubt but that, if there were twenty, I should kill them all:
this fancy pleased my thoughts for some weeks, and I was so full
of it, that I often dreamed of it; and sometimes, that I was just
going to let fly at them in my sleep. .
I went so far with it in my indignation, that I employed myself
several days to find out proper places to put myself in ambuscade,
as I said, to watch for them; and I went frequently to the place
itself, which was now grown more familiar to me; and espe-
cially while my mind was thus filled with thoughts of revenge,
and of a bloody putting twenty or thirty of them to the sword, as
I may call it; but the horror I had at the place, and at the signals
of the barbarous wretches devouring one another, abated my
malice.
Well, at length I found a place in the side of the hill, where I
was satisfied I might securely wait till I saw any of the boats co-
ming, and might then, even before they would be ready to come

OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE. 127
on shore, convey myself unseen into thickets of trees, in one of
which there was a hollow large enough to conceal me entirely:
and where I might sit, and observe all their bloody doings, and
take my full aim at their heads, when they were so close toge-
ther, as that it would be next to impossible that I should miss
my shoot, or that I could fail wounding three or four of them at
the first shoot. - tº
In this place then I resolved to fix my design; and accordingly
I prepared two muskets and my ordinary fowling-piece. The two
muskets I loaded with a brace of slugs each, and four or five
smaller bullets, about the size of pistol-bullets, and the fowling-
piece I loaded with near an handful of swan-shot, of the largest
size; I also loaded my pistols with about four bullets each; and
in this posture, well provided with ammunition for a second and
third charge, I prepared myself for my expedition.
After I had thus laid the scheme for my design, and in my
imagination put it in practice, I continually made my tour every
morning up to the top of the hill, which was, from my castle, as I
called it, about three miles or more, to see if I could observe any
boats upon the sea, coming near the island, or standing over to-
wards it; but I began to tire of this hard duty, after I had for
two or three months constantly kept my watch; but came always
back without any discovery, there having not in all that time
been the least appearance, not only on or near the shore, but not
on the whole ocean, so far as my eyes or glasses could reach every
way.
As long as I kept up my daily tour to the hill to look out, so
long also I kept up the vigour of my design, and my spirits seem-
ed to be all the while in a suitable frame for so outrageous an
execution, as the killing twenty or thirty naked savages for an of-
fence, which I had not at all entered into a discussion of in my
thoughts, any further than my passions were at first fired by the
horror I conceived at the unnatural custom of the people of that
country, who, it seems, had been suffered by Providence, in his
wise disposition of the world, to have no other guide than that
of their own abominable and vitiated passions; and consequently
were left, and perhaps had been for some ages, to act such horrid
things, and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing but nature,
entirely abandoned of Heaven, and actuated by some hellish de-
generacy, could have run them into; but now, when, as I have
said, I began to be weary of the fruitless excursion which I had
made so long, and so far, every morning in vain; so my opinion
of the action itself began to alter, and I began, with cooler and
calmer thoughts, to consider what it was I was going to engage
in; what authority or call I had to pretend to be judge and exe-
cutioner upon these men as criminals, whom Heaven had thought
fit for so many ages to suffer unpunished to go on, and to be,





J28 LIFE AN D A DVENTURES
as it were, the executioners of his judgments upon one another;
also, how far these people were offenders against me, and what
right I had to engage in the quarrel of that blood, which they
shed promiscuously one upon another. I debated this very often
with myself thus: How do I know what God himself judges in
this particular case? It is certain these people do not commit
this as a crime; it is not against their own consciences reproving,
or their light reproaching them. They do not know it to be an
offence, and then commit it in defiance of divine justice, as we do
in almost all the sins we commit. They think it no more a crime
to kill a captive taken in war, than we do to kill an ox, nor to
eat human flesh, than we do to eat mutton.
When I had considered this a little, it followed necessarily, that
I was certainly in the wrong in it; that these people were not mur-
dèrers in the sense that I had before condemned them in my
thoughts, any more than those Christians were murderers, who
often put to death the prisoners taken in battle; or more frequent-
ly, upon many occasions, put whole troops of men to the sword,
without giving quarter, though they threw down their arms and
submitted.
In the next place, it occurred to me, that albeit the usage they
gave one another was thus brutish and inhuman, yet it was really
nothing to me: these people had done me no injury: that if
they attempted me, or P saw it necessary for my immediate pre-
servation to fall upon them, something might be said for it; but
that I was yet out of their power, and they had really no know-
ledge of me, and consequently no design upon me; and therefore
it could not be just for me to fall upon them : that this would
justify the conduct of the Spaniards, in all their barbarities prac-
tised in America, where they destroyed millions of these people,
who, however they were idolaters and barbarians, and had seve-
ral bloody and barbarous rites in their customs, such as sacrificing
human bodies to their idols, were yet, as to the Spaniards, very in-
nocent people; and that the rooting them out of the country is
spoken of with the utmost abhorrence and detestation, even by
#. Spaniards themselves, at this time; and by all other Chris-
tian nations of Europe, as a mere butchery, a bloody and unna-
tural piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either to God or man; and
such, as for which the very name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be
frightful and terrible to all people of humanity, or of Christian
compassion: as if the kingdom of Spain were particularly eminent
for the product of a race of men, who were without principles of
tenderness, or the common bowels of pity to the miserable, which
is reckoned to be a mark of a generous temper in the mind.
These eonsiderations really put me to a pause, and to a kind of
a full stop; and I began by little and little to be off of my design,
and to conclude:I had taken a wrong measure in my resolutions to
*

of Robinson CRusoe. 129
attack the savages; that it was not my business to meddle with
them, unless they first attacked me, and this it was my business,
if possible, to prevent; but that, if I were discovered and attack-
ed, then I knew my duty.
On the other hand, I argued with myself, that this really was
not the way to deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and destroy
myself; for unless I was sure to kill every one that not only
should be on shore at that time, but that should ever come on
shore afterwards, if but one of them escaped to tell their country-
people what had happened, they would come over again by thou-
sands to revenge the death of their fellows; and I should only
bring upon myself a certain destruction, which at present I had
no manner of occasion for.
Upon the whole, I concluded, that neither in principles nor in
policy, I ought one way or other to concern myself in this affair:
that my business was, by all possible means, to conceal myself
from them, and not to leave the least signal to them to guess by,
that there were any living creatures upon the island, I mean of
human shape,
Religion joined in with this prudential, and I was convinced now
many ways that I was perfectly out of my duty, when I was laying
all my bloody schemes for the destruction of innocent creatures,
I mean innocent as to me; as to the crimes they were guilty of
towards one another, I had nothing to do with them ; they were
national punishments to make a just retribution for national of
fences; and to bring public judgments upon those who offended
in a public manner, by such ways as best please God.
This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing was a greater
satisfaction to me, than that I had not been suffered to do a thing
which I now saw so much reason to believe would have been no
less a sin than that of wilful murder, if I had committed it; and
I gave most humble thanks on my knees to God, that had thus
delivered me from blood-guiltiness; beseeching him to grant me
the protection of his Providence, that I might not fall into the
hands of barbarians; or that I might not lay my hands upon
them, unless I had a more clear call from Heaven to do it, in de-
fence of my own life.
In this disposition I continued for near a year after this: and
so far was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these
wretches, that in all that time I never once went up the hill to
see whether there were any of them in sight, or to know whether
any of them had been on shore there, or not; that I might not
be tempted to renew any of my contrivances against them, or be
provoked, by any advantage which might present itself, to fall
upon them; only this I did, I went and removed my boat, which
I had on the other side of the island, and carried it down to the
east end of the whole island, where I ran it into a little cove

F 2
130 LIFE AND ADventures.
which I found under some high rocks, and where I knew, by rea-
son of the currents, the savages durst not, at least would not,
come with their boats upon any account whatsoever.
With my boat I carried away every thing that I had left there
belonging to her, though not necessary for the bare going thither;
wiz. a mast and sail, which I had made for her, and a thing like
an anchor, but indeed, which could not be called either anchor or
grappling; however, it was the best I could make of its kind. All
these I removed, that there might not be the least shadow of any
discovery, or any appearance of any boat, or of any habitation
upon the island.
Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than ever,
and seldom went from my cell, other than upon my constant em-
ployment, viz., to milk my she-goats, and manage my little flock
in the wººd, which, as it was quite on the other part of the island,
was quite out of danger; for certain it is, that these savage peo-
ple, who sometimes haunted this island, never came with any
thoughts of finding any thing here, and consequently never wan-
dered off from the coast; and I doubt not but they might have
been several times on shore, after my apprehensions of them had
made me cautious, as well as before; and indeed I looked back
with some horror upon the thoughts of what my condition would
have been, if I had chopped upon them, and been discovered be-
fore that, when naked and unarmed, except with one gun, and
that loaded often only with small shot. I walked every where,
peeping and peering about the island, to see what I could get:
what a surprise should I have been in, if, when I discovered the
print of a man’s foot, I had instead of that seen fifteen or twenty
savages, and found them pursuing me, and, by the swiftness of
their running, no possibility of my escaping them.
The thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul within me,
and distressed my mind so much, that I could not soon recover
it; to think what I should have done, and how I not only should
not have been able to resist them, but even should not have had
presence of mind enough to do what I might have done; much less
what now, after so much consideration and preparation, I might
be able to do. Indeed, after serious thinking, of these things, I
would be very melancholy, and sometimes it would last a great
while; but I resolved it at last all into thankfulness to that Provi-
dence, which had delivered me from so many unseen dangers, and
had kept me from those mischiefs, which I could no way have
been the agent in delivering myself from ; because I had not the
least motion of any such thing depending, or the least supposition
of its being possible. -
This renewed a contemplation, which often had come to my
thoughts in former time, when first I began to see the merciful
dispositions of Heaven, in the dangers we run through in this
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE, 131
life; how wonderfully we are delivered when we know nothing of
it; how, when we are in a quandary, (as we call it,) a doubt or
hesitation, whether to go this way, or that way, a secret hint
shall direct us this way, when we intend to go another way; nay,
when sense, our own inclination, and perhaps business, has called
to go the other way, yet a strange impression upon the mind, from
we know not what springs, and by we know not what power,
shall over-rule us to go this way: and it shall afterwards appear,
that had we gone that way which we would have gone, and even
to our imagination ought to have gone, we should have been ruined
and lost. Upon these, and many like reflections, I afterwards
made it a certain rule with me, that whenever I found those secret
hints, or pressings of my mind, to doing or not doing any thing
that presented, or to going this way or that way, I never failed
to obey the secret dictate; though I knew no other reason for it,
than that such a pressure, or such an hint, hung upon my mind:
I could give many examples of the success of this conduct in the
course of my life; but more especially in the latter part of my
inhabiting this unhappy island; besides many occasions which it
is very likely I might have taken notice of, if I had seen with the
same eyes then that I saw with now : But it is never too late to
be wise; and I cannot but advise all considering men, whose lives
are attended with such extraordinary incidents as mine, or even
though not so extraordinary, not to slight such secret intimations
of Providence, let them come from what invisible intelligence
they will; that I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannot account
for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits, and
the Secret communication between those embodied, and those un-
embodied; and such a proof as can never be withstood: of which
I shall have occasion to give some very remarkable instances, in
the remainder of my solitary residence in this dismal place.
I believe the reader of this will not think it strange, if I confess
that these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in, and the
concern that was now upon me, put an end to all invention, and
to all the contrivances that I had laid for my future accommoda-
tions and conveniences. I had the care of my safety more now
upon my hands than that of my food. I cared not to drive a nail,
or chop a stick of wood now, for fear the moise I should make
should be heard; much less would I fire a gun, for the same
reason; and, above all, I was very uneasy at making any fire, lest
the smoke, which is visible at a great distance in the day, should
betray me; and for this reason I removed that part of my busi-
mess which required fire, such as burning of pots and pipes, &c.
into my new apartment in the wood; where, after I had been
some time, I found, to my unspeakable consolation, a mere natural
cave in the earth, which went in a vast way, and where, I dare
say, no savage, had he been at the mouth of it, would be se
132 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
hardy as to venture in, nor indeed would any man else, but one
who, like me, wanted nothing so much as a safe retreat.
The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock,
where, by mere accident, (I would say, if I did not see an abun-
dant reason to ascribe all such things now to Providence,) I was
cutting down some thick branches of trees to make charcoal; and
before I go on, I must observe the reason of my making this char-
coal, which was thus: *
I was afraid of making a smoke about my habitation, as I said
before ; and yet I could not live there without baking my bread,
cooking my meat, &c.; so I contrived to burn some wood here,
as I had seen done in England, under turf, till it became chark,
or dry coal ; and then putting the fire out, I preserved the coal
to carry home, and perform the other services, which fire was
wanting for at home, without danger or smoke.
But this by the bye : while I was cutting down some wood
here, I perceived that behind a very thick branch of low brush-
wood, or underwood, there was a kind of hollow place : I was
curious to look into it, and getting with difficulty into the mouth
of it, I found it was pretty large, that is to say, sufficient for me
to stand upright in it, and perhaps another with me; but I must
confess to you, I made more haste out than I did in; when look-
ing further into the place, which was perfectly dark, I saw two
broad shining eyes of some creature, whether devil or man I knew
not, which twinkled like two stars, the dim light from the cave’s
mouth shining directly in, and making the reflection.
However, after some pause, I recovered myself, and began to
call myself a thousand fools, and tell myself, that he that was .
afraid to see the devil, was not fit to live twenty years in an
island all alone, and that I durst to believe there was nothing in
this cave that was more frightful than myself: upon this, pluck-
ing up my courage, I took up a large fire-brand, and in I rushed
again, with the stick flaming in my hand: I had not gone three
steps in, but I was almost as much frightened as I was before;
for I heard a very loud sigh, like that of a man in some pain;
and it was followed by a broken noise, as if of words half-ex-
pressed, and then a deep sigh again: I stepped back, and was
indeed struck with such a surprise, that it put me into a cold sweat;
and if I had had an hat on my head, I will not answer for it that
my hair might not have lifted it off. But still plucking up my
spirits as well as I could, and encouraging myself a little, with
considering that the power and presence of God was every where,
and was able to protect me: upon this I stepped forward again,
and by the light of the fire-brand, holding it up a little over my
head, I saw lying on the ground a most monstrous frightful old
he-goat, just making his will, as we say, gasping for life, and
dying indeed of mere old age. -

OF ROBIN SON CRUSO Ee 133
I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, and he es-
sayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself; and I thought
with myself, he might even lie there; for if he had frightened
me so, he would certainly fright any of the savages, if any of them
should be so hardy as to come in there, while he had any life in
him. - -
I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look round
me, when I found the cave was but very small; that is to say, it
might be about twelve feet over, but in no manner of shape,
either round or square, no hands having ever been employed in
making it but those of mere nature: I observed also, that there
was a place at the farther side of it that went in farther, but so
low, that it required me to creep upon my hands and knees to
get into it, and whither it went, I knew not : so having no can-
dle, I gave it over for some time, but resolved to come again the
next day, provided with candles and a tinder-box, which I had
made of the lock of one of the muskets, with some wildfire in the
all, $.
P Accordingly, the next day, I came provided with six large can-
dles of my own making, for I made very good candles now of
goats tallow ; and going into this low place, I was obliged to
creep upon all foºrs, as I have said, almost ten yards: which, by
the way, I thought was a venture bold enough, considering that I
knew not how far it might go, or what was beyond it. When I
was got through the streight, I found the roof rose higher up, Ibe-
lieve near twenty feet; but never was such a glorious sight seen
in the island, I dare say, as it was, to look round the sides and
roof of this vault or cave. The walls reflected an hundred thou-
sand lights to me from my two candles; what it was in the
rock, whether diamonds or any other precious stones, or gold,
which I rather supposed it to be, I knew not.
The place I was in was a most delightful cavity, or grotto, of
its kind, as could be expected, though perfectly dark; the floor
was dry and level, and had a sort of small loose gravel upon it;
so that there was no nauseous creature to be seen; neither was
there any damp or wet on the sides of the roof: the only difficul-
ty in it was the entrance, which however, as it was a place of se-
curity, and such a retreat as I wanted, I thought that was a con-
venience; so that I was really rejoiced at the discovery, and re-
solved, without any delay, to bring some of those things which I
was most anxious about to this place; particularly, I resolved to
bring hither my magazine of powder, and all my spare arms, viz.
two fowling-pieces (for I had three in all,) and three muskets (for
of them I had eight in all); so I kept at my castle only five, which
stood ready mounted, like pieces of cannon, on my outmost fence,
and were ready also to take out upon any expedition.
Upon this occasion of removing my ammunition, I was obliged
T34 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
to open the barrel of powder which + took up out of the sea, and
which had been wet, and I found, that the water had penetrated
about three or four inches into the powder on every side, which,”
caking and growing hard, had preserved the inside like a kernel
in a shell; so that I had near sixty pounds of very good powder
in the centre of the cask; and this was an agreeable discovery to
me at that time: so I carried all away thither, never keeping above
two or three pounds of powder with me in my castle, for fear of
a surprise of any kind; I also carried thither all the lead I had
left for bullets.
I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants, which were
said to live in caves and holes in the rocks, where none could
come at them ; for I persuaded myself while I was here, if five
hundred savages were to hunt me, they could never find me out;
or if they did, they would not venture to attack me here.
The old goat, which I found expiring, died in the mouth of the
cave the next day after I made this discovery; and I found it
much easier to dig a great hole there, and throw him in, and cover
him with earth, than to drag him out; so I interred him there,
to prevent offence to my nose.
CHAP. XIII.
Description of my Situation in the Twenty-third Year of my Re-
sidence—Discover Nine naked Savages round a Fire on my side
of the Island—My horror on beholding the dismal Work they
were about—I determine on the Destruction of the neat Party,
at all risks—A Ship iost off the Island–Go on board the Wreck,
which I discern to be Spanish–Procure a great variety of Ar-
ticles from the Vessel.
I was now in my twenty-third year of residence in this island,
and was so maturalized to the place, and to the manner of living,
that could I have but enjoyed the certainty that no savages would
come to the place to disturb me, I could have been content to
have capitulated for spending the rest of my time there, even to
the last moment, till I had laid me down and died, like the old
goat, in the cave: I had also arrived to some little diversions and
amusements, which made the time pass more pleasantly with me
a great deal than it did before; as, first, I had taught Iny Poll, as
I noted before, to speak; and he did it so familiarly, and talked
so articulately and plain, that it was very pleasant to me; and he
lived with-me no less than six-and-twenty years: how long he
might live afterwards I knew not; though I know they have a no-
tion in the Brazils, that they live an hundred years; perhaps some
of my polls may be alive there still, calling after poor Robin Cru-
OF ROBIN SON CRUS OE. 135
soe to this day: I wish no Englishman the ill luck to come there
and hear them; but if he did, he would certainly believe it was
the devil. My dog was a very pleasant and loving companion to
me for no less than sixteen years of my time, and then died of
mere old age; as for my cats, they multiplied, as I have observed,
to that degree, that I was obliged to shoot several of them at first,
to keep them from devouring me, and all I had; but at length,
when the two old ones I brought with me were gone, and after
some time continually driving them from me, and letting them
have no provision with me, they all ran wild into the woods, ex-
cept two or three favourites, which I kept tame, and whose young,
when they had any, I always drowned, and these were part of my
family: besides these, I always kept two or three household kids
about me, which I taught to feed out of my hand; and I had also
more parrots, which talked pretty well, and would all call Robin
Crusoe, but none like my first; nor, indeed, did I take the pains
with any of them that I had done with him: I had also several
tame sea-fowls, whose names I know not, which I caught upon
the shore, and cut their wings; and the little stakes which I had
planted before my castle wall, being now grown up to a good thick
grove, these fowls all lived among these low trees, and bred there,
which was very agreeable to me; so that, as I said above, I began
to be very well contented with the life I led, if it might but have
been secured from the dread of savages.
But it was otherwise directed; and it might not be amiss for all
people, who shall meet with my story, to make this just observa-
tion from it, viz. How frequently, in the course of our lives, the
evil, which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we
are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very
means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be
raised again from the affliction we are fallen into. I could give
many examples of this in the course of my unaccountable life;
but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable, than in the
circumstances of my last years of solitary residence in this island.
It was now the month of December, as I said above, in my
twenty-third year; and this being the southern solstice, for winter
I cannot call it, was the particular time of my harvest, and requi-
red my being pretty much abroad in the fields; when going out
pretty early in the morning, even before it was thorough day-
light, I was surprised with seeing a light of some fire upon the
shore, at a distance from me of about two miles towards the end
of the island, where I had observed some savages had been, as
before; but not on the other side; but, to my great affliction, it
was on my side of the island. r
I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped short
within my grove, not daring to go out, lest I might be surprised;
and yet I had no more peace within, from the apprehensions I

136 LIFE AND A D VENTURE3
had, that if these savages, in rambling over the island, should find
my corn standing, or cut, or any of my works and improvements,
they would immediately conclude that there were people in the
place, and would then never give over till they found me out. In
this extremity I went back directly to my castle, pulled up the
ladder after me, having made all things without look as wild and
natural as I could.
Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of
defence; I loaded all my cannon, as I called them, that is to say,
my muskets, which were mounted upon my new fortification, and
all my pistols, and resolved to defend myself to the last gasp; not
forgetting seriously to recommend myself to the divine protection,
and earnestly to pray to God to deliver me out of the hands of
the barbarians; and in this posture I continued about two hours,
but began to be mighty impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had
no spies to send out.
After sitting a while longer, and musing what I should do in
this case, I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance longer; so
setting up my ladder to the side of the hill, where there was a flat
place, as I observed before, and then pulling the ladder up after
me, I set it up again, and mounted to the top of the hill; and
pulling out my perspective glass, which I had taken on purpose, I
laid me down flat on my belly on the ground, and began to look
for the place. I presently found there were no less than nine
naked savages sitting round a small fire they had made; not to
warm them, for they had no need of that, the weather being ex-
treme hot; but, as I supposed, to dress some of their barbarous
diet of human flesh which they had brought with them, whether
alive or dead I could not know.
They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled up
upon the shore; and as it was then tide of ebb, they seemed to
me to wait the return of the flood to go away again. It is not
easy to imagine what confusion this sight put me into, especially
seeing them come on my side the island, and so near me too; but
when I observed their coming must be always with the current of
the ebb, I began afterwards to be more sedate in my mind, being
satisfied that I might go abroad with safety all the time of tide
of flood, if they were not on shore before ; and having made this
observation, I went abroad about my harvest work with the more
composure.
As I expected, so it proved ; for as soon as the tide made to the
westward, I saw them all take boat, and row (or paddle, as we
call it) all away : I should, have observed, that for an hour and
more before they went off, they went to dancing, and I could
easily discern their postures and gestures by my glasses: I could
only perceive, by my nicest observation, that they were stark na-
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 137
ked, and had not the least covering upon them; but whether they
were men or women, that I could not distinguish.
As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two guns upon
my shoulders, and two pistols at my girdle, and my great sword
by my side, without a scabbard; and with all the speed I was able
to make, I went away to the hill, where I had discovered the first
appearance of all. As soon as I got thither, which was not less
than two hours, (for I could not go apace, being so loaded with
arms as I was.) I perceived there had been three canoes more of
savages on that place; and looking out further, I saw they were
all at sea together, making over for the main.
This was a dreadful sight to me, especially, when going down
to the shore, I could see the marks of horror which the dismal
work they had been about had left behind it, viz. the blood, the
bones, and part of the flesh of human bodies, eaten and devoured
by those wretches with merriment and sport. I was so filled
with indignation at the sight, that I began now to premeditate
the destruction of the next that I saw there, let them be who,
or how many soever. T-
It seemed evident to me, that the visits which they thus made
to this island were not very frequent; for it was above fifteen
months before any more of them came on shore there again; that
is to say, I never saw them, or any footsteps or signals of them,
in all that time; for as to the rainy seasons, then they are sure
not to come abroad, at least not so far: yet all this while I lived
uncomfortably, by reason of constant apprehensions I was in of
their coming upon me by surprise; from whence I observe, that
the expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffering, especial-
ly if there is no room to shake off that expectation, or those ap-
prehensions. -
During all this time, I was in the murdering humour; and
took up most of my hours, which should have been better em-
ployed, in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon them the
very next time I should see them ; especially if they should be
divided, as they were the last time, into two parties; nor did I
consider at all, that if I killed one party, suppose ten or a dozen,
I was still the next day, or week, or month, to kill another, and
so another, even ad infinitum, till I should be at length no less a
murderer than they were in being men-eaters, and perhaps much
II].OTC SO.
I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety of mind,
expecting that I should one day or other fall into the hands of,
those merciless creatures; if I did at any time venture abroad, it
was not without looking round me with the greatest care and
caution imaginable; and now I found, to my great comfort, how
happy it was that I had provided a tame flock or herd of goats;
for I durst not, upon any account, fire my gun, especially near
138 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
that side of the island where they usually came, lest I should
alarm the savages; and if they had fled from me now, I was sure
to have them come back again, with perhaps two or three hun-
dred canoes with them in a few days, and then I knew what to
expect.
However, I wore out a year and three months more before I
ever saw any more of the savages, and then I found them again,
as I shall soon observe. It is true, they might have been there
once or twice, but either they made no stay, or, at least, I did not
hear them; but in the month of May, as near as I could calcu-
late, and in my four-and-twentieth year, I had a very strange en-
counter with them, of which in its place
The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen or sixteen
months interval, was very great; I slept unquiet, dreamed always
frightful dreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night;
in the day great troubles overwhelmed my mind: in the night I
dreamed often of killing the savages, and the reasons why I might
justify the doing of it. But to wave all this for a while, it was in
the middle of May, on the sixteenth day, I think, as well as my
poor wooden calendar would reckon, for I marked all upon the
post still ; I say, it was on the sixteenth of May, that it blew a
great storm of wind all day, with a great deal of lightning and
thunder, and a very foul night was after it: I know not what
was the particular occasion of it; but as I was reading in the
Bible, and taken up with serious thoughts about my present con-
dition, I was surprised with the noise of a gun, as I thought,
fired at sea.
This was, to be sure, a surprise of a quite different nature from
any I had met with before; for the notions this put into mythoughts
were quite of another kind: I started up in the greatest haste ima-
ginable; and in a trice clapped up my ladder to the middle place
of the rock, and pulled it after me, and mounting it the second
time, got to the top of the hill; that very moment a flash of fire
bade me listen for a second gun, which accordingly in about half
a moment I heard, and by the sound knew that it was from that
part of the sea where I was driven out with the current in my
boat.
I immediately considered that this must be some ship in dis-
tress, and that they had some comrade, or some other ship in com-
pany, and fired these guns for signals of distress, and to obtain
help. I had this presence of mind that minute as to think, that
though I could not help them, it may be they might help me; so
I brought together all the dry wood I could get at hand, and ma-
king a good handsome pile, I set it on fire upon the hill; the
wood was dry, and blazed freely, and though the wind blew very
hard, yet it burnt fairly out, so that I was certain, if there was
any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it, and no doubt
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 139
they did; for as soon as ever my fire blazed up, I heard another
gun, and after that several others, all from the same quarter. I
plied my fire all night long, till day broke; and when it was broad
day, and the air cleared up, I saw something at a great distance at
sea, full east of the island, whether a sail, or an hull, I could not
distinguish, no not with my glasses, the distance was so great, and
the weather still something hazy also: at least it was so out at sea.
I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that
it did not move ; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at
anchor; and being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took
my gun in my hand, and ran towards the south-east side of the
island, to the rocks, where I had been formerly carried away with
the current; and getting up there, the weather by this time being
perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to my great sorrow, the wreck
of a ship cast away in the night upon those concealed rocks which
I found when I was out in my boat; and which rocks, as they
checked the violence of the stream, and made a counter-stream,
or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering then from the most
desperate hopeless condition that ever I had been in all my life.
Thus, what is one man’s safety is another man’s destruction;
for it seems these men, whoever they were, being out of their
knowledge, and the rocks being wholly under water, had been
driven upon them in the night, the wind blowing hard at E. and
E. N. E. Had they seen the island, as I must necessarily suppose
they did not, they must, as I thought, have endeavoured to have
saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat; but the firing
of their guns for help, especially when they saw, as I imagined, my
fire, filled me with many thoughts: first, I imagined, that, upon
seeing my light, they might have put themselves into their boat,
and bave endeavoured to make the shore; but that the sea going
very high, they might have been cast away : other times I imagi-
med, that they might have lost their boat before, as might be the
case many ways; as particularly, by the breaking of the sea upon
their ship, which many times obliges men to stave, or take in
pieces their boat; and sometimes to throw it overboard with their
own hands: other times I imagined, they had some other ship or
ships in company, who, upon the signals of distress they had made,
had taken them up, and carried them off; other whiles I fancied
they were all gone off to sea in their boat, and being hurried away
by the current that I had been formerly in, were carried out into
the great ocean, where there was nothing but misery and perish-
ing; and that perhaps they might by this time think of starving,
and of being in a condition to eat one another.
All these were but conjectures at best; so, in the condition I
was in, I could do no more than look upon the misery of the poor
men, and pity them; which had still this good effect on my side,
that it gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God, who

140 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
had so happily and comfortably provided for me in my desolate
condition; and that of two ships companies, who were now cast
away upon this part of the world, not one life should be spared
but mine. I learnt here again to observe, that it is very rare that
the providence of God casts us into any condition of life so low,
or any misery so great, but we may see something or other to be
thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances than our
OW!].
Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not
so much as see room to suppose any of them were saved; nothing
could make it rational, so much as to wish or expect that they
did not all perish there, except the possibility only of their be-
ing taken up by another ship in company: and this was but mere
possibility indeed; for I saw not the least signal or appearance of
any such thing.
I cannot explain, by any possible energy of words, what a
strange longing, or hankering of desire, I felt in my soul upon
this sight; breaking out sometimes thus: O that there had been
but one or two, nay, but one soul saved out of the ship, to have
escaped to me, that I might but have had one companion, one
fellow-creature to have spoken to me, and to have conversed with !
In all the time of my solitary iife, I never felt so earnest, so
strong a desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so
deep a regret at the want of it.
There are some secret moving springs in the affections, which,
when they are set a-going by some object in view, or be it some
object though not in view, yet rendered present to the mind by
the power of imagination, that motion carries out the soul by its
impetuosity to such violent eager embracings of the object, that
the absence of it is insupportable. -
Such were these earnest wishings, That but one man had been
saved O that it had been but one ! I believe I repeated the
words, O that it had been but one a thousand times; and my
desires were so moved by it, that when I spoke the words, my
hands would clench together, and my fingers press the palms of
my hands, that if I had had any soft thing in my hand, it would
have crushed it involuntarily ; and my teeth in my head would
strike together, and set against one another so strong, that for
some time I could not part them again.
Let the naturalists explain these things, and the reason and man-
ner of them ; all I can say of them is, to describe the fact, which
was ever surprising to me when I found it, though I knew not
from what it should proceed; it was doubtless the effect of ardent
wishes, and of strong ideas formed in my mind, realizing the com-
fort which the conversation of one of my fellow-christians would
have been to me. -
But it was not to be ; either their fate, or mine, or both, forbade
C F R O BIN SO N C R U S O E. 141
it; for till the last year of my being on this island, I never knew
whether any were saved out of that ship, or no; and had only
the affliction some days after to see the corpse of a drowned
boy come on shore, at the end of the island which was next the
shipwreck: he had on no clothes but a seaman’s waistcoat, a
pair of open-knee’d linen drawers, and a blue linen shirt; but no-
thing to direct me so much as to guess what nation he was of:
he had nothing in his pocket but two pieces of eight, and a tobac-
co-pipe ; the last was to me of ten times more value than the first.
It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my
boat to this wreck, not doubting but I might find something on
board that might be useful to me; but that did not altogether
press me so much, as the possibility that there might be yet some
living creature on board, whose life I might not only save, but
might, by saving that life, comfort my own to the last degree:
and this thought clung so to my heart, that I could not be quiet
night nor day, but I must venture out in my boat on board this
wreck; and committing the rest to God’s providence, I thought
the impression was so strong upon my mind, that it could not be
resisted, that it must come from some invisible direction, and
that I should be wanting to myself if I did not go.
Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my
castle, prepared every thing for my voyage, took a quantity of
bread, a great pot for fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle
of rum, (for I had still a great deal of that left,) a basket full of
raisins; and thus loading myself with every thing necessary, I
went down to my boat, got the water out of her, and got her
afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and then went home again for
more: my second cargo was a great bag full of rice, the umbrella
to set up over my head for shade, another large pot full of fresh
water, and about two dozen of my small loaves, or barley-cakes,
more than before, with a bottle of goat’s milk, and a cheese; all
which, with great labour and sweat, I brought to my boat; and
praying to God to direct my voyage, I put out, and rowing or
paddling the canoe along the shore, I came at last to the utmost
point of the island, on that side, viz. N. E. And now I was to
launch out into the ocean, and either to venture, or not to ven-
ture; I looked on the rapid currents which ran constantly on
both sides of the island, at a distance, and which were very ter-
rible to me, from the remembrance of the hazard I had been in
before, and my heart began to fail me; for I foresaw, that if I
was driven into either of those currents, I should be carried a vast
way out to sea, and perhaps out of my reach, or sight of the is-
land again ; and that then, as my boat was but small, if any little
gale of wind should rise, I should be inevitably lost.
These thoughts so oppressed my mind, that I began to give
over my enterprize; and having hauled my boat into a little
142 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
creek on the shore, I stepped out, and sat me down upon a little
spot of rising ground, very pensive and anxious, between fear
and desire, about my voyage: when, as I was musing, I could
perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood came on, upon
which my going was for so many hours impracticable; upon this
it presently occurred to me, that I should go up to the highest
piece of ground I could find, and observe, if I could, how the sets
of the tide or currents lay, when the flood came in, that I might
judge whether, if I was driven one way out, I might not expect to
be driven another way home, with the same rapidness of the cur-
rents. This thought was no sooner in my head, but I cast my
eye upon a little hill which sufficiently overlooked the sea both
ways, and from whence I had a clear view of the currents, or
sets of the tide, and which way I was to guide myself in my return:
here I found, that as the current of the ebb set out close by the
south point of the island, so the current of the flood set in close
by the shore of the north side ; and that I had nothing to do
but to keep to the north of the island in my return, and I should
do well enough.
Encouraged with this observation, I resolved the next morning
to set out with the first of the tide; and reposing myself for that
might in the canoe, under the great watch-coat I mentioned, I
launched out. I made first a little out to sea full north, till I
began to feel the benefit of the current, which set eastward, and
which carried me at a great rate, and yet did not so hurry me
as the southern side current had done before, and so as to take
from me all government of the boat; but having a strong steerage
with my paddle, I went, I say, at a great rate, directly for the
wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to it.
It was a dismal sight to look at: the ship, which by its building
was Spanish, stuck fast, jambed in between two rocks; all the
stern and quarter of her was beaten to pieces with the sea; and
as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with
great violence, her main-mast and fore-mast were brought by the
board, that is to say, broken short off; but her boltsprit was sound,
and the head and bow appeared firm. When I came close to
her, a dog appeared upon her, which, seeing me coming, yelped
and cried, and as soon as I called him jumped into the sea to
come to me; and I took him into the boat, but found him
almost dead for hunger and thirst: "I gave him a cake of my
bread, and he ate like a ravenous wolf that had been starving a
fortnight in the snow : I then gave the poor creature some fresh
water, with which, if I would have let him, he would have burst'
himself.
After this I went on board. The first sight I met with was two
men drowned in the cook-room, or forecastle of the ship, with
their arms fast about one another. I concluded, as is indeed pro-
OF ROBINSON CR USO E. 143
bable, that when the ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke
so high, and so continually over her, that the men were not able
to bear it, and were strangled with the constant rushing in of the
water, as much as if they had been under water. Besides the dog,
there was nothing left in the ship that had life, nor any goods
that I could see, but what were spoiled by the water: there were
some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew not, which
lay lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I
could see; but they were too big to meddle with : I saw several
chests, which I believed belonged to some of the seamen, and I
got two of them into the boat without examining what was in
them.
Had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the fore part broken
off, I am persuaded I might have made a good voyage; for by
what I found in these two chests, I had room to suppose the ship
had a great deal of wealth on board; and if I may guess by the
course she steered, she must have been bound from Buenos
Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America,
beyond the Brazils, to the Havanna, in the Gulf of Mexico, and
so perhaps to Spain: she had, no doubt, a great treasure in her,
but of no use at that time to any body; and what became of the
rest of her people I then knew not.
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of
about twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficul-
ty. There were several muskets in the cabin, and a great pow-
der-horn, with about four pounds of powder in it: as for the
muskets, I had no occasion for them, so I left them but took
the powder-horn. I took a fire-shovel and tongs, which I wanted
extremely, as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot to make
chocolate, and a gridiron; and with this cargo, and the dog,
I came away, the tide beginning to make home again; and the
same evening, about an hour within night, I reached the island
again, weary and fatigued to the last degree.
I reposed that night in the boat, and in the morning I resolved
to harbour what I had gotten in my new cave, not to carry it
home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got all my cargo
on shore, and began to examine the particulars: the cask of
liquor I found to be a kind of rup, but not such as we had at
the Brazils; and, in a word, not at all good; but when I came
to open the chests, I found several things which I wanted: for
example, I found in one a fine case of bottles, of an extraordi-
mary kind, and filled with cordial waters, fine, and very good;
the bottles held about three pints each, and were tipped with
silver: I found two pots of very good succades, or sweetmeats,
so fastened also on the top, that the salt water had not hurt them;
and two more of the same, which the water had spoiled: I found
Some very good shirts, which were very welcome to me, and
144 1, IFE AND ADVENTURES
about a dozen and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and co-
loured neckcloths; the former were also very welcome, being
exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this,
when I came to the till in the chests, I found there three great
bags of pieces of eight, which held about eleven hundred pieces
in all; and in one of them, wrapt up in a paper, six doubloons
of gold, and some small bars or wedges of gold; I suppose they
might all weigh near a pound.
The other chest I found had some clothes in it, but of little
value; but by the circumstances, it must have belonged to the
gunner’s mate, as there was no powder in it, but about two
pounds of glazed powder in the three flasks, kept, I suppose,
for charging their fowling-pieces on occasion. Upon the whole,
I got very little by this voyage that was of much use to me:
for, as to the money, I had no manner of occasion for it; it was
to me as the dirt under my feet; and I would have given it all
for three or four pair of English shoes and stockings, which
were things I greatly wanted, but had not had on my feet now
for many years; I had, indeed got two pair of shoes now, which
I took off the feet of the two drowned men whom I saw in the
wreck; and I found two pair more in one of the chests, which
were very welcome to me; but they were not like our English
shoes, either for ease or service, being rather what we call pumps
than shoes. I found in the seamen’s chest about fifty pieces
of eight in royals, but no gold; I suppose this belonged to a
poorer man than the other, which seemed to belong to some
officer.
Well, however, I lugged the money, home to my cave, and laid
it up, as I had done that before, which I brought from our own
ship; but it was great pity, as I said, that the other part of the
ship had not come to my share, for I am satisfied I might have
loaded my canoe several times over with money, which, if I had
ever escaped to England, would have lain here safe enough till
I might have come again and fetched it.
Having now brought all my things on shore, and secured them,
I went back to my boat, and rowed or paddled her along the
shore to her old harbour, where I laid her up, and made the best
of my way to my old habitation, where I found every thing, safe
and quiet; so I began to repose myself, live after my old fashion,
and take care of my family affairs; and for a while I lived easy
enough, only that I was more vigilant than I used to be, looked
out oftener, and did not go abroad so much; and if at any time
I did stir with any freedom, it was always to the east part of the
island, where I was pretty well satisfied the savages never came,
and where I could go without so many precautions, and such a
load of arms and ammunition as I always carried with me, if I
went the other way. } -
10
OF ROBINSON CRUS OE, 145
CHAP. XIV.
Reflections—An extraordinary Dream—Discover five Canoes of
Savages on Shore—Observe from my Station two miserable
Wretches dragged out of their Boats to be devoured—One of
them makes his escape, and runs directly towards me, pur-
sued by two others—I take Measures so as to destroy his
Pursuers and save his Life—Christen him by the name of Fri-
day, and he becomes a faithful and ercellent Servant. ~
I Lived in this condition near two years more; but my un-
lucky head, that was always to let me know it was born to make
my body miserable, was all these two years filled with projects
and designs how, if it were possible, I might get away from this
island; for sometimes I was for making another voyage to the
wreck, though my reason told me, that there was nothing left
there worth the hazard of my voyage; sometimes for a ramble
one way, sometimes another; and I believe verily, if I had had
the boat that I went from Sallee in, I should have ventured to
sea, bound any where, I knew not whither.
I have been, in all my circumstances, a memento to those who
are touched with that general plague of mankind, whence, for
aught I know, one half of their miseries flow: I mean, that of
not being satisfied with the station wherein God and nature hath
placed them in ; for, not to look back upon my primitive condi-
tion, and the excellent advice of my father, the opposition to
which was, as I may call it, my original sin, my subsequent mis-
takes of the same kind have been the means of my coming into
this miserable condition; for had that Providence, which so hap-
pily had seated me at the Brazils as a planter, blessed me with
confined desires, and could I have been contented to have gone
on gradually, I might have been by this time, I mean in the time
of my being on this island, one of the most considerable plant-
ers in the Brazils; nay, I am persuaded, that by the improve-
ments I had made in that little time I lived there, and the in-
crease I should probably have made if I had stayed, I might have
been worth a hundred thousand moidores; and what business
had I to leave a settled fortune, well-stocked plantation, impro-
ving and increasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea, to fetch Ne-
groes, when patience and time would have so increased our stock
at home, that we could have bought them at our own doors
from those whose business it was to fetch them And though it
had cost us something more, yet the difference of that price was
by no means worth saving at so great a -
But as this is ordinarily the fate of young heads, so reflection
upon the folly of it is as ordinarily the exercise of more years,
- G
146. LIFE AND ADVENTUREs
or of the dear-bought experience of time; and so it was with me
now ; and yet, so deep had the mistake taken root in my temper,
that I could not satisfy myself in my station, but was continual-
ly poring upon the means and possibility of my escape from this
j}lace; and that I may, with the greater pleasure to the reader,
bring on the remaining part of pny story, it may not be im-
proper to give some account of my first conceptions on the sub-
ject of this foolish scheme for my escape; and how, and upon
what foundation, I acted.
I am now to be supposed to be retired into my castle, after my
late voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid up, and secured under
water as usual, and my condition restored to what it was before :
I had more wealth, indeed, than I had before, but was not at
all the richer; for I had no more use for it than the Indians of
Peru had before the Spaniards came thither.
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 solita-
riness, I was lying in my bed, or hammock, awake, and very well
in health, had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body, mo,
nor any uneasiness of mind more than ordinary, but could by no
means close my eyes, that is, so as to sleep; no, not a wink all
night long, otherwise than as follows:
It is as impossible as needless to set down the innumerable
crowd of thoughts that whirled through that great thoroughfare
of the brain, the memory, in this night’s time: I ran over the
whole history of my life in miniature, or by abridgment, as I
may call it, to my coming to this island; and also of that part of
my life since I came to this island. In my reflections upon the
state of my case, since I came on shore on this island, I was
comparing the happy posture of my affairs, in the first years of
my habitation here, to that course of anxiety, fear, and care,
which I had lived in ever since I had seen the print of a foot in
the sand; not that I did not believe the Savages had frequented
the island even all the while, and might have been several hun-
dreds of them at times on the shore there, but as I had never
known it, and was incapable of any º about it, my
satisfaction was perfect, though my danger was the same; and
I was as happy in not knowing my danger, as if I had never really
been exposed to it: this furnished my thoughts with many very
profitable reflections, and particularly this one: How infinitely
good that Providence is, which has settled in its government of
mankind such narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of
things; and though he walks in the midst of so many thousand
dangers, the sight of which, if discovered to him, would distract
his mind and sink his spirits, he is kept serene and calm, by
having the events of things hid from his eyes, and knowing no-
thing of the dangers which surround him,
OF ROBIN SON C R USO E. 147
After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, I
came to reflect seriously upon the real danger I had been in for
so many years in this very island; and how I had walked about
in the greatest security, and with all possible tranquillity, even
perhaps when nothing but a brow of a hill, a great tree, or the
casual approach of might, had been between me and the worst
kind of destruction, viz. that of falling into the hands of cannibals
and savages, who would have seized on me with the same view
as I did on a goat or a turtle, and have thought it no more a
crime to kill and devour me, than I did of a pigeon or a curlew.
I should unjustly slander myself, if I should say I was not sin-
cerely thankful to my great Preserver, to whose singular protec-
tion I acknowledged, with great humility, that all these unknown
deliverances were due, and without which I should inevitably
have fallen into their merciless hands.
When these thoughts were over, my head was for some time
taken up in considering the nature of these wretched creatures,
I mean the savages; and how it came to pass in the world, that
the wise Governor of all things should give up any of his crea-
tures to such inhumanity, nay, to something so much below even
brutality itself, as to devour its own kind : but as this ended in
some (at that time fruitless) speculations, it occurred to me to in-
quire what part of the world these wretches lived in; how far off
the coast was from whence they came; what they ventured so far
from home for; what kind of boats they had ; and why I might
not order myself, and my business so, that I might be as able
to go over thither, as they were to come to me.
I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I should
do with myself when I came thither; what should become of
me if I fell into the hands of the savages; or how I should escape
from them if they attempted me; no, nor so much as how it
was possible for me to reach the coast, and not be attacked by
Some or other of them, without any possibility of delivering my-
self; and if I should not fall into their hands, what I should do
for provision, or whither I should bend my course: none of these
thoughts, I say, so much as came in my way; but my mind
was wholly bent upon the motion of my passing over in my boat
to the main land. I looked back upon my present condition as
the most miserable that could possibly be; that I was not able to
throw myself into any thing but death that could be called worse;
that if I reached the shore of the main, I might, perhaps, meet
with relief; or I might coast along, as I did on the shore of
Africa, till I came to some inhabited country, and where I
might find some relief; and after all, perhaps, I might fall in
with some Christian ship that might take me in; and if the
worst came to the worst, I could but die, which would put an
end to all these miseries at once, Pray, note, all this was the
148 LIFE AND A D VENTURES
fruit of a disturbed mind, an impatient temper, made, as it were,
desperate by the long continuance of my troubles, and the disap-
pointments I had met in the wreck I had been on board of, and
where I had been so near the obtaining of what I so earnestly
longed for, viz. Somebody to speak to, and to learn some know-
ledge from, of the place where I was, and of the probable means
of my deliverance; I say, I was agitated wholly by these thoughts.
All my calm of mind in my resignation to Providence, and wait-
ing the issue of the dispositions of Heaven, seemed to be sus-
pended; and I had, as it were, no power to turn my thoughts
to any thing but the project of a voyage to the main; which
came upon me with such force, and such an impetuosity of de-
sire, that it was not to be resisted.
When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more,
with such violence, that it set my very blood into a ferment, and
my pulse beat as high as if I had been in a fever, merely with the
extraordinary fervour of my mind about it; nature, as if I had
been fatigued and exhausted with the very thought of it, threw
me into a sound sleep: one would have thought I should have
dreamed of it; but I did not, nor of any thing relating to it; but
I dreamed, that as I was going out in the morning, as usual,
from my castle, I saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven
savages coming to land, and that they brought with them, an-
other savage, whom they were going to kill, in order to eat him,
when on a sudden this savage that they were going to kill jump-
ed away, and ran for his life: then I thought in my sleep, that
he came running into my little thick grove, before my fortifi-
cation, to hide himself; and that I seeing him alone, and not
perceiving that the others sought him that way, showed myself
to him, and, smiling upon him, encouraged him ; that he kneeled
down to me, seeming to pray me to assist him; upon which I
showed my ladder, made him go up it, and carried him into my
cave, and he became my servant; and that as soon as I had got
this man, I said to myself, Now I may certainly venture to
the main land; for this fellow will serve me as a pilot, and will
tell me what to do, and whither to go for provisions, and whither
not to go for fear of being devoured; what places to venture
into, and what to 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 which I felt
upon coming to myself, and finding it was no more than a dream,
were equally extravagant the other way, and threw me into a
very great dejection of spirit. -
Upon this, however, I made this conclusion, that the only way
to go about an attempt for an escape, was, if possible, to get a Sa-
vage in my possession; and, if possible, it should be one of their
prisoners whom they had condemned to be eaten, and should
OF ROBIN SON C R USO Ee 149:
bring hither to kill: but these thoughts still were attended with
this difficulty, that it was impossible to effect this, without attack-
ing a whole caravan of them, and killing them all; and this was
not only a very desperate attempt, and might miscarry; but, on
the other hand, I had greatly scrupled the lawfulness of it to me,
and my heart trembled at the thought of shedding so much
blood, though it was for my deliverance. I need not repeat the
arguments which occurred to me against this, they being the same
mentioned before: but though I had other reasons to offer now,
viz. that those men were enemies to my life, and would devour me,
if they could; that it was self-preservation, in the highest de-
gree, to deliver myself from this death of a life, and was acting
in my own defence, as much as if they were actually assaulting
me, and the like; I say, though these things argued for it, yet the
thoughts of shedding human blood for my deliverance were very
terrible to me, and such as I could by no means reconcile myself
to a great while.
However, at last, after many secret disputes with myself, and
after great perplexities about it (for all these arguments, one
way and another, struggled in my head a long time,) the eager
prevailing desire of deliverance at length mastered all the rest,
and I resolved, if possible, to get one of these savages into my
hands, cost what it would : the next thing then was to contrive
how to do it; and this indeed was very difficult to resolve on :
but as I could pitch upon no probable means for it, so I resolved
to put myself upon the watch to see them when they came on
shore, and leave the rest to the event, taking such measures as
the opportunity should present, let it be what it would.
With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the
scout as often as possible, and indeed so often, till I was heartily
tired of it; for it was above a year and a half that I waited, and
for a great part of that time went out to the west end and to
the south-west corner of the island, almost every day, to see the
canoes, but mone appeared. This was very discouraging, and be-
gan to trouble me much ; though I can’t say that it did in this
case, as it had done some time before that, viz. wear off the edge
of my desire to the thing; but the longer it seemed to be delayed,
the more eager I was for it: in a word, I was not at first more
careful to shun the sight of these savages, and avoid being seen
by them, than I was now eager to be upon them.
Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay, two or three
Savages, if I had them, so as to make them entirely slaves to me,
to do whatever I should direct them, and to prevent their being
able, at any time, to do me any hurt. It was a great while that I
pleased myself with this affair, but nothing still presented ; all my
fancies and schemes came to nothing, for no savages came near
me for a great while.
150 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
About a year and a half after I had entertained these notions,
and, by long musing, had, as it were,"resolved them all into no-
thing, for want of an occasion to put them in execution, I was sur-
prised one morning early, with seeing no less than five canoes
all on shore together, on my side the island, and the people who
belonged to them all landed, and out of my sight: the number
of them broke all my measures; for seeing so many, and know-
ing that they always came four, or six, or sometimes more, in a
boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to take any
measures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so I lay
still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted; however, I put
myself into all the same postures for an attack that I had for-
merly provided, and was just ready for action, if any thing had
presented. Having waited a good while, listening to hear if they
made any moise; at length being very impatient, I set my guns at
the foot of my ladder, and clambered up to the top of the hill by
my two stages, as usual, standing so, however, that my head did
not appear above the hill, so that they could not perceive me by
any means. Here I observed, by the held of my perspective glass,
that they were no less than thirty in number; that they had a
fire kindled, and that they had had meat dressed; how they
cooked it, that I knew not, or what it was ; but they were all
dancing in I know not how many barbarous gestures and figures,
their own way, round the fire.
When I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my per-
spective, two miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where,
it seems, they were laid by, and were now brought out for the
slaughter: I perceived one of them immediately fall, being knock-
ed down, I suppose, with a club or wooden sword, for that was
their way ; and two or three others were at work immediately,
cutting him open for their cookery, while the other victim was
left standing by himself, till they should be ready for him. At
that very moment, this poor wretch seeing himself a little at li-
berty, nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he started away
from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the sands, di-
rectly towards me; I mean towards that part of the coast where
my habitation was.
I was dreadfully frighted (that I must acknowledge) when I
perceived him to run my way: and especially when, as I thought,
I saw him pursued by the whole body; and now I expected that
part of my dream was coming to pass, and that he would cer-
tainly take shelter in my grove ; but I could not depend, by any
means, upon my dream for the rest of it, viz. that the other savage
would not pursue him thither, and find him there. However, I
kept my station, and my spirits began to recover, when I found
that there were not above three men that followed him; and still
more was I encouraged when I found that he outstript them ex-
OF ROBIN SON CRU SO E. 15 I
ceedingly in running, and gained ground of them ; so that if he
could but hold it for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly
get away from them all. -
There was between them and my castle the creek, which I
mentioned often at the first part of my story, when I landed my
cargoes out of the ship ; and this I knew he must necessarily
swim over, or the poor wretch would be taken there : but when
the savage escaping came thither, he made nothing of it, though
the tide was then up; but plunging in, swam through in about
thirty strokes, or thereabouts, landed, and ran on with exceed-
ing strength and swiftness. When the three pursuers came to the
creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third could
not, and that he, standing on the other side, looked at the other,
but went no farther; and soon after went softly back again, which,
as it happened, was very well for him in the main,
I observed, that the two who swam were yet more than twice
as long swimming over the creek than the fellow was that fled

152 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
from them. It came now very warmly upon my thoughts, and
indeed irresistibly, that now was my time to get a servant, and
perhaps a companion, or assistant, and that I was called plainly
by Providence to save this poor creature’s life. I immediately
got down the ladders with all possible expedition, fetched my
two guns, for they were both at the foot of the ladder, as I ob-
served above; and getting up again with the same haste to the
top of the hill, I crossed towards the sea; and having a very
short cut, and all down-hill, clapped myself in the way between
the pursuers and the pursued, hallooing aloud to him that fled,
who, looking back, was at first perhaps as much 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 loath to fire, because
I would not have the rest hear, though at that distance it would
not have been easily heard; and being out of sight of the smoke
too, they would not have easily known what to make of it. Ha-
ving knocked this fellow down, the other who pursued him stop-
ped, as if he had been frightened, and I advanced apace to-
wards him : but as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had
a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me; so I was then
alecessitated to shoot at him first; which I did, and killed him
at the first shot. The poor savage who fled, but had stopped,
though he saw both his enemies fallen, and killed (as he thought,)
yet was so frighted with the fire and noise of my piece, that he
stood stock still, and neither came forward, nor went backward,
though he seemed rather inclined to fly still, than to come on.
I hallooed again to him, and made signs to come forward, which
he easily understood, and came a little way, then stopped again,
and then a little farther, and stopped again ; and I could then
perceive, that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken pri-
soner, and had just been to be killed, as his two enemies were. I
beckoned him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs
of encouragement that I could think of; and he came nearer and
measer, kneeling down every ten or twelve steps, in token of ac-
knowledgment for saving his life. I smiled at him, and looked
pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come still nearer. At length
he came close to me, and then he kneeled down again, kissed the
ground, and laid his head upon the ground, and taking me by
the foot, set my foot upon his head. This, it seems, was in to-
ken of swearing to be my slave for ever... I took him up, and
made much of him, and encouraged him all I could... But there
was more work to do yet; for I perceived the savage, whom I
knocked down, was not killed, but stunned with the blow, and
began to come to himself: so I pointed to him, and showed him
the savage, that he was not dead; upon this he spoke some words
OF ROBIN SON CRU SO E, 153
to me; and though I could not understand them, yet I thought
they were pleasant to hear, for they were the first sound of a
man’s voice that I had heard, my own excepted, for above five-
and-twenty years. But there was no time for such reflections
now : the savage, who was knocked down, recovered himself so
far as to sit up upon the ground; and I perceived that my Savage
began to be afraid; but when I saw that, I presented my other
piece at the man, as if I would shoot him : upon this my Savage,
for so I called him now, made a motion to me to lend him my
sword, which hung naked in a belt by my side; so I did : he no
sooner had it, but he runs to his enemy, and at one blow cuts off
his head so cleverly, no executioner in Germany could have
done it sooner or better, which I thought very strange for one,
who, I had reason to believe, never saw a sword in his life be-
fore, except their own wooden swords: however, it seems, as I
learnt afterwards, they make their wooden swords so sharp, so
heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will cut off heads
even with them, nay, and arms, and that at one blow too. When
he had done this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph, and
brought me the sword again, and, with abundance of gestures,
which I did not understand, laid it down, with the head of the
savage that he had killed, just before me.
But that which astonished him most was, to know how I had
killed the other Indian so far off; so pointing to him, he made
signs to me to let him go to him ; so I bade him go, as well as I
could. When he came to him, he stood like one amazed, look-
ing at him; turned him first on one side, then on tº other; looked
at the wound the bullet had made, which it seems was justin his
breast, where it had made a hole, and no great quantity of blood
had followed; but he had bled inwardly, for he was quite dead.
Then he took up his bow and arrows, and came back: so I turned
to go away, and beckoned him to follow me, making signs to him.
that more might come after them.
Upon this he signed to me, that he should bury them with sand,
that they might not be seen by the rest, if they followed; and
so I made signs again to him to do so. He fell to work, and in
an instant he had scraped a hole in the sand with his hands, big
enough to bury the first in, and then dragged him into it, and co-
vered him, and did so also by the other; F believe he had bu-
ried them both in a quarter of an hour : then calling him away,
I carried him not to my castle, but quite away to my cave, on
the farther part of the island; so I did not let my dream come to
pass in that part; viz. that he came into my grove for shelter.
Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat, and a
draught of water, which I found he was indeed in great distress
for, by his running; and having refreshed him, I made signs for
him to go lie down and sleep, pointing to a place where I had
G 2.
154 LIFE AND A DW ENTURES;
laid a great parcel of rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which I
used to sleep upon myself sometimes; so the poor creature lay
down, and went to sleep. -
He was a comely handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with
straight long limbs, not too large, tall, and well-shaped, and, as I
reckon, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good coun-
tenance, not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have some-
thing very manly in his face, and yet he had all the sweetness and
softness of an European in his countenance too, especially when
he smiled: his hair was long and black, not curled like wool;
his forehead very high and large, and a great vivacity and spark-
ling sharpness in his eyes. The colour of his skin was not quite
black, but very tawny, and yet not of an ugly yellow nauseous
tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other matives of
America, are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive colour, that had
in it something very agreeable, though not very easy to describe.
His face was round and plump, his nose small, not flat like the
Negroe's, a very good mouth, thin lips, and his teeth fine, well set,
and white as ivory. After he had slumbered, rather than slept,
above half an hour, he waked again, and comes out of the cave
to me, for I had been milking my goats, which I had in the en-
closure just by : when he espied me, he came running to me,
laying himself down again upon the ground, with all the possible
signs of an humble thankful disposition, making many antic ges-
tures to show it. At last he lays his head flat upon the ground,
close to my foot, and sets my other foot upon his head, as he had
done before; and after this, made all the signs to me of subjec-
tion, servitude, and submission imaginable, to let me know how
much he would serve me as long as he lived. I understood him
in many things, and let him know I was very well pleased with
him. In a little time I began to speak to him, and teach him to
speak to me; and first, I made him know his name should be
Friday, which was the day I saved his life ; and I called him
so for the memory of the time: I likewise taught him to say
Master, and then let him know that was to be my name: I like-
wise 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 brèad to do the like, which he quickly complied
with, and made signs that it was very good for him.
I kept there with him all that night; but as soon as it was
day, I beckoned him to come with me, and let him know I would
give him some clothes; at which he seemed very glad, for he
was stark-naked. As we went by the place where he had buried
the two men, he pointed exactly to the spot, and showed me the
marks that he had made to find them again, making signs to me
that we should dig them up again, and eat them; at this I appear-
OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE 15.5
ed very angry, expressed my abhorrence of it, made as if I would
vomit at the thoughts of it, and beckoned with my hand to him
to come away, which he did immediately, with great submission.
I then led him up to the top of the hill, to see if his enemies
were gone, and pulling out my glass, I looked, and saw plainly
the place where they had been, but no appearance of them, or of
their canoes; so that it was plain that they were gone, and had
left their two comrades behind them, without any search after
them.
But I was not content with this discovery: but having now
more courage, and consequently more curiosity, I took my man
Friday with me, giving him the sword in his hand, with the bow
and arrows at his back, which I found he could use very dex-
terously, making him carry one gun for me, and I two for myself,
and away we marched to the place where these creatures had
been ; for I had a mind now to get some fuller intelligence of
them. When I came to the place, my very blood ran chill in my
veins, and my heart sunk within me at the horror of the specta-
cle: indeed it was a dreadful sight, at least it was so to me, though
Friday made nothing of it : the place was covered with human
bones, the ground dyed with the blood, great pieces of flesh left
here and there, half-eaten, mangled, and scorched; and, in short,
all the tokens of the triumphant feast they had been making
there, after a victory over their enemies. I saw three skulls, five
hands, and the bones of three or four legs and feet, and abundance
of other parts of the bodies; and Friday, by his signs, made me
understand, that they brought over four prisoners to feast upon;
that three of them were eaten up, and that he, pointing to him-
self, was the fourth; that there had been a great battle between
them and their next king, whose subjects, it seems, he had been
one of; and that they had taken a great number of prisoners, all
which were carried to several places by those that had taken them
in the flight, in order to feast upon them, as was done here by
these wretches upon those they brought hither.
I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and
whatever remained, and lay them together on an heap, and make
a great fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes. I found Friday
had still a hankering stomach after some of the flesh, and was
still a cannibal in his nature; but I discovered so much abhor-
rence at the very thoughts of it, and at the least appearance of
it, that he durst not discover it; for I had, by some means, let
him know that I would kill him if he offered 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 I had out of the poor gunner's chest
I mentioned, and which I found in the wreck; and which, with a
little alteration, fitted him very well; then I made him a jerkin.
156 H.IF E AN ID A DW ENTURES
of goat's-skin, as well as my skill would allow, and I was now
grown a tolerable good tailor; and I gave him a cap, which I had
made of a hare-skin, very convenient, and fashionable enough :
and thus he was dressed, for the present, tolerable well, and mighty
well was he pleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his
master. It is true, he went awkwardly in these things at first;
wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves
of the waistcoat galled his shoulders and the inside of his arms;
but a little easing them, where he complained they hurt him, and
using himself to them, at length he took to them very well.
The next day after I came home to my hutch with him, I be-
gan to consider where I should lodge-him; and that I might do
well for him, and yet be perfectly easy myself, I made a little
tent for him in the vacant place between my two fortifications,
in the inside of the last, and in the outside of the first: and as
there was a door or entrance there into my cave, I made a formal
framed door-case, and a door to it of boards, and set it up in the
passage, a little within the entrance; and causing the door to open
on the inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in my ladders
too; so that Friday could no way come at me in the inside of
my innermost wall, without making so much noise in getting
over, that it must needs awaken me; for my first wall had now
a complete roof over it of long poles, covering all my tent, and
leaning up to the side of the hill, which was again laid cross with
small sticks instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thick-
mess with the rice straw, which was strong like reeds; and at the
hole or place which was left to go in or out by the ladder, I had
placed a kind of trap-door, which if it had been attempted on the
outside, would not have opened at all, but would have fallen
down, and made a great moise ; and as to weapons, I took them
all into my side every night.
But I needed mone of all this precaution; for never man had
a more faithful, loving, sincere servant, than Friday was to me;
without passions, sullenness, or designs; perfectly obliging and
engaging; his very affections were tied to me, like those of a
child to a father; and I dare say, he would have sacrificed his
life for the saving mine, upon any occasion whatsoever: the many
testimonies he gave me of this put it out of doubt, and soon con-
vinced me, that I needed to use no precautions as to my safety
on his account.
This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with
wonder, that, however it had pleased God in his providence, and
in the government of the works of his hands, to take from so
great a part of the world of his creatures the best uses to which
their faculties, and the powers of their souls, are adapted; yet
that he has bestowed upon them the same powers, the same rea-
son, the same affections, the same sentiments of kindness and
OF ROBINSON CRUSO E. 157
obligation, the same passions and resentments of wrongs, the same
sense of gratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities of do-
ing good, and receiving good, that he has given to us ; and that,
when he pleases to offer them occasions of exerting these, they
are as ready, may more ready, to apply them to the right uses for
which they were bestowed, than we are. And this made me very
melancholy sometimes, in reflecting, as the several occasions
presented, how mean an use we make of all these, even though
we have these powers enlightened by the great lamp of instruc-
tion, the Spirit of God, and by the knowledge of his word, add-
ed to our understanding; and why it has pleased God to hide
the like saving knowledge from so many millions of souls, who,
if I might judge by this poor savage, would make a much better
use of it than we did.
From hence I sometimes was led too far to invade the sove-
reignty of Providence; and, as it were, arraign the justice of so
arbitrary a disposition of things, that should hide that light from
Some, and reveal it to others, and yet expect a like duty from
both : but I shut it up, and checked my thoughts with this conclu-
sion: first, that we do not know by what light and law these
should be condemned; but that as God was necessarily, and by
the nature of his being, infinitely holy and just, so it could not
be, but that if these creatures were all sentenced to absence from
himself, it was on account of sinning against that light, which, as
the scripture says, was a law to themselves, and by such rules as
their consciences would acknowledge to be just, though the founda-
tion was not discovered to us: and, secondly, that still, as we are
all clay in the hand of the potter, no vessel could say to him, Why
hast thou formed me thus: . .
But to return to my new companion: I was greatly delighted
with him, and made it my business to teach him every thing
that was proper to make him useful, handy, and helpful; but -
especially to make him speak, and understand me when I spake:
and he was the aptest scholar that ever was ; and particularly
was so merry, so constantly diligent, and so pleased when he
could but understand me, or make me understand him, that it
was very pleasant to me to talk to him. And now my life began
to be so easy, that I began to say to myself, that could I but have
been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to remove
from the place where I lived.
158 LIPE AND Adventur Eş
CHAP. XV.
I am at great pains to instruct Friday respecting my abhorrence
of the Cannibal practices of the Savages—He is amazed at the
effects of the Gun, and considers it an intelligent Being—Be-
gins to talk English tolerably—A Dialogue—I instruct him in
the knowledge of Religion, and find him very apt—He describes
to me some white Men who had come to his Country, and still
lived there.
AFTER I had been two or three days returned to my castle,
I thought, that in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way
of feeding, and from the relish of a cannibal’s stomach, I ought
to let him taste other flesh; so I took him out with me one morn-
ing to the woods: I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of
my own flock, and bring it home and dress it : but as I was going,
I saw a she goat lying down in the shade, and two yeung kids sit-
ting by her. I catched hold of Friday : Hold, said I, stand still;
and made signs to him not to stir. Immediately I presented my
piece, shot, and killed one of the kids. The poor creature, who
had at a distance indeed seen me kill the savage his enemy, but
did not know, or could imagine how it was done, was sensibly
surprised, trembled, and shook, and looked so amazed, that I
thought he would have sunk down : he did not see the kid I
had shot at, or perceive I had killed it, but ripped up his waist-
coat to feel if he was not wounded; and, as I found, presently
thought I was resolved to kill him : for he came and kneeled
down to me, and embracing my knees, said a great many things
I did not understand; but I could easily see that his meaning was
to pray me not to kill him.
I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no
harm; and taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and point-
ing to the kid which I had killed, beckoned to him to run and
fetch it, which he did; and while he was wondering and looking
to see how the creature was killed, I loaded my gun again, and
by and by I saw a great fowl, like a hawk, sit upon a tree within
shot ; so to let Friday understand a little what I would do, I call-
ed him to me again, pointing at the fowl, which was indeed a par-
rot, though I thought it had been a hawk; I say, pointing to the
É. and to my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to let
im See I would make him fall, I made him understand that I
would shoot and kill that bird; accordingly I fired, and bid him
look, and immediately he saw the parrot fall: He stood like one
frighted again, notwithstanding all that I had said to him ; and
I found he was the more amazed, because he did not see me put
anything into the gun; but thought there must be some wonder-
of Rob IN so N CRUSOE, 159
ful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill man,
beast, bird, or any thing near or far off; for the astonishment this
created in him was such, as could not wear off for a long time;
and I believe, if I would have let him, he would have worshipped
me and my gun. As for the gun itself, he would not so much as
touch it for several days after; but would speak to it, and talk
to it, as if it had answered him, when he was by himself; which,
as I afterwards learnt of him, was to desire it not to kill him.
Well ; after his astonishment was a little over at this, I point-
ed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot, which he did,
but stayed some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead, had
fluttered a good way off from the place where she fell ; however,
he found her, took her up, and brought her to me; and, as I
had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I took this
advantage to charge the gun again, and not let him see me do it,
that I might be ready for any other mark that might present; but
nothing more offered at that time; so I brought home the kid ;
and the same evening I took the skin off, and cut it out as well
as I could, and having a pot for that purpose, I boiled or stewed
some of the flesh, and made some very good broth : after I had
begun to eat some, I gave some to my man, who seemed very
glad of it, and liked it very well ; but that which was strangest
to him, was, to see me eat salt with it. He made a sign to me
that the salt was not good to eat; and putting a little into his
own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and sput-
ter at it, washing his mouth with fresh water after it. On the
other hand, I took some meat in my mouth without salt, and I
pretended to spit and sputter for want of salt, as fast as he had
done at the salt; but it would not do, he would never care for
salt with meat, or in his broth; at least, not a great while, and
then but a very little.
Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, H was resol-
ved to feast him the next day with roasting a piece of the kid:
this I did by hanging it before the fire in a string, as I had seen
many people do in England, setting two poles up, one on each
side of a fire, and one cross on the top, and tying the string to
the cross stick, letting the meat run continually: this Friday ad-
mired very much; but when he came to taste the flesh, he took
so many ways to tell me how well he liked it, that I could not
but understand him; and at last he told me he would never eat
man’s flesh any more, which I was very glad to hear.
The next day I set him to work to beating some corn out, and
sifting it in the manner I used to do, as I observed before; and he
soon understood how to do it as well as I, especially after he
had seen what the meaning of it was, and that it was to make
bread of; for after that I let him see me make my bread, and
bake it too; and in a little time Friday was able to-do all the
work for me, as well as I could de it myself.
160 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
I began now to consider, that, having two mouths to feed in-
stead of one, I must provide more ground for my harvest, and
plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to do; so I marked
out a larger piece of land, and began the fence in the same man-
ner as before, in which Friday not only worked very willingly
and very hard, but did it very chearfully; and I told him what
it was for, that it was for corn to make more bread, because
he was now with me, and that I might have enough for him and
myself too : he appeared very sensible of that part, and let me
know, that he thought I had much more labour upon me on his
account, than I had for myself, and that he would work the
harder for me, if I would tell him what to do.
This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this place.
Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the names of
almost every thing I had occasion to call for, and of every place
I had to send him to, and talk a great deal to me; so that, in
short, I began now to have some use for my tongue again, which
indeed I had very little occasion for before; that is to say, about
speech. Besides the pleasure of talking to him, I had a singular
satisfaction in the fellow himself; his simple unfeigned honesty
-appeared to me more and more every day, and I began really.
to love the creature; and on his side, I believe, he loved me more
than it was possible for him ever to love any thing before.
I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination
to his own country again; and having learnt him English so well
that he could answer me almost any questions, I asked him, whe-
ther the nation that he belonged to never conquered in battle :
At which he smiled, and said, Yes, yes, we always fight the bet-
ter; that is, he meant, always get the better in fight; and so we
began the following discourse: You always fight the better I said
I: how came you to be taken prisoner then, Friday :
Friday. My nation beat much for all that. - -
Master. How beat ; if your nation beat them, how came you
to be taken:
Friday. They more than my nation in the place where me was;
they take one, two, three, and me: my nation over-beat them in
the yonder place, where me no was; there my nation take one,
two great thousand.
Master. But why did not your side recover you from the hands
of your enemies then?
Friday. They run one, two, three, and me, and make go in the
canoe; my nation have no canoe that time.
Master. Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with the
§ they take : Do they carry them away, and eat them as these
10 : #
lºriday. Yes, my nation eat mans too, eat all up.
Master. Where do they carry them :
OF ROBIN SO N C R USO E. 161
Friday. Go to other place where they think.
Master. Do they come hither : *
Friday. Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place.
Master. Have you been here with them :
Friday. Yes, iſ been here [points to the N. W. side of the
island, which, it seems, was their side.]
By this I understood, that my man Friday had formerly been
among the savages, who used to come on shore on the farther
part of the island, on the said man-eating occasions that he was
now brought for; and some time after, when I took the courage
to carry him to that side, being the same I formerly mentioned,
he presently knew the place, and told me, he was there once,
when they ate up twenty men, two women, and one child: he
could not tell twenty in English, but he numbered them by lay-
ing so many stones in a row, and pointing to me to tell them over.
I have told this passage, because it introduces what follows;
that after I had had this discourse with him, I asked him, how far
it was from our island to the shore, and whether the canoes were
not often lost: He told me there was no danger, no canoes ever
lost; but that after a little way out to sea, there was a current,
Jand a wind always one way in the morning, the other in the af.
ternOOn.
This I understood to be no more than the sets of the tide, as
going out, or coming in ; but I afterwards understood it was oc-
casioned by the great draught and reflux of the mighty river
Oroonoque; in the mouth of which river, as I thought afterwards,
our island lay; and that this land which I perceived to the W.
and N. W. was the great island Trinidad, on the north point of
the mouth of the river. I asked Friday a thousand questions about
the country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations
were near: he told me all he knew with the greatest openness
imaginable. I asked him the names of the several nations of his
sort of people, but could get no other name than Caribs; from
whence I easily understood, that these were the Caribees, which
our maps place on that part of America which reaches from the
mouth of the river Oroonoque to Guinea, and onwards to St
Martha. He told me, that up a great way beyond the moon;
that was, beyond the setting of the moon, which must be west
from their country, there dwelt white bearded men, like me, and
pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned before; and
that they had killed much mans, that was his word: by which I
understood he meant the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America
had been spread over whole countries, and were remembered by
all the nations from father to son.
I inquired if he could tell me how I might come from this
island, and get among those white men; he told me, Yes, yes, I
might go into two canoe. I could not understand what he meant
162 LIFE AND A D VENTURES
by two canoe; till at last, with great difficulty, I found he meant,
that it must be in a large great boat as big as two canoes.
This part of Friday’s discourse began to relish with me very
well; and from this time I entertained some hopes, that one
time or other I might find an opportunity to make my escape
from this place, and that this poor Savage might be a means to
help me to do it. -
During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and
that he began to speak to me, and understand me, I was not want-
ing to ‘ay a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind; parti-
cularly I asked him one time, Who made him * The poor crea-
ture did not understand me at all, but thought I had asked who
was his father: but I took it by another handle, and asked him,
Who made the sea, the ground he walked on, and the hills and
woods : He told me it was one old Benamuckee, that lived be-
yond all : he could describe nothing of this great person, but that
he was very old; much older, he said, than the sea or the land,
than the moon or the stars. I asked him then, if this old person
had made all things, why did not all things worship him He
looked very grave, and, with a perfect look of innocence, said,
All things said O ! to him. I asked him if the people who die in
his country went away any where & He said, Yes, they all went to
Benamuckee. Then I asked him, whether those they eat up went
thither too & He said, Yes.
From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of
the true God. I told him, that the great Maker of all things lived
there, pointing up towards heaven; that he governs the world by
the same power and providence by which he made it; that he was
omnipotent, could do every thing for us, give every thing to us,
take every thing from us: and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes.
He listened with great attention, and received with pleasure the
notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us, and of the manner
of making our prayers to God, and his being able to hear us, even
into heaven: he told me one day, that if our God could hear us
up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God than their Be-
namuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not hear,
till they went up to the great mountains, where he dwelt, to speak
to him. I asked him if ever he went thither to speak to him He
said, No, they never went that were young men; none went thi-
ther but the old men, whom he called their Oowookakee; that is,
as I made him explain it to me, their religious, or clergy; and that
they went to say O ! (so he called saying prayers,) and then came
back, and told them what Benamuckee said. By this I observed,
that there is priestcraft even among the most blinded ignorant Pa-
gans in the world; and the policy of making a secret of religion,
in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy, is
not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps among all reli-
OF ROBINSON CRUSO E. 163
gions in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous
Savages.
I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday; and
told him, that the pretence of their old men going up to the moun
tains to say O ! to their god Benamuckee, was a cheat; and their
bringing word from thence what he said, was much more so; that
if they met with any answer, or spoke with any one there, it must
be with an evil spirit: and then I entered into a long discourse with
him about the devil, the original of him, his rebellion against God,
his enmity to man, the reason of it, his setting himself up in the
dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of God, and as
God, and the many stratagems he made use of to delude mankind
to their ruin; how he had a secret access to our passions and to our
affections, to adapt his snares so to our inclinations, as to cause us
even to be our own tempters, and to run upon our own destruction
by our own choice. -
I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind
about the devil, as it was about the being of a God: nature assist-
ed all my arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a
great First Cause, and over-ruling governing Power, a secret di-
recting Providence, and of the equity and justice of paying ho-
mage to Him that made us, and the like: but there appeared no-
thing of all this in the motion of an evil spirit, of his original, his
being, his nature, and, above all, of his inclination to do evil, and
to draw us in to do so too: and the poor creature puzzled me once
in such a manner, by a question merely natural and innocent, that
I scarce knew what to say to him. I had been talking a great deal
to him of the power of God, his omnipotence, his dreadful aver-
sion to sin, his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity;
how, as he had made us all, he could destroy us, and all the world
in a moment; and he listened with great seriousness to me all the
while.
After this, I had been telling him how the devil was God’s ene-
my in the hearts of men, and used all his malice and skill to de-
feat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin the kingdom of
Christ in the world, and the like: Well, says Friday, but you say
God is so strong, so great, is he not much strong, much might as
the devil?—Yes, yes, said I, Friday, God is stronger than the de-
vil, God is above the devil, and therefore we pray to God to tread
him under our feet, and enable us to resist his temptations, and
quench his fiery darts.-But, says he again, if God much strong,
much might, as the devil, why God not kill the devil, so make
him no more wicked:
I was strangely surprised at his question; and, after all, though
I was now an old man, yet I was but a young doctor, and ill
enough qualified for a casuist, or a solver of difficulties; and, at
first, I could not tell what to say; so I pretended not to hear him,
I64 jLIFE AN ID ADVENTURES
and asked him what he said; but he was too earnest for an an-
swer to forget his question; so that he repeated it in the very
same broken words, as above. By this time I had recovered my-
self a little, and I said, God will at last punish him severely; he is
reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the bottomless
pit, to dwell with everlasting fire. This did not satisfy Friday;
but he returns upon me, repeating my words, Reserve at last!
me no understand: but why not kill the devil now, not kill great
ago —You may as well ask me, said I, why God does not kill you
and me, when we do wicked things here that offend him: we are
Wºº. to repent and be pardoned. He muses awhile at this;
ell, well, says he, mighty affectionately, that well; so you, I,
devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, God pardom all.—Here I
was run down again by him to the last degree, and it was a testi-
mony to me, how the mere notions of nature, though they will
guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God, and of a
worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as the con-
sequence of our nature; yet nothing but divine revelation can form
the knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of a redemption purchased for
us; of a Mediator; of a new covenant; and of an Intercessor at
the footstool of God’s throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from
Heaven can form these in the soul; and that therefore the Gospel.
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I mean the word of God,
and the Spirit of God, promised for the guide and sanctifier of
his people, are the absolutely necessary instructors of the souls of
men in the saving knowledge of God, and the means of Salvation.
I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my
man, rising up hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out;
then sending him for something a great way off, I seriously pray-
ed to God, that he would enable me to instruct savingly this poor
savage, assisting, by his Spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant
creature to receive the light of the knowledge of God in Christ,
reconciling him to himself, and would guide me to speak so to
him from the word of God, as his conscience might be convinced,
his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he came again to
me, I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subject of
the redemption of man by the Saviour of the world, and of the
doctrine of the Gospel preached from Heaven, viz. of the repent-
ance towards God, and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus: I then
explained to him, as well as I could, why our blessed Redeemer
took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham,
and how, for that reason, the fallen angels had no share in the re-
demption; that he came only to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel, and the like. º
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge, in all the
methods I took for this poor creature’s instruction; and must ac-
knowledge, what I believe all that act upon the same principle

OF ROBIN SON GRÜSG) E, 165
will find, that in laying things open to him, I really informed and
instructed myself in many things that either I did not know, or
had not fully considered before; but which occurred naturally to
my mind upon my searching into them for the information of this
poor savage; and I had more affection in my º after things
upon this occasion, than ever I felt before; so that whether this
poor wild wretch was the better for me or no, I had great reason
to be thankful that ever he came to me: my grief sat lighter upon
me, my habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure ; and
when I reflected, that in this solitary life, which I had been con-
fined to, I had not only been moved myself to look up to Heaven,
and to seek to the Hand that brought me thither, but was now to
be made an instrument, under Providence, to save the life, and,
for aught I knew, the soul, of a poor savage, and bring him to the
true knowledge of religion, and of the Christian doctrine, that he
might know Christ Jesus, to know whom is life eternal: I say,
when I reflected upon all these things, a secret joy ran through
every part of my soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was
brought to this place, which I hati often thought the most dread-
ful of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me.
In this thankful frame I continued all the remainder of my
time; and the conversation which employed the hours between
Friday and me was such, as made the three years which we lived
there together perfectly and completely happy, if any such thing
as complete happiness can be found in a sublunary state. The
savage was now a good Christian, a much better than I; though
I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, that we were equal-
ly penitent, and comforted restored penitents: we had here the
word of God to read, and no farther off from his Spirit to instruct
than if we had been in England.
I always applied myself to reading the Scripture, and to let
him know as well as I could the meaning of what I read; and
he again, by his serious inquiries and questions, made me, as I
said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture knowledge,
than I should ever have been by my own private reading. An-
other thing I cannot refrain from observing here also from ex-
perience, in this retired part of my life; viz. how infinite and in-
expressible a blessing it is, that the knowledge of God, and of
the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid down
in the word of God, so easy to be received and understood, that
as the bare reading the Scripture made me capable of under-
standing enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great
work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a Sa-
viour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation of practice,
and obedience to all God’s commands, and this without any
teacher or instructor (I mean human); so the plain instruction
suffieiently served to the enlightening this savage creature, and
166 Life AND Adventures
bringing him to be such a Christian, as I have known few equal
to him in my life.
. As to the disputes, wranglings, strife, and contention, which
has happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in
doctrines, or schemes of church-government, they were all per-
fectly useless to us, as, for aught I can yet see, they have been to
all the rest in the world: we had the sure guide to heaven, viz.
the word of God; and we had, blessed be God! comfortable
views of the Spirit of God, teaching and instructing us by his
word, leading us into all truth, and making us both willing and
obedient to the instruction of his word; and I cannot see the
least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points in
religion, which have made such confusions in the world, would
have been to us, if we could have obtained it. But I must go on
with the historical part of things, and take every part in its
order.
After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and
that he could understand almost all I said to him, and speak
fluently, though in broken English, to me, I acquainted him with
my own story, or at least so much of it as related to my coming
into the place, how I had lived there, and how long : I let him
into the mystery (for such it was to him) of gunpowder and bul-
lets, and taught him how to shoot: I gave him a knife, which he
was wonderfully delighted with ; and I made him a belt with a
frog hanging to it, such as in England we wear hangers in ; and
in the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was
not only as good a weapon in some cases, but much more useful
upon many occasions.
I described to him the countries of Europe, and particularly
England, which I came from ; how we lived, how we worshipped
God, how we behaved to one another, and how we traded in ships
to all the parts of the world. I gave him an account of the
wreck which I had been on board of, and showed him, as near
as I could, the place where she lay; but she was all beaten in
pieces long before, and quite gone. *
I showed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost when we
escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole strength
then, but was now fallen almost all to pieces. Upon seeing this
boat, Friday stood musing a great while, and said nothing; I ask-
ed him what it was he studied upon 2 At last, says he, Me see
such boat like come to place at my nation. - & -
I did not understand him a good while; but at last, when I
had examined farther into it, I understood by him that a boat,
such as that had been, came on shore upon the country where he
lived; that is, as he explained it, was driven thither by stress of
weather. I presently imagined that some European ship must
have been cast away upon their coast, and the boat might get

ÖF ROBIN SON CRU SOE. 167
loose, and drive ashore; but was so dull, that I never once
thought of men making escape from a wreck thither, much less
whence they might come; so I only inquired after a description
of the boat. r’ -
Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me
better to understand him, when he added, with some warmth,
We save the white mans from drown. Then I presently asked
him, if there were any white mans, as he called them, in the
boat —Yes, he said, the boat full of white mans.—I asked him,
how many : he told upon his fingers seventeen.—I asked him, ,
what became of them? he told me, They live, they dwell at my
Ination.
This put new thoughts into my head again; for I presently
imagined, that these might be the men belonging to the ship that
was cast away in sight of my island, as I now call it; and who,
after the ship was struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably
lost, had saved themselves in their boat, and were landed upon
that wild shore among the savages.
Upon this I inquired of him more critically, what was become
of them He assured me they lived still there, that they had
been there about four years, that the savages let them alone,
and gave them victuals to live. I asked him how it came to pass
they did not kill them, and eat them : He said, No, they make
brother with them ; that is, as I understood him, a truce : and
then he added, They eat no mans but when make the war fight;
that is to say, they never eat any men, but such as come to fight
with them, and are taken in battle.
It was after this some considerable time, that being on the
top of the hill, at the east side of the island, from whence, as I
have said, I had in a clear day discovered the main or continent
of America ; Friday, the weather being very serene, looks very
earnestly towards the main land, and in a kind of surprise, falls
a-jumping and dancing, and calls out to me, for I was at some
distance from him : I asked him what was the matter?—O joy!
says he, O glad there see my country, there my nation.
I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his
face, and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a
strange eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country
again; and this observation of mine put a great many thoughts
into me; which made me at first not so easy about my new man
Friday as I was before; and I made no doubt but that if Friday
could get back to his own nation, he would not only forget all
his religion, but all his obligations to me; and would be forward
enough to give his countrymen an account of me, and come
back, perhaps, with an hundred or two of them, and make a
feast upon me, at which he might be as merry as he used to be
with those of his enemies, when they were taken in war.
168 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
But I wronged the poor honest creature very much, for which
I was very sorry afterwards; however, as my jealousy increased,
and held me some weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and not
so familiar and kind to him as before; in which I was certainly in
the wrong too, the honest grateful creature having no thought
about it, but what consisted of the best principles, both as a reli-
gious Christian and as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards
to my full satisfaction.
Whilst my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was every
day pumping him, to see if he would discover any of the new
thoughts which I suspected were in him; but I found every thing
he said was so honest and so innocent, that I could find nothing
to nourish my suspicion; and, in spite of all my uneasiness, he
made me at last entirely his own again ; nor did he in the least
perceive that I was uneasy; and therefore I could not suspect him
of deceit.
One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy
at sea, so that we could not see the continent, I called to him, and
said, Friday, do not you wish yourself in your own country, your
own nation ?—Yes, he said, I be much Oglad to be at my own na-
tion.—What would you do there 2 said I : would you turn wild
again, eat men's flesh again, and be a savage as you were before ?—
He looked full of concern, and shaking his head, said, No, no, Fri-
day tell them to live good, tell them to pray God, tell them to eat
corn-bread, cattle-flesh, milk, no eat man again.—Why then, said
I to him, they will kill you.-He looked grave at that, and then
said, No, they no kill me, they willing love learn: he meant by
this, they would be willing to learn. He added, they learned much
of the bearded mans that came in the boat. Then I asked him if
he would go back to them He smiled at that, and told me he
could not swim so far. I told him I would make a canoe for him.
He told me he would go, if I would go with him.—I go said I,
why, they will eat me if I comethere.—No, no, says he, me make
them no eat you, me make they much love you : he meant he
would tell them how I had killed his enemies and saved his life,
and so he would make them love me. Then he told me, as well as
he could, how kind they were to seventeen white men, or bearded
men, as he called them, who came on shore in distress.
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 Portugueze; not doubting but, if I
could, we might find some method to escape from thence, being
upon the continent, and a good company together, better than I
“could from an island forty miles off the shore, and alone without
help. So, after some days, I took Friday to work again, by way
of discourse; and told him I would give him a boat to go back to
his own nation; and accordingly I carried him to my frigate, which
3
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE, 169
lay on the other side of the island; and having cleared it of water
(for I always kept it sunk in the water), I brought it out, showed
it him, and we both went into it. . -
I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, would
make it go almost as swift and fast again as Igould ; so when he
was in I said to him, Well now, Friday, shall we go to your na-
tion ? He looked very dull at my saying so, which it seems was
because he thought the boat too small to go so far. I told him
then I had a bigger; so the next day I went to the place where
the first boat lay which I had made, but which I could not get
into the water: he said that was big enough; but then, as I had
taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three-and-twenty years
there, the sun had split and dried it, that it was in a manner rot-
ten. Friday told me such a boat would do very well, and would
carry much enough vittle, drink, bread; that was his way of talking.
CHAP. XVI.
I determine to go over to the Continent–Friday and I construct
a Boat equal to carry twenty Men—His dexterity in managing
her—Friday brings intelligence of three Canoes of Savages on
Shore—Resolve to go down upon them-Friday and I fire upon
the Wretches, and save the Life of a poor Spaniard—List of the
killed and wounded–Discover a poor Indian bound in one of
the Canoes, who turns out to be Friday’s Father.
UPON the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my design of
going over with him to the continent, that I told him we would go
and make one as big as that, and he should go home in it. He an-
swered not one word, but looked very grave and sad. I asked
him what was the matter with him : He asked me again thus,
Why you angry mad with Friday? what me done?—I asked him
what he meant? I told him I was not angry with him at all.—
No angry no angry I says he, repeating the word several
times; why send Friday home away to my nation ?—Why, said
I, Friday, did not you say you wished you were there?—Yes,
yes, says he, wish be both there; no wish Friday there, no mas-
ter there. In a word, he would not think of going there without
me.—I go there, Friday ! said I; what should I do there —He
turned very quick upon me at this; You do great deal much good,
says he you teach wild mans be good, sober, tame mans; you tell
them know God, pray God, and live new life.—Alas, Friday, said
I, thou knowest not what thou sayest; I am but an ignorant man
myself-Yes, yes, says he, you teechee me good, you teechee them
good.—No, no, Friday, said I, you shall go without me; leave me
here to live by myself, as I did before. He looked confused again
H
170 LIFE AN ID A DVENTURES
at that word, and running to one of the hatchets which he used to
wear, he takes it up hastily, and gives it me. What must I do with
this said I to him.—You take kill Friday, says he.—What pmust
I kill you for 2 said I again.-He returns very quick, What you
send Friday away for 2 Take kill Friday, no send Friday away.—
This he spoke so earnestly, that I saw tears stand in his eyes. In
a word, I so plainly discovered the utmost affection in him to me,
and a firm resolution in him, that I told him then, and often after,
that I would never send him away from me, if he was willing to
stay with me.
Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled affec-
tion to me, and that nothing should part him from me, so I found
all the foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid
in his ardent affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing them
good; a thing which, as I had no notion of myself, so I had not
the least thought, or intention, or desire of undertaking it. But
still I found a strong inclination to my attempting an escape, as
above, founded on the supposition gathered from the former dis-
course; viz. that there were seventeen bearded men there; and
therefore, without any delay, I went to work with Friday, to find
out a great tree proper to fell, and make a large periagua or canoe,
to undertake the voyage : there were trees enough in the island
to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas and canoes only, but
even of good large vessels: but the main thing I looked at, was
to get one so near the water, that we might launch it when it was
made, to avoid the mistake I committed at first.
At last Friday pitched upon a tree; for I found he knew much
better than I what kind of wood was fittest for it; nor can I tell
to this day what wood to call the tree we cut down, except that
it was very like the tree we call fustic, or between that and the
Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same colour and smell.
Friday was for burning the hollow or cavity of this tree out, to
make it into a boat: but I showed him how rather to cut it out
with tools, which after I showed him how to use, he did very
handily ; and in about a month’s hard labour we finished it, and
made it very handsome, especially when, with our axes, which I
showed him how to handle, we cut and hewed the outside into
the true shape of a boat ; after this, however, it cost us near a fort-
night’s time to get her along, as it were inch by inch, upon great
rollers, into the water; but when she was in, she would have car-
ried twenty men with great ease. e tº
When she was in the water, and though she was so big, it ama-
zed me to see with what dexterity, and bow swift, my man Friday
could manage her, turn her, and paddle her along; so I asked him
if he would, and if we might, venture over in her 3–Yes, he said,
he venture over in her very well, though great blow wind. How-
ever, I had a farther design that he knew nothing of, and that was,
10
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 171
to make a mast and sail, and to fit her with an anchor and cable.
As to a mast, that was easy enough to get ; so I pitched upon a
straight young cedar-tree, which I found near the place, and which
there was a great plenty of in the island; and I set Friday to work
to cut it down, and gave him directions how to shape and order
it; but as to the sail, that was my particular care; I knew I had
old sails, or rather pieces of old sails enough; but as I had had
them now twenty-six years by me, and had not been very careful
to preserve them, not imagining that I should ever have this kind
of use for them, I did not doubt but that they were all rotten;
and indeed most of them were so; however, I found two pieces
which appeared pretty good, and with these I went to work, and
with a great deal of pains, and awkward tedious stitching (you
may be sure) for want of needles, I at length made a three-cor-
mered ugly thing, like what we call in England a shoulder-of-mut-
ton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the
top, such as usually our ships’ long-boats sail with, and such as I
best knew how to manage ; because it was such a one as I used
in the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related
in the first part of my story.
I was near two months performing this last work, viz. rigging
and fitting my mast and sails; for I finished them very complete,
making a small stay, and a sail or foresail to it, to assist if we
should turn to windward; and, which was more than all, I fixed a
rudder to the stern of her, to steer with ; and though I was but
a bungling shipwright, yet as I knew the usefulness, and even ne-
cessity of such a thing, I applied myself with so much pains to do
it, that at last I brought it to pass, though, considering the many
dull contrivances I had for it that failed, I think it cost me almost
as much labour as making the boat.
After all this was done, I had my man Friday to teach as to
what belonged to the navigation of my boat; for though he knew
very well how to paddle the canoe, he knew nothing what belong-
ed to a sail and a rudder, and was the more amazed when he saw
me work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder, and how
the sail gibed, and filled this way or that way, as the course we
sailed changed; I say, when he saw this, he stood like one asto-
nished and amazed: however, with a little use, I made all these
things familiar to him, and he became an expert sailor, except
that as to the compass I could make him understand very little
of that: on the other hand, as there was very little cloudy weather,
and seldom or never any fogs in those parts, there was the less
occasion for a compass, seeing the stars were always to be seen
by night, and the shore by day, except in the rainy seasons; and
then nobody cared to stir abroad, either by land or sea.
I was now entered on the seven-and-twentieth year of my capti-
vity in this place; though the three last years that I had this crea-
172 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
ture with me, ought rather to be left out of the account, my has
bitation being quite of another kind than in all the rest of my
time. I kept the anniversary of my landing here with the same
thankfulness to God for his mercies as at first; and if I had such
cause of acknowledgment at first, I had much more so now, ha-
ving such additional testimonies of the care of Providence over
me, and the great hopes I had of being effectually and speedily
delivered ; for I had an invincible impression upon my thoughts,
that my deliverance was at hand, and that I should not be another
year in this place. However, I went on with my husbandry, dig-
ging, planting, and fencing, as usual; I gathered and cured my
grapes, and did every necessary thing, as before.
The rainy season was in the mean time upon me, when I kept
more within doors than at other times; so I had stowed our new
vessel as secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where,
as I said in the beginning, I landed my rafts from the ship; and
hauling her up to the shore, at high-water mark, I made my man
Friday dig a little dock, just big enough for her to float in ; and
then, when the tide was out, we made a strong dam across the
end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay dry, as to the
tide, from the sea; and to keep the rain off, we laid a great many
boughs of trees so thick, that she was as well thatched as a house;
and thus we waited for the months of November and December,
in which I designed to make my adventure. -
When the settled season began to come im, as the thought of my
design returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the
voyage; and the first thing I did was to lay up a certain quantity
of provision, being the store for the voyage; and intended in a
week or a fortnight’s time to open the dock, and launch out our
boat. I was busy one morning upon something of this kind, when
I called to Friday, and bid him go to the sea-shore, and see if he
could find a turtle or tortoise; a thing which we generally got
once a week, for the sake of the eggs, as well as the flesh. Friday
had not been long gone, when he came running back, and flew over
my outward wall, or fence, like one that felt not the ground, or
the steps he set his feet on ; and before I had time to speak to
him, he cried out to me, O master | O master O sorrow ! O
bad —What’s the matter, Friday ? said I.-O yonder there, says
he, one, two, three, canoe! one, two, three l—By this way of
speaking, I concluded there were six; but on inquiry I found
there were but three. Well, Friday, said I, do not be frighted;
so I heartened him up as well as I could. However, I saw the
poor fellow most terribly scared; for nothing ran in his head but
, that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in pieces,
and eat him; the poor fellow trembled so, that I scarce knew what
to do with him; I comforted him as well as I could, and told him,
I was in as much danger as he, and that they would eat me as well
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 173
as him. But, said I, Friday, we must resolve to fight them: can you
fight, Friday?—Me shoot, says he, but there come many great num-
ber.—No matter for that, said I again; our guns will fright them
that we do not kill. So I asked him, whether, if I resolved to defend
him, he would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as Ibade
him : He said, Me die, when you bid die, master. So I went and
fetched a good dram of rum, and gave him; for I had been so
good a husband of my rum, that I had a great deal left. When he
had drank it, I made him take the two fowling-pieces which we
always carried, and load them with large swan-shot as big as small
pistol-bullets; then I took four muskets, and loaded them with
two slugs and five small bullets each; and my two pistols I loaded
with a brace of bullets each : I hung my great sword, as usual, na-
ked by my side, and gave Friday his hatchet.
When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective-glass,
and went up to the side of the hill, to see what I could discover;
and I found quickly, by my glass, that there were one-and-twenty
Savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; and that their whole
business seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon these three
human bodies; a barbarous feast indeed, but nothing more than,
as I had observed, was usual with them.
I observed also, that they were landed, not where they had done
when Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek, where the
shore was low, and where a thick wood came close almost down
to the sea: this, with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand
these wretches came about, so filled me with indignation, that I
came down again to Friday, and told him, I was resolved to go
down to them, and kill them all; and asked him if he would stand
by me. He was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits being
a little raised with the dram I had given him, he was very chear-
ful; and told me, as before, he would die when I bid die.
In this fit of fury, I took first and divided the arms, which I
had charged, as before, between us; I gave Friday one pistol to
stick in his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; and I took
one pistol, and the other three, myself; and in this posture we
marched out. I took a small bottle of rum in my pocket, and
gave Friday a large bag with more powder and bullet; and as to
orders, I charged him to keep close behind me, and not to stir,
shoot, or do anything till 1 bid him; and in the mean time, not to
speak a word. In this posture I fetched a compass to my right
hand of near a mile, as well to get over the creek as to get into
the wood; so that I might come within shot of them before I could
be discovered, which I had seen by my glass it was easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning,
I began to abate my resolution: I do not mean, that I entertained
any fear of their number; for as they were naked, unarmed wretch-
es, it is certain I was superior to them; nay, though I had been

I 74 LIFE AND A Dv ENTUREs
alone: but it occurred to my thoughts, what call, what occasion,
much less what necessity, I was in to go and dip my hands in
blood, to attack people who had neither done or intended me any
wrong, who, as to me, were innocent, and whose barbarous cus-
toms were their own disaster, being in them a token indeed of
God's having left them, with the other nations of that part of
the world, to such stupidity and to such inhuman courses; but
did not call me to take upon me to be a judge of their actions,
much less an executioner of his justice; that whenever he thought
fit, he would take the cause into his own hands, and by national
vengeance punish them for national crimes; but that in the mean
time, it was none of my business: that it was true, Friday might
justify it, because he was a declared enemy, and in a state of war
with those very particular people, and it was lawful for him to at-
tack them; but I could not say the same with respect to me.
These things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the
way as I went, that I resolved I would only go place myself near
them, that I might observe their barbarous feast, and that I would
act then as God should direct; but that unless something offered
that was more a call to me than yet I knew of, I would not med-
dle with them. *
With this resolution I entered the wood, and with all possible
wariness and silence (Friday following close at my heels) I marched
till I came to the skirt of the wood, on the side which was next
to them; only that one corner of the wood lay between me and
them: here I called softly to Friday, showing him a great tree,
which was just at the corner of the wood; I bade him go to the
tree, and bring me word if he could see there plainly what they
were doing: he did so, and came immediately back to me, and told
me they might be plainly viewed there; that they were all about
the fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners; and that an-
other lay bound upon the sand, a little from them, whom he said
they would kill next, and which fired the very soul within me. He
told me, it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men
whom he had told me of, who came to their country in the boat.
I was filled with horror at the very naming the white-bearded man,
and, going to the tree, I saw plainly by my glass, a white man,
who lay upon the beach of the sea, with his hands and his feet
tied with flags, or things like rushes; and that he was an Euro-
peam, and had clothes on. e -
There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, about fif.
ty yards nearer to them than the place where I was, which, by
oing a little way about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and
that then I should be within half-shot of them; so I withheld my
passion, though I was indeed enraged to the highest degree, and
oing back about twenty paces, I got behind some bushes, which
eld all the way till I came to the other tree, and then I came to
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 175
a little rising ground, which gave me a full view of them, at the
distance of about eighty yards.
I had now not a moment to lose; for nineteen of the dreadful
wretches sat upon the ground all close huddled together, and
had just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian, and
bring him, perhaps limb by limb, to their fire; and they were stoop-
ed down to untie the bands at his feet. I turned to Friday: Now
Friday, said I, do as I bid thee. Friday said he would. Then
Friday, said I, do exactly as you see me do; fail in nothing. Sd.
I set down one of the muskets and the fowling-piece upon the
ground, and Friday did the like by his; and with the other musket
I took my aim at the savages, bidding him do the like. Then
asking him if he was ready, he said, Yes.—Then fire at them,
said I; and the same moment I fired also.
Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the side
that he shot, he killed two of them, and wounded three more;
and on my side, I killed one, and wounded two. They were,

176 Life AND Adventures
you may be sure, in a dreadful consternation; and all of them
who were not hurt, jumped up upon their feet immediately, but
did not know which way to run, or which way to look; for they
knew not from whence their destruction came. Friday kept his
eyes close upon me, that, as I had bid him, he might observe
what I did: so as soon as the first shot was made, I threw down
the piece, and took up the fowling piece, and Friday did the like;
he sees me cock and present; he did the same again. Are you
ready, Friday? said I.-Yes, says he.—Let fly then, said I, in the
name of God; and with that I fired again among the amazed
wretches, and so did Friday; 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, all bloody, and misera-
bly wounded most of them; whereof three more fell quickly after,
though not quite dead.
Now, Friday, said I, laying down the discharged pieces and ta-
king up the musket, which was yet loaden, follow me, said I;
which he did with a deal of courage; upon which I rushed out
of the wood, and showed myself, and Friday close at my foot: as
soon as I perceived they saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and
bade Friday do so too; and running as fast as I could, which by
the way was not very fast, being loaded with arms as I was, I
made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I said, lying
upon the beach or shore, between the place where they sat and
the sea; the two butchers who were just going to work with him,
had left him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible
fright to the sea-side, and had jumped into a canoe, and three
more of the rest made the same way: I turned to Friday, and
bade him step forwards, and fire at them; he understood me im-
mediately, and running about forty yards to be near them, he shot
at them, and I thought he had killed them all; for I saw them all
fall on an heap into the boat; though I saw two of them up again
quickly; however, he killed two of them, and wounded the third,
so that he lay down in the bottom of the boat, as if he had been
dead. - . . . . . .
While my man Friday fired at them, I puffed out my knife, and
cut the flags that bound the poor victim; and loosing his hands
and feet I lifted him up, and asked him in the Portugueze tongue,
what he was 2 he answered in Latin, Christianus; but was so
weak and faint, that he could scarce stand, or speak: I took my
bottle out of my pocket, and gave it him, making signs that he
should drink, which he did; and I gave him a piece of bread,
which he ate ; then I asked him what countryman he was 2 and
he said Espagnole ; and, being a little recovered, let me know,
by all the signs he could possibly make, how much he was in my
debt for his deliverance. Seignior, said I, with as much Spanish

OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 177
as I could make up, we will talk afterwards, but we must fight
now : if you have any strength left, take this pistol and sword,
and lay about you; he took them very thankfully, and no sooner
had he the arms in his hands, but as if they had put new vigour
into him, he flew upon his murderers like a fury, and had cut
two of them in pieces in an instant; for the truthis, as the whole
was a surprise to them, so the poor creatures were so much fright-
ed with the noise of our pieces, that they fell down for mere amaze-
ment and fear, and had no more power to attempt their own es-
cape, than their flesh had to resist our shot; and that was the case
of those five that Friday shot in the boat; for as three of them fell
with the hurt they received, so the other two fell with the fright.
I kept my piece in my hand still, without firing, being willing
to keep my charge ready, because I had given the Spaniard my
pistol and sword ; so I called to Friday, and bade him run up to
the tree from whence we first fired, and fetch the arms which lay
there, that had been discharged, which he did with great swift-
ness; and then giving him my musket, I sat down myself to load
all the rest again, and bade them come to me when they wanted.
While I was loading those pieces, there happened a fierce engage-
ment between the Spaniard and one of the savages, who made at
him with one of their great wooden swords, the same weapon that
was to have killed him before, if I had not prevented it: the Spa-
niard, who was as bold and as brave as could be imagined, though
weak, had fought this Indian a good while, and had cut him two
great wounds on his head; but the savage, being a stout lusty
fellow, closing in with him, had thrown him down (being faint.)
and was wringing my sword out of his hand, when the Spaniard,
though undermost, wisely quitting his sword, drew the pistol from
his girdle, shot the savage through the body, and killed him up-
on the spot, before I, who was running to help, could come near
him. -
Friday, being now left at his liberty, pursued the flying wretch-
es with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that
he dispatched those three, who, as I said before, were wounded at
first, and fallen, and all the rest he could come up with ; and the
Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I gave him one of the fowling-
pieces, with which he pursued two of the savages, and wounded
them both; but as he was not able to run, they both got from him.
into the wood, where Friday pursued them, and killed one of
them; but the other was too nimble for him; and though he was
wounded, yet he plunged into the sea, and swam with all his might
off to those who were left in the canoe; which three in the canoe,
with one wounded, who we knew not whether he died or no, were
all that escaped our hands of one-and-twenty. The account of
the rest is as follows: -
H 2.
178 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
3 Killed at our shot from the tree.
2 Killed at the next shot.
2 Killed by Friday in the boat.
2 Killed by ditto, of those at first wounded.
1 Killed by ditto in the wood.
3 Killed by the Spaniard.
4 Killed, being found dropt here and there of their wounds, or
killed by Friday in his chace of them.
4 Escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded if not dead.
21 in all.
Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gun-
shot; and though Friday made two or three shot at them, I did
not find that he hit any of them. Friday would fain have had me
take one of their canoes, and pursue them; and indeed I was very
anxious about their escape; least, carrying the news home to their
people, they should come back, perhaps, with two or three hun-
dred of their canoes, and devour us by mere multitudes; so I
consented to pursue them by sea; and running to one of their ca-
noes, I jumped in and bade Friday follow me; but when I was in
the canoe, I was surprised to find another poor creature lie there
alive, bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, for the slaugh-
ter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing what the matter was;
for he had not been able to look up over the side of the boat, he
was tied so hard, neck and heels, and had been tied so long, that
he had really little life in him.
I immediately cut the twisted flags, or rushes, which they had
bound him with, and would have helped him up; but he could not
stand or speak, but groaned most piteously, believing, it seems
still, that he was only unbound in order to be killed.
When Friday came to him, Ibade him speak to him, and tell him
of his deliverance; and pulling out my bottle, made him give the
poor wretch a dram, which, with the news of his being delivered,
revived him, and he sat up in the boat; but when Friday came to
hear him speak, and looked in his face, it would have moved any
one to tears, to have seen how Friday kissed him, embraced him,
hugged him, cried, laughed, hallooed, jumped about, danced, sung,
then cried again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and head,
and then sung and jumped about again like a distracted creature.
It was a good while before I could make him speak to me, or tell
me what was the matter; but when he came a little to himself, he
told me that it was his father.
It was not easy for me to express how it moved me, to see what
ecstacy and filial affection had worked in this poor savage, at the
sight of his father, and of his being delivered from death; nor in-
deed can I describe half the extravagancies of his affection after
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 179
this; for he went into the boat and out of the boat a great many
times : when he went in to him, he would sit down by him, open
his breast, and hold his father’s head close to his bosom, half an
hour together to nourish it: then he took his arms and ancles,
which were numbed and stiff with the binding, and chafed and
rubbed them with his hands; and I, perceiving what the case was,
gave him some rum out of my bottle to rub them with, which did
them a great deal of good.
This action put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the
other savages, who were now gotten almost out of sight; and it
was happy for us that we did not ; for it blew so hard within two
hours after, and before they could be gotten a quarter of their
way, and continued blowing so hard all night, and that from the
north-west, which was against them, that I could not suppose their
boat could live, or that they ever reached to their own coast.
But to return to Friday: he was so busy about his father, that
I could not find in my heart to take him off for some time; but
after I thought he could leave him a little, I called him to me,
and he came jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest ex-
treme. Then I asked him if he had given his father any bread :
He shook his head, and said, None : ugly dog eat all up self. So
I gave him a cake of bread out of a little pouch I carried on pur-
pose; I also gave him a dram for himself, but he would not taste
it, but carried it to his father: I had in my pocket also two or
three bunches of my raisins, so I gave him a handful of them for
his father. He had no sooner given his father these raisins, but
I saw him come out of the boat, and run away as if he had been
bewitched. He ran at such a rate (for he was the swiftest fellow
of his feet that ever I saw)—I say, he ran at such a rate, that he
was out of sight, as it were, in an instant; and though I called
and hallooed too after him, it was all one; away he went, and in
a quarter of an hour I saw him come back again, though not so
fast as he went ; and as he came nearer, I found his pace was
slacker, because he had something in his hand.
When he came up to me, I found he had been quite home for
an earthen jug, or pot, to bring his father some fresh water;
and that he had got two more cakes, or loaves of bread. The
bread he gave me, but the water he carried to his father: how-
ever, as I was very thirsty too, I took a little Sup of it: this water
revived his father more than all the rum or spirits I had given
him ; for he was just fainting with thirst. -
When his father had drank, I called him, to know if there was
any water left 2 he said Yes; and I bade him give it to the poor
Spaniard, who was in as much want of it as his father; and I
sent one of the cakes that Friday brought to the Spaniard too,
who was indeed very weak, and was reposing himself upon a green
place, under the shade of a tree, and whose limbs were also very
18O LIFE AND ADVENTURes
stiff, and very much swelled with the rude bandage he had been
tied with. When I saw that upon Friday’s coming to him with
the water, he sat up and drank, and took the bread, and began to
eat, I went to him, and gave him a handful of raisins: he looked
up in my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness
that could appear in any countenance; but was so weak, notwith-
standing he had so exerted himself in the fight, that he could not
stand upon his feet; he tried to do it two or three times, but was
really not able, his ancles were so swelled and so painful to him;
so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday to rub his ancles, and
bathe them with rum, as he had done his father’s.
I observed the poor affectionate creature every two minutes,
or perhaps less, all the while he was here, turned his head about,
to see if his father was in the same place and posture as he left
him sitting; and at last he found he was not to be seen; at which
he started up, and, without speaking a word, flew with that swift-
ness to him, that one could scarce perceive his feet to touch the
ground as he went; but when he came, he only found he had
laid himself down to ease his limbs: so Friday came back to me
presently, and I then spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday help
him up, if he could, and lead him to the boat, and then he should
carry him to our dwelling, where I would take care of him; but
Friday, a lusty young fellow, took the Spaniard quite up upon his
back, and carried him away to the boat, and set him down softly
upon the side or gunnel of the canoe, with his feet in the inside
of it, and then lifted them quite in, and set him close to his father,
and presently stepping out again, launched the boat off, and pad-
dled it along the shore faster than I could walk, though the wind
blew pretty hard too; so he brought them safe into our creek;
and leaving them in the boat, runs away to fetch the other canoe.
As he passed me, I spoke to him, and asked him whither he
went 2 He told me, Go fetch more boat: so away he went, like
the wind; for sure never man or horse ran like him, and he had
the other canoe in the creek almost as soon as I got to it by
land; so he wafted me over, and then went to help our new guests
out of the boat, which he did; but they were neither of them
able to walk; so that poor Friday knew not what to do.
To remedy this, I went to work in my thought, and calling to
Friday to bid them sit down on the bank while he came to me, I
soon made a kind of hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and
I carried them up both together upon it between us; but when
we got them to the outside of our wall or fortification, we were
at a worse loss than before; for it was impossible to get them
over; and I was resolved not to break it down : So I set to work
again; and Friday and I, in about two hours time, made a very
handsome tent, covered with old sails, and above that with boughs
of trees, being in the space without our outward fence, and be-
OF ROBIN SON CRU SO E. 181
tween that and the grove of young wood which I had planted:
and here we made two beds of such things as I had ; viz. of good
rice-straw, with blankets laid upon it to lie on, and another to
cover them on each bed. -
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 do-
minion: 2dly, My people were perfectly subjected : I was abso-
lute lord and lawgiver; they all owed their lives to me, and were
ready to lay down their lives, if there had been occasion for it,
for me: it was remarkable too, I had but three subjects, and they
were of three different religions. My man Friday was a Protest-
ant, his father a Pagan and a cannibal, and the Spaniard was a
Papist; however, I allowed liberty of conscience throughout my
dominions: but this by the way.
As soon as I had secured my two weak rescued prisoners, and
given them shelter, and a place to rest them upon, I began to
think of making some provision for them; and the first thing I
did, I ordered Friday to take a yearling goat, betwixt a kid and a
goat, out of my particular flock, to be killed : then I cut off the
hind quarter, and, chopping it into small pieces, I set Friday to
work to boiling and stewing, and made them a very good dish, I
assure you, of flesh and broth, having put some barley and rice
also into the broth; and as I cooked it without doors, (for I made
no fire within my inner wall) so i carried it all into the new tent;
and having set a table there for them, I sat down and ate my dim-
ner also with them ; and, as well as I could, cheered them and en-
couraged them, Friday being my interpreter, especially to his fa-
ther, and indeed to the Spaniard too; for the Spaniard spoke the
language of the savages pretty well.
After we had dimed, or rather supped, I ordered Friday to take
one of the canoes, and go and fetch our muskets and other fire-
arms, which, for want of time, we had left upon the place of bat-
tle; and the next day I ordered him to go and bury the dead
bodies of the Savages, which lay open to the sun, and would pre-
sently be offensive; and I also ordered him to bury the horrid
remains of their barbarous feast, which I knew were pretty much,
and which I could not think of doing myself; nay, I could not
bear to see them, if I went that way: all which he punctually
performed, and defaced the very appearance of the Savages being
there; so that when I went again, I could scarce know where it
was, otherwise than by the corner of the wood pointing to the
place.
I then began to enter into a little conversation with my two
new subjects; and first I set Friday to inquire of his father, what
he thought of the escape of the Savages in that canoe and whi-
182 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
ther he might expect a return of them with a power too great for
us to resist : His first opinion was, that the savages in the boat
never could live out the storm which blew that night they went
off, but must of necessity be drowned or driven south to those
other shores, where they were as sure to be devoured, as they
were to be drowned if they were cast away; but as to what they
would do if they came safe on shore, he said he knew not; but it
was his opinion, that they were so dreadfully frighted with the
manner of being attacked, the noise, and the fire, that he believed
they would tell their people they were all killed by thunder and
lightning, and not by the hand of man; and that the two which
appeared (viz. Friday and I) were two heavenly spirits or furies
come down to destroy them, and not men with weapons. This,
he said, he knew, because he heard them all cry out so in their
language to one another; for it was impossible for them to con-
ceive that a man should dart fire, and speak thunder, and kill at
a distance, without lifting up the hand, as was done now. And
this old savage was in the right; for, as I understood since by
other hands, the savages of that part never attempted to go over
to the island afterwards. They were so terrified with the ac-
counts given by these four men, (for it seems they did escape the
sea) that they believed, whoever went to that enchanted island,
would be destroyed with fire from the gods.
This, however, I knew not, and therefore was under continual
apprehensions for a good while, and kept always upon my guard,
I and all my army; for as there were now four of us, I would
have ventured upon a hundred of them fairly in the open field at
any time.
In a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the fear
of their coming wore off; and I began to take my former thoughts
of a voyage to the main into consideration, being likewise assured
by Friday's father, that I might depend upon good usage from
their nation on his account, if I would go.
“. . CHAP. XVII.
I learn from the Spaniard that there were sirteen more of his
Countrymen among the Savages—The Spaniard and Friday’s
Father, well armed, sail on a Mission to the Continent—I dis-
cover an English Ship lying at Anchor off the Island—Her
Boat comes on Shore with three Prisoners—The Crea, struggle
into the Woods, their Boat being aground—Discover myself to
the Prisoners, who prove to be the Captain and Mate of the
Wessel, and a Passenger—Secure the Mutineers.
BUT my thoughts were a little suspended, when I had a serious
OF ROBIN SON C R USOE, 183
discourse with the Spaniard, and when I understood, that there
were sixteen more of his countrymen and Portugueze, who ha-
ving been cast away, and made their escape to that side, lived
there at peace indeed with the savages, but were very sore put to
it for necessaries, and indeed for life. I asked him all the par-
ticulars of their voyage; and found they were a Spanish ship,
bound from the Rio de la Plata to the Havanna, being directed
to leave their loading there, which was chiefly hides and silver,
and to bring back what European goods they could meet with
there; that they had five Portugueze seamen on board, whom
they took out of another wreck; that five of their own men were
drowned when first the ship was lost; and that these escaped
through infinite dangers and hazards, and arrived almost starved
on the cannibal coast, where they expected to have been devour-
ed every moment.
He told me, they had some arms with them, but they were per-
fectly useless; for that they had neither powder nor ball, the
washing of the sea having spoiled all their powder, but a little
which they used at their first landing to provide themselves some
food.
I asked him what he thought would become of them there; and
if they had formed no design of making any escape? He said, the
had many consultations about it; but that having neither vessel,
nor tools to build one, or provisions of any kind, their counsels al-
ways ended in tears and despair. $
I asked him how he thought they would receive a proposal from
me, which might tend towards an escape; and whether, if they
were all here, it might not be done : I told him with freedom, I
feared mostly their treachery and ill usage of me, if I put my life
in their hands; for that gratitude was no inherent virtue in the
nature of man; nor did men always square their dealings by the
obligations they had received, so much as they did by the advan-
tages they expected: I told him, it would be very hard, that I should
be the instrument of their deliverance, and that they should after-
wards make me their prisoner in New Spain, where an English-
man was certain to be made a sacrifice, what necessity, or what
accident soever, brought him thither; and that I had rather be
delivered up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall into
the merciless claws of the priests, and be carried into the Inqui-
sition. I added, that otherwise I was persuaded, if they were all
here, we might, with so many hands, build a bark large enough to
carry us all away either to the Brazils southward, or to the islands
or Spanish coast northward: but that if in requital they should,
when I had put weapons into their hands, carry me by force among
their own people, I might be ill used for my kindness to them, and
make my case worse than it was before.
He answered, with a great deal of candour and ingenuity, that
184 - LIFE AND A D VENTURES
their condition was so miserable, and that they were so sensible of
it, that he believed they would abhor the thought of using any man
unkindly that should contribute to their deliverance; and that if
I pleased, he would go to them with the old man, and discourse with
them about it, and return again, and bring me their answer: that
he would make conditions with them upon their solemn oath, that
they would be absolutely under my leading, as their commander
and captain; and that they should swear upon the holy Sacra-
ments and Gospel, to be true to me, and go to such Christian
country as I should agree to, and no other; and to be directed
wholly and absolutely by my orders, till they were landed safely
in such country as I intended; and that he would bring a contract
from them under their hands for that purpose.
Then he told me, he would first swear to me himself, that he
would never stir from me as long as he lived, till I gave him order;
and that he would take my side to the last drop of blood, if there
should happen the least breach of faith among his countrymen.
He told me, they were all of them very civil honest men, and
they were under the greatest distress imaginable, having neither
weapons or clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy and discretion
of the savages; out of all hopes of ever returning to their own
country; and that he was sure, if I would undertake their relief,
they would live and die by me.
Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve them
if possible, and to send the old savage and this Spaniard over to
them to treat: but when he had gotten all things in readiness to
go, the Spaniard himself started an objection, which had so much
#. in it on one hand, and so mtich sincerity on the other
and, that I could not but be very well satisfied in it; and, by his
advice, put off the deliverance of his contrades for at least half
a year. The case was this.
He had been with us now about a month; during which time I
had let him see in what manner I had provided, with the assist-
ance of Providence, for my support ; and he saw evidently what
stock of corn and rice I had laid up ; which, as it was more
than sufficient for myself, so it was not sufficient, at least with-
out good husbandry, for my family, now it was increased to num-
ber four : but much less would it be sufficient, if his countrymen,
who were, as he said, fourteen still alive, should come over; and
least of all would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, if we should
build one, for a voyage to any of the Uhristian colonies of Ame-
rica. So he told me, he thought it would be more advisable, to
let him and the other two dig and cultivate some more land, as
much as I could spare seed to sow; and that we should wait an-
other harvest, that we might have a supply of corn for his country-
men when they should come; for want might be a temptation to
them to disagree, or not to think themselves delivered, otherwise
OF ROBIN SO N C R US OE, 185
than out of one difficulty into another. You know, says he, the
children of Israel, though they rejoiced at first at their being de-
livered out of Egypt, yet rebelled even against God himself, that
delivered them, when they came to want bread in the wilderness.
His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, that I
could not but be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as I
was satisfied with his fidelity. So we fell to digging, all four of
us, as well as the wooden tools we were furnished with perinitted;
and in about a month’s time, by the end of which it was seed-
time, we had gotten as much land cured and trimmed up as we
sowed twenty-two bushels of barley on, and sixteen jars of rice,
which was, in short, all the seed we had to spare ; nor indeed did
we leave ourselves barely sufficient for our own food for the six
months that we had to expect our crop, that is to say, reckoning
from the time we set our seed aside for sowing; for it is not to be
supposed it is six months in the ground in that country.
Having now society enough, and our number being sufficient to
put us out of fear of the savages, if they had come, unless their
number had been very great, we went freely all over the island,
wherever we found occasion; and as here we had our escape or
deliverance upon our thoughts, it was impossible, at least for me,
to have the means of it out of mine ; to this purpose, I marked
out several trees, which I thought fit for our work, and I set Friday
and his father to cutting them down; and then I caused the Spa-
niard, to whom I imparted my thoughts on that affair, to oversee
and direct their work: I showed them with what indefatigable
pains I had hewed a large tree into single planks, and I caused
them to do the like, till they had made about a dozen large planks
of good oak, near two feet broad, thirty-five feet long, and from
two inches to four inches thick: what prodigious labour it took
up, any one may imagine.
At the same time I contrived to increase my little flock of tame
goats as much as I could ; and to this purpose I made Friday and
the Spaniard to go out one day, and myself with Friday the next
day, for we took our turns: and by this means we got about
twenty young kids to breed up with the rest; for whenever we
shot the dam, we saved the kids, and added them to our flock:
but above all, the season for curing the grapes coming on, I caused
such a prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sum, that I be-,
lieve, had we been at Alicant, where the raisins of the sun are
cured, we should have filled sixty or eighty barrels; and these, with
our bread, was a great part of our food, and very good living too,
I assure you ; for it is an exceeding mourishing food.
It was now harvest, and our crop in good order; it was not
the most plentiful increase I had seen in the island, but, however,
it was enough to answer our end; for from twenty two bushels
of barley, we brought in and threshed out above two hundred and
186 LIFE AN ID A DVENTURES
twenty bushels, and the like in proportion of the rice, which was
store enough for our food to the next harvest, though all the six-
teen Spaniards had been on shore with me; or, if we had been
ready for a voyage, it would very plentifully have victualled our
ship, to have carried us to any part of the world, that is to say, of
America. When we had thus housed and secured our magazine
of corn, we fell to work to make more wicker-work; viz. great
baskets, in which we kept it; and the Spaniard was very handy
and dexterous at this part, and often blamed me, that I did not
make some things for defence of this kind of work; but I saw no
need of it. And now having a full supply of food for all the
guests expected, I gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main,
to see what he could do with those he left behind him there : I
gave him a strict charge in writing not to bring any man with
him, who would not first swear in the presence of himself and
of the old savage, that he would no way injure, fight with, or at-
tack the person he should find in the island, who was so kind to
send for them, in order to their deliverance ; but that they would
stand by and defend him against all such attempts ; and wherever
they went, would be entirely under, and subjected to his com-
mand ; and that this should be put in writing, and signed with
their hands: how we were to have this done, when l knew they
had neither pen or ink, that indeed was a question which we
never asked.
Untier these instructions, the Spaniard, and the old savage (the
father of Friday,) went away in one of the canoes, which they
might be said to come in, or rather were brought in, when they
came as prisoners to be devoured by the savages.
I gave each of them a musket with a firelock on it, and about
eight charges of powder and ball, charging them to be very good
husbands of both, and not to use either of them but upon urgent
occasions.
This was a chearful work, being the first measures used by me
in view of my deliverance for now twenty-seven years and some
days. I gave them provisions of bread, and of dried grapes, suf-
ficient for themselves for many days, and sufficient for their
countrymen for about eight days time ; and wishing them a
good voyage, I let them go, agreeing with them about a signal
they should hang out at their return, by which I should know
them again, when they came back, at a distance, before they
came on shore.
They went away with a fair gale on the day that the moon
was at the full; by my account in the month of October; but
as for the exact reckoning of days, after I had once lost it, I
could never recover it again; nor had I kept even the number of
years so punctually, as to be sure that I was right, though, as it
of Rop INson crusoe. 187
P. when I afterwards examined my account, I found I had
ept a true reckoning of years. *-
It was no less than eight days I waited for them, when a strange
and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not,
perhaps, been heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch
one morning, when my man Friday came running in to me, and
called aloud, Master, master, they are come, they are come !
I jumped up, and, regardless of danger, I went out as soon as
I could get my clothes on, through my little grove, which (by
the way) was by this time grown to be a very thick wood ; I
say, regardless of danger, I went without my arms, which was
not my custom to do; but I was surprised, when, turning my
eyes to the sea, I presently saw a boat at about a league and a
half’s distance, standing in for shore, with a shoulder-of-mutton
sail, as they call it, and the wind blowing pretty fair to bring them
in. Also I observed presently, that they did not come from that
side which the shore lay on, but from the southernmost end of
the island. Upon this I called Friday in, and bid him lie close,
for these were not the people we looked for, and that we did not
know yet whether they were friends or enemies.
In the next place, I went in to fetch my perspective-glass, to
see what I could make of them; and having taken the ladder
out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used to do when I
was applehensive of any thing, and to take my view the plainer
without being discovered.
I had scarce set my toot on the hill, when my eye plainly dis-
covered a silip lying at an anchor, at about two leagues and a
half’s distance from me, S. S. E., but not above a league and a
half from the shore. By my observation it appeared plainly to be
an English ship, and the boat appeared to be an English long-boat.
I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy of see-
ing a ship, and one which I had reason to believe was manned by
my own countrymen, and consequently friends, was such as I can-
not describe; but yet I had some secret doubts hung about me, I
cannot tell from whence they came, bidding me keep upon my
guard. In the first place, it occurred to me to consider what bu-
siness an English ship could have in that part of the world; since
it was not the way to or from any part of the world where the
English had any traffic; and I knew there had been no storms to
drive them in there, as in distress; and that if they were English
really, it was most probable that they were here upon no good
design; and that I had better continue as I was, than fall into the
hands of thieves and murderers.
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger
which sometimes are given him when he may think there is no
possibility of its being real. That such hints and notices are given
us, I believe few that have made any observation of things can
188 LIFE AND ADvTENTURES
deny; that they are certain discoveries of an invisible world, and
a converse of spirits, we cannot doubt; and if the tendency of
them seems to be to warn us of danger, why should we not sup-
pose they are from some friendly agent, (whether supreme, or in-
ferior and subordinate, is not the question,) and that they are
given for our good
The present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of
this reasoning; for had I not been made cautious by this secret
admonition, come from whence it will, I had been undone inevi-
tably, and in a far worse condition than before, as you will see pre-
sently.
I id not kept myself long in this posture, but I saw the boat
draw near the shore, as if they looked for a creek to thrust in at
for the convenience of landing; however, as they did not come
quite far enough, they did not see the little inlet where I former-
ly landed my rafts, but run their boat on shore upon the beach,
at about half a mile from me, which was very happy for me; for
otherwise they would have landed just, as I may say, at my door,
and would have soon beaten me out of my castle, and, perhaps,
have plundered me of all I had.
When they were on shore, I was fully satisfied they were Eng-
lishmen, at least most of them; one or two I thought were Dutch,
but it did not prove so. There were in all eleven men, whereof
three of them I found were unarmed, and (as I thought) bound;
and when the first four or five of them were jumped on shore,
they took those three out of the boat as prisoners; one of the
three I could perceive using the most passionate gestures of en-
treaty, affliction; and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the
other two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands sometimes, and
appeared concerned indeed, but not to such a degree as the first.
... I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what
the meaning of it should be ; Friday called out to me in English,
as well as he could, Oh master you see English mans eat prison-
ers as well as savage mans.—Why, said I, Friday, do you think
they are going to eat them then 3–Yes, says Friday, they will eat
them.—No, no, said I, Friday; I am afraid they will murder them
indeed; but you may be sure they will not eat them.
All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was,
but stood trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every
moment when the three prisoners should be killed; nay, once I
saw one of the villains lift up his arm with a great cutlass (as
the seamen call it) or sword, to strike one of the poor men; and
I expected to see him fall every moment, at which all the blood
in my body seemed to run chill in my veins. ,
I wished heartily now for our Spaniard, and the savage that
was gone with him; or that I had any way to have come undis-
covered within shot of them, that I might have rescued the three
of Robinson CRUsor. 189
men; for I saw no fire-arms they had among them; but it fell
eut to my mind another way. - -
After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by
the insolent seamen, I observed the fellows ran scattering about
the land, as if they wanted to see the country. I observed also,
that the three other men had liberty to go where they pleased;
but they sat down all three upon the ground very pensive, and
looked like men in despair.
This put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore,
and began to look about me; how I gave myself over for host, *
how wildly I looked round me, what dreadful apprehensions I
had, and how I lodged in the tree all night for fear of being de-
voured by wild beasts.
As I knew nothing that night of the supply I was to receive by
the providential driving of the ship nearer the land, by the storms
and tides, by which I have since been so long nourished and sup-
ported; so these three poor desolate men knew nothing how cer-
tain of deliverance and supply they were, how near it was to
them, and how effectually and really they were in a condition of
safety, at the same time they thought themselves lost, and their
case desperate. - -
So iittle do we see before us in the world, and so much reason
have we to depend chearfully upon the great Maker of the world,
that he does not leave his creatures so absolutely destitute, but
that in the worst circumstances they have always something to be
thankful for, and sometimes are nearer their deliverance than they .
imagine; nay, are even brought to their deliverance by the means
by which they seem to be brought to their destruction.
It was just at the top of high water when these people came
on shore, and while partly they stood parleying with the prisoners
they brought, and partly while they rambled about to see what
kind of place they were in, they had carelessly staid till the tide
was spent, and the water was ebbed considerably away, leaving
their boat aground.
They had left two men in the boat, who, as I found afterwards,
having drank a little too much brandy, fell asleep ; however, one
of them waking sooner than the other, and finding the boat too
fast aground for him to stir it, hallooed for the rest who were
straggling about, upon which they all soon came to the boat ; but
it was past all their strength to launch her, the boat being very
heavy, and the shore on that side being a soft oozy sand, almost
like a quicksand.
In this condition, like true seamen, who are, perhaps, the least
of all mankind given to forethought, they gave it over, and away
they strolled about the country again; and I heard one of them
say aloud to another (calling them off from the boat), Why, let
her alone, Jack, can’t ye 2 she’ll float next tide. By, which I was
190 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
fully confirmed in the main inquiry, of what countrymen they
Were. - *
All this while I kept myself close, not once daring to stir out of
my castle, any farther than to my place of observation, near the
top of the hill; and very glad I was, to think how well it was for-
tified. I knew it was no less than ten hours before the boat
could be on float again, and by that time it would be dark, and I
might be more at liberty to see their motions, and to hear their
discourse, if they had any.
In the mean time I fitted myself up for a battle, as before,
though with more caution, knowing I had to do with another
kind of enemy than I had at first : I ordered Friday also, whom I
had made an excellent marksman with his gun, to load himself
with arms : I took myself two fowling pieces, and I gave him
three muskets. My figure, indeed, was very fierce; I had my
formidable goat-skin coat on, with the great cap I mentioned,
a naked sword, two pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each
shoulder.
It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any at-
tempt till it was dark; but about two o'clock, being the heat of
the day, I found that in short they were all gone straggling into
the woods, and, as I thought, were all laid down to sleep. The
three poor distressed men, too anxious for their condition to get
any sleep, were, however, set down under the shelter of a great
tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me, and as I thought out
of sight of any of the rest.
Upon this I resolved to discover myself to them, and learn
something of their condition. Immediately I marched in the
figure above, my man Friday at a good distance behind me, as for-
midable for his arms as I, but not making quite so staring a spec-
tre-like figure as I did.
I came as near them undiscovered as I could, and then, be-
fore any of them saw me, I called aloud to them in Spanish,
What are ye, gentlemen : -
They started up at the noise, but were ten times more con-
founded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure that I made :
they made no answer at all, but I thought I perceived them just
going to fly from me, when I spoke to them in English: Gentle-
men, said I, do not be surprised at me; perhaps you may have
a friend near you, when you did not expect it.—He must be sent
directly from Heaven then, said one of them very gravely to me,
pulling off his hat at the same time, for our condition is past the
help of man.-All help is from Heaven, sir, said I : but can you
put a stranger in the way how to help you? For you seem to me
to be in some great distress: I saw you when you landed ; and
when you seemed to make application to the brutes that came
with you, I saw one of them lift up his sword to kill you.
OF RO BIN SON CRUSO E. 191
The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trem-
bling, looking like one astonished, returned, Am I talking to God
or man 2 Is it a real man or an angel?—Be in no fear about that,
sir, said I: if God had sent an angel to relieve you, he would
have come better clothed, and armed after another manner than
you see me in ; pray lay aside your fears; I am a man, an Eng-
lishman, and disposed to assist you; you see I have one servant
only; we have arms and ammunition; tell us freely can we serve
you ? What is your case?
Our case, said he, sir, is too long to tell you, while our murder-
ers are so near; but in short, sir, I was commander of that ship;
my men having mutinied against me, they have been hardly pre-
vailed on not to murder me, and at last have set me on shore in
this desolate place, with these two men with me, one my mate,
the other a passenger, where we expected to perish, believing
the place to be uninhabited, and know not yet what to think
of it. -
Where are those brutes, your enemies? said I; do you know
where they are gone?—There they are, sir, said he, pointing to
a thicket of trees; my heart trembles for fear they have seen us,
and heard you speak; if they have, they will certainly murder
us all.
Have they any fire-arms? said I; he answered, They had only
two pieces, and one which they left in the boat.—Well then, said
I, leave the rest to me; I see they are all asleep; it is an easy
thing to kill them all; but shall we rather take them prisoners?
He told me there were two desperate villains among them, that
it was scarce safe to show any mercy to ; but if they were secu-
red, he believed all the rest would return to their duty: I asked
him, which they were? He told me, he could not at that distance
describe them; but he would obey my orders in any thing I
would direct.—Well, said I, let us retreat out of their view or
hearing, lest they awake, and we will resolve farther; so they
willingly went back with me, till the woods covered us from them.
Look you, sir, said I, if I venture upon your deliverance, are
you willing to make two conditions with me? He anticipated my .
proposals, by telling me, that both he and the ship, if recovered,
should be wholly directed and commanded by me in every thing;
and if the ship was not recovered, he would live and die with me
in what part of the world soever I would send him; and the two
other men said the same.
Well, said I, my conditions are but two: 1. That while you
stay on this island with me, you will not pretend to any authority
here; and if I put arms into your hands, you will upon all occa-
sions give them up to me, and do no prejudice to me or mine, up-
on this island, and in the mean time to be governed by my orders.
192 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
2. That if the ship is or may be recovered, you will carry me
and my man to England, passage free.
He gave me all the assurance that the invention or faith of a
man could devise, that he would comply with these most reason-
able demands; and besides, would owe his life to me, and acknow-
ledge it upon all occasions as long as he lived.
Well, then, said I, here are three muskets for you, with pow-
der and ball; tell me next what you think is proper to be done.
He showed all the testimony of his gratitude that he was able;
but offered to be wholly guided by me: I told him, I thought it
was hard venturing anything, but the best method I could think
of was, to fire upon them at once, as they lay ; and if any were
not killed at the first volley, and offered to submit, we might save
them, and so put it wholly upon God’s providence to direct the
shot. - -
He said, very modestly, that he was loath to kill them, if he
could help it; but that those two were incorrigible villains, and
had been the authors of all the mutiny in the ship, and if they
escaped, we should be undone still; for they would go on board,
and bring the whole ship's company, and destroy us all.—Well,
then, said I, necessity legitimates my advice; for it is the only
way to save our lives. However, seeing him still cautious of shed-
ding blood, I told him, they should go themselves, and manage as
they found convenient.
In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake,
and soon after we saw two of them on their feet. I asked him,
if either of them were the men, who he had said were the heads
of the mutiny ? He said, No.—Well, then, said I, you may let
them escape, and Providence seems to have wakened them on
purpose to save themselves. Now, said I, if the rest escape you,
it is your fault.
Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him in
his hand, and pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him,
with each man a piece in his hand: the two men who were with
him, going first, made some noise, at which one of the seamen,
who was awake, turned about, and seeing them coming, cried out
to the rest; but it was too late then, for the moment he cried out,
they fired; I mean the two men, the captain wisely reserving his
own piece: they had so well aimed their shot at the men they
knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the other
very much wounded; but not being dead, he started up on his
feet, and called eagerly for help to the other ; but the captain
stepping to him, told him it was too late to cry for help, he
should call upon God to forgive his villainy; and with that word
knocked him down with the stock of his musket, so that he never
spoke more : there were three more in the company, and one of
them was also slightly wounded. By this time I was come; and
61, ROBIN SON Cºlu SOE, ig3
when they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they
begged for mercy. The captain told them he would spare their
lives, if they would give him any assurance of their abhorrence of
the treachery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faith-
ful to him in recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her
back to Jamaica, from whence they came. They gave him all the
protestations of their sincerity that could be desired, and he was
willing to believe them, and spare their lives, which I was not
against; only I obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot
while they were upon the island. . . ;
While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain’s mate to
the boat, with orders to secure her, and bring away the oars and
sail, which they did ; and by and by, three straggling men, that
were (happily for them) parted from the rest, came back upon
hearing the guns fired; and seeing their captain, who before was
their prisoner, now their conqueror, they submitted to be bound
also; and so our victory was complete.
It now remained that the captain and I should inquire into one
another’s circumstances: I began first, and told him my whole
history, which he heard with an attention even to amazement, and
particularly at the wonderful manner of my being furnished with
provisions and ammunition ; and, indeed, as my whole story is a
collection of wonders, it affected him deeply; but when he reflect-
ed from thence upon himself, and how I seemed to have been
reserved there on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down
is face, and he could not speak a word more.
After this communication was at an end, I carried him and his
two men into my apartments, leading them in just where I came
out, viz. at the top of the house; where I refreshed them with
such provisions as I had, and showed them all the contrivances I
had made during my long, long inhabiting that place.
All I showed them, all I said to them, was perfectly amazing;
but, above all, the captain admired my fortification; and how per-
fectly I had concealed my retreat with a grove of trees, which,
having now been planted near twenty years, and the trees grow-
ing much faster than in England, was become a little wood, and
so thick, that it was unpassable in any part of it, but at that one
side where I had reserved my little winding passage into it: this
I told him was my castle, and my residence; but that I had a seat
in the country, as most princes have, whither I could retreat upon
occasion, and I wouls' show him that too another time; but at
present our business was to consider how to recover the ship.
He agreed with me as to that; but told me he was perfectly at a
loss what measures to take; for that there were still six-and-
twenty hands on board, who having entered into a cursed con-
spiracy, by which they had all forfeited their lives to the law,
would be hardened in it now by desperation; and would carry it
I
194 I, IFE AND ADVENTURES
on, knowing that, if they were reduced, they should be brought
to the gallows as soon as they came to England, or to any of the
English colonies; and that therefore there would be no attacking
them with so small a number as we were.
I mused for some time upon what he had said, and found it
was a very rational conclusion, and that therefore something was
to be resolved on very speedily, as well to draw the men on board
into some snare for their surprise, as to prevent their landing up-
on us, and destroying us. Upon this, it presently occurred to me,
that in a little while, the ship’s crew wondering what was become
of their comrades, and of the boat, would certainly come on shore
in their other boat to see for them; and that then perhaps they
might come armed, and be too strong for us: this he allowed was
rational.
Upon this I told him, the first thing we had to do was to stave
the boat, which lay upon the beach, so that they might not carry
her off; and taking every thing out of her, leave her so far useless
as not to be fit to swim. Accordingly we went on board, took
the arms which were left on board out of her, and whatever else
we found there, which was a bottle of brandy and another of rum,
a few biscuit cakes, an horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar
in a piece of canvas; the sugar was five or six pounds; all which
was very welcome to me, especially the brandy and sugar, of
which I had had mone left for many years. \ ,
When we had carried all these things on shore, (the oars,
mast, sail, and rudder of the boat were carried before as above,)
we knocked a great hole in her bottom, that if they had come
strong enough to master us, yet they could not carry off the boat.
Indeed it was not much in my thoughts, that we could be ca-
pable to recover the ship; but my view was, that if they went
away without the boat, I did not much question to make her fit
again to carry us away to the Leeward Islands, and call upon our
friends the Spaniards in my way, for I had them still in my
thoughts.
CHAP. XVIII.
The Ship makes Signals for her Boat—On receiving no answer,
she sends another Boat on Shore—Methods by which we secure
this Boat’s Crew, and recover the Ship.
WHILE we were thus preparing our designs, and had first by
main strength heaved the boat up upon the beach, so high that the
tide would not float her off at high water mark; and, besides, had
broken a hole in her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and
were sat down musing what we should do; we heard the ship fire
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 195
a gun, and saw her make a waft with her ancient, as a signal for
the boat to come on board: but no boat stirred; and they fired
several times, making other signals for the boat. o
At last, when all their signals and firings proved fruitless, and
they found the boat did not stir, we saw them (by the help of our
glasses) hoist another boat out, and row towards the shore ; and
we found, as they approached, that there were no less than ten
men in her, and that they had fire-arms with them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a
full view of them as they came, and a plain sight of the men, even
of their faces; because the tide having set them a little to the east
of the other boat, they rowed up under shore, to come to the same
place where the other had landed, and where the boat lay.
By this means, I say, we had a full view of them, and the cap-
tain knew the persons and characters of all the men in the boat;
of whom he said that there were three very honest fellows, who
he was sure were led into this conspiracy by the rest, being over-
powered and frighted: but that for the boatswain, who, it seems,
was the chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were as
outrageous as any of the ship's crew ; and were, no doubt, made
desperate in their new enterprize; and terribly apprehensive he
was, that they would be too powerful for us.
I smiled at him, and told him, that men in our circumstances
were past the operations of fear: that seeing almost every con-
dition that could be was better than that we were supposed to
be in, we ought to expect that the consequence, whether death or
life, would be sure to be a deliverance: I asked him, what he
thought of the circumstances of my life, and whether a deliverance
were not worth venturing for 2 And where, sir, said I, is your belief
of my being preserved here on purpose to save your life, which
elevated you a little while ago? For my part, said I, there seems
to be only one thing amiss in all the prospect of it.—What’s that ?
says he.—Why, said I, 'tis that, as you say, there are three or four
honest fellows among them, which should be spared; had they
been all of the wicked part of the crew, I should have thought
God’s providence had singled them out to deliver them into your
hands: for, depend upon it, every man of them that comes ashore
are our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us.
As I spoke this with a raised voice and chearful countenance,
I found it greatly encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our
business. We had, upon the first appearance of the boat’s coming
from the ship, considered of separating our prisoners, and had in.
deed secured them effectually.
Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than or-
dinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three (delivered men)
to my cave, where they were remote enough, and out of danger
of being heard or discovered, or of finding their way out of the

196 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
woods, if they could have delivered themselves: here they left
them bound, but gave them provisions, and promised them if
they continued there quietly, to give them their liberty in a day
or two; but that if they attempted their escape, they should be
put to death without mercy. They promised faithfully to bear
their confinement with patience, and were very thankful that
they had such good usage as to have provisions and a light left
them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves)
for their comfort; and they did not know but that he stood sen-
tinel over them at the entrance. .
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept
F. indeed, because the captain was not free to trust them;
ut the other two were taken into my service upon their captain's
recommendation, and upon their solemnly engaging to live and
die with us; so, with them and the three honest men, we were
seven men well armed; and I made no doubt we should be able
to deal well enough with the ten that were a-coming, considering
that the captain had said, there were three or four honest men
among them also. -
As soon as they got to the place where their other boat lay,
they ran their boat into the beach, and came all on shore, hauling
the boat up after them, which I was glad to see; for I was afraid
they would rather have left the boat at an anchor, some distance
from the shore, with some hands in her to guard her; and so we
should not be able to seize the boat.
Being on shore, the first thing they did, they ran all to the other
boat; and it was easy to see they were under a great surprise to
find her stripped as above, of all that was in her, and a great hole
in her bottom.
After they had mused a while upon this, they set up two or
three great shouts, hallooing with all their might, to try if they
would make their companions hear; but all was to no purpose :
then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of their
small arms, which indeed we heard, and the echoes made the
woods ring; but it was all one: those in the cave, we were sure,
could not hear; and those in our keeping, though they heard it
well enough, yet durst give no answer to them.
They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that, as they
told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again to their
ship, and let them know there, that the men were all murdered,
...? the long boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launch-
ed the boat again, and got all of them on board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded at this,
believing they would go on board the ship again and set sail, giving
their comrades up for lost, and so he should still lose the ship,
which he was in hopes we should have recovered; but he was
Quickly as much frighted the other way.



OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 197
They had not been long put off with the boat, but we perceived
them all coming on shore again; but with this new measure in
their conduct, which it seems they consulted together upon ; viz.
to leave three men in the boat, and the rest to go on shore, and
go up into the country to look for their fellows.
This was a great disappointment to us; for now we were at a
loss what to do; for our seizing those seven men on shore would
be no advantage to us if we let the boat escape, because they would
then row away to the ship; and then the rest of them would be
º: to weigh, and set sail, and so our recovering the ship would
e lost.
However, we had no remedy but to wait and see what the issue
of things might present. The seven men came on shore, and the
three who remained in the boat put her off to a good distance
from the shore, and came to an anchor to wait for them; so that
it was impossible for us to come at them in the boat.
Those that came on shore kept close together, marching to-
wards the top of the little hill, under which my habitation lay;
and we could see them plainly, though they could not perceive us?
we could have been very glad they would have come nearer to
us, so that we might have fired at them; or that they would have
gone farther off, that we might have come abroad.
But when they were come to the brow of the hill, where they
could see a great way in the valley and woods, which lay towards
the north-east part, and where the island lay lowest, they shouted
and hallooed till they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to
venture far from the shore, nor far from one another, they sat
down together under a tree, to consider of it: had they thought
fit to have gone to sleep there, as the other party of them had done,
they had done the job for us; but they were too full of appre-
hensions of danger, to venture to go to sleep, though they could
not tell what the danger was they had to fear neither.
The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consul-
tation of theirs; viz. that perhaps they would all fire a volley again,
to endeavour to make their fellows hear, and that we should all
sally upon them, just at the juncture when their pieces were all
discharged, and they would certainly yield, and we should have
them without bloodshed. I liked the proposal, provided it was
done while we were near enough to come up to them, before
they could load their pieces again.
But this event did not happen, and we lay still a long time very
irresolute what course to take; at length I told them, there would
be nothing to be done in my opinion till night; and then, if they
did not return to the boat, perhaps we might find a way to get be-
tween them and the shore, and so might use some stratagem with
them in the boat, to get them on shore.
We waited a great while, though very impatient for their remo-

198 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
wing, and were very uneasy; when, after long consultations, we
saw them start all tip, and march down toward the sea: it seems
they had such dreadful apprehensions upon them of the danger of
the place, that they resolved to go on board the ship again, give
their companions over for lost, and so go on with their intended
voyage with the ship.
. As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I ima-
gined, it to be as it really was; that they had given over their
search, and were for going back again; and the captain, as soon
as I had told him my thoughts, was ready to sink at the ap-
Prehensions of it; but I presently thought of a stratagem to fetch
them back again, and which answered my end to a little.
I ordered Friday, and the captain’s mate, to go over the little
creek westward, towards the place where the savages came on
shore when Friday was rescued; and as soon as they came to a
little rising ground, at about half a mile's distance, I bade them
halloo as loud as they could, and wait till they found the seamen
heard them; that as soon as ever they heard the seamen answer
them, they should return it again, and then, keeping out of sight,
take a round, always answering when the others hallooed, to
draw them as far into the island, and among the woods, as pos-
sible, and then wheel about again to me, by such ways as I di-
rected. - , •
They were just going into the boat, when Friday and the mate
hallooed, and they presently heard them, and answering, ran
along the shore westward, towards the voice they heard, when
they were presently stopped by the creek, where the water being
up, they could not get over, and called for the boat to come up,
and set them over, as indeed I expected. -
When they had set themselves over, I observed that the boat
being gone up a good way into the creek, and as it were in an har-
bour within the land, they took one of the three men out of her
to go along with them, and left only two in the boat, having fast-
ened her to the stump of a little tree on the shore.
This was what I wished for, and º leaving Friday
and t're captain’s mate to their business, I took the rest with me,
and, crossing the creek out of their sight, we surprised the two
men before they were aware, one of them lying on shore, and the
other being in the boat; the fellow on shore was between sleep-
ing and waking, and, going to start up, the captain, who was
foremost, ran in upon him and knocked him down, and then call-
ed out to him in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man.
There needed very few arguments to persuade a single man to
yield, when he saw five men upon him, and his comrade knocked
ãown; besides, this was, it seems one of the three who were not
so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the crew, and therefore
OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE. 199
was easily persuaded not only to yield, but afterwards to join
very sincerely with us. 5-3
in the mean time, Friday and the captain's mate so well mana-
ged their business with the rest, that they drew them, by halloo-
ing and answering, from one hill to another, and from one wood to
another, till they not only heartily tired them, but left them where
they were very sure they could not reach back to the boat be-
fore it was dark; and indeed they were heartily tired themselves
also by the time they came back to us. -->
We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark,
and to fall upon them, so as to make sure work with them.
It was several hours after Friday came back to me before they
came back to their boat; and we could hear the foremost of them,
long before they came quite up, calling to those behind to come
along; and could also hear them answer, and complain how
lame and tired they were, and not being able to come any faster,
which was very welcome news to us.
At length they came up to the boat; but it is impossible to
express their confusion, when they found the boat fast aground
in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two men gone: we could
hear them call to one another in a most lamentable manner, tell-
ing one another they were gotten into an enchanted island; that
either there were inhabitants in it, and they should all be murder-
ed; or else there were devils or spirits in it, and they should be
all carried away and devoured.
They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their
names a great many times, but no answer: after some time, we
could see them, by the little light there was, run about wring-
ing their hands, like men in despair; and that sometimes they
would go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves, then come
ashore, and walk about again, and so the same thing over again.
My men would fain have had me give them leave to fall
upon them at once in the dark; but I was willing to take them
at Some advantage, so to spare them, and kill as few of them as I
could; and especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing any
of our men, knowing the other men were very well armed: I
resolved to wait to see if they did not separate; and therefore,
to make sure of them, I drew my ambuscade nearer; and order-
ed Friday and the captain to creep upon their hands and feet as
close to the ground as they could, that they might not be disco-
vered, and get as near them as they could possibly, before they
offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture, till the boatswain, who
was the principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown
himself the most dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walk-
ing towards them with two more of the crew ; the captain was so
eager, at having the principal rogue so much in his power, that
'?00 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
he could hardly have patience to let him come so near as to be
sure of him; for they only heard his tongue before: but when
they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting up on their
feet, let fly at them.
The boatswain was killed upon the spot; the next man was
shot in the body, and fell just by him, though he did not die till
an hour or two after; and the third ran for it. *.
At the noise of the fire, I immediately advanced with my whole
army, which was now eight men; viz. myself generalissimo; Fri-
day my lieutenant-general; the captain and his two men, and
the three prisoners of war, whom we had trusted with arms.
We came upon them indeed in the dark, so that they could
not see our number; and I made the man they had left in the
boat, who was now one of us, to call them by name, to try if
I could bring them to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce
them to terms; which fell out just as we desired: for indeed it
was easy to think, as their condition then was, they would be
very willing to capitulate; so he calls out, as loud as he could, to
one of them, Tom Smith, Tom Smith. Tom Smith answered im-
mediately, Who's that? Robinson For it seems he knew his
voice. The other answered, Ay, ay; for God’s sake, Tom Smith,
throw down your arms, and yield, or you are all dead men this
IIloment.
Who must we yield to ? where are they says Smith again.—
Here they are, says he ; here is our captain and fifty men with
him, have been hunting you this two hours; the boatswain is
killed, Will Frye is wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if you do
not yield, you are all lost.
Will they give us quarter, then says Tom Smith, and we will
yield—I’ll go and ask, if you promise to yield, says Robinson.
So he asked the captain, and the captain himself then calls out,
You, Smith, you know my voice, if you lay down your arms im-
mediately, and submit, you shall have your lives, all but Will
Atkins.
Upon this Will Atkins cried out, For God’s sake, captain, give
me quarter what have I done 2 they have all been as bad as I;
(which by the way was not true, either; for it seems this Will At-
kins was the first man that Haid hold of the captain when they
first mutinied, and used him barbarously, in tying his hands, and
giving him injurious language :) however, the captain told him he
must lay down his arms at discretion, and trust to the governor's
mercy, by which he meant me; for they all called me governor.
. In a word, they all laid down their arms, and begged their
lives; and I sent the man that had parleyed with them, and two
more, who bound them all; and then my great army of fifty men,
which, particularly with those three, were in all but eight, came



OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE. QO}.
up and seized upon them all, and upon their boat, only that I
kept myself and one more out of sight, for reasons of state. . .
Our next work was to repair the boat, and to think of seizing
the ship; and as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley
with them, he expostulated with them upon the villainy of their
practices with him, and at length, upon the farther wickedness
of their design; and how certainly it must bring them to misery
and distress in the end, and perhaps to the gallows. g
They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their
lives; as for that, he told them, they were none of his prisoners,
but the commander’s of the island; that they thought they had set
him on shore in a barren uninhabited island; but it had pleased
God so to direct them, that the island was inhabited, and that
the governor was an Englishman; that he might hang them all
there, if he pleased; but as he had given them all quarter, he sup-
posed he would send them to England, to be dealt with there as
justice required, except Atkins, whom he was commanded by the
governor to advise to prepare for death ; for that he would be
hanged in the morning.
Though this was all a fiction of his own, yet it had its desi-
red effect. Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the captain to in-
tercede with the governor for his life; and all the rest begged
of him for God’s sake, that they might not be sent to England.
It now occurred to me, that the time of our deliverance was
come, and that it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows
in to be hearty in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in
the dark from them, that they might not see what kind of a go-
vernor they had, and called the captain to me: when I called,
as at a good distance, one of the men was ordered to speak
again, and say to the captain, Captain, the commander calls for
you ; and presently the captain replied, Tell his excellency I am
just a-coming. This more perfectly amused them; and they all
believed that the commander was just by with his fifty men.
Upon the captain’s coming to me, I told him my project for sei-
zing the ship, which he liked wonderfully well, and resolved to
put it in execution the next morning.
But, in order to execute it with more art, and to be secure of
success, I told him we must divide the prisoners, and that he
should go and take Atkins, and two more of the worst of them,
and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay; this
was committed to Friday, and the two men who came on shore
with the captain.
They conveyed them to the cave, as to a prison; and it was
indeed a dismal place, especially to men in their condition.
The others I ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which I
have given a full description; and as it was fenced in, and they
I 2
202 LIFE AN ID ADVENTURES
pinioned, the place was secure enough, considering they were upon
their behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter
into a parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me, whe-
ther he thought they might be trusted or no, to go on board, and
surprise the ship. He talked to them of the injury done him, of
the condition they were brought to ; and that though the gover-
nor had given them quarter for their lives, as to the present ac-
tion, yet that if they were sent to England, they would all be hang-
ed in chains, to be sure; but that if they would join in such an
attempt as to recover the ship, he would have the governor’s en-
gagement for their pardon.
Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be ac-
cepted by men in their condition : they fell down on their knees
to the captain, and promised, with the deepest imprecations, that
they would be faithful to him to the last drop, and that they should
owe their lives to him, and would go with him all over the world;
that they would own him for a father to them as long as they lived.
Well, says the captain, I must go and tell the governor what
you say, and see what I can do to bring him to consent to it. So
he brought me an account of the temper he found them in ; and
that he verily believed they would be faithful.
However, that we might be very secure, I told him he should
go back again, and choose out five of them, and tell them, that
they should see that they did not want men; but he would take
out those five to be his assistants, and that the governor would
keep the other two, and the three that were sent prisoners to the
castle, (my cave,) as hostages for the fidelity of those five ; and
that, if they proved unfaithful in the execution, the five hosta-
ges should be hanged in chains alive upon the shore.
This looked severe, and convinced them that the governor was
in earnest; however, they had no way left them but to accept it ;
and it was now the business of the prisoners, as much as of the
captain, to persuade the other five to do their duty.
Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: 1. The
captain, his mate, and passenger. 2. Then the two prisoners of
the first gang, to whom, having their characters from the captain,
I had given their liberty, and trusted them with arms. 8. The
other two whom I kept till now in my bower pinioned ; but, upon
the captain's motion, had now been released. 4. These five relea-
sed at last: so that they were twelve in all, besides five we kept
prisoners in the cave for hostages.
I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands
on board the ship: for, as for me, and my man Friday, I did not
think it was proper for us to stir, having seven men left behind;
and it was employment enough for us to keep them asunder, and
supply them with victuals.
OF ROBIN SON CRUS OE. 2O3
As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast; but
Friday went twice a day to them, to supply them with necessa-
ries; and I made the other two carry provisions to a certain dis-
tance, where Friday was to take it. º
When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the
captain, who told them, I was the person the governor had order-
ed to look after them, and that it was the governor’s pleasure
that they should not stir any where but by my direction; that if
they did, they should be fetched into the castle, and be laid in
irons; so that as we never suffered them to see me as governor,
so I now appeared as another person, and spoke of the governor,
the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions.
The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish
his two boats, stop the breach of one, and man them: he made
his passenger captain of one, with four other men; and himself,
and his mate, and five more, went in the other: and they contri-
ved their business very well; for they came up to the ship about
midnight. As soon as they came within call of the ship, he made
Robinson hail them, and tell them he had brought off the men and
the boat, but that it was a long time before they had found them,
and the like; holding them in a chat, till they came to the ship's
side : when the captain and the mate, entering first with their
arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter
with the butt end of their muskets. Being very faithfully seconded
by their men, they secured all the rest that were upon the main
and quarter decks, and began to fasten the hatches to keep them
down who were below ; when the other boat, and their men, en-
tering at the forechains, secured the forecastle of the ship, and
the skuttle which went down into the cook-room, making three
men they found there prisoners.
When this was done, and all safe upon the deck, the captain or-
dered the mate, with three men, to break into the round-house,
where the new rebel captain lay, and, having taken the alarm,
was gotten up, and with two men and a boy had gotten fire-arms
in their hands; and when the mate with a crow split open the
door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and
wounded the mate with a musket-ball, which broke his arm, and
wounded two more of the men, but killed nobody. -
The mate, calling for help, rushed, however, into the round
house, wounded as he was, and with his pistol shot the new cap-
tain through the head, the bullets entering at his mouth, and came
out again behind one of his ears; so that he never spoke a word;
upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually
without any more lives being lost. -
As soon as the ship was thus secured, the Captain ordered seven
guns to be fired, which was the signal agreed upon with me, to
give me notice of his success; which you may be sure I was very
204 LIFE AND A D VENTURES
glad to hear, having sat watching upon the shore for it till near two
of the clock in the morning.
Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; and it
having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound, till
I was something surprised with the noise of a gun; and presently
starting up, I heard a man call me by the name of Governor, go-
vernorſ and presently I knew the captain’s voice; when climb-
ing up to the top of the hill, there he stood, and pointing to the
ship, he embraced me in his arms: My dear friend and deliverer,
says he, there's your ship, for she is all yours, and so are we, and
all that belong to her. I cast my eyes to the ship, and there she
rode within a little more than half a mile of the shore: for they
had weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters of her; and
the weather being fair, had brought her to an anchor just against
the mouth of a little creek; and the tide being up, the captain had
brought the pinnace in near the place where I first landed my
rafts, and so landed just at my door.
I was, at first, ready to sink down with the surprise: for I saw
my deliverance indeed visibly put into my hands, all things easy,
and a large ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to
go. At first, for some time, I was not able to answer one word;
but as he had taken me in his arms, I held fast by him, or I should
have fallen to the ground.
He perceived the surprise, and immediately pulled a bottle out
of his pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought
on purpose for me: after I drank it, I sat down upon the ground,
and though it brought me to myself, yet it was a good while be-
fore I could speak a word to him.
All this while the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only
not under any surprise, as I was: and he said a thousand kind ten-
der things to me, to compose and bring me to myself: but such
was the flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits into
confusion; at last it broke into tears, and in a little while after I
recovered my speech. *
Then I took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer; and
we rejoiced together: I told him, I looked upon him as a man
sent from Heaven to deliver me, and that the whole transaction
seemed to be a chain of wonders; that such things as these were
the testimonies we had of a secret hand of Providence governing
the world, and an evidence, that the eyes of an infinite power could
search into the remotest corner of the world, and send help to the
miserable whenever he pleased.
I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to Heaven; and
what heart could forbear to bless Him, who had not only in a mi-
raculous manner provided for one in such a wilderness, and in
, such a desolate condition, but from whom every deliverance must
always be acknowledged to proceed?
When we had talked a while, the captain told me, he had
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO.E. 205
brought me some little refreshments, such as the ship afforded
and such as the wretches who had been so long his masters had
not plundered him of. Upon this he called aloud to the boat, and
bids his men bring the things ashore that were for the governor;
and indeed it was a present, as if I had been one, not that I was
to be carried along with them, but as if I had been to dwell upon
the island still, and they were to go without me.
First, he had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent cor-
dial waters; six large bottles of Madeira wine, the bottles held two
quarts apiece; two pounds of excellent good tobacco, twelve good
pieces of the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of
pease, and about a hundred weight of biscuit.
He brought me also a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of
lemons, and two bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of other
things : but besides these, and what was a thousand times more
useful to me, he brought me six clean new shirts, six very good
neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes, a hat, and one
pair of stockings, and a very good suit of clothes of his own,
which had been worn but very little. In a word, he clothed me
from head to foot.
It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one may ima-
gine, to one in my circumstances; but never was any thing in
the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy, as
it was to me to wear such clothes at their first putting on.
After these ceremonies passed, and after all his good things
were brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what
was to be done with the prisoners we had ; for it was worth con-
sidering whether we might venture to take them away with us or
no, especially two of them, whom we knew to be incorrigible and
refractory to the last degree; and the captain said, he knew they
were such rogues, that there was no obliging them; and if he did
carry them away, it must be in irons, as malefactors, to be deliver-
ed over to justice at the first English colony he could come at;
and I found that the captain himself was very anxious about it.
Upon this, I told him, that, if he desired it, I durst undertake
to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own request
that he should leave them upon the island: I should be very glad
of that, says the captain, with all my heart. -
Well, said I, I will send for them, and talk with them for you :
so I caused Friday and the two hostages, for they were now dis-
charged, their comrades having performed their promise; I say,
I caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the five men,
pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep them there till I
Cà Iſle.
After some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit, and
now I was called governor again. Being all met, and the captain
with me, I caused the men to be brought before me, and I told
2O6 LIFE AND A DV ENTU RES
them, I had had a full account of their villainous behaviour to the
captain, and how they had run away with the ship, and were pre-
paring to commit farther robberies; but that Providence had en-
snared them in their own ways, and that they were fallen into
the pit which they had digged for others.
I let them know, that by my direction the ship had been sei-
zed, that she lay now in the road, and they might see by and by,
that their new captain had received the reward of his villainy; for
that they might see him hanging at the yard-arm ; that as to
them, I wanted to know what they had to say, why I should not
execute them as pirates taken in the fact, as by my commission
they could not doubt I had authority to do.
One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had
nothing to say but this, that when they were taken, the captain
promised them their lives, and they humbly implored my mercy:
but I told them I knew not what mercy to show them ; for, as for
myself, I had resolved to quit the island with all my men, and had
taken passage with the captain to go for England : and as for the
captain, he could not carry them to England, other than as pri-
soners in irons to be tried for mutiny, and running away with
the ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know, would
be the gallows; so that I could not tell which was best for them,
unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island; if they
desired that, I did not care, as I had liberty to leave it: I had
some inclination to give them their lives, if they thought they
could shift on shore. They seemed very thankful for it; said
they would much rather venture to stay there, than to be carried
to England to be hanged : so I left it on that issue.
However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as
if he durst not leave them there; upon this I seemed to be a little
angry with the captain, and told him, that they were my prison-
ers, not his; and that, seeing I had offered them so much favour,
I would be as good as my word; and that if he did not think
fit to consent to it, I would set them at liberty as I found them ;
and if he did not like that, he might take them again if he could
catch them.
Upon this they appeared very thankful, and I accordingly set
them at liberty, and bade them retire into the woods, to the place
whence they came, and I would leave them some fire-arms, some
ammunition, and some directions how they should live very well,
if they thought fit. &
Upon this, I prepared to go on board the ship ; but told the
captain, that I would stay that night to prepare my things; and
desired him to go on board in the mean time, and keep all right
in the ship, and send the boat on shore the next day for me :
ordering him in the mean time to cause the new captain, who
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 20?
was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that these men might
see him.
When the captain was gone, I sent for the men up, to me to
my apartment, and entered seriously into discourse with them of
their circumstances: I told them, I thought they had made a
right choice; that if the captain carried them away, they would
certainly be hanged: I showed them their captain hanging at the
yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had nothing less to
expect.
When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then
told them, I would let them into the story of my living there, and
put them into the way of making it easy to them : accordingly
I gave them the whole history of the place, and of my coming
to it; showed them my fortifications, the way I made my bread,
planted my corn, cured my grapes; and, in a word, all that was
necessary to make them easy. I told them the story of the six-
teen Spaniards that were to be expected; for whom I left a let-
ter, and made them promise to treat them in common with them-
selves.
I left them my fire-arms, viz. five muskets, three fowling-pieces,
and three swords: I had about a barrel of powder left; for after
the first year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave
them a description of the way I managed the goats, and direc-
tions to milk and fatten them, to make both butter and cheese.
In a word, I gave them every part of my own story; and I told
them, I would prevail with the captain to leave them two barrels
of gunpowder more, and some garden-seed, which I told them I
would have been very glad of; also I gave them the bag of pease
which the captain had brought me to eat, and bade them be sure
to sow and increase them.
Having done all this, I left them the next day and went on
board the ship ; we prepared immediately to sail, but did not
weigh that night: the next morning early, two of the five men
came swimming to the ship's side, and making a most lamenta-
ble 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 im-
mediately.
Upon this the captain pretended to have no power without
me; but after some difficulty, and after their solemn promises
of amendment, they were taken on board, and were some time
after soundly whipped and pickled ; after which they proved very
honest and quiet fellows.
Some time after this, I went with the boat on shore, the tide
being up, with the things promised to the men, to which the
captain, at my intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be
added, which they took, and were very thankful for : I also en-
2O3 I, IFE AND A DVENTURES
couraged them, by telling them, that if it lay in my way to send a
vessel to take them in, I would not forget them. 4.
CHAP. XIX.
I take leave of the lsland, and, after a long Voyage, arrive in
England—Go down writo Yorkshire, and find the greater part
of my Family dead—Resolve to go to Lisbon for information
respecting my Plantation at the Brazils—Meet an old Friend
there, by whose means I become rich-Set out for England
over Land—Much annoyed by Wolves on the road.
WHEN I took leave of this island, I carried on board for relics
the great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my
parrots; also I forgot not to take the money I formerly mention-
ed, which had lain by me so long useless that it was grown
rusty, or tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver, till it had
been a little rubbed and handled; and also the money I found in
the wreck of the Spanish ship.
And thus I left the island the nineteenth day of December, as
I found by the ship's account, in the year 1686, after I had been
upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen days:
being delivered from the second captivity the same day of the
month that I first made my escape in the barcolongo, from among
the Moors of Sallee.
In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in England the
eleventh of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty and five
years absent.
When I came to England, I was a perfect stranger to all 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 had had great misfortunes in the world, was become 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; but, on the contrary, in gratitude to her former care
and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as my little stock would
afford, which at that time would indeed allow me to do but lit-
tle for her: but I assured her, I would never forget her former
kindness to me; nor did I forget her, when I had sufficient to
help her; as shall be observed in its place.
I went down afterwards into Yorkshire; but my father was
dead, and my mother, and all the family extinct; except that I
found two sisters, and two of the children of one of my brothers:
and as I had been long ago given over for dead, there had been
no provision made for me; so that, in a word, I found nothing to
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 209
relieve or assist me; and that little money I had, would not do
much for me as to settling in the world.
I met with one piece of gratitude, indeed, which I did not ex-
ect; and this was, that the master of the ship, whom I had so
appily delivered, and by the same means saved the ship and
cargo, having given a very handsome account to the owners, of
the manner how I had saved the lives of the men, and the ship,
they invited me to meet them, and some other merchants con-
cerned, and all together made me a very handsome compliment
. that subject, and a present of almost two hundred pounds
sterling.
But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of
my life, and how little way this would go towards settling me in
the world, I resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come
by some information of the state of my plantation in the Brazils,
and what was become of my partner, who, I had reason to Sup-
pose, had some years now given me over for dead.
With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in
April following; my man Friday accompanying me very honestly
in all these ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant upon
all occasions.
When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my
particular satisfaction, my old friend the captain of the ship, who
first took me up at sea, off the shore of Africa : he was now
grown old, and had left off the sea, having put his son, who was
far from a young man, into his ship, and who still used the Brazil
trade. The old man did not know me, and, indeed, I hardly knew
him; but I soon brought myself to his remembrance, when I told
him who I was.
After some passionate expressions of our old acquaintance, I
inquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner:
the old man told me, he had not been in the Brazils for about nine
years; but that he could assure me, that when he came away, my
partner was living; but the trustees, whom I had joined with him,
to take cognizance of my part, were both dead; that however, he
believed that I would have a very good account of the improve-
ment of the plantation; for that, upon the general belief of my
being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in the ac-
count of the produce of my part of the plantation, to the procu-
rator fiscal; who had appropriated it, in case I never came to
claim it, one third to the king, and two thirds to the monastery
of St Augustine, to be expended for the benefit of the poor, and
for the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith; but that
if I appeared, or any one for me, to claim the inheritance, it would
be restored; only that the improvement, or annual production, be-
ing distributed to charitable uses, could not be restored; but he
assured me, that the steward of the king's revenue (from lands.)

$210 JLIFE AND A DVENTURES
and the provedore, or steward of the monastery, had taken great
care all along, that the incumbent, that is to say, my partner, gave
every year a faithful account of the produce, of which they recei-
ved duly my moiety. !
I asked him, if he knew to what height of improvement he had
brought the plantation ; and whether he thought it might be
worth looking after ; or whether, on my going thither, I should
meet with no obstruction to my possessing my just right in the
moiety.
He told me, he could not tell exactly to what degree the plant-
ation was improved; but this he knew, that my partner was grow-
ing exceeding rich upon the enjoying but one half of it; and that
to the best of his remembrance, he had heard, that the king’s third
of my part, which was, it seems, granted away to some other mo-
nastery, or religious house, amounted to above two hundred moi-
dores a year; that, as to my being restored to a quiet possession of
it, there was no question to be inade of that, my partner being
alive to witness my title, and my name being also enrolled in the
register of the country. Also he told-me, that the survivors of
my trustees were very fair, honest people, and very wealthy, and
he believed I would not only have their assistance for putting me
in possession, but would find a very considerable sum of money
in their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm,
while their fathers held the trust, and before it was given up, as
above, which, as he remembered, was about twelve years.
I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account,
and inquired of the old captain, how it came to pass, that the
trustees should thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I
had made my will, and had made him, the Portugueze captain,
my universal heir, &c. r
He told me that was true; but that, as there was no proof of
my being dead, he could not act as executor, until some certain ac-
count should come of my death; and that, besides, he was not will-
ing to intermeddle with a thing so remote: that it was true, he
had registered my will, and put in his claim; and could he have
given any account of my being dead or alive, he would have acted
by procuration, and taken possession of the ingeino, (so they called
the sugar-house,) and had given his son, who was now at the Bra-
zils, order to do it.
But, says the old man, I have one piece of news to tell you,
which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the rest; and
that is, that believing you were lost, and all the world believing so
also, your partner and trustees did offer to account to me in your
name, for six or eight of the first years of profit, which I received;
but there being at that time, says he, great disbursements for in-
creasing the works, building an ingeino, and buying slaves, it did
not amount to near so much as afterwards it produced; however,
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 2II.
says the old man, I shall give you a true account of what I have
received in all, and how I have disposed of it.
After a few days farther conference with this ancient friend, he
brought me an account of the six first years income of my planta-
tion, signed by my partner, and the merchants trustees, being always
delivered in goods; viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides
rum, molasses, &c., which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and
I found by this account, that every year the income considerably in-
creased : but, as above, the disbursement being large, the sum at
first was small: however, the old man let me see, that he was
debtor to me four hundred and seventy moidores of gold, besides
sixty chests of sugar, and fifteen double rolls of tobacco, which
were lost in his ship, he having been shipwrecked coming home
to Lisbon, about eleven years after my leaving the place. º
The good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and
how he had been obliged to make use of my money to recover his
losses, and buy him a share in a new ship; however, my old
friend, says he, you shall not want a supply in your necessity; and
as soon as my son returns, you shall be fully satisfied.
Upon this he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me two hundred
Portugal moidores in gold; and giving me the writings of his title
to the ship which his son was gone to the Brazils in, of which he
was a quarter part owner, and his son another, he puts them both
in my hands for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the
poor man, to be able to bear this; and remembering what he had
done for me, how he had taken me up at sea, and how generously
he had used me on all occasions, and particularly how sincere a
friend he was now to me, I could hardly refrain weeping at what
he said to me; therefore first I asked him if his circumstances ad-
mitted him to spare so much money at that time, and if it would
not straiten him? He told me, he could not say but it might strait-
en him a little; but, however, it was my money, and I might want
it more than he.
Every thing the good man said was full of affection, and I could
hardly refrain from tears while he spoke. In short, I took one
hundred of the moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give
him a receipt for them; then I returned him the rest, and told
him, if ever I had possession of the plantation, I would return the
other to him also, as indeed I afterwards did; and that, as to the
bill of sale of his part in his son’s ship, I would not take it by any
means; but that if I wanted the money, I found he was honest
enough to pay me; and if I did not, but came to receive what
he gave me reason to expect, I would never have a penny more
from him.
When this was past, the old man began to ask me, if he should
put me in a method to make my claim to my plantation, I told
212 Y, IFE AND ADVENTURES
him, I thought to go over to it myself. He said, I might do so if
I pleased; but that if I did not, there were ways enough to se-
cure my right, and immediately to appropriate the profits to my
use; and as there were ships in the river of Lisbon, just ready to
go away to Brazil, he made me enter my name in a public regis-
ter, with his affidavit, affirming upon oath that I was alive, and that
I was the same person who took up the land for the planting the
said plantation at first.
This being regularly attested by a notary, and a procuration
affixed, he directed me to send it with a letter of his writing, to
a merchant of his acquaintance at the place; and then proposed
my staying with him till an account came of the return.
Never any thing was more honourable than the proceedings up-
on this procuration ; for in less than seven months I received a
large packet from the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, on
whose account I went to sea, in which were the following parti-
cular letters and papers enciosed.
First, There was the account current of the produce of my farm,
or plantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with
my old Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared
to be 1174 moidores in my favour.
Secondly, There was the account of four years more while they
kept the effects in their hands, before the government claimed the
administration, as being the effects of a person not to be found,
which they call civil death; and the balance of this, the value of
the plantation increasing, amounted to 3241 moidores.
Thirdly, there v. as the prior of the Augustines account, who
had received the profits for above fourteen years ;...but not being
able to account for what was disposed to the hospital, very honest-
ly declared he had 872 moidores not distributed, which he acknow-
ledged to my account. As to the king’s part, that refunded Ilo-
thing. --
There was also a letter of my partner’s, congratulating me very
affectionately upon my being alive; giving me an account how the
estate was improved, and what it produced a year, with a particular
of the number of Squares, or acres, that it contained; how planted,
how many slaves there were upon it; and, making two-and-twenty
crosses for blessings, told me he had said so many Ave Marias to
thank the Blessed Virgin that I was alive; inviting me very pas-
sionately to come over and take possession of my own, and in the
mean time to give him orders to whom he should deliver my ef-
fects, if I did not eome myself; concluding with a hearty tender
of his friendship, and that of his family; and sent me as a present,
seven fine leopard skins, which he had, it seems, received from Af.
rica by some other ship which he had sent thither; and who, it
seems, had made a better voyage than I. He sent me also five

OF ROBIN SO N C R USOE, 213
chests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces of gold un-
coined, not quite so large as moidores.
By the same fleet my merchant-trustees shipped me 1200 chests
of sugar, 800 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 flut-
terings of my very heart, when I looked over these letters, and
especially when I found all my wealth about me; for as the Brazil
ships came all in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters
brought may goods; and the effects were safe in the Tagus before
the letter came to my hand. In a word, I turned pale, and grew
sick; and had not the old man run and fetched me a cordial, I
believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset nature, and I had
died upon the spot.
Nay, after that, I continued very ill, and was so some hours,
till a physician being sent for, and something of the real cause of
my illness being known, he ordered me to be let blood, after
which I had relief, and grew well; but I verily believe, if it had
not been eased by the vent given in that manner to the spirits, I
should have died.
I was now master all on a sudden of above fifty 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.
The first thing I did was to recompense my original benefactor,
my good old captain, who had been first charitable to me in my
distress, kind to me in the beginning, and honest to me at the end.
I showed him all that was sent me; I told him, that, next to the
º of Heaven, which disposes all things, it was owing to
im; and that it now lay on me to reward him, which I would do
a hundred-fold. So I first returned to him the hundred moidores
I had received of him; then I sent for a notary, and caused him
to draw up a general release or discharge for the four hundred
and seventy moidores, which he had acknowledged he owed me,
in the fullest and firmest manner possible; after which I caused
a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be my receiver of
‘the annual profits of my plantation, and appointing my partner to
account to him, and make the returns by the usual fleets to him
in my name; and a clause in the end, being a grant of one hun-
dred moidores a-year to him during his life, out of the effects;
and fifty moidores a-year to his son after him, for his life. And
thus I requited my old man.
I was now to consider which way to steer my course next, and
what to do with the estate that Providence had thus put into my
214 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
hands; and, indeed, I had more care upon my head now than I
had in my silent state of life in the island, where I wanted nothing
but what I had, and had nothing but what I wanted; whereas I
had now a great charge upon me, and my business was how to
secure it: I had never a cave to hide my money in, or a place
where it might lie without lock or key, till it grew mouldy and
tarnished before any body would meddle with it. On the contra-
ry, I knew not where to put it, or whom to trust with it my old
patron, the captain, indeed, was honest, and that was the only
refuge I had. -
In the next place, my interest in the Brazils seemed to sum-
mon me thither; but now I could not tell how to think of going
thither till I had settled my affairs, and left my effects in some
hands behind me. At first I thought of my old friend the widow,
who, I knew, was homest, and would be just to me; but then she
was in years, and but poor, and, for aught I knew, might be in
debt; so that, in a word, I had no way but to go back to Eng-
land myself, and take my effects with me.
I was some months, however, before I resolved upon this; and
therefore as I had rewarded the old captain fully, and to satisfac-
tion, who had been my former benefactor, so I began to think of
my poor widow, whose husband had been my first benefactor, and
she, while it was in her power, my faithful steward and instructor.
So the first thing I did, I got a merchant in Lisbon to write to his
correspondent in London, not only to pay a bill, but to go find
her out, and carry her in money a hundred pounds from me, and
to talk with her, and comfort her in her poverty, by telling her
she should, if I lived, have a farther supply. At the same time,
I sent my two sisters in the country, each of them a hundred
pounds, they being, though not in want, yet not in very good cir-
cumstances; one having been married, and left a widow; and the
other having a husband not so kind to her as he should be.
But among all my relations or acquaintances, I could not yet
pitch upon one to whom I durst commit the gross of my stock,
that I might go away to the Brazils, and leave things safe behind
me; and this greatly perplexed me. -
I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils, and have settled
myself there, for I was, as it were, naturalized to the place; but
had some little scruple in my mind about religion, which insen-
sibly drew me back; of which I shall say more presently. How-
ever, it was not religion that kept me from going thither for the
present ; and as I had made no scruple of being openly of the
religion of the country all the while I was among them, so nei-
ther did I yet; only that now and then, having of late thought
more of it than formerly, when I began to think of living and dy-
ing among them, I began to regret my having professed myself a
Papist, and thought it might not be the best religion to die in.

OF ROBIN SON C1R USO E, 215
But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept me
from going to the Brazils, but that really I did not know with
whom to leave my effects behind me ; so I resolved at last to go
to England with them, where, if I arrived, I concluded I should
make some acquaintance, or find some relations, that would be
faithful to me; and accordingly I prepared to go for England with
all my wealth.
In order to prepare things for my going home, I first (the Bra-
zil fleet being just going away) resolved to give answers suitable
to the just and faithful account of things I had from thence; and
first to the prior of St Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks
for his just dealings, and the offer of the eight hundred and
seventy-two moidores, which was undisposed of, which I desired
might be given, five hundred to the monastery, and three hundred
and seventy-two to the poor, as the prior should direct, desiring
the good Padre's prayers for me, and the like.
I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all the
acknowledgment that so much justice and homesty called for; as
for sending them any present, they were far above having any
occasion of it.
Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry in
the improving the plantation, and his integrity in increasing the
stock of the works, giving him instructions for his future govern-
ment of my part according to the powers I had left with my old
patron, to whom I desired him to send whatever became due to
me, till he should hear from Ine more particularly ; assuring him,
that it was my intention, not only to come to him, but to settle
myself there for the remainder of my life. To this I added a very
handsome present of some Italian silks for his wife and two
daughters, for such the captain’s son informed me he had; with
two pieces of fine English broad-cloth, the best I could get in Lis-
bon, five pieces of black bays, and some Flanders lace of a good
value.
Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all
my effects into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was,
which way to go to England. I had been accustomed enough to
the sea, and yet I had a strange aversion to go to England by sea
at that time; and though I could give no reason for it, yet the dif-
ficulty increased upon me so much, that though I had once ship-
ped my baggage in order to go, yet I altered my mind, and that
not once, but two or three times.
It is true, I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might
be one of the reasons. But let no man slight the strong impulses
of his own thoughts in cases of such moment. Two of the ships
which I had singled out to go in, I mean more particularly sin-
gled out than any other, that is to say, so as in one of them to
put my things on board, and in the other to have agreed with the
£16 1.1FE AND ADVENTUREs
captain; I say, two of these ships miscarried, viz. one was taken.
by the Algerines, and the other was cast away on the Start, near
Torbay, and all the people drowned except three; so that, in ei-
ther of those vessels, I had been made miserable, and in which
most, it was hard to say.
Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to
whom I communicated every thing, pressed me earnestly not to
go by sea; but either to go by land to the Groyne, and cross
over the Bay of Biscay to Rochelle, from whence it was but an
easy and safe journey by land to Paris, and so to Calais and Do-
ver; or to go up to Madrid, and so all the way by land through
France. -
In a word, I was so prepossessed against my going by sea at all,
except from Calais to Dover, that I resolved to travel all the way
by land; which, as I was not in haste, and did not value the
†. was by much the pleasanter way; and to make it more
so, my old captain brought an English gentleman, the son of a
merchant in Lisbon, who was willing to travel with me; after
which, we picked up two who were English, and merchants also,
and two young Portugueze gentlemen, the last going to Paris on-
ly: so that we were in all six of us, and five servants, the two
merchants and the two Portugueze contenting themselves with
one servant between two, to save the charge; and as for me, I
got an English sailor to travel with me as a servant, besides my
man Friday, who was too much a stranger to be capable of sup-
plying the place of a servant upon the road.
In this manner I set out from Lisbon: and our company being
, all very well mounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof
they did me the honour to call me captain, as well because I was
the oldest man, as because I had two servants, and indeed was
the original of the whole journey.
As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so shall
I trouble you with none of my land journals. But some adven-
tures that happened to us in this tedious and difficult journey, I
must not omit. -
When we came to Madrid, we being all of us strangers to
Spain, were willing to stay some time to see the court of Spain,
and to see what was worth observing; but it being the latter part
of the summer, we hastened away, and set out from Madrid
about the middle of October. But when we came to the edge of
Navarre, we were alarmed at several towns on the way, with an
account that so much snow was fallen on the French side of the
mountains, that several travellers were obliged to come back to
Pampeluna, after having attempted, at an extreme hazard, to
pass on. • &
When we came to Pampeluna, we found it so indeed; and to
me, that had always been used to a hot climate, and indeed to
r 8
OF ROBIN SON CIRUSO E. 217
countries where we could scarce bear any clothes on, the cold
was insufferable; nor, indeed, was it more painful than It was sur-
prising : to come but ten days before out of Old Castile, where
the weather was not only warm, but very hot, and immediately
to feel a wind from the Pyrenean mountains, so very keen, SO Se-
verely cold, as to be intolerable, and to endanger benumbing and
perishing of our fingers and toes, was very strange. e
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.
To mend the matter, after we came to Pampeluna, it conti-
nued 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: in a word, the
snow lay in some places too thick for us to travel; and being not
hard frozen, as is the case in northern countries, there was no
going without being in danger of being buried alive every step.
We staid no less than twenty days at Pampeluna; when (seeing
the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its being better, for
it was the severest winter all over Europe that had been known
in many years) I proposed that we should all go away to Fonta-
rabia, and there take shipping for Bourdeaux, which was a very
little voyage.
But while we were considering this, there came in four French
gentlemen, who having been stopped on the French side of the
passes, as we were on the Spanish, had found out a guide, who,
traversing the country near the head of Languedoc, had brought
them over the mountains by such ways, that they were not much
incommoded with the snow; and where they met with snow in
any quantity, they said it was frozen hard enough to bear them
and their horses.
We sent for this guide, who told us, he would undertake to
carry us the same way, with no hazard from the snow, provided
we were armed sufficiently to protect us from wild beasts : for,
he said, upon these great snows, it was frequent for some wolves
to show themselves at the foot of the mountains, being made ra-
venous for want of food, the ground being covered with snow.
We told him we were well enough prepared for such creatures
as they were, if he would ensure us from a kind of two-legged
wolves, which we were told we were in most danger from, espe-
cially on the French side of the mountains.
He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind in the way
that we were to go: so we readily agreed to follow him ; as did
also twelve other gentlemen, with their servants, some French,
some Spanish, who, as I said, had attempted to go, and were obli-
ged to come back again.
Accordingly we all set out from Pampeluna, with our guide, on
K
9. 18 LIFE AND A D WENTURES
the fifteenth of November; and indeed I was surprised, when, in-
stead of going forward, he came directly back with us, on the same
road that we came from Madrid, above twenty miles; when ha-
ving passed two rivers, and come into the plain country, we
found ourselves in a warm climate again, where the country was
pleasant, and no snow to be seen ; but on a sudden, turning to
the left, he approached the mountains another way; and though,
it is true, the hills and the precipices looked dreadfully, yet he
made so many tours, such meanders, and led us by such winding
ways, we insensibly passed the height of the mountains, without
being much incumbered with the snow ; and all on a sudden he
showed us the pleasant fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gas-
coigne, all green and flourishing; though indeed they were at a
great distance, and we had some rough way to pass yet.
We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed
one whole day and a night, so fast, that we could not travel ;
but he bid us be easy, we should soon be past it all: we found,
indeed, that we began to descend every day, and to come more
north than before; and so, depending upon our guide, we went on.
It was about two hours before night, when our guide being
something before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three mon-
strous wolves, and after them a bear, out of a hollow way, ad-
joining to a thick wood. Two of the wolves flew upon the guide,
and had he been half a mile before us, he had been devoured
indeed, before we could have helped him : one of them fastened
upon his horse, and the other attacked the man with that vio-
lence, 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 to me, I bid him ride up, and see what
was the matter. As soon as Friday came in sight of the man,
he hallooed, as loud as the other, O master | O master | But,
like a bold fellow, rode directly tip to the man, and with his pistol
shot the wolf that attacked him in the head.
It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday; for
he, having been used to that kind of creature in his country, had
no fear upon him, but went close up to him, and shot him as
above; whereas any of us would have fired at a farther distance,
and perhaps either missed the wolf, or endangered shooting the
Iºla Il.
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 howlings of
wolves, and the noise redoubled by the echo of the mountains, .
that it was to us as if there had been a prodigious multitude of
them ; and perhaps indeed there was not such a few, as that we
had no cause of apprehensions. - -
However, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other, that had
6
OF ROBIN SO N C R USO E. 216)
fastened upon the horse, left him immediately, and fled, having
happily fastened upon his head, where the bosses of the bridle
had stuck in his teeth, so that he had not done him much hurt:
the man, indeed, was most hurt; for the raging creature had bit
him twice, once on the arm, and the other time a little above his
knee; and he was just as it were tumbling down by the disorder
of the horse, when Friday came up and shot the wolf.
It is easy to suppose, that at the noise of Friday’s pistol we all
mended our pace, and rid up as fast as the way (which was very
difficult) would give us leave, to see what was the matter. As
soon as we came clear of the trees, which blinded us before, we
saw plainly what had been the case, and how Friday had disen-
gaged the poor guide; though we did not presently discerº what
kind of creature it was he had killed.
CHAP. XX.
Strange Battle betwixt Friday and a Bear—Terrible Engagement
with a whole Army of Wolves—Arrive in England safely, and
settle my Affairs there—I marry, and have a Family.
BUT never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a sur-
prising manner, as that which followed between Friday and the
bear, which gave us all (though at first we were surprised and
afraid for him) the greatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is
a heavy, clumsy creature, and does not gallop as the wolf does,
which is swift and light; so he has two particular qualities, which
generally are the rule of his actions: first, as to men, who are
not his proper prey, I say not his proper prey, because though I
can’t say what excessive hunger might do, which was now their
case, the ground being all covered with snow; yet as to men, he
does not usually attempt them, unless they first attack him ; on
the contrary, if you meet him in the woods, if you don’t meddle
with him, he won’t meddle with you : yet then you must take care
to be very civil to him, and give him the road; for he is a very
nice gentleman, he won't go a step out of the way for a prince;
nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to look another way,
and keep going on ; for sometimes, if you stop, and stand still,
and look stedfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; and if you
throw or toss anything at him, and it hits him, though it were
but a bit of stick as big as your finger, he takes it for an affront,
and sets all other business aside to pursue his revenge; for he will
have satisfaction in point of honour, and 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 follow at a good
round rate till he overtakes you. -
290 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came
up to him, he was helping him off from his horse; for the man
was both hurt and frighted, and indeed the last more than the
first; when on a sudden, we espied the bear come out of the
wood, and a very monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that
ever I saw. We were all a little surprised when we saw him ; but
when Friday saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage in the
fellow’s countenance: O ! O! O! says Friday, three times,
pointing to him, O master | you give me te leave, me shakee te
hand with him, nie makee you good laugh.
I was surprised to see the fellow so pleased : You fool you,
said I, he will eat you up !—Eatee me up ! eatee me up ! says
Friday twice over again; me eatee him up ; me make you good
Iaugh; you all stay here, me show you good laugh.--So down he
sits, and gets his boots off in a moment, and put on a pair of
pumps (as we call the flat shoes they wear,) and which he had in
his pocket, and gives my other servant his horse, and with his
gun away he flew, swift like the wind.
The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with no-
body, till Friday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear
could understand him: Hark ye, hark ye, says Friday, me speakee
wit you.-We followed at a distance; for now being come down
to the Gascoigne side of the mountains, we were entered a vast
great forest, where the country was plain, and pretty open, though
many trees in it scattered here and there,
Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up
with him quickly, and takes up a great stone, and throws at
him, and hit him just on the head; but did him no more harm,
than if he had thrown it against a wall; but it answered Friday’s
end; for the rogue was so void of fear, that he did it purely to
make the bear follow him, and show us some laugh, as he called it.
As soon as the bear felt the stone, and saw him, he turns about,
and comes after him, taking devilish long strides, and shuffling
along at a strange rate, so as he would put a horse to a mid-
dling gallop. Away runs Friday, and takes his course, as if he
ran towards us for help; so we all resolved to fire at once upon
the bear, and deliver my man; though I was angry at him heart-
ily for bringing the bear back upon us, when he was going about
his own business another way; and especially I was angry that he
had turned the bear upon us, and then run away; and I called
out, You dog, said I, is this your making us laugh 3 Come away,
and take your horse, that we may shoot the creature. He bears
me, and cries out, No shoot, 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 suddens on one side of us, and seeing a
eat oak tree, fit for his purpose, he beckoned us to ſollow, and
doubling his pace, he gets nimbiy up the tree, laying his gun down
of Robinson CRUso E. 221
upon the ground, at about five or six yards from the bottom of
the tree. - -
The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a distance.
The first thing he did, he stopped at the gun, smelt to it, but
let it lie, and up he scrambles into the tree, climbing like a cat,
though so monstrous heavy. I was amazed at the folly, as I
thought it, of my man, and could not for my life See any thing to
laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up the tree, we all rode nearer
to him.
㺠§ tº ==
jº
§ ſº º
%
*
º
º
\
‘When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the
small 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 to us, now you see me
teachee the bear dance; so he falls a jumping, and shaking the
bough, at which the bear began to totter, but stood still, and be-

Q22 J, I FE AND A DYE NTURES
gan to look behind him, to see how he should get back: then in-
deed 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 come no farther: Pray you come farther. So he
left jumping and shaking the bough: and the bear, just as if he
understood what he said, did come a little farther; then he fell
a jumping again, and the bear stopped again.
We thought now was a good time to knock him 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 shaking the bear off; and we found the bear
was too cunning for that too; for he would not get out far enough
to be thrown down, but clings fast with his great broad claws
and feet, so that we could not imagine what would be the end
of it, and 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, said Friday, you no come farther,
me go, me go; you no come to me, me 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 away he ran to his gum, takes it up, and stands still.
Well, said I to him, Friday, what will you do now * Why don’t
you shoot him —No shoot, says Friday, no yet; me shoot now
me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh. And indeed so
he did, as you will see presently; for when the bear saw his
enemy gone, he comes back from the bough where he stood, but
did it mighty 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 close to him, clapped the muzzle of his
piece into his ear, and shot him as 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 very loud; So we kill bear in my country, says Friday-
So you kill them : said I; why, you have no guns.—No, says he,
no guns, but shoot great much long arrow.
This was, indeed, a good diversion to us; but we were still in a
wild place, and our guide very much hurt, and what to do we
* -
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 923
hardly knew: the howling of wolves ran much in my head; and
indeed, except the noise I once heard on the shore of Africa, of
which I have said something already, I never heard any thing
that filled me with so much horror.
These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else,
as Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the
skin of this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving ;
but we had three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so
we left him, and went forward on our journey.
The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep
and dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures,
as we heard afterwards, were come down into the forest and
plain country, pressed by hunger, to seek for food, and had done
a great deal of mischief in the villages, where they surprised the
country-people, killed a great many of their sheep and horses,
and some people too.
We had one dangerous place to pass, of which our guide told
us, if there were any more wolves in the country, we should
find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded with
woods on every side, and a long narrow defile or lame, which we
were to pass to get through the wood, and then we should come
to the village where we were to lodge.
It was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the first
wood, and a little after sunset, when we came into the plain.
We met with nothing in the first wood, except that in a little
plain within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over,
we saw five great wolves cross the road, full speed one after an-
other, as if they had been in chase of some prey, and had it in
view: they took no notice of us, and were gone and out of sight
in a few moments.
Upon this our guide, who, by the way, was a wretched faint-
hearted fellow, bade us keep in a ready posture; for he believed
there were more wolves a-coming.
We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us; but we saw
no more wolves tiil we came through that wood, which was near
half a league, and entered the plain: as soon as we came into the
plain, we had occasion enough to look about us. The first object
we met with was a dead horse, that is to say, a poor horse which
the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of them at work; we
could not say, eating of him, but picking of his bones rather; for
they had eaten up all the flesh before.
We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast, neither
did they take much notice of us;, Friday would have let fly at
them, but I would not suffer him by any means; for I found we
were like to have more business upon our hands than we were
aware of We were not half gone over the plain, but we began
to hear the wolves howl in the woods, on our left, in a frightful
£24 LIFE AND ADve NTURES
manner; and presently after we saw about a hundred coming on
directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line, as
regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce
knew in what manner to receive them; but found to draw our-
selves in a close line, was the only way; so we formed in a mo-
ment; but, that we might not have too much interval, I ordered,
that only every other man should fire; and that the others, who
had not fired, should stand ready to give them a second volley im-
mediately, if they continued to advance upon us; and that then
those who had fired at first, should not pretend to load their fusils
again, but stand ready, with every one a pistol, for we were all
armed with a fusil and a pair of pistols each man; so we were,
by this method, able to fire six vollies, half of us at a time; how-
ever, at present we had no necessity, for upon firing the first vol-
ley, the enemy made a full stop, being terrified, as well with the
noise as with the fire; four of them being shot in the head,
dropped; several others were wounded, and went bleeding off,
as we could see by the snow. I found they stopped, but did not
immediately retreat; 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 we could,
and I found the notion not altogether mistaken; for upon our
shout, they began to retire, and turn about; then I ordered a se-
cond volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the gal-
lop, and away they went to the woods. *
This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again, and that we
might lose no time, we kept going; but we had but little more
than loaded our fusils, and put ourselves into a readiness, when
we heard a terrible noise in the same wood on our left; only that
it was farther onward the same way we were to go.
The night was coming on, and the night began to be dusky,
which made it the worse on our side; but, the noise increasing,
we could easily perceive that it was the howling and yelling of
those hellish creatures; and on a sudden, we perceived two
or three troops of wolves on our left, one behind us, and one on
our front, so that we seemed to be surrounded with them; how-
ever, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our way forward, as
fast as we could make our horses go, which, the way being very
rough, was only a good large trot; and in this manner we only
came in view of the entrance of the wood through which we were
to pass, at the farther side of the plain; but we were greatly sur-
prised, when, coming near the lane, or pass, we saw a confuse
number of wolves standing just at the entrance. * -
On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard the
noise of a gun; and, looking that way, out rushed a horse, with
a saddle and a bridle on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen
or seventeen wolves after him full speed: indeed the horse had
ÖF R O BINSON CRU SOE, 225
the heels of them; but as we supposed that he could not hold it
at that rate, we doubted not but they would get up with him at
last; and no question but they did.
Here we had a most horrible sight; for, riding up to the en-
trance where the horse came out, we found the carcase of another
horse, and of two men, devoured by these ravenous creatures.
One of them was no doubt the same whom we heard fire a gun,
for there lay a gun just by him fired off; but as to the man, his
head, and the upper part of his body, were eaten up.
This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to
take; but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about
us presently, in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there were
three hundred of them. It happened very much to our advantage,
that at the entrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there
lay some large timber trees, which had been cut down the sum-
mer before, and I suppose lay there for carriage : I drew my little
troop in among these trees, and placing ourselves in a line be-
hind one long tree, I advised them all to alight, and, keeping that
tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle, or three
fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre. r
We did so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furi-
ous charge than the creatures made upon us in this place: they
came on us with a growling kind of a noise, and mounted the
piece of timber (which, as I said, was our breastwork,) as if they
were only rushing upon their prey; and this fury of theirs, it
seems, was principally occasioned by their seeing our horses be-
hind us, which was the prey they aimed at. I ordered our men
to fire as before, every man; and they took their aim so sure,
that indeed they killed several of the wolves at the first volley;
but there was a necessity to keep a continual firing, for they came
on like devils, those behind pushing on those before. -
When we had fired our second volley of fusils, we thought
they stopped a little, and I hoped they would have gone off; but
it was but a moment, for others came forward again, so we fired
our vollies of pistols; and I believe in these four firings we killed
seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many; yet they
came on again.
I was loath to spend our last shot too hastily; so I called my
servant, not my man Friday, for he was better employed; for,
with the greatest dexterity imaginable, he charged my fusil and
his own while we were engaged; but, as I said, I called my other
man, and giving him a horn of powder, I bade him lay a train all
along the piece of timber, and let it be a large train; he did so,
and had but time to get away, when the wolves came up to it,
and some were got up upon it; when I, snapping an uncharged
pistol close to the powder, set it on fire; and those that were
upon the timber were scorched with it, and six or seven of them
K 2
QQ6 Li FE AND A DVENTURES
fell, or rather jumped in 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 night, for now it was very
dark, made more terrible, that they drew back a little.
Upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one
volley, and after that we gave a shout: upon this the wolves
turned tail, and we sallied immediately upon near twenty lame
ones, which we found struggling on the ground, and fell a-cutting
them with our swords, which answered our expectation; for the
erying and howling they made were better understood by their
fellows, so that they fled and left us. &
We had, first and last, killed about threescore of them; and
had it been daylight, we had killed many more. The field of
battle being thus cleared, we made forward again; for we had
still near a league to go. We heard the ravenous creatures howl
and yell in the woods as we went, several times; and sometimes
we fancied we saw some of them, but the snow dazzling our eyes,
we were not certain; so in about an hour more we came to the
town, where we were to lodge, which we found in a terrible
fright, and all in arms; for, it seems, that, the night before, the
wolves and some bears had broken into that village, and put them
in a terrible fright; and they were obliged to keep guard night
and day, but especially in the night, to preserve their cattle, and
indeed their people. -
The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs so
swelled with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no
farther; so we were obliged to take a new guide there, and go to
Tholouse, where we found a warm climate, a fruitful, pleasant
country, and no snow, no wolves, or any thing like them; but
when we told our story at Tholouse, they told us it was nothing
but what was ordinary in the great forest at the foot of the
mountains, especially when the snow lay on the ground; but
they inquired much what kind of a guide we had gotten, that
would venture to bring us that way in such a severe season ; and
told us, it was very much we were not all devoured. When we
told them how we placed ourselves, and the horses in the middle,
they blamed us exceedingly, and told us it was fifty to one but
we had been all destroyed; for it was the sight of the horses that
made the wolves so furious, seeing their prey; and that at other
times they are really afraid of a gun: but they being excessive
hungry, and raging on that account, the eagerness to come at the
horses had made them senseless of danger; and that if we had
not by the continued fire, and at last by the stratagem of the train
of powder, mastered them, it had been great odds but that we
had been torn to pieces: whereas, had we been content to have
sat still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, they would not have
taken the horses so much for their own, when men were on thein

of Ro BIN son CRUso E. 227.
backs, as otherwise; and withal they told us, that at last, if we
had stood altogether, and left our horses, they would have been
so eager to have devoured them, that we might have come off
safe, especially having our fire-arms in our hands, and being so
many in number.
For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in my life; for
seeing above three hundred devils come roaring and open-mouth-
ed to devour us, and having nothing to shelter us, or retreat to,
I gave myself over for lost; and as it was, I believe I shall never
care to cross those mountains again: I think I would much ra-
ther go a thousand leagues by sea, though I were sure to meet
with a storm once a week. I have nothing uncommon to take
notice of in my passage through France; nothing but what other
travellers have given an account of, with much more advantage
than I can. I travelled frem Tholouse to Paris, and without any
considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover, the
fourteenth of January, after having had a severe cold season to
travel in.
I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a little
time all my new-discovered estate safe about me; the bills of
exchange, which I brought with me, having been very currently
paid. +
My principal guide and privy counsellor was my good ancient
widow, who, in gratitude for the money I had sent her, thought
no pains too much, or care too great, to employ for me; and I
trusted her so entirely with every thing, that I was perfectly easy
as to the security of my effects; and indeed I was very happy
from my beginning, and now to the end, in the unspotted in-
tegrity of this good gentlewoman.
And now I began to think of leaving my effects with this wo-
man, and setting out for Lisbon, and so to the Brazils. But
now another scruple came in the way, and that was religion; for
as I had entertained some doubts about the Roman religion, even
while I was abroad, especially in my state of solitude; so I knew
there was no going to the Brazils for me, much less going to set-
tle there, unless I resolved to embrace the Roman Catholic re-
ligion, without any reserve; except, on the other hand, I resol-
ved to be a sacrifice to my principles, be a martyr for religion,
and die in the Inquisition: so I resolved to stay at home, and, if
I could find means for it, to dispose of my plantation.
To this purpose I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who in
return gave me notice, that he could easily dispose of it there;
but that if I thought fit to give him leave to offer it in my name
to the two merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in
the Brazils, who must fully understand the value of it, who lived
just upon the spot, and who I knew to be very rich, so that he

228 LIFE AN D A DV ENTURES
believed they would be fond of buying it; he did not doubt, but
I should make 4 or 5000 pieces of eight the more of it.
Accordingly I agreed, gave him orders to offer it to them, and
he did so; and in about eight months more, the ship being then
returned, he sent me an account, that they had accepted the offer,
and had remitted 33,000 pieces of eight to a correspondent of
theirs at Lisbon, to pay for it.
In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which
they sent from Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who sent me
the bills of exchange for 33,000 pieces of eight for the estate;
reserving the payment of 100 moidores a year to him (the old
man) during his life, and 50 moidores afterwards to his son for
his life, which I had promised them; and which the plantation
was to make good as a rent-charge. And thus I have given the
first part of a life of fortune and adventure, a life of Providence’s
chequer-work, and of a variety which the world will seldom be
able to show the like of: beginning foolishly, but closing much
more happily than any part of it ever gave me leave so much as
to hope for.
Any one would think, that in this state of complicated good
fortune, I was past running any more hazards, and so indeed I
had been, if other circumstances had concurred: but I was in-
ured to a wandering life, had no family, nor many relations; nor,
however rich, had I contracted much acquaintance ; and though
I had sold my estate in the Brazils, yet I could not keep that
country out of my head, and had a great mind to be upon the
wing again; especially I could not resist the strong inchination 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 dissuaded me from it, and
so far prevailed with me, that almost for seven years she prevent-
ed my running abroad; during which time I took my two ne-
phews, the children of one of my brothers, into my care: the
eldest having something of his own, I bred up as a gentleman,
and gave him a settlement of some addition to his estate, after
my decease; the other I put out to a captain of a ship: and
after five years, finding him a sensible, bold, enterprizing 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 farther
adventures myself.
In the mean time, I in part settled myself here: for, first of
all, I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatise
faction; and had three children, two sons and one daughter.

OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE. 229
CHAP. XXI.
Reflections—Unsettled state of Mind, and Conversation with my
Wife thereon—Purchase a Farm in the County of Bedford—
Lose my Wife— I determine to revisit my Island, and for that
purpose settle all my Affairs in England—Description of the
Cargo I carried out with me—Save the Crew of a Wessel burnt
at Sea.
THAT homely proverb used on so many occasions in England,
viz. “That what is bred in the bone will not go out of the flesh,”
was never more verified than in the story of my LIFE. Any one
would think, that after thirty-five years affliction, and a variety of
unhappy circumstances, which few men, if any, ever went through
before, and after near seven years of peace and enjoyment in the
fulness of all things; grown old, and when, if ever, it might be
allowed me to have had experience of every state of middle life,
and to know which was most adapted to make a man completely
happy; I say, after all this, any one would have thought that the
native propensity to rambling, which I gave an account of in my
first setting out into the world to have been so predominant in my
thoughts, should be worn out, the volatile part be fully evacuated,
or at least condensed, and I might at sixty-one years of age have
been a little inclined to stay at home, and have done venturing
life and fortune any more. - X-
Nay farther, the common motive of foreign adventures was ta-
ken away in me; for I had no fortune to make, I had nothing to
seek: if I had gained ten thousand pounds, I had been no richer;
for I had already sufficient for me, and for those I had to leave it
to, and that I had was visibly increasing; for having no great fa-
mily, I could not spend the income of what I had, unless I would
set up for an expensive way of living, such as a great family, ser-
wants, equipage, gaiety, and the like, which were things I had no
notion of, or inclination to; so that I had nothing indeed to do,
but to sit still, and fully enjoy what I had got, and see it increase
daily upon my hands. -
Yet all these things had no effect upon me, or at least not
enough to resist the strong inclination I had to go abroad again,
which hung about me like a chronical distemper; particularly,
the desire of seeing my new plantation in the island, and the co-
lony I left there, run in my head continually. I dreamed of it all
might, and my imagination run upon it all day; it was uppermost
in all my thoughts, and my fancy worked so steadily and strongly
upon it, that I talked of it in my sleep: in short, nothing could
remove it out of my mind; it even broke so violently into all my
discourses, that it made my conversation tiresome; for I could

23O LIFE AND AID VENTURES
talk of nothing else, all my discourse run into it, even to imperti-
nence, and I saw it myself. iº
I have often heard persons of good judgment say, that all the
stir people make in the world about ghosts and apparitions, is
owing to the strength of imagination, and the powerful operation
of fancy in their minds; that there is no such thing as a spirit ap-
pearing, or a ghost walking, and the like ; that people’s poring
affectionately upon the past conversation of their deceased friends
so realizes it to them, that they are capable of fancying, upon some
extraordinary circumstances, that they see them, talk to them, and
are answered by them, when, in truth, there is nothing but shadow
and vapour in the thing; and they really know nothing of the
Imatter.
For my part, I know not to this hour whether there are any
such things as real apparitions, spectres, or walking of people after
they are dead, or whether there is any thing in the stories they
tell us of that kind, more than the product of vapours, sick minds,
and wandering fancies. But this I know, that my imagination
worked up to such a height, and brought me into such excess of
vapours, or what else I may call it, that I actually supposed my-
self oftentimes upon the spot, at my old castle behind the trees,
saw my old Spaniard, Friday’s father, and the reprobate sailors
whom I left upon the island; nay, I fancied I talked with them,
and looked at them so steadily, though I was broad awake, as at
persons just before me; and this I did till I often frightened my-
self with the images my fancy represented to me. One time in
my sleep I had the villainy of the three pirate sailors so lively re-
lated to me, by the first Spaniard and Friday’s father, that it was
surprising: they told me how they barbarously attempted to mur-
der all the Spaniards, and that they set fire to the provisions they
had laid up, on purpose to distress and starve them ; things that
I had never heard of, and that were yet all of them true in fact;
but it was so warm in my imagination, and so realized to me, that
to the hour I saw them, I could not be persuaded but that it was
or would be true; also how I resented it when the Spaniard com-
plained to me, and how I brought them to justice, tried them be-
fore me, and ordered them all three to be hanged. What there
was really in this, shall be seen in its place; for however I came
to form such things in my dream, and what secret converse of spi-
rits injected it, yet there was, I say, very much of it true. I own,
that this dream had nothing literally and specifically true; but
the general part was so true, the base and villainous behaviour of
these three hardened rogues was such, and had been so much worse
than all I can describe, that the dream had too much similitude
of the fact; and as I would afterwards have punished them se-
verely, so if I had hanged them all, I had been much in the
OF ROBIN SO’N CRUSO E. 231
right, and should have been justifiable both by the laws of God
and man.
But to return to my story.—In this kind of temper I had lived
some years; I had no enjoyment of my life, no pleasant hours,
no agreeable diversion but what had something or other of this
in it; so that my wife, who saw my mind so wholly bent upon it,
told me very seriously one night, that she believed there was some
secret powerful impulse of Providence upon me, which had de-
termined me to go thither again; and that she found nothing him-
dered my going, but my being engaged to a wife and children.
She told me, that it was true she could not think of parting with
Re; but as she was assured, that if she was dead it would be the
first thing I would do; so, as it seemed to her that the thing was
determined above, she would not be the only obstruction ; for if
I thought fit, and resolved to go Here she found me very
intent upon her words, and that I looked very earnestly at her ;
so that it a little disordered her, and she stopped. I asked her
why she did not go on, and say out what she was going to say?
But I perceived her heart was too full, and some tears stood in
her eyes: Speak out, my dear, said I; are you willing I should
go 2–No, says she, very affectionately, I am far from willing : but
if you are resolved to go, says she, and rather than I will be the
only hinderance, I will go with you; for though I think it a prepos-
terous thing for one of your years, and in your condition, yet if it
must be, said she again, weeping, I won’t leave you; for if it be
of Heaven, you must do it; there is no resisting it; and if Hea-
ven makes it your duty to go, he will also make it mine to go
with you, or otherwise dispose of me, that I may not obstruct it.
This affectionate behaviour of my wife brought me a little out
of the vapours, and I began to consider what I was doing; I cor-
rected my wandering fancy, and began to argue with myself-se-
dately, what business I had, after threescore years, and after such
a life of tedious sufferings and disasters, and closed in so happy
and casy a manner, I say, what business had I to rush into new
hazards, and put myself upon adventures, fit only for youth and
poverty to run into ?
With those thoughts, I considered my new engagement; that I
had a wife, one child born, and my wife then great with child of
another; that I had all the world could give me, and had no need
to seek hazards for gain; that I was declining in years, and ought
to think rather of leaving what I had gained, than of seeking to
increase it; that as to what my wife had said, of its being an im-
pulse from Heaven, and that it should be my duty to go, I had no
motion of that ; so after many of these cogitations, I struggled with
the power of my imagination, reasoned myself out of it, as I be-
lieve people may always do in like cases, if they will ; and, in a
word, I conquered it; composed myself with such arguments as
232 LIFE AND Adventures.
occurred to my thoughts, and which my present condition furnish-
ed me plentifully with ; and particularly, as the most effectual me-
thod, I resolved to divert myself with other things, and to engage
in some business that might effectually tie me up from any more
excursions of this kind; for I found the thing return upon me chief-
ly when I was idle, had nothing to do, or any thing of moment
immediately before me.
To this purpose I bought a little farm in the county of Bed-
ford, and resolved to remove myself thither. I had a little con-
venient house upon it, and the land about it I found was capable
of great improvement, and that it was many ways suited to my in-
clination, which delighted in cultivating, managing, planting, and
improving of land; and particularly, being an inland country, I
was removed from conversing among ships, sailors, and things re-
lating to the remote part of the world.
In a word, I went down to my farm, settled my family, bought
me ploughs, harrows, a cart, waggon, horses, cows, sheep; and
setting seriously to work, became in one half year a mere coun-
try gentleman ; my thoughts were entirely taken up in managing
my servants, cultivating the ground, enclosing, planting, &c.; and
I lived, as I thought, the most agreeable life that mature was ca-
pable of directing, or that a man always bred to misfortunes was
capable of being retreated to.
I farmed upon my own land, I had no rent to pay, was limited
by no articles; I could pull up or cut down as I pleased; what I
planted was for myself, and what I improved was for my family;
and having thus left off the thoughts of wandering, I had not the
least discomfort in any part of my life, as to this world. Now I
thought indeed, that I enjoyed the middle state of life, which my
father so earnestly recommended to me, a kind of heavenly life,
something like what is described by the poet upon the subject of
a country life: -
Free from vices, free from care,
Age has no pains, and youth no snare.
But in the middle of all this felicity, one blow from unfore-
seen Providence unhinged me at once; and not only made a breach
upon me, inevitable and incurable, but drove me, by its conse-
quence, upon a deep relapse into the wandering disposition; which,
as I may say, being born in my very blood, soon recovered its hold
of me, and, like the returns of a violent distemper, came on with
an irresistible force upon me; so that nothing could make any more
impression upon me. This blow was the loss of my wife.
It is not my business here to write an elegy upon my wife, to
give a character of her particular virtues, and make my court to
the sex by the flattery of a funeral sermon. She was, in a few
words, the stay of all my affairs, the centre of all my enterprizes,
OF ROBIN SON CR USO E. 233
the engine that by her prudence reduced me to that happy com-
pass I was in, from the most extravagant and ruinous project that
fluttered in my head as above; and did more to guide my ram-
bling genius, than a mother’s tears, a father’s instructions, a friend’s
counsel, or all my own reasohing powers could do. I was happy
in listening to her tears, and in being moved by her entreaties,
and to the last degree desolate and dislocated in the world by the
loss of her.
When she was gone, the world looked awkwardly round me, I
was as much a stranger in it in my thoughts as I was in the Bra-
zils when I went first on shore; and as much alone, except as to
the assistance of servants, as I was in my island. I knew neither
what to do, or what not to do; I saw the world busy round me,
one part labouring for bread, and the other part squandering in
vile excesses or empty pleasures equally miserable, because the
end they proposed still fled from them ; for the men of pleasure
every day surfeited of their vice, and heaped up work for sorrow
and repentance, and the men of labour spent their strength in daily
strugglings for bread to maintain the vital strength they laboured
with ; so living in a daily circulation of sorrow, living but to
work, and working but to live, as if daily bread were the only end
of a yearsome life, and a wearisome life the only occasion of daily
bread.
This put me in mind of the life I lived in my kingdom the
island, where I suffered no more corn to grow, because I did not
want it; and bred no more goats, because I had no more use for
them ; where the money lay in the drawer till it grew mildewed,
and had scarce the favour to be looked upon in twenty years.
All these things, had I improved them as I ought to have done,
and as reason and religion had dictated to me, would have taught
me to search farther than human enjoyments for a full felicity,
and that there was something which certainly was the reason and
end of life, superior to all these things, and which was either to be
possessed, or at least hoped for, on this side the grave.
But my sage counsellor was gone, I was like a ship without a
pilot, that could only run before the wind; my thoughts run all
away again into the old affair, my head was quite turned with the
whimsies of foreign adventures; and all the pleasing innocent
amusements of my farm and my garden, my cattle and my family,
which before entirely possessed me, were nothing to me, had no
relish, and were like music to one that has no ear, or food to one
that has no taste: in a word, I resolved to leave off housekeep-
ing, let my farm, and return to London; and in a few months
after I did so.
When I came to London I was still as uneasy as before ; I had
no relish to the place, no employment in it, nothing to do but
to saunter about like an idle person, of whom it may be said, he
is perfectly useless in God's creation, and it is not one farthing

234 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
matter to the rest of his kind whether he be dead or alive. This
also was the thing which of all circumstances of life was the most
my aversion, who had been all my days used to an active life;
and I would often say to myself. A state of idleness is the very
dregs of life; and indeed I thought I was mnch more suitably em-
ployed when I was twenty-six days making me a deal board,
It was now the beginning of the year 1693, when my nephew,
whom, as I observed before, I had brought up to the sea, and had
made him commander of a ship, was come home from a short
voyage to Bilboa, being the first he had made; he came to me,
and told me, that some merchants of his acquàintance had been
proposing to him to go a voyage for them to the East Indies and to
China, as private traders; And now, uncle, says he, if you will
go to sea with me, I’ll engage to land you upon your old habitation
in the island, for we are to touch at the Brazils.
Nothing can be a greater demonstration of a future state, and
of the existence of an invisible world, than the concurrence of
second causes with the ideas of things which we form in our minds,
perfectly reserved, and not communicated to any in the world.
My nephew knew nothing how far my distemper of wandering
was returned upon me, and I knew nothing of what he had in his
thoughts to say, when that very morning, before he came to me,
I had, in a great deal of confusion of thought, and revolving every
part of my circumstances in my mind, come to this resolution,
viz. that I would go to Lisbon, and consult with my old Sea-cap-
tain; and so, if it was rational and practicable, I would go and
see the island again, and see what was become of my people there.
I had pleased myself also with the thoughts of peopling the place,
and carrying inhabitants from hence, getting a patent for the
possession, and I know not what; when, in the middle of all this,
in comes my nephew, as I have said, with his project of carrying
me thither, in his way to the East Indies.
I paused a while at his words, and looking steadily at him,
What devil, said I, sent you this unlucky errand : My nephew
started, as if he had been frighted at first; but perceiving I was not
much displeased with the proposal, he recovered himself. I hope
it may not be an unlucky proposal, sir, says he...; I dare say you
would be pleased to see your new colony there, where you once
reigned with more felicity than most of your brother monarchs in
the world. ---
In a word, the scheme hit so exactly with my temper, that is
to say, with the prepossession I was under, and of which I have
said so much, that I told him in a few words, if he agreed with
the merchants, I would go with him ; but I told him I would not
fº to go any farther than my own island. Why, sir, says
e, you don’t want to be left there again, I hope —Why, said I,
can you not take me up again in your return ?—He told me, it
of Robi Nson CRUsor. 235
could not be possible that the merchants would allow him to -
come that way with a loaden ship of such value, it being a month’s
sail out of his way, and might be three or four: Besides, sir, if I
should miscarry, said he, and not return at all, then you would be
just reduced to the condition you were in before.
This was very rational; but we both found out a remedy for it,
which was to carry a framed sloop on board the ship, which, being
taken in pieces and shipped on board the ship, might, by the help
of some carpenters, whom we agreed to carry with us, be set up
again in the island, and finished, fit to go to sea in a few days.
I was not long resolving; for indeed the importunities of my
nephew joined in so effectually with my inclination, that nothing
could oppose me: on the other hand, my wife being dead, I ha
nobody concerned themselves so much for me, as to persuade me
one way or other, except my ancient good friend the widow, who
earnestly struggled with me to consider my years, my easy cir-
cumstances, and the needless hazard of a long voyage; and, above
all, my young children: but it was all to no purpose; I had an
irresistible desire to the voyage; and I told her, I thought there
was something so uncommon in the impressions I had upon my
mind for the voyage, that it would be a kind of resisting Provi-
dence, if I should attempt to stay at home; after which she ceased
her expostulations, and joined with me, not only in making provi-
sion for my voyage, but also in settling my family affairs in my ab-
sence, and providing for the education of my children.
In order to this I made my will, and settled the estate I had in
such a manner for my children, and placed in such hands, that I
was perfectly easy and satisfied they would have justice done
them, whatever might befal me; and for their education, I left it
wholly to my widow, with a sufficient maintenance to herself for
her care; all which she richly deserved, for no mother could
have taken more care in their education, or understood it better;
and as she lived till I came home, I also lived to thank her for it.
My nephew was ready to sail about the beginning of January,
1694-5, and I, with my man Friday, went on board in the Downs
the 8th, having, besides that sloop which I mentioned above, a
very considerable, cargo of all kinds of necessary things for my
colony, which if I did not find in good condition, I resolved to
leave so. w
First, I carried with me some servants, whom I purposed to
place there as inhabitants, or at least to set on work there upon
my own account while I stayed, and either to leave them there, or
carry them forward, as they should appear willing; particularly,
I carried two carpenters, and a smith, and a very handy, inge-
nious fellow, who was a cooper by trade, but was also a general
mechanic; for he was dexterous at making wheels and hand-mills
to grind corn, was a good turner, and a good pot-maker; he also
936 LIFE AND ADVENTUREs
made anything that was proper to make of earth or of wood; in a
word, we called him our Jack of all Trades. *
With these I carried a tailor, who had offered himself to go pas-
senger to the East Indies with my nephew, but afterwards consent-
ed to stay on our new plantation, and proved a most necessary
handy fellow as could be desired, in many other businesses be-
sides that of his trade; for, as I observed formerly, necessity arms
us for all employments.
. My cargo, as near as I can recollect, for I have not kept an ac-
count of the particulars, consisted of a sufficient quantity of linen,
and some thin English stuffs for clothing the Spaniards that I ex-
pected to find there, and enough of them as, by my calculation,
might comfortably supply them for seven years : if I remember
right, the materials º I carried for clothing them, with gloves,
hats, shoes, stockings, and all such things as they could want for
wearing, amounted to above two hundred pounds, including some
beds, bedding, and household-stuff, particularly kitchen utensils,
with pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c., besides near a hundred
pounds more in iron-work, nails, tools of every kind, staples, hooks,
hinges, and every necessary thing I could think of.
I carried also a hundred spare arms, muskets, and fuzees, be-
sides some pistols, a considerable quantity of shot of all sizes,
three or four tons of lead, and two pieces of brass cannon; and
because I knew not what time and what extremities I was pro-
viding for, I carried an hundred barrels of powder, besides swords,
cutlasses, and the iron part of some pikes and halberts; so that,
in short, we had a large magazine of all sorts of stores; and H
made my nephew carry two small quarter-deck guns more than
he wanted for his ship, to leave behind if there was occasion;
that when they came there we might build a fort, and man it
against all sorts of enemies: and indeed I at first thought there
would be need enough of it all, and much more, if we hoped to
maintain our possession of the island, as shall be seen in the
course of the story. 3.
I had not such bad luck in this voyage as I had been used to
meet with ; and therefore shall have the less occasion to inter-
rupt the reader, who perhaps may be impatient to hear how mat-
ters went with my colony; yet some odd accidents, cross winds,
and bad weather, happened on this first setting out, which made
the voyage longer than I expected it at first; and I, who had
never made but one voyage, viz. my first voyage to Guinea, in
which I might be said to come back again as the voyage was at
first designed, began to think the same ill fate still attended me;
and that I was born never to be contented with being on shore,
and yet to be always unfortunate at sea.
Contrary winds first put us to the northward, and we were
obliged to put in at Galway, in Ireland, where we lay wind-bound

OF ROBIN SON CRUS OE, 237
two-and-thirty days: but we had this satisfaction with the dis-
aster, that provisions were here exceeding cheap, and in the ut-
most plenty; so that while we lay here we never touched the
ship’s stores, but rather added to them; here also I took several
hogs, and two cows, with their calves, which I resolved, if I had a
good passage, to put on shore in my island, but we found occa-
sion to dispose otherwise of them.
We set out on the 5th of February from Ireland, and had a very
fair gale of wind for some days; as I remember, it might be about
the 20th of February, in the evening late, when the mate having
the watch, came into the round-house, and told us he saw a flash
of fire, and heard a gun fired; and while he was telling us of it,
a boy came in, and told us the boatswain heard another. This
made us all run out upon the quarter-deck, where for a while we
heard nothing, but in a few minutes we saw a very great light,
and found that there was some very terrible fire at a distance.
Immediately we had recourse to our reckonings, in which we all
agreed that there could be no land that way in which the fire
showed itself, no, not for five hundred leagues, for it appeared at
W. N. W. Upon this we concluded it must be some ship on fire
at sea; and as by our hearing the noise of guns just before, we
concluded it could not be far off, we stood directly towards it,
and were presently satisfied we should discover it, because the far-
ther we sailed the greater the light appeared, though the weather
being hazy we could not perceive any thing but the light for a
while : in about half an hour's sailing, the wind being fair for us,
though not much of it, and the weather clearing up a little, we
could plainly discern that it was a great ship on fire in the mid-
dle of the sea. r --
I was most sensibly touched with this disaster, though not at
all acquainted with the persons engaged in it; I presently recol-
lected my former circumstances, in what condition I was in when
taken up by the Portugal captain; and how much more deplora-
ble the circumstances of the poor creatures belonging to this ship
must be if they had no other ship in company with them: upon
this I immediately ordered that five guns should be fired, one soon
after another, that, if possible, we might give notice to them that
there was help for them at hand, and that they might endeavour
Save themselves in their boat; for though we could see the flame
in the ship, yet they, it being night, could see nothing of us.
We lay by some time upon this, only driving as the burning
ship drove, waiting for day-light; when on a sudden, to our great
terror, though we had reason to expect it, the ship blew up in the
air, and immediately sunk. This was terrible, and indeed an af-
flicting sight, for the sake of the poor men, who, I concluded,
must be either all destroyed in the ship, or be in the utmost dis-
tress in their boats in the middle of the ocean, which, at pre
238 I, IFE AND A DVENTURES
sent, by reason it was dark, I could not see : however, to direct
them as well as I could, I caused lights to be hung out in all the
parts of the ship, where we could, and which we had lanterns for,
and kept firing guns all the night long; letting them know by
this, that there was a ship not far off. -
About eight o'clock in the morning we discovered the ship’s
boats, by the help of our perspective-glasses; and found there
were two of them, both thronged with people, and deep in the
water: we perceived they rowed, the wind being against them;
that they saw our ship, and did the utmost to make us see them.
We immediately spread our ancient, to let them know we saw
them; and hung a waft out, as a signal for them to come on
board; and then made more sail, standing directly to them. In a
little more than half an hour we came up with them, and in a word
took them all in, being no less than sixty-four men, women, and
children; for there were a great many passengers. º
Upon the whole, we found it was a French merchant-ship of
three hundred tons, homeward-bound from Quebec, in the river
of Canada. The master gave us a long account of the distress of
his ship, how the fire began in the steerage by the negligence of
the steersman; but, on his crying out for help, was, as every body
thought, entirely put out: but they soon found that some sparks
of the first fire had gotten into some part of the ship, so difficult
to come at, that they could not effectually quench it; and after-
wards getting in between the timbers, and within the ceiling of
the ship, it proceeded into the hold, and mastered all the skill
and all the application they were able to exert. r -
They had no more to do then but to get into their boats, which,
to their great comfort, were pretty large; being their long-boat,
and a great shallop, besides a small skiff, which was of no great
service to them, other than to get some fresh water and provi-
sions into her, after they had secured themselves from the fire.
They had indeed small hope of their lives by getting into these
boats at that distance from any land; only, as they said well, that
they were escaped from the fire, and had a possibility, that some
ship might happen to be at sea, and might take them in. They had
sails, oars, and a compass ; and were preparing to make the best
of their way to Newfoundland, the wind blowing pretty fair; for
it blew an easy gale at S. E. by E. They had as much provi-
sions and water, as, with sparing it so as to be next door to
starving, might support them about twelve days; in which, if
they had no bad weather, and no contrary winds, the captain
said, he hoped he might get to the banks of Newfoundland, and
might perhaps take some fish to sustain them till they might go
on shore. But there were so, many chances against them in all
these cases; such as storms to overset and founder them; rains
and sold to benumb and perish their limbs; contrary winds to
of Robinso N cRUso E. 239
keep them out and starve them; that it must have been next to
miraculous if they had escaped.
In the midst of their consultations, every one being hopeless,
and ready to despair, the captain, with tears in his eyes, told me,
they were on a sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a gun
fire, and after that four more; these were the five guns which, I
caused to be fired at first seeing the light: this revived their hearts,
and gave them the notice which, as above, I designed it should,
viz. that there was a ship at hand for their help. -
It was upon the hearing these guns, that they took down their
masts and sails; and the sound coming from windward, they re-
solved to lie by till morning. Some time after this, hearing no
more guns, they fired three muskets, one a considerable while
after another; but these, the wind being contrary, we never heard.
Some time after that again, they were still more agreeably sur-
prised with seeing our lights, and hearing our guns, which, as I
have said, I caused to be fired all the rest of the night: this set
them to work with their oars to keep their boats ahead, at least
that we might the sooner come up with them; and at last to their
inexpressible joy, they found we saw them. -
It is impossible for me to express the several gestures, the
strange ecstacies, the variety of postures, which these poor deli-
vered people run into, to express the joy of their souls at so unex.
pected a deliverance; grief and fear are easily described; sighs,
tears, groans, and a very few motions of head and hands, make
up the sum of its variety: but an excess of joy, a surprise of joy,
has a thousand extravagances in it; there were some in tears,
some raging and tearing themselves, as if they had been in the
greatest agonies of sorrow ; some stark raving and downright lu-
natic ; some ran about the ship stamping with their feet, others
wringing their hands; some were dancing; several singing, some
laughing, more crying: many quite dumb, not able to speak a
word; others sick and vomiting, several swooning, and ready to
faint; and a few were crossing themselves, and giving God thanks.
I would not wrong them neither; there might be many that
were thankful afterward; but the passion was too strong for them
at first, and they were not able to master it; they were thrown
into ecstacies and a kind of frenzy, and so there were but a very
few who were composed and serious in their joy.
Perhaps also the case may have some addition to it, from the
particular circumstance of the nation they belonged to ; I mean
the French, whose temper is allowed to be more volatile, more
passionate, and more sprightly, and their spirits more fluid, than
of other nations. I am not a philosopher to determine the cause,
but nothing I had ever seen before came up to it: the ecstasies
poor Friday, my trusty savage, was in, when he found his father
in the boat, came the nearest to it; and the surprise of the mas-
£240 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
ter, and his two companions, whom I delivered from the villains
that set them on shore in the island, came a little way towards
it; but nothing was to compare to this, either that I saw in
Friday, or any where else in my life.
It is farther observable, that these extravagances did not show
themselves in that different manner I have mentioned, in dif-
ferent persons only: but all the variety would appear in a short
succession of moments, in one and the same person. A man that
we saw this minute dumb, and as it were stupid and confounded,
should the next minute be dancing and hallooing like an antic;
and the next moment a-tearing his hair, or pulling his clothes to
pieces, and stamping them under his feet like a madman; a few
minutes after that, we should have him all in tears, then sick,
then swooning; and had not immediate help been had, would in
a few moments more have been dead; and thus it was, not with
one or two, or ten or twenty, but with the greatest part of them;
and, if I remember right, our surgeon was obiiged to let above
thirty of them blood.
There were two priests among them, one an old man, and the
other a young man; and that which was strangest was, that the
oldest man was the worst. *
As soon as he set his foot on board our ship, and saw him-
self safe, he dropped down stone dead, to all appearance; not the
least sign of life could be perceived in him. Our surgeon imme-
diately applied proper remedies to recover him, and was the only
man in the ship that believed he was not dead; and at length he
opened a vein in his arm, having first chafed and rubbed the
part, so as to warm it as much as possible: upon this the blood,
which only dropped at first, flowed something freely; in three
minutes after the man opened his eyes; and about a quarter of
an hour after that he spoke, grew better, and, in a little time,
quite well. After the blood was stopped, he walked about, told
us he was perfectly well, took a dram of cordial which the surgeon
gave him, and was, what we called, come to himself; about a
quarter of an hour after this they came running into the cabin to
the surgeon, who was bleeding a French woman that had fainted,
and told him the priest was gone stark mad. It seems he had be-
gun to revolve the change of his circumstances in his mind, and
this put him into an ecstacy of joy: his spirits whirled about
faster than the vessels could convey them; the blood grew hot
and feverish, and the man was as fit for Bedlam as any creature
that ever was in it: the surgeon would not bleed him again in
that condition, but gave him something to doze and put him to
sleep, which, after some time, operated upon him, and he waked
next morning perfectly composed and well.
The younger priest behaved himself with great command of
his passion, and was really an example of a serious, well-governed
OF-ROBINSON CRUSOE, 241
mind. At his first coming on board of the ship, he threw himself
flat on his face, prostrating himself in thankfulness for his deliver-
ance; in which I unhappily and unseasonably disturbed, him,
really thinking he had been in a swoon: but he spoke calmly;
thanked me; told me he was giving God thanks for his deliver-
ance; begged me to leave him a few moments, and that next to
his Maker he would give me thanks also. . .
i was heartily sorry that I disturbed him, and not only left
him, but kept others from interrupting him also: he continued
in that posture about three minutes, or a little more, after I left
him, then came to me, as he had said he would, and with a great
deal of seriousness and affection, but with tears in his eyes, thank-
ed me that had, under God, given him and so many miserable
creatures their lives. I told him, I had no room to move him
to thank God for it rather than me; for I had seen that he had
done that already: but I added, that it was nothing but what
reason and humanity dictated to all men, and that we had as much
reason as he to give thanks to God, who had blessed us so far
as to make us the instruments of his mercy to many of his crea-
tureS. -
After this the young priest applied himself to his country-folks;
laboured to compose them; persuaded, entreated, argued, reason-
ed with them, and did his utmost to keep them within the ex-
ercise of their reason; and with some he had success, though
others were, for a time, out of all government of themselves.
I cannot help committing this to writing, as perhaps it may be
useful to those into whose hands it may fall, in the guiding
themselves in all the extravagances of their passions; for if an
excess of joy can carry men out to such a length beyond the reach
of their reason, what will not the extravagances of anger, rage,
and a provoked mind carry us to ? And, indeed, here I saw reason
for keeping an exceeding watch over our passions of every kind,
as well those of joy and satisfaction, as those of sorrow and anger.
We were sometimes disordered by these extravagances among
our new guests for the first day; but when they had been retired,
lodgings provided for them as well as our ship would allow, and
they had slept heartily, as most of them did, being fatigued and
frightened, they were quite another sort of people the next day.
Nothing of good manners, or civil acknowledgments for the
kindness shown them, was wanting ; the French, it is known, are
naturally apt enough to exceed that way. The captain and one
of the priests came to me the next day; and, desiring to speak
with me and my nephew, the commander began to consult with
us what should be done with them; and first they told us, that
as we had saved their lives, so all they had was little enough
for a return to us for the kindness received. The captain said,
they had saved some money, and some things of value in their
L


242. LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
boats, catched hastily out of the flames; and if we would accept
it, they were ordered to make an offer of it all to us; they only de-
sired to be set on shore somewhere in our way, where, if possible,
they might get a passage to France.
My nephew was for accepting their money at first word, and to
consider what to do with them afterwards: but I over-ruled him
in that part; for I knew what it was to be set on shore in a strange
country; and if the Portugal captain that took me up at sea had
served me so, and took all I had for my deliverance, I must have
starved, or have been as much a slave at the Brazils as I had
been at Barbary, the being sold to a Mahometan only excepted;
and perhaps a Portugueze is not a much better master than a Turk,
if not, in some cases, a much worse. -
I therefore told the French captain that we had taken them
up in their distress, it was true; but that it was our duty to do
so, as we were fellow-creatures, and as we would desire to be so
delivered, if we were in the like or any other extremity; that
we had done nothing for them but what we believed they would
have done for us, if we had been in their case and they in ours;
but that we took them up to serve them, not to plunder them ;
and that it would be a most barbarous thing, to take that little
from them which they had saved out of the fire, and then set
them on shore and leave them ; that this would be first to save
them from death, and then kill them ourselves; save them from
drowning, and then abandon them to starving ; and therefore I
would not let the least thing be taken from them. As to setting
them on shore, I told them indeed that was an exceeding difficulty
to us, for that the ship was bound to the East Indies; and though
we were driven out of our course to the westward a very great
way, which perhaps was directed by Heaven on purpose for their
deliverance, yet it was impossible for us wilfully to change our
voyage on this particular account; nor could my mephew, the
captain, answer it to the freighters, with whom he was under char-
ter-party to pursue his voyage by the way of Brazil; and all I
knew he could do for them was, to put ourselves in the way of
meeting with other ships homeward-bound from the West Indies,
and get them passage, if possible, to England or France.
The first part of the proposal was so generous and kind, they
could not but be very thankful for it; but they were in a great
consternation, especially the passengers, at the notion of being
carried away to the East Indies: they then entreated me, that
seeing I was driven so far to the westward before I met with
them, I would at least keep on the same course to the banks of
Newfoundland, where it was possible I might meet with some
ship or sloop that they might hire to carry them back to Canada,
from whence they came.
I thought this was but a reasonable request on their part, and
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 243
therefore I inclined to agree to it; for indeed I considered, that
to carry this whole company to the East Indies would not only be
an intolerable severity to the poor people, but would be ruining
our whole voyage, by devouring all our provisions ; so I thought
it no breach of charter-party, but what an unforeseen acsident
made absolutely necessary to us, and in which no one could say
we were to blame; for the laws of God and nature would have
forbid, that we should refuse to take up two boats full of people
in such a distressed condition; and the nature of the thing, as
well respecting ourselves, as the poor people, obliged us to see
them on shore somewhere or other, for their deliverance; so I
consented that we would carry them to Newfoundland, if wind
and weather would permit; and if not, that I would carry them to
Martinico, in the West Indies.
The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty
good; and as it had blowed continually in the points between
N. E. and S. E. a long time, we missed several opportunities of
sending them to France; for we met several ships bound to Eu-
rope, whereof two were French, from St Christopher’s ; but they
had been so long beating up against the wind, that they durst take
in no passengers for fear of wanting provisions for the voyage, as
well for themselves as for those they should take in; so we were
obliged to go on. It was about a week after this, that we made
the banks of Newfoundland, where, to shorten my story, we put
all our French people on board a bark, which they hired at sea
there, to put them on shore, and afterwards to carry them to
France, if they could get provisions to victual themselves with:
when I say all the French went on shore, I should remember
that the young priest I spoke of, hearing we were bound to the
East Indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and to be set on
shore on the coast of Coromandel: I readily agreed to that; for
I wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, as will
appear afterwards; also four of the seamen entered themselves in
our ship, and proved very useful fellows,
CHAP. XXII.
Steer for the West Indies—Distressing Account of a Bristol Ship,
the Crew of which we save in a state of Starvation—Arrive
at my Island—Friday's joy on discovering it—Affecting inter-
view betwirt him and his Father on landing–Narrative of
the Occurrences on the Island during my absence.
FROM hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steer-
ing away S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together, some-
times little or no wind at all, when we met with another subject
244 LIFE AND Adventures
for our humanity to work upon, almost as deplorable as that be-
fore.
It was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes N., and the 19th
day of March 1684-5, when we espied a sail, our course S. E. and
by S. We soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore
up to us; but could not at first know what to make of her, till
after coming a little nearer, we found she had lost her main-top-
mast, foremast, and bowsprit, and presently she fires a gun as a
signal of distress. The weather was pretty good, wind at N. N.
W. a fresh gale, and we soon came to speak with her.
We found her a ship of Bristol bound home from Barbadoes,
but had been blown out of the road at Barbadoes, a few days be-
fore she was ready to sail, by a terrible hurricane, while the cap-
tain and chief mate were both gone on shore ; so that, beside the
terror of the storm, they were but in an indifferent case for good
artists to bring the ship home. They had been already nine weeks
at sea, and had met with another terrible storm after the hurricane
was over, which had blown them quite out of their knowledge to
the westward, and in which they had lost their masts, as above;
they told us, they expected to have seen the Bahama Islands, but
were then driven away again to the south-east by a strong gale of
wind at N. N. W., the same that blew now, and having no sails
to work the ship with, but a main course, and a kind of square sail
upon a jury-foremast, which they had set up, they could not lie
near the wind, but were endeavouring to stand away for the Ca-
Iºlaries. •
But that which was worst of all, was, that they were almost
starved for want of provisions, besides the fatigues they had under-
ne; their bread and flesh was quite gone, they had not an ounce
#. in the ship, and had had mone for eleven days; the only re-
lief they had, was, their water was not all spent, and they had
• about half a barrel of flour left; they had sugar enough; some suc-
cades or sweatmeats they had at first, but they were devoured; and
they had seven casks of rum, * .
here was a youth and his mother, and a maid-servant on
board, who were going passengers, and thinking the ship was
ready to sail, unhappily came on board the evening before the
hurricane began; and, having no provisions of their own left,
they were in a more deplorable condition than the rest; for the
seamen, being reduced to such an extreme necessity themselves,
had no compassion, we may be sure, for the poor passengers;
and they were indeed in a condition that their misery is very hard
to describe.
I had perhaps not known this part, if my curiosity had not led
me, the weather being fair, and the wind abated, to go on board
the ship: the second mate, who upon this occasion commanded the
ship, had been on board our ship; and he told me indeed, that



OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 245
they had three passengers in the great cabin, that they were in a
deplorable condition; Nay, says he, I believe they are dead, for
I have heard nothing of them for above two days; and I was
afraid to inquire after them, said he, for I had nothing to relieve
them with. -
We immediately applied ourselves to give them what relief we
could spare; and indeed I had so far over-ruled things with my
nephew, that I would have victualled them, though we had gone
away to Virginia, or any part of the coast of America, to have sup-
plied ourselves; but there was no necessity for that.
But now they were in a new danger, for they were afraid of
eating too much, even of that little we gave them. The mate or
commander brought six men with him in his boat, but these poor
wretches looked like skeletons, and were so weak, they could hard-
ly sit to their oars; the mate himself was very ill, and half starved,
§: he declared he had reserved nothing from the men, and went
share and share alike with them in every bit they ate.
I cautioned him to eat sparingly, but set meat before him im-
mediately, and he had not eaten three mouthfuls before he began
to be sick, and out of order; so he stopped a while, and our sur-
geon mixed him up something with some broth, which he said
would be to him both food and physic; and after he had taken
it, he grew better: in the mean time I forgot not the men; I or-
dered victuals to be given them, and the poor creatures rather
devoured than ate it; they were so exceeding hungry that they,
were in a manner ravenous, and had no command of themselves; kº
and two of them ate with so much greediness, that they were
in danger of their lives the next morning.
The sight of these º, distress was very moving to me,
and brought to mind what I had a terrible prospect of at my first
coming on shore in my island, where I had not the least mouth-
ful of food, or any hopes of procuring it; besides the hourly ap-
prehension I had of being made the food of other creatures.
But all the while the mate was thus relating to me the miserable
condition of the ship's company, I could not put out of my
thought the story he had told me of the three poor creatures in
the great cabin; viz. the mother, her son, and the maid-servant,
whom he had heard nothing of for two or three days; and
whom he seemed to confess they had wholly neglected, their own
extremities being so great: by which I understood, that they had
really given them no food at all; and that therefore they must
be perished, and be all lying dead perhaps on the floor or deck of
the cabin.
As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain,
on board with his men to refresh them, so I also forgot not the
starving crew that were left on board, but ordered my own boat
to go on board the ship, and with my mate and twelve men to



246 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
carry them a sack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef to boiſ.
Our Surgeon charged the men to cause the meat to be boiled
while they stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room, to pre-
vent the men's taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot be-
fore it was well boiled, and then to give every man but a little at
a time; and by this caution he preserved the men, who would
otherwise have killed themselves with that very food that was
given them. on purpose to save their lives.
At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great cabin,
and see what condition the poor passengers were in, and, if they
were alive, to comfort them and give them what refreshment
was proper; and the surgeon gave a large pitcher with some
of the prepared broth which he had given the mate that was on
board, and which he did not question would restore them gra-
dually.
I was not satisfied with this; but, as I said above, having a great
mind to see the scene of misery, which I knew the ship itself
would present me with, in a more lively manner than I could
have it by report, I took the captain of the ship, as we now called
him, with me, and went myself a little after in their boat.
I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult to get the
victuals out of the boiler before it was ready; but my mate ob-
served his order, and kept a good guard at the cook-room door;
and the men he phaced there, after using all possible persuasion
to have patience, kept them off by force : however, he caused
some biscuit cakes to be dipped in the pot, and softened them
with the liquor of the meat, which they call brewis, and gave
every one one, to stay their stomachs, and told them it was for
their own safety that he was obliged to give them but little at a
time. But it was all in vain, and had not I come on board, and
their own commander and officers with me, and with good words,
and some threats also of giving them no more, I believe they
would have broke into the cook-room by force, and torn the
meat out of the furnace; for words indeedcare of a very small
force to an hungry belly: however we pacified them, and fed
them gradually and cautiously for the first time, and the next
time gave them more, and at last filled their bellies, and the men
did well enough. -
But the misery of the poor passengers in the cabin was of an-
other nature, and far beyond the rest; for as, first, the ship’s
company had so little for themselves, it was but too true, that
they had at first kept them very low, and at last totally neglected
them; so that for six or seven days it might be said, they had
really had no food at all, and for several days before, very little.
The poor mother, who, as the first mate reported, was a wo—
man of good sense and good breeding, had spared all she could
get so affectionately for her son, that at last she entirely sunk un-

OF ROBIN SON C R US O E. 247
der it; and when the mate of our ship went in, she sat upon the
floor or deck, with her back up against the sides, between two
chairs, which were lashed fast, and her head sunk in between her
shoulders, like a corpse, though not quite dead. My mate said
all he could to revive and encourage her, and with a spoon put
some broth into her mouth ; she opened her lips, and lifted
up one hand, but could not speak ; yet she understood what
he said, and made signs to him, intimating, that it was too late
for her; but pointed to her child, as if she would have said, they
should take care of him. -
However, the mate, who was exceedingly moved with the
sight, endeavoured to get some of the broth into her mouth; and,
as he said, got two or three spoonfuls down, though I question
whether he could be sure of it or not; but it was too late, and
she died the same night.
The youth, who was preserved at the price of his most affec-
tionate mother’s life, was not so far gone; yet he lay in a cabin-
bed as one stretched out, with hardly any life left in him: he had
a piece of an old glove in his mouth, having eaten up the rest of
it; however, being young, and having more strength than his mo-
ther, the mate got something down his throat, and he began sen-
sibly to revive, though, by giving him some time after but two or
three spoonfuls extraordinary, he was very sick, and brought it up
again. .
*. the next care was the poor maid; she lay all along upon
the deck hard by her mistress, and just like one that had fallen
down with an apoplexy, and sº for life: her limbs were
distorted, one of her hands was clasped round the frame of one
chair, and she griped it so hard, that we could not easily make
her let it go; her other arm lay over her head, and her feet lay
both together, set fast against the frame of the cabin table; in
short, she lay just like one in the last agonies of death, and yet
she was alive too.
The poor creature was not only starved with hunger, and ter-
rified with the thoughts of death, but, as the men told us after-
wards, was broken-hearted for her mistress, whom she saw dying
two or three days before, and whom she loved most tenderly.
We knew not what to do with this poor girl; for when our
surgeon, who was a man of very great knowledge and experience,
and with great application recovered her as to life, he had her
upon his hand as to her senses; for she was little less than dis-
tracted for a considerable time after, as shall appear presently.
Whoever shall read these memorandums, must be desired to
consider, that visits at sea are not like a journey into the country,
where sometimes people stay a week or a fortnight at a place.
Our business was to relieve this distressed ship's crew, but not
lie by for them; and though they were willing to steer the same
248 LIFE AN ID A DVENTURES
course with us for some days, yet we could carry no sail to keep
i. with a ship that had no masts: however, as their captain
gged of us to help him to set up a main-topmast, and a kind
of topmast to his jury-foremast, we did, as it were, lie by him
for three or four days, and then having given him five barrels of
beef and pork, two hogsheads of biscuit, and a proportion of pease,
flour, and what other things we could spare; and taking three casks
of Sugar and some rum, and some pieces of eight of them for sa-
tisfaction, we left them, taking on board with us, at their own
earnest request, the youth and the maid, and all their goods.
The young lad was about seventeen years of age, a pretty, well-
bred, modest, and sensible youth; greatly dejected with the loss
of his mother, and, as it seems, had lost his father but a few
months before at Barbadoes. He begged of the surgeon to speak
to me, to take him out of the ship; for, he said, the cruel fellows
had murdered his mother; and indeed so they had, that is to say,
passively; for they might have spared a small sustenance to the
poor helpless widow, that might have preserved her life, though
it had been just to keep her alive. But hunger knows no friend,
no relation, no justice, no right; and therefore is remorseless,
and capable of no compassion.
The surgeon told him how far we were going, and how it
would carry him away from all his friends, and put him perhaps
in as bad circumstances, almost, as we found them in ; that is
to say, starving in the world. He said he mattered not whither
he went, if he was but delivered from the terrible crew that he
was among: that the captain (by which he meant me, for he
could know nothing of my nephew) had saved his life, and he was
sure would not hurt him; and as for the maid, he was sure if
she came to herself, she would be very thankful for it, let us car-
ry them whither we would. The surgeon represented the case.so
affectionately to me, that I yielded, and we took them both on
board with all their goods, except eleven hogsheads of sugar,
which could not be removed, or come at ; and as the youth had
a bill of lading for them, I made his commander sign a writing,
obliging him to go, as soon as he came to Bristol, to one Mr Ro-
gers, a merchant there, to whom the youth said he was related,
and to deliver a letter which I wrote to him, and all the goods he
had belonging to the deceased widow: which I suppose was not
done; for I could never learn that the ship came to Bristol; but
was, as is most probable, lost at sea, being in so disabled a condi-
tion, and so far from any land, that I am of opinion, the first
storm she met with afterwards she might founder in the sea; for
she was leaky, and had damage in her hold when I met with her.
I was now in the latitude of 19 deg. 32 min. and had hither-
to had a tolerable voyage as to weather, though at first the winds
had been contrary. I shall trouble nobody with the little inci-
OF ROBINSON CRU SOE, 249
dents of wind, weather, currents, &c. on the rest of our voyage ;
but shortening my story for the sake of what is to follow, shall
observe, that I came to my old habitation, the island, on the 10th
of April, 1695. It was with no small difficulty that I found the
place; for as I came to it, and went from it before, on the south
and east side of the island, as coming from the Brazils; so now
coming in between the main and the island, and having no chart
for the coast, nor any land-mark, I did not know it when I saw.
it, or know whether I saw it or no.
We beat about a great while, and went on shore on several
islands in the mouth of the great river Oroonoque, but none for
my purpose: only this I learnt by my coasting the shore, that I
was under one great mistake before, viz. that the continent which
I thought I saw from the island I lived in, was really no continent,
but a long island, or rather a ridge of islands reaching from one
to the other side of the extended mouth of that great river; and
that the savages who came to my island, were not properly those
which we call Caribees, but islanders, and other barbarians of
the same kind, who inhabited something nearer to our side than
the rest.
In short, I visited several of the islands to no purpose; some I
found were inhabited, and some were not. On one of them I
found some Spaniards, and thought they had lived there; but
speaking with them, found they had a sloop lay in a small creek
hard by, and that they came thither to make salt, and catch some
pearl-mussels, if they could ; but they belonged to the Isle de Tri-
nidad, which lay farther north, in the latitude of 10 and 11 de-
grees.
Thus coasting from one island to another, sometimes with the
ship, sometimes with the Frenchman’s shallop (which we had
found a convenient boat, and therefore kept her with their very
good will,) at length I came fair on the south side of my island,
and I presently knew the very countenance of the place; so I
brought the ship safe to an anchor broad-side with the little creek
where was my old habitation.
As soon as I saw the place, I called for Friday, and asked him,
if he knew where he was He looked about a little, and present-
ly clapping his hands, cried, O yes, O there, O yes, Othere !
pointing to our old habitation, and fell a dancing and capering like
a mad fellow, and I had much ado to keep him from jumping in-
to the sea, to swim ashore to the place. -.
Well, Friday, said I, do you think we shall find any body here,
or no 2 and what do you think, shall we see your father ?—The
fellow stood mute as a stock a good while; but when I named
his father, the poor affectionate creature looked dejected; and
I could see the tears run down his face very plentifully. What
is the matter, Friday? said I; are you troubled because you may
L 2
250 LIFE AN ID A DV ENTURES
see your father 3–No, no, says he, shaking his head, no see him
more, no ever more see again.-Why so, said I, Friday 2 how do
you know that 3–O no, Ono, says Friday, he long ago die; long
ago, he much old man.—Well, well, said I, Friday, you don’t know :
but shall we see any one else then —The fellow, it seems, had bet-
ter eyes than I, and he points just to the hill above my old house;
and though we lay half a league off, he cries out, Me see! me see :
yes, yes, me see much man there, and there, and there.—I looked,
but I could see nobody, no, not with a perspective-glass; which
was, I suppose, because I could not hit the place; for the fellow
was right, as I found upon inquiry the next day, and there were
five or six men all together stood to look at the ship, not knowing
what to think of us.
As soon as Friday had told me he saw people, I caused the
English ancient to be spread, and fired three guns, to give them
notice we were friends ; and about half a quarter of an hour af.
ter, we perceived a smoke rise from the side of the creek; so I
immediately ordered a boat out, taking Friday with me; and
hanging out a white flag, or a flag of truce, I went directly on
shore, taking with me the young friar I mentioned, to whom I had
told the whole story of my living there, and the manner of it, and
every particular both of myself and those that I left there, and
who was on that account extremely desirous to go with me. We
had besides about sixteen men very well armed, if we had found
any new guest there which we did not know of; but we had no
need of weapons. -
As we went on shore upon the tide of flood near high water,
we rowed directly into the creek; and the first man I fixed my
eye upon was the Spaniard whose life I had saved, and whom I
knew by his face perfectly well; as to his habit, I shall describe it
afterwards. I ordered nobody to go on shore at first but myself;
but there was no keeping Friday in the boat; for the affectionate
creature had spied, his father at a distance, a good way off of the
Spaniards, where indeed I saw nothing of him; and if they had
not let him go on shore, he would have jumped into the sea. He
was no sooner on shore, but he flew away to his father like an ar-
row out of a bow. It would have made any man shed tears, in
spite of the firmest resolution, to have seen the first transports
of this poor fellow’s joy, when he came to his father; how he
embraced him, kissed him, stroked his face, took him up in his
arms, set him down upon a tree, and lay down by him; then
stood and looked at him as any one would look at a strange pic-
ture, for a quarter of an hour together; then lay down upon the
ground, and stroked his legs, and kissed them, and then got up
again, and stared at him ; one would have thought the fellow
bewitched : but it would have made a dog laugh to see how the
next day his passion run out another way: in the morning he
OF ROBIN SO N C R USO E. 25 !
walked along the shore, to and again, with his father, several
hours, always leading him by the hand as if he had been a lady;
and every now and then would come to fetch something or other
for him from the boat, either a lump of sugar, or a dram, a bis-
cuit, or something or other that was good. In the afternoon his
frolics ran another way; for then he would set the old man down
upon the ground, and dance about him, and made a thousand an:
tic postures and gestures; and all the while he did this he would
be talking to him, and telling him one story or another of his tra-
vels, and of what had happened to him abroad, to divert him. In
short, if the same filial affection was to be found in Christians to
their parents in our parts of the world, one would be tempted to
say there hardly would have been any need of the fifth command-
Innent.
But this is a digression; I return to my landing. It would be
endless to take notice of all the ceremonies and civilities that the
Spaniards received me with. The first Spaniard, whom, as I said,
I knew very well, was he whose life I saved: he came towards
the boat attended by one more, carrying a flag of truce also ; and
he did not only not know me at first, but he had no thoughts, no
motion, of its being me that was come, till I spoke to him. Seig-
nior, said I, in Portugueze, do you not know me? At which he
spoke not a word; but giving his musket to the man that was
with him, threw his arms abroad, and saying something in Spa-
nish that I did not perfectly hear, came forward, and embraced
me, telling me, he was inexcusable not to know that face again
that he had once seen, as of an angel from Heaven sent to save
his life : he said abundance of very handsome things, as a well-
bred Spaniard always knows how ; and then beckoning to the
person that attended him, bade him go and call out his comrades.
He then asked me if I would walk to my old habitation, where he
would give me possession of my own house again, and where I
should see there had been but mean improvements. So I walked
along with him; but, alas ! I could no more find the place again
than if I had never been there, for they had planted so many trees,
and placed them in such a posture, so thick and close to one
another, in ten years time they were grown so big, that, in short,
the place was inaccessible, except by such windings and blind ways
as they themselves only who made them could find.
I asked them, what put them upon all these fortifications 2 He
told me, I would say there was need enough of it, when they had
given an account how they had passed their time since their ar-
riving in the island, especialiy after they had the misfortune to
find that I was gone : |. told me he could not but have some
satisfaction in my good fortuné, when he heard that I was gone
in a good ship, and to my satisfaction; and that he had oftentimes
a strong persuasion, that one time or other he should see me
252 Life AND Adventures
again : but nothing that ever befel him in his life, he said, was so
surprising and afflicting to him at first, as the disappointment he
j. under when he came back to the island, and found I was not
there,
As to the three barbarians (so he called them) that were left
behind, and of whom he said he had a long story to tell me; the
Spaniards all thought themselves much better among the savages,
only that their number was so small. And, says he, had they
been strong enough, we had been all long ago in purgatory; and
with that he crossed himself upon the breast. But, sir, says he, I
hope you will not be displeased when I shall tell you how, forced
by necessity, we were obliged, for our own preservation, to disarm
them, and make them our subjects, who would not be content
with being moderately our masters, but would be our murderers.
I answered, I was heartily afraid of it when I left them there;
and nothing troubled me at my parting from the island, but that
they were not come back, that I might have put them in posses-
sion of every thing first, and left the other in a state of subjection,
as they deserved : but if they had reduced them to it, I was
very glad, and should be very far from finding any fault with it,
for I knew they were a parcel of refractory, ungovernable villains,
and were fit for any manner of mischief.
While I was saying this, came the man whom he had sent
back, and with him eleven men more : in the dress they were in,
it was impossible to guess what nation they were of; but he made
all clear both to them and to me. First he turned to me, and
pointing to them, said, These, sir, are some of the gentlemen who
owe their lives to you; and then turning to them, and pointing
to me, he let them know who I was; upon which they all came
up one by one, not as if they had been sailors, and ordinary fel-
lows, and I the like, but really as if they had been ambassadors
or noblemen, and I a monarch or a great conqueror: their beha-
viour was to the last degree obliging i. courteous, and yet mix-
ed with a manly majestic gravity, which very well became them :
and in short they had so much more manners than I, that I
scarce knew how to receive their civilities, much less how to
return them in kind.
The history of their coming to, and conduct in the island after
my going away, is so remarkable, and has so many incidents,
which the former part of my relation will help to understand,
and which will, in most of the particulars, refer to that account
I have already given, that I cannot but commit them with great
delight to the reading of those that coine after me.
I shall no longer trouble the story with a relation in the first
person, which will put me to the expense of ten thousand Said
i’s, and Said he's, and He told me’s, and I told him's, and the
like; but I shall collect the facts historically as near as I can

OF ROB I NSO N C R USO E. 253
gather them out of my memory from what they related to me,
and from what I met with in my conversing with them, and with
the place. &
In order to do this succinctly, and as intelligibly as I can, I must
go back to the circumstances in which I left the island, and which
the persons were in of whom I am to speak. At first it is ne-
cessary to repeat, that I had sent away Friday's father and the
Spaniard, the two whose lives I had rescued from the savages; I
say, I had sent them away in a large canoe to the main, as I then
thought it, to fetch over the Spaniard's companions whom he had
left behind him, in order to save them from the like calamity that
he had been in, and in order to succour them for the present, and
that, if possible, we might together find some way for our deliver-
ance afterward.
When I sent them away, I had no visible appearance of, or
the least room to hope for, my own deliverance, any more than
I had twenty years before; much less had I any foreknowledge
of what after happened, I mean of an English ship coming on
shore there to fetch them off; and it could not but be a very
great surprise to them when they came back, not only to find that
I was gone, but to find three strangers left on the spot, possess-
ed of all that I had left behind me, which would otherwise have
been their own.
The first thing, however, which I inquired into, that I might
begin where I left off, was of their own part; and I desired The
would give me a particular account of his voyage back to his
countrymen with the boat, when I sent him to fetch them over.
He told me there was little variety in that part; for nothing re-
markable happened to them on the way, they having very calm
weather and a smooth sea; for his countrymen, it could not be
doubted, he said, but that they were overjoyed to see him (it
seems he was the principal man among them, the captain of the
vessel they had been shipwrecked in having been dead some time :)
they were, he said, the more surprised to see him, because
they knew that he was fallen into the hands of savages, who, they
were satisfied, would devour him, as they did all the rest of
their prisoners; that when he told them the story of his deliver-
ance, and in what manner he was furnished for carrying them
away, it was like a dream to them; and their astonishment, they
said, was something like that of Joseph’s brethren, when he told
them who he was, and told them the story of his exaltation in
Pharaoh’s court; but when he showed then the arms, the pow-
der, the ball, and the provisions that he brought them for their
journey or voyage, they were restored to themselves, took a just
share of the joy of their deliverance, and immediately prepared to
come away with him.
The first business was to get canoes; and in this they were
254 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
obliged not to stick so much upon the honest part of it, but to
trespass upon their friendly savages, and to borrow two large
canoes or periaguas, on pretence of going out a-fishing, or for
pleasure.
In these they came away the next morning; it seems they
wanted no time to get themselves ready, for they had no bag-
gage, neither clothes, or provisions, or any other thing in the
world, but what they had on them, and a few roots to eat, of
which they used to make their bread.
They were in all three weeks absent, and in that time, unluck-
ily for them, I had the occasion offered for my escape, as I men-
tioned in my other part, and to get off from the island; leaving
three of the most impudent, hardened, ungoverned, disagreeable
villains behind me that any man could desire to meet with, to the
poor Spaniards’ great grief and disappointment you may be sure.
The only just thing the rogues did, was, that when the Spa-
niards came on shore, they gave my letter to them, and gave
them provisions and other relief, as I had ordered them to do;
also they gave them the long paper of directions, which I had left
with them, containing the particular methods which I took for
managing every part of my life there; the way how I baked my
bread, bred-up my tame goats, and planted my corn; how I cured
my grapes, made my pots, and, in a word, every thing I did ;
all this being written down, they gave to the Spaniards, two of
whom understood English well enough; nor did they refuse to
accommodate the Spaniards with any thing else, for they agreed
very well for some time: they gave them an equal admission into
the house, or cave, and they began to live very sociabiy; and the
head Spaniard, who had seen pretty much of my method, and
Friday’s father together, managed all their affairs; for as for the
Englishmen, they did nothing but ramble about the island, shoot
parrots, and catch tortoises, and when they came home at night,
the Spaniards provided their suppers for them. *
The Spaniards would have been satisfied with this, would the
other but have left them alone; which, however, they could not
find in their hearts to do long; but, like the dog in the manger,
they would not eat themselves, and would not let others eat
neither: the differences, nevertheless, were at first but trivial,
and such as are not worth relating; but at last it broke out into
open war, and it began with all the rudeness and insolence that
can be imagined, without reason, without provocation, contrary
to nature, and indeed to common sense ; and though, it is true,
the first relation of it came from the Spaniards themselves, whom
I may call the accusers, yet when I came to examine the fellows,
they could not deny a word of it.
But before I come to the particulars of this part, I must supply
a defect in my former relation; and this was, that I forgot to set
OF ROBIN SO N CRU SOE, 255
down among the rest, that just as we were weighing the anchor
to set sail, there happened a little quarrel on board our ship, which
I was afraid once would turn to a second mutiny; nor was it ap-
peased till the captain, rousing up his courage, and taking us
all to his assistance, parted them by ſorce, and making two of the
most refractory fellows prisoners, he laid them in irons; and as
they had been active in the former disorders, and let fall some
ugly dangerous words the second time, he threatened to carry
them in irons to England, and have them hanged there for mutiny,
and running away with the ship.
This, it seems, though the captain did not intend to do it, fright-
ed some other men in the ship; and some of them had put it in
the heads of the rest, that the captain only gave them good words
for the present till they should come to some English port, and
that then they should be all put into a gaol, and tried for their
lives.
The mate got intelligence of this, and acquainted us with it;
upon which it was desired that I, who still passed for a great man
among them, should go down with the mate and satisfy the men,
and tell them, that they might be assured, if they behaved well
the rest of the voyage, all they had done for the time past should
be pardoned. So I went, and after passing my honour’s word to
them, they appeared easy, and the more so, when i caused the two
men who were in irons to be released and forgiven.
But this mutiny had brought us to an anchor for that night,
the wind also falling calm. Next morning we found that our two
men who had been laid in irons, had stole each of them a musket
and some other weapons; what powder or shot they had we knew
not; and had taken the ship's pinnace, which was not yet hauled
up, and run away with her to their companions in roguery on shore,
As soon as we found this, I ordered the long-boat on shore,
with twelve men and the mate, and away they went to seek the
rogues; but they could neither find them, nor any of the rest;
for they all fled into the woods when they saw the boat coming
on shore. The mate was once resolved, in justice to their roguery,
to have destroyed their plantations, burnt all their household stuff
and furniture, and left them to shift without it; but having no or-
der, he let all alone, left every thing as they found it, and bring-
ing the pinnace away, came on board without them.
These two men made their number five : but the other three
villains were so much wickeder than these, that after they had
been two or three days together, they turned their two new-comers
out of doors to shift for themselves, and would have nothing to do
with them; nor could they, for a good while, be persuaded to give
them any food: as for the Spaniards, they were not yet come.
When the Spaniards came first on shore, the business began
to go forward; the Spaniards would have persuaded the three
256 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
English brutes to have taken in their two countrymen again, that,
as they said, they might be all one family; but they would not
hear of it: so the two poor fellows lived by themselves, and find-
ing nothing but industry and application would make them live
comfortable, they pitched their tents on the north shore of the
island, but a little more to the west, to be out of the danger of
the Savages, who always landed on the east parts of the island.
Here they built two huts, one to lodge in, and the other to lay
up their magazines and stores in; and the Spaniards having given
them some corn for seed, and especially some of the pease which
I had left them, they dug, and planted, and enclosed, after the
pattern I had set for them all, and began to live pretty well: their
first crop of corn was on the ground, and though it was but a
little bit of land which they had dug up at first, having had but
a little time, yet it was enough to relieve them, and find them with
bread or other eatables; and one of the fellows, being the cook’s
mate of the ship, was very ready at making soup, puddings, and
such other preparations, as the rice and the milk, and such little
flesh as they got, furnished him to do.
They were going on in a little thriving posture, when the three
unnatural rogues, their own countrymen too, in mere humour,
and to insult them, came and bullied them, and told them the
island was theirs; that the governor, meaning me, had given them
possession of it, and nobody else had any right to it; and, damn
them, they should build no houses upon their ground, unless they
would pay them rent for them.
- The two men thought they had jested at first, and asked them
to come and sit down, and see what fine houses they were that
they had built, and tell them what rent they demanded: and one
of them merrily told them, if they were ground-landlords, he ho-
ped if they built tenements upon the land, and made improvements,
they would, according to the custom of all landlords, grant them
a long lease; and bid them go fetch a scrivener to draw the wri-
tings. One of the three, damning and raging, told them they should
see they were not in jest; and going to a little place at a distance,
where the honest men had made a fire to dress their victuals, he
takes a fire-brand and claps it to the outside of their hut, and
very fairly set it on fire; and it would have been all burnt down
in a few minutes, if one of the two had not run to the fellow, thrust
him away, and trod the fire out with his feet, and that not with-
out some difficulty too.
. The fellow was in such a rage at the honest man’s thrusting
him away, that he turned upon him with a pole he had in his hand;
and had not the man avoided the blow very nimbly, and run into
the hut, he had ended his days at once. His comrade, seeing the
danger they were both in, ran in after him, and immediately they
came both out with their muskets; and the man that was first

OF ROBIN SON CIRUSO E. 257
struck at with the pole knocked the fellow down who began the
quarrel, with the stock of his musket, and that before the other
two could come to help him; and then seeing the rest come at
them, they stood together, and presenting the other ends of their
pieces to them, bade them stand off.
The others had fire-arms with them too; but one of the two
honest men, bolder than his comrade, and made desperate by his
danger, told them if they offered to move hand or foot they were
all dead men, and boldly commanded them to lay down their
arms. They did not indeed lay down their arms; but seeing
him resolute, it brought them to a parley, and they consented
to take their wounded man with them, and be gone; and, indeed,
it seems the fellow was wounded sufficiently with the blow ; how-
ever, they were much in the wrong, since they had the advan-
tage, that they did not disarm them effectually, as they might
have done, and have gone immediately to the Spaniards, and
given them an account how the rogues had treated them; for the
three villains studied nothing but revenge, and every day gave them
Some intimation that they did so. *.
But not to crowd this part with an account of the lesser part of
their rogueries, such as treading down their corn, shooting three
young kids and a she-goat, which the poor men had got to breed
up tame for their store; and in a word, plaguing them night and
day in this manner, it forced the two men to such a desperation,
that they resolved to fight them all three the first time they had a
fair opportunity. In order to this they resolved to go to the cas-
tle, as they called it, that was my old dwelling, where the three
rogues and the Spaniards all lived together at that time, intending
to have a fair battle, and the Spaniards should stand by to see fair
play. So they got up in the morning before day, and came to the
place, and called the Englishmen by their names, telling a Spaniard
that answered, that they wanted to speak with them.
CHAP. XXIII.
Narrative continued—Insolence of three of the Englishmen to
the Spaniards—They are disarmed and brought to order-A
great Body of Savages land upon the Island–They turn out
to be two adverse Nations met there by chance—4 bloody Bat-
tle betwixt them—Several of the vanquished Party secured by the
Spaniards.
IT happened that the day before, two of the Spaniards, having
been in the woods, had seen one of the two Englishmen, whom,
for distinction, I call the honest men; and he had made a sad
complaint to the Spaniards, of the barbarous usage they had met
**
258 LIFE AND A PV ENTURES
with from their three countrymen, and how they had ruined their
plantation, and destroyed their corn, that they had laboured so
hard to bring forward, and killed the milch-goat, and their three
kids, which was all they had provided for their sustenance; and
that if he and his friends, meaning the Spaniards, did not assist
them again, they should be starved. When the Spaniards came
home at night, and they were all at supper, he took the freedom
to reprove the three Englishmen, though in gentle and mannerly
terms, and asked them, how they could be so cruel, they being
harmless inoffensive fellows, and that they were putting them-
selves in a way to subsist by their labour, and that it had cost
them a great deal to bring things to such perfection as they had.
One of the Englishmen returned very briskly, What had they
to do there : That they came on shore without leave, and that
they should not plant or build upon the island; it was none of
their ground.—Why, says the Spaniard, very calmly, Seignior
Inglese, they must mot starve.—The Englishman replied, like a
true rough-hewn tarpaulin, They might starve and be damned, they
should not plant nor build in that place.—But what must they do
then, Seignior says the Spaniard.—Another of the brutes return-
ed, Do! d-n them, they should be servants, and work for them.
—But how can you expect that of them : they are not bought with
your money; you have no right to make them servants.-The
Englishman answered, The island was theirs, the governor had
given it to them, and no man had any thing to do there but them-
selves; and with that swore by his Maker, that he would go and
burn all their new huts; they should build none upon their land.
Why, Seignior, says the Spaniard, by the same rule, we must
be your servants too.—Ay, says the bold dog, and so you shall
too, before we have done with you; mixing two or three G—d
d—m me’s in the proper intervals of his speech. The Spaniard
only smiled at that, and made him no answer. However, this little
discourse had heated them; and starting up, one says to the
other, I think it was he they called Will Atkins, Come, Jack, let
us go and have the other brush with them; we will demolish their
castle, I will warrant you; they shall plant no colony in our do-
minions. -
Upon this they were all trooping away, with every man a gun,
a pistol, and a sword, and muttered some insolent things among
themselves, of what they would do to the Spaniards too, when
opportunity offered; but the Spaniards, it seems, did not so per-
fectly understand them as to know all the particulars; only that,
in general, they threatened them hard for taking the two Eng-
lishmen’s part. -
Whither they went, or how they bestowed their time that
evening, the Spaniards said they did not know; but it seems they /
wandered about the country part of the night; and then lying down
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 259
in the place which I used to call my bower, they were weary, and
overslept themselves. The case was this: they had resolved to
stay till midnight, and so to take the poor men when they were
asleep; and they acknowledged it afterwards, intending to set fire
to their huts while they were in them, and either burn them in
them, or murder them as they came out: and, as malice seldom
sleeps very sound, it was very strange they should not have been
kept waking.
However, as the two men had also a design upon them, as I
have said, though a much fairer one than that of burning and mur-
dering, it happened, and very luckily for them all, that they were
up and gone abroad, before the bloody-minded rogues came to
their huts. *
When they came thither, and found the men gone, Atkins,
who it seems was the forwardest man, called out to his comrades,
Ha! Jack, here’s the nest; but d-n them, the birds are flown.
They mused awhile to think what should be the occasion of their
going abroad so soon, and suggested presently, that the Spaniards
had given them notice of it; and with that they shook hands, and
swore to one another, that they would be revenged of the Spa- .
niards. As soon as they had made this bloody bargain, they fell
to work with the poor men’s habitation; they did not set fire
indeed to any thing, but they pulled down both their houses, and
pulled them so limb from limb, that they left not the least stick
standing, or scarce any sign on the ground where they stood;
they tore all their little collected household-stuff in pieces, and
threw every thing about in such a manner, that the poor men
found, afterwards, some of their things a mile off from their habi-
tation.
When they had done this, they pulled up all the young trees
which the poor men had planted; pulling up the enclosure they
had made to secure their cattle and their corn; and, in a word,
sacked and plundered every thing, as completely as a herd of
Tartars would have done.
The two men were at this juncture gone to find them out, and
had resolved to fight them wherever they had been, though they
were but two to three: so that, had they met, there certainly
would have been bloodshed among them; for they were all very
Stout, resolute fellows, to give them their due.
But Providence took more care to keep them asunder, than
they themselves could do to meet: for, as they had dogged one
another, when the three were gone thither, the two were here;
and afterwards, when the two went back to find them, the three
were come to the old habitation again: we shall see their differing
conduct presently. When the three came back, like furious crea-
tures, flushed with the rage which the work they had been about
put them into, they came up to the Spaniards, and told them
260 LIFE AND AID VENTURES
what they had done, by way of scoff and bravado; and one of
them stepping up to one of the Spaniards, as if they had been a
couple of boys at play, takes hold of his hat, as it was upon his
head, and giving it a twirl about, fleering in his face, says he to
him, And you, Seignior Jack Spaniard, shall have the same sauce,
if you do not mend your manners.-The Spaniard, who, though
quite a civil man, was as brave as a man could desire to be, and
withal a strong well-made man, looked steadily at him for a good
while; and then, having no weapon in his hand, stepped gravely
up to him, and with one blow of his fist knocked him down, as an
ox is felled with a pole-axe; at which one of the rogues, insolent
as the first, fired his pistol at the Spaniard immediately: he miss-
ed his body indeed, for the bullets went through his hair, but one
of them touched the tip of his ear, and he bled pretty much. The
blood made the Spaniard believe he was more hurt than he really
was, and that put him into some heat, for before he acted all in
a perfect calm ; but now resolving to go through with his work,
he stooped and took the fellow’s musket whom he had knocked
down, and was just going to shoot the man who had fired at
him; when the rest of the Spaniards being in the cave, came out,
and calling to him not to shoot, they stepped in, secured the
other two, and took their arms from them.
When they were thus disarmed, and found they had made all
the Spaniards their enemies, as well as their own countrymen,
they began to cool; and giving the Spaniards better words, would
have had their arms again; but the Spaniards, considering the feud
that was between them and the other two Englishmen, and that
it would be the best method they could take to keep them from
one another, told them they would do them no harm; and if they
would live peaceably, they would be very willing to assist and
associate with them, as they did before ; but that they could not
think of giving them their arms again, while they appeared so re-
solved to do mischief with them to their own countrymen, and
had even threatened them all to make them their servants.
The rogues were not more capable to hear reason than to act
reason; but being refused their arms, they went raving away, and
raging like madmen, threatening what they would do, though
they had no fire-arms: but the Spaniards, despising their threat-
eming, told them they should take care how they offered any in-
jury to their plantation or cattle; for if they did, they would shoot
them, as they would do ravenous beasts, wherever they found
them; and if they fell into their hands alive, they should certainly
be hanged. However, this was far from cooling them ; but away
they went, swearing and raging like furies of hell. As soon as .
were gone, came back the two men in passion and rage enoug
also, though of another kind; for, having been at their plantation,
and finding it all demolished and destroyed, as above, it will easily




OF ROBIN SON CRUS OE. 26 I
be supposed they had provocation enough : they could scarce
have room to tell their tale, the Spaniards were so eager to tell
them theirs; and it was strange enough to find, that three men
should thus bully nineteen, and receive no punishment at all.
The Spaniards indeed despised them, and especially having
thus disarmed them, made light of their threatenings; but the two
Englishmen resolved to have their remedy against them, what pains
soever it cost to find them out.
But the Spaniards interposed here too, and told them, that they
were already disarmed: they could not consent that they (the two)
should pursue them with fire-arms, and perhaps kill them : But,
said the grave Spaniard, who was their governor, we will endea-
vour to make them do you justice, if you will leave it to us; for,
as there is no doubt but they will come to us again when their
passion is over, being not able to subsist without our assistance,
we promise you to make no peace with them, without having a
full satisfaction for you; and upon this condition we hope you
will promise to use no violence with them, other than in your
defence.
The two Englishmen yielded to this very awkwardly, and with
great reluctance ; but the Spaniards protested, they did it only to
keep them from bloodshed, and to make all easy at last; For, said
they, we are not so many of us; here is room enough for us all,
and it is a great pity we should not be all good friends. At
length they did consent, and waited for the issue of the thing,
living for some days with the Spaniards; for their own habitation
was destroyed.
In about five days time the three vagrants, tired with wander-
ing, and almost starved with hunger, having chiefly lived on tur-
tles' eggs all that while, came back to the grove; and finding my
Spaniard, who, as I have said, was the governor, and two more
with him, walking by the side of the creek, they came up in a
very submissive humble manner, and begged to be received again
into the family. The Spaniards used them civilly, but told them,
they had acted so unnaturally by their countrymen, and so very
grossly by them (the Spaniards,) that they could not come to any
conclusion without consulting the two Englishmen, and the rest;
but, however, they would go to them, and discourse about it,
and they should know in half an hour. It may be guessed that
they were very hard put to it; for it seems, as they were to wait
this half-hour for an answer, they begged he would send them
out some bread in the mean time; which he did, and sent
them at the same time a large piece of goat's flesh, and a broiled
parrot, which they ate very heartily, for they were hungry enough.
After half an hour's consultation they were called in, and a long
debate had about them, their two countrymen charging them with
the ruin of all their labour, and a design to murder them; all
262 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
which they owned before, and therefore could not deny. now.
Upon the whole, the Spaniards acted the moderators between
them; and as they had obliged the two Englishmen not to hurt
the three, while they were naked and unarmed, so they now obli-
ged the three to go and rebuild their fellows’ two huts, one to be
of the same dimensions, and the other larger than they were be-
fore; also to fence their ground again, where they had pulled up
the fences, plant trees in the room of those pulled up, dig up the
land again for planting corn, where they had spoiled it ; and, in a
word, to restore every thing in the same state as they found it, as
near as they could; for entirely it could not be, the season for the
corn, and the growth of the trees and hedges, not being possible
to be recovered.
Well, they all submitted to this: and as they had plenty of
provisions given them all the while, they grew very orderly, and
the whole society began to live pleasantly and agreeably together
again ; only that these three fellows could never be persuaded
to work; I mean, not for themselves, except now and then a lit-
tle, just as they pleased; however, the Spaniards told them plain-
ly, that if they would but live sociably and friendly together, and
study in the whole the good of the plantation, they would be con-
tent to work for them, and let them walk about and be as idle as
they pleased; and thus having lived pretty well together for a
month or two, the Spaniards gave them their arms again, and
gave them liberty to go abroad with them as before.
It was not above a week after they had these arms, and went
abroad, but the ungrateful creatures began to be as insolent and
troublesome as before; but however, an accident happened pre-
sently upon this, which endangered the safety of them all; they
were obliged to lay by all private resentments, and look to the
preservation of their lives.
It happened one night, that the Spaniard governor, as I call
him, that is to say, the Spaniard whose life I had saved, who
was now the captain, or leader, or governor of the rest, found
himself very uneasy in the night, and could by no means get
any sleep: he was perfectly well in body, as he told me the story,
only found his thoughts tumultuous; and his mind ran upon men
fighting, and killing one another, but was broad awake, and could
not by any means get any sleep; in short, he lay a great while ;
but growing more and more uneasy, he resolved to rise: as they
lay, being so many of them, upon goat-skins, laid thick upon such
couches and pads as they made for themselves, and not in ham-
mocks, and ship-beds, as I did, who was but one, so they had lit-
tle to do, when they were willing to rise, but to get up upon their
feet, and perhaps put on a coat, such as it was, and their pumps,
i. they were ready for going any way that their thoughts guided
them.
O. F. R O BIN SON C R US O E. 263
Being thus gotten up, he looked out; but, being dark, he could
see little or nothing; and besides, the trees which I had planted,
as in my former account is described, and which were now grown
tall, intercepted his sight, so that he could only look up, and see
that it was a clear star-light night; and, hearing no noise, he re-
turned and laid him down again; but it was all one, he could not
sleep, nor could he compose himself to any thing like rest, but
his thoughts were to the last degree uneasy, and yet he knew not
for what.
Having made some noise with rising and walking about, going
out and coming in, another of them waked, and, calling, asked
who it was that was up 2 The governor told him how it had been
with him. Say you so says the other Spaniard; such things
are not to be slighted, I assure you; there is certainly some mis-
chief working, says he, near us; and presently he asked him,
Where are the Englishmen —They are all in their huts, says he,
safe enough.--It seems, the Spaniards had kept possession of the
main apartment, and had made a place, where the three English-
men, since their last mutiny, always quartered by themselves, and
could not come at the rest. Well, says the Spaniard, there is
something in it, I am persuaded from my own experience; I am
satisfied our spirits embodied have converse with, and receive in-
telligence from, the spirits unembodied, and inhabiting the invisi-
ble world; and this friendly notice is given for our advantage, if
we know how to make use of it. Come, says he, let us go out
and look abroad; and if we find nothing at all in it to justify our
trouble, I’ll tell you a story to the purpose, that shall convince
you of the justice of my proposing it. & k
In a word, they went out to go to the top of the hill, where I
used to go ; but they, being strong, and in good company, nor
alone, as I was, used none of my cautions to go up by the ladder,
and then pulling it up after them, to go up a second stage to the
top, but were going round through the grove unconcerned and
unwary, when they were surprised with seeing a light as of fire, a
very little way off from them, and hearing the voices of men, not
of one, or two, but of a great number.
In all the discoveries I had made of the savages landing on the
island, it was my constant care to prevent them making the least
discovery of there being any inhabitant upon the place; and when
by any necessity they came to know it, they felt it so effectually,
that they that got away were scarce able to give any account of
it, for we disappeared as soon as possible, nor did ever any that
had seen me escape to tell any one else, except it were the three
Savages in our last encounter, who jumped into the boat, of whom
I mentioned that I was afraid they should go home, and bring
more help.
Whether it was the consequence of the escape of those men,
264 I, IFE AND ADVENTURES
that so great a number came now together; or whether they
came ignorantly, and by accident, on their usual bloody errand,
the Spaniards could not, it seems, understand: but whatever it
was, it had been their business, either to have concealed them-
selves, and not have seen them at all ; much less to have let the
savages have seen that there were any inhabitants in the place;
but to have fallen upon them so effectually, as that not a man
of them should have escaped, which could only have been by get-
ting in between them and their boats: but this presence of mind
was wanting to them, which was the ruin of their tranquillity for
a great while.
We need not doubt but that the governor, and the man with
him, surprised with this sight, ran back immediately, and raised
their fellows, giving them an account of the imminent danger they
were all in, and they again as readily took the alarm; but it was
impossible to persuade them to stay close within where they
were, but that they must all run out to see how things stood.
While it was dark indeed, they were well enough, and they
had opportunity enough, for some hours, to view them by the
light of three fires they had made at some distance from one an-
other. What they were doing they knew not, and what to do
themselves they knew not; for, first, the enemy were too many;
and, secondly, they did not keep together, but were divided into
several parties, and were on shore in several places.
The Spaniards were in no small consternation at this sight; and
as they found that the fellows ran straggling all over the shore,
they made no doubt, but, first or last, some of them would chop
in upon their habitation, or upon some other place, where they
would see the tokens of inhabitants; and they were in great per-
plexity also for fear of their flock of goats, which would have
been little less than starving them, if they should have been
destroyed; so the first thing they resolved upon, was to dispatch
three men away before it was light, viz. two Spaniards and one
Englishman, to drive all the goats away to the great valley where
flºwe was, and, if need were, to drive them into the very cave
itself. *
Could they have seem the savages all together in one body, and
at a distance from their canoes, they resolved, if there had been
an hundred of them, to have attacked them; but that could not
be obtained, for there were some of them two miles off from
the other, and, as it appeared afterwards, were of two different
Iſlations.
After having mused a great while on the course they should
take, and beaten their brains in considering their present cir-
cumstances, they resolved at last, while it was dark, to send the
old savage (Friday's father) out as a spy, to learn if possible
something concerning them, as what they came for, and what
5

OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 265
they intended to do, and the like. The old man readily under-
took it, and stripping himself quite naked, as most of the sava-
ges were, away he went. After he had been gone an hour or two,
he brings word that he had been among them undiscovered, that
he found they were two parties, and of two several nations, who
had war with one another, and had had a great battle in their
own country, and that both sides having had several prisoners ta-
ken in the fight, they were by mere chance landed in the same
island for the devouring their prisoners, and making merry; but
their coming so by chance to the same place had spoiled all their
mirth; that they were in a great rage at one another, and were
so near, that he believed they would fight again as soon as day-
light began to appear; but he did not perceive that they had any
notion of any body’s being on the island but themselves. He had
hardly made an end of telling the story, when they could per-
ceive, by the unusual noise they made, that the two little armies
were engaged in a bloody fight.
Friday's father used all the arguments he could to persuade
our people to lie close, and not be seen : he told them their
Safety consisted in it, and that they had nothing to do but to lie
still, and the savages would kill one another to their hands, and
the rest would go away; and it was so to a tittle. But it was im-
possible to prevail, especially upon the Englishmen, their curio-
sity was so importunate upon their prudentials, that they must
run out and see the battle; however, they used some caution, viz.
they did not go openly just by their own dwelling, but went far-
ther into the woods, and placed themselves to advantage, where
they might securely see them manage the fight, and, as they
thought, not to be seen by them; but it seems the savages did
See them, as we shall find hereafter.
The battle was very fierce, and if I might believe the English-
men, one of them said he could perceive that some of them were
men of great bravery, of invincible spirits, and of great policy in
guiding the fight. The battle, they said, held two hours before
they could guess which party would be beaten ; but then that par-
ty which was nearest our people’s habitation began to appear weak-
est, and, after some time more, some of them began to fly; and
this put our men again into a great consternation, lest any of
those that fled should run into the grove before their dwelling for
shelter, and thereby involuntarily discover the place, and that by
consequence the pursuers should do the like in search for them.
Upon this they resolved, that they would stand armed within the
wall, and whoever came into the grove they should sally out over
the wall, and kill them, so that if possible not one should return
to give an account of it; they ordered also, that it should be done
With their swords, or by knocking them down with the stock of
- M;
266 LIFE AN ID A DW ENTURES
the musket, not by shooting them, for fear of raising an alarm
by the noise.
As they expected, it fell out: three of the routed army fled for
life, and crossing the creek ran directly into the place, not in the
least knowing whither they went, but running as into a thick wood
for shelter. The scout they kept to look abroad gave notice of
this within, with this addition to our men’s great satisfaction, viz.
that the conquerors had not pursued them, or seen which way
they were gone. Upon this the Spaniard governor, a man of hu-
manity, would not suffer them to kill the three fugitives; but send-
ing three men out by the top of the hill, ordered them to go round
and come in behind them, surprise and take them prisoners;
which was done: the residue of the conquered people fled to
their canoes and got off to sea; the victors retired, and made no
pursuit, or very little, but drawing themselves into a body toge-
ther, gave two great screaming shouts, which they supposed were
by way of triumph, and so the fight ended ; and the same day,
about three o’clock in the afternoon, they also marched to their
canoes. And thus the Spaniards had their island again free to
themselves, their fright was over, and they saw no savages in se-
veral years after.
. After they were all gone, the Spaniards came out of their den,
and viewing the field of battle, they found about two-and-thirty
dead men upon the spot; some were killed with great long ar-
rows, several of which were found sticking in their bodies, but
most of them were killed with their great wooden swords, six-
teen or seventeen of which they found in the field of battle, and
as many bows, with a great many arrows. These swords were
great unwieldy things, and they must be very strong men that
used them ; most of those men that were killed with them had
their heads mashed to pieces, as we may say, or, as we call it in
English, their brains knocked out, and several of their arms and
legs broken ; so that it is evident they fight with inexpressible
rage and fury. They found not one wounded man that was not
stone dead; for either they stay by their enemy till they have quite
killed them, or they carry all the wounded men, that are not quite
dead, away with them.
This deliverance tamed our Englishmen for a great while ; the
sight had filled them with horror, and the consequence appeared
terrible to the last degree, especially upon supposing that some
time or other they should fall into the hands of those creatures,
who would not only kill them as enemies, but kill them for food,
as we kill our cattle. And they professed to me, that the thoughts
of being eaten up like beef or mutton, though it was supposed it
was not to be till they were dead, had something in it so horrible,
that it nauseated their very stomachs, made them sick when they
o F ROBIN SON C R USOE. 267
thought of it, and filled their minds with unusual terror, that they
were not themselves for some weeks after.
This, as I said, tamed even the three English brutes I have
been speaking of, and for a great while after they were very tract-
able, and went about the common business of the whole society
well enough; planted, sowed, reaped, and began to be all natura-
lized to the country; but some time after this they fell all into such
simple measures again as brought them into a great deal of trouble.
They had taken three prisoners, as I had observed ; and these
three being lusty stout young fellows, they made them servants,
and taught them to work for them; and as slaves they did well
enough ; but they did not take their measures with them as I did
by my man Friday, viz. to begin with them upon the principle of,
having saved their lives, and then instructed them in the ra-
tional principles of life, much less of religion, civilizing and re-
ducing them by kind usage and affectionate arguings; but as
they gave them their food every day, so they gave them their work
too, and kept them fully employed in drudgery enough; but they
failed in this by it, that they never had them to assist them and
fight for them, as I had my man Friday, who was as true to me as
the very flesh upon my bones.
But to come to the family part: Being all now good friends (for
common danger, as I said above, had effectually reconciled them,)
they began to consider their general circumstances; and the first
thing that came under their consideration was, whether, seeing
the savages particularly haunted that side of the island, and that
there were more remote and retired parts of it equally adapted to
their way of living, and manifestly to their advantage, they should
not rather remove their habitation, and plant it in some more
proper place for their safety, and especially for the security of their
cattle and corn.
Upon this, after long debate, it was conceived that they should
not remove their habitation, because that some time or other they
thought they might hear from their governor again, meaning me;
and if I should send any one to seek them, I would be sure to
direct them on that side, where if they should find the place de-
molished, they would conclude the savages had killed us all, and
We were gone, and so our supply would go away too.
But as to their corn and cattle, they agreed to remove them in-
to the valley where my cave was, where the land was as proper
to both, and where indeed there was land enough; however, up-
on second thoughts they altered one part of that resolution too,
and resolved only to remove part of their cattle thither, and plant
part of their corn there; and so, if one part was destroyed, the
other might be saved; and one piece of prudence they used, which
it was very well they did; viz. that they never trusted these three
Savages, which they had taken prisoners, with knowing anything

*268 I, IFE AND A DVENTURES
of the plantation they had made in that valley, or of any cattle
they had there; much less of the cave there, which they kept in
case of necessity as a safe retreat; and thither they carried also
the two barrels of powder which I had left them at my coming
aWaW.
--- # however they resolved not to change their habitation; yet
they agreed, that as I had carefully covered it first with a wall and
fortification, and then with a grove of trees; so, seeing their safe-
ty consisted entirely in their being concealed, of which they were
now fully convinced, they set to work to cover and conceal the
place yet more effectually than before: to this purpose, as I had
planted trees (or rather thrust in stakes which in time all grew to
be trees) for some good distance before the entrance into my
apartment, they went on in the same manner, and filled up the
rest of that whole space of ground, from the trees I had set quite
down to the side of the creek, where, as I said, I landed my floats,
and even into the very ooze where the tide flowed, not so much
as leaving any place to land, or any sign that there had been any
landing thereabout. These stakes also being of a wood very for-
ward to grow, as I had noted formerly, they took care to have
generally very much larger and taller than those which I had
planted, and placed them so very thick and close, that when they
had been three or four years grown, there was no piercing with
the eye any considerable way into the plantation. As for that
part which I had planted, the trees were grown as thick as a man’s
thigh; and among them they placed so many other short ones, and
so thick, that, in a word, it stood like a palisado a quarter of a mile
thick, and it was next to impossible to penetrate it but with a lit-
tle army to cut it all down; for a little dog could hardly get be-
tween the trees, they stood so close. -
But this was not all : for they did the same by all the ground to
the right hand, and to the left, and round even to the top of the
hill, leaving no way, not so much as for themselves to come out,
but by the ladder placed up to the side of the hill, and then lift-
ed up and placed again from the first stage up to the top; which
ladder, when it was taken down, nothing but what had wings or
witchcraft to assist it, could come at them. t
This was excellently well contrived, nor was it less than what
they afterwards found occasion for; which served to convince me,
that as human prudence has authority of Providence to justify it,
so it has, doubtless, the direction of Providence to set it to work,
and, would we listen carefully to the voice of it, I am fully per-
suaded we might prevent many of the disasters which our lives
are now by our own negligence subjected to : but this by the way.
I return to the story: They lived two years after this in perfect
retirement, and had no more visits from the savages; they had in-
deed an alarm given them one morning, which put them in a great
OF RO BINS ON CR USO E. 269
consternation; for some of the Spaniards being out early one
morning on the west side, or rather end of the island, which, by
the way, was that end where I never went, for fear of being disco-
vered, they were surprised with seeing above twenty canoes of In-
dians just coming on shore.
They made the best of their way home in hurry enough, and
giving the alarm to their comrades, they kept close all that day
and the next, going out only at night to make observation ; but
they had the good luck to be mistaken, for wherever the savages.
went, they did not land at that time on the island, but pursued.
some other design,
CHAP. XXIV.
Fresh broils betwirt the turbulent Englishmen and the Spaniards
—The English make a Voyage to the Main Land, and return
in talenty-two Days—Particulars of their Voyage—Descrip-
tion of the Men and Women they brought with them—The Co-
lony discovered by an unlucky accident to the Savages, who in-
vade the Island, but are defeated.
AND now they had another broil with the three Englishmen,
one of which, a most turbulent fellow, being in a rage at one of
the three slaves which I mentioned they had taken, because the
fellow had not done something right which he bid him do, and
seemed a little untractable in his showing him, drew a hatchet
out of a frog-belt in which he bore it by his side, and fell upon
him, the poor savage, not to correct him but to kill him. One of
the Spaniards who was by, seeing him give the fellow a barba-
rous cut with the hatchet, which he aimed at his head, but struck
into his shoulder, so that he thought he had cut the poor crea-
ture’s arm off, ran to him, and, entreating him not to murder the
poor man, clapt in between him and the Savage to prevent the
mischief.
The fellow being enraged the more at this, struck at the Spa-
niard with his hatchet, and swore he would serve him as he in-
tended to serve the savage; which the Spaniard perceiving,
avoided the blow, and with a shovel which he had in his hand (for
they were working in the field about the corn-land,) knocked the
brute down; another of the Englishmen running at the same
time to help his comrade, knocked the Spaniard down, and then
two Spaniards more came to help their man, and a third English-
man fell upon them. They had none of them any fire-arms, or
any other weapons but hatchets and other tools, except the third
Englishman: he had one of my old rusty cutlasses, with which
he made at the last Spaniards, and wounded them both. This
270 LIFE AND ADve NTUREs
fray set the whole family in an uproar, and more help coming in,
they took the three Englishmen prisoners. The next question
was, what should be done with them? they had been so often mu-
tinous, and were so furious, so desperate, and so idle withal,
that they knew not what course to take with them, for they were
mischievous to the highest degree, and valued not what hurt they
did any man; so that, in short, it was not safe to live with them.
The Spaniard, who was governor, told them in so many words,
that if they had been his own countrymen he would have hanged
them all ; for all laws and all governors were to preserve society,
and those who were dangerous to the society ought to be expelled
out of it; but as they were Englishmen, and that it was to the
generous kindness of an Englishman that they all owed their pre-
servation and deliverance, he would use them with all possible
Iemity, and would leave them to the judgment of the other two
Englishmen, who were their countrymen.
One of the two honest Englishmen stood up, and said they de-
sired it might not be left to them; For, says he, I am sure we
ought to sentence them to the gallows; and with that gives an
account how Will Atkins, one of the three, had proposed to have
all the five Englishmen join together, and murder all the Spa-
miards when they were in their sleep. -
When the Spanish governor heard this, he calls to Will Atkins:
How, Seignior Atkins, says he, will you murder us all : What
have you to say to that 3–That hardened villain was so far from
denying it, that he said it was true, and, G-d d-mm him, they
would do it still before they had done with them.–Well but,
Seignior Atkins, said the Spaniard, what have we done to you
that you will kill us ; And what would you get by killing us?
And what must we do to prevent your killing us? Must we kill
you, or will you kill us? Why will you put us to the necessity of
this, Seignior Atkins 3 says the Spaniard, very calmly and smiling.
Seignior Atkins was in such a rage at the Spaniard’s making a
jest of it, that had he not been held by three men, and withal
had no weapons with him, it was thought he would have attempt-
ed to have killed the Spaniard in the middle of all the company.
This hair-brained carriage obliged them to consider seriously
what was to be done. The two Englishmen, and the Spaniard
who saved the poor savage, were of the opinion that they should
hang one of the three for an example to the rest; and that par-
ticularly it should be he that had twice attempted to commit
murder with his hatchet ; and indeed there was some reason to
believe he had done it, for the poor savage was in such a miserable
condition with the wound he had received, that it was thought
he could not live. -:
But the governor Spaniard still said, No, it was an Englishman
that had saved all their lives, and he would never consent to put
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 271
an Englishman to death though he had murdered half of them;
nay, he said, if he had been killed himself by an Englishman, and
had time left to speak, it should be that they should pardon him.
This was so positively insisted on by the governor Spaniard,
that there was no gainsaying it; and as merciful counsels are
most apt to prevail, where they are so earnestly pressed, so they
all came into it; but then it was to be considered what should be
done to keep them from the mischief they designed ; for all
agreed, governor and all, that means were to be used for pre-
serving the society from danger. After a long debate it was
agreed, first, that they should be disarmed, and not permitted
to have either gun, or powder, or shot, or sword, or any weapon,
and should be turned out of the society, and left to live where
they would, and how they could, by themselves; but that none of
the rest, either Spaniards or English, should converse with them,
speak with them, or have any thing to do with them; that they
should be forbid to come within a certain distance of the place
where the rest dwelt; and that if they offered to commit any
disorder, so as to spoil, burn, kill, or destroy any of the corn,
plantings, buildings, fences, or cattle belonging to the society, that
they should die without mercy, and would shoot them wherever
they could find them.
The governor, a man of great humanity, musing upon the sen-
tence, considered a little upon it, and turning to the two honest
Englishmen, said, Hold, you must reflect, that it will be long ere
they can raise corn and cattle of their own, and they must not
starve: we must therefore allow them provisions. So he caused
to be added, that they should have a proportion of corn given
them to last them eight months, and for seed to sow, by which
time they might be supposed to raise some of their own; that they
should have six milch-goats, four he-goats, and six kids given
them, as well for present subsistence as for a store; and that they
should have tools given them for their work in the field; such as
six hatchets, an axe, a saw, and the like; but they should have
none of these tools or provisions unless they would swear so-
lemnly that they would not hurt or injure any of the Spaniards
with them, or of their fellow Englishmen.
Thus they dismissed them the society, and turned them out to
shift for themselves. They went away sullen and refractory, as
neither contented to go away or to stay; but as there was no re-
medy they went, pretending to go and choose a place where they
should settle themselves, to plant and live by themselves; and
Some provisions were given them, but no weapons.
About four or five days after, they came again for some vic-
tuals, and gave the governor an account where they had pitched
their tents, and marked themselves out an habitation or planta-
tion; it was a very convenient place indeed, on the remotest part
272 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
of the island, N. E., much about the place where I providen-
tially landed in my first voyage when I was driven out to sea, the
Lord alone knows whither, in my foolish attempt to surround
the island.
Here they built themselves two handsome huts, and contrived
them in a manner like my first habitation, being close under the
side of a hill, having some trees growing already to the three sides
of it; so that by planting others it would be very easily covered
from the sight, unless narrowly searched for. They desired some
dry goat-skins for beds and covering, which were given them;
and upon their giving their words that they would not disturb
the rest, or injure any of their plantations, they gave them hatch-
ets, and what other tools they could spare ; some pease, barley,
and rice, for sowing, and, in a word, any thing they wanted but
arms and ammunition.
They lived in this separate condition about six months, and had
got in their first harvest, though the quantity was but small, the
parcel of land they had planted being but little; for indeed, ha-
ving all their plantation to form, they had a great deal of work
upon their hands; and when they came to make boards, and pots,
and such things, they were quite out of their element, and could
make nothing of it; and when the rainy season came on, for
want of a cave in the earth, they could not keep their grain dry,
and it was in great danger of spoiling: and this humbled them
much; so they came and begged the Spaniards to help them, which
they very readily did, and in four days worked a great hole in the
side of the hill for them, big enough to secure their corn and
other things from the rain ; but it was but a poor place at best
compared to mine, and especially as mine was then ; for the Spa-
niards had greatly enlarged it, and made several new apartments
In 11t.
About three quarters of a year after this separation, a new
frolic took these rogues, which, together with the former villainy
they had committed, brought mischief enough upon them, and had
very near been the ruin of the whole colony. The three new as-
sociates began, it seems, to be weary of the laborious life they
led, and that without hope of bettering their circumstances; and
a whim took them, that they would make a voyage to the conti-
ment from whence the savages came, and would try if they could
not seize upon some prisoners among the natives there, and bring
them home, so as to make them do the laborious part of the work
for them. e -
The project was not so preposterous if they had gone no far-
ther; but they did nothing and proposed nothing but had either
mischief in the design, or mischief in the event; and if I may
give my opinion, they seemed to be under a blast from Heaven ;
for if we will not allow a visible curse to pursue visible crimes,
of #xp1Nson CRUso E. r 273
how shall we reconcile the events of things with divine justice?
It was certainly an apparent vengeance on their crime of mutiny
and piracy that brought them to the state they were in ; and as
they showed not the least remorse for the crime, but added new
villainies to it, such as particularly that piece of monstrous cruelty
of wounding a poor slave, because he did not, or perhaps could
not, understand to do what he was directed, and to wound him
in such a manner as, no question, made him a cripple all his life,
and in a place where no surgeon or medicine could be had for his
cure; and what was still worse, the murderous intent, or, to do
justice to the crime, the intentional murder, for such to be sure
it was, as was afterwards the formed design they all laid to mur-
der the Spaniards in cold blood, and in their sleep.
But I leave observing, and return to the story: The three fel-
lows came down to the Spaniards one morning, and in very hum-
ble terms desired to be admitted to speak with them: the Spa-
niards very readily heard what they had to say, which was this,
that they were tired of living in the manner they did, that they
were not handy enough to make the necessaries they wanted,
and that having no help, they found they should be starved; but
if the Spaniards would give them leave to take one of the canoes
which they came over in, and gave them arms and ammunition
proportioned for their defence, they would go over to the main,
and seek their fortune, and so deliver them from the trouble of
supplying them with any other provisions.
The Spaniards were glad enough to be rid of them ; but yet
very honestly represented to them the certain destruction they
were running into; told them they had suffered such hardships
upon that very spot, that they could, without any spirit of pro-
phecy, tell them, that they would be starved or murdered, and
bade them consider of it.
The men replied audaciously, they should be starved if they
stayed here, for they could not work, and would not work; and
they could but be starved abroad; and if they were murdered,
there was an end of them, they had no wives or children to cry
after them, and, in short, insisted importunately upon their de--
mand, declaring that they would go, whether they would give them •
any arms or no. &
The Spaniards told them, with great kindness, that if they
were resolved to go, they should not go like naked men, and be
in no condition to defend themselves, and that though they could
ill spare their fire-arms, having not enough for themselves, yet
they would let them have two muskets, a pistol, and a cutlass,
and each man a hatchet, which they thought sufficient for them.
In a word, they accepted the offer; and having baked them
bread enough to serve them a month, and given them as much
goat's flesh as they could eat while it was sweet, and a great bas-
> * , M 2
274 LIFE AND A Dv EN+\exºs
ket full of dried grapes, a pot full of fresh water, and a young kid
alive to kill, they boldly set out in a canoe for a voyage over
the sea, where it was at least forty miles broad.
The boat was indeed a large one, and would have very well car-
ried fifteen or twenty men, and therefore was rather too big for
them to manage ; but as they had a fair breeze and the flood-
tide with them, they did well enough: they had made a mast of a
long pole, and a sail of four large goat-skins dried, which they
had sewed or laced together, and away they went merrily enough ;
the Spaniards called after them, Bon vegjo ; and no man ever
thought of Seeing them any more, -
The Spaniards would often say to one another, and the two
honest Englishmen who remained behind, how quietly and com-
fortably they lived now those three turbulent fellows were gone;
as for their ever coming again, that was the remotest thing from
their thoughts could be imagined ; when, behold, after twenty-
two days absence, one of the Englishmen being abroad upon
his planting work, sees three strange men coming towards him at
a distance, two of them with guns upon their shoulders.
Away runs the Englishman, as if he was bewitched, and came,
frighted and amazed, to the governor Spaniard, and tells him they
were all undone, for there were strangers landed upon the island,
he could not tell who. The Spaniard, pausing a while, says to
him, How do you mean, you cannot tell who They are savages
to be sure.—No, no, says the Englishman, they are men in clothes,
with arms.-Nay then, says the Spaniard, why are you concern-
ed? If they are not savages, they must be friends ; for there is no
Christian nation upon earth but will do us good rather than harm.
While they were debating thus, came the three Englishmen,
and standing without the wood which was new planted, hallooed
to them ; they presently knew their voices, and so all the wonder
of that kind ceased. But now the admiration was turned upon
another question, viz. What could be the matter, and what made
them come back again :
It was not long before they brought the men in ; and inqui-
ring where they had been, and what they had been doing, they
gave them a full account of their voyage in a few words, viz. that
they reached the land in two days, or something less, but finding
the people alarmed at their coming, and preparing with bows and
arrows to fight them, they durst not go on shore, but sailed on
to the northward six or seven hours, till they came to a great
opening, by which they perceived that the land they saw from
our island was not the main, but an island: that entering that
opening of the sea, they saw another island on the right hand
north, and several more west; and being resolved to land some-
where, they put over to one of the islands which lay west, and
went boldly on shore; that they found the people were cour-

&
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 275
teous and friendly to them, and they gave them several roots, and
some dried fish, and appeared very sociable: and the women, as
well as the men, were very forward to supply them with any
thing they could get for them to eat, and brought it to them a great
way upon their heads.
They continued here four days, and inquired, as well as they
could of them by signs, what nations were this way, and that
way; and were told of several fierce and terrible people, that
lived almost every way, who, as they made known by signs to
them, used to eat men; but as for themselves, they said that
they never ate men or women, except only such as they took in
the wars; and then they owned that they made a great feast, and
ate their prisoners.
The Englishmen inquired when they had a feast of that kind,
and they told them two moons ago, pointing to the moon, and
then to two fingers; and that their great king had two hundred
prisoners now, which he had taken in his war, and they were
feeding them to make them fat for the next feast. The Eng-
lishmen seemed mighty desirous to see those prisoners ; but the
others mistaking them, thought they were desirous to have some
of them to carry away for their own eating. So they beckoned
to them, pointing to the setting of the sun, and then to the rising;
which was to signify, that the next morning at sun-rising they
would bring some for them; and accordingly the next morning
they brought down five women and eleven men, and gave them
to the Englishmen to carry with them on their voyage, just as
we would bring so many cows and oxen down to a sea-port town
to victual a ship.
As brutish and barbarous as these fellows were at home, their
stomachs turned at this sight, and they did not know what to do ;
to refuse the prisoners, would have been the highest affront to
the Savage gentry that offered them; and what to do with them
they knew not; however, upon some debate, they resolved to ac-
cept of them, and in return they gave the savages that brought
them one of their hatchets, an old key, a knife, and six or seven
of their bullets, which, though they did not understand, they
seemed extremely pleased with ; and then tying the poor crea-
tures’ hands behind them, they (the people) dragged the prisoners
into the boat for our men.
The Englishmen were obliged to come away as soon as they
had them, or else they that gave them this noble present would
certainly have expected that they should have gone to work with
them, have killed two or three of them the next morning, and
perhaps have invited the donors to dinner.
But having taken their leave with all the respect and thanks
that could well pass between people, where, on either side, they
understood not one word they could say, they put off with their
276 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
boat, and came back towards the first island, where when they
arrived, they set eight of their prisoners at liberty, there being too
many of them for their occasion.
In their voyage they endeavoured to have some communication
with their prisoners, but it was impossible to make them under-
stand any thing; nothing they could say to them, or give them,
or do for them, but was looked upon as going about to murder
them : they first of all unbound them, but the poor creatures
screamed at that, especially the women, as if they had just felt the
knife at their throats; for they immediately concluded they were
unbound on purpose to be killed.
If they gave them any thing to eat, it was the same thing; .
then they concluded it was for fear they should sink in flesh, and
so not be fat enough to kill; if they looked at one of them more
Fº the party presently concluded it was to see whether
e or she was fattest and fittest to kill first; nay, after they had
brought them quite over, and began to use them kindly, and treat
them well, still they expected every day to make a dinner or sup-
per for their new masters.
When the three wanderers had given this unaccountable his-
tory or journal of their voyage, the Spaniard asked them where
their new family was 2 And being told that they had brought
them on shore, and put them into one of their huts, and were
come to beg some victuals for them; they (the Spaniards) and
the other two Englishmen, that is to say, the whole colony, resol-
ved to go all down to the place and see them, and did so, and
Friday’s father with them.
When they came into the hut, there they sat all bound; for
when they had brought them on shore they bound their hands,
that they might not take the boat and make their escape; there,
I say, they sat, all of them stark naked. First, there were three
men, lusty, comely fellows, well shaped, straight and fair limbs,
about thirty or thirty-five years of age, and five women; whereof
two might be from thirty to forty, two more not above twenty-
four or twenty-five, and the fifth, a tall comely maiden, about
sixteen or seventeen. The women were well-favoured, agreeable
ersons, both in shape and features, only tawny; and two of them,
had they been perfect white, would have passed for handsome
women even in London itself, having very pleasant, agreeable
countenances, and of a very modest behaviour, especially when
they came afterwards to be clothed, and dressed, as they called
it, though that dress was very indifferent, it must be confessed;
of which hereafter. *
The sight, you may be sure, was something uncouth to our Spa-
niards, who were (to give them a just character) men of the best
behaviour, of the most calm, sedate tempers, and perfect good
humour that ever I met with ; in particular, of the most modes-

OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 2-7
ty, as will presently appear: I say, the sight was very uncouth, to
see three naked men, and five naked women, all together bound,
and in the most miserable circumstances that human nature could
be supposed to be, viz. to be expecting every moment to be drag-
ged out, and have their brains knocked out, and then to be eaten
up like a fatted calf that is killed for a dainty.
The first thing they did was to cause the old Indian, Friday’s
father, to go in and see first if he knew any of them, and then
if he understood any of their speech. As soon as the old man
came in, he looked seriously at them, but knew none of them;
neither could any of them understand a word he said, or a sign
he could make, except one of the women.
However, this was enough to answer the end, which was to
satisfy them, that the men into whose hands they were fallen were
Christians; that they abhorred eating of men or women, and that
they might be sure they would not be killed. As soon as they
were assured of this, they discovered such a joy, and by such
awkward and several ways, as is hard to describe, for it seems.
they were of several nations.
The woman who was their interpreter was bid, in the next
place, to ask them if they were willing to be servants, and to
work for the men who had brought them away to save their lives 2
At which they all fell a-dancing; and presently one fell to taking
up this, and another that, any thing that lay mext, to carry on their
shoulders, to intimate that they were willing to work.
The governor, who found that the having women among them
would presently be attended with some inconveniency, and might
occasion some strife, and perhaps blood, asked the three men
what they intended to do with these women, and how they in-
tended to use them, whether as servants, or as women? One of
the Englishmen answered very boldly and readily, that they would
use them as both. To which the governor said, I am not going to
restrain you from it; you are your own masters as to that: but
this I think is but just, for avoiding disorders and quarrels among
you, and I desire it of you for that reason only, viz. that you will
all engage, that if any of you take any of these women as a wo-
man, or wife, he shall take but one; and that, having taken one,
none else should touch her; for though we cannot marry any of
you, yet it is but reasonable, that while you stay here, the woman
any of you takes should be maintained by the man that takes her,
and should be his wife; I mean, says he, while he continues here;
and that none else should have any thing to do with her.—All
flºppeared so just, that every one agreed to it without any dif-
culty. - -
Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they designed to
take any of them? But every one answered, No; some of them
said they had wives in Spain; and the others did not like Women
278 LIFE AND ADvTENTURES
that were not Christians; and all together declared, that they
would not touch one of them; which was an instance of such vir-
tue as I have not met with in all my travels. On the other hand,
to be short, the five Englishmen took them every one a wife;
that is to say, a temporary wife ; and so they set up a new form
of living; for the Spaniards and Friday’s father lived in my old
habitation, which they had enlarged exceedingly within; the three
servants, which they had taken in the late battle of the savages,
lived with them; and these carried on the main part of the colo-
ny, supplying all the rest with food, and assisting them in any
thing as they could, or as they found necessity required.
But the wonder of this story was, how five such refractory, ill-
matched fellows, should agree about these women, and that two
of them should not pitch upon the same woman, especially seeing
two or three of them were, without comparison, more agreeable
than the others: but they took a good way enough to prevent
quarrelling among themselves; for they set the five women by
themselves in one of their huts, and they went all into the other
hut, and drew lots among them who should choose first.
He that drew to choose first, went away by himself to the hut
where the poor naked creatures were, and fetched out her he
chose; and it was worth observing, that he that chose first took
her that was reckoned the homeliest and the oldest of the five,
which made mirth enough among the rest, and even the Spaniards
laughed at it; but the fellow considered better than any of them,
that it was application and business that they were to expect
assistance in as much as any thing else, and she proved the best
wife in the parcel.
When the poor women saw themselves in a row thus, and
fetched out one by one, the terrors of their condition returned
upon them again, and they firmly believed that they were now
going to be devoured: accordingly, when the English sailor came
in and fetched out one of them, the rest set up a most lamenta-
ble cry, and hung about her, and took their leave of her with such
agonies and such affection, as would have grieved the hardest
heart in the world; nor was it possible for the Englishmen to sa-
tisfy them that they were not to be immediately murdered, till
they fetched the old man, Friday’s father, who instantly let them
know, that the five men who had fetched them out one by one,
had chosen them for their wives.
When they had done this, and the fright the women were in
was a little over, the men went to work, and the Spaniards came
and helped them : and in a few hours they had built them every
one a new hut or tent for their lodging apart; for those they had
already were crowded with their tools, household-stuff, and pro-
visions. The three wicked ones had pitched farthest off, and the
two honest ones nearer, but both on the north shore of the island,
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 279
so that they continued separate as before: and thus my island
was peopled in three places, and, as I might say, three towns
were begun to be planted.
And here it is very well worth observing, that as it often hap-
pens in the world (what the wise ends of God’s providence are in
such a disposition of things I cannot say,) the two homest fellows
had the two worst wives; and the three reprobates, that were
scarce worth hanging, that were fit for nothing, and neither seem-
ed born to do themselves good, or any one else, had three clever,
diligent, careful, and ingenious wives: not that the two first were
ill wives as to their temper or humour; for all the five were most
willing, quiet, passive, and subjected creatures, rather like slaves
than wives; but my meaning is, they were not alike capable, in-
genious, or industrious, or alike cleanly and neat.
Another observation I must make, to the honour of a diligent
application on the one hand, and to the disgrace of a slothful,
negligent, idle temper on the other, that when I came to the place,
and viewed the several improvements, planting, and management
of the several little colonies, the two men had so far outgone the
three, that there was no comparison ; they had indeed both of
them as much ground laid out for corn as they wanted, and the
reason was, because, according to my rule, nature dictated that it
was to no purpose to sow more corn than they wanted; but the
difference of the cultivation, of the planting, of the fences, and
indeed every thing else, was easy to be seen at first view.
The two men had innumerable young trees planted about their
huts, that when you came to the place nothing was to be seen but
a wood; and though they had their plantation twice demolished,
once by their own countrymen, and once by the enemy, as shall be
shown in its place; yet they had restored all again, and every
thing was flourishing and thriving about them : they had grapes
planted in order, and managed like a vineyard, though they had
themselves never seen any thing of that kind; and by their good
ordering their vines, their grapes were as good again as any of the
others. They had also formed themselves a retreat in the thickest
part of the woods, where, though there was not a natural cave,
as I had found, yet they made one with incessant labour of their
hands, and where, when the mischief which followed happened,
they secured their wives and children so as they could never be
found; they having, by sticking innumerable stakes and poles of
the wood, which, as I said, grew so easily, made a grove impassable
except in one place, where they climbed up to get over the out-
side part, and then went in by ways of their own leaving.
As to the three reprobates, as I justly call them, though they
were much civilized by their new settlement, compared to what
they were before, and were not so quarrelsome, having not the
same opportunity, yet one of the certain companions of a pro-
28O LIFE AN D A DV ENTURES
fligate mind never left them, and that was their idleness. It is true,
they planted corn, and made fences; but Solomon’s words were
never better verified than in them : “I went by the vineyard of
the slothful, and it was overgrown with thorns;” for when the
Spaniards came to view their crop, they could not see it in some
laces for weeds; the hedge had several gaps in it, where the
wild goats had gotten in and eaten up the corn ; perhaps here
and there a dead bush was crammed in to stop them out for the
present, but it was only shutting the stable-door after the steed
was stolen; whereas, when they looked on the colony of the other
two, there was the very face of industry and success upon all they
did; there was not a weed to be seen in all their corn, or a gap
in any of their hedges; and they, on the other hand, verified So-
lomon’s words in another place: “The diligent hand maketh .
rich;” for every thing grew and thrived, and they had plenty within
and without; they had more tame cattle than the others, more
utensils and necessaries within doors, and yet more pleasure and
diversion too. -
It is true the wives of the three were very handy and cleanly
within doors; and having learnt the English ways of dressing and
cooking from one of the other Englishmen, who, as I said, was a
cook’s mate on board the ship, they dressed their husbands' vic-
tuals very micely; whereas the other could not be brought to un-
derstand it; but then the husband, who, as I said, had been
cook’s mate, did it himself; but as for the husbands of the three
wives, they loitered about, fetched turtles' eggs, and caught fish
and birds, in a word, any thing but labour, and they fared ac-
cordingly. The diligent lived well and comfortably, and the sloth-
ful lived hard and beggarly; and so I believe, generally speaking,
it is all over the world,
But now I come to a scene different from all that had happened
before, either to them or me; and the origin of the story was
this:
Early one morning there came on shore five or six canoes of
Indians, or savages, call them which you please ; and there is no
room to doubt that they came upon the old errand of feeding upon
their slaves; but that part was now so familiar to the Spaniards,
and to our men too, that they did not concern themselves about it
as I did; but having been made sensible, by their experience, that
their only business was to lie concealed, and that, if they were
not seen by any of the savages, they would go off again quietly
when their business was done, having as yet not the least notion
of there being any inhabitants in the island; I say, having been
made sensible of this, they had nothing to do but to give notice
to all the three plantations to keep within doors, and not to show
themselves; only placing a scout in a proper place, to give notice.
when the boats went off to sea again.
OF ROBIN SO N C R USO E. 281
This was, without doubt, very right; but a disaster spoiled all
these measures, and made it known among the savages, that there
were inhabitants there, which was, in the end, the desolation of
almost the whole colony. After the canoes with the savages were
gone off, the Spaniards peeped abroad again, and some of them
had the curiosity to go to the place where they had been, to see
what they had been doing. Here, to their great surprise, they
found three Savages left behind, and lying fast asleep upon the
ground; it was supposed they had either been so gorged with
their inhuman feast, that, like beasts, they were asleep, and would
not stir when the others went, or they were wandered into the
woods, and did not come back in time to be taken in.
The Spaniards were greatly surprised at this sight, and per-
fectly at a loss what to do ; the Spaniard governor, as it happen-
ed, was with them, and his advice was asked, but he professed
he knew not what to do; as for slaves, they had enough al-
ready; and as to killing them, they were none of them inclined
to that. The Spaniard governor told me they could not think of
shedding innocent blood; for as to them, the poor creatures had
done no wrong, invaded none of their property, and they thought
they had no just quarrel against them to take away their lives.
And here I must, in justice to these Spaniards, observe, that
let all the accounts of Spanish cruelty in Mexico and Peru be
what they will, I never met with seventeen men, of any nation
whatsoever, in any foreign country, who were so universally
modest, temperate, virtuous, so very good-humoured, and so cour-
teous, as these Spaniards; and, as to cruelty, they had nothing
of it in their very nature; no inhumanity, no barbarity, no out-
rageous passions, and yet all of them men of great courage and
Spirit.
Their temper and calmness had appeared in their bearing the
insufferable usage of the three Englishmen; and their justice and
humanity appeared now in the case of the savages, as above.
After some consultation they resolved upon this, that they would
lie still a while longer, till, if possible, these three men might
be gone; but then the governor Spaniard recollected, that the
three savages had no boat; and that if they were left to rove
about the island, they would certainly discover that there were
inhabitants in it, and so they should be undone that way.
Upon this they went back again, and there lay the fellows fast
asleep still; so they resolved to awaken them, and take them pri-
soners; and they did so. The poor fellows were strangely fright-
ed when they were seized upon and bound, and afraid, like the
women, that they should be murdered and eaten ; for it seems
those people think all the world do as they do, eating men’s
flesh; but they were soon made easy as to that ; and away they
Carried them.
282 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
It was very happy for them that they did not carry them home
to their castle; I mean to my palace under the hill: but they
carried them first to the bower, where was the chief of their
country work; such as the keeping the goats, the planting the
corn, &c.; and afterwards they carried them to the habitation of
the two Englishmen. -
Here they were set to work, though it was not much they had
for them to do; and whether it was by negligence in guarding
them, or that they thought the fellows could not mend them-
selves, I know not, but one of them ran away, and taking into
the woods, they could never hear of him more.
They had good reason to believe he got home again soon af-
ter in some other boats or canoes of savages, who came on shore
three or four weeks afterwards, and who, carrying on their revels
as usual, went off again in two days time. This thought terrified
them exceedingly; for they concluded, and that not without good
cause indeed, that if this fellow got safe home among his com-
rades, he would certainly give them an account that there were
people in the island, as also how weak and few they were ; for
this savage, as I observed before, had never been told, as it was
very happy he had not, how many they were or where they lived,
nor had he ever seen or heard the fire of any of their guns,
much less had they shown him any other of their retired places,
such as the cave in the valley, or the new retreat which the two
Englishmen had made, and the like.
The first testimony they had that this fellow had given intelli-
gence of them was, that about two months after this, six canoes
of savages, with about seven or eight, or ten men in a canoe, came
rowing along the north side of the island, where they never used
to come before, and landed about an hour after sun-rise, at a con-
venient place, about a mile from the habitation of the two English-
men, where this escaped man had been kept. As the Spaniard
governor said, had they been all there, the damage would not
have been so much, for not a man of them would have escaped :
but the case differed now very much ; for two men to fifty were
too much odds. The two men had the happiness to discover
them about a league off, so that it was above an hour before they
landed, and as they landed about a mile from their huts, it was
some time before they could come at them. Now having great
reason to believe that they were betrayed, the first thing they
did was to bind the slaves which were left, and cause two of the
three men whom they brought with the women, who, it seems,
proved very faithful to them, to lead them with their two wives,
and whatever they could carry away with them, to their retired
place in the woods, which I have spoken of above, and there to
bind the two fellows hand and foot till they heard farther.
In the next place, seeing the Savages were all come on shore,
OF ROBIN SON CRU SO E. 283
and that they bent their course directly that way, they opened
the fences where their milch-goats were kept, and drove them all
out, leaving their goats to straggle into the woods, whither they
pleased, that the savages might think they were all bred wild;
but the rogue who came with them was too cunning for that, and
gave them an account of it all, for they went directly to the
lace.
p When the poor frighted men had secured their wives and goods,
they sent the other slave they had of the three, who came with
the women, and who was at their place by accident, away to the
Spaniards with all speed, to give them the alarm, and desire
speedy help; and in the mean time they took their arms, and
what ammunition they had, and retreated towards the place in
the wood where their wives were sent, keeping at a distance, yet
so that they might see, if possible, which way the Savages took.
They had not gone far but that, from a rising ground, they
could see the little army of their enemies come on directly to their
habitation, and in a moment more could see all their huts and
household-stuff flaming up together, to their great grief and mor-
tification; for they had a very great loss, and to them irretrieva-
ble, at least for some time. They kept their station for a while,
till they found the savages, like wild beasts, spread themselves
all over the place, rummaging every way, and every place they
could think of, in search for prey, and in particular for the peo-
ple, of whom it plainly appeared they had intelligence.
The two Englishmen seeing this, thinking themselves not se-
cure where they stood, as it was likely some of the wild people
might come that way, so they might come too many together,
thought it proper to make another retreat about half a mile far-
ther, believing, as it afterwards happened, that the farther they
strolled, the fewer would be together.
The next halt was at the entrance into a very thick grown
part of the woods, and where an old trunk of a tree stood, which
was hollow, and vastly large; and in this tree they both took their
standing, resolving to see what might offer.
They had not stood there long, but two of the Savages appear-
ed running directly that way, as if they had already notice where
they stood, and were coming up to attack them; and a little
way farther, they espied three more coming after them, and
five more beyond them, all coming the same way ; besides which,
they saw seven or eight more at a distance, running another way;
for, in a word, they ran every way, like sportsmen beating for
their game.
The poor men were now in great perplexity, whether they
should stand and keep their posture, or fly; but after a very short
debate with themselves, they considered, that if the savages ran-
ged the country thus before help came, they might, perhaps, find
284 LIFE AN IN A DV E N T U R ES
out their retreat in the woods, and then all would be lost; so
they resolved to stand them there, and if there were too many
to deal with, then they would get to the top of the tree, from
whence they doubted not to defend themselves, fire excepted,
as long as their ammunition lasted, though all the savages that
were landed, which were near fifty, were to attack them.
Having resolved upon this, they next considered whether they
should fire at the two first, or wait for the three, and so take
the middle party, by which the two and the five that followed
would be separated; at length they resolved to let the two first
pass by, unless they should spy them in the tree, and come to
attack them. The two first savages also confirmed them in this
resolution, by turning a little from them towards another part
of the wood; but the three, and the five after them, came for-
wards directly to the tree, as if they had known the English-
men were there.
Seeing them come so straight towards them, they resolved to
take them in a line as they came ; and as they resolved to fire
but one at a time, perhaps the first shot might hit them all
three; to which purpose, the man who was to fire put three or
four bullets into his piece, and having a fair loop-hole, as it
were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a sure aim, without
being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty yards of
the tree, so that he could not miss.
While they were thus waiting, and the savages came on, they
plainly saw. that one of the three was the runaway savage that
had escaped from them, and they both knew him distinctly, and
resolved that, if possible, he should not escape, though they should
both fire; so the other stood ready with his piece, that if he did
not drop at the first shot, he should be sure to have a second.
But the first was too good a marksman to miss his aim ; for as
the savages kept near one another, a little behind in a line, in a
word he fired, and hit two of them directly; the foremost was
killed out-right, being shot in the head ; the second, which was
the runaway Indian, was shot through the body and fell, but was
not quite dead; and the third had a little scratch in the shoulder,
perhaps by the same ball that went through the body of the se-
cond ; and being dreadfully frighted, though not much hurt, sat
down upon the ground, screaming and yelling in a hideous man-
Iler.
The five that were behind, more frighted with the noise than
sensible of their danger, stood still at first; for the woods made
the sound a thousand times bigger than it really was, the echoes
rattling from one side to another, and the fowls rising from all
parts, screaming and making, every sort, a several kind of noise,
according to their kind, just as it was when I fired the first gun
that, perhaps, was ever shot offin that place since it was an island.
OF RO BINSON C R US O E. 285
However, all being silent again, and they not knowing what
the matter was, came on unconcerned, till they came to that place
where their companions lay, in a condition miserable enough;
and here the poor ignorant creatures, not sensible that they were
within reach of the same mischief, stood all of a huddle over the
wounded man, talking, and, as may be supposed, inquiring of
him how he came to be hurt; and who, it is very rational to be-
lieve, told them that a flash of fire first, and immediately after
that thunder from their gods, had killed those two, and wound-
ed him. This, I say, is rational ; for nothing is more certain than
that, as they saw no man near them, so they had never heard a
gun in all their lives, or so much as heard of a gun; neither knew
they any thing of killing or wounding at a distance with fire and
bullets; if they had, one might reasonably believe that they would
not have stood so unconcerned in viewing the fate of their fel-
lows without some apprehension of their own.
Our two men, though, as they coniessed to me, it grieved them
to be obliged to kill so many poor creatures, who at the same
time had no motion of their danger ; yet, having them all thus
in their power, and the first having loaded his piece again, re-
solved to let fly both together among them, and singling out by
agreement which to aim at, they shot together, and killed, or very
much wounded, four of them; the fifth, frighted even to death
though not hurt, fell with the rest; so that our men, seeing them
all fall together, thought they had killed them all.
The belief that the savages were all killed made our two men
come boldly out from the tree before they had charged their guns.
again, which was a wrong step, and they were under some surprise
when they came to the place, and found no less than four of the
men alive, and of them two very little hurt, and one not at all:
this obliged them to fall upon them with the stocks of their mus-
kets; and first they made sure of the runaway savage that had
been the cause of all the mischief, and of another that was hurt
in his knee, and put them out of their pain. Then the man that
was not hurt at all came and kneeled down to them with his two
hands held up, and made piteous moan to them by gestures and
signs for his life, but could not say one word to them that they
could understand.
However, they signified to him to sit down at the foot of a tree
thereby; and one of the Englishmen, with a piece of rope-twine
which he had by great chance in his pocket, tied his feet fast to-
gether, and his hands behind him, and there they left him; and
with what speed they could make after the other two which
were gone before, fearing they, or any more of them, should find
the way to their covered place in the woods, where their wives, and
the few goods they had left, lay. They came once in sight of the
two men, but it was at a great distance; however, they had the
2
286 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
satisfaction to see them crossover a valley towards the sea, the quite
contrary way from that which led to their retreat, which they were
afraid of; and being satisfied with that, they went back to the tree
where they left their prisoner, who as they supposed was delivered
by his comrades; for he was gone, and the two pieces of rope-
yarn, with which they had bound him, lay just at the foot of the
tree.
They were now in as great a concern as before, not knowing
what course to take, or how near the enemy might be, or in what
numbers; so they resolved to go away to the place where their
wives were, to see if all was well there, and to make them easy,
who were in fright enough to be sure; for though the savages
were their own country-folks, yet they were most terribly afraid
of them, and perhaps the more for the knowledge they had of them.
When they came thither, they found the savages had been in
the wood, and very near the place, but had not found it; for in-
deed it was inaccessible, by the trees standing so thick, as before,
unless the persons seeking it had been directed by those that
knew it, which these were not; they found, therefore, every thing
very safe, only the women in a terrible fright. While they were
here, they had the comfort of seven of the Spaniards coming to
their assistance; the other ten with their servants, and old Friday,
I mean Friday’s father, were gone in a body to defend their bower,
and the corn and cattle that were kept there, in case the savages
should have roved over to that side of the country; but they did
not spread so far. ith the seven Spaniards came one of the
savages, who, as I said, were their prisoners formerly, and with
them also came the savage whom the Englishmen had left bound
hand and foot at the tree; for it seems they came that way, saw
the slaughter of the seven men, and unbound the eighth, and
brought him along with them, where, however, they were obliged
to bind him again, as they had done the two others, who were left
when the third ran away.
The prisoners began now to be a burden to them; and they
were so afraid of their escaping, that they thought they were under
an absolute necessity to kill them for their own preservation:
however, the Spaniard governor would not consent to it; but
ordered, that they should be sent out of the way to my old cave
in the valley, and be kept there, with two Spaniards to guard
them and give them food; which was done; and they were bound
there hand and foot for that night. -
When the Spaniards came, the two Englishmen were so encou-
raged, that they could not satisfy themselves to stay any longer
there; but taking five of the Spaniards, and themselves, with four
muskets and a pistol among them, and two stout quarter-staves,
away they went in quest of the savages. And first they came to
the tree where the men lay that had been killed; but it was easy
OF ROBIN SON CRUS OE, 287
to see that some more of the savages had been there; for they at-
tempted to carry their dead men away, and had dragged two of
them a good way, but had given it over; from thence they ad-
vanced to the first rising ground, where they had stood and seen
their camp destroyed, and where they had the mortification still
to see some of the smoke; but neither could they here see any
of the savages: they then resolved, though with all possible cau-
tion, to go forward towards their ruined plantation; but a little be-
fore they came thither, coming in sight of the sea-shore, they saw
plainly the Savages all embarking again in their canoes, in order
to be gone.
They seemed sorry at first that there was no wav to come at .
them to give them a parting blow, but upon the whole were very
well satisfied to be rid of them.
The poor Englishmen being now twice ruined, and all their im-
provements destroyed, the rest all agreed to come and help them
to rebuild, and to assist them with needful supplies. Their three
countrymen, who were not yet noted for having the least inclina-
tion to do any thing good, yet, as soon as they heard of it (for
they living remote, knew nothing till all was over,) came and of.
fered their help and assistance, and did very friendly work for se-
veral days to restore their habitations, and make necessaries for
them; and thus in a little time they were set upon their legs
a Q'ai Il.
"About two days after this, they had the ſarther satisfaction of
seeing three of the savages canoes come driving on shore, and at
some distance from them, with two drowned men; by which they
had reason to believe that they had met with a storm at sea, which
had overset some of them, for it blew very hard the night after
they went off.
However, as some might miscarry, so on the other hand enough
of them escaped to inform the rest, as well of what they had done,
as of what happened to them; and to whet them on to another
enterprise of the same nature, which they, it seems, resolved to
attempt, with sufficient force to carry all before them; for except
what the first man had told them of inhabitants, they could say
little to it of their own knowledge; for they never saw one man,
and the fellow being killed that had affirmed it, they had no other
witnesses to confirm it to them.
288 M.I FE AND A DV ENTURES
CHAP. XXV.
The Island is invaded by a formidable Fleet of Savages—A ter-
rible Engagement, in which the Cunnibals are utterly routed—
Thirty-seven Wretches, the survivors, are saved, and employed
by my People as Servants— Description of Will Atkins’ inge-
nious Contrivances for his Accommodation.
It was five or six months after this before they heard any more
of the savages, in which time our men were in hopes they had not
forgot their former bad luck, or had given over the hopes of bet-
ter; when on a sudden they were invaded with a most formidable
fleet of no less than twenty-eight canoes, full of savages, armed
with bows and arrows, great clubs, wooden swords, and such-like
engines of war; and they brought such numbers with them, that,
in short, it put all our people into the utmost consternation.
As they came on shore in the evening, and at the easternmost
side of the island, our men had that night to consult and consider
what to do; and in the first place, knowing that their being en-
tirely concealed was their only safety before, and would much
more be so now, while the number of their enemies was so great,
they therefore resolved, first of all, to take down the huts which
were built for the two Englishmen, and drive away their goats
to the old cave; because they supposed the savages would go di-
rectly thither as soon as it was day, to play the old game over again,
though they did not now land within two leagues of it.
In the next place, they drove away all the flock of goats they
had at the old bower, as I called it, which belonged to the Spa-
miards; and, in short, left as little appearance of inhabitants any
where as possible ; and the next morning early they posted them-
selves with all their force at the plantation of the two men, wait-
ing for their coming. As they guessed, so it happened: these new
invaders, leaving their canoes at the east end of the island, came
ranging along the shore, directly towards the place, to the number
of two hundred and fifty, as near as our men could judge. Our
army was but small indeed; but that which was worse, they had
not arms for all their number neither: the whole account, it
seems, stood thus:–first, as to men:
17 Spaniards.
5 Englishmen.
1 Old Friday, or Friday’s father.
3 Slaves, taken with the women, who proved very faithful.
3 Other slaves, who lived with the Spaniards.
*
29
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 289.
To arm these they had :
11 Muskets. -
5 Pistols.
3 Fowling-pieces.
5 Muskets, or fowling-pieces, which were taken by me from the
mutinous seamen whom I reduced.
2 Swords.
3 Old halberts.
2
9
To their slaves they did not give either musket or fusil, but
they had every one an halbert, or a long staff, like a quarter-
staff, with a great spike of iron fastened into each end of it, and
by his side a hatchet; also every one of our men had hatchets.
Two of the women could not be prevailed upon but they would
come into the fight, and they had bows and arrows, which the
Spaniards had taken from the savages when the first action hap-
pened, which I have spoken of, where the Indians fought with
one another; and the women had hatchets too.
The Spaniard governor, whom I have described so often, com-
manded the whole; and William Atkins, who, though a dreadful
fellow for wickedness, was a most daring bold fellow, command-
ed under him. The savages came forward like lions, and our men,
which was the worst of their fate, had no advantage in their situ-
ation; only that Will Atkins, who now proved a most useful
fellow, with six men, was planted just behind a small thicket of
bushes, as an advanced guard, with orders to let the first of them
pass by, and then fire into the middle of them; and as soon as
he had fired, to make his retreat, as nimbly as he could, round a
part of the wood, and so come in behind the Spaniards where
they stood, having a thicket of trees all before them.
When the savages came on, they ran straggling about every way
in heaps, out of all manner of order, and Will Atkins let about
fifty of them pass by him; then seeing the rest come in a very
thick throng, he orders three of his men to fire, having loaded
their muskets with six or seven bullets apiece, about as big as
pistol bullets. How many they killed or wounded they knew
not ; but the consternation and surprise was inexpressible among
the savages, who were frighted to the last degree, to hear such
a dreadful noise, and see their men killed, and others hurt, but
see nobody that did it. When in the middle of their fright,
William Atkins and his other three let fly again among the thick-
est of them ; and in less than a minute the first three, being load-
ed again, gave them a third volley.
Had William Atkins and his men retired immediately, as soon
as they had fired, as they were ordered to do, or had the rest
N
390 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
of the body been at hand to have poured in their shot continually,
the savages had been effectually routed; for the terror that was
among them came principally from this, viz. that they were killed
by the gods with thunder and lightning, and could see nobody
that hurt them: but William Atkins staying to load again, disco-
vered the cheat; some of the savages, who were at a distance,
spying them, came upon them behind; and though Atkins and
his men fired at them also, two or three times, and killed above
twenty, retiring as fast as they could, yet they wounded Atkins
himself, and killed one of his fellow Englishmen with their arrows,
as they did afterwards one Spaniard, and one of the Indian slaves
who came with the women. This slave was a most gallant fel-
low, and fought most desperately, killing five of them with his
own hand, having no weapon but one of the armed staves and an
hatchet.
Our men being thus hard laid at, Atkins wounded, and two
other men killed, retreated to a rising ground in the wood ; and
the Spaniards, after firing three vollies upon them, retreated also ;
for their number was so great, and they were so desperate, that
though above fifty of them were killed, and more than so many
wounded, yet they came on in the teeth of our men, fearless of
danger, and shot their arrows like a cloud; and it was observed,
that their wounded men, who were not quite disabled, were made
outrageous by their wounds, and fought like madmen.
When our men retreated, they left the Spaniard and the Eng-
lishman that were killed, behind them ; and the savages, when
they came up to them, killed them over again in a wretched man-
mer, breaking their arms, legs, and heads, with their clubs and
wooden swords, like true savages. But finding our men ware
gone, they did not seem inclined to pursue them, but drew them-
selves up in a kind of ring, which is, it seems, their custom, and
shouted twice in token of their victory; after which, they had the
mortification to see several of their wounded men fall, dying with
the mere loss of blood.
The Spaniard governor having drawn his little body up toge-
ther upon a rising ground, Atkins, though he was wounded, would
have had him march, and charge them again all together at once:
but the Spaniard replied, Seignior Atkins, you see how their
wounded men fight; let them alone till morning; all these wound-
ed men will be stiff and sore with their wounds, and faint with
the loss of blood, and so we shall have the fewer to engage.
The advice was good; but Will Atkins replied merrily, That’s
true, Seignior, and so shall I too; and that’s the reason I would
go on while I am warm.—Well, Seignior Atkins, says the Spa-
niard, you have behaved gallantly, and done your part; we will
fight for you, if you cannot come on ; but I think it best to stay
till morning : So they waited.
6
OF RO BIN SON CRU SOE. 291
But as it was a clear moonlight night, and they found the sava-
ges in great disorder about their dead and wounded men, and a
great hurry and noise among them where they lay, they afterwards
resolved to fall upon them in the might, especially if they could
come to give them but one volley before they were discovered.
This they had a fair opportunity to do; for one of the two Eng-
lishmen, in whose quarter it was where the fight began, led them
round between the woods and the sea-side, westward, and turn-
ing short south, they came so near where the thickest of them lay,
that before they were seen or heard, eight of them fired in among
them, and did dreadful execution upon them ; in half a minute
more, eight others fired after them, pouring in their small shot in
such a quantity, that abundance were killed and wounded; and
all this while they were not able to see who hurt them, or which
way to fly.
The Spaniards charged again with the utmost expedition, and
then divided themselves into three bodies, and resolved to fall
in among them all together. They had in each body eight per-
sons; that is to say, twenty-four, whereof were twenty-two men,
and the two women, who, by the way, fought desperately.
They divided the fire-arms equally in each party, and so of the
halberts and staves. They would have had the women keep back;
but they said they were resolved to die with their husbands. Ha-
ving thus formed their little army, they marched out from among
the trees, and came up to the teeth of the enemy, shouting and
hallooing as loud as they could. The savages stood all together,
but were in the utmost confusion, hearing the moise of our men
shouting from three quarters together: they would have fought
if they had seen us; and as soon as we came near enough to be
seen, some arrows were shot, and poor old Friday was wounded,
though not dangerously. But our men gave them no time, but
running up to them, fired among them three ways, and then fell
in with the butt ends of their muskets, their swords, armed staves,
and hatchets; and laid about them so well, that in a word they
set up a dismal screaming and howling, flying to save their lives
which way soever they could.
Our men were tired with the execution ; and killed, or mor-
tally wounded, in the two fights, about one hundred and eighty of
them: the rest, being frighted out of their wits, scoured through
the woods and over the hills, with all the speed that fear and nim-
ble feet could help them to do; and as we did not trouble our-
Selves much to pursue them, they got all together to the sea-side,
where they landed, and where their canoes lay. But their disaster
was not at an end yet, for it blew a terrible storm of wind that
evening from the sea-ward, so that it was impossible for them to
put off; nay, the storm continuing all night, when the tide came
up their canoes were most of them driven by the surge of the sea
292 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
so high upon the shore, that it required infinite toil to get them
off; and some of them were even dashed to pieces against the
beach, or against one another.
Our men, though glad of their victory, yet got little rest that
night; but having refreshed themselves as well as they could,
they resolved to march to that part of the island where the sava-
ges were fled, and see what posture they were in. This neces-
sarily led them over the place where the fight had been, and where
they found several of the poor creatures not quite dead, and
yet past recovering life; a sight disagreeable enough to generous
minds; for a truly great man, though obliged by the law of battle
to destroy his enemy, takes no delight in his misery.
However, there was no need to give any order in this case;
for their own savages, who were their servants, dispatched those
poor creatures with their hatchets.
At length they came in view of the place where the more mi-
serable remains of the savages' army lay, where there appeared
about one hundred still : their posture was generally sitting upon
the ground, with their knees up towards their mouth, and the
head put between the hands, leaning down upon the knees.
When our men came within two musket-shot of them, the Spa-
niard governor ordered two muskets to be fired without ball, to
alarm them; this he did, that by their countenance he might
know what to expect, viz, whether they were still in heart to fight,
or were so heartily beaten, as to be dispirited and discouraged,
and so he might manage accordingly. -
This stratagem took; for as soon as the savages heard the first
gun, and saw the flash of the second, they started up upon their
feet in the greatest consternation imaginable; and, as our men ad-
vanced swiftly towards them, they all ran screaming and yawling
away, with a kind of an howling noise, which our men did not
understand, and had never heard before; and thus they ran up
the hills into the country.
At first our men had much rather the weather had been calm,
and they had all gone away to sea; but they did not then con-
sider that this might probably have been the occasion of their co-
ming again in such multitudes as not to be resisted; or, at least,
to come se many and so often, as would quite desolate the island,
and starve them. Will Atkins, therefore, who, notwithstand-
ing bis wound, kept always with them, proved the best counsellor
in this case. His advice was, to take the advantage that offered,
and clap in between them and their boats, and so deprive them
of the capacity of ever returning any more to plague the island.
They constilted long about this, and some were against it, for
fear of making the wretches fly into the woods, and live there des-
rate; and sº they should have them to hunt like wild beasts,
; afraid to stir about their business, and have their plantations
of Robinson crusoe. 293
continually rifled, all their tame goats destroyed, and, in short,
be reduced to a life of continual distress.
Will Atkins told them they had better have to do with one hun-
dred men than with one hundred nations; that, as they must
destroy their boats, so they must destroy the men, or be all of
them destroyed themselves. In a word, he showed them the
necessity of it so plainly, that they all came into it; so they
went to work immediately with the boats, and getting some dry
wood together from a dead tree, they tried to set some of them
on fire; but they were so wet that they would scarce burn. How-
ever, the fire so burned the upper part, that it soon made them
unfit for swimming in the sea as boats. When the Indians saw
what they were about, some of them came running out of the
woods, and coming as near as they could to our men, kneeled
down and cried, Oa, Oa, Waramokoa, and some other words of
their language, which none of the others understood any thing of;
but as they made pitiful gestures and strange noises, it was easy
to understand they begged to have their boats spared, and that
they would be gone, and never return thither again.
But our men were now satisfied, that they had no way to pre-
serve themselves, or to save their colony, but effectually to prevent
any of these people from ever going home again; depending upon
this, that if ever so much as one of them got back into their coun-
try to tell the story, the colony was undone; so that, letting them
know that they should not have any mercy, they fell to work with
their canoes, and destroyed them every one that the storm had
not destroyed before; at the sight of which, the savages raised a
hideous cry in the woods, which our people heard plain enough;
after which they ran about the island like distracted men; so that,
# a word, our men did not really know at first what to do with
them.
Nor did the Spaniards, with all their prudence, consider, that
while they made those people thus desperate, they ought to have
kept good guard at the same time upon their plantations; for
though, it is true, they had driven away their cattle, and the In-
dians did not find their main retreat, I mean my old castle at
the hill, nor the cave in the valley; yet they found out my planta-
tion at the bower, and pulled it all to pieces, and all the fences
and planting about it; trod all the corn under foot; tore up the
vines and grapes, being just them almost ripe, and did our men an
inestimable damage, though to themselves not one farthing's-worth
of service. --
Though our men were able to fight them upon all occasions,
yet they were in no condition to pursue them, or hunt them up
and down; for as they were too nimble of foot for our men when
they found them single, so our men durst not go about single for
fear of being surrounded with their numbers; the best was, they
294, I, IFE AND ADVENTURES
had no weapons; for though they had bows, they had no arrows
left, nor any materials to make any, nor had they any edged tool
or weapon among them.
The extremity and distress they were reduced to was great, and
indeed deplorable, but at the same time our men were also brought
to very hard circumstances by them; for though their retreats
were preserved, yet their provision was destroyed, and their har-
vest spoiled ; and what to do, or which way to turn themselves,
they knew not; the only refuge they had now was, the stock of
cattle they had in the valley by the cave, and some little corn which
grew there. The three Englishmen, William Atkins and his com-
rades, were now reduced to two, one of them being killed by an
arrow, which struck him on the side of his head, just under the
temples, so that he never spoke more; and it was very remark-
able, that this was the same barbarous fellow who cut the poor
savage slave with his hatchet, and who afterwards intended to have
murdered the Spaniards.
I look upon their case to have been worse at this time than
mine was at any time after I first discovered the grains of barley
and rice, and got into the method of planting and raising my corn,
and my taple cattle; for now they had, as I may say, an hundred
wolves upon the island, which would devour every thing they
could come at, yet could be very hardly come at themselves.
The first thing they concluded when they saw what their cir-
cumstances were, was, that they would, if possible, drive them up
to the farther part of the island, South-east, that if any more sa-
vages came on shore, they might not find one another; then that
they would daily hunt and harass them, and kill as many of them
as they could come at, till they had reduced the number; and if
they could at last tame them, and bring them to any thing, they
would give them corn, and teach them how to plant, and live
upon their daily labour.
In order to this they followed them, and so terrified them
with their guns, that in a few days, if any of them fired a gun at
an Indian, if he did not hit him, he would fall down for fear; and
so dreadfully frighted they were, that they kept out of sight far-
ther and farther, till at last our men following them, and every
day almost killing and wounding some of them, they kept up in the
woods and hollow places so much, that it reduced them to the
utmost misery for want of food; and many were afterwards found
dead in the woods, without any hurt, but merely starved to death.
When our men found this, it made their hearts relent, and
pity moved them; especially the Spaniard governor, who was the
most gentleman-like, generous-minded man that ever I met with
in my life; and he proposed, if possible, to take one of them
alive, and bring him to understand what they meant, so far as to
be able to act as interpreter, and to go among them, and see if
OF ROBIN SON C R USO Ee 295
they might be brought to some conditions that might be depended
upon, to save their lives, and do us no spoil.
It was some time before any of them could be taken; but being
weak, and half-starved, one of them was at last surprised, and
made a prisoner: he was sullen at first, and would neither eat
nor drink; but finding himself kindly used, and victuals given
him, and no violence offered him, he at last grew tractable, and
came to himself.
They brought old Friday to him, who talked often with him,
and told him how kind the others would be to them all; that they
would not only save their lives, but would give them a part of the
island to live in, provided they would give satisfaction that they
should keep in their own bounds, and not come beyond them, to
injure or prejudice others; and that they should have corn given
them, to plant and make it grow for their bread, and some bread
given them for their present subsistence; and old Friday bade the
fellow go and talk with the rest of his countrymen, and hear what
they said to it, assuring them, that if they did not agree immediate-
ly, they should all be destroyed.
The poor wretches, thoroughly humbled, and reduced in num-
ber to about thirty-seven, closed with the proposal at the first offer,
and begged to have some food given them ; upon which twelve
Spaniards and two Englishmen, well armed, and three Indian
slaves, and old Friday, marched to the place where they were;
the three Indian slaves carried them a large quantity of bread,
and some rice boiled up to cakes, and dried in the sun, and three
live goats; and they were ordered to go to the side of an hill,
where they sat down, ate the provisions very thankfully, and
were the most faithful fellows to their words that could be thought
of; for except when they came to beg victuals and directions,
they never came out of their bounds; and there they lived when
I came to the island, and I went to see them.
They had taught them both to plant corn, make bread, breed
tame goats, and milk them; they wanted nothing but wives, and
they soon would have been a nation: they were confined to a
neck of land surrounded with high rocks behind them, and lying
plain towards the sea before them, on the south-east corner of
the island; they had land enough, and it was very good and fruit-
ful; for they had a piece of land about a mile and a half broad,
and three or four miles in length. *
Our men taught them to make wooden spades, such as I made
for myself; and gave among them twelve hatchets, and three or
four knives; and there they lived, the most subjected innocent
creatures that were ever heard of. +
After this the colony enjoyed a perfect tranquillity with respect
to the savages, till I came to revisit them, which was in about two
years. Not but that now and them some canoes of Savages came
296 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
on shore for their triumphal, unnatural feasts; but as they were
of several nations, and, perhaps, had never heard of those that
came before, or the reason of it, they did not make any search or
inquiry after their countrymen; and if they had, it would have
been very hard for them to have found them out.
Thus, I think, I have given a full account of all that happened
to them to my return, at least that was worth notice. The In-
dians, or savages, were wonderfully civilized by them, and they
frequently went among them; but forbid, on pain of death, any
of the Indians coming to them, because they would not have their
settlement betrayed again.
One thing was very remarkable, viz. that they taught the sava-
ges to make wicker-work, or baskets; but they soon outdid their
masters; for they made abundance of most ingenious things in
wicker-work; particularly all sorts of baskets, sieves, bird-cages,
cupboards, &c., as also chairs to sit on, stools, beds, couches, and
abundance of other things, being very ingenious at such work, when
they were once put in the way of it.
My coming was a particular relief to these people, because we
furnished them with knives, scissars, spades, shovels, pick-axes,
and all things of that kind which they could want.
With the help of these tools they were so very handy, that
they came at last to build up their huts, or houses, very hand-
somely: raddling, or working it up like basket-work all the way
round, which was a very extraordinary piece of ingenuity, and
looked very odd; but was an exceeding good fence, as well against
heat, as against all sorts of vermin; and our men were so taken
with it, that they got the wild savages to come and do the like
for them; so that when I came to see the two Englishmen’s colo-
nies, they looked, at a distance, as if they lived all like bees in a
hive ; and as for Will Atkins, who was now become a very indus-
trious, necessary, and sober fellow, he had made himself such a
tent of basket-work as I believe was never seen. It was one
hundred and twenty paces round on the outside, as I measured
by my steps: the walls were as close worked as a basket, in pan-
mels or squares, thirty-two in number, and very strong, standing
about seven feet high: in the middle was another not above twen-
ty-two paces round, but built stronger, being eight-square in its
form, and in the eight corners stood eight very strong posts, round
the top of which he laid strong pieces, joined together with wood-
en pins, from which he raised a pyramid before the roof of eight
rafters, very handsome I assure you, and joined together very well,
though he had no nails, and only a few iron spikes, which he had
made himself too, out of the old iron that I had left there. And
indeed this fellow showed abundance of ingenuity in several things
which he had no knowledge of; he made himself a forge, with a
pair of wooden bellows to blow the fire; he made himself-char-
OF ROBINSON CRU SOE, 297
coal for his work, and he formed out of one of the iron crows a
middling good anvil to hammer upon ; in this manner he made
many things, but especially hooks, staples and spikes, bolts and
hinges. But to return to the house: after he pitched the roof of
his innermost tent, he worked it up between the rafters with bas-
ket-work, so firm, and thatched that over again so ingeniously
with rice-straw, and over that a large leaf of a tree, which cover-
ed the top, that his house was as dry as if it had been tiled or
slated. Indeed he owned that the savages made the basket-work
for him. -
The outer circuit was covered, as a lean-to, all round this immer
apartment, and long rafters lay from the thirty-two angles to the
top posts of the inner house, being about twenty feet distant: So
that there was a space like a walk within the outer wicker wall,
and without the inner, near twenty feet wide.
The inner place he partitioned off with the same wicker-work,
but much fairer, and divided into six apartments, for that he had
six rooms on a floor, and out of every one of these there was a
door: first, into the entry, or coming into the main tent; and
another door into the space or walk that was round it; so that this
walk was also divided into six equal parts, which served not only
for a retreat, but to store up any necessaries which the family had
occasion for. These six spaces not taking up the whole circumfe-
rence, what other apartments the outer circle had, were thus order-
ed: as soon as you were in at the door of the outer circle, you
had a short passage straight before you to the door of the inner
house; but on either side was a wicker partition, and a door in
it, by which you went first into a large room or storehouse, twen-
ty feet wide, and about thirty feet long, and through that into
another not quite so long : so that in the outer circle were ten
handsome rooms, six of which were only to be come at through
the apartments of the inner tent, and served as closets or retired
rooms to the respective chambers of the inner circle; and four
large warehouses or barns, or what you please to call them, which
went in through one another, two on either hand of the passage
that led through the outer door to the inner tent.
Such a piece of basket-work, I believe, was never seen in the
world; nor an house or tent so neatly contrived, much less so built.
In this great bee-hive lived the three families; that is to say, Will
Atkins and his companions; the third was killed, but his wife re-
mained with three children; for she was, it seems, big with child
when he died, and the other two were not at all backward to
give the widow her full share of every thing, I mean as to their
corn, milk, grapes, &c., and when they killed a kid, or found a
turtle on the shore; so that they all lived well enough, though it
was true, they were not so industrious as the other two, as has
been observed already.
N 2
298 *
LIFE AND AIDAVENTURES
One thing, however, cannot be omitted, viz. that, as for reli-
gion, I don’t know that there was any thing of that kind among
them; they pretty often indeed put one another in mind that there
was a God, by the very common method of seamen, viz, swearing
by his name; nor were their poor, ignorant, savage wives much
the better for having been married to Christians, as we must call
them; for as they knew very little of God themselves, so they
were utterly incapable of entering into any discourse with their
}. about a God, or to talk any thing to them concerning re-
Igion.
The utmost of all the improvement which I can say the wives
had made from them was, that they had taught them to speak
English pretty well; and all the children they had, which were
near twenty in all, were taught to speak English too, from their
first learning to speak, though they at first spoke it in a very bro-
ken manner, like their mothers. There were none of those child-
ren above six years old when I came thither; for it was not much
above seven years that they had fetched these five savage ladies
over, but they had all been pretty fruitful, for they had all child-
ren, more or less : I think the cook’s mate’s wife was big of her
sixth child; and the mothers were all a good sort of well-govern-
ed, quiet, laborious women, modest and decent, helpful to one
another, mighty observant and subject to their masters, I cannot
call them husbands; and wanted nothing but to be well instructed
in the Christian religion, and to be legally married; both which
were happily brought about afterwards by my means, or at least
by the consequence of my coming among them.
CHAP. XXVI.
I hold Conversations with the Spaniards, and learn the History of
their Situation among the Savages from which I relieved them—
I inform the Colony for what purpose I am come, and what I
mean to do for them—Distribution of the Stores I brought with
me—The Priest I saved at Sea solemnizes the Marriages of the
Sailors and Female Indians, who had hitherto lived together as
Man and Wife.
HAVING thus given an account of the colony in general, and
pretty much of my five runagate Englishmen, I must say some-
thing of the Spaniards, who were the main body of the family,
and in whose story there are some incidents also remarkable
enough.
I had a great many discourses with them about their circum-
stances when they were among the savages; they told me readily,
that they had no instances to give of their application or ingenui-
OF ROBINSON CPUSO E. 299
ty in that country; that they were a poor, miserable, dejected
handful of people; that if means had been put into their hands,
they had yet so abandoned themselves to despair, and so sunk
under the weight of their misfortunes, that they thought of no-
thing but starving. One of them, a grave and very sensible man,
told me he was convinced they were in the wrong; that it was
not the part of wise men to give themselves up to their misery,
but always to take hold of the helps which reason offered, as well
for present support, as for future deliverance; he told me that grief
was the most senseless insignificant passion in the world; for
that it regarded only things past, which were generally impossi-.
ble to be recalled or to be remedied, but had no view to things
to come, and had no share in any thing that looked like deliver-
ance, but rather added to the affliction than proposed a remedy;
and upon this he repeated a Spanish proverb, which though I can-
not repeat in just the same words that he spoke it, yet I remem-
ber I made it into an English proverb of my own, thus:
In trouble to be troubled,
Is to have your trouble doubled.
He then ran on in remarks upon all the little improvements I
had made in my solitude; my unwearied application, as he called
it, and how I had made a condition, which, in its circumstances,
was at first much worse than theirs, a thousand times more hap-
py than theirs was, even now when they were all together. He
told me it was remarkable that Englishmen had a greater presence
of mind in their distress than any people that ever he met with ;
that their unhappy nation, and the Portugueze, were the worst
men in the world to struggle with misfortunes; for that their first
step in dangers, after common efforts are over, was always to de-
spair, lie down under it and die, without rousing their thoughts
up to proper remedies for escape.
I told him their case and mine differed exceedingly; that they
were cast upon the shore without necessaries, without supply of
food, or of present sustenance, till they could provide it; that it
is true, I had this disadvantage and discomfort, that I was alone;
but then the supplies I had providentially thrown into my hands,
by the unexpected driving of the ship on shore, was such a help
as would have encouraged any creature in the world to have ap-
plied himself as I had done.—Seignior, says the Spaniard, had we
poor Spaniards been in your case, we should never have gotten
half those things out of the ship as you did. Nay, says he, we
should never have found means to have gotten a raft to carry
them, or to have gotten a raft on shore without boat or sail; and
how much less should we have done, said he, if any of us had been
alone!—Well, I desired him to abate his compliment, and go
on with the history of their coming on shore, where they landed.
300 LIFE AN ID ADVENTURES
He told me they unhappily landed at a place where there were
people without provisions; whereas, had they had the common
sense to have put off to sea again, and gone to another island a
little farther, they had found provisions, though without people;
there being an island that way, as they had been told, where
there were provisions, though no people; that is to say, that the
Spaniards of Trinidad had frequently been there, and filled the
island with goats and hogs at several times, where they have
bred in such multitudes, and where turtle and sea-fowls were in
such plenty, that they could have been in no want of flesh, though
, they had found no bread ; whereas here they were only sustain-
*ed with a few roots and herbs, which they understood not, and
which had no substance in them, and which the inhabitants gave
them sparingly enough, and who could treat them no better un-
less they would turn cannibals, and eat men’s flesh, which was
the great dainty of the country.
They gave me an account how many ways they strove to civilize
the savages they were with, and to teach them rational customs
in the ordinary way of living, but in vain; and how they retorted
it upon them as unjust, that they who came thither for assistance
and support, should attempt to set up for instructors of those that
gave them bread; intimating, it seems, that mone should set up
É. the instructors of others but those who could live without
them.
They gave me dismal accounts of the extremities they were
driven to ; how sometimes they were many days without any
food at all, the island they were upon being inhabited by a sort
of savages that live more indolent, and for that reason were less
supplied with the necessaries of life than they had reason to be-
lieve others were in the same part of the world; and yet they
found that these savages were less ravenous and voracious than
those who had better supplies of food.
Also they added, that they could not but see with what de-
monstrations of wisdom and goodness the governing F.
of God directs the event of things in the world, which they said
appeared in their circumstances; for if, pressed by the hardships
they were under, and the barrenness of the country where they
were, they had searched after a better place to live in, they had
then been out of the way of the relief that happened to them by
my means. 4.3.3
Then they gave me an account how the savages whom they lived
among expected them to go out with them into their wars; and
it was true, that as they had fire-arms with them, had they not had
the disaster to lose their ammunition, they should not have been
serviceable only to their friends, but have made themselves terri-
ble both to friends and enemies; but being without powder and
shot, and in a condition that they could not in reason deny to
OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE. 301
go out with their landlords to their wars, when they came in the
field of battle they were in a worse condition than the savages
themselves, for they neither had bows nor arrows, nor could they
use those the savages gave them, so that they could do nothing
but stand still and be wounded with arrows, till they came up to
the teeth of their enemy; and then indeed the three halberts
they had were of use to them, and they would often drive a whole
little army before them with those halberts and sharpened sticks
put into the muzzles of their muskets: but that for all this, they
were sometimes surrounded with multitudes, and in great danger
from their arrows; till at last they found the way to make them-.
selves large targets of wood, which they covered with skins of
wild beasts, whose names they knew not, and these covered them
from the arrows of the savages; that notwithstanding these, they
were sometimes in great danger, and were once five of them
knocked down together with the clubs of the savages, which was
the time when one of them was taken prisoner, that is to say,
the Spaniard whom I had relieved; that at first they thought he
had been killed, but when afterwards they heard he was taken
prisoner, they were under the greatest grief imaginable, and
would willingly have all ventured their lives to have rescued him.
They told me, that when they were so knocked down, the rest
of their company rescued them, and stood over them fighting till
they were come to themselves, all but he who they thought had
been dead; and then they made their way with their halberts and
pieces, standing close together in a line, through a body of above
a thousand savages, beating down all that came in their way, got
the victory over their enemies, but to their great sorrow, because
it was with the loss of their friend; whom the other party, find-
ing him alive, carried off with some others, as I gave an account
in my former.
They described, most affectionately, how they were surprised
with joy at the return of their friend and companion in misery,
who they thought had been devoured by wild beasts of the worst
kind, viz. by wild men; and yet how more and more they were
surprised with the account he gave them of his errand, and that
there was a Christian in a place near, much more one that was able,
and had humanity enough to contribute to their deliverance.
They described how they were astonished at the sight of the
relief I sent them, and at the appearance of loaves of bread, things
they had not seen since their coming to that miserable place;
how often they crossed it, and blessed it as bread sent from hea-
ven; and what a reviving cordial it was to their spirits to taste
it, as also of the other things I had sent for their supply. And,
after all, they would have told me something of the joy they were
in at the sight of a boat and pilots to carry them away to the
person and place from whence all these new comforts came 5 but
302 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
they told me it was impossible to express it by words, for their
excessive joy driving them to unbecoming extravagancies, they
had no way to describe them but by telling me that they border-
ed upon lunacy, having no way to give vent to their passion
suitable to the sense that was upon them; that in some it work-
ed one way, and in some another; and that some of them,
through a surprise of joy, would burst out into tears; others be
half mad, and others immediately faint. This discourse extremely
affected me, and called to my mind Friday’s ecstacy when he
met his father, and the poor people's ecstacy when I took them
up at sea, after their ship was on fire; the mate of the ship's joy
when he found himself delivered in the place where he expected
to perish; and my own joy, when, after twenty-eight years capti-
vity, I found a good ship ready to carry me to my own country.
All these things made me more sensible of the relation of these
poor men, and more affected with it.
Having thus given a view of the state of things as I found
them, I must relate the heads of what I did for these people,
and the condition in which I left them. It was their opinion, and
mine too, that they would be troubled no more with the sava-
ges; or that, if they were, they would be able to cut them off, if
they were twice as many as before; so that they had no concern
about that. Then I entered into a serious discourse with the
Spaniard whom I called governor, about their stay in the island;
for as I was not come to carry any of them off, so it would not
be just to carry off some and leave others, who perhaps would be
unwilling to stay if their strength was diminished.
On the other hand I told them, I came to establish them there,
not to remove them ; and then I let them know that I had brought
with me relief of sundry kinds for them ; that I had been at a great
charge to supply them with all things necessary, as well for their
convenience as their defence; and that I had such particular per-
sons with me, as well to increase and recruit their number, as
by the particular necessary employments which they were bred to,
being artificers, to assist them in those things in which at present
they were to seek. &
They were all together when Italked thus to them : and before
I delivered to them the stores I had brought, I asked them, one
by one, if they had entirely forgot and buried the first animo-
sities that had been among them, and could shake hands with
one another, and engage in a strict friendship and union of in-
i: so that there might be no more misunderstandings or jea-
OllSleS,
William Atkins, with abundance of frankness and good hu-
mour, said, they had met with afflictions enough to make them
all sober, and enemies enough to make them all friends ; that
for his part he would live and die with them; and was So far
OF ROBINSON CRUSO E. 3O3
from designing any thing against the Spaniards, that he owned
...they had gone nothing to him but what his own bad humour made
necessary, and what he would have done, and perhaps much worse,
in their case; and that he would ask them pardon, if I desired
it, for the foolish and brutish things he had done to them ; and
was very willing and desirous of living on terms of entire friend-
ship and union with them; and would do any thing that lay in his
power, to convince them of it: and as for going to England, he
cared not if he did not go thither these twenty years.
The Spaniards said, they had indeed at first disarmed and ex-
cluded William Atkins and his two countrymen, for their ill con-
duct, as they had let me know ; and they appealed to me for the
necessity they were under to do so; but that William Atkins
had behaved himself so bravely in the great fight they had with
the Savages, and on several occasions since, and had showed
himself so faithful to, and concerned for, the general interest of
them all, that they had forgotten all that was past, and thought
he merited as much to be trusted with arms, and supplied with
necessaries, as any of them ; and that they had testified their
satisfaction in him, by committing the command to him, next to
the governor himself; and as they had an entire confidence in
him and all his countrymen, so they acknowledged they had me-
rited that confidence by all the methods that honest men could
merit to be valued and trusted; and they most heartily embraced
the occasion of giving me this assurance, that they would never
have any interest separate from one another.
Upon these frank and open declarations of friendship, we ap-
pointed the next day to dine all together, and indeed we made a
splendid feast. I caused the ship’s cook and his mate to come on
shore and dress our dinner, and the old cook’s mate we had on
shore assisted. We brought on shore six pieces of good beef, and
four pieces of pork, out of the ship’s provision, with our punch
bowl, and materials to fill it; and, in particular, I gave them ten
bottles of French claret, and ten bottles of English beer; things
that neither the Spaniards nor the Englishmen had tasted for
many years, and which, it may be supposed, they were exceeding
lad of.
8 The Spaniards added to our feast five whole kids, which the
cooks roasted; and three of them were sent, covered up close,
on board our ship to the seamen, that they might feast on fresh
meat from on shore, as we did with their salt meat from on
board.
After this feast, at which we were very innocently merry, I
brought out my cargo of goods, wherein, that there might be no
dispute about dividing, I showed them that there was sufficient
for them all; and desired that they might all take an equal quan-
tity of the goods that were for wearing; that is to say, equal
3O4. LIFE AND A DVENTURES
when made up. At first, I distributed linen sufficient to make
every one of them four shirts; and, at the Spaniards' request,
afterwards made them up six; these were exceeding comforta-
ble to them, having been what, as I may say, they had long since
forgot the use of, or what it was to wear them.
I allotted the thin English stuffs, which I mentioned before,
to make every one a light coat like a frock, which I judged fit-
test for the heat of the season, cool and loose ; and ordered,
that whenever they decayed, they should make more, as they
thought fit. The like for pumps, shoes, stockings, and hats, &c.
I cannot express what pleasure, what satisfaction, sat upon the
countenances of all these poor men when they saw the care I had
taken of them, and how well I had furnished them. They told
me I was a father to them; and that, having such a correspon-
dent as I was, in so remote a part of the world, it would make
them forget that they were left in a desolate place; and they all
voluntarily engaged to me not to leave the place without my
COnSent.
Then I presented to them the people I had brought with me,
particularly the tailor, the smith, and the two carpenters, all of
them most necessary people; but above all, my general artificer,
than whom they could not name any thing that was more need-
ful to them; and the tailor, to show his concern for them, went
to work immediately, and, with my leave, made them every one
a shirt the first thing he did; and, which was still more, he
taught the women not only how to sew and stitch, and use the
needle, but made them assist to make the shirts for their hus-
bands and for all the rest. º
As for the carpenters, I scarce need mention how useful they
were; for they took in pieces all my clumsy unhandy things,
and made them clever convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cup-
hº lockers, shelves, and every thing they wanted of that
ind.
But to let them see how nature made artificers at first, I car-
ried the carpenters to see William Atkins’s basket-house, as I
called it, and they both owned they never saw an instance of
such natural ingenuity before, nor any thing so regular and so
handily built, at least of its kind; and one of them, when he
saw it, after musing a good while, turning about to me, I am
sure, says he, that man has no need of us; you need do nothing
but give him tools.
Then I brought them out all my store of tools, and gave every
man a digging spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had no harrows
or ploughs; and to every separate place a pick-axe, a crow, a
broad axe, and a saw ; always appointing, that as often as any
were broken, or worn out, they should be supplied, without
grudging, out of the general stores that I left behind. -
OF ROBIN SON CR USO E, 305
Nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissars, and
all sorts of tools and iron work, they had without tale as they re-
quired ; for no man would care to take more than he wanted,
and he must be a fool that would waste or spoil them on any
account whatever. And for the use of the Smith, I ieft two tons
of unwrought iron for a supply.
My magazine of powder and arms which I brought them, was
such, even to profusion, that they could not but rejoice at them;
for now they could march, as I used to do, with a musket upon
each shoulder, if there was occasion; and were able to fight a
thousand Savages, if they had but some little advantages of situa-
tion, which also they could not miss of, if they had occasion.
I carried on shore with me the young man whose mother was
starved to death, and the maid also: she was a sober, well-educa-
ted, religious young woman, and behaved so inoffensively, that
every one gave her a good word. She had, indeed, an unhappy
life with us, there being no woman in the ship but herself; but
she bore it with patience. After a while, seeing things so well
ordered, and in so fine a way of thriving upon my island, and
considering that they had neither business nor acquaintance in
the East Indies, or reason for taking so long a voyage; I say,
considering all this, both of them came to me, and desired I
would give them leave to remain on the island, and be entered
among my family, as they called it.
I agreed to it readily, and they had a little plot of ground al-
lotted to them, where they had three tents or houses set up, sur-
rounded with a basket-work, palisaded like Atkins's, and adjoin-
ing to his plantation. Their tents were contrived so, that they
had each of them a room, a part to lodge in, and a middle tent,
like a great storehouse, to lay all their goods in, and to eat and
drink in. And now the other two Englishmen moved their habi-
tation to the same place, and so the island was divided into three
colonies, and no more; viz. the Spaniards, with old Friday, and
the first servants, at my old habitation under the hill, which was,
in a word, the capital city, and where they had so enlarged and
extended their works, as well under as on the outside of the hill,
that they lived, though perfectly concealed, yet full at large. Never
was there such a little city in a wood, and so hid, I believe, in
any part of the world; for I verily believe a thousand men might
have ranged the island a month, and if they had not known
there was such a thing, and looked on purpose for it, they
would not have found it; for the trees stood so thick and so
close, and grew so fast matted into one another, that nothing
but cutting them down first could discover the place, except the
two narrow entrances, where they went in and out, could be
found, which was not very easy. One of them was just down at
the water’s edge, on the side of the creek; and it was after-
306 LIFE AN ID ADVENT.U. RES
wards above two hundred yards to the place; and the other was
up the ladder at twice, as I have already formerly described it;
and they had a large wood thick planted, also on the top of the
hill, which contained above an acre, which grew apace, and cover-
ed the place from all discovery there, with only one narrow place
between two trees, not easy to be discovered, to enter on that
side.
The other colony was that of Will Atkins, where there were
four families of Englishmen, I mean those I had left there, with
their wives and children; three savages that were slaves; the
widow and children of the Englishman that was killed; the
young man and the maid; and (by the way,) we made a wife of
her also before we went away. There were also the two carpen-
ters and the tailor, whom I brought with me for them; also the
Smith, who was a very necessary man to them, especially as the
gunsmith, to take care of their arms; and my other man, whom
I called Jack of all Trades, who was himself as good almost as
twenty men, for he was not only a very ingenious fellow, but a
very merry fellow; and before I went away, we married him to
the honest maid that came with the youth in the ship, whom I
mentioned before.
And now I speak of marrying, it brings me naturally to say
Something of the French ecclesiastic, that I had brought with me
out of the ship’s crew whom I took at sea. It is true, this man
was a Roman, and perhaps it may give offence to some hereafter,
if I leave any thing extraordinary upon record of a man, whom,
before I begin, I must, (to set him out in just colours) represent
in terms very much to his disadvantage in the account of Protes-
tants; as, first, that he was a Papist; secondly, a Popish priest;
and thirdly, a French Popish priest.
But justice demands of me to give him a due character; and I
must say he was a grave, sober, pious, and most religious person;
exact in his life, extensive in his charity, and exemplary in almost
every thing he did. What then can one say against my being very
sensible of the value of such a man, notwithstanding his profes-
sion ? though it may be my opinion, perhaps, as well as the opi-
nion of others who shall read this, that he was mistaken.
The first hour that I began to converse with him, after he had
agreed to go with me to the East Indies, I found reason to delight
exceedingly in his conversation; and he first began with me about
religion, in the most obliging manner imaginable. 3.
Sir, says he, you have not only, under God, (and at that he
crossed his breast) saved my life, but you have admitted me to
go this voyage in your ship, and by your obliging civility have ta-
ken me into your family, giving me an opportunity of free con-
versation. Now, sir, says he, you see by my habit what my pro-
fession is, and I guess by your nation what yours is. I may
OF R O BIN SO N C R U S O E. SO7
think it is my duty, and doubtless it is so, to use my utmost
endeavours on all occasions to bring all the souls that I can to
the knowledge of the truth, and to embrace the Catholic doc-
trine; but as I am here under your permission, and in your fa-
mily, I am bound, in justice to your kindness, as well as in de-
cency and good manners, to be under your government; and
therefore I shall not, without your leave, enter into any debates
on the points of religion in which we may not agree, farther than
you shall give me leave.
I told him, his carriage was so modest that I could not but ac-
knowledge it; that it was true, we were such people as they call
heretics, but that he was not the first Catholic that I had conver-
sed with without falling into any inconveniences, or carrying the
questions to any height in debate; that he, should not find him-
self the worse used for being of a different opinion from us; and
if we did not converse without any dislike on either side, upon
that score, it would be his fault, not ours.
He replied, that he thought our conversation might be easily
separated from disputes; that it was not his business to cap prin-
ciples with every man he discoursed with ; and that he rather de-
sired me to converse with him as a gentleman than as a religieur ;
that if I would give him leave at any time to discourse upon reli-
gious subjects, he would readily comply with it; and that then
he did not doubt but I would allow him also to defend his own
opinions as well as he could ; but that without my leave he would
not break in upon me with any such thing.
He told me farther, that he would not cease to do all that be-
came him in his office as a priest, as well as a private Christian,
to procure the good of the ship, and the safety of all that was in
her ; and though perhaps we would not join with him, and he
could not pray with us, he hoped he might pray for us, which he
would do upon all occasions. In this manner we conversed; and
as he was of a most obliging gentleman-like behaviour, so he was,
if I may be allowed to say so, a man of good sense, and, as I believe,
of great learning.
He gave me a most diverting account of his life, and of the
many extraordinary events of it ; of many adventures which had
befallen him in the few years that he had been abroad in the world,
and particularly this was very remarkable, viz. that during the voy-
age he was now engaged in, he had the misfortune to be five times
shipped and unshipped, and never to go to the place whither any
of the ships he was in were at first designed : that his first intent
was to have gone to Martinico, and that he went on board a ship
bound thither at St Maloes; but being forced into Lisbon in bad
weather, the ship received some damage by running a-ground in
the mouth of the river Tagus, and was obliged to unload her cargo
there: that finding a Portugueze ship there, bound to the Madeiras,
$08 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
and ready to sail, and supposing he should easily meet with a
vessel there bound to Martinico, he went on board in order to sail
to the Madeiras ; but the master of the Portugueze ship, being but
an indifferent mariner, had been out in his reckoning, and they
drove to Fyal; where, however, he happened to find a very good
market for his cargo, which was corn, and therefore resolved not
to go to the Madeiras, but to load salt at the isle of May, to go
away to Newfoundland. He had no remedy in the exigence but
to go with the ship, and had a pretty good voyage as far as the
Banks (so they call the place where they catch the fish,) where,
meeting with a French ship bound from France to Quebec, in the
river of Canada, and from thence to Martinico, to carry provi-
sions, he thought he should have an opportunity to complete his
first design. But when he came to Quebec, the master of the
ship died, and the ship proceeded no farther. So the next voyage
he shipped himself for France, in the ship that was burnt when we
took them up at sea, and then shipped them with us for the East
Indies, as I have already said. Thus he had been disappointed
in five voyages, all, as I may call it, in one voyage, besides what I
shall have occasion to mention farther of the same person.
But I shall not make digressions into other men’s stories, which
have no relation to my own. I return to what concerns our affairs
in the island. He came to me one morning, for he lodged among
us all the while we were upon the island, and it happened to be
just when I was going to visit the Englishmen’s colony at the
farthest part of the island; I say, he came to me, and told me
with a very grave countenance, that he had for two or three days
desired an opportunity of some discourse with me, which he hoped
would not be displeasing to me, because he thought it might, in
some measure, correspond with my general design, which was the
prosperity of my new colony, and perhaps might put it, at least
more than he yet thought it was, in the way of God’s blessing.
I looked a little surprised at the last part of his discourse, and
turning a little short, How, sir, said I, can it be said that we are
not in the way of God’s blessing, after such visible assistances and
wonderful deliverances as we have seen here, and of which I have
given you a large account:
If you had pleased, sir, said he, with a world of modesty, and
yet with great readiness, to have heard me, you would have found
no room to have been displeased, much less to think so hard of
me, that I should suggest, that you have not had wonderful assist-
ances and deliverances; and I hope, on your behalf, that you are
in the way of God’s blessing, and your design is exceeding good,
and will prosper. But, sir, said he, though it were more so than
is even possible to you, yet there may be some among you that are
not equally right in their actions; and you know that in the story
of Israel, one Achan, in the camp, removed God’s blessing from
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 309
them, and turned his hand so against them, that thirty-six of them,
though not concerned in the crime, were the objects of divine ven-
geance, and bore the weight of that punishment.
I was sensibly touched with this discourse, and told him his in-
ference was so just, and the whole design seemed so sincere, and
was really so religious in its own nature, that I was very sorry I
had interrupted him, and begged him to go on; and in the mean
time, because it seemed that what we had both to say might take
up some time, I told him I was going to the Englishmen’s planta-
tion, and asked him to go with me, and we might discourse of it
by the way. He told me he would more willingly wait on me thi-
ther, because there, partly, the thing was acted which he desired
to speak to me about. So we walked on, and I pressed him to be
free and plain with me in what he had to say.
Why then, sir, says he, be pleased to give me leave to lay down
a few propositions as the foundation of what I have to say, that we
may not differ in the general principles, though we may be of some
differing opinions in the practice of particulars. First, sir, though
we differ in some of the doctrinal articles of religion, (and it is
very unhappy that it is so, especially in the case before us, as I
shall show afterwards,) yet there are some general principles in
which we both agree; viz. first, that there is a God, and that this
God, having given us some stated general rules for our service and
obedience, we ought not willingly and knowingly to offend him,
either by neglecting to do what he has commanded, or by doing
what he has expressly forbidden; and let our different religions be
what they will, this general principle is readily owned by us all,
that the blessing of God does not ordinarily follow a presumptuous
sinning against his command; and every good Christian will be
affectionately concerned to prevent any that are under his care,
living in a total neglect of God and his commands. It is not your
men being Protestants, whatever my opinion may be of such, that
discharges me from being concerned for their souls, and from en-
deavouring, if it lies before me, that they should live in as little
distance from, and enmity with their Maker as possible; especial-
ly if you give me leave to meddle so far in your circuit.
I could not yet imagine what he aimed at, and told him I grant-
ed all he had said : and thanked him that he would so far concern
himself for us; and begged he would explain the particulars of
what he had observed, that, like Joshua (to take his own parable,)
I might put away the accursed thing from us.
Why then, sir, says he, I will take the liberty you give me;
and there are three things which, if I am right, must stand in the
way of God’s blessing upon your endeavours here, and which I
should rejoice, for your sake, and their own, to see removed. And,
sir, says he, I promise myself that you will fully agree with me in
them all as soon as I name them; especially because I shall con-
310 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
vince you that every one of them may with great ease, and very
much to your satisfaction, be remedied.
He gave me no leave to put in any more civilities, but went
on: First, sir, says he, you have here four Englishmen, who have
fetched women from among the savages, and have taken them as
their wives, and have had many children by them all, and yet are
not married to them after any stated legal manner, as the laws of
God and man require; and therefore are yet, in the sense of both,
no less than adulterers, and living in adultery. To this, sir, says
he, I know you will object, that there was no clergyman or priest
of any kind, or of any profession, to perform the ceremony; nor
any pen and ink, or paper, to write down a contract of marriage,
and have it signed between them. And I know also, sir, what
the Spaniard governor has told you; I mean of the agreement that
he obliged them to make when they took these women, viz. that
they should choose them out by consent, and keep separately to
them ; which, by the way, is nothing of a marriage, no agreement
with the women as wives, but only an agreement among them-
selves, to keep them from quarrelling.
But, sir, the essence of the sacrament of matrimony (so he call-
ed it, being a Roman) consists not only in the mutual consent of
the parties to take one another as man and wife, but in the form-
al and legal obligation that there is in the contract to compel the
man and woman at all times to own and acknowledge each other;
obliging the man to abstain from all other women, to engage in
no other contract while these subsist; and on all occasions, as abi-
lity allows, to provide homestly for them and their children; and
to oblige the women to the same, or like conditions, mutatis mu-
tandis, on their side.
Now, sir, says he, these men may, when they please, or when
occasion presents, abandon these women, disown their children,
leave them to perish, and take other women and marry them whilst
these are living. And here he added, with some warmth, How,
sir, is God honoured in this unlawful liberty And how shall a
blessing succeed your endeavours in this place, however good in
themselves, and however sincere in your design, while these men,
who at present are your subjects, under your absolute government
and dominion, are allowed by you to live in open adultery :
I confess I was struck at the thing itself, but much more with
the convincing arguments he supported it with. For it was cer-
tainly true, that though they had no clergyman on the spot, yet a
formal contract on both sides, made before witnesses, and con-
firmed by any token which they had all agreed to be bound by,
though it had been but the breaking a stick between them, en-
gaging the men to own these women for their wives upon all oc-
casions, and never to abandon them or their children, and the
women to the same with their husbands, had been an effectual

O. F. R O BIN SON CRU SOE, 31 I
lawful marriage in the sight of God; and it was a great neglect
that it was not done.
But I thought to have gotten off with my young priest by tell-
ing him, that all that part was done when I was not here; and
they had lived so many years with them now, that if it was adul-
tery, it was past remedy, they could do nothing in it now.
Sir, says he, asking your pardon for such freedom, you are
right in this; that it being done in your absence, you could not
be charged with that part of the crime. But I beseech you, flat-
ter not yourself that you are not therefore under an obligation to
do your uttermost now to put an end to it. How can you think,
but that, let the time past lie on whom it will, all the guilt for
the future will lie entirely upon you? Because it is certainly in
your power now to put an end to it, and in nobody’s power but
OUITS.
y I was so dull still, that I did not take him right, but I imagined
that, by putting an end to it, he meant that I should part them,
and not suffer them to live together any longer; and I said to him
I could not do that by any means, for that it would put the
whole island in confusion. He seemed surprised that I should
so far mistake him. No, sir, says he, I do not mean that you
should separate them, but legally and effectually marry them now.
And, sir, as my way of marrying may not be so easy to reconcile
them to, though it will be as effectual even by your own laws;
so your way may be as well before God, and as valid among men;
I mean by a written contract signed by both man and woman,
and by all the witnesses present; which all the laws of Europe
would decree to be valid.
I was amazed to see so much true piety, and so much sinceri-
ty of zeal, besides the unusual impartiality in his discourse, as to
his own party or church, and such a true warmth for the preser-
ving people that he had no knowledge of, or relation to; I say, for
preserving them from transgressing the laws of God; the like of
which I had indeed not met with any where. But recollecting
what he had said of marrying them by a written contract, which
I knew would stand too, I returned it back upon him, and told
him I granted all that he had said to be just, and on his part very
kind; that I would discourse with the men upon the point now
when I came to them. And I knew no reason why they should
scruple to let him marry them all; which I knew well enough
would be granted to be as authentic and valid in England, as if
they were married by one of our own clergymen. What was
afterwards done in this matter, I shall speak of by itself.
I then pressed him to tell me what was the second complaint
which he had to make, acknowledging I was very much his debtor
for the first, and thanked him heartily for it. He told Ine he would
use the same freedom and plainness in the second, and hoped I
$12 LIFE AN ID A DVENTURES
would take it as well; and this was, that, notwithstanding these
English subjects of mine, as he called them, had lived with these
women for almost seven years, and had taught them to speak
English, and even to read it, and that they were, as he percei-
ved, women of tolerable understanding, and capable of instruc-
tion; yet they had not to this hour taught them any thing of the
Christian religion; no, not so much as to know that there was a
God, or a worship, or in what manner God was to be served; or
that their own idolatry, and worshipping they knew not who, was
false and absurd.
This, he said, was an unaccountable neglect, and what God
would certajſhly call them to an account for; and, perhaps, at last
take the work out of their hands. He spoke this very affection-
ately and warmly. I am persuaded, says he, had those men
lived in the savage country whence their wives came, the Savages
would have taken more pains to have brought them to be idolaters,
and to worship the devil, than any of these men, so far as I can
see, has taken with them to teach them the knowledge of the
true God. Now, sir, said he, though I do not acknowledge your
religion, or you mine, yet we should be all glad to see the devil’s
servants, and the subjects of his kingdom, taught to know the ge-
neral principles of the Christian religion; that they might at least
hear of God, and of a Redeemer, and of the resurrection, and of
a future state, things which we all believe; they had at least been
so much nearer coming into the bosom of the true church, than
they are now in the public profession of idolatry and devil-
worship.
I could hold no longer; I took him in my arms, and embraced
him with an excess of passion.—How far, said I to him, have I
been from understanding the most essential part of a Christian,
viz. to love the interest of the Christian church, and the good of
other men’s souls l l scarce have known what belongs to being a
Christian.—O, sir, do not say so, replied he ; this thing is not
your fault.—No, said I; but why did I never lay it to heart as well
as you?—It is not too late yet, said he be not too forward to
condemn yourself—But what can be done now * said I; you see
I am going away.—Will you give me leave, said he, to talk with
these poor nen about it?—Yes, with all my heart, said I, and
I will oblige them to give heed to what you say too.—As to that,
said he, we must leave them to the mercy of Christ; but it is our
business to assist them, encourage them, and instruct thein : and
if you will give me leave, and God his blessing, I do not doubt
but the poor ignorant souls shall be brought home into the great
circle of Christianity, if not into the particular faith that we all
embrace; and that even while you stay here.—Upon this I said,
I shall not only give you leave, but give you a thousand thanks
of Robinson cruso E. $13
for it. What followed on this account, I shall mention also again
in its place. -
I now pressed him for the third article in which we were to
blame.—Why, really, says he, it is of the same nature, and I will
proceed (asking your leave) with the same plainness as before; it
is about your poor Savages yonder, who are, as I may say, your
conquered subjects. It is a maxim, sir, that is, or ought to be,
received among all Christians, of what church, or pretended church
soever, viz. that Christian knowledge ought to be propagated by
all possible means, and on all possible occasions. It is on this
principle that our church sends missionaries into Persia, India, and
China; and that ourclergy, even of the superior sort, willingly
engage in the most hazardous voyage, and the most dangerous re-
sidence among murderers and barbarians, to teach them the know-
ledge of the true God, and to bring them over to embrace the
Christian faith. Now, sir, you have an opportunity here to have
six or seven-and-thirty poor savages brought over from idolatry to
the knowledge of God, their Maker and Redeemer, that I wonder
how you can pass by such an occasion of doing good, which is
really worth the expence of a man’s whole life. -
I was now struck dumb indeed, and had not one word to Say;
I had here a spirit of true Christian zeal for God and religion
before me, let his particular principles be of what kind soever.
As for me, I had not so much as entertained a thought of this in
my heart before, and I believe should not have thought of it; for
I looked upon these savages as slaves, and people whom, had we
any work for them to do, we would have used as such, or would
have been glad to have transported them to any other part of the
world; for our business was to get rid of them, and we would all
have been satisfied if they had been sent to any country, so they
had never seen their own. But to the case: I say I was confound-
ed at his discourse, and knew not what answer to make him. He
looked earnestly at me, seeing me in some disorder; Sir, said he,
I shall be very sorry, if what I have said gives you any offence.—
No, no, said I, I am offended with nobody but myself; but I am
perfectly confounded, not only to think that I should never take
any notice of this before, but with reflecting what notice I am able
to take of it now. You know, sir, said I, what circumstances I
am in ; I am bound to the East Indies, in a ship freighted by
merchants, and to whom it would be an insufferable piece of in-
justice to detain their ship here, the men lying all this while at
victuals and wages upon the owners' account. It is true, I agreed
to be allowed twelve days here, and if I stay more I must pay 31.
sterling per diem demurrage; nor can I stay upon demurrage above
eight days more, and I have been here thirteen days already; so
that I am perfectly unable to engage in this work, unless I would
suffer myself to be left behind here again; in which case, if this
O
314 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
single ship should miscarry in any part of her voyage, I should be
just in the same condition that I was left in here at first, and from
which I have been so wonderfully delivered. -
. He owned the case was very i. upon me as to my voyage,
but laid it home upon my conscience, whether the blessing of
saving seven-and-thirty souls was not worth my venturing all I had
in the world for 2—I was not so sensible of that as he was, and I
returned upon him thus: Why, sir, it is a valuable thing indeed
to be an instrument in God’s hand to convert seven-and-thirty
heathens to the knowledge of Christ; but as you are an ecclesi-
astic, and are given over to that work, so that it seems naturally
to fall into the way of your profession, how is it then that you do
not rather offer yourself to undertake it, than press me to it?
Upon this he faced about, just before me, as he walked along,
and putting me to a full stop, made me a very low bow: I most
heartily thank God, and you, sir, says he, for giving me so evident
a call to so blessed a work; and if you think yourself discharged
from it, and desire me to undertake it, I will most readily do it,
and think it a happy reward for all the hazards and difficulties of
such a broken disappointed voyage as I have met with, that I have
dropped at last into so glorious a work.
I discovered a kind of rapture in his face while he spoke this
to me; his eyes sparkled like fire, his face glowed, and his colour
came and went as if he had been falling into fits ; in a word, he
was fired with the joy of being embarked in such a work. I
aused a considerable while before I could tell what to say to
im, for I was really surprised to find a man of such sincerity and
zeal, and carried out in his zeal beyond the ordinary rate of
men, not of his profession only, but even of any profession what-
soever. But after I had considered it a while, I asked him seri-
ously if he was in earnest, and that he would venture, on the sin-
gle consideration of an attempt on those poor people, to be lock-
ed up in an unplanted island for perhaps his life, and at last might
not know whether he should be able to do them any good or not :
He turned short upon me, and asked me what I called a ven-
ture? Pray, sir, said he, what do you think I consented to go in
your ship to the East Indies for ?—Nay, said I, that I know
not; unless it was to preach to the Indians-Doubtless it was,
said he, and do you think if I can convert these seven-and-thirty
men to the faith of Christ, it is not worth my time, though I
should never be fetched off the island again : Nay, is it not infi-
nitely of more worth to save so many souls than my life is, or the
life of twenty more of the same profession ? Yes, sir, says he, I
would give Christ and the Blessed Virgin thanks all. my days, if
I could be made the least happy instrument of saving the souls
of these poor men, though I was never to set my foot off this
island, or see my native country any more. But since you will
OF ROBINSON CRUSO E. 815
honour me, says he, with putting me into this work (for which I
will pray for you all the days of my life,) I have one humble peti-
tion to you, said he, besides.—What is that said I.--Why, says
he, it is, that you will leave your man Friday with me, to be my
interpreter to them, and to assist me; for without some help I
cannot speak to them, or they to me.
I was sensibly troubled at his requesting Friday, because I
could not think of parting with him, and that for many reasons.
He had been the companion of my travels; he was not only
faithful to me, but sincerely affectionate to the last degree; and
I had resolved to do something considerable for him if he out-
lived me, as it was probable he would. Then I knew that as I
had bred Friday up to be a Protestant, it would quite confound
him to bring him to embrace another profession; and he would
never, while his eyes were open, believe that his old master was a
heretic, and would be damned; and this might in the end ruin the
poor fellow’s principles, and so turn him back again to his first
idolatry. r - • . .
However, a sudden thought, relieved me in this strait, and it
was this: I told him I could not say that I was willing to part with
Friday on any account whatever; though a work that to him was
of more value than his life, ought to me to be of much more value
than the keeping or parting with a servant. But on the other hand,
I was persuaded that Friday would by no means consent to part
with me; and then to force him to it without his consent, would
be manifest injustice, because I had promised I would never put
him away, and he had promised and engaged to me that he would
never leave me unless I put him away. -
He seemed very much concerned at it; for he had no rational
access to these poor people, seeing he did not understand one
word of their language, nor they one word of his. To remove
this difficulty, I told him. Friday’s father had learnt Spanish,
which I found he also understood, and he should serve him for
an interpreter; so he was much better satisfied, and nothing
could persuade him but he would stay to endeavour to convert
* but Providence gave another and very happy turn to all
this.' . - - . . . -
I come back now to the first part of his objections. When we
came to the Englishmen, I sent for them altogether; and after
Some accounts given them of what I had done for them, viz.
what necessary things I had provided for them, and how they
were distributed, which they were sensible of, and very thankful
for; I began to talk to them of the scandalous life they led, and
gave them a full account of the notice the clergyman had already
taken of it; and arguing how unchristian and irreligious a life it
was, I first asked them if they were married men or bachelors?
They soon explained their condition to me, and showed me that
316 LIFE A * : D ADVENTURES
two of them were widowers, and the other three were single men
or bachelors. I asked them with what conscience they could take
these women, and lie with them as they had done, call them their
wives, and have so many children by them, and not be married
lawfully to them?
They all gave me the answer that I expected, viz. that there
was nobody to marry them; that they agreed before the governor
to keep them as their wives; and to keep them and own them
as their wives; and they thought, as things stood with them, they
were as legally married as if they had been married by a parson,
and with all the formalities in the world.
I told them, that no doubt they were married in the sight of
God, and were bound in conscience to keep them as their wives;
but that the laws of men being otherwise, they might pretend
they were not married, and so desert the poor women and chil-
dren hereafter; and that their wives being poor, desolate women,
friendless and moneyless, would have no way to help themselves:
I therefore told them, that unless I was assured of their honest
intent, I could do nothing for them; but would take care that
what I did should be for the women and children without them;
and that unless they would give some assurances that they would
marry the women, I could not think it was convenient they should
continue together as man and wife; for that it was both scanda-
lous to men and offensive to God, who they could not think
would bless them, if they went on thus.
All this passed as I expected; and they told me, especially
Will Atkins, who seemed now to speak for the rest, that they
loved their wives as well as if they had been born in their own
native country, and would not leave them upon any account
whatever; and they did verily believe their wives were as virtuous
and as modest, and did to the utmost of their skill as much for
them and for their children as any women could possibly do, and
they would not part with them on any account: and Will At-
kins for his own particular added, if any man would take him
away, and offer to carry him home to England, and to make him
captain of the best man of war in the navy, he would not go with
him if he might not carry his wife and children with him; and
if there was a clergyman in the ship, he would be married to
her now with all his heart.
This was just as I would have it. The priest was not with
me at that moment, but was not far off. So, to try him farther,
I told him I had a clergyman with me, and if he was sincere I would
have him married the next morning, and bade him consider of
it, and talk with the rest. He said, as for himself, he need not
consider of it at all, for he was very ready to do it, and was glad
I had a minister with me; and he believed they would be all will-
ing also. I then told him that my friend the minister was a
OF ROIRIN SON CRU SOE, 317
Frenchman, and could not speak English, but that I would act
the clerk between them. He never so much as asked me whe-
ther he was a Papist or Protestant, which was indeed what I was
afraid of. But I say they never inquired about it. So we part-
ed; I went back to my clergyman, and Will Atkins went in to talk
with his companions. I desired the French gentleman not to say
any thing to them till the business was thorough ripe, and I told
him what answer the men had given me.
Before I went from their quarter, they all came to me, and
told me, they had been considering what I had said; that they
were very glad to hear I had a clergyman in my company; and
they were very willing to give me the satisfaction I desired, and
to be formally married as soon as I pleased; for they were far
from desiring to part from their wives; and that they meant no-
thing but what was very honest when they chose them. So I ap-
pointed them to meet me the next morning, and that in the
mean time they should let their wives know the meaning of the
marriage law; and that it was not only to prevent any scandal,
but also to oblige them that they should not forsake them whatever
might happen.
The women were easily made sensible of the meaning of the
thing, and were very well satisfied with it, as indeed they had
reason to be ; so they failed not to attend all together at my
apartment next morning, where I brought out my clergyman:
and though he had not on a minister’s gown, after the manner
of England, or the habit of a priest, after the manner of France;
yet having a black vest, something like a cassock, with a sash
round it, he did not look very unlike a minister; and as for his
language, I was interpreter. &
But the seriousness of his behaviour to them, and the scruple he
made of marrying the women because they were not baptized, and
professed Christians, gave them an exceeding reverence for his
person; and there was no need, after that, to inquire whether he
was a clergyman or no.
Indeed I was afraid his scruple would have been carried so far
as that he would not have married them at all: may, notwith-
standing all I was able to say to him, he resisted me, though mo-
destly, yet very steadily; and at last refused absolutely to marry
them, unless he had first talked with the men and the women
too; and though at first I was a little backward to it, yet at last
à agreed to it with a good will, perceiving the sincerity of his
esign.
When he came to them, he let them know that I had acquaint-
ed him with their circumstances, and with the present design;
that he was very willing to perform that part of his function, and
marry them as I had desired; but that before he could do it he
must take the liberty to talk with them. He told them that in
3.18 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
the sight of all different men, and in the sense of the laws of
society, they had lived all this while in an open adultery; and
that it was true that nothing but the consenting to marry, or ef.
fectually separating them from one another now, could put an
end to it; but there was a difficulty in it too, with respect to
the laws of Christian matrimony, which he was not fully satisfied
about, viz. that of marrying one that is a professed Christian, to a
savage, an idolater, and a heathen, one that is not baptized; and
yet that he did not see that there was time left for it to endea-
vour to persuade the women to be baptized, or to profess the
name of Christ, whom they had, he doubted, heard nothing of,
and without which they could not be baptized. -
He told them he doubted they were but indifferent Christians
themselves; that they had but little knowledge of God or his ways,
and therefore he could not expect that they had said much to
their wives on that head yet; but that unless they would promise
him to use their endeavours with their wives to persuade them to
become Christians, and would, as well as they could, instruct them
in the knowledge and belief of God that made them, and to worship
Jesus Christ that redeemed them, he could not marry them; for he
would have no hand in joining Christians with Savages; nor was
it consistent with the principles of the Christian religion, and was
indeed expressly forbidden in God’s law.
They heard all this very attentively, and I delivered it very faith-
fully to them from his mouth, as near his own words as I could,
only sometimes adding something of my own, to convince them
how just it was, and how I was of his mind; and I always very
faithfully distinguished between what I said from myself, and what
were the clergyman’s words. They told me, it was very true what
the gentleman had said, that they were but very indifferent Chris-
tians themselves, and that they had never talked to their wives
about religion.—Lord, sir, says Will Atkins, how should we teach
them religion ? Why, we know nothing ourselves; and besides, sir,
said he, should we go to talk to them of God, and Jesus Christ,
and heaven and hell, it would be to make them laugh at us, and
ask us what we believe ourselves? and if we should tell them we
believe all the things that we speak of to them, such as of good
people going to heaven, and wicked people to the devil, they
would ask us, where we intended to go ourselves who believed all
this, and yet are such wicked fellows, as we indeed are: why, sir,
said Will, 'tis enough to give them a surfeit of religion, at first
hearing: folks must have some religion themselves before they
pretend to teach other people.—Will Atkins, said I to him, though
I am afraid what you say has too much truth in it, yet can you
not tell your wife that she is in the wrong? that there is a God,
and a religion better than her own; that her gods are idols; that
they can neither hear nor speak; that there is a great Being that

oF ROBINSON CRUSOE, 319
made all things, and that can destroy all that he has made; that
he rewards the good, and punishes the bad ; that we are to be
judged by him, at last, for all we do here 3 You are not so igno-
rant but even nature itself will teach you that all this is true;
and I am satisfied you know it all to be true, and believe it your-
self.
That’s true, sir, said Atkins; but with what face can I say any
thing to my wife of all this, when she will tell me immediately it
cannot be true :
Not true! said I; what do you mean by that?—Why, sir, said he,
she will tell me it cannot be true, that this God (I shall tell her of)
can be just, or can punish or reward, since I am not punished and
sent to the devil, that have been such a wicked creature as she
knows I have been, even to her, and to every body else; and that
I should be suffered to live, that have been always acting so con-
trary to what I must tell her is good, and to what I ought to have
done.
Why truly, Atkins, said I, I am afraid thou speakest too much
truth ; and with that I let the clergyman know what Atkins had
said, for he was impatient to know. O! said the priest, tell him
there is one thing will make him the best minister in the world to
his wife, and that is repentance; for none teach repentance like
true penitents. He wants nothing but to repent, and then he will
be so much the better qualified to instruct his wife; he will then
be able to tell her, that there is not only a God, and that he is the
just rewarder of good and evil; but that he is a merciful Being,
and, with infinite goodness and long-suffering, forbears to punish
those that offend; waiting to be gracious, and willing not the
death of a sinner, but rather that he should return and live; that
he often suffers wicked men to go on a long time, and even re-
serves dammation to the general day of retribution; that it is a
clear evidence of God, and of a future state, that righteous men
receive not their reward, or wicked men their punishment, till they
come into another world; and this will lead him to teach his wife
the doctrine of the resurrection, and of the last judgment: let
him but repent for himself, he will be an excellent preacher of re-
pentance to his wife.
I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very serious all the
while, and who, we could easily perceive, was more than ordina-
rily affected with it: when being eager, and hardly suffering me to
make an end—I knew all this, master, says he, and a great deal
more ; but I han’t the impudence to talk thus to my wife, when
God and my own conscience knows, and my wife will be an un-
deniable evidence against me, that I have lived as if I had never
heard of God, or a future state, or any thing about it; and to talk
of my repenting, alas ! (and with that he fetched a deep sigh, and
I could see that tears stood in his eyes,) 'tis past all that with me.
320 LIFE AN E ADVENTURES
—Past it, Atkins ! said I; what dost thou mean by that?—I know
well enough what I mean, sir, says he ; I mean it is too late; and
that is too true.
I told my clergyman word for word what he said. The poor
zealous priest (I must call him so; for, be his opinion what it will,
he had certainly a most singular affection for the good of other
men’s souls; and it would be hard to think he had not the like
for his own)—I say, this zealous, affectionate man could not refrain
tears also: but recovering himself, he said to me, Ask him but one
question: Is he easy that it is too late, or is he troubled and wish-
es it were not so?—I put the question fairly to Atkins; and he an-
swered with a great deal of passion, How could any man be easy
in a condition that certainly must end in eternal destruction ? That
he was far from being easy ; but that, on the contrary, he believed
it would one time or the other ruin him.
What do you mean by that 2 said I.--Why, he said, he belie-
ved he should, one time or another, cut his own throat, to put an
end to the terror of it.
The clergyman shook his head, with a great concern in his face,
when I told him all this; but turning quick to me upon it, said,
If that be his case, you may assure him it is not too late; Christ
will give him repentance. But pray, says he, explain this to him,
that as no man is saved but by Christ, and the merit of his pas-
sion, procuring divine mercy for him, how can it be too late for any
man to receive mercy Does he think he is able to sin beyond
the power or reach of divine mercy? Pray tell him, there may be
a time when provoked mercy will no longer strive, and when God
may refuse to hear; but that’tis never too late for men to ask mer-
cy; and we that are Christ's servants are commanded to preach
mercy at all times, in the name of Jesus Christ, to all those that
sincerely repent: so that 'tis never too late to repent.
I told Atkins all this, and he heard me with great earnestness;
but it seemed as if he turned off the discourse to the rest; for
he said to me he would go and have some talk with his wife : so
he went out a while, and we talked to the rest... I perceived they
were all stupidly ignorant as to matters of religion; much as I
was when I went rambling away from my father; and yet that there
were none of them backward to hear what had been said; and all
of them seriously promised that they would talk with their wives
about it, and do their endeavour to persuade them to turn Chris-
tians. *
The clergyman smiled upon me when I reported what answer
they gave, but said nothing a good while ; but at last shaking his
head, We that are Christ’s servants, says he, can go no farther
than to exhort and instruct; and when men comply, submit to the
reproof, and promise what we ask, 3. tis all we can do; we are bound
to accept their good words; but believe me, sir, said he, whatever
OF ROBIN SU N C R iſ $0 E. $21
you may have known of the life of that man you call William
Atkins, I believe he is the only sincere convert among them ; I
take that man to be a true penitent. I won’t despair of the rest;
but that man is perfectly struck with the sense of his past life; and
I doubt not but when he comes to talk of religion to his wife, he
will talk himself effectually into it; for attempting to teach others
is sometimes the best way of teaching ourselves. I knew a man,
added he, who, having nothing but a summary motion of religion
himself, and being wicked and profligate to the last degree in his
life, made a thorough reformation in himself by labouring to con-
vert a Jew ; and if that poor Atkins begins but once to talk se-
riously of Jesus Christ to his wife, my life for it he talks himself
into a thorough convert, makes himself a penitent; and who knows
what may follow
Upon this discourse, however, and their promising as above to
endeavour to persuade their wives to embrace Christianity, he
married the other three couple; but Will Atkins and his wife were
not yet come in. After this my clergyman waiting a while, was
curious to know where Atkins was gone; and turning to me,
says he, I entreat you, sir, let us walk out of your labyrinth here
and look; I dare say we shall find this poor man somewhere or
other talking seriously with his wife, and teaching her already
something of religion.—I began to be of the same mind; so we
went out together, and I carried him a way which none knew but
myself, and where the trees were so thick set, as that it was not
easy to see through the thicket of leaves, and far harder to see in
than to see out; when, coming to the edge of the wood, I saw
Atkins, and his tawny savage wife, sitting under the shade of a
bush, very eager in discourse. I stopped short till my clergyman
came up to me, and then having showed him where they were,
we stood and looked very steadily at them a good while.
We observed him very earnest with her, pointing up to the
sun, and to every quarter of the heavens; then down to the
earth, then out to the sea, them to himself, then to her, to the
woods, to the trees. Now, says my clergyman, you see my
words are made good; the man preaches to her; mark him ;
now he is telling her that our God has made him, and her, and
the heavens, the earth, the sea, the woods, the trees, &c.—I be-
lieve he is, said I.-Immediately we perceived Will Atkins start
up upon his feet, fall down upon his knees, and lift up both his
hands; we supposed he said something, but we could not hear
him; it was too far off for that: he did not continue kneeling
half a minute, but comes and sits down again by his wife, and
talks to her again. We perceived then the woman very attem-
tive, but whether she said any thing or no we could not tell.
While the poor fellow was upon his knees, I could see the tears
run plentifully down my clergyman's cheeks; and I could hardly
O 2
322 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
forbear myself; but it was a great affliction to us beth, that we
tº: not near enough to hear any thing that passed between
them. -
Well, however, we could come no nearer, for fear of disturbing
them; so we resolved to see an end of this piece of still conver-
sation, and it spoke loud enough to us without the help of voice.
He sat down again, as I have said, close by her, and talked again
earnestly to her, and two or three times we could see him em-
brace her passionately ; another time we saw him take out his
handkerchief and wipe her eyes, and then kiss her again, with
a kind of transport very unusual ; and after several of these
things, we saw him on a sudden jump up again and lend her his
hand to help her up, when immediately leading her by the hand a
step or two, they both kneeled down together, and continued so
about two minutes.
My friend could bear it mo longer, but cries out aloud, St Paul,
St Paul, behold he prayeth !—I was afraid Atkins would hear
him; therefore I entreated him to withhold himself a while, that
we might see an end of the scene, which to me, I must confess,
was the most affecting, and yet the most agreeable, that ever
I saw in my life. Well, he strove with himself, and contained
himself for a while, but was in such raptures of joy to think that
the poor heathen woman was become a Christian, that he was
not able to contain himself. He wept several times; then throw-
ing up his hands, and crossing his breast, said over several things
ejaculatory, and by way of giving God thanks for so miraculous
a testimony of the success of our endeavours: some he spoke
softly, and I could not well hear; others audibly; some in Latin,
some in French; then two or three times the tears of joy would
interrupt him, that he could not speak at all. But I begged that
he would compose himself, and let us more narrowly and fully
observe what was before us, which he did for a time, and the
scene was not ended there yet; for after the poor man and his
wife were risen again from their knees, we observed he stood
talking still eagerly to her; and we observed by her motion that
she was greatly affected with what he said, by her frequent lift-
ing up her hands, laying her hand to her breast, and such other
postures as usually express the greatest seriousness and atten-
tion. This continued about half a quarter of an hour, and then
they walked away too; so that we could see no more of them
in that situation.
I took this interval to talk with my clergyman; and first I told
him, I was glad to see the particulars we had both been witnesses
to; that though I was hard enough of belief in such cases, yet
that I began to think it was all very sincere here, both in the man
and his wife, however ignorant they both might be; and I hoped
such a beginning would have yet a more happy end And who
OF ROBIN SON CRUS O E. 323
knows, said I, but these two may in time, by instruction and ex-
ample, work upon some of the others?—Some of them said he,
turning quick upon me, ay, upon all of them: depend upon it, if
those two savages (for he has been but little better, as you re-
late it) should embrace Jesus Christ, they will. never leave till
they work upon all the rest; for true religion is naturally com-
municative, and he that is once made a Christian will never leave
a Pagan behind him, if he can help it.—I owned it was a most
Christian principle to think so, and a testimony of a true zeal,
as well as a generous heart in him. But, my friend, said I, will
you give me liberty to start one difficulty here : I cannot tell
how to object the least thing against that affectionate concern
which you show for the turning the poor people from their
Paganism to the Christian religion; but how does this comfort
you, while these people are, in your account, out of the pale of
the Catholic church, without which, you believe, there is no sal-
vation; so that you esteem these but heretics still ; and, for other
reasons, as effectually lost as the Pagans themselves 2
To this he answered, with abundance of candour and Chris-
tian charity, thus: Sir, I am a Catholic of the Roman church,
and a priest of the order of St Benedict, and I embrace all the
principles of the Roman faith. But yet, if you will believe me,
and this I do not speak in compliment to you, or in respect to
my circumstances and your civilities; I say, nevertheless, I do not
look upon you, who call yourselves reformed, without some-cha-
rity: I dare not say, though I know it is our opinion in general,
yet I dare not say, that you cannot be saved; I will by no means
limit the mercy of Christ, so far as to think that he cannot re-
ceive you into the bosom of his church, in a manner to us imper-
ceivable, and which it is impossible for us to know; and I hope
you have the same charity for us. , I pray daily for your being all
restored to Christ’s church, by whatsoever methods he, who is
all-wise, is pleased to direct. In the mean time, sure you will
allow it to consist with me, as a Roman, to distinguish far be-
tween a Protestant and a Pagan ; between him that calls on
Jesus Christ, though in a way which I do not think is according
to the true faith; and a savage, a barbarian, that knows no God,
mo Christ, no Redeemer at all; and if you are not within the
pale of the Catholic church, we hope you are nearer being resto-
red to it than those that know nothing at all of God or his church.
I rejoice, therefore, when I see this poor man, who, you say, has
been a profligate, and almost a murderer, kneel down and pray to
Jesus Christ, as we suppose he did, though not fully enlightened;
believing that God, from whom every such work proceeds, will
sensibly touch his heart, and bring him to the further knowledge
of the truth in his own time; and if God shall influence this
poor man to convert and instruct the ignorant savage, his wife, I
324 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
can never believe that he shall be cast away himself; and have I
not reason then to rejoice, the nearer any are brought to the
knowledge of Christ, though they may not be brought quite home
into the bosom of the Catholic church, just at the time when I
may desire it; leaving it to the goodness of Christ to perfect his
work in his own time, and his own way? Certainly I would re-
joice if all the savages in America were brought, like this poor
woman, to pray to God, though they were to be all Protestants
at first, rather than they should continue pagans and heathens;
firmly believing, that He, who had bestowed that first light upon
them, would farther illuminate them with a beam of his heavenly
grace, and bring them into the pale of his church, when he
should see good.
CHAP. XXVII.
Sincere and worthy Character of the Priest—Dialogue arith Will
Atkins and myself—Conversation betwixt Atkins and his In-
dian Wife on the Subject of Religion—Her Baptism—Settle-
ment of the Commonwealth.
I was astonished at the sincerity and temper of this truly pious
Papist, as much as I was oppressed by the power of his reason-
ing; and it presently occurred to my thoughts, that if such a tem-
per was universal, we might be all Catholic Christians, whatever
church or particular profession we joined to, or joined in ; that
a spirit of charity would soon work us all up into right principles;
and, in a word, as he thought that the like charity would make us
all Catholics, so I told him, I believed, had all the members
of his church the like moderation, they would soon be all Pro-
testants; and there we left that part, for we never disputed
at all.
However, I talked to him another way ; and, taking him by
the hand, My friend, said I, I wish all the clergy of the Roman
church were blessed with such moderation, and an equal share
of your charity. I am entirely of your opinion; but I must tell
you, that if you should preach such doctrine in Spain or Italy,
they would put you into the Inquisition.
It may be so, said he ; I know not what they might do in
Spain and Italy; but I will not say they would be the better
Christians for that severity; for I am sure there is no heresy in
too much charity.
Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our business
there was over; so we went back our own way; and when we
came back we found them waiting to be called in. Observing
this, I asked my clergyman, if we should discover to him that


OF RO BIN SON C R USOE, 395
we had seen him under the bush, or no; and it was his opinion.
we should not ; but that we should talk to him first, and hear
what he would say to us: so we called him in alone, nobody
being in the place but ourselves; and I began with him thus:
Will Atkins, said I, pr’ythee what education had you ? What
was your father : --
W. A. A better man than ever I shall be, sir; my father was
a clergyman.
R. C. What education did he give you ?
W. A. He would have taught me well, sir; but I despised
all education, instruction, or correction, like a beast as I was.
R. C. It is true, Solomon says, “He that despiseth reproof is
brutish.”
W. A. Ay, sir, I was brutish indeed; I murdered my father:
for God’s sake, sir, talk no more about that, sir; I murdered my
poor father.
Priest. Ha! a murderer?
[Here the priest started (for I interpreted every word as he
spoke it,) and looked pale ; it seems he believed that Will
had really killed his own father.]
R. C. No, no, sir, I do not understand him so.-Will Atkins,
explain yourself: you did not kill your father, did you, with your
own hands 2
W. A. No, sir; I did not cut his throat; but I cut the thread
of all his comforts, and shortened his days; I broke his heart by
the most ungrateful, unnatural return, for the most tender, affec-
tionate treatment that ever father gave, or child could receive.
R. C. Well, I did not ask you about your father to extort this
confession; I pray God give you repentance for it, and forgive
you that and all your other sins: but I asked you, because I see
that, though you have not much learning, yet you are not so igno-
rant as some are in things that are good; that you have known
more of religion a great deal, than you have practised.
W. A. Though you, sir, did not extort the confession that I
make about my father, conscience does; and whenever we come
to look back upon our lives, the sins against our indulgent parents
are certainly the first that touch us; the wounds they make lie
deepest; and the weight they leave will lie heaviest upon the
mind, of all the sins we can commit.
R. C. You talk too feelingly and sensibly for me, Atkins; I
cannot bear it.
W. A. You bear it, master I dare say you know nothing of it.
R. C. Yes, Atkins, every shore, every hill, nay, I may say every
tree in this island, is witness to the anguish of my soul for m
ingratitude, and base usage of a good tender father; a father muc
like yours by your description; and I murdered my father as well
326 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
... as you, Will Atkins; but think, for all that, my repentance is short
of yours too, by a great deal. -
[I would have said more, if I could have restrained my pas-
sions; but I thought this poor man’s repentance was so much
sincerer than mine, that I was going to leave off the discourse
and retire; for I was surprised with what he said, and thought,
that, instead of my going about to teach and instruct him,
the man was made a teacher and instructor to me, in a most
surprising and unexpected manner.]
I laid all this before the young clergyman, who was greatly af-
fected with it, and said to me, Did I not say, sir, that when this
man was converted, he would preach to us all 2 I tell you, sir, if
this one man be made a true penitent, here will be no need of me,
he will make Christians of all in the island. But having a little
composed myself, I renewed my discourse with Will Atkins.
But, Will, said I, how comes the sense of this matter to touch
you just now :
W. A. Sir, you have set me about a work that has struck a dart
through my very soul; I have been talking about God and reli-
gion to my wife, in order, as you directed me, to make a Chris-
tian of her; and she has preached such a sermon to me as I shall
never forget while I live,
R. C. No, no ; it is not your wife has preached to you; but
when you were moving religious arguments to her, conscience has
flung them back upon you.
W. A. Ay, sir, with such a force as is not to be resisted.
R. C. Pray, Will, let us know what passed between you and
your wife; for I know something of it already.
W. A. Sir, it is impossible to give you a full account of it: I am
too full to hold it, and yet have no tongue to express it: but let
her have said what she will, and though I cannot give you an ac-
count of it, this I can tell you of it, that I resolve to amend and
reform my life.
R. C. But tell us some of it. How did you begin, Will? for
this has been an extraordinary case, that is certain; she has
preached a sermon indeed, if she has wrought this upon you.
W. A. Why, I first told her the nature of our laws about mar-
riage, and what the reasons were that men and women were obli-
ged to enter into such compacts, as it was neither in the power of
one or other to break; that otherwise, order and justice could not
be maintained, and men would run from their wives, and abandon
their children, mix confusedly with one another, and neither fami-
lies be kept entire, nor inheritances be settled by a legal descent.
R. C. You talk like a civilian, Will. Could you make her un-
derstand what you meant by inheritance and families 2 They know
no such thing among the savages, but marry any how, without any
regard to relation, consanguinity, or family; brother and sister,
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 327
nay, as I have been told, even the father and daughter, and the
son and the mother.
W. A. I believe, sir, you are misinformed; my wife assures me
of the contrary, and that they abhor it. Perhaps for any further
relations they may not be so exact as we are; put she tells me
they never touch one another, in the near relations you speak of.
R. C. Well, what did she say to what you told her ?
W. A. She said she liked it very well; and it was much better
than in her country.
R. C. But did you tell her what marriage was 2
W. A. Ay, ay, there began all our dialogue. I asked her, if she
would be married to me our way ? She asked me, what way that
was 2 I told her, marriage was appointed of God; and here we
º: a strange talk together indeed, as ever man and wife had, I
€II eVe.
[N. B. This dialogue between W Atkins and his wife, as I
took it down in writing just after he told it me, was as follows.]
Wife. Appointed by your God . Why, have you a God in your
country
W. A. Yes, my dear, God is in every country.
Wife. No your God in my country; my country have the great
old Benamuckee God.
W. A. Child, I am very unfit to show you who God is; God
is in heaven, and made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and all
that in them is,
Wife. No makee de earth; no you God makee de earth; no
makee my country.
[W. A. laughed a little at her expression of God not making her
country.]
Wife. No laugh: why laugh me? This no ting to laugh.
[He was justly reproved by his wife, for she was more serious
than he at first.]
W. A. That’s true, indeed; I will not laugh any more, my dear.
Wife. Why you say, you God make all 2
W. A. Yes, child, our God made the whole world, and you, and
me, and all things; for he is the only true God; there is no God
but he ; he lives for ever in neaven.
Wife. Why you no tell me long ago 8
W. A. That’s true, indeed; but I have been a wicked wretch,
and have not only forgotten to acquaint thee with any thing before,
but have lived without God in the world myself.
Wife. What, have you de great God in your country, you no
know him 2 No say O to him? No do good ting for him : That
no possible !
W. A. It is too true though, for all that: we live as if there
was no God in heaven, or that he had no power on earth,
328 Ll FE AND ADVENTURES
Wife. But why God let you do so : Why he no makee you
good live? -
W. A. It is all our own fault.
Wife. But you say me he is great, much great, have much
great power; can make kill when he will: why he no makee kill
when you no serve him : no say O to him 2 no be good mans?
W. A. That is true; he might strike me dead, and I ought to
expect it; for I have been a wicked wretch, that is true: but
God is merciful, and does not deal with us as we deserve.
Wife. But then do not you tell God tankee for that too?
W. A. No, indeed; I have not thanked God for his mercy,
any more than I have feared God for his power.
Wife. Then you God no God; me no tink, believe he be such
one, great much power, strong; no makee kill you, though you
makee him much angry 2
W. A. What will my wicked life hinder you from believing
in God ' What a dreadful creature am I And what a sad truth
is it, that the horrid lives of Christians hinder the conversion of
heathens !
Wife. How me tink you have great much God up there (she
points up to heaven), and yet no do well, no do good ting? Can
he tell? 'Sure he no tell what you do.
W. A. Yes, yes, he knows and sees all things; he hears us
speak, sees what we do, knows what we think, though we do not
speak.
. ºff. What! he no hear you swear, curse, speak the great
a Hln
W. A. Yes, yes, he hears it all.
Wife. Where be then the muchee great power strong?
W. A. He is merciful; that is all we can say for it; and this
proves him to be the true God: he is God, and not man; and
therefore we are not consumed.
[Here Will Atkins told us he was struck with horror, to think
how he could tell his wife so clearly that God sees, and
hears, and knows the secret thoughts of the heart, and all
that we do; and yet that he had dared to do all the vile things
he had done.] -
Wife. Merciful! what you call dat?
W. A. He is our father and maker; and he pities and spares us.
Wife. So then he never makee kill, never angry when you do
wicked; then he no good himself, or no great able.
W. A. Yes, yes, my dear; he is infinitely good, and infinitely
great, and able to punish too; and sometimes, to show his justice
and vengeance, he lets fly his anger to destroy sinners, and make
examples; many are cut off in their sins.
Wife, But no makee kill you yet; then he tell you, may be, that
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE. 329
he no makee you kill, so you make de bargain with him, you do
bad ting, he no be angry at you, when he be angry at other mans ?
W. A. No, indeed, my sins are all presumptions upon his good-
mess; and he would be infinitely just if he destroyed me, as he has
done other men.
Wife. Well, and yet no kill, no makee you dead ' What you
say to him for that ? You no tell him tankee for all that too !
W. A. I am an unthankful, ungrateful dog, that is true.
Wife. Why he no makee you much good better : You say he
makee you.
W. A. He made me, as he made all the world; 'tis I have de-
formed myself, and abused his goodness, and have made myself
an abominable wretch. .
Wife. I wish you makee God know me; I no makee him angry;
I no do bad wicked ting.
[Here Will Atkins said his heart sunk within him, to hear a poor
untaught creature desire to be taught to know God, and he
such a wicked wretch that he could not say one word to her
about God, but what the reproach of his own carriage would
make most irrational to her to believe; nay, that already she
could not believe in God, because he that was so wicked was
not destroyed.]
HV. A. My dear, you mean, you wish I could teach you to
know God, not God to know you, for he knows you already, and
every thought in your heart.
Wife. Why then he know what I say to you now ; he know
me wish to know him; how shall me know who makee me 2
W. A. Poor creature, he must teach thee, I cannot teach thee;
I’ll pray to him to teach thee to know him; and to forgive me,
that I am unworthy to teach thee. .
[The poor fellow was in such an agony at her desiring him to
make her know God, and her wishing to know him, that he
said he fell down on his knees before her, and prayed to
God to enlighten her mind with the saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ, and to pardon his sins, and accept of his being the
unworthy instrument of instructing her in the principles of
religion; after which he sat down by her again, and their
dialogue went on.]
N. B. This was the time when we saw him kneel down and
hift up his hands.
Wife. What you put down the knee for? What you hold ºg
the hand for 2 What you say : Who you speak to ? What is that?
W. A. My dear, I bow my knees in token of my submission to
Him that made me: I said O to him, as you call it, and as you
. your old men do to their idol Benamuckee; that is, I prayed
to him. -
Wife. What you say O to him for :

330 LIFE AN D A DV ENTURES
W. A. I prayed to him to open your eyes and your understand-
ing, that you may know him, and be accepted by him.
Wife. Can he do that too :
W. A. Yes, he can ; he can do all things.
Wife. But he no hear what you say
W. A. Yes, he has bid us pray to him; and promised to hear
UIS,
Wife. Bid you pray ! When he bid you? How he bid you?
What you hear him speak?
W. A. No, we do not hear him speak; but he has revealed him-
self many ways to us.
[Here he was at a great loss to make her understand that
God had revealed himself to us by his word; and what his
word was; but at last he told it her thus:]
W. A. God has spoken to some good men in former days, even
from heaven, by plain words; and God has inspired good men
by his spirit; and they have written all his laws down in a book.
Wife. Me no understand that : where is book 2
W. A. Alas ! my poor creature, I have not this book; but I
hope I shall, one time or other, get it for you to read it.
[Here he embraced her with great affection; but with inex-
pressible grief, that he had not a Bible.]
Wife. But how you makee me know that God teachee them to
write that book? -
W. A. By the same rule that we know him to be God.
Wife. What rule: what way you know?
W. A. Because he teaches and commands nothing but what is
good, righteous, and holy, and tends to make us perfectly good, as
well as perfectly happy; and because he forbids, and commands
us to avoid, all that is wicked, that is evil in itself, or evil in its
consequences.
Wife. That me would understand, that me fain see; if he re-
ward all good thing, punish all wicked thing, he teachee all good
thing, forbid all wicked thing, he makee all thing, he give all
thing; he hear me when I say O to him, as you go to do just
now ; he makee me good if I wish be good; he spare me, no
makee kill me when I no be good; all this you say he do: yes,
he be great God; me take, think, believe him be great God; me
say O to him too with you, my dear.
Here the poor man said he could forbear no longer; but raising
her up, made her kneel by him ; and he prayed to God aloud to
instruct her in the knowiedge of himself by his Spirit; and that,
by some good providence, if possible, she might some time or
other come to have a Bible, that she might read the word of God,
and be taught by him to know him.
[This was the time that we saw him lift her up by the hand, and
saw him kneel down by her, as above.]
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. SS1
They had several other discourses, it seems, after this, too long
to set down here; and particularly she made him promise, that,
since he confessed his own life had been a wicked, abominable
course of provocation against God, he would reform it, and not
make God angry any more, lest he should make him dead, as she
called it, and then she should be left alone, and never be taught
to know this God better; and lest he should be miserable, as he
had told her wicked men should be after death.
This was a strange account, and very affecting to us both, but
particularly, the young clergyman: he was indeed wonderfully
surprised with it; but under the greatest affliction imaginable that
he could not talk to her; that he could not speak English to make
her understand him ; and as she spoke but very broken English,
he could not understand her. However, he turned himself to
me, and told me, that he believed there must be more to do with
this woman than to marry her. I did not understand him at first,
but at length he explained himself, viz. that she ought to be
baptized.
I agreed with him in that part readily, and was for going about
it presently : No, no ; hold, sir, said he ; though I would have
her baptized by all means, yet I must observe, that Will Atkins,
her husband, has indeed brought her, in a wonderful manner, to
be willing to embrace a religious life; and has given her just
ideas of the being of a God, of his power, justice, and mercy; yet
I desire to know of him, if he has said any thing to her of Jesus
Christ, and of the salvation of sinners; of the nature of faith in
him, and the redemption by him ; of the Holy Spirit, the resur-
rection, the last judgment, and a future state.
I called Will Å; again, and asked him; but the poor fellow
fell immediately into tears, and told us he had said something to
her of all those things, but that he was himself so wicked a crea-
ture, and his own conscience so reproached him with his horrid,
ungodly life, that he trembled at the apprehensions, that her know-
ledge of him should lessen the attention she should give to those
things, and make her rather contemn religion than receive it: but
he was assured, he said, that her mind was so disposed to receive
due impressions of all those things, that, if I would but discourse
with her, she would make it appear to my satisfaction, that my
labour would not be lost upon her.
Accordingly I called her in, and placing myself as interpreter
between my religious priest and the woman, I entreated him to
begin with her. But sure such a sermon was never preached by
a popish priest in these latter ages of the world; and, as I told
him, I thought he had all the zeal, all the knowledge, all the sin-
cerity of a Christian, without the errors of a Roman Catholic ;
and that I took him to be such a clergyman as the Roman bishops

332 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
were, before the church of Rome assumed spiritual sovereignty
over the consciences of men.
In a word, he brought the poor woman to embrace the know-
ledge of Christ, and of redemption by him, not with wonder and
astonishment only, as she did the first notions of a God, but with
joy and faith, with an affection, and a surprising degree of under-
standing, scarce to be imagined, much less to be expressed; and
at her own request she was baptized.
When he was preparing to baptize her, I entreated him, that
he would perform that office with some caution, that the man
might not perceive he was of the Roman church, if possible; be-
cause of other ill consequences which might attend a difference
among us in that very religion which we were instructing the
other in. He told me, that as he had no consecrated chapel, nor
proper things for the office, I should see he would do it in a man-
ner that I should not know by it that he was a Roman Catholic
himself, if I had not known it before, and so he did; for saying
only some words over to himself in Latin, which I could not un-
derstand, he poured a whole dishful of water upon the woman’s
head, pronouncing in French very loud, Mary (which was the
name her husband desired me to give her, for I was her godfather),
I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost ; so that none could know any thing by it what
religion he was of: he gave the benediction afterwards in Latin;
but either Wiki Atkins did not know but it was in French, or else
did not take notice of it at that time.
As soon as this was over, he married them; and after the
marriage was over, he turned himself to Will Atkins, and in a
very affectionate manner exhorted him not only to persevere in that
good disposition he was in, but to support the convictions that
were upon him, by a resolution to reform his life; told him it was
in vain to say he repented, if he did not forsake his crimes; re-
presented to him, how God had honoured him with being the in-
strument of bringing his wife to the knowledge of the Christian
religion; and that he should be careful he did not dishonour the
grace of God; and that if he did, he would see the heathen a
better Christian than himself; the savage converted, and the in-
strument cast away !
He said a great many good things to them both, and then re-
commended them, in a few words, to God’s goodness; gave them
the benediction again, I repeating every thing to them in English:
and thus ended the ceremony. i. it was the most pleasant,
agreeable day to me, that ever I passed in my whole life.
, But my clergyman had not done yet; his thoughts hung con-
tinually upon the conversion of the thirty-seven savages, and fain
he would have staid upon the island to have undertaken it: but I
oonvinced him, first, that his undertaking was impracticable in

OF ROBIN SON GRU SOE, 333
itself; and secondly, that, perhaps, I could put it into a way of
being done in his absence, to his satisfaction; of which by and by.
Having thus brought the affair of the island to a narrow compass,
I was preparing to go on board the ship, when the young man,
whom I had taken out of the famished ship’s company, came to
me, and told ine, he understood I had a clergyman with me, and
that I had caused the Englishmen to be married to the savages
whom they called wives; that he had a match too, which he de-
sired might be finished before I went, between two Christians,
which he hoped would not be disagreeable to me.
I knew this must be the young woman who was his mother’s
servant, for there was no other Christian woman on the island.
So I began to persuade him not to do anything of that kind rash-
ly, or because he found himself in this solitary circumstance. I
represented that he had some considerable substance in the
world, and good friends, as I understood by himself, and by his
maid also ; that the maid was not only poor, and a servant, but
was unequal to him, she being twenty-six or twenty-seven years
old, and he not above seventeen or eighteen; that he might very
probably, with my assistance, make a remove from this wilderness,
and come into his own country again, and that then it would be
a thousand to one but he would repent his choice, and the dislike
of that circumstance might be disadvantageous to both. I was go-
ing to say more, but he interrupted me, smiling ; and told me,
with a great deal of modesty, that I mistook in my guesses; that
he had nothing of that kind in his thoughts, his present circum-
stances being mélancholy and disconsolate enough, and was very
glad to hear that I had some thoughts of putting them in a way to
see their own country again; and that nothing should have set
him upon staying there, but that the voyage I was going was so
exceeding long and hazardous, and would carry him quite out of
the reach of all his friends; that he had nothing to desire of me,
but that I would settle him in some little property of the island
where he was ; give him a servant or two, and some few neces-
saries, and he would settle himself here like a planter, waiting the
good time when, if ever I returned to England, I would redeem
him, and hoped I would not be unmindful of him when I came to
England; that he would give me some letters to his friends in
London, to let them know how good I had been to him, and what
ſº of the world, and what circumstances I had left him in ; and
he promised me, that whenever I redeemed him, the plantation,
and all the improvements he had made upon it, let the value be
what it would, should be wholly mine.
His discourse was very prettily delivered, considering his youth,
and was the more agreeable to me, because he told me positive-
ly the match was not for himself. l gave him all possible assu-
rances, that, if I lived to come safe to England, I would deliver
$34, LIFE AND A DVENTURES
his letters, and do his business effectually, and that he might de-
pend I would never forget the circumstances I left him in. But
still I was impatient to know who was the person to be married;
upon which he told me it was my Jack of all Trades and his
maid Susan.
I was most agreeably surprised when he named the match;
for indeed I had thought it very suitable. The character of that
man I have given you already; and as for the maid, she was a
very honest, modest, sober, and religious young woman ; had a
very good share of sense; was agreeable enough in her person;
spoke very handsomely, and to the purpose ; always with decency
and good manners, and not backward to speak when any thing
required it, or impertinently forward to speak when it was not
her business; very handy and housewifely in any thing that was
before her; an excellent manager, and fit indeed to have been
governess to the whole island ; she knew very well how to behave
herself to all kind of folks she had about her, and to better if
she had found any there.
The match being proposed in this manner, we married them
the same day; and as I was father at the altar, as I may say,
and gave her away, so I gave her a portion; for I appointed her
and her husband a handsome large space of ground for their
plantation; and indeed this match, and the proposal the young
gentleman made to me, to give him a small property in the island,
put me upon parcelling it out among them, that they might not
quarrel afterwards about their situation.
This sharing out the land to them. I left to Will Atkins, who
indeed was now grown a most sober, grave, managing fellow,
perfectly reformed, exceeding pious and religious, and, as far as I
may be allowed to speak positively in such a case, I verily believe
was a true sincere penitent.
He divided things so justly, and so much to every one’s satis-
faction, that they only desired one general writing under my hand
for the whole, which I caused to be drawn up, and signed and
sealed to them, setting out the bounds and situation of every
man’s plantation, and testifying that I gave them thereby, seve-
rally, a right to the whole possession and inheritance of the re-
spective plantations or farms, with their improvements, to them
and their heirs; reserving all the rest of the island as my own
property, and a certain rent for every particular plantation after
eleven years, if I, or any one from me, or in my name, came to de-
mand it, producing an attested copy of the same writing.
As to the government and laws among them, I told them, I
was not capable of giving them better rules than they were able to
give themselves; only made them promise me to live in love and
#: neighbourhood with one another ; and so I prepared to leave
IlêIſle -

OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 335
One thing I must not omit, and that is, that being now set-
tled in a kind of commonwealth among themselves, and having
much business in hand, it was but odd to have seven-and-thirty
Indians live in a nook of the island, independent, and indeed un-
employed; for, excepting the providing themselves food, which
they had difficulty enough in doing sometimes, they had no man-
ner of business or property to manage : I proposed therefore to
the governor Spaniard, that he should go to them with Friday’s
father, and propose to them to remove, and either plant for
themselves, or take them into their several families as servants, to
be maintained for their labour, but without being absolute slaves;
for I would not admit them to make them slaves by force by any
means, because they had their liberty given by capitulation, and
as it were articles of surrender, which they ought not to break.
They most willingly embraced the proposal, and came all very
chearfully along with him, so we allotted them land and plant-
ations, which three or four accepted of, but all the rest chose to
be employed as servants in the several families we had settled;
and thus my colony was in a manner settled as follows: The
Spaniards possessed my original habitation. which was the capital
city, and extended their plantation all along the side of the
brook which made the creek that I have so often described, as
far as my bower; and as they increased their culture, it went
always eastward. The English lived in the north-east part,
where Will Atkins and his comrades began, and came on south-
ward and south-west, towards the back part of the Spaniards;
and every plantation had a great addition of land to take in, if
they found occasion, so that they need not jostle one another for
want of room.
All the west end of the island was left uninhabited, that, if any
of the savages should come on shore there, only for their usual
customary barbarities, they might come and go; if they disturbed
nobody, nobody would disturb them; and no doubt but they were
often ashore and went away again, for I never heard that the plant-
ers were attacked and disturbed any more.
CHAP XXVIII.
I entertain the prospect of converting the Indians–Amiable Cha-
racter of the Young Woman we saved in a fanished State at
Sea—Her own Relation of her Sufferings from Hunger—Sail
from the Island for the Brazils—Encounter and rout a whole
Fleet of Savages—Death of Friday–Arrival at Brazil.
IT now came into my thoughts, that I had hinted to my friend
the clergyman that the work of converting the savages might per-
$36 LIFE AND A Dv ENTURES
haps be set on foot in his absence to his satisfaction, and I told
him that now I thought it was put in a fair way; for the savages
being thus divided among the Christians. if they would but every
one of them do their part with those which came under their
hands, I hoped it might have a very good effect.
He agreed presently in that ; If, said he, they will do their
part; but how, says he, shall we obtain that of them f—I told
#. we would call them all together, and leave it in charge with
them, or go to them one by one, which he thought best ; so we
divided it—he to speak to the Spaniards, who were all Papists,
and I to the English, who were all Protestants; and we recom-
mended it earnestly to them, and made them promise that they
would never make any distinction of Papist or Protestant in
their exhorting the savages to turn Christians, but teach them the
general knowledge of the true God, and of their Saviour Jesus
Christ; and they likewise promised us, that they would never have
any differences or disputes one with another about religion.
When I came to Will Atkins's house, (I may call it so, for
such a house, or such a piece of basket-work, I believe was not
standing in the world again!) I say, when I came thither, I found
the young woman I have mentioned above, and William Atkins's
wife, were become intimates; and this prudent and religious young
woman had perfected the work Will Atkins had begun; and
though it was not above four days after what I have related,
yet the new-baptized savage woman was made such a Christian
as I have seldom heard of any like her, in all my observation or
conversation in the world.
It came next into my mind in the morning, before I went to
them, that among all the needful things I had to leave with them,
I had not left a Bible, in which I showed myself less considering
for them than my good friend the widow was for me, when she
sent me the cargo of 100l. from Lisbon, where she packed up
three Bibles and a Prayer-book. However, the good woman’s cha-
rity had a greater extent than ever she imagined, for they were
reserved for the comfort and instruction of those, that made much
better use of them than I had done.
I took one of the Bibles in my pocket, and when I came to
William Atkins’s tent, or house, I found the young woman and
Atkins's baptized wife had been discoursing of religion together
(for William Atkins told it me with a great 㺠of joy.) I asked
if they were together now 2 And he said yes; so I went into the
house and he with me, and we found them together, very earnest
in discourse: O sir, says William Atkins, when God has sinners
to reconcile to himself, and aliens to bring home, he never wants
a messenger: my wife has got a new instructor—I knew I was
unworthy, as I was incapable of that work—that young woman
has been sent hither from Heaven—she is enough to convert a
5 -
. OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 337
whole island of savages.—The young woman blushed, and rose up
to go away, but I desired her to sit still ; I told her she had a good
work upon her hands, and I hoped God would bless her in it.
We talked a little, and I did not perceive they had any book
among them, though I did not ask, but I put my hand in my pocket,
and pulled out my Bible. Here, said I to Atkins, I have brought
you an assistant, that perhaps you had not before.—The man was
so confounded, that he was not able to speak for some time; but
recovering himself, he takes it with both hands, and turning to
his wife, Here, my dear, says he, did not I tell you, our God,
though he lives above, could hear what we said : Here is the book
I prayed for, when you and I kneeled down under the bush; now
God has heard us, and sent it.—When he had said thus, the man
fell in such transports of passionate joy, that between the joy of
having it, and giving God thanks for it, the tears ran down his face
like a child that was crying.
The woman was surprised, and was like to have run into a mis-
take that none of us were aware of; for she firmly believed God
had sent the book upon her husband’s petition : it is true that
providentially it was so, and might be taken so in a consequent
sense; but I believed it would have been no difficult matter at that
time to have persuaded the poor woman to have believed that an
express messenger came from Heaven on purpose to bring that in-
dividual book; but it was too serious a matter to suffer any delu-
sion to take place: so I turned to the young woman, and told her
we did not desire to impose upon the new convert in her first and
more ignorant understanding of things, and begged her to explain
to her that God may be very properly said to answer our petitions,
when in the course of his providence such things are in a particu-
lar manner brought to pass as we petitioned for; but we do not
expect returns from Heaven in a miraculous and particular man-
ner; and that it is our mercy it is not so.
This the young woman did afterwards effectually; so that there
was, I assure you, no priestcraft used here ; and I should have
thought it one of the most unjustifiable frauds in the world to have
had it so : but the surprise of joy upon Will Atkins is really not
to be expressed; and there we may be sure was no delusion. Sure
no man was ever more thankful in the world for any thing of its
kind than he was for this Bible, and I believe never any man was
glad of a Bible from a better principle; and though he had been
a most profligate creature, desperate, headstrong, outrageous, fu-
rious, and wicked to a great degree, yet this man is a standing rule
to us all for the well instructing children, viz. that parents should
never give over to teach and instruct, or ever despair of the suc-
cess of their endeavours, let the children be ever so obstimate, re-
fractory, or to appearance insensible of instruction; for if ever
God in his providence touches the consciences of such, the force
P
338 - LIFE AN D A DV ENTURES
of their education returns upon them, and the early instruction of
parents is not lost, though it may have been many years laid asleep,
but some time or other they may find the benefit of it.
Thus it was with this poor man. However ignorant he was, or
divested of religion and Christian knowledge, he found he had
some to do with now more ignorant than himself; and that the
least part of the instruction of his good father, that could now
come to his mind, was of use to him.
Among the rest it occurred to him, he said, how his father used
to insist much upon the inexpressible value of the Bible, the pri-
vilege and blessing of it to nations, families, and persons; but he
never entertained the least notion of the worth of it till now, when,
being to talk to heathens, savages, and barbarians, he wanted the
help of the written oracle for his assistance.
The young woman was very glad of it also for the present occa-
sion, though she had one, and so had the youth, on board our ship,
among the goods which were not yet brought on shore. And now,
having said so many things of this young woman, I cannot omit
telling one story more of her and myself, which has something in
it very informing and remarkable.
I have related to what extremity the poor young woman was
reduced; how her mistress was starved to death, and did die on
board that unhappy ship we met at sea; and how the whole ship’s
company being reduced to the last extremity, the gentlewoman and
her son, and this maid, were first hardly used as to provisions, and
at last totally neglected and starved; that is to say, brought to the
last extremity of hunger.
One day, being discoursing with her upon the extremities they
suffered, I asked her if she could describe, by what she felt, what
it was to starve, and how it appeared : She told me she believed
she could, and she told her tale very distinctly thus:
First, sir, said she, we had for some days fared exceeding hard,
and suffered very great hunger, but now at last we were wholly
without food of any kind except sugar, and a little wine, and a
little water. The first day after I had received lio food at all, I
found myself towards evening, first empty and sickish at my sto-
mach, and nearer night mightily inclined to yawning, and sleepy ;
I lay down on a couch in the great cabin to sleep, and slept
about three hours, and awaked a little refreshed, having taken a
glass of wine when I lay down. After being about three hours
awake, it being about five o’clock in the morning, I found myself
empty, and my stomach sickish again, and lay down again, but
could not sleep at all, being very faint and ill; and thus I conti-
nued all the second day with a strange variety—first hungry, them
sick again, with retchings to vomit. The second night, being ob-
liged to go to bed again without any food more than a draught of
fair water, and being asleep, I dreamed I was at Barbadoes, and
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 339
that the market was mightily stocked with provisions; that I
bought some for my mistress, and went and dined very heartily.
I thought my stomach was full after this, as it would have
been after, or at a good dinner; but when I waked, I was ex-
ceedingly sunk in my spirits to find myself in the extremity of fa-
mine; the last glass of wine we had I drank, and put sugar into
it, because of its having some spirit to supply nourishment; but
there being no substance in the stomach for the digesting office
to work upon, I found the only effect of the wine was to raise dis-
agreeable fumes from the stomach into the head; and I lay, as
they told me, stupid and senscless, as one drunk, for some time.
The third day in the morning, after a night of strange and con-
fused, inconsistent dreams, and rather dozing than sleeping, I
awaked ravenous and furious with hunger; and I question, had
not my understanding returned and conquered it, I say, I question
whether, if I had been a mother, and had had a little child with
me, its life would have been safe or no.
This lasted about three hours, during which time I was twice ra-
ging mad as any creature in Bedlam, as my young master told me,
and as he can now inform you.
In one of these fits of lunacy or distraction, whether by the mo-
tion of the ship, or some slip of my foot I know not, I fell down,
and struck my face against the corner of a pallet-bed, in which
my mistress lay, and with the blow the blood gushed out of my
nose, and the cabin-boy bringing me a little bason, I sat down and
bled into it a great deal, and as the blood ran from me I came to
myself, and the violence of the flame or the fever I was in abated,
and so did the ravenous part of the hunger.
Then I grew sick, and retched to vomit, but could not, for
I had nothing in my stomach to bring up. After I had bled some
time I swooned, and they all believed I was dead; but I came to
myself soon after, and then had a most dreadful pain in my sto-
mach, not to be described, not like the colic, but a gnawing eager
pain for food; and towards night it went off with a kind of earnest
wishing or longing for food, something like, as I suppose, the long-
ing of a woman with child. I took another draught of water
with sugar in it, but my stomach loathed the sugar, and brought
it all up again; then I took a draught of water without sugar, and
that stayed with me, and I laid me down upon the bed, praying
most heartily that it would please God to take me away; and
composing my mind in hopes of it, I slumbered a while, and then
waking, thought myself dying, being light with vapours from an
empty stomach : I recommended my soul to God, and earnestly
wished that somebody would throw me into the sea.
All this while my mistress lay by me, just, as I thought, expi-
ring, but bore it with much more patience than I, and gave the
last bit of bread she had to her child, my young master, who would
340 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
not have taken it, but she obliged him to eat it, and I believe it
saved his life. •
Towards the morning I slept again, and first when I awaked I
fell into a violent passion of crying, and after that had a second
fit of violent hunger, so that I got up ravenous, and in a most
dreadful condition. Had my mistress been dead, so much as I
loved her, I am certain I should have eaten a piece of her flesh
with as much relish, and as unconcerned, as ever I did the flesh
of any creature appointed for food; and once or twice I was going
to bite my own arm. At last I saw the bason in which was the
blood I had bled at my nose the day before; I ran to it, and swal-
lowed it with such haste, and such a greedy appetite, as if I had
wondered nobody had taken it before, and afraid it should be ta-
ken from me now.
Though, after it was down, the thoughts of it filled me with
horror, yet it checked the fit of hunger, and I drank a draught
of fair water, and was composed and refreshed for some hours
after it. This was the fourth day; and thus I held it till towards
night, when, within the compass of three hours, I had all these
several circumstances over again, one after another, viz. sick,
sleepy, eagerly-hungry, pain in the stomach, then ravenous again,
then sick again, then lunatic, then crying, then ravenous again,
and so every quarter of an hour; and my strength wasted ex-
ceedingly. At night I laid me down, having no comfort but in
the hope that I should die before morning.
All this might I had no sleep, but the hunger was now turned
into a disease, and I had a terrible colic and griping, wind instead
of food having found its way into my bowels; and in this condi-
tion I lay till morning, when I was surprised a little with the
cries and lanentations of my young master, who called out to
me that his mother was dead. I lifted myself up a little, for I
had not strength to rise, but found she was not dead, though she
was able to give very little signs of life.
I had then such convulsions in my stomach for want of some
sustenance, that I cannot describe them, with such frequent
throes and pangs of appetite, that nothing but the tortures of
death can imitate; and this condition I was in when I heard the
seamen above cry out, A sail a saill and halloo and jump
about as if they were distracted.
I was not able to get off from the bed, and my mistress much
less, and my master was so sick that I thought he had been ex-
piring; so we could not open the cabin-door, or get any account
what it was that occasioned such a combustion; nor had we
any conversation with the ship's company for two days, they
having told us they had not a mouthful of any thing to eat in
the ship; and they told us afterwards they thought we had been
dead.
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE. 341
It was this dreadful condition we were in when you were
sent to save our lives; and how you found us, sir, you know as
well as I, and better too.
This was her own relation; and is such a distinct account of
starving to death, as I confess I never met with, and was ex-
ceeding entertaining to me. I am the rather apt to believe it to
be a true account, because the youth gave me an account of a
good part of it; though I must own not so distinct and so feel-
ingly as his maid, and the rather because it seems his mother
fed him at the price of her own life: but the poor maid, though
her constitution being stronger than that of her mistress, who
was in years, and a weakly woman too, she might struggle harder
with it; I say, the poor maid might be supposed to feel the ex-
tremity something sooner than her mistress, who might be al-
lowed to keep the last bits something longer than she parted
with any to relieve the maid. No question, as the case is here
related, if our ship, or some other, had not so providentially
met them, a few days more would have ended all their lives, un-
less they had prevented it by eating one another; and even that,
as their case stood, would have served them but a little while,
they being five hundred leagues from any land, or any possibility
of relief, other than in the miraculous manner it happened. But
this is by the way; I return to my disposition of things among
the people. -
And first, it is to be observed here, that for many reasons I did
not think fit to let them know any thing of the sloop I had
framed, and which I thought of setting up among them; for I
found, at least at my first coming, such seeds of division among
them, that I saw it plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it
among them, they would, upon very light disgust, have separa-
ted, and gone away from one another; or perhaps have turned
pirates, and so made the island a den of thieves, instead of a
plantation of sober and religious people, as I intended it to be;
nor did I leave the two pieces of brass cannon that I had on
board, or the two quarter-deck guns, that my nephew took ex-
traordinary, for the same reason: I thought they had enough to
qualify them for a defensive war, against any that should invade
them ; but I was not to set them up for an offensive war, or to
encourage them to go abroad to attack others, which, in the
end, would only bring ruin and destruction upon themselves and
all their undertakings. I reserved the sloop, therefore, and the
guns, for their service another way, as I shall observe in its place.
I have now done with the island: I left them all in good cir-
cumstances, and in a flourishing condition, and went on board my
ship again the fifth day of May, having been five-and-twenty days
among them; and, as they were all resolved to stay upon the
island till I came to remove them, I promised to send some further
§42. LIFE AND A DVENTURES
relief from the Brazils, if I could possibly find an opportunity;
and particularly I promised to send them some cattle, such as
sheep, hogs, and cows; for as to the two cows and calves which
I brought from England, we had been obliged, by the length of
our voyage, to kill them at sea, for want of hay to feed them.
The next day, giving them a salute of five guns at parting, we
set sail, and arrived at the Bay of All Saints, in the Brazils, in
about twenty-two days; meeting mothing remarkable in our pas-
sage but this, that about three days after we sailed, being becalm-
ed, and the current setting strong to the N. N. E., running, as
it were, into a bay or gulf on the land-side, we were driven
something out of our course; and once or twice our men cried,
Land, to the westward; but whether it was the continent, or
islands, we could not tell by any means.
But the third day, towards evening, the sea smooth, and the
weather calm, we saw the sea, as it were, covered towards the
land with something very black, not being able to discover what
it was ; but after some time, our chief mate going up the main
shrouds a little way, and looking at them with a perspective, cried
out, it was an army. I could not imagine what he meant by
an army, and spoke a little hastily, calling the fellow a fool, or
some such word: Nay, sir, says he, don’t be angry, for it is an
army, and a fleet too; for I believe there are a thousand canoes,
and you may see them paddle along, and they are coming to-
wards us too apace, and full of men.
I was a little surprised then, indeed, and so was my nephew,
the captain; for he had heard such terrible stories of them in
the island, and having never been in those seas before, that he
could not tell what to think of it, but said two or three times we
should all be devoured. I must confess, considering we were be-
calmed, and the current set strong towards the shore, I liked it
the worse; however, I bade him not be afraid, but bring the ship
to an anchor, as soon as we came so near as to know that we
must engage them.
The weather continued calm, and they came on apace to-
wards us; so I gave orders to come to an anchor, and furl all
our sails. As for the savages, I told them they had nothing to
fear from them but fire; and therefore they should get their boats
out, and fasten them, one close by the head, and the other by
the stern, and man them both well, and wait the issue in that
posture: this I did, that the men in the boats might be ready,
with sheet and buckets, to put out any fire these savages might
endeavour to fix upon the outside of the ship.
In this posture we lay by for them, and in a little while they
came up with us; but never was such a horrid sight seen by
Christians: my mate was much mistaken in his calculation of
their number, I mean of a thousand canoes; the most we could
of Robinson CRUso E. 343
make of them, when they came up, being about 126; and a
great many of them too; for some of them had sixteen or seven-
teen men in them, some more, and the least six or seven. -
When they came nearer to us, they seemed to be struck with
wonder and astonishment, as at a sight which they had, doubt-
less, never seen before; nor could they, at first, as we afterwards
understood, know what to make of us. They came boldly up,
however, very near to us, and seemed to go about to row round
us; but we called to our men in the boats, not to let them come
too near them.
This very order brought us to an engagement with them,
without our designing it; for five or six of their large canoes
came so near our long-boat, that our men beckoned with their
hands to them to keep back, which they understood very well,
and went back; but at their retreat about 500 arrows came on
board us from those boats; and one of our men in the long-boat
was very much wounded. -
However, I called to them not to fire by any means; but we
handed down some deal boards into the boat, and the carpenter
presently set up a kind of a fence, like waist boards, to cover
them from the arrows of the savages, if they should shoot again."
About half an hour afterwards they came all up in a body
astern of us, and pretty mear; so near that we could easily discern
what they were, though we could not tell their design. I easily
found they were some of my old friends, the same sort of sava-
ges that I had been used to engage with; and in a little time more
they rowed somewhat farther out to sea, till they came directly
broadside with us, and then rowed down straight upon us, till
they came so near, that they could hear us speak. Upon this,
I ordered all my men to keep close, lest they should shoot any
more arrows, and make all our guns ready ; but being so near
as to be within hearing, I made Friday go out upon the deck,
and call out aloud to them in his language, to know what they
meant; which accordingly he did : whether they understood him
or not, that I know not ; but, as soon as he had called to them,
six of them, who were in the foremost, or nighest boat to us,
turned their canoes from us; and, stooping down, showed us
their naked backsides; just as if, in English (saving your pre-
sence), they had bid us kiss . Whether this was a de-
fiance or challenge, we knew mot; or whether it was done in
mere contempt, or a signal to the rest ; but immediately Friday
cried out, they were going to shoot; and unhappily for him (poor
fellow !) they let fly about three hundred of their arrows, and,
to my inexpressible grief, killed poor Friday, no other man being
in their sight. The poor fellow was shot with no less than three
arrows, and about three more fell very nigh him; such unlucky
marksmen they were!
344 LIFE AN ID ADVENTURES
I was so enraged with the loss of my old servant, the compa-
nion of all my sorrows and solitudes, that I immediately ordered
five guns to be loaded with small shot, and four with great; and
gave them such a broadside as they had never had in their lives
before, to be sure.
They were not above half a cable’s length off when we fired;
and our gunners took their aim so well, that three or four of their
canoes were overset, as we had reason to believe, by one shot only.
The ill manners of turning up their bare backsides to us, gave
us no great offence; neither did I know for certain whether that,
which would pass for the greatest contempt among us, might be
understood so by them or not; therefore, in return, I had only
resolved to have fired four or five guns with powder only, which
I knew would fright them sufficiently : but when they shot at us
directly with all the fury they were capable of, and especially as
they had killed my poor Friday, whom I so entirely loved and
valued, and who, indeed, so well deserved it; I not only had been
justified before God and man, but would have been very glad, if
I could, to have overset every canoe there, and drowned every one
of them.
I can neither tell how many we killed, or how many we
wounded, at this broadside; but sure such a fright and hurry
never was seen among such a multitude: there were thirteen or
fourteen of their canoes split, and overset in all, and the men all
set a-swimming; the rest, frighted out of their wits, scoured away
as fast as they could, taking but little care to save those whose
boats were split or spoiled with our shot: so I suppose that they
were many of them lost; and our men took up one poor fellow
swimming for his life, above an hour after they were all gone.
Our small shot from our cannon must needs kill and wound a
great many; but, in short, we never knew any thing how it went
with them ; for they fled so fast, that, in three hours, or there-
abouts, we could not see above three or four straggling canoes;
nor did we ever see the rest any more; for a breeze of wind
º up the same evening, we weighed and set sail for the
razils.
We had a prisoner indeed, but the creature was so sullen, that
he would neither eat nor speak; and we all fancied he would
starve himself to death : but I took a way to cure him; for I
made them take him and turn him into the long-boat, and make
him believe they would toss him into the sea again, and so leave
him where they found him, if he would not speak; nor would that
do, but they really did throw him into the sea, and came away
from him ; and then he followed them, for he swam like a cork,
and called to them in his tongue, though they knew not one word
of what he said. However, at last, they took him in again, and
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 345
then he began to be more tractable; nor did I ever design they
should drown him.
We were now under sail again; but I was the most disconso-
late creature alive, for want of my man Friday, and would have
been very glad to have gone back to the island, to have taken one
of the rest from thence for my occasion; but it could not be, so
we went on. We had one prisoner, as I have said, and it was a
long while before we could make him understand any thing; but
in time, our men taught him some English, and he began to be a
little tractable; afterwards we inquired what country he came
from, but could make nothing of what he said ; for his speech was
so odd, all gutturals, and spoken in the throat, in such a hollow
and odd manner, that we could never form a word from him;
and we were all of opinion that they might speak that language
as well if they were gagged, as otherwise; nor could we perceive
that they had any occasion either for teeth, tongue, lips, or pa-
late; but formed their words just as a hunting-horn forms a tune,
with an open throat: he told us, however, some time after, when
we had taught him to speak a little English, that they were going
with their kings, to fight a great battle. When he said kings, we
asked him, how many kings : He said there were five nation (we
could not make him understand the plural s), and that they all
joined to go against two nation. We asked him, What made them
come up to us? He said, To makeete great wonder look.--Where
it is to be observed, that all those natives, as also those of Africa,
when they learn English, they always add two e's at the end of
the words where we use one, and place the accent upon the last
of them ; as makee, takee, and the like ; and we could not break
them off it; nay, I could hardly make Friday leave it off, though
at last he did.
And now I name the poor fellow once more, I must take my
last leave of him ; poor honest Friday ! We buried him with all
decency and solemnity possible, by putting him into a coffin, and
throwing him into the sea; and I caused them to fire eleven guns
for him ; and so ended the life of the most grateful, faithful, ho-
nest, and most affectionate servant that ever man had.
We now went away with a fair wind for Brazil, and, in about
twelve days time, we made land in the latitude of five degrees
south of the Line, being the north-easternmost land of all that
part of America. We kept on S. by E. in sight of the shore four
days, when we made the Cape St Augustine, and in three days
came to an anchor off the Bay of All-Saints, the old place of my
deliverance, from whence came both my good and evil fate.
Never did a ship come to this part that had less business than
I had ; and yet it was with great difficulty that we were admitted
to hold the least correspondence on shore. Not my partner him-
self, who was alive, and made a great figure among them, not
P 2
340 &º
LIFE AND A DVENTURES
my two merchant trustees, nor the fame of my wonderful preser-
vation in the island, could obtain me that favour: but my part-
ner, remembering that I had given five hundred moidores to the
prior of the monastery of the Augustines, and three hundred and
seventy-two to the poor, went to the monastery, and obliged the
prior that then was to go to the governor, and beg leave for me
presently, with the captain, and one more, besides eight seamen,
to come on shore, and no more ; and this upon condition abso-
lutely capitulated for, that we should not offer to land any goods
out of the ship, or to carry any person away without licence.
They were so strict with us, as to landing any goods, that it
was with extreme difficulty that I got on shore three bales of
English goods, such as fine broad-cloths, stuffs, and some linen,
which I had brought for a present to my partner.
He was a very generous, broad-hearted man, though (like me)
he came from little at first ; and though he knew not that I had
the least design of giving him any thing, he sent me on board
a present of fresh provisions, wine, and sweetmeats, worth above
thirty moidores, including some tobacco, and three or four fine
medals in gold. But I was even with him in my present, which,
as I have said, consisted of fine broad-cloth, English stuffs, lace,
and fine Hollands. Also, I delivered him about the value of a
100l. Sterling, in the same goods, for other uses; and I obliged
him to set up the sloop which I had brought with me from Eng-
land, as I have said, for the use of my colony, in order to send
the refreshments I intended to my plantation.
CHAP. XXIX.
I dispatch a Number of additional Recruits, and a Quantity of
extra Stores to the Island, and take my leave of it for ever—
I determine to go with the Ship to the East Indies—Arrival
at Madagascar—Lteadful Occurrences there.
AccordinGLY he got hands, and finished the sloop in a very
few days, for she was already framed; and I gave the master of
her such instructions as he could not miss the place; nor did
he miss it, as I had an account from my partner afterwards. I
got him soon loaded with the small cargo I had sent them; and
one of our seamen, that had been on shore with me there,
offered to go with the sloop, and settle there, upon my letter to
the governor Spaniard, to allot him a sufficient quantity of land
for a plantation; and giving him some clothes, and tools for his
planting work, which he said he understood, having been an old
planter in Maryland, and a buccaneer into the bargain.
I encouraged the fellow, by sºns all he desired; and, as an
of Robinson CRUso E. 347
addition, I gave him the savage whom we had taken prisoner of
war, to be his slave, and ordered the governor Spaniard to give
him his share of every thing he wanted, with the rest.
When we came to fit this man out, my old partner told me,
there was a certain very honest fellow, a Brazil planter of his
acquaintance, who had fallen into the displeasure of the church:
I know not what the matter is with him, says he, but, on my
conscience, I think he is a heretic in his heart; and he has been
obliged to conceal himself for fear of the Inquisition; that he
would be very glad of such an opportunity to make his escape,
with his wife and two daughters; and if I would let them go
to the island, and allot them a plantation, he would give them
a small stock to begin with ; for the officers of the Inquisition had
seized all his effects and estate, and he had nothing left but a lit-
tle household stuff, and two slaves; and, adds he, though I hate
his principles, yet I would not have him fall into their hands, for
he will assuredly be burnt alive if he does. -
I granted this presently, and joined my Englishman with them;
and we concealed the man, and his wife and daughters, on board
our ship, till the sloop put out to go to sea ; and them, (having
put all their goods on board the sloop some time before,) we put
them on board the sloop, after she was got out of the bay.
Our seaman was mightily pleased with this new partner; and
their stock, indeed, was much alike rich in tools, and in prepara-
tions, for a farm; but nothing to begin with, but as above. How-
ever, they carried over with them (which was worth all the rest)
Some materials for planting Sugar-canes, with some plants of
canes; which he (I mean the Portugal man) understood very
well.
Among the rest of the supplies sent my tenants in the is-
land, I sent them, by this sloop, three milch-cows and five calves,
about twenty-two hogs among them, three sows big with pig, two
mares, and a stone-horse.
For my Spaniards, according to my promise, I engaged three
Portugal women to go; and recommended it to them to marry
them, and use them kindly. I could have procured more women,
but I remembered that the poor persecuted man had two daugh-
ters, and there were but five of the Spaniards that wanted; the
rest had wives of their own, though in another country.
All this cargo arrived safe, and, as you may easily suppose, very
welcome to my old inhabitants, who were now (with this addition)
between sixty and seventy people, besides little children; of which
there were a great many. I found letters at London from them
all, by way of Lisbon, when I came back to England, being sent
back to the Brazils by this sloop; of which I shall take some no-
tice in its place.
I have now done with my island, and all manner of discourse
$48 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
about it; and whoever reads the rest of my memorandums, would
do well to turn his thoughts entirely from it, and expect to read
only of the follies of an old man, not warned by his own harms,
much less by those of other men, to beware of the like; not cool-
ed by almost forty years misery and disappointments; not satis-
fied with prosperity beyond expectation; not made cautious by af-
fliction and distress beyond imitation.
I had no more business to go to the East Indies, than a man
at full liberty, and having committed no crime, has to go to the
turnkey at Newgate, and desire him to lock him up among the
prisoners there, and starve him. Had I taken a small vessel from
England, and gone directly to the island; had I loaded her, as I
did the other vessel, with all the necessaries for the plantation,
and for my people; took a patent from the government here, to
have secured my property, in subjection only to that of England,
which, to be sure, I might have obtained; had I carried over can-
non and ammunition, servants and people to plant, and, taking
possession of the place, fortified and strengthened it in the name
of England, and increased it with people, as I might easily have
done; had I then settled myself there, and sent the ship back
loaded with good rice, as I might also have done in six months
time, and ordered my friends to have fitted her out again for our
supply; had I done this, and staid there myself, I had, at least,
acted like a man of common sense: but I was possessed with a
wandering spirit, scorned all advantages, pleased myself with be-
ing the patron of these people I had placed there, and doing for
them in a kind of haughty majestic way, like an old patriarchal
monarch; providing for them, as if I had been father of the whole
family, as well as of the plantation: but I never so much as pre-
tended to plant in the name of any government or nation, or to
acknowledge any prince, or to call my people subjects to any one
nation more than another; nay, I never so much as gave the
place a name; but left it as I found it, belonging to no man, and
the people under no discipline or government but my own; who,
though I had an influence over them as father and benefactor, had
no authority or, power to act or command one way or other, far-
ther than voluntary consent moved them to comply: yet even
this, had I staid there, would have done well enough; but as I
rambled from them, and came thither no more, the last letters I
had from any of them, were by my partner’s means, who after-
wards sent another sloop to the place; and who sent me word,
though I had not the letter till five years after it was written,
that they went on but poorly, were malcontent with their long
stay there; that Will Atkins was dead; that five of the Spaniards
were come away; and that though they had not been much mo-
Hested by the savages, yet they had had some skirmishes with
them; that they begged of him to write to me to think of the pro-
OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE. 349
mise I had made to fetch them away, that they might see their
own country again before they died.
But I was gone a wild-goose chace indeed, and they who will
have any more of me, must be content to follow me through a new
variety of follies, hardships, and wild adventures; wherein the jus-
tice of Providence may be duly observed, and we may see how
easily Heaven can gorge us with our own desires, make the strong-
est of our wishes to be our affliction, and punish us most severely
with those very things which we think it would be our utmost hap-
piness to be allowed in.
Let no wise man flatter himself with the strength of his own
judgment, as if he were able to choose any particular station of
life for himself. Man is a short-sighted creature, sees but a very
little way before him; and as his passions are mone of his best
friends, so his particular affections are generally his worst coun-
sellors.
I say this with respect to the impetuous desire I had from a
youth to wander into the world, and how evident it now was that
this principle was preserved in me for my punishment. How it
came on, the manner, the circumstance, and the conclusion of it,
it is easy to give you historically, and with its utmost variety of
particulars. . But the secret ends of Divine Providence, in thus
permitting us to be hurried down the stream of our own desires,
are only to be understood of those who can listen to the voice
of Providence, and draw religious consequences from God’s jus-
tice, and their own mistakes.
Be it I had business or no business, away I went. It is no time
now to enlarge any farther upon the reason or absurdity of my
own conduct; but to come to the history—I was embarked for
the voyage, and the voyage I went.
I shall only add here, that my honest and truly pious clergy-
man left me here; a ship being ready to go to Lisbon, he asked
me leave to go thither; being still as he observed, bound never to
finish any voyage he began. How happy had it been for me, if I
had gone with him
But it was too late now; all things Heaven appoints are best.
Had I gone with him, I had never had so many things to be
thankful for, and you had never heard of the Second Part of the
Travels and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; so I must leave
here the fruitless exclaiming at myself, and go on with my voyage.
From the Brazils we made directly away over the Atlantic Sea
to the Cape de Bonne Esperance, or, as we call it, the Cape of
Good Hope; and had a tolerable gobd voyage, our course generally
south-east; now and then a storm, and some contrary winds. But
my disasters at sea were at an end; my future rubs and cross
events were to befal me on shore; that it might appear the land
was as well prepared to be our scourge as the sea, when Heaven,
35O LIFE AND ADVENTURES
who directs the circumstances of things, pleases to appoint it to
be so.
Our ship was on a trading voyage, and had a supercargo on
board, who was to direct all her motions after she arrived at the
Cape; only being limited to a certain number of days for stay, by
charter-party, at the several ports she was to go to. This was
none of my business, neither did I meddle with it at all; my me-
phew, the captain, and the supercargo, adjusting all those things
between them as they thought fit.
We made no stay at the Cape longer than was needful to take
in fresh water, but made the best of our way for the coast of Co-
romandel: we were indeed informed that a French man of war of
fifty guns, and two large merchant-ships, were gone for the In-
dies; and as I knew we were at war with France, I had some ap-
prehensions of them; but they went their own way, and we heard
no more of them.
I shall not pester my account, or the reader, with descriptions
of places, journals of our voyages, variations of the compass, lati-
tudes, meridian distances, trade-winds, situation of ports, and the
like; such as almost all the histories of long navigation are full
of, and which make the reading tiresome enough, and are per-
fectly unprofitable to all that read, except only to those who are
to go to those places themselves.
It is enough to mame the ports and places which we touched
at, and what occurred to us upon our passing from one to another.
We touched first at the island of Madagascar, where, though the
people are fierce and treacherous, and, in particular, very well
armed with lances and bows, which they use with inconceivable
dexterity, yet we fared very well with them a while; they treated
us very civilly; and for some trifles which we gave them, such as
knives, scissars, &c. they brought us eleven good fat bullocks,
middling in size, but very good in flesh, which we took in, partly
for fresh provisions for our present spending, and the rest to salt
for the ship’s use.
We were obliged to stay here for some time after we had fur-
nished ourselves with provisions; and I, that was always too cu-
rious to look into every nook of the world wherever I came, was
for going on shore as often as I could. It was on the east side
of the island that we went on shore one evening, and the people,
who by the way are very numerous, came thronging about us, and
stood gazing at us at a distance. As we had traded freely with
them, and had been kiudly used, we thought ourselves in no dam-
ger; but when we saw the people, we cut three boughs out of a
tree and stuck them up at a distance from us, which, it seems,
is a mark in the country not only of truce and friendship, but
when it is accepted, the other side set up three poles or boughs
also, which is a signal that they accept the truce too; but then
OF ROBIN SON CR USO E. 351
this is a known condition of the truce, that you are not to pass
beyond their three poles towards them, nor they come past your
three poles or boughs towards you; so that you are perfectly se-
cure within the three poles, and all the space between your poles
and theirs is allowed, like a market, for free converse, traffic, and
commerce. When you go thither you must not carry your wea-
pons with you; and if they come into that space, they stick up
their javelins and lances all at the first poles, and come on unarm-
ed; but if any violence is offered them, and the truce thereby
broken, away they run to the poles, and lay hold of their wea-
pons, and then the truce is at an end.
It happened one evening when we went on shore, that a greater
number of their people came down than usual, but all was very
friendly and civil. They brought with them several kinds of pro-
visions, for which we satisfied them with such toys as we had;
their women also brought us milk and roots, and several things
very acceptable to us, and all was quiet; and we made us a little
tent or hut of some boughs of trees, and lay on shore all that night.
I know not what was the occasion, but I was not so well sa-
tisfied to lie on shore as the rest; and the boat lying at an anchor
about a stone’s cast from the land, with two men in her to take
care of her, I made one of them come on shore, and getting some
boughs of trees to cover us also in the boat, I spread the sail on
the bottom of the boat, and lay on board, under the cover of the
branches of the trees, all night. --
About two o'clock in the morning, we heard one of our men
make a terrible noise on the shore, calling out for God’s sake to
bring the boat in, and come and help them, for they were all like
to be murdered; at the same time I heard the firing of five mus-
kets, which was the number of the guns they had, and that three
times over; for, it seems, the natives here were not so easily fright-
ed with guns as the savages were in America, where I had to do
with them.
il this while I knew not what was the matter; but rousing im-
mediately irom sleep with the noise, I caused the boat to be thrust
in, and resolved, with three fusils we had on board, to land and
assist our men.
We got the boat soon to the shore; but our men were in too
much haste; for, being come to the shore, they plunged into the
water to get to the boat with all the expedition they could, being
pursued by between three and four hundred men. Our men were
but nine in all, and only five of them had fusils with them : the
rest, indeed, had pistols and swords, but they were of small use
to them.
We took up seven of our men, and with difficulty enough too,
three of them being very ill wounded; and that which was still
worse was, that while we stood in the boat to take our men in,

352 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
we were in as much danger as they were in on shore; for they
poured their arrows in upon us so thick, that we were fain to
barricade the side of the boat up with the benches and two or
three loose boards, which, to our great satisfaction, we had by
mere accident, or providence rather, in the boat. &
And yet had it been daylight, they are, it seems, such exact
marksmen, that if they could have seen but the least part of any
of us, they would have been sure of us. We had, by the light
of the moon, a little sight of them as they stood pelting us from
the shore with darts and arrows; and having got ready our fire-
arms, we gave them a volley, and we could hear by the cries of
some of them, that we had wounded several; however, they stood
thus in battle array on the shore till break of day, which we sup-
pose was that they might see the better to take their aim at us.
In this condition we lay, and could not tell how to weigh our
anchor, or set up our sail, because we must needs stand up in the
boat, and they were as sure to hit us, as we were to hit a bird in
a tree with small shot.
We made signals of distress to the ship, which though she rode
a league off, yet my nephew, the captain, hearing our firing, and
§: perceiving the posture we lay in, and that we fired to-
wafds the shore, pretty well understood us; and weighing an-
chor with all speed, he stood as near the shore as he durst with
the ship, and then sent another boat with ten hands in her to as-
sist us; but we called to them not to come too near, telling them
what condition we were in. However, they stood in nearer to
us; and one of the men taking the end of a tow-line in his hand,
and keeping our boat between him and the enemy, so that they
could not perfectly see him, swam on board us, and made the line
fast to the boat, upon which we slipt our little cable, and leaving
our anchor behind, they towed us out of the reach of the arrows,
we all the while lying close behind the barricade we had made.
As soon as we were got from between the ship and the shore,
that she could lay her side to the shore, we ran along just by them,
and we poured in a broadside among them, loaded with pieces of
iron and lead, small bullets, and such stuff, besides the great shot,
which made a terrible havoc among them.
When we were got on board, and out of danger, we had time
to examine into the occasion of this fray; and indeed our super-
cargo, who had been often in those parts, put me upon it; for
he said he was sure the inhabitants would not have touched us
after we had made a truce, if we had not dome something to
provoke them to it. At length it came out, viz. that an old wo-
man, who had come to sell us some milk, had brought it within
our poles, with a young woman with her, who also brought some
roots or herbs; and while the old woman (whether she was mo-
*her to the young woman or no they could not tell) was selling us
OF RO BIN SO N C R USO E. 353
the milk, one of our men offered some rudeness to the wench
that was with her, at which the old woman made a great noise.
However, the seaman would not quit his prize, but carried her
out of the old woman’s sight, among the trees, it being almost
dark. The old woman went away without her, and, as we sup-
pose, made an outcry among the people she came from ; who,
upon notice, raised this great army upon us in three or four hours;
and it was great odds but we had been all destroyed. 4:
One of our men was killed with a lance that was thrown at
him, just at the beginning of the attack, as he sallied out of the
tent we had made; the rest came off free, all but the fellow who
was the occasion of all the mischief, who paid dear enough for
his black mistress, for we could not hear what became of him a
great while. We lay upon the shore two days after, though the
wind presented, and made signals for him ; made our boat sail
up shore and down shore several leagues, but in vain; so we were
obliged to give him over; and if he alone had suffered for it, the
loss had been the less.
I could not satisfy myself, however, without venturing on shore
once more, to try if I could learn any thing of him or them. It
was the third night after the action, that I had a great mind to
learn, if I could by any means, what mischief we had done, and
how the game stood on the Indian side. I was careful to do it
in the dark, lest we should be attacked again; but I ought indeed
to have been sure that the men I went with had been under my
command before I engaged in a thing so hazardous and mischie-
vous, as I was brought into it without my knowledge or desire.
We took twenty stout fellows with us as any in the ship, be-
sides the supercargo and myself; and we landed two hours before
midnight, at the same place where the Indians stood drawn up
the evening before. I landed here, because my design, as I have
said, was chiefly to see if they had quitted the field, and if they had
left any marks behind them, or of the mischief we had done them;
and I thought if we could surprise one or two of them, perhaps we
might get our man again by way of exchange.
We landed without any noise, and divided our men into two
companies, whereof the boatswain commanded one, and I the
other. We neither could hear nor see any body stir when we
landed; so we marched up,-one body at a distance from the other,
to the field of battle. At first we could see nothing, it being very
dark; but by and by our boatswain, that led the first party, stum-
bled and fell over a dead body. This made them halt there
a while; for knowing by the circumstances that they were at the
place where the Indians had stood, they waited for my coming
up. Here we concluded to halt till the moon began to rise, which
we knew would be in less than an hour, and then we could easily
discern the havoc we had made among them. We told two-and-
$54, LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
thirty bodies upon the ground, whereof two were not quite dead.
Some had an arm, and some a leg shot off, and one his head;
those that were wounded we supposed they had carried away.
When we had made, as I thought, a full discovery of all we
could come at the knowledge of, I was for going on board again ;
but the boatswain and his party often sent me word, that they
were resolved to make a visit to the Indian town, where these dogs,
as they called them, dwelt, and desired me to go along with them,
and if they could find them, as they still fancied they should, they
did not doubt, they said, getting a good booty, and it might be
they might find Thomas Jeffrys there, that was the man’s name
we had lost. -
Had they sent to ask my leave to go, I knew well enough what
answer to have given them ; for I would have commanded them
instantly on board, knowing it was not a hazard fit for us to run,
who had a ship and a ship's loading in our charge, and a voyage
to make, which depended very much upon the lives of the men;
but as they sent me word they were resolved to go, and only ask-
ed me and my company to go along with them, I positively refu-
sed it, and rose up (for I was sitting on the ground) in order to
go to the boat. One or two of the men began to importune me
to go, and when I still refused positively, began to grumble, and
say they were not under my command, and they would go. Come,
Jack, says one of the men, will you go with me? I will go for one.
Jack said he would ; and another followed, and then another;
and, in a word, they all left me but one, whom, with much diffi-
culty too, I persuaded to stay ; so the supercargo and I, with one
man, went back to the boat, where, I told then, we would stay for
them, and take care to take in as many of them as should be left;
for I told them it was a mad thing they were going about, and
supposed most of them would run the fate of Thomas Jeffrys.
They told me, like seamen, they would warrant it they would
come off again, and they would take care, &c. So away they
went. I entreated them to consider the ship and the voyage; that
their lives were not their own, and that they were intrusted with
the voyage in some measure ; that if they miscarried, the ship
might be lost for want of their help, and that they would not an-
swer it to God and man. I said a great deal more to them on that
head, but I might as well have talked to the main-mast of the
ship; they were mad upon their journey; only they gave me gºod
words, and begged I would not be angry; said they would be
very cautious, and they did not doubt but they would be back
again in about an hour at farthest; for the Indian town, they said,
was not above half a mile off; though they found it above two
miles before they got to it. . -
Well, they all went away as above; and though the attempt
was desperate, and such as none but madmen would have gone
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 355
about, yet, to give them their due, they went about it warily as
well as boldly. They were gallantly armed, that is true; for they
had every man a fusil or musket, a bayonet, and every man a pis-
tol; some of them had broad cutlasses, some of them hangers,
and the boatswain and two more had pole axes; besides all which,
they had among them thirteen hand-grenadoes. Bolder fellows,
* provided, never went about any wicked work in the
WOTI (i.
When they went out, their chief design was plunder, and they
were in mighty hopes of finding gold there; but a circumstance,
which none of them were aware of, set them on fire with revenge,
and made devils of them all. When they came to the few Indian
houses, which they thought had been the town, which were not
above half a mile off, they were under a great disappointment;
for there were not above twelve or thirteen houses; and where
the town was, or how big, they knew not. They consulted there-
fore what to do, and were some time before they could resolve;
for, if they fell upon these, they must cut all their throats, and it
was ten to one but some of them might escape, it being in the
night, though the moon was up; and if one escaped, he would run
away, and raise all the town, so they should have a whole army
upon them. Again, on the other hand, if they went away, and
left those untouched (for the people were all asleep), they could
not tell which way to look for the town.
However, the last was the best advice; so they resolved to
leave those houses, and look for the town as well as they could.
They went on a little way, and found a cow tied to a tree : this
they presently concluded would be a good guide to them; for
they said the cow certainly belonged to the town before them, .
or the town behind them, and if they untied her, they should
see which way she went : if she went back, they had nothing to
say to her, but if she went forward, they had nothing to do but
to follow her; so they cut the cord, which was made of twisted
flags, and the cow went on before them. In a word, the cow led
them directly to the town, which, as they reported, consisted of
above two hundred houses or huts; and in some of these they
found several families living together.
Here they found all silent ; as profoundly secure as sleep and
a country that had never seen an enemy of that kind could make
them. Upon this they called another council to consider what
they had to do, and in a word they resolved to divide themselves
into three bodies, and to set three houses on fire in three parts
of the town; and as the men came out, to seize them and bind
them; if any resisted, they need not be asked what to do then,
and so to search the rest of the houses for plunder ; but resolved
to march silently first through the town, and see what dimensions
it was of, and consider if they might venture upon it or no.
356 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
They did so, and desperately resolved that they would venture
upon them; but while they were animating one another to the
work, three of them that were a little befºre the rest called out
aloud, and told them they had found Thomas Jeffrys; they all ran
up to the place, and so it was indeed, for there they found the
poor fellow, hanged up naked by one arm, and his throat cut.
There was an Indian house just by the tree, where they found
sixteen or seventeen of the principal Indians, who had been con-
cerned in the fray with us before, and two or three of them
wounded with our shot; and our men found they were awake,
and talking olie to another in that house, but knew not their
number. •
• The sight of their poor mangled comrade so enraged them, as
before, that they swore to one another they would be revenged,
and that not an Indian who came into their hands should have
quarter; and to work they went immediately, and yet not so mad-
ly as by the rage and fury they were in might be expected. Their
first care was to get something that would soon take fire; but
after a little search they found that would be to no purpose, for
most of the houses were low, and thatched with flags or rushes,
of which the country is full: so they presently made some wild-
fire, as we call it, by wetting a little powder in the palms of their
hands; and in a quarter of an hour they set the town on fire in
four or five places, and particularly that house where the Indians
were not gone to bed. As soon as the fire began to blaze, the
poor frighted creatures began to rush out to save their lives, but
met with their fate in the attempt, and especially at the door,
where they drove them back, the boatswain himself killing one or
two with his pole-axe; the house being large, and many in it, he
did not care to go in, but called for an hand-grenado, and threw
it among them, which at first frighted them; but when it burst,
made such havoc among them, that they cried out in a hideous
Iſlanner.
In short, most of the Indians who were in the open part of the
house, were killed or hurt with the grenado, except two or three
more, who pressed to the door, which the boatswain and two
more kept with the bayonets in the muzzles of their pieces, and
dispatched all who came that way. But there was another apart-
ment in the house, where the prince or king, or whatsoever he
was, and several others, were ; and they kept in till the house,
which was by this time all of a light flame, fell in upon them,
and they were smothered or burnt together.
All this while they fired not a gun, because they would not wa-
ken the people faster than they could master them; but the fire
began to waken them fast enough, and our fellows were glad to
keep a little together in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all
the houses being made of light combustible stuff, that they could

of RoRIN so N cRUSOE. 357
hardly bear the street between them, and their business was to
follow the fire for the surer execution. As fast as the fire either
forced the people out of those houses which were burning, or
frighted them out of others, our people were ready at their doors
to knock them on the head, still calling and hallooing to one an-
other to remember Thomas Jeffrys.
While this was doing, I must confess I was very uneasy, and
especially when I saw the flames of the town, which, it being night,
seemed to be just by me.
My nephew, the captain, who was roused by his men too, see-
ing such a fire, was very uneasy, not knowing what the matter
was, or what danger I was in ; especially hearing the guns too,
for by this time they began to use their fire-arms. A thousand
thoughts oppressed his mind concerning me and the supercargo,
what should become of us; and at last, though he could ill spare
any more men, yet, not knowing what exigence we might be in,
he takes another boat, and with thirteen men and himself, comes
on shore to me. r
He was surprised to see me and the supercargo in the boat with
no more than two men, for one had been left to keep the boat;
and though he was glad that we were well, yet he was in the same
impatience with us to know what was doing, for the noise conti-
nued, and the flame increased. I confess it was next to an im-
Fº for any men in the world to restrain their curiosity of
mowing what had happened, or their concern for the safety of
the nem. In a word, the captain told me he wonld go and help
his men, let what would come. I argued with him, as I did be-
fore with the men, the safety of the ship, and the danger of the
voyage, the interest of the owners and merchants, &c., and told
him I would go, and the two men, and only see if we could, at a
distance, learn what was like to be the event, and come back and
tell him.
It was all one to talk to my nephew, as it was to talk to the
rest before; he would go, he said, and he only wished he had
left but ten men in the ship, for he could not think of having
his men lost for want of help; he had rather, he said, lose the
ship, the voyage, and his life, and all: , and so away went he.
Nor was l any more able to stay behind now than I was to per-
suade them not to go before ; so, in short, the captain ordered
two men to row back the pinnace, and fetch twelve men more from
the ship, leaving the long boat at an anchor; and that when they
came back, six men should keep the two boats, and six more come
after us, so that he left only sixteen men in the ship ; for the
whole ship's company consisted of sixty-five men, whereof two
were lost in the first quarrel which brought this mischief on.
Being now on the march, you may be sure we felt little of the
ground we trod on, and being guided by the fire, we kept no
358 LIFE AND Adventures
path, but went directly to the place of the flame. If the noise of
the guns were surprising to us before, the cries of the poor people
were now quite of another mature, and filled us with horror. I
must confess I never was at the sacking of a city, or at the ta-
king of a town by storm; I have heard of Oliver Cromwell ta-
king Drogheda in Ireland, and killing man, woman, and child ;
and I had read of Count Tilly sacking the city of Magdebourg, and
cutting the throats of 22,000 of both sexes; but I never had an
idea of the thing itself before, nor is it possible to describe it, or
the horror which was upon our minds at hearing it.
However, we went on, and at length came to the town, though
there was no entering the streets of it for the fire. The first ob-
ject we met with was the ruins of a hut or house, or rather the
ashes of it, for the house was consumed; and just before it, plain
now to be seen by the light of the fire, lay four men and three
women killed; and, as we thought, one or two more lay in the
heap among the fire. In short, these were such instances of a
rage altogether barbarous, and of a fury something beyond what
was human, that we thought it impossible our men could be guilty
of it; or, if they were the authors of it, we thought that every one
of them ought to be put to the worst of deaths: but this was not
all; we saw the fire increased forward, and the cry went on just
as the fire went on, so that we were in the utmost confusion. We
advanced a little way farther, and beheld, to our astonishment,
three women naked, crying in a most dreadful manner, and flying
as if they had indeed had wings, and after them sixteen or seven-
teen men, natives, in the same terror and consternation, with three
of our English butchers (for I can call them no better) in the rear,
who, when they could not overtake them, fired in among them,
and one that was killed by their shot fell down in our sight: when
the rest saw us, believing us to be their enemies, and that we
would murder them as well as those that pursued them, they set
up a most dreadful shriek, especially the women, and two of them
fell down, as if already dead, with the fright. -
My very soul shrunk within me, and my blood ran chill in my
veins, when I saw this ; and I believe had the three English sailors
that pursued them come on, I had made our men kill them all.
However, we took some ways to let the poor flying creatures know
that we would not hurt them, and immediately they came up to
us, and kneeling down, with their hands lifted up, made piteous
lamentations to us to save them, which we let them know we
would do; whereupon they kept all together in a huddle close be-
hind us for protection. I left my men drawn up together, and char-
ged them to hurt nobody, but if possible to get at some of our peo-
ple, and see what devil it was possessed them, and what they in-
tended to do ; and, in a word, to command them off, assuring
them, that if they staid till daylight, they would have a hundred
to F. R O BIN SON CRU SO E. 359
thousand men about their ears: I say, I left them, and went
among those flying people, taking only two of our men with me;
and there was indeed a piteous spectacle among them : some of
them had their feet terribly burnt with trampling and running
through the fire, others their hands burnt; one of the women had
fallen down in the fire, and was almost burnt to death before she
could get out again; two or three of the men had cuts in their
backs and thighs, from our men pursuing, and another was shot
through the body, and died while I was there.
I would fain have learnt what the occasion of all this was, but
I could not understand one word they said, though by signs I per-
ceived that some of them knew not what was the occasion them-
selves. I was so terrified in my thoughts at this outrageous at-
tempt, that I could not stay there, but went back to my own men:
I told them my resolution, and commanded them to follow me;
when, in the very moment, came four of our men, with the boat-
swain at their head, running over the heaps of bodies they had
killed, all covered with blood and dust, as if they wanted more
people to massacre, when our men hallooed to them as loud as
they could halloo, and with much ado one of them made them
hear, so that they knew who we were, and came up to us.
As soon as the boatswain saw us, he set up a halloo, like a
shout of triumph, for having, as he thought, more help come;
and without bearing to hear me, Captain, says he, noble captain,
I am glad you are come; we have not half done yet : villains !
hell-hound dogs I will kill as many of them as poor Tom has
hairs upon his head. We have sworn to spare none of them ; we
will root out the very name of them from the earth.-And thus he
ran on, out of breath too with action, and would not give us leave
to speak a word. t v. .
At last, raising my voice, that I might silence him a little,
Barbarous dog! said I, what are you doing? I won’t have one
creature touched more upon pain of death. I charge you upon
your life to stop your hands, and stand still here, or you are a dead
man this minute.
Why, sir, says he, do you know what you do, or what they
have done : If you want a reason for what we have done, come
hither; and with that he showed me the poor fellow hanging up-
on a tree, with his throat cut. «- .

360 I, IFE AND ADVENTURES
CHAP. XXX.
Bifference with my Nephew on account of the Cruelties prace
tised at Madagascar—Five Men lost on the Arabian Shore,
off the Gulf of Persia–The Seamen refuse to sail, if I conti-
nue on board, in consequence of which I am left on Shore—
Make a very advantageous trading Voyage in company with
an English Merchant, and purchase a Vessel, which, it turns
out, the Crew had mutined and run away with.
I conFEss I was urged then myself, and at another time should
have been forward enough; but I thought they had carried their
rage too far, and thought of Jacob’s words to his sons Simeon
and Levi, “Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath,
for it was cruel.” But I had now a new task upon my hands; for
when the men I carried with me saw the sight as I had done, I
had as much to do to restrain them, as I should have had with
the others; nay, my nephew himself fell in with them, and told
me in their hearing, that he was only concerned for fear of the
men being overpowered; for as to the people, he thought not one
of them ought to live; for they had all glutted themselves with
the murder of the poor man, and that they ought to be used like
murderers. Upon these words away ran eight of my men with
the boatswain and his crew, to complete their bloody work; and
I, seeing it quite out of my power to restrain them, came away
nsive and sad, for I could not bear the sight, much less the
É. noise and cries of the poor wretches that fell into their
hands. -
I got nobody to come back with me but the supercargo and
two men, and with these I walked back to the boats. It was a
very great piece of folly in me, I confess, to venture back as it
were alone; for as it began now to be almost day, and the alarm
had run over the country, there stood about forty men, armed
with lances and bows, at the little place where the twelve or thir-
teen houses stood, mentioned before, but by accident I missed’
the place, and came directly to the sea-side; and by that time I
got to the seaside it was broad day: immediately 'I took the pin-
nace and went aboard, and sent her back to assist the men in
what might happen.
I observed, that about the time I came to the boat-side, the
fire was pretty well out, and the noise abated; but in about half
an hour after I got on board, I heard a volley of our men’s fire-
arms, and saw a great smoke; this, as I understood afterwards,
was our men falling upon the forty men, who, as I said, stood at
the few houses on the way; of whom they killed sixteen or seven-
OF HO BIN SON CRU SO E. 361.
teen, and set all those houses on fire, but did not meddle with the
women or children.
By the time the men got to the shore again with the pinnace,
our men began to appear: they came dropping in some and some,
not in two bodies, and in form, as they went out, but all in heaps,
straggling here and there in such a manner that a small force of
resolute men might have cut them all off. - -
But the dread of them was upon the whole country. The peo-
ple were amazed and surprised, and so frighted, that I believe a
hundred of them would have fled at the sight of but five of our
men. Nor in all this terrible action was there a man who made
any considerable defence; they were so surprised between the
terror of the fire, and the sudden attack of our men in the dark,
that they knew not which way to turn themselves; for if they fled .
one way, they were met by one party, if back again, by another;
so that they were every where knocked down. Nor did any of
our men receive the least hurt, except one who strained his foot,
and another had one of his hands very much burnt. - -
I was very angry with my nephew, the captain, and indeed with
all the men, in my mind, but with him in particular, as well for his
acting so out of his duty, as commander of the ship, and having
the charge of the voyage upon him, as in his prompting rather
than cooling the rage of his men in so bloody and cruel an enter-
prize: my nephew answered me very respectfully, but told me
that when he saw the body of the poor seaman whom they had
murdered in such a cruel and barbarous manner, he was not mas-
ter of himself, neither could he govern his passion; he owned he
should not have done so, as he was commander of the ship, but
as he was a man, and mature moved him, he could not bear it. As
for the rest of the men, they were not subject to me at all, and
they knew it well enough, so they took no notice of my dislike.
The next day we set sail, so we never heard any more of it.
Our men differed in the account of the number they killed; some
said one thing, some another; but, according to the best of their
accounts, put all together, they killed or destroyed about a hun-
dred and fifty people, men, women, and children, and left not a
ouse standing in the town. *. -
As for the poor fellow, Thomas Jeffrys, as he was quite dead,
for his throat was so cut that his head was half off, it would do
him no service to bring him away; so they left him where they
found him, only took him down from the tree, where he was
hanged by one hand. 3.
However just our men thought this action to be, I was against
them in it, and I always after that time told them God would
blast the voyage; for I looked upon the blood they shed that night
to be murder in them: for though it is true"that they killed Tho-
mas Jeffrys, yet it was as true that Jeffrys was the aggressor, had
- Q
362 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
broken the truce, and had violated or debauched a young woman
of theirs, who came to our camp innocently, and on the faith of
their capitulation.
The boatswain defended this quarrel when we were afterwards
on board. He said, it was true that we seemed to break the truce,
but really had not, and that the war was begun the night before by
the natives themselves, who had shot at us, and killed one of our
men without any just provocation; so that as we were in a capa-
city to fight them, we might also be in a capacity to do ourselves
justice upon them in an extraordinary manner; that, though the
poor man had taken liberty with a wench, he ought not to have
been murdered, and that in such a villainous manner; and that
they did nothing but what was just, and what the laws of God
allowed to be done to murderers.
One would think this should have been enough to have warn-
ed us against going on shore among heathens and barbarians;
but it is impossible to make mankind wise but at their own expe-
rience; and their experience seems to be always of most use to
them when it is dearest bought.
We were now bound to the Gulf of Persia, and from thence to
the coast of Coromandel, only to touch at Surat; but the chief of
the supercargo's design lay at the Bay of Bengal, where, if he
missed of the business outward-bound, he was to go up to China,
and return to the coast as he came home.
The first disaster that befel us was in the Gulf of Persia, where
five of our men, venturing on shore on the Arabian side of the
Gulf, were surrounded by the Arabs, and either all killed or car-
ried away into slavery; the rest of the boat’s crew were not able
to rescue them, and had but just time to get off their boat. I be-
gan to upbraid them with the just retribution of Heaven in this
case; but the boatswain very warmly told me, he thought I went
farther in my censures than, I could show any warrant for in
Scripture, and referred to the thirteenth of St Luke, ver, 4,
where our Saviour intimates, that those men on whom the tower
of Siloam fell, were not sinners above all the Galileans; but that
which indeed put me to silence in this case was, that none of
these five men who were now lost were of the number of those
who went on shore to the massacre of Madagascar (so I always
..called it, though our men could not bear the word massacre with
any patiencee:) and indeed this last circumstance, as I have said,
put me to silence for the present. &
But my frequent preaching to them on this subject had worse
consequences than I expected; and the boatswain, who had
been the head of the attempt, came up boldly to me one time,
and told me he found that I continually brought that affair upon
the stage; that I made unjust reflections upon it, and had used
the men very ill on that account, and himself in particular; that
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 363
as I was but a passenger, and had no command in the ship, or
concern in the voyage, they were not obliged to bear it; that
they did not know but I might have some ill design in my head,
and perhaps call them to an account for it when they came to
England; and that, therefore, unless I would resolve to have done
with it, and also not to concern myself farther with him, or any
of his affairs, he would leave the ship, for he did not think it was
safe to sail with me among them.
I heard him patiently enough till he had done, and then told
him, that I did confess I had all along opposed the massacre of
Madagascar, for such I would always call it; and that I had on
all occasions spoken my mind freely about it, though not more
upon him than any of the rest; that as to my having no com-
mand in the ship, that was true, nor did I exercise any autho-
rity, only took the liberty of speaking my mind in things which
publicly concerned us all : , as to what concern I had in the
voyage, that was none of his business; I was a considerable
owner of the ship, and in that claim I conceived I had a right to
speak, even farther than I had yet done, and would not be ac-
countable to him or any one else; and began to be a little warm
with him: he made but little reply to me at that time, and I
thought that affair had been over. We were at this time in the
road to Bengal; and being willing to see the place, I went on
shore with the supercargo, in the ship's boat, to divert myself;
and towards evening was preparing to go on board, when one of
the men came to me, and told me he would not have me trouble
myself to come down to the boat, for they had orders not to
carry me on board. Any one may guess what a surprise I was
in at so insolent a message; and I asked the man who bade
him deliver that errand to me? He told me, the coxswain. I said
no more to the fellow, but bid him let them know he had deliver-
ed his message, and that I had given him no answer to it.
I immediately went and found out the supercargo, and told
him the story, adding, what I presently foresaw, viz. that there
would certainly be a mutiny in the ship; and entreated him to go
immediately on board the ship in an Indian boat and acquaint the
captain of it: but I might have spared this intelligence, for before
I had spoken to him on shore, the matter was effected on board:
the boatswain, the gunner, the carpenter, and, in a word, all the
inferior officers, as soon as I was gone off in the boat, came u
to the quarter-deck, and desired to speak with the captain; and
there the boatswain making a long harangue (for the fellow talk-
ed very well), and repeating all he had said to me, told the cap-
tain in a few words, that as I was now gone peaceably on shore,
they were loath to use any violence with me; which, if I had not
gone on shore, they would otherwise have done, to oblige me to
have gone. They therefore thought fit to tell him, that as they

$64 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
shipped themselves to serve in the ship under his command, they
would perform it faithfully; but if I would not quit the ship, or
the captain oblige me to quit it, they would all leave the ship, and
sail no farther with him ; and at that word ALL, he turned his
face about towards the main-mast, which was, it seems, the sig-
mal agreed on between them, at which all the seamen being got
together, they cried out, One and ALL, One and ALL!
My nephew, the captain, was a man of spirit, and of great
presence of mind; and though he was surprised, you may be
sure, at the thing, yet he told them calmly he would consider of
the matter, but that he could do nothing in it till he had spoken
to me about it: he used some arguments with them, to show
them the unreasonableness and injustice of the thing, but it was
all in vain; they swore, and shook hands round, before his face,
that they would go all on shore, unless he would engage to them
not to suffer me to come on board the ship.
This was a hard article upon him, who knew his obligation to
me, and did not know how I might take it; so he began to talk
cavalierly to them ; told them that I was a very considerable owner
of the ship, and that in justice he could not put me out of my
own house; that this was next door to serving me as the famous
pirate Kid had done, who made the mutiny in the ship, set the
captain on shore in an uninhabited island, and ran away, with
the ship; that let them go into what ship they would, if ever
they came to England again it would cost them dear; that the
ship was mine, and that he would not put me out of it; and
that he would rather lose the ship, and the voyage too, than dis-
oblige me so much ; so they might do as they pleased. However,
he would go on shore, and talk with me there, and invited the
boatswain to go with him, and perhaps they might accommodate
the matter with me.
But they all rejected the proposal; and said, they would have
nothing to do with me any more, neither on board nor on shore;
and if I came on board, they would go on shore.—Well, said
the captain, if you are all of this mind, let me go on shore, and
talk with him : so away he came to me with this account, a little
after the message had been brought to me from the coxswain.
I was very glad to see my nephew, I must confess; for I was
not without apprehensions that they would confine him by vio-
lence, set sail, and run away with the ship; and then I had been
stripped naked, in a remote country, and nothing to help my-
self: in short, I had been in a worse case than when I was all
alone in the island. ,
But they had not come to that length, it seems, to my great
satisfaction; and when my nephew told me what they had said
to him, and how they had sworn, and shook hands, that they
would one and all leave the ship, if I was suffered to come on
OF ROBIN SO N C R USO E. 365
board, I told him he should not be concerned at it at all, for I
would stay on shore; I only desired he would take care and send
me all my necessary things on shore, and leave me a sufficient
sum of money, and I would find my way to England as well as
I could. -
This was a heavy piece of news to my nephew ; but there was
mo way to help it, but to comply with it. So, in short, he went
on board the ship again, and satisfied the men that his uncle had
yielded to their importunity, and had sent for his goods from on
board the ship. So the matter was over in a very few hours;
the men returned to their duty, and I began to consider what
course I should steer. * -
'I was now alone, in the remotest part of the world, as I think
I may call it, for I was near three thousand leagues, by sea, far-
ther off from England than I was at my island; only, it is true;
I might travel here by land, over the Great Mogul’s country to
Surat; might go from thence to Bassora by sea, up the Gulf of
Persia, and from thence might take the way of the caravans, over
the desarts of Arabia, to Aleppo and Scanderoon, and from thence
by sea again to Italy, and so Cverland into France ; and this, put
together, might be, at least, a full diameter of the globe; but, if it
were to be measured, I suppose it would appear to be a great
deal more.
I had another way before me, which was to wait for some
English ships, which were coming to Bengal, from Achin, on the
island of Sumatra, and get passage on board them for England:
but as I came hither without any concern with the English East
India Company, so it would be difficult to go from hence without
their license, unless with great favour of the captains of the ships,
or of the Company’s factors; and to both I was an utter stranger.
Here I had the particular pleasure, speaking by contrarieties,
to see the ship set sail without me; a treatment, I think, a man
in my circumstances scarce ever met with, except from pirates
running away with a ship, and setting those that would not agree
with their villainy on shore: indeed this was the next door to it
both ways. However, my nephew left me two servants, or ra-
ther, one companion and one servant: the first was clerk to the
purser, whom he engaged to go with me; and the other was his
own servant. I took me also a good lodging in the house of an
English woman, where several merchants lodged, some French,
two Italians, or rather Jews, and one Englishman. Here I was
handsomely enough entertained; and that I might not be said to
run rashly upon any thing, I stayed here above nine months,
considering what course to take, and how to manage myself. I
had some English goods with me of value, and a considerable
sum of money; my nephew furnishing me with a thousand pieces
366 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
of eight, and a letter of credit for more, if I had occasion, that I
might not be straitened, whatever might happen. -
I quickly disposed of my goods, and to advantage too; and, as
I originally intended, I bought here some very good diamonds,
which, of all other things, were the most proper for me, in my
circumstances, because I might always carry my whole estate
about me.
After a long stay here, and many proposals made for my return
to England, but none falling to my mind, the English merchant,
who lodged with me, and with whom I had contracted an inti-
mate acquaintance, came to me one morning: Countryman, says
he, I have a project to communicate to you, which, as it suits
with my thoughts, may, for aught I know, suit with yours also,
when you shall have thoroughly considered it.
Here we are posted, says he, you by accident, and I by my
own choice, in a part of the world very remote from my own
country ; but it is in a country where, by us who understand
trade and business, a great deal of money is to be got; if you
will put a thousand pounds to my thousand pounds, we will hire
a ship here, the first we can get to our minds; you shall be cap-
tain, I’ll be merchant, and we will go a trading voyage to China;
for what should we stand still for 2 The whole world is in motion
rolling round and round; all the creatures of God, heavenly
bodies and earthly, are busy and diligent: why should we be
idle : There are no drones, says he, living in the world but men:
why should we be of that number 2
I liked this proposal very well; and the more, because it seemed
to be expressed with so much good-will, and in so friendly a man-
mer. I will not say, but that I might, by my loose and unhinged
circumstances, be the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade, and
indeed for any thing else; or otherwise trade was none of my
element; however, I might perhaps, say with some truth, that if
trade was not my element, rambling was; and no proposal for
seeing any part of the world, which I had never seen before, could
possibly come amiss to me.
It was, however, some time before we could get a ship to our
mind; and when we got a vessel, it was not easy to get English
sailors; that is to say, so many as were necessary to govern the
voyage, and manage the sailors which we should pick up there.
After some time we got a mate, a boatswain, and a gunner, Eng-
lish ; a Dutch carpenter, and three Portugueze foremast-men :
with these we found we could do well enough, having Indian Sea-
men, such as they are, to make up.
There are so many travellers who have written the history of
their voyages and travels this way, that it would be but very little
diversion to any body, to give a long account of the places we
went to, and the people who inhabit there : those things I leave

G F ROBIN SON CRU SO E. 367
to others, and refer the reader to those journals and travels of Eng-
lishmen, many of which, I find, are published, and more promised
every day. It is enough for me to tell you, that we made the voy-
age to Achin, in the island of Sumatra, first; and from thence
to Siam, where we exchanged some of our wares for opium, and
some for arrack; the first, a commodity which bears a great price
among the Chinese, and which, at that time, was very much want-
ed there: in a word, we went up to Susham; made a very great
voyage; were eight months out; and returned to Bengal; and I
was very well satisfied with my adventure.
I observe, that our people in England often admire how the
officers which the Company send into India, and the merchants
which generally stay there, get such very good estates as they do,
and sometimes come home worth sixty, seventy, and a humdred
thousand pounds at a time. But it is no wonder, or, at least, we
shall see so much farther into it, when we consider the innume-
rable ports and places where they have a free commerce, that it
will then be no wonder; and much less will it be so, when we
consider, that at all those places and ports where the English ships
come, there is so much, and such constant demand for the growth
of all other countries, that there is a certain vent for the return,
as well as a market abroad for the goods carried out.
In short, we made a very good voyage, and I got so much mo-
ney by the first adventure, and such an insight into the Inethod of
getting more, that, had I been twenty years younger, I should have
been tempted to have stayed here, and sought no farther for ma-
king my fortune; but what was all this to a man on the wrong
side of threescore, that was rich enough, and came abroad more in
obedience to a restless desire of seeing the world, than a covetous
desire of getting in it And indeed I think it is with great justice
that I now call it a restless desire, for it was so : when I was at
home, I was restless to go abroad; and now I was abroad, I was
restless to be at home. I say, what was this gain to me? I was
rich enough already ; mor had I any uneasy desires about getting
more money; and therefore, the profits of the voyage were things
of no great force to me, for the prompting me forward to farther
undertakings; hence I thought, that by this veyage I had made
no progress at all; because I was come back, as I might call it, to
the place from whence I came, as to a home; whereas my eye,
which, like that which Solomon speaks of, was never satisfied with
seeing, was still more desirous of wandering and seeing. I was
come into a part of the world which I never was in before; and
that part in particular, which I had heard much of; and was re-
solved to see as much of it as I could; and then I thought I might
say I had seen all the world that was worth seeing.
But my fellow-traveller and I had different notions: I do not
name this to insist upon my own, for I acknowledge his was most
368 LIFE AND AL VENTURES
just, and the most suited to the end of a merchant’s life; who
when he is abroad upon adventures, it is his wisdom to stick to
that, as the best thing for him, which he is like to get the most
money by. My new friend kept himself to the nature of the thing,
and would have been content to have gone, hike a carrier’s horse,
always to the same inn, backward and forward, provided he could,
as he called it, find his account in it: on the other hand, mine,
as old as I was, was the notion of a mad rambling boy, that never
cares to see a thing twice over.
But this was not all: I had a kind of impatience upon me to be
nearer home, and yet the most unsettled resolution imaginable,
which way to go. In the interval of these consultations, my
friend, who was always upon the search for business, proposed
another voyage to me, viz. among the Spice Islands; and to bring
home a load of cloves from the Manillas, or thereabouts; places
where, indeed, the Dutch do trade, but the islands belong partly
to the Spaniards; though we went not so far, but to some other,
where they have not the whole power, as they have at Batavia,
Ceylon, &c. We were not long in preparing for this voyage; the
chief difficulty was in bringing me to come into it; however, at
last, nothing else offering, and finding that really stirring about
and trading, the profit being so great, and, as I may say, certain,
had more pleasure in it, and more satisfaction to the mind, than
sitting still, which, to me especially, was the unhappiest part of
life, I resolved on this voyage too; which we made very success.
fully, touching at Borneo, and several islands, whose names I do
not remember, and came home in about five months. We sold
our spice, which was chiefly cloves, and some nutmegs, to the Per-
sian merchants, who carried them away for the gulf; and, making
near five of one, we really got a great deal of money.
My friend, when we made up this account, smiled at me: Well
now, said he, with a sort of an agreeable insult upon my indolent
temper, is not this better than walking about here, like a man of
nothing to do, and spending our time in staring at the nonsense
and ignorance of the Pagans?—Why truly, said I, my friend, I
think it is; and I begin to be a convert to the principles of mer-
chandising. But I must tell you, said I, by the way, you do not
know what I am doing; for if once I conquer my backwardness,
and embark heartily, as old as I am, I shall harass you up and
down the world till I tire you; for I shall pursue it so eagerly, I
shall never let you lie still.
But to be short with my speculations: a little while after this
there came in a Dutch ship from Batavia; she was a coaster, not
an European trader, and of about two hundred tons burden: the
men, as they pretended, having been so sickly, that the captain
had not men enough to go to sea, he lay by at Bengal; and, as if
having got money enough, or being willing, for other reasons, to
OF ROBIN SON C R US OE, 369
go for Europe, he gave public notice that he would sell his ship :
this came to my ears before my new partner heard of it; and I had
a great mind to buy it. So I went home to him, and told him of
it: he considered a while, for he was no rash man neither; but
musing some time, he replied, She is a little too big; but, how-
ever, we will have her.—Accordingly we bought the ship; and
agreeing with the master, we paid for her, and took possession;
when we had done so, we resolved to entertain the men, if we
could, to join them with those we had, for the pursuing our bu-
siness; but on a sudden, they not having received their wages,
but their share of the money, as we afterwards learnt, not one of
them was to be found. We inquired much about them, and at
length were told, that they were all gone together, by land, to
Agra, the great city of the Mogul’s residence; and from thence
were to travel to Surat, and so by sea to the Gulf of Persia.
Nothing had so heartily troubled me a good while, as that I miss-
ed the opportunity of going with them; for such a ramble, I thought,
and in such company as would both have guarded me and diverted
me, would have suited mightily with my great design; and I
should both have seen the world, and gone homewards too; but I
was much better satisfied a few days after, when I came to know
what sort of fellows they were; for, in short, their history was,
that this man they called captain was the gunner only, not the
commander; that they had been a trading voyage, in which they
were attacked on shore by some of the Malaccans, who had killed
the captain and three of his men; and that after the captain was
killed, these men, eleven in number, had resolved to run away with
the ship, which they did; and had brought her in at the Bay of
Bengal, leaving the mate and five men more on shore; of whom
we shall hear farther. ...:
Well; let them come by the ship how they would, we came ho-
nestly by her, as we thought; though we did not, I confess, ex-
amine into things so exactly as we ought; for we never inquired
any thing of the seamen, who, if we had examined, would certain-
ly have faultered in their accounts, contradicted one another, and
perhaps have contradicted themselves; or, one how or other, we
should have seen reason to have suspected them; but the man
showed us a bill of sale for the ship, to one Emanuel Clostersho-
ven, or some such name (for I suppose it was all a forgery,) and
called himself by that name: and we could not contradict him;
and being withal a little too unwary, or at least having no suspie
cion of the thing, we went through with our bargain.
Q 2
370 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
CHAP. XXXI,
Make a trading Voyage in this Ship—Put into the River of Gam.
bodia–Am warned of my Danger by a Countryman, in conse-
quence of which we set sail, and are pursued—Great difficulty
in making our Escape.
However, we picked up some English seamen here after this,
and some Dutch; and we now resolved for a second voyage to
the south-east, for cloves, &c., that is to say, among the Phillippine
and Molucca isles; and, in short, not to fill this part of my story
with trifles, when what is yet to come is so remarkable, I spent,
from first to last, six years in this country, trading from port to
port, backward and forward, and with very good success; and was
now the last year with my partner, going in the ship above-men-
tioned, on a voyage to China; but designing first to go to Siam,
to buy rice.
In this voyage, being by contrary winds obliged to beat up and
down a great while in the Straits of Malacca, and among the islands,
we were no sooner got clear of those difficult seas, but we found
our ship had sprung a leak, and we were not able, by all our in-
dustry, to find out where it was. This forced us to make for
some port; and my partner, who knew the country better than I
did, directed the captain to put into the river of Cambodia; for
I had made the English mate, one Mr Thompson, captain, mot
being willing to take the charge of the ship upon myself. This
river lies on the north side of the great bay or gulf which goes up
to Siam.
While we were here, and going often on shore for refreshment,
there comes to me one day an Englishman, and he was, it seems,
a gunner's mate on board an English East India ship, which rode
in the same river, up at, or near the city of Cambodia: what
"brought him hither we knew not; but he comes up to me, and,
speaking English, Sir, says he, you are a stranger to me, and I to
you; but I have something to tell you, that very nearly concerns
POil,
y I looked stedfastly at him a good while, and he thought at first
I had known him, but I did not. If it very nearly concerns me,
said I, and not yourself, what moves you to tell it me?—I am
moved, says he, by the imminent danger you are in ; and for aught
I see, you have no knowledge of it—I know no danger I am in,
said I, but that my ship is leaky, and I cannot find it out; but I
propose to lay her aground to-morrow, to see if I can find it.--
But, sir, says he, leaky or not leaky, find it or not find it, you will
be wiser than to lay your ship on shore to-morrow, when you
hear what I have to say to you, Do you know, sir, said he, the
OF ROBIN SON CRUSOE. 371
town of Cambodia lies about fifteen leagues up this river? And
there are two large English ships about five leagues on this side,
and three Dutch.-Well, said I, and what is that to me?—Why,
sir, says he, is it for a man that is upon such adventures as you
are, to come into a port, and not examine first what ships there
are there, and whether he is able to deal with them 2 I suppose
you do not think you are a match for them?—I was amused very
much at his discourse, but not amazed at it; for I could not con-
ceive what he meant; and I turned short upon him, and said, Sir,
I wish you would explain yourself; I cannot imagine what reason
I have to be afraid of any of the Company’s ships, or Dutch ships;
I am no interloper; what can they have to say to me?
He looked like a man half angry, half pleased; and pausing
awhile, but smiling, Well, sir, says he, if you think yourself se-
cure, you must take your chance; I am sorry your fate should
blind you against good advice; but assure yourself, if you do not
put to sea immediately, you will the very next tide be attacked by
five long-boats full of men; and, perhaps, if you are taken, you
will be hanged for a pirate, and the particulars be examined into
afterwards. I thought, sir, added he, I should have met with a
better reception than this, for doing you a piece of service of
such importance.—I can never be ungrateful, said I, for any ser-
wice, or to any man that offers me any kindness; but it is past
my comprehension, said I, what they should have such a design
upon me for: however, since you say there is no time to be lost,
and that there is some villainous design in hand against me, I will
go on board this minute, and put to sea immediately, if my men
can stop the leak, or if we can swim without stopping it: but, sir,
said I, shall I go away ignorant of the reason of all this? Can you
give me no farther light into it?
I can tell you but part of the story, sir, says he; but I have a
Dutch seaman here with me, and, I believe, I could persuade
him to tell you the rest; but there is scarce time for it: but the
short of the story is this, the first part of which, I suppose, you
know well enough, viz. that you were with this ship at Sumatra;
that there your captain was murdered by the Malaccans, with
three of his men; and that you, or some of those that were on
board with you, ran away with the ship, and are since turned
TIRATEs. This is the sum of the story, and you will all be seized
as pirates, I can assure you, and executed with very little cere-
mony; for you know merchant-ships show but little law to pi-
rates, if they get them in their power.
Now you speak plain English, said I, and I thank you; and
though I know nothing that we have done, like what you talk of,
but I am sure we came homestly and fairly by the ship; yet see-
ing such work is a-doing, as you say, and that you seem to mean
honestly, I will be upon my guard-Nay, sir, says he, do not talk


372 LIFE AND ADVENTUREs
of being upon your guard; the best defence is to be out of the
danger: if you have any regard to your life, and the lives of all
your men, put out to sea without fail at high-water; and as you
have a whole tide before you, you will be gone too far out before
they can come down; for they will come away at high-water;
and as they have twenty miles to come, you’ll get near two hours
of them by the difference of the tide, not reckoning the length of
the way: besides, as they are only boats, and not ships, they will
inot venture to follow you far out to sea, especially if it blows.
Well, said I, you have been very kind in this: what shall I do
for you to make you amends 2—Sir, says he, you may not be so
willing to make me amends, because you may not be convinced
of the truth of it: I will make an offer to you; I have nineteen
months pay due to me on board the ship — , which I
came out of England in; and the Dutchman, that is with me, has
seven months pay due to him; if you will make good our pay to
us, we will go along with you: if you find nothing more in it, we
will desire no more; but if we do convince you, that we have
saved your life, and the ship, and the lives of all the men in her,
we will leave the rest to you. - w
I consented to this readily; and went immediately on board,
and the two men with me. As soon as I came to the ship’s side,
my partner, who was on board, came on the quarter-deck, and
called to me with a great deal of joy, O ho! O ho! we have
stopped the leak!—Say you so said I; thank God; but weigh
the anchor then immediately.—Weigh! Says he: what do you
mean by that? What is the matter 3 says he.—Ask no questions,
said I, but all hands to work, and weigh without losing a minute.—
He was surprised: but, however, he called the captain, and he im-
mediately ordered the anchor to be got up ; and though the tide
was not quite done, yet a little land-breeze blowing, we stood out
to sea; then I called him into the cabin, and told him the story
at large; and we called in the men, and they told us the rest of
it: but as it took us up a great deal of time, so before we had
done, a seaman comes to the cabin-door, and calls out to us, that
the captain bade him tell us, we were chased.—Chased said I;
by whom, and by what?—By five sloops, or boats, said the fellow,
full of men.—Very well, said I; then it is apparent there is
something in it.—In the next place, I ordered all our men to be
called up, and told them, that there was a design to seize the ship,
and to take us for pirates; and asked them, if they would stand
by us, and by one another 3–The men answered, chearfully, one
and all, that they would live and die with us.-Then I asked the
captain, what way he thought best for us to manage a fight with
them; for resist them I resolved we would, and that to the last
drop.–He said, readily, that the way was to keep them off with
our great shot, as long as we could, and then to fire at them with
OF ROBIN SON C R US OE, 373
our small arms, to keep them from boarding us; but when neither
of these would do any longer, we should retire to our close
quarters, perhaps they had not materials to break open our bulk-
heads, or get in upon us.
The gunner had, in the mean time, orders to bring two guns to
bear fore and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load
them with musket-bullets and small pieces of old-iron, and what
next came to hand; and thus we made ready for fight; but all
this while kept out to sea, with wind enough, and could see the
boats at a distance, being five large long-boats, following us, with
all the sail they could make.
Two of these boats, which, by our glasses, we could see were
English, had outsailed the rest, were near two leagues a-head of
them, and gained upon us considerably ; so that we found they
would come up with us: upon which we fired a gun without a
shot, to intimate that they should bring to; and we put out a flag
of truce, as a signal for parley; but they kept crowding after us,
till they came within shot. Upon this we took in our white flag,
they having made no answer to it; hung out the red flag, and fired
at them with shot: notwithstanding this, they came on till they
were near enough to call to them with a speaking-trumpet, which
we had on board; so we called to them, and bade them keep off
at their peril.
It was all one, they crowded after us, and endeavoured to come
under our stern, so to board us on our quarter : upon which, see-
ing they were resolute for mischief, and depended upon the
strength that followed them, I ordered to bring the ship to, so
that they lay upon our broadside, when immediately we fired five
guns at them; one of them had been levelled so true, as to carry
away the stern of the hindermost boat, and bring them to the ne-
cessity of taking down their sail, and running all to the head of
the boat to keep her from sinking; so she lay by, and had enough
of it; seeing the foremost boat still crowd on after us, we made
ready to fire at her in particular. *
While this was doing, one of the three boats that was behind,
being forwarder than the other two, made up to the boat which
we had disabled, to relieve her, and we could afterwards see her
take out the men: we called again to the foremost boat, and of-
fered a truce to parley again, and to know what was her business
with us; but had no answer: only she crowded close under our
stern. Upon this our gunner, who was a very dexterous fellow,
run out his two chase guns, and fired at her; but the shot miss-
ing, the men in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came on; .
but the gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired among them a
second time; one shot of which, though it missed the boat itself,
yet fell in among the men, and we could easily see had done a
great deal of mischief among them; but we, taking no notice of
374 LIFE AND ADve NTUREsº
that, weared the ship again, and brought our quarter to bear upon
them; and, firing three guns more, we found the boat was split
almost to pieces; in particular, her rudder, and a F. of her
stern, were shot quite away; so they handed their sail immediate-
ly, and were in great disorder: but, to complete their misfortune,
our gunner let fly two guns at them again; where he hit them we
could not tell, but we found the boat was sinking, and some of
the men already in the water. Upon this I immediately manned
out our pinnace, which we had kept close by our side, with orders
to pick up some of the men, if they could, and save them from
drowning, and immediately to come on board with them, because
we saw the rest of the boats began to come up. Our men in the
pinnace followed their orders, and took up three men; one of
which was just drowning, and it was a good while before we could
recover him. As soon as they were on board, we crowded all the
sail we could make, and stood farther out to sea; and we found,
that when the other three boats came up to the first two, they
gave over their chase. rº-
Being thus delivered from a danger, which though I knew not
the reason of it, yet seemed to be much greater than I apprehend-
ed, I took care that we should change our course, and not let any
one imagine whither we were going; so we stood out to sea east-
ward, quite out of the course of all European ships, whether they
were bound to China, or any where else within the commerce of
the European nations.
When we were now at sea, we began to consult with the two
seamen, and inquire, first, what the meaning of all this should
be 2 The Dutchman let us into the secret of it at once; telling us,
that the fellow that sold us the ship, as we said, was no more than
a thief that had run away with her. Then he told us how the cap-
tain, whose name too he mentioned, though I do not remember
it now, was treacherously murdered by the natives on the coast
of Malacca, with three of his men; and that he, this Dutchman,
and four more, got into the woods, where they wandered about a
great while; till at length he, in particular, in a miraculous man-
ner, made his escape, and swam off to a Dutch ship, which sailing
near the shore, in its way from China, had sent their boat on
shore for fresh water; that he durst not come to that part of the
shore where the boat was, but made shift in the night to take in
the water farther off, and swimming a great while, at last the
ship's boat took him up.
He then told us, that he went to Batavia, where two of the sea-
men belonging to the ship had arrived, having deserted the rest
in their travels; and gave an account, that the fellow who had
run away with the ship, sold her at Bengal to a set of pirates,
which were gone a-cruizing in her; and that they had already
taken an English ship, and two Dutch ships, very richly laden.
of Robinson CRUso E. - 375
This latter part we found to concern us directly; and though
we knew it to be false, yet, as my partner said very well, if we
had fallen into their hands, and they had such a prepossession
against us beforehand, it had been in vain for us to have defended
ourselves, or to hope for any good quarters at their hands ; espe-
cially considering that our accusers had been our judges, and that
we could have expected nothing from them but what rage would
have dictated, and ungoverned passion have executed; and there-
fore it was his opinion, we should go directly back to Bengal, from
whence we came, without putting in at any port whatever; be-
cause there we could give an account of ourselves, and could
prove where we were when the ship put in, whom we bought her
of, and the like; and, which was more than all the rest, if we were
put to the necessity of bringing it before the proper judges, we
should be sure to have some justice; and not be hanged first, and
judged afterwards.
I was some time of my partner’s opinion but after a little more
serious thinking, I told him, I thought it was a very great hazard
for us to attempt returning to Bengal, for that we were on the
wrong side of the Straits of Malacca; and that if the alarm was
given, we should be sure to be waylaid on every side, as well by
the Dutch of Batavia, as the English elsewhere; that if we should
be taken, as it were, running away, we should even condemn our-
selves, and there would want no more evidence to destroy us. I
also asked the English sailor’s opinion, who said, he was of my
mind, and that we should certainly be taken.
This danger a little startled my partner, and all the ship's com-
any; and we immediately resolved to go away to the coast of
H. and so on to China; and from thence pursuing the first
design, as to trade, find some way or other to dispose of the ship,
and come back in some of the vessels of the country, such as we
could get. This was approved of, as the best method for our se-
curity; and accordingly we steered away N. N. E., keeping above
fifty leagues off from the usual course to the eastward.
This, however, put us to some inconveniences ; for first the
winds, when we came to that distance from the shore, seemed
to be more steadily against us, blowing almost trade, as we call it,
from the E. and E. N. E.; so that we were a long while upon
our voyage, and we were but ill provided with victuals for so long
a run; and, which was still worse, there was some danger that
those English and Dutch ships, whose boats pursued us, whereof
some were bound that way, might be got in before us; and if not,
some other ship bound to China might have information of us,
from them, and pursue us with the same vigour.
I must confess I was now very uneasy, and thought myself, in-
cluding the late escape from the long-boats, to have been in the
most dangerous condition that ever I was in through all my past

$76 LIFE ANI) ADVENTURES
life; for, whatever ill circumstances I had been in, I was never
pursued for a thief before ; nor had I ever done any thing that
merited the name of dishonest or fraudulent, much less thievish.
I had chiefly been mine own enemy; or, as I may rightly say, I
had been nobody’s enemy but my own. But now I was embar-
rassed in the worst condition imaginable; for though I was per-
fectly innocent, I was in no condition to make that innocence ap-
pear; and if I had been taken, it had been under a supposed guilt
of the worst kind; at least, a crime esteemed so among the peo-
ple I had to do with. >
This made me very anxious to make an escape, though which
way to do it I knew not; or what port or place we should go to.
My partner, seeing me thus dejected, though he was the most con-
cerned at first, began to encourage me; and describing to me the
several ports of that coast, told me he would put in on the coast
of Cochin-china, or the bay of Tonquin ; intending to go after-
wards to Macao, a town once in the possession of the Portugueze,
and where still a great many European families resided, and par-
ticularly missionary priests usually went thither, in order to their
going forward to China.
Hither we then resolved to go; and accordingly, though after
a tedious and irregular course, and very much straitened for pro-
visions, we came within sight of the coast very early in the morn-
ing; and upon reflection upon the past circumstances we were in ,
and the danger, if we had not escaped, we resolved to put into a
small river, which, however, had depth enough of water for us,
and to see if we could, either over land or by the ship’s pinnace,
come to know what ships were in any port thereabouts. This
happy step was, indeed, our deliverance; for though we did not
immediately see any European ships in the bay of Tonquin, yet
the next morning there came into the bay two Dutch ships; and
a third without any colours spread out, but which we believed to
be a Dutchman, passed by at about two leagues distance, steering
for the coast of China; and in the afternoon went by two English
ships, steering the same course; and thus we thought we saw our-
selves beset with enemies, both one way and the other. The place
we were in was wild and barbarous, the people thieves, even by
occupation or profession; and though, it is true, we had not much
to seek of them, and except getting a few provisions, cared not
how little we had to do with them; yet it was with much difficulty
that we kept ourselves from being insulted by them several ways,
OF ROBIN SON C R USOE, 377
CHAP. XXXII.
Obliged to come to anchor on a Savage Coast, to repair our Ship—
We are attacked by the Natives, whom our Carpenter disperses
by a whimsical Contrivance—Serious Reflections upon our dis-
agreeable Situation.
WE were in a small river of this country, within a few leagues
of its utmost limits northward, and by our boat we coasted north-
east to the point of land which opens to the great bay of Tonquin;
and it was in this beating up along the shore that we discovered as
above, that, in a word, we were surrounded with enemies. The
; we were among were the most barbarous of all the inha-
itants of the coast; having no correspondence with any other na-
tion, and dealing only in fish and oil, and such gross commodities;
and it may be particularly seen that they are, as I said, the most
barbarous of any of the inhabitants, viz. that among other cus-
toms they have this one, that if any vessel had the misfortune to
be shipwrecked upon their coast, they presently make the men
all prisoners; that is to say, slaves; and it was not long before
. found a spice of their kindness this way, on the occasion fol-
OWII] g : * * *
I #. observed above. that our ship spring a leak at sea, and
that we could not find it out; and however it happened, that, as I
have said, it was stopped unexpectedly, in the happy minute of
our being to be seized by the Dutch and English ships, near the
bay of Siam ; yet, as we did not find the ship so perfectly tight
and sound as we desired, we resolved, while we were in this place,
to lay her on shore, take out what heavy things we had on board,
which were not many, and to wash and clean her bottom, and if
possible to find out where the leaks were. -
Accordingly, having lightened the ship, and brought all our guns,
and other moveable things, to one side, we tried to bring her
down, that we might come at her bottom; for, on second thoughts, .
we did not care to lay her dry aground, neither could we find
out a proper place for it.
The inhabitants, who had never been acquainted with such a
sight, came wondering down to the shore to look at us; and see-
ing the ship lie down on one side in such a manner, and heeling
towards the shore, and not seeing our men, who were at work
on her bottom with stages, and with their boats, on the off side,
they presently concluded that the ship was cast away, and lay so
very fast on the ground. º
On this supposition, they came all about us in two or three
hours time, with ten or twelve large boats, having some of them
eight, some ten men in a boat, intending, no doubt, to have
378 I,IFE AND A DVENTURES
come on board and plunder the ship; and if they had found us
there, to have carried us away for slaves to their king, or what-
ever they call him, for we knew not who was their governor,
When they came up to the ship, and began to row round her,
they discovered us all hard at work, on the outside of the ship’s
bottom and side, washing, and graving, and stopping, as every
seafaring man knows how.
They stood for a while gazing at us, and we, who were a little
surprised, could not imagine what their design was ; but being
willing to be sure, we took this opportunity to get some of us into
the ship, and others to hand down arms and ammunition to those
that were at work, to defend themselves with, if there should be
occasion ; and it was no more than need, for in less than a quar-
ter of an hour's consultation, they agreed, it seems, that the ship
was really a wreck; that we were all at work endeavouring to
save her, or to save our lives by the help of our boats; and when
we handed our arms into the boats, they concluded by that motion
that we were endeavouring to save some of our goods. Upon
this, they took it for granted they all belonged to them, and away
º came directly upon our men, as if it had been in a line of
attle.
"Our men seeing so many of them, began to be frighted, for we
lay but in an ill posture to fight, ard cried out to us to know
what they should do: I ſimmediately tailed to the men who
worked upon the stages, to slip them down, and get up the side
into the ship, and bade those in the boat to row round and come
on board; and those few of us who were on board, worked with
all the strength and hands we had, to bring the ship to rights;
but, however, neither the men upon the stage, nor those in the
boats, could do as they were ordered, before the Cochin-chinese
were upon them, and with two of their boats, boarded our long-
boat, and began to lay hold of the men as their prisoners.
The first man they laid hold of was an English seaman, a
stout, strong fellow, who, having a musket in his hand, never
offered to fire it, but laid it down in the boat, like a fool, as I
thought. But he understood his business better than I could
teach him; for he grappled the Pagan, and dragged him by main
force out of their own boat into ours, where, taking him by the
two ears, he beat his head so against the boat’s gunnel, that the
fellow died instantly in his hands; and in the mean time, a Dutch:
man, who stood next, took up the musket, and with the butt end
of it, so laid about him, that he knocked down five of them who
attempted to enter the boat. But this was little towards resisting
thirty or forty men, who fearless, because ignorant of their dan:
er, began to throw themselves into the long-boat, where we had
ut five men to defend it. But one accident gave our men a
. OF ROBIN SON CBUSO Ee 379
complete victory, which deserved our laughter rather than any
thing else, and that was this:
Our carpenter being prepared to grave the outside of the ship,
as well as to pay the seams where he caulked her to stop the leaks,
had got two kettles just let down into the boat; one filled with
boiling pitch, and the other with rosin, tallow, and oil, and such
stuff as the shipwrights used for that work; and the man that
tended the carpenter had a great iron ladle in his hand, with
which he supplied the men that were at work with that hot stuff:
two of the enemy's men entered the boat just where the fellow
stood, being in the fore-sheets; he immediately saluted them
with a ladleful of the stuff, boiling hot, which so burnt and
scalded them, being half naked, that they roared out like two
bulls, and, enraged with the fire, leaped both into the sea. The
carpenter saw it, and cried out, Well done, Jack, give them
some more of it; when, stepping forward himself, he takes one
of their mops, and dipping it in the pitch-pot, he and his man
threw it among them so plentifully, that in short, of all the men
in three boats, there was not one that was not scalded and burnt
with it in a most frightful, pitiful manner, and made such a howl-
ing and crying, that I never heard a worse noise, and, indeed, no-
thing like it; for it was worth observing, that though pain na;
turally makes all people cry out, yet every nation have a particu,
lar way of exclamation, and make noises as different from one
another as their specch. I cannot give the noise these creatures
made, a better name than howling, nor a name more proper to
the tone of it; for I never heard any thing more like the noise of
the wolves, which, as I have said, I heard howl in the forest on
the frontiers of Languedoc. >
I was never pleased with a victory better in my life; not only
as it was a perfect surprise to me, and that our danger was immi-
nent before; but as we got this victory without any bloodshed,
except of that man the fellow killed with his naked hands, and
which I was very much concerned at; for I was sick of killing
such poor savage wretches, even though it was in my own de-
fence, knowing they came on errands which they thought just, and
knew no better; and that though it may be a just thing, because
necessary, for there is no necessary º in nature; yet I
thought it was a sad life, when we must be always obliged to be
killing our fellow-creatures to preserve ourselves; and, indeed, I
think so still; and I would, even now, suffer a great deal, rather
than I would take away the life even of the worst person inju-
ring me. I believe also, all considering people, who know the
value of life, would be of my opinion, if they entered seriously
into the consideration of it. -
But to return to my story. All the while this was doing, my
partner and I, who managed the rest of the men on board, had,
380 LIFE AND A Dve NTURES
with great dexterity, brought the ship almost to rights; and, ha-
ving gotten the guns into their places again, the gunner called to
me to bid our boat get out of the way, for he would let fly among
them. I called back again to him, and bid him not offer to fire,
for the carpenter would do the work without him ; but bade him
heat another pitch-kettle, which our cook, who was on board,
took care of. But the enemy was so terrified with what they met
with in their first attack, that they would not come on again;
and some of them that were farthest off, seeing the ship swim,
as it were, upright, began, as we supposed, to see their mistake,
and gave over the enterprize, finding it was not as they expected.
Thus we got clear of this merry fight; and having gotten some
rice, and some roots and bread, with about sixteen good big hogs
on board, two days before, we resolved to stay here no longer,
but go forward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt but
we should be surrounded the next day with rogues enough, per-
haps more than our pitch-kettle would dispose of for us.
We, therefore, got all our things on board the same evening,
and the next morning were ready to sail. In the mean time, ly-
ing at an anchor some distance from the shore, we were not so
much concerned, being now in a fighting posture as well as in a
Sailing posture, if any enemy had presented. The next day, ha-
ving finished our work within board, and finding our ship was
perfectly healed of all her leaks, we set sail. We would have
gone into the bay of Tonquin, for we wanted to inform ourselves
of what was to be known concerning the Dutch ships that had
been there; but we durst not stand in there, because we had seen
several ships go in, as we supposed, but a little before; so we
kept on N. E. towards the isle of Formoso, as much afraid of be-
ing seen by a Dutch or English merchant-ship, as a Dutch or
English merchant-ship in the Mediterranean is of an Algerine
man of war. -
When we were thus gone to sea, we kept on N. E., as if we
would go to the Manillas or the Phillippine Islands, and this we
did, that we might not fall into the way of any of the European
ships; and then we steered north again, till we came to the lati-
tude of 22 degrees. 20 minutes, by which means we made the is-
land of Formoso directly, where we came to an anchor, in order
to get water and fresh provisions, which the people there, who
are very courteous and civil in their manners, supplied us with
willingly, and dealt very fairly and punctually with us in all their
agreements and bargains, which is what we did not find among
other people, and may be owing to the remains of Christianity,
which was once planted here by a Dutch mission of Protes-
tants, and is a testimony of what I have often observed, viz.
that the Christian religion always civilizes the people, and re-
of Robinson CRUso E. 381
forms their manners, where it is received, whether it works sa-
ving effects upon them or not.
From hence we sailed still north, keeping the coast of China
at an equal distance, till we knew we were beyond all the ports
of China where our European ships usually come ; but being
resolved, if possible, not to fall into any of their hands, especi-
ally in this country, where, as our circumstances were, we could
not fail of being entirely ruined; nay, so great was my fear in
particular, as to my being taken by them, that I believe firmly I'
would much rather have chosen to fall into the hands of the
Spanish Inquisition.
Being now come to the latitude of 30 degrees, we resolved to
put into the first trading port we should come at ; and standing in
for the shore, a boat came off two leagues to us, with an old Por-
tugueze pilot on board, who, knowing us to be an European ship,
came to offer his service, which, indeed, we were very glad of, and
took him on board; upon which, without asking us whither we
would go, he dismissed the boat he came in, and sent it back.
I thought it was now so much in our choice to make the old
man carry us whither we would, that I began to talk to him
about carrying us to the gulph of Nanquin, which is the most
northern part of the coast of China. The old man said he knew
the gulph of Nanquin very well; but smiling, asked us what we
would do there? +.
I told him we would sell our cargo, and purchase China wares,
calicoes, raw silks, tea, wrought silks, &c., and so would return
by the same course we came. He told us our best port had been .
to have put in at Macao, where we could not fail of a market for
our opium to our satisfaction, and might, for our money, have
purchased all sorts of China goods as cheap as we could at
Nanquin.
Not being able to. put the old man out of his talk, of which
he was very opinionated, or conceited, I told him we were gen-
tlemen as well as merchants, and that we had a mind to go and
see the great city of Pekin, and the famous court of the monarch
of China.--Why then, says the old man, you should go to Ningpo,
where, by the river that runs into the sea there, you may go up.
within five leagues of the great canal.—This canal is a navigable
made stream, which goes through the heart of all that vast em-
pire of China, crosses all the rivers, passes some considerable
hills by the help of sluices and gates, and goes up to the city of
Pekin, being in length near two hundred and seventy leagues.
Well, said I, Seignior Portugueze, but that is not our business
now; the great question is, if you can carry us up to the city of
Nanquin, from whence we can travel to Pekin afterwards?—Yes,
he said, he could do so very well; and there was a great Dutch
ship gone up that way just before–This gave me a little shock;

38.2 LIFE AND ADVENTUREs
a Dutch ship was now our terror, and we had much rather have
met the devil, at least, if he had not come in too frightful a figure.
We depended upon it that a Dutch ship would be our destruc-
tion, for we were in no condition to fight them; all the ships they
trade with in those parts being of great burden, and of much
greater force than we were.
The old man found me a little confused, and under some con-
cern, when he named a Dutch ship; and said to me, Sir, you need
be under no apprehension of the Dutch; I suppose they are not
now at war with your mation.—No, said I, that’s true; but I
know not what liberties men may take when they are out of the
reach of the laws of their country.—Why, said he, you are no
pirates; what need you fear? They will not meddle with peace-
able merchants, sure. -
If I had any blood in my body that did not fly up into my face
at that word, it was hindered by some stop in the vessels appoint-
ed by nature to circulate it; for it put me into the greatest dis-
order and confusion imaginable; nor was it possible for me to
conceal it so, but that the old man easily perceived it.
Sir, said he, I find you are in some disorder in your thoughts
at my talk; pray be pleased to go which way you think fit, and
depend upon it, I’ll do you all the service I can.—Why, seignior,
said I, it is true, I am a little unsettled in my resolution at this
time, whither to go in particular; and I am something more so
for what you said about pirates. I hope there are no pirates in
these seas; we are but in ill condition to meet with them ; for
you see we have but a small force, and but very weakly manned.
O sir, said he, do not be concerned ; I do not know that there
have been any pirates in these seas these fifteen years, except
one, which was seen, as I hear, in the bay of Siam, about a month
since; but you may be assured she is gone to the southward; nor
was she a ship of any great force, or fit for the work: she was
not built for a privateer, but was run away with by a reprobate
crew that were on board, after the captain and some of his men
had been murdered by the Malaccans, at or near the island of
Sumatra. f -
What I said I, seeming to know nothing of the matter, did
they murder the captain —No, said he, I do not understand that
they murdered him; but as they afterwards ran away with the
ship, it is generally believed they betrayed him into the hands of
the Malaccans, who did murder him; and, perhaps, they procu-
red them to do it.—Why then, said I, they deserved death, as
much as if they had done it themselves.—Nay, said the old man,
they do deserve it, and they will certainly have it if they light upon
any English or Dutch ship; for they have all agreed together,
that if they meet that rogue, they will give him no quarter.
But, said I to him, you say the pirate is gone out of these
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 383
seas; how can they meet with him then —Why, that is true,
said he, they do say so; but he was, as I tell you, in the bay of
Siam, in the river Cambodia, and was discovered there by some
Dutchmen who belonged to the ship, and who were left on
shore when they ran away with her; and some English and Dutch
traders being in the river, they were within a little of taking him.
Nay, said he, if the foremost boats had been well seconded by
the rest, they had certainly taken him; but he finding only two
boats within reach of him, tacked about, and fired at these two,
and disabled them before the others came up; and then standing
off to sea, the others were not able to follow him, and so he
got away. But they have all so exact a description of the ship,
that they will be sure to know him; and wherever they find him,
they have vowed to give no quarter to either the captain or sea-
men, but to hang them all up at the yard-arm.
What I said I, will they execute them, right or wrong; hang
them first, and judge them afterwards?—O sir! said the old
pilot, there is no need to make a formal business of it with such
rogues as those ; let them tie them back to back, and set them
a-diving; it is no more than they rightly deserve.
I knew I had my old man fast aboard, and that he could do
me no harm ; so I turned short upon him. Well, seignior, said
I, and this is the very reason why I would have you carry us to
Nanquin, and not to put back to Macao, or to any other part of
the country where the English or Dutch ships came ; for be it
known to you, seignior, those captains of the English and Dutch
ships are a parcel of rash, proud, insolent fellows, that neither
know what belongs to justice, or how to behave themselves as
the laws of God and nature direct; but being proud of their
offices, and not understanding their power, they would act the
murderers to punish robbers; would take upon them to insult
men falsely accused, and determine them guilty without due in-
quiry; and perhaps I may live to call some of them to an ac-
count of it, where they may be taught how justice is to be execu-
ted; and that no man ought to be treated as a criminal, till some
evidence may be had of the crime, and that he is the man.
With this I told him, that this was the very ship they had at-
tacked ; and gave him a full account of the skirmish we had
with their boats, and how foolishly and coward-like they had be-
haved. I told him all the story of our buying the ship, and how
the Dutchmen served us. I told him the reasons I had to be-
lieve that this story of killing the master by the Malaccans was
not true, as also the running away with the ship; but that it
was all a fiction of their own, to suggest that the men were turn-
ed pirates; and they ought to have been sure it was so, before
they had ventured to attack us by surprise, and oblige us to resist

384. I, IFE AND A DV ENTURES
them; adding, that they would have the blood of those men who
were killed there, in our just defence, to answer for.
The old man was amazed at this relation, and told us, we
were very much in the right to go away to the north; and that
if he might advise us, it should be to sell the ship in China, which
we might very well do, and buy or build another in the country;
and, said he, though you will not get so good a ship, yet you
may get one able enough to carry you and all your goods back
again to Bengal, or any where else.
I told him I would take his advice when I came to any port
where I could find a ship for my turn, or get any customer to
buy this. He replied, I should meet with customers enough for
the ship at Nanquin, and that a Chinese junk would serve me
véry well to go back again; and that he would procure me peo-
ple both to buy one and sell the other.
Well, but, seignior, says I, as you say they know the ship so
well, I may, perhaps, if I follow your measures, be instrumental
to bring some homest, innocent men, into a terrible broil, and,
perhaps, be murdered in cold blood; for wherever they find the
ship, they will prove the guilt upon the men, by proving this was
the ship; and so innocent men may probably be overpowered
and murdered.—Why, said the old man, I’ll find out a way to
prevent that also ; for as I know all those commanders you speak
of very well, and shall see them all as they pass by, I will be sure
to set them to rights in the thing, and let them know that they
had been so much in the wrong, that though the people who
were on board at first might run away with the ship, yet it was
not true that they had turned pirates; and that in particular those
were not the men that first went off with the ship, but innocent-
ly bought her for their trade; and I am persuaded they will so far
believe me, as, at least, to act more cautiously for the time to
come.—Well, said I, and will you deliver one message to them
from me?—Yes, I will, says he, if you will give it under your
hand in writing, that I may be able to prove it came from you,
and not out of my own head.—I answered, that I would readily
give it him under my hand.—So I took a pen and ink, and paper,
and wrote at large the story of assaulting me with the long-boats,
&c., the pretended reason of it, and the unjust, cruel design of
it; and concluded to the commanders, that they had done what
they not only should have been ashamed of, but also, that if ever
they came to England, and I lived to see them there, they should
all pay dearly for it, if the laws of my country were not grown
out of use before I arrived there. -
My old pilot read this over and over again, and asked me seve-
ral times if I would stand to it. I answered, I would stand to it
as long as I had any thing left in the world; being sensible that
I should, one time or other, find an opportunity to put it home to
- l
OF ROB I NSO N C R U S O E. 38.5
them. But we had no occasion ever to let the pilot carry this
letter, for he never went back again. While those things were
passing between us, by way of discourse, we went forward direct-
ly for Nanquin, and, in about thirteen days sail, came to anchor
at the south-west point of the great Gulf of Nanquin; where, by
the way, I came by accident to understand, that the two Dutch
ships were gone that length before me, and that I should certainly
fall into their hands. I consulted my partner again in this exi-
gency, and he was as much at a loss as I was, and weuld very
gladly have been safe on shore almost any where. However, I
was not in such perplexity neither, but I asked the old pilot if
there was no creek or harbour, which I might put into, and pur-
sue my business with the Chinese privately, and be in no danger
of the enemy. He told me, if I would sail to the southward
about two-and-forty leagues, there was a little port called Quin-
chang, where the fathers of the mission usually landed from
Macao, on their progress to teach the Christian religion to the
Chinese, and where no European ships ever put in : and, if I
thought proper to put in there, I might consider what further
course to take when I was on shore. He confessed, he said, it
was not a place for merchants, except that at Some certain times
they had a kind of a fair there, when the merchants from Japan
came over thither to buy the Chinese merchandises.
We all agreed to go back to this place : the name of the port
as he called it, I may, perhaps, spell wrong, for I do not particu-
larly remember it, having lost this, together with the names of
many other places set down in a little pocket-book, which was
spoiled by the water, on an accident which I shall relate in its
order; but this I remember, that the Chinese or Japanese mer-
chants we correspond with, call it by a different name from that
which our Portugueze pilot gave it, and pronounced it as above,
Quinchang.
As we were unanimous in our resolutions to go to this place,
we weighed the next day, having only gone twice on shore, where.
we were to get fresh water; on both which occasions the people
of the country were very civil to us, and brought us abundance
of things to sell to us; I mean of provisions, plants, roots, tea,
rice, and some fowls; but nothing without money.
We came to the other port (the wind being contrary) not till
five days; but it was very much to our satisfaction, and I was joy-
ful, and I may say thankful, when I set my foot safe on shore,
resolving, and my partner too, that if it was possible to dispose
of ourselves and effects any other way, though not every way to
our satisfaction, we would never set one foot on board that un-
happy vessel again; and indeed I must acknowledge, that of all
the circumstances of life that ever I had any experience of, no-
thing makes mankind so completely miserable, as that of being
R.

386 Ll FE AND ADVENTURES
in constant fear. Well does the Scripture say, “The fear of man
brings a snare;” it is a life of death, and the mind is so entirely
oppressed by it, that it is capable of no relief; the animal spirits
sink, and all the vigour of nature, which usually supports men
under other afflictions, and is present to them in the greatest exi-
gencies, fails them here. º
Nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fancy, by
heightening every danger; representing the English and Dutch
captains to be men incapable of hearing reason, or distinguishing
between honest men and rogues; or between a story calculated
for our own turn, made out of nothing, on purpose to deceive,
and a true genuine account of our whole voyage, progress, and
design; for we might many ways have convinced any reasonable
creature that we were not pirates; the goods we had on board,
the course we steered, our frankly showing ourselves, and enter-
ing into such and such ports; even our very manner, the force
we had, the number of men, the few arms, little ammunition,
and short provisions; all these would have served to convince
any man that we were no pirates. The opium, and other goods
we had on board, would make it appear the ship had been at
Bengal; the Dutchmen, who, it was said, had the names of all
the men that were in the ship, might easily see that we were a
mixture of English, Portugueze, Indians, and but two Dutchmen
on board. These, and many other particular circumstances,
might have made it evident to the understanding of any command-
er, whose hands we might fall into, that we were no pirates.
But fear, that blind useless passion, worked another way, and
threw us into the vapours; it bewildered our understandings, and
set the imagination at work, to form a thousand terrible things,
that, perhaps, might never happen. We first supposed, as in-
deed every body had rehated to us, that the seamen on board
the English and Dutch ships, but especially the Dutch, were so
enraged at the name of a pirate, and especially at our beating
off their boats, and escaping, that they would not give themselves
Reave to inquire whether we were pirates or no; but would exe-
cute us off-hand, as we call it, without giving us any room for a
defence. We reflected, that there was really so much apparent
evidence before them, that they would scarce inquire after any
more: as, first, that the ship was certainly the same, and that
some of the seamen among them knew her, and had been on
board her; and, secondly, that when we had intelligence at the
river Cambodia, that they were coming down to examine us,
we fought their boats, and fled : so that we made no doubt they
were as fully satisfied of our being pirates, as we were satisfied
of the contrary; and I often said, I knew not but I should have
been apt to have taken the like circumstances for evidence, if
the º, and my case was theirs; and have made

of Rob IN son CRUsok. - 887
no scruple of cutting all the crew to pieces, without believing, or
perhaps considering, what they might have to offer in their de-
fence.
But let that be how it will, those were our apprehensions; and
both my partner and I too, scarce slept a night without dreaming
of halters and yard-arms; that is to say, gibbets; of fighting, and
being taken; of killing, and being killed; and one night, I was
in such a fury in my dream, fancying the Dutchmen had boarded
us, and I was knocking one of their seamen down, that I struck
my double fist against the side of the cabin Ilay in, with such a
force as wounded my hand most grievously, broke my knuckles,
and cut and bruised the flesh; so that it not only waked me out
of my sleep, but I was once afraid I should have lost two of my
fingers.
Another apprehension I had, was, of the cruel usage we should
meet with from them, if we fell into their hands: then the story
of Amboyna came into my head, and how the Dutch might, per-
haps, torture us, as they did our countrymen there; and make
some of our men, by extremity of torture, confess those crimes
they were never guilty of; own themselves, and all of us, to be
pirates; and so they would put us to death, with a formal appear-
ance of justice; and that they might be tempted to do this for
the gain of our ship and cargo, which was worth four or five
thousand pounds, put all together.
These things tormented me, and my partner too, night and
day; nor did we consider that the captains of ships have no au-
thority to act thus; and if we had surrendered prisoners to them,
they could not answer the destroying us, or torturing us, but
would be accountable for it when they came into their own
country. This, I say, gave me no satisfaction; for if they will
act thus with us, what advantage would it be to us, that they
would be called to an account for it? or, if we were first to be
murdered, what satisfaction would it be to us to have them pu-
mished when they came home?
I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections I now had
upon the past variety of my particular circumstances; how hard
I thought it was, that I, who had spent forty years in a life of
continued difficulties, and was at last come, as it were, at the
port or haven which all men drive at, viz. to have rest and
plenty, should be a volunteer in new sorrows, by my own un-
happy choice; and that I, who had escaped so many dangers in
my youth, should now come to be hanged in my old age, and in
so remote a place, for a crime I was not in the least inclined to,
much less guilty of; and in a place and circumstance, where
innocence was not like to be any protection at all to me.
After these thoughts, something of religion would come in ;
and I would be considering that this seemed to me to be a dis-
388 Ll FE AND A DVENTURES A
position of immediate Providence; and I ought to look upon it,
and submit to it as such : that although I was innocent as to
men, I was far from being innocent as to my Maker; and I
ought to look in, and examine what other crimes in my life
were most obvious to me, and for which Providence might justly
inflict this punishment as a retribution; and that I ought to sub-
mit to this, just as I would to a shipwreck, if it had pleased
God to have brought such a disaster upon me. -
In its turn, natural courage would sometimes take its place;
and then I would be talking myself up to vigorous resolution, that
I would not be taken to be barbarðusly used by a parcel of mer-
ciless wretches, in cold blood; that it was much better to have
fallen into the hands of the Savages, who were men-eaters, and
who, I was sure, would feast upon me, when they had taken me,
than by those who would perhaps glut their rage upon me by
inhuman tortures and barbarities: that, in the case of the savages,
I always resolved to die fighting to the last gasp ; and why should
I not do so now, seeing it was much more dreadfuſ, to me at
least, to think of falling into these men’s hands, than ever it
was to think of being eaten by men : for the Savages, give them
their due, would not eat a man till he was dead; and killed him
first, as we do a bullock; but that these men had many arts be-
yond the cruelty of death. Whenever these thoughts prevailed,
I was sure to put myself into a kind of fever, with the agitations
of a supposed fight; my blood would boil, and my eyes sparkle,
as if I was engaged; and I always resolved that I would take no
quarter at their hands, but even at last, if I could resist no
longer, I would blow up the ship, and all that was in her, and leave
them but little booty to boast of. --
. But by how much the greater weight the anxieties and per-
plexities of those things were to our thoughts while we were at
sea, by so much the greater was our satisfaction when we saw
ourselves on shore; and my partner told me he dreamed that he
had a very heavy load upon his back, which he was to carry up a
hill, and found that he was not able to stand long under it; but
the Portugueze pilot came, and took it off his back, and the hill
disappeared, the ground before him showing all smooth and
plain; and truly it was so ; we were all like men who had a
load taken off their backs.
OF ROBIN SO N C R USO E. 380
CHAP. XXXIII.
We arrive in China in safety—Dispose of the Ship—Description
of the Inhabitants—Arrive at Pekin, and find an opportu-
mity of returning to Europe.
For my part, I had a weight taken off from my heart, that I
was not able any longer to bear; and, as I said above, we re-
solved to go no more to sea in that ship. When we came on
shore, the old pilot, who was now our friend, got us a lodg-
ing, and a warehouse for our goods, which, by the way, was much
the same : it was a little house or hut, with a large house join-
ing to it, all built with canes, and palisadoed round with large
canes, to keep out pilfering thieves, of which it seems there were
not a few in the country. However, the magistrates allowed us a
little guard, and we had a soldier with a kind of halbert, or half-
pike, who stood sentinel at our door, to whom we allowed a pint
of rice, and a little piece of money, about the value of three-
pence, per day: so that our goods were kept very safe.
The fair or mart usually kept in this place had been over some
time; however, we found that there were three or four junks in
the river, and two Japanners; I mean ships from Japan, with
goods which they had bought in China, and were not gone away,
having Japanese merchants on shore. +
The first thing our old Portugueze pilot did for us, was to bring
us acquainted with three missionary Romish priests, who were
in the town, and who had been there some time, converting the
people to Christianity; but we thought they made but poor work
of it, and made them but sorry Christians when they had done.
However, that was not our business. One of these was a French-
man, whom they called Father Simon ; he was a jolly well-con-
ditioned man, very free in his conversation, not seeming so seri-
ous and grave as the other two did, one of whom was a Portu-
gueze, and the other a Genoese; but Father Simon was courte-
ous, easy in his manner, and very agreeable company; the other
two were more reserved, seemed rigid and austere, and applied
seriously to the work they came about, viz. to talk with, and in-
sinuate themselves among the inhabitants wherever they had op-
portunity. We often ate and drank with those men; and though,
I must confess, the conversion, as they call it, of the Chinese to
Christianity, is so far from the true conversion required to bring
heathen people to the faith of Christ, that it seems to amount to
little more than letting them know the name of Christ, say some
prayers to the Virgin Mary and her Son, in a tongue which they
understand not, and to cross themselves, and the like; yet it must
be confessed, that these religious, whom we call missionaries, have
390 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
a firm belief that these people should be saved, and that they are
the instrument of it; and, on this account, they undergo not
only the fatigue of the voyage, and hazards of living in such places,
but oftentimes death itself, with the most violent tortures, for the
sake of this work; and it would be a great want of charity in us,
whatever opinion we have of the work itself, and the manner of
their doing it, if we should not have a good opinion of their zeal,
who undertake it with so many hazards, and 3. have no prospect
of the least temporal advantage to themselves.
But to return to my story: This French priest, Father Simon,
was appointed, it seems, by order of the chief of the mission, to go
up to Pekin, the royal seat of the Chinese emperor; and waited
only for another priest, who was ordered to come to him from Ma-
cao, to go along with him ; and we scarce ever met together but
he was inviting me to go that journey with him, telling me, how
he would show me all the glorious things of that mighty empire,
and among the rest, the greatest city in the world; A city, said
he, that your London and our Paris put together, cannot be equal
to.—This was the city of Pekin, which, I confess, is very great,
and infinitely full of people; but as I looked on those things with
different eyes from other men, so I shall give my opinion of them
in few words, when I come, in the course of my travels, to speak
more particularly of them.
But first I come to my friar or missionary: Dining with him one
day, and being very merry together, I showed some little inclina-
tion to go with him; and he pressed me and my partner very
hard, and with a great many persuasions, to consent. Why, Fa-
ther Simon, says my partner, why should you desire our company
so much You know we are heretics, and you do not love us,
nor can keep us company with any pleasure.--O! says he, you
may, perhaps, be good Catholics in time; my business here is to
convert heathens, and who knows but I may eonvert you too?—
Very well, father, said I, so you will preach to us all the way.—I
won’t be troublesome to you, said he ; our religion does not di-
vest us of good manners; besides, said he, we are all here like
countrymen; and so we are, compared to the place we are in ;
and if you are Huguonots, and I a Catholic, we may be all Chris-
tians at last; at least, said he, we are all gentlemen, and we may
converse so, without being uneasy to one another.—I liked that
part of his discourse very well, and it began to put me in mind
of my priest that I had left in the Brazils; but this Father Simon
did not come up to his character by a great deal; for though
Father Simon had no appearance of a criminal levity in him nei.
ther, yet he had not that fund of Christian zeal, strict piety, and
sincere affection to religion, that my other good ecclesiastic had,
of whom I have said so much.
But to leave him a little, though he never left us, nor soliciting
of Ro BINSON GRUSGE. 391
º
us to go with him, but we had something else before us at that
time; for we had all this while our ship and our merchandise
to dispose of; and we began to be very doubtful what we should
do, for we were now in a place of very little business ; and once
I was about to venture to sail for the river of Kilam, and the
city of Nanquin; but Providence seemed now more visibly, as
I thought, than ever, to concern itself in our affairs; and I was
encouraged from this very time to think I should, one way or
other, get out of this entangled circumstance, and be brought
home to my own country again, though I had not the least view
of the manner; and when I began sometimes to think of it, could
not imagine by what method it was to be done. Providence, I
say, began here to clear up our way a little; and the first thing
that offered was, that our old Portugueze pilot brought a Japan
merchant to us, who began to inquire what goods we had ; and,
in the first place, he bought all our opium, and gave us a very
good price for it, paying us in gold by weight, some in small
pieces of their own coin, and some in small wedges, of about ten
or eleven ounces each. While we were dealing with him for our
opium, it came into my head that he might, perhaps, deal with us
for the ship too; and I ordered the interpreter to propose it to
him. He shrunk up his shoulders at it when it was first proposed
to him ; but in a few days after he came to me, with one of the
missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me he had a pro-
posal to make to me, and that was this; he had bought a great
quantity of goods of us when he had no thoughts (or proposals
made to him) of buying the ship, and that, therefore, he had not
money enough to pay for the ship; but if I would let the same
men who were in the ship navigate her, he would hire the ship
to go to Japan, and would send them from thence to the Philip-
pine Islands with another loading, which he would pay the freight
of before they went from Japan; and that, at their return, he
would buy the ship.–I began to listen to this proposal, and SQ
eager did my head still run upon rambling, that I could not but
begin to entertain a notion myself of going with him, and so to
sail from the Philippine Islands away to the South Seas; and ac-
cordingly I asked the Japanese merchant if he would not hire us
to the Philippine islands, and discharge us there. He said, no, he
could not do that, for then he could not have the return of his
cargo; but he would discharge us in Japan, he said, at the ship's
return. Well, still I was for taking him at that proposal, and go-
ing myself; but my partner, wiser than myself, persuaded me from
it, representing the dangers, as well of the seas, as of the Japan-
ese, who are a false, cruel, treacherous people; and then of the
Spaniards at the Philippines, more false, more cruel, more trea-
cherous than they,
But, to bring this long turn of our affairs to a conclusion, the

392 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
first thing we had to do was to consult with the captain of the
ship, and with the men, and know if they were willing to go
to Japan; and, while I was doing this, the young man whom,
as I said, my nephew had left with me as my companion for my
travels, came to me and told me, that he thought the voyage
promised very fair, and that there was a great prospect of ad-
vantage, and he would be very glad if I undertook it; but that if I
would not, and would give him leave, he would go as a merchant,
or how I pleased to order him; and if ever he came to England,
and I was there, and alive, he would render me a faithful ac-
count of his success, and it should be as much mine as I pleased.
I was really loath to part with him; but considering the pros-
pect of advantage, which was really considerable, and that he
was a young fellow, as likely to do well in it as any I knew, I in-
clined to let him go ; but first I told him, I would consult my
partner, and give him an answer the next day. My partner and
I discoursed about it, and my partner made a most generous of.
fer: he told me, You know it has been an unlucky ship, and we
both resolve not to go to sea in it again; if your steward (so he
called my man) will venture the voyage, I’ll leave my share of the
vessel to him, and let him make the best of it; and if we live to
meet in England, and he meets with success abroad, he shall ac-
count for one half of the profits of the ship's freight to us, the other
shall be his own.
- If my partner, who was no way concerned with my young man,
made him such an offer, I could do no less than offer him the
same; and all the ship's company being willing to go with him,
we made over half the ship to him in property, and took a writing
from him, obliging him to account for the other; and away he
went to Japan. The Japan merchant proved a very punctual ho-
nest man to him, protected him at Japan, and got him a license
to come on shore, which the Europeans in general have not
lately obtained, paid him his freight very punctually, sent him to
the Philippines, loaded him with Japan and China wares, and a
supercargo of their own, who trafficking with the Spaniards,
brought back European goods again, and a great quantity of
cloves and other spice; and there he was not only paid his freight
very well, and at a very good price, but being not willing to sell
the ship then, the merchant furnished him with goods on his
own account; that for some money and some spices of his
own, which he brought with him, he went back to the Manillas,
to the Spaniards, where he sold his cargo very well. Here, having
gotten a good acquaintance at Manilla, he got his ship made a
free ship; and the governor of Manilla hired him to go to Aca-
pulco in America, on the coast of Mexico; and gave him a license
to land there, and travel to Mexico; and to pass in any Spanish
ship to Europe, with all his men. : ... ' -
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE. 393
He made the voyage to Acapulco very happily, and there he sold
his ship; and having there also obtained allowance to travel by
land to Porto Bello, he found means, some how or other, to go to
Jamaica with all his treasure; and about eight years after came
to England, exceeding rich; of which I shall take notice in its
place; in the mean time, I return to our particular affairs.
Being now to part with the ship and ship’s company, it came
before us, of course, to consider what recompence we should give
to the two men that gave us such timely notice of the design
against us in the river of Cambodia. The truth was, they had
done us a considerable service, and deserved well at our hands;
though, by the way, they were a couple of rogues too : for, as they
believed the story of our being pirates, and that we had really run
away with the ship, they came down to us, not only to betray the
design that was formed against us, but to go to sea with us as pi-
rates; and one of them confessed afterwards, that nothing else but
the hopes of going a-roguing brought him to do it. However, the
service they did us was not the less ; and therefore, as I had pro-
mised to be grateful to them, I first ordered the money to be paid
to them, which they said was due to them on board their respec-
tive ships; that is to say, the Englishman nineteen months pay,
and to the Dutchman seven; and, over and above that, I gave
each of them a small sum of money in gold, which contented them
verywell: then I made the Englishman gunner of the ship, the
gunner being now made second mate and purser; the Dutchman
I made boatswain: so they were both very well pleased, and
proved very serviceable, being both able seamen, and very stout
fellows. -
We were now on shore in China. If I thought myself banish-
ed, and remote from my own country at Bengal, where I had many
ways to get home for my money, what could I think of myself
now, when I was gotten about a thousand leagues farther off from
home, and perfectly destitute of all manner of prospect of return
All we had for it was this, that in about four months time there
was to be another fair at that place where we were, and then we
might be able to purchase all sorts of the manufactures of the
country, and withal might possibly find some Chinese junks or
vessels from Nanquin, that would be to be sold, and would carry
us and our goods whither we pleased. This I liked very well, and
resolved to wait; besides, as our particular persons were not ob-
noxious, so if any English or Dutch ships came thither, perhaps we
might have an opportunity to load our goods, and get passage to
some other place in India nearer home.
Upon these hopes we resolved to continue here; but, to divert.
ourselves, we took two or three journies into the country. First,
we went ten days journey to see the city of Nanquin, a city well
worth seeing indeed: they say it has a million of people in it;
R 2
394 LIFE AN b ADV ENTURES
which, however, I do not behieve: it is regularly built, the streets
all exactly straight, and cross one another in direct lines, which
gives the figure of it great advantage.
But when I came to compare the miserable people of these
countries with ours; their fabrics, their manner of living, their go-
vernment, their religion, their wealth, and their glory (as some
call it,) I must confess, I do not so much as think it worth naming,
Or yºu my while to write of, or any that shall come after me to
Peaſl.
It is very observable, that we wonder at the grandeur, the
riches, the pomp, the ceremonies, the government, the manufac-
tures, the commerce, and the conduct of these people; not that
they are to be wondered at, or, indeed, in the least to be regard-
ed; but because, having first a notion of the barbarity of those
countries, the rudeness and the ignorance that prevail there, we
do not expect to find any such things so far off. t-
Otherwise, what are their buildings to the palaces and royal
buildings of Europe What their trade to the universal commerce
of England, Holland, France, and Spain : What their cities to
ours, for wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture, and an
infinite variety : What are their ports, supplied with a few junks
and barks, to our navigation, our merchants’ fleets, our large and
powerful navies : Our city of London has more trade than all their
mighty empire. One English, or Dutch, or French man of war,
of eighty guns, would fight with and, destroy all the shipping of
China. But the greatness of their wealth, their trade, the power
of their government, and strength of their armies, are surprising
to us, because, as I have said, considering them as a barbarous na-
tion of pagans, little better than savages, we did not expect such
things among them; and this, indeed, is the advantage with which
all their greatness and power is represented to us; otherwise, it
is in itself nothing at all; for, as I have said of their ships, so it
may be said of their armies and troops; all the forces of their em-
pire, though they were to bring two millions of men into the field
together, would be able to do nothing but ruin the country, and
starve themselves. If they were to besiege a strong town in Flan-
ders, or to fight a disciplined army, one line of German cuiras-
siers, or of French cavalry, would overthrow all the horse of Chi-
ma; a million of their foot could not stand before one embattled
body of our infantry, posted so as not to be surrounded, though
they were not to be one to twenty in number; nay, I do not boast,
if I say, that 30,000 German or English foot, and 10,000 French
horse, would fairly beat all the forces of China. And so of our
fortified towns, and of the art of our engineers, in assaulting and
defending towns; there is not a fortified town in China could hold
out one month against the batteries and attacks of an European
army; and at the same time, all the armies of China could never
OF ROIRIN SON CRU SOE, 395
take such a town as Dunkirk, provided it was not starved; no,
not in ten years siege. They have fire-arms, it is true, but they
are awkward, clumsy, and uncertain in going off; they have
powder, but it is of no strength; they have neither discipline in
the field, exercise in their arms, skill to attack, nor temper to re-
treat. And therefore I must confess it seemed strange to me
when I came home, and heard our people say such fine things of
the power, riches, glory, magnificence, and trade of the Chinese,
because I saw and knew that they were a contemptible herd or
crowd of ignorant, sordid slaves, subjected to a government qua-
lified only to rule such a people; and, in a word, for I am now
launched quite beside my design, I say, in a word, were not its
distance incomeeivably great from Muscovy, and were not the
Muscovite empire almost as rude, impotent, and ill-governed a
crowd of slaves as they, the czar of Muscovy might, with much
ease, drive them all out of their country, and conquer them in one
campaign; and had the czar, who I since hear is a growing prince,
and begins to appear formidable in the world, fallen this way, in-
stead of attacking the warlike Swedes, in which attempt mone of
the powers of Europe would have envied or interrupted him;
he might, by this time, have been emperor of China, instead of
being beaten by the king of Sweden at Narva, when the latter
was not one to six in number. As their strength and their gran-
deur, so their navigation, commerce, and husbandry, are imperfect
and impotent, compared to the same things in Europe. Also, in
their knowledge, their learning, their skill in the sciences; they
have globes and spheres, and a smatch of the knowledge of the
mathematics; but when you come to inquire into their knowledge,
how short-sighted are the wisest of their students | They know
nothing of the motion of the heavenly bodies; and so grossly, ab-
surdly ignorant, that when the sun is eclipsed, they think it is a
great dragon has assaulted and run away with it; and they fall
a-clattering with all the drums and kettles in the country, to fright
the monster away, just as we do to hive a swarm of bees.
As this is the only excursion of this kind which I have made
in all the account I have given of my travels, so I shall make no
more descriptions of countries and people: it is none of my busi-
ness, or any part of my design; but giving an account of my own
adventures, through a life of infinite wanderings, and a long variety
of changes, which, perhaps, few have heard the like of, I shall say
nothing of the mighty places, desart countries, and numerous peo-
ple, I have yet to pass through, more than relates to my own story,
and which my concern among them will make necessary, I was
now, as near as I can compute, in the heart of China, about the
latitude of thirty degrees north of the line, for we were returned
from Nanquin; I had indeed a mind to see the city of Pekin,
which I had heard so much of, and Father Simon importuned


306 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
me daily to do it. At length his time of going away being set,
and the other missionary who was to go with him being arrived
from Macoa, it was necessary that we should resolve either to go,
or not to go ; so I referred him to my partner, and left it wholly
to his choice, who at length resolved it in the affirmative, and
we prepared for our journey. We set out with very good advan-
tage, as to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in the re-
tinue of one of their mandarins, a kind of viceroy, or principal
magistrate, in the province where they reside, and who take great
state upon them, travelling with great attendance, and with great
homage from the people, who are sometimes greatly impoverished
by them, because all the countries they pass through are obliged
to furnish provisions for them, and all their attendants. That
which I particularly observed, as to our travelling with his bag-
gage, was this; that though we received sufficient provisions,
both for ourselves and our horses, from the country, as belong-
ing to the mandarin, yet we were obliged to pay for every thing
we had after the market-price of the country, and the mandarin's
steward, or commissary of the provisions, collected it duly from us;
so that our travelling in the retinue of the mandarin, though it was
a very great kindness to us, was not such a mighty favour in him,
but was, indeed, a great advantage to him, considering there
were about thirty other people travelling in the same manner be-
sides us, under the protection of his retinue, or, as we may call
it, under his convoy. This, I say, was a great advantage to him ;
for the country furnished all the provisions for nothing, and he
took all our money for them.
We were five-and-twenty days travelling to Pekin, through a
country infinitely populous, but miserably cultivated ; the hus-
bandry, economy, and the way of living, all very miserable, though
they boast so much of the industry of the people: I say misera-
ble; and so, it is ; if we, who understand how to live, were to en-
dure it, or to compare it with our own ; but not so to these poor
wretches, who know no other. The pride of these people is infi-
nitely great, and exceeded by nothing but their poverty, which
adds to that which I call their misery. I must needs think the
naked savages of America live much more happy, because, as they
have nothing, so they desire nothing ; whereas these are proud
and insolent, and, in the main, are mere beggars and drudges;
their ostentation is inexpressible, and is chiefly showed in their
clothes and buildings, and in the keeping multitudes of servants
or slaves, and, which is to the last degree ridiculous, their con-
tempt of all the world but themselves.
I must confess, I travelled more pleasantly afterwards, in the
desarts and vast wildernesses of Grand Tartary, than here; and
yet the roads here are well paved and well kept, and very conve-
nient for travellers; but nothing was more awkward to me than
of Robinson cruso E 397
to see such a haughty, imperious, insolent people, in the midst of
the grossest simplicity and ignorance; for all their famed ingenu-
ity is no more. My friend Father Simon, and I, used to be very
merry upon these occasions, to see the beggarly pride of those
people. For example, coming by the house of a country gentleman,
as Father Simon called him, about ten leagues off from the city of
Nanquin, we had, first of all, the honour to ride with the master
of the house about two miles; the state he rode in was a perfect
Don Quixotism, being a mixture of pomp and poverty.
The habit of this greasy Don was very proper for a scaramouch,
or merry-andrew; being a dirty calico, with all the tawdry trappings
of a fool’s coat, such as hanging sleeves, taffety, and cuts and
slashes almost on every side ; it covered a rich taffety vest, as
greasy as a butcher, and which testified, that his honour must needs
be a most exquisite sloven.
His horse was a poor, lean, starved, hobbling creature, such as
in England might sell for about thirty or forty shillings; and he had
two slaves followed him on foot, to drive the poor creature along:
he had a whip in his hand, and he belaboured the beast as fast
about the head as his slaves did about the tail; and thus he
rode by us with about ten or twelve servants : and we were told
he was going from the city to his country-seat, about half a league
before us. We travelled on gently, but this figure of a gentle-
man rode away before us; and as we stopped at a village about
an hour to refresh us, when we came by the country-seat of this
great man, we saw him in a little place before his door, eating
his repast; it was a kind of a garden, but he was easy to be
seen ; and we were given to understand, that the more we looked
on him, the better he would be pleased.
He sat under a tree, something like the palmetto-tree, which
effectually shaded him over the head, and on the south side; but
under the tree also was placed a large umbrella, which made
that part look well enough: he sat lolling back in a great elbow-
chair, being a heavy corpulent man, and his meat being brought
him by two women-slaves : he had two more, whose office, I
think, few gentlemen in Europe would accept of their service in,
viz. one fed the 'squire with a spoon, and the other held the dish
with one hand, and scraped off what he let fall upon his worship's
beard and taffety vest, with the other; while the great fat brute
thought it below him to employ his own hands in any of those
familiar offices, which kings and monarchs would rather do than
be troubled with the clumsy fingers of their servants.
I touk this time to think what pain men’s pride puts them to,
and how troublesome a haughty temper, thus ill-managed, must
be to a man of common sense; and, leaving the poor wretch to
please himself with our looking at him, as if we admired his pomp,
whereas we really pitied and contemned him, we pursued our

398 I.I.P.E AND ADVENTURES
...”
journey; only Father Simon had the curiosity to stay to inform
himself what dainties the country justice had to feed on, in all his
state; which he said he had the honour to taste of, and which
was, I think, a dose that an English hound would scarce have eat-
en, if it had been º viz. a mess of boiled rice, with a
great piece of garlie in it, and a little bag filled with green pep-
per, and another plant which they have there, something like
our ginger, but smelling like musk, and tasting like mustard: all
this was put together, and a small lump or piece of lean mutton
boiled in it; and this was his worship's repast, four or five ser-
vants more attending at a distance. If he fed them meaner than
he was fed himself, the spice excepted, they must fare very coarse-
ly indeed.
As for our mandarin with whom we travelled, he was respect
ed like a king; surrounded always with his gentlemen, and at-
tended in all his appearances with such pomp, that I saw little of
him but at a distance; but this I observed, that there was not a
horse in his retinue, but that our carriers’ packhorses in England
seem to me to look much better; but they were so covered with
equipage, mantles, trappings, and such like trumpery, that you can-
not see whether they are fat or lean. In a word, we could scarce
see any thing but their feet and their heads.
I was now light-hearted, and all my trouble and perplexity that I
had given an account of being over, I had no anxious thoughts
about me; which made this journey much the pleasanter to me:
nor had I any ill accident attended me, only in the passing or
fording a small river, my horse fell, and made me free of the coun-
try, as they call it; that is to say, threw me in : the place was
not deep, but it wetted me all over : I mention it, because it spoil-
ed my pocket-book, wherein I had set down the names of seve-
ral people and places which I had occasion to remember, and which
not taking due care of, the leaves rotted, and the words were never
after to be read, to my great loss as to the names of some places
which I touched at in this voyage.
At length we arrived at Pekin: I had nobody with me but the
youth, whom my nephew the captain had given me to attend me
as a servant, and who proved very trusty and diligent; and my
partner had nobody with him but one servant, who was a kinsman.
As for the Portugueze pilot, he being desirous to see the court,
we gave him his passage, that is to say, bore, his charges for his
company; and to use him as an interpreter, for he understood
the language of the country, and spoke good French and a little
English; and, indeed, this old man was a most useful implement
to us every where; for we had not been above a week at Pekin,
when he came laughing: Ah, Seignior Inglese, said he, I have
something to tell you, will make your heart glad—My heart glad |
said I; what can that be 2 I don’t know any thing in this country
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE. 399
ean either give me joy or grief, to any great degree.—Yes, yes,
said the old man, in broken English, make you glad, me sorrow ;
sorry he would have said.—This made me more inquisitive. Why,
said I, will it make you sorry —Because, said he, you have
brought me here twenty-five days journey, and will leave me to go
back alone; and which way shall I get to my port afterwards,
without a ship, without a horse, without pecune? so he called
money; being his broken Latin, of which he had abundance to
make us merry with.
In short, he told us there was a great caravan of Muscovy and
Polish merchants in the city, and that they were preparing to set
out on their journey by land, to Muscovy, within four or five weeks,
and he was sure we would take the opportunity to go with them,
and leave him behind to go back alone. I confess I was surpri-
sed with this news: a secret joy spread itself over my whole soul,
which I cannot describe, and never felt before or since, and I had
no power, for a good while, to speak a word to the old man;
but at last I turned to him : How do you know this? said I; are
you sure it is true?—Yes, he said, I met this morning in the street
an old acquaintance of mine, an Armenian, or one you call a
Grecian, who is among them; he came last from Astracan, and
was designing to go to Tonquin, where I formerly knew him, but
has altered his mind, and is now resolved to go back with the
caravan to Moscow, and so down the river of Wolga to Astracan.
—Well, Seignior, said I, do not be uneasy about being left to go
back alone; if this be a method for my return to England, it shall
be your fault if you go back to Macao at all.—We then went to
consult together what was to be done, and I asked my partner
what he thought of the pilot’s news, and whether it would suit
with his affairs: he told me he would do just as I would ; for he
had settled all his affairs so well at Bengal, and left his effects in
such good hands, that as we made a good voyage here, if he could
vest it in China silks wrought and raw, such as might be worth the
carriage, he would be content to go to England, and then make
his voyage back to Bengal by the Company’s ships.

CHAP, XXXIV.
Set out by the Caravan—Account of the valuable Effects we took
with us–Further Description of the Interior of China—Pass
the great Wall—Attacked by Tartars, who are dispersed by the
Resolution of a Scots Merchant—The old Pilot saves my Life—
We are again attacked, and defeat the Tartars.
HAVING resolved upon this, we agreed, that, if our Portugueze
pilot would go with us, we would bear his charges to Moscow, or
400 LIFE AND A D VENTE U RES
to England, if he pleased; mor, indeed, were we to be esteemed
over-generous in that part neither, if we had not rewarded him
farthér; for the service he had done us was really worth all that,
and more ; for he had not only been a pilot to us at sea, but he
had been also like a broker for us on shore; and his procuring
for us the Japan merchant was some hundreds of pounds in our
pockets. So we consulted together about it; and, being willing
to gratify him, which was, indeed, but doing him justice, and very
willing also to have him with us besides, for he was a most ne-
cessary man on all occasions, we agreed to give him a quantity of
coined gold, which, as I compute it, came to about one hundred
and seventy-five pounds sterling between us, and to bear his char-
ges, both for himself and horse, except only a horse to carry his
goods.
Having settled this among ourselves, we called him to let him
know what we had resolved: I told him, he had complained of our
being like to let him go back alone, and I was now to tell him we
were resolved he should not go back at all; that as we had re-
solved to go to Europe with the caravan, we resolved also he
should go with us, and that we called him. to know his mind.
He shook his head, and said it was a long journey, and he had
no pecune to carry him thither, nor to subsist himself when he
came thither. We told him, we believed it was so, and there-
fore we had resolved to do something for him, that should let him.
see how sensible we were of the service he had done us; and also
how agreeable he was to us: and then I told him what we had
resolved to give him here, which he might lay out as we would do
our own; and that as for his charges, if he would go with us,
we would set him safe ashore (life and casualties excepted,) either
in Muscovy or in England, which he would, at our own charge,
except only the carriage of his goods. s'
He received the proposal like a man transported, and told us,
he would go with us over the whole world; and so, in short, we
all prepared ourselves for the journey. However, as it was with
us, so it was with the other merchants, they had many things
to do; and instead of being ready in five weeks, it was four
months and some odd days before all things were got together.
It was the beginning of February, our style, when we set out
from Pekin. My partner and the old pilot had gone express back
to the port where we had first put in, to dispose of some goods
which we had left there; and I, with a Chinese merchant, whom
I had some knowledge of at Nanquin, and who came to Pekin
on his own affairs, went to Nanquin, where I bought ninety pieces
of fine damasks, with about two hundred pieces of other very fine
silks, of several sorts, some mixed with gold, and had all these
brought to Pekin against my partner’s return: besides this, we
bought a very large quantity of raw silk, and some other goods;
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO.E. 401
eur cargo amounting, in these goods only, to about three thou-
sand five hundred pounds sterling, which, together with tea, and
some fine calicoes, and three camel-loads of nutmegs and cloves,
loaded in all eighteen camels for our share, besides those we rode
upon; which, with two or three spare horses, and two horses
loaded with provisions, made us, in short, twenty-six camels and
horses in our retinue,
The company was very great, and, as near as I can remember,
made between three and four hundred horses and camels, and
upward of a hundred and twenty men, very well armed, and pro-
vided for all events. For, as the eastern caravans are subject to
be attacked by the Arabs, so are these by the Tartars; but they
are not altogether so dangerous as the Arabs, nor so barbarous
when they prevail.
The company consisted of people of several nations, such as
the Muscovites chiefly; for there were about sixty of them who
were merchants or inhabitants of Moscow, though of them some
were Livonians : and to our particular satisfaction, five of them
were Scots, who appeared also to be men of great experience in
business, and very good substance. +:
When we had travelled one day's journey, the guides, who
were five in number, called all the gentlemen and merchants,
that is to say, all the passengers, except the servants, to a great
council, as they termed it. At this great council every one de-
posited a certain quantity of money to a common stock, for the
necessary expense of buying forage on the way, where it was not
otherwise to be had, and for satisfying the guides, getting horses,
and the like. And here they constituted the journey, as they
called it, viz. they named captains and officers to draw us all up,
and give the command in case of an attack; and gave every one
their turn of command. Nor was this forming us into order any
more than what we found needful upon the way, as shall be ob-
served in its place.
The road all on this side of the country is very populous, and
is full of potters and earth-makers; that is to say, people that tem-
pered the earth for the China ware; and, as I was going along,
our Portugueze pilot, who had always something or other to say
to make us merry, came sneering to me, and told me, he would
show the greatest rarity in all the country; and that I should have
this to say of China, after all the ill-humoured things I had said
of it, that I had seen one thing which was not to be seen in all
the world beside. I was very importunate to know what it was ;
at last he told me, it was a gentleman's house, built all with China ,
ware.—Well, said I, are not the materials of their building the
product of their own country; and so it is all China ware, is it
mot ?—No, no, says he, I mean, it is a house all made of China
ware, such as you call so in England; or, as it is called in our
40? I, IFE A N E A DV ENTURES
country, porcelain.—Well, said I, such a thing may be : how big
is it? can we carry it in a box upon a camel: If we can, we
will buy it.—Upon a camel ! said the old pilot, holding up both
his hands; why, there is a family of thirty people lives in it.
i was then curious indeed to see it ; and when I came to see
it, it was nothing but this: it was a timber house, or a house built,
as we call it in England, with lath and plaster, but all the plas-
tering was really Chiaa ware, that is to say, it was plastered with
the earth that makes China ware.
The outside, which the sun shone hot upon, was glazed, and
looked very well, perfectly white, and painted with blue figures,
as the large China ware in England is painted, and hard, as if it
had been burnt. As to the inside, all the walls, instead of wain-
scot, were lined with hard and painted tiles, like the little square
tiles we call galley tiles in England, all made of the finest china,
and the figures exceeding fine indeed, with extraordinary variety
of colours, mixed with gold, many tiles making but one figure,
but joined so artificially with mortar, being made of the same
earth, that it was very hard to see where the tiles met. The
floors of the rooms were of the same composition, and as hard
as the earthen floors we have in use in several parts of England,
especially Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, &c. as
hard as stone, and smooth, but not burnt and painted, except
Some smaller rooms, like closets, which were all, as it were, paved
with the same tile: the ceiling, and, in a word, all the plastering
work in the whole house, were of the same earth ; and after
all, the roof was covered with tiles of the same, but of a deep
shining black.
This was a china warehouse indeed, truly and literally to be
called so ; and had I not been upon the journey, I could have
staid some days to see and examine the particulars of it. They
told me there were fountains and fish-ponds in the garden, all
paved at the bottom and sides with the same, and fine statues set
up in rows on the walks, entirely formed of the porcelain earth,
and burnt whole.
As this is one of the singularities of China, so they may be al-
lowed to excel in it; but I am very sure they excel in their ac-
counts of it; for they told me such incredible things of their per-
formance in crockery-ware, for such it is, that I care not to re-
late, as knowing it could not be true.—One told me, in particu-
lar, of a workman that made a ship, with all its tackle, and
masts, and sails, in earthen-ware, big enough to carry fifty men.
If he had told me he launched it, and made a voyage to Japan
in it, I might have said something to it indeed; but as it was, I
knew the whole story, which was, in short, asking pardon for the
word, that the fellow bied ; so I smiled, and said nothing to it.
This odd sight kept me two hours behind the caravan, for
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 403
which the leader of it for the day fined me about the value of
three shillings; and told me, if it had been three days journey
without the wall, as it was three days within, he must have fined
me four times as much, and made me ask pardon the next coun-
cil-day: so I promised to be more orderly; for, indeed, I found
afterwards the orders made for keeping all together were abso-
lutely necessary for our common safety.
In two days more we passed the great China wall, made for a
fortification against the Tartars; and a very great work it is,
going over hills and mountains in an endless track, where the
rocks are impassable, and the precipices such as no enemy could
possibly enter, or, indeed, climb up, or where, if they did, no wall
could hinder them. They tell us, its length is near a thousand
English miles, but that the country is five hundred, in a straight
measured line, which the wall bounds, without measuring the
windings and turnings it takes: it is about four fathom high, and
as many thick in some places.
I stood still an hour, or thereabouts, without trespassing on our
orders, for so long the caravan was in passing the gate; I say, I
stood still an hour to look at it, on every side, near and far off;
I mean, what was within my view ; and the guide of our caravan,
who had been extolling it for the wonder of the world, was mighty
eager to hear my opinion of it. I told him it was a most excellent
thing to keep off the Tartars, which he happened not to under-
stand as I meant it, and so took it for a compliment: but the
old pilot laughed: O Seignior Inglese, said he, you speak in co-
lours.—In colours said I, what do you mean by that 2—Why,
you speak what looks white this way, and black that way: gay
one way, and dull another way: you tell him it is a good wall
to keep out Tartars : you tell me, by that, it is good for nothing
but to keep out Tartars; or, will keep out none but Tartars. I
understand you, Seignior Inglese, I understand you, said he,
joking; but Seignior Chinese understand you his own way.
Well, said I, seignior, do you think it would stand out an army
of our country-people, with a good train of artillery; or our en-
gineers, with two companies of miners : Would they not batter
it down in ten days, that an army might enter in battalia, or
blow it up in the air, foundation and all, that there should be no
sign of it left?–Ay, ay, said he, I know that.—The Chinese
wanted mightily to know what I said, and I gave him leave to tell
him a few days after, for we were then almost out of their coun-
try, and he was to leave us in a little time afterwards; but when
he knew what I had said, he was dumb all the rest of the way,
and we heard no more of his fine story of the Chinese power
and greatness while he staid.
After we had passed this mighty nothing, called a wall, some-
thing like the Picts wall, so famous in Northumberland, and
404 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
built by the Romans, we began to find the country thinly inha-
bited, and the people rather confined to live in fortified towns and
cities, as being subject to the inroads and depredations of the
Tartars, who rob in great armies, and therefore are not be resist-
ed by the naked inhabitants of an open country. -
And here I began to find the necessity of keeping together in
a caravan, as we travelled ; for we saw several troops of Tartars
roving about ; but when I came to see them distinctly, I wonder-
ed how that the Chinese empire could be conquered by such con-
temptible fellows; for they are a mere herd or crowd of wild fel-
lows, keeping no order, and understanding no discipline, or man-
ner of fight. &
Their lorses are poor, lean, starved creatures, taught nothing,
and are fit for nothing; and this was found the first day we saw
them, which was after we entered the wilder part of the country.
Our leader for the day gave leave for about sixteen of us to go
a-huniting, as they call it; and what was this but hunting of sheep !
However, it may be called hunting too; for the creatures are the
wildest and swiftest of foot, that ever I saw of their kind; only they
will not run a great way, and you are sure of sport when you
begin the chase; for they appear generally by thirty or forty in a
flock, and, like true sheep, always keep together when they fly.
ln pursuit of this odd sort of game, it was our hap to meet
with about forty Tartars : whether they were hunting mutton as
we were, or whether they looked for another kind of prey, I know
not, but as soon as they saw us, one of them blew a kind of horn
very loud, but with a barbarous sound that I had never heard be-
fore, and, by the way, never care to hear again. We all supposed
this was to call their friends about them; and so it was ; for in
less than half a quarter of an hour, a troop of forty or fifty more
appeared at about a mile distance; but our work was over first,
as t happened.
One of the Scots merchants of Moscow happened to be amongst
us; and as soon as he heard the horn, he told us, in short, that
we had nothing to do but to charge them immediately, without loss
of time; and, drawing us up in a line, he asked, if we were re-
solved : We told him, we were ready to follow him; so he rode
directly up to them. They stood gºzing at us, like a mere crowd,
drawn up in no order, nor showing the face of any order at all;
but as soon as they saw us advance, they let fly their arrows;
which, however, missed us very happily : it seems they mistook
not their aim, but their distance; for their arrows all fell a little
short of us, but with so true an aim, that had we been about
twenty yards nearer, we must have had several men wounded, if
not killed.
Immediately we halted; and though it was at a great distance,
we fired, and sent them leaden bullets for wooden arrows, fol-
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. 405
lowing our shot full gallop, resolving to fall in among them sword
in hand; for so our bold Scot that led us directed. He was,
indeed, but a merchant, but he behaved with that vigour and
bravery on this occasion, and yet with such a cool courage too,
that l never saw any man in action fitter for command. As soon
as we came up to them, we fired our pistols in their faces, and
then drew; but they fled in the greatest confusion imaginable;
the only stand any of them made was on our right, where three
of them stood, and by signs called the rest to come back to them,
having a kind of scymitar in their hands, and their bows hanging
at their backs. Our brave commander, without asking any body
to follow him, galloped up close to them, and with his fusil,
knocked one of them off his horse, killed the second with his
pistol, and the third ran away; and thus ended our fight; but we
had this misfortune attending it, viz. that all our mutton that we
had in chase got away. We had not a man killed or hurt; but,
as for the Tartars, there were about five of them killed ; how
many were wounded, we knew not ; but this we knew, that the
other party was so frighted with the noise of our guns, that they
fled, and never made any attempt upon us.
We were all this while in the Chinese dominions, and therefore
the Tartars were not so bold as afterwards; but in about five days
we entered a vast great wild desart, which held us three days and
nights march; and we were obliged to carry our water with us in
great leather bottles, and to encamp all might, just as I have heard
they do in the desarts of Arabia.
I asked our guides, whose dominion this was in and they
told me this was a kind of border that might be called No Man’s
Land; being part of the Great Karakathy, or Grand Tartary; but
that, however, it was reckoned to China; that there was no care
taken here to preserve it from the inroads of thieves; and there-
fore it was reckoned the worst desart in the whole march, though
we were to go over some much larger.
In passing this wilderness, which, I confess, was at the first view
very frightful to me, we saw two or three times little parties of
the Tartars, but they seemed to be upon their own affairs, and to
have no design upon us; and so, like the man who met the devil,
if they had nothing to say to us, we had nothing to say to them ;
we let them go.
Once, however, a party of them came so near as to stand and
gaze at us; whether it was to consider what they should do, viz.
to attack us or not attack us, we knew not; but when we were
passed at some distance by them, we made a rear guard of forty
men, and stood ready for them, letting the caravan pass half a mile,
or thereabouts, before us. After a while they marched off, only
we found they assaulted us with five arrows at their parting; one
Sº 2
of which wounded a horse so that it disabled him ; and we left him
406 LIFE AN ID A DVENTURES
the next day, poor creature, in great need of a good farrier. We
suppose they might shoot more arrows, which might fall short of
us; but we saw no more arrows, or Tartars, at that time.
We travelled near a month after this, the ways being not so
good as at first, though still in the dominions of the emperor of
China; but lay, for the most part, in villages, some of which
were fortified, because of the incursions of the Tartars. When
we came to one of these towns (it was about two days and a
half’s journey before we were to come to the city of Naum), I
wanted to buy a camel, of which there are plenty to be sold all
the way upon that road, and of horses also, such as they are,
because so many caravans coming that way, they are very often
wanted. The person that I spoke to, to get me a camel, would have
gone and fetched it for me ; but I, like a fool, must be officious,
and go myself along with him. The place was about two miles
out of the village, where, it seems, they kept the camels and horses
feeding under a guard. J.
I walked it on foot, with my old pilot in company, and a Chi-
mese, being desirous, forsooth, of a little variety. When we came
to this place, it was a low marshy ground, walled round with a
stone wall, piled up dry, without mortar or earth among it, like a
park, with a little guard of Chinese soldiers at the doors. Having
bought a camel, and agreed for the price, I came away; and the
Chinese man, that went with me, led the camel, when on a sudden
came up five Tartars on horseback; two of them seized the fellow,
and took the camel from him, while the other three stepped up to
me and my old pilot; seeing us, as it were, unarmed, for I had no
weapon about me but my sword, which could but ill defend me
against three horsemen. The first that came up stopped short up-
on my drawing my sword, (for they are arrant cowards;) but a
Second coming upon my left, gave me a blow on the head, which
I never felt till afterwards, and wondered, when I came to myself,
what was the matter with me, and where I was, for he laid me
flat on the ground; but my never-failing old pilot, the Portu-
gueze (so Providence, unlooked for, directs deliverances from dam-
gers, which to us are unforeseen,) had a pistol in his pocket, which
I knew nothing of, nor the Tartars neither; if they had, I sup-
pose they would not have attacked us; but cowards are always
boldest when there is no danger.
The old man, seeing me down, with a bold heart stepped up to
the fellow that had struck me, and laying hold of his arm with one
hand, and pulling him down by main force a little towards him
with the other, he shot him into the head, and laid him dead on
the spot; he then immediately stepped up to him who had stopped
us, as I said, and before he could come forward again (for it was
all done as it were in a monient) made a blow at him with a scymi-
tar, which he always wore, but missing the man, cut his horse in-
OF RO BIN SO N C R U S O E. 407
to the side of his head, cut one of his ears off by the root, and a
great slice down the side of his face. The poor beast, enraged
with the wounds, was no more to be governed by his rider, though
the fellow sat well enough too; but away he flew, and carried
him quite out of the pilot's reach ; and, at some distance, rising
upon his hind legs, threw down the Tartar, and fell upon him.
In this interval the poor Chinese came in, who had lost the
camel, but he had no weapon; however, seeing the Tartar down,
and his horse fallen upon him, he runs to him, and seizing upon
an ugly ill-favoured weapon he had by his side, something like a
pole-axe, but not a pole-axe either, he wrenched it from him, and
made shift to knock his Tartarian brains out with it. But my
eld man had the third Tartar to deal with still; and, seeing he
did not fly as he expected, nor come on to fight him, as he appre-
hended, but stood stock still, the old man stood still too, and falls
to work with his tackle to charge his pistol again; but as soon as
the Tartar saw the pistol, whether he supposed it to be the same
or another, I know not, but away he scoured, and left my pilot,
my champion I called him afterwards, a complete victory.
By this time I was a little awake; for I thought, when I first
began to awake, that I had been in a sweet sleep; but as I said
above, I wondered where I was, how I came upon the ground,
and what was the matter: in a word, a few minutes after, as sense
returned, I felt pain, though I did not know where; I clapped my
hand to my head, and took it away bloody; then I felt my head
ache, and then, in another moment, memory returned, and every
thing was present to me again.
I jumped up upon my feet instantly, and got hold of my sword,
but no enemies in view. I found a Tartar lie dead, and his
horse standing very quietly by him; and looking farther, I saw my
champion and deliverer, who had been to see what the Chinese
had done, coming back with his hanger in his hand. The old
man, seeing me on my feet, came running to me, and embraced
me with a great deal of joy, being afraid before that I had been
killed; and seeing me bloody, would see how I was hurt; but it
was not much, only what we call a broken head; neither did I
afterwards find any great inconvenience from the blow, other than
the place which was hurt, and which was well again in two or
three days.
We made no great gain, however, by this victory; for we lost
a camel, and gained a horse: but that which was remarkable, when
we came back to the village, the man demanded to be paid for the
camel. I disputed it, and it was brought to a hearing before the
Chinese judge of the place; that is to say, in English, we went be-
fore a justice of the peace. Give him his due, he acted with a great
deal of prudence and in partiality; and having heard both sides,
he gravely asked the Chinese man that went with me to buy the
408 LIFE ATN D A DVENTURES
camel, whose servant he was 3–I am no servant, said he, but
went with the stranger.—At whose request ? said the justice.—
At the stranger’s request, said he.—Why then, said the justice,
you were the stranger's servant for the time; and the camel be-
ing delivered to his servant, it was delivered to him, and he must
pay for it.
I confess the thing was so clear, that I had not a word to say;
but admiring to see such just reasoning upon the consequence,
and so accurate stating the case, I paid willingly for the camel,
and sent for another; but you may observe, I sent for it; I did
not go to fetch it myself any more; I had had enough of that.
The city of Naum is a frontier of the Chinese empire: they
call it fortified, and so it is as fortifications go there; for this I will
venture to affirm, that all the Tartars in Karakathy, which, I be-
lieve, are some millions, could not batter down the walls with
their bows and arrows; but to call it strong, if it were attacked
with cannon, would be to make those who understand it laugh at
OUI.
We wanted, as I have said, about two days journey of this city,
when messengers were sent express to every part of the road, to
tell all travellers and caravans to halt, till they had a guard sent
to them ; for that an unusual body of Tartars, making ten thou-
sand in all, had appeared in the way, about thirty miles beyond
the city.
This was very bad news to travellers: however, it was carefully
done of the governor, and we were very glad to hear we should
have a guard. Accordingly, two days after, we had two hundred
soldiers sent us from a garrison of the Chinese on our left, and
three hundred more from the city of Naum, and with those we
advanced boldly : the three hundred soldiers from Naum march-
ed in our front, the two hundred in our rear, and our men on
each side of our camels with our baggage, and the whole caravan
in our centre. In this order, and well prepared for battle, we
thought ourselves a match for the whole ten thousand Mogul Tar-
tars, if they had appeared; but the next day, when they did ap-
pear, it was quite another thing. *
It was early in the morning, when marching from a little well-
situated town, called Changu, we had a river to pass, where we .
were obliged to ferry; and had the Tartars had any intelligence,
then had been the time to have attacked us, when, the caravan
being over, the rear guard was behind ; but they did not appear
there.
About three hours after, when we were entered upon a desart
of about fifteen or sixteen miles over, behold, by a cloud of dust
they raised, we saw an enemy was at hand; and they were at
hand indeed, for they came on upon the spur.
The Chinese, our guard on the front, who had talked so big the
6
OF ROBIN SON CRU SO E. 409
day before, began to stagger, and the soldiers frequently looked
behind them ; which is a certain sign in a soldier, that he is just
ready to run away. My old pilot was of my mind; and being
near me, he called out: Seignior Inglese, said he, those fellows
must be encouraged, or they will ruin us all ; for if the Tartars
come on, they will never stand it.—I am of your mind, said I :
but what course must be done?—Done? said he ; let fifty of our
men advance, and flank them on each wing, and encourage them,
and they will fight like brave fellows in brave company; but with-
out it, they will every man turn his back.-Immediately I rode
up to our leader, and told him, who was exactly of our mind; and
accordingly fifty of us marched to the right wing, and fifty to the
left, and the rest made a line of reserve; for so we marched,
leaving the last two hundred men to make another body to them-
selves, and to guard the camels; only that if need were, they
should send a hundred men to assist the last fifty.
In a word, the Tartars came on, and an innumerable company
they were ; how many, we could not tell, but ten thousand we
thought was the least. A party of them came on first, and viewed
our posture, traversing the ground in the front of our line; and
as we found them within gun-shot, our leader ordered the two
wings to advance swiftly and give them a salvo on each wing
with their shot, which was done ; but they went off, and I sup-
pose went back to give an account of the reception they were.
like to meet with ; and, indeed, that salute clogged their sto-
machs; for they immediately halted, stood a while to consider of it,
and, wheeling off to the left, they gave over the design, and said
no more to us for that time; which was very agreeable to our cir-
cumstances, which were but very indifferent for a battle with such
a number.
CHAP. XXXV.
Further Account of our Journey—Description of an Idol; which
we destroy—Great Danger we incur thereby—Account of our
Travels through Muscovy.
Two days after this we came to the city of Naum, or Naunm.
We thanked the governor for his care for us, and collected to
the value of one hundred crowns, or thereabouts, which we gave
to the soldiers sent to guard us; and here we rested one day.
This is a garrison indeed, and there were nine hundred soldiers
kept here; but the reason of it was, that formerly the Muscovite
frontiers lay nearer to them than they do now, the Muscovites ha-
ving abandoned that part of the country (which lies from the city
west, for about two hundred miles) as desolate and unfit for use,
S &
410 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
and more especially, being so very remote, and so difficult to send
troops hither for its defence; for we had yet above two thousand
miles to Muscovy, properly so called. *
After this we passed several great rivers, and two dreadful de-
sarts, one of which we were sixteen days passing over, and which,
as I said, was to be called No Man’s Land; and on the 13th of
April we came to the frontiers of the Muscovite dominions. I
think the first city, or town, or fortress, whatever it might be call-
ed, that belonged to the czar of Muscovy, was called Argun, be-
ing on the west side of the river Argun.
I could not but discover an infinite satisfaction, that I was now
arrived in, as I called it, a Christian country ; or, at least, in a
country governed by Christians : for though the Muscovites do,
in my opinion, but just deserve the name of Christians, (yet such
they pretend to be, and are very devout in their way). It would
certainly occur to any man who travels the world as I have done,
and who had any power of reflection ; I say, it would occur to
him, to reflect, what a blessing it is to be brought into the world
where the name of God, and of a Redeemer, is known, worship-
ped and adored—and not where the people, given up by Heaven
to strong delusions, worship the devil, and prostrate themselves
to stocks and stones; worship monsters, elements, horrible-sha-
ped animals, and statues, or images, of monsters. Not a town or
city we passed through but had their pagods, their idols, and their
temples; and ignorant people worshipping even the works of their
own hands! -
Now we came where, at least, a face of the Christian worship
appeared, where the knee was bowed to Jesus; and whether ig-
norantly or not, yet the Christian religion was owned, and the
name of the true God was called upon and adored ; and it made
the very recesses of my soul rejoice to see it. I saluted the brave
Scotch merchant I mentioned above, with my first acknowledge-
ment of this ; and taking him by the hand, I said to him, Bless-
ed be God, we are once again come among Christians ? He
smiled, and answered, Do not rejoice too soon, countryman;
these Muscovites are but an odd sort of Christians and but for
the name of it, you may see very little of the substance for some
months farther of our journey.
Well, said I, but still it is better than paganism, and worship-
ping of devils—Why, I’ll tell you, said he; except the Russian
soldiers in garrisons, and a few of the inhabitants of the cities
upon the road, all the rest of this country, for above a thousand
miles farther, is inhabited by the worst and most ignorant of pa
gans. And so indeed we found it. .
We were now launched into the greatest piece of solid earth,
if I understand any thing of the surface of the globe, that is to be
found in any part of the world; we had at least twelve hundred
OF ROBIN SON CR USOE, 41 i.
miles to the sea, eastward; we had at least two thousand to the
bottom of the Baltic Sea, westward ; and almost three thousand
miles, if we left that sea and went on west to the British and
French channels; we had full five thousand miles to the Indian
or Persian Sea, south ; and about eight hundred miles to the Fro-
zen Sea, north ; nay, if some people may be believed, there might
be no sea north-east till we came round the pole, and consequently
into the north-west, and so had a continent of land into America,
no mortal knows where; though I could give some reasons why
I believe that to be a mistake too. -
As we entered into the Muscovite dominions, a good while be-
fore we came to any considerable town, we had nothing to ob-
serve there but this: first, that all the rivers run to the east. As I
understood by the charts which some of our caravans had with
them, it was plain that all those rivers ran into the great river Ya-
mour, or Gammour. This river, by the natural course of it, must
run into the East Sea, or Chinese Ocean. The story they tell us,
that the mouth of this river is choked up with bulrushes of a mon-
strous growth, viz. three feet about, and twenty or thirty feet high,
I must be allowed to say I believe nothing of; but as its navigation
is of no use, because there is no trade that way, the Tartars,
to whom alone it belongs, dealing in nothing but cattle; so nobo-
dy that ever I heard of, has been curious enough either to go
down to the mouth of it in boats, or to come from the mouth
of it in ships; but this is certain, that this river running due east,
in the latitude of sixty degrees, carries a vast concourse of rivers
along with it, and finds an ocean to empty itself in that latitude;
so we are sure of sea there.
Some leagues to the north of this river there are several
considerable rivers, whose streams run as due north as the Yamour
runs east; and these are all found to join their waters with the
great river Tartarus, named so from the northernmost nations of
the Mogul Tartars, who, the Chinese say, were the first Tartars
in the world; and who, as our geographers allege, are the Gog
and Magog mentioned in Sacred history.
These rivers running all northward, as well as all the other
rivers I am yet to speak of, made it evident that the Northern
Ocean bounds the land also on that side; so that it does not
seem rational in the least to think that the land can extend
itself to join with America on that side, or that there is not a
communication between the Northern and the Eastern Ocean;
but of this I shall say no more ; it was my observation at that
time, and therefore I take notice of it in this place. We now ad-
vanced from the river Arguna by easy and moderate journies, and
were very visibly obliged to the care the czar of Muscovy has ta-
ken to have cities and towns built in as many places as are pos-
Bible to place them, where his soldiers keep garrison, sométhing
412 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
like the stationary soldiers placed by the Romans in the re-
motest countries of their empire, some of which I had read were
particularly placed in Britain for the security of commerce, and
for the lodging of travellers; and thus it was here ; though
wherever we came at these towns and stations, the garrisons and
governor were Russians, and professed mere pagans, sacrificing
to idols, and worshipping the sun, moon, and stars, or all the host
of heaven : and not only so, but were, of all the heathens and
pagans that ever I met with, the most barbarous, except only
that they did not eat man’s flesh, as our savages of America did.
Some instances of this we met with in the country between
Arguma, where we enter the Muscovite dominions, and a city of
Tartars and Russians together, called Nertzinskay; in which
space is a continued desart or forest, which cost us twenty days
to travel over it. In a village near the last of those places, I
had the curiosity to go and see their way of living ; which is
most brutish and unsufferable: they had, I suppose, a great sacri-
fice that day; for there stood out upon an old stump of a tree,
an idol made of wood, frightful as the devil, at least as any thing
we can think of to represent the devil that can be made. It had
a head certainly not so much as resembling any creature that
the world ever saw ; ears as big as goats horns, and as high;
eyes as big as a crown-piece; and a nose like a crooked ram’s
horn, and a mouth extended four-cornered, like that of a lion,
with horrible teeth, hooked like a parrot's under bill. It was
dressed up in the filthiest manner that you can suppose; its up-
per garment was of sheep-skins, with the wool outward; a great
Tartar bonnet on the head, with two horns growing through it:
it was about eight feet high, yet had no feet or legs, or any
other proportion of parts.
This scarecrow was set up at the outside of the village ; and
when I came near to it, there were sixteen or seventeen crea-
tures, whether men or women I could not tell, for they make
no distinction by their habits, either of body or head; these lay
all flat on the ground, round this formidable block of shapeless
wood. I saw no motion among them any more than if they had
been logs of wood, like their idol; at first I really thought they
had been so; but when I came a little nearer, they started up
upon their feet, and raised a howling cry, as if it had been so
many deep-mouthed hounds, and walked away as if they were
displeased at our disturbing them. A little way off from this mon-
ster, and at the door of a tent or hut, made all of sheep-skins
and cow-skins, dried, stood three butchers: I thought they were
such; for when I came nearer to them, I found they had long
knives in their hands, and in the middle of the tent appeared
three sheep killed, and one young bullock or steer. These, it
seems, were sacrifices to that senseless log of an idol; and these
OF ROBIN SON CRUSO E. - 4 13.
three men priests belonging to it; and the seventeen prostrated,
wretches were the people who brought the offering, and were
making their prayers to that stock.
I confess I was more moved at their stupidity, and this brutish
worship of a hobgoblin, than ever I was at any thing in my life;
to see God’s most glorious and best creature, to whom he had
granted so many advantages, even by creation, above the rest
of the works of his hands, vested with a reasonable soul, and
that soul adorned with faculties and capacities adapted both to
honour his Maker and be honoured by him, I say, to see it
sunk and degenerated to a degree so more than stupid, as to
prostrate itself to a frightful nothing, a mere imaginary object.
dressed up by themselves, and made terrible to themselves by
their own contrivance, adorned only with clouts and rags; and
that this should be the effect of mere ignorance, wrought up into
hellish devotion by the devil himself; who, envying his Maker
the homage and adoration of his creatures, had deluded them
into such gross, surfeiting, sordid, and brutish things, as one would
think should shock nature itself.
But what signified all the astonishment and reflection of
thoughts 2 Thus it was, and I saw it before my eyes; and there
was no room to wonder at it, or think it impossible. All my
admiration turned to rage; and I rode up to the image or mon-
ster, call it what you will, and with my sword cut the bonnet
that was on its head in two in the middle, so that it hung
down by one of the horns; and one of our men that was with
me, took hold of the sheep-skin that covered it, and pulled at it,
when, behold, a most hideous outcry and howling ran through
the village, and two or three hundred people came about my ears,
so that I was glad to scour for it; for we saw some had bows
and arrows; but I resolved from that moment to visit them
39;al Il.
"our caravan rested three nights at the town, which was:
about four miles off, in order to provide some horses, which
they wanted, several of the horses having been lamed and jaded
with the badness of the way, and our long march over the last
desart; so we had some leisure here to put my design in execu-
tion. I communicated my project to the Scots merchant, of
Moscow, of whose courage I had had a sufficient testimony, as
above. I told him what I had seen, and with what indignation
I had since thought that human nature could be so degenerate.
I told him, I was resolved, if I could get but four or five men well
armed to go with me, to go and destroy that vile, abominable
idol; to let them see, that it had no power to help itself, and
consequently could not be an object of worship, or to be prayed
to, much less help them that offered sacrifices to it.
He laughed at me: said he, Your zeal may be good; but what
4; 14 LIFE AND A DW ENTURES
do you propose to yourself by it?—Propose ! said I: to vindicate
the honour of God, which is insulted by this devil-worship.
But how will it vindicate the honour of God, said he, while
the people will not be able to know what you mean by it, un-
less you could speak to them too, and tell them so 2 and then
they will fight you too, I will assure you, for they are despe-
rate fellows, and that especially in defence of their idolatry.—
Can we not, said I, do it in the night, and then leave them the
reasons in writing, in their own language —Writing ! said he;
why, there is not in five nations of them one man that knows any
thing of a letter, or, how to read a word in any language, or in
their own.—Wretched ignorance said I to him; however, I
have a great mind to do it; perhaps nature may draw inferen-
ces from it to them, to let them see how brutish they are to
worship such horrid things.-Look you, sir, said he; if your zeal
prompts you to it so warmly, you must do it; but in the next
place, I would have you consider these wild nations of people
are subjected by force to the czar of Muscovy’s dominion; and
if you do this, it is ten to one but they will come by thousands
to the governor of Nertzinskay, and complain, and demand satis-
faction; and if he cannot give them satisfaction, it is ten to one
but they revolt; and it will occasion a new war with all the Tar-
tars in the country.
This, I confess, put new thoughts into my head for a while;
but I harped upon the same string still ; and all that day I was
uneasy to put my project in execution. Towards the evening
the Scots merchant met me by accident in our walk about the
town, and desired to speak with me: I believe, said he, I have
put you off your good design; I have been a little concerned
about it since ; for I abhor the idol and idolatry as much as you
can do.—Traly, said I, you have put it off a little, as to the exe-
cution of it, but you have not put it all out of my thoughts;
and, I believe, I shall do it still before I quit this place, though I
were to be delivered up to them for satisfaction.—No, no, said
he, God forbid they should deliver you up to such a crew of mon-
sters! they shall not do that neither; that would be murdering
you indeed,—Why, said I, how would they use me?—Use you !
said he Pll tell you how they served a poor Russian, who
affronted them in their worship just as you did, and whom they
took prisoner, after they had lamed him with an arrow, that he
could not run away : they took him and stripped him stark naked,
and set him upon the top of the idol monster, and stood all
round him, and shot as many arrows into him as would stick
over his whole body; and then they burnt him, and all the ar-
rows sticking in him, as a sacrifice to the idol.-And was this the
same idol 2 said I.-Yes, said he, the very same.—Well, said I,
I will tell you a story. So I related the story of our men at Ma-
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 415
dagascar, and how they burnt and sacked the village there, and
killed man, woman, and child, for their murdering one of our
men, just as it is related before; and when I had done, I added,
that I thought we ought to do so to this village.
He listened very attentively to the story; but when I talked
of doing so to that village, said he, You mistake very much ; it
was not this village, it was almost a hundred miles from this
place; but it was the same idol, for they carry him about in pro-
cession all over the country.—Well, said I, then that idol ought
to be punished for it; and it shall, said I, if I live this might out.
In a word, finding me resolute, he liked the design, and told me,
I should not go alone, but he would go with me; but he would
go first, and bring a stout fellow, one of his countrymen, to go
also with us; and one, said he, as famous for his zeal as you can
desire any one to be against such devilish things as these. In a
word, he brought me his comrade, a Scotsman, whom he called
Captain Richardson; and I gave him a full account of what I had
seen, and also what I intended; and he told me readily, he would
go with me, if it cost him his life. So we agreed to go, only we
three. I had, indeed, proposed it to my partner, but he declined
it. He said, he was ready to assist me to the utmost, and upon ałł
occasions, for my defence; but that this was an adventure quite
out of his way: so, I say, we resolved upon our work, only we
three, and my man-servant, and to put it in execution that night
about midnight, with all the secrecy imaginable.
However, upon second thoughts, we were willing to delay it till
the next night, because the caravan being to set forward in the
morning, we supposed the governor could not pretend to give
them any satisfaction upon us when we were out of his power.
The Scots merchant, as steady in his resolution to enterprize it
as bold in executing, brought me a Tartar's robe or gown of
sheep-skins, and a bonnet, with a bow and arrows, and had pro-
vided the same for himself and his countryman, that the people,
if they saw us, should not be able to determine who we were.
All the first might we spent in mixing up some combustible
matter with aquavitae, gun-powder, and such other materials as
we could get; and, having a good quantity of tar in a little pot,
about an hour after night we set out upon our expedition.
We came to the place about eleven o’clock at night, and found
that the people had not the least jealousy of danger attending
their idol. The night was cloudy; yet the moon gave us light
enough to see that the idol stood just in the same posture and
place that it did before. The people seemed to be all at their
rest; only, that in the great hut or tent as we called it, where
we saw the three priests whom we mistook for butchers, we
saw a light, and going up close to the door, we heard people
talking, as if there were five or six of them; we concluded, there-
4 16 ILI FE AND A DV ENTURES
fore, that if we set wildfire to the idol, these men would come out
immediately and run up to the place to rescue it from the destruc-
tion that we intended for it; and what to do with them we knew
not. Once we thought of carrying it away, and setting fire to
it at a distance, but when we came to handle it we found it too
bulky for our carriage; so we were at a loss again. The second
Scotsman was for setting fire to the tent or hut, and knocking the
creatures that were there on the head, when they came out; but
I could not join with that ; I was against killing them, if it was
possible to be avoided. Well then, said the Scots merchant, I
will tell you what we will do; we will try to make them prison-
ers, tie their hands, and make them stand and see their idol de-
stroyed.
As it happened, we had twine or pack-thread enough about us,
which we used to tie our fire-works together with ; so we resol-
ved to attack these people first, and with as little noise as we could.
The first thing we did, we knocked at the door, when one of the
priests coming to it, we immediately seized upon him, stopped his
mouth, and tied his hands behind him, and led him to the idol,
where we gagged him, that he might not make a noise, tied his
feet also together, and left him on the ground.
Two of us then waited at the door, expecting that another
would come out to see what the matter was ; but we waited so
long till the third man came back to us, and then nobody coming
out, we knocked again gently, and immediately out came two more,
and we served them just in the same manner, but were obliged to
go all with them, and lay them down by the idol some distance
from one another; when going back we found two more were
come out to the door, and a third stood behind them within the
door. We seized the two, and immediately tied them, when the
third stepping back, and crying out, my Scots merchant went in
after him, and taking out a composition we had made, that would
only smoke and stink, he set fire to it, and threw it in among
them : by that time the other Scotsman and my man taking charge
of the two men already bound, and tied together also by the arm,
led them away to the idol, and left them there, to see if their idol
would relieve them, making haste back to us.
When the furze we had thrown in had filled the hut with so
much smoke that they were almost suffocated, we then threw in
a small leather bag of another kind, which flamed like a candle,
and following it in, we found there were but four people left, who,
it seems, were two men and two women, and as we supposed, had
been about some of their diabolic sacrifices. They appeared, in
short, frighted to death, at least so as to sit trembling and stupid,
and not able to speak neither, for the smoke.
In a word, we took them, bound them as we had the other, and
all without any noise. I should have said, we brought them out
OF ROBIN SON C R U SOE. 417.
of the house, or hut, first; for, indeed, we were not able to bear
the smoke any more than they were. When we had done this,
we carried them altogether to the idol: when we came there we
fell to work with him; and first we daubed him all over, and his
robes also, with tar, and such other stuff as we had, which was
tallow mixed with brimstone; then we stopped his eyes, and ears,
and mouth full of gun-powder; then we wrapped up a great piece
of wildfire in his bonnet; and then sticking all the combustibles.
we had brought with us upon him, we looked about to see if we
could find any thing else to help to burn him : when my Scots-
man remembered that by the tent, or hut, where the men were,
there lay a heap of dry forage, whether straw or rushes I do not
remember: away he and the other Scotsman ran, and fetched
their arms full of that. When we had done this, we took all our
prisoners, and brought them, having untied their feet and ungag-
ged their mouths, and made them stand up, and set them just bes
fore their monstrous idol, and then set fire to the whole.
We stayed by it a quarter of an hour, or thereabouts, till the
powder in the eyes, and mouth, and ears of the idol blew up, and,
as we could perceive, had split and deformed the shape of it;
and, in a word, till we saw it burnt into a mere block or log of
wood; and then setting the dry forage to it, we found it would be
Soon quite consumed ; so we began to think of going away; but
the Scotsman said, No, we must not go, for these poor deluded
wretches will all throw themselves into the fire, and burn them-
selves with the idol.—So we resolved to stay till the forage was
burnt down too, and then we came away and left them.
In the morning we appeared among our fellow-travellers, ex-
ceeding busy in getting ready for our journey; nor could any man
suggest that we had been any where but in our beds, as travel-
lers might be supposed to be, to fit themselves for the fatigues of
that day's journey.
But it did not end so; for the next day came a great multitude
of the country people, not only of this village, but of a hundred
more, for aught I know, to the town-gates; and in a most out-
rageous manner demanded satisfaction of the Russian governor,
for the insulting their priests, and burning their great Cham-Chi-
Thaungu ; such a hard name they gave the monstrous creature
they worshipped. The people of Nertzinskay were at first in a
great consternation ; for they said the Tartars were no less than
thirty thousand, and that in a few days more they would be one
hundred thousand stronger.
The Russian governor sent out messengers to appease them,
and gave them all the good words imaginable. He assured them
he knew nothing of it, and that there had not a soul of his gar-
rison been abroad; that it could not be from any body there;
and if they would let him know who it was, he should be exem-
S 2
418 LI I, E AN ID A DV E N T U R ES
plarily punished. They returned haughtily, That all the country
reverenced the great Cham Chi-Thaungu, who dwelt in the sun,
and no mortal would have dared to offer violence to his image,
but some Christian miscreants; so they called them, it seems;
and they therefore denounced war against him, and all the Rus-
sians, who, they said, were miscreants and Christians.
The governor, still patient, and unwilling to make a breach, or
to have any cause of war alleged to be given by him, the czar ha-
ving straitly charged him to treat the conquered country with gen-
tleness and civility, gave them still all the good words he could ;
at last he told them, there was a caravan gone towards Russia that
morning, and perhaps it was some of them who had done them
this injury; and that, if they would be satisfied with that, he
would send after them, to inquire into it. This seemed to ap-
pease them a little ; and accordingly the governor sent after us,
and gave us a particular account how the thing was, intimating
withal, that if any in our caravan had done it, they should make
their escape; but that whether they had done it, or no, we should
make all the haste forward that was possible; and that in the
mean time he would keep them in play as long as he could.
This was very friendly in the governor. However, when it
came to the caravan, there was nobody knew any thing of the
matter; and, as for us that were guilty, we were the least of all
suspected: none so much as asked us the question; however the
captain of the caravan, for the time, took the hint that the gover-
nor gave us, and we marched of travelled two days and two nights
without any considerable stop, and then we lay at a village called
Plothus ; nor did we make any long stop here, but hastened on
towards Jarawena, another of the czar of Muscovy’s colonies, and
where we expected we should be safe; but it is to be observed,
that here we began, for two or three days march, to enter upon
a vast nameless desart, of which I shall say more in its place; and
which if we had now been upon it, it is more than probabie we
had been all destroyed. It was the second day’s march from
Plothus, that, by the clouds of dust behind us at a great distance,
some of our people began to be sensible we were pursued; we
had entered the desart, and had passed by a great lake, called
Schanks Osier, when we perceived a very great body of horse ap-
pear on the other side of the lake to the north, we travelling west.
We observed they went away west, as we did ; but had supposed
we should have taken that side of the lake, whereas we very hap-
pily took the south side: and in two days more we saw them not,
for they, believing we were still before them, pushed on, till they
came to the river Udda: this is a very great river when it passes
farther north, but when we came to it, we found it narrow and
fordable.
The third day they either found their mistake, or had intelli-
OF ROBIN SON CRU SOE, 419
gence of us, and came pouring in upon us towards the dusk of the
evening. We had, to our great satisfaction, just pitched upon a
place for our camp, which was very convenient for the night; for
as we were upon a desart, though but at the beginning of it, that
was above five hundred miles over, we had no towns to lodge at,
and, indeed, expected mone but the city of Jarawena, which we had
yet two days march to ; the desart, however, had some few woods
in it on this side, and little rivers, which ran all into the great
river Udda. It was in a narrow strait, between two small but very
thick woods, that we pitched our little camp for that night, expect-
ing to be attacked in the night.
Nobody knew but ourselves what we were pursued for; but as
it was usual for the Mogul Tartars to go about in troops in that
desart, so the caravans always fortify themselves every night against
them, as against armies of robbers; and it was therefore no new
thing to be pursued.
But we had this night, of all the nights of our travels, a most
advantageous camp; for we lay between two woods, with a little
rivulet running just before our front; so that we could not be sur-
rounded or attacked any way, but in our front or rear: we took
care also to make our front as strong as we could, by placing our
packs, with our camels and horses, all in a line on the side of the
river, and we felled some trees in our rear. -
In this posture we encamped for the night; but the enemy was
upon us before we had finished our situation: they did not come
on us like thieves, as we expected, but sent three messengers to us,
to demand the men to be delivered to them, that had abused their
priests, and burnt their god Cham-Chi-Thaungu, that they might.
burn them with fire; and, upon this, they said, they would go
away, and do us no farther harm, otherwise they would burn us
all with fire. Our men looked very blank at this message, and be-
gan to stare at one another, to see who looked with most guilt in
their faces, but nobody was the word, nobody did it. The leader
of the caravan sent word, he was well assured it was not done by
any of our camp; that we were peaceable merchants, travelling
on our business; that we had done no harm to them, or to any
one else; and therefore they must look farther for their enemies,
who had injured them, for we were not the people; so desired.
them not to disturb us; for, if they did, we should defend our-
Selves.
They were far from being satisfied with this for an answer, and
a great crowd of them came down in the morning, by break of
day, to our camp; but, seeing us in such an advantageous situation,
they durst come no farther than the brook in our front, where they
stood, and showed us such a number, as, indeed, terrified us very
much ; for those that spoke least of them, spoke of ten thousand.
Here they stood, and looked at us a while, and then setting up a-

420. LIFE AND A D VENTURES
great howl, they let fly a cloud of arrows among us ; but we were
well enough fortified for that, for we were sheltered under our
baggage; and I do not remember that one man of us was hurt.
Some time after this we saw them move a little to our right,
and expected them on the rear, when a cunning fellow, a Cossack,
as they call them, of Jarawena, in the pay of the Muscovites,
calling to the leader of the caravan, said to him, I will send all
these people away to Sibeilka. This was a city four or five days
journey at least to the south, and rather behind us. So he takes
his bow and arrows, and, getting on horseback, he rides away
from our rear directly, as it were, back to Nertzinskay; after this,
he takes a great circuit about, and comes to the army of the Tar-
tars, as if he had been sent express to tell them a long story, that
the people who had burnt their Cham-Chi-Thaungu were gone to
Sibeilka, with a caravan of miscreants, as he called them ; that is
to say, Christians; and that they were resolved to burn the god
Scal I-arg, belonging to the Tonguses.
As this fellow was a mere Tartar, and perfectly spoke their
language, he counterfeited so well, that they all took it from him,
and away they drove, in a most violent hurry, to Sibeilka, which,
it seems, was five days journey to the south ; and in less than three
hours they were entirely out of our sight, and we never heard any
more of them, nor ever knew whether they went to that other
place called Sibeilka or no.
So we passed safely on to the city of Jarawena, where there
was a garrison of Muscovites; and there we rested five days,
the caravan being exceedingly fatigued with the last day’s march,
and with want of rest in the night. --
From this city we had a frightful desart, which held us three-
and-twenty days march. We furnished ourselves with some tents
here, for the better accommodating ourselves in the night; and the
leader of the caravan procured sixteen carriages, or waggons, of the
country, for carrying our water and provisions; and these car-
riages were our defence every night round our little camp; so
that had the Tartars appeared, unless they had been very nume-
rous indeed, they would not have been able to hurt us.
We may well be supposed to want rest again after this long
journey; for in this desart we saw neither house or tree, or scarce
a bush; we saw, indeed, abundance of the Sable-hunters, as they
called them. These are all Tartars of the Mogul Tartary, of which
this country is a part, and they frequently attack small caravans;
but we saw no numbers of them together. I was curious to see
the sable-skins they catched; but I could never speak with any of
them: for they durst not come near us; neither durst we strag-
gle from our company to go near them.
After we had passed this desart, we came into a country pretty
well inhabited ; that is to say, we found towns and castles settled
O F ROBIN SON C R U S O E. 4'll
by the czar of Muscovy, with garrisons of stationary soldiers to
protect the caravans, and defend the country against the Tartars,
who would otherwise make it very dangerous travelling; and his
czarish majesty has given such strict orders for the well guarding
the caravans and merchants, that if there are any Tartars heard
of in the country, detachments of the garrison are always sent to
see travellers safe from station to station.
And thus the governor of Adinskoy, whom I had an opportuni-
ty to make a visit to, by means of the Scots merchant, who was
acquainted with him, offered us a guard of fifty men, if we thought
there was any danger, to the next station.
I thought long before this, that as we came nearer to Europe we
should find the country better peopled, and the people more civili-
zed; but I found myself mistaken in both, for we had yet the
nation of the Tonguses to pass through, where we saw the same
tokens of paganism and barbarity, or worse, than before, only as
they were conquered by the Muscovites, and entirely reduced,
they were not so dangerous; but for the rudeness of manners,
idolatry, and polytheism, no people in the world ever went beyond
them. They are clothed all in skins of beasts, and their houses
are built of the same. You know not a man from a woman, nei-
ther by the ruggedness of their countenances, or their clothes;
and in the winter, when the ground is covered with snow, they
live under ground, in houses like vaults, which have cavities or
caves going from one to another,
If the Tartars had their Cham. Chi-Thaungu for a whole village,
or country, these had idols in every hut and every cave; besides,
they worship the stars, the sun, the water, the snow; and, in a
word, every thing that they do not understand, and they under-
stand but very little; so that almost every element, every uncom-
mon thing, sets them a-sacrificing.
But I am no more to describe people than countries, any far-
ther than my own story comes to be concerned in them. I met
with nothing peculiar to myself in all this country, which I reckon
was, from the desart which I spoke of last, at least four hundred
miles, half of it being another desart, which took us up twelve
days severe travelling, without house, tree, or bush; but we were
obliged again to carry our own provisions, as well water as bread.
After we were out of this desart, and had travelled two days, we
came to Janezay, a Muscovite city or station, on the great river
Janezay. This river, they told us, parted Europe from Asia, though
our map-makers, as I am told, do not agree to it; however, it is
certainly the eastern boundary of the ancient Siberia, which now
makes a province only of the vast Muscovite empire, but is itself
equal in bigness to the whole empire of Germany. º
And yet here I observed ignorance and paganism still prevailed,
except in the Muscovite garrisons. All the country between the
492 LIFE AND A DVENTURES
river Oby and the river Jamezay is as entirely pagan, and the
people as barbarous, as the remotest of the Tartars; nay, as any
nation, for aught I know, in Asia or America. I also found, which
I observed to the Muscovite governors, whom I had opportunity
to converse with, that the pagans are not much the wiser, or the
nearer Christianity, for being under the Muscovite government:
which they acknowledged was true enough, but, they said, it was
none of their business; that if the czar expected to convert his Si-
berian, or Tonguese, or Tartar subjects, it should be done by send-
ing clergymen among them, not soldiers; and they added, with
more sincerity than I expected, that they found it was not so much
the concern of their monarch to make the people Christians, as it
was to make them subjects.
From this river to the great river Oby, we crossed a wild un-
cultivated country; I cannot say it is a barbarous soil; it is only
barren of people, and wants good management; otherwise it is in
itself a most pleasant, fruitful, and agreeable country. What in-
habitants we found in it are all pagans, except such as are sent
among them from Russia; for this is the country, I mean on both
sides the river Oby, whither the Muscovite criminals, that are
not put to death, are banished, and from whence it is next to im-
possible they should ever come away.
I have nothing material to say of my particular affairs, till I
came to Tobolski, the capital of Siberia, where I continued some
time on the following occasion:-
We had been now almost seven months on our journey, and
winter began to come on apace; whereupon my partner and I call-
ed a council about our particular affairs, in which we found it pro-
per, considering that we were bound for England, and not for
Moscow, to consider how to dispose of ourselves. They told us
of sledges and rein deer to carry us over the snow in the win-
ter-time; and indeed, they have such things as it would be incre-
dible to relate the particulars of, by which means the Russians
travel more in the winter than they can in summer; because in
these sledges they are able to run night and day: the snow being
frozen, is one universal covering to nature, by which the hills, the
vales, the rivers, the lakes, are all smooth and hard as a stone;
and they run upon the surface, without any regard to what is un-
derneath.
But I had no occasion to push at a winter journey of this kind;
I was bound to England, not to Moscow, and my route lay two
ways: either I must go on as the caravan went, till I came to
Jarislaw, and then go off west for Narva, and the Gulf of Finland,
and so either by sea or land to Danizic, where I might possibly sell
my Chitia cargo to good advantage; or I must leave the caravan
at a little town on the Dwina, from whence I had but six days by
water to Archangel, and from thence might be sure of shipping :
either to England, Holland, or Hamburgh.
OF ROBIN SON CIR US OE, 423
Now to go any of these journies in the winter would have been
preposterous ; for, as to Dantzic, the Baltic would be frozen up,
and I could not get passage; and to go by land in those countries,
would be far less safe than among the Mºgul Tartars; likewise to
Archangel, in October all the ships would be gone-from thence,
and even the merchants, who dwell there in summer, retire
south to Moscow in the winter, when the ships are gone; so that
I should have nothing but extremity of cold to encounter, with a
scarcity of provisions, and must lie there in an empty town all the
winter: so that, upon the whole, I thought it much my better
way to let the caravan go, and to make provision to winter where
I was, viz. at Tobolski, in Siberia, in the latitude of sixty degrees,
where I was sure of three things to wear out a cold winter with,
viz. plenty of provisions, such as the country afforded, a warm
house, with fuel enough, and excellent company; of all which I
shall give a full account in its place. -
I was now in a quite different climate from my beloved island,
where I never felt cold, except when I had my ague; on the con-
trary, I had much to do to bear my clothes on my back, and never
made any fire but without doors, for my necessity, in dressing my
food, &c. Now I made me three good vests, with large robes or
gowns over them to hang down to the feet, and button close to
the wrists, and all these lined with furs, to make them sufficiently
Warm.
As to a warm house, I must confess, I greatly dislike our way
in England, of making fires in every room in the house, in open
chimnies, which, when the fire was out, always kept the air in the
room cold as the climate. But taking an apartment in a good
house in the town, I ordered a chimney to be built like a furnace,
in the centre of six several rooms, like a stove; the funnel to
carry the smoke went up one way, the door to come at the fire
went in another, and all the rooms were kept equally warm, but
no fire seen; like as they heat the bagnios in England.
By this means we had always the same climate in all the rooms,
and an equal heat was preserved; and how cold soever it was
without, it was always warm within ; and yet we saw no fire, nor
were ever incommoded with any smoke.
The most wonderful thing of all was, that it should be possible
to meet with good company here in a country so barbarous as
that of the most northerly part of Europe, near the Frozen Ocean,
and within but a very few degrees of Nova Zembla.
But this being the country where the state criminals of Mus-
covy, as I observed before, are all banished; this city was full of
noblemen, princes, gentlemen, colonels, and, in short, all degrees
of the mobility, gentry, soldiery, and courtiers of Muscovy : Here
were the famous prince Gallifken, or Galoffken, and his son;
the old general Robostisky, and several other persons of note, and
some ladies.
424. I, IFE AND A DV ENTURES
CHAP. XXXVI.
Conversations with a Russian Grandee—Set out on my Journey
homewards—Hurassed by Kalmucks on the Road—Arrival at
Archangel—Saul from thence, and arrive safely in England.
BY means of my Scots merchant, whom, nevertheless, I parted
with here, I made an acquaintance with several of these gentle-
men, and some of them of the first rank: and from these, in the long
winter nights, in which I staid here, I received several agreeable
visits. It was talking one night with a certain prince, one of the
banished ministers of state belonging to the czar of Muscovy, that
my talk of my particular case began. He had been telling me
abundance of fine things, of the greatness, the magnificence, and
dominions, and the absolute power of the emperor of the Rus-
sians. I interrupted him, and told him, I was a greater and more
powerful prince than ever the czar of Muscovy was, though my
dominions were not so large, or my people so many. The Rus-
sian grandee looked a little surprised, and fixing his eyes steadily
upon une, began to wonder what I meant.
I told him his wonder would cease when I had explained my-
self. First, I told him, I had the absolute disposal of the lives
and fortunes of all my subjects: that notwithstanding my absolute
power, I had not one person disaffected to my government, or to
my person, in all my dominions. He shook his head at that, and
said, there, indeed, I outdid the czar of Muscovy. I told him, that
all the lands in my kingdom were my own, and all my subjects
were not only my tenants, but tenants at will ; that they would
all fight for me to the last drop ; and that never tyrant, for such
I acknowledged myself to be, was ever so universally beloved, and
yet so horribly feared, by his subjects.
After amusing them with these riddles in government for a
while, I opened the case, and told them the story at large of my
living in the island, and how I managed both myself and the peo-
ple there that were under me, just as I have since minuted it
down. They were exceedingly taken with the story, and especially
the prince, who told me with a sigh. that the true greatmess of life
was to be master of ourselves; that he would not have changed
such a state of life as mine, to have been czar of Muscovy; and
that he found more felicity in the retirement he seemed to be ba-
nished to there, than ever he found in the highest authority he
enjoyed in the court of his master the czar : that the height of hu-
man wisdom was to bring our tempers down to our circumstances,
and to make a calm within, under the weight of the greatest storm
without. When he came first hither, he said, he used to tear the
hair from his head, and the clothes from his back, as others had
OF ROB I NS ON CPUSO E. 425
done before him ; but a little time and consideration had made
him look into himself, as well as round himself, to things without:
that he found the mind of man, if it was but once brought to re-
flect upon the state of universal life, and how little this world was
concerned in its true felicity, was perfectly capable of making a
felicity for itself, fully satisfying to itself, and suitable to its own
best ends and desires, with but very little assistance from the
world; that air to breathe in, food to sustain life, clothes for
warmth, and liberty for exercise, in order to health, completed,
in his opinion, all that the world could do for us: and though the
greatness, the authority, the riches, and the pleasures, which some
enjoyed in the world, and which he had enjoyed his share of, had
much in them that was agreeable to us, yet he observed, that all
those things chiefly gratified the coarsest of our affections; such
as our ambition, our particular pride, our avarice, our vanity, and
our sensuality; all which were, indeed, the mere product of the
worst part of man, were in themselves crimes, and had in them
the seeds of all manner of crimes; but neither were related to, or
concerned with, any of those virtues that constituted us wise men,
or of those graces which distinguished us as Christians: that be-
ing now deprived of all the fancied felicity which he enjoyed in
the full exercise of all those vices, he said, he was at leisure to
look upon the dark side of them, where he found all manner of
deformity; and was now convinced, that virtue only makes a man
truly wise, rich, and great, and preserves him in the way to a su-
perior happiness in a future state ; and in this, he said, they
were more happy in their banishment, than all their enemies were,
who had the full possession of all the wealth and power that they
(the banished) had left behind them.
Nor, sir, said he, do I bring my mind to this politically, by the
necessity of my circumstances, which some call miserable; but if
I know any thing of myself, I would not go back, no, not though
my master, the czar, should call me, and offer to reinstate me in
all my former grandeur; I say, I would no more go back to it,
than I believe my soul when it shall be delivered from this prison
of the body, and has had a taste of the glorious state beyond life,
would come back to the gaol of flesh and blood it is now enclosed
in, and leave Heaven to deal in the dirt and grime of human affairs.
He spake this with so much warmth, in his temper, so much
earnestness and motion of his spirits, which were apparent in his
countenance, that it was evident it was the true sense of his soul;
and indeed there was no room to doubt his sincerity.
I told him, I once thought myself a kind of a monarch in my
old station, of which I had given him an account, but that I
thought he was not a monarch only, but a great conqueror; for
that he that has got a victory over his own exorbitant desires, and
has the absolute dominion over himself, and whose reason entirely
426 LIFE AN ID A DV ENTURES
governs his will, is certainly greater than he that conquers a city.
But, my lord, said I, shall I take the liberty to ask you a question ?
—With all my heart, said he.—If the door of your liberty was
opened, said I, would not you take hold of it to deliver yourself
from this exile 2
Hold, said he, your question is subtle, and requires some seri-
ous just distinctions to give it a sincere answer; and I’ll give it
you from the bottom of my heart. Nothing that I know of in this
world would move me to deliver myself from the state of banish-
ment, except these two : first, the enjoyment of my relations,
and, secondly, a little warmer climate. But I protest to you, that
to go back to the pomp of the court, the glory, the power, the hur-
ry of a minister of state; the wealth, the gaiety, and the pleasures,
that is to say, follies of a courtier; if my master should send me
word this moment, that he restores me to all he banished me from,
I protest, if I know myself at all, I would not leave this wilder-
ness, these desarts, and these frozen lakes, for the palace of Mos-
CO W. -
But, my lord, said I, perhaps you not only are banished from
the pleasures of the court, and from the power, and authority, and
wealth, you enjoyed before, but you may be absent too from
some of the conveniences of life; your estate, º confis-
cated, and your effects plundered ; and the supplies left you here
may not be suitable to the ordinary demands of life.
Ay, said he, that is, as you suppose me to be a lord, or a prince,
&c. So indeed I am; but you are now to consider me only as a
man, a human creature, not at all distinguished from another;
and so I can suffer no want, unless I should be visited with sick-
ness and distempers. However, to put the question out of dis-
pute; you see our manner; we are in this place five persons of
rank; we live perfectly retired, as suited to a state of banish-
ment; we have something rescued from the shipwreck of our
fortunes, which keeps us from the mere necessity of hunting for
our food; but the poor soldiers, who are here without that help,
live in as much plenty as we. They go into the woods, and catch
sables and foxes; the labour of a month will maintain them a year;
and as the way of living is not expensive, so it is not hard to get
sufficient to ourselves : so that objection is out of doors.
I have no room to give a full account of the most agreeable
conversation I had with this truly great man ; in all which he show-
ed, that his mind was so inspired with a superior knowledge of
things, so supported by religion, as well as by a vast share of wis:
dom, that his contempt of the world was really as much as he had
expressed, and that he was always the same to the last, as will ap-
pear in the story I am going to tell.
I had been here eight months, and a dark dreadful winter I
thought it to be. The cold was so intense, that I could not so
OF ROBIN SON CRUS OE, 427
much as look abroad without being wrapt in furs, and a mask of
fur before my face, or rather a hood, with only a hole for breath,
and two for sight. The little day light we had, was, as we reck-
oned, for three months, not above five hours a day, or six at most;
only that snow lying on the ground continually, and the weather
being clear, it was never quite dark. Our horses were kept (or
rather starved) under ground; and as for our servants (for we
hired servants here to look after our horses and ourselves,) we
had every now and then their fingers and toes to thaw, and take
care of, lest they should mortify and fall off.
It is true, within doors we were warm, the houses being close,
the walls thick, the lights small, and the glass all double. Our
food was chiefly the flesh of deer, dried and cured in the season;
good bread enough, but baked as biscuits; dried fish of several
sorts, and some flesh of mutton, and of buffaloes, which is pretty
good beef. All the stores of provision for the winter are laid up
in the summer, and well cured. Our drink was water mixed with
aquavitae instead of brandy ; and, for a treat, mead instead of wine;
which, however, they have excellent good. The hunters, who ven-
tured abroad all weathers, frequently brought us in fresh venison,
very fat and good; and sometimes bear’s flesh, but we did not
much care for the last. We had a good stock of tea, with which
we treated our friends as above; and, in a word, we lived very
chearfully and well, all things considered.
It was now March, and the days grown considerably longer, and
the weather at least tolerable ; so other travellers began to prepare
sledges to carry them over the snow, and to get things ready to be
going; but my measures being fixed, as l have said, for Archan-
gel, and not for Muscovy or the Baltic, I made no motion, know-
ing very well, that the ships from the south do not set out for
that part of the world till May or June; and that if I was there
at the beginning of August, it would be as soon as any ships would
be ready to go away; and therefore, I say, I made no haste to be
gone, as others did ; in a word, I saw a great many peoplc, nay,
all the travellers, go away before me. It seems, every year they
go from thence to Moscow for trade ; viz. to carry furs, and buy
necessaries with them, which they bring back to furnish their
shops: also others went on the same errand to Archangel; but
then they also, being to come back again above eight hundred
miles, went all out before me.
In short, about the latter end of May I began to make all ready
to pack up ; and as I was doing this, it occurred to me, that see-
ing all these people were banished by the czar of Muscovy to Si-
beria, and yet, when they came there, were at liberty to go whi-
ther they would, why did they not then go away to any part of
the world wherever they thought fit 3 and I began to examine
what should hunder them from making such an attempt.
498 LIFE AND A DW E NTURES
But my wonder was over, when I entered upon that subject
with the person I have mentioned, who answered me thus : Con-
sider, first, said he, the place where we are ; and, secondly, the
condition we are in ; especially, said he, the generality of people
who are banished hither. We are surrounded with stronger things
than bars and bolts: on the north side is an unnavigable ocean,
where ship never sailed, and boat never swam; neither, if we had
both, could we know whither to go with them. Every other way,
said he, we have above a thousand miles to pass through the czar's
own dominions, and by ways utterly impassable, except by the
roads made by the government, and through the towns garrison-
ed by its troops; so ifiat we could neither pass undiscovered by
the road, or subsist any other way; so that it is in vain to attempt
it. -
I was silenced, indeed, at once, and found that they were in a
prison, every jot as secure as if they had been locked up in the
castle of Moscow; however, it came into my thoughts, that I might
certainly be made an instrument to procure the escape of this ex-
cellent person, and that it was very easy for me to carry him away,
there being no guard over him in the country; and as I was not
going to Moscow, but to Archangel, and that I went in the nature
of a caravan, by which I was not obliged to lie in the stationary
towns in the desart, but could encamp every night where I would,
we might easily pass uninterrupted to Archangel, where I could
immediately secure him on board an English or Dutch ship, and
carry him off safe along with me; and as to his subsistence, and
other particulars, that should be my care, till he should better
supply himself.
He heard me very attentively, and looked earnestly on me all
the while I spoke ; nay, I could see in his very face, that what I
said put his spirits into an exceeding ferment; his colour frequent-
ly changed, his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, that it
might be even perceived in his countenance ; nor could he imme-
diately answer me when I had done, and, as it were, expected
what he would say to it; and after he had paused a little, he em-
braced me, and said, How unhappy are we, unguided creatures as
we are, that even our greatest acts of friendship are made snares
to us, and we are made tempters of one another My dear friend,
said he, your offer is so sincere, has such kindness in it, is so dis-
interested in itself, and is so calculated for my advantage, that I.
must have very little knowledge of the world, if I did not both
wonder at it, and acknowledge the obligation I have upon me to
you for it; but did you believe I was sincere in what I have so
often said to you of my contempt of the world 2 Did you believe
I spoke my very soul to you, and that I had really maintained that
degree of felicity here, that had placed me above all that the world
could give me, or do for me? Did you believe I was sincere, when
OF RO BIN SON CRUSO E. 429
I told you I would not go back, if I was recalled even to be all
that once I was in the court, and with the favour of the czar my
master Did you believe me, my friend, to be an honest man, or
did you think me to be a boasting hypocrite 3–Here he stopped,
as if he would hear what I would say ; but, indeed, I soon after
perceived, that he stopped because his spirits were in motion;
his heart was full of struggles, and he could not go on. I was, I
confess, astonished at the thing, as well as at the man, and I used
some arguments with him to urge him to set himself free ; that
he ought to look upon this as a door opened by Heaven for his
deliverance, and a summons by Providence, who has the care and
good disposition of all events, to do himself good, and to render
himself useful in the world.
He had by this time recovered himself. How do you know,
sir, said he, warmly, but that, instead of a summons from Hea-
ven, it may be a feint of another instrument, representing, in all
the alluring colours to me, the show of felicity as a deliverance,
which may in itself be my snare, and tend directly to my ruin
Here I am free from the temptation of returning to my former
miserable greatness; there I am not sure, but that all the seeds
of pride, ambition, avarice, and luxury, which I know remain in
my nature, may revive and take root, and, in a word, again over-
whelm me; and then the happy prisoner, whom you see now
master of his soul’s liberty, shall be the miserable slave of his
own senses, in the full possession of all personal liberty. Dear
sir, let me remain in this blessed confinement, banished from the
crimes of life, rather than purchase a show of freedom at the
expense of the liberty of my reason, and at the expense of the fu-
ture happiness which now I have in my view, but shall then, I
fear, quickly lose sight of; for I am but flesh, a man, a mere
man, have passions and affections as likely to possess and over-
throw me as any man: O be not my friend and my tempter both
together !
If I was surprised before, I was quite dumb now, and stood
silent, looking at him; and, indeed, admired what I saw. The
struggle in his soul was so great, that, though the weather was
extremely cold, it put him into a most violent sweat, and I found
he wanted to give vent to his mind; so I said a word or two,
that I would leave him to consider of it, and wait on him again
and then I withdrew to my own apartment.
About two hours after, I heard somebody at or near the door of
the room, and I was going to open the door; but he had opened
it, and come in : My dear friend, said he, you had almost over-
set me, but I am recovered: do not take it ill that I do not close
with your offer; I assure you, it is not for want of a sense of the
kindness of it in you; and I come to make the most sincere ac-
*
y
43O I, I FE AN D A DV ENTURES
knowledgment of it to you; but, I hope, I have got the victory
over myself. +
My lord, said I, I hope you are fully satisfied, that you did not
resist the call of Heaven.—Sir, said he, if it had been from Hea-
ven. the same power would have influenced me to accept it; but
I hope and am fully satisfied, that it is from Heaven that I de-
cline it; and I have an infinite satisfaction in the parting, that
you shall leave me an honest man still, though not a free man.
I had nothing to do but to acquiesce, and make profession to
him of my having no end in it, but a sincere desire to serve him.
He embraced me very passionately, and assured me, he was sen-
sible of that, and should always acknowledge it : and with that
he offered me a very fine present of sables, too much indeed for
me to accept from a man in his circumstances; and i would
have avoided them, but he would not be refused. >
The next n orning I sent my servant to his lordship, with a
small present of tea, two pieces of China damask, and four little
wedges of Japan gold, which did not all weigh above six ounces,
or thereabouts; but were far short of the value of his sables, which
indeed, when I came to England, I found worth near two hundred
pounds. He accepted the tea, and one piece of the damask, and
one of the pieces of gold, which had a fine stamp upon it, of the
Japan coinage, which I found he took for the rarity of it, but
would not take any more; and sent word by my servant, that he
desired to speak with me.
When I came to him, he told me, I knew what had passed
between us, and hoped I would not move him any more in that
affair; but that, since I made such a generous offer to him, he
asked me, if I had kindness enough to offer the same to another
person that he would name to me, in whom he had a great share
of concern. I told him, that I could not say I inclined to do so
much for any one hut himself, for whom I had a particular value,
and should have been glad to bave been the instrument of his
deliverance: however, if he would please to name the person to
me, I would give him my answer, and hoped he would not be
displeased with me, if he was with my answer. He told me, it
was only his son, who, though I had not seen, yet was in the same
condition with himself, and above two hundred miles from him,
on the other side the Oby ; but that, if I consented, he would
send for him.
I made no hesitation, but told him I would do it. I made some
ceremony in letting him understand that it was wholly upon his
account ; and that seeing I could not prevail on him, I would show
my respect to him by my concern for his son: but these things
are tedious to repeat here. He sent away the next day for his son,
and in about twenty days he came back with the messenger,
OF ROBIN SO N C R USO E. 43 t
bringing six or seven horses loaded with very rich furs, and which,
in the wilole, amounted to a very great value.
His servants brought the horses into the town, but left the
young lord at a distance till night, w, .en he came ºncog r, it into our
apartment, and his father presented him to me; and, in sport,
we concerted there the manner of our travelling, and every thing
proper for the journey. --
I had bought a considerable quantity of sables, black fox-skins,
fine ermins, and such other furs that are very rich; I say, I had
bought them in that city for exchange for some of the goods
brought from China; in particular, for the cloves and nutmegs,
of which I sold the greatest part here; and the rest afterwards at
Archangel, for a much better price than I could have done at
London ; and my partner, who was sensible of the profit. and
whose business, more particularly than mine, was merchandise,
was mightily pleased with our stay, on account of the traffic we
made here.
It was in the beginning of June when I left this remote place,
a city, I believe, little heard of in the world; and, indeed, it is so
far out of the road of commerce, that I know not how it should be
much talked of. We were now come to a very small caravan,
being only thirty-two horses and camels in all, and all of them
passed for mine, though my new guest was proprietor of eleven
of them. It was most natural also, that I should take more ser-
vants with me than I had before, and the young lord passed for
my steward; what great man I passed for myself I know not, nei-
ther did it concern me to inquire. We had here the worst and
the largest desart to pass over that we met with in all the jour-
mey; indeed I call it the worst, because the way was very deep
in some places, and very uneven in others; the best we had to
say for it was, that we thought we had no troops of Tartars and
robbers to fear, and that they never came on this side the river
Oby, or at least but very seldon, ; but we found it otherwise.
Mly young lord had with him a faithful Muscovite servant, or
rather a Siberian servant, who was perfectly acquainted with the
country; and who led us by private roads, that we avoided coming
into the principal towns and cities upon the great road, such as
Tumen, Soloy Kamaskoy, and several others; because the Mus-
covite garrisons, which are kept there, are very curious and strict
in their observation upon travellers, and searching lest any of the
banished persons of note should make their escape that way into
Must ovy; but by this means as we were kept out of the cities, so
our whole journey was a desart, and we were obliged to encamp
and lie in our tents, when we might have had good accommodation
in the cities on the way: this the young lord was so sensible of,
that he would not allow us to lie abroad, when we came to seve-
432 I, IFE AN D A D VENTU. R. ES
ral cities on the way; but lay abroad himself, with his servant,
in the woods, and met us always at the appointed places.
We were just entered Europe, having passed the river Kama,
which, in these parts, is the boundary between Europe and Asia;
and the first city on the European side was called Soloy Kamas-
kov, which is as much as to say, the great city on the river Kama;
and here we thought to have seen some evident alteration in the
peºple their manners, their habit, their religion, and their busi-
ness; but we were mistaken; for as we had a vast desart to pass,
which by relation is near seven hundred miles long in some places,
but not above two hundred miles over where we passed it; so,
till we came past that horrible place we found very little differ-
ence between that country and the Mogul Tartary; the people
mostly Pagans, and little better than the savages of America;
their houses and towns full of idols, and their way of living wholly
barbarous, except in the cities as above, and the villages near
them; where they are Christians, as they call themselves, of the
Greek church; but even these have their religion mingled with so
many relics of superstition, that it is scarce to be known in some
places from mere sorcery and witchcraft.
In passing this forest, I thought indeed we must, after all our
dangers were, in our imagination, escaped, as before, have been
plundered, and robbed, and perhaps murdered, by a troop of
thieves: of what country they were, whether the roving bands of
the Ostiachi, a kind of Tartars, or wild people on the banks of
the Oby, had ranged thus far; or whether they were the sable-
hunters of Siberia, I am yet at a loss to know ; but they were all
on horseback, carried bows and arrows, and were at first about
five-and-forty in number. They came so near to us as within
about two musket-shot; and, asking no questions, they surround-
ed us with their horses, and looked very earnestly upon us twice.
At length they placed themselves just in our way; upon which we
drew up in a little line before our camels, being not above six-
teen men in all; and being drawn up thus, we halted, and sent
out the Siberian servant who attended his lord, to see who they
were: his master was the more willing to let him go, because he
was not a little apprehensive that they were a Siberian troop sent
out after him The man came up near them with a flag of truce,
and called to them ; but though he spoke several of their langua-
ges, or dialects of languages rather, he could not understand a
word they said; however, after some signs to him not to come
nearer to them at his peril, so he said he understood them to mean,
offering to shoot at him if he advanced, the fellow came back no
wiser than he went, only that by their dress, he said, he believed
them to be some Tartars of Kalmuck, or of the Circassian hordes;
and that there must be more of them on the great desart, though
9
OF ROB I NS ON CRU SO E. 433
he never heard that ever any of them were seen so far north be-
fore.
This was small comfort to us; however, we had no remedy:
there was on our left hand, at about a quarter of a mile’s distance,
a little grove or clump of trees, which stood close together, and
very near the road; I immediately resolved we should advance to
those trees, and fortify ourselves as well as we could there; for,
first, I considered that the trees would in a great measure cover
us from their arrows; and in the next place, they could not comr.
to charge us in a body : it was, indeed, my old Portugueze pilot
who proposed it; and who had this excellency attending him,
namely, that he was always readiest and most apt to direct and
encourage us in cases of the most danger. We advanced imme-
diately with what speed we could, and gained that little wood,
the Tartars, or thieves, for we knew not what to call them, keep-
ing their stand, and not attempting to hinder us. When we came
thither, we found, to our great satisfaction, that it was a swampy,
springy piece of ground, and, on the other side, a great spring of
water, which, running out in a little rill or brook, was a little far-
ther joined by another of the like bignesss; and was, in short, the
head or source of a considerable river, called afterwards the
Wirtska. The trees which grew about this spring, were not in all
above two hundred, but were very large, and stood pretty thick :
so that as soon as we got in, we saw ourselves perfectly safe from
the enemy, unless they alighted and attacked us on foot.
But to make this more difficult, our Portugueze, with indefati-
gable application, cut down great arms of the trees, and laid them
hanging, not cut quite off, from one tree to another; so that
he made a continued fence almost round us.
We staid here, waiting the motion of the enemy some hours,
without perceiving they made any offer to stir; when about two
hours before night, they came down directly upon us; and, though
we had not perceived it, we found they had been joined by some
more of the same, so that they were near fourscore horse, where-
of, however, we fancied some were women. They came on till
they were within half a shot of our little wood, when we fired
one musket without ball, and called to them in the Russian
tongue, to know what they wanted, and bid them keep off; but,
as if they knew nothing of what we said, they came on with a
double fury directly up to the wood side, not imagining we were
so barricaded, that they could not break in. Our old pilot was our
captain, as well as he had been our engineer; and desired of
us, not to fire upon them till they came within pistol-shot, that
we might be sure to kill; and that, when we did fire, we should
be sure to take good aim. We bade him give the word of com-
mand, which he delayed so long, that they were, some of them,
within two pikes length of us when we fired.
T -
434 LIFE AND A DV ENTURES
We aimed so true (or Providence directed our shot so sure,)
that we killed fourteen of them at the first volley, and wounded
several otbers, as also several of their horses; for we had all of
us loaded our pieces with two or three bullets apiece at least.
They were terribly surprised with our fire, and retreated im-
mediately about one hundred rods from us; in which time we
loaded our pieces again, and seeing them keep that distance, we
sallied out, and caught four or five of their horses, whose riders,
we supposed, were killed; and coming up to the dead, we could
easily perceive they were Tartars, but knew not from what coun-
try, or how they came to make an excursion such an unusual
length.
About an hour after, they made a motion to attack us again,
and rode round our little wood, to see where else they might break
in ; but finding us always ready to face them, they went off again,
and we resolved not to stir from the place for that night.
We slept little, you may be sure ; but spent the most part of
the night in strengthening our situation, and barricading the en-
trances into the wood; and, keeping a strict watch, we waited
for daylight, and, when it came, it gave us a very unwelcome
discovery indeed : for the enemy, who we thought were discou-
raged with the reception they had met with, were now increased
to no less than three hundred, and had set up eleven or twelve
huts and tents, as if they were resolved to besiege us: and this
little camp they had pitched, was upon the open plain, at about
three quarters of a mile from us. We were indeed surprised at
this discovery; and now, I confess, I gave myself over for lost,
and all that I had. The loss of my effects did not lie so near
me (though they were very considerable,) as the thoughts of falling
into the hands of such barbarians, at the latter end of my jour-
mey, after so many difficulties and hazards I had gone through;
and even in sight of our port, where we expected safety and deli-
verance. As for my partner, he was raging : he declared, that
to lose his goods would be his ruin ; and he would rather die
than be starved ; and he was for fighting to the last drop.
The young lord, as gallant as ever flesh showed itself, was
for fighting to the last also ; and my old pilot was of the opinion
we were able to resist them all, in the situation we then were
in : and thus we spent the day in debates of what we should do;
but towards evening, we found that the number of our enemies
still increased : perhaps, as they were abroad in several parties
for prey, the first had sent out Scouts to call for help, and to ac-
quaint them of their booty; and we did not know but by the morn-
ing they might still be a greater number; so I began to inquire
of those people we had brought from Tobolski, if there were no
other, or more private ways, by which we might avoid them in
the night, and perhaps either retreat to some town, or get help
... guard us over the desart,
12
OF RO BIN SO N C R U S O E. 435
The Siberian, who was servant to the young lord, told us, if we
designed to avoid them, and not fight, he would engage to carry
us off in the night to a way that went north towards the river
Petraz, by which he made no doubt but we might get away, and
the Tartars never the wiser; but he said, his lord had told him
he would not return, but would rather choose to fight. I told
him, he mistook his lord; for that he was too wise a man to love
fighting for the sake of it; that I knew his lord was brave enough
by what he had showed already; but that his lord knew better
than to desire to have seventeen or eighteen men fight five hun-
dred, unless an unavoidable necessity forced them to it; and that
if he thought it possible for us to escape in the night, we had
nothing else to do but to attempt it. He answered, if his lord
gave him such order, he would lose his life if he did not perform
it. We soon brought his lord to give that order, though privately,
and we immediately prepared for the putting it in practice.
And first, as soon as it began to be dark, we kindled a fire
in our little camp, which we kept burning, and prepared so as to
make it burn all night, that the Tartars might conclude we were
still there; but, as soon as it was dark, that is to say, so as we
could see the stars, (for our guide would not stir before,) ha-
ving all our horses and camels ready loaded, we followed our new
guide, who, I soon found, steered himself by the pole or north
star, all the country being level for a long way.
After we had travelled two hours very hard, it began to be
lighter still ; not that it was quite dark all night, but the moon
began to rise ; so that, in short, it was rather lighter than we
wished it to be: but by six o'clock next morning we were gotten
near forty miles, though the truth is, we almost spoiled our
horses. Here we found a Russian village, named Kirmazinskoy,
where we rested, and heard nothing of the Kalmuck Tartars
that day. About two hours before might we set out again, and
travelled till eight the next morning, though not quite so hastily
as before; and about seven o’clock we passed a little river, call-
ed Kirtza, and came to a good large town inhabited by Russians,
and very populous, called Ozomys. There we heard, that seve-
ral troops or herds of Kalmucks had been abroad upon the desart,
but that we were now completely out of danger of them, which
was to our great satisfaction, you may be sure. Here we were
obliged to get some fresh horses, and having need enough of rest,
we staid five days; and my partner and I agreed to give the ho-
nest Siberian, who brought us hither, the value of ten pistoles
for his conducting us. t
In five days more we came to Veussima, upon the river Wit-
zogda, which running into the river Dwina, we were there very
happily near the end of our travels by land, that river being navi-
gable in seven days passage to Archangel. From hence we came
to Lawrenskoy, where the river joins, the third of July; and
436 L1FE AND ADve NTUREs, &c.
provided ourselves with two luggage-boats, and a barge, for our
convenience. We embarked the seventh, and arrived all safe at
Archangel the eighteenth, having been a year, five months, and
three days on the journey, including our stay of eight months and
odd days at F. ~
We were obliged to stay at this place six weeks for the arrival
of the ships, and must have tarried longer, had not a Hamburgher
come in above a month sooner than any of the English ships;
when, after some consideration, that the city of Hamburgh might
happen to be as good a market for our goods as London, we all
took freight with him; and having put our goods on board, it
was most natural for me to put my steward on board to take
care of them; by which means my young lord had a sufficient op-
portunity to conceal himself, never coming on shore again in all
the time we staid there; and this he did, that he might not be
seen in the city, where some of the Moscow merchants would
certainly have seen and discovered him. * . -
We sailed from Archangel the twentieth of August the same
year; and, after no extraordinary bad voyage, arrived in the
Elbe the thirteenth of September. Here my partner and I found
a very good sale for our goods, as well those of China, as the
sables, &c. of Siberia; and dividing the produce of our effects,
my share amounted to 3475l. 17s. 8d. notwithstanding so many
losses we had sustained, and charges we had been at ; only re-
membering that I had included, in this, about 600l. worth of
diamonds, which I had purchased at Bengal.
Here the young lord took his leave of us, and went up the
Elbe, in order to go to the court of Vienna, where he resolved .
to seek protection, and where he could correspond with those of
his father’s friends who were left alive. He did not part without
all the testimonies he could give, of gratitude for the service I
#. done him, and his sense of my kindness to the prince his
ather.
To conclude: having staid near four months in Hamburgh, I
came from thence over land to the Hague, where I embarked in
the packet, and arrived in London the tenth of January 1705,
having been gone from England ten years and nine months.
And here, resolving to harass myself no more, I am preparing
for a longer journey than all these, having lived seventy-two years
a life of infinite variety, and learnt sufficiently to know the value
of retirement, and the blessing of ending our days in peace.
THE END,
EDINBURGH : *
Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.