ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
PLURIBUS
UNUM
TUEBOR
SI-QUÆRIS PENINSULAM-AMŒNAM
CIRCUMSPICE
GIFT OF
REGENT LLHUBBARD

Hubbard
Imag. Voy.
PR
3403
Al
1516

Frontispiece.

DANIEL DEFOE.
Engravd for J Cleaves Edition.
Sudlow Engraver,

THE
OF
LIFE AND ADVENTURES,

Robinson
BY
Soe
Daniel Brefoce

MAN CHE STER
Printed & Published by J.GLEAVE 196 Deansgate.
THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE;
INCLUDING
An account of his Shipwreck,
AND
RÉSIDENCE FOR TWENTY-NINE YEARS
ON AN
UNKNOWN ISLAND;
THE
REMARKABLE HISTORY OF HIS DELIVERANCE; AND THE EXTRAORDI-
NARY CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH AFTERWARDS BEFEL HIM
IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE world.
BY DANIEL DE FOE.
These twenty years
This rock and these demesnes have been my world,
Where I have liv'd at honest freedom; paid;
More pious debts to Heaven than in all
The fore-end of my time.
Shakspeare.
ILLUSTRATED WITH ELEGANT ENGRAVINGS.
Manchester:
Printed and Published by J. GLEAVE, 196, Deansgate,
1816.
Res
Regent L. L. Hutford
44
10-6-1924
MEMOIR
OF
DANIEL DE FOE.
IT is something extraordinary, that it has never
been ascertained to what country the author of the
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe owed his existence.
Whether he were born on the neighbouring continent,
or in Great Britain; in the metropolis, or in the
country; is still a mystery: it is even doubtful
whether his name were Foe, or De Foe. Like Swift,
he probably had reasons for concealing what would
have added little to his consequence. We know,
however, with sufficient certainty, that his father
was James Foe, of the parish of St. Giles's, Cripple-
gate, London, citizen and butcher.
Daniel Foe, or De Foe, as he is asserted by his
enemies to have called himself, that he might not be
taken for an Englishman, was born in London, about
the year 1663. If we may believe the Gazette, his
parents were probably Dissenters, for he was edu-
cated at a dissenting academy, kept at Newington-
Green, by Charles Morton; whose instruction he
iv.
MEMOIR OF
probably enjoyed from 1675 10 1680, and whom he
describes as a master, who inculcated nothing either
in politics or science, that was dangerous to monar
chical government, or improper for a scholar to
know.
De Foe had the courage to fight as well as to
write in behalf of his principles; and before he had
completed his 23d year, he appeared in arms for the
Duke of Monmouth, in June 1685.
On the 26th of January, 1687, he was admitted a
liveryman of London, being allowed his freedom by
birth; and had soon the satisfaction of partaking in
the advantages of that revolution which by his pen
and his sword, he had endeavoured to promote. In
honour of that great event, the chief magistrate of
the metropolis invited King William, the year after
his accession to the throne, to partake of the city
feast on the 29th of October, which, before the
alteration of the stylé, was lord-mayor's day. Every
mark of respect was paid to the Sovereign of the
people's choice. A regiment of volunteers, com-
posed of the principal citizens, and commanded by
the celebrated Earl of Peterborough, escorted the
King and Queen from Whitehall to the Mansion-
house. We are informed by Oldmixon, that among
these troopers, gallantly mounted, and richly ac-
coutred, was Daniel De Foe,
While our author thus displayed his zeal, and
courted notice, he is said to have carried on business
as a hosier in Freeman's Yard, Cornhill: but the
tradesman and the poet are rather incongruous cha-
}
DANIEL DE FOE.
V.
racters. With the usual imprudence of superior
genius, he was carried by his vivacity into companies
that were gratified by his wit. Those hours which
he ought to have employed in the counting-house,
he spent with a small society for the cultivation of
polite learning, and being obliged to abscond from
his creditors in 1692, he naturally attributed those
misfortunes to the war, which were probably the
result of his own misconduct. An angry creditor
took out a commission of bankruptcy, which was
soon superseded on the petition of those to whom
he was most indebted, who accepted a composition
on his bond alone, This he punctually paid by the
efforts of unwearied diligence. But some of the
creditors, who had been thus satisfied, being after-
wards reduced to distress themselves, De Foe being
then in rising circumstances from King William's
favour, voluntarily paid them the whole of their
claims: this is such an instance of honesty, as it
would be highly unjust to De Foe to conceal. Being
accused in 1705, by Lord Haversham of a mercenary
spirit, our author feelingly represents, that, with a
numerous family, and no helps but his own industry,
he bad forced his way with undiscouraged diligence,
through a sea of misfortunes, and reduced his
debts, exclusive of composition, from seventeen thou-
sand to less than five thousand pounds.
Before he was thirty, his powers of pleasing had
gained him friends, who offered to settle him as a
factor at Cadiz, where, whilst in trade, he had some
previous correspondence: but, as he assures us in
vi.
MEMOIR OF
44
his old age,
"Providence, which had other work
for him to do, placed a secret aversion in his mind
to quitting England." He had sufficient confidence
in his own talents to think, that at home he could
gather laurels, or at least obtain a livelihood.
When the pen and ink war was raised against a
standing army," subsequent to the peace of Rys-
wick, De Foe published AN ARGUMENT, to prove
that a standing army, with consent of Parliament,
is not incompatible with a free government.
Liberty and property," he observes,
6.6 are the
glorious attributes of the English nation; and the
dearer they are to us, the less danger we are in of
losing them but I could never yet see it proved,
that the danger of losing them by a small army was
such, as we should expose ourselves to all the world
for it. It is not the King of England alone, but
the sword of England in the hand of the King, that
gives laws of peace and war now to Europe: and
those who would thus wrest the sword out of his
hand in time of peace, bid the fairest of all men in
the world to renew the war."
The death of King William deprived De Foe of
a protector, who, he says, trusted, esteemed, and
valued him more highly than he deserved; and who,
as he flattered himself amidst his later distresses,
would never have suffered him to be treated as he
had been in the world. He adds, that he never
patiently heard that monarch's memory abused, nor
ever could do so; and every generous mind must
admit that in this gratitude to a royal benefactor,
there is surely much to praise, but nothing to blame.
DANIEL DE FOE.
vii.
For twenty years of his life, De Foe had uncon-
sciously been busily engaged in charging a mine,
which now destroyed the happiness and hopes of
himself and his family. He had fought for Mon-
mouth; he had opposed King James; he had vin-
dicated the Revolution; he had panegyrized King
William; he had defended the rights of the collec-
tive body of the people; he had displeased the chief
servants of the crown, by objecting to the war in
Flanders; he had bantered the Tory leaders of the
Commons; he had just ridiculed all the high-flyers
in the kingdom: and he was at length obliged to
seek shelter from the combined indignation of all
parties. He was accused of having written a libel,
and in January 1702, a proclamation was issued,
offering a reward of fifty pounds for discovering his
retreat. De Foe was described by the Gazette—
"as a middle-sized spare man, about forty years
old, of a brown complexion, and dark-brown hair,
though he wears a wig, having a hook nose, a sharp
chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth."
Neither his submission to the ruling powers, nor his
generosity to his printers, in giving himself up, was
sufficient to shield him from the resentment of his
enemies. He was found guilty of a libel, and sen-
tenced not only to the pillory, but also to fine and
imprisonment in Newgate. By this affair, as he
asserts, was he a second time ruined, and lost above
35007. sterling.
This involuntary leisure he employed in preparing
for the press á collection of his writings, which, with
viii.
MEMOIR OF
}
several things he had no hand in, had been already
printed by a piratical printer. To this volume was
prefixed the first portrait of De Foe.
In the solitude of a gaol, the energy of De Foe
projected The Review, a periodical paper in quarto,
which was first published on the 19th of February,
1703-4; and was intended to embrace news, foreign
and domestic; politics, British and European ;
trade, particular and universal. But our author
foresaw, from the natural aversion of the age to any
tedious affair, that, however instructive, his publi-
cation would never be read, if it were not diverting.
With the design, therefore, of blending amusement
with profit, he skilfully institutes a Scandal Club, for
the discussion of questions in divinity, morals, war,
trade, language, poetry, love, marriage, drunkenness,
and gaming. Hence it is obvious, that The Review
opened the way to the Tatlers, Spectators, and Guar-
dians; yet of this Johnson seems to have been un-
conscious, when he speaks of the authors of the
Tatlers and Spectators as the first English writers
who had undertaken to reform either the savageness
of neglect, or the impertinence of civility; to show
when to speak, or to be silent; how to refuse, or
how to comply.
While, as he relates himself, he lay friendless in
the prison of Newgate, his family ruined, and him-
self without hopes of deliverance, a message was
brought him from a gentleman of honour, of whom
he had previously not the least knowledge. This
was Sir Robert Harley, the Speaker of the House
3
:
DANIEL DE FOE.
ix.
of Commons, who probably approved of the prin-
ciples and conduct of De Foe, and conceived, that,
during a factions age, his talents might prove ser-
viceable. He accordingly sent a verbal message to
the prisoner, desiring to know what he could do for
him. Our author quoted the story of the blind
man in the gospel; concluding-" Lord, that I may
receive my sight."
In April 1704, Harley became Secretary of State,
and had now frequent opportunities of representing
to the queen and to the minister, the unmerited suf-
ferings of De Foe; who nevertheless, continued
four months longer in gaol. The Queen, at length,
inquired into his circumstances; and Lord Godol-
phin sent a considerable sum to his wife, and fur-
nished him with money to pay his fine and the ex-
pense of his discharge. This, says he, is the foun-
dation on which he built his first sense of duty to
the Queen, and the indelible bond of gratitude to
his first benefactor.
Such was the high interposition by which, in Au-
gust 1704, De Foe was released from Newgate.-
For the sake of privacy, he immediately retired to
St. Edmund's Bury: but his retreat did not prevent
persecution. It was asserted by Dyer, the news
writer, that De Foe had absconded from justice;
Fox, the bookseller, published, that he had fled
from his security; and Stephen, a state messenger,
every where declared, that he had a warrant for his
apprehension. De Foe informed the Secretary of
State of his residence, and that he was ready to
b
X.
MEMOIR OF
!
appear; but he was told not to fear, as he had not
transgressed.
From the persecutions of party, the year 1705
was a period of disquiet to De Foe. Business hav-
ing led him to Exeter, and other places in the west
of England, a project was formed to send him as a
soldier to the army, at a time when footmen were
taken from the coaches, as recruits: but he was a
freeholder of England, and a liveryman of London,
and knew that such characters could not be vio-
lated, with impunity. Some of the western justices,
more strongly actuated by party spirit than sense of
duty, being informed by his opponents of De Foe's
journey, determined to apprehend him as a vaga-
bond: but our author, who, among other qualities,
possessed personal courage in a high degree, con-
sidered that to face danger is the most effectual
mode of preventing it. In his absence, real suits
were commenced against him for fictitious debts:
but De Foe advertised, that all just claims upon
him should be fairly satisfied.
By Lord Godolphin, who knew how to discrimi-
nate characters, he was selected for a duty, which,
to use his own words, was far from being unfit for
a sovereign to direct, or an honest man to perform.
His lordship presented him to the Queen, who,
while he kissed her hand, observed, "that she had
such a satisfaction in his former services, that she
had again appointed him for another affair, which
was something nice, but the Treasurer would tell
him the rest." In three days he was sent to Scot-
DANIEL DE FOE.
xi.
land. His knowledge of commerce and financial
subjects, his powers of insinuation, and above all,
the readiness of his pen, were deemed of no small
He arrived at
utility in promoting the Union.
Edinburgh in October 1706; on the 16th of Janu-
ary, the act of Union was passed by the Scots par-
liament; and, in February 1707, De Foe returned
to London.
How our author was recompensed by the minis-
ters, who derived a benefit from his services, he
has not recorded. Before his departure for Scot-
land, indeed, as he acknowledges, Lord Godolphin
obtained for him the continuance of an appointment,
which her Majesty, by the interposition of his first
benefactor, had been pleased to make him, in con-
sideration of a former service, in a foreign country,
in which he ran as much risk as a grenadier on the
counterscarp.
As early as February 1707, De Foe avowed his
purpose of publishing the History of the Union,
which he had ably assisted to accomplish. This
design he executed in 1709, though he was engaged
at the same time in other works, and gave the world
a Review three times a week. His history was but
little noticed when it first appeared; for, as the
preface states, it had many difficulties, and many
factions to encounter, and parties to please. It was
republished in 1712, and again in 1786, when a
similar union with Ireland had become the topic of
public debate and private conversation.
On the removal of Lord Godolphin from office in
1
xii.
MEMOIR OF
August 1710, De Foe waited on the ex-minister;
who obligingly declared, "that he had the same
good-will, but not the same power to assist him;"
and recommended to him, what was of more real
use-" to receive the Queen's commands from her
confidential servants, when he saw things settled."
De Foe naturally concluded it to be his duty to go
along with the ministers, while, as he says, they did
not break in on the constitution; they must be very
fastidious indeed who can find fault with such a
resolution in a very subordinate officer (if indeed he
held any office), who had a wife and six children
to maintain with very precarious means.
De Foe, who now lived at Newington, in com-
fortable circumstances, seems to have been con-
vinced by the death of Anne, and the accession of
George I, of the vanity of party-writing. From
this epoch he seems to have studied rather to amend
than to harden the heart; to regulate, more than
to vitiate, the practice of life.
Early in 1715 he published The Family Instructor,
in three parts; 1st, relating to fathers and chil-
dren; 2nd, to masters and servants; 3d, to hus-
bands and wives. He carefully concealed the cir-
cumstance of his being the author, lest the public.
knowledge of it might obstruct the good effects of
his labour. To this work the publisher procured a
recommendatory letter from the Reverend Samuel
Wright, a well-known preacher in the Blackfriars.
Respecting this performance, a late writer has re-
marked, that there is some mysticism in the preface,
5
1
DANIEL DE FOE.
xiii.
which, it were to be desired, a judicious hand
would expunge, when The Family Instructor shall
be again reprinted; for reprinted it will be, while
our language endures; at least, while wise meu
continue to consider the influence of religion, and
the practice of morals, as of the greatest use to
society.
De Foe afterwards added a second volume, in
two parts; 1st, relating to Family Breaches; 2ndly,
to the great Mistake of mixing the Passions in the
managing of Children. He considered it, indeed,
as a bold adventure to write a second volume of any
thing; as it is a general opinion among modern
readers, that second parts never attain to the spirit
of the first. He quotes Milton, for differing from
the world upon this question, and for affirming with
regard to his own great performances, "that the
people had a general sense of the loss of Paradise,
but not an equal gust for regaining it." It will be
easily allowed, De Foe's second volume is as in-
structive and pleasing as the first. His Religious
Courtship, which appeared in 1722, may be consi-
dered as a third volume; for the design is equally
moral, the manner is equally attractive, and it may
in like manner be termed a Religious Play.
In April 1719, De Foe delivered to the world
the most popular of all his performances, the well-
known Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe. The reception was immediate and univer-
sal; and the bookseller who purchased the manu-
script, after every other had refused it, is said to
xiv.
MEMOIR OF
have gained a thousand pounds. If it be inquired,
says a writer already quoted, by what charm these
Surprising Adventures should have instantly pleased,
and always pleased, it will be found, that few
books have ever so naturally mingled amusement
with instruction. The attention is fixed, either by
the simplicity of the narration, or by the variety of
the incidents; the heart is amended by a vindication
of the ways of God to man; and the understanding
is informed, by various examples, how much utility
ought to be preferred to ornament.
It
The second volume of Surprising Adventures was
published in August 1719, with similar success.
has often been repeated, that De Foe had surrepti-
tiously appropriated to his own use the papers of
Alexander Selkirk, a Scotch mariner, who lived
alone on the island of Juan Fernandez, four years
and four months, till relieved on the 2nd February,
1708-9, by Captain Woodes Rogers, in his cruising
voyage round the world. This, however, may have
been one of those calumnies in which, as we have
seen, De Foe's enemies took delight to propagate
against him. The truth, as far as it can now bet
ascertained, seems to be, that the adventures of
Selkirk had been thrown into the air, in 1712, for
literary hawks to devour; and De Foe may have
merely caught a common prize, which his ingenuity
clothed in the attractive dress wherein we now be-
hold it. Thus he may have fairly acquired the fun-
damental incident of Crusoe's life; but it was im-
possible that he could have borrowed the various
}
1
DANIEL DE FOE.
XV.
events, the useful moralities, or the engaging style.
Few men are capable of writing such a poem; and
few Selkirks could imitate so pathetic an original.
It is the praise of De Foe, that as many writers.
have succeeded in relating enterprises by land, he
excelled in narrating adventures by sea, with such
felicities of language, such attractive varieties, such
insinuative instruction, as have seldom been equalled,
but never surpassed.
When De Foe had attained the age of sixty-five,
while he was encumbered with a family, and, per-
haps, even pinched with penury, Pope endeavoured,
by repeated strokes, to “ bring his grey hairs with
sorrow to the grave." This he did without pro-
priety, and, as far as appears, without provocation;
for De Foe belonged not to the black list of scrib-
blers, who by attempting to lessen the fame of the
poet, incited the indignation of the satirist. The
offence and the fate of Bentley and De Foe were
nearly alike. Bentley would not allow the transla-
tion to be Homer; De Foe had attempted to bring
Milton into vogue seven years before the Paradise
Lost and Chevy Chase had been criticised in the
Spectators by Addison.
At length, after a life of incessant labour, De
Foe died in April 1731, in the parish of St. Giles,
Cripplegate, London, at an age, when, if he were
born in 1663, it was time to prepare for his last voy-
age. He left a widow, who did not long survive
him, and six sons and daughters, whom he boasts
of having educated as well as his circumstances
xvi.
MEMOIR, &c.
1
would admit. His son Daniel is said to have emi-
grated to Carolina; of Benjamin, the second, ´no
account can be given. His youngest daughter, So-
phia, married Mr. Henry Baker, a man more re-
spectable as a philosopher than a poet, who died in
1774, at the age of seventy. His daughter Maria
married one Langley; but Hannah and Henrietta,
probably remained unmarried, since they were
heiresses only of a name, which did not recommend
them. With regard to his third son, Norton, he is
only said to have been a wretched writer in the
Flying Post, and the author of Alderman Barber's
Life. De Foe probably died insolvent; for letters
of administration on his goods and chattels were
granted to Mary Brooke, widow, a creditrix, in
September 1733, after summoning in official form
the next of kin to appear.


TO THE READER.
THERE is scarcely any history in the English lan-
guage which has been so generally read, and afforded
so much pleasure, as that of Robinson Crusoe, a new
edition of which is here presented to the public. It
is not merely in the country which gave it birth that
it enjoys such popularity; numberless translations in
the languages of the continent, attest the estimation
in which it has been, and still continues to be, held.
To those who are capable of appreciating the various
intrinsic merits possessed in so high a degree by this
celebrated work, the distinguished favour which it has
acquired will, by no means, appear surprising.
This work is calculated to produce the most power-
ful and salutary impressions, especially upon juvenile
minds. The life of Robinson Crusoe holds out an
useful warning to youth, whose spirit of enterprize
impels them to quit their parental homes, heedless of
the remonstrances of affection, or the representations
of experience. The dangers attendant on such rash
undertakings are here delineated with so much truth
and energy as to be well adapted to check a roving
and unsettled disposition, and to deter persons, in the
same situation with the hero of this piece, from pur-
a
iv.
PREFACE.
1
suing a similar course; while the narrative of the
misfortunes that befel him, and his contrivance for
their alleviation, is calculated both to amuse the
reader, and add to his stock of information.
66
Man," observes Zimmerman, in his admirable
work on Solitude, "excluded from all connexion
with his fellow-creatures, would neither be able to
fulfil his duty toward himself and the Great Author
of his existence, nor his duty to his neighbour, and,
consequently, could not long remain in his wretched
condition without feeling his misery." This truth is
forcibly illustrated in the following history, which
fixes in the mind a lively idea of the horrors of such
an exclusion, and, consequently, of the sweets of so-
ciety, and the blessings derived by mankind from
mutual intercourse and assistance.
To those, however, who, either through imprudence
or inevitable circumstances, are involved in calamities,
similar to those here described, the recollection of the
conduct and expedients of Robinson Crusoe cannot
fail to prove a fund of instruction and consolation,
His story suggests the necessity of a humble reliance
onDivine Providence in the most severe trials; it en-
courages the unfortunate, however unpromising their
situation, to raise themselves above despair, and to
await with resignation the period which Heaven has
decreed to their afflictions. It teaches them, at the
same time, not to dwell in sullen sadness on the unfa-
vourable side of their condition, but to consider also
the advantages which they may still possess, and to
exert all their ingenuity and industry to improve and
to increase them. In short, we know of scarcely any
PREFACE.
V.
work (the sacred volume of course excepted), that is
susceptible of such universal application to the various
vicissitudes of human life,
It would be difficult to point out any performance
which contains șo many valuable lessons on the consti-
tution of the human mind as this. The peregrinations
of the hero in different parts of the world afford
much useful geographical information, and such as
cannot fail to be impressed with beneficial effect upon
the memory of the youthful reader.
These excellencies, important as they certainly are,
must, however, be considered as only secondary re-
commendations in the narrative contained in the fol
lowing pages. The religious and moral precepts,
the sentiments of benevolence and humanity, inculcated
throughout, stamp upon it an inestimable value, by
which it is pre-eminently distinguished from all works
of imagination, and rendered superior, in point of
utility, to a very great majority of those that have
been expressly written on the subjects of religion and
morality.
To say more on the merits of this celebrated work,
would almost be an insult upon the understanding of
the public; to have said less would have been an in-
justice to the work itself. All that remains for us to
do is to offer a few observations on the edition here
presented.
The text, in this edition, is given complete from
the most accurate copies that could be procured; by
which means all those moral and religious reflections
and inferences, justly regarded as the greatest beauties
of the work, and of the highest advantage to the
vi.
PREFACE.
reader, are faithfully retained. It would be needless
to insist on the superiority which this method must
give to the present edition over those mutilations or
abridgments in which that portion is totally omitted,
for the purpose of reducing the size and price of the
book.
In regard to the engravings which illustrate this
work, and exhibit an animated representation of
many of the scenes described in them to the eye as well
as to the mind, it is not too much to assert, that, for
elegance, spirit of design, and execution, the pro-
prietor may challenge a comparison with any edition
extant.

!
THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
:
ROBINSON CRUSOE,
&c. &c.
I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York,
of a good family, though not of that country, my
father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first
at Hull; he got a good estate by merchandise, and
leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from
whence he had married my mother, whose relations
were named Robinson, a very good family in that
country, and from whom I was called Robinson
Kreutznaer; but by the usual corruption of words
in England, we are now called, nay we call ourselves,
and write our name Crusoe, and so my companions
always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieu-
tenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in
Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous colo-
nel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dun-
kirk against the Spaniards. What became of my
second brother I never knew, any more than my fa-
ther 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
generally go, and designed me for the law; but I
would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea;
↓
B
6
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe's father counsels him.
and my inclination to this led me so strongly against
the will, nay the commands of my father, and against
all the intreaties 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 excellent counsel against what he foresaw was
my design. He called me one morning into his
chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and
expostulated very warmly with me upon this subject:
he asked me what reasons more than a mere wan-
dering inclination I had for leaving my father's house
and my native country, where I might be well intro-
duced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by
application and industry, with a life of ease and
pleasure. He told me it was for men of desperate
fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring superior fortunes
on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to
rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous in
undertakings of a nature out of the common road;
that these things were all either too far above me,
or too far below me; that mine was the middle state,
or what might be called the upper station of low
life, which he had found by long experience was the
best state in the world, the most suited to human
happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships,
the labour and sufferings, of the mechanic part of
mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, lux-
ury, ambition, and envy, of the upper part of man-
kind. He told me, I might judge of the happiness
of this state by this one thing, viz. that this was the
state of life which all other people envied; that kings
have frequently lamented the miserable consequences
of being born to great things, and wish they had been
placed in the middle of the two extremes, between
the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his
testimony to this as the just standard of true felicity,
when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
7
The middle station of life recommended.
He bid me observe it, and I should always find,
that the calamities of life were shared among the
upper and lower part of mankind; but that the mid-
dle station had the fewest disasters, and was not ex-
posed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower
part of mankind: nay, they were not subjected to
so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body
or mind, as those were, who by vicious living, luxury,
and extravagances, on one hand, or by hard 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 station of life was calculated for all
kind of virtues, and all kind of enjoyments; that
peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle
fortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness,
health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all de-
sirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the
middle station of life; that this way men went si-
lently and smoothly through the world, and com-
fortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours
of the hands or of the head, not sold to the life of
slavery for daily bread, or harrassed with perplexed
circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the
body of rest; not enraged with the passion of envy,
or secret burning lust of ambition for great things;
but in easy circumstances sliding gently through the
world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living,
without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and
learning by every day's experience to know it more
sensibly.
After this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the
most affectionate manner, not to play the young man,
nor to precipitate myself into miseries which nature
and the station of life I was born in seemed to have
provided against; that I was under no necessity of
seeking my bread; 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;
S
8
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe affected at his father's discourse
*
and that if I was not very easy and happy in the
world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must
hinder it, and that he should have nothing to answer
for, having thus discharged his duty in warning me
against measures which he knew would be to my
hurt in a word, that as he would do very kind
things for me if I would stay and settle at home as
he directed, so he would not have so much hand in
my
misfortunes, as to give me any encouragement to
go away; and to close all, he told me I had my elder
brother for an example, to whom he had used the
same earnest persuasions to keep him from going
into the Low Country wars, but could not prevail,
his young desires prompting him to run into the
army, where he was killed; and though he said he
would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture
to say to me, that if I did take such a foolish step,
God would not bless me, and I would have leisure
hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his coun-
sel, when there might be none to assist in my recovery.
I observed in this last part of his discourse, which
was truly pathetic, though I suppose my father did
not know it to be so himself; I say, I observed the
tears run down his face very plentifully, and espe-
cially when he spoke of my brother who was killed;
and that when he spoke of my having leisure to re-
pent, and none to assist me, he was so moved, that
he broke off the discourse, and told me, his heart
was so full, he could say no more to me.
I was sincerely affected with this discourse, as in-
deed 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, alast
a few days wore it all off; and in short, to prevent
any of my father's farther importunities, in a few
weeks after I resolved to run quite away from him.
However, I did not act so hastily neither as my first
heat of resolution prompted, but I took my mother,
at a time when I thought her a little pleasanter than
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
He entreats his mother's consent.
ordinary, and told her, that my thoughts were so en-
tirely 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 ap-
prentice to a trade, or a clerk to an attorney; that I
was sure, if I did, I should never serve out my time,
and I should certainly run away from my master be-
fore my time was out, and go to sea; and if she
would speak to my father to let me go one voyage
abroad, if I came home again, and did not like it, I
would go no more, and I would promise by a double
diligence to recover that time I had lost.
This put my mother into a great passion: she told
me, she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to
my father upon any such subject; that he knew too
well what was my interest to give his consent to any
such thing so much for my burt; and that she won-
dered how I could think of any such thing after such
a discourse as I had with my father, and such kind
and tender expressions as she knew my father had
used to me; and that, in short, if I would ruin my-
self, there was no help for me; but I might depend
I should never have their consent to it; that, for her
part, she would not have so much hand in my de-
struction; 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 fa-
ther, yet, as I have heard afterwards, she reported
all the discourse to him, and that my father, after
showing a great concern at it, said to her with a
sigh," That boy might be happy if he would stay
at home; but if he goes abroad, he will be the most
miserable wretch that was ever born; I can give no
consent to it."
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke
loose; though, in the mean time, I continued obsti-
nately deaf to all proposals of settling to business,
1
C
10
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe is prevailed on to go to sea.
and frequently expostulating with my father and mo-
ther about their being so positively determined against
what they knew my inclinations prompted me to.
But being one day at Hull, where I went casually,
and without any purpose of making an elopement
that time; but I say, being there, and one of my
companions being going by sea to London, in his
father's ship, and prompting me to go with them,
with the common allurement of seafaring men, viz.
that it should cost me nothing for my passage,
I
consulted neither father nor mother any more, nor so
much as sent them word of it; but leaving them to
hear of it as they might, without asking God's bles-
sing or my father's, without any consideration of cir-
cumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, God
knows, on the first of September, 1651, I went on
board a ship bound for London.
+
Never any young adventurer's misfortunes, I be-
lieve, began sooner, or continued longer, than mine.
The ship was no sooner gotten out of the Humber,
but the wind began to blow, and the waves to rise,
in a most frightful manner; and, as I had never been
at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body,
and terrified in mind. I began now seriously to re-
flect upon what I had done, and how justly I was
overtaken by the judgment of heaven for my wicked
leaving my father's house, and abandoning my duty;
all the good counsel of my parents, my father's tears,
and my mother's entreaties, came now fresh into my
mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come
to the pitch of hardness to which it has been since,
reproached me with the contempt of advice, and
the breach of my duty to God and my father.
All this while the storm increased, and the sea,
which I had never been upon before, went very high,
though nothing like what I have seen many times
since; no, nor like what I saw a few days after: but
it was enough to affect me then, who was but a young
sailor, and had never known any thing of the matter.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
11
He is overtaken by a storm.
1 expected every wave would have swallowed us
up, and that every time the ship fell down, as I
thought, into the trough or hollow of the sea, we
should never rise more; and in this agony of mind
I made many vows and resolutions, that if it would
please God here to spare my life this one voyage, if
ever I got once my foot upon dry land again I would
go directly home to my father, and never set it into
a ship again while I lived; that I would take his ad-
vice, and never run myself into such miseries as
these any more. Now I saw plainly the goodness of
his observations about the middle station of life, how
easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and
never had been exposed to tempests at sea, or trou-
bles on shore; and I resolved that I would, like a
true repenting prodigal, go home to my father.
1
་
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
a little sea-sick still; but towards night the weather
cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming
fine evening followed; the sun went down perfectly
clear, and rose so the next morning; and having
little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun shining
upon it, the sight was, as I thought, the most de-
lightful that ever I saw.
1
I had slept well in the night, and was now no
more sea-sick, but very cheerful, looking with won-
der upon the sea that was so rough and terrible the
day before, and could be so calin and so pleasant in
so little time after. And now, lest my good resolu-
tions should continue, my companion, who had in-
deed enticed me away, comes to me: "Well, Bob,"
says he, (clapping me on the shoulder,)" how do you
do after it? I warrant you were frighted, wa'n't
you, last night, when it blew but a capful of wind?"
"A capful do you call it?" said I; "it was a ter-
12
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
He drowns his cares in drunkenness.
rible storm."-" A storm, you fool you," replied he,
"do you call that a storm? why it was nothing at all;
give us but a good ship and sea-room, and we think
nothing of such a squall of wind as that, but you're
but a fresh-water sailor, Bob. Come, let us make
a bowl of punch, and we'll forget all that; do you
see what charming weather it is now ?" To make
short this sad part of my story, we went the old
way of all sailors; the punch was made, and I was
made drunk with it; and in that one night's wicked-
ness I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections
upon my past conduct, and all my resolutions for
my future. In a word, as the sea was returned to
its smoothness of surface, and settled calmness by
the abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my
thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions
of being swallowed up by the sea being forgotten,
and the current of my former desires being returned,
I entirely forgot the vows and promises that I made
in my distress. I found, indeed, some intervals of
reflection, and the serious thoughts did, as it were,
endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook
them off, and roused myself from them as it were
from a distemper, and, applying myself to drinking
and compány, soon mastered the return of those fits,
for so I called them; and I had in five or six days
got as complete a victory over conscience, as any
young fellow that desired 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 confess both the
danger and the mercy.
:
The sixth day of our being at sea we came into
Yarmouth Roads; the winds having been contrary,
and the weather calm, we had made but little way
since the storm. Here we were obliged to come to
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
13
A storm.
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 New-
castle came into the said roads, as the common har-
bour where the ships might wait for a wind for the
river.
We had not, however, rid here so long, but should
have tided it up the river, but that the wind blew
too fresh; and, after we had lain four or five days,
blew very hard. However, the roads being reckoned
as good as a harbour, the anchorage good, and our
ground tackle very strong, our men were uncon-
cerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger,
but spent the time in rest and mirth, after the man-
ner of the sea; but the eighth day in the morning,
the wind increased, and we had all hands at work to
strike our top-masts, and make every thing snug and
close, that the ship might ride as easy as possible.
By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our
ship rid forecastle in, shipped several seas, and we
thought once or twice our anchor had come home;
upon which our master ordered out the sheet anchor;
so that we rode with two anchors a-head, and the
cables veered out to the better end.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and
now I began to see terror and amazement in the
faces even of the seamen themselves. The master,
though vigilant in the business of preserving the
ship, yet as he went in and out of the cabin by me,
1 could hear him softly to himself say several times,
"Lord be merciful to us! we shall be all lost, we
shall be all undone!" and the like. During these
first hurries I was stupid, lying still in my cabin,
which was in the steerage, and cannot describe my
temper: I could ill re-assume the first penitence
which I had so apparently trampled upon, and hard-
ened myself against: I thought the bitterness of
death had been past, and that this would be nothing
like the first: but when the master himself came by
}
14
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They cut away their masts.
me, as I said just now, and said we should be all
lost, I was dreadfully frightened; I got up out of
my cabin, and looked out; but such a dismal sight
I never saw; the sea went mountains high, and broke
upon us every three or four minutes; when I could
look about, I could see nothing but distress around
us; two ships that rid near us, we found, had cut
their masts by the board, being deeply loaden; and
our men cried out, that a ship which rid about á
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.la
A
Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged
the master of our ship to let them cut away the fore-
mast, which he was very unwilling to do but the
boatswain protesting to him, that if he did not, the
ship would founder, he consented; and when they
had cut away the fore-mast, the main-mast stood so
loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged
to cut it away also, and make a clear deck.
7
Any one may judge what a condition I must be in
at all this, who was but a young sailor, and who had
been in such a fright before at but a little. But if I
can express at this distance the thoughts I had about
me at that time, I was in ten-fold more horror of mind
upon account of my former convictions, and the
having returned from them to the resolutions I had
wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself;
and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me
in such a condition, that I can by no words describe
it. But the worst was not come yet; the storm con-
tinued with such fury, that the seamen acknowledged
they had never known 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
15
The storm abates.
would founder. It was my advantage in one respect
that I did not know what they meant by founder till
I inquired. However, the storm was so violent,
that I saw, what is not often seen, the master, the
boatswain, and some others more sensible than the
rest, at their prayers, and expecting every moment
when the ship would go to the bottom. In the mid-
dle of the night, and under all the rest of our dis-
tresses, one of the men that had been down on pur-
pose 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 from the side of my bed where
I sat, into my cabin. However, the men roused me,
and told me, that I that was able to do nothing be-
fore, was as well able to pump as another: at which
I stirred up, and went to the pump, and worked
very heartily. While this was doing, the master
seeing some light colliers, who, not able to ride out
the storm, were obliged to slip and run away to sea,
and would come near us, ordered to fire a gun as a
signal of distress. I, who knew nothing of 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 began to abate a little, yet as
it was not possible she should 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, ventured a boat out to help us. It was with
16
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They leave the ship, which sinks.
the utmost hazard the boat came near us, but it was
impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to
Jie near the ship's side, till at last the men rowing
very heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours,
our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy
to it, and then veered it out a great length, which
they after great labour and hazard took hold of, and
we hauled them close under our stern, and got all
into their boat. It was to no purpose for them or us,
after we were in the boat, to think of reaching to
their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and
only pull her in towards shore as much as we could;
and our master promised them, that if the boat was
staved upon shore, he would make it good to their
master: so partly rowing, and partly driving, our
boat went away to the northward, sloping towards
the shore almost as far as Winterton-Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour
out of our ship till we saw her sink, and then I un-
derstood 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 la-
bouring at the oar to bring the boat near the shore,
we could see, when our boat mounting the waves we
were able to see the shore, a great many people run-
ning along the 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 Winterton, the shore falls off
to the westward towards Cromer, and so the land
broke off a little the violence of the wind. Here we
got in, and, though not without much difficulty, got
all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
17
Treated with humanity at Yarmouth.
Yarmouth, where, as unfortunate men, we were
used with great humanity, as well by the magistrates
of the town, who assigned us good quarters, as by
particular merchants and owners of ships, and had
money given us sufficient to carry us either to Lon-
don or back to Hull, as we thought fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to
Hull, and have gone home, I had been happy, and
my father, an emblem of our blessed Saviour's para-
ble, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hear-
ing the ship I went away in was cast away in Yar-
mouth 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 obsti-
nacy that nothing could resist; and though I had se-
veral times loud calls from my reason and my more
composed judgment to go home, yet I had no power
to do it. I know not what to call this, nor will I urge
that it is a secret overruling decree that hurries us on
to be the instruments of our own destruction, even
though it be before us, and that we push upon it with our
eyes open. Certainly nothing but some such decreed
unavoidable misery attending, and which it was im-
possible for me to escape, could have pushed me for-
ward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of
my most retired thoughts, and against two such visi-
ble instructions as I had met with in my first attempt.
I
My comrade, who had helped to harden me before,
and who was the master's son, was now less forward
than I. The first time he spoke to me after we were
at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days,
for we were separated in the town to several quarters;
say, the first time he saw me, it appeared his tone
was altered, and looking very melancholy and shak-
ing 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 fa-
ther turning to me with a very grave and concerned
tone," Young man," says he, "you ought never to
1
D
18
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusce exhorted to go home to his friends.
go to sea any more: you ought to take this for a plain
and visible token that you are not to be a seafaring
man." Why, sir," said I," will you go to sea no
more?"-"That is another case," said he; "it is
my calling, and therefore my duty; but as you made
this voyage for a trial, you see what a taste Heaven
has given you of what you are to expect if you persist;
perhaps this has all befallen us on your account, like
Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray," continues he,
"what are you? and on what account did you go to
sea ?" 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," said he, "that such
an unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I
would not set my foot in the same ship with thee
again for a thousand pounds." This indeed was, as
I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet
agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than
he could have authority to go. However, afterwards
he talked very gravely to me, exhorted me to go
back to my father, and not tempt Providence to my
ruin; told me I might see a visible hand of Heaven
against me; And young man," said he, depend
upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go,
you will meet with nothing but disasters and disap-
pointments, till your father's words are fulfilled upon
you." We parted soon after; for I made him little
answer, and I saw him no more: which way he
went I know not. As for me, having some money
in my pocket, I travelled to London by land; and
there, as well as on the road, had many struggles
with myself, what course of life I should take, and
whether I should go home or go to sea.
66
As to going home, shame opposed the best motions
that offered to my thoughts; and it immediately oc-
curred 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 incon-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
19
He enters on board a Guineaman.
gruous and irrational the common temper of man-
kind is, especially of youth, to that reason which
ought to guide them in such cases, viz. that they are
not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent;
nor ashamed of the action for which they ought
justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the
returning, which only can make them esteemed
wise men.
In this state of life, however, I remained some time,
uncertain what measures to take, and what course of
life to lead. An irresistible reluctance continued to
going home; and as I stayed awhile, the remem-
brance of the distress I had been in wore off; and as
that abated, the little motion. I had in my desires to
a return wore off with it, till at last I quite laid
aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage.
That evil influence which carried me first away
from my father's house, that hurried me into the wild
and indigested notion of raising my fortune; and that
impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me, as to
make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entrea-
ties, and even the command, of my father: I say, the
same influence, whatever it was, presented the most
unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I went
on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or,
as our sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my 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 or-
dinary, yet at the same time I had learnt the duty and
office of a foremastman; and in time might have qua-
lified myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a mas-
ter. 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 nei-
ther had any business in the ship'or learnt to do any.
It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good
company in London, which does not always happen
20
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Is permitted to traffic.
to such loose and unguided young fellows as I then
was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some
snare for them very early: but it was not so with me.
I first fell acquainted with the master of a ship
who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who,
having had very good success there, was resolved
to go again; and who taking a fancy to my 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 voyage 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 the voyage with him, and
carried a small adventure with me, which, by the
disinterested honesty of my friend the captain, I in-
creased very considerably for I carried about £40
in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me to
buy. This £40 I had mustered together by the as-
sistance of some of my relations whom I corres-
ponded 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 I also got a competent knowledge of
the mathematics and the rules of navigation, learnt
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 5 lbs.
9 oz. of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded
{.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
21
A
1
Crusoe sails on his second voyage.
me in London at my return, almost £300, and this
filled me with those aspiring thoughts which have
since so completed my ruin.
Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too;
particularly, that I was continually sick, being
thrown into a violent calenture by the excessive heat
of the climate; our principal trade being upon the
coast, from the latitude of 15 degrees north even to
the line itself.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my
friend, to my great misfortune, dying soon after his
arrival, I resolved to go the same voyage again, and
I embarked in the same vessel with one who was his
mate in the former voyage, and had now got the
command of the ship. This was the unhappiest
voyage that ever man made; for though I did not
carry quite £100 of my new-gained wealth, (the
remainder of which I lodged with my friend's wi-
dow, who was very just to me,) yet I fell into terri-
ble misfortunes in this voyage; and the first of these
was, that our ship making her course towards the
Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and
the African shore, was surprised in the gray of the
morning, by a Turkish rover of Sallee, who gave
chase to us with all the sail she could make. We
crowded also as much canvass as our yards would
spread, or our masts carry, to have got clear; but
finding the pirate gained upon us, and would cer-
tainly come up with us in a few hours, we prepared
to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rogue
eighteen. About three in the afternoon he came up
with us, and bringing to my mistake just athwart
our quarter, instead athwart our stern, as he intend
ed, 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 200 men
which he had on board. However, we had not a
man touched, all our men keeping close. He pre-
22
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Taken by a Sallee Rover,
pared 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 hacking
the decks and rigging. We plied them with small-
shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and
cleared our deck of them twice. However, to cut
short this melancholy part of our story, our ship
being disabled, and three of our men killed, and
eight wounded, we were obliged to yield, and were
carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to
the Moors.
The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at
first 1 apprehended; nor was I carried up the coun-
try 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 sur-
prising change of my circumstances, from a mer-
chant to a miserable slave, I was perfectly over-
whelmed; and now I looked back upon my father's
prophetic discourse to me, that I should be mise-
rable, and have none to relieve me, which I thought
was now so effectually brought to pass, that I could
not be worse; that now the hand of Heaven had
overtaken me, and I was undone without redemp-
tion: 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, be-
lieving that it would some time or other be his fate
to be taken by a Spanish or Portuguese man of war;
and that then I should be set at liberty. But this
hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he
went to sea, he left me on shore to look after his little
garden, and do the common drudgery of slaves about
his house; and when he came home again from his
:
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
23
1
and carried into slavery.
cruise, he ordered me to lie in the cabin, to look
after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and
what method I might take to effect it, but found no
way that had the least probability in it: nothing
presented to make the supposition of it rational;
for I had nobody to communicate it to that would
embark with me; no fellow-slave, no Englishman,
Irishman or Scotsman there but myself; so that for
two years, though I often pleased myself with the
imagination, yet I never had the least encouraging
prospect of putting it in practice.
After about two years an odd circumstance pre-
sented itself, which put the old thought of making
some attempt for my liberty again in my head: my
patron lying at home longer than usual, without
fitting out his ship, which, as I heard, was for
want of money, he used constantly, once or twice a
week, sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair,
to take the ship's pinnace, and go out into the road
a-fishing; and as he always took me and a young
Maresco with him to row the boat, we made him
very merry, and I proved very dexterous in catch-
ing fish; insomuch that sometimes he would send
me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and the youth
the Maresco, as they called him, to catch a dish of
fish for him.
}
It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a
stark calm morning, a fog rose so thick, that though
we were not half a league from the shore, we lost
sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or
which way, we laboured all day, and all the next-
'night, and when the morning came we found we had
pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore;
and that we were at least two leagues from the 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.
24
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Meditates his escape
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved
to take more care of himself for the future; and
having lying by him the long-boat of our English
ship he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-
fishing any more without a compass and some pro-
visions; 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 hale home the main-sheet; and room before
for a hand or two to stand and work the sail: she
sailed with what we call a shoulder-o'-mutton-sail;
and the boom gibbed over the top of the cabin, which
lay very snug and low, and had in it room for him
to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on,
with some small lockers to put in some bottles of
such liquor as he thought fit to drink; particularly
his bread, rice, and còffée.
We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing,
and as I was most dexterous in catching fish for him,
he never went without me. It happened that he had
appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure
or for fish, with two or three Moors of some dis-
tinction in that place, and for whom he had provided
extraordinarily, and had therefore sent on board the
boat over night a larger store of provisions than
ordinary; and had ordered me to get ready three
fuzees with powder and shot, which were on board
his ship, for that they designed some sport of fowl-
ing as well as fishing.
I got all things ready as he had directed, and
waited the next morning with the boat washed clean,
her ancient pendants out, and every thing to accom-
modate 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
Ine, with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with
the boat and catch them some fish, for that his friends'
were to sup at his house; and commanded that as
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
25
from the Barbarians.
soon as I got some fish I should bring it home to his
house; all which I prepared to do.
This moment my former notions of deliverance
darted into my thoughts, for now I found I was like
to have a little ship at my command; and my master
being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for
fishing business, but for a voyage; though I knew
not, neither did I so much as consider, whither I
should steer; for any where to get out of that place
was my way.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to
speak to this Moor, to get something for our subsist-
´ence on board; for I told him we must not presume
to eat our patron's bread: he said, that was true:
so he brought a large basket of rusk or biscuit of
their kind, and three jars with fresh water, into the
boat. I knew where my patron's case of bottles
stood, which it was evident, by the make, were
taken out of some English prize, and I conveyed
them into, the boat while the Moor was on shore, as
if they had been there before our master: I con-
veyed also a great lump of bees'-wax into the boat,
which weighed about half a hundred weight, with a
parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a
hammer, all which were of great use to us after-
wards, especially the wax to make candles. Ano-
ther trick I tried upon him, which he innocently
came into also; his name was' Ismael, whom they
call Muly, or Móley; so I called to him: " Moley,"
said I," our patrón's guns are on board the boat;
can you not get a little powder and shot? it may be
we may kill some alçamies (a fowl like our curlews)
for ourselves, for I know he keeps the gunner's stores
in the ship."-"Yes," says he, "I'll bring some;"
and accordingly, he brought a great leather pouch
which held about a pound and a half of powder, or
rather more; and another with shot, that had five
or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all into
the boat; at the same time I had found some powder
2
E
26
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Thows the Moor over board,
of my master's in the great cabin, with which I
filled one of the large bottles in the case, which was
almost empty, pouring what was in it into another;
and thus furnished with every thing needful, we
sailed out of the port to fish. The castle, which is
at the entrance of the port, knew who we were, and
took no notiee of us and we were not above a mile
out of the port before we haled in our sail, and set
us down to fish. The wind blew from the N.N.E,
which was contrary to my desire; for had it blown
southerly, I had been sure to have made the coast
of Spain, and at last reached to the bay of Cadiz ;
but my resolutions were, blow which way it would,
I would be goue from that horrid place where I was,
and leave the rest to fate.
66
After we had fished some time and catched no-
thing, (for when I had fish on my hook I would not
pull them up, that he might not see them) I said to
the Moor, This will not do; our master will not
be thus served; we must stand farther "off." He
thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the head of
the boat set the sails; and as I had the helm I 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
calling to nie, begged to be taken in, and told me he
would go all over the world with me.
He swam so
strong after the boat, that he would have reached
me very quickly, there being but little wind; upon
which I stepped into the cabin, and fetching one of
the fowling-pieces, I presented it at him, and told
him, I had done him no hurt, and if he would be
quiet I would do him none: "But," said I, " “you
swim well enough to reach the shore, and the sea is
calm; make the best of your way to the shore, and
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
27
and finally escapes from Sallee.
I will do you no harm; but if you come near the boat
I'll shoot you through the head, for I am resolved to
have my liberty:" so he turned himself about, and
swam for the shore, and I make no doubt he reached
it with ease, for he was an 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 Ma-
homet and his father's beard, "I must throw you
into the sea too." The boy smiled in my face, and´
spoke so innocently, that I could not mistrust him;
and swore to be faithful to me, and go all over the
world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swim-
ming, I stood out directly to sea with the boat, `ra-
ther 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 devoured by savage-beasts, or more mer-
ciless savages of human kind?
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I
changed my course, and steered directly south and
by east, bending my course a little toward the east,
that I might keep in with the shore; and having a
fair fresh gale of wind, and a smooth quiet sea, I
made such sail that I believe by the next day at
three o'clock in the afternoon, when I first made the
land, I could not be less than 150 miles south of
Sallee; quite beyond the emperor of Morocco's
་
28
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Terrified at the appearance of strange animals.
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 not give over, so I ventured to make to
the coast, and come to an anchor in the mouth of a
little river, I knew not what, or where; neither
what 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, and resolved to
swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover
the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we
heard such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring,
and howling of wild creatures, of we knew not
what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with
fear, and begged of me not to go on shore till day.
"Well, Xury," said I, then I won't;" but it may
be we may see men by day, who will be as bad to
us as those lions."-" Then we give them the shoot
gun," says Xury, laughing, "make them run wey.
Such English Xury spoke by conversing among us
slaves. However, I was glad to see the boy so
cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out of our patron's
case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all, Xury's
advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our
little anchor, and lay still all night; I say still, for
we slept none; for in two or three hours we saw
vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them)
of many sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run
into the water, wallowing and washing, for the
pleasure of cooling themselves; and they made
such hideous howlings and yellings, that I never
indeed heard the like.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
29
}
Remarkable display of simplicity and affection in Xury.
66
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was
I too; but we were both more frighted, when we
heard one of these mighty creatures come swimming
towards our boat; we could not see him, but we
might hear him by his blowing to be a monstrous
huge and furious beast; Xury said it was a lion,
and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury
cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away;
"No," says I,
Xury; we can slip our cable with
the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot fol-
low us far." I had no sooner said so, but I per-
ceived the creature (whatever it was) within two
oars length, which something surprised me; how-
ever, I immediately stepped to the cabin-door, and
taking up my gun, fired at him; whereupon he
immediately turned about, and swam towards the
shore again.
But it is impossible 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 the gun, a
thing I have some reason to believe those creatures.
had never heard before: this convinced me that
there was no going on shore for us in the night upon
that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day,
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 to it,
was the point: Xury said, if I would let him go on
shore with one of the jars, he would find if there
was any water, and bring some to me. I asked
him, why he would go? why I should not go, and
he stay in the boat? The boy answered with so
much affection, that made me love him ever after.
i
f
迎
​1
30
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They sail along the coast of Africa,
Says he, "If wild mans come, they eat me, you go
wey."-"Well, Xury," said I, "we will both go,
and if the wild mans come, we will kill them, they
shall eat neither of us." So I gave Xury a piece
of rusk-bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron's
case of bottles, which I mentioned before; and we
haled the boat in as near the shore as we thought
was proper, and waded on shore; carrying nothing
but our arms, and two jars of water.
4
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fear-
ing 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 cane with, was to tell me he had found
good water, and seen no wild mans.
?
t
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.
1
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I'
knew very well that the islands of the Canaries, and
the Cape de Verd islands also, lay not far off from'
the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an
observation to know what latitude we were in, and'
not exactly know, at least to remember what lati-
tude they were in, and knew not where to look for
them, or when to stand off to sea towards them;
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
31
between the empire of Morocco and Cape Verd.
otherwise I might now easily have found some of
these islands. But my hope was, that if I stood
along this coast till I came to that part where the
English traded, I should find some of their vessels
upon their usual design of trade, that would relieve
and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where
I now was, must be that country, which, lying be-
tween the emperor of Morocco's dominions and the
Negroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except by wild
beasts; the Negroes having abandoned it, and gone
farther south for fear of the Moors; and the Moors
not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its
barrenness; and indeed both forsaking it because of
the prodigious numbers of lions, tigers, leopards,
and other furious creatures which harbour there;
so that the Moors use it for their hunting only, where
they go like an army, two or three thousand men
at a time; and indeed for an hundred miles together
upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste unin-
habited country by day, and heard nothing but
howlings and roarings of the beasts by night.
L
1.
Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the
Pico of Teneriffe, being the high top of the moun-
tain Teneriffe in the Canaries; and had a great mind
to venture out in hopes of reaching thither; but
having tried twice, I was forced in again by 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 morning, we came to an anchor
under a little point of land which was pretty high ;
and the tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go far-
ther 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
23
32
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
t
CC
They kill a lion.
66
the side of that hillock fast asleep." I looked where
he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for
it was a terrible great lion that lay on the side of the
shore, under the shade of a piece of the hill that
hung as it were a little over him. Xury," says I,
you shall go on shore and kill him." Xury look-
ed frighted, and said, "Me kill! he eat me at one
mouth;" one mouthful he meant: however, I said
no more to the boy, but bad him lie still, and I took
our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and
loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with
two slugs, and laid it down; then I loaded another
gun with two bullets; and the third (for we had
three pieces) I loaded with five smaller bullets. I
took the best aim I could with the first piece to have
shot him into the head, but he lay so with his legs
raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his
leg above the knee, and broke the bone. He started
up growling at first, but finding his leg broke fell
down again, and then got up upon three legs, and
gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard. I
was a little surprised that I had not hit him on the
head; however, I took up the second piece immedi-
ately, 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 tak-
ing 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 creature that was good for nothing
to us. However, Xury said he would have some of
him; so he comes on board, and asked me to give
him the hatchet, "For what, Xury ?" said F.
*
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE,
33
•
Fall in with some friendly Indians.
"Me cut off his head," said he. However, Xury
could not cut off his head, but he cut off a foot,
and brought it with him, and it was a monstrous
great one.
I bethought myself however, that perhaps the
skin of him might one way or other be of some va-
lue to us; and I resolved to take off his skin if I
could. So Xury and I went to work with him;
but Xury was much the better workman at it, for I
knew very ill how to do it. Indeed it took us
up 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.
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
Negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe,
which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to
Brasil, or to the East Indies, made this Cape, or
those islands; and in a word, I 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 counsel-
lor, and said to me," No go, no go. However, I
hauled in nearer the shore that I might talk to them,
2
F
34
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
*
Are supplied with provisions
•
and I found they run along the shore by me a good
way I observed they had no weapons in their hands,
except one, who had a long slender stick, which
Xury said was a lance, and that they would throw
them a great way with good aim; so I kept at a dis-
tance, but talked with them by signs as well as I
could, and particularly made signs for something to
eat; they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they
would fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered
the top of my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran
up into the country, and in less than half an hour
came back, and brought with them two pieces of dry
flesh and some corn, 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 dispute, for I was
not for venturing on shore to them, and they were
as much afraid of us: but they took a safe way for
us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid it
down, and went and stood 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 no-
thing to make them amends; but an opportunity of
fered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully ;
for while we were lying by the shore came two
mighty creatures, one pursuing the other, (as we
took it) with great fury from the mountains towards
the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the female,
or whether they were in sport or in rage, we could not
tell, any more than we could tell whether it was usual
or strange, but I believe it was the latter; because in
the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom ap-
pear but in the night; and in the second place we
found the people terribly frighted, especially the wo-
men. 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
35
They kill a curious leopard.
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 bad Xury
load both the others; as soon as he came fairly with-
in my reach I fired, and shot him directly into the
head; immediately he sunk, down into the water,
but rose instantly, and plunged up and down as if
he was struggling for life; and so indeed he was: he
immediately made for the shore; but between the
wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strang-
ling of the water, he died just before he reached
the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of
these poor creatures at the noise and 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 was dead, and sunk iu
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 Ne-
groes to hale, they dragged him on shore, and found
that it was a most curious leopard, spotted and fine
to an admirable degree, and the Negroes held up
their hands with admiration, to think what it was I
had killed him with.
The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire
and the noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran
up directly to the mountains from whence they came,
nor could I at that distance know what it was. I
found quickly the Negroes 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
36
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Arrive at Cape Verd.
readily, and much more easily 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 under-
stand, yet I accepted; when 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 immediately to some of their friends, and
there came two women; and brought a great vessel
made of earth, and burnt, as I suppose, in the sun;
this they set down for me, as before, and I sent
Xury on shore with my jars, and filled them all
three. The women were as stark naked as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as
it was, and water; and leaving my friendly Negroes,
I made forward for about eleven days more, without
offering to go near the shore, till I saw the land run
out a great length into the sea, at about the distance
of four or five leagues before me; and the sea being
very calm, I kept a large offing to make this point;
at length doubling the point at about two leagues
from the land, I saw plainly land on the other side
to seaward; then I concluded, as it was most cer-
tain indeed, that this was the Cape de Verd, and
those the islands, called from thence Cape de Vert
Islands. However, they were at a great distance,
and I could not well tell what I had best to do,
for if 1 should be taken with a fresh of wind I
might neither reach one nor the other.
11
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped
into the cabin and sat me down, Xury having the
helm, when on a sudden the boy cried out, " Master,
master, a ship with a sail !" and the foolish boy was
frighted out of his wits, thinking it must needs be
some of his master's ships sent to pursue us, when I
knew we were got far enough out of their reach. I
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
37

They are taken up by d Portuguese trader bound for the Brasils.
jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw not
only the ship, but what she was, viz. that it was a
Portuguese ship, and, as I thought, was bound to
the coast of Guinea for Negroes. But when I
9
observed the course she steered,. I was soon con-
vinced they were bound some other way, and did
not desigu to come any nearer to the shore; upon
which I stretched ont to sea as much as I could,
resolving to speak with them if possible.

+
With all the sail I could inake, 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 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 as a signal of
distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw, for
they told me they saw the smoke, though they did
not hear the gun: upon these signals they very
kindly brought to, and lay by for me, and in about
three hours time I came up with them'.
They asked me what I was in Portuguese, and in
Spanish, and in French; but I understood none of
them; but at last a Scots sailor, who was on board,
called to me, and I answered him, and told him I
was an Englishman, that had made my escape out
of slavery from the Moors at Sallee. Then they
bade me come on board, and very kindly took me
in, and all my goods.
7
It was an inexpressible joy to me, that any one
would believe that I was thus delivered, as I esteem-
ed it, from such a miserable and almost hopeless con-
dition as I was in, and immediately offered all I had
to the captain of the ship, as a return for my deli-
verance; but he generously told me, he would take
38
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe arrives at the Brasils.
nothing from me, but that all I had should be deliver-
ed safe to me when I came to the Brasils; "for,"
says he,
"I have saved your life on no other terms
than I would be glad to be saved myself; and it may
one time or other be my lot to be taken up in the
same condition: besides," said he, "when I carry
you to the Brasils, so great a distance from your own
country, if I should take from you what you have,
you will be starved there, and then I only take away
the life I have saved. No, no, Seignor Inglese,"
says he, "(Mr. Englishman), I will carry you thither
in charity, and those things will help you to buy
your subsistence there, and your passage home again.
As he was charitable in his proposal, so he was
just in the performance to a tittle; for he ordered
the seamen, that none should offer to touch any
thing I had then he took every thing into his own
possession, and gave me back an exact inventory of
them, that I might have them; even so much as my
three earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one, and that
he saw, and told me he would buy it of me for the
ship's use, and asked me what I would have for it?
I told him, he had been so generous to me in every
thing, that I could not offer to make any price of the
boat, but left it entirely to him; upon which he told
me he would give me a note of his hand to pay me
eighty pieces of eight for it at Brasil; and when it
came there, if any one offered to give more, he
would make it up: he 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 procur-
ing my own. However, when I let him know my
reason, he owned it to be just, and offered me this
medium, that he would give the boy an obligation
to set him free in ten years, if he turned Christian.
ROBINSON CRUSOE,
39
3
He disposes of Xury, and purchases a plantation.
Upon this, and Xury saying he was willing to go to
him, I let the captain have him.
We had a very good voyage to the Brasils, and
arrived in 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 mise-
rable of all conditions of life; and what to do next
with myself I was now to consider.
The generous treatment the captain gave me, I
can never enough remember; he would take nothing
of me for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for
the 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 to 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 Brasils,
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
to me.
To this purpose, getting a kind of a letter of natu-
ralization, I purchased as much land that was un-
cured as my money would reach, and formed a plan
for my plantation and settlement, and such a one as
might be suitable to the stock which I proposed to
myself to receive from England,
money, which I had left in London, remo g
I had a neighbour, a Portuguese, of Lisbon, but
born of English parents, whose name was Wells,
40
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
He is greatly dissatisfied with his new employment.
and in much such circumstances, as I was. I call
him neighbour, because his plantation lay next to
mine, and we went on very sociably together. My
stock was but low, as well as his and we rather
planted for food, than any thing else, for about two
years. However, we began to increase, and our
land began to come into order; so that in the third
year we planted some tobacco, and made each of us
a large piece of ground ready for planting canes in
the year to come; but we both wanted help; and
now I found, more than before, I had done wrong
in parting with my boy Xury.
But, alas! for me to do wrong, that never did
right, was no great wonder: I had no remedy but to
go on; I was gotten into an employment quite re-
mote 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 have 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, I lived just like a man cast upon some deso-
late island, that had nobody there but himself. But
how just has it been, and how should all men reflect,
that, when they compare their present conditions
with others that are worse, Heaven may oblige them
to make the exchange, and be convinced of their for
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
41
Writes to his friend at London for a remittance of money.
mer felicity, by their experience; I say, how just
has it been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on
in an island of mere desolation should be my lot,
who had so often unjustly compared it with the life
which I then led, in which had I continued, I had,
in all 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 load-
ing, 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 al-
ways 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 di-
rect, and in such goods as are proper in this country,
I will bring you the produce of them, God willing,
at my return; but since human affairs are all sub-
ject to changes and disasters, I would have you give
orders but for £100 sterling, which you say is half
your stock, and let the hazard be run for the first;
so that if it come safe, you may order the rest the
same way; and if it miscarry, you may have the
other half to have recourse to for your supply."
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so
friendly, that I could not but be convinced it was the
best course I could take; so I accordingly prepared
letters to the gentlewoman with whom I had left my
money, and a procuration to the Portuguese captain,
as he desired.
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account
of all my adventures, my slavery, escape, and how
I had met with the Portugal captain at sea, the hu-
manity of his behaviour, and what condition I was
now in, with all other necessary directions for my
2
G
42
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Receives English manufactures to the value of one hundred pounds.
supply; and when this honest captain came to Lis-
bon, he found means, by some of the English mer-
chants there, to send over, not the order only, but
a full account of my story, to a merchant at Lon-
don, who represented it effectually to her; where-
upon, she not only delivered the money, but out of
her own pocket sent the Portugal captain a very
handsome present for his humanity and charity to me.
The merchant in London vesting this hundred
pounds in English goods, such as the captain had
writ for, sent them immediately to him at Lisbon,
and he brought them all safe to me to the Brasils;
among which, without my direction, (for I was too
young in my business to think of them), he had
taken care to have all sorts of tools, 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 present for him-
self, to purchase, and bring me a servant under bond
for six years service, and would not accept of any
consideration, except a little tobacco, which I would
have him accept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all; but my goods being all Eng-
lish manufactures, such as cloth, stuffs, baize, and
things particularly valuable and desirable in the
country, I found means to sell them to a very great
advantage; so that I may say, I had more than four
times the value of my first cargo, and was now in-
finitely beyond my poor neighbour, I mean the ad-
vancement of my plantation; for the first thing I
did, I bought me a Negro slave, and an European
servant also; I mean another besides that which
the captain brought me from Lisbon.
But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the
very means of our greatest adversity, so it was with
me. I went on the next year with great success in
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
43
Animadverts on his undutiful behaviour.
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 busi-
ness and in wealth, my head began to be full of
projects and undertakings beyond my reach; such
as are indeed often the ruin of the best heads in
business.
Had I continued in the station I was now in, I
had 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 particu-
larly 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 pursu-
ing that inclination, in contradiction to the clearest
views of doing myself good in a fair and plain pur-
suit 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 breaking away from my
parents, so I could not be content now, but I must
go and leave the happy view I had of being a rich
and thriving man in my new plantation, only to pur-
sue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster
than the nature of the thing admitted; and thus I
cast myself down again into the deepest gulf of hu-
man misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could
be consistent with life and a state of health in the
world.
To come then by just degrees to the particulars
of this part of my story; you may suppose, that
14
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
Crusoe is persuaded to enter into the slave-trade,
having now lived almost four years in the Brasils, and
beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my
plantation, I had not only learned the language,
but had contracted acquaintance and friendship
among my fellow-planters, as well as among the
merchants of 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
Negroès 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 Negroes for the service of the Brasils
in great numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my dis-
courses on these heads, but especially to that part
which related to the buying of Negroes, which was
a trade at that time not only not far entered into,
but, as far as it was, had been carried on by the
Assientos or permission of the kings of Spain and
Portugal, and engrossed in the public, so that few
Negroes were bought, and those excessive dear.
It happened, being in company with some mer-
chants and planters of my acquaintance, and talking
of those things very earnestly, three of them came
to me the next morning, and told me they had been
musing very much upon what I had discoursed with
them of, the last night, and they came to make a
secret proposal to me; and after enjoining me to
secrecy, they told me, that they had a mind to fit
out a ship to go to Guinea; that they had all plan-
tations as well as I, and were straitened for nothing
so much as servants; that as it was a trade could
not be carried on, because they could not publicly
sell the Negroes when they came home, so they de-
sired 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,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
45
and undertakes a voyage to the coast of Africa.
whether I would go their supercargo in the ship,
to manage the trading part upon the coast of Gui-
nea? 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 set-
tlement and plantation of his own to look after,
which was in a fair way of coming to be very consi-
derable, and with a good stock upon it. But for
me, who was thus entered and established, and had
nothing to do but to go on as I had begun, for three
or four years more, and to have sent for the other
hundred pounds from England, and who in that
time, and with that little addition, could scarce
have failed of being worth three or four thousand
pounds sterling, and that increasing too; for me to
think of such a voyage was the most preposterous
thing that ever man in such circumstances could be
guilty of.
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer,
could no more resist the offer, than I could restrain
my first rambling designs, when my father's good
counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them
I would go with all my heart, if they would under-
take to look after my plantation in my absence, and
would dispose of it to such as I should direct if I
miscarried. This they all engaged to do, and en-
tered 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 uni-
versal heir, but obliging him to dispose of my effects
as I had directed in my will, one half of the produce
being to himself, and the other to be shipped to
England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve
my effects, and keep up my plantation: had I used
half as much prudence to have looked into my own
*
46
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Sails on his voyage to the coast of Guinea.
interest, and have made a judgment of what I ought
to have done, and not to have done, I had certainly
never gone away from so prosperous an undertak-
ing, leaving all the probable views of a thriving cir-
cumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea, attend-
ed with all its common hazards: to say nothing of
the reasons I had to expect particular misfortunes
to myself.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dic-
tates of my fancy rather than my reason: and ac-
cordingly the ship being fitted out, and the cargo
furnished, and all things done as by agreement by
my partners in the voyage, I went on board in an
evil hour, the ―th of
being the same
day eight years that I went from my father and mo-
ther at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their autho-
rity, and the fool to my own interest.
9
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty ton
burden, carried six guns, and fourteen men, besides
the master, his boy, and myself; we had on board
no large cargo of goods, except 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, stand-
ing 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 lati-
tude, which it seems was the manner of their course
in those days. We had very good weather, only ex-
cessive hot, all the way upon our own coast, till we
came the height of Cape St. Augustino, from whence
keeping farther off at sea we lost sight of land, and
steered as if we were bound for the isle of Fernand
de Noronha, holding our course N.E. by N. and
leaving those islands on the east. In this course we
passed the line in about 12 days' time, and were
by our last observation in 7 deg. 22 min. northern
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
47
Overtaken by a hurricane, and driven on the coast of Guiana.
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 manner, that for twelve days together
we could do nothing but drive; and scudding away
before it, let it carry us whitherever 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 deg. north lat. but that he
was 22 deg. of long. difference west from Cape St.
Augustino; so that he found he was gotten upon the
coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brasil, beyond
the river Amazon, toward the river Oronoque,
commonly called the Great River, and began to
consult with me what course he should take, for
the ship was leaky and very much disabled, and he
was for going directly back to the coast of Brasil.
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 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
⚫ur English islands, where I hoped for relief; but
48
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The vessel strikes upon. the sand.
our voyage was otherwise determined; for being in
the latitude of 12 deg. 18.min. a second storm came
upon us, which carried us away with the same im-
petuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very
way of all human commerce, that had all our lives
been saved, as to the sea, we were rather in danger
of being devoured by savages than ever returning to
our own country
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard,
one of our men early in the morning cried out Land!
and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look
out in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we
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
instantly driven into our close quarters to shelter us
from the very foam and spray of the sea.
•
It is not easy for any one who has not been in the
like condition, to describe or conceive the consterna-
tion of men in such circumstances; we knew nothing.
where we were, or upon what land it was we were
driven, whether an island or the main, whether in-
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 immediately
about. In a word, we sat looking one upon another,
and expecting death every moment, and every man
acting accordingly, as preparing for another world,
for there was little or nothing more for us to do in
this; that which was our present comfort, and all
the comfort we had, was, that, contrary to our ex-
pectation, 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,
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
49
They quit the ship in the boat.
we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had no-
thing to do but to think of saving our lives as well
as we could. We had a boat at our stern, just be-
fore the storm; but she was first staved by dashing
against the ship's rudder, and in the next place she
broke away, and either sunk or was driven off into
the sea, so there was no hope from her. We had
another boat on board, but how to get her off to 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 ac-.
tually broke already.
In this distress, the mate of our vessel lays hold
of the boat, and with the help of the rest of the men
they got her slung over the ship's side, and getting
all into her, let go, and committed ourselves, being
eleven in number, to God's mercy and the wild sea;
for though the storm was abated considerably, yet
-the sea went dreadfully high upon the shore, and
might well be called den wild zee, as the Dutch call
the sea in a storm..
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for
we all saw plainly, that the sea went so high, that
the boat could not live, and we should be inevitably
Idrowned. 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 into a thousand pieces by the
breach of the sea. However, we committed our
souls to God in the most earnest manner; and the
wind driving us towards the shore, we hastened our
destruction with our own hands, pulling as well as
we could towards land.
}
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whe-
then 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
་
2
H
50
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The boat upsets.
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 wa-
ter. But there was nothing of this appeared; but
as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land
looked more frightful than the sea.
After we had rowed, or rather driven about a
league and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave,
mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly
bad us expect the coup-de-grace. In a word, it took
us with such a fury, that it over-set 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 or rather carried me a vast way on to-
wards 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 re-
turn, and take me up again. But I soon found it
was impossible to avoid it; for saw the sea comè
after me as high as a great hill, and as furiously as
an enemy which I had no means or strength to con-
tend with; my business was to hold my breath, and
raise myself upon the water, if I could; and so by
swimming to preserve my breathing, and pilot my-
self 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.
A
The wave that came upon me again, buried me
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
51
24
Crusoe is cast on shore by the waves.
at once twenty or thirty foot deep in its own body;
and I could feel myself carried with a mighty force
and swiftness towards the shore a very great way;
but I held my breath, and assisted myself to swim
still forward with all my might. I was ready to burst
with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising
up, so, to my immediate relief, I found my head and
hands shoot out above the surface of the water; and
though it was not two seconds of time that I could
keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me
breath and new courage. I was covered again with
water a good while, but not so long but I held it out;
and finding the water had spent itself, and began to
return, I struck forward against the return of the
waves, and felt ground again with my feet. I stood
still a few moments to recover breath, and till the wa-
ter 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
forwards as before, the shore being very flat,
The last time of these two had well near been fatal
to me; for the sea having hurried me along as before,
landed me, or rather dashed me against a piece of a
rock, and that with such force, as it left me sense-
less, and indeed helpless as to my own deliverance;
for the blow taking my side and breast, beat the
breath as it were quite out of my body; and had it
returned again immediaiely, I must have been stran-
gled in the water; but I recovered a little before the
return of the waves, and seeing I should be covered
again with the water, I resolved to hold fast by a
piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if pos-
sible, 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 ano-
ther run, which brought me so near the shore, that
the next wave, though it went over me, yet did not
52€
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
}
Contemplates on his wonderful delivery.
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 climbed up the cliffs of the shore,
and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger,
and quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began
to look up and thank God that my life was saved
in a case wherein there was some minutes before
scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible
to express to the life what the ecstasies and transports:
of the soul are, when it is so saved, as I may say,
out of the very grave; and I do not wonder now at
that custom, viz. that when a malefactor, who has
the halter about his heck, is tied up, and just going
to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him:
1 say, I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon
with it, to let him blood that very moment they tell
him of it, that the surprise may not drive the animal
spirits from the heart, and overwhelm him:
For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.
I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands
and my whole being, as I may say, wrapt up in the
contemplation of my deliverance, making a thousand
gestures and motions which I cannot describe; re-
flecting upon all my comrades that were drowned,
and that there should not be one soul saved but my-
self; for, as for them, I never saw them afterwards,
or any sign of them, except three of their hats, one
cap, and two shoes that were not fellows.
I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel, when the
breach and froth of the sea being so big, I could
hardly see it, it lay so far off, and considered, Lord!
how was it possible I could get on shore.
After I had solaced my mind with the comfort-
able 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 deliver.
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
53
Takes shelter for the night in a tree.
ance: for I was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor
any thing either to eat or drink to comfort me;
neither did I see any prospect before me, but that
of perishing with hunger, or being devoured by wild
beasts; and that which was particularly afflicting to
me was, that I had no weapon either to hunt and
kill any creature for my sustenance, or to defend my-
self against any other creature that might desire to
kill me for theirs: in a word, I had nothing about
me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco
in a box; this was all my provision, and this threw
me into terrible agonies of mind, that for awhile I
run about like a madman. Night coming upon me,
I began with a heavy heart to consider what would
be my lot if there were any ravenous beasts in that
country, seeing at night they always come abroad
for their prey.
All the remedy that offered to my thoughts 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 pros-
pect of life. I walked about a furlong from the
shore, to see if I could find any fresh water to drink,
which I did, to my great joy; and having drank,
and put a little tobacco into my mouth to prevent
hunger, I went to the tree, and getting up into it,
endeavoured to 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 be-
lieve, few could have done in my condition, and
found myself the most refreshed with it that I think
I ever was on such an occasion.
When I waked it was broad day, the weather
clear, and the storm abated, so that the sea did not
rage and swell as before: but that which surprised
me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the
54
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Discovers the ship at a short distance, and swims to her.
night from the sand where she lay, by the swelling
of the tide, and was driven up almost as far as the
rock which I first mentioned, where I had been so
bruised by the dashing me against it; this being
within about a mile from the shore where I was, and
the ship seeming to stand upright still, I wished
myself on board, that, at least, I might save some
necessary things for my use.
When I came down from my apartment in the
tree, I looked about me again, and the first thing I
found was the boat, which lay as the wind and the
sea had tossed her up upon the land, about two
miles on my right hand. I walked as far 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 to 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 des-
titute of all comfort and company, as I now was.
This forced tears from my eyes again; but as there
was little relief in that, I resolved, if possible, to get
to the ship; so I pulled off my clothes, for the wea-
ther 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 no-
thing 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
55
Gets on board the wreck, and forms a raft.
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
to see what was spoiled and what was free: and
first I found that all the ship's provisions were dry
and untouched by the water; and being very well
disposed to eat, I went to the bread-room and filled
my pockets with biscuit, and ate it as I went about
other things, for I had no time to lose. I also found
some rum in the great cabin, of which I took a large
dram, and which I had indeed need enough of to
spirit me for what was before me. Now I wanted
nothing but a boat to furnish myself with many
things which I foresaw would be very necessary
to me.
It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was
not to be had; and this extremity roused my appli-
cation. 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 the ship's side, and pulling them
to me, I tied four of them fast together at both ends
as well as I could, in the form of a raft, and laying
two or three short pieces of plank upon them cross-
ways, I found I could walk upon it very well, but
that it was not able to bear any great weight, the
pieces being too light; so I went to work, and with
the carpenter's saw I cut a spare topmast into three
lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great
deal of labour and pains: but hope of furnishing my-
self with necessaries encouraged me to go beyond
56
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Procures the most useful part of the cargo,
what I should have been able to have done upon an-
other occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any rea-
sonable weight; my next care was what to load it
with, and how to preserve what I laid upon it from
the surf of the sea; but I was not long considering
this;
I first, laid all the planks or boards upon it
that I could get, and having considered well what
I most wanted, I 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 goats' flesh,
which we lived much upon, and a little remainder
of European corn which had been laid by for some
fowls which we brought to sea with us, but the
fowls were killed. There had been some barley
and wheat together, but, to my great disappoint-
ment, I found afterwards that the rats had eaten or
spoiled it all. As for liquors, I found several cases
of bottles belonging to our skipper, in which were
some cordial waters, and in all above five or six
gallons of rack: these I stowed by themselves
there being no need to put them into the ghest, nor
no room for them. While I was doing this; I fountl
the tide began to flow, though very calm,, and I
had the mortification to see my coat, shirts and
waistcoat, which I had left on shore upon the sand,
swim away; as for my breeches, which were only
linen, and open-kneed, I swam on board in them
and my stockings: however, this put me upon rum-
maging 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
1
NO
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
57
and returns to the shore.
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-horus, and a small bag of shot,
and two old rusty swords. I knew there were three
barrels of powder in the ship, but knew not where
our gunner had stowed them; but with much search
I found them, two of them dry and good, the third
had taken water; those two I got to my raft, with
the arms. And now I thought myself pretty well
freighted, and began to think how I should get to
shore with them, having neither sail, oar, or rudder,
and the least capful of wind would have overset all
my navigation.
:
sea.
I had three encouragements: 1. A smooth, calin
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 hammer; and with this cargo I put to sea:
for a mile, or thereabouts, my raft went very well,
only that I found it drive a little distant from the
place where I had landed before, by which I per-
ceived that there was some indraft of the water, and
consequently, I hoped to find some creek or river
there, which I might make use of as a port to get
to land with my cargo.
As I imagined, so it was: there appeared before
me a little opening of the land, and I found a strong
current of the tide set into it, so I guided my raft
as well as I could to keep in the middle of the
stream; but here I had like to have suffered a second
shipwreck, which, if I had, I think verily would
have 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
3
I
58
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
...
Difficulties attending the landing of the raft.
wanted but a little that all my cargo had shipped off
towards the end that was afloat, and so fallen into
the water. I did my utmost, by setting my back
against the chests, to keep them in their places, but
could not thrust off the raft with all my strength;
neither durst I stir from the posture I was in, but
holding up the chests with all my might, stood in
that manner near half an hour, in which time the
rising of the water brought me a little 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 a little higher, I at
length found myself at 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 pro-
per place to get to shore, for I was not willing to be
driven too high up the river, hoping in time to see
some ship at sea, and therefore resolved to place my-
self as near the coast as I could.
At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of
the creek, to which, with great pain and difficulty,
I guided my raft, and at last, got so near, as that,
reaching ground with my oar, I could thrust her
directly in; but here I had like to have dipped all
my cargo into the sea again; for that shore lying
pretty steep, that is to say, sloping, there was no
place to land, but where one end of the float, if it
run on shore, would lie so high, and the other sink
lower as before, that it would endanger my cargo
again: all that I could do, was to wait till the tide
was at the highest, keeping the raft with my oar like
an anchor to hold the side of it fast to the shore,
near a flat piece of ground, which I expected the
water would flow over; and so it did. As soon as I
found water enough, for my raft drew about a foot
of water, I thrust her 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 the one end; and one on the other side near the
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
59
Discovers the place to be an island.
other end; and thus I lay till the water ebbed away,
and left my raft and all iny cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to view the country, and seek
a proper place for my habitation, and where to stow
my goods, to secure them from whatever might hap-
pen. Where I was I yet knew not; whether on the
continent or an island, whether inhabited or not in-
habited, whether in danger of wild beasts or not.-
There was a hill not above a mile from me, which
rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to
overtop some other hills which lay as in a ridge from
it northward: I took out one of the fowling-pieces,
and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder, and
thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the top
of that hill, where, after I had with great labour and
difficulty got to the top, I saw my fate, to my great
affliction, viz. that I was in an island environed every
way by the sea; no land to be seen, except some
rocks which lay a great way off, and two small
islands less than this, which lay about three leagues
to the west.
I found also, that the island I was in was barren,
and, as I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited,
except by wild beasts, of whom, however, I saw
honé; 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 a great bird, which I saw sitting upon a
tree on the side of a great wood-I believe that 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 innumer-
able number of fowls of many sorts, making a con-
fused screaming, and crying every one according to
his usual note; but not one of them of any kind
that I know. As for the creature I killed, I took it
to be a kind of a hawk, its colour and beak resem-
bling it, but had no talons or claws more than com-
mon; its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing.
60
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Visits the wreck a second time.
Contented with this discovery, I came back to my
raft, and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore,
which took me up the rest of that day; and what to
do with myself at night I knew not, nor indeed
where to rest; for I was afraid to lie down on the
ground, not knowing but some wild beast might
devour me; though, as I afterwards found, there
was really no need for those fears.
However, as well as I could, I barricadoed my-
self round with the chests and boards that I had
brought on shore, and made a kind of hut for that
night's lodging. As for food, I yet saw not which
way to supply myself, except that I had seen two or
three creatures like hares, run out of the wood
where I shot the fowl.
I now began to consider, that I might yet get a
great many things out of the ship, which would be
useful to me, and particularly some of the rigging
and sails, and such other things as might come to
land, and I resolved to make another voyage on
board the vessel, if possible; and as I knew that the
first storm that blew must necessarily break her all
in pieces, I resolved to set all other things apart, till
I 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 unwieldy, nor loaded it so
hard, but yet I brought, away several things very
useful to me;, at 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;
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
61
On his return discovers a strange animal.
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 fowling-piece, with some
small quantity of powder more; a large bag full of
small shot, and a great roll of sheet-lead; but this
last was so heavy I could not hoist it up to get it
over the ship's side.
Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes
that I could find, and a spare fore-topsail, hammock,
and some bedding; and with this I loaded my se-
cond raft, and brought them all safe on shore to my
very great comfort.
;
I was under some apprehensions during my absence
from land, that at least my provisions might be de-.
voured on shore; but when I came back, I found no
sign of any visitor, only there sat a creature like a
wild cat upon one of the chests, which, when I came
towards it, ran away a little distance, and then stood
still she sat very composed and unconcerned, and
looked full in my face, as if she had a mind to be
acquainted with me: I presented my gun at her, but
as she did not understand it, she was perfectly uncon-
cerned 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, and ate it, and looked, as pleased, for more; but
I thanked her, and could spare no more; so she
marched off.
Having got my second cargo on shore, though I
was fain to open the barrels of powder, and bring
them by parcels, for they were too heavy, being large
casks, I went to work to make me a little tent with
the sail and some poles which I cut for that purpose;
and into this tent I brought every thing that I knew
would spoil, either with rain or sun; and I piled all
the empty chests and casks up in a circle round the
62
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Continues to visit the ship,
tent, to fortify it against any sudden attempt, either
from man or beast.
When I had done this, I blocked up the door of
the tent with some boards within, and an empty chest
set up on end without, and spreading one of the
beds upon the ground, laying my two pistols just at
my head, and my gun at length by me, I went to
bed for the first time, and slept very quietly all night,
for I was very weary and heavy, 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 particularly the third time I went, I
brought away as much of the rigging as I could, as
also all the small ropes and rope-twine I could get,
with a piece of spare canvas, which was to mend
the sails upon occasion, and the barrel of wet gun-
powder in a word, I brought away all the sails,
first and last, only that I was fain to cut them in
pieces, and bring as much at a time as I could; for
they were no more useful to be sails, but as mere
canvass only.
But that which comforted me still more, was, that
at last of all, after I had made five or six such voy-
ages 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 hogs-
head of bread, and three large runlets of rum, or
spirits, and a box of sugar, and a barrel of fine
flour; this was surprising to me, because I had
given over expecting any more provisions, except
what was spoiled by the water: I soon emptied the
hogshead of that bread, and wrapped it up, parcel
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
63
and secures many necessary articles.
by parcel, in pieces of the sails, which I cut out:
and in a word, I got all this safe on shore also.
The next day I made another voyage; and now,
having plundered the ship of what was portable and
fit to hand out, I began with the cables; and cutting
the great cable into pieces, such as I could move, I
got two cables and a hawser on shore, with all the
iron-work I could get; and having cut down the
spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard, and every thing
I could to make a large raft, I loaded it with all those
heavy goods, and came away; but my good luck
began now to leave me; for this raft was so unwieldy
and so overloaden, that after I had entered the little
cave where I had landed the rest of my goods, not
being able to guide it so handily as I did the other,
it overset, and threw me and all my cargo into the
water. As for myself, it was no great harm, for I
was near the shore; but as to my cargo, it was great
part of it lost, especially the iron, which I expected
would have been of great use to me: however, when
the tide was out, I got most of the pieces of cable
ashore, and some of the iron, though with infinite
labour; for I was fain to dip for it into the water, a
work which fatigued me very much. After this, I
went every day on board, and brought away what I
could get.
I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had
been eleven times on board the ship; in which time.
I had brought away all that one pair of hands could
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 rum-
Inaged 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
64
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
A storm arises, and Crusoe loses sight of the ship.
or a dozen of good knives and forks; in another I
found about thirty-six pounds value in money, some
European coin, some Brasil, some pieces of eight,
some gold, and some silver.
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money.
"O drug!" said I, aloud," what art thou good for?
thou art not worth to me, no not the taking off 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 wrapped all this in a
piece of canvass; I then began to think of making
another raft; but while I was preparing this, I found
the sky overcast, and the wind began to rise, and in
a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the
shore. It presently occurred to me, that it was in
vain to pretend to make a raft with the wind off
shore, and it was my business to be gone before the
tide or flood began, otherwise I might not be able to
reach the shore at all: accordingly I let myself down
into the water, and swam across the channel which
lay between the ship and the sands, and even that
with difficulty enough, partly with the weight of
things I had about me, and partly the roughness of
the water, for the wind rose very hastily, and before
it was quite high water, it blew a storm.
But I at last got home to my little tent, where I
lay with all my wealth about me very secure. It
blew very hard all that night, and in the morning
when I looked out, behold no more ship was to be
seen. I was a little surprised, but recovered myself
with this satisfactory reflection, viz. that I had lost
no time, nor abated any diligence to get every thing
out of her that could be useful to me, and that in-
deed there was little left in her that I was able to
bring away, if I had had more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship,
or of any thing out of her, except what might drive
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
65
Crusoe surveys the island for a better residence.
on shore from her wreck, as indeed divers pieces of
her afterwards did; but those things were all 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 im-
proper to give an account of.
I soon found the place I was in was not for my set-
tlement, particularly because it was upon a low
moorish ground near the sea, and I believe would
not be wholesome, and more particularly because
there was no fresh water near it: so I resolved to find
a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation which
I found would be proper for me: 1st, Health, and
fresh water, I just now mentioned. 2dly, Shelter
from the heat of the sun. 3dly, Security from ra-
venous creatures, whether man or beast. 4thly, A
view of 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 expecta-
tion 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 no-
thing could come down upon me from the top: on
the side of this rock there was a hollow place worn
a little way in like the entrance or door of a cave,
but there was not really any cave or way into the
rock at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this holiow
place, I resolved to pitch my tent; this plain was
not above an hundred yards broad, and about twice
as long, and lay like a green before my door, and at
3
K
66
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Meets with a commodious spot,
the end of it descended irregularly every way down
into the low grounds by the sea-side. It was on the
N.N.W. side of the hill, so that I was sheltered from.
the heat every day, till it came to a W. and by S.
sun, or thereabouts, which in those countries is near
the setting.
Before I set up my tent, I drew a half-circle be-
fore the hollow place, which took in about ten yards
in its semi-diameter from the rock, and twenty yards
in its diameter, from its beginning and ending.
In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong
stakes, driving them into the ground till they stood
very firm, like piles, the biggest end being out of
the ground about five foot and a half, and sharpened
on the top the two rows did not stand above six
inches from one another.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut
in the ship, and laid them in rows one upon another,
within the circle between these two rows of stakes,
up to the top, placing other stakes in the inside, lean-
ing 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 get 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,
that 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE,
67
and forms his scttlement.
from the rains, that in one part of the year are very
violent there, I made double, viz. one smaller tent
within, one larger tent above it, and covered the up-
permost with a large tarpauling 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 terrace, that
so it raised the ground within about a foot and a
half; and thus I made me a cave just behind my
tent, which served me like a cellar to my house.
It cost me much labour, and many days, before all
these things were brought to perfection, and therefore
I must go back to some other things which took up
some of my thoughts. But the same time it hap-
pened, after I had laid my scheme for setting up my
tent, and making the cave, that a storm of rain fall-
ing from a thick dark cloud, a sudden flash of light-
ming happened, and after that a great clap of thun-
der, as is naturally the effect of it. I was not so
much surprised with the lightning, as I was with a
thought which darted into my mind as swift as the
lightning itself: O my powder! my very heart sunk
within me, when I thought, that at one blast all my
powder might be destroyed: on which, not my de-
fence only, but the providing me food, as I thought,
entirely depended: I was nothing near so anxious
about my own danger; though, had the powder took
fire, I had never known who had hurt me,
68
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
He discovers goats on the island.
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 powder, and to
keep 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 pow-
der, which in all was about two hundred and forty
pounds weight, was divided in not less than a hun-
dred parcels. As to the barrel that had been wet,
1 did not apprehend any danger from that, so I
placed it in my new cave, which in my fancy I called
my kitchen; and the rest I hid up and down in holes
among the rocks, so that no wet might come to it,
marking very carefully where I laid it.
In the interval of time while this was doing, I
went out once at least every day with my gun, as
well to divert myself, as to see if I could kill any
thing fit for food, and as near as I could to acquaint
myself with what the island produced. The first
time I went out I presently discovered that there
were goats in the island, which was a great satisfac-
tion to me; but then it was attended with this mis-
fortune to me, viz. that they were so shy, so subtle,
and so swift of foot, that it was the most difficult
thing in the world to come at them. But I was not.
discouraged at this, not doubting but I might now
and then shoot one, as it soon happened; for after
I had found their haunts a little, I laid wait in this
manner for them: I observed, if they saw me in the
valleys, though they were upon the rocks, they would
run away as in a terrible fright; but if they were
feeding in the valleys, and I was upon the rocks,
they took no notice of me; from whence I concluded,
that by the position of their optics, their sight was so
directed downward, that they did not readily see ob-
jects that were above them: so afterward I took this
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
69
He kills a she-goat.
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 Į 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 by her till I came and
took her up; and not only so, but when I carried the
old one with me upon my shoulders, the kid followed
me quite to my enclosure; upon which I laid down
the dam, and took the kid in my arms, and carried
it over my pale, in hopes to have bred it up tame;
but it would not eat; so I was forced to kill it, and
eat it myself. These two supplied me with flesh a
great while, for I ate sparingly, and saved my provi-
sions (my bread especially) as much as I possibly
could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it abso-
lutely necessary to provide a place to make a fire in,
and fuel to burn; and what I did for that, as also
how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I
made, I shall give a full account of in its place; but
I must first give some little account of myself, and
of my thoughts about living, which it may well be
supposed were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I
was not cast away upon that island without being
driven, as is said, by a violent storm quite out of the
course of our intended voyage, and a great way, viz.
some hundreds of leagues out of the ordinary of the
trade of mankind, I had great reason to consider it
as a determination of Heaven, that in this desolate
place, and in this desolate manner, I should end my
life. The tears would run plentifully down my face
when I made these reflections; and sometimes I
would expostulate with myself, why Providence
should thus completely ruin his creatures, and ren-
der them so absolutely miserable, so without help
abandoned, so entirely depressed, that it could
hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
70-
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
!
2
Serious reflections.
But something always returned swift upon me to
check these thoughts, and to reprove me; and parti-
cularly 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,
expostulating with me t'other way, thus: "Well,
you are in a desolate condition, 'tis true, but pray
remember, where are the rest of you? Did not there
come eleven of you into the boat? Where are the
ten? Why were they not saved and you lost? Why
were you singled out? Is it better to be here or
there?" And then I pointed to the sea. All evils
are to be considered with the good that is in them,
and with what worse attended them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was fur-
nished for my subsistence, and what would have been
my case if it had not happened, which was an hun-
dred thousand to one, that the ship floated from the
place where she first struck, and was driven so near
the shore, that I had time to get all these things out
of her. What would have been my case, if I had
been to have lived in the condition in which I at first
came on shore, without necessaries of life, or neces-
saries to supply and procure them?" particularly,"
said I, aloud (though to myself), "what should I
have done without a gun, without ammunition, with-
out tools to make any thing, or to work with; with-
out clothes, bedding, a tent, or any manner of cover-
ing?" and that now I had all these to a sufficient
quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in
such a manner, as to live without my gun when my
ammunition was spent: so that I had a tolerable
view of subsisting, without any want, as long as I
lived; for I considered from the beginning how I
should provide for the accidents that might happen,
and for the time that was to 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
71
Manner of keeping his reckoning.
ammunition being destroyed at one blast, I mean my
powder being blown up by lightning; and this made
the thoughts of it so surprising to me when it light-
ened and thundered, as I observed just now.
And now, being 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 reckon-
ing 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 up-
on 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 reckoning of time.
In the next place we are to observe, that among
the many things which I brought out of the ship in
the several voyages, which, as above mentioned, I
made to it, I got several things of less value, but not
all less useful to me, which I omitted setting down
before; in particular, pens, ink, and paper, several
parcels in the captain's, mate's, gunner's, and car-
penter's keeping, three or four compasses, some ma-
thematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts,
and books of navigation; all which I huddled toge-
ther, whether I might want them or no. Also I
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoes laments his want of tools.
found three very good Bibles, which came to me in
my cargo from England, and which I had packed up
among my things: some Portuguese books also, and
among them two or three popish prayer-books, and
several other books; all which I carefully secured.
And I must not forget, that we had in the ship a dog
and two cats, of whose eminent history I may have
occasion to say something in its place; for I carried
both the cats with me; and as for the dog, he jumped
out of the ship of himself, and swam on shore to
me the day after I went on shore with my first cargo,
and was a trusty servant to me many years; I wanted
nothing that he could fetch me, nor any company
that he could make up to me: I only wanted to have
him talk to me, but that he could not do. As I
observed before, I found pen, ink, and paper, and I
husbanded them to the utmost; and I shall show,
that while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact;
but after that was gone I could not, for I could not
make it by any means that I could devise.
*
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things,
notwithstanding all I had amassed together; and of
these, this of ink was one, as also spadę, 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 nearly a whole year before I had
entirely finished my little pale or surrounded my ha-
bitation: the piles or stakes, which were as heavy
as I could well lift, were a long time in cutting and
preparing in the woods, and more by far in bringing
home; so that I spent sometimes two days in cutting
and bringing home one of those posts, and a third
day in driving it into the ground; for which purpose
I got a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last 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.
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
73
Seriously reviews his circumstances.
But what need I have been concerned at the tedi-
ousness of any thing that I had to do, seeing I had
time enough to do it in? Nor had I any other em-
ployment if that had been over, at least that I could
foresee, except the ranging the island to seek for
food, which I did more or less every day.
I now began to consider seriously my condition,
and the circumstances I was reduced to, and I drew
up the state of my affairs in writing, not so much
to leave them to any that were to come after me, (for
I was 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 creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the mi-
series I suffered, thus:-
Evil.
I am cast upon a horri-
ble desolate island, void
of all hope of recovery.
I am singled out, and
separated, as it were, from
all the world, to be mise-
rable.
I am divided from man-
kind, a solitaire, one ba-
nished from human so-
ciety.
I have not clothes to
cover me,
Good.
But I am alive, and not
drowned, as all my ship's
company was.
But I am singled out
too from all the ship's
crew to be spared from
death; and He that mi-
raculously saved me from
death, can deliver me
from this condition.
But I am not starved
and perishing on a bar-
ren place, affording no
sustenance.
But I am in a hot cli-
mate, where if I had
clothes I could hardly
wear them.
L
74
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Reconciles himself to his desolate situation.
Evil.
I am without any de-
fence or means to resist
any violence of man or
beast.
I have no soul to speak
to, or relieve me.
1
Good.
But I am cast on an is-
land, where I see no wild
beasts to hurt me, as I
saw on the coast of Afri-
ca: and what if I had
been shipwrecked there?
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.
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 some-
thing positive to be thankful for in it: and let this
stand as a direction from the experience of the most
miserable of all conditions in this world, that we
may always find in it something to comfort ourselves
from, and to set in the description of good and evil,
on the credit side of the account.
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my
condition, and giving over looking out to sea, to
see if I could spy a ship; I say, giving over these
things, I began to apply myself to accomodate 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 out-
side; and after some time, I think it was a year
and half, I raised rafters from it, leaning to the
I

75
וייהי.
2 an
M
וין
CRUSOE making his necefsary Utensils.
Engrard for J Cleaves Edition .
Suller Sa.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
75
Enlarges his habitation, &c.
rock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of
trees, and such things as I could get to keep out the
rain, which I found at some times of the year very
violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my
goods into this pale, and into the cave which I had
made behind me: but I must observe too that at first
this was a confused heap of goods, which as they lay
in no order, so they took up all my place: I had no
room to turn myself; so I set myself to enlarge my
cave and works farther into the earth; for it was a
loose and sandy rock, which yielded easily to the la-
bour which I bestowed on it: and so when I found I
was pretty safe as to beasts of prey, I worked side-
ways to the right hand into the rock; and then turn-
ing to the right again, worked quite out, and made
me a door to come out, on the outside of my pale or
fortification.
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it
were a back-way to my tent and to my storehouse,
but gave me room to stow my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such
necessary things as I found I most wanted, particu
larly a chair and a table; for without these I was
not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world.
I could not write or eat, or do several things with so
much pleasure without a table.
So I went to work; and here I must needs ob-
serve, that as reason is the substance and original of
the mathematics, so by stating and squaring every
thing by reason, and making the most rational judg
ment of things, every man may be in time master of
every mechanic art. I had never handled a tool in
my life, and yet in time, by labour, application and
contrivance, I found at last that I wanted nothing
but I could have made it, especially if I had had
tools; however, I made abundance of things, even
without tools, and some with no more tools than an
adze and a hatchet, which perhaps were never made
76
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Begins to keep a journal of each day's employment.
that way before, and that with infinite labour: for
example, if I wanted a board, I had no other way
than 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 me
thod 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 Į
observed before, 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 oyer another, all
along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails,
and ironwork, 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.
So that, had my cave been to be seen, it looked
like a general 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 or-
der, 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 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: Sept. 30th,
åfter I got to shore, and had escaped drowning, in-
stead of being thankful to God for my deliverance,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
77
The Journal.
having first vomited with the great quantity of salt
water which had gotten into my stomach, and re-
covering 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 un-
done, undone till tired and faint I was forced to lie
down on the ground to repose, but durst not sleep
for fear of being devoured.
Some days after this, and after I had been on
board the ship, and got all that I could out of her,
yet I could not forbear getting up to the top of a
little mountain, and looking out to sea in hopes of
seeing a ship: then fancy at a vast distance I spied
a sail; please myself with the hopes of it; and then,
after looking steadily till I was almost blind, lose it
quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thuș
increase my misery by my folly.
i
But having got over these things in some mea-
sure, and having settled my household-stuff and ha-
bitation, 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 a copy
(though in it will be told all these particulars over
again), as long as it lasted; for having no more ink,
I was forced to leave it off.
THE JOURNAL.
September 30, 1659.
I POOR miserable Robinson Crusoe, being ship-
wrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing, came
on shore on this dismal unfortunate island, which I
called the Island of Despair; all the rest of the
ship's company being drowned, and myself almost
dead.
}
!
78
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The Journal.
All the rest of that day I spent with afflicting my-
self at the dismal 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 no-
thing but death before me, either that I should be
devoured by wild beasts, murdered by savages, or
starved to death for want of food. At the approach
of night I slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures,
but slept soundly, though it rained all night.
October 1. In the morning I saw, to my great sur-
prise, the ship had floated with the high tide, and
was driven on shore again much nearer the island;
which as it was some comfort on one hand, for see-
ing her sit upright, and not broken to pieces, I hop-
ed, if the wind abated, I might get on board, and
get some food and necessaries out of her for my re-
lief; 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 per-
plexing 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 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
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gusts of wind; during which time the ship broke in
pieces, the wind blowing a little harder than before,
and was no more to be seen, except the wreck of
her, and that only at low water. I spent this day in
re-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 con-
cerned to secure myself from any attack in the night,
either from wild beasts or men. Towards night I
fixed upon a proper place under a rock, and marked
out a semicircle for my encampment, which I re-
solved to strengthen with a work, wall, or fortifica-
tion made of double piles, lined within with cable,
and without turf.
From the 26th to the 30th, I worked very hard
in carrying all my goods to my new habitation,
though some part of the time it rained exceeding
hard.
The 31st in the morning, I went out into the island
with my gun, to see for some food, and discover the
country; when I killed a she-goat, and her kid fol-
lowed me home, which I afterwards killed also, be-
cause 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 1
could, with stakes driven in to swing my hammock
upon.
Nov. 2. I set up all my chests and boards, and
the pieces of timber which made my rafts, and with
them formed a fence round me, a little within the
place I had marked out for my fortification.
Nov. 3. I went out with my gun, and killed two
fowls like ducks, which were very good food. In
the afternoon went to work to make me a table.
Nov. 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
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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 neces-
sity 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
my dog, and killed a wild cat, her skin pretty soft,
but her flesh good for nothing: every creature I
killed I took off the skins and preserved them.—
Coming back by the sea-shore, I saw many sorts of
sea-fowls which I did not understand; but was sur-
prised, and almost frighted, when two or three seals,
which, while I was gazing at, not well knowing what
they were, got into the sea, and escaped me for that
time.
Nov. 6. After my morning walk I went to work
with my table again, and finished it, though not to
my liking; nor was it long before I 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 to-
Ierable shape, but never to please me; and even in
the making I pulled it in pieces several times.
Note, I soon neglected my keeping Sundays, for
omitting my mark for them on my post, I forgot
which was which.
Nov. 13. This day it rained, which refreshed me
exceedingly, and cooled the earth, but it was ac-
companied with terrible thunder and lightning,
which 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 pos-
sible, that it might not be in danger.
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The Journal.
Nov. 14, 15, 16. These three days I spent in mak-
ing little square chests or boxes, which might hold
about a pound, or two pounds at most, of powder;
and so putting the powder in, I stowed it in places
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 conve-
niency. 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
Brasils they call the iron tree, for its exceeding hard-
ness for 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 ma-
chine; for I worked it effectually by little and little
into the form of a shovel or spade, the handle ex-
actly 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
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bend to make wicker-ware, at least not yet found
out; and as to a wheel-barrow, I fancied I could
make all but the wheel, but that I had no notion of,
neither did I know how to go about it; besides, I
had no possible way to make the iron gudgeons for
the spindle or axis of the wheel to run in, so I gave
it over; and so for carrying away the earth which I
dug out of the cave, I made me a thing like a hod
which the labourers carry mortar in, when they
serve the bricklayers.
This was not so difficult to me as the making the
shovel; and yet this, and the shovel, and the at-
tempt which I made in vain to make a wheel-barrow,
took me up no less than four days, I mean always
excepting my morning walk with my gun, which I
seldom failed; and very seldom failed also bringing
home something to eat.
Nov. 23. My other work having now stood still,
because of my making these tools, when they were
finished I went on, and working every day, as my
strength and time allowed, I spent eighteen days
entirely in widening and deepening my cave, that it
might hold my goods commodiously.
t
·
Note, During all this time, I worked to make this
room or cave spacious enough to accommodate me
as a warehouse or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-
room, and a cellar: as for my lodging, I kept in the
tent, except sometimes that 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 made
it too large) a great quantity of earth fell down from
the top and one side, so much that in short it frighted
me, and not without reason too; for if I had been
under it I had never wanted a gravedigger. Upon
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The Journal.
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 at it accord-
ingly, 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
every thing 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 stir-
ring 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 I caught it, and led it home in a string; when 1
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;
and by nursing it so long it grew tame, and fed
upon the little green at my door, and would not go
away. This was the first time that I entertained a
thought of breeding up some tame creatures, that I
might have food when my powder and shot was all
spent.
Dec. 28, 29, 30. Great heats and no breeze; so
that there was no stirring abroad, except in the even-
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ing for food. This time I spent in putting all my
things in order within doors.
January 1. Very hot still; but I went abroad early
and late with my gun, and lay still in the middle of
the day. This evening, going farther in the valleys,
which lay towards the centre of the island, I found
there was plenty of goats, though exceedingly shy,
and hard to come at; however, I resolved to try if I
could not bring my dog to hunt them down.
Jan. 2. Accordingly, the next day I went out with
my dog, and set him upon the goats; but I was mis-
taken, for they all faced about upon the dog; and
he knew his danger too well, for he would not come
near them.
Jan. 3. I began my fence or wall; which, being.
still jealous of my being attacked by somebody,
resolved to make very thick and strong,
N.B. This wall being described before, I pur-
posely omit what was said, in the Journal; it
is sufficient to observe, that I was no less
time than from the 3d of January to the 14th
of April, working, finishing, and perfecting.
this wall, though it was no more than about
twenty-four yards in length, being a half-
circle from one place in the rock, to another
place about eight yards from it, the door of
the cave being in the centre behind it.
All this time I worked very hard, the rains hin-
dering me many days, nay, sometimes weeks toge
ther; but I thought I should never be perfectly
secure till 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
doublefenced with a turf wall raised up close to it,
I persuaded myself that if any people were to come
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
85
Discovers wild pigeons in the woods.
on shore there, they would not perceive any thing
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 discoveries in these walks of some-
thing or other to my advantage; particularly I found
a kind of wild pigeons, who built not as wood-
pigeons in a tree, but rather as house pigeons, in the
holes of the rocks; and taking some young ones, I
endeavoured to breed them up tame, and did so; but
when they grew older they flew away, which perhaps
was at first for want of feeding them, for I had no-
thing to give them; however, I frequently found their
nests, and got their young ones, which were very
good meat.
And now, in the managing my household affairs,
I found myself wanting in many things, which I
thought at first it was impossible for me to make, as
indeed as to some of them it was: for instance, I
could never make a cask to be hooped; I had a small
runlet or two, as I observed before, but I could never
arrive to the capacity of making one by them,
though I spent many weeks about it; I could nei-
ther put in the heads, or joint the staves, so true to
one another as to make them hold water; so I gave
that also over.
In the next place, I was at a great loss for candles;
so that as soon as ever it was dark, which was gene-
rally by seven o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed:
I remembered the lump of bees'-wax with which 1
made candles in my African adventure, but I had
none of that now; the only remedy I had was, that
when I 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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labour it happened, that, rummaging my things I
found a little bag, which, as I hinted before, had
been filled with corn for the feeding of poultry, not
for this voyage, but before, as I suppose, when the
ship came from Lisbon; what little remainder of
corn had been in the bag, was all devoured by the
rats, and I saw nothing in the bag but husks and
dust; and being willing to have the bag for some
other use, I think it was to put powder in, when I
devided it for fear of the lightning, or some such use,
I shook the husks of corn out of it on one side of my
fortification, under the rock.
+
It was a little before the great rains, just now
mentioned, that I threw this stuff away, taking no
notice of any thing, and not so much as remember-
ing 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 religious foundation at all;
indeed I had very few notions of religion 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 ih governing events in the world: but
after I saw barley grow there, in a climate which I
knew was not proper for corn, and especially that I
knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely,.
and I began to suggest, that God had miraculously
caused this grain to grow without any help of seed
}
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
87
P
Extraordinary work of Providence.
sown, and that it was so directed purely for my sus-
tenance 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 on my ac-
count; and this was the more strange to me, because
I saw near it still, all along by the side of the rock,
some other straggling stalks, which proved to be
stalks of rice, and which I knew, because I had seen
it grow in Africa, when I was ashore there.
I not only thought these the pure productions of
Providence for my support, but not doubting 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 oc-
curred 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, that my religious
thankfulness to God's providence began to abate too
upon discovering that all this was nothing but what
was common; though I ought to have been as thank-
ful for so strange and unforeseen a providence as if
it had been miraculous; for it was really the work of
Providence as to me, that should order or appoint
ten or twelve grains of corn to remain 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 immedi-
ately 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
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sparingly, as I shall say afterwards in its order; for
I lost all that I had 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.
I worked excessive hard these three or four months
to get my wall done; and the 14th of April I closed
it up, contriving to go into it, not by a door, but
over the wall by a ladder, that there might be no
sign on the outside of my habitation.
April 16. I finished the ladder; so I went up 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, unless it
could first mount my wall.
The very next day after this wall was finished, I
had almost had all my labour overthrown at once,
and myself killed; the case was thus: As I was
busy in the inside 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 hear-
tily scared, but thought of nothing of what was really
the cause, only thinking that the top of my cave was
falling in, as some of it had done before; and for fear
I should be buried in it, I ran forward to my ladder,
and not thinking myself safe there neither, I got over
my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill which I expect-
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
89
Astonishing effects of an earthquake.
ed might roll down upon me. I was no sooner stept
down upon the firm ground, but I plainly saw it was
a terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood on shook
three times at about eight minutes distance, with three
such shocks as would have overturned the strongest
building that could be supposed to have stood on the
earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock, which
stood about half a mile from me next the sea, fell
down with such a terrible noise as I never heard in
all my life: I perceived also the very sea was put in-
to violent motion by it; and I believe the shocks
were stronger under the water than on the island.
I was so amazed with the thing itself, having never
felt the like, or discoursed with any one that had,
that I was like one dead or stupified; and the motion
of the earth made my stomach sick, like one that
was tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling of the
rock awaked me, as it were, and roused me from
the stupified condition I was in, filled me with hor-
ror, and I thought of nothing then but the hill fall-
ing upon my tent and all my household goods, and
burying all at once; and this sunk my very soul
within me a second time.
After the third shock was over, and I felt no more
for some time, I began to take courage, and yet I
had not heart enough to get over my wall again, for
fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the
ground, greatly cast down and disconsolate, not
knowing what to do. All this while I had not the
least serious religious thought, nothing but the com-
mon "Lord, have mercy upon me!" and when it was
over, that went away too.
While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and
grow cloudy, as if it would rain; soon after that the
wind rose by little and little, so that in less than half
an hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane: the sea
was all on a sudden covered over with foam and froth,
the shore was covered with the breach of the water,
the trees were torn up by the roots, and a terrible
4
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:
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 it-
self was spent and over, aud I might venture into my
cave again with this thought my spirits began to
revive, and the rain also helped to persuade me, I
went in and sat down in my tent; but the rain was
so violent, that my tent was ready to be beaten down
with it; and I was forced to go into my cave, though
very much afraid and uneasy for fear it should fall
on my head.
This violent rain forced me to a new work, viz. to
cut a hole through my new fortification like a sink,
to let water go out, which would else have drowned
my cave. After I had been in my cave some time,
and found still no more shocks of the earthquake
follow, I began to be more composed; and now, to
support my spirits, which indeed wanted it very
much, I went to my little store, and took a small
sup of rum, which however I did then and always
very sparingly, knowing I could have no more when
that was gone.
It continued raining all that night, and great part
of the next day, so that I could not stir abroad; but
my mind being more composed, I began to think of
what I had best do, concluding, that if the island
was subject to these earthquakes, there would be no
living for me in a cave, but I must consider of build-
ing me some little hut in an open place, which I
might surround with a wall as I had done bere, and
so make myself secure from wild beasts or men;
but concluded, if I staid where I was, I should cer-
taiuly, 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
!
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
91
Determines to form a more secure residence.
the hanging precipice of the hill, and which, if it
should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon
my tent. And I spent the two next days, being the
19th and 20th of April, in contriving where and how
to remove my habitation.
The fear of being swallowed up alive, made me
that I never slept in quiet, and yet the apprehension
of lying abroad without any fence was almost equal
to it; but still, when I looked about and saw how
every thing was put in order, how pleasantly con-
cealed I was, and how safe from danger, it made me
very loath to remove.
In the mean time it occurred to me that it would
require a vast deal of time for me to do this, and that
1 must be contented to run the venture where I was,
till I had formed a camp for myself, and had secured
it so as to remove to it. So with this resolution I
composed myself for a time, and resolved that I
would go to work with all speed to build me a wall
with piles and cables, &c. in a circle as before, and
set my tent up in it when it was finished, but that I
would venture to stay where I was till it was finished
and fit to remove to. This was the 21st.
April 22. The next morning I began to consider
of means to put this resolve in execution, but I was
at a great loss about my tools. I had three large
axes and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the
hatchets for traffic with the Indians :) but with much
chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were
all full of notches and dull; and though I had a grind-
stone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too :
this cost me as much thought as a statesman would
have bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or
a judge upon the life and death of a man. At length
I contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my
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 was very common there; be-
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sides that, my grindstone was very large and heavy.
This machine cost me a full week's work to bring it
to perfection.
April 28, 29. These two whole days I took up in
grinding my tools, my machine for turning my grind,
stone performing very well.
April 30. Having perceived my bread had been
low a great while, now I took a survey of it, and re-
duced myself to one biscuit-cake a day, which made
my heart very heavy.
1
•
May 1. In the morning, looking towards the sea-
side, the tide being low, I saw something lie on the
shore bigger than ordinary; and it looked like a cask:
when I came to it, I found a small barrel, and two
or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were
driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking
towards the wreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie
higher out of the water than it used to do. I ex-
amined the barrel which was driven on shore, and
soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder, but it had
taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as
a stone; however, I rolled it farther on shore for the
present, and went on upon the sands as near as I
could to the wreck of the ship, to look for more.
Sas
+
When I came down to the ship, I found it strangely
removed; the forecastlewhich lay before buried in sand,
was heaved up at least six feet; and the stern, which
was broke to pieces, and parted from the rest by the
force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging her,
was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on one side, and
the sand was thrown so high on that side next her
stern, that whereas there was a great place of water
before, so that I could not come within a quarter of
a mile of the wreck without swimming, I could now
walk quite up to her when the tide was out, I was
surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it must
be done by the earthquake: and as by this violence
the ship was more broken open than formerly, so
many things came daily on shore, which the sea had
X
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
93
He re-visits the wreck.
loosened, and which the winds and water rolled by
degrees to the land.
This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design
of removing my habitation; and I busied myself
mightily, that day especially, in searching whether
I could make any way into the ship; but I found
nothing was to be expected of that kind, for 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 of the quarter-deck together, and when
1 had cut it through, I cleared away the sand as
well as I could from the side which lay highest; but
the tide coming in, I was obliged to give over for
that time.
May 4. I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish
that I durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport;
when just going to leave off, I caught a young dol-
phin. I had made me a long line of some rope-yarn,
but I had no hooks, yet I frequently caught fish
enough, as much as I cared to eat; all which 1 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 or 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 in-
tent not to work, but found the weight of the wreck
had broke itself down, the beams being cut, that
several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose, and
j
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the inside of the hold lay so open, that I could see
into it, but almost full of water and sand.
which lay now quite
wrenched open two
shore also with the
May 8. Went to the wreck, and carried an iron
crow to wrench up the deck,
clear of the water or sand; I
planks, and brought them on
tide: I left the iron crow in the wreck for the next
day.
•
May 9. Went to the wreck, and with the crow
made way into the body of the wreck, and felt se-
veral casks, and loosened them with the crow, but
could not break them up; I felt also the roll of
English lead, and could stir it, but it was too heavy
to remove.
May 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. Went every day to the
wreck, and got a great many pieces of timber, and
boards, or plank, and two or three hundred weight
of iron.
May 15. I carried two hatchets, to try if I could
not cut a piece off the roll of lead, by placing the
edge of one hatchet and driving it with the other:
but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, I
could not make any blow to drive the hatchet..
May 16. It had blown hard in the night, and the
wreck appeared more broken by the force of the
water; but I staid so long in the woods to get pi-
geons for food, that the tide prevented 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 se-
veral casks floated out, and two of the seamen's
chests; but the wind blowing from the shore, no-
thing came to land that day, but pieces of timber,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
95
Meets with a large turtle on the beach.
and a hogshead, which had some Brasil pork in it,
but the salt water and the sand had spoiled it.
I continued this work every day to the 15th of
June, except the time necessary to get food, which
I always appointed, during this part of my employ-
ment, 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 tortoise or turtle: this was the first I had seen,
which it seems was only my misfortune, not any
defect of the place, or scarcity; for had 1 happened
to be on the other side of the island, I might have
had hundreds of them every day, as I found after-
wards; but perhaps had paid dear enough for them.
June 17 I spent in cooking the turtle; I found
in her threescore eggs; and her flesh was to me at
that time the most savoury and pleasant that ever I
tasted in my life, having had no flesh, but of goats
and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place.
June 18. Rained all day, and I stayed within. I
thought at this time the rain felt cold, and I was
something chilly, which I knew was not usual in
that latitude.
June 19. Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather
had been cold.
June 20. No rest all night, violent pains in my
head, and feverish.
June 21. Very ill, frighted almost to death with
the apprehensions of my sad condition, to be sick,
and no help. Prayed to God for the first time since
the storm off Hull, but scarce.knew what I said, or
why; my thoughts being all confused.
June 22. A little better, but under dreadful ap-
prehensions of sickness.
ト
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June 23. Very bad again, cold and shivering, and
then a violent headach.
June 24. Much better.
June 25. An ague very violent; the fit held me
several hours, cold fit and hot, with faint sweats
after it.
June 26. Better; and having no victuals to eat,
took my gun, but found myself very weak; however,
I killed a she-goat, and with much difficulty got it
home, and broiled some of it, and ate; I would
fain have stewed it, and made some broth, but had
no pot.
June 27. The ague again so violent that I lay
abed all day, and neither eat nor drank. I was
ready to perish for thirst, but so weak I had not
strength to stand up, or to get myself any water to
drink. Prayed to God again, but was light-headed;
and when I was not I was so ignorant, that I knew
not what to say; only I lay and cried, "Lord, look
upon me! Lord, pity me! Lord, have mercy upon
me!" I suppose I did nothing else for two or three
hours, till the fit wearing off, I fell asleep, and did
not wake till far in the night; when I awoke, I found
myself much refreshed, but weak, and exceeding
thirsty however, as I had no water in my whole
habitation, I was forced to lie till morning, and went
to sleep again. In this second sleep I had this ter-
rible 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 in-
expressibly dreadful, impossible for words to de-
scribe; when he stepped upon the ground with his
feet I thought the earth trembled, just as it had done
before the earthquake, and all the air looked to my
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
97
His remarkable dream.
apprehension as if it had been filled with flashes of
fire.
He was no sooner landed upon the earth, but he
moved forward towards me, with a long spear or
weapon in his hand to kill me; and when he came
to a rising ground, at some distance, he spoke to
me, or I heard a voice so terrible, that it is 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 repentance, now thou shalt die;"
at which words I thought he lifted up the spear that
was in his hand to kill me.
No one, that shall ever read this account, will ex-
pect that I should be able to describe the horrors of
my soul at this terrible vision; I mean, that even
while it was a dream, I even dreamed of those hor-
rors; nor is it any more possible to describe the im-
pression that remained upon my mind, when I
awaked, and found it was but a dream.
I had, alas! no divine knowledge: what I had
received by the good instruction of my father was
then worn out by an uninterrupted series, for eight
years of seafaring wickedness, and a constant con-
versation with nothing but such as were, like myself,
wicked and profane to the last degree. I do not re-
member that I had in all that time one thought that
so much as tended either to looking upwards towards
God, or inwards towards a reflection upon my own
ways. But a certain stupidity of soul, without a
desire of good, or conscious of evil, had entirely
overwhelmed me, and I was all that the most hard-
ened, unthinking, wicked creature among our com-
mon sailors can be supposed to be, not having the
least sense, either of the fear of God in danger, or
of thankfulness to God in deliverances.
3
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
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1
The Journal.
one thought of it being the hand of God, or that it
was a just punishment for my sin, my rebellious be-
haviour against my father, or my present sins, which
were great; or so much as a punishment for the ge-
neral course of my wicked life. When I was in the
desperate expedition on the desert shores of Africa,
I never had so much as one thought of what would
become of me; or one wish to God to direct me.
whither I should go, or to keep me from the danger
which apparently surrounded me, as well from vora-
cious creatures as cruel savages; but I was merely
thoughtless of a God, or a Providence, acted like a
mere brate 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 Portuguese captain, well used, and dealt justly and
honourably with, as well as charitably, I had not
the least thankfulness on my thoughts. 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
ofteu that I was an unfortunate dog, and born to be
always miserable.
It is true, when I got on shore first here, and
found all my ship's crew drowned, and myself
spared, I was surprised with a kind of ecstasy, and
some transports of soul, which, had the grace of
God assisted, might have come up to true thankful-
ness; but it ended where it begun, in a mere com-
mon flight of joy, or, as I may say, being glad I
was alive, without the least reflection upon the dis-
tinguishing goodness of the hand which had pre-
served 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 generally
have, after they have got safe on shore from a ship-
wreck, which they drown all in the next bowl of
·
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
99
His illness increases, and consequent reflections.
punch, and forget almost as soon as it is over; and
all the rest of my life was like it.
Even when I was afterwards, on due considera-
tion, made sensible of my condition, how I was
cast on this dreadful place, out of the reach of hu
man kind, out of all hope of relief, or prospect of
redemption, as soon as I saw but a prospect of living,
and that I should not starve and perish for hunger,
all the sense of my affliction wore off, and I began to
be very easy, applied myself to the works proper for
my preservation and supply, and was far enough
from being afflicted at my condition, as a judgment
from Heaven, or as the hand of God against me:
these were thoughts which very seldom entered into
my head.
The growing out of the corn, as is hinted in my
journal, had at first some little influence upon me,
and began to affect me with seriousness, as long as I
thought it had 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 spirits began to sink under
the burden of a strong distemper, and nature was
exhausted with the violence of the fever; conscience,
that had slept so long, began to awake, and I began
to reproach myself with my past life, in which I
had so evidently, by uncommon wickedness, pro-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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voked the justice of God to lay me under uncom-
mon 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, or with hopes ;
it was rather the voice of mere fright and distress;
my thoughts were confused, the convictions great
upon my mind, and the horror of dying in such a
miserable condition, raised vapours into my head
with the mere apprehensions; and, in these hurries
of my soul, I knew not what my tongue might ex-
press: but it was rather exclamation, such as,
"Lord! what a miserable creature am I! If I
should be sick, I shall certainly die for want of help,
and what will become of me!" Then the tears
burst out of my eyes, and I could say no more for
à 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 up-
on having neglected his counsel, when there might
be none to assist me 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
101
Crusoe meditates upon the nature of his own existence.
great for even nature itself to support, and no as-
sistance, no help, no comfort, no advice." Then I
cried out, 66
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, 1
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 sup-
port myself when I should be ill; and the first thing
I did, was to fill a large square case-bottle with wa-
ter, 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 a piece of goat's
flesh, and broiled it on the coals, but could eat very
little. I walked about, but was very weak, and
withal very sad and heavy-hearted under a sense of
my miserable condition, dreading the return of my
distemper the next day. At night I made my supper
of three of the turtle's eggs, which I roasted in the
ashes, and ate, as we call it, in the shell; and this was
the first bit of meat I had ever asked God's blessing
to, even, as I could remember, in my whole life.
After I had eaten I tried to walk; but found my-
self 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? And what am I,
and all the other creatures, wild and tame, human
and brutal; whence are we?
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Sure we are all made by some secret Power, who
formed the earth and sea, the air and sky; and who
is that?
Then it followed, most naturally: it is God that
bas 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 all things, must cer-
tainly have power to guide and direct them.
If so, nothing cau happen in the great circuit of
his works, either without his knowledge or appoint-
ment.
And if nothing happens without his knowledge,
he knows that I am here, and am in a dreadful con-
dition; and if nothing happens without his appoint-
ment, 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,
Why has God done this to me? What have I done
to be thus used?
My conscience presently checked me in that in
quiry, as if I had blasphemed; and methought it
spoke to me, like a voice; "Wretch! dost thou ask
what thou hast done? look back upon a dreadful
mispent life, and ask thyself what thou hast not
done? ask, why is it that thou wert not long ago de-
stroyed? why wert thou not drowned in Yarmouth
Roads? killed in the fight when the ship was taken
by the Sallee man of war? devoured by the wild
beasts on the coast of Africa? or drowned HERE,
when all the crew perished but thyself? Dost thou
ask, What have I done?"
I was struck with these reflections as one asto-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
108
He discovers a source of comfort.
nished, and had not a word to say, no, not to answer
to myself; but rose up pensive and sad, walked
back to my retreat, and went up over my wall, as if
I had been going to bed; but my 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 distem-
pers; 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 open-
ed the chest, and found what I looked for, viz. thẹ
tobacco; and as the few books I had saved lay there
400, I took out one of the Bibles which I mentioned
before, and which, to this time, I had not found
leisure, or so much as inclination, to look into; 1
say I took it out, and brought both that and the to-
bacco with me to the table.
What use to make of the tobacco I knew not, as
to my distemper, or whether it was good for it or no;
but I tried several experiments with it, as if I 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 al-
most to suffocation.
Ip 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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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 impression upon my thoughts at the time of
reading them, though not so much as they did after-
wards; 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 apprehensions of things,
that I began to say as the children of Israel did,
when they were promised flesh to eat, "Can God
spread a table in the wilderness?" So I began to say,
Can God himself deliver me from this place? And
as it was not for many years that any hope appeared,
this prevailed very often upon my thoughts: but,
however, the words made a very great impression
upon me, and I mused upon them very often. It
grew now late, and the tobacco had, as I said, dozed
my head so much, that I inclined to sleep; so that
I left my lamp burning in the cave, lest I should
want any thing in the night, and went to bed; but
before I lay down, I did what I never had done in
all my life: I kneeled down, and prayed to God to
fulfil the promise to me, that if I called upon him in
the day of trouble, he would deliver me.
After my
broken and imperfect prayer was over, I drank the
rum in which I had steeped the tobacco, which was
so strong and rank of the tobacco, that indeed I
could scarce get it down. Immediately upon this I
went to bed, and I found presently it flew up into
my head violently; but I fell into a sound sleep,
and waked no more, till by the sun it must necessa-
rily be near three o'clock in the afternoon the next
day; nay, to this hour I am partly of opinion, that I
slept all the next day and night, and till almost three
the day after; for otherwise I knew not how I
should lose a day out of my reckoning in the days
of the week, as it appeared some years after I had
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
105
Tobacco a remedy for the ague.
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 awak-
ed, I found myself exceedingly refreshed, and my
spirits lively and cheerful: when I got up, I was
stronger than I was the day before, and my stomach
better; for I was hungry; and, in short, I had no
fit the next day, but 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
turtle's eggs, which were very good. This evening
I renewed the medicine which I had supposed did
me good the day before, viz. the tobacco steeped in
rum; only I did not take so much as before, nor did
I chew any of the leaf, or hold my head over the
smoke; however, I was not so well the next day,
which was the 1st of July, as I hoped I should have
been; for I had a little 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 at first, and doubled the
quantity which I drank.
July 3. I missed the fit for good and all, though
I did not recover my full strength for some weeks
after. While I was thus gathering strength, my
thoughts ran exceedingly upon this scripture, "I
will deliver thee;" and the impossibility of my de-
liverance 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 my-
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self such questions as these; viz. Have I not been
delivered, and wonderfully too, from sickness? from
the most distressed condition that could be, and
that was so frightful to me? and what notice had I
taken of it? had I done my part? God had deli-
vered me, but I had not glorified him; that is to say,
I had not owned and been thankful for that as a de-
liverance; and how could I expect greater deliver-
ance? This touched my heart very much, and im-
mediately I kneeled down, and gave God thanks
alond, for my recovery from my sickness.
July 4. In the morning I took the Bible; and be-
ginning 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 serious-
ly 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 repent-
ance," ran seriously in my thoughts: I was earnest-
ly begging of God to give me repentance, when it
happened providentially the very day, that, reading
the Scripture I came to these words, "He is exalt-
ed a Prince, and a Saviour, to give repentance, and
to give remission." I threw down the book, and
with my heart as well as my hand lifted up to hea-
ven, in a kind of ecstacy of joy, I cried out aloud,
Jesus, thou son of David, Jesus, thou exalted
Prince and Saviour, give me repentance !"
S
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 en-
couragement 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
107
He is confirmed in his religious impressions.
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 deli-
verance, but my being delivered from the captivity
I was in; for though I was indeed at large in the
place, yet the island was certainly a prison to me,
and that in the worst sense in the world; but now I
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 no-
thing of God, but deliverance from the load of guilt
that bore down all my comfort. As for my solitary
life it was nothing; I did not so much as pray to be
delivered from it, or think of it; it was all of no
consideration in comparison of this; and I 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 journał.
My condition began now to be, though not less
miserable as to my way of living, yet much easier to
my mind; and my thoughts being directed, by a
constant reading the Scripture, and praying to
God, to things of a higher. nature, I had a great
deal of comfort within, which till now I knew no-
thing of; also as my health and strength returned,
bestirred myself to furnish myself with every thing
that I wanted, and make my way of living as regu-
lar as I could.
I
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 ga-
thering 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 practise by this experi-
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•
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ment; and though it did carry off the fit, yet it ra-
ther contributed to weaken me; for I had frequent
convulsions in my nerves and limbs for some time.
I learnt from it also this in particular, that being
abroad in the rainy season was the most pernicious
thing to my health that could be, especially in those
rains which came attended with storms and hurri-
canes of wind; for as the rain which came in a dry
season was always most accompanied with such
storms, so I found this rain was much more dan-
gerous 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 con-
dition seemed to be entirely taken from me; and I
firmly believed that no human shape had ever set
foot upon that place. Having now secured my ha-
bitation, as I thought, fully to my mind, I had a
great desire to make a more perfect discovery of the
island, and to see what other productions I might
find, which yet I knew nothing of.
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
no more than a little brook of running water, and
very fresh and good; but this being the dry season,
there was hardly any water in some parts of it, at
least not enough to run 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 the
higher grounds, where the water, as it might be sup-
posed, never overflowed, I found a great deal of to-
bacco, 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 per-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
109
Discovers various useful plants.
haps 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 Brasils,
that I knew little of the plants of the field, at least
very little that might serve me to any purpose now
in my distress.
-
The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way
again; and, after going something farther than I bail
done the day before, I found the brook and the ṣa-
vannas 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 indeed over the trees,
and the clusters of grapes were just now in their
prime, very ripe and rich. This was a surprising
discovery, and I was exceeding glad of them; but
I was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of
them, remembering, that when I was ashore in Bar-
bary, the eating of grapes killed several of our
Englishmen who were slaves there, by throwing them
into fluxes and fevers: but I found an excellent use
for these grapes, and that was to cure or dry them in
the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins
are kept, which I thought would be, as indeed they
were, as wholesome, and as agreeable to eat, when
no grapes might be had.
I spent all that evening there, and went not back
to my habitation, which by the way was the first
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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night, as I may say, I had lain from home. In the
night I took my first contrivance, and got up into a
tree, where I slept well, and the next morning pro-
ceeded upon my discovery, travelling near four miles,
as I might judge by the length of the valley, keeping
still due north, with a ridge of hills on the south and
north side of me.
At the end of this march I came to an opening,
where the country seemed to descend to the west;
and a little spring of fresh water, 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 the con-
stant verdure of flourishing spring, that it looked like
a planted garden.
I descended a little on the side of that delicious
valley, surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure
(though mixed with other afflicting thoughts) to
think that this was all my own, that I was king and
lord of all this country indefeasibly, and had a right
of possession; and if I could convey it, I might
have it in inheritance, as completely as any lord of
a manor in England. I saw here. abundance of
cocoa-trees, orange and lemon, and citron-trees, but
all wild, and few bearing any fruit; at least, not
then however, the green limes that I gathered were
not only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and
I mixed their juice afterwards with water, which
made it very wholesome, and very cool and refresh-
ing.
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,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
111
Returns from his first journey.
and bring a bag or sack, or what I could make, to
carry the rest home.
Accordingly, having spent three days in this jour-
ney, I came home (so I must now call it 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.
vest.
The next day, being the 19th, I went back, hav-
ing made me two small bags to bring home my har
But I was surprised, when coming to my
heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when
I gathered them, I found them all spread abroad,
trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some
there, and abundance eaten and devoured. By this
I concluded there were some wild creatures there-
abouts, which had done this; but what they were 1
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 lines and lemons, I carried
as many back as I could well stand under.
When I came home from this journey, I contem-
plated with great pleasure on the fruitfulness of that
valley, and the pleasantness of the situation, the se-
curity 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 situ
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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ated, if possible, in that pleasant fruitful part of the
island.
This thought ran long in my head, and I was ex-
ceedingly 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 which brought me hither, might bring
some other unhappy wretches to the same place;
and though it was scarce probable that any such
thing should ever happen, yet to enclose myself
among the bills and woods, in the centre of the
island, was to anticipate my bondage, and to render
such an affair not only improbable, but impossible;
and that therefore I ought not by any means to re-
move.
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
surrounded it at a distance with a strong fence, being
a double hedge, as high as I could reach, well staked
and filled between with brushwood; and here I lay
very secure, sometimes two or three nights together,
always going over it with a ladder, as before; so
that. I fancied now I had my country-house, and my
sea-coast house: and this work took me up the be
ginning of August.
I had but newly finished my fence, and began to
enjoy my labour, but the rains came on and made
me stick close to my first habitation; for though I
had made me a tent like the other, with a piece of
a sail, and spread it very well, yet I had not the
shelter of a hill to keep me from the storms, nor a
cave behind me to retreat into when the rains were
extraordinary.
About the beginning of August, as I said, I had
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
113
Surprising increase of cats.
finished my bower, and began to enjoy myself. The
3d of August I found the grapes I had hung up were
perfectly dried, and indeed were excellent good rai-
sins of the sun; so I began to take them down from
the trees, and it was very happy that I did so; for
the rains which followed would have spoiled them,
and I had lost the best part of my winter food; for
I had above two hundred large bunches of them.-
No sooner had I taken them all down and carried
most of them home to my cave, but it began to rain;
and from thence, which was the 14th of August, it
rained more or less every day, till the middle of Oc-
tober; and sometimes so violently, that I could not
stir out of my cave for several days.
In this season I was much surprised with the in-
crease of my family: I had been concerned for the
loss of one of my cats, who ran away from me, or,
as 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 kit-
tens: This was the more strange to me, because
though I had killed a wild cat, as I called it, with
my gun, yet I thought it was quite a different kind
from our European cats; 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
rains, 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 dinner, broiled
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114 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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(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 perfectly easy at lying so open; for as I had
managed myself before, I was in a perfect enclosure,
whereas now I thought I lay exposed; and yet I
could not perceive that there was any living thing to
fear, the biggest creature that I had seen upon the
island being a goat.
September the 30th. I was now come to the un-
happy anniversary of my landing: I cast up the
notches on my post, and found I had been on shore
three hundred and sixty-five days. I kept this day
as a solemn fast, setting it apart to a religious exer-
cise, prostrating myself to the ground with the most
serious humiliation, confessing myself to God, ac-
knowledging his righteous judgment upon me, and
praying to him to have mercy on me, through Jesus
Christ; and having not tasted the least refreshment
for twelve hours, even till the going down of the
I then ate a biscuit-cake and a bunch of grapes,
and went to bed, finishing the day as I began it.
sun,
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 distinguished 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 that I had been there a year;
so I divided it into weeks, and set apart every se-
venth day for a sabbath; though I found at the end
of my account I had lost a day or two of my reck-
oning.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
115
Disappointed in his harvest.
A little after this my ink began to fail me, and so
I contented myself to use it more sparingly, and to
write down only the most remarkable events of my
life, without continuing a daily memorandum of other
things.
The rainy season, and the dry season, began now
to appear regular to me, and I learnt 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 ex-
periments 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.
1
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 the seed in February, a little before the
vernal equinox; and this, having the rainy months
of March and April to water it, sprang up very plea
!
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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santly, and yielded 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 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 dis-
covery, which was of use to me afterwards. As soon
as the rains were over, and the weather began to set-
tle, which was about the month of November, I made
a visit up the country to my bower, where, though I
had not been for some months, yet I found all things
just as I had 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 some trees that grew
thereabouts, were all shot out, and grew 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 a hedge like this in a semicircle round my
wall, I mean that of my first dwelling, which I did;
and placing the trees or stakes in a double row, at
about eight yards distance from my first fence, they
grew pleasantly, and were at first a fine cover to my
habitation, and afterwards served for a defence also,
as I shall observe in its order.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
117
The seasons described.
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:
Half February,
March,
Half April,
Half April,
May,
June,
July,
Half August,
Half August,
September,
Half October,
Half October,
November,
December,
January,
Rainy, the sun being then on,
or near the equinox.
Dry, the sun being then to the
north of the line.
Rainy, the sun being then come
back.
Dry, the sun being then to the
south of the line.
Half February,
The rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter,
as the winds happened to blow; but this was the ge-
neral 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 provi-
sion 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 pur-
pose proved so brittle, that they would do nothing.
It proved of excellent advantage to me now, that
when I was a boy I used to take great delight in
standing at a basket-maker's in the town where my
1-
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?
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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 a 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 pos-
sibly 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 called it, and cutting some of the smaller
twigs, I found them to my purpose as much as I
could desire; whereupon I came the next time pre-
pared 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 thein to my cave;
and here during the next season I employed myself
in making (as well as I could) a great many baskets,
both to carry earth, or to carry or lay up 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 afterwards I
took care never to be without them; and as my
wicker-ware decayed I made more; especially I
made strong deep baskets to place my corn in, in-
stead 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 rund-
lets, which were almost full of rum, and some glass
bottles, some of the common size, and others which
were case-bottles square, for the holding of waters,
spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to boil any
thing in, except a great kettle which I saved out of
the ship, and which was too big for such uses as I
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
119
Determines on a second journey.
desired it for, viz. to make broth, and stew a bit of
meat by itself. The second thing I would fain have
had was a tobacco-pipe, but it was impossible for
me to make one; however, I found a contrivance
for that too at last.
1
I employed myself in planting my second row of
stakes of piles, and in this wicker-work, all the sum-
mer, or dry season; when another business took me
up more time than it could be imagined I could
spare.
I mentioned before, that I had a great mind to see
the 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 passed the vale where my bower stood, as above,
I came within view of the sea, to the west; and it
being a very clear day, I fairly descried land, whe-
ther 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 observa-
tions, must be near the Spanish dominions, and per-
haps was all inhabited by savages, where if I should
have landed, I had been in a worse condition than I
was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the dispo-
sitions 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 con-
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sidered, 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 Brasil, which were indeed the worst of savages;
for they are cannibals, or men-eaters, and fail not to
murder and devour all the human bodies that fall
into their hands.
With these considerations I walked very leisurely
forward. I found that side of the island where I
now was, much pleasanter than mine, the open or
savanna fields sweet, adorned with flowers and grass,
and full of very fine woods. I saw abundance of
parrots, and fain would I have caught one, if pos-
sible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to
speak to me. I did, after some pains-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 low grounds, hares, as I thought them
to be, and foxes, but they differed greatly from all
the other kinds I had met with; nor could I satisfy
myself to eat them, though I killed several: but I
had no need to be venturous; for I had no want of
food, and of that which was very good too; espe-
cially these three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, turtle or
tortoise; which added to my grapes, Leadenhall
market could not have furnished a better table than
I, in proportion to the company; and though my
case was deplorable enough, yet I had great cause
for thankfulness, that I was not driven to any extre-
mities 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
1
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
121
1
Surprising fertility of the island.
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
1
to see that I had taken up my lot on the worst side
of the island; for here indeed the shore was covered
with innumerable turtles, whereas on the other side I
had found but three in a year and a half. Here was
also an infinite number of fowls of many kinds, some
of which I had 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 plea-
santer than mine, but yet I had not the least incli-
nation to remove; for as I was fixed in my habita-
tion, it became natural to me, and I seemed all the
while I was here, to be, as it were, upon a journey,
and from home: however, I travelled along the shore
of the sea towards the east, I suppose, about twelve
miles; and then setting up a great pole upon the
shore for a mark, I concluded I would go home
again; and the next journey I took should be on the
other side of the island, east from my dwelling, and
so round, till I came to my post again: of which in
its place.
I took another way to come back than that I went,
thinking I could easily keep all the island so much in
5
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122
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
- 27-
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44
my view, that I could not miss finding my first dwell-
ing by viewing the country; but I found myself mis-
taken; for being come about two or three miles, I
found myself descended into a very large valley;
but so surrounded with hills, and those hills covered
with woods, that I could not see which was iny 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 the valley; and not being able to see the sun,
I wandered about very uncomfortably, and at last
was obliged to find out the sea-side, look for my post,
and come back the same way I went and then by
easy journeys I turned homeward, the weather being
exceedingly hot; and my gun, ainmunition, 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 possible
to get a kid or two, and so raise a breed of tame
goats, which might supply me when my powder and
shot should be spent.
I made a collar for this little creature, and with a
string which I made of some rope-yarn, which I al-
ways carried about me, I led him along, though with
some difficulty, till I came to my bower, and there I
énclosed him, and left him; for I was very impatient
to be at home, from whence I had been absent above
a mouth.
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me
to come into my old hatch, and lie down in my ham-
mock-bed; this little wandering journey, without a
settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me,
that my own house, as I called it to myself, was a
perfect settlement to me, compared to that; and it
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
123
f
Conclusion of the second year of his residence.
rendered every thing about me so comfortable, that
I resolved I would never go a great way from it
again, while it should be my lot to stay on the island.
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regalé
myself after my long journey; during which, most
of the time was taken up with 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 my little circle, and re-
solved 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 it was almost
starved for want of food; I went and cut boughs of
trées and branches of such shrubs as I could find,
and threw it over, and having fed it, I tied it as Í
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 créature became so loving, so gentle, and
so fond, that it became from that time one of my
domestics also, and would never leave me after-
wards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now
come, and I kept the 30th of September in the same
solemn manner as before, being the anniversary of
my landing on the island, having now been there two
years, and no more prospect of being delivered than
the first day I came there. I spent the whole day in
humble and thankful acknowledgments of the many
wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was
attended with, and without which it might have been
infinitely more miserable. I gave humble and hearty
thanks, that God had been pleased to discover to me
even that it was possible I might be more happy in
this solitary 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 defici
encies of my solitary state, and the want of human
124 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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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 eternal presence hereafter.
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much
more happy the life I now led was, with all its miser-
able circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abo-
minable life I led all the past part of my days; and
now, having changed both my sorrows and my joys,
and 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 sud-
den, and my very heart would die within me, to think
of the woods, the mountains, the deserts I was in;
and how I was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal
bars and bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited wil-
derness, without redemption. In the midst of the
greatest composures of my mind, this would break-
out upon me like a storm, and make me wring my
hands, and weep like a child. Sometimes it would
take me in the middle of my work, and I would
immediately sit down and sigh, and look upon the
ground for an hour or two together, and this was still
worse to me; for if I could burst out into tears, or
vent myself by words, it would go off; and the grief,
having exhausted itself, would abate.
L
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.
morning being very sad, I opened thate.
One
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 the moment when I was
mourning over my condition, as one forsaken of God
4.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
125
Reflections on the commencement of the third year.
and man? "Well then," said I, "if God does not
forsake me, of what ill conséquence 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 condition, than it was pro-
bable I should have ever been in any other particular
state in the world; and with this thought I was go-
ing to give thanks to God for bringing me to this
place.
I know not what it was, but something shocked
my mind at that thought, and I durst not speak the
words. "How canst thou be such a hypocrite,"
said I, even audibly, “to pretend to be thankful for
a condition, which, however thou mayest endeavour
to be contented with, thou wouldst rather pray hear-
tily 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, to see the former condition of my life,
and to mourn for my wickedness, and repent, I
never opened the Bible, or shut it, but my very soul
within me blessed God for directing my friend in
England, without any order of mine, to pack it up
among my goods; and for assisting me afterwards
to save it out of the wreck of the ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my
third year; and though I have not given the reader
the trouble of so particular an account of my works
this year as at first, yet in general it may be ob-
served, that I was very seldom idle; having regu-
larly divided my time, according to the several daily
employments that were before me; 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,

126
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which generally took me up thréé hours every morn-
ing when it did not rain: thirdly, the ordering, cur-
ing, preserving, and cooking, what I had killed or
catched for my supply; these took up great part of
the day: also it is to be considered, that in the mid-
dle of the day, when the sun was in the zenith, the
violence of the heat was too great to stir out; so that
about four hours in the evening was all the timé I
could be supposed to work in; with this exception,
that sometimes I changed my hours of hunting and
working, and went to work in the morning, and
abroad with my gun in the afternoon.
To this short time allowed for labour, I desire may
be added the exceeding laboriousness of my work;
the many hours, which, for want of tools, want of
help, and want of skill, every thing that I did, took
up out of my time: for example, I was full, twó-ánđ-
forty days making me a board for a long shelf,
which I wanted in my cave; whereas two sawyers,
with their tools and saw-pit, would have cut six of
them out of the same trée 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 à
broad one. The tree I was three days in cutting
down, and two more cutting of the boughs, and re-
ducing it to a log, or piece of timber. With inex-
pressible hacking and hewing I reduced both the
sides of it into chips, till it began to be light enough
to move; then I turned it, and made one side of it
smooth and flat, as a board, from end to end: then
turning that side downward, cut the other side 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 reason why so much of my time went away with
so little work, viz. that what might be a little to
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
127
Singular disasters.
be done with help and tools, was a vast labour, and
required prodigious time to do alone and by hand.
But notwithstanding this, with patience and la-
bour, 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 De-
cember, expecting my crop of barley and rice. The
ground I had manured or dug up for them was not
great; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not
above the quantity of half a peck; for I had lost one
whole crop by sowing in the dry season; but now
my crop promised very well, when on a sudden I
found I was in danger of losing it all again by ene-
mies 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.
4
This I saw no remedy for, but by making an en-
closure about it with a hedge, which I did with a
great deal of toil; and the more, because it required
a great deal of speed; the creatures daily spoiling
my corn. However, as my arable land was but
small, suited to my crop, I got it totally well fenced
in about three weeks time, and shooting some of
the creatures in the day-time, I set my dog to guard
it in the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate,
where he would stand and bark all night long; so
in a little time the enemies forsook the place, and the
corn grew very strong and well, and began to ripen
apace.
But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn
was in the blade, so the birds were as likely to ruin
me now, when it was in the ear; for going along by
the place to see how it throve, I saw my little crop
surrounded with fowls of I know not how many
sorts, which stood as it were watching till I should
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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be gone. I immediately let fly amongst them, (for
I had always my gun with me), and I had no sooner
shot, but there arose up a little cloud of fowls, which
I had not seen at all, from among the corn itself.
This touched me sensibly; for I foresaw that in a
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 noto-
rious 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.
I was sadly put to it for a scythe or a sickle to cut
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
129
Reaps his second harvest.
it down, and all I could do was to make one as well
as I could out of one of the broad-swords, or cut-
lasses, which I saved among the aims out of the
ship. However, as my crop was but small, I had
no great difficulty to cut it down: in short, I reaped
it my way, for I cut nothing off but the ears, and
carried it away in a great basket which I had made,
and so rubbed it out with my hands: and at the end
of all my harvesting I found, that out of my half-
peck of seed I had near two bushels of rice, and
above two bushels and a half of barley, that is to say,
by my guess, for I had no measure at that time.
However, this was a great encouragement to me;
and I foresaw that in time it would please God to
supply me with bread and yet here. I was perplexed
again; for I neither knew how to grind or make
meal of my corn, or indeed how to clean it and
part it; nor 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 of store, and to secure a
constant supply, I resolved not to taste any of this
crop, but to preserve it all for seed against the next
season, and in the mean time to employ all my study
and hours of working to accomplish this great work
of providing myself 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 furnish-
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 surprise.
First, I had no plough to turn the earth, no spade
1
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:
1
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or shovel to dig it. Well, this I conquered by mak
ing 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 per-
formed much worse.
However, this I bore with too, and was content
to work it out with patience, and bear with the bad-
ness 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, ra-
ther than to rake or harrow it.
When it was growing or grown, I have observed
already how many things I wanted, to fence it, se-
cure it, mow or reap it, cure or carry it home, thrash,
part it from the chaff, and save it. Then I wanted
a mill to grind it, sieves to dress it, yeast and salt
to make it into bread, and an oven to bake it in; and
all these things I did without, as shall be observed;
and yet the corn was an inestimable comfort and ad-
vantage to me too; but all this, as I said, made 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 re-
solved to use none of the corn for bread till I had a
greater quantity by me, I had the next six months to
apply myself wholly by labour and invention, to
furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing
all the operations necessary for the making the corn,
when I had it, fit for my use.
But first I was to prepare more land, for I had
now seed enough to sow above an acre of ground,
Before I did this, I had a week's work at least to
make me a spade, which, when it was done, was
a very sorry one indeed, and very heavy, and re-
quired double labour to work with it; however, I
}
ROBINSON CRUSOE:
131
Crusoe attempts to manufacture earthen vessels.
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 set before, which I knew
would grow; so that in one year's time I knew I
should have a quick or living hedge, that would
want but little repair. This work 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 oc-
casion, 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 had ever
heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own.
This therefore was not my work, but an assistant to
my work; for now, as I said, I had a great employ-
ment upon my hands, as follows, viz. I had long stu-
died, 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, consi-
dering the heat of the climate, I did not doubt but,
if I could find out any such clay, I might botch up
some such pots 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.
It would make the reader pity ine, or rather laugh
at me, to tell how many awkward ways I took to
raise this paste, what odd mis-shapen ugly things I
made, how many of them fell in, and how many
fell out, the olay not being stiff enough to bear its
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
}
The Journal.
own weight; how many cracked by the over-violent
heat of the sun, being set out too hastily; and how
many fell to pieces with only removing, as well before
as after they were dried; and, in a word, how, after
having laboured hard to find the clay, to dig it, to
temper it, to bring it home, and work it, I could
not make above two large earthen ugly things, I
cannot call them jars, in about two months' labour.
However, as the sun baked these two very dry
and hard, I lifted them very gently up, and set them
down again in two great wicker-baskets, which I
had made on purpose for them that they might not
break; and as between the pot and the basket there
was a little room to spare, I stuffed it full of the rice
and barley straw; and these two pots being to stand
always dry, I thought would hold my dry corn, and
perhaps the meal when the corn was bruised.
Though I miscarried so much in my design for
large pots, yet I made several smaller things with
better success; such as little round pots, flat dishes,
pitchers, and pipkins, and any thing my hand turn-
ed to; and the heat of the sun baked them strangely
hard.
But all this would not answer my end, which was
to get an earthen pot to hold what was liquid, and
bear the fire, which none of these could do. It hap-
pened 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,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
133
He succeeds in making various articles of pottery.
in a pile one upon another, and placed my fire-wood
all round it with a great heap of embers under them:
I piled the fire with fresh fuel round the outside, and
upon the top, till I saw the pots in the inside red-hot
quite through, and observed that they did not crack
at all: when I saw them clear red, I let them stand
in that heat about five or six hours, till I found one
of them, though it did not crack, did melt or run;
for the sand which was mixed with the clay melted
by the violence of the heat, and would have run in-
to glass, if I had gone on; so I slacked my fire gra-
dually, till the pots began to abate of their red
colour; and watching them all night that I might
not let the fire abate too fast, in the morning I had
three very good (I will not say handsome), pipkins,
and two other earthen pots, as hard burnt as could
be desired; and one of them perfectly glazed with
the running of the sand.
After this experiment I need not say that I wanted
any sort of earthenware for my use; but I must
'needs say, as to the shapes of them, they were very
indifferent, as any one may suppose, when I had no
way of making them, but as the children make dirt-
pies, or as a woman would make pies that never
learnt to raise paste.
No joy at any thing of so mean a nature was ever
equal to mine, when I found I had made an earthen
pot that would bear the fire; and I had hardly pa-
tience to stay till they were cold, before I set one
upon the fire again with some water in it, to boil me
some broth, which I did admirably well; and with a
piece of a kid I made some very good broth, though
wanted oatmeal, and several other ingredients re-
quisite 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 a mill, there
was no thought of arriving at that perfection of art
with one pair of hands. To supply this want, I was
at a great loss; for of all trades in the world I was
: ་
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ל
The Journal.
as perfectly unqualified for a stone-cutter, as for any
whatever; neither had I any tools to go about it with.
I spent many a day to find out a great stone big
enough to cut hollow, and make fit for a mortar, and
could find none at all except what was in the solid
rock, and which I had no way to dig or cut out; nor
indeed were the rocks in the island of hardness suffi-
cient, but were all of a sandy crumbling stone, which
would neither bear the weight of any heavy pestle,
nor would break the corn without filling it with sand;
so, after a great deal of time lost in searching for a
stone, I gave it over, and resolved to look out a
great block of hard wood, which I found indeed
much easier; and getting one as big as I had strength
to stir, I rounded it, and formed it on the outside
with my axe and hatchet; and then, with the help of
fire and infinite labour, made an hollow place in it,
as the Indians in Brasil 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 to myself to grind, or rather pound, my
corn or meal to make my bread.
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 difficult thing, so
much as but to think on; for to be sure I had nothing
like the necessary things to make it with: I mean
fine thin canvas, 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; 1 had goat's hair, but nei-
ther 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
135
Method of haking his bread.
I made three small sieves, but proper enough for the
work; and thus I made shift for some years; how 1
did afterwards, I shall show in its place..
The baking part was the next thing to be consi-
dered, and how I should make bread when I came to
have corn; for, first, I had no yeast; as to that part,
there was no supplying the want, so I did not con-
cern myself much about it. But for an oven, I was
indeed in great pain. At length I found out an ex-
periment for that also, which was this; I made some
earthen vessels very broad, but not deep; that is to
say, about two feet diameter, and not above nine
inches deep: these I burnt in the fire, as I had done
the other, and laid them by; and when I wanted to
bake, I made a great fire upon the hearth, which I
had paved with some square. tiles of my own mak-
ing 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 be-
came in a little time a mere pastry-cook into the bar-
gain; 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 ma-
nage: 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
;
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I had no floor to thrash it on, nor instrument to thrash
it with.
And now indeed my stock of corn increasing, I
really wanted to build my barns bigger: I wanted
a place to lay it up in; for the increase of the corn
now yielded me so much, that I had of the barley
about twenty bushels, and of the rice as much, or
more; insomuch that I now resolved to begin to use
it freely, for my bread had been quite gone a great
while; also I resolved to see what quantity would be
sufficient for me a whole year, and to sow but once
a year.
Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of
barley and rice were much more than I could con-
sume in a year: so I resolved to sow just the same
quantity every year that I sowed the last, in hopes
that such a quantity would fully provide me with
bread, &c.
All the while these things were doing, you may be
sure my thoughts ran many times upon the prospect
of land which I had seen from the other side of the
island; and I was not without secret wishes, that I
was on shore there, fancying that seeing the main
land, and an inhabited country, I might find some
way or other to convey myself farther, and perhaps
at last find some means of escape.
But all this while I made no allowance for the
dangers of such a 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 killed, and perhaps of being eaten;
for I had heard that the people of the Caribbean coasts
were cannibals, or men-eaters; and I knew by the
latitude that I could not be far 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
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
137
Endeavours to launch the ship's boat.
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 Afri-
ca; 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 beach
of 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 Brasils 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 re-
move 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; suggesting to my-
self, 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 spent, I think, three or four weeks about
it; at last finding it impossible to heave it up with
my little strength, I fell to digging away the sand
to undermine it; and so to make it fall down, set-
ting pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in
r the fall.
But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it
5
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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 in-
creased, rather than decreased, as the means for it
seemed impossible.
This at length set me upon thinking whether it was
not possible to make myself a canoe or periagua,
such as the natives of those climates make, even
without tools, or as I might say, without hands, viz.
of the trunk of a great tree. This I not only thought
possible, but easy; and pleased myself extremely
with my thoughts of making it, and with my having
much more convenience for it than any of the Ne-
groes or Indians; but not at all considering the par-
ticular 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 reflection upon my mind of my circumstances,
while I was making this boat, but I should have im-
mediately 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
139
Forms an immense boat out of a cedar tree.
that ever man did, who had any of his senses awake.
I pleased myself with the design, without determin-
ing whether I was ever 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 a one for the building the
temple at Jerusalem; it was five feet ten inches di-
ameter at the lower part next the stump, and four
feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two
feet, after which it lessened for a while, and then
parted into branches. It was not without infinite
labour that I felled this tree: I was twenty days
hacking and hewing at it at the bottom; I was four-
- teen 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 ît to a proportion, and to some-
thing like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim
upright as it ought to do. It cost me near three
months more to clear the inside, and work it out so
as to make an exact boat of it: this I did indeed
without fire, by mere mallet and chisel, and by the
dint of hard labour; till I had brought it to be a very
handsome periagua, and big enough to have carried
six-and-twenty men, and consequently big enough to
have carried me and all my cargo.
When I had gone through this work, I was ex-
tremely 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 re-
mained nothing more than to get it into the waters
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and had I gotten it into the water, I make no ques-
tion 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 will 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 re-
solved to cut a dock, or canal, to bring the water
up to the canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe
down to the water well, I began this work, and
when I began to enter into it, and calculated how
deep it was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff to
be thrown out, I found, that by the number of hands
I had, being none but my own, it must have been
ten or twelve years before I should have gone through
with it; for the shore lay high, so that at the upper
end it must have been at least twenty feet deep; so
at length, though with great reluctancy, I gave this
attempt over also,
This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though
too late, the folly of beginning a work before we
count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our
own strength to go through with it.
In the middle of this work I finished my fourth
year in this place, and kept.my, anniversary with the
same devotion, and with as much comfort, as ever
before; for by a constant study, and serious appli-
cation of the word of God, and by the assistance of
his grace, I gained a different knowledge from what
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
141
The improved condition of Crusoe,
I had before; I entertained different notions of
things; I looked now upon the world as a thing re-
mote; which I had nothing to do with, no expecta-
tion 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 ca-
pable of enjoying; I was lord of the whole manor,
or, if I pleased, I might call myself king or empe-
ror over the whole country which I had possession
of; there were no rivals: I had no competitor, none
to dispute the 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 cured into raisins, to have
loaded that fleet when they had been built.
:
But all I could make use of, was all that was va-
luable: 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 occa-
sion 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
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*
as they are for our use and that whatever we may
heap up indeed to give others, we enjoy as much as
we can use, and no more. The most covetous grip-
ing 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 nasty, sorry, useless stuff lay; I had no man-
ner 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 a handmill to grind
my corn; nay, I would have given it all for six-
penny-worth of turnip or carrot-seed out of England,
or for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of
ink as it was, I had not the least advantage by it,
or benefit from it; but there it lay in a drawer, and
grew mouldy with the damp of the cave, in the wet
season; and if I had had the drawer full of dia-
monds, it had been the same case; and they had
been of no manner of value to me, because of no use.
I had now brought my state of life to be much
easier in itself than it was at first, and much easier to
my mind, as well as to my body. I frequently sat
down to 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 up-
on 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 discon
tented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy com-
fortably what God hath given them, because they
see and covet something that he has not given them;
all our discontents about what we want, appeared to
•
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
143
Reflections.
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 won-
derfully ordered the ship to be cast up near to the
shore, where I could not only 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, and gunpowder and shot
for getting my food.
I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in re-
presenting to myself in the most lively 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 turtle; and that, as it was long be-
fore I found any of them, 1 must have perished first:
that I should have lived, if I had not perished, like a
mere savage: that if I had killed a goat or a fowl
by any contrivance, I had no way to flay or open
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 mis-
fortunes: and this part also I cannot but recommend
to the reflection of those who are apt in their misery
to say, Is any affliction like mine? Let them con-
sider 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, com-
paring my present condition with what I had deserv-
ed, and had therefore reason to expect from the hand
་
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of Providence. I had lived a dreadful life, perfectly
destitute of the knowledge and fear of God: I had
been well instructed by father and mother, neither
had they been wanting to me in their early endea-
vours 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 seafaring life, which of all lives is the most
destitute of the fear of God, though his terrors are
always before them; I say, falling early into the sea-
faring life, and into seafaring company, all that little
sense of religion which I had entertained, was laugh-
ed 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 any thing
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 enjoyed, such as my escape
from Sallee, my being taken up by the Portuguese
master of the ship, my being planted so well in Brasil,
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 several
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
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
145
His life a series of continued mercies.
accepted, and that God had yet mercies in store for
me.
With these reflections I worked my mind up, not
only to resignation to the will of God in the present
disposition of my circumstances, but even to a sin-
cere thankfulness for my condition; and that I, who
was yet a living man, ought not to complain, seeing
I had not the due punishment of my sins; that I en-
joyed 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
world, where I could have been cast more to my ad-
vantage: a place where, as I had no society,, which
was my affliction on one hand, so I found no raven-
bus 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 'mur-
der and devburmer
In a word, as my life was a life of sorrow one way,
so it was a life of mercy another; and I wanted no-
thing 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, wa
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
6
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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 concur-
rence of days, in the various providences which be-
fel me, and which, if I had been superstitiously in-
clined 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 September, 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 de-
gree, 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 great while, except some chequered
shirts which I found in the chests of the other sea-
men, and which I carefully preserved, because many
times I could bear no other clothes on but a shirt;
and it was a very great help to me, that I had among
all the men's clothes of the ship, almost three dozen
of shirts. There were also several thick watch-coats
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
147
;
Description of his wardrobe.
of the seamen which were left behind, but they were
too hot to wear; and though it is true that the wea-
ther was so violent hot, that there was no need of
clothes, yet I could not go quite naked, 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; whereas with a
shirt on, the air itself made some motion, and whist-
ling under the shirt, was twofold colder than without
it: no more could I ever bring myself to go out in
the heat of the sun without a cap or a hat; the heat
of the sun beating with such violence as it does in
that place, would give me the headache presently,
by darting so directly on my head, without a cap or
hat on, so that I could not bear it; whereas, if I put
on my hat, it would presently go away.
Upon these views I began to consider about put-
ting 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-tailoring, or rather indeed a-botching; for
I made most piteous work of it. However, I made
shift to make two or three waistcoats, which I hoped
would serve me a great while; as for breeches or
drawers, I made but very sorry shift indeed, till af
terwards.
I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the
creatures that I killed, I mean four-footed ones; and
I had hung them up stretched out with sticks in the
sun; by which means some of them were so dry and
hard, that they were fit for little; but others, it seems,
were very useful. The first thing I made of these
was a great cap for my head, with the hair on the
outside to shoot off the rain; and this I performed so
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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 acknowledge, that they
were wretchedly made; for if I was a bad carpenter,
I was a worse tailor: however, they were such as I
made a very good shift with, and when I was abroad,
if it happened to rain, the hair of the waistcoat and
cap being outmost, I was kept very dry.
t
譬
​1
After this I spent a deal of time and pains to make
me an umbrella: I was indeed in a great want of
one, and had a great mind to make one: I had seen
them made in the Brasils, where they are very useful
in the great heats which are there; and I felt the heat
every jot as great here, and greater too, being nearer
the equinox; besides, as I was obliged to be much
abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as well
for the rains as the heats.. I took a world of pains
with it, and 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 an-
swered 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 portable for me any way, but just
over my head, which would not do. However, at
last, as I said, I made one to answer; I covered it
with skins, the hair upwards, so that it cast off the
rain like a penthouse, and kept off the sun so effec-
tually, that I could walk out in the hottest of the
weather, with greater advantage than I could before
in the coolest, and when I had no need of it, I could
close it, and carry it under my arm.
•
Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being
entirely composed by resigning to the will of God,
and throwing myself wholly upon the disposal of his
providence: this made my life better than sociable ;
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
149
The boat completed.
for when I began to regret the want of conversation,
I would ask myself, whether thus conversing mutu-
ally with my own thoughts, and, as I hope I may
say, with even my Maker, by ejaculations and peti-
tions, was not better than the utmost enjoyment of
human society in the world?
I cannot say, that after this, for five years, any
extraordinary thing happened to me; but I lived on
in the same course, in the same posture and place,
just as before. The chief thing I was employed in,
besides my yearly labour of planting my barley and
rice, and curing my raisins, of both which I always
kept up just enough to have sufficient stock of the
year's provisions beforehand; I say, besides this
yearly labour, and my daily labour of going out with
my gun, I had one labour to make me a canoe, which
at last I finished: so that by digging a canal to it,
six feet wide, and four feet deep, I brought it into
the creek, almost half a mile. 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 memorandum 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 dis-
tance than, as I have said, of near half a mile; yet,
as I saw it was practicable at last, I never gave it
over; and though I was near two years about it, yet
I never grudged my labour; in hopes of having a
boat to go off to the sea at last.
However, though my little periagua was finished,
yet the size of it was not at all answerable to the
design which I had in view, when I made the first; I
mean the 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 L
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had a boat, my next design was to make a tour round
the island: for as I had been on the other side, in one
place, crossing, as I have already described it, over
the land, so the discoveries I made in that journey
made me very eager to see 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 sail, 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 ammunition, &c. into, to
be kept dry, either from rain, or the spray of the sea;
and a little long hollow place I cut in the inside of
the boat, where I could lay my gun, making a flap to
hang down over it to keep it dry.
A
I fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern, like
a mast, to stand over my head, and keep the heat of
the sun off me, like an awning; and thus I every now
and then took a little voyage upon the sea, but never
went far out, nor far from the little creek; but at
last, being eager to view the circumference of my
little kingdom, I resolved upon my tour, and accord-
ingly 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
}
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
151
Sets out on a coasting voyage.
than I expected; for though the island itself was not
very large, yet when I came to the east side of it, I
found a great hedge 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 enterprise, and come back again, not know-
ing how far it might oblige me to go out to sea, and
above all, doubting how I should get back again; so
I came to an anchor, for I had made me a kind of an
anchor with a piece of broken grappling which I got
out of the ship.
Having secured my boat, I took my gun and went
on shore, climbing up a hill, which seemed to over-
look that point, where I saw the full extent of it, and
resolved to venture.
In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood,
I perceived a strong, and indeed a most furious cur-
rent, 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 cur-
rent on the other side of the island, only that it set it
off at a farther distance; and I saw there was a
strong eddy under the shore; so I had nothing to do
but to get out of the first current, and I should pre-
sently be in an eddy.
I lay here, however, two days; because the wind
blowing pretty fresh (at E.S.E. and that being just
contrary to the said current) made a great breach of
the sea 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
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abated over-night, the sea was calm, and I ventured;
but I am a warning-piece again to all rash and igno-
rant pilots; for no sooner was I come to the point,
when I was not 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 violence, that all I could do
could not keep her so much as on the edge of it: but
I found that 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 signified nothing; and now I be-
gan to give myself over for lost; for, as the current
was on both sides the island, I knew in a few leagues
distant they must join again, and then I was irreco-
verably gone; nor did I see any possibility of avoid-
ing it so that I had no prospect before me but of
perishing; not by the sea, for that was calm enough;
but of starving for hunger. I had indeed found a
tortoise on the shore, as big almost as I could lift,
and had tossed it into the boat; and I had a great jar
of fresh water, that is to say, one of my earthen pots;
but what was all this to being driven into the vast
ocean, where, to be sure, there was no shore, no main
land or island, for a thousand leagues at least!
And now I saw how easy it was for the providence
of God to make the most miserable condition that
mankind could be in, worse. Now I looked back
upon my desolate solitary island, as the most plea-
sant place in the world, and all the happiness my
heart could wish for, was to be there again: I stretch-
ed out my hands to it with eager wishes; "O happy
desert!" said I, "I shall never see thee more! O
miserable creature!" said I, "whither am I going!".
Then I reproached myself with my unthankful tem-
per, and how I had repined at my solitary condition;
and now what would I give to be on shore there
again? Thus we never see the true state of our
condition, till' it is illustrated to us by its contraries;
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
153

He is carried out to sea by the current.
nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the
want of it. It is scarce possible to imagine the con-
sternation I was now in, being driven from my be-
loved island (for so it appeared to me now to be) into
the wide ocean, almost two leagues, and in the ut-
most despair of ever recovering it again: however,
I worked hard, till indeed my strength was almost
exhausted; and kept my boat as much to the north-
ward, that is, towards the side of the current which
the eddy lay on, as possibly I could; when about
noon, as the sun passed the meridian, I thought I
felt a little breeze of wind in my face, springing up
from the S.S.E. This cheered my heart a little,
and especially when, in about half an hour more, it
blew a pretty small gentle gale. 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 ap-
plied myself to get up my mast again, and spread my
sail, standing away to the north as much as possible,
to get out of the current.
Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat
began to stretch away, I saw even by the clearness
of the water, some alteration of the current was near;
for where the current was so strong, the water was
foul; but perceiving the water clear, I found the cur-
rent 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 re-
turned by the repulse of the rock, and made a strong
eddy, which ran back again to the north-west with a
very sharp stream.
They who know what it is to have a reprieve
brought to them upon the ladder, or to be rescued
6
X
154 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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from thieves just going to murder them, or who have
been in such-like extremities, may guess what my
present surprise of joy was, and how gladly I put
my boat into the stream of this eddy; and the wind
also freshening, how gladly I spread my sail to it,
running cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong
tide or eddy under-foot.
This eddy carried me about a league in my way
back again directly towards the island, but about
two leagues more 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 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 occasioned this distance stretch-
ing 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.
5.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
155
Miraculous escape.
When I was on shore, I fell on my knees, and gave.
God thanks for my deliverance, resolving to lay
aside all thoughts of my deliverance by my boat;
and refreshing myself with such things as I had, I
brought my boat close to the shore, in a little cove
that I had espied under some trees, and laid me
down to sleep, being quite spent with the labour and
fatigue of the voyage.
I was now at a great loss which way to get home
with my boat; I had run so much hazard, and knew
too much the case to think of attempting it by the
way I went out; and what might be on the other
side (I mean the west side) I knew not, nor had I
any mind to run any more ventures; so I only re-
solved in the morning to make westward along the
shore, and to see if there was no creek where I might
lay up my frigate in safety, so as to have her again if
I wanted her. In about three miles, or thereabouts,
coasting the shore, I came to a very good inlet, or
bay, about a mile over, which narrowed till it came
to a very little rivulet, or brook, where I found a
convenient harbour for my boat, and where she lay
as if she had been in a little dock made on purpose
for her: here I put in, and having stowed my boat
very safe, I went on shore to look about me, and see
where I was.
I soon found I had but a little passed by the place
where I had been before when I travelled on foot to
that shore; so taking nothing out of my boat but my
gun and my umbrella, for it was exceeding hot, I
began my march: the way was comfortable enough
after such a voyage as I had been upon, and I reach-
ed 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 you if you can that read my
156 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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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, Ro-
bin Crusoe? Where are you? Where have you
been?"
I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with
rowing, or paddling, as it is called, the first part of
the day, and 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 Cru-
soe, Robin Crusoe; at last I began to awake more
perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frighted, and
started up in the utmost consternation: but no sooner
were my eyes open, but I saw my 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?" 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 gave it over; and holding
out my hand, and calling 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 where had I been? just as if he had been over-
joyed to see me again; and so I carried him home
along with me.
I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
157
Improves in his earthenware manufacture.
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 con-
tented myself to be without any boat, though it had
been the product of so many months' labour to make
it, and of so many more to get it into the sea,
In this government of my temper I remained near
a year, 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 necessaries put me upon applying
myself to; and I believe could, upon occasion, have
made a very good carpenter, especially considering
how few tools I had.
Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection
in my earthenware, and contrived well enough to
make them with a wheel, which I found infinitely
easier and better, because I made things round and
shapeable, which before were filthy things indeed to
look on. But I think I never was more vain of my
own performance, or more joyful for any thing I
found out, than for my being able to make a tobacco-
pipe; and though it was a very ugly clumsy thing
158 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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when it was done, and only burnt red like other
earthenware, yet as it was hard and firm, and would
draw the smoke, I was exceedingly comforted with
it, for I had been always used to smoke, and there
were pipes in the ship, but I forgot them at first, not
knowing there was tobacco in the island; and after-
wards, when I searched the ship again, I could not
come at any pipes at all.
In my wicker-ware 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 pieces, and bring it home in a bas-
ket: 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 bas-
kets 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 consi-
derably; and this was a want which it was impossi-
ble for me to supply, and I began seriously to consi-
der 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 a he-kid, but I could not by
any means bring it to pass, till my kid grew an old
goat; and I could never find in my heart to kill her,
till she died at last of mere age.
But being now in the eleventh year of my resi-
dence, and, as I have said, my ammunition growing
low, I set myself to study some art to trap and share
the goats, to see whether I could not catch some of
them alive; and particularly I wanted a she-goat
great with young,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
159
He contrives to form a flock of tame goats.
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 seve-
ral 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 marks of
their feet: at length, I set three traps in one night,
and going the next morning, I found them all stand-
ing, and yet the bait eaten and gone. This was very
discouraging; however, I altered my trap, and, not
to trouble you with particulars, going one morning
to see my traps, I found in one of them a large old
he-goat; and, in one of the 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 wanted; I could have killed him,
but that was not my business, nor would it answer
my end; so I e'en let him out, and he run 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 been as tame as one of the kids; for they are
mighty sagacious tractable creatures, where they are
well used.
However, for the present I let him go, knowing
no better at that time; then I went to the three kids,
and, taking them one by one, I tied them with strings
together; and, with some difficulty, brought them all
home.
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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 the 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 tame from the wild, or else they would al-
ways 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
cover to keep them from the sun.
Those who understand such enclosures, will think
I had very little contrivance, when I pitched upon a
place very proper for all these, being a plain open
piece of meadow-land, or savannah (as our people
call it in the western colonies), which had two or
three little drills of fresh water in it, and at one end
was very woody: I say they will smile at my fore-
cast, when I shall tell them I began my enclosing of
this piece of ground in such a manner, that the 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;
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
161
Procures goat's milk, and makes butter and cheese.
so I presently stopped short, and for the first begin-
ning I resolved to enclose a piece of about one hun-
dred and fifty yards in length, and one hundred yards
in breadth, which, as it would maintain as many as
I should have in any reasonable time, so, as my
flock increased, I could add more ground to my en-
closure.
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 it, and used
them to feed as near me as possible, to make them fa-
miliar; and very often I would go and carry them
some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and feed
them out of my hand; so that after my enclosure was
finished, and I let them loose, they would follow me
up
and down, bleating after me for a handful of corn.
This answered my end, and in about a year and a
half I had a flock of about twelve goats, kids and
all; and in two years more I had three-and-forty, be-
sides 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 another.
But this was not all, for now I not only had goat's
flesh to feed on when I pleased, but milk too, a thing
which indeed in the beginning. I did not so much as
think of, and which, when it came into my thoughts,
was really an agreeable surprise: for now I set up
my dairy, and had sometimes a gallon of milk or
two in a day. And as nature, who gives supplies of
food to every creature, dictates even naturally how
to make use of it; so I, that never milked a cow,
much less a goat, or saw butter or cheese made, very
readily and handily, though after a great many essays
and miscarriages, made me both butter and cheese at
last, and never wanted it afterwards.
How mercifully can our great Creator treat his
G
Y
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creatures, even in those conditions in which they
seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction! How
can he sweeten the bitterest providences, and give
us cause to praise him for dungeons and prisons !—
What a table was here spread for me in a wilder-
ness, where I saw nothing at first but to perish for
hunger!
It would have made a stoic smile, to have seen
me and my little family sit down to dinner: there
was my majesty, the prince and lord of the whole
island; I had the lives of all my subjects at absolute
command; I could hang, draw, give life and liberty,
and take it away, and no rebels among all my sub-
jects.
Then to see how like a king I dined too, all alone,
attended by my servants! 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 up-
on, sat always at my right hand; and two cats, one
on one side the table, and one on the other, expect-
ing 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 often come into my house, and
plunder me too, till at last I was obliged to shoot
them, and did kill a great many: at length they left
With this attendance, and in this plentiful man-
ner, 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.
me.
I was something impatient, as I had observed, to
have the use of my boat, though very loath to run
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
163
Description of his dress and appearance.
any more hazard; and therefore sometimes I sat con-
triving ways to get her about the island, and at other
times I sat myself down contented enough without
her. But I had a strange uneasiness in my mind to
go down to the point of the island, where, as I have
said in my last ramble, I went up the hill to see how
the shore lay, and how the current set, that I might
see what I had to do. This inclination increased
upon me every day, and at length I resolved to travel
thither by land, 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 com-
ing down to about the middle of my thighs; and a
pair of open-kneed 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 a pantaloon's, 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 barbarous shape, as indeed were all the rest of
my clothes.
•
I had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which
I drew together with two thongs of the same, instead
of buckles; and in a kind of a frog on either side
164 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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As for
of this, instead of a sword and dagger, 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 neces-
sary thing I had about me, next to my gun.
my face, the colour of it was really not so Mulatto-
like as one might expect from a man not at all care-
ful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees of the
equinox. My beard I had once suffered to grow
till it was about a quarter of a yard long; but as I
had both 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 mustaches,
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 by: for as to my figure, I
had so few to observe me, that it was of no manner
of consequence; so I say no more to that part. In
this kind of figure I went my new journey, and was
out five or six days. I travelled first along the sea-
shore, directly to the place where I first brought my
boat to an anchor, to get 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
165
Observations on the setting of the currents.
motion, no current, any more there than in other
places.
I was at a strange loss to understand this, and re-
solved to spend some time in the observing of it, to
see if nothing from the sets of the tide had occa-
sioned it; but I was presently convinced how it was,
viz. that the tide of ebb setting from the west, and
joining with the current of waters from some great
river on the shore, must be the occasion of this cur-
rent, and that according as the wind blew more forci-
bly 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 ebb being made, I plainly
saw the current again as before, only that it ran far-
ther 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 ano-
ther time it would not have done.
This observation convinced me, that I had nothing
to do but to observe the ebbing and the flowing of
the tide, and I might very easily bring my boat about
the island again: but when I began to think of put-
ting 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 contrary, I took up another resolution, which
was more safe, though more laborious; and this was,
that I would build, or rather make me another peri-
agua, 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
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joined to the rock, was all filled up with large earth-
en pots, of which I have given an account, and with
fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would hold
five or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores of
provisions, especially my corn, some in the ear cut
off short from the straw, and the other rubbed out
with my 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 appearance, to any one's view,
of any habitation behind them.
Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther
within the land, and upon lower ground, lay my two
pieces of corn-ground; which I kept duly cultivated
and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest
in its season: and whenever I had occasion for more
corn, I had more land adjoining as fit as that.
Besides this I had my country-seat, and I had now
a tolerable plantation there also; for at first, I had
my little bower, as I called it, which I kept in re-
pair, that is to say, I kept the hedge which circled
it in constantly fitted up to its usual height, the lad-
der standing always in the inside; I kept the trees,
which at first were no more than my stakes, but were
now grown very firm and tall; 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 renewing; and under this
I had made me a squab or couch, with the skins of
the creatures I had killed, and with other soft things,
and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our
sea-bedding, which I had saved, and a great watch-
coat to cover me; and here, whenever I had occa-
sion to be absent from my chief seat, I took up my
country habitation.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
167
Crusoe's country-seat described.
Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cat-
tle, 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 ano-
ther, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and there
was scarce room to put a hand through between
them, which afterwards, when those stakes grew, as
they all did in the next rainy season, made the en-
closure strong, like a wall, indeed stronger than any
wall.
This will testify for me that I was not idle, and
that I spared no pains to bring to pass whatever ap-
peared necessary for my comfortable support; for I
considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures
thus at my hand, would be a living magazine of flesh,
milk, butter, and cheese, for me as long as I lived in
the place, if it were to be forty years; and that
keeping them in my reach, depended entirely upon
my perfecting my enclosures to such a degree, that I
might be sure of keeping them together; which by
this method indeed I so effectually secured, that
when these little stakes began to grow, I had plant-
ed 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 rai-
sins, and which I never failed to preserve very care-
fully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of my
whole diet; and indeed they were not 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 I used frequently to visit my boat, and I kept all
168 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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things about or belonging to her in very good order:
sometimes I went out in her to divert myself, but no
more hazardous voyages would I go, nor scarce ever
above a stone's cast or two from the shore, I was so
apprehensive of being hurried out of my knowledge
again by the currents, or winds, or any other acci-
dent. But now I come to a new scene of my life.
It happened one day about noon, going towards
my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print
of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very
plain to be seen in the sand: I stood like one thun-
derstruck, or as if I had seen an apparition; I list-
ened, I looked round me, I could hear nothing, nor
see any thing; I went up to a rising ground to look
farther: I went up the shore, and down the shore,
but it was all one, I could see no other impression
but that one; I went to it again to see if there were
any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy;
but there was no room for that, for there was exactly
the very print of a foot, toes, heel, and every part of
a foot; how it came thither I knew not, nor could in
the least imagine. But after innumerable flattering
thoughts, like a man perfectly confused, and out of
myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling,
as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the
last degree, looking behind me at every two or three
steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying
every stump at a distance to be a man; nor is it
possible to describe how many various shapes an
affrighted imagination represented things to me in;
how many wild ideas were formed every moment in
my fancy, and what strange unaccountable whimsies
came into my thoughts by the way.
When I came to my castle, for so I think I called
it ever after this, I fled into it like one pursued; whe-
ther 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
4

I stood like one thunderstruck!
Eng! for J. Cleaves Edition.
PIGE.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
169
He is alarmed at the impression of a human foot in the sand.
cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of mind than
I to this retreat.
I had no sleep that night: the farther I was from
the occasion of my fright, the greater my apprehen-
sions were; which is something contrary to the na-
ture of such things, and especially to the usual prac-
tice of all creatures in fear. But I was so embar-
rassed with my own frightful ideas of the thing, that
I formed nothing but dreadful imaginations to myself,
even though I was now a great way off it. Some-
times I fancied it must be the devil; and reason join-
ed 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 occasion for it, but to leave the print of his foot
behind him, and that even for no purpose too (for he
could not be sure I should see it); this was an amaze-
ment the other way: I considered that the devil
might have found out abundance of other ways to
have terrified me, than this of the single print of a
foot; that as I lived quite on the other side of the
island, he would never have been so simple to leave
a mark in a place where it was ten thousand to one
whether I should ever see it or not, and in the sand
too, which the first surge of the sea upon a high wind
would have defaced entirely. All this seemed incon-
sistent 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 ar-
gue me out of all apprehensions of its being the devil.
And I presently concluded that it must be some more
dangerous creature, viz. that it must be some of the
savages of the main land over-against me, who had
wandered out to sea in their canoes, and, either driven
by the currents, or by contrary winds, had made the
6
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island, and had been on shore, but 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.
Then
While these reflections were rolling upon my mind,
I was very thankful in my thought, that I was so
happy as to be thereabouts at that time, or that they
did not see my boat, by which they would have con-
cluded, that some inhabitants had been in the place,
and perhaps have searched farther for me.
terrible thoughts racked my imaginations about their
having found my boat, and that there were people
here; and that if so, I should certainly have them
come again in 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 former confidence in God, which was founded
upon such wonderful experience as I had had of his
goodness, now vanished; as if he that had fed me
by miracle hitherto, could not preserve by his power
the provision which he had made for me by his good-
ness. I reproached myself with my uneasiness, that
I would not sow any more corn that year, than would
just serve me till the next season, as if no accident
could intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that
was upon the ground. And this I thought so just a
reproof, that I resolved for the future to have two or
three years' corn beforehand, so that, whatever might
come, I might not perish for want of bread.
How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the.
life of man! And by what secret differing springs
are the affections hurried about, as differing circum-
stances 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 exempli-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
171
Reflections on the state of human existence.
fied in me at this time in the most lively manner ima-
ginable; 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 tọ
appear among the rest of his creatures; that to have
seen one of my own species, would have seemed to
me a raising me from death to life, and the greatest
blessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme
blessing of salvation, could bestow; I say, that I
should now tremble at the very apprehensions of
seeing a man, and was ready to sink into the ground
at but the shadow, or silent appearance of a man'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 after-
wards, when I had a little recovered my first sur-
prise: I considered that this was the station of life the
infinitely wise and good providence of God had de-
termined 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 a
creature who had offended him, had likewise a judi-
cial right to condemn me to what punishment he
thought fit; and that it was my part to submit to bear
his indignation, because I had sinned against him.
I then reflected, that God, who was not only righ,
teous, 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 un-
questioned duty to resign myself absolutely and en-
tirely to his will; and, on the other hand, it was my
duty also to hope in him, pray to him, and quietly
to attend the dictates and directions of his daily pro
vidence.
These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay,
I may say weeks and months; and one particular
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*
effect of my cogitations on this occasion I cannot omit,
viz. one morning early, lying in my bed, and filled
with the thoughts about my danger from the appear-
ance 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,"
1
Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my
heart was not only comforted, but I was guided and
encouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance.
When I had done praying, I took up my Bible, and
opening it to read, the first words that presented to
me were, "Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer,
and he shall strengthen thy heart: Wait, I say, on
the Lord." It is impossible to express the comfort
this gave me; 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 reflections, it came into my thoughts one day,
that all this might be a mere chimera of my own, and
that this foot might be the print of my own foot,
when I came on shore from my boat. This cheered
me up a little too, and I began to persuade myself it
was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but my
own foot; and why might not I come that way from
the boat, as well as I was going that way to the boat?
Again, I considered also, that I could by no means
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 frighted 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
lays and nights, so that I began to starve for provi-
vions: for I had little or nothing within doors, but
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
173
:
Crusoe is again alarmed.
some barley cakes and water. Then I knew that
my goats wanted to be milked too, which usually
was my evening diversion; and the poor creatures
were in great pain and inconvenience for want of it;
and indeed it almost spoiled some of them, and al-
most dried up their milk.
Heartening myself therefore with the belief, that
this was nothing but the print of one of my own feet,
(and so I might be truly said to start at my own sha-
dow), 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 to have thought I was haunted with an evil
conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly
frighted; and so indeed I had.
However, as I went down thus two or three days,
and having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder,
and to think there was really nothing in it but my
own imagination; but I could not persuade myself
fully of this, till I should go down to the shore again,
and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my
own, and see if there was any similitude or fitness,
that I might be assured it was my own foot. But
when I came to the place first, it appeared evidently
to me, that when I laid up my boat, I could not pos-
sibly 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 sur
prised before I was aware; and what course to take
for my security, I knew not.
O what ridiculous resolutions men take, when
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pos,
174 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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sessed with fear! it deprives them of the use of those
means which reason offers for their relief. The first
thing I proposed to myself was, to throw down my
enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the
woods, that the enemy might not find them, and then
frequent the island in prospect of the saine, or the
like booty; then to the simple thing of digging up
my two coru fields, that they might not find such a
grain there, and still to be prompted to frequent 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.
A
These were the subjects of the first night's cogi-
tation, after I was come home again, while the appre-
hensions 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 ter-
rifying 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 cry-
ing to God in my distress, and resting upon his pro-
vidence, as I had done before, for my defence and
deliverance; which if I had done, I had at least been
more cheerfully supported under this new surprise,
and perhaps carried through it with more resolution.
This confusion of my thoughts kept me waking all
night; but in the morning I fell asleep, and having,
by the amusement of my mind been, as it were, tired,
and my spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, and
awaked much better composed than I had ever been
before. And now I began to think sedately; and
upon the utmost debate with myself, I concluded,
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE. ·
175
P
Adopts measures of further security.
that this island, which was so exceedingly 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 was no stated inhabi-
tants 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 of figure of any peo-
ple before; and that if at any time they should be
driven here, it is 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 there
fore 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 the rock. Upon maturely con-
sidering this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a se-
cond fortification, in the manner of a semicircle, at
a distance from my wall, just where I had planted
a double row of trees about twelve years before, of
which I made mention: these trees having been
planted so thick before, 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.
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So that I had now a double wall, and my outer
wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables,
and every thing I could think of to make it strong;
having in it seven little holes, about as big as I might
put my arm out at. In the inside of this I 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 muskets, of
which I took notice that I got seven on shore out of
the ship; these, I say, I planted like my cannon,
and fitted them into frames that held them like a car-
riage, that so I could fire all the seven guns in two
minutes' time.. This wall I was many a weary month
in finishing, and yet never thought myself safe till it
was done.
When this was done, I stuck all the ground with
out 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 thousand of
them, leaving a pretty large space between them
and my wall, that I might have room to see an
enemy, and they might have no shelter from the
young trees, if they attempted to approach my
outer wall.
Thus in two years time I had a thick grove; and
in five or six years time I had a wood before my
dwelling, grown so monstrous thick and strong, that
it was indeed perfectly impassable; and no man of
what kind soever would ever imagine that there was
any thing beyond it, much less a habitation: as for
the way I proposed myself to go in and out (for I left
no avenue), it was by setting two ladders: one to a
part of the rock which was low, and then broke in,
and left room to place another ladder upon that; so
when the two ladders were taken down, no man liv
ing could come down to me without mischiefing him-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
177
Forms two more enclosures for his goats.
self; and if they had come down, they were still on
the outside of my outer wall.
す
​Thus I took all the measures human prudence
could suggest for my own preservation; and it will
be seen at length, that they were not altogether with-
out just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that time
more than my mere fear suggested.
While this was doing, I was not altogether care-
less of my other affairs; for I had a great concern
upon me for my little herd of goats; they were not
only a present supply to me upon every occasion,
and began to be sufficient for me, without the expense
of powder and shot, but also abated the fatigue of
my hunting after the wild ones; and I was loath to
lose the advantage of them, and to have them all to
nurse up over again.
To this purpose, after long consideration, I could
think but of two ways to preserve them: one was to
find another convenient place to dig a cave under
ground, to drive them into it every night; and the
other was to enclose two or three little bits of land,
remote from one another, and as much concealed as I
could, where I might keep about half a dozen young
goats in each place; so that if any disaster happened
to the flock in general, I might be able to raise them
again with little trouble and time: and this, though
it would require a great deal of time and labour, I
thought was the most rational design.
Accordingly, I spent some time to 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, endea-
vouring to come back that way from the eastern part
of the island here I found a clear piece of land,
near three acres, so surrounded with woods, that it
was almost an enclosure by nature; at least it did
I
7
2 A
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"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 se-
cured in it. So without any farther delay, I removed
ten she-goats and two he-goats to this place; and
when there, I continued to perfect the fence, till I
had made it as secure as the other, which, however,
I did at more leisure, and it took me up more time
by a great deal.
All this labour I was at the expense of, purely
from my apprehensions on 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 observe 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 mur
dered 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 dis-
composure; and that under the dread of mischief
impending, a man is no more fit for a comforting per-
formance of the duty of praying to God, than he is
ROBINSON CRUSOE..
179
+
Horrid spectacle.
for repentance on a sick bed; for these discompo-
sures 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
greater; praying to God being properly an act of the
mind, not of the body.
1
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 the 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 perspective
glass in my pocket.
When I was come down the hill, to the end of the
ísland, 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 provi-
dence that I was cast upon the side of the island
where the savages never came, I should easily have
known, that nothing was more frequent than for the
canoes from the main, when they happened to be a
little too far out at sea, to shoot over to that side of
the island for harbour; likewise, as they often met,
and fought in their canoes, the victors, having taken
any prisoners, would bring them over to this shore,
where, according to 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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t
I said above, being the S.W. point of the island, I
was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor is it
pos-
sible for me to express the horror of my mind, at
seeing the shore spread with sculls, hands, and 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 fel-
low-creatures.
I was so astonished with the sight of these things,
that I entertained no notions of any danger to my-
self from it, for a long time; all my apprehensions
were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of in-
human, hellish brutality, and the horror of the dege-
neracy of human nature; which, though I had heard
of it often, yet I never had so near a view of before:
in short, I turned away my face from the horrid spec
tacle; my stomach grew sick, and I was just at the
point of fainting, when nature discharged the disor-
der from my stomach, and, having vomited with an
uncommon violence, I was a little relieved, but could
not bear to stay in the place a moment;. so I got 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 in the knowledge of himself, and the hope
of his blessing, which was a felicity more than suffi-
4.
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
181
His alarms begin to abate.
ciently equivalent to all the misery which I had suf-
fered, or could suffer.
In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my
castle, and began to be much easier now, as to the
safety of my circumstances, than ever I was before;
for I observed, that these wretches never came to
this island in search of what they could get; perhaps
not seeking, not wanting, or not expecting any thing
here, and having often, no doubt, been up in the
covered woody part of it, without finding any thing
to their purpose. I knew I had been here now al-
most 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 discover myself to them, which I had no
manner of occasion to do, it being my only business
to keep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless
I found a better sort of creatures than cannibals to
make myself known to.
+
/
"
Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the sa-
vage wretches, that I have been speaking of, and of
the wretched inhuman custom of their devouring and
eating one another up, that I continued pensive and
sad, and kept close within my own circle for almost
two years after this: when I say my own circle, I
mean by it my three plantations, viz. my castle, my
country-seat, which I called my bower, and my en-
closure 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.
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Time, however, and the satisfaction I had, that I
was in no danger of being discovered by these people,
began to wear off my uneasiness about them; and I
began to live just in the same composed manner as
before; only with this difference, that I used more
caution, and kept my eyes more about me than I did
before, lest I should happen to be seen by any of
them; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing
my gun, lest any of them on the island should happen
to hear it; and it was therefore a very good provi-
dence 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
furnished 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.
All
Things going on thus, as I have said, for some
time, I seemed, excepting these cautions, to be re-
duced to my former calm sedate way of living.
these things tended to show me more and more how
far my condition was from being miserable, com-
pared 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 con-
dition 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
}
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
183
f
Crusoe determines to attack the savages.
which are better, to assist their murmurings and
complainings.
As in my present condition there were not really
many things which I wanted, so indeed I thought
that the frights I had been in about these savage
wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own
preservation, had taken off the edge of my inven-
tion for my own conveniences, and I had dropped a
good design, which I had once bent my thoughts up-
on; and that was, to try if I could not make some
barley into malt, and then to try to brew myself
some beer: this was really a whimsical thought, and
I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it; for
I presently saw there would be a want of several
things necessary to the making the beer, that it would
be impossible for me to supply; as, first, casks to
preserve it in, which was a thing that, as I have ob-
served already, I could never compass; no, though
I spent not only many days, but weeks, nay months,
in attempting it, but to no purpose. In the next
place, I had no hops to make it keep, no yeast to
make it work, no copper or kettle to make it boil;
and yet, had not all these things intervened, I mean
the frights and terrors I was in about the savages, I
had undertaken it, and perhaps brought it to pass too;
for I seldom gave any thing over without accomplish-
ing it, when I once had it in my head enough to
begin it.
But my invention now ran quite another way; for
night and day I could think of nothing, but how I
might destroy some of these monsters in their cruel
bloody entertainment, and, if possible, save the vic-
tim they should bring hither to destroy. It would
take up a larger volume than this whole work is in-
tended to be, to set down all the contrivances I hatch-
éd, 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
4
181
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take effect, unless I was to be there to do it myself;
and what could one man do among them, when per-
haps there might be twenty or thirty of them toge-
ther, with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with
which they could shoot as true to a mark as I could
with my gun?
Sometimes I 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 kin-
dled 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 pow-
der upon them, my store being now within the quan-
tity of a barrel, so neither could I be sure of its go-
ing off at any certain time, when it might surprise
them; and, at best, that it would do little more
than just blow the fire about their ears, and fright
them, but not sufficient to make them forsake the
place; so I laid it aside, and then proposed, that I
would place myself in ambush in some convenient
place, with iny three guns all double-loaded, and in
the middle of their bloody ceremony let fly at them,
when I should be sure to kill or wound perhaps two
or three at every shot: and then falling in upon them
with my 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 em-
ployed myself several days to find out proper places
to put myself in ambuscade, as I said, to watch for
them; and I went frequently to the place itself,
which was now grown more familiar to me; and
especially while my mind was thus filled with thoughts
of revenge, and of a bloody putting twenty or thirty
of them to the sword, as I may call it; but the
orror I had at the place, and at the signals of the
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
185
Prepares for the attack.
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 coming, and might then, even
before they would be ready to come on shore, convey
myself unseen into thickets of trees, in one of which
there was an hollow large enough to conceal me en-
tirely; and where I might sit, and observe all their
bloody doings, and take my full aim at their heads,
when they were so close together, as that it would
be next to impossible that I should miss my shot, or
that I could not fail wounding three or four of them
at the first shot.
In this place then I resolved to fix my design; and
accordingly I prepared two muskets and my ordinary
fowling-piece. The two muskets I loaded with a
brace of slugs each, and four or five smaller bullets,
about the size of pistol-bullets, and the fowling-piece
I loaded with near a handful of swan-shot, of the
largest size; I also loaded my pistols with about
four bullets each; and in this posture, well provided
with 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 continu-
ally made my tour every morning up to the top of
the hill, which was from my castle, as I called it,
about three miles or more, to see if I could observe
any boats upon the sea, coming near the island, or
standing over towards it; but I began to tire of this
hard duty, after I had for two or three months con-
stantly kept my watch; but came always back with-
out 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 de-
{
7
2 B
186
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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sign, and my spirits seemed to be all the while in a
suitable frame for so outrageous an execution, as the
killing twenty or thirty naked savages for an offence,
which I had not at all entered into a discussion of in
my thoughts, any further than my passions were at
first fired by the horror I conceived at the unnatural
custom of the people of that country, who, it seems,
had been suffered by Providence, in his wise disposi
tion of the world, to have no other guide than that of
their own abominable and vitiated passions; and con-
sequently 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
degeneracy, could have run them into; but now,
when, as I have said, I began to be weary of the fruit-
less 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 go
ing to engage in; what authority or call I had to
pretend to be judge and executioner upon these men
as criminals, whom Heaven had thought fit for so
many ages to suffer, unpunished, to go on, and to
be, as it were, the executioners of his judgments
upon one another; also, how far these people were
offenders against me, and what right I had to engage
in the quarrel of that blood, which they shed promis
cuously one upon another. I debated this very often
with myself thus: How do I know what God hun-
self 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 do commit,
They think it no more a crime to kill a captive taken
in war, than we to kill an ox; nor to eat human flesh,
than we do, to eat mutton.
:
}
V
点
​
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
187
Debates with himself on the morality of his intention.
When I had considered this a little, it followed ne-
cessarily, that I was certainly in the wrong in it;
that these people were not murderers in the sense
that I had before condemned them in my thoughts,
any more than those Christians were murderers, who
often put to death the prisoners taken in battle; or,
more frequently, upon many occasions, put whole
troops of men to the sword, without giving quarter,
though they threw down their arms and submitted.
In the next place, it occurred to me, that albeit
the usage they gave one another was thus brutish and
inhuman, yet it was really nothing to me: these peo-
ple had done me no injury: that if they attempted me,
or I saw it necessary for my immediate preservation
to fall upon them, something might be said for that;
but that I was yet out of their power, and they had
really no knowledge of me, and consequently no de-
sign upon me; and therefore it could not be just for
me to fall upon them: that this would justify the con-
duct 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 several bloody and barbarous
rites in these customs, such as sacrificing human bo-
dies to their idols, were yet, as to the Spaniards, very
innocent people; and that the rooting them out of
the country is spoken of with the utmost abhorrence
and detestation, even by the Spaniards themselves,
at this time, and by all other Christian nations of
Europe, as a mere butchery, a bloody and unnatural
piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either to God or man;
and such, as for which the very name of a Spaniard
is reckoned to be frightful and terrible to all people
of humanity, or of Christian compassion: as if the
kingdom of Spain were particularly eminent for the
product of a race of men, who were without princi-
ples 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.
*
188
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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These considerations really put me to a pause,
and to a kind of a full stop; and I began by little
and little to be off my design, and to conclude I had
taken a wrong measure in my resolutions to attack
the savages; that it was not my business to meddle
with them, unless they first attacked me, and this
it was my business, if possible, to prevent; but that
if I were discovered and attacked, then I knew my
duty.
1
On the other hand, I argued with myself, that
this really was the way not to deliver myself, but
entirely to ruin and destroy myself; for unless I was
sure to kill every one that not only should be on
shore at that time, but that should ever come on
shore afterwards, if but one of them escaped to tell
their country-people what had happened, they would
come over again by thousands to revenge the death
of their fellows; and I should only bring upon my-
self 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 one towards another, I had nothing to do
with them; they were national punishments to make
a just retribution for national offences; and to bring
public judgments upon those who offend in a public
manner, by such ways as best please God.
This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing
was a greater satisfaction to me, than that I had not
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
189
He is thankful to the Almighty for his guidance and protection.
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; be-
seeching him to grant me the protection of his Pro-
vidence, that I might not fall into the hands of bar-
barians; or that I might not lay my hands upon them,
unless I had a more clear call from Heaven to do it,
in defence of my own life.
In this disposition I continued for near a year after
this; and so far was I from desiring an occasion for
falling upon these wretches, that in all that time I
never once went up the hill to see whether there were
any of them in sight, or to know whether any of them
had been on shore there or not; that I might not be
tempted to renew any of my 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 which I found under some high rocks, and
where I knew, by reason of the currents, the savages
durst not, at least would not, come with their boats
upon any account 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, viz. a mast and sail, which
I had made for her, and a 'thing like an anchor, but
indeed which could not be called either anchor
or grappling; however, it was the best I could make
of its kind. All these I removed, that there might
not be the least shadow of any discovery, or any
appearance of any boat, or of any habitation upon
the island.
Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired
than ever, and seldom went from my cell, other than
upon my constant employment, viz. to milk my she
190
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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goats, and manage my little flock in the wood, which,
as it was quite on the other part of the island, was
quite out of danger: for certain it is, that these
savage people, who sometimes haunted this island,
never came with any thoughts of finding any thing
here, and consequently never wandered off from the
coast; and I doubt not but they might have been
several times on shore, after my apprehensions of
them had made me cautious, as well as before; 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 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 have wanted
presence of mind enough to do what I might have
done; much less what now, after so much consider-
ation and preparation, I might be able to do.. In-
deed, 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 thank-
fulness to that Providence 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 notion of any such thing depend-
ing, or the least supposition of its being possi
ble.
•
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
191
Mankind should attend to the secret intimation of Providence.
This renewed a contemplation, which often had
come to my thoughts in former time, when first I be-
gan to see the merciful dispositions of Heaven, in
the dangers we run through in this life; how wonder-
fully we are delivered when we know nothing of it:
how, when we are in a quandary (as we call it), a
doubt or hesitation, whether to go this way, or that
way, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when
we intended to go 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 do-
ing 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 a hint, hung upon my mind: I
could give many examples of the success of this con-
duct 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 'tis never too late to
be wise; and I cannot but advise all considering men,
whose lives are attended with such extraordinary in-
cidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary,
not to slight such secret intimations of Providence,
let them come from what invisible intelligence they
will; that I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannot
account for; but certainly they are a proof of the
converse of spirits, and the secret communication
between those embodied, and those unembodied;
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
The Journal.
and such a proof as can never be withstood: of
which I shall have occasion to give some very re-
markable instances, in the remainder of my soiltary'
residence in this dismal place.
I believe the reader of this will not think it strange,
if I confess that these anxieties, these constant dan-
gers I lived in, and the concern that was now upon
me, put an end to all invention, and to all the con-
trivances that I had laid for my future accommoda-
tions and conveniences. I had the care of my safety
more now upon my hands than that of my food.
cared not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood
now, forfear the noise 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 dis-
tance in the day, should betray me; and for this
reason I removed that part of my business which re-
quired fire, such as burning of pots and pipes, &c.
into my new apartment in the 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 so hardy
as to venture in, nor indeed would any man else,
but one who, like me, wanted nothing so much as
a safe retreat.
+
The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a
great rock, where, by mere accident (I would say, if
I did not see an abundant reason to ascribe all such
things now to Providence), I was cutting down some
thick branches of trees to make charcoal; and be-
fore I go on, I must observe the reason of my mak-
ing this charcoal, which was thus :-
I was afraid of making a smoke about my habita-
tion, 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
1
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
193
Curious adventure.
dry coal; and then putting the fire out, I preserved
the coal to carry home, and perform the other ser-
vices, which fire was wanting for at home, without
danger or smoke.
But this by the by: while I was cutting down
some wood here, I perceived that behind a very thick
branch of low brushwood, or underwood, there was
a kind of hollow place; I was curious to look into
it, and getting with difficulty into the mouth of it, I
found it was pretty large, that is to say, sufficient
for me to stand upright in it, and perhaps another
with me; but I must confess to you, I made more
haste out than I did in; when looking farther into
the place, which 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 believe there was nothing in this cave
that was more frightful than myself: upon this,
plucking up my courage, I took up a large firebrand,
and in I rushed again, with the stick flaming in my
hand: I had not gone three steps in, but I was al-
most as much frightened as I was before; for I
heard a very loud sigh, like that of a inan in some
pain; and it was followed by a broken noise, as if
of words half-expressed, and then a deep sigh again :
I stepped back, and was indeed struck with such a
surprise, that it put me into a cold sweat; and if I
had had a hat on my head, I will not answer for it
that my hair might not have lifted it off. But still
plucking up my spirits as well as I could, and en-
couraging 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
7
2 C
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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again, and by the light of the firebrand, 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 in-
deed of a mere old age.
I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out,
and he essayed to get up, but was not able to raise
himself; and I thought with myself, he might even
lie there; for if he had frightened me so, he would
certainly fright any of the savages, if any of them
should be so hardy as to come in there, while he had
any life in him.
I was now recovered from my surprise, and began
to look round me, when I found the cave was but
very small; that is to say, it might be about twelve
feet over, but in 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 candle, I
gave it over for some time, but resolved to come again
the next day, provided with candles and a tinder-
box, which I had made of the lock of one of the
muskets, with some wildfire in the pan.
17.
Accordingly, the next day, I came provided with
six large candles of my own making, for I made verý
good candles now of goat's tallow; and going into
this low place, I was obliged to creep upon all fours,
as I have said, almost ten yards; which, by the way,
I thought was a venture bold enough, considering
that I knew not how far it might go, or what was
beyond it. When I was got through the strait, I'
found the roof rose higher up, I believe near twenty
feet; but never was such a glorious sight seen in the
island, I dare say, as it was, to look round the sides
and roof of this vault or cave. The walls reflected
a hundred thousand lights to me from my two can-
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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He discovers a magnificent grotto.
dles; 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 difficulty in it was the entrance, which, however,
as it was a place of security, and such a retreat as
I wanted, I thought that was a convenience; so that
I was really rejoiced at the discovery, and resolved,
without any delay, to bring some of those things
which I was most anxious about to this place; par-
ticularly, 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 utmost fence, and were ready also to
take out upon any expedition.
Upon this occasion of removing my ammunition,
I was obliged to open my barrel of powder which I
took up out of the sea, and which had been wet;
and I found, that the water had penetrated about
three or four inches into the powder on every side,
which, caking and growing hard, had preserved the
inside like a kernel in 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
;
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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, then throw him in, and cover him with
earth, than to drag him out: so I interred him there,
to prevent offence to my nose.
I was now in the twenty-third year
of
my residence
in this island, and was so naturalized 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
my Pol, as I noted before, to speak; and he did it
so familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain,
that it was very pleasant to me; 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 notion in the Brasils, that they live a hun-
dred years; perhaps some of my Pols might be alive
there still, calling upon poor Robin Crusoe 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 plea-
sant and loving companion to me for no less than six-
teen years of my time, and then died of mere old
age; as for my cats, they multiplied, as I have ob-
served, 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
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་
The evil we seek most to shun, often the means of our deliverance.
them have no provision with me, they all ran wild
into the woods, except two or three favourites, which
I kept tame, and whose young, when they had any,
I always drowned, and these were part of my family:
besides these, I always kept two or three household
kids about me, which I taught to feed out of my
hand; and I had also more parrots which talked
pretty well, and would all call Robin Crusoe, but
none like my first; nor, indeed, did I take the pains
with any of them that I had done with him: I had
also several tame sea-fowls, whose names I knew not,
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 con-
tented 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 observation. from it, viz. How fre-
quently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in
itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are
fallen into it, 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 no-
thing was it more particularly remarkable, than in the
circumstances of my last years of solitary residence
in this island.
It was now the month of December, as I said
above, in my twenty-third year; and this being the
southern solstice (for winter I cannot call it), was the
particular time of my harvest, and required my being
pretty much abroad in the fields; when going out
pretty early in the morning, even before it was tho-
rough day-light, I was surprised with seeing a light of
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some fire upon the shore, at the 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.
I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and
stopped short within my grove, not daring to go out,
lest 1 might be surprised; and yet I had no more
peace within, from the apprehensions I had, that if
these savages, in rambling over the island, should
find my corn standing, or cut, or any of my works
and improvements, they would immediately conclude
that there were people in the place, and would then
never give over till they found me out. In this ex-
tremity I went back directly to my castle, pulled up
the ladder after me, having made all things without
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 pis
tols, 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 for 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 ob-
served 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
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
199
Crusoe is alarmed again by the appearance of the Indians.
to warm them, for they had no need of that, the
weather being extremely hot; but, as I supposed, to
dress some of their barbarous diet of human flesh
which they had brought with them, whether alive or
dead 1 could not know.
They had two canoes with them, which they had
haled 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 see-
ing 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 after-
wards to be more sedate in my mind, being satis-
fied 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 naked, and had
not the least covering upon them; but whether they
were men or women, that I could not distinguish.
As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took
two guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols at my
girdle, and my great sword by my side, without a
scabbard; and with all the speed I was able to
make, I went away to the hill, where I had disco-
vered 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.
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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.
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
the 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 suffer
ing, especially if there is no room to shake off that
expectation, or those apprehensions.
During all this time, I was in the murdering hu
mour; and took up most of my hours, which should
have been better employed, in contriving how to cir
cumvent and fall upon them the very next time I
should see them; especially if they should be divid-
ed, as they were the last time, into two parties; nor
did I consider at all, that if I killed one party, sup-
pose 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 more so.
I spent my days now in great perplexity and
anxiety of mind, expecting that I should one day or
other fall into the hands of those merciless creatures;
if I did at any time venture abroad, it was not with-
out looking round me with the greatest care and
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
201
#
He hears the sound of a gun at sea.
caution imaginable; and now I found, to my great
comfort, how happy it was that I had provided a
tame flock or herd of goats; for I durst not, upon
any account, fire my gun, especially near that side
of the island where they usually came, lest I should
alarm the savages; and if they had fled from me
now, I was sure to have them come back again, with
perhaps two or three hundred canoes with them in
a few days, and then I knew what to expect.
However, I wore out a year and three months.
more before I ever saw any more of the savages, and
then I found them again, as I shall soon observe. It
is true, they might have been there once or twice,
but either they made no stay, or, at least, I did not
hear them; but, in the month of May, as near as I
could calculate, and in my four-and-twentieth year,
I had a very strange encounter with them, of which
in its place.
The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen
or sixteen months' interval, was very great; I slept
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
his 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
condition, 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 differ-
ent nature from any I had met with before; for the
notions this put into my thoughts were quite of an-
7
2 D
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other 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 mo-
ment 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 distress, and that they had some comrade, or
some other ship in company, and fired these guns for
signals of distress, and to obtain help. I had this
presence of mind at 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 making a good handsome
pile, I set it on fire upon the hill; the wood was dry,
and blazed freely, and though the wind blew very
hard, yet it burnt fairly out, so that I was certain, if
there was any such thing as a ship, they must need
see it, and no doubt they did; for as soon as ever my
fire blazed up, I heard another gun, and after that
several others, all from the same quarter. I plied
my fire all night long, till day broke; and when it
was broad day, and the air cleared up, I saw some-
thing at a great distance at sea, full east of the island,
whether a sail, or a hull, I could not distinguish, no
not with my glasses, the distance was so great, and
the weather still something hazy also; at least it was
so out at sea.
1.
i
1
I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon
perceived that it did not move; so I presently con-
cluded that it was a ship at anchor; and being eager,
as 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
203
Discovers the wreck of a ship on the eoncealed rocks.
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 kind of counter-stream, or eddy, were
the occasion of my recovering then from the most
desperate hopeless condition that ever I had been in
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 the 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 neces-
sarily 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 ima-
gined, that, upon seeing the light, they might havé
put themselves into their boat, and have endeavoured
to make the shore; but that the sea going very high,
they might have been cast away; other times I ima-
gined, 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 sig-
nals 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 hur
ried away by the current that I had been formerly in,
were carried out into the great ocean, where there
was nothing but misery and perishing; and that per-
haps 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
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condition I was in. I could do no more than look
upon the misery of the poor men, and pity them;
which had still this good effect on my side, that it
gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God,
who had so happily and comfortably provided for
me in my desolate condition; and that of two ships'
companies, who were now cast away upon this part.
of the world, not one life should be spared but mine.
I learnt here again to observe, that it was very rare
that the providence of God casts us into any con-
dition 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
own.
Such certainly was the case with these men, of
whom I could not so much as see room to suppose
any of them were saved; nothing could make it
rational so much as to wish or expect that they did
not all perish there, except the possibility only of
their being taken up by another ship in company;
and this was but mere possibility indeed; for I
saw not the least signal or appearance of any such
thing.
I cannot explain, by 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 life,
I never felt so earnest, so strong a desire after the
society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret
at the want of it.
There are some secret moving springs in the affec-
tions, which, when they are set a going by some
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
!
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
205
Crusoe evinces his desire for a companion.
its impetuosity to such violent eager embraces 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 these 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 in-
voluntarily; 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 manner 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 comfort which the conversation of one
of my fellow-Christians would have been to me.
But it was not to be: either their fate, or mine,
or both, forbad 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 sea-
man's waistcoat, a pair of open-kneed linen drawers,
and a blue linen shirt; but nothing to direct me so
much as to guess of what nation he was of: he had
nothing in his pocket but two pieces of eight, and a
tobacco-pipe; the last was to me of ten times more
value than the first.
It was now calm, and I had a great mind to ven-
ture out in my boat to this wreck, not doubting but
I might find something on board that might be use-
ful to me; but that did not altogether press me so
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much, as the possibility that there might yet be 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 committed 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 want-
ing 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 of fresh
water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum (for I
had still a great deal of that left), a basket full of
raisins: and thus loading myself with 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 se-
cond cargo was a great bag full of rice, the um-
brella 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 goats' 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 venture;
I looked on the rapid currents which ran constantly
on both sides of the island, at a distance, and which
were very terrible to me, from the remembrance of
the hazard I had been in before, and my heart began
to fail me; for I foresaw, that if I was driven into
either of those currents, I should be carried a vast
way out to sea, and perhaps out of my reach, or sight
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207
He embarks for the wreck.
of the island again; and that then, as my boat was
but small, if any little gale of wind should rise, I
should be inevitably lost.
These thoughts so oppressed my mind, that I be-
gan to give over my enterprise, and having haled my
boat into a little creek on the shore, I stepped out,
and sat me down upon a little spot of rising ground,
very pensive and anxious, between fear and desire,
about my voyage; when, as I was musing, I could
perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood came
on, upon which my going was for so many hours im-
practicable: upon this it presently occurred to me,
that I should go up to the highest piece of ground
could find, and observe, if I could, how the sets of
the tide or currents lay, when the flood came in,
that I might judge whether, if I was driven one way
out, I might not expect to be driven another way
home, with the same rapidness of the currents. This
thought was no sooner in my head, 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 1 was to guide myself in my return: here I
found, that as the current of the ebb set out close
by the south point of the island, so the current of
the flood set in close by the shore of the north side;
and that I had nothing to do but to keep to the
north of the island in my return, and I should do
well enough,
Encouraged with this observation, I resolved the
next morning to set out with the first of the tide;
and reposing myself for that night in the canoe, un-
der 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 go
vernment of the boat; but having a strong steer
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age 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, jammed in
between two rocks; all the stern and quarter of her
was beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her forę-
castle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with
great violence, her mainmast and foremast were
brought by the board, that is to say, broken short
off, but her bowsprit was sound, and the head and
bow appeared firm. When I came close to her, a
dog appeared upon her, which, seeing me coming,
yelped and cried, and as soon as I called him, jump-
ed 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 fort-
night 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 indeed probable, that when
the ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke
so high, and so continually over her, that the men
were not able to bear it, and were strangled with
the constant rushing in of the water, as much as if
they had been under the 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.
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
209
Boards the wreck and secures various articles.
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 Brasils, 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 difficulty. There were several mus-
kets in a cabin, and a great powder-horn, with about
four pounds of powder in it: as for the muskets, I
had no occasion for them, so I left thein, 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 grid-
iron; 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.
reposed that night in the boat, and in the morn-
ing 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 rum, but not such as we had
at the Brasils; and, in a word, not at all good; but
when I came to open the chests, I found several
things which I wanted: for example, I found in one
a fine case of bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and
filled with cordial waters, fine, and very good; the
bottles held about three pints each, and were tipped
with silver: I found two pots of very good succades,
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or sweetmeats, so fastened also on the top, that the
salt water had not hurt them; and two more of the
same which the water had spoiled: I found some
very good shirts, which were very welcome to me,
and about a dozen and a half of white linen hand-
kerchiefs and coloured neck cloths; the former were
also very welcome, being exceedingly refreshing to
wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this, when I
came to the till in the chests, I found there three
great bags of pieces of eight, which held about eleven
hundred pieces in all; and in one of thein, 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 pow-
der in three flasks, kept, I suppose, for charging their
fowling-pieces on occasion. Upon the whole, I got
very little by this voyage, that was of much use to
me for as to the money, I had no manner of occa-
sion for it; it was to me as the dust 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 seaman's chest
about fifty pieces of eight in royals, but no gold: 1
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,
i
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
211
:
The folly of being dissatisfied with our station in society.
་
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 with-
out so many precautions, and such a load of arms
and ammunition as I always carried with me, if I
went the other way.
.. I lived in this condition near two years more; but
my unlucky head, that was always to let me know
it was born to make my body miserable, was all
these two years filled with projects and designs,
how, if it were possible, I might get away from this
island; for sometimes I was for making another voy-
age 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
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them; for, not to look back upon my primitive con-
dition, and the excellent advice of my father, the
opposition to which was, as I may call it, my original
sin, my subsequent mistakes of the same kind have
been the means of my coming into this miserable
condition; for had that Providence, which so happily
had seated me at the Brasils as a planter, blessed me
with confined desires, and could I have been con-
tented to have gone on gradually, I might have been
by this time (I mean the time of my being on this is-
land) one of the most considerable planters in the
Brasils; nay, I am persuaded, that by the improve-
ments I had made in that little time I lived there,
and the increase 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, improving
and increasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea, to fetch
negroes, when patience and time would have so in-
creased our stock at home, that we could have
bought them at our own doors, from those whose bu-
siness it was to fetch them? And though it had cost
us something more, yet the difference of that price
was by no means worth saving at so great a hazard.
But as this is ordinarily the fate of young heads,
so reflection upon the folly of it is as ordinarily the
exercise of more years, or of the dear-bought expe-
rience 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 continually poring upon the means and possibi-
lity of my escape from this place; and that I may,
with the greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the
remaining part of my story, it may not be improper
to give some account of my first conceptions on the
subject of this foolish scheme for my escape; and
how and upon what foundation I acted.
I am now to be supposed to be retired into my
castle, after my late voyage to the wreck, my frigate
A
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
213
1
Mankind totally unacquainted with the dangers which surround them.
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 In-
dians of Peru had before the Spaniards came thither.
1
It was one of the nights in the rainy season in
March, the four-and-twentieth year of my first set-
ting foot in this island of solitariness, I was lying on
my bed or hammock, awake, and very well in health,
had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body,
no, 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 in-
numerable 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 hundreds of them at times
on the shore there; but as I had never known it, and
was incapable of any apprehensions about it, my sa-
tisfaction was perfect, though my danger was the
same; and I was as happy in not knowing my dan-
ger, as if I had never really been exposed to it: this
furnished my thoughts with many very profitable re-
flections, and particularly this one: How infinitely
good that Providence is, which has settled in its go-
vernment of mankind such narrow bounds to his
2
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sight and knowledge of things; and though he walks
in the midst of so many thousand dangers, the sight
of which, if discovered to him, would distract his
mind and sink his spirits, he is kept serene and
calm, by having the events of things hid from his
eyes, and knowing nothing of the dangers which
surround him.
{
After these thoughts had for some time entertained
me, I came to reflect seriously upon the real dan-
ger 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 per-
haps, when nothing but a brow on a hill, a great
tree, or the casual approach of night, had been be-
tween me and the worst kind of destruction, viz.
that of falling into the hands of cannibals and sa-
vages, 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 sincerely thankful
to my great Preserver, to whose singular protection
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 creatures to
such inhumanity, nay, to something so much below
even brutality itself, as to devour its own kind: but
as this ended in some (at that time fruitless) specu-
lations, it occurred to me to inquire what part of the
world these wretches lived in; how far off the coast
was from whence they came; what they ventured so
far from home for; what kind of boats they had; and
why I might not order myself, and my business so,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
215
Revolves in his mind the means of escaping.
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 attack-
ed by some or other of them, without any possibility
of delivering myself; and if I should not fall into their
hands, what I should do for provision, or whither I
should bend my course: none of these thoughts, I
sáy, so much as came in my way; but my mind was
wholly bent upon the notion of my passing over in
my boat to the 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, where I might find some relief; and after
all, perhaps, I might fall in with some Christian ship
that might take me in; and if the worst came to the
worst, I could but die, which would put an end to
all these miseries at once. Pray, note, all this was
the fruit of a disturbed mind, an impatient temper,
made, as it were, desperate by the long continuance
of my troubles, and the disappointments I had met
in the wreck I had been on board of, and where I had
been so near the obtaining of what I so earnestly
longed for, viz, somebody to speak to, and to learn
some knowledge 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
waiting the issue of the dispositions of Heaven,
seemed to be suspended; and I had, as it were, no
power to turn my thoughts to any thing but the pro-
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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ject of a voyage to the main; which came upon me
with such force, and such an impetuosity of desire,
that it was not to be resisted.
When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours
or more, with such violence, that it set my very blood
into a ferment, and my pulse beat as 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 another savage, whom they were
going to kill, in order to eat him; when on a sud-
den, the savage they were going to kill jumped.
away, and ran for his life: then I thought in my
sleep, that he came running into my little thick
grove, before my fortification, to hide himself; and
that I seeing him alone, and not perceiving that the
others sought him that way, showed myself to
him, and, smiling upon him, encouraged him: that
he kneeled down to me, seeming to pray me to assist
him; upon which I showed him my ladder, made
him go up 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 whi-
ther 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 that it was no more than a dream, were
equally extravagant the other way, and threw me
into a very great dejection of spirit,
"
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
217
He meditates his escape from the island.
Upon this, however, I made this conclusion, that
my only way to go about an attempt for my escape,
was, if possible, to get a savage into my possession,
and, if possible, it should be one their prisoners
whom they had condemned to be eaten, and should
bring hither to kill: but these thoughts still were
attended with this difficulty, that it was impossible
to effect this, without attacking a whole caravan of
them, and killing them all; and this was not only a
very desperate attempt, and might miscarry; but
on the other hand, I had greatly scrupled the law-
fulness of it to me, and my heart trembled at the
thoughts of shedding so much blood, though it was
for my deliverance: I need not repeat the arguments
which occurred to me against this, they being the
same mentioned before: but though I had other rea-
sons to offer now, viz. that those men were enemies
to my life, and would devour me, if they could;
that it was self-preservation, in the highest degree, to
deliver myself from this death of a life, and was act-
ing in my own defence, as much as if they were ac-
tually assaulting me, and the like; I say, though
these things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shed-
ding human blood for my deliverance were very ter-
rible to me, and such as I could by no means recon-
cile 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
:
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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measures as the opportunity should present, let it be
what it would.
With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set my-
self 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 none appeared. This was
very discouraging, and began 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.
About a year and a half after I had entertained
these notions, and by long musing, had, as it were,
resolved them all into nothing, for want of an occa-
sion to put them in execution, I was surprised one
morning early, with seeing no less than five canoes
all on shore together, on my side the island, and the
people who belonged to them all lauded, and out
of my sight: the number of them broke all my mea-
sures; for seeing so many, and knowing that they
always came four, or six, or sometimes more, in a
boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to
take my measures to attack twenty or thirty men
single-handed; sò I lay still in my castle, perplexed
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
219
Is again visited by the savages.
and. discomfited; however, I put myself into all the
same postures of an attack that I had formerly pro-
vided, and was just ready for action, if any thing
had presented. Having waited a good while, listen-
ing to hear if they made any noise; at length being
very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my lad-
der and clambered up to the top of the hill by my
two stages, as usual, standing so, however, that my
head did not appear above the hill, so that they could
not perceive me by any means. Here I observed,
by the help of my perspective glass, that they were
no less than thirty in number; that they had a fire
kindled, and that they had 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 at them, 1 perceived
by my perspective two miserable wretches dragged
from the boats, where, it seems, they were laid by,
and were now brought out for the slaughter: I per-
ceived one of them immediately fall, being knocked
down, I suppose, with a club or wooden sword, for
that was their way; and two or three others were at
·work immediately, cutting him open for their cook-
ery, while the other victim was left standing by him-
self, till they should be ready for him. In that very
moment this poor wretch, seeing himself a little at
liberty, nature inspired him with hopes of life, and
he started away from them, and ran with incredible
swiftness along the sands, directly towards me. I
mean towards that part of the coast where my habi-
tation was.
I was dreadfully frighted (that I must acknow-
ledge) when I perceived him run my way; and es-
pecially when, as I thought, I saw him pursued by
the whole body; and now I expected that part of
my dream was coming to pass, and that he would
certainly take shelter in my grove; but I could not
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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depend, by any means, upon my dream for the rest
of it, viz. that the other savages would not pursue
him thither, and find him there. However, I kept
my station, and my spirits began to recover, when I
found there were not above three men that followed
him; and still more was I encouraged, when I found
that he outstripped them exceedingly in running,
and gained ground of them, so that if he could but
hold it for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly
get away from them all.
There was between them and my castle the creek,
which I mentioned often 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 exceeding strength and swiftness.----
When the three pursuers came to the creek, I found
that two of them could swim, but the third could
not, and that he, standing on the other side, looked
at the 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 as the
fellow was that fled from them. It came now very
warmly upon my thoughts, and indeed irresistibly,
that now was my time to get 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 observed
above; and getting up again with the same haste to
the top of the hill, I crossed towards the sea; and
having a very short cut, and all down-hill, clapped
myself in the way between the pursuers and the pur-
1
:
?
221
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
#
Crusoe rescues the savage and kills his pursuers.
:
sued, 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 ad-
vanced 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. Having knocked this
fellow down, the other who pursued him stopped,
as if he had been frightened, and I advanced apace
towards him; but as I came nearer, I perceived pre-
sently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to
shoot at me; so I was then necessitated to shoot at
him first; which I did, and killed him at the first
shot. The poor savage who fled, but had stopped,
though he saw both his enemies fallen and killed (as
he thought), yet was so frighted with the fire and
noise of my piece, that he stood quite still, and
neither came forward, nor went backward, though
he seemed rather to fly still, than to come on. I hal-
looed again to him, and made signs to come forward,
which he easily understood, and came a little way,
then stopped again, and then a little farther, and
stopped again; and I could then perceive that he
stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner,
and had just been to be killed, as his two enemies
were. I beckoned him again to come to me, and
gave him all the signs of encouragement that I could
think of; and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling
down every ten or twelve steps, in token of acknow-
ledgment 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 a
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LIFE }
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token of swearing to be my slave for ever. I took
him up, and made much of him,. and encouraged
him all I could. But there was more work to do
yet; for I perceived the savage, whom I had knock-
ed 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 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 knock-
ed down, recovered himself so far as to be able to
sit up upon the ground; and I perceived that my
savage began to be afraid; but when I saw that, I
presented my other piece at the man, as if I would
shoot him upon this my savage, for so I call him
now, made a motion to me to lend him my sword,
which hung naked in a belt by my side: so I did;
he no sooner had it, but he runs to his enemy, and at
one blow cut off his head so cleverly, no executioner
in Germany could have done it sooner or better;
which I thought very strange for one, who, I had
reason to believe, never saw a sword in his life 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 abun-
dance 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 point-
ing to him, he made signs to me to let him go to
him: so I bade him go, as well as I could. When
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
223
}
Carries him to his cave.
he came to him, he stood like one amazed, looking
at him; turned him first on one side, then on t'other;
looked at the wound the bullet had made, which it
seems was just in his breast, where it had made a
hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed;
but he had bled inwardly, for he was quite dead.----
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 sands with his hands, big
enough to bury the first in, and then dragged him
into it, and covered him, and did so also by the
other; I believe he had buried them both in a quar-
ter 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 hav-
ing refreshed him, I made signs for him to go lie
down and sleep, pointing to a place where I had 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 countenance, not
a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have some-
thing very manly in his face, and yet he had all the
sweetness and softness of an European in his coun-
tenance too, especially when he smiled: his hair was
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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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 Brasilians and
Virginians, and other natives of America are, but of
a bright kind of a dun olive colour, that had in it
something very agreeable, though not very easy to
describe. His face was round and plump, his nose
small, not flat like the negroes', a very good mouth,
thin lips, and his teeth fine, well-set, and white as
ivory. After he had slumbered, rather than slept,
about 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 enclosure just by: when he espi-
ed me, he came running to me, laying himself down
again upon the ground, with all the possible signs of
a humble thankful disposition, making many antic
gestures to show it. At last he lays his head flat up-
on the ground, close to my foot, and sets my other
foot upon his head, as he had done before; and after
this, made all the signs to me of subjection, servi-
'tude, 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 Fri-
day, 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 likewise taught him to say
Yes and No, and to know the meaning of them.
gave him some milk in an earthen pot, and let him
see me drink it before him, and sop my bread in it;
and I gave him a cake of bread to do the like, which
he quickly complied with, and made signs that it
was very good for him.
•
1
I
I kept there with him all that night; but as soon
7
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
225
Horrid scene of carnage.
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 appeared very angry, ex-
pressed 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 immedi-
ately, 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 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 dexte-
rously, making him carry one gun for me, and I two
for myself, and away we marched to the place where
those 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 spec-
tacle: 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 a 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
1
8
2 G
226
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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understand that they brought over four prisoners to
feast upon; that three of them were eaten up, and
that he, pointing to himself, was the fourth; that
there had been a great battle between them and their
next king, whose subjects, it seems, he had been one
of; and that they had taken a great number of pri-
soners, all which were carried to several places by
those who had taken them in the flight, in order to
feast upon them, as was done here by these wretches
upon those that they brough hither.
I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones,
flesh, and whatever remained, and lay them toge-
ther on a heap, and make a great fire upon it, and
burn them all to ashes. I found Friday had still a
hankering stomach after some of the flesh, and was
still a cannibal in his nature; but I discovered so
much abhorrence at the very thoughts of it, and at
the least appearance of it, that he durst not discover
it; for I had, by some means, let him know that I
would kill him if he offered it.
When 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 men-
tioned, and which I found in the wreck; and which,
with a little alteration, fitted him very well; then I
made him a jerkin of goat's skin as well as my skill
would allow, and I was now grown a tolerable good
tailor; and I gave hint a cap which I had made of
a hare-skin, very convenient, and fashionable enough;
and thus he was dressed, for the present, tolerably
well, and mighty well was he pleased to see himself
almost as well clothed as his master. 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 com-
plained they hurt him, and using himself to them,
at length he took to them very well.
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
227
Friday evinces a sincere attachment for his master.
The next day after I came home to my hutch with
- him, I began to consider where I should lodge him;
and that I might do well for him, and yet be per-
fectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in the
vacant place between my two fortifications, in the in-
side 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 with-
in 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 mak-
ing so much noise in getting over, that it must needs
awake me; for my first wall had now a complete
roof over it of long poles, covering all my tent, and
leaning up to the side of the hill, which was again
laid across with small sticks instead of laths, and
then thatched over a great thickness with rice-straw,
which was strong like reeds; and at the hole or
place which was left to go in or out by the ladder, I
had placed a kind of trap-door, which if it had been
attempted on the outside, would not have opened
at all, but would have fallen down, and made a great
noise; and as to weapons, I took them all in to my
side every night.
But I needed none of all this precaution; for never
man had a more faithful, loving, sincere servant than
Friday was to me; without passions, sullenness, or
designs; perfectly obliging and engaging; his very
affections were tied to me like those of a child to a
father; and I dare say, he would haye sacrificed his
life for the saving of mine, upon any occasion what-
soever: the many testimonies he gave me of this
put it out of doubt; and soon convinced 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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in his providence, and the government of the works
of his hands, to take from so great a part of the
world of his creatures, the best uses to which their
faculties, and the powers of their souls, are adapted;
yet that he has bestowed upon them the same
powers, the same reason, the same affections, the
same sentiments of kindness and obligation, the same
passions and resentments of wrongs, the same sense
of gratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities
of doing good, and receiving good, that he has given
to us; and that when he pleases to offer them occa-
sions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay 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 se-
veral occasions presented, how mean an use we
make of all these, even though we have these powers
enlightened by the great lamp of instruction, the
Spirit of God, and by the knowledge of his word,
added to our understanding; and why it has pleased
God to hide the same 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 in-
vade the sovereignty of Providence; and, as it were,
arraign the justice of so arbitrary a disposition of
things, that should hide that light from some, and
reveal it to others, and yet expect a like duty from
both but I shut it up, and checked my thoughts
with this conclusion: first, that we 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 ab-
sence 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 con-
sciences would acknowledge to be just, though the
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
229
Surprise and terror of Friday at seeing a kid shot.
foundation was not discovered to us: and, secondly,
that still, as we are all clay in the hand of the pot-
ter, 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 plea-
sant to me to talk to him. And now my life began
to be so easy, that I began to say to myself, that
could 1 but have been safe from more savages, I
cared not if I was never to remove from the place
while I lived.
i
After I had been two or three days returned to my
castle, I thought, that in order to bring Friday off
from this horrid way of feeding, and from the relish
of a cannibal's stomach, I ought to let him taste
other flesh; so I took him out with me one morning
to the woods: I went, indeed, intending to kill a
kid out of my own flock, and bring it home and
dress it but as I was going, I saw a she-goat lying
down in the shade, and two young kids sitting by
her. I catched hold of Friday; "Hold," said Ï,
"stand still;" and made signs to him not to stir.
Immediately I presented my piece, shot and killed
one of the kids. The poor creature, who had, at a
distance indeed, seen me kill the savage his enemy,
but did not know, nor could imagine how it was
done, was sensibly surprised, trembled and shook,
and looked so amazed, that I thought he would
have sunk down: he did not see the kid I had shot
at, or perceive I had killed it, but ripped up his
waistcoat to feel if he was not wounded; and, as I
found, presently thought I was resolved to kill him :
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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for he came and kneeled down to me, and, embrac-
ing 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 pointing to the kid which I had
killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which
he did; and while he was wondering and looking to
see how the creature was killed, I loaded my gun
again, and by and by I saw a great fowl, like a hawk,
sit upon a tree, within shot; so to let Friday under-
stand a little what I would do, I called him to me
again, pointing at the fowl, which was indeed a
parrot, though I thought it had been a hawk; I
I say,
pointing to the parrot, and to my gun, and to the
ground under the parrot, to let him see I would make
him fall, I made him understand that I would shoot
and kill that bird; accordingly I fired, and 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 any
thing into the gun; but thought there must be some
wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing,
able to kill man, beast, bird, or any thing near or far
off; 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 wor-
shipped 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 an-
swered 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 pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had
shot, which he did, but staid some time; for the
parrot, not being quite dead, had fluttered a good
way off from the place where she fell; however, he-
:
!
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
231
Crusoe endeavours to convert his man Friday.
found her, took her up, and brought her to me; and
as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun be-
fore, 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 sputter
at it, washing his mouth with fresh water after it. On
the other hand, I took some meat in my mouth
without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for
want of salt, as fast as he had done at the salt; but
it would not do, he would never care for salt with
meat, or in his broth at least, not for a great while,
and then but a very little.
·
:
Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth,
I was resolved to feast him the next day with roast-
ing a piece of the kid: this I did by hanging it before
the fire in a string, as I had seen many people do in
England, setting two poles up, one on each side of
the fire, and one cross on the top, and tying the string
to the cross stick, let the meat turn continually:
this Friday admired very much; but when he came
to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me
how well he liked it, that I could not but understand
him; and at last 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
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!
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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 f
could do it myself.
I began now to consider, that having two mouths
to feed instead of one, I must provide more ground
for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity of corn,
than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece of
land, and began the fence in the same manner as
before, in which Friday not only worked very wil-
lingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully; and
I told him what it was for, that it was for corn to
make more bread, because he was now with me,
and that I might have enough for him and myself
too; he appeared very sensible of that part, and let
me know, that he thought I had much more labour
upon me on his account, than I had for myself, and
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 satis-
faction 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 possi-
ble 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, whether the
nation that he belonged to never conquered in battle?
3.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
233
Barbarities practised on prisoners by the savages.
66
At which he smiled, and said, Yes, yes, we al-
ways fight the better;" that is, he meant, always get
the better in fight; and so we began the following
discourse. "You always fight the better!" said I:
"how came you to be taken prisoner then, Friday?"
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 was; me they take one, two, three, and me:
my nation over-beat them in the yonder place, where
me no was; there my nation take one, two great
thousand.
Master. But why did not your side recover you
from the hands of your enemies then?
Friday. They run one, two, three, and me, and
make go in the canoe; my nation have no canoe
that time.
Master. Well, Friday, and what does your nation
do with the men they take? Do they carry them
away, and eat them as these did?
Friday. Yes, my nation eat mans too, eat all up.
: Master. Where do they carry them?
Friday. Go to other place where they think.
Master. Do they come hither?
Friday. Yes, yes, they come hither; come other
else place.
Master. Have you been here with them?
Friday. Yes, I 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,
9
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234 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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two women, and one child: he could not tell twenty
in English, but he numbered them by laying so many
stones in a row, and pointing to me to tell them over.
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, and a wind always one way in the
morning, the other in the afternoon.
This I understood to be no more than the sets of
the tide, as going out, or coming in; but I after-
wards understood it was occasioned 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 island, which I perceived
to be 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 coun-
try, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and whạt na-
tions 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 W. from
their country, there dwelt white-bearded men, like
me, and pointed to my great whiskers, which I men-
tioned 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 the whole countries, and were remem-
bered by all the nations from father to son.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
235
Religious opinion of the savages.
I inquired if he could tell me how I might come
from this island, and get among those white men; he
told me, Yes, yes, I might go in two canoe; I could
not understand what he meant by two canoe; till
at last, with great difficulty, I found he meant, that
it must be 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 wanting to lay a founda-
tion of religious knowledge into his mind; particu
larly I asked him one time, Who made him? The
poor creature 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 beyond all: he could describe nothing of
this great person, but that he was very old; much
older, he said, than the sea or the land, than the
moon or the stars. I asked him then, if this 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, whe-
ther those they ate 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;
236
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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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 God could hear us up beyond
the sun, he must needs be a greater God than their
Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet
could not hear, till they went up to the great moun-
tains, where he dwelt, to speak to him. I asked him,
if ever he went thither to speak to him? He said,
No, they never went that were young men; none
went thither but the old men; whom he called their
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 amongst
the most blinded ignorant Pagans in the world; and
the policy of making a secret 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 religions in the world, even among the
most brutish and barbarous savages.
4
I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man
Friday; and told him, that the pretence of their old
men going up to the mountains to say O! to their
god Benamuckee, was a cheat; and their bringing
word from thence what he said, was much more so;
that if they met with any answer, or 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 him-
self up in the dark parts of the world to be worship-
ped instead of God, and as God, and the many stra-
tagems he made use of, to delude mankind to their
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
237
Difficulty of impressing Friday with the knowledge of an evil spirit.
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 be-
ing of a God: nature assisted all my arguments to
evidence to him even the necessity of a great First
Cause, and over-ruling governing Power, a secret
directing Providence, and of the equity and justice
of paying homage to Him that made us, and the
like: but there appeared nothing of all this in the
notion of an evil spirit, of his original, his being, his
nature, and, above all, of his inclination to do evil,
and to draw us in to do so too: and the poor creature
puzzled me once in such a manner, by a question
merely natural and innocent, that I scarce knew
what to say to him. I had been talking a great deal
to him of the power of God, his omnipotence, his
dreadful aversion to sin, his being a consuming fire
to the workers of iniquity; how, as he had made us
all, he could destroy us, and all the world, in a mo-
ment; and he listened with great seriousness to me
all the while.
After this, I had been telling him how the devil
was God's enemy in the hearts of men, and used all
his malice and skill to defeat the good designs of
Providence, and to ruin the kingdom of Christ in
the world, and the like: "Well," says Friday," but
you say God is so strong, so great, is he not much
strong, much might, as the devil?"-" Yes, yes,"
said I, Friday, "God is stronger than the devil,
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 ?"
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- - - - ga tak k k p
I was strangely surprised at this question; and
after all, though I was now an old man, yet I was
but a young doctor, and ill 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, and asked him what he said? but he was too
earnest for an answer to forget his question; so that
he repeated it in the very same broken words as
above. By this time I had recovered myself a little,
and I said, “God will at last punish him severely; he
is reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into
the bottomless pit, to dwell with everlasting fire."----
This did not satisfy Friday; but he returns upon me,
repeating my words, " Reserve at last! me no under-
stand: but why not kill the devil now, not kill great
ago?"
"You may as well ask me," said I, "why
God does not kill you and me, when we do wicked
things here that offend him; we are preserved to re-
pent and be pardoned." He muses a while at this;
Well, well," says he, mighty affectionately, "that
well; so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve, re-
pent, God pardon all." Here I was run down again
by him to the last degree, and it was a testimony to
me, how the mere notions of nature, though they will
guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a
God, and of a worship or homage due to the supreme
being of God, as the consequence of our nature; yet
nothing but divine revelation can form the knowledge
of Jesus Christ, and of 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 know
ledge of God, and the means of salvation:
I therefore diverted the present discourse between
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
239
Crusoc becomes a better Christian by instrueting Friday.
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 prayed to God
that he would enable me to instruct savingly this poor
savage, assisting, by his Spirit, the heart of the poor
ignorant creature to receive the light of the know-
ledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to himself,
and would guide me to speak so to him from the
word of God, as his conscience might be convinced,
his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he came
again to me, I entered into a long discourse with him
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 repentance
towards God, and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus:
I then explained to him, as well as I could, why
our blessed Redeemer took not on him the nature of
angels, but the seed of Abraham, and how, for that
reason, the fallen angels had no share in the redemp-
tion that he came only to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel, and the like.
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge,
in all the methods I took for this poor creature's in-
struction; and must acknowledge, what I believe all
that act upon the same principle will find, that in
laying things open to him, I really informed and in-
structed 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 inquiry after things upon this
occasion, than ever I felt before; so that whether this
poor wild wretch was the better for me or no, I had
great reason to be thankful that ever he came to me;
my grief sat lighter upon me, my habitation grew com-
fortable to me beyond measure; and when I reflected,
that in this solitary life, which I had been confined to,
Thad not only been moved myself to look up to heaven,
and to seek to the Hand that brought me thither, but
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was now to be made an instrument, under Providence,
to save the life, and for ought 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 fre-
quently rejoiced that ever I was brought to this place,
which I had often thought the most dreadful 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 per-
fectly and completely happy, if any such thing as
complete happiness can be found in a sublunary state.
The savage was now a good Christian, a much better
than I; though I have reason to hope, and bless
God for it, that we were equally penitent, and com-
forted 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 inqui-
ries 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. Another thing I cannot refrain from ob-
serving here also from experience, in this retired
part of my life, viz. how infinite and inexpressible a
blessing it is, that the knowledge of God, and of the
doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus, is so plainly
laid down in the word of God, so easy to be received
and understood, that as the bare reading the scrip-
ture made me capable of understanding enough of
my duty to carry me directly on to the great work of
sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a
Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
241
We should refer all our religious disputes to the word of God.
in practice, and obedience to ali God's commands,
and this without any teacher and instructor (I mean
human); so the plain instruction sufficiently served
to, the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing
him to be such a Christian, as I have known few
equal to him in my life.
As to the disputes, wrangling, strife, and conten-
tion, which has happened in the world about religion,
whether niceties in doctrines, or schemes of church-
government, they were all perfectly useless to us, as,
for aught I can 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! com-
fortable views of the Spirit of God, teaching and in-
structing us by his word, leading us into all truth,
and making us both willing and obedient to the in-
struction of his word; and I cannot see the least use
that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points
in religion, which have made such confusion in the
world, would have been to us, if we could have ob-
tained it. But I must go on with the historical part
of things, and take every part in its order.
After Friday and I became more intimately ac-
quainted, and 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 gun-
powder and bullets, and taught him how to shoot: I
gave him a knife, which he was wonderfully delight-
ed with and I made him a belt with a frog hanging
to it, such as in England we wear hangers in; 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
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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.
1 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 al-
most all to pieces. Upon seeing this boat, Friday
stood musing a great while, and said nothing; I asked
him what he studied upon? At last, says he, "Me
see such boat like come to place at my nation."
I did not understand him for a while; but at last,
when I had examined further into it, I understood by
him, that a boat, such as that had been, came on
shore upon the country where he lived; that is, as
he explained it, was driven thither by stress of wea-
ther. I presently imagined, that some European
ship must have been cast away upon their coast, and
the boat might get loose, and drive ashore; but was
so dull, that I never once thought of men making
their escape from a wreck thither, much less whence
they might come; so I only inquired after a descrip-
tion of the boat.
I
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 man's from
drown." Then I presently asked him, if there were
any white mans, as he called them, in the boat?-
"Yes," says he, "the boat full of white mans.
asked him, how many? he told upon his fingers se-
venteen. I asked him then, what became of them?
he told me, They live, they dwell at my nation."
This put new thoughts into my head again: for I
presently imagined, that these might be the men be-
longing 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,
اشا
·
66
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
243
Exultation of Friday at the sight of his country.
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 upon. I asked him how it came to pass that
they did not kill them, and eat them? He said, "No,
they make brother with them:" that is, as I under
stood him, a truce: and then he added, " They eat
no mans but when they 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 be-
ing on the top of the hill, at the east side of the is-
land, 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 ap-
peared 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 again, 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 às merry as he used to be with those of his ene-
mies, when they were taken in war.
But I wronged the poor honest creature very much,
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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 religious 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 uneasi-
ness, he made me at last entirely his own again; nor
did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy; and
therefore I could not suspect him of deceit.
CL
66
One day, walking up the same hill, but the wea-
ther 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 Ŏ glad to be
Ó
at my own nation." "What would you do there?"
said I: "would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh
again, and be a savage as you were before?" He
looked full of concern, and shaking his head, said,
No, no, Friday tell them to live good, tell them to
pray God, tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle-flesh,
milk, no eat man again." Why then," said I to
him," they will kill you." He looked grave at that,
and then said, "No, they no kill me, they willing
love learn." He meant by this, they would be willing
to learn. He added, they learnt much of the beard-
ed 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
245
Friday rejects the idea of leaving Crusoe.
""
they will eat me if I come there. "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 Portuguese; not doubting but, if I could, we
might find some method to escape from thence, be-
ing upon the continent, and a good company toge-
ther, better than I could from an island forty miles
off the shore, and alone without help. So, after
some days, I took Friday to work again, by way of
discourse; and told him, I would give him a boat to
go back to his own nation; and accordingly I carried
him to my frigate, which lay on the other side of the
island; and having cleared it of water (for I always
kept it sunk in water), I brought it out, showed it
him, and we both went into it.
I found he was a most dexterous fellow at manag-
ing it, would make it go almost as swift and fast
again as I could; so when he was in, I said to him,
"Well, now, Friday, shall we go to your nation?"
He looked very dull at my saying so, which, it seems,
was because he thought the boat too small to go so
far. I 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 wa-
ter; 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 rotten. Friday told me
such a boat would do very well, and would carry
"much enough vittle, drink, bread:" that was his
way of talking.
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Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon
my design of going over with him to the continent,
that I told him we would go and make one as big as
that, and he should go home in it. He answered
not one word, but looked very grave and sad. I ask-
ed 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 an-
gry! no angry!" says he, repeating the words several
times, "why send Friday home away to my nation?"
""
66
66
""
66
Why," said I, "Friday, did you not 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 at that word, and running to one of the hat-
chets 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
must I kill you for?" said I again. He returns very
quick, What you send Friday away for? Take kill
Friday, no send Friday away. This he spoke so
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

1
いい​ね
​n about a month's hard labour we finished it.
Engravd for J.Gleaves Edition.
P. 247.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
247
1
His firmness and sensibility.
settled affection to me, and that nothing should part
him from me, so I found all the foundation of his de-
sire to go to his own country was laid in his ardent
affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing
them good; a thing, which as I had no notion of
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
discourse, 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 under-
tage the voyage: there were trees enough in the is-
land 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 fit-
test 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 fustick, or between that and the
Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same co-
lour 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 fortnight's time to get her along, as it were inch by
inch, upon great rollers, into the water: but when
she was in, she would have carried twenty men with
great ease.
When she was in the water, and though she was
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1
so big, it amazed me to see with what dexterity and
how swift my man Friday could manage her, turn
her, and paddle her along; so I asked him if he
would, and if we might venture over in her?" Yes,"
he said, "he venture over in her very well, though
great blow wind." However, I had a farther design
that he knew nothing of, and that was, to make a
mast and 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 particu-
lar 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 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-cornered ugly thing, like what we call
in England a shoulder-of-mutton sail, to go with a
boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the top,
such as 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 necessity, of such a
2
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ROBINSON CRUSOE.
249
Crusoe and Friday equip a new boat.
thing, I applied myself with so much pains to do it,
that at last I brought it to pass, though, consider-
ing the many dull contrivances I had for it that fail-
ed, I think it cost me almost as much labour as mak-
ing 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 belonged to a sail
and the 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 astonish-
ed 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 captivity in this place; though the three last
years that I had this creature with me, ought to be
left out of the account, my habitation 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, having such additional testi-
monies 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, digging,
!
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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
haling 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 cross the end of it,
to keep the water out; and so she lay dry, as to the
tide, from the sea; and to keep the rain off, we laid
a great many boughs of trees so thick, that she was
as well thatched as a house; and thus we waited for
the months of November and December, in which I
designed to make my adventure.
When the settled season began to come in, as the
thought of my design returned with the fair weather;
I was preparing daily for the voyage; and the first
thing I did was to lay up a certain quantity of provi-
sion, 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
á 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!" By this way of
speaking I concluded there were six; but on inquiry
I found there were but three. "Well, Friday," said
1," do not be frighted; so I heartened him up as
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
251
They are visited by more savages.
well as I could. However, I saw the
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 com-
forted him as well as I could, and told him I was in
as much danger as he, and that they would eat me as
well as him. But," said I," Friday, we must re-
solve 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 ask-
ed him, whether, if I resolved to defend him, he
would defend me, and stand by me, and do just as I
bade him? He said, "Me die, when you bid die,
master;" so I went and fetched a good dram of
rum, and gave him; for I had been so good a hus-
band 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, naked by my side,
and gave Friday his hatchet.
When I had thus prepared myself, I took my per-
spective-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
252
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sea: this, with the abhorrence of the inhuman er-
rand 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 cheerful; 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 pow-
der and bullet; and as to orders, I charged him to
keep close behind me, and not stir, shoot, or do any
thing till I bid him; and in the mean time, not to
speak a word. In this posture I fetched a compass
to my right hand of near a mile, as well to get over
the creek as to get into the wood; so that I might
come within shot of them before I could be discover-
ed, which I had seen by my glass it was easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former
thoughts returning, I began to abate my resolution;
I do not mean that I entertained any fear of their
number; for as they were naked, unarmed wretches,
it is certain I was superior to them; nay, though I
had been alone: but it occurred to my thoughts, what
call, what occasion, much less what necessity, I was
in to go and dip my hand in blood, to attack people
who had neither done or intended me any wrong,
who, as to me, were innocent, and whose barbarous
customs were their own disaster, being in them a to-
ken 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
(
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
253
Crusoe is stimulated to attack the savages.
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 attack 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 bar-
barous feast, and 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
meddle with them.
With this resolution I entered the wood, and with
all possible wariness and silence (Friday following
close at my heels) I marched till I came to the skirt
of the wood, on the side which was next to them;
only that one corner of the wood lay between me and
them here I called softly to Friday, and showing
him a great tree, which was just at the corner of the
wood, I bade him go to the tree, and bring me word
if he could see there plainly what they were doing:
he did so, and came immediately back to me, and
told me they might be plainly viewed there; that
they were all about the fire, eating the flesh of one
of their prisoners; and that another lay bound upon
the sand, a little from them, whom he said they would
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
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rushes; and that he was an European, and had
clothes on.
There was another tree, and a little thicket be-
yond it, about fifty yards nearer them than the place
where I was, which, by going a little way about, I
saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then I
should be within half-shot of them; so I withheld
my passion, though I was indeed enraged to the
highest degree; and going back about twenty paces,
I got behind some bushes, which held all the way till
I came to the other tree, and then I came to a little
rising ground, which gave me a full view of them,
at the distance of about eighty yards.
I had now not a moment to lose; for nineteen of
the dreadful wretches sat upon the ground all close
huddled together, and had just sent the other two
to butcher the poor Christian, and bring him, per-
haps 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." So
I set down one of the muskets and the fowling-piece
upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his
and with the other musket I took my aim at the sa-
vages, 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, you may be sure,
in a dreadful consternation; and all of them, who
were not hurt, jumped up upon their feet immediate-
ly, 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
255
They release a Spaniard.
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 call-
ed 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 miserably wounded most of them;
whereof three more fell quickly after, though not
quite dead.
A
"Now, Friday," said I, laying down the dis-
charged pieces, and taking up the musket, which
was yet loaden, "follow me," said I; which he did,
with a great 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
to 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 imme-
diately, 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 a heap into the
boat; though I saw two of them up again quickly:
however, he killed two of them, and wounded the
third, so that he lay down in the bottom of the boat,
as if he had been dead.
While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out
256
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
66
The Journal.
my knife, and cut the flags that bound the poor vic-
tim; and loosing his hands and feet I lifted him up,
and asked him in the Portuguese tongue, what he
was? He answered in Latin, Christianus; but was
so weak and faint, that he could scarce stand or
speak; I took my bottle out of my pocket, and gave
it him, making signs that he should drink, which he
did; and I gave him a piece of bread, which he ate;
then I asked him, what countryman he was? 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 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 the arms in his
hands, but as if they had put new vigour into him,
he flew upon his murderers like a fury, and had cut
two of them in pieces in an instant; for the truth is,
as the whole was a surprise to them, so the poor
creatures were so much frighted with the noise of our
pieces, that they fell down for mere amazement and
fear, and had no more power to attempt their own
escape, than their flesh had to resist our shot; and
that was the case of those five that Friday shot in the
boat; for as three of them fell with the hurt they had
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 swiftness; and then giving him my mus-
ket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again, and
bade them come to me when they wanted. While I
was loading these pieces, there happened a fierce en-
gagement between the Spaniard and one of the sa-
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
257
Conflict between a Spanish prisoner and a savagė.
vages, 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 in
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 quit-
ted his sword, drew the pistol from his girdle, shot
the savage through the body, and killed him upon
the spot, before I, who was running to help, could
come near him.
Friday, being now left at his liberty, pursued the
flying wretches with no weapon in his hand but his
hatchet; and with that he dispatched those three,
who, as I said before, were wounded at first, and
fallen, and all the rest he could come up with; and
the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I gave him one
of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two
of the savages, and wounded them both; but as he
was not able to run, they both got from him into the
wood, where Friday pursued them, and killed one of
them; but the other was too nimble for him; and
though he was wounded, yet 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 know not whether he died or no,
were all that escaped our hands of one-and-twenty.
The account of the rest is as follows:
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 dropped here and there of their wounds,
or killed by Friday in his chase of them.
4 Escaped in the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead.
21 in all.
2 L
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get
out of gun-shot, and though Friday made two or
three shots at them, I did not find that he hit any of
them: Friday would fain have had me take one of
their canoes and pursue them; and indeed I was
very anxious about their escape, lest, carrying the
news to their people, they should come back, per-
haps, with two or three hundred 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 to follow me;
but when I was in the canoe, I was surprised to find
another poor creature lie there alive, bound haud and
foot, as the Spaniard was, for the slaughter, and al-
most 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, I bade him speak to
him, and tell him of his deliverance; and pulling out
my bottle, made him give the poor wretch a dram,
which, with the news of his being delivered, revived
kim, 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 bis 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.
}
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
259
Friday recognizes his father.
It was not easy for me to express how it moved
me, to see what ecstacy and filial affection had work-
ed in this poor savage, at the sight of his father, and
of his being delivered from death; nor indeed can I
describe half the extravagances of his affection after
this; for he went into the boat and out of the boat a
great many times: when he went in to him, he would
sit down by him, open his breast, and hold his father's
head close to his bosom, half an hour together, to
nourish it then he took his arms and ankles, which
were numbed and stiff with the binding, and chafed
and rubbed them with his hands; and I, perceiving
what the case was, gave him some rum out of my
bottle to rub them with, which did them a great deal
of good.
This 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 jump-
ing 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 purpose; I
also gave him a dram for himself, but he would not
taste it, but carried it to his father: I had in my
pocket 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
260 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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bewitched. He ran at such a rate (for he was the
swiftest fellow of his feet that ever I saw)-I say,
that 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: however,
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? 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 him-
self upon a green place, under the shade of a tree,
and whose limbs were also very stiff, and very much
swelled with the rude bandage he had been tied
with when I saw that, upon Friday's coming to him
with the water, he sat up and drank, and took the
bread, and began to eat, I went to him, and gave
him a handful of raisins: he looked up in my face
with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness
that could appear in any countenance; but was so
weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted himself in
the fight, that he could not stand upon his feet; he
tried to do it two or three times, but was really not
able, his ankles were so swelled and so painful to
him; so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday to
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
261
Surprising agility of Friday.
rub his ankles, and bathe them with rum, as he had
done his father's.
I observed the poor affectionate creature every two
minutes, or perhaps less, all the while he was here,
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 swiftness to him, that one could scarce perceive
his feet to touch the ground as he went: but when
he came, he only found he had laid himself down to
ease his limbs; so Friday came back to me pre-
sently, 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 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 him quite in, and set him
close to his father, and presently stepping out again,
launched the boat off, and paddled it along the
shore faster than I could walk, though the wind blew
pretty hard too; so he brought them both safe into
our creek; and leaving them in the boat, runs away
to fetch the other canoe. As he passed me, I spoke
to him, and asked him whither he went? He told
me, "Go fetch more boat;" so away he went, like
the wind; for sure never man or horse ran like him,
and he had the other canoe in the creek almost as
soon as I got to it by land; so he wafted me over,
and then went to help our new guests out of the
boat, which he did; but they were neither of them
able to 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 car-
$
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ADVENTURES OF
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A
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ried them up both together upon it between us; but
when we got them to the outside of our wall or for
tification, we were at a worse loss than before; for
it was impossible to get them over; and I was re-
solved not to break it down: so I set to work again,
and Friday and 1, in about two hours' time, made a
very handsome tent, covered with old sails, and
above that with boughs of trees, being in the space-
without our outward fence, and between that and the
grove of young wood which I had planted: and here
we made 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 my-
self very rich in subjects; and it was a merry reflec-
tion which I frequently made, how like a king 1
looked first of all, the whole country was my own
mere property; so that I had an undoubted right of
dominion: 2dly, My people were perfectly sub-
jected: I was absolute 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 Fri-
day was a Protestant, his father a pagan and a can-
nibal; and the Spaniard was a Papist: however, I
allowed liberty of conscience throughout my domí-
nions: 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 pro-
vision 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
263
The two prisoners are lodged and refreshed under a tent.
doors (for I made no fire within my inner wali), so I
carried it all into the new tent; and having set a
table there for them, I sat down and ate my dinner
also with them; and, as well as I could, cheered
them and encouraged them, Friday being my inter-
preter, especially to his father, and indeed to the
Spaniard too; for the Spaniard spoke the language
of the savages pretty well.
After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered
Friday to take one of the canoes, and go and fetch
our muskets and other fire-arms, which, for want of
time, we had left upon the place of battle; and the
next day I ordered him to go and bury the dead
bodies of the savages, which lay open to the sun,
and would presently be offensive: and I also order-
ed 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 ap
pearance of the savages being there; so that when
I went again, I could scarce know where it was,
otherwise than by the corner of the wood pointing
to the place.
I then began to enter into a little conversation
with my two new subjects; and first, I set Friday to
inquire of his father, what he thought of the escape
of the savages in that canoe? and whether 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 be
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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lieved 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. Fri-
day 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 in their language to one another; for it was
impossible for them to conceive 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 accounts 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 un-
der 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 appear-
ing, the fear of their coming wore off, and I began
to take my former thoughts of a voyage to the
main into consideration, being likewise assured by
Friday's father, that I might depend upon good
usage from their nation on his account, if I would
go.
But my thoughts were a little suspended, when I
had a serious discourse with the Spaniard, and when
I understood, that there were sixteen more of his
countrymen and Portuguese, who having been cast
away, and made their escape to that side, lived there
at peace indeed with the savages, but were very sore
put to it for necessaries, and indeed for life: I asked
him all the particulars of their voyage; and found
they were a Spanish ship, bound from the Rio de
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
265.
They contemplate the release of the Spanish prisoners on the continent.
la Plata to the Havanna, being directed to leave
their loading there, which was chiefly hides and sil-
ver, and to bring back what European goods they
could meet with there; that they had five Portu-
guese seamen on board, whom they took out of an-
other wreck; that five of their own men were drown-
ed when the first ship was lost; and that these
escaped through infinite dangers and hazards, and
arrived almost starved on the cannibal coast, where
they expected to have been devoured every moment.
He told me they had some arms with them, but
they were perfectly useless, for that they had neither
powder nor ball, the washing of the sea having
spoiled all their powder, but a little which they used
at their first landing to provide themselves some
food.
I asked him what he thought would become of
them there; and if they had formed no design of
making any escape? He said, they had many con-
sultations about it; but that having neither vessel
nor tools to build one, or provisions of any kind,
their counsels always ended in tears and despair.
I asked him, how he thought they would receive a
proposal from me, which might tend towards an
éscape; 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 in
herent virtue in the nature of man; nor did men ala
ways square their dealings by the obligations they
had received, so much as they did by the advantages
they expected: I told him, it would be very hard
that I should be the instrument of their deliverance,
and that they should afterwards make me their pri-
soner in New Spain, where an Englishman was cer
tain 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 des
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266 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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voured alive, than fall into the merciless claws of the
priests, and be carried into the Inquisition. I added,
that otherwise I was persuaded, if they were all
here, we might, with so many hands, build a bark
large enough to carry us all away either to the Bra-
sils southward, or the islands or Spanish coast north-
ward: 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 their condition was so miserable, and
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 con-
ditions with them upon their solemn oath, that they
would be absolutely under my leading, as their com-
mander and captain; and that they should swear
upon the holy Sacraments and Gospel, to be true to
me, and go to such Christian country as I should
agree to, and no other; and to be directed wholly
and absolutely by my orders, till they were landed
safely in such country as I intended; and that he
would bring a contract from them under their hands
for that purpose.
Then he told me, he would first swear to me him-
self, that he would never stir from me as long as he
lived, till I gave him orders; and that he would take
my side to the last drop of blood, if there should
happen the least breach of faith among his country-
men.
He told me, they were all of them very civil ho-
nest 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
267
Important domestic arrangements.
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 Spa-
niard himself started an objection, which had so
much prudence in it on one hand, and so much sin-
cerity on the other hand, that I could not but be very
well satisfied in it; and, by his advice, put off the
deliverance of his comrades for at least half a year,
The case was thus:
He had been with us now about a month; during
which time I had let him see in what manner I had
provided, with the assistance of Providence, for my
support; and he saw evidently what stock of corn
and rice I had laid up; which, as it was more than
sufficient for myself, so it was not sufficient, at least
without good husbandry, for my family, now it was
increased to number 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 Chris-
tian colonies of America. So he told me he thought
it would be more advisable to let him and the other
two dig and cultivate some more land, as much as I
could spare seed to sow; and that we should wait
another harvest, that we might have a supply of corn
for his countrymen when they should come; for want
might be a temptation to them to disagree, or not to
think themselves delivered, otherwise than out of
one difficulty into another: "You know," says he,
"the children of Israel, though they rejoiced at
first at their being delivered out of Egypt, yet re-
belled even against God himself, that delivered
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3
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them, when they came to want bread in the wilder
ness.
His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so
good, that I could not but be very well pleased with
his proposal, as well as I was satisfied with his fide-
lity. So we fell to digging, all four of us, as well as
the wooden tools we were furnished with permitted;
and in about a month's time, by the end of which it
was seed-time, we had 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 barley sufficient for our own food
for the six months that we had to expect our crop,
that is to say, reckoning from the time we set our
seed aside for sowing; for it is not to be supposed,
it is six months in the ground in that country.
Having now society enough, and our number be-
ing 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
Spaniard, to whom I imparted my thoughts on that
affair, to oversee and direct their work: I showed
him 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
269
}
Preparations for a visit to the main land.
purpose I made Friday and the Spaniard go out one
day, and myself with Friday the next day, for we
took our turns: and by this means we got about
twenty young kids to breed upon with the rest; for
whenever we shot the dam, we saved the kids, and
added them to our flock; but above all, the season
for curing the grapes coming on, I caused such a
prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun, that I
believe, had we been at Alicant, where the raisins of
the sun are cured, we 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 nourishing 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 thrashed out above two hundred and
twenty bushels, and the like in proportion of the rice,
which was store enough for our food to the next
harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had been
on shore with me; or, if we had been ready for a
voyage, it would very plentifully have victualled our
ship, to have carried us to any part of the world, that
is to say, 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 attack,
the person he should find in the island, who was so
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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 command;
and that this should be put in writing, and signed
with their hands: how we were to have this done,
when I knew they had neither pen or ink, that in-
deed was a question which we never asked.
Under these instructions, the Spaniard, and the
old savage (the father of Friday), went away in one
of the canoes, which they might be said to come in,
or rather were brought in, when they came as pri-
soners 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 ocea-
sions.
This was a cheerful work, being the first measures
used by me in view of my deliverance for now twenty-
seven years and some days. I gave them provisions
of bread, and of dried grapes, sufficient for them-
selves for many days, and sufficient for their country-
men 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 re-
cover it again; nor had I kept even the number of
years so punctually, as to be sure that I was right,
though, as it proved when I afterwards examined
my account, I found I had kept a true reckoning of
years.
It was no less than eight days I waited for them,
when a strange and unforeseen accident intervened,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
271
Crusoe is surprised at the appearance of a strange ship.
of which the like has not, perhaps, been heard of in
history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one morn-
ing, 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 the
shore, with a shoulder-of-mutton-sail, as they call it,
and the wind blowing pretty fair to bring them in.-
Also I observed presently, that they did not come
from that side which the shore lay on, but from the
southernmost end of the island. 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 perspec
tive-glass, to see what I could make of them; and
having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top
of the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive
of any thing, and to take my view the plainer with-
out being discovered.
I had scarce set my foot on,the hill, when my eye
plainly discovered a ship lying at an anchor, at about
two leagues and a half'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 En-
glish ship, and the boat appeared to be an English
long-boat.
I
I cannot express the confusion I was in, though
the joy of seeing a ship, and one which I had rea-
son to believe was manned by my own countrymen,
and consequently friends, was such as I cannot de-
scribe; but yet I had some secret doubts hung about
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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me, I cannot tell from whence they came, bidding
me keep upon my guard. In the first place, it oc-
curred to me to consider what business an English
ship could have in that part of the world; since it
was not the way to or from any part of the world
where the English had any traffic; and I knew there
had been no 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 to continue as I was,
than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers.
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of
danger, which sometimes are given him when he
may think there is no possibility of its being real.-
That such hints and notices are given us, I believe
few that have made any observation of things can
deny; that they are certain discoveries of an invisi-
ble world, and a converse of spirits we cannot doubt;
and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us
of danger, why should we not suppose they are from
some friendly agent (whether supreme, or inferior
and subordinate, is not the question), and that they
are given for our good?
The present question abundantly confirms me in
the justice of this reasoning; for had I not been
made cautious by this secret admonition, come from
whence it will, I had been undone inevitably, and
in a far worse condition than before, as you will see
presently.
I had not kept myself long in this posture, but I
saw the boat draw near the shore, as if they looked
for a creek to thrust in at for the convenience of land-
ing; however, as they did not come quite far enough,
they did not see the little inlet where I had formerly
landed my rafts, but ran their boat on shore upon the
beach, at about half a mile from me, which was very
happy for me; for otherwise they would have landed
just, as I may say, at my door, and would have soon
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
273
Eleven men land out of the boat.
beaten me out of my castle, and, perhaps, have
plundered me of all I had.
When they were on shore, I was fully satisfied
they were Englishmen, at least most of them; one
or two I thought were Dutch, but it did not prove
so. There were in all eleven men, whereof three
of them I found were unarmed, and (as I thought)
bound; and when the first four or five of them were
jumped on shore, they took those three out of the
boat as prisoners: one of the three I could perceive
using the most passionate gestures of entreaty, af-
fliction 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 presently confounded at the sight, and knew
not what the meaning of it should be: Friday call-
ed out to me in English, as well as he could, "O
master! ye see Englishmans eat prisoners as well
as savage mans."-" Why," said I, "Friday, do
you think they are going to eat them then ?"--"Yes,"
says Friday, they will eat them."-" No, no,"
said 1," Friday; I am afraid they will murder
them indeed; but you may be sure they will not eat
them."
6:6
All this while I had no thought of what the mat-
ter 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 undiscovered within shot of them,
that I might have rescued the three men; for I saw
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no fire-arms they had among them; but it fell out
to my mind another way.
After I had observed the outrageous usage of the
three men by the insolent seamen, I observed the
fellows run scattering about the island, as if they
wanted to see the country. I observed 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 lost, how wildly I looked
round me, what dreadful apprehensions I had, and
how I lodged in the tree all night for fear of being
devoured by wild beasts.
As I knew nothing that night of the supply I was
to receive by the providential driving of the ship
nearer the land, by the storms and tides, by which
I have since been so long nourished and supported ;
so these three poor desolate men knew nothing how
certain of deliverance and supply they were, how
near it was to them, and how effectually and really
they were in a condition of safety, at the same time
they thought themselves lost, and their case despe-
rate.
So little do we see before us in the world, and so
much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the
great Maker of the world, that he does not leave his
creatures so absolutely destitute, but that in the
worst circumstances they have always something to
be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer their de-
liverance 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
275
1
Crusoe prepares himself for an engagement.
they were in, they had carelessly staid till the tide
was spent, and the water was ebbed considerably
away, leaving their boat a-ground.
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
a-ground 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 likę
a quicksand.
In this condition, like true seamen, who are, per-
haps, the least of all mankind given to fore-thought,
they gave it over, and away they strolled about the
country again; and I heard one of them say aloud to
another (calling them off from the boat), Why,
let her alone, Jack, can't ye? she'll float next tide.
By which I was fully confirmed 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 fortified. 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 him-
self 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
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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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 attempt till it was dark; but about two
o'clock, being the heat of the day, I found that in
short they were all gone straggling into the woods,
and, as I thought, were all laid down to sleep. The
three poor distressed men, too anxious for their con-
dition to get any sleep, were, however, set down un-
der 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. Immedi-
ately I marched in the figure above, my man Friday
at a good distance behind me, as formidable for his
arms as I, but not making quite so staring a spectre-
like figure as I did.
I came as near them undiscovered as I could, and
then, before any of them saw me, I called aloud to
them in Spanish, "What are ye, gentlemen?”
They started up at the noise, but were ten times
more confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth
figure that I made: they made no answer at all, but
I thought I perceived them just going to fly from
me, when I spoke to them in English: "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 Hea-
ven then," said one of them very gravely to me, pul-
ling 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.
">
The poor man, with tears running down his face,
I
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
277
Crusoe and the captain mutually explain.
and trembling, looking like one astonished, returned,
"Am I talking to God or man? Is it a real man or
an angel?" "Be in no fear about that, sir," said I,
"if God had sent an angel to relieve you, he would
have come better clothed, and armed after another
manner than you see me in; pray lay aside your fears,
I am a man, an Englishman, and disposed to assist
you; you see I have one servant only; we have arms
and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serve you?
What is your case?"
"Our case," said he, "sir, is too long to tell you,
while our murderers are so near; but, in short, sir,
I was commander of that ship; my men having mu-
tinied against me, they have been hardly prevailed
on not to murder me, and at last have set me on shore
in this desolate place, with these two men with me,
one my mate, the other a passenger, where we ex-
pected to perish, believing the place to be uninha-·
bited, 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."
66
"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 pri-
soners?" He told me there were two desperate vil-
lains among them, that it was scarce safe to show any
mercy to; but if they were secured, he believed all
the rest would return to their duty: I asked him,
which they were? He told me, he could not at that
distance describe them: but he would obey my or-
ders 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 wil
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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lingly 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 so-
ever I would send him; and the two other men said
the same.
(6
"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 occasions give
them up to me, and do no prejudice to me or mine,
upon this island, and in the mean time to be governed
by my orders.
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
and faith of a man could devise, that he would com-
ply with these most reasonable demands, and, be-
sides, would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it
upon all occasions as long as he lived.
"Well then," said I, "here are three muskets for
you, with powder and ball; tell me next what you
think is proper to be done." He showed all the tes-
timony of his gratitude that he was able; but offered
to be wholly guided by me: I told him, I thought it
was hard venturing any thing, but the best method I
could think of, was to fire upon them at once, as they
lay; and if any were not killed at the first volley,
aud 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
279
Two of the ringleaders killed.
be undone still; for they would go on board, and
bring the whole ship's company, and destroy us all.
"Well, then," said 1, "necessity legitimates my
advice; for it is the only way to save our lives."
However, seeing him still cautions of shedding
blood, I told him, they should go themselves, and
manage as they found convenient.
In the middle of this discourse we heard some of
them awake, and soon after we saw two of them on
their feet. I asked him, if either of them were the
men who he had said were the heads of the mutiny?
He said, "No."----" Well then," said I, "
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, nade 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 ea-
gerly 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 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
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-
swear to be faithful to him in recovering the ship, and
afterwards in carrying her back to Jamaica, from
whence they came. They gave him all the protes-
tations 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 cap-
tain's mate to the boat, with orders to secure her, and
bring away the oars and sails, which they did; and
by and by three straggling men that were (happily for
them), parted from the rest, came back upon hearing.
the guns fired; and seeing their captain, who before
was their prisoner, now their conqueror, they submit-
ted to be bound also; and so our victory was complete.
It now remained, that the captain and I should in-
quire into one another's circumstances: I began first,
and told him my whole history, which he heard with
an attention even to amazement, and particularly at
the wonderful manner of my being furnished with
provisions and ammunition; and indeed, as my story
is a whole collection of wonders, it affected him
deeply; but when he reflected from thence upon him-
self, and how I seemed to have been preserved there
on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down his
face, and he could not speak a word more.
After this communication was at an end, I carried
him and his two men into my 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 for-
tification; and how perfectly I had concealed my re-
treat with a grove of trees, which, having now been
planted neartwenty years, and the trees growing much
faster than in England, was become a little wood, and
2.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
281
Precautionary measures adopted by Crusoe.
so thick, that it was unpassable in any part of it, but
at that one side where I had reserved my little wind-
ing passage into it: this I told him was my castle, and
my residence; but that I had a seat in the country,
as most princes have, whither I could retreat upon
occasion, and I would show him that too another
time; but at present our business was to consider how
to recover the ship. He agreed with me as to that;
but told me, he was perfectly at a loss what measure
to take; for that there were still six-and-twenty hands
on board, who having entered into a cursed conspi-
racy, by which they had all forfeited their lives to
the law, would be hardened in it now by desperation;
and would carry it on, knowing that, if they were re-
duced, 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 at-
tacking 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 spee-
dily, as well to draw the men on board into some
snare for their surprise, as to prevent their landing
upon us, and destroying us. Upon this it presently
occurred to me, that in a little while, the ship's crew
wondering what was become of their comrades, and
of the boat, would certainly come on shore in their
other boat to 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, leaving her so far useless as not to
be fit to swim; accordingly we went on board, took
the arms which were left on board out of her, and
whatever else we found there, which was a bottle of
brandy, and another of rum, a few biscuit cakes, a
horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar in a piece
10
20
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of canvas; the sugar was five or six pounds; all which
was very welcome to me, especially the brandy and
sugar, of which I had had none left for many years.
When we had carried all these things on shore (the
oars, mast, sail, and rudder of the boat were carried
before as above), we knocked a great hole in her
bottom, that if they had come strong enough to mas-
ter us, yet they could not carry off the boat.
Indeed it was not much in my thoughts, that we
could be capable to recover the ship; but my view
was, that if they went away without the boat, I did
not much question to make her fit again to carry us
away to the Leeward Islands, and call upon our
friends the Spaniards in my way, for I had them still
in my thoughts.
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 a gun, and saw her make a waft with her
ancient, as a signal for the boat to come on board;
but no boat stirred; and they fired several times,
making other signals for the boat.
At last, when all their signals and firings proved
fruitless, and they found the boat did not stir, we saw
them (by the help of 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 captain knew the persons and characters of
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
288
The dejection of the captain.
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 overpow-
ered 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 enterprise; and terribly apprehensive he was,
that they would be too powerful for us.
I smiled at him, and told him, that men in our cir-
cumstances were past the operations of fear: that
seeing almost every condition that could be was bet-
ter 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?
“And where, sir," said I, "is your belief of my being
preserved here on purpose to save your life, which
elevated you a little while ago? For my part," said I,
there seems to be but one thing amiss in all the
prospect of it." What'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 cheerful
countenance, I found it greatly encouraged him; so
we set vigorously to our business. We had, upon the
first appearance of the boat's coming from the ship,
.considered of separating our prisoners, and had in-
deed secured them effectually.
Two of them, of whom the captain was less as-
sured than ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of
the three (delivered men) to my cave, where they
were remote enough, and out of danger of being
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heard or discovered, or of finding their way out of
the woods, if they could have delivered themselves:
here they left them bound, but gave them provisions,
and promised them, if they continued there quietly,
to give them their liberty in a day or two; but that if
they attempted their escape, they should be put to
death without mercy. They promised faithfully to
bear their confinement with patience, and were very
thankful that they had such good usage as to have
provisions and a light left them; for Friday gave them
candles (such as we made ourselves) for their com-
fort; and they did not know but that he stood senti-
nel over them at the entrance.
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them
were kept pinioned indeed, because the captain was
not free to trust them; but the other two were taken
into
my service 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 awhile upon this, they set
up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all their
might, to try if they could make their companions hear,
but all was to no purpose: then they came all close
in a ring, and fired a volley of their small arms, which
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
285
Consternation of the mutineers at seeing their boat destroyed.
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, and the
long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately
launched the boat again, and got all of them on board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and even con-
founded at this, believing they would go on board
the ship again and set sail, giving their comrades 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.
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 sure to weigh, and set sail, and so our re-
covering the ship would be lost.
However, we had no remedy but to wait and see
what the issue of things might present. The seven
men came on shore, and the three who remained in
the boat put her off to a good distance from the shore,
and came to an anchor to wait for them; so that it
was impossible for us to come at them in the boat.
Those that came on shore kept close together,march-
ing towards the top of the little hill, under which my
habitation lay; and we could see them plainly, though
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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 ven-
ture 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 apprehen-
sions 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 consultation of theirs; viz. that perhaps they
would all fire a volley again, to endeavour to make
their fellows hear, and that we should all sally upon
them, just at the juncture when their pieces were all
discharged, and they would certainly yield, and we
should have them without bloodshed. I liked 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 between them and the shore, and so might use
some stratagem with them in the boat, to get them
on shore.
We waited a great while, though very impatient
for their removing, and were very uneasy; when,
after long consultations, we saw them start all
and march down toward the sea: it seems, they had
such dreadful apprehensions upon them of the danger
up,
t
287
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
They are drawn into the interior of the island.
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,
Fimagined it to be as it really was; that they had given
over their search, and were for going back again;
and the captain, as soon as I told him my thoughts,
was ready to sink at the apprehensions of it; but I
presently thought of a stratagem to fetch them back
again, and which answered my end to a tittle.
I ordered Friday and the captain's mate, to go
over the little creek westward, towards the place
where the savages came on shore when Friday was
rescued and as soon as they came to a little rising
ground, at about half a mile'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 re-
turn it again, and then, keeping out of sight, take
a round, always answering when the others hallooed,
to draw them as far into the island, and among the
woods, as possible, and then wheel about again to
me, by such ways as I directed.
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 pre-
sently stopped by the creek, where the water being
up, they could not get over, and called for the boat
to come up, and set them over, as indeed I expected.
When they had set themselves over, I observed
that the boat being gone up a good way into the creek,
and as it were in an harbour within the land, they
took one of the three men out of her to go along
with them, and left only two in the boat, having fas-
tened her to the stump of a little tree on the shore.
This was what I wished for, and immediately leav-
ing Friday and the captain's mate to their business, I
took the rest with me, and crossing the creek out of
•
288 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
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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 be-
tween sleeping and waking, and going to start up,
the captain, who was foremost, ran in upon him and
knocked him down, and then called out to him in.
the boat to yield, or he was a dead man.
There needed very few arguments to persuade a
single man to yield, when he saw five men upon him,
and his comrade knocked down; besides, this was,
it seems, one of the three who were not so hearty in
the mutiny as the rest of the crew, and therefore was
easily persuaded not only to yield, but afterwards
to join very sincerely with us.
In the mean time, Friday and the captain's mate.
so well managed their business with the rest, that
they drew them, by hallooing and answering, from
one hill to another, and from one wood to another,
till they not only heartily tired them, but left them
where they were very sure they could not reach back
to the boat before it was dark; and indeed they were
heartily tired themselves also by the time they came
back to us.
We had nothing now to do but, to watch for them
in the dark, and to fall 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 impos-
sible to express their confusion, when they found the
boat fast aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and
their two men gone: we could hear them call to one
another in a most lamentable manner, telling one an-
other they were gotten into an enchanted island; that
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
289
The boatswain and one of the ringleaders killed.
either there were inhabitants in it, and they should all
be murdered; or else there were devils or spirits in
it, and they should be all carried away and devoured.
They hallooed again, and called their two com-
rades by their names a great many times, but no
answer: after some time we could see them, by the
little light there was, run about wringing their hands,
like men in despair; and that sometimes they would
go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves, then
come ashore, and walk about again, and so the same
thing over again.
?
My men would fain have had me given them leave
to fall upon them at once in the dark; but I was wil-
ling to take them at some advantage, so to spare
them, and kill as few of them as I could; and espe-
cially 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 sepa-
rate; and therefore, to make sure of them, I drew my
ambuscade nearer; and ordered Friday and the
captain to creep upon their hands and feet as close to
the ground as they could, that they might not be dis-
covered, and get as near them as they could possi-
bly, before they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture, when the
boatswain, who was the principal ringleader of the
mutiny, and had now shown himself the most de-
jected and dispirited of all the rest, came, walking
towards them with two more of the crew; the captain
was so eager, at having the principal rogue so much
in his power, that he could hardly have patience to
let him come so near as to be sure of him; for 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 run for it.
10
2 P
1
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At the noise of the fire, I immediately advanced
with my whole army, which was now eight men; viz.
myself generalissimo; Friday my lieutenant-general;
the captain and his two men, and the three prisoners
of war, whom he 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 immediately, "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 moment."
"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 hunt-
ing 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,
(C
You, Smith, you know my voice, if you lay down
your arms immediately and submit, you shall have
your lives, all but Will Atkins."
Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake,
captain, give me quarter: what have I done? they
have been all as bad as I." (which by the way was
not true; for it seems this Will Atkins was the first
man that laid hold of the captain when they first
mutinied, and used him barbarously, in tying his
hands, and giving him injurious language.) However,
}
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
291
L
!
They prepare for retaking the ship.
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 beg-
ged 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 all but eight, came up and
seized upon them all, and upon their boat, only that
I kept myself and one more out of sight, for reasons
of state.
Our next work was to repair the boat, and to think
of seizing the ship; and as for the captain, now he
had leisure to parley with them, 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.
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 supposed he would
send them to England, to be dealt with there as jus-
tice required, except Atkins, whom he was com-
manded 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 desired effect. Atkins fell upon his knees to beg
the captain to intercede with the governor for his
life; and all the rest begged of him for God's sake,
that they might not be sent to England.
It now occurred to me, that the time of our deli-
verance was come, and that it would be a most easy
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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 gover-
nor they had, and called the captain to me: when I
called, as at a good distance, one of the men was
ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, "Cap-
tain, the commander calls for you;" and presently.
the 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 seizing the ship, which he liked wonder-
fully 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 pinioned, the place was se-
cure enough, considering they were upon their be-
haviour,
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who
was to enter into a parley with them; in a word, to
try them, and tell me whether he thought they might
be trusted or no, to go on board and surprise the ship.
He talked to them of the injury done him, of the con-
dition they were brought to; and that though the
governor had given them quarter for their lives as to
the present action, yet that if they were sent to Eng-
land, they would all be hanged in chains to be sure;
•
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
293
Measures adopted for recovering the vessel.
that if they would join in such an attempt as to re-
cover the ship, he would have the governor's en-
gagement for their pardon.
Any one may guess how readily such a proposal
would be accepted by men in their condition: they
fell down on their knees to the captain, and pro-
mised 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.
66
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 un-
faithful in the execution, the five hostages should be
hanged in chains alive upon the shore.
This looked severe, and convinced them that the
governor was in earnest; however, they had no way
left them but to accept it; and it was now the busi-
ness of the prisoners, as much as of the captain, to
persuade the other five to do their duty.
1
Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedi
tion: 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.
3, The
other two whom I kept till now in my bower pinioned;
but, upon the captain's motion, had now released.
4, These five released at last; so that they were
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!
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 asun-
der, and supply them with victuals.
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 necessaries; and I made the other two
carry provisions to a certain distance, where Friday
was to take it.
When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was
with the captain, who told them, I was the person
the governor had ordered to look after them, and
that it was the governor's pleasure 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 contrived
their business very well; for they came up to the
ship about midnight. As soon as they came within
call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and
tell them he had brought off the men and the boat,
but that it was a long time before they had found
them, and the like; holding them in chat, till they
came to the ship's side; when the captain and the
mate, entering first with their arms, immediately
knocked down the second mate and carpenter with
the but end of their muskets; being very faithfully
seconded by their men, they secured all the rest that
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
295
The mutineers are completely subdued.
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, enter-
ing at the fore-chains, 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 ordered 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-arins in their
hands; and when the mate with a crow split open
the door, the new captain with 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 captain through the head, the
bullets entering at his mouth, and came out again be-
hind 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 suc-
cess; which you may be sure I was very glad to
hear, having sat watching upon the shore for it, till
near two o'clock in the morning.
Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down;
and it having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept
very sound, till I was something surprised with the
noise of a gun; and presently starting up, I heard a
man call me by the name of governor, governor; and
presently I knew the captain's voice; when climbing
up to the top of the hill, there he stood, and pointing
to the ship, be 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
296
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The Journal.
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 sur-
prise; 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 ine:
after I drank it, I sat down upon the ground, and
though it brought me to myself, yet it was a good
while before I could speak a word to him.
All this while the poor man was in as great an
ecstasy as 1, only not under any surprise, as I was;
and he said a thousand kind tender things to me, to
compose and bring me to myself; but such was the
flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits
into confusion: at last it broke 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 deli-
ver me, and that the whole transaction seemed to be
a chain of wonders; and such things as these were
the testimonies we had of a secret hand of Providence
governing the world, and an evidence that the eyes
of an infinite Power could search into the remotest
corner of the world, and send help to the miserable
whenever he pleased.
I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
297
The captain evinces his gratitude towards Crusoe.
Heaven; and what heart could forbear to bless him,
who had not only in a miraculous 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 awhile, the captain told me
he had 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 go-
vernor; 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 cordial waters; six large bottles of Ma-
deira wine, the bottles held two quarts a-piece; two
pounds of excellent good tobacco; twelve good
pieces of the ship's beef; and six pieces of pork, with
a bag of peas, and about a hundred weight of biscuit.
He 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 imagine, to one in my circumstances; but
never was any thing in the world of that kind so un-
pleasant, 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 considering
:
11
2 Q
298
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The Journal.
whether we might venture to take them away with us
or no, especially two of thein, 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
delivered over to justice at the first English colony
he could come at; and I found that the captain him-
self 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.

66
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 discharged, their com-
rades having performed their promise; I say, I
caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the five
men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep
them there till I came.
A
After some time, I came thither dressed in my new
habit, and now I was called governor again. Being
ali met, and the captain with me, I caused the men
to be brought before me, and I told them, I had had
a full account of their villanous behaviour to the
captain, and how they had run away with the ship,
and were preparing to commit farther robberies, but
that Providence had ensnared them in their own
ways, and that they were fallen into the pit which
they had digged for others.
J
I let them know, that by my direction the ship had
-been seized, that she lay now in the road, and they
might see by and by, that their new captain had re-
ceived the reward of his villany; 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
J
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
299
Crusoe prepares to embark for England.
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 prisoners in
irons, to be tried for mutiny, and running away with
the ship; the consequence of which they must needs
know, would be the gallows; so that I could not tell:
which was best for them, unless they had a mind to
take their fate in the island; if they desired thạt, k
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 thank-
ful 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 diffi-
culty of it, as if he durst not leave them there: upou
this I seemed to be a little angry with the captain,
and told him that they were my prisoners, not his;
and that seeing I had offered them so much 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 ammuni-
tion, 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 pre-
!
300
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The Journal.
pare 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
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 cer-
tainly be hanged: I showed them their captain hang-
ing 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 sixteen Spaniards that
were to be expected; for whom I left a letter, and
made them promise to treat them in common with
themselves.
!
I left them my fire-armis, viz. five muskets, three
fowling-pieces, and three swords: I had about a bar-
rel 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 di-
rections to milk and fatten them, to make both but-
ter 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 off; also I gave them the
bag of peas which the captain had brought me to eat,
and bade them be sure to sow and increase them.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
301
Crusoe takes his final leave of the island,
Having done all this, I left them the next day, and
went on board the ship: we prepared immediately
to sail, but did not weigh that night: the next morn-
ing early two of the five men came swimming to the
ship's side, and making a most lamentable complaint
of the other three, begged to be taken into the ship
for God's sake, for they should be murdered; and
begged the captain to take them on board though he
hanged them immediately.
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 encouraged
them, by telling them, that if it lay in my way to
send a vessel to take them in, I would not forget
them.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on
board for relics the great goat-skin cap I had made,
my umbrella, and one of my parrots; also I forgot
not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which
had lain by me so long useless that it was grown
rusty, or tarnished, and could hardly pass for silver,
till it had been a little rubbed and handled; and also
the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship,
And thus I left the island the nineteenth of De-
cember, 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 barco-longo, from
among the Moors of Sallee.
In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in
302
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
:
He arrives in England, and finds some of his family living.
England the eleventh of June, in the year 1687, hav-
ing 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 little for her:
but I assured her, I would never forget her former
kindness to me; nor did I forget. her, when I had
sufficient to help her; as shall be observed in its place.
I went down afterwards into Yorkshire; but my
father was dead, and my mother, and all the family
extinct; except that I found two sisters, and two of
the children of one of my brothers: and as I had
been long ago given over for dead, there had been no
provision made for me, so that, in a word, I found
nothing to relieve or assist me; and that little money.
I had would not do much for me as to settling in
the world.
I met with one piece of gratitude indeed, which I
did not expect; and this was, that the master of the
ship, whom I had so happily delivered, and by the
same means saved the ship and cargo, having given a
very handsome account to the owners, of the manner
how I had saved the lives of the men, and the ship,
they invited me to meet them, and some other mer-
chants concerned, and all together made me a very
handsome compliment upon that subject, and a pre-
sent of almost two hundred pounds sterling,
But after making several reflections upon the cir-
cumstances 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 in-
ROBINSON CRUSOE
803
He sails for Lisbou.
formation of the state of my plantations in the
Brasils, and what was become of my partner, who,
I had reason to suppose, 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 accom-
panying 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
Brasil trade. The old man did not know me, and,
indeed, I hardly knew him; but I soon brought my-
self to his remembrance, when I told him who I was.
After some passionate expressions of our old ac-
quaintance, I inquired, you may be sure, after my
plantation and my partner: the old man told me he
had not been in the Brasils for about nine years; but
that he could assure me, that when he came away,
my partner was living; but 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 improvement of the
plantation; for that, upon the general belief of my
being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given
in the account of the produce of my part of the
plantation, to the procurator fiscal; who had appro-
priated it, in case I never came to claim it, one-third
to the king, and two-thirds to the monastery of St.
Augustine, to be expended for the benefit of the poor,
and for the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic
faith; but that if I appeared, or any one for me, to
claim the inheritance, it would be restored: only
that the improvement, or annual production, being
distributed to charitable uses, could not be restored;
but he assured me, that the steward of the king's
304
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Obtains an account of his property in the Brasils.
revenue (from lands), and the provedore, or steward
of the monastery, had taken great care all along,
that the incumbent, that is to say, my partner, gave
every year a faithful account of the produce, of which
they received duly my moiety.
I asked him, if he knew to what height of improve-
ment 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 obstruc-
tion to my possessing my just right in the moiety.
He told me, he could not tell exactly to what de-
gree the plantation was improved; but this he knew,
that my partner was growing 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 monastery, or religious house, amounted
to above two hundred moidores a year; that, as to
my being restored to a quiet possession of it, there
was no question to be made of that, my partner be-
ing alive to witness my title, and my name being also
enrolled in the register of the country. Also he told
me, that the survivors of my two trustees were very
fair honest people, and very wealthy, and he believed
I would not only have their assistance for putting me
in possession, but would find a very considerable sum
of money in their hands for my account, being the
produce of the farm while their fathers held the
trust, and before it was given up, as above, which,
as he remembered, was about twelve years.
I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at
this account, and inquired of the old captain how it
came to pass, that the trustees should thus dispose
of my effects, when he knew that I had made my
will, and had made him, the Portuguese captain, my
universal heir, &c.
He told me that was true; but that, as there was
no proof of my being dead, he could not act as exe-
cutor, until some certain account should come of my
1
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
305
Honesty of the Portuguese captain.
death; and that, besides, he was not willing to in-
termeddle with a thing so remote: that it was true,
he had registered my will, and put in his claim; and
could he give any account of my being dead or alive,
he would have acted by procuration, and taken pos-
session of the ingenio (so they called the sugar-
house), and had given his son, who was now at the
Brasils, order to do it.
66
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 be-
lieving 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 increasing
the works, building an ingenio, and buying slaves,
it did not amount to near so much as afterwards it
produced however," says the old man, "I shall
give you a true account of what I have received in
all, and how I have disposed of it."
After a few days' farther conference with this an-
cient friend, he brought me an account of the six first
years' income of my plantation, signed by my part-
ner, and the merchant trustees, being always deli-
vered in goods: viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in
chests, besides rum, molasses, &c. which is the con-
sequence of a sugar-work; and I found by this ac-
count, that every year the income considerably in-
creased: but, 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.
The good man then began to complain of his mis-
fortunes, and how he had been obliged to make use
of my money to recover his losses, and buy him a
11
2 R
306
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe prefers his claim to the plantation in the Brasils.
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.
""
F
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 Brasils 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 kind-
ness 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 from
weeping at what he said to me: therefore first I
asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare
so much money at that time, and if it would not
straiten him? He told me he could not say but it
might straiten him a little; but, however, it was my
money, and I might want it more than he..
·
Every thing the good man said was full of affec-
tion, and I could hardly refrain from tears while he
spoke. In short, I took one hundred of the moidores,
and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for
them; then I returned him the rest, and told him, if
ever I had possession of the plantation, I would re-
turn the other to him also, as indeed I afterwards did;
and that as to the bill of sale of his part in his son's
ship, I would not take it by any means; but that if
I wanted the money, I found he was honest enough
to pay me; and if I did not, but came to 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 him, I thought to go over
to it myself. He said, I might do so if I pleased;
1
· ROBINSON CRUSOE.
307
His prosperous circumstances.
but that if I did not, there were ways enough to
sedure my right, and immediately to appropriate the
profits to my use; and as there were ships in the ri-
ver of Lisbon just ready to go to Brasil, he made
ine enter my name in a public register, with his affi-
davit, 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 acquaint-
ance 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 upon this procuration; for in less than
seven months I received a large packet from the sur-
vivors of my trustees, the merchants, on whose ac-
count I went to sea, in which were the following par-
ticular letters and papers enclosed.
First, There was the account current of the pro-
duce of my farm, or plantation, from the year when
their fathers had balanced with my old Portuguese
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, be-
fore 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 cru-
sadoes, which made 3241 moidores.
Thirdly, There was the prior of the Augustines'
account, who had received the profits for above four-
teen years; but not being able to account for what
was disposed to the hospital, very honestly declared
he had 872 moidores not distributed, which he ac-
knowledged to my account. As to the king's part,
that refunded nothing.
There was also a letter of my partner's, congratu̟-
308
(
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
J
Singularly affected by the arrival of his property.
lating me very affectionately upon my being aliver
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
passionately to come over and take possession of
my own, and in the mean time to give him orders to
whom he should deliver my effects, if I did not
come myself; concluding with a hearty tender of his
friendship, and that of his family; and sent me as a
present seven fine leopards' skins, which he had, it
seems, received from Africa by some other ship
which he had sent thither; and who, it seems, had
made a better voyage than I. He sent me also five
chests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces
of gold uncoined, not quite so large as 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 impos-
sible to express the flutterings of my very heart,
when I looked over these letters, and especially when
I found all my wealth about me; for as the Brasil
ships come all in fleets, the same ships which brought
my letters brought my goods; and the effects were
safe in the Tagus before the 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 be-
lieve the sudden surprise of joy had overset na-
ture, 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 some-
thing of the real cause of my illness being known,
he ordered me to be let blood, after which I had re-
lief, and grew well; but I verily believe, if it had
}
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
309
Crusoe's kindness to the Portuguese captain.
not been eased by the vent given in that nanner to
the spirits, I should have died.
9 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 Brasils, of above
al thousand pounds a-year, as sure as an estate of
lands in England; and, in a word, I was in a con-
dition 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 origi-
nal 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. Ishow-
ed him all that was sent me; I told him, that, next
to the providence of Heaven, which disposes all
things, it was owing to him, and that it now lay on
me to reward him, which I would do a hundred-fold.
So I first returned to him the hundred moidores 1
had received of him; then I sent for a notary, and
caused him to draw up a general release or discharge
for the our hundred and seventy moidores which he
had acknowledged he owed me, in the fullest and
firmest männer 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 hundred
moidores a-year to him during his life, out of the
effects; and fifty moidores a-year to his son after
him, for his life. And thus I requited my old man.
I was now to consider which way to steer my
Course next, and what to do with the 'estate that
Providence had thus put into my hands; and, in-
odeed, 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
(
+
་
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LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
He is at a loss how to dispose of his property.
2
never a cave to hide my money in, or a place whéré
it might lie without lock or key, till it grew mouldy
and tarnished before any body would meddle with
it. On the contrary, I knew not where to put it, or
whom to trust with it; my old patrou, the captain,
indeed, was honest, and that was the only refuge 1 had.
In the next place, any interest in the Brasils seem
ed to summon me thither; but now I coulâ not tell
how to think of going thither till I had settled my
affairs, and left my effects in some safe hands behind
me. At first I thought of my old friend the widow,
who, I knew, was honest, and would be just to me;
but then she was in years, and but poor, and, for
aught I knew might be in debt; so that, in a word,
I had no way but to go back to England myself, and
take my effects with me.
I was some mouths, however, before I resolved
upon this; and therefore as I had rewarded the old
captain fully, and to satisfaction, who had been my
former benefactor, so I began to think of my poor
widow, whose husband had been my first benefactor,
and she, while it was in her power, my faithful stew-
ard 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.
*
ช
But among all ny relations or acquaintances, I
could not yet pitch upon one to whom I durst com-
mit the gross of my stock, that I might go away to
the Brasils, and leave things safe behind me; and
this greatly perplexed me.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
311
His religious scruples.
I had once a mind to have gone to the Brasils, and
have settled myself there, for I was, as it were, na-
turalized to the place; but I had some little scruple
in my mind about religion, which insensibly 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 scru-
ple of being openly of the religion of the country,
all the while I was among them, so neither did I yet;
only
that now and then having of late thought more
of it than formerly, when I began to think of living
and dying among them, I began to regret my having
professed my self a Papist, and thought it might not
be the best religion to die in.
But, as I have said, this was not the main thing
that kept me from going to the Brasils, but that really
I did not know with whom to leave my effects be-
hind me; so I resolved at last to go to England with
them, where, if I arrived, I concluded I should
make some acquaintance, or find some relatious 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 Brasil fleet being just going away) resolved
to give answers suitable to the just and faithful ac-
count of things I had from thence; and first, to the
prior of St. Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks
for his just dealings, and the offer of the eight hun-
dred and seventy-two moidores, which was undis-
posed of, which I desired might be given, five hun-
dred to the monastery, and three hundred and seven-
ty-two to the poor, as the prior should direct, desiring
the good padre's prayers for me, and the like.
I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees,
with all the acknowledgment that so much justice
and honesty called for; as for sending them any pre-
sent, they were far above having any occasion of it.
Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his
industry in improving the plantation, and his integrity
in increasing the stock of the works, giving him in-
312
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
A man should not slight the strong impulse of his own mind.
structions for his future government of my part ac-
cording to the powers I had left with my old patron,
to whom I desired him to send whatever became due
to me, till he should hear from me more particularly;
assuring him, that it was my intention, not only to
come to him, but to settle myself there for the re-
mainder of my life. To this I added a very hand-
some 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 Lisbon, five pieces of
black baize, and some Flanders lace of a good value.
Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and
turned all my effects into good bills of exchange,
my next difficulty was, which way to go to England.
I had been accustomed enough to the sea, and yet
I had a strange aversion to go to England by sea at
that time; and though I could give no reason for it,
yet the difficulty increased upon me so much, that
though I had once shipped my baggage in order to
go, yet I altered my mind, and that not once, but
two or three times.
It is true, I had been very unfortunate by sea, and
this might be one of the reasons. But let no man
slight the strong impulses of his own thoughts in
cases of such moment. Two of the ships which I
had singled out to go in, I mean more particularly
singled out than any other, 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 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 either of these 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 to sea; but either to go by
land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of Biscay
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
313
He determines to travel through France to England.
to Rochelle, from whence it was but an easy and
safe journey by land to Paris, and so to Calais and
Dover; or to go up to Madrid, and so all the way
by land through France.
In a word, I was so prepossessed against my going
by sea at all, except from Calais to Dover, that I re-
solved to travel all the way by land; which, as I was
not in haste, and did not value the charge, was by
much the pleasanter way; and to make it more so,
my old captain brought an English gentleman, the
son of a merchant in Lisbon, who was willing to
travel with me; after which, we picked up two who
were English, and merchants also, and two young
Portuguese gentlemen, the last going to Paris only;
so that we were in all six of us, and five servants,
the two merchants and the two Portuguese, con-
tenting 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 supplying 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 in-
deed was the original of the whole journey.
As I have troubled you with none of my sea jour-
nals, so shall I trouble you with none of my land jour-
nals. But some adventures that happened to us in
this tedious and difficult journey, I must not omit.
:
When we came to Madrid, we, being all of us stran-
gers to Spain, we 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
11.
12 s
1
314
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
ร
He proceeds in his journey,
fallen on the French side of the mountains, that se-
veral travellers were obliged to come back to Pam-
peluna, after having attempted, at an extreme ha-
zard, to pass on.
When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it
so indeed; and to me that had been always used to
a hot climate, and indeed to countries where we
could scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was in-
sufferable; nor, indeed, was it more painful than it
was surprising to come but ten days before out of
Old Castile, where the weather was not only warm,
but very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from
the Pyrenean mountains, so very keen, so severely
cold, as to be intolerable, and to endanger benumb-
ing and perishing of our fingers and toes, was very
strange. 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 continued snowing with so much violence, and so
long, that the people said, winter was come before
its time; and the roads, which were difficult before,
were now quite impassable: 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 twen-
ty days at Pampeluna; when seeing the winter com-
ing 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 Fontarabia, 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
F
315
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
and arrives in the neighbourhood of the Pyrenees.
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 un-
dertake 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 ravenous for want of food, the ground
being covered with snow. We told him we were
well enough prepared for such creatures as they
were, if he would ensure us from a kind of two-
legged wolves, which we were told we were in most
danger from, especially on the French side of the
mountains.
He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind
in the way that we were to go: so we readily agreed
to follow him; as did also twelve other gentlemen,
with their servants, some French, some Spanish,
who, as I said, had attempted to go, and were
obliged to come back again.
·
Accordingly we all set out from Pampeluna, with
our guide, on the 15th of November; and indeed I
was surprised, when, instead of going forward, he
came directly back with us, on the same road that we
came from Madrid, above 20 miles; when having
passed two rivers, and come into the plain country,
we found ourselves in a warm climate again, where
the country was pleasant, and no snow to be seen;
but on a sudden, turning to 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 encumbered
with the snow; and all on a sudden he showed us
the pleasant fruitful provinces of Languedoc and
Gascoigne, all green and flourishing; though indeed
316
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
Their guide attacked by wolves.
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 monstrous wolves, and after
them a bear, out of a hollow way, adjoining to a
thick wood. Two of the wolves flew upon the guide,
and had he been half a mile before us, he had been
devoured indeed, before we could have helped him:
one of them fastened upon his horse, and the other
attacked the man with that violence, that he had not
time, or not 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 up 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 dis-
tance, and have perhaps either missed the wolf, or
endangered shooting the man.
But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man
than I, and indeed it alarmed all our company, when
with the noise of Friday's pistol, we heard on both
sides the 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
¡
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
317
}
Their guide is delivered from the wolves by Friday.
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 fastened upon the horse, left him immedi-
ately, 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
discern what kind of creature it was he had killed.
But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in
such a surprising manner, as that which followed be-
tween 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 wont
go a step out of the way for a prince; nay, if you are
3
318
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They are alarmed by the appearance of an enormous bear.
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 any thing 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 nor day, till
he has his revenge, but follow at a good round rate
till he overtakes you.
My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when
we came up to him, he was helping him off from his
horse; for the man was both hurt and frighted, and
indeed the last more than the first; when, on a sud-
den, 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 suprised when we
saw him; but when Friday saw him, it was easy
to
see joy and courage in the fellow's countenance.-
"O! O! O!" says Friday, three times, pointing to
him. "O master, you give me te leave, me shakee
te hand with him, me makee you good laugh."
242
وو
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
laugh; 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), 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 nobody, 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
319
}
Friday's method of killing the bear.
come down to the Gascoigne side of the mountains,
we were entered a vast great forest, where the coun-
try 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 middling gallop. Away
runs Friday, and takes his course, as if he ran to-
wards us for help; so we all resolved to fire at once
upon the bear, and deliver my man; though I was
angry at him heartily 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? Come away, and take your horse, that we
may shoot the creature." He hears 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 sudden, on one side
of us, and seeing a great oak tree, fit for his pur-
pose, he beckoned us to follow, and doubling his
pace, he gets nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down
upon the ground, at about five or six yards from the
bottom of the tree.
The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed
at a distance. The first thing he did, he stopped at
the gun, smelt to it, but let it lie, and up he scram-
bles 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
1
320
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
Friday diverts himself with the bear.
any thing to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up
the tree, we all rode nearer to him.
66
66
When we came to the tree, there was Friday got
out to the small end of a large limb of the tree, and
the bear got about half way to him. As soon as the
bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree
was weaker, Ha," says he to us, now you see
me teachee the bear dance;" so he falls a-jumping,
and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to
totter, but stood still, and began to look behind him,
to see how he should get back; then indeed we did
laugh heartily. But Friday had not done with him
by a great deal; when 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 far-
ther? Pray you come farther." So he left jumping
and shaking the bough; and the bear, just as if he
understood what he said, did cóme 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 laughed 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 come no 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
1
t

Now
ow you see me teacher the bear dance,
Engrard for J. Glaves Edition...
P. 320.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
321
The bear is killed.
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 gun, takes it up, and stands still.
Well," said I to him, "Friday, what will you
do now? Why don't you shoot him?"-" No shoot,"
says Friday, "no yet; me shoot now me no kill; me
stay, give you one more laugh;" and indeed so he
did, as you will see presently; for when the bear saw
his enemy gone, he comes back from the bough
where he stood, but did it mighty 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, grasp-
ing 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 hardly knew the howling
of wolves ran much in my head; and indeed except
the noise I once heard on the shore of Africa, of
which I have said something already, I never heard
any thing that filled me with so much horror.
These things, and the approach of night, called us
off, or else, as Friday would have had us, we should
certainly have taken the skin of this monstrous crea-
ture off, which was worth saving; but we had three
leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we
left him, and went forward on our journey.
!
11
2 T
322
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The whole company alarmed by the appearance of wolves.
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 lane, which we were to
pass to get through the wood, and then we should
come to the village where we were to lodge.
It was within half an hour of sunset when we en-
tered the first wood; and a little after sun-set, when
we came into the plain. We met with nothing in
the first wood, except that in a little plain within the
wood which was not above two furlongs over, we
saw five great wolves cross the road, full speed one
after another, as if they had been in chase of some
prey, and had it in view they took no notice of us,
and were gone 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 till we came through
that wood, which was near half a league, and en-
tered 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
323
They form themselves for the attack.
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 manner; and presently after we saw
about a hundred coming on directly towards us, all
in a body, and most of them in a line, as regularly
as an army drawn up by experienced officers. I
scarce knew in what manner to receive them; but
found to draw ourselves in a close line, was the only
way; so we formed in a moment; but, that we might
not have too much interval, I ordered, that only every
other man should fire, and that the others, who had
not fired, should stand ready to give them a second
volley immediately, if they continued to advance
upon us; and 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 volleys,
half of us at a time; however, at present we had no
necessity; for, upon firing the first volley, the enemy
made a full stop, being terrified, as well with the noise
as with the fire; four of them being shot in the head,
dropped; several others were wounded, and went
bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I found
they stopped, but did not immediately retreat; where-
upon, 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 mis-
taken; for upon our shout they began to retire, and
turn about; then I ordered a second volley to be
fired in their rear, which put them to the gallop, and
away they went to the woods.
This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again,
and that we might lose no time, we kept doing; but
we had but little more than loaded our fusils, and
324
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Horrible effects of the ferocity of wolves.
put ourselves into a readiness, when we heard a ter-
rible noise in the saine wood on our left; only that it
was farther onward the same way we were to go.
The night was coming on, and the evening 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; however, as they did not fall upon us,
we kept our way forward, as fast as we could make
our horses go, which, the way being very rough, was
only a good 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 surprised, when, coming
near the lane, or pass, we saw a confused number of
wolves standing just at the entrance.
On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we
heard the noise of a gun; and, looking that way, out
rushed a horse, with a saddle and a bridle on him,
flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolves
after him full speed: indeed the horse had the heels
of the; 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 entrance where the horse came out, we found
the carcase of another horse, and of two men de-
voured by these ravenous creatures, and of one the
man 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.
}
t
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
325
The travellers are saved by a stratagem.
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 summer before, and I suppose lay there for
carriage: I drew my little troop in among these trees,
and placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree,
I advised them all to alight, and, keeping that tree
before us for a breastwork, to stand in a triangle, or
three fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre.
We did so, and it was well we did; for never was
a more furious charge than the creatures made upon
us in this place; they came on 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 behind 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 à 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 volleys
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
326
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They arrive at Tholouse.
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 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 near dark),
made more terrible, that they drew back a little.
Upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off
in one volley, and after that we gave a shout: upon
this the wolves turned tail, and we sallied immedi-
ately 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 crying and howling they made were better under-
stood by their fellows; so that they fled and left us.
We had, first and last, killed about three score 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 daz-
zling 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 coun-
try, 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
f
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
327
Crusoe passes through France to England.
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 excessively hungry, and raging on
that account, the eagerness to come at the horses
had made them senseless of danger; and that if we
had not by the continued fire, and at last by the
stratagem of the train of powder, mastered them,
it had been great odds but that we had been torn to
pieces; whereas, had we been content to have sat
still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, they
would not have taken the horses so much for their
own, when men were on their backs, as otherwise;
and withal they told us, that at last, if we had stood
all together, and left our horses, they would have
been so eager to have devoured them, that we might
have come off safe, especially having our fire-arms
in our hands, and being so many in number.
•
For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in
my life; for seeing above three hundred devils come
roaring and open-mouthed to devour us, and having
nothing to shelter us, or retreat to, I gave myself
over for lost; and as it was, I believe I shall never
care to cross those mountains again; I think I would
much rather 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 1 can. I travelled from Tholouse
to Paris, and without any considerable stay came
to Calais, and landed safe at Dover, the 14th of
{
328
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Determines to sell his estate in the Brasils.
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 integrity of this good gentlewoman.
And now I began to think of leaving my effects
with this woman, and setting out for Lisbon, and so
to the Brasils. But now another scruple came in
the way, and that was religion; for as I had enter-
tained some doubts about the Roman religion, even
while I was abroad, especially in my state of soli-
tude; so I knew there was no going to the Brasils
for me, much less going to settle there, unless I re-
solved to embrace the Roman Catholic religion,
without any reserve; except on the other hand I re-
solved to be a sacrifice to my principles, 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 Brasils, who must fully under-
stand the value of it, who lived just upon the spot,
and who I knew to be very rich, so that he believed
they would be fond of buying it; he did not doubt but
I should make 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
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
329
His prosperous circumstances.
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 set from Lisbon, and sent it to my
old man, who sent me the bills of exchange for
32,800 pieces of eight for the estate; reserving the
payment of 100 moidores a-year to him (the old
man) during his life, and 50 moidores afterwards to
his son for his life, which I had promised them; and
which the plantation was to make good as a rent-
charge. And thus I have given the first part of a
life of fortune and adventure, a life of Providence's
chequer-work, and of a variety which the world will
seldom be able to show the like of: beginning fool-
ishly, but closing much more happily than any part
of it ever gave me leave so much as to hope for.
Any one would think, that in this state of compli-
cated good fortune, I was past running any more
hazards, and so indeed I had been, if other circum-
stances had concurred: but I was inured to a wan-
dering life, had no family, nor many relations; nor,
however rich, had I contracted much acquaintance ;
and, though I had sold my estate in the Brasils, yet
I could not keep that country out of my head, and
had a great mind to be upon the wing again; espe-
cially I could not resist the strong inclination I had
to see my island, and to know if the poor Spaniards
were in being there; and how the rogues I left there
had used them.
My true friend the widow earnestly dissuaded me
from it, and so far prevailed with me, that almost for
seven years she prevented me running abroad; du-
ring which time I took my two nephews, the chil-
dren of one of my brothers, into my care: the eldest
having something of his own, I bred up as a gentle-
man, and gave him a settlement of some addition to
his estate, after my decease: the other I put out to
12
2 U
330
1
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
He is induced to undertake another voyage,
a captain of a ship; and after five years, finding him
a sensible, bold, enterprising young fellow, I put him
into a good ship, and sent him to sea: and this young
fellow afterwards drew me in, as old as I was, to
farther adventures.myself.
In the mean time, I in part settled myself here:
for, first of all, 1 married, and that not either to my
disadvantage or dissatisfaction; and had three chil-
dren, two sons and one daughter: but my wife dying,
and my nephew coming home with good success
from a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad,
and his importunity, prevailed, and engaged me to
go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies.
This was in the year 1694.
:
In this voyage I visited my new colony in the is-
land, saw my successors the Spaniards, had the
whole story of their lives, and of the villains I left
there; how at first they insulted the poor Spaniards,
how they afterwards agreed, disagreed, united, sepa-
rated, and how at last the Spaniards were obliged to
use violence with them; how they were subjected to
the Spaniards; how honestly the Spaniards used
them; an history, if it were entered into, as full of
variety and wonderful accidents as my own part:
particularly also as to their battles with the Carib-
beans, who landed several times upon the island,
and as to the improvement they made upon the is-
land itself; and how five of them made an attempt
upon the main land, and brought away eleven men
and five women prisoners; by which, at my coming,
I found about twenty young children on the island.
Here I stayed about twenty days; left them sup-
plies of all necessary things, and particularly of
arms, powder, shot, clothes, tools, and two work-
men, which I brought from England with me; viz.
a carpenter and a smith.
Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with
them, reserved to myself the property of the whole,
but gave them such parts respectively as they agreed
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
331
and visits the island.
on; and having settled all things with them, and en-
gaged them not to leave the place, I left them there.
From thence I touched at the Brasils, from whence
I sent a bark, which I bought there, with more peo-
ple to the island; and in it; besides other supplies,
I sent seven women, being such as I found proper
for service, or for wives to such as would take them.
As to the Englishmen, I promised them to send them
some women from England, with a good cargo of
necessaries, if they would apply themselves to plant-
ing; which I afterwards could not perform: the
fellows proved very honest and diligent, after they
were mastered, and had their properties set apart
for them. I sent them also from the Brasils five
cows, three of them being big with calf, some sheep,
and some hogs, which, when I came again, were con-
siderably increased.
But all these things, with an account how three
hundred Caribbees came and invaded them, and
ruined their plantations, and how they fought with
that whole number twice, and were at first defeated,
and one of them killed; but at last a storm destroy-
ing their enemies' canoes, they famished or destroyed'
almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered the
possession of their plantation, and still lived upon
the island.
All these things, with some very surprising inci-
dents in some new adventures of my own, for ten
year's more, I may, perhaps, give a farther account
of hereafter.

332
THE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
Robinson Crusoe,
&c. &c.
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 set-
ting 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.
Nay, farther, the common motive of foreign ad-
ventures was taken 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 family, I could not spend the in-
come of what I had, unless I would set up for an ex-
pensive way of living, such as a great family, ser-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
333
Crusoe is again strongly inclined to go abroad.
vants, 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 colony I
left there, run in my head continually. I dreamed
of it all night, 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 talk of nothing else, all my
discourse run into it, even. to impertinence, and I
saw it myself.
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
appearing, or a ghost walking, and the like; that
people's poring affectionately upon the past conver-
sation of their deceased friends so realizes it to them,
that they are capable of fancying upon some extra-
ordinary 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 matter.
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
4
334
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The strange workings of his imagination.
1
imagination worked up to such a height, as brought
me into such excess of vapours, or what else I may
call it, that I actually supposed myself oftentimes
upon the spot, at my old castle behind the tree, 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 myself with
the images my fancy represented to me: one time in
my sleep I had the villany of the three pirate sailors
so lively related to me, by the first Spaniard and Fri-
day's father, that it was surprising; they told me
how they barbarously attempted to murder all the
Spaniards, and that they set fire to the provisions
they had laid up, on purpose to distress and starve
them; things that I had never heard of, and that
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 complained to me, and how I brought
them to justice, tried them before 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 spirits 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 gene-
ral part was so true, the base and villanous 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
F would afterwards have punished them severely, so
if I had hanged them all, I had been much in the
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
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
335
He is prevented by the arguments of his wife.
:
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 determined me to go thither
again; and that she found nothing hindered my go-
ing, but my being engaged to a wife and children.
She told me, that it was true she could not think of
parting with me; 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 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?" No," says she, very
affectionately, "I am far from willing; but if you
are resolved to go," says she, and rather than 1
will be the only hinderance, I will go with you; for
though I think it a preposterous thing for one of your
years, and in your condition, yet if it must be," said
she again, weeping, "I won't leave you; for if it be
of Heaven, you must do it, there is no resisting it;
and if Heaven 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."
66
This affectionate behaviour of my wife brought me
a little out of the vapours, and I began to consider
what I was doing; I corrected my wandering fancy,
and began to argue with myself sedately, what busi-
ness I had, after threescore years, and after such a
life of tedious sufferings and disasters, and closed in
so happy and easy a manner, I say, what business had
I to rush into new hazards, and put myself upon ad-
ventures fit only for youth and poverty to run into?
With those thoughts, I considered my new engage-
336
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Commences country gentleman.
ment; 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 ha-
zards for gain; that I was declining in years and
ought to think rather of leaving what I had gained,
than of seeking to increase it; that as to what my
wife had said, of its being an impulse from Heaven,
and that it should be my duty to go, I had no notion
of that; so after many of these cogitations, I strug-
gled with the power of my imagination, reasoned
myself out of it, as I believe people may always do
in like cases, if they will; and, in a word, I
conquered it; composed myself with such argu-
ménts as occurred to my thoughts, and which my
present condition furnished me plentifully with; and
particularly, as the most effectual method, I re
solved 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 chiefly 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 Bedford, and resolved to remove myself thither.
I had a little convenient house upon it, and the land
about it I found was capable of great improvement,
and that it was many ways suited to my inclination,
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 relating to the re-
mote parts of the world..
In a word, I went down to my farm, settled my fa
mily, bought me ploughs, harrows, a cart, waggon,
horses, cows, sheep; and setting seriously to work,
became in one half year a mere country 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 nature was capable of directing, or that a
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
337
Loses his wife.
1
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 dis-
comfort 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 de-
scribed 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
unforeseen Providence unhinged me at once; and not
only made a breach upon me, inevitable and incura-
ble, but drove me, by its consequence, upon a deep
relapse into the wandering disposition; which, as I
may say, being born in my very blood, soon recover-
ed 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 impres;
sion 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 enterprises,
the engine that by her prudence reduced me to that
happy compass I was in, from the most extravagant
and ruinous project that fluttered in my head, as
above; and did more to guide my rambling genius,
than a mother's tears, a father's instructions, a friend's
counsel, or all my own reasoning powers could do.
I was happy in listening to her tears, and in being
moved by her entreaties, and to the last degree deso-
late and dislocated in the world by the loss of her.
When she was gone, the world looked awkwardly
12
2 x
338
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
We should seek farther than human enjoyments for a full felicity.
round me, I was as much a stranger in it in my
thoughts, as I was in the Brasils when I went first on
shore there; and as much alone, 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 ex-
cesses or empty pleasures, equally miserable, be-
cause 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 wea-
risome life, and a wearisome life the only occasion
of daily bread.
This put me in mind of the life I lived in my king-
dom 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 mo-
ney 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 dic-
tated 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.
F
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 agam into the old affair,
my head was quite turned with the whimsies of fo-
reign 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
339
Crusoe is visited by his nephew.
music to one that has no ear, or food to one that has
no taste: in a word, I resolved to leave off house-
keeping, let my farm, and return to London; and
in a few months after Idid 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 use-
less in God's creation, and it is not one farthing mat-
ter to the rest of his kind whether he be dead or
alive. This also was the thing which of all circum-
stances 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 much
more suitably employed, 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 have 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 Bil-
boa, being the first he had made; he came to me, and
told me that some merchants of his acquaintance 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 Brasils."
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 reserv-
ed, 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 no
thing 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 resolu-

}
}
340
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
An opportunity offered for again visiting the island.
tion, viz. that I would go to Lisbon, and consult
with my old sea-captain; 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 peo-
pling 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 awhile at his words, and looking steadily
at him, "What devil," said I," sent you of this
unlucky errand ?" My nephew startled, 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 pro-
posal, 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 tem-
per, that is to say, with the prepossession I was un-
der, 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 pro-
mise to go any farther than my own island.
"Why,
sir," says he," 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 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 re-
duced 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
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.·
341
Crusoe settles his domestic affairs previous to embarking.
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 importu-
nities of my nephew joined in so effectually with my
inclination, that nothing could oppose me: on the
other hand, my wife being dead, I had nobody con-
cerned 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 con-
sider my years, my easy circumstances, and the need-
less 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 Providence if I should
attempt to stay at home; after which she ceased her
expostulations, and joined with me, not only in mak-
ing provision for my voyage, but also in settling my
family affairs in my absence, and providing for the
education of my children.
In order to this I made my will, and settled the
estate I had in such a manner for my children, and
placed in such hands, that I was perfectly easy and
satisfied they would have justice done them, what-
ever 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 of 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,
342
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
He carries a variety of stores for the use of the inhabitants.
First, I carried with me some servants, whom I pur-
posed 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, a smith, and a very handy ingenious
fellow, who was a cooper by trade, but was also a
general mechanic; for he was dexterous at making
wheels, and hand-mills to grind corn, was a good
turner, and a good pot-maker; he also made any
thing that was proper to make of earth, or of wood,
in a word, we called him our Jack-of-all-trades.
With these I carried a tailor, who had offered him-
self to go passenger to the East Indies with my ne-
phew, but afterwards consented to stay on our new
plantation, and proved a most necessary handy fel-
low as could be desired, in many other businesses
besides 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 account of the particulars, consisted of
a sufficient quantity of linen, and some thin English
stuffs for clothing the Spaniards that I expected to
find there, and enough of them as by my calculation
might comfortably supply them for seven years; if
1 remember right, the materials which I carried for
clothing them, with gloves, hats, shoes, stockings,
and all such things as they could want for wearing,
amounted to above £200, including some beds,
bedding, and household stuff, particularly kitchen
utensils, with pots, kettles, pewter, brass, &c. be»
sides 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, besides 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 providing for, I
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
343
*
The ship is driven into Galway in Ireland.
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 ma-
gazine of all sorts of stores; and I made my nephew
carry two small quarter-deck guus more than he
wanted for his ship, to leave behind, if there was oc-
casion; 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.
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 interrupt the reader, who perhaps
may be impatient to hear how matters 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 to be never 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 two-and-thirty days; but
we had this satisfaction with the disaster, that pro-
visions 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 pas-
sage, to put on shore in my island; but we found
occasion to dispose otherwise of them.
We set out 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,
344
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They descry a ship on fire.
came into the round-house, and told us he saw a flash
of fire, and heard a gun fired; and while he was tell-
ing us of it, a boy came in and told us the boat-
swain heard another. This made us all run out upon
the quarter-deck, where, for a while we heard no-
thing, 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 reck-
onings, 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 farther we sailed the
greater the light appeared, though the weather being
hazy we could not perceive any thing but the light
for awhile; 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 dis-
cern that it was a great ship on fire in the middle of
the sea.
I was most sensibly touched with this disaster,
though not at all acquainted with the persons engag-
ed in it: I presently recollected my former circum-
stances, in what condition I was in when taken up
by the Portugal captain; and how much more de
plorable 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 to 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 daylight; when on a
sudden, to our great terror, though we had reason to
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
345
Successful measures adopted for saving the people.
expect it, the, ship blew up in the air, and immedi-
ately sunk. This was terrible, and indeed an afflict-
ing sight, for the sake of the poor men, who, I con-
cluded, must be either all destroyed in the ship, or be
in the utmost distress in their boats in the middle of
the ocean, which, at present, by reason it was dark,
I could not see: however, to direct them as well as I
could, I caused lights to be hung out in all the parts
of the ship 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.
Upon the whole, we found it was a French mer-
chant-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
afterwards getting in between the timbers, and with-
in the ceiling of the ship, it proceeded into the hold,
and mastered all the skill and all the application
they were able to exert.
They had no more to do then but to get into their
12
2 Y
346
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
+
Forlorn state of the crew of the French ship.
boats, which, to their great comfort, were pretty
large; being their long-boat, and a great shallop, be-
sides 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 pre-
paring to make the best of their way to Newfound-
land, 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 per-
haps 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 cold to benumb and
perish their limbs; contrary winds to 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 de-
signed 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 the windward, they resolved to lie by till morn-
ing. Some time after this, hearing no more guns,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
347
Strange effects of the passions.
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 surprised with seeing our lights, and hear-
ing the 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 ges-
tures, the strange ecstacies, the variety of postures,
which these poor delivered people run into, to express
the joy of their souls at so unexpected 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 sur-
prise 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 lunatic
some ran about the ship stamping with their feet,
others wringing their hands; some were dancing, se-
veral singing, some laughing, more crying; many quite
dumb, not able to speak a word; others sick and vo-
miting, 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 circumstauce of the nation they
belonged to; I mean the French, whose temper is al-
lowed to be more volatile, more passionate, and more
sprightly, and their spirits more fluid, than of other
nations. I am not philosopher to determine the cause,
348 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Singular effects of excessive joy.
but nothing I had ever seen before came up to it: the
ecstacies poor Friday, my trusty savage, was in, when
he found his father in the boat, came the nearest to
it; and the surprise of the master, and his two com-
panions, whom I delivered from the two villains that
set them on shore in the island, came a little way to-
wards 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 different 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 un-
der his feet like a madman; a few minutes after that,
we should have him all in tears, then sick, then swoon-
ing 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 obliged 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
himself safe, he dropped down stone dead, to all ap-
pearance; not the least sign of life could be perceived
in him; our surgeon immediately applied proper re-
medies 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 rub-
bed the part, so as to warm it as much as possible:
upon this the blood, which only dropped at first, flow-
ed 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
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
349
Example of a serious well-governed mind.
well; after the blood was stopped he walked about,
told us he was perfectly well, took a dram of cordial
which the surgeon gave him, and was what we call-
ed 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 begun to revolve the change of his circum-
stances in his mind, and this put him into an ecstacy
of joy his spirits whirled about faster than the ves-
sels could convey them; the blood grew hot and fe-
verish; 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 mind; at his first coming
on board the ship, he threw himself flat on his face,
prostrating himself in thankfulness for his deliver-
ance; in which I unhappily and unseasonably dis-
turbed him, really thinking he had been in a swoon:
but he spoke calmly; thanked me; told me he was
giving God thanks for his deliverance; 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 mi-
nutes, or a little more, after I left him, he 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, thanked 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
350
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The necessity of keeping our passions within bounds.
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 so many of his creatures.
After this the young priest applied himself to his
country folks; laboured to compose them; persuaded,
entreated, argued, reasoned with them, and did his
utmost to keep them within the exercise of their rea-
son; 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 per-
haps 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, in-
deed, 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 something disordered by these extrava-
gances 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
ple the next day.
peo-
Nothing of good manners, or civil acknowledg
ments 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 boats,
catched hastily out of the flames; and if we would
9
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
351
Acknowledgments of the French captain.
accept it, they were ordered to make an offer of it
all to us; they only desired to be set on shore some-
where 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 after-
wards; 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 deli-
verance, I must have starved, or have been as much
a slave at the Brasils as I had been at Barbary, the
being sold to a Mahometan only excepted; and per-
haps a Portuguese 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 barba-
rous 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 Hea-
ven on purpose for their deliverance, yet it was im-
possible for us wilfully to change our voyage on this
particular account; nor could my nephew, the cap-
tain, answer it to the freighters, with whom he was
352
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
}
They shape their course towards Newfoundland.
under charter-party to pursue his voyage by the
way of Brasil; 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 pas-
sengers, 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 therefore I inclined to agree to it; for in-
deed 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 accident 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 miss-
ed several opportunities of sending them to France;
for we met several ships bound to Europe, whereof
two were French, from St. Christopher's; but they
:
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
353
They meet with another vessel in distress.
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 remem-
ber 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 Coro-
mandel: I readily agreed to that; for I wonderfully
liked the man, and had very good reason, as will ap-
pear afterwards; also four of the seamen entered them-
selves in our ship, and proved very useful fellows.
From hence we directed our course for the West
Indies, steering away S. and S. by E. for about twen-
ty days together, sometimes little or no wind at all,
when we met with another subject for our bumanity
to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before.
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 per-
ceived 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-topmast, 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 care to speak with her.
}
We found her a ship of Bristol bound home f.om
Barbadoes, but had been blown out of the road at
Barbadoes, a few days before she was ready to sail,
by a terrible hurricane, while the captain and chief
inate were both gone on shore; so that beside the ter-
ror of the storm, they were but in an indifferent case
13
2 Z
354
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Deplorable state of a ship's crew and passengers.
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 Canaries.
But that which was worst of all, was, that they
were almost starved for want of provisions, besides
the fatigues they had undergone; their bread and flesh
were quite gone, they had not an ounce left in the ship,
and had had none for eleven days; the only relief they
had, was, their water was not all spent, and they had
about half a barrel of flour left; they had sugar
enough; some succades or sweetmeats they had at
first, but they were devoured; and they had seven
casks of rum.
There was a youth and his mother, and a maid-
servant on board, who were going passengers, and
thinking the ship was ready to sail, unhappily came
on board the evening before the hurricane began; and
having no provisions of their own left, they were in
a more deplorable condition than the rest; for the
seamen, being reduced to such an extreme necessity
themselves, had no compassion, we may be sure, for
the poor passengers; and they were indeed in a con-
dition 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
they had three passengers in the great cabin, that
they were in a deplorable condition; "Nay," says
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
355
Means adopted for restoring the health of the crew.
he, "I believe they are dead, for I have heard no-
thing 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
overruled things with my nephew, that I would have
victualled them, though we had gone away to Vir-
ginia, or any part of the coast of America, to have
supplied 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 hardly
sit to their oars; the mate himself was very ill, and
half-starved, for he declared he had reserved nothing
from the men, and went share and share alike with
them in every bit they ate.
I cautioned him to eat sparingly, but set meat be-
fore him immediately, and he had not eaten three
mouthfuls before he began to be sick, and out of or-
der; so he stopped awhile, and our surgeon 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 for-
got not the men; I ordered victuals to be given them,
and the poor creatures rather devoured than ate it;
they were so exceeding hungry, that they were in a
männer ravenous, and had no command of themselves;
and two of them ate with so much greediness, that
they were in danger of their lives the next morning.
The sight of these people's distress was very mov
ing to me, and brought to mind what I had a terri-
ble prospect of at my first coming on shore in my
island, where I had not the least mouthful of food, or
any hopes of procuring it; besides the hourly appre-
hension I had of being made the food of other creatures.
But all the while the mate was thus relating to me
3
356
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Means adopted for restoring the crew.
the miserable condition of the ship's company, I could
not put out of my thought the story he had told me of
three poor creatures in the great cabin; viz. the mo-
ther, 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 under-
stood, 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 call-
ed 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 carry
them a sack of bread, and four or five pieces of beef
to boil. Our surgeon charged the men to cause the
meat to be boiled while they stayed, and to keep
guard in the cook-room, to prevent the men's taking
it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot before it was
well boiled, and then to give every man but a 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 passen-
gers were in, and, if they were alive, to comfort
them and give them what refreshment was proper:
and the surgeon gave him 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 gradually.
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.
.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
357
Maternal affection.
I found the poor men on board almost in a tumult
to get the victuals out of the boiler before it was rea-
dy; but my mate observed his order, and kept a good
guard at the cook-room door; and the man he placed
there, after using all possible persuasion to have pa-
tience, kept them off by force: however, he caused
some biscuit-cakes to be dipped in the pot, and soft-
ened 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 I not 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 indeed are 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 another nature, and far beyond the rest; for
as, first, the ship's company had so little for them-
selves, 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 woman of good sense and good breeding, had
spared all she could get so affectionately for her son,
that at last she entirely sunk under it; and when the
mate of our ship went in, she sat upon the floor or
deck, with her back up against the sides, between
two chairs, which were lashed fast, and her head sunk
in between her shoulders, like a corpse, though not
quite dead. My mate said all he could to revive and
encourage her, and with a spoon put some broth into
f
1
358
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Dreadful effects of famine.
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 affectionate 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 mother, the mate got something down his
throat, and he began sensibly to revive, though by giv-
ing him some time after but two or three spoonfuls
extraordinary, he was very sick, and brought it up
again.
A
But the next care was the poor maid; she lay all a-
long upon the deck hard by her mistress, and just like
one that had fallen down with an apoplexy, and strug-
gled 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 hun-
ger, and terrified with the thoughts of death, but,
as the men told us afterwards, 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
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
359
They afford every humble relief to the wreck.
knowledge and experience, and with great applica-
tion recovered her as to life, he had her upon his
hand as to her senses, for she was little less than
distracted for a considerable time after; as shall ap-
pear 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 course with us for some days, yet we could
carry no sail to keep pace with a ship that had no
masts: however, as their captain begged of us to
help him to set up a main-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 peas, 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 satisfaction, 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 17 years of age, a pret-
ty, 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 Bar-
badoes. 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 there-
fore 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
360
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They pursue their voyage.
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 carry them whi-
ther 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 ele-
ven 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. Rogers, 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 condition, and so far from any land, that
I am of opinion the first storm she met with after-
wards 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 hitherto had a tolerable voyage as to weather,
though at first the winds had been contrary. I shall
trouble nobody with the little incidents of wind, wea-
ther, 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 Brasils; so now
coming in between the main and the island, and hav-
ing no chart for the coast, nor any land-mark, I did
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
301
The ship anchors at Crusoé's island.
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
á ridge of islands reaching from one to the other side
of the extended mouth of that great fiver; and that
the savages who came to my island, were not pro-
perly those which we call Caribbees, but íslanders,
and other barbarians of the same kind, who inha
bited something nearer to our side than the rest.

{
In short, I visited several of the islands to no pur-
pose; 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 muscles, if they could; but
they belonged to the Isle de Trinidad, which lay
farther north, in the latitude of 10 and 11 degrees.
Thus coasting from one island to another, some-
times 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 F 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, broadsidé
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 presently clapping his hands, cried,
"O yes, O there, O yes, O there!" pointing to our
old habitation, and fell a-dancing and capering like
a mad fellow; and I had much ado to keep him from
jumping into the sea, to swim ashore to the place.


13
3 A
362
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They discover people on the island.
66
Well, Friday," said I," do you think we shall
find any body here, or no? and what do you think,
shall we see your father?" The fellow stood mute as
a stock a good while; but when I named his father,
the poor affectionate creature looked dejected; and I
could see the tears run down his face very plentifully.
"What is the matter, Friday?" said I; "are you
troubled because you may see your father?"-" No,
no," says he, shaking his head, no see him more,
no ever more see again."-" Why so," said I," Fri-
day? how do you know that ?"-"O no, O no," says
Friday, “he long ago die; long ago, be 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 better eyes than I, and he points
just to the hill above my old house; and though we
lay half a league off, he cries out, "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..
66
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 after, we perceived a
smoke rise from the side of the creek: so I immedi-
ately 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 particu-
lar both of myself and those that I left there, and who
was on that account extremely desirous to go with
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.
me.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
363
4
Strange emotions displayed by Friday.
-
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 per-
fectly well; as to his habit, I shall describe it after-
wards. 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 the Spaniards, where in-
deed 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 arrow out of a bow. It would have
made any man shed tears in spite of the firmest reso-
lution, to have seen the first transports of this poor
fellow's joy, when he came to his father; how he em-
braced him, kissed him, stroked his face, took him
up in his arms, set him down upon a tree, and lay
down by him; then stood and looked at him as any
one would look at a strange picture, for a quarter of
an hour together; then 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 an-
other way: in the morning he walked along the shore,
to and again, with his father, several hours, always
leading him by the hand as if he had been a lady;
and every now and then would come to fetch some-
thing or other for him from the boat, either a lump
of sugar, or a dram, a biscuit, or something or other
that was good. In the afternoon his frolics ran ano-
ther way; for then he would set the old man down
upon the ground and dance about him, and made a
thousand antic 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 travels, and of
what had happened to him abroad, to divert him.-
In short, if the same filial affection was to be found
364 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
$
Crusoe discovers himself to the Spaniard.
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 commandment.
But this is a digression; I return to my landing.
It would be endless to take notice of all the cere-
monies 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 to-
wards 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 notion, of its being
me that was come till I spoke to him.
"Seignior,
said I, in Portuguese, "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 Spanish that I did not per-
fectly 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 hand-
some things, as a well-bred Spaniard always knows
how; and then beckoning to the person that attend-
ed 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 inac-
cessible, 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 forti,
fications? He told me, I would say there was need
enough for it, when they had given an account how
they had passed their time since their arriving in the
island, especially after they had the misfortune to find

ROBINSON CRUSOE.
365

The Spaniard relates the bad conduct of the three Englishmen.
that I was gone: he told me he could not but have
some satisfaction in my good fortune, 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 again: but no-
thing that ever befel him in his life, he said, was so
surprising and afflicting to him at first, as the disap-
pointment he was under when he came back to the
island, and found I was not there.
As to the three barbarians (so he called them) that
were left behind, and of whom he said he had a long
story to tell me, the Spaniards all thought themselves
much better among the savages, only that their num-
ber was so small. "And," says he," had they been
strong enough, we had been all long ago in purgato-
ry:" and with that he crossed himself upon the breast.
"But, Sir," says he, "I hope you will not be dis-
pleased, when I shall tell you how, forced by neces-
sity, we were obliged, for our own preservation, to
disarm them, and making them our subjects, who
would not be content with being moderately our
masters, but would be our murderers." I answered,
I was heartily afraid of it when I left them there; and
nothing troubled me at my parting from the island,
but that they were not come back, that I might have
put them in possession of every thing first, and left
the others 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, ungovern-
able 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 point-
ing to them, said, "These, Sir, are some of the gen-
tlemen who owe their lives to you;" and then turning
to them, and pointing to me, he let them know who
366
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe receives the respects of the whole of the Spaniards.
I was; upon which they all came up one by one, not
as if they had been sailors, and ordinary fellows, and
I the like, but really as if they had been ambassa-
dors or noblemen, and I a monarch or a great con-
queror: their behaviour was to the last degree oblig-
ing and courteous, and yet mixed with a manly ma-
jestic gravity, which very well became them; and,
in short, they had so much more manners than 1,
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 rela-
tion 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 de-
light to the reading of those that come 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, and I told him, and the like; but I shall collect
the facts historically as near as I can 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 circumstance in which
I left the island, and which the persons were in of
whom I am to speak. At first it is necessary to
repeat, that I had sent away Friday's father and the
Spaniard, the two whose lives I had rescued from
the savages; I say, I had sent them away in a large
canoe to the main, as I then thought it, to fetch over
the Spaniard's companions whom he had left behind
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 deliverance afterward.
When I sent them away; I had no visible appear
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
367
Narrative of the proceedings on the island.
ance of, or the least room to hope for, my own deli-
verance, any more than I had twenty years before;
much less had I any foreknowledge of what after hap-
pened, 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, possessed of all that I had left be-
hind 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 he 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 no-
thing remarkable 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 de-
vour him, as they did all the rest of their prisoners;
that when he told them the story of the deliverance,
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 them the arms, the pow-
der; the ball, and the provisions that he brought them,
for their journey or voyage, they were restored to them-
selves, took a just share of the joy of their deliverance,
and immediately prepared to come away with him.
Their first business was to get canoes; and in this
they were obliged not to stick so much upon the ho-
nest part of it, but to trespass upon their friendly sa-
366
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Narrative of the proceedings on the island.
vages, 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 baggage, neither clothes, or provi
sions, or any 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, unluckily for them, I had the occasion offered,
for my escape, as I mentioned in my other part, and
to get off from the island; leaving three of the most
impudent, hardened, ungoverned, disagreeable vil
lains behind me that any man could desire to meet
with, to the poor Spaniards' great grief and disap
pointment you may be sure.
r
The only just thing the rogues did, was, that when
the Spaniards 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, con
taining the particular methods which I took for man-
aging every part of my life there; the way how I
baked my bread, bred up my tame goats, and plant-
ed my corn; how I cured my grapes, made my pots,
and, in a word, every thing I did; all this being writ
ten down, they gave to the Spaniards, two of whom
understood English well enough; nor did they re-
fuse 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 sociably; and the head
Spaniard, who had seen pretty much of my method,
and Friday's father together, managed all their af
fairs; 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,

3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
369
A deficiency in a part of the former relations supplied.
:
would the others 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 rude-
ness and insolence that can be imagined, without rea-
son, without provocation, contrary to nature, and in
deed to common sense; and though; it is true, the first
rélation of it came from the Spaniards themselves,
whom I may call the accusers, yet when I came to ex-
amine 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 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 appeased till the captain, rousing up his cou-
rage, and taking us all to his assistance, parted them
by force, and making two of the most refractory fel-
lows 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, frighted 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
13
3 B
370 ·
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The mutineers disagree.
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 morn-
ing 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 haled up, and run away with her to their
companions in roguery on shore.
As soon as we found this, I ordered the longboat
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 ro-
guery, to have destroyed their plantations, burnt all
their household stuff and furniture, and left them to
shift without it; but having no order, he let all alone,
left every thing as they found it, and bringing 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 to-
gether, 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 Spa-
niards, they were not yet come.
When the Spaniards came first on shore, the busi-
ness began to go forward; the Spaniards would have
persuaded the three 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
finding nothing but industry and application would
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
371
They separate, and settle at different parts of the island.
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 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 peas 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 they got, furnished him to do.
-
They were going on in a little thriving posture,
when the three unnatural rogues, their own country-
men 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 pos-
session 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 hoped
if they built tenements upon the land and made im-
provements, they would, according to the custom of
all landlords, grant them a long lease; and bid them
go fetch a scrivener to draw the writings. 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 firebrand and claps
372
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The insolence of the three orginal mutinçers chastised.
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 without 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 avoid-
ed the blow very nimbly, and run into the hut, he had
ended his days at once. His comrade, seeing the
dauger they were both in, ran in after him, aud imme-
diately they came both out with their muskets; and
the man that was first struck at with the pole knock-
ed 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, le them stand off.
The others had fire-arins 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 see-
ing 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: however, 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
378
The mutineers claim the property of the whole island.
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, the resolved to go to the castle, as they called
it, that was my old dwelling, where the three rogues
and the Spaniards all lived together at that time, in-
tending to have a fair battle, and the Spaniards should
stand by to see fair play. So they got up in the morn-
ing 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.
It happened that the day before two of the Spa-
niards 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 barbarous usage they had
met with from their thr 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 themselves in a way to subsist by
their labour, and that it had cost them a great deal of
pains to bring things to such perfection as they had?
One of the Englishmen returned verybriskly, "What
had they to do there? That they came on shore with-
out 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 not starve." The Englishman replied, like
a true rough-hewn tarpaulin, "they might starve and
6.6
374
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They threaten to enslave the Spaniards;
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 returned,
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 Eng-
lishman answered, "The island was theirs, the go-
vernor had given it to them, and no man had any
thing to do there but themselves;" 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-n me's in the proper invals of his speech.
The Spaniard only smiled 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'll warrant you; they
shall plant no colony in our dominions."
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
perfectly understand them as to know all the par-
ticulars only that, in general, they threatened them
hard for taking the two Englishmen'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 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 attack the
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
375
and destroy the habitation of their countrymen.
poor men when they were asleep; and they acknow-
ledged 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 murdering, it happened,
and very luckily for them all, that they were up and
gone abroad, before the bloody-minded rogues came
to their huts.
66
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
being gone 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 bar-
gain, they fell to work with the poor men's habita-
tion; 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 habitation.
When they had done this, they pulled up all the
young trees which the poor men had planted; pulled
up the enclosure they had made to secure their cattle
and their corn; and, in a word, sacked and plun-
dered every thing, as completely as a herd of Tar-
tars would have done.
•
The two men were at this juncture gone to find them
out, and had resolved to fight them wherever they
376
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
*
They attack and wound one of the Spaniards.
had been, though they were but two to three: so
that hard they met there certainly would have been
bloodshed among them; for they were all very stout
resolute fellows, to give them their due.
✔
7
:
But Providence took more care to keepthem asun-
der, 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 creatures, flushed with the rage
which the work they had been about put them into,
they came up to the Spaniards, and told them what
they had done, by way of scoff and bravado; and one
of them stepping up to one of the Spaniards; as if they'
had been a couple of boys 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 missed 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 stoop-
ech and took the fellow's musket whom he had knock-
ed down, and was just going to shoot the man who
had bred at him; when the rest of the Spaniards, be-
ing in the cave, came out, and calling to him not to
:
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
377
The Spaniards deprive them of their arms.
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 giv-
ing the Spaniards better words, would have had their
arms again; but the Spaniards, considering the feud
that was between them and the other two English-
men, 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 resolved to do mischief with
them to their own countrymen, and had even threat-
ened them all to make them their servants.
The rogues were now 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 the threaten-
ing, told them, they should take care how they offer-
ed any injury to their plantation or cattle; for if they
did, they would shoot them as they would do raven-
ous beasts, wherever they found them; and if they
fell into their hands alive, they would certainly be
hanged. However, this was far from cooling them;
but away they went, swearing and raging like furies
of hell. As soon as they were gone, came back the
two men in passion and rage enough also, though of
another kind; for, having been at their plantation,
and finding it all demolished and destroyed, it will
easily 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 especi-
13
3 c
378
"
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The three Englishmen suc for succour.
ally having thus disarined 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.
we
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,
will endeavour to make them do you justice, if you
will leave it to us; for,. as there is no doubt but
they will come to us again when their passion is over,
being 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 awkward-
ly, and with great reluctance; but the Spaniards pro-
tested, 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 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 wandering, and almost starved with hunger, hav-
ing chiefly lived on turtles' eggs all that while, came
back to the grove; and finding my Spaniard, who, as
I have said, was the governor, and two more with him,
walking by the side of the creek; they came up in a
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 unna-
turally 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,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
379
The terms upon which they are admitted.
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 halfan hour's consultation they were called in,
and a long debate had about them, their two country-
men charging them with the ruin of all their labour,
and a design to murder them; all which they owned
before, and therefore could not deny now; upon the
whole, the Spaniards acted the moderators between
them; and as they had obliged the two Englishmen
not to hurt the three, while they were naked and un-
armed, so they now obliged the three to go and re-
build 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 little, just as they pleased: however, the Spa-
niards told them plainly, that if they would but live
sociably and friendly together, and study in the
whole the good of the plantation, they would be
content to work for them, and let them walk about
and be as idle as they pleased; and thus having
J
$80
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Strange forebodings of the Spanish governor.
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 be-
gan to be as insolent and troublesome as before;
but, however, an accident happened presently upon
this, which endangered the safety of them all; they
were obliged to lay by all private resentments, and
look to the preservation of their lives.
It happened one night, that the Spaniard 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; his mind
ran upon men fighting, and killing one another, but
was broad awake, and could by no 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 hammocks and ship-beds, as
I did, who was but one; so they had little 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, and they were ready for going any
way that their thoughts guided them.
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 ac-
count 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 returned and laid him down
again; but it was all one, he could not sleep, nor
could he compose himself to any thing like rest;
i
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
381
*
They are alarmed by the appearance of the Indians.
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?
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 certain-
ly some mischief working, near us ;" and presently
he asked him, "Where are the Englishmen ?".
66
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 Englishmen, since their last mutiny, always
quartered by themselves, and could not come at the
rest. Well," says the Spaniard, "there is some-
thing in it, I am persuaded from my own experience;
I am satisfied our spirits embodied have converse
with, and receive intelligence from, the spirits un-
embodied, and inhabiting the invisible 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.
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 precautions 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 pre-
vent them making the least discovery of there being
382
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
*
i
Their number and object uncertain.
any inhabitant upon the place; and when by any
necessity they came to know it, they felt it so effec
tually, 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, that so great a number came now toge-
ther; or whether they came ignorantly, and by acci-
dent, on their usual bloody errand, the Spaniards
could not, it seems, understand: but whatever it
was, it had been their business, either to have con
cealed themselves 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 getting 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 another; 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
>
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
383
Friday's father is sent to gain information.
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 perplexity 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 Spani
ards and one Englishman, to drive all the goats
away to the great valley where the cave was, and, if
need were, to drive them into the very cave itself.
Could they have seen the savages altogether 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 nations.
J
After having mused a great while on the course
they should take, and beaten their brains in consider-
ing their present circumstances, 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
they intended to do, and the like. The old man rea-
dily undertook it, and stripping himself quite naked,
as most of the savages were, away he went. After he.
had been gone an hour or two, he brings word that
he had been among them undiscovered, that he found
they were two parties, and of two several nations, who
had war with one another, and had had a great bat-
tle in their own country, and that both sides having
had several prisoners taken in the fight, they were by
mere chance landed in the same island for the de-
384
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
་
Friday's father returns with satisfactory intelligence.
vouring of them, and making merry; but their com-
ing 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 began to appear;
but he did not think 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 perceive, 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
impossible to prevail, especially upon the Englishmen,
their curiosity was so importunate 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 farther 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 Englishmen, one of them said he could perceive
that some of them were men of great bravery, of in-
vincible spirits, and of great skill in guiding the fight.
The battle, they said, held two hours before they could
guess which party would be beaten; but the party
nearest our people's habitation began to appear
weakest, and, after some time more, some of them
began to fly 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
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
385
The savages fight, and retire from the island.
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 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 satisfac-
tion, viz. that the conquerors had not pursued them,
or seen which way they were gone. Upon this the
Spaniard governor, a man of humanity, would not
suffer them to kill the three fugitives; but sending
three men out by the top of the hill, ordered them to
go round and come in behind them, 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 pur-
suit, or very little, but drawing themselves into a
body together, 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 several years after.
1
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 arrows, several of
which were found sticking in their bodies, but most
of them were killed with their great wooden swords,
sixteen or seventeen of which they found on the field
of battle, and as many bows, with a great many
arrows. These swords were great unwieldy things,
14
3 D
386
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The fear of the Indians produces a temporary reform in the Englishmen.
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, es-
pecially 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 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 tractable, and went about the common
business of the whole society well enough, planted,
sowed, reaped, and began to be all naturalized 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 rational principles of life, much less of religion;
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
387
The whole company consider their general circumstances.
civilizing and reducing them by kind usage and affec-
tionate 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 con-
sider 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 re-
tired parts of it equally adapted to their way of
living, and manifestly to their advantage, they should
not rather remove their habitation, and plant 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 demolished, 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 re-
move them into the valley where my cave was, where
the land was as proper to both, and where indeed there
was land enough; however, upon 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 de-
stroyed, 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 any thing o
388
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They add to their fortification by planting more trees.
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 pow-
der which I had left them at my coming away.
+
But, however, they resolved not to change their ha-
bitation; yet they agreed, that as I had carefully co-
vered it first with a wall and fortification, and then
with a grove of trees; so seeing their safety 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
ouze 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 forward to grow, as I had noted for-
merly, 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 pali-
sado a quarter of a mile thick, and it was next to
impossible to penetrate it but with a little army to
cut it all down; for a little dog could hardly get
between 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,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
389
A false alarm.
not so much as for themselves to come out, but by
the ladder placed up to the side of the hill, and then
lifted 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.
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 persuaded 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 indeed an alarm given them one
morning, which put them in a great 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 discovered, they were surprised with seeing
above twenty canoes of Indians just coming on shore.
They made the best of their way home in hurry
enough, nd, 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.
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
1
390€
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Another rencounter with the Englishmen.
correct him, but to kill him. One of the Spaniards
who was by, seeing him give the fellow a barbarous
cut with the hatchet, which he aimed at his head,
but struck into his shoulder, so that he thought he
had cut the poor creature's arm off, ran to him, and
entreating him not to murder the poor man, clapt în
between him and the savage to prevent the mischief.
The fellow being enraged the more at this, struck
at the Spaniard with his hatchet, and swore he would
serve him as he intended to serve the savage; which
the Spaniard perceiving, avoided the blow, and with
a shovel which he had in his hand (for they were work-
ing 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 Englishman fell upon them. They had
none of them any fire-arms, or any other weapons
but hatchets and other tools, except the third Eng-
lishman; he had one of my old rusty cutlasses, with
which he made at the last Spaniards, and wounded
them both. This fray set the whole family in an up-
roar, and more help coming in, they took the three-
Englishmen prisoners. The next question was, what
should be done with them? they had been so often
mutinous, and were so furious, so desperate, and
so idle withal, that 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 preservation and deliverance, he would
use them with all possible lenity, and would leave.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
391
Desperate conduct of Atkins to the Spanish governor.
them to the judgment of the other two Englishmen,
who were their countrymen.
One of the two honest Englishmen stood up and
said, they desired it might not be left to them; "For,"
says he, "I am sure we ought to sentence them to
the gallows:" and with that gives an account how
Will Atkins, one of the three, had proposed to have
all the five Englishmen join together, and murder all
the Spaniards 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?" That hardened villain was so far from de-
nying it, that he said it was true, and G-d d-n
him they would do it still before they had done with
them. "Well, but Seignior Atkins," said the Spa-
niard, "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?" says
the Spaniard very calmly and smiling.
Seignior Atkins was in such a rage at the Spa-
niard'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 attempted to kill the
Spaniard in the middle of all the company.
This hairbrained carriage obliged them to consider
seriously what was to be done. The two English-
men and the Spaniard who saved the poor savage,
were of opinion that they should hang one of the
three, for an example to the rest; and that 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
2
392
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The Spaniards determine to banish the three Englishmen.
would never consent to put an Englishman to death
though he had murdered half of them; nay, if he
had been killed himself by an Englishman, and had
time left to speak, it should be to 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 in to
it; but then it was to be considered what should be
done to keep them from the mischief they designed;
for all agreed, that means were to be used for
pre-
serving the society from danger. After a long de-
bate it was agreed, first, that they should be dis-
armed, and not permitted to have either gun, pow-
der, shot, 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, speak to, or have any thing to do
with them; that they should be forbid to come with-
in a certain distance of the place where the rest
dwelt; and that if they offered to commit any dis-
order, 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 thein.
The governor, a man of great humanity, musing
upon the sentence, 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
-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
393
They settle in a remote part of the island.
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 solemnly that they would not injure any of the
Spaniards, or their fellow Englishmen, with them.
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 remedy they went,
pretending to go and choose a place where they
should settle, to plant and live by themselves; and
some provisions were given, but no weapons.
About four or five days after, they came again for
some victuals, and gave the governor an account of
where they had pitched their tents, and marked
themselves out an habitation or. plantation: it was a
very convenient place indeed, on the remotest part
of the island, N.E. much about the place where I
providentially 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 habita-
tion, 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 co-
vering, which were given them; and upon their giv-
ing their words that they would not disturb the rest,
or injure any of their plantatious, they gave them
hatchets, and what other tools they could spare; some
peas, barley, and rice, for sowing, and, in a word,
any thing they wanted, but arms and ammuniton.
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 having all their
plantation to form, they had a great deal of work
14
3 E
394
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The three Englishmen purpose making a voyage to the main land.
upon their hands; and when they came to make
boards, 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 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 espe-
cially as mine was then; for the Spaniards had
greatly enlarged it, and made several new apartments.
•
About three quarters of a year after this separation,
a new frolic took these rogues, which, together with
the former villany they had committed, brought
mischief enough upon them, and had very near been
the ruin of the whole colony. The three new asso-
ciates 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 continent from
whence the savages came, and would try if they
could not seize upon some prisoners among the na-
tives there, and bring them home, so as to make
them do the laborious part of the work for them.
The project was not so preposterous, if they had
gone no farther; but they did nothing and proposed
nothing, but had either mischief in the design, or 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,
how shall we reconcile the events of things with Di-
vine justice? It was certainly an apparent ven-
geance 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 villanies to it, such as particularly that
}
!
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
395
The proposal is favourably received by the Spaniards.
pięce of monstrous cruelty of wounding a poor
slave, because he did not, or perhaps could not un-
derstand 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 murder the Spaniards in cold blood, and
in their sleep.
:
But I leave observing, and return to the story:
The three fellows came down to the Spaniards one
morning, and in very humble terms desired to be
admitted to speak with them; the Spaniards very
readily heard what they had to say, which was,
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 Spa-
niards would give them leave to take one of the
canoes which they came over in, and give them arms
and ammunition proportioned for their defence, they
would go over to the main, 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
prophecy tell them, that they would be starved or
murdered, and bade them consider of it.
犟
​The men replied audaciously, they should be
starved if they staid 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
396
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The Spaniards furnish them with provisions and arms.
upon their demand, 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 basket 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 carried 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
thein, "Bon veajo;" 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 be-
hind, how quietly and comfortably they lived now
those three turbulent fellows were gone; as for their
ever coming again, that was the remotest thing from
their thoughts that could be imagined; when, be-
hold, 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
397
The Spaniards are surprised at their return.
Spaniard, and tells him they were all undone, for
there were strangers landed upon the island, he
could not tell who. The Spaniard pausing awhile,
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 concerned? 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 mat-
ter, and what made them come back again?
It was not long before they brought the men in;
and inquiring where they had been, and what they
had been doing? they gave them a full account of
their voyage in a few words, 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 en-
tering that opening of the sea, they saw another
island on the right hand, N. and several more W.
and being resolved to land somewhere, they put
over to one of the islands which lay west, and went
boldly on shore; that there the people were courte-
ous and friendly, and 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
398.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
An account of their voyage.
well as they could of them by signs, what nations.
were this way, and what 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, they never ate any, 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 feed-
ing them to make them fat for the next feast. The
Englishmen seemed mightily 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 sunrising 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 accept of them; and in return they gave
the savages that brought them one of their hatchets,
an old key, a knife, and six or seven of their bullets,
which, though they did not understand, they seemed
extremely pleased with; and then tying the poor
creatures' hands behind them, they (the people)
dragged the prisoners into the boat for our men.
The Englishmen were obliged to come away as
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
399
An account of their voyage.
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 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 im-
possible to make them understand any thing; no-
thing they could say to them, or give them, or do for
them, but was looked upon as going to murder them:
they first 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 then con-
cluded 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 particularly, the party
presently concluded it was to see whether he 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 supper for their new masters.
When the three wanderers had given this unac-
countable history or journal of their voyage, the Spa-
niard asked them where their new family was? And
being told that they had brought them on shore, and
put them into one of their huts, and were come to
beg some victuals for them; they (the Spaniards)
and the other two Englishmen, that is to say, the
whole colony, resolved to go down to the place and
see them, and did so, and Friday's father with them.
400
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They are accompanied by eight Indians.
When they came into the hut, there they sat all
bound; for when they 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 wo-
men, 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 seven-
teen. The women were well-favoured, agreeable
persons, both in shape and features, only tawny; and
two of them, had they been perfectly 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 un-
couth to our Spaniards, 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; and, in particular, of the most mo-
desty, as will presently appear: I say, the sight was
very uncouth, to see three naked men and five naked
women, altogether 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 calf that is killed for a dainty.
The first thing they did was to cause the old In-
dian, 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
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
401
The manner of disposing of the women.
was to satisfy them, that the men into whose hands
they were fallen were Christians; that they abhorred
eating men or women, and that they might be sure
they would not be killed. As soon as they were as-
sured of this, they discovered such a joy, and by
such awkward and several ways as are hard to de-
scribe, for it seems they were of several natious.
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? At which they all fell
a-dancing; and presently one fell to taking up this,
and another that, any thing that lay next, 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 in-
tended 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 woman, or
wife, he shall take but one; and that, having taken
one, none else should touch her; for though we can-
not 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 this appeared so just,
that every one agreed to it without any difficulty.
Then the Englishmen asked the Spaniards if they
'
14
3 F
402
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The Englishmen cast losts for the Indian women.
designed to take any of them? But every one an-
swered "No:" some of them said they had wives in
Spain; and the others did not like women that were
not Christians; and altogether declared that they
would not touch one of them; which was an instance
of such virtue as I have not met with in all my tra-
vels. On the other hand, to be short, the five Eng-
lishmen 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 exceed-
ingly within; the three servants, which they had taken
in the late battle of the savages, lived with them; and
these carried on the main part of the colony, sup-
plying all the rest with food, and assisting them in any
thing 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 bimself
to the hut where the poor naked creatures were, and
fetched out her he chose; and it was worth observ-
ing, that he that chose first took her that was reck-
oned 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 ás
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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
403
Character of the women.
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 la-
mentable 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 satisfy them
that they were not to be immediately murdered, till
they fetched the old man, Friday's father, who 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 wo-
men were in was a little over, the men went to work,
and the Spaniards came and helped them; and in a
few hours they had built them every one a new hut
or tent for their lodging apart; for those they had
already were crowded with their tools, household-
stuff, and provisions. The three wicked ones had
pitched farthest off, and the two honest ones nearer,
but both on the north shore of the island, so that
they continued separate as before: and thus my is-
land 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 happens in the world (what the wise ends of
God's providences are in such a disposition of things
1 cannot say), the two honest fellows had the two
worst wives; and the three reprobates that were
scarce worth hanging, that were fit for nothing, aud
neither seemed born to do themselves good, or any
one else, had three clever, diligent, careful, and ins
genious 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, ingenious, or industri-
ous, or alike cleanly and neat.
Another observation I must make, to the honour of
a diligent application on the one hand, and to the dis-
grace of a slothful, negligent, idle temper on the other,
404
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
Diligent application and slothful negligence contrasted.
that when I came to the place, and viewed the se-
veral 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 and 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 outside part, and thẹn
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 settle-
ment compared to what they were before, and were
not so quarrelsome, having not the same opportunity,
yet one of the certain companions of a profligate
mind never left them, and that was their idleness.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
405
The reward of diligence and application.
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 Spa-
niards came to view their crop, they could not see it
in some places for weeds; the hedge had several
gaps in it, where the wild goats had gotten in and
eaten up the corn; perhaps here and there a dead
bush was crammed in to stop them out for the pre-
sent, 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 Solomon'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'
victuals very nicely; whereas the others could not
be brought to understand it; but then the husband,
who, as 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 slothful 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
406
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Another visit from the Indians.
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 Spa-
niards, 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 qui-
etly 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.
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 perfectly at a loss what to do; the Spaniard go-
vernor, as it happened, was with them, and his ad-
vice was asked; but he professed he knew not what
to do; as for slaves, they had enough already; and
as to killing them, they were none of them inclined
to that. The Spaniard governor told me they could
not think of shedding innocent blood; for as to
them, the poor creatures had done no wrong, invaded
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
407
They capture three Indians.
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
courteous as these Spaniards; and, as to cruelty,
they had nothing of it in their very nature; no in-
humanity, no barbarity, no outrageous passions, and
yet all of them men of great courage aud spirit.
Their temper and calmness had appeared in their
bearing the insufferable usage of the three English-
men; 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 prisoners; and they did so.
The poor fellows were strangely frighted 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.
It was very happy for them that they did not carry
them home to their castle; I mean to my palace un-
der 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.
408
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
One of the Indian prisoners escape.
Here they were set to work, though it was not
much they had for them to do; and whether it was
by negligence in guarding them, or that they thought
the fellows could not mend themselves, I know not,
but one of them 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 after 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 with-
out good cause indeed, that if this fellow got safe
home among his comrades, 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 there 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 intelligence 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 sunrise,
at a convenient place, about a mile from the habita-
tion of the two Englishmen, 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
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
409
He returns with fifty of his countrymen.
Now having
time before they could come at them.
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, and that they bent their course di-
rectly that way, they opened the fences where their
milch-goats were kept, and drove them all out,
leaving their goats to straggle into the wood, whither
they pleased, that the savages might think they were
all bred wild but the rogue who came with them
them was too cunning, for that, and gave them an
account of it all, for they went directly to the place.
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, from a rising ground,
they could see the little army of their enemies come
on directly to their habitation, and in a moment more
could see all their huts and household stuff flaming
up together, to their great grief and mortification;
for they had a very great loss, and to them irretriev-
able, 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 rum-
maging every way, and every place they could think
14
3 G
410
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The savages disperse themselves over the island.
of, in search for prey, and in particular for the people;
of whom it plainly appeared they had intelligence.
The two Englishmen seeing this, thinking them-
selves not secure 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 pro-
per to make another retreat about half a mile farther,
believing, as it afterwards happened, that the far-
ther 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 sa-
vages appeared 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; be-
sides which, they saw seven or eight more at a dis-
tance, 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, whe-
ther they should stand and keep their posture, or fly;
but after a very short debate with themselves, they
considered that if the savages ranged the country
thus before help came, they might, perhaps, find
out their retreat in the woods, and then all would
be lost; so they resolved to 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.
1
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:
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
411
A party of the savages fall into an ambush.
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 forwards directly to
the tree, as if they had known the Englishmen were
there.
Seeing them come so straight towards them, they
resolved to take them in a line as they came; and 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, with-
out 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
both should 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 outright, being shot
in the head; the second, which was the runaway In-
dian, 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 second; and being dreadfully frighted
though not much hurt, sat down upon the ground,
screaming and yelling in a hideous manner.
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
412
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
[
More of the savages destroyed.
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 1 fired the first gun that, perhaps, was
ever shot off in that place since it was an island.
However, all being silent again, and they not
knowing what the matter was, canie 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 believe, told
them that a flash of fire first, and immediately after
that thunder from their gods, had killed those two,
and wounded him. This, I say, is rational; for no-
thing 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 reason-
ably believe that they would not have stood so un-
concerned in viewing the fate of their fellows with-
out some apprehension of their own.
+
Our two men, though, as they confessed to me, it
grieved them to be obliged to kill so many poor crea-
tures, who at the same time had no ncion of their
danger; yet, having them all thus in their power,
and the first having loaded his piece again, resolved
to let fly both together among them, and singling
out by agreement which to aim at, they shot together,
and killed, or very much wounded, four of them;
the fifth, frighted even to death, though not hurt,
fell with the rest; so that our men, seeing them all
fall together, thought they had killed them all.
The belief that the savages were all killed made our
two mercome 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
t
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
413
The Englishmen retreat to their hiding place in the wood.
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 muskets; and first they made sure
of the runaway savage that had been the cause of all
the mischief, and of another that was hurt in his
knee, and put them out of their pain. Then the
man that was not burt at all came and kneeled down
to them with his hands held up, and made piteous
moạn to them by gestures and signs for his life, but
could not say one word to them that they could un-
derstand.
1
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 together, and
his hands behind him, and there they left them; and
with what speed they could made after the other two
who 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 satisfaction to see them cross over 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 sup-
posed 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 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 sa-
vages were their own country-folks, yet they were
most terribly afraid of them, and perhaps the more,
for the knowledge they had of them.
414
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The Englishmen are joined by seven Spaniards.
When they came thither, they found the savages
had been in the wood, and very near the place, but
had not found it; for indeed it was inaccesible, 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, there-
fore, every thing very safe, only the women in a ter-
rible 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. With the seven Spaniards came
one of the savages, who, as I said, were their pri-
soners 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 or-
dered, 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 encouraged, that they could not satisfy them-
selves 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
415
The savages depart from the island.
came to the tree where the men lay that had been kill-
ed; but it was easy to see that some more of the sa-
vages had been there; for they attempted to carry
their dead men away, and had dragged two of them
a good way, but had given it over: from thence they
advanced to the first rising ground, 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
caution, to go forward towards their ruined planta-
tion; but a little before they came thither, coming in
sight of the sea shore, they saw the savages all em-
barking again in their canoes, in order to be gone.
They seemed sorry at first that there was no way
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 improvements 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 inclination 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 offered their help and assistance, and
did very friendly work for several days to restore their
habitations and make necessaries for them; and thus
in a little time they were set upon their legs again.
About two days after this they had the farther sa-
tisfaction 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
416
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
t
The island is again invaded by a large army of savages.
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 witness to confirm it to them.
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 better;
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 entirely concealed
was their only safety before, and would much more
be so now, while their enemies were so numerous;
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 directly thither as
soon as it was day, to play the old game over again,
though they did not now land within two leagues of it.
In the next place, they drove away all the flock of
goats they had at the old bower, as I called it, which
belonged to the Spaniards; and, in short, left as little
appearance of inhabitants any where as possible; and
the next morning early they posted themselves with
all their force at the plantation of the two men, waiting
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, di-
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
417
Disposition of the forces.
rectly towards the place, to the number of 250,
as near as our men could judge. Our army was
but small indeed; but what 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
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.
29.
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 hat-
chet; 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 happened, 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, commanded the whole; and William Atkins,
who, though a dreadful fellow for wickedness, was
15
3 H
418
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Desperate battle with the Indians.
a most daring, bold fellow, commanded under him.
The savages came forward like lions, and our men,
which was the worst of their fate, had no advantage
in their situation; only that Will Atkins, whọ 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 or-
der, 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 each,
about as big as large pistol-bullets. How many they
killed or wounded, they knew not: but the conster-
nation and surprise was inexpressible among the sa-
vages, 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 thickest of them;
and in less than a minute the first three, being loaded
again, gave them a third volley.
Had Will Atkins and his men retired immediately
as soon as they had fired, as they were ordered to
do; or had the rest of the body been at hand to
have poured in their shot continually, the savages
had 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 light-
ning, and could see nobody that hurt them: but
Atkins staying to load again, discovered the cheat:
some of the savages who were at a distance, spying
them, came upon them behind; and though Atkins
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
419
The Europeans retreat, leaving three men killed.
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 me of the In-
dian slaves who came with the women. This save
was a most gallant fellow, and fought most desperate-
ly, 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 three other men killed, retreated to a rising ground
in the wood; and the Spaniards, after firing three
volleys 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 wound-
ed men, who were not quite disabled, were made
outrageous by their wounds, and fought like madmen.
When our men retreated, they left the Spaniard,
the Englishman, and the slave that were killed, be-
hind them; and the savages, when they came up to
them, killed them over again in a wretched manner,
breaking their arms, legs, and heads, with their
clubs and wooden swords, like true savages. But
finding our men were gone, they did not seem in-
clined to pursue them, but drew themselves 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 together upon a rising ground, Atkins,
though he was wounded, would have had him march,
and charge them again all together at once; but the
Spaniard replied, "Seignior Atkins, you see how
their wounded men fight; let them alone till morn-
ing; all these wounded men will be stiff and sore
420.
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
They determine to renew the attack by night
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 mer-
rily, That's true, Seignior, and so shall I too; and
that's the reason I would go on while I'm warm."-
Well, Seignior Atkins," says the Spaniard, "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.
But as it was a clear moonlight night, and they
found the savages 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 night, 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 Englishmen, in whose
quarter it was where the fight began, led them round
between the woods and the sea-side, westward, and
turning 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 ex-
pedition, and then divided themselves into three bo-
dies, and resolved to fall in among them all together.
They had in each body eight persons; 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 to keep back; but they said they were
resolved to die with their husbands. Having thus
formed their little army, they marched out from among
the trees, and came up to the teeth of the enemy, shout-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
421
The Indians are completely defeated.
3
ing and ballooing as loud as they could. The savages
stood all together, but were in the utmost confusion,
hearing the noise of our men shouting from three quar-
ters 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. 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 mortally 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 nimble
feet could help them to do; and as we did not trou-
ble ourselves much to pursue them, they got all to-
gether 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
night from the seaward; 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 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 savages were fled, and
see what posture they were in. This necessarily 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 dis-
agreeable enough to generous minds; for a truly
*
422
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
:
The Europeans pursue them to the sea shore.
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 miserable remains of the savage 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 Spaniard 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 couster-
nation imaginable; and as our men advanced swiftly
towards them, they albran 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 consider, that this might probably
have been the occasion of their coming again in such
multitudes as not to be resisted; or, at least, to come
so many and so often, as would quite desolate the is-
land, and starve them. Will Atkins therefore, who
notwithstanding his 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
423
They prevent the savages from embarking by destroying their canoes.
the capacity of ever returning any more to plague
the island.
They consulted long about this, and some were
against it, for fear of making the wretches fly into the
woods, and live there desperate; and so they should
have them to hunt like wild beasts, be afraid to stir
about their business, and have their plantation con-
tinually 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 hundred men than with one hundred nations;
that as they must destroy their boats, so they must de-
stroy 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. However, the fire so burned the
upper part, that it soon made them unfit for swim-
ming 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, Óa, Wa-
ramokoa, 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 ne-
ver return thither again.
But our men were now satisfied, that they had no
way to preserve themselves or to save their colony,
but effectually to prevent any of these people from
ever going home again; depending upon this, that if
ever so much as one of them got back into their
country 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 de-
stroyed them every one that the storm had not de-
stroyed before; at the sight of which the savages
424
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Total discomfiture of the savage army.
raised a hideous cry in the woods, which our peo-
ple heard plain enough; after which they ran about
the island like distracted mien; so that, in 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
Indians 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 plantation 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 then 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 nim-
ble 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
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 circum-
stances by them; for though their retreats were pre-
served, yet their provision was destroyed, and their
harvest 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, Will Atkins
and his comrades, 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
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
425
Miserable state of the remnant of the savage army.
he never spoke more; and it was very remarkable,
that this was the same barbarous fellow who cut the
poor savage slave with his hatchet, and who after-
wards 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 discover-
"ed the grains of barley and rice, and got into the
method of planting and raising my corn, and my
tame cattle for now they had, as I may say, an
hundred wolves upon the island, which would de-
vour every thing they could come at, yet could be
very hardly come at themselves.
The first thing they concluded when they saw
what their circumstances were, was, that they would,
if possible, drive them up to the farther part of the
island, south-east, so that if any more savages came
on shore, they might not find one another; then that
they would daily hunt and harass them," and kill as
many of them as they could come at, till they had
reduced the number; and if they could at last tame
thein, 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,
yet he would fall down for fear; and so dreadfully
frighted they were, that they kept out of sight farther
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 re-
lent, and pity moved them; especially the Spaniard
governor, who was the most gentleman-like, gene-
rous-minded man that ever I met with in my life; and
he proposed, if possible, to take one of them alive,
1
!
15
3 I
ነ
}
426
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The remaining savages are formed into a colony.
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 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, aud 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 gave 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 tell the rest of his countrymen, and hear
what they said to it, assuring them that if they did
not agree immediately, they should all be destroyed.
The poor wretches, thoroughly humbled, and re-
duced in number to about 37, closed with the pro-
posal 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 slaves carried them a large quantity
of bread, some rice boiled up to cakes, and dried
in the sun, and three live goats; and they were or-
dered to go to the side of a hill, where they sat
down, and 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
427
The ingenuity of the Indians.
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 fruitful; 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 then some canoes of savages came on shore
for their triumphal, unnatural feasts; but as they
were of several nations, and, perhaps, had never
heard of those that came before, or the reason of
it, they did not make any search or inquiry after
their countrymen; and if they had, it would have
been very hard 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 Indians, or savages, were won-
derfully 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 Indians to make wicker-work, or baskets; but
they soon outdid their masters: for they made abun-
dance of most ingenious things in wicker-work;
particularly all sorts of baskets, sieves, bird-cages,
428
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF .
Description of Will Atkins' cottage.
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, pickaxes, 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,
very handsomely; 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 sa-
vages to come and do the like for them; so that when
I came to see the two Englishmen's colonies, they
looked, at a distance, as if they lived all like bees
in a hive; and as for Will Atkins, who was now be-
come a very industrious and necessary 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 pannels or squares, thirty-two in number, and very
strong, standing about seven feet high in the middle
was another not above twenty-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 toge-
ther with wooden pins, from which he raised a pyra-
mid 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, out of the old iron that I had left
there; and indeed this fellow showed abundance of
ingenuity in several things; he made himself a forge,
and a pair of wooden bellows to blow the fire; he
:
*
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
429
Interior conveniences.
made charcoal for his work, and he formed out of
one of the iron crows a middling good anvil to ham-
mer 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 basket-work, so firm, and thatched that
over again so ingeniously with rice-straw, and over
that a large leaf of a tree, which covered the top,
that his house was as dry as if it had been tiled or
slated. But he owned that the savages made the
basket-work for him.
The outer circuit was covered, as a lean-to, all
round this inner 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 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 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 ne-
cessaries which the family had occasion for. These
six spaces not taking up the whole circumference,
what other apartments the outer circle had, were
thus ordered: as soon as you entered the door of
the outer circle, you had a short passage 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,
twenty 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 clo-
430
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Statement of the families.
sets or retired rooms to the respective chambers
of the inner circle; and four large warehouses, or
barns, 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 At-
kins and his companions; the third was killed, but
his wife remained, with three children; for she was,
it seems, big with child when he died, and the other
two were not at all backward to give the widow her
full share of 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 is true they were not so indus-
trious as the other two, as has been observed already.
One thing, however, cannot be omitted, viz. that
as for religion, I dont 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 common method of seamen, viz. swearing by his
name; nor were their poor, ignorant, savage wives
much better for having been married to Christians, as
we must call them; for as they knew very little of
God themselves, so they were incapable of entering
into any discourse with their wives about a God, or
to talk any thing to them concerning religion.
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,
were taught to speak English too, from their first
learning to speak, though they at first spoke it in a
very broken manner, like their mothers. There were
none of those children above six years old when I
came thither; for it was not much above seven years
since they had brought these savage ladies over, but
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
431
The folly of abandoning ourselves entirely to grief.
they had been pretty fruitful, for they had all chil-
dren, 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-governed, quiet, laborious wo-
men, modest and decent, helpful to one another,
mighty observant and subject to their masters, 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.
Having thus given an account of the colony in
general, and pretty much of my runagate English-
men, I must say something 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 circumstances when they were among the sa-
vages; they told me readily, that they had no in-
stances to give of their application or ingenuity in
that country; that they were a poor, dejected hand-
ful of people; that if means had been put into their
hands, they had so abandoned themselves to despair,
and so sunk under the weight of their misfortunes,
that they thought of nothing but starving. One of
them, a grave and sensible man, told me he was con-
vinced they were' in the wrong; that it was not the
part of wise men to give themselves up to misery, but
always to take hold of the helps which reason offer-
ed, as well for present support, as for future deliver-
ance; he said that grief was the most senseless pas-
sion in the world, for that it regarded only things
past, which were generally impossible to be recalled
or to be remedied, but had no views to things to
come, and had no share in any thing that looked like
deliverance, but rather added to the affliction than
proposed a remedy; and upon this he repeated a
Spanish proverb, which, though I cannot repeat it in
the same words that he spoke it, yet I remember I
made it into an English proverb of my own, thus:
432
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Extraordinary presence of mind in the English under misfortunes.
In trouble to be troubled,
1
Is to have your trouble doubled.
He then ran on in remarks upon all the little im-
provements 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 happy than
theirs was, even now when they were all together.
He said it was remarkable that Englishmen had a
greater presence of mind in their distress than any
people he ever met with; that their unhappy nation,
and the Portuguese, 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 lie down under it in despair, without rousing
their thoughts up to proper remedies for escape.
66
I told him their case and mine differed exceed-
ingly; that they were cast upon the shore without
necessaries, without supply of food, or of present
sustenance, till they could provide it: 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 en-
couraged any creature in the world to apply himself
as I did.
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, 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, if any of us had been
alone!" I desired him to abate his compliment,
and go on with the history of their coming on shore.
He told me they unhappily landed at a place where
there were people without provisions; whereas, had
they had the common sense to put off to sea again,
and gone to another island a little farther, they had
found provisions though without people; there being
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
433
A Spaniard relates the hardships they suffered.
an island that way, as they had been told, where
there were provisions, though no people; for it seems
that the Spaniards of Trinidad had frequently been
there, and filled the island with goats and hogs at
several times, where they had bred in such multi-
tudes, 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 sustained 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 unless 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 upou
them as unjust, that they, who came thither for
assistance and support, should attempt to set up for
instructors of those who gave them bread; intimat-
ing, it seems, that none should set up for the instruc-
tors 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 more indolent sa-
vages, who therefore were less supplied with the ne-
cessaries of life than, they had reason to believe,
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.
•
They added, that they could not but see with
what demonstrations of wisdom and goodness, the
providence of God directs the event of things in
the world, which, they said, appeared in their cir-
cumstances; for if, pressed by the hardships they
were under, and the barrenness of the country where
15
3 K
484
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Difficult circumstances of the Spaniards.
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.
Then they gave me an account how the savages
whom they lived among expected then to go with
them into their wars; and it was true, that as they
had fire-arms with them, had they not had the dis-
aster to lose their ammunition, they should not have
been serviceable only to their friends, but have made
themselves terrible both to friends and enemies; but
being without powder and shot, and in a condition
that they could not in reason deny to go out with
their landlords to their wars; when they came in.
the field, 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 themselves large targets.
of wood, which they covered with skins of wild,
beasts, and these covered them from the arrows of
the savages: yet 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
1
+
435
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Effects of excessive joy.
down, the rest of their companions 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 hal-
berts 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, finding 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 er-
rand, 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 their astonishment 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 heaven; 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 to the person and place from
whence all these new comforts came; but said it was
impossible to express it by words, for their excessive
joy driving them to unbecoming extravagances, they
had no way to describe them but by telling me that
they bordered upon lunacy, having no way to give
vent to their passion suitable to the sense that was
upon them; that in some it worked one way, and in
some another; and that some of them, through a
surprise of joy, would burst out into tears; others
436
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe explains his motives for again visiting the island.
be half mad, and others immediately faint. This
discourse extremely affected me, and called to my
mind Friday's ecstasy when he met his father, and
the poor people's ecstasy when I took them up at
sea, after their ship was on fire; the mate's joy when
he found himself delivered in the place where he
expected to perish; and my own joy, when after
twenty-eight years' captivity 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 savages; or that,
if they were, they would be able to cut them off,
though twice as many as before; so that they had
no concern about that. I entered into a serious dis-
course with the Spaniard 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.
I
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 sun-
dry 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 persons with me, as well to increase
and recruit their number, as by the particular neces-
sary 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 I talked 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 animosities that
-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
437
1
The Englishmen and Spaniards forget their animosities.
had been among them, and could shake hands with
one another, and engage in a strict friendship and
union of interest, so that there might be no more
misunderstandings or jealousies.
Will Atkins, with abundance of frankness and
good humour, said, they had met with afflictions
enough to make them all sober, and enemies enough
to make them all friends; that for his part he would
live and die with them; and was so far from de-
signing any thing against the Spaniards, that he
owned they had done nothing to him but what his
own bad conduct made necessary, and what he
would have done, and perhaps much worse, in their
case; and that he would ask them pardon, if I de-
sired it, for the injury he had done them; and was
very willing and desirous of living on terms of en-
tire friendship 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 dis-
armed and excluded William Atkins and his two
countrymen, for their ill conduct, as they had let
me know; and they appealed to me for the neces-
sity they were under to do so; but that William At-
kins had behaved himself so bravely in the great
fight 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 sup-
plied with necessaries, as any of them; and that they
had testified their satisfaction in him, by committing
the command to him, next to the governor himself;
and as they had an entire confidence in him and all
his countrymen, so they acknowledged they had
merited that confidence by all the methods that ho-
nest men could merit to be valued and trusted; and
they most heartily embraced the occasion of giving
438
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe distributes the various stores.
me this assurance, that they would never have any
interest separate from one another.
Upon these frank and open declarations of friend-
ship, we appointed the next day to dine all together,
and indeed we made a splendid feast. I caused the
ship's cook and his mate to come on shore and dress
our dinner, and the old cook's mate we had on shore
assisted. We brought on shore six pieces of good
beef, and four pieces of pork, out of the ship's pro-
vision, 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 glad of.
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 sea-
men, 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 when made up. 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 comfortable to them, hav-
ing 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 men-
tioned before, to make every one a light coat like a
frock, which I judged fittest for the heat of the sea-
son, cool and loose; and ordered, that whenever they
decayed they should make more, as they thought fit.
The like for pumps, shoes, stockings, hats, &c.
I cannot express what pleasure, what satisfaction,
•
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
439
1
Distribution of the various stores and implements.
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 de-
solate 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 needful to
them. 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.
As for the carpenters, I scarce need mention how
useful they were: they took in pieces all my clumsy
unhandy things, and made them clever, convenient
tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, shelves,
and every thing they wanted of that kind.
But to let them know how nature made artificers
at first, I carried the carpenters to see Will Atkins'
basket-house, as I called it, and they both owned they
never saw an instance of such natural ingenuity be-
fore, 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,
"Iain sure," says he, "that man has no need of
am
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
arake, for we had no harrows or ploughs; and to
every separate place a pickaxe, a crow, a broadaxe,
and a saw; always appointing, that as often as any
4.
440
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Distribution of the various stores and implements.
were broken, or worn out, they should be supplied,
without grudging, out of the general stores that I
left behind.
Nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives,
scissars, and all sorts of tools and iron-work, they
had without tale as they required 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 ac-
count whatever. And for the use of the smith I left
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 thou-
sand savages, if they had but some little advantages
of situation, 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-educated, 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 awhile,
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,
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 allotted to them, where they had three tents
or houses set up, surrounded with a basket-work,
palisaded like Atkins', and adjoining his plantation.
Their tents were contrived so, that they had each of
them a room apart, to lodge in, and a middle tent,
like a great storehouse, to lay all their goods in, and
5
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
441
Division of the settlements.
to eat and drink in. And now the other two English-
men moved their habitation to the same place; 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 un-
der, as on the outside of the hill, that they lived,
though perfectly concealed, yet full at large. Never
was there such a city in a wood, and so hid, I believe,
in any part of the world; for I 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 cut-
ting them down first, could discover the place, ex-
cept 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 afterwards above
two hundred yards to the place; and the other was
up the ladder at twice, as I have formerly described
it; and they had a large wood, thick planted, also
on the top of the hill, containing above an acre, which
grew apace, and covered the place from all discovery
there, with only one narrow place between two trees,
not easy to be discovered, to enter on that side.
2.
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
carpenters and the tailor, whom I brought with me;
also the smith, who was a very necessary man to
them, especially as gunsmith, to take care of their
arms; and my other man, whom I called Jack-of-all-
1
16
3 L
442
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
.
•
Character of the French priest.
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 natu-
rally 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 disad-
vantage in the account of Protestants; 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 good
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 any one say
against my being very sensible of the value of such a
man, notwithstanding his profession? though it may
be my opinion, perhaps as well as the opinion 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,
1 found reason to delight exceedingly in his conver-
sation; and he first began with me about religion, in
the most obliging manner imaginable.
He then 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 par-
ticularly this was very remarkable; that during the
voyage he was now engaged in he had the misfortune
to be five times shipped and unshipped, and never to
go to the place where any of the ships he was in were
at first designed: that his first intent was to have gone
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
443
*
Remarkable disappointments.
•
to Martinico, and that he went on board a ship
bound thither at St. Maloe's; but being forced into
Lisbon in bad weather, the ship received some da
mage by running aground in the mouth of the Tagus,
and was obliged to unload her cargo there: that
finding a Portuguese ship there, bound to the Ma-
deiras, 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 Portuguese ship being but an
indifferent mariner, had been out in his reckoning,'
and they drove to Fyal; where, however, he hap-
pened 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
to Newfoundland. He had no remedy in the exi-
gence 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 provisions, he thought it an opportunity to
complete his first design. But when he came to
Quebec, the master 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 say 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 affair 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 counter
་
1
444
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
!
The want of religion on the island deplored.
nance, that he had for two or three days desired an
opportunity to discourse with me, which he hoped
would not be displeasing, 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?"
"There are three things," said he, "which, if I
am right, must stand in the way of God's blessing
upon your endeavours here, and which I should re-
joice, 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 convince you that
every one of them may with great ease, and much
to your satisfaction, be remedied.
First, sir," says he, " you have here four English-
men, who have brought women from among the sa-
vages, and have taken them as their wives, and have
had many children by them all, and yet are not mar-
ried 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."
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 me he would use the
same freedom and plainness in the second, and hoped
I would take it as well; and this was, that notwith-
standing 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
}
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
445
Remedies pointed out by the French priest.
even to read it, and that they were, as he perceived,
women of tolerable understanding, and capable of
instruction; 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 wor-
ship, 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 cer-
tainly call them to an account for.
66
"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 men about it ?" Yes,
with all my heart," said I," and I will oblige theur
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 instruct them, and encourage
them; 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 Chris-
tianity, 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 for it."
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, who are, as I may say, your con-
quered subjects. Now, sir, you have an opportu-
nity 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 expense of a man's whole life."
Why, sir," said I," 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 ecclesiastic, and are given over to that
:
446
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
$
Marriage is proposed to the Englishmen.
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, madė
me a very low bow: "I most heartily thank God,
and you, sir," says he, "for giving me so evident á
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 come back now to the first of his objections.
When we came to the Englishmen, I sent for them
all together; 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 distri-
buted, which they were sensible of, and very thank-
ful 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."
I
They told me, especially 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. Atkins 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.
*
*
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
;
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
447
1
They consent to the ceremony.
was glad I had a minister with me; and he believed
they would be all willing also.
Before I went from their quarter they all came 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. So I appointed 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 pre-
vent any scandal, but also to oblige them that they
should not forsake them, whatever might happen.
The women were easily made sensible of the mean-
ing 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 be-
cause they were not baptized, and professed Chris-
tians, gave them an exceeding reverence for his per-
son; and there was no need after that to inquire
whether he was a clergyman or no.
He told me he doubted they were but indifferent
Christians themselves; that they had but little know-
ledge 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 per-
suade 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
1
448
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
Will Atkins' religious notions.
Christ that redeemed thein, he could not marry
them; for he would have no hand in joining Chris-
tians with savages; nor was it consistent with the
principles of the Christian religion, and was indeed
expressly forbidden in God's law.
A
>
They heard all this very attentively, and I deliver
ed it very faithfully to them from his mouth. They
told me it was very true what the gentleman had
said, that they were but very indifferent Christians
themselves, and that they had never talked to their
wives about religion." Lord, sir," says Will At-
kins, "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 believe all this, and yet are such wick-
ed fellows, as we indeed are: why, sir," said Will,
"it is enough to give them a surfeit of religion, at
first hearing folks must have some religion them-
selves 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 made all things, and
that he 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 ?→→
You are not so ignorant 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 yourself."
"That's true, sir," said Atkins; but with what
face can I say any thing to my wife of all this,
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
449.
A repentant sinner the best minister.
when she will tell me immediately it cannot be
true ?"
66
"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, who 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 suf-
fered to live, who 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
1;
"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. “Oh!”
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 re-
pent, and then he will be so much the better quali-
fied 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 wishing 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 reserves damnation to the general
day of retribution; that it is a clear evidence of
God and of a future state, that righteous men re-
ceive not their reward, or wicked men their punish-
ment, 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 buț
repent for himself, he will be an excellent preacher
of repentance to his wife.'
""
I repeated all this to Atkins, who looked very se-
rious all the while, and who, we could easily per-
16
3 M
450
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Atkins shows a sepse of the weight of his sins.
ceive was more than ordinarily 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 undeniable 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 the tears started into his
eyes,) 'tis past all that with me."-" Past it, Atkins!"
said I; “what dost thou mean by that ?"" I know
well enough what I mean, sir," says he; "I mean
'tis 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 sin-
gular affection for the good of others' 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 wishes it
were not so?" I put the question fairly to Atkins:
and he answered 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 be
lieved it would one time or the other ruin him."
“What do you mean by that?" said I, Why,"
he said, "he believed he should, one time or ano-
ther, cut his own throat to put an end to the terror
of it."
The clergyman shook his head, with a great con-
térn 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 himn
repentance, But, pray explain this to him, that
as no man is saved but by Christ, and the merit of
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
451
The effects of religious instruction in Atkins.
his passion, procuring divine mercy for him, how
can it be too late for any man to receive mercy? Does
be 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 'tis never too late for
men to ask mercy; 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
awhile, 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 back-
--ward 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 Christians.
Upon this promise, he married the other three
couple; but Atkins and his wife were not yet come
in. After this, my clergyman waiting awhile, was
curious to know where Atkins was gone; and turn-
ing 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, sit-
ting under the shade of a bush, very eager in dis-
course. I stopped short till my clergyman came up
452
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Atkins instructs his wife in the first principles of religion.
to me, and having showed him where they were, we
stood and looked very steadily at them a good while.
We observed him very earnest with her, pointing
up to the sun, and to every quarter of the heavens;
then down to the earth, then out to the sea, then to
himself, then to her, to the woods, to the trees.
6%
1
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 believe he is," said I.-
Immediately we perceived 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 attentive, but whe-
ther 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 forbear myself; but it
was a great affliction to us both, that we were not
near enough to hear any thing that passed between
: them.
A
}
Well, however, we could come no nearer for fear
of disturbing them; so we resolved to see an end of
this piece of still conversation, as it spoke loud
enough to us without the help of voice. He sat
down again, as I have said, close by her, and talked
earnestly to her, and two or three times we could see
him embrace 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.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
453
+
Atkins acknowledges his wicked conduct to his father.
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 lifting up her hands, laying her hand to her
breast, and such other postures as usually express
the greatest seriousness and attention. This con-
tinued about half a quarter of an hour, and then
they walked away; so that we could see no more of
them in that situation.
Well, as Will Atkins and his wife were gone, our
business there was over; so we went back our own
way; and when we came back we found them wait-
ing to be called in. Observing this, I asked my
clergyman if we should discover to him that we had
seen him under the bush, or no; and it was his opi-
nion 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 our-
selves; and I began with him thus:
"Will Atkins," said I, "prithee, 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 de-
spiseth 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.
+454
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Painful reflections in the mind of Crusoe.
$
1
Will Atkins, explain yourself: you did not kill
! father, did you, with your own hands?
!
1.
+
your
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, un-
natural return for the most tender, affectionate treat-
ment 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 re-
pentance 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 ignorant 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 con-
" fession 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.
1
R: C. You talk too feelingly and sensible for me,
Atkins; I cannot bear it.
{
W. A. You bear it, master! I dare say you know
* nothing of it.
R: Č. Yes, Atkins, every shore, every hill, nay,' I
may say every tree in this island, is witness to the
anguish of my soul for my ingratitude and base usage
of a good tender father; a father much like yours
by your description; and I murdered my father as
“well as you, Will-Atkins; but think for all that, my
repentance is short of yours too, by a great deal.
A
+
[I would have said more, if I could have restrained
my passions; but I thought this poor man's repent-
ance 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,
*
A
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
455
Religious instruction pursued by Crusoe and the clergyman.
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 affected with it, and said to me, "Did
I not say, sir, that when this man was converted he
would preach to us all? 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 religion to my wife, in order,
as you directed me, to make a Christian of her; and
she has preached such a sermon to me as I shall
never forget while I live.
They had, it seems, several other discourses, 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. How-
ever, 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,
456
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
Religious instruction pursued by Crusoe and the clergyman.
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 resurrection, the last judgment, and a
future state.'
""
I called Will Atkins 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 creature, and
his own conscience so reproached him with his hor-
rid, ungodly life, that he trembled at the apprehen-
sions that her knowledge of him should lessen the
attention she should give to those things, and make
her rather contemn religion than receive it: but he
was assured, he said, that her mind was so disposed
to receive due impressions of all those things, that,
if I would but discourse with her, she would make
it appear to my 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 wo-
man, I entreated him to begin with her.
He brought the poor woman to embrace the
knowledge of Christ, and of redemption by him, not
with wonder and astonishment only, as she did the
first notions of a God, but with joy and faith, with
an affection, and a surprising degree of understand-
ing, scarce to be imagined, much less to be ex-
pressed; 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
5
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
457
1
Atkins' Indian wife is baptized.
caution, that the man might not perceive he was of
the Roman church, if possible; because of other
ill consequences which might attend a difference
among us in that very religion which we were in-
structing 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 manner that
I should not know by it that he was a Roman Ca-
tholic himself, and so he did; for saying only some
words over to himself in Latin, which I could not
understand, 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 benedic-
tion afterwards in Latin; but either Will 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
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 for-
sake his crimes; represented to him, how God had
honoured him with being the instrument of bringing
his wife to the knowledge of the Christian religion;
and that he should be careful he did not dishonour
the grace of 'God; and that if he did, he would
see the heathen a better Christian than himself; the
savage converted, and the instrument cast away!
He said a great many good things to them both,
and then recommended them, in a few words, to God's
goodness; gave them the benediction again, I repeat-
ing every thing to them in English: and thus ended
:
16
3 N
458
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe prepares to leave the island.
the ceremony. 1, think it was the most pleasant,
agreeable day to me that ever I passed in all my life.
Having thus brought the affairs of the island to a
narrow compass, I was preparing to go on board the
ship, when the young man, whom I had taken out of
the famished ship's company, came to me, and told
me, he understood I had a clergyman with me, and
that I had caused the Englishmen to be married to
the savages whom they called wives; that he had a
match too, which he desired might be finished before
I went, between two Christians, which he hoped
would not be disagreeable to me.
I 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 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 kinds 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 planta-
tion; 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
r
459
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
*
The territory is equitably divided between the inhabitants.
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, and managing fellow, perfectly reformed, ex-
ceedingly 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 satisfaction, 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, set-
ting out the bounds and situation of every man's
plantation, and testifying that I gave them thereby,
severally, a right to the whole possession and inhe-
ritance of the respective plantations or farms, with
their improvements, to them and their heirs; reserv-
ing 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 demand 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 good
neighbourhood with one another: and so I prepared
to leave them.
One thing I must not omit, and that is, that being
now settled in a kind of commonwealth among them-
selves, 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 unemployed;
for, excepting the providing themselves food, which
they had difficulty enough in doing sometimes, they
had no manner of business or property to manage:
I proposed therefore to the governor Spaniard, that
he should go to them with Friday's father, and pro-
pose to them to remove, and either plant for them-
460
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The extent of the plantations, and their divisions.
selves, or take them into their several families as ser-
vants, to be maintained for their labour, but without
being absolute slaves, for I would not admit them to
be made slaves by force, 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 cheerfully along with him; so we
allotted them land and plantations, which three or
four accepted of, but all the rest chose to be employ-
ed as servants in the several families we had settled;
and thus my colony was in a manner settled as fol-
lows: The Spaniards possessed my original habi-
tation, 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 southward and south-west, to-
wards 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, no-
body would disturb them; and no doubt but they
were often ashore, and went away again, for I never
heard that the planters were ever attacked and dis-
turbed any more.
It now came into my thoughts that I had hinted to
my friend the clergyman that the work of converting
the savages might perhaps be set on foot in his ab-
sence, to his satisfaction; and I told him, that now I
thought it was put in a fair way, for the savages be-
ing thus divided among the Christians, if they would
but every one of them do their part with those which
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
461
A plan formed for instructing the Indians.
came under their hands, I hoped it might have a
very good effect.
66
He agreed presently in that; "if," said he, they
will do their part: but how," says he,
"shall we
obtain that of them?" I told him 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 Pro-
testants: and we recommended it earnestly to them,
and made them promise that they would never make
any distinction of Papist or Protestant in their ex-
horting 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 dis-
putes one with another about religion.
I
When I came to Will Atkins' 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!)
say, when I came thither I found the young woman
I have mentioned above, and William Atkins' wife,
were become intimates; and this prudent and reli-
gious 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. But to re-
turn 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 plainly, had I set up the sloop, and left it
among them, they would, upon very light disgust,
have separated, and gone away from one another;
or perhaps have turned pirates, and so made the is-
462
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe sails on his voyage.
land a den of thieves, instead of a plantation of so-
ber 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 ne-
phew took extraordinary, for the same reason: I
thought they had enough to qualify them for a defen-
sive war, against any that should invade them; but I
was not to set them up for an offensive war, or to en-
courage them to go abroad to attack others, which,
in the end, would only bring ruin and destruction
upon themselves and all their undertakings: I reserv-
ed the sloop, therefore, and the guns, for their ser-
vice another way, as I shall observe in its place.
I have now done with the island: I left them all
in good circumstances, 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 relief from the Brasils, 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 Brasils, in about twenty-two days:
meeting nothing remarkable in our passage but this,
that about three days after we sailed, being becalmed,
and the current setting strong to the N. N. E. run-
ning, 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,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
463
They descry an immense fleet of canoes.
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 towards 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 terri-
ble 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
becalmed, 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, when we
came so near as to know that we must engage them.
The weather continued calm, and they came on
apace towards us; so I gave orders to come to an
anchor, and furt 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 make of
them when they came up, being about 126; and a
great many of them too; for some of them had six-
464 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They are attacked by the Indians.
teen or seventeen men in them, some more, and the
least six or seven.
When they came near to us, they seemed to be
struck with wonder and astonishment, as at a sight
which they had, doubtless, 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 near; 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 savages 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
niore arrows, and make all our guns ready; but be-
ing 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
1
2
1

Death of Friday.
Engravd for J. CLEAVES Edition.
1465.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
465
The death of Friday.
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 presence) they had
bid us kiss
Whether this was a defiance
or challenge, we knew not; or whether it was done
in mere contempt, or a signal to the rest; but imme-
diately 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 inexpres-
sible 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!
I was so enraged with the loss of my old servant,
the companion of all my sorrows and solitudes, that
I immediately ordered five guns to be loaded with
small shot, and four with great; and gave them such
a broadside as they had never had in their lives be-
fore, 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 re-
solved 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 kill-
ed 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 over-
set every canoe there, and drowned every one of them.
A
16
30
466
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Dreadful slaughter of the savages.
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 thereabouts, we
could not see above three or four straggling canoes:
nor did we ever see the rest any more; for a breeze
of wind springing up the same evening, we weighed
and set sail for the Brasils.
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 be-
lieve 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 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
disconsolate creature alive, for want of my man Fri-
day, 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
467
Burial of Friday.
it was a long while before we could make him tra-
derstand any thing; but in time, our men taught hin
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 palate; 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,
and that they all joined to go against two nation.
We asked him, what made them come up to us?
He said, "To makee te great wonder look."-
Here it is to be observed, that all these natives, as
also those of Africa, when they learn English, al-
ways 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 Fri-
day! We buried him with all decency and solem-
nity 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, honest, and most affec
tionate servant that ever man had,
We now went away with a fair wind for Brasil,
and in about twelve days, we made land in the lati-
tude of 5 degrees south of the line, being the north-
เ
468 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They arrive at the Brasils.
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 diffi-
culty that we were admitted to hold the least cor-
respondence on shore. Not my partner himself,
who was alive, and made a great figure among them,
not my two merchant trustees, nor the fame of my
wonderful preservation in the island, could obtain
me that favour: but my partner 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 condi-
tion absolutely capitulated for, that we should not
offer to land any goods out of the ship, or to carry
any person away without license.
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, con-
sisted of fine broad-cloth, English stuffs, lace, and
fine Hollands. Also, I delivered him about the
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
469
The sloop is fitted up for a voyage to the island.
value of £100 sterling, in the same goods, for other
uses and I obliged him to set up the sloop which
I had brought with me from England as I have said,
for the use of my colony, in order to send the re-
freshments I intended to my plantation.
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, who 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 under-
stood, having been an old planter in Maryland, and
a buccanier into the bargain.
I encouraged the fellow by granting all he desired;
and, as an addition, I gave him the savage which we
had taken prisoner of war, to be his slave, and or-
dered 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 part-
ner told me, there was a certain very honest fellow,
a Brasil 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 little household stuff,
› and two slaves; "and," adds he, "though I hate his
470
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Various supplies furnished the island.
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 then (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 preparations for a farm; but no-
thing to begin with, but as above. However, 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 island, 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 recom-
mended 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
daughters, and there were but five of the Spaniards.
that wanted; and the rest had all 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 se-
venty 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 Brasils by this
sloop; of which I shall take some notice in its place.
I have now done with my island, and all manner
of discourse about it; and whoever reads the rest of
1.
471
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
A new æra commences in Crusoe's adventures.
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 charms, much
less by those of other men, to beware of the like;
not cooled by almost forty years misery and disap-
pointments; not satisfied with prosperity beyond
expectation; not made cautious by affliction and dis-
tress 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 de-
sire 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 load-
ed her, as I did the other vessel, with all the neces-
saries 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 car-
ried over cannon and ammunition, servants, and peo-
ple 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 pos-
sessed with a wandering spirit, scorned all advan-
tages, pleased myself with being 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 pretended 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
472
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
!
A man should not depend on the strength of his own judgment.
gave the place a name; but left it as I found it, belong-
ing 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, farther 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 malecontent with their long stay there; that At-
kins was dead; that five of the Spaniards were come
away; and that though they had not been much mo-
lested by the savages, yet they had had some skir-
mishes with them; that they begged of him to write
to me to think of the promise 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 chase indeed, and
they who will have any more of me, must be con-
tent to follow me through a new variety of follies,
hardships, and wild adventures; wherein the justice
of Providence may be duly observed, and we may
see how easily Heaven can gorge us with our own
desires, make the strongest of our wishes to be our
affliction, and punish us most severely with those
very things which we think it would be our utmost
happiness to be allowed in.
Let no wise man flatter himself with the strength
of his own judgment, as if he was able to choose
any particular station of life for himself. Man is a
short-sighted creature, sees but a very little way be-
fore him; and as his passions are none of his best
friends, so his particular affections are generally his
worst counsellors.
I say this with respect to the impetuous desire I
had from a youth to wander into the world, and how
!
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
473
They sail for the Cape of Good Hope.
evident it now was that this principle was preserved
in me for my punishment. How it came on, the man-
ner, the circumstance, and the conclusion of it, it is
easy to give you historically, and with its utmost va-
riety 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 under-
stood of those who can listen to the voice of Provi-
dence, and draw religious consequences from God's
justice and their own mistakes.
Be it had I business or no business, away I went.
It is no time now to enlarge any farther upon the rea-
son 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 pi-
ous clergymen 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 voy-
age he began. How happy had it been for me if I
had gone with him!
But it was too late now; all things Heaven ap-
points 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 Brasils 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 tole-
rable good 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
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, who directs
the circumstances of things, pleases to appoint it to
be so.
rub
:
17
3 P
474 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They touch at Madagascar.
Our ship was on a trading voyage, aud had a su-
percargo 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 nephew the captain, and the supercargo, adjust-
ing 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 Coromandel; we were in-
deed informed that a French man of war of fifty guns
and two large merchant-ships were gone to the In-
dies; and as I knew we were at war with France, I
had some apprehensions of them; but they went
their own way, and we heard no more of them.
I shall not pester my account, or the reader, with
descriptions of places, journals of our voyages, vari-
ations of the compass, latitudes, 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
àre perfectly unprofitable to all that read, except only
to those who are to go to those places themselves.
>
It is enough to name the ports and places which
we touched at, and what occurred to us on our pass-
ing 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 in-
conceivable dexterity, yet we fared very well with
them awhile; they treated us very civilly; and for
some trifles which we gave them, such as knives,
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 furnished ourselves with provisions; and I
!
{
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
475
Manners of the natives.
that was always too curious to look into every nook
of the world wherever I came, was for going on shore
as often as I could. It was on the east side of the
island that we went on shore one evening, and the
people, who by the way are very numerous, came
thronging about us, and stood gazing at us at a dis-
tance; as we had traded freely with them, and had
been kindly used, we thought ourselves in no dan-
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 sigual that they accept the truce too; but then
this is a known condition of the truce, that you are
not to pass beyond their three poles towards them,
nor they come past your three poles or boughs to-
wards you; so that you are perfectly secure 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 weapons with you; and if they
come into that space they stick up their javelins and
lances all at the first poles, and come on unarıned;
but if any violence is offered them, and the truce
thereby broken, away they run to the poles and lay
hold on their weapons, 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 provisions, for
which we satisfied them with such toys as we had;
their women also brought us milk and roots, and se-
veral 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 satisfied to lie on shore as the rest; and the boat
lying at an anchor about a stone's cast from the land,
}
476
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They are attacked by the Natives.
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 muskets, which
was the number of the guns they had, and that three
times over; for, it seems, the natives here were not
so easily frighted with guns as the savages were in
America, where I had to do with them.
All this while I knew not what was the matter;
but rousing immediately from 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 be-
tween 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, we were in as
much danger as they were in on shore; for they pour-
ed 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 pro-
vidence rather, in the boat.
And yet had it been day-light, they are, it seems,
such exact marksmen, that if they could have seen
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
477
Dreadful carnage of the Natives by the small army.
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 se-
veral; however, they stood thus in battle array on the
shore till break of day, which we suppose 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 by glasses perceiving
the posture we lay in, and that we fired towards 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 assist 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 an-
chor behind, they towed us out of the reach of the
arrows, we all the while lying close behind the bar-
ricade 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 broad-
side 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 had got on board and out of danger, we
had time to examine into the occasion of this fray;
478
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Cause of the quarrel.
and indeed our supercargo, 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 done something to
provoke them to it. At length it came out, viz. that
an old woman, who had come to sell us some milk;
had brought it within our poles, with a young wo-
man with her, who also brought some roots or herbs;
and while the old woman (whether she was mother
to the young woman or no they could not tell) was
selling the milk, one of our men offered some rudeness
to the wench that was with her, at which the old wo-
man 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 suppose, 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.
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 af-
ter, 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 ven-
turing 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;
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
479
A party from the ship land.
but I ought indeed to have been sure that the men I
went with had been under my command before I en-
gaged in a thing so hazardous and mischievous, as I
was brought into it without my knowledge or desire.
We took twenty stout fellows with us as any in the
ship, besides the supercargo and myself; and we land-
ed 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 sur-
prise 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 com-
manded one, and I the other. We neither could hear
nor see any body stir when we landed; so we inarch-
ed 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, stumbled and fell over a dead body. This
made them halt there awhile; 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-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 par-
ty 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
480
LIFE AND ADVENTURES or
1
They endeavour to discover the Indian town.
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 asked me and my company to go along with
them, I positively refused 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
difficulty too, I persuaded to stay; so the supercar-
go and I, with one man, went back to the boat,
where, I told them, 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 mis-
carried, the ship might be lost for want of their help;
and that they could not answer 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
481
Their proceedings on shore.
gave me good words, and begged I would not be an-
gry; 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 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 pistol; 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 handgrenadoes. Bolder fel-
lows, and better provided, never went about any
wicked work in the world.
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 dis-
appointment; for there were not above twelve or thir-
teen houses; and where the town was, or how big,
they knew not. They consulted therefore 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 re-
solved to leave those houses, and look for the town as
17
3 Q
482
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The English seaman is discovered hanging.
well as they could. They went on a little way, and
found a cow tied to a tree: this they presently con-
cluded 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 to-
gether.
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 call-
ed 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 silent-
ly first through the town, and see what dimensions it
was of, and consider if they might venture upon it
or no.
They did so, and desperately resolved that they
would venture upon them; but while they were ani-
mating 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, hanging 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 concerned in the fray
with us before, and two or three of them wounded
with our shot; and our men found they were awake,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
483
The Indian town is fired in several places.
and talking one 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 madly 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 es-
pecially 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 manner.
In short, most of the Indians who were in the open
part of the house, were killed or hurt with the grena-
do, 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 dis-
patched all who came that way. But there was ano-
ther apartment 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
3
484
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The seamen are excited to avenge the death of their comrade.
would not waken 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 to-
gether in bodies; for the fire grew so raging, all the
houses being made of light combustible stuff, that they
could hardly bear the street between them, and their
business was to follow the fire for the surer execution.
As fast as the fire 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
another 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..
1
My nephew the captain, who was roused by his
men too, seeing 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.
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 con-
tinued and the flame increased. I confess it was next
to an impossibility for any men in the world to re-
strain their curiosity of knowing what had happened,
or their concern for the safety of the men. In a word,
the captain told me he would 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 dan-
ger of the voyage, the interest of the owners and mer-
1
}
}
T
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
Crusoe and the captain visit the scene of cruelty.
485
chants, &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 voy-
age and his life, and all: and so away went he.
Nor was I any more able to stay behind now than I
was to persuade them not to go before; so, in short,
the captain ordered two men to row back the pin-
nace, 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 six-
teen 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 path, but went directly to the
place of the flame. If the noise of the guns were sur-
prising to us before, the cries of the poor people were
now quite of another nature, and filled us with hor-
ror. I must confess I never was at the sacking of a
city, or at the taking of a town by storm; I have
heard of Oliver Cromwell taking Drogheda in Ire-
land, 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 object we met with was the
ruins of a hut or house, or rather the ashes of it, for
486
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Its horrors described.
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 barba-
rous, 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 increas-
ed 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 seventeen 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 over-
take 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 altogether in a huddle close be-
hind us for protection. I left my men drawn up to-
gether, and charged them to hurt nobody, but if
possible to get at some of our people, and see what
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
487
Savage cruelty of the Boatswain.
devil it was possessed them, and what they intended
to do; and in a word to comminand them off, assuring
them that if they staid till daylight they would have
an hundred thousand men about their ears: I say, I
left them and went among these 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 bave learnt what the occasion of all this
was, but I could not understand one word they said,
though by signs I perceived that some of them knew
not what was the occasion themselves. I was so ter-
rified in my thoughts at this outrageous attempt, 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 boatswain 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 hal-
loo, 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.
488
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They are encouraged by the presence of the Captain.
At last, raising my voice, that I might silence him
a little, "Barbarous dog!" said I, "what are you
doing? I won't have a 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 on a tree, with
his throat cut.
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 re-
strain 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 peo-
ple 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 pensive and sad,
for I could not bear the sight, much less the horrible
noise and cries of the poor wretches that fell into their
hands.
I got nobody to come back with me but the super-
cargo 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 be-
gan now to be almost day, and the alarm had run over
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
489
1
The seamen rejoin their ship without injury.
the country, there stood about forty men armed with
lances and bows at the little place where the twelve
or thirteen 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 sea-side
it was broad day; immediately I took the pinnace
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 abat-
ed; but 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 seventeen, 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 drop-
ping 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 coun-
try. The people were amazed and surprised, and so
frightened that I believe an hundred of thein 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 be-
tween 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.
was very angry with my nephew the captain, and
indeed with all the men, in my mind, but with him in
17
3 R
490
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They pursue their voyage,
particular, as well for his acting so out of his duty,
as commander of the ship, and having the charge of
thy voyage upon him, as in his prompting rather than
cooling the rage of his men in so bloody and cruel an
enterprise: my nephew answered me very respect-
fully, but told me that when he saw the body of the
poor seaman whom they had murdered in such a cru-
el and barbarous manner, he was not master of him-
self, 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 nature 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 ano-
ther; 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 house 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.
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 Thomas
Jeffrys, yet it was as true that Jeffrys was the ag-
gressor, had 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 capi-
tulation.
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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
491
•
They lose five men in the Gulf of Persia.
that the war was begun in the night before by the na-
tives themselves, who had shot at us, and killed one
of our men without any just provocation; so that as
we were in a capacity 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 villanous manner; and
that they did nothing but what was just, and that the
laws of God allowed to be done' to murderers.
One would think this should have been enough to
have warned us against going on shore among hea-
thens and barbarians; but it is impossible to make
mankind wise but at their own experience; 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 de-
sign 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 befei 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 carried away into sla-
very; the rest of the boat's crew were not able to res-
cue them, and had but just time to get off their boat.
I began 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 tow-
er of Siloam fell, were not sinners above all the Gali-
leans; 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,
!
492
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
;
і
The boatswain defends himself against the reflections of Crusoe.
though our men could not bear the word massacre
with any patience:) and indeed this last circumstance,
as I have said, put me to silence for the present.
But my frequent preaching to them on this subject
had worse consequences than I expected; and the
boatswain, who had been the head of the attempt,
came up boldly to me one time, and told me he found
that I 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 par-
ticular; that 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 per-
haps call them to an account for it when they came
to England; and that therefore, unless I would re-
solve 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 op-
posed the massacre at 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 authority, 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 accountable to him or any one else; and began
to be a little warm with him: he made but little reply
to me at that time, and I thought that affair had been
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 my-
over.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
493
A
The whole ship's company refuse to receive Crusoe on board again.
self; 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 ine? He told me
the coxswain. -I said no more to the fellow, but bid
him let them know he had delivered his message, and
that I had given him no answer to it.
Fimmediately went and found out the supercargo,
and told him the story, adding, what I presently fore-
saw, 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 up to the
quarter-deck, and desired to speak with the captain;
and there the boatswain making a long harangue (for
the fellow talked very well,) and repeating all he had
said to me, told the captain in 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 shipped themselves to serve in the
ship under his command, they would perform it faith-
fully but if I would not quit the ship, or the captain
oblige me to quit it, they would all leave the ship,
and sail no farther with him; and at that word ALL,
he turned his face about towards the main-mast, which
was, it seems, the signal agreed on between them,
at which all the seamen being got together, 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 sur-
¡
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
494
They threaten to desert the ship.
prised, 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 uninhabit-
ed island, and ran away with the ship; that let then
go into what ship they would, if ever they came to
England again it would cost them dear; that the ship
was mine, and he would not put me out of it; and that
he would rather lose the ship, and the voyage too,
than disoblige 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 mat-
ter 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 violence, set sail, and run away with
the ship; and then I had been stripped, naked, in a
remote country, and nothing to help myself: in short
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
495-
Crusoe is obliged to remain on shore in Bengal.
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 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 no 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 begun to con-
sider 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, farther off from England than I was
at my island; only, it is true, I might travel here by
land, over the Great Mogul's country to Surat, might
go from thence to Bassora by sea, up the gulf of Per-
sia, and from thence might take the way of the cara-
vans, over the deserts of Arabia, to Aleppo and Scan-
deroon, and from thence by sea again to Italy, and
so over land 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 pas-
sage on board them for England: but as I came hither
without any concern with the English East India Com-
pany, so it would be difficult to go from hence with-
5
496
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
He disposes of his merchandise.
out their license, unless with great favour of the cap-
tains 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 villany on shore: indeed this was the next door
to it both ways. However, the nephew left me two
servants, or rather, 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 lodgings in the house of an Eng
lish woman, where several merchants fodged, some
French, two Italians, or rather Jews, and one Eng-
lishman, Here I was handsomely enough entertain-
ed; and that I might not be said to run rashly upon
any thing, I stayed here above nine months, consider
ing 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 of eight, and a letter of
credit for more, if I had occasion, that I might not
be straitened, whatever might happen.
1
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,
was 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 intimate 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,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
497
L
Crusoe enters upon a trading speculation.
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 our own country; but it is in a country
where, by us who understand trade and business, a
great deal of money is to be got: if you will put a
thousand pounds to my thousand pounds, we will
hire a ship here, the first we can get to our minds;
you shall be captain, I'll be merchant, and we will
go a trading voyage to China; for what should we
stand still for? The whole world is in motion, roll-
ing round and round; all the creatures of God, hea-
venly 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?"
I liked this proposal very well; and the more be-
cause it seemed to be expressed with so much good
will, and in so friendly a manner.
I will not say,
but that I might, by my loose and unhinged circum-
stances, be the fitter to embrace a proposal for trade,
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 niy element,
rambling was; and no proposal for seeing any part of
the world which I had never seen before could pos-
sibly 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 ma-
ny as were necessary to govern the voyage, and ma-
nage the sailors which we should pick up there.-
After some time we got a mate, a boatswain, and a
gunner, English; a Dutch carpenter, and three
Portuguese foremast-men; with these we could do
well enough, having Indian seamen, such as they are
to make up.
There are so many travellers who have written the
17
3 s
498
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Immense fortune made by trade in the East-ludies.
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 peo-
ple who inhabit there: those things I leave to others,
and refer the reader to those journals and travels of
Englishmen, many of which, I find, are published,
and more promised every day. It is enough for me
to tell you that we made the voyage to Achin, in the
island of Sumatra, first; and from thence to Siam,
where we exchanged some of our wares for opium,
and for some arrack; the first a commodity which
bears a great price among the Chinese, and which,
at that time, was very much wanted there: in a word
we went up to 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 an hundred thou-
sand pounds at a time. But it is no wonder, or, at
least, we shall see so much farther into it, when we
consider the innumerable ports and places where they
have a free commerce, that it will then be no won-
der; 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 de-
mand 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 money by the first adventure, and such an
insight into the method of getting more, that, had Į
beeu twenty years younger, I should have been
tempted to have stayed here, and sought no farther
for making 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 rest-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
499
Crusoe is restless for fresh adventures.
less 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; nor had I any uneasy desires about getting
more money; and therefore, the profits of the voyage
to me were things of no great force to me, for the
prompting me forward to farther undertakings:
hence I thought, that by this voyage 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 So-
lomon 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 resolved 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 no-
tions: I do not name this to insist upon my own, for
I acknowledge his was most just, and the most suit-
ed 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 con-
tent to have gone, like 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 unset-
tled resolution imaginable, which way to go. In the
interval of these consultations, my friend, who was
500
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
A prosperous voyage to the Spice Istands.
always upon the search for business, proposed ano-
ther 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 successful, 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 Persian merchants, who carried them away for
the Gulf; and, making near five of one, we really
got a great deal of money.
1
My friend, when we made up this account, smiled
at me: "Well now, "said he, with a sort of an agree
able insult upon my indolent temper, "is not this
better than walking about here, like a man of no-
thing 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 merchandizing.
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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
501
They prepare for another voyage.
about two hundred tons burden: the men as they pre-
tended, having been so sickly, that the captain had
not men enough to go to sea with, he lay by at Ben-
gal; and, as if having got money enough, or being
willing, for other reasons to go to Europe, he
gave
public notice, that he would sell his ship: this came
to my ears 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 awhile, for he was
no rash man neither; but musing some time, he re-
plied, "She is a little too big; but, however, 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 business; 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 missed 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
302
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
;
They purchase a ship,
the Bay of Bengal, leaving the mate and five men
more on shore; of whom we shall hear farther.
Well; let them come by the ship how they would,
we came honestly by her, as we thought; though we
did not, I confess, examine into things so exactly as
we ought; for we never inquired any thing of the
seamen, who, if we had examined, would certainly
have faltered in their accounts, contradicted one ano-
ther, 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 Clostershoven, or some
such name (for I suppose it was all a forgery,) and
called himself by that name; and we could not con-
tradict him; and being withal a little too unwary, or
at least having no suspicion of the thing, we went
through with our bargain.
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 Philippine and Molucca
isles; and, in short, not to fill this part of my story
with trifles, when what is yet to come is so remark-
able, I spent from first to last, six years in this coun-
try, trading from port to port, backward and for-
ward, and with very good success; and was now the
last year with my partner, going in the ship above
mentioned, 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 industry, to find out where it was. This forced
us to make for some port; and my partner, who knew
the country better than I did, directed the captain
to put into the river of Cambodia; for I had made the
English mate, one Mr. Thompson, captain, not be-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
503
And put into the river of Cambodia,
ing willing to take the charge of the ship upon my-
self. 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 English-
man, 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,
are a stranger to me, and I to you; but I have some-
thing to tell you, that very nearly concerns you."
you
I looked stedfastly at him a good while, and he
thought at first I had known him, but I did not. "If
"and not your-
it very nearly concerns me," said I,
self, what moves you to tell it me?""1 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.”.
'I
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 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 adven-
tures as you are, to come into a port, and not examine
first what ships there are there, and whether he is able
to deal with them? I suppose you do not think you
are a match for them?" I was amused very much at
his discourse, but not amazed at it; for I could not
conceive what he meant; and I turned short upon
him, and said, "Sir, I wish you would explain your-
self; I cannot imagine what reason I have to be
afraid of any of the company's ships, or Dutch ships;
ว
504
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Singular adventure.
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 secure, you must take your
chance; I am sorry your fate should blind you against
good advice; but assure yourself if you do not put to
sea immediately, you will the very next tide be at-
tacked 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 service, 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 villanous design in band
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?"
66
"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 PIRATES.
This is the sum of the story, and you will all be seized
as pirates, I can assure you, and executed with
very little ceremony; for you know merchant ships
show but little law to pirates, if they get them in their
power."
5
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
505
They are in danger of being seized as pirates.
"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
honestly and fairly by the ship; yet seeing such work
is a-doing, as you say, and that you seem to mean
honestly, I will be upon my guard." Nay, sir,"
say he, "do not talk of being upon your guard; the
best defence is to be out of the danger: if you have
any regard to your life, and the lives of 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
differences of the tide, not reckoning the length of
the way besides, as they are only boats, and not
ships, they will not venture to follow you far out to
sea, especially it it blows."
""
Well," said I, "you have been very kind in this:
what shall I do for you to make you amends?”---“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 nine-
teen 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 de-
sire 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."
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
'
18
3T
506
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They are chased by five boats.
matter?" 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 cap-
tain, and be immediately 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? The
men answered, cheerfully, one and all, that they
would live and die with us. Then I asked the cap-
tain, 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 our small
arms, to keep them from boarding us; but when
neither of these would do any longer, we should re-
tire to our close quarters; perhaps they had not ma-
terials to break open our bulk-heads, or get in upòn
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.
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
507
They defend themselves from their pursuers.
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 speak-
ing-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 endea-
voured to come under our stern, so to board us on
our quarter; upon which seeing 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 necessity 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; but 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 offered a
truce to parley again, and to know what was her
business with us; but had no answer: only she crowd-
ed 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 missing, the men
in the boat shouted, waved their caps, and came on;
but the gunner, getting quickly ready again, fired
508
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They destroy several of the boats,
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 mis-
chief among them; but we, taking no notice of 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 particu-
lar, her rudder, and a piece of her stern, were shot
quite away; so they handled their sail immediately,
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 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 pin-
nace 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.
Being thus delivered from a danger, which though
I knew not the reason of it, yet seemed to be much
greater than I apprehended, I took care that we should
change our course, and not let any one imagine whi-
ther we were going; so we stood out to sea eastward,
quite out of the course of all European ships, whether
they were bound to China, or 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 mean-
ing of all this should be? 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
509
And concert measures for their safety.
thief that had run away with her. Then he told us
how the captain, 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 wan-
dered about a great while; till at length he, in parti-
cular, in a miraculous manner, made his escape, and
swain 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 seamen 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-cruising in her; and that they had al-
ready taken an English ship, and two Dutch ships,
very richly laden.
This latter part we found to concern us directly;
and though we knew it to be false, yet, as my part-
ner said very well, if we had fallen into their hands,
and they had such a prepossession against us before-
hand, it had been in vain for us to have defended our-
selyes, or to hope for any good quarters at their hands;
especially considering that our accusers had been our
judges, and that we could have expected nothing from
them but what rage would have dictated, and ungo-
verned passion have executed: and therefore it was
his opinion, we should go directly back to Bengal,
from whence we came, without putting in at any port
whatever because 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 pro-
510
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Shape their course for Tonquin.
per 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 return-
ing 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 at Batavia, as the English else-
where; that if we should be taken, as it were, run-
ning away, we should even condemn ourselves, 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 company; and we immediately resolved to go
away to the coast of Tonquin, 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 security; 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, including the late escape from the long-boats,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
511
They arrive on the Chinese coast.
to have been in the most dangerous condition that
ever I was in through all my past 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 embarrassed in the
worst condition imaginable; for though I was per-
fectly innocent, I was in no condition to make that
innocence appear: 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 people 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 concerned 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 Cochinchina, or the bay of Ton-
quin; intending to go afterwards to Macao, a town
once in the possession of the Portuguese, and where
still a great many European families, resided, and
particularly the missionary priests usually went thi-
ther, 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 provisions, we came within sight
of the coast very early in the morning; and upon re-
flection 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
512
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Are alarmed by meeting several English and Dutch ships.
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 ourselves beset with enemies, both
one way and the other. The place we were in was
wild and barbarous, the people thieves, even by oc-
cupation 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.
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 people we were among were the most
barbarous of all the inhabitants of the coast; having
no correspondence with any other nation, 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 customs 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 we
found a spice of their kindness this way, on the oc-
casion following.
I have observed above that our ship sprung a leak
at sea, and that we could not find it out; and how-
ever 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
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
513
Menacing conduct of the Natives.
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 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 on dry ground, neither could we find 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 seeing 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.
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 come on board and
plundered the ship; and if they had found us there,
to have carried us away for slaves to their king, or
whatever 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 quarter of an hour's consultation, they
agreed, it seems, that the ship was really a wreck: that
18
3 U
514
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
A grand scuffle with the Cochinchinese.
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 they came directly
upon our men, as if it had been in a line of battle.
Our men seeing so many of them began to be fright-
ed, for we lay but in an ill posture to fight, and cried
out to us to know what they should do? I immedi-
ately called 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 work-
ed 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 Cochinchinese were
upon them, and with two of their boats boarded our
long boat, and began to lay hold on our men as their
prisoners.
1
The first man they laid hold of was an English sea-
man, 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 Dutchman, who stood next,
took up the musket, and with the but end of it solaid
about him, that he knocked down five of them who
attempted to enter the boat. But this was little to-
wards resisting thirty or forty men, who, fearless, be-
cause ignorant of their danger, began to throw them-
selves into the long-boat, where we had but five men
to defend it. But one accident gave our men a com-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
515
Very humourous anecdote.
plete 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 had
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 who tended the carpenter had a great iron ladle
in his hand, with which he supplied the men that
were at work with that hot suff: two of the enemy's
men entered the boat just where this fellow stood, being
in the fore-sheets; he immediately saluted them with
a ladleful of the suff, 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 howling and crying
that I never heard a worse noise, and, indeed, no-
thing like it; for it was worth observing, that though
pain naturally makes all people cry out, yet every
nation have a peculiar way of exclamation, and make
noises as different from one another as their speech.
I cannot give the noise these creatures made a better
name than howling, or 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.
1 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 imminent before; but as we got
this victory without any bloodshed, except of that
man the fellow killed with his naked hands, and
516
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe's preparation for again proceeding on his voyage.
whịch I was very much concerned at; for I was sick
of killing such poor savage wretches, even though it
was in my own defence, knowing they came on er-
rands which they thought just, and knew no better;
and that though it may be a just thing, because ne-
cessary, for there is no necessary wickedness in na-
ture; 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 injuring me. I believe also, all considering
people, who know the value of life, would be of my
opinion, if they entered seriously into the consider-
ation 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, with great dexterity, brought
the ship almost to rights; and, having 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 was farthest
off, seeing the ship swim, as it were, upright, began,
as we supposed, to see their mistake, and gave over
the enterprise, 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 be-
fore, we resolved to stay here no longer, but go for-
ward, whatever came of it; for we made no doubt
but we should be surrounded the next day with rogues
enough, perhaps more than our pitch-kettle would
dispose of for us.
We therefore got all our things on board the same
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
517
Crusoe's departure from Cochinchina.
evening, and the next morning were ready to sail. In
the mean time, lying 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 pos-
ture, if any enemy had presented. The next day,
having 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 Formosa, as much afraid of being seen by a Dutch
or English merchant-ship, as a Dutch or English
merchant-ship in the Mediterranean is of an Alge-
rine man of war.
When we were thus got to sea, we kept on N. E.
as if we would go to the Manillas or the Philippine
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 latitude of 22
degree 20 minutes, by which means we made the
island of Formosa directly, where we came to an an-
chor 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 agree-
ments 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 Protestants, and is a testimony of
what I have often observed, viz. that the Christian
religion always civilizes the people and reforms their
manners where it is received, whether it works saving
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
518
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
A Portuguese pilot received on board Crusoe's ship.
ships usually come; but being resolved, if possible,
not to fall into any of their hands, especially 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 cho-
sen 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 Portuguese 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 with him about carrying us to the gulf of
Nanquin, which is the most northern part of the coast
of China. The old man said he knew the gulf 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 gentlemen 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
519
Crusoe's conversation with the Portuguese pilot.
canal. This canal is a navigable made stream, which
goes through the heart of all that vast empire of
China, crosses all the rivers, passes some considera-
ble hills by the help of sluices and gates, and goes
up to the city of Pekin, being in length near two hun-
dred and seventy leagues.
*C
""
Well," said I, "Seignior Portuguese, but that is
not our business; 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 a little
shock; 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
a Dutch ship would be our destruction, 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 concern, 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 nation."-"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 peaceable 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 appointed by nature to circulate
it; for it put me into the greatest disorder and confu-
sion imaginable; nor was it possible for me to con-
ceal 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
3
520
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe's conversation with the Portuguese pilot.
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 an 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 mur-
dered by the Malaccans, at or near the Island of Su-
matra."
وو
"What!" 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, per-
haps, they procured 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.
46
"
"But," said I to him, "you say the pirate is gone
out of these 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
ROBINSON 521
-
CRUSOE.
Crusoe's conversation with the Portuguese pilot.
finding only two boats within reach of him, tacked
about, and fired at these two, and disabled them be-
fore 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 the seamen, but to
hang them all up at the yard-arm.'
"What!" said I, "will they execute them, right
or wrong; hang them first, and judge them after-
wards?"--"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 de-
serve."
66
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 rea-
son 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 come; for
be it known to you, seignior, those captains of the
English and Dutch ships are a parcel of rash, proud,
insolent fellows, that never 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 inquiry; and
perhaps I may live to call some of them to an account
of it, where they may be taught how justice is to be
executed; 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 attacked; and gave him a full account of
the skirmish we had with their boats, and how fool-
18
3 X
522
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe's conversation with the Portuguese pilot.
ishly and coward-like they had behaved. 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 believe 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 turned 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 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 very well to go
back again; and that he would procure me people
both to buy the 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 honest,
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 prov-
ing this was the ship, and so innocent men may pro-
bably 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;
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
523
Crusoe's arrival at Nanquin.
量
​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
innocently bought her for their trade; and I am per-
suaded 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 several times if I would stand to it. I an-
swered, 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
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 dis-
course, we went forward directly 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 acccident 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 exigency, and he
was as much at a loss as I was, and would very glad-
ly have been safe on shore almost any where. How-
ever, I was not in such perplexity neither, but I ask-
}
524
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe harbours at Quinchang.
ed the old pilot if there was no creek or harbour,
which I might put into, and pursue my business.
with the Chinese privately, and be in no danger of
the enemy. He told me if I would sail to the south-
ward about two and forty leagues, there was a little
port called Quinchang, where the fathers of the mis-
sion 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 farther.
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 particularly 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 Ja-
panese merchants we correspond with call it by a
different name from that which our Portuguese 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 wa-
ter; on both which occasions the people of the coun-
try 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 with-
out money.
}
We came to the other port (the wind being contra-
ry) not till five days; but it was very much to our sa-
tisfaction, and I was joyful, 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 our-
selves and effects any other way, though not every
A
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
525
He is under very uneasy apprehensions.
way to our satisfaction, we would never set one foot
on board that unhappy vessel again: and indeed I
must acknowledge, that of all the circumstances of
life that ever I had any experience of, nothing makes
mankind so completely miserable as that of being 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 suppressed by it, that it is
capable of no relief; the animal spirits sink, and all
the vigour of nature, which usually supports men un-
der other afflictions, and is present to them in the
greatest exigencies, fails them here.
Nor did it fail of its usual operations upon the fan-
cy, 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 entering 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,
Portuguese, and Indians, and but two Dutchmen on
board. These, and many other particular circum-
stances, might have made it evident to the under-
standing of any commander, whose bands we might
fall into, that we were no pirates.
But fear, that blind useless passion, worked ano-
ther way, and threw us into the vapours; it bewil-
:
526
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
ן.
Crusoe under very uneasy apprehensions lest he and
*.
dered our understandings, and set the imagination at
work, to form a thousand terrible things, that, per-
haps, might never happen. We first supposed, as
indeed every body had related 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 es-
caping, that they would not give themselves leave to
inquire whether we were pirates or no; but would
execute 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 intel-
ligence at the river Cambodia, that they were coming
down to examine us, we fought their boats, and fled:
so that we made no doubt but they were as fully sa-
tisfied 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 tables were turned, and my case
was theirs; and have made no scruple of cutting all
the crew to pieces, without believing, or perhaps
considering, what they might have to offer in their
defence.
But let that be how it will, these were our appre-
hensions; 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 Dutch-
men had boarded us, and I was knocking one of their
seamen down, that I struck my double fist against
the side of the cabin I lay in, with such 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.
*
}
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
527
His crew should be seized and hanged as pirates.
1
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, perhaps, tor-
ture us, as they did our countrymen there; and make
some of our men, by extremity of torture, confess
those crimes they never were guilty of; own them-
selves, and all of us, to be pirates; and so they would
put us to death, with a formal appearance 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 authority to act thus ; and if we had
surrendered prisoners to them, they could not answer
the destroying us, or torturing us, but would be ac-
countable for it when they came into their own coun-
try. 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 satis-
faction would it be to us to have them punished when
they came home? .
I cannot refrain taking notice here what reflections
I now had upon the past variety of my particular cir-
cumstances; how hard I thought it was, that I, who
had spent forty years in a life of continued difficul-
ties, 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 unhappy choice; and that I, who had escaped
so many dangers in my youth, should 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 in-
nocence 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 seem-
5
528
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
{
Crusoe and his shipmates under very uneasy apprehensions.
ed to me to be a disposition of immediate Povidence;
and I ought to look upon it, and submit to it as such;
that although I was innocent as to nien, I was far from
being innocent 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 submit to this, just as I would to a
shipwreck, if it had pleased God to have brought
such a disaster upon me.
7
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
barbarously used by a parcel of merciless wretches in
cold blood; that it was much better to have fallen in-
to 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 barbari-
ties; that, in the case of the savages, I always resolv-
ed to die fighting to the last gasp; and why should I
not do so now, seeing it was much more dreadful, 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 beyond
the cruelty of death. Whenever these thoughts pre-.
vailed 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 perplexities 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
529
A very curious dream verified by the event.
partner told me he dreamed that he had a very hea-
vy load upon his back, which he was to carry up a
hill, and found that he was not able to stand long un-
der it; but the Portuguese pilot came, and took it
off his back, and the bill disappeared, the ground be-
fore him showing all smooth and plain: and truly it
was so; we were all like men who had a load taken
off their backs.
P
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 before, we resolved 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 lodging, and a ware-
house for our goods, which, by the way, was much
the same: it was a little house, or hut, with a large
house adjoining it, all built with canes, and palisa-
doed 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
all 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 Portuguese pilot did for us
was to bring us acquainted with three missionary
Roman priests, who were in the town, and who had
been there some time, converting the people to Chris-
tianity; 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 Frenchman, whom they called Father
Simon; he was a jolly well-conditioned man, very
18
3 Y **
胄
​LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
530
Reflections on the Chinese Catholics.
free in his conversation, not seeming so serious and
grave as the other two did, one of whom was a Por-
tuguese, and the other a Genoese; but Father Simon
was courteous, easy in his manner, and very agree-
able 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 whenever
they had opportunity. 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 con-
fessed that these religious, whom we call missionaries,
have 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 voy-
age, and hazards of living in such places, but often-
times 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 who have no prospect
of the least temporal advantage to themselves.
But to return to my story: The French priest, Fa-
ther 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 Macao,
to go along with him; and we scarce ever met toge-
ther but he was inviting me to go that journey with
him, telling me, how he would show me all the glori
ous things of that mighty empire; and among the rest
the greatest city in the world; "a city," said he,
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
531
Crusoe's conversation with a Romish missionary.
"that your London and our Paris put together can-
not 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 inclination to go with him; and he
pressed me and my partner very hard, and with a great
many persuasions, to consent. "Why, Father Si-
mon," 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 con-
vert heathens, and who knows but I may convert 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 divest 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 Hugonots, and I a
Catholic, we may be all Christians 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 Bra-
sils; but this Father Simon did not come up to this
character by a great deal; for though Father Simon
had no appearance of a criminal levity in him neither,
yet he had not that fund of Christian zeal, strict pie
ty, 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 us to go with him, but we had some-
thing else before us at that time; for we had all this
while our ship and our merchandise to dispose of; and
****
532
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
He disposes of his opium to a Japanese merchant.
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 some-
times 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 of-
fered was, that our old Portuguese 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, pay-
ing 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 in 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 proposed to him;
but in a few days after he came to me, with one of
the missionary priests for his interpreter, and told me
he had a proposal to make to me, and that was this;
he had bought a great quantity of goods of us when
hé had no thoughts (or proposals made to him) of bụy-
ing the ship, and that, therefore, he had not money
enough to pay for the ship; but if I would let the
same men who were in the ship navigate her, he would
hire the ship to go to Japan, and would send them
from thence to the Philippine islands with another
loading, which he would pay the freight of before
they went from Japan; and that, at their return, he
would buy the ship. I began to listen to this propo-
sal; and so eager did my head still run upon rambling
that I could not but begin to entertain a notion myself
·
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
533
One of Crusoe's companions leaves him, and goes to Manilla.
of going with him, and so to sail from the Philippine
islands away to the South seas, and accordingly I
asked the Japanese merchaut 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 dis-
charge us in Japan, he said, at the ship's return.
Well, still I was for taking him at that proposal, and
going myself; but my partner, wiser than myself,
persuaded me from it, representing the dangers, as
well of the seas, as of the Japanese, who were a
false, cruel, treacherous people; and then of the
Spaniards at the Philippines, inore false, more cruel,
more treacherous than they.
But, to bring this long turn of our affairs to a con-
clusion, the 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
that voyage promised very fair, and that there was a
great prospect of advantage, 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 account of his success, and it
should be as much mine as I pleased.
I was really loath to part with him; but consider-
ing the prospect of advantage, which was really con-
siderable, and that he was a young fellow as likely
to do well in it as any I knew, I inclined 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 offer: 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
१
534
LIFE AND ADVENTURES QF
Crusoe's companion acquires great wealth.
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 account 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
jess than offer him the same; and all the ship's com-
pany 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 honest 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 got a
good acquaintance at Manilla, he got his ship
made a free ship; and the governor of Manilla
hired him to go to Acapulco 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.
He made the voyage to Acapulco very happily,
and there he sold his ship: and having there also ob-
tained allowance to travel by land to Porto Bello, he
found means, some how or other, to go to Jamaica
with all his treasures; and about eight years after
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
535
!
Crusoe's reflection on his great distance from home.
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 com-
pany, it came before us, of course, to consider what
recompense 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 be-
ing 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 pirates: and one of them confessed af-
terwards, that nothing else but the hopes of going
a-roguing brought him to do it. However, the ser-
vice they did us was not the less; and therefore, as
I had promised 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 respective ships; that is
to say, the Englishman nine 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 very well: 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 pleas-
ed, and proved very serviceable, being both able
seamen, and very stout fellows.
We were now on shore in China. If I thought
myself banished, and remote from mine 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 pros-
pect 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
536
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
His account of the Chinese.
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 obnoxious, 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 jour-
nies 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; which
however, I do not believe: it is regularly built, the
streets all exactly straight, and cross one another in
direct lines, which gives the figure of it great advan-
tage.
But when I came to compare the miserable people
of these countries with ours; their fabrics, their man-
ner of living, their government, their religion, their
wealth, and their glory (as some call it,) I must con-
fess, I do not so much as think it worth naming, or
worth my while to write of, or any that shall come
after me to read.
It is very observable, that we wonder at the gran-
deur, the riches, the pomp, the ceremonies, the go-
vernment, the manufactures, the commerce, and the
conduct of these people; not that they are to be won-
dered at, or, indeed, in the least to be regarded; 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.
C
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
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
537
Crusoe's account of the Chinese.
wealth, strength, gaiety of apparel, rich furniture,
and an infinite variety? What are their ports, sup-
plied 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 de-
stroy all the shipping of China. But the greatness of
their wealth, their trade, the power of their govern-
ment, and strength of their armies, are surprising to
us, because, as I have said, considering them as a
barbarous nation of pagans, little better than savages,
we did not expect such things among them; and this,
indeed, is the advantage with which all their great-
ness 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 empire, 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 Flanders, or to fight a disciplined army, one
line of German cuirassiers, or of French cavalry,
would overthrow all the horse of China; 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 bold out one month against the batteries
and attacks of an European army: and, at the same
time, all the armies of China could never 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 go-
ing off; they have powder, but it is of no strength;
19
3 Z
538
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoc's account of the Chinese.
they have neither discipline in, the field, exercise in
their arms, skill to attack, nor temper to retreat. 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 igno-
rant sordid slaves, subjected to a government quali-
fied 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 inconceivably 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 none 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 grandeur, 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 mon-
ster away, just as we do to hive a swarm of bees.
\
As this is the only excursion of this kind which I
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
539
Crusoe's account of the Chinese.
have made in all the account I have given of my tra-
vels, so I shall make no more descriptions of coun-
tries and people: it is none of my business, 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, desert countries, and numerous people, 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 de-
grees 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 me daily to do it. At length his
time of going away being set, and the other mission-
ary, who was to go with him, being arrived from
Macao, 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 re-
solved it in the affirmative; and we prepared for our
journey. We set out with very good advantage, as
to finding the way; for we got leave to travel in the
retinue of one of their mandarius, 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 baggage, 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
540
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
1
Crusoe's account of the Chinese.
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 advan-
tage to him, considering there were about thirty other
people travelling in the same manner besides us, un-
der the protection of his retinue, or, as we may call
it, under his convoy. This, I say, was a great advan-
tage to him; for the country furnished all the provi-
sions 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 husbandry, economy, and the way
of
living, all very miserable, though they boast so much
of the industry of the people: I say miserable, and
so it is; if we, who understand how to live, were to
endure 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 infinitely 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 ser-
vants or slaves, and, which is to the last degree ridi-
culous, their contempt of all the world but themselves.
I must confess, I travelled more pleasantly after-
wards, in the deserts and vast wildernesses of Grand
Tartary, than here; and yet the roads here are well
paved and well kept, and very convenient for tra-
vellers: but nothing was more awkward to me, than
to see such a haughty, imperious, insolent people, in
the midst of the grossest simplicity and ignorance;
for all their famed ingenuity 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
541
Crusoe's account of the Chinese.
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 ca-
lico, with all the tawdry trappings of a fool's coat,
such as hanging sleeves, taffeta, and cuts and slashes
almost on every side: it covered a rich taffeta 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 crea-
ture, 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 ser-
vants; and we were told he was going from the city
to his country-seat, about half a league before us.-
We travelled on gently, but this figure of a gentleman
rode away before us; and as we stopped at a village
about an hour to refresh us, when we came by the
country-seat of this great man, we saw him in a little
place before his door, eating his repast; it was a
kind of a garden, but he was easy to be seen; and
we were given to understand, that the more we look-
ed 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,
1
512
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe's account of the Chinese..
and scraped off what he let fall upon his worship's
beard and taffeta 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 trou-
bled with the clumsy fingers of their servants.
I took 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 pur-
sued our journey; only Father Simon had the curi
osity 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 eaten, if it had been offered him,
viz. a mess of boiled rice, with a great piece of gar-
lic in it, and a little bag filled with green pepper, 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 servants more
attending at a distance. If he fed them meaner
than he was fed himself, the spice excepted, they
must fare very coarsely indeed.
As for our mandarin with whom we travelled, he
was respected like a king; surrounded always with
his gentlemen, and attended in all his appearances
with such pomp, that I saw little of him but at a dis-
tance; but this I observed, that there was not a
horse in his retinue, but that our carriers' pack-
horses in England seem to me to look much better;
but they were so covered with equipage, mantles,
trappings, and such like trumpery, that you cannot 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
543
Crusoc's arrival at Pekin.
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 country, 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 spoiled my
pocket-book, wherein I had set down the names of
several 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 Portuguese pilot, he being de-
sirous 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? I don't
know any thing in this country can 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,
544
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
He is inclined to leave China.
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 surprised 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 part-
ner 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 in one of the Company's ships,
66
Having resolved upon this, we agreed, that if our
Portuguese pilot would go with us, we would bear
his charges to Moscow, or to England, if he pleased;
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
545
Crusoe prepares to leave the Chinese capital.
nor, indeed, were we to be esteemed overgenerous
in that part neither, if we had not rewarded him far-
ther; 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 bro-
ker 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 necessary
man on all occasions, we agreed to give him a quan-
tity of coined gold, which, as I compute it, canie
to about £175 sterling between us, and to bear his
charges, 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 resolved 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 pe-
cune to carry him thither, nor to subsist himself
when he came thither. We told him we believed it
was so, and therefore we had resolved to do some-
thing 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. He
received the proposal like a man transported, and
told us he would go with us over the world; and so,
19
4 A
546
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe leaves Pekin in company with some Muscovite merchants.
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; our cargo amounting,
in these goods only, to about £3500 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 hun-
dred horses aud camels, and upward of a hundred
and twenty men, very well armed, and provided 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 na-
tions, such as Muscovites chiefly; for there were
about sixty of them who were merchants or inhabit-
ants of Moscow, though of them some were Livo-
nians; and to our particular satisfaction, five of
them were Scots, who appeared also to be men
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
547
The Portuguese pilot shows Crusoe a house coated with porcelain.
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
deposited a certain quantity of money to a common
stock, for the necessary expense of buying forage
on the way, where it was not otherwise to be had,
and for satisfying the guides, getting horses, and the
like. And here they constituted the journey, as
they called it, 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 com-
mand. Nor was this forming us into order any
more than what we found needful upon the way, as
shall be observed 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 tempered the earth for
the China ware; and, as I was going along, our
Portuguese 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 im-
portunate 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 not ?"-" 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 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.".
(6
•
518 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
66
Description of the porcelain building.
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 tim-
ber house, or a house built, as we call it in England,
with lath and plaster, but all the plastering was
really China 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
wainscot, were lined with hardened and painted
tiles, like the little square tiles we call gally tiles in
England, all made of the finest china, and the
figures exceedingly 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, Notting-
hamshire, 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 ceilings, 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 ware house 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.
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
549
Crusoe arrives at the great China wall.
As this is one of the singularities of China, so
they may be allowed to excel in it; but I am very
sure they excel in their accounts of it; for they told
me such incredible things of their performance 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 particular, 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 Ja-
pan 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
lied; so I smiled, and said nothing to it.
This odd sight kept me two hours behind the ca-
ravan, for 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,
was three days' within, he must have fined me
four times as much, and made me ask pardon the
next council-day, so I promised to be more orderly;
for, indeed, I found afterwards the orders made for
keeping all together, were absolutely 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 coun-
try 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 tres-
passing on our orders, for so long the caravan was in
passing the gate; I say, I stood still an hour to look at
550
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
His opinion of this great work of antiquity.
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 understand as I meant it,
and so took it for a compliment: but the old pilot
laughed: "O Seignior Inglese," said he, "you speak
in colours."-" In colours!" said I; "what do you
mean by that?"-" 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 engineers, with two compa-
nies 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 country, 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, something like the Picts wall, so famous in
Northumberland, and built by the Romans, we be-
gan to find the country thinly inhabited, and the
people rather confined to live in fortified towns and
cities, as being subject to the inroads and depre
dations of the Tartars, who rob in great armies, and
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
551
They fall in with a few Tartars, whom they disperse.
therefore are not to be resisted by the naked inhabit-
ants 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 wondered how that
the Chinese empire could be conquered by such con-
temptible fellows; for they are a mere herd or crowd
of wild fellows, keeping no order, and understanding
no discipline, or manner of fight.
Their horses are poor, lean, starved creatures,
taught nothing, and are fit for nothing; and this we
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 hunting, as they call it; and what was this but
hunting of sheep! However, it may be called hunt-
ing 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, al-
ways keep together when they fly.
In 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 before, 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 ap-
peared at about a mile distance; but our work was
over first, as it 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,
552
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They fall in with a few Tartars, whom they disperse.
drawing us up in a line, he asked, if we were resolv-
ed? We told him, we were ready to follow him: so
he rode directly up to them. They stood gazing 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 mis-
took not their aim but their distance; for their ar-
rows 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, following our shot full gallop,
resolving to fall in among them sword in hand; for
so our bold Scot that led us, directed. He was, in-
deed, but a merchant, but he behaved with that vi-
gour and bravery on this occasion, and yet with such
a cool courage too, that I never saw any man in
action fitter for command. As soon as we came up
to them, we fired our pistols in their faces, and then
drew, but they fled in the greatest confusion imagin-
able; 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 sci-
mitar 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,
5
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
553
Crusoe's perilous journey through the great Tartarian desert.
and therefore the Tartars were not so bold as after-
wards; but in about five days we entered a vast
great wild desert, which held us three days and
nights' march; and we were obliged to carry our
water with us in great leather bottles, and to encamp
all night, just as I have heard they do in the deserts
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, how-
ever, it was reckoned to China; that there was no
care taken here to preserve it from the inroads of
thieves; and therefore it was reckoned the worst
desert 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 no-
thing 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 of which
wounded a horse, so that it disabled him; and we
left him 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 be-
ing not so good as at first, though still in the domi-
19
4 B
554
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe attacked by three Tartarian horsemen.
nions of the emperor of China; but lay, for the most
part, in villages, some of which were fortified, be-
cause 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,
I walked it on foot, with my old pilot in company,
and a Chinese, 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 upon my drawing my sword (for they are ar-
rant 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 Portuguese (so Providence, unlooked
for, directs deliverances from dangers, which, to us,
are unforeseen), had a pistol in his pocket, which I
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
555
Crusoe receives a slight contusion on his head from a Tartar.
knew nothing of, nor the Tartars neither; if they
had, I suppose 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 lay-
ing 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 moment), made a blow at him with a scimitar, which
he always wore, but, missing the man, cut his horse
into the side of his head, cut one of his ears off by
the root, and a great slice down the side of his face.
The poor beast, enraged with the 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 neither, he wrenched
it from him, and made shift to knock his Tartarian
brains out with it. But my old man had the third
Tartar to deal with still; and, seeing he did not fly
as he expected, nor come on to fight him, as he ap-
prehended, but stood quite 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 an-
other, I know not; but away he scoured, and left my
pilot, my champion I called him afterwards, a com-
plete victory.
1
556
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe recovers from his contusion.
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 an-
other 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, be-
ing 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 before a justice of the peace.-
Give him his due, he acted with a great deal of pru-
dence and impartiality; and having heard both sides,
he gravely asked the Chinese man that went with me
to buy the camel, whose servant he was? "I am no
servant," 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
66
66
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
557
1
Crusoe, and his fellow-travellers, fall in with a body of Tartars.
time; and the camel being delivered to his servant,
it was delivered to him, and he must pay for it."
I confess the thing was so clear, that I had not a
word, to say; 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 ano-
ther; 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 em-
pire: 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 believe, are some
millions, could not batter down the walls with their
bows and arrows; but to call it strong, if it were at-
tacked with cannon, would be to make those who un-
derstood it laugh at you.
We wanted, as I have said, about two days' jour-
ney of this city, when messengers were sent express
to every part of the road, to tell all travellers and ca-
ravans 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 marched in our front, the two hundred in our
rear, and our men on each side of our camels with
our baggage, and the whole caravan in the centre. In
this order, and well prepared for battle, we thought
ourselves a match for the whole ten thousand Mogul
Tartars, if they had appeared; but the next day,
when they did appear, it was quite another thing.
It was early in the morning, when marching from
558
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The Tartars, dreading their fire-arms, offer them no violence.
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 desert 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 talk-
ed so big the 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 without 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 innume-
rable 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
559
Crusoe enters upon the frontiers of the Muscovite dominions.
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 suppose went back to give an
account of the reception they were like to meet with;
and, indeed, that salute clogged their stomachs; for
they immediately halted, stood awhile 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 circumstances, which were
but very indifferent for a battle with such a number.
Two days after this we came to the city of Naum,
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 having abandoned that part of
the country (which lies from the city west, for about
two hundred miles,) as desolate and unfit for use;
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, pro-
perly so called.
After this we passed several great rivers, and two
dreadful deserts, one of which we were sixteen days
passing over, and which, as I said, was to be called
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 called, that belonged to the czar of Muscovy, was
called Argun, being on the west side of the river Ar-
gun.
I could not but discover an infinite satisfaction, that
I was now arrived in, as I called it, a Christian coun-
try; or, at least, in a country governed by Christians;
for though the Museovites do, in my opinion, but just
deserve the name of Christians (yet such they pretend
2
560
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe greatly rejoiced at again arriving in a Christian country.
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, worshipped, and
adored---and not where the people, given up by Hea-
ven to strong delusions, worship the devil, and pros-
trate themselves to stocks and stones; worship mon-
sters, elements, horrible-shaped animals, and statues,
or images of monsters. Not a town or city we passed
through but had their pagóds, 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 Chris-
tián worship appeared, where the knee was bowed
to Jesus; and whether ignorantly 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 sa-
luted the brave Scotch merchant I mentioned above,
with my first acknowledgment of this; and, taking
him by the hand, I said to him, "Blessed 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 far-
ther of our journey.
""
"Well," said I, "but still it is better than pagan-
ism, and worshipping of devils."--" Why," I'll tell
you," said he: "except the Russian soldiers in garri-
sons, and a few of the inhabitants of the cities upon
the road, all the rest of this country, for above a thou-
sand miles farther, is inhabited by the worst and most
ignorant of pagans. And so indeed we found it.
99.
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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
561
Crusoe in a situation on every side very remote from the seas.
world; we had at least twelve hundred 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 frozen sea north;
nay, if some people may be believed, there might be
no sea north-east till we came round the pole, and
consequent ly into the north-west, and so had a con-
tinent 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 before we came to any considerable town,
we had nothing to observe 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 Yamour, or Gammour. This river, by the na-
tural course of it, must run into the east sea, or Chi-
nese 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 nobody
that ever I heard of, has been curious enough either
to go down to the mouth of it in boats, or to come up
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 thère.
Some leagues to the north of this river there are se-
veral 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,
19 ·
4 C
562
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Description of a wooden idol found near Nertzinskay.
named so form the northernmost nations of the Mo-
gul Tartars, who, the Chinese say, were the first Tar-
tars in the world; and who, as our geographers allege,
are the Gog and Magog mentioned in sacred story.
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 Ame-
rica on that side, or that there is not a communica-
tion 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 advanced from the river Arguna by easy and
moderate journeys, and were very visibly obliged to
the care the czar of Muscovy has taken to have cities
and towns built in as many places as are possible to
place them, where his soldiers keep garrison, some-
thing like the stationary soldiers placed by the Ro-
mans in the remotest countries of their empire, some
of which I had read were particularly placed in Bri-
tain for the security of commerce, and for the lodg-
ing of travellers; and thus it was here; though where-
ever we came at these towns and stations the garri-
sons 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 Ame-
rica did.
Some instances of this we met with in the country
between Arguna, where we enter the Muscovite do-
minions, and a city of Tartars and Russians together,
called Nertzinskay; in which space is a continued
desert 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
563
Description of a wooden idol found near Nertzinskay.
suppose, a great sacrifice 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 upper 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 vil
lage; and when I came near to it, there were sixteen
or seventeen creatures, 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 monster, 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 three men priests belonging to
it; and the seventeen prostrated wretches were the
1
564 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe's indignation at the superstition of the Pagans.
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 ad-
vantages, 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 reflec-
tion of thoughts? 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 monster, call it
what you will, and with my sword cut the bonnet that
was on its head in two in the middle, so that it hung
down by one of the horns; and one of our men that
was with me, took hold of the sheep-skin that cover-
ed it, and pulled at it, when, behold, a most hideous
outery 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 again.
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 hav-
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
565
Determination of Crusoc to destroy the wooden idol.
ing been lamed and jaded with the badness of the
way, and our long march over the last desert; so we
had some leisure here to put my design in execution.
I communicated my design 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 but get 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.
66
>>
He laughed at me: said he,
Your zeal may be
good; but what 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, unless you could speak to them too, and tell
them so? and then they will fight you too, I will as-
sure you, for they are desperate fellows, and that es-
pecially 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?"--" Writ-
ing!" 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
inferences from it to them, to let them see how bru-
tish 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 do-
minion; and if you do this, it is ten to one but they
will come by thousands to the governor of Nertzin-
566
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Determination of Crusoe to destroy the wooden idol.
skay, and complain, and demand satisfaction; 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 Tartars in the country."
66
<
""
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 execu-
tion. Towards the evening the Scots merchant met
me by accident in our walk about the town, and de-
sired 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."--" Truly," said I,
you have put it off a little, as to the execution 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 satisfac-
tion.---" No, no,” said he, "God forbid they should
deliver you up to such a crew of monsters! they shall
not do that neither; that would be murdering you in-
deed." Why," said I," how would they use me?"
Use you!" said he: "I'll 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 nak-
ed, 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 arrows sticking in him, as
a sacrifice to the idol."--" And was this the same
idol?" said I, "Yes," said he,
Yes," said he, "the very same."
"Well," said I, "I will tell you a story." So I re-
lated the story of our men at Madagascar, 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.
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
567
Mode adopted by Crusoe and his companions.
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 al-
most a hundred miles from this place; but it was the
same idol, for they carry him about in procession 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 night 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 fel-
low, 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 all 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 se-
crecy 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 satisfac-
tion upon us when we were out of his power. The
Scots merchant, as steady in his resolution to enter-
prise 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 provided the same for him-
self and his countryman, that the people, if they saw
us, should not be able to determine who we were.
All the first night we spent in mixing up some
568
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
f
Mode adopted to effect the entire destruction of the wooden idol.
combustible matter with aqua-vitæ, gunpowder and
such other materials as we could get; and, having a
good quantity of tar in a little pot, about an hour af-
ter 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 talk-
ing, as if there were five or six of them; we conclud-
ed, therefore, 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 destruction 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 prisoners, tie their
hands, and make them stand and see their idol de-
stroyed."
As it happened, we had twine or packthread
enough about us, which we used to tie our fire-works
together with; so we resolved 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
3
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
569
They secure the priests of the idol.
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 knock-
ed 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, and made haste back to
us.
When the furze we had thrown in had filled the
hut with so much smoke that they were almost suf-
focated, we then threw in a small leather bag of an-
other 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 diabo-
lical 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 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
20
4 D
570
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Materials, used in the destruction of the wooden idol.
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 gunpowder; 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 Scotsman 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 ungagged their mouths, and
made them stand up, and set them just before their
monstrous idol, and then set fire to the whole.
We stayed by it a quarter of an hour, or there-
abouts, 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 be-
gan to think of going away, but the Scotsman said,
"6
No, we must not go, for these poor deluded
wretches will all throw themselves into the fire, and
burn themselves with the idol" So we resolved to
stay till the forage was burnt down too, and then
we came away and left them.
In the morning we appeared among our fellow-
travellers, exceeding busy in getting ready for our
journey; nor could any man suggest that we had
. been any where but in our beds, as travellers 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
571
J
The Tartars are roused by the destruction of their idol.
this village, but of a hundred more, for aught I know,
to the town-gates; and, in a most outrageous man-
ner, 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 peo-
ple of Nertzinskay were at first in a great conster-
nation; 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 ap-
pease them, and gave them all the good words ima-
ginable. He assured them he knew nothing of it,
and that there had not a soul of his garrison been
abroad; that it could not be from any body there;
and if they would let him know who it was, he
should be exemplarily 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 miscreant; so they called
them, it seems; and they therefore denounced war
against him, and all the Russians, 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 having straitly charged him
to treat the conquered country with gentleness and
civility, gave them still all the good words he could;
at last he told them, there was a caravan gone to-
wards 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
appease 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
572
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
3
The Tartars pursue the caravan.
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.
How-
This was very friendly in the governor.
ever, 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 governor gave us, and we marched or
travelled two days and two nights without any con-
siderable 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 desert, of which I shall say
more in its place; and which if we had now been
upon it, it is more than probable 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 de-
sert, and had passed by a great lake, called Schanks
Osier, when we perceived a very great body of horse
appear 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 happily
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 intelligence of us, and came pouring in upon
us towards the dusk of the evening. We had, ta
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
573
1
!
The caravan is summoned.
our great satisfaction, just pitched upon a place for
our camp, which was very convenient for the night;
for, as we were upon a desert, though but at the be-
ginuing of it, that was above five hundred miles
over, we had no towns to lodge at, and, indeed, ex-
perted. none but the city of. Jarawena, which we
had yet two days' march to; the desert, 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, expecting to be attacked in the night.
Nobody knew but ourselves what we were pur-
sued for; but as it was usual for the Mogul Tartars
to go about in troops in that desert, so the caravans
always fortified 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 be-
tween two woods, with a little rivulet running just
before our front; so that we could not be surrounded
or attacked any way, but in our front or rear: we
took care also to make our frout 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 situ-
ation: they did not come on us like thieves, as we
expected, but sent three messengers to us, to de-
mand the men to be delivered up 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 began to stare at one another, to see
who looked with most guilt in their faces, but nobody
574
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
!
Stratagem of a Cossack.
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 ourselves.
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, in-
deed, terrified us very much; for those that spoke
least of them, spoke of ten thousand. Here they
stood, and looked at us awhile, and then setting up
a 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.
鹭
​1
1
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; af-
ter this he takes a great circuit about and comes to
the army of the Tartars, as if he had been sent ex-
press 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
575
They pass an immense desert.
they were resolved to burn the god Scal Isarg, be-
longing 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 exceed-
ingly fatigued with the last day's march, and with
want of rest in the night.
From this city we had a frightful desert, which
held us three and twenty days' march. We fur-
nished 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 carriages 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 desert we saw neither
house nor tree, nor 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 straggle from our company to go near them.
After we had passed this desert, we came into a
576
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
The governor of Adinskoy offers them a guard to the next station.
country pretty well inhabited; that is to say, we
found towns and castles settled by the czar of Mus-
covy, with garrisons of stationary soldiers to pro-
tect the caravans, and defend the country against
the Tartars, who would otherwise make it very
dangerous travelling; and his ezarish majesty has
given such strict orders for the well guarding the
caravans and merchants, that if there are any Tar-
tars 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 opportunity 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 civilized; 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 Mus-
covites, and entirely reduced, they were not so dan-
gerous; 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, either 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-
1
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
577
They cross the river Janezay, and enter Europe.
stand but very little; so that almost every element,
every uncommon thing sets them a-sacrificing.
But I am no more to describe people than coun-
tries, any farther 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 desert which I spoke of last, at least four hun-
dred miles, half of it being another desert, 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 desert, 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.
And yet here I observed ignorance and paganism
still prevailed, except in the Muscovite garrisons.
All the country between the river Oby and the river
Janezay, 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 go-
vernors, whom I had opportunity to converse with,
that the pagans are not much the wiser, or the nearer
Christianity, for being under the Muscovite govern-
ment; which they acknowledged was true enough,
but, they said, it was none of their business; that
if the czar expected to convert his Siberian, or
Tonguese, or Tartar subjects, it should be done by
sending 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.
20
4 E
578
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
They arrive at Tobolski.
From this river to the great river Oby, we crossed
a wild uncultivated 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
inhabitants 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
impossible 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 occa
sion :
We had been now almost seven months on our
journey, and winter began to come on apace; where-
upon my partner and I called a council about our
particular affairs, in which we found it proper, con-
sidering that we were bound for England, and not
for Moscow, to consider how to dispose of our-
selves. They told us of sledges and rein-deer to carry
us over the snow in the winter time; and, indeed,
they have such things, as it would be incredible to
relate the particulars of, by which means the Rus
sians travel more in the winter than they can in the
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 underneath.
But I had no occasion to push at a winter journey
of this kind; I was bound to England, not to Mos-
cow, 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 Dantzic, where I
might possibly sell my China cargo to good advan
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
579
He fixes his residence at Tobolski.
tage; 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 Ham-
burgh,
Now to go any of these journeys 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, was
far less safe than among the Mogul Tartars; like-
wise 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 en-
counter, 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 lati-
tude 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 contrary, 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 dis-
like our way in England, of making fires in every
room in the house, in open chimneys, which, when
the fire was out, always kept the air in the room
cold as the climate. But taking an apartment in a
580
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
!
He is visited by several Russian exiles.
good house in the town, I ordered a chimney to bẹ
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 crimi-
nals of Muscovy, as I observed before, are all ba-
nished; this city was full of noblemen, princes, gen-
tlemen, colonels, and, in short, all degrees of the
nobility, gentry, soldiery, and courtiers of Muscovy.
Here were the famous prince Galilfken, or Galoff-
ken, and his son; the old general Robostisky, and
several other persons of note, and some ladies.
By means of my Scots merchant, whom, never-
theless, 1 parted with here, I made an acquaintance
with several of these gentlemen, and some of them
of the first rank; and from these, in the long winter,
nights, in which I 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 mag-
nificence, and dominions, and the absolute power of
the emperor of the Russians. I interrupted him,
and told him, I was a greater and more powerful
prince than ever the czar of Muscovy was, though
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
581
To be master of ourselves, is the true greatness of life.
my dominions were not so large, or my people șo
many. The Russian grandee looked a little sur-
prised, and fixing his eyes steadily upon me, began
to wonder what I meant.
I told him his wonder would cease when I had
explained myself. First, I told him, I had the ab-
solute disposal of the lives and fortunes of all my
subjects; that notwithstanding my absolute power,
I had not any 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 govern-
ment for awhile, 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 people 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 greatness of life was to be master of our-
selves; 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 banished to there, than ever he found
in the highest authority he enjoyed in the court of
his master the czar; that the height of human wis-
dom was to bring our tempers down to our circum-
stances, 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 done before him; but a little time and
consideration had made him look into himself, as
582
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
}
Virtue alone capable of imparting happiness.
well as round himself, to things without; that he
found the mind of man, if it was but once brought
to reflect 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 great-
ness, 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
being 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 deform-
ity; and was now convinced, that virtue only makes
a man truly wise, rich, and great, and preserves
bim in the way to a superior 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 circum-
stances, which some call miserable; but if I know
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
583
Noble sentiments of Prince Galoff ken;
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 1 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 tem-
per, 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 de-
sires, and has the absolute dominion over himself,
and whose reason entirely governs his will, is cer-
tainly 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 ?"
"Hold," said he, " your question is subtle, and
requires some serious 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
banishment, except these two: first, the enjoyment
of my relations; and secondly, a little warmer cli-
mate. But, I protest to you, that to go back to
the pomp of the court, the glory, the power, the
hurry of a minister of state; the wealth, the gaiety,
and the pleasures, that is to say follies, of a cour-
584
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Amiable character of Prince Galoff ken
tier; if my master should send me word this mo-
ment, that he restores me to all he banished me
from, I protest, if I know myself at all, I would
not leave this wilderness, these deserts, and these
frozen lakes, for the palace of Moscow.'
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, per-
haps, confiscated, and your effects plundered; and
the supplies left you here may not be suitable to the
ordinary demands of life.”
66
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 sickness and distempers. However, to put
the question out of dispute; you see our manner;
we are in this place five persons of rank; we live
perfectly retired, as suited to a state of banishment;
we have something rescued from the shipwreck of
our fortunes, which keeps us from the mere neces-
sity 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 main-
tain them a year; and as the way of living is not
expensive, so it is not hard to get sufficient to our-
selves: 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 showed, that his mind was so
inspired with a superior knowledge of things, so
supported by religion, as well as by a vast share of
wisdom, that his contempt of the world was really
as much as he had expressed, and that he was
2.
4
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
585
The extreme coldness of the winter.
always the same to the last, as will appear 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 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 daylight we had, was,
as we reckoned, for three months, not above five
hours a day, or six at most; only that the 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 pro-
vision for the winter are laid up in the summer, and
well cured. Our drink was water mixed with aqua
vitæ instead of brandy; and, for a treat, mead in-
stead of wine; which, however, they have excellent
good. The hunters, who ventured abroad all wea-
thers, 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 cheerfully and
well, all things considered.
It was now March, and the days grown consider-
ably longer, and the weather at least tolerable; so
other travellers began to prepare sledges to carry
20
4 F
586
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe prepares to depart from Tobolski.
them over the snow, and to get things ready to be
going; but my measures being fixed, as I have said,
for Archangel, and not for Muscovy or the Baltic,
I made no motion, knowing 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 people, nay, all the tra-
vellers, 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 hun-
dred 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 seeing all these people were
banished by the czar of Muscovy to Siberia, and
yet, when they came there, were at liberty to go
whither they would; why did they not then go away
to any part of the world wherever they thought fit?
and I began to examine what should hinder them
from making such an attempt.
66
But my wonder was over, when I entered upon
that subject with the person I have mentioned, who
answered me thus: "Consider first," said he, the
place where we are; and, secondly, the condition
we are in; especially," said he, "the generality of
the people who are banished hither. We are sur-
rounded," said he, "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,
have above a thousand miles to pass through the
czar's own dominions, and by ways utterly impassa-
"We
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
587
Crusoe's conversation with a Russian exile.
ble, except by the roads made by the government,
and through the towns garrisoned by its troops; so
that 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 1 might certainly be
made an instrument to procure the escape of this
excellent 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 desert, but could encamp
every night where I would, we might easily pass un-
interrupted to Archangel, where I could immedi-
ately 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 ear-
nestly 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 frequently changed,
his eyes looked red, and his heart fluttered, that it
might be even perceived in his countenance; nor
could he immediately 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 embraced me,
and said, "How unhappy are we! unguided crea-
tures as we are, that even our greatest acts of friend-
ship are made snares to us, and we are made tempters
of one another! My dear friend," said he,
offer is so sincere, has such kindness in it, is so dis-
interested in itself, and is so calculated for my ad-
vantage, that I must have very little knowledge of
↑
your
588
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe's conversation with a Russian exile.
the world, if I did not both wonder at it, and ac-
knowledge 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?
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 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 ?".
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 deli-
verance, 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, in-
stead of a summons from Heaven, it may be a feint
of another instrument, representing, in all the allur-
ing colours to me, the show of felicity as a deliver-
ance, which may in itself be my snare, and tend
directly to my ruin? Here I am free from the temp-
țation 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 overwhelm me; and then the happy
prisoner, whom you see now master of his soul's
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
589
Crusoe's conversation with a Russian exile.
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 pur-
chase a show of freedom at the expense of the liberty
of my reason, and at the expense of the future
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 overthrow 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, ad-
mired 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 overset 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 acknowledgment
of it to you; but, I hope, I have got the victory over
myself."
My lord," said I, "I hope you are fully satis-
fied that you did not resist the call of Heaven."
Sir," said he, "if it had been from Heaven, the
same power would have influenced me to accept it;
but I hope, and am fully satisfied, that it is from
Heaven that I decline it; and I have an infinite sa-
tisfaction in the parting, that you shall leave me an
honest man still, though not a free man."
590
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
!
f
Crusoe's conversation with a Russian exile.
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 sensible 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 cir-
cumstances; and I would have avoided them, but
he would not be refused.
The next morning I sent my servant to his lord-
ship, 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 ac-
cepted 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 but
himself, for whom I had a particular value, and
should have been glad to have been the instrument
of his deliverance: however, if he would please to
name the person to me, I would give him my an-
swer, 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
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
591
He proceeds on his journey, accompanied by one of the exiles.
hundred miles from him, on the other side the Oby,
but that, if I consented, he would send for him.
I made no hesitation, but told him I would do it.
I made some ceremony in letting him understand
that it was wholly on his account; and that seeing
I could not prevail on him, I would show my re-
spect to him by my concern for his son: but these
things are too tedious to repeat here. He sent
away the next day for his son, and in about twenty
days he came back with the messenger, bringing six
or seven horses loaded with very rich furs, and
which, in the whole, amounted to a very great
value.
His servants brought the horses into the town, but
left the young lord at a distance till night, when he
came incognito into our apartment, and his father
presented him to me; and, in short, we concerted
there the manner of our travelling, and every thing
proper for the journey.
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 in 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 part-
ner, who was sensible of the profit, and whose
business, more particularly than mine, was mer-
chandise, 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 cara-
van, being only thirty-two horses and camels in all,
and all of them passed for mine, though my new
592
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe's arrival at the river Kama.
guest was proprietor of eleven of them. It was
most natural also, that I should take more servants
with me than I had before, and the young lord
passed for my steward; what great man I passed
for myself I know not, neither did it concern me to
inquire. We had here the worst and the largest de-
sert to pass over that we met with in all the journey;
indeed I call it the worst, because the way was
very deep in some places, and very uneven in
others; the best we had to say for it was, that we
thought we had no troops of Tartars and robbers to
fear, and that they never came on this side the river
Oby, or at least but very seldom; but we found it
otherwise.
My young lord had with him a faithful Muscovite
servant, or rather a Siberian servant, who was per-
fectly 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 Muscovite garrisons, which are kept
there, are very curious and strict in their observation
upon travellers, and searching lest any of the ba-
nished persons of note should make their escape
that way into Muscovy
into Muscovy; but by this means, as we
were kept out of the cities, so our whole journey
was a desert, and we were obliged to encamp and
lie in our tents, when we might have had good ac-
commodation 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 several
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 Kamaskoy, which
2
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
593
He falls in with a troop of horse.
is as much as to say the great city on the river Ka-
ma; and here we thought to have seen some evident
alteration in the people, their manners, their habit,
their religion, and their business; but we were
mistaken; for as we had a vast desert 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 difference be-
tween 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 them-
selves, of the Greek Church; but even these have
their religion mingled with so many relics of super-
stition, 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, es-
caped, 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 surrounded 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 sixteen men in all; and
being drawn up thus, we halted, and sent out the
Siberian servant who attended his lord, to see wha
21
4 G
594
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
raz the Am
He puts his company into a state of defence against the enemy.
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 languages, or dialects of languages rather,
he could not understand a word they said: how-
ever, 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 desert, though he never heard that ever
any of them were seen so far north before.
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 that 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
come to charge us in a body: it was, indeed, my
old Portuguese pilot who proposed it; and who
had this excellency attending him, namely, that he
was always readiest and most apt to direct and en-
courage us in cases of the most danger. We ad-
vanced immediately with what speed we could, and
gained that little wood, the Tartars, or thieves, for
we knew not what to call them, keeping 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, run-
ning out in a little rill or brook, was a little farther
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
595
Crusoe and his company harassed by a body of Tartars.
joined by another of the like bigness; 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 our-
selves perfectly safe from the enemy, unless they
alighted and attacked us on foot.
But to make this more difficult, our Portuguese,
with indefatigable 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, whereof, 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 di-
rectly 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 ain. We bade him
give the word of command; which he delayed so
long, that they were, some of them, within two
pikes' length of us when we fired.
We aimed so true, or Providence directed our
shot so sure, that we killed fourteen of them at the
596
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
}
Crusoe and his company harassed by a body of Tartars.
first volley, and wounded several others, as also
several of their horses; for we had all of us loaded
our pieces with two or three bullets a-piece at least.
They were terribly surprised with our fire, and
retreated immediately about one hundred rods from
us; in which time we loaded our pieces again, and
seeing them keep that distance, we sallied out, and
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 country, or how they
came to make an excursion such an unusual length.
About an hour after, they made a motion to at-
tack 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 entrances into the wood; and,
keeping a strict watch, we waited for daylight; and
when it came, it gave us a very unwelcome disco-
very indeed for the enemy, who we thought were
discouraged with the reception they had met with,
were now increased to no less than three hundred,
aud 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.
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 bar-
barians, at the latter end of my journey, after so
many difficulties and hazards as I had gone through;
and even in sight of our port, where we expected
We
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
597
They elude the vigilance of the Tartars.
safety and deliverance. As for my partner, he
was raging he declared, that to lose his goods
would be his ruiu; 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 acquaint 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 To-
bolski, if there were not other, or more private ways,
by which we might avoid them in the night, and,
perhaps, either retreat to some town, or get help to
guard us over the desert.
The Siberian, 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 eigh-
teen men fight five hundred, unless unavoidable ne-
cessity 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
598
LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Crusoe's continues his route to Archangel.
he did not perform it. We soon brought his lord to
give that order, though privately, and we immedi-
ately prepared for the putting it in practice.
And first, as soon as it began to be dark, we kin-
dled 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, as soon as we
could see the stars (for our guide would not stir be-
fore), having 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. Abut two hours
before night we set out again, and travelled till eight
the next morning, though not quite so hastily as be-
fore; and about seven o'clock we passed a little
river, called Kirtza, and came to a good large town
inhabited by Russians, and very populous, called
Ozomys. There we heard, that several troops or
herds of Kalmucks had been abroad upon the de-
sert, 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 honest Siberian, who brought us hither, the va-
lue of ten pistoles for his conducting us.
In five days more we came to Veussima, upon the
river Witzogda, which running into the river Dwina;
1
ROBINSON CRUSOE.
599
He sails from Archangel.
we were there very happily near the end of our
travels by land, that river being navigable in seven
days' passage to Archangel. From hence we came
to Lawrenskoy, where the river joins, the third of
July; and provided ourselves with two luggage-
boats, and a barge, for our convenience. We em-
barked 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 Tobolski.
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 voy-
age, arrived in the Elbe the 13th 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 34757. 17s. 3d. notwithstand-
ing so many losses we had sustained, and charges
we had been at; only remembering that I had in-
cluded, 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
3
600
LIFE AND ADVENTURES, &c.
His arrival and final residence in London.
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 with-
out all the testimonies he could give, of gratitude
for the service I had done him, and his sense of my
kindness to the prince his father.
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 va-
riety, and learnt sufficiently to know the value of
retirement, and the blessing of ending our days in
peace.

FINIS
J. Gleave, Printer, Deansgate, Manchester.



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