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by Daniel Defoe
CHAPTER I--START IN LIFE
I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family,
though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who
settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving
off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from whence he had married my
mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that
country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by the
usual corruption of words in England, we are now called--nay we call
ourselves and write our name--Crusoe; and so my companions always called
me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to an
English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous
Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the
Spaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more than
my father or mother knew what became of me.
Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head
began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was
very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as
house-education and a country free school generally go, and designed me
for the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and
my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay, the
commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of
my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in
that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which
was to befall me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel
against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his
chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly
with me upon this subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere
wandering inclination, I had for leaving father's house and my native
country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising
my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure.
He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring,
superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise
by enterprise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out
of the common road; that these things were all either too far above me or
too far below me; that mine was the middle state, or what might be called
the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience,
was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not
exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labour and sufferings of the
mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury,
ambition, and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I might
judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing--viz. that this
was the state of life which all other people envied; that kings have
frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great
things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two
extremes, between the mean and the great; that the wise man gave his
testimony to this, as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have
neither poverty nor riches.
He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of
life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the
middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many
vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind,
as those were who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the
one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean or
insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper upon themselves by
the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middle station
of life was calculated for all kind of virtue and all kind of enjoyments;
that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that
temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable
diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the
middle station of life; that this way men went silently and smoothly
through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the
labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for
daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob the
soul of peace and the body of rest, nor enraged with the passion of envy,
or the secret burning lust of ambition for great things; but, in easy
circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the
sweets of living, without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, and
learning by every day's experience to know it more sensibly.
After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner,
not to play the young man, nor to precipitate myself into miseries which
nature, and the station of life I was born in, seemed to have provided
against; that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would
do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life
which he had just been recommending to me; and that if I was not very
easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must
hinder it; and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus
discharged his duty in warning me against measures which he knew would be
to my hurt; in a word, that as he would do very kind things for me if I
would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he would not have so
much hand in my misfortunes as to give me any encouragement to go away;
and to close all, he told me I had my elder brother for an example, to
whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into
the Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young desires prompting
him to run into the army, where he was killed; and though he said he
would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that
if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I should
have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when
there might be none to assist in my recovery.
I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was truly prophetic,
though I suppose my father did not know it to be so himself--I say, I
observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, especially when he
spoke of my brother who was killed: and that when he spoke of my having
leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so moved that he broke
off the discourse, and told me his heart was so full he could say no more
to me.
I was sincerely affected with this discourse, and, indeed, who could be
otherwise? and I resolved not to think of going abroad any more, but to
settle at home according to my father's desire. But alas! a few days
wore it all off; and, in short, to prevent any of my father's further
importunities, in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite away from
him. However, I did not act quite so hastily as the first heat of my
resolution prompted; but I took my mother at a time when I thought her a
little more pleasant than ordinary, and told her that my thoughts were so
entirely bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to
anything with resolution enough to go through with it, and my father had
better give me his consent than force me to go without it; that I was now
eighteen years old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade or
clerk to an attorney; that I was sure if I did I should never serve out
my time, but I should certainly run away from my master before my time
was out, and go to sea; and if she would speak to my father to let me go
one voyage abroad, if I came home again, and did not like it, I would go
no more; and I would promise, by a double diligence, to recover the time
that I had lost.
This put my mother into a great passion; she told me she knew it would be
to no purpose to speak to my father upon any such subject; that he knew
too well what was my interest to give his consent to anything so much for
my hurt; and that she wondered how I could think of any such thing after
the discourse I had had with my father, and such kind and tender
expressions as she knew my father had used to me; and that, in short, if
I would ruin myself, there was no help for me; but I might depend I
should never have their consent to it; that for her part she would not
have so much hand in my destruction; and I should never have it to say
that my mother was willing when my father was not.
Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet I heard afterwards
that she reported all the discourse to him, and that my father, after
showing a great concern at it, said to her, with a sigh, "That boy might
be happy if he would stay at home; but if he goes abroad, he will be the
most miserable wretch that ever was born: I can give no consent to it."
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though, in
the meantime, I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling
to business, and frequently expostulated with my father and mother about
their being so positively determined against what they knew my
inclinations prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, where I went
casually, and without any purpose of making an elopement at that time;
but, I say, being there, and one of my companions being about to sail to
London in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with them with the
common allurement of seafaring men, that it should cost me nothing for my
passage, I consulted neither father nor mother any more, nor so much as
sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as they might,
without asking God's blessing or my father's, without any consideration
of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, God knows, on the
1st of September 1651, I went on board a ship bound for London. Never
any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued
longer than mine. The ship was no sooner out of the Humber than the wind
began to blow and the sea to rise in a most frightful manner; and, as I
had never been at sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body and
terrified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had
done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for my
wicked leaving my father's house, and abandoning my duty. All the good
counsels of my parents, my father's tears and my mother's entreaties,
came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to
the pitch of hardness to which it has since, reproached me with the
contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God and my father.
All this while the storm increased, and the sea went very high, though
nothing like what I have seen many times since; no, nor what I saw a few
days after; but it was enough to affect me then, who was but a young
sailor, and had never known anything of the matter. I expected every
wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down,
as I thought it did, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never
rise more; in this agony of mind, I made many vows and resolutions that
if it would please God to spare my life in this one voyage, if ever I got
once my foot upon dry land again, I would go directly home to my father,
and never set it into a ship again while I lived; that I would take his
advice, and never run myself into such miseries as these any more. Now I
saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle station of
life, how easy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had
been exposed to tempests at sea or troubles on shore; and I resolved that
I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father.
These wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm lasted,
and indeed some time after; but the next day the wind was abated, and the
sea calmer, and I began to be a little inured to it; however, I was very
grave for all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards
night the weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming
fine evening followed; the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the
next morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sun
shining upon it, the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful that
ever I saw.
I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-sick, but very
cheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough and terrible
the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little a time
after. And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, my companion,
who had enticed me away, comes to me; "Well, Bob," says he, clapping me
upon the shoulder, "how do you do after it? I warrant you were frighted,
wer'n't you, last night, when it blew but a capful of wind?" "A capful
d'you call it?" said I; "'twas a terrible storm." "A storm, you fool
you," replies he; "do you call that a storm? why, it was nothing at all;
give us but a good ship and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a
squall of wind as that; but you're but a fresh-water sailor, Bob. Come,
let us make a bowl of punch, and we'll forget all that; d'ye see what
charming weather 'tis now?" To make short this sad part of my story, we
went the way of all sailors; the punch was made and I was made half drunk
with it: and in that one night's wickedness I drowned all my repentance,
all my reflections upon my past conduct, all my resolutions for the
future. In a word, as the sea was returned to its smoothness of surface
and settled calmness by the abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my
thoughts being over, my fears and apprehensions of being swallowed up by
the sea being forgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I
entirely forgot the vows and promises that I made in my distress. I
found, indeed, some intervals of reflection; and the serious thoughts
did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them
off, and roused myself from them as it were from a distemper, and
applying myself to drinking and company, soon mastered the return of
those fits--for so I called them; and I had in five or six days got as
complete a victory over conscience as any young fellow that resolved not
to be troubled with it could desire. But I was to have another trial for
it still; and Providence, as in such cases generally it does, resolved to
leave me entirely without excuse; for if I would not take this for a
deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the worst and most hardened
wretch among us would confess both the danger and the mercy of.
The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth Roads; the wind
having been contrary and the weather calm, we had made but little way
since the storm. Here we were obliged to come to an anchor, and here we
lay, the wind continuing contrary--viz. at south-west--for seven or eight
days, during which time a great many ships from Newcastle came into the
same Roads, as the common harbour where the ships might wait for a wind
for the river.
We had not, however, rid here so long but we should have tided it up the
river, but that the wind blew too fresh, and after we had lain four or
five days, blew very hard. However, the Roads being reckoned as good as
a harbour, the anchorage good, and our ground-tackle very strong, our men
were unconcerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger, but spent
the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the sea; but the eighth
day, in the morning, the wind increased, and we had all hands at work to
strike our topmasts, and make everything snug and close, that the ship
might ride as easy as possible. By noon the sea went very high indeed,
and our ship rode forecastle in, shipped several seas, and we thought
once or twice our anchor had come home; upon which our master ordered out
the sheet-anchor, so that we rode with two anchors ahead, and the cables
veered out to the bitter end.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now I began to see
terror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen themselves. The
master, though vigilant in the business of preserving the ship, yet as he
went in and out of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly to himself
say, several times, "Lord be merciful to us! we shall be all lost! we
shall be all undone!" and the like. During these first hurries I was
stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the steerage, and cannot
describe my temper: I could ill resume the first penitence which I had so
apparently trampled upon and hardened myself against: I thought the
bitterness of death had been past, and that this would be nothing like
the first; but when the master himself came by me, as I said just now,
and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted. I got up out
of my cabin and looked out; but such a dismal sight I never saw: the sea
ran mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes; when I
could look about, I could see nothing but distress round us; two ships
that rode near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep
laden; and our men cried out that a ship which rode about a mile ahead of
us was foundered. Two more ships, being driven from their anchors, were
run out of the Roads to sea, at all adventures, and that with not a mast
standing. The light ships fared the best, as not so much labouring in
the sea; but two or three of them drove, and came close by us, running
away with only their spritsail out before the wind.
Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship to
let them cut away the fore-mast, which he was very unwilling to do; but
the boatswain protesting to him that if he did not the ship would
founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the fore-mast, the
main-mast stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged
to cut that away also, and make a clear deck.
Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who was but
a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but a little.
But if I can express at this distance the thoughts I had about me at that
time, I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my former
convictions, and the having returned from them to the resolutions I had
wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself; and these, added to
the terror of the storm, put me into such a condition that I can by no
words describe it. But the worst was not come yet; the storm continued
with such fury that the seamen themselves acknowledged they had never
seen a worse. We had a good ship, but she was deep laden, and wallowed
in the sea, so that the seamen every now and then cried out she would
founder. It was my advantage in one respect, that I did not know what
they meant by _founder_ till I inquired. However, the storm was so
violent that I saw, what is not often seen, the master, the boatswain,
and some others more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and
expecting every moment when the ship would go to the bottom. In the
middle of the night, and under all the rest of our distresses, one of the
men that had been down to see cried out we had sprung a leak; another
said there was four feet water in the hold. Then all hands were called
to the pump. At that word, my heart, as I thought, died within me: and I
fell backwards upon the side of my bed where I sat, into the cabin.
However, the men roused me, and told me that I, that was able to do
nothing before, was as well able to pump as another; at which I stirred
up and went to the pump, and worked very heartily. While this was doing
the master, seeing some light colliers, who, not able to ride out the
storm were obliged to slip and run away to sea, and would come near us,
ordered to fire a gun as a signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what
they meant, thought the ship had broken, or some dreadful thing happened.
In a word, I was so surprised that I fell down in a swoon. As this was a
time when everybody had his own life to think of, nobody minded me, or
what was become of me; but another man stepped up to the pump, and
thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I had been dead;
and it was a great while before I came to myself.
We worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it was apparent that
the ship would founder; and though the storm began to abate a little, yet
it was not possible she could swim till we might run into any port; so
the master continued firing guns for help; and a light ship, who had rid
it out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help us. It was with the
utmost hazard the boat came near us; but it was impossible for us to get
on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship's side, till at last the
men rowing very heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men
cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then veered it out
a great length, which they, after much labour and hazard, took hold of,
and we hauled them close under our stern, and got all into their boat.
It was to no purpose for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think
of reaching their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and only to
pull her in towards shore as much as we could; and our master promised
them, that if the boat was staved upon shore, he would make it good to
their master: so partly rowing and partly driving, our boat went away to
the northward, sloping towards the shore almost as far as Winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship till we
saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was meant by
a ship foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I had hardly eyes to
look up when the seamen told me she was sinking; for from the moment that
they rather put me into the boat than that I might be said to go in, my
heart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright, partly with
horror of mind, and the thoughts of what was yet before me.
While we were in this condition--the men yet labouring at the oar to
bring the boat near the shore--we could see (when, our boat mounting the
waves, we were able to see the shore) a great many people running along
the strand to assist us when we should come near; but we made but slow
way towards the shore; nor were we able to reach the shore till, being
past the lighthouse at Winterton, the shore falls off to the westward
towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a little the violence of the
wind. Here we got in, and though not without much difficulty, got all
safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, as
unfortunate men, we were used with great humanity, as well by the
magistrates of the town, who assigned us good quarters, as by particular
merchants and owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient to carry
us either to London or back to Hull as we thought fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and have gone home, I
had been happy, and my father, as in our blessed Saviour's parable, had
even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing the ship I went away in
was cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great while before he had any
assurances that I was not drowned.
But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could
resist; and though I had several times loud calls from my reason and my
more composed judgment to go home, yet I had no power to do it. I know
not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret overruling
decree, that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction,
even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open.
Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery, which it was
impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me forward against the
calm reasonings and persuasions of my most retired thoughts, and against
two such visible instructions as I had met with in my first attempt.
My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who was the master's
son, was now less forward than I. The first time he spoke to me after we
were at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for we were
separated in the town to several quarters; I say, the first time he saw
me, it appeared his tone was altered; and, looking very melancholy, and
shaking his head, he asked me how I did, and telling his father who I
was, and how I had come this voyage only for a trial, in order to go
further abroad, his father, turning to me with a very grave and concerned
tone "Young man," says he, "you ought never to go to sea any more; you
ought to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a
seafaring man." "Why, sir," said I, "will you go to sea no more?" "That
is another case," said he; "it is my calling, and therefore my duty; but
as you made this voyage on trial, you see what a taste Heaven has given
you of what you are to expect if you persist. Perhaps this has all
befallen us on your account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray,"
continues he, "what are you; and on what account did you go to sea?"
Upon that I told him some of my story; at the end of which he burst out
into a strange kind of passion: "What had I done," says he, "that such an
unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I would not set my foot in the
same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds." This indeed was, as I
said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense
of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go.
However, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorting me to go back
to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin, telling me I might see
a visible hand of Heaven against me. "And, young man," said he, "depend
upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go, you will meet with
nothing but disasters and disappointments, till your father's words are
fulfilled upon you."
We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I saw him no
more; which way he went I knew not. As for me, having some money in my
pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as well as on the road,
had many struggles with myself what course of life I should take, and
whether I should go home or to sea.
As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my
thoughts, and it immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at
among the neighbours, and should be ashamed to see, not my father and
mother only, but even everybody else; from whence I have since often
observed, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is,
especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them in such
cases--viz. that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to
repent; not ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to be
esteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make
them be esteemed wise men.
In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain what
measures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irresistible
reluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed away a while, the
remembrance of the distress I had been in wore off, and as that abated,
the little motion I had in my desires to return wore off with it, till at
last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage.
CHAPTER II--SLAVERY AND ESCAPE
That evil influence which carried me first away from my father's
house--which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising my
fortune, and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make
me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands
of my father--I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented the
most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I went on board a
vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly called
it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not ship
myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed have worked a little
harder than ordinary, yet at the same time I should have learnt the duty
and office of a fore-mast man, and in time might have qualified myself
for a mate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was always my
fate to choose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my
pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go on board in the
habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had any business in the ship, nor
learned to do any.
It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in London,
which does not always happen to such loose and misguided young fellows as
I then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare for them
very early; but it was not so with me. I first got acquainted with the
master of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, having had
very good success there, was resolved to go again. This captain taking a
fancy to my conversation, which was not at all disagreeable at that time,
hearing me say I had a mind to see the world, told me if I would go the
voyage with him I should be at no expense; I should be his messmate and
his companion; and if I could carry anything with me, I should have all
the advantage of it that the trade would admit; and perhaps I might meet
with some encouragement.
I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with this
captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing man, I went the voyage with
him, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by the disinterested
honesty of my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for I
carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain directed
me to buy. These 40 pounds I had mustered together by the assistance of
some of my relations whom I corresponded with; and who, I believe, got my
father, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my first
adventure.
This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my
adventures, which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend the
captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the mathematics
and the rules of navigation, learned how to keep an account of the ship's
course, take an observation, and, in short, to understand some things
that were needful to be understood by a sailor; for, as he took delight
to instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word, this voyage made
me both a sailor and a merchant; for I brought home five pounds nine
ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded me in London, at my
return, almost 300 pounds; and this filled me with those aspiring
thoughts which have since so completed my ruin.
Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly, that I
was continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by the
excessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon the
coast, from latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my great
misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to go the same
voyage again, and I embarked in the same vessel with one who was his mate
in the former voyage, and had now got the command of the ship. This was
the unhappiest voyage that ever man made; for though I did not carry
quite 100 pounds of my new-gained wealth, so that I had 200 pounds left,
which I had lodged with my friend's widow, who was very just to me, yet I
fell into terrible misfortunes. The first was this: our ship making her
course towards the Canary Islands, or rather between those islands and
the African shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a Turkish
rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make.
We crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread, or our masts
carry, to get clear; but finding the pirate gained upon us, and would
certainly come up with us in a few hours, we prepared to fight; our ship
having twelve guns, and the rogue eighteen. About three in the afternoon
he came up with us, and bringing to, by mistake, just athwart our
quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we brought eight
of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in a broadside upon him,
which made him sheer off again, after returning our fire, and pouring in
also his small shot from near two hundred men which he had on board.
However, we had not a man touched, all our men keeping close. He
prepared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves. But laying us
on board the next time upon our other quarter, he entered sixty men upon
our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the sails and
rigging. We plied them with small shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and
such like, and cleared our deck of them twice. However, to cut short
this melancholy part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three of
our men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged to yield, and were
carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to the Moors.
The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I apprehended; nor
was I carried up the country to the emperor's court, as the rest of our
men were, but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize,
and made his slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business. At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant to a
miserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back upon
my father's prophetic discourse to me, that I should be miserable and
have none to relieve me, which I thought was now so effectually brought
to pass that I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had
overtaken me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas! this was
but a taste of the misery I was to go through, as will appear in the
sequel of this story.
As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so I was in
hopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again, believing
that it would some time or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or
Portugal man-of-war; and that then I should be set at liberty. But this
hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to sea, he left me on
shore to look after his little garden, and do the common drudgery of
slaves about his house; and when he came home again from his cruise, he
ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I might take to
effect it, but found no way that had the least probability in it; nothing
presented to make the supposition of it rational; for I had nobody to
communicate it to that would embark with me--no fellow-slave, no
Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for two
years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination, yet I never
had the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice.
After about two years, an odd circumstance presented itself, which put
the old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head.
My patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting out his ship,
which, as I heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once or
twice a week, sometimes oftener if the weather was fair, to take the
ship's pinnace and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he always took
me and young Maresco with him to row the boat, we made him very merry,
and I proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that sometimes he
would send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and the youth--the
Maresco, as they called him--to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm morning, a fog rose
so thick that, though we were not half a league from the shore, we lost
sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, we laboured all
day, and all the next night; and when the morning came we found we had
pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and that we were
at least two leagues from the shore. However, we got well in again,
though with a great deal of labour and some danger; for the wind began to
blow pretty fresh in the morning; but we were all very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care of
himself for the future; and having lying by him the longboat of our
English ship that he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishing any
more without a compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter of
his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little state-room, or
cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a barge, with a place
to stand behind it to steer, and haul home the main-sheet; the room
before for a hand or two to stand and work the sails. She sailed with
what we call a shoulder-of-mutton sail; and the boom jibed over the top
of the cabin, which lay very snug and low, and had in it room for him to
lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with some small lockers
to put in some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to drink; and his
bread, rice, and coffee.
We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing; and as I was most
dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. It happened
that he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or for
fish, with two or three Moors of some distinction in that place, and for
whom he had provided extraordinarily, and had, therefore, sent on board
the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than ordinary; and had
ordered me to get ready three fusees with powder and shot, which were on
board his ship, for that they designed some sport of fowling as well as
fishing.
I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morning
with the boat washed clean, her ancient and pendants out, and everything
to accommodate his guests; when by-and-by my patron came on board alone,
and told me his guests had put off going from some business that fell
out, and ordered me, with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with the
boat and catch them some fish, for that his friends were to sup at his
house, and commanded that as soon as I got some fish I should bring it
home to his house; all which I prepared to do.
This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts, for
now I found I was likely to have a little ship at my command; and my
master being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for fishing
business, but for a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much as
consider, whither I should steer--anywhere to get out of that place was
my desire.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor, to get
something for our subsistence on board; for I told him we must not
presume to eat of our patron's bread. He said that was true; so he
brought a large basket of rusk or biscuit, and three jars of fresh water,
into the boat. I knew where my patron's case of bottles stood, which it
was evident, by the make, were taken out of some English prize, and I
conveyed them into the boat while the Moor was on shore, as if they had
been there before for our master. I conveyed also a great lump of
beeswax into the boat, which weighed about half a hundred-weight, with a
parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of which
were of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax, to make candles.
Another trick I tried upon him, which he innocently came into also: his
name was Ismael, which they call Muley, or Moely; so I called to
him--"Moely," said I, "our patron's guns are on board the boat; can you
not get a little powder and shot? It may be we may kill some alcamies (a
fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he keeps the gunner's
stores in the ship." "Yes," says he, "I'll bring some;" and accordingly
he brought a great leather pouch, which held a pound and a half of
powder, or rather more; and another with shot, that had five or six
pounds, with some bullets, and put all into the boat. At the same time I
had found some powder of my master's in the great cabin, with which I
filled one of the large bottles in the case, which was almost empty,
pouring what was in it into another; and thus furnished with everything
needful, we sailed out of the port to fish. The castle, which is at the
entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took no notice of us; and we
were not above a mile out of the port before we hauled in our sail and
set us down to fish. The wind blew from the N.N.E., which was contrary
to my desire, for had it blown southerly I had been sure to have made the
coast of Spain, and at least reached to the bay of Cadiz; but my
resolutions were, blow which way it would, I would be gone from that
horrid place where I was, and leave the rest to fate.
After we had fished some time and caught nothing--for when I had fish on
my hook I would not pull them up, that he might not see them--I said to
the Moor, "This will not do; our master will not be thus served; we must
stand farther off." He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in the head
of the boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I ran the boat out
near a league farther, and then brought her to, as if I would fish; when,
giving the boy the helm, I stepped forward to where the Moor was, and
making as if I stooped for something behind him, I took him by surprise
with my arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard into the sea.
He rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged to
be taken in, told me he would go all over the world with me. He swam so
strong after the boat that he would have reached me very quickly, there
being but little wind; upon which I stepped into the cabin, and fetching
one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it at him, and told him I had done
him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I would do him none. "But," said
I, "you swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the sea is calm; make
the best of your way to shore, and I will do you no harm; but if you come
near the boat I'll shoot you through the head, for I am resolved to have
my liberty;" so he turned himself about, and swam for the shore, and I
make no doubt but he reached it with ease, for he was an excellent
swimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor with me, and have
drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. When he was
gone, I turned to the boy, whom they called Xury, and said to him, "Xury,
if you will be faithful to me, I'll make you a great man; but if you will
not stroke your face to be true to me"--that is, swear by Mahomet and his
father's beard--"I must throw you into the sea too." The boy smiled in
my face, and spoke so innocently that I could not distrust him, and swore
to be faithful to me, and go all over the world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood out directly
to sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that they might
think me gone towards the Straits' mouth (as indeed any one that had been
in their wits must have been supposed to do): for who would have supposed
we were sailed on to the southward, to the truly Barbarian coast, where
whole nations of negroes were sure to surround us with their canoes and
destroy us; where we could not go on shore but we should be devoured by
savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human kind.
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course, and
steered directly south and by east, bending my course a little towards
the east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a fair, fresh
gale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by
the next day, at three o'clock in the afternoon, when I first made the
land, I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south of
Sallee; quite beyond the Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or indeed of any
other king thereabouts, for we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and the dreadful
apprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I would not stop,
or go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuing fair till I had
sailed in that manner five days; and then the wind shifting to the
southward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase of
me, they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the coast,
and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what,
nor where, neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or what
river. I neither saw, nor desired to see any people; the principal thing
I wanted was fresh water. We came into this creek in the evening,
resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover the
country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadful noises
of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of we knew not
what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, and begged of
me not to go on shore till day. "Well, Xury," said I, "then I won't; but
it may be that we may see men by day, who will be as bad to us as those
lions." "Then we give them the shoot gun," says Xury, laughing, "make
them run wey." Such English Xury spoke by conversing among us slaves.
However, I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram
(out of our patron's case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all, Xury's
advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, and lay
still all night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or three
hours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them) of many
sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the water, wallowing and
washing themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and they made
such hideous howlings and yellings, that I never indeed heard the like.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too; but we were both
more frighted when we heard one of these mighty creatures come swimming
towards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear him by his
blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast. Xury said it was a
lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury cried to me to
weigh the anchor and row away; "No," says I, "Xury; we can slip our
cable, with the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot follow us
far." I had no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature (whatever it
was) within two oars' length, which something surprised me; however, I
immediately stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my gun, fired at
him; upon which he immediately turned about and swam towards the shore
again.
But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and hideous cries and
howlings that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore as higher
within the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thing I have
some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before: this
convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night on that
coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was another question too;
for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages had been as bad
as to have fallen into the hands of the lions and tigers; at least we
were equally apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other
for water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when and where to get
to it was the point. Xury said, if I would let him go on shore with one
of the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some to me.
I asked him why he would go? why I should not go, and he stay in the
boat? The boy answered with so much affection as made me love him ever
after. Says he, "If wild mans come, they eat me, you go wey." "Well,
Xury," said I, "we will both go and if the wild mans come, we will kill
them, they shall eat neither of us." So I gave Xury a piece of rusk
bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron's case of bottles which I
mentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near the shore as we
thought was proper, and so waded on shore, carrying nothing but our arms
and two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming of
canoes with savages down the river; but the boy seeing a low place about
a mile up the country, rambled to it, and by-and-by I saw him come
running towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted
with some wild beast, and I ran forward towards him to help him; but when
I came nearer to him I saw something hanging over his shoulders, which
was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different in colour,
and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good
meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me he had
found good water and seen no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, for a
little higher up the creek where we were we found the water fresh when
the tide was out, which flowed but a little way up; so we filled our
jars, and feasted on the hare he had killed, and prepared to go on our
way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of the
country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well that the
islands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verde Islands also, lay not far
off from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an observation
to know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at least
remembering, what latitude they were in, I knew not where to look for
them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I might now
easily have found some of these islands. But my hope was, that if I
stood along this coast till I came to that part where the English traded,
I should find some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade,
that would relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was must be that
country which, lying between the Emperor of Morocco's dominions and the
negroes, lies waste and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the negroes
having abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors, and the
Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason of its barrenness; and
indeed, both forsaking it because of the prodigious number of tigers,
lions, leopards, and other furious creatures which harbour there; so that
the Moors use it for their hunting only, where they go like an army, two
or three thousand men at a time; and indeed for near a hundred miles
together upon this coast we saw nothing but a waste, uninhabited country
by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring of wild beasts by
night.
Once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe, being
the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries, and had a great
mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but having tried
twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also going too
high for my little vessel; so, I resolved to pursue my first design, and
keep along the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had left
this place; and once in particular, being early in morning, we came to an
anchor under a little point of land, which was pretty high; and the tide
beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes were
more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me
that we had best go farther off the shore; "For," says he, "look, yonder
lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock, fast asleep." I
looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a
terrible, great lion that lay on the side of the shore, under the shade
of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a little over him. "Xury,"
says I, "you shall on shore and kill him." Xury, looked frighted, and
said, "Me kill! he eat me at one mouth!"--one mouthful he meant.
However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie still, and I took
our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and loaded it with a good
charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it down; then I loaded
another gun with two bullets; and the third (for we had three pieces) I
loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the best aim I could with the
first piece to have shot him in the head, but he lay so with his leg
raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee
and broke the bone. He started up, growling at first, but finding his
leg broken, fell down again; and then got upon three legs, and gave the
most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a little surprised that I had
not hit him on the head; however, I took up the second piece immediately,
and though he began to move off, fired again, and shot him in the head,
and had the pleasure to see him drop and make but little noise, but lie
struggling for life. Then Xury took heart, and would have me let him go
on shore. "Well, go," said I: so the boy jumped into the water and
taking a little gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand, and
coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of the piece to his ear, and
shot him in the head again, which despatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorry to
lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was good for
nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some of him; so he comes
on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. "For what, Xury?" said
I. "Me cut off his head," said he. However, Xury could not cut off his
head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was a
monstrous great one.
I bethought myself, however, that, perhaps the skin of him might, one way
or other, be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off his skin if
I could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was much the
better workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed, it took
us both up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and
spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it in two
days' time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon.
CHAPTER III--WRECKED ON A DESERT ISLAND
After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or
twelve days, living very sparingly on our provisions, which began to
abate very much, and going no oftener to the shore than we were obliged
to for fresh water. My design in this was to make the river Gambia or
Senegal, that is to say anywhere about the Cape de Verde, where I was in
hopes to meet with some European ship; and if I did not, I knew not what
course I had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there among
the negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe, which sailed either
to the coast of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, made this
cape, or those islands; and, in a word, I put the whole of my fortune
upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship or must
perish.
When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I have said,
I began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two or three places,
as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we
could also perceive they were quite black and naked. I was once inclined
to have gone on shore to them; but Xury was my better counsellor, and
said to me, "No go, no go." However, I hauled in nearer the shore that I
might talk to them, and I found they ran along the shore by me a good
way. I observed they had no weapons in their hand, except one, who had a
long slender stick, which Xury said was a lance, and that they could
throw them a great way with good aim; so I kept at a distance, but talked
with them by signs as well as I could; and particularly made signs for
something to eat: they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they would
fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered the top of my sail and lay by,
and two of them ran up into the country, and in less than half-an-hour
came back, and brought with them two pieces of dried flesh and some corn,
such as is the produce of their country; but we neither knew what the one
or the other was; however, we were willing to accept it, but how to come
at it was our next dispute, for I would not venture on shore to them, and
they were as much afraid of us; but they took a safe way for us all, for
they brought it to the shore and laid it down, and went and stood a great
way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them amends;
but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully;
for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty creatures, one
pursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the mountains
towards the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the female, or whether
they were in sport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we could
tell whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter;
because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear but
in the night; and, in the second place, we found the people terribly
frighted, especially the women. The man that had the lance or dart did
not fly from them, but the rest did; however, as the two creatures ran
directly into the water, they did not offer to fall upon any of the
negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and swam about, as if they
had come for their diversion; at last one of them began to come nearer
our boat than at first I expected; but I lay ready for him, for I had
loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load both the
others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach, I fired, and shot him
directly in the head; immediately he sank down into the water, but rose
instantly, and plunged up and down, as if he were struggling for life,
and so indeed he was; he immediately made to the shore; but between the
wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he
died just before he reached the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures at
the noise and fire of my gun: some of them were even ready to die for
fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror; but when they saw the
creature dead, and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to them to
come to the shore, they took heart and came, and began to search for the
creature. I found him by his blood staining the water; and by the help
of a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the negroes to haul, they
dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curious leopard,
spotted, and fine to an admirable degree; and the negroes held up their
hands with admiration, to think what it was I had killed him with.
The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and the noise of the
gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the mountains from whence they
came; nor could I, at that distance, know what it was. I found quickly
the negroes wished to eat the flesh of this creature, so I was willing to
have them take it as a favour from me; which, when I made signs to them
that they might take him, they were very thankful for. Immediately they
fell to work with him; and though they had no knife, yet, with a
sharpened piece of wood, they took off his skin as readily, and much more
readily, than we could have done with a knife. They offered me some of
the flesh, which I declined, pointing out that I would give it them; but
made signs for the skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought me a
great deal more of their provisions, which, though I did not understand,
yet I accepted. I then made signs to them for some water, and held out
one of my jars to them, turning it bottom upward, to show that it was
empty, and that I wanted to have it filled. They called immediately to
some of their friends, and there came two women, and brought a great
vessel made of earth, and burnt, as I supposed, in the sun, this they set
down to me, as before, and I sent Xury on shore with my jars, and filled
them all three. The women were as naked as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and water; and
leaving my friendly negroes, I made forward for about eleven days more,
without offering to go near the shore, till I saw the land run out a
great length into the sea, at about the distance of four or five leagues
before me; and the sea being very calm, I kept a large offing to make
this point. At length, doubling the point, at about two leagues from the
land, I saw plainly land on the other side, to seaward; then I concluded,
as it was most certain indeed, that this was the Cape de Verde, and those
the islands called, from thence, Cape de Verde Islands. However, they
were at a great distance, and I could not well tell what I had best to
do; for if I should be taken with a fresh of wind, I might neither reach
one or other.
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the cabin and sat
down, Xury having the helm; when, on a sudden, the boy cried out,
"Master, master, a ship with a sail!" and the foolish boy was frighted
out of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master's ships
sent to pursue us, but I knew we were far enough out of their reach. I
jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only the ship, but that
it was a Portuguese ship; and, as I thought, was bound to the coast of
Guinea, for negroes. But, when I observed the course she steered, I was
soon convinced they were bound some other way, and did not design to come
any nearer to the shore; upon which I stretched out to sea as much as I
could, resolving to speak with them if possible.
With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able to come in
their way, but that they would be gone by before I could make any signal
to them: but after I had crowded to the utmost, and began to despair,
they, it seems, saw by the help of their glasses that it was some
European boat, which they supposed must belong to some ship that was
lost; so they shortened sail to let me come up. I was encouraged with
this, and as I had my patron's ancient on board, I made a waft of it to
them, for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw; for
they told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the gun. Upon
these signals they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me; and in
about three hours; time I came up with them.
They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in Spanish, and in French,
but I understood none of them; but at last a Scotch sailor, who was on
board, called to me: and I answered him, and told him I was an
Englishman, that I had made my escape out of slavery from the Moors, at
Sallee; they then bade me come on board, and very kindly took me in, and
all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will believe, that I was
thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from such a miserable and almost
hopeless condition as I was in; and I immediately offered all I had to
the captain of the ship, as a return for my deliverance; but he
generously told me he would take nothing from me, but that all I had
should be delivered safe to me when I came to the Brazils. "For," says
he, "I have saved your life on no other terms than I would be glad to be
saved myself: and it may, one time or other, be my lot to be taken up in
the same condition. Besides," said he, "when I carry you to the Brazils,
so great a way from your own country, if I should take from you what you
have, you will be starved there, and then I only take away that life I
have given. No, no," says he: "Seignior Inglese" (Mr. Englishman), "I
will carry you thither in charity, and those things will help to buy your
subsistence there, and your passage home again."
As he was charitable in this proposal, so he was just in the performance
to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen that none should touch anything
that I had: then he took everything into his own possession, and gave me
back an exact inventory of them, that I might have them, even to my three
earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw, and told me he
would buy it of me for his ship's use; and asked me what I would have for
it? I told him he had been so generous to me in everything that I could
not offer to make any price of the boat, but left it entirely to him:
upon which he told me he would give me a note of hand to pay me eighty
pieces of eight for it at Brazil; and when it came there, if any one
offered to give more, he would make it up. He offered me also sixty
pieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which I was loth to take; not that
I was unwilling to let the captain have him, but I was very loth to sell
the poor boy's liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring my
own. However, when I let him know my reason, he owned it to be just, and
offered me this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to set
him free in ten years, if he turned Christian: upon this, and Xury saying
he was willing to go to him, I let the captain have him.
We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and I arrived in the Bay de
Todos los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in about twenty-two days after.
And now I was once more delivered from the most miserable of all
conditions of life; and what to do next with myself I was to consider.
The generous treatment the captain gave me I can never enough remember:
he would take nothing of me for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the
leopard's skin, and forty for the lion's skin, which I had in my boat,
and caused everything I had in the ship to be punctually delivered to me;
and what I was willing to sell he bought of me, such as the case of
bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of beeswax--for I had
made candles of the rest: in a word, I made about two hundred and twenty
pieces of eight of all my cargo; and with this stock I went on shore in
the Brazils.
I had not been long here before I was recommended to the house of a good
honest man like himself, who had an _ingenio_, as they call it (that is,
a plantation and a sugar-house). I lived with him some time, and
acquainted myself by that means with the manner of planting and making of
sugar; and seeing how well the planters lived, and how they got rich
suddenly, I resolved, if I could get a licence to settle there, I would
turn planter among them: resolving in the meantime to find out some way
to get my money, which I had left in London, remitted to me. To this
purpose, getting a kind of letter of naturalisation, I purchased as much
land that was uncured as my money would reach, and formed a plan for my
plantation and settlement; such a one as might be suitable to the stock
which I proposed to myself to receive from England.
I had a neighbour, a Portuguese, of Lisbon, but born of English parents,
whose name was Wells, and in much such circumstances as I was. I call
him my neighbour, because his plantation lay next to mine, and we went on
very sociably together. My stock was but low, as well as his; and we
rather planted for food than anything else, for about two years.
However, we began to increase, and our land began to come into order; so
that the third year we planted some tobacco, and made each of us a large
piece of ground ready for planting canes in the year to come. But we
both wanted help; and now I found, more than before, I had done wrong in
parting with my boy Xury.
But, alas! for me to do wrong that never did right, was no great wonder.
I hail no remedy but to go on: I had got into an employment quite remote
to my genius, and directly contrary to the life I delighted in, and for
which I forsook my father's house, and broke through all his good advice.
Nay, I was coming into the very middle station, or upper degree of low
life, which my father advised me to before, and which, if I resolved to
go on with, I might as well have stayed at home, and never have fatigued
myself in the world as I had done; and I used often to say to myself, I
could have done this as well in England, among my friends, as have gone
five thousand miles off to do it among strangers and savages, in a
wilderness, and at such a distance as never to hear from any part of the
world that had the least knowledge of me.
In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the utmost regret.
I had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neighbour; no work
to be done, but by the labour of my hands; and I used to say, I lived
just like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobody
there but himself. But how just has it been--and how should all men
reflect, that when they compare their present conditions with others that
are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be convinced
of their former felicity by their experience--I say, how just has it
been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on, in an island of mere
desolation, should be my lot, who had so often unjustly compared it with
the life which I then led, in which, had I continued, I had in all
probability been exceeding prosperous and rich.
I was in some degree settled in my measures for carrying on the
plantation before my kind friend, the captain of the ship that took me up
at sea, went back--for the ship remained there, in providing his lading
and preparing for his voyage, nearly three months--when telling him what
little stock I had left behind me in London, he gave me this friendly and
sincere advice:--"Seignior Inglese," says he (for so he always called
me), "if you will give me letters, and a procuration in form to me, with
orders to the person who has your money in London to send your effects to
Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct, and in such goods as are
proper for this country, I will bring you the produce of them, God
willing, at my return; but, since human affairs are all subject to
changes and disasters, I would have you give orders but for one hundred
pounds sterling, which, you say, is half your stock, and let the hazard
be run for the first; so that, if it come safe, you may order the rest
the same way, and, if it miscarry, you may have the other half to have
recourse to for your supply."
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that I could not
but be convinced it was the best course I could take; so I accordingly
prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I had left my money, and a
procuration to the Portuguese captain, as he desired.
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all my
adventures--my slavery, escape, and how I had met with the Portuguese
captain at sea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what condition I was
now in, with all other necessary directions for my supply; and when this
honest captain came to Lisbon, he found means, by some of the English
merchants there, to send over, not the order only, but a full account of
my story to a merchant in London, who represented it effectually to her;
whereupon she not only delivered the money, but out of her own pocket
sent the Portugal captain a very handsome present for his humanity and
charity to me.
The merchant in London, vesting this hundred pounds in English goods,
such as the captain had written for, sent them directly to him at Lisbon,
and he brought them all safe to me to the Brazils; among which, without
my direction (for I was too young in my business to think of them), he
had taken care to have all sorts of tools, ironwork, and utensils
necessary for my plantation, and which were of great use to me.
When this cargo arrived I thought my fortune made, for I was surprised
with the joy of it; and my stood steward, the captain, had laid out the
five pounds, which my friend had sent him for a present for himself, to
purchase and bring me over a servant, under bond for six years' service,
and would not accept of any consideration, except a little tobacco, which
I would have him accept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all; for my goods being all English manufacture, such as
cloths, stuffs, baize, and things particularly valuable and desirable in
the country, I found means to sell them to a very great advantage; so
that I might say I had more than four times the value of my first cargo,
and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbour--I mean in the
advancement of my plantation; for the first thing I did, I bought me a
negro slave, and an European servant also--I mean another besides that
which the captain brought me from Lisbon.
But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of our
greatest adversity, so it was with me. I went on the next year with
great success in my plantation: I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on
my own ground, more than I had disposed of for necessaries among my
neighbours; and these fifty rolls, being each of above a hundredweight,
were well cured, and laid by against the return of the fleet from Lisbon:
and now increasing in business and wealth, my head began to be full of
projects and undertakings beyond my reach; such as are, indeed, often the
ruin of the best heads in business. Had I continued in the station I was
now in, I had room for all the happy things to have yet befallen me for
which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life, and of
which he had so sensibly described the middle station of life to be full
of; but other things attended me, and I was still to be the wilful agent
of all my own miseries; and particularly, to increase my fault, and
double the reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows I should
have leisure to make, all these miscarriages were procured by my apparent
obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination of wandering abroad, and
pursuing that inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views of
doing myself good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects, and
those measures of life, which nature and Providence concurred to present
me with, and to make my duty.
As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents, so I could
not be content now, but I must go and leave the happy view I had of being
a rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and
immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the thing admitted;
and thus I cast myself down again into the deepest gulf of human misery
that ever man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent with life and a
state of health in the world.
To come, then, by the just degrees to the particulars of this part of my
story. You may suppose, that having now lived almost four years in the
Brazils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my
plantation, I had not only learned the language, but had contracted
acquaintance and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as among
the merchants at St. Salvador, which was our port; and that, in my
discourses among them, I had frequently given them an account of my two
voyages to the coast of Guinea: the manner of trading with the negroes
there, and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast for trifles--such
as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glass, and the
like--not only gold-dust, Guinea grains, elephants' teeth, &c., but
negroes, for the service of the Brazils, in great numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my discourses on these heads,
but especially to that part which related to the buying of negroes, which
was a trade at that time, not only not far entered into, but, as far as
it was, had been carried on by assientos, or permission of the kings of
Spain and Portugal, and engrossed in the public stock: so that few
negroes were bought, and these excessively dear.
It happened, being in company with some merchants and planters of my
acquaintance, and talking of those things very earnestly, three of them
came to me next morning, and told me they had been musing very much upon
what I had discoursed with them of the last night, and they came to make
a secret proposal to me; and, after enjoining me to secrecy, they told me
that they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to Guinea; that they had all
plantations as well as I, and were straitened for nothing so much as
servants; that as it was a trade that could not be carried on, because
they could not publicly sell the negroes when they came home, so they
desired to make but one voyage, to bring the negroes on shore privately,
and divide them among their own plantations; and, in a word, the question
was whether I would go their supercargo in the ship, to manage the
trading part upon the coast of Guinea; and they offered me that I should
have my equal share of the negroes, without providing any part of the
stock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made to any
one that had not had a settlement and a plantation of his own to look
after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very considerable, and
with a good stock upon it; but for me, that was thus entered and
established, and had nothing to do but to go on as I had begun, for three
or four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred pounds from
England; and who in that time, and with that little addition, could
scarce have failed of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling,
and that increasing too--for me to think of such a voyage was the most
preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances could be guilty
of.
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist the
offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs when my father'
good counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them I would go with
all my heart, if they would undertake to look after my plantation in my
absence, and would dispose of it to such as I should direct, if I
miscarried. This they all engaged to do, and entered into writings or
covenants to do so; and I made a formal will, disposing of my plantation
and effects in case of my death, making the captain of the ship that had
saved my life, as before, my universal heir, but obliging him to dispose
of my effects as I had directed in my will; one half of the produce being
to himself, and the other to be shipped to England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects and to keep
up my plantation. Had I used half as much prudence to have looked into
my own interest, and have made a judgment of what I ought to have done
and not to have done, I had certainly never gone away from so prosperous
an undertaking, leaving all the probable views of a thriving
circumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its common
hazards, to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particular
misfortunes to myself.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy rather
than my reason; and, accordingly, the ship being fitted out, and the
cargo furnished, and all things done, as by agreement, by my partners in
the voyage, I went on board in an evil hour, the 1st September 1659,
being the same day eight years that I went from my father and mother at
Hull, in order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool to my
own interests.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden, carried six guns
and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and myself. We had on
board no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit for our
trade with the negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and other
trifles, especially little looking-glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets,
and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the northward
upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the African coast
when we came about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude, which, it
seems, was the manner of course in those days. We had very good weather,
only excessively hot, all the way upon our own coast, till we came to the
height of Cape St. Augustino; from whence, keeping further off at sea, we
lost sight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the isle Fernando
de Noronha, holding our course N.E. by N., and leaving those isles on the
east. In this course we passed the line in about twelve days' time, and
were, by our last observation, in seven degrees twenty-two minutes
northern latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us quite
out of our knowledge. It began from the south-east, came about to the
north-west, and then settled in the north-east; from whence it blew in
such a terrible manner, that for twelve days together we could do nothing
but drive, and, scudding away before it, let it carry us whither fate and
the fury of the winds directed; and, during these twelve days, I need not
say that I expected every day to be swallowed up; nor, indeed, did any in
the ship expect to save their lives.
In this distress we had, besides the terror of the storm, one of our men
die of the calenture, and one man and the boy washed overboard. About
the twelfth day, the weather abating a little, the master made an
observation as well as he could, and found that he was in about eleven
degrees north latitude, but that he was twenty-two degrees of longitude
difference west from Cape St. Augustino; so that he found he was upon the
coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the river Amazon,
toward that of the river Orinoco, commonly called the Great River; and
began to consult with me what course he should take, for the ship was
leaky, and very much disabled, and he was going directly back to the
coast of Brazil.
I was positively against that; and looking over the charts of the
sea-coast of America with him, we concluded there was no inhabited
country for us to have recourse to till we came within the circle of the
Caribbee Islands, and therefore resolved to stand away for Barbadoes;
which, by keeping off at sea, to avoid the indraft of the Bay or Gulf of
Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days'
sail; whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to the coast of
Africa without some assistance both to our ship and to ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and steered away N.W. by W., in
order to reach some of our English islands, where I hoped for relief.
But our voyage was otherwise determined; for, being in the latitude of
twelve degrees eighteen minutes, a second storm came upon us, which
carried us away with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out
of the way of all human commerce, that, had all our lives been saved as
to the sea, we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than
ever returning to our own country.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men early
in the morning cried out, "Land!" and we had no sooner run out of the
cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were,
than the ship struck upon a sand, and in a moment her motion being so
stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner that we expected we
should all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven into
our close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the
sea.
It is not easy for any one who has not been in the like condition to
describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances. We
knew nothing where we were, or upon what land it was we were
driven--whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or not
inhabited. As the rage of the wind was still great, though rather less
than at first, we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many
minutes without breaking into pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of
miracle, should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat looking upon
one another, and expecting death every moment, and every man,
accordingly, preparing for another world; for there was little or nothing
more for us to do in this. That which was our present comfort, and all
the comfort we had, was that, contrary to our expectation, the ship did
not break yet, and that the master said the wind began to abate.
Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the ship
having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to expect
her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had nothing
to do but to think of saving our lives as well as we could. We had a
boat at our stern just before the storm, but she was first staved by
dashing against the ship's rudder, and in the next place she broke away,
and either sunk or was driven off to sea; so there was no hope from her.
We had another boat on board, but how to get her off into the sea was a
doubtful thing. However, there was no time to debate, for we fancied
that the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some told us she
was actually broken already.
In this distress the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat, and with
the help of the rest of the men got her slung over the ship's side; and
getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in
number, to God's mercy and the wild sea; for though the storm was abated
considerably, yet the sea ran dreadfully high upon the shore, and might
be well called _den wild zee_, as the Dutch call the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly that the
sea went so high that the boat could not live, and that we should be
inevitably drowned. As to making sail, we had none, nor if we had could
we have done anything with it; so we worked at the oar towards the land,
though with heavy hearts, like men going to execution; for we all knew
that when the boat came near the shore she would be dashed in a thousand
pieces by the breach of the sea. However, we committed our souls to God
in the most earnest manner; and the wind driving us towards the shore, we
hastened our destruction with our own hands, pulling as well as we could
towards land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal, we knew
not. The only hope that could rationally give us the least shadow of
expectation was, if we might find some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some
river, where by great chance we might have run our boat in, or got under
the lee of the land, and perhaps made smooth water. But there was
nothing like this appeared; but as we made nearer and nearer the shore,
the land looked more frightful than the sea.
After we had rowed, or rather driven about a league and a half, as we
reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, and
plainly bade us expect the _coup de grace_. It took us with such a fury,
that it overset the boat at once; and separating us as well from the boat
as from one another, gave us no time to say, "O God!" for we were all
swallowed up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sank
into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not deliver
myself from the waves so as to draw breath, till that wave having driven
me, or rather carried me, a vast way on towards the shore, and having
spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry, but half
dead with the water I took in. I had so much presence of mind, as well
as breath left, that seeing myself nearer the mainland than I expected, I
got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the land as fast as
I could before another wave should return and take me up again; but I
soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I saw the sea come after me
as high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy, which I had no means
or strength to contend with: my business was to hold my breath, and raise
myself upon the water if I could; and so, by swimming, to preserve my
breathing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible, my greatest
concern now being that the sea, as it would carry me a great way towards
the shore when it came on, might not carry me back again with it when it
gave back towards the sea.
The wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or thirty feet
deep in its own body, and I could feel myself carried with a mighty force
and swiftness towards the shore--a very great way; but I held my breath,
and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. I was ready
to burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising up, so, to
my immediate relief, I found my head and hands shoot out above the
surface of the water; and though it was not two seconds of time that I
could keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath, and new
courage. I was covered again with water a good while, but not so long
but I held it out; and finding the water had spent itself, and began to
return, I struck forward against the return of the waves, and felt ground
again with my feet. I stood still a few moments to recover breath, and
till the waters went from me, and then took to my heels and ran with what
strength I had further towards the shore. But neither would this deliver
me from the fury of the sea, which came pouring in after me again; and
twice more I was lifted up by the waves and carried forward as before,
the shore being very flat.
The last time of these two had well-nigh been fatal to me, for the sea
having hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather dashed me,
against a piece of rock, and that with such force, that it left me
senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the blow
taking my side and breast, beat the breath as it were quite out of my
body; and had it returned again immediately, I must have been strangled
in the water; but I recovered a little before the return of the waves,
and seeing I should be covered again with the water, I resolved to hold
fast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible, till
the wave went back. Now, as the waves were not so high as at first,
being nearer land, I held my hold till the wave abated, and then fetched
another run, which brought me so near the shore that the next wave,
though it went over me, yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away;
and the next run I took, I got to the mainland, where, to my great
comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the shore and sat me down upon the
grass, free from danger and quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank God
that my life was saved, in a case wherein there was some minutes before
scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to express, to the
life, what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are, when it is so
saved, as I may say, out of the very grave: and I do not wonder now at
the custom, when a malefactor, who has the halter about his neck, is tied
up, and just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him--I
say, I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood
that very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise may not drive the
animal spirits from the heart and overwhelm him.
"For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first."
I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and my whole being, as I
may say, wrapped up in a contemplation of my deliverance; making a
thousand gestures and motions, which I cannot describe; reflecting upon
all my comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be one soul
saved but myself; for, as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any
sign of them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that
were not fellows.
I cast my eye to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and froth of the
sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far of; and
considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore?
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my condition, I
began to look round me, to see what kind of place I was in, and what was
next to be done; and I soon found my comforts abate, and that, in a word,
I had a dreadful deliverance; for I was wet, had no clothes to shift me,
nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither did I see any
prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or being devoured by
wild beasts; and that which was particularly afflicting to me was, that I
had no weapon, either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, or
to defend myself against any other creature that might desire to kill me
for theirs. In a word, I had nothing about me but a knife, a
tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco in a box. This was all my provisions;
and this threw me into such terrible agonies of mind, that for a while I
ran about like a madman. Night coming upon me, I began with a heavy
heart to consider what would be my lot if there were any ravenous beasts
in that country, as at night they always come abroad for their prey.
All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time was to get up
into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, which grew near me, and
where I resolved to sit all night, and consider the next day what death I
should die, for as yet I saw no prospect of life. I walked about a
furlong from the shore, to see if I could find any fresh water to drink,
which I did, to my great joy; and having drank, and put a little tobacco
into my mouth to prevent hunger, I went to the tree, and getting up into
it, endeavoured to place myself so that if I should sleep I might not
fall. And having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon, for my defence,
I took up my lodging; and having been excessively fatigued, I fell fast
asleep, and slept as comfortably as, I believe, few could have done in my
condition, and found myself more refreshed with it than, I think, I ever
was on such an occasion.
CHAPTER IV--FIRST WEEKS ON THE ISLAND
When I waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and the storm abated,
so that the sea did not rage and swell as before. But that which
surprised me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the night from the
sand where she lay by the swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost
as far as the rock which I at first mentioned, where I had been so
bruised by the wave dashing me against it. This being within about a
mile from the shore where I was, and the ship seeming to stand upright
still, I wished myself on board, that at least I might save some
necessary things for my use.
When I came down from my apartment in the tree, I looked about me again,
and the first thing I found was the boat, which lay, as the wind and the
sea had tossed her up, upon the land, about two miles on my right hand.
I walked as far as I could upon the shore to have got to her; but found a
neck or inlet of water between me and the boat which was about half a
mile broad; so I came back for the present, being more intent upon
getting at the ship, where I hoped to find something for my present
subsistence.
A little after noon I found the sea very calm, and the tide ebbed so far
out that I could come within a quarter of a mile of the ship. And here I
found a fresh renewing of my grief; for I saw evidently that if we had
kept on board we had been all safe--that is to say, we had all got safe
on shore, and I had not been so miserable as to be left entirety
destitute of all comfort and company as I now was. This forced tears to
my eyes again; but as there was little relief in that, I resolved, if
possible, to get to the ship; so I pulled off my clothes--for the weather
was hot to extremity--and took the water. But when I came to the ship my
difficulty was still greater to know how to get on board; for, as she lay
aground, and high out of the water, there was nothing within my reach to
lay hold of. I swam round her twice, and the second time I spied a small
piece of rope, which I wondered I did not see at first, hung down by the
fore-chains so low, as that with great difficulty I got hold of it, and
by the help of that rope I got up into the forecastle of the ship. Here
I found that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her
hold, but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or, rather
earth, that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and her head low,
almost to the water. By this means all her quarter was free, and all
that was in that part was dry; for you may be sure my first work was to
search, and to see what was spoiled and what was free. And, first, I
found that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the water,
and being very well disposed to eat, I went to the bread room and filled
my pockets with biscuit, and ate it as I went about other things, for I
had no time to lose. I also found some rum in the great cabin, of which
I took a large dram, and which I had, indeed, need enough of to spirit me
for what was before me. Now I wanted nothing but a boat to furnish
myself with many things which I foresaw would be very necessary to me.
It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had; and this
extremity roused my application. We had several spare yards, and two or
three large spars of wood, and a spare topmast or two in the ship; I
resolved to fall to work with these, and I flung as many of them
overboard as I could manage for their weight, tying every one with a
rope, that they might not drive away. When this was done I went down the
ship's side, and pulling them to me, I tied four of them together at both
ends as well as I could, in the form of a raft, and laying two or three
short pieces of plank upon them crossways, I found I could walk upon it
very well, but that it was not able to bear any great weight, the pieces
being too light. So I went to work, and with a carpenter's saw I cut a
spare topmast into three lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great
deal of labour and pains. But the hope of furnishing myself with
necessaries encouraged me to go beyond what I should have been able to
have done upon another occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight. My next
care was what to load it with, and how to preserve what I laid upon it
from the surf of the sea; but I was not long considering this. I first
laid all the planks or boards upon it that I could get, and having
considered well what I most wanted, I got three of the seamen's chests,
which I had broken open, and emptied, and lowered them down upon my raft;
the first of these I filled with provisions--viz. bread, rice, three
Dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goat's flesh (which we lived much
upon), and a little remainder of European corn, which had been laid by
for some fowls which we brought to sea with us, but the fowls were
killed. There had been some barley and wheat together; but, to my great
disappointment, I found afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled it
all. As for liquors, I found several, cases of bottles belonging to our
skipper, in which were some cordial waters; and, in all, about five or
six gallons of rack. These I stowed by themselves, there being no need
to put them into the chest, nor any room for them. While I was doing
this, I found the tide begin to flow, though very calm; and I had the
mortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I had left on
the shore, upon the sand, swim away. As for my breeches, which were only
linen, and open-kneed, I swam on board in them and my stockings.
However, this set me on rummaging for clothes, of which I found enough,
but took no more than I wanted for present use, for I had others things
which my eye was more upon--as, first, tools to work with on shore. And
it was after long searching that I found out the carpenter's chest, which
was, indeed, a very useful prize to me, and much more valuable than a
shipload of gold would have been at that time. I got it down to my raft,
whole as it was, without losing time to look into it, for I knew in
general what it contained.
My next care was for some ammunition and arms. There were two very good
fowling-pieces in the great cabin, and two pistols. These I secured
first, with some powder-horns and a small bag of shot, and two old rusty
swords. I knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but knew
not where our gunner had stowed them; but with much search I found them,
two of them dry and good, the third had taken water. Those two I got to
my raft with the arms. And now I thought myself pretty well freighted,
and began to think how I should get to shore with them, having neither
sail, oar, nor rudder; and the least capful of wind would have overset
all my navigation.
I had three encouragements--1st, a smooth, calm sea; 2ndly, the tide
rising, and setting in to the shore; 3rdly, what little wind there was
blew me towards the land. And thus, having found two or three broken
oars belonging to the boat--and, besides the tools which were in the
chest, I found two saws, an axe, and a hammer; with this cargo I put to
sea. For a mile or thereabouts my raft went very well, only that I found
it drive a little distant from the place where I had landed before; by
which I perceived that there was some indraft of the water, and
consequently I hoped to find some creek or river there, which I might
make use of as a port to get to land with my cargo.
As I imagined, so it was. There appeared before me a little opening of
the land, and I found a strong current of the tide set into it; so I
guided my raft as well as I could, to keep in the middle of the stream.
But here I had like to have suffered a second shipwreck, which, if I had,
I think verily would have broken my heart; for, knowing nothing of the
coast, my raft ran aground at one end of it upon a shoal, and not being
aground at the other end, it wanted but a little that all my cargo had
slipped off towards the end that was afloat, and to fallen into the
water. I did my utmost, by setting my back against the chests, to keep
them in their places, but could not thrust off the raft with all my
strength; neither durst I stir from the posture I was in; but holding up
the chests with all my might, I stood in that manner near half-an-hour,
in which time the rising of the water brought me a little more upon a
level; and a little after, the water still-rising, my raft floated again,
and I thrust her off with the oar I had into the channel, and then
driving up higher, I at length found myself in the mouth of a little
river, with land on both sides, and a strong current of tide running up.
I looked on both sides for a proper place to get to shore, for I was not
willing to be driven too high up the river: hoping in time to see some
ships at sea, and therefore resolved to place myself as near the coast as
I could.
At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek, to which
with great pain and difficulty I guided my raft, and at last got so near
that, reaching ground with my oar, I could thrust her directly in. But
here I had like to have dipped all my cargo into the sea again; for that
shore lying pretty steep--that is to say sloping--there was no place to
land, but where one end of my float, if it ran on shore, would lie so
high, and the other sink lower, as before, that it would endanger my
cargo again. All that I could do was to wait till the tide was at the
highest, keeping the raft with my oar like an anchor, to hold the side of
it fast to the shore, near a flat piece of ground, which I expected the
water would flow over; and so it did. As soon as I found water
enough--for my raft drew about a foot of water--I thrust her upon that
flat piece of ground, and there fastened or moored her, by sticking my
two broken oars into the ground, one on one side near one end, and one on
the other side near the other end; and thus I lay till the water ebbed
away, and left my raft and all my cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to view the country, and seek a proper place for my
habitation, and where to stow my goods to secure them from whatever might
happen. Where I was, I yet knew not; whether on the continent or on an
island; whether inhabited or not inhabited; whether in danger of wild
beasts or not. There was a hill not above a mile from me, which rose up
very steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some other hills, which
lay as in 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
with the sea: no land to be seen except some rocks, which lay a great way
off; and two small islands, less than this, which lay about three leagues
to the west.
I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as I saw good
reason to believe, uninhabited except by wild beasts, of whom, however, I
saw none. Yet I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their kinds;
neither when I killed them could I tell what was fit for food, and what
not. At my coming back, I shot at a great bird which I saw sitting upon
a tree on the side of a great wood. I believe it was the first gun that
had been fired there since the creation of the world. I had no sooner
fired, than from all parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number
of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused screaming and crying, and
every one according to his usual note, but not one of them of any kind
that I knew. As for the creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of
hawk, its colour and beak resembling it, but it had no talons or claws
more than common. Its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing.
Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, and fell to work
to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up the rest of that day. What
to do with myself at night I knew not, nor indeed where to rest, for I
was afraid to lie down on the ground, not knowing but some wild beast
might devour me, though, as I afterwards found, there was really no need
for those fears.
However, as well as I could, I barricaded myself round with the chest and
boards that I had brought on shore, and made a kind of hut for that
night's lodging. As for food, I yet saw not which way to supply myself,
except that I had seen two or three creatures like hares run out of the
wood where I shot the fowl.
I now began to consider that I might yet get a great many things out of
the ship which would be useful to me, and particularly some of the
rigging and sails, and such other things as might come to land; and I
resolved to make another voyage on board the vessel, if possible. And as
I knew that the first storm that blew must necessarily break her all in
pieces, I resolved to set all other things apart till I had got
everything out of the ship that I could get. Then I called a
council--that is to say in my thoughts--whether I should take back the
raft; but this appeared impracticable: so I resolved to go as before,
when the tide was down; and I did so, only that I stripped before I went
from my hut, having nothing on but my chequered shirt, a pair of linen
drawers, and a pair of pumps on my feet.
I got on board the ship as before, and prepared a second raft; and,
having had experience of the first, I neither made this so unwieldy, nor
loaded it so hard, but yet I brought away several things very useful to
me; as first, in the carpenters stores I found two or three bags full of
nails and spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two of hatchets, and,
above all, that most useful thing called a grindstone. All these I
secured, together with several things belonging to the gunner,
particularly two or three iron crows, and two barrels of musket bullets,
seven muskets, another fowling-piece, with some small quantity of powder
more; a large bagful of small shot, and a great roll of sheet-lead; but
this last was so heavy, I could not hoist it up to get it over the ship's
side.
Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes that I could find, and
a spare fore-topsail, a hammock, and some bedding; and with this I loaded
my second raft, and brought them all safe on shore, to my very great
comfort.
I was under some apprehension, during my absence from the land, that at
least my provisions might be devoured on shore: but when I came back I
found no sign of any visitor; only there sat a creature like a wild cat
upon one of the chests, which, when I came towards it, ran away a little
distance, and then stood still. She sat very composed and unconcerned,
and looked full in my face, as if she had a mind to be acquainted with
me. I presented my gun at her, but, as she did not understand it, she
was perfectly unconcerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away; upon
which I tossed her a bit of biscuit, though by the way, I was not very
free of it, for my store was not great: however, I spared her a bit, I
say, and she went to it, smelled at it, and ate it, and looked (as if
pleased) for more; but I thanked her, and could spare no more: so she
marched off.
Having got my second cargo on shore--though I was fain to open the
barrels of powder, and bring them by parcels, for they were too heavy,
being large casks--I went to work to make me a little tent with the sail
and some poles which I cut for that purpose: and into this tent I brought
everything that I knew would spoil either with rain or sun; and I piled
all the empty chests and casks up in a circle round the tent, to fortify
it from any sudden attempt, either from man or beast.
When I had done this, I blocked up the door of the tent with some boards
within, and an empty chest set up on end without; and spreading one of
the beds upon the ground, laying my two pistols just at my head, and my
gun at length by me, I went to bed for the first time, and slept very
quietly all night, for I was very weary and heavy; for the night before I
had slept little, and had laboured very hard all day to fetch all those
things from the ship, and to get them on shore.
I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever was laid up, I
believe, for one man: but I was not satisfied still, for while the ship
sat upright in that posture, I thought I ought to get everything out of
her that I could; so every day at low water I went on board, and brought
away something or other; but particularly the third time I went I brought
away as much of the rigging as I could, as also all the small ropes and
rope-twine I could get, with a piece of spare canvas, which was to mend
the sails upon occasion, and the barrel of wet gunpowder. In a word, I
brought away all the sails, first and last; only that I was fain to cut
them in pieces, and bring as much at a time as I could, for they were no
more useful to be sails, but as mere canvas only.
But that which comforted me more still, was, that last of all, after I
had made five or six such voyages as these, and thought I had nothing
more to expect from the ship that was worth my meddling with--I say,
after all this, I found a great hogshead of bread, three large runlets of
rum, or spirits, a box of sugar, and a barrel of fine flour; this was
surprising to me, because I had given over expecting any more provisions,
except what was spoiled by the water. I soon emptied the hogshead of the
bread, and wrapped it up, parcel by parcel, in pieces of the sails, which
I cut out; and, in a word, I got all this safe on shore also.
The next day I made another voyage, and now, having plundered the ship of
what was portable and fit to hand out, I began with the cables. Cutting
the great cable into pieces, such as I could move, I got two cables and a
hawser on shore, with all the ironwork I could get; and having cut down
the spritsail-yard, and the mizzen-yard, and everything I could, to make
a large raft, I loaded it with all these heavy goods, and came away. But
my good luck began now to leave me; for this raft was so unwieldy, and so
overladen, that, after I had entered the little cove where I had landed
the rest of my goods, not being able to guide it so handily as I did the
other, it overset, and threw me and all my cargo into the water. As for
myself, it was no great harm, for I was near the shore; but as to my
cargo, it was a great part of it lost, especially the iron, which I
expected would have been of great use to me; however, when the tide was
out, I got most of the pieces of the cable ashore, and some of the iron,
though with infinite labour; for I was fain to dip for it into the water,
a work which fatigued me very much. After this, I went every day on
board, and brought away what I could get.
I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been eleven times on board
the ship, in which time I had brought away all that one pair of hands
could well be supposed capable to bring; though I believe verily, had the
calm weather held, I should have brought away the whole ship, piece by
piece. But preparing the twelfth time to go on board, I found the wind
began to rise: however, at low water I went on board, and though I
thought I had rummaged the cabin so effectually that nothing more could
be found, yet I discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one of which I
found two or three razors, and one pair of large scissors, with some ten
or a dozen of good knives and forks: in another I found about thirty-six
pounds value in money--some European coin, some Brazil, some pieces of
eight, some gold, and some silver.
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money: "O drug!" said I, aloud,
"what art thou good for? Thou art not worth to me--no, not the taking
off the ground; one of those knives is worth all this heap; I have no
manner of use for thee--e'en remain where thou art, and go to the bottom
as a creature whose life is not worth saying." However, upon second
thoughts I took it away; and wrapping all this in a piece of canvas, I
began to think of making another raft; but while I was preparing this, I
found the sky overcast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter of
an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. It presently occurred to me
that it was in vain to pretend to make a raft with the wind offshore; and
that it was my business to be gone before the tide of flood began,
otherwise I might not be able to reach the shore at all. Accordingly, I
let myself down into the water, and swam across the channel, which lay
between the ship and the sands, and even that with difficulty enough,
partly with the weight of the things I had about me, and partly the
roughness of the water; for the wind rose very hastily, and before it was
quite high water it blew a storm.
But I had got home to my little tent, where I lay, with all my wealth
about me, very secure. It blew very hard all night, and in the morning,
when I looked out, behold, no more ship was to be seen! I was a little
surprised, but recovered myself with the satisfactory reflection that I
had lost no time, nor abated any diligence, to get everything out of her
that could be useful to me; and that, indeed, there was little left in
her that I was able to bring away, if I had had more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of anything out of her,
except what might drive on shore from her wreck; as, indeed, divers
pieces of her afterwards did; but those things were of small use to me.
My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself against either
savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any were in the island;
and I had many thoughts of the method how to do this, and what kind of
dwelling to make--whether I should make me a cave in the earth, or a tent
upon the earth; and, in short, I resolved upon both; the manner and
description of which, it may not be improper to give an account of.
I soon found the place I was in was not fit for my settlement, because it
was upon a low, moorish ground, near the sea, and I believed it would not
be wholesome, and more particularly because there was no fresh water near
it; so I resolved to find a more healthy and more convenient spot of
ground.
I consulted several things in my situation, which I found would he proper
for me: 1st, health and fresh water, I just now mentioned; 2ndly, shelter
from the heat of the sun; 3rdly, security from ravenous creatures,
whether man or beast; 4thly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship
in sight, I might not lose any advantage for my deliverance, of which I
was not willing to banish all my expectation yet.
In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain on the side
of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was steep as a
house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me from the top. On the
one side of the rock there was a hollow place, worn a little way in, like
the entrance or door of a cave but there was not really any cave or way
into the rock at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I resolved to
pitch my tent. This plain was not above a hundred yards broad, and about
twice as long, and lay like a green before my door; and, at the end of
it, descended irregularly every way down into the low ground by the
seaside. It was on the N.N.W. side of the hill; so that it was sheltered
from the heat every day, till it came to a W. and by S. sun, or
thereabouts, which, in those countries, is near the setting.
Before I set up my tent I drew a half-circle before the hollow place,
which took in about ten yards in its semi-diameter from the rock, and
twenty yards in its diameter from its beginning and ending.
In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving them
into the ground till they stood very firm like piles, the biggest end
being out of the ground above five feet and a half, and sharpened on the
top. The two rows did not stand above six inches from one another.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship, and laid
them in rows, one upon another, within the circle, between these two rows
of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes in the inside, leaning
against them, about two feet and a half high, like a spur to a post; and
this fence was so strong, that neither man nor beast could get into it or
over it. This cost me a great deal of time and labour, especially to cut
the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and drive them into the
earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be, not by a door, but by a short
ladder to go over the top; which ladder, when I was in, I lifted over
after me; and so I was completely fenced in and fortified, as I thought,
from all the world, and consequently slept secure in the night, which
otherwise I could not have done; though, as it appeared afterwards, there
was no need of all this caution from the enemies that I apprehended
danger from.
Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried all my
riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which you have the
account above; and I made a large tent, which to preserve me from the
rains that in one part of the year are very violent there, I made
double--one smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it; and
covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which I had saved among the
sails.
And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had brought on
shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very good one, and belonged
to the mate of the ship.
Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and everything that would
spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all my goods, I made up the
entrance, which till now I had left open, and so passed and repassed, as
I said, by a short ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way into the rock, and bringing
all the earth and stones that I dug down out through my tent, I laid them
up within my fence, in the nature of a terrace, so that it raised the
ground within about a foot and a half; and thus I made me a cave, just
behind my tent, which served me like a cellar to my house.
It cost me much labour and many days before all these things were brought
to perfection; and therefore I must go back to some other things which
took up some of my thoughts. At the same time it happened, after I had
laid my scheme for the setting up my tent, and making the cave, that a
storm of rain falling from a thick, dark cloud, a sudden flash of
lightning happened, and after that a great clap of thunder, as is
naturally the effect of it. I was not so much surprised with the
lightning as I was with the thought which darted into my mind as swift as
the lightning itself--Oh, my powder! My very heart sank within me when I
thought that, at one blast, all my powder might be destroyed; on which,
not my defence only, but the providing my food, as I thought, entirely
depended. I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger, though, had
the powder took fire, I should never have known who had hurt me.
Such impression did this make upon me, that after the storm was over I
laid aside all my works, my building and fortifying, and applied myself
to make bags and boxes, to separate the powder, and to keep it a little
and a little in a parcel, in the hope that, whatever might come, it might
not all take fire at once; and to keep it so apart that it should not be
possible to make one part fire another. I finished this work in about a
fortnight; and I think my powder, which in all was about two hundred and
forty pounds weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels. As
to the barrel that had been wet, I did not apprehend any danger from
that; so I placed it in my new cave, which, in my fancy, I called my
kitchen; and the rest I hid up and down in holes among the rocks, so that
no wet might come to it, marking very carefully where I laid it.
In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out once at least
every day with my gun, as well to divert myself as to see if I could kill
anything fit for food; and, as near as I could, to acquaint myself with
what the island produced. The first time I went out, I presently
discovered that there were goats in the island, which was a great
satisfaction to me; but then it was attended with this misfortune to
me--viz. that they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot, that it
was the most difficult thing in the world to come at them; but I was not
discouraged at this, not doubting but I might now and then shoot one, as
it soon happened; for after I had found their haunts a little, I laid
wait in this manner for them: I observed if they saw me in the valleys,
though they were upon the rocks, they would run away, as in a terrible
fright; but if they were feeding in the valleys, and I was upon the
rocks, they took no notice of me; from whence I concluded that, by the
position of their optics, their sight was so directed downward that they
did not readily see objects that were above them; so afterwards I took
this method--I always climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and
then had frequently a fair mark.
The first shot I made among these creatures, I killed a she-goat, which
had a little kid by her, which she gave suck to, which grieved me
heartily; for when the old one fell, the kid stood stock still by her,
till I came and took her up; and not only so, but when I carried the old
one with me, upon my shoulders, the kid followed me quite to my
enclosure; upon which I laid down the dam, and took the kid in my arms,
and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have bred it up tame; but it
would not eat; so I was forced to kill it and eat it myself. These two
supplied me with flesh a great while, for I ate sparingly, and saved my
provisions, my bread especially, as much as possibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely necessary to
provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn: and what I did for
that, and also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I made, I
shall give a full account of in its place; but I must now give some
little account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which, it may
well be supposed, were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I was not cast away upon
that island without being driven, as is said, by a violent storm, quite
out of the course of our intended voyage, and a great way, viz. some
hundreds of leagues, out of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind,
I had great reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven, that in
this desolate place, and in this desolate manner, I should end my life.
The tears would run plentifully down my face when I made these
reflections; and sometimes I would expostulate with myself why Providence
should thus completely ruin His creatures, and render them so absolutely
miserable; so without help, abandoned, so entirely depressed, that it
could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts, and
to reprove me; and particularly one day, walking with my gun in my hand
by the seaside, I was very pensive upon the subject of my present
condition, when reason, as it were, expostulated with me the other way,
thus: "Well, you are in a desolate condition, it is true; but, pray
remember, where are the rest of you? Did not you come, eleven of you in
the boat? Where are the ten? Why were they not saved, and you lost?
Why were you singled out? Is it better to be here or there?" And then I
pointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered with the good that is
in them, and with what worse attends them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for my
subsistence, and what would have been my case if it had not happened
(which was a hundred thousand to one) that the ship floated from the
place where she first struck, and was driven so near to the shore that I
had time to get all these things out of her; what would have been my
case, if I had been forced to have lived in the condition in which I at
first came on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries to
supply and procure them? "Particularly," said I, aloud (though to
myself), "what should I have done without a gun, without ammunition,
without any tools to make anything, or to work with, without clothes,
bedding, a tent, or any manner of covering?" and that now I had all these
to sufficient quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in such a
manner as to live without my gun, when my ammunition was spent: so that I
had a tolerable view of subsisting, without any want, as long as I lived;
for I considered from the beginning how I would provide for the accidents
that might happen, and for the time that was to come, even not only after
my ammunition should be spent, but even after my health and strength
should decay.
I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition being
destroyed at one blast--I mean my powder being blown up by lightning; and
this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me, when it lightened and
thundered, as I observed just now.
And now being about to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of
silent life, such, perhaps, as was never heard of in the world before, I
shall take it from its beginning, and continue it in its order. It was
by my account the 30th of September, when, in the manner as above said, I
first set foot upon this horrid island; when the sun, being to us in its
autumnal equinox, was almost over my head; for I reckoned myself, by
observation, to be in the latitude of nine degrees twenty-two minutes
north of the line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into my thoughts
that I should lose my reckoning of time for want of books, and pen and
ink, and should even forget the Sabbath days; but to prevent this, I cut
with my knife upon a large post, in capital letters--and making it into a
great cross, I set it up on the shore where I first landed--"I came on
shore here on the 30th September 1659."
Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a notch with my knife,
and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest, and every first
day of the month as long again as that long one; and thus I kept my
calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoning of time.
In the next place, we are to observe that among the many things which I
brought out of the ship, in the several voyages which, as above
mentioned, I made to it, I got several things of less value, but not at
all less useful to me, which I omitted setting down before; as, in
particular, pens, ink, and paper, several parcels in the captain's,
mate's, gunner's and carpenter's keeping; three or four compasses, some
mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and books of
navigation, all which I huddled together, whether I might want them or
no; also, I found three very good Bibles, which came to me in my cargo
from England, and which I had packed up among my things; some Portuguese
books also; and among them two or three Popish prayer-books, and several
other books, all which I carefully secured. And I must not forget that
we had in the ship a dog and two cats, of whose eminent history I may
have occasion to say something in its place; for I carried both the cats
with me; and as for the dog, he jumped out of the ship of himself, and
swam on shore to me the day after I went on shore with my first cargo,
and was a trusty servant to me many years; I wanted nothing that he could
fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to me; I only wanted to
have him talk to me, but that would not do. As I observed before, I
found pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost; and I
shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact, but after
that was gone I could not, for I could not make any ink by any means that
I could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things notwithstanding all
that I had amassed together; and of these, ink was one; as also a spade,
pickaxe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles, pins, and
thread; as for linen, I soon learned to want that without much
difficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily; and it was near a
whole year before I had entirely finished my little pale, or surrounded
my habitation. The piles, or stakes, which were as heavy as I could well
lift, were a long time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and more,
by far, in bringing home; so that I spent sometimes two days in cutting
and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day in driving it into
the ground; for which purpose I got a heavy piece of wood at first, but
at last bethought myself of one of the iron crows; which, however, though
I found it, made driving those posts or piles very laborious and tedious
work. But what need I have been concerned at the tediousness of anything
I had to do, seeing I had time enough to do it in? nor had I any other
employment, if that had been over, at least that I could foresee, except
the ranging the island to seek for food, which I did, more or less, every
day.
I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstances I
was reduced to; and I drew up the state of my affairs in writing, not so
much to leave them to any that were to come after me--for I was likely to
have but few heirs--as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring over
them, and afflicting my mind; and as my reason began now to master my
despondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could, and to set the
good against the evil, that I might have something to distinguish my case
from worse; and I stated very impartially, like debtor and creditor, the
comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I suffered, thus:--
_Evil_. _Good_.
I am cast upon a horrible, But I am alive; and not drowned,
desolate island, void of all hope as all my ship's company were.
of recovery.
I am singled out and separated, But I am singled out, too, from
as it were, from all the world, all the ship's crew, to be spared
to be miserable. from death; and He that
miraculously saved me from death
can deliver me from this
condition.
I am divided from mankind--a But I am not starved, and
solitaire; one banished from perishing on a barren place,
human society. affording no sustenance.
I have no clothes to cover me. But I am in a hot climate, where,
if I had clothes, I could hardly
wear them.
I am without any defence, or But I am cast on an island where
means to resist any violence of I see no wild beasts to hurt me,
man or beast. as I saw on the coast of Africa;
and what if I had been
shipwrecked there?
I have no soul to speak to or But God wonderfully sent the ship
relieve me. in near enough to the shore, that
I have got out as many necessary
things as will either supply my
wants or enable me to supply
myself, even as long as I live.
Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony that there was scarce any
condition in the world so miserable but there was something negative or
something positive to be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a
direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in
this world: that we may always find in it something to comfort ourselves
from, and to set, in the description of good and evil, on the credit side
of the account.
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition, and given
over looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a ship--I say, giving over
these things, I began to apply myself to arrange my way of living, and to
make things as easy to me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the side
of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables: but I might
now rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall up against it of
turfs, about two feet thick on the outside; and after some time (I think
it was a year and a half) I raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock,
and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such things as I
could get, to keep out the rain; which I found at some times of the year
very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale, and
into the cave which I had made behind me. But I must observe, too, that
at first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they lay in no
order, so they took up all my place; I had no room to turn myself: so I
set myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth; for it
was a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I bestowed on
it: and so when I found I was pretty safe as to beasts of prey, I worked
sideways, to the right hand, into the rock; and then, turning to the
right again, worked quite out, and made me a door to come out on the
outside of my pale or fortification. This gave me not only egress and
regress, as it was a back way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave
me room to store my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as I found
I most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these I was
not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world; I could not write
or eat, or do several things, with so much pleasure without a table: so I
went to work. And here I must needs observe, that as reason is the
substance and origin of the mathematics, so by stating and squaring
everything by reason, and by making the most rational judgment of things,
every man may be, in time, master of every mechanic art. I had never
handled a tool in my life; and yet, in time, by labour, application, and
contrivance, I found at last that I wanted nothing but I could have made
it, especially if I had had tools. However, I made abundance of things,
even without tools; and some with no more tools than an adze and a
hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before, and that with
infinite labour. For example, if I wanted a board, I had no other way
but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on
either side with my axe, till I brought it to be thin as a plank, and
then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, by this method I could make
but one board out of a whole tree; but this I had no remedy for but
patience, any more than I had for the prodigious deal of time and labour
which it took me up to make a plank or board: but my time or labour was
little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as another.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above, in the first
place; and this I did out of the short pieces of boards that I brought on
my raft from the ship. But when I had wrought out some boards as above,
I made large shelves, of the breadth of a foot and a half, one over
another all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails and
ironwork on; and, in a word, to separate everything at large into their
places, that I might come easily at them. I knocked pieces into the wall
of the rock to hang my guns and all things that would hang up; so that,
had my cave been to be seen, it looked like a general magazine of all
necessary things; and had everything so ready at my hand, that it was a
great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, and especially to
find my stock of all necessaries so great.
And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every day's employment;
for, indeed, at first I was in too much hurry, and not only hurry as to
labour, but in too much discomposure of mind; and my journal would have
been full of many dull things; for example, I must have said thus:
"30_th_.--After I had got to shore, and escaped drowning, instead of
being thankful to God for my deliverance, having first vomited, with the
great quantity of salt water which had got into my stomach, and
recovering myself a little, I ran about the shore wringing my hands and
beating my head and face, exclaiming at my misery, and crying out, 'I was
undone, undone!' till, tired and faint, I was forced to lie down on the
ground to repose, but durst not sleep for fear of being devoured."
Some days after this, and after I had been on board the ship, and got all
that I could out of her, yet I could not forbear getting up to the top of
a little mountain and looking out to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship; then
fancy at a vast distance I spied a sail, please myself with the hopes of
it, and then after looking steadily, till I was almost blind, lose it
quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase my misery by
my folly.
But having gotten over these things in some measure, and having settled
my household staff and habitation, made me a table and a chair, and all
as handsome about me as I could, I began to keep my journal; of which I
shall here give you the copy (though in it will be told all these
particulars over again) as long as it lasted; for having no more ink, I
was forced to leave it off.
CHAPTER V--BUILDS A HOUSE--THE JOURNAL
September 30, 1659.--I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwrecked
during a dreadful storm in the offing, came on shore on this dismal,
unfortunate island, which I called "The Island of Despair"; all the rest
of the ship's company being drowned, and myself almost dead.
All the rest of the day I spent in afflicting myself at the dismal
circumstances I was brought to--viz. I had neither food, house, clothes,
weapon, nor place to fly to; and in despair of any relief, saw nothing
but death before me--either that I should be devoured by wild beasts,
murdered by savages, or starved to death for want of food. At the
approach of night I slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures; but
slept soundly, though it rained all night.
_October_ 1.--In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, the ship had
floated with the high tide, and was driven on shore again much nearer the
island; which, as it was some comfort, on one hand--for, seeing her set
upright, and not broken to pieces, I hoped, if the wind abated, I might
get on board, and get some food and necessaries out of her for my
relief--so, on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of my
comrades, who, I imagined, if we had all stayed on board, might have
saved the ship, or, at least, that they would not have been all drowned
as they were; and that, had the men been saved, we might perhaps have
built us a boat out of the ruins of the ship to have carried us to some
other part of the world. I spent great part of this day in perplexing
myself on these things; but at length, seeing the ship almost dry, I went
upon the sand as near as I could, and then swam on board. This day also
it continued raining, though with no wind at all.
_From the 1st of October to the 24th_.--All these days entirely spent in
many several voyages to get all I could out of the ship, which I brought
on shore every tide of flood upon rafts. Much rain also in the days,
though with some intervals of fair weather; but it seems this was the
rainy season.
_Oct._ 20.--I overset my raft, and all the goods I had got upon it; but,
being in shoal water, and the things being chiefly heavy, I recovered
many of them when the tide was out.
_Oct._ 25.--It rained all night and all day, with some gusts of wind;
during which time the ship broke in pieces, the wind blowing a little
harder than before, and was no more to be seen, except the wreck of her,
and that only at low water. I spent this day in covering and securing
the goods which I had saved, that the rain might not spoil them.
_Oct._ 26.--I walked about the shore almost all day, to find out a place
to fix my habitation, greatly concerned to secure myself from any attack
in the night, either from wild beasts or men. Towards night, I fixed
upon a proper place, under a rock, and marked out a semicircle for my
encampment; which I resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, or
fortification, made of double piles, lined within with cables, and
without with turf.
From the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in carrying all my goods to
my new habitation, though some part of the time it rained exceedingly
hard.
The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island with my gun, to seek
for some food, and discover the country; when I killed a she-goat, and
her kid followed me home, which I afterwards killed also, because it
would not feed.
_November_ 1.--I set up my tent under a rock, and lay there for the first
night; making it as large as I could, with stakes driven in to swing my
hammock upon.
_Nov._ 2.--I set up all my chests and boards, and the pieces of timber
which made my rafts, and with them formed a fence round me, a little
within the place I had marked out for my fortification.
_Nov._ 3.--I went out with my gun, and killed two fowls like ducks, which
were very good food. In the afternoon went to work to make me a table.
_Nov_. 4.--This morning I began to order my times of work, of going out
with my gun, time of sleep, and time of diversion--viz. every morning I
walked out with my gun for two or three hours, if it did not rain; then
employed myself to work till about eleven o'clock; then eat what I had to
live on; and from twelve to two I lay down to sleep, the weather being
excessively hot; and then, in the evening, to work again. The working
part of this day and of the next were wholly employed in making my table,
for I was yet but a very sorry workman, though time and necessity made me
a complete natural mechanic soon after, as I believe they would do any
one else.
_Nov._ 5.--This day went abroad with my gun and my dog, and killed a wild
cat; her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good for nothing; every creature
that I killed I took of the skins and preserved them. Coming back by the
sea-shore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowls, which I did not understand; but
was surprised, and almost frightened, with two or three seals, which,
while I was gazing at, not well knowing what they were, got into the sea,
and escaped me for that time.
_Nov._ 6.--After my morning walk I went to work with my table again, and
finished it, though not to my liking; nor was it long before I learned to
mend it.
_Nov._ 7.--Now it began to be settled fair weather. The 7th, 8th, 9th,
10th, and part of the 12th (for the 11th was Sunday) I took wholly up to
make me a chair, and with much ado brought it to a tolerable shape, but
never to please me; and even in the making I pulled it in pieces several
times.
_Note_.--I soon neglected my keeping Sundays; for, omitting my mark for
them on my post, I forgot which was which.
_Nov._ 13.--This day it rained, which refreshed me exceedingly, and
cooled the earth; but it was accompanied with terrible thunder and
lightning, which frightened me dreadfully, for fear of my powder. As
soon as it was over, I resolved to separate my stock of powder into as
many little parcels as possible, that it might not be in danger.
_Nov._ 14, 15, 16.--These three days I spent in making little square
chests, or boxes, which might hold about a pound, or two pounds at most,
of powder; and so, putting the powder in, I stowed it in places as secure
and remote from one another as possible. On one of these three days I
killed a large bird that was good to eat, but I knew not what to call it.
_Nov._ 17.--This day I began to dig behind my tent into the rock, to make
room for my further conveniency.
_Note_.--Three things I wanted exceedingly for this work--viz. a pickaxe,
a shovel, and a wheelbarrow or basket; so I desisted from my work, and
began to consider how to supply that want, and make me some tools. As
for the pickaxe, I made use of the iron crows, which were proper enough,
though heavy; but the next thing was a shovel or spade; this was so
absolutely necessary, that, indeed, I could do nothing effectually
without it; but what kind of one to make I knew not.
_Nov._ 18.--The next day, in searching the woods, I found a tree of that
wood, or like it, which in the Brazils they call the iron-tree, for its
exceeding hardness. Of this, with great labour, and almost spoiling my
axe, I cut a piece, and brought it home, too, with difficulty enough, for
it was exceeding heavy. The excessive hardness of the wood, and my
having no other way, made me a long while upon this machine, for I worked
it effectually by little and little into the form of a shovel or spade;
the handle exactly shaped like ours in England, only that the board part
having no iron shod upon it at bottom, it would not last me so long;
however, it served well enough for the uses which I had occasion to put
it to; but never was a shovel, I believe, made after that fashion, or so
long in making.
I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket or a wheelbarrow. A basket
I could not make by any means, having no such things as twigs that would
bend to make wicker-ware--at least, none yet found out; and as to a
wheelbarrow, I fancied I could make all but the wheel; but that I had no
notion of; neither did I know how to go about it; besides, I had no
possible way to make the iron gudgeons for the spindle or axis of the
wheel to run in; so I gave it over, and so, for carrying away the earth
which I dug out of the cave, I made me a thing like a hod which the
labourers carry mortar in when they serve the bricklayers. This was not
so difficult to me as the making the shovel: and yet this and the shovel,
and the attempt which I made in vain to make a wheelbarrow, took me up no
less than four days--I mean always excepting my morning walk with my gun,
which I seldom failed, and very seldom failed also bringing home
something fit to eat.
_Nov._ 23.--My other work having now stood still, because of my making
these tools, when they were finished I went on, and working every day, as
my strength and time allowed, I spent eighteen days entirely in widening
and deepening my cave, that it might hold my goods commodiously.
_Note_.--During all this time I worked to make this room or cave spacious
enough to accommodate me as a warehouse or magazine, a kitchen, a
dining-room, and a cellar. As for my lodging, I kept to the tent; except
that sometimes, in the wet season of the year, it rained so hard that I
could not keep myself dry, which caused me afterwards to cover all my
place within my pale with long poles, in the form of rafters, leaning
against the rock, and load them with flags and large leaves of trees,
like a thatch.
_December_ 10.--I began now to think my cave or vault finished, when on a
sudden (it seems I had made it too large) a great quantity of earth fell
down from the top on one side; so much that, in short, it frighted me,
and not without reason, too, for if I had been under it, I had never
wanted a gravedigger. I had now a great deal of work to do over again,
for I had the loose earth to carry out; and, which was of more
importance, I had the ceiling to prop up, so that I might be sure no more
would come down.
_Dec_. 11.--This day I went to work with it accordingly, and got two
shores or posts pitched upright to the top, with two pieces of boards
across over each post; this I finished the next day; and setting more
posts up with boards, in about a week more I had the roof secured, and
the posts, standing in rows, served me for partitions to part off the
house.
_Dec._ 17.--From this day to the 20th I placed shelves, and knocked up
nails on the posts, to hang everything up that could be hung up; and now
I began to be in some order within doors.
_Dec._ 20.--Now I carried everything into the cave, and began to furnish
my house, and set up some pieces of boards like a dresser, to order my
victuals upon; but boards began to be very scarce with me; also, I made
me another table.
_Dec._ 24.--Much rain all night and all day. No stirring out.
_Dec._ 25.--Rain all day.
_Dec._ 26.--No rain, and the earth much cooler than before, and
pleasanter.
_Dec._ 27.--Killed a young goat, and lamed another, so that I caught it
and led it home in a string; when I had it at home, I bound and
splintered up its leg, which was broke.
_N.B._--I took such care of it that it lived, and the leg grew well and
as strong as ever; but, by my nursing it so long, it grew tame, and fed
upon the little green at my door, and would not go away. This was the
first time that I entertained a thought of breeding up some tame
creatures, that I might have food when my powder and shot was all spent.
_Dec._ 28,29,30,31.--Great heats, and no breeze, so that there was no
stirring abroad, except in the evening, for food; this time I spent in
putting all my things in order within doors.
_January_ 1.--Very hot still: but I went abroad early and late with my
gun, and lay still in the middle of the day. This evening, going farther
into the valleys which lay towards the centre of the island, I found
there were plenty of goats, though exceedingly shy, and hard to come at;
however, I resolved to try if I could not bring my dog to hunt them down.
_Jan._ 2.--Accordingly, the next day I went out with my dog, and set him
upon the goats, but I was mistaken, for they all faced about upon the
dog, and he knew his danger too well, for he would not come near them.
_Jan._ 3.--I began my fence or wall; which, being still jealous of my
being attacked by somebody, I resolved to make very thick and strong.
_N.B._--This wall being described before, I purposely omit what was said
in the journal; it is sufficient to observe, that I was no less time than
from the 2nd of January to the 14th of April working, finishing, and
perfecting this wall, though it was no more than about twenty-four yards
in length, being a half-circle from one place in the rock to another
place, about eight yards from it, the door of the cave being in the
centre behind it.
All this time I worked very hard, the rains hindering me many days, nay,
sometimes weeks together; but I thought I should never be perfectly
secure till this wall was finished; and it is scarce credible what
inexpressible labour everything was done with, especially the bringing
piles out of the woods and driving them into the ground; for I made them
much bigger than I needed to have done.
When this wall was finished, and the outside double fenced, with a turf
wall raised up close to it, I perceived myself that if any people were to
come on shore there, they would not perceive anything like a habitation;
and it was very well I did so, as may be observed hereafter, upon a very
remarkable occasion.
During this time I made my rounds in the woods for game every day when
the rain permitted me, and made frequent discoveries in these walks of
something or other to my advantage; particularly, I found a kind of wild
pigeons, which build, not as wood-pigeons in a tree, but rather as
house-pigeons, in the holes of the rocks; and taking some young ones, I
endeavoured to breed them up tame, and did so; but when they grew older
they flew away, which perhaps was at first for want of feeding them, for
I had nothing to give them; however, I frequently found their nests, and
got their young ones, which were very good meat. And now, in the
managing my household affairs, I found myself wanting in many things,
which I thought at first it was impossible for me to make; as, indeed,
with some of them it was: for instance, I could never make a cask to be
hooped. I had a small runlet or two, as I observed before; but I could
never arrive at the capacity of making one by them, though I spent many
weeks about it; I could neither put in the heads, or join the staves so
true to one another as to make them hold water; so I gave that also over.
In the next place, I was at a great loss for candles; so that as soon as
ever it was dark, which was generally by seven o'clock, I was obliged to
go to bed. I remembered the lump of beeswax with which I made candles in
my African adventure; but I had none of that now; the only remedy I had
was, that when I had killed a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little
dish made of clay, which I baked in the sun, to which I added a wick of
some oakum, I made me a lamp; and this gave me light, though not a clear,
steady light, like a candle. In the middle of all my labours it happened
that, rummaging my things, I found a little bag which, as I hinted
before, had been filled with corn for the feeding of poultry--not for
this voyage, but before, as I suppose, when the ship came from Lisbon.
The little remainder of corn that had been in the bag was all devoured by
the rats, and I saw nothing in the bag but husks and dust; and being
willing to have the bag for some other use (I think it was to put powder
in, when I divided it for fear of the lightning, or some such use), I
shook the husks of corn out of it on one side of my fortification, under
the rock.
It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned that I threw
this stuff away, taking no notice, and not so much as remembering that I
had thrown anything there, when, about a month after, or thereabouts, I
saw some few stalks of something green shooting out of the ground, which
I fancied might be some plant I had not seen; but I was surprised, and
perfectly astonished, when, after a little longer time, I saw about ten
or twelve ears come out, which were perfect green barley, of the same
kind as our European--nay, as our English barley.
It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my thoughts
on this occasion. I had hitherto acted upon no religious foundation at
all; indeed, I had very few notions of religion in my head, nor had
entertained any sense of anything that had befallen me otherwise than as
chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases God, without so much as
inquiring into the end of Providence in these things, or His order in
governing events for the world. But after I saw barley grow there, in a
climate which I knew was not proper for corn, and especially that I knew
not how it came there, it startled me strangely, and I began to suggest
that God had miraculously caused His grain to grow without any help of
seed sown, and that it was so directed purely for my sustenance on that
wild, miserable place.
This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes, and I
began to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature should happen upon my
account; and this was the more strange to me, because I saw near it
still, all along by the side of the rock, some other straggling stalks,
which proved to be stalks of rice, and which I knew, because I had seen
it grow in Africa when I was ashore there.
I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence for my
support, but not doubting that there was more in the place, I went all
over that part of the island, where I had been before, peering in every
corner, and under every rock, to see for more of it, but I could not find
any. At last it occurred to my thoughts that I shook a bag of chickens'
meat out in that place; and then the wonder began to cease; and I must
confess my religious thankfulness to God's providence began to abate,
too, upon the discovering that all this was nothing but what was common;
though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen a
providence as if it had been miraculous; for it was really the work of
Providence to me, that should order or appoint that ten or twelve grains
of corn should remain unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the
rest, as if it had been dropped from heaven; as also, that I should throw
it out in that particular place, where, it being in the shade of a high
rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it anywhere else
at that time, it had been burnt up and destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in their
season, which was about the end of June; and, laying up every corn, I
resolved to sow them all again, hoping in time to have some quantity
sufficient to supply me with bread. But it was not till the fourth year
that I could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat, and even
then but sparingly, as I shall say afterwards, in its order; for I lost
all that I sowed the first season by not observing the proper time; for I
sowed it just before the dry season, so that it never came up at all, at
least not as it would have done; of which in its place.
Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks of
rice, which I preserved with the same care and for the same use, or to
the same purpose--to make me bread, or rather food; for I found ways to
cook it without baking, though I did that also after some time.
But to return to my Journal.
I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my wall done;
and the 14th of April I closed it up, contriving to go into it, not by a
door but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might be no sign on the
outside of my habitation.
_April_ 16.--I finished the ladder; so I went up the ladder to the top,
and then pulled it up after me, and let it down in the inside. This was
a complete enclosure to me; for within I had room enough, and nothing
could come at me from without, unless it could first mount my wall.
The very next day after this wall was finished I had almost had all my
labour overthrown at once, and myself killed. The case was thus: As I
was busy in the inside, behind my tent, just at the entrance into my
cave, I was terribly frighted with a most dreadful, surprising thing
indeed; for all on a sudden I found the earth come crumbling down from
the roof of my cave, and from the edge of the hill over my head, and two
of the posts I had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner. I
was heartily scared; but thought nothing of what was really the cause,
only thinking that the top of my cave was fallen in, as some of it had
done before: and for fear I should be buried in it I ran forward to my
ladder, and not thinking myself safe there neither, I got over my wall
for fear of the pieces of the hill, which I expected might roll down upon
me. I had no sooner stepped do ground, than I plainly saw it was a
terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood on shook three times at about
eight minutes' distance, with three such shocks as would have overturned
the strongest building that could be supposed to have stood on the earth;
and a great piece of the top of a rock which stood about half a mile from
me next the sea fell down with such a terrible noise as I never heard in
all my life. I perceived also the very sea was put into violent motion
by it; and I believe the shocks were stronger under the water than on the
island.
I was so much amazed with the thing itself, having never felt the like,
nor discoursed with any one that had, that I was like one dead or
stupefied; and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick, like one
that was tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling of the rock awakened
me, as it were, and rousing me from the stupefied condition I was in,
filled me with horror; and I thought of nothing then but the hill falling
upon my tent and all my household goods, and burying all at once; and
this sunk my very soul within me a second time.
After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some time, I began
to take courage; and yet I had not heart enough to go over my wall again,
for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the ground greatly
cast down and disconsolate, not knowing what to do. All this while I had
not the least serious religious thought; nothing but the common "Lord
have mercy upon me!" and when it was over that went away too.
While I sat thus, I found the air overcast and grow cloudy, as if it
would rain. Soon after that the wind arose by little and little, so that
in less than half-an-hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane; the sea was
all on a sudden covered over with foam and froth; the shore was covered
with the breach of the water, the trees were torn up by the roots, and a
terrible storm it was. This held about three hours, and then began to
abate; and in two hours more it was quite calm, and began to rain very
hard. All this while I sat upon the ground very much terrified and
dejected; when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these winds and
rain being the consequences of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was
spent and over, and I might venture into my cave again. With this
thought my spirits began to revive; and the rain also helping to persuade
me, I went in and sat down in my tent. But the rain was so violent that
my tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and I was forced to go into
my cave, though very much afraid and uneasy, for fear it should fall on
my head. This violent rain forced me to a new work--viz. to cut a hole
through my new fortification, like a sink, to let the water go out, which
would else have flooded my cave. After I had been in my cave for some
time, and found still no more shocks of the earthquake follow, I began to
be more composed. And now, to support my spirits, which indeed wanted it
very much, I went to my little store, and took a small sup of rum; which,
however, I did then and always very sparingly, knowing I could have no
more when that was gone. It continued raining all that night and great
part of the next day, so that I could not stir abroad; but my mind being
more composed, I began to think of what I had best do; concluding that if
the island was subject to these earthquakes, there would be no living for
me in a cave, but I must consider of building a little hut in an open
place which I might surround with a wall, as I had done here, and so make
myself secure from wild beasts or men; for I concluded, if I stayed where
I was, I should certainly one time or other be buried alive.
With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the place where it
stood, which was just under the hanging precipice of the hill; and which,
if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent; and I
spent the two next days, being the 19th and 20th of April, in contriving
where and how to remove my habitation. The fear of being swallowed up
alive made me that I never slept in quiet; and yet the apprehension of
lying abroad without any fence was almost equal to it; but still, when I
looked about, and saw how everything was put in order, how pleasantly
concealed I was, and how safe from danger, it made me very loath to
remove. In the meantime, it occurred to me that it would require a vast
deal of time for me to do this, and that I must be contented to venture
where I was, till I had formed a camp for myself, and had secured it so
as to remove to it. So with this resolution I composed myself for a
time, and resolved that I would go to work with all speed to build me a
wall with piles and cables, &c., in a circle, as before, and set my tent
up in it when it was finished; but that I would venture to stay where I
was till it was finished, and fit to remove. This was the 21st.
_April_ 22.--The next morning I begin to consider of means to put this
resolve into execution; but I was at a great loss about my tools. I had
three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets
for traffic with the Indians); but with much chopping and cutting knotty
hard wood, they were all full of notches, and dull; and though I had a
grindstone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too. This cost me as
much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of
politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man. At length I
contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I might
have both my hands at liberty. _Note_.--I had never seen any such thing
in England, or at least, not to take notice how it was done, though since
I have observed, it is very common there; besides that, my grindstone was
very large and heavy. This machine cost me a full week's work to bring
it to perfection.
_April_ 28, 29.--These two whole days I took up in grinding my tools, my
machine for turning my grindstone performing very well.
_April_ 30.--Having perceived my bread had been low a great while, now I
took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit cake a day, which
made my heart very heavy.
_May_ 1.--In the morning, looking towards the sea side, the tide being
low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary, and it looked
like a cask; when I came to it, I found a small barrel, and two or three
pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore by the late
hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought it seemed to
lie higher out of the water than it used to do. I examined the barrel
which was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder;
but it had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone;
however, I rolled it farther on shore for the present, and went on upon
the sands, as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to look for more.
CHAPTER VI--ILL AND CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN
When I came down to the ship I found it strangely removed. The
forecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at least six
feet, and the stern, which was broke in pieces and parted from the rest
by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging her, was tossed
as it were up, and cast on one side; and the sand was thrown so high on
that side next her stern, that whereas there was a great place of water
before, so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile of the wreck
without swimming I could now walk quite up to her when the tide was out.
I was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it must be done by
the earthquake; and as by this violence the ship was more broke open than
formerly, so many things came daily on shore, which the sea had loosened,
and which the winds and water rolled by degrees to the land.
This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing my
habitation, and I busied myself mightily, that day especially, in
searching whether I could make any way into the ship; but I found nothing
was to be expected of that kind, for all the inside of the ship was
choked up with sand. However, as I had learned not to despair of
anything, I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I could of the
ship, concluding that everything I could get from her would be of some
use or other to me.
_May_ 3.--I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through, which I
thought held some of the upper part or quarter-deck together, and when I
had cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I could from the
side which lay highest; but the tide coming in, I was obliged to give
over for that time.
_May_ 4.--I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I durst eat of,
till I was weary of my sport; when, just going to leave off, I caught a
young dolphin. I had made me a long line of some rope-yarn, but I had no
hooks; yet I frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat;
all which I dried in the sun, and ate them dry.
_May_ 5.--Worked on the wreck; cut another beam asunder, and brought
three great fir planks off from the decks, which I tied together, and
made to float on shore when the tide of flood came on.
_May_ 6.--Worked on the wreck; got several iron bolts out of her and
other pieces of ironwork. Worked very hard, and came home very much
tired, and had thoughts of giving it over.
_May_ 7.--Went to the wreck again, not with an intent to work, but found
the weight of the wreck had broke itself down, the beams being cut; that
several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose, and the inside of the
hold lay so open that I could see into it; but it was almost full of
water and sand.
_May_ 8.--Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench up the
deck, which lay now quite clear of the water or sand. I wrenched open
two planks, and brought them on shore also with the tide. I left the
iron crow in the wreck for next day.
_May_ 9.--Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into the body of
the wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened them with the crow, but
could not break them up. I felt also a roll of English lead, and could
stir it, but it was too heavy to remove.
_May_ 10-14.--Went every day to the wreck; and got a great many pieces of
timber, and boards, or plank, and two or three hundredweight of iron.
_May_ 15.--I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not cut a piece off
the roll of lead by placing the edge of one hatchet and driving it with
the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, I could
not make any blow to drive the hatchet.
_May_ 16.--It had blown hard in the night, and the wreck appeared more
broken by the force of the water; but I stayed so long in the woods, to
get pigeons for food, that the tide prevented my going to the wreck that
day.
_May_ 17.--I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a great
distance, near two miles off me, but resolved to see what they were, and
found it was a piece of the head, but too heavy for me to bring away.
_May_ 24.--Every day, to this day, I worked on the wreck; and with hard
labour I loosened some things so much with the crow, that the first
flowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the seamen's chests;
but the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came to land that day but
pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had some Brazil pork in it; but
the salt water and the sand had spoiled it. I continued this work every
day to the 15th of June, except the time necessary to get food, which I
always appointed, during this part of my employment, to be when the tide
was up, that I might be ready when it was ebbed out; and by this time I
had got timber and plank and ironwork enough to have built a good boat,
if I had known how; and also I got, at several times and in several
pieces, near one hundredweight of the sheet lead.
_June_ 16.--Going down to the seaside, I found a large tortoise or
turtle. This was the first I had seen, which, it seems, was only my
misfortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity; for had I happened
to be on the other side of the island, I might have had hundreds of them
every day, as I found afterwards; but perhaps had paid dear enough for
them.
_June_ 17.--I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in her three-score
eggs; and her flesh was to me, at that time, the most savoury and
pleasant that ever I tasted in my life, having had no flesh, but of goats
and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place.
_June_ 18.--Rained all day, and I stayed within. I thought at this time
the rain felt cold, and I was something chilly; which I knew was not
usual in that latitude.
_June_ 19.--Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been cold.
_June_ 20.--No rest all night; violent pains in my head, and feverish.
_June_ 21.--Very ill; frighted almost to death with the apprehensions of
my sad condition--to be sick, and no help. Prayed to God, for the first
time since the storm off Hull, but scarce knew what I said, or why, my
thoughts being all confused.
_June_ 22.--A little better; but under dreadful apprehensions of
sickness.
_June_ 23.--Very bad again; cold and shivering, and then a violent
headache.
_June_ 24.--Much better.
_June_ 25.--An ague very violent; the fit held me seven hours; cold fit
and hot, with faint sweats after it.
_June_ 26.--Better; and having no victuals to eat, took my gun, but found
myself very weak. However, I killed a she-goat, and with much difficulty
got it home, and broiled some of it, and ate, I would fain have stewed
it, and made some broth, but had no pot.
_June_ 27.--The ague again so violent that I lay a-bed all day, and
neither ate nor drank. I was ready to perish for thirst; but so weak, I
had not strength to stand up, or to get myself any water to drink.
Prayed to God again, but was light-headed; and when I was not, I was so
ignorant that I knew not what to say; only I lay and cried, "Lord, look
upon me! Lord, pity me! Lord, have mercy upon me!" I suppose I did
nothing else for two or three hours; till, the fit wearing off, I fell
asleep, and did not wake till far in the night. When I awoke, I found
myself much refreshed, but weak, and exceeding thirsty. However, as I
had no water in my habitation, I was forced to lie till morning, and went
to sleep again. In this second sleep I had this terrible dream: I
thought that I was sitting on the ground, on the outside of my wall,
where I sat when the storm blew after the earthquake, and that I saw a
man descend from a great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and
light upon the ground. He was all over as bright as a flame, so that I
could but just bear to look towards him; his countenance was most
inexpressibly dreadful, impossible for words to describe. When he
stepped upon the ground with his feet, I thought the earth trembled, just
as it had done before in the earthquake, and all the air looked, to my
apprehension, as if it had been filled with flashes of fire. He was no
sooner landed upon the earth, but he moved forward towards me, with a
long spear or weapon in his hand, to kill me; and when he came to a
rising ground, at some distance, he spoke to me--or I heard a voice so
terrible that it is impossible to express the terror of it. All that I
can say I understood was this: "Seeing all these things have not brought
thee to repentance, now thou shalt die;" at which words, I thought he
lifted up the spear that was in his hand to kill me.
No one that shall ever read this account will expect that I should be
able to describe the horrors of my soul at this terrible vision. I mean,
that even while it was a dream, I even dreamed of those horrors. Nor is
it any more possible to describe the impression that remained upon my
mind when I awaked, and found it was but a dream.
I had, alas! no divine knowledge. What I had received by the good
instruction of my father was then worn out by an uninterrupted series,
for eight years, of seafaring wickedness, and a constant conversation
with none but such as were, like myself, wicked and profane to the last
degree. I do not remember that I had, in all that time, one thought that
so much as tended either to looking upwards towards God, or inwards
towards a reflection upon my own ways; but a certain stupidity of soul,
without desire of good, or conscience of evil, had entirely overwhelmed
me; and I was all that the most hardened, unthinking, wicked creature
among our common sailors can be supposed to be; not having the least
sense, either of the fear of God in danger, or of thankfulness to God in
deliverance.
In the relating what is already past of my story, this will be the more
easily believed when I shall add, that through all the variety of
miseries that had to this day befallen me, I never had so much as one
thought of it being the hand of God, or that it was a just punishment for
my sin--my rebellious behaviour against my father--or my present sins,
which were great--or so much as a punishment for the general course of my
wicked life. When I was on the desperate expedition on the desert shores
of Africa, I never had so much as one thought of what would become of me,
or one wish to God to direct me whither I should go, or to keep me from
the danger which apparently surrounded me, as well from voracious
creatures as cruel savages. But I was merely thoughtless of a God or a
Providence, acted like a mere brute, from the principles of nature, and
by the dictates of common sense only, and, indeed, hardly that. When I
was delivered and taken up at sea by the Portugal captain, well used, and
dealt justly and honourably with, as well as charitably, I had not the
least thankfulness in my thoughts. When, again, I was shipwrecked,
ruined, and in danger of drowning on this island, I was as far from
remorse, or looking on it as a judgment. I only said to myself often,
that I was an unfortunate dog, and born to be always miserable.
It is true, when I got on shore first here, and found all my ship's crew
drowned and myself spared, I was surprised with a kind of ecstasy, and
some transports of soul, which, had the grace of God assisted, might have
come up to true thankfulness; but it ended where it began, in a mere
common flight of joy, or, as I may say, being glad I was alive, without
the least reflection upon the distinguished goodness of the hand which
had preserved me, and had singled me out to be preserved when all the
rest were destroyed, or an inquiry why Providence had been thus merciful
unto me. Even just the same common sort of joy which seamen generally
have, after they are got safe ashore from a shipwreck, which they drown
all in the next bowl of punch, and forget almost as soon as it is over;
and all the rest of my life was like it. Even when I was afterwards, on
due consideration, made sensible of my condition, how I was cast on this
dreadful place, out of the reach of human kind, out of all hope of
relief, or prospect of redemption, as soon as I saw but a prospect of
living and that I should not starve and perish for hunger, all the sense
of my affliction wore off; and I began to be very easy, applied myself to
the works proper for my preservation and supply, and was far enough from
being afflicted at my condition, as a judgment from heaven, or as the
hand of God against me: these were thoughts which very seldom entered my
head.
The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my Journal, had at first some
little influence upon me, and began to affect me with seriousness, as
long as I thought it had something miraculous in it; but as soon as ever
that part of the thought was removed, all the impression that was raised
from it wore off also, as I have noted already. Even the earthquake,
though nothing could be more terrible in its nature, or more immediately
directing to the invisible Power which alone directs such things, yet no
sooner was the first fright over, but the impression it had made went off
also. I had no more sense of God or His judgments--much less of the
present affliction of my circumstances being from His hand--than if I had
been in the most prosperous condition of life. But now, when I began to
be sick, and a leisurely view of the miseries of death came to place
itself before me; when my spirits began to sink under the burden of a
strong distemper, and nature was exhausted with the violence of the
fever; conscience, that had slept so long, began to awake, and I began to
reproach myself with my past life, in which I had so evidently, by
uncommon wickedness, provoked the justice of God to lay me under uncommon
strokes, and to deal with me in so vindictive a manner. These
reflections oppressed me for the second or third day of my distemper; and
in the violence, as well of the fever as of the dreadful reproaches of my
conscience, extorted some words from me like praying to God, though I
cannot say they were either a prayer attended with desires or with hopes:
it was rather the voice of mere fright and distress. My thoughts were
confused, the convictions great upon my mind, and the horror of dying in
such a miserable condition raised vapours into my head with the mere
apprehensions; and in these hurries of my soul I knew not what my tongue
might express. But it was rather exclamation, such as, "Lord, what a
miserable creature am I! If I should be sick, I shall certainly die for
want of help; and what will become of me!" Then the tears burst out of
my eyes, and I could say no more for a good while. In this interval the
good advice of my father came to my mind, and presently his prediction,
which I mentioned at the beginning of this story--viz. that if I did take
this foolish step, God would not bless me, and I would have leisure
hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there might
be none to assist in my recovery. "Now," said I, aloud, "my dear
father's words are come to pass; God's justice has overtaken me, and I
have none to help or hear me. I rejected the voice of Providence, which
had mercifully put me in a posture or station of life wherein I might
have been happy and easy; but I would neither see it myself nor learn to
know the blessing of it from my parents. I left them to mourn over my
folly, and now I am left to mourn under the consequences of it. I abused
their help and assistance, who would have lifted me in the world, and
would have made everything easy to me; and now I have difficulties to
struggle with, too great for even nature itself to support, and no
assistance, no help, no comfort, no advice." Then I cried out, "Lord, be
my help, for I am in great distress." This was the first prayer, if I
may call it so, that I had made for many years.
But to return to my Journal.
_June_ 28.--Having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep I had had, and
the fit being entirely off, I got up; and though the fright and terror of
my dream was very great, yet I considered that the fit of the ague would
return again the next day, and now was my time to get something to
refresh and support myself when I should be ill; and the first thing I
did, I filled a large square case-bottle with water, and set it upon my
table, in reach of my bed; and to take off the chill or aguish
disposition of the water, I put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it,
and mixed them together. Then I got me a piece of the goat's flesh and
broiled it on the coals, but could eat very little. I walked about, but
was very weak, and withal very sad and heavy-hearted under a sense of my
miserable condition, dreading, the return of my distemper the next day.
At night I made my supper of three of the turtle's eggs, which I roasted
in the ashes, and ate, as we call it, in the shell, and this was the
first bit of meat I had ever asked God's blessing to, that I could
remember, in my whole life. After I had eaten I tried to walk, but found
myself so weak that I could hardly carry a gun, for I never went out
without that; so I went but a little way, and sat down upon the ground,
looking out upon the sea, which was just before me, and very calm and
smooth. As I sat here some such thoughts as these occurred to me: What
is this earth and sea, of which I have seen so much? Whence is it
produced? And what am I, and all the other creatures wild and tame,
human and brutal? Whence are we? Sure we are all made by some secret
Power, who formed the earth and sea, the air and sky. And who is that?
Then it followed most naturally, it is God that has made all. Well, but
then it came on strangely, if God has made all these things, He guides
and governs them all, and all things that concern them; for the Power
that could make all things must certainly have power to guide and direct
them. If so, nothing can happen in the great circuit of His works,
either without His knowledge or appointment.
And if nothing happens without His knowledge, He knows that I am here,
and am in this dreadful condition; and if nothing happens without His
appointment, He has appointed all this to befall me. Nothing occurred to
my thought to contradict any of these conclusions, and therefore it
rested upon me with the greater force, that it must needs be that God had
appointed all this to befall me; that I was brought into this miserable
circumstance by His direction, He having the sole power, not of me only,
but of everything that happened in the world. Immediately it followed:
Why has God done this to me? What have I done to be thus used? My
conscience presently checked me in that inquiry, as if I had blasphemed,
and methought it spoke to me like a voice: "Wretch! dost _thou_ ask what
thou hast done? Look back upon a dreadful misspent life, and ask thyself
what thou hast _not_ done? Ask, why is it that thou wert not long ago
destroyed? Why wert thou not drowned in Yarmouth Roads; killed in the
fight when the ship was taken by the Sallee man-of-war; devoured by the
wild beasts on the coast of Africa; or drowned _here_, when all the crew
perished but thyself? Dost _thou_ ask, what have I done?" I was struck
dumb with these reflections, as one astonished, and had not a word to
say--no, not to answer to myself, but rose up pensive and sad, walked
back to my retreat, and went up over my wall, as if I had been going to
bed; but my thoughts were sadly disturbed, and I had no inclination to
sleep; so I sat down in my chair, and lighted my lamp, for it began to be
dark. Now, as the apprehension of the return of my distemper terrified
me very much, it occurred to my thought that the Brazilians take no
physic but their tobacco for almost all distempers, and I had a piece of
a roll of tobacco in one of the chests, which was quite cured, and some
also that was green, and not quite cured.
I went, directed by Heaven no doubt; for in this chest I found a cure
both for soul and body. I opened the chest, and found what I looked for,
the tobacco; and as the few books I had saved lay there too, I took out
one of the Bibles which I mentioned before, and which to this time I had
not found leisure or inclination to look into. I say, I took it out, and
brought both that and the tobacco with me to the table. What use to make
of the tobacco I knew not, in my distemper, or whether it was good for it
or no: but I tried several experiments with it, as if I was resolved it
should hit one way or other. I first took a piece of leaf, and chewed it
in my mouth, which, indeed, at first almost stupefied my brain, the
tobacco being green and strong, and that I had not been much used to.
Then I took some and steeped it an hour or two in some rum, and resolved
to take a dose of it when I lay down; and lastly, I burnt some upon a pan
of coals, and held my nose close over the smoke of it as long as I could
bear it, as well for the heat as almost for suffocation. In the interval
of this operation I took up the Bible and began to read; but my head was
too much disturbed with the tobacco to bear reading, at least at that
time; only, having opened the book casually, the first words that
occurred to me were these, "Call on Me in the day of trouble, and I will
deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me." These words were very apt to
my case, and made some impression upon my thoughts at the time of reading
them, though not so much as they did afterwards; for, as for being
_delivered_, the word had no sound, as I may say, to me; the thing was so
remote, so impossible in my apprehension of things, that I began to say,
as the children of Israel did when they were promised flesh to eat, "Can
God spread a table in the wilderness?" so I began to say, "Can God
Himself deliver me from this place?" And as it was not for many years
that any hopes appeared, this prevailed very often upon my thoughts; but,
however, the words made a great impression upon me, and I mused upon them
very often. It grew now late, and the tobacco had, as I said, dozed my
head so much that I inclined to sleep; so I left my lamp burning in the
cave, lest I should want anything in the night, and went to bed. But
before I lay down, I did what I never had done in all my life--I kneeled
down, and prayed to God to fulfil the promise to me, that if I called
upon Him in the day of trouble, He would deliver me. After my broken and
imperfect prayer was over, I drank the rum in which I had steeped the
tobacco, which was so strong and rank of the tobacco that I could
scarcely get it down; immediately upon this I went to bed. I found
presently it flew up into my head violently; but I fell into a sound
sleep, and waked no more till, by the sun, it must necessarily be near
three o'clock in the afternoon the next day--nay, to this hour I am
partly of opinion that I slept all the next day and night, and till
almost three the day after; for otherwise I know not how I should lose a
day out of my reckoning in the days of the week, as it appeared some
years after I had done; for if I had lost it by crossing and recrossing
the line, I should have lost more than one day; but certainly I lost a
day in my account, and never knew which way. Be that, however, one way
or the other, when I awaked I found myself exceedingly refreshed, and my
spirits lively and cheerful; when I got up I was stronger than I was the
day before, and my stomach better, for I was hungry; and, in short, I had
no fit the next day, but continued much altered for the better. This was
the 29th.
The 30th was my well day, of course, and I went abroad with my gun, but
did not care to travel too far. I killed a sea-fowl or two, something
like a brandgoose, and brought them home, but was not very forward to eat
them; so I ate some more of the turtle's eggs, which were very good.
This evening I renewed the medicine, which I had supposed did me good the
day before--the tobacco steeped in rum; only I did not take so much as
before, nor did I chew any of the leaf, or hold my head over the smoke;
however, I was not so well the next day, which was the first of July, as
I hoped I should have been; for I had a little spice of the cold fit, but
it was not much.
_July_ 2.--I renewed the medicine all the three ways; and dosed myself
with it as at first, and doubled the quantity which I drank.
_July_ 3.--I missed the fit for good and all, though I did not recover my
full strength for some weeks after. While I was thus gathering strength,
my thoughts ran exceedingly upon this Scripture, "I will deliver thee";
and the impossibility of my deliverance lay much upon my mind, in bar of
my ever expecting it; but as I was discouraging myself with such
thoughts, it occurred to my mind that I pored so much upon my deliverance
from the main affliction, that I disregarded the deliverance I had
received, and I was as it were made to ask myself such questions as
these--viz. Have I not been delivered, and wonderfully too, from
sickness--from the most distressed condition that could be, and that was
so frightful to me? and what notice had I taken of it? Had I done my
part? God had delivered me, but I had not glorified Him--that is to say,
I had not owned and been thankful for that as a deliverance; and how
could I expect greater deliverance? This touched my heart very much; and
immediately I knelt down and gave God thanks aloud for my recovery from
my sickness.
_July_ 4.--In the morning I took the Bible; and beginning at the New
Testament, I began seriously to read it, and imposed upon myself to read
a while every morning and every night; not tying myself to the number of
chapters, but long as my thoughts should engage me. It was not long
after I set seriously to this work till I found my heart more deeply and
sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life. The impression
of my dream revived; and the words, "All these things have not brought
thee to repentance," ran seriously through my thoughts. I was earnestly
begging of God to give me repentance, when it happened providentially,
the very day, that, reading the Scripture, I came to these words: "He is
exalted a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and to give
remission." I threw down the book; and with my heart as well as my hands
lifted up to heaven, in a kind of ecstasy of joy, I cried out aloud,
"Jesus, thou son of David! Jesus, thou exalted Prince and Saviour! give
me repentance!" This was the first time I could say, in the true sense
of the words, that I prayed in all my life; for now I prayed with a sense
of my condition, and a true Scripture view of hope, founded on the
encouragement of the Word of God; and from this time, I may say, I began
to hope that God would hear me.
Now I began to construe the words mentioned above, "Call on Me, and I
will deliver thee," in a different sense from what I had ever done
before; for then I had no notion of anything being called _deliverance_,
but my being delivered from the captivity I was in; for though I was
indeed at large in the place, yet the island was certainly a prison to
me, and that in the worse sense in the world. But now I learned to take
it in another sense: now I looked back upon my past life with such
horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul sought nothing of
God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort.
As for my solitary life, it was nothing. I did not so much as pray to be
delivered from it or think of it; it was all of no consideration in
comparison to this. And I add this part here, to hint to whoever shall
read it, that whenever they come to a true sense of things, they will
find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from
affliction.
But, leaving this part, I return to my Journal.
My condition began now to be, though not less miserable as to my way of
living, yet much easier to my mind: and my thoughts being directed, by a
constant reading the Scripture and praying to God, to things of a higher
nature, I had a great deal of comfort within, which till now I knew
nothing of; also, my health and strength returned, I bestirred myself to
furnish myself with everything that I wanted, and make my way of living
as regular as I could.
From the 4th of July to the 14th I was chiefly employed in walking about
with my gun in my hand, a little and a little at a time, as a man that
was gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness; for it is hardly
to be imagined how low I was, and to what weakness I was reduced. The
application which I made use of was perfectly new, and perhaps which had
never cured an ague before; neither can I recommend it to any to
practise, by this experiment: and though it did carry off the fit, yet it
rather contributed to weakening me; for I had frequent convulsions in my
nerves and limbs for some time. I learned from it also this, in
particular, that being abroad in the rainy season was the most pernicious
thing to my health that could be, especially in those rains which came
attended with storms and hurricanes of wind; for as the rain which came
in the dry season was almost always accompanied with such storms, so I
found that rain was much more dangerous than the rain which fell in
September and October.
CHAPTER VII--AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE
I had now been in this unhappy island above ten months. All possibility
of deliverance from this condition seemed to be entirely taken from me;
and I firmly believe that no human shape had ever set foot upon that
place. Having now secured my habitation, as I thought, fully to my mind,
I had a great desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island, and
to see what other productions I might find, which I yet knew nothing of.
It was on the 15th of July that I began to take a more particular survey
of the island itself. I went up the creek first, where, as I hinted, I
brought my rafts on shore. I found after I came about two miles up, that
the tide did not flow any higher, and that it was no more than a little
brook of running water, very fresh and good; but this being the dry
season, there was hardly any water in some parts of it--at least not
enough to run in any stream, so as it could be perceived. On the banks
of this brook I found many pleasant savannahs or meadows, plain, smooth,
and covered with grass; and on the rising parts of them, next to the
higher grounds, where the water, as might be supposed, never overflowed,
I found a great deal of tobacco, green, and growing to a great and very
strong stalk. There were divers other plants, which I had no notion of
or understanding about, that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own,
which I could not find out. I searched for the cassava root, which the
Indians, in all that climate, make their bread of, but I could find none.
I saw large plants of aloes, but did not understand them. I saw several
sugar-canes, but wild, and, for want of cultivation, imperfect. I
contented myself with these discoveries for this time, and came back,
musing with myself what course I might take to know the virtue and
goodness of any of the fruits or plants which I should discover, but
could bring it to no conclusion; for, in short, I had made so little
observation while I was in the Brazils, that I knew little of the plants
in the field; at least, very little that might serve to any purpose now
in my distress.
The next day, the sixteenth, I went up the same way again; and after
going something further than I had gone the day before, I found the brook
and the savannahs cease, and the country become more woody than before.
In this part I found different fruits, and particularly I found melons
upon the ground, in great abundance, and grapes upon the trees. The
vines had spread, indeed, over the trees, and the clusters of grapes were
just now in their prime, very ripe and rich. This was a surprising
discovery, and I was exceeding glad of them; but I was warned by my
experience to eat sparingly of them; remembering that when I was ashore
in Barbary, the eating of grapes killed several of our Englishmen, who
were slaves there, by throwing them into fluxes and fevers. But I found
an excellent use for these grapes; and that was, to cure or dry them in
the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept, which I
thought would be, as indeed they were, wholesome and agreeable to eat
when no grapes could be had.
I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my habitation;
which, by the way, was the first night, as I might say, I had lain from
home. In the night, I took my first contrivance, and got up in a tree,
where I slept well; and the next morning proceeded upon my discovery;
travelling nearly four miles, as I might judge by the length of the
valley, keeping still due north, with a ridge of hills on the south and
north side of me. At the end of this march I came to an opening where
the country seemed to descend to the west; and a little spring of fresh
water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the other way,
that is, due east; and the country appeared so fresh, so green, so
flourishing, everything being in a constant verdure or flourish of spring
that it looked like a planted garden. I descended a little on the side
of that delicious vale, surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure,
though mixed with my other afflicting thoughts, to think that this was
all my own; that I was king and lord of all this country indefensibly,
and had a right of possession; and if I could convey it, I might have it
in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor in England. I saw
here abundance of cocoa trees, orange, and lemon, and citron trees; but
all wild, and very few bearing any fruit, at least not then. However,
the green limes that I gathered were not only pleasant to eat, but very
wholesome; and I mixed their juice afterwards with water, which made it
very wholesome, and very cool and refreshing. I found now I had business
enough to gather and carry home; and I resolved to lay up a store as well
of grapes as limes and lemons, to furnish myself for the wet season,
which I knew was approaching. In order to do this, I gathered a great
heap of grapes in one place, a lesser heap in another place, and a great
parcel of limes and lemons in another place; and taking a few of each
with me, I travelled homewards; resolving to come again, and bring a bag
or sack, or what I could make, to carry the rest home. Accordingly,
having spent three days in this journey, I came home (so I must now call
my tent and my cave); but before I got thither the grapes were spoiled;
the richness of the fruit and the weight of the juice having broken them
and bruised them, they were good for little or nothing; as to the limes,
they were good, but I could bring but a few.
The next day, being the nineteenth, I went back, having made me two small
bags to bring home my harvest; but I was surprised, when coming to my
heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when I gathered them, to find
them all spread about, trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some
there, and abundance eaten and devoured. By this I concluded there were
some wild creatures thereabouts, which had done this; but what they were
I knew not. However, as I found there was no laying them up on heaps,
and no carrying them away in a sack, but that one way they would be
destroyed, and the other way they would be crushed with their own weight,
I took another course; for I gathered a large quantity of the grapes, and
hung upon the out-branches of the trees, that they might cure and dry in
the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, I carried as many back as I
could well stand under.
When I came home from this journey, I contemplated with great pleasure
the fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasantness of the situation;
the security from storms on that side of the water, and the wood: and
concluded that I had pitched upon a place to fix my abode which was by
far the worst part of the country. Upon the whole, I began to consider
of removing my habitation, and looking out for a place equally safe as
where now I was situate, if possible, in that pleasant, fruitful part of
the island.
This thought ran long in my head, and I was exceeding fond of it for some
time, the pleasantness of the place tempting me; but when I came to a
nearer view of it, I considered that I was now by the seaside, where it
was at least possible that something might happen to my advantage, and,
by the same ill fate that brought me hither might bring some other
unhappy wretches to the same place; and though it was scarce probable
that any such thing should ever happen, yet to enclose myself among the
hills and woods in the centre of the island was to anticipate my bondage,
and to render such an affair not only improbable, but impossible; and
that therefore I ought not by any means to remove. However, I was so
enamoured of this place, that I spent much of my time there for the whole
of the remaining part of the month of July; and though upon second
thoughts, I resolved not to remove, yet I built me a little kind of a
bower, and surrounded it at a distance with a strong fence, being a
double hedge, as high as I could reach, well staked and filled between
with brushwood; and here I lay very secure, sometimes two or three nights
together; always going over it with a ladder; so that I fancied now I had
my country house and my sea-coast house; and this work took me up to the
beginning of August.
I had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my labour, when the
rains came on, and made me stick close to my first habitation; for though
I had made me a tent like the other, with a piece of a sail, and spread
it very well, yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from storms,
nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the rains were extraordinary.
About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished my bower, and
began to enjoy myself. The 3rd of August, I found the grapes I had hung
up perfectly dried, and, indeed, were excellent good raisins of the sun;
so I began to take them down from the trees, and it was very happy that I
did so, for the rains which followed would have spoiled them, and I had
lost the best part of my winter food; for I had above two hundred large
bunches of them. No sooner had I taken them all down, and carried the
most of them home to my cave, than it began to rain; and from hence,
which was the 14th of August, it rained, more or less, every day till the
middle of October; and sometimes so violently, that I could not stir out
of my cave for several days.
In this season I was much surprised with the increase of my family; I had
been concerned for the loss of one of my cats, who ran away from me, or,
as I thought, had been dead, and I heard no more tidings of her till, to
my astonishment, she came home about the end of August with three
kittens. This was the more strange to me because, though I had killed a
wild cat, as I called it, with my gun, yet I thought it was quite a
different kind from our European cats; but the young cats were the same
kind of house-breed as the old one; and both my cats being females, I
thought it very strange. But from these three cats I afterwards came to
be so pestered with cats that I was forced to kill them like vermin or
wild beasts, and to drive them from my house as much as possible.
From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain, so that I could not
stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. In this confinement,
I began to be straitened for food: but venturing out twice, I one day
killed a goat; and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very large
tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food was regulated thus: I ate
a bunch of raisins for my breakfast; a piece of the goat's flesh, or of
the turtle, for my dinner, broiled--for, to my great misfortune, I had no
vessel to boil or stew anything; and two or three of the turtle's eggs
for my supper.
During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I worked daily two or
three hours at enlarging my cave, and by degrees worked it on towards one
side, till I came to the outside of the hill, and made a door or way out,
which came beyond my fence or wall; and so I came in and out this way.
But I was not perfectly easy at lying so open; for, as I had managed
myself before, I was in a perfect enclosure; whereas now I thought I lay
exposed, and open for anything to come in upon me; and yet I could not
perceive that there was any living thing to fear, the biggest creature
that I had yet seen upon the island being a goat.
_Sept._ 30.--I was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my landing. I
cast up the notches on my post, and found I had been on shore three
hundred and sixty-five days. I kept this day as a solemn fast, setting
it apart for religious exercise, prostrating myself on the ground with
the most serious humiliation, confessing my sins to God, acknowledging
His righteous judgments upon me, and praying to Him to have mercy on me
through Jesus Christ; and not having tasted the least refreshment for
twelve hours, even till the going down of the sun, I then ate a
biscuit-cake and a bunch of grapes, and went to bed, finishing the day as
I began it. I had all this time observed no Sabbath day; for as at first
I had no sense of religion upon my mind, I had, after some time, omitted
to distinguish the weeks, by making a longer notch than ordinary for the
Sabbath day, and so did not really know what any of the days were; but
now, having cast up the days as above, I found I had been there a year;
so I divided it into weeks, and set apart every seventh day for a
Sabbath; though I found at the end of my account I had lost a day or two
in my reckoning. A little after this, my ink began to fail me, and so I
contented myself to use it more sparingly, and to write down only the
most remarkable events of my life, without continuing a daily memorandum
of other things.
The rainy season and the dry season began now to appear regular to me,
and I learned to divide them so as to provide for them accordingly; but I
bought all my experience before I had it, and this I am going to relate
was one of the most discouraging experiments that I made.
I have mentioned that I had saved the few ears of barley and rice, which
I had so surprisingly found spring up, as I thought, of themselves, and I
believe there were about thirty stalks of rice, and about twenty of
barley; and now I thought it a proper time to sow it, after the rains,
the sun being in its southern position, going from me. Accordingly, I
dug up a piece of ground as well as I could with my wooden spade, and
dividing it into two parts, I sowed my grain; but as I was sowing, it
casually occurred to my thoughts that I would not sow it all at first,
because I did not know when was the proper time for it, so I sowed about
two-thirds of the seed, leaving about a handful of each. It was a great
comfort to me afterwards that I did so, for not one grain of what I sowed
this time came to anything: for the dry months following, the earth
having had no rain after the seed was sown, it had no moisture to assist
its growth, and never came up at all till the wet season had come again,
and then it grew as if it had been but newly sown. Finding my first seed
did not grow, which I easily imagined was by the drought, I sought for a
moister piece of ground to make another trial in, and I dug up a piece of
ground near my new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed in February, a
little before the vernal equinox; and this having the rainy months of
March and April to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a
very good crop; but having part of the seed left only, and not daring to
sow all that I had, I had but a small quantity at last, my whole crop not
amounting to above half a peck of each kind. But by this experiment I
was made master of my business, and knew exactly when the proper season
was to sow, and that I might expect two seed-times and two harvests every
year.
While this corn was growing I made a little discovery, which was of use
to me afterwards. As soon as the rains were over, and the weather began
to settle, which was about the month of November, I made a visit up the
country to my bower, where, though I had not been some months, yet I
found all things just as I left them. The circle or double hedge that I
had made was not only firm and entire, but the stakes which I had cut out
of some trees that grew thereabouts were all shot out and grown with long
branches, as much as a willow-tree usually shoots the first year after
lopping its head. I could not tell what tree to call it that these
stakes were cut from. I was surprised, and yet very well pleased, to see
the young trees grow; and I pruned them, and led them up to grow as much
alike as I could; and it is scarce credible how beautiful a figure they
grew into in three years; so that though the hedge made a circle of about
twenty-five yards in diameter, yet the trees, for such I might now call
them, soon covered it, and it was a complete shade, sufficient to lodge
under all the dry season. This made me resolve to cut some more stakes,
and make me a hedge like this, in a semi-circle round my wall (I mean
that of my first dwelling), which I did; and placing the trees or stakes
in a double row, at about eight yards distance from my first fence, they
grew presently, and were at first a fine cover to my habitation, and
afterwards served for a defence also, as I shall observe in its order.
I found now that the seasons of the year might generally be divided, not
into summer and winter, as in Europe, but into the rainy seasons and the
dry seasons, which were generally thus:--The half of February, the whole
of March, and the half of April--rainy, the sun being then on or near the
equinox.
The half of April, the whole of May, June, and July, and the half of
August--dry, the sun being then to the north of the line.
The half of August, the whole of September, and the half of
October--rainy, the sun being then come back.
The half of October, the whole of November, December, and January, and
the half of February--dry, the sun being then to the south of the line.
The rainy seasons sometimes held longer or shorter as the winds happened
to blow, but this was the general observation I made. After I had found
by experience the ill consequences of being abroad in the rain, I took
care to furnish myself with provisions beforehand, that I might not be
obliged to go out, and I sat within doors as much as possible during the
wet months. This time I found much employment, and very suitable also to
the time, for I found great occasion for many things which I had no way
to furnish myself with but by hard labour and constant application;
particularly I tried many ways to make myself a basket, but all the twigs
I could get for the purpose proved so brittle that they would do nothing.
It proved of excellent advantage to me now, that when I was a boy, I used
to take great delight in standing at a basket-maker's, in the town where
my father lived, to see them make their wicker-ware; and being, as boys
usually are, very officious to help, and a great observer of the manner
in which they worked those things, and sometimes lending a hand, I had by
these means full knowledge of the methods of it, and I wanted nothing but
the materials, when it came into my mind that the twigs of that tree from
whence I cut my stakes that grew might possibly be as tough as the
sallows, willows, and osiers in England, and I resolved to try.
Accordingly, the next day I went to my country house, as I called it, and
cutting some of the smaller twigs, I found them to my purpose as much as
I could desire; whereupon I came the next time prepared with a hatchet to
cut down a quantity, which I soon found, for there was great plenty of
them. These I set up to dry within my circle or hedge, and when they
were fit for use I carried them to my cave; and here, during the next
season, I employed myself in making, as well as I could, a great many
baskets, both to carry earth or to carry or lay up anything, as I had
occasion; and though I did not finish them very handsomely, yet I made
them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose; thus, afterwards, I took
care never to be without them; and as my wicker-ware decayed, I made
more, especially strong, deep baskets to place my corn in, instead of
sacks, when I should come to have any quantity of it.
Having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world of time about it, I
bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to supply two wants. I had no
vessels to hold anything that was liquid, except two runlets, which were
almost full of rum, and some glass bottles--some of the common size, and
others which were case bottles, square, for the holding of water,
spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to boil anything, except a great
kettle, which I saved out of the ship, and which was too big for such as
I desired it--viz. to make broth, and stew a bit of meat by itself. The
second thing I fain would have had was a tobacco-pipe, but it was
impossible to me to make one; however, I found a contrivance for that,
too, at last. I employed myself in planting my second rows of stakes or
piles, and in this wicker-working all the summer or dry season, when
another business took me up more time than it could be imagined I could
spare.
CHAPTER VIII--SURVEYS HIS POSITION
I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see the whole island, and
that I had travelled up the brook, and so on to where I built my bower,
and where I had an opening quite to the sea, on the other side of the
island. I now resolved to travel quite across to the sea-shore on that
side; so, taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity of
powder and shot than usual, with two biscuit-cakes and a great bunch of
raisins in my pouch for my store, I began my journey. When I had passed
the vale where my bower stood, as above, I came within view of the sea to
the west, and it being a very clear day, I fairly descried land--whether
an island or a continent I could not tell; but it lay very high,
extending from the W. to the W.S.W. at a very great distance; by my guess
it could not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off.
I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise than
that I knew it must be part of America, and, as I concluded by all my
observations, must be near the Spanish dominions, and perhaps was all
inhabited by savages, where, if I had landed, I had been in a worse
condition than I was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the dispositions
of Providence, which I began now to own and to believe ordered everything
for the best; I say I quieted my mind with this, and left off afflicting
myself with fruitless wishes of being there.
Besides, after some thought upon this affair, I considered that if this
land was the Spanish coast, I should certainly, one time or other, see
some vessel pass or repass one way or other; but if not, then it was the
savage coast between the Spanish country and Brazils, where are found the
worst of savages; for they are cannibals or men-eaters, and fail not to
murder and devour all the human bodies that fall into their hands.
With these considerations, I walked very leisurely forward. I found that
side of the island where I now was much pleasanter than mine--the open or
savannah fields sweet, adorned with flowers and grass, and full of very
fine woods. I saw abundance of parrots, and fain I would have caught
one, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to speak to
me. I did, after some painstaking, catch a young parrot, for I knocked
it down with a stick, and having recovered it, I brought it home; but it
was some years before I could make him speak; however, at last I taught
him to call me by name very familiarly. But the accident that followed,
though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in its place.
I was exceedingly diverted with this journey. I found in the low grounds
hares (as I thought them to be) and foxes; but they differed greatly from
all the other kinds I had met with, nor could I satisfy myself to eat
them, though I killed several. But I had no need to be venturous, for I
had no want of food, and of that which was very good too, especially
these three sorts, viz. goats, pigeons, and turtle, or tortoise, which
added to my grapes, Leadenhall market could not have furnished a table
better than I, in proportion to the company; and though my case was
deplorable enough, yet I had great cause for thankfulness that I was not
driven to any extremities for food, but had rather plenty, even to
dainties.
I never travelled in this journey above two miles outright in a day, or
thereabouts; but I took so many turns and re-turns to see what
discoveries I could make, that I came weary enough to the place where I
resolved to sit down all night; and then I either reposed myself in a
tree, or surrounded myself with a row of stakes set upright in the
ground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild creature could
come at me without waking me.
As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to see that I had
taken up my lot on the worst side of the island, for here, indeed, the
shore was covered with innumerable turtles, whereas on the other side I
had found but three in a year and a half. Here was also an infinite
number of fowls of many kinds, some which I had seen, and some which I
had not seen before, and many of them very good meat, but such as I knew
not the names of, except those called penguins.
I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very sparing of my powder
and shot, and therefore had more mind to kill a she-goat if I could,
which I could better feed on; and though there were many goats here, more
than on my side the island, yet it was with much more difficulty that I
could come near them, the country being flat and even, and they saw me
much sooner than when I was on the hills.
I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine; but yet
I had not the least inclination to remove, for as I was fixed in my
habitation it became natural to me, and I seemed all the while I was here
to be as it were upon a journey, and from home. However, I travelled
along the shore of the sea towards the east, I suppose about twelve
miles, and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a mark, I
concluded I would go home again, and that the next journey I took should
be on the other side of the island east from my dwelling, and so round
till I came to my post again.
I took another way to come back than that I went, thinking I could easily
keep all the island so much in my view that I could not miss finding my
first dwelling by viewing the country; but I found myself mistaken, for
being come about two or three miles, I found myself descended into a very
large valley, but so surrounded with hills, and those hills covered with
wood, that I could not see which was my way by any direction but that of
the sun, nor even then, unless I knew very well the position of the sun
at that time of the day. It happened, to my further misfortune, that the
weather proved hazy for three or four days while I was in the valley, and
not being able to see the sun, I wandered about very uncomfortably, and
at last was obliged to find the seaside, look for my post, and come back
the same way I went: and then, by easy journeys, I turned homeward, the
weather being exceeding hot, and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other
things very heavy.
In this journey my dog surprised a young kid, and seized upon it; and I,
running in to take hold of it, caught it, and saved it alive from the
dog. I had a great mind to bring it home if I could, for I had often
been musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid or two, and so
raise a breed of tame goats, which might supply me when my powder and
shot should be all spent. I made a collar for this little creature, and
with a string, which I made of some rope-yam, which I always carried
about me, I led him along, though with some difficulty, till I came to my
bower, and there I enclosed him and left him, for I was very impatient to
be at home, from whence I had been absent above a month.
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old
hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed. This little wandering journey,
without settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that my own
house, as I called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me compared
to that; and it rendered everything about me so comfortable, that I
resolved I would never go a great way from it again while it should be my
lot to stay on the island.
I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my long
journey; during which most of the time was taken up in the weighty affair
of making a cage for my Poll, who began now to be a mere domestic, and to
be well acquainted with me. Then I began to think of the poor kid which
I had penned in within my little circle, and resolved to go and fetch it
home, or give it some food; accordingly I went, and found it where I left
it, for indeed it could not get out, but was almost starved for want of
food. I went and cut boughs of trees, and branches of such shrubs as I
could find, and threw it over, and having fed it, I tied it as I did
before, to lead it away; but it was so tame with being hungry, that I had
no need to have tied it, for it followed me like a dog: and as I
continually fed it, the creature became so loving, so gentle, and so
fond, that it became from that time one of my domestics also, and would
never leave me afterwards.
The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and I kept the
30th of September in the same solemn manner as before, being the
anniversary of my landing on the island, having now been there two years,
and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day I came there,
I spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledgments of the many
wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attended with, and
without which it might have been infinitely more miserable. I gave
humble and hearty thanks that God had been pleased to discover to me that
it was possible I might be more happy in this solitary condition than I
should have been in the liberty of society, and in all the pleasures of
the world; that He could fully make up to me the deficiencies of my
solitary state, and the want of human society, by His presence and the
communications of His grace to my soul; supporting, comforting, and
encouraging me to depend upon His providence here, and hope for His
eternal presence hereafter.
It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this life I
now led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than the wicked,
cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days; and now I
changed both my sorrows and my joys; my very desires altered, my
affections changed their gusts, and my delights were perfectly new from
what they were at my first coming, or, indeed, for the two years past.
Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting or for viewing the
country, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon me
on a sudden, and my very heart would die within me, to think of the
woods, the mountains, the deserts I was in, and how I was a prisoner,
locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited
wilderness, without redemption. In the midst of the greatest composure
of my mind, this would break out upon me like a storm, and make me wring
my hands and weep like a child. Sometimes it would take me in the middle
of my work, and I would immediately sit down and sigh, and look upon the
ground for an hour or two together; and this was still worse to me, for
if I could burst out into tears, or vent myself by words, it would go
off, and the grief, having exhausted itself, would abate.
But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts: I daily read the
word of God, and applied all the comforts of it to my present state. One
morning, being very sad, I opened the Bible upon these words, "I will
never, never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Immediately it occurred that
these words were to me; why else should they be directed in such a
manner, just at the moment when I was mourning over my condition, as one
forsaken of God and man? "Well, then," said I, "if God does not forsake
me, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it, though the
world should all forsake me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all the
world, and should lose the favour and blessing of God, there would be no
comparison in the loss?"
From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was possible for
me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition than it was
probable I should ever have been in any other particular state in the
world; and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God for
bringing me to this place. I know not what it was, but something shocked
my mind at that thought, and I durst not speak the words. "How canst
thou become such a hypocrite," said I, even audibly, "to pretend to be
thankful for a condition which, however thou mayest endeavour to be
contented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily to be delivered from?"
So I stopped there; but though I could not say I thanked God for being
there, yet I sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes, by
whatever afflicting providences, to see the former condition of my life,
and to mourn for my wickedness, and repent. I never opened the Bible, or
shut it, but my very soul within me blessed God for directing my friend
in England, without any order of mine, to pack it up among my goods, and
for assisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year; and though
I have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an account of my
works this year as the first, yet in general it may be observed that I
was very seldom idle, but having regularly divided my time according to
the several daily employments that were before me, such as: first, my
duty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which I constantly set apart
some time for thrice every day; secondly, the going abroad with my gun
for food, which generally took me up three hours in every morning, when
it did not rain; thirdly, the ordering, cutting, preserving, and cooking
what I had killed or caught for my supply; these took up great part of
the day. Also, it is to be considered, that in the middle of the day,
when the sun was in the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to
stir out; so that about four hours in the evening was all the time I
could be supposed to work in, with this exception, that sometimes I
changed my hours of hunting and working, and went to work in the morning,
and abroad with my gun in the afternoon.
To this short time allowed for labour I desire may be added the exceeding
laboriousness of my work; the many hours which, for want of tools, want
of help, and want of skill, everything I did took up out of my time. For
example, I was full two and forty days in making a board for a long
shelf, which I wanted in my cave; whereas, two sawyers, with their tools
and a saw-pit, would have cut six of them out of the same tree in half a
day.
My case was this: it was to be a large tree which was to be cut down,
because my board was to be a broad one. This tree I was three days in
cutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to a
log or piece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing I reduced
both the sides of it into chips till it began to be light enough to move;
then I turned it, and made one side of it smooth and flat as a board from
end to end; then, turning that side downward, cut the other side til I
brought the plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth on both
sides. Any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a piece of work;
but labour and patience carried me through that, and many other things.
I only observe this in particular, to show the reason why so much of my
time went away with so little work--viz. that what might be a little to
be done with help and tools, was a vast labour and required a prodigious
time to do alone, and by hand. But notwithstanding this, with patience
and labour I got through everything that my circumstances made necessary
to me to do, as will appear by what follows.
I was now, in the months of November and December, expecting my crop of
barley and rice. The ground I had manured and dug up for them was not
great; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not above the quantity of
half a peck, for I had lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry season.
But now my crop promised very well, when on a sudden I found I was in
danger of losing it all again by enemies of several sorts, which it was
scarcely possible to keep from it; as, first, the goats, and wild
creatures which I called hares, who, tasting the sweetness of the blade,
lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and eat it so close, that
it could get no time to shoot up into stalk.
This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about it with a
hedge; which I did with a great deal of toil, and the more, because it
required speed. However, as my arable land was but small, suited to my
crop, I got it totally well fenced in about three weeks' time; and
shooting some of the creatures in the daytime, I set my dog to guard it
in the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate, where he would stand
and bark all night long; so in a little time the enemies forsook the
place, and the corn grew very strong and well, and began to ripen apace.
But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in the blade, so
the birds were as likely to ruin me now, when it was in the ear; for,
going along by the place to see how it throve, I saw my little crop
surrounded with fowls, of I know not how many sorts, who stood, as it
were, watching till I should be gone. I immediately let fly among them,
for I always had my gun with me. I had no sooner shot, but there rose up
a little cloud of fowls, which I had not seen at all, from among the corn
itself.
This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a few days they would
devour all my hopes; that I should be starved, and never be able to raise
a crop at all; and what to do I could not tell; however, I resolved not
to lose my corn, if possible, though I should watch it night and day. In
the first place, I went among it to see what damage was already done, and
found they had spoiled a good deal of it; but that as it was yet too
green for them, the loss was not so great but that the remainder was
likely to be a good crop if it could be saved.
I stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I could easily see
the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they only waited
till I was gone away, and the event proved it to be so; for as I walked
off, as if I was gone, I was no sooner out of their sight than they
dropped down one by one into the corn again. I was so provoked, that I
could not have patience to stay till more came on, knowing that every
grain that they ate now was, as it might be said, a peck-loaf to me in
the consequence; but coming up to the hedge, I fired again, and killed
three of them. This was what I wished for; so I took them up, and served
them as we serve notorious thieves in England--hanged them in chains, for
a terror to others. It is impossible to imagine that this should have
such an effect as it had, for the fowls would not only not come at the
corn, but, in short, they forsook all that part of the island, and I
could never see a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows hung
there. This I was very glad of, you may be sure, and about the latter
end of December, which was our second harvest of the year, I reaped my
corn.
I was sadly put to it for a scythe or sickle to cut it down, and all I
could do was to make one, as well as I could, out of one of the
broadswords, or cutlasses, which I saved among the arms out of the ship.
However, as my first crop was but small, I had no great difficulty to cut
it down; in short, I reaped it in my way, for I cut nothing off but the
ears, and carried it away in a great basket which I had made, and so
rubbed it out with my hands; and at the end of all my harvesting, I found
that out of my half-peck of seed I had near two bushels of rice, and
about two bushels and a half of barley; that is to say, by my guess, for
I had no measure at that time.
However, this was a great encouragement to me, and I foresaw that, in
time, it would please God to supply me with bread. And yet here I was
perplexed again, for I neither knew how to grind or make meal of my corn,
or indeed how to clean it and part it; nor, if made into meal, how to
make bread of it; and if how to make it, yet I knew not how to bake it.
These things being added to my desire of having a good quantity for
store, and to secure a constant supply, I resolved not to taste any of
this crop but to preserve it all for seed against the next season; and in
the meantime to employ all my study and hours of working to accomplish
this great work of providing myself with corn and bread.
It might be truly said, that now I worked for my bread. I believe few
people have thought much upon the strange multitude of little things
necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making, and
finishing this one article of bread.
I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to my daily
discouragement; and was made more sensible of it every hour, even after I
had got the first handful of seed-corn, which, as I have said, came up
unexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise.
First, I had no plough to turn up the earth--no spade or shovel to dig
it. Well, this I conquered by making me a wooden spade, as I observed
before; but this did my work but in a wooden manner; and though it cost
me a great many days to make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only wore
out soon, but made my work the harder, and made it be performed much
worse. However, this I bore with, and was content to work it out with
patience, and bear with the badness of the performance. When the corn
was sown, I had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and drag
a great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may be
called, rather than rake or harrow it. When it was growing, and grown, I
have observed already how many things I wanted to fence it, secure it,
mow or reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, part it from the chaff,
and save it. Then I wanted a mill to grind it sieves to dress it, yeast
and salt to make it into bread, and an oven to bake it; but all these
things I did without, as shall be observed; and yet the corn was an
inestimable comfort and advantage to me too. All this, as I said, made
everything laborious and tedious to me; but that there was no help for.
Neither was my time so much loss to me, because, as I had divided it, a
certain part of it was every day appointed to these works; and as I had
resolved to use none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quantity
by me, I had the next six months to apply myself wholly, by labour and
invention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing all
the operations necessary for making the corn, when I had it, fit for my
use.
CHAPTER IX--A BOAT
But first I was to prepare more land, for I had now seed enough to sow
above an acre of ground. Before I did this, I had a week's work at least
to make me a spade, which, when it was done, was but a sorry one indeed,
and very heavy, and required double labour to work with it. However, I
got through that, and sowed my seed in two large flat pieces of ground,
as near my house as I could find them to my mind, and fenced them in with
a good hedge, the stakes of which were all cut off that wood which I had
set before, and knew it would grow; so that, in a year's time, I knew I
should have a quick or living hedge, that would want but little repair.
This work did not take me up less than three months, because a great part
of that time was the wet season, when I could not go abroad.
Within-doors, that is when it rained and I could not go out, I found
employment in the following occupations--always observing, that all the
while I was at work I diverted myself with talking to my parrot, and
teaching him to speak; and I quickly taught him to know his own name, and
at last to speak it out pretty loud, "Poll," which was the first word I
ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own. This,
therefore, was not my work, but an assistance to my work; for now, as I
said, I had a great employment upon my hands, as follows: I had long
studied to make, by some means or other, some earthen vessels, which,
indeed, I wanted sorely, but knew not where to come at them. However,
considering the heat of the climate, I did not doubt but if I could find
out any clay, I might make some pots that might, being dried in the sun,
be hard enough and strong enough to bear handling, and to hold anything
that was dry, and required to be kept so; and as this was necessary in
the preparing corn, meal, &c., which was the thing I was doing, I
resolved to make some as large as I could, and fit only to stand like
jars, to hold what should be put into them.
It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me, to tell how many
awkward ways I took to raise this paste; what odd, misshapen, ugly things
I made; how many of them fell in and how many fell out, the clay not
being stiff enough to bear its own weight; how many cracked by the
over-violent heat of the sun, being set out too hastily; and how many
fell in pieces with only removing, as well before as after they were
dried; and, in a word, how, after having laboured hard to find the
clay--to dig it, to temper it, to bring it home, and work it--I could not
make above two large earthen ugly things (I cannot call them jars) in
about two months' labour.
However, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, I lifted them very
gently up, and set them down again in two great wicker baskets, which I
had made on purpose for them, that they might not break; and as between
the pot and the basket there was a little room to spare, I stuffed it
full of the rice and barley straw; and these two pots being to stand
always dry I thought would hold my dry corn, and perhaps the meal, when
the corn was bruised.
Though I miscarried so much in my design for large pots, yet I made
several smaller things with better success; such as little round pots,
flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any things my hand turned to; and
the heat of the sun baked them quite hard.
But all this would not answer my end, which was to get an earthen pot to
hold what was liquid, and bear the fire, which none of these could do.
It happened after some time, making a pretty large fire for cooking my
meat, when I went to put it out after I had done with it, I found a
broken piece of one of my earthenware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard
as a stone, and red as a tile. I was agreeably surprised to see it, and
said to myself, that certainly they might be made to burn whole, if they
would burn broken.
This set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make it burn some
pots. I had no notion of a kiln, such as the potters burn in, or of
glazing them with lead, though I had some lead to do it with; but I
placed three large pipkins and two or three pots in a pile, one upon
another, and placed my firewood all round it, with a great heap of embers
under them. I plied the fire with fresh fuel round the outside and upon
the top, till I saw the pots in the inside red-hot quite through, and
observed that they did not crack at all. When I saw them clear red, I
let them stand in that heat about five or six hours, till I found one of
them, though it did not crack, did melt or run; for the sand which was
mixed with the clay melted by the violence of the heat, and would have
run into glass if I had gone on; so I slacked my fire gradually till the
pots began to abate of the red colour; and watching them all night, that
I might not let the fire abate too fast, in the morning I had three very
good (I will not say handsome) pipkins, and two other earthen pots, as
hard burnt as could be desired, and one of them perfectly glazed with the
running of the sand.
After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted no sort of
earthenware for my use; but I must needs say as to the shapes of them,
they were very indifferent, as any one may suppose, when I had no way of
making them but as the children make dirt pies, or as a woman would make
pies that never learned to raise paste.
No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine, when I
found I had made an earthen pot that would bear the fire; and I had
hardly patience to stay till they were cold before I set one on the fire
again with some water in it to boil me some meat, which it did admirably
well; and with a piece of a kid I made some very good broth, though I
wanted oatmeal, and several other ingredients requisite to make it as
good as I would have had it been.
My next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp or beat some corn
in; for as to the mill, there was no thought of arriving at that
perfection of art with one pair of hands. To supply this want, I was at
a great loss; for, of all the trades in the world, I was as perfectly
unqualified for a stone-cutter as for any whatever; neither had I any
tools to go about it with. I spent many a day to find out a great stone
big enough to cut hollow, and make fit for a mortar, and could find none
at all, except what was in the solid rock, and which I had no way to dig
or cut out; nor indeed were the rocks in the island of hardness
sufficient, but were all of a sandy, crumbling stone, which neither would
bear the weight of a heavy pestle, nor would break the corn without
filling it with sand. So, after a great deal of time lost in searching
for a stone, I gave it over, and resolved to look out for a great block
of hard wood, which I found, indeed, much easier; and getting one as big
as I had strength to stir, I rounded it, and formed it on the outside
with my axe and hatchet, and then with the help of fire and infinite
labour, made a hollow place in it, as the Indians in Brazil make their
canoes. After this, I made a great heavy pestle or beater of the wood
called the iron-wood; and this I prepared and laid by against I had my
next crop of corn, which I proposed to myself to grind, or rather pound
into meal to make bread.
My next difficulty was to make a sieve or searce, to dress my meal, and
to part it from the bran and the husk; without which I did not see it
possible I could have any bread. This was a most difficult thing even to
think on, for to be sure I had nothing like the necessary thing to make
it--I mean fine thin canvas or stuff to searce the meal through. And
here I was at a full stop for many months; nor did I really know what to
do. Linen I had none left but what was mere rags; I had goat's hair, but
neither knew how to weave it or spin it; and had I known how, here were
no tools to work it with. All the remedy that I found for this was, that
at last I did remember I had, among the seamen's clothes which were saved
out of the ship, some neckcloths of calico or muslin; and with some
pieces of these I made three small sieves proper enough for the work; and
thus I made shift for some years: how I did afterwards, I shall show in
its place.
The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how I should
make bread when I came to have corn; for first, I had no yeast. As to
that part, there was no supplying the want, so I did not concern myself
much about it. But for an oven I was indeed in great pain. At length I
found out an experiment for that also, which was this: I made some
earthen-vessels very broad but not deep, that is to say, about two feet
diameter, and not above nine inches deep. These I burned in the fire, as
I had done the other, and laid them by; and when I wanted to bake, I made
a great fire upon my hearth, which I had paved with some square tiles of
my own baking and burning also; but I should not call them square.
When the firewood was burned pretty much into embers or live coals, I
drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to cover it all over, and there
I let them lie till the hearth was very hot. Then sweeping away all the
embers, I set down my loaf or loaves, and whelming down the earthen pot
upon them, drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in
and add to the heat; and thus as well as in the best oven in the world, I
baked my barley-loaves, and became in little time a good pastrycook into
the bargain; for I made myself several cakes and puddings of the rice;
but I made no pies, neither had I anything to put into them supposing I
had, except the flesh either of fowls or goats.
It need not be wondered at if all these things took me up most part of
the third year of my abode here; for it is to be observed that in the
intervals of these things I had my new harvest and husbandry to manage;
for I reaped my corn in its season, and carried it home as well as I
could, and laid it up in the ear, in my large baskets, till I had time to
rub it out, for I had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument to thrash
it with.
And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really wanted to build my
barns bigger; I wanted a place to lay it up in, for the increase of the
corn now yielded me so much, that I had of the barley about twenty
bushels, and of the rice as much or more; insomuch that now I resolved to
begin to use it freely; for my bread had been quite gone a great while;
also I resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient for me a whole
year, and to sow but once a year.
Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley and rice were
much more than I could consume in a year; so I resolved to sow just the
same quantity every year that I sowed the last, in hopes that such a
quantity would fully provide me with bread, &c.
All the while these things were doing, you may be sure my thoughts ran
many times upon the prospect of land which I had seen from the other side
of the island; and I was not without secret wishes that I were on shore
there, fancying that, seeing the mainland, and an inhabited country, I
might find some way or other to convey myself further, and perhaps at
last find some means of escape.
But all this while I made no allowance for the dangers of such an
undertaking, and how I might fall into the hands of savages, and perhaps
such as I might have reason to think far worse than the lions and tigers
of Africa: that if I once came in their power, I should run a hazard of
more than a thousand to one of being killed, and perhaps of being eaten;
for I had heard that the people of the Caribbean coast were cannibals or
man-eaters, and I knew by the latitude that I could not be far from that
shore. Then, supposing they were not cannibals, yet they might kill me,
as many Europeans who had fallen into their hands had been served, even
when they had been ten or twenty together--much more I, that was but one,
and could make little or no defence; all these things, I say, which I
ought to have considered well; and did come into my thoughts afterwards,
yet gave me no apprehensions at first, and my head ran mightily upon the
thought of getting over to the shore.
Now I wished for my boy Xury, and the long-boat with shoulder-of-mutton
sail, with which I sailed above a thousand miles on the coast of Africa;
but this was in vain: then I thought I would go and look at our ship's
boat, which, as I have said, was blown up upon the shore a great way, in
the storm, when we were first cast away. She lay almost where she did at
first, but not quite; and was turned, by the force of the waves and the
winds, almost bottom upward, against a high ridge of beachy, rough sand,
but no water about her. If I had had hands to have refitted her, and to
have launched her into the water, the boat would have done well enough,
and I might have gone back into the Brazils with her easily enough; but I
might have foreseen that I could no more turn her and set her upright
upon her bottom than I could remove the island; however, I went to the
woods, and cut levers and rollers, and brought them to the boat resolving
to try what I could do; suggesting to myself that if I could but turn her
down, I might repair the damage she had received, and she would be a very
good boat, and I might go to sea in her very easily.
I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil, and spent, I
think, three or four weeks about it; at last finding it impossible to
heave it up with my little strength, I fell to digging away the sand, to
undermine it, and so to make it fall down, setting pieces of wood to
thrust and guide it right in the fall.
But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up again, or to get
under it, much less to move it forward towards the water; so I was forced
to give it over; and yet, though I gave over the hopes of the boat, my
desire to venture over for the main increased, rather than decreased, as
the means for it seemed impossible.
This at length put me upon thinking whether it was not possible to make
myself a canoe, or periagua, such as the natives of those climates make,
even without tools, or, as I might say, without hands, of the trunk of a
great tree. This I not only thought possible, but easy, and pleased
myself extremely with the thoughts of making it, and with my having much
more convenience for it than any of the negroes or Indians; but not at
all considering the particular inconveniences which I lay under more than
the Indians did--viz. want of hands to move it, when it was made, into
the water--a difficulty much harder for me to surmount than all the
consequences of want of tools could be to them; for what was it to me, if
when I had chosen a vast tree in the woods, and with much trouble cut it
down, if I had been able with my tools to hew and dub the outside into
the proper shape of a boat, and burn or cut out the inside to make it
hollow, so as to make a boat of it--if, after all this, I must leave it
just there where I found it, and not be able to launch it into the water?
One would have thought I could not have had the least reflection upon my
mind of my circumstances while I was making this boat, but I should have
immediately thought how I should get it into the sea; but my thoughts
were so intent upon my voyage over the sea in it, that I never once
considered how I should get it off the land: and it was really, in its
own nature, more easy for me to guide it over forty-five miles of sea
than about forty-five fathoms of land, where it lay, to set it afloat in
the water.
I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man did who
had any of his senses awake. I pleased myself with the design, without
determining whether I was ever able to undertake it; not but that the
difficulty of launching my boat came often into my head; but I put a stop
to my inquiries into it by this foolish answer which I gave myself--"Let
me first make it; I warrant I will find some way or other to get it along
when it is done."
This was a most preposterous method; but the eagerness of my fancy
prevailed, and to work I went. I felled a cedar-tree, and I question
much whether Solomon ever had such a one for the building of the Temple
of Jerusalem; it was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next
the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two
feet; after which it lessened for a while, and then parted into branches.
It was not without infinite labour that I felled this tree; I was twenty
days hacking and hewing at it at the bottom; I was fourteen more getting
the branches and limbs and the vast spreading head cut off, which I
hacked and hewed through with axe and hatchet, and inexpressible labour;
after this, it cost me a month to shape it and dub it to a proportion,
and to something like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright as
it ought to do. It cost me near three months more to clear the inside,
and work it out so as to make an exact boat of it; this I did, indeed,
without fire, by mere mallet and chisel, and by the dint of hard labour,
till I had brought it to be a very handsome periagua, and big enough to
have carried six-and-twenty men, and consequently big enough to have
carried me and all my cargo.
When I had gone through this work I was extremely delighted with it. The
boat was really much bigger than ever I saw a canoe or periagua, that was
made of one tree, in my life. Many a weary stroke it had cost, you may
be sure; and had I gotten it into the water, I make no question, but I
should have begun the maddest voyage, and the most unlikely to be
performed, that ever was undertaken.
But all my devices to get it into the water failed me; though they cost
me infinite labour too. It lay about one hundred yards from the water,
and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was up hill towards the
creek. Well, to take away this discouragement, I resolved to dig into
the surface of the earth, and so make a declivity: this I began, and it
cost me a prodigious deal of pains (but who grudge pains who have their
deliverance in view?); but when this was worked through, and this
difficulty managed, it was still much the same, for I could no more stir
the canoe than I could the other boat. Then I measured the distance of
ground, and resolved to cut a dock or canal, to bring the water up to the
canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe down to the water. Well, I
began this work; and when I began to enter upon it, and calculate how
deep it was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff was to be thrown out, I
found that, by the number of hands I had, being none but my own, it must
have been ten or twelve years before I could have gone through with it;
for the shore lay so high, that at the upper end it must have been at
least twenty feet deep; so at length, though with great reluctancy, I
gave this attempt over also.
This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though too late, the folly of
beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of
our own strength to go through with it.
In the middle of this work I finished my fourth year in this place, and
kept my anniversary with the same devotion, and with as much comfort as
ever before; for, by a constant study and serious application to the Word
of God, and by the assistance of His grace, I gained a different
knowledge from what I had before. I entertained different notions of
things. I looked now upon the world as a thing remote, which I had
nothing to do with, no expectations from, and, indeed, no desires about:
in a word, I had nothing indeed to do with it, nor was ever likely to
have, so I thought it looked, as we may perhaps look upon it
hereafter--viz. as a place I had lived in, but was come out of it; and
well might I say, as Father Abraham to Dives, "Between me and thee is a
great gulf fixed."
In the first place, I was removed from all the wickedness of the world
here; I had neither the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, nor the
pride of life. I had nothing to covet, for I had all that I was now
capable of enjoying; I was lord of the whole manor; or, if I pleased, I
might call myself king or emperor over the whole country which I had
possession of: there were no rivals; I had no competitor, none to dispute
sovereignty or command with me: I might have raised ship-loadings of
corn, but I had no use for it; so I let as little grow as I thought
enough for my occasion. I had tortoise or turtle enough, but now and
then one was as much as I could put to any use: I had timber enough to
have built a fleet of ships; and I had grapes enough to have made wine,
or to have cured into raisins, to have loaded that fleet when it had been
built.
But all I could make use of was all that was valuable: I had enough to
eat and supply my wants, and what was all the rest to me? If I killed
more flesh than I could eat, the dog must eat it, or vermin; if I sowed
more corn than I could eat, it must be spoiled; the trees that I cut down
were lying to rot on the ground; I could make no more use of them but for
fuel, and that I had no occasion for but to dress my food.
In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to me, upon just
reflection, that all the good things of this world are no farther good to
us than they are for our use; and that, whatever we may heap up to give
others, we enjoy just as much as we can use, and no more. The most
covetous, griping miser in the world would have been cured of the vice of
covetousness if he had been in my case; for I possessed infinitely more
than I knew what to do with. I had no room for desire, except it was of
things which I had not, and they were but trifles, though, indeed, of
great use to me. I had, as I hinted before, a parcel of money, as well
gold as silver, about thirty-six pounds sterling. Alas! there the sorry,
useless stuff lay; I had no more manner of business for it; and often
thought with myself that I would have given a handful of it for a gross
of tobacco-pipes; or for a hand-mill to grind my corn; nay, I would have
given it all for a sixpenny-worth of turnip and carrot seed out of
England, or for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink. As it
was, I had not the least advantage by it or benefit from it; but there it
lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp of the cave in the wet
seasons; and if I had had the drawer full of diamonds, it had been the
same case--they had been of no manner of value to me, because of no use.
I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in itself than it
was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well as to my body. I
frequently sat down to meat with thankfulness, and admired the hand of
God's providence, which had thus spread my table in the wilderness. I
learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon
the dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted;
and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express
them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people
in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them,
because they see and covet something that He has not given them. All our
discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of
thankfulness for what we have.
Another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless would be so to
any one that should fall into such distress as mine was; and this was, to
compare my present condition with what I at first expected it would be;
nay, with what it would certainly have been, if the good providence of
God had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up nearer to the
shore, where I not only could come at her, but could bring what I got out
of her to the shore, for my relief and comfort; without which, I had
wanted for tools to work, weapons for defence, and gunpowder and shot for
getting my food.
I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing to myself, in
the most lively colours, how I must have acted if I had got nothing out
of the ship. How I could not have so much as got any food, except fish
and turtles; and that, as it was long before I found any of them, I must
have perished first; that I should have lived, if I had not perished,
like a mere savage; that if I had killed a goat or a fowl, by any
contrivance, I had no way to flay or open it, or part the flesh from the
skin and the bowels, or to cut it up; but must gnaw it with my teeth, and
pull it with my claws, like a beast.
These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of Providence to
me, and very thankful for my present condition, with all its hardships
and misfortunes; and this part also I cannot but recommend to the
reflection of those who are apt, in their misery, to say, "Is any
affliction like mine?" Let them consider how much worse the cases of
some people are, and their case might have been, if Providence had
thought fit.
I had another reflection, which assisted me also to comfort my mind with
hopes; and this was comparing my present situation with what I had
deserved, and had therefore reason to expect from the hand of Providence.
I had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of the knowledge and
fear of God. I had been well instructed by father and mother; neither
had they been wanting to me in their early endeavours to infuse a
religious awe of God into my mind, a sense of my duty, and what the
nature and end of my being required of me. But, alas! falling early into
the seafaring life, which of all lives is the most destitute of the fear
of God, though His terrors are always before them; I say, falling early
into the seafaring life, and into seafaring company, all that little
sense of religion which I had entertained was laughed out of me by my
messmates; by a hardened despising of dangers, and the views of death,
which grew habitual to me by my long absence from all manner of
opportunities to converse with anything but what was like myself, or to
hear anything that was good or tended towards it.
So void was I of everything that was good, or the least sense of what I
was, or was to be, that, in the greatest deliverances I enjoyed--such as
my escape from Sallee; my being taken up by the Portuguese master of the
ship; my being planted so well in the Brazils; my receiving the cargo
from England, and the like--I never had once the words "Thank God!" so
much as on my mind, or in my mouth; nor in the greatest distress had I so
much as a thought to pray to Him, or so much as to say, "Lord, have mercy
upon me!" no, nor to mention the name of God, unless it was to swear by,
and blaspheme it.
I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, as I have
already observed, on account of my wicked and hardened life past; and
when I looked about me, and considered what particular providences had
attended me since my coming into this place, and how God had dealt
bountifully with me--had not only punished me less than my iniquity had
deserved, but had so plentifully provided for me--this gave me great
hopes that my repentance was accepted, and that God had yet mercy in
store for me.
With these reflections I worked my mind up, not only to a resignation to
the will of God in the present disposition of my circumstances, but even
to a sincere thankfulness for my condition; and that I, who was yet a
living man, ought not to complain, seeing I had not the due punishment of
my sins; that I enjoyed so many mercies which I had no reason to have
expected in that place; that I ought never more to repine at my
condition, but to rejoice, and to give daily thanks for that daily bread,
which nothing but a crowd of wonders could have brought; that I ought to
consider I had been fed even by a miracle, even as great as that of
feeding Elijah by ravens, nay, by a long series of miracles; and that I
could hardly have named a place in the uninhabitable part of the world
where I could have been cast more to my advantage; a place where, as I
had no society, which was my affliction on one hand, so I found no
ravenous beasts, no furious wolves or tigers, to threaten my life; no
venomous creatures, or poisons, which I might feed on to my hurt; no
savages to murder and devour me. In a word, as my life was a life of
sorrow one way, so it was a life of mercy another; and I wanted nothing
to make it a life of comfort but to be able to make my sense of God's
goodness to me, and care over me in this condition, be my daily
consolation; and after I did make a just improvement on these things, I
went away, and was no more sad. I had now been here so long that many
things which I had brought on shore for my help were either quite gone,
or very much wasted and near spent.
My ink, as I observed, had been gone some time, all but a very little,
which I eked out with water, a little and a little, till it was so pale,
it scarce left any appearance of black upon the paper. As long as it
lasted I made use of it to minute down the days of the month on which any
remarkable thing happened to me; and first, by casting up times past, I
remembered that there was a strange concurrence of days in the various
providences which befell me, and which, if I had been superstitiously
inclined to observe days as fatal or fortunate, I might have had reason
to have looked upon with a great deal of curiosity.
First, I had observed that the same day that I broke away from my father
and friends and ran away to Hull, in order to go to sea, the same day
afterwards I was taken by the Sallee man-of-war, and made a slave; the
same day of the year that I escaped out of the wreck of that ship in
Yarmouth Roads, that same day-year afterwards I made my escape from
Sallee in a boat; the same day of the year I was born on--viz. the 30th
of September, that same day I had my life so miraculously saved
twenty-six years after, when I was cast on shore in this island; so that
my wicked life and my solitary life began both on a day.
The next thing to my ink being wasted was that of my bread--I mean the
biscuit which I brought out of the ship; this I had husbanded to the last
degree, allowing myself but one cake of bread a-day for above a year; and
yet I was quite without bread for near a year before I got any corn of my
own, and great reason I had to be thankful that I had any at all, the
getting it being, as has been already observed, next to miraculous.
My clothes, too, began to decay; as to linen, I had had none a good
while, except some chequered shirts which I found in the chests of the
other seamen, and which I carefully preserved; because many times I could
bear no other clothes on but a shirt; and it was a very great help to me
that I had, among all the men's clothes of the ship, almost three dozen
of shirts. There were also, indeed, several thick watch-coats of the
seamen's which were left, but they were too hot to wear; and though it is
true that the weather was so violently hot that there was no need of
clothes, yet I could not go quite naked--no, though I had been inclined
to it, which I was not--nor could I abide the thought of it, though I was
alone. The reason why I could not go naked was, I could not bear the
heat of the sun so well when quite naked as with some clothes on; nay,
the very heat frequently blistered my skin: whereas, with a shirt on, the
air itself made some motion, and whistling under the shirt, was twofold
cooler than without it. No more could I ever bring myself to go out in
the heat of the sun without a cap or a hat; the heat of the sun, beating
with such violence as it does in that place, would give me the headache
presently, by darting so directly on my head, without a cap or hat on, so
that I could not bear it; whereas, if I put on my hat it would presently
go away.
Upon these views I began to consider about putting the few rags I had,
which I called clothes, into some order; I had worn out all the
waistcoats I had, and my business was now to try if I could not make
jackets out of the great watch-coats which I had by me, and with such
other materials as I had; so I set to work, tailoring, or rather, indeed,
botching, for I made most piteous work of it. However, I made shift to
make two or three new waistcoats, which I hoped would serve me a great
while: as for breeches or drawers, I made but a very sorry shift indeed
till afterwards.
I have mentioned that I saved the skins of all the creatures that I
killed, I mean four-footed ones, and I had them hung up, stretched out
with sticks in the sun, by which means some of them were so dry and hard
that they were fit for little, but others were very useful. The first
thing I made of these was a great cap for my head, with the hair on the
outside, to shoot off the rain; and this I performed so well, that after
I made me a suit of clothes wholly of these skins--that is to say, a
waistcoat, and breeches open at the knees, and both loose, for they were
rather wanting to keep me cool than to keep me warm. I must not omit to
acknowledge that they were wretchedly made; for if I was a bad carpenter,
I was a worse tailor. However, they were such as I made very good shift
with, and when I was out, if it happened to rain, the hair of my
waistcoat and cap being outermost, I was kept very dry.
After this, I spent a great deal of time and pains to make an umbrella; I
was, indeed, in great want of one, and had a great mind to make one; I
had seen them made in the Brazils, where they are very useful in the
great heats there, and I felt the heats every jot as great here, and
greater too, being nearer the equinox; besides, as I was obliged to be
much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, as well for the rains as
the heats. I took a world of pains with it, and was a great while before
I could make anything likely to hold: nay, after I had thought I had hit
the way, I spoiled two or three before I made one to my mind: but at last
I made one that answered indifferently well: the main difficulty I found
was to make it let down. I could make it spread, but if it did not let
down too, and draw in, it was not portable for me any way but just over
my head, which would not do. However, at last, as I said, I made one to
answer, and covered it with skins, the hair upwards, so that it cast off
the rain like a pent-house, and kept off the sun so effectually, that I
could walk out in the hottest of the weather with greater advantage than
I could before in the coolest, and when I had no need of it could close
it, and carry it under my arm.
Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely composed by
resigning myself to the will of God, and throwing myself wholly upon the
disposal of His providence. This made my life better than sociable, for
when I began to regret the want of conversation I would ask myself,
whether thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts, and (as I hope I
may say) with even God Himself, by ejaculations, was not better than the
utmost enjoyment of human society in the world?
CHAPTER X--TAMES GOATS
I cannot say that after this, for five years, any extraordinary thing
happened to me, but I lived on in the same course, in the same posture
and place, as before; the chief things I was employed in, besides my
yearly labour of planting my barley and rice, and curing my raisins, of
both which I always kept up just enough to have sufficient stock of one
year's provisions beforehand; I say, besides this yearly labour, and my
daily pursuit of going out with my gun, I had one labour, to make a
canoe, which at last I finished: so that, by digging a canal to it of six
feet wide and four feet deep, I brought it into the creek, almost half a
mile. As for the first, which was so vastly big, for I made it without
considering beforehand, as I ought to have done, how I should be able to
launch it, so, never being able to bring it into the water, or bring the
water to it, I was obliged to let it lie where it was as a memorandum to
teach me to be wiser the next time: indeed, the next time, though I could
not get a tree proper for it, and was in a place where I could not get
the water to it at any less distance than, as I have said, near half a
mile, yet, as I saw it was practicable at last, I never gave it over; and
though I was near two years about it, yet I never grudged my labour, in
hopes of having a boat to go off to sea at last.
However, though my little periagua was finished, yet the size of it was
not at all answerable to the design which I had in view when I made the
first; I mean of venturing over to the _terra firma_, where it was above
forty miles broad; accordingly, the smallness of my boat assisted to put
an end to that design, and now I thought no more of it. As I had a boat,
my next design was to make a cruise round the island; for as I had been
on the other side in one place, crossing, as I have already described it,
over the land, so the discoveries I made in that little journey made me
very eager to see other parts of the coast; and now I had a boat, I
thought of nothing but sailing round the island.
For this purpose, that I might do everything with discretion and
consideration, I fitted up a little mast in my boat, and made a sail too
out of some of the pieces of the ship's sails which lay in store, and of
which I had a great stock by me. Having fitted my mast and sail, and
tried the boat, I found she would sail very well; then I made little
lockers or boxes at each end of my boat, to put provisions, necessaries,
ammunition, &c., into, to be kept dry, either from rain or the spray of
the sea; and a little, long, hollow place I cut in the inside of the
boat, where I could lay my gun, making a flap to hang down over it to
keep it dry.
I fixed my umbrella also in the step at the stern, like a mast, to stand
over my head, and keep the heat of the sun off me, like an awning; and
thus I every now and then took a little voyage upon the sea, but never
went far out, nor far from the little creek. At last, being eager to
view the circumference of my little kingdom, I resolved upon my cruise;
and accordingly I victualled my ship for the voyage, putting in two dozen
of loaves (cakes I should call them) of barley-bread, an earthen pot full
of parched rice (a food I ate a good deal of), a little bottle of rum,
half a goat, and powder and shot for killing more, and two large
watch-coats, of those which, as I mentioned before, I had saved out of
the seamen's chests; these I took, one to lie upon, and the other to
cover me in the night.
It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my reign--or my
captivity, which you please--that I set out on this voyage, and I found
it much longer than I expected; for though the island itself was not very
large, yet when I came to the east side of it, I found a great ledge of
rocks lie out about two leagues into the sea, some above water, some
under it; and beyond that a shoal of sand, lying dry half a league more,
so that I was obliged to go a great way out to sea to double the point.
When I first discovered them, I was going to give over my enterprise, and
come back again, not knowing how far it might oblige me to go out to sea;
and above all, doubting how I should get back again: so I came to an
anchor; for I had made a kind of an anchor with a piece of a broken
grappling which I got out of the ship.
Having secured my boat, I took my gun and went on shore, climbing up a
hill, which seemed to overlook that point where I saw the full extent of
it, and resolved to venture.
In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I perceived a strong,
and indeed a most furious current, which ran to the east, and even came
close to the point; and I took the more notice of it because I saw there
might be some danger that when I came into it I might be carried out to
sea by the strength of it, and not be able to make the island again; and
indeed, had I not got first upon this hill, I believe it would have been
so; for there was the same current on the other side the island, only
that it set off at a further distance, and I saw there was a strong eddy
under the shore; so I had nothing to do but to get out of the first
current, and I should presently be in an eddy.
I lay here, however, two days, because the wind blowing pretty fresh at
ESE., and that being just contrary to the current, made a great breach of
the sea upon the point: so that it was not safe for me to keep too close
to the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off, because of the
stream.
The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated overnight, the sea
was calm, and I ventured: but I am a warning to all rash and ignorant
pilots; for no sooner was I come to the point, when I was not even my
boat's length from the shore, but I found myself in a great depth of
water, and a current like the sluice of a mill; it carried my boat along
with it with such violence that all I could do could not keep her so much
as on the edge of it; but I found it hurried me farther and farther out
from the eddy, which was on my left hand. There was no wind stirring to
help me, and all I could do with my paddles signified nothing: and now I
began to give myself over for lost; for as the current was on both sides
of the island, I knew in a few leagues distance they must join again, and
then I was irrecoverably gone; nor did I see any possibility of avoiding
it; so that I had no prospect before me but of perishing, not by the sea,
for that was calm enough, but of starving from hunger. I had, indeed,
found a tortoise on the shore, as big almost as I could lift, and had
tossed it into the boat; and I had a great jar of fresh water, that is to
say, one of my earthen pots; but what was all this to being driven into
the vast ocean, where, to be sure, there was no shore, no mainland or
island, for a thousand leagues at least?
And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of God to make even the
most miserable condition of mankind worse. Now I looked back upon my
desolate, solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world and all
the happiness my heart could wish for was to be but there again. I
stretched out my hands to it, with eager wishes--"O happy desert!" said
I, "I shall never see thee more. O miserable creature! whither am
going?" Then I reproached myself with my unthankful temper, and that I
had repined at my solitary condition; and now what would I give to be on
shore there again! Thus, we never see the true state of our condition
till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value
what we enjoy, but by the want of it. It is scarcely possible to imagine
the consternation I was now in, being driven from my beloved island (for
so it appeared to me now to be) into the wide ocean, almost two leagues,
and in the utmost despair of ever recovering it again. However, I worked
hard till, indeed, my strength was almost exhausted, and kept my boat as
much to the northward, that is, towards the side of the current which the
eddy lay on, as possibly I could; when about noon, as the sun passed the
meridian, I thought I felt a little breeze of wind in my face, springing
up from SSE. This cheered my heart a little, and especially when, in
about half-an-hour more, it blew a pretty gentle gale. By this time I
had got at a frightful distance from the island, and had the least cloudy
or hazy weather intervened, I had been undone another way, too; for I had
no compass on board, and should never have known how to have steered
towards the island, if I had but once lost sight of it; but the weather
continuing clear, I applied myself to get up my mast again, and spread my
sail, standing away to the north as much as possible, to get out of the
current.
Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began to stretch away, I
saw even by the clearness of the water some alteration of the current was
near; for where the current was so strong the water was foul; but
perceiving the water clear, I found the current abate; and presently I
found to the east, at about half a mile, a breach of the sea upon some
rocks: these rocks I found caused the current to part again, and as the
main stress of it ran away more southerly, leaving the rocks to the
north-east, so the other returned by the repulse of the rocks, and made a
strong eddy, which ran back again to the north-west, with a very sharp
stream.
They who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to them upon the
ladder, or to be rescued from thieves just going to murder them, or who
have been in such extremities, may guess what my present surprise of joy
was, and how gladly I put my boat into the stream of this eddy; and the
wind also freshening, how gladly I spread my sail to it, running
cheerfully before the wind, and with a strong tide or eddy underfoot.
This eddy carried me about a league on my way back again, directly
towards the island, but about two leagues more to the northward than the
current which carried me away at first; so that when I came near the
island, I found myself open to the northern shore of it, that is to say,
the other end of the island, opposite to that which I went out from.
When I had made something more than a league of way by the help of this
current or eddy, I found it was spent, and served me no further.
However, I found that being between two great currents--viz. that on the
south side, which had hurried me away, and that on the north, which lay
about a league on the other side; I say, between these two, in the wake
of the island, I found the water at least still, and running no way; and
having still a breeze of wind fair for me, I kept on steering directly
for the island, though not making such fresh way as I did before.
About four o'clock in the evening, being then within a league of the
island, I found the point of the rocks which occasioned this disaster
stretching out, as is described before, to the southward, and casting off
the current more southerly, had, of course, made another eddy to the
north; and this I found very strong, but not directly setting the way my
course lay, which was due west, but almost full north. However, having a
fresh gale, I stretched across this eddy, slanting north-west; and in
about an hour came within about a mile of the shore, where, it being
smooth water, I soon got to land.
When I was on shore, God I fell on my knees and gave God thanks for my
deliverance, resolving to lay aside all thoughts of my deliverance by my
boat; and refreshing myself with such things as I had, I brought my boat
close to the shore, in a little cove that I had spied under some trees,
and laid me down to sleep, being quite spent with the labour and fatigue
of the voyage.
I was now at a great loss which way to get home with my boat! I had run
so much hazard, and knew too much of the case, to think of attempting it
by the way I went out; and what might be at the other side (I mean the
west side) I knew not, nor had I any mind to run any more ventures; so I
resolved on the next morning to make my way westward along the shore, and
to see if there was no creek where I might lay up my frigate in safety,
so as to have her again if I wanted her. In about three miles or
thereabouts, coasting the shore, I came to a very good inlet or bay,
about a mile over, which narrowed till it came to a very little rivulet
or brook, where I found a very convenient harbour for my boat, and where
she lay as if she had been in a little dock made on purpose for her.
Here I put in, and having stowed my boat very safe, I went on shore to
look about me, and see where I was.
I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where I had been
before, when I travelled on foot to that shore; so taking nothing out of
my boat but my gun and umbrella, for it was exceedingly hot, I began my
march. The way was comfortable enough after such a voyage as I had been
upon, and I reached my old bower in the evening, where I found everything
standing as I left it; for I always kept it in good order, being, as I
said before, my country house.
I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade to rest my limbs, for
I was very weary, and fell asleep; but judge you, if you can, that read
my story, what a surprise I must be in when I was awaked out of my sleep
by a voice calling me by my name several times, "Robin, Robin, Robin
Crusoe: poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you, Robin Crusoe? Where are you?
Where have you been?"
I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or part of the
day, and with walking the latter part, that I did not wake thoroughly;
but dozing thought I dreamed that somebody spoke to me; but as the voice
continued to repeat, "Robin Crusoe, Robin Crusoe," at last I began to
wake more perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frightened, and started
up in the utmost consternation; but no sooner were my eyes open, but I
saw my Poll sitting on the top of the hedge; and immediately knew that it
was he that spoke to me; for just in such bemoaning language I had used
to talk to him and teach him; and he had learned it so perfectly that he
would sit upon my finger, and lay his bill close to my face and cry,
"Poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you? Where have you been? How came you
here?" and such things as I had taught him.
However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and that indeed it could
be nobody else, it was a good while before I could compose myself.
First, I was amazed how the creature got thither; and then, how he should
just keep about the place, and nowhere else; but as I was well satisfied
it could be nobody but honest Poll, I got over it; and holding out my
hand, and calling him by his name, "Poll," the sociable creature came to
me, and sat upon my thumb, as he used to do, and continued talking to me,
"Poor Robin Crusoe! and how did I come here? and where had I been?" just
as if he had been overjoyed to see me again; and so I carried him home
along with me.
I had now had enough of rambling to sea for some time, and had enough to
do for many days to sit still and reflect upon the danger I had been in.
I would have been very glad to have had my boat again on my side of the
island; but I knew not how it was practicable to get it about. As to the
east side of the island, which I had gone round, I knew well enough there
was no venturing that way; my very heart would shrink, and my very blood
run chill, but to think of it; and as to the other side of the island, I
did not know how it might be there; but supposing the current ran with
the same force against the shore at the east as it passed by it on the
other, I might run the same risk of being driven down the stream, and
carried by the island, as I had been before of being carried away from
it: so with these thoughts, I contented myself to be without any boat,
though it had been the product of so many months' labour to make it, and
of so many more to get it into the sea.
In this government of my temper I remained near a year; and lived a very
sedate, retired life, as you may well suppose; and my thoughts being very
much composed as to my condition, and fully comforted in resigning myself
to the dispositions of Providence, I thought I lived really very happily
in all things except that of society.
I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic exercises which my
necessities put me upon applying myself to; and I believe I should, upon
occasion, have made a very good carpenter, especially considering how few
tools I had.
Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection in my earthenware,
and contrived well enough to make them with a wheel, which I found
infinitely easier and better; because I made things round and shaped,
which before were filthy things indeed to look on. But I think I was
never more vain of my own performance, or more joyful for anything I
found out, than for my being able to make a tobacco-pipe; and though it
was a very ugly, clumsy thing when it was done, and only burned red, like
other earthenware, yet as it was hard and firm, and would draw the smoke,
I was exceedingly comforted with it, for I had been always used to smoke;
and there were pipes in the ship, but I forgot them at first, not
thinking there was tobacco in the island; and afterwards, when I searched
the ship again, I could not come at any pipes.
In my wicker-ware also I improved much, and made abundance of necessary
baskets, as well as my invention showed me; though not very handsome, yet
they were such as were very handy and convenient for laying things up in,
or fetching things home. For example, if I killed a goat abroad, I could
hang it up in a tree, flay it, dress it, and cut it in pieces, and bring
it home in a basket; and the like by a turtle; I could cut it up, take
out the eggs and a piece or two of the flesh, which was enough for me,
and bring them home in a basket, and leave the rest behind me. Also,
large deep baskets were the receivers of my corn, which I always rubbed
out as soon as it was dry and cured, and kept it in great baskets.
I began now to perceive my powder abated considerably; this was a want
which it was impossible for me to supply, and I began seriously to
consider what I must do when I should have no more powder; that is to
say, how I should kill any goats. I had, as is observed in the third
year of my being here, kept a young kid, and bred her up tame, and I was
in hopes of getting a he-goat; but I could not by any means bring it to
pass, till my kid grew an old goat; and as I could never find in my heart
to kill her, she died at last of mere age.
But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and, as I have said,
my ammunition growing low, I set myself to study some art to trap and
snare the goats, to see whether I could not catch some of them alive; and
particularly I wanted a she-goat great with young. For this purpose I
made snares to hamper them; and I do believe they were more than once
taken in them; but my tackle was not good, for I had no wire, and I
always found them broken and my bait devoured. At length I resolved to
try a pitfall; so I dug several large pits in the earth, in places where
I had observed the goats used to feed, and over those pits I placed
hurdles of my own making too, with a great weight upon them; and several
times I put ears of barley and dry rice without setting the trap; and I
could easily perceive that the goats had gone in and eaten up the corn,
for I could see the marks of their feet. At length I set three traps in
one night, and going the next morning I found them, all standing, and yet
the bait eaten and gone; this was very discouraging. However, I altered
my traps; and not to trouble you with particulars, going one morning to
see my traps, I found in one of them a large old he-goat; and in one of
the others three kids, a male and two females.
As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him; he was so fierce I
durst not go into the pit to him; that is to say, to bring him away
alive, which was what I wanted. I could have killed him, but that was
not my business, nor would it answer my end; so I even let him out, and
he ran away as if he had been frightened out of his wits. But I did not
then know what I afterwards learned, that hunger will tame a lion. If I
had let him stay three or four days without food, and then have carried
him some water to drink and then a little corn, he would have been as
tame as one of the kids; for they are mighty sagacious, tractable
creatures, where they are well used.
However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better at that time:
then I went to the three kids, and taking them one by one, I tied them
with strings together, and with some difficulty brought them all home.
It was a good while before they would feed; but throwing them some sweet
corn, it tempted them, and they began to be tame. And now I found that
if I expected to supply myself with goats' flesh, when I had no powder or
shot left, breeding some up tame was my only way, when, perhaps, I might
have them about my house like a flock of sheep. But then it occurred to
me that I must keep the tame from the wild, or else they would always run
wild when they grew up; and the only way for this was to have some
enclosed piece of ground, well fenced either with hedge or pale, to keep
them in so effectually, that those within might not break out, or those
without break in.
This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands yet, as I saw there
was an absolute necessity for doing it, my first work was to find out a
proper piece of ground, where there was likely to be herbage for them to
eat, water for them to drink, and cover to keep them from the sun.
Those who understand such enclosures will think I had very little
contrivance when I pitched upon a place very proper for all these (being
a plain, open piece of meadow land, or savannah, as our people call it in
the western colonies), which had two or three little drills of fresh
water in it, and at one end was very woody--I say, they will smile at my
forecast, when I shall tell them I began by enclosing this piece of
ground in such a manner that, my hedge or pale must have been at least
two miles about. Nor was the madness of it so great as to the compass,
for if it was ten miles about, I was like to have time enough to do it
in; but I did not consider that my goats would be as wild in so much
compass as if they had had the whole island, and I should have so much
room to chase them in that I should never catch them.
My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe, about fifty yards when this
thought occurred to me; so I presently stopped short, and, for the
beginning, I resolved to enclose a piece of about one hundred and fifty
yards in length, and one hundred yards in breadth, which, as it would
maintain as many as I should have in any reasonable time, so, as my stock
increased, I could add more ground to my enclosure.
This was acting with some prudence, and I went to work with courage. I
was about three months hedging in the first piece; and, till I had done
it, I tethered the three kids in the best part of it, and used them to
feed as near me as possible, to make them familiar; and very often I
would go and carry them some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, and
feed them out of my hand; so that after my enclosure was finished and I
let them loose, they would follow me up and down, bleating after me for a
handful of corn.
This answered my end, and in about a year and a half I had a flock of
about twelve goats, kids and all; and in two years more I had
three-and-forty, besides several that I took and killed for my food.
After that, I enclosed five several pieces of ground to feed them in,
with little pens to drive them to take them as I wanted, and gates out of
one piece of ground into another.
But this was not all; for now I not only had goat's flesh to feed on when
I pleased, but milk too--a thing which, indeed, in the beginning, I did
not so much as think of, and which, when it came into my thoughts, was
really an agreeable surprise, for now I set up my dairy, and had
sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day. And as Nature, who gives
supplies of food to every creature, dictates even naturally how to make
use of it, so I, that had never milked a cow, much less a goat, or seen
butter or cheese made only when I was a boy, after a great many essays
and miscarriages, made both butter and cheese at last, also salt (though
I found it partly made to my hand by the heat of the sun upon some of the
rocks of the sea), and never wanted it afterwards. How mercifully can
our Creator treat His creatures, even in those conditions in which they
seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction! How can He sweeten the
bitterest providences, and give us cause to praise Him for dungeons and
prisons! What a table was here spread for me in the wilderness, where I
saw nothing at first but to perish for hunger!
CHAPTER XI--FINDS PRINT OF MAN'S FOOT ON THE SAND
It would have made a Stoic smile to have seen me and my little family sit
down to dinner. There was my majesty the prince and lord of the whole
island; I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command; I
could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away, and no rebels among all
my subjects. Then, to see how like a king I dined, too, all alone,
attended by my servants! Poll, as if he had been my favourite, was the
only person permitted to talk to me. My dog, who was now grown old and
crazy, and had found no species to multiply his kind upon, sat always at
my right hand; and two cats, one on one side of the table and one on the
other, expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a mark of especial
favour.
But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore at first, for
they were both of them dead, and had been interred near my habitation by
my own hand; but one of them having multiplied by I know not what kind of
creature, these were two which I had preserved tame; whereas the rest ran
wild in the woods, and became indeed troublesome to me at last, for they
would often come into my house, and plunder me too, till at last I was
obliged to shoot them, and did kill a great many; at length they left me.
With this attendance and in this plentiful manner I lived; neither could
I be said to want anything but society; and of that, some time after
this, I was likely to have too much.
I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have the use of my
boat, though very loath to run any more hazards; and therefore sometimes
I sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and at other times I
sat myself down contented enough without her. But I had a strange
uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the island where, as I
have said in my last ramble, I went up the hill to see how the shore lay,
and how the current set, that I might see what I had to do: this
inclination increased upon me every day, and at length I resolved to
travel thither by land, following the edge of the shore. I did so; but
had any one in England met such a man as I was, it must either have
frightened him, or raised a great deal of laughter; and as I frequently
stood still to look at myself, I could not but smile at the notion of my
travelling through Yorkshire with such an equipage, and in such a dress.
Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure, as follows.
I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin, with a flap
hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot the rain
off from running into my neck, nothing being so hurtful in these climates
as the rain upon the flesh under the clothes.
I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming down to about the
middle of the thighs, and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the same; the
breeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung down
such a length on either side that, like pantaloons, it reached to the
middle of my legs; stockings and shoes I had none, but had made me a pair
of somethings, I scarce knew what to call them, like buskins, to flap
over my legs, and lace on either side like spatterdashes, but of a most
barbarous shape, as indeed were all the rest of my clothes.
I had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which I drew together with
two thongs of the same instead of buckles, and in a kind of a frog on
either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a little saw and
a hatchet, one on one side and one on the other. I had another belt not
so broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder,
and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, both made of
goat's skin too, in one of which hung my powder, in the other my shot.
At my back I carried my basket, and on my shoulder my gun, and over my
head a great clumsy, ugly, goat's-skin umbrella, but which, after all,
was the most necessary thing I had about me next to my gun. As for my
face, the colour of it was really not so mulatto-like as one might expect
from a man not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten
degrees of the equinox. My beard I had once suffered to grow till it was
about a quarter of a yard long; but as I had both scissors and razors
sufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my upper lip,
which I had trimmed into a large pair of Mahometan whiskers, such as I
had seen worn by some Turks at Sallee, for the Moors did not wear such,
though the Turks did; of these moustachios, or whiskers, I will not say
they were long enough to hang my hat upon them, but they were of a length
and shape monstrous enough, and such as in England would have passed for
frightful.
But all this is by-the-bye; for as to my figure, I had so few to observe
me that it was of no manner of consequence, so I say no more of that. In
this kind of dress I went my new journey, and was out five or six days.
I travelled first along the sea-shore, directly to the place where I
first brought my boat to an anchor to get upon the rocks; and having no
boat now to take care of, I went over the land a nearer way to the same
height that I was upon before, when, looking forward to the points of the
rocks which lay out, and which I was obliged to double with my boat, as
is said above, I was surprised to see the sea all smooth and quiet--no
rippling, no motion, no current, any more there than in other places. I
was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved to spend some time
in the observing it, to see if nothing from the sets of the tide had
occasioned it; but I was presently convinced how it was--viz. that the
tide of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current of waters
from some great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this current,
and that, according as the wind blew more forcibly from the west or from
the north, this current came nearer or went farther from the shore; for,
waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock again, and then
the tide of ebb being made, I plainly saw the current again as before,
only that it ran farther off, being near half a league from the shore,
whereas in my case it set close upon the shore, and hurried me and my
canoe along with it, which at another time it would not have done.
This observation convinced me that I had nothing to do but to observe the
ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and I might very easily bring my boat
about the island again; but when I began to think of putting it in
practice, I had such terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the
danger I had been in, that I could not think of it again with any
patience, but, on the contrary, I took up another resolution, which was
more safe, though more laborious--and this was, that I would build, or
rather make, me another periagua or canoe, and so have one for one side
of the island, and one for the other.
You are to understand that now I had, as I may call it, two plantations
in the island--one my little fortification or tent, with the wall about
it, under the rock, with the cave behind me, which by this time I had
enlarged into several apartments or caves, one within another. One of
these, which was the driest and largest, and had a door out beyond my
wall or fortification--that is to say, beyond where my wall joined to the
rock--was all filled up with the large earthen pots of which I have given
an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would hold
five or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores of provisions,
especially my corn, some in the ear, cut off short from the straw, and
the other rubbed out with my hand.
As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or piles, those piles
grew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big, and spread so
very much, that there was not the least appearance, to any one's view, of
any habitation behind them.
Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land, and
upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn land, which I kept duly
cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in its
season; and whenever I had occasion for more corn, I had more land
adjoining as fit as that.
Besides this, I had my country seat, and I had now a tolerable plantation
there also; for, first, I had my little bower, as I called it, which I
kept in repair--that is to say, I kept the hedge which encircled it in
constantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladder standing always in
the inside. I kept the trees, which at first were no more than stakes,
but were now grown very firm and tall, always cut, so that they might
spread and grow thick and wild, and make the more agreeable shade, which
they did effectually to my mind. In the middle of this I had my tent
always standing, being a piece of a sail spread over poles, set up for
that purpose, and which never wanted any repair or renewing; and under
this I had made me a squab or couch with the skins of the creatures I had
killed, and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such as
belonged to our sea-bedding, which I had saved; and a great watch-coat to
cover me. And here, whenever I had occasion to be absent from my chief
seat, I took up my country habitation.
Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say my
goats, and I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence and
enclose this ground. I was so anxious to see it kept entire, lest the
goats should break through, that I never left off till, with infinite
labour, I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, and
so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and there
was scarce room to put a hand through between them; which afterwards,
when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy season, made
the enclosure strong like a wall, indeed stronger than any wall.
This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared no pains
to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable support,
for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at my hand
would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and cheese for me as
long as I lived in the place, if it were to be forty years; and that
keeping them in my reach depended entirely upon my perfecting my
enclosures to such a degree that I might be sure of keeping them
together; which by this method, indeed, I so effectually secured, that
when these little stakes began to grow, I had planted them so very thick
that I was forced to pull some of them up again.
In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally depended
on for my winter store of raisins, and which I never failed to preserve
very carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of my whole diet;
and indeed they were not only agreeable, but medicinal, wholesome,
nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree.
As this was also about half-way between my other habitation and the place
where I had laid up my boat, I generally stayed and lay here in my way
thither, for I used frequently to visit my boat; and I kept all things
about or belonging to her in very good order. Sometimes I went out in
her to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages would I go, scarcely
ever above a stone's cast or two from the shore, I was so apprehensive of
being hurried out of my knowledge again by the currents or winds, or any
other accident. But now I come to a new scene of my life. It happened
one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised
with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain
to be seen on the sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had
seen an apparition. I listened, I looked round me, but I could hear
nothing, nor see anything; I went up to a rising ground to look farther;
I went up the shore and down the shore, but it was all one; I could see
no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there
were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was
no room for that, for there was exactly the print of a foot--toes, heel,
and every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor could I in
the least imagine; but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man
perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification,
not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the last
degree, looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking every
bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man. Nor
is it possible to describe how many various shapes my affrighted
imagination represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were found
every moment in my fancy, and what strange, unaccountable whimsies came
into my thoughts by the way.
When I came to my castle (for so I think I called it ever after this), I
fled into it like one pursued. Whether I went over by the ladder, as
first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which I had called a
door, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remember the next morning, for
never frightened hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of
mind than I to this retreat.
I slept none that night; the farther I was from the occasion of my
fright, the greater my apprehensions were, which is something contrary to
the nature of such things, and especially to the usual practice of all
creatures in fear; but I was so embarrassed with my own frightful ideas
of the thing, that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to myself,
even though I was now a great way off. Sometimes I fancied it must be
the devil, and reason joined in with me in this supposition, for how
should any other thing in human shape come into the place? Where was the
vessel that brought them? What marks were there of any other footstep?
And how was it possible a man should come there? But then, to think that
Satan should take human shape upon him in such a place, where there could
be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print of his foot
behind him, and that even for no purpose too, for he could not be sure I
should see it--this was an amusement the other way. I considered that
the devil might have found out abundance of other ways to have terrified
me than this of the single print of a foot; that as I lived quite on the
other side of the island, he would never have been so simple as to leave
a mark in a place where it was ten thousand to one whether I should ever
see it or not, and in the sand too, which the first surge of the sea,
upon a high wind, would have defaced entirely. All this seemed
inconsistent with the thing itself and with all the notions we usually
entertain of the subtlety of the devil.
Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of all
apprehensions of its being the devil; and I presently concluded then that
it must be some more dangerous creature--viz. that it must be some of the
savages of the mainland opposite who had wandered out to sea in their
canoes, and either driven by the currents or by contrary winds, had made
the island, and had been on shore, but were gone away again to sea; being
as loath, perhaps, to have stayed in this desolate island as I would have
been to have had them.
While these reflections were rolling in my mind, I was very thankful in
my thoughts that I was so happy as not to be thereabouts at that time, or
that they did not see my boat, by which they would have concluded that
some inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps have searched farther
for me. Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination about their having
found out my boat, and that there were people here; and that, if so, I
should certainly have them come again in greater numbers and devour me;
that if it should happen that they should not find me, yet they would
find my enclosure, destroy all my corn, and carry away all my flock of
tame goats, and I should perish at last for mere want.
Thus my fear banished all my religious hope, all that former confidence
in God, which was founded upon such wonderful experience as I had had of
His goodness; as if He that had fed me by miracle hitherto could not
preserve, by His power, the provision which He had made for me by His
goodness. I reproached myself with my laziness, that would not sow any
more corn one year than would just serve me till the next season, as if
no accident could intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that was upon
the ground; and this I thought so just a reproof, that I resolved for the
future to have two or three years' corn beforehand; so that, whatever
might come, I might not perish for want of bread.
How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man! and by what
secret different springs are the affections hurried about, as different
circumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day we
seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-morrow we fear,
nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. This was exemplified in me,
at this time, in the most lively manner imaginable; for I, whose only
affliction was that I seemed banished from human society, that I was
alone, circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, and
condemned to what I call silent life; that I was as one whom Heaven
thought not worthy to be numbered among the living, or to appear among
the rest of His creatures; that to have seen one of my own species would
have seemed to me a raising me from death to life, and the greatest
blessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme blessing of salvation,
could bestow; I say, that I should now tremble at the very apprehensions
of seeing a man, and was ready to sink into the ground at but the shadow
or silent appearance of a man having set his foot in the island.
Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me a great many
curious speculations afterwards, when I had a little recovered my first
surprise. I considered that this was the station of life the infinitely
wise and good providence of God had determined for me; that as I could
not foresee what the ends of Divine wisdom might be in all this, so I was
not to dispute His sovereignty; who, as I was His creature, had an
undoubted right, by creation, to govern and dispose of me absolutely as
He thought fit; and who, as I was a creature that had offended Him, had
likewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment He thought
fit; and that it was my part to submit to bear His indignation, because I
had sinned against Him. I then reflected, that as God, who was not only
righteous but omnipotent, had thought fit thus to punish and afflict me,
so He was able to deliver me: that if He did not think fit to do so, it
was my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to His
will; and, on the other hand, it was my duty also to hope in Him, pray to
Him, and quietly to attend to the dictates and directions of His daily
providence.
These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say weeks and
months: and one particular effect of my cogitations on this occasion I
cannot omit. One morning early, lying in my bed, and filled with
thoughts about my danger from the appearances of savages, I found it
discomposed me very much; upon which these words of the Scripture came
into my thoughts, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver
thee, and thou shalt glorify Me." Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my
bed, my heart was not only comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to
pray earnestly to God for deliverance: when I had done praying I took up
my Bible, and opening it to read, the first words that presented to me
were, "Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen
thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord." It is impossible to express the
comfort this gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid down the book, and
was no more sad, at least on that occasion.
In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it
came into my thoughts one day that all this might be a mere chimera of my
own, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when I came on
shore from my boat: this cheered me up a little, too, and I began to
persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but my
own foot; and why might I not come that way from the boat, as well as I
was going that way to the boat? Again, I considered also that I could by
no means tell for certain where I had trod, and where I had not; and that
if, at last, this was only the print of my own foot, I had played the
part of those fools who try to make stories of spectres and apparitions,
and then are frightened at them more than anybody.
Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I had not
stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that I began to
starve for provisions; for I had little or nothing within doors but some
barley-cakes and water; then I knew that my goats wanted to be milked
too, which usually was my evening diversion: and the poor creatures were
in great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and, indeed, it almost
spoiled some of them, and almost dried up their milk. Encouraging
myself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing but the print of
one of my own feet, and that I might be truly said to start at my own
shadow, I began to go abroad again, and went to my country house to milk
my flock: but to see with what fear I went forward, how often I looked
behind me, how I was ready every now and then to lay down my basket and
run for my life, it would have made any one have thought I was haunted
with an evil conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly
frightened; and so, indeed, I had. However, I went down thus two or
three days, and having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder, and
to think there was really nothing in it but my own imagination; but I
could not persuade myself fully of this till I should go down to the
shore again, and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my own, and
see if there was any similitude or fitness, that I might be assured it
was my own foot: but when I came to the place, first, it appeared
evidently to me, that when I laid up my boat I could not possibly be on
shore anywhere thereabouts; secondly, when I came to measure the mark
with my own foot, I found my foot not so large by a great deal. Both
these things filled my head with new imaginations, and gave me the
vapours again to the highest degree, so that I shook with cold like one
in an ague; and I went home again, filled with the belief that some man
or men had been on shore there; or, in short, that the island was
inhabited, and I might be surprised before I was aware; and what course
to take for my security I knew not.
Oh, what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear! It
deprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for their
relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was, to throw down my
enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, lest the
enemy should find them, and then frequent the island in prospect of the
same or the like booty: then the simple thing of digging up my two
corn-fields, lest they should find such a grain there, and still be
prompted to frequent the island: then to demolish my bower and tent, that
they might not see any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted to look
farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting.
These were the subject of the first night's cogitations after I was come
home again, while the apprehensions which had so overrun my mind were
fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours. Thus, fear of danger is
ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, when apparent to
the eyes; and we find the burden of anxiety greater, by much, than the
evil which we are anxious about: and what was worse than all this, I had
not that relief in this trouble that from the resignation I used to
practise I hoped to have. I looked, I thought, like Saul, who complained
not only that the Philistines were upon him, but that God had forsaken
him; for I did not now take due ways to compose my mind, by crying to God
in my distress, and resting upon His providence, as I had done before,
for my defence and deliverance; which, if I had done, I had at least been
more cheerfully supported under this new surprise, and perhaps carried
through it with more resolution.
This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night; but in the morning
I fell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind, been as it were
tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, and waked much
better composed than I had ever been before. And now I began to think
sedately; and, upon debate with myself, I concluded that this island
(which was so exceedingly pleasant, fruitful, and no farther from the
mainland than as I had seen) was not so entirely abandoned as I might
imagine; that although there were no stated inhabitants who lived on the
spot, yet that there might sometimes come boats off from the shore, who,
either with design, or perhaps never but when they were driven by cross
winds, might come to this place; that I had lived there fifteen years now
and had not met with the least shadow or figure of any people yet; and
that, if at any time they should be driven here, it was probable they
went away again as soon as ever they could, seeing they had never thought
fit to fix here upon any occasion; that the most I could suggest any
danger from was from any casual accidental landing of straggling people
from the main, who, as it was likely, if they were driven hither, were
here against their wills, so they made no stay here, but went off again
with all possible speed; seldom staying one night on shore, lest they
should not have the help of the tides and daylight back again; and that,
therefore, I had nothing to do but to consider of some safe retreat, in
case I should see any savages land upon the spot.
Now, I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large as to bring
a door through again, which door, as I said, came out beyond where my
fortification joined to the rock: upon maturely considering this,
therefore, I resolved to draw me a second fortification, in the manner of
a semicircle, at a distance from my wall, just where I had planted a
double row of trees about twelve years before, of which I made mention:
these trees having been planted so thick before, they wanted but few
piles to be driven between them, that they might be thicker and stronger,
and my wall would be soon finished. So that I had now a double wall; and
my outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, and
everything I could think of, to make it strong; having in it seven little
holes, about as big as I might put my arm out at. In the inside of this
I thickened my wall to about ten feet thick with continually bringing
earth out of my cave, and laying it at the foot of the wall, and walking
upon it; and through the seven holes I contrived to plant the muskets, of
which I took notice that I had got seven on shore out of the ship; these
I planted like my cannon, and fitted them into frames, that held them
like a carriage, so that I could fire all the seven guns in two minutes'
time; this wall I was many a weary month in finishing, and yet never
thought myself safe till it was done.
When this was done I stuck all the ground without my wall, for a great
length every way, as full with stakes or sticks of the osier-like wood,
which I found so apt to grow, as they could well stand; insomuch that I
believe I might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty
large space between them and my wall, that I might have room to see an
enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees, if they
attempted to approach my outer wall.
Thus in two years' time I had a thick grove; and in five or six years'
time I had a wood before my dwelling, growing so monstrously thick and
strong that it was indeed perfectly impassable: and no men, of what kind
soever, could ever imagine that there was anything beyond it, much less a
habitation. As for the way which I proposed to myself to go in and out
(for I left no avenue), it was by setting two ladders, one to a part of
the rock which was low, and then broke in, and left room to place another
ladder upon that; so when the two ladders were taken down no man living
could come down to me without doing himself mischief; and if they had
come down, they were still on the outside of my outer wall.
Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my own
preservation; and it will be seen at length that they were not altogether
without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that time more than my
mere fear suggested to me.
CHAPTER XII--A CAVE RETREAT
While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my other affairs;
for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd of goats: they were
not only a ready supply to me on every occasion, and began to be
sufficient for me, without the expense of powder and shot, but also
without the fatigue of hunting after the wild ones; and I was loath to
lose the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse up over again.
For this purpose, after long consideration, I could think of but two ways
to preserve them: one was, to find another convenient place to dig a cave
underground, and to drive them into it every night; and the other was to
enclose two or three little bits of land, remote from one another, and as
much concealed as I could, where I might keep about half-a-dozen young
goats in each place; so that if any disaster happened to the flock in
general, I might be able to raise them again with little trouble and
time: and this though it would require a good deal of time and labour, I
thought was the most rational design.
Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most retired parts of the
island; and I pitched upon one, which was as private, indeed, as my heart
could wish: it was a little damp piece of ground in the middle of the
hollow and thick woods, where, as is observed, I almost lost myself once
before, endeavouring to come back that way from the eastern part of the
island. Here I found a clear piece of land, near three acres, so
surrounded with woods that it was almost an enclosure by nature; at
least, it did not want near so much labour to make it so as the other
piece of ground I had worked so hard at.
I immediately went to work with this piece of ground; and in less than a
month's time I had so fenced it round that my flock, or herd, call it
which you please, which were not so wild now as at first they might be
supposed to be, were well enough secured in it: so, without any further
delay, I removed ten young she-goats and two he-goats to this piece, and
when they were there I continued to perfect the fence till I had made it
as secure as the other; which, however, I did at more leisure, and it
took me up more time by a great deal. All this labour I was at the
expense of, purely from my apprehensions on account of the print of a
man's foot; for as yet I had never seen any human creature come near the
island; and I had now lived two years under this uneasiness, which,
indeed, made my life much less comfortable than it was before, as may be
well imagined by any who know what it is to live in the constant snare of
the fear of man. And this I must observe, with grief, too, that the
discomposure of my mind had great impression also upon the religious part
of my thoughts; for the dread and terror of falling into the hands of
savages and cannibals lay so upon my spirits, that I seldom found myself
in a due temper for application to my Maker; at least, not with the
sedate calmness and resignation of soul which I was wont to do: I rather
prayed to God as under great affliction and pressure of mind, surrounded
with danger, and in expectation every night of being murdered and
devoured before morning; and I must testify, from my experience, that a
temper of peace, thankfulness, love, and affection, is much the more
proper frame for prayer than that of terror and discomposure: and that
under the dread of mischief impending, a man is no more fit for a
comforting performance of the duty of praying to God than he is for a
repentance on a sick-bed; for these discomposures affect the mind, as the
others do the body; and the discomposure of the mind must necessarily be
as great a disability as that of the body, and much greater; praying to
God being properly an act of the mind, not of the body.
But to go on. After I had thus secured one part of my little living
stock, I went about the whole island, searching for another private place
to make such another deposit; when, wandering more to the west point of
the island than I had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, I thought I
saw a boat upon the sea, at a great distance. I had found a perspective
glass or two in one of the seamen's chests, which I saved out of our
ship, but I had it not about me; and this was so remote that I could not
tell what to make of it, though I looked at it till my eyes were not able
to hold to look any longer; whether it was a boat or not I do not know,
but as I descended from the hill I could see no more of it, so I gave it
over; only I resolved to go no more out without a perspective glass in my
pocket. When I was come down the hill to the end of the island, where,
indeed, I had never been before, I was presently convinced that the
seeing the print of a man's foot was not such a strange thing in the
island as I imagined: and but that it was a special providence that I was
cast upon the side of the island where the savages never came, I should
easily have known that nothing was more frequent than for the canoes from
the main, when they happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot
over to that side of the island for harbour: likewise, as they often met
and fought in their canoes, the victors, having taken any prisoners,
would bring them over to this shore, where, according to their dreadful
customs, being all cannibals, they would kill and eat them; of which
hereafter.
When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above, being the
SW. point of the island, I was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor is it
possible for me to express the horror of my mind at seeing the shore
spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; and
particularly I observed a place where there had been a fire made, and a
circle dug in the earth, like a cockpit, where I supposed the savage
wretches had sat down to their human feastings upon the bodies of their
fellow-creatures.
I was so astonished with the sight of these things, that I entertained no
notions of any danger to myself from it for a long while: all my
apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman,
hellish brutality, and the horror of the degeneracy of human nature,
which, though I had heard of it often, yet I never had so near a view of
before; in short, I turned away my face from the horrid spectacle; my
stomach grew sick, and I was just at the point of fainting, when nature
discharged the disorder from my stomach; and having vomited with uncommon
violence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stay in the
place a moment; so I got up the hill again with all the speed I could,
and walked on towards my own habitation.
When I came a little out of that part of the island I stood still awhile,
as amazed, and then, recovering myself, I looked up with the utmost
affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in my eyes, gave God
thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world where I was
distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and that, though I
had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet given me so
many comforts in it that I had still more to give thanks for than to
complain of: and this, above all, that I had, even in this miserable
condition, been comforted with the knowledge of Himself, and the hope of
His blessing: which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to
all the misery which I had suffered, or could suffer.
In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle, and began to be
much easier now, as to the safety of my circumstances, than ever I was
before: for I observed that these wretches never came to this island in
search of what they could get; perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or not
expecting anything here; and having often, no doubt, been up the covered,
woody part of it without finding anything to their purpose. I knew I had
been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the least footsteps of
human creature there before; and I might be eighteen years more as
entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not discover myself to them,
which I had no manner of occasion to do; it being my only business to
keep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless I found a better sort
of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to. Yet I entertained
such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that I have been speaking of,
and of the wretched, inhuman custom of their devouring and eating one
another up, that I continued pensive and sad, and kept close within my
own circle for almost two years after this: when I say my own circle, I
mean by it my three plantations--viz. my castle, my country seat (which I
called my bower), and my enclosure in the woods: nor did I look after
this for any other use than an enclosure for my goats; for the aversion
which nature gave me to these hellish wretches was such, that I was as
fearful of seeing them as of seeing the devil himself. I did not so much
as go to look after my boat all this time, but began rather to think of
making another; for I could not think of ever making any more attempts to
bring the other boat round the island to me, lest I should meet with some
of these creatures at sea; in which case, if I had happened to have
fallen into their hands, I knew what would have been my lot.
Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no danger of
being discovered by these people, began to wear off my uneasiness about
them; and I began to live just in the same composed manner as before,
only with this difference, that I used more caution, and kept my eyes
more about me than I did before, lest I should happen to be seen by any
of them; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing my gun, lest any
of them, being on the island, should happen to hear it. It was,
therefore, a very good providence to me that I had furnished myself with
a tame breed of goats, and that I had no need to hunt any more about the
woods, or shoot at them; and if I did catch any of them after this, it
was by traps and snares, as I had done before; so that for two years
after this I believe I never fired my gun once off, though I never went
out without it; and what was more, as I had saved three pistols out of
the ship, I always carried them out with me, or at least two of them,
sticking them in my goat-skin belt. I also furbished up one of the great
cutlasses that I had out of the ship, and made me a belt to hang it on
also; so that I was now a most formidable fellow to look at when I went
abroad, if you add to the former description of myself the particular of
two pistols, and a broadsword hanging at my side in a belt, but without a
scabbard.
Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed, excepting
these cautions, to be reduced to my former calm, sedate way of living.
All these things tended to show me more and more how far my condition was
from being miserable, compared to some others; nay, to many other
particulars of life which it might have pleased God to have made my lot.
It put me upon reflecting how little repining there would be among
mankind at any condition of life if people would rather compare their
condition with those that were worse, in order to be thankful, than be
always comparing them with those which are better, to assist their
murmurings and complainings.
As in my present condition there were not really many things which I
wanted, so indeed I thought that the frights I had been in about these
savage wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own preservation,
had taken off the edge of my invention, for my own conveniences; and I
had dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts upon, and
that was to try if I could not make some of my barley into malt, and then
try to brew myself some beer. This was really a whimsical thought, and I
reproved myself often for the simplicity of it: for I presently saw there
would be the want of several things necessary to the making my beer that
it would be impossible for me to supply; as, first, casks to preserve it
in, which was a thing that, as I have observed already, I could never
compass: no, though I spent not only many days, but weeks, nay months, in
attempting it, but to no purpose. In the next place, I had no hops to
make it keep, no yeast to make it work, no copper or kettle to make it
boil; and yet with all these things wanting, I verily believe, had not
the frights and terrors I was in about the savages intervened, I had
undertaken it, and perhaps brought it to pass too; for I seldom gave
anything over without accomplishing it, when once I had it in my head to
began it. But my invention now ran quite another way; for night and day
I could think of nothing but how I might destroy some of the monsters in
their cruel, bloody entertainment, and if possible save the victim they
should bring hither to destroy. It would take up a larger volume than
this whole work is intended to be to set down all the contrivances I
hatched, or rather brooded upon, in my thoughts, for the destroying these
creatures, or at least frightening them so as to prevent their coming
hither any more: but all this was abortive; nothing could be possible to
take effect, unless I was to be there to do it myself: and what could one
man do among them, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty of them
together with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with which they
could shoot as true to a mark as I could with my gun?
Sometimes I thought if digging a hole under the place where they made
their fire, and putting in five or six pounds of gunpowder, which, when
they kindled their fire, would consequently take fire, and blow up all
that was near it: but as, in the first place, I should be unwilling to
waste so much powder upon them, my store being now within the quantity of
one barrel, so neither could I be sure of its going off at any certain
time, when it might surprise them; and, at best, that it would do little
more than just blow the fire about their ears and fright them, but not
sufficient to make them forsake the place: so I laid it aside; and then
proposed that I would place myself in ambush in some convenient place,
with my three guns all double-loaded, and in the middle of their bloody
ceremony let fly at them, when I should be sure to kill or wound perhaps
two or three at every shot; and then falling in upon them with my three
pistols and my sword, I made no doubt but that, if there were twenty, I
should kill them all. This fancy pleased my thoughts for some weeks, and
I was so full of it that I often dreamed of it, and, sometimes, that I
was just going to let fly at them in my sleep. I went so far with it in
my imagination that I employed myself several days to find out proper
places to put myself in ambuscade, as I said, to watch for them, and I
went frequently to the place itself, which was now grown more familiar to
me; but while my mind was thus filled with thoughts of revenge and a
bloody putting twenty or thirty of them to the sword, as I may call it,
the horror I had at the place, and at the signals of the barbarous
wretches devouring one another, abetted my malice. Well, at length I
found a place in the side of the hill where I was satisfied I might
securely wait till I saw any of their boats coming; and might then, even
before they would be ready to come on shore, convey myself unseen into
some thickets of trees, in one of which there was a hollow large enough
to conceal me entirely; and there I might sit and observe all their
bloody doings, and take my full aim at their heads, when they were so
close together as that it would be next to impossible that I should miss
my shot, or that I could fail wounding three or four of them at the first
shot. In this place, then, I resolved to fulfil my design; and
accordingly I prepared two muskets and my ordinary fowling-piece. The
two muskets I loaded with a brace of slugs each, and four or five smaller
bullets, about the size of pistol bullets; and the fowling-piece I loaded
with near a handful of swan-shot of the largest size; I also loaded my
pistols with about four bullets each; and, in this posture, well provided
with ammunition for a second and third charge, I prepared myself for my
expedition.
After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, and in my imagination put
it in practice, I continually made my tour every morning to the top of
the hill, which was from my castle, as I called it, about three miles or
more, to see if I could observe any boats upon the sea, coming near the
island, or standing over towards it; but I began to tire of this hard
duty, after I had for two or three months constantly kept my watch, but
came always back without any discovery; there having not, in all that
time, been the least appearance, not only on or near the shore, but on
the whole ocean, so far as my eye or glass could reach every way.
As long as I kept my daily tour to the hill, to look out, so long also I
kept up the vigour of my design, and my spirits seemed to be all the
while in a suitable frame for so outrageous an execution as the killing
twenty or thirty naked savages, for an offence which I had not at all
entered into any discussion of in my thoughts, any farther than my
passions were at first fired by the horror I conceived at the unnatural
custom of the people of that country, who, it seems, had been suffered by
Providence, in His wise disposition of the world, to have no other guide
than that of their own abominable and vitiated passions; and consequently
were left, and perhaps had been so for some ages, to act such horrid
things, and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing but nature,
entirely abandoned by Heaven, and actuated by some hellish degeneracy,
could have run them into. But now, when, as I have said, I began to be
weary of the fruitless excursion which I had made so long and so far
every morning in vain, so my opinion of the action itself began to alter;
and I began, with cooler and calmer thoughts, to consider what I was
going to engage in; what authority or call I had to pretend to be judge
and executioner upon these men as criminals, whom Heaven had thought fit
for so many ages to suffer unpunished to go on, and to be as it were the
executioners of His judgments one upon another; how far these people were
offenders against me, and what right I had to engage in the quarrel of
that blood which they shed promiscuously upon one another. I debated
this very often with myself thus: "How do I know what God Himself judges
in this particular case? It is certain these people do not commit this
as a crime; it is not against their own consciences reproving, or their
light reproaching them; they do not know it to be an offence, and then
commit it in defiance of divine justice, as we do in almost all the sins
we commit. They think it no more a crime to kill a captive taken in war
than we do to kill an ox; or to eat human flesh than we do to eat
mutton."
When I considered this a little, it followed necessarily that I was
certainly in the wrong; that these people were not murderers, in the
sense that I had before condemned them in my thoughts, any more than
those Christians were murderers who often put to death the prisoners
taken in battle; or more frequently, upon many occasions, put whole
troops of men to the sword, without giving quarter, though they threw
down their arms and submitted. In the next place, it occurred to me that
although the usage they gave one another was thus brutish and inhuman,
yet it was really nothing to me: these people had done me no injury: that
if they attempted, or I saw it necessary, for my immediate preservation,
to fall upon them, something might be said for it: but that I was yet out
of their power, and they really had no knowledge of me, and consequently
no design upon me; and therefore it could not be just for me to fall upon
them; that this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards in all their
barbarities practised in America, where they destroyed millions of these
people; who, however they were idolators and barbarians, and had several
bloody and barbarous rites in their customs, such as sacrificing human
bodies to their idols, were yet, as to the Spaniards, very innocent
people; and that the rooting them out of the country is spoken of with
the utmost abhorrence and detestation by even the Spaniards themselves at
this time, and by all other Christian nations of Europe, as a mere
butchery, a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either
to God or man; and for which the very name of a Spaniard is reckoned to
be frightful and terrible, to all people of humanity or of Christian
compassion; as if the kingdom of Spain were particularly eminent for the
produce of a race of men who were without principles of tenderness, or
the common bowels of pity to the miserable, which is reckoned to be a
mark of generous temper in the mind.
These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a kind of a full
stop; and I began by little and little to be off my design, and to
conclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolution to attack the
savages; and that it was not my business to meddle with them, unless they
first attacked me; and this it was my business, if possible, to prevent:
but that, if I were discovered and attacked by them, I knew my duty. On
the other hand, I argued with myself that this really was the way not to
deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and destroy myself; for unless I was
sure to kill every one that not only should be on shore at that time, but
that should ever come on shore afterwards, if but one of them escaped to
tell their country-people what had happened, they would come over again
by thousands to revenge the death of their fellows, and I should only
bring upon myself a certain destruction, which, at present, I had no
manner of occasion for. Upon the whole, I concluded that I ought,
neither in principle nor in policy, one way or other, to concern myself
in this affair: that my business was, by all possible means to conceal
myself from them, and not to leave the least sign for them to guess by
that there were any living creatures upon the island--I mean of human
shape. Religion joined in with this prudential resolution; and I was
convinced now, many ways, that I was perfectly out of my duty when I was
laying all my bloody schemes for the destruction of innocent creatures--I
mean innocent as to me. As to the crimes they were guilty of towards one
another, I had nothing to do with them; they were national, and I ought
to leave them to the justice of God, who is the Governor of nations, and
knows how, by national punishments, to make a just retribution for
national offences, and to bring public judgments upon those who offend in
a public manner, by such ways as best please Him. This appeared so clear
to me now, that nothing was a greater satisfaction to me than that I had
not been suffered to do a thing which I now saw so much reason to believe
would have been no less a sin than that of wilful murder if I had
committed it; and I gave most humble thanks on my knees to God, that He
had thus delivered me from blood-guiltiness; beseeching Him to grant me
the protection of His providence, that I might not fall into the hands of
the barbarians, or that I might not lay my hands upon them, unless I had
a more clear call from Heaven to do it, in defence of my own life.
In this disposition I continued for near a year after this; and so far
was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these wretches, that in
all that time I never once went up the hill to see whether there were any
of them in sight, or to know whether any of them had been on shore there
or not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of my contrivances
against them, or be provoked by any advantage that might present itself
to fall upon them; only this I did: I went and removed my boat, which I
had on the other side of the island, and carried it down to the east end
of the whole island, where I ran it into a little cove, which I found
under some high rocks, and where I knew, by reason of the currents, the
savages durst not, at least would not, come with their boats upon any
account whatever. With my boat I carried away everything that I had left
there belonging to her, though not necessary for the bare going
thither--viz. a mast and sail which I had made for her, and a thing like
an anchor, but which, indeed, could not be called either anchor or
grapnel; however, it was the best I could make of its kind: all these I
removed, that there might not be the least shadow for discovery, or
appearance of any boat, or of any human habitation upon the island.
Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than ever, and
seldom went from my cell except upon my constant employment, to milk my
she-goats, and manage my little flock in the wood, which, as it was quite
on the other part of the island, was out of danger; for certain, it is
that these savage people, who sometimes haunted this island, never came
with any thoughts of finding anything here, and consequently never
wandered off from the coast, and I doubt not but they might have been
several times on shore after my apprehensions of them had made me
cautious, as well as before. Indeed, I looked back with some horror upon
the thoughts of what my condition would have been if I had chopped upon
them and been discovered before that; when, naked and unarmed, except
with one gun, and that loaded often only with small shot, I walked
everywhere, peeping and peering about the island, to see what I could
get; what a surprise should I have been in if, when I discovered the
print of a man's foot, I had, instead of that, seen fifteen or twenty
savages, and found them pursuing me, and by the swiftness of their
running no possibility of my escaping them! The thoughts of this
sometimes sank my very soul within me, and distressed my mind so much
that I could not soon recover it, to think what I should have done, and
how I should not only have been unable to resist them, but even should
not have had presence of mind enough to do what I might have done; much
less what now, after so much consideration and preparation, I might be
able to do. Indeed, after serious thinking of these things, I would be
melancholy, and sometimes it would last a great while; but I resolved it
all at last into thankfulness to that Providence which had delivered me
from so many unseen dangers, and had kept me from those mischiefs which I
could have no way been the agent in delivering myself from, because I had
not the least notion of any such thing depending, or the least
supposition of its being possible. This renewed a contemplation which
often had come into my thoughts in former times, when first I began to
see the merciful dispositions of Heaven, in the dangers we run through in
this life; how wonderfully we are delivered when we know nothing of it;
how, when we are in a quandary as we call it, a doubt or hesitation
whether to go this way or that way, a secret hint shall direct us this
way, when we intended to go that way: nay, when sense, our own
inclination, and perhaps business has called us to go the other way, yet
a strange impression upon the mind, from we know not what springs, and by
we know not what power, shall overrule us to go this way; and it shall
afterwards appear that had we gone that way, which we should have gone,
and even to our imagination ought to have gone, we should have been
ruined and lost. Upon these and many like reflections I afterwards made
it a certain rule with me, that whenever I found those secret hints or
pressings of mind to doing or not doing anything that presented, or going
this way or that way, I never failed to obey the secret dictate; though I
knew no other reason for it than such a pressure or such a hint hung upon
my mind. I could give many examples of the success of this conduct in
the course of my life, but more especially in the latter part of my
inhabiting this unhappy island; besides many occasions which it is very
likely I might have taken notice of, if I had seen with the same eyes
then that I see with now. But it is never too late to be wise; and I
cannot but advise all considering men, whose lives are attended with such
extraordinary incidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, not
to slight such secret intimations of Providence, let them come from what
invisible intelligence they will. That I shall not discuss, and perhaps
cannot account for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse of
spirits, and a secret communication between those embodied and those
unembodied, and such a proof as can never be withstood; of which I shall
have occasion to give some remarkable instances in the remainder of my
solitary residence in this dismal place.
I believe the reader of this will not think it strange if I confess that
these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in, and the concern that
was now upon me, put an end to all invention, and to all the contrivances
that I had laid for my future accommodations and conveniences. I had the
care of my safety more now upon my hands than that of my food. I cared
not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood now, for fear the noise I
might make should be heard: much less would I fire a gun for the same
reason: and above all I was intolerably uneasy at making any fire, lest
the smoke, which is visible at a great distance in the day, should betray
me. For this reason, I removed that part of my business which required
fire, such as burning of pots and pipes, &c., into my new apartment in
the woods; where, after I had been some time, I found, to my unspeakable
consolation, a mere natural cave in the earth, which went in a vast way,
and where, I daresay, no savage, had he been at the mouth of it, would be
so hardy as to venture in; nor, indeed, would any man else, but one who,
like me, wanted nothing so much as a safe retreat.
The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where, by
mere accident (I would say, if I did not see abundant reason to ascribe
all such things now to Providence), I was cutting down some thick
branches of trees to make charcoal; and before I go on I must observe the
reason of my making this charcoal, which was this--I was afraid of making
a smoke about my habitation, as I said before; and yet I could not live
there without baking my bread, cooking my meat, &c.; so I contrived to
burn some wood here, as I had seen done in England, under turf, till it
became chark or dry coal: and then putting the fire out, I preserved the
coal to carry home, and perform the other services for which fire was
wanting, without danger of smoke. But this is by-the-bye. While I was
cutting down some wood here, I perceived that, behind a very thick branch
of low brushwood or underwood, there was a kind of hollow place: I was
curious to look in it; and getting with difficulty into the mouth of it,
I found it was pretty large, that is to say, sufficient for me to stand
upright in it, and perhaps another with me: but I must confess to you
that I made more haste out than I did in, when looking farther into the
place, and which was perfectly dark, I saw two broad shining eyes of some
creature, whether devil or man I knew not, which twinkled like two stars;
the dim light from the cave's mouth shining directly in, and making the
reflection. However, after some pause I recovered myself, and began to
call myself a thousand fools, and to think that he that was afraid to see
the devil was not fit to live twenty years in an island all alone; and
that I might well think there was nothing in this cave that was more
frightful than myself. Upon this, plucking up my courage, I took up a
firebrand, and in I rushed again, with the stick flaming in my hand: I
had not gone three steps in before I was almost as frightened as before;
for I heard a very loud sigh, like that of a man in some pain, and it was
followed by a broken noise, as of words half expressed, and then a deep
sigh again. I stepped back, and was indeed struck with such a surprise
that it put me into a cold sweat, and if I had had a hat on my head, I
will not answer for it that my hair might not have lifted it off. But
still plucking up my spirits as well as I could, and encouraging myself a
little with considering that the power and presence of God was
everywhere, and was able to protect me, I stepped forward again, and by
the light of the firebrand, holding it up a little over my head, I saw
lying on the ground a monstrous, frightful old he-goat, just making his
will, as we say, and gasping for life, and, dying, indeed, of mere old
age. I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, and he
essayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself; and I thought with
myself he might even lie there--for if he had frightened me, so he would
certainly fright any of the savages, if any of them should be so hardy as
to come in there while he had any life in him.
I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look round me, when I
found the cave was but very small--that is to say, it might be about
twelve feet over, but in no manner of shape, neither round nor square, no
hands having ever been employed in making it but those of mere Nature. I
observed also that there was a place at the farther side of it that went
in further, but was so low that it required me to creep upon my hands and
knees to go into it, and whither it went I knew not; so, having no
candle, I gave it over for that time, but resolved to go again the next
day provided with candles and a tinder-box, which I had made of the lock
of one of the muskets, with some wildfire in the pan.
Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large candles of my
own making (for I made very good candles now of goat's tallow, but was
hard set for candle-wick, using sometimes rags or rope-yarn, and
sometimes the dried rind of a weed like nettles); and going into this low
place I was obliged to creep upon all-fours as I have said, almost ten
yards--which, by the way, I thought was a venture bold enough,
considering that I knew not how far it might go, nor what was beyond it.
When I had got through the strait, I found the roof rose higher up, I
believe near twenty feet; but never was such a glorious sight seen in the
island, I daresay, as it was to look round the sides and roof of this
vault or cave--the wall reflected a hundred thousand lights to me from my
two candles. What it was in the rock--whether diamonds or any other
precious stones, or gold which I rather supposed it to be--I knew not.
The place I was in was a most delightful cavity, or grotto, though
perfectly dark; the floor was dry and level, and had a sort of a small
loose gravel upon it, so that there was no nauseous or venomous creature
to be seen, neither was there any damp or wet on the sides or roof. The
only difficulty in it was the entrance--which, however, as it was a place
of security, and such a retreat as I wanted; I thought was a convenience;
so that I was really rejoiced at the discovery, and resolved, without any
delay, to bring some of those things which I was most anxious about to
this place: particularly, I resolved to bring hither my magazine of
powder, and all my spare arms--viz. two fowling-pieces--for I had three
in all--and three muskets--for of them I had eight in all; so I kept in
my castle only five, which stood ready mounted like pieces of cannon on
my outmost fence, and were ready also to take out upon any expedition.
Upon this occasion of removing my ammunition I happened to open the
barrel of powder which I took up out of the sea, and which had been wet,
and I found that the water had penetrated about three or four inches into
the powder on every side, which caking and growing hard, had preserved
the inside like a kernel in the shell, so that I had near sixty pounds of
very good powder in the centre of the cask. This was a very agreeable
discovery to me at that time; so I carried all away thither, never
keeping above two or three pounds of powder with me in my castle, for
fear of a surprise of any kind; I also carried thither all the lead I had
left for bullets.
I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants who were said to live
in caves and holes in the rocks, where none could come at them; for I
persuaded myself, while I was here, that if five hundred savages were to
hunt me, they could never find me out--or if they did, they would not
venture to attack me here. The old goat whom I found expiring died in
the mouth of the cave the next day after I made this discovery; and I
found it much easier to dig a great hole there, and throw him in and
cover him with earth, than to drag him out; so I interred him there, to
prevent offence to my nose.
CHAPTER XIII--WRECK OF A SPANISH SHIP
I was now in the twenty-third year of my residence in this island, and
was so naturalised to the place and the manner of living, that, could I
but have enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come to the place to
disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated for spending
the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till I had laid me
down and died, like the old goat in the cave. I had also arrived to some
little diversions and amusements, which made the time pass a great deal
more pleasantly with me than it did before--first, I had taught my Poll,
as I noted before, to speak; and he did it so familiarly, and talked so
articulately and plain, that it was very pleasant to me; and he lived
with me no less than six-and-twenty years. How long he might have lived
afterwards I know not, though I know they have a notion in the Brazils
that they live a hundred years. My dog was a pleasant and loving
companion to me for no less than sixteen years of my time, and then died
of mere old age. As for my cats, they multiplied, as I have observed, to
that degree that I was obliged to shoot several of them at first, to keep
them from devouring me and all I had; but at length, when the two old
ones I brought with me were gone, and after some time continually driving
them from me, and letting them have no provision with me, they all ran
wild into the woods, except two or three favourites, which I kept tame,
and whose young, when they had any, I always drowned; and these were part
of my family. Besides these I always kept two or three household kids
about me, whom I taught to feed out of my hand; and I had two more
parrots, which talked pretty well, and would all call "Robin Crusoe," but
none like my first; nor, indeed, did I take the pains with any of them
that I had done with him. I had also several tame sea-fowls, whose name
I knew not, that I caught upon the shore, and cut their wings; and the
little stakes which I had planted before my castle-wall being now grown
up to a good thick grove, these fowls all lived among these low trees,
and bred there, which was very agreeable to me; so that, as I said above,
I began to be very well contented with the life I led, if I could have
been secured from the dread of the savages. But it was otherwise
directed; and it may not be amiss for all people who shall meet with my
story to make this just observation from it: How frequently, in the
course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and
which, when we are fallen into, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes
the very means or door of our deliverance, by which alone we can be
raised again from the affliction we are fallen into. I could give many
examples of this in the course of my unaccountable life; but in nothing
was it more particularly remarkable than in the circumstances of my last
years of solitary residence in this island.
It was now the month of December, as I said above, in my twenty-third
year; and this, being the southern solstice (for winter I cannot call
it), was the particular time of my harvest, and required me to be pretty
much abroad in the fields, when, going out early in the morning, even
before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a light of
some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of about two miles,
toward that part of the island where I had observed some savages had
been, as before, and not on the other side; but, to my great affliction,
it was on my side of the island.
I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped short within my
grove, not daring to go out, lest I might be surprised; and yet I had no
more peace within, from the apprehensions I had that if these savages, in
rambling over the island, should find my corn standing or cut, or any of
my works or improvements, they would immediately conclude that there were
people in the place, and would then never rest till they had found me
out. In this extremity I went back directly to my castle, pulled up the
ladder after me, and made all things without look as wild and natural as
I could.
Then I prepared myself within, putting myself in a posture of defence. I
loaded all my cannon, as I called them--that is to say, my muskets, which
were mounted upon my new fortification--and all my pistols, and resolved
to defend myself to the last gasp--not forgetting seriously to commend
myself to the Divine protection, and earnestly to pray to God to deliver
me out of the hands of the barbarians. I continued in this posture about
two hours, and began to be impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had
no spies to send out. After sitting a while longer, and musing what I
should do in this case, I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance
longer; so setting up my ladder to the side of the hill, where there was
a flat place, as I observed before, and then pulling the ladder after me,
I set it up again and mounted the top of the hill, and pulling out my
perspective glass, which I had taken on purpose, I laid me down flat on
my belly on the ground, and began to look for the place. I presently
found there were no less than nine naked savages sitting round a small
fire they had made, not to warm them, for they had no need of that, the
weather being extremely hot, but, as I supposed, to dress some of their
barbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought with them, whether
alive or dead I could not tell.
They had two canoes with them, which they had hauled up upon the shore;
and as it was then ebb of tide, they seemed to me to wait for the return
of the flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine what confusion
this sight put me into, especially seeing them come on my side of the
island, and so near to me; but when I considered their coming must be
always with the current of the ebb, I began afterwards to be more sedate
in my mind, being satisfied that I might go abroad with safety all the
time of the flood of tide, if they were not on shore before; and having
made this observation, I went abroad about my harvest work with the more
composure.
As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made to the westward
I saw them all take boat and row (or paddle as we call it) away. I
should have observed, that for an hour or more before they went off they
were dancing, and I could easily discern their postures and gestures by
my glass. I could not perceive, by my nicest observation, but that they
were stark naked, and had not the least covering upon them; but whether
they were men or women I could not distinguish.
As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took two guns upon my
shoulders, and two pistols in my girdle, and my great sword by my side
without a scabbard, and with all the speed I was able to make went away
to the hill where I had discovered the first appearance of all; and as
soon as I get thither, which was not in less than two hours (for I could
not go quickly, being so loaded with arms as I was), I perceived there
had been three canoes more of the savages at that place; and looking out
farther, I saw they were all at sea together, making over for the main.
This was a dreadful sight to me, especially as, going down to the shore,
I could see the marks of horror which the dismal work they had been about
had left behind it--viz. the blood, the bones, and part of the flesh of
human bodies eaten and devoured by those wretches with merriment and
sport. I was so filled with indignation at the sight, that I now began
to premeditate the destruction of the next that I saw there, let them be
whom or how many soever. It seemed evident to me that the visits which
they made thus to this island were not very frequent, for it was above
fifteen months before any more of them came on shore there again--that is
to say, I neither saw them nor any footsteps or signals of them in all
that time; for as to the rainy seasons, then they are sure not to come
abroad, at least not so far. Yet all this while I lived uncomfortably,
by reason of the constant apprehensions of their coming upon me by
surprise: from whence I observe, that the expectation of evil is more
bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off
that expectation or those apprehensions.
During all this time I was in a murdering humour, and spent most of my
hours, which should have been better employed, in contriving how to
circumvent and fall upon them the very next time I should see
them--especially if they should be divided, as they were the last time,
into two parties; nor did I consider at all that if I killed one
party--suppose ten or a dozen--I was still the next day, or week, or
month, to kill another, and so another, even _ad infinitum_, till I
should be, at length, no less a murderer than they were in being
man-eaters--and perhaps much more so. I spent my days now in great
perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting that I should one day or other
fall, into the hands of these merciless creatures; and if I did at any
time venture abroad, it was not without looking around me with the
greatest care and caution imaginable. And now I found, to my great
comfort, how happy it was that I had provided a tame flock or herd of
goats, for I durst not upon any account fire my gun, especially near that
side of the island where they usually came, lest I should alarm the
savages; and if they had fled from me now, I was sure to have them come
again with perhaps two or three hundred canoes with them in a few days,
and then I knew what to expect. However, I wore out a year and three
months more before I ever saw any more of the savages, and then I found
them again, as I shall soon observe. It is true they might have been
there once or twice; but either they made no stay, or at least I did not
see them; but in the month of May, as near as I could calculate, and in
my four-and-twentieth year, I had a very strange encounter with them; of
which in its place.
The perturbation of my mind during this fifteen or sixteen months'
interval was very great; I slept unquietly, dreamed always frightful
dreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night. In the day great
troubles overwhelmed my mind; and in the night I dreamed often of killing
the savages and of the reasons why I might justify doing it.
But to waive all this for a while. It was in the middle of May, on the
sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor wooden calendar would reckon,
for I marked all upon the post still; I say, it was on the sixteenth of
May that it blew a very great storm of wind all day, with a great deal of
lightning and thunder, and; a very foul night it was after it. I knew
not what was the particular occasion of it, but as I was reading in the
Bible, and taken up with very serious thoughts about my present
condition, I was surprised with the noise of a gun, as I thought, fired
at sea. This was, to be sure, a surprise quite of a different nature
from any I had met with before; for the notions this put into my thoughts
were quite of another kind. I started up in the greatest haste
imaginable; and, in a trice, clapped my ladder to the middle place of the
rock, and pulled it after me; and mounting it the second time, got to the
top of the hill the very moment that a flash of fire bid me listen for a
second gun, which, accordingly, in about half a minute I heard; and by
the sound, knew that it was from that part of the sea where I was driven
down the current in my boat. I immediately considered that this must be
some ship in distress, and that they had some comrade, or some other ship
in company, and fired these for signals of distress, and to obtain help.
I had the presence of mind at that minute to think, that though I could
not help them, it might be that they might help me; so I brought together
all the dry wood I could get at hand, and making a good handsome pile, I
set it on fire upon the hill. The wood was dry, and blazed freely; and,
though the wind blew very hard, yet it burned fairly out; so that I was
certain, if there was any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it.
And no doubt they did; for as soon as ever my fire blazed up, I heard
another gun, and after that several others, all from the same quarter. I
plied my fire all night long, till daybreak: and when it was broad day,
and the air cleared up, I saw something at a great distance at sea, full
east of the island, whether a sail or a hull I could not distinguish--no,
not with my glass: the distance was so great, and the weather still
something hazy also; at least, it was so out at sea.
I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did
not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor; and
being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in my hand,
and ran towards the south side of the island to the rocks where I had
formerly been carried away by the current; and getting up there, the
weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to my
great sorrow, the wreck of a ship, cast away in the night upon those
concealed rocks which I found when I was out in my boat; and which rocks,
as they checked the violence of the stream, and made a kind of
counter-stream, or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering from the most
desperate, hopeless condition that ever I had been in in all my life.
Thus, what is one man's safety is another man's destruction; for it seems
these men, whoever they were, being out of their knowledge, and the rocks
being wholly under water, had been driven upon them in the night, the
wind blowing hard at ENE. Had they seen the island, as I must
necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I thought, have
endeavoured to have saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat;
but their firing off guns for help, especially when they saw, as I
imagined, my fire, filled me with many thoughts. First, I imagined that
upon seeing my light they might have put themselves into their boat, and
endeavoured to make the shore: but that the sea running very high, they
might have been cast away. Other times I imagined that they might have
lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways; particularly by
the breaking of the sea upon their ship, which many times obliged men to
stave, or take in pieces, their boat, and sometimes to throw it overboard
with their own hands. Other times I imagined they had some other ship or
ships in company, who, upon the signals of distress they made, had taken
them up, and carried them off. Other times I fancied they were all gone
off to sea in their boat, and being hurried away by the current that I
had been formerly in, were carried out into the great ocean, where there
was nothing but misery and perishing: and that, perhaps, they might by
this time think of starving, and of being in a condition to eat one
another.
As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition I was in,
I could do no more than look on upon the misery of the poor men, and pity
them; which had still this good effect upon my side, that it gave me more
and more cause to give thanks to God, who had so happily and comfortably
provided for me in my desolate condition; and that of two ships'
companies, who were now cast away upon this part of the world, not one
life should be spared but mine. I learned here again to observe, that it
is very rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition so
low, or any misery so great, but we may see something or other to be
thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances than our own.
Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not so much as
see room to suppose any were saved; nothing could make it rational so
much as to wish or expect that they did not all perish there, except the
possibility only of their being taken up by another ship in company; and
this was but mere possibility indeed, for I saw not the least sign or
appearance of any such thing. I cannot explain, by any possible energy
of words, what a strange longing I felt in my soul upon this sight,
breaking out sometimes thus: "Oh that there had been but one or two, nay,
or but one soul saved out of this ship, to have escaped to me, that I
might but have had one companion, one fellow-creature, to have spoken to
me and to have conversed with!" In all the time of my solitary life I
never felt so earnest, so strong a desire after the society of my
fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at the want of it.
There are some secret springs in the affections which, when they are set
a-going by some object in view, or, though not in view, yet rendered
present to the mind by the power of imagination, that motion carries out
the soul, by its impetuosity, to such violent, eager embracings of the
object, that the absence of it is insupportable. Such were these earnest
wishings that but one man had been saved. I believe I repeated the
words, "Oh that it had been but one!" a thousand times; and my desires
were so moved by it, that when I spoke the words my hands would clinch
together, and my fingers would press the palms of my hands, so that if I
had had any soft thing in my hand I should have crushed it involuntarily;
and the teeth in my head would strike together, and set against one
another so strong, that for some time I could not part them again. Let
the naturalists explain these things, and the reason and manner of them.
All I can do is to describe the fact, which was even surprising to me
when I found it, though I knew not from whence it proceeded; it was
doubtless the effect of ardent wishes, and of strong ideas formed in my
mind, realising the comfort which the conversation of one of my
fellow-Christians would have been to me. But it was not to be; either
their fate or mine, or both, forbade it; for, till the last year of my
being on this island, I never knew whether any were saved out of that
ship or no; and had only the affliction, some days after, to see the
corpse of a drowned boy come on shore at the end of the island which was
next the shipwreck. He had no clothes on but a seaman's waistcoat, a
pair of open-kneed linen drawers, and a blue linen shirt; but nothing to
direct me so much as to guess what nation he was of. He had nothing in
his pockets but two pieces of eight and a tobacco pipe--the last was to
me of ten times more value than the first.
It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat to this
wreck, not doubting but I might find something on board that might be
useful to me. But that did not altogether press me so much as the
possibility that there might be yet some living creature on board, whose
life I might not only save, but might, by saving that life, comfort my
own to the last degree; and this thought clung so to my heart that I
could not be quiet night or day, but I must venture out in my boat on
board this wreck; and committing the rest to God's providence, I thought
the impression was so strong upon my mind that it could not be
resisted--that it must come from some invisible direction, and that I
should be wanting to myself if I did not go.
Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my castle,
prepared everything for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a great pot
of fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum (for I had still a
great deal of that left), and a basket of raisins; and thus, loading
myself with everything necessary. I went down to my boat, got the water
out of her, got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and then went
home again for more. My second cargo was a great bag of rice, the
umbrella to set up over my head for a shade, another large pot of water,
and about two dozen of small loaves, or barley cakes, more than before,
with a bottle of goat's milk and a cheese; all which with great labour
and sweat I carried to my boat; and praying to God to direct my voyage, I
put out, and rowing or paddling the canoe along the shore, came at last
to the utmost point of the island on the north-east side. And now I was
to launch out into the ocean, and either to venture or not to venture. I
looked on the rapid currents which ran constantly on both sides of the
island at a distance, and which were very terrible to me from the
remembrance of the hazard I had been in before, and my heart began to
fail me; for I foresaw that if I was driven into either of those
currents, I should be carried a great way out to sea, and perhaps out of
my reach or sight of the island again; and that then, as my boat was but
small, if any little gale of wind should rise, I should be inevitably
lost.
These thoughts so oppressed my mind that I began to give over my
enterprise; and having hauled my boat into a little creek on the shore, I
stepped out, and sat down upon a rising bit of ground, very pensive and
anxious, between fear and desire, about my voyage; when, as I was musing,
I could perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood come on; upon
which my going was impracticable for so many hours. Upon this, presently
it occurred to me that I should go up to the highest piece of ground I
could find, and observe, if I could, how the sets of the tide or currents
lay when the flood came in, that I might judge whether, if I was driven
one way out, I might not expect to be driven another way home, with the
same rapidity of the currents. This thought was no sooner in my head
than I cast my eye upon a little hill which sufficiently overlooked the
sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear view of the currents or sets
of the tide, and which way I was to guide myself in my return. Here I
found, that as the current of ebb set out close by the south point of the
island, so the current of the flood set in close by the shore of the
north side; and that I had nothing to do but to keep to the north side of
the island in my return, and I should do well enough.
Encouraged by this observation, I resolved the next morning to set out
with the first of the tide; and reposing myself for the night in my
canoe, under the watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out. I first made a
little out to sea, full north, till I began to feel the benefit of the
current, which set eastward, and which carried me at a great rate; and
yet did not so hurry me as the current on the south side had done before,
so as to take from me all government of the boat; but having a strong
steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly for the wreck,
and in less than two hours I came up to it. It was a dismal sight to
look at; the ship, which by its building was Spanish, stuck fast, jammed
in between two rocks. All the stern and quarter of her were beaten to
pieces by the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had
run on with great violence, her mainmast and foremast were brought by the
board--that is to say, broken short off; but her bowsprit was sound, and
the head and bow appeared firm. When I came close to her, a dog appeared
upon her, who, seeing me coming, yelped and cried; and as soon as I
called him, jumped into the sea to come to me. I took him into the boat,
but found him almost dead with hunger and thirst. I gave him a cake of
my bread, and he devoured it like a ravenous wolf that had been starving
a fortnight in the snow; I then gave the poor creature some fresh water,
with which, if I would have let him, he would have burst himself. After
this I went on board; but the first sight I met with was two men drowned
in the cook-room, or forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about
one another. I concluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship
struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke so high and so continually
over her, that the men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with
the constant rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been under
water. Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had
life; nor any goods, that I could see, but what were spoiled by the
water. There were some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew
not, which lay lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I
could see; but they were too big to meddle with. I saw several chests,
which I believe belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two of them
into the boat, without examining what was in them. Had the stern of the
ship been fixed, and the forepart broken off, I am persuaded I might have
made a good voyage; for by what I found in those two chests I had room to
suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and, if I may guess
from the course she steered, she must have been bound from Buenos Ayres,
or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond the Brazils
to the Havannah, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain. She
had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but of no use, at that time, to
anybody; and what became of the crew I then knew not.
I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about
twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficulty. There
were several muskets in the cabin, and a great powder-horn, with about
four pounds of powder in it; as for the muskets, I had no occasion for
them, so I left them, but took the powder-horn. I took a fire-shovel and
tongs, which I wanted extremely, as also two little brass kettles, a
copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron; and with this cargo, and
the dog, I came away, the tide beginning to make home again--and the same
evening, about an hour within night, I reached the island again, weary
and fatigued to the last degree. I reposed that night in the boat and in
the morning I resolved to harbour what I had got in my new cave, and not
carry it home to my castle. After refreshing myself, I got all my cargo
on shore, and began to examine the particulars. The cask of liquor I
found to be a kind of rum, but not such as we had at the Brazils; and, in
a word, not at all good; but when I came to open the chests, I found
several things of great use to me--for example, I found in one a fine
case of bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and filled with cordial
waters, fine and very good; the bottles held about three pints each, and
were tipped with silver. I found two pots of very good succades, or
sweetmeats, so fastened also on the top that the salt-water had not hurt
them; and two more of the same, which the water had spoiled. I found
some very good shirts, which were very welcome to me; and about a dozen
and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and coloured neckcloths; the
former were also very welcome, being exceedingly refreshing to wipe my
face in a hot day. Besides this, when I came to the till in the chest, I
found there three great bags of pieces of eight, which held about eleven
hundred pieces in all; and in one of them, wrapped up in a paper, six
doubloons of gold, and some small bars or wedges of gold; I suppose they
might all weigh near a pound. In the other chest were some clothes, but
of little value; but, by the circumstances, it must have belonged to the
gunner's mate; though there was no powder in it, except two pounds of
fine glazed powder, in three flasks, kept, I suppose, for charging their
fowling-pieces on occasion. Upon the whole, I got very little by this
voyage that was of any use to me; for, as to the money, I had no manner
of occasion for it; it was to me as the dirt under my feet, and I would
have given it all for three or four pair of English shoes and stockings,
which were things I greatly wanted, but had had none on my feet for many
years. I had, indeed, got two pair of shoes now, which I took off the
feet of two drowned men whom I saw in the wreck, and I found two pair
more in one of the chests, which were very welcome to me; but they were
not like our English shoes, either for ease or service, being rather what
we call pumps than shoes. I found in this seaman's chest about fifty
pieces of eight, in rials, but no gold: I supposed this belonged to a
poorer man than the other, which seemed to belong to some officer. Well,
however, I lugged this money home to my cave, and laid it up, as I had
done that before which I had brought from our own ship; but it was a
great pity, as I said, that the other part of this ship had not come to
my share: for I am satisfied I might have loaded my canoe several times
over with money; and, thought I, if I ever escape to England, it might
lie here safe enough till I come again and fetch it.
CHAPTER XIV--A DREAM REALISED
Having now brought all my things on shore and secured them, I went back
to my boat, and rowed or paddled her along the shore to her old harbour,
where I laid her up, and made the best of my way to my old habitation,
where I found everything safe and quiet. I began now to repose myself,
live after my old fashion, and take care of my family affairs; and for a
while I lived easy enough, only that I was more vigilant than I used to
be, looked out oftener, and did not go abroad so much; and if at any time
I did stir with any freedom, it was always to the east part of the
island, where I was pretty well satisfied the savages never came, and
where I could go without so many precautions, and such a load of arms and
ammunition as I always carried with me if I went the other way. I lived
in this condition near two years more; but my unlucky head, that was
always to let me know it was born to make my body miserable, was all
these two years filled with projects and designs how, if it were
possible, I might get away from this island: for sometimes I was for
making another voyage to the wreck, though my reason told me that there
was nothing left there worth the hazard of my voyage; sometimes for a
ramble one way, sometimes another--and I believe verily, if I had had the
boat that I went from Sallee in, I should have ventured to sea, bound
anywhere, I knew not whither. I have been, in all my circumstances, a
memento to those who are touched with the general plague of mankind,
whence, for aught I know, one half of their miseries flow: I mean that of
not being satisfied with the station wherein God and Nature hath placed
them--for, not to look back upon my primitive condition, and the
excellent advice of my father, the opposition to which was, as I may call
it, my _original sin_, my subsequent mistakes of the same kind had been
the means of my coming into this miserable condition; for had that
Providence which so happily seated me at the Brazils as a planter blessed
me with confined desires, and I could have been contented to have gone on
gradually, I might have been by this time--I mean in the time of my being
in this island--one of the most considerable planters in the
Brazils--nay, I am persuaded, that by the improvements I had made in that
little time I lived there, and the increase I should probably have made
if I had remained, I might have been worth a hundred thousand
moidores--and what business had I to leave a settled fortune, a
well-stocked plantation, improving and increasing, to turn supercargo to
Guinea to fetch negroes, when patience and time would have so increased
our stock at home, that we could have bought them at our own door from
those whose business it was to fetch them? and though it had cost us
something more, yet the difference of that price was by no means worth
saving at so great a hazard. But as this is usually the fate of young
heads, so reflection upon the folly of it is as commonly the exercise of
more years, or of the dear-bought experience of time--so it was with me
now; and yet so deep had the mistake taken root in my temper, that I
could not satisfy myself in my station, but was continually poring upon
the means and possibility of my escape from this place; and that I may,
with greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the remaining part of my
story, it may not be improper to give some account of my first
conceptions on the subject of this foolish scheme for my escape, and how,
and upon what foundation, I acted.
I am now to be supposed retired into my castle, after my late voyage to
the wreck, my frigate laid up and secured under water, as usual, and my
condition restored to what it was before: I had more wealth, indeed, than
I had before, but was not at all the richer; for I had no more use for it
than the Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards came there.
It was one of the nights in the rainy season in March, the
four-and-twentieth year of my first setting foot in this island of
solitude, I was lying in my bed or hammock, awake, very well in health,
had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body, nor any uneasiness of
mind more than ordinary, but could by no means close my eyes, that is, so
as to sleep; no, not a wink all night long, otherwise than as follows: It
is impossible to set down the innumerable crowd of thoughts that whirled
through that great thoroughfare of the brain, the memory, in this night's
time. I ran over the whole history of my life in miniature, or by
abridgment, as I may call it, to my coming to this island, and also of
that part of my life since I came to this island. In my reflections upon
the state of my case since I came on shore on this island, I was
comparing the happy posture of my affairs in the first years of my
habitation here, with the life of anxiety, fear, and care which I had
lived in ever since I had seen the print of a foot in the sand. Not that
I did not believe the savages had frequented the island even all the
while, and might have been several hundreds of them at times on shore
there; but I had never known it, and was incapable of any apprehensions
about it; my satisfaction was perfect, though my danger was the same, and
I was as happy in not knowing my danger as if I had never really been
exposed to it. This furnished my thoughts with many very profitable
reflections, and particularly this one: How infinitely good that
Providence is, which has provided, in its government of mankind, such
narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of things; and though he walks
in the midst of so many thousand dangers, the sight of which, if
discovered to him, would distract his mind and sink his spirits, he is
kept serene and calm, by having the events of things hid from his eyes,
and knowing nothing of the dangers which surround him.
After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, I came to reflect
seriously upon the real danger I had been in for so many years in this
very island, and how I had walked about in the greatest security, and
with all possible tranquillity, even when perhaps nothing but the brow of
a hill, a great tree, or the casual approach of night, had been between
me and the worst kind of destruction--viz. that of falling into the hands
of cannibals and savages, who would have seized on me with the same view
as I would on a goat or turtle; and have thought it no more crime to kill
and devour me than I did of a pigeon or a curlew. I would unjustly
slander myself if I should say I was not sincerely thankful to my great
Preserver, to whose singular protection I acknowledged, with great
humanity, all these unknown deliverances were due, and without which I
must inevitably have fallen into their merciless hands.
When these thoughts were over, my head was for some time taken up in
considering the nature of these wretched creatures, I mean the savages,
and how it came to pass in the world that the wise Governor of all things
should give up any of His creatures to such inhumanity--nay, to something
so much below even brutality itself--as to devour its own kind: but as
this ended in some (at that time) fruitless speculations, it occurred to
me to inquire what part of the world these wretches lived in? how far off
the coast was from whence they came? what they ventured over so far from
home for? what kind of boats they had? and why I might not order myself
and my business so that I might be able to go over thither, as they were
to come to me?
I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I should do with
myself when I went thither; what would become of me if I fell into the
hands of these savages; or how I should escape them if they attacked me;
no, nor so much as how it was possible for me to reach the coast, and not
to be attacked by some or other of them, without any possibility of
delivering myself: and if I should not fall into their hands, what I
should do for provision, or whither I should bend my course: none of
these thoughts, I say, so much as came in my way; but my mind was wholly
bent upon the notion of my passing over in my boat to the mainland. I
looked upon my present condition as the most miserable that could
possibly be; that I was not able to throw myself into anything but death,
that could be called worse; and if I reached the shore of the main I
might perhaps meet with relief, or I might coast along, as I did on the
African shore, till I came to some inhabited country, and where I might
find some relief; and after all, perhaps I might fall in with some
Christian ship that might take me in: and if the worst came to the worst,
I could but die, which would put an end to all these miseries at once.
Pray note, all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind, an impatient
temper, made desperate, as it were, by the long continuance of my
troubles, and the disappointments I had met in the wreck I had been on
board of, and where I had been so near obtaining what I so earnestly
longed for--somebody to speak to, and to learn some knowledge from them
of the place where I was, and of the probable means of my deliverance. I
was agitated wholly by these thoughts; all my calm of mind, in my
resignation to Providence, and waiting the issue of the dispositions of
Heaven, seemed to be suspended; and I had as it were no power to turn my
thoughts to anything but to the project of a voyage to the main, which
came upon me with such force, and such an impetuosity of desire, that it
was not to be resisted.
When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more, with such
violence that it set my very blood into a ferment, and my pulse beat as
if I had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary fervour of my
mind about it, Nature--as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with the
very thoughts of it--threw me into a sound sleep. One would have thought
I should have dreamed of it, but I did not, nor of anything relating to
it, but I dreamed that as I was going out in the morning as usual from my
castle, I saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven savages coming to
land, and that they brought with them another savage whom they were going
to kill in order to eat him; when, on a sudden, the savage that they were
going to kill jumped away, and ran for his life; and I thought in my
sleep that he came running into my little thick grove before my
fortification, to hide himself; and that I seeing him alone, and not
perceiving that the others sought him that way, showed myself to him, and
smiling upon him, encouraged him: that he kneeled down to me, seeming to
pray me to assist him; upon which I showed him my ladder, made him go up,
and carried him into my cave, and he became my servant; and that as soon
as I had got this man, I said to myself, "Now I may certainly venture to
the mainland, for this fellow will serve me as a pilot, and will tell me
what to do, and whither to go for provisions, and whither not to go for
fear of being devoured; what places to venture into, and what to shun."
I waked with this thought; and was under such inexpressible impressions
of joy at the prospect of my escape in my dream, that the disappointments
which I felt upon coming to myself, and finding that it was no more than
a dream, were equally extravagant the other way, and threw me into a very
great dejection of spirits.
Upon this, however, I made this conclusion: that my only way to go about
to attempt an escape was, to endeavour to get a savage into my
possession: and, if possible, it should be one of their prisoners, whom
they had condemned to be eaten, and should bring hither to kill. But
these thoughts still were attended with this difficulty: that it was
impossible to effect this without attacking a whole caravan of them, and
killing them all; and this was not only a very desperate attempt, and
might miscarry, but, on the other hand, I had greatly scrupled the
lawfulness of it to myself; and my heart trembled at the thoughts of
shedding so much blood, though it was for my deliverance. I need not
repeat the arguments which occurred to me against this, they being the
same mentioned before; but though I had other reasons to offer now--viz.
that those men were enemies to my life, and would devour me if they
could; that it was self-preservation, in the highest degree, to deliver
myself from this death of a life, and was acting in my own defence as
much as if they were actually assaulting me, and the like; I say though
these things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shedding human blood for
my deliverance were very terrible to me, and such as I could by no means
reconcile myself to for a great while. However, at last, after many
secret disputes with myself, and after great perplexities about it (for
all these arguments, one way and another, struggled in my head a long
time), the eager prevailing desire of deliverance at length mastered all
the rest; and I resolved, if possible, to get one of these savages into
my hands, cost what it would. My next thing was to contrive how to do
it, and this, indeed, was very difficult to resolve on; but as I could
pitch upon no probable means for it, so I resolved to put myself upon the
watch, to see them when they came on shore, and leave the rest to the
event; taking such measures as the opportunity should present, let what
would be.
With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the scout as
often as possible, and indeed so often that I was heartily tired of it;
for it was above a year and a half that I waited; and for great part of
that time went out to the west end, and to the south-west corner of the
island almost every day, to look for canoes, but none appeared. This was
very discouraging, and began to trouble me much, though I cannot say that
it did in this case (as it had done some time before) wear off the edge
of my desire to the thing; but the longer it seemed to be delayed, the
more eager I was for it: in a word, I was not at first so careful to shun
the sight of these savages, and avoid being seen by them, as I was now
eager to be upon them. Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one,
nay, two or three savages, if I had them, so as to make them entirely
slaves to me, to do whatever I should direct them, and to prevent their
being able at any time to do me any hurt. It was a great while that I
pleased myself with this affair; but nothing still presented itself; all
my fancies and schemes came to nothing, for no savages came near me for a
great while.
About a year and a half after I entertained these notions (and by long
musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, for want of an
occasion to put them into execution), I was surprised one morning by
seeing no less than five canoes all on shore together on my side the
island, and the people who belonged to them all landed and out of my
sight. The number of them broke all my measures; for seeing so many, and
knowing that they always came four or six, or sometimes more in a boat, I
could not tell what to think of it, or how to take my measures to attack
twenty or thirty men single-handed; so lay still in my castle, perplexed
and discomforted. However, I put myself into the same position for an
attack that I had formerly provided, and was just ready for action, if
anything had presented. Having waited a good while, listening to hear if
they made any noise, at length, being very impatient, I set my guns at
the foot of my ladder, and clambered up to the top of the hill, by my two
stages, as usual; standing so, however, that my head did not appear above
the hill, so that they could not perceive me by any means. Here I
observed, by the help of my perspective glass, that they were no less
than thirty in number; that they had a fire kindled, and that they had
meat dressed. How they had cooked it I knew not, or what it was; but
they were all dancing, in I know not how many barbarous gestures and
figures, their own way, round the fire.
While I was thus looking on them, I perceived, by my perspective, two
miserable wretches dragged from the boats, where, it seems, they were
laid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter. I perceived one of
them immediately fall; being knocked down, I suppose, with a club or
wooden sword, for that was their way; and two or three others were at
work immediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while the other
victim was left standing by himself, till they should be ready for him.
In that very moment this poor wretch, seeing himself a little at liberty
and unbound, Nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he started away
from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the sands, directly
towards me; I mean towards that part of the coast where my habitation
was. I was dreadfully frightened, I must acknowledge, when I perceived
him run my way; and especially when, as I thought, I saw him pursued by
the whole body: and now I expected that part of my dream was coming to
pass, and that he would certainly take shelter in my grove; but I could
not depend, by any means, upon my dream, that the other savages would not
pursue him thither and find him there. However, I kept my station, and
my spirits began to recover when I found that there was not above three
men that followed him; and still more was I encouraged, when I found that
he outstripped them exceedingly in running, and gained ground on them; so
that, if he could but hold out for half-an-hour, I saw easily he would
fairly get away from them all.
There was between them and my castle the creek, which I mentioned often
in the first part of my story, where I landed my cargoes out of the ship;
and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the poor wretch
would be taken there; but when the savage escaping came thither, he made
nothing of it, though the tide was then up; but plunging in, swam through
in about thirty strokes, or thereabouts, landed, and ran with exceeding
strength and swiftness. When the three persons came to the creek, I
found that two of them could swim, but the third could not, and that,
standing on the other side, he looked at the others, but went no farther,
and soon after went softly back again; which, as it happened, was very
well for him in the end. I observed that the two who swam were yet more
than twice as strong swimming over the creek as the fellow was that fled
from them. It came very warmly upon my thoughts, and indeed
irresistibly, that now was the time to get me a servant, and, perhaps, a
companion or assistant; and that I was plainly called by Providence to
save this poor creature's life. I immediately ran down the ladders with
all possible expedition, fetched my two guns, for they were both at the
foot of the ladders, as I observed before, and getting up again with the
same haste to the top of the hill, I crossed towards the sea; and having
a very short cut, and all down hill, placed myself in the way between the
pursuers and the pursued, hallowing aloud to him that fled, who, looking
back, was at first perhaps as much frightened at me as at them; but I
beckoned with my hand to him to come back; and, in the meantime, I slowly
advanced towards the two that followed; then rushing at once upon the
foremost, I knocked him down with the stock of my piece. I was loath to
fire, because I would not have the rest hear; though, at that distance,
it would not have been easily heard, and being out of sight of the smoke,
too, they would not have known what to make of it. Having knocked this
fellow down, the other who pursued him stopped, as if he had been
frightened, and I advanced towards him: but as I came nearer, I perceived
presently he had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me: so I
was then obliged to shoot at him first, which I did, and killed him at
the first shot. The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he saw
both his enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was so frightened
with the fire and noise of my piece that he stood stock still, and
neither came forward nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclined
still to fly than to come on. I hallooed again to him, and made signs to
come forward, which he easily understood, and came a little way; then
stopped again, and then a little farther, and stopped again; and I could
then perceive that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner,
and had just been to be killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned to
him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement that
I could think of; and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down every ten
or twelve steps, in token of acknowledgment for saving his life. I
smiled at him, and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him to come still
nearer; at length he came close to me; and then he kneeled down again,
kissed the ground, and laid his head upon the ground, and taking me by
the foot, set my foot upon his head; this, it seems, was in token of
swearing to be my slave for ever. I took him up and made much of him,
and encouraged him all I could. But there was more work to do yet; for I
perceived the savage whom I had knocked down was not killed, but stunned
with the blow, and began to come to himself: so I pointed to him, and
showed him the savage, that he was not dead; upon this he spoke some
words to me, and though I could not understand them, yet I thought they
were pleasant to hear; for they were the first sound of a man's voice
that I had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years. But
there was no time for such reflections now; the savage who was knocked
down recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground, and I
perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but when I saw that, I
presented my other piece at the man, as if I would shoot him: upon this
my savage, for so I call him now, made a motion to me to lend him my
sword, which hung naked in a belt by my side, which I did. He no sooner
had it, but he runs to his enemy, and at one blow cut off his head so
cleverly, no executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better;
which I thought very strange for one who, I had reason to believe, never
saw a sword in his life before, except their own wooden swords: however,
it seems, as I learned afterwards, they make their wooden swords so
sharp, so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will even cut off
heads with them, ay, and arms, and that at one blow, too. When he had
done this, he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought me the
sword again, and with abundance of gestures which I did not understand,
laid it down, with the head of the savage that he had killed, just before
me. But that which astonished him most was to know how I killed the
other Indian so far off; so, pointing to him, he made signs to me to let
him go to him; and I bade him go, as well as I could. When he came to
him, he stood like one amazed, looking at him, turning him first on one
side, then on the other; looked at the wound the bullet had made, which
it seems was just in his breast, where it had made a hole, and no great
quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled inwardly, for he was
quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so I turned to
go away, and beckoned him to follow me, making signs to him that more
might come after them. Upon this he made signs to me that he should bury
them with sand, that they might not be seen by the rest, if they
followed; and so I made signs to him again to do so. He fell to work;
and in an instant he had scraped a hole in the sand with his hands big
enough to bury the first in, and then dragged him into it, and covered
him; and did so by the other also; I believe he had him buried them both
in a quarter of an hour. Then, calling away, I carried him, not to my
castle, but quite away to my cave, on the farther part of the island: so
I did not let my dream come to pass in that part, that he came into my
grove for shelter. Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to eat,
and a draught of water, which I found he was indeed in great distress
for, from his running: and having refreshed him, I made signs for him to
go and lie down to sleep, showing him a place where I had laid some
rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself
sometimes; so the poor creature lay down, and went to sleep.
He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight,
strong limbs, not too large; tall, and well-shaped; and, as I reckon,
about twenty-six years of age. He had a very good countenance, not a
fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in his
face; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of a European in his
countenance, too, especially when he smiled. His hair was long and
black, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large; and a
great vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The colour of his
skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not an ugly, yellow,
nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other natives of
America are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive-colour, that had in it
something very agreeable, though not very easy to describe. His face was
round and plump; his nose small, not flat, like the negroes; a very good
mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and as white as ivory.
After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about half-an-hour, he awoke
again, and came out of the cave to me: for I had been milking my goats
which I had in the enclosure just by: when he espied me he came running
to me, laying himself down again upon the ground, with all the possible
signs of an humble, thankful disposition, making a great many antic
gestures to show it. At last he lays his head flat upon the ground,
close to my foot, and sets my other foot upon his head, as he had done
before; and after this made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude,
and submission imaginable, to let me know how he would serve me so long
as he lived. I understood him in many things, and let him know I was
very well pleased with him. In a little time I began to speak to him;
and teach him to speak to me: and first, I let him know his name should
be Friday, which was the day I saved his life: I called him so for the
memory of the time. I likewise taught him to say Master; and then let
him know that was to be my name: I likewise taught him to say Yes and No
and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk in an earthen pot,
and let him see me drink it before him, and sop my bread in it; and gave
him a cake of bread to do the like, which he quickly complied with, and
made signs that it was very good for him. I kept there with him all that
night; but as soon as it was day I beckoned to him to come with me, and
let him know I would give him some clothes; at which he seemed very glad,
for he was stark naked. As we went by the place where he had buried the
two men, he pointed exactly to the place, and showed me the marks that he
had made to find them again, making signs to me that we should dig them
up again and eat them. At this I appeared very angry, expressed my
abhorrence of it, made as if I would vomit at the thoughts of it, and
beckoned with my hand to him to come away, which he did immediately, with
great submission. I then led him up to the top of the hill, to see if
his enemies were gone; and pulling out my glass I looked, and saw plainly
the place where they had been, but no appearance of them or their canoes;
so that it was plain they were gone, and had left their two comrades
behind them, without any search after them.
But I was not content with this discovery; but having now more courage,
and consequently more curiosity, I took my man Friday with me, giving him
the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which I found
he could use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for me, and I two
for myself; and away we marched to the place where these creatures had
been; for I had a mind now to get some further intelligence of them.
When I came to the place my very blood ran chill in my veins, and my
heart sunk within me, at the horror of the spectacle; indeed, it was a
dreadful sight, at least it was so to me, though Friday made nothing of
it. The place was covered with human bones, the ground dyed with their
blood, and great pieces of flesh left here and there, half-eaten,
mangled, and scorched; and, in short, all the tokens of the triumphant
feast they had been making there, after a victory over their enemies. I
saw three skulls, five hands, and the bones of three or four legs and
feet, and abundance of other parts of the bodies; and Friday, by his
signs, made me understand that they brought over four prisoners to feast
upon; that three of them were eaten up, and that he, pointing to himself,
was the fourth; that there had been a great battle between them and their
next king, of whose subjects, it seems, he had been one, and that they
had taken a great number of prisoners; all which were carried to several
places by those who had taken them in the fight, in order to feast upon
them, as was done here by these wretches upon those they brought hither.
I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and whatever
remained, and lay them together in a heap, and make a great fire upon it,
and burn them all to ashes. I found Friday had still a hankering stomach
after some of the flesh, and was still a cannibal in his nature; but I
showed so much abhorrence at the very thoughts of it, and at the least
appearance of it, that he durst not discover it: for I had, by some
means, let him know that I would kill him if he offered it.
When he had done this, we came back to our castle; and there I fell to
work for my man Friday; and first of all, I gave him a pair of linen
drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner's chest I mentioned, which I
found in the wreck, and which, with a little alteration, fitted him very
well; and then I made him a jerkin of goat's skin, as well as my skill
would allow (for I was now grown a tolerably good tailor); and I gave him
a cap which I made of hare's skin, very convenient, and fashionable
enough; and thus he was clothed, for the present, tolerably well, and was
mighty well pleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his master.
It is true he went awkwardly in these clothes at first: wearing the
drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled
his shoulders and the inside of his arms; but a little easing them where
he complained they hurt him, and using himself to them, he took to them
at length very well.
The next day, after I came home to my hutch with him, I began to consider
where I should lodge him: and that I might do well for him and yet be
perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in the vacant place
between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last, and in the
outside of the first. As there was a door or entrance there into my
cave, I made a formal framed door-case, and a door to it, of boards, and
set it up in the passage, a little within the entrance; and, causing the
door to open in the inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in my
ladders, too; so that Friday could no way come at me in the inside of my
innermost wall, without making so much noise in getting over that it must
needs awaken me; for my first wall had now a complete roof over it of
long poles, covering all my tent, and leaning up to the side of the hill;
which was again laid across with smaller sticks, instead of laths, and
then thatched over a great thickness with the rice-straw, which was
strong, like reeds; and at the hole or place which was left to go in or
out by the ladder I had placed a kind of trap-door, which, if it had been
attempted on the outside, would not have opened at all, but would have
fallen down and made a great noise--as to weapons, I took them all into
my side every night. But I needed none of all this precaution; for never
man had a more faithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday was to me:
without passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and engaged;
his very affections were tied to me, like those of a child to a father;
and I daresay he would have sacrificed his life to save mine upon any
occasion whatsoever--the many testimonies he gave me of this put it out
of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed to use no precautions for
my safety on his account.
This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with wonder, that
however it had pleased God in His providence, and in the government of
the works of His hands, to take from so great a part of the world of His
creatures the best uses to which their faculties and the powers of their
souls are adapted, yet that He has bestowed upon them the same powers,
the same reason, the same affections, the same sentiments of kindness and
obligation, the same passions and resentments of wrongs, the same sense
of gratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities of doing good
and receiving good that He has given to us; and that when He pleases to
offer them occasions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more
ready, to apply them to the right uses for which they were bestowed than
we are. This made me very melancholy sometimes, in reflecting, as the
several occasions presented, how mean a use we make of all these, even
though we have these powers enlightened by the great lamp of instruction,
the Spirit of God, and by the knowledge of His word added to our
understanding; and why it has pleased God to hide the like saving
knowledge from so many millions of souls, who, if I might judge by this
poor savage, would make a much better use of it than we did. From hence
I sometimes was led too far, to invade the sovereignty of Providence,
and, as it were, arraign the justice of so arbitrary a disposition of
things, that should hide that sight from some, and reveal it to others,
and yet expect a like duty from both; but I shut it up, and checked my
thoughts with this conclusion: first, that we did not know by what light
and law these should be condemned; but that as God was necessarily, and
by the nature of His being, infinitely holy and just, so it could not be,
but if these creatures were all sentenced to absence from Himself, it was
on account of sinning against that light which, as the Scripture says,
was a law to themselves, and by such rules as their consciences would
acknowledge to be just, though the foundation was not discovered to us;
and secondly, that still as we all are the clay in the hand of the
potter, no vessel could say to him, "Why hast thou formed me thus?"
But to return to my new companion. I was greatly delighted with him, and
made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him
useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, and
understand me when I spoke; and he was the aptest scholar that ever was;
and particularly was so merry, so constantly diligent, and so pleased
when he could but understand me, or make me understand him, that it was
very pleasant for me to talk to him. Now my life began to be so easy
that I began to say to myself that could I but have been safe from more
savages, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place where I
lived.
CHAPTER XV--FRIDAY'S EDUCATION
After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I thought that,
in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding, and from the
relish of a cannibal's stomach, I ought to let him taste other flesh; so
I took him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed,
intending to kill a kid out of my own flock; and bring it home and dress
it; but as I was going I saw a she-goat lying down in the shade, and two
young kids sitting by her. I catched hold of Friday. "Hold," said I,
"stand still;" and made signs to him not to stir: immediately I presented
my piece, shot, and killed one of the kids. The poor creature, who had
at a distance, indeed, seen me kill the savage, his enemy, but did not
know, nor could imagine how it was done, was sensibly surprised,
trembled, and shook, and looked so amazed that I thought he would have
sunk down. He did not see the kid I shot at, or perceive I had killed
it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel whether he was not wounded; and,
as I found presently, thought I was resolved to kill him: for he came and
kneeled down to me, and embracing my knees, said a great many things I
did not understand; but I could easily see the meaning was to pray me not
to kill him.
I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm; and
taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and pointing to the kid which
I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did: and
while he was wondering, and looking to see how the creature was killed, I
loaded my gun again. By-and-by I saw a great fowl, like a hawk, sitting
upon a tree within shot; so, to let Friday understand a little what I
would do, I called him to me again, pointed at the fowl, which was indeed
a parrot, though I thought it had been a hawk; I say, pointing to the
parrot, and to my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to let him see
I would make it fall, I made him understand that I would shoot and kill
that bird; accordingly, I fired, and bade him look, and immediately he
saw the parrot fall. He stood like one frightened again, notwithstanding
all I had said to him; and I found he was the more amazed, because he did
not see me put anything into the gun, but thought that there must be some
wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill man,
beast, bird, or anything near or far off; and the astonishment this
created in him was such as could not wear off for a long time; and I
believe, if I would have let him, he would have worshipped me and my gun.
As for the gun itself, he would not so much as touch it for several days
after; but he would speak to it and talk to it, as if it had answered
him, when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards learned of him, was
to desire it not to kill him. Well, after his astonishment was a little
over at this, I pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot,
which he did, but stayed some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead,
had fluttered away a good distance from the place where she fell:
however, he found her, took her up, and brought her to me; and as I had
perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I took this advantage to
charge the gun again, and not to let him see me do it, that I might be
ready for any other mark that might present; but nothing more offered at
that time: so I brought home the kid, and the same evening I took the
skin off, and cut it out as well as I could; and having a pot fit for
that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very
good broth. After I had begun to eat some I gave some to my man, who
seemed very glad of it, and liked it very well; but that which was
strangest to him was to see me eat salt with it. He made a sign to me
that the salt was not good to eat; and putting a little into his own
mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at it,
washing his mouth with fresh water after it: on the other hand, I took
some meat into my mouth without salt, and I pretended to spit and sputter
for want of salt, as much as he had done at the salt; but it would not
do; he would never care for salt with meat or in his broth; at least, not
for a great while, and then but a very little.
Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to feast
him the next day by roasting a piece of the kid: this I did by hanging it
before the fire on a string, as I had seen many people do in England,
setting two poles up, one on each side of the fire, and one across the
top, and tying the string to the cross stick, letting the meat turn
continually. This Friday admired very much; but when he came to taste
the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how well he liked it, that I
could not but understand him: and at last he told me, as well as he
could, he would never eat man's flesh any more, which I was very glad to
hear.
The next day I set him to work beating some corn out, and sifting it in
the manner I used to do, as I observed before; and he soon understood how
to do it as well as I, especially after he had seen what the meaning of
it was, and that it was to make bread of; for after that I let him see me
make my bread, and bake it too; and in a little time Friday was able to
do all the work for me as well as I could do it myself.
I began now to consider, that having two mouths to feed instead of one, I
must provide more ground for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity of
corn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece of land, and began
the fence in the same manner as before, in which Friday worked not only
very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully: and I told him
what it was for; that it was for corn to make more bread, because he was
now with me, and that I might have enough for him and myself too. He
appeared very sensible of that part, and let me know that he thought I
had much more labour upon me on his account than I had for myself; and
that he would work the harder for me if I would tell him what to do.
This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this place.
Friday began to talk pretty well, and understand the names of almost
everything I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to send
him to, and talked a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began now to
have some use for my tongue again, which, indeed, I had very little
occasion for before. Besides the pleasure of talking to him, I had a
singular satisfaction in the fellow himself: his simple, unfeigned
honesty appeared to me more and more every day, and I began really to
love the creature; and on his side I believe he loved me more than it was
possible for him ever to love anything before.
I had a mind once to try if he had any inclination for his own country
again; and having taught him English so well that he could answer me
almost any question, I asked him whether the nation that he belonged to
never conquered in battle? At which he smiled, and said--"Yes, yes, we
always fight the better;" that is, he meant always get the better in
fight; and so we began the following discourse:--
_Master_.--You always fight the better; how came you to be taken
prisoner, then, Friday?
_Friday_.--My nation beat much for all that.
_Master_.--How beat? If your nation beat them, how came you to be taken?
_Friday_.--They more many than my nation, in the place where me was; they
take one, two, three, and me: my nation over-beat them in the yonder
place, where me no was; there my nation take one, two, great thousand.
_Master_.--But why did not your side recover you from the hands of your
enemies, then?
_Friday_.--They run, one, two, three, and me, and make go in the canoe;
my nation have no canoe that time.
_Master_.--Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with the men they
take? Do they carry them away and eat them, as these did?
_Friday_.--Yes, my nation eat mans too; eat all up.
_Master_.--Where do they carry them?
_Friday_.--Go to other place, where they think.
_Master_.--Do they come hither?
_Friday_.--Yes, yes, they come hither; come other else place.
_Master_.--Have you been here with them?
_Friday_.--Yes, I have been here (points to the NW. side of the island,
which, it seems, was their side).
By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among the
savages who used to come on shore on the farther part of the island, on
the same man-eating occasions he was now brought for; and some time
after, when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being the same
I formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told me he was
there once, when they ate up twenty men, two women, and one child; he
could not tell twenty in English, but he numbered them by laying so many
stones in a row, and pointing to me to tell them over.
I have told this passage, because it introduces what follows: that after
this discourse I had with him, I asked him how far it was from our island
to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost. He told me
there was no danger, no canoes ever lost: but that after a little way out
to sea, there was a current and wind, always one way in the morning, the
other in the afternoon. This I understood to be no more than the sets of
the tide, as going out or coming in; but I afterwards understood it was
occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty river Orinoco, in
the mouth or gulf of which river, as I found afterwards, our island lay;
and that this land, which I perceived to be W. and NW., was the great
island Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the river. I asked
Friday a thousand questions about the country, the inhabitants, the sea,
the coast, and what nations were near; he told me all he knew with the
greatest openness imaginable. I asked him the names of the several
nations of his sort of people, but could get no other name than Caribs;
from whence I easily understood that these were the Caribbees, which our
maps place on the part of America which reaches from the mouth of the
river Orinoco to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told me that up a
great way beyond the moon, that was beyond the setting of the moon, which
must be west from their country, there dwelt white bearded men, like me,
and pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned before; and that they
had killed much mans, that was his word: by all which I understood he
meant the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over the
whole country, and were remembered by all the nations from father to son.
I inquired if he could tell me how I might go from this island, and get
among those white men. He told me, "Yes, yes, you may go in two canoe."
I could not understand what he meant, or make him describe to me what he
meant by two canoe, till at last, with great difficulty, I found he meant
it must be in a large boat, as big as two canoes. This part of Friday's
discourse I began to relish very well; and from this time I entertained
some hopes that, one time or other, I might find an opportunity to make
my escape from this place, and that this poor savage might be a means to
help me.
During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he began
to speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundation
of religious knowledge in his mind; particularly I asked him one time,
who made him. The creature did not understand me at all, but thought I
had asked who was his father--but I took it up by another handle, and
asked him who made the sea, the ground we walked on, and the hills and
woods. He told me, "It was one Benamuckee, that lived beyond all;" he
could describe nothing of this great person, but that he was very old,
"much older," he said, "than the sea or land, than the moon or the
stars." I asked him then, if this old person had made all things, why
did not all things worship him? He looked very grave, and, with a
perfect look of innocence, said, "All things say O to him." I asked him
if the people who die in his country went away anywhere? He said, "Yes;
they all went to Benamuckee." Then I asked him whether those they eat up
went thither too. He said, "Yes."
From these things, I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true
God; I told him that the great Maker of all things lived up there,
pointing up towards heaven; that He governed the world by the same power
and providence by which He made it; that He was omnipotent, and could do
everything for us, give everything to us, take everything from us; and
thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great attention,
and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being sent to
redeem us; and of the manner of making our prayers to God, and His being
able to hear us, even in heaven. He told me one day, that if our God
could hear us, up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God than
their Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not hear
till they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak to them.
I asked him if ever he went thither to speak to him. He said, "No; they
never went that were young men; none went thither but the old men," whom
he called their Oowokakee; that is, as I made him explain to me, their
religious, or clergy; and that they went to say O (so he called saying
prayers), and then came back and told them what Benamuckee said. By this
I observed, that there is priestcraft even among the most blinded,
ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secret of
religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the
clergy, not only to be found in the Roman, but, perhaps, among all
religions in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous
savages.
I endeavoured to clear up this fraud to my man Friday; and told him that
the pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to say O to their
god Benamuckee was a cheat; and their bringing word from thence what he
said was much more so; that if they met with any answer, or spake with
any one there, it must be with an evil spirit; and then I entered into a
long discourse with him about the devil, the origin of him, his rebellion
against God, his enmity to man, the reason of it, his setting himself up
in the dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of God, and as
God, and the many stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to their
ruin; how he had a secret access to our passions and to our affections,
and to adapt his snares to our inclinations, so as to cause us even to be
our own tempters, and run upon our destruction by our own choice.
I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind about the
devil as it was about the being of a God. Nature assisted all my
arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great First Cause,
an overruling, governing Power, a secret directing Providence, and of the
equity and justice of paying homage to Him that made us, and the like;
but there appeared nothing of this kind in the notion of an evil spirit,
of his origin, his being, his nature, and above all, of his inclination
to do evil, and to draw us in to do so too; and the poor creature puzzled
me once in such a manner, by a question merely natural and innocent, that
I scarce knew what to say to him. I had been talking a great deal to him
of the power of God, His omnipotence, His aversion to sin, His being a
consuming fire to the workers of iniquity; how, as He had made us all, He
could destroy us and all the world in a moment; and he listened with
great seriousness to me all the while. After this I had been telling him
how the devil was God's enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his
malice and skill to defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin
the kingdom of Christ in the world, and the like. "Well," says Friday,
"but you say God is so strong, so great; is He not much strong, much
might as the devil?" "Yes, yes," says I, "Friday; God is stronger than
the devil--God is above the devil, and therefore we pray to God to tread
him down under our feet, and enable us to resist his temptations and
quench his fiery darts." "But," says he again, "if God much stronger,
much might as the wicked devil, why God no kill the devil, so make him no
more do wicked?" I was strangely surprised at this question; and, after
all, though I was now an old man, yet I was but a young doctor, and ill
qualified for a casuist or a solver of difficulties; and at first I could
not tell what to say; so I pretended not to hear him, and asked him what
he said; but he was too earnest for an answer to forget his question, so
that he repeated it in the very same broken words as above. By this time
I had recovered myself a little, and I said, "God will at last punish him
severely; he is reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the
bottomless pit, to dwell with everlasting fire." This did not satisfy
Friday; but he returns upon me, repeating my words, "'_Reserve at last_!'
me no understand--but why not kill the devil now; not kill great ago?"
"You may as well ask me," said I, "why God does not kill you or me, when
we do wicked things here that offend Him--we are preserved to repent and
be pardoned." He mused some time on this. "Well, well," says he, mighty
affectionately, "that well--so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve,
repent, God pardon all." Here I was run down again by him to the last
degree; and it was a testimony to me, how the mere notions of nature,
though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God,
and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as the
consequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine revelation can form the
knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of redemption purchased for us; of a
Mediator of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool of
God's throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form these
in the soul; and that, therefore, the gospel of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, I mean the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, promised for
the guide and sanctifier of His people, are the absolutely necessary
instructors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of God and the
means of salvation.
I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man, rising
up hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out; then sending him
for something a good way off, I seriously prayed to God that He would
enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage; assisting, by His
Spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of
the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to Himself, and would
guide me so to speak to him from the Word of God that his conscience
might be convinced, his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he came
again to me, I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subject of
the redemption of man by the Saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of
the gospel preached from Heaven, viz. of repentance towards God, and
faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then explained to him as well as I
could why our blessed Redeemer took not on Him the nature of angels but
the seed of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallen angels had no
share in the redemption; that He came only to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel, and the like.
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods I took
for this poor creature's instruction, and must acknowledge, what I
believe all that act upon the same principle will find, that in laying
things open to him, I really informed and instructed myself in many
things that either I did not know or had not fully considered before, but
which occurred naturally to my mind upon searching into them, for the
information of this poor savage; and I had more affection in my inquiry
after things upon this occasion than ever I felt before: so that, whether
this poor wild wretch was better for me or no, I had great reason to be
thankful that ever he came to me; my grief sat lighter, upon me; my
habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure: and when I reflected
that in this solitary life which I have been confined to, I had not only
been moved to look up to heaven myself, and to seek the Hand that had
brought me here, but was now to be made an instrument, under Providence,
to save the life, and, for aught I knew, the soul of a poor savage, and
bring him to the true knowledge of religion and of the Christian
doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, in whom is life eternal; I
say, when I reflected upon all these things, a secret joy ran through
every part of My soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought
to this place, which I had so often thought the most dreadful of all
afflictions that could possibly have befallen me.
I continued in this thankful frame all the remainder of my time; and the
conversation which employed the hours between Friday and me was such as
made the three years which we lived there together perfectly and
completely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can be formed
in a sublunary state. This savage was now a good Christian, a much
better than I; though I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, that
we were equally penitent, and comforted, restored penitents. We had here
the Word of God to read, and no farther off from His Spirit to instruct
than if we had been in England. I always applied myself, in reading the
Scripture, to let him know, as well as I could, the meaning of what I
read; and he again, by his serious inquiries and questionings, made me,
as I said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture knowledge than I
should ever have been by my own mere private reading. Another thing I
cannot refrain from observing here also, from experience in this retired
part of my life, viz. how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is
that the knowledge of God, and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ
Jesus, is so plainly laid down in the Word of God, so easy to be received
and understood, that, as the bare reading the Scripture made me capable
of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great
work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a Saviour for
life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, and obedience to
all God's commands, and this without any teacher or instructor, I mean
human; so the same plain instruction sufficiently served to the
enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be such a
Christian as I have known few equal to him in my life.
As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which have
happened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines or
schemes of church government, they were all perfectly useless to us, and,
for aught I can yet see, they have been so to the rest of the world. We
had the sure guide to heaven, viz. the Word of God; and we had, blessed
be God, comfortable views of the Spirit of God teaching and instructing
by His word, leading us into all truth, and making us both willing and
obedient to the instruction of His word. And I cannot see the least use
that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points of religion, which
have made such confusion in the world, would have been to us, if we could
have obtained it. But I must go on with the historical part of things,
and take every part in its order.
After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he could
understand almost all I said to him, and speak pretty fluently, though in
broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own history, or at least
so much of it as related to my coming to this place: how I had lived
there, and how long; I let him into the mystery, for such it was to him,
of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to shoot. I gave him a
knife, which he was wonderfully delighted with; and I made him a belt,
with a frog hanging to it, such as in England we wear hangers in; and in
the frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was not only
as good a weapon in some cases, but much more useful upon other
occasions.
I described to him the country of Europe, particularly England, which I
came from; how we lived, how we worshipped God, how we behaved to one
another, and how we traded in ships to all parts of the world. I gave
him an account of the wreck which I had been on board of, and showed him,
as near as I could, the place where she lay; but she was all beaten in
pieces before, and gone. I showed him the ruins of our boat, which we
lost when we escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole strength
then; but was now fallen almost all to pieces. Upon seeing this boat,
Friday stood, musing a great while, and said nothing. I asked him what
it was he studied upon. At last says he, "Me see such boat like come to
place at my nation." I did not understand him a good while; but at last,
when I had examined further into it, I understood by him that a boat,
such as that had been, came on shore upon the country where he lived:
that is, as he explained it, was driven thither by stress of weather. I
presently imagined that some European ship must have been cast away upon
their coast, and the boat might get loose and drive ashore; but was so
dull that I never once thought of men making their escape from a wreck
thither, much less whence they might come: so I only inquired after a
description of the boat.
Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me better to
understand him when he added with some warmth, "We save the white mans
from drown." Then I presently asked if there were any white mans, as he
called them, in the boat. "Yes," he said; "the boat full of white mans."
I asked him how many. He told upon his fingers seventeen. I asked him
then what became of them. He told me, "They live, they dwell at my
nation."
This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently imagined that these
might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in the sight of
my island, as I now called it; and who, after the ship was struck on the
rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in their
boat, and were landed upon that wild shore among the savages. Upon this
I inquired of him more critically what was become of them. He assured me
they lived still there; that they had been there about four years; that
the savages left them alone, and gave them victuals to live on. I asked
him how it came to pass they did not kill them and eat them. He said,
"No, they make brother with them;" that is, as I understood him, a truce;
and then he added, "They no eat mans but when make the war fight;" that
is to say, they never eat any men but such as come to fight with them and
are taken in battle.
It was after this some considerable time, that being upon the top of the
hill at the east side of the island, from whence, as I have said, I had,
in a clear day, discovered the main or continent of America, Friday, the
weather being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the mainland,
and, in a kind of surprise, falls a jumping and dancing, and calls out to
me, for I was at some distance from him. I asked him what was the
matter. "Oh, joy!" says he; "Oh, glad! there see my country, there my
nation!" I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his
face, and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered a strange
eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country again. This
observation of mine put a great many thoughts into me, which made me at
first not so easy about my new man Friday as I was before; and I made no
doubt but that, if Friday could get back to his own nation again, he
would not only forget all his religion but all his obligation to me, and
would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, and come
back, perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and make a feast upon me, at
which he might be as merry as he used to be with those of his enemies
when they were taken in war. But I wronged the poor honest creature very
much, for which I was very sorry afterwards. However, as my jealousy
increased, and held some weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and not
so familiar and kind to him as before: in which I was certainly wrong
too; the honest, grateful creature having no thought about it but what
consisted with the best principles, both as a religious Christian and as
a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction.
While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be sure I was every day pumping
him to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts which I suspected
were in him; but I found everything he said was so honest and so
innocent, that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion; and in spite
of all my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his own again; nor did
he in the least perceive that I was uneasy, and therefore I could not
suspect him of deceit.
One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy at sea, so
that we could not see the continent, I called to him, and said, "Friday,
do not you wish yourself in your own country, your own nation?" "Yes,"
he said, "I be much O glad to be at my own nation." "What would you do
there?" said I. "Would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh again, and
be a savage as you were before?" He looked full of concern, and shaking
his head, said, "No, no, Friday tell them to live good; tell them to pray
God; tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle flesh, milk; no eat man again."
"Why, then," said I to him, "they will kill you." He looked grave at
that, and then said, "No, no, they no kill me, they willing love learn."
He meant by this, they would be willing to learn. He added, they learned
much of the bearded mans that came in the boat. Then I asked him if he
would go back to them. He smiled at that, and told me that he could not
swim so far. I told him I would make a canoe for him. He told me he
would go if I would go with him. "I go!" says I; "why, they will eat me
if I come there." "No, no," says he, "me make they no eat you; me make
they much love you." He meant, he would tell them how I had killed his
enemies, and saved his life, and so he would make them love me. Then he
told me, as well as he could, how kind they were to seventeen white men,
or bearded men, as he called them who came on shore there in distress.
From this time, I confess, I had a mind to venture over, and see if I
could possibly join with those bearded men, who I made no doubt were
Spaniards and Portuguese; not doubting but, if I could, we might find
some method to escape from thence, being upon the continent, and a good
company together, better than I could from an island forty miles off the
shore, alone and without help. So, after some days, I took Friday to
work again by way of discourse, and told him I would give him a boat to
go back to his own nation; and, accordingly, I carried him to my frigate,
which lay on the other side of the island, and having cleared it of water
(for I always kept it sunk in water), I brought it out, showed it him,
and we both went into it. I found he was a most dexterous fellow at
managing it, and would make it go almost as swift again as I could. So
when he was in, I said to him, "Well, now, Friday, shall we go to your
nation?" He looked very dull at my saying so; which it seems was because
he thought the boat was too small to go so far. I then told him I had a
bigger; so the next day I went to the place where the first boat lay
which I had made, but which I could not get into the water. He said that
was big enough; but then, as I had taken no care of it, and it had lain
two or three and twenty years there, the sun had so split and dried it,
that it was rotten. Friday told me such a boat would do very well, and
would carry "much enough vittle, drink, bread;" this was his way of
talking.
CHAPTER XVI--RESCUE OF PRISONERS FROM CANNIBALS
Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my design of going over
with him to the continent that I told him we would go and make one as big
as that, and he should go home in it. He answered not one word, but
looked very grave and sad. I asked him what was the matter with him. He
asked me again, "Why you angry mad with Friday?--what me done?" I asked
him what he meant. I told him I was not angry with him at all. "No
angry!" says he, repeating the words several times; "why send Friday home
away to my nation?" "Why," says I, "Friday, did not you say you wished
you were there?" "Yes, yes," says he, "wish we both there; no wish
Friday there, no master there." In a word, he would not think of going
there without me. "I go there, Friday?" says I; "what shall I do there?"
He turned very quick upon me at this. "You do great deal much good,"
says he; "you teach wild mans be good, sober, tame mans; you tell them
know God, pray God, and live new life." "Alas, Friday!" says I, "thou
knowest not what thou sayest; I am but an ignorant man myself." "Yes,
yes," says he, "you teachee me good, you teachee them good." "No, no,
Friday," says I, "you shall go without me; leave me here to live by
myself, as I did before." He looked confused again at that word; and
running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he takes it up
hastily, and gives it to me. "What must I do with this?" says I to him.
"You take kill Friday," says he. "What must kill you for?" said I again.
He returns very quick--"What you send Friday away for? Take kill Friday,
no send Friday away." This he spoke so earnestly that I saw tears stand
in his eyes. In a word, I so plainly discovered the utmost affection in
him to me, and a firm resolution in him, that I told him then and often
after, that I would never send him away from me if he was willing to stay
with me.
Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled affection to
me, and that nothing could part him from me, so I found all the
foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his ardent
affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing them good; a thing
which, as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the least thought or
intention, or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong
inclination to attempting my escape, founded on the supposition gathered
from the discourse, that there were seventeen bearded men there; and
therefore, without any more delay, I went to work with Friday to find out
a great tree proper to fell, and make a large periagua, or canoe, to
undertake the voyage. There were trees enough in the island to have
built a little fleet, not of periaguas or canoes, but even of good, large
vessels; but the main thing I looked at was, to get one so near the water
that we might launch it when it was made, to avoid the mistake I
committed at first. At last Friday pitched upon a tree; for I found he
knew much better than I what kind of wood was fittest for it; nor can I
tell to this day what wood to call the tree we cut down, except that it
was very like the tree we call fustic, or between that and the Nicaragua
wood, for it was much of the same colour and smell. Friday wished to
burn the hollow or cavity of this tree out, to make it for a boat, but I
showed him how to cut it with tools; which, after I had showed him how to
use, he did very handily; and in about a month's hard labour we finished
it and made it very handsome; especially when, with our axes, which I
showed him how to handle, we cut and hewed the outside into the true
shape of a boat. After this, however, it cost us near a fortnight's time
to get her along, as it were inch by inch, upon great rollers into the
water; but when she was in, she would have carried twenty men with great
ease.
When she was in the water, though she was so big, it amazed me to see
with what dexterity and how swift my man Friday could manage her, turn
her, and paddle her along. So I asked him if he would, and if we might
venture over in her. "Yes," he said, "we venture over in her very well,
though great blow wind." However I had a further design that he knew
nothing of, and that was, to make a mast and a sail, and to fit her with
an anchor and cable. As to a mast, that was easy enough to get; so I
pitched upon a straight young cedar-tree, which I found near the place,
and which there were great plenty of in the island, and I set Friday to
work to cut it down, and gave him directions how to shape and order it.
But as to the sail, that was my particular care. I knew I had old sails,
or rather pieces of old sails, enough; but as I had had them now
six-and-twenty years by me, and had not been very careful to preserve
them, not imagining that I should ever have this kind of use for them, I
did not doubt but they were all rotten; and, indeed, most of them were
so. However, I found two pieces which appeared pretty good, and with
these I went to work; and with a great deal of pains, and awkward
stitching, you may be sure, for want of needles, I at length made a
three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in England a
shoulder-of-mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little short
sprit at the top, such as usually our ships' long-boats sail with, and
such as I best knew how to manage, as it was such a one as I had to the
boat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in the first part
of my story.
I was near two months performing this last work, viz. rigging and fitting
my masts and sails; for I finished them very complete, making a small
stay, and a sail, or foresail, to it, to assist if we should turn to
windward; and, what was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern of
her to steer with. I was but a bungling shipwright, yet as I knew the
usefulness and even necessity of such a thing, I applied myself with so
much pains to do it, that at last I brought it to pass; though,
considering the many dull contrivances I had for it that failed, I think
it cost me almost as much labour as making the boat.
After all this was done, I had my man Friday to teach as to what belonged
to the navigation of my boat; though he knew very well how to paddle a
canoe, he knew nothing of what belonged to a sail and a rudder; and was
the most amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea by
the rudder, and how the sail jibed, and filled this way or that way as
the course we sailed changed; I say when he saw this he stood like one
astonished and amazed. However, with a little use, I made all these
things familiar to him, and he became an expert sailor, except that of
the compass I could make him understand very little. On the other hand,
as there was very little cloudy weather, and seldom or never any fogs in
those parts, there was the less occasion for a compass, seeing the stars
were always to be seen by night, and the shore by day, except in the
rainy seasons, and then nobody cared to stir abroad either by land or
sea.
I was now entered on the seven-and-twentieth year of my captivity in this
place; though the three last years that I had this creature with me ought
rather to be left out of the account, my habitation being quite of
another kind than in all the rest of the time. I kept the anniversary of
my landing here with the same thankfulness to God for His mercies as at
first: and if I had such cause of acknowledgment at first, I had much
more so now, having such additional testimonies of the care of Providence
over me, and the great hopes I had of being effectually and speedily
delivered; for I had an invincible impression upon my thoughts that my
deliverance was at hand, and that I should not be another year in this
place. I went on, however, with my husbandry; digging, planting, and
fencing as usual. I gathered and cured my grapes, and did every
necessary thing as before.
The rainy season was in the meantime upon me, when I kept more within
doors than at other times. We had stowed our new vessel as secure as we
could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I said in the beginning,
I landed my rafts from the ship; and hauling her up to the shore at
high-water mark, I made my man Friday dig a little dock, just big enough
to hold her, and just deep enough to give her water enough to float in;
and then, when the tide was out, we made a strong dam across the end of
it, to keep the water out; and so she lay, dry as to the tide from the
sea: and to keep the rain off we laid a great many boughs of trees, so
thick that she was as well thatched as a house; and thus we waited for
the months of November and December, in which I designed to make my
adventure.
When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my design
returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the voyage.
And the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions,
being the stores for our voyage; and intended in a week or a fortnight's
time to open the dock, and launch out our boat. I was busy one morning
upon something of this kind, when I called to Friday, and bid him to go
to the sea-shore and see if he could find a turtle or a tortoise, a thing
which we generally got once a week, for the sake of the eggs as well as
the flesh. Friday had not been long gone when he came running back, and
flew over my outer wall or fence, like one that felt not the ground or
the steps he set his foot on; and before I had time to speak to him he
cries out to me, "O master! O master! O sorrow! O bad!"--"What's the
matter, Friday?" says I. "O yonder there," says he, "one, two, three
canoes; one, two, three!" By this way of speaking I concluded there were
six; but on inquiry I found there were but three. "Well, Friday," says
I, "do not be frightened." So I heartened him up as well as I could.
However, I saw the poor fellow was most terribly scared, for nothing ran
in his head but that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in
pieces and eat him; and the poor fellow trembled so that I scarcely knew
what to do with him. I comforted him as well as I could, and told him I
was in as much danger as he, and that they would eat me as well as him.
"But," says I, "Friday, we must resolve to fight them. Can you fight,
Friday?" "Me shoot," says he, "but there come many great number." "No
matter for that," said I again; "our guns will fright them that we do not
kill." So I asked him whether, if I resolved to defend him, he would
defend me, and stand by me, and do just as I bid him. He said, "Me die
when you bid die, master." So I went and fetched a good dram of rum and
gave him; for I had been so good a husband of my rum that I had a great
deal left. When we had drunk it, I made him take the two fowling-pieces,
which we always carried, and loaded them with large swan-shot, as big as
small pistol-bullets. Then I took four muskets, and loaded them with two
slugs and five small bullets each; and my two pistols I loaded with a
brace of bullets each. I hung my great sword, as usual, naked by my
side, and gave Friday his hatchet. When I had thus prepared myself, I
took my perspective glass, and went up to the side of the hill, to see
what I could discover; and I found quickly by my glass that there were
one-and-twenty savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; and that their
whole business seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon these three human
bodies: a barbarous feast, indeed! but nothing more than, as I had
observed, was usual with them. I observed also that they had landed, not
where they had done when Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek,
where the shore was low, and where a thick wood came almost close down to
the sea. This, with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches
came about, filled me with such indignation that I came down again to
Friday, and told him I was resolved to go down to them and kill them all;
and asked him if he would stand by me. He had now got over his fright,
and his spirits being a little raised with the dram I had given him, he
was very cheerful, and told me, as before, he would die when I bid die.
In this fit of fury I divided the arms which I had charged, as before,
between us; I gave Friday one pistol to stick in his girdle, and three
guns upon his shoulder, and I took one pistol and the other three guns
myself; and in this posture we marched out. I took a small bottle of rum
in my pocket, and gave Friday a large bag with more powder and bullets;
and as to orders, I charged him to keep close behind me, and not to stir,
or shoot, or do anything till I bid him, and in the meantime not to speak
a word. In this posture I fetched a compass to my right hand of near a
mile, as well to get over the creek as to get into the wood, so that I
could come within shot of them before I should be discovered, which I had
seen by my glass it was easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning, I began to
abate my resolution: I do not mean that I entertained any fear of their
number, for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, it is certain I was
superior to them--nay, though I had been alone. But it occurred to my
thoughts, what call, what occasion, much less what necessity I was in to
go and dip my hands in blood, to attack people who had neither done or
intended me any wrong? who, as to me, were innocent, and whose barbarous
customs were their own disaster, being in them a token, indeed, of God's
having left them, with the other nations of that part of the world, to
such stupidity, and to such inhuman courses, but did not call me to take
upon me to be a judge of their actions, much less an executioner of His
justice--that whenever He thought fit He would take the cause into His
own hands, and by national vengeance punish them as a people for national
crimes, but that, in the meantime, it was none of my business--that it
was true Friday might justify it, because he was a declared enemy and in
a state of war with those very particular people, and it was lawful for
him to attack them--but I could not say the same with regard to myself.
These things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the way as I
went, that I resolved I would only go and place myself near them that I
might observe their barbarous feast, and that I would act then as God
should direct; but that unless something offered that was more a call to
me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them.
With this resolution I entered the wood, and, with all possible wariness
and silence, Friday following close at my heels, I marched till I came to
the skirts of the wood on the side which was next to them, only that one
corner of the wood lay between me and them. Here I called softly to
Friday, and showing him a great tree which was just at the corner of the
wood, I bade him go to the tree, and bring me word if he could see there
plainly what they were doing. He did so, and came immediately back to
me, and told me they might be plainly viewed there--that they were all
about their fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners, and that
another lay bound upon the sand a little from them, whom he said they
would kill next; and this fired the very soul within me. He told me it
was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men he had told me
of, that came to their country in the boat. I was filled with horror at
the very naming of the white bearded man; and going to the tree, I saw
plainly by my glass a white man, who lay upon the beach of the sea with
his hands and his feet tied with flags, or things like rushes, and that
he was an European, and had clothes on.
There was another tree and a little thicket beyond it, about fifty yards
nearer to them than the place where I was, which, by going a little way
about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then I should be
within half a shot of them; so I withheld my passion, though I was indeed
enraged to the highest degree; and going back about twenty paces, I got
behind some bushes, which held all the way till I came to the other tree,
and then came to a little rising ground, which gave me a full view of
them at the distance of about eighty yards.
I had now not a moment to lose, for nineteen of the dreadful wretches sat
upon the ground, all close huddled together, and had just sent the other
two to butcher the poor Christian, and bring him perhaps limb by limb to
their fire, and they were stooping down to untie the bands at his feet.
I turned to Friday. "Now, Friday," said I, "do as I bid thee." Friday
said he would. "Then, Friday," says I, "do exactly as you see me do;
fail in nothing." So I set down one of the muskets and the fowling-piece
upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his, and with the other
musket I took my aim at the savages, bidding him to do the like; then
asking him if he was ready, he said, "Yes." "Then fire at them," said I;
and at the same moment I fired also.
Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the side that he shot
he killed two of them, and wounded three more; and on my side I killed
one, and wounded two. They were, you may be sure, in a dreadful
consternation: and all of them that were not hurt jumped upon their feet,
but did not immediately know which way to run, or which way to look, for
they knew not from whence their destruction came. Friday kept his eyes
close upon me, that, as I had bid him, he might observe what I did; so,
as soon as the first shot was made, I threw down the piece, and took up
the fowling-piece, and Friday did the like; he saw me cock and present;
he did the same again. "Are you ready, Friday?" said I. "Yes," says he.
"Let fly, then," says I, "in the name of God!" and with that I fired
again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as our pieces
were now loaded with what I call swan-shot, or small pistol-bullets, we
found only two drop; but so many were wounded that they ran about yelling
and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and most of them miserably
wounded; whereof three more fell quickly after, though not quite dead.
"Now, Friday," says I, laying down the discharged pieces, and taking up
the musket which was yet loaded, "follow me," which he did with a great
deal of courage; upon which I rushed out of the wood and showed myself,
and Friday close at my foot. As soon as I perceived they saw me, I
shouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday do so too, and running as
fast as I could, which, by the way, was not very fast, being loaded with
arms as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I
said, lying upon the beach or shore, between the place where they sat and
the sea. The two butchers who were just going to work with him had left
him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright to
the seaside, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest made
the same way. I turned to Friday, and bade him step forwards and fire at
them; he understood me immediately, and running about forty yards, to be
nearer them, he shot at them; and I thought he had killed them all, for I
saw them all fall of a heap into the boat, though I saw two of them up
again quickly; however, he killed two of them, and wounded the third, so
that he lay down in the bottom of the boat as if he had been dead.
While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife and cut the
flags that bound the poor victim; and loosing his hands and feet, I
lifted him up, and asked him in the Portuguese tongue what he was. He
answered in Latin, Christianus; but was so weak and faint that he could
scarce stand or speak. I took my bottle out of my pocket and gave it
him, making signs that he should drink, which he did; and I gave him a
piece of bread, which he ate. Then I asked him what countryman he was:
and he said, Espagniole; and being a little recovered, let me know, by
all the signs he could possibly make, how much he was in my debt for his
deliverance. "Seignior," said I, with as much Spanish as I could make
up, "we will talk afterwards, but we must fight now: if you have any
strength left, take this pistol and sword, and lay about you." He took
them very thankfully; and no sooner had he the arms in his hands, but, as
if they had put new vigour into him, he flew upon his murderers like a
fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in an instant; for the truth is,
as the whole was a surprise to them, so the poor creatures were so much
frightened with the noise of our pieces that they fell down for mere
amazement and fear, and had no more power to attempt their own escape
than their flesh had to resist our shot; and that was the case of those
five that Friday shot at in the boat; for as three of them fell with the
hurt they received, so the other two fell with the fright.
I kept my piece in my hand still without firing, being willing to keep my
charge ready, because I had given the Spaniard my pistol and sword: so I
called to Friday, and bade him run up to the tree from whence we first
fired, and fetch the arms which lay there that had been discharged, which
he did with great swiftness; and then giving him my musket, I sat down
myself to load all the rest again, and bade them come to me when they
wanted. While I was loading these pieces, there happened a fierce
engagement between the Spaniard and one of the savages, who made at him
with one of their great wooden swords, the weapon that was to have killed
him before, if I had not prevented it. The Spaniard, who was as bold and
brave as could be imagined, though weak, had fought the Indian a good
while, and had cut two great wounds on his head; but the savage being a
stout, lusty fellow, closing in with him, had thrown him down, being
faint, and was wringing my sword out of his hand; when the Spaniard,
though undermost, wisely quitting the sword, drew the pistol from his
girdle, shot the savage through the body, and killed him upon the spot,
before I, who was running to help him, could come near him.
Friday, being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying wretches, with
no weapon in his hand but his hatchet: and with that he despatched those
three who as I said before, were wounded at first, and fallen, and all
the rest he could come up with: and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun,
I gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two of the
savages, and wounded them both; but as he was not able to run, they both
got from him into the wood, where Friday pursued them, and killed one of
them, but the other was too nimble for him; and though he was wounded,
yet had plunged himself into the sea, and swam with all his might off to
those two who were left in the canoe; which three in the canoe, with one
wounded, that we knew not whether he died or no, were all that escaped
our hands of one-and-twenty. The account of the whole is as follows:
Three killed at our first shot from the tree; two killed at the next
shot; two killed by Friday in the boat; two killed by Friday of those at
first wounded; one killed by Friday in the wood; three killed by the
Spaniard; four killed, being found dropped here and there, of the wounds,
or killed by Friday in his chase of them; four escaped in the boat,
whereof one wounded, if not dead--twenty-one in all.
Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gun-shot, and
though Friday made two or three shots at them, I did not find that he hit
any of them. Friday would fain have had me take one of their canoes, and
pursue them; and indeed I was very anxious about their escape, lest,
carrying the news home to their people, they should come back perhaps
with two or three hundred of the canoes and devour us by mere multitude;
so I consented to pursue them by sea, and running to one of their canoes,
I jumped in and bade Friday follow me: but when I was in the canoe I was
surprised to find another poor creature lie there, bound hand and foot,
as the Spaniard was, for the slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not
knowing what was the matter; for he had not been able to look up over the
side of the boat, he was tied so hard neck and heels, and had been tied
so long that he had really but little life in him.
I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes which they had bound him
with, and would have helped him up; but he could not stand or speak, but
groaned most piteously, believing, it seems, still, that he was only
unbound in order to be killed. When Friday came to him I bade him speak
to him, and tell him of his deliverance; and pulling out my bottle, made
him give the poor wretch a dram, which, with the news of his being
delivered, revived him, and he sat up in the boat. But when Friday came
to hear him speak, and look in his face, it would have moved any one to
tears to have seen how Friday kissed him, embraced him, hugged him,
cried, laughed, hallooed, jumped about, danced, sang; then cried again,
wrung his hands, beat his own face and head; and then sang and jumped
about again like a distracted creature. It was a good while before I
could make him speak to me or tell me what was the matter; but when he
came a little to himself he told me that it was his father.
It is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see what ecstasy and
filial affection had worked in this poor savage at the sight of his
father, and of his being delivered from death; nor indeed can I describe
half the extravagances of his affection after this: for he went into the
boat and out of the boat a great many times: when he went in to him he
would sit down by him, open his breast, and hold his father's head close
to his bosom for many minutes together, to nourish it; then he took his
arms and ankles, which were numbed and stiff with the binding, and chafed
and rubbed them with his hands; and I, perceiving what the case was, gave
him some rum out of my bottle to rub them with, which did them a great
deal of good.
This affair put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the other
savages, who were now almost out of sight; and it was happy for us that
we did not, for it blew so hard within two hours after, and before they
could be got a quarter of their way, and continued blowing so hard all
night, and that from the north-west, which was against them, that I could
not suppose their boat could live, or that they ever reached their own
coast.
But to return to Friday; he was so busy about his father that I could not
find in my heart to take him off for some time; but after I thought he
could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came jumping and
laughing, and pleased to the highest extreme: then I asked him if he had
given his father any bread. He shook his head, and said, "None; ugly dog
eat all up self." I then gave him a cake of bread out of a little pouch
I carried on purpose; I also gave him a dram for himself; but he would
not taste it, but carried it to his father. I had in my pocket two or
three bunches of raisins, so I gave him a handful of them for his father.
He had no sooner given his father these raisins but I saw him come out of
the boat, and run away as if he had been bewitched, for he was the
swiftest fellow on his feet that ever I saw: I say, he ran at such a rate
that he was out of sight, as it were, in an instant; and though I called,
and hallooed out too after him, it was all one--away he went; and in a
quarter of an hour I saw him come back again, though not so fast as he
went; and as he came nearer I found his pace slacker, because he had
something in his hand. When he came up to me I found he had been quite
home for an earthen jug or pot, to bring his father some fresh water, and
that he had got two more cakes or loaves of bread: the bread he gave me,
but the water he carried to his father; however, as I was very thirsty
too, I took a little of it. The water revived his father more than all
the rum or spirits I had given him, for he was fainting with thirst.
When his father had drunk, I called to him to know if there was any water
left. He said, "Yes"; and I bade him give it to the poor Spaniard, who
was in as much want of it as his father; and I sent one of the cakes that
Friday brought to the Spaniard too, who was indeed very weak, and was
reposing himself upon a green place under the shade of a tree; and whose
limbs were also very stiff, and very much swelled with the rude bandage
he had been tied with. When I saw that upon Friday's coming to him with
the water he sat up and drank, and took the bread and began to eat, I
went to him and gave him a handful of raisins. He looked up in my face
with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in
any countenance; but was so weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted
himself in the fight, that he could not stand up upon his feet--he tried
to do it two or three times, but was really not able, his ankles were so
swelled and so painful to him; so I bade him sit still, and caused Friday
to rub his ankles, and bathe them with rum, as he had done his father's.
I observed the poor affectionate creature, every two minutes, or perhaps
less, all the while he was here, turn his head about to see if his father
was in the same place and posture as he left him sitting; and at last he
found he was not to be seen; at which he started up, and, without
speaking a word, flew with that swiftness to him that one could scarce
perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went; but when he came, he
only found he had laid himself down to ease his limbs, so Friday came
back to me presently; and then I spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday help
him up if he could, and lead him to the boat, and then he should carry
him to our dwelling, where I would take care of him. But Friday, a
lusty, strong fellow, took the Spaniard upon his back, and carried him
away to the boat, and set him down softly upon the side or gunnel of the
canoe, with his feet in the inside of it; and then lifting him quite in,
he set him close to his father; and presently stepping out again,
launched the boat off, and paddled it along the shore faster than I could
walk, though the wind blew pretty hard too; so he brought them both safe
into our creek, and leaving them in the boat, ran away to fetch the other
canoe. As he passed me I spoke to him, and asked him whither he went.
He told me, "Go fetch more boat;" so away he went like the wind, for sure
never man or horse ran like him; and he had the other canoe in the creek
almost as soon as I got to it by land; so he wafted me over, and then
went to help our new guests out of the boat, which he did; but they were
neither of them able to walk; so that poor Friday knew not what to do.
To remedy this, I went to work in my thought, and calling to Friday to
bid them sit down on the bank while he came to me, I soon made a kind of
hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I carried them both up
together upon it between us.
But when we got them to the outside of our wall, or fortification, we
were at a worse loss than before, for it was impossible to get them over,
and I was resolved not to break it down; so I set to work again, and
Friday and I, in about two hours' time, made a very handsome tent,
covered with old sails, and above that with boughs of trees, being in the
space without our outward fence and between that and the grove of young
wood which I had planted; and here we made them two beds of such things
as I had--viz. of good rice-straw, with blankets laid upon it to lie on,
and another to cover them, on each bed.
My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich in subjects;
and it was a merry reflection, which I frequently made, how like a king I
looked. First of all, the whole country was my own property, so that I
had an undoubted right of dominion. Secondly, my people were perfectly
subjected--I was absolutely lord and lawgiver--they all owed their lives
to me, and were ready to lay down their lives, if there had been occasion
for it, for me. It was remarkable, too, I had but three subjects, and
they were of three different religions--my man Friday was a Protestant,
his father was a Pagan and a cannibal, and the Spaniard was a Papist.
However, I allowed liberty of conscience throughout my dominions. But
this is by the way.
As soon as I had secured my two weak, rescued prisoners, and given them
shelter, and a place to rest them upon, I began to think of making some
provision for them; and the first thing I did, I ordered Friday to take a
yearling goat, betwixt a kid and a goat, out of my particular flock, to
be killed; when I cut off the hinder-quarter, and chopping it into small
pieces, I set Friday to work to boiling and stewing, and made them a very
good dish, I assure you, of flesh and broth; and as I cooked it without
doors, for I made no fire within my inner wall, so I carried it all into
the new tent, and having set a table there for them, I sat down, and ate
my own dinner also with them, and, as well as I could, cheered them and
encouraged them. Friday was my interpreter, especially to his father,
and, indeed, to the Spaniard too; for the Spaniard spoke the language of
the savages pretty well.
After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered Friday to take one of the
canoes, and go and fetch our muskets and other firearms, which, for want
of time, we had left upon the place of battle; and the next day I ordered
him to go and bury the dead bodies of the savages, which lay open to the
sun, and would presently be offensive. I also ordered him to bury the
horrid remains of their barbarous feast, which I could not think of doing
myself; nay, I could not bear to see them if I went that way; all which
he punctually performed, and effaced the very appearance of the savages
being there; so that when I went again, I could scarce know where it was,
otherwise than by the corner of the wood pointing to the place.
I then began to enter into a little conversation with my two new
subjects; and, first, I set Friday to inquire of his father what he
thought of the escape of the savages in that canoe, and whether we might
expect a return of them, with a power too great for us to resist. His
first opinion was, that the savages in the boat never could live out the
storm which blew that night they went off, but must of necessity be
drowned, or driven south to those other shores, where they were as sure
to be devoured as they were to be drowned if they were cast away; but, as
to what they would do if they came safe on shore, he said he knew not;
but it was his opinion that they were so dreadfully frightened with the
manner of their being attacked, the noise, and the fire, that he believed
they would tell the people they were all killed by thunder and lightning,
not by the hand of man; and that the two which appeared--viz. Friday and
I--were two heavenly spirits, or furies, come down to destroy them, and
not men with weapons. This, he said, he knew; because he heard them all
cry out so, in their language, one to another; for it was impossible for
them to conceive that a man could dart fire, and speak thunder, and kill
at a distance, without lifting up the hand, as was done now: and this old
savage was in the right; for, as I understood since, by other hands, the
savages never attempted to go over to the island afterwards, they were so
terrified with the accounts given by those four men (for it seems they
did escape the sea), that they believed whoever went to that enchanted
island would be destroyed with fire from the gods. This, however, I knew
not; and therefore was under continual apprehensions for a good while,
and kept always upon my guard, with all my army: for, as there were now
four of us, I would have ventured upon a hundred of them, fairly in the
open field, at any time.
CHAPTER XVII--VISIT OF MUTINEERS
In a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the fear of their
coming wore off; and I began to take my former thoughts of a voyage to
the main into consideration; being likewise assured by Friday's father
that I might depend upon good usage from their nation, on his account, if
I would go. But my thoughts were a little suspended when I had a serious
discourse with the Spaniard, and when I understood that there were
sixteen more of his countrymen and Portuguese, who having been cast away
and made their escape to that side, lived there at peace, indeed, with
the savages, but were very sore put to it for necessaries, and, indeed,
for life. I asked him all the particulars of their voyage, and found
they were a Spanish ship, bound from the Rio de la Plata to the Havanna,
being directed to leave their loading there, which was chiefly hides and
silver, and to bring back what European goods they could meet with there;
that they had five Portuguese seamen on board, whom they took out of
another wreck; that five of their own men were drowned when first the
ship was lost, and that these escaped through infinite dangers and
hazards, and arrived, almost starved, on the cannibal coast, where they
expected to have been devoured every moment. He told me they had some
arms with them, but they were perfectly useless, for that they had
neither powder nor ball, the washing of the sea having spoiled all their
powder but a little, which they used at their first landing to provide
themselves with some food.
I asked him what he thought would become of them there, and if they had
formed any design of making their escape. He said they had many
consultations about it; but that having neither vessel nor tools to build
one, nor provisions of any kind, their councils always ended in tears and
despair. I asked him how he thought they would receive a proposal from
me, which might tend towards an escape; and whether, if they were all
here, it might not be done. I told him with freedom, I feared mostly
their treachery and ill-usage of me, if I put my life in their hands; for
that gratitude was no inherent virtue in the nature of man, nor did men
always square their dealings by the obligations they had received so much
as they did by the advantages they expected. I told him it would be very
hard that I should be made the instrument of their deliverance, and that
they should afterwards make me their prisoner in New Spain, where an
Englishman was certain to be made a sacrifice, what necessity or what
accident soever brought him thither; and that I had rather be delivered
up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than fall into the merciless
claws of the priests, and be carried into the Inquisition. I added that,
otherwise, I was persuaded, if they were all here, we might, with so many
hands, build a barque large enough to carry us all away, either to the
Brazils southward, or to the islands or Spanish coast northward; but that
if, in requital, they should, when I had put weapons into their hands,
carry me by force among their own people, I might be ill-used for my
kindness to them, and make my case worse than it was before.
He answered, with a great deal of candour and ingenuousness, that their
condition was so miserable, and that they were so sensible of it, that he
believed they would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly that
should contribute to their deliverance; and that, if I pleased, he would
go to them with the old man, and discourse with them about it, and return
again and bring me their answer; that he would make conditions with them
upon their solemn oath, that they should be absolutely under my direction
as their commander and captain; and they should swear upon the holy
sacraments and gospel to be true to me, and go to such Christian country
as I should agree to, and no other; and to be directed wholly and
absolutely by my orders till they were landed safely in such country as I
intended, and that he would bring a contract from them, under their
hands, for that purpose. Then he told me he would first swear to me
himself that he would never stir from me as long as he lived till I gave
him orders; and that he would take my side to the last drop of his blood,
if there should happen the least breach of faith among his countrymen.
He told me they were all of them very civil, honest men, and they were
under the greatest distress imaginable, having neither weapons nor
clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy and discretion of the savages;
out of all hopes of ever returning to their own country; and that he was
sure, if I would undertake their relief, they would live and die by me.
Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to relieve them, if
possible, and to send the old savage and this Spaniard over to them to
treat. But when we had got all things in readiness to go, the Spaniard
himself started an objection, which had so much prudence in it on one
hand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that I could not but be
very well satisfied in it; and, by his advice, put off the deliverance of
his comrades for at least half a year. The case was thus: he had been
with us now about a month, during which time I had let him see in what
manner I had provided, with the assistance of Providence, for my support;
and he saw evidently what stock of corn and rice I had laid up; which,
though it was more than sufficient for myself, yet it was not sufficient,
without good husbandry, for my family, now it was increased to four; but
much less would it be sufficient if his countrymen, who were, as he said,
sixteen, still alive, should come over; and least of all would it be
sufficient to victual our vessel, if we should build one, for a voyage to
any of the Christian colonies of America; so he told me he thought it
would be more advisable to let him and the other two dig and cultivate
some more land, as much as I could spare seed to sow, and that we should
wait another harvest, that we might have a supply of corn for his
countrymen, when they should come; for want might be a temptation to them
to disagree, or not to think themselves delivered, otherwise than out of
one difficulty into another. "You know," says he, "the children of
Israel, though they rejoiced at first for their being delivered out of
Egypt, yet rebelled even against God Himself, that delivered them, when
they came to want bread in the wilderness."
His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, that I could not
but be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as I was satisfied
with his fidelity; so we fell to digging, all four of us, as well as the
wooden tools we were furnished with permitted; and in about a month's
time, by the end of which it was seed-time, we had got as much land cured
and trimmed up as we sowed two-and-twenty bushels of barley on, and
sixteen jars of rice, which was, in short, all the seed we had to spare:
indeed, we left ourselves barely sufficient, for our own food for the six
months that we had to expect our crop; that is to say reckoning from the
time we set our seed aside for sowing; for it is not to be supposed it is
six months in the ground in that country.
Having now society enough, and our numbers being sufficient to put us out
of fear of the savages, if they had come, unless their number had been
very great, we went freely all over the island, whenever we found
occasion; and as we had our escape or deliverance upon our thoughts, it
was impossible, at least for me, to have the means of it out of mine.
For this purpose I marked out several trees, which I thought fit for our
work, and I set Friday and his father to cut them down; and then I caused
the Spaniard, to whom I imparted my thoughts on that affair, to oversee
and direct their work. I showed them with what indefatigable pains I had
hewed a large tree into single planks, and I caused them to do the like,
till they made about a dozen large planks, of good oak, near two feet
broad, thirty-five feet long, and from two inches to four inches thick:
what prodigious labour it took up any one may imagine.
At the same time I contrived to increase my little flock of tame goats as
much as I could; and for this purpose I made Friday and the Spaniard go
out one day, and myself with Friday the next day (for we took our turns),
and by this means we got about twenty young kids to breed up with the
rest; for whenever we shot the dam, we saved the kids, and added them to
our flock. But above all, the season for curing the grapes coming on, I
caused such a prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun, that, I
believe, had we been at Alicant, where the raisins of the sun are cured,
we could have filled sixty or eighty barrels; and these, with our bread,
formed a great part of our food--very good living too, I assure you, for
they are exceedingly nourishing.
It was now harvest, and our crop in good order: it was not the most
plentiful increase I had seen in the island, but, however, it was enough
to answer our end; for from twenty-two bushels of barley we brought in
and thrashed out above two hundred and twenty bushels; and the like in
proportion of the rice; which was store enough for our food to the next
harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had been on shore with me; or,
if we had been ready for a voyage, it would very plentifully have
victualled our ship to have carried us to any part of the world; that is
to say, any part of America. When we had thus housed and secured our
magazine of corn, we fell to work to make more wicker-ware, viz. great
baskets, in which we kept it; and the Spaniard was very handy and
dexterous at this part, and often blamed me that I did not make some
things for defence of this kind of work; but I saw no need of it.
And now, having a full supply of food for all the guests I expected, I
gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main, to see what he could do
with those he had left behind him there. I gave him a strict charge not
to bring any man who would not first swear in the presence of himself and
the old savage that he would in no way injure, fight with, or attack the
person he should find in the island, who was so kind as to send for them
in order to their deliverance; but that they would stand by him and
defend him against all such attempts, and wherever they went would be
entirely under and subjected to his command; and that this should be put
in writing, and signed in their hands. How they were to have done this,
when I knew they had neither pen nor ink, was a question which we never
asked. Under these instructions, the Spaniard and the old savage, the
father of Friday, went away in one of the canoes which they might be said
to have come in, or rather were brought in, when they came as prisoners
to be devoured by the savages. I gave each of them a musket, with a
firelock on it, and about eight charges of powder and ball, charging them
to be very good husbands of both, and not to use either of them but upon
urgent occasions.
This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used by me in view of
my deliverance for now twenty-seven years and some days. I gave them
provisions of bread and of dried grapes, sufficient for themselves for
many days, and sufficient for all the Spaniards--for about eight days'
time; and wishing them a good voyage, I saw them go, agreeing with them
about a signal they should hang out at their return, by which I should
know them again when they came back, at a distance, before they came on
shore. They went away with a fair gale on the day that the moon was at
full, by my account in the month of October; but as for an exact
reckoning of days, after I had once lost it I could never recover it
again; nor had I kept even the number of years so punctually as to be
sure I was right; though, as it proved when I afterwards examined my
account, I found I had kept a true reckoning of years.
It was no less than eight days I had waited for them, when a strange and
unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not, perhaps, been
heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when my
man Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, "Master, master, they
are come, they are come!" I jumped up, and regardless of danger I went,
as soon as I could get my clothes on, through my little grove, which, by
the way, was by this time grown to be a very thick wood; I say,
regardless of danger I went without my arms, which was not my custom to
do; but I was surprised when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw
a boat at about a league and a half distance, standing in for the shore,
with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and the wind blowing
pretty fair to bring them in: also I observed, presently, that they did
not come from that side which the shore lay on, but from the southernmost
end of the island. Upon this I called Friday in, and bade him lie close,
for these were not the people we looked for, and that we might not know
yet whether they were friends or enemies. In the next place I went in to
fetch my perspective glass to see what I could make of them; and having
taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of the hill, as I used to
do when I was apprehensive of anything, and to take my view the plainer
without being discovered. I had scarce set my foot upon the hill when my
eye plainly discovered a ship lying at anchor, at about two leagues and a
half distance from me, SSE., but not above a league and a half from the
shore. By my observation it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and
the boat appeared to be an English long-boat.
I cannot express the confusion I was in, though the joy of seeing a ship,
and one that I had reason to believe was manned by my own countrymen, and
consequently friends, was such as I cannot describe; but yet I had some
secret doubts hung about me--I cannot tell from whence they came--bidding
me keep upon my guard. In the first place, it occurred to me to consider
what business an English ship could have in that part of the world, since
it was not the way to or from any part of the world where the English had
any traffic; and I knew there had been no storms to drive them in there
in distress; and that if they were really English it was most probable
that they were here upon no good design; and that I had better continue
as I was than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers.
Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger which sometimes
are given him when he may think there is no possibility of its being
real. That such hints and notices are given us I believe few that have
made any observation of things can deny; that they are certain
discoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we cannot
doubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger, why
should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent (whether supreme,
or inferior and subordinate, is not the question), and that they are
given for our good?
The present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of this
reasoning; for had I not been made cautious by this secret admonition,
come it from whence it will, I had been done inevitably, and in a far
worse condition than before, as you will see presently. I had not kept
myself long in this posture till I saw the boat draw near the shore, as
if they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the convenience of
landing; however, as they did not come quite far enough, they did not see
the little inlet where I formerly landed my rafts, but ran their boat on
shore upon the beach, at about half a mile from me, which was very happy
for me; for otherwise they would have landed just at my door, as I may
say, and would soon have beaten me out of my castle, and perhaps have
plundered me of all I had. When they were on shore I was fully satisfied
they were Englishmen, at least most of them; one or two I thought were
Dutch, but it did not prove so; there were in all eleven men, whereof
three of them I found were unarmed and, as I thought, bound; and when the
first four or five of them were jumped on shore, they took those three
out of the boat as prisoners: one of the three I could perceive using the
most passionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and despair, even to a
kind of extravagance; the other two, I could perceive, lifted up their
hands sometimes, and appeared concerned indeed, but not to such a degree
as the first. I was perfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what
the meaning of it should be. Friday called out to me in English, as well
as he could, "O master! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as
savage mans." "Why, Friday," says I, "do you think they are going to eat
them, then?" "Yes," says Friday, "they will eat them." "No no," says I,
"Friday; I am afraid they will murder them, indeed; but you may be sure
they will not eat them."
All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but stood
trembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when the
three prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the villains
lift up his arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it, or sword, to
strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him fall every moment;
at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in my veins. I
wished heartily now for the Spaniard, and the savage that had gone with
him, or that I had any way to have come undiscovered within shot of them,
that I might have secured the three men, for I saw no firearms they had
among them; but it fell out to my mind another way. After I had observed
the outrageous usage of the three men by the insolent seamen, I observed
the fellows run scattering about the island, as if they wanted to see the
country. I observed that the three other men had liberty to go also
where they pleased; but they sat down all three upon the ground, very
pensive, and looked like men in despair. This put me in mind of the
first time when I came on shore, and began to look about me; how I gave
myself over for lost; how wildly I looked round me; what dreadful
apprehensions I had; and how I lodged in the tree all night for fear of
being devoured by wild beasts. As I knew nothing that night of the
supply I was to receive by the providential driving of the ship nearer
the land by the storms and tide, by which I have since been so long
nourished and supported; so these three poor desolate men knew nothing
how certain of deliverance and supply they were, how near it was to them,
and how effectually and really they were in a condition of safety, at the
same time that they thought themselves lost and their case desperate. So
little do we see before us in the world, and so much reason have we to
depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world, that He does not
leave His creatures so absolutely destitute, but that in the worst
circumstances they have always something to be thankful for, and
sometimes are nearer deliverance than they imagine; nay, are even brought
to their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to
their destruction.
It was just at high-water when these people came on shore; and while they
rambled about to see what kind of a place they were in, they had
carelessly stayed till the tide was spent, and the water was ebbed
considerably away, leaving their boat aground. They had left two men in
the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having drunk a little too much
brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking a little sooner than the
other and finding the boat too fast aground for him to stir it, hallooed
out for the rest, who were straggling about: upon which they all soon
came to the boat: but it was past all their strength to launch her, the
boat being very heavy, and the shore on that side being a soft oozy sand,
almost like a quicksand. In this condition, like true seamen, who are,
perhaps, the least of all mankind given to forethought, they gave it
over, and away they strolled about the country again; and I heard one of
them say aloud to another, calling them off from the boat, "Why, let her
alone, Jack, can't you? she'll float next tide;" by which I was fully
confirmed in the main inquiry of what countrymen they were. All this
while I kept myself very close, not once daring to stir out of my castle
any farther than to my place of observation near the top of the hill: and
very glad I was to think how well it was fortified. I knew it was no
less than ten hours before the boat could float again, and by that time
it would be dark, and I might be at more liberty to see their motions,
and to hear their discourse, if they had any. In the meantime I fitted
myself up for a battle as before, though with more caution, knowing I had
to do with another kind of enemy than I had at first. I ordered Friday
also, whom I had made an excellent marksman with his gun, to load himself
with arms. I took myself two fowling-pieces, and I gave him three
muskets. My figure, indeed, was very fierce; I had my formidable
goat-skin coat on, with the great cap I have mentioned, a naked sword by
my side, two pistols in my belt, and a gun upon each shoulder.
It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any attempt till it
was dark; but about two o'clock, being the heat of the day, I found that
they were all gone straggling into the woods, and, as I thought, laid
down to sleep. The three poor distressed men, too anxious for their
condition to get any sleep, had, however, sat down under the shelter of a
great tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me, and, as I thought, out
of sight of any of the rest. Upon this I resolved to discover myself to
them, and learn something of their condition; immediately I marched as
above, my man Friday at a good distance behind me, as formidable for his
arms as I, but not making quite so staring a spectre-like figure as I
did. I came as near them undiscovered as I could, and then, before any
of them saw me, I called aloud to them in Spanish, "What are ye,
gentlemen?" They started up at the noise, but were ten times more
confounded when they saw me, and the uncouth figure that I made. They
made no answer at all, but I thought I perceived them just going to fly
from me, when I spoke to them in English. "Gentlemen," said I, "do not be
surprised at me; perhaps you may have a friend near when you did not
expect it." "He must be sent directly from heaven then," said one of
them very gravely to me, and pulling off his hat at the same time to me;
"for our condition is past the help of man." "All help is from heaven,
sir," said I, "but can you put a stranger in the way to help you? for you
seem to be in some great distress. I saw you when you landed; and when
you seemed to make application to the brutes that came with you, I saw
one of them lift up his sword to kill you."
The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling, looking
like one astonished, returned, "Am I talking to God or man? Is it a real
man or an angel?" "Be in no fear about that, sir," said I; "if God had
sent an angel to relieve you, he would have come better clothed, and
armed after another manner than you see me; pray lay aside your fears; I
am a man, an Englishman, and disposed to assist you; you see I have one
servant only; we have arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serve
you? What is your case?" "Our case, sir," said he, "is too long to tell
you while our murderers are so near us; but, in short, sir, I was
commander of that ship--my men have mutinied against me; they have been
hardly prevailed on not to murder me, and, at last, have set me on shore
in this desolate place, with these two men with me--one my mate, the
other a passenger--where we expected to perish, believing the place to be
uninhabited, and know not yet what to think of it." "Where are these
brutes, your enemies?" said I; "do you know where they are gone? There
they lie, sir," said he, pointing to a thicket of trees; "my heart
trembles for fear they have seen us and heard you speak; if they have,
they will certainly murder us all." "Have they any firearms?" said I.
He answered, "They had only two pieces, one of which they left in the
boat." "Well, then," said I, "leave the rest to me; I see they are all
asleep; it is an easy thing to kill them all; but shall we rather take
them prisoners?" He told me there were two desperate villains among them
that it was scarce safe to show any mercy to; but if they were secured,
he believed all the rest would return to their duty. I asked him which
they were. He told me he could not at that distance distinguish them,
but he would obey my orders in anything I would direct. "Well," says I,
"let us retreat out of their view or hearing, lest they awake, and we
will resolve further." So they willingly went back with me, till the
woods covered us from them.
"Look you, sir," said I, "if I venture upon your deliverance, are you
willing to make two conditions with me?" He anticipated my proposals by
telling me that both he and the ship, if recovered, should be wholly
directed and commanded by me in everything; and if the ship was not
recovered, he would live and die with me in what part of the world soever
I would send him; and the two other men said the same. "Well," says I,
"my conditions are but two; first, that while you stay in this island
with me, you will not pretend to any authority here; and if I put arms in
your hands, you will, upon all occasions, give them up to me, and do no
prejudice to me or mine upon this island, and in the meantime be governed
by my orders; secondly, that if the ship is or may be recovered, you will
carry me and my man to England passage free."
He gave me all the assurances that the invention or faith of man could
devise that he would comply with these most reasonable demands, and
besides would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it upon all occasions
as long as he lived. "Well, then," said I, "here are three muskets for
you, with powder and ball; tell me next what you think is proper to be
done." He showed all the testimonies of his gratitude that he was able,
but offered to be wholly guided by me. I told him I thought it was very
hard venturing anything; but the best method I could think of was to fire
on them at once as they lay, and if any were not killed at the first
volley, and offered to submit, we might save them, and so put it wholly
upon God's providence to direct the shot. He said, very modestly, that
he was loath to kill them if he could help it; but that those two were
incorrigible villains, and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the
ship, and if they escaped, we should be undone still, for they would go
on board and bring the whole ship's company, and destroy us all. "Well,
then," says I, "necessity legitimates my advice, for it is the only way
to save our lives." However, seeing him still cautious of shedding
blood, I told him they should go themselves, and manage as they found
convenient.
In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, and soon
after we saw two of them on their feet. I asked him if either of them
were the heads of the mutiny? He said, "No." "Well, then," said I, "you
may let them escape; and Providence seems to have awakened them on
purpose to save themselves. Now," says I, "if the rest escape you, it is
your fault." Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him in
his hand, and a pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, with
each a piece in his hand; the two men who were with him going first made
some noise, at which one of the seamen who was awake turned about, and
seeing them coming, cried out to the rest; but was too late then, for the
moment he cried out they fired--I mean the two men, the captain wisely
reserving his own piece. They had so well aimed their shot at the men
they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the other very
much wounded; but not being dead, he started up on his feet, and called
eagerly for help to the other; but the captain stepping to him, told him
it was too late to cry for help, he should call upon God to forgive his
villainy, and with that word knocked him down with the stock of his
musket, so that he never spoke more; there were three more in the
company, and one of them was slightly wounded. By this time I was come;
and when they saw their danger, and that it was in vain to resist, they
begged for mercy. The captain told them he would spare their lives if
they would give him an assurance of their abhorrence of the treachery
they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to him in
recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to Jamaica, from
whence they came. They gave him all the protestations of their sincerity
that could be desired; and he was willing to believe them, and spare
their lives, which I was not against, only that I obliged him to keep
them bound hand and foot while they were on the island.
While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain's mate to the boat
with orders to secure her, and bring away the oars and sails, which they
did; and by-and-by three straggling men, that were (happily for them)
parted from the rest, came back upon hearing the guns fired; and seeing
the captain, who was before their prisoner, now their conqueror, they
submitted to be bound also; and so our victory was complete.
It now remained that the captain and I should inquire into one another's
circumstances. I began first, and told him my whole history, which he
heard with an attention even to amazement--and particularly at the
wonderful manner of my being furnished with provisions and ammunition;
and, indeed, as my story is a whole collection of wonders, it affected
him deeply. But when he reflected from thence upon himself, and how I
seemed to have been preserved there on purpose to save his life, the
tears ran down his face, and he could not speak a word more. After this
communication was at an end, I carried him and his two men into my
apartment, leading them in just where I came out, viz. at the top of the
house, where I refreshed them with such provisions as I had, and showed
them all the contrivances I had made during my long, long inhabiting that
place.
All I showed them, all I said to them, was perfectly amazing; but above
all, the captain admired my fortification, and how perfectly I had
concealed my retreat with a grove of trees, which having been now planted
nearly twenty years, and the trees growing much faster than in England,
was become a little wood, so thick that it was impassable in any part of
it but at that one side where I had reserved my little winding passage
into it. I told him this was my castle and my residence, but that I had
a seat in the country, as most princes have, whither I could retreat upon
occasion, and I would show him that too another time; but at present our
business was to consider how to recover the ship. He agreed with me as
to that, but told me he was perfectly at a loss what measures to take,
for that there were still six-and-twenty hands on board, who, having
entered into a cursed conspiracy, by which they had all forfeited their
lives to the law, would be hardened in it now by desperation, and would
carry it on, knowing that if they were subdued they would be brought to
the gallows as soon as they came to England, or to any of the English
colonies, and that, therefore, there would be no attacking them with so
small a number as we were.
I mused for some time on what he had said, and found it was a very
rational conclusion, and that therefore something was to be resolved on
speedily, as well to draw the men on board into some snare for their
surprise as to prevent their landing upon us, and destroying us. Upon
this, it presently occurred to me that in a little while the ship's crew,
wondering what was become of their comrades and of the boat, would
certainly come on shore in their other boat to look for them, and that
then, perhaps, they might come armed, and be too strong for us: this he
allowed to be rational. Upon this, I told him the first thing we had to
do was to stave the boat which lay upon the beach, so that they might not
carry her of, and taking everything out of her, leave her so far useless
as not to be fit to swim. Accordingly, we went on board, took the arms
which were left on board out of her, and whatever else we found
there--which was a bottle of brandy, and another of rum, a few
biscuit-cakes, a horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar in a piece of
canvas (the sugar was five or six pounds): all which was very welcome to
me, especially the brandy and sugar, of which I had had none left for
many years.
When we had carried all these things on shore (the oars, mast, sail, and
rudder of the boat were carried away before), we knocked a great hole in
her bottom, that if they had come strong enough to master us, yet they
could not carry off the boat. Indeed, it was not much in my thoughts
that we could be able to recover the ship; but my view was, that if they
went away without the boat, I did not much question to make her again fit
to carry as to the Leeward Islands, and call upon our friends the
Spaniards in my way, for I had them still in my thoughts.
CHAPTER XVIII--THE SHIP RECOVERED
While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by main
strength, heaved the boat upon the beach, so high that the tide would not
float her off at high-water mark, and besides, had broke a hole in her
bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were set down musing what we
should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and make a waft with her ensign
as a signal for the boat to come on board--but no boat stirred; and they
fired several times, making other signals for the boat. At last, when
all their signals and firing proved fruitless, and they found the boat
did not stir, we saw them, by the help of my glasses, hoist another boat
out and row towards the shore; and we found, as they approached, that
there were no less than ten men in her, and that they had firearms with
them.
As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view of
them as they came, and a plain sight even of their faces; because the
tide having set them a little to the east of the other boat, they rowed
up under shore, to come to the same place where the other had landed, and
where the boat lay; by this means, I say, we had a full view of them, and
the captain knew the persons and characters of all the men in the boat,
of whom, he said, there were three very honest fellows, who, he was sure,
were led into this conspiracy by the rest, being over-powered and
frightened; but that as for the boatswain, who it seems was the chief
officer among them, and all the rest, they were as outrageous as any of
the ship's crew, and were no doubt made desperate in their new
enterprise; and terribly apprehensive he was that they would be too
powerful for us. I smiled at him, and told him that men in our
circumstances were past the operation of fear; that seeing almost every
condition that could be was better than that which we were supposed to be
in, we ought to expect that the consequence, whether death or life, would
be sure to be a deliverance. I asked him what he thought of the
circumstances of my life, and whether a deliverance were not worth
venturing for? "And where, sir," said I, "is your belief of my being
preserved here on purpose to save your life, which elevated you a little
while ago? For my part," said I, "there seems to be but one thing amiss
in all the prospect of it." "What is that?" say he. "Why," said I, "it
is, that as you say there are three or four honest fellows among them
which should be spared, had they been all of the wicked part of the crew
I should have thought God's providence had singled them out to deliver
them into your hands; for depend upon it, every man that comes ashore is
our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us." As I spoke this
with a raised voice and cheerful countenance, I found it greatly
encouraged him; so we set vigorously to our business.
We had, upon the first appearance of the boat's coming from the ship,
considered of separating our prisoners; and we had, indeed, secured them
effectually. Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured than
ordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three delivered men, to my
cave, where they were remote enough, and out of danger of being heard or
discovered, or of finding their way out of the woods if they could have
delivered themselves. Here they left them bound, but gave them
provisions; and promised them, if they continued there quietly, to give
them their liberty in a day or two; but that if they attempted their
escape they should be put to death without mercy. They promised
faithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were very
thankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and light
left them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) for
their comfort; and they did not know but that he stood sentinel over them
at the entrance.
The other prisoners had better usage; two of them were kept pinioned,
indeed, because the captain was not able to trust them; but the other two
were taken into my service, upon the captain's recommendation, and upon
their solemnly engaging to live and die with us; so with them and the
three honest men we were seven men, well armed; and I made no doubt we
should be able to deal well enough with the ten that were coming,
considering that the captain had said there were three or four honest men
among them also. As soon as they got to the place where their other boat
lay, they ran their boat into the beach and came all on shore, hauling
the boat up after them, which I was glad to see, for I was afraid they
would rather have left the boat at an anchor some distance from the
shore, with some hands in her to guard her, and so we should not be able
to seize the boat. Being on shore, the first thing they did, they ran
all to their other boat; and it was easy to see they were under a great
surprise to find her stripped, as above, of all that was in her, and a
great hole in her bottom. After they had mused a while upon this, they
set up two or three great shouts, hallooing with all their might, to try
if they could make their companions hear; but all was to no purpose.
Then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of their small
arms, which indeed we heard, and the echoes made the woods ring. But it
was all one; those in the cave, we were sure, could not hear; and those
in our keeping, though they heard it well enough, yet durst give no
answer to them. They were so astonished at the surprise of this, that,
as they told us afterwards, they resolved to go all on board again to
their ship, and let them know that the men were all murdered, and the
long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched their boat
again, and got all of them on board.
The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded, at this, believing
they would go on board the ship again and set sail, giving their comrades
over for lost, and so he should still lose the ship, which he was in
hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as much frightened the
other way.
They had not been long put off with the boat, when we perceived them all
coming on shore again; but with this new measure in their conduct, which
it seems they consulted together upon, viz. to leave three men in the
boat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into the country to look for
their fellows. This was a great disappointment to us, for now we were at
a loss what to do, as our seizing those seven men on shore would be no
advantage to us if we let the boat escape; because they would row away to
the ship, and then the rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail,
and so our recovering the ship would be lost. However we had no remedy
but to wait and see what the issue of things might present. The seven
men came on shore, and the three who remained in the boat put her off to
a good distance from the shore, and came to an anchor to wait for them;
so that it was impossible for us to come at them in the boat. Those that
came on shore kept close together, marching towards the top of the little
hill under which my habitation lay; and we could see them plainly, though
they could not perceive us. We should have been very glad if they would
have come nearer us, so that we might have fired at them, or that they
would have gone farther off, that we might come abroad. But when they
were come to the brow of the hill where they could see a great way into
the valleys and woods, which lay towards the north-east part, and where
the island lay lowest, they shouted and hallooed till they were weary;
and not caring, it seems, to venture far from the shore, nor far from one
another, they sat down together under a tree to consider it. Had they
thought fit to have gone to sleep there, as the other part of them had
done, they had done the job for us; but they were too full of
apprehensions of danger to venture to go to sleep, though they could not
tell what the danger was they had to fear.
The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation of
theirs, viz. that perhaps they would all fire a volley again, to
endeavour to make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally upon
them just at the juncture when their pieces were all discharged, and they
would certainly yield, and we should have them without bloodshed. I
liked this proposal, provided it was done while we were near enough to
come up to them before they could load their pieces again. But this
event did not happen; and we lay still a long time, very irresolute what
course to take. At length I told them there would be nothing done, in my
opinion, till night; and then, if they did not return to the boat,
perhaps we might find a way to get between them and the shore, and so
might use some stratagem with them in the boat to get them on shore. We
waited a great while, though very impatient for their removing; and were
very uneasy when, after long consultation, we saw them all start up and
march down towards the sea; it seems they had such dreadful apprehensions
of the danger of the place that they resolved to go on board the ship
again, give their companions over for lost, and so go on with their
intended voyage with the ship.
As soon as I perceived them go towards the shore, I imagined it to be as
it really was that they had given over their search, and were going back
again; and the captain, as soon as I told him my thoughts, was ready to
sink at the apprehensions of it; but I presently thought of a stratagem
to fetch them back again, and which answered my end to a tittle. I
ordered Friday and the captain's mate to go over the little creek
westward, towards the place where the savages came on shore, when Friday
was rescued, and so soon as they came to a little rising round, at about
half a mile distant, I bid them halloo out, as loud as they could, and
wait till they found the seamen heard them; that as soon as ever they
heard the seamen answer them, they should return it again; and then,
keeping out of sight, take a round, always answering when the others
hallooed, to draw them as far into the island and among the woods as
possible, and then wheel about again to me by such ways as I directed
them.
They were just going into the boat when Friday and the mate hallooed; and
they presently heard them, and answering, ran along the shore westward,
towards the voice they heard, when they were stopped by the creek, where
the water being up, they could not get over, and called for the boat to
come up and set them over; as, indeed, I expected. When they had set
themselves over, I observed that the boat being gone a good way into the
creek, and, as it were, in a harbour within the land, they took one of
the three men out of her, to go along with them, and left only two in the
boat, having fastened her to the stump of a little tree on the shore.
This was what I wished for; and immediately leaving Friday and the
captain's mate to their business, I took the rest with me; and, crossing
the creek out of their sight, we surprised the two men before they were
aware--one of them lying on the shore, and the other being in the boat.
The fellow on shore was between sleeping and waking, and going to start
up; the captain, who was foremost, ran in upon him, and knocked him down;
and then called out to him in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man.
They needed very few arguments to persuade a single man to yield, when he
saw five men upon him and his comrade knocked down: besides, this was, it
seems, one of the three who were not so hearty in the mutiny as the rest
of the crew, and therefore was easily persuaded not only to yield, but
afterwards to join very sincerely with us. In the meantime, Friday and
the captain's mate so well managed their business with the rest that they
drew them, by hallooing and answering, from one hill to another, and from
one wood to another, till they not only heartily tired them, but left
them where they were, very sure they could not reach back to the boat
before it was dark; and, indeed, they were heartily tired themselves
also, by the time they came back to us.
We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark, and to fall
upon them, so as to make sure work with them. It was several hours after
Friday came back to me before they came back to their boat; and we could
hear the foremost of them, long before they came quite up, calling to
those behind to come along; and could also hear them answer, and complain
how lame and tired they were, and not able to come any faster: which was
very welcome news to us. At length they came up to the boat: but it is
impossible to express their confusion when they found the boat fast
aground in the creek, the tide ebbed out, and their two men gone. We
could hear them call one to another in a most lamentable manner, telling
one another they were got into an enchanted island; that either there
were inhabitants in it, and they should all be murdered, or else there
were devils and spirits in it, and they should be all carried away and
devoured. They hallooed again, and called their two comrades by their
names a great many times; but no answer. After some time we could see
them, by the little light there was, run about, wringing their hands like
men in despair, and sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat to
rest themselves: then come ashore again, and walk about again, and so the
same thing over again. My men would fain have had me give them leave to
fall upon them at once in the dark; but I was willing to take them at
some advantage, so as to spare them, and kill as few of them as I could;
and especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing of any of our men,
knowing the others were very well armed. I resolved to wait, to see if
they did not separate; and therefore, to make sure of them, I drew my
ambuscade nearer, and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon their
hands and feet, as close to the ground as they could, that they might not
be discovered, and get as near them as they could possibly before they
offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture when the boatswain, who was the
principal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown himself the most
dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them, with
two more of the crew; the captain was so eager at having this principal
rogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to let him
come so near as to be sure of him, for they only heard his tongue before:
but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting up on their
feet, let fly at them. The boatswain was killed upon the spot: the next
man was shot in the body, and fell just by him, though he did not die
till an hour or two after; and the third ran for it. At the noise of the
fire I immediately advanced with my whole army, which was now eight men,
viz. myself, generalissimo; Friday, my lieutenant-general; the captain
and his two men, and the three prisoners of war whom we had trusted with
arms. We came upon them, indeed, in the dark, so that they could not see
our number; and I made the man they had left in the boat, who was now one
of us, to call them by name, to try if I could bring them to a parley,
and so perhaps might reduce them to terms; which fell out just as we
desired: for indeed it was easy to think, as their condition then was,
they would be very willing to capitulate. So he calls out as loud as he
could to one of them, "Tom Smith! Tom Smith!" Tom Smith answered
immediately, "Is that Robinson?" for it seems he knew the voice. The
other answered, "Ay, ay; for God's sake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms
and yield, or you are all dead men this moment." "Who must we yield to?
Where are they?" says Smith again. "Here they are," says he; "here's our
captain and fifty men with him, have been hunting you these two hours;
the boatswain is killed; Will Fry is wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if
you do not yield you are all lost." "Will they give us quarter, then?"
says Tom Smith, "and we will yield." "I'll go and ask, if you promise to
yield," said Robinson: so he asked the captain, and the captain himself
then calls out, "You, Smith, you know my voice; if you lay down your arms
immediately and submit, you shall have your lives, all but Will Atkins."
Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake, captain, give me
quarter; what have I done? They have all been as bad as I:" which, by
the way, was not true; for it seems this Will Atkins was the first man
that laid hold of the captain when they first mutinied, and used him
barbarously in tying his hands and giving him injurious language.
However, the captain told him he must lay down his arms at discretion,
and trust to the governor's mercy: by which he meant me, for they all
called me governor. In a word, they all laid down their arms and begged
their lives; and I sent the man that had parleyed with them, and two
more, who bound them all; and then my great army of fifty men, which,
with those three, were in all but eight, came up and seized upon them,
and upon their boat; only that I kept myself and one more out of sight
for reasons of state.
Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seizing the ship: and
as for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, he
expostulated with them upon the villainy of their practices with him, and
upon the further wickedness of their design, and how certainly it must
bring them to misery and distress in the end, and perhaps to the gallows.
They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for their lives. As for
that, he told them they were not his prisoners, but the commander's of
the island; that they thought they had set him on shore in a barren,
uninhabited island; but it had pleased God so to direct them that it was
inhabited, and that the governor was an Englishman; that he might hang
them all there, if he pleased; but as he had given them all quarter, he
supposed he would send them to England, to be dealt with there as justice
required, except Atkins, whom he was commanded by the governor to advise
to prepare for death, for that he would be hanged in the morning.
Though this was all but a fiction of his own, yet it had its desired
effect; Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the captain to intercede with
the governor for his life; and all the rest begged of him, for God's
sake, that they might not be sent to England.
It now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance was come, and that
it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to be hearty in
getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the dark from them, that
they might not see what kind of a governor they had, and called the
captain to me; when I called, at a good distance, one of the men was
ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, "Captain, the commander
calls for you;" and presently the captain replied, "Tell his excellency I
am just coming." This more perfectly amazed them, and they all believed
that the commander was just by, with his fifty men. Upon the captain
coming to me, I told him my project for seizing the ship, which he liked
wonderfully well, and resolved to put it in execution the next morning.
But, in order to execute it with more art, and to be secure of success, I
told him we must divide the prisoners, and that he should go and take
Atkins, and two more of the worst of them, and send them pinioned to the
cave where the others lay. This was committed to Friday and the two men
who came on shore with the captain. They conveyed them to the cave as to
a prison: and it was, indeed, a dismal place, especially to men in their
condition. The others I ordered to my bower, as I called it, of which I
have given a full description: and as it was fenced in, and they
pinioned, the place was secure enough, considering they were upon their
behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into a
parley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he thought
they might be trusted or not to go on board and surprise the ship. He
talked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they were brought
to, and that though the governor had given them quarter for their lives
as to the present action, yet that if they were sent to England they
would all be hanged in chains; but that if they would join in so just an
attempt as to recover the ship, he would have the governor's engagement
for their pardon.
Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by men in
their condition; they fell down on their knees to the captain, and
promised, with the deepest imprecations, that they would be faithful to
him to the last drop, and that they should owe their lives to him, and
would go with him all over the world; that they would own him as a father
to them as long as they lived. "Well," says the captain, "I must go and
tell the governor what you say, and see what I can do to bring him to
consent to it." So he brought me an account of the temper he found them
in, and that he verily believed they would be faithful. However, that we
might be very secure, I told him he should go back again and choose out
those five, and tell them, that they might see he did not want men, that
he would take out those five to be his assistants, and that the governor
would keep the other two, and the three that were sent prisoners to the
castle (my cave), as hostages for the fidelity of those five; and that if
they proved unfaithful in the execution, the five hostages should be
hanged in chains alive on the shore. This looked severe, and convinced
them that the governor was in earnest; however, they had no way left them
but to accept it; and it was now the business of the prisoners, as much
as of the captain, to persuade the other five to do their duty.
Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: first, the captain,
his mate, and passenger; second, the two prisoners of the first gang, to
whom, having their character from the captain, I had given their liberty,
and trusted them with arms; third, the other two that I had kept till now
in my bower, pinioned, but on the captain's motion had now released;
fourth, these five released at last; so that there were twelve in all,
besides five we kept prisoners in the cave for hostages.
I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands on
board the ship; but as for me and my man Friday, I did not think it was
proper for us to stir, having seven men left behind; and it was
employment enough for us to keep them asunder, and supply them with
victuals. As to the five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast, but
Friday went in twice a day to them, to supply them with necessaries; and
I made the other two carry provisions to a certain distance, where Friday
was to take them.
When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain, who
told them I was the person the governor had ordered to look after them;
and that it was the governor's pleasure they should not stir anywhere but
by my direction; that if they did, they would be fetched into the castle,
and be laid in irons: so that as we never suffered them to see me as
governor, I now appeared as another person, and spoke of the governor,
the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions.
The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his two
boats, stop the breach of one, and man them. He made his passenger
captain of one, with four of the men; and himself, his mate, and five
more, went in the other; and they contrived their business very well, for
they came up to the ship about midnight. As soon as they came within
call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and tell them they had
brought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time before they
had found them, and the like, holding them in a chat till they came to
the ship's side; when the captain and the mate entering first with their
arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter with the
butt-end of their muskets, being very faithfully seconded by their men;
they secured all the rest that were upon the main and quarter decks, and
began to fasten the hatches, to keep them down that were below; when the
other boat and their men, entering at the forechains, secured the
forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went down into the
cook-room, making three men they found there prisoners. When this was
done, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the mate, with three
men, to break into the round-house, where the new rebel captain lay, who,
having taken the alarm, had got up, and with two men and a boy had got
firearms in their hands; and when the mate, with a crow, split open the
door, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and wounded
the mate with a musket ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two more of
the men, but killed nobody. The mate, calling for help, rushed, however,
into the round-house, wounded as he was, and, with his pistol, shot the
new captain through the head, the bullet entering at his mouth, and came
out again behind one of his ears, so that he never spoke a word more:
upon which the rest yielded, and the ship was taken effectually, without
any more lives lost.
As soon as the ship was thus secured, the captain ordered seven guns to
be fired, which was the signal agreed upon with me to give me notice of
his success, which, you may be sure, I was very glad to hear, having sat
watching upon the shore for it till near two o'clock in the morning.
Having thus heard the signal plainly, I laid me down; and it having been
a day of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound, till I was surprised
with the noise of a gun; and presently starting up, I heard a man call me
by the name of "Governor! Governor!" and presently I knew the captain's
voice; when, climbing up to the top of the hill, there he stood, and,
pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms, "My dear friend and
deliverer," says he, "there's your ship; for she is all yours, and so are
we, and all that belong to her." I cast my eyes to the ship, and there
she rode, within little more than half a mile of the shore; for they had
weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters of her, and, the weather
being fair, had brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of the
little creek; and the tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace
in near the place where I had first landed my rafts, and so landed just
at my door. I was at first ready to sink down with the surprise; for I
saw my deliverance, indeed, visibly put into my hands, all things easy,
and a large ship just ready to carry me away whither I pleased to go. At
first, for some time, I was not able to answer him one word; but as he
had taken me in his arms I held fast by him, or I should have fallen to
the ground. He perceived the surprise, and immediately pulled a bottle
out of his pocket and gave me a dram of cordial, which he had brought on
purpose for me. After I had drunk it, I sat down upon the ground; and
though it brought me to myself, yet it was a good while before I could
speak a word to him. All this time the poor man was in as great an
ecstasy as I, only not under any surprise as I was; and he said a
thousand kind and tender things to me, to compose and bring me to myself;
but such was the flood of joy in my breast, that it put all my spirits
into confusion: at last it broke out into tears, and in a little while
after I recovered my speech; I then took my turn, and embraced him as my
deliverer, and we rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon him as a
man sent by Heaven to deliver me, and that the whole transaction seemed
to be a chain of wonders; that such things as these were the testimonies
we had of a secret hand of Providence governing the world, and an
evidence that the eye of an infinite Power could search into the remotest
corner of the world, and send help to the miserable whenever He pleased.
I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to Heaven; and what
heart could forbear to bless Him, who had not only in a miraculous manner
provided for me in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition,
but from whom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed.
When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me some
little refreshment, such as the ship afforded, and such as the wretches
that had been so long his masters had not plundered him of. Upon this,
he called aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring the things ashore
that were for the governor; and, indeed, it was a present as if I had
been one that was not to be carried away with them, but as if I had been
to dwell upon the island still. First, he had brought me a case of
bottles full of excellent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira
wine (the bottles held two quarts each), two pounds of excellent good
tobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork,
with a bag of peas, and about a hundred-weight of biscuit; he also
brought me a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and two
bottles of lime-juice, and abundance of other things. But besides these,
and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he brought me six new
clean shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of
shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, with a very good suit of clothes
of his own, which had been worn but very little: in a word, he clothed me
from head to foot. It was a very kind and agreeable present, as any one
may imagine, to one in my circumstances, but never was anything in the
world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy as it was to me to
wear such clothes at first.
After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things were
brought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to be done
with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether we might
venture to take them with us or no, especially two of them, whom he knew
to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; and the captain
said he knew they were such rogues that there was no obliging them, and
if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, as malefactors, to be
delivered over to justice at the first English colony he could come to;
and I found that the captain himself was very anxious about it. Upon
this, I told him that, if he desired it, I would undertake to bring the
two men he spoke of to make it their own request that he should leave
them upon the island. "I should be very glad of that," says the captain,
"with all my heart." "Well," says I, "I will send for them up and talk
with them for you." So I caused Friday and the two hostages, for they
were now discharged, their comrades having performed their promise; I
say, I caused them to go to the cave, and bring up the five men, pinioned
as they were, to the bower, and keep them there till I came. After some
time, I came thither dressed in my new habit; and now I was called
governor again. Being all met, and the captain with me, I caused the men
to be brought before me, and I told them I had got a full account of
their villainous behaviour to the captain, and how they had run away with
the ship, and were preparing to commit further robberies, but that
Providence had ensnared them in their own ways, and that they were fallen
into the pit which they had dug for others. I let them know that by my
direction the ship had been seized; that she lay now in the road; and
they might see by-and-by that their new captain had received the reward
of his villainy, and that they would see him hanging at the yard-arm;
that, as to them, I wanted to know what they had to say why I should not
execute them as pirates taken in the fact, as by my commission they could
not doubt but I had authority so to do.
One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing to
say but this, that when they were taken the captain promised them their
lives, and they humbly implored my mercy. But I told them I knew not
what mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had resolved to quit the
island with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go to
England; and as for the captain, he could not carry them to England other
than as prisoners in irons, to be tried for mutiny and running away with
the ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know, would be the
gallows; so that I could not tell what was best for them, unless they had
a mind to take their fate in the island. If they desired that, as I had
liberty to leave the island, I had some inclination to give them their
lives, if they thought they could shift on shore. They seemed very
thankful for it, and said they would much rather venture to stay there
than be carried to England to be hanged. So I left it on that issue.
However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if he durst
not leave them there. Upon this I seemed a little angry with the
captain, and told him that they were my prisoners, not his; and that
seeing I had offered them so much favour, I would be as good as my word;
and that if he did not think fit to consent to it I would set them at
liberty, as I found them: and if he did not like it he might take them
again if he could catch them. Upon this they appeared very thankful, and
I accordingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire into the woods,
to the place whence they came, and I would leave them some firearms, some
ammunition, and some directions how they should live very well if they
thought fit. Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship; but told the
captain I would stay that night to prepare my things, and desired him to
go on board in the meantime, and keep all right in the ship, and send the
boat on shore next day for me; ordering him, at all events, to cause the
new captain, who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that these men
might see him.
When the captain was gone I sent for the men up to me to my apartment,
and entered seriously into discourse with them on their circumstances. I
told them I thought they had made a right choice; that if the captain had
carried them away they would certainly be hanged. I showed them the new
captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they had
nothing less to expect.
When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told them I
would let them into the story of my living there, and put them into the
way of making it easy to them. Accordingly, I gave them the whole
history of the place, and of my coming to it; showed them my
fortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured my
grapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy. I told
them the story also of the seventeen Spaniards that were to be expected,
for whom I left a letter, and made them promise to treat them in common
with themselves. Here it may be noted that the captain, who had ink on
board, was greatly surprised that I never hit upon a way of making ink of
charcoal and water, or of something else, as I had done things much more
difficult.
I left them my firearms--viz. five muskets, three fowling-pieces, and
three swords. I had above a barrel and a half of powder left; for after
the first year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave them a
description of the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk and
fatten them, and to make both butter and cheese. In a word, I gave them
every part of my own story; and told them I should prevail with the
captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder more, and some
garden-seeds, which I told them I would have been very glad of. Also, I
gave them the bag of peas which the captain had brought me to eat, and
bade them be sure to sow and increase them.
CHAPTER XIX--RETURN TO ENGLAND
Having done all this I left them the next day, and went on board the
ship. We prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that night.
The next morning early, two of the five men came swimming to the ship's
side, and making the most lamentable complaint of the other three, begged
to be taken into the ship for God's sake, for they should be murdered,
and begged the captain to take them on board, though he hanged them
immediately. Upon this the captain pretended to have no power without
me; but after some difficulty, and after their solemn promises of
amendment, they were taken on board, and were, some time after, soundly
whipped and pickled; after which they proved very honest and quiet
fellows.
Some time after this, the boat was ordered on shore, the tide being up,
with the things promised to the men; to which the captain, at my
intercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which they
took, and were very thankful for. I also encouraged them, by telling
them that if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take them in, I
would not forget them.
When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for relics, the
great goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots; also,
I forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain by me
so long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could hardly
pass for silver till it had been a little rubbed and handled, as also the
money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship. And thus I left the
island, the 19th of December, as I found by the ship's account, in the
year 1686, after I had been upon it eight-and-twenty years, two months,
and nineteen days; being delivered from this second captivity the same
day of the month that I first made my escape in the long-boat from among
the Moors of Sallee. In this vessel, after a long voyage, I arrived in
England the 11th of June, in the year 1687, having been thirty-five years
absent.
When I came to England I was as perfect a stranger to all the world as if
I had never been known there. My benefactor and faithful steward, whom I
had left my money in trust with, was alive, but had had great misfortunes
in the world; was become a widow the second time, and very low in the
world. I made her very easy as to what she owed me, assuring her I would
give her no trouble; but, on the contrary, in gratitude for her former
care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as my little stock would
afford; which at that time would, indeed, allow me to do but little for
her; but I assured her I would never forget her former kindness to me;
nor did I forget her when I had sufficient to help her, as shall be
observed in its proper place. I went down afterwards into Yorkshire; but
my father was dead, and my mother and all the family extinct, except that
I found two sisters, and two of the children of one of my brothers; and
as I had been long ago given over for dead, there had been no provision
made for me; so that, in a word, I found nothing to relieve or assist me;
and that the little money I had would not do much for me as to settling
in the world.
I met with one piece of gratitude indeed, which I did not expect; and
this was, that the master of the ship, whom I had so happily delivered,
and by the same means saved the ship and cargo, having given a very
handsome account to the owners of the manner how I had saved the lives of
the men and the ship, they invited me to meet them and some other
merchants concerned, and all together made me a very handsome compliment
upon the subject, and a present of almost 200 pounds sterling.
But after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life,
and how little way this would go towards settling me in the world, I
resolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come at some information
of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and of what was become of
my partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had some years past given me
over for dead. With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where I
arrived in April following, my man Friday accompanying me very honestly
in all these ramblings, and proving a most faithful servant upon all
occasions. When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, and to my
particular satisfaction, my old friend, the captain of the ship who first
took me up at sea off the shore of Africa. He was now grown old, and had
left off going to sea, having put his son, who was far from a young man,
into his ship, and who still used the Brazil trade. The old man did not
know me, and indeed I hardly knew him. But I soon brought him to my
remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his remembrance, when I told
him who I was.
After some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance between us, I
inquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner. The old
man told me he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years; but that
he could assure me that when he came away my partner was living, but the
trustees whom I had joined with him to take cognisance of my part were
both dead: that, however, he believed I would have a very good account of
the improvement of the plantation; for that, upon the general belief of
my being cast away and drowned, my trustees had given in the account of
the produce of my part of the plantation to the procurator-fiscal, who
had appropriated it, in case I never came to claim it, one-third to the
king, and two-thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine, to be expended
for the benefit of the poor, and for the conversion of the Indians to the
Catholic faith: but that, if I appeared, or any one for me, to claim the
inheritance, it would be restored; only that the improvement, or annual
production, being distributed to charitable uses, could not be restored:
but he assured me that the steward of the king's revenue from lands, and
the providore, or steward of the monastery, had taken great care all
along that the incumbent, that is to say my partner, gave every year a
faithful account of the produce, of which they had duly received my
moiety. I asked him if he knew to what height of improvement he had
brought the plantation, and whether he thought it might be worth looking
after; or whether, on my going thither, I should meet with any
obstruction to my possessing my just right in the moiety. He told me he
could not tell exactly to what degree the plantation was improved; but
this he knew, that my partner was grown exceeding rich upon the enjoying
his part of it; and that, to the best of his remembrance, he had heard
that the king's third of my part, which was, it seems, granted away to
some other monastery or religious house, amounted to above two hundred
moidores a year: that as to my being restored to a quiet possession of
it, there was no question to be made of that, my partner being alive to
witness my title, and my name being also enrolled in the register of the
country; also he told me that the survivors of my two trustees were very
fair, honest people, and very wealthy; and he believed I would not only
have their assistance for putting me in possession, but would find a very
considerable sum of money in their hands for my account, being the
produce of the farm while their fathers held the trust, and before it was
given up, as above; which, as he remembered, was for about twelve years.
I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, and
inquired of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees should
thus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my will, and had
made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c.
He told me that was true; but that as there was no proof of my being
dead, he could not act as executor until some certain account should come
of my death; and, besides, he was not willing to intermeddle with a thing
so remote: that it was true he had registered my will, and put in his
claim; and could he have given any account of my being dead or alive, he
would have acted by procuration, and taken possession of the ingenio (so
they call the sugar-house), and have given his son, who was now at the
Brazils, orders to do it. "But," says the old man, "I have one piece of
news to tell you, which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the
rest; and that is, believing you were lost, and all the world believing
so also, your partner and trustees did offer to account with me, in your
name, for the first six or eight years' profits, which I received. There
being at that time great disbursements for increasing the works, building
an ingenio, and buying slaves, it did not amount to near so much as
afterwards it produced; however," says the old man, "I shall give you a
true account of what I have received in all, and how I have disposed of
it."
After a few days' further conference with this ancient friend, he brought
me an account of the first six years' income of my plantation, signed by
my partner and the merchant-trustees, being always delivered in goods,
viz. tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses, &c.,
which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I found by this account,
that every year the income considerably increased; but, as above, the
disbursements being large, the sum at first was small: however, the old
man let me see that he was debtor to me four hundred and seventy moidores
of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar and fifteen double rolls of
tobacco, which were lost in his ship; he having been shipwrecked coming
home to Lisbon, about eleven years after my having the place. The good
man then began to complain of his misfortunes, and how he had been
obliged to make use of my money to recover his losses, and buy him a
share in a new ship. "However, my old friend," says he, "you shall not
want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my son returns you shall
be fully satisfied." Upon this he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me
one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in gold; and giving the writings
of his title to the ship, which his son was gone to the Brazils in, of
which he was quarter-part owner, and his son another, he puts them both
into my hands for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man to be
able to bear this; and remembering what he had done for me, how he had
taken me up at sea, and how generously he had used me on all occasions,
and particularly how sincere a friend he was now to me, I could hardly
refrain weeping at what he had said to me; therefore I asked him if his
circumstances admitted him to spare so much money at that time, and if it
would not straiten him? He told me he could not say but it might
straiten him a little; but, however, it was my money, and I might want it
more than he.
Everything the good man said was full of affection, and I could hardly
refrain from tears while he spoke; in short, I took one hundred of the
moidores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them:
then I returned him the rest, and told him if ever I had possession of
the plantation I would return the other to him also (as, indeed, I
afterwards did); and that as to the bill of sale of his part in his son's
ship, I would not take it by any means; but that if I wanted the money, I
found he was honest enough to pay me; and if I did not, but came to
receive what he gave me reason to expect, I would never have a penny more
from him.
When this was past, the old man asked me if he should put me into a
method to make my claim to my plantation. I told him I thought to go
over to it myself. He said I might do so if I pleased, but that if I did
not, there were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately to
appropriate the profits to my use: and as there were ships in the river
of Lisbon just ready to go away to Brazil, he made me enter my name in a
public register, with his affidavit, affirming, upon oath, that I was
alive, and that I was the same person who took up the land for the
planting the said plantation at first. This being regularly attested by
a notary, and a procuration affixed, he directed me to send it, with a
letter of his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place;
and then proposed my staying with him till an account came of the return.
Never was anything more honourable than the proceedings upon this
procuration; for in less than seven months I received a large packet from
the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose account I went to
sea, in which were the following, particular letters and papers
enclosed:--
First, there was the account-current of the produce of my farm or
plantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with my old
Portugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to be one
thousand one hundred and seventy-four moidores in my favour.
Secondly, there was the account of four years more, while they kept the
effects in their hands, before the government claimed the administration,
as being the effects of a person not to be found, which they called civil
death; and the balance of this, the value of the plantation increasing,
amounted to nineteen thousand four hundred and forty-six crusadoes, being
about three thousand two hundred and forty moidores.
Thirdly, there was the Prior of St. Augustine's account, who had received
the profits for above fourteen years; but not being able to account for
what was disposed of by the hospital, very honestly declared he had eight
hundred and seventy-two moidores not distributed, which he acknowledged
to my account: as to the king's part, that refunded nothing.
There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me very affectionately
upon my being alive, giving me an account how the estate was improved,
and what it produced a year; with the particulars of the number of
squares, or acres that it contained, how planted, how many slaves there
were upon it: and making two-and-twenty crosses for blessings, told me he
had said so many _Ave Marias_ to thank the Blessed Virgin that I was
alive; inviting me very passionately to come over and take possession of
my own, and in the meantime to give him orders to whom he should deliver
my effects if I did not come myself; concluding with a hearty tender of
his friendship, and that of his family; and sent me as a present seven
fine leopards' skins, which he had, it seems, received from Africa, by
some other ship that he had sent thither, and which, it seems, had made a
better voyage than I. He sent me also five chests of excellent
sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces of gold uncoined, not quite so large as
moidores. By the same fleet my two merchant-trustees shipped me one
thousand two hundred chests of sugar, eight hundred rolls of tobacco, and
the rest of the whole account in gold.
I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job was better than
the beginning. It is impossible to express the flutterings of my very
heart when I found all my wealth about me; for as the Brazil ships come
all in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters brought my goods:
and the effects were safe in the river before the letters came to my
hand. In a word, I turned pale, and grew sick; and, had not the old man
run and fetched me a cordial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy had
overset nature, and I had died upon the spot: nay, after that I continued
very ill, and was so some hours, till a physician being sent for, and
something of the real cause of my illness being known, he ordered me to
be let blood; after which I had relief, and grew well: but I verily
believe, if I had not been eased by a vent given in that manner to the
spirits, I should have died.
I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand pounds sterling
in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in the Brazils, of
above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of lands in England:
and, in a word, I was in a condition which I scarce knew how to
understand, or how to compose myself for the enjoyment of it. The first
thing I did was to recompense my original benefactor, my good old
captain, who had been first charitable to me in my distress, kind to me
in my beginning, and honest to me at the end. I showed him all that was
sent to me; I told him that, next to the providence of Heaven, which
disposed all things, it was owing to him; and that it now lay on me to
reward him, which I would do a hundred-fold: so I first returned to him
the hundred moidores I had received of him; then I sent for a notary, and
caused him to draw up a general release or discharge from the four
hundred and seventy moidores, which he had acknowledged he owed me, in
the fullest and firmest manner possible. After which I caused a
procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be the receiver of the annual
profits of my plantation: and appointing my partner to account with him,
and make the returns, by the usual fleets, to him in my name; and by a
clause in the end, made a grant of one hundred moidores a year to him
during his life, out of the effects, and fifty moidores a year to his son
after him, for his life: and thus I requited my old man.
I had now to consider which way to steer my course next, and what to do
with the estate that Providence had thus put into my hands; and, indeed,
I had more care upon my head now than I had in my state of life in the
island where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothing but what I
wanted; whereas I had now a great charge upon me, and my business was how
to secure it. I had not a cave now to hide my money in, or a place where
it might lie without lock or key, till it grew mouldy and tarnished
before anybody would meddle with it; on the contrary, I knew not where to
put it, or whom to trust with it. My old patron, the captain, indeed,
was honest, and that was the only refuge I had. In the next place, my
interest in the Brazils seemed to summon me thither; but now I could not
tell how to think of going thither till I had settled my affairs, and
left my effects in some safe hands behind me. At first I thought of my
old friend the widow, who I knew was honest, and would be just to me; but
then she was in years, and but poor, and, for aught I knew, might be in
debt: so that, in a word, I had no way but to go back to England myself
and take my effects with me.
It was some months, however, before I resolved upon this; and, therefore,
as I had rewarded the old captain fully, and to his satisfaction, who had
been my former benefactor, so I began to think of the poor widow, whose
husband had been my first benefactor, and she, while it was in her power,
my faithful steward and instructor. So, the first thing I did, I got a
merchant in Lisbon to write to his correspondent in London, not only to
pay a bill, but to go find her out, and carry her, in money, a hundred
pounds from me, and to talk with her, and comfort her in her poverty, by
telling her she should, if I lived, have a further supply: at the same
time I sent my two sisters in the country a hundred pounds each, they
being, though not in want, yet not in very good circumstances; one having
been married and left a widow; and the other having a husband not so kind
to her as he should be. But among all my relations or acquaintances I
could not yet pitch upon one to whom I durst commit the gross of my
stock, that I might go away to the Brazils, and leave things safe behind
me; and this greatly perplexed me.
I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils and have settled myself
there, for I was, as it were, naturalised to the place; but I had some
little scruple in my mind about religion, which insensibly drew me back.
However, it was not religion that kept me from going there for the
present; and as I had made no scruple of being openly of the religion of
the country all the while I was among them, so neither did I yet; only
that, now and then, having of late thought more of it than formerly, when
I began to think of living and dying among them, I began to regret having
professed myself a Papist, and thought it might not be the best religion
to die with.
But, as I have said, this was not the main thing that kept me from going
to the Brazils, but that really I did not know with whom to leave my
effects behind me; so I resolved at last to go to England, where, if I
arrived, I concluded that I should make some acquaintance, or find some
relations, that would be faithful to me; and, accordingly, I prepared to
go to England with all my wealth.
In order to prepare things for my going home, I first (the Brazil fleet
being just going away) resolved to give answers suitable to the just and
faithful account of things I had from thence; and, first, to the Prior of
St. Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks for his just dealings, and
the offer of the eight hundred and seventy-two moidores which were
undisposed of, which I desired might be given, five hundred to the
monastery, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, as the prior
should direct; desiring the good padre's prayers for me, and the like. I
wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all the
acknowledgment that so much justice and honesty called for: as for
sending them any present, they were far above having any occasion of it.
Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry in the
improving the plantation, and his integrity in increasing the stock of
the works; giving him instructions for his future government of my part,
according to the powers I had left with my old patron, to whom I desired
him to send whatever became due to me, till he should hear from me more
particularly; assuring him that it was my intention not only to come to
him, but to settle myself there for the remainder of my life. To this I
added a very handsome present of some Italian silks for his wife and two
daughters, for such the captain's son informed me he had; with two pieces
of fine English broadcloth, the best I could get in Lisbon, five pieces
of black baize, and some Flanders lace of a good value.
Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my effects
into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was which way to go to
England: I had been accustomed enough to the sea, and yet I had a strange
aversion to go to England by the sea at that time, and yet I could give
no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon me so much, that
though I had once shipped my baggage in order to go, yet I altered my
mind, and that not once but two or three times.
It is true I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be one of
the reasons; but let no man slight the strong impulses of his own
thoughts in cases of such moment: two of the ships which I had singled
out to go in, I mean more particularly singled out than any other, having
put my things on board one of them, and in the other having agreed with
the captain; I say two of these ships miscarried. One was taken by the
Algerines, and the other was lost on the Start, near Torbay, and all the
people drowned except three; so that in either of those vessels I had
been made miserable.
Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom I
communicated everything, pressed me earnestly not to go by sea, but
either to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of Biscay to
Rochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land to
Paris, and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to Madrid, and so all the
way by land through France. In a word, I was so prepossessed against my
going by sea at all, except from Calais to Dover, that I resolved to
travel all the way by land; which, as I was not in haste, and did not
value the charge, was by much the pleasanter way: and to make it more so,
my old captain brought an English gentleman, the son of a merchant in
Lisbon, who was willing to travel with me; after which we picked up two
more English merchants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, the last
going to Paris only; so that in all there were six of us and five
servants; the two merchants and the two Portuguese, contenting themselves
with one servant between two, to save the charge; and as for me, I got an
English sailor to travel with me as a servant, besides my man Friday, who
was too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the place of a servant
on the road.
In this manner I set out from Lisbon; and our company being very well
mounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof they did me the honour
to call me captain, as well because I was the oldest man, as because I
had two servants, and, indeed, was the origin of the whole journey.
As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so I shall trouble
you now with none of my land journals; but some adventures that happened
to us in this tedious and difficult journey I must not omit.
When we came to Madrid, we, being all of us strangers to Spain, were
willing to stay some time to see the court of Spain, and what was worth
observing; but it being the latter part of the summer, we hastened away,
and set out from Madrid about the middle of October; but when we came to
the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed, at several towns on the way, with
an account that so much snow was falling on the French side of the
mountains, that several travellers were obliged to come back to
Pampeluna, after having attempted at an extreme hazard to pass on.
When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it so indeed; and to me, that
had been always used to a hot climate, and to countries where I could
scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable; nor, indeed, was
it more painful than surprising to come but ten days before out of Old
Castile, where the weather was not only warm but very hot, and
immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenean Mountains so very keen, so
severely cold, as to be intolerable and to endanger benumbing and
perishing of our fingers and toes.
Poor Friday was really frightened when he saw the mountains all covered
with snow, and felt cold weather, which he had never seen or felt before
in his life. To mend the matter, when we came to Pampeluna it continued
snowing with so much violence and so long, that the people said winter
was come before its time; and the roads, which were difficult before,
were now quite impassable; for, in a word, the snow lay in some places
too thick for us to travel, and being not hard frozen, as is the case in
the northern countries, there was no going without being in danger of
being buried alive every step. We stayed no less than twenty days at
Pampeluna; when (seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of its
being better, for it was the severest winter all over Europe that had
been known in the memory of man) I proposed that we should go away to
Fontarabia, and there take shipping for Bordeaux, which was a very little
voyage. But, while I was considering this, there came in four French
gentlemen, who, having been stopped on the French side of the passes, as
we were on the Spanish, had found out a guide, who, traversing the
country near the head of Languedoc, had brought them over the mountains
by such ways that they were not much incommoded with the snow; for where
they met with snow in any quantity, they said it was frozen hard enough
to bear them and their horses. We sent for this guide, who told us he
would undertake to carry us the same way, with no hazard from the snow,
provided we were armed sufficiently to protect ourselves from wild
beasts; for, he said, in these great snows it was frequent for some
wolves to show themselves at the foot of the mountains, being made
ravenous for want of food, the ground being covered with snow. We told
him we were well enough prepared for such creatures as they were, if he
would insure us from a kind of two-legged wolves, which we were told we
were in most danger from, especially on the French side of the mountains.
He satisfied us that there was no danger of that kind in the way that we
were to go; so we readily agreed to follow him, as did also twelve other
gentlemen with their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I said,
had attempted to go, and were obliged to come back again.
Accordingly, we set out from Pampeluna with our guide on the 15th of
November; and indeed I was surprised when, instead of going forward, he
came directly back with us on the same road that we came from Madrid,
about twenty miles; when, having passed two rivers, and come into the
plain country, we found ourselves in a warm climate again, where the
country was pleasant, and no snow to be seen; but, on a sudden, turning
to his left, he approached the mountains another way; and though it is
true the hills and precipices looked dreadful, yet he made so many tours,
such meanders, and led us by such winding ways, that we insensibly passed
the height of the mountains without being much encumbered with the snow;
and all on a sudden he showed us the pleasant and fruitful provinces of
Languedoc and Gascony, all green and flourishing, though at a great
distance, and we had some rough way to pass still.
We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one whole day
and a night so fast that we could not travel; but he bid us be easy; we
should soon be past it all: we found, indeed, that we began to descend
every day, and to come more north than before; and so, depending upon our
guide, we went on.
It was about two hours before night when, our guide being something
before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, and
after them a bear, from a hollow way adjoining to a thick wood; two of
the wolves made at the guide, and had he been far before us, he would
have been devoured before we could have helped him; one of them fastened
upon his horse, and the other attacked the man with such violence, that
he had not time, or presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, but
hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. My man Friday being next me,
I bade him ride up and see what was the matter. As soon as Friday came
in sight of the man, he hallooed out as loud as the other, "O master! O
master!" but like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the poor man, and
with his pistol shot the wolf in the head that attacked him.
It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday; for, having been
used to such creatures in his country, he had no fear upon him, but went
close up to him and shot him; whereas, any other of us would have fired
at a farther distance, and have perhaps either missed the wolf or
endangered shooting the man.
But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I; and, indeed, it
alarmed all our company, when, with the noise of Friday's pistol, we
heard on both sides the most dismal howling of wolves; and the noise,
redoubled by the echo of the mountains, appeared to us as if there had
been a prodigious number of them; and perhaps there was not such a few as
that we had no cause of apprehension: however, as Friday had killed this
wolf, the other that had fastened upon the horse left him immediately,
and fled, without doing him any damage, having happily fastened upon his
head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth. But the man
was most hurt; for the raging creature had bit him twice, once in the
arm, and the other time a little above his knee; and though he had made
some defence, he was just tumbling down by the disorder of his horse,
when Friday came up and shot the wolf.
It is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday's pistol we all mended
our pace, and rode up as fast as the way, which was very difficult, would
give us leave, to see what was the matter. As soon as we came clear of
the trees, which blinded us before, we saw clearly what had been the
case, and how Friday had disengaged the poor guide, though we did not
presently discern what kind of creature it was he had killed.
CHAPTER XX--FIGHT BETWEEN FRIDAY AND A BEAR
But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprising manner
as that which followed between Friday and the bear, which gave us all,
though at first we were surprised and afraid for him, the greatest
diversion imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy creature, and does
not gallop as the wolf does, who is swift and light, so he has two
particular qualities, which generally are the rule of his actions; first,
as to men, who are not his proper prey (he does not usually attempt them,
except they first attack him, unless he be excessively hungry, which it
is probable might now be the case, the ground being covered with snow),
if you do not meddle with him, he will not meddle with you; but then you
must take care to be very civil to him, and give him the road, for he is
a very nice gentleman; he will not go a step out of his way for a prince;
nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to look another way and
keep going on; for sometimes if you stop, and stand still, and look
steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; but if you throw or toss
anything at him, though it were but a bit of stick as big as your finger,
he thinks himself abused, and sets all other business aside to pursue his
revenge, and will have satisfaction in point of honour--that is his first
quality: the next is, if he be once affronted, he will never leave you,
night or day, till he has his revenge, but follows at a good round rate
till he overtakes you.
My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to him he was
helping him off his horse, for the man was both hurt and frightened, when
on a sudden we espied the bear come out of the wood; and a monstrous one
it was, the biggest by far that ever I saw. We were all a little
surprised when we saw him; but when Friday saw him, it was easy to see
joy and courage in the fellow's countenance. "O! O! O!" says Friday,
three times, pointing to him; "O master, you give me te leave, me shakee
te hand with him; me makee you good laugh."
I was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased. "You fool," says I,
"he will eat you up."--"Eatee me up! eatee me up!" says Friday, twice
over again; "me eatee him up; me makee you good laugh; you all stay here,
me show you good laugh." So down he sits, and gets off his boots in a
moment, and puts on a pair of pumps (as we call the flat shoes they wear,
and which he had in his pocket), gives my other servant his horse, and
with his gun away he flew, swift like the wind.
The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody, till
Friday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear could understand
him. "Hark ye, hark ye," says Friday, "me speakee with you." We
followed at a distance, for now being down on the Gascony side of the
mountains, we were entered a vast forest, where the country was plain and
pretty open, though it had many trees in it scattered here and there.
Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up with him
quickly, and took up a great stone, and threw it at him, and hit him just
on the head, but did him no more harm than if he had thrown it against a
wall; but it answered Friday's end, for the rogue was so void of fear
that he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and show us some laugh
as he called it. As soon as the bear felt the blow, and saw him, he
turns about and comes after him, taking very long strides, and shuffling
on at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse to a middling gallop;
away reins Friday, and takes his course as if he ran towards us for help;
so we all resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man;
though I was angry at him for bringing the bear back upon us, when he was
going about his own business another way; and especially I was angry that
he had turned the bear upon us, and then ran away; and I called out, "You
dog! is this your making us laugh? Come away, and take your horse, that
we may shoot the creature." He heard me, and cried out, "No shoot, no
shoot; stand still, and you get much laugh:" and as the nimble creature
ran two feet for the bear's one, he turned on a sudden on one side of us,
and seeing a great oak-tree fit for his purpose, he beckoned to us to
follow; and doubling his pace, he got nimbly up the tree, laying his gun
down upon the ground, at about five or six yards from the bottom of the
tree. The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a distance: the
first thing he did he stopped at the gun, smelt at it, but let it lie,
and up he scrambles into the tree, climbing like a cat, though so
monstrous heavy. I was amazed at the folly, as I thought it, of my man,
and could not for my life see anything to laugh at, till seeing the bear
get up the tree, we all rode near to him.
When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end of a
large branch, and the bear got about half-way to him. As soon as the
bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was weaker, "Ha!"
says he to us, "now you see me teachee the bear dance:" so he began
jumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to totter, but
stood still, and began to look behind him, to see how he should get back;
then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. But Friday had not done with him by
a great deal; when seeing him stand still, he called out to him again, as
if he had supposed the bear could speak English, "What, you come no
farther? pray you come farther;" so he left jumping and shaking the tree;
and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did come a little
farther; then he began jumping again, and the bear stopped again. We
thought now was a good time to knock him in the head, and called to
Friday to stand still and we should shoot the bear: but he cried out
earnestly, "Oh, pray! Oh, pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then:" he
would have said by-and-by. However, to shorten the story, Friday danced
so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough, but
still could not imagine what the fellow would do: for first we thought he
depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning
for that too; for he would not go out far enough to be thrown down, but
clung fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could not
imagine what would be the end of it, and what the jest would be at last.
But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing the bear cling fast to
the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to come any farther, "Well,
well," says Friday, "you no come farther, me go; you no come to me, me
come to you;" and upon this he went out to the smaller end, where it
would bend with his weight, and gently let himself down by it, sliding
down the bough till he came near enough to jump down on his feet, and
away he ran to his gun, took it up, and stood still. "Well," said I to
him, "Friday, what will you do now? Why don't you shoot him?" "No
shoot," says Friday, "no yet; me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you
one more laugh:" and, indeed, so he did; for when the bear saw his enemy
gone, he came back from the bough, where he stood, but did it very
cautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he
got into the body of the tree, then, with the same hinder end foremost,
he came down the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at
a time, very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could set
his hind foot on the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the
muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot him dead. Then the rogue
turned about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased
by our looks, he began to laugh very loud. "So we kill bear in my
country," says Friday. "So you kill them?" says I; "why, you have no
guns."--"No," says he, "no gun, but shoot great much long arrow." This
was a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and our
guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew; the howling of
wolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise I once heard on
the shore of Africa, of which I have said something already, I never
heard anything that filled me with so much horror.
These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as
Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin of this
monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had near three
leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him, and went
forward on our journey.
The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerous
as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards,
were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, to
seek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages,
where they surprised the country people, killed a great many of their
sheep and horses, and some people too. We had one dangerous place to
pass, and our guide told us if there were more wolves in the country we
should find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded with woods
on every side, and a long, narrow defile, or lane, which we were to pass
to get through the wood, and then we should come to the village where we
were to lodge. It was within half-an-hour of sunset when we entered the
wood, and a little after sunset when we came into the plain: we met with
nothing in the first wood, except that in a little plain within the wood,
which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the
road, full speed, one after another, as if they had been in chase of some
prey, and had it in view; they took no notice of us, and were gone out of
sight in a few moments. Upon this, our guide, who, by the way, was but a
fainthearted fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture, for he believed
there were more wolves a-coming. We kept our arms ready, and our eyes
about us; but we saw no more wolves till we came through that wood, which
was near half a league, and entered the plain. As soon as we came into
the plain, we had occasion enough to look about us. The first object we
met with was a dead horse; that is to say, a poor horse which the wolves
had killed, and at least a dozen of them at work, we could not say eating
him, but picking his bones rather; for they had eaten up all the flesh
before. We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast, neither did
they take much notice of us. Friday would have let fly at them, but I
would not suffer him by any means; for I found we were like to have more
business upon our hands than we were aware of. We had not gone half over
the plain when we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left
in a frightful manner, and presently after we saw about a hundred coming
on directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line, as
regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in
what manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves in a close line
was the only way; so we formed in a moment; but that we might not have
too much interval, I ordered that only every other man should fire, and
that the others, who had not fired, should stand ready to give them a
second volley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us; and then
that those that had fired at first should not pretend to load their
fusees again, but stand ready, every one with a pistol, for we were all
armed with a fusee and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this
method, able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time; however, at
present we had no necessity; for upon firing the first volley, the enemy
made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the
fire. Four of them being shot in the head, dropped; several others were
wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I found
they stopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering
that I had been told that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the
voice of a man, I caused all the company to halloo as loud as they could;
and I found the notion not altogether mistaken; for upon our shout they
began to retire and turn about. I then ordered a second volley to be
fired in their rear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to
the woods. This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and that we
might lose no time, we kept going; but we had but little more than loaded
our fusees, and put ourselves in readiness, when we heard a terrible
noise in the same wood on our left, only that it was farther onward, the
same way we were to go.
The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, which made it
worse on our side; but the noise increasing, we could easily perceive
that it was the howling and yelling of those hellish creatures; and on a
sudden we perceived three troops of wolves, one on our left, one behind
us, and one in our front, so that we seemed to be surrounded with them:
however, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our way forward, as fast
as we could make our horses go, which, the way being very rough, was only
a good hard trot. In this manner, we came in view of the entrance of a
wood, through which we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain;
but we were greatly surprised, when coming nearer the lane or pass, we
saw a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance. On a
sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard the noise of a gun, and
looking that way, out rushed a horse, with a saddle and a bridle on him,
flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolves after him, full
speed: the horse had the advantage of them; but as we supposed that he
could not hold it at that rate, we doubted not but they would get up with
him at last: no question but they did.
But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to the entrance
where the horse came out, we found the carcasses of another horse and of
two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures; and one of the men was no
doubt the same whom we heard fire the gun, for there lay a gun just by
him fired off; but as to the man, his head and the upper part of his body
was eaten up. This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to
take; but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us
presently, in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there were three
hundred of them. It happened, very much to our advantage, that at the
entrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there lay some large
timber-trees, which had been cut down the summer before, and I suppose
lay there for carriage. I drew my little troop in among those trees, and
placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, I advised them all to
alight, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in a
triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre. We did
so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furious charge than the
creatures made upon us in this place. They came on with a growling kind
of noise, and mounted the piece of timber, which, as I said, was our
breastwork, as if they were only rushing upon their prey; and this fury
of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by their seeing our
horses behind us. I ordered our men to fire as before, every other man;
and they took their aim so sure that they killed several of the wolves at
the first volley; but there was a necessity to keep a continual firing,
for they came on like devils, those behind pushing on those before.
When we had fired a second volley of our fusees, we thought they stopped
a little, and I hoped they would have gone off, but it was but a moment,
for others came forward again; so we fired two volleys of our pistols;
and I believe in these four firings we had killed seventeen or eighteen
of them, and lamed twice as many, yet they came on again. I was loth to
spend our shot too hastily; so I called my servant, not my man Friday,
for he was better employed, for, with the greatest dexterity imaginable,
he had charged my fusee and his own while we were engaged--but, as I
said, I called my other man, and giving him a horn of powder, I had him
lay a train all along the piece of timber, and let it be a large train.
He did so, and had but just time to get away, when the wolves came up to
it, and some got upon it, when I, snapping an unchanged pistol close to
the powder, set it on fire; those that were upon the timber were scorched
with it, and six or seven of them fell; or rather jumped in among us with
the force and fright of the fire; we despatched these in an instant, and
the rest were so frightened with the light, which the night--for it was
now very near dark--made more terrible that they drew back a little; upon
which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley, and after
that we gave a shout; upon this the wolves turned tail, and we sallied
immediately upon near twenty lame ones that we found struggling on the
ground, and fell to cutting them with our swords, which answered our
expectation, for the crying and howling they made was better understood
by their fellows; so that they all fled and left us.
We had, first and last, killed about threescore of them, and had it been
daylight we had killed many more. The field of battle being thus
cleared, we made forward again, for we had still near a league to go. We
heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we went
several times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them; but the snow
dazzling our eyes, we were not certain. In about an hour more we came to
the town where we were to lodge, which we found in a terrible fright and
all in arms; for, it seems, the night before the wolves and some bears
had broken into the village, and put them in such terror that they were
obliged to keep guard night and day, but especially in the night, to
preserve their cattle, and indeed their people.
The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs swelled so much with
the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther; so we were
obliged to take a new guide here, and go to Toulouse, where we found a
warm climate, a fruitful, pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, nor
anything like them; but when we told our story at Toulouse, they told us
it was nothing but what was ordinary in the great forest at the foot of
the mountains, especially when the snow lay on the ground; but they
inquired much what kind of guide we had got who would venture to bring us
that way in such a severe season, and told us it was surprising we were
not all devoured. When we told them how we placed ourselves and the
horses in the middle, they blamed us exceedingly, and told us it was
fifty to one but we had been all destroyed, for it was the sight of the
horses which made the wolves so furious, seeing their prey, and that at
other times they are really afraid of a gun; but being excessively
hungry, and raging on that account, the eagerness to come at the horses
had made them senseless of danger, and that if we had not by the
continual fire, and at last by the stratagem of the train of powder,
mastered them, it had been great odds but that we had been torn to
pieces; whereas, had we been content to have sat still on horseback, and
fired as horsemen, they would not have taken the horses so much for their
own, when men were on their backs, as otherwise; and withal, they told us
that at last, if we had stood altogether, and left our horses, they would
have been so eager to have devoured them, that we might have come off
safe, especially having our firearms in our hands, being so many in
number. For my part, I was never so sensible of danger in my life; for,
seeing above three hundred devils come roaring and open-mouthed to devour
us, and having nothing to shelter us or retreat to, I gave myself over
for lost; and, as it was, I believe I shall never care to cross those
mountains again: I think I would much rather go a thousand leagues by
sea, though I was sure to meet with a storm once a-week.
I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage through
France--nothing but what other travellers have given an account of with
much more advantage than I can. I travelled from Toulouse to Paris, and
without any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover
the 14th of January, after having had a severe cold season to travel in.
I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a little time all
my new-discovered estate safe about me, the bills of exchange which I
brought with me having been currently paid.
My principal guide and privy-counsellor was my good ancient widow, who,
in gratitude for the money I had sent her, thought no pains too much nor
care too great to employ for me; and I trusted her so entirely that I was
perfectly easy as to the security of my effects; and, indeed, I was very
happy from the beginning, and now to the end, in the unspotted integrity
of this good gentlewoman.
And now, having resolved to dispose of my plantation in the Brazils, I
wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who, having offered it to the two
merchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in the Brazils, they
accepted the offer, and remitted thirty-three thousand pieces of eight to
a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon to pay for it.
In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which they sent
from Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who sent me the bills of exchange
for thirty-two thousand eight hundred pieces of eight for the estate,
reserving the payment of one hundred moidores a year to him (the old man)
during his life, and fifty moidores afterwards to his son for his life,
which I had promised them, and which the plantation was to make good as a
rent-charge. And thus I have given the first part of a life of fortune
and adventure--a life of Providence's chequer-work, and of a variety
which the world will seldom be able to show the like of; beginning
foolishly, but closing much more happily than any part of it ever gave me
leave so much as to hope for.
Any one would think that in this state of complicated good fortune I was
past running any more hazards--and so, indeed, I had been, if other
circumstances had concurred; but I was inured to a wandering life, had no
family, nor many relations; nor, however rich, had I contracted fresh
acquaintance; and though I had sold my estate in the Brazils, yet I could
not keep that country out of my head, and had a great mind to be upon the
wing again; especially I could not resist the strong inclination I had to
see my island, and to know if the poor Spaniards were in being there. My
true friend, the widow, earnestly dissuaded me from it, and so far
prevailed with me, that for almost seven years she prevented my running
abroad, during which time I took my two nephews, the children of one of
my brothers, into my care; the eldest, having something of his own, I
bred up as a gentleman, and gave him a settlement of some addition to his
estate after my decease. The other I placed with the captain of a ship;
and after five years, finding him a sensible, bold, enterprising young
fellow, I put him into a good ship, and sent him to sea; and this young
fellow afterwards drew me in, as old as I was, to further adventures
myself.
In the meantime, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all, I
married, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction, and
had three children, two sons and one daughter; but my wife dying, and my
nephew coming home with good success from a voyage to Spain, my
inclination to go abroad, and his importunity, prevailed, and engaged me
to go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies; this was in the
year 1694.
In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw my successors
the Spaniards, had the old story of their lives and of the villains I
left there; how at first they insulted the poor Spaniards, how they
afterwards agreed, disagreed, united, separated, and how at last the
Spaniards were obliged to use violence with them; how they were subjected
to the Spaniards, how honestly the Spaniards used them--a history, if it
were entered into, as full of variety and wonderful accidents as my own
part--particularly, also, as to their battles with the Caribbeans, who
landed several times upon the island, and as to the improvement they made
upon the island itself, and how five of them made an attempt upon the
mainland, and brought away eleven men and five women prisoners, by which,
at my coming, I found about twenty young children on the island.
Here I stayed about twenty days, left them supplies of all necessary
things, and particularly of arms, powder, shot, clothes, tools, and two
workmen, which I had brought from England with me, viz. a carpenter and a
smith.
Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with them, reserved to myself
the property of the whole, but gave them such parts respectively as they
agreed on; and having settled all things with them, and engaged them not
to leave the place, I left them there.
From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I sent a bark, which I
bought there, with more people to the island; and in it, besides other
supplies, I sent seven women, being such as I found proper for service,
or for wives to such as would take them. As to the Englishmen, I
promised to send them some women from England, with a good cargo of
necessaries, if they would apply themselves to planting--which I
afterwards could not perform. The fellows proved very honest and
diligent after they were mastered and had their properties set apart for
them. I sent them, also, from the Brazils, five cows, three of them
being big with calf, some sheep, and some hogs, which when I came again
were considerably increased.
But all these things, with an account how three hundred Caribbees came
and invaded them, and ruined their plantations, and how they fought with
that whole number twice, and were at first defeated, and one of them
killed; but at last, a storm destroying their enemies' canoes, they
famished or destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered the
possession of their plantation, and still lived upon the island.
All these things, with some very surprising incidents in some new
adventures of my own, for ten years more, I shall give a farther account
of in the Second Part of my Story.
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