London
Seeley, Service & Co. Limited
38 Great Russell Street
Contents
CHAPTER I—START IN LIFE
CHAPTER II—SLAVERY AND ESCAPE
CHAPTER III—WRECKED ON A DESERT ISLAND
CHAPTER IV—FIRST WEEKS ON THE ISLAND
CHAPTER V—BUILDS A HOUSE—THE JOURNAL
CHAPTER VI—ILL AND CONSCIENCE-STRICKEN
CHAPTER VII—AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE
CHAPTER VIII—SURVEYS HIS POSITION
CHAPTER IX—A BOAT
CHAPTER X—TAMES GOATS
CHAPTER XI—FINDS PRINT OF MAN’S FOOT ON THE SAND
CHAPTER XII—A CAVE RETREAT
CHAPTER XIII—WRECK OF A SPANISH SHIP
CHAPTER XIV—A DREAM REALISED
CHAPTER XV—FRIDAY’S EDUCATION
CHAPTER XVI—RESCUE OF PRISONERS FROM CANNIBALS
CHAPTER XVII—VISIT OF MUTINEERS
CHAPTER XVIII—THE SHIP RECOVERED
CHAPTER XIX—RETURN TO ENGLAND
CHAPTER XX—FIGHT BETWEEN FRIDAY AND A BEAR
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 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me
to buy. These £40 I had mustered together by the assistance of some of
my relations whom I corresponded with; and who, I believe, got my
father, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my
first adventure.
This was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my
adventures, 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; 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 of my new-gained wealth, so that I had £200 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 go on shore and kill him.” Xury,
looked frighted, and said, “Me kill! he eat me at one mouth!”—one
mouthful he meant. However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him lie
still, and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, and
loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid it
down; then I loaded another gun with two bullets; and the third (for we
had three pieces) I loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the best
aim I could with the first piece to have shot him 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 had no remedy but to go on: I had got into an employment
quite remote to my genius, and directly contrary to the life I
delighted in, and for which I forsook my father’s house, and broke
through all his good advice. Nay, I was coming into the very middle
station, or upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to
before, and which, if I resolved to go on with, I might as well have
stayed at home, and never have fatigued myself in the world as I had
done; and I used often to say to myself, I could have done this as well
in England, among my friends, as have gone five thousand miles off to
do it among strangers and savages, in a wilderness, and at such a
distance as never to hear from any part of the world that had the least
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’s
good counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them I would go with
all my heart, if they would undertake to look after my plantation in my
absence, and would dispose of it to such as I should direct, if I
miscarried. This they all 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 grâce_. 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
entirely 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 saving.” However, upon second
thoughts I took it away; and wrapping all this in a piece of canvas, I
began to think of making another raft; but while I was preparing this,
I found the sky overcast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter
of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. It presently 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 be
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, desolate island, void of all hope of
recovery.
But I am alive; and not drowned, as all my ship’s company were.
I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world, to be
miserable.
But I am singled out, too, from all the ship’s crew, to be spared from
death; and He that miraculously saved me from death can deliver me from
this condition.
I am divided from mankind—a solitaire; one banished from human society.
But I am not starved, and perishing on a barren place, 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 means to resist any violence of man or
beast.
But I am cast on an island where I see no wild beasts to hurt me, as I
saw on the coast of Africa; and what if I had been shipwrecked there?
I have no soul to speak to or relieve me.
But God wonderfully sent the ship 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.—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 down upon the firm ground,
than I plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood
on shook three times at about eight minutes’ distance, with three such
shocks as would have overturned the strongest building that could be
supposed to have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a
rock which stood about half a mile from me next the sea fell down with
such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life. I perceived also
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-yarn, which I
always carried about me, I led him along, though with some difficulty,
till I came to my bower, and there I enclosed him and left him, for I
was very impatient to be at home, from whence I had been absent above a
month.
I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old
hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed. This little 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 of digging a hole under the place where they made
their fire, and putting in five or six pounds of gunpowder, which, when
they kindled their fire, would consequently take fire, and blow up all
that was near it: but as, in the first place, I should be unwilling to
waste so much powder 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 got 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 off, 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 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 runs Friday, and takes his course as
if he ran towards us for help; so we all resolved to fire at once upon
the bear, and deliver my man; though I was angry at him 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
uncharged pistol close to the powder, set it on fire; those that were
upon the timber were scorched with it, and six or seven of them fell;
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.
