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THE
-LIFE
OF
DE FOE.
DANIEL DE FOE was descended from a re
able family in the county of Northampton,
born in London, about the year 163. His father,
James Foe, was a butcher, in the parish of St. Gils's,"
Cripplegate, and a protestant dissenter. Why the sul
ject of this memoir prefixed the De to his.fimi)j
name cannot now be ascertained, nor did he at may
period of his life think it necessary to give his reason
to the public. The political scribblers of the day, how-
ever, thought proper to remedy this lack of informa-
tion, and accused him of possessing so little of the
amor patrie, as to make the addition in order that
he might not be taken for an Englishman; though
this idea could have had no other foundation than the
circumstance of his having, in consequence of his zeal
for King William, attacked the prejudices of his coun-
trymen in his True-born Englishman."
After receiving a good education.at an academy 4
Newington, young De Foe, before he ha attainedhis
twenty-first year, commenced his career as an author,"
by writing a pamphlet against avery prevailing senti
ment in favour of the Turks-who were at that time
laying siege to Vienna. This production, being very
inferior to those of his maturer years, was very little.
read, and the indignant author, despairing of success
with his pen, had recourse to the sword; or, ahe..
termed it, when boasting of the exploit in his latter
years, displayed his attachment to liberty, and pro
testantism," by joining the ill-advised insurrectio
under the Duke of Monmouth, in the wet. On tf
failure of that unfortunate enterprise, he returned
ii LIFE OFDE FOE.
again to the metropolis; and it is not improbable,
but that: the circumstance of his being a native of
London, and his person not much known in that part
of the kingdom where the rebellion took place, might
facilitate his escape, and be the means of preventing
his being brought to trial for his share in the transac-
tion. With the professions of a writer and a soldier,
Mr. De Foe, in the year 1685, joined that of a trader ;
he was first engaged as a hosier, in Cornhill, and
afterwards as a maker of bricks and pantiles, near
Tilbury Fort, in Essex; but in consequence of spend-
ing those hours in the hilarity of the tavern which he
ought to have employed in the calculations of the
counting-house, his commercial schemes proved un-
successful; and in 1694 he was obliged to abscond
from his creditors, not failing to attribute those mis-
fortunes to the war and the severity of the times,
which were doubtless owing to his own misconduct.
It is much to his credit however, that after having
been freed from his debts by composition, and being
in prosperous circumstances from King William's fa-
vour, he volhitarily paid most of his creditors both
the principal and interest of their claims. This is
such an example of honesty as it would be unjust to
De Foe and to the world to conceal. The amount
of the sums thus paid must have been very consider.
able, as he afterwards feelingly mentions to Lord
Haversham, who had reproached him with covetous.
ness; With a numerous family, and no helps but
my own industry, I have forced my way through a
sea of misfortunes, and reduced my debts, exclusive
of composition, from seventeen thousand to less than
five thousand pounds."
At the beginning of the year 1700, Mr. De Foe
published a satire in verse, which excited very con-
siderable attention, called the True-born English-
man." Its purpose was to furnish a reply to those
who were continually abusing King William and some
of his friends as foreigners, by shewing that the pre-
sent race of Englishmen was a mixed and heteroge-
neous brood, scarcely any of which could lay claim to
native purity of blood. The satire was in many parts
LIFE OF DE POE. ill
very severe; and though it gave high offence, it
claimed a considerable share of the public attention.
The reader will perhaps be gratified by a specimen of
this production, wherein he endeavours to account
for-
What makes this discontented land appear
Less happy now in times of peace, than war;
Why civil feuds disturb the nation more,
Than all our bloody wars had done before:
Fools out of favour grudge at knaves in place,
And men are always honest in disgrace:
The court preferments make men knaves in course,
But they, who would be in them, would be worse.
Tis not at foreigners that we repine,
Would foreigners their perquisites resign:
The grand contention's plainly to be seen,
To get some men put out, and some put in."
It will be immediately perceived that De Foe could
have no pretentious to the character of a poet; but
he has, notwithstanding, some nervous and well-versi-
fied lines, and in choice of subject and moral he is in
general excellent. The True-born Englishman cor*
dudes thus:
Could but our ancestors retrieve their fate,
And see their offspring thus degenerate;
How we contend for birth and names unknown,
And build on their past actions, not our own;
They'd cancel records, and their tombs deface,
And openly disown the vile degenerate race.
For fame of families is all a cheat;
'TIS PERSONAL VIRTUE ONLY MAKES US GREAT
For this defence of foreigners De Foe was ampl9
rewarded by King William, who not onlyordered him
a pension, but as his opponents denominated it, ap-
pointed him pamphlet-writer general to the court;
an office for which he was peculiarly well calculated,
possessing, with a strong mind and a ready wit, that
kind of yielding conscience which allowed him to sup-
port the measures of his benefactors though convinced
iv LIFE OF DE FOE.
they were injurious to his country. De Foe now re-
tired to Newington with his family, and for a short
time lived at ease; but the death of his royal patron
deprived him of a generous protector, and opened a
scene of sorrow which probably embittered his future
life.
He had always discovered a great inclination to en-
gage in religious controversy, and the furious contest,
civil and ecclesiastical, which ensued on the accession
of Queen Anne, gave him an opportunity of gratify-
ing his favourite passion. He therefore published a
tract entitled" The shortest Way with the Dissenters,
or Proposals for the Establishment of the Church,"
which contained an ironical recommendation of per.
section, but written in so serious a strain, that many
persons, particularly Dissenters, at first mistook its
real intention. The high church party however saw,
and felt the ridicule, and, by their influence, a prose.
cution was commenced against him, and a proclama-
tion published in the Gazette, offering a reward for
his apprehension'. When De Foe found with how
much rigour himself and his pamphlet were about to
be treated, he at first secreted himself; but his printer
and bookseller being taken into custody, he surren.
dered, being resolved, as he expresses it, to throw
himself upon the favour of government, rather than
St. James's, January 10, 17'2-3.
*" Whereas Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is
charged with writing a scandalous and seditious pam-
phlet, entitled The shortest Way with the Dissent-
ers :" he is a imiddle-sized spare man, about 40 years
old, of a brown complexion, and dark-brown coloured
hair, but wears a wie, a hooked nose, a sharp chin,
grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth, was born
in London, and for many years was a hose-factor, in
Freeman's Yard, in Cornhill, and now is owner or
the brick and pantile works near Tilbury Fort, in
Essex; whoever shall discover the said Daniel De
Foe, to one of her Majesty's Principal Secretaries or
State, or any of her Majesty's Justices of Peace, so
as he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of
501. which her Majesty has ordered immediately to be
paid upon such discovery."
London Gaz. No. 3679.
LIFE OF DE FOE. v
that others should be ruined for his mistakes." Id
July, 1703, he was brought to trial, found guilty, and
sentenced to be imprisoned, to stand in the pillory, and
to pay a fine of two hundred marks. He underwent
the infamous part of the punishment with great for.
titude, and it seems to have been generally thought
that he was treated with unreasonable severity. So
far was he from being ashamed of his fate himself,
that he wrote a hymn to the pillory, which thus ends,
alluding to his accusers:
Tell them, the men that placed him here
Are scandals to the times;
Are at a loss to find his guilt,
And can't commit his crimes.
Pope, who has thought fit to introduce him in his
Dunciad (probably from no other reason than party
difference) characterises him in the following line:
Earless on high stood unabash'd De Foe.
This is one of those instances of injustice and malig-
nity which so frequently occur in the Dunciad, and
which reflect more dishonour on the author than on
the parties traduced. De Foe lay friendless and dis-
tressed in Newgate, his family ruined, and, himself
without hopes of deliverance, till Sir Robert'Harley,
who approved of his principles, and foresaw that dur-
ing a factious age such a genius could be converted
to many uses, represented his unmerited sufferings
to the Queen, and at length procured his release. THe
treasurer, Lord Godolphin, also sent a considerable
sum to his wife and family, and to him money to pay
his fine and the expense of his discharge. Gratitude
and fidelity are inseparable from an honest man; and
it was'this benevolent act that prompted De Foe to
support Harley, with his able and ingenious pen, when
Anne lay lifeless, and his benefactor in the vicissitude
of party was persecuted by faction, and overpowered,
though not conquered, by violence.
The talents and perseverance of De Foe- began
now to be properly estimated, and as a irm supporter
Vi LIFE OF DE FOE.
of the administration, he was sent by Lord Godol.
phin to Scotland, on an errand which, as he says, was
far from being unfit for a sovereign to direct, or an
honest man to perform. His knowledge of commerce
and revenue, his powers of insinuation, and above
all, his readiness of pen, were deemed of no small
utility, in promoting the union of the two kingdoms;
of which he wrote an able history, in 1709, with two
dedications, one to the Queen, and another to the
Duke of Queensbury. Soon afterwards he unhappily,
by some equivocal writings, rendered himself suspect-
ed by both parties, so that he once more retired to
Newington in hopes of spending the remainder of his
days in peace. His pension being withdrawn, and
wearied with politics, he began to compose works of
a different kind.-The year 1715 may therefore be re-
garded as the period of De Foe's political life. Fac-
tion henceforth found other advocates, and parties
procured other writers to disseminate their sugges-
tions, and to propagate their falsehoods.
In 1715 De Foe published the Family Instruc-
tor;" a work inculcating the domestic duties in a
lively manner, by narration and dialogue, and dis-
playing much knowledge of life in the middle ranks
of society. Religious Courtship" also appeared
soon after, which, like the Family Instructor," is
eminently religious and moral in its tendency, and
strongly impresses on the mind that spirit of sobriety
and private devotion for which the dissenters have
generally been distinguished. The most celebrated
of all his works, The Life and Adventures of Ro-
binson Crusoe," appeared in 1719. This work has
passed through numerous editions, and been. trans.
lated into almost all modern languages. The great
invention which is displayed in it, the variety of in-
cidents and circumstances which it contains, related
in the most easy and natural manner, together with
the excellency of the moral and religious reflections,
render it a performance of very superior and uncom-
mon merit, and one of the most interesting works
that ever appeared. It is strongly recommended by
-Rosseau as a book admirably calculated to promote
LIFE OF DE FOE. vii
the purposes of natural education; and Dr. Blair
says, No fiction, in any language, was ever better
supported than the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe.
While it is carried on with that appearance of truth
and simplicity, which takes a strong hold of the ima-
gination of all readers, it suggests, at the same time,
very useful instruction; by shewing how much the
native powers of man may be exerted for surmount-
ing the difficulties of any external situation." It has
been pretended, that De Foe surreptitiously appro-
priated the papers of Alexander Selkirk, a Scotch
mariner, who lived four years alone on the island of
Juan Fernandez, and a sketch of whose story had
before appeared in the voyage of Captain Woodes
Rogers. But this charge, though repeatedly and con-
fidently brought, appears to be totally destitute of
any foundation. De Foe probably took some gene-
ral hints for his work from the story of Selkirk, but
there exists no proof whatever, nor is it reasonable
to suppose that he possessed any of his papers or
memoirs, which had been published seven years be-
fore the appearance of Robinson Crusoe. As a far-
ther proof of De Foe's innocence, Captain Rogers's
Account of Selkirk may be produced, in which it is
said that the latter had neither preserved pen, ink,
or paper, and had, in a great measure, lost his lan-
guage; consequently De Foe could not have received
any written assistance, and we have only the asser-
tion of his enemies to prove that he had any verbal.
The great success of Robinson Crusoe induced its
author to write a number of other lives and advent
tures, some of which were popular in their times,
though at present nearly forgotten. One of his latest
publications was A Tour through the Island of
Great Britain," a performance of very inferior merit;
but De Foe was now the garrulous old man, and his
spirit (to use the words of an ingenious biographer)
" like a candle struggling in the socket, blazed and
sunk, blazed and sunk, till it disappeared at length in
total darkness." His laborious and unfortunate life
was finished on the 26th of April, 1731, in the parish
of St. Giles's, Cripplegate.
viii LIFE OF DE FOE.
Daniel De Foe possessed very extraordinary ta-
lents; as a commercial writer, he is fairly entitled to
stand in the foremost rank among his contempora-
ries, whatever may be their performances or their
fame. His distinguishing characteristics are origina-
lity, spirit, and a profound knowledge of his subject,
and in these particulars he has seldom been surpassed.
As the author of Robinson Crusoe he has a claim,
not only to the admiration, but to the gratitude of
his countrymen; and so long as we have a regard
for supereminent merit, and take an interest in the
welfare of the rising generation, that gratitude will
not cease to exist. But the opinion of the learned
and ingenious Dr. Beattie will be the best eulogimn
that can be pronounced on that celebrated romance :
" Robinson Crusoe," says the Doctor, must be al-
lowed by the most rigid moralist, to be one of those
novels which one may read, not only with pleasure,
but also with profit. It breathes throughout a spirit
of piety and benevolence; it sets in a very striking
light the importance of the mechanic arts, which they,
who know not what it is to be without them, are so
apt to undervalue; it fixes in the mind a lively idea
of the horrors of solitude, and, consequently, of the
sweets of social life, and of the blessings we derive
from conversation and mutual aid; and it shews,
how, by labouring with one's own hands, one may
secure independence, and open for one's self many
sources of health and amusement. I agree, there-
fore, with Rosseau, that it is one of the best books
that can be put into the hands of children."
G. D.
TIE
LIFE AND ADVENTURES
OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE,
4c. f c.
I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York,
of a good family, though not of that country, my
father being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first
at lull: he got a good estate by merchandise, and
leaving olf 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
Kreutznher; but by the usu.l corruption of words in
England, we are now called, nay we call oorsevhe
and write our name Crusoe, and so my companion
always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of which was lieute.
nant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flan-
ders, formerly commanded by the famous Colone
Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk
against the Spaniards. What became of my second
brother I never knew, any more than my father or
mother did know what was become of me.
-Being the third son of the family, and not bred to
B
2 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
any trade, my head began to be filled very early with
rambling thoughts: my father, wh--was very ancient,
had given me a competent share of learning, as far
as house education and a country free-school gene-
rally go, and designed me for the law; but I would
be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and my in-
clination to this led me so strongly against the will,
nay the commands of my fathei, and against all the
entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other
friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that
propension of nature tending directly to the life of
misery which was to befal me.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious
and excellent counsel against what lie fortesaw was my
design. lie called me one morning into his chamber,
where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated
very warmly with me upon this subject: he asked
me what reasons more than a mere wandering incli-
nation I had for leaIing my fathei'sl house and my
native country, where I might be well introduced, and
had a prospect of raising my lortune by application
and industry, with a lite ot ease and pleasure. lie
told me it was for men of desperate fortunes on one
hand, or of aspiring superior fortunes on the other,
who went abroad upon adventure-, to rise by enter.
prise, and make themselves famous in undertakings of
a nature out of the connllin road; that these things
were all either too far above me, or too far below
me; that mine was the middle state, or i what might be
called the nppet station of lo, lifi', which lie had
found by long ixpelience was the tNst state in the
world, the most suited to human happiness, not ex-
posed to the miseries and lihrdlhlips, the labiir and
sufferings of the mechanic parn of mankind, and not
embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and
envy of tll> upper part of mankind. lie told me, I
might judge of the happiness of this state by this one
thing, viz. that this was the state of life which all other
people envied; that kings have frequently lamented
the miserable consequences of being born to great
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 3
things, and wish they had been placed in the middle
of the two extremes, between the mean and the great;
that the wise man gave his testimony to this as the
just standard of true felicity, when he prayed to have
neither poverty nor riches.
He bid me observe it, and I should always find,
that the calamities of life were shared among the up-
per and lower part of mankind; but that the middle
station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed
to so many vici-situdes 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 ex-
travagances, on one hand, or by hard labour, want of
necessaries, and mean or insuficient diet, on the other
hand, bring distempers upon themselves by the na-
tural consequences of their way of living; that the
middle station of life was calculated for all kind of
virtues and all kind of enjoyments; that peace and
plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune; that
temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all
agreeable diversions, and all 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 embarraued
with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold
to the lite of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with
perplexed circumstances, which rob the soul of peace,
and the body of rest; not enraged with the passion
of envy, or secret burning lust of ambition for great
things; but in easy circumstances sliding gently through
the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living.
without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and
learning by every day's experience to know it more
sensibly.
After this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most
affectionate manner, not to play the young man, not
to precipitate myself into miseries which nature and
the station of life I was born in seemed to have pro-
vided against; that I was under no necessity of seek-
S LIFE AND ADVENTURES
ing my bread; that he would do well for me, and
endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of life
which he had been just recommending to me; and
that if I was not very easy and happy in the world,
it must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it,
and that he should have nothing to answer for, having
thus discharged his duty in warning me against mea-
sures 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 lie 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 lie 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 armiy, 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 (lid take this
foolish step, God would not bless me, and 1 would
have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected
his counsel when there might be none to assist in my
recovery.
I observed in this last part of his discourse, which
was truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did
not know it to be so himself ; say, I observed the
tears run down his face very plentifully, and espe-
cially when he spoke of nly brother who was killed ;
and that when he spoke of my1 having leisure to re-
pent, and none to a-sist me, lie was so moved, that
he broke off the discourse, and told me, his heart was
so full lie could say no more to me.
I was sincerely affected with this discourse, as in-
deed who could be otherwise ? and I resolved not to
think of going abroad any more, but to settle at home
according to my father's desi.e. But, alas! a few days
wore it all off; and in short, to prevent any of my ta-
ther's farther importunities, in a few weeks after I re.
solved to run quite away from him. However, I did
not act so hastily neither as my first heat of resolution
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. S
prompted, but I took my mother, at a time when I
thought her a little pleasanter than ordinary, and told
her, that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon see-
ing the world, that I should never settle to any thing
with resolution enough to go through with it, and my
father had better give me his consent than force me
to go without it; that I was now eighteen years old,
a which w.is 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, and 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 pro-
miie by a double diligence to recover that time I had
lost.
This put my mother into a great passion: she told
me, she knew it would he to no purpose to speak to
my father upon any such subject; that he knew too
well what w.as my interest to give his consent to any
such thing so much f:r my hurt; and that she won.
dered how I could think of any such thing after such
a discourse as 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 my-
self, there was no help for me; but I might depend I
should never have their consent to it: that for her part
she would not have so much hand in my destruction ;
and I should never have it to say, that my mobthe
was willing when my father was not.
Though my mother refused to move it to my father;
yet, as I hale heard afterwards, she reported all the
discourse to him, and that my father, after shewing a
great concern at it, said to her with a sigh, ," That
boy might be happy if he would d stay at home; but it
he goes abroad, he will be the most miserable wretch
that was ever born; I can give no consent to it."
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke.
loose, though, in the meantime, I continued obsti.
nately deaf to all proposals of settling to businer, and
6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
frequently expostulating with my father and mother
about their being so positively determined against what
they knew my inclinations prompted me to. But be-
ing one day at Hull, where I went casually, and with-
out any purpose of making an elopement that time;
but I say, being there, and one of my companions
being going by sea to London, in his father's ship, and
prompting me to go with them, with the common al-
lurement of seafaring men, viz. that it should cost me
nothing for my passage, I consulted neither father or
mother any more, not so much as sent them word of
it; but leaving them to hear of it as they might, with-
out asking God's blessing, or my father's, without any
consideration of circumstances or consequences, and
in an ill hour, God knows, on the first of September,
1651, I went on board a ship bound for London.
Never any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe,
began sooner, or continued longer than mine. The
ship was no sooner gotten out of the HIumber, but the
wind began to blow, and the waves to rise in a most
frightful manner; and, as I had never been at sea be-
fore, I was most inexpressibly sick in body, and ter-
rified in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon
what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by
the judgment of Heaven for my wicked leaving my
father's house, and abandoning my duty; all the good
counsel of my parents, my father's tears and my mo-
ther's entreaties, came now fresh into my mind; and
my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch
of hardness to which it has been since, reproached me
with the contempt of advice, and the breach of my
duty to God and my father.
All this while the storm increased, and the sea,
which I had never been upon before, went very high,
though nothing like what I have seen many times
since; no, nor like what I saw a few days after: but
it was enough to affect me then, who was but a young
sailor, and had never known any thing of the matter.
I expected every wave would have swallowed us up,
and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 7
in the trough or hollow of the sea, we should never
rise more; and in this agony of mind I made many
vowxs and resolutions, that if it would please God here
to spare my life this one voyage, if ever I got once
my foot upon dry land again I would go directly home
to mny father, and never set it into a ship again while
1 lied ; that I would take Ins 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 vasy, how comfortably he
had lived all his days, and ne\er had been exposed to
ten:pests at sea, or troubles on shore; and I resolved
that I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home
to my t'ither.
These wise and sober thoughts continued all the
while the storln continued, and indeed some time af-
ter; but th1- next day the wind was abated, and the
sea calmer, anll I began to be a little inured to it:
lioweever, I was very grave fir ;all that day, being also
a little .ea-sick still; but towards night the weather
cleared up, thie wind was quite over, and a charming
fine evening followed; the sun went down perfectly
clear, and rtow so the next lmoliring; and having little
or no wiind, aund a smooth sea, tlhe sui shining upon
it, the might was, as I thought, the nost delightful that
ever I saw.
1 had slept well in the night, and was now no more
se.-sick, but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon
the wa': that was so rough ani terntble the day before,
anli ciuld be so ca;ii and so ple.imant in so little time
after. And now, lelt my godl resolutions should
continue, my companion, who had indeed enticed me
away, comes to ime: Well, Bob," says he, (clapping
me upon the shoulder) "how do you do after it? I
wanrr .t y on were frighted, wa'n't you, last night, when
it blew but a capful .t wind '-" A capful do yo call
it ?" said I; it was a terrible storm."-" A storm
you fool you," replied lie, do you call that a storar
why it was nothing at all; give us but a good stp
and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a sqti%
8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
of wind as that; but you're but a fresh-water sailor,
Bob. Come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we'll
forget all that; do you see what charming weather it
is now ?" To make short this sad part of my story, we
went the old way of all sailors; the punch was made,
and I was made drunk with it; and in that one night's
wickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my re-
flections upon my past conduct, and all my resolutions
for my future. In a word, as the sea was returned to
its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the
abatement of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts
being over, my fears and apprehensions of being swal-
lowed 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 se-
rious 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 mas-
tered 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 de-
liverance, 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.
The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yar-
mouth 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 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 harhbur where the ships
mieht wait for a wind for the river.
We had not, however, rid here so long, but should
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 0
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 set;
but the eighth day in the morning the wind increased,
and we had all hands at work to strike our top-masts,
and make every thing snug and close, that the ship
might ride as easy as possible. By noon the sea went
very high indeed, and our ship rid forecastle is,
shipped several seas, and we thought once or twice our
anchor had come home; upon which our master or-
dered out the sheet anchor; 4o that we rode with two
anchors ahead, and the cables veered ouoto the better
end.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and
now I began to see terror and amazement in the faces
even of the seamen themselves. The master, though
vigilant in the business of preserving the ship, yet as
he went in and out of 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 un-
done!" and the like. During these first hurries I was
stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the steer-
age, and cannot describe my temper: I could ill sre
assume the first penitence which I had so appr ,tly
trampled upon, and hardened myself against: Ithonght
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 disuxa
sight I never saw; the sea went mountains high, a6
broke upon us every three or four minutes: when r
could look about, I could see nothing but distress round
us: two'ships that rid near us, we found, had cut their
masts by the board, being deep loaden; and oar mea
B
10 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
cried out, that a ship which rid 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 labour-
ing in the sea; but two or three of them drove, and
came close by us, running away with only their sprit-
sail out before the wind.
Towards 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 her 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 timp, 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 in such a con-
dition, 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 known a worse. We had a good ship,
but she was deep loaden, and wallowed in the sea,
that the seamen every now and then cried out, she
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 on purpose to see, cried out, we
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 11
had sprung a leak; another said, there was four foot
water in the hold. Then all hands were called to the
pomp. At that very word my heart, as 1 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 ano.
other; 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. 1, who knew nothing what that
meant, was so surprised, that I thought the ship had
broke, or some dreadful thing happened. In a word,
I was so surprised, that I fell down in a swoon. As
this was a time when every body had his own life to
think of, nobody minded me, or what was become
of me; but another man stept up to the pump, and
thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I
had been dead; and it was a great while before I came
to myself.
We worked on ; but the water increasing in the hold,
it was apparent that the ship would founder; and
though the storm began to abate.a little, yet as it was
not possible she could swim till we might run into a
port, so the master continued firing guns for help; and
a light ship, who had rid it out just ahead of us, ven-
tured 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 great la-
bour and hazard took hold of, and we hauled them
close under our stern, and got all into their boat. It
was to no purpose for them or us, after we were in
the boat, to think of reaching to their own ship; so
12 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
all agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her in to-
wards shore as much as we could: and our master
promised then, that it 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 nincl more than a quarter of an hour
out of our ship hut we saw her sink, and then I un-
derstood for the fir.t time what was iic.ant by a ship
foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I had
hardly eyes to look up when the seamen told me she
was sinking; for from that moment they rather put
me into the boat, than that I might be said to go in;
my heart was, as it were, dead w% within me, partly with
fright, partly with horror of mind, and the thoughts
of what was yet before te.
While we were in this condition, the men yet la-
bouring at the oar to bring the boat near the shore, we
could see, hlen our boat mounting the waves we were
able to see the shore, a great many people running
along the shore to assist us w hen we should come near;
but we made but slow way towards the shore, nor
were we able to reach tlhe shore, till being past the
light-house at Winterton, the shot falls off to the west-
ward 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 suffi.
client 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 fa-
ther, an emblem of our blessed Saviour's parable, had
even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing the ship
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. IS
I went away in was cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it
was a great while before he had any assurance that I
was not drowned.
But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obsti.
nacy that nothing could resist; and though I had se-
veral times loud calls from my reason and my more
composed judgment to go home, yet I had no power
to do it. I know not what to call this, nor will I
urge that it is a secret overruling decree that hurries
us on to be the instruments of our own destruction,
even though it be before us, and that we push upon it
with our eyes open. Certainly nothing hut some such
decreed unavoidable misery attending, and which it
was impossible for me to escape, could have pushed
me forward against the calm reasoning and persua-
sions 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,
ani who was the master's son, was-now less forward
than I. The fitrt 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 shak.
ing his head, asked me how I did, and telling his f-.
ther who I was, andl how I had come this voyage only
for a trial, in order to go farther abroad; his father
turning to me with a very grave and concerned tone,
" Young man," says he, you ought never to go to
sea any more; you ought to take this for a plain and
visible token that you are not to be a seafaring man."
-" Why, Sir," said I, will you goto seanomore'?
" That is another case," said he; it is my calling,
and therefore my duty; but as yon made this voyage
for a trial, you see what a taste Heaven has given you
of what you are to expect if you persist: perhaps this
is 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 seat" Up9
14 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
that I told him some of my story; at the end of which
he burst out with a strange kind of passion; What
had I done," says le, 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 lie could have authority to go. How-
ever, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhort-
ed me to go back to my father, and not tempt Provi.
dence to my rui ; told ime I might see a visible hand
of Heaven against nie. And young man," said he,
" depend upon it, if you do not go back, wherever
you go, you will nmet 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 nmorc: which way he went, I know
not. As for tme, having some money in my pocket,
I travelled to London by land; and there, as well as
on the road, had many struggles with nm self, what
course of liti I should take, and whether I should go
home, or go to sea.
As to going home, shame opposed the best motions
that offered to my thoughts; and it immediately oc-
curred to me how I should be laughed t t among the
neighbours, and should be ashamed to see, not my
father and mother only, but even every body else;
from whence I have since often observed, how incon-
gruous 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 asham-
ed to sin, and yet are ashalned to repent; nor ashamed
of the action for which they ought justly to be esteem-
ed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only
can make them be esteemed wise men.
In this state of life however 1 remained some time,
uncertain what measures to take, and what course of
life to lead. An irresistible reluctance continued to go-
ing home; and as I stayed a while, the remembrance
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 15
of the distress I had been in wore off; and as that
abated, the little motion I had in my desires toa return
wore off with it, till at last I quite laid aside the
thoughts of it, and looked out for a voy ,ge.
That evil influence which carried me first away from
my father's house, that hurried me into the wild and
indigested notion of raising my fortune; and that im-
pressed those conceits so forcibly upon me, as to make
me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and
even the command of my father: I say, the same in-
fluence, whatever it was, presented the most uuforta.
nate of all enterprises to my view; and I went on
board a vessel boumn to the coast of Aflica; or, as our
sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adven-
tures I did not ship myself as a sailor; whereby,
though I might indeed have worked a little harder
than ordinary, yet at the same time I had learnt the
duty and office of a foremastman; and in time might
have qualified myself for a mate or lieutenant, if not
for a master. But as it was always my fate to choose
for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my
pocket, and good clothes upon my back, I would
always go on board in the habit of a gentleman; and
so 1 neither had any business in the ship, or learnt to
do any.
It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good
company in London, which does not always happen
to such loose and unguided young fellows as I then
was; the devil generally Dot omitting to lay some
snare for them very early: but it was not so with me.
I first fell acquainted with the master of a ship who
had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, having had
very good success there, was resolved to go again ;
and who taking a fancy to my 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 any thing with me, I should have all th
16 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
advantage of it that the trade would admit; and per-
haps I might meet with some encouragement.
I embraced thle offer; and catering into a strict
friendship with this captain, lwho was an honest and
plain-dealing nian, I went the voyage with hln, and
carried a small adventure with ime, which, by the dis.
interested honct'sl of mny tried the captain, I increas-
ed very conliderably; for I carried about 401. in such
toys and trifles as the captain directed me to buy.
This 401. I had mastered together by the assistance of
some of iny relations whom I corresponded with, and
who, I believe, got mny father, or at least my mother,
to contribute so utlich as that to toy first adventure.
This was the only voyage which I maIy say w.s suc.
cessful in all my adventures, and which 1 owe to the
integrity and honesty of my trientl the captain, under
whoitn also I tot a comiptent knowledge of the nia-
thematics and the rnleis (f navigation, learnt how to
keep all account olf thel ship's course, take an observe.
tion, all, ill short, lo ii iirSiltalldl omlle things that were
lteedftil to he ilndertsood by a sailor: for, as lie took
delight to instrlict me, I took dillight to learn ; and, in
a wol r, thls voyage Ilade IIl.- blth a sailor and a
merchant : for I bi uiight hole five 1pouinls Iine ounces
of gold-dust fir imy adventure, which yielded me in
Lontdonl at lly rellrn alloA.t :;i)0. and this filled nme
with those aspiring hoiughls \hicl have so completed
lny ruin.
Yet even in this voyage I had itty misfortunes too;
particularly, that I was contintially sick, being thrown
into a violent calenture by the excessive heat of the
climate; our prii:ipal trailing beiig upon tile coast,
from the latitude vf 15 degree norlh even to the line
itself.
I w-s now set up for a Guinea trader; and my
friend, to my great isfifortune, dying soon after his
arrival, I rtsol\eil to go the siae voyage ag:in, and
I embarked in tile same vessel with ,oie who was his
mate in the fotrmier voyage, and had now got the coi-.
nand of the ship. This was the unhappiest voyage
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 17
that ever man made; for though I did not carry quite
10ot. of my new-gained wealth, so that I had o00o. left,
and which I lodged with my friend's widow, who was
very just to me, yet I fell into terrible misfortunes in
this voyage; and the first was this, viz. our ship mak-
ing her course towards the Canary Islands, or rather
between those islands and the African shore, was sur-
prised in the grey of the morning by a Turkish rover
of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she
could make. We crowded also as much canvass as
our yards would spread, or our masts carry, to have
got clear; but finding the pirate gained upon us, and
would certainly come up with us in a few hours, we
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 pour-
ing in also his small-shot from near 2t0) men which he
had on board. However, we had not a man touched,
all our men keeping close. lie 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 decks and rigging. We plied
them with small-shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and
such like, and cleared our deck of them twice. IHow.
ever, 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 Salile, 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
18 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
my circumstances, from a merchant to a miserable
slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I look.
ed 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; that now the hand of
heaven had overtaken me, and I was undone without
redemption: but, alas! this was but a taste of the mi-
sery 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 sometime 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, lie 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 h:e in the cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing hbut my escape, and what
method 1 might take to etfect it, but found no way
that had the least probability in it: nothing presented
to make the supposition of it rational; for I had no-
body tocommunimcate it to that would embark with me,
no fellow slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or Sotsman
there but my-elf; so that for two years, though I often
pleased myself with the imagination, yet 1 never had
the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice.
After about two years an odd circuinmtance present-
ed itself, which put the old thought ot making some
attempt for my liherny again i mny head: nmy patron
lying at home longer thin usual without hitting out his
ship, which, as I head, was for want of money, he
used constantly, once or twice a week, sometimess
oftener, if the weather was tair, to take the ship's
pinnace, and go out into the road a.fihing; and as ihe
always took me and a young Maresco with him to
row the boat, we made him very merry, and I proved
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 19
very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch that some-
times he would send me with a Moor, one of his
kinsmen, and the youth the Maresco, as they called
him, to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a stark
calm morning, a fog rose so thick, that though we
were not half a league from the shore we lost sight of
it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way,
we laboured all day, and all the next night, and when
the morning came we found we had pulled off to sea
instead of pulling in for the shore; and that we were
at least two leagues from the 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 particularly we were all very
hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to
take more care of himself for the future; and having
lying by him the long-boat of our English ship 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 hale home the
main-sheet; and room before for a hand or two to
stand and work the sails: she sailed with that we call
a shoulder of mutton sail; and the boom gibed over
the top of the cabin, which lay Very snug and low,
and had in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two,
and a table to eat on, with some small lockers to put
in some bottles of such liquor as he thought fit to
drink; particularly his bread, rice, and 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 oat 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 over-night a
to LIFE AND ADVENTURES
larger store of provisions than ordinary; and had or-
dered me to get ready three fuzees with powder and
shot, which were on board his ship; for that they de-
signed 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 every thing to accom-
modate his guests; when by and by my patron came
on board alone, and told me his g icsis had put off
going, upon some business that fell out, anid ordered
me with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with the
boat and catch them some fish, tfr 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 like
to have a little ship at my command; and my master
being gone, I prepared to turnish myself, not tor fish-
ing business but for a vo)age; -though I knew not,
neither did I so much as consider, whither I should
steer; for any where to get out of that place was my
way.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to
speak to this Moor, to get something for our subsist.
ence on board; ftr I told him we must not presume
to eat of our patron's bread; he said. that was true:
so he brought a l.irge basket of rusk or bisket of their
kind, and three jars with fresh water, into the boat.
I knew sihere my patron's case oif 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 Mlor was on shore, as if they had been
there before for our master: I conveyed also a great
lump of bees-wax into the boat, which weighed above
half a hundred weight, with a parcel of twine or
thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all which
were of great use to us afterwards, especially the
wax to make candles. Another trick I tried upon
him, which he innocently came into also; his name
OF XTOBINSON CRUSOE. tl
was Ismael, whom they call Mnly, or Moley; so I
called to him: Moley," said I, our patron's guns
are on board the boat; can you not get a little powder
and shot. it may be we may kill some alcamies (a
fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he
keeps the gunner's stores in the ship."-" Yes," says
he, I'll bring some;" and accordingly he brought a
great leather pouch which held about a pound and a
half of powder, 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 tfnm I had
found some powder of my master's in the great cabli,
with which I filled one of the large bottles in the case,
which was almost empty, pouring what was in it into
another; and thus furnished with every thing needful,
we sailed out of the port to fish. The castle, which is
at the entrance of the port, knew who we were, and
took no notice of us: and we were not above a mile
out of the port before we haled in our sail, and set us
down to fish. The wind blew from the N.N.E.
which was contrary to my desire; for had it blown
southerly, I had been sure to have made the coast of
Spain, and at 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 watched nothing,
for when I had fish on my hook I would not pull
then up, that he might not see them, I said to the
Moor, This will not do; our master will not be thus
served; we must stand farther off." He, thinking no
harm, agreed, and being in the head of the boat set
the sails; and as I had the helm I run the boat out
near a league farther, and then brought her to as if I
would fish; when giving the boy the helm, I stepped
forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I
stooped for something behind him, I took him by sur-
prise with my arm under his twist, and tossed him
clear overboard into the sea; he rose immediately,
for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged to
9s LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 1 stepped into the cabin, and
fetching one of the towling-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 1,
" 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 .hoot you through the head, tor I am resolved
to have my liberty :" so he turned himself about,
and swain or the shore, atd I make no doubt but
he reached it with case, for he was an excellent
swimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor
with mie, and have drowned the boy, but there was
no venturinig to trust him. When he was gone I
turned to the boy, \whom they called Xury, and said
to hiin, Xury, if you will be faithful to me I'll
make you a great man; but it you will not stroke
your face to be true to me," that is, swear by Maho.
met an I his father'. beard, I must throw you into
the sea too." 'lie boy smiled in mly face, and spoke
so innocently, that 1 could not mistruntt him; and
swore to be taitlhful to me, and go all over the world
with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swim.
rninl, I stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather
stretching to windward, that they might think mie
gon. towards the traits' Inmloth; (as indeed any one
that had been in their "ils inmust have been supposed
to do) fhIr ,who would have suppo~td we were sailed
on to the southward to the truly Barbharan coast,
where whole nations of Negroes were sure to sur-
roullil Ius %% ill the c.nloes, ;iian destroy us; where we
could never onell go on .'hore but we sho 11( be le-
voured by sav.:ge bea-ts, or more merciless savages of
human kind
But as toon as it grew dusk in the evening, I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. BS
changed my course, and steered directly south and by
east, bending my course a little toward die east, that I
might keep in w ith 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
iI.c afternoon, when I first made the land, I could not
be less than 150 miles south of Sallee; quite beyond
the Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or indeed of
anu other king thereabouts, for we saw no people
Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors,
and the dreadful apprehensions I had of filling into
their hands, that I would not stop, or go on shore, or.
conm to an anchor; the wind continuing fair till I
had sailed in that manner five days, and then the
windl slhtfting to the southward, 1 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 cone to an anchor in the mouth bf a little
rlver, 1 knew not what, or where; neither.what lati-
tude, what country, what nation, or what river: I
neither saw, or desired to see any people;, the princi.
pal thiug I wanted was fresh water. We came into
this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore
as soun as it was d.ak, and discover the country; but
as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadful
noises of the barking, roaring, and bowling of wild
creatures, of we knew not what kininl'liat the poor
boy was ready to die with fear, and begei Uf.PIP not
to go on shore till day. Well, Xury,* ail I,
" then I won't; but it may be we may see men by
day, who will be as bad to us as those lions.'-
" Then we give them the shoot gun," says Xury,
laughing, make them run wey." Such English
X1nry spoke by conversion anong us slaves. How-
ever, 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 1 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
24 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
knew not what to call them) of many sorts, come
down to the sea-shore and run into the water, wallow.
ing and washing themselves for the pleasure of cool.
ing themselves; and they made such hideous howling
and yelling, 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 to-
wards 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 (what-
ever 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 to-
wards the shore again.
But it is impossible to describe the horrible noises,
and hideous cries and ho'\ lings, that were raised, as
well upon the edge of the shore as higher within the
country, upon the noise or report of the gnn, a thing
I have some reason to believe those creatures had
never heard before: this convinced me that there was
no going on shore for us in the night upon that coast,
and how to venture on shore in the day was another
question too; for to have fallen into the hands of any
of the savages, had been as bad as to have fallen into
the hands of lions and tigers; at least we were equally
apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore
somewhere or other for water, for we had not a pint
left in the boat; when or where to get it, was the
point: Xnry 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. 1 asked him why he would
go why I should not go, and he stay in the boat
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. es
The boy answered with so much affection, that made
me love him ever after. Says he, If wild man.
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 Xwlry a piece of rusk bread to eat, and a dram
out of our patron's case of bottles which I mentioned
before; and we haled the boat in as near the shore as
we thought was proper, and waded on shore; carry-
ing 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
1 nm 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; how-
ever, 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 itans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take
such pains for water, for a little higher up the creek
where we were, we fonnd the water fresh when the
tide was out, which flows but a little way up; so we
filled our jars, and feasted on the hare we had killed,
and prepared to go on our way, having seen no foot-
steps of any human creature in that part of the coa-.
try.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I
knew very well that the islands of the Canaries, and
hle Cape de Verd islands also, lay not far off from,
the coast. But as I had no instruments to take am.
observation to know what latitude we were in, and
not exactly knowing, or at least rememberiugwhat lati-
tude they were in, and knew not where to look for
C
*
26 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 Moo rs; and the Moors not think-
ing it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness;
and indeed both forsaking it because of the prodigious
numbers of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious
creatures which 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 an hundred miles together upon this coast, we
saw nothing hut a waste uninhabited country by day,
and heard nothing but howlings and roaring of wild
beasts by night.
Once or tnice in the daytime I thought I saw the
Pico of Teneriffe, being the high lop 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 the morning, we came to an anchor
unler a little pj int of land which was pretty high;
and the tide beginning to flow, we lay still to go
farther in. Xuiy, 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 2f
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 bill that hung
as it were a little over him. Xnry," says I, you
shall go on shore and kill hin." Xury looked fright-
ed, and said, Me kill! he cat me at one mouth;"
one mouthful he meant: however, I said no more to
the boy, but bad him lie still, and I took our biggest
sun, which was almost nusket-bore, and loaded it
with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs,
and laid it down ; then 1 loaded another gun with two
bullets; and the third, for we had three pieces, I
loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the best aim
I could with the first piece to have shot him into the
head, but he lay so with his leg raised a little above
his nose, that the slugs hit his leg about the knee, and
broke the bone. Ile started up growling at first, but
finding his leg broke fell down again, and then goorp
upon three legs, and gave the most hideous roar-itat
ever I beard. I was a little surprised that I had not
hit hlim on the head; however, I took up the second
piece immediately, and, though he began to move-off,
fired again, and shot him into the head, and had the
pleasure to see him drop, and make but little nise,
but lie struggling for life. Then Xury took art,
and would have me let him go on shore: ".Well,
go," said 1: so the boy jumped into the water, and
taking a little gun in one hand, swam to shoe wi
the other hand, and coming close to the creature,'lp.t-.
the nuzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him into' -
the bead again, which dispatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food;
and I was very sorry to lose three charges of powder
and shot upon a creature that was good for nothing to
us. However, Xury said he would have some of
him; so lie comes on board, and asked me to give
him the hatchet. For what, Xury?' said I, Me
cut off his head," said he. However, Xary could
e8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 he of some value to
us; and I resolved to take ofi his skin if I could.
So Xnry and I went to work with him; but Xury
was much the better workman at it, fotr I knew very
ill how to do it. Indeed it took us up both the Awhole
day, but at last we got off the hide of him, and
spreading it on tile top of our cabin, the sun effectu-
ally dried it in two days time, and it afterwards
served mie to lie upon.
After this sitp, we made on to the southward conti-
nually tor tell or twelve days, living very sparing on
our provisions, which began to abate very much, and
going no oftener into the shore than we were obliged
to for fresh water : my design in this was, to make
the ri\cr Gambia or Senegal, that is to say, any where
about the Cape de Verd, where I was in hopes to
meet xilli some European ship; and if I did not,
I knew not what course I had to take, but to seek for
the islands, or perish there among the Negroes. I
knew that all the ships from Europe, which sailed
either to the coast of Guinea or to Brasil, or to the
East Indies, made this Cape, or those islands; and in
a word, I put the whole of my fortune upon this
single point, either that I must meet with smne ship,
or must peri-ih.
When I had pursued this resotuti.,n about ten days
longer, as I have s.id, 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 qaite black,
and stark naked. I was once inclined to have gone
on shore to them; but Xury was my better counsellor,
and said to me, No go, no go." However, I
hauled in nearer the shore that I might talk to them,
and I found they run along the shore by me a good
way: I obsei ved they had no weapons in their hands,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 29
except one, who had a long slender stick, which
XIry said was a lance, and that they would throw
them a great way with good aim; so I kept at a dis-
tance, but talked with them by signs as well as I
could; and particularly made signs for something to
cat; they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they
onltd Ittch me some meat. Upon this I lowered the
lop of my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran up
into the country, and in less than half an hour came
back, and brought with them two pieces of dry flesh
and smie corn, such as is the produce of their coun-
try; hut we neither knew w hat the one nor the other
m af: however, we were willing to accept it, but how
to comie at it was our next dispute, for 1 was not for
ventrIing 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 at opportunity
otlered that very instant to oblige thep; wonderfully;
for while we were lying by the., hore came two
mighty creatures, one pursuing dte-other (as we took
it) with great fury from the ma.taius towards the
Sa-<; n lether it was the male pIfling the female, or
%hcrther they were in sport or.in riag 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 seem to offer to
fall upon any of the Negroes, but plunged themselves
into the sea, and swam about as if they had come for
their diversion. At last one of them began to come
nearer our boat than at first I expected; but I lay
ready for him, for I had loaded my gun with all pus-
30 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
sible expedition, and bad Xury load both the others:
as soon as be came fairly within my reach I fired, and
shot him directly into the head; immediately he sunk
down into the water, but rose instantly, and plunged
up and down as if he was struggling for life; and so
indeed he was: he 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 the fire of my gun;
some of them were even ready to die for fear, and
fell down as dead with the very terror. But when
they saw the creature dead, and sunk in the water,
and that I made signs to them to come to the shore,
they took heart and came to the shore, and began to
search for the creature. I found him by his blood
staining the water, and by the help of a rope, which I
slung round him, and gave the Negroes to hale, they
dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most
curious leopard, spotted and fine to an admirable de-
gree, and the Negroes held up their hands with admi-
ration to think what it was I had killed him with.
The other creature, righted with the flash of fire
and the noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up
directly to the mountains from whence they came,
nor could I at that distance know what it was. I
found quickly the Negroes were for eating the flesh of
this creature, so I was willing to have them take it as
a favour from me, which, when I made signs to them
that they might take him, they were very thankful
for. Immediately they fell to work with him, and
though they had no knife, yet with a sharpened piece
of wood they took off his skin as readily, and much
more readily, than we could have done with a knife.
They offered me some of the flesh, which I declined,
making as if I would give it them, but made signs for
the skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought
me a great deal more of their provision, which,
though I did not understand, yet I accepted; then I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. Si
made signs to them for some water, and held out one
of my jars to them, turning it bottom upward, to
shew 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 ve:sel made of earth, and burnt, as I suppose,
in the sun; this they set down for me, as before, and
I sent Xury on shore with my jars, and filled them
all tlhre. The women were as stark naked as the
MilU.
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
iffiring 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 Verd, and those the
islands, called from thence Cape de Verd Islands.
However, they were at a great distance, and I could
not well tell what I had best to do, for if I should be
taken with a fresh of wind I might neither reach one
nor the other.
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped
into the cabin and sat me down, Xury having the
helm, when on a sudden the boy cried out, Master,
Master, a ship with a sail!" and the foolish boy was
frighted out of his wits, thinking it most needs be
some of his master's ships sent to pursue ius, when I
knew we were gotten far enough out of their reach.
I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately ~a not
only the ship, but what she was, vie. that it wa a
Portuguese ship, and, as I thought, was bound to the
coast of Guinea for Negroes. But wemi I observed
the course she steered, I was soon convinced tbey
were bound some other way, anti did not design tt
come any nearer to the shore; upon which I stetche
3t LIFE AND ADVENTURES
out to sea as much as I would resolving to speak with
them if possible..
With all the sil I could mn *1e, I fonuni I should
not be able to come in their wnay, but t!Int they would
be gone by before I could make any signal t' tlhem;
but after I had crowded to the utmost, and began to
despair, they, it seems, saw me by the help of their
perspective-glasses, and that it was some European
boat, which, as they supposed, must belong to some
ship that was lost; so they shortened sail to let me
come up. I was encouraged with this; and as I hid
my patron's ancient on board, 1 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 v hat I was in Portuguese, and in
Spanish, and in French; but I understood none of
them; but at last a Scots sailor, who was on board,
called to me, and I answered him, and told him I
was an Englishman, that I had made my escape out of
slavery from the Moors at Sallee. Then they bad me
come on board, and very kindly took me in, and all
my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, that any one
would believe that I was thusdelivered, as I esteemed
it, from such a miserable and almost hopeless condi-
tion as 1 was in, and immediately offered all I had to
the captain of the ship, as a return for my deliver-
ance; but he generously told me, he would take no-
thing from me, but that all I had should be delivered
safe to me when I came to the Brasiis; For," says
he, I have saved your life on no other terms than
I would be gald to be saved myself; and it may one
time or other be my lot to be taken up in the same
condition: Besides," said he, when I carry you
to the Brasils, so great a 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
e
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 3S
have given. No, no, Seignor Inglese," says he, Mr.
Englishmau, I will carry you thither in charity, and
those things will help you to buy your subsistence there,
and your passage home again."
As he was charitable in his proposal, so be was just
in the performance to a tittle; for he ordered the sela
men, that none should offer to touch any thing I had:
theli he took every thin' into his o.wn p,5session, and
:ave me back an exact iuivctory of them, that I might
have them; even so much as my three.earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one, an I that he
saw, and told me he would buy it of me for the ship's
iuse, and asked me what I would have for it? I told
him, he lid been so generous to me in every thing,
that I cold not offer to make any price of the boat,
but leit it entirely to him; upon which he told me he
wo:ld give me a note of his hand to pay me eighty
pieers of eight for it at Brasil; and when it came
there, it any one offered to give more, he would make
it up: lie offered me also sixty pieces of eight more
for my boy Xury, which I was loath to take; not
that I was not willing to let the captain have him,
but I was very loath to sell the poor boy's liberty,
whol had asisted me so faithfully in procuring my
own. However, when I let him know my reason, he
owned it to be just, and otfered me this medium, that
he would give the boy an obligation to set him free in
treu )ears, if lie turned Christian. Upon this, and
Xury saying he was willing to go to him, I let the
cp(tain have him.
We had a very good voyage to the Brasils, and ar.
rived in the Bay de Todosos s 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 nest with my.
self I was now to consider.
The generous treatment the captain gave me, I can
never enough remember; he would take nothing of
me for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the
C2
34 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
leopard's skin, and forty for the lion's skin which I
had in my boat, and caused every thing I had in the
ship to be punctually delivered me; and what 1 was
willing to sell he bought, such as the case of bottles,
two of nmy guns, and a piece of the lump of bees-
wax, for I had made candles of the rest; in a word,
I made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight
of all my cargo; and with this stock I went on shore
in the Brasils.
I had not been long here, but being recommended
to the house of a good honest man like himself, who
had an ingcino as they call it; that is, a plantation
and a sugar-house; I lived with him some time, and
acquainted myself by that means with the manner of
their planting and making of sugar; and seeing how
well the planters lived, and how they grew rich sud-
denly, I resolved, if I could get license to settle there,
I would turn 'planter among them, resolving, in the
mean time, to find out some way to get my money,
which 1 had left in London, remitted to me. To this
purpose, getting a kind of a letter of naturalization, I
purchased as much land that was uncured as my
money would reach, and formed a plan for my plan-
tation and settlement, and such a one as might be
suitable to the stock which I proposed to myself to
receive from England.
I had a neighbour, a Portugnese of Lisbon, but
born of English parents, whose name was Wells, and
in much such circumstances as I was. I call him
neighbour, because his plantation lay next to mine,
and we went on very sociable together. Ny stock
was but low, as well as his: and we rather planted
for food, than any thing else, for about two years.
However, we began to increase, and our land began
to come into order; so that 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 fund, more
than before, I had done wrong in parting with my
boy Xury.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE 35
But, alas! for me to do wrong, that never did right,
"was no great wonder: I had no remedy but to go on;
I was gotten into an employment quite remote to my
gemus, 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, 1 might as well have staid at
home, and never have fatigued myself in the world as
I had done; and I used often to say to myself, I
could have done this as well in England among my
friends, as have gone five thousand miles off to do it,
amoln strangers and savages in a wilderness, and at
such distance, as never to hear from any part of the
world that had the least knowledge of me.
In this manner I used to look upon my condition
Slh the utmost regret. I had nobody to converse
I ith, 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
relecl, that, when they compare their present condi-
tions 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
loading, and preparing for his voyage, near three
months; when, telling him what little stock I had left
behind me in London, he gave me this friendly and
sincere advice: Seignor Inglese,' says he, for m be
36 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
always called me, if you will give me letters, and a
procuratia n here in toim to me, with orders to the
person who has your money in London, to send your
effects to Lisbon, to such persons as 1 shall direct, and
in such goods as are proper for this country, I will
bring 3on the produce ot them, God willing, at my
return; but since human aftairs aie all subject to
changes and disasters, I w.lnid have you give orders
but for oie hundred pounds sterling, which you say
is hall 3our stock, and let the hazard be run for the
first; so that if it come safe, 3you may order the rest
the same way; and it it miscarry, you may have the
other half to hate recourse to for your supply."
This was so wh olesomk e advice, and looked so
friendly, that I could not but be convinced it was the
best conuse 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 widoi a full account
of all my adventures, my slavery, escape, and how I
had met with the Portugal captain at sea, the huma-
nity of his behaviour, and what condition I was now
in, with all oilier 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 at London, who represented
it effectually to her; whereupon, she not only deliver-
ed the money, but out of her own pocket sent the
Portugal captain a very handsome present for his hu-
manity and charity to me.
The merchant in London vesting this hundred
pounds in English goods, such as the captain had writ
for, sent them directly to him at Lisbon, and he
brought them all sale to me to the Erasils; among
which, without my direction (for I was too young in
my business to think of them) he had taken care to
have all sort of tools, iron work, and utensils necessary
for my plantation, and whichwere of great use to me.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 37
When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortune
made, for I was surprised with joy of it; and my
good steward the captain had laid out the five pounds
which my friend had sent him for a present tor him-
self, to purchase, and bring ime over a servant under
bond for t ix years service, and would not accept of
any consideration, except a little tobacco, which I
would have him accept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all; but my goods being all Eng-
lish manufactures, such as cloth, stuffs, baize, and
things particularly valuable and desirable in the coun-
try, I found means to sell them to a very great advan-
tage; so that I may say, I had more than four times
tile value of my first cargo, and was now infinitely
beyond my poor neighbor, I mean in the advance-
ment of my plantation; for the first thing I did, I
bought me a Negro slave, and an European servant
also; I nean another besides that which the captain
brought me from Lisbon.
But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the
very means of our greatest adversity, so was it with
me. I went on tile next year with great success in
my plantation: I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on
my own ground, more than I had disposed of for
necessaries among my neighbours; and these fifty
rolls, being each of above a hundred weight, were
well cured and laid by against the return of the fleet
from Lisbon. And now, increasing in business and
in wealth, my head began to be full of projects and
undertakings beyond my reach ; such as are indeed
often the ruin of the best heads in business.
Had 1 continued in the station 1 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 de-
scribed the middle station of life to be full; but other
tilings attended me, and I was still to be the wilful
agent of all my own misekies; and particularly to ih-
c"ease my fault, and double the rcltections upon mi
38 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
self, 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 vie ws of doing myself
good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects
;and those measures of life, which nature and Provi.
dence concurred to present me with, and to make my
duty.
As I had done thus in my breaking away from my
parents, so 1 could not be content now, but I must go
;ud leave the happy view I had of being a rich and
thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a
rash and iniuoderate dtsile 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 iman tell into, or perhaps could be consistent
wnht life and a tate of health in the world.
To coni then by jl-t degrees to the particulars of
this lpart of Inm story; you may suppose, that having
now lived almost four years in the Brasils, and begin.
ning to thrive aind prosper very well upon my plant.
tion, I had not only learnt the language, but had con-
tracted acquaintance and friendship among my fellow-
plaslters, as well as among the inerchants at St. Salva-
dore, which was our purt; and that in my discourse
among them, I had frequently given them an account
of my two voyages to the coast of Guinea, the man-
ner of trading with the Negroes there, and how easy
it was to purchase upon the coast, for triples, such as
beads, toys, knives, scissars, hatchets, bits of glass,
and the like, not only gold-dust, Guinea grains, ele-
phants teeth, &c. but Negroes for the service of the
Brasils in great numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my dis-
coumses on these heads, but especially to that part
which related to the buying Negroes, which was a
trade at that time not only not far entered into, but,
as far as it was, had been carried on by the Assieutos
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 3i
or permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal,
and engrossed in the public, so that few Negroes were
bought, and those excessive dear. .
It happened, being in company with some mer-
chants and planters of my acquaintance, and talking
of those things very earnestly, three of them came to
me the next morning, and told me they had been
amusing 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 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 ser-
vants; that as it was a trade could not be carried on,
because they could not publicly sell the Negroes when
they came home, so they 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 1 would go their su-
percargo in the ship, to manage te e trading part upon
the coast of Guinea ? and they offered me that I should
have my equal share of the Negroes, without provid-
ing any pa t of the stock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had
S it been made to any one that had not had a settlement
and plantation of his own to look after, which was in
a fair way of coining to be very considerable, and
with a good stock upon it. But for me, that was thus
entered and established, and hlad nothing to do but go
on as I had begun, for three or four years more, and
to have sent for the other hundred pounds from Eng-
land, and who iln that time, and with that little addi-
tion, 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 pre-
posterous 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, wllen my father's good
40 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 etlects, in case of my
death, making the captain of the ship that had saved
my life as before, nwy universal heir, but obliging him
to dispose of my etlicts as I had directed in my will,
one hall of the produce being to himself, and the
other to be shipped to England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my
effects, and keep up my platlation: had I used half
as much prudence to have looked into my own inte.
rest, and have made a judgment of wh:tt I ought to
have done, and not to have done, 1 had certainly
never gone away fromn so prosperous an undertaking
leaving all lhe probable views of a thriving circunm
stance, and _one uplon a voyage to sea, attended with
all its colnmion hama.rds; to say nothing of the reasons
I had to expect particular l nistortunec to myself.
But I wa.s hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dic-
tates of my f.nry rather than nmy reason: and accord-
ingly the ship being fitted out, and the cargo furnished,
and all things done as by agreement b3 lny partners
in the vo) age, I went on board in an evil hour, the
1st of September, 1634), being the s.une day eight years
that I went from my father and mother at Hull, in
order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool
to my own interest.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty ton
burden, carrying six guns, and fourteen men, besides
the master, his by, and myself; we had on board no
latge cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit
for our trade with the Negroes, such as beads, bits of
glass, shells, and odd triples, especially little looking-
glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets, and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, stand-
ing away to the northward upon our own coast, with
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 41
design to stretch over for the African coast; when
they came about 10 or 12 degrees of northern latitude,
which it seems was the manner of their course in
those days. We had very good weather, only exces-
sive hot, all the way upon our own coast, till we made
the height of Cape St. Augustino, from whence keep-
ing farther off at sea we lost sight of land, and steered
as if we were bound for the isle Fernand 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 obser-
vation in 7 degrees 22 min. northern latitude, when a
violent tornado or hurricane took us quite out of our
knowledge; it began from the south-cast, came about
to the north-west, and then settled into the north-east,
from whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that
for twelve days together we could do nothing but
drive; and scudding away before it, let it carry us
whither ever fate and the iury of the winds directed;
and during these twelve days, I need not say that 1
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 11 degrees north latitude, but that he was 22
degrees of longitude difference west from Cape St.
Augustino; so that he found lie was gotten upon the
coast of Guinea, or the north part of Brasil, beyond
the river Amozones, toward that of tile river Oro.
noqle, commonly called the Great River, and began
to consult with me what course he should take, tor the
ship was leaky and very much disabled, and he was
going directly back to tihe coast of Brasil.
I was positively against that, and looking over the
charts of the sea coasts of America with him we con.
eluded there was no inhabited country for us to have
recourse to, till we came within the circle of the
42 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 oor
English islands, where I hoped for relief; but our
voyage was otherwise determined; for being in the
latitude of 12 deg. 18 min. a second storm came upon
us, which carried us away with the same impetuosity
westward, and drove us so out of the very way of all
human commerce, that had all our lives been saved,
as to the sea, we were rather in danger of being de.
voured by savages than ever returning to our own
country.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard,
one of our men early in the morning cried out, Land!
and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look
out in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we
were, but the ship struck upon a sand, and in a mo.
meant, 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 immedi-
ately driven into our close quarters to shelter us from
the very foam and spray of the sea.
It is not easy for any one, who has not been in the
like condition, to describe or conceive the consterna-
tion of men in such circumstances; we knew nothing
where we were, or upon what land it was we were
driven, whether an island or the main, whether inha-
bited or not inhabited; and as the rage of the wind
was still great, though rather less than at first, we
could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many
minutes without breaking in pieces, unless the winds
by a kind of miracle should turn immediately about.
In a word, we sat looking one upon another, and ex-
pecting death every moment, and every man acting
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 43
accordingly, as preparing for another world, for there
was little or nothing more for us to do in this; that
which was our present comfort, and all the comfort
we had, was, that, contrary to our 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 no-
thing 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 room to debate, for we
fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute,
and some told us she was actually broken already.
In this distress, the mate of our vessel lays hold of
the boat, and with the help of the rest of the men they
got her slung over the ship's side, and getting all into
her, let go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in
number, to God's mercy and the wild sea; for though
the storm was abated considerably, yet the sea went
dreadful high upon the shore, and might well be called
den wild zee, as the Dutch call the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we
all saw 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, it
we had, could we have done any thing with it; so we
worked at the oar towards the land, though with heavy
hearts, like men going to execution; for we all knew,
that when the boat came eiarer the shore, she would
be dashed into a thousand pieces by the breach of the
sea. However, we committed our souls to God in
the most earnest manner; and the wind driving us to.
44 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
wards the shore, we hastened oar destruction with our
own hands, pulling as well as we could towards land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whe.
other steep or shoal, we knew not; the only hope that
could rationally give us the least shadow of expecta-
tion, wa., if we might happen into some bay or gulf,
or the month of some river, where, by great chance,
we might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of
the laud, and perhaps made smooth water. But there
was nothing o; 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, moun-
tain-like, cane rolling astern of us, and plainly bad
us expect the coup-de-grace. In a word, it took us
with such a fury, that it overset the boat at once; and
separating us as well from the boat, as from one ano-
ther, gave us not time hardly to say 0 God! for we
were all swallowed up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which
I felt when I sunk into the water; for though I swam
very well,yet I could not deliver myself from the waves
so as to draw breath, till that wave having driven me,
or rather carried me a vast way on tow ards the shore,
and having spent itself, went back, and left me Dni n
the land almost dry, but half dead with the water I
took in. 1 had so much presence of mind as well as
breath left, that, seeing myself nearer the main land
than I expected, I got upon my feet, and endeavoured
to make on towards the land as fast as I could, before
another wave should return, and take me up again.
But I soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I
saw the sea come after me as high as a great hill, and
as furious as an enemy which I had no means or
strength to contend with; my business was to hold my
breath, and raise myself upon the water, if I could;
and so by swimming to preserve my breathing, and
pilot myself towards the shore, if possible; my greatest
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 45
concern now being, that the sea, as it would carry
me a great way towards the shore when it came on,
might not carly me back again with it when it gave
back towards the sea.
The wave that came upon me again, buried me at
once twenty or thirty foot deep in its own body; and
I could feel myself carried \with a mighty force and
swiftness towards the shore a very great way; but I
held ny breath, and assisted myself to swim still for-
ward 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 sot two seconds of time that I could keep my-
self 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 tew mo-
ments to recover breath, and till the water went from
me, and then took to my heels, and run with what
strength I had farther towards the shore. But neither
would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, wlich
came pouring in after me again; and twice more r
was lifted ip by the waves and carried forwards as
before, the shore being very flat.
The last time of these two had well near been fatal
to me; for the sea having hurried me along as before,
landed me, or rather dashed me against a piece of a
rock, and that with such force, as it lett 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
tie 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
46 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
first, being near 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
main land, where, to my great comfort, I clambered
up the clifts of the shore, and sat me down upon the
grass, free from danger, and quite out of the reach of
the water.
I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to
look up and thank God that my life was saved in a
case wherein there was some minutes before scarce
any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to ex-
press to the life what the ecstasies and transports of
the soul are, when it is so saved, as I may say, out
of the very grave; and I do not wonder now at that
custom, viz. that when a malefactor, who has the hal-
ter 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, wrapt up in the
contemplation of my deliverance, making a thousand
gestures and motions which I cannot describe; reflect-
ing 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 tha: were not fellows.
I cast my (yes to the stranded vessel, when the
breach and froth of the sea being so big, I could
hardly see it, it lay so far off, and considered, Lord!
how was it possible I could get on shore I
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 47
part of my condition, I began to look round me, to
see what kind of place I was in, and what was next
to be done; and I soon found my comforts abate,
and that in a word I had a dreadful deliverance; for
I was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor any thing
either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither did I
see any prospect before me, but that of perishing with
hunger, or being devoured by wild beasts; and that
which was particularly afflicting to me, 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 provision, and this threw me into terrible ago-
nies of mind, that for a while I run about like a mad-
man. Night coming upon me, I began with a heavy
heart to consider what would be my lot if there were
any ravenous beasts in that country, seeing at night
they always come abroad for their prey.
All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that
time, was, to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir,
but thorny, which grew near me, and where I resolv-
ed to sit all night, and consider the next day what
death I should die, for as yet I saw no prospect of
life. I walked about a furlong from the shore, to see
if I could find any fresh water to drink, which I did,
to my great joy; and having drank, and put a little
tobacco in my mouth to prevent hunger, I went to
the tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to place
myself so, as that if I should sleep I might not fall;
and having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon, for
my .defence, I took up my lodging, and having been
excessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept as
comfortably as, I believe, few could have (lone in my
condition, and found myself the most refreshed with
it that I think I ever wis on such an occasion. "'
When I waked it was broad day, the weather clear,
and the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and
well as before; but that which surprised me most
48 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
was, that the ship was lifted off in the night from tl
sand where she lay, by the swelling of the tide, as
was driven up almost as far as the rock which I firs
mentioned, where I had been so bruised by the dask
ing me against it; this being within about a mile frmi
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 foi.r.i
was the boat, which lay as the wind and the sea hi i
tossed her up upon the land, about two miles on ni
right hand. I walked as far as I could upon the shoil
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 sate on shore, and I had not been
so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all comn.
fort and company, as I now was. This forced tears
from my eyes again; but as there was little relief in
that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so I
pulled off my clothes, for the weather was hot to ex.
tremity, and took the water; but when I came to the
ship, my dilliculty 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 1 spied a small piece of a rope, which I wonder-
ed I did not see at first, hang down by the fore-chains
so low as that with great difficulty I got hold of it,
and by the help of that rope got up into the fore-castle
of the ship. Here I found that the ship was bulged,
and had a great deal of water in her hold, but that she
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 49
lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, or rather
earth, and her stern lay lifted up upon the bank, and
her head low almost to the water: by this means all
her quarter was free, and all that was in that part was
dry; for you may be sure my first work was to search
ant to see what was spoiled and what was free; and
firts I found that all the ship's provisions were dry
and untouched by the water; and being ver well dis-
posed to eat, I went to the bread-room and filed my
prokets with bisket, 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 dr.rn,
and: which I had indeed need enough of to spirit me
for what was before me. Now I wanted nothing
but a boat to finish myself with many things wlich
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 fill to work with these, and t fung
as many of them overboard as I could manage of
their weight, tying every one with a rope, that lltey
Iigh not not drive away. When this was done I went
down the ship's side, and polling them to me, I tied
four of them fist together at both ends as well as I
could, in the form of a raft, and laying two or litee
short pieces of pi tlk upon them crossways, [ found E
could walk upon it very well, but that it was not ab!e
to bear any great weight, the pieces being too light;
so I went to work, and with the carpenter's saw I cut
a spare topmrist into three lengths, and added them to
my raft, with a great deal of labour and pa ns; but
hope of turnishing myself with necessaries encouraged
me to go beyond what I should have been able to hat e
Done upon another occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any reason.
able weight; my next care was what to load it with,
and how to preserve what I laid upon it from the surf
ID
So LIPE AND ADVENTURES
of the sea; but I was not long considering this: I first
laid all the planks or boards upon it that I could get,
and having considered well what I most wanted, I
first got three of the seamen's chests, which I had
broken open and emptied, and lowered them down
upon my raft. The first of these I filled with provi.
sions, 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 disap.
pointment, I found afterwards that the rats had eaten
or spoiled it all. As for liquors, I found several cases
of bottles belonging to our skipper, in which were
some cordial waters, and in all above five or six gal-
lons of rack: these I stowed by themselves, there being
no need to put them into the chest, nor no room for
them. While I was doing this, I found the tide began
to flow, though very calm, and I had the mortifica-
tion to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I had
left on shore upon the sand, swim away; as for nmy
breeches, which were only linen, and open-knee'd, I
swam on board in them and my stockings: however,
this put me upon rummaging for clothes, of which I
found enough, but took no more than I wanted for
present use, for I had other things which my eye was
more upon; as, first, tools to work with on shore;
and it was after long searching that I found out the
carpenter's chest, which was indeed a very useful prize
to me, and much more valuable than a ship-loading
of gold would have been at that time: I got it down
to my raft, even whole as it was, without losing time
to look into it, for I knew in general what it con-
tained..
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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 51
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, ear, or rudder, and the least capful of
*wind would have overset all my navigation.
I had three encouragements: 1. A smooth, calm
sea; 2. The tide rising and setting in to the shore; 3.
What little wind there was blew me towards the land:
and thus, having found two or three broken oars be.
longing to the boat, and besides the tools which were
in the chest, I found two saws, an axe, and a hammer;
and with this cargo I put to sea: for a mile, or there.
about, 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 in.
draft 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 ship-
wreck, which, if I had, I think verily would have
broke my heart; for knowing nothing of the coast, my
raft run aground at one end of it upon a shoal, and
not being aground at the other end, it wanted but a
little that all my cargo had slipped off towards that
end that was afloat, and so fallen into the water. I
did my utmost, by setting my back against the chests,
to keep them in their places, but could not thrust off
the raft with all my strength; neither durst I stir from
the posture I was in, but holding up the chests with
all my might, stood in that manner near half an hour,
in which time the rising of the water brought me a
little more upon a level; and a little after, the water
still rising, my raft floated again, and I thrust her of
5'2 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 cur-
rent or tide running up. I looked on both sides tor
a proper place to g-t to shore; for I was nut willing
to be driven too hi-h up the river, hoping in time to
see some ship at sea, and therefore resolved to place
myself as near the coast as I could.
At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of
the creek, to which, with great pain and difficulty, I
guided my raft, and at last got so near, as that, reach-
ing ground iwith my oar, I could thllrust her directly
in; hut here I had like to have dipped all my cargo
in the se:i anain; for thlt shore lying pretty steep,
that is to say sloping, there was no place to land, but
where one enl of the float, if it run on shore, wouhl
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 ,ar 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; an I so
it did. As soon as I found water enough, for my rait
drew about a foot of water, I thrust her on upon that
flat piece of ground, and there fastened or moored
her by sticking my two broken oars into the ground;
one on one side near one end, and' one on the other
sile near the othcr end; and tivis 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, ant where to stow
tny goodsl, to secure them from whatever might hap-
pen. 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 fiomn me, which
rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to
overtop some other bills which lay as in a ridge from
it northward: I took out one of the fowling-pieces,
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 53
and one of the pistols, and an horn of powder, and
th, earned 1 traveled for discovery up to the top of
that hill, where, after I had with great labour and
difficulty got to the top. I s:aw my fates to my great
afliction, viz. that 1 was in an island environed every
way with the sea, no land to be seen, except some
rcks which lay a great way off, and two small islands
1h -s than this, which lay about three leagues to the
I tifod also that the island I was in was barren,
and, s 1 s;aw good reason to believe, uninhabited, ex-
cept hy wiil yeasts, of Uwhom, however, I saw none;
yvt I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their
kinds; neither when I killed them could I tell what
wafi fior food, and what not. At my coming back
I shlot at a great bird, which I saw sitting upon a tree
on the side of a great wood-I believe it was the first
gn that had been fired there since the creation of the
vdild. I had n': sooner filed, but from all parts of
the wcod there arose an innumerable number of fowls
of many s~ a s, making a confused screaming, and cry-
ing every o(ie according to his usual note; but not
one of them of any kind that I knew. As for the
creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of a hawk, its
colour and beak resembling it, but had no talons or
claws more than common; its flesh was carrion, and
Lit for idthiing.
Contented with this discovery, I came back to ray
raft, and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore,
which took me up the rest of that day; and what to
do wi:li myself at night 1 knew not, nor indeed where
to test; for 1 was atraid 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 tears.
However, as well as I could, I barricadoed myself
rouud with the chests and boards that I had brought
on bore, and mandl a kind of a 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.
54 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 use-
ful to me, and particularly some of the rigging and
sails, and such other things as might come to land,
and I resolved to make another voyage on board the
vessel, if possible; and as I knew that the first storm
that blew must necessarily break her all in pieces, I
resolved to set all other things apart, till I got every
thing out of the ship that I could get. Then I called
a council, that is to say, in my thoughts, whether 1
should take back the raft; but this appeared imprac-
ticable: so I resolved to go as before, when the tide
was down, and I did so, only that I stripped before I
went from my hut, having nothing on but a checked
shirt and a pair of linen trowsers, and a pair of pumps
on my feet.
I got on board the ship, as before, and prepared a
second raft; and having had experience of the first, I
neither made this so unwieldy, nor loaded it so hard,
but yet I brought away several things very useful to
me; as first, in the carpenter's stores I found two or
three bags full of nails and spikes, a great screw-jack,
a dozen or two of hatchets, and, above all, that most
useful thing called a grindstone: all these I secured,
together with several things belonging to the gunner,
particularly two or three iron crows, and two barrels
of musket-bullets, seven muskets, and another fowling-
piece, with some small quantity of powder more; a
large bag full of small shot, and a great roll of sheet
lead; but this last was so heavy I could not hoist it
up to get it over the ship's side.
Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes
that I could find, and a spare fore-topsail, hammock,
and some bedding; and with this I loaded my second
raft, and brought them all safe on shore, to my very
great comfort.
I was under some apprehensions during my absence
from the land, that at least my provisions might be
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. S
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 ac-
quainted with me; I presented my gun at her, but a
she did not understand it, she was perfectly uncon-
cerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away; upon
which I tossed her a bit of biscuit, though by the way
I was not very free of it, for my store was not great:
however, I spared her a bit, I say, and she went to
it, smelled of it, and ate it, and looked, as pleased, for
more; but I thanked her, and could spare no more;
so she marched off.
Having got my second cargo on shore, though I
was fain to open the barrels of powder, and bring
them by parcels, for they were too heavy, being large
casks, I went to work to make me a little tent with
the sail and some poles which I cut for that purpose;
and into this tent I brought every thing that I knew
would spoil, either with rain or sun; and I piled a-
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 an end without, and spreading one of the beds
npon the ground, laying my two pistols just at my
head, and my gun at length by me, I went to bed for
the first time, and slept very quietly all night, for I
was very weary and heavy, as the night before I had
slept little, and had labored very hard all day, as well
to fetch all those things from the ship as to get them
on shore.
I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that
ever were laid up, I believe, for one man; but I was
not satisfied still; for while the ship sat npright in
that posture, I thought I ought to get every thing out
of her that I could; so every day at low water I went,
56 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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
canvass, 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 tmoie useful to be sails,
but as mere canvass only.
But that which comforted me nore still, was, that
at 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 woeth my meddling with; I
say, after all this, I found a great hogshead of bread,
and three large runlets of rumn or spirits, and a box
of sugar, and a barrel of fine flower; this was surpris-
ing to me, because I had given over expecting any
more provisions, except what was spoiled by the wa-
ter: 1 soon emptied the hogshead of that bread, and
wrapped it up, parcel by parcel, in pieces of the s.ils,
which I cut out: and in a word, I got all this safe on
shore also.
The next day I made another voyage; and now,
having plundered the ship of what was portable and
fit to hand out, I began with the cables; and cutting
the great cable into pieces, such as 1 could move, I
got two cables and a hawser on shore, with ail the
iron-work 1 could get; and haN ing cut down the sprit-
sail yard, and the mizen-yard, and ever) thing 1 could
to imke a large raft, I lu.aled it with all those heavy
goods, and came away : fut my good luck began now
to leave me; for this raft was so unwieldy and so
overladen, that after I had ei-ered the little cove where
I had landed the rest of my goods, not being able to
guide it so handily as I did ile olter,-it overset, and
threw nme atil all my ea,;go into the water. As fur
lltyself, it was no great harmn, tot I was near ite shore;
but as to my cargo, it was great part of it lost, espe-
cially the iron, which I expected would have been of
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 57
-reat use to me: however, when the tide was out, I
got most of the pieces of cable ashore, and some of
the iron, though with infinite labour; for I was fain
to dip for it into the water, a work which fatigued me
very much. After this, I went every day on board,
and brought away what I could get.
I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had
been eleven times on board the ship; in which time
I had brought away all that one pair of hand6.could
well be supposed capable to bring, though .I i
vcrily, had the calm weather held, I should hW "
brn llht away the whole ship, piece by piece; but pre-
paring the twelfth time to go on board, I found the
%inid began to rise; however, at low water I went on
boai d, and though I thought I bad rummaged the cabin
,o efttctually, as that nothing more could be found,
elt I discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one
of which I found two or three razors, and one pair of
Ilrge scisars, 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 Brasil,
snme pieces of eight, some gold, some silver.
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money. O
ldrev!" said I, aloud, what art thou good fort thou
art not ivorth to me, no not the taking off of the
:roilnd; one of those knives is worth all this heap; I
haIl no manner of use for thee; even remain where
thou art, and go to the bottom as a creature whose
lile is not worth saving." Iowever, upon second
thoughts, I took it away, and wrapping all this in a
piece of canvass, 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 pre-
tend to make a raft with the wind off shore, and that
it was my business to be gone before the tide of flood
began, otherwise I might not be able to reach the shore
at all: accordingly I let myself.down into the water,
D 2
58 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
and swam cross the channel which lay between the
ship and the sands, and even that with dilliculty enough,
partly with the weight of things I had about me, anl
partly the roughness of the water, for the wind rose
very hastily, and before it was quite high water it blew
a storm.
But I was gotten Ihome to my little tent, where I
lay with all my wealth about me very secure. It blew
very hard all that night, and in the morning w! en I
looked out, beho;d no more ship was to be seen. I
was a little surprised, but recovered in.,,self with this
svlifactory rtfleclion, %iz. that I had lost no time, nor
abated no diligence to get every thing out of her that
could be sefull to me, and that indeed there was little
left in her thlt I was able to bring away, if I had had
more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or
of any thing out of her, except what might diive on
shore from her wreck, as indeed divers pieces of her
aflerw.rds did; but those things were of small use to
me.
My thoughts were now wholly employed about se-
curing myself against either ,avages, if any should ap-
pear, 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 plare I was in was not for my set-
tlement, particularly because it was upon a low moor-
ish ground near the sea, and I believed wputs not be
wholesome, and more particularly becanotibere was
no fresh water near it; so I resolved toflnd4a more
healthy and more convenient spot of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation widch I
found would be proper for me: 1st, Health, and fresh
water, I just now mentioned. 'dly, Shelter from the
heat of the sun. 3dly, Security from ravenous crea-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 59
tares, whether man or beast. 4thly, A view to the
sea, that, if God sent any ship in sight, 1 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
thli little plain was steep as a house side, so that no.
c! ii coul come down upon me from the top: on
tli sidle of this rock there was a hollow place worn a
little way in like the entrance ot door o''a cmve, but
ithlie was not really any cave or way into the rock
at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow
pl ire, I ri olved to pitch my tent: this plain was not
albovr an hlindied yards broad, awl .about twice as
lin. atnd lay like a green b-fore my door, and at the
cun I of it descended irregularly every way down into
tli low grounds by the sea-side. Itwason the N. N.W.
:dlte o the hill, so that I was sheltered from the heat
every (lay, till it came to a W. and by S. sun, or there-
abouits, which in those countries is near the setting.
Before I set up my tent, I drew a half-circle be-
fore the hollow place, which took in about ten yards
in ts semi-diameter from the rock, and twenty yards in
its diameter, from its heginninu and ending.
In this half circle I pitched two rows of strong
stakes, driving them into the ground till they stood
vcrb firm, like pils. the biggest end being out of the
ground ahrbt five foot anil 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 foot and a half high, like a
spur to a post; and this fence was so strong, that nei-
ther man or beast could get into it or over it: this cost
me a great deal of time and labour, especially to cat
60 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and
drive them into the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be not by a
door, but by a short ladder, to go over the top: which
ladder, when I was in, I lifted over after me: and so
I was completely fenced in, and fortified, as I thought,
from all the world, and consequently slept secure in
the night, which otherwise I could not have done,
though, as it appeared afterward, there was no need
of all this caution from the enemies that I apprehended
danger from.
Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labor, I
carried all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition,
and stores, of which you have the account above; and
I made me a large tent, which, to preserve me from
the rains, that in one part of the year are very violent
there, I made doable, viz. one smaller tent within,
and one larger tent above it, and covered the npper-
most with a large tarpaulin which I had saved amorg
the sails.
And now I lay no more for awhile in the bed which
I bad brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was
indeed a very good one, and belonged to the mate
of the ship.
Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and every
thing that would spoil by the wet; and having thus
enclosed all my goods, I made up the entrance, which
till now I had left open, and so passed and repassed,
as I said, by a short ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way
into the rock, and bringing all the earth and stones
that 1 dug down, out through my tent, I laid them up
within my fence in the nature of a terrace, that so it
raised the ground within about a foot and a half; and
thus I made me a cave just behind my tent, which'
served me like a cellar to my house.
It cost me much labour, and many days, before all
these things were brought to perfection, and therefore
I must go back to some other things which took up
OF ROBINSON CRUSOP. 61
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 hap-
pened, and after that a great clap of thunder, as is 'a-
turally the effect of it. I was not so much surprised
with the lightning, as I was with a thought which
darted into my mind as swift as the lightning itself:
0 my powder I my very heart sunk within me, when
I thought, that at one blast all my powder might be
destroyed: on which, not my defence only, but the
providing me food, as I thought, entirely depended:
I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger;
though, had the powder took fire, I had never known
w ho 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 hope, that, what.
ever might come, it might not all take ire 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 seejf I could kill any thing fit for
food, and as near as I could to acquaint myself with
what the island produced. The first time I went out
I presently discovered that there were goats in the
island, which was a great satisfaction to me; but thae
it was attended with this misfortune to me, via. thi
62 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
they were so shy, so subtle, andi 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 doubt-
ing 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 nmainer for them: I observed, if
they saw me in the allies, thouglA they were upon the
rocks, they would run away as in a ttrible flight;
but if they were feeding in tile allies, and I was upon
the rocks, they took no notice of me; f no when e I
concluded, that by the position of tleir optics, their
sight was so directed sdowaward, that they d.d not
readily see objects that were above them; so after-
ward I too, this method; I always climbed tle rocks
first, to get above them, and then had frequently a
fair mark. The fist shot I made ainong these crea-
tlres I killed a she-goat, wcich had a little kid by her
which she gave suck to, whidi grieved me heattily;
but wihe the old one till, tie kid sto. d stock still by
her till I came and took her tnp; and not only so; but
when I carried the old onr with nme upon my shoul-'
ders, the kid followed me quite to my enclosure; upon
wnich I laid down the dam, and took the kid in my
arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have
bi ei it up ta.ne; but it would not et ; so I was forced
to kill it, and eat it myself. These two supplied me
with flesh a great while, for I ate sparingly, ana saved
my provisions (my bread especially) as much as pos-
sibly I could. .
Ilaving now fixed my habitation, I found it abso-
lutely necessary to provide a place to make a fite in,
and fuel to burn; and what I did for that, as also
how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I
made, I shall give a tll account or in its place; but
I must lirst give some little account of my-elf, and of
my thoughts about living, which it may wel be sup.
posed were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I
was not east away upon that iWland without being
driven, as is said, by a violent storm quite out of the
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 63
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 consi-
der it aI a drtermination of Heaven, that in this de-
solate 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
ut be thankfil for such a life.
I't -oimething always returned swift upon me to
chlck these thoughts, and to reprove me; and part
cnl.tly one day, walking with my gun in my hand by
the sea-side, I was ve:y pensive upon the subject of
my present condition, when reason, as it were, ex-
pIstulating with me t'other way, thus: Well, you
;iar in a desolate condition, 'tis true, but pray renem-
ber, where are the rest of you? Did nmt yon come
tleenu of you into the boat ? Where are the tent Why
were they not saved and you lost? Why were you
singled out? Is it beller to be here or there?" And
then I pointed to the sea. All evils are to be consi-
dered w ith the good that is in them, and with what
wor-e attended them.
Then it occurred to me again, how well I was fur.
ilslihd for my subsistence, and what would hate been
n;y case if it had not happened, which was an hun--
hedl thousand to one, that the ship floated from the
place where she first struck, and was driven so near
the shore that I had time to get all thee things out of
her. What would have been mny case, if I had been
to have lived in the condition in which I at first came
on shore, without necessaries of life, or nece-saries to
supply and procure them ? particularly," said I,
loud (though to myself), what should I have done
without a gun, without ammunition, without any tools
to make any thing, or to work with; without clothes,
bedding, atent, or any manner of covering?" .aAd
64 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
that now I had all these to a sufficient quantity, and
was in a fair way to provide myself in such a man.
uer, as to live without my gun when my ammunition
was spent; so that I had a tolerable view of subsist.
ing, without any want, as long as I lived; for I con.
sidered from the beginning how I should provide for
the accidents that might happen, and for the time that
was to come, even not only after my ammunition
should be spent, but even after my health or strength
should decay.
I confess I had not entertained any notion of my
ammunition being destroyed at one blast, I mean my
powder being blown up by lightning; and this made
the thoughts of it so surprising to me when it lightned
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 wai
never heard of in the world before, 1 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 autum-
nal equinox, was almost just over my head, for I rec-
koned myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of
9 degrees 2. minutes north of the line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it
came into my thoughts, thAt I should lose my reckon.
ing of time for want of books, and pen and ink, and
should even forget the sabbath days from the working
days; but to prevent this, I cut it with my knife upon
a large post, in capital letters, and making it into a
great cross, I set it up on the shore where I first land-
ed, viz. I came on shore here on the 30th of Sep-
tember 1659." Upon the sides of this square post, I
cut every day a notch with my knife, and every se.
venth 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 65
the many things which I brought out of the ship in the
several voyages, which, as above mentioned, I made
to it, I got several things of less value, but not all less
useful to me, which I omitted setting down before;
as in particular, pens, ink, and paper, several parcels
in the captain's, mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keep-
ing, thiee or lour compasses, some mathematical in-
struments, 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 hooks also, and among them two or three
popish prayer-books, and several other books; all
which 1 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 tme the day after I went on
shore with my first cargo, and was a trusty servant to
me many years; I wanted nothing that lie could fetch
me, nor any company that he could make up to me;
I only wanted to have him talk to me, but that he
could not do. As I observed before, I found pen,
ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost;
and I shall shew, 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 1
could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many.things,
notwithstanding all that I had amassed together ; and
of these, this of ink was one, as also spade, pickaxe,
and shovel, to dig or remove the earth: needles, pins,
Sand thread. As tfr linen, I soon learnt to want that
without much difficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on
heavily, and it was near a whole year before I had
entirely y finished my little pale or surrounded labita-
tion: the piks or stakes, which were as heavy as I
V
66 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
could well lift, were a long time in cutting and pre,
paring in the woods, and more by far in bringing
home; so that I spent sometimes two days in cutting
and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day
in driving it into the ground; for which purpose I
got a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last bethought
myself of one of the iron crows, which however,
though I found it, yet it made driving those posts or
piles very laborious and tedious work.
But what need I have been concerned at the tedi.
ousness of any thing I had to do, seeing I had time
enough to do it in? Nor had 1 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 circumstance I was reduced to, and I drew
up the state of my affairs in writing, not so much to
leave them to any that were to come after me, for I
was like to have but few heirs, as to deliver my
thoughts from daily poring upon them, and afflicting
my mind; and as my reason began now to master my
despondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I
could, and to set the good against the evil, that I might
have something to distinguish my case from worse;
and I stated it very impartially, like debtor and cre-
ditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I
offered, thus:
Evil.
I am cast upon a horri-
ble desolate island, void
of all hope of recovery.
I am singled out and
separated, as it were,
from all the world, to be
miserable.
Good.
But I am alive, and
not drowned, as all my
ship's company was.
But I am singled out
too from all the ship's
crew to be spared from
death; and He that mira-
culously saved me from
death, can deliver me
from this coLditiom.
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 67
Evil.
I am divided from
mankind, a solitaire, one
banished from human so-
ciety.
1 have not clothes to
cover me.
I am without any de-
fence or means to resist
any violence of man or
beast.
I have no soul to speak
to, or relieve me.
Good.
But 1 am not starved
and perishing on a bar-
ren place, affording no
sustenance.
But I am in a hot cli-
mate, where if I had
clothes I could hardly wear
them.
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?
But God wonderfully
sent the ship in near
enough to the shore, that
I have gotten out so many
necessary things as will
either supply my wants,
or enable me to supply
myself even as long as I
live.
Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony,
that there was scarce any condition in the world so
Miserable, but there was something negative or some-
thing positive to be thankful for in it; and let this
stand as a direction from the experience of the most
miserable of all conditions in this world, that we may
always find in it something to comfort ourselves from,
and to set, in the description of good and evil, on tle
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 accommodate my way of
living, and to make things as easy to me as I could.
68 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 ra.
their call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall up against
it of turfs, about two foot thick on the outside; and
after some time, I think it was a year anti half, 1
raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock, and thatch.
ed or covered it with boughs of trees, and such things
as I could get to keep out the rain, which I found at
sonic 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 obscr.e too that at first tlas
was a confused heap of goods, which as they lay in no
order, so they took up all my p! ce: I had no rouo
to turn 111n)'c;l; so I set ultslf to enlarge my cave,
and work f-uther into the earth ; for it was a loo-e
sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I be-
stowed on it: and so when I found I was pretty sa.c
as to beasts of prey, I worked side vwa s 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 for tification.
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it we're
a back-way to umy tent and to my storehouse, but
ga\e ine room to stow iny godls.
And now I began to apply myself to make such
necessary things as I found I must wanted, particu-
larly a chair and a table; for without tihse I was not
able to enjoy the few conmforts I hid 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 lhe substance and original of the ma-
themitics, so by sta:ing and squaring every thing by
reason, and! byI niakior, tlse most rational judgment o0
thin-s, e\ery man may ue in time master of every
mechanic art. I had never handled a tool in my life,
and yet in time, by labour, application, and contriv-
ance, 1 found at last that I wanted nothing bat I could
OF ROBINTSON CRUSOE. 69
have made it, especially if I had had tools; however.,
I .-ade abundance of things, even without tools, and
some with no more tools than an adze and a hatchet,
wihi, h perhaps were never made that way before, and
tint 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
nith my axe, till I had brought it to be as thin as a
plank, and then dub it smooth wilh 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
ohserved 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
hoards, as above, I made large shelves of the breadth
of a foot and a half one over another, all along one
side of mny cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and iron-
work, and in a word, to separate every thing at large
in their places, that I might come easily at them. I
knocked pieces into the wall of the rock to hang my
guns and all things that would hang up.
So that, had my cave been to be seen, it looked
like a general magazine of all necessary things; and
I had every thing so ready at my hand, that it was a
great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order,
and especially to find my stock of all necessaries so
great.
Aund now it was that I began to keep a journal of
every day's employment; for indeed at first I was in
too much a hurry; and not only hurry as to labour,
but in too much discomposure of mind, and my
journal would have been full of many dull things.
For example, I most have said thus: Sept. the 30th,
after I got to shore, and had escaped drowning, ia.
TO LIFE AND ADVENTURES
stead of being thankful to God for my deliverance,
having first vomited with the great quantity of sal
water which was gotten into my stomach, and recover.
Ing 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 dura) 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 mea-
sure, and having settled my household-stuff and habitla
tion, made me a table and a chair, and all as hand-
some about me as I could, I began to keep my jour.
nal, of which I shall here give you the copy (though
in it will be told all those particulars over again) as
long as it lasted; for having no more ink, I was
forced to leave it off.
THE JOURNAL.
September 30, 169.
SPOOR miserable Robinson Crusoe, being ship.
wrecked, during a dreadful storm in the offing,
came on shore on this dismal unfortunate island,
which I called the Island -of Despair; all the rest of
the ship's company being drowned, and myself almost
dead.
All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting myself
at the dismal circumstances I was brought to, viz. I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 7t
had neither food, house, clothes, weapon, or place to
Ily 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 sur-
prise, the ship had floated with the high tide, and was
driven on shore again much nearer the island; which
as it was some comfort on one hand, for seeing her
sit 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 staid on
board, might have saved the ship, or at least that they
would not have been all drowned, as they were; and
that, had the men been saved, we might perhaps have
built us a boat out of the ruins of the ship, to have
carried us to some other part of the world. I spent
great part of this day in perplexing myself on these
things; but at length, seeing the ship almost dry, I
went upon the sand as near as I could, and then swam
on board. This day also it continued raining, though
with no wind at all.
From the 1st of October to the 24th. All these
days entirely spent in many several voyages to get all
I could out of the ship, which I brought on shore,
every tide of flood, upon rafts. Much rain also in
these days, though with some intervals of fair wea-
ther: but, it seems, this was the rainy season.
Oct. 20. I overset my raft, and all the goods I had
Sgot up 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,
Sand was no more to be seen, except the wreck of herj
72 IlFE AND ADVENTURES
and that only at low water. I spent this day in
covering and securing the goods which I id saved,
that rain might not spoil them.
Oct. 26. 1 walked about the shore almost all day,
to find out a place to fix my habitation, greatly con-
cerned to secure myself from any attack in the night,
either from wild beasts or men. Towards night I
fixed upon a proper place under a rock, and marked
out a semcsirle for my encampment, which I resolv-
ed to strengthen with a work, wall, or fortification
made of double piles, lined within with cable, 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 exceeding hard.
The 31st in the morning I went out into the island
with my gun, to see for some food, and discover the
country; when I killed a she goat, and her kid fol-
lowed me home, which I afterwards killed also, be-
cause it would not feed.
November 1. I set up my tent under a rock, and
lay there for the first night, making it as large as 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 fo tification.
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 timesof
wolk, of going out with my gun, time of sleep, and
time of diversion; vin. every morning I walked out
with my gun for two or three hours, if it did not rain,
then employed myself to work till about eleven
o'clock, then ate what I had to live on, and from
twelve to two I lay down to sleep, the weather being
excessive hot, and then in the evening to work again:
the working part of this day and of the next were
)U"
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 73
wholly employed in making my table, for I was yet
bat a very 'sorry workman, though time and necessity
made me a complete natural mechanic soon after, as I
believe it would do any one else.
Nov. 5. This day went abroad with my gun and
my dog, and killed a wild cat, her skin pretty soft,
but her flesh good for nothing: every creature I killed
I took off the skins and preserved them. Coming
back by the sea-shore I saw many sorts of sea-fowls,
I which I did not understand; but was surprised and
almost frighted with two or three seals, which, while I
was gazing at, not well knowing what they were, got
into the sea, and escaped me for that time.
Nov. 6. After my morning walk I went to work
with my table again, and finished it, though not to my
liking; nor was it long before I learnt to mend it.
Nov. 7. Now it began to be settled fair weather.
The 7th, 8th, 9th, Joth, 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 neg-
Slected 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 accon-
panied with terrible thunder and lightning, which
frighted me dreadfully for fear of my powder: as
soon as it was over I resolved to separate my stock of
powder into as many little parcels as possible, that it
might not be in danger.
Nov. 14, 15, 16. These three days I spent in mak-
ing little square chests or boxes, which might hold
s about a pound, or two pound, at most, of powder;
and so putting the powder in, I stowed it in places as
secure and remote from one another as possible. Oil
one of these three days I ckiii .l a L.t- bIird cliitt was
good to eat, built I lik iw nlot whi t to c il it.
Nov. 17. This lday I bi gi: to dig be!'ind mty (tett
. i ,'
74 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
into the rock, to make room for my farther convene.
ency. Note, Three things I wanted exceedingly for
this work, viz. a pickaxe, a shovel, and a wheel-bar-
row or basket; so I desisted from my work, and began
to consider how to supply that want, and make me
some tools: as for a pickaxe, I made use of the iron
crows, which were proper enough, though heavy; but
the next thing was a shovel or spade; this was so ab-
solutely necessary, that indeed I could do nothing
effectually without it; but what kind of one to make
I knew not.
Nov. 18. The next day in searching the woods I
found a tree of that wood, or like it, which in the
Brasils they call the iron tree, for its exceeding hard-
ness: of this, with great labour and almost spoiling
my axe, I cut a piece, and brought it home too with
difficulty enough, for it was exceeding heavy.
The excessive hardness of the wood, and having no
other way, made me a long while upon this machine;
for I worked it effectually by little and little into the
form of a shovel or spade, the handle exactly shaped
like ours in England, only that the broad part having
no iron shod upon it at bottom, it would not last me
so long; however, it served well enough for the uses
which I had occasion to put it to; but never was a
shovel, I believe, made after that fashion, or so long
a making.
I was still deficient, for I wanted a basket or a
wheel-barrow; a basket I could not make by any
means, having no such things as twigs that would
bend to make wicker-ware, at least none.yet found
out; and as to a wheel-barrow, 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 pos-
sible 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
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 75
ovel; aid yet this, and the shovel, and the attempt
which I made in vain to make a wheel-barrow, took
me up no lew than four days, 1 mean always ex.
ceptiug my morning walk with'my gun, which I sel-
dom failed; and very seldom failed also bringing
me something to eat.
Nov. 23. My other work having now stood still,
'cause 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 en-
tirely in widening and deepening mycave that it might
hold my goods commodiously.
\tite, During all this time, I worked to make this
ooni 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.
Dec. 10. 1 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 and one side, so much that in short it frighted me,
and not without reason too; for if I had been under
it I had never wanted a gravedigger. Upon this dis-
aster I had a great deal of work to do over again; for
I had the loose earth to carry out, and, which was of
more importance, I had the ceiling to prop up, so that
I might be sure no more would come down.
Dec. 11. This day I went to work with it accord-
ingly, and got two shores or poets 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 partition to prt off my house.
Dec. 17. from tis day to the twentieth I played
76 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
shelves, and knocked up nails on the posts to hang
every thing up that could be hung up: and now I hi.
gan to be in some order within doors.
Dec. 20. Now I carried every thing into the cave,
and began to furnish my house, and set up some pieces
of boards like a dresser, to order my victuals upon;
but boards began to be very scarce with me: also I
made me another table.
Dec. 24. Much rain all night and all day; no stir.
ring out.
Dec. 25. Rain all day.
Dec. W2. No rain, and the earth much cooler than
before and pleasanter.
Dec. 27. Killed a young goat, and lamed another,
so that I caught it, and led it home in a string; when
I had it home, I bound and splintered up its ley,
which was broke. N. B. I took such care of it thit
it lived, and the leg grew well and as strong as ever;
but by nursing it so long it grew tame, and fed upon
the little green at my door, and would not go away.
This was the fli st time that I entertained a thought ol
breeding up some tame creatures, that I might haw
food when my powder and shot was all spent.
Dec. '8, -29, 30. Great heats and no breeze; so that
there was no stirring abroad, except in the eveniln
for food. This time I spent in putting all my thini-
in order within doors.
January 1. Very hot still, but I went abroad early
and late with my gln, and lay still in the middle oI
the day. This evening, going farther into the vallies,
which lay towards the centre of the island, I found
there was plenty of goats, though exceeding shy and
liard 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 nmi,
taken, for they all faced about upon the dog; and Ih
knew his danger too well, for he would'not come
near them.
Jan. 3. I began my fence or wall; which, being
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 77
ill jealous of iny being attacked by somebody, I re-
olved to make very thick and strong.
N. B. This wall being described before, I par-
posely omit what was said, in the Journal; it
is sufficient to observe, that I was no less time
than from the 3d of January to the 14th of
April, working, finishing, and perfecting this
wall, though it was no more than about twenty-
four yards in length, being a halfcircle from
one place in the rock to another place about
eight yards from it, the door of the cave being
iu the centre behind it.
All this time I worked very hard, the rains hinder-
ng me many days, nay, sometimes weeks together;
ut I thought I should never be perfectly secure until
his wall was finished; and it is scarce credible what
nexpressible labour every thing was done with, espe-
rially the bringing piles out of the woods, and driving
hem into the ground, for I made them much bigger
han I need to have done.
When this wall was finished, and the outside double
fnced with a turf wall raised up close to it, I per-
suaded myself that if any people were to come on
mhore there, they would not perceive any thing like a
habitation; and it was very well I did so, as may be
observed hereafter upon a very remarkable occasion.
During this time I made my rounds in the woods
for game every day, when the rain admitted me, and
made frequent discoveries in these walks of something
or other to my advantage; particularly I found a kind
of wild pigeons, who built not as wood pigeons in a
tree, but rather as house pigeons, in the holes of the
rocks; and taking some young ones, I endeavoured to
breed them up tame, and did so; but when they grew
older they flew 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
youngg ones, which were very good meat.
And now, in the managing my household affairs, I
found myself wanting in many things, which I
78 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
thought at first it was impossible for me to make, as
indeed as to some of them it was; for instance, I
could never make a cask to be hooped; I had a
small runlet or two, as I observed before, but I could
never arrive to the capacity of making one by them,
though I spent many weeks about it; I could neither
put in the heads, or joint the staves so true to one
another as to make them hold water: so I gave that
also over.
In the next place, I was at a great loss for candle;
so that as soon as ever it was dark, which was gene.
rally by seven o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed: I
remembered the lump of bees-wax with which 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 son,
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; what little remainder of corn had been
in the bag, was all devoured with the rats, and I saw
nothing in the bag but husks and dust; and being
willing to have the bag for some other use, I think it
was to put powder in, when I divided it for fear of
the lightning, or some such use, I shook the husks of
corn out of it on one side of my fortification under
the rock.
It was a little before the great rains, just now men-
tioned, that I threw this stuff away, taking no notice
of any thing, and not so much as remembering that I
had thrown any thing there; when about a month
after, or thereabout, I saw some few stalks of some-
thing green shooting out of the ground, which I fanci-
ed might be some plant I had not seen; but I was
surprised and perfectly astonished, when after a little
0, OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 79
longer time I saw about ten or twelve ears come out,
which were perfect green barley of the same kind as
our European, nay, as our English barley.
It is impossible to express the astonishment and
confusion of my thoughts on this occasion; I had
hitherto acted upon no religious foundation at all;
indeed I had very few notions of religion in my
head, or had entertained any sense of any thing that
had befallen me, otherwise than as a chance, or, as we
lightly say, what pleases God; without so much as
inquiring into the end of Providence in these things,
or his order in governing events in the world: but
after I saw barley grow there, in a climate which I
knew was not proper for corn, and especially that I
knew not how it came there, it startled mi strangely,
and I began to suggest, that God had miraculously
caused this grain to grow without any help of seed
sown, and that it was so directed purely for my suste-
nance 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 ac.
count; and this was the more strange to me, because
I saw near it still, all along by the side of the rock,
some other straggling stalks, which proved to be
stalks of rice, and which I knew, because I had seen
it grow in Africa, when I was ashore there.
I not only thought these the pure productions of
Providence for my support, but not doubting but that
there was more in the place, I went all over that p;irt
of the island, where I had been before, peeping in
every corner and under every rock to see for more of
it, but I could not find any; at. last it occurred to my
thought, that I had shook a bag of chicken's meat out
in that place, and then the wonder began to cease;
and I must confess, my religious thankfulness to God's
providence began to abate too upon discovering that
all this was nothing but what was common; though I
ought to have been as thankful for so strange and un.
foreseen a providence as if it had been miraculous;
80 LfFE AND ADVENTURES~
for It was really the work of Providence as to me,
that should order or appoint ten or twelve grains of
corn to remain unspoiled, w hen the rats had destroyed
all the rest, as if it had been dropped from heaven:
as also, that I should throw it out in that particular
place, where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it
sprang up immediately ;.whereas if I had thrown it
any were else at that time, it had been burnt up anrl
destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of corn, you may be sure,
in their season, which was about the end of June, and
laying op every corn, 1 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 gratn
of this corn to cat, and even then but sparingly, as I
shall say aftci wards in its order; for 1 lost all that I
sowed the first season, by not observing the proper
time; for I sowed it just before the dry season, so
that it never came up at all, at least not as it would
have done: of which in its place.
Besides this barley there were, as above, twenty or
thirty stalks of rice, which I preserved with the same
care, and whose use was of the same kind or to the
same purpose, viz. to make me bread, or rather
food; for I found ways to cook it up without baking,
though I did that also after some time. But to return
to my journal.
I worked excessive hard these three or four months
to get my wall done; and the 14lth of April 1 closed
it up, contriving to go into it, not by a door, but over
the wall by a ladder, that there might be no sign in
the outside of my habitation.
April 16. I finished the ladder; so I went up with
the ladder to the top, and then pulled it up after me,
and let it down on the inside: this was a complete
enclosure to me; for within I had room enough, and
nothing could come at me from without, unless it
could first mount my wall.
The very next day after this wall was finished, I
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 1
had almost had all my labour overthrown at once, and
myself killed; the ease was thus: As I was busy in
the inside of it behind my tent, Just in the entrance
into my cave, I was terribly frighted IA an most
dreadful surprising thing indeed; Ar on a sadden I
found the earth come crumbling down from the roof
of my cave, and from the edge of the hill, over my
head, and two of the posts I had set up in the cave
cracked in a frightful manner: I was heartily scared,
but thought nothing of what was really the cause,
only thinking that the top of my cave was falling in,
as some of it had done before; and for fear I should
be buried in it, I ran forward to my ladder, and not
thinking myself safe there neither, 1 got over my wall
for fear of the pieces of the hill which I expected
might roll down upon me. I was no sooner stept
down upon the firm ground, but I plainly saw it was a
terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood on shook
three times at about eight minutes distance, with three
such shocks, as would have overturned the strongest
building that could be supposed to have stood on the
earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock, which
stood about half a mile from me next the sea, fell
tdonm 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
s;rniger under the water than on the island.
I was so amazed with the thing itself, having never
feit the like, or discoursed with any one that had, that
I was like one dead or stopified; and the motion of
the earth made my stomach sick, like one that was
tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling of the rock
awaked me, as it were, and rousing me from the stupi-
lied condition I was in, filled me with honor, 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.
Alter the third shock was over, and I felt no more
E I1
82 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
for some time, I began to take courage, and yet I had
not heart enough to get over my wall again, for fear
of being buried alive, but sat still upon the ground,
greatly cast down and disconsolate, not knowing whit
to do. All this while I had not the least serious reli-
gious thought, nothing but the common Lord havr
mercy upon me!" and when it was over, that went
away too. J
While I Tat thus, I found the air overcast, and grow
cloudy, as if it would rain; soon after that the wind
rose by little and little, so that in less than half an
hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane: the sea was
all on a sudden covered over with foam and froth,
the shore was covered with the breach of the water,
the trees were torn up by the roots, and a terrible
storm it was; and this held about three hours, and
then began to abate, and in two hou s more it was
stark calm, and began to rain very hard.
All this while I sat upon the ground, very much
terrified and dejected, when on a sudden it came into
my thoughts, that these winds and rain being the con-
sequence of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was
spent and over, and I might venture into my can
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 ni
head.
This violent rain forced me to a new work, -viz. t,
cut a hole through my new fortification like a sink, in
Ilt water go out, which would else have drowned nmi
cave. After I had been in i:y cave some time, and
found still no more shocks of the earthquake follow,
I began to be more composed; and now, to support
my spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, I cut
to my little store, and took a small sup of rum, which
however I did then and always very sparingly, know.
ing I could have no more when that was gone.
of ROBIaSON CRUSOmE as
It continued raining all that night, and great part of
the next day, so that I could not stir abroad; but my
ind being more composed, I began to think of what
I had best do, concluding, that if the island was sub-
ject to these earthquakes, there would be no living for
me in a cave, but I must consider of building me
some little hut in an open place, which I might sur-
round with a wall as I had done here, and so make
myself secure from wild beasts or men: but conclad-
ed, if I staid where I was, I should certainly, one
time or other, be buried alive.
With these thoughts I resolved to remove my tent
from the place where it stood, which was just under
the hanging precipice of the hill, and which, if it
bold be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my
tent. And 1 spent the two next days, being the lgth
and '0th of April, in contriving where and how to
remove my habitation.
The fear of being swallowed up alive, made me
that I never slept in quiet, and yet the apprehension
of lying abroad without any fence was almost equal
to it; but still, when I 'looked about and saw how
every thing was put in order, how pleasantly con-
cealed I was, and how safe from danger, it made me
very loth 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 run the venture where I was,
till I had formed a camp for myself, and had secured
it so as to remove to it. So with this resolution I
composed myself for a time, and resolved that I
would go to work with all speed to build me a wall
with piles and cables, &c. in a circle as before; and
set my tent up in it when it was finished, but that I
would venture to stay where I was till it was finished
and fit to remove to. This was the 21st.
April 22. The next morning I began to consider of
means to put this resolve in execution, but I was at a
great loss about my tools. I had three large axes and
abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatche for
84 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 nut
to take notice how it was done, though since I hate
observed it is very common there; besides that, my
grindstone was very laYge and heavy. This machine
cost me a full week's work to bring it to perfection.
April 28, 29. These two whole days I took up in
grinding my tools, my machine for turning my grind-
stone performing very well.
April 30. Having perceived my bread had been
low a great while, now I took a survey of it, and re-
duced myself to one biscuit-cake a day, which made
my heart very heavy.
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 bore by the late hurricane; and looking
towards the wrek itself, I thought it seemed to lie
higher out of the water than it used to do. I examin-
ed 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.
When I came down to the ship, I found it strangely
removed; the forecastle, which lay before buried in
sand, was heaved up at least six foot; and the stern,
which was broke to pieces, and parted from the rest
by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummag-
OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 85
ing 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
wNater before, so that I could not come within a quarter
of a mile of the wreck without swimming, I could
Ino walk quite up to her when the tide was out. I
vwas surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it
must be done by the earthquake: and as by this vio-
Irlce the ship was more broken open than formerly,
,o Many things came daily on shore, which the sea
lhad loosened, and which the winds and water rolled
by degrees to the land.
I his wholly diverted my thoughts from the design
oi removing my habitation; and 1 busied myself
mIightily, that day especially, in searching whether I
colml urake any way into the ship; but I found no-
thing was to be expected of that kind, for that all the
inude of the ship was choked up with sand: however,
a, I had learnt not to despair of any thing, I resolved
to pull every thing to pieces that I could of the ship,
concluding, that every thing I could get from her
would be of some use or other to me.
Mlay 3. I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a
be.in through, which I thought held some of the upper
part or quarter-deck together, and when I had cat it
through, 1 cleared away the sand as well as I could
trom the side which lay highest; but the tide coming
in, I was obliged to give over for that time.
May 4. I went a-ishing, 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. Wo, ked on the wreck, cut another beam
asunder, and brought three great fir planks off from
the decks, which I tied together, and made swim on
bhore when the tide of flood came on.
May 6. Worked on the wreck, got several iron
86 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
bolts out of her, and other pieces of iron-work;
worked very hard, and came home very much tired,
and had thoughts of giving it over.
May 7. Went to the wreck again, but with an intent
not to work, but found the weight of the wreck had
broke itself down, the beams beitig 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
almost full of water and sand.
May 8. Went to the wreck, and carried an iron
crow to wreach 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 y. Went to the wreck, and with the crow
made way into the body of the wreck, and felt several
casks, and loosened them with the crow, but could not
break them up: I felt also the roll of English lead,
and could stir it, but it was too heavy to remove.
May 10, 11, 1-, 13, 14. Went every day to the
wreck, and got a great many pieces of timber, and
boards, or plank, and two or three hundred weight of
iron.
May 13. I carried two hatchets, to try if I could
not cut a piece off the roll of lead, by placing the
edge of one hatchet, and driving it with the other;
but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, I
could not make any blow to drive the hatchet.
May 16. It had blown hard in the night, and the
wreck appeared more broken by the force of the
water; but I staid so long in the woods to get pigeons
for food, that the tide prevented me going to the wreck
that day.
May 17. I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on
shore, at a great distance, near two miles off me, but
re-olved to see what they were, and found it was a
piece of the head, but too heavy for me to bring away.
May '4. 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
OF ROBINSON CRTJSOE. 8a
several casks floated out, and two of the seamen'schests;
but the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came to
land that day but pieces of timber, and a bogshead,
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 Jone,
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 th.s time I had gotten timber,
and plank, and iron-work enough to have built a good
boat, if I had known how; and also I got at several
times, and in several pieces, near one hundred weight
of the sheet-lead.
June 16. Going down to the sea-side, I found a large
tortoise or turtle: this was the first I had seen, which
it seems was only my misfortune, not any defect of
the place, or scarcity; for had I happened to be on
the other side of the island, I might have had hundreds
of them every day, as I found afterwards; but per-
haps had paid dear encragh for them.
June 17. I spent in cooking the turtle; I found in
her threescore eggs; and her flesh was to me at that
time the most savory 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 some-
Ithig chilly, which I knew was not usual in that lati-
tud&i.
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 wih 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.
88 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
June 22. A little better, bat under dreadful appre.
tensions 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 abed
all day, and neither ate or drank. I was ready to pe-
rish 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 waked, I found myself much refreshed, but
weak, and exceeding thirsty: however, as I had no
water in my whole habitation, I was forced to lie till
morning, and went to sleep again. In this second
sleep I had this terrible dream.
I thought that I was sitting on the ground on the
outside of my wall, where I sat when the storm blew
after the earthquake, and that I saw a man descend
from a great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, and
light upon the ground. He was all over as bright as
a flame, so that I could but just bear to look towards
him; his countenance was most inexpressibly dread-
ful, impossible for words to describe; when hestepped
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.
OF ROBINSON CRUVOE. 8:
fle was no sooner landed upon the eutbh, bat t
moved forward towards me, with a long spWaMr'r
weapon in his hand to kill me; and when he cme
to a rising ground, at some distance, he spoke to me,
or I heard a voicelso terrible, that it is impossible to
express the terror of it; all that I can say I under-
tood was this, Seeing all these things- have not
brought thee to repentance, now thou shalt die:" at
which words I thought he lifted up the spear that was
in his hand to kill me.
No one, that shall ever read this account, will ex-
pect that I should be able to describe the horrors of
my soul at this terrible vision; I mean, that even while
it was a dream, I even dreamed of those 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 re-
ceived 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 nothing 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 thit so much
as tended either to looking upwards toward 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 deliverances.
In the relating what is already past of my story,
this will be the more easily believed, when I shall add,
that through all the variety of miseries that had to
this day befallen me, I never had so much as one
thought of it being the hand of God, or that it was a
just punishment for my sin, my rebellious behaviour
against my father, or my present sins, which wege
90 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
great; or so much as a punishment for the general
course of my wicked life. When I was on the despe.
rate 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 ap-
parently surrounded me, as well from voracious cream.
tures 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
comipon sense only. and indeed hardly that.
When I was delivered, and taken up at sea by the
Portugal captain, well uwel, and dealt justly and ho.
nourably with, as well as charitably, I had not the
least thankfulness on 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 m.-
serable.
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; toit it ended where
it begun, in a mere common flight of joy, or, as I
may say, being glad I was alive, without the least
reflection upon the distinguishing goodness of the Hand
which had preserved me, and had singled me out to
be preserved, when all the rest were destroyed; or an
inquiry why Providence had been thus merciful to
me; even just the same common sort of joy which
seamen generally have, after they have got safe on
shore 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
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