The Life and adventures of Robinson Crusoe

.: C




















































ure wM what 10load It wtth, nd how t prsre what I kd laid upon It
fLNom the aurof IGHe AL-PaNe EY2



ubomas dlston anb ions,
LONDON, EDINBURGH, AND NEW YORK.


8FI--~






THE



LIFE AND ADVENTURES






ROBINSON ORUSOE.




WRITTEN BY HIMBXLI.





1 O m I n ..1n I lr,








T. NELSON AND SONS, PATERNOBTEB ROW
DIMBUm ; AZ nW TO03.
MDxOOOL.












ADVENTURES

or

ROBINSON CRUSOE.



CHAPTER I.

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of
a good family, though not of that country, my father
being a foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull.
lie got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off
his trade, lived afterwards at York; from whence he
had married my mother, whose relations were named
Robinson, a very good family in that country, and
from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but
by the usual corruption of words in England, we are
now called, nay, we call ourselves, and write our
name, Crusoe; and so my companions always called
me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieu-
tenant-colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flan-
ders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel
Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk
against the Spaniards. What became of my second


TBR1







8 ADVENTURES OF

brother, I never knew, any more than my father and
mother did know what was become of me.
Being the third son of the family, and not bred to
any trade, my head began to be filled very early
with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very
ancient, had given me a competent share of learning,
as far as house education and a country free-school
generally go, and designed me for the law; but I
would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; and
my inclination to this led me strongly against the
will, nay, the commands of my father, and against
all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and
other friends.
My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious
and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my
design. He called me one morning into his chamber,
where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated
very warmly with me upon this subject: he asked me
what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination,
I had for leaving his house, and my native country,
where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect
of raising my fortune, by application and industry,
with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was
for men of desperate fortunes, on one hand, or of aspir-
ing, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad
upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make them-
selves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the
common road; that these things were all either too far
above me, or too far below me; that mine was the
mildle state, or what might be called the upper sta-







ROBINSON CUBOE. 9
tion of low life, which he had found, by long experi-
ence, was the best state in the world, the most suited
to human happiness; not exposed to the miseries and
hardships, the labour and suferings, of the mechanic
part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride,
luxury, ambition, and envy of the upper part of
mankind: he told me I might judge of the happiness
of this state by one thing-namely, that this was
the state of life which all other people envied; that
kings have frequently lamented the miserable con-
sequences of being born to great things, and wished
they had been placed in the middle of 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
upper and lower parts of mankind; but that the
middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not
exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or
lower part of mankind: nay, they were not subjected
to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of
body or mind, as those were, who, by vicious living,
luxury, and extravagances on one band, or by hard
labour, want of necessaries, and mean and insufficient
diet on the other hand, bring distempers upon'them-
selves by the natural consequence of their way of
living; that the middle station of life was calculated
for all kinds of virtues, and all kinds of enjoyments"







10 ADVENTURES OF

that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a
middle fortune; that temperance, moderation, quiet-
ness, 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 com-
fortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours
of the hands, or of the head, not sold to the life of
slavery for daily bread, nor harassed with perplexing
circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the
body of rest; not enraged with the passion of envy,
nor 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
provided against; that I was under no necessity of
seeking my bread; that he would do well for me,
and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station of
life which he had been just recommending to me;
and that, if I was not very easy and happy in the
world, it must be my mere fault that must hinder it;
and that he should have nothing to answer for, hav-
ing thus discharged his duty in warning me against
measures which he knew would be to my hurt. In






ROBINSON CRUSOE. 11
a word, that, as he would do very kind things for
me, if I would stay and settle at home, as he directed,
so he would not have so much hand in my misfor-
tunes as to give me any encouragement to go away;
and, to close all, he told me I had my elder brother
for an example, to whom he had used the same ear-
nest persuasions to keep him from going into the
Low Country wars, but could not prevail, his young
desires prompting him to run into the army, where
he was killed; and though, he said, he would not
cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to
me, that, if I did take this foolish step, God would
not bless me; and I 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; I say, I observed
the tears run down his face very plentifully, especi-
ally when he spoke of my brother who was killed;
and that, when he spoke of my having leisure to re-
pent, and none to assist me, he was so moved, that
he broke off the discourse, and told me his heart was
so full he could say no more to me.
I was sincerely affected with this discourse; as,
indeed, who could be otherwise? and I resolved not
to think of going abroad any more, but to settle at
home, according to my father's desire. But, alas I
a few days wore it all off: and, in short, to prevent
any of my father's further importunities, in a few






12 ADVENTUREs OF
weeks after I resolved to run quite away from him.
However, I did not act so hastily neither, as my
first heat of resolution prompted; but I took my
mother, at a time when I thought her a little plea-
santer than ordinary, and told her my thoughts were
so entirely bent upon seeing the world, that I should
never settle to anything with resolution enough to
go through with it, and my father had better give
me his consent than force me to go without it; that
I was now eighteen years old, which was too late to
go apprentice to a trade, or clerk to an attorney;
that I was sure if I did I should never serve out my
time, 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 make but
one voyage abroad, if I came home again, and did
not like it, I would go no more; and I would pro-
mise, by a double diligence, to recover the time I
had lost.
This made my mother very angry: she told me
she knew it would be to no purpose to speak to my
father upon any such a subject; that he knew too
well what was my interest to give his consent to
anything so much for my hurt; and that she won-
dered how I could think of any such thing, after
such a discourse as I had had from my father, and
such kind and tender expressions as she knew my
father had used to me: and that, in short, if I would
ruin myself, there was no help for me; but I might
depend I should never have their consent to it; that,







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 16

for her part, she would not have so much hand in
my destruction; and I should never have it to say
" that my mother was willing, when my father was
not."
Though my mother refused to move it to my
father, yet, as I have heard afterwards, she reported
all the discourse to him; and that my father, after
showing a great concern at it, said to her with a
sigh, That boy might be happy, if he would stay
at home; but if he goes abroad, he will be the most
miserable wretch that ever was born; I can give no
consent to it."
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke
loose; though, in the meantime, I continued obsti-
nately deaf to all proposals of settling to business,
and frequently expostulating with my father and
mother about their being so positively determined
against what they knew my inclinations prompted
me to. But, being one day at Hull, where I went
casually, and without any purpose of making an
elopement at that time, and one of my companies
then going to London by sea in his father's ship,
and prompting me to go with them by the common
allurement of seafaring men,snamely, that it should
cost me nothing for my passage," I consulted neither
father nor mother any more, nor so much as sent
them word of it; but left them to hear of it as they
might, without asking God's blessing, or my father's,
without any consideration of circumstances or conse-
quences, and in an ill hour, God knows.






ADVENTURES OF


CHAPTER II.

ON the 1st of September 1651, I went on board a
ship bound for London. Never any young adven-
turer's misfortunes, I believe, began earlier, or con-
tinued longer than mine. The ship had no sooner
got out of the Humber, than the wind began to blow,
and the waves to rise, in a most frightful manner;
and as I had never been at sea before, I was most
inexpressibly sick in body and terrified in mind: I
began now seriously to reflect upon what I had done,
and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of
Heaven, for wickedly leaving my father's house, and
abandoning my duty. All the good counsel of my
parents, my father's tears, and my mother's entreaties,
came now fresh into my mind; and my conscience,
which was not yet come to the pitch of hardiness 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 what I saw a few days after; but such
as it was, enough to affect me then, who was but a
young sailor, and had never known anything of the
matter. I expected every wave would have swallowed
us up, and that every time the ship fell down, as I
thought, in the trough, or hollow of the sea, we







ROBINSON CRUSOE.


should never rise more; and in this agony of mind
I made many vows and resolutions, that, if it would
please God to spare my life this voyage, if ever I
got my foot once on dry land, I would go directly
home to my father, and never set it into a ship again
while I lived; that I would take his advice, and never
run myself into such miseries as these any more.
These thoughts continued during the storm, and
indeed some time after; but the next day, as the
wind was abated, and the sea calmer, I began to be
a little inured to it. However, I was very grave
that day, being also a little sea-sick still: but to-
wards night the weather cleared up, the wind was
quite over, and a charming fine evening followed;
the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the
next morning; and, having little or no wind, and a
smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was,
as I thought, the most delightful that I ever saw.
I had slept well in the night, and was now no
more sea-sick, but very cheerful, looking with won-
der upon the sea that was so rough and terrible the
day before, and could be so calm and pleasant in a
little time after.
And now, lest my good resolutions should con-
tinue, my companion, who had indeed enticed me
away, came to me and said, Well, Bob," clapping
me on the shoulder, "how do you do after it? I
warrant you were frightened, wa'n't you, last night,
when it blew out a capful of wind?" A capful do
you call it?" said I, 'twas a terrible storm." A






16 ADVENTURES OF

storm, you fool replies he, do you call that a
storm? Why, it was nothing at all: give us but a
good ship and sea-room, and we think nothing of
such a squall of wind as that: you are but a fresh-
water sailor, Bob; come, let us make a bowl of
punch, and we'll forget all that. D'ye see what
charming weather 'tis now?" To make short this
sad part of my story, we went the way of too many
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 reflections upon
my past conduct, and all my resolutions for the
future. I found afterwards, indeed, some intervals
of reflection; and serious thoughts did, as it were,
endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook
them off; and roused myself from them, as it were
from a distemper, and, applying myself to drink and
company, soon mastered the returns 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, re-
solved to leave me entirely without excuse; for, if I
would not take this for a deliverance, the next was
to be such an one, as the worst and most hardened
wretch among us would confess both the danger and
the mercy of. The sixth day of our being at sea,
we came into Yarmouth roads; tha wind having







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 17

been contrary, and the weather calm, we had made
but little way since the storm. Here we were
obliged to come to an anchor, and here we lay, the
wind continuing contrary, namely, at south-west, for
seven or eight days, during which time a great many
ships from Newcastle came into the same roads, as
the common harbour where the ships might wait for
a'wind for the river. We had not, however, rid
here so long, and should have tided 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 ap-
prehensive of danger, but spent the time in rest and
mirth, after the manner of the sea. But the eighth
day, in the morning, the wind increased, and we had
all hands at work to strike our topmasts, and make
everything snug and close, that the ship might ride
as easy as possible. By noon the sea went very
high indeed, and our ship rode forecastle in, shipped
several seas, and we thought once or twice our anchor
had come home; upon which our master ordered out
the sheet-anchor; so that we rode with two anchors
a-head, and the cables veered out to the better end.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and
now I began to see terror and amazement in the faces
even of the seamen themselves. The master was
vigilant in the business of preserving the ship; but
as he went in and out of his cabin by me, I could
B







16 ADVENTURES oF

hear him softly say to himself several times, Lord,
be merciful to us! we shall be all lost; we shall be
all undone!" and the like. During these first hur-
ries I was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was
in the steerage, and cannot describe my temper. I
could ill re-assume the first penitence, which I had
so apparently trampled upon, and hardened myself
against; I thought that the bitterness of death had
been past, and that this would be nothing too, like
the first; but when the master himself came by me,
as I said just now, and said we should be all lost,
I was dreadfully frightened. I got up out of my
cabin, and looked out; but such a dismal sight I
never saw: the sea went mountains high, and broke
upon us every three or four minutes. When I could
look about, I could see nothing but distress around
us; two ships that rid near us, we find had cut their
masts by the board, being deeply laden; and our men
cried out that a ship, which rid about a mile a-head
of us, was foundered. Two more ships, being driven
from their anchors, cere rim out of the roads to sea,
at all adventures, and that with not a mast standing.
Toward evening, the mate and boatswain begged the
master of our ship to let them cut away the fore-
mast, which he was very loth to do; but the boat-
swain protesting to him that, if he did not, the ship
would founder, he consented; and when they had
cut away the foremast, the nmainmast stood so close,
and shook the ship so much, that they were obliged
to cut it away also, and make a clear deck.







RODINSON CRUSOE. 19
Any one may judge what a condition I must be in
at all this, who was but a young sailor, and who had
been in such a fright before at but a little. But if
I can express, at this distance, the thoughts I had
about me at that time, I was in ten-fold more horror
of mind upon account of my former convictions, and
the having returned from them to the resolutions I
had wickedly taken at first, than I was at death
itself; and these, added to the terror of the storm, put
me into such a condition, that I can by no words
describe it. But the worst was not come yet; the
stonn continued with such fury, that the seamen
themselves acknowledged that they had never known
a worse. We had a good ship, but she was deep
laden, and so 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 the ship would go to
the bottom. In the middle of the night and under
all the rest of our distresses, one of the men, that
had been down on purpose to see, cried out, "we
had sprung a leak;" another said, "there was four
feet water in the hold." Then all hands were called
to the pump. At that very word, my heart, as I
thought died within me; and I fell backwards upon
the side of my bed, where I sat in the cabin. How-






0U ADVENTURES OF

ever, the men roused me, and told me, that I," who
was able to do nothing before, was as well able to
pump as another:" at which I stirred up and went
to the pump, and worked very heartily.
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 fired several guns for help;
and a light ship, who had rid it out just a-head of us,
ventured a boat out to help us. It was with the
utmost hazard the boat came near us, but it was im-
possible 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 labour and hazard, took hold
of, and we hauled them close under our stern, and
got all into their boat. It was to no purpose for
them, or us, after we were in the boat, to think of
reaching their own ship; so all agreed to let her
drive, and only pull her in towards shore as much as
we could; and our master promised them, that if the
boat was staved upon the shore, he would make it
good to their master; so, partly rowing, and partly
driving, our boat went away to the northward, slop-
ing towards the shore almost as far as Winterton-
Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour






ROBINSON CRUSOE. 21
out of our ship when we saw her sink; and then I
understood, for the first time, what was meant by a
ship foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I
had hardly eyes to look up when the seamen told me
"she was sinking;" for, from that moment, they
rather put me into the boat, than that I might be
said to go in. My heart was, as it were, dead
within me, partly with fright, partly with horror of
mind, and the thoughts of what was yet before me.
While we were in this condition, the men yet
labouring at the oar to bring the boat near the shore,
we could see (when, our boat mounting the waves, we
were able to see the shore) a great many people run-
ning along the strand to assist us when we should
come near; but we made slow way towards the shore,
nor were we able to reach it, till, being past the light-
house at Winterton, the shore falls off to the west-
ward towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a
little the violence of the wind. Here we got in, and,
though notwithout much difficulty, got all safe onshore,
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 the particular merchants and
owners of ships; and had money given us sufficient
to carry us either to London, or back to Hull, as we
thought fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to
Hull, and have gone home, I had been happy; and my
father, an emblem of our blessed Saviour's parable,







22 ADVENTURES OF

had even killed the fatted calf for me; for, hearing
the ship I went in was cast away in Yarmouth Roads,
it was a great while before he had any assurance that
I was not drowned.
But my wayward disposition pushed me on with
an obstinacy that nothing could resist; and, though
I had several times loud calls from my reason, and
my more composed judgment, to go home, yet I rushed
on with my eyes open.
My comrade, who had helped to harden me before,
and who was the master's son, was now less forward
than I; the first time he spoke to me after we were
at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days,
for we were separated in the town to several quarters;
I say, the first time he saw me, it appeared his tone
was altered, and, looking very melancholy, and shak-
ing his head, asked me how I did; telling his father
who I was, and how I had come this voyage only
for a trial, in order to go further abroad. His father,
turning to me, with a grave and concerned tone,
"Young man," says he, "you ought never to go to
sea any more; you ought to take this for a plain and
visible token that you are not to be a seafaring man."
"Why, sir," said I, "will you go to sea no more?"
"That is another case," said he; "it is my calling,
and therefore my duty; but as you made this voyage
for a trial, you see what a taste Heaven has given
you of what you are to expect if you persist. Perhaps
this has all befallen us on your account, like Jonah
in the ship of Tarshish: pray," continues he, what







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 23

are you, and on what account did you go to sea?"
Upon that I told him some of my story, at the end of
which he burst out with a strange kind of passion.
" What had I done," said he, that such an unhappy
wretch should come into my ship? I would not set
my foot in the same ship with thee again for a thou-
sand pounds." This indeed was, as I said, an excur-
sion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the
sense of his loss, and was further than he could have
authority to go. However, he afterwards talked very
gravely to me, exhorted me to go hack to my father,
and not tempt Providence to my ruin; told me I might
see a visible hand of Heaven against me; and, young
man," said he, "depend upon it, if you do not go back,
wherever you go you will meet with nothing but dis-
asters and disappointments, till your father's words
are fulfilled upon you."
We parted soon after, for I made him little answer,
and I saw him no more; which way he went I know
not; as for me, having some money in my pocket, I
travelled to London by land, and there, as well as on
the road, had many struggles with myself what course
of life I should take, and whether I should go home,
or go to sea. As to going home, shame opposed the
best motions that offered to my thoughts; and it
immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed
at among the neighbours, and should be ashamed to
see, not my father and mother only, but even every-
body else. From whence I have often since observed,
how incongruous and irrational the common temper






24 ADVENTURES OF

of mankind is, especially of youth, to that reason
which ought to guide them in such cases, namely,
that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed
to repent; not ashamed of the action for which they
ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of
the returning, which only can make them be esteemed
wise men.



CHAPTER III.

[N this state of life, however, I remained some time,
uncertain what measures to take, and what course of
life to lead, till at last I quite laid aside the thoughts
of going home, and looked out fur a voyage. That
evil influence which carried me first away from my
father's house, presented the most unfortunate of all
enterprises to my view, and I went on board a vessel
bound to the coast of Africa, or, as our sailors vulgarly
call it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that, in all these ad-
ventures, I did not ship myself as a sailor; but, as I
always chose 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 gentle-
man; and so I neither had any business in the ship,
nor learned to do any. It was my lot, first of all, to
fall into pretty good company in London, which does
not always happen to such loose and misguided young
fellows as I then was; the devil generally not omit-






ROBINSON CRUSOE. 25
ing 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. He, taking a fancy to my con-
versation, which was not at all disagreeable at that
time, and hearing me say "I had a mind to see the
world," told me, that if I would go the voyage with
him, I should be at no expense, I should be his mess-
mate and his companion, and if I could carry any-
thing with me I should have all the advantage of it
that the trade would admit, and perhaps I might meet
with some encouragement. I embraced the offer, and
entering into a strict friendship with this captain, who
was an honest and plain-dealing man, I went the voy-
age with him, and carried a small adventure with me,
which, by the disinterested honesty of my friend the
captain, I increased very considerably, for I carried
about 40 in such toys and trifles as the captain di-
rected me to buy. This 40 I had mustered together
by the assistance of some of my relations, whom I
corresponded with, and who, I believe, got my father,
or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that
to my first adventure. This was the only voyage
which I may say was successful in all my adventures,
and which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my
friend the captain, under whom, also, I got a com-
petent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules of
navigation, learned how to keep an account of the
ship's course, take an observation, and, in short, to







26 ADVENTURES OF

understand some things that were needful to be un-
derstood by a sailor; for, as he took delight to instruct
me, I took delight to learn, and, in a word, this voy-
age made me both a sailor and a merchant, for I
brought home 5 lb. 9 oz. of gold dust for my adven-
ture, which yielded me in London at my return almost
300; and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts
which have since so completed my ruin.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader, and my
friend, to my great misfortune, dying soon after his
arrival, I resolved to go the same voyage again; and
I embarked in the same vessel with one who was his
mate in the former voyage, and had now got the com-
mand of the ship. This was the unhappiest voyage
that ever man made, for though I did not carry quite
100 of my new-gained wealth, so that I had 200
left, and which I lodged with my friend's widow, lwho
was very just to me, yet I fll into terrible misfortunes
in this voyage; and the first was this, namely, our
ship, imaling her course towards the Canary Islands,
or rather between those islands and the African shore,
was surprised, in the gray of the morning, by a Turk-
ish rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the
sail she could make. We crowded also as much can-
vass as our yards would spread, or our masts carry,
to get clear; but finding the pirate gained upon us,
and would certainly come up with us in a few hours,
we prepared to fight, our ship having twelve guns,
and the rogue eighteen. About three in the afternoon
he came up with us, and bringing to by mistake just







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 27

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 shear off again, after returning our fire,
and pouring in also his small shot from nearly 200
men which he had on board. However, we had not
a man touched, all our men keeping close. He pre-
pared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves;
but, laying us on board the next time upon our other
quarter, he entered sixty men upon our decks, who
immediately fell to cutting and hacking the sails and
rigging. We plied them with small shot, half-pikes,
powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of
them twice. However, to cut short this melancholy
part of our story, our ship being disabled, and three
of our men killed and eight wounded, we were obliged
to yield, and carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port
belonging to the Moors.
The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at
first I apprehended; nor was I carriedup 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. But, alas I this was but a
taste of the misery I was to go through, as will appear
in the sequel of this story.
As my new patron, or master, had taken me home
to his house, so I was in hopes he would take me with
him when he went to sea again, believing that it would,
some time or other, be his fate to be taken by a Span-







28 ADVENTURES OF
ish or Portuguese man of war; and that then I should
be set at liberty. But this hope of mine was soon
taken away, for when he went to sea he left me on
shore to look after his little garden, and do the com-
mon drudgery of the slaves about his house; and
when he came home again from his cruise, he ordered
me to lie in the cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what
method I might take to effect it, but found no way
that had the least probability in it.
After about two years an odd circumstance pre-
sented itself which put the old thought of making
some attempt for my liberty again in my head. My
patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting
out his ship, which, as I heard, was for want of
money, he used constantly, once or twice a week,
sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the
ship's pinnace, and go out into the road a fishing;
and as he always took me and a young Moresco
with him to row the boat, we made him very merry,
and I proved very dexterous in catching fish, inso-
much that he would sometimes send me with a Moor,
one of his kinsmen, and the youth, the Moresco, as
they called him, to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a-fishing 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







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 29
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.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved
to take more care of himself for the future; and, hav-
ing 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 the ship, who was an
English slave, to build a little state-room, or cabin,
in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a barge,
with a place to stand behind it, to steer and haul home
the main-sheet, and with room before for a hand or
two to stand and work the sails. She sailed with
what we call a shoulder-of-mutton sail, and the boom
gibb'd over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug
and low, and had in it room for him to lie, with a
slave or two, and a table to eat on, with some small
lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as he
thought fit to drink, and 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 out in this boat, either for pleasure or
for fish, with two or three Moors of some distinction
in that place, and for whom he had provided extra-
ordinarily, and had therefore sent on board the boat,
overnight a larger store of provision than ordinary,







80 ADVENTURES OP

and had ordered me to get ready three fusees, with
powder and shot, which were on board his ship, for
that they designed some sport of fowling, as well as
fishing.
I got all things ready, as he directed, and waited
the next morning with the boat washed clean, her
ensign and pendants out, and everything to accom-
modate his guests, when, by-and-by, my patron came
on board alone, and told me his guests had put off
going, upon some business that fell out, and ordered
me, with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with
the boat and catch them some fish, for that his friends
were to sup at his house; and commanded, that as
soon as I had got some fish, I should bring it home
to his house: all which I prepared to do.
This moment my former notions of deliverance
darted into my thoughts, for now I found I was like
to have a little ship at my command; and, my master
being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for a
fishing business, but for a voyage: though I knew
not, neither did I so much as consider, whither I
should steer; for anywhere, to get out of that place,
was my way.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to
speak to this Moor to get something for our subsist-
ence on board; for I told him we must not presume
to eat of our patron's bread: he said that was true;
so he brought a large basket of rusk or biscuit, of
their kind, and three jars with fresh water, into the
boat. I knew where my patron's case of bottles






ROBINSON CRUBOE. 31
stood, which it was evident, by the make, were taken
out of some English prize, and I conveyed them into
the boat while the Moor was on shore, as if they had
been there before for our master. I conveyed also a
great lump of 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 was
Ismael, whom they call Muley, or Moley: so I called
to him, "Moley," said I, "our patron's guns are on
board the boat, can you get a little powder and shot?
it may be we may kill some alcamies (fowls like our
curlews) for ourselves, for I know he keeps the gun-
ner'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 pow-
der, or rather more, and another with shot, that had
five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all into
the boat; at the same time I found some powder of
my master's in the great cabin, with which I filled
one of the large bottles in the case, which was almost
empty, pouring what was in it into another; and thus
furnished with everything needful, we sailed out of
the port to fish. The castle, which is at the entrance
of the port, knew who we were, and took no notice of
us; and we were not above a mile out of the port,
before we hauled in our sail, and set us down to fih.
The wind blew from N.N.E., which was contrary to







32 ADVENTURES OF
my desire; for, had it blown southerly, I had been
sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at last
reached to the bay of Cadiz: but my resolutions were,
blow which way it would, I would be gone from the
horrid place where I was.
After we had fished some time, and watched no-
thing; for, when I had fish on my hook I would not
pull them up, that he might not see them, I said to
the Moor, "This will not do; our master will not be
thus served; we must stand farther off." He, think-
ing no harm, agreed; and being at the head of the
boat, set the sails; and, as I had the helm, I run the
boat near a league further, and then brought-to as if
I would fish. Then, giving the boy the helm, I
stepped forward to where the Moor was, and I took
him by surprise, with my arm under his waist, and
tossed him clear overboard into the sea. He rose
immediately, for he swam like a cork, and calling to
me, begged to be taken in, and told me he would go
all the world over with me. He swam so strong
after the boat, that he would have reached me very
quickly, there being but little wind; upon which I
stepped into the cabin, and fetching one of the fowl-
ing-pieces, I presented it at him, and told him I had
done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet, I would
do him none: But," said I, "you swim well enough
to reach the shore, and the sea is calm; make the best
of your way to shore, and I will do you no harm;
but, if you come near the boat, I will shoot you
through the head; for I am resolved to have my






ROBINSON CRUBOE. 33
liberty." So he turned himself about, and swam for
the shore; and I make no doubt but he reached it with
ease, for he was an excellent swimmer.




CHAPTER IV.
I could have taken this Moor with me, and have
drowned the boy; but there was no venturing to trust
him, and humanity forbade the other. When he
was gone, I turned to the boy, whom they called
Xury, and said to him, "Xury, if you will be faith-
ful to me, I will make you a great man: but if .you
will not stroke your face to be true to me (that is,
swear by Mahomet and his father's beard), I must
throw you into the sea too." The boy smiled in my
face and spoke so innocently that I could not mistrust
him; and swore to be faithful to me and go all over
the world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swim-
ming, I stood out directly to sea with the boat rather
stretching to windward, that they might think me
gone towards the Strait's mouth (as, indeed, any one
that had been in their wits must have been supposed
to do); for who would have supposed we were sailing
on to the southward, to the truly barbarian coast,
where whole nations of negroes were sure to surround
us with their canoes, and destroy us; where we could
never once go on shore, but we should be devoured


5'J







31 ADVENTURES OF

by savage beasts, or more merciless savages of human
kind?
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I
changed my course, and steered directly south and
by east, bending my course a little toward the east,
that I might keep in with the shore; and having a
fair fresh gale of wind and a smooth quiet sea, I
made such sail, that I believe by the next day at
three o'clock in the afternoon, when I made the land, I
could not be less than 150 niles south of Sallee, quite
beyond the lEmperor of Morocco's dominions, or indeed
of any other king thereabout; for we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors,
and the dreadful pprehensions I lad of falling into
their hands, that I would not stop or go on shore, or
come to anchor, the wind continuing fair, till I had
sailed in that manner five days; and then the wind
shifting to the southward, I concluded also that if
any of our vessels were in chase of me, they also
would now give over: so I ventured to make to the
coast, and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little
river; I knew not what nor where, neither what
latitude, what country, what nation, nor what river.
I neither saw nor desired to see any people; the
principal thing I wanted was fresh water. We came
into this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on
shore as soon as it was dark, and discover the coun-
try; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such
dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling
of wild creatures, of we knew not hat kinds, that







ROBINSON CRUSOE. fl
the poor boy was ready to die with fear, and begged
of me not to go on shore till day. Well, Xury,"
said I, "then I will not; but it may be we may see
men by day who will be as bad to us as those lions."
" Then we may give them the shoot-gun," says Xury
laughing; make them run away." Such English
Xury spoke by conversing among 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 I took it. We dropped our little anchor, and
lay still all night: I say still, for we slept none ; for
in two or three hours we saw vast creatures (we
knew not what to call them), of many sorts, come
down to the sea-shore, and run into the water, wal-
owing and washing themselves, for the purpose of
cooling themselves; and they made such hideous howl-
ings and yelling, that I never indeed heard the like.
Xury was dreadfully frightened, and, indeed, so
was I too; but we were both more frightened when
we heard one of these mighty creatures swimming
towards our boat; we could not see him, but we
might hear him, by his blowing, to be a monstrous,
huge, and furious beast. Xury said it was a lion,
and it might be so, for aught I know; but poor Xury
cried to me to weigh the anchor, and row away.
" No," says I, Xury; we can slip our cable with
the buoy to it, and go off to sea: they cannot follow
us far." I had no sooner said so, but I perceived
the creature (whatever it was) within two oars'







86 ADVENTURES OF

length, which something surprised me: however, I
immediately stept to the cabin door, and, taking up
my gun, fired at him; upon which lie turned round
and swam to the shore again.
In the morning Xury said, if I would let him go
on shore with one of the jars, he would find if there
was any water, and bring some to me. I asked hin
why he would go; why I should not go, and he stay
in the boat? The boy answered with so much affee-
tion, that he made me love him ever after. Says he,
" If wild mans come, they eat me, you go away."
"Well, Xury," said I, "we will both go; and if
the wild mans come, we will kill them; they shall
eat neither of us." So I gave Xury a piece of rusk
bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron's case of
bottles which I mentioned before; and we hauled in
the boat as near the shore as we thought was proper,
and so waded to shore, carrying nothing but our
arms, and two jars for water.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fear-
ing the coming of canoes with savages down the
river; but the boy, seeing a low place, about a mile
up the country, rambled to it; and, by-and-by, I saw
him come running towards me. I thought he was
pursued by some savage, or frightened by some wild
beast, and I therefore ran forward to help him; but
when I came nearer to him, I saw something hang-
ing over his shoulders, which was a creature that he
had shot, like a hare, but different in colour, and
longer leg,; however, wee were very glad of it, and






ROBINSON CBUSOE. 37

it was very good meat; but the great joy that poor
Xury came with, was to tell me he had found good
water, and seen no wild mans. So we filled our jars,
and having a fire, 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
country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I
knew very well that the islands of the Canaries, and
the Cape de Verd islands also, lay not far from the
coast. But, as I had no instruments to take an
observation, to find what latitude we were in; and
did net exactly know, or at least remember, what
latitude they were in, I knew not where to look for
them, or when to stand off to sea towards them, other-
wise I might now have easily found some of these
islands. But my hope was, that if I stood along this
coast till I came to the 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, the place where I
now was must be that country, which, lying between
the Emperor of Morocco's dominions and the Negroes,
lies wasted and uninhabited, except by wild beasts.
Once or twice in the day-time, I thought I saw
the Pike of Teneriffe, being the top of the mountain
Teneriffe, in the Canaries, and had a great mind to
venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but, having
tried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds,
the sea also going too high for my little vessel: so I






38 ADVENTURES OF

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 par-
ticular, being early in the morning, we came to an
anchor under a little point of land, which was pretty
high; and the tide beginning to flow, we lay still, to
go farther in. Xury, whose eyes were more about
him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and
tells me that we had best go further off the shore;
for, says he, look, yonder lies a dreadful monster
on the side of that hillock, fast asleep." I looked
where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed,
for it was a terrible great lion, that lay on the side
of the shore, under a shade of a piece of the hill, that
hung, as it were, over him. Xury," says I, you
shall go on shore and kill him." Xury looked
frightened and said, "Me kill he eat me at one
mouth:" one mouthful he meant. However, I said
no more to the boy, but bade him be still; and I took
our biggest gun, which was almost musquet bore,
and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with
two slugs, and laid it down; then I loaded another
gun with two bullets; and a third, for we had three
pieces, I loaded with five smaller bullets. I took
the best aim I could with the first piece, to have shot
him in the head; but he lay so, with his leg raised
a little above his nose, that the slugs hit his leg
about the knee, and broke the bone; he started up,
growling at first; but finding his leg broke, fell down




-14


ROBINSON CRUSOE. 39
again, and then got up upon three legs, and gave
the most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was a
little surprised that I had not hit him on the head;
however, I took up the second piece immediately,
and though he began to move off, fired again, and
shot him in the head, and had the pleasure to see
him drop, and make but little noise, but lie strug-
gling for life. Then Xury took heart, and would
have me let him go on shore. Well, go," said I;
so the hoy jumped into the water, and taking a little
gun in one hand, swam to shore with the other hand,
and coming close to the creature, put the muzzle of
the piece to his ear and shot him in the head again,
which despatched him quite.
This was game, indeed, to us, but it was no food;
and I was very sorry to lose three charges of powder
and shot upon a creature that was good for nothing
to us. However, Xury said he would have some of
him; so he comes on board, and asked me to give
him the hatchet. For what, Xury?" said I. "Me
cut off his head," said he. However, Xury could
not cut off his head; but he cut off a foot, and brought
it with him, and it was a monstrous great one. I
bethought myself, however, that perhaps the skin of
him might, one way or other, be of some value to us;
and I resolved to take off his skin, if I could. So
Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was
much the better workman at it, for I knew very ill
how to do it. Indeed, it took us both up the whole
day; but at last we got off the hide of him, and







40 ADVENTURES OF

spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectu-
ally dried it in two days' time, and it afterwards
served me to lie upon.
After this stop, we made on to the southward con-
tinually, for ten or twelve days, living very sparingly
on our provisions, which began to abate very much,
and going no oftener into the shore than we were
obliged to for fresh water. My design in this, was
to make the river Gambia, or Senegal; that is to say,
anywhere about the Cape de Verd, where I was in
hopes to meet with some European ship; and if I did
not, I knew not what course I had to take, but to
seek for the islands, or perish among the negroes.
When I pursued this resolution about ten days
longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land
was inhabited; and, in two or three places, as we
sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to
look at us: we could also perceive they were quite
black, and stark naked. I was once inclined to have
gone on shore to them; but Xury was my better
counsellor, and said to me, No go, no go." How-
ever, I hauled in nearer the shore, that I might talk
to them; and I found they run along the shore by
me a good way. I observed they had no weapons
in their hands, except one, who had a long, slender
stick, which Xury said was a lance, and that they
would throw them a great way with good aim; so I
kept at a distance, but talked to them by signs as
well as I could, and particularly made signs for some-
thing to eat. They beckoned tome to stop my boat,







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 41
and they would fetch me some meat: upon this, I
lowered the top of my sail, and lay by, and two cf
them run up into-the country; and, in less than half
an hour, came back, and brought with them two
pieces of dry flesh and some corn, such as is the pro-
duce of their country; but we neither knew what the
one or the other was; however, we were willing to
accept it. But how to come at it was our next dis-
pute, for I was not for venturing on shore to them,
and they were as much afraid of us; but they took a
safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore,
and laid it down, and went and stood a great way off
till we fetched it on board, and then came close to
us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had noth-
ing to make them amends: but an opportunity offered
that very instant to oblige them wonderfully; for,
while we were lying by the shore, came two mighty
creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took it) with
great fury from the mountains towards the sea; the
people were terribly frightened, 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 them-
selves into the sea and swam about as if they had
come for their diversion; at last one of them began
to come nearer our boat than at first I expected; but
I lay ready for him, for I had loaded my gun with
all possible expedition, and bade Xury load both the







42 ADVENTURES OF

others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach,
I fired and shot him directly in the head; immedi-
ately he sunk down into the water, but rose instantly
and plunged up and down struggling for life, he im-
mediately made to the shore, but died just when he
reached it.
The other creature, frightened with the flash of
fire and the noise of the gun, swam on shore and ran
up directly to the mountains. I found quickly the
negroes were for eating the flesh of the creature I had
killed, 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 provisions,
which, though I did not understand, yet I accepted.
I then made signs to them for some water, and held
out one of my jars to them, turning it bottom upward
to show that it was empty, and that I wanted to have
it filled. They called immediately to some of their
friends, and there came two women and brought a
great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as I 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







BOBINSON CRUSOE. 43

three. The women were as stark naked as the
men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as
it was, and water; and leaving my friendly negroes,
I made forward for about eleven days more without
offering to go near the shore, till I saw the land run
out a great length into the sea, at about the distance
of four or five leagues before me; and the sea being
very calm, I kept a large offing to make this point.
At length doubling the point, at about two leagues
from the land, I saw plainly land on the other side
to seaward; then I concluded, as it was most 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 gale 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 sailI" and the foolish boy was
frightened out of his wits, thinking it must needs be
some of his master's ships sent to pursue us, when I
knew we were gotten far enough out of their reach.
I jumped out of the cabin and immediately saw, not
only the ship, but what she was, namely, that it was
a Portuguese ship, and, as I thought, was bound to
the coast of Guinea for negroes. But when I ob-
served the course she steered, I was soon convinced


FF~T~P






44 ADVENTURES OF

they were bound some other way, and did not design
to come any nearer to the shore; upon which I
stretched out to sea as much as I could, resolving to
speak with them if possible.
With all the sail I could make, I found I should
not be able to come in their way, but that they would
be gone by before I could make any signal to them;
but after I had crowded to the utmost and began to
despair, they, it seems, saw me by the help of their
perspective glasses, and that it was some European
boat, which, they supposed, must belong to some ship
that was lost; so they shortened sail to let me come
up. I was encouraged with this, and as I had my
patron's ensign on board, I made a waft of it to them
for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which
they saw; for they told me they saw the smoke,
though they did not hear the gun. Upon these
signals, they very kindly brought to and lay by for
me; and in about three hours' time I came up with
them.
They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in
Spanish, and in French, but I understood none of
them; but, at last, a Scotch sailor who was on board
called to me, and I answered him, and told him I
was an Englishman; that I had made my escape
out of slavery from the Moors at Sallee. They then
bade me come on board, and very kindly took me
in and all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one
will believe, that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 45

it, from such a miserable and almost hopeless con-
dition as I was in; and I immediately offered all I
had to the captain of the ship as a return for my de-
liverance; but he generously told me he would take
nothing from me, but that all I had should be delivered
safe to me when I came to the Brazils. For," says
he, I have saved your life on no other terms than
I would be glad to be saved myself; and it may, one
time or other, be my lot to be taken up in the same
condition. No, no, Seignior Inglese" (Mr. English-
man), says he, I will carry you to the Brazils in
charity, and these things will help to buy your sub-
sistence there and your passage home again."
As he was charitable in this proposal, so he was
just in the performance to a tittle; for lie ordered the
seamen that none should offer to touch anything I
had; then he took everything into his own possession,
and gave me back an exact inventory of them that I
might have them, even so much as my three earthen
jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that
he saw, and told me he would buy it of me for the
ship's use, and asked me what I would have for it?
I told him he had been so generous to me in every-
hing, that I could not offer to make any price of the
bat, but left it entirely to him; upon which he told
me he would give me a note of hand to pay me eighty
pieces of eight for it at Brazil; arid when it came
there, if any one offered to give more he would make
it up. IIe offered me also sixty pieces of eight more







46 ADVENTURES OF

for my boy Xury which I was loth to take; not that
I was not willing to let the captain have him, but I
was very loth to sell the poor boy's liberty who had
assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. How-
ever, when I let him know my reason, he owned it to be
just, and offered me this medium, that he would give
the boy an obligation to set him free in ten years if
he turned Christian; upon this, and Xury saying he
was willing to go to him, I let the captain have him.
We had a very good passage to the Brazils, and
arrived in the Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints'
Bay, in about twenty-two days after.
The generous treatment the captain gave me I can
never enough remember; he would take nothing of
me for my passage, gave me twenty ducats for the
leopard's skin, and forty for the lion's skin, which I
had in my boat, and caused everything I had in the
ship to be punctually delivered to me; and what I
was willing to sell he bought of me; such as the case
of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump
ofbees'-wax, for I had made candles of the rest; in
a word, I made about two hundred and twenty pieces
of eight of all my cargo; and with this stock I went
on shore in the Brazils.







ROBINSON CRUSOE.


CHAPTER V.

I HAD not long been here, before I was recommended
to the house of a good honest man, like himself, who
had an ingenio, as they call it (that is, a plantation
and a sugar house). I lived with him some time,
and acquainted myself by that means, with the man-
ner of planting and making of sugar; and seeing
how well the planters lived, and how they got rich
suddenly, I resolved, if I could get a license to settle
there, I would turn planter among them; endeavour-
ing in the meantime to find out some way to get my
money, which I had left in London, remitted to me.
To this purpose, getting a kind of letter of naturaliza-
tion, I purchased as much land that was uncured as
my money would reach, and formed a plan for my
plantation and settlement; such a one as might be
suitable to the stock which I proposed to myself to
receive from England.
I had a neighbour, a Portuguese of Lisbon, but
born of English parents, whose name was Wells, and
in much such circumstances as I was. I call him
my neighbour, because his plantation lay next to
mine, and we went on very sociably together. My
stock was but low, as well as his; and we rather
planted for food than anything else, for about two
years. However, we began to increase, and our land
began to come into order; so that the third year we
planted some tobacco, and made each of us a large







48 ADVENTURES OF

piece of ground ready for planting canes in the year
to come; but we both wanted help, and now I found,
more than before, I had done wrong in parting with
my boy Xury.
But, alas! for me to do wrong, that never did
right, was no great wonder. I had no remedy but
to go on; I had got into an employment quite remote
to my genius, and directly contrary to the life I de-
lighted in, and for which I forsook my father's house,
and broke through all his good advice.
I began to look upon my condition with the ut-
most regret. I had nobody to converse with but,
now and then, this neighbour; no work to be done,
but by the labour of my hands; and I used to say, I
lived just like a man cast away upon some desolate
island, that had nobody there but himself.
I was, in some degree, settled in my measures for
carrying on the plantation, before my kind friend, the
captain of the ship that took me up at sea, went
back; for the ship remained there, in providing his
lading, and preparing for his voyage, near three
months; when telling him what little stock I had
left behind me in London, he gave me this friendly
and sincere advice:-" Seignior Inglese," says he (for
so he always called me), "if you will give me let-
ters, and a procuration here in form to me, with
orders to the person who has your money in London,
to send your effects to Lisbon, to such persons as I
shall direct, and in such goods as are proper for this
country, I will bring you the produce of them, God







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 49
willing, at my return; but, since human affairs are all
subject to changes and disasters, I would have you
give orders for but one hundred pounds sterling,
which you say is half your stock, and let the hazard
be run for the first; so that, if it come safe, you may
order the rest the same way; and if it miscarry, you
may have the other half to have recourse to for your
supply."
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so
friendly, that I could not but be convinced it was the
best course I could take.
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account
of all my adventures; my slavery, escape, and how I
had met with the Portuguese captain at sea, the
humanity of his behaviour, and what condition I was
now in, with all other necessary directions for my
supply; and when this honest captain came to Lis-
bon, he found means, by some of the English mer-
chants there, to send over, not the order only, but a
full account of my story, to a merchant at London,
who represented it effectually to her; whereupon she
not only delivered the money, but, out of her own
pocket, sent the Portuguese captain a very handsome
present for his humanity and charity to me.
The merchant in London, vesting this hundred
pounds in English goods, such as the captain had
wrote for, sent them directly to him at Lisbon, and he
brought them all safe to me at the Brazils; among
which, without my direction (for I was too young in
my business to think of them), he had taken care to







aU ADVENTURES OF

have all sorts of tools, iron-work, and utensils neces-
sary for my plantation, and which were of great use
to me.
When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortune
made, for I was surprised with the joy of it; and my
good steward, the captain, had laid out the five pounds,
which my friend had sent him as a present for him-
self, to purchase and bring me over a servant, under
bond for six years' service, and would not accept of
any consideration, except a little tobacco, which I
would have him accept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all; but my goods, being all English
manufactures, such as cloths, stuffs, baize, and things
particularly valuable and desirable in the country, I
found means to sell them to a very great advantage; so
that I might say I had more than four times the value
of my first cargo, and was now infinitely beyond my
poor neighbour, I mean in the advancement of my
plantation; for the first thing I did, I bought me a
negro slave, and an European servant also; I mean
another besides that which the captain brought me
from Lisbon.
But, as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the
very means of our greatest adversity, so was it with
me. I went on the next year with great success in
my plantation; I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco
on my own ground, more than I had disposed of for
necessaries among my neighbours; and these fifty
rolls, being each of above 100 lb., were well cured,
and laid by against the return of the fleet from Lis-







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 51

bon; 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.
You may suppose, that, having now lived almost four
years in Brazils, and beginning to thrive and prosper
very well upon my plantation, I had not only learned
the language, but had contracted an acquaintance and
friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as
among the merchants at St. Salvador, which was our
port; and that, in my discourses among them, I had
frequently given them an account of my two voyages
to the coast of Guinea, the manner of trading with
the negroes there, and how easy it was to purchase
on the coast, for trifles-such as beads, toys, knives,
scissors, hatchets, bits of glass and the like-not
only gold dust, Guinea grains, elephants' teeth, &c.,
but negroes, for the service of the Brazils, in great
numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my dis-
courses 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 Assientos,
or permission of the Kings of Spain and Portugal,
and engrossed from the public; so that few negroes
were bought, and those excessively 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







52 ADVENTURES OF

to me the next morning, and told me they had been
musing very much upon what I had discoursed with
them of the last night, and they came to make a
secret proposal to me; and after enjoining me to
secrecy, they told me that they had a mind to fit
out a ship to go to Guinea; that they had all planta-
tions as well as I, and were straightened for nothing
so much as servants; that, as it was a trade that
could not be carried on, because they could not
publicly sell the negroes when they came home, so
they desired to make but one voyage, to bring the
negroes on shore privately, and divide them among
their own plantations; and, in a word, the question
was, whether I would go their supercargo in the
ship, to manage the trading part upon the coast of
Guinea? and they offered me that I should have an
equal share of the negroes, without providing any
part of the stock.
I, that was always my own destroyer, would no
more resist the offer, than I would restrain my first
rambling designs, when my father's good counsel
was lost upon me. In a word, I told them I would
go with all my heart, if they would undertake to
look after my plantation in my absence, and would
dispose of it to such as I should direct, if I miscarried.
This they all engaged to do, and entered into writ-
ings, or covenants, to do so; and I made a formal
will, disposing of my plantation and effects, in case
of my death; making the captain of the ship that
had saved my life as before, my universal heir; but







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 53

obliging him to dispose of my effects as I had directed
in my will; one half of the produce being to himself
and the other to be shipped to England.
I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates
of my fancy, rather than my reason; arid, accord-
ingly, the ship being fitted out, and the cargo fur-
nished, and all things done as by agreement by my
partners in the voyage, I went on board, in an evil
hour again, the first of September 1659, being the
same day eight years that I went from my father and
mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their
authority, and the fool to my own interest.




CHAPTER VL
THE same day I went on board, we set sail; standing
away to the northward upon our own coast, with de-
sign to stretch over for the African coast. When
they came about ten or twelve degrees of northern
latitude, which, it seems, was the manner of their
course in those days, we had very good weather, only
excessively hot, all the way upon our own coast, till
we came to the height of Cape St. Augustino; from
whence, keeping farther off at sea, we lost sight of
land, and steered as if we were bound for the isle
Fernando de Noronha, holding our course N.E. by
N., and leaving those isles on the east In this
course we passed the Line in about twelve days'







54 ADVENTURES OF

time, and were, by our last observation, in 7 degrees
22 minutes northern latitude, when a violent tornado,
or hurricane, took us quite out of our knowledge. It
began from the south-east, came about to the north-
west, and then settled in the north-east; from whence
it blew in such a terrible manner, that, for twelve
days together, we could do nothing but drive, and
scudding away before it, let it carry us whither the
fury of the winds directed; and, during these twelve
days, I need not say that I expected every day to be
swallowed up; nor, indeed, did any in the ship ex-
pect to save their lives.
In this distress we had, besides the terror of the
storm, one of our men died of the calenture, and one
man and a boy washed overboard I 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 that he was
got upon the coast of Guiana, or the north part of
Brazil, beyond the River Amazons, toward that of
the River Oroonoque, commonly called the Great
liver; and began to consult with me what course he
should take, for the ship was leaky and very much
disabled, and he was going directly back to the coast
of Brazil.
I was positively against that; and, looking over
the charts of the sea-coast of America with him, we
concluded there was no inhabited country for us to






ROBINSON CRUSOE. 05

have recourse to, till we came within the circle of the
Caribbee islands, and, therefore, resolved to stand
away for Barbadoes; which, by keeping off to sea, to
avoid the in-draft 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 ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and
steered away N.W. by W., in order to reach some of
our English islands, where I hoped for relief; but
our voyage was otherwise determined; for, being in
the latitude of 12 degrees 18 minutes, a second storm
came upon us, which carried us away with the same
impetuosity westward, and drove us out of the very
way of all human commerce.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard,
one of our men, early in the morning, cried out land!
and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out,
in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were,
but the ship struck upon a sand, and, in a moment,
her motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her
in such a manner that we expected we should all
have perished immediately.
We were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had
nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well
as we could. We had a boat at our stern just before
the storm, but she was first staved, by dasifing against
the ship's rudder, and, in the next place, she broke
away, and either sunk or was driven off to sea; so






56 ADVENTURES OF

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 de-
bate, 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 laid hold of
the boat, and, with the help of the rest of the men,
they got her flung over the ship's side; and getting
all into her, let her go. We committed our souls to
God in the most earnest manner; and the wind driv-
ing us toward the shore, we hastened our destruction
with our own hands, pulling, as well as we could, to-
wards land.
After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a
league and a half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave,
mountain like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly
bade us expect the coup de grace. In a word, it
took us with such a fury that it overset the boat at
once; and separating us, as well from the boat as
from one another, gave us not time hardly to say, 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 my breath, till that
wave having driven me, or rather carried me, a vast
way on towards the shore, and having spent itself,
went back and left me upon the land, almost dry,
but half dead with the water I took in.






ROBINSON CRUSOE. 57

Another wave that came upon me buried me at
once twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body, and
I could feel myself carried, with a mighty force and
swiftness, towards the shore a very great way; but
I held my breath, and assisted myself to swim still
forward with all my might I was ready to burst
with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising
up, so, to my immediate relief I found my head and
hands shoot out above the surface of the water; and,
though it was not two seconds of time that I could
keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me
breath, and new courage. I was covered again with
water a good while, but not so long but I held it
out; and finding the water had spent itsel, and
began to return, I struck forward against the return
of the waves, and felt ground again with my feet. I
stood still a few moments to recover breath, and till
the water went from me, and then took to my heels,
and ran, with what strength I had, farther towards
the shore. But neither would this deliver me from
the fury of the sea, which came pouring in after me
again; and twice more I was lifted up by the waves,
and carried forwards as before, the shore being very
flat. At last, to my great comfort, I got to the
mainland, and clambered up the cliffs of the shore,
and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger,
and quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed, and safe on shore; and began
to look up and thank God that my life was saved, in
a case wherein there was, some minutes before, scarce






58 ADVENTURES OF

any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to ex-
press, to the life, what the ecstacies and transports of
the soul are when it is so saved, as I may say, out of
the grave.
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 that were not fellows.
I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel-when the
beach and froth of the sea being so big, I could
hardly see it, it lay so far off-and considered, how
was it possible I could get on shore!
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable
part of my condition, I began to look round me, to
see what kind of a place I was in, and what was next
to be done; and I soon found my comforts abate, and
that, in a word, I had a dreadful deliverance; for I
was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor anything,
either to eat or drink, to comfort me; neither did I
see any prospect before me, but that of perishing
with hunger, or being devoured by wild beasts;
and that which was particularly afflicting to me was,
that I had no weapon, either to hunt or kill any crea-
ture for my sustenance, or to defend myself against
any other creature that might desire to kill me for






ROBINSON CRUSOE. 59

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
such terrible agonies of mind, that for a while I ran
about like a madman. Night coming upon me, I
began with a heavy heart to consider what would
be my lot, if there were any ravenous beasts in that
country, 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 in a thick bushy tree, like a fir,
but thorny-which grew near me, and where I
resolved to sit all night-and consider the next day
what death I should die, for as yet I saw no pro-
spect of life. I walked about a furlong from the
shore, to see if I could find any fresh water to drink,
which I did, to my great joy; and 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
full asleep, and slept as comfortably as, I believe, few
could have done in my condition; and felt myself the
most refreshed with it that I think I ever was on
such an occasion.







ADVENTURES OF


CHAPTER VII.

WHEN I waked, it was broad day, the weather clear,
and the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and
swell as before; but that which surprised me most
was, that the ship was lifted off in the night from the
sand where she lay, by the swelling of the tide, and
was driven up among the rocks about a mile from
the shore where I was, and as she seemed to stand
upright still, I wished myself on board, that at least
I might save some necessary things for my use.
When I came down from my apartment in the tree,
I looked about me again, and the first thing I found
was the boat; which lay, as the wind and the sea had
tossed her up upon the land, about two miles on my
right hand. I walked as far as I could upon the
shore to have got to her, but found a neck or inlet
of water between me and the boat, which was about
half a mile broad; so I came back for the present,
being more intent upon getting at the ship, where I
hoped to find something for my present subsistence.
A little after noon I found the sea very calm, and
the tide ebbed so far out, that I could come within a
quarter of a mile of the ship. I resolved if possible
to get to it, so I pulled of my clothes, for the weather
was hot to extremity, and took the water: but when
I came to the ship, my difficulty was still greater to
know how to get on board; for as she lay aground,
and high out of the water, there was nothing within







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 61
my reach to lay hold of. I swam round her twice,
and the second time I spied a small piece of a rope,
which I wondered I did not see at first, hang down
by the fore-chains, so low as that with great difficulty
I got hold of it, and by the help of that rope got into
the forecastle of the ship. Here I found that the
ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her
hold; but that she lay so on the side of a bank of
hard sand, or rather earth, that her stern lay lifted
up upon the bank, and her head low, almost to the
water. By this means all her quarter was free, aud
all that was in that part was dry; for you may be
sure my first work was to search, and to see what
was spoiled, and what was free: and, first, I found
that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched
by the water; and, being very well disposed to eat, I
went to the bread-room, and filled my pockets with
biscuit, and ate it as I went about other things, for I
had no time to lose. I also found some rum in the
great eabin, of which I took a large dram, and which
I had indeed need enough of, to spirit me for what
was before me. Now I wanted nothing hut a boat,
to furnish myself with many things which I foresaw
would be very necessary to me.
It was in vain to sit still, and wish for what was
not to be had, and this extremity roused my applica-
tion; we had several spare yards, and two or three
large spars of wood, and a spare topmast or two in
the ship; I resolved to fall to work with these, and
flung as many overboard as I could manage for their







62 ADVENTURES OF
weight, tying every one with a rope, that they might
not drive away. When this was done, I went down
the ship's side, and pulling them to me, I tied four
of them fast together at both ends as well as I could
in the form of a raft, and laying two or three short
pieces of plank upon them crossways, I found I could
walk upon it very well, but that it was not able to
bear any great weight, the pieces being too light: so
I went to work, and with the carpenter's saw I cut
a spare topmast into three lengths, and added them
to my raft, with a great deal of labour and pains.
But the hope of furnishing myself with necessaries
encouraged me to go beyond what I should have
been able to have done upon another occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any rea-
sonable weight. My next care was what to load it
with, and how to preserve what I laid upon it from
the surf of the sea; but I was not long considering
this. I first laid all the planks or boards upon it
that I could get, and, having considered well what
I most wanted, I got three of the seamen's chests,
which I had broken open and emptied, and lowered
them down upon my raft; these I filled with provi-
sions, namely, bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five
pieces of dried goats' flesh (which we lived much
upon), and a little remainder of European corn,
which had been laid by for some fowls which we had
brought to sea with us; but the fowls were killed.
There had been some barley and wheat together, but,
3to my great disappointment, I found afterwards that







ROBINSON CRUBOE. 63
the rats had eaten or spoiled it all. As for liquors,
I found several cases of bottles belonging to our
skipper, in which were some cordial waters; and, in
all, about five or six gallons of rack. These I stowed
by themselves, there being no need to put them into
the chests, nor any room for them. While I was
doing this, I found the tide began to flow, though
very calm; and I had the mortification to see my
coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I had left on shore
upon the sand, swim away; as for my breeches,
which were only linen, and open-kneed, 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 the carpenter's
chest, which was indeed a very useful prize to me,
and much more valuable than a ship-lading of gold
would have been at that time. I got it down to my
raft, even whole as it was, without losing time to
look into it, for I knew in general what it contained.
My next care was for some ammunition and arms.
There were two very good fowling-pieces in the great
cabin, and two pistols; these I secured first, with
some powder-horns and a small bag of shot, and two
old rusty swords. I knew there were three barrels
of powder in the ship, but knew not where our gunner
had stowed them; but, with much search, I found
them; two of them dry and good, the third had taken







0- ADVENTURES OF
water. Those two I got to my raft, with the arms.
And now I thought myself pretty well freighted, and
began to think how I should get to shore with them,
having neither sail, oar, nor rudder; and the least
capful of wind would have overset all my navigation.
I had three encouragements: 1st, A smooth, calm
sea; 2dly, The tide rising, and setting in to the shore;
3dly, What little wind there was, blew me towards
the land. And thus, having found two or three
broken oars belonging to the boat, and, besides the
tools which were in the chest, I found two saws, an
axe, and a hammer; and, with this cargo, I put to
sea. For a mile or thereabouts my raft went very
well, only that I found it drive a little distance 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 get into the middle of the
stream, and at length found myself in the mouth of
a little river, with land on both sides, and a strong
current, or tide, running up. I looked on both sides
for a proper place to get to shore, for I was not will-
ing to be driven too high 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.







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 65
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 my raft and all
my cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to view the country, and seek
a proper place for my habitation, and where to stow
my goods, to secure them from whatever might
happen. Where I was, I yet knew not; whether
on the continent, or on an island; whether inhabited,
or not inhabited; whether in danger of wild beasts
or not. There was a hill, not above a mile from me,
which rose up very steep and high, and which seemed
to over-top some other hills, which lay as in a ridge,
from it, northward. I took out one of the fowling-
pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder;
and, thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the
top of that hill; where, after I had, with great labour
and difficulty, got up to the top, I saw my lot, to my
great affliction, namely, that I was in an island, en-
vironed every way with the sea, no land to be seen
except some rocks, which lay a great way off and
two small islands, less than this, which lay about
three leagues to the west.
I found, also, that the island I was in was barren,
and, as I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited,
except by wild beasts, of whom, however, I saw none;
yet I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their
kinds; neither, when I killed them, could I tell what
was fit for food, and what not.
Contented with this discovery, I came back to my







66 ADVENTURES OF

raft, and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore,
which took me up the rest of that day: what to do
with myself at night I knew not, nor indeed where
to rest: for I was afraid to lie down on the ground,
not knowing but some wild beasts might devour me;
though, as I afterwards found, there was really no
need for those fears.
However, as well as I could, I barricaded myself
round with the chests and boards that I had brought
on shore, and made a kind of hut for that night's
lodging. As for food, I yet saw not which way to
supply myself, except that I had seen two or three
creatures like hares run out of the wood.
I now began to consider that I might yet get a
great many things out of the ship which would be
useful to me, and particularly some of the rigging
and sails, and such other things as might come to
land; and I resolved to make another voyage on
board the vessel, if possible. And, as I knew that
the first storm that blew must necessarily break her
all in pieces, I resolved to set all other things apart,
till I got everything out of the ship that I could get.
Then I called a council, that is to say, in my thoughts,
whether I should take back the raft; but this appeared
impracticable: so I resolved to go as before, when
the tide was down; and I did so, only that I stripped
before I went from my hut, having nothing on but a
chequered shirt, a pair of linen drawers, and a pair
of pumps on my feet.
I got on board the ship as before, and prepared a







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 67

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 top-sail, a ham-
mock, and some bedding; and with this I loaded my
second raft, and brought them all safe on shore, to
my great comfort.
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 workto make me a little tent,
with the sail, and some poles which I cut for that
purpose; and into this tent I brought everything
that I knew would spoil either with rain or sun; and
I piled all the empty chests and casks up in a circle
round the tent, to fortify it from any sudden attempt
either from man or beast.







64 ADVENTURES OF
When I had done this, I blocked up the door of
the tent with some boards within, and an empty
chest set up on end without; and, spreading one of
the beds upon the ground, laying my two pistols just
at my head, and my gun at length by me, I went to
bed, for the first time, and slept very quietly all night,
for I was very weary and heavy; for the night before
I had slept little, and had laboured very hard all day,
as well to fetch all those things from the ship, as to
get them on shore.
After I had made five or six such voyages to the
ship, and thought I had nothing more to expect that
was worth my meddling with; I say, after all this,
I found a great hogshead of bread, and three large
runlets of rum or spirits, and a box of sugar, and a
barrel of fine flour; this was surprising to me, be-
cause I had given over expecting any more provi-
sions, except what was spoiled by the water. I soon
emptied the hogshead of that bread, and wrapped it
up, parcel by parcel, in pieces of the sails, which I
cut out; and, in a word, I got all this safe on shore
also.
The next day I made another voyage; and now,
having plundered the ship of what was portable and
fit to hand out, I began with the cables, and cutting
the great cable into pieces, such as I could move, I
got two cables and a hawser on shore, with all the
iron-work I could get; and, having cut down the
spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard, and everything
I could to make a large raft, I loaded it with all







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 69
those heavy goods, and came away; but this raft was
so unwieldy, and so overladen, that, after I was en-
tered the little cove, where I had landed the rest of
my goods, not being able to guide it so handily as
I did the other, it overset, and threw me and all my
cargo into the water. As for myself it was no great
harm, for I was near the shore; but as to my cargo,
it was the greater part of it lost, especially the iron,
which I expected would have been of great use to me.
However, when the tide was out, I got most of the
pieces of cable ashore, and some of the iron, though
with infinite labour; for I was fain to dip for it into
the water, a work which fatigued me very much.
After this I went every day on board, and brought
away what I could get




CHAPTER VIII.

I HAD been now thirteen days on shore, and had been
eleven times on board the ship; in which time I had
brought away all that one pair of hands could well
be supposed capable to bring; though, I believe
verily, had the calm weather held, I should have
brought away the whole ship, piece by piece; but
preparing the twelfth time to go on board, I found
the wind began to rise. However, at low water I
went on board; and though I thought I had rum-
maged the cabin so effectually as that nothing more







70 ADVENTURES OF

could be found, yet I discovered a locker, with drawers
in it, in one of which I found two or three razors, and
one pair of large scissors, with some ten or a dozen
of good knives and forks; in another I found about
thirty-six pounds value in money, some European
coin, some Brazil, some pieces of eight, some gold,
and some silver.
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money. "0
drug!" said I aloud, "what art thou good for? Thou
art not worth to me, no, not the taking off the ground;
one of those knives is worth all this heap. I have no
manner of use for thee; e'en remain where thou art,
and go to the bottom, as a creature whose life is not
worth saving." However, upon second thoughts, I
took it away, and wrapping all this in a piece of can-
vass, 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 pre-
sently occurred to me, that it was in vain to pretend
to make a raft with the wind off shore; and that it
was my business to be gone before the tide of flood
began, or otherwise I might not be able to reach the
shore at all. Accordingly, I let myself down into
the water, and swam across the channel which lay
between the ship and the sands, and even that with
difficulty enough, partly with the weight of the things
I had about me, and partly the roughness of the
water; for the wind rose very hastily, and before it
was quite high water it blew a storm.






ROBNSON CRUSOE. 71

But I was got home to my little tent, where I lay,
with all my wealth about me, very secure. It blew
very hard all that night, and in the morning, when I
looked out, behold, no more ship was to be seen! I
was a little surprised, but recovered myself with this
satisfactory reflection, namely, that I had lost no
time, nor abated no diligence, to get everything out
of her that could be useful to me, and that, indeed,
there was little left in her that I was able to bring
away, if I had had more time.
My thoughts were now wholly employed about
securing myself against either savages, if any should
appear, or wild beasts, if any were in the island; and
I had many thoughts of the method how to do this,
and what kind of dwelling to make, whether I should
make me a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the
earth; and in short, I resolved upon both: the man-
ner and description of which it may not be improper
to give an account of.
I soon found the place I was in was not for my
settlement, particularly because it was upon a low,
moorish ground near the sea, and I believed it would
not be wholesome, and more particularly, because
there was no fresh water near it; so I resolved to
find a more healthy and more convenient spot of
ground.
I consulted several things in my situation which I
found wouldbe proper for me--lst, Health and fresh
water, I just now mentioned; 2dly, Shelter from the
heat of the sun; 3dly, Security from ravenous crea-







72 ADVENTURES OF

tures, whether men or beasts; 4thly, A view to the
sea, that, if God sent any ship in sight, I might not
lose any advantage for my deliverance, of which I
was not willing to banish all my expectation yet.
In search for a proper place for this, I found a little
plain on the side of a rising hill, on which was a rock
whose front towards this little plain was steep as a
house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me
from the top. On the side of this rock there was a
hollow place, worn a little way in, like the entrance
or door of a cave; but there was not really any cave
or way into the rock at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow
place, I resolved to pitch my tent. This plain was
not above a hundred yards broad, and about twice as
long, and lay like a green before my door; and, at the
end of it, descended irregularly every way down into
the low ground by the sea-side. It was on the
N.N.W. side of the hill; so that it was sheltered from
the heat every day, till it came to a W. and by S.
sun, or thereabouts, which in those countries is near
the setting.
Before I set up my tent, I drew a half-circle be-
fore the hollow place, which took in about ten yards
in its semi-diameter from the rock, and twenty yards
in its diameter from its beginning and ending.
In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong
stakes, driving them into the ground till they stood
very firm like piles, the biggest end being out of the
ground about five feet and a half, and sharpened on







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 73

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 above another,
within the circle between these two rows of stakes,
up to the top, placing other stakes in the inside lean-
ing against them, about two feet and a half high, like
a spur to a post; and this fence was so strong that
neither man nor beast could get into it, or over it.
This cost me a great deal of time and labour, espe-
cially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to
the place, and drive them into the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be, not by
a door, but by a short ladder to get over the top:
which ladder, when I was in, I lifted over after me;
and so I was completely fenced in and fortified, as I
thought, from all the world, and consequently slept
secure in the night, which otherwise I could not have
done; though, as it appeared afterwards, there was
no need of all this caution from the enemies that I
apprehended danger from.
Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labour, I
carried all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition,
and stores, of which you have the account above; and
I made me a large tent, which, to preserve me from
the rains, that in one part of the year are vey violent
there, I made double, namely, one smaller tent within,
and one larger tent above it, and covered the upper-
most with a large tarpaulin, which I had saved among
the sails.







74 ADVENTURES OF
And now I lay no more for a while in the bed
which I had brought on shore, but in a hammock,
which was indeed a very good one, and belonged to
the mate of the ship.
Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and
everything that would spoil by the wet; and having
thus enclosed all my goods, I made up the entrance,
which, till now, I had left open, and so passed and
repassed, as I said, by a short ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way
into the rock, and bringing all the earth and stones
that I dug down out through my tent, Ilaid themup
within my fence in the nature of a terrace, so that it
raised the ground within about a foot and a hal4 and
thus I made me a cave, just behind my tent, which
served me like a cellar to my house. It cost me
much labour, and many days, before all these things
were brought to perfection; and therefore I must go
back to some other things which took up some of my
thoughts. At the same time it happened, after I had
laid my schemes 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
naturally the effect of it. I was not so much sur-
prised with the lightning as I was with the thought
which darted into my mind as swift as the lightning
itself, "0, my powder" My very heart sunk within
me, when I thought that, at one blast, all my powder
might be destroyed, on which not my defence only,







ROBINrON CRUSOE. 7-
hut the providing me food, as I thought, entirely de-
pended. I was nothing near so anxious about my
own danger, though, had the powder took fire, I had
never known who had hurt me.
Such impression did this make upon me, that, after
the storm was over, I laid aside all my works, my
building and fortifying, and applied myself to make
bags and boxes to separate the powder, and to keep
it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope that what-
ever might come, it might not all take fire at once;
and to keep it so apart that it should not be possible
to make one part fire another. I finished this work
in about a fortnight; and I think my powder, which
in all was about 240 lb. 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 at least once every day with my gun, as well to
divert myself as to see if I could kill anything fit for
food, and, as near as I could, to acquaint myself with
what the island produced. The first time I went out
I presently discovered that there were goats upon the
island, which was a great satisfaction to me; but then
it was attended with this misfortune to me, namely,
that they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot,
that it was the most difficult thing in the world to







76 ADVENTURES OF
come at them; but I was not discouraged at this, not
doubting but I might now and then shoot one, as it
soon happened; for after I had found their haunts a
little, I laid wait in this manner for them: I observed,
if they saw me in the valleys, though they were upon
the rocks, they would run away, as if in a terrible
fright; but if they were feeding in the valleys and I
was upon the rocks, they took no notice of me; from
whence I concluded that by the position of their
optics, their sight was so directed downward that they
did not readily see objects that were above them; so,
afterwards, I took this method-I always climbed
the rocks first, to get above them, and then had fre-
quently a fair mark. The first shot I made among
these creatures, I killed a she-goat, which had little
kid by her, which she gave suck to, which grieved
Sieo heartily; but when the old one fell, the kid stood
stock-still by her till I came and took her up: and
not only so, but when I carried the old one with me
upon my shoulders, the kid followed me quite to
my enclosure, upon which I laid down the dam and
took the kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale,
in hopes to have it bred up tame; but it would not
eat so I was forced to kill it and eat it myself. These
two supplied me with flesh a great while, for I ate
sparingly, and preserved my provisions (my bread
especially) as much as possibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it abso-
lutely necessary to provide a place to make a fire in,
;md fuel to burn; and what I did for that, as also how







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 77
I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I made,
I shall give a full account of it in its proper place;
but I must first give some little account of myself
and of my thoughts about living, which, it may be
well supposed, were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for, as I
was not east away upon that island without being
driven, as is said, by a violent storm, quite out of
the course of our intended voyage, and a great way,
namely, some hundreds of leagues, out of the ordinary
course of the trade of mankind, I had great reason to
consider it as a determination of Heaven, that in this
desolate place, and in this desolate manner, I should
end my life The tears would run plentifully down
my face when I made these reflections; and some-
times I would expostulate with myself why Provi-
dence should thus completely ruin its creatures, and
render them so absolutely miserable; so abandoned
without help, so entirely depressed, that it could
hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to
check these thoughts, and to reprove me; and parti-
cularly, one day, walking with my gun in my hand
by the sea-side, I was very pensive upon the subject
of my present condition, when reason, as it were, ex-
postulated with me the other way, thus:-" Well,
you are in a desolate condition, it is true; but pray
remember, where are the rest of you? Did not you
come, eleven of you, into the boat? Where are the ten?
Why were they not saved, and you lost? Why were







4T ADVENTURES OF

you singled out? Is it better to be here or there?"
And then I pointed to the sea. All evils are to be
considered with the good that is in them, and with
what worse attends them.




CHAPTER IX.

AND now, being to enter into a melancholy relation
of a scene of silent life, such, perhaps, as was never
heard of in the world before, I shall take it from its
beginning, and continue it in its order. It was, by
my account, the 30th of September, when, in the
manner as above said, I first set footupon this horrible
island; when the sun, being to us in its autumnal
equinox, was almostjust over my head; for I reckoned
myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of 9 de-
grees 22 minutes north of the Line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it
came into my thoughts that I should lose my reckon-
ing of time for want of books, and pen and ink, and
should even forget the Sabbath-days from the work-
ing-days; but to prevent this, I cut it, with my knife,
upon a large post, in capital letters; and making it
into a great cross, I set it up on the shore where I
first landed, namely, I came on shore here on the
30th of September 1659." Upon the sides of this
square post I cut, every day, a notch with my knife,
and every seventh notch was as long again as the







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 79
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.
But it happened that, among the many things
which I brought out of the ship, in the several voyages
which, as above mentioned, I made to it, I got several
things of less value, but not at all less useful to me,
which I found some time after, in rummaging the
chests; as, in particular, pens, ink, and paper; several
parcels in the captain's, mate's, gunner's, and car-
penter's keeping; three or four compasses, some ma-
thematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and
books of navigation; all which I huddled together,
whether I might want them or no: also, I found three
very good Bibles, which came to me in my cargo
from England, and which I had packed up among my
things; some Portuguese books also, and among them
two or three Popish prayer-books, and several other
books, all which I carefully secured. And I must
not forget that we had in the ship a dog, and two
cats, of whose eminent history I may have occasion
to say something in its place: for I carried both the
cats with me; and as for the dog, he jumped out of
the ship himself and swam on shore to me, the day
after I went on shore with my first cargo, and was a
trusty servant to me for many years; I wanted nothing
that he could fetch me, nor any company that he could
make up to me; I only wanted to have him talk to
me, but that would not do. As I observed before, I
found pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to







80 ADVENTURES OF
the utmost; and I shall show, that, while my ink
lasted, I kept things very exact, but after that was
gone, I could not; for I could not make any ink, by
any means that I could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things,
notwithstanding all that I had amassed together; and
of these, this of ink was one; as also a spade, pick-
axe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles,
pins, and thread: as for linen, I soon learned to want
that without much difficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on
heavily; and it was near a whole year before I had
entirely finished my little pale, or surrounded habita-
tion. The piles, or stakes, which were as heavy as I
could well lift, were a long time in cutting and pre-
paring in the woods, and more, by far, in bringing
home; so that I spent sometimes two days in cutting
and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day
in driving it into the ground: for which purpose I got
a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last bethought
myself of one of the iron crows; which, however,
though I found it, yet it made driving these posts, or
piles, very laborious and tedious work.
I now began to consider seriously my condition,
and the circumstances I was reduced to; and I drew
up the state of my affairs in writing, not so much to
leave them to any that were to come after me (for I
was like to have but few heirs), as to deliver my
thoughts from daily poring upon them, and afflicting
my mind: and, as my reason began now to master







ROmNsBON cBUOE. 81

my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well
as I could, and to set the good against the evil, that I
might have something to distinguish my case from
worse; and I stated it very impartially, like debtor
and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the
miseries I suffered, thus:-


EvI. Goon.

I am eastupon horrible, But I am alive and not
desolate island, void of all drowned, as all my ship's
hope of recovery. company were.

I am singled out and sepa- But I am singled out, too,
rated, as it were, from all the from all the ship's crew, to
world to be miserable, be spared from death; and
He that providentially saved
me from death, can deliver
me from this condition.

I am divided from man- But I am not starved, and
kind, solitaire: one banish- perishing in a barren place,
ed from human society. affording no sustenance.

I have no clothes to cover But I am in a hot climate,
me. where, if I had clothes, I
could hardly wear them.

I am without any defence, But I am cast on an land,
or means to resist any vio- where I see no wild beasts
lence of man or beast, to hurt me, as I saw on the
coast of Africa, and what if
I had been shipwrecked
there
F







82 ADVENTURES OF
I have no soul to speak to, But God wonderfully sent
or relieve me. the ship in near enough to
the shore, that I have got
out somanynecessary things
as will either supply my
wants, or enable me to sup-
ply myself, even as long as
1 live.


Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony,
that there was scarce any condition in the world so
miserable, but there was something negative, or some-
thing positive, to be thankful for in it; and let this
stand as a direction, from the experience of the most
miserable of all conditions in this world, that we may
always find in it something to comfort ourselves from,
and to set, in the description of good and evil, on the
credit side of the account.
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my
condition, and giving over looking out to sea, to see if
I could spy a ship; I say, giving over these things, I
began to apply myself to accommodate my way of
living, and to make things as easy to me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was
a tent under the side of a rock, surrounded with a
strong pale of posts and cables; but I might now
rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall against
it of turfs, about two feet thick on the outside; and,
after some time (I think it was a year and a half), I
raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock, and thatched
or covered it with boughs of trees, and such things as







ROBINON CRUSOE. 83

I could get, to keep out the rain; which I found, at
some time of the year, very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my
goods into this pale, and into the cave which I had
made behind me. But I must observe, too, that at
first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they
lay in no order, so they took up all my place; I had
no room to turn myself; so I set myself to enlarge
my cave, antwork farther into the earth, for it was
a loose, sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour
I bestowed on it; and when I found I was pretty
safe as to the beasts of prey, I worked sideways, to
the right hand, into the rock, and then, turning to
the right again, worked quite out, and made me a
door to come out on the outside of my pale or forti-
fication.
This gave me not only egress and regress, as it
were, a back way to my tent and to my storehouse,
but gave me room to stow my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such
necessary things as I found I most wanted, particu-
larly a chair and a table; for, without these, I was
not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world;
I could not write, or eat, or do several things with so
much pleasure, without a table; so I went to work.
And here I must needs observe, that, as reason is the
substance and original of the mathematics, so by stat-
ing and squaring everything by reason, and by mak-
ing the most rational judgment of things, every man
may be, in time, master of every mechanic art. I







84 ADVENTURES OF
had never handled a tool in my life; and yet, in
time, by labour, application, and contrivance, I found
at last that I wanted nothing but I could have made,
especially if I had had tools. However, I made
abundance of things even without tools, and some
with no more tools than an adze and a hatchet,
which, perhaps, were never made that way before,
and that with infinite labour. For example, if I
wanted a board, I had no other way butto cut down
a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on
either side with my axe, till I had brought it to be
as thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my
adze. It is true, by this method I could make but
one board out of a whole tree; but this I had no
remedy for but patience, any more than I had for
the prodigious deal of time and labour which it took
me to make up a plank or board; but my time or
labour was little worth, and so it was as well em-
ployed one way as another.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I ob-
served 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 wrought out some boards,
as above, I made large shelves, of the breadth of a
foot and a half one over another, all along one side
of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and iron work
on; and, in a word, to separate everything at large
in their places, that I might easily come 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







BOBM30 CRUI BOE.


my cave been seen, it looked like a general magazine
of all necessary things; and I hd everything so ready
at my hand, that it was a great pleasure to me to see
all my goods in such order, and especially to find my
stock of all necessaries so great.
And now it was that I began to keep a journal of
every day's employment, of which I shall here give
you the copy (though in it will be told all those par-
ticulars over again) as long as it lasted; for, having
no more ink, I was forced to leave it of


81


THE JOURNAL.

September 30, 1659. I, poor miserable Robinson
Crusoe, being shipwrecked, during a dreadful storm,
in the offing, came on shore on this dismal unfort-
nate island, which I called the IsLAwD or D Iam;
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, namely,
I had neither food, house, clothe, weapon, nor place
tofly to; and, in despair of any relief w nothing
but death before me; thatI should either be devoured
by wild beasts, murdered by savage, or starved to
death for want of food. At the approach of night, I
slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures, but lept
soundly, though it rained all night.


A


?!


--~--rr*rrrm*--rrr~r~-~ __ I







86 ADVENTURES OP

October 1. In the morning, I saw, to my great
surprise, the ship had floated with the high tide, and
was driven on shore again much nearer the island;
which, as it was some comfort on one hand (for seeing
her sit upright and not broken in pieces, I hoped, if
the wind abated, I might get on board, and get some
food and necessaries out of her for my relief), so, on
the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of my
comrades, who, I imagined, if we had all stayed on
board, might have saved the ship, or, at least, that
they would not have been all drowned, as they were;
and that, had the men been saved, we might, perhaps,
have built us a boat out of the ruins of the ship, to
have carried us to some other part of the world. I
spent great part of this day in perplexing myself on
these things; but at length, seeing the ship almost
dry, I went upon the sand as near as I could, and
then swam on board. This day, also, it continued
raining, though with no wind at all.
From the 1st of October till the 24th. All these
days entirely spent in making several voyages to
get all I could out of the ship, which I brought
on shore, every time of flood, upon rafts. Much
rain also on these days, though with some intervals
of fair weather; but it seems this was the rainy
season.
Oct. 20. I overset my raft and all the goods I had
got upon it, but being in shoal water, and the things
being chiefly heavy, I recovered many of them when
the tide was out.







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 87
Oct. 25. It rained all night and all day, with some
gusts of wind, during which time the ship broke in
pieces (the wind blowing a little harder than before),
and was no more to be seen except the wreck of her,
and that only at low water. I spent this day in
covering and securing the goods which I had saved,
that the rain might not spoil them.
Oct. 26. 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 semicircle for my encampment, which I resolved
to strengthen with a work wall or fortification, made
of double piles, lined within with cables and without
with turf.
From the 26th to the 30th, I worked very hard in
carrying all my goods to my new habitation, though
some part of the time it rained exceedingly hard.
The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the
island with my gun to seek for some food, and dis-
cover the country, when I killed a she-goat, and her
kid followed me home, which I afterwards killed also
because it would not feed.
November 1. I set up my tent under a rock, and
lay there for the first night, making it as large as I
could with stakes driven in to swing my hammock
upon.
Nov. 2. I set upall my chests and boards, and the
pieces of timber which made my rafts, and with them







88 ADVENTURES OF
formed a fence round me, a little within the place I
had marked out for my fortification.
Nov. 3. I went out with my gun and killed two
fowls like ducks, which were very good food. In the
afternoon I went to work to make me a table.
Nov. 4. This morning I began to order my times
of work, of going out with my gun, time of sleep, and
time of diversion: namely, 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 the next
was wholly employed in making my table, for I was
yet but a very sorry workman; though time and ne-
cessity made me a complete natural mechanic soon
after, as I believe they would any one else.
Nov. 5. This day went abroad with my gun and
dog, and killed a wild-cat; her skin pretty soft, but
her flesh good for nothing; of every creature that
I killed, I took off the skins and preserved them.
Coming back by the sea-shore, I saw many sorts of
sea-fowl which I did not understand; but was sur-
prised and almost frightened with two or three seals,
which, while I was gazing at them (not well know-
ing 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







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 89 7

my liking; nor was it long before I learned to mend
it.
Nov. 7. Now it began to be settled fair weather.
The 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for
the 11th was Sunday, according to my reckoning), I
took wholly up to make me a chair, and, with mueh
ado, brought it to a tolerable shape, but never to
please me; and even in the making, I pulled it in
pieces several times.
Note. I soon neglected my keeping Sundays; for,
omitting my mark for them on my post, I forgot
which was which.
Nov. 13. This day it rained, which refreshed me
exceedingly and cooled the earth, but it was accom-
panied with terrible thunder and lightning, which
frightened me dreadfully for fear of my powder. As
soon as it was over, I resolved to separate my stock
of powder into as many little parcels as possible, that
it might not be in danger.
Nov. 14, 15, 16. These three days I spent in mak-
ing little square chests or boxes, which might hold
about a pound or two pounds at most of powder; and
so putting the powder in, I stowed it in places as
secure and as remote from one another as possible.
On one of these three days, I killed a large bird that
was good to eat, but I knew not what to call it.
Nov. 17. This day I began to dig behind my tent
into the rock, to make room for my farther conveni-
ence.
Note. Three things I wanted exceedingly for this







90 ADVENTURES OF
work, namely, a pick-axe, a shovel, and a wheel-
barrow or basket; so I desisted from my work, and
began to consider how to supply these wants, and
make me some tools. As for a pick-axe, I made use
of the iron crows, which were proper enough, though
heavy; but the next thing was a shovel or spade:
this was so absolutely necessary, that indeed I could
do nothing effectually without it; but what kind of
one to make I knew not
Nov. 18. The next day, in searching the woods, I
found a tree of that wood, or like it, which, in the
Brazils, they call the Iron tree, from its exceeding
hardness; of this, with great labour and almost spoil-
ing my axe, I cut a piece, and brought it home too,
with difficulty enough, for it was exceeding heavy
The excessive hardness of the wood, and my having
no other way, made me a long while upon this
machine; for I worked it effectually by little and
little into the form of a shovel or spade, the handle
exactly shaped like ours in England, only that the
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
wheelbarrow. A basket I could not make by any
means, having no such things as twigs that would
bend to make wicker-ware; at least none yet found
out, and as to the wheelbarrow, I fancied I could







ROBINSON CRUSOE. 91
make all but the wheel, but that I had no notion oZ
neither did I know how to go about it; besides, I had
no possible way to make iron gudgeons, for the
spindle or axis of the wheel to run in; so I gave it
over; and for carrying away the earth which I dug
out of the cave, I made me a thing like a hod which
the labourers carry the mortar in for the bricklayers.
This was not so difficult to me as the making the
shovel; and yet this and the shovel, and the attempt
which I made in vain to make a wheelbarrow, took
me up no less than four days; I mean always ex-
cepting my morning walk with my gun, which I sel-
dom omitted, and very seldom failed also bringing
home something fit to eat.
Nov. 23. My other work having now stood still,
because of my making these tools, when they were
finished I went on, and working every day as my
strength and time allowed, I spent eighteen days en-
tirely in widening and deepening my cave, that it
might hold my goods commodiously.
Note. During all this time I worked to make this
room or cave spacious enough to accommodate me as
a warehouse, or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room,
and a cellar. As for a 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 flag
and large leaves of trees like a thatch.







VY ADVENTURES OF
December 10. I began now to think my cave or
vault finished; when on a sudden (it seems I had
made it too large) a great quantity of earth fell down
from the top and one side; so much that, in short,
it frightened me, and not without reason too, for if I
had been under it I should never have wanted a
grave-digger. Upon this disaster, I had a great deal
of work to do over again, for I had the loose earth to
carry out; and, which was of more importance, I had
the ceiling to prop up so that I might be sure no
more would come down.
Dec. 11. This day I went to work with it accord-
ingly, and got two shores or posts pitched upright to
the top, with two pieces of board across over each
post; this I finished the next day, and, setting more
posts up with boards, in about a week more I had the
roof secured; and the posts standing in rows served
me for partitions to part of my house.
Dec. 17. From this day to the 20th I placed
shelves, and knocked up nails on the posts, to hang
everything up that could be hung up; and now I
began to be in some order within doors.
Dec. 20. I carried everything into the cave, and
began to furnish my house, and set up some pieces of
boards like a dresser, to order my victuals upon; but
boards began to be very scarce with me; also I made
me another table.
Dec. 24. Much rain all night and all day; no stir-
ring out.
Dec. 25. Rain all day.







ROBMISON CBUSOE. 93
Dec. 26. No rain, and the earth much cooler than
before, and pleasanter.
Dec. 27. Killed a young goat, and lamed another,
so that I catehed it and led it home in a string;
when I had it home I bound and splintered up its
leg, which was broke.
N.B. I took such care of it that it lived, and the
leg grew well and as strong as ever; but by nursing
it so long it grew tame, and fed upon the little green
at my door, and would not go away. This was the
first time that I entertained a thought of breeding up
some tame creatures, that I might have food when
my powder and shot was all spent.
Dec. 28, 29, 30, 31. Great heats and no breeze,
so that there was no stirring abroad, except in the
evening, for food; this time I spent in putting all my
things in order within doors.
January 1. Very hot still; but I went abroad early
and late with my gun, and lay still in the middle of
the day. This evening, going farther into the valleys
which lay towards the centre of the island, I found
there was plenty of goats, though exceeding shy
and hard to come at; however, I resolved to try if
I could not bring my dog to hunt them down.
Accordingly, the next day I went out with my
dog, and set him upon the goats, but I was mis-
taken, for they all faced about upon the dog; and he
knew his danger too well, for he would not come
near them.
Jan. 3. I began my fence, or wall, which, being







94 ADVENTURES OF

still jealous of my being attacked by somebody, I re-
solved to make very thick and strong.
N.B. This wall being described before, I purposely
omit what was said in the Journal; it is sufficient to
observe, that I was no less time than from the 3d of
January to the 14th of April, working, finishing, and
perfecting this wall, though it was no more than
about 25 yards in length, being a half-circle, from
one place in the rock to another place, about twelve
yards from it, the door of the cave being in the centre,
behind it.



CHAPTER X.

ALL this time I worked very hard, the rains hinder-
ing me many days, nay, sometimes weeks together;
but I thought I should never be perfectly secure till
this wall was finished; and it is scarce credible what
inexpressible labour everything was done with, espe-
cially the bringing piles out of the woods, and driving
them into the ground, for I made them much bigger
than I needed to have done.
When this wall was finished, and the outside double
fenced, with a turf-wall raised up close to it, I per-
suaded myself that if any people were to come on
shore there, they would not perceive anything like a
habitation; and it was very well I did so, as may be
observed hereafter, upon a very remarkable occasion.
And now, in the managing my houehold affairs, I







ROEBsoN CRUSOE. 95

found myself wanting in many things, which I thought
at first it was impossible for me to make, as, indeed,
as to some of them, it was; for instance, I could never
make a cask to be hooped. I had a small runlet or
two, as I observed before, but I could never arrive to
the capacity of making one by them, though I spent
many weeks about it; I could neither put in the
heads, nor join the staves so true to one another as
to make them hold water, so I gave that also over.
In the next place, I was at a great loss for candle,
so that as soon as it was dark, which was generally
by seven o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I re-
membered the lump of bees'-wax with which I made
candles in my African adventure, but I had none of
that now; the only remedy I had was, that when I
had killed a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little
dish made of clay, which I baked in the sun, to which
I added a wick of some oakum, I made me a lamp;
and this gave me light, though not a clear steady
light, like a candle. In the middle of all my labours,
it happened that in rummaging my things I found a
little bag, which, as I hinted before, had been filled
with corn for feeding of poultry; not for this voyage,
but before, as I suppose, when the ship came from
Lisbon. What little remainder of coin had been in
the bag was all devoured by the rats, and I saw no-
thing in the bag but husks and dust; and being will-
ing 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







96 ADVENTURES OF
of corn out of it, on one side of my fortification, under
the rock.
It was a little before the great rain, just now men-
tioned, that I threw this stuff away, taking no notice
of anything, and not so much as remembering that I
had thrown anything there, when about a month
after I saw some few stalks of something green shoot-
ing out of the ground, which I fancied might be some
plant I had not seen; but I was surprised and per-
fectly astonished, when, after a little longer time, I
saw about ten or twelve ears come out, which were
perfect green barley, of the same kind as our Euro-
pean, 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; in-
deed, I had very few notions of religion in my head,
nor had entertained any sense of anything 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 as I
knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely;
and I began to suggest that God had miraculously
caused this grain to grow without any help of seed
sown, and that it was so directed purely for my sus-
tenance on that wild miserable place.
This touched my heart a little, and brought tears






ROBINSON CRUSOE. 97

out of my eyes, and I began to bless myself that such
a prodigy of nature should happen upon my account;
and this was the more strange to me, because I saw
near it still, all along by the side of the rock, some
other straggling stalks, which proved to be stalks of
rice, and which I knew, because I had seen it grow
in Africa, when I was ashore there.
I not only thought these the pure productions of
Providence for my support, but, not doubting that
there was more in the place, I went over all that part
Sof the island where I had been before, searching in
every corner, and under every rock, for more of it;
but I could not find any. At last it occurred to my
thoughts that I had shook out a bag of chickens'
meat in that place, and then the wonder began to
cease; and I must confess my religious thankfulness
to God's providence began to abate too, upon the dis-
covering that all this was nothing but what was com-
mon, though I ought to have been as thankful for so
strange and unforeseen a providence as if it had been
miraculous; for it was really the work of Providence
as to me, that should order or appoint that ten or
twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled, when
the rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it had been
dropt from heaven; as also that I should throw it out
in that particular place, where, it being in the shade
of a high rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas,
if I had thrown it anywhere else at that time, it
would have been burnt up and destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of this corn, jou may be







98 ADVENTURES OF

sure, in their season, which was about the end of
June, and, laying up every corn, I resolved to sow
them all again; hoping, in time, to have some quantity
sufficient to supply me with bread. But it was not
till the fourth year that I could allow myself the least
grain of this corn to eat, and even then but sparingly,
as I shall show afterwards in its order, for I lost all
that I sowed the first season, by not observing the
proper time; as I sowed 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, namely, 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 excessively hard these three or four
months, to get my wall done, and the 14th of April
I closed it up, contriving to get into it, not by a door,
but over the wall by a ladder, that there might be
no sign on the outside of my habitation.
April 10. I finished the ladder; so I went up witl
the ladder to the top, and then pulled it after me, and
let it down in the inside; this was a complete enclo-
sure 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 thii wall iwas finished, I








ROBINSON CRUSOE. 99
had almost all my labour overthrown at once, and
myself killed, by a fearful earthquake, accompanied
by a dreadful hurricane, which lasted for about three
hours. A violent rain then followed, and continued
all that night, and great part of the next day, so that
I could not stir abroad; but my mind being more
composed, I began to think of what I had best do,
concluding, that if the island were subject to these
earthquakes, there would be no living for me in a
cave; but I must consider of building me some little
hut in an open place, which I might surround with a
wall, as I had done here, and so make myself secure
from wild beasts or men, for if I stayed where I was,
I should certainly one time or other be buried alive.
With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent
from the place where it now stood, being just under
the hanging precipice of the hill, and which, if it
should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my
tent. I spent the two next days, being the 19th and
20th of April, in contriving where and how to re-
move my habitation. The fear of being swallowed
alive affected me so, that I never slept in quiet, and
yet the apprehension of lying abroad without any
fence, was almost equal to it; but still when I looked
about and saw how everything was put in order, how
pleasantly I was concealed, and how safe from danger,
it made me very loath to remove. In the meantime
it occurred to me, that it would require a vast deal
of time for me to do this, and that I must be con-
tented to run the risk where I was, till T had frm







100 ADVENTURES OF
a convenient camp and had secured it so as to re-
move to it. With this conclusion 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 up my tent
in it when it was finished, but that I would venture
to stay where I was till it was ready and fit to re-
move to. This was the 21st.
April 22. The next morning I began to consider
of means to put this measure into execution, but I
was at a great loss about the tools. I had three
large axes and abundance of hatchets (for we carried
the hatchets for traffic with the Indians), but with
much chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they
were all full of notches and dull; and though I had
a grindstone, I could not turn it and grind my tools
too. This cost me as much thought as a statesman
would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics,
or judge upon the life and death ofa man. At length
I contrived a wheel with a string to turn it with my
foot, that I might have both my hands at liberty.
Note. I had never seen any such thing in England,
or, at least, not to take notice how it was done, though
since I have observed it is very common there, be-
sides that my grindstone was very large and heavy.
This machine cost me a fall 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.







ROBNSON CRUSOE. 101
April 30. Having perceived that my bread had
been low a great while, I now took a survey of it,
and reduced myself to one biseuit-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 1 found a small barrel and two or
three pieces of wreck of the ship, which were driven
on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards
the wreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie higher out
of the water than it used to do. I examined the
barrel that 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; how-
ever, I rolled it farther on the 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 feet, and the stern
(which was broke to pieces, and parted from the rest
by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummag-
ing of 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 I could now walk quite up to her
when the tide was out; whereas there was a great
piece of water before, so that I could not come within
a quarter of a mile of the wreck without swimming.
I was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded