 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California, winter 2006. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, Chapter 3, Wrecked on a Desert Island. After the stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or twelve days, living very sparingly on our provisions, which began to abate very much, and going no oftener to the shore than we were obliged to for fresh water. My design in this was to make the river Gambia, or Senegal, that is to say, anywhere about the Cape de Verde, where I was in hopes to meet with some European ship, and if I did not, I knew not what course I had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there among the Negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe, which sailed either to the coast of Guinea, or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, made this Cape, or those islands, and, in a word, I put the whole of my fortune upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship, or must perish. When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land was inhabited, two or three places as we sailed by. We saw people stand upon the shore to look at us. We could also perceive that they were quite black and naked. I was once inclined to have gone on shore to them, but Shuri was my better counselor, and said to me, No go, no go. However, I hauled in nearer the shore than I might to talk to them, and I found that they ran along the shore by me a good way. I observed that they had no weapons in their hand except one, which had a long slender stick, which Shuri said was a lance, and that they could target them a great way with good aim. So I kept at a distance, but talked with them by signs as well as I could, and particularly made signs for something to eat. They beckoned me, stop my boat, and they would fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered the top of my sail and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country, and in less than half an hour came back and brought with them two pieces of dried flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their country, but we neither knew what the one or the other was. However, we were willing to accept it, but how to come at it was our next dispute, for I would not venture on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of us. But they took a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid it down, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us again. We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them amends, but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully, for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty creatures, one pursuing the other, as we took it, with great fury, from the mountains towards the sea. Whether it was the male pursuing the female, or whether they were in sport or in rage, we could not tell any more than we could tell whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter, because in the first place those ravenous creatures seldom appeared, but in the night, and in the second place we found the people 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 offer to fall upon any of the negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea and swam about, as if they had come there for 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 Shuri load both the others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach, I fired, and shot him directly in the head. Immediately he sank down into the water, but rose instantly, and plunged up and down, as if he were struggling for life, and so indeed he was. He immediately made to the shore, but between the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died just before he reached the shore. It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures at the noise and fire of my gun. Some of them were even ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with the very terror. And when they saw the creature dead, and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to them to come to the shore, they took heart, and came, and began to search for the creature. I found him by his blood, staining the water. And by the help of a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the negroes to haul, they dragged him on shore, and found that it was the most curious leopard, spotted, and fine to an admirable degree. And the negroes held up their hands with admiration. To think what it was I had killed him with. The other creature, frided with the flash of fire and the noise of the gun, swam on shore and ran up directly to the mountains from whence they came. Nor could I at that distance know what it was. Quickly, the negroes wished to eat the flesh of this creature, so I was willing to have them take it as a favor from me, which when I made signs to them that they might take them, they were very thankful for. Immediately they fell to work with him, and though they had no knife, yet with a sharpened piece of wood, they took off his skin as readily, and much more readily, than we could have done with a knife. They offered me some of the flesh, which I declined, pointing out that I would give it to 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 the jars to them, turning the bottom upward to show that it was empty, and that I wanted to have it filled. They immediately called to some of their friends, and there came two women, and brought a great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as I supposed, in the sun. This they set down to me, as before, and I sent Shuri on shore with my jars, and filled them all three. The women were as naked as the men. I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, in 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 offering to make this point. At length, doubling the point, at about two leagues from the land, I saw plainly land on the other side, to seaward. Then I concluded, as it was most certain indeed, that this was the Cape de Verde, and those the islands called from thence, Cape de Verde Islands. However, they were at a great distance, and I could not tell well what I had best to do, for if I should be taken with the fresh of wind, I might neither reach one or other. In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the cabin, sat down, Shuri, having the helm, when, on a sudden, the boy cried out, Master, master, a ship with a sail, and the foolish boy was frided out of his wits, thinking it must be some of his master's ships sent to pursue us. But I knew we were far enough out of their reach. I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw not only the ship, but that it was a Portuguese ship, and as I thought, was bound to the coast of Guinea, for Negroes. But when I observed the course she steered, I was soon convinced they were bound some other way, and did not design to come any nearer to the shore, upon which I stretched out to sea, as much as I could, resolving to speak with them if possible. With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able to come in their way, but that they would be gone by before I could make any signal to them. But after I had crowded to the utmost, and began to despair, they, it seems, saw by the help of their glasses that it was some European boat, which they suppose must belong to some ship that was lost, so they shortened sail to let me come up. I was encouraged with this, and as I had my patron's ancient onboard, 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 Salih. 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 anyone will believe, that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from such a miserable and hopeless condition as I was in. And I immediately offered all I had to the captain of the ship, as return for my deliverance. But he generously told me he would take nothing from me, but that all I had should be delivered safe to me when I came to the Brazils. For, says he, I have saved your life, on no other terms, than I would be glad to be saved myself, and it may one time or other be my lot to be taken up in the same condition. Besides, said he, when I carry you to the Brazils, so great away from your own country, if I should take from you what you have, you will be starved there, and then I only take away that life I have given. No, no, says he, Señor Inglese, Mr. Englishman, I will carry you dither in charity, and those things which help to buy your subsistence there, and your passage home again. As he was charitable in his proposal, so he was just in the performance, to a tittle. For he ordered this event that none should touch anything that I had. Then he took everything into his own possession and gave me back an exact inventory of them, that I might have them, even to my three earthen jars. As to my boat, it was a very good one, and that he saw, and told me he would buy it of me for his ship's use, and asked me what I would have for it. I told him he had been so generous to me, and everything, that I could not offer to make any price of the boat, but left it entirely to him. Upon which he told me he would give me a note of hand to pay me eighty pieces of eight for it at Brazil. And when it came there, if anyone offered to give more, he would make it up. He offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Shuri, which I was loath to take. Not that I was unwilling to let the captain have him, but I was very loath to sell the poor boy's liberty who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. However, when I let him know my reason, he owned it to be just, and offered me this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to set him free in ten years, if he turned Christian. Upon this, and Shuri saying he was willing to go with him, I let the captain have him. We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and I arrived in the bay de Todos Los Santos, or All Saints Bay, in about twenty-two days after. And now, I was once again delivered from the most miserable of all conditions of life. And what to do next with myself I was to consider. The generous treatment the captain gave me I can never enough remember. He would take nothing of me for my passage, gave me twenty duckets for the leopard skin and forty for the lion skin which I had in my boat, and caused everything I had in the ship to be punctually delivered to me. And what I was willing to sell he bought of me such as the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of beeswax for I had made candles of the rest. In a word, I made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight of all my cargo. And with this stock I went on shore in the Brazils. I had not been long here before I was recommended to the house of a good honest man like himself, who had an Inheño, as they call it that is a plantation in a sugar house. I lived with him some time and acquainted myself by that means with the manner of planting and making of sugar, and while 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. Resolving in the meantime to find out some way to get my money which I had left in London remitted to me. To this purpose getting a kind of letter of naturalization I purchased as much land that was uncured as my money 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 neighbor, a Portuguese of Lisbon but born of English parents whose name was Wells and in much such circumstances as I was. I called him my neighbor because his plantation lay next to mine and as we went on very sociably together. My stock was but low as well as his and we rather planted for food than anything else for about two years. However we began to increase and our land began to come into order so that the third year we planted some tobacco and made each of us a large piece of ground ready for planting canes in the year to come. But we both wanted help and now I found more than before I had done wrong in parting with my boy Shuri. But alas for me to do wrong that never did right was no great wonder. I hail no remedy but to go on I had got into an employment quite remote to my genius and directly contrary to the life I delighted in and for which I forsook my father's house and broke through all his good advice. I was coming into the very middle station or upper degree of low life which my father advised me to before and which if I resolved to go on with I might as well have stayed at home and never had fatigued myself in the world as I had done and I used often to say to myself I could have done this as well in England among my friends as I have gone 5,000 miles off to do it with strangers and savages in a wilderness and at such a distance as never to hear from any part of the world that had the least knowledge of me. In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the utmost regret I had nobody to converse with but now and then this neighbor no work to be done but by the labor of my hands and I used to say I lived just like a man cast away upon a desolate island that had nobody there but himself but how just has it been and how should all men reflect that when they compare their present conditions with others that are worse heaven may oblige them to make the exchange and be convinced of their former felicity by their experience I say how just has it been that the true planetary life I reflected on in an island of mere desolation should be my lot who had so often unjustly compared it with the life which I then led in which had I continued I had in all probability been exceeding prosperous and rich I was in some degree settled in my measures for carrying on the plantation before my kind friend the captain of the ship that took me up at sea went back for the ship remained there and providing his lady and preparing for his voyage to nearly three months when telling him what little stock I had left behind me in London he gave me this friendly and sincere advice senor inglesi says he for so he always called me if you will give me letters and a procuration informed to me with orders to the person who has your money in London to send your effects to Lisbon to such persons as I shall direct and in such goods as are proper for this country I will bring you the produce of them God willing at my return but since human affairs are all subject to changes and disasters I would have you give orders but for one hundred pounds sterling which you say is half your stock but the hazard be run for the first so that if it comes 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 looks so friendly that I could not but be convinced it was the best course I could take so I accordingly prepared letters to the gentle woman with whom I had left my money and a procuration to the Portuguese captain as he desired I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all my adventures my slavery escape and how I had met with the Portuguese captain at sea and the humanity of his behavior and what condition I was now in with all other necessary directions for my supply and when this honest captain came to Lisbon he found means by some English merchants sent over not the order only but a full account of my story to a merchant in London who represented it effectually to her whereupon she not only delivered the money but out of her own pocket sent the Portugal captain a very handsome present for his humanity and charity to me the merchant in London vesting this 100 pounds in English goods such as the captain had written for Lisbon and he brought them all safe to me to the Brazils among which without my direction for I was too young in my business to think of them he had taken care to have all sorts of tools iron work and utensils necessary for my plantation and which were of great use to me when this cargo arrived I thought my fortune made for I was surprised with the joy of it and my stood steward the captain had laid out the five pounds which my friend had sent him for present for himself to purchase and bring me over a servant under bond for six years service and would not accept of any consideration except a little tobacco which I would have him accept being of my own produce neither was this all all my goods being all English manufacture such as cloths, stuffs, bays 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 neighbor I mean in the advancement of my plantation for the first thing I did I bought me a negro slave and a European servant also another one besides that which the captain brought me from Lisbon but as abused prosperity is sometimes made the very means of our greatest adversity so it was with me I went on the next year with great success in my plantation I raised fifty great roles of tobacco on my own ground more than I had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbors and these fifty roles being each of above a hundred weight were well cured and laid by against the return of the fleet from Lisbon and now increasing in business and wealth my head began to be full of prospects and undertakings beyond my reach such as are indeed often the ruin of the best heads in business had I continued in the station I was now in I had room for all the happy things to have yet befallen me for which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet retired life and of which he had so sensibly described the middle station of life to be full of but other things attended me and I was still to be the willful agent of all my own miseries and particularly to increase my fault and double the reflections upon myself which in my future sorrows I should have leisure to make all these miscarriages were procured by my apparent obstinence adhering to my foolish inclination of wandering about and pursuing that inclination in contradiction to the clearest views of doing myself good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects and those measures of life which nature and Providence concurred to present me with and to make my duty as I had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents so I could not be content now but I must go and leave the happy view I had of being a rich and thriving man in my new plantation only to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the thing admitted and thus I cast myself down again into the deepest human misery that ever man fell into or perhaps could be consistent with life in a state of health in the world to come then by the just degrees to the particulars of this part of my story you may suppose that having now lived almost four years in the Brazils and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon my plantation I had not only learned the language but had contracted acquaintance and friendship among my fellow planters well as among the merchants of Saint Salvador which was our port and that in my discourses among them I had frequently given them an account of my two voyages to the coast of Guinea the manner of trading with the Negroes there and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast for trifles such as beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glass and the like not only gold dust, Guinea grains elephant teeth et cetera but Negroes for the service of the Brazils in great numbers they listened always very attentively to my discourses on these heads but especially to that part which related to the buying of Negroes which was a trade at that time not only not far entered into but as far as it was had been carried on by asientos or permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal and engrossed in the public stock so that few Negroes were bought and these excessively dear it happened being in company with some merchants and planters of my acquaintance and talking of those things very earnestly three of them came to me next morning and told me they had been musing very much upon what I had with them of the last night and they came to make a secret proposal to me and after enjoying me to secrecy they told me they had a mind to fit out of ship to go to Guinea that they had all plantations 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 super cargo in the ship to manage the trading part upon the coast of Guinea and they offered me that I should have my equal share of the Negroes without providing any part of the stock this was a fair proposal it must be confessed had it been made to anyone that had not had a settlement and a plantation of his own to look after which was in a fair way of coming to be very considerable and with a good stock upon it but for me that was thus entered and established and had nothing to do but to go on as I had begun for three or four more years from England and who in that time and with that little addition could scarce have failed of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling and that increasing too for me to think of such a voyage was the most preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances could be guilty of but I that was born to be my own destroyer could no more resist the offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs when my father's good counsel was lost upon me in a word I told them I would go with all my heart if they would undertake to look after my plantation in my absence and would dispose of it such as I should direct if I miscarried this they all engaged to do and entered into writings or covenants to do so and I made a formal will disposing of my plantation and effects in case of death making the captain of the ship that it saved my life as before my universal air but obliging him to dispose of my effects as I had directed in my will one half of the produce being to himself and the other to be shipped to England in short I took all possible caution to preserve my effects and to keep up my plantation had I used half as much prudence to have looked into my own interest and have made a judgment of what I ought to have done and not to have done I had certainly never gone away from so prosperous and undertaking leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance and gone upon a voyage to see attended with all its common hazards to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particular misfortunes to myself but I was hurried on and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy rather than my reason and accordingly the ship being fitted out and the cargo furnished and all things done as by agreement by my partners in the voyage I went on board in an evil hour the first September 1659 being the same day eight years that I went from my father at hull in order to act the rebel to their authority and the fool to my own interests our ship was about 120 tons burden carried six guns and fourteen men besides the master his boy and myself we had on board no large cargo of goods except such toys as were fit for trade with the negroes such as beads, bits of glass shells and other trifles especially little looking glasses knives, scissors, hatchets and the like the same day I went on board we set sail standing away to the northward upon our own coast with design to stretch over for the African coast when we came about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude which it seems was the manner of course in those days we had very good weather only excessively hot all the way upon our own coast till we came to the height of Cape San Augustino from whence keeping further off at sea we lost sight of land and steered as if we were bound for the Isle Fernando de Narona holding our course northeast by north and leaving those Isles on the east in this course we passed the line in about twelve days time and were by our last observation in seven degrees twenty two minutes northern latitude when a violent tornado or hurricane took us quite out of our knowledge it began from the southeast came about to the northwest and then settled in the northeast from whence it blew in such a terrible manner that for twelve days together we could do nothing but drive and scutting away before it let it carry us with their fate in the fury of the winds directed and during these twelve days I need not say that I expected every day to be swallowed up nor indeed did any in the ship expect to save their lives in this distress we had besides the terror of the storm one of our men die of the calenture and one man and the boy washed overboard about the twelfth day the weather abating a little the master made an observation as well as he could and found that he was in about eleven degrees north latitude but that he was twenty two degrees of longitude difference west from Cape Saint Augustino so that he found he was upon the coast of Guiana or the north part of Brazil beyond the river Amazon toward that of the river Orinoco commonly called the Great River and began to consult with me what course he should take for the ship was leaky and very much disabled and he was going directly back to the coast of Brazil I was positively against that and looking over the charts of the sea coast of America with him we concluded there was no inhabited country to have recourse to till we came within the circle of the Caribbean islands and therefore resolved to stand away for Barbados which by keeping off at sea to avoid the 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 to ourselves in this design we changed our course and steered away northwest by west in order to reach some of our English islands where I hoped for relief but our voyage was otherwise determined for being in the latitude of twelve degrees eighteen minutes a second storm came upon us which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward and drove us so out of the way of all human commerce and all our lives been saved as to the sea we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever returning to our own country in this distress the wind still blowing very hard one of our men early in the morning cried out land and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out and in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were struck upon a sand and in a moment her motion being so stopped the sea broke over her in such a manner that we expected we should all have perished immediately and we were immediately driven to our close quarters to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea it is not easy for anyone who has not been in the light condition to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances we knew nothing where we were or upon what land it was we were driven whether an island or the main whether inhabited or not inhabited as the rage of the wind was still great rather less than at first we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes without breaking into pieces unless the winds by a kind of miracle should turn immediately about in a word we sat looking upon one another and expecting death every moment and every man accordingly preparing for another world for there was little or nothing more for us to do in this that which was our present comfort and all the comfort we had was that contrary to our expectation the ship did not break yet and that the master said the wind began to abate now though we thought that the wind did a little abate yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand and striking too fast and sticking for us to expect her getting off we were in a dreadful condition indeed and had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well as we could we had a boat at our stern just before the storm but she was first daved by dashing her and in the second place she broke away and either sunk or was driven off to sea so there was no hope from her we had another boat on board but how to get her off into the sea was a doubtful thing however there was no time to debate for we fancied that the ship would break in pieces every minute and some told us she was actually broken already in this distress one of our vessel laid hold of the boat and with the help of the rest of the men got her slung over the ship's side and getting all into her let go and committed ourselves being eleven in number to God's mercy and the wild sea and though the storm was abated considerably yet the sea ran dreadfully high upon the shore and might be well called denweiled sea as the Dutch called sea in a storm and now our case was very dismal indeed for we all saw plainly that the sea went so high that the boat could not live and that we should be inevitably drowned as to making sail we had none nor if we had could we have done anything with it so we worked at the oar towards the land though with heavy hearts like men going to execution for we all knew that when the boat came near the shore she would be dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the sea however we committed our souls to God in the most earnest manner and the wind driving us towards the shore we hastened our destruction with our own hands pulling as well as we could towards land what the shore was whether rock or sand whether steep or shoal we knew not the only hope that could rationally give us some shadow of expectation was if we might find some bay or gulf or the mouth of some river where by great chance we might have run our boat in or got under the lee of the land and perhaps made smooth water but there was nothing like this appeared but as we made near and near the shore the land looked more frightful than the sea after we had rode or rather driven about a league and a half as we reckoned it a raging wave mountain like came rolling a stern of us and plainly made us expect the coup de gras it took us with such a fury that it over set the boat at once and separating us as well from the boat as from one another gave us no time to say oh God for we were all swallowed up in a moment nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sank into the water for though I swam very well yet I could not deliver myself from the waves so as to draw a breath till that wave having driven me or rather carried me a vast way on towards the shore and having spent itself went back and left me upon the land almost dry but half dead with the water I took in I had so much presence of mine as well as breath left that seeing myself nearer the mainland than I expected I got upon my feet and endeavored to make on towards the land as fast as I could before another wave should return and take me up again but I soon found it was impossible to avoid it for I saw the sea come after me as high as a great hill and as furious as an enemy which I had no means or strength to contend with my business was to hold my breath and raise myself upon the water if I could and so by swimming to preserve my breathing and pilot myself towards the shore if possible my greatest concern now being that the sea as it would carry me a great way towards the shore when it came on might not carry me back again with it when it gave back towards the sea the wave that came upon me again buried me at once 20 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 of the surface of the water and though it was not two seconds of the time that I could keep myself so yet it relieved me greatly gave me breath and new courage I was covered again with water a good while but not so long but I held it out and finding the water had spent itself and began to return I struck forward against the return of the waves and felt ground again with my feet I stood still a few moments to recover breath until the waters went from me and then took to my heels and ran with what strength I had further towards the shore but neither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea which came pouring in after me and twice more I was lifted up by the waves and carried forward as before the shore being very flat the last time of these two had well nigh been fatal to me for the sea having hurried me along as before landed me or rather dashed me against a piece of rock and that was such force that it left me senseless and indeed helpless as to my own deliverance for the blow taking my side and breast beat the breath as it were quite out of my body and had it returned again immediately I must have been strangled in the water but I recovered a little before the return of the waves and seeing I should be covered again with the water I resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock so to hold my breath if possible till the wave went back now as the waves were not so high as at first being nearer land I held my hold till the wave abated and then fetched another run which brought me so near the shore that the next wave though it went over me yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away and the next run I took I got to the mainland where to my great comfort I clambered up the cliffs of the shore and sat me down upon the grass free from danger and I was now landed and safe on shore and began to look up and thank God that my life was saved in a case wherein there was some minutes before scarce any room to hope I believe it is impossible to express to the life what the ecstasies and transports all are when it is so saved out of the very grave I do not wonder now at the custom when a malifactor who has the halter around his neck is tied up and just going to be turned off and has a reprieve brought to him I say I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it to let him blood that very moment they tell him of it that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart and overwhelm him for sudden joys like griefs confound at first I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands and my whole being as I may say wrapped up in a contemplation of my deliverance making a thousand gestures and motions which I cannot describe reflecting upon all my comrades that were drowned and that there should be not a soul saved but myself for as for them I never saw them afterwards or any sign of them except three of their hats one cap and two shoes that were not fellows I cast my eye to the stranded vessel when the breach and froth of the sea means so big I could hardly see it it lay so far off and considered Lord, how was it possible I could get on shore after I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my condition I began to look around me to see what kind of place I was in and what was next to be done and I soon found my comforts abate and that in a word I had a dreadful deliverance for I was wet, had no clothes to shift me nor anything either to eat or drink to comfort me neither did I see any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or being devoured by wild beasts and that which was particularly afflicting to me was that I had no weapon either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance or to defend myself against any other creature that might desire to kill me for theirs in a word nothing about me but a knife a tobacco pipe and a little tobacco in a box this is all my provisions and this threw me into such terrible agonies of mine that for a while I ran about like a madman night coming upon me I began with a heavy heart to consider what would be my lot if there were any ravenous beasts in that country as at night they always come abroad for their prey all the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time was to get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny which grew near me and where I resolved to sit all night and consider the next day what death I should die for as yet I saw no prospect of life I walked about a fir long from the shore to see if I could find any fresh water to drink which I did to my great joy and having drank and put a little tobacco into my mouth to prevent hunger I went to the tree and getting up into it endeavored to place myself so that if I should sleep I might not fall and having cut me a short stick like a trenchin for my defense I took up my lodging and having been excessively fatigued to sleep and slept as comfortably as I believe few could have done in my condition and found myself more refreshed with it than I think I ever was on such an occasion End of Chapter 3 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California Winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Chapter 4 First Weeks on the Island When I waked it was broad day the weather clear and the storm abated my rage and swell as before But that which surprised me most was that the ship was lifted off in the night from the sand where she lay by the swelling of the tide and was driven up almost as far as the rock which I had first mentioned where I had been so bruised by the wave dashing me against it This being within about a mile from the shore where I was and the ship seeming to stand up bright 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 that I've 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 afternoon I found the sea very calm and the tide ebbed so far out that I could come within a quarter of an hour and here I found a fresh renewing of my grief for I saw evidently that if we had kept on board we had all been safe that is to say we had all got safe on shore and I had not been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all comfort and company as I now was This forced tears to my eyes again but as there was little relief in that I resolved if possible to get to the ship so I pulled off my clothes for the weather was so hot to an extremity and took the water but when I came to the ship my difficulty was still greater to know how to get on board for as she lay aground and high out of the water there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of I swam around her twice I spied a small piece of rope which I wondered I did not see at first hung down by the four chains so low as that with great difficulty I got hold of it and by the help of that rope I got up into the forcassel 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 that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank and her head low almost to the water by this means all her quarter was free and all that was in that part was dry for you may be sure my first work was to search and to see what was spoiled and what was free and first I found that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the water and being very well disposed to eat I went to the bread room and filled my pockets with biscuit and ate it as I went about other things where I had no time to lose I also found some rum in the great cabin of which I took a large dram in which I had indeed need enough to spirit me for what was before me now I wanted nothing but a boat and I furnished myself with many things which I foresaw would be very necessary to me it was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had and this extremity roused my application we had several spare yards and two or three large spars of wood and a spare top mast or two in the ship I resolved to work to fall with these and I flung as many of them overboard with their weight tying everyone with a rope that they may not drive away when this was done I went down the ship side and pulling them to me I tied four of them together at both ends as well as I could in the form of a raft in laying two or three short pieces of plank upon the crossways I found I could walk upon it very well but that it was not able to bear any great weight too light so I went to work and with the carpenter saw I cut a spare top mast into three lengths and added them to my raft with a great deal of labor and pains but the hope of furnishing myself with necessaries encouraged me to go beyond what I should have been able to have done upon another occasion my raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight my next care was what to load it with and how to preserve what I had 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 having considered well what I most wanted I got three of the seamen's chests which had been broken open and emptied and lowered them down upon my raft the first of these I filled with provisions spread rice three Dutch cheeses five pieces of dried goat's flesh which we lived much upon and a little remainder of European corn which had been laid by for some fowls which we brought to see with us but the fowls were killed there had been some barley and wheat together but to my great disappointment I found afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled at all and during the adventures 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 wreck these I stowed by themselves there being no need to put them into the chest nor any room for them while I was doing this I found the tide begin to flow though very calm and I had the mortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat which I had left on the shore upon the sand swim away as for my breeches which were only linen and open need I swam on board in them and my stockings however this set me 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 went on shore and it was after long searching that I found out the carpenter's chest which was indeed a very useful prize to me and much more valuable than a ship load of gold would have been at that time I got it down to my raft 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 following 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 I knew not where our gunner had stowed them but with much search I found them two of them drying good the third had taken water and the last two I got to my raft with my arms and now I thought myself pretty well freighted and began to think how I should get on shore with them having neither sail or nor rudder and the least capful of wind would have over set all my navigation I had three encouragements first a smooth calm sea secondly the tide rising and setting in to the shore and thirdly 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 and axe and hammer with this cargo I put to sea for a mile or thereabouts my raft went very well only that I found to drive a little distant from the place where I had landed before by which I perceived that there was some in draft of the water and consequently I hoped to find some creek or river there which I might make use of as a port to get to land with my cargo as I imagined so it was there appeared before me a little opening of the land and I found a strong current of the tide set into it so I guided my raft as well as I could to keep in the middle of the stream but here I had liked to have suffered a second shipwreck which if I had I think verily would have broken my heart for knowing nothing of the coast my raft ran aground at one end of it upon a shoal and not being aground at the other end it wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off towards the end that was a float and to fallen into the water I did my utmost by setting my back against the chests to keep them in their places but I could not thrust off the raft with all my strength neither durst I stirred from the posture I was in but holding up the chests with all my might I stood in that manner near half an hour in which time the rising of the water brought me a little more upon a level and a little after the water still rising I floated again and I thrust her off with the ore I had into the channel and then driving up higher I at length found myself in the mouth of a little river with land on both sides and a strong current of tide running up I looked on both sides for a proper place to get to shore for I was not willing to be driven too high at the river hoping in time to see some ships at sea and therefore resolved to place myself as near the coast at length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek to which with great pain and difficulty I guided my raft and at last got so near that reaching ground with my ore I could thrust her directly in but here I had liked to have dipped all my cargo into the sea again for that shore buying pretty steep that is to say sloping there was no place to land and where one end of my float if it ran on shore would lie so high and the other sink lower as before that it would endanger my cargo once again all that I could do was to wait till the tide was at the highest keeping the raft with my ore like an anchor to hold the side of it fast to the shore near a flat piece of ground which I expected the water would flow over and so it did as soon as I found water enough for my raft drew about a foot of water I thrust her upon that flat piece of ground and there fastened or moored her by sticking my two broken ores into the ground one on one side near the end and one on the other side near the other end and thus I lay till the water ebbed away and left my raft at all my cargo or 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 a mile above me but 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 following pieces and one of the pistols and a horn of powder and thus armed I traveled for discovery up to the top of that hill where after I had with great labor and difficulty got to the top I saw my fate to my great affliction that is that I was in an island environed every way with the sea no land 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 a 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 either when I killed them could I tell what was fit for food and what not at my coming back I shot at a great bird which I saw sitting upon a tree on the side of a great wood I believe it was the first gun that had ever been fired there since the creation of the world I had no sooner fired than from all parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls of many sorts making a confused screaming and crying and every one of them according to his usual note but not one of them of any kind that I knew as for the creature I killed I took it to be a kind of hawk and saw the color and beak resembling it but it had no talons or claws more than common its flesh was carrying and fit for nothing contented with this discovery I came back to my raft and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore which took me up the rest of that day what to do with myself at night I knew not nor indeed where to rest for I was afraid to lie down on the ground knowing but some wild beast might devour me though as I afterwards found there was really no need for those fears however as well as I could I barricaded myself round with the 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 hairs run out of the wood where I shot the fowl I now began to consider that I might yet get a great many things out of the ship which would be useful to me and particularly some of the rigging and sails and such other things as might come to land and I resolved to make another voyage on board the vessel if possible and as I knew that the first storm that blew must necessarily break her all in pieces I resolved to set all other things apart till I had got everything out of the ship that I could get then I called a council that is to say in my thoughts whether I should take back the raft but this appeared impracticable so I resolved to go as before when the tide was down and I did so only that I stripped before I went from my hut having nothing on but my checkered shirt a pair of linen drawers and a pair of pumps on my feet I got on board the ship as before and prepared a second raft and having had experience of the first I neither made this so unwieldy nor loaded it so hard but yet I brought away several things very useful to me as first in the Carpager stores I found two or three bags full of nails and spikes a great screw jack a dozen or two of hatchets and above all that most useful thing called a grindstone all these I secured together with several things belonging to the gunner particularly two or three iron crows and two barrels of musket bullets seven muskets another following 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 side besides these things I took all the men's clothes that I could find and a spare for a topsole a hammock and some bedding and with this I loaded my second raft and brought them all safe on shore to my very great comfort I was under some apprehension during my absence from the land that at least my provisions might be devoured on shore but when I came back I found no sign of any visitor only there sat a creature like a wild cat upon one of the chests which when I came towards it ran away a little distance and then stood still she sat very composed and unconcerned and looked full in my face as if she had a mind to be acquainted with me I presented my gun at her but as she did not understand it she was perfectly unconcerned at it nor did she offer to stir away upon which I tossed her a bit of biscuit though by the way I was not very free of it for my store was not great however I spared her a bit I say smelled at it and ate it and looked as if pleased for more but I thanked her and could spare no more so she marched off having got my second cargo on shore though I was feigned to open the barrels of powder and bring them by parcels for they were too heavy being large casts I went to work to make me a little tent with the sail and some poles which I cut for that purpose and into this tent I brought everything that I knew would spoil either with rain or sun and I piled all the empty chests and casts up in a circle around the tent to fortify it from any sudden attempt either from man or beast when I had done this I blocked up the door of the tent with some boards within and an empty chest set up on end without and spreading one of the beds on 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 labored very hard all day to fetch all those things from the ship and to get them on shore I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever was laid up I believe for one man but I was not satisfied still for while the ship sat upright in that posture I thought I ought to get everything out of her that I could so every day at low water I went on board and brought away something or other but particularly the third time I went I brought away as much of the rigging as I could also all the small ropes and rope twine I could get with a piece of spare canvas which was to mend the sails upon occasion and the barrel of wet gunpowder in a word I brought away all the sails first and last only that I was feigned to cut them in pieces and bring as much at a time as I could for they were no more useful to be sails near canvas only but that which comforted me more still was that last of all after I had made five or six such voyages as these and thought I had nothing more to expect from the ship that was worth my meddling with I say after all this I found a great hog's head of bread three large runlets of rum or spirits a box of sugar and a barrel of fine flour this was surprising to me because I had given over expecting any more provisions except what was spoiled by the water I soon emptied the hog's head of the bread and wrapped it up parcel by parcel in pieces of the sails which I cut out and in a word I got all this safe on shore also the next day I made another voyage and now having plundered the ship of what was portable and out I began with the cables cutting the great cable into pieces such as I could move I got two cables and a howzer on shore with all the iron work I could get and having cut down the spirit sail yard and the mizzen yard and everything I could get to make a large raft I loaded it with these heavy goods and came away but my good luck began now to leave me but this raft was so unwieldy and so overladen that after I had entered the little cove where I had landed the rest of my goods not being able to guide it so handily as I did the other it over set and threw me and all my cargo into the water as for myself it was no great harm for I was near the shore but as to my cargo it was a greater part of it lost the iron which I expected would have been of great use to me however when the tide was out I got most of the pieces of the cable ashore and some of the iron though with infinite labor for I was feigned 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 all been 13 days on shore and had been 11 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 12th time to go on board I found the wind began to rise however at low water I went on board and though I thought I had rummaged the cabin so effectually that nothing more could be found yet I discovered a locker with drawers in it in one of which I found two or three razors and one pair of large scissors with some 10 or a dozen of good knives and forks in another I found about 36 pounds value of money some European coins, some brazil pieces of eight, some gold and some silver I smiled to myself at the sight of this money oh drug said I allowed 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 in remain where thou art and go to the bottom as a creature not worth saving however upon second thoughts I took it away and wrapping all this in a piece of canvas I began to think of making another raft but while I was preparing this I found the sky overcast and the wind began to rise and in a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore it presently occurred to me that it was in vain to pretend to make a raft with the wind off shore and that it was my business to be gone before the tide of flood began otherwise I might not be able to reach the shore at all accordingly I left 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 it was very hastily and before it was quite high water it blew a storm but I had got home to my little tent where I lay with all my wealth about me very secure it blew very hard all night and in the morning when I looked out behold no more ship was to be seen I was a little surprised but recovered myself it was a satisfactory reflection that I had lost no time nor abated any diligence to get everything out of her that could be useful to me and that indeed there was little left in her that I was able to bring away if I had had more time I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship or of anything out of her except what might drive on shore from her wreck from the losses of her afterwards did but those things were of small use to me my thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself against either savages if any should appear or wild beasts if any were in the island and I had many thoughts of the method how to do this and what kind of dwelling to make whether I should make me a cave in the earth or a tent upon the earth I resolved upon both the manner and description of which it may not be improper to give an account of I soon found the place I was in not fit for my settlement because it was upon a low Moorish ground near the sea and I believed it would not be wholesome and more particularly because there was no fresh water near it so I resolved to find a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground I consulted several things in my situation which I found would be proper for me first health and fresh water I just now mentioned secondly shelter from the heat of the sun thirdly security from ravenous creatures whether man or beast fourthly a view to the sea that if God sent any ship in my sight I might not lose any advantage for my deliverance of which I was not willing to banish all my expectation yet in search of a place proper for this I found a little plane on the side of a rising hill whose front towards this little plane was steep as a house side so that nothing could come down upon me from the top on the one side of the rock there was a hollow place worn a little way in like the entrance or door of a cave but there was not really any cave or any way into the rock at all on the flat of the green just before this hollow place I resolved to pitch my tent this plane was not above a hundred yards broad and about twice as long and lay like a green before my door and at the end of it descended irregularly every way down into the low ground by the seaside it was on the north northwest side of the hill so that it was sheltered from the heat every day till it came to a west and by south sun or thereabouts which in those countries is near the setting before I set up my tent I drew a half circle before the hollow place which took in about ten yards of diameter from the rock and twenty yards in its diameter from its beginning and ending in this half circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes driving them into the ground till they stood very firm like piles the biggest end being out of the ground above five feet and a half and sharpened at the top the two rows did not stand above six inches from one another then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship and laid them in rows one upon another within the circle between these two rows of stakes up to the top placing other stakes in the inside leaning against them about two feet and a half high like a spur to a post and this fence was so strong that neither man nor beast could get into it or over it this cost me a great deal of time and labor especially to cut the piles in the woods bring them to the place and drive them into the earth the entrance into this place I made to be not by a door but by a short ladder to go over the top which ladder when I was in I lifted over with 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 for all of this caution from the enemies that I apprehended danger from into this fence or fortress with infinite labor I carried all my riches all my provisions ammunition and stores of which you had the account above and I made a large tent which to preserve me from the rains that in one part of the year are very violent there I made double one smaller tent within and one larger tent above it and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin which I had saved among the sails and now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had brought on shore 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 repast 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 down out through my tent I laid them up within my fence in the nature of a terrace so that it raised the ground within about a foot and a half and thus I made me a cave just behind my tent which served me like a cellar to my house it cost me much labour and many days before all these things were brought to perfection and therefore I must go back to some other things which took up my thoughts at the same time it happened after I had laid my scheme for the setting up of my tent and making the cave that a storm of rain falling from a thick dark cloud a sudden flash of lightning happened and after that a great clap of thunder as is naturally the effect of it I was not so much surprised with the lightning as I was with the thought which started into my mind as swift as the lightning itself oh my powder my very heart sank within me when I thought that at one blast all my powder might be destroyed on which not my defence only but the providing my food as I thought entirely depended I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger though had the powder took fire I should never have known who had hurt me 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 making bags and boxes to separate the powder and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel in the hope that whatever might come it might not all take fire at once and to keep it so apart that it should not be possible to make one part fire another I finished this work out of fortnight and I think my powder which was in all about 240 pounds weight was divided in not less than 100 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 hit up and down in holes among the rocks so that no wet might come to it and very carefully where I laid it in the interval of time while this was doing I went out once at least every day with my gun as well to divert myself as to see if I could kill anything fit for food and as near as I could to acquaint myself with what the island produced the first time I went out I presently discovered that there were goats in the island which was a great satisfaction to me but then it was attended with this misfortune to me that is that they were so shy, so subtle and so swift to foot that it was the most difficult thing in the world to come at them but I was not discouraged at this not doubting but I might now and then shoot one as it soon happened for after I had found their haunts a little I laid weight in this manner for them I observed that they saw me in the valleys though they were upon the rocks they would run away as in a terrible fright but if they were feeding in the valleys and I was upon the rocks they took no notice of me from whence I concluded that by the position of their optics their sight was so directed downward that they did not readily see objects that were above them so afterwards I took this method I always climbed the rocks first to get above them and then had frequently a fair mark the first shot I made among these creatures I killed the she-goat which had a little kid by her which she gave suck to which grieved me heartily for when the old one fell the kid stood stock still by her till I came and took her up and not only so but when I carried the old one with me upon my shoulders it followed me quite to my enclosure upon which I laid down the dam and took the kid in my arms and carried it over my pale in hopes to have bred it up tame but it would not eat and so I was forced to kill it and eat it myself these two supplied me with flesh a great while for I ate sparingly and saved my provisions my bred especially as much as I possibly could when I fixed my habitation I found it absolutely necessary to provide a place to make a fire in in fuel to burn and what I did for that and also how I enlarged my cave and what conveniences I made I shall give a full account of in its place but I must now give some little account of myself and of my thoughts about living which it may well be supposed were not a few I had a dismal prospect of my condition for as I was not cast away upon that island without being driven as is said by a violent storm quite out of the course of our intended voyage and a great way that is some hundreds of leagues out of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind I had great reason to consider this as a determination of heaven that in this desolate place and in this desolate manner I should end my life the tears would run plentifully down my face when I made these reflections and sometimes I would expostulate with myself why providence should completely ruin his creatures and render them so absolutely miserable so without help abandoned so entirely depressed that it could hardly be rational and thankful for such a life but something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts and to reprove me and particularly one day walking with my gun in my hand by the seaside I was very pensive upon the subject of my present condition when reason as it were expostulated with me the other way thus well you are in a desolate condition but pray remember where are the rest of you did you not come eleven of you in the boat where are the ten why were they not saved and you lost why were you singled out is it better to be here or there and then I pointed to the scene all evils are to be considered with the good that is in them and with what worse attends them it occurred to me again how well I was furnished for my subsistence and what would have been my case if it had not happened which was a hundred thousand to one that the ship floated from the place where she first struck and was driven so near to the shore that I had time to get all these things out of her what would have been my case if I had been forced to have lived in the condition in which I at first came on shore without necessaries of life or necessaries to supply and procure them particularly said I allowed though to myself what should I have done without a gun without ammunition without any tools to make anything or to work with without clothes or any manner of covering and that now I had all these things to sufficient quantity and was in a fair way to provide myself in such a manner as to live without my gun when my ammunition was spent so that I had a tolerable view of subsisting without anyone as long as I lived for I considered from the beginning for the accidents that might happen and for the time that was to come even not only after my ammunition should be spent but even after my health and strength should decay I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition being destroyed at one blast I mean my powder being blown up by lightning and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me when it lightened and thundered as I observe just now and now being about to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of silent life such perhaps as was never heard of in the world before I shall take it from its beginning and continue it in its order it was by my account the 30th of September when in the manner as above said I first set foot upon this horrid island when the sun being to us in its autumnal equinox was almost over my head for I reckoned myself by observation to be in the latitude of 9 degrees 22 minutes north of the line after I had been there about 10 or 12 days it came into my thoughts that I should lose my reckoning of time for want of books and pen and ink and should even forget the Sabbath days but to prevent this I cut with my knife upon a large post in capital letters and making it into a great cross I set it up on the shore where I first landed I came on shore here on the 30th of September 1659 upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a notch with my knife and every 7th notch was as long again as the rest and every first day of the month as long again as that long one and thus I kept my calendar or weekly, monthly and yearly reckoning of time in the next place we are to observe that among the many things which I brought out of the ship in several voyages which as above mentioned I made to it I got several things of less value but not at all less useful to me which I omitted setting down before as in particular pens, ink and paper several parcels in the captains, mates, gunners and carpenters keeping three or four compasses some mathematical instruments dials, perspectives charts and books of navigation all which I huddled together whether I might want them or know 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 imminent history I may have occasion to say something in it's place for I carried both the cats with me and as for the dog he jumped out of the ship of himself and swam on shore to me the day after I went on shore with my first cargo and was a trustee servant to me many years I wanted nothing that he could fetch me nor any company that he could make up to me I only wanted to have him talk to me but that he would not do I observed before I found pens, ink, and paper and I husbanded them to the utmost and I shall show that while my ink lasted I kept things very exact but after that was gone I could not for I could not make any ink by any means that I could devise and this put me in mind that I wanted many things notwithstanding all that I had amassed together and of these ink was one as also a spade pickaxe and shovel to dig or remove the earth needles, pens, and thread as for Lenin I soon learned to want that without much difficulty this want of tools made every work I did go so heavily and it was near a whole year before I had entirely finished my little pail or surrounded my habitation the piles or steaks which were as heavy as I could well lift were a long time in cutting and preparing in the woods and more by far in bringing home so that I spent sometimes two days in cutting and bringing home one of these 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 we thought myself of one of the iron crows which however though I found it made driving these posts or piles very laborious and tedious work but what need I have been concerned at the tediousness of anything I had to do seeing I had time enough to do it in nor had I any other employment if that had been over at least that I could foresee except the ranging the island to seek for food which I did more or less every day I now began to seriously consider my condition and the circumstances I was reduced to and I drew up the state of my affairs and writing not so much to leave them to any that were to come after me for I was likely to have but few errors as to deliver my thoughts from daily pouring over them and afflicting my mind and as my reason began now to master my despondency I began to comfort myself as well as I could and to set the good against evil that I might have something to distinguish my case from worse and I stated very impartially like debtor and creditor the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I suffered thus evil I am cast upon a horrible desolate island void of all hope of recovery good but I am alive and not drowned as all my ships company were evil I am singled out and separated as it were from all the world to be miserable good but I am singled out too from all the ships crew to be spared from death and he that miraculously saved me from death can deliver me from this condition evil I am divided from mankind a solitaire one banished from human society good but I am not starved and perishing on a barren place affording no sustenance evil I have no clothes to cover me good but I am in a hot climate where if I had clothes I could hardly wear them evil I am without any defense or means to resist any violence of man or beast good but I am cast on an island where I see no wild beasts to hurt me as I saw on the coast of Africa and what if I had been shipwrecked there evil I have no soul to speak to or relieve me good but God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to the shore that I have got out as many necessary things as will either supply my once or enable me to supply myself even as long as I live upon the whole here was an undoubted testimony that there was scarce any condition in the world so miserable but there was something negative or something positive to be thankful for in it and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world that we may always find in it something to comfort ourselves with and to set in the description of good and evil on the credit side of the account having now brought my mind a little to relish my condition and given over looking out to see to see if I should spy a ship I say giving over these things I begun to apply myself to arrange my way of living and to make things as easy to me as I could I have already described my habitation which was a tent under the side of a rock surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables but I might now rather call it a wall for I raised a kind of wall up against it of turfs about two feet thick on the outside and after some time I think it was a year and a half I raised rafters from it leaning to the rock and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees and such things as I could get to keep out the rain which I found at sometimes of the year very violent I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale and into the cave which I had made behind me but I must observe too that at first this was a confused heap of goods which as they lay in no order so they took up all my place I had no room to turn myself so I set myself to enlarge my cave and work farther into the earth for it was a loose sandy rock which yielded easily to the labor I was stowed on it and so when I found I was pretty safe as to beasts of prey I worked sideways to the right hand into the rock and then turning again to the right worked quite out and made me a door to come out on the outside of my pale or fortification this gave me not only egress and regress as it was a way back to my tent and to my storehouse but gave me room to store my goods and now I began to apply myself to such necessary things as I found I most wanted particularly a chair and a table for without these I was not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world or eat or do several things with so much pleasure without a table so I went to work and here I must needs observe that as reason is the substance and origin of the mathematics so by stating and squaring everything by reason and by making the most rational judgments of things every man may be in time master of every mechanic art I had never handled a tool in my life and yet in time by labor application and contrivance I found at last that I wanted nothing but I could have made it especially if I had tools however I made abundance of things even without tools and some with no tools more than an ads and a hatchet which perhaps were never made that way before and that was infinite labor for example if I wanted a board I had no other way but to cut down a tree set it on an edge before me and hew it flat on either side with my axe till I brought it to be thin as a plank and then dub it smooth with my ads 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 labor which it took me up to make a plank or board but my time or labor was little worth and so it was as well employed one way as another however I made me a table and a chair as I observed above and in the first place and this I did out of the short pieces of boards that I brought on my raft from the ship but when I had wrought out some boards as above I made large shelves of the breadth of a foot and a half one over another all along one side of my cave to lay all my tools, nails and iron work on and in a word to separate everything at large into their places to lay at them I knocked pieces into the wall to hang my guns and all things that would hang up so that had my cave been to be seen it looked like a great general magazine of all necessary things and had everything so ready at my hand that it was a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order and especially to find my stock of all necessaries so great and now it was that I began to keep a journal of every day's employment for indeed at first I was in too much hurry and not only hurry as to labor but in too much discomposure of mind and my journal would have been full of many dull things for example I must have said thus 30th after I had got to shore and escaped drowning instead of being thankful to God for my deliverance having first vomited with the great quantity of salt water which had gotten into my stomach and recovering myself a little I ran about the shore ringing my hands and beating my head and face exclaiming at my misery and crying out I was undone undone till tired and faint I was forced to lie down on the ground to repose but durst not sleep for fear of being devoured some days after this I had been on board the ship and got all I could out of her yet I could not forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain and looking out to sea in hopes of seeing a ship then fancy at a vast distance I spied a sail please myself with the hopes of it and then after looking steadily till I was almost blind lose it quite and sit down and weep like a child and thus increased my misery by my folly but having gotten over these things in some measure and having settled my household staff and habitation made me a table and a chair and all as handsome about me as I could I began to keep my journal of which I shall here give you the copy though in it all the particulars all over again as long as it lasted for having no more ink I was forced to leave it off end of chapter 4