 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 1. Start in life. I was born in the year 1632 in the city of York of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, who first settled at Hall. He got a good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York from which he had married my mother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Crichnayer. But, by the usual corruption of words in England, we are now called, may we call ourselves and write our name, Crusoe. And so my companions always called me. I had two elder brothers, one of whom was Lieutenant Colonel, to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What became of my second brother, I never knew any more than my father or mother knew what became of me. Being the third son of the family and not bred to any trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far as house education and a country free school generally go, and designed me for the law. But I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea, and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will may the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me. My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me upon the subject. He asked me what reasons, more than a mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving father's house and my native country, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. He told me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon adventures, to rise by enterprise and make themselves famous in undertakings of a nature out of the common road. That these things were all either too far above me or too far below me, that mine was the middle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and hardships, the labor and suffering 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 on my judge of the happiness of the state, by this one thing, that is, that this was the state of life which all other people envied, that kings have frequently lamented the miserable consequence of being born to great things, and wished they had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and the great, that the wise man gave his testimony to this as the standard of felicity, when he prayed to have neither poverty nor riches. He bade me observe it, and I should always find that the calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind, but that the middle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind. Nay, they were not subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or mind, as those who were, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances on the one hand, or by hard labor, want them necessaries, and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring distemper upon themselves by the natural consequences of their way of living, that the middle station of life was calculated for all kind of virtue and all kind of enjoyments, that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle fortune, that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessings attending the middle station of life, that this way men went silently and smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labors of the hands, or of the head not sold to a life of slavery for daily bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances, which robbed the soul of peace and the body of rest, nor enraged with the passion of envy, or the secret burning lust of ambition for great things. But in easy circumstances, sliding gently through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's experience to know it more sensibly. After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young man, nor to precipitate myself into miseries, which nature and the station of life I was born in seemed to have provided against, that I was under no necessity of seeking my bread, that he would do well for me, and endeavor to enter me fairly into the station of life, which he had just been recommending to me, and that if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my mere fate or fault that must hinder it, and that he should have nothing to answer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning me of the most measures which he knew would be to my hurt. In a word, that as he would do very kind things for me, if I would stay and settle at home as he directed, so he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes as to give me any encouragement to go away. And to close all, he told me, I had my elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the same earnest persuasions to keep him from going into the low country wars, but could not prevail. His young desires prompting him to run into the army where he was killed. And though he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me that if I did take this foolish step, God would not bless me and I should have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there might be none to assist in my recovery. I observed in this last part of his discourse which was truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did not know it to be so himself. I say I observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, especially when he spoke of my brother who was killed, and that when he spoke of my having leisure to repent and none to assist me, he was so moved that he broke off the discourse and told me his heart was so full he could say no more to me. I was sincerely affected with this discourse and indeed who could be otherwise and I resolved not to think of going abroad anymore but to settle at home according to my father's desire. But, alas, a few days wore it all off and in short to prevent any of my father's further opportunities in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite away from him. However I did not act quite so hastily as the first heat of my resolution prompted but I took my mother at a time when I thought her a little more pleasant than ordinary and told her that my thoughts were so entirely bent upon seeing the world that I should never settle to anything with resolution enough to go through with it and my father had better give me his consent than force me to go without it. That I was now 18 years old which was too late to go apprentice to a trade or Clark to an attorney and that I should never serve out my time but I should certainly run away from my master before my time was out and go to sea and if she would speak to my father to let me go one voyage abroad if I came home again and did not like it I would go no more and I would promise by a double diligence to recover the time I had lost. This put my mother into a great passion. She told me she knew it with my father upon any such subject that he knew too well what was my interest to give his consent to anything so much for my hurt and that she wondered how I could think of any such thing after the discourse I had had with my father in 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 to have their consent to it that for her part she would not so much have hand in my destruction and I should never have it to say that my mother was willing when my father was not though my mother refused to move it to my father yet I heard afterwards that she reported all the discourse to him and that my father after showing a great concern at it said to her with a sigh that boy might be happy if he would stay at home but if he goes abroad he will be the most miserable wretch that ever was born I can give no consent to it it was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose though in the meantime I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling to business and frequently expostulated with my father and mother and their being so positively determined against what they knew my inclinations prompted me to but being one day at Hall where I went casually and without any purpose of making an allotment at that time but I say being there and one of my companions being about to sail to London in his father's ship and prompting me to go with them with the common allurement of seafaring men for nothing for my passage I consulted neither father nor mother any more nor so much as sent them word of it but leaving them to hear of it as they might without asking God's blessing or my father's without any consideration of circumstances or consequences and in an ill hour God knows on the 1st of September 1651 I went on board a ship bound for London never any young adventurer's misfortunes I believe began sooner or continued longer than mine the ship was no sooner out of the humbur than the wind began to blow and the sea to rise in a most frightful manner and as I had never been at sea before I was most inexpressively sick and 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 from my wicked leaving my father's house and abandoning my duty all the good counsels of my parents, my father's tears and my mother's entreaties came now fresh into my mind and my conscience which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness to which it has since reproached me with the contempt of advice and the breach of my duty to God and my father all this while the storm increased and the sea went very high though nothing like what I have seen many times since known or what I saw a few days after but it was enough to affect me then who was but a young sailor and had never known anything of the manner I expected every wave would have swallowed us up and that every time the ship fell down as I thought it did now or hollow of the sea we should never rise more in this act of mind I made many vows and resolutions that if it would please God to spare my life in this one voyage if ever I got once my foot upon dry land again I would go directly home to my father and never set it into a ship again while I lived that I would take his advice and never run myself into such miseries these anymore now I saw plainly the goodness of his observations about the middle station of life how easy how comfortably he had lived all his days and never had been exposed to tempests at sea or troubles on shore and I resolved that I would like a true repenting prodigal go home to my father these wise and sober thoughts continued all the while the storm lasted and indeed some time after but the next day the wind was abated and the sea calmer and I began to be a little enured to it however I was very grey for all that day being also a little seasick still but towards night the weather cleared up the wind was quite over and a charming fine evening followed the sun went down perfectly clear and rose so the next morning and having little or no wind the sea the sun shining upon it the sight was I thought the most delightful that ever I saw I had slept well in the night and was now no more seasick but very cheerful looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough and terrible the day before and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little a time after and now lest my good resolutions should continue my companion who enticed me away comes to me well Bob says he clapping me upon the shoulder how do you do after it I warned you were frighted weren't ya last night when it blew but a cat full of wind a cat full do you call it said I it was a terrible storm a storm you fool you replies he do you call that a storm why it was nothing at all give us but a good ship and sea room we have such a squall of wind as that but you're but a fresh water sailor Bob come let us make a bowl of punch and we'll forget all that do you see what charming weather it is now to make short the sad part of my story we went the way of all sailors the punch was made and I was made half drunk with it and in that one night's wickedness I drowned all my repentance all my reflections upon my past conduct all my resolutions for the future in a word as the sea was returned to its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the abatement of that storm so the hurry of my thoughts being over my fears and apprehensions being swallowed up by the sea being forgotten and the current of my former desires returned I entirely forgot the vows and promises that I made in my distress I found indeed some intervals of reflection and the serious thoughts did as it were endeavored to return again sometimes but I shook them off and roused myself from them as if it were from a distemper and implying myself to drinking and company soon mastered the return of those fits for so I called them and I had in five or six days got as complete a victory over conscience 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 resolve to leave me entirely without excuse for if I would not take this for a deliverance the next was to be such a one as the worst and most hardened wretch among us would confess both the danger and the mercy of the sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth roads the wind hadn't been contrary and the weather calm we had made but little ways since the storm here we were obliged to come to an anchor and here we lay the wind continuing contrary that is at southwest for seven or eight days during which time a great many ships from Newcastle came into the same roads to the harbor where the ships might wait for a wind for the river we had not however rid here so long but we would have tidied it up the river but that the wind blew too fresh and after that we had laying four or five days blew very hard however the roads being reckoned as good as a harbor the anchorage good and our ground tackle very strong our men were unconcerned not in the least apprehensive of danger but spent the time in rest and mirth after the manner of the sea but the eighth day in the morning the wind increased and we had all hands at work to strike our top masts 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 twice our anchor had come home upon which our master ordered out the sheet anchor so that we rode with two anchors ahead and the cables beared out to the bitter end by this time it blew a terrible storm indeed and now I began to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen themselves the master though vigilant in the business of preserving the ship yet as he went in and out to heaven by me I could hear him softly to himself say several times Lord be merciful to us we shall all be lost we shall all be undone and the like during these first hurries I was stupid lying still in my cabin which was in the steerage and cannot describe my temper I could ill resume the first penitence which I had so apparently trampled upon and hardened myself against I thought the bitterness of death had been passed and that this would be nothing like the first but when the master himself came by me as I said just now and said we should be all lost I was dreadfully frighted I got up out of my cabin and looked but such a dismal sight I never saw the sea ran mountains high and broke upon us every three or four minutes when I could look about I could see nothing but distress round us two ships that rode near us we found had cut their masts by the board being deep laden and our men cried that a ship which rode about a mile ahead of us was foundered two more ships being driven from their anchors were run out of the roads to sea at all adventures and that was with not a mast standing the light ships fared the best as not so much laboring in the sea but two or three of them drove and came close by us running away with only their spritzail out before the wind towards the evening the mate and boson begged the master of our ship to let them cut away the four mast which he was very unwilling to do but the boson protesting to him that if he did not the ship would founder he consented and when they had cut away the four mast the main mast stood so loose and shook the ship so much they were obliged to cut that away also and make a clear deck anyone may judge what a condition I must be in at all this who was but a young sailor and who had been in such a fright before at but a little but if I can express at this distance the thoughts I had about me at that time I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my former convictions and they having returned from them to the resolutions I had wickedly taken at first then I was at death itself and these added to the terror of the storm put me into such a condition that I can find by no words a way to describe it but the worst was yet to come the storm continued with such fury that the seamen themselves acknowledged that they had never seen a worse we had a good ship but she was deep laden and wallowed in the sea so that the seamen every now and then cried out she would founder it was my advantage and 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 boson and some other more sensible than the rest at their prayers and expecting every moment when the ship would go to the bottom in the middle of the night and under all the rest of our distresses one of the men that had been down to sea, 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 my heart as I thought died within me and I fell backwards upon the side of my bed where I sat into the cabin however the men roused me and told me that I that was able to do nothing more was as well able to pump as another at which I stirred up and went to the pump and worked very hardily while this was doing the master seen some light colliers who not able to ride out the storm would flip and run away to sea and would come near us ordered to fire a gun as a signal of distress I who knew nothing what that meant thought the ship had broken or some dreadful thing happened in a word I was so surprised that I fell down in a swoon as this was a time when everybody had his own life to think of nobody minded me or what was become of me but another man stepped up to the pump and thrusting me aside with his foot let me lie thinking I had been dead and it was a great while before I came to myself we worked on but the water increasing in the hold it was apparent that the ship would found her and though the storm began to abate a little yet it was not possible she could swim till we might run into any port so the master continued firing guns for help and a light ship who had rid it out just ahead of us ventured a boat out to help us it was with the utmost hazard the boat came near us but it was impossible for us to get on board or for the boat to lie near the ship's side till at last the men rowing very hardily and venturing their lives to save ours our men cast them a rope over the stern with the buoy to it and then veered it out a great length which they after much labor and hazard was of and we hauled them close under our stern and got all into their boat it was to no purpose for them or us after we were in the boat to think of reaching their own ship so all agreed to let her drive and only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could and our master promised them that if the boat was staved upon shore he would make it good to their master so partly rowing our boat went away to the north sloping towards the shore almost as far as wintertonness we were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship till we saw her sink and then I understood for the first time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea I must acknowledge I had hardly eyes to look upon it when the seaman told me she was sinking for from the moment that they rather put me into the boat than that I might be said to go in it my heart was as it were dead within me partly with fright partly with horror of mind and with the thoughts of what was yet before me while we were in this condition the men laboring at the order to bring the boat near the shore we could see when our boat mounting the waves we were able to see the shore a great many people running along the strand to assist us when we should come near but we made but slow way towards the shore nor were we able to reach the shore till being past the lighthouse at winterton the shore falls off to the westward towards chrome and so the land broke off a little the violence of the wind here we got in and though not without much difficulty got all safe on shore and walked afterwards on foot to yarmouth where as the unfortunate men we were used with great humanity as well by the magistrates of the town who assigned us good quarters as by particular merchants and owners of ships and had money given us sufficient to carry us either to London or back to Hall as we thought fit had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hall and have gone home I had been happy and my father as in our blessed saviour's parable had even killed the fatted cat for me for hearing the ship I went away and was cast away in Yarmouth Rhodes it was a great while before he had assurances that I was not drowned but my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing could resist and though I had several times loud calls for my reason and my more composed judgment to go home yet I had no power to do it I know not what to call this nor will I urge that it is a secret overruling decree that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction even though it be done before us and that we rush upon it with our eyes open certainly nothing but some such decreed unavoidable misery which it was impossible for me to escape could have pushed me forward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my most retired thoughts and against two such visible instructions as I had met within my first attempt my comrade who had helped me to harden before and who was the master 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 the first time he saw me it appeared his tone was altered and looking very melancholy and shaking his head he asked me how I did and telling his father who I was and how I had come this voyage only for a trial in order to go further abroad his father turning to me with a very grave and concerned tone young man says he you ought never to go to see any more you ought to take this for a plain invisible token that you are not to be a seafaring man why sir said I will you go to see no more that is another case says he it is my calling and therefore my duty but as you have made this voyage on trial you see what a taste heaven has given you of what you are to expect if you persist perhaps this has all befallen us on your account like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish pray continues he what are you and on what account did you go to see upon that I told him some of my story at the end of which he burst out into a strange kind of passion what had I done says he that such an unhappy wretch should come into my ship I would not set my foot in the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds this indeed was as I said an excursion of his spirits which were yet agitated by the sense of his lost and was further than he could have authority to go however he afterwards talked very gravely to me exhorting me to go back to my father and not tempt against to my ruin telling me I might see a visible hand of heaven against me and young man said he depend upon it if you do not go back wherever you go you will meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments till your father's words are fulfilled upon you we parted soon after for I made him little answer and I saw him no more the way he went I knew not as for me having some money in my pocket I traveled to London by land and there as well as on the road had many struggles with myself what course of life I should take and whether I should go home or to see as to going home shame opposed the best emotions that offered to my thoughts and it immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed at among the neighbors and should be ashamed to see not my father and mother only but even everybody else from what I have since often observed how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankind is especially of youth to that reason which ought to guide them in such cases that is 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 or ashamed of the returning which can only make them be esteemed wise men in this state of life however I remained some time uncertain what measures to take and what course of life to lead and irresistible reluctance continued to going home and as I stayed away while the remembrance of the distress I had been in were off and as that abated the little motion I had in my desires to return wore off with it till at last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it and looked out for a voyage End of Chapter 1 Winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Chapter 2 Slavery and Escape that evil influence which carried me first away from my father's house which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising my fortune and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me as to make me deaf to all good advice and to the entreaties and even the commands of my father I say the same influence, whatever it was presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa or as our sailors vulgarly called it a voyage to Guinea it was my misfortune that in all these adventures I did not ship myself as a sailor when though I might have worked a little harder than ordinary yet at the same time I should have learnt the duty in office of a foremast man and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or a lieutenant if not for a master but as it was always my fate to choose for the worse so I did here for having money in my pocket and good clothes upon my back I would always go on board in the habit of a gentleman who I neither had any business in the ship nor learnt to do any it was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in London which does not always happen to such loose and misguided young fellows as I then was the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare for them very early but it was not so with me I first got acquainted with the master of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea and who having had very good success there was resolved to go again this captain taking a fancy to my conversation which was not at all disagreeable at that time hearing me say I had a mind to see the world told me if I would go the voyage with him I should be at no expense I should be his mess mate and his companion and if I could carry anything with me I should have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit with some encouragement I embraced the offer and entering into a strict friendship with the captain who was an honest plane dealing man I went the voyage with him and carried a small adventure with me which by the disinterested honesty of my friend the captain I increased very considerably for I carried about 40 pounds in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me to buy these 40 pounds I had mustered together by the assistance of some of my relations whom I corresponded with and who I believe got my father or at least my mother to contribute so much as that to my first adventure this was the only voyage which I may say was successful in all my adventures which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friend the captain under whom also I got a competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules of navigation learned how to keep an account of the ship's course take an observation and in short to understand some things that were needful to be understood by a sailor for as he took the light to instruct me I took the light to learn and in a word this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant for I brought home 5 pounds 9 ounces of gold dust for my adventure which yielded me in London at my return almost 300 pounds and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts which ever since so completed my ruin yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too particularly that I was continually sick being thrown into a violent by the excessive heat of the climate our principal trading being upon the coast from latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself I was now set up for a Jenny trader and my friend to my great misfortune dying soon after his arrival I resolved to go the same voyage again and I embarked in the same vessel with one who was his mate in the former voyage and had now got the command of the ship this was the unhappiest voyage that ever man made for though I did not carry quite 100 pounds of my newly gained wealth so that I left 200 pounds which I had lodged with my friend's widow who was very just to me yet I fell into terrible misfortunes the first was this our ship making her course toward the canary islands or rather between those islands and the African shore was surprised in the gray of the morning by a Turkish rover of Salih who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make we crowded also as much canvas as our yards would spread as 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 12 guns and the rogue 18 about three in the afternoon he came up upon us and bringing to by mistake just a thwart our quarter instead of a thwart 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 sure off again after returning our fire and pouring in also his small shot from near 200 men which he had on board however we had not a man touched all our men keeping close he prepared to attack us again and we to defend ourselves but laying us on board the next time upon our other quarter he entered 60 men upon our decks who immediately fell to cutting and hacking the sails and rigging we plied them with small shot half pikes powder chests and such like and cleared our deck of them twice however to cut short this melancholy part of our story our ship being disabled and three of our men killed and eight wounded we were obliged to yield and were carried all prisoners into Silly moors the usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I apprehended nor was I carried up the country to the emperor's court as the rest of our men were but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize and made his slave being young and nimble and fit for his business at this surprising change in my circumstances from a merchant to a miserable slave I was perfectly overwhelmed while I looked back upon my father's prophetic discourse to me that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass that I could not be worse for now the hand of heaven had overtaken me and I was undone without redemption but alas this was but a taste of the misery I was to go through as will appear in the sequel of the story as my new patron or master had taken me home to his house so I wasn't hopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again believing that it would sometime or other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal man of war and that then I should be set at liberty but this hope of mine was soon taken away for when he went to sea he left me unsure to look after his little garden and do the common drudgery of slaves around his house and when he came home again from his cruise he ordered me to lie in the cabin to look after the ship here I meditated nothing but my escape and what method I might take to effect it but found no way that had the least probability in it nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational for I had nobody to communicate it to that would embark with me no fellow slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself so that for two years though I often pleased myself with the imagination yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice after about two years and at circumstance presented itself which put the old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head my patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting out his ship which as I heard was for one of money he used constantly once or twice a week sometimes oftener if the weather was fair I would make the ship's penis and go out into the road of fishing and as he always took me in the young Moresco with him to row the boat we made him very merry and I proved very dexterous in catching fish in so much that sometimes he would 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 to fishing in a calm morning a fog rose so thick that though we were not half a lead from the shore we lost sight of it and rowing we knew not wither or which way we labored all day and all the next night and when the morning came we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for shore and that we were at least two leagues from the shore however we got well in again though with a great deal of labor and some danger for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning but we were all very hungry but our patron warned by this disaster resolved to take more care of himself for the future and having lying by him the longboat of our English ship that he had taken he resolved he would not go fishing any more without a compass and some provision so he ordered the carpenter of his ship which was also an English slave to build a little state room or cabin in the middle of the longboat like that of a barge with a place to stand behind it to steer and haul home the main sheet the room before, for a hand or two to stand and work the sails she sailed with what we call a shoulder of mutton sail and the boom jibed over the top of the cabin which lay very snug and low and had in it room for him to lie with a slave or two and a table to eat on with some small lockers to put in some bottles such liquor as he thought fit to drink and his bread rice and coffee we went frequently out with this boat of fishing and as I was most dexterous to catch fish for him he never went without me it happened that he had appointed to go out in this boat either for pleasure or for fish with two or three moors of some distinction in that place and for whom he had provided extraordinarily and had, therefore sent on board the boat overnight a larger store of provisions than ordinary and had ordered me to get ready three fusees with powder and shot which were on board his ship for that they designed some sport of fouling as well as fishing I got all things ready as he had directed and waited the next morning with the boat washed clean her ancient impendence out and everything to accommodate his guests when by and by my patron came on board alone and told me his guests had put off going from some business that fell out and ordered me, with the man and boy as usual to go out with the boat and catch them some fish for that his friends were to set up at his house and commanded that as soon as I got some fish I should bring it home to his house, all which I prepared to do this moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts for now I found I was likely to have a little ship at my command my master being gone I preferred prepared to furnish myself not for fishing business but for a voyage though I knew not neither did I so much as consider wither I should steer anywhere to get out of that place was my desire my first contrivance was to make a pretense to speak to this more to get something for our subsistence on board for I told him we must not presume to eat of our patrons bread he said that was true so he brought a large basket of rust or biscuit and three jars of fresh water into the boat I knew where my patrons case of bottle stood which it was evident by the make were taken out of some English prize and I conveyed them into the boat while the moor was on shore as if they had been there before for our master I conveyed also a great lump of beeswax into the boat which weighed about half a hundred weight with a parcel of twine or thread a hatchet a saw and hammer all of which were of great use to us afterwards especially the wax my candles another trick I tried upon him which he innocently came into also his name was Ishmael which they called mooly or moly so I called him moly said I our patrons guns are on board the boat can you not get a little powder and shot maybe we may kill some alchamis a foul like our curlews for ourselves for I know he keeps the gunner's stores in the ship yes says he I'll bring some and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch which held a pound and a half of powder or rather more and another was shot that had five or six pounds with some bullets and put all into the boat at the same time I found some powder by masters in a great cabin with which I filled one of the large bottles in the case which was almost empty pouring what was in it into another and thus furnished with everything needful we sailed out of the port to fish the castle which is at the entrance of the port knew who we were and took no notice of us and we were not above a mile out of the port before we hauled in our sail and set us down to fish the wind blew from the north northeast which was contrary to my desire for had it blown suddenly I had been sure to have made the coast of Spain and at least reached to the bay of Cadiz but my resolutions were blow which way it would I would be gone from that horrid place where I was and leave the rest to fate after we had fished for some time and caught nothing for when I had fish on my hook I would not pull them up that he might not see them I said to the moor this will not do our master will not be thus served we must stand farther off he thinking no harm agreed and being in the head of the boat set the sails and as I had the helm I ran the boat out near a league farther and then brought her to as if I would fish when giving the boy the helm I stepped forward to where the moor was looking as if I stooped for something behind him I took him by surprise with my arm under his waist and tossed him clear overboard into the sea he rose immediately for he swam like a cork and called to me beg to be taken in told me he would go all over the world with me he swam so strong after the boat that he would have reached me very quickly there being but little wind upon which I stepped into the cabin and fetching one of the following pieces I presented it at him and told him I had done him no hurt and if he would be quiet I would do him none but said I you swim well enough to reach to the shore and to see his calm make the best of your way to shore and I will do you no harm but if you come near the boat I'll shoot you through the head for I am resolved to have my liberty so he turned himself about and swam for the shore for he was an excellent swimmer I could have been content to have taken this more with me and have drowned the boy but there was no venturing to trust him when he was gone I turned to the boy whom they called Shuri and said to him Shuri if you will be faithful to me I'll make you a great man but if you will not stroke your face to be true to me that is swear by Muhammad and his father's beard I must throw you into the sea too the boy smiled in my face and spoke so innocently that I could not distrust him and swore to be faithful to me and go all over the world with me while I was in view of the moor that was swimming I stood out directly to sea with the boat rather stretching to windward that they might think me gone towards the straits mouth as indeed anyone that had been in their wits must have been supposed to do for who would have supposed we were to the southward to the truly barbarian coast where whole nations of negroes were sure to surround us with their boats and destroy us where we could not go on shore but we should be devoured by savage beasts or more merciless savages of the humankind but as soon as a crew desk in the evening I changed my course and steered directly south and by east bending my course a little towards the east that I might keep in with the shore and having a fair fresh gale of wind and a smooth quiet sea I made such sail that I believed by the next day at three o'clock in the afternoon when I first made the land I could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south of Salih quite beyond the emperor of morocco's dominions or indeed of any other king thereabouts for we saw no people yet such was the fright I had taken of the moors dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands that I would not stop or go on shore or come to an anchor the wind continuing fair till I had sailed in that manner five days and then the wind shifting to the southward I concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase of me they also would now give over so I ventured to make the coast and come to an anchor in the mouth of a little river I knew not what nor where what altitude, what country, what nation or what river I neither saw no desire to see any people the principal thing I wanted was fresh water we came into this creek in the evening resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark and discover the country but as soon as it was quite dark we heard such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring and howling of wild creatures of we knew not what kinds that the poor boy was ready to die with fear and begged of me not to go on shore till day well Shuri said I then I won't but it may be that we may see men by day who will be as bad to us as those lions then we give them the shoot gun said Shuri laughing make them run away such English Shuri spoke by conversing among a slaves however I was glad to see the boy so cheerful and I gave him a dram in the case of bottles to cheer him up after all Shuri's advice was good and I took it we dropped our little anchor and lay still all night I say still for we slept none for in two or three hours we saw vast great creatures we knew not what to call them of many sorts come down to the seashore and run into the water wallowing and washing themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves then I never indeed heard the like Shuri was dreadfully frightened and indeed so was I too but we were both more frightened when we heard one of these mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat we could not see him but we might hear him by his blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast Shuri said it was a lion and it might be so for all I know but poor Shuri cried to me to weigh the anchor and row away Shuri we can slip our cable with the boy to it and go off to sea they cannot follow us far I had no sooner said so but I perceived the creature whatever it was within two oars length which something surprised me however I immediately stepped to the cabin door taking up my gun fired at him upon which he immediately turned about and swam towards the shore again but it is impossible to describe the horrid noises and hideous cries and howlings that were raised as well upon the edge of the shore as higher within the country upon the noise or report of the gun a thing I have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before this convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night on that coast and how to venture on shore in the day was another question too for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of the lions and tigers next we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it be that as it would we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or other for water for we had not a pint left in the boat when and where to get to it was the point sure he said if I would let him go on shore with one of the jars he would find if there was any water and bring some to me I asked him why he should go why I should not go and he stay in the boat the boy answered with so much affection as made me love him ever after says he if wild man's come they eat me you go away well sure he said I we will both go and if the wild man's come we will kill them they shall eat neither of us so I gave sure a piece of rust bread to eat in a tram out of our patrons case of bottles which I mentioned before and we hauled the boat in as near shore as we thought was proper and so waited on shore carrying nothing but our arms and two jars for water I did not care to go out of sight of the boat fearing the coming of canoes with savages down the river but the boy seeing a low place about a mile up the country rambled to it and by and by I saw him come running towards me I thought he was pursued by some savage or frightened with some wild beast and I ran towards him to help him but when I came nearer to him I saw something hanging over his shoulders which was a creature that he had shot like a hare but different in color and longer legs however we were very glad of it and it was very good meat but the great joy that poor Shuri came with was to tell me he had found good water and seen no wild man's but we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water for a little higher up the creek where we were we found water fresh when the tide was out which flowed but a little way up and so we filled our jars and feasted on the hare he had killed and prepared to go our way having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part of the country as I had been one voyage to this coast before I knew very well that the islands of the canaries and the Cape de Verde islands also lay not far off from the coast but as I had no instruments to take an observation of what latitude we were in and not exactly knowing or at least remembering what latitude they were in I knew not where to look for them or when to stand off to see towards them otherwise I might now easily have found some of these islands but my hope was that if I stood along this coast till I came to that part where the English traded I should find some of their vessels upon their usual design of trade that would relieve and take us in by the best of my calculation that place where I now was must be that country which lying between the Emperor of Morocco's Dominions and the Negroes lies waste and uninhabited except by wild beasts the Negroes having abandoned it and gone farther south for fear of the Moors and the Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting by reason of its barrenness and indeed both forsaking it because of the prodigious numbers of tigers lions, leopards and furious creatures which harbor there so that the Moors use it for their hunting only where they go like an army two or three thousand men at a time and indeed for near a hundred miles together upon this coast we saw nothing but a waste uninhabited country by day and heard nothing but howling and roaring of wild beasts by night once or twice in the daytime I thought I saw the Pico of Tenerife being the high top of the mountain Tenerife in the Canaries my adventure out in hopes of reaching thither but having tried twice I was forced again in by contrary winds the sea also going too high for my little vessel so I resolved to pursue my first design and keep along the shore several times I was obliged to land for fresh water after we had left this place and once in particular being early in the morning we came to an anchor under a little point of land which was pretty high and the tide beginning to flow we lay still to go further in Shuri whose eyes were more about him than it seems mine were call softly to me and tells me that we had best go farther off the shore Four, says he, look yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock fast asleep I looked where he pointed and saw a dreadful monster indeed for it was a terrible great lion that lay on the side of the shore under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as if it were a little over him Shuri says I you shall on shore and kill him Shuri looked frightened and said me kill he eat me one mouth one mouthful he meant however I said no more to the boy but bait him lie still and I took our biggest gun which was almost musket bore and loaded it with a good charge of powder and with two slugs and laid it down then I loaded another gun with two bullets and the third for we had three pieces I loaded with five smaller bullets I took the best aim I could with the first piece to have shot him in the head but he lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose that the slug hit his knee and broke the bone he started up growling at first but finding his leg broken fell down 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 and immediately and though he began to move off fired again and shot him in the head and had the pleasure to see him drop and make but little noise but lie struggling for life then Shuri took heart and would have me let him go on shore well go said I so the boy jumped into the water and taking a little gun in one hand swam shore with the other and coming close to the creature put the muzzle of the piece to his ear and shot him in the head again which dispatched him quite this was game indeed to us but this was not 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 Shuri said he would have some for him he comes on board and asks me to give him the hatchet for what Shuri said I me cut off his head said he however Shuri 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 be thought myself however however that perhaps the skin of him might one way or another be of some value to us and I resolved to take off his skin if I could so Shuri and I went to work with him but Shuri was much better the workman at it for I knew very ill how to do it indeed it took both of us up the whole day but at last we got off the hide of him and spreading it on the top of our cabin the sun effectually dried it in two days time and it afterwards served me to lie upon end of chapter 2 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 Threat on a Desert Island after the stop we made on to the southward continually for 10 or 12 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 the single point either that I must meet with some ship or must perish when I had pursued this resolution about 10 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 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 put a great way off till we fetched it on board and then came close to us again we made signs of thanks to them for we had nothing to make them amends but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty creatures one pursuing the other as we took it with great fury from the mountains towards the sea whether it was the male pursuing the female or whether they were in sport or in rage we could not tell any more than we could tell whether it was usual or strange but I believe it was the latter because in the first place those ravenous creatures seldom appear but in the night and in the second place we found the people terribly frighted especially the women the man that had the lance or dart did not fly from them but the rest did however as the two creatures ran directly into the water they did not offer to fall upon any of the negroes but plunged themselves into the sea and swam about as if they had come there for diversion at last one of them began to come near 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 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 there were 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 around 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 I found 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 him they were very thankful for immediately they fell to work with him and though they had no knife yet with a sharpened piece of wood they took off his skin as readily and much more readily than we could have done with a knife they offered me some of the flesh which I declined pointing out that I would give it 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 11 days more I was preparing to go near the shore till I saw the land run out a great length into the sea at about the distance of four or five leagues before me and the sea being very calm I kept a large offing to make this point at length doubling the point at about two leagues from the land I saw plainly land on the other side to seaward then I concluded as it was most certain indeed that this was the Cape de Verde and those the islands called from thence Cape de Verde islands however they were at a great distance and I could not 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 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 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 patrons ancient on board 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 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 made 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 Forrest 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 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 the seaman that none should touch anything that I had then he took everything into his own possession and put 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 80 pieces of for it at Brazil and when it came there if anyone offered to give more he would make it up he offered me also 60 pieces of 8 more for my boy Shuri which I was loathed to take not that I was unwilling to let the captain have him but I was very loathed 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 he would give the boy an obligation to set him free in 10 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 22 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 20 ducats for the leopard skin and 40 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 I made about 220 pieces of 8 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 seeing how well the planters lived but rich suddenly I resolved if I could get a license to settle there I would turn plantar 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 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 neighbor of 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 laying 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 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 first sought my father's house and broke through all his good advice nay I was coming into the very middle station or upper degree of low life which my father advised me to before in 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 among strangers and savages in a wilderness and at such a distance as never to hear from any part of the world that had the least knowledge of me in this manner I used to look upon my condition with the utmost regret I had nobody to converse with but now and then this neighbor no work to be done but by the labor of my hands and I used to say I lived like a man cast away upon some desolate island that had nobody there but himself but how just has it been and how should all men reflect that when they compare their present conditions with others that are worse heaven may oblige them to make the exchange and be convinced of their former felicity by their experience I say how just has it been that the true solitary life I reflected on in an island of mere desolation should be my lot who had so often unjustly compared it with the life which I then led in which had I continued I had in all probability been exceeding prosperous and rich I was in some degree settled in my measures for carrying on the plantation before my kind friend the captain of the ship that took me up at sea went back for the ship remained there 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 senior English 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 and let 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 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 there to send over not the order only but a full account of my story to a merchant in London who represented it effectually to her whereupon she not only delivered the money but out of her own pocket sent the Portugal captain a very handsome present for his humanity and charity to me the merchant in London vesting this hundred pounds in English goods such as the captain had written for sent them directly to him at Lisbon and he brought them all safe to me to the Brazils among which without my direction for I was too young in my business to think of them he had taken care to have all sorts of tools 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 manufacturers such as cloths stuffs bays and things particularly valuable and desirable to 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 an European servant also I mean 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 50 great roles of tobacco on my own ground more than I had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbors and these 50 roles being each of above 100 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 befall on 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 obstinance 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 gulf of 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 and connections 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 elven teeth etc but Negroes and 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 excessively dear it happened being in company with some merchants and planters of my acquaintance and talking of those things very earnestly three of them came to me next morning and told me they had been musing very much upon what I had discoursed with them of the last night and they came to make a secret proposal to me and after enjoining me to secrecy they told me they had a mind to fit out of ship to go to Guinea that they had all plantations 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 I had a few hundred pounds from England and who in that time and with that little addition could scarce have failed of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling and that increasing too for me to think of such a voyage was the most preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances could be guilty of but I that was born to be my own destroyer could no more resist the offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs from my father's good counsel 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 and 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 my death making the captain of the ship that had 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 sea attended with all its common hazards to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particular misfortunes to myself but I was hurried on and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy rather than my reason and accordingly the ship being fitted out and the cargo furnished and all things done as by agreement by my partners in the voyage I went on board in an evil hour the first September 1659 being the same day eight years that I went from my father and mother at hull in order to act the rebel to their authority and the fool to my own interests our ship was about 120 tons burden carried six guns and 14 men besides the master, his boy and myself we had on board no large cargo of goods except for 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 10 or 12 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 which 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 12 days 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 southeast came about to the northwest and then settled in the northeast from whence it blew in such a terrible manner that for 12 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 12 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 12th day the weather abating a little the master made an observation as well as he could and found that he was in about 22 degrees north latitude but that he was 22 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 for us 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 15 days sail we make our voyage to the coast of Africa without some assistance both to our ship and to ourselves with this design we changed our course and steered away 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 12 degrees 18 minutes a second storm came upon us which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward and drove us so out of the way with the same timers that had all our lives been saved as to the sea we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever returning to our own country in this distress the wind still blowing very hard one of our men early in the morning cried out, land and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out and in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were then the ship struck upon a sand 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 but 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 staved by dashing against the ship's rudder 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 the maid 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 the sea in a storm and now our case was very dismal indeed for we all saw plainly that the sea went so high that the boat could not live and that we should be inevitably drowned as to making sail we had none nor if we had could we have done anything with it so we worked at the aura 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 at least 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 leak and a half as we reckoned it a raging wave, mountain like came rolling astern of us and plainly made us expect the coup de grace 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 on towards the shore and having spent itself went back and left me upon the land almost dry but half dead with the water I took in I had so much presence of mind as well as breath left that seeing myself nearer the mainland that 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 or 30 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 of the surface of the water and though it was not two seconds of time I felt 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 and delivered 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 I fast beat the breath as it were quite out of my body and had it returned again immediately I must have been strangled in the water but I recovered a little before the return of the waves and seeing I should be covered again with the water I resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock and so to hold my breath if possible till the wave went back now as the waves were not so high as at first being nearer land I held my hold till the wave abated and then fetched another run which brought me so near the shore that the next wave though it went over me 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 of the soul are when it is so saved, as I might say out of the very grave I do not wonder now at the custom when a malefactor 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 one soul saved but myself for as for them I never saw them afterwards or any sign of them except three of their hats one cap and two shoes that were not fellows I cast my eye to the stranded vessel when the breach and froth of the sea being so big I could hardly see it it lay so far 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 by wild beasts and that which was particularly afflicting to me was that I had no weapon either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance or to defend myself against any other creature that might desire to kill me for theirs in a word I had nothing about me but a knife a tobacco pipe and a little tobacco in a box this was all my provisions and this threw me into such terrible agonies of mine but 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 day what death I should die for as yet I saw no prospect of life I walked about a furlong from the shore to see if I could find any fresh water to drink which I did to my great joy and having drank and put a little tobacco into my mouth to prevent hunger I went to the tree and getting up into it 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 I fell fast asleep and slept as comfortably as I believe few could have done in my condition and found myself more refreshed with it than I think I ever was on such an occasion 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 wait it was broad day the weather clear and the storm abated so that the sea did not rage as well 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 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 afternoon I found the sea very calm and the tide ebbed so far out that I could come within a quarter of a mile of the ship and here I found a fresh renewing of my grief for I saw evidently that if we had kept on board we had 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 so I swam around and high out of the water there was nothing within my reach to lay hold of I swam around her twice and the second time I spied a small piece of rope which I wondered I did not see at first hung down by the 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 that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand or rather earth that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank and her head low almost to the water by this means all her quarter was free and all that was in that part was dry for you may be sure my first work was to search and to see what was spoiled and what was free and first I found that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the water 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 to furnish myself with many things which I foresaw would be very necessary to me it was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had and this extremity roused my application we had several spare yards and two or three large spars of wood and a spare top mast or two in the ship I resolved to work to fall with these and I flung as many of them overboard as I could manage for their weight tying every one with a rope that they may not drive away when this was done I went down the ship's side and pulling them to me I tied four of them together 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 the pieces being 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 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 plank's rewards 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 that is bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses five pieces of dried goat's flesh which we lived much upon and a little remainder of European corn which had been laid by for some files which we brought to see with us but the files were killed there had been some barley and wheat together but to my great disappointment I found afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled it all as for liquors I found several cases of bottles belonging to our skipper in which were some cordial waters and in all about five or six gallons of 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 and them in 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, 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 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 dry and good the third had taken water those 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 overset all my navigation I had three encouragements first a smooth calm sea secondly the tide rising and setting in to the shore 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 and 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 some current of the tide set into it so I guided my raft as well as I could to keep in the middle of the stream but here I had like to have suffered a second shipwreck which if I had I think verily would have broken my heart for knowing nothing of the coast my raft ran a ground at one end of it upon a shoal and not being a ground 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 my raft floated again and 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 as I could at length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek to which with great pain and difficulty I guided my raft and at last got so near that reaching ground with my ore I could thrust her directly in but here I had like 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 watering 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 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 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 a mile above me which rose up very steep and high and which seemed to over top some other hills which lay as an 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 in 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 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 was 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 its color and beak resembling it but it had no talons or claws more than common its flesh was carrion and fit for nothing contented with this discovery I came back to my raft and fell to work to bring my cargo on shore which took me up the rest of that day what to do with myself at night I knew not nor indeed where to rest for I was afraid to lie down on the ground not knowing but some wild beast might devour me though as I afterwards found there was really no need for those fears however as well as I could I barricaded myself round with the chest and boards that I had brought on shore and made a kind of hut for that night's lodging as for food I yet saw not which way to supply myself except that I had seen two or three creatures like 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 that 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 and the emergence 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 and she went to it smelled at it and ate it and looked as if pleased for more but I thanked her and could spare no more so she marched off having got my second cargo on shore with a few 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 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 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 as also all the small ropes and rope twine I could get with a piece of spare canvas which was to mend the sails upon occasion and the barrel of wet gunpowder in a word I brought away all the sails first and last only that I was feigned to cut them in pieces and bring as much as I at a time as I could for they were no more useful to be sails but as mere canvas only but that which comforted me more still was that last of all after I had made five or six such voyages as these and thought I had nothing more to expect from the ship that was worth my meddling with I say after all this I found a great 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 fit to hand out I began with the cables cutting the great cable into pieces such as I can move I got two cables and a houser on shore with all the iron work I could get I could 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 for this raft was so unwieldy and so overladen that after I had entered the little cove where I had landed the rest of my goods not being able to guide it so handily as I did the other it oversat 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 especially the iron which I expected would have been of great use to me however when the tide was out I got most of the pieces of the cable ashore and some of the iron though with infinite 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 I had now 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 tin or a dozen of good knives and forks in another I found about 36 pounds value of money some European coins, some Brazil some 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 whose life is not worth saving however upon second thoughts I took it away and wrapping all this in a piece of canvas I began to think about another raft but while I was preparing this I found the sky overcast and the wind began to rise and in a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore it presently occurred to me that it was in vain to pretend to make a raft with the wind offshore and that it was my business to be gone before the tide of flood began otherwise I might not be able to reach the shore at all accordingly I 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 rose very hastily and before it was quite high water it blew a storm but I had got home to my little tent where I lay with all my wealth about me very secure it blew very hard all night and in the morning when I looked out behold, no more ship was to be seen I was a little surprised but recovered myself with the satisfactory reflection that I had lost no time nor abated any diligence to get everything out of her that could be useful to me and that indeed there was little left in her that I was able to bring away if I had had more time I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship or of anything out of her except what might drive on shore from her wreck as indeed diverse pieces of her afterwards did but those things were of small use to me my thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself against either savages if any should appear or wild beasts if any were in the island and I had many thoughts of the method how to do this and what kind of dwelling to make whether I should make me a cave in the earth or a tent upon the earth 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 crown 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 100 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 10 yards in its semi-diameter from the rock and 20 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 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 in 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 after me 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 tarpuline which I had saved among the sails and now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had brought on shore but in a hammock which was indeed a very good one and belonged to the mate of the ship into this tent I brought all my provisions and everything that would spoil by the wet 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 that I dug down out through my tent I laid them up within my fence in the nature of a terrace so that it raised the ground within about a foot and a half and thus I made me a cave and a cellar to my house it cost me much labour and many days before all these things were brought to perfection and therefore I must go back to some other things which took up some of my thoughts at the same time it happened after I had laid my scheme for the setting up 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 came to 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 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 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 in about a fortnight and I think my powder which was in all about 240 pounds weight was divided in not less than a hundred parcels as to the barrel that had been wet I did not apprehend any danger from that so I placed it in my new cave which in my fancy I called my kitchen and the rest I hit up and down in holes among the rocks so that no wet might come to it marking very carefully where I laid it in the interval of time while this was doing I went out once at least every day with my gun as well to divert myself as to see if I could kill anything fit for food and as near as I could to acquaint myself with what the island produced the first time I went out I presently discovered that there were goats in the island which was a great satisfaction to me but then it was attended with this misfortune to me that is that they were so shy so subtle and so swift to foot 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 I noted that by the position of their optics their sight was so directed downward that they did not readily see objects that were above them so afterwards I took this method I always climbed the rocks first to get above them and then had frequently a fair mark the first shot I made among these creatures I killed a she-goat which had a little kid by her which she gave suck to which grieved me heartily for when the old one fell by her till I came and took her up and not only so but when I carried the old one upon my shoulders the kid followed me quite to my enclosure upon which I laid down the dam and took the kid in my arms and carried it over my pale in hopes to have bred it up tame but it would not eat 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 as much as I possibly could having now fixed my habitation I found it absolutely necessary to provide a place to make a fire in and fuel to burn and what I did for that and also how I enlarged my cave and what conveniences I made I shall give a full account of in its place but I must now give some little account of myself and of my thoughts about living which it may well be supposed 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 to be thankful for such a life but something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts and to reprove me and particularly one day walking with my gun in my hand by the seaside I was very pensive upon the subject of my present condition when reason as it were expostulated with me the other way thus well you are in a desolate condition it is true but pray remember where are the rest of you did 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 sea 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 ammunition without any tools to make anything or to work with without clothes, bedding, a tent or any manner of covering and that now I had all these 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 I would provide for the accidents that might happen and for the time that was to come even not only after my ammunition should be spent but even after my health and strength should decay I confess I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition being destroyed at one blast I mean my powder being blown up by lightning and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me when it lightened and thundered as I 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 hoarded 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 September 1659 upon the sides of the square post I cut every day a notch with my knife and every seventh notch was as long again as the rest and every first day of the month as long again as that long one and thus I kept my calendar or weekly, monthly and yearly reckoning of time in the next place we are to observe that among the many things which I brought out of the ship in 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 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 the contents of whose imminent history I may have occasion to say something in its place for I carried both the cats with me and as for the dog he jumped out of the ship of himself and swam on shore to me the day after I went on shore with my first cargo and was a trusty servant to me many years I wanted nothing that he could fetch me nor any company that he could make up to me I only wanted to have him talk to me but that he would not do as I observed before I found pens, ink, and paper and I husbanded them to the utmost and I shall show that while my ink lasted I kept things very exact but after that was gone I could not for I could not make any ink by any means that I could devise and this put me in mind that I wanted many things notwithstanding all that I had amassed together and of these ink was one as also a spade pickaxe and shovel to dig or remove the earth needles, 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 I 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 where 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 close 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 well 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've 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 turf about two feet thick on the outside and after some time it was a year and a half I raised rafters from it leaning to the rock and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees and such things as I could get to keep out the rain which I found at some times of the year very violent I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale and into the cave which I had made behind me but I must observe too that at first this was a confused heap of goods 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 to the left side 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 I could not write or eat 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 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 with 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 cue 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 ironwork on and in a word to separate everything at large into their places that I might come easily at them I knocked pieces into the wall 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 everyday 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 untone till tired and faint I was forced to lie down on the ground to repose but durst not sleep for fear of being devoured some days after this and after I had been on board the ship and got all I could out of her 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 best distance I spy to sail please myself with the hopes of it and then after looking steadily till I was almost blind lose it quite and sit down and weep like a child and thus increase my misery by my folly but having gotten over these things in some measure and having settled my household, staff and habitation made me a table and a chair and all as handsome about me as I could I began to keep my journal of which I shall here give you the copy though in it will be told all 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 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 5 Builds a House The Journal September 30th 1659 I, poor, miserable Robinson Crusoe being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm in the offing came on shore on this dismal unfortunate island which I call the island of despair all the rest of the ship's company being drowned and myself almost dead all the rest of the day I spent inflicting myself at the dismal circumstances I was brought to that is I had neither food, house, clothes weapon nor place to fly to and in despair of any relief saw nothing but death before me either that I should be devoured by wild beasts murdered by savages or starved to death for want of food at the approach of night I slept in a tree for fear of wild creatures but slept soundly until it rained all night October 1st this morning I saw to my great surprise the ship had floated with the high tide and was driven on shore again much nearer the island which as it was some comfort on one hand for seeing her set up right and not broken into pieces I hoped, if the wind debated 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 imagine if we had 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 and it also continued raining though with no wind at all from the 1st of October to the 24th all of these days entirely spent in my several voyages to get all I could out of the ship which I brought on shore every tide of flood upon rafts much rain also in the days though with some intervals of fair weather but it seems this was the rainy season October 20th 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 October 25th 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 October 26th I walked about the shore almost all day to find out a place to fix my habitation greatly concerned to secure myself from any attack in the night either from wild beasts or men towards night I fixed upon a proper place under a rock and marked out a semicircle for my encatment I resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, or fortification made of double piles lined within with cables and without with turf from the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in carrying all my goods to my new habitation though some part of the time it rained exceedingly hard the 31st in the morning I went out into the island with my gun to seek for some food and discover the country and her kid followed me home which I afterwards killed also because it would not feed November 1st 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 November 2nd I set up all my chests and boards and the pieces of timber which made my rafts and with them formed a fence around me a little within the place I had marked out for my fortification November 3rd I went out with my gun and killed two fowls like ducks which were very good food and in the afternoon went to work to make me a table November 4th this morning I began to order my times of work of going out with my gun time of sleep and time of diversion that is every morning I walked out with my gun for two or three hours I did not rain then employed myself to work until about 11 o'clock then eat what I had to live on and from 12 to 2 I lay down to sleep the weather being excessively hot and then in the evening to work again the working part of this day and of the next were wholly employed in making my table for I was yet but a very sorry workman though time and necessity made me a complete natural mechanic soon after as I believe November 5th this day went abroad with my gun and my dog and killed a wild cat but her flesh good for nothing every creature that I killed I took of the skins and preserved them coming back to the seashore I saw many sorts of sea fowls which I did not understand but was surprised and almost frightened with two or three seals which while I was gazing at not well knowing what they were made me for that time November 6th after my morning walk I went to work with my table again and finished it though not by my liking nor was it long before I learned to mend it November 7th now it began to be settled fair weather the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th and part of the 12th and the 11th was Sunday I took wholly up to make me a chair and with much ado brought it to a tolerable shape but never to please me and even in the making I pulled it in pieces several times note I soon neglected my keep in Sundays for omitting my mark for them on my post I forgot which was which November 13th this day it rained which refreshed me exceedingly and cooled the earth but it was accompanied with terrible thunder and lightning which frightened me dreadfully for fear of my powder and 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 November 14th, 15th and 16th these three days I spent in making little square chests or boxes which might hold about a pound or two pounds at most of powder and so putting the powder in I stowed it in places as secure and remote from one another as possible on one of these three days I killed a large bird that was good to eat but I knew not what to call it November 17th this day I began to dig behind my tent into the rock to make room for my further conveniency note three things I wanted exceedingly for this work that is a pickaxe, a shovel and a wheelbarrow or basket so I desisted from my work and began to consider how to supply that want and make me some tools as for the pickaxe I made use of the iron crows which were proper enough though heavy but the next thing was a shovel or spade this was so absolutely necessary that indeed I could do nothing effectually without it but what kind of one to make I knew not November 18th the next day in searching the woods I found a tree of that wood or like it which in the brazils they call the iron tree for its exceeding hardness of this with great labor and almost spoiling my axe I cut a piece and brought it home too with difficulty enough for it was exceedingly 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 they handle exactly shaped like ours in England only that the board part having no iron shot upon it at the bottom it would not last me for so long however it served well enough for the uses which I had occasion to put it to but never was a shovel I believe made after that fashion or so long in making I was still deficient for I wanted a basket or a wheelbarrow a basket I could not make by any means having no such things as twigs that would bend to make a wheelchair at least none yet found out and as to a wheelbarrow I fancied I could make all but the wheel but that I had no notion of neither did I know how to go about it besides I had no possible way to make the iron gudgins for the spindle or axis of the wheel to run in so I gave it over and so for carrying away the earth which I dug out of the cave I made me a thing like a hod the laborers carry mortar in when they serve the bricklayers this is not so difficult to me as the making of the shovel and yet this in 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 accepting my morning walk with my gun which I seldom failed and very seldom failed also bringing home something fit to eat November 23 the 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 18 days entirely in widening and deepening my cave that it might hold my goods commodiously note during all this time I worked to make this room or cave spacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse or magazine a kitchen, a dining room and a cellar as for my lodging I kept to the tent except that sometimes in the wet season of the year it rained so hard that I could not keep myself dry which caused me afterwards to cover all my place within my pale with long poles in the form of rafters leaning against the rock and load them with flags and large leaves of trees like a thatch December 10 I began now to think my cave or vault finished on a sudden it seems I had made it too large a great quantity of earth fell down from the top on one side so much that in short it frighted me and not without reason too for if I had been under it I had never wanted a grave digger I had now a great deal of work to do over again for I had the loose earth all 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 December 11 this day I went to work with it accordingly and got two shores or posts pitched upright to the top with two pieces of boards across over each post this I finished the next day and setting more posts up with boards in about a week more I had the roof secured and the posts standing in rows served me for partitions to part off the house December 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 with indoors December 20 now I carried everything into the cave and began to furnish my house and set up some pieces of boards like a dresser to order my victuals upon but boards began to be very scarce with me also I made me another table December 24 much rain all day and all night no stirring out December 25 rain all day December 26 no rain and the earth much cooler than before and pleasanter December 27 killed a young goat and lame another so that I caught it and let it home in a string and when I had it at home I bound and splintered up its leg which was broke note bene I took such care of it that it lived and the leg grew well and as strong as ever but by my nursing it so long it grew tame and fed upon the little green at my door and would not go away this was the first time that I entertained a thought of breeding up some tame creatures that I might have food when my powder and shot was all spent December 28th, 29th, 30th and 31st 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 1st 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 as the winds which laid towards the center of the island I found there were plenty of goats though exceedingly shy and hard to come at however I resolved to try if I could not bring my dog to hunt them down January 2nd accordingly the next day I went out with my dog and set him upon the goats but I was mistaken for they all faced about upon the dog and he knew his danger too well for he would not come near them I began my fence or wall which being still jealous of my being attacked by somebody I resolved to make very thick and strong Note Bene this wall being described before I purposefully admit what was said in the journal it is sufficient to observe that I was no less time than from the 2nd of January to the 14th of April working finishing and perfecting this wall though it was no more than about 24 yards in length being a half circle from one place in the rock to another place about 8 yards from it the door of the cave being in the center behind it all this time I worked very hard the rains hindering me many days nay, sometimes weeks together but I thought I should never be perfectly secure till this wall was finished and it is scarce credible what inexpressible labor everything was done with especially the bringing of 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 the turf wall raised up close to it I perceived myself that if any people were to come on shore there they would not perceive anything like a habitation and it was very well I did so as may be observed hereafter upon a very remarkable occasion during this time I made my rounds in the woods for game every day when the rain permitted me and made frequent discoveries in these walks of something or other to my advantage particularly I found a kind of wild pigeons which build not as wood pigeons in a tree but rather as house pigeons in the holes of the rocks and taking some young ones I endeavored to bring them up tame but when they grew older they flew away which perhaps was at first for what a feeding them for I had nothing to give them however I frequently found their nests and got their young ones which were very good meat and now in the managing of my household affairs I found myself wanting in many things which I thought at first it was impossible for me to make as indeed with some of them it was for instance I could never make a cask to be hooped I had a small runlet or two as I observed before but I could not ever arrive at the capacity of making one by them though I spent many weeks about it I could never put in the heads or join the staves so true to one another as to make them hold water so I gave that also over in the next place I was at a great loss for candles so that as soon as ever it was dark which was generally by 7 o'clock I was obliged to go to bed I remembered the lump of beeswax with which I made candles in my African adventure but I had none of that now the only remedy I had was that when I killed a goat I saved the tallow with a little dish made of clay which I baked up in the sun and to which I added a wick of some okam I made me a lamp and this gave me light so not a clear steady light like a candle in the middle of all my labors it happened that rummaging my things I found a little bag which as I hinted before had been filled with corn for the feeding of poultry not for this voyage but before as I suppose when the ship came from Lisbon the little remainder of corn that had been in the bag was all devoured by the rats and I saw nothing in the bag for some other use I think it was to put my powder in when I divided it for fear of the lightning or some such use I shook the husks of corn out of it on one side of my fortification under the rock it was a little before the great rains just now mentioned that I threw this stuff away taking no notice and not so much as remembering that I had thrown anything there when about a month after or thereabouts I saw some few stalks of something green shooting out of the ground which I fancy might be some plant I had not seen but I was surprised and perfectly astonished when after a little longer time I saw about 10 or 12 years come out which were perfect green barley of the same kind as our European nay as our English barley it is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my thoughts on this occasion I had hitherto acted upon no religious foundation at all indeed I had very few notions of religion in my head nor had entertained any sense of anything that had befallen me otherwise than as chance or as we likely say what please is God without so much as inquiring into the end of providence in these things or his order and governing events for the world but after I saw barley growing there in a climate I knew was not proper for corn and especially that I knew not how it came there it startled me strangely and I began to suggest that God had miraculously caused his grain to grow without any help of seed sown and that it was so directed purely for my sustenance on that wild miserable place this touched my heart a little and brought tears out of my eyes and I began to bless myself because 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 stocks which proved to be stocks of rice in 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 of the island where I had been before peering in every corner and under every rock to see for more of it but I could not find any had lasted occurred to my thoughts that I shook a bag of chickens meat out in that place and then the wonder began to cease and I must confess my religious thankfulness to God's providence began to abate too upon the discovering that all this was nothing but what was common though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen a providence as if it had been miraculous for it was really the work of providence to me that should order or appoint that ten or twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled when the rats had destroyed all the rest as if it had been dropped from heaven as also that I should throw it out in that particular place where it being in the shade of a high rock it sprang up immediately whereas if I had thrown it anywhere else at that time it had been burnt up and destroyed I carefully saved the ears of this corn you may be sure in their season which was about the end of June and laying up every corn I resolved to sew 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 even then but sparingly as I shall say afterwards in its order for I lost all that I sewed the first season by not observing the proper time for I sewed it just before the dry season so that it never came up at all at least not as it would have done of which in its place besides this barley there were as above twenty or thirty stocks of rice which I preserved with the same care and for the same use or to the same purpose to make me bread or rather food for I found ways to cook it without baking though I did that also after some time but to return to my journal I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my wall done and the fourteenth of April I closed it up contriving to go into it not by a door but over the wall by a ladder that there might be no sign on the outside of my invitation April 16th I finished my ladder so I went up the ladder to the top and then pulled it up after me and let it down in the inside this was a complete enclosure to me for within I had room enough and nothing could come at me from without unless it could first mount my wall the very next day after this wall was finished I had almost all my labor overthrown at once and myself killed in the inside behind my tent just at the entrance into my cave I was terribly frightened with the most dreadful surprising thing indeed for all of a sudden I found the earth crumbling down from the roof of my cave and from the edge of the hill over my head in two of the posts I had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner I was heartily scared but thought nothing of it of what was really the cause only thinking that the top of my cave had fallen in as some of it had done before and for fear I should be buried in it I ran forward to my ladder and not thinking myself safe there neither I got over my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill which I expected might roll down upon me I had no sooner stepped to ground than I plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake for the ground I stood on shook three times at about eight minutes distance with three such shocks as would have the strongest building that could be supposed to have stood on the earth and a great piece of the top of a rock which stood about half a mile for me next to the sea fell down with such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life I perceived also the very sea was put into violent motion by it and I believe the shocks were stronger under the water than on the island I was so much amazed with the thing itself having never felt the like nor I was amazed with anyone that had that I was like one dead or stupefied and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick like one that was tossed at sea but the noise of the falling of the rock awakened me as it were and rousing me from the stupefied condition I was in filled me with horror and I thought of nothing then but the hill falling upon my tent and all my household goods and burying all at once and this sunk my very soul within me a second time after the third shot was over and I felt no more for some time I began to take courage and yet I had not hard enough to go over my wall again for fear of being buried alive but sat still upon the ground greatly cast down and disconsolate not knowing what to do all this while I had not the least serious religious thought about the common Lord have mercy upon me and when it was over that went away too while I sat thus I found the air overcast and row cloudy and as if it would ring soon after that the wind arose by little and little so that in less than half an hour it blew the most dreadful hurricane the sea was all of a sudden covered over with foam and froth the shore was covered with the breach of the water the trees were torn up by the roots and a terrible storm it was this held about three hours and then began to abate and in two hours more it was quite calm and began to rain very hard all this while I sat upon the ground very much terrified and dejected when on a sudden it came into my thoughts that these winds and rain being the consequences of the earthquake the earthquake itself was spent and over and I might venture into my cave again with this thought my spirits began to revive and the rain also helped me to persuade me I went in and sat down in my tent but the rain was so violent that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it and I was forced to go into my cave though very much afraid and uneasy for fear it would fall on my head this violent rain forced me to a new work that is to cut a hole through my new fortification to sink to let the water go out which would else have flooded my cave after I had been in my cave for some time and found still no more shocks of the earthquake follow I began to be more composed and now to support my spirits which indeed wanted it very much I went to my little store and took a small sup of rum which however I did then and always very sparingly knowing I could have no more when that was gone it continued raining all that night and great part of the day so that I could not stir abroad but my mind being more composed I began to think of what I had best do concluding that if the island was subject to these earthquakes there would be no living for me in the cave but I must consider of building a little hut in an open space which I might surround with a wall as I had done before and so make myself secure from wild beasts or men for I concluded if I stayed where I was I should certainly one time or other be buried alive with these thoughts I resolved to remove my tent from the place where it stood which was just under the hanging precipice of the hill and which if it should be shaken again would certainly fall upon my tent and I spent the next two days being the 19th and 20th of April in contriving where and how to remove my habitation the fear of being swallowed up alive made me that I never slept in quiet and yet the apprehension of lying abroad without any fence was almost equal to it but still when I looked about and saw how everything was put in order how pleasantly concealed I was and how safe from danger it made me very loathe to remove in the meantime it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal of time for me to do this and that I must be contented to venture where I was till I had formed a camp for myself and had secured it so as to remove to it so with this resolution I composed myself for a time and resolved that I would go to work with all speed to build me a wall with piles and cables etc. in a circle as before and set my tent up in it when it was finished but that I would venture to stay where I was till it was finished and fit to remove this was the 21st April 22nd the next morning I began to consider a means to put this resolve into execution but I was at a great loss about my tools I had three large axes and abundance of hatchets for we carry the hatchets for traffic with the Indians but with much chopping and cutting knotty hardwood they were all full of notches and dull and though I had a grindstone I could not turn it and grind my tools too this cost me as much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics or a judge upon the life and death of a man at length I contrived a wheel with the string to turn it with my foot then I might have both my hands at liberty note I had never seen any such thing in England or at least not to take notice how it was done though since I have observed it is very common there besides that my grindstone was very heavy and large this machine cost me a full weeks work to bring it to perfection April 28th and 29th these two whole days I took up in grinding my tools my machine for turning my grindstone performing very well having perceived my bread had been low a great while now I took a survey of it and reduced myself to one biscuit cake a day which made my heart very heavy May 1st in the morning looking towards the seaside the tide being low I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary and it looked like a cask when I came to it I found a small barrel and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship which were driven on shore by the late hurricane and looking towards the wreck itself I thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to I examined the barrel which was driven on shore and soon found that it was a barrel of gunpowder but it had taken water and the powder was caked as hard as a stone however I rolled it farther on shore for the present and went on upon the sands as near as I could to the wreck of the ship to look for more End of Chapter 5 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 6 Ill and Conscience Stricken When I came down to the ship I found it strangely removed the forecastle which lay before buried in sand was heaved up at least 6 feet and the stern which was broken pieces and parted from the rest by the force of the sea soon after I had left rummaging her was tossed up as it were and cast on one side and the sand was thrown so high on that side next to her stern that whereas there was a great place of water before so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile of the wreck without swimming I could now walk quite up to her when the tide was out I was surprised with this at first but soon concluded it must be done by the earthquake and by this violence the ship was more broke open than formerly so many things came daily on shore which the sea had loosened and which the winds and water rolled by degrees to the land this wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing my habitation and I busied myself mightily, that day especially in searching whether I could make any way into the ship but I found nothing must be expected of that kind for all the inside of the ship was choked up with sand however as I had learned not to despair of anything I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I could of the ship concluding that everything I could get from her would be of some use or other to me May 3rd I began with my saw and cut a piece of a beam through which I thought held some of the upper part or quarter deck together and when I had cut it through I cleared away the sand as well as I could from the side which lay highest but the tide was coming in I was obliged to give over for that May 4th I went fishing but caught not only one fish that I durst eat till I was weary of my sport when just going to leave off I caught a young dolphin I had made me a long line of some rope yarn but I had no hooks yet I frequently caught fish enough as much as I cared to eat all which I dried in the sun and ate them dried May 5th worked on the wreck cut another beam asunder and brought three great fur planks off from the decks which I tied together and made to float on shore when the tide of flood came in May 6th worked on the wreck got several iron bolts out of her and other pieces of iron work worked very hard and came home very much tired and had thoughts of giving it over May 7th went to the wreck again not with an intent to work but found the weight of the wreck had broke itself down the beams being cut that several pieces of ship seemed to lie loose and the inside of the hold lay so open that I could see into it but it was almost full of water and sand May 8th went to the wreck and carried an iron crow to wrench up the deck which lay now quite clear of the water or sand I wrenched open two planks and brought them on shore also with the tide I left the iron crow in the wreck for next day May 9th went to the wreck and with the crow made way into the body of the wreck and felt several casts of them with the crow but could not break them up I felt also a roll of English lead and could stir it but it was too heavy to remove May 10th through 14th went every day to the wreck and got a great many pieces of timber and boards or plank and two or three hundred weight of iron May 15th I carried two hatchets to try if I could not cut the roll of lead by placing the edge of one hatchet and driving it with the other but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water I could not make any blow to drive the hatchet May 16th it had blown hard in the night and the wreck appeared more broken by the force of the water but I stayed so long in the woods to get pigeons for food that the tide prevented my going to the wreck that day May 17th I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore at a great distance near two miles off me but resolved to see what they were and found it was a piece of the head but too heavy for me to bring away May 24th every day to this day I worked on the wreck and with the hard labour I loosened some things so much with the crow that the first tide several casts floated out two of the seamen's chests but the wind blowing from the shore nothing came to land that day but pieces of timber in the hog's head which had some brazil pork in it but the salt water and the sand had spoiled it I continued this work every day to the 15th of June except the time necessary to get food which I always appointed during this part of my employment to be when the tide was up and I might be ready when it was amped out and by this time I had got timber and plank and ironwork enough to have built a good boat if I had known how and also I got at several times and in several pieces near 100 weight of the sheet lead June 16th going down to the seaside I found a large tortoise or turtle this was the first I had seen which it seems was only my misfortune not any defect of the place or scarcity for had I happened to be on the other side of the island I might have had hundreds of them every day as I found afterwards but perhaps had paid dear enough for them June 17th I spent in cooking the turtle I found in her three score eggs and her flesh was to me at that time the most savory pleasant that ever I tasted in my life having had no flesh but of goats and fowls since I landed in this horrid place June 18th rained all day and I stayed within I thought at this time the rain felt cold and I was something chilly which I knew was not unusual in that latitude June 19th very ill as if the weather had been cold June 20th no rest all night violent pains in my head and feverish June 21st very ill Frighted almost to death with the apprehensions of my sad condition to be sick and no help prayed to God for the first time since the storm but scarce knew what I said or why my thoughts being all confused June 22nd a little better but under dreadful apprehensions of sickness chilled a she-goat and with much difficulty got it home and broiled some of it in eight I would feign have stewed it and made some broth but had no pot June 27th the Agu again so violent that I lay a bed all day and neither ate nor drank I was ready to perish for thirst but so weak I had not strength to stand up or to get myself any water to drink prayed to God again but was lightheaded and when I was not I was so ignorant that I knew not what to say only I lay and cried look upon me Lord pity me Lord have mercy upon me I suppose I did nothing else for two or three hours till the fit wearing off I fell asleep and did not wake till far in the night when I awoke I found myself much refreshed but weak and exceeding thirsty however as I had no water in my habitation I was forced to lie till morning and went to sleep again in this second sleep I had this terrible dream I thought that I was sitting on the ground on the outside of my wall where I sat when the storm blew after the earthquake and that I saw a man descend from a great black cloud in a bright flame of fire and light upon the ground he was all over as bright as a flame so that I could not but just bear to look towards him his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful impossible for words to describe when he stepped upon the ground with his feet I thought the earth trembled just as it had done before in the earthquake and all the air looked to my apprehension as if it had been filled he was no sooner landed upon the earth but he had moved forward towards me with a long spear or weapon in his hand to kill me and when he came to a rising ground at some distance he spoke to me or I heard a voice so terrible that it is impossible to express the terror of it all that I can say was this seeing all these things have not brought thee to repentance now thou shalt die at which words I thought he lifted up the spear that was in his hand to kill me no one that shall ever read in this account will expect that I should be able to describe the horrors of my soul at this terrible vision that even while it was a dream I even dreamed of those horrors nor is it any more possible to describe the impression that remained upon my mind when I awaked and found it was but a dream I had alas no divine knowledge what I had received by the good instruction of my father was then worn out by an uninterrupted series of seafaring wickedness and a constant conversation with none but such as were like myself wicked and profane to the last degree I do not remember that I had in all that time one thought that so much as tended either to looking upwards towards God or inwards towards a reflection upon my own ways but a certain stupidity of soul without desire of good or conscience of evil had entirely overwhelmed me and I was all that the most hardened unthinking wicked creature among our common sailors can be supposed to be not having the least sense either of the fear of God in danger or of thankfulness to God in deliverance in the relating of what already has passed of my story this will be the more easily believed when I shall add that through all the variety of miseries that had to this day befallen me I never had so much as one thought of it being the hand of God or that it was a just punishment for my sin my rebellious behavior against my father or my present sins which were great or so much as a punishment for the general course of my wicked life when I was on the desperate expedition on the desert shores of Africa I never had so much as one thought of what would become of me or one wish to God to direct me wither I should go or to keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded me as well as from voracious creatures as cruel savages but I was merely thoughtless of a God or a Providence like a mere brute from the principles of nature and by the dictates of common sense only and indeed hardly that when I was delivered and taken up at sea by the Portugal captain well used and dealt justly and honorably with as well as charitably I had not the least thankfulness in my thoughts when again I was shipwrecked ruined and in danger of drowning on the island I was as far from remorse or looking on it as a judgment I only said to myself often that I was an unfortunate dog and born to always be miserable it is true when I got on shore first here and found all my ships crew drowned and myself spared I was surprised with a kind of ecstasy and some transports of soul God assisted might have come up to true thankfulness but it ended where it began in a mere common flight of joy or as I may say being glad I was alive without the least reflection upon the distinguished goodness of the hand which had preserved me and had singled me out to be preserved when all the rest were destroyed or an inquiry why Providence had been thus merciful unto me even just the same common sort of joy which semen generally have after they got safe ashore from a shipwreck which they drown all in the next bowl of punch and forget almost as soon as it is over and all the rest of my life was like it even when I was afterwards on due consideration made sensible of my condition how I was cast on this dreadful place out of the reach of humankind all hope of relief or prospect of redemption as soon as I saw but a prospect of living and that I should not starve and perish for hunger all the sense of my affliction wore off and I began to be very easy applied myself to the works proper for my preservation and supply and was far enough from being afflicted at my condition as a judgment from heaven or as the hand of God against me and the thoughts which very seldom entered my head the growing up of the corn as is hinted in my journal had at first some little influence upon me and began to affect me with seriousness as long as I thought it had something miraculous in it but as soon as ever that part of the thought was removed all the impression that was raised from it wore off also as I have noted already even the earthquake though nothing could be more terrible in its nature or more immediately directing to the invisible power which alone directs such things yet no sooner was the first fright over but the impression it had made went off also I had no more sense of God or his judgments much less of the present affliction of my circumstances being from his hand then if I had been in the most prosperous condition of life but now when I began to be sick and allegedly view of the miseries of death came to place itself before me when my spirits began to sink under the burden of a strong distemper and nature was exhausted with the violence of the fever conscience that had slept so long began to awake and I began to reproach myself with my past life in which I had so evidently common wickedness provoke the justice of God to lay me under uncommon strokes and to deal with me in so vindictive a manner these reflections oppressed me for the second or third day of my distemper and in the violence as well of the fever as of the dreadful reproaches of my conscience extorted some words for me like praying to God though I cannot say my prayer attended with desires or with hopes it was rather the voice of mere fright and distress my thoughts were confused the convictions great upon my mind and the horror of dying in such a miserable condition raised vapors into my head with the mere apprehensions and in these hurries of my soul I knew not what my tongue might express but it was rather exclamation Lord what a miserable creature am I if I should be sick I shall certainly die for want of help and what will become of me then the tears burst out of my eyes and I could say no more for a good while in this interval the good advice of my father came to my mind and presently his prediction which I mentioned at the beginning of the story that is that if I did take this foolish step God would not bless me and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglected his counsel when there might be none to assist in my recovery now said I aloud my dear father's words are come to pass God's justice has overtaken me and I have none to help or hear me I rejected the voice of providence which had mercifully put me in a posture or station of life wherein I might have been happy and easy but I would neither see it myself nor learn to know the blessing of it from my parents I left them to mourn over my folly and now I am left to mourn under the consequences of it I abused their help and assistance which would have lifted me in the world and would have made everything easy to me and now I have difficulties to struggle with too great for even nature itself to support and no assistance, no help no comfort, no advice then I cried out Lord be my help for I am in great distress this was the first prayer if I may call it so that I had made for many years to return to my journal June 28th having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep I had had and the fit being entirely off I got up right in terror of my dream was very great yet I considered that the fit of the Agu would return again the next day and now was my time to get something to refresh and support myself when I should be ill and the first thing I did I filled a large square case bottle with water and set it upon my table in reach of my bed and to take off to chill or egg-wish disposition of the water I put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it and mixed them together then I got me a piece of the goat's flesh and broiled it on the coals but could eat very little I walked about but was very weak and with all very sad and heavy-hearted under a sense of my miserable condition dreading the return of my distemper of the next day at night I made my supper of three of the turtle's eggs which I roasted in the ashes which I call it in the shell and this was the first bit of meat I had ever asked God's blessing to that I could remember in my whole life after I had eaten I tried to walk but found myself so weak that I could hardly carry a gun for I never went out without that so I went but a little way and sat down upon the ground looking out upon the sea which was just before me and very calm and smooth as I sat here some such thoughts as these occurred to me what is this earth and sea of which I have seen so much whence is it produced and what am I and all the other creatures wild and tame human and brutal whence are we sure we all are made by some secret power who formed the earth and sea and the air and sky who is that then it followed most naturally it is God that has made all well but then it came on strangely if God has made all these things he guides and governs them all and all things that concern them for the power that could make all things must certainly have power to guide and direct them if so nothing can happen in the great circuit of his works either without his knowledge or appointment and if nothing happens without his knowledge he knows that I am here and in this dreadful condition and if nothing happens without his appointment he has appointed all this to befall me nothing occurred to my thoughts to contradict any of these conclusions and therefore it rested upon me with the greater force that it must needs be that God had appointed all this to befall me that I was brought into this miserable circumstance by his direction he having the soul power not of me only but of everything that happened in the world immediately it followed why has God done this to me what have I done to be thus used my conscience presently checked me in that inquiry as if I had blasphemed and we thought it spoke to me like a voice wretch does thou ask what thou has done look back upon a dreadful mis-spent life and ask thyself what thou has not done ask why is it that thou were not long ago destroyed why were it thou not drowned in yarmouth roads killed in the fight when the ship was taken by the sailing man of war devoured by the wild beasts on the coast of Africa or drowned here when all the crew perished but thyself what have I done I was struck dumb with these reflections as one astonished and had not a word to say no not to answer to myself but rose up pensive and sad walk back to my retreat and went up over my wall as if I had been going to bed but my thoughts were sadly disturbed and I had no inclination to sleep so I sat down in my chair and lighted my lamp for it began to be dark now as the apprehension of the return of my distemper terrified me very much it occurred to my thought that the Brazilians take no physique but their tobacco for almost all distempers and I had a piece of a roll of tobacco in one of the chests which was quite cured and some also that was green and not quite cured I went directed by heaven and took it out for in this chest I found a cure both for soul and body I opened the chest and found what I looked for the tobacco and as the few books I had saved lay there too I took out one of the Bibles which I mentioned before and which to this time I had not found leisure or inclination to look into I say I took it out and brought both that tobacco with me to the table what used to make of the tobacco I knew not in my distemper or whether it was good for it or no but I tried several experiments with it as if I was resolved it should hit one way or another I took first a piece of leaf and chewed it in my mouth which indeed at first almost stupefied my brain the tobacco being green and strong and that I had not been much used to then I took some and steeped it an hour or two in some run and resolved to make a dose of it when I lay down and lastly I burnt some upon a pan of coals and held my nose over it over the smoke of it as long as I could bear it as well for the heat as almost for suffocation in the interval of this operation I took up the Bible and began to read but my head was too much disturbed with the tobacco to bear reading at least at that time only having opened the book casually the first words that occurred to me were these call on me and the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me these words were very apt to my case and made some impression upon my thoughts at the time of reading them though not so much as they did afterwards for as for being delivered the word had no sound as I may say to me the thing was so remote so impossible in my apprehension of things that I began to say as the children of Israel did when they were promised flesh to eat can God spread a table in the wilderness so I began to say can God himself deliver me from this place and as it was not for many years any hopes appeared this prevailed very often upon my thoughts but however the words made a great impression upon me and I mused upon them very often it grew now late and the tobacco had as I said dozed my head so much that I inclined to sleep so I left my lamp burning in the cave lest I should want anything in the night and went to bed but before I lay down I did what I never had done in all my life I kneeled down and prayed to God to fulfill the promise to me that if I called upon him in the day of trouble he would deliver me after my broken and imperfect prayer was over I drank the rum in which I had steeped the tobacco which was so strong and rank of the tobacco that I could scarcely get it down immediately upon this I went to bed I found presently it flew up into my head violently but I fell into a sound sleep and wait no more till by the sun it must necessarily be near three o'clock in the afternoon the next day nay to this hour I am partly of opinion that I slept all the next day and night till almost three days after for otherwise I know not how I should lose a day out of my reckoning in the days of the week as it appeared some years after I had done for if I had lost it by crossing and recrossing the line I should have lost more than one day but certainly I lost a day in my account and never knew why be that however one way or the other when I awaked I found myself exceedingly refreshed in my spirits lively and cheerful when I got up I was stronger than I was the day before but in my stomach better for I was hungry and in short I had no fit the next day but continued much altered for the better this was the 29th the 30th was my well day of course and I went abroad with my gun but did not care to travel too far I killed a seafowl or two something like a brand goose and brought them home but was not very forward so I ate some more of the turtles eggs which were very good this evening I renewed the medicine which I had supposed did me good the day before the tobacco steeped and rum only I did not take so much as before nor did I chew any of the leaf or hold my head over the smoke however I was not so well the next day which was the first of July as I hoped it should have been for I had a little spice of the cold fit but it was not much July 2nd I renewed the medicine all the three ways and dosed myself with it as at first and doubled the quantity which I drank July 3rd I missed the fit for good and all though I did not recover my full strength for some weeks after while I was thus gathering my strength my thoughts ran exceedingly upon the scripture I will deliver thee the reliability of my deliverance lay much upon my mind in bar of my ever expecting it but as I was discouraging myself with such thoughts it occurred to me that I poured so much upon my deliverance from the main affliction that I disregarded the deliverance I had received and I was as it were made to ask myself such questions as these that is have I not been delivered and wonderfully too from sickness from the most distress condition that could be and that was so frightful to me and what notice had I taken of it had I done my part God had delivered me but I had not glorified him that is to say I had not owned and been thankful for that as a deliverance and how could I expect greater deliverance this touched my heart very much and immediately I knelt down and gave God thanks aloud for my recovery from my sickness July 4 in the morning I took the Bible and beginning at the New Testament I began seriously to read it and imposed upon myself to read awhile every morning and every night not tying myself to the number of chapters but long as my thoughts should engage me it was not long after I set seriously to this work that I found my heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life the impression of my dream revived in the words all these things have not brought thee to repentance ran seriously through my thoughts I was earnestly begging of God to give me repentance and providentially the very next day that reading the scripture I came to these words he is exalted a prince and a savior to give repentance and to give remission I threw down the book and with my heart as well as my hands lifted up to heaven in a kind of ecstasy of joy I cried out aloud Jesus, thou son of David Jesus, thou exalted prince and savior give me repentance this was the first time I could say in the true sense of the words that I prayed in all my life for now I prayed with a sense of my condition and a true scripture view of hope founded on the encouragement of the word of God and from this time I may say I began to hope that God would hear me now I began to construe the words mentioned above call on me and I will deliver thee in a different sense from what I had ever done before for then I had no notion of anything being called deliverance but my being delivered from the captivity I was in for though I was indeed at large in the place yet the island was certainly a prison to me and that in the worst sense of the world but now I learned to take it in another sense now I look back upon my past life with such horror and my sins appeared so dreadful that my soul sought nothing of God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down all my comfort as for my solitary life it was nothing I did not so much as pray to be delivered from it it was all of no consideration in comparison to this and I add this part here to hint to whoever shall read it that whenever they come to a true sense of things they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction but leaving this part I return to my journal my condition began now to be though not less miserable as to my way of living yet much easier to my mind and my thoughts being directed by a constant reading the scripture and praying to God to things of a higher nature I had a great deal of comfort within which till now I knew nothing of also my health and strength returned I bestowed myself to furnish myself with everything that I wanted and make my way of living as regular as I could from the 4th of July to the 14th I was chiefly employed talking about with my gun in my hand a little and a little at a time as a man that was gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness for it is hardly to be imagined how low I was and to what weakness I was reduced the application which I made use of was perfectly new and perhaps which had never cured an Agu before neither can I recommend it to any to practice by this experiment and though it did carry off the fit yet it rather contributed to weakening me for I had frequent convulsions in my nerves and limbs for some time I learned from it also this in particular that being abroad in the rainy season was the most pernicious thing to my health that could be especially in those rains which came attended with storms and hurricanes of wind for as the rain which came in the dry season was almost always accompanied with such storms so I found that that rain was much more dangerous than the rain which fell in September and October end of chapter 6 Chapter 7 Agricultural Experience I had now been in this unhappy island above ten months all possibility of deliverance from this condition seemed to be entirely taken from me and I firmly believe that no human shape had ever set foot upon that place having now secured my habitation as I thought fully to my mind I had a great desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island and to see what other productions I might find which I yet knew nothing of it was on the 15th of July that I began to take a more particular survey of the island itself I went up the creek first where as I hinted I brought my rafts on shore I found after I came about two miles up that the tide did not flow any higher and that it was no more than a little brook of running water very fresh and good but this being the dry season there was hardly any water in some parts of it at least not enough to run in any stream so as it could be perceived on the banks of this brook I found many pleasant savannas or meadows plain smooth and covered with grass rising parts of them next to the higher grounds where the water as might be supposed never overflowed I found a great deal of tobacco green and growing to a great and very strong stock there were diverse other plants which I had no notion of or understanding about that might perhaps have virtues of their own which I could not find out I searched for the cassava root which the Indians all that climate make their bread of but I could find none I saw large plants of aloes but did not understand them I saw several sugar canes but wild and for want of cultivation imperfect I contented myself with these discoveries for this time and came back musing with myself what course I might take to know the virtue and goodness of any of the fruits or plants which I should discover but to no conclusion for in short I had made so little observation while I was in the Brazils that I knew little of the plants in the field at least very little that might serve to any purpose now in my distress the next day the 16th I went up the same way again and after going somewhat further than I had gone the day before I found the brook and the savannas cease and the country become more woody than before in this part I found different fruits and particularly I found melons upon the ground and great abundance and grapes upon the trees the vines had spread indeed over the trees and the clusters of grapes were just now in their prime very ripe and rich this was a surprising discovery and I was exceeding glad of them but I was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of them remembering that when I was sure in Barbary the eating of grapes killed several of our Englishmen who were slaves there by throwing them into fluxes and fevers but I found an excellent use for these grapes and that was to cure or dry them in the sun and keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept which I thought would be as indeed they were wholesome and agreeable to eat when no grapes could be had that evening there and went back to my habitation which by the way was the first night as I might say I had lain from home in the night I took my first contrivance and got up in a tree where I slept well and the next morning proceeded upon my discovery traveling nearly four miles as I might judge by the length of the valley keeping still due north with a ridge of hills on the south and north side of me at the end of this march I came to an opening where the country seemed to descend to the west and the little spring of fresh water which issued out of the side of the hill by me ran the other way that is due east and the country appeared so fresh so green so flourishing everything being in a constant verger or flourish of spring that it looked like a planted garden I descended a little on the side of that delicious bale surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure though mixed with my other afflicting thoughts to think that this was all my own that I was king and lord of all this country indefensibly and had a right of possession and if I could convey it I might have it in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor in England I saw here abundance of cocoa trees orange and lemon and citron trees but all wild and very few bearing any fruit at least not then however the green lines that I gathered were not only pleasant to eat but very wholesome and I mixed their juice afterwards with water and made it very wholesome and very cool and refreshing I found now I had business enough to gather and carry home and I resolved to lay up a store as well of grapes as limes and lemons to furnish myself for the wet season which I knew was approaching in order to do this I gathered a great heap of grapes in one place a lesser heap in another place and a great parcel of limes and lemons in another place and taking a few of each with me I traveled home words resolving to come again and bring a bag or sack or what I could make to carry the rest home accordingly having spent three days on this journey I came home so I must now call my tent and my cave my home but before I got thither the grapes were spoiled the richness of the fruit and the weight of the juice having broken them and bruised them they were good for little or nothing as to the limes they were good but I could bring but a few the next day being the 19th I went back having made me two small bags to bring home my harvest but I was surprised when coming to my heap of grapes which were so rich and fine to find them all spread about trod to pieces and dragged about some here some there and abundance eaten and devoured by this I concluded there were some wild creatures there which had done this but what they were I knew not however as I found there was no laying them up on heaps and no carrying them away in a sack but that one way they would be destroyed and the other way they would be crushed with their own weight I took another course for I gathered a large quantity of the grapes and hung them trees that they might cure and dry in the sun and as for the limes and lemons I carried as many back as I could well stand under when I came home from this journey I contemplated with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley and the pleasantness of the situation the security from storms on that side of the water and the wood and concluded that I had pitched upon a place to fix my abode which was by far the worst part of the country upon the whole I began to consider of removing my habitation and looking out for a place equally safe as where now I was situate if possible in that pleasant fruitful part of the island this thought ran long in my head and I was exceedingly fond of it for some time the pleasantness of the place tempting me but when I came to a nearer view of it I considered that I was now by the seaside where it was at least possible that something might happen to my advantage and by the same ill fate that brought me hither might bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place and though it was scarce probable that any such thing should ever happen yet to enclose myself among the hills and woods and the center of the island was to anticipate my bondage and to render such an affair not only improbable but impossible and that therefore I ought not by any means to remove however I was so enamored of this place that I spent much of my time there for the whole of the remaining part of the month of July and though upon second thoughts I resolved not to move yet I built me a little kind of a bower and surrounded it at a distance with strong fence being a double hedge as high as I could reach well staked and filled between with brushwood and here I lay very secure sometimes two or three nights together always going over it with a ladder so that I fancy now I had my country house and my sea coast house and this work took me up to the beginning of August I had but newly finished my fence and begun to enjoy my labor when the rains came on and made me stick close to my first habitation for though I had made me a tent like the other and spread it very well yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from storms nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the rains were extraordinary about the beginning of August as I said I had finished my bower and began to enjoy myself the third of August I found the grapes I had hung up perfectly dried and indeed were excellent good raisins of the sun so I began to take them down from the trees and it was very happy I did so for the rains which followed would have spoiled them and I had lost the best part of my winter food for I had above 200 large bunches of them no sooner had I taken them down and carried the most of them home to my cave and then it began to rain and from hence which was the 14th of August it rained more or less every day till the middle of October and sometimes so violently that I could not stir out of my cave for several days in this season I was much surprised with the increase of my family I had been concerned for the loss of one of my cats who ran away from me or as I thought had been dead and I heard no more tidings of her till to my astonishment she came home about the end of August with three kittens this was the more strange to me because though I had killed a wild cat as I called it with my gun yet I thought it was quite a different kind but the young cats were the same kind of house breed as the old one and both my cats being females I thought it very strange but from these three cats I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats that I was forced to kill them like vermin or wild beasts and to drive them from my house as much as possible from the 14th of August to the 26th incessant rain so that I could not stir and was now very thankful not to be much wet in this confinement I began to be straightened for food but venturing out twice I one day killed a goat and the last day which was the 26th found a very large tortoise which was a treat to me and my food was regulated thus I ate a bunch of raisins for my breakfast a piece of the goat's flesh or of the turtle for my dinner broiled for to my great misfortune I had no vessel to boil or stew anything and two or three of the turtles eggs for my supper during this confinement in my cover by the rain I worked a daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave and by degrees worked it on towards one side till I came to the outside of the hill and made a door or way out which came beyond my fence or wall and so I came in and out this way but I was not perfectly easy at lying so open to myself before I was in a perfect enclosure whereas now I thought I lay exposed and open for anything to come in upon me and yet I could not perceive that there was any living thing to fear the biggest creature that I had yet seen upon the island being a goat September 30th I was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my landing I cast up the notches on my post and found I had been on shore for 365 days I kept this day as a solemn fast setting it apart for religious exercise prostrating myself on the ground with the most serious humiliation confessing my sins to God acknowledging his righteous judgments upon me and praying to him to have mercy on me through Jesus Christ and not having tasted the least refreshment for 12 hours even till the going down of the sun I then ate a biscuit cake and a bunch of grapes and went to bed finishing the day as I began it I had all this time observed no Sabbath day for as at first I had no sense of religion upon my mind I had after some time omitted to distinguish the weeks by making a longer notch than ordinary for the Sabbath day and so did not really know what any of the days were but now having cast up the days as above I found I had been there so I divided it into weeks and set apart every seventh day for a Sabbath though I found at the end of my account I had lost a day or two in my reckoning a little after this my ink began to fail me and so I contented myself to use it more sparingly and to write down only the most memorable events of my life without continuing a daily memorandum of other things the rainy season and the dry season began now to appear regular to me and I learned to divide them to provide for them accordingly but I bought all my experience before I had it and this I am going to relate was one of the most discouraging experiments that I made I had mentioned that I had saved the few years of barley and rice which I had so surprisingly found spring up as I thought of themselves and I believe there were about 30 stocks of rice about 12 of barley and now I thought it a proper time to sow it after the rains the sun being in its sudden position going from me accordingly I dug up a piece of ground as well as I could with my wooden spade and dividing it into two parts I sowed my grain but as I was sowing it casually occurred to my thoughts that I would not sow it all at first because I did not know what was the proper time for it so I started sowing the seed and leaving about a handful of each it was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did so for not one grain of what I sowed this time came to anything for the dry months following the earth having had no rain after the seed was sown it had little moisture to assist its growth and never came up at all till the wet season had come again and then it grew as much as if it had been but newly sown the first seed did not grow which I easily imagined was by the drought I sought out for a moisture piece of ground to make another trowel and I dug up a piece of ground near my new bower and sowed the rest of my seed in February a little before the burnal equinox and this having the rainy months of March and April to water it sprung up very pleasantly and yielded a very good crop and having part of the seed left only and not daring to sow that I had I had but a small quantity at last my whole crop not amounting to above half a peck of each kind but by this experiment I was made master of my business and knew exactly when the proper season was to sow and that I might expect two seed times and two harvests every year while this corn was growing I made a little discovery which was of use to me afterwards as soon as the rains were over and the weather began to settle which was about the month of November I made a visit up to country to my bower where though I had not been some months yet I found all things just as I left them the circle or double edge that I had made was not only firm and entire but the steaks which I had cut out of some trees that grew thereabouts were all shot out and grown with long branches as much as a willow tree which usually shoots the first year after lopping its head I could not tell what tree to call it that these steaks were cut from I was surprised and yet well pleased to see the young trees grow and I pruned them and led them up to grow as much alike as I could and it is scarce credible how beautiful a figure they grew into in three years so that though the hedge made a circle of about 25 yards in diameter yet the trees for such as I might now call them soon covered it and it was a complete shade sufficient to lodge under all the dry season this made me resolve to cut some more steaks and make me a hedge like this in a semi circle around my wall I mean that of my first dwelling which I did and placing the trees or steaks in a double row at about 8 yards distance from my first fence they grew presently and were at first a fine cover to my habitation and afterwards served for a defense also as I shall observe in its order I found now that the seasons of the year might generally be divided not into summer and winter as in Europe but into the rainy seasons and the dry seasons which were generally thus the half of February the whole of March and the half of April rainy the sun being then on or near the equinox the half of April the whole of May June and July and the half of August dry the sun being then to the north of the line the half of August the whole of September and the half of October rainy the sun being then come back the half of October the whole of November December and January and the half of February dry the sun being then to the south of the line the rainy season sometimes held longer or shorter as the winds happened to blow but this was the general observation I made after I had found by experience the ill consequences of being abroad in the rain I took care to furnish myself with provisions beforehand that I might not be obliged to go out and I sat with indoors as much as possible during the wet months this time I found much employment and very suitable also to the time for I found great occasion for many things which I had no way to furnish myself with but by hard labor and constant application particularly I tried many ways to make myself a basket but all the twigs I could get for the purpose proved so brittle that they would do nothing it proved of excellent advantage to me now that when I was a boy I used to take great delight in standing at a basket makers in the town where my father lived to see them make their wickerware and being as boys usually are very officious to help and a great observer of the manner in which they work these things and sometimes lending the hand I had by these means full knowledge of the methods of it and I wanted nothing but the materials when it came into my mind that the twigs of that tree from once I cut my steaks that grew might possibly be as tough as the sallows, willows and ossears in England and I resolved to try accordingly the next day I went to my country house as I called it and cutting down some of the smaller twigs I found them to my purpose as much as I could desire whereupon I came the next time prepared with a hatchet to cut down a quantity which I soon found for there was a great plenty of them these I set up to dry within my circle or hedge and when they were fit I carried them to my cave and here during the next season I employed myself in making as well as I could a great many baskets both to carry earth or to carry or lay up anything as I had occasion and though I did not finish them very handsomely yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose thus afterwards I took care never to be without them and as my wickerware decayed I made more especially strong deep baskets to place my corn in instead of sacks when I should come to have any quantity of it having mastered this difficulty and employed a world of time about it I besturred myself to see if possible how to supply two once I had no vessels to hold anything that was liquid except two runlets which were almost full of rum and some glass bottles some of the common size and others which were case bottles square for the holding of water, spirits, etc I had not so much as a pot to boil anything except a great kettle which I saved out of the ship and which was too big for such as I desired it that is to make broth and stew a bit of meat by itself the second thing I feigned would have had was a tobacco pipe but it was impossible to make me one however I found a contrivance for that too at last I employed myself in planting my second rows of steaks or piles and in this wicker working all the summer or dry season when another business took me up more time than it could be imagined I could spare End of Chapter 7 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 8 Surveys his position I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see all the island and that I had traveled up the brook and so on to where I built my bower and where I had an opening quite to the sea on the other side of the island I now resolved to travel quite across to the seashore on that side so taking my gun a hatchet and my dog and a larger quantity of powder and shot than usual with two biscuit cakes and a great bunch of raisins in my pouch for my store I began my journey When I had passed the veil and understood as above I came within view of the sea to the west and had been a very clear day I fairly described land whether an island or a continent I could not tell but it lay very high extending from the west to the west south west at a very great distance by my guess it could not be less than 15 or 20 leagues off I could not tell what part this might be otherwise than that I knew it must be part of America and as I concluded by all my observations must be near the Spanish dominions and perhaps was all inhabited by savages where if I had landed I had been in a worse condition than I was now therefore I acquiesced in the dispositions of Providence which I began now to own and to believe ordered everything for the best I say therefore I quieted my mind with this and left off afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there besides after some thought upon this affair I considered that if this land was the Spanish coast I should certainly one time or other see some vessel pass or repass one way or other but if not then it was the savage coast between the Spanish country and the Zills where are found the worst of savages for they are cannibals or men eaters and fail not to murder and devour all the human bodies that fall into their hands with these considerations I walked very leisurely forward I found that side of the island where I now was was much pleasanter than mine the open savanna or fields were sweet adorned with flowers and grass and full of very fine woods I saw abundance of parrots and feign I would have caught one if possible to have kept it to be tame and taught it to speak to me I did after some painstaking catch a young parrot for I knocked it down with a stick and having recovered it I brought it home but it was some years before I could make him speak however at last I taught him very familiarly but the accident that followed though it be a trifle will be very diverting in its place I was exceedingly diverted with this journey I found in the low grounds hairs as I thought them to be and foxes but they differed greatly from all the other kinds that I had met nor could I satisfy myself to eat them though I killed several but I had no need to be generous for I had no want of food and of that which was very good too especially these three sorts that is goats, pigeons and turtle or tortoise which added to my grapes lead and haul market could not have furnished a table better than I in proportion to the company and though my case was deplorable enough yet I had great cause for thankfulness that I was not driven by food but had rather plenty even to dainties I never traveled in this journey above two miles outright in a day or thereabouts but I took so many turns and returns to see what discoveries I could make that I came weary enough to the place where I resolved to sit down all night and then I either reposed myself in a tree or surrounded myself with the robe sticks set up right in the ground and either from one tree to another or so as no wild creature could come at me without waiting me as soon as I came to the seashore I was surprised to see that I had taken up my lot on the worst side of the island for here indeed the shore was covered with innumerable turtles whereas on the other side I had found but three in a year and a half here were also an infinite number of fowls of many kinds of which I had seen and some which I had not seen before and many of them very good meat but such as I knew not the names of except those called penguins I could have shot as many as I pleased but was very sparing of my powder and shot and therefore had more mind to kill a she goat if I could which I could better feed on and though there were many goats here more than on my side of the island yet it was with much more difficulty that I could come near them the country being flat and even and they saw me much sooner than when I was on the hills I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine but yet I had not the least inclination to remove for as I was fixed in my habitation it became natural to me and I seemed all the while I was here to be as were upon a journey and from home however I traveled along the shore of the sea towards the east I suppose about 12 miles and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a mark I concluded I would go home again and that the next journey I took should be on the other side of the island east from my dwelling and so around till I came to my post again I took another way to come back then that I went thinking I could easily keep all the island much in my view that I could not misfinding my first dwelling by viewing the country but I found myself to be mistaken for being come about 2 or 3 miles I found myself descended into a very large valley but so surrounded with hills and those hills covered with wood that I could not see which was my way by any direction but that of the sun nor even then unless I knew very well the position of the sun at that time it happened to my further misfortune that the weather proved hazy for 3 or 4 days while I was in the valley and not able to see the sun I wondered about very uncomfortably and at last was obliged to find the sea side looking for my post and come back the same way I went and then by easy journeys I turned homeward the weather being exceeding hot and my gun ammunition hatchet and other things very heavy in this journey my dog surprised a young kid and seized upon it and I running in to take hold of it caught it and saved it alive from the dog I had a great mind to bring it home if I could for I had often been musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid or 2 and so raise a breed of tame goats which might supply me when my powder and shot should be all spent I made a collar for this little creature and with a string which I made of some rope yam which I always carried about me I led him along there was some difficulty till I came to my bower and there I enclosed him and left him for I was very impatient to be at home from whence I had been absent above a month I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old hutch and lie down in my hammock bed this little wandering journey without settled place of the boat had been so unpleasant to me that my own house that I called it to myself was a perfect settlement to me compared to that and it rendered everything about me so comfortable that I resolved I would never go a great way from it again while it should be my lot to stay on the island I reposed myself here a week to rest and regale myself after my long journey during which most of the time was taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my paw who began now to be a mere domestic and to be well acquainted with me then I began to think of the poor kid which I had pinned in within my little circle and resolved to go and fetch at home or give it some food accordingly I went and found it where I had left it for indeed it could not get out but was almost starved for one of food I went and cut boughs of trees and branches of some shrubs as I could find and threw it over and having fed it I tied it as I did before to lead it away but it was so tame with being hungry that I had no need to have tied it for it followed me like a dog and as I continually fed it the creature became so loving so gentle and so fond that it became from that time one of my domestics also and would never leave me afterwards the rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come and I kept the 30th of September in a solemn manner as before being the anniversary of my landing on the island having now been there two years and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day I came there I spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledgments of the many wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attended with and without which it might have been infinitely more miserable I gave humble and hearty thanks that God had been pleased to discover to me that it was possible I might be more happy in this solitary condition than I should have been in the liberty of society and in all the pleasures of the world that he could fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state and the want of human society by his presence and the communications of his grace to my soul supporting comforting and encouraging me to depend upon his provenance here and hope for his eternal presence hereafter it was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy this life I now led was with all its miserable circumstances then the wicked, cursed and abominable life I had led the past part of my days and now I changed both my sorrows and my joys my very desires altered my affections changed their gusts and my delights were perfectly new from what they were at my first coming or indeed for the two years past before as I walked about either on my hunting or for viewing the country the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon me on a sudden and my very heart would die within me to think of the woods the mountains the deserts I was in and how I was a prisoner locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean in an uninhabited wilderness without redemption in the midst of the greatest composure of mind this would break out upon me like a storm and make me ring my hands and weep like a child sometimes it would take me in the middle of my work and I would immediately sit down and sigh and look upon the ground for an hour or two together this was still worse to me for if I could burst out into tears or vent myself by words it would go off and the grief having exhausted itself would abate but now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts I daily read the Word of God and applied all the comforts of it to my present state one morning being very sad I opened the Bible upon these words I will never never believe thee nor forsake thee immediately it occurred that these words were to me why else should they be directed in such a manner just at the moment when I was mourning over my condition as one forsaken of God and man well then said I if God does not forsake me of what ills consequence can it be or what matters it though the world should all forsake me on the other hand if I had all the world and should lose the favor and blessing of God there would be no comparison in the loss from this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was possible for me to be more happy in this forsaken solitary condition than it was probable I should ever have been in any other particular state in the world and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God for bringing me to this place I know not what it was but something shocked my mind at that thought and I durst not speak the words how can't thou become such a hypocrite said I even audibly to pretend to be thankful for a condition which however thou mayest endeavor to be contented with thou wouldst rather pray hardly to be delivered from so I stopped there but though I could not say I thanked God for being there yet I sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes by whatever afflicting providences to see the former condition of my life and to mourn for my wickedness and repent I never opened the Bible or shut it but my very soul within me blessed God for directing my friend without any order of mine to pack it up among my goods and for assisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship thus and in this disposition of mind I began my third year and though I have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an account of my works this year as the first yet in general it may be observed that I was very seldom idle but having regularly divided my time according to the several daily employments that were before me such as first my duty to God and the reading the scriptures which I constantly set apart some time for thrice every day secondly the going abroad with my gun for food which generally took me up 3 hours and every morning when it did not rain thirdly the ordering cutting preserving and cooking what I had killed or caught for my supply was part of the day also it is to be considered that in the middle of the day when the sun was in the zenith the violence of the heat was too great to stir out so that about 4 hours in the evening was all the time I could be supposed to work in with this exception that sometimes I changed my hours of hunting and working and went to work in the morning and abroad with my gun in the afternoon to this short time maybe added the exceeding laboriousness of my work the many hours which for one of tools one of help and one of skill everything I did took up out of my time for example I was full 2 and 40 days in making a board for a long shelf which I wanted in my cave whereas 2 soyers with their tools and a saw pit would have cut 6 of them out of the same tree in half a day my case was this it was to be a large tree which was to be cut down because my board was to be a broad one this tree I was 3 days in cutting down and 2 more cutting off the bows and reducing it to a log or piece of timber with inexpressible hacking and hewing I reduced both the sides of it into chips till it began to be light enough to move then I turned it side of it smooth and flat as a board from end to end then turning that side downward cut the other side till I brought the plank to be about 3 inches thick and smooth on both sides anyone may judge the labor of my hands in such a piece of work but labor and patience carried me through that and many other things I can only observe this in particular to show the reason why so much of my time went away with so little work that is that what might be a little to be done with help and tools was a vast labor and required a prodigious time to do alone and by hand but notwithstanding this with patience and labor I got through everything that my circumstances made necessary to me to do as will appear by what follows I was now in the months of November and December expecting my crop of barley and rice and I had manured and dug up for them was not great for as I observed my seed was of each not above the quantity of half a pick and for I had lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry season but now my crop promised very well when on a sudden I found I was in danger of losing it all again by enemies of several sorts which it was scarcely possible to keep from it as first the goats and wild creatures which I called hairs who tasting the sweetness of the blade lay in it night and day as soon as it came up and ate it so close that it could get no time to shoot up into stock this I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about it with the hedge which I did with a great deal of toil however as my arable land was but small suited to my crop I got it totally well fenced in about three weeks time and shooting some of the creatures in the daytime I set my dog to guard it in the night tying him up to a stake at the gate where he would stand and bark all night long so in a little time the enemies and the corn grew well and strong and began to ripen a pace but as the beasts ruined me before while my corn was in the blade so the birds were as likely to ruin me now when it was in the ear for going along by the place to see how it throw I saw my little crop surrounded with fowls of I know not how many sorts who stood as it were watching till I should be gone I immediately let fly among them for I always had my gun with me I had no sooner shot but there rose up a little cloud of fowls which I had not seen at all from among the corn itself this touched me sensibly for I foresaw that in a very few days they would devour all my hopes that I should be starved and never be able to raise a crop at all and what to do I could not tell however I resolved not to lose my corn if possible though I should watch it night and day in the first place I went among it to see what damage was already done and found they had spoiled a good deal of it but that as it was yet too green for them the loss was not so great but that the remainder was likely to be a good crop if it could be saved I stayed by it to load my gun and then coming away I could easily see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me as if they only waited till I was gone away and the event proved it to be so for as I walked off as I was gone I was no sooner out of their sight than they dropped down one by one into the corn again I was so provoked that I could not have patience to stay till more came on knowing that every grain that they ate now was as it might be said easily a peck loaf to me in the consequences but coming up to the hedge I fired again and killed three of them this was what I wished for so I took them up and served them as we serve notorious thieves in England hang them in chains for a terror of them it is impossible to imagine that this should have had such an effect as it did for the fowls would not only not come at the corn but in short they forsook all that part of the island and I could never see a bird near the place as long as my scarecrows on there this I was very glad of as you may be sure and about the latter end of December which was our second harvest of the year I reaped my corn I was sadly put for a scythe or sickle to cut it down and all I could do was to make one as well as I could out of one of the broadswords or cutlasses which I saved among the arms out of the ship however as my first crop was but small and very difficult to cut it down in short I reaped it in my way for I cut nothing off but the ears and carried it away in a great basket which I had made and so rubbed it out with my hands and at the end of the harvesting I found that out of my half peck of seed I had near two bushels of rice and about two bushels and a half of barley that is to say by my guess for I had no measure at that time however this was a great encouragement to me and I foresaw that in time it would please God to supply me with bread and yet here I was perplexed again for I neither knew how to grind or to make meal of my corn or indeed how to clean it and part it nor if made into meal how to make bread of it and if how to make it yet I knew not how to bake it these things being added to my desire of having a good quantity to store and to secure a constant supply I resolved not to taste any of this crop but to preserve it all for seed against the next season in the meantime to employ all my study and hours of working to accomplish this great work of providing myself with corn and bread it might be truly said that now I worked for my bread I believe few people have thought much upon the strange multitude of little things necessary in the providing producing, curing dressing, making and finishing this one article of bread I that was reduced to a mere state of nature found this to my daily discouragement and was made more sensible of it every hour even after I had got the first handful of seed corn which as I have said came up unexpectedly and indeed to a surprise first I had no plow to turn up the earth no spade or shovel to dig it well this I conquered by making a wooden spade as I observed before but this did my work but in a wooden manner and though it cost me a great many days to make it yet for want of iron it not only wore out soon but made my work the harder and made it be performed much worse however this I bore with and was content to work with it out with patience and bear with the badness of the performance when the corn was sown I had no harrow but was forced to go over it myself and drag a great heavy bow of a tree over it to scratch it as it may be called rather than rake or harrow it when it was growing and grown I have observed already how many things I wanted to dress it, secure it mow or reap it cure and carry it home thrash part it from the chaff and save it then I wanted a mill to grind it sieves to dress it yeast and salt to make it into bread and an oven to bake it in but all these things I did without as shall be observed and yet the corn was an inestimable comfort to all this as I said made everything laborious and tedious to me but that there was no help for neither was my time so much lost to me because as I divided it a certain part of it was every day appointed to these works and as I had resolved to use none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quantity by me I had the next six months to apply myself wholly by labor and invention to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing all the operations necessary for making the corn when I had it fit for my use end of chapter 8 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 9 A Boat but first I was to prepare more land for I had now seed enough to sow above an acre of ground before I did this I had a week's work at least to make me a spade which when it was done was but a sorry one indeed and very heavy and required double labor to work with it however I got through that and sowed my seed in two large flat pieces of ground as near my house as I could find them to mind and fence them in with a good hedge the stakes of which were all cut off that wood which I have set before and knew it would grow so that in a years time I knew I should have a quick or living hedge that would want but little repair this work did not take me up less than three months because a great part of that time was the wet season when I could not go abroad with indoors that is when it rained and I could not go out I found employment in the following occupations always observing that all the while I was at work I diverted myself with talking to my parrot and teaching him to speak and I quickly taught him to know his own first name and at last to speak it out pretty loud which was the first word I ever heard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own this therefore was not my work but an assistance to my work for now as I said I had a great employment upon my hands as follows I had long studied to make by some means or other some earthen vessels which indeed I wanted sorely but knew not where to come at them however considering the heat of the climate I did not doubt but if I could find out any clay I might make some pots that might being dried in the sun be hard enough and strong enough to bear handling and to hold anything that was dry and required to be kept so and as this was necessary in the preparing of corn, meal, etc which was the thing I was doing I resolved to make some as large as I could and fit only to stand like jars to hold what should be put into them it would make the reader pity me or rather laugh at me to tell how many awkward ways I took to raise this paste what odd misshapen ugly things I made how many of them fell in and how many fell out the clay not being stiff enough to bear its own weight how many cracked by the overviolent heat of the sun being set out too hastily and how many fell in pieces with only removing as well before as after they were dried and in a word how after having labored hard to find the clay to dig it, to temper it to bring it home and work it I could not make above too large earthen ugly things I cannot call them jars in about two months labor however as the sun baked these two very hard and dry I lifted them very gently up and set them down again in two great wicker baskets which I had made on purpose for them that they might not break and as between the pot and the basket there was a little room to spare I stuffed it full of the rice and barley straw and these two pots being to stand always dry I thought would hold my dry corn and perhaps my meal when the corn was bruised though I miscarried so much in my design for large pots yet I made several smaller things with better success such as little round pots flat dishes pitchers and pipkins and anything my hand turned to and the heat of the sun baked them quite hard but all this would not answer my end which was to get an earthen pot to hold what was liquid and bear the fire which none of these could do it happened after some time making a pretty large fire for cooking my meat when I went to put it out after I was done with it I found a broken piece one of my earthenware vessels in the fire burnt as hard as a stone and read as a tile I was agreeably surprised to see it and said to myself that certainly they might be made to burn whole if they would burn broken this set me to study how to order my fire so as to make it burn some pots I had no notion of a kiln such as the potters burn in or of glazing them with lead though I had some lead to do it with but I placed three large pipkins and two or three pots in a pile one upon another and placed my firewood all around it with a great heap of embers under them I applied the fire with fresh fuel round the outside and upon the top till I saw the pots in the inside red hot quite through and observed that they did not crack at all when I saw them clear red I let them stand in that heat about five or six hours till I found one of them did melt or run for the sand which was mixed with the clay melted by the violence of the heat and would have run into glass if I had gone on so I slapped my fire gradually till the pots began to abate of the red color and watching them all night that I might not let the fire abate too fast in the morning I had three very good I will not say handsome, pipkins and two other earthen pots as hard burnt as could be desired and one of them perfectly glazed with the running of the sand after this experiment I need not say that I wanted no sort of earthenware for my use but I must need say as to the shapes of them they were very indifferent and as anyone may suppose when I had no way of making them but as the children make dirt pies or as a woman who would make pies that never learned to raise paste no joy had a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine when I found I had made an earthen pot that would bear the fire and I had hardly patience to stay till they were cold before I set one on the fire again with some water in it to boil me some meat which it did admirably well and with a kind of piece of a kid I made some very good broth though I wanted oatmeal and several other ingredients requested to make it as good as I would have had it been my next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp or beat some corn in for as to the mill there was no thought of arriving at that perfection of art with one pair of hands to supply this want I was at a great loss for of all the trades in the world I was as perfectly unqualified for a stone cutter as for any whatever neither had I any tools to go about it with I spent many a day to find a great stone big enough to cut hollow and make fit for a mortar and could find none at all except what was in the solid rock and which I had no way to dig or cut out nor indeed were the rocks in the island of hardness sufficient but were all of a sandy crumbling stone which neither could bear the weight of a heavy pestle nor would break the corn without filling it with sand so after a great deal of time lost in searching for a stone I gave it over and resolved to look out for a great block of hard wood which I found indeed much easier and getting one as big as I had strength to stir I rounded it and formed it on the outside with my axe and hatch it and then with the help of fire and infinite labor made a hollow place in it as the Indians in Brazil make their canoes after this I made a great heavy pestle or beater of the wood called the iron wood and this I prepared and laid by against I had my next crop of corn which I proposed to myself grind or rather pound into meal to make bread my next difficulty was to make a sieve or sears to dress my meal and to part it from the brand and the husk without which I did not see it possible I could have any bread this was even to look upon for to be sure I had nothing like the necessary thing to make it I mean fine thin canvas or stuff to sears the meal through and here I was at a full stop for many months or did I really know what to do let in I had none left but what was mere rags I had goats hair but neither knew how to weave or to spin it and had I known how here were no tools to work it with all the remedy that I found was this that at last I did remember I had among the seamen's clothes which were saved out of the ship some neck cloths of calico or muslin and with some pieces of these I made three small sieves proper enough for the work and thus I made shift for some years how I did afterwards I shall show in its place the baking part was the next thing to be considered and make bread when I came to have corn for first I had no yeast as to that part there was no supplying the want so I did not concern myself much about it but for an oven I was indeed in great pain at length I found out an experiment for that also which was this I made some earthen vessels very broad but not deep that is to say about two feet diameter and not above nine inches deep these I burned in the fire as I had done the other and laid them by and when I wanted to bake I made a great fire upon my hearth which I had paved with some square tiles of my own baking and burning also but I should not call them square when the firewood was burned pretty much into embers or live coals I drew them forward upon this hearth so as to cover it all over and there I let them lie the hearth was very hot then sweeping away all the embers I set down my loaf or loaves and welling down the earthen pot upon them drew the embers all round the outside of the pot to keep in and add to the heat and thus as well as in the best oven in the world I baked my barley loaves and became in little time a good pastry cook into the bargain for I made myself several cakes and puddings of the rice but I had no pies neither had I anything to put them in supposing I had except the flesh either of fowls or goats it need not be wondered as if all these things took up most of my time of third year of my abode here for it is to be observed that in the interval of these things I had my new harvest and husbandry to manage for I reaped my corn in its season carried it home as well as I could and laid it up in the ear in my large baskets till I had time to rub it out for I had no floor to thrash it upon or instrument to thrash it with and now indeed my stock of corn increasing I really wanted to build my barns bigger I wanted a place to lay it up in for the increase of the corn now yielded me so much that I had of the barley about 20 bushels of the rice as much or more in so much that now I resolved to begin to use it freely for my bread had been quite gone a great while also I resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient for me a whole year and to sow but once a year upon the whole I found that the 40 bushels of barley and rice were much more than I could consume in a year so I resolved to sow just the same quantity every year so the last in hopes that such a quantity would fully provide me with bread etc all the while these things were doing you may be sure my thoughts ran many times upon the prospect of land which I had seen from the other side of the island and I was not without secret wishes that I were on shore there fancying that seen the mainland and an inhabited country I might find some way or other to convey myself further but perhaps at last find some means of escape but all this while I made no allowance for the dangers of such an undertaking and how I might fall into the hands of savages and perhaps such as I might have reason to think far worse than the lions and tigers of Africa that if I once came in their power I should run a hazard of more than a thousand to one of being killed and perhaps of being eaten for I had heard that the people were cannibals or man-eaters and I knew by the latitude that I could not be far from that shore then supposing they were not cannibals yet they might kill me as many Europeans who had fallen into their hands had been served even when they had been 10 or 20 together much more I that was but one and couldn't make little or no defense all these things I say which I ought to have considered well and did come into my thoughts afterwards yet gave me no apprehensions at first and my head ran mightily upon the thought of getting over to the shore now I wish for my boy Shuri and the long boat with the shoulder of mutton sail with which I had sailed above a thousand miles on the coast of Africa but this was in vain then I thought I would go and look at our ship's boat which as I have said was blown up upon the shore a great way in the storm when we first cast away she lay almost where she did at first but not quite and was turned by the force of the waves and the winds almost bottom upward against a high ridge of beachy rough sand but no water about her if I had had hands to have refitted her and to have launched her into the water the boat would have done well enough but and I might have gone back into the Brazils with her easily enough yet I might have foreseen that I could no more turn her and set her up right upon her bottom than I could remove the island however I went to the woods and cut levers and rollers and brought them to the boat resolving to try what I could do suggesting to myself that if I could turn her down I might repair the damage she had received and she would be a very good boat and I might go to sea in her very easily I spared no pains indeed in this bit of fruitless toil and spent I think three or four weeks about it at last finding it impossible to heave it up with my little strength I failed to dig away the sand to undermine it and so to make it fall down setting pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in the fall but when I had done this I was unable to stir it up again or to get under it much less to move it forward towards the water so I was forced to give it over and yet though I gave over the hopes of the boat my desire to venture over for the main increased rather than decreased as the means for it seemed impossible this at length put me upon thinking whether it was not possible to make myself a canoe or peri-agua such as the natives of those climates make even without tools or as I might say without hands of the trunk a great tree this I not only thought possible but easy and pleased myself extremely with the thoughts of making it and with my having much more convenience for it than any of the negroes or Indians but not at all considering the particular inconveniences which I lay under more than the Indians and that is want of hands to move it when it was made into the water a difficulty much harder for me to surmount than all the consequences of tools could be to them for what was it to me if when I had chosen a vast tree in the woods and with much trouble cut it down if I had been able with my tools to hue and dub the outside with the proper shape of a boat and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow so as to make a boat of it if after all this I must leave it just where I had found it and not be able to launch it into the water one would have thought I could not have had the least reflection upon my mind of the circumstances while I was making this boat but I should have immediately thought how I should get it into the sea but my thoughts were so intent upon my voyage over the sea in it that I never once considered how I should get it off the land and it was really in its own nature more easy for me to guide it over 45 miles of sea than about 45 fathoms of land where it lay to set it afloat in order I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man did who had any of his senses awake I pleased myself with the design and without determining whether I was ever able to undertake it not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often into my head but I put a stop to my inquiries into this by this foolish answer which I gave myself let me first make it in some way or other to get it along when it is done this was a most preposterous method but the eagerness of my fancy prevailed in to work I went I found a cedar tree and I question much whether Solomon ever had such a one for the building of the temple of Jerusalem it was 5 feet 10 inches diameter at the lower part next to stump and 4 feet 11 inches diameter at the end of 8 after which it lessened for a while and then parted into branches it was not without infinite labor that I felt this stream I was 20 days hacking and hewing at it at the bottom I was 14 more getting the branches and limbs and the vast spreading head cut off which I hacked and hewed through with ax and hatchet and inexpressible labor after this it cost me a month and to something like the bottom of a boat that it might swim upright as it ought to it cost me near 3 months more to clear the inside and work it out so as to make it an exact boat this I did indeed without fire by mere mallet and chisel and by the dent of hard labor till I had brought it to be a very handsome peri-agua and big enough to have carried 6 and 20 men and consequently big enough to have carried me and all my cargo when I had gone through this work I was extremely delighted with it the boat was really much bigger than ever I saw a canoe or peri-agua that was made of one tree in my life many a weary stroke it had cost you can be sure and had I gotten it into the water I make no question but I should have begun the maddest voyage unlikely to be performed that ever was undertaken but all my devices to get it into the water failed me though they cost me infinite labor too it lay about 100 yards from the water and not more but the first inconvenience was it was uphill towards the creek well to take away this discouragement I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth and so make a declivity this I began and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains but who grudge pains who had their deliverance in view but when this was worked through and this difficulty managed it was still much the same for I could no more stir the canoe than I could the other boat then I ventured the distance of ground and resolved to cut a dock or canal to bring the water up to the canoe seeing I could not bring the canoe to the water well I began this work and when I had begun to enter upon it and calculate how deep it was to be dug how broad how the stuff was to be thrown out I found that by the number of hands I had being none but my own it must have been 10 or 12 years before I could have gone through with it for the shore lay so high that at the upper end it must have been at least 20 feet deep and so at length but with great reluctancy I gave this attempt over also this grieved me heartily and now I saw though too late the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it in the middle of this work I finished my fourth year in this place and kept my anniversary with the same devotion and with as much comfort as ever before for by a constant study and serious application of the word of God and by the assistance of his grace I gained a different knowledge from what I had before I entertained different notions of things I looked now upon the world as a thing remote which I had nothing to do with no expectations from and indeed no desires about in a word I had nothing indeed to do with it nor was ever likely to have so I thought it looked as we may perhaps look upon it hereafter that is as a place I had lived in but was come out of it and well might I say as Father Abraham to dives between me and thee is a great gulf fixed in the first place I was removed from all the wickedness of the world here I had neither the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the eye nor the pride of life I had nothing to covet for I had all that I was now capable of enjoying I was lord of the whole manner or if it pleased I might call myself king or emperor over the whole country which I had possession of there were no rivals I had no competitor to dispute sovereignty or command me I might have raised ship loadings of corn but had no use for it so I let as little grow as I thought enough for my occasion I had tortoise or turtle enough but now and then one was as much as I could put to any use I had timber enough to have built a fleet of ships and I had grapes enough to have made wine or to have cured into raisins to have loaded that fleet when it had been built but all I could make use of was all that was valuable I had enough to eat and supply my wants and what was all the rest to me if I killed more flesh than I could eat the dog must eat it or vermin if I sowed more corn than I could eat it must be spoiled the trees that I cut down and brought to the ground I could make no more use of them but for fuel and that I had no occasion for but to dress my food in a word the nature and experience of things dictated to me upon just reflection that all the good things of this world are no farther good to us than they are for our use in that whatever we may heap up to give others we enjoy just as much as we can use in no more the most covetous gripping miser in the world would have been cured of the vice of covetousness if he had been in my case for I possessed infinitely more than I knew what to do with I had no room for desire except it was of things which I had not and they were but trifles though indeed of great use to me I had as I hinted before a parcel of money as well gold and silver about thirty-six pounds sterling alas there the sorry useless stuff lay I had no more manner of business for it and often though with myself that I would have given a handful of it for a gross of tobacco pipes or for a hand mill to grind my corn nay I would have given it all I would have kept in carrot seed out of England or for a handful of peas and beans and a bottle of ink as it was I had not the least advantage by it or benefit from it but there it lay in a drawer and grew moldy with the damp of the cave in the wet seasons and if I had had the drawer full of diamonds it had been the same case they had been of no manner of value to me of no use I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in itself than it was at first and much easier to my mind as well as to my body I frequently sat down to meet with thankfulness and admired the hands of God's providence which had thus spread my table in the wilderness I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition and less upon the dark side to consider what I enjoyed rather than what I wanted and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts that I cannot express them and which I take notice of here to put these discontented people in my mind of it who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them because they see and covet something that he has not given them all our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have another reflection was of great use to me and doubtless would be so to anyone that would fall into such distress as mine was and this was to compare my present condition with what I at first expected it would be nay with what it would certainly have been if the good providence of God had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up nearer to the shore and only could come at her but could bring what I got out of her to the shore for my relief and comfort without which I had wanted for tools to work, weapons for defense and gunpowder and shot for getting my food I spent whole hours I may say whole days in representing to myself in the most lively colors how I would have acted if I had got nothing out of the ship I could not have so much as got any food except fish and turtles and that as it was long before I found any of them I must have perished first that I should have lived if I had not perished like a mere savage that if I had killed a goat or a foul by any contrivance I had no way to flay or open it or part the flesh from the skin or to cut it up but must gnaw it with my teeth and pull it with my claws like a beast these reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of Providence to me and very thankful of my present condition with all its hardships and misfortunes and this part also I cannot but recommend to the reflection of those who are apt in their misery to say reflection like mine let them consider how much worse the cases of some people are and their case might have been if Providence had thought to fit I had another reflection which assisted me also to comfort my mind with hopes and this was comparing my present situation with what I had deserved and had therefore reason to expect from the hand of Providence I had lived a dreadful life perfectly destitute of the knowledge and fear of God I had been well instructed by father and mother neither had they been wanting to me in their early endeavors to infuse a religious awe of God into my mind a sense of my duty and what the nature and end of my being required of me but alas falling early into the seafaring life which of all lives is the most destitute of the fear of God though his terrors are always before them I say falling early into the seafaring life and into seafaring company all that little sense of religion which I had entertained was laughed out of me by my messmates by a hardened despising of dangers and the views of death which grew habitual to me by my long absence from all manner of opportunities to converse with anything but was like myself or to hear anything that was good or tended towards it so void was I of everything that was good or the least sense of what I was or was to be that in the greatest deliverances I enjoyed such as my escape from Salih my being taken up by the Portuguese master of the ship my being planted so well in the Brazils my receiving the cargo from England and the like had once the words thank God so much as on my mind or in my mouth nor in the greatest distress had I so much as a thought to pray to him or so much as to say lord have mercy upon me nor to mention the name of God no unless it was to swear by and blaspheme it I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months as I have already observed on account of my wicked and hardened life past and when I looked about me and considered what particular providences had attended me since my coming into this place and how God had dealt bountifully with me had not only punished me less than my iniquity had deserved but had so plentifully provided for me this gave me great hopes my repentance was accepted and that God had yet mercy in store for me with these reflections I worked my mind up not only to a resignation to the will of God in the present disposition of my circumstances but even to a sincere thankfulness for my condition in that I who was yet a living man ought not to complain seeing I had not the due punishment of my sins I enjoyed so many mercies which I had no reason to have expected in that place that I ought never more to repine at my condition but to rejoice and to give daily thanks for that daily bread which nothing but a crowd of wonders could have brought that I ought to consider I had been fed even by a miracle even as great as that of feeding Elijah by ravens made by a long series of miracles that I could hardly have named a place in the uninhabitable part of the world where I could have been cast more to my advantage a place where as I had no society which must was my affliction on one hand so I found no ravenous beasts no furious wolves or tigers to threaten my life no venomous creatures or poisons which I might feed on to my hurt no sabbages to murder and devour me in a word as my life was a life of sorrow one way so it was a life of mercy another and I wanted nothing to make it a life of comfort but to be able to make my sense of God's goodness to me and care over me in this condition be my daily consolation and after I did make a just improvement of these things I went away and was no more sad I had now been here so long that many things which I had brought on shore for my help were either quite gone or very much wasted and near spent my ink as I observed had been gone some time all but a very little which I eat out with water and a little until it was so pale its scarce left any appearance of black upon the paper as long as it lasted I made use of it to minute down the days of the month on which any remarkable thing happened to me and first by casting up times past I remembered that there was a strange concurrence of days in the various providences which befall me in which if I had been superstitiously inclined to days as fatal or fortunate I might have had reason to have looked upon with a great deal of curiosity first I had observed that the same day that I broke away from my father and friends and ran away to Hull in order to go to sea the same day afterwards I was taken by the sali man of war and made a slave and the same day of the year that I escaped out of the wreck of that ship in Yarmouth that same day year afterwards I made my escape from sali in a boat the same day of the year I was born in that is the 30th of September that same day I had my life so miraculously saved 26 years later when I was cast on shore in this island so that my wicked life and my solitary life began both on a day the next thing to my ink being wasted was that of my bread I mean the biscuit which I brought out of the ship this I had husbanded to the last degree allowing myself but one cake of bread a day for above a year and yet I was quite without bread for near a year before I got any corn of my own and great reason I had to be thankful that I had any at all the getting it being as has been already observed by some miraculous my clothes too began to decay as to linen I had found none a good while except some checkered shirts which I found in the chests of the other seamen in which I carefully preserved because many times I could bear no other clothes on but a shirt and it was a very great help to me that I had among all the men's clothes of the ship almost three dozen of shirts there were also indeed several thick watch coats of the seamen's which were left but they were too hot to wear and though it was true that the weather was so violently hot that there was no need of clothes yet I could not go quite naked no though I had been inclined to it which I was not nor could I abide the thought of it though I was alone the reason why I could not go naked was because I could not bear the heat of the sun so well when quite naked as with some clothes on nay the very heat blistered my skin whereas with a shirt on the air itself made some motion and whistling under the shirt was two fold cooler than without it no more could I ever bring myself to go out in the heat of the sun without a cap on my head or a hat the heat of the sun would give me the head ache presently by darting so directly on my head without a cap or hat on so that I could not bear it whereas if I put on my hat it would presently go away upon these views I began to consider about putting the few rags I had which I called clothes into some order I had worn out all the waist coats I had and my business was now to try if I could make jackets out of the great watch coats which I had of me but with such other materials as I had I set to working tailoring or rather indeed botching for I made most piteous work of it however I made shift to make two or three new waist coats which I hoped would serve me a great while as for breeches and drawers I made but a very sorry shift indeed till afterwards I had mentioned that I saved the skins of all the creatures that I killed I mean four footed ones and I hung them up stretched out with sticks in the sun by which means some of them were so dry and so hard that they were fit for little but others were very useful the first thing I made of these was a great cap for my head with the hair on the outside to shoot off the rain and this I performed so well that after I made me a suit of clothes holy of these skins that is to say a waistcoat and breeches open at the knees and both loose for they were rather wanting to keep me cool than to keep me warm I must not admit to acknowledge that they were wretchedly made for if I was a bad carpenter I was a worse tailor however they were such as I made very good shift with and when I was out if it happened to rain the hair of my waistcoat and cap being outermost I was kept very dry after this I spent a great deal of time and pains to make an umbrella I was indeed in great want of one and had a great mind to make one I had seen them made in the Brazils where they are very useful and the great heats there and I felt the heats every jot is great here and greater too being near the equinox besides as I was obliged to be much abroad it was the most useful thing to me as well for the rains as the heats I took a world of pains with it and was a great while before I could make anything likely to hold after I had thought I had hit my way I spoiled two or three before I made one to my mind but at last I made one that answered indifferently well the main difficulty I found was to make it let down but if I did not let down to and draw in it was not portable for me anyway but just over my head which would not do however at last as I said I made one to answer and covered it with skins the hair upwards so that it cast off the rain like a penthouse and kept off the sun so effectually that I could walk out in the hottest of the weather with greater advantage than I could and when I had no need of it could close it and carry it under my arm thus I lived mighty comfortably my mind being entirely composed by resigning itself to the will of God and throwing myself wholly under the disposal of his providence this made my life better than sociable for when I began to regret the want of conversation I would ask myself whether thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts and as I hope I may say with even God himself by ejaculations was not better than the most enjoyment of human society in the world end of chapter 9 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 10 Tames Goats I cannot say that after this for five years any extraordinary thing happened to me but I lived on in the same course in the same posture and place the chief things I was employed in besides my yearly labor of planting my barley and rice and curing my raisins of both which I always kept up just enough to have sufficient stock of one year's provisions beforehand I say besides this yearly labor and my daily pursuit of going out with my gun I had one labor to make a canoe which at last I finished so that by digging a canal to it of 6 feet wide and 4 feet deep I brought it into the creek almost half a mile as for the first which was so vastly big for I made it without considering beforehand as I ought to have done how I should be able to launch it never being able to bring it to the water or bring the water to it I was obliged to let it lie where it was as a memorandum to teach me to be wiser the next time indeed the next time though I could not get a proper tree for it and was in a place where I could not get the water to it at any less distance than as I have said near half a mile yet as I saw it was practicable at last I never gave it over and though I was near two years about it yet I never grudged my labor in hopes of having a boat to go off to sea at last however though my little periagua was finished yet the size of it was not at all to the design which I had in view when I made the first I mean of venturing over to the terra firma where it was above 40 miles broad accordingly the smallest on my boat assisted to put an end to that design and now I thought no more of it as I had a boat my next design was to make a cruise around the island for as I had been on the other side in one place crossing as I have already described it over the land so the discoveries I made in that little journey made me very eager to see other parts of the coast and now I had a boat I thought of nothing but sailing around the island for this purpose that I might do everything with discretion and consideration I fitted up a little mast in my boat and made a sail too out of some of the pieces of the ship's sails which lay in store and of which I had a great stock by me and when I fitted my mast and sail and tried the boat I found she would sail very well then I made little lockers or boxes at each end of my boat to put provisions, necessaries, ammunition, etc into to be kept dry either from rain or the spray of the sea and a little long hollow place I cut at the inside of the boat where I could lay my gun making a flap to hang down over it to keep it dry and I made an umbrella also in the step at the stern like a mast to stand over my head and keep the heat of the sun off me like an awning and thus I took every now and then a little voyage upon the sea but never went out far not far from the little creek at last being eager to view the circumference of my little kingdom I resolved upon my cruise and accordingly I'd visual my ship for the voyage for the loaves cakes I should call them of barley bread and earthen pot full of parched rice food I ate a good deal of a little bottle of rum half a goat and powder and shot for killing more and two large watch coats of those which as I mentioned before I had saved out of the seamen's chests these I took one to lie upon and the other to cover me in the night it was the 6th of November of my reign or my captivity which you please that I set out on this voyage and I found it much longer than I expected for though the island itself was not very large yet when I came to the east side of it I found a great ledge of rocks lie out about two leagues into the sea some above water some under it and beyond that a shoal of sand lying dry half a league more so that I was obliged to go a great way out to sea to double the point when I first discovered them I was going to give over my enterprise and come back again not knowing how far it might oblige me to go out to sea and above all doubting how I should get back again so I came to an anchor for I had made a kind of an anchor with a piece of a broken grappling which I got out of the ship having secured my boat I took my gun and went on shore climbing up a hill which seemed to overlook the point where I saw the full extent of it and resolved to venture in my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood I perceived a strong and indeed a most furious current which ran to the east and even came close to the point and I took the more notice of it because I saw there might be some danger that when I came into it I might be carried out to sea by the strength of it and not able to make the island again and indeed had I not got first upon this hill I believe it would have been so for there was the same current on the other side of the island only that it set off at a further distance and I saw there was a strong eddy under the shore so I had nothing to do but to get out of the first current and I should presently be in an eddy I lay there however two days because the wind blowing pretty fresh at east south east and that being just contrary to the current there was a great breach of the sea upon the point so that it was not safe for me to keep too close to the shore for the breach nor to go too far off because of the stream the third day in the morning the wind having abated overnight the sea was calm and I ventured but I am a warning to all rash and ignorant pilots for no sooner was I come to the point when I was not even my boat's length from the shore but I found myself in a great depth of water and a current like the sleuths of a mill it carried my boat along with it with such violence that all I could do could not keep her so much as on the edge of it but I found it hurried me farther and farther out from the eddy which was on my left hand there was no wind stirring to help me and all I could do with my paddles signified nothing and now I began to give myself over for lost for as the current was on both sides of the island I knew in a few leaves distance they must join again and then I was irrevocably gone nor did I see any possibility of avoiding it so that I had no prospect before me but of perishing not by the sea or that was calm enough but of starving from hunger I had indeed found a tortoise on the shore as big almost as I could lift and had tossed it into the boat and I had a great jar of fresh water that is to say one of my earthen pots but what was all this to being driven into the vast ocean where to be sure there was no shore no mainland or island for a thousand leagues at least and now I saw how easy it was for the providence of God to make even the most miserable condition of mankind worse now I looked back upon my desolate solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world and all the happiness of my heart could wish for was to be there but once again I stretched out my hands to it with eager wishes oh happy desert said I I shall never see thee more oh miserable creature where am I going then I reproached myself with my unthankful temper and then I had repined at my solitary condition and now what would I give to be on shore there again thus we shall never see the true state of our condition till it is illustrated to us by its contraries nor know how to value what we enjoy but by the want of it it is scarcely possible to imagine the consternation I was now in being driven from my beloved island for so it appeared to me now to be into the wide ocean almost two leagues and in the utmost despair of ever recovering it again however I worked hard till indeed my strength was almost exhausted and kept my boat as much as to the northward that is towards the side of the current which the Eddie Leon as possibly I could when about noon as the sun passed the meridian I thought I felt a little breeze of wind in my face springing up from the south southeast this stirred my heart a little and especially in about half an hour more it blew a pretty gentle gale by this time I had got a frightful distance from the island and had the least cloudy or hazy weather intervened I had been undone another way too for I had no compass on board and should never have known how to have steered towards the island if I had but once lost side of it but the weather continuing clear I applied myself to get up my mast again and spread my sail standing away to the north as much as possible to get out of the current just as I had set my mast and sail and the boat began to stretch away I saw even by the clearness of the water some alteration of the current was near for where the current was so strong the water was foul but perceiving the water clear I found the current abate and presently I found to the east at about half a mile each of the sea upon some rocks these rocks I found caused the current to part again and as the main stress of it ran away more southerly leaving the rocks to the northeast so the other returned by the repulse of the rocks and made a strong eddy which ran back again to the northwest with a very sharp string they who know what it is to have a ray-preve brought to them upon the ladder or to be rescued from thieves just going to murder them or who have been in such extremities may guess what my present surprise of joy was and how gladly I put my boat into the stream of this eddy and the wind also freshening how gladly I spread my sail to it running cheerfully before the wind and with the strong tide or eddy underfoot this eddy carried me about a league on my way back again directly towards the island but about two leagues more to the northward than the current which carried me away at first so that when I came near the island I found myself open to the northern shore of it that is to say the other end of the island opposite to that which I went out from when I had made something more than a league of way by the help of this current or eddy I found it was spent and served me no further however I found that being between two great currents that is that on the south side which had hurried me away and that on the north which lay about a league on the other side I say between these two in the wake of the island I found the water at least still and running no way and having still a breeze of wind fair for me I kept on steering directly for the island though not making such fresh way as I did before about four o'clock in the evening being then within a league of the island I found the point of the rocks which occasioned this disaster stretching out as is described before to the southward and casting off the current more southerly had of course made another eddy to the north and this I found very strong but not directly setting the way my course lay which was due west but almost full north however having a fresh gale I stretched across this eddy slanting north west and in about an hour came within about a mile of the shore where it being smooth water I soon got to land when I was on shore I fell on my knees and gave god thanks for my deliverance resolving to lay aside all thoughts of my deliverance by my boat and refreshing myself with such things as I had I brought my boat close to the shore in a little cove that I had spied under some trees and laid me down to sleep being quite spent with the labour and fatigue of the voyage I was now had a great loss which way to get home with my boat I had run so much hazard and knew too much of the case to think of attempting it by the way I went out and what might be at the other side I mean the west side I knew not nor had I any mind to run any more ventures so I resolved on the next morning to make my way westward along the shore and to see if there was no creek where I might lay up my frigate and safety so as to have her again if I wanted her in about three miles or thereabouts coasting the shore I came to a very good inlet or bay about a mile over which narrowed till it came to a very little rivulet or brook where I found a very convenient harbour for my boat and where she lay as if she had been in a little dock made on purpose for her here I put in having stowed my boat very safe I went on shore to look about me and see where I was I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where I had been before when I travelled on foot to that shore so taking nothing out of my boat but my gun and umbrella for it was exceedingly hot I began my march the way was comfortable enough after such a voyage as I had been upon and I reached my old bower nothing standing as I left it for I always kept it in good order being as I said before my country house I got over the fence and laid me down in the shade to rest my lens where I was very weary and fell asleep but judge you, if you can that read my story what a surprise I must be in when I was awaked out of my sleep by a voice calling me by my name several times Robin Robin Crusoe for Robin Crusoe where are you Robin Crusoe where have you been I was so dead asleep at first being fatigued with rowing or part of the day and with walking the latter part that I did not wake thoroughly but dozing thought I dreamed that somebody spoke to me but as the voice continued to repeat Robin Crusoe Robin Crusoe at last I began to wake more perfectly and was at first dreadfully frightened and started up in the utmost consternation but no sooner were my eyes open but I saw my pal sitting on the top of the hedge and immediately knew that it was he that spoke to me for just in such bemoaning language I had used to talk to him and teach him and he had learned it so perfectly that he could sit upon my finger and lay his bill close to my face and cry for Robin Crusoe where have you been how came you here and such things as I had taught him however even though I knew it was the parrot and that indeed it could be nobody else it was a good while before I could compose myself first I was amazed how the creature got thither and then how he should just keep about the place and nowhere else but as I was well satisfied it could be nobody but honest pal I got over it and holding out my hand pal the sociable creature came to me and sat upon my thumb as he used to do and continued talking to me for Robin Crusoe and how did I come here and where had I been just as if he had been overjoyed to see me again and so I carried him home along with me I had now had enough of rambling to see for some time and had enough to do for many days to sit still and reflect upon the danger I had been in I would have been very glad to have had my boat again on my side of the island but I knew not how it was practicable to get it about as to the east side of the island which I had gone round I knew well enough there was no venturing that way my very heart would shrink in my very blood run chill but to think of it and as to the other side of the island I did not know how it might be there but supposing the current ran with the same force against the shore at the east either I might run the same risk of being driven down the stream and carried by the island as I had been before of being carried away from it so with these thoughts I contented myself to be without any boat though I had been the product of so many months labor to make it and of so many more to get it into the sea in this government of my temper I remained near a year and lived a very sedate retired life and my thoughts being very much composed as to my condition and fully comforted in residing myself to the dispositions of providence I thought I lived really very happily in all things except that of society I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic exercises which my necessities put me upon applying myself to and I believe I should upon occasion have made a very good carpenter especially considering how few tools I had besides this I arrived at an unexpected perfection in my earthenware and contrived well enough to make them with a wheel which I found infinitely easier and better because I made things round and shaped which before were filthy things indeed to look on but I think I was never more vain of my own performance or more joyful for anything I found out than for my being able to make a tobacco pipe and though it was a very ugly clumsy thing when it was done it only burned red like other earthenware yet as it was hard and firm and would draw the smoke I was exceedingly comforted with it for I had been always used to smoke and there were pipes in the ship but I forgot them at first not thinking there was tobacco in the island and afterwards when I searched the ship again I could not come at any pipes in my wickerware also I improved much and made abundance of necessary baskets as well as my invention showed me though not very handsome yet they were such as were very handy and convenient for laying things up in or fetching things home for example if I killed a goat abroad I could hang it up in a tree flay it, dress it, and cut it in pieces and bring it home in a basket and the like by a turtle I could cut it up, take out the eggs with a little bit of flesh which was enough for me and bring them home in a basket and leave the rest behind me also large deep baskets were the receivers of my corn which I always rubbed out as soon as it was dry and cured and kept it in great baskets I began now to perceive my powder abated considerably this was a want which it was impossible for me to supply and I began seriously to consider what I must do when I should have no more powder that is to say how I should kill any goats I had as is observed in my third year of being here kept a kid and bred her up tame and I was in hopes of getting a he-goat but I could not by any means bring it to pass till my kid grew an old goat and as I could never find in my heart to kill her she died at last of mere age but being now in the 11th year of my residence and as I have said my ammunition growing low I set myself to study some art to trap and snare the goats to see whether I could not catch some of them alive and particularly I wanted a she goat great with young for this purpose I made snares to hamper them and I do believe they were more than once taken in them but my tackle was not good for I had no wire and I always found them broken and my bait devoured at length I resolved to try pitfall so I dug several large pits in the earth in places where I had observed the goats used to feed and over at these pits I placed hurdles of my own making too with a great weight upon them and several times I put ears of barley and rice without setting the trap but I could easily perceive the goats had gone in and eaten up the corn for I could see the marks of their feet at length I set bait traps in one night and going the next morning I found them all standing and yet the bait eaten and gone this was very discouraging however I altered my traps and not to trouble you with particulars going one morning to see my traps I found in one of them a large old he goat and in one of the others three kids a male and two females as to the old one I knew not what to do with him he was so fierce and that is to say to bring him away alive which was what I wanted I could have killed him but that was not my business nor would it answer my end so I even let him out and he ran away as if he had been frightened out of his wits but I did not then know what I afterwards learned that hunger will tame a lion if I had let him stay three or four days without food and then have carried him some water to drink and then a little corn he would have been as tame as one of the kids for they are mighty sagacious tractable creatures where they are well used however for the present I let him go knowing no better at that time then I went to the three kids and taking them one by one I tied them with strings together and with some difficulty brought them all home it was a good while before they would feed but throwing them some sweet corn attempted them and now I found that if I expected to supply myself with goat's flesh when I had no powder or shot left breeding some up tame was my only way when perhaps I might have them about my house like a flock of sheep but then it occurred to me that I must keep the tame from the wild or else they would always run wild when they grew up and the only way for this was to have some enclosed piece of ground or a hedge or a pail to keep them in so effectually that those within might not break out or those without break in this was a great undertaking for one pair of hands yet as I saw there was an absolute necessity for doing it my first work was to find out a proper piece of ground where there was likely to be herbage for them to eat water for them to drink and cover to keep them from the sun those who understand such enclosures will think I had very little contrivance when I pitched upon a place very proper for all these being a plain open piece of metal and or savannah as our people call it in the western colonies which had two or three little drills of fresh water in it and at one end was very woody I say they will smile at my forecast when I shall tell them that I began by enclosing this piece of ground in such a manner that my hedge or pail must have been at least two miles about nor was the madness of it so great as to the compass for if it was ten miles about I was like to have time enough to do it in but I did not consider that my goats would be as wild in so much compass as if they had had the whole island and I should have so much room to chase them in that I should never catch them my hedge was begun and carried on I believe about fifty yards when this thought occurred to me so I presently stopped short and for the beginning I resolved to enclose a piece of about one hundred and fifty yards in length and one hundred yards in breadth which as it would maintain as many as I could have in any reasonable time so as my stock increased I could add more ground to my enclosure this was acting with some prudence and I went to work with courage I was about three months hedging in the first piece and till I had done I tethered the three kids and the best part of it and used them to feed as near me as possible to make them familiar and very often I would go and carry them some ears of barley or a handful of rice and feed them out of my hand so that after my enclosure was finished and I let them loose they would follow me up and down bleeding after me for a handful of corn this answered my end about a year and a half I had a flock of about twelve goats kids and all and in two years more I had three and forty besides several that I took and killed for my food after that I enclosed several pieces of ground to feed them in with little pens to drive them to take them as I wanted and gates out of one piece of ground into another but this was not all for now I not only had goats flesh to feed on when I pleased milk too I think which indeed in the beginning I did not so much as think of and which when it came into my thoughts was really an agreeable surprise for now I set up my dairy and had sometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day and as nature who gives supplies of food to every creature dictates even naturally how to make use of it so that I had never milked a cow much less a goat or seen butter only when I was a boy after a great many essays and miscarriages made both butter and cheese at last also salt though I found it partly made to my hand by the heat of the sun upon some of the rocks of the sea and never wanted it afterwards how mercifully can our creator treat his creatures even in those conditions in which they seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction how can he sweeten the bitterest providences and give us cause to praise him for dungeons and prisons what a table was here spread for me in the wilderness where I saw nothing at first but to perish for hunger end of chapter 10 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 11 Finds print of man's foot on the sand it would have made a stoic smile to have seen me and my little family sit down to dinner there was my majesty the prince and lord of the whole island I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command I could hang, draw, give liberty and take it away and no rebels among all my subjects then to see how like a king I dined too all alone attended by my servants Paul as if he had been my favorite and committed to talk to me my dog, who was now grown old and crazy and had found no species to multiply his kind upon sat always at my right hand and two cats one on one side of the table and one on the other expecting now and then a bit from my hand as a mark of special favor but these were not the two cats which I brought on shore at first for they were both of them dead and had been interred by my habitation by my own hand but one of them having multiplied by I know not what kind of creature there were two which I had preserved tame and whereas the rest ran wild in the woods and became indeed troublesome to me at last for they would often come into my house and plunder me too till at last I was obliged to shoot them and did kill a great many at length they left me with this attendance in this plentiful manner I lived neither could I be said to want anything but society and of that some time after this I was likely to have too much I was something impatient as I have observed to have the use of my boat though very low to run any more hazards and therefore sometimes I sat contriving ways to get her about the island and at other times I sat myself down contented enough without her but I had a strange uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the island where as I have said in my last ramble I went up the hill to see how the shore lay and how the current set that I might see what I had to do this inclination increased upon me every day and at length I resolved to travel dither by land following the edge of the shore I did so but had anyone in England met such a man as I was it must either have frightened him or raised a great deal of laughter and as I frequently stood still to look at myself I could not but smile at the notion of my traveling through Yorkshire with such an ecupage and in such a dress be pleased to take a sketch of my figure as follows I had a great high shapeless cap made of a goat skin with a flap hanging down behind as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot the rain off from running into my neck nothing being hurtful in these climates as the rain might be upon the flesh under the clothes I had a short jacket of goat skin the skirts coming down to about the middle of the thighs and a pair of open-need breeches of the same the breeches were made of the skin of an old he goat whose hair hung down such a length on either side that like pantaloons it reached to the middle of my legs stockings and shoes I had none but had made me a pair of some things I scarce know what to call them like buskins to flap over my legs and lace on either side like spatterdashes but of a most barbarous shape as indeed were all the rest of my clothes I had on a broad belt of goat skin dried which I knew how to draw together with two thongs of the same instead of buckles and in a kind of a frog on either side of this instead of a sword and dagger hung a little saw and a hatchet one on one side and one on the other I had another belt not so broad and fastened it in the same manner which hung over my shoulder and at the end of it under my left arm hung two pouches both made of goat skin too in one of which hung my powder and in the other my shot at my back I carried my basket and on my shoulder my gun and over my head a great clumsy ugly goat skin umbrella but which after all was the most necessary thing I had about me next to my gun as for my face the color of it was really not so mulatto like as one might expect from a man not at all careful of it and living within 9 or 10 degrees of the equinox my beard I had once suffered to grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long but as I had both scissors and razors sufficient I had cut it pretty short except what grew on my upper lip which I had trimmed into a large pair of mahometan whiskers such as I had seen worn by some Turks at Salih for the Moors did not wear such though the Turks did of these mustachios or whiskers I will not say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them but they were of a length and shape monstrous enough that I would have passed for frightful but all this is by the by for as to my figure I had so few to observe me that it was of no manner of consequence so I say no more of that in this kind of dress I went my new journey and was out 5 or 6 days I traveled first along the seashore directly to the place where I first brought my boat to an anchor to get upon the rocks and having no boat now to care of I went over the land a nearer way of the same height that I was upon before when looking forward to the points of the rocks which lay out and which I was obliged to double with my boat as is said above I was surprised to see the sea all smooth and quiet no rippling, no motion no current any more than in other places I was at a strange loss to understand this and resolved to spend some time in the observing of it to see if nothing from the sets of the tide had occasioned it but I was presently convinced how it was that is that the tide of ebb setting from the west and joining with the current of waters from some great river on the shore must be the occasion for this current and that according as the wind blew more forcibly from the west or from the north this current came nearer or went farther from the shore for waiting thereabouts till evening I went up to the rock again and then the tide of ebb being made I plainly saw the current again as before only that it ran farther off being near half a league from the shore whereas in my case it set close upon the shore and hurried me and my canoe along with it which at another time it would not have done this observation convinced me that I had nothing to do but to observe the ebbing of the tide and I might very easily bring my boat about the island again but when I began to think of putting it in practice I had such a terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the danger I had been in that I could not think of it again with any patience but on the contrary I took up another resolution which was more safe though more laborious and this was that I would build or rather make me another peri-agua or canoe and so have one for one side of the island and one for the other you are to understand that now I had as I may call it two plantations in the island one my little fortification or tent with the wall about it under the rock with the cave behind me which by this time I had enlarged into several apartments or caves one within another one of these which was the driest and largest and had a door out beyond my wall or fortification so to say beyond where my wall joined to the rock was all filled up with the large earthen pots of which I have given an account and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets which would hold five or six bushels each where I laid up my stores of provisions especially my corn some in the air cut off short from the straw and the other rubbed out with my hand as for my wall made as before with long steaks or piles these piles grew all like trees and were by this time grown so big and spread so very much that there was not the least appearance to anyone's view of any habitation behind them near this dwelling of mine but a little farther within the land and upon lower ground lay my two pieces of corn land which I kept duly cultivated and sowed and which duly yielded me their harvest in its season and whenever I had occasion for more corn I had more land adjoining as fit as that besides this I now had my country seat and I had now a tolerable plantation there also for first I had my little bower as I called it which I kept in repair that is to say I kept the hedge which encircled it constantly fitted up to its usual height the ladder always standing on the inside I kept the trees which at first were no more than stakes but were now grown very firm and tall always cut so that they might spread and grow thick and wild and make the more agreeable shade which they did effectually to my mind in the middle of this I had my tent always standing being a piece of a sail spread over poles set up for that purpose and which never wanted any repair or renewing and under this I made me a squab or couch with the skins of the I had killed and with other soft things and a blanket laid on them such as belong to our sea bedding which I had saved in a great watch coat to cover me and here whenever I had occasion to be absent from my chief seat I took up my country habitation adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle that is to say my goats and I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence and enclose this ground I was so anxious to see it kept entire lest the goats should break through that I never left off till with infinite labor I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes and so near one to another that it was rather a pale than a hedge and there was scarce room to put a hand through between them which afterwards when these steaks grew as they all did in the next rainy season made the enclosure strong like a wall indeed stronger than any wall this will testify for me that I was not idle and that I spared no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable support where I considered keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at my hand would be a living magazine of flesh milk butter and cheese for me as long as I lived in the place if it were to be 40 years and that keeping them in my reach depended entirely upon my perfecting my enclosures to such a degree that I might be sure of keeping them together which by this method indeed I so effectually secured that when these little stakes began to grow I had planted them so very thick that I was forced to pull some of them up again in this place also I had my grapes growing which I principally depended on for my winter store raisins and which I never failed to preserve very carefully as the best and most agreeable of my whole diet and indeed they were not only agreeable but medicinal wholesome nourishing and refreshing to the last degree as this was about halfway between my other habitation and the place where I had laid up my boat I generally stayed and lay here in my way dither for I used frequently to visit my boat and I kept all things about or belonging to her in very good order sometimes I went out in her to divert myself but no more hazardous voyages would I go scarcely ever above a stone's cast or two from the shore I was so apprehensive of being hurried out of my knowledge again by the currents or winds or any other accident but now I come to a new scene of my life it happened one day about noon going towards my boat I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore which was very plain to be seen in the sand I stood like one thunder struck or as if I had seen an apparition I listened I looked round me but I could hear nothing nor see anything I went up to a rising ground to look farther I went up the shore and down the shore but it was all one I could see no other impression but that one I went to it again to see if there were any more and to observe if it might not be my fancy but there was no room for that for there was exactly the print of a foot toes heel and every part of a foot how it came dither I knew not nor could I in the least imagine but after innumerable fluttering thoughts like a man perfectly confused and out of myself I came home to my fortification not feeling as we say found I went on but terrified to the last degree looking behind me at every two or three steps mistaking every bush and tree and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man nor is it possible to describe how many various shapes my affrighted imagination represented things to me how many wild ideas were found every moment in my fancy and what's strange unaccountable whimsies my thoughts by the way when I came to my castle for so I think I called it ever after this I fled into it like one pursued whether I went over by the ladder as first contrived or went in at the hole in the rock which I had called a door I cannot remember no nor could I remember the next morning for never frightened hair fled to cover or fox to earth with more terror of mind then I to this retreat I slept none that night the farther I was from the occasion of my fright the greater my apprehensions were which is something contrary to the nature of such things and especially to the usual practice of all creatures in fear but I was so embarrassed with my own frightful ideas of the thing that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to myself even though I was now a great way off sometimes I fancied it must be the devil and reason joined in with me in this supposition for how could any other thing in human shape come into the place where was the vessel that brought them what marks were there of any other footstep and how was it possible a man should come there but then to think that Satan should take human shape upon him in such a place where there could be no manner of occasion but to leave the print of his foot behind him and that even for no purpose too for he could not be sure I should see it this was an amusement the other way I considered that the devil might have found out abundance of other ways to have terrified me than this of the single print of a foot that as I lived quite on the other side of the island he would never have been so simple as to leave a mark in a place where it was ten thousand to one whether I should ever see it or not and in the sand too which the first surge of the sea upon a high wind would have defaced entirely all this seemed inconsistent with the thing itself and with all the notions that we usually entertain of the subtlety of the devil abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of all apprehensions of its being the devil and I presently concluded then that it must be some more dangerous creature that is that it must be some of the savages of the mainland opposite who had wandered out to sea in their canoes and either driven by the currents or by contrary winds had made the island and had been on shore but were now gone away to sea being as low as perhaps to have stayed in this desolate island as I would have been to have had them while these reflections were rolling in my mind I was very thankful in my thoughts that I was so happy as not to be thereabouts at that time or that they did not see my boat by which they would have concluded that some inhabitants had been in the place and perhaps have searched farther for me then terrible thoughts racked my imagination about there having found out my boat and that there were people here and that if so I should certainly have them come again in greater numbers and devour me that if it should happen that they should not find me yet they would find my enclosure destroy all my corn and carry away all my flock of tame goats and I should perish at last for mere one thus my fear banished all my religious hope all that former confidence in God which was founded upon such wonderful experience as I had had of his goodness as if he that had fed me by miracle either to could not preserve by his power the provision which he had made for me by his goodness I reproach myself with my laziness that would not so any more corn one year than would just serve me till the next season as if no accident could intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that was upon the ground and this I thought so just a reproof that I resolved for the future to have two or three years corn beforehand so that whatever might come I might not perish for want of bread of strange a checker work of providence is the life of a man and by what secret different springs are the affections hurried about as different circumstances present today we love what tomorrow we hate today we seek what tomorrow we shun today we desire what tomorrow we fear nay even tremble at the apprehensions of this was exemplified in me at this time in the most lively manner imaginable for I whose only affliction was that I seemed banished from human society that I was alone circumscribed by the boundless ocean cut off from mankind and condemned to what I call silent life that I was as one whom haven't thought not worthy to be numbered among the living or to appear among the rest of his creatures that to have seen one of my own species would have seemed to me a raising me from death to life and the greatest blessing that heaven itself next to the supreme blessing of salvation could bestow I say that I should now tremble at the very apprehensions of seeing a man and was ready to sink into the ground at but the shadow or silent appearance of a man having set his foot in the island such as the uneven state of human life and it afforded me a great many curious speculations afterwards when I had a little recovered my first surprise I considered that this was the station of life the infinitely wise and good providence of God had determined for me that as I could not foresee what the ends of divine wisdom might be in all this so I was not to dispute his sovereignty who as I was his creature had an undoubted right by creation to govern and dispose of me absolutely as he thought fit and who as I was creature that had offended him had likewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment he thought fit and that it was my part to bear his indignation because I had sinned against him I then reflected that as God who was not only righteous but omnipotent had thought fit thus to punish and afflict me so he was able to deliver me that if he did not think fit to do so it was my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to his will and on the other hand it was my duty also to hope in him pray to him and quietly to attend to the dictates and directions of his daily providence these thoughts took up many hours of mine days may I may say weeks and months and one particular effect of my cogitations on this occasion I cannot omit one morning early lying in my bed and filled with thoughts about my danger from the appearances of savages I found it discomposed me very much upon which these words of the scripture came into my thoughts call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me upon this rising cheerfully out of my bed my heart was not only comforted but I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance when I had done praying I took up my Bible and opening it to read the first words that presented to me were wait on the Lord and be of good cheer and he shall strengthen thy heart wait I say on the Lord it is impossible to express the comfort this gave me in answer I thankfully laid down the book and was no more sad at least on that occasion in the middle of these cogitations apprehensions and reflections it came into my thoughts one day that all this might be a mere chimera of my own and that this foot might be the print of my own foot when I came on shore for my boat this cheered me up a little too and I began to persuade myself it was all a delusion that it was nothing else but my own foot and why might I not come that way from the boat as well as I was going that way to the boat again I considered also that I could by no means tell for certain where I had trod and where I had not and that if at last this was the only print of my own foot I had played the part of those fools who tried to make stories of apparitions and then are frightened at them more than anybody now I began to take courage and to peep abroad again for I had not stirred out of my castle for three days and nights so that I began to starve for provisions for I had little or nothing with indoors but some barley cakes and water then I knew that my goats wanted to be milked too which usually was my evening diversion and the poor creatures were in great pain and inconvenience and indeed it almost spoiled some of them and almost dried up their milk encouraging myself therefore with the belief that this was nothing but the print of one of my own feet and that I might be truly said to start at my own shadow I began to grow abroad again and went to my country house to milk my flock but to see with what fear I went forward how often I look behind me how I was ready every now and then to lay down my basket and run for my life it would have made anyone have thought I was haunted with an evil conscience or that I had been lately most terribly frightened and so indeed I had however I went down thus two or three days and having seen nothing I began to be a little bolder and to think there was really nothing in it but my own imagination but I could not persuade myself fully of this till I should go down to the shore again and see this print of a foot and measure it by my own and see if there was any similitude or fitness that I might be assured that it was my own foot but when I came to the place first it appeared evidently to me that when I laid up my boat I could not possibly be on shore anywhere thereabouts secondly when I came to measure the mark with my own foot I found my foot not so large by a great deal both these things filled my head with new imaginations and gave me the mark again to the highest degree so that I shook with cold like one in an Agu and I went home again filled with the belief that some man or men had been on shore there or in short that the island was inhabited and I might be surprised before I was aware and what course to take for my security I knew not oh what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear it deprives them of the use means which reason offers for their relief the first thing I proposed to myself was to throw down my enclosures and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods lest the enemy should find them and then frequent the island in prospect of the same or the like booty then the simple thing of digging up my two corn fields lest they should find such a grain there and still be prompted to frequent the island then to demolish my bower and tent that they might not see any vestiges of habitation and be prompted to look farther in order to find out the persons inhabiting these were the subject of the first night's cogitations after I was home again while the apprehensions which had so overrun my mind were fresh upon me and my head was full of vapors thus fear of danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself when apparent to the eyes and we find the burden of anxiety greater by much than the evil which we are anxious about and what was worse than all this I had not that relief in this trouble that from the resignation I used to practice I hoped to have I looked I thought like Saul who complained not only that the Philistines were upon him but that God had forsaken him for I did not now take due ways to compose my mind by crying to God my distress and resting upon his providence as I had done before for my defense and deliverance which if I had done I had at least been more cheerfully supported under this new surprise and perhaps carried through it with more resolution this confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night but in the morning I fell asleep and having by the amusement of my mind been as were tired and my spirits exhausted I slept very soundly and wait much better composed than I had ever been before and now I began to think sedately and upon debate with myself I concluded that this island which was so exceedingly pleasant fruitful and no farther from the mainland than as I had seen was not so entirely abandoned as I might imagine that although there were no stated inhabitants who lived on the spot yet that there might sometimes come boats off from the shore who either with design or perhaps never but when they were driven by cross winds might come to this place that I had lived there 15 years now and not met with the least shadow or figure of any people yet and that if at any time they should be driven here it was probable they went away again as soon as ever they could seeing that they had never thought fit to fix here upon any occasion that the most I could suggest any danger from was from any casual accidental landing of straggling people from the main who as it was likely if they were driven hither were here against their wills so they made no stay here but went off again with all possible speed seldom staying one night on shore lest they should not have the help of the tides and daylight back again and that therefore I had nothing to do but to consider of some safe retreat in case I should see any savages land upon the spot now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large as to bring a door through again which door as I said came out beyond where my fortification joined to the rock upon maturely considering this therefore I resolved to draw me a second fortification in the manner of a semi-circle at a distance from my wall just where I had planted a double row of trees about 12 years before of which I made mentioned these trees having been planted so thick before they wanted but few piles to be driven between them that they might be thicker and stronger and my wall would be soon finished so that I now had a double wall and my outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber old cables and everything I could think of to make it strong having in it seven little holes about as big as I might put my arm out at in the inside of this I thickened my wall to about 10 feet thick with continually bringing earth out of my cave and laying it at the foot of the wall and walking upon it and through the seven holes I contrived to plant the muskets of which I took notice that I had got seven on shore out of the ship these I planted like my cannon and I fitted them into frames that held them like a carriage so that I could fire all the seven guns in two minutes time this wall I was many a weary month in finishing and yet never thought myself safe till it was done when this was done I stuck all the ground without my wall for a great length every way as full with sticks or sticks of the ossier like wood which I had found so apt to grow as they could well stand in so much that I believe I might set in near 20,000 leaving a pretty large space between them and my wall that I might have room to see my enemy and they might have no shelter from the young trees if they attempted to approach my outer wall thus in two years time I had a thick grove and in five or six years time I had a wood before my dwelling growing so monstrously thick and strong that it was indeed perfectly impassable and no men of what kind so ever could ever imagine that there was anything beyond it much less a habitation as for the way which I proposed to myself to go in and out for I left no avenue it was by setting two ladders one to a part of the rock which was low and then broke in and left room to place another ladder upon that so that when the two ladders were taken down no man living could come down to me without doing himself mischief and if they had come down the outside of my outer wall thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my own preservation and it will be seen at length that they were not altogether without just reason though I foresaw nothing at that time more than my mere fear suggested to me end of chapter 11 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 12 A Cave Retreat while this was doing I was not altogether careless of my other affairs for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd of goats they were not only already supplied to me on every occasion and began to be sufficient for me without the expense of powder and shot but also without the fatigue of hunting after the wild ones and I was loathed to lose the advantage of them and to have them all to nurse up over again for this purpose after long consideration I could think of but two ways to preserve them was to find another convenient place to dig a cave underground and to drive them into it every night and the other was to enclose two or three little bits of land remote from one another and as much concealed as I could where I might keep about a half dozen young goats in each place so that if any disaster happened to the flock in general I might be able to raise them again with little trouble in time and this though it would require a big deal of time and labor I thought was the most rational design accordingly I spent some time to find out the most retired parts of the island and I pitched upon one which was as private indeed as my heart could wish it was a little dent piece of ground in the middle of the hollow and thick woods where, as is observed I almost lost myself once before endeavoring to come back that way from the eastern part of the island here I found a clear piece of land near three acres so surrounded with woods that it was almost an enclosure by nature at least it did not want near so much labor to make it so as the other piece of ground I had worked so hard at I immediately went to work with this piece of ground and in less than a month's time I had so fenced it round that my flock, or herd call it what should please which were not so wild now were well enough secured in it so without any further delay I removed ten young she-goats and two he-goats to this piece and when they were there I continued to perfect the fence till I had made it as secure as the other which however I did at more leisure and it took me up more time by a great deal all this labor I was at the expense of purely from my apprehensions on account of the print of a man's foot for as yet I had never seen any human creature come near the island and I had now lived two years under this uneasiness which indeed made my life much less comfortable than it was before as may well be imagined by any who know what it is to live in the constant snare of the fear of man and this I must observe with grief too that the discomposure of my mind had great impression also upon the religious part of my thoughts the dread and terror of falling into the hands of savages and cannibals lay so upon my spirits that I seldom found myself in a due temper for application to my maker at least not with the sedate calmness and resignation of soul which I was want to do I rather pray to God as under great affliction and pressure of mind surrounded with danger and in expectation every night of being murdered and devoured before morning I must testify from my experience that a temper of peace thankfulness love and affection is much more the proper frame for prayer than that of terror and discomposure and that under the dread of mischief impending a man is no more fit for a comforting performance of the duty of praying to God than he is for a repentance on a sick bed for these discomposures to the body and the discomposure of the mind must necessarily be as great a disability as that of the body and much greater praying to God being properly an act of the mind not of the body but to go on after I had thus secured one part of my little living stock I went about the whole island searching for another private place to make such another deposit when wandering more to the west point of the island than I had ever done yet and looking out to the sea I thought I saw a boat upon the sea at a great distance I had found a perspective glass or two in one of the seamen's chests which I saved out of our ship but I had it not about me and this was so remote that I could not tell what to make of it though I looked at it till my eyes were not able to hold to look any longer and if it was a boat or not I do not know but as I descended from the hill I could see no more of it so I gave it over only I resolved to go no more out without a perspective glass in my pocket when I was come down the hill to the end of the island where indeed I had never been before I was presently convinced that the scene, the print of a man's foot was not such a strange thing but that it was a special providence that I was cast upon the side of the island where the savages never came I should easily have known that nothing was more frequent than for the canoes from the main when they happened to be a little too far out at sea to shoot over to that side of the island for harbor and likewise as they often met and fought in their canoes the victors having taken away prisoners would bring them over to this shore where according to their dreadful customs being all cannibals they would kill and eat them end of which hereafter when I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above being the southwest point of the island I was perfectly confounded and amazed nor is it possible for me to express the horror of my mind at seeing the shore spread with skulls, hands, feet and other bones of human bodies and particularly I observed a place where there had been a fire made and a circle dug in the earth like a cockpit where I suppose the savage riches had sat down to their human feastings upon the bodies of their fellow creatures I was so astonished with the sight of these things that I entertained no notions of any danger to myself from it for a long while all my apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman foolish brutality and the horror of the degeneracy of human nature which though I had heard of it often yet I never had so near a view of before in short I turned away my face from the horrid spectacle my stomach grew sick and I was just at the point of fainting when nature discharged the disorder from my stomach and having vomited with uncommon violence I was a little relieved I did not bear to stay in the place a moment so I got up the hill again with all the speed I could and walked on towards my own habitation when I came a little out of that part of the island I stood still a while amazed and then recovering myself I looked up with the utmost affection of my soul and with a flood of tears in my eyes gave God thanks that had cast my first plot in a part of the world where I was distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these and that though I had esteemed my present condition very miserable had yet given me so many comforts in it that I had still more to give thanks for than to complain of and this above all that I had even in this miserable condition been comforted with the knowledge of himself and the hope of his blessing which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which I had suffered or could suffer in this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle and began to be much easier now as to the safety of my circumstances than ever I was before for I had observed that these wretches never came to this island in search of what they could get perhaps not seeking not wanting or not expecting anything here and having often no doubt been up the covered woody part of it without finding anything to their purpose I knew I had been here now almost 18 years and never saw the least footsteps of human creature there before and I might be 18 years more as entirely concealed as I was now if I did not discover myself to them which I had no manner of occasion to do it being only my business to keep myself entirely concealed where I was unless I found a better support of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that I had been speaking of and of the wretched inhuman custom of their devouring and eating one another up that I continued pensive and sad and kept close within my own circle for almost two years after this when I say my own circle I mean by it my three plantations that is my castle my seat which I call my bower and my enclosure in the woods nor did I look after this for any other use than an enclosure for my goats for the aversion which nature gave me to these hellish wretches was such that I was as fearful of seeing them as of seeing the devil himself I did not so much as go to look after my boat all this time but began rather to think of making another for I could not think of ever making any more attempts to bring the other boat round the island to me lest I should meet with some of these creatures at sea in which case if I had happened to have fallen in their hands I knew what would have been my lot time however and the satisfaction I had that I was in no danger of being discovered by these people began to wear off my uneasiness about them and I began to live just the same composed manner as before only with this difference I used more caution and kept my eyes more about me than I did before lest I should happen to be seen by any of them and particularly I was more cautious of firing my gun lest any of them being on the island should happen to hear it it was therefore a very good providence to me that I had furnished myself with a tame breed of goats and that I had no need to hunt any more about the woods or shoot at them and if I did catch any of them it was by traps and snares as I had done before so that for two years after this I believe I never fired my gun once off though I never went out without it and what was more as I had saved three pistols out of the ship I always carried them out with me or at least two of them sticking them in my goat skin belt I also furbished up one of the great cutlaces that I had out of the ship and made me a belt to hang it on also so that I was now a most formidable fellow to look at when I went abroad if you add to the former description of myself the particular of two pistols and a broad sword hanging at my side in a belt and without a scabbard things going on thus as I have said for some time I seemed accepting these cautions to be reduced to my former calm sedate way of living all these things tended to show me more and more how far my condition was from being miserable compared to some others nay to many other particulars of life which it might have been pleasing to God to have made my lot it put me upon reflecting how little repining there would be among mankind at any condition of life if people would rather compare their condition with those that were worse in order to be thankful then be always comparing them with those to assist their murmurings and complainings as in my present condition there were not really many things which I wanted so indeed I thought that the frights I had been in about these wretched savages and the concern I had been in for my own preservation had taken off the edge of my invention for my own conveniences and I had dropped a good design which I had once spent my thoughts upon if I could not make some of my barley into malt and then try to brew myself some beer this was really a whimsical thought and I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it for I presently saw that there would be the want of several things necessary to the making of my beer that it would be impossible for me to supply as first cast to preserve it in which was a thing that as I have observed already I could never compass now though I spent not only many days but weeks months in attempting it but to no purpose in the next place I had no hops to make it keep, no yeast to make it work no copper or kettle to make it boil and yet with all these things wanting I barely believe had not the frights and terrors I was in about the savages intervened I had undertaken it and perhaps brought it to pass too where I seldom gave anything over without accomplishing it when once I had to begin it but my invention now ran quite another way for night and day I could think of nothing but how I might destroy some of the monsters in their cruel bloody entertainment and if possible save the victim they should bring hither to destroy it would take up a larger volume than this whole work is intended to be to set down all the contrivances I hatched or rather brooded upon in my thoughts for the destroying these creatures or at least frightening them so as to prevent their coming hither any more but all this was abortive nothing could be possible to take effect unless I was to be there to do it myself and what could one man do among them when perhaps there might be 20 or 30 of them together with their darts or their bows and arrows with which they could shoot as true to a mark as I could with my gun sometimes I thought if digging a hole under the place where they made their fire and putting in 5 or 6 pounds of gunpowder which when they kindled their fire would consequently take fire and blow up all that was near it but as in the first place I should be unwilling to waste so much powder upon them my store being now within the quantity of one barrel so neither could I be sure of it's going off at any certain time when it might surprise them and at best that it would do little more just blow the fire about their ears and fright them but not sufficient to make them forsake the place so I laid it aside and then proposed that I would place myself in ambush in some convenient place with my 3 guns all double loaded and in the middle of their bloody ceremony let fly at them when I should be sure to kill or wound perhaps 2 or 3 at every shot and then falling in among them 3 pistols at my sword I may no doubt but that if there were 20 I should kill them all this fancy pleased my thoughts for some weeks and I was so full of it that I often dreamed of it and sometimes that I was just going to let fly at them in my sleep I went so far with it in my imagination that I employed myself several days to find out proper places to put myself in ambush gate and to watch for them and I went frequently to that place itself which was now grown more familiar to me but while my mind was thus filled with thoughts of revenge and a bloody putting 20 or 30 of them to the sword as I may call it the horror I had at the place and the signals of the barbarous wretches devouring one another abetted my malice well at length I found a place where I was satisfied I might securely wait till I saw any of their boats coming and might then even before they would be ready to come on shore convey myself unseen into some thickets of trees in one of which there was a hollow large enough to conceal me entirely and there I might sit and observe all their bloody doings and take my full aim at their heads when they were so close together as that it would be next to impossible that I should miss my shot or that I would fail wounding three or four of them at the first shot in this place then I resolved to fulfill my design and accordingly I prepared two muskets and my ordinary filing piece the two muskets I loaded with a brace of slugs each and four or five smaller bullets about the size of pistol bullets and the filing piece I loaded with near a handful of swan shot of the largest size I also loaded my pistols with about four bullets each and in this posture well provided with ammunition for a second and third charge I prepared myself for my expedition after I had thus laid the scheme of my design and in my imagination put it in practice I continually made my tour every morning to the top of the hill which was from my castle as I called it about three miles or more to see if I could observe any boats upon the sea coming near the island or standing over towards it but I began to tire of this hard duty after I had for two or three months constantly kept my watch but came always back without any discovery there having not in all that time been the least appearance not only on or near the shore but on the whole ocean so far as my eye or glass could reach every way as long as I kept my daily tour to the hill to look out so long also I kept up the vigor of my design and my spirit seemed to be all the while in a suitable frame for so outrageous an execution as the killing 20 or 30 naked savages for an offense which I had not at all entered into any discussion of in my thoughts any farther than my passions were at first fired by the horror I conceived at the unnatural custom of the people of that country who it seems had been suffered by Providence in his wise disposition of the world had no other guide than that of their own abominable and vitiated passions and consequently were left and perhaps had been so for some ages to act such hard things and receive such hard customs as nothing but nature entirely abandoned by heaven and actuated by some hellish degeneracy could have run them into but now when as I have said I began to be weary of the fruitless excursion which I had made so long and so far every morning in vain so my opinion of the action itself began to alter and I began with cooler and calmer thoughts to consider what I was going to engage in what authority or call I had to pretend to be judge and executioner upon these men as criminals whom heaven had thought fit for so many ages to suffer unpunished to go on and to be as it were the executioners of his judgments one upon another how far these people were offenders against me and what right I had to engage in the quarrel of that blood which they shed promiscuously upon one another I debated this very often with myself thus how do I know what God himself judges in this particular case it is certain these people do not commit this as a crime it is not against their own offenses reproving or their light reproaching them they do not know it to be an offense and then commit it in defiance of divine justice as we do in almost all the sins we commit they think it no more a crime to kill a captive taken in war than we do to kill an ox or to eat human flesh than we do to eat mutton when I consider this a little it followed necessarily that certainly in the wrong that these people were not murderers in the sense that I had before condemned them in my thoughts any more than those Christians were murderers who often put to death the prisoners taken in battle or more frequently upon many occasions put whole troops of men to the sword without giving quarter though they threw down their arms and submitted in the next place it occurred to me that although the usage they gave one another was thus brutish and inhuman yet it was really nothing to me these people had done me no injury that if they attempted or I saw it necessary for my immediate preservation to fall upon them something might be said for it but that I was yet out of their power and they really had no knowledge of me and consequently no design upon me and therefore it could not be just for me to fall upon them that this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards and all their barbarities practiced in America where they destroyed millions of these people who however they were idolaters and barbarians and had several bloody and barbarous rites in their customs such as sacrificing human bodies to their idols were yet as to the Spaniards very innocent people and that the routine of them out of the country is spoken of with the utmost of horrors and detestation by even the Spaniards themselves at this time and by all other Christian nations of Europe as a mere butchery a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty unjustifiable either to God or man and for which the very name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be frightful and terrible to all people of humanity or of Christian compassion as if the kingdom of Spain were particularly imminent for the produce of a race of men who were without principles of tenderness or the common bowels of pity to the miserable which is reckoned to be a mark of generous temper in the mind these considerations really put me to a pause and to a kind of full stop and I began by little and little to be off my design and to conclude that I had taken wrong measures in my resolution to attack the savages and that it was not my business that they first attacked me and this it was my business if possible to prevent but that if I were discovered and attacked by them I knew my duty on the other hand I argued with myself that this was really the way not to deliver myself but entirely to ruin and destroy myself for unless I was sure to kill every one of them that not only should be on the shore at that time but that should ever come on shore afterwards if but one of them escaped to tell their country people what had happened they would come over again by thousands to revenge the death of their fellows and I should only bring upon myself a certain destruction which at present I had no manner of occasion for upon the whole I concluded that I ought neither in principle nor in policy one way or other to concern myself in this affair that my business was by all possible means to conceal myself from them and not to leave the least sign for them to guess by that there were any living creatures upon the island I mean of human shape religion joined in with this prudential resolution and I was convinced now many ways that I was perfectly out of my duty when I was laying all my bloody schemes for the destruction of innocent creatures I mean innocent as to me as to the crimes they were guilty of towards one another I had nothing to do with them they were national and I ought to leave them to the justice of God who is the governor of nations and knows how by national punishments to make a just retribution for national offenses and to bring public judgments upon those who offend in a public manner by such ways as best please him this appeared so clear to me now that nothing was a greater satisfaction to me than that I had not been suffered to do a thing which I now saw so much reason to believe would have been no less a sin than that of willful murder if I had committed it and I gave most humble thanks on my knees to God that he had thus delivered me from blood guiltiness beseeching him to grant me the protection of his providence that I might not fall into the hands of the barbarians or that I might not lay my hands upon them unless I had a more clear call from heaven to do it in defense of my own life in this disposition I continued for near a year after this and so far was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these wretches that in all that time I never once went up to the hill to see whether there were any of them in sight or to know whether any of them had been on shore there or not that I might not be tempted to renew any of my contrivances against them or be provoked by any advantage that might present itself to fall upon them only this I did I went and removed my boat which I had on the other side of the island and carried it down to the east end of the whole island where I ran it into a little cove which I found under some high rocks and where I knew by reason of the currents the savages durst not at least would not come with their boats upon any account whatsoever with my boat I carried away everything that I had left there belonging to her though not necessary for the bare going dither that is a mast and sail which I had made for her and a thing like an anchor but which indeed could not be called either anchor or a grappinal however it was the best I could make of its kind all these I removed that there might not be the least shadow for discovery or appearance of any boat or of any human habitation upon the island besides this I kept myself more to myself as I said more retired than ever and seldom went for my cell except upon my constant employment to build my she-goats and manage my little flock in the wood which as it was quite on the other part of the island was out of danger for certain it is that these savage people who sometimes haunted this island never came with any thoughts of finding their and consequently never wandered off from the coast and I doubt not but they might have been several times on shore after my apprehensions of them had made me cautious as well as before indeed I looked back with some horror upon the thoughts of what my condition would have been if I had chopped upon them and been discovered before that when naked and unarmed except with one gun and that loaded often only with small shot I walked peeping and peering about the island to see what I could get what a surprise should I have been in if when I discovered the print of a man's foot I had instead of that seen 15 or 20 savages and found them pursuing me and by the swiftness of their running no possibility of my escaping them the thoughts of this sometimes sank my very soul within me and distressed my mind so much that I could not soon recover it to think what I should have done and how I should not only have been unable to resist them but even should not have had presence of mind enough to do what I might have done much less what now after so much consideration and preparation I might be able to do indeed after serious thinking of these things I would be melancholy and sometimes it would last a great while but I resolved it all at last and to thankfulness to that providence which had delivered me and had kept me from so many unseen dangers and from those mischiefs which I could have no way been the agent in delivering myself from because I had not the least notion of any such thing depending or the least supposition of its being possible this renewed a contemplation which often had come into my thoughts and former times when first I began to see the merciful dispositions of heaven in the dangers we run through in this life how wonderfully we are delivered when we know nothing of it how when we are in a quandary as we call it a doubt or hesitation whether to go this way or that way a secret hint will direct us this way when we intended to go that way nay, when sense our own inclination and perhaps business has called us to go the other way yet a strange impression upon the mind from we know not what springs and by we know not what power shall overrule us to go this way and it shall afterwards appear that had we gone that way which we should have gone and even to our imagination ought to have gone we should have been ruined and lost upon those and many like reflections I afterwards made it a certain rule with me that whenever I found those secret hints or pressings of mind to doing or not doing anything that presented or going this way or that way I never failed to obey the secret dictate though I knew no other reason for it than such a pressure or such a hint hung upon my mind I could give many examples of the success of this conduct in the course of my life but more especially in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappy island besides many occasions which it is very likely I might have taken notice of if I had seen with the same eyes then that I see with now but it is never too late to be wise and I cannot but advise all considering men whose lives are attended with such extraordinary incidents as mine or even though not so extraordinary not to slight such secret intimations of providence let them come from what invisible intelligence they will that I shall not discuss and perhaps cannot account for but certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits and a secret communication between those embodied and those unembodied and such a proof as can never be understood of which I shall have occasion to give some remarkable instances in the remainder of my solitary residence in this dismal place I believe the reader of this will not think it strange to see these anxieties these constant dangers I lived in and the concern that was now upon me put an end to all invention and to all the contrivances that I laid for my future accommodations and conveniences I had the care of my safety more now upon my hands than that of my food I cared not to drive a nail or chop a stick of wood now for fear the noise I might make should be heard it is intolerably uneasy at making any fire lest the smoke which is visible at a great distance in the day should betray me for this reason I removed that part of my business which required fire such as burning of pots and pipes etc into my new apartment in the woods where after I had been for some time I found to my unspeakable consolation a mere natural cave in the earth which went in a vast way in where I dare say no savage had he been at the mouth of it would be so hearty as to venture in nor indeed would any man else but one who, like me wanted nothing so much as a safe retreat the mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock where by mere accident I would say if I did not see abundant reason to ascribe all such things now to Providence I was cutting down some thick branches of trees to make charcoal and before I go on I must observe the reason of my making this charcoal which was this I was afraid of making a smoke about my habitation as I said before and yet I could not live there without baking my bread cooking my meat etc so I contrived to burn some wood here as I had seen done in England under turf till it became charcoal or dry coal and then putting the fire out I preserved the coal to carry home the other services for which fire was wanting without danger of smoke but this is by the by while I was cutting down some wood here I perceived that behind a very thick branch of low brushwood or underwood there was a kind of hollow place I was curious to look in it and getting with difficulty into the mouth of it I found it was pretty large that is to say sufficient for me to stand upright in and perhaps another with me but I must confess to you that I made more haste out than I did in when looking farther into the place which was perfectly dark I saw two broad shining eyes of some creature whether devil or man I knew not which twinkled like two stars the dim light from the cave's mouth shining directly in and making the reflection however after some pause I recovered myself and began to call myself a thousand fools and to think that he that was afraid to see the devil was not fit to live twenty years in an island all alone and that I might well think there was nothing in this cave that was more frightful than myself upon this plucking up my courage I took up a firebrand and in I rushed again with the stick flaming in my hand I had not gone three steps in before I was almost as frightened as before for I heard a very loud sigh like that of a man in some pain and it was followed by a broken noise as of words half expressed and then a deep sigh again I stepped back and was indeed struck with such a surprise that it put me into a cold sweat and if I had had a hat upon my head I will not answer for it that my hair might not have lifted it off but still plucking up my spirits as well as I could and encouraging myself a little with considering that the power and presence of God was everywhere and was able to protect me I stepped forward again and by the light of the firebrand holding it up a little over my head I saw a line on the ground a monstrous frightful old he goat just making his will as we say and gasping for life and dying indeed of mere old age I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out and he assayed to get up but was not able to raise himself and I thought with myself he might even lie there for if he had frightened me so he would certainly fright away any of the savages if any of them should be so hardy as to come in there while he had life in him I was now recovered from my surprise and began to look around me when I found the cave was but very small that is to say it might be about 12 feet over but in no manner of shape neither round or square no hands having ever been employed in making it but those of mere nature I observed also that there was a place at the farther side of it that went in further but was so low that it required me to creep upon my hands and knees to go into it and whether it went I knew not so having no candle I gave it over for that time but resolved to go again the next day provided with candles and a tender box which I had made of the lock of one of the muskets in the pan accordingly the next day I came provided with six large candles of my own making for I had very good candles now of goat's tallow but was hard set for candle wick using sometimes rags or rope yarn and sometimes the dried rind of a weed like nettles and going into this low place I was obliged to creep upon all fours as I have said almost 10 yards which by the way I thought was a bold enough considering that I knew not how far it might go nor what was beyond it when I had got through this straight I found the roof rose higher up I believe near 20 feet but never was such a glorious sight seen in the island I dare say as it was to look round the sides and roof of this vault or cave the wall reflected 100,000 lights to me from my two candles what was in the rock whether diamonds or any other precious stones or gold which I rather supposed it to be I knew not the place I was in was a most delightful cavity or grotto though perfectly dark the floor was dry and level and had a sort of a small loose gravel upon it so that there was no nauseous or venomous creature to be seen neither was there any damp or wet on the sides of roof the only in it was the entrance which however as it was a place of security and such a retreat as I wanted I thought was a convenience so that I was really rejoiced at the discovery and resolved without any delay to bring some of the things which I was most anxious about to this place particularly I resolved to bring hinder my magazine of powder and all my spare arms that is two following pieces for I had three in all four of them I had eight in all so I kept in my castle only five which stood ready mounted like pieces of cannon on my utmost fence and were ready also to take out upon any expedition upon this occasion of removing my ammunition I happened to open the barrel of powder which I took up out of the sea and which had been wet and I found that the water had penetrated about three or four inches into the powder on every side taking and growing hard had preserved the inside like a kernel in the shell so that I had near 60 pounds of very good powder in the center of the cask this was a very agreeable discovery to be at that time so I carried all the way thither never keeping above two or three pounds of powder with me in my castle for fear of a surprise of any kind I also carried thither all the lead I had left for bullets I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants who were said to live in caves and holes in the rocks where none could come at them for I persuaded myself while I was here that if 500 savages were to hunt me they could never find me out or if they did they would not venture to attack me here the old goat whom I found expiring died in the mouth of the cave the next day after I made this discovery and I found it much easier to dig and throw him in and cover him with earth than to drag him out so I enterred him there to prevent offense to my nose End of Chapter 12 Reck of Spanish Ship I was now in the 23rd year of my residence in this island and was so naturalized to the place and the manner of living that could I but have enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come to the place to disturb me I could have been content for capitulating to spend the rest of my time there even to the last moment until I had laid me down and died like the old goat in the cave I had also arrived to some little diversions and amusements which made the time pass a great deal more pleasantly with me than it did before first I had taught my pal as I noted before to speak and he did it so familiarly and talk so articulately and plain that it was very pleasant to me and he lived with me no less than six and twenty years how long he might have lived afterwards I know not though I know they have a notion in the Brazils that they live a hundred years my dog was a pleasant and loving companion to me for no less than sixteen years of my time and then died of mere old age as for my cats they multiplied as I have observed to that degree that I was obliged to shoot several of them at first from devouring me and all I had but at length when the two old ones I brought with me were gone and after some time continually driving them for me and letting them have no provision with me they all ran wild into the woods except two or three favorites which I kept tame and who's young when they had any I always drowned and these were part of my family besides these I always kept two or three household kids about me whom I talked to feet out of my hand and I had two more parrots which talked pretty well and would all call Robin Crusoe but not like my first nor indeed did I take the pains with any of them that I had done with him I had also several tame seafowls whose name I knew not that I caught upon the shore and cut their wings and the little stakes which I had planted being now grown up to a good thick these fowls all lived among these low trees and bred there which was very agreeable to me so that as I said above I began to be very well contented with the life I led if I could have secured from the dread of the savages but it was otherwise directed and it may not be a miss for all people who shall meet with my story to make this just observation from it how frequently in the course of our lives the evil which in itself we seek most and which when we are fallen into is the most dreadful to us is often times the very means or door of our deliverance by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into I could give many examples of this in the course of my unaccountable life but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable than in the circumstances of my last years of solitary residence in this island it was now the month of December as I said above in my 23rd year and this being the southern solstice for winter I cannot call it was the particular time of my harvest and required me to be pretty much abroad in the fields when going out early in the morning even before it was thorough daylight I was surprised with seeing a light of some fire upon the shore at a distance from me of about two miles toward that part of the island where I had observed some savages had been as before and not on the other side but to my great affliction it was on my side of the island I was indeed terribly surprised and stopped short within my grove at the site not daring to go out lest I might be surprised and yet I had no more peace within from the apprehensions I had that if these savages and rambling over the island should find my corn standing or cut or any of my works or improvements they would immediately conclude that there were people in the place and would never rest then till they had found me out and this extremity I went back directly to my castle pulled up the ladder after me and made all things without look as wild and natural as I could then I prepared myself within putting myself in a posture of defense I loaded all my cannon as I called them that is to say my muskets which were mounted upon my new fortification and all my pistols and resolved to defend myself to the last gasp not forgetting to commend myself seriously to the divine protection and earnestly to pray to God to deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians I continued in this posture about two hours and began to be impatient for intelligence abroad for I had no spies to send out after sitting a while longer and musing what I should do in this case I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance longer so setting up my ladder to the side of the hill where there was a flak place as I had observed before and then pulling the ladder after me I set it up again and mounted the top of the hill and pulling out my perspective glass which I had taken on purpose I laid me down flat on my belly on the ground and began to look for the place I presently found there were no less than nine naked sabbages sitting round a small fire they had made not to warm them for they had no need of that they were being extremely hot but as I suppose to dress some of their barbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought with them whether alive or dead I could not tell they had two canoes with them which they had hauled up upon the shore and as it was then ebb tied they seemed to me to wait for the return of the flood to go away again it is not easy to imagine what confusion the sight put me into especially seeing them come on my side of the island and so near to me but when I considered their coming must be always with the current of the ebb I began afterwards to be more sedate in my mind being satisfied that I might go abroad with safety all the time of the flood all the time of the tide if they were not unsure before and having made this observation I went abroad about my harvest work with the moor composure as I expected so it proved for as soon as the tide made to the westward I saw them all take boat and row, or paddle as we call it away I should have observed that for an hour or more before they went off they were dancing and I could discern their postures and gestures by my glass I could not perceive by my nicest observation that they were stark naked and had not the least covering upon them but whether they were men or women I could not distinguish as soon as I saw them shipped and gone I took two guns upon my shoulders and two pistols in my girdle and my great sword by my side without a scabbard and with all the speed I was able to make went away to the hill where I had discovered the first appearance of all and as soon as I got thither for I could not go quickly being so loaded with arms as I was I perceived there had been three canoes more of the savages at that place and looking out farther I saw they were all at sea together making over for the main this was a dreadful sight to me especially as going down to the shore I could see the marks of horror which the dismal work they had been about had left behind it the blood, the bones and part of the flesh of human bodies eaten and devoured by those wretches with merriment and sport I was so filled with indignation at the sight that I now began to premeditate the destruction of the next that I saw there let them be whom or how many so ever it seemed evident to me that the visits which they made thus to this island were not very frequent of fifteen months before any more of them came on shore there again that is to say I neither saw them nor any footsteps or signals of them in all that time for as to the rainy seasons then they are sure not to come abroad at least not so far yet all this while I lived uncomfortably by reason of the constant apprehensions of their coming upon me by surprise from whence I observe that the expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffering especially if there is no room to shake off that expectation or those apprehensions during all this time I was in a murdering humor and spent most of my hours which should have been better employed in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon them the very next time I should see them especially if they should be divided as they were the last time into two parties nor did I consider at all one party suppose ten or a dozen I was still the next day or week or month to kill another and so another even odd infinitum till I should be at length no less a murderer than they were and being man-eaters and perhaps much more so I spent my days now in great perplexity and anxiety of mind expecting that I should one day or other fall into the hands of these and if I did at any time venture abroad it was not without looking around me with the greatest care and caution imaginable and now I found to my great comfort how happy it was that I had provided a tame flock or herd of goats for I durst not upon any account fire my gun especially near that side of the island where they usually came lest I should alarm the savages and if they had fled from me now I was sure to have them come again with perhaps two or three hundred canoes with them in a few days and then I knew what to expect however I were out a year and three months more before I ever saw any more of the savages and then I found them again as I shall soon observe it is true they might have been there once or twice but either they made no stay or at least I did not see them but in the month of May as far as I could calculate and in my four and twentieth year I had a very strange encounter with them of which in its place the perturbation of my mind during this fifteen or sixteen months interval was very great I slept unquietly dreamed always frightful dreams and often started out of my sleep in the night in the day great troubles overwhelm my mind and the night I dreamed often of killing the savages and of the reasons why I might justify doing it but to wave all of this for a while it was in the middle of May on the sixteenth day I think as well as my poor wooden calendar would reckon before I marked all upon the post still I say it was on the sixteenth of May that it blew a very great storm of wind all day with a great deal of lightning and thunder and a very foul night it was after it I knew not what was the particular occasion of it but as I was reading in the Bible and taken up with very serious thoughts about my present condition I was surprised with the noise of a gun as I thought fired at sea this was to be sure a surprise quite of different nature from any I had met with before for the notions this put into my thoughts were quite of another kind I started up in the greatest haste imaginable and in a trice clapped my ladder in the middle place of the rock pulled it up after me and mounting it the second time got to the top of the hill the very moment that a flash of fire bid me listen for a second gun which accordingly in about half a minute I heard and by the sound knew that it was from that part of the sea where I was driven down the current in my boat they immediately considered that this must be some ship in distress and that they had some comrade or some other ship and company and fired these for signals of distress and to obtain help I had the presence of mine at that minute to think that though I could not help them it might be that they might help me so I brought together all the dry wood I could get at hand and making a good handsome pile I set it on fire upon the hill the wood was dry and blazed freely and though the wind blew very hard yet it burned fairly out so that I was certain if there was any such thing as a ship they must needs see it and no doubt they did for as soon as ever my fire blazed up I heard another gun and after that several others all from the same quarter I plied my fire all night long till daybreak and when it was broad day and the air cleared up I saw something at a great distance at sea, full east of the island whether a sail or a hull I could not distinguish no not with my glass the distance was so great and the weather still something hazy also at least it was so out at sea I looked frequently at it all that day and soon perceived that it did not move so I presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor and being eager you may be sure to be satisfied I took my gun in my hand and ran towards the south side of the island to the rocks where I had formerly been carried away by the current and getting up there the weather by this time being perfectly clear I could plainly see to my great sorrow the wreck of a ship cast away in the night upon those concealed rocks which I found when I was out in my boat and which rocks as they checked the violence of the stream and made a kind of counter system that I had never seen before in my life and in my life and in my life that's what is one man's safety is another man's destruction for it seems these men, whoever they were being out of their knowledge and the rocks being holy underwater had been driven upon them in the night and the wind blowing hard at east northeast had they seen the island and must necessarily suppose they did not they must, as I thought, have endeavored to have saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat but their firing of guns for help especially when they saw, as I imagine, my fire filled me with many thoughts first I imagined that upon seeing my light they might have put themselves into their boat and endeavored to make the shore but that the sea running very high they might have been cast away other times I imagined that they might have lost their boat before as might be the case in many ways particularly by the breaking of the sea upon their ship which many times obliged men to stave or take to pieces their boat and sometimes to throw it overboard with their own hands other times I imagined that they had some other ship or ships in company who upon the signals of distress they made had taken them up and carried them off other times I fancied they were all gone off to sea in their boat and being hurried away by the current that I had formerly been in were carried out into the great ocean where there was nothing but misery and perishing and that perhaps they might by this time think of starving and of being in a condition to eat one another as all these were but conjectures at best so in the condition I was in I could do no more than look on upon the misery of the poor men and pity them which had still this good effect upon my side that it gave me more and more cause to give thanks to God who had so happily and comfortably provided for me in my desolate condition and that of two ships companies who were now cast away upon this part of the world life should be spared but mine I learned here again to observe that it is very rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition so low or any misery so great but we may see something or other to be thankful for and may see others in worse circumstances than our own such certainly was the case of these men of whom I could not so much as see room to suppose any were saved anything could make it rational so much as to wish or expect that they did not all perish there except the possibility only of their being taken up by another ship and company and this was but mere possibility indeed for I saw not the least sign or appearance of any such thing I cannot explain by any possible energy of words what a strange longing I felt in my soul upon this site breaking out sometimes thus Oh that there had been but one or two nay or but one soul saved out of the ship to have escaped to me that I might but have had one companion one fellow creature to have spoken to me and to have conversed with and all the time of my solitary life I never felt so earnest so strong a desire after the society of my fellow creatures or so deep a regret at the point of it there are some secret springs in the affections which when they are set of going by some object in view or though not in view yet rendered present to the mind by the power of imagination that motion carries out the soul by its impetuosity to such violent eager embracing of the object that the absence of it is insupportable such were these earnest wishings that but one man I believe I repeated the words all that it had been but one a thousand times and my desires were so moved by it that when I spoke the words my hands would clench together and my fingers would press the palms of my hands so that if I had had any soft thing in my hand I would have crushed it involuntarily and the teeth in my head would strike together and set against one another so strong that for some time I could not part them again let the naturalists explain these things and the reason and manner of them all I can do is to describe the fact which was even surprising to me when I found it though I knew not from whence it proceeded it was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes and of strong ideas formed in my mind realizing the comfort which the conversation of one of my fellow Christians would have been to me but it was not to be either their fate for mine or both forbade it for till the last year of my being on this island I never knew whether any were saved out of that ship or no and had only the affliction some days after to see the corpse of a drowned boy come on shore at the end of the island which was next the wreck he had no clothes on but a seamen's a pair of open need linen drawers and a blue linen shirt but nothing to direct me so much as to guess what nation he was of he had nothing in his pockets but two pieces of eight and a tobacco pipe the last was to me of ten times more value than the first it was now calm and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat to this wreck not doubting but I might find something on board that might be useful to me but that did not altogether press me so much as the possibility that there might be yet some living creature on board whose life I might not only save but might by saving his life comfort my own to the last degree and this thought clung so to my heart that I could not be quiet night or day but I must venture out in my boat on board this wreck and committing the rest to God's providence the impression was so strong upon my mind that it could not be resisted that it must come from some invisible direction and that I should be wanting to myself if I did not go under the power of this impression I hastened back to my castle prepared everything for my voyage took a quantity of bread a great pot of fresh water a compass to steer by a bottle of rum for I still had a great deal of that left and a basket of raisins for myself with everything necessary I went down to my boat got the water out of her got her afloat loaded all my cargo in her and then went home again for more my second cargo was a great bag of rice the umbrella to set up over my head for a shade another large pot of water and about two dozen of small loaves or barley cakes more than before with a bottle of goat's milk and a cheese great labor in sweat I carried to my boat and praying to God to direct my voyage I put out and rowing or paddling the canoe along the shore came at last to the utmost point of the island on the northeast side and now I was to launch out into the ocean and either to venture or not to venture I looked on the rapid currents which ran constantly on both sides of the island at a distance and which were very terrible to me from the remembrance of the hazard I had been in before and my heart began to fail me for I foresaw that if I was driven into either of those currents I should be carried a great way out to sea and perhaps out of my reach or sight of the island again and that then as my boat was so small if any little gale of when should rise I should be inevitably lost these thoughts so oppressed my mind that I began to give over my enterprise and having hauled my boat into a little creek on the shore I stepped out and sat down upon a rising bit of ground very pensive and anxious between fear and desire about my voyage when as I was musing I could perceive that the tide was turned and the flood come on upon which my going was impracticable for so many hours upon this presently it occurred to me that I should go up to the highest piece of ground I could find and observe if I could how the sets of the tide or currents lay when the flood came in that I might judge whether if I was driven one way out I might not expect to be driven another way home with the same rapidity of the currents this thought was no sooner in my head than I cast my eye upon a little hill which sufficiently overlooked the sea both ways and from whence I had a clear view of the currents or sets of the tide and which way I was to guide myself in my return here I found that as the current of Ebb set out close by the south point of the island so the current of the flood set in close by the shore of the north side and that I had nothing to do but to keep to the north side of the island in my return and I should do well enough encouraged by this observation I resolved the next morning to set out with the first of the tide and reposing myself for the night in my canoe under the watchcoat I mentioned I launched out I first made a little out to sea full north till I began to feel the benefit of the current which set eastward and which carried me at a great rate and yet did not so hurry me as the current on the south side had done before so as to take from me all government of the boat but having a strong steerage with my paddle I went at a great rate directly for the wreck and in less than two hours I came up to it it was a dismal sight to look at the ship which by its building was Spanish stuck fast jammed in between two rocks all the stern and quarter of her were beaten to pieces by the sea and as her forecastle which stuck in the rocks had run on with great violence her main mast and foremast were brought by the board that is to say broken short off but her bow sprit was silent and the head and bow appeared firm when I came close to her a dog appeared upon her who seeing me coming yelped and cried and as soon as I called him jumped into the sea to come to me I took him into the boat but found him almost dead with hunger and thirst I gave him a cake of my bread and he devoured it a deafness wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow I then gave the poor creature some fresh water with which if I would have let him he would have burst himself after this I went on board but the first sight I met was two men drowned in the cook room or forecastle of the ship with their arms fast about one another I concluded as is indeed probable that when the ship struck it being in a storm the sea broke so high and so continually over her that the men were not able to bear it and were strangled with the constant rushing in of the water as much as if they had been underwater besides the dog there was nothing left in the ship that had life nor any goods that I could see but what were spoiled by the water there were some casts of liquor whether wine or brandy I knew not in the hold and which the water being ebbed out I could see but they were too big to meddle with I saw several chests which I believe belong to some of the semen and I got two of them into my boat without examining what was in them had the stern of the ship been fixed and the four part broken off I am persuaded I might have made a good voyage for by what I found in those two chests I had room to suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on board and if I may guess from the course she steered she must have been bound from Buenos Aires or the Rio de la Plata in the south part of America beyond the Brazils to the Havana in the Gulf of Mexico and so perhaps to Spain she had no doubt a great treasure in her but of no use at that time to anybody and what became of the crew I then knew not I found beside those chests a little cast full of liquor of about 20 gallons which I got into my boat with much difficulty there were several muskets in the cabin and a great powder horn with about four pounds of powder in it as for the muskets I had no occasion for them so I left them but took the powder horn I took a fire shovel and tongs which I wanted extremely as also two little brass kettles a copper pot to make chocolate and a gridiron with this cargo and the dog I came away the tide beginning to make home again and the same evening about an hour within night I reached the island again weary and fatigued to the last degree I reposed that night in the boat and in the morning I resolved to harbor what I had got in my new cave and not carry it home to my castle after refreshing myself I got all my cargo on board and began to examine the particulars the cast of liquor I found to be a kind of rum but not such as we had at the Brazils and in a word not at all good but when I came to open the chests I found several things of great use to me for example I found in one a fine case of bottles of an extraordinary kind and filled with cordial waters fine and very good the bottles held about three pints each and were tipped with silver I found two pots of very good succades or sweet meats so fast and also on the top that the salt water had not hurt them and two more of the same which the water had spoiled I found some very good shirts which were very welcome to me and about a dozen and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and colored neck gloss the former were also very welcome being exceedingly refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day besides this when I came to the till in the chest I found three great bags of pieces of eight which held about eleven hundred pieces in all and in one of them wrapped up in a paper six doubloons of gold in some small bars or wedges of gold I suppose they might all weigh near a pound in the other chest there were some clothes but of little value but by the circumstances it must have belonged to the gunner's mate though there was no powder in it except two pounds of fine glazed powder in three flasks kept I suppose for charging their filing pieces on occasion upon the whole I got very little by this voyage that was of any use to me for as to the money I had no manner of occasion for it it was to me as the dirt under my feet and I would have given it all for three or four pair of English shoes and stockings which were things I greatly wanted but had had none on my feet for many years I had indeed got two pair of shoes now which I took off the feet of the two drowned men whom I saw in the wreck and I found two pair more in one of the chests which were very welcome to me but they were not like our English shoes either for ease or service being rather what we call pumps than shoes in this seaman's chest about 50 pieces of eight in reels but no gold I suppose this belonged to a poorer man than the other which seemed to belong to some officer well however I loved this money home to my cave as I had done that before which I had brought from our own ship but it was a great pity as I said that the other part of the ship did not come to my share for I am satisfied I might have loaded my canoe several times over with money and thought if I ever escaped to England it might lie here safe enough till I come again and fetch it end of chapter 13 this is a Librebox recording all Librebox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librebox.org recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Chapter 14 A Dream Realized Having brought all my things on shore and secured them I went back to my boat and rode or paddled her along the shore to her old harbor where I laid her up and made the best of my way to my old habitation where I found everything safe and quiet I began now to repose myself live after my old fashion and take care of my family affairs and for a while I lived easy enough only that I was more vigilant than I used to be looked out oftener and did not go abroad so much and if at any time I did stir with any freedom it was always to the east part of the island where I was pretty well satisfied the savages never came and where I could go without so many precautions and such a load of arms and ammunition as I always carried with me if I went the other way I lived in this condition near two years more but my unlucky head that was always to let me know it was born to make my body miserable was all these two years filled with projects and designs how if it were possible I might get away from this island for sometimes I was for making another voyage to the wreck though my reason told me there was nothing left there worth the hazard of my voyage sometimes for a ramble one way sometimes another and I believe verily if I had had the boat that I went from Silean I should have ventured to sea bound anywhere further I have been in all my circumstances a memento to those who are touched with the general plague of mankind whence, for ought I know one half of their miseries flow I mean that of not being satisfied with the station wherein God and nature hath placed them for not to look back upon my primitive condition and the excellent advice of my father the opposition to which was original sin my subsequent mistakes of the same kind had been the means of my coming into this miserable condition for had that providence which so happily seated me at the brazils as a planter blessed me with confined desires and I could have been contented to have gone on gradually I might have been by this time I mean in the time of my being in this island one of the most considerable planters in the brazils nay I am persuaded that by the improvements I had made in that little time I lived there and the increase I should probably have made if I had remained I might have been worth a hundred thousand moe dores and what business had I to leave a settled fortune a well-stocked plantation improving and increasing to turn supercargo to guinea to fetch negroes when patience and time would have so increased our stock at home that we could have bought them at our own door from those whose business it was to fetch them and though it had cost us something more yet the difference of that price was by no means worth saving and so great a hazard but as this is usually the fate of young heads so reflection upon the following of it is as commonly the exercise of moe years or of the dear bought experience of time so it was with me now and yet so deep had the mistake taken root in my temper that I could not satisfy myself in my station but was continually pouring upon the means and possibility of my escape from this place and that I may with greater pleasure to the reader bring on the remaining part of my story it may not be improper to give him some account of my first conceptions on the subject of this foolish scheme of my escape and how and upon what foundation I acted I am now to be supposed retired into my castle after my late voyage to the wreck my frigate laid up and secured underwater as usual and my condition restored to what it was before I had more wealth indeed than I had before but was not at all the richer for I had no more use for it than the Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards came there it was one of the nights in the rainy season in March the 4th and 20th year of my first setting foot in this island of solitude I was lying in my bed or hammock awake very well in health had no pain no distemper no uneasiness of body nor any uneasiness of mind more than ordinary but could by no means close my eyes that is so as to sleep no not a wink all night long otherwise than as follows it is impossible to set down the innumerable crowd of thoughts that world through that great thoroughfare of the brain the memory in this night's time I ran over the whole history of my life in miniature or by abridgment as I may call it to my coming to this island and also of that part of my life since I came to this island from the state of my case since I came on shore on this island I was comparing the happy posture of my affairs in the first years of my habitation here with the life of anxiety fear and care which I had lived in ever since I had seen the print of a foot in the sand not that I did not believe the savages had frequented the island even all the while and might have been several hundreds of them at times on shore there but I had never known it and was incapable of any apprehensions about it my satisfaction was perfect though my danger was the same and I was as happy and not knowing my danger as if I had never really been exposed to it this furnished my thoughts with many very profitable reflections and particularly this one how infinitely good that providence is which has provided in its government of mankind such narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of things and though he walks in the midst of so many thousand dangers the sight of which if discovered to him would distract his mind and sink his spirits he has kept serene and calm by having the events of things hid from his eyes and knowing nothing of the dangers which surround him after these thoughts had for some time entertained me I came to reflect seriously upon the real danger I had been in for so many years in this very island and how I had walked about in the greatest security and with all possible tranquility even when perhaps nothing but the brow of a hill a great tree or the casual approach of night had been between me and the worst kind of destruction that is that of falling into the hands of cannibals and savages who would have seized on me with the same view as I would on a goat or turtle and have thought of it no more as a crime to kill and devour me than I did of a pigeon or a curlew I would unjustly slander myself if I should say I was not sincerely thankful to my great preserver to whose singular protection I acknowledged with great humanity all these unknown deliverances were due and without which I must inevitably have fallen into their merciless hands when these thoughts were over my head was for some time taken up to considering the nature of these wretched creatures I mean the savages and how it came to pass in the world that the wise governor of all things should give up any of his creatures to such inhumanity nay to something so much more below even brutality itself as to devour its own kind but as this ended and some at that time fruitless speculations it occurred to me to inquire what part of the world these wretched lived in how far off the coast was from once they came what they ventured over so far from home for what kind of boats they had and why I might not order myself in my business so that I might be able to go over thither as they were come to me I never so much as trouble myself to consider what I should do with myself when I went thither what would become of me if I fell into the hands of those savages or how I should escape them if they attacked me no nor so much as how it was possible for me to reach the coast and not to be attacked by some or other of them without any possibility of delivering myself and if I should not fall into their hands what I should do for provision or wither I should bend my course none of these thoughts I say so much as came in my way but my mind was wholly bent upon the notion of my passing over in my boat to the mainland I looked upon my present condition as the most miserable that could possibly be that I was not able to throw myself into anything but death that could be called worse and if I reached the shore of the main I might perhaps meet with relief or I might coast along as I did on the African shore till I came to some inhabited country and where I might find some relief and after all perhaps I might fall in with some Christian ship that might take me in and if the worst came to the worst I could but die which would put an end to all these miseries at once pray note all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind an impatient temper made desperate as it were by the long continuance of my troubles and the disappointments I had met in the wreck I had been on board of and where I had been so near obtaining what I so earnestly longed for somebody to speak to and to learn some knowledge from them of the place where I was and of the probable means of my deliverance I was agitated wholly by these thoughts all my calm of mind in my resignation to Providence and waiting the issue of the dispositions of heaven seemed to be suspended and I had as it were with no power to turn my thoughts to anything but to the project of a voyage to the main which came upon me with such force and such an impetuosity of desire that it was not to be resisted when this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more with such violence that it set my very blood into affirmant and my pulse beat as if I had been in a fever merely with the extraordinary fervor of my mind about it nature as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with the very thoughts of it into a sound sleep one would have thought I should have dreamed of it but I did not nor of anything relating to it but I dreamed that I was going out in the morning as usual from my castle I saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven savages coming to land and that they brought with them another savage whom they were going to kill in order to eat him when on a sudden the savage that they were going to kill jumped away and ran for his life and I thought in my sleep that he came running into my little thick grove before my fortification to hide himself and that I seen him alone and not perceiving that the others sought him that way showed myself to him and smiling upon him encouraged him that he kneeled down to me seeming to pray me to assist him upon which I showed him my ladder made him go up and carried him into my cave and became my servant and that as soon as I had got this man I said to myself now I may certainly venture to the mainland for this fellow will serve me as a pilot and will tell me what to do and whether to go for provisions and whether not to go for fear of being devoured what places to venture to and what to shun I wait with this thought and was under such inexpressible impressions joy at the prospect of my escape and my dream that the disappointments which I felt upon coming to myself and finding that it was no more than a dream were equally extravagant the other way and threw me into a very great dejection of spirits upon this however I made this conclusion that my only way to go about to attempt an escape was to endeavor to get a savage into my possession and if possible it should be one of their prisoners whom they had condemned to be eaten and should bring hither to kill but these thoughts still were attended with this difficulty that it was impossible to affect this without attacking a whole caravan of them and killing them all and this was not only a very desperate attempt and might miscarry but on the other hand I had greatly scrupled the lawfulness of it to myself and my heart at the thoughts of shedding so much blood though it was for my deliverance I need not repeat the arguments which occurred to me against this they being the same mentioned before but though I had other reasons to offer now that is that those men were enemies to my life and would devour me if they could that it was self-preservation in the highest degree to deliver myself from this death of a life and was acting in my own defense as much as if they were actually insulting me and the like I say though these things argued for it yet the thoughts of shedding human blood for my deliverance were very terrible to me and such as I could by no means reconcile myself to for a great while however at last after many secret disputes with myself and after great perplexities about it for all these arguments one way and another struggled in my head a long time the eager prevailing desire of deliverance at length mastered all the rest and I resolved if possible to get one of these savages into my hands cost what it would my next thing was to contrive how to do it and this indeed was very difficult to resolve on but as I could pitch upon no probable means for it so I resolved to put myself upon the watch to see them when they came on shore and leave the rest to the event taking such measures as the opportunity should present let what would be with these resolutions and my thoughts I set myself upon the scout as often as possible and indeed so often that I was hardly tired of it for it was above a year and a half that I waited and for a great part of that time went out to the west end and to the southwest corner of the island almost every day to look for canoes but none appeared this was very discouraging and began to trouble me much though I cannot say that it did in this case as it had done some time before where off the edge of my desire to the thing but the longer it seemed to be delayed the more eager I was for it in a word I was not at first so careful to shun the sight of these savages and avoid being seen by them as I was now eager to be upon them besides I fancied myself able to manage one nay, two or three savages if I had them so as to make them entirely slaves to me to do whatever I should direct them and to prevent their being able at any time to do me any hurt it was a great while that I pleased myself with this affair but nothing still presented itself all my fancies and schemes came to nothing for no savages came near me for quite a while after a year and a half later I entertained these notions and by long musings had as it were resolved them into nothing for want of an occasion to put them into execution I was surprised one morning by seeing no less than five canoes all on short together on my side of the island and the people who belong to them all landed and out of my sight the number of them broke all my measures for seeing so many knowing that they always came four or six or sometimes more in a boat I could not tell what to think of it or how to take my measures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed so lay still in my castle perplexed and discomforted however I put myself into the same position for an attack that I had formally provided and was just ready for action if anything had presented having waited a good while they made any noise at length being very impatient I set my guns at the foot of my ladder and clambered up to the top of the hill by my two stages as usual standing so however that my head did not appear above the hill so that they could not perceive me by any means here I observed by the help of my perspective glass that they were no less than thirty in number that they had a fire kindled that they had meat dressed how they cooked it I knew not nor what it was but they were all dancing in I know not how many barbarous gestures and figures their own way round the fire while I was less looking on them I perceived by my perspective two miserable wretches dragged from the boats where it seems they were laid by and were now brought out for the slaughter I perceived one of them immediately fall being knocked down I suppose with a club or wooden sword for that was their way and two or three others were at work immediately cutting him open for their cookery while the other victim was left standing by himself that they should be ready for him in that very moment this poor wretch seeing himself a little at liberty and unbound nature inspired him with hopes of life and he started away from them and ran with incredible sweetness along the sands directly towards me I mean towards that part of the coast where my habitation was I was dreadfully frightened I must acknowledge when I perceived him run my way and especially when as I thought I saw him pursued by the whole body and now I expected that part of my dream was coming to pass and that he would certainly take shelter in my grove but I could not depend by any means upon my dream that the other savages would not pursue him thither and find him there however I kept my station and my spirits began to recover when I found that there was not above three men that followed him and still more I was encouraged when I found out that he outstripped them exceedingly in running and gaining ground on them so that if he could but hold out for half an hour I saw easily he would fairly get away from them all there was between them and my castle the creek which I mentioned often in the first part of my story where I landed my cargoes out of the ship and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over or the poor wretch would be taken there but when the savage escaping came thither he made nothing of it though the tide was then up but plunging in swam through in about thirty strokes landed and ran with exceeding swiftness and strength when the three persons came to the creek I found that two of them could swim but the third could not and that standing on the other side he looked at the others but went no farther and soon after went softly back again which as it happened was very well for him in the end I observed that the two who swam were yet more than twice as strong because the fellow was that fled from them it came very warmly upon my thoughts and indeed irresistibly that now was the time to get me a servant and perhaps a companion or assistant and that I was plainly called by providence to save this poor creature's life I immediately ran down the ladders with all possible expedition fetched my two guns for they were both at the foot of the ladders as I observed before and getting up again with the same haste at the top of the hill I crossed towards the sea and having a very short cut and all downhill placed myself in the way between the pursuers and the pursued Halloween allowed to him that fled who looking back was at first perhaps as much frightened at me as at them but I beckoned with my hand for him to come back and in the meantime I slowly advanced towards the two that followed then rushing at once upon the foremost I knocked him down with the stock of my piece I was loathed to fire because I would not have the rest here though at that distance it would not have been easily heard and being out of sight of the smoke too they would not have known what to make of it having knocked this fellow down the other who pursued him stopped as if he had been frightened and I advanced towards him but as I came nearer I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow and was fitting it to shoot at me so I was then obliged to shoot at him first which I did and killed him at the first shot the poor savage who fled but had stopped though he saw both his enemies fallen and killed as he thought yet was so frightened with the fire and noise of my piece that he stood stock still and neither came forward nor went backward though he seemed rather inclined still to fly than to come on I hallowed him again and made signs to come forward which he easily understood and came a little way then stopped again and then a little farther and stopped again and I could then perceive that he stood trembling as if he had been taken prisoner and had just been to be killed as his two enemies were I reckoned to him again to come to me and gave him all the signs of encouragement that I could think of nearer and nearer kneeling down every ten or twelve steps in token of acknowledgement for saving his life I smiled at him and looked pleasantly and beckoned to him to come still nearer at length he came close to me and then he kneeled down again kissed the ground and laid his head upon the ground and taking me by the foot set my foot upon his head this it seems was in token of swearing to be my slave forever I took him up and made much of him and encouraged him all I could but there was no more work to do yet for I perceived the savage whom I had knocked down was not killed but stunned with the blow and began to come to himself so I pointed to him and showed him the savage that he was not dead upon this he spoke some words to me and though I could not understand them yet I thought they were pleasant to hear for they were the first sound my own accepted for above 25 years but there was no time for such reflections now the savage who was knocked down recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground and I perceived that the savage began to be afraid but when I saw that I presented my other piece at the man as if I would shoot him upon this my savage for so I call him now made a motion to me to lend him my sword which hung naked in a belt by my side which I did he no sooner had it but he runs to his enemy and at one blow cut off his head so cleverly no executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better which I thought very strange for one who I had reason to believe never saw a sword in his life before except their own wooden swords however it seems as if I learned afterwards they made their wooden swords so sharp so heavy and the wood is so hard that they will even cut off heads with them eye and arms and that at one blow too when he had done this he comes laughing to me in sign of triumph and brought me the sword again and with abundance of gestures which I did not understand laid it down with the head of the savage that he had killed just before me but that which astonished him most was to know how I killed other Indians so far off so pointing to him he made signs to me to let him go to him and I bait him go as well as I could when he came to him he stood like one amazed looking at him turning him first on one side then on the other looked at the wound the bullet had made which it seems was just in his breast where it had made a hole and no great quantity of blood had followed but he had fled inwardly for he was quite dead he took up his bow and arrows and came back so I turned to go away and beckoned him to follow me making signs to him that more might come after them upon this he made signs to me that he should bury them with sand that they might not be seen by the rest if they followed and so I made signs to him to do so he fell to work and in an instant hands big enough to bury the first and then dragged him into it and covered him and did so by the other also I believe he had buried them both in a quarter of an hour then calling away I carried him not to my castle but quite away to my cave on the farther part of the island so I did not let my dream come to pass in that part that he came to my grove for shelter here I gave him bread and raisins to eat and a draft of water which I found he was indeed in great distress for from his running and having refreshed him I made signs for him to go and lie down to sleep showing him a place where I had laid some rice straw and a blanket upon it which I used to sleep upon myself sometimes so the poor creature laid down and went to sleep he was a comely, handsome fellow perfectly well made with straight, long limbs tall and well shaped and as I reckoned about 26 years of age he had a very good countenance not a fierce and surly aspect but seemed to have something very manly in his face and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of a European in his countenance too especially when he smiled his hair was long and black not curled like wool his forehead very high and large in a great vivacity sparkling sharpness in his eyes the color of his skin was not quite black but very tawny and yet not an ugly yellow nauseous tawny as the Brazilians and Virginians and other natives of America are but of a bright kind of a done olive color that had in it something very agreeable though not very easy to describe his face was round and plump his nose small not flat like the negro's thin lips and fine teeth well set and as white as ivory after he had slumbered rather than slept about half an hour he awoke again and came out of the cave to me for I had been milking my goats which I had in the enclosure just by when he aspired me he came running to me laying himself down again upon the ground with all the signs of a humble thankful disposition making a great many antique gestures to show it he lay his head flat upon the ground close to my foot and sets my other foot upon his head as he had done before and after this made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude and submission imaginable to let me know how he would serve me so long as he lived I understood him in many things and let him know I was very well pleased with him in a little time I began to speak to him and teach him to speak to me and first I let him know his name should be Friday which was the day I saved his life I called him so for the memory of the time I likewise taught him to say master and then let him know that was to be my name I likewise taught him to say yes and no and to know the meaning of them I gave him some milk at an earthen pot and let him see me drink it before him and sat my bread in it gave him a cake of bread to do the like and made signs that it was very good for him I kept there with him all that night but as soon as it was day I beckoned to him to come with me and let him know I would give him some clothes at which he seemed very glad for he was stark naked as he went by the place where he had buried the two men he pointed exactly to the place and showed me the marks that he had made to find them again making signs to me that we should dig them up and eat them at this I appeared very angry expressed my abhorrence of it made as if I would vomit at the thoughts of it and beckoned him with my hands to come away which he did immediately with great submission I then led him up to the top of the hill to see if his enemies were gone and pulling out my glass I looked and saw plainly the place where they had been but no appearance of them or their canoes so that it was plain they were gone and had left their two comrades behind them without any search after them but I was not content with this discovery but having now more courage and consequently more curiosity I took my man Friday with me giving him the sword in his hand with the bow and arrows at his back which I found he could use very dexterously making him carry one gun for me and two for myself and away we marched to the place where these creatures had been for I had a mind now to get some further intelligence of them when I came to the place my very blood ran chill in my veins and my heart sunk within me at the horror of the spectacle indeed it was a dreadful sight at least it was so to me though Friday made nothing of it the place was covered with human bones the ground died with their blood in great pieces of flesh left there and here half eaten, mangled and scorched in short all the tokens of the triumphant feast they had been making there after a victory over their enemies I saw three skulls five hands and the bones of three or four legs and feet and abundance of other parts of bodies and Friday by his signs made me understand that they had brought over four prisoners to feast upon that three of them were eaten up and that he pointing to himself was the fourth that there had been a great battle between them and their next king of whose subjects it seems he had been one and that they had taken a great number of prisoners all which were carried to several places by those who had taken them in the fight in order to feast upon them as was done here by these riches upon those they brought hither I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh and whatever remained and lay them together in a heap and make a great fire upon it and burn them to all to ashes I found Friday had still a hankering stomach after some of the flesh and was still a cannibal in his nature but I showed so much abhorrence at the very thoughts of it and at the least appearance of it that he durst not discover it for I had by some means let him know that I would kill him if he offered it when he had done this we came back to our castle to work for my man Friday and first I gave him a pair of linen trousers which I had out of the poor gunner's chest I mentioned which I found in the wreck in which with a little alteration fitted him very well and then I made him a jerkin of goat's skin as well as my skill would allow for I was now grown a tolerably good tailor and I gave him a cap which I made of hair's skin very convenient and fashionable enough and thus he was clothed for the present tolerably well and was many well pleased to see himself clothed almost as well as his master it is true he went awkwardly in these clothes at first wearing the drawers was very awkward to him and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders and the inside of his arms but a little easing them where he had complained they hurt and using himself to them he took to them at length very well the next day after I came home to my hutch with him I began to consider where I should lodge him and that I might do well for him and yet be perfectly easy myself I made a little tent for him in the vacant place between my two fortifications in the inside of the last and in the outside of the first as there was a door or entrance there into my cave I made a formal framed door case and a door to it of boards and set it up in the passage a little within the entrance and causing the door to open up in the inside I barred it up in the night taking in my ladders too so that Friday could no way come at me in the inside of my innermost wall without making so much noise and getting over that it must needs awaken me for my first wall had now a complete roof over it of long poles covering all my tent and leaning up to the side of the hill which was again laid across smaller sticks instead of lace and being thatched over a great thickness with the rice straw which was strong like reeds and at the hole or place which was left to go in or out by the ladder I had placed a kind of trap door which if it had been attempted on the outside would not have opened at all but would have fallen down and made a great noise as to weapons I took them all into my side every night but I needed none of all this precaution for never man had a more faithful loving, sincere servant than Friday was to me without passions, sullenness or designs perfectly obliged and engaged his very affections were tied to me like those of a child to a father and I dare say he would have sacrificed his life to save mine upon any occasion whatsoever the many testimonies he gave of this put it out of doubt and soon convinced me that I needed to use no precautions for my safety on his account this frequently gave me occasion to observe and that with wonder that however it had pleased God in his providence and in the government of the works of his hands to take from so great a part of the world of his creatures the best uses to which their faculties and the powers of their souls are adapted yet that he has bestowed upon them the same powers the same reason, the same affections the same sentiments of kindness and obligation, the same passions and resentments of wrongs the same sense of gratitude sincerity, fidelity and all the capacities of doing good and receiving good that he has given to us and that when he pleases to offer them occasions of exerting these they are as ready, nay more ready to apply them to the right uses for which they were bestowed than we are this made me very melancholy sometimes in reflecting as to the several occasions presented how mean a use we make of all these even though we have those powers enlightened by the great lamp of instruction, the spirit of God and by the knowledge of his word added to our understanding and why it has pleased God to hide the like saving knowledge from so many millions of souls who if I might judge by this poor savage would make a much better use of it than we did from hence I sometimes was led too far to invade the sovereignty of Providence and as it were harane the justice of so arbitrary a disposition of things that should hide that sight from some and reveal it to others and yet expect a like duty from both but I shut it up and check my thoughts with this conclusion first that we did not know by what light and law these should be condemned but that as God was necessarily and by the nature of his being infinitely holy and just so it could not be but if these creatures were all sentenced to absence from himself it was on account of setting against that light which as the scripture says was a law to themselves and by such rules as their consciences would acknowledge to be just though the foundation was not discovered to us and secondly that still as we are all the clay in the hand of the potter no vessel could say to him why has thou formed me thus but to return to my new companion I was greatly delighted with him and made it my business to teach him everything that was proper to make him useful handy and helpful but especially to make him speak and understand me when I spoke and he was the aptest scholar that ever was and particularly was so merry so constantly diligent and so pleased when he could but understand me or make me understand him that it was very pleasant for me to talk to him now my life began to be so easy that I began to say to myself that could I but have been safe from more savages I cared that if I was never to remove from the place where I lived end of chapter 14 this is a lever box recording all lever box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit leverbox.org recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto California winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe chapter 15 Friday's Education after I had been returned two or three days to my castle I thought that in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding and from the relish of a cannibal stomach I ought to let him taste other flesh so I took him out with me one morning to the woods I went indeed intending to kill a kid out of my own flock and bring it home and dress it but as I was going I saw a she goat lying down in the shade and two young kids sitting by her I catch hold of Friday hold said I stand still and made signs to him not to stir immediately I presented my peace shot and killed one of the kids the poor creature who had at a distance indeed seen me kill the savage his enemy but did not know nor could imagine how it was done was sensibly surprised trembled and shook and looked so amazed that I thought he would have sunk down he did not see the kid I shot at or perceive I had killed it but ripped up his wiscuit to feel whether he was not wounded and as I found presently thought I was resolved to kill him for he came and kneeled down to me and embracing my knees said a great many things I did not understand but I could easily see the meaning was to pray to me not to kill him I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm and taking him up by the hand laughed at him and pointing to the kid which I had killed beckoned to him to run and fetch it which he did and while he was wondering and looking to see how the creature was killed I loaded my gun again by and by I saw a great foul like a hawk sitting upon a tree and shot so to let Friday understand a little what I would do I called him to me again pointed at the foul which was indeed a parrot though I thought it had been a hawk I say pointing to the parrot and to my gun and to the ground under the parrot to let him see I would make it fall I made him understand that I would shoot and kill that bird accordingly I fired and bet him look and immediately he saw the parrot fall he stood like one frightened again notwithstanding all I had said to him and I found he was the more amazed because he did not see me put anything into the gun but thought that there must be some wonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing able to kill man beast bird or anything near and far far off and the astonishment this created in him was such as could not wear off for a long time and I believe if I would have let him he would have worshiped me and my gun as for the gun itself he would not so much as touch it for several days but he would speak to it and talk to it as if it had answered him when he was by himself which as I afterwards learned of him was to desire it not to kill him well after his astonishment was a little over at this I pointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot which he did but stayed some time for the parrot quite being dead had fluttered away a good distance from the place where she fell however he found her took her up and brought her to me and as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun before I took this advantage to charge the gun again and not to let him see me do it that I might be ready for any other mark that might present but nothing more offered at that time so I brought home the kid and the same evening I took the skin off and cut it out as well as I could and having a pot fit for that purpose I boiled or stewed some of the flesh and made some very good broth after I had begun to eat some I gave some to my man who seemed very glad of it and liked it very well but that which was strangest to him was to see me eat salt with it he made a sign to me that the salt was not good to eat and putting a little into his own mouth he seemed to nauseate it and would spit and sputter at it washing his mouth with fresh water after it on the other hand I took some meat into my mouth without salt and I pretended to spit and sputter for want of salt as much as he had done at the salt but it would not do he would never care for salt or meat or in his broth at least not for a great while and then but a very little having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth I was resolved to feast him the next day by roasting a piece of the kid this I did by hanging it before the fire on a string as I had seen many people do in England setting two poles up one on each side of the fire and across the top and tying the string to the cross stick letting the meat turn continually this Friday admired very much but when he came to taste the flesh he took so many ways to tell me how much he liked it that I could not but understand him and at last he told me as well as he could he would never eat man's flesh anymore which I was very glad to hear the next day I set him to work beating some corn out and sifting it in the manner I used to do as I observed before and he soon understood how to do it as well as I especially after he had seen what the meaning of it was and that it was to make bread of for after that I let him see me make my bread and bake it too and in a little time Friday was able to do all the work for me as well as I could do it myself I began now to consider that having two mouths to feed instead of one I must provide more ground for my harvest and plant a larger quantity of corn than I used to do so I marked out a larger piece of land and began the fence in the same manner as before in which Friday worked not only very willingly and very hard but did it very cheerfully and I told him what it was for that it was for corn to make more bread because he was now with me and that I might have enough for him and myself too he appeared very sensible on that part and let me know that he thought I had much more labor upon me on his account than I had for myself and that he would work harder for me if I would tell him what to do this was the pleasantest year of all the life I led in this place Friday began to talk pretty well and understand the names of almost everything I had occasion to call for and of every place I had to send him to and talked a great deal to me so that in short I began now to have some use for my tongue again which indeed I had very little occasion for it before besides the pleasure of talking to him I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself his simple unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day and I began really to love the creature and on his side I believed he loved me more than it was possible for him ever to love anything before I had a mind once to try if he had any inclination for his own country again and having taught him English so well that he could answer me almost any question I asked him whether the nation that he belonged to never conquered in battle at which he smiled and said yes yes we always fight the better that is he meant always get the better in fight and so we began the following discourse master you always fight the better how came you to be taken prisoner then Friday Friday my nation beat much for all that master how beat if your nation beat them how came you to be taken Friday many more many than my nation in the place where me was they take one two three and me my nation over beat them in the yonder place where me know was their my nation take one two great thousand master but why did not your side recover you from the hands of your enemies then Friday run one two three and me and may go in the canoe my nation have no canoe that time master well Friday and what does your nation do with the men they take do they carry them away and eat them as these did Friday yes my nation eat man's too eat all up master where do they carry them Friday go to other place where they think master do they come hither Friday yes yes they come hither come other else place master have you been here with them Friday yes I have been here points to the northwest side of the island which it seems was their side by this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among the savages who used to come on shore on the farther part of the island on the same man eating occasions he was now brought for and sometime later when I took the courage to carry him to that side being the same I formally mentioned he presently knew the place and told me he was there once when they ate up 20 men two women and one child he could not tell 20 in English but he numbered them by laying so many stones in a row and pointing to me to tell them over I have told this passage because it introduces what follows that after this discourse I had with him I asked him how far it was from our island to the shore and whether the canoes were not often lost he told me there was no danger no canoes ever lost but that after a little way out to see there was a current in wind always one way in the morning the other in the afternoon this I understood to be no more than the sets of the tide as going out or coming in but I afterwards understood it was occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mighty river Orinoco in the mouth or gulf of which river as I found afterwards our island lay and that this land which I perceived to be west and northwest was the great island Trinidad on the north point of the mouth of the river I asked Friday a thousand questions over the country the inhabitants the sea the coast and what nations were near he told me all he knew with the greatest openness imaginable I asked him the names of the several nations of his sort of people but could get no other name than caribs from whence I easily understood that these were the caribies which our maps place on the part of America which reaches the mouth of the river Orinoco to Guiana and onwards to Saint Martha he told me that up a great way beyond the moon that was beyond the setting of the moon which must be west from their country there dwelt white bearded men like me and pointed to my great whiskers which I mentioned before and that they had killed much mans that was his word but all which I understood he met the Spaniards whose cruelties in America had been spread over the whole country and were remembered by all the nations from father to son I inquired if he could tell me how I might go from this island and get among those white men he told me yes yes you may go in two canoe I could not understand what he meant or make him describe to me what he meant by two canoe till at last with great difficulty I found he meant it must be a large boat as big as two canoes this part of Friday's discourse I began to relish very well and from this time I entertained some hopes that one time or another I might find an opportunity to make my escape from this place and that this for savage might be a means to help me during the long time that Friday had now been with me and that he began to speak to me and understand me I was not wanting to lay a foundation of religious knowledge in his mind particularly I asked him one time who made him the creature did not understand me at all but I asked who was his father but I took it up by another handle and asked him who made the sea the ground we walked on and the hills in the woods he told me it was one binamaki that lived beyond all he could describe nothing of this great person but that he was very old much older he said then the sea or land then the moon or the stars I asked him if this old person had made all things why did not all things worship him he looked very grave and with a perfect look of innocence said all things say oh to him I asked him if the people who died in this country went away anywhere he said yes they all went to binamaki then I asked him whether those they eat up went thither too he said yes from these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true God I told him that the great maker of all things lived up there pointing up towards heaven that he governed the world by the same power and providence by which he made it that he was omnipotent and could do everything for us give everything to us take everything from us and thus by degrees I opened his eyes he listened with great attention and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us and of the manner of making our prayers to God and his being able to hear us even in heaven he told me one day that if our God could hear us up beyond the sun he must needs be a greater God than there binamaki who lived but a little way off and yet could not hear till they went up to the great mountains where he could speak to them I asked him if he ever went thither to speak with him he said no they never went that way that were young men none went thither but the old men whom he called their uwakaki that is as I made him explain to me their religious or clergy and that they went to say oh so he called saying prayers and then came back and told them what binamaki said by this I observe that there is a priest craft even among the most blinded ignorant pagans in the world and the policy of making a secret of religion in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy not only to be found in the roman but perhaps all religions in the world even among the most brutish and barbarous savages I endeavored to clear up this fraud by man friday and told him that the pretense of their old men going up to the mountains to say oh to their god binamaki was a cheat and their bringing word from thence what he said was much more so that if they met with any answer or speak with anyone there it must be an evil spirit and then I entered into a long discourse with him about the devil the origin of him and against god his enmity to man the reason of it his settling himself up in the dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of god and as god and the many stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to their ruin how he had a secret access to our passions and to our affections and to adapt his snares to our inclinations so as to cause us even to be our own tempters and our destruction by our own choice I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind about the devil as it was about the being of god nature assisted all my arguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great first cause an overruling governing power a secret directing providence and of the equity and justice of paying homage to him and the like but there appeared nothing of this kind in the notion of an evil spirit of his origin his being his nature and above all his inclination to do evil and to draw us in to do so too and the poor creature puzzled me once in such a manner by a question merely natural and innocent that I scarce knew what to say to him I had been talking a great deal to him of the power of god his aversion to sin his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity how as he had made us all he could destroy us all and all the world in a moment and he listened with great seriousness to me all the while after this I had been telling him how the devil was god's enemy in the hearts of men and used all his malice and skill to defeat the good designs of providence and to ruin the kingdom of christ the world and the like well says friday but you say god is so strong so great is he not much strong much might as the devil yes yes as I friday god is stronger than the devil god is above the devil and therefore we pray to god to tread him down under our feet and enable us to resist his temptations and quench his fiery darts but says he again if god much stronger much might as the wicked devil why god no kill devil so make him know more to wicked I was strangely surprised at this question and after all though I was now an old man yet I was but a young doctor and ill-qualified for a casuist or a solver of difficulties and at first I could not tell what to say and so I pretended not to hear him and ask him what he said but he was too earnest for an answer to forget his question so that he repeated it in the very same broken words as above by this time I had recovered myself a little and I said god will at last punish him severely he is reserved for the judgment and is to be cast into the bottomless pit to dwell with everlasting fire this did not satisfy friday but he returns upon me repeating my words reserve at last you know understand but why not kill the devil now not kill great ago you may as well ask me why god does not kill you or me when we do wicked things here that offend him or preserve to repent and be pardoned he mused some time on this well well says he mighty affectionately that well so you, I, devil all wicked all preserve, repent god pardon all here I was run down again by him to the last degree and it was a testimony to me how the mere notions of nature to the knowledge of god and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of god as a consequence of our nature yet nothing but divine revelation conform the knowledge of jesus christ and of redemption purchased for us of a mediator of the new covenant and of an intercessor at the footstool of god's throne I say nothing but a revelation from heaven conform these in the soul and that therefore the gospel of our lord and savior jesus christ I mean the word of god and the spirit of god promised for the guide and sanctifier of his people are the absolutely necessary instructors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of god and the means of salvation I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man rising up hastily as upon some great occasion of going out then sending him for something a good way off I seriously prayed to god that he would enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage assisting by his spirit the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of the knowledge of god in christ reconciling him to himself and would guide me so to speak to him from the word of god that his conscience might be convinced his eyes opened and his soul saved when he came to me again I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subject of the redemption of man by the savior of the world and of the doctrine of the gospel preached from heaven that is of repentance towards god and faith in our blessed lord jesus I then explained to him as well as I could why our blessed redeemer took not on him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham well for that reason the fallen angels had no share in the redemption that he came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel I had god knows more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods I took for this poor creature's instruction and must acknowledge what I believe all that act upon the same principle will find that in laying things open to him I really informed and instructed myself that either I did not know or had not fully considered before but which occurred naturally to my mind upon searching into them for the information of this poor savage and I had more affection in my inquiry after things upon this occasion than ever I felt before so that whether this poor wild wretch was better for me or no I had great reason to be thankful that ever he came to me my grief sat lighter upon me my habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure and when I reflected that in this solitary life which I had been confined to I had not only been moved to look up to heaven and to seek the hand that had brought me here but was now to be made an instrument under providence to save the life and for I knew the soul of a poor savage and bring him to the true knowledge of religion and of the Christian doctrine that he might know Christ Jesus in whom is life eternal I say when I reflected upon all these things a secret joy ran throughout every part of my soul and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought to this place which I had so often thought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me I continued in this thankful frame all the remainder of my time and the conversation which employed the hours between Friday and me was such as made the three years which we lived there together perfectly and completely happy if any such thing as complete happiness can be formed in a sub-lunary state this savage was now a good Christian a much better than I though I have reason to hope and bless God for it that we were equally penitent and comforted, restored and repented we had here the word of God to read and no farther off from his spirit to instruct them if he had been in England I always applied myself in reading the scripture to let him know as well as I could the meanings of what I read and he again by his serious inquiries and questionings made me as I said before a much better scholar in the scripture knowledge than I should ever have been in private reading another thing I cannot refrain from observing here also from experience in this retired part of my life that is how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the knowledge of God and of the doctrine of salvation by Christ Jesus is so plainly laid down in the word of God so easy to be received and understood that as the bear reading the scripture made me capable of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on to the great work of sincere repentance for my sins and lane hold of a savior for life and salvation to a stated reformation in practice and obedience to all God's commands and this without any teacher or instructor I mean human so the same plain instruction sufficiently served to the enlightening of this savage creature and bringing him to be such a Christian as I have known few equal to him in my life as to all the disputes wrangling strife and contention which have happened in the world about religion whether niceties and doctrines or schemes of church government they were all perfectly useless to us and for I can yet see they have been so to the rest of the world we had the sure guide to heaven that is the word of God and we had blessed be God comfortable views of the spirit of God teaching and instructing by his word leading us into all truth and making us both willing and obedient to the instruction of his word and I cannot see the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points of religion which have made such confusion in the world would have been to us if we could have obtained it but I must go on with the historical part of things and take every part in its order after Friday and I became more intimately acquainted and that he could understand almost all I said to him and speak pretty fluently though in broken English to me I acquainted him with my own history or at least so much of it as related to my coming to this place how I had lived here and how long I let him into the mystery for such it was to him of gunpowder and bullet and taught him how to shoot I gave him a knife which he was wonderfully delighted with and I made him a belt with a frog hanging to it such as in England we wear hangers in and in the frog instead of a hanger I gave him a hatchet which was not only as good a weapon in some cases but much more useful upon other occasions I described him the country of Europe particularly England which I came from how we lived, how we worshiped God how we behaved to one another and how we traded in ships to all parts of the world I gave him an account of the wreck which I had been on board of and showed him as near as I could the place where she lay she was all beaten in pieces before and gone I showed him the ruins of our boat which we lost when we escaped and which I could not stir with my whole strength then but was now fallen almost to pieces upon seeing this boat Friday stood amusing a great while and said nothing I asked him what it was he studied upon at last says he me see such boat like come to place at my nation I did not understand him a good while but at last when I had examined further into it I understood by him that a boat such as that had been came on shore upon the country where he lived that is as he explained it was driven thither by stress of weather I presently imagine that some European ship must have been cast away upon their coast and the boat might get loose and drive ashore but was so dull that I never once thought of men making their escape from a wreck thither much less once they might come so I only inquired after a description of the boat Friday described the boat to me well enough it brought me better to understand him when he added with some warmth we saved the white man from drown then I presently asked if there were any white man as he called them in the boat yes he said the boat full of white man I asked him how many he told upon his fingers seventeen I asked him then what became of them he told me they live they dwell at my nation this put new thoughts into my head for I presently imagine that these might be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in the sight of my island as I now called it and who after the ship was struck on the rock and they saw her inevitably lost had saved themselves in their boat and were landed upon that wild shore among the savages upon they signed part of him more critically what was become of them he assured me they still lived there that they had been there about four years that the savages left them alone and gave them victuals to live on I asked him how it came to pass that they did not kill them and eat them he said no no they make brother with them that is as I understood him a truce and then he added they now eat but when make the war fight that is to say they never eat any men but such as come to fight with them and are taken in battle it was after this some considerable time that being upon the top of the hill at the east side of the island from Wentz as I have said I had in a clear day discovered the main or continent of America Friday the weather being very serene looks very earnestly towards the mainland and in a kind of surprise falls a jumping and dancing and calls out to me for I was at some distance from him I asked him what was the matter oh joy says he oh glad there see my country there my nation I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared in his face and his eyes sparkled and his continents discovered a strange earnestness as if he had a mind to be in his own country again this observation of mine put a great many thoughts into me which made me at first not so easy about my new man Friday as I was before and I made no doubt but that if Friday could get back to his own nation again he would not only forget all his religion but all his obligation to me and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me and come back and perhaps with a hundred or two of them make a feast upon me at which he might be as merry as he used to be with those of his enemies when they were taken in war but I wronged the poor honest creature very much for which I was very sorry afterwards however as my jealousy increased and held some weeks I was a little more circumspect than him as before in which I was certainly wrong too the honest grateful creature having no thought about it but what consisted with the best principles both as a religious Christian and as a grateful friend as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction while my jealousy of him lasted you may be sure I was every day pumping him to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts which I suspected were in him but I found everything he said was so honest and so innocent that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion and in spite of all my uneasiness he made me at last entirely his own again nor did he in the least perceive that I was uneasy and therefore I could not suspect him of deceit one day walking up the same hill but the weather being hazy at sea so that we could not see the continent I called to him and said Friday do you not wish yourself in your own country your own nation yes he said I'd be much oh glad to be at my own nation what would you do there said I would you turn wild again eat men's flesh again and be a savage as you were before he looked full of concern and shaking his head said no no Friday tell them to live good tell them to pray God tell them to eat cornbread cattle flesh milk no eat man again why then said I to him they will kill you he looked grave at that and then said no no they no kill me they willing love learn he meant by this they would be willing to learn he added that they learned much of the bearded man's that came in the boat then I asked him if he would go back to them he smiled at that and said that he could not swim so far I told him I would make a canoe for him he told me he would go if I would go with him I go says I why they will eat me if I come there no says he me make they no eat you me make they love much you he meant he would tell them how I had killed his enemies and saved his life and so he would make them love me then he told me as well as he could how kind they were to the 17 white men or bearded men as he called them who came on shore there in distress from this time I confess I need to venture over and see if I could possibly join these bearded men who I may no doubt were Spaniards and Portuguese not doubting but if I could we might find some method to escape from this being upon the continent and a good company together better than I could from an island 40 miles off the shore alone and without help so after some days I took Friday to work again by way of discourse I asked him a boat to go back to his own nation and accordingly I carried him to my frigate which lay on the other side of the island and having cleared it of water for I always kept it sunk in water I brought it out showed it to him and we both went into it I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it and would make it go almost as swift again as I could so when he was in I said to him well now Friday shall we go to your nation he looked very dull at my saying so which it seems was because he thought the boat was too small to go so far I then told him I had a bigger so the next day I went to the place where the first boat lay which I had made but which I could not get into the water he said that was big enough but then as I had taken no care to it it had lain there two or three and twenty years the sun had so split and dried it that it was rotten Friday told me such a boat would do very well and would carry much enough drink, bread this was his way of talking end of chapter 15 Leverbox.org recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Chapter 16 Rescue of Prisoners from Cannibals Upon the whole I was by this time so fixed upon my design of going over with him to the continent that I told him we would go as big as that and he should go home in it he answered not one word but looked very grave and sad I asked him what was the matter with him he asked me again why you angry mad with Friday what me done I asked him what he meant I told him I was not angry with him at all no angry says he repeating the words several times why send Friday home away to my nation why says I Friday did not you say you wished you were there yes yes says he wish we both there no wish Friday there no master there he would not think of going there without me I go there Friday says I what shall I do there he turned very quick upon me at this you do great deal much good says he you teach wild man be good sober, tame man you tell them no God pray God and live new life the last Friday says I thou knowest not what thou sayest I am but an ignorant man myself yes yes says he you you teaching me good you teaching them good no no Friday says I you shall go without me leave me here to live by myself as I did before he looked confused again at that word and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear he takes it up hastily and gives it to me what must I do with this says I to him you take kill Friday says he what must kill you for says I again he returns very quick what you send Friday away for take kill Friday no send Friday away this he spoke so earnestly that I saw tears stand in his eyes in a word I so plainly discovered the utmost affection in him to me and a firm resolution in him that I told him then and often after that I would never send him away if he was willing to stay with me upon the whole as I found by all his discourse a settled affection to me and that nothing could part him from me so I found all the foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his ardent affection to the people and his hopes of doing them good a thing which as I had no notion of myself so I had not the least thought or intention or desire of undertaking it but still I found a strong inclination to attempting my escape founded on the supposition gathered from the discourse that there were 17 bearded men there and therefore without any more delay I went to work with Friday to find out a great proper tree to fell and make a large piragua or canoe to undertake the voyage there were trees enough in the island to have built a little fleet not of piraguas or canoes but even of good large vessels but the main thing I looked at was this to get one so near the water that we might launch it when it was made to avoid the mistake I committed at first at last Friday pitched upon a tree for I found he knew much better what kind of wood was fittest for it nor can I tell to this day what wood to call that tree we cut down except that it was very like the tree we called fustic or between that and the nicaragua wood for it was much of the same color and smell Friday wished to burn the hollow or cavity of this tree out to make it for a boat but I showed him how to cut it with tools which after I had showed him how to use he did very handily about a month's hard labor we finished it and made it very handsome especially when with our axes which I showed him how to handle we cut and hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat after this however it cost us near a fortnight time to get her along as it were inch by inch upon great rollers into the water but when she was in she would have carried 20 men with great ease when she was in the water though she was so big it amazed me to see with what dexterity and how swift my man friday could manage her turn her and paddle her along so I asked him if he would and if we might venture over in her yes he said we venture over in her very well though great blow went however I had a further design that he knew nothing of and that was to make a mast and a sail fit her with an anchor in cable as to the mast that was easy enough to get so I pitched upon a straight young cedar tree which I found near the place and which there were great plenty of in the island and I set friday to work to cut it down and gave him directions how to shape and order it but as to the sail that was my particular care I knew I had old sails or rather pieces of old sails but as I had had them now six and twenty years by me and had not been very careful to preserve them not imagining that I should ever have this kind of use for them I did not doubt but they were all rotten and indeed most of them were so however I found two pieces which appeared pretty good and with these I went to work and with a great deal of pains and awkward stitching you may be sure for want of needles I at length made a three cornered ugly thing like what we call in England a shoulder a mutton sail to go with a boom at bottom and a short little sprit at the top just as usually our ships long boat sail with and such as I best knew how to manage as it was one such as I had in the boat in which I made my escape from Barbary as related in the first part of my story I was near two months performing this last work rigging and fitting my masts and sails for I finished them very complete making a small stay and a sail or for sale to assist it if we should turn to windward and what was more than all I fixed a rudder to the stern to steer her with I was but a bundling ship right yet as I knew the usefulness and even necessity of such a thing I applied myself with so much pains to do it that at last I brought it to pass though considering the many dull contrivances I had for it that failed I think it cost me almost as much labor as making the boat after all this was done I had my man Friday to teach us what belonged to the navigation of my boat though he knew very well how to paddle a canoe he knew nothing of what belonged to a sail and a rudder and was the most amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea by the rudder and how the sail jived and filled this way or that way as the course we sailed changed I say when he saw this he stood like one astonished and amazed however with a little use I made all these things familiar to him and he became an expert sailor except that of the compass I could make him understand very little on the other hand as there was very little cloudy weather and seldom or never any fogs in those parts there was the last occasion for a compass seeing the stars were always to be seen at night and the shore by day except in the rainy seasons and then nobody cared to stir abroad either by land or sea I was now entered on the 7th and 20th year of my captivity in this place though the three last years that I had this creature with me rather to be left out of the account my habitation being quite of another kind than in all the rest of the time I kept the anniversary of my landing here with the same thankfulness to God for his mercies as at first and if I had such cause of acknowledgement at first I had much more so now having such additional testimonies of the care of providence over me and the great hopes I had of being effectually and speedily delivered for I had an invincible impression that my deliverance was at hand and that I should not be another year in this place I went on however with my husband tree digging planting and fencing as usual I gathered and cured my grapes and did every necessary thing as before the rainy season was in the meantime upon me when I kept more within doors than at other times we had stowed our new vessel as secure as we could bringing her up into the creek where as I said in the beginning I landed my rafts from the ship and hauling her up to the shore at high water mark I made my man Friday dig a little dock just big enough to hold her and just deep enough to give her water enough to float in and then when the tide was out we made a strong dam across it at the end to keep the water out and so she lay dry as to the tide from the sea and to keep the rain off we laid a great many boughs of trees so thick that she was as well thatched as a house and thus we waited for the months of November and December in which I designed to make my adventure when the settled season began to come in as the thought of my design returned with the fair weather I was preparing daily for the voyage and the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions being the stores for our voyage and intended in a week or a fortnight's time to open the dock and launch out our boat I was busy one morning upon something of this kind when I called to Friday and bid him to go to the seashore and see if he could find a turtle or a tortoise a thing which we generally got once a week for the sake of the eggs as well as the flesh Friday had not been long gone when he came running back and flew over my outer wall or fence like one that felt not the ground perhaps he set foot on and before I had time to speak to him he cries out to me oh master oh master oh sorrow oh bad what's the matter Friday says I oh yonder there says he one two three canoes one two three by this way speaking I concluded there were six but on inquiry I found there were but three well Friday says I do not be frightened so I heartened him up as well as I could however I saw the poor fellow was most terribly scared for nothing ran in his head but that they were come back to look for him and would cut him in pieces and eat him and the poor fellow trembled so that I scarcely knew what to do with him I comfort him as well as I could and told him I was in as much danger as he and that they would eat me as well as him but says I Friday we must resolve to fight them can you fight Friday he shoot says he but there come many great number no matter for that said I again our guns will fright them that we do not kill so I asked him whether if I resolved to defend him he would defend me and stand by me and do just as I bid him he said me die when you bid die master so I went and fetched a good drum of rum and gave him for I had been so good a husband of my run that I had a great deal left I had drunk it I made him take the two following pieces which we always carried and loaded them with large swan shot as big as small pistol bullets then I took four muskets and loaded them with two slugs and five small bullets each and my two pistols I loaded with the brace of bullets each I hung my great sword as usual naked by my side and gave Friday his hatchet when I had thus prepared myself I took my perspective glass and went up to the side of the hill to see what I could discover and I found quickly by my glass that there were one and twenty savages three prisoners and three canoes and that their whole business seemed to be the triumphant banquet upon these three human bodies a barbarous feast indeed but nothing more then as I had observed was usual with them I observed also that they had landed not where they had done when Friday made his escape but nearer to my creek where the shore was low and where a thick wood came almost close down to the sea this with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand these riches came about filled me with such indignation that I came down again to Friday and told him I was resolved to go down to them and kill them all and asked him if he would stand by me he had now got over his fright and his spirits being a little raised with the drama I had given him he was very cheerful and told me as before he would die when I bid die in this fit of fury I divided the arms which I had charged as before between us I gave Friday one pistol to stick in his girdle and three guns upon his shoulder and I took one pistol and in this posture we marched out I took a small bottle of rum in my pocket and gave Friday a large bag with more powder and bullets and as to orders I charged him to keep close behind me and not to stir or shoot or do anything till I bid him and in the meantime not to speak a word in this posture I fetched a compass to my right hand of near a mile as well to get over the creek as to get into the wood so that I could come within shot of them before I should be discovered which I had seen by my glass it was easy to do while I was making this march my further thoughts returning I began to abate my resolution I do not mean that I entertained any fear of their number for as they were naked unarmed wretches it is certain I was superior to them nay, though I had been alone but it occurred to my thoughts what call what occasion much less what necessity I was in to go and dip my hands in blood to attack people who had neither done or intended me any wrong who as to me were innocent and whose barbarous customs were their own disaster being in them a token indeed of God's having left them with the other nations of that part of the world to such stupidity and to such inhuman courses but did not call me to take upon me to be a judge of their actions much less an executioner of his justice that whenever he thought fit he would take the cause into his own hands and by national vengeance punish them by national crimes but that in the meantime it was none of my business that it was true Friday might justify it because he was a declared enemy in a state of war with those very particular people and it was lawful for him to attack them but I could not say the same with regard to myself these things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the way as I went that I resolved I would only go and place myself near them that I might observe their barbarous feast and that I would act then as God should direct but that unless something offered that was more a call to me than yet I knew of I would not meddle with them with this resolution I entered the wood and with all possible wariness and silence Friday following close at my heels I marched till I came to the skirts of the wood on the side which was next to them only that one corner of the wood lay between me and them here I called softly to Friday and showing him a great tree which was just at the corner of the wood I bade him go to the tree and bring me word if he could see there plainly what they were doing he did so and came immediately back to me and told me they might be plainly viewed there that they were all about their fire eating the flesh of one of their prisoners and that another lay bound upon the sand a little from them whom he said they would kill next and this fired the very soul within me he told me it was not one of their nation but one of the bearded men he had told me of that came to their country in the boat I was filled with horror at the very naming of the white bearded man and going to the tree I saw plainly by my glass a white man who lay upon the beach of the sea with his hands and his feet tied with flags or things like rushes and that he was an European and had clothes on there was another tree and a little thicket beyond it about 50 yards nearer to them than the place where I was which by going a little way about that undiscovered and that then I should be within half a shot of them so I withheld my passion though I was indeed enraged to the highest degree and going back about 20 paces I got behind some bushes which held all the way until I came to the other tree and then came to a little rising ground which gave me a full view of them at the distance of about 80 yards I had now not a moment to lose for 19 of the dreadful wretches sat upon the ground all close huddled together and had just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian and bring him perhaps limb by limb to their fire and they were stooping down to untie the bands at his feet I turned to Friday now Friday said I do as I bid thee Friday said he would then Friday says I do exactly as you see me do fail in nothing so I sat down one of the muskets and the following piece upon the ground and Friday did the light by his and with the other musket I took my aim at the savages bidding him to do the like then asking him if he was ready he said yes then fire at them said I one moment I fired also Friday took his aim so much better than I that on the one side that he shot he killed two of them and wounded three more and on my side I killed one and wounded two they were you may be sure in a dreadful consternation and all of them that were not hurt jumped upon their feet but did not immediately know which way to run or which way to look for they knew not from hence their destruction came Friday kept his eyes close upon me that as I had bid him he might observe what I did so as soon as the first shot was made I threw down the piece and took up the following piece and Friday did the like he saw me cock and present he did the same are you ready Friday? yes says he let fly then says I in the name of God and with that I fired again the amazed wretches and so did Friday and as our pieces were now loaded with what I call swan shot or small pistol bullets we found only two drop but so many were wounded that they ran about yelling and screaming like mad creatures all bloody and most of them miserably wounded were of three more fell down quickly after though not quite dead now Friday says I laying down the discharged pieces and taking up the musket which was yet loaded follow me which he did with a great deal of courage and upon which I rushed out of the wood and showed myself and Friday close at my foot as soon as I perceived they saw me I shouted as loud as I could and bade Friday do so too and running as fast as I could which by the way was not very fast being loaded with arms as I was I made directly towards the poor victim who was said lying upon the beach or shore between the place where they sat and the sea the two butchers that were going to work with him had left him at the surprise of our first fire and fled in a terrible fright to the seaside and had jumped into a canoe and three more of the rest made the same way I turned to Friday and bade him step forwards and fire at them he understood me immediately and running about 40 yards to be nearer them he shot at them and I thought he had killed them all for I saw them all fall of a heap into the boat though I saw two of them up again quickly however he killed two of them and wounded the third so that he lay down in the bottom of the boat as if he had been dead while my man Friday fired at them I pulled out my knife and cut the flags that bound the poor victim and loosing his hands and feet and asked him in the Portuguese tongue what he was he answered in Latin Christianus but he was so weak and faint that he could scarcely stand or speak I took my bottle out of my pocket and gave it to him making signs that he should drink which he did and I gave him a piece of bread which he ate then I asked him what countryman he was and he said Espanol and being a little recovered let me know by all the signs that he could possibly make how much he was in my depth for his deliverance Senorne said I with as much Spanish as I could make up we will talk afterwards but we must fight now if you have any strength left take this pistol and sword and lay about you he took them very thankfully and no sooner had he the arms in his hands but as if they had put new vigor into him and had cut two of them in pieces in an instant for the truth is as the whole was a surprise to them so the poor creatures were so much frightened with the noise of our pieces that they fell down for mere amazement and fear and had no more power to attempt their own escape than their flesh had to resist our shot and that was the case of those five that Friday shot in the boat for as three of them fell with the hurt they received so the other two fell with the fright I kept my peace in my hand still without firing being willing to keep my charge ready because I had given the Spaniard my pistol and sword so I called to Friday and bade him run up to the tree from once he first fired and fetched the arms which lay there discharged which he did with great swiftness and then giving him my musket I sat down myself to load all the rest again and bade them come to me when they wanted to begin these pieces there happened a fierce engagement between the Spaniard and one of the savages who made at him with one of their great wooden swords the weapon that was to have killed him before if I had not prevented it the Spaniard who was as bold and brave as could be imagined though weak had fought the Indian a good while and had cut two great wounds on his head but the savage being a stout lusty fellow closing in with him had thrown him down being faint and was ringing my sword out of his hand when the Spaniard though undermost wisely quitting the sword drew the pistol from his girdle shot the savage through the body and killed him upon the spot before I who was running to help him could come near him Friday being now left to his liberty pursued the flying wretches with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet and with that he dispatched those three who as I said before were wounded at first and all the rest he could come up with and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun I gave him one of the filing pieces with which he pursued two of the savages and wounded them both but as he was not able to run they both got from him into the wood where Friday pursued them and killed one of them but the other was too nimble for him and though he was wounded yet had plunged himself into the sea and swam with all his might off to those two who were left in the canoe which three in the canoe with one wounded that we knew not whether he died or no were all that escaped our hands of one and twenty the account of the whole is as follows three killed at our first shot from the tree two killed at the next shot two killed by Friday in the boat two killed by Friday of those at first wounded one killed by Friday in the wood three killed by the Spaniard four killed being found dropped here and there of the wounds by Friday and his chase of them four escaped in the boat were of one wounded if not dead twenty one in all those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gunshot and though Friday made two or three shots at them I did not find that he hit any of them Friday would feign have had me take one of their canoes and pursue them and indeed I was very anxious about their escape less carrying home news to their people back perhaps with two or three hundred of the canoes and devour us by mere multitude so I consented to pursue them by sea and running to their canoes I jumped in and bade Friday follow me but when I was in the canoe I was surprised to find another poor creature lie there bound hand and foot as the Spaniard was for slaughter and almost dead with fear not knowing what was the matter for he had not been able to look up over the side of the boat he was tied so hard neck and heels and had been tied so long that he had really but little life in him I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes which they had bound him with and would have helped him up but he could not stand or speak but groaned most piteously believing it seems still that he was only unbound in order to be killed when Friday came to him I bade him speak to him and tell him of his deliverance and pulling out my bottle made him give the poor wretched dram which with the news of his being delivered revived him and he sat up in the boat but when Friday came to hear him speak and look in his face it would have moved anyone to tears to see how Friday kissed him and embraced him hugged him, cried laughed, hallowed jumped about, danced, sang then cried again, rung his hands beat his own face and head and then sang and jumped about again like a distracted creature it was a good while before I could make him speak to me or tell me what was the matter but when he came a little to himself he told me that it was his father it is not easy for me to express how it moved me to see what ecstasy and filial affection had worked in this poor savage at the sight of his father and of his being delivered from death nor indeed can I describe half the extravagances of his affection after this for he went into the boat and out of the boat a great many times when he went into him he would sit down by him open his breast and hold his father's head close to his bosom for many minutes together to nourish it then he took his arms and ankles which were numb and stiff with a binding and chafed and rubbed them with his hands and I, perceiving what the case was out of my bottle to rub with them which did him a great deal of good this affair put an end to our pursuit of the canoe with the other savages who were now almost out of sight and it was happy for us that we did not for it blew so hard within two hours after and before they could be got a quarter of their way and continued blowing so hard all night and that from the northwest which was against them that I could not suppose their boat could live or that they ever reached their own coast but to return to Friday he was so busy about his father that I could not find in my heart to take him off for some time but after I thought he could leave him a little I called him to me and he came jumping and laughing and pleased the highest extreme then I asked him if he had given his father any bread he shook his head and said ugly dog eat all up self I then gave him a cake of bread out of a little pouch I carried on purpose I also gave him a dram for himself but he would not taste it but carried it to his father I had in my pocket two or three bunches of raisins so I gave him a handful for his father he had no sooner given his father these raisins but I saw him come out of the boat and run away as if he had been bewitched for he was the swiftest fellow on his feet that I ever saw I say he ran at such a rate that he was out of sight as it were in an instant and though I called and hallowed out to after him it was all on away he went and in a quarter of an hour I saw him come back again though not so fast as he went and as he came nearer I found his pace slacker because he had something in his hand he came up to me I found he had been quite home for an earthen jug or pot to put some fresh water for his father and that he had got two more cakes or loaves of bread the bread he gave me but the water he carried to his father however as I was very thirsty too I took a little of it the water revived his father more than all the run or spirits I had given him for he was fainting with thirst his father had drunk I called to him to know if there was any water left he said yes and I bade him give it to the poor Spaniard who was in as much one of it as the father and I sent one of the cakes that Friday brought to the Spaniard too who was indeed very weak and was reposing himself upon a green place under the shade of a tree and whose limbs were also very stiff and very much swelled with the rude bandage he had been tied with when I saw that upon Friday's coming to him with the water he sat up and drank and took the bread and began to eat I went to him and gave him a handful of raisins he looked up in my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulness that could appear in any components but was so weak he had so exerted himself in the fight that he could not stand up upon his feet he tried to do it two or three times but was really not able his ankles were so swelled and so painful to him so I bade him sit still and caused Friday to rub his ankles and bade them with rum as he had done his fathers I observed the poor affectionate creature every two minutes or perhaps less all the while he was here turned his head about to see if his father was in the same place and posture as he had left him sitting and at last he found he was not to be seen at which he started up and without speaking a word flew with that swiftness to him that one could scarce perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went but when he came he only found he had laid himself down to ease his limbs so Friday came back to me presently and then I spoke to the Spaniard to let Friday help him up if he could and lead him to the boat and then he should carry him to our dwelling where I would take care of him but Friday a lusty strong fellow took the Spaniard upon his back and carried him away to the boat and set him down softly upon the side or gunnel of the canoe with his feet on the inside of it and then lifting him quite in he set him close to his father and presently stepping out again launched the boat off and paddled it along the shore faster than I could walk and blew pretty hard too so he brought them both safe into our creek and leaving them in the boat ran away to fetch the other canoe as he passed me I spoke to him and asked him whether he went he told me, go fetch more boat so away he went like the wind for sure never man nor a horse ran like him and he had the other canoe in the creek almost as soon as I had got to it by land so he wafted me over to help our new guests out of the boat which he did but they were neither of them able to walk so that poor Friday knew not what to do to remedy this I went to work in my thought and calling to Friday to bid him sit down on the bank while he came to me I soon made a kind of hand barrel to lay them on and Friday and I carried them both up together between us but when we got them to the outside of our wall or fortification we were at a worse loss than before it was impossible to get them over and I resolved not to break it down so I set to work again and Friday and I in about two hours time made a very handsome tent covered with old sails and above that with boughs of trees being in the space without our outward fence and between that and the grove of young wood which I had planted and here we made them two beds of such things as I had that is of good rice straw with blankets laid upon it to lie on and another to cover them on each bed my island was now peopled and I thought myself very rich in subjects and it was a merry reflection which I frequently made how like a king I looked first of all the whole country was my own property so that I had an undoubted right of dominion secondly my people were perfectly subjected I was absolutely lord and law giver they all owed their lives to me and were ready to lay down their lives if there had been occasion for it, for me it was remarkable too I had but three subjects and they were of three different religions my man Friday was a Protestant his father was a pagan and a cannibal and the Spaniard was a papist however I allowed liberty of conscience throughout my dominions but this is by the way as soon as I had secured my two week rescued prisoners and given them shelter and a place to rest them upon I began to think of making some provision for them and the first thing I did I ordered Friday to take a yearling goat betwixt a kid and a goat my particular flock to be killed when I cut off the kind quarter and chopping it into small pieces I set Friday to work to boiling and stewing it and made them a very good dish I assure you, a flesh and broth and as I cooked it without doors, for I made no fire within my inner wall so I carried it all into the new tent and having set a table there for them I sat down and ate my own dinner also with them as well as I could cheer them and encourage them Friday was my interpreter especially to his father and indeed to the Spaniard too for the Spaniard spoke the language of the savages pretty well after we had dined or rather subbed I ordered Friday to take one of the canoes and go fetch our muskets and other firearms which for one of time we had left upon the place of battle and the next day I ordered him to bury the dead bodies of the savages which lay open to the sun and would presently be offensive I also ordered him to bury the horrid remains of their barbarous feast which I could not think of doing myself nay, I could not bear to see them if I went that way all which he punctually performed and effaced the very appearance of the savages being there so that when I went again I could scarce know where it was otherwise than by the corner of the wood pointing to the place I then began to enter into a little conversation with my two new subjects and first I set Friday to inquire of his father what he thought of the escape of the savages in that canoe and whether we might expect a return of them with the power too great for us to resist his first opinion was that the savages in the boat never could live out the storm which blew that night they went off south to those other shores where they were sure to be devoured as they were to be drowned if they were cast away but as to what they would do if they came safe on shore he said he knew not but it was his opinion that they were so dreadfully frightened with the manner of their being attacked and the noise and the fire that he believed they would tell the people they were all killed by thunder and lightning not by the hand of man but by the beard that is Friday and I were two heavenly spirits or furies come down to destroy them and not men with weapons this he said he knew because he heard them all cry out so in their language one to another for it was impossible for them to conceive that a man could dart fire and speak thunder and kill at a distance without lifting up the hand and this old savage was in the right for as I understood since by other hands the savages never attempted to go over to the island afterwards they were so terrified with the accounts given by these four men for it seems they did escape to sea that they believed whoever went to that enchanted island would be destroyed with fire from the gods this however I knew not and therefore was under continual apprehensions for a good while and kept always upon my guard with all my army for as there were now four of us I would have ventured upon a hundred of them fairly in the open field at any time End of Chapter 16 In a little time however no more canoes appearing the fear of their coming wore off and I began to take my former thoughts of a voyage to the main into consideration being likewise assured by I would have said I would have said to myself I would have said to myself I would have said to myself I would have said to myself I would have said to myself I would have said likewise assured by Friday's father that I might depend upon good usage from their nation on his account if I would go but my thoughts were little suspended when I had a serious discourse with the Spaniard and when I understood that there were sixteen more of his countrymen in Portuguese who having been cast away and made their escape to that side lived there at peace indeed with the savages but were very sore put to it for necessaries and indeed for life I asked him all the particulars of their voyage and found that they were a Spanish ship bound from the Rio de la Plata to the Havana and being directed to leave their loading there which was chiefly hides and silver and to bring back what European goods they could meet with there that they had five Portuguese seamen whom they took out of another wreck that five of their own men were drowned when first the ship was lost and that these escaped through infinite dangers and hazards and arrived almost starved on the cannibal coast where they expected to have been devoured every moment he told me they had some arms with them but they were perfectly useless for that they had neither powder nor ball the washing of the sea had been spoiled all their powder but a little which they used at their first landing to provide themselves with some food I asked him what he thought would become of them there and if they had formed any design of making their escape he said they had many consultations about it but that having neither vessel nor tools to build one nor provisions of any kind their councils always ended in tears and despair and he thought they would receive a proposal from me which might tend towards an escape and whether if they were all here it might not be done I told him with freedom I feared mostly their treachery and ill usage of me if I put my life in their hands gratitude was no inherent virtue in the nature of man nor did men always square their dealings by the obligations much as they did by the advantages they expected I told him it would be very hard that I should be made the instrument of their deliverance and that they should afterwards make me their prisoner in New Spain and where an Englishman was certain to be made a sacrifice what necessity or what accident so ever brought him thither and that I had rather be delivered up to the savages and be devoured alive by the merciless claws of the priests and be carried into the Inquisition I added that otherwise I was persuaded if they were all here we might with so many hands build a park large enough to carry us all away either to the Brazil southward or to the islands or Spanish coast northward but that if in requital they should when I had put weapons into their hands carry me by force among their own people I might be ill-used for my kindness to them and make my case worse than it was before he answered with a great deal of candor and ingenuousness that their condition was so miserable and that they were so sensible of it that he believed they would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly that should contribute to their deliverance and that if I pleased he would go to them with the old man with them about it and return again and bring me their answer that he would make conditions with them upon their solemn oath that they should be absolutely under my direction as their commander and captain and they should swear upon the holy sacraments and gospel to be true to me and go to such Christian country as I should agree to and no other and to be directed wholly and absolutely by my orders till they were landed safely in such country as I intended and that he would bring a contract from them under their hands for that purpose then he told me he would first swear to me himself that he would never stir from me as long as he lived till I gave him orders and that he would take my side to the last drop of his blood if there should happen the least breach of faith among his countrymen he told me they were all of them very civil honest men and they were under the greatest distress imaginable having neither weapons nor clothes nor any food but at the mercy and discretion of the savages out of all hopes of ever returning to their own country and that he was sure if I would undertake their relief they would live and die by me upon these assurances I resolved to venture to relieve them if possible and to send the old savage and the Spaniard over to them to treat but when we had got all things in readiness to go the Spaniard himself started an objection which had so much prudence in it on one hand and so much sincerity on the other hand that I could not but be very well satisfied in it and by his advice put off the deliverance of his comrades for at least half a year the case was thus he had been with us now about a month during which time I had let him see in what manner I had provided with the assistance of Providence for my support and he saw evidently what stock of corn and rice I had laid up which though it was more than sufficient for myself yet it was not sufficient without good husbandry for my family now it was increased to four but much less would it be sufficient if his countrymen who were as he said sixteen still alive should come over and least of all would it be sufficient to victual our vessel if we should build one for a voyage to any of the Christian colonies of America so he told me he thought it would be more advisable to let him and the other to dig and cultivate some more land as much as I could spare seed to sow and that we should wait another harvest for the supply of corn for his countrymen when they should come for want might be a temptation to them to disagree or not to think themselves delivered otherwise then out of one difficulty into another you know says he the children of Israel though they rejoiced at first for their being delivered out of Egypt yet rebelled even against God himself that delivered them when they came to want bread in the wilderness the caution was so seasonable and his advice so good that I could not but be very well pleased with his proposal as well as I was satisfied with his fidelity so we fell to digging all four of us as well as the wooden tools we were furnished with permitted and in about a months time by the end of which it was seed time we had got as much land cured and trimmed up as we sowed two and twenty bushels of sixteen jars of rice which was in short all the seed we had to spare indeed we left ourselves barely sufficient for our own food for the next six months that we had to expect our crop that is to say reckoning from the time we set our seed aside for sowing for it is not to be supposed it is six months in the ground in that country having now society enough and our numbers being sufficient to put us out of fear of the savages if they had come unless their number had been very great we went freely all over the island whenever we found occasion and as we had had our escape or deliverance upon our thoughts it was impossible at least for me to have the means of it out of mine for this purpose I marked out several trees which I thought fit for our work and I set Friday and his father to cut them down and then I caused the Spaniard to imparted my thoughts in that affair to oversee and direct their work I showed them with what indefatigable work I had hewed a large tree into single planks and I caused them to do the like till they made about a dozen large planks of good oak near two feet broad thirty five feet long and from two inches to four inches thick the prodigious labor it took up anyone can imagine at the same time I can try to increase my little flock of tame goats as much as I could and for this purpose I made Friday and the Spaniard go out one day and myself with Friday the next day for we took our turns and by this means we got about twenty young kids to breed up with the rest for whenever we shot the dam we saved the kids and added them to our flock and all the season for curing the grapes coming on I caused such a prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun that I believe had we been at Alicante where the raisins of the sun are cured we could have filled sixty or eighty barrels and these with our bread formed a great part of our food very good living too I assure you for they are exceedingly nourishing it was now harvest and our crop in good order it was not the most plentiful increase I had seen in the island but however it was enough to answer our end for from twenty two bushels of barley we brought in and thrashed out above two hundred and twenty bushels and the like and proportion of the rice which was store enough for our food to the next harvest although all the sixteen Spaniards had been on shore with me or if we had been ready for a voyage it would very plentifully have vitualed our ship to have carried us to any part of the world that is to say any part of America when we had thus housed and secured our magazine of corn we fell to work to make more wickerware that is great baskets in which we kept it and the Spaniard was very handy and often blamed me that I did not make some things for defense of this kind of work but I saw no need of it and now having a full supply of food for all the guests I expected I gave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main to see what he could do with those he had left behind him there I gave him a strict charge not to bring any man who would not first swear in the presence of himself and the old savage that he would in no way injure fight with or attack the person he should find in the island who was so kind as to send to them in order to their deliverance but that they would stand by him and defend him against all such attempts and wherever they went would be entirely under and subjected to his command and that this should be put in writing and signed in their hands how they were to have done this when I knew that they had neither pand or ink was a question which we never asked under these instructions the Spaniard and the old savage the father of Friday went away in one of the canoes which they might be said to have come in or were rather brought in when they came as prisoners to be devoured by the savages I gave each of them a musket with firelock on it about eight charges of powder and ball charging them to be very good husbands of both and not to use either of them but upon urgent occasions this was a cheerful work being the first measures used by me in view of my deliverance for now 27 years and some days I gave them provisions of bread and dried grapes sufficient for themselves for many days and sufficient for all the Spaniards for about eight days time and wishing them a good voyage I saw them go agreeing with them about a signal they should hang out at their return by which I should know them again when they came back at a distance before they came on shore they went away with a fair gate on the day before the moon was at full by my account in the month of October but as for an exact reckoning of days after I once lost it I could never recover it again nor had I kept even the number of years so punctually as to be sure I was right though as it proved when I afterwards examined my account I found I had kept a true reckoning of years it was no less than eight days I had waited for them when a strange and unforeseen accident intervened of which the like has not perhaps been heard of in history I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning when my man Friday came running into me and called aloud master, master, they are come they are come I jumped up and regardless of danger I went as soon as I could get my clothes on through my little grove which, by the way, was by this time grown to be a very thick wood I say, regardless of danger I went without my arms which was not my custom to do but I was surprised when turning my eyes to the sea I suddenly saw a boat at about a leak and a half distance standing in for the shore with the shoulder of mutton sail as they call it and the wind blowing pretty fair to bring them in also, I observed, presently that they did not come from that side which the shore lay on but from the southernmost end of the island upon this I called Friday in and bait him lie close for these were not the people we looked for and that we might not yet know whether they were friends or enemies in the next place I went in to fetch my perspective class to see what I could make of them and having taken the ladder out I climbed up to the top of the hill as I used to do when I was apprehensive of anything and to take my view, the planer without being discovered I had scarce set my foot upon the hill when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at anchor at about two leagues and a half distance from me south southeast but not above the league and a half from the shore by my observation it appeared plainly to be an English ship and the boat appeared to be an English longboat I cannot express the confusion I was in though the joy of seeing a ship and one that I had reason to believe was manned by my own countrymen and consequently friends was such as I cannot describe but yet I had some secret doubts hung about me I cannot tell from whence they came bidding me keep upon my guard in the first place it occurred to me to consider what business an English ship could have in that part of the world since it was not the way to or from any part of the world where the English had any traffic and I knew there had been no storms to drive them in there in distress and that if they were really English it was most probable that they were here upon no good design and that I had better continue as I was than fall into the hands of thieves and murderers let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger which sometimes are given him when he may think there is no possibility of it being real that such hints and notices are given us I believe few that have made any observation of things can deny that they are certain discoveries of an invisible world and a converse of spirits we cannot doubt and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger why should we not suppose they are from some friendly agent whether supreme or inferior and subordinate is not the question and that they are given for our good the present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of this reasoning for had I not been made cautious by this secret admonition I had been undone inevitably in a far worse condition than before as you will see presently I had not kept myself long in this posture till I saw the boat draw near the shore as if they looked for a creek to thrust in that for the convenience of landing however as they did not come quite far enough they did not see the little inlet where I formally landed my rafts but ran their boat on shore upon the beach at about half a mile from me which was very happy for me for otherwise they would have landed just at my door as I may say and would soon have beaten me out of my castle and perhaps have plundered me of all I had when they were on shore I was fully satisfied they were Englishmen at least most of them one or two I thought were Dutch but it did not prove so there were in all eleven men where of three of them I found were unarmed and as I thought bound and when the first four or five of them were jumped on shore they took those three out of the boat as prisoners one of the three I could perceive using the most passionate gestures of entry, affliction, and despair even to a kind of extravagance the other two I could perceive lifted up their hands sometimes and appeared concerned indeed but not to such a degree as the first I was perfectly confounded at the sight and knew not what the meaning of it should be Friday called out to me in English as well as he could oh master you see Englishman eat prisoner as well as savage man why Friday says I do you think they are going to eat them then yes says Friday they will eat them no says I Friday I'm afraid they will murder them indeed but you may be sure they will not eat them all this while I had no thought of what the matter really was but stood trembling with the horror of the sight expecting every moment when the three prisoners should be killed nay once I saw one of the villains lift up his arm with a great cutlass as the semen call it or sword to strike one of the poor men to see him fall every moment at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in my veins I wished heartily now for the Spaniard and the savage that had gone with him or that I had any way to have come undiscovered within shot of them that I might have secured the three men for I saw no firearms they had among them but it fell out to my mind another way after I had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by the semen I observed the fellows run scattering about the island as if they wanted to see the country I observed that the other three men had liberty to go where they pleased but they sat down all three upon the ground very pensive and looked like men in despair this put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore and began to look about me how I gave myself over for lost how wildly I looked around me with dreadful apprehensions I had and how I lodged in the tree all night for fear of being devoured by wild beasts as I knew nothing that night of the supply I was to receive by the providential driving of the ship nearer the land by the storms and tide by which I have since been so long nourished and supported so these three poor desolate men knew nothing how certain of deliverance and supply they were how near it was to them and how effectually really they were in a condition of safety at the same time that they thought themselves lost in their case desperate so little do we see before us in the world in so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great maker of the world that he does not leave his creatures so absolutely destitute but that in the worst circumstances they have always something to be thankful for and sometimes are nearer deliverance than they may imagine may are even brought to their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to their destruction it was just at high water when these people came on shore and while they rambled about to see what kind of place they were in they had carelessly stayed until the tide was spent and the water was ed considerably away leaving their boat aground they had left two men in the boat who as I found afterwards having drunk a little too much randy fell asleep however one of them waking a little sooner than the other and finding the boat too fast aground for him to stir it had load out for the rest who were straggling about upon which they all soon came to the boat but it was past all their strength to launch her the boat being very heavy in the shore on that side being a soft oozy sand almost like a quicksand in this condition like true seaman who are perhaps the least of all mankind given to forethought they gave it over and away they strolled about the country again and I heard one of them say aloud to the other calling them off from the boat why let her alone Jack can't you still float next tide by which I was fully confirmed in the main inquiry of what countrymen they were all this while I kept myself very close not once daring to stir out of my castle any farther than to my place of observation near the top of the hill and very glad I was to think how well it was fortified I knew it was no less than ten hours before the boat could float again and by that time it would be dark and I might be at more liberty to see their emotions and to hear their discourse if they had any in the meantime I fitted myself up for a battle as before though with more caution knowing I had to do with another kind of enemy than I had at first I ordered Friday also whom I had made an excellent marksman with his gun to load himself the arms I took myself two filing pieces and I gave him three muskets my figure indeed was very fierce I had a formidable goat skin coat on with a great cap I had mentioned a naked sword by my side two pistols in my belt and a gun upon each shoulder my design as I said above not to have made any attempt till it was dark but about two o'clock being the heat of the day I found that they were all gone straggling into the woods as I thought laid down to sleep the three poor distressed men too anxious for their condition to get any sleep had however sat down under the shelter of a great tree at about a quarter of a mile for me and as I thought out of sight of any of the rest upon this I resolved to discover myself to them and learn something of their condition immediately I marched as above my man Friday at a good distance behind me as formidable for his arms as I but not making quite so staring a specter like figure as I did I came as near them undiscovered as I could and then before any of them saw me I called aloud to them in Spanish what are ye gentlemen they started out at the noise but were ten times more confounded when they saw me and the uncouth figure that I made they may no answer at all but I thought I perceived them just going to fly for me when I spoke to them in English gentlemen said I do not be surprised at me perhaps you may have a friend near when you did not expect it he must be sent directly from heaven then said one of them very gravely to me in pulling off his hat at the same time to me our condition is past the help of man all help is from heaven sir said I but can you put a stranger in the way to help you for you seem to be in some great distress I saw you when you landed and when you seem to make application to the brutes that came with you I saw one of them lift up his sword to kill you the poor man with tears running down his face and trembling looked like one astonished returned am I talking to God or man is it a real man or angel be in no fear sir about that said I if God had sent an angel to you to relieve you he would have come better clothed and armed after another manner than you see me pray lay aside your fears I am a man an Englishman and disposed to assist you you see I have one servant only we have arms and ammunition tell us freely can we serve you what is your case our case sir said he is too long to tell you while our murderers are so near us but in short sir I was commander of that ship my men have mutinied against me they have been hardly prevailed on not to murder me and at last have set me on shore in this desolate place with these two men with me one my mate and the other a passenger where we expected to perish believing the place to be uninhabited and know not yet what to think of it where are these brutes your enemies said I do you know where they are gone why there they lie sir said he pointing to a thicket of trees my heart trembles for fear they have seen us and heard you speak if they have they will certainly murder us all have they any firearms said I he answered they had only two pieces one of which they left in the boat well then said I leave the rest to me I see they are all asleep it is an easy thing to kill them all but shall we rather take them prisoners he told me there were two desperate villains among them that it was scarce safe to show any mercy to but if they were secured he believed all the rest would return to their duty I asked him which they were he told me he could not at that distance distinguish them but he would obey my orders in anything I would direct well says I let us retreat out of their view or hearing lest they awake and we will resolve further so they willingly went back with me till the woods covered us from them look you sir said I if I venture upon your deliverance are you willing to make two conditions with me he anticipated my proposals by telling me that both he and his ship if recovered should be wholly directed and commanded by me in everything and if the ship was not recovered he would live and die with me in what part of the world so ever I would send him and the two other men said the same well says I my conditions are but too first that while you stay in this island with me you will not pretend to any authority here and if I put arms in your hands you will upon all occasions give them up to me and do no prejudice to me or mine upon this island and in the meantime be governed by my orders secondly that if the ship is or may be recovered you'll carry me and my man to England passage free he gave me all the assurances that the invention or faith of man could devise that he would comply with these most reasonable demands and besides would owe his life to me and acknowledge it upon all occasions so long as he lived well then said I here are three muskets for you with powder and ball tell me next what you think is proper to be done he showed all the testimonies of his gratitude that he was able but offered to be wholly guided by me I told him I thought it was very hard venturing anything but the best method I could think of was to fire on them at once as they lay and if any were not killed at the first folly and offered to submit we might save them and so put it wholly upon God's providence to direct the shot he said very modestly that he was loath to kill them if he could help it but that those two were incorrigible villains and had been the authors of all the mutiny in the ship and if they escaped we should be undone still for they would go on board the ship's company and destroy us all well then says I necessity legitimates my advice for it is the only way to save our lives however seeing him still cautious of shedding blood I told him they should go themselves and manage as they found convenient in the middle of this we heard some of them awake and soon after we saw two of them on their feet I asked him if either of them were the comrades of the mutiny he said no well then said I you may let them escape and providence seems to have awakened them on purpose to save themselves now says I if the rest escape you it is your fault animated with this he took the musket I had given him in his hand and a pistol in his belt and his two comrades with him with each a piece in his hand each one of the seamen who was awake turned about and seen them coming cried out to the rest but was too late then for the moment he cried out they fired I mean the two men the captain wisely reserving his own piece they had so well aimed their shot at the men they knew that one of them was killed on the spot and the other very much wounded but not being dead he started up on his feet and called eagerly for help to the other the captain stepping to him told him it was too late to cry for help he should call upon God to forgive his villainy and with that word knocked him down with the stock of his musket so that he never spoke more there were three more in the company and one of them was slightly wounded by this time I was come and when they saw their danger and that it was vain to resist they begged for mercy the captain told them he would spare their lives if they would give the parents of their abhorrence of the treachery they had been guilty of and would swear to be faithful to him in recovering the ship and afterwards in carrying her back to Jamaica from whence they came they gave him all the protestations of their sincerity that could be desired and he was willing to believe them and spare their lives which I was not against only that I obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot while they were on the island while this was doing I sent the captain's mate to the boat with orders to secure her and bring away the oars and sails which they did and by and by three straggling men that were happily for them parted from the rest came back from hearing the guns fired and seeing the captain who was before their prisoner now their counterer they submitted to be bound also and so our victory was complete it now remained that the captain knew one another's circumstances I began first and told him my whole history which he heard with an attention even to amazement and particularly at the wonderful manner of my being furnished with provisions and ammunition and indeed as my story is a whole collection of wonders it affected him deeply but when he reflected from thence upon himself and how I seem to have been preserved there on purpose to save his life the tears ran down his face and he could not speak a word more after this communication was at an end I carried him and his two men into my apartment leading them in just where I came out that is at the top of the house where I refreshed them with such provisions as I had and showed them all the contrivances I had made during my long long inhabiting that place all I showed them all I said to them was perfectly amazing but above all the captain admired my fortification and how perfectly I had concealed my retreat with a grove of trees which having been now planted nearly 20 years and the trees growing much faster than in England was become a little wood so thick that it was impassable in any part of it but at that one side where I had reserved my little winding passage into it I told him this was my castle and my residence but that I had a seat in the country as most princes have wither I could retreat upon occasion and I would show him that too another time but at present our business was to consider how to recover the ship he agreed with me as to that but told me he was perfectly at a loss what measures to take for that there were 6 and 20 hands still on board who having entered into a cursed conspiracy by which they had all forfeited their lives to the law would be hardened in it now by desperation and would carry it on knowing that if they were subdued they would be brought to the gallows as soon as they came to England or to any of the English colonies and that therefore there would be no attacking them with so small a number as we were I am used for some time on what he had said and found a rational conclusion and that therefore something was to be resolved on speedily as well to draw the men on board into some snare for their surprise as to prevent their landing upon us and destroying us upon this it presently occurred to me that in a little while the ship's crew wondering what was become of their comrades and of the boat would certainly come on shore and their other boat to look for them and that then perhaps they would be armed and be too strong for us this he allowed to be rational upon this I told him the first thing we had to do was to stave the boat which lay upon the beach so that they might not carry her off and taking everything out of her leave her so far useless as not to be fit to swim accordingly we went on board took the arms which were left on board out of her and whatever else we found there which was a bottle of brandy and another of rum a few biscuit cakes a horn of powder and a great lump of sugar in a piece of canvas the sugar was five or six pounds all which was very welcome to me especially the brandy and sugar of which I had had none left for many years when we had carried all these things on shore the oars, mast, sail and rudder of the boat were carried away before we knocked a great hole in her bottom that if they had come strong enough to master us yet they could not carry off the boat indeed it was not much in my thoughts that we should be able to recover the ship but my view was that if they went away without the boat I did not much question to make her again fit to carry as to the leeward islands and call upon our friends the Spaniards in my way for I had them still in my thoughts end of chapter 17 this is a lever box recording all lever box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit leverbox.org recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe chapter 18 the ship recovered while we were thus preparing our designs and had first by main strength heaved the boat upon the beach so high that the tide would not float her off at high watermark and besides had broke a hole in her bottom too big to be quickly stopped and were set down musing what we should do we heard the ship fire a gun and make a waft with her ensign as a signal for the boat to come on board but no boat stirred and they fired several times making other signals for the boat at last when all their signals and firing proved fruitless and they found the boat did not stir we saw them by the help of my glasses hoist another boat out and rode towards the shore and we found as they approached that there were no less than 10 men in her and that they had firearms with them as the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore we had a full view of them as they came and a plain sight even of their faces because the tide having set them a little to the east of the other boat they rode up under shore to come to the same place where the other had landed and where the boat lay by this means I say we had a full view of them and the captain knew the persons and characters of all the men in the boat of whom he said there were three very honest fellows who he was sure were led into this conspiracy by the rest being overpowered and frightened but that as for the Bosun who it seems was chief officer among them and all the rest they were as outrageous as any of the ship's crew and were no doubt made desperate in their new enterprise and terribly apprehensive he was that they would be too powerful for us I smiled at him and told him that men in our circumstances were past the operation of fear that seeing almost every condition that could be was better than that which we were supposed to be in we ought to expect that the consequence whether death or life would be sure to be a deliverance I asked him what he thought of the circumstances of my life and whether a deliverance was not worth venturing for and where sir said I is your belief of my being preserved here on purpose to save your life which elevated you a little while ago for my part said I there seems to be but one thing amiss in all the prospect of it what is that says he why said I it is that as you say there are three or four honest fellows among them which should be spared all of the wicked part of the crew I should have thought God's providence had singled them out to deliver them into your hands for depend upon it every man that comes ashore is our own and shall die or live as they behave to us as I spoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance I found it greatly encouraged him so we vigorously set to our business we had upon the first appearance of the boats we were coming from the ship considered of separating our prisoners and we had indeed secured them effectually two of them of whom the captain was less assured than ordinary I sent with Friday and one of the three delivered men to my cave where they were remote enough and out of danger of being heard or discovered or of finding their way out of the woods if they could have delivered themselves here they left them bound but gave them provisions and promised them if they continued their quietly to give them their liberty in a day or two but that if they attempted their escape they should be put to death without mercy they promised faithfully to bear their confinement with patience and were very grateful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and light left them for Friday gave them candles such as we made ourselves for their comfort and they did not know but that he stood sentinel over them at the entrance the other prisoners had better usage two of them were kept pinioned indeed because the captain was not able to trust them but the other two were taken into my service upon the captain's recommendation and upon their solemnly engaging to live and die with us so with them and the three honest men we were seven men well armed and I made no doubt we should be able to deal well enough with the ten that were coming considering that the captain had said there were three or four honest men among them also as soon as they got to the place where their other boat lay they ran their boat into the beach and came all on shore hauling the boat up after them which I was glad to see for I was afraid they would rather have left the boat at an anchor some distance from the shore with some hands in her to guard her and so we should not be able to seize the boat being on shore the first thing they did they ran all to their other boat and it was easy to see they were under a great surprise to find her stripped as above of all that was in her and a great hole in her bottom after they had mused a while upon this they set up two or three great shouts hallowing with all their might to try if they could make their companions here but all was to no purpose then they came all close in a ring and fired a volley of their arms which indeed we heard and the echoes made the woods ring but it was all one those in the cave we were sure could not hear and those in our keeping though they heard it well enough yet do give no answer to them they were so astonished at the surprise of this that as they told us afterwards they resolved to go all on board again to their ship and let them know they were all murdered and the long boat staved accordingly they immediately launched their boat again and got all of them on board the captain was terribly amazed and even confounded at this believing they would go on board the ship again and set sail giving their comrades over for lost and so he should still lose the ship which he was in high hopes he should have recovered but he was quickly as much frightened the other way they had not been long they were left off with the boat when we perceived them all coming on shore again but with this new measure in their conduct which it seems they consulted together upon that is to leave three men in the boat and the rest go on shore and go up into the country to look for their fellows this was a great disappointment for us for now we were at a loss what to do as our seizing those seven men on shore came to the boat escape because they would row away to the ship and then the rest of them would be sure to weigh and set sail and so our recovering the ship would be lost however we had no remedy but to wait and see what the issue of things might present the seven men came on shore and the three who remained in the boat put her off to a good distance from shore and came to an anchor to wait for them it was impossible for us to come at them in the boat those that came on shore kept close together marching towards the top of the little hill upon which my habitation lay and we could see them plainly though they could not perceive us we should have been very glad if they would have come nearer to us so that we might have fired at them or that they would have gone farther off that we might come abroad but when they were come to the brow of the hill where they could see a great way into the valleys and woods which lay towards the northeast part and where the island lay lowest they shouted and hallowed till they were weary and not caring it seems to venture far from the shore nor far from one another they sat down together under a tree to consider it had they thought fit to go to sleep there as the other part of them had done they had done the job for us but they were too full of apprehensions to venture to go to sleep even though they could not tell what the danger was they had to fear the captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation of theirs that perhaps they would all fire a volley again to endeavor to make their fellows here and that we should all sally upon them just at the juncture when their pieces were all discharged and they would certainly yield and we should have them without bloodshed I like this proposal I did it was done while we were near enough to come up to them before they could load their pieces again but this event did not happen and we lay still a long time very irresolute what course to take at length I told them there would be nothing done in my opinion till night and then if they did not return to the boat perhaps we might find a way to get between them and the shore and so might use some stratagem with them in the boat to get them on shore we waited a great while though very impatient for their removing and were very uneasy when after long consultation we saw them all start up and march down towards the sea it seems they had such dreadful apprehensions of the danger of the place that they resolved to go on board the ship again give their companions over for lost and so go on with their intended voyage with the ship as soon as I perceived them go towards the shore I imagined it to be as it really was that they had given over their search and were going back again and the captain as soon as I told him my thoughts was ready to sink at the apprehensions of it but I presently thought of a stratagem to fetch them back again and which answered my end to a tittle I ordered Friday and the captain's mate over the little creek westward towards the place where the savages came on shore when Friday was rescued and so soon as they came to a little rising round at about half a mile distant I bid them hello out as loud as they could and wait till they had found the seaman heard them that as soon as ever they heard the seaman answer them they should return it again and then keeping out of sight take around always answering when the others hallowed to draw them as far into the island and among the woods as possible and then wheel about again to me by such ways as I directed them they were just going into the boat when Friday and the mate hallowed and they presently heard them and answering ran along the shore westward towards the voice they heard when they were stopped by the creek where the water being up they could not get over the boat to come up and set them over as indeed I expected when they had set themselves over I observed that the boat being gone a good way into the creek and as it were in a harbor within the land they took one of the three men out of her to go along with them and left only two in the boat having fastened her to the stump of a little tree on the shore this was what I wished for and immediately leaving Friday and the captain's mate to their business I took the rest with me and crossing the creek out of their sight we surprised the two men before they were aware one of them lying on the shore and the other being in the boat the fellow on shore was between sleeping and waking and going to start up the captain who was foremost ran in upon him and knocked him down and then called out to him in the boat to yield or he was a dead man they needed very few arguments to persuade a single man to yield when he saw five men upon him and his comrade knocked down besides this was it seems one of the three who were not so hardy in the mutiny as the rest and therefore was easily persuaded not only to yield but afterwards to join very sincerely with us in the meantime Friday and the captain's mate so well managed their business with the rest that they drew with them by hallowing and answering from one hill to another and from one wood to another till they not only hardly tired them but left them where they were very sure they would not reach back to the boat before it was dark and indeed they were hardly tired themselves also by the time they came back to us we had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark and to fall upon them so as to make sure work with them it was several hours after Friday came back to me before they came back to their boat and we could hear the foremost of them long before they came quite up calling to those behind to come along and could also hear them answer and complain how lame and tired they were and not able to come any faster which was very welcome news to us at length they came up to the boat but it is impossible to express their confusion when they found the boat fast aground in the creek the tide ebbed out and their two men gone we could hear them call one to another in a most lamentable manner telling one another they were got into an enchanted island that either there were inhabitants in it and they should all be murdered or else there were devils and spirits in it and they should all be carried away and devoured they hallowed again and called their two comrades by their names a great many times but no answer to see them by the little light there was run about ringing their hands like men in despair and sometimes they would go and sit down in the boat to rest themselves then come ashore again and walk about again and so the same thing over again my men would fain have had me give them leave to fall upon them at once in the dark but I was willing to take them at some advantage so as to spare them and kill as few of them as I could especially I was unwilling to hazard the killing of any of our men knowing the others were very well armed. I resolved to wait to see if they did not separate and therefore to make sure of them I drew my ambuscade nearer and ordered Friday and the captain to creep upon their hands and feet as close to the ground as they could that they might not be discovered and get as near them as they could possibly before they offered to fire. They had not been long in that posture when the Bosun who was the principal ringlinger of the mutiny and had now shown himself the most dejected and dispirited of all the rest came walking towards them with two more of the crew. The captain was so eager as having this principal rogue so much in his power that he could hardly have patience to let him come so near as to be sure of him for they only had his tongue before but when they came nearer the captain and Friday starting up on their feet let fly at them. The Bosun was killed upon the spot the next band was shot in the body and fell just by him though he did not die till an hour or two after and the third ran for it. At the noise of the fire I immediately advanced with my whole army which was now eight men that is myself General Isimo and Friday my Lieutenant General the captain and his two men and the three prisoners of war whom we had trusted with arms we came upon them indeed in the dark so that they could not see our number and I made the man they had left in the boat who was now one of us to call them by name to try if I could bring them to a parley and so perhaps might reduce them to terms which fell out just as we desired for indeed it was easy to think as their condition then was they would be very willing to capitulate so he calls out as loud as he could to one of them Tom Smith Tom Smith Tom Smith answered immediately is that Robinson for it seems he knew the voice the other answered aye aye for God's sake Tom Smith throw down your arms and yield or you are all dead men this moment who must we yield to where are they says Smith again here they are says he here's our captain and 50 men with him have been hunting you these two hours the bosons killed will fry is wounded and I am a prisoner and if you do not yield you are all lost will they give us quarter then says Tom Smith and we will yield I'll go and ask if you promise to yield said Robinson so he asked the captain and the captain himself then calls out you Smith you know my voice if you lay down your arms immediately and submit you shall have your lives all but will atkins upon this will atkins cried out for God's sake captain give me quarter what have I done they have all been as bad as I which by the way was not true so will atkins was the first man that laid hold of the captain when they first mutinied and used him barbarously in tying his hands and giving him injurious language however the captain told him he must lay down his arms at discretion and trust to the governor's mercy by which he meant me for they all called me governor you know word they all laid down their arms and begged their lives and I sent the man that had parleyed with them and two more who bound them all and then my great army of fifty men which with those three were in all but eight came up and seized upon them and upon their boat only that I kept myself and one more out of sight for reasons of state our next work was to repair the boat and think of seizing the ship and as for the captain now he had leisure to parley with them he expostulated with them upon the villainy of their practices with him and upon the further wickedness of their design and how certainly it must bring them to misery and distress in the end and perhaps to the gallows they all appeared very penitent and begged hard for their lives as for that he told them they were not his prisoners but the commanders of the island that they thought they had set him on shore in a barren uninhabited island but it had pleased God to direct them that it was inhabited and that the governor was an Englishman and that he might hang them all there if he pleased but as he had given them all quarter he supposed he would send them to England to be dealt with there as justice required except Atkins whom he was commanded by the governor to advise to prepare for death for that he would be hanged in the morning though this was all but a fiction of his own yet it had its desired effect Atkins fell upon his knees to beg the captain to intercede with the governor for his life and all the rest begged of him for God's sake that they might not be sent to England it now occurred to me that the time of our deliverance was come and that it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to be hearty and getting possession of the ship so I retired in the dark from them that they might not see the kind of governor they had and called the captain to me when I called at a good distance one of the men was ordered to speak again and say to the captain captain the commander calls for you and presently the captain replied tell his excellency I am just coming this more perfectly amazed them and they all believed that the commander was just by with his 50 men upon the captain coming to me I told him my project for seizing the ship which he liked wonderfully well and resolved to put it in execution the next morning but in order to execute it with more art and to be secure of success I told him we must divide the prisoners and that he should go and take Atkins and two more of the worst of them and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay this was committed to Friday and the two men came on shore with the captain they conveyed them to the cave as to a prison and it was indeed a dismal place especially to men in their condition the others I ordered to my bower as I called it of which I have given a full description and as it was fenced in and they pinioned the place was secure enough considering they were upon their behavior to these in the morning I sent the captain who was to enter into a parley with them I ordered to try them and tell me whether he thought they might be trusted or not to go on board and surprise the ship he talked to them of the injury done him of the condition they were brought to and that though the governor had given them quarter for their lives as to the present action yet that if they were sent to England they would all be hanged in chains but that if they would join in so just an attempt as to recover this ship and have the governor's engagement for their pardon anyone may guess how readily such proposal would be accepted by men in their condition they fell down on their knees to the captain and promised with the deepest implications that they would be faithful to him to the last drop and that they should owe their lives to him and would go with him all over the world that they would own him as a father to them as long as they lived well says the captain I must go and tell the governor what you say and see what I can do to bring him to consent to it so he brought me an account of the temper he found them in and that he verily believed they would be faithful however that we might be very secure I told him he should go back and choose out those five and tell them that they might see he did not want men that he would take out those five and see his assistance and that the governor would keep the other two and the three that were sent prisoners to my castle that is my cave as hostages for the fidelity of those five and that if they proved unfaithful in the execution the five hostages should be hanged in chains alive on the shore this looked severe and convinced them that the governor was an earnest however they had no way left but to accept it and it was now the business of the prisoners as much as of the captain to persuade the other five to do their duty our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition first the captain his mate and passenger second the two prisoners of the first gang to whom having their character from the captain I had given their liberty and trusted them with arms third the other two that I had kept till now in my bower penioned but on the captain's motion and now released fourth these five released at last so that there were twelve and all besides five we kept prisoners in the cave for hostages I asked the captain if he was willing to venture with these hands on board the ship but as for me and my man Friday I did not think it was proper for us to stir having seven men left behind and it was employment enough for us to keep them asunder and supply them with victuals as to the five in the cave I resolved to keep them fast but Friday went in twice a day to them to supply them with necessaries and I made the other two carry provisions to a certain distance where Friday was to take them when I showed myself to the two hostages it was with the captain who told them that it was the person the governor had ordered to look after them and that it was the governor's pleasure they should not stir anywhere but by my direction that if they did they would be fetched into the castle and be laid in irons so that as we never suffered them to see me as governor I now appeared as another person and spoke of the governor the garrison the castle and the like upon all occasions the captain now had no difficulty before him but to furnish his two boats stopped the breach of one and manned them he made his passenger captain of one with four of the men and himself his mate and five more went in the other and they contrived their business very well for they came up to the ship about midnight as soon as they came within call of the ship he made Robinson hail them and tell them that they had brought off the men in the boat but that it was a long time before they had found them and the like holding them in a chat until they came to the ship's side when the captain and the mate entering first with their arms immediately knocked down the second mate and the carpenter with the butt end of their muskets being very faithfully seconded by their men they secured all the rest that were upon the main and quarter decks and began to fasten the hatches to keep them down that were below when the other boat and their men entering at the four chains secured the forecastle of the ship and the scuttle which went down into the cook room making three men they found there prisoners when this was done and all safe upon deck the captain ordered the mate with three men to break into the roundhouse the new rebel captain lay who having taken the alarm had got up and with two men and a boy had got firearms in their hands and when the mate with the crow split open the door the new captain and his men fired boldly among them and wounded the mate with the musket ball which broke his arm and wounded two more of the men but killed nobody the mate calling for help rushed however into the roundhouse wounded as he was this pistol shot the new captain through the head the bullet entering at his mouth and came out again behind one of his ears so that he never spoke a word more upon which the rest yielded and the ship was taken effectually without any more lives lost as soon as the ship was thus secured the captain ordered seven guns to be fired which was the signal agreed upon with me to give me notice of his success which you may be sure I was very glad to hear having sat watching upon the shore for it till near two o'clock in the morning having thus heard the signal plainly I laid me down and it having been a day of great fatigue to me I slept very sound till I was surprised with the noise of a gun and presently starting up I heard a man call me by the name of Governor and presently I knew the captain's voice when climbing up to the top of the hill there he stood and pointing to the ship he embraced me in his arms my dear friend and deliverer says he there's your ship for she is all yours and so are we and all that belong to her I cast my eyes to the ship and there she rode a little more than half a mile of the shore for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters of her and the weather being fair had brought her to an anchor just against the mouth of the little creek and the tide being up the captain had brought the penis in near the place where I had first landed my rafts and so landed just at my door I was at first ready to sink down with surprise for I saw my deliverance indeed visibly put into my hands all things easy and a large ship just ready to carry me away wither I pleased to go at first for some time I was not able to answer him one word but as he had taken me in his arms I held fast by him or I should have fallen to the ground he perceived the surprise and immediately pulled out a bottle from his pocket and gave me a drum of gorgil which he had brought on purpose for me after I had drunk it I sat down upon the ground and though it brought me to myself yet it was a good while before I could speak a word to him all this time the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I only not under any surprise I was and he said a thousand kind and tender things to me to compose and bring me to myself but such was the flood of joy in my breast that it put all my spirits into confusion at last it broke out into tears and in a little while after I recovered my speech I then took my turn and embraced him as my deliverer and we rejoiced together I told him I looked upon him as a man sent by heaven to deliver me and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain of wonders that such things as these were the testimonies we had of a secret hand of providence governing the world and evidence that the eye of infinite power could search into the remotest corner of the world and send help to the miserable whenever he pleased I forgot not to lift up my heart in thankfulness to heaven and what heart could forbear to bless him who had not only in a miraculous manner provided for me in such a wilderness and in such a desolate condition but from whom every deliverance would always be acknowledged to proceed when we had talked a while the captain told me he had brought me some little refreshment such as the ship afforded and such as the wretches that had been so long his masters had not plundered him of upon this he called aloud to the boat and bade his men bring the things ashore that were for the governor and indeed it was a present as if I had been one not to be carried away with them but as if I had been to dwell upon the island still first he had brought me a case of bottles full of excellent cordial waters six large bottles of Madeira wine the bottle sell two quarts each two pounds of excellent good tobacco twelve good pieces of the ship's beef and six pieces of pork with a bag of peas and about a biscuit he also brought me a box of sugar a box of flour a bag full of lemons and two bottles of lime juice and abundance of other things but besides these and what was a thousand times more useful to me he brought me six new clean shirts six very good neckcloths two pair of gloves one pair of shoes a hat and one pair of stockings with a very good suit of clothes of his own which had been worn by very little in a word he clothed me from head to foot it was a very kind and agreeable present as anyone may imagine to one in my circumstances but never was anything in the world of that kind so unpleasant awkward and uneasy as it was to me to wear such clothes at first after these ceremonies were passed and after all his good things were brought into my little apartment we began to consult what was to be done with the prisoners we had for it was worth considering whether we might venture to take them with us or no especially two of them whom he knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree and the captain said he knew they were such rogues that there was no obliging them and if he did carry them away it must be in irons as malefactors to be delivered over to justice at the first English colony he could come to and I found that the captain himself was very anxious about it upon this I told him that if he desired it I would undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own request that he should leave them upon the island I should be very glad of that said the captain with all my heart well says I I will send for them and talk with them for you so I caused Friday and the two hostages for they were now discharged their comrades having performed their promise I say I caused them to go to the cave and bring up the five men pinion as they were to the bower and keep them there till I came after some time I came that they're dressed in my new habit and now I was called governor again being all met and the captain with me I caused the men to be brought before me and I told them I had got a full account of their villainous behavior to the captain and how they had run away with the ship and were preparing to commit further robberies but that Providence had ensnared them in their own ways and that they were fallen into the pit which they had dug for others I let them know that by my direction the ship had been seized that she lay now in the road and they might see by and by that their new captain had received the reward of his and that they would see him hanging at the yard arm that as to them I wanted to know what they had to say why I should not execute them as pirates taken by the fact as by my commission they could not doubt but I had authority so to do one of them answered in the name of the rest that they had nothing to say but this that when they were taken the captain promised them their lives and they humbly implored my mercy but I told them I knew not what mercy to show them for as for myself I had resolved to quit the island with all my men and had taken passage with the captain to go to England and as for the captain he could not carry them to England other than as prisoners and irons to be tried for mutiny and running away with the ship the consequence of which they must needs know would be the gallows so that I could not tell them what was best for them unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island if they desired that as I had liberty to leave the island I had some inclination to give them their lives if they thought they could shift on shore they seemed very thankful for it and said they would much rather venture to stay there than be carried to England to be hanged so I left it on that issue however the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it as if he durst not leave them there upon this I seemed a little angry with the captain and told him that they were my prisoners not his and that scene I had offered them so much favor I would be as good as my word and that if he did not fit to consent to it I would set them at liberty as I found them and if he did not like it he might take them again if he could catch them upon this they appeared very thankful and I accordingly set them at liberty and bade them retire into the woods to the place whence they came and I would leave them some firearms some ammunition and some directions how they should live very well if they thought fit upon this I would prepare to go on board the ship but told the captain I would stay that night to prepare my things and desired him to go on board in the meantime and keep all right in the ship and send the boat on shore next day for me ordering him and all events to cause the new captain who was killed to be hanged at the yarn arm that these men might see him when the captain was gone I sent for the men up to me to my apartment and entered seriously into discourse with them on their circumstances I told them I thought that they had made a right choice that if the captain had carried them away they would certainly be hanged I showed them the new captain hanging at the yarn arm of the ship and told them they had nothing less to expect when they had all declared their willingness to stay I told them I would let them into the story of my living there and put them into the way of making it easy to them accordingly I gave them the whole history of the place and of my coming to it showed them my fortifications the way I made my bread planted my corn cured my grapes and in a word all that was necessary to make them easy I told them the story of the 17 Spaniards that were to be expected for whom I had left a letter and made them promise to treat them in common with themselves here it may be noted that the captain who had ink on board was greatly surprised that I never hit upon a way of making ink of charcoal and water or of something else as I had done things much more difficult I left them my firearms that is five muskets three following pieces and three swords I had above a barrel and a half of powder left for after the first year or two I used but little and wasted none I gave them a description of the way I managed the goats and directions to milk and to fatten them and to make both butter and cheese in a word I gave them every part of my own story and told them I should prevail with the captain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder more and some garden seeds which I told them I would have been very glad of also I gave them the bag of peas which the captain had brought me to eat and made them to be sure to sow and increase them end of chapter 18 this is a Librebox recording all Librebox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librebox.org recorded by Dennis Sayers in Modesto, California Winter 2006 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Chapter 19 Return to England Having done all this I left them the next day and went on board the ship we prepared immediately to sail but did not way that night the next morning early two of the five men came swimming to the ship side and making the most lamentable complaint of the other three begged to be taken into the ship for God's sake for they should be murdered and begged to the captain to take them on board though he hanged them immediately upon this the captain pretended to have no power without me but after some difficulty and after their solemn promises they were taken on board and were some time after soundly whipped and pickled after which they proved very honest and quiet fellows some time after this the boat was ordered on shore the tide being up and with the things promised to the men to which the captain at my intercession caused their chests and clothes to be added which they took and were very thankful for I also encouraged them by telling them that if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take them in I would not forget them when I took leave of this island I carried on board for relics the great goat skin cap I had made my umbrella and one of my parents also I forgot not to take the money I formally mentioned which I had lain by me so long useless that it was grown rusty or tarnished and could hardly pass for silver till it had been a little rubbed and handled as also the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship and thus I left the island the 19th of December as I found by the ship's account in the year of 1686 after I had been upon it 8 and 20 years 2 months and 19 days being delivered from this second captivity the same day of the month that I first made my escape in the longboat from among the moors of Silly in this vessel after a long voyage I arrived in England the 11th of June in the year 1687 having been 35 years absent when I came to England I was as perfect a stranger to all the world as if I had never been known there my benefactor and faithful steward whom I had left my money in trust with was alive but had had great misfortunes in the world was become a widow the second time and very low in the world I made her very easy as to what she owed me assuring her I would give her no trouble but on the contrary in gratitude for her former care and faithfulness to me I relieved her as my little stock would afford which at that time would indeed allow me to do but little for her but I assured her I would never forget her former kindness to me nor did I forget her when I had sufficient to help her as she'll be observed in its proper place I went down afterwards to Yorkshire but my father was dead and my mother and all the family extinct except that I found two sisters and two of the children of one of my brothers and as I had long been given over for dead there had been no provision made for me so that in a word I found nothing to relieve or assist me and that the little money I had would not do much for me as to settling in the world I met with one piece of gratitude indeed which I did not expect and this was that the master of the ship whom I had so happily delivered and by the same means saved the ship and cargo having given a very handsome account to the owners of the manner how I had saved the lives of the men and the ship they invited me to meet them and all together made me a very handsome compliment upon the subject and a present of almost 200 pounds sterling but after making several reflections upon the circumstances of my life and how little way this would go toward settling me in the world I resolved to go to Lisbon and see if I might not come at some information of the state of my plantation in the Brazils and of what my partner who I had reason to suppose had some years past given me over for dead with this view I took shipping for Lisbon where I arrived in April following my man Friday accompanying me very honestly and all these ramblings and proving a most faithful servant upon all occasions when I came to Lisbon I found out by inquiry and to my particular satisfaction my old friend the captain of the ship who first took me up at sea off the shore of Africa he was now grown old and had left off going to sea having put his son who was far from a young man into a ship and who still used the brazil trade the old man did not know me and indeed I hardly knew him but I soon brought him to my remembrance and as soon brought myself to his remembrance when I told him who I was after some passionate expressions of the old acquaintance between us I inquired, you may be sure after my plantation and my partner the old man told me he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years but that he could assure me that when he came away my partner was living but the trustees whom I had joined with him to take cognizance of my part were both dead that however he believed I would have a very good account of the improvement of the plantation for that upon the general belief of being my cast away and drowned my trustees had given the account of the produce of my part of the plantation to the Procurator Fiscal who had appropriated it in case I never came to claim it one third to the king and two thirds to the monastery of St. Augustine to be expended for the benefit of the poor and for the conversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith but that if I appeared or anyone for me to claim the inheritance it would be restored only that the improvement or annual production being distributed to charitable uses could not be restored but he assured me that the steward of the king's revenue from lands and the providore or steward of the monastery had taken great care all along that the incumbent gave every year a faithful account of the produce of which they had duly received my moiety I asked them if he knew to what height of improvement he had brought to the plantation and whether he thought it might be worth looking after or whether on my going dither I should meet with any obstruction to my possessing my just right in the moiety he told me he could not tell exactly to what degree the plantation was improved but this he knew that my partner was grown exceedingly rich upon the enjoying his part of it and that to the best of his remembrance he had heard that the king's third of my part which was it seems granted away to some other monastery or religious house amounted to above 200 moidores a year that as to my being restored to a quiet possession of it and to be made of that my partner being alive to witness my title and my name being also enrolled in the registry of the country also he told me that the survivors of my two trustees were very fair honest people and very wealthy and he believed I would not only have their assistance for putting me in possession but would find a very considerable sum of money in their hands for my account being the produce of the farm while their fathers held the trust and before it was given up as above which as he remembered was for about 12 years I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account and inquired of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees should thus dispose of my effects when he knew that I had made my will and had made him the Portuguese captain of the Royal Air etc he told me that was true but that as there was no proof of my being dead he could not act as executor until some certain account should come of my death and besides he was not willing to intermetal with a thing so remote that it was true he had registered my will and put in his claim and could he have given any account of my being dead or alive and taken possession of the Inheño so they called the sugar house and have given his son who was now at the Brazils orders to do it but says the old man I have one piece of news to tell you which perhaps may not be so acceptable to you as the rest and that is believing you were lost and all the world believing so also your partner and trustees did offer to account with me in your name for the first six or eight years of profits which I received there being at that time great disbursements for increasing the works building and Inheño and buying slaves it did not amount to near so much as afterwards it produced however says the old man I shall give you a true account of what I have received and all and how I have disposed of it after a few further days conference with this ancient friend he brought me an account of the first six years income of my plantation signed by my partner and the merchant trustees being always delivered in goods that is tobacco and roll and sugar and chests besides rum, molasses etc which is the consequence of a sugar work and I found by this account that every year the income considerably increased but as above the disbursements being large some at first was small however the old man let me see that he was a debtor to me four hundred and seventy moydorties of gold besides sixty chests of sugar and fifteen double rolls of tobacco which were lost in his ship he having been shipwrecked coming home to Lisbon about eleven years after my having the place the good man then began to complain of his misfortunes and how he had been obliged to use of my money to cover his losses and buy him a share in a new ship however my old friend says he you shall not want a supply in your necessity and as soon as my son returns you shall be fully satisfied upon this he pulls out an old pouch and gives me one hundred and sixty portugal moydorties in gold and giving the writings of his title to the ship and he fills in of which he was quarter part owner and his son another he puts them both into my hands for security of the rest I was too much moved with the honesty and kindness of the poor man to be able to bear this and remembering what he had done for me how he had taken me up at sea and how generously he had used me on all occasions and particularly how sincere he was to me I could hardly refrain from weeping at what he had said to me therefore I asked him if his circumstances admitted him to spare so much money at that time and if it would not straighten him he told me he could not say but it might straighten him a little but however it was my money and I might want it more than he everything the good man said and I could hardly refrain from tears while he spoke in short I took one hundred of the moradores and called for a pen and ink to give him a receipt for them then I returned him the rest and told him if ever I had possession of the plantation I would return the other to him as well as indeed I afterwards did and that as to the bill of sale of his part and his sonship I would not take it by any means but that if I wanted the money I found he was honest enough to pay me and if I did not but came to receive what he gave me reason to expect I would never have a penny more from him when this was passed the old man asked me if he should put me into a method to make a claim to my plantation I told him I thought to go over to it myself and I might do so if I pleased but that if I did not there were ways enough to secure my right and immediately to appropriate the profits to my use and as there were ships in the river of Lisbon just ready to go away to Brazil he made me enter my name in a public register with his affidavit affirming upon oath that I was alive and that I was the same person planting the said plantation at first this being regularly attested by a notary and a procuration affixed he directed me to send it with a letter of his writing to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place and then proposed my staying with him till an account came of the return never was anything more honorable than the proceedings upon this procuration for in less than seven months I received a large packet from the survivors of my trustees the merchants for whose account I went to see in which were the following particular papers and letters enclosed first there was the account current of the produce of my farm or plantation from the year when their fathers had balanced with my old Portugal captain being six years the balance appeared to be 1,174 moidores in my favor secondly there was the account of four years more while they kept the effects in their hands before the government claimed the administration as being the effects of a person not to be found which they called civil death and the balance of this the value of the plantation increasing amounted to 19,446 cruzadois being about 3,240 moidores thirdly there was the prior of St. Augustine's account who had received the profits for above 14 years but not being able to account for what was disposed of by the hospital very honestly declared he had 872 moidores not distributed which he acknowledged to my account to the kings part they refunded nothing there was a letter of my partners congratulating me very affectionately upon my being alive giving me an account how the estate was improved and what it produced a year with the particulars of the number of squares or acres that it contained how planted how many slaves there were upon it and making two and twenty crosses for blessings told me that he had said so many ave marias to thank the blessed virgin that I was alive inviting me very passionately to come over and take possession of my own and in the meantime to give him orders to whom he should deliver my effects if I did not come myself concluding with a hearty tender of his friendship and that is family and sent me as a present seven fine leopard skins which he had it seems received from Africa some other ship that he had sent didder and which it seems had made a better voyage than I he sent me also five chests of excellent sweet meats and a hundred pieces of gold uncoined not quite so large as moidores by the same fleet my two merchant trustees shipped me one thousand two hundred chests of sugar eight hundred rolls of tobacco and the rest of the whole account in gold I might well say now and indeed that the latter end of Job was better than the beginning it is impossible to impress the flutterings of my heart when I found all my wealth about me for as the Brazil ships come all in fleets the same ships which brought my letters brought my goods and the effects were safe in the river before the letters came to my hand in a word I turned pale and grew sick and had not the old man run and fetched me a cordial I believe the sudden surprise of joy had overset nature and I had died upon the spot nay after that I continued very ill and was so for some hours till a physician being sent for and something of the real cause of my illness being known he ordered me to be let blood after which I had relief and grew well but I verily believe if I had not been let and eased by event given in that manner to the spirits I should have died I was now master all of a sudden of about five thousand pounds sterling in money and had an estate as I might well call it in the brazils of a thousand pounds a year as sure as in a state of lands in england and in a word I was in a condition which I scarce knew how to understand or how to compose myself for the enjoyment of it the first thing I did was to recompense my original benefactor my good old captain who had been first charitable to me in my distress kind to me in my beginning and honest to me at the end I showed him all that was sent to me I told him that next to the providence of heaven which disposed all things it was owing to him and that it now lay on me to reward him which I would do a hundred fold so I first returned to him the hundred moidores I had received of him then I sent for a notary and caused him to draw up a general release or discharge from the 470 moidores which he had acknowledged he owed me in the fullest and firmest manner possible after which I caused a procuration to be drawn empowering him to be the receiver of the annual profits of my plantation and appointing my partner to account with him and make the returns by the usual fleets to him in my name and by a clause in the end made a grant of one hundred moidores a year to him during his life out of the effects and fifty moidores a year to a son after him for his life and thus I requited my old man I had now to consider which way to steer my course next and what to do with the estate that providence had thus put into my hands and indeed I had more care upon my head now than I had in my state of life in the island where I wanted nothing but what I had and had nothing but what I wanted whereas I had now a great charge upon me and my business was how to secure it I had not a cave now to hide my money in or a place where it might lie without locker key till it grew moldy and tarnished before anybody would meddle with it so that I knew not where to put it or whom to trust it with my old patron the captain indeed was honest and that was the only refuge I had in the next place my interest in the brazil seemed to summon me thither but now I could not tell how to think of going thither till I had settled my affairs and left my effects and some safe hands behind me at first I thought of my old friend Widow who I knew was honest and would be just to me but then she was in years but poor and for ought I knew might be in debt so that in a word I had no way but to go back to England myself and take my effects with me it was some months however before I resolved upon this and therefore as I had rewarded the old captain fully and to his satisfaction who had been my former benefactor so I began to think of the poor Widow whose husband had been my first benefactor and she while it was in her power my faithful steward and instructor so the first thing I did I got a merchant in Lisbon to write to his correspondent in London not only to pay a bill but to go find her out and carry her in money a hundred pounds for me and to talk with her and comfort her in her poverty by telling her she should if I lived have a further supply at the same time I sent my two sisters in the country a hundred pounds each they being though not in want yet not in very good circumstances one having been married and left a widow and the other having a husband not so kind to her as he should be but among all my relations or acquaintances I could not yet pitch upon one I dursed commit the gross of my stock that I might go away to the Brazils and leave things safe behind me and this greatly perplexed me I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils and have settled myself there for I was as it were naturalized to the place but I had some little scruple in my mind about religion which insensibly drew me back however it was not religion that kept me from going there for the present and as I had made no scruple of being openly of the religion of the country all the while I was among them so neither did I yet only that now and then having of late thought more of it than formerly when I began to think of living and dying among them I began to regret having professed myself a papist and thought it might not be the best religion to die with but as I have said this was not the main thing that kept me from going to the Brazils but that I really did not know with whom to leave my effects behind me so I resolved at last to go to England where if I arrived I concluded that I should make some acquaintance or find some relations that would be faithful to me and accordingly I prepared to go to England with all my wealth in order to prepare things for my going home. I first the Brazil fleet being just gone away resolved to give answers suitable to the just and faithful account of things I had from thence and first to the prior of St. Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks for his just dealings and the offer of the 872 monitoris which were undisposed of which I desired might be given 500 to the monastery and 372 to the poor as the prior should direct desiring the good Padres prayers for me and the like I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees with all the acknowledgement that so much justice and honesty called for as for sending them any present they were far above having any occasion of it lastly I wrote to my partner acknowledging his industry in the improving the plantation and his integrity in increasing the stock of the works giving him instructions for his future government of my part according to the powers I had left with my old patron to whom I desired him to send whatever became due to me till he should hear from me more particularly assuring him that it was my intention not only to come to him but to settle myself there for the remainder of my life to this I added a very handsome present of some Italian silks for his wife and two daughters for such the captain son informed me he had with two pieces of fine English broad cloth the best I could find in Lisbon five pieces of black bays and some Flanders lace of a good value having thus settled my affairs sold my cargo and turned all my effects into good bills of exchange my next difficulty was which way to go to England I had been accustomed enough to the sea and yet I had a strange aversion to go to England by the sea at that time and yet I could not give reason for it still the difficulty increased upon me so much that though I had once shipped my baggage in order to go yet I altered my mind and that not once but two or three times it is true I had been very unfortunate by sea and this might be one of the reasons but let no man slight the strong impulses of his own thoughts in cases of such a moment two of the ships which I had singled out to go in I mean more particularly singled out than any other having put my things on board one of them and in the other having agreed with captain I say two of these ships miscarried one was taken by the Algerians and the other was lost on the start near Torbay and all the people drowned except three so that in either of those vessels I had been made miserable having thus been harassed in my thoughts my old pilot to whom I communicated everything pressed me earnestly not to go by sea but either to go by land to the groin and cross over by the Bay of Biscay to Rochelle from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land to Paris and so to Calais and Dover or to go up to Madrid and so all the way by land through France in a word I was so pre-possessed against my going by sea at all except from Calais to Dover that I resolved to travel all the way by land which as I was not in haste and did not value the charge was by much the pleasanter way and to make it more so my old captain brought an English gentleman the son of a merchant in Lisbon who was willing to travel with me after which we picked up two more English merchants also and two young Portuguese gentlemen the last going to Paris only so that in all there were six of us and five servants the two merchants and the two Portuguese contenting themselves with one servant between two to save the charge and as for me I got an English sailor to travel with me as a servant besides my man Friday who was too much a stranger to be capable of supplying the place of servant on the road in this manner I set out from Lisbon and our company being very well mounted and armed we made a little troop whereof they did me the honor to call me captain as well because I was the oldest man as because I had two servants and indeed was the origin of the whole journey as I have troubled you with none of my sea journals so I shall trouble you now with none of my land journals but some adventures that happen to us in this tedious and difficult journey I must not omit when we came to Madrid we being all of us strangers to Spain were willing to stay some time to see the court of Spain and what was worth observing but it being the latter part of the summer we hastened away and set out from Madrid about the middle of October but when we came to the edge of Navarre we were alarmed at several towns on the way with an account that so much snow was falling on the French side of the mountains that several travelers were obliged to come back to Pampiluna after having attempted at an extreme hazard to pass on when we came to Pampiluna itself we found it so indeed and to me that had been always used to a hot climate and to countries where there's bare any clothes on the cold was insufferable nor indeed was it more painful than surprising to come but ten days before out of old Castile where the weather was not only warm but very hot and immediately to feel a wind from the Perinean mountains so very keen so severely cold as to be intolerable and to endanger benumbing of our fingers and toes poor Friday was really frightened when he saw the mountains all covered with snow and felt cold weather which he had never seen or felt before in his life to mend the manner when we came to Pampiluna it continued snowing with so much violence and so long that the people said winter was come before its time and the roads which were difficult were quite impassable for in a word the snow lay in some places too thick for us to travel and being not hard frozen as is the case in the northern countries there was no going without being in danger of being buried alive every step we stayed no less than 20 days at Pampiluna when seeing the weather coming on and no likelihood of its being better for it was the severest winter all over Europe had been known in the memory of man I propose that we should go away to Fontarabia and there take shipping for Bordeaux which was a very little voyage but while I was considering this there came in four French gentlemen who having been stopped on the French side of the passes as we were on the Spanish had found out a guide who traversing the country near the head of Landoc had brought them over the mountains by such ways that they were not much incommodated by the snow for where they met with snow in any quantity they said it was frozen hard enough to bear them and their horses we sent for this guide who told us he would undertake to carry us the same way with no hazard from the snow provided we were armed sufficiently to protect ourselves from wild beasts for he said in these great snows it was frequent for some wolves to show themselves at the foot of the mountains being made ravenous for want of food the ground being covered with snow we told him we were well enough prepared for such creatures as they were if he would insure us from a kind of two-legged wolves which we were told we were in most danger from especially on the French side of the mountains he satisfied us that there was no danger of that kind in the way that we were to go readily agreed to follow him as did also 12 other gentlemen with their servants some French some Spanish who as I said had attempted to go and were obliged to come back again accordingly we set out from Pompiluna with our guide on the 15th of November and indeed I was surprised when instead of going forward we came directly back with us on the same road that we came from Madrid about 20 miles when having passed two rivers and come into the plain country we found ourselves in a warm climate again where the country was pleasant and no snow to be seen but on a sudden turning to his left he approached the mountains another way and though it is true the hills and precipices looked dreadful yet he made so many tours such meanders and led us by such winding ways that we insensibly passed the height of the mountains without being much encumbered with the snow and all of a sudden he showed us the pleasant and fruitful provinces of Landoc and Gascony all green and flourishing though at a great distance and we had some rough way to pass still we were a little uneasy however when we found it snowed one whole day and a night so fast that we could not travel but he bid us be easy we should soon be passed at all we found indeed that we began to descend every day and to come more north than before and so depending upon our guide we went on it was about two hours before night when our guide being something before us and not just in sight out rushed three monstrous wolves and after them a bear from a hollow way adjoining it would two of the wolves made at the guide and had even farmed for us he would have been devoured before we could have helped him one of them fastened upon his horse and the other attacked the man with such violence that he had not time or presence of mind enough to draw his pistol but hallowed and cried out to us most lustily my man Friday being next to me I bade him right up and see what was the matter this Friday came inside of the man he hallowed out as loud as the other oh master, oh master but like a bold fellow rode directly up to the poor man and with his pistol shot the wolf in the head that attacked him it was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday for having been used to such creatures in his country he had no fear upon him but went close up to him and shot him whereas any other of us would have fired at a farther distance and had perhaps either missed the wolf or endangered shooting the man but it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I and indeed it alarmed all our company when with the noise of Friday's pistol we heard on both sides the most dismal howling of wolves and the noise redoubled by the echo of the mountains appeared to us as if there had been a prodigious number of them and perhaps there was not such a few as that we had no cause of apprehension however as Friday had killed this wolf the other that had fastened upon the horse left him immediately and fled without doing him any damage having happily fastened upon his head where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth but the man was most hurt for the raging and the butcher had bit him twice once in the arm and the other time a little above his knee and though he had made some defense he was just tumbling down by the disorder of his horse when Friday came up and shot the wolf it is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday's pistol we all mended our pace and rode up as fast as the way which was very difficult would give us leave as soon as we came clear of the trees which blinded us before we saw clearly what was the case and how Friday had disengaged the poor guide though we did not presently discern what kind of creature it was he had killed end of chapter 19 20 fight between Friday and the bear but never was a fight manning so heartily and in such a surprising manner as that which followed between Friday and the bear all though at first we were surprised and afraid for him the greatest diversion imaginable as the bear is a heavy clumsy creature and does not gallop as the wolf does who is swift and light so he has two particular qualities which generally are the rule of his actions first as to men who are not his proper prey he does not usually attempt them except they first attack him unless he be excessively hungry which it is probable might now be the case the ground being covered with snow if you do not meddle with him he will not meddle with you but then you must take care to be very civil to him and give him the road for he is a very nice gentleman he will not go a step out of his way for a prince nay if you are really afraid your best way is to look around your way to go and keep going for sometimes if you stop and stand still and look steadfastly at him he takes it for an affront but if you throw or toss anything at him though it were but a stick as big as your finger he thinks himself abused and sets all other business aside to pursue his revenge and will have his satisfaction in point of honor that is his first quality the next is if he be once affronted he will never leave you night or day till he has his revenge but follows at a good round rate till he overtakes you my man Friday had delivered our guide and when we came up to him he was helping him off his horse for the man was both hurt and frightened when on a sudden we aspired the bear come out of the wood and the monstrous one it was the biggest by far that ever I saw we were all a little surprised when we saw him but when Friday saw him it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow's countenance oh oh oh says Friday three times pointing to him oh master you give me to leave me shake you to hand with him me make you good laugh I was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased the fool says I he will eat you up eating me up eating me up says Friday twice over again me eating him up me making you good laugh you all stay here me show you good laugh so down he sits and gets off his boots in a moment and puts on a pair of pumps as we call the flat shoes they wear and what she had in his pocket gives my other servant his horse and with his gun away he flew swift like the wind the bear was walking softly on and offered to meddle with nobody till Friday coming pretty near calls to him as if the bear could understand him harky harky says Friday we speak with you he followed at a distance for now being down on the gasketing side of the mountains we were entered a vast forest where there was country plain and pretty open though it had many trees and it scattered here and there Friday who had as we say the heels of the bear came up with him quickly and took up a great stone and threw it at him and hit him just on the head but did him no more harm than if he had thrown it against a wall but it answered Friday's end for the rogue was so void of fear that he did it purely to make the bear follow him and show us some laugh as he called it as soon as the bear felt the blow and saw him he turns about and comes after him making very long strides and shuffling on a strange rate so as he would have put a horse to a middling gallop away rains Friday and takes his course as if he ran towards us for help so we all resolved to fire at once upon the bear and deliver my man though I was angry at him for bringing the bear back upon us when he was going about his own business another way and especially I was angry that he had turned the bear upon us and ran away and I called out you dog is this making us laugh come away and take your horse that we may shoot the creature he heard me and cried out no shoot no shoot stand still and you get much laugh and as the nimble creature read two feet for the bears one he turned on a sudden on one side of us and seeing a great oak tree fit for his purpose he beckoned us to follow and doubling his pace and taking his gun down upon the ground at about five or six yards from the bottom of the tree the bear soon came to the tree and we followed at a distance the first thing he did he stopped at the gun smelt at it but let it lie and up he scrambles into the tree climbing like a cat though so monstrous heavy I was amazed at the volley as I thought it of my man and could not especially to laugh at till seeing the bear get up the tree we all rode near to him when we came to the tree there was friday got out on the small end of a large branch and the bear got out about halfway to him and as soon as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was weaker ha says he to us now you see me teachy the bear dance so he began jumping the bow at which the bear began to totter but stood still and began to look behind him to see how he should get back then indeed we did laugh heartily but friday had not done with him by a great deal when seeing him stand still he called out to him again and as if he had supposed the bearer could speak english what you come no farther pray you come farther so he left jumping and shaking the tree and the bear just as if he understood what he said did come a little farther then he began jumping again and the bear stopped again we thought now was a good time to knock him in the head and call to friday to stand still and we would shoot the bear but he cried out earnestly oh pray oh pray no shoot me shoot by and then he would have said by and by however to shorten the story friday danced so much and the bear stood so ticklish that we had laughing enough but still could not imagine what the fellow would do for first we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off and we found the bear was too cunning for that too for he would not go out far enough to be thrown down but clung fast with his great broad claws and feet so that we could not imagine what would be the end of it and what the jest of it would be at last but friday put us out of doubt quickly for seeing the bear cling fast to the bow and that he would not be persuaded to come any farther well well since friday you come no farther me go you know come to me we come to you and upon this he went out to the smaller end where it would bend with his weight and gently let himself down by it sliding down the bow till he came near enough to jump down on his feet and away he ran to his gun took it up and stood still well said I to friday what will you do now why don't you shoot him you'll shoot says friday no yet me shoot now me no kill me stay give you one more laugh and indeed so he did for when the bear saw his enemy gone he came back from the bow where he stood but did it very cautiously looking behind him every step and coming backward till he got onto the body of the tree then the same hinder and foremost he came down the tree grasping it with his claws and moving one foot at a time very leisurely at this juncture and just before he could set his hind foot on the ground friday stepped up close to him clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear and shot him dead then the rogue turned about to see if we did not laugh and when he saw we were pleased by our looks he began to laugh very loud so we killed bear in my country says friday so you killed him says I why you have no guns no says he no gun but shoot great much long arrow this was a good diversion to us but we were still in a wild place and our guide very much hurt and what to do we hardly knew the howling of wolves ran much in my head and indeed except the noise I once heard on the shore of Africa of which I have said something already I never heard anything that filled me with such horror these things and the approach of night called us off or else as friday would have had us we would certainly have taken the skin of this monstrous creature off which was worth saving but we had near three leagues to go and our guide hastened us so we left him and went forward on our journey the ground was still covered with snow though not so deep and dangerous as on the mountains and the ravenous creatures as we heard afterwards were come down into the plain country pressed by hunger to seek for food and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages where they surprised the country people killed a great many of their sheep and horses and some people too we had one dangerous place to pass and our guide told us if there were more wolves in the country we should find them there and this was a small plane surrounded with woods on every side and a long narrow defile or lane which we were to pass to get through the wood and then we were to come to the village where we were to lodge it was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the wood and a little after sunset when we came into the plane we met with nothing in the first wood except that in a little plane within the wood which was not above two furlongs over we saw five great wolves cross the road full speed one after another as if they had been in chase of some prey and had it in view they took no notice of us and were gone quite out of sight in a few moments upon this our guide who by the way was but a faint hearted fellow bid us keep in a ready posture for he believed there were more wolves coming we kept our arms ready and our eyes above us but we saw no more wolves till we came into the wood which was near half a league and entered the plane as soon as we came into the plane we had occasion enough to look about us the first object we met was with a dead horse that is to say a poor horse which the wolves had killed and at least a dozen of them at work we could not say eating him but picking his bones rather for they had eaten up all the flesh before we did not think fit to disturb them at their feast neither did they take much notice of us Friday would have let fly at them but I would not suffer him by any means for I found we were like to have more business upon our hands than we were aware of we had not gone half over the plane when we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left in a frightful manner and presently after we saw about a hundred coming on directly towards us all in a body and most of them in a line as regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers I scarce knew in what manner to receive them but found to draw ourselves in a close line was the only way so we formed in a moment but that we might not have too much interval I ordered that only every other man should fire and that the others who had not fired should stand ready to give them a second volley immediately if they continued to advance upon us and then that those that had fired at first should not pretend to load their fuses again but stand ready everyone with a pistol for we were all armed with a fusee and a pair of pistols each man so we were by this method able to fire six volleys half of us at a time however at present we had no necessity for upon firing the first volley the enemy made a full stop being so terrified as well with the noise as with the fire four of them being shot in the head dropped several others were wounded and went bleeding off as we could see by the snow I found they stopped but did not immediately retreat where upon remembering that I had been told that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of the man I caused all the company to hello as loud as they all could and I found the notion not altogether mistaken for upon our shout they began to retire and turn about I then ordered a second volley to be fired in their rear which made them to gallop and the way they went to the woods this gave us leisure to charge our pieces again and that we might lose no time we kept going but we had but little more than loaded our fuses and put ourselves in readiness when we heard a terrible noise in the same wood on our left it was farther onward the same way we were to go the night was coming on and the light began to be dusky which made it worse on our side but the noise increasing we could easily perceive that it was the howling and yelling of those hellish creatures and on a sudden we perceived three troops of wolves one on our left one behind us and one in our front so that we seemed to be surrounded with them however as they did not fall upon us we kept our way forward as fast as we could make our horses go which the way being very rough was only a good hard trot in this manner we came in view of the entrance of a wood through which we were to pass at the farther side of the plane but we were greatly surprised when coming near the lane or pass we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance on a sudden at another opening of the wood we heard the noise of a gun and looking that way out rushed a horse with a saddle and a bridle on him flying like the wind and 16 or 17 wolves after him full speed the horse had the advantage of them but as we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate we doubted not but that they would get up with him at last no question but they did and here we had a most horrible sight for riding up to the entrance where the horse came out we found the carcasses of another horse of two men devoured by the ravenous creatures and one of the men was no doubt the same whom we heard fire the gun for there lay a gun just by him fired off but as to the man his head and the upper part of his body was eaten up this filled us with horror and we knew not what course to take but the creatures resolved us soon for they gathered about us presently in hopes of prey and I verily believe there were 300 of them it happened very much to our advantage that at the entrance into the wood but a little way from it there lay some large temper trees which had been cut down the summer before and I suppose lay there for a carriage I drew my little troop in among those trees and placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree I advised them all to alight and keep that tree before us for a breast work to stand in a triangle or three fronts enclosing our horses in the center we did so and it was well we did for never was a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in this place they came on with a growling kind of noise and mounted the piece of timber which as I said was our breast work as if they were only rushing upon their prey and this fury of theirs it seems was principally occasioned by their scene our horses behind us I ordered our men to fire as before every other man and they took their aim so short that they killed several of the wolves at the first volley but there was a necessity to keep a continual firing for they came on like devils those behind pushing on those before when we fired a second volley over our few seas we thought they stopped a little and I hope they would have gone off but it was but a moment for others came forward again so we fired two volleys of our pistols and I believe in these four firings we had killed 17 or 18 of them and blamed twice as many yet they came on again I was loathed to spend our shot too hastily so I called my servant not my man Friday for he was better employed for with the greatest dexterity imaginable he had charged my few sea and his own while we were engaged but as I said I called my other man and giving him a horn to powder I had him lay a trail all along the piece of timber and let it be a large train he did so and had but just time to get away when the wolves came up to it and some got upon it when I snapping an uncharged pistol close to the powder set it on fire those that were upon the timber were scorched with it and six or seven of them fell or rather jumped in among us with the force and fright of the fire we dispatched these in an instant and the rest were so frightened with the light which the night it was now nearly dark made more terrible that they drew back a little upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley and after that we gave a shout upon this the wolves turned tail and we salied immediately upon near 20 lame ones that we found struggling on the ground and fell to cutting them with our sword which answered our expectation the crying and howling they made was better understood by their fellows so that they all fled and left us we had first and last killed about three score of them and had it been daylight we had killed many more the field of battle being thus cleared we made forward again for we had still near a leak to go we heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we went several times and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them but the snow dazzling our eyes we were not certain in about an hour more we came to the town where we were the lodge which we found in a terrible fright and all in arms for it seems the night before the wolves and some bears had broken into the village and put them in such terror that they were obliged to keep guard night and day but especially in the night to preserve their cattle and indeed their people the next morning our guide was so ill and his limbs swelled so much with the rankling of his two wounds that he could not go further so we were obliged to take a new guide here and go to Toulouse where we found a warm climate a fruitful pleasant country and no snow no wolves nor anything like them but when we told our story at Toulouse they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary in the great forest at the foot of the mountains where we lay on the ground but they inquired much what kind of guide we had got who would venture to bring us that way in such a severe season he told us it was surprising we were not all devoured when we told them how we placed ourselves in the horses in the middle they blamed us exceedingly and told us it was 50 to 1 but we had all been destroyed for it was the sight of the horses which made the wolves so furious seeing their prey afraid of a gun but being excessively hungry and raging on that account the eagerness to come at the horses had made them senseless of danger and that if we had not by the continual fire and at last by the stratagem of the train of powder mastered them it had been great odds but that we had been torn to pieces whereas had we been content to have sat still on horseback and fired as horsemen they would not have taken the horses so much for their own when men were on their backs as otherwise and with all they told us that at last if we had stood all together and left our horses they would have been so eager to have devoured them that we might have come off safe especially having our firearms and our hands being so many a number for my part I never was so sensible of danger in my life for seeing above 300 devils come roaring and open-mouthed to devour us and having nothing to shelter us or to retreat to I gave myself over for loss and as it was I believe I shall never care to cross those mountains again I think I would much rather go a thousand leagues by sea though I was sure to meet with a storm once a week I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in my passage through France nothing but what other travelers have given an account of with much more advantage than I can I traveled from Toulouse to Paris and without any considerable stay came to Calais and landed safe at Dover the 14th of January after having had a severe cold season to travel in I was now come to the center of my travels and had in a little time all my newly discovered estate safe about me the bills of exchange which I brought with me having been currently paid my principal guide and privy counselor was my good ancient widow who in gratitude for the money I had sent her thought no pains too much nor care too great to employ for me and I trusted her so entirely that I was perfectly easy as to the security of my effects and indeed I was very happy from the beginning and now to the end in the unspotted integrity of my gentle woman and now having resolved to dispose of my plantation in the Brazils I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon who having offered it to the two merchants the survivors of my trustees who lived in the Brazils they accepted the offer and remitted 33,000 pieces of 8 to a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon to pay for it in return I signed the instrument of sale in the form which they sent from Lisbon and sent it to my old man who sent me the bills of exchange for 32,800 pieces of 8 for the estate reserving the payment of 100 Moedores a year to him the old man during his life and 50 Moedores afterwards to his son for his life which I had promised them and which the plantation was to make good as a rent charge and thus I have given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure a life of Providence's checker work and of a variety which the world will seldom be able to show the like of beginning foolishly but closing much more happily than any part of it ever gave me leave so much as to hope for anyone would think that in this state of complicated good fortune I had passed running any more hazards and so indeed I had been if other circumstances had occurred but I was inured to a wandering life had no family nor many relations nor however rich had I contracted fresh acquaintance and though I had sold my estate in the Brazils yet I could not keep that country out of my head and had a great mind to be upon the wing again especially I could not resist the strong inclination I had to see my island and to know if the poor Spaniards were in being there my true friend the widow earnestly dissuaded me from it and so far prevailed with me that for almost seven years she prevented my running abroad during which time I took my two nephews the children of one of my brothers into my care the first having something of his own I bred up as a gentleman and gave him a settlement of some addition to his estate after my decease the other I placed with the captain of a ship and after five years finding him a sensible, bold enterprising young fellow I put him into a good ship and sent him to sea and this young fellow afterwards drew me in as old as I was to further adventures myself in the meantime I in part settled myself here for first of all I married and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction and had three children two sons and one daughter but my wife dying and my nephew coming home with good success from a voyage to Spain my inclination to go abroad and his importunity prevailed and engaged me to go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies this was in the year 1694 in this voyage I visited my new colony in the island saw my successors the Spaniards had the old story of their lives and of the villains I left there how at first they insulted the poor Spaniards how they afterwards agreed disagreed, united, separated and how at last the Spaniards were obliged to use violence with them how they were subjected to the Spaniards how honestly the Spaniards used them a history if it were entered into as full of variety and wonderful accidents as my own part particularly also as to their battles with the Caribbean's who landed several times upon the island and as to the improvement they made upon the island itself and how five of them made an attempt upon the mainland and brought away eleven men and five women prisoners by which at my coming I found about twenty young children on the island here I stayed about twenty days left them supplies of all necessary things and particularly of arms powder, shot clothes, tools and two workmen which I brought for them from England that is a carpenter and a smith besides this I shared the land into parts with them reserved to myself the property of the whole but gave them such parts respectively as they agreed upon and having settled all things with them and engaged them not to leave the place I left them there from thence I touched at the Brazils from whence I sent a bark which I bought there with more people to the island and in it besides other supplies I sent seven women being such as I found proper for service or for wives to such as would take them as to the Englishmen I promised to send them some women from England with a good cargo of necessaries if they would apply themselves to planting which I afterwards could not perform the fellows proved very honest and diligent after they were mastered and had their properties set apart for them I sent them also from the Brazils five cows three of them being big with calf some sheep and some hogs which when I came again were considerably increased but all these things with an account of how 300 caribis came and invaded them and ruined their plantations and how they fought with that whole number twice and were at first defeated and one of them killed but at last a storm destroying their enemies canoes they famished or destroyed almost all the rest and renewed and recovered the possession of their plantation and still lived upon the island all these things with some very surprising incidents and some new adventures of my own for ten years more I shall give a farther account of my story end of chapter 20 end of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe