 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 30, 1659. I, poor, miserable, Robinson Crusoe, being shipwrecked during a dreadful storm and 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 in 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 to what rained all night. October 1. In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, the ship had floated with the high tide and was driven on shore again, much nearer than an island, which, as it was some comfort, on one hand, for seeing her set up right and not broken to 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 imagined, 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. This day also it 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 over-sent 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 semi-circle for my encampment, which I resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, or fortification made of double piles lined within with cables and without with turf. From the 26th to the 30th, I worked very hard in carrying all my goods to my new habitation, though some part of the time was extremely hard. The 31st in the morning I went out into the island with my gun to seek for some food and discover the country. When I killed a she-goat and her kid followed me home which I afterwards killed also because it would not feed. November 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 following 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 I 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 if it did not rain then employed myself to work till about 11 o'clock then eat what I had to live on and from 12 to 2 I went to sleep the weather being excessively hot and then in the evening to work again. The working part of this day and of the next were wholly employed in making my table for I was yet but a very sorry workman though time and necessity made me a complete natural mechanic soon after as I believe they would do anyone else. November 5th. My dog and killed a wild cat her skin pretty soft but her flesh good for nothing every creature that I killed I took of the skins and preserved them. Coming back to the seashore I saw many sorts of sea fouls which I did not understand but was surprised and almost frightened with two or three seals which while I was gazing at not well knowing what they were got into the sea and escaped me on 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 air 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 was accompanied with terrible thunder and lightning which frightened me dreadfully for fear of my powder as soon as it was over I resolved to separate my stock of powder into as many little parcels as possible that it might not be in danger. 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 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 convenience. 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 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 I mean no iron shod 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 twigs that would bend to make wickerware 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 so for carrying away the earth which I dug out of the cave I made me a thing like a hod which the laborers carry mortar in when they serve the brick layers 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 23rd my other work having now stood still because 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 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 10th I began now to think my cave or vault finished when on a sudden it seems I had made it too large a great quantity of earth fell down from the top on one side so much that in short it frighted me and not without reason too for if I had been under it I had never wanted a 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 11th 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 17th 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 20th now I carried everything into the cave and began to furnish my house and set up some pieces of boards to order my victuals upon but boards began to be very scarce with me also I made me another table December 24th much rain all day and all night no stirring out December 25th rain all day December 26th no rain and the earth much and pleasanter December 27th 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 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 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 grey heats and no breeze so that there was no stirring abroad except in the evening for food and 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 into the valleys which lay 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 January 3rd I began my fence or wall which being still jealous of my being attacked by somebody I resolved to make very thick and strong this wall being described before I purposely 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 secured 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 and did so but when they grew older they flew away which perhaps was at first for want of feeding them for I had nothing to give them however I frequently found their nests and got their young ones which were very good meat and now in the managing 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 which with a little dish made of clay which I baked up in the sun and to which I added a wick of some some oakum I made me a lamp and this gave me light though not a clear 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 and dust and being willing to have 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 of 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 ears come out which were perfect barley of the same kind as our European 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 pleases God without so much as inquiring into the end of providence in these things or his order in governing events for the world but after I saw barley growing there in a climate which I knew was not proper for corn and especially that I knew not how it came there it startled me strangely and I began to suggest that God had miraculously caused his grain to grow without any help of seed sown and that it was so directed purely for my sustenance on that wild miserable place this touched my heart a little and brought tears out of my eyes and I began to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature should happen upon my account and this was the more strange to me because I saw near it still all along by the side of the rock some other straggling 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 I went all over that part of the island where I had been before peering in every corner and under every rock to see for more of it but I could not find any at last it occurred to my thoughts that I shook a bag of chickens meat out in that place and then the wonder began to cease and I must confess my religious thankfulness to God's providence began to abate too upon the discovering that all this was nothing but heaven though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen of providence as if it had been miraculous for it was really the work of providence to me that should order or appoint that 10 or 12 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 time to have some quantity sufficient to supply me with bread but it was not till the fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat and even then but sparingly as I shall say afterwards in its order for I lost all that I 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 20 or 30 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 14th of April I closed it up contriving to go into it not by a door but over the wall by a ladder that there might be no sign on the outside of my habitation April 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 the case was this as I was busy in the inside behind my tent just at the entrance to my cave I was terribly frightened with the most dreadful surprising thing indeed for all of a sudden I found the earth come crumbling down from the roof of my cave and from the edge of the hill over my head 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 in 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 overturned the strongest building that could be supposed to have stood on the earth and a great peace of the top of a rock which stood about half a mile from 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 discourse 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 bearing all at once and this sunk my very soul within me a second time after the third shock was over and I felt no more for some time I began to take courage that 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 nothing but the common Lord have mercy upon me and when it was over that went away too and when it sat thus I found the air overcast and row cloudy as if it would rain soon after that the wind arose by little and little so that in less than half an hour it blew the most dreadful hurricane the sea was all of a sudden covered over with foam and proth 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 like a sink to let the water go out which would else have flooded my cave after I had been in my cave for some time and found still no more shocks of the earthquake follow I began to be more composed and now to support my spirits which indeed wanted it very much I went to my little store with 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 hard wood they were all full of notches and dull and though I had a grindstone I could not turn it and grind my tools too this cost me as much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics or a judge upon the life and death of a man at length I contrived a wheel with a string to turn it with my foot that I might have both my hands at liberty note I had never seen any such thing in England or at least not to take notice how it was done though since I have observed it is very common there besides that my grindstone was very heavy and large this machine cost me a full weeks April 28th and 29th these two whole days I took up in grinding my tools my machine for turning my grindstone performing very well April 30th 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 which 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 was to be expected of that kind for all the inside of the ship was choked up with sand however as I had learned not to despair of anything I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I could of the ship concluding that anything I could get from her would be of some use or other to me May 3 I began with my saw and cut a piece of a beam through which I thought held some of the upper part or quarter deck together and when I had cut it through I cleared away the sand as well as I could from the side which lay highest but the tide was coming in I came over for that May 4 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 dried May 5 worked on the wreck cut another beam 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 6 worked on the wreck got several iron bolts out of her and other pieces of iron work worked very hard I came home very much tired and had thoughts of giving it over May 7 went to the wreck again not with an intent to work but found the weight of the wreck had broke itself down the beams being cut that several pieces of ship seemed to lie loose and the inside of the hold lay so open that I could see into it but it was almost full of water and sand May 8 went to the wreck and carried an iron crow to wrench up the deck which lay now quite clear of the water or sand I wrenched open two planks and brought them on shore also with the tide I left the iron crow in the wreck for next day May 9 went to the wreck and with the crow made way to the body of the wreck and felt several casts and loosened them with a 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 May 15th I carried two hatchets to try if I could not cut a piece of 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 labor I loosened some things so much with the crow that the first tide several casts floated out and two of the seamen's chests but the wind blowing from the shore nothing came to land that day but pieces of timber in the hog's head but the salt water and the sand had spoiled it I continued this work every day to the 15th of June except the time necessary to get food which I always appointed during this part of my employment to be when the tide was up that I might be ready when it was amped out and by this time I had got timber and plank and iron work enough to have built a good boat if I had known how and also I got at several times and in several pieces near 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 or 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 every and pleasant that ever I tasted in my life having had no flesh but of goats and fowls since I landed in this horrid place June 18th rained all day and I stayed within I thought at this time the rain felt cold and I was something chilly but which I knew was not unusual in that latitude June 19th very ill and shivering 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 prayed to God for the first time since the storm off hull but scarce knew what I said or why my thoughts being all confused June 22nd a little better but under dreadful apprehensions of sickness killed a she goat and with much difficulty got it home killed some of it in eight I would feign have stood 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 light headed and when I was not I was so ignorant that I knew not what to say only I lay and cried Lord look upon me Lord pity me Lord have mercy upon me I suppose I did nothing else for two or three hours 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 just bear to look towards him his countenance was most inexpressibly dreadful impossible for words to describe when he stepped upon the ground with his feet I thought the earth trembled just as it had done before in the earthquake and all the air looked to my apprehension as if it had been filled with flashes of fire he was no sooner landed upon the earth but he 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 I understood was this seeing all these things have not brought thee to repentance now thou shall 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 I mean that even while it was a dream I even dreamed of those horrors nor is it any more possible to describe the impression that remained upon my mind when I awaked and found it was but a dream I had alas no divine knowledge what I had received by the good instruction of my father was then worn out by an uninterrupted series for eight years of seafaring wickedness and a constant conversation with none but such as were like myself wicked and profane to the last degree I do not remember that I had in all that time one thought that so much as tended either to looking upwards towards God or inwards towards a reflection upon my own ways but a certain stupidity of soul without desire of good or conscience of evil had entirely overwhelmed me and I was all that the most hardened unthinking wicked creature among our common sailors can be supposed to be not having the least sense either of the fear of God in danger or of thankfulness to God in deliverance in the relating of what already is past of my story this will be the more easily believed when I shall add that through all the variety of miseries that had to this day befallen me I never had so much as one thought of it being the hand of God or that it was a just punishment for my sin my rebellious 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 jealous of a God or a providence acted like a mere brute from the principles of nature and by the dictates of common sense only and indeed hardly that when I was delivered and taken up at sea by the Portugal captain well used and dealt justly and 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 this island I was as far from remorse or looking on it as a judgment I only said to myself often that I was an unfortunate dog and born to always be miserable it is true when I got on shore first here I found all my ships crew drowned and myself spared I was surprised with a kind of ecstasy and some transports of soul which had the grace of God assisted might have come up to true thankfulness but it ended where it began in a mere common flight of joy or as I may say being glad I was alive without the least reflection the distinguished goodness of the hand which had preserved me and had singled me out to be preserved when all the rest were destroyed or an inquiry why Providence had been thus merciful unto me even just the same common sort of joy which seamen generally have after they got safe shore from a shipwreck which they drown all in the next bowl of punch and forget almost as soon as it is over and how 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 out of all hope of relief or prospect of redemption as soon as I saw but the prospect of living and that I should not starve and perish for hunger all the sense of my affliction wore off and I began to be very easy applied myself to the works proper for my preservation and supply and was far enough from being afflicted at my condition as a judgment from heaven or as the hand of God against me these were thoughts that 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 that had slept so long began to awake and I began to reproach myself with my past life in which I had so evidently by uncommon wickedness 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 they were either a prayer attended with desires or with hopes it was rather the voice of mere fright and distress my thoughts were confused my actions 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 such as Lord what a miserable creature am I if I should be sick I shall certainly die for want of help and what will become of me then the tears burst out of my eyes and I could say no more for a good while in this interval the good advice of my father came to my mind and presently his prediction which I mentioned at the beginning of 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 allowed 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 penalties 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 and though the fright and 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 rare case bottle with water and set it upon my table in reach of my bed and to take off the chill or aguish disposition of the water I put about a quarter of a pint of rum into it and mix 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 the next day at night I made my supper of three of the turtles eggs which I roasted in the ashes and eight as we call it in the shell and this was the first bit of meat I had ever asked God's blessing to that I could remember in my whole life after I had eaten I tried to walk but found myself so weak that I could hardly carry a gun for I never went out without that so I went but a little way and sat down upon the ground looking out upon the sea which was just before me and very calm and smooth as I sat here some such thoughts as these occurred to me what is this earth and sea of which I have seen so much whence is it produced and what am I and all the other creatures wild and tame human and brutal whence are we sure we all are made by some secret power who formed the earth and sea and the air and sky and who is that then it followed most naturally it is God that has made all well but then it came on strangely if God has made all these things he guides and governs them all and all things that concern them for the power that could make all things must certainly have power to guide and direct them if so nothing can happen in the great circuit of his works either without his knowledge or appointment and if nothing happens without his knowledge he knows that I am here and am in this dreadful condition and if nothing happens without his appointment he has appointed all this to befall me nothing occurred to my thoughts I would not be able 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 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 rich does thou ask what thou has done look back upon a dreadful misspent 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 does thou ask what have I done I was struck dumb with these reflections astonished and had not a word to say not to answer to myself but rose up pensive and sad walked back to my retreat and went up over my wall as if I had been going to bed but my thoughts were sadly disturbed and I had no inclination to sleep so I sat down in my chair and lighted my lamp and 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 no doubt for in this chest I found a cure both for soul and body I opened the chest and found what I looked for the tobacco and as the few books I had saved lay there too I took out one of the bibles which I mentioned before and which to this time I had not found leisure or inclination to look into I say I took it out and brought both that and the tobacco with me to the table what 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 that any hopes appeared this prevailed very often upon my thoughts but however the words made a great impression upon me and I mused upon them very often it grew now late and the tobacco had as I said dozed my head so much that I inclined to sleep so I left my lamp burning in the cave lest I should want anything in the night and went to bed but before I lay down I did what I never had done in all my life I kneeled down and prayed to God to 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 waked no more till by the sun it must necessarily be near three o'clock in the afternoon the next day nay to this hour I am partly of opinion that I slept all the next day and night 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 and 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 sea fowl or two something like a brand goose and brought them home but was not very forward to eat them 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 run 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 myself with it as it 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 and the impossibility of my deliverance lay much upon my mind far 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 I had 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 a while every morning and every night not tying myself to the number of chapters but long as my thoughts should engage me it was not long after I set seriously to this work that I found my heart more deeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life the impression of my dream revived and the words all these things have not brought thee to repentance ran seriously through my thoughts I was earnestly begging of God to give me repentance when it happened providentially the very next day that reading the scripture I came to these words he is exalted a prince and a savior 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 the 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 to 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 in 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 or think of it it was all of no consideration in comparison to this and I add this part here to hint to whoever shall read it that whenever they come to a true sense of things they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessing than deliverance from affliction but leaving this part I return to my journal my condition began now to be though not less miserable as to my way of living yet much easier to my mind and my thoughts being directed by a constant reading the scripture and praying to God to things of a higher nature I had a great deal of comfort within which till now I knew nothing of also my health and strength returned I 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 and walking about with my gun in my hand a little and a little at a time as a man that was gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness for it is hardly to be imagined how low I was but weakness I was reduced the application which I made use of was perfectly new and perhaps which had never cured an Aggie before neither can I recommend it to Annie to practice by this experiment and though it did carry off the fit yet it rather contributed to winking me for I had frequent convulsions 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 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 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 taking 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 and on the rising parts of them next to the higher grounds where the water, as might be supposed, never overflowed I found a great deal of tobacco growing 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 in all that climate make their bread of but I could find none I saw large plants of aloes but did not understand them I saw several sugar canes but wild and for want of cultivation imperfect I contented myself with these discoveries for this time and came back musing with myself what course I might take to know the virtue and goodness of any of the fruits or plants which I should discover but could bring it to no conclusion or 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 in great abundance and grapes upon the trees the vines had spread indeed over the trees and the clusters of grapes were just now in their prime very ripe and rich this was a surprising discovery and I was exceeding glad of them but I was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of them remembering that when I was ashore in Barbary the eating of grapes killed several of our Englishmen who were slaves there by throwing them into fluxes and fevers but I found an excellent use for these grapes and that was to cure or dry them in the sun and keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept which I thought would be as indeed they were wholesome and agreeable to eat when no grapes could be had I spent all that evening there and went 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 a little spring of fresh water which issued out of the side of the hill by me ran the other way that is due east and the country appeared so fresh so green so flourishing everything being in a constant vergeure or flourish of spring that it looked like a planted garden I descended a little on the side of that delicious veil 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 indefensively 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 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 homewards resolving to come again and bring a bag or a sack or what I could make to carry the rest home accordingly having spent three days in this journey I came home so I must now call my tent and my cave my home but before I got thither the grapes were spoiled the richness of the fruit 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 when I gathered them to find them all spread about trod to pieces and dragged about some here some there and abundance eaten and devoured by this I concluded there were some wild creatures there about 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 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 tempted me but when I came to a nearer view of it I considered that I was now by the seaside 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 with a piece of sail and spread it very well yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from storms nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the rains were extraordinary about the beginning of August as I said I had finished my bower and began to enjoy myself the third of August I found the grapes I had hung up perfectly dried and indeed were her excellent good raisins of the sun so I began to take them down from the trees and it was very happy that I did so for the rains which followed would have spoiled them and I had lost the best part of my winter food for I had above 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 from our European cats but the young cats were the same kind of house breed as the old one and both my cats being females I thought it very strange but from these three cats I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats that I was forced to kill them like vermin or wild beasts and to drive them from my house as much as possible from the 14th of August to the 26th incessant rain so that I could not stir and was now very 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 a piece of the goat's flesh or of the turtle for my dinner broiled for to my great misfortune I had no vessel to boil or stew anything and two or three of the turtle's eggs for my supper during this confinement in my cover by the rain I worked daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave and by degrees worked it on towards one side to the outside of the hill and made a door or way out which came beyond my fence or wall and so I came in and out this way but I was not perfectly easy at lying so open for as I had managed myself before I was in a perfect enclosure whereas now I thought I lay exposed and open for anything to come in upon me and yet I could not perceive that there was any living thing to fear the biggest creature that I had yet seen upon the island being a goat 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 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 the next day as I began it I had all this time observed no Sabbath day for as at first I had no sense of religion upon my mind I had after some time omitted to distinguish the weeks by making a longer notch than ordinary for the Sabbath day and so did not really know what any of the days were but now having cast up the days as above I found I had been there a year so I divided it into weeks and set apart every seventh day for a Sabbath though I found at the end of my account I had lost a day or two in my reckoning a little after this my ink began to fail me and so I contented myself to use it more sparingly and to write down only the most memorable events of my life without continuing some random 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 have 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 and about 12 of barley and now I thought it a proper time to sow it after the rains the sun being in its southern position going from me accordingly I dug up a piece of ground as well as I could with my wooden spade and dividing it into two parts I sowed my grain but as I was sowing it casually occurred to my thoughts that I would not sow it all at first because I did not know what was the proper time for it so I sowed about two-thirds of 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 finding my first seed did not grow which I easily imagined was by the drought I sought out for a moisture piece of ground and I dug up a piece of ground near my new bower and sowed the rest of my seed in February a little before the vernal equinox and this having the rainy months of March and April to water it sprung up very pleasantly and yielded a very good crop and having part of the seed left only and not daring to sow all that I had I had but a small quantity at last my whole crop not amounting to above half a peck of each kind but by this experiment I was made master of my business and knew exactly when the proper season was to sow and that I might expect two seed times and two harvests every year while this corn was growing I made a little discovery which was of use to me afterwards as soon as the rains were over and the weather began to settle which was about the month of November I made a visit up the country to my bower where though I had not been some months yet I found all things just as I left them the circle or double hedge that I had made was not only firm and entire but the stakes which I had cut out of some trees were all shot out and grown with long branches as much as a willow tree usually shoots the first year after lopping its head I could not tell what tree to call it that these stakes were cut from I was surprised and yet well pleased to see the young trees grow and I pruned them and led them up to grow as much alike as I could this 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 stakes and make me a hedge like this in a semi-circle round my wall I mean that of my first dwelling which I did in placing the trees or stakes 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 seasons sometimes held longer or shorter as the winds happened to blow this was the general observation I made after I had found by experience the ill consequences of being abroad in the rain I took care to furnish myself with provisions beforehand that I might not be obliged to go out and I sat within doors as much as possible during the wet months this time I found much employment and very suitable also to the time 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 wicker wear and being as boys usually are very aficious to help and a great observer of the manner in which they worked 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 in my mind that the twigs of that tree from whence 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 for use I carried them to my cave and here during the next season I employed myself in making as well as I could a great many baskets both to carry earth or to carry or lay up anything as I had occasion and though I did not finish them very handsomely yet I made them sufficiently serviceable for my purpose thus afterwards I took care never to be without them and as my wicker wear decayed I made more especially strong deep baskets to place my corn instead of sacks when I should come to have any quantity of it having mastered this difficulty and employed a world of time about it I bestirred myself to see if possible how to supply two 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 possible 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 then it could be imagined I could spare end of chapter 7