 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, was the only person permitted 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 near 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 and 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 set contriving ways to get her about the island. And at other times I set 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. And, 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 acupage 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 then 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-kneed 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 somethings. 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 sordid dagger, hung a little saw in 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 nine or ten 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 Salee, 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, and such as in England 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 five or six 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 take 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 and the flowing 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 periagua 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, that is 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 stakes 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 latter 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 creatures I had killed, and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our sea bedding, which I had saved, in a great watchcoat to cover me. And here, whenever I had occasion to be absent from my chief seat, I took up my country habitation. Joining 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 in tire, 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 nearer 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 stakes 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, for I considered to 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 forty 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 of raisins, and which I never failed to preserve very carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty 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 thither, 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 thunderstruck, 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 the ground 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 strange unaccountable whimsies came into 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 than 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 for it, 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 10,000 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 see 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 wracked 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 want. 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, hitherto, could not preserve, by his power, the provision which he had made for me by his goodness. I reproached myself with my laziness that would not sow 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. 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 heaven 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 is 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 a 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 specters and 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 for want of it, 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 looked 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 vapors 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 of those 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 cornfields, lest they should find such a grain there and still be prompted to frequent the island. Then to demolish my bower intent 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 in 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 it 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 semicircle at a distance from my wall, just where I had planted a double row of trees about twelve years before, of which I made mention. 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 stakes 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 of them, 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, they were still on 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, and 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 loath 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. One 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 good 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 damp 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, as at first they might be supposed to be, 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. For 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 prayed 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. And 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 sickbed, for these discomposures affect the mind, as the others do 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 seaman'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. Whether 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 in the island as I imagined, and 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, and 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, hellish 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, but could not bear to stay in the place a moment. So I got up to 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 lot 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 sort 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 country seat, which I called 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, that 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 after this, 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 cutlasses 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 which are better, 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, and that was to try 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, task to preserve it in, which was a thing that as I have observed already I could never compass. No, though I spent not only many days, but weeks, nay, 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 verily 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, for I seldom gave anything over without accomplishing it when once I had it in my head 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 twenty or thirty 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 five or six 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 its going off at any certain time when it might surprise them and at best that it would do little more than 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 three 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 two or three at every shot and then falling in among them with my three 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 as I said 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 in the side of the hill 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 twenty or thirty 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 and his wise disposition of the world to have 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 horrid things and receive such horrid 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 consciences reproving or their light reproaching them they do not know it to be in 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 I was 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 abhorrence 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 and my resolution to attack the savages and that it was not my business to meddle with them unless 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 provenance 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 Durstnacht 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 grapnel 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 milk 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 anything here 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 everywhere 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 into 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 if I confess that 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 much less would I fire a gun for the same reason and above all I was intolerably uneasy at making any fire less 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 hardy 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 and perform 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 perceive 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 further 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 20 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 and 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 before 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 step 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 is saved 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 with some wildfire 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 canva 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 venture bold enough considering that I knew not how far it might go nor what was beyond it when I had got through the 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 around the sides and roof of this vault or cave the wall reflected a hundred thousand 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 difficulty 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 and all and three muskets four of them I had eight and 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 which caking 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 away dither 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 dither 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 a great hole there and throw him in and cover him with earth then to drag him out so I enterred him there to prevent offense to my nose end of chapter 12