THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OP

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

- b -

CRUSOE TAKES A MORE PARTICULAR SURVEY OF THE ISLAND. P. 118.

2f,-

-;-~-----i-----.~-~.

THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE

BY

DANIEL DE FOE

WITH FIFTY-TWO ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. D. WATSON

GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS,
LONDON: BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL,
NEW YORK : 9 LAFAYETTE PLACE.

CONTENTS.

PART I.

My birth and parentage-at nineteen years of age I determined to go to
sea-dissuaded by my parents-elope with a schoolfellow, and go on
board ship-a storm arises, during which I am dreadfully frightened-
ship founders-myself and crew saved by a boat from another vessel,
and lauded near Yarmouth-meet my compamon's father there, who
advises me never to go to sea more, but all in vain pp. 27-42
Make a trading voyage to Guinea very successfully-death of my captain
-sail another tip with his mate-the vengeance of Piovidence for
disobedience to parents now overtakes me-taken by a Sallee rover,
and all sold as slaves-my master frequently sends me a fishing, which
suggests an idea of escape-make my escape in an open boat, with a
Moiesco boy . . . ... pp. 43-54
Make for the southward in hopes of meeting with some European vessel
-see savages along shore-shoot a large leopard-am taken up by a
merchantnan-arrive at the Brazils, and buy a settlement there-
cannot be quiet, but sail on a voyage of adventure to Guinea-ship
strikes on a sandbank in unknown land-all lost but myself, who am
driven ashore, half dead . . pp. 54-71
Appearance of the wreck and country next day-swim on board of the
ship, and, by means of a contrivance, get a quantity of stores on
shore-shoot a bird, but it turns out perfect carrion-moralise upon
my situation-the ship blown off land, and totally lost-set out in
search of a proper place for a habitation-see numbers of goats-
melancholy reflections. .... . .. pp. 71-93
I begin to keep a journal-christen my desert island the Island of Despair
-fall upon various schemes to make tools, baskets, &c., and begin to
build my house-at a great loss of an evening for candle, but fall upon
an expedient to supply the want-strange discovery of corn-a terrible
earthquake and storm. . . ... pp. 93-105

VIl1 CONTENTS.

Observe the ship driven further aground by the late storm-procure a vast
quantity of necessaries from the wreck-catch a large turtle-I fill ill
of a fever and ague-terrible dream, and serious reHfletions thereupon
-find a Bible in one of the seamen's chests thrown ashore, the reading
whereof gives me great comfort .... .pp. 105-118
I begin to take a survey of my island-discover plenty of tobacco, grapes,
lemons, and sugar-canes, wild, but no human inhabitants--lteolve to
lay up a store of these articles, to furnish me against the wet season-
my cat, which I supposed lost, returns with kittens-I regulate my
diet, and shut myself up for the wet season-.sow my grain, which
comes to nothing ; but I discover and remedy my error-take account
of the course of the weather . ... pp. 118-127
Make a second tour through the island-catch a young parrot, which I
afterwards teach to speak-my mode of sleeping at night-find the
other side of the island much more pleasant than mine, and covered
with turtle and sea-fowl-catch a young kid, which I tame-returnr to
my old habitation-great plague with my harvest pp. 127-137
I attempt to mould earthenware, and succeed-description of my mo ie of
baking-begin to make a boat-after it is finished, am unable to get
it down to the water--serious reflections-my ink and biscuit
exhausted, and clothes in a bad state-contrive to make a dress of
skins. ... . . .pp. 137-152
I succeed in getting a canoe afloat, and set out on a voyage in the sixth
year of my reign, or captivity-blown out to sea-reach the shore
with great difficulty-fall asleep, and am awakened by a voice calling
my name-devise various schemes to tame goats, and at last succeed.
pp. 153-166
Description of my figure-also of my dwelling and enclosures-dreadful
alarm on seeing the print of a man's foot on the shore-reflections-
take every possible measure of precaution .. pp. 166-181
I observe a canoe out at sea-find on the shore the remnant of a feast of
cannibals--horror of mind thereon-double arm myself-terribly
alarmed by a goat-discover a singular cave, or grotto, of which I
form my magazine-my fears on account of the savages begin to
subside. . . . pp. 181-197
Description of my situation in the twenty-third year of my residence-
discover nine naked savages round a fire on my side of the island-my
horror on beholding the dismal work they were about-I determine on
the destruction of the next party, at all risks-a ship lost off the
island-go on board the wreck, which I discern to be Spanish-procure
a great variety of articles from the vessel .... pp. 197-212

CONTENTS. ix
Reflectiona-an extraordinary dreau--discover five canoes of savages on
shore-observe from my station two miserable wretches dragged out
of the boats to he devoured-one of them makes his escape, and runs
directly towards me, pursued by two others-I take measures so as to
destroy his pursuers, and save his life-christen him by the name of
Friday, and he becomes a faithful and excellent servant pp. 212-228
I am at great pains to instruct Friday respecting my abhorrence of the
cannibal practices of the savages-lie is amazed at tih efcfts of the
gun, and considers it an intelligent being-begins to talk English
tolerably-a dialogue-I instruct him in the knowledge of religion,
and find him very apt-he describes to me some white men who had
come to his country, and still lived there .... .pp. 228-241
I determine to go over to the continent-Friday and I construct a boat
equal to carry twenty men-his dexterity in managing her-Friday
brings intelligence of three canoes of savages on shore-resolve to go
down upon them-Friday and I fire upon the wretches, and save the
lit; of a poor Spaniard-list of the killed and wounded-discover a
poor Indian bound in one of the canoes, whe *Mrns out to be Friday's
father. . . . .pp. 241-258
1 learn from the Spaniard that there were sixteen more of his countrymen
among the savages-the Spaniard and Friday's father, well armed, sail
on a mission to the continent-I discover an English ship lying at
anchor off the island-her boat comes on shore with three prisoners-
the crew straggle into the woods, their boat being aground-discover
myself to the prisoners, who prove to be the captain and mate of the
vessel, and a passenger-secure the mutineers pp. 258-272
The ship makes signals for her boat--on receiving no answer, she sends
another boat on shore-methods by which we secure this boat's crew,
and recover the ship . . . pp. 273-289
I take leave of the island, and, after a long voyage, arrive in England-go
down into Yorkshire, and find the greater part of my family dead-
resolve to go to Lisbon for information respecting my plantation at the
Brazils-meet an old friend there, by whose means I become rich-set
out for England overland-much annoyed by wolves on the road.
pp. 289-304
Strange battle betwixt Friday and a bear-terrible engagenfent with a
whole army of wolves-arrive in England safely, and settle my affairs
there-I marry, and have a family . .. pp, 304-316

CONTENTS.

PART IL

Reflections-unsettled state of mind, and conversation with my wife
thereon-purchase a farm in the county of Bedford-lose my wife-I
determine to revisit my island, and for that purpose settle all my
affairs in ELgland-description of the carr) I carried out with me---
save the crew of a vessel burnt at sea . .. .pp. 319-341

Steer for the West Indies-distressing account of a Bristol ship, the crew
of which we save, in a state of starvation-arrive at my island-
Friday's joy on discovering it-affecting interview betwixt him and his
father on landing-narrative of the occurrences on the island during
my absence ............ pp. 341-358

Narrative continued-insolence of three of the Englishmen to the Spaniards
-they are disarmed and brought to order-a great body of savages
land upon the island-they turn out to be two adverse nations, met
there by chance--a bloody battle betwixt them-several of the van-
quished party secured by the Spaniards .. .pp. 358--372

Fresh broils betwixt the turbulent Englishmen and the Spaniards-the
English make a voyage to the mainland, and return in twenty-two
days-particulars of their voyage-description of the men and women
they brought with them-the colony discovered by an unlucky accident
to the savages who invade the island, but are defeated pp. 372-395

The island is invaded by a formidable fleet of savages-a terrible engage-
ment, in which the cannibals are utterly routed-thirty-seven wretches,
the survivors, are saved, and employed by my people as servants-
description of Will Atkins' ingenious contrivances for his accom-
modation . . . pp. 395-407

CONTENTS. Xi
I hold conversations with the Spaniards, and learn the history of their
situation among the savages, from which I relieved them-I inform
the colony for what purpose I am come, and what I mean to do for
them-distribution of the stores I brought with me-the priest I saved
at sea solemnizes the marriages of the sailors and female Indians who
had hitherto lived together as man and wife pp. 407-439

Sincere and worthy character of the priest-dialogue with Will Atkins
and myself-conversation betwixt Atkins and his Indian wife on the
subject of religion-her baptism-settlement of the commonwealth.
pp. 439-451

I entertain the prospect of converting the Indians-amiable character of
the young woman we saved in a famished state at sea-her own relation
of her sufferings from hunger-sail from the island for the Brazils-
encounter and rout a whole fleet of savages-death of Friday-arrival
at Brazil . . . pp. 451-466

I despatch a number of additional recruits, and a quantity of extra stores,
to the island, and take my leave of it for ever-I determine to go with
the ship to the East Indies-arrive at Madagascar-dteadful occur-
rences there . . . pp. 466-482

Difference with my nephew on account of the cruelties practised at
Madagascar-five men lost on the Arabian shore, off the Gulf of Persia
-the seamen refuse to sail if I continue on board, in consequence of
which I am left on shore-make a very advantageous trading voyage,
in company with an English merchant, and purchase a vessel which,
it turns out, the crew had mutinied and run away with. pp. 482- 491

Make a trading voyage in this ship-put into the river of Cambodia-and
warned of my danger by a countryman, in consequence of which we
set sail, and are pursued-great difficulty in making our escape.
pp. 491-500

Obliged to come to anchor on a savage coast, to repair our ship-we are
attacked by the natives, whom our carpenter disperses by a whimsical
contrivance-serious reflections upon our disagreeable situation.
pp. 500-513

We arrive in China in safety-dispose of the ship-description of the
inhabitants-arrive at Pekin, and find an opportunity of returning to
Europe . . . .. pp. 513-526

xii CONTENTS.
Set out by the caravan-account of the valuable effects we took with us-
further description of the interior of China-pass the great wall-
attacked by Tartars, who are dispersed by the resolution of a Scots
merchant-the old pilot saves my life-we are again attacked, and
defeat the Tartars . . ... .pp. 526-536

Further account of our journey-description of an idol: which we
destroy-great danger we incur thereby -account of our travels
through Muscovy. . . . pp. 536-550

Conversations with a Russian grandee-set out on my journey homewards
-harassed by Kalmucks on the road-arrival at Archangel-sail
from thence, and arrive safely in England pp. 550-566

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Crusoe takes a more particular survey of the island
Crusoe's father entreats him to stay at home .
Crusoe is bantered by his friend after the storm .
Crusoe faints at the pump .
Xury swears to be faithful . .
Crusoe is taken up by a Portuguese vessel .
Crusoe gets into a tree to sleep ..
Crusoe's raft is nearly upset .
Crusoe walks by the sea-side in great dejection
Crusoe looks out to sea for a sail .. ...
Crusoe is astonished at the growth of barley .
Crusoe finds a Bible . .
Crusoe is comforted by his Bible . .
Crusoe attempts to make earthenware .
Crusoe is unable to move his boat. . .
Crusoe returns thanks for his deliverance .
Crusoe dines with his family ...
Crusoe equips himself for his journey ..
Crusoe flees to his fortification . .
Crusoe plots the destruction of the cannibals .
Crusoe finds a dying he-goat in the cave .
Crusoe buries his dog . ...

.k~utttzspeie.

Xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Crusoe sees a light on the shore in the early morning ... 201
Crusoe gets a view of the wreck . . ... .206
Crusoe dresses Friday . . . .. .225
Friday shows his settled affection to Crusoe . .. .243
Crusoe appears before the despairing prisoners . .. .268
The sailors call to their comrades. . . ... 275
Crusoe is overcome by the near prospect of deliverance. ... .285
Crusoe visits the old captain . . .. .291
Friday delivers the guide from the wolves .. . .. 304
A horse pursued by wolves . . ... .311
Crusoe's wife will not be a hindrance to him . . 323
Crusoe's nephew offers to take him to the island ...... .328
The crew is saved from the burning ship . .. .335
Crusoe meets the Spaniard on landing .... . .350
The Spaniard knocks down the English sailor . .. 361
The Spaniard interferes for the slave . ... .373
The priest urges the conversion of the Indians . ... .427
Crusoe gives Will Atkins a Bible . . 453
Crusoe bids a last farewell to the island . ... 459
The sailors are bent on retaliation . .. .. .475
Crusoe is warned of his danger . .... .494
Crusoe declares the character of his ship . ... .506
Crusoe determines to sell his life dear . ... 511
The Chinese gentleman dines in state . . .523
The Scotsman heads a charge on the Tartars . . 531
Crusoe is wounded in a scuffle with the Tartars . .. .535
Crusoe insults the Tartar idol . . .. 539
Crusoe tempts the exiled nobleman to escape . ... 553
The Tartars are put into confusion . . ... 559
Crusoe prepares for his last journey . . .. 563

MEMOIR OF DE FOE.

DANIEL FOE, or, as he subsequently styled himself (though
at what time and on what occasion is not known), De Foe,
was born in the year 1661, in the parish of St. Giles, Cripple-
gate, London, where his father, James Foe, followed the
trade of butcher. and these few barren facts constitute all
that is now authentically known of the origin of the author of
ROBINSON CRUSOE Mr. Wilson, in his "Life and Times of
Daniel De Foe,"-a work abounding with curious and minute
information on the period of which it treats, says : He had
some collateral relatives, to whom he alludes occasionally in
his writings, but with too much brevity to ascertain the degree
of kindred."
At an early age, De Foe is said to have shown that vivacity
of humour, and that indomitable spirit of independence, that
remained with him through after life: making a sunbine in
the shady place of a prison, and arming him as the champion
of truth and humanity in the most perilous times. The
parents of De Foe were Nonconformists, and his education was
consonant to the practice of their faith. Family religion
formed an essential part of its discipline; and it was made
natter of conscience to instruct the children of a family and
its dependents in their social, moral, and religious duties.
The enemies of De Foe vainly endeavoured to sink his repu-
tation by representing him as having been bred a tradesman ;
we have, however, his own assurance that he was educated
for the ministry, although he does not state why his destina.
tion was altered. He was at all events placed by his father
at a Dissenting academy at Newington Green, under the
direction of the Reverend Charles Morton, a man of learning
and a judicious teacher, who was subsequently defended by

Xvi MEMOIR OF DE FOE.
his pupil from some aspersions that had been cast upon his
character by an ungrateful scholar who had deserted to the
Church.
Of De Foe's progress under IMr. Morton, it is impossible
now to speak with any certainty. He tells us in one of his
"Reviews that he had been master of five languages, and
that he had studied the mathematics, natural philosophy, logic,
geography, and history. De Foe was, moreover, one of the
few who, in those days, studied politics as a science. He went
through a complete course of theology, and his knowledge of
ecclesiastical history was also considerable. Nevertheless, he
was attacked by party malice as an illiterate person without
education." To this he calmly makes answer:-"Those
gentlemen who reproach my learning to applaud their own,
shall have it proved that I have more learning than either of
thern-because I have more manners." He adds, I think
I owe this justice to my excellent father still living (1705),
and in whose behalf I fully testify, that if I am a blockhead,
it is nobody's fault but my own."
At one and twenty De Foe commenced the vocation--most
perilous in his day-of author ; at which he laboured through
good and through evil report, with great honour to himself,
and enduring benefit to mankind, for half a century. His
first publication was a lampooning answer to L'Estrange's
" Guide to the Inferior Clergy," and was intended to satirize
the prevalent High Church notions of the day
. When the Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme, in the year
1685, De Foe was among those who joined the standard of
that hapless nobleman At the age of four and twenty we see
De Foe a soldier, as ready with his sword as prompt with his
pen in the cause of rational liberty. Of Monmouth, De Foe
seems to have had some previous knowledge, having often
seen him at Aylesbury races, where the Duke rode his own
horses, a circumstance alluded to by oue author in his Tour."
ie Foe had the good fortune to escape the vengeance visited
upon so many of the Duke's supporters, and returned in safety
to London; where, leaving the stormy region of politics, he
now directed his attention to trade. The nature of his busi-
ness, according to his own account, was that of a hose-factor,
or the middle man between the manufacturer and the retail
hosier. This concern he carried on for some years, in Freo-
man's-court, Cornhill; Mr. Chalmers says, from 1i85 to 1695.

MEMOIR OF DE FOE. xvii

On the 26th of January, 1687-8, having claimed his freedom
by birth hl was admitted a liveryman of London. In the
Chamberlain s book his name was written Daniel Foe."
When the Revolution took place, De Foe was a resident
in Tooting, where he was the first person who attempted to
form the Dissenters in the neighbourhood into a regular con-
gregation. He was an ardent worshipper of the Revolution,
and annually commemorated the 4th of November as a day
of deliverance.
The commercial speculations of De Foe, though at first pros-
perous, weie ultimately unsuccessful. That they were of a
varied character is evident from the fact of his having engaged
with partners in the Spanish and Portuguese trade. It is very
clear, from a passage in his Review," that he had been a
merchant adventurer. In the number for January 27, 171i,
he alludes to an old Spanish proverb, which," says he. 1
learnt when I was in that country." It further appears that
while residing there, he made himself master of the language.
De Foe's losses by shipwreck it is supposed must have been
very considerable. In allusion to his misfortunes, Mr.
Chalmers observes: With the usual imprudence of genius,
he was carried into companies who were gratited by his wit.
He spent those hours with a small society for the cultivation
of polite learning, which he ought to have employed in the
calculations of the counting-house; and, being obliged to
abscond from his creditors in 1692, he naturally attributed
those misfortunes to the war which were probably owing to
his own misconduct. An angry creditor took out a commission of
bankruptcy, which was soon superseded, on the petition of
those to whom he was most indebted, who accepted a c mposi-
tion on his single bond. This he punctually paid, by the
efforts of unwearied diligence; but some of these creditors,
who had been thus satietied, falling afterwards into distress
themselves, De Foe voluntarily paid them their whole claim,
being then in rising circumstances, in consequence of King
William's favour." On being subsequently reproached by
Lord Haversham for mercenary conduct, De Foe tells him, in
1705, that, with a numerous family, and no help but his owr
industry, he had forced his way, with undiscouraged diligence,
through a set of misfortunes, and reduced his debts, exclusive
of composition, from seventeen thousand to less than five thou-
sand pounds." It should be remembered that, in those days,
B

XVii MEMOIR OF DE FOE.
our laws against bankrupts were as cruelly oppressive as they
were foolish.
It is certain that De Foe, whilst under apprehension from
his creditors, resided some time in Bristol. A friend of
mine in that city," says Mr. Wilson, "informs me that one of
his ancestors remembered De Foe, and sometimes saw him
walking in the streets of Bristol, accoutred in the fashion of
the times, with a fine flowing wig, lace ruffles, and a sword by
his side : also, that he there obtained the name of 'the Sunday
gentleman,' because, through fear of the bailiffs, he did not
dare to appear in public upon any other day."
It appears that at this time De Foe was invited, by some
merchants of his acquaintance residing in Cadiz, to settle in
Spain, with the offer of a good commission. "But," says our
author, "Providence, which had other work for me to do,
placed a secret aversion in my mind to quitting England upon
any account, and made me refuse the best offer of that kind,
to be concerned with some eminent persons at home, in pro-
posing ways and means to the government for raising money to
supply the occasion of the war, then newly begun." De Foe
suggested a general assessment of personal property, the
amount to be settle by composition, under the inspection of
commissioners appointed by the king. It was, doubtless,
owing to these services, that he was appointed to the office of
accountant to the commissioners of the glass duty, in 1695 :
which commission ceased in 1699. It was probably about this
time that De Foe became secretary to the tile-kiln and brick-
kiln works at TLlbury, in Essex. Pantiles had been hitherto
a Dutch manufacture, and were brought in large quantities to
England. To supersede the nece-sity of their importation
these works were erected. The speculation ultimately proved
unsuccessful.
Towards the close of the war, in 1696-7, De Foe gave to the
world his Essay upon Projects: a work alike admirable for
the novelty of the subject, and the clearness and ingenuity
with which it is treated. The projects of our author may be
classed under the heads of politics, commerce, and benevolence;
all having reference to the public improvement. The first
elatess to banks in general, and to the royal or national bank
in particular, which he wishes to be rendered subservient to
the relief of the merchant, and the interests of commerce, as
well as to the purposes of the state; his next project relates to

MEMOIR OF DE FOE. xix
highways ; a third, to the improvement of the bankrupt laws;
a fourth, to the plan of friendly societies, formed by mutual
assurance, for the relief of the members in seasons of distress;
a fifth, for the establishment of an asylum for "fools," or,
more properly, naturals," whom he describes as a particular
rent-charge on the great family of mankind; he next urges
the formation of academies, to supply some neglected branches
of education : one of these was for the improvement of the
English tongue, to polish and refine it; and this project
combined a reformation of that foolish vice," swearing:
another part of the project was an academy for military
studies; and he also suggests an institution for the education
of females.
In January, 1700-1, appeared De Foe's celebrated poem of
"The Trueborn Englishman." It was composed in answer to
a vile, abhorred pamphlet, in very ill verse, written by one
Mr. Tutchin, and called The Foreigners," in which the
author-" who he then was I knew not," says De Foe-" fell
personally upon the king and the Dutch nation."
"When I see the town full of lampoons and invectives
against Dutchmen," says De Foe, in his "Explanatory Pre-
face," "only because they are foreigners, and the king re-
proached and insulted by insolent pedants and ballad-making
poets, for employing foreigners, and being a foreigner himself,
I confess myself moved by it to remind our nation of their own
original, thereby to let them see what a banter they put upon
themselves; since, speaking of Englishmen ab origine, we are
really all foreigners ourselves." It is to this poem that De
Foe was indebted for the personal introduction to King
William. He was sent for to the palace by his Majesty,
conversed with him, and had repeated interviews with him
afterwards. The abilities and sentiments of De Foe appeared
to have made such a favourable impression on the king, that
he ever after regarded him with kindness; and conceiving
that his talents might be turned to a beneficial account, he
employed him in many secret services, to which our author
alludes occasionally in. his writings. The effect produced upon
the country by the satire was most beneficial. De Foe himself,
nearly thirty years afterwards, writes, National mistakes,
vulgar errors, and even a general practice, have been reforihed
by a just satire."
In 1700-1, on the meeting of the fifth parliament of William
S2

XX MEMOIR OF DE FOE.
III., we find De Foe strenuously engaged in advocating the
necessity of settling the succession in the Protestant line ; an
important object with William, as the only means of perpe-
tuating the benefits which the nation had reaped from the Revo-
lution. To this great end De Foe devoted all his energies,
labouring with unwearied zeal in the cause. His conduct on
the imprisonment of the Kentish gentlemen, v hose names are
historically associated with the presentation of tli. famous
Kentish petition, was marked with all the intrepidityf his
cliaiacter. The Commons had imprisoned the petitioners,
who had prayed the House for the settlement of the Protestant
Succession, for having presented a petition scandalous, inso-
lent, and seditious." On this, De Foe drew up his celebrated
" Legion Paper." In what manner it was communicated to
the House does not appear upon the journals. It was reported
at the time that De Foe, disguised as a woman, presented it
to the Speaker as he entered the House of Commons. The
" Legion petition rang like a tocsin throughout the kingdom.
As, however, the author remained concealed, the Comnons did
not think fit to pass any particular censure upon it. The
Kentish petitioners were discharged by the prorogation of
parliament on the 24th of June; they were subsequently
feasted at 3'ercers' Hall. on which occasion De Foe attended.
By the death of King William our author lost a kind friend
and powerful protector. Toward the latter part of this
reign, De Foe took up his abode at Hackney, and resided
there many years. Here some of his children were born and
buried. In the parish register is the following entry:-
"Sophia, daughter to Daniel De Foe, by Mary his wife, was
baptized, December 24, 1701."
His next important work-a work that exercised great influ-
ence on his foitunes--was the Shortest Way with the Dissent-
ers: or, Proposals for the Establishment of the Church ; 1702."
In this the author, assuming the character of an Ultra High
Churchman, advocates in an artful veil of irony thle adoption of
the severest measures against the Dissenters. I1 nh arguments
he put forth found high favour with both the Universities.
The High Church Party never suspected the sincerity of their
partizan; and charmed and won by the fierce doctrines of their
champion, were unsuspicious of the satire of their extrava-
gance. It was, however, De Foe's hard fate to be mis-
understood by both parties. Whilst the High Churchmen

MEMOIR OF DE FOE. XXI
congratulated themselves on the addition of another advocate,
the Dissenters treated him as a real enemy. The Church
Party, however, fell intr the trap laid for them by De Foe;
for, by expressing their delight at the fiery sentiments of the
writer they avowed them as their own true feelings on the
question. The first detection of our author is said to have
been owing to the industry of the Earl of Nottingham, one of
the secretaries of state. When his name was actually known,
people were at no loss to decipher his object; and those who
had committed themselves by launching forth in his praises
were stung with madness at their own folly. It was at once
resolved by the party in power to crush De Foe by a state
prosecution. In the height of the storm, our author sought
conce.daent; when a proclamation was issued by the Govern-
ment, offering ,01. for the discovery of his retreat; and in the
House of Commons, it was resolved that the book be burnt
by the hands of the common hangman in Palace Yard" On
the printer of the work and the bookseller being taken into
custody, De Foe issued forth from his retirement, resolved, as
he expressed it, to throw himself upon the favour of
Government, rather than others should be ruined by his
mist. ke." He was indicted at the Old Bailey Sessions, on the
24th of February, 1703, and proceeded to trial in the following
July. It may be gathered from his own account of the prose-
cution, that when his enemies had him in their power, they
were at a loss to know what to do with him. He was there-
fore advised to throw himself on the mercy of the Queen, with
a promise of protection; which induced him to quit his defence
and acknowledge himself the author of the offensive work.
On this he was sentenced to pay a fine of 200 marks to the
Queen ; to stand three times in the pillory; to be imprisoned
during the Queen's pleasure, and to find sureties for his good
behaviour for seven years. The people, however, were with
De Foe. Hence, he was guarded to the pillory by the populace;
and descended from it with the triumphant acclamations of the
surrounding multitude. He has himself related, that "the
people, who were expected to treat him very ill, on the con-
trary, pitid him, and wished those who set him there were
placed in his room, and expressed their affections by loud
shouts and acclamations when he was taken down." Thus, the
odium intended for De Foe recoiled on his persecutors, and
the pillory became to him a place of honour.

XXI MEMOIR OF DE FOE.
A triumphant evidence of the high spirit of De Foe is
manifested by the fact, that on the very day of his exhi-
bition to the people, he published "A Hymn to the
Pillory "
De Foe's fortunes were now at their lowest ebb : being a pri-
soner, moreover, he could no longer attend to his pantile works,
his only remaining source of revenue, and they were conse-
quently given up. By this affair he lost, as he himself informs
us, 3,5001.; and he had now a wife and six children dependent
upon him, with no other resource for their support than the
product of his pen. Hence the leisure of De Foe, whilst in
Newgate, was not that of idleness or dissipation. It was then
he stored his mind with those facts relative to the habits and
pursuits of the prisoners, which he has detailed with so much
truth to nature, as well as interest. A great part of his time
was also devoted to the composition of various minor political
works. It was likewise whilst in Newgate that he projected
his Review," a periodical work of four quarto pages, which
was published for nine successive years without intermission,
and during the greater part of the time, three times a week,
without his having received any assistance whatever in its
production. Throughout this work, he carried on an unspar-
ing warfare against folly and vice in all their disguises:
it pointed the way to the Tatlers," Spectators," and
Guardians," and may be referred to as containing a great
mass of interesting and valuable matter, written with all the
author's characteristic spirit and vigour.
The Tories vainly endeavoured to buy up De Foe: but
Newgate had no terrors for him, and he continued at once
their prisoner and their assailant. Upon the accession of Mr.
Harley to office, his own politics not being dissimilar to those
of our author, -the minister made a private communication to
him, with the view of obtaining his support. No immediate
arrangement, however, took place between them, as De Foe
remained a prisoner some months afterwards. Notwithstand-
ing, it is most likely that the Queen became acquainted with
De Foe's real merits through the medium of the minister, and
was made conscious of the injustice of our author's sufferings,
which she now appeared desirous to mitigate. For this
purpose, she sent money to his wife and family, at the same
time transmitting to him a sufficient sum for the payment of
his fine, and the expenses attending his discharge from prison.

MEMOIR OF DE FOE.

On his release from Newgate, De Foe retired to Bury St.
Edmunds. Party clamour, and party malice, however, pur-
sued him there. On the miserable libels issued at this time
against him, he says, "I tried retirement, and banished my-
self from the town : but neither a country recess, any more
than a stone doublet, can secure a man from the clamour of
the pen."
In 1705 De Foe was employed by Harley and Godolphin on
various missions of a secret and, it is said, of even a dangerous
nature, one of which required his presence upon the Conti-
nent. Harley seems to have been so well satisfied, that upon
De Foe's return, he rewarded him with an appointment at
home. In 1706, De Foe wrote voluminously on the subject
of the union with Scotland, which measure he strenuously
advocated. This advocacy obtained for him a confidential
mission to Scotland, where he was received with great con-
sideration. While in Edinburgh, he published his "Cal-
donia," &c., a poem in honour of Scotland and the Scots
nation. In 1708, De Foe was rewarded with an appoint-
ment and a fixed salary. When the Union was completed,
he published "The Union of Great Britain." In 1710, he
went to live at Stoke Newington, where he resided for some
years, and appears to have been comfortable in his circum-
stances. In 1712 was closed the last volume of the Review."
In a long preface to this volume, De Foe has a most eloquent
defence of this work, and of the mode in which he had con-
ducted it. Nothing can be fner, more manly, or more con-
clusive. In allusion to his sufferings during the progress of
the work, he says, I have gone through a life of wonders,
and am the subject of a vast variety of providence; I have
been fed more by miracle than Elijah when the ravens were
his purveyors. I have some time ago summed up my life in
this distich-
No man has tasted differing fortunes more,
And thirteen times I have been rich and poor."
This preface may be considered as a review,-a summing up
of the events of De Foe's political life, and as such it possesses
high value for the noble spirit of conscious truth that ani-
mates every line of it. As a piece of English, it is remarkable
for its innate strength, as w611 as for the simplicity of its
diction.

xxiii

MEMOIR OF DB FOE.

Our author was again unlucky enough to be committed to
Newgate, on the absurd change of writing libels in favour of
the Pretender. After the death of Queen Anne, De Foe. who
had been a political writer for thirty years, retired from the
:horny field to the more pleasant paths of literature. Whilst
writing An Appeal to Honour and Justice," he was struck
with apoplexy; he h everr recovered, and in the early part
of 171-., committed to the press one of his most useful
treatises, "The Family Instructor." The success of this
subsequently induced him to write his "Religious Court-
ship," which, on its appearance in 1722, met with equal
favour.
In 1719 appeared the immnortil Robinson Crusoe." Nea ly
the whole circle of booksellers had in vain been canvassed for
a publisher. William Taylor, the fortunate speculator, is
said to have cleared a thousand pounds by the book, which
rise into immediate popularity There can be no doubt that
the idea of the work was tirn.t suggested to the author by the
story of Alexander Selkirk, which had been given to the
public seven years before. It has been thought by some,"
says Mlr. John Ballantyne, in his biographical sketch prefixed
to the Edinburgh edition of De Foe's novels, "to detract from
the merit of De Foe, that the idea was not originally his own,
but really the story of Selkirk, which had been published a
few years before, in Woodes Rogers' Voage round the IWorld,
appears to have furnished our author with so little beyond the
bare idea of a man living upon an uninhabited island, that it
appears quite immaterial whether he took his hint from that
or from any other similar story, of which many were then
current." In a number of The Englishman," Steele gave
the true and particular history of Selkirk. The place in which
" Robinson Crusoe" was composed has been variously con-
tested. It seems most probable (says Mr. Wilson) that De
Foe wrote it in his retirement in Stoke Newington, in a large
white house, rebuilt by himself, and still standing in (hurch-
street. The work has been printed in almost every written
language, and has been the delight of men of all creeds and
all distinctions
Robinson Crusoe" was speedily followed by the "Account
of Dickory Crooke;" the "Life and Piracies of Captain
Singleton; the History of Duncan Campbell; the
" Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders; the Life of

Xxiv

Colonel Jack;" the "Memoirs of a Cavalier;" and that
extraordinary work, the Account of the Plague."
The latter years of De Foe's life must have been those of
competence, insured to him by the success of his works. But
this period of his life was embittered by the cruelty and un-
ditifulness of his son, who, to quote the words of De Foe, from
a letter written in his anguish, "has both ruined my family
and broken my heart."
For some years before his death. De Foe suffered gre-tly
from both the gout and the stone, which diseases were occa-
sioned, in part, most probably by his close application to
study, whilst accumulating stores of knowledge for the benefit
of his fellow-men He expired on the 24th of April, 1731,
when he was about seventy years of age. The parish of St.
Giles, Cripplegate, in which lie drew his first breath, was also
destined to receive his last He was buried from thence, on
the 26th of April, in Tindall's burial-ground, now most known
by the name of Bunhill Fields. He left six children, two
sons and four daughters. His wife died at the latter end of
the following ye r. A great-grandson of De Foe was living
in 1856, in a state of poverty, at the age of seventy eight,
for whose benefit a small fund had not long before been
raised.
The character of De Foe was but the practical example of
his best writings. As a citizen of the world, his love of truth,
and the patience, the cheerfulness, with which he endured the
obloquy and persecution of his enemies, endear him to us as a
great working benefactor to his race. His memory is en-
shrined with the memories of those who make steadfast our
faith in the nobility and goodness of human nature. As a
writer, De Foe has bequeathed to us imperishable stores of
wisdom. If he paint vice, it is to show its hideousness; whilst
virtue itself receives a new attraction at his hands. He was
not a poet, but he could write vigorous verse, and his satire
was hold and trenchant, as well as convincing by its terseness,
and by the unadorned eloquence of its truth. De Foe's prose,
though occasionally careless, is remarkable for its simplicity
and strength. What he has to say, he says in the plainest
manner, and in the simplest style. He does not-as is the
vice of our day-hide his thoughts under a glittering phraseo-
logy, but uses words as the pictures of things. It is owing
to this happy faculty, this unforced power, that De Foe

MEMOIR OF DE FOE.

2XV

xxvi MEMOIR OF DE FOE.
occasionally rises, as in many instances in the golden volume
now offered to the reader, almost to the sublime. In his picture
of the despair of Crusoe, we have, in words intelligible even to
infancy, a wondrous delineation of the soul of man in a most
trying and most terrible hour. But the crowning merit of De
Foe is, that he was, in the right sense of the term, both in
his personal conduct, and the spirit of his writings,

A TRUE-BORN ENGLISHMAN.

THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

-4----

I WAS born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good
family, though not of that country, my father being a
foreigner of Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a
good estate by merchandise, and leaving off his trade, lived
afterwards at York, from whence he had married my mother,
whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in
that country, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutz-
naer; but, by the usual corruption of words in England, we
are now called-nay, we call ourselves, and write our name,
Crusoe; and so my companions always called me.
I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-
colonel to an English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly
commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart, and was killed
at the battle near Dunkirk against the Spaniards. What
became of my second brother I never knew, any more than
my father or mother knew what became of me.
Being the third son of the family, and not bred to any
trade, my head began to be filled very early with rambling
thoughts. My father, who was very ancient, had given me a
competent share of learning, as far as house education and a
country free school generally go, and designed me for the
law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea;
and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will,

b6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
nay, the commands of my father, and against all the entreaties
and persuasions of my mother and other friends, that there
seemed to be something fatal in that propensity of nature,
tending directly to the life of misery which was to befall me.
My fath ,r, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and
excellent counsel against what he foresaw was my design. He
called me one morning into his chamber, where he was con-
tined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly with me
upon this subject. lie asked me what reasons, more than a
mere wandering inclination, I had for leaving my father's
house and my native country, where I might be well intro-
duced, and had a prospect of raising my fortune by applica-
tion and industry, with a life of ease and pleasure. lie told
me it was men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of
aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad
upon adventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves
f;Limois in undertakings of a nature out of the common road ;
that these things were all either too far above me, or too lar
below me; that mine was the middle state, or what night be
c:llled the upper station of low life. N which he had found, by
long experience, was the best state in the world, the most
suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries and
hardships, the labour and sufferings, of the mechanic part of
mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambi-
tion. and envy of the upper part of mankind. He told me I
might judge of the happiness of this state by this one thing,
viz that this was the state of life which all other people
envied: that kings have frequently lamented the miserable
consequence of being born to great things, and wislied they
had been placed in the middle of the two extremes, between
the mean and the great; that tho wise man gave his testimony
to this. as th" standard of felicity, when he prayed to have
neither poverty nor riches.
He bide me observe it, and I should always find that the
calamities of life were shared among the upper and lower part
of mankind, but that the middle station had the fewest
disasters, and was not exposed to so many vicissitudes as the
higher or 1,ower part of mankind; nay, they were not sub-
jected to so many distempers, and uneasiness, either of body
or mind, as those were who, by vicious living, luxury, and
extravagances on one hand. or by hard labour, want of neces-
saries and mean or insufficient diet on the other hand, bring

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.

CltU6UT..S FAIHLR ENTREAIS 131M TO TAY AT HOMEIJ

..I
li~iiT~I~

Il

OU LIFE AND ADVENTURES
distemper upon themselves by the natural consequences of
their way of living; that the middle station of life was
calculated for all kind of virtues and all kind of enjoyments;
that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middle for-
tune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society,
all agreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the
blessings attending the middle station of life; that this way
men went silently and smoothly through the world, and com-
fortably out of it, not embarrassed with the labours of the
hands or of the head, not sold to a life of slavery for daily
bread, nor harassed with perplexed circumstances, which rob
the soul of peace and the body of rest, nor enraged with the
passion of envy, or the secret burning lust of ambition for
great things; but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently
through the world, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living,
without the bitter; feeling that they are happy, and learning
by every day's experience to know it more sensibly.
After this he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affec-
tionate manner, not to play the young man, nor to precipitate
myself into miseries which nature, and the station of life I
was born in, seemed to have provided against; that I was
under no necessity of seeking my bread; that he would do
well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairly into the station
of life which he had just been recommending to me; and that
if I was not very e sy and happy in the world, it must be
my mere fate or fault that must hinder it; and that he
should have nothing; to answer for, having thus discharged
his duty in warning me against measures which he knew
would bh to my hurt; in a word, that as he would do very
kind things for me if I would stay and settle at home as he
directed, so he would not have so much hand in my misfor-
tunes as to give me any encouragement to go away; and to
close all, he told me I had my elder brother for an example,
to whom he h id used the same earnest persuasions to keep
him from going into the Low Country wars, but could not
prevail, his young desires prompting him to run into the
army, where he was killed; and though he said he would not
cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to say to me, that
if I did take this foolish step. God would not bless me,
and I should have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having
reglected his counsel, when there might be none to assist in
my recovery.

OF BOBINSON CRUSOE. 31
I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was
truly prophetic, though I suppose my father did not know
it to be so himself-1 say, I observed the tears run down his
face very plentifully, especially when he spoke of my brother
who was killed; and that when he spoke of my having
leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so moved
that he broke off the discourse, and told me his heart was
so full he could say no more to me.
I was sincerely affected with this discourse, and, indeed,
who could be otherwise and I resolved not to think of
going abroad any more, but to settle at home according to
my father's desire. But alas a few days wore it all off;
and, in short, to prevent any cf my father's further im-
portunit:es in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite
away from him. However, I did not act quite so hastily
as the first heat of my resolution prompted; but I took my
mother at a time when I thought her a little more pleasant
than ordinary, and tuld her that my thoughts were so
entirely bent upon seeing the world that I should never
settle to anything with resolution enough to go through
with it, and my father had better give me his consent than
force me to go without it; that I was now eighteen years
old, which was too late to go apprentice to a trade or clerk
to an attorney; that I was sure if I did I should never serve
out my time, but I should certainly run away from my
master before my time was out, and go to sea; and if
she would speak to my father to let me go one voyage abroad,
if I came home again, and did not like it, I would go no
more; and I would promise, by a double diligence to recover
the time that I had lost.
This put my mother into a great passion; she told me she
knew it would be to no purpose to speak to my father upon
any such subject; that he knew too well what was my interest
to give his consent to anything so much for my hurt; and
that she wondered how I could think of any such thing after
the discourse I had had with my father, and such kind and
tender expressions as she knew my father had used to me;
and that, in short, if I would ruin myself, there was no help
for me; but I might depend I should never have their con-
sent to it; that for her part, she would not have so much hand
in my destruction; and I should never have it to say that
my mother was willing when my father was not.

3~ LIFE AND ADVENTURES
ThouJh my mother refused to move it to my father, yet I
heard afterwards that she reported all the discourse to him,
and that my father, after showing a great concern at it, said
to her, with a sigh : That boy might be happy if he would
stay at home but if he goes abroad, he will be the mo-t
miserable wretch that ever was born: I can give no consent
to it."
It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose,
though, in the meantime, I continued obstinately deaf to all
proposals of settling to business, and frequently expostulated
with my father and mother about their being so positively
determined against what they knew my inclinations prompted
me to. But being one day at Hull, where I went casually,
and without any purpose of making an elopement at that
time; but, I say, being there, and one of my companions
buing about to s .l to London in his father's ship, and prompt-
ing me to go with them with the common allurement of sea-
faring mn. thi:t it should cost me nothing for my passage, I
consulted neither father nor mother any more, nor so much
as sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as
they might, without asking God's blessing or my father's,
without any con-ideration of circumstances or consequences,
and in an ill hour, God knows, on the 1st of September, 1(i51,
I went on board a ship bolind for Lond n. Never any young
adventurer's misfortunes, I b;li ve, began sooner, or con-
tinue l longer, than mine. The ship was no sooner out of
th- lumber, than the wind began to blow and the sea to
rise in a most frightful manner; and. as I had never been at
sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in body, and terrified
in mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had
done, and how justly I was overtaken by the judgment of
Heaven for my wicked leaving my father's house, and abandon-
ing my duty. All the good counsels of my parents, my father's
tears and my mother's entreaties, came now fresh into my
mind; and my conscience, which was not yet come to the
pitch of hardness to which it has since, reproached me with
the contempt of advice, and the breach of my duty to God
and my father.
All this while the storm increased, and the sea went very
high, though nothing like what I have seen many times since;
no, nor what I saw a few days after; but it was enough to
affect me then, who was but a young sailor, and had never

OF ROBINSON. CRUSOE. 33
known anything of the matter. I expected every wave would
have swallowed us up, and that every tin.e the ship fell down,
as 1 thought it did, in the trough or hollow of the sea, we
should never rise more ; in this agony of mind, I made many
vows and resolutions, that if it would please God to spare
my life in this one voyage, if ever I got once my foot upon
dry land again, I would go directly home to my father, and
never set it into a ship again while I lived ; that I would take
his advice, and never run myself into such miseries as these
any more. Now I saw plainly the goodness of his observa-
tions about the middle station of life, how easy, how comfort-
ably he had lived all his days, and never had been exposed
to tempests at sea, or troubles on shore; and I resolved
that I would, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my
father.
These wise and soher thoughts continued all the u while the
storm lasted, and indeed some t.n.e after; but the next day
the wind was abated, and the sea calmer, and I began to be a
little inured to it : however, I was very grave for iall that
day, bhing also a litt e sea-sick still: but towards night the
weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming
fine evening followed; the sun vent down perfectly clear, and
rose so the next morning; and having little or no wind, and
a smooth sea, the sun shining upon it, the sight was, as I
thought, the most delightful that ever I saw.
I had slept well in the night, and was now no more Fea sick,
but very cheerful, looking with wonder upon tle sea that was
so rorgh and terrible the day before, and c uld be so calm and
so pleasant in so little a time after. And now, lest my good
resolutions should continue, my companion, who had enticed
me away, cones to me : "Well, Bob," says he. clapping me
upon the shoulder, how do you do after it 1 I warrant you
were frighted, wer'n't you. last night, when it blew but a
capful of wind ?" A capful d'you call it ? said I ; "'twas
a terrible storm." "A storm, you fool you," replies he ; do
you call that a storm ? why, it was nothing at all; give us
but a good ship and sea room, and we think nothing of such
a squall of wind as that; but you're but a fresh-water sailor,
Bob. Come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we'll forget
all that ; d'ye see what charming weather 'tis now To
make short this snd pait of my story, we went the way of all
sailors; the punch was made, and I was made half drunk with

-4 LIFE AND ADVENTULES
it; and in that one night's wickedness I drowned all my re-
pentance, all my reflections upon my past conduct, all my
resolutions for the future. In a word, as the sea was returned
to its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by the abate-
ment of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being over,
my fears and apprehensions of be ng swallowed up by the sea
being forgotten, and the current of my former desires re-
turned, I entirely foigot the vows and promises that I made
in my distress. I found, indeed, some intervals of reflection ;
and the serious thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return
again sometimes; but I shook them off, and roused myself
from them a; it were from a distemper, and applying myself
to drinking and company, soon mastered the return of those
fits-for so I called them ; and I had in live or six days got
as complete a victory over conscience as any young fellow that
resolved not to be troubled with it could deire. But I was
to h ive another trial for it still and Pi evidence, as in such
caeis generally it does, resolved to leave me eintiely without
excuse; for if I would not take this for a deliverance, the
next w:s t, lbe such a one as the worst and most hardened
wretch :;tmnLug us would confess both the danger and the
mercy of.
The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth
Rladls ; the wind having been contrary and the weather calm,
we had made but little way since the storm. Here we were
obliged to come to an anchor, and here we lay, the wind con-
tinuing Cientrary, viz at south-west, for seven or eight days,
during which time a grleot many ships fonm Newcastle came
into the same Roads, as the common harbour where the ships
might wait for a wind for the river.
We hal not. however, rid here so long, but we should have
tided it up the river, but that the wind blew too fresh, and,
after we had lain four or five days, blew very hard. However,
the Roads being reckoned d as good a a harb,.ur the anchorage
good, and our ground t ickle very strong, our men were un-
concerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger, but
spent the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the sea;
but the eighth day, in the morning, the wind increased, and
we had all hands-at work to strike our top-masts, and make
everything snug and close, that the ship might ride as easy as
possible. By noon the sea went very high indeed, and our
ship rode forecastle in, shipped several seas, and we thought

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 5D
once or twice our anchor had come home; upon which our
master ordered out the sheet -anchor, so that we rode with two
anchors ahead, and the cables veered out to the better end.
By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now I
began to see terror and amazement in the faces even of the

A, AM

*s'-/

VS.iz

2:r

CRUSOE IS BANTERED BY HIS FRIEND AFTER THE STORM.

seamen themselves. The master, though vigilant in the busi-
ness of preserving the ship, yet as he went in and out of his
cabin by me, I could hear him softly to himself say, several
times, Lord, be melciful to us we shall be all lost; we
shall be all undone and the like. Daring these first
c2

36 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
hurries I was stupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the
steerage, and cannot descrihe my temper : I could ill resume
the first penitence which I h.d so apparently trampled upon,
and hardened myself against : I thought the bitterness of
death h td been p st; and th:tt this would be nothing like the
first; but when the master himself came by me, as I said just
now, and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted.
I got up out of my cbin and looked out ; but such a dismal
sight I nover siw : the sea ran mountains high, and broke
upon us every three or four minutes ; when I could look
about, I could see nothing but distress round us ; two ships
that rode near us, we found, h td cut their masts by the board,
being deep laden : and our men cried out, that a ship which
rode about a mile ahead of us was founiered. Two more
ships, being driven from their anchors, were run out of the
Roads to sea, at all adventures, and that not with a mast
standing. The light ships fared the best, as not so much
labouring in the sea ; but two or three of them drove, and
came close by use, running away with only their spritsail out
before the wind.
Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master
of our ship to let them cut away the fore-mast, which he was
very unwilling; to do; but the boatswain protesting to him,
that if he did not the ship would founder, he consented ; and
when they had cut away the fore-mast, the main mast stood
so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged to cut
that aw.iy also, and make a clear deck.
Any one must judge what a condition I must be in at all
this. who was but a young sailor, and who had been in such a
fright before at but a little. But if I can express at this
distance the thoughts I had about me at that time, I was in
tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my former con-
victions, and the having returned from them to the resolu-
tions I hid wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself;
and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me into such
a condition, li it I can by no words describe it. But the
worst was not coue yet ; the storm continued with such fury,
that the seamen themselves acknowledged they had never seen
a worse. We had a good ship, but she was deep laden, and
wallowed in the sea, so that the seamen every now and then
cried out she would founder. It was my advantage in one
respect that I did not know what they meant by founder, till

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 37
I inquired. However the storm was so violent, that I saw,
what is not often seen, the master, the boatswain, and some
others more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and
expecting every moment when the ship would go to the
bottom. In the middle of the night, and under all the rest
of our distresses, one of the men that kad been down to see,
cried out we had sprung a leak; another said, there was four
feet water in the hold. Then all hands were called to the
pump. At that word, my heart, as I thought, died within
me : and I fell backwards upon the side of ny bed where I
sat, into the cabin. However, the men roused me, and told
me, that I, that was able to do nothing before, was as well
able to pump as another; at which I stirred up, and went to
the pump, and worked very heartily. While this was doing,
the master seeing some light colliers, who, not able to ride
out the storm, were obliged to slip, and run away to the sea,
and would come near us, ordered to fire a gun as a signal
of distress. I, who knew nothing what they meant, thought
the ship had broken, or some dreadful thing happened. In
a word, I was so surprised that I fell down in a swoon.
As this was a time when everybody had his own life to think
of, nobody minded me, or what was become of me; but
another man stepped up to the pump, and thrusting me aside
with his foot, let me lie, thinking I had been dead; and it was
a great while before 1 came to myself.
We worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it
was apparent that the ship would founder; and though the
storm began to abate a little, yet it was not possible she could
swim till we might run into any port; so the master con-
tinued tiring guns for help; and a light ship, who had rid it
out just ahead of us, ventured a boat out to help us. It was
with the utmost h:izard the boat came near us ; but it was
impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to lie
near the ship's side, till at last the men rowing very
heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men cast
them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, and then veered
it out a great length, which they, after much labour and
hazard, took hold of, and we hauled therm close under our
stern, and got all into their boat. It was to no purpose for
them or us, after we were in the boat, to think of reaching
their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and only to
pull her in towards shore as much as we could; and our

38 LIF AN ANADVENTCRES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE.
master promised them. that if the boat was staved upon shore,
lie would make it good to their master : so partly rowing, and
partly driving, our lo.ot went a wa to the northward, sloping
towards th 11- ore alouit as far as Winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of
our '.p till w e saw her sink, and then I understood for the
fir time what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea. 1
i'.it acknowledge I had hardly eyes to look up when the
seamen told me she was sinking ; for from the moment that
llty rather put me into the boat, than that I might be said
to go in. my heart was, as it ere, dead w within me, partly
with fright, partly with horror of mind, and the thoughts of
what was Yet before me.
Vb'hile we were in this condition-the men yet labouring
at the oar to bring the boat near the shore-we could see
(when, our boat mounting the waves, we were able to see the
shore) a great many people running along the strand, to assist
us when we should come near; but we made but slow way
towards the sore ; nor were we able to reach the shore, till,
being past the lighthouse at Winterton. the shore falls off to
the westward towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a
little the violence of the wind. Here we got in. and, though
not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore, and walked
afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, xwheie, as unfortunate men,
we weie used with great humanity, as well by the magistrates
of the town, who as-signed us good quarters, as by particular
merchants and owners of ships, and had money given us
sufficient to carry us either to London or back to Hull, as
we thought fit.
Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and
have gone home, I had been happy, and my Jlther. as in our
blessed Saviour's parable, had even killed the fatted calf for
me ; for hearing the ship I went awav in was cast away in
Yarmouth Roads, it was a great while before he had any
assurances that I was not drowned.
But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that
nothing could resist; and though I had several times loud
calls from my reason, and my more composed judgment, to
go home, yet I had no power to do it. 1 know not what to
call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret ove(ruling decree,
that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruc-
tion, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it

COUSOB FAINTS AT THE PUMP.

LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 41
with our eyes open. Certainly, nothing but some such decreed
unavoidable misery, which it was impossible for me to escape,
could have pushed me forward against the calm reasoning
and persuasions of my most retired thoughts, and against
two such visible instructions as I had met with in my fir-t
atteilpt.
\ly comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who
was the master's son, was now less forward than I. The first
time he spoke to me after we were at Yarmouth, which was
not till two or three days, for we were s. parated in the town
to several quarters; I say, the first time he saw me, it ap-
peared his tone was altered ; and, looking veiy melancholy,
and shaking his head, he asked me how 1 did, and telling his
father who I was, and how I had come this voyage only for a
trial, in order to go farther abroad : his father, turning to me
with a very gave and concerned tone, Young man," says
he, you ought never to go to sea any mole; you ought to
take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be
a seafaring man." "Why, sir," said I, "will you go to sea
no more'l "That is another case," said he; "it is my
calling, and therefore my duty ; but as you made this voyage
for a trial, you see what a taste Heaven has given you of what
you a e to expect if you persist. Perhaps this has all befallen
us on your account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray,"
continues he, what are you ; and on what account did you
go to sea:' Upon that 1 told him some of my stoy ; at the
end of which he burst out into a strange kind of passion:
"What had I done," says he, "that suth an unhal py wret. h
should come into my ship'l I would not set my li(t in the
same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds." This indeed
was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which weie yet
agitated by the sense of his loss, and was father than he could
have authority to go. However. he afterwards talked very
gravely to me, exhorting me to go back to my father, and not
tempt Providence to my ruin, telling me I might see a visible
hand of Heaven against me. And, young man," said he,
" depend upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go,
you will meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments,
till your father's words are fulfilled upon you."
We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I
saw him no more; which way he went I knew not. As for
me, having some money in my pocket, I travelled to London

43 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
by land; and there, as well as on the road, had many struggles
with myself, what course of life I should take, and whether
I should go home or go to sea.
As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that
offered to my thoughts; and it immediately occurred to me
how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should
be ashamed to see, not my father and mother only, but even
everybody else; from whence I have since often observed,
how incongruous and irrational the common temper of man-
kind is, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to
guide them in such cases, viz., that they are not ashamed to
sin, and yet are ashamed to repent ; not ashamed of the action
for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools, but are
ashamed of the returning, which only can make them be
esteemed wise men.
In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncer-
tain what measures to take, and what course ,f life to lead.
An irresistible reluctance continued to going home ; and as I
stayed awhile, the remembrance of the d stress I had been in
wore off ; and as that abated, the little motion I had in my
desires to return wore off with it, till at last I quite laid-aside
the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage.
That evil influence which carried me first away from my
father's hou-e.-which hurried me into the wild and indigested
notion of raising my fortune, and that impressed those
conceits so forcibly upon me, as to make me deaf to all good
advice, and to the entreaties and even the commands of my
father;-I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented
the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and I
went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as
our sailors vulgarly called it, a voyage to Guinea.
It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I
did not ship myself as a sailor; when, though I might indeed
have worked a little harder than ordinary, yet at the same
time I should have learnt the duty and office of a fore-mast
man, and in time might have qualified myself for a mate or
lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was always my fate
to choose for the worse. so I did here ; for having money in
my pocket and good clothes upon my back, I would always go
on hoard in the habit of a gentleman; and so I neither had
any business in the ship, nor learned to do any.
It was my t, t first of all to fall into pretty good company in

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 43
London, which does not always happen to such loose and mis-
guided young fellows as I then was; the devil generally not
omitting to lay some snare for them very early; but it was
not so with me. I first got acquainted with the master of a
ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, having
had very good success there, was resolved to go again. This
captain taking a fancy to my conversation, which was not at
all disagreeable at that time, hearing me say I had a mind to
s e the world, told me if I would go the voyage with him I
should be at no expense; I should be his messmate and his
companion; and if I could carry anything with me, I should
have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit; and
perhaps I might meet with some encouragement.
I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship
with this captain, who was an honest, plain-dealing man, I
went the voyage with him, and carried a small adventure
with me, which, by the disinterested honesty of my friend the
captain, I increased very considerably; for I carried about
40 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me to buy.
These 40 I had mustered together by the assistance of some
of my relations whom I corresponded with; and who, I
believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to contribute
so much as that to my first adventure.
This was the only voyage which I may say was successful
in all my adventures, which I owe to the integrity and
honesty of my friend the captain; under whom also I got a
competent knowledge of the mathematics and the rules of
navigation, learned how to keep an account of the slip's
course, take an observation, and, in hboit, to understand some
things that were needful to be understood by a sailor; for, as
he took delight to instruct me. I took delight to learn; and,
in a word, this voyage made me both a sailor and merchant;
for I brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for
my adventure, which yielded me in London, at my return,
almost 300 ; and this filled me with those aspiring thoughts
which have since so completed my ruin.
Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; par-
ticularly, that I was continually sick, being thrown into a
violent calenture by the excessive heat of the climate; our
principal trading being upon the coast, from the latitude of
fifteen degrees north even to the line itself.
I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to

44 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
my great misfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved
'o go the same voyage again, and I embarked in the same
vessel with one who was his mate in the former voyage, and
had now got th command of the ship. This was the unhap-
piest voyage that ever man made; for though I did not carry
quite 100 of my new gained wealth, so that 1 had 200
left, which I had lodged with my friend's widow, who was
very just to me, yet I fell into terrible misfortunes : the first
was this-our ship making her course towards the Canary
Islands, or rather between those Islands and the African
shore, was surprised in the grey of the morning by a Turkish
rover of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she
c >uld make. We crowded also as much canvas as our yards
would spread, or our masts carry to get clear ; but finding the
pirate gained upen us, and would certainly come up with us
in a few hours, we prepared to fight; our ship having twelve
guns, and the rogue eighteen. About three in the afternoon
he came up with us, and bringing to, by mistake, just athwart
our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as he intended, we
brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and poured in
a broadside upon him, which made him sheer off again, after
returning our fire, and po'wring in also his small shot from
near two hundred men which he had on board. However, we
had not a man touched, all our men keeping close. He pre-
pared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves. But
laying us on board the next time upon our other quarter, he
entered sixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to
cutting and hacking the sails and rigging. We plied them
with small shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and
cleared our deck of them twice. However, to cut short this
melancholy part of our story, our ship being disabled, and
three of our men killed, and eight wounded, we were obliged
to yield, and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port
belonging to the Moors.
The usage [ had there was not so dreadful as at first I
apprehended; nor was I carried up the country to the
emperor's court, as the rest of our men were, but was kept
by the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and made his
slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business. At
this surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant
to a miserable slave I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now
I looked back upon my father's prophetic discourse to me,

OF ROBINSO1 CRUSOE. 45
that I should be miserable and have none to relieve me,
which I thought was now so effectually brought to pass, that
I could not be worse; for now the hand of Heaven had over-
taken me, and I was undone without redemption; but, alas I
this was but a taste of the misery I was to go through, as will
appear in the sequel of this story.
As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his
house, so I was in hopes that he would take me with him when
he went to sea again, believing that it would some time or
other be his fate to be taken by a Spanish or Portugal man-
of war; and that then I should be set at liberty. But this
hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went to sea,
he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do the
common drudgery of slaves about his house; and when he
came home again from his cruise, he ordered me to lie in the
cabin to look after the ship.
Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method
I might take to effect it, but found no way that had the least
probi-ility in it : nothing presented to make the supposition
of it rational; for I had nobody to communicate it to that
would embark with me-no fellow-slave, no Englishman,
Irishman, or Scotchman, there but myself; so that for two
years, though I often pleased myself with the imagination,
yet I never had the least encouraging prospect of putting it in
practice.
After about two years, an odd circumstance presented itself,
which put the old thought of making some attempt for my
liberty again in my head My patron lying at home longer
than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I heard, was
for want of money, he used, constantly, once or twice a week,
sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to take the ship's
pinnace, and go out into the road a-fishing: and, as he always
took me and young Maresco with him to row the boat, we
made him very merry, and I proved very dexterous in catching
fish; insomuch that sometimes he would send me with a Moor,
one of his kinsmen, and the youth-the Maresco, as they called
him-to catch a dish of fish for him.
It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a calm morning,
a fog rose so thick that, though we were not half a league from
the shore, we lost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither
or which way, we laboured all day, and all the next night;
and when the morning came, we found we had pulled off to

46 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
sea instead of pulling in for the shore; and that we were at
least two leagues from the shore. However, we got well in
again, though with a great deal of labour and some danger;
for the wind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning; but
we were all very hungry.
But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take
more care of himself for the future; and having lying by him
the long-boat of our English ship that he had taken, he
resolved he would not go a-fishing any more without a com-
pass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenter of his
ship, who also was an English slave, to build a little state-
room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of a
barge, with a place to stand behind it to steer, and haul home
the main-sheet; and room before for a hand or two to stand
and work the sails. She sailed with what we call a shoulder-
of-mutton sail; and the boom gibed over the top of the cabin,
which lay very snug and low, and had in it room for him to
lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eat on, with some
small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquors he
thought fit to drink; and his bread, rice, and coffee.
We went frequently out with his boat a-fishing; and as I
was most dexterous to catch fish for him, he never went with-
out me. It happened that he had appointed to go out in this
boat, either for pleasure or for fish, with two or three Moors
of some distinction in that place, and for whom he had pro-
vided extraordinarily, and had therefore sent on board the
boat over-night a larger store of provisions than ordinary;
and had ordered me to get ready three fusees with powder
and shot, which were on board his ship, for that they designed
some sport of fowling as well as fishing.
I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the
next morning with the boat washed clean, her ancient and
pendants out, and everything to accommodate his guests;
when by-and-by my patron came on board alone, and told me
his guests had put off going, from some business that fell
out, and ordered me, with the man and boy. as usual, to go
out with the boat and catch them some fish, for that his
friends were to sup at his house. and commanded that as soon
a, I got some fish I should bring it home to his house; all
which I prepared to do.
This moment, my former notions of deliverance darted into
my thoughts, for now I found I was likely to have a little

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 47
ship at my command; and my master being gone, I prepared
to furnish myself, not for fishing business, but for a voyage;
though I knew not, neither did I so much as consider, whither
I should steer-anywhere to get out of that place was my desire.
My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to
this Moor, to get something for our subsistence on board; for
I told him we must not presume to eat of our patron's bread.
He said that was true; so he brought a large basket of rusk
or biscuit, and three jars of fresh water, into the boat. I
knew where my patron's case of bottles stood, which it was
evident, by the make, were taken out of some English prize,
and I conveyed them into the boat while the Moor was on
shore, as if they had been there before for our master. I
conveyed also a great lump of bees-wax into the boat, which
weighed above half a hundredweight, with a parcel of twine
or thread, a hatchet, a saw, and a hammer, all of which were
of great use to us afterwards, especially the wax, to make
candles. Another trick I tried upon him, which he inno-
centl* came into also: his name was Ismael, which they
call Muley, or Moely; so I called to him :-" Moely," said I,
"our patron's guns are on board the boat; can you not get
a little powder and shot It may be we may kill some
alcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know
he keeps the gunner's stores in the ship." ".Yes," says he,
"I11 bring some;" and accordingly he brought a great
leather pouch, which held a pound and a half of powder, or
rather more; and another with shot, that had five or six
pounds, with some bullets, and put all into the boat. At the
same time, I had found some powder of my master's in the
great cabin, with which I filled one of the lare bottles in the
case, which was almost empty, pouring what was in it into
another; and thus furnished with everything needful, we
sailed out of the port to fish. The castle, which is at the
entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took no notice
of us; and we were not above a mile out of the port before
we hauled in our sail, and set us down to fish. The wind
blew from the N.N.E., which was contrary to my desire, for(
had it blown southerly, I had been sure to have made the
coast of Spain, and at least reached to the bay of Cadiz; but
my resolutions were, blow which way it would, I would be
gone from that horrid place where I was, and leave the rest
to fate.

46 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
After we had fished some time and caught nothing, for
when I had fish on my hook, I would not pull them up, that
he might not see them, I said to the Moor, "This will not
do; our master will not be thus served; we must stand
farther off." He, thinking no harm, agreed, and, being in
the head of the boat, set the sails ; and, as I had the helm, I
ran the boat out near a league farther, and then brought her
to, as if I would fish; when, giving the boy the helm, I
stepped forward to where the Moor was, and making as if I
stooped for something behind him, I took him by surprise
with my arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard
into the sea. He rose immediately, for he swam like a cork,
and called to me, begged to be taken in, told me he would go
all over the world with me. He swam so strong after the
boat, that he would have reached me very quickly, there being
but little wind; upon which I stepped into the cabin, and
fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it at him, and
told hinm I had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I
would do hint none: "But," said I, "you swim well enough
to reach to the shore, and the sea is calm make the best of
your way to shore, and I will do you no harm; but if you
come near the boat 111 shoot you through the head, for I am
resolved to have my liberty; so he turned himself about,
and swam for the shore, and I make no doubt but he reached
it with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer.
I could have been content to have taken this Moor with
me, and have drowned the boy, but there was no venturing to
trust him. When he was gone, I turned to the boy, whom
they called Xury, and said to him, "Xury, if you will be
faithful to me, I'll make you a great man; but if you will not
stroke your face to be true to me," that is, swear by
Mahomet and his father's beard, I must throw you into
the sea too." The boy smiled in my face, and spoke so
innocently, that I could not distrust him, and swore to be
faithful to me, and go all over the world with me.
While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I
stood out directly to sea with the boat, rather stretching to
windward, that they might think me gone towards the
Straits' mouth (as indeed any one that had been in their wits
must have been supposed to do) : for who would have supposed
we were sailed on to the. southward, to the truly Barbarian
coast, where whole nations of Negroes were sure to surround

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 49
as with their canoes, and destroy us; where we could not go
on shore but we should be devoured by savage beasts, or
more merciless savages of human kind.
But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my
course, and steered directly south and by east, bending my
course a little towards the east, that I might keep in with the
shore: and having a fair, fresh gale of wind, and a smooth,
quiet sea, I made such sail that I believe by the next day, at
three o'clock in the afternoon, when I first made the land, 1
could not be less than one hundred and fifty miles south of
Sallee: quite beyond the Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or
indeed of any other king thereabouts, for we saw no people.
Yet such was the fright I had taken of the Moors, and
the dreadful apprehensions I had of falling into their hands,
that I would not stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor;
the wind continuing fair till I had sailed in that manner
five days ; and then the wind shifting to the southward, I
concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase of me,
they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the
coast, and came to an anchor in the mouth of a little river,
I knew not what. nor where, neither what latitude, what
country, what nation, or what river. I neither saw, nor
desired to see any people; the principal thing I wanted
was fresh water. We came into this creek in the evening,
resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and dis-
cover the country; but as soon as it was quite dark, we heard
such dreadful noises of the barking, roaring, and howling of
wild creatures, of we knew not what kinds, that the poor boy
was ready to die with fear, and beggd of me not to go on
shore till day. Well, Xury," said I, "then I won't; but
it may be that we may see men by day, who will be as bad to
us as those lions." "Then we give them the shoot gun,"
says Xury, laughing, "make them run wey." Such English
Xury spoke by conversing among us slaves. However, I was
glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave him a dram (out
of our patron's case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all,
Xury's advice was good, and I took it: we dropped our little
anchor, and lay still all night; I say still, for we slept none;
for in two or three hours we saw vast great creatures (we
knew not what to call them) of many sorts, come down to the
sea-shore, and run into the water, wallowing and washing
themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and they

00 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
made such hideous howlings and yelling, that I never indeed
heard the like.
Xury was dreadfully frighted, and indeed so was I too;
but we were both more frighted when we heard one of these
mighty creatures come swimming towards our boat; we could
not see him, but we might hear him by his blowing to be a

fURY SWEARS TO BE FAITHFUL.

monstrous huge and furious beas'. Xury said it was a lion,
and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury cried
to me to weigh the anchor and row away: "No," says I,
"Xury; we can slip our cable, with the buoy to it, and go
off to sea; they cannot follow us far." I had no sooner said
so, but I perceived the creature (whatever it was) within
two oars' length, which something surprised me; however, I

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 51
immediately stepped to the cabin door, and taking up my gun,
fired at him; upon which he immediately turned about, and
swaim towards the shore again.
But it is impossible to describe the horrid noises, and
hideous cries and howlings, that weie raised, as well upon the
edge of the shore as higher within the country, upon the
noise or report of the gun, a th:ng I have some reason to
believe those clettures had never heard before: this con-
vinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the night
on that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was
another question too ; for to have fallen iito the hands of
any of the savages, had been as bad as to have fallen into the
hands of the lions and tigers; at least we were equally
apprehensive of the danger of it.
Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore some-
where or other for water, for we had not a pint left in the
boat ; when and where to get to it was the point. Xury said,
if I would let him go on shore with one of the jars, he would
find if there was any water, and bring some to me. I asked
him why he would go 1 why I should not go, and he stay in
the boat 1 The boy answered with so niuch affection, as made
me love him ever after. Says he, If wild mans come, they
eat me, you go wey." "Well, Xury," said I, "we will both
go, and if the wild mans come, we will kill them, they shall
eat neither of us." So I gave Xury a piece of rusk bred to
eat, and a dram out of our patron's case of bottles which I
mentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near the
shore as we thought was proper, and so waded on shore;
carrying nothing but our arms, and two jars for wattr.
I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the
coming of canoes with savages down the river; but the boy
seeing a low place about a mile up the country, rambled to it,
and by-and-by I saw him come running towards n e. I
thought he was pursued by some savage, or frighted with
some wild beast, and I ran forwards towards him to help
him; but when I came nearer to him, I saw something hang-
ing over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had
shot. like a hare, but different in colour, and longer legs:
however, we were very glad of it, and it was very good meat;
hIt the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tell me he
hadl found good water, and seen no wild mans.
But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains
D2

0O LIFE AND ADVENTURES
for water, for a little higher up the creek where we were we
found the water fresh when the t:de was out, which flowed but
a little way up ; so we tilled our jars, and feasted on the hare
we had killed, and prepared to go on our way, having seen no
footsteps of any human creature in that part of the country.
As I had been one voyage to this coast before, 1 knew very
well that the islands of t.h Canaries, and the Cape de Verd
Islands also, lay not far oif from the coast. But as I had no
instruments to take an observation to know what latitude we
were in, and not exactly knowing, or at least ennembering,
what latitude they were in, I knew not where to look for
them, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise
I might now easily have found some of these islands. But
my hope was. tlhat if I stood along this coast till I came to
that part where the English traded, I should find some of
their vessels upon their usual design of trade, that would
relieve and take us in.
By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was
must be that country which, lying between the Emperor of
Morocco's dominions and the Negroes. lies waste and unin-
habited, except by wild beasts ; the Negroes having abandoned
it, and gone farther south, for fear of the Moors; and the
Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barren-
ness; and, indeed, both forsaking it because of the prodigious
number of tigers, lions, leopards, and other furious creatures
which harbour there ; so that the Moors use it for their hunt-
ing only, where they go like an army, tw) or three thousand
men at a time : and, indeed, for near a hundred miles together
upon this coast we saw nothing but a wa;te uninhabited
country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaring
of wild beasts by night.
Once or twice in the day-time. I thought I saw the Pico of
Teneriffe, being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the
Canaries, and had a great mind to venture out, in hopes of
reaching thither; but having tried twice, I was forced in
again by contrary winds, the sea also going too high for my
little vessel; so I resolved to pursue my first design, and keep
along the shore.
Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after
we had left this place; and once in particular, being early in
the morning, we came to an anchor under a little point of land,
which was pretty high; and the tide beginning to flow, we lay

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 0D
still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyes were more about him
that it seems mine were, calls softly to me, and tells me that
we had best go farther off the shore; for," says he, look,
yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock, fast
asleep." I looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful
monster indeed, for it was a terrible great lion that lay on
the side of the shore, under the shade of a piece of the hill
that hung as it were a little over him. "Xury," says I, "you
shall go on shore and kill him." Xury looked frighted, and
said, Me kill! he eat me at one mouth I one mouthful
he meant. However, I said no more to the boy, but bade him
lie still, and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket
bore, and loaded it with a good charge of powder, and with
two slugs, and laid it down ; then 1 loaded another gun with
two bullets; and the third (for we had three pieces)
I loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the best aim I
could with the first piece to have shot him in the head, but he
lay so with his leg raised a little above his nose that the slugs
hit his leg about the knee, and broke the bone. He started
up, growling at first, but finding his leg broken, fell down
ag iin; and then got up upon three legs, and gave the most
hideous roar that ever I heard. 1 was a little surprised that
I had not hit him on the head; however, I took up the second
piece immediately, and though he began to move off, fired
gain, and shot him in the head, and had the pleasure to see
him drop and make but little noise, but lie struggling for life.
Then Xnry took heart, and would have me let him go on
shore. Well, go," said I : so the boy jumped into the water,
and taking a little gun in one hand, swam to shore with the
other hand, and coming close to the creature, put the muzzle
of the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again, which
despatched him quite.
This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I
was very sorry to lose three charges of powder and shot upon
a creature that was good for nothing to us. However, Xury
said he would have some of him; so he comes on board, and
asked me to give him the hatchet. For what, Xury I" said
I. Me cut off his head," said he. However, Xury could
not cut off his head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with
him, and it was a monstrous great one.
I bethought myself, however, that perhaps the skin of him
might, one way or other, be of some value to us; and I

54 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
resolved to take off his skin if I could. So Xury and I went
to work with him; but Xury was much the better workman
at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed, it took us
both up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him,
and spreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually
dried it in two days' time, and it afterwards served me to lie
upon.
After this stop, we made on to the southward continually
for ten or twelve days, living very sparingly on our provisions,
which began to abate very much, and going no oltener to the
shore than we were obliged to for fresh water My design in
this was, to make the River Gambia or Senegal, that is to say,
anywhere about the Cape de Verd, where I was in hopes to
meet with some European ship; and if I did not, I kntw not
what course I had to take, but to seek for the islands, or
perish there among the Negroes. I knew that all the ships
from Europe, which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to
Brazil, or to the East Indies, made this Cape, or those islands;
and, in a word, I put the whole of my fortune upon this single
point, either that I must meet with some ship, or must peiish.
When I had pursued this resolution about ten da s longer,
as I have said, I began to see that the land was inhabited;
and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people
stand upon the shore to look at us ; we could also perceive
they were quite black, and naked. I was once inclined to
have gone on shore to them; but Xury was my better coun-
sellor, and said to me, No go. no go." However, I hauled
in nearer the shore that I might talk to them. and I found
they ran along the shore by me a good way. I observed they
had no we;pions in their hand, except one, who had a long
slender stick, which Xury said was a lance, and that they
could throw them a great way with good aim ; so I kcqt at a
distance, but walked with them by signs as well as I could;
and particularly made signs for something to eat; they
beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they would fetch me
some meat. Upon this. I lowered the top ( f my sail, and lay
by, and two of them ran up into the country, and in less than
half an hour came back, and brought with them two pieces of
dried flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their
country; but we neither knew what the one or the other
was : however, we were willing to accept it, but how to come
at it was our next dispute, for I would not venture on shore

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 50
to them, and they were as much afraid of us : but they took
a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid
it down, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it
on board, and then came close to us again.
We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to
make them amends but an opportunity offered that very
instant to oblige them wonderfully: for while we were lying
bv the shore, came two mighty creatures, one pursuing the
other (as we took it) with great f ry from the mountains
towards the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the female,
or whether they were in sport or in rage, we could not tell,
any more than we could tell whether it was usual or strange,
but I believe it was the latter; because, in the first place,
those ravenous creatures seldom appear but in the night; and,
in the second place, we found the people terribly frighted,
especially the women. The man that had the lance or dart
did not fly from them, but the rest did; however, as the two
cre tures ran directly into the water, they did not offer to fall
upon any of the Negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea,
and swam about, as if they had come for their diversion: at
last one of them began to come nearer our boat than at first I
expected ; but I lay ready for him, for I had loaded my gun
with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load both the
others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach, I fired,
and shot him directly in the head : immediately he sank down
into the water, but rose instantly, and plunged up and down,
as if he was struggling for life, and so indeed he was: he im-
mediately made to the shore; but between the wound, which
was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died
just before he reached the share.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor
creatures at the noise and fire of my gun; some of them were
even ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with the
very terror; but when they saw the creature dead, and sunk
in the water, and that I made signs to them to come to the
shore, they took heart and came, and began to search for the
creature. I found him by his blood staining the water: and
by the help of a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the
Negroes to haul, they dragged him on shore, and found that
it was a most curious leopard, spotted, and fine to an admirable
degrPe ; and the Negroes held up their hands with admiration,
to think what it was I had killed him with.

DO LIFE AND ADVENTURES
The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and the
noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly t:i the
mountains from whence they came; nor could I, at that
distance, know what it was. I found quickly the Negroes
wished to eat the flesh of this creature, so I was willing to
have them take it as a favour from me; which, when I made
signs to them that they might take him, they were very
thankful for. Immediately they fell to work with him; and
though they had no knife, yet, with a sharpened piece of
wood, they took off his skin as readily, and much more readily,
than we could have done with a knife. They offered me some
of the flesh, which I declined, pointing out that I would give
it them; but made signs for the skin, which they gave me
very freely, and brought me a great deal more of their
provisions, which, though I did not understand, yet I
accepted. I then made signs to them for some water, and
held out one of my jars to them, turning it bottom upward,
to show that it was empty, and that I wanted to have it
filled. They called immediately to some of their friends. and
there came two women, and brought a great vessel made of
earth, and burnt, as I supposed, in the sun; this they set
down to me, as before, and I sent Xury on shore with my
jars, and filled them all three. The women were as naked as
the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was,
and water; and leaving my friendly Negroes, I made forward
for about eleven days more, without otlering to go near the
shore, till I saw the land run out a great length into the sea,
at about the distance of four or five leagues before me; and
the sea being very calm, I kept a large offing to make this
point. At length, doubling the point, at about two leagues
from the land, I saw plainly land (n the other side, to sea-
ward : then I concluded, as it was most certain indeed, that
this was the Cape de Verd, and those the islands called, from
thence, Cape de Verd Inlands. However, they were at a
great distance, and I could not well tell what I had best to
do; for if I should be taken with a fresh of wind, I might
neither reach one or other.
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the
cabin, and sat down, Xury having the helm; when, on a
sudden, the boy cried out. Master, master, a ship with a
sail!" and the foolish boy was frighted out of his wits,

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 57
thinking it must needs be some of his master's ships sent to
pursue us, but I knew we were far enough out of their reach.
I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only
the ship, but that it was a Portuguese ship; and, as I
thought, was bound to the coast of Guinea, for Negroes.
But, when I observed the course she steered, I was soon
convinced they were bound some other way, and did not
design to come any nearer to the shore: upon which I
stretched out to sea as much as I could, resolving to speak
with them if possible.
With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be
ahlo to come in their way, but that they would be gone by
before I could make any signal to them: but after I had
crowded to the utmost, and began to despair, they, it seems,
saw, by the help of their glasses, that it was some European
boat, which they supposed must belong to some ship that was
lost; so they shortened sail to let me come up. I was
encouraged with this, and as I had my patron's ancient on
board, I made a waft of it to them, for a signal of distress,
and tired a gun, both which they saw; for they told me they
saw the smoke, though they did not hear the gun. Upon
these signals they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me;
and in about three hours' time I came up with them.
They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in Spanish,
and in French, but I understood none of them; but, at last,
a Scotch sailor, who was on board, called to me: and I
answered him, and told him I was an Englishman, that I had
made my escape out of slavery from the Moors, at Sallee;
they then bade me come on board, and very kindly took m-
in, and all my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will
believe, that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from
such a miserable and almost hopeless condition as I was in;
and I immediately offered all I had to the captain of the ship,
as a return for my deliverance; but he generously told
me, he would take nothing from me, but that all I had
should be delivered safe to me, when I came to the Brazils.
" For," says he, I have saved your life on no other terms
than I would be glad to be saved myself ; and it may, one
time or other, be my lot to be taken up in the same condition.
Bcides," said he, when I carry you to the Brazils, so great
a way from your own country, if I should take from you %hat

58 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
you have, you will be starved there, and then I only take
away that life I have given. No, no," says he: Seignor
Inglese" (Mr. Englishman), I will carry you thither in
charity, and those things will help to buy your subsistence
there, and your passage home again."

/

1M
I ,

CRUSOE IS TAKEN UP BY A PORTUGUESE VESSEL.

As he was charitable in this proposal, so he was just in the
performance to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen, that
none should touch anything that I had : then he took every-
thing into his own possession, and gave me back an exact
I' -

CRUSE I TAEN P B A PRTUUES VESEL

As e aschriabe i tisprpoal sohewa lstinth
perfrmane t a tttle fo he rderd te sementha
non shuldtouh aytingta a hnh okeey
thngino isow psssson ad av m bckanexc

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 59
inventory of them, that I might have them, even to my
three earthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw,
and told me he would buy it of me tor his ship's use; and
asked me what I would have for it I told him, he had been
so generous to me in everything, that I could not offer to
make any price of the boat, but left it entirely to him : upon
wh bh, he told me he would give me a note of hand to pay me
eighty pieces of eight for it at Brazil; and when it came
there, if any one offered to give more, he would make it up.
He offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy
Xnry, which I was loath to take; not that I was unwilling
to let the captain have him, but I was very loath to sell the
poor boy's liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in pro-
curing my own. However, when I let him know my reason,
he owned it to be jlst, and offered me this medium, that he
would give the boy an obligation to set him free in ten years,
if he turned Christian : upon this, and Xury saying he was
willing to go to him, I let the captain have him.
We h.id a very good voyage to the Brazils, and I arrived
in the B:y de Todoi los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in about
twenty-two days after. And now I was once more delivered
from the most miserable of all conditions of life; and what
to do next with myself I was to consider.
The generous treatment the captain gave me, I can never
enough remember: he would take nothing of me for my
passage, gave me twenty ducats for the leopard's skin, and
forty for the lion's skin, which I had in my boat, and caused
everything I had in the ship to be punctually delivered to
me; and what I was willing to sell, he bought of me, such as
the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump
of bees'-wax-for I had made candles of the rest: in a word,
I made about two hundred and twenty pieces of eight of all
my cargo; and with this stock, I went on shore in the
Brazils.
I had not been long here, before I was recommended to the
house of a good, honest man, like himself, who had an ingenio,
as they call it (that is, a plantation and a sugar-house). I
lived with him some time, and acquainted myself, by that
means, with the manner of planting and making of sugar;
and seeing how well the planters lived, and how they got
rich suddenly, I resolved, if I could get a licence to settle

6U LIFE AND ADVENTURES
there, I would turn planter among them; resolving, in the
meantime, to find out some way to get my money, which I
had left in London, remitted to me. To this purpose, getting
a kind of letter of naturalization, I purchased as much land
that was uncured as my money would reach, and formed a
plan for my plantation and settlement; such a one as might
be suitable to the stock which I proposed to myself to receive
from England.
I had a neighbour, a Portuguese, of Lisbon, but born of
English parents, whose name was Wells, and in much such
circumstances as I was. I call him my neighbour, because
his plantation lay next to mine, and we went on very sociably
together. My stock was but low, as well as his; and we
rather planted for food than anything else, for about two
years. However, we began to increase, and our land began
to come into order; so that the third y(ar we planted some
tobacco, and made each of us a large pi(ce of ground ready
for planting canes in the year to come. But we both wanted
help; and now I found, more than before, I had done wrong
in parting with my boy Xury.
But, alas for me to do wrong that never did right, was no
great wonder. I had no remedy but to go on : I had got into
an employment quite remote to my genius, and directly con-
trary to the life I delighted in, and for which I forsook my
father's house, and broke through all his good advice. Nay,
I was coming into the very middle station, or upper degree of
low life, which my father advised me to before, and which, if
I resolved to go on with, I might as well have stayed at home,
and never have fatigued myself in the world, as I had done;
and I used often to say to myself, I could have done this as
well in England, among my friends, as have gone 1:ve thousand
miles off to do it among strangers and savages, in a wilderness.
and at such a distance as never to hear from any pait of the
world that had the least knowledge of me.
In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the
utmost regret. I had nobody to converse with, but now and
then this neighbour ; no work to be done, but by the labour
of my hands; and I used to say, I lived just like a man cast
away upon some desolate island, that had nobody there but
himself. But how just has it been-and how should all men
reflect, that when they compare their present conditions with
others that are worsn, Heaven may oblige them to make the

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 61

exchange, and be convinced of their former felicity by their
experience-I say, how just has it been, that the truly solitary
life I reflected on, in an island of mere desolation, should be
my lot, who had so often unjustly compared it with the life
which I then led, in which, had I continued, I had, in all
probability, been exceeding prosperous and rich.
I was, in some degree, settled in my measures for carrying
on the plantation, before my kind friend, the captain of the
ship that took me up at sea, went back--for the ship re-
mained there, in providing his lading, and preparing for his
voyage, nearly three months; when, telling him what little
stork I had left behind me in London, he gave me this
friendly and sincere advice :-" Seignor Inglese," says he
(for so he always called me), "if you will give me letters,
aii. a procuration in form to me, with orders to the person
\ has your money in London, to send your elects to Lisbon,
t,. -uch persons as I shall direct, and in such goods as are
proper for this country, I will bring you the produce of them,
God willing, at my return ; but, since human affairs are all
subject to changes and disasters, I would have you give
owners bat for one hundred pounds sterling, which, you say,
is half your stock, and let the hazard be run for the first; so
that, if it come safe, you may order the rest the same way;
and, if it miscarry, you may have the other half to have
recourse to for your supply."
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that
I could not but be convinced it was the best course I could
take; so I accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman
with whom I had left my money, and a procuration to the
Portuguese captain, as he desired.
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all
my adventures-my slavery, escape, and how I had met with
the Portuguese captain at sea, the humanity of his behaviour,
and what condition I was now in, with all other necessary
directions for my supply; and when this honest captain came
to Lisbon, he found means, by some of the English merchants
there, to send over, not the order only, but a full account of
my story to a merchant at London, who represented it effec-
tually to her; whereupon she not only delivered the money,
but, out of her own pocket, sent the Portugal captain a very
handsome present for his humanity and charity to me.
The merchant in London, vesting this hundred pounds in

62 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
English goods, such as the captain had written for, sent them
directly to him at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to me
to the Brazils; among which, without my direction (for I was
too young in my business to think of them), he had taken care
to have all sorts of tools, ironwork, and utensils, necessary for
my plantation, and which were of gi, at use to me.
When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortunes made, for I
was surprised with the joy of it; and my good steward, the
captain, had laid out the five pounds, which my friend had
sent him for a present for himself, to purchase and bring me
over a servant, under bond for six years' service, and would
not accept of any consideration, except a little tobacco, which
I would have him accept, being of my own produce.
Neither was this all; for my goods being all English
manufacture, such as cloths, stuffs, baize, and things particu-
larly valuable and desirable in the county. I found means
to sell them to a very great advantage; so that I might say,
I had more than four times the value of my first cargo, and
was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbour-I mean in the
advancement of my plantation; for the first thing I did I
bought me a negro slave, and an European servant also-I
mean another besides that which the captain brought nme
from Lisbon.
But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means
of our greatest adversity, so was it with me. I went on the
next year with great success in my plantation : I raised fifty
great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more than 1 had
disposed of for necessaries among my neighbours; and these
fifty rolls, being each of above a hundred-weight, weie well
cured, and laid by against the return of the fleet from Lisbon :
and now increasing in business and in wealth, my head began
to be full of projects and undertakings beyond my reach;
such as are, indeed, often the ruin of the best heads in busi-
ness. Had I continued in the station I was now in, I had
room for all the happy things to have yet befallen me, for
which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired
life, and of which he had so sensibly described the middle
station of life to be full of; but other things attended me,
and I was still to be the wilful agent of all my own miseries;
and particularly, to increase my fault, and double the reflec-
tions upon myself, which in my future sorrows I should have
leisure to make, all these miscarriages were procured by my

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. b6
apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination of
wandering abroad, and pursuing that inclination, in contra-
diction to the clearest views of doing myself good in a fair
and plain pursuit of those prospects, and those measures of
life, which nature and Providence concurred to present me
with, and to make my duty.
As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my
parents, so I could not be content now, but T must go and
leave the happy view I had of being a rich and thriving man
in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash and immoderate
desire of rising faster than the nature of the thing admitted ;
and thus I cast myself down again into the deepest gulf of
human misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps cotdd be
consistent with life, and a state of health in the world.
To come, then, by the just degrees, to the particulars of
this part of my story :-You may suppose, that having now
lived almost four yeais in the Brazils, and beginning to thrive
and prosper very well upon my plantation, I had not only
learned the language, but had contracted acquaintance and
friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as among the
merchants at St. Salvador, which was our port ; and that, in
my discourses among them, I had frequently given them an
account of my two voyages to the coast of Guinea; the
inner of trading with the Negroes there, and how easy it
was to purchase upon the coast for trifles-such as beads, toys,
knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glass, and the like-not only
gold dust, Guinea grains, elephants' teeth, &c., but Negroes,
for the service of the Brazils, in great numbers.
They listened always very attentively to my discourses on
these heids, but especially to that part which related to the
buying Negroes, which was a trade, at that time, not only not
far entered into, but, as far as it was, had been carried on by
assientos, or permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal,
and engrossed in the public stock; so that few Negroes were
bought, and those excessively dear,
It happened, being in company with some merchants and
planters of my acquaintance, and talking of those things very
earnestly, three of them came to me next morning, and told
me they had been musing very much upon what I had dis-
coursed with them of the last night, and they came to make a
secret proposal to me; and, after enjoining me secrecy, they
told me that they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to

64 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
Guinea; that they had all plantations as well as I, and were
straitened for nothing so much as servants; that as it was a
trade that could not be carried on, because they could not
publicly sell the Negroes when they came home, so they
desired to make but one voyage, to bring the Negroes on shore
privately, and divide them among their own plantations; and,
in a word,; the question was, whether I would go their super
cargo in the ship, to manage the trading part upon the coast of
Guinea; and they offered me that I should have my equal
share of the Negroes, without providing any part of the stock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been
made to any one that had not had a settlement and a planta-
tion of his own to look after, which was in a fair way of
coming to be very considerable, and with a good stock upon
it; but for me, that was thus entered and established, and
had nothing to do but to -go on as I had begun, for three or
four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred
pounds from England; and who in that time, and with that
little addition, could scarce have failed of being worth three
or four thousand pounds sterling, and that increasing too-
for me to think of such a voyage was the most preposterous
thing that ever man in such circumstances could be guilty of.
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no
more resist the offer than I could restrain my first rambling
designs when my father's good counsel was lost upon me. In
a word, I told them I would go with all heart, if they would
undertake to look after my plantation in my absence, and
would dispose of it to such as I should direct, if I miscarried.
This they all engaged to do, and entered into writings or
covenants to do so; and I made a formal will, disposing of
my plantation and effects in case of my death, making the
captain of the ship that had saved my life, as before, my
universal heir, but obliging h;m to dispose of my effects as
I had directed in my will; one-half of the produce being to
himself, and the other to be shipped in England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects,
and to keep up my plantation. Had I used half as much
prudence to have looked into my own interest, and have made
a judgment of what I ought to have done and not to have
done, I had certainly never gone away from so prosperous an
undertaking, leaving all the probable views of a thriving cir-
cumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 65
its common hazards, to say nothing of the reasons I had to
expect particular misfortunes to myself.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of
my fancy rather than my reason; and, accordingly, the ship
being fitted out, and the cargo furnished, and all things done,
as by agreement, by my partners in the voyage, I went on
board in an evil hour, the 1st September, 1659, being the same
day eight years that I went from my father and mother at
Hull, in order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool
to my own interests.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden,
carried six guns, and fourteen men, besides the master, his
boy, and myself. We had on board no large cargo of goods,
except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the Negroes,
such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and other trifles, especially
little looking-glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away
to the northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch
over for the African coast when we came about ten or twelve
degrees of northern latitude, which, it seems, was the manner
of course in those days. We had very good weather," only
excessively hot, all the way upon our own coast, till we came
to the height of Cape St. Augustino; from whence, keeping
further off at sea, we lost sight of land, and steered as if we
were bound for the isle Fernando de Noronha, holding our
course N.E. by N., and leaving those isles on the east. In
this course we passed the line in about twelve days' time, and
were, by our last observation, in seven degrees twenty-two
niinutes northern latitude, when a violent tornado. or hurricane,
took us quite out of our knowledge. It began from the south-
east, came about to the north-west, and then settled in the
north-east; from whence it blew in such a terrible manner,
that for twelve days together we could do nothing but drive,
and, scudding away before it, let it carry us whither ever fate
and the fury of the winds directed; and, during these twelve
days, I need not say that I expected every day to be swallowed
lup; nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect to save their lives.
In this distress we had, besides the terror of the storm, one
of our men die of the calenture, and one man and the boy
washed overboard. About the twelfth day, the weather
abating a little, the master made an observation as well as he
could, and found that he was in about eleven degrees north

66 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
latitude, but that he was twenty-two degrees of longitude
difference west from Cape St. Augustino; so that he found
he was upon the coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brazil,
beyond the river Amazons, towards that of the river Oroonoque,
commonly called the Great River ; and began to consult with
me what course he should take, for the ship was leaky, and
very much disabled, and he was going directly back to the
coast of Brazil.
I was positively against that; and looking over the charts
of the cia coat of America with hiu. we concluded there was
no inhabited country for us to have recourse to, till we came
within the circle of the Caribboe Islands, and therefore re-
solved to stand away for liarbadoes ; which. by keeping off at
sea. to avoid the indraft of the Bay or Gulf of Mexico, we
might easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days' sail;
whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to the coast
of Africa without some assistance both to our ship and to
ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and steered away
N.W. by WV., in order to reach some of our English islands,
where I hoped for relief. But our voyage was otherwise deter-
mined ; for. being in the latitude of twelve degrees eighteen
minute,. a second storm came upon us, which carried us away
with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of
the way of all human commerce, that, had all our lives been
saved as to the sea, we were rather in danger of being devoured
by savages than ever returning to our own country.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of
our men earlv in the morning cried out, Land I" and we
had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes of
seeing whereabouts in the world we were, than the ship struck
upon a sand. and in a moment, her motion being so stopped,
the sea broke over her in such a manner, that we expected we
should all h.ve perished immediately: and we were immedi-
ately driven into our close quarters, to shelter us from the very
foam and spray of the sea.
It is not easy for any one who has not been in the like con-
dition to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such
circumstances. We knew nothing where we were, or upon
what land it was we were driven--whetiler an island or the
main, whether inhabited or not inhabited. As the rage of the
wind was still great though rather less than at first, we could

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 67
not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes
without breaking into pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of
miracle, should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat
looking upon one another, and expecting death every moment,
and every man, accordingly, preparing for another world; for
there was little or nothing more for us to do in this. That which
was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had, was that,
-ontrary to our expectation, the ship did not break yet, and
that the master said the wind began to abate.
Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate,
yet the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking
too fast for us to expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful
condition indeed, and had nothing to do but to think of saving
our lives as well as we could. We had a boat at our stern just
before the storm, but she was first staved by dashing against
the ship's rudder, and in the next place, she broke away and
either sunk, or was driven off to sea; so there was no hope
from her. We had another boat on board, but how to get her
off into the sea was a doubtful thing. However, there was no
time to debate, for we fancied the ship would break in pieces
every minute, and some told us she was actually broken
already.
In this distress, the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat,
and with the help of the rest of the men, got her slung over
the ship's side; and getting all into her, let go, and committed
ourselves, being eleven in number, to God's mercy and the
wild sea; for though the storm was abated considerably, yet
the sea ran dreadfully high upon the shore, and might be well
called den wild zee, as the Dutch call the sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw
plainly that the sea went so high that the boat could not live,
and that we should be inevitably drowned. As to making sail,
we had none, nor, if we had, could we have done anything
with it; so we worked at the oar towards the land, though
with heavy hearts, like men going to execution; for we all
knew that when the boat came nearer the shore, she would be
dashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the sea. How-
ever, we committed our souls to God in the most earnest
manner; and the wind driving us towards the shore, we
hastened our destruction with our own hands, pulling as well
as we could towards land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep
E2

68 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
or shoal, we knew not. The only hope that could rationally
give us the least shadow of expectation, was, if we might find
some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where by great
chance we might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of
the land, and perhaps made smooth water. But there was
nothing like this appeared ; but as we made nearer and nearer
the shore, the land looked more frightful than the sea.
After we had rowed or rather driven about a league and a
half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came
rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the coup de
grace. In a word, it took us with such a fury, that it overset
the boat at once ; and separating us, as well from the boat as
from one another, gave us not time to say, O God i for we
were all swallowed up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt,
when I sank into the water; for though I swam very well, yet
I could not deliver myself from the waves so as to draw
breath, till that wave having driven me, or rather carried me,
a vast way on towards the shore, and having spent itself, went
back, and left me upon the land almost dry, but half dead with
the water I took in. I had so much presence of mind, as well
as breath left, that, seeing myself nearer the mainland than I
expected, I got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on
towards the land as fast as I could, before another wave
should return and take me up again; but I soon found it was
impossible to avoid it; for I saw the sea come after me as
high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy, which I had
no means or strength to contend with: my business was to
hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water, if I could;
and so, by swimming, to preserve my breathing and pilot
myself towards the shore, if possible, my greatest concern
now being, that the sea, as it would carry me a great way
towards the shore when it came on, might not carry me back
again with it when it gave back towards the sea.
The wave that came upon me again, buried me at once
twenty or thirty feet deep in its own body, and I could feel
myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness towards the
shore a very great way; but I held my breath, and assisted
myself to swim still forward with all my might. I was ready
to burst with holding my breath, when as I felt myself rising
up, so, to my immediate relief, I found my head and hands
shoot out above the surface of the water; and though it was

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 69
not two seconds of time that I could keep myself so, yet it
relieved me greatly, gave me breath and new courage. I was
covered again with water a good while, but not so long but I
held it out; and, finding the water had spent itself and begun
to return, I struck forward against the return of the waves,
and felt ground again with my feet. I stood still a few
moments to recover breath and till the waters went from me,
and then took to my heels and ran, with what strength
I had, further towards the shore. But neither would this
deliver me from the fury of the sea, which came pouring
in after me again; and twice more I was lifted up by
the waves and carried forward as before, the shore being
very flat.
The last time of these two had well-nigh been fatal to me,
for the sea having hurried me along, as before, landed me, or
rather dashed me, against a piece of a rock, and that with such
fcrce, that it left me senseless, and- indeed helpless, as to my
own deliverance; for the blow taking my side and breast, beat
the breath, as it were, quite out of my body; and had it
returned again immediately, I must have been strangled in the
water; but I recovered a little before the return.of the
waves, and seeing I should be covered again with the water, I
resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my
breath, if possible, till the wave went back. Now, as the
waves were not so high as at first, being nearer land, I held
my hold till the wave abated, and then fetched another run,
which brought me so near the shore, that the next wave,
though it went over me, yet did not so swallow me up as to
carry me away; and the next run I took, I got to the main
land, where; to my great comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of
the shore, and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger
and quite out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look up
and thank God that my life was saved, in a case wherein there
was, some minutes before, scarce any room to hope. 1 believe
it is impossible to express, to the life, what the ecstasies and
transports of the soul are, when it is so saved, as I may say,
out of the very grave : and I do not wonder now at the custom,
when a malefactor, who has the halter about his neck, is tied
up, and just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought
to him-I say, I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon
with it, to let him blood that very moment they tell him of

7;) LIFE AND ADVENTURES
it, that the surprise may not drive th3 animal spirits from the
heart, and overwhelm him.
For su ldini joy, like grief;, cofiiullld at first.
I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and my
whole beinz, as I may say, wrapt up in a contemplation of
my deliverance making a thousand gestures and motions,
which I cannot describe; reflecting upon all my comrades
that were drowned, and that there should not be one soul
saved but myself ; for, as for t hem, 1 never saw them after-
wards, or any sign of them, except three of their hats, one
cap, and two shoes that were not fellows.
I cat my eves to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and
froth of the sea being so big. I could hardly see it, it lay so
far off : and considered, Lord how was it possible I could
get on shore ?
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of
my condition. I. began to look round me, to see what kind of
place I was in, and what was next to be done: and I soon
found my comforts abate, and thit, in a word, I had a diead-
ful deliverance for I was wet. had no clothes to shift me,
n )r anything either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither
d d I see any prospect before me but that of perishing with
hunger or being devoured by wild beasts; and that which
was particularly afflicting to me was, that I had no weapon,
either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, or to
defend myself against any other creature that might desire to
kill me for theirs. In a word, I had nothing about me but a
knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco in a box. This was
all my provisions and this threw me int1 ) terrible agonies of
mind, that for a while, I ran l aout like a madman. Night
coming upon me. I bezan, with a heavy heart; to consider
what would be my lot if there were any ravenous beasts in
th-at country, as at night they always come abroad for their
prey.
All the remedy that ..'!. i to my thoughts at that time,
was to get up into a thick hbulhy tree like a tir, but thorny,
which -.rew near me. and where I resolved to sit all night.
and consider the next day wliat d atlh I should die, for as
yet I saw no prospect of life. I walked about a furlong from
the shore, to see if I could find any fresh water to drink,
which I did, to my great joy, and having drank, and put a

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 71

little tobacco in my mouth to prevent hunger, I went to the
tree, and getting up into it, endeavoured to place myself so
that if I should sleep I might not fall. And having cut me
a short stick, like a truncheon, for my defence, I took up my
lodging; and having been excessively fatigued, I fell fast

CRUSOE OG[IS INTO A TREE TO SLEEP.

asleep, and slept as comfortably as, I believe, few could have
done in my condition, and found myself more refreshed with
it than, I think, I ever was on such an occasion.
When I waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and
the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell is
before. But that which surprised me most was, that the ship

72 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
was lifted off in the night from the sand where she lay by
the swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as far as
the rock which I at first mentioned, where I had been so
bruised by the wave dashing me against it. This being
within about a mile from the shore where I was, and the
ship seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself on board,
that at least I might save some necessary things for my use.
When I came down from my apartment in the tree, I looked
about me again, and the first thing I found was the boat,
which lay, as the wind and the sea had tossed her up, upon
the land, about two miles on my right hand. I walked as
far as I could upon the shore to have got to her; but found a
neck or inlet of water between me and the boat which was
about half a mile broad; so I came back for the present,
being more intent upon getting at the ship, where I hoped to
find something for my present subsistence.
A little after noon, I found the sea very calm, and the tide
ebbed so far out that I could come within a quarter of a mile
of the ship. And here I found a fresh renewing of my grief;
for I saw evidently, that if we had kept on board, we had
been all safe-that is to say, we had all got safe on shore,
and I had not been so miserable as to be left entirely desti-
tute of all comfort and company as I now was. This forced
tears to my eyes again; but as there was little relief in that,
I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so I pulled off my
clothes-for the weather was hot to extremity, and took the
water. But when I came to the ship my difficulty was still
greater to know how to get on board; for, as she lay aground,
and high out of the water, there was nothing within my
reach to lay hold of. I swam round her twice, and the
second time I spied a small piece of rope, which I wondered
I did not see at first, hung down by the fore-chains so low, as
that with reaat difficulty I got hold of it, and by the help of
that rope I got up into the forecastle of the ship. Here I
found that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water
in her hold, but that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard
sand, or rather earth, that her stern lay lifted up upon the
bank, and her head low, almost to the water. By this means
all her quarter was free, and all that was in that part was
dry; for you may be sure my first work was to search. and to
see what was spoiled and what was free. And, first, I found
that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 73
water, and being very well disposed to eat, I went to the
bread-room and filled my pockets with biscuit, and ate it as I
went about other things, for I had no time to lose. I also
found some rum in the great cabin, of which I took a large
dram, and which I had, indeed, need enough of to spirit me
for what was before me. Now I wanted nothing but a boat
to furnish myself with many things which I foresaw would
be very necessary to me.
It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be
had, and this extremity roused my application. We had
several spare yards, and two or three large spars of wood,
and a spare top-mast or two in the ship: I resolved to fall to
work with these, and I flung as many of them overboard as
I could manage for their weight, tying every one with a rope,
that they might not drive away. When this was done I
went down the ship's side, and pulling them to me, I tied
four of them together at both ends, as well as I could, in the
form of a raft, and laying two or three short pieces of plank
upon them cross-ways, I found I could walk upon it very
well, but that it was not able to bear any great weight, the
pieces being too light. So I went to work, and with a car-
penter's saw I cut a spare top-mast into three lengths, and
added them to my raft, with a great deal of labour and pains.
But the hope of furnishing myself with necessaries encouraged
me to go beyond what I should have been able to have done
upon another occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable
weight. My next care was what to load it with, and how to
preserve what I laid upon it from the surf of the sea: but I
was not long considering this. I first laid all the plank or
boards upon it that I could get, and having considered well
what I most wanted, I first got three of the seamen's chests,
which I had broken open and emptied, and lowered them
down upon my raft; the first of these I filled with provisions,
viz. bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried
goat's flesh (which we lived much upon), and a little re-
mainder of European corn, whichhad been laid by for some
fowls which we brought to sea with us, but the fowls were
killed. There had been some barley and wheat together;
but, to my great disappointment, I found afterwards that the
rats had eaten or spoiled it all. As for liquors, I found
several cases of bottles belonging to our skipper, in which

/
/

/

74 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
were some cordial waters; and, in all, about five or six
gallons of rack. These I stowed by themselves, there being
no need to put them into the chest, nor any room for them.
While I was doing this, I found the tide begin to flow, though
very calm; and I had the mortification to see my coat, shirt,
and waistcoat, which I had left on the shore, upon the sand,
swim away. As for my breeches, which were only linen, and
open-knee'd, I swam on board in them and my stockings.
However, this set me on rummaging for clothes, of which I
found enough, but took no more than I wanted for present
use, for I had other things which my eye was more upon-as,
first, tools to work with on shore. And it was after long
searching that I found out the carpenter's chest, which was,
indeed, a very useful prize to me, and much more valuable
than a ship load of gold would have been at that time. I got
it down to my raft, whole as it was, without losing time to
look into it, for I knew in general what it contained.
My next care was for some ammunition and arms. There
were two very good fowling-pieces in the great cabin, and two
pistols. These I secured first, with some powder-horns and a
small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. I knew there
were three barrels of powder in the ship, but knew not where
our gunner harl stowed them; but with much search I found
them, two of them dry and good, the third had taken water.
Those two I got to my raft, with the arms. And now I thought
myself pretty well freighted, and began to think how I should
get to shore with them, having neither sail, oar, nor rudder;
and the least capful of wind would have overset all my
navigation.
I had three encouragements: 1st, a smooth, calm sea; 2ndly,
the tide rising, and setting in to the shore; 3rdly, what little
wind there was blew me towards the land. And thus, having
found two or three broken oars belonging to the boat-and,
besides the tools which were in the chest, I found two saws,
an axe, and a hammer: with this cargo I put to sea. For a
mile, or thereabouts, my raft went very well, only that I
found it drive a little distant from the place where I had
landed before; by which I perceived that there was some in-
draft of the water, and consequently, I hoped to find some
creek or river there, which I might make use of as a port to
get to land with my cargo.
As I imagined, so it was. There appeared before me little

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 70

opening of the land, and I found a strong current of the tide set
into it; so I guided my raft, as well as I could, to keep in the
middle of the stream.
But here I had like to have suffered a second shipwreck,
which, if I had, I think, verily, would have broken my heart;

ORUSOE'S RAFT IS NEARLY UPSET.

for, knowing nothing of the coast, my raft ran aground at one
ond of it upon a shoal, and not being aground at the other
end, it wanted but a little that all my cargo had slipped off
towards the end that was afloat, and so fallen into the water.

76 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
I did my utmost, by setting my back against the chests, to
keep them in their places, but could not thrust off the raft
with all my strength; neither durst I stir from the posture
I was in ; but holding up the chests with all my might, I
stood in that manner near half an hour, in which time the
rising of the water brought me a little more upon a level; and,
a little after, the water still rising, my raft floated again, and
I thrust her off with the oar I had into the channel, and then
driving up higher, I at length found myself in the mouth of a
little river, with land on both sides, and a strong current of
tide running up. I looked on both sides for a proper place to
get to shore, for I was not willing to be driven too high up
the river : hoping, in time, to see some ship at sea, and there-
fore resolved to place myself as near the coast as I could.
At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek,
to which, with great pain and dilficulty, I guided my raft, and
at last got so near, that, reaching ground with my oar, I could
thrust her directly in. But here I had like to have dipped all
my cargo into the sea again; for that shore lying pretty steep
-that is to say, sloping-there was no place to land, but
where one end of my float, if it ran on shore, would lie so
high, and the other sink lower, as before, that it would en-
danger my cargo again. All that I could do, was to wait till
the tide was at the highest, keeping the raft with my oar
like an anchor, to hold the side of it fast to the shore, near a
flat piece of ground, which I expected the water would flow
over; and so it did. As soon as I found water enough-for
my raft drew about a foot of water-I thrust her upon that
flat piece of ground, and there fastened or moored her, by stick-
ing my two broken oars into the ground, one on one side, near
one end, and one on the other side, near the other end ; and
thus-I lay till the water ebbed away, and left my raft and all
my cargo safe on shore.
My next work was to view the country, and seek a proper
place for my habitation, and where to stow my goods to secure
them from whatever might happen. Where I was, I yet knew
not; whether on the continent or on an island ; whether in-
habited or not inhabited; whether in danger of wild beasts or
not. There was a hill not above a mile from me, which rose
up very steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some
other hills, which lay as in a ridge from it, northward. I took
out one of the fowling-pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 7i
of powder; and thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to
the top of that hill, where, after I had with great labour and
difficulty got to the top, I saw my fate, to my great affliction,
viz. that I was in an island environed every way with the
sea: no land to be seen except some rocks, which lay a great
way off; and two small islands, less than this, which lay
about three leagues to the west.
I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as I
saw good reason to believe, uninhabited. except by wild beasts,
of whom, however, I saw none. Yet I saw abundance of fowls,
but knew not their kinds; neither when I killed them could I
tell what was fit for food, and what not. At my coming back,
I shot at a great bird which I saw sitting upon a tree on the side
of a great wood. I believe it was the first gun that had been
fired there since the creation of the world. I had no sooner
fired, than from all parts of the wood there arose an innumer-
able number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused
screaming and crying, and every one according to his usual
note, but not one of them of any kind that I knew. As for
the creature I killed, I took it to be a kind of hawk, its colour
and beak resembling it, but it had no talons or claws more
than common. Its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing.
Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, and
fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up
the rest of that day. What to do with myself at night I
knew not, nor indeed where to rest, for I was afraid to lie
down on the ground, not knowing but some wild beast might
devour me, though, as I afterwards found, there was really no
need for those fears.
However, as well as I could, I barricaded myself round with
the chests and boards that I had brought on shore, and made
a kind of hut for that night's lodging. As for food, I yet saw
not which way to supply myself, except that I had seen two or
three creatures, like hares, run out of the wood where I shot
the fowl.
I now began to consider that I might yet get a great many
things out of the ship which would be useful to me, and par-
ticularly some of the rigging and sails, and such other things
as might come to land; and I resolved to make another voyage
on board the vessel, if possible. And as I knew that the first
storm that blew must necessarily break her all in pieces, I
resolved to set all other things apart-till I had got everything

78 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
out of the ship that I could get. Then I called a council-
that is to say, in my thoughts-whether I should take back
the raft; but this appeared impracticable: so I resolved to go
as before, when the tide was down; and I did so, only that
I stripped before I went from my hut,, having nothing on but
a chequered shirt, a pair of linen drawers, and a pair of pumps
on my feet.
I got on board the ship as before, and prepared a second
raft; and, having had experience of the first, I neither made
this so unwieldy, nor loaded it so hard, but yet I brought
away several things very useful to me: as, first, in the
carpenter's stores I found two or three bags full of nails and
spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two of hatchets, and,
above all, that most useful thing called a grindstone. All
these I secured, together with several things belonging to the
gunner, particularly two or three iron crows, and two barrels
of musket bullets, seven muskets, another fowling-piece, with
some small quantity of powder more; a large bagful of small
shot, and a great roll of sheet-lead; but this last was so heavy,
I could not hoist it up to get it over the ship's side.
Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes that I
could find, and a spare fore-top sail, a hammock, and some
bedding; and with this I loaded my second raft, and brought
them all safe on shore, to my very great comfort.
I was under some apprehension, during my absence from
the land, that at least my provisions might be devoured on
shore : but when I came back I found no sign of any visitor ;
only there sat a creature like a wild cat upon one of the
chests, which, when I came towards it, ran away a little
distance, and then stood still. She sat very composed and un-
concerned, and looked full in my face, as if she had a mind to
be acquainted with me. I presented my gun at her, but, as
she did not understand it, she was perfectly unconcerned at it,
nor did she offer to stir away; upon which I tossed her a bit
of biscuit, though, by the way, I was not very free of it,
for my store was not great : however, I spared her a bit, I
say, and she went to it, -melled at it, and ate it, and looked
(as if pl ased) for more; but I thanked her, and could spare
no more : so she marched off.
Having got my second cargo on shore,-though I was fain
to open the barrels of powder, and bring them by parcels, for
they were too heavy, being large casks-I went to work to make

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. I9
me a little tent, with the sail, and some poles which I cut
for that purpose: and into this tent I brought everything
that I knew would spoil either with rain or sun; and I piled
all the empty chests and ca-ks up in a circle round the tent,
to fortify it from any sudden attempt, either from manor beast.
When I had done this, I blocked up the door of the tent
with some boards within, and an empty chest set up on end
without; and spreading one of the beds upon the ground,
laying my two pistols just at my head, and my gun at length
by me, I went to bed for the first time, and slept very quietly
all night, for I was very weary and heavy; for the night
before I had slept little, and had laboured very hard all day, to
fetch all those things from the ship, and to get them on shore.
I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever was
laid up, I believe, for one man : but I was not satisfied still,
for while the ship sat upright in that posture, I thought I
ought to get everything out of her that I could: so every day
at low water I went on board, and brought away something
or other; but particularly the third time I went I brought
away as much of the rigging as I could, as also all the small
ropes and rope-twine I could get, with a piece of spare canvas,
which was to mend the sails upon occasion, and the barrel of
wet gunpowder. In a word, I brought away all the sails, first
and last; only that I was fain to cut them in pieces, and
bring as much at a time as I could, for they were no more
useful to be sails, but as mere canvas only.
But that which comforted me more still, was, that last of
all, after I had made five or six such voyages as these, and
thought I had nothing more to expect from the ship that was
worth my meddling with ;-I say, after all this, I found a
great hogshead of bread, three large runlets of rum, or spirits,
a box of sugar, and a bairel of fine flour: this was sur-
prising to me, because I had given over expecting any mo e
provisions, except what was spoiled by the water. I soon
emptied the hogshead of the bread, and wrapped it up, parcel
by parcel, in pieces of the sails, which I cut out; and, in a
word, I got all this safe on shore also.
The next day I made another voyage, and now, having
plundered the ship of what was portable and fit to hand out,
I began with the cables. Cutting the great cable into pieces,
such as I could move. I got two cables and a hawser on shore,
with all the ironwork I could get; and having cut down the

80 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard, and everything I could, to
make a large raft, I loaded it with all these heavy goods, and
came away. But my good luck began now to leave me; for
this raft was so unwieldy, and so overladen, that, after I had
entered the little cove where I had landed the rest of my
goods, not being able to guide it so handily as I did the other,
it overset, and threw me and all my cargo into the water. As
for myself, it was no great harm, for I was near the shore;
but as to my cargo, it was a great part of it lost, especially
the iron, which I expected would have been of great use to
me: however, when the tide was out, I got most of the pieces
of the cable ashore, and some of the iron, though with infinite
labour ; for I was fain to dip for it into the water, a work
which fatigued me very much. After this, I went every day
on board, and brought away what I could get.
I had been now thirteen days on shore, and had been eleven
times on board the ship, in which time I had brought away
all that one pair of hands could well be supposed capable to
bring; though I believe verily, had the calm weather held, I
should have brought away the whole ship, piece by piece. But
preparing the twelfth time to go on board, I found the wind
began to rise: however, at low water I went on board, and
though I thought I had rummaged the cabin so effectually,
that nothing more could be found, yet I discovered a locker
with drawers in it, in one of which I found two or three
razors, and one pair of large scissors, with some ten or a dozen
of good knives and forks : in another I found about thirty-
six pounds value in money-some European coin, some Brazil,
some pieces of eight, some gold, and some silver.
I smiled to myself at the sight of this money: "0 drug "
said I, aloud, what art thou good for 1 Thou art not worth
to me-no, not the taking off the ground: one of those knives
is worth all this heap: I have no manner of use for thee-
e'en remain where thou art, and go to the bottom, as a creature
whose life is not worth saving" However, upon second
thoughts, I took it away; and, wrapping all this in a piece
of canvas, I began to think of making another raft; but while
I was preparing this, I found the sky overcast, and the wind
began to rise, and in a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh gale
from the shore. It presently occurred to me, that it was in
vain to pretend to make a raft with the wind off shore; and
that it was my business to be gone before the tide of flood

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 81
began, otherwise I might not be able to reach the shore at all.
Accordingly I let myself down into the water, and swam
across the channel which lay between the ship and the sands,
and even that with difficulty enough, partly with the weight
of the things I had about me, and partly the roughness of the
water; for the wind rose very hastily, and before it was quite
high water it blew a storm.
But I had got home to my little tent, where I lay, with all
my wealth about me, very secure. It blew very hard all
night, and in the morning, when I looked out, behold no mole
ship was to be seen! I was a little surprised, but recovered
myself with the satisfactory reflection, that I had lost no
time, nor abated any diligence, to get everything out of her
that could be useful to me; and that, indeed, there was little
left in her that I was able to bring away, if I had had more time.
I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of any-
thing out of her, except what might drive on shoe from her
wreck; as, indeed, divers pieces of her afterwards did; but
those things were of small use to me.
My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing
myself against either savages, if any should appear, or wild
beasts, if any were in the island; and I had many thoughts
of the method how to do this, and what kind of dwelling to
make-whether I should make me a cave in the earth, or a
tent upon the earth; and, in short, I resolved upon both; the
manner and description of which, it may not be improper to
give an account of.
I soon found the place I was in was not fit for my settle-
ment, because it was upon a low, moorish ground, near the sea,
and I believed it would not be wholesome, and more particularly
because there was no fresh water near it; so I resolved to find
a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground.
I consulted several things in my situation, which I found
would be proper for me: 1st, health and fresh water, I just
now mentioned; 2ndly, shelter from the heat of the sun;
3rdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether man or
beast; 4thly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship in
sight, I might not lose any advantage for my deliverance, of
which I was not willing to banish all my expectation yet.
In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain on
the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain
was steep as a house-side, so that nothing could come down
F

82 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
upon me from the top. On the side of the rock there was a
hollow place, worn a little way in, like the entrance or door
of a cave; but there was not really any cave, or way into the
rock at all.
On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I
resolved to pitch my tent. This plain was not above .-
hundred yards broad, and about twice as long, and lay
like a green before my door; and, at the end of it, descended
irregularly every way down into the low ground by the sea-
side. It was on the N.N.W. side of the hill; so that it was
sheltered from the heat every day, till it came to a W. and
by S. sun, or thereabouts, which, in those countries, is near
the setting.
Before I set up my tent I drew a half-circle before the
hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its semi-
diameter, from the rock, and twenty yards in its diameter,
from its beginning and ending.
In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes,
driving them into the ground till they stood very firm like
piles, the biggest end being out of the ground above five feet
and a half, and sharpened on the top. The two rows did not
stand above six inches from one another.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship,
and laid them in rows, one upon another, within the circle,
between these two rows of stakes, up to the top placing other
st ikes in the inside, leaning against them, about two feet and
a half high, like a spur to a post; and this fence was so
strong, that neither man nor beast could get into it or over it.
This cost me a great deal of time and labour, especially to cut
the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and drive them
into the earth.
The entrance into this place I made to be. not by a door,
hbu by a short ladder to go over the top; which ladder, when
I was in, I lifted over after me ; and so I was completely
fenced in and fortified, as I thought, from all the world, and
consequently slept secure in the night, which otherwise I
could not have done ; though, as it appeared afterwards, there
was no need of all this caution from the enemies that I
apprehended danger from.
Into this fence, or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried
.1ll my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores,
of which you have the account above; and I made a large

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 83
tent, which, to preserve me from the rains, that in one part of
the year are very violent there, I made double, one smaller
tent within, and one larger tent above it; and covered the
uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which I had saved among
the sails.
And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had
brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very
good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship.
Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and everything
that would spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all
my goods, I made up the entrance, which till now I had left
open, and so passed and repassed, as I said, by a short
ladder.
When I had done this, I began to work my way into the
rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug down
out through my tent, I laid them up within my fence, in the
nature of a terrace, so that it raised the ground within about
a foot and a half ; and thus I made me a cave, just behind my
tent, which served me like a cellar to my house.
It cost me much labour and many days before all these
things were brought to perfection; and, therefore, I must go
back to some other things which took up some of my thoughts.
At the same time it happened, after I had laid my scheme for
the setting up my tent, and making the cave, that a storm of
rain falling from a thick, dark cloud, a sudden flash of light-
ning happened, and after that, a great clap of thunder, as is
naturally the effect of it. I was not so much surprised with
the lightning, as I was with a thought which darted into my
mind as swift as the lightning itself-O my powder! My
very heart sank within me when I thought that, at one blast,
all my power might be destroyed : on which, not my defence
only, but the providing my food, as I thought, entirely de-
pended. I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger,
though, had the powder took fire, I should never have known
who had hurt me.
Such impression did this make upon me, that after the
storm was over, I laid aside all my works, my building and
fortifying, and applied myself to make bags and boxes, to sepa-
rate the powder, and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel,
in the hope that whatever might come, it might not all take
fire at once; and to keep it so apart, that it should not be
possible to make one part fire another. I finished this work
F2

64 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
in about a fortnight; and I think my powder, which in all
was about two hundred and forty pounds weight, was divided
in not less than a hundred parcels. As to the barrel that had
been wet, I did not apprehend any danger from that; so I
placed it in my new cave, which, in my fancy, I called my
kitchen ; and the rest I hid up and down in holes among the
rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking very carefully
where 1 laid it.
In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out
once at least every day with my gun, as well to divert myself,
as to see if I could kill anything fit for food ; and, as near as
I could, to acquaint myself with what the island produced.
The first time I went out, I presently discovered that there
were goats in the island, which was a great satisfaction to me;
but then it was attended with this misfortune to me, viz. that
they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot, that it was
the most difficult thing in the world to come at them; but I
was not discouraged at this, not doubting but I might now
and then shoot one, as it soon happened; for after I had
found their haunts a little, I laid wait in this manner for
them : I observed if they saw me in the valleys, though they
were upon the rocks, they would run away, as in a terrible
fright; but if they were feeding in the valleys, and I was
upon the rocks, they took no notice of me ; from whence I
concluded, that by the position of their optics, their sight was
so directed downward, that they did not readily see objects
that were above them : so afterwards, I took this method,-
I always climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and then
had frequently a fair mark.
The first shot 1 made among these creatures, I killed a she-
goat, which had a little kid by her, which she gave suck to,
which grieved me heartily; for, when the old one fell, the kid
stood stock still by her, till I came and took her up ; and not
only so, but when I carried the old one with me, upon my
shoulders, the kid followed me quite to my enclosure; upon
which, I laid down the dam, and took the kid in my arms,
and carried it over my pale, in hopes to have bred it up tame;
but it would not eat; so I was forced to kill it, and eat it
myself. These two supplied me with flesh a great while, for
I ate sparingly, and saved my provisions, my bread especially,
as much as possibly I could.
Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 85
necessary to provide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to
burn; and what I did for that, and also how I enlarged my
cave, and what conveniences I made, I shall give a full ac-
count of in its place; but I must now give some little account
of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which, it may
well be supposed, were not a few.
I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I was not
cast away upon that island without being driven, as is said,
by a violent storm, quite out of the course of our intended
voyage, and a great way, viz. some hundreds of leagues, out
of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind, I had great
reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven, that in
this desolate place, and in this desolate manner, I should end
mi life. The tears would run plentifully down my face when
I made these reflections; and sometimes I would expostulate
with myself why Providence should thus completely ruin His
creatures, and render them so absolutely miserable ; so with-
out help, abandoned, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly
be rational to be thankful for such a life.
But something always returned swift upon me to check
these thoughts, and to reprove me; and particularly one day,
walking with my gun in my hand by the sea-side, I was very
pensive upon the subject of my present condition, when reason,
as it were, expostulated with me the other way, thus: Well,
you are in a'desolate condition, it is true; but, pray remember,
where are the rest of you 7 Did not you come eleven of you
in the boat ? Where are thb ten 1 Why were not they saved,
and you lost ? Why were you singled out ? Is it better to
be here or there l" And then I pointed to the sea. All evils
are to be considered with the good that is in them, and with
what worse attends them.
Then it oci urred to me again, how well I was furnished for
my subsistence, and what would have been my case if it had
not happened (which was a hundred thousand to one) that the
ship floated from the place where she first struck, and was
driven so near to the shore, that I had time to get all these
things out of her; what would have been my case, if I had
been forced to have lived in the condition in which I at
first came on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries
to supply and procure them ? "Particularly," said I aloud
(though to myself), what should I have done without a gun,
without ammunition, without any tools to make anything, or

86 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
to work with, without clothes, bedding, a, tent, or any manner
of covering ?" and that now I had ,ll these to sufficient
quAntity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in much a
manner as to live without my gun, when my ammunition was

/

- --,- k;- ; i~
-- -

CRUSOE WALKS BY THE SEA-SIDE IN GREAT DEJECTION.

spent: so that I had a tolerable view of subsisting, without
any want, as long as I lived; for I considered from the be-
ginning, how I would provide for the accidents that might
happen, and for the time that was to come, even not only after

~2t~:j~,
...- -.

'4 .

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 87
my ammunition should be spent, but even after my health and
strength should decay.
I confess, I had not.entertained any notion of my ammuni-
tion being destroyed at one blast---I mean my powder being
blown up by lightning; and this made the thoughts of it
Surprising to me, when it lightened and thundered, as I
observed just now.
And now being to enter into a melancholy relation of a
scene of silent life, such, perhaps, as was never heard of in
the world before, I shall take it from its beginning, and
continue it in its order. It was, by my account, the 30th of
September, when, in the manner as above said, I first set foot
upon this horrid island; when the sun, being to us in its
autumnal equinox, was almost just over my head: for I
reckoned myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of nine
degrees twenty-two minutes north of the line.
After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came
into my thoughts that I should lose my reckoning of time for
want of books, and pen and ink, and should even forget the
Sabbath days; but to prevent tuis, I cut with my knife upon
a large post, in capital letters, and making it into a great
cross, I set up on the shore where I first landed, I came on
shore here on the 30th of September, 1659."
Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day a notch
with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long again as
the rest, and every first day of the month, as long again as
that long one; and thus I hept my calendar, or weekly,
monthly, and yearly reckoning of time.
In the next place, we are to observe that among the many
things which I brought out of the ship, in the several voyages
which, as above mentioned, I made to it, I got several things
of less value, but not at all less useful to me, which I omitted
setting down before; as, in particular, pens, ink, and paper;
several parcels in the captain's, mate's, gunner's, and carpen-
ter's keeping; three or four compasses, some mathematical
instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and books of naviga-
tion, all which I huddled together, whether I might want
them or no ; also, I found three very good Bibles, which came
to me in my cargo from England, and which I had packed up
among my things; some Portuguese books also; and, among
them, two or three Popish prayer-books, and several other
books, all which I carefully secured. And I must not forget,

88 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
that we had in the ship a dog, and two cats, of whose eminent
history I may have occasion to say something in its place; for
I carried both the cats with me; and as for the dog, he
jumped out of the ship of himself, and swam on shore to me
the day after I went on shore with my first cargo, and was a
trusty servant to me many years; I wanted nothing that he
could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to
me; I only wanted to have him talk to me, but that would
not do. As I observed before, I found pens, ink, and paper,
and I husbanded them to the utmost; and I shall show that
while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact, but after that
was gone I could not, for I could not make any ink by any
means that I could devise.
And this put me in mind that I wanted many things, not-
withstanding all that I had amassed together; and of these,
ink was one; as also a spade, pick-axe, and shovel, to dig or
remove the earth; needles, pins, and thread; as for linen, I
soon learned to want that without much difficulty.
This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily;
and it was near a whole year before I had entirely finished
my little pale, or surrounded my habitation. The piles or
stakes, which were as heavy as I could well lift, were a long
time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and more, by far,
in bringing home; so that I spent sometimes two days in
cutting and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day
in driving it into the ground; for which purpose, I got a
heavy piece of wood at first, but at last bethought myself of
one of the iron crows; which, however, though I found it,
made driving those posts or piles very laborious and tedious
work. But what need I have been concerned at the tedious-
ness of anything I had to do, seeing I had time enough to do
it in 1 nor-had I any other employment, if that had been over,
at least that I could foresee, except the ranging the island to
seek for food, which I did, more or less, every day.
I now began t) consider seriously my condition, and the
circumstances I was reduced to; and I drew up the state of
my affairs in writing, not so much to leave them to any thlit
were to come after me-for I was likely to have but few heirs
-as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring over them, and
afflicting my mind : and as my reason began now to master
my despondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could,
and to set the good against the evil, that I might have some-

OF BOBINSON CRUSOE. 89
thing to distinguish my case from worse; and I stated very
impartially, like debtor and creditor, the comforts I enjoyed
against the miseries I suffered, thus:-

EVIL.
I am cast upon a horrible,
desolate island, void of all
hope of recovery.
I am singled out and separ-
ated, as it were, from all the
world, to be miserable.

I am divided from man-
kind-a solitaire; one ban-
ished from human society.
I have not clothes to cover
me.

I am without any defence,
or means to resist any vio-
lence of man or beast.

I have no soul to speak to
or relieve me.

GOOD.
But I am alive; and not
drowned, as all my ship's
company were.
But I am singled out, too,
from all the ship's crew, to be
spared from death; and He
that miraculously saved me
from death, can deliver me
from this condition.
But I am not starved, and
porinhing on a barren place,
affording no sustenance.
But I am in a hot climate,
where, if I had clothes, I
could hardly wear them.
But I am cast on an island
where I see no wild beasts to
hurt me, as I saw on the coast
of Africa : and what if I had
been shipwrecked there 1
But God wonderfully sent
the ship in near enough to the
shore, that I have got out as
many necessary things as will
either supply my wants or
enable me to supply myself,
even as long as I live.

Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that
the e was scarce any condition in the world so miserable but
there was something negative or something positive to be
thankful for in it; and let this stand as a direction, from the
experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this
world : that we may always find in it something to comfort
ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and evil,
on the credit side of the account.

90 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
Having now brought my mind a little to relish my condi-
tion, and given over looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a
ship-I say, giving over these things, I began to apply myself
to arrange my way of living, and to make things as easy to
me as I could.
I have already described my habitation, which was a tent
under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of posts
and cables; but I might now rather call it a wall, for I
raised a kind of wall up against it of turfs, about two feet
thick on the outside ; and after some time (I think it was a
year and a half) I raised rafters from it, leaning to the rock,
and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such
things as I could get, to keep out the rain; which I found at
some times of the year very violent.
I have already observed how I brought all my goods into
this pale, and into the cave which I had made behind me.
But I must observe, too, that at first this was a confused heap
of goods, which, as they lay in no order, so they took up all
my place ; I had no room to turn myself: so I set myself to
enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth ; for it was
a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I
bestowed on it : and so when I found I was pretty safe as to
beasts of prey, I worked sideways, to the right hand, into the
rock; and then, turning to the right again, worked quite
out, and made me a door to come out on the outside of my
p le or fortification. This gave me not only egress and
regress, as it was a back way to my tent and to my store-
house, but gave me room to store my goods.
And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary
things as I found I most wanted, particularly a chair and
a table; for without these I was not able to enjoy the few
comforts I had in the world ; I could not write or eat, or do
several things, with so much pleasure without a table : so I
went to work. And here I must needs observe, that as reason
is the substance and origin of the mathematics, so by stating
and squaring everything by reason, and by making the most
rational judgment of things, every man may be, in time,
master of every mechanic art. I had never handled a tool in
my life; and yet, in time. by labour, application, and con-
trivance. I found, at last, that I wanted nothing but I could
have made it, especially if I had had tools. However, I made
abundance of things, even without tools; and some with no

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 91
more tools than an adze and a hatchet, which perhaps were
never made that way before, and that with infinite labour.
For example, if I wanted a board, I had no other way but to
cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat
on either side with my axe, till I had brought it to be thin as
a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, by
this method I could make but one board out of a whole tree ,
but this I had no remedy for but patience, any more than I
had for the prodigious deal of time and labour which it took
inm up to make a plank or board: but my time or labour was
little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as
another.
However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed
above, in the first place ; and this I did out of the short pieces
of boards that I brought on my raft from the ship. But when
I had wrought out some boards as above, I made large shelves,
of the breadth of a foot and a half, one vper another all along
one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and iron-work
on; and, in a word, to separate everything at large into their
places, that I might come easily at them. I knocked pieces
into the wall of the rock to hang my guns and all things that
would hang up : so that, had my cave been to be seen, it looked
like a general magazine of all necessary things; and I had
everything so ready at my hand, that it was a great pleasure
to me to see all my goods in such order, and especially to find
my stock of all necessaries so great.
And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every
day's employment; for, indeed, at first, I was in too much
hurry, and not only hurry as to labour, but in too much
liscomposure of mind; and my journal would have been full
of many dull things; for e'xmple, I must have said thus:
"Sept. 30th.-After I had got to shore, and had escaped
drowning, instead of being thankful to God for my deliver-
ance, having first vomited, with the great quantity of salt
water which had got into my stomach, and recovering myself
a little, I ran about the shore wringing my hands and beating
my head and face, exclaiming at my misery, and crying out,
'I was undone, undone !' till, tired and faint, I was forced to
lie down on the ground to repose, but durst not sleep for fear
of being devoured."
Some days after this. and after I had been on board the
ship, and got all that I could out of her, yet I could not

9s LIFE AND ADVENTURES
forbear getting up to the top of a little mountain, and looked
out to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship; then fancy, at a vast
distance, I spied a sail, please myself with the hopes of it,
and then after looking steadily, till I was almost blind, lose

---rz

CRUSOE LOOKS OUT TO SEA FOR A SAIL.

it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase
my misery by my folly.
But having gotten over these things in some measure, and
having settled my household staff and habitation, made me a
table and a chair, and all as handsome about me as I could, I

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. U3
began to keep my journal; of which I shall here give you the
copy (though in it will be told all these particulars over again)
as long as it lasted; for having no more ink, I was forced to
leave it off.
THE JOURNAL.
September 30, 1659.-I, poor, miserable Robinson Crusoe,
being shipwrecked, during a dreadful storm, in the offing,
came on shore on this dismal, unfortunate island, which I
called "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 spont in afflicting myself at the
dismal circumstances I was brought to; viz. 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, though it rained all night.
October .--In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, the
ship had floated with the high tide. and was driven on shore
again much nearer the island; which, as it was some comfort,
on one hand-for, seeing her set upright, and not broken to
pieces, I hoped, if the wind abated, I might get on board, and
get some food and necessaries out of her for my relief-so, on
the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of my com-
rades, who, I imagined, if we had all stayed on board, might
have saved the ship, or, at least, that they would not have been
all drowned, as they were; and that, had the men betn 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 these days
entirely spent in many 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 inter-
vals of fair weather; but it seems this was the rainy season.
Oct. 20. -I overset my raft, and all the goods I had got

94 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
upon it; but, being in shoal water, and the things being
chiefly heavy, I recovered many of them when the tide
was out.
Oct. 25.-It rained all night and all day, with some gusts
of wind; during which time the ship broke in pieces, the
wind blowing a little harder than before, and was no more
to be seen, except the wreck of her, and that only at low
water. I spent this day in covering and securing the goods
which I had saved, that the rain might not spoil them.
Oct. 26.-I walked about the shore almost all day: to find
out a place to fix my habitation, greatly concerned to secure
myself from any attack in the night, either from wild beasts
or men. Towards night, I fixed upon a proper place, under a
rock, and marked out a semicircle for my 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 30th, I worked very hard in carrying
all my goods to my new habitation, though some part of the
time it rained exceedingly hard.
The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island with
my gun, to see 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 1.-I set up my tent under a rock, and lay there
for the first night; making it as large as I could, with stakes
driven in to swing my hammock upon.
Nov. 2.-I set up all my chests and boards, and the pieces
of timber which made my rafts, and with them formed a fence
round me, a little within the place I had marked out for my
fortification.
Nov. 3.-I went out with my gun, and killed two fowls like
ducks, which were very good food. In the afternoon went to
work to make me a table.
Nov. 4.-This morning I began to order my times of work,
of going out with my gun, time of sleep, and time of diver-
sion; viz.-every morning I walked out with my gun for two
or three hours, if it did not rain; then employed myself to
work till about eleven o'clock ; then eat what I had to live on;
and from twelve till two I lay down to sleep, the weather
being excessively hot; and then, in the evening, to work
again. The working part of this day and of the next were

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 95
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 any one else.
Nov. 5.-This day, went abroad with my gun and my dog,
and killed a wild cat; her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good
for nothing; every creature that I killed I took off the skins
and preserved them. Coming back by the sea-shore, I saw
many sorts of sea-fowls, which I did not understand; but was
surprised, and almost frightened, with two or three seals,
which, while I was gazing at, not well knowing what they
were, got into the sea, and escaped me for that time.
Nov. 6.-After my morning walk, I went to work with my
table again, and finished it, though not to my liking; nor was
it long before I learned to mend it.
Nov. 7.-Now it began to be settled fair weather. The 7th,
8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the llth was Sunday),
I took wholly up to make me a chair, and with much ado
brought it to a tolerable shape, but never to please me; and
even in the making I pulled it in pieces several times.
Note.-I soon neglected my keeping Sundays; for, omitting
my mark for them on my post, I forgot which was which.
Nov. 13.-This day it rained, which refreshed me exceed-
inglv, and cooled the earth; but it was accompanied with
terrilile thunder and lightning, which frightened me dreadfully,
for fear of my powder. As soon as it was over, I resolved to
separate my stock ;f powder into as many little parcels as
po.ible, that it might not be in danger.
Nov. 14, 15, 16.-These three days I spent in making little
s'[uare chests, or boxes, which might hold about a pound, or
two pounds at most, of powder; and so, putting the powder
in, I stowed it in places ar secure and remote from one another
;s possible. On one of these three days, I killed a large bird
that was good to eat, but I knew not what to call it.
Nov. 17.-This day I began to dig behind my tent into the
rock, to make room for my further convenience.
Note.-Three things I wanted exceedingly for this work;
viz. 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
nade use of the iron crows, which were proper enough, though
heavy; but the next thing was a shovel, or spade; this was

9G LIFE AND ADVENTURES
so absolutely necessary, that, indeed, I could do nothing effec-
tually without it; but what kind of one to make I knew not.
Nov. 18.-The next day, in searching the woods, I found a
tree of that wood, or like it, which, in the Brazils, they call
the iron-tree, for its exceeding hardness. Of this, with great
labour, and almost spoiling my axe, I cut a piece, and brought
it home, too, with difficulty enough, for it was exceeding
heavy. The excessive hardness of the wood, and my having
no other way, made me a long while upon this machine, for I
worked it effectually by little and little into the form of a
shovel or spade; the handle exactly shaped like ours in
England, only that the board part having no iron shod upon
it, at bottom, it would not last me so long; however, it
served well enough for the uses which I had oc asion to put it
to; but never was a shovel, I believe, made after that fashion,
or so long in making.
I was still de icient, for I wanted a basket, or a wheel-
barrow. A basket I could not make by any means, having no
such things as twigs that would bend to make wicker-ware-
at least, none yet found out; and as to 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 gudgeons for the spindle
or axis of the wheel to run in; so I gave it over, and so, for
carrying away the earth which I dug out of the cave, I made
me a thing like a hod which the labourers carry mortar in
when they serve the bricklayers. This was not so difficult to
me as the making the shovel; and yet this and the shovel,
and the attempt which I made in vain to make a wheelbarrow,
took me up no less than four days-I mean always excepting
my morning walk with my gun, which I seldom failed, and
very seldom failed also bringing home something fit to eat.
Nov. 23.-My other work having now stood still, because
of my making these tools, when they were finished I went on,
and working every day, as my strength and time allowed, I
spent eighteen days entirely in widening and deepening my
cave, that it might hold my goods commodiously.
Note.-During all this time, I worked to make this room or
cave spacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse, or
magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room, and a cellar. As for my
lodging, I kept to the tent; except that sometimes, in the wet
season of the year, it rained so hard that I could not keep

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 97
myself dry, which caused me afterwards to cover all my place
within my pale with long poles, in the form of rafters, leaning
against the rock, and load them with flags and large leaves of
trees, like a thatch.
December 10.-I began now to think my cave or vault
finished, 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 woik to do over again, for
I had the loose earth to carry out; and, which was of more
importance, I had the ceiling to prop up, so that I might be
sure no more would come down.
Dec. 11.-This day I went to work with it 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.
Dec. 17.-From this day to the 20th I placed shelves,
and knocked up nails on the posts, to hang everything up
that could be hung up; and now I began to be in some
order within doors.
Dec. 20.-Now I carried everything into the cave, and
began to furnish my house, and set up some pieces of boards
like a dresser, to order my victuals upon; but boards began
to be very scarce with me; also, I made me another table.
Dec. 24.--Much rain all night and all day. iNo stirring
out.
Dec. 25.--Rain all day.
Dec. 26.-No rain, and the earth much cooler than before
and pleasanter.
Dec. 27.-Killed a young goat, and lamed another so that
I caught it and led it home in a string; when I had it at
home, I bound and splintered up its leg, which was broke.
N.B.-I took such care of it that it lived, and the leg grew
well and as strong as ever; but, by my nursing it so long, it
grew tame, and fed upon the little green at my door, and
would not go away. This was the first time that I enter-
tained a thought of breeding up some tame creatures, that I
might have food when my powder and shot was all spent.
Dec. 28, 29, 30, 31.-Great heats, and no breeze, so that

98 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
there was no stirring abroad, except in the evening, for food;
this time 3 cut in putting all my things in order within doors.
Janvrn 1.--Very hot still. but I went abroad early and
late with my gun, and lay still in the middle of the day.
This evening, going farther into the valleys which lay towards
the centre of the island, I found there 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.
Jan. 2.-Accordingly, the next day 1 we-it out with my
dog, and set him upon the goats; but 1 was mistaken, for
they all faced about upon the dog, and he knew his danger
too well, for he would not come near them.
Jan. 3.-I began my fence, or wall: which, being still
jialons of my being attacked by somebody, I lesolv d to make
very thick anl strong.
N.B.--Tiis wall l ing described before, I purposely omit
what was .said in the journal; it is suffice ent to ob.erve. that
I was no less time than from the 3rd of January to the 14th of
April working. :;i;.i.;,. and perfecting this wall, though it
wais no more than about twenty-four yards in length, being a
half circle from one place in the rock to another place, about
eight yards from it, the door of the cave being in the centre
behind it.
All this time I worked very hard, the rains hindering me
many days, nay, sometimes weeks together; but 1 thought I
should never be perfectly secure till this wall was finished;
and it is scarce credible what inexpressible iabour everything
was done with. especially the bringing piles out, of the woods.
and driving them into the ground; for I made them much
big'.er than I needed to have done.
When this wall was finished, and the outside double-fenced,
with a turf wall raised up close to it. 1 peisuaded myself that
if any people were to come on shore there, they would not )er-
ceive anything like a halbitation ; and it was very well I did so,
as may lie observed hereafter, upon a very remarkable occasion.
During this time I made my rounds in the woods for game
every d.,v when the rain permitted me and made frequent
discoveries in thtse walks of something or other to my
advantage; particaulv, I found a kind of wild pigeons,
which build, not as wood-pigeons in a tiee, but rather as
house-pigeons, in the holes of the recks: and taking some
young ones, I endeavoured to breed them up tame, and

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 99
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
nasts, and got their young ones, which were very good
meat. And now, in the managing 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 never arrive at the capacity of making one by
them, though I spent many weeks about it; I could neither
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 seven o'clock, I
was obliged to go to bed. I remembered the lump of bees-
wax with which I made candles in my African adventure;
but I had none of that now; the only remedy I had was, that
when I had killed a goat I saved the tallow, and with a little
dish made of clay which I baked in the sun, to which I added
a wick of some oakum, I made me a lamp; and this gave me
light, though not a clear steady light like a candle. In the
middle of all my labours it happened that, rummaging my
things, I found a little b ig, which, as I hinted before, had been
filled with corn for the feeding of poultry-not for this voyage,
hut 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 but husks
;:n I duat; and being willing to have the bag for some other
u (I think it was to put powder in, when I divided it for
fear of the lightning, or some such use), I shook the husks of
corn out of it on one side of my fortification, under the rock.
It was a little before the great rains just now mentioned
that I threw this stuff away, taking no notice, and not so
much as remembering that I had thrown anything there,
when, about a month after, or thereabouts, I saw some few
stalks of something green shooting out of the ground, which I
fancied might be some plant I had not seen; but I was sur-
prised, and perfectly astonished, when, after a little longer
time, I saw about ten or twelve ears come out, which were
perfect green barley, of the same kind as our European-nay,
as our English barley.

100 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
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 any-
thing that had befallen me, otherwise than as chance, or, as

ii' : i

S--:. -" -__ '.

we lightly say, what pleases God, without so much as inquir-
ing into the end of Providence in these things, or His order
in governing events for the world. But after I saw barley
grow there, in a climate which I knew was not proper for corn,

OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 101
and especially that I knew not how it came there, it startled
me strangely, and I began to suggest that God had miracu-
lously 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 happi-n upon my account; and this was the more
strange to me, because I saw near it still, all along by the side
of the rock, some other straggling stalks, which proved to be
stalks of rice, and which I knew, because I had seen it grow
ir Africa, when I was ashore theie.
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 provi-
dence began to abate, too, upon the discovering that all this
was nothing but what was common; though I ought to have
been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen a providence, as
it it had been miraculous ; for it was really the work of Pro-
vidence to me, that should order or appoint that ten or twelve
grains of corn should remain unspoiled, when the rats had
destroyed all the rest, as if it had been dropped from heaven;
as also, that I should throw it out in that particular place,
where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it sprang up
immediately; whereas, if I had thrown it anywhere else, at
that time, it had been burnt up and destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in
their season, which was about the end of June; and, laying
up every corn, I resolved to sow them all again, hoping, in
time, to have some quantity, sufficient to supply me with
bread. But it was not till the fourth year that I could allow
myself the least grain of this corn to eat, and even then but
sparingly, as I shall say afterwards, in its order; for I lost
all that I sowed the first season, by not observing the proper
time; for I sowed 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.

102 LIFE AND ADVENTURES
Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty
stalks 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, con-
triving 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 16.-I finished the 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
had all my labour overthrown at once, and myself killed. The
case was thus :-As I was busy in the inside, behind my tent,
just at the entrance into my cave, I was terribly frighted with
a most dreadful surprising thing indeed ; for, all on 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, and two of
the posts I had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful
m nner. I was heartily scared; but thought nothing of what
was really the cause, only thinking that the top of my cave
was fallen in, as some of it had done before: and for fear I
should be buried in it, I ran forward to my ladder, and not
thinking myself safe there neither, I got over my wall for fear
of the pieces of the hill, which I expected might roll down
upon me. I had no sooner stepped down upon the firm
ground, th in 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 over-
turned the strongest building that could be supposed to have
stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock
wh'ch stood about half a mile from me next the sea fell down,
with such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life. T
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