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Iwasatastrangelossto understandthis,andresolvedtospendsometimeintheobservingit, to see if nothing from the sets of the tide had occasioned it. But I was presently convinced how it was, viz., that the tide of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current of waters from some great river on the shore, must be the occasion of this current; and that according as the wind blew more forcibly from the west, or from the north, this current came near, or went farther from the shore; for waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up to therock again, and then the tide of ebb being made, I plainly saw the current again as before, only that it run farther off, being near half a league from the shore; whereas in my case it set close upon the shore, and hurried me and my canoe along with it, which, at another time, it would not have done.
This observation convinced me that I had nothing to do but to observe the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and I might very easily bring my boat about the island again. But when I begantothinkofputtingitinpractice, Ihadsuch aterroruponmyspiritsattheremembrance of the danger I had been in, that I could not think of it again with any patience; but, on the contrary, I took up another resolution, which was more safe, though more laborious; and this was, that I would build, or rather make me another periagua or canoe; and so have one forone side of the island, and one for the other.
You are to understand that now I had, as I may call it, two plantations in the island; one, my little fortification or tent, with the wall about it, under the rock, with the cave behind me, which, by this time, Ihad enlarged into several apartments or caves, one within another. One ofthese,whichwasthedriestandlargest,andhadadooroutbeyondmywallorfortification, that is to say, beyond where my wall joined to the rock, was all filled up with the large earthen pots, of which I have given an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which would hold five or six bushels each, where Ilaid up my stores of provision, especially my corn, some in the ear, cut off short from the straw, and the other rubbed out with myhand.
Asformywall,made,asbefore,withlongstakesorpiles,thosepilesgrewallliketrees,and were by this time grown so big, and spread so very much, that there was not the least appearance, to any one’s view, of any habitation behind them.
Nearthisdwellingofmine,butalittlefartherwithintheland,anduponlowerground,laymy two pieces of corn ground, which I kept duly cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in its season; and whenever I had occasion for more corn, I had more land adjoining as fit as that.
Besidesthis,Ihadmycountryseat,and Ihadnowatolerableplantationtherealso;for,first, I had my littlebower, as Icalled it, which Ikept in repair; that is to say, Ikept thehedgewhich circled it in constantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladder standing always in the inside. I keptthetrees,whichatfirstwerenomorethanmystakes,butwerenowgrownveryfirm and tall, Ikept them always so cut, that they might spread and grow thick and wild, and make the more agreeable shade, which they did effectually to my mind. In the middle of this, I had my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread over poles, set up for that purpose, and which never wanted any repair or renewing; and under this I had made me a squab or couch, with the skins of the creatures I had killed, and with other soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which I had saved, and a great watch-coat tocover me; and here, whenever I had occasion to be absent from my chief seat, I took up my country habitation.
Adjoining to this I had my enclosure for my cattle, that is to say, my goats. And as I had takenaninconceivabledealofpainstofenceandenclosethisground,soIwasuneasytosee
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itkeptentire,lessthegoatsshouldbreakthrough,thatIneverleftofftill,withinfinitelabor,I had struck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and there was scarce room to put a hand through them; which afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy season, made the enclosure strong like a wall, indeed, stronger than any wall.
This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared no pains to bring to passwhatever appeared necessary for my comfortable support; for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at my hand would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter,and cheese for me as long as Ilived in the place, if it were to be forty years; and that keeping theminmyreachdependedentirelyuponmyperfectingmyenclosurestosuchadegreethat I might be sure of keeping them together; which, by this method, indeed, I so effectually secured that when these little stakes began to grow, I had planted them so very thick I was forced to pull some of them up again.
Inthisplacealso Ihadmygrapesgrowing,which Iprincipallydependedonformywinter store of raisins, and which I never failed to preserve very carefully, as the best and most agreeabledaintyofmywholediet.Andindeedtheywerenotagreeableonly,butphysical, wholesome, nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree.
As this was also about half-way between my other habitation and the place where I had laid up my boat, I generally stayed and lay here in my way thither; for I used frequently to visit my boat, and I kept all things about, or belonging to her, in very good order. Sometimes I wentoutinhertodivert myself,butnomorehazardousvoyageswould Igo,norscarceever aboveastone’scastortwofromtheshore, Iwas soapprehensiveofbeing hurriedoutofmy knowledge again by the currents or winds, or any other accident. But now I come to a new scene of my life.
It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man’s naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like one thunder-struck, or as if I had seen an apparition. I listened, I looked round me,I could hear nothing, nor see anything. Iwent up to a rising ground, to look farther. I went up theshore,anddowntheshore,butitwasallone; Icouldseenootherimpressionbutthatone, I went to it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy;buttherewasno roomforthat,fortherewas exactlytheveryprintofa foot—toes,heel,and every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor could in the least imagine. But after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the ground Iwent on, but terrified to the last degree, looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man; nor is it possible to describe how many various shapes affrighted imagination represented things to mein, howmany wild ideas were found every moment in my fancy, and what strange unaccountable whimsies came into my thoughts by the way.
When I came to my castle, for so I think I called it ever after this, I fled into it like one pursued. Whether I went over by the ladder, as first contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock,which Icalled adoor, Icannotremember;no,norcould Irememberthenextmorning, for never frighted hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with more terror of mind than I to this retreat.
I slept none that night. The farther I was from the occasion of my fright, the greater my apprehensionswere;whichissomethingcontrarytothenatureofsuchthings,andespecially to the usual practice of all creatures in fear. But I was so embarrassed with my own frightful
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ideasofthething,that Iformednothingbutdismalimaginationstomyself,eventhough Iwas now a great way off it.
SometimesIfancieditmustbethedevil,andreasonjoinedinwithmeuponthissupposition; for how should any other thing in human shape come into the place? Where was the vessel that brought them? What was there of any other footsteps? And how was it possible a man should comethere?But then to think that Satan should takehuman shapeupon him in such a place, where there could be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print of his foot behind him, that even for no purpose too, for he could not be sure Ishould see it; this was an amusement the other way. I considered that the devil might have found out abundance of other ways to have terrified me than this of the single print of a foot; that as I lived quite on the other side of the island, he would never have been so simple to leave a mark in a place where it was often thousand to one whether I should ever see it or not, and in the sand, too, which the first surge of the sea, upon a high wind, would have defaced entirely. All this seemed inconsistent with the thing itself, and with all the notions we usually entertain of the subtilty of the devil.
Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of all apprehensions of its being thedevil;andIpresentlyconcludedthen,thatitmustbesomemoredangerouscreature,viz., that it must be some of the savages of the mainland over against me, who had wandered out to sea in their canoes, and, either driven by the currents or by contrary winds, had made the island, and had been on shore, but were gone away again to sea, being as loth, perhaps, to have stayed in this desolate island as I would have been to have had them.
Whilethesereflectionswererollinguponmymind,Iwasverythankfulin mythoughtsthatI wassohappyasnottobe thereaboutsatthattime, orthattheydidnotseemyboat,bywhich they would have concluded that some inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps have searched farther for me. Then terrible thoughts racked my imagination about their having found my boat, and that there were people here; and that if so, I should certainly have them come again in greater numbers, and devour me; that if it should happen so that they should not find me, yet they would find my enclosure, destroy all my corn, carry away all my flock of tame goats, and I should perish at last for mere want.
Thus my fear banished all my religious hope. All that former confidence in God, which was founded upon such wonderful experience as I had had of His goodness, now vanished, as if Hethathadfedmebymiraclehithertocouldnotpreserve,byHispower,theprovisionwhich He had made for me by His goodness. I reproached myself with my easiness, that would not sow any more corn one year than would just serve me till the next season, as if no accident couldintervenetopreventmyenjoyingthecropthatwasupontheground. AndthisIthought so just a reproof that I resolved for the future to have two or three years’ corn beforehand, so that, whatever might come, I might not perish for want of bread.
How strange a checker-work of Providence is the life of man! and by what secret differing springs are the affections hurried about as differing circumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what tomorrow we fear; nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of. This was exemplified in me at thistime,inthemostlivelymannerimaginable;for I,whoseonlyafflictionwasthat Iseemed banished from Human society, that I was alone, circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cutofffrommankind,and condemnedtowhat Icalledsilentlife;thatIwasas onewhomHeaven thought not worthy to be numbered among the living, or to appear among the rest of His creatures; that to have seen one of my own species would have seemed to me a raising me fromdeathtolife,andthegreatestblessingthatHeavenitself,nexttothesupremeblessingof salvation, could bestow; I say, that I should now tremble at the very apprehensions of seeing
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aman,andwasreadytosinkintothegroundatbuttheshadoworsilentappearanceofa man’s having set his foot in the island!
Such is the uneven state of human life; and it afforded me a great many curious speculations afterwards, when I had a little recovered my first surprise. I considered that this was the station of life the infinitely wise and good providence of God had determined for me; that, as IcouldnotforseewhattheendsofDivinewisdommightbeinallthis,soIwasnottodispute His sovereignty, who, as I was His creature, had an undoubted right, by creation, to govern and dispose of me absolutely as He thought fit, and who, as I was a creature who had offended Him, had likewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment He thought fit; and that it was my part to submit to bear His indignation, because I had sinned against Him.
I then reflected that God, who was not only righteous, but omnipotent, as He had thought fit thustopunishandafflictme,soHewas abletodeliverme;thatifHedidnotthinkfittodoit, It was my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and entirely to His will; and, on the otherhand,itwasmydutyalsotohopeinHim,praytoHim,andquietlytoattendthedictates and directions of His daily providence.
These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say, weeks and months; and one particular effect of my cogitations of this occasion I cannot omit, viz., one morning early, lying in my bed, and filled with thought about my danger from the appearance of savages, I founditdiscomposedmeverymuch;uponwhichthosewordsoftheScripturecameintomy thoughts,“CalluponMeintheday oftrouble,andIwilldeliver,and thoushaltglorify Me.”
Upon this, rising cheerfully out of my bed, my heart was not only comforted, but I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance. When I had done praying, I took up my Bible, and opening it to read, the first words that presented to me were, “Wait on theLord, and beofgood cheer, and Heshall strengthen thy heart; wait, Isay, on theLord.” It isimpossibletoexpressthecomfortthisgaveme.Inanswer,Ithankfullylaiddownthebook, and was no more sad, at least, not on that occasion.
In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it came into my thought oneday,thatallthismightbeamerechimeraofmyown;andthatthisfootmightbetheprint of my own foot, when I came on shore from my boat. This cheered me up a little too, and I began to persuade myself it was all a delusion, that it was nothing else but my own foot; and why might not I come that way from the boat, as well as I was going that way to the boat?
Again, I considered also, that I could by no means tell, for certain, where I had trod, and where I had not; and that if, at last, this was only the print of my own foot, I had played the partofthesefoolswhostrivetomakestoriesofspectreandapparitions,andthenarefrighted at them more than anybody.
NowIbegantotakecourage,andtopeepabroadagain,forIhad notstirred outofmycastle for three days and nights, so that I began to starve for provision; for I had little or nothing within doors but some barley-cakes and water. Then I knew that my goats wanted to be milked too, which usually was my evening diversion; and the poor creatures were in great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and, indeed, it almost spoiled some of them, and almost dried up their milk.
Heartening myself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing but the print of one of my own feet, and so Imight betruly said to start at my own shadow, Ibegan to go abroad again, and went to my country-house to milk my flock. But to see with what fear I went forward, howoften Ilookedbehindme,howIwas ready, everynowandthen,tolaydownmybasket,
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andrunformylife,itwouldhavemadeanyonehavethought Iwashauntedwithanevil conscience, or that I had been lately most terribly frighted; and so, indeed, I had.
However, as I went down thus two or three days, and having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder, and to think there was really nothing in it but my own imagination. But I could notpersuademyselffullyofthistillIshouldgodowntotheshoreagain,andseethisprintof a foot, and measure it by my own, and see if there was any similitude or fitness, that I might be assured it was my own foot. But when I came to the place, first, it appeared evidently to me, that when I laid up my boat, I could not possibly be on shore anywhere thereabout; secondly, when I came to measure the mark with my own foot, I found my foot not so large by a great deal. Both these things filled my head with new imaginations, and gave me the vapors again to the highest degree; so that Ishook with cold, like one in an ague; and Iwent home again, filled with the belief that some man or men had been on shore there; for, in short, that the island was inhabited, and I might be surprised before I was aware. And what course to take for my security, I knew not.
Oh, what ridiculous resolution men take when possessed with fear! It deprives them of theuse of those means which reason offers for their relief. The first thing I proposed to myself was to throw down my enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, that the enemy might not find them, and then frequent the island in prospect of the same or the like booty; then to thesimplething ofdigging up my two cornfields, that they might not find such agrainthere,andstillbepromptedtofrequenttheislandthentodemolishmybowerandtent, thattheymightnotseeanyvestigesofhabitation,andbepromptedtolook farther,inorderto find out the persons inhabiting.
These were the subject of the first night’s cogitation, after I was come home again, while the apprehensions which had so overrun my mind were fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapors, as above. Thus fear of danger is often thousand times more terrifying than danger itselfwhenapparenttotheeyes;andwefindtheburdenofanxietygreater, bymuch,thanthe evil which we are anxious about; and, which was worse than all this, I had not that relief in this trouble from the resignation I used to practice, that I hoped to have. I looked, I thought, like Saul, who complained not only that the Philistines were upon him, but that God had forsaken him; for I did not now take due ways to compose my mind, by crying to God in my distress, and resting upon His providence, as I had done before, for my defence and deliverance; which, if I had done, I had at least been more cheerfully supported under this new surprise, and perhaps carried through it with more resolution.
This confusion ofmy thoughts kept mewaking all night, but in themorningIfell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind, been, as it were, tired, and my spirits exhausted, I sleptverysoundly,and wakedmuchbettercomposedthan Ihad everbeen before. AndnowI began to think sedately; and upon theutmost debatewith myself, Iconcluded that this island, which was so exceeding pleasant, fruitful, and no farther from the mainland than as I had seen, was not so entirely abandoned as I might imagine; that although there were no stated inhabitants who lived on the spot, yet that there might sometimes come boats off from the shore, who, either with design, or perhaps never but when they were driven by cross-winds, might come to this place; that I had lived here fifteen years now, and had not met with the least shadow or figure of any people yet; and that if at any time they should be driven here, it wasprobabletheywentawayagainassoonasevertheycould,seeingtheyhadneverthought fit to fix there upon any occasion to this time; that the most Icould suggest any danger from, was from any such casual accidental landing of straggling people from the main, who, as it was likely, if they were driven hither, were here against their wills; so they made no stay here, but went off again with all possible speed, seldom staying one night on shore, lest they
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should not have the help of the tides and daylight back again; and that, therefore, I had nothingtodobuttoconsiderofsomesaferetreat, incaseIshouldseeanysavageslandupon the spot.
Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large as to bring a door throughagain,whichdoor,asIsaid,cameoutbeyondwheremyfortificationjoinedtotherock.Upon maturely considering this, therefore, Iresolved to draw me a second fortification, in the same manner of a semicircle, at a distance from my wall, just where I had planted a double row of treesabouttwelveyears before,ofwhich Imade mention.Thesetreeshavingbeenplantedso thick before, they wanted but a few piles to be driven between them, that they should be thicker and stronger, and my wall would be soon finished.
So that I had now a double wall; and my outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables,andeverythingIcouldthinkof,tomakeitstrong,havinginitsevenlittleholes,about as big as I might put my arm out at. In the inside of this I thickened my wall to above often feet thick, with continual bringing earth out of my cave, and laying it at the foot of the wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven holes I contrived to plant the muskets, of which I took notice that I got seven on shore out of the ship. These, I say, I planted like my cannon, and fitted them into frames that held them like a carriage, that so I could fire all the seven guns in two minutes’ time. This wall I was many a weary month afinishing, and yet never thought myself safe till it was done.
When this was done, I stuck all the ground without my wall, for a great way every way, as full with stakes, or sticks, of the osier-like wood, which Ifound so apt to grow, as they could well stand; insomuch, that I believe I might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty large space between them and my wall, that I might have room to see an enemy, and theymighthaveno shelterfromtheyoung trees,iftheyattempted toapproachmyouterwall.
Thusintwoyears’timeIhadathickgrove; andinfiveorsixyears’timeIhadawoodbefore mydwelling,growingsomonstrousthickandstrong,thatitwasindeedperfectlyimpassable; and no men, of what kind soever, would ever imagine that there was anything beyond it, much less a habitation. As for the way which I proposed to myself to go in and out, for I left no avenue, it was by setting two ladders, one to a part of the rock which was low, and then brokein, and left room to placeanotherladderupon that; so when thetwo ladders weretaken down, no man living could come down to me without mischieving himself; and if they had come down, they were still on the outside of my outer wall.
ThusItookallthemeasureshumanprudencecouldsuggestformyownpreservation;andit will be seen, at length, that they were not altogether without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that time more than my mere fear suggested to me.
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12. ACaveRetreat
While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my other affairs; for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd of goats. They were not only a present supply to me upon everyoccasion,andbegantobesufficienttome,withouttheexpenseofpowderandshot,but also without thefatigueofhunting afterthewild ones; and Iwas loth to losetheadvantageof them, and to have them all to nurse up over again.
Tothispurpose,afterlongconsideration,Icouldthinkofbuttwowaystopreservethem.One was, to find another convenient place to dig a cave under ground, and to drive them into it every night; and the other was, to enclose two or three little bits of land, remote from one another, and as much concealed as I could, where I might keep about half a dozen young goats in each place; so that if any disaster happened to the flock in general, Imight be able to raise them again with little trouble and time. And this, though it would require a great deal of time and labor, I thought was the most rational design.
Accordingly Ispent some time to find out the most retired parts of the island; and I pitched upononewhichwasasprivateindeedasmyheartcouldwishfor.Itwasalittledamppiece ofground,inthemiddleofthehollowandthick woods,where, asisobserved, Ialmostlost myself once before, endeavoring to come back that way from the eastern part of the island. Here I found a clear piece of land, near three acres, so surrounded with woods that it was almost an enclosureby Nature; at least, it did not want nearso much labor tomakeit as the other pieces of ground I had worked so hard at.
I immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and in less than a month’s time I had so fenced it round that my flock, or herd, call it which you please, who were not so wild now as at first they might be supposed to be, were well enough secured in it. So, without any fartherdelay,Iremovedoftenyoungshe-goatsandtwohe-goatstothispiece.Andwhenthey were there, I continued to perfect the fence, till I had made it as secure as the other, which, however, I did at more leisure, and it took me up more time by a great deal.
All this labor I was at the expense of, purely from my apprehensions on the account of the print of a man’s foot which Ihad seen; for, as yet, Inever saw any human creature come near the island. And I had now lived two years under these uneasinesses, which, indeed, made my life much less comfortable than it was before, as may well be imagined by any who know what it is to live in the constant snare of the fear of man. And this I must observe, with grief, too, that the discomposure of my mind had too great impressions also upon the religious part of my thoughts; for the dread and terror of falling into the hands of savages and cannibals lay so upon my spirits, that I seldom found myself in a due temper for application to my Maker, at least not with the sedate calmness and resignation of soul which I was wont to do. I rather prayed to God as under great affliction and pressure of mind, surrounded with danger, and in expectation every night of being murdered and devoured before morning; and I must testify from my experience, that a temper of peace, thankfulness, love, and affection, is much more the proper frame for prayer than that of terror and discomposure; and that under the dread of mischiefimpending,amanisnomorefitforacomfortingperformanceofthedutyofpraying to God than he is for repentance on a sicklied. For these discomposures affect the mind, asthe others do the body; and the discomposure of the mind must necessarily be as great a disability as that of the body, and much greater, praying to God being properly an act of the mind, not of the body.
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But to go on. After I had thus secured one part of my little living stock, I went about the whole island, searching for another private place to make such another deposit; when, wandering more the the west point of the island than I had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, Ithought Isawaboatuponthesea,atagreat distance. Ihad foundaprospectiveglassor two in one of the seamen’s chests, which I saved out of our ship, but I had it not about me; and this was so remote that I could not tell what to make of it, though I looked at it till my eyes were not able to hold to look any longer. Whether it was a boat or not, I do not know; butasIdescendedfromthehill,Icouldseenomoreofit,so Igaveitover; onlyIresolvedto go no more out without a prospective glass in my pocket.
When I was come down the hill to the end of the island, where, indeed, I had never been before, I was presently convinced that the seeing the print of a man’s foot was not such a strange thing in the island as I imagined. And, but that it was a special providence that I was cast upon the side of the island where the savages never came, I should easily have known that nothing was more frequent than for the canoes from the main, when they happened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot over to that side of the island for harbor; likewise, as they oftenmetandfoughtintheircanoes,thevictorshavingtakenanyprisonerswouldbringthem over to this shore, where according to their dreadful customs, being all cannibals, they would kill and eat them; of which hereafter.
When I was come down the hill to the shore, as I said above, being the SW. point of the island,Iwasperfectlyconfoundedand amazed;norisitpossibleformetoexpressthehorror of my mind at seeing the shore spread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; and particularly, Iobserved place where there had been a fire made, and a circle dug in the earth, like a cockpit, where it is supposed the savage wretches sat down to their inhuman feastings upon the bodies of their fellow-creatures.
Iwas so astonished with thesight ofthesethings that Ientertained no notion ofany dangerto myself from it for a long while. All my apprehensions were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of inhuman, hellish brutality, and the horror of the degeneracy of human nature which, though I had heard of often, yet I never had so near a view of before. In short, I turned away my face from the horrid spectacle. My stomach grew sick, and I was just at the point of fainting,whenNaturedischargedthedisorderfrommystomach.Andhavingvomitedwithan uncommon violence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stay in the place a moment; so I got me up the hill again with all the speed I could, and walked on towards my own habitation.
When I came a little out of that part of the island, I stood still a while as amazed; and then recoveringmyself, Ilookedupwiththeutmostaffectionofmysoul,andwithafloodoftears in my eyes, gave God thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world where I was distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and that, though I had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet given me so many comforts in it, that I had still more to give thanks for than to complain of; and this is above all, that I had, even in this miserable condition, been comforted with the knowledge of Himself, and the hope of His blessing; which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to all the misery which Ihad suffered, or could suffer.
Inthisframeofthankfulness Iwenthometomycastle,andbegantobemucheasiernow,as to the safety of my circumstances, than ever Iwas before; for Iobserved that these wretches nevercameto this island in search of what they could get; perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or not expecting, anything here; and having often, no doubt, been up in the covered, woody part of it, without finding anything to their purpose. I knew I had been here now almost eighteenyears,andneversawtheleastfootstepsofhumancreaturetherebefore;andImight
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be here eighteen more as entirely concealed as Iwas now, if Idid not discover myself to them,which Ihadnomannerofoccasiontodo;itbeingmyonlybusinesstokeepmyself entirely concealed where I was, unless Ifound a better sort of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to.
Yet Ientertainedsuch an abhorrenceofthesavage wretchesthat Ihavebeenspeakingof,and of the wretched inhuman custom of their devouring and eating one another up, that I continued pensive and sad, and kept close within my own circle for almost two years after this.When Isaymyown circle, Imeanbyitmythreeplantations,viz.,my castle,mycountry seat, which I called my bower, and my enclosure in the woods. Nor did I look after this for any other use than as an enclosure for my goats; for the aversion which Nature gave me to these hellish wretches was such that I was fearful of seeing them as of seeing the devil himself. Nor did I so much as go to look after my boat in all this time, but began rather to think of making me another; for I could not think of ever making any more attempts to bring the other boat round the island to me, lest I should meet with some of these creatures at sea,in which, if I had happened to have fallen into their hands, I knew what would have been my lot.
Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no danger of being discovered bythese people, began to wear off my uneasiness about them; and I began to live just in the same composed manner as before; only with this difference, that I used more caution, and kept my eyes more about me, than I did before, lest I should happen to be seen by any of them; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing my gun, lest any of them being on the island should happen to hear of it. And it was, therefore, a very good providence to me that I had furnished myself with a tame breed of goats, that needed not hunt any more about the woods, or shoot at them. And if I did catch any of them after this, it was by traps and snares, and Ihad done before; so that for two years after this Ibelieve Inever fired my gun once off, though I never went out without it; and, which was more, as I had saved three pistols out of theship,Ialwayscarried themoutwithme,oratleasttwoofthem,stickingtheminmygoat- skin belt.
Also I furbished up one of the great cutlasses that I had out of the ship, and made me a belt to put it on also; so that Iwas now a most formidable fellow to look at when Iwent abroad, ifyou add to the formerdescription ofmyselftheparticularoftwo pistols and agreat broadsword hanging at my side in a belt, but without a scabbard.
Thingsgoingonthus,asIhavesaid,forsometime, Iseemed,exceptingthesecautions,tobe reduced to my former calm, sedate way of living. All these things tended to showing me, more and more, how far my condition was from being miserable, compared to some others; nay, to many other particulars of life, which it might have pleased God to have made my lot.
Itputmeuponreflectinghowlittlerepiningthere wouldbeamongmankindatanycondition of life, if people would rather compare their condition with those that are worse, in order to be thankful, than be always comparing them with those which are better, to assist their murmurings and complainings.
As in my present condition there were not really many things which I wanted, so indeed I thoughtthatthefrightsIhadbeeninaboutthesesavagewretches,andthe concern Ihadbeen in for my own preservation, had taken off the edge of my invention for my own conveniences. And I had dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts too muchupon;andthatwas,totryifIcouldnotmakesomeofmybarleyinto malt,andthentry to brew myself some beer. This was really a whimsical thought, and I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it; for I presently saw there would be the want of several thingsnecessarytothemaking mybeerthatitwouldbeimpossibleformetosupply.As,first,casks to preserve it in, which was a thing that, as I have observed already, I could never compass;
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no,thoughIspentnotmanydays,butweeks,nay, months,inattemptingit,buttonopurpose. In the next place, Ihad no hops to make it keep, no yeast to make it work, no copper or kettle to make it boil; and yet all these things notwithstanding, Iverily believe, had not these things intervened, I mean the frights and terrors I was in about the savages, I had undertaken it, and perhaps brought it to pass, too; for I seldom gave anything over without accomplishing it when I once had it in my head enough to begin it.
But my invention now run quite another way; for, night and day I could think of nothing but how I might destroy some of these monsters in their cruel, bloody entertainment, and, if possible,savethevictimtheyshouldbringhithertodestroy. Itwouldtakeupalargervolume than this whole work is intended to be, to set down all the contrivances I hatched, or rather brooded upon, in my thought, for the destroying these creatures, or at least fighting them so astopreventtheir cominghitheranymore.Butallwasabortive;nothingcouldbepossibleto takeeffect,unless Iwastobetheretodoitmyself.Andwhatcouldonemandoamongthem, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty of them together, with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with which they could shoot as true to a mark as I could with my gun.
Sometimes I contrived to dig a hole under the place where they made their fire, and put in five or six pounds of gunpowder, which, when they kindled their fire, would consequently take fire, and blow up all that was near it. But as, in the first place, I should be very loth to waste so much powder upon them, my store being now within the quantity of one barrel, so neither Ibesureofits going offat any certain time, when it might surprise them; and, at best, that it would do little more than just blow the fire about their ears, and fright them, but not sufficient to make them forsake the place. So I laid it aside, and then proposed that I would placemyselfinambushinsomeconvenientplace, withmythreegunsalldouble-loaded,and, in the middle of their bloody ceremony, let fly at them, when I should be sure to kill orwoundperhapstwoorthreeat everyshot;andthenfallinginuponthemwithmythreepistols and my sword, Imade no doubt but that if there was twenty Ishould kill them all. This fancy pleased my thoughts for some weeks; and I was so full of it that I often dreamed of it, and sometimes that I was just going to let fly at them in my sleep.
IwentsofarwithitinmyimaginationthatIemployedmyselfseveraldays tofindoutproper places to put myself in ambuscade, as I said, to watch for them; and I went frequently to the place itself, which was now grown more familiar to me; and especially while my mind was thus filled with thoughts of revenge, and of a bloody putting twenty or thirty of them to the sword, as I may call it, the horror I had at the place, and at the signals of the barbarous wretches devouring one another, abated my malice.
Well, at length I found a place in the side of the hill, where I was satisfied I might securely waittillIsawanyoftheirboatscoming;andmightthen,evenbeforethey wouldbereadyto come on shore, convey myself, unseen, into thickets of trees, in one of which there was a hollow large enough to conceal me entirely; and where I might sit and observe all their bloody doings, and takemy full aim at theirheads, when they wereso closetogether, as that itwouldbenexttoimpossiblethatIshouldmissmyshot,orthatIcould failwoundingthree of four of them at first shot.
Inthisplace,then,Iresolvedtofixmydesign;and,accordingly,Ipreparedtwomusketsand myordinaryfowling-piece.Thetwomuskets Iloadedwithabraceofslugseach,and fouror fivesmallerbullets, about thesizeofpistol-bullets; and thefowling-piece Iloaded with near a handful of swan-shot, of the largest size. I also loaded my pistols with about four bullets each; and in this posture, well provided with ammunition for a second and third charge, I prepared myself for my expedition.
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After I had thus laid the scheme of my design, and in my imagination put it in practice, I continuallymademytoureverymorninguptothetopofthehill,whichwasfrommycastle, as I called it, about three miles, or more, to see if I could observe any boats upon the sea coming near the island, or standing over two or three months, constantly kept my watch, but came always back without any discovery; there having not, in all that time, been the appearance, not only on or near the shore, but not on the whole ocean, so far as my eyes or glasses could reach every way.
As long as I kept up my daily tour to the hill to look out, so long also I kept up the vigor of my design, and my spirits seemed to be all the while in a suitable form for so outrageous an execution as the killing twenty or thirty naked savages for an offence which I had not at all enteredintoadiscussionofinmythoughts,anyfartherthanmypassionswereatfirstfiredby the horror I conceived at the unnatural custom of that people of the country; who, it seems, had-been suffered by Providence, in His wisedisposition oftheworld, to haveno otherguide than that of their own abominable and vitiated passions; and consequently were left, and perhaps had been so for some ages, to act such horrid things, and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing but nature entirely abandoned of Heaven, and acted by some hellish degeneracy, could have run them into. But now when, as I have said, I began to be weary of the fruitless excursion which I had made so long and so far every morning in vain, so my opinion of the action itself began to alter; and I began, with cooler and calmer thoughts, to consider what it was I was going to engage in. What authority or call I had to pretend to be judge and executioner upon these men as criminals, whom Heaven had thought fit, for so many ages, to suffer, unpunished, to go on, and to be, as it were, the executioners of His judgments oneupon another. Howfarthesepeoplewereoffenders against me, and what right Ihad to engage in the quarrel of that blood which they shed promiscuously one upon another. I debated this very often with myself, thus: How do I know what God Himself judges in this particular case? It is certain thesepeopleeitherdo not commit this as acrime; it is not against their own consciences’
reproving, or their light reproaching them. They do not know it to be an off and then commit it in defiance of Divine justice, as we do in almost all the sins we commit. They think it no more a crime to kill a captive taken in war than we do to kill an ox; nor to eat human flesh than we do to eat mutton.
When Ihad consideredthisalittle;itfollowednecessarilythat Iwascertainlyinthewrongin it; that these people were not murderers in the sense that Ihad before condemned them in my thoughts,anymorethanthoseChristiansweremurderers whooftenputtodeaththeprisoners taken in battle; or more frequently, upon many occasions, put whole troops of men to the sword, without giving quarter, though they threw down their arms and submitted.
In the next place it occurred to me, that albeit the usage they thus give one another was thus brutish and inhuman, yet it was really nothing to me; these people had done me no injury.
That if they attempted me, or I saw it necessary for my immediate preservation to fall upon them, something might be said for it; but that as I was yet out of their power, and they had really no knowledge of me, and consequently no design upon me, and therefore it could not be just for me to fall upon them. That this would justify the conduct of the Spaniards in all their barbarities practised in America, and where they destroyed millions of these people; who, however they were idolaters and barbarians, and had several bloody and barbarous rites intheircustoms,suchassacrificinghumanbodiestotheiridols,wereyet,astotheSpaniards, very innocent people; and that the rooting them out of the country is spoken of with the utmost abhorrence and detestation by even the Spaniards themselves at this time, and by all other Christian nations of Europe, as a mere butchery, a bloody and unnatural piece ofcruelty, unjustifiable either to God or man; and such, as for which the very name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be frightful and terrible to all people of humanity, or of Christian
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compassion;asifthekingdomofSpainwereparticularlyeminentfortheproductofaraceof men who were without principles of tenderness, or the common bowels of pity to the miserable, which is reckoned to be a mark of generous temper in the mind.
These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a kind of a full stop; and I began, by little and little, to be off of my design, and to conclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolutions to attack the savages; that it was not my business to meddle with them, unless theyfirstattackedme;andthisitwasmybusiness,ifpossible,toprevent;butthatifIwere discovered and attacked, then I knew my duty.
Ontheotherhand, Iarguedwithmyselfthatthisreallywasthewaynottodelivermyself,but entirelytoruinanddestroymyself;forunless Iwassuretokilleveryonethatnotonlyshould be on shore at that time, but that should ever come on shore afterwards, if but one of them escaped to tell their country people what had happened, they would come over again by thousands to revengethe death oftheirfellows, and Ishould only bring upon myselfacertain destruction, which, at present, I had no manner of occasion for.
Uponthewhole, IconcludedthatneitherinprinciplesnorinpolicyIought,onewayorother, to concern myself in this affair. That my business was, by all possible means, to conceal myself from them, and not to leave the last signal to them to guess by that there were any living creatures upon the island; I mean of human shape.
Religion joined in with this prudential, and I was convinced now, many ways, that I was perfectly out of my duty when I was laying all my bloody schemes for the destruction of innocent creatures; I mean innocent as to me. As to the crimes they were guilty of towards one another, I had nothing to do with them. They were national, and Iought to leave them to thejusticeofGod,whoistheGovernorofnations,andknowshow,bynationalpunishments, to make a just retribution for national of and to bring public judgments upon those who offend in a public manner by such ways as best pleases Him.
Thisappearedsoclearto menow,thatnothingwasagreatersatisfactiontomethanthat Ihad not been suffered to do a thing which I now saw so much reason to believe would have been no less a sin than that of willful murder, if I had committed it. And I gave most humblethanks on my knees to God, that had thus delivered me from blood-guiltiness; beseeching Him to grant me the protection of His providence, that I might not fall into the hands of the barbarians, or that I might not lay my hands upon them, unless I had a more clear call from Heaven to do it, in defence of my own life.
In this disposition I continued for near a year after this; and so far was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these wretches, that in all that time I never once went up the hill to see whether there were any of them in sight, or to know whether any of them had been on shorethere,ornot,that Imightnotbetemptedtorenewanyofmycontrivancesagainstthem, or be provided, by any advantage which might present itself, to fall upon them. Only this I did, I went and removed my boat, which I had on the other side the island, and carried itdown to the east end of the whole island, where I ran it into a little cove, which I found under some high rocks, and where I knew, by reason of the currents, the savages durst not, at least would not come, with their boats, upon any account whatsoever.
With my boat I carried away everything that I had left there belonging to her, though not necessary for the bare going thither, viz., a mast and sail which I had made for her, and a thing like an anchor, but indeed which could not be called either anchor or grappling; however,itwasthebest Icouldmakeofitskind.AlltheseIremoved,thattheremightnotbe the least shadow of any discovery, or any appearance of any boat, or of any human habitation, upon the island.
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Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than ever, and seldom went from my cell, other than upon my constant employment, viz., to milk my she-goats, and manage my little flock in the wood, which, as it was quite on the other part of the island, was quite out of danger; for certain it is, that these savage people, who sometimes haunted this island, never came with any thoughts of finding anything here, and consequently never wandered off from the coast; and I doubt not but they might have been several times on shore after my apprehensions of them had made me cautious, as well as before; and indeed, I looked back with some horror upon the thoughts of what my condition would have been if I had chopped upon them and been discovered before that, when, naked and unarmed, except with one gun, and that loaded often only with small shot, I walked everywhere, peeping and peeping about theislandtoseewhat Icouldget.WhatasurpriseshouldIhavebeeninif,when Idiscovered the print of a man’s foot, I had, instead of that, seen fifteen or twenty savages, and found them pursuing me, and by theswiftness oftheirrunning, no possibility ofmy escaping them!
The thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul within me, and distressed my mind so much, that Icould not soon recoverit, to think what Ishould havedone, and how Inot only should not have been able to resist them, but even should not have had presence of mind enoughtodowhatImighthavedone,muchlesswhatnow,aftersomuchconsiderationand preparation, Imight be able to do. Indeed, after serious thinking of these things, Ishould be verymelancholy, andsometimesitwouldlastagreatwhile;but Iresolved it,atlast,allinto thankfulness to that Providence which had delivered me from so many unseen dangers, and had kept me from those mischiefs which I could no way have been the agent in delivering myself from, because I had not the least notion of any such thing depending, or the least supposition of it being possible.
This renewed a contemplation which often had come to my thoughts in former time, when first I began to see the merciful dispositions of Heaven, in the dangers we run through in this life. How wonderfully we are delivered when we know nothing of it! How, when we are in a quandary,as wecallit,adoubtorhesitation,whethertogothisway,orthatway,asecrethint shall direct us this way, when we intended to go that way; nay, when sense, our own inclination, and perhaps business, has called to go the other way, yet a strange impression upon the mind, from we know not what springs, and by we know not what power, shall overruleustogothisway;anditshallafterwards appearthathadwegone thatwaywhichwe should have gone, and even to our imagination ought to have gone, we should have been ruined and lost. Upon these and many like reflections I afterwards made it a certain rule with me, that whenever I found those secret hints or pressings of my mind to doing, or not doing, anything that presented, or to going this way or that way, I never failed to obey the secret dictate, though I knew no other reason for it than that such a pressure, or such a hint, hung uponmymind.Icouldgivemanyexamplesofthesuccessofthisconductinthecourseofmy life, but more especially in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappy island; besides many occasionswhichitisverylikelyImighthavetakennoticeof,ifIhadseen withthesameeyes thatIsawwithnow.ButItisnevertoolatetobewise;and Icannotbutadviseallconsidering men, whose lives are attended with such extraordinary incidents as mine, or even though not soextraordinary,nottoslightsuchsecretintimationsofProvidence,letthemcomefromwhat invisible intelligence they will. That I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannot account for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits, and the secret communication between those embodied and those unembodied, and such a proof as can never be withstood, of which I shall have occasion to give some very remarkable instances in the remainder of my solitary residence in this dismal place.
IbelievethereaderofthiswillnotthinkstrangeifIconfessthattheseanxieties,these constant dangers I lived in, and the concern that was now upon me, put an end to all
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invention, and to all the contrivances that I had laid for my future accommodations and conveniences. I had the care of my safety more now upon my hands than that of my food. I carednottodriveanail, orchopastickof woodnow,forfearthenoise Ishouldmakeshould be heard; much less would I fire a gun, for the same reason; and, above all, I was intolerably uneasy at making any fire, lest the smoke, which is visible at a great distance in the day, should betray me; and for this reason I removed that part of my business which required fire, such as burning of pots and pipes, etc., into my new apartment in the woods; where, after I hadbeensometime, Ifound,tomyunspeakableconsolation,amorenaturalcaveintheearth, which went in a vast way, and where, I dare say, no savage, had he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venture in; nor, indeed, would any man else, but one who, like me, wanted nothing so much as a safe retreat.
Themouthofthishollowwasatthebottomofagreatrock,where,mereaccidentIwouldsay (if I did not see abundant reason to ascribe all such things now to Providence), I was cutting down some thick branches of trees to make charcoal; and before I go on, I must observe the reason of my making this charcoal, which was thus.
Iwasafraidofmakingasmokeaboutmyhabitation,as Isaidbefore;and yetIcouldnotlive there without baking my bread, cooking my meat, etc. So I contrived to burn some wood here, as I had seen done in England under turf, till it became chark, or dry cool; and then putting the fire out, Ipreserved the coal to carry home, and perform the other services which fire was wanting for at home, without danger of smoke.
But this is by-the-bye. While I was cutting down some wood here, I perceived that behind a very thick branch of low brush-wood, or underwood, there was a kind of hollow place. I was curious to look into it; and getting with difficulty into the mouth of it, I found it was pretty large; that is to say, sufficient for me to stand upright in it, and perhaps another with me.
ButImustconfesstoyou Imademorehasteoutthan Ididinwhen,lookingfartherintotheplace, and which was perfectly dark, I saw two broad shining eyes of some creature, whether devil or man I knew not, which twinkled like two stars, the dim light from the cave’s mouthshining directly in, and making the reflection.
However, after some pause I recovered myself, and began to call myself a thousand fools, and tell myself that he that was afraid to see the devil was not fit to live twenty years in an island all alone, and that I durst to believe there was nothing in this cave that was more frightfulthanmyself.Uponthis,pluckingupmycourage, Itookup agreatfirebrand, andin I rushed again, with the stick flaming in my hand. I had not gone three steps in, but I was almost as much frighted as I was before; for I heard a very loud sigh like that of a man in some pain, and it was followed by a broken noise, as if of words half expressed, and then a deepsighagain. Isteppedback,andwasindeedstruckwithsuchasurprisethatitputmeinto a cold sweat; and if I had had a hat on my head, I will not answer for it, that my hair might not have lifted it off. But still plucking up my spirits as well as I could, and encouraging myselfalittlewithconsideringthatthepowerand presenceofGod waseverywhere,and was able to protect me, upon this I stepped forward again, and by the light of the firebrand, holding it up a little over my head, Isaw lying on the ground a most monstrous, frightful, old he-goat, just making his will, as we say, and gasping for life; and dying, indeed, of mere old age.
Istirredhimalittletoseeif Icouldgethimout,andheessayedtogetup,butwasnotableto raisehimself; and Ithought with myselfhemight even liethere; forifhe had frighted meso, he would certainly fright any of the savages, if any of them should be so hardy as to come in there while he had any life in him.
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I was now recovered from my surprise, and began to look round me, when I found the cave was but very small; that is to say, it might be about twelve feet over, but in no manner of shape,eitherroundorsquare,nohandshavingeverybeenemployedinmakingitbutthoseof mere Nature. I observed also that there was a place at the farther side of it that went in farther,butwassolowthatitrequiredmetocreep uponmyhandsandkneestogointoit,and whither I went I knew not; so having no candle, I gave it over for some time, but resolved to come again the next day, provided with candles and a tinderbox, which I had made of thelock of one of the muskets, with some wild-fire in the pan.
Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large candles of my own making, for I made very good candles now of goat’s tallow; and going into this low place, I was obliged to creep upon all fours, as I have said, almost often yards; which, by the way, I thought was a venture bold enough, considering that I knew not how far it might go, nor what was beyondit.
When I was got through the strait, I found the roof rose higher up, I believe near twenty feet.Butneverwassuch aglorioussightseenintheisland, Idaresay,asit was,tolookround the sides and roof of this vault or cave; the walls reflected a hundred thousand lights to me from my two candles. What it was in the rock, whether diamonds, or any other precious stones, or gold, which I rather supposed it to be, I knew not.
The place I was in was a most delightful cavity or grotto of its kind, as could be expected, though perfectly dark. The floor was dry and level, and had a sort of small, loose gravel upon it,sothattherewasnonauseousorvenomouscreaturetobeseen;neitherwasthereanydamp or wet on the sides or roof. The only difficulty in it was the entrance, which, however, as it was a place of security, and such a retreat as I wanted, I thought that was a convenience; so that I was really rejoiced at the discovery, and resolved, without any delay, to bring some of those things which I was most anxious about to this place; particularly, I resolved to bring hither my magazine of powder, and my spare arms, viz., two fowling-pieces, for I had threein all, and threemuskets, forofthem Ihad eight in all. So Ikept at my castleonly five, which stood ready-mounted, like pieces of cannon, on my outmost fence; and were ready also to take out upon any expedition.
Upon this occasion of removing my ammunition, I took occasion to open the barrel of powder, which I took up out of the sea, and which had been wet; and I found that the water had penetrated about three of four inches into the powder on every side, which caking, and growinghard,hadpreservedtheinsidelikeakernelinashell;sothatIhad nearsixtypounds of very good powder in the centre of the cask. And this was an agreeable discovery to me at that time; so I carried all away thither, never keeping above two or three pounds of powder withmeinmycastle,for fearofasurpriseofany kind.Ialso carriedthitherallthelead Ihad left for bullets.
Ifanciedmyselfnowlikeoneoftheancientgiants,whichweresaidtoliveincavesandholes intherocks,wherenone couldcomeatthem;for I persuadedmyself,while Iwashere,iffive hundred savages were to hunt me, they could never find me out; or, if they did, they would not venture to attack me here.
Theoldgoat,whom Ifoundexpiring,diedinthemouthofthecavethenextdayafterImade this discovery; and I found it much easier to dig a great hole there, and throw him in and cover him with earth, than to drag him out; so I interred him there, to prevent the offence to my nose.
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13. WreckOfASpanishShip
I was now in my twenty-third year of residence in this island; and was so naturalized to the place, and to the manner of living, that could Ihave but enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come to the place to disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated for spending the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till Ihad laid me down and died, like the old goat in the cave. I had also arrived to some little diversions and amusements, which made the time pass more pleasantly with me a great deal than it did before. As, first, I had taught my Poll, as I noted before, to speak; and he did it so familiarly, and talked so articulately and plain, that it was very pleasant to me; and he lived with me no less than six and twenty years. How long he might live afterwards I know not, though I know they have a notionintheBrazilsthattheyliveahundredyears.PerhapspoorPollmaybealivetherestill, calling after poor Robin Crusoe to this day. I wish no Englishman the ill luck to come there and hear him; but if he did, he would certainly believe it was the devil. My dog was a very pleasantandlovingcompaniontomefornolessthansixteenyearsofmytime,andthendied of mere old age. As for my cats, they multiplied, as I had observed, to that degree that I was obliged to shoot several of them at first to keep them from devouring me and all Ihad; but at length, when the two old ones I brought with me were gone, and after some time continually driving them from me, and letting them have no provision with me, they all ran wild into the woods, except two or three favorites, which I kept tame, and whose young, when they had any, Ialwaysdrowned; andthesewerepartofmyfamily.Besidesthese, Ialwayskepttwoor three household kids about me, whom I taught to feed out of my hand. And I had two more parrots, which talked pretty well, and would all call “Robin Crusoe,” but none like my first; nor, indeed, did Itake the pains with any of them that Ihad done with him. Ihad also several tame seafowls, whose names Iknow not, whom I caught upon the shore, and cut their wings; and the little stakes which Ihad planted before my castle wall being now grown up to a good thick grove, these fowls all lived among these low trees, and bred there, which was very agreeable to me; so that, as Isaid above, Ibegan to be very well contented with the life Iled, if it might but have been secured from the dread of the savages.
But it is otherwise directed; and it may not be amiss for all people who shall meet with my story, to make this just observation from it, viz., how frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into it, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes thevery means ordoorofourdeliverance, by which alone wecanberaisedagainfromtheafflictionswearefalleninto. Icouldgivemanyexamplesof this in the course of my unaccountable life; but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable than in the circumstances of my last years of solitary residence in this island.
ItwasnowthemonthofDecember,as Isaidabove,inmytwenty-thirdyear;andthis,being the southern solstice (for winter I cannot call it), was the particular time of my harvest, and required my being pretty much abroad in the fields, when, going out pretty early in the morning, even before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a light of some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of about two miles, towards the end of the island, where I— had observed somesavages had been, as before. But not on theotherside; but, to my great affliction, it was on my side of the island.
I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stepped short within my grove, not daring to gooutlestImightbesurprised;andyet Ihadno morepeacewithin,from theapprehensions I had that if these savages, in rambling over the island, should find my corn standing or cut, or any of works and improvements, they would immediately conclude that there were people in
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theplace, andwouldthennevergiveovertilltheyhadfoundmeout. InthisextremityIwent back directly to my castle, pulled up theladder afterme, and madeall things without look as wild and natural as I could.
Then Iprepared myself within, putting myself ina posture of defence. Iloaded all cannon, as Icalledthem,thatistosay,mymuskets,whichweremounteduponmynewfortification,and all my pistols, and resolved to defend myself to the last gasp; not forgetting seriously to commend myself to the Divine protection, and earnestly to pray to God to deliver me out of the hands of the barbarians. And in this posture I continued about two hours; but began to be mighty impatient for intelligence abroad, for I had no spies to send out.
After sitting a while longer, and musing what I should do in this case, I was not able to bear sitting in ignorance any longer; so setting up my ladder to the side of the hill where there was aflatplace,as Iobserved before, andthenpullingtheladderupafterme, Isetitupagain,and mounted to the top of the hill; and pulling out my perspective-glass, which I had taken on purpose, I laid me down flat on my belly on the ground, and began to look for the place. I presently found there was no less than nine naked savages sitting round a small fire they had made,nottowarmthem, fortheyhadnoneedofthat,theweatherbeingextremehot,but,as I supposed, to dress some of their barbarous diet of human flesh which they had brought with them, whether alive or dead, I could not know.
Theyhadtwocanoeswiththem,whichtheyhadhauledupupontheshore;andasitwasthen tide of ebb, they seemed to me to wait for the return of the flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine what confusion this sight put me into, especially seeing them come on my side the island, and so near me too. But when I observed their coming must be always with the current of the ebb, I began afterwards to more sedate in my mind, being satisfied that I mightgoabroadwithsafetyallthetimeofthetideofflood,iftheywerenotonshorebefore; and having made this observation, I went abroad about my harvest-work with the more composure.
As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made to the westward, I saw them all take boat, and row (or paddle, as we call it) all away. I should have observed, that for an hour and morebeforetheywentoff,theywenttodancing;andIcouldeasilydiscern theirposturesand gestures by my glasses. I could not perceive, by my nicest observation but that they were starknaked,andhadnottheleastcoveringuponthem;butwhethertheyweremenorwomen, that I could not distinguish.
As soon as Isawthem shipped and gone, Itook two guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols atmygirdle,andmygreatswordbymyside,withoutascabbard,andwithallthespeed Iwas able to make I went away to the hill where I had discovered the first appearance of all.
And as soon as I got thither, which was not less than two hours (for I could not go apace, beingsoloadenwitharmsas Iwas), Iperceivedtherehadbeenthreecanoesmoreofsavages onthatplace;andlookingoutfarther,Isawtheywereallatseatogether,makingoverforthe main.
This was a dreadful sight to me, especially when, going down to the shore, I could see the marksofhorrorwhichthedismalworktheyhadbeenabouthadleftbehind it,viz.,theblood, the bones, and part of the flesh of human bodies, eaten and devoured by those wretches with merriment and sport. I was so filled with indignation at the sight, that I began now to premeditatethedestruction ofthenext that Isawthere, let them be who or howmany soever.
It seemed evident to me that the visits which they thus made to this island are not very frequent,foritwasabovefifteenmonthsbeforeanymoreofthemcameonshorethereagain; that is to say, I neither saw them, or any footsteps or signals of them, in all that time; for, as
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to the rainy seasons, then they are sure not to come abroad, at least not so far. Yet all this whileIliveduncomfortablybyreasonoftheconstantapprehensionsIwasinoftheircoming upon me by surprise; from whence I observe, that the expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room to shake off that expectation, or those apprehensions.
During all this time I was in the murdering humor, and took up most of my hours, which should have been better employed, in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon them the very next time I should see them; especially if they should be divided, as they were the last time, into two parties. Nor did I consider at all that if I killed one party, suppose often or a dozen, I was still the next day, or week, or month, to kill another, and so another, even ad infinitum,tillIshouldbeatlengthnolessamurdererthanthey wereinbeingman-eaters,and perhaps more so.
Ispentmydaysnowingreatperplexityandanxietyofmind,expectingthat Ishould,oneday or other, fall into the hands of these merciless creatures; and if I did at any time venture abroad, it was not without looking round me with the greatest care and caution imaginable.
And now I found, to my great comfort, how happy it was that I provided for a tame flock or herd of goats; for I durst not, upon any account, fire my gun, especially near that side of the islandwheretheyusuallycame,lest Ishouldalarmthesavages.Andiftheyhadfledfromme now, I was sure to have them come back again, with perhaps two or three hundred canoes with them, in a few days, and then I knew what to expect.
However, I wore out a year and three months more before I ever saw any more of the savages,andthenIfoundthemagain,asIshallsoonobserve.Itistruetheymighthavebeen there once or twice, but either they made no stay, or at least I did not hear them; but in the month of May, as near as I could calculate, and in my four and twentieth year, I had a very strange encounter with them; of which in its place.
Theperturbationofmymind,duringthisfifteenorsixteenmonths’interval,wasverygreat. I sleptunquiet,dreamedalwaysfrightfuldreams,andoftenstartedoutofmysleepinthenight. In the day great troubles overwhelmed my mind, and in the night I deamed often of killingthe savages, and of the reasons why Imight justify the doing of it. But, to waive all this for a while, it was the middle of May, on the sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor wooden calendar would reckon, for I marked all upon the post still; I say, it was the sixteenth of May that it blewavery great storm ofwind all day, with agreat deal oflightning and thunder, and averyfoulnightitwasafterit. Iknownotwhatwastheparticularoccasion ofit,butasIwas reading in the Bible, and taken up with very serious thoughts about my present condition, I was surprised with a noise of a gun, as I thought, fired at sea.
This was, to be sure, a surprise of a quite different nature from any Ihad met with before; for the notions this put into my thoughts were quite of another kind. I started up in the greatest hasteimaginableand,in atrice,clappedmyladdertothemiddleplaceoftherock,andpulled it after me; and mounting it the second time, got to the top of the hill the very moment that a flash of fire bid me listen for a second gun, which accordingly, in about half a minute, I heard; and, by the sound, knew that it was from the part of the sea where I was driven down the current in my boat.
I immediately considered that this must be some ship in distress, and that they had some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired these gun for signals of distress, and to obtain help. I had this presence of mind, at that minute, as to think that though I could not helpthem,itmightbethattheymighthelpme;soIbroughttogetherallthedrywood Icould get at hand, and, making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire upon the hill. The wood was
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dry, and blazed freely; and though the wind blew very hard, yet it burnt fairly out; so that I was certain, if there was any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it, and no doubt they did; for as soon as ever my fire blazed up I heard another gun, and after that several others, allfromthesamequarter.Ipliedmyfireallnightlongtilldaybroke;andwhenitwasbroad day, and the air cleared up, Isaw something at a great distance at sea, full east of the island, whether a sail or a hull I could not distinguish, no, not with my glasses, the distance was so great, and the weather still something hazy also; at least it was so out at sea.
I looked at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at an anchor. And being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in hand and ran toward the south side of the island, to the rocks where I had formerly been carried away with the current; and getting up there, the weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship, cast away in the nightuponthoseconcealedrockswhichIfoundwhenIwasoutinmyboat;andwhichrocks, as they checked the violence of the stream, and made a kind of counter-stream or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering from the most desperate, hopeless condition that ever I had been in in all my life.
Thus, what is one man’s safety is another man’s destruction; for it seems these men, whoever they were, being out of their knowledge, and the rocks being wholly under water, had been driven upon them in the night, the wind blowing hard at E. and ENE. Had they seen the island,as Imustnecessarilysupposetheydidnot,theymust,asIthought,haveendeavoredto have saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat; but their firing of guns for help, especially when they saw, as I imagined, my fire, filled me with man thoughts. First, I imagined that upon seeing my light, they might have put themselves into their boat, and have endeavored to make the shore; but that the sea going very high, they might have been cast away. Other times Iimagined that they might have lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways; as, particularly, by the breaking of the sea upon their ship, which many times obligesmentostave,ortakeinpiecesoftheirboat,andsometimestothrowitoverboardwith their own hands. Other times I imagined they had some other ship or ships in company, who, upon the signals of distress they had made, had taken them up and carried them off. Other whiles I fancied they were all gone off to sea in their boat, and being hurried away by the current that I had been-formerly in, were carried out into the great ocean, where there was nothing but misery and perishing and that, perhaps, they might by this time think of starving, and of being in a condition to eat one another.
All these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition I was in, I could no no more than look on upon the misery of the poor men, and pity them; which had still this good effect on my side, that it gavememoreand more causeto givethanks to God, who had so happily and comfortablyprovidedformeinmydesolatecondition;andthatoftwoships’companieswho were now cast away upon this part of the world, not one life should be spared but mine. I learned here again to observe, that it is very rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition of life so low, or any misery so great, but we may see something or other to be thankful for, and may see other in worse circumstances than our own.
Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not so much as see room to supposeanyofthemweresaved.Nothingcould makeitrationalsomuch astowishorexpect thattheydidnotallperishthere,exceptthepossibilityonlyoftheirbeingtakenupbyanother ship in company; and this was but mere possibility indeed, for I saw not the least signal or appearance of any such thing.
Icannotexplain,byanypossibleenergyofwords,whatastrangelongingorhankeringof desires. Ifelt in my soul upon this sight, breaking out sometimes thus: “Oh that there had
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beenbutoneortwo,nay, orbutonesoul,savedoutofthisship,tohaveescapedtome,that I might but have had one companion, one fellow-creature, to have spoken to me, and to have conversed with!” In all the time of my solitary life I never felt so earnest, so strong a desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at the want of it.
There are some secret moving springs in the affections which, when they are set agoing by some object in view, or be it some object, though not in view, yet rendered present to the mindbythepowerofimagination,thatmotioncarriesoutthesoulbyitsimpetuositytosuch violent, eager embracings of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable.
Suchweretheseearnestwishingsthatbutonemanhadbeensaved!“Ohthatithadbeenbut one!” I believe I repeated the words, “Oh that it had been one!” a thousand times; and the desires were so moved by it, that when I spoke the words my hands would clinch together, and my fingers press the palms of my hands, that if I had had any soft thing in my hand, it would havecrushed it involuntarily; and my teeth in my head would strike together, and set against one another so strong that for some time I could not part them again.
Let the naturalists explain these things and the reason and manner of them. All I can say to themistodescribethefact,whichwas evensurprisingtomewhen Ifound it,thoughIknew not from what it should proceed. It was doubtless the effect of ardent wishes, and of strong ideasformedinmymind,realizingthecomfortwhichtheconversationofoneofmyfellow–
Christians would have been to me.
But it was not to be. Either their fate or mine, or both, forbid it; for, till the last year of my being on this island, I never knew whether any were saved out of that ship or no; and had only the affliction, some days after, to see the corpse of a drowned boy come on shore at the end of the island which was next the shipwreck. He had on no clothes but a seaman’s waistcoat,apairofopen-kneedlinendrawers, and abluelinenshirt;butnothingtodirectme so much as to guess what nation he was of. He had nothing in his pocket but two pieces of eight and a tobacco-pipe. The last was to me of often times more value than the first.
Itwasnowcalm,and Ihadagreatmindtoventureoutinmyboattothiswreck,notdoubting but I might find something on board that might be useful to me. But that did not altogether press me so much as the possibility that there might be yet some living creature on board, whose life I might not only save, but might, by saving that life, comfort my own to the last degree. And this thought clung so to my heart that I could not be quiet night or day, but I must venture out in my boat on board this wreck; and committing the rest to God’s providence I thought, the impression was so strong upon my mind that it could not be resisted, that it must come from some invisible direction, and that I should be wanting to myself if I did not go.
Underthepowerofthisimpression,Ihastenedbacktomycastle,prepared everythingformy voyage,tookaquantityofbread, agreatpotforfreshwater, acompasstosteerby,abottleof rum (for I had still a great deal of that left), a basket full of raisins. And thus, loading myself with everything necessary, I went down to my boat, got the water out of her, and got her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, and then went home again for more. My second cargo was a great bag full of rice, the umbrella to set up over my head for shade, another large pot full of fresh water, and about two dozen of my small loaves, or barley-cakes, more than before, with a bottle of goat’s milk and a cheese; all which, with great labor and sweat, I brought to my boat. And praying to God to direct my voyage, I put out; and rowing, or paddling, the canoe along the shore, I came at last to the utmost point of the island on that side, viz., NE. And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and either to venture or not to venture. I looked ontherapidcurrentswhichranconstantlyonbothsidesoftheislandatadistance,andwhich
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were very terrible to me, from the remembrance of the hazard I had been in before, and my heart began to fail me; for Iforesaw that if I was driven into either of those currents, Ishould becarriedavastwayout tosea,andperhapsoutofmyreach,orsightoftheislandagain;and that then, as my boat was but small, if any little gale of wind should rise, I should be inevitable lost.
These thoughts so oppressed my mind that I began to give over my enterprise; and having hauled my boat into a little creek on the shore, I stepped out, and sat me down a little rising bitofground,verypensiveandanxious,betweenfearanddesire,aboutmyvoyage;when,as I was musing, I could perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood come on; upon which my going was for so many hours impracticable. Upon this, presently it occurred to me that I should go up to the highest piece of ground I could find and observe, if Icould, how the sets of the tide, or currents, lay when the flood came in, that I might judge whether, if I was driven one way out, I might not expect to be driven another way home, with the same rapidness of the currents. This thought was no sooner in my head but I cast my eye upon a little hill, which sufficiently overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear view of the currents, or sets of the tide, and which way I was to guide myself in my return.
Here I found, that as the current of the ebb set out close by the south point of the island, so thecurrentofthefloodsetinclosebytheshoreofthenorthside;andthat Ihadnothingtodo but to keep to the north of the island in my return, and I should do well enough.
Encouraged with this observation, I resolved the next morning to set out with the first of the tide,andreposingmyselfforthenightinthecanoe,underthegreatwatch-coat Imentioned, I launched out. I made first a little out to sea, full north, till I began to feel the benefit of the current which set eastward, and which carried me at a great rate; and yet did not so hurry me as thesouthern sidecurrent had donebefore, and so as to takefrom me all government ofthe boat; but having a strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly for the wreck, and less than two hours I came up to it.
It was a dismal sight to look at. The ship, which, by its building, was Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks. All the stern and quarter of her was beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her forecastle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with violence, her mainmast were brought by the board; that is to say broken short off; but her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firmer. When I came close to her a dog appeared upon her, who, seeingmecoming,yelpedandcried;and assoon as Icalledhim,jumpedintotheseatocome to me, and I took him into the boat, but found him almost dead for hunger and thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, and he eat it like a ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow. I then gave the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I would have let him, he would have burst himself.
After this I went on board; but the first sight I met with was two men drowned in the cookroom, orforecastleoftheship, with theirarms fast about oneanother. Iconcluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being in a storm, the sea broke so high, and so continually over her, that the men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been under water. Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life, nor any goods that I could see but what were spoiled by the water. There were some casks of liquor, whether wine or brand I knew not, whichlaylowerinthehold,andwhich,thewaterbeingebbedout, Icould see;buttheywere too big to meddle with. I saw several chests, which I believed belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two of them into the boat, without examining what was in them.
Had the stern of the ship been fixed, and the fore-part broken off, I am persuaded I might havemadeagoodvoyage;forbywhat Ifoundin thesetwochests, Ihadroomtosupposethe
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ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and if I may guess by the course she steered, she must have been bound from the Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America,beyondtheBrazils,totheHavana,intheGulfofMexico,andsoperhapstoSpain. She had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but of no use, at that time, to anybody; and what became of the rest of her people, I then knew not.
Ifound,besidesthesechests,alittlecaskfullofliquor,ofabouttwentygallons,whichIgot into my boat with much difficulty. There were several muskets in a cabin, and a great powderhorn, with about four pounds of powder in it. As for the muskets, Ihad no occasion for them, so I left them, but took the powder-horn. I took a fire-hovel and tongs, which I wanted extremely; as also two little brass kettles, a copper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron.
And with this cargo, and the dog, I came away, the tide beginning to make home again; and the same evening, about an hour within night, I reached the island again, weary and fatigued to the last degree.
I reposed that night in the boat; and in the morning I resolved to harbor what I had gotten in mynewcave,nottocarryithometomycastle.Afterrefreshingmyself, I gotallmycargoon shore, and began to examine the particulars. The cask of liquor I found to be a kind of rum, butnotsuchaswehad attheBrazils,and,inaword,notatallgood.Butwhen Icametoopen the chests, I found several things of great use to me. For example, I found in one a fine caseof bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and filled with cordial waters, fine, and very good; the bottlesheldaboutthreepintseach,andweretippedwithsilver.Ifoundtwo potsofverygood succades, or sweetmeats, so fastened also on top, that the salt water had not hurt them; and two more of the same, which the water had spoiled. I found some very good shirts, which were very welcome to me; and about a dozen and half of linen white handkerchiefs and colored neckcloths. The former were also very welcome, being exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this, when I came to the till in the chest, I found there three great bags of pieces of eight, which held out about eleven hundred pieces in all; and in one of them,wrappedupinapaper,sixdoubloonsofgold,andsomesmallbarsor wedgesofgold. I suppose they might all weigh near a pound.
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14. ADreamRealised
The other chest Ifound had some clothes in it, but of little value; but by the circumstances, it must have belonged to the gunner’s mate; though there was no powder in it, but about two pounds of fine glazed powder, in three small flasks, kept, I suppose, for charging their fowling-pieces on occasion. Upon the whole, I got very little by this voyage that was of any use to me; for as to the money, I had no manner of occasion for it; It was to me as the dirt under my feet; and I would have given it all for three or four pair of English shoes and stocking, which were things I greatly wanted, but had not had on my feet now for many years. I had indeed gotten two pair of shoes now, which I took off of the feet of the two drowned men whom I saw in the wreck, and I found two pair more in one of the chests, which were very welcome to me; but they were not like our English shoes, either for ease or service,beingratherwhatwecallpumpsthanshoes. Ifoundintheseaman’schestaboutfifty pieces of eight in royals, but no gold. Isuppose this belonged to a poorer man than the other, which seemed to belong to some officer.
Well,however, Iluggedthismoneyhometomycave,andlaiditup,as Ihaddonethatbefore which Ibrought from our own ship; but it was a great pity, as Isaid, that the other part of this ship had not come to my share, for Iam satisfied I might have loaded my canoe several times over with money, which, if I had ever escaped to England, would have lain here safe enough till I might have come again and fetched it.
Having now brought all my things on shore, and secured them, I went back to my boat, and rowedorpaddledheralongtheshoretoheroldharbor,where Ilaidherup, andmadethebest of my way to my old habitation, where I found everything safe and quiet. So I began toreposemyself,liveaftermyoldfashion,andtakecareofmyfamilyaffairs;and,forawhile,I lived easy enough, only that Iwas morevigilant than Iused to be, looked out oftener, and did not go abroad so much; and if at any time I did stir with any freedom, it was always to theeast part of the island, where I was pretty well satisfied the savages never came, and where I could go without so many precautions, and such a load of arms and ammunition as I always carried with me if I went the other way.
Ilivedinthisconditionneartwoyearsmore;butmyunluckyhead,thatwasalwaystoletme knowifitwasborntomakemybodymiserable, wasallofthistwoyears filledwithprojects and designs, how, if it were possible, Imight get away from this island; for sometimes I was for making another voyage to the wreck, though my reason told me that there was nothing left there worth the hazard of my voyage; sometimes for a ramble one way, sometimes another; and I believe verily, if I had had the boat that I went from Sallee in, I should have ventured to sea, bound anywhere, I knew not whither.
I have been, in all my circumstances, a memento to those who are touched with the general plagueofmankind, whence, for aught Iknow, one-halfoftheirmiseries flow; Imean, that of not being satisfied with the station wherein God and Nature had placed them; for not to look back upon my primitive condition, and the excellent advice of my father, the opposition to which was, as I may call it, my original sin, my subsequent mistakes of the same kind had been the means of my coming into this miserable condition; for had that Providence, which so happily had seated me at the Brazils as a planter, blessed me with confined desires, and I couldhavebeencontentedtohavegoneongradually,Imighthavebeen,bythistime,Imean in the time of my being in this island, one of the most considerable planters in the brazils; nay, Iam persuaded that by the improvements Ihad made in that little timeIlived there, and
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theincrease Ishouldprobablyhavemadeif Ihad stayed, Imighthavebeenworthahundred thousand moidores. And what business had I to leave a settle fortune, a well-stocked plantation, improving and increasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea to fetch negroes, when patience and time would so have increased our stock at home, that we could have bought thematourowndoorfromthosewhosebusinessitwastofetchthem;andthoughithadcost ussomethingmore,yetthedifferenceofthatpricewasbynomeansworth savingatsogreat a hazard.
But as this is ordinarily the fate of yourn heads, so reflection upon the folly of it is as ordinarily the exercise of more years, or the dear-bought experience of time; and so it was with me now. And yet, so deep had the mistake taken root in my temper, that I could not satisfymyselfinmystation,butwascontinuallyporinguponthemeansandpossibilityofmy escape from this place. And that I may, with the greater pleasure to the reader, bring on the remaining part of my story, it may not be improper to give some account of my first conceptions on the subject of this foolish scheme for my escape, and how and upon what foundation I acted.
Iam nowto besupposed retired into my castle, aftermy latevoyageto the wreck, my frigate laid up and secured under water, as usual, and my condition restored to what it was before. I hadmorewealth,indeed, thatIhadbefore,butwasnotatallthericher;forIhadnomoreuse for it than the Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards came there.
ItwasoneofthenightsintherainyseasoninMarch,thefourandtwentiethyearofmyfirst setting foot in this island of solitariness. I was lying in my bed, or hammock, awake, very well in health, had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body, no, nor any uneasiness of mind, more than ordinary, but could by no means close my eyes, that is, so as to sleep; no, not a wink all night long, otherwise than as follows.
It is as impossible, as needless, to set down the innumerable crowd of thoughts that whirled through that great throughfare of the brain, the memory, in this night’s time. I ran over the wholehistoryofmylifeinminiature,orbyabridgment,as Imaycallit,tomycomingtothis island, and also of the part of my life since I came to this island. In my reflections upon the state of my case since I came on shore on this island, I was comparing the happy posture of my affairs in the first years of my habitation here compared to the life of anxiety, fear, and care which I had lived ever since I had seen the print of a foot in the sand; nor that I did not believethesavageshad frequentedtheisland even allthewhile,andmighthavebeenseveral hundredsofthemattimesonshorethere;but Ihadneverknownit,and wasincapableof any apprehensions about it. My satisfaction was perfect, though my danger was the same; and I was as happy in not knowing my danger, as if I had never really been exposed to it. This furnished my thoughts with many very profitable reflections, and particularly this one: how infinitely good that Providence is which has provided, in its government of mankind, such narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of things; and though he walks in the midst of so manythousanddangers,thesightofwhich,ifdiscoveredtohim,woulddistracthismindand sink his spirits, he is kept serene and calm, by having the events of things hid from his eyes, and knowing nothing of the dangers which surround him.
After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, I came to reflect seriously upon the realdangerIhadbeenin forsomanyyearsinthisveryisland,andhowIhadwalkedaboutin thegreatestsecurity,and withallpossibletranquillity,evenwhenperhapsnothingbutabrow ofahill,agreattree,orthecasual approachofnighthadbeenbetweenme andtheworstkind of destruction, viz., that of failing into the hands of cannibals and savages, who would have seized on me with the same view as I did of a goat or a turtle, and have thought it no more a crime to kill and devour me than I did of a pigeon or a curlew. I would unjustly slander
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myselfifIshouldsay IwasnotsincerelythankfultomygreatPreserver,to whosesingular protection I acknowledged, with great humility, that all these unknown deliverances were due, and without which I must inevitably have fallen into their merciless hands.
Whenthesethoughtswereover,myheadwas for sometimetakeupinconsideringthenature ofthesewretched creatures, Imean thesavages, and howit cameto pass in theworld that the wise Governor of all things should give up any of His creatures to such inhumanity; nay, to somethingsomuchbelowevenbrutalityitself,as todevouritsownkind.Butasthisendedin some (at that time fruitless) speculations, it occurred to me to inquire what part of the world these wretches lived in? How far off the coast was from whence they came? What they venturedoversofarfrom homefor?Whatkindofboatstheyhad?And why Imightnotorder myselfandmy businessso,that Imight beabletogooverthitheras theywereto cometo me.
I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I should do with myself when I came thither; what would become of me, if I fell into the hands of the savages; or how I should escape from them, if they attempted me; no, nor so much as how it was possible for me to reach the coast, and not be attempted by some or other of them, without any possibility of delivering myself; and if I should not fall into their hands, what I should do for provision, or whither Ishould bend my course. None of these thoughts, Isay, so much as came in my way; butmymindwaswhollybentuponthenotionofmypassingoverinmyboattothemainland. I looked back upon my present condition as the most miserable that could possibly be; that I was not able to throw myself into anything, but death, that could be called worse; that if I reached the shore of the main, I might perhaps meet with relief, or I might coast along, as I didontheshoreofAfrica,tillIcametosomeinhabitedcountry,andwhere Imightfindsome Christian ship that might take me in; and if the worse came to the worst, I could but die, which would put an end to all these miseries at once. Pray note, all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind, an impatient temper, made, as it were, desperate by the long continuance of my troubles, and the disappointments I had met in the work I had been on board of, andwhere I had been so near the obtaining what I so earnestly longed for, viz., somebody tospeak to, and to learn some knowledge from the place where I was, and of the probablemeans of my deliverance. I say, I was agitated wholly by these thoughts. All my calm of mind, in my resignation to Providence, and waiting the issue of the dispositions of Heaven, seemed to be suspended; and I had, as it were, no power to turn my thoughts to anything but to the project of a voyage to the main, which came upon me with such force, and such an impetuosity of desire, that it was not to be resisted.
When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours, or more, with such violence that it set my very blood into a ferment, and my pulse beat as high as if I had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary of my mind about it, Nature, as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with the very thought of it, threw me into a sound sleep. One would have thought I should have dreamed of it, but I did not, nor of anything relating to it; but I dreamed that as I was going out in the morning, as usual, from my castle, I saw upon the shore two canoes and eleven savages coming to land, and that they brought with them another savage, whom they were going to kill in order to eat him; when, on a sudden, the savage that they were going to kill jumped away, and ran for his life. And I thought, in my sleep, that he came running into my littlethickgrovebefore myfortificationtohidehimself;andthatI,seeing himalone,andnot perceiving that the other sought him that way, showed myself to him, and smiling upon him, encouragedhim;thathekneeleddowntome,seemingtopraymetoassisthim;uponwhichI showed my ladder, made him go up, and carried him into my cave, and he became my servant; and that as soon as I had gotten this man, I said to myself, “Now I may certainly venture to the mainland; for this fellow will serve me as a pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go for provisions, and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; what
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places to venture into, and what to escape.” I waked with this thought, and was under such inexpressible impressions of joy at the prospect of my escape in my dream, that the disappointmentswhichIfeltuponcomingtomyselfandfindingitwasnomorethanadream were equally extravagant the other way, and threw me into a very great dejection of spirit.
Upon this, however, I made this conclusion: that my only way to go about an attempt for an escape was, if possible, to get a savage into my possession; and, if possible, it should be one oftheirprisonerswhomtheyhadcondemnedtobeeaten,andshouldbringthithertokill.But these thoughts were attended with this difficulty, that it was impossible to effect this without attacking a whole caravan of them, and killing them all; and this was not only a very desperate attempt, and might miscarry; but, on the other hand, I had greatly scrupled the lawfulness of it to me; and my heart trembled at the thoughts of shedding so much blood, though it was for my deliverance. I need not repeat the arguments which occurred to me against this, they being the same mentioned before. But though I had other reasons to offer now,viz.,thatthosemen were enemiestomylife, andwoulddevourmeif theycould;thatit was self-preservation, in the highest degree, to deliver myself from this death of a life, and was acting in my own defence as much as if they were actually assaulting me, and the like; I say, though these things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shedding human blood for my deliverance were very terrible to me, and such as I could by no means reconcile myself to a great while.
However,atlast,aftermanysecretdisputeswithmyself,andaftergreatperplexitiesaboutit, for all these arguments, one way and another, struggled in my head a long time, the eager prevailing desire of deliverance at length mastered all the rest, and I resolved, if possible, to get one of those savages into my hands, cost what it would. My next thing, then was to contrive how to do it, and this indeed was very difficulty to resolve on. But as I could pitch upon no probablemeans forit, so Iresolved to put myselfupon thewatch, to seethem when they came on shore, and leave the rest to the event, taking such measures as the opportunity should present, let be what would be.
With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the scout as often as possible, and indeed so often, till I was heartily tired of it; for it was above a year and half that I waited; and for great part of that time went out to the west end, and to the south-west corner of the island, almost every day to see for canoes, but none appeared. This was very discouraging, and began to trouble me much; though I cannot say that it did in this case, as it had done some time before that, viz., wear off the edge of my desire to the thing. But the longer it seemed to be delayed, the more eager I was for it. In a word, I was not at first so careful to shunthesightofthesesavages,andavoidbeingseenbythem,as Iwasnoweagertobeupon them.
Besides,Ifanciedmyself abletomanageone,nay, twoorthreesavages,if I hadthem,soas tomakethementirelyslavestome,todowhateverIshoulddirectthem,andtopreventtheir being able at anytime to do me any hurt. It was a great while that Ipleased myself with this affair; but nothing still presented. All my fancies and schemes came to nothing, for no savages came near me for a great while.
About a year and half after I had entertained these notions, and by long musing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, for want of an occasion to put them in execution, I was surprised,onemorningearly,withseeingnolessthanfivecanoesallonshoretogetheronmy side the island, and the people who belonged to them all landed, and out of my sight. The number of them broke all my measures; for seeing so many, and knowing that they always came four, or six, or sometimes more in a boat, I could not tell what to think of it, or how to take my measures to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so I lay still in my castle,
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perplexed and discomforted. However, I put myself into all the same postures for an attack that Ihad formerly provided, and was just ready for action if anything had presented. Having waited a good while, listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, begin very impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered up to the top of the hill, by my two stages,asusual;standingso,however,thatmyheaddidnotappearabovethehill,sothatthey could not perceive me by any means. Here I observed, by the help of my perspective glass, that they were no less than thirty in number, that they had a fire kindled, that they had had meat dressed. How they had cooked it, that I knew not, or what it was; but they were all dancing, in I know not how many barbarous gestures and figures, their own way, round the fire.
While I was thus looking on them, I perceived by my perspective two miserable wretches draggedfromtheboats,where,itseems,theywerelaidby,andwerenowbroughtoutforthe slaughter.
I perceived one of them immediately fell, being knocked down, I suppose, with a club or wooden sword, for that was their way, and two or three others were at work immediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while the other victim was left standing by himself, till they should be ready for him. In that very moment this poor wretch seeing himself a little at liberty, Nature inspired him with hopes of life, and he started away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the sands directly towards me, Imean towards that part of the coast where my habitation was.
Iwasdreadfullyfrighted(thatImustacknowledge)whenIperceivedhimtorunmyway,and especially when, as Ithought, Isaw him pursued by the whole body; and now Iexpected that part of my dream was coming to pass, and that he would certainly take shelter in my grove; but I could not depend, by any means, upon my dream for the rest of it, viz., that the other savages would not pursue him thither, and find him there. However, I kept my station, andmy spirits began to recover when I found that there was not above three men that followed him; and still more was I encouraged when I found that he outstripped them exceedingly in running, and gained ground of them; so that if he could but hold it for half an hour, I saw easily he would fairly get away from them all.
Therewasbetweenthemandmycastlethecreek,whichImentionedoftenatthefirstpartof my story, when I landed my cargoes out of the ship; and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the poor wretch would be taken there. But when the savage escaping came thither he made nothing of it, though the tide was then up; but plunging in, swam through in about thirty strokes or thereabouts, landed, and ran on with exceeding strength and swiftness.
When the three persons came to the creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third could not, and that, standing on the other side, he looked at the other, but went no further, and soon after went softly back, which, as it happened, was very well for him in the main.
Iobservedthatthetwo whoswamwereyetmorethantwiceaslongswimmingoverthecreek as the fellow was that fled from them. It came now very warmly upon my thoughts, and indeed, irresistibly, that now was my time to get me a servant, and perhaps a companion assistant, and that I was called plainly by Providence to save this poor creature’s life. I immediately run down theladders with all possibleexpedition, fetched my two guns, forthey were both but at the foot of the ladders, as I observed above, and getting up again, with the same haste, to the top of the hill, I crossed towards the sea, and having a very short cut, and all down hill, clapped myself in the way between the pursuers and the pursued, hallooing aloud to him that fled, who, looking back, was at first perhaps as much frighted at me as at them; but I beckoned with my hands to him to come back; and, in the meantime, I slowly advanced toward the two that followed; then rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked
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him down with the stock of my piece. I was loth to fire, because I would not have the rest hear; though, at that distance, it would not have been easily heard, and being out of sight of the smoke too, they would not have easily known what to make of it. Having knocked this fellow down, the other who pursued with him stopped, as if he had been frighted, and I advanced a pace towards him; but as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had a bow and arrow, andwasfittingittoshootatme;soIwasthennecessitatedtoshootathimfirst,which I did, and killed him at the first shot.
Thepoorsavagewhofled,buthadstopped,thoughhesawbothhisenemiesfallenandkilled, as he thought, yet was so frighted with the fire and noise of my piece, that he stood stock- still, and neither came forward nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclined to fly still than to come on. I hallooed again to him, and made signs to come forward, which he easily understood, and came a little way, then stopped again, and then a little further; and stopped again; and I could then perceive that he stood trembling, as if he had been taken prisoner, and had just been to be killed, as his two enemies were. I beckoned him again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encouragement that I could think of; and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling down every often or twelve steps, in token of acknowledgment formysavinghislife.
Ismiledathim,andlookpleasantly,andbeckonedtohimtocomestill nearer. At length he came close to me, and then he kneeled down again, kissed the ground, and laid his head upon the ground, and taking me by the foot, set my foot upon his head.
This, it seems, was in token of swearing to be my slave forever. I took him up, and made much of him, and encouraged him all I could. But there was more work to do yet; for I perceived the savage whom I knocked down was not killed, but stunned with the blow, and began to come to himself; so I pointed to him, and showing him the savage, that he was not dead, upon this he spoke some words to me; and though I could not understand them, yet I thought they were pleasant to hear; for they were the first sound of a man’s voice that I had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years. But there was no time for such reflections now. The savage who was knocked down recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground, and I perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but when I was that, I presented my other piece at the man, as if I would shoot him. Upon this my savage, for so I call him now, madeamotion to meto lend him my sword, which hung naked in abelt by my side;soIdid.Henosoonerhaditbutherunstohisenemy,and,atoneblow,cutoffhishead as cleverly, no executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better; which I thought verystrangeforonewho,Ihadreasontobelieve, neversawaswordinhis lifebefore,except their own wooden swords. However, it seems, as I learned afterwards, they make their wooden swords so sharp, so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will cut off heads even withthem,ay,andarms, andthatatoneblowtoo. Whenhehaddonethis,hecomeslaughing to me in sign of triumph, and brought me the sword again, and with abundance of gestures, which I did not understand, laid it down, with the head of the savage that he had killed, just before me.
Butthatwhichastonishedhimmost,wastoknowhowIhadkilledtheotherIndiansofaroff; so pointing to him, he made signs to me to let him go to him; so I bade him go, as well as I could. When he came to him, he stood like one amazed, looking at him, turned him first on one side, then t’ other, looked at the wound the bullet had made, which, it seems, was just in his breast, where it had made a hole, and no great quantity of blood had followed; but he had bled inwardly, for he was quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows, and came back; so I turned to away, and beckoned to him to follow me, making signs to him that more might come after them.
Uponthishesignedtomethatheshouldburythemwithsand,thattheymightnotbeseenby therestiftheyfollowed;andsoImadesignsagaintohimto doso.Hefell towork,andin an
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instant he had scraped a hole in the sand with his hands big enough to bury the first in, and then dragged him into it, and covered him, and did so also by the other. I believe he had buried them both in a quarter of an hour. Then calling him away, I carried him, not to my castle,butquiteawayto mycave,onthefartherpartoftheisland;so Idid notletmydream come to pass in that part, viz., that he came into my grove for shelter.
Here Igavehim bread and abunch ofraisins to eat, and adraught of water, which Ifound he was indeed in great distress for, by his running; and having refreshed him, I made signs for himtogoliedownandsleep,pointingtoaplacewhereIhadlaidagreatparcelofrice-straw, and ablanket upon it, which Iused to sleep upon myselfsometimes; so thepoorcreaturelaid down, and went to sleep.
He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straight, strong limbs, not too large, tall, and well-shaped, and, as I reckoned, about twenty-six years of age. He had a very goodcountenance,notafierceandsurlyaspect,butseemedtohavesomethingverymanlyin hisface;andyethehad allthesweetnessandsoftnessofanEuropeaninhis countenancetoo, especially when he smiled. His hair was long and black, not curled like wool; his forehead veryhighandlarge;and agreatvivacityandsparklingsharpnessinhiseyes.Thecolorofhis skin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not of an ugly, yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other natives of America are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive color, that had in it something very agreeable, though not very easy to describe. His face was round and plump; his nose small, not flat like the negroes; a very good mouth, thin lips, and his fine teeth well set, and white as ivory.
Afterhehadslumbered,ratherthanslept,abouthalfanhour,hewakedagain,andcomesout of the cave to me, for I had been milking my goats, which I had in the enclosure just by.
When he espied me, he came running to me, laying himself down again upon the ground, withallthepossiblesignsofanhumble,thankfuldisposition,makingasmanyanticgestures to show it. At last he lays his head flat upon the ground, close to my foot, and sets my other foot upon his head, as he had done before, and after this made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude, and submission imaginable, to let meknowhowhewould servemeas long as helived. Iunderstood him in many things,and let him knowIwas very well pleased with him.
In a little time I began to speak to him, and teach him to speak to me; and, first, I made him know his name should be Friday, which was the day I saved his life. I called him so for the memory of the time. I likewise taught him to say master, and then let him know that was to be my name. I likewise taught him to say Yes and No, and to know the meaning ofthem.
Igavehim some milk in an earthen pot, and let him seemedrink it beforehim, and sop my bread in it; and Igavehim acakeofbread to do thelike, which he quickly complied with, and made signs that it was very good for him.
Ikept there with him all that night; but as soon as it was day, Ibeckoned to him to comewith me, and let him know I would give him some clothes; at which he seemed very glad, for he was stark naked. As we went by the place where he had buried the two men, he pointed exactly to the place, and showed me the marks that he had made to find them again, making signs to me that we should dig them up again, and eat them. At this I appeared very angry, expressed my abhorrence of it, made as if I would vomit at the thoughts of it, and beckoned with my hand to him to come away; which he did immediately, with great submission. Ithen led him up to the top of the hill, to see if his enemies were gone; and pulling out my glass, I looked, and saw plainly the place where they had been, but no appearance of them or of their canoes;sothatitwasplainthattheyweregone,andhadlefttheirtwocomradesbehindthem, without any search after them.
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But I was not content with this discovery; but having now more courage, and consequently more curiosity, I take my man Friday with me, giving him the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which I found he could use very dexterously, making him carry one gun for me, and I two for myself, and away we marched to the place where these creatures had been; for I had a mind now to get some fuller intelligence of them. When Icame to the place, my very blood ran chill in my veins, and my heart sunk within me, at the horror of the spectacle. Indeed, it was a dreadful sight, at least it was so to me, though Friday made nothing of it. The place was covered with human bones, the ground dyed with their blood, great pieces of flesh left here and there, half-eaten, mangled and scorched; and, in short, all the tokens of the triumphant feast they had been making there, after a victory oftheir enemies.
I saw three skulls, five hands, and the bones of three or four legs and feet, and abundance of other parts of the bodies; and Friday, by his signs, made me understand that they brought over four prisoners to feast upon; that three of them were eaten up, and that he, pointing to himself, was the fourth; that there had been a great battle between them and their nextking,whosesubjectsitseemshehadbeenoneof,andthattheyhadtakenagreatnumber of prisoners; all which were carried to several places, by those who had taken them in the fight, in order to feast upon them, as was done here by these wretches upon those they brought hither.
I cause Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and whatever remained, and lay them together on a heap, and make a great fire upon it, and burn them all to ashes. I found Friday had still a hankering stomach after some of the flesh, and was still a cannibal in his nature; butIdiscoveredsomuch abhorrenceattheverythoughtsofit,andattheleastappearanceof it, that he durst not discover it; for Ihad, by some means, let him know that I would kill him if he offered it.
When we had done this we came back to our castle, and there I fell to work for my man Friday; and, first of all, I gave him-a pair of linen drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner’s chest I mentioned, and which I found in the wreck; and which, with a little alteration, fitted him very well. Then I made him a jerkin of goat’s-skin, as well as my skill would allow, and Iwas now grown a tolerable good tailor; and Igave him a cap, which I had madeofahare-skin,veryconvenientandfashionableenough;andthushewasclothedforthe present tolerably well, and was mighty well pleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his master. It is true he went awkwardly in these things at first; wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders, and the inside of his arms; but a little easing them where he complained they hurt him, using himself to them, at length he took to them very well.
The next day after I came home to my hutch with him, I began to consider where I should lodge him. And that I might do well for him, and yet be perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in the vacant place between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last and in the outside of the first; and as there was a door or entrance there into my cave, I made a formal framed doorcase, and a door to it of boards, and set it up in the passage, a little within the entrance; and causing the door to open on the inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in my ladders, too; so that Friday could no way come at me in the inside of my innermost wall without making so much noise in getting over that it must needs waken me; for my first wall hadnowacompleteroof overitoflongpoles,coveringallmytent,andleaninguptotheside of the hill, which was again laid across with smaller sticks instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thickness with the rice-straw, which was strong, like reeds; and at the hole or placewhich waslefttogoinoroutbytheladder, Ihadplacedakindoftrap-door,which,ifit had been attempted on the outside, would not have open at all, but would have fallen down, and made a great noise; and as to weapons, I took them all in to my side every night.
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But I needed none of all this precaution; for never man had a more faithful, loving, sincere servantthan Fridaywastome;withoutpassions,sullenness,ordesigns,perfectlyobligedand engaged; his very affections weretied to melikethoseofachild to afather; and Idaresay he would have sacrificed his life for the saving mine, upon any occasion whatsoever. The many testimonieshegavemeofthisputitoutofdoubt,andsoonconvincedmethatIneededtouse no precautions as to my safety on his account.
This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with wonder, that however it had pleased God, in His providence, and in the government of the works of His hands, to take from so great apart oftheworld ofHis creatures thebest uses to which theirfaculties and the powers of their soul are adapted, yet that He has bestowed upon them the same powers, the same reason, the same affections, the same sentiments of kindness and obligation, the same passions and resentments of wrongs, the same sense of gratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and allthe capacities of doing good, and receiving good, that He has give to us; and that when He pleases to offer to them occasions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more ready, to apply them to the right uses for which they were bestowed that we are. And this made me verymelancholysometimes,inreflecting,astheseveraloccasionspresented,howmeanause we make of all these, even though we have these powers enlightened by the great lamp of instruction,theSpiritofGod,andbytheknowledgeofHisWord addedto ourunderstanding; and why it has pleased God to hide the like saving knowledge from so many millions ofsouls, who, if I might judge by this poor savage, would make a much better use of it than we did.
From hence, I sometimes was led too far to invade the sovereignity of Providence, and, as it were,arraignthejusticeofsoarbitraryadispositionofthingsthatshouldhidethatlightfrom some, and reveal it to others, and yet expect a like duty from both. But I shut it up, and checked my thoughts with this conclusion: first, that we did not know by what light and law these should be condemned; but that God was necessarily, and, by the nature of His being, infinitely holy and just, so it could not be but that if these creatures were all sentenced to absence from Himself, it was on account ofsinning against that light, which, as theScripture says, was a law to themselves, and by such rules as their consciences would acknowledge to be just, though the foundation was not discovered to us; and, second, that still, as we are all the clay in the hand of the potter, no vessel could say to Him, “Why hast Thou formed me thus?”
But to return to my new companion. I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my businesstoteachhimeverythingthatwaspropertomakehimuseful,handy,andhelpful;but especially to make him speak, and understand me when I spake. And he was the aptest scholar that ever was; and particularly was so merry, so constantly diligent, and so pleased when he could but understand me, or make me understand him, that it was very pleasant to me to talk to him. And now my life began to be so easy that I began to say to myself, that could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place while I lived.
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15. Friday’sEducation
After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I thought that, in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding, and from the relish of a cannibal’s stomach, I ought to let him taste other flesh; so I took him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own flock, and bring him home and dress it; but as I was going, I saw a she-goat lying down in the shade, and two young kids sitting by her. I catched hold of Friday. “Hold,” says I, “stand still,” and made signs to him not to stir.
Immediately I presented my piece, shot and killed one of the kids. The poor creature, who had, at a distance indeed, seen me kill the savage, his enemy, but did not know, or could imagine, how it was done, was sensibly surprised, trembled and shook, and looked so amazed, that I thought he would have sunk down. He did not see the kid I had shot at, or perceive I had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat to feel if he was not wounded; and, as I foundpresently,thoughtIwasresolvedtokillhim;forhecameandkneeleddowntome,and embracingmyknees,saidagreatmanythings Ididnotunderstand;butIcouldeasilyseethat the meaning was to pray me not to kill him.
I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm; and taking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and pointing to the kid which I had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did; and while he was wondering, and looking to see how the creature was killed, I loaded my gun again; and by and by I saw a great fowl, like a hawk, sit upon a tree, within shot; so, to let Friday understand a little what I would do, I called him to me again, pointing at the fowl, which was indeed a parrot, though I thought it had been a hawk; I say, pointing to the parrot, and to my gun, and to the ground under the parrot, to let him see I wouldmakeitfall, Imadehimunderstandthat Iwouldshootandkillthatbird.Accordingly I fired, and bade him look, and immediately he saw the parrot fall. He stood like one frighted again,notwithstandingallIhadsaidtohim;andIfoundhewasthemoreamazed,becausehe didnotseemeputanythingintothegun,butthoughtthattheremustbesomewonderful fund of death and destruction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or anything near or far off andtheastonishmentthiscreatedinhimwassuch ascouldnotwearoffforalongtime;andI believe, if I would have let him, he would have worshipped me and my gun. As for the gun itself, he would not so much as touch it for several days after; but would speak to it, and talk to it, as if it had answered him, when he was by himself; which, as I afterwards learned of him, was to desire it not to kill him.
Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, Ipointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot, which he did, but stayed some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead, was fluttered a good way off from where she fell. However, he found her, took her up, and brought her to me; and as I had perceived his ignorance about the gun before, I took this advantage to charge the gun again, and not let him see me do it, that Imight be ready for any other mark that might present. But nothing more offered at that time; so I brought home the kid, and the same evening I took the skin off, and cut it out as well as I could; and having a pot for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good broth; and after I had begun to eat some, I gave some to my man, who seemed very glad of it, and likeditverywell;butthatwhichwasstrangesttohim,wastoseemeeatsaltwithit.Hemade a sign to me that the salt was not good to eat, and putting a little into his own mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh water afterit.Ontheotherhand,Itooksomemeatinmymouthwithoutsalt,andIpretendedtospit and sputter for want of salt, as fast as he had done at the salt. But it would not do; he would
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nevercareforsaltwithhismeatorinhisbroth;atleast,notagreatwhile,andthenbutvery little.
Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to feast him the next daywith roasting a piece of the kid. This I did by hanging it before the fire in a string, as I had seen many people do in England, setting two poles up, one on each side of the fire, and one acrossonthetop,andtyingthestringtothecrossstick,lettingthemeatturncontinually.This Friday admired very much. But when he came to taste the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how well he liked it, that I could not but understand him; and at last he told me he would never eat man’s flesh any more, which I was very glad to hear.
Thenextday Isethimtoworktobeatingsomecornout,andsiftingitinthemannerIusedto do, as Iobserved before; and he soon understood how to do it as well as I, especially after he had seen what the meaning of it was, and that it was to make bread of; for after that Ilet him seememakemy bread, and bakeit too; and in alittletimeFriday was able to do all thework for me, as well as I could do it myself.
I began now to consider that, having two mouths to feed instead of one, I must provide more groundformyharvest,andplantalargerquantityofcornthan Iusedtodo;soImarkedouta larger piece of land, and began to fence in the same manner before, in which Friday not only worked very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully; and I told him what it was for; that it was for corn to make more bread, because he was now with me, and that I might haveenough forhim and myselftoo. Heappeared very sensibleofthat part, and let meknow thathethoughtIhadmuchmorelaboruponmeonhisaccountthan Ihadformyself;andthat he would work the harder for me, if I would tell him what to do.
Thiswasthepleasantestyearof allthelife Iledin thisplace.Fridaybegan totalkprettywell, andunderstandthenamesofalmosteverything Ihadoccasiontocallfor, andofeveryplace I had to send him to, and talk a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began now to have someuse for my tongue again, which, indeed, I had very little occasion for before, that is to say, aboutspeech.Besidesthepleasureoftalkingtohim,Ihad asingularsatisfactioninthefellow himself.
His simple, unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day, and Ibegan really to love the creature; and, on his side, I believe he loved me more than it was possible for him ever to love anything before.
I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination to his own country again; and having learned him English so well that he could answer me almost any questions, I asked him whether the nation that he belonged to never conquered in battle? At which he smiled, and said, “Yes, yes, we always fight the better;” that is, he meant, always get the better in fight;andsowebeganthefollowingdiscourse:“Youalwaysfightthebetter,”saidI.“How came you to be taken prisoner then, Friday?”
Friday.—Mynation beatmuchforall that.
Master.—Howbeat? Ifyournationbeatthem,howcameyoutobetaken?
Friday.—Theymoremanythanmynationintheplacewheremewas;theytakeone,two, three, and me. My nation overbeat them in the yonder place, where me no was; there my nation take one, two, great thousand.
Master.—But whydidnot yoursiderecoveryoufrom thehandsofyourenemies, then?
Friday.—Theyrunone,two,three,andme,andmakegointhecanoe;mynationhaveno canoe that time.
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Master.—Well,Friday,andwhatdoesyournationdowiththementheytake?Dotheycarry them away and eat them, as these did?
Friday.—Yes,mynationeatmanstoo;eatallup. Master.
— Where do they carry them?
Friday.—Gotootherplace,wheretheythink. Master. —
Do they come hither?
Friday.—Yes,yes,theycomehither;comeotherelseplace. Master. —
Have you been here with them?
Friday.—Yes, Ibeenhere.(PointstotheNW.sideoftheisland,which,it seems,wastheir side.) By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among the savages who used to comeonshoreonthefartherpartoftheisland,on thesameman-eatingoccasionsthathewas now brought for; and, some time after, when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being the same I formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told me he was there once when they eat up twenty men, two women, and one child. He could not tell twenty in English, but henumbered them by laying so many stones on arow, and pointing to meto tell them over.
Ihavetoldthispassage, becauseitintroduceswhatfollows:thatafterIhadhadthisdiscourse with him, I asked him how far it was from our island to the shore, and whether the canoes werenotoftenlost.Hetoldmetherewasnodanger,nocanoes everlost;butthat,afteralittle way out to the sea, there was a current and a wind, always one way in the morning, the other in the afternoon.
This I understood to be no more than the sets of the tide, as going out or coming in; but I afterwards understood it was occasioned by the great draught and reflux of the mighty river Oroonoko,inthemouthorthegulfofwhich river,as Ifoundafterwards,ourislandlay;and this land which I perceived to the W. and NW. was the great island Trinidad, on the north point of the mouth of the river. I asked Friday a thousand questions about the country, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations were near. He told me all he knew, with the greatest openness imaginable. I asked him the names of the several nations of his sort of people,butcouldgetnoothernamethanCaribs;fromwhenceIeasilyunderstoodthatthese were the Caribbees, which our maps place on the part of America which reaches from the mouth of the River Oroonoko to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told me that up a great way beyond the moon, that was, beyond the setting of the moon, which must be W. from their country, there dwelt white-bearded men, like me, and pointed to my great whiskers, which I mentioned before; and they had killed much mans, that was his word; by all which Iunderstood he meant the Spaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over the whole countries, and was remember by all the nations father to son.
I inquired if he could tell me how I might come from this island and get among those white men.Hetoldme,“Yes,yes, Imightgointwocanoe.”Icouldnotunderstandwhathemeant, or make him describe to me what he meant by two canoe; till at last, with great difficulty, I found he meant it must be in a large great boat, as big as two canoes.
This part of Friday’s discourse began to relish with me very well; and from this time I entertainedsomehopesthat,onetimeorother,Imightfindanopportunitytomakemy escape from this place, and that this poor savage might be a means to help me to do it.
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During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he began to speak to me, andunderstandme, Iwas notwantingtolayafoundationofreligiousknowledgeinhismind; particularly I asked him one time, Who made him? The poor creature did not understand me at all, but thought I had asked who was his father. But I took it by another handle, and asked him who made the sea, the ground we walked on, and the hills and woods? He told me it was one old Benamuckee, that lived beyond all. He could describe nothing of this great person, but that he was very old, much older, he said, than the sea or the land, than the moon or the stars, I asked him then, if this old person had made all things, why did not all things worship him?Helookedverygrave,andwithaperfectlookofinnocencesaid,“All thingsdosayOto him.” I asked him if the people who die in his country went away anywhere? He said, “Yes, they all went to Benamuckee.” Then I asked him whether these they eat up went thither too? He said
“Yes.”
Fromthesethings IbegantoinstructhimintheknowledgeofthetrueGod.Itoldhimthatthe great Maker of all things lived up there, pointing up towards heaven; that He governs the world by the same power and providence by which he made it; that he was omnipotent, could do everything for us, give everything to us, take everything from us; and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great attention, and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to God, and His being able to hear us, even into heaven. He told me one day that if our God could hear us up beyond the sun, He must needs be a greater God than their Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could not hear till they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak to him. I asked him if he ever went thither to speak to him? He said, “No;” they never went that were young men; none went but the old men, whom he called their Oowokakee, that is, as I made him explain it to me, their religious or clergy; and that they went to say O (so he called saying prayers), and then came back, and told them what Benamuckee said. By this Iobserved that there is priest-craft even amongst the most blinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secret religion in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy is not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps among all religions in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages.
I endeavored to clear up this fraud to my man Friday, and told him that the pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to say O to their god Benamuckee was a cheat, and their bringingwordfromthencewhathesaidwasmuchmoreso;thatiftheymetwithanyanswer, or spoke with any one there, it must be with an evil spirit; and then I entered into a long discourse with him about the devil, the original of him, his rebellion against God, his enmity to man, the reason of it, his setting himself up in the dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of God, and as God, and the many stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to theirruin;howhehadasecretaccesstoourpassionsandtoouraffections,toadapthissnares so to our inclinations, as to cause us even to be our own tempters, and to run upon our destruction by our own choice.
I found it was not so easy to imprint right notionsin his mind about the devil, as it was about thebeingofaGod. Natureassistedallmyargumentstoevidencetohimeventhenecessityof agreatFirstCauseandoverruling,governingPower,asecretdirectingProvidence,andofthe 6quity and justice of paying homage to Him that made us, and the like. But there appeared nothing of all this in the notion of an evil spirit; of his original, his being, his nature, and above all, of his inclination to do evil, and to draw us in to do so too; and the poor creature puzzled me once in such a manner by a question merely natural and innocent, that I scarcely knew what to say to him. I had been talking a great deal to him of the power of God, His omnipotence, His dreadful aversion to sin, His being a consuming fire to the workers of
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iniquity;how,asHehadmadeusall,Hecoulddestroyusandalltheworld inamoment;and he listened with great seriousness to me all the while.
After this I had been telling him how the devil was God’s enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his malice and skill to defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin the kingdom of Christ in the world, and the like. “Well,” says Friday, “but you say God is so strong, so great; is He not much strong, much might as the devil?” “Yes, yes,” says I,“Friday, God is stronger than the devil; God is above the devil, and therefore we pray to God totreadhimdownunderourfeet,andenableustoresisthistemptations,andquenchhisfiery darts.”
“But,” says he again, “if God much strong, much might as the devil, why God no kill the devil, so make him no more do wicked?”
I was strangely surprised at his question; and after all, though I was now an old man, yet I was but a young doctor, and ill enough qualified for a causist, or a solver of difficulties; and at first I could not tell what to say; so I pretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said. But he was too earnest for an answer to forget his question, so that he repeated it in the very same broken words as above. By this time I had recovered myself a little, and I said,
“God will punish him severely; he is reserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the bottomlesspit,todwellwitheverlastingfire.”ThisdidnotsatisfyFriday;buthereturnsupon me, repeating my words, “Reserve at last! me no understand; but why not kill the devil now? not kill great ago?” “You may as well ask me,” said I, “why God does not kill you and I, when we do wicked things here that offend Him; we are preserved to repent and be pardoned.” He muses awhile at this. “Well, well,” says he, mighty affectionately, “that well; so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, God pardon all.” Here I was run down again by him to the last degree, and it was a testimony to me how the mere notions of nature, though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God, and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as the consequence of our nature, yet nothing by Divinerevelation can from theknowledgeofJesus Christ, and ofaredemption purchased for us, of a Mediator of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool of God’s throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from heaven can form these in the soul, and that therefore the Gospel ofourLord and SaviourJesus Christ, Imean theWord ofGod, and theSpirit ofGod, promised for the guide and sanctifier of His people, are the absolutely necessary instructorsof the souls of men in the saving knowledge of God, and the means of salvation.
Itherefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man, rising up hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out; then sending him for something a good way off, I seriously prayed to God that He would enable me to instruct savingly this poor savage, assisting, by His Spirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light of the knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to Himself, and would guide me to speak so to him from the Word of God as his conscience might be convinced, his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he came again to me, I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subject of redemption of man by the Saviour of the world, and of the doctrine of the Gospel preachedfromheaven,viz.,ofrepentancetowardsGod,andfaithinourblessedLordJesus.I then explained to him as well as I could why our blessed Redeemer took not on Him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallen angels had no share in the redemption; that He came only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and the like.
I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods I took for this poor creature’s instruction, and must acknowledge, what I believe all that act upon the same principlewillfind,thatinlayingthingsopentohim,Ireallyinformedandinstructedmyself in many things that either I did not know, or had not fully considered before, but which
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occurred naturally to my mind upon searching into them for the information of this poor savage.AndIhadmoreaffectioninmyinquiryafterthingsuponthisoccasionthaneverIfelt before; so that whether this poor wild wretch was the better for me or no, I had great reasonto be thankful that ever he came to me. My grief set lighter upon me, my habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure; and when I reflected that in this solitary life which I had been confined to, I had not only been moved myself to look up to heaven, and to seek to the Hand that had brought me there, but was now to be made an instrument, under Providence, to save the life, and, for aught I know, the soul of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowledge of religion, and of the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, to know whom is life eternal; — I say, when I reflected upon all these things, a secret joy run through every part of my soul, and I frequently rejoiced that ever I was brought to this place, which I had so often thought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly have befallen me.
In this thankful frame I continued all the remainder of my time, and the conversation which employed the hours between Friday and I was such as made the three years which we lived there together perfectly and completely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can be formed in a sublunary state. The savage was now a good Christian, a much better than I; though I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, that we were equally penitent, and comforted,restoredpenitents.WehadheretheWordofGodtoread,andnofartherofffrom His Spirit to instruct than if we had been in England.
I always applied myself to reading the Scripture, to let him know, as well as I could, the meaning of what I read; and he again, by his serious inquiries and questions, made me, as I saidbefore,amuchbetterscholarintheScripture-knowledgethanIshouldeverhavebeenby my own private mere reading. Another thing I cannot refrain from observing here also, from the experience in this retired part of my life, viz., how infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the knowledge of God, and the doctrine of salvation of Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid down in the Word of God, so easy to be received and understood; that as the bare reading the Scripturemademecapableofunderstandingenoughofmydutytocarrymedirectlyontothe great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, and obedience to all God’s commands, and this without any teacher or instructor (I mean human); so the same plain instruction sufficiently served to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to be such a Christian, as I have known few equal to him in my life.
As to all the disputes, wranglings, strife, and contention which has happened in the world aboutreligion,whethernicetiesindoctrinesorschemesofChurchgovernment,theywereall perfectly useless to us; as, for aught Ican yet see, they have been to all the rest in the world.
We had the sure guide to heaven, viz., the Word of God; and we had, blessed by God!
comfortable views of the Spirit of God teaching and instructing us by His Word, leading us into all truth, and making us both willing and obedient to the instruction of His Word; and I cannot see the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points in religion, which havemadesuchconfusionsintheworld,wouldhavebeentousifwecould haveobtainedit. But I must go on with the historical part of things, and take every part in its order.
After Fridayand Ibecamemoreintimatelyacquainted,andthathecouldunderstandalmost allIsaidtohim,andspeakfluently,thoughinbrokenEnglish,tome,Iacquaintedhimwith my own story, or at least so much of it as related to my coming into the place; how I had lived there, and how long. I let him into the mystery, for such it was to him, of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to shoot; I gave him a knife, which he was wonderfully delightedwith,and Imadehimabelt,withafrog hangingtoit,suchasinEnglandwewear
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hangersin;andinthefrog,insteadofahanger, Igavehimahatchet,which wasnotonlyas good a weapon, in some cases, but much more useful upon other occasions.
Idescribed to him thecountry ofEurope, and particularly England, which Icamefrom; how we lived, how we worshipped God, how we behaved to one another, and how we traded in shipstoallpartsoftheworld.Igavehiman accountofthewreckwhich Ihadbeenonboard of, and showed him, as near as I could, the place where she lay; but she was all beaten in pieces before, and gone.
I showed him the ruins of our boat, which we lost when we escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole strength then, but was now fallen almost all to pieces. Upon seeing this boat,Fridaystoodmusingagreatwhile, andsaid nothing.Iaskedhimwhatitwashestudied upon. At last says he, “Me see such boat like come to place at my nation.”
I did not understand him a good while; but at last, when I had examined further into it, I understoodbyhimthataboatsuchasthathadbeen,cameonshoreuponthecountrywhere he lived; that is, as he explained it, was driven thither by stress of weather. I presently imagined that someEuropean ship must havebeen cast away upon theircoast, and theboat might get loose and drive ashore; but was so dull that I never once thought of men making escape from a wreck thither, much less whence they might come; so Ionly inquired after a description of the boat.
Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me better to understand him when he added with some warmth, “We save the white mans from drown.” Then Ipresently asked himiftherewasany
whitemans,ashe
calledthem,intheboat.“Yes,”hesaid,“theboatfull ofwhitemans.”Iaskedhimhowmany.Hetolduponhisfingersseventeen. Iaskedhimthen what became of them. He told me, “They live, they dwell at my nation.”
This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently imagined that these might be the men belongingtotheshipthatwascastawayinsightofmyisland,as Inowcallit;andwho,after the ship was struck on the rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves in their boat, and were landed upon that wild shore among the savages.
Upon this I inquired of him more critically what was become of them. He assured me they livedstillthere;thattheyhadbeenthereaboutfouryears;thatthesavagesletthemalone,and gave them victuals to live. I asked him how it came to pass they did not kill them, and eat them. He said, “No, they make brother with them;” that is, as I understood him, a truce; and thenheadded, “Theyno eatmansbutwhenmake thewarfight;”thatistosay,theynevereat any men but such as come to fight with them and are taken in battle.
Itwasafterthissomeconsiderabletimethatbeingonthetopofthehill,attheeastsideofthe island (from whence, as I have said, Ihad in a clear day, discovered the main or continent of America), Friday, the weather being very serene, looks very earnestly towards the mainland, and, in a kind of surprise, falls a-jumping and dancing, and calls out to me, for Iwas at some distance from him. Iasked him what was the matter. “O joy!” says he, “O glad! there see my country, there my nation.”
Iobservedanextraordinarysenseofpleasureappearedinhisface,andhiseyessparkled,and his countenance discovered a strange eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country again; and this observation of mine put a great many thoughts into me, which made me at first not so easy about my new man Friday as I was before; and I made no doubt but that if Friday could get back to his own nation again, he would not only forget all his religion, but all his obligation to me; and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, and come back perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and make a feast upon me, at
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whichhemightbeasmerryasheusedtobewith thoseofhisenemies,whentheyweretaken in war.
But Iwronged the poor honest creature very much, for which I was very sorry afterwards.
However, as my jealousy increased, and held me some weeks, I was a little more circumspect, and not so familiar and kind to him as before; in which I was certainly in the wrongtoo,thehonest,gratefulcreaturehavingnothoughtaboutitbutwhatconsistedwith the best principles, both as a religious Christian and as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my full satisfaction.
Whilemyjealousyofhimlasted,youmaybesure Iwas everydaypumpinghim,toseeifhe would discover any of the new thoughts which I suspected were in him; but I found everything he said was so honest and so innocent that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion; and, in spite of all my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his own again, nor didheintheleastperceivethat Iwasuneasy,and thereforeIcouldnotsuspecthimofdeceit.
Oneday,walkingupthesamehill,buttheweatherbeinghazy atsea,sothatwecouldnotsee the continent, I called to him, and said, “Friday, do not you wish yourself in your own country, yourown nation?”“Yes,”hesaid, “Ibe much Oglad tobeatmy own nation.”What would you do there?” said I. “Would you turn wild again, eat men’s flesh again, and be a savage as you were before?” He looked full of concern, and shaking his head said, “No, no; Friday tell them to live good; tell them to pray God; tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle flesh, milk, no eat man again.” “Why then,” said I to him, “they will kill you.” He looked grave at that, and then said,
“No, they no kill me, they willing love learn.” He meant by this they would be willing to learn. He added, they learned much of the bearded mans that come in the boat. Then I asked him if he would go back to them. He smiled at that, and told me he could not swim so far.
Itold him Iwould makeacanoe forhim. Hetold mehewould go, ifIwould go with him. “I go!”
says I; “why, they will eat me if I come there.” “No, no,” says he, “me make they no eat you; me make they much love you.” He meant, he would tell them how I killed his enemies, and saved his life, and so he would make them love me. Then he told me, aswellashecould,howkindtheyweretoseventeenwhitemen,orbearded men,ashecalled them, who came on shore there in distress.
From this time I confess I had a mind to venture over, and see if I could possibly join with these bearded men, who, Imade on doubt, were Spanish or Portuguese; not doubting but, if I could, we might find some method to escape from thence, being upon the continent, and a good company together, better than I could from an island forty miles off the shore, and alone, without help. So, after some days, I took Friday to work again, by way of discourse, and told him I would give him a boat to go back to his own nation; and accordingly I carried himtomyfrigate,which layontheothersideoftheisland,andhavingcleareditofwater, for Ialwayskeptitsunkinthewater,Ibroughtitout,showedit tohim,andwebothwentinto it.
I found he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, would make it go almost as swift and fastagainas Icould.Sowhenhewasin Isaidto him,“Wellnow,Friday, shallwegotoyour nation?”
He looked very dull at my saying so, which, it seems, was because he thought the boat too small to go so far. I told him then I had a bigger; so the next day I went to the place where the first boat lay which I had made, but which I could not get into water. He said that was big enough; but then, as Ihad taken no care of it, and it had lain two or three and twenty yearsthere,thesunhadsplitanddriedit,thatitwasinamannerrotten.Fridaytoldmesucha boat would do very well, and would carry “much enough victual, drink, bread;” that was his way of talking.
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16. RescueOfPrisonersFromCannibals
Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my design of going over with him to the continent that Itold him we would go and make one as big as that, and he should go home in it. He answered not one word, but looked very grave and sad. I asked him what was the matter with him. He asked me again thus: “Why you angry mad with Friday? What me done?” I asked him what he meant. I told him I was not angry with him at all. “No angry! no angry!” says he, repeated the words several times. “Why send Friday home away to my nation?” “Why,” says I, “Friday, did you not say you wished you were there?” “Yes, yes,”
says he, “wish be both there, no wish Friday there, no master there.” In a word, he would not think of going there without me. “I go there, Friday!” says I; “what shall I do there?” He turned very quick upon me at this. “You do great deal much good,” says he; “you teach wild mans to be good, sober, tame mans; you tell them know God, pray God, and live new life.”
“Alas! Friday,” says I, “thou knowest not what thou sayest. I am but an ignorant manmyself.”
“Yes, yes,” says he, “you teachee me good, you teachee them good.” “No, no, Friday,” says I, “you shall go without me; leave me here to live by myself, as I did before.” He looked confused again at that word, and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, he takes it up hastily, comes and gives it to me. “What must I do with this?” says I to him.“YoutakekillFriday,”sayshe.“WhatmustIkillyoufor?”said Iagain.Hereturnsvery quick,
“What you send Friday away for? Take kill Friday, no send Friday away.” This he spoke so earnestly that I saw tears stand in his eyes. In a word, I so plainly discovered the utmost affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in him, that I told him then, and often after, that I would never send him away from me if he was willing to stay with me.
Upon the whole, as I found by all his discourse a settled affection to me, and that nothing should part him from me, so I found all the foundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his ardent affection to the people, and his hopes of my doing them good; a thing which, as I had no notion of myself, so I had not the least thought or intention or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a strong inclination to my attempting an escape, as above, founded on the supposition gathered from the discourse, viz., that there were seventeen beardedmenthere;and,therefore,withoutanymoredelayIwenttoworkwithFriday,tofind out a great tree proper to fell, and make a large periagua, or canoe, to undertake the voyage.
Thereweretrees enough intheislandtohavebuiltalittlefleet,notofperiaguasandcanoes, but even of good large vessels. But the main thing I looked at was, to get one so near the water that we might launch it when it was made, to avoid the mistake I committed at first.
At last Friday pitched upon a tree, for Ifound he knew much better than Iwhat kind of wood was fittest for it; nor can I tell, to this day, what wood to call the tree we cut down, exceptthat it was very like the tree we call fustic, or between that and the Nicaragua wood, for itwas much of the same color and smell. Friday was for burning the hollow or cavity of this tree out, to make it for a boat, but I showed him how rather to cut it out with tools; which, afterIhadshowedhimhowtouse,hedidveryhandily;andinaboutamonth’shardlaborwe finished it, and made it very handsome; especially when, with our axes, which I showed him how to handle, we cut and hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat. After this, however, it cost us near a fortnight’s time to get her along, as it were, inch by inch, upongreat rollers into the water; but when she was in, she would have carried twenty men with great ease.
When she was in the water, and though she was so big, it amazed me to see with what dexterity,andhowswiftmymanFridaywouldmanageher,turnher,andpaddleheralong.
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So I asked him if he would, and if we might venture over in her. “Yes,” he said, “he venture overin hervery well, though great blowwind.” However, Ihad a fartherdesign that heknew nothing of, and that was to make a mast and sail, and to fit her with an anchor and cable. As to a mast, that was easy enough to get; so Ipitched upon a straight young cedar-tree, which I found near the place, and which there was great plenty of in the island; and I set Friday to worktocutitdown,and gavehimdirectionshowtoshapeandorderit.Butastothesail,that was my particular care. I knew I had old sails, or rather pieces of old sails enough; but as I had had them now twenty-six years by me, and had not been very careful to preserve them, not imagining that Ishould ever have this kind of use for them, Idid not doubt but they were all rotten, and, indeed, most of them were so.
However, Ifound two pieces which appeared pretty good, and with these Iwent to work, and with a great deal of pains, and awkward tedious stitching (you may be sure) for want of needles, I, at length, made a three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in England a shoulder-of-mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little short sprit at the top, suchas usually our ship’s longboats sail with, and such as best knew how to manage; because it wassuchaoneas Ihadtotheboatinwhich ImademyescapefromBarbary,asrelatedinthe first part of my story.
Iwasneartwomonthsperformingthislastwork,viz.,riggingandfittingmymastsandsails; for I finished them very complete, making a small stay, and a sail, or foresail, to it, to assist, if we should turn to windward; and, which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to the stern of her to steer with; and though I was but a bungling shipwright, yet as I knew the usefulness, andevennecessity,ofsuchathing, Iappliedmyselfwithsomuchpainstodoit,thatatlastI brought it to pass; though, considering the many dull contrivances I had for it that failed, I think it cost me almost as much labor as making the boat.
After all this was done, too, I had my man Friday to teach as to what belonged to the navigationofmyboat;forthoughheknewverywellhowtopaddleacanoe,heknewnothing what belonged to a sail and a rudder; and was the most amazed when he saw me work the boattoandagainintheseabytherudder,andhowthesailjabbed,and filledthisway,orthat way, as the course we sailed changed; I say, when he saw this, he stood like one astonished andamazed.However, withalittleuseImadeallthesethingsfamiliartohim,andhebecame anexpertsailor,exceptthatastothecompass Icouldmakehimunderstandverylittleofthat. On the other hand, as there was very little cloudy weather, and seldom or never any fogs in thoseparts,therewasthelessoccasionforacompass,seeingthestarswerealwaystobeseen by night, and the shore by day, except in the rainy season, and then nobody cared to stir abroad, either by land or sea.
I was now entered on the seven and twentieth year of my captivity in this place; though the three last years that I had this creature with me ought rather to be left out of the account, my habitationbeingquiteofanotherkindthaninalltherestofthetime. Ikept theanniversaryof my landing here with the same thankfulness to God for His mercies as at first; and if I had such cause of acknowledgment at first, I had much more so now, having such additional testimonies of the care of Providence over me, and the great hopes I had of being effectually and speedily delivered; for I had an invincible impression upon my thoughts that my deliverance was at hand, and that Ishould not be another year in this place. However, Iwent on with my husbandry, digging, planting, fencing, as usual. I gathered and cured my grapes, and did every necessary thing as before.
The rainy season was, in the meantime, upon me, when I kept more within doors than at any other times; so I had stowed our new vessel as secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where,as Isaidinthebeginning,Ilanded myraftsfromtheship;andhaulingherupto
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the shore at high-water mark, Imade my man Friday dig a little dock, just big enough to hold her, and just deep enough to give her water enough to float in, and then, when the tide was out,wemadeastrongdamacrosstheendofit,tokeepthewaterout;andsoshelaydry,asto the tide, from the sea; and to keep the rain off, we laid a great many boughs of trees, so thick, that she was well thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the month of November and December, in which I designed to make my adventure.
When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my designed returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the voyage; and the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, being the stores for our voyage; and intended, in a week or a fortnight’s time, to open the dock, and launch out our boat. I was busy one morning upon something of this kind, when Icalled to Friday, and bid him go to the sea-shore and see if he couldfindaturtle,ortortoise,athingwhichwegenerallygotonce aweek, forthesakeofthe eggs as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone when he came running back, and flew over my outer wall, or fence, like one that felt not the ground, or the steps he set his feet on;andbeforeIhadtimetospeaktohim,hecries outtome,“Omaster!Omaster!Osorrow! O bad!”
“What’s the matter, Friday?” says I. “O yonder, there,” says he, “one, two, three canoe!one, two, three!” By his way ofspeaking, Iconcluded thereweresix; but on inquiry, I found it was but three. “Well, Friday,” says I, “do not be frighted.” So I heartened him up as well as I could. However, I saw the poor fellow was most terribly scared; for nothing ran in his head but that they were come to look for him, and would cut him in pieces, and eat him; and the poor fellow trembled so that I scarce knew what to do with him. I comforted him as well as I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he, and that they would eat me as well as him.
“But,” says I, “Friday, we must resolve to fight them. Can you fight, Friday?” “Me shoot,”
say he; “but there come many great number.” No matter for that,” said I again; “our guns will fright them that we do not kill.” So I asked him whether, if I resolved todefend him, hewould defend me, and stand by me, and do just as Ibid him. Hesaid, “Medie when you bid die, master.” So I went and fetched a good dram of rum, and gave him; for I had been so good a husband of my rum that I had a great deal left. When he had drank it, I made him take the two fowling-pieces, which we always carried, and load them with large swan-shot, as big as small pistol-bullets. Then Itook fourmuskets, and loaded them with two slugs and five small bullets each; and my two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each. I hung my great sword, as usual, naked, by my side, and gave Friday his hatchet.
When Ihad thus prepared myself, Itook my perspective-glass and went up to the side of the hill to see what I could discover; and I found quickly, by my glass, that there were one-and-twentysavages,threeprisoners,andthreecanoes,andthattheirwholebusinessseemedtobe thetriumphantbanquetuponthesethreehumanbodies;abarbarousfeastindeed,butnothing more than, as I had observed, was usual with them.
Iobserved alsothatthey werelanded,notwheretheyhaddonewhenFridaymadehisescape, but nearer to my creek, where the shore was low, and where a thick wood came close almost down to the sea. This, with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand these wretches came about, filledmewithsuchindignationthatIcamedownagaintoFriday,andtoldhimIwasresolved to go down to them, and kill them all, and asked him if he would stand by me. He was now gotten over his fright, and his spirits being a little raised with the dram I had given him, he was very cheerful, and told me, as before, he would die when I bid die.
Inthisfitoffury, Itookfirstanddividedthearms which Ihadcharge,asbefore,betweenus. I gave Friday one pistol to stick in his girdle, and three guns upon his shoulder; and I took one pistol, and the other three myself, and in this posture we marched out. I took a small bottleofruminmypocket,andgave Friday alargebagwithmorepowder andbullet;andas
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toorders Ichargedhimtokeepclosebehindme, andnottostir,orshoot,ordoanything,tillI bid him, and in the meantime not to speak a word. In this posture I fetched a compass to my right hand of near a mile, as well to got over the creek as to get into the wood, so that Imight come within shot of them before I should be discovered, which I had seen, by my glass, itwas easy to do.
While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning, I began to abate my resolution. I do not mean that I entertained any fear of their number; for as they were naked, unarmed wretches, It is certain I was superior to them; nay, though I had been alone. But it occurred to my thoughts what call, what occasion, much less what necessity, I was in to go anddipmyhandsinblood,toattackpeoplewhohadneitherdoneorintendedmeanywrong; who,astome,wereinnocent,andwhosebarbarouscustomsweretheirowndisaster;beingin them a token, indeed, of God’s having left them, with the other nations of that part of the world, to such stupidity, and to such inhuman courses; but did not call me to take upon me to beajudgeoftheiractions,muchlessanexecutionerofHisjustice;thatwhenever Hethought fit, He would take the cause into His own hands, and by national vengeance, punish them, as a people, for national crimes; but that, in the meantime, it was none of my business; that, it was true, Friday might justify it, because he was a declared enemy, and in a state of war with those very particular people, and it was lawful for him to attack them; but I could not say the same with respect to me. These things were so warmly pressed upon my thoughts all the way as I went, that I resolved I would only go and place myself near them, that I might observe their barbarous feast, and that I would act then as God should direct; but that, unless something offered that was more a call to me than yet I knew of, I would not meddle with them.
With this resolution I entered the wood, and with all possible wariness and silence, Friday following close at my heels, I marched till I came to the skirt the wood, on the side whichwas next to them; only that one corner of the wood lay between me and them. Here I called softly to Friday, and showing him a great tree, which was just at the corner of the wood, I badehimgotothetreeandbringmewordifhecouldseethereplainlywhattheyweredoing. He did so, and came immediately back to me, and told me they might be plainly viewedthere; that they were all about their fire, eating the flesh of one of their prisoners, and that anotherlaybounduponthesand,alittlefromthem,which,hesaid,theywouldkillnext,and, which fired all the very soul within me, he told me it was not one of their nation, but one of the bearded men, whom he had told me of, that came to their country in the boat. I was filled with horror at the very naming the white, bearded man; and, going to the tree, I saw plainly, by my glass, a white man, who lay upon the beach of the sea, with his hands and feet tied with flags, or things like rushes, and that he was a European, and had clothes on.
Therewasanothertree, andalittlethicketbeyondit,aboutfiftyyearsnearertothemthanthe place where I was, which, by going a little way about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then I should be within half shot of them; so I withheld my passion, though I was indeed enraged to the highest degree; and going back about twenty paces, I got behind some bushes, which held all the way till I came to the other tree; and then I came to a little rising ground, which gave me a full view of them, at the distance of about eighty yards.
Ihadnownotamoment tolose,fornineteenofthedreadfulwretchessatupontheground,all close huddled together, and had just sent the other two to butcher the poor Christian, and bring him, perhaps limb by limb, to their fire; and they were stooped down to untie the bands atthisfeet. Iturnedto Friday.“Now, Friday,”saidI, “doas Ibidthee.”Fridaysaidhewould. “Then, Friday,” says I, “do exactly as you see me do; fail in nothing.” So I set down one of the muskets and the fowling-piece upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his; and with
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theothermuskettookmyaimatthesavages,biddinghimdothelike.Thenaskinghimifhe was ready, he said, “Yes.” “Then fire at them,” said I; and the same moment I fired also.
Friday took his aim so much better than I that on the side that he shot he killed two of them, and wounded threemore; and on my side Ikilled oneand wounded two. They were, you may be sure, in a dreadful consternation; and all of them who were not hurt jumped up upon their feet, but did not immediately know which way to run, or which way to look, for they knew notfromwhencetheirdestructioncame.Fridaykepthiseyescloseuponme,that,asIhadbid him, he might observe what I did; so as soon as the first shot was made I threw down the piece, and took up the fowling-piece, and Friday did the like. He sees me cock and present;hedidthesameagain.“Areyouready, Friday?” saidI. “Yes,”sayshe. “Letfly,then,”says I,
“in the name of God!” and with that I fired again among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as our pieces were now loaded with what I called swan-shot, or small pistol-bullets,werefoundonly twodrop,butsomanywerewoundedthattheyranaboutyellingand screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and miserably wounded most of them; whereof three more fell quickly after, though not quite dead.
“Now, Friday,” says I, laying down the discharged pieces, and taking up the musket which was yet loaded, “follow me,”says I, which hedid with agreat deal ofcourage; upon which I rushed out of the wood, and showed myself, and Friday close at my foot. As soon as I perceived they saw me, I shouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday to do so too; and running as fast as I could, which, by the way, was not very fast, being loaden with arms as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as I said, lying upon the beach, or shore, between the place where they sat and the sea. The two butchers, who were just going to work with him, had left him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terrible fright to the seaside, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest made the same way. I turnedtoFriday,andbidhimstepforwardsandfireatthem.Heunderstoodmeimmediately, and running about forty yards, to be near them, he shot at them, and I thought he had killed them all, for I saw them all fall of a heap into the boat; though I saw two of them up again quickly.
However, he killed two of them and wounded the third, so that he lay down in the bottom of the boat as if he had been dead.
While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife and cut the flags that bound the poor victim; and loosing his hands and feet, I lifted him up, and asked him in the Portuguese tongue what he was. He answered in Latin, Christianus; but was so weak and faint that he could scarce stand or speak. I took my bottle out of my pocket and gave it him, making signs that he should drink, which he did; and I gave him a piece of bread, which he eat. Then I asked him what countryman he was; and he said, Espagniole; and being a little recovered, let me know, by all the signs he could possibly make, how much he was in my debt for his deliverance. “Seignior,” said I, with as much Spanish as I could make up, “we will talk afterwards, but we must fight now. If you have any strength left, take this pistol and sword, andlayaboutyou.”Hetookthemverythankfully,andnosoonerhadhethearmsinhishands but, as ifthey had put newvigorinto him, heflew upon his murderers like afury, and had cut twooftheminpiecesin aninstant;forthetruthis,asthewholewasasurprisetothem,sothe poor creatures were so much frighted with the noise of our pieces that they fell down formere amazement and fear, and had no power to attempt their own escape than their flesh had to resist our shot; and that was the case of those five that Friday shot at in the boat; for as three of them fell with the hurt they received, so the other two fell with the fright.
I kept my piece in my hand still without firing, being willing to keep my charge ready, because I had given the Spaniard my pistol and sword. So I called to Friday, and bade himrunuptothetreefromwhencewefirstfired,and fetchthearmswhichlay therethathadbeen
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discharged,whichhedidwithgreatswiftness;andthengivinghimmymusket,Isatdown myself to load all the rest again, and bade them come to me when they wanted.
WhileIwasloadingthesepieces,therehappenedafierceengagementbetweentheSpaniard and one of the savages, who made at him with one of their great wooden swords, the same weapon that was to have killed him before if I had not prevented it.
TheSpaniard,whowasasboldandbraveascouldbeimagined,thoughweak,hadfoughtthis Indian a good while, and had cut him two great wounds on his head; but the savage being a stout, lusty fellow, closing in with him, had thrown him down, being faint, and was wringing my sword out of his hand, when the Spaniard, though undermost, wisely quitting the sword, drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through the body, and killed him upon the spot, before I, who was running to help him, could come near him.
Friday being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying wretches with no weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he despatched those three who, as I said before, were wounded at first, and fallen, and all the rest he could come up with; and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two of the savages, and wounded them both; but as he was not able to run, they both got from him into the wood, whereFridaypursuedthem,andkilledoneofthem;buttheotherwastoonimbleforhim,and though he was wounded, yet had plunged himself into the sea, and swam with all his might offtothosetwowhowereleftinthecanoe;which threeinthecanoe,with onewounded,who we know not whether he died or no, were all that escaped our hands of one and twenty. The account of the rest is as follows:
3killedatourfirstshotfromthetree. 2
killed at the next shot.
2killedbyFridayintheboat.
2killedbyditto,ofthoseatfirstwounded. 1
killed by ditto in the wood.
3killed by theSpaniard.
4killed,beingfound droppedhere andthereof
theirwounds,orkilledbyFridayinhischaseofthem.
4escaped in theboat, whereofonewounded, ifnot dead.
————
21 in all.
Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gunshot; and though Friday made two or three shots at them, I did not find that he hit any of them. Friday would fain have had me takeoneoftheircanoes, andpursuethem;and,indeed, Iwasvery anxiousabouttheirescape, lest carrying the news home to their people they should come back perhaps with two or three hundred of their canoes, and devour us by mere multitude. So I consented to pursue them by sea,andrunningtooneoftheircanoes Ijumpedin,andbadeFridaytofollowme.Butwhen I wasinthecanoe, Iwassurprisedtofindanotherpoorcreaturelietherealive,boundhandand foot, as the Spaniard was, for the slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing what the matter was; for he had not been able to look up over the side of the boat, he was tied so hard, neck and heels, and had been tied so long, that he had really but little life in him.
I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes, which they had bound him with, and would havehelpedhimup;but hecouldnotstandorspeak,butgroanedmostpiteously,believing,it seems, still that he was only unbound in order to be killed.
When Friday came to him, I bade him speak to him, and tell him of his deliverance; and pullingoutmybottle,madehimgivethepoorwretchadram;which,withthenewsofhis
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being delivered, revived him, and he sat up in the boat. But when Friday came to hear him speak, and look in his face, it would have moved any one to tears to have seen how Friday kissed him, embraced him, hugged him, cried, laughed, hallooed, jumped about, danced, sung; then cried again, wrung his hands, beat his own face and head, and then sung and jumped about again, like a distracted creature. It was a good while before I could make him speaktome,ortellmewhatwasthematter;butwhenhecamealittletohimself,hetoldme that it was his father.