I MENTIONED before that I had a
great mind to see the whole island,
and that I had travelled up the
brook, and so on to where I built
my bower, and where I had an opening
quite to the sea, on the other
side of the island. I now resolved
to travel quite across to the
sea-shore on that side; so, taking
my gun, a hatchet, and my dog,
and a larger quantity of powder and
shot than usual, with two
biscuit-cakes and a great bunch of
raisins in my pouch for my
store, I began my journey. When I
had passed the vale where my
bower stood, as above, I came within
view of the sea to the west,
and it being a very clear day, I
fairly descried land - whether an
island or a continent I could not
tell; but it lay very high,
extending from the W. to the W.S.W.
at a very great distance; by my
guess it could not be less than
fifteen or twenty leagues off. I could not tell what part of the
world this might be, otherwise
than that I knew it must be part of
America, and, as I concluded by
all my observations, must be near
the Spanish dominions, and
perhaps was all inhabited by
savages, where, if I had landed, I
had
been in a worse condition than I was
now; and therefore I
acquiesced in the dispositions of
Providence, which I began now to
own and to believe ordered
everything for the best; I say I
quieted
my mind with this, and left off
afflicting myself with fruitless
wishes of being there. Besides, after some thought upon
this affair, I considered that if
this land was the Spanish coast, I
should certainly, one time or
other, see some vessel pass or
repass one way or other; but if not,
then it was the savage coast between
the Spanish country and
Brazils, where are found the worst
of savages; for they are
cannibals or men-eaters, and fail
not to murder and devour all the
human bodies that fall into their
hands. With these considerations, I walked
very leisurely forward. I
found that side of the island where
I now was much pleasanter than
mine - the open or savannah fields
sweet, adorned with flowers and
grass, and full of very fine woods.
I saw abundance of parrots,
and fain I would have caught one, if
possible, to have kept it to
be tame, and taught it to speak to
me. I did, after some
painstaking, catch a young parrot,
for I knocked it down with a
stick, and having recovered it, I
brought it home; but it was some
years before I could make him speak;
however, at last I taught him
to call me by name very familiarly.
But the accident that
followed, though it be a trifle,
will be very diverting in its
place. I was exceedingly diverted with this
journey. I found in the low
grounds hares (as I thought them to
be) and foxes; but they
differed greatly from all the other
kinds I had met with, nor could
I satisfy myself to eat them, though
I killed several. But I had
no need to be venturous, for I had
no want of food, and of that
which was very good too, especially
these three sorts, viz. goats,
pigeons, and turtle, or tortoise,
which added to my grapes,
Leadenhall market could not have
furnished a table better than I,
in proportion to the company; and
though my case was deplorable
enough, yet I had great cause for
thankfulness that I was not
driven to any extremities for food,
but had rather plenty, even to
dainties. I never travelled in this journey
above two miles outright in a
day, or thereabouts; but I took so
many turns and re-turns to see
what discoveries I could make, that
I came weary enough to the
place where I resolved to sit down
all night; and then I either
reposed myself in a tree, or
surrounded myself with a row of
stakes
set upright in the ground, either
from one tree to another, or so
as no wild creature could come at me
without waking me. As soon as I came to the sea-shore,
I was surprised to see that I
had taken up my lot on the worst
side of the island, for here,
indeed, the shore was covered with
innumerable turtles, whereas on
the other side I had found but three
in a year and a half. Here
was also an infinite number of fowls
of many kinds, some which I
had seen, and some which I had not
seen before, and many of them
very good meat, but such as I knew
not the names of, except those
called penguins. I could have shot as many as I
pleased, but was very sparing of my
powder and shot, and therefore had
more mind to kill a she-goat if
I could, which I could better feed
on; and though there were many
goats here, more than on my side the
island, yet it was with much
more difficulty that I could come
near them, the country being flat
and even, and they saw me much
sooner than when I was on the hills. I confess this side of the country
was much pleasanter than mine;
but yet I had not the least
inclination to remove, for as I was
fixed in my habitation it became
natural to me, and I seemed all
the while I was here to be as it
were upon a journey, and from
home. However, I travelled along the
shore of the sea towards the
east, I suppose about twelve miles,
and then setting up a great
pole upon the shore for a mark, I
concluded I would go home again,
and that the next journey I took
should be on the other side of the
island east from my dwelling, and so
round till I came to my post
again. I took another way to come back than
that I went, thinking I could
easily keep all the island so much
in my view that I could not miss
finding my first dwelling by viewing
the country; but I found
myself mistaken, for being come
about two or three miles, I found
myself descended into a very large
valley, but so surrounded with
hills, and those hills covered with
wood, that I could not see
which was my way by any direction
but that of the sun, nor even
then, unless I knew very well the
position of the sun at that time
of the day. It happened, to my
further misfortune, that the
weather proved hazy for three or
four days while I was in the
valley, and not being able to see
the sun, I wandered about very
uncomfortably, and at last was
obliged to find the seaside, look
for my post, and come back the same
way I went: and then, by easy
journeys, I turned homeward, the
weather being exceeding hot, and
my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and
other things very heavy. In this journey my dog surprised a
young kid, and seized upon it;
and I, running in to take hold of
it, caught it, and saved it alive
from the dog. I had a great mind to
bring it home if I could, for
I had often been musing whether it
might not be possible to get a
kid or two, and so raise a breed of
tame goats, which might supply
me when my powder and shot should be
all spent. I made a collar
for this little creature, and with a
string, which I made of some
rope-yam, which I always carried
about me, I led him along, though
with some difficulty, till I came to
my bower, and there I enclosed
him and left him, for I was very
impatient to be at home, from
whence I had been absent above a
month. I cannot express what a satisfaction
it was to me to come into my
old hutch, and lie down in my
hammock-bed. This little wandering
journey, without settled place of
abode, had been so unpleasant to
me, that my own house, as I called
it to myself, was a perfect
settlement to me compared to that;
and it rendered everything about
me so comfortable, that I resolved I
would never go a great way
from it again while it should be my
lot to stay on the island. I reposed myself here a week, to
rest and regale myself after my
long journey; during which most of
the time was taken up in the
weighty affair of making a cage for
my Poll, who began now to be a
mere domestic, and to be well
acquainted with me. Then I began to
think of the poor kid which I had
penned in within my little
circle, and resolved to go and fetch
it home, or give it some food;
accordingly I went, and found it
where I left it, for indeed it
could not get out, but was almost
starved for want of food. I went
and cut boughs of trees, and
branches of such shrubs as I could
find, and threw it over, and having
fed it, I tied it as I did
before, to lead it away; but it was
so tame with being hungry, that
I had no need to have tied it, for
it followed me like a dog: and
as I continually fed it, the
creature became so loving, so
gentle,
and so fond, that it became from
that time one of my domestics
also, and would never leave me
afterwards. The rainy season of the autumnal
equinox was now come, and I kept
the 30th of September in the same
solemn manner as before, being
the anniversary of my landing on the
island, having now been there
two years, and no more prospect of
being delivered than the first
day I came there, I spent the whole
day in humble and thankful
acknowledgments of the many
wonderful mercies which my solitary
condition was attended with, and
without which it might have been
infinitely more miserable. I gave
humble and hearty thanks that
God had been pleased to discover to
me that it was possible I might
be more happy in this solitary
condition than I should have been in
the liberty of society, and in all
the pleasures of the world; that
He could fully make up to me the
deficiencies of my solitary state,
and the want of human society, by
His presence and the
communications of His grace to my
soul; supporting, comforting, and
encouraging me to depend upon His
providence here, and hope for His
eternal presence hereafter. It was now that I began sensibly to
feel how much more happy this
life I now led was, with all its
miserable circumstances, than the
wicked, cursed, abominable life I
led all the past part of my days;
and now I changed both my sorrows
and my joys; my very desires
altered, my affections changed their
gusts, and my delights were
perfectly new from what they were at
my first coming, or, indeed,
for the two years past. Before, as I walked about, either on
my hunting or for viewing the
country, the anguish of my soul at
my condition would break out
upon me on a sudden, and my very
heart would die within me, to
think of the woods, the mountains,
the deserts I was in, and how I
was a prisoner, locked up with the
eternal bars and bolts of the
ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness,
without redemption. In the
midst of the greatest composure of
my mind, this would break out
upon me like a storm, and make me
wring my hands and weep like a
child. Sometimes it would take me in
the middle of my work, and I
would immediately sit down and sigh,
and look upon the ground for
an hour or two together; and this
was still worse to me, for if I
could burst out into tears, or vent
myself by words, it would go
off, and the grief, having exhausted
itself, would abate. But now I began to exercise myself
with new thoughts: I daily read
the word of God, and applied all the
comforts of it to my present
state. One morning, being very sad,
I opened the Bible upon these
words, "I will never, never leave
thee, nor forsake thee."
Immediately it occurred that these
words were to me; why else
should they be directed in such a
manner, just at the moment when I
was mourning over my condition, as
one forsaken of God and man?
"Well, then," said I, "if God does
not forsake me, of what ill
consequence can it be, or what
matters it, though the world should
all forsake me, seeing on the other
hand, if I had all the world,
and should lose the favour and
blessing of God, there would be no
comparison in the loss?" From this moment I began to conclude
in my mind that it was
possible for me to be more happy in
this forsaken, solitary
condition than it was probable I
should ever have been in any other
particular state in the world; and
with this thought I was going to
give thanks to God for bringing me
to this place. I know not what
it was, but something shocked my
mind at that thought, and I durst
not speak the words. "How canst thou
become such a hypocrite,"
said I, even audibly, "to pretend to
be thankful for a condition
which, however thou mayest endeavour
to be contented with, thou
wouldst rather pray heartily to be
delivered from?" So I stopped
there; but though I could not say I
thanked God for being there,
yet I sincerely gave thanks to God
for opening my eyes, by whatever
afflicting providences, to see the
former condition of my life, and
to mourn for my wickedness, and
repent. I never opened the Bible,
or shut it, but my very soul within
me blessed God for directing my
friend in England, without any order
of mine, to pack it up among
my goods, and for assisting me
afterwards to save it out of the
wreck of the ship. Thus, and in this disposition of
mind, I began my third year; and
though I have not given the reader
the trouble of so particular an
account of my works this year as the
first, yet in general it may
be observed that I was very seldom
idle, but having regularly
divided my time according to the
several daily employments that
were before me, such as: first, my
duty to God, and the reading the
Scriptures, which I constantly set
apart some time for thrice every
day; secondly, the going abroad with
my gun for food, which
generally took me up three hours in
every morning, when it did not
rain; thirdly, the ordering,
cutting, preserving, and cooking
what
I had killed or caught for my
supply; these took up great part of
the day. Also, it is to be
considered, that in the middle of
the
day, when the sun was in the zenith,
the violence of the heat was
too great to stir out; so that about
four hours in the evening was
all the time I could be supposed to
work in, with this exception,
that sometimes I changed my hours of
hunting and working, and went
to work in the morning, and abroad
with my gun in the afternoon. To this short time allowed for
labour I desire may be added the
exceeding laboriousness of my work;
the many hours which, for want
of tools, want of help, and want of
skill, everything I did took up
out of my time. For example, I was
full two and forty days in
making a board for a long shelf,
which I wanted in my cave;
whereas, two sawyers, with their
tools and a saw-pit, would have
cut six of them out of the same tree
in half a day. My case was this: it was to be a
large tree which was to be cut
down, because my board was to be a
broad one. This tree I was
three days in cutting down, and two
more cutting off the boughs,
and reducing it to a log or piece of
timber. With inexpressible
hacking and hewing I reduced both
the sides of it into chips till
it began to be light enough to move;
then I turned it, and made one
side of it smooth and flat as a
board from end to end; then,
turning that side downward, cut the
other side til I brought the
plank to be about three inches
thick, and smooth on both sides.
Any one may judge the labour of my
hands in such a piece of work;
but labour and patience carried me
through that, and many other
things. I only observe this in
particular, to show the reason why
so much of my time went away with so
little work - viz. that what
might be a little to be done with
help and tools, was a vast labour
and required a prodigious time to do
alone, and by hand. But
notwithstanding this, with patience
and labour I got through
everything that my circumstances
made necessary to me to do, as
will appear by what follows. I was now, in the months of November
and December, expecting my
crop of barley and rice. The ground
I had manured and dug up for
them was not great; for, as I
observed, my seed of each was not
above the quantity of half a peck,
for I had lost one whole crop by
sowing in the dry season. But now my
crop promised very well, when
on a sudden I found I was in danger
of losing it all again by
enemies of several sorts, which it
was scarcely possible to keep
from it; as, first, the goats, and
wild creatures which I called
hares, who, tasting the sweetness of
the blade, lay in it night and
day, as soon as it came up, and eat
it so close, that it could get
no time to shoot up into stalk. This I saw no remedy for but by
making an enclosure about it with a
hedge; which I did with a great deal
of toil, and the more, because
it required speed. However, as my
arable land was but small,
suited to my crop, I got it totally
well fenced in about three
weeks' time; and shooting some of
the creatures in the daytime, I
set my dog to guard it in the night,
tying him up to a stake at the
gate, where he would stand and bark
all night long; so in a little
time the enemies forsook the place,
and the corn grew very strong
and well, and began to ripen apace. But as the beasts ruined me before,
while my corn was in the blade,
so the birds were as likely to ruin
me now, when it was in the ear;
for, going along by the place to see
how it throve, I saw my little
crop surrounded with fowls, of I
know not how many sorts, who
stood, as it were, watching till I
should be gone. I immediately
let fly among them, for I always had
my gun with me. I had no
sooner shot, but there rose up a
little cloud of fowls, which I had
not seen at all, from among the corn
itself. This touched me sensibly, for I
foresaw that in a few days they
would devour all my hopes; that I
should be starved, and never be
able to raise a crop at all; and
what to do I could not tell;
however, I resolved not to lose my
corn, if possible, though I
should watch it night and day. In
the first place, I went among it
to see what damage was already done,
and found they had spoiled a
good deal of it; but that as it was
yet too green for them, the
loss was not so great but that the
remainder was likely to be a
good crop if it could be saved. I stayed by it to load my gun, and
then coming away, I could easily
see the thieves sitting upon all the
trees about me, as if they
only waited till I was gone away,
and the event proved it to be so;
for as I walked off, as if I was
gone, I was no sooner out of their
sight than they dropped down one by
one into the corn again. I was
so provoked, that I could not have
patience to stay till more came
on, knowing that every grain that
they ate now was, as it might be
said, a peck-loaf to me in the
consequence; but coming up to the
hedge, I fired again, and killed
three of them. This was what I
wished for; so I took them up, and
served them as we serve
notorious thieves in England -
hanged them in chains, for a terror
to of them. It is impossible to
imagine that this should have such
an effect as it had, for the fowls
would not only not come at the
corn, but, in short, they forsook
all that part of the island, and
I could never see a bird near the
place as long as my scarecrows
hung there. This I was very glad of,
you may be sure, and about
the latter end of December, which
was our second harvest of the
year, I reaped my corn. I was sadly put to it for a scythe
or sickle to cut it down, and
all I could do was to make one, as
well as I could, out of one of
the broadswords, or cutlasses, which
I saved among the arms out of
the ship. However, as my first crop
was but small, I had no great
difficulty to cut it down; in short,
I reaped it in my way, for I
cut nothing off but the ears, and
carried it away in a great basket
which I had made, and so rubbed it
out with my hands; and at the
end of all my harvesting, I found
that out of my half-peck of seed
I had near two bushels of rice, and
about two bushels and a half of
barley; that is to say, by my guess,
for I had no measure at that
time. However, this was a great
encouragement to me, and I foresaw
that,
in time, it would please God to
supply me with bread. And yet here
I was perplexed again, for I neither
knew how to grind or make meal
of my corn, or indeed how to clean
it and part it; nor, if made
into meal, how to make bread of it;
and if how to make it, yet I
knew not how to bake it. These
things being added to my desire of
having a good quantity for store,
and to secure a constant supply,
I resolved not to taste any of this
crop but to preserve it all for
seed against the next season; and in
the meantime to employ all my
study and hours of working to
accomplish this great work of
providing myself with corn and
bread. It might be truly said, that now I
worked for my bread. I believe
few people have thought much upon
the strange multitude of little
things necessary in the providing,
producing, curing, dressing,
making, and finishing this one
article of bread. I, that was reduced to a mere state
of nature, found this to my
daily discouragement; and was made
more sensible of it every hour,
even after I had got the first
handful of seed-corn, which, as I
have said, came up unexpectedly, and
indeed to a surprise. First, I had no plough to turn up
the earth - no spade or shovel to
dig it. Well, this I conquered by
making me a wooden spade, as I
observed before; but this did my
work but in a wooden manner; and
though it cost me a great many days
to make it, yet, for want of
iron, it not only wore out soon, but
made my work the harder, and
made it be performed much worse.
However, this I bore with, and
was content to work it out with
patience, and bear with the badness
of the performance. When the corn
was sown, I had no harrow, but
was forced to go over it myself, and
drag a great heavy bough of a
tree over it, to scratch it, as it
may be called, rather than rake
or harrow it. When it was growing,
and grown, I have observed
already how many things I wanted to
fence it, secure it, mow or
reap it, cure and carry it home,
thrash, part it from the chaff,
and save it. Then I wanted a mill to
grind it sieves to dress it,
yeast and salt to make it into
bread, and an oven to bake it; but
all these things I did without, as
shall be observed; and yet the
corn was an inestimable comfort and
advantage to me too. All this,
as I said, made everything laborious
and tedious to me; but that
there was no help for. Neither was
my time so much loss to me,
because, as I had divided it, a
certain part of it was every day
appointed to these works; and as I
had resolved to use none of the
corn for bread till I had a greater
quantity by me, I had the next
six months to apply myself wholly,
by labour and invention, to
furnish myself with utensils proper
for the performing all the
operations necessary for making the
corn, when I had it, fit for my
use. |
