I CANNOT say that after this,
for five years, any extraordinary
thing happened to me, but I lived on
in the same course, in the
same posture and place, as before;
the chief things I was employed
in, besides my yearly labour of
planting my barley and rice, and
curing my raisins, of both which I
always kept up just enough to
have sufficient stock of one year's
provisions beforehand; I say,
besides this yearly labour, and my
daily pursuit of going out with
my gun, I had one labour, to make a
canoe, which at last I
finished: so that, by digging a
canal to it of six feet wide and
four feet deep, I brought it into
the creek, almost half a mile.
As for the first, which was so
vastly big, for I made it without
considering beforehand, as I ought
to have done, how I should be
able to launch it, so, never being
able to bring it into the water,
or bring the water to it, I was
obliged to let it lie where it was
as a memorandum to teach me to be
wiser the next time: indeed, the
next time, though I could not get a
tree proper for it, and was in
a place where I could not get the
water to it at any less distance
than, as I have said, near half a
mile, yet, as I saw it was
practicable at last, I never gave it
over; and though I was near
two years about it, yet I never
grudged my labour, in hopes of
having a boat to go off to sea at
last. However, though my little periagua
was finished, yet the size of it
was not at all answerable to the
design which I had in view when I
made the first; I mean of venturing
over to the TERRA FIRMA, where
it was above forty miles broad;
accordingly, the smallness of my
boat assisted to put an end to that
design, and now I thought no
more of it. As I had a boat, my next
design was to make a cruise
round the island; for as I had been
on the other side in one place,
crossing, as I have already
described it, over the land, so the
discoveries I made in that little
journey made me very eager to see
other parts of the coast; and now I
had a boat, I thought of
nothing but sailing round the
island. For this purpose, that I might do
everything with discretion and
consideration, I fitted up a little
mast in my boat, and made a
sail too out of some of the pieces
of the ship's sails which lay in
store, and of which I had a great
stock by me. Having fitted my
mast and sail, and tried the boat, I
found she would sail very
well; then I made little lockers or
boxes at each end of my boat,
to put provisions, necessaries,
ammunition, &c., into, to be kept
dry, either from rain or the spray
of the sea; and a little, long,
hollow place I cut in the inside of
the boat, where I could lay my
gun, making a flap to hang down over
it to keep it dry. I fixed my umbrella also in the step
at the stern, like a mast, to
stand over my head, and keep the
heat of the sun off me, like an
awning; and thus I every now and
then took a little voyage upon the
sea, but never went far out, nor far
from the little creek. At
last, being eager to view the
circumference of my little kingdom,
I
resolved upon my cruise; and
accordingly I victualled my ship for
the voyage, putting in two dozen of
loaves (cakes I should call
them) of barley-bread, an earthen
pot full of parched rice (a food
I ate a good deal of), a little
bottle of rum, half a goat, and
powder and shot for killing more,
and two large watch-coats, of
those which, as I mentioned before,
I had saved out of the seamen's
chests; these I took, one to lie
upon, and the other to cover me in
the night. It was the 6th of November, in the
sixth year of my reign - or my
captivity, which you please - that I
set out on this voyage, and I
found it much longer than I
expected; for though the island
itself
was not very large, yet when I came
to the east side of it, I found
a great ledge of rocks lie out about
two leagues into the sea, some
above water, some under it; and
beyond that a shoal of sand, lying
dry half a league more, so that I
was obliged to go a great way out
to sea to double the point. When I first discovered them, I was
going to give over my
enterprise, and come back again, not
knowing how far it might
oblige me to go out to sea; and
above all, doubting how I should
get back again: so I came to an
anchor; for I had made a kind of an
anchor with a piece of a broken
grappling which I got out of the
ship. Having secured my boat, I took my
gun and went on shore, climbing
up a hill, which seemed to overlook
that point where I saw the full
extent of it, and resolved to
venture. In my viewing the sea from that hill
where I stood, I perceived a
strong, and indeed a most furious
current, which ran to the east,
and even came close to the point;
and I took the more notice of it
because I saw there might be some
danger that when I came into it I
might be carried out to sea by the
strength of it, and not be able
to make the island again; and
indeed, had I not got first upon
this
hill, I believe it would have been
so; for there was the same
current on the other side the
island, only that it set off at a
further distance, and I saw there
was a strong eddy under the
shore; so I had nothing to do but to
get out of the first current,
and I should presently be in an
eddy. I lay here, however, two days,
because the wind blowing pretty
fresh at ESE., and that being just
contrary to the current, made a
great breach of the sea upon the
point: so that it was not safe for
me to keep too close to the shore
for the breach, nor to go too far
off, because of the stream. The third day, in the morning, the
wind having abated overnight,
the sea was calm, and I ventured:
but I am a warning to all rash
and ignorant pilots; for no sooner
was I come to the point, when I
was not even my boat's length from
the shore, but I found myself in
a great depth of water, and a
current like the sluice of a mill;
it
carried my boat along with it with
such violence that all I could
do could not keep her so much as on
the edge of it; but I found it
hurried me farther and farther out
from the eddy, which was on my
left hand. There was no wind
stirring to help me, and all I could
do with my paddles signified
nothing: and now I began to give
myself over for lost; for as the
current was on both sides of the
island, I knew in a few leagues
distance they must join again, and
then I was irrecoverably gone; nor
did I see any possibility of
avoiding it; so that I had no
prospect before me but of perishing,
not by the sea, for that was calm
enough, but of starving from
hunger. I had, indeed, found a
tortoise on the shore, as big
almost as I could lift, and had
tossed it into the boat; and I had
a great jar of fresh water, that is
to say, one of my earthen pots;
but what was all this to being
driven into the vast ocean, where,
to be sure, there was no shore, no
mainland or island, for a
thousand leagues at least? And now I saw how easy it was for
the providence of God to make
even the most miserable condition of
mankind worse. Now I looked
back upon my desolate, solitary
island as the most pleasant place
in the world and all the happiness
my heart could wish for was to
be but there again. I stretched out
my hands to it, with eager
wishes - "O happy desert!" said I,
"I shall never see thee more. O
miserable creature! whither am
going?" Then I reproached myself
with my unthankful temper, and that
I had repined at my solitary
condition; and now what would I give
to be on shore there again!
Thus, we never see the true state of
our condition till it is
illustrated to us by its contraries,
nor know how to value what we
enjoy, but by the want of it. It is
scarcely possible to imagine
the consternation I was now in,
being driven from my beloved island
(for so it appeared to me now to be)
into the wide ocean, almost
two leagues, and in the utmost
despair of ever recovering it again.
However, I worked hard till, indeed,
my strength was almost
exhausted, and kept my boat as much
to the northward, that is,
towards the side of the current
which the eddy lay on, as possibly
I could; when about noon, as the sun
passed the meridian, I thought
I felt a little breeze of wind in my
face, springing up from SSE.
This cheered my heart a little, and
especially when, in about half-
an-hour more, it blew a pretty
gentle gale. By this time I had got
at a frightful distance from the
island, and had the least cloudy
or hazy weather intervened, I had
been undone another way, too; for
I had no compass on board, and
should never have known how to have
steered towards the island, if I had
but once lost sight of it; but
the weather continuing clear, I
applied myself to get up my mast
again, and spread my sail, standing
away to the north as much as
possible, to get out of the current. Just as I had set my mast and sail,
and the boat began to stretch
away, I saw even by the clearness of
the water some alteration of
the current was near; for where the
current was so strong the water
was foul; but perceiving the water
clear, I found the current
abate; and presently I found to the
east, at about half a mile, a
breach of the sea upon some rocks:
these rocks I found caused the
current to part again, and as the
main stress of it ran away more
southerly, leaving the rocks to the
north-east, so the other
returned by the repulse of the
rocks, and made a strong eddy, which
ran back again to the north-west,
with a very sharp stream. They who know what it is to have a
reprieve brought to them upon
the ladder, or to be rescued from
thieves just going to murder
them, or who have been in such
extremities, may guess what my
present surprise of joy was, and how
gladly I put my boat into the
stream of this eddy; and the wind
also freshening, how gladly I
spread my sail to it, running
cheerfully before the wind, and with
a strong tide or eddy underfoot. This eddy carried me about a league
on my way back again, directly
towards the island, but about two
leagues more to the northward
than the current which carried me
away at first; so that when I
came near the island, I found myself
open to the northern shore of
it, that is to say, the other end of
the island, opposite to that
which I went out from. When I had made something more than
a league of way by the help of
this current or eddy, I found it was
spent, and served me no
further. However, I found that being
between two great currents -
viz. that on the south side, which
had hurried me away, and that on
the north, which lay about a league
on the other side; I say,
between these two, in the wake of
the island, I found the water at
least still, and running no way; and
having still a breeze of wind
fair for me, I kept on steering
directly for the island, though not
making such fresh way as I did
before. About four o'clock in the evening,
being then within a league of
the island, I found the point of the
rocks which occasioned this
disaster stretching out, as is
described before, to the southward,
and casting off the current more
southerly, had, of course, made
another eddy to the north; and this
I found very strong, but not
directly setting the way my course
lay, which was due west, but
almost full north. However, having a
fresh gale, I stretched
across this eddy, slanting
north-west; and in about an hour
came
within about a mile of the shore,
where, it being smooth water, I
soon got to land. When I was on shore, God I fell on
my knees and gave God thanks
for my deliverance, resolving to lay
aside all thoughts of my
deliverance by my boat; and
refreshing myself with such things
as
I had, I brought my boat close to
the shore, in a little cove that
I had spied under some trees, and
laid me down to sleep, being
quite spent with the labour and
fatigue of the voyage. I was now at a great loss which way
to get home with my boat! I
had run so much hazard, and knew too
much of the case, to think of
attempting it by the way I went out;
and what might be at the other
side (I mean the west side) I knew
not, nor had I any mind to run
any more ventures; so I resolved on
the next morning to make my way
westward along the shore, and to see
if there was no creek where I
might lay up my frigate in safety,
so as to have her again if I
wanted her. In about three miles or
thereabouts, coasting the
shore, I came to a very good inlet
or bay, about a mile over, which
narrowed till it came to a very
little rivulet or brook, where I
found a very convenient harbour for
my boat, and where she lay as
if she had been in a little dock
made on purpose for her. Here I
put in, and having stowed my boat
very safe, I went on shore to
look about me, and see where I was. I soon found I had but a little
passed by the place where I had
been before, when I travelled on
foot to that shore; so taking
nothing out of my boat but my gun
and umbrella, for it was
exceedingly hot, I began my march.
The way was comfortable enough
after such a voyage as I had been
upon, and I reached my old bower
in the evening, where I found
everything standing as I left it;
for
I always kept it in good order,
being, as I said before, my country
house. I got over the fence, and laid me
down in the shade to rest my
limbs, for I was very weary, and
fell asleep; but judge you, if you
can, that read my story, what a
surprise I must be in when I was
awaked out of my sleep by a voice
calling me by my name several
times, "Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe:
poor Robin Crusoe! Where are
you, Robin Crusoe? Where are you?
Where have you been?" I was so dead asleep at first, being
fatigued with rowing, or part
of the day, and with walking the
latter part, that I did not wake
thoroughly; but dozing thought I
dreamed that somebody spoke to me;
but as the voice continued to
repeat, "Robin Crusoe, Robin
Crusoe,"
at last I began to wake more
perfectly, and was at first
dreadfully
frightened, and started up in the
utmost consternation; but no
sooner were my eyes open, but I saw
my Poll sitting on the top of
the hedge; and immediately knew that
it was he that spoke to me;
for just in such bemoaning language
I had used to talk to him and
teach him; and he had learned it so
perfectly that he would sit
upon my finger, and lay his bill
close to my face and cry, "Poor
Robin Crusoe! Where are you? Where
have you been? How came you
here?" and such things as I had
taught him. However, even though I knew it was
the parrot, and that indeed it
could be nobody else, it was a good
while before I could compose
myself. First, I was amazed how the
creature got thither; and
then, how he should just keep about
the place, and nowhere else;
but as I was well satisfied it could
be nobody but honest Poll, I
got over it; and holding out my
hand, and calling him by his name,
"Poll," the sociable creature came
to me, and sat upon my thumb, as
he used to do, and continued talking
to me, "Poor Robin Crusoe! and
how did I come here? and where had I
been?" just as if he had been
overjoyed to see me again; and so I
carried him home along with me. I had now had enough of rambling to
sea for some time, and had
enough to do for many days to sit
still and reflect upon the danger
I had been in. I would have been
very glad to have had my boat
again on my side of the island; but
I knew not how it was
practicable to get it about. As to
the east side of the island,
which I had gone round, I knew well
enough there was no venturing
that way; my very heart would
shrink, and my very blood run chill,
but to think of it; and as to the
other side of the island, I did
not know how it might be there; but
supposing the current ran with
the same force against the shore at
the east as it passed by it on
the other, I might run the same risk
of being driven down the
stream, and carried by the island,
as I had been before of being
carried away from it: so with these
thoughts, I contented myself to
be without any boat, though it had
been the product of so many
months' labour to make it, and of so
many more to get it into the
sea. In this government of my temper I
remained near a year; and lived a
very sedate, retired life, as you
may well suppose; and my thoughts
being very much composed as to my
condition, and fully comforted in
resigning myself to the dispositions
of Providence, I thought I
lived really very happily in all
things except that of society. I improved myself in this time in
all the mechanic exercises which
my necessities put me upon applying
myself to; and I believe I
should, upon occasion, have made a
very good carpenter, especially
considering how few tools I had. Besides this, I arrived at an
unexpected perfection in my
earthenware, and contrived well
enough to make them with a wheel,
which I found infinitely easier and
better; because I made things
round and shaped, which before were
filthy things indeed to look
on. But I think I was never more
vain of my own performance, or
more joyful for anything I found
out, than for my being able to
make a tobacco-pipe; and though it
was a very ugly, clumsy thing
when it was done, and only burned
red, like other earthenware, yet
as it was hard and firm, and would
draw the smoke, I was
exceedingly comforted with it, for I
had been always used to smoke;
and there were pipes in the ship,
but I forgot them at first, not
thinking there was tobacco in the
island; and afterwards, when I
searched the ship again, I could not
come at any pipes. In my wicker-ware also I improved
much, and made abundance of
necessary baskets, as well as my
invention showed me; though not
very handsome, yet they were such as
were very handy and convenient
for laying things up in, or fetching
things home. For example, if
I killed a goat abroad, I could hang
it up in a tree, flay it,
dress it, and cut it in pieces, and
bring it home in a basket; and
the like by a turtle; I could cut it
up, take out the eggs and a
piece or two of the flesh, which was
enough for me, and bring them
home in a basket, and leave the rest
behind me. Also, large deep
baskets were the receivers of my
corn, which I always rubbed out as
soon as it was dry and cured, and
kept it in great baskets. I began now to perceive my powder
abated considerably; this was a
want which it was impossible for me
to supply, and I began
seriously to consider what I must do
when I should have no more
powder; that is to say, how I should
kill any goats. I had, as is
observed in the third year of my
being here, kept a young kid, and
bred her up tame, and I was in hopes
of getting a he-goat; but I
could not by any means bring it to
pass, till my kid grew an old
goat; and as I could never find in
my heart to kill her, she died
at last of mere age. But being now in the eleventh year
of my residence, and, as I have
said, my ammunition growing low, I
set myself to study some art to
trap and snare the goats, to see
whether I could not catch some of
them alive; and particularly I
wanted a she-goat great with young.
For this purpose I made snares to
hamper them; and I do believe
they were more than once taken in
them; but my tackle was not good,
for I had no wire, and I always
found them broken and my bait
devoured. At length I resolved to
try a pitfall; so I dug several
large pits in the earth, in places
where I had observed the goats
used to feed, and over those pits I
placed hurdles of my own making
too, with a great weight upon them;
and several times I put ears of
barley and dry rice without setting
the trap; and I could easily
perceive that the goats had gone in
and eaten up the corn, for I
could see the marks of their feet.
At length I set three traps in
one night, and going the next
morning I found them, all standing,
and yet the bait eaten and gone;
this was very discouraging.
However, I altered my traps; and not
to trouble you with
particulars, going one morning to
see my traps, I found in one of
them a large old he-goat; and in one
of the others three kids, a
male and two females. As to the old one, I knew not what
to do with him; he was so fierce
I durst not go into the pit to him;
that is to say, to bring him
away alive, which was what I wanted.
I could have killed him, but
that was not my business, nor would
it answer my end; so I even let
him out, and he ran away as if he
had been frightened out of his
wits. But I did not then know what I
afterwards learned, that
hunger will tame a lion. If I had
let him stay three or four days
without food, and then have carried
him some water to drink and
then a little corn, he would have
been as tame as one of the kids;
for they are mighty sagacious,
tractable creatures, where they are
well used. However, for the present I let him
go, knowing no better at that
time: then I went to the three kids,
and taking them one by one, I
tied them with strings together, and
with some difficulty brought
them all home. It was a good while before they
would feed; but throwing them some
sweet corn, it tempted them, and
they began to be tame. And now I
found that if I expected to supply
myself with goats' flesh, when I
had no powder or shot left, breeding
some up tame was my only way,
when, perhaps, I might have them
about my house like a flock of
sheep. But then it occurred to me
that I must keep the tame from
the wild, or else they would always
run wild when they grew up; and
the only way for this was to have
some enclosed piece of ground,
well fenced either with hedge or
pale, to keep them in so
effectually, that those within might
not break out, or those
without break in. This was a great undertaking for one
pair of hands yet, as I saw
there was an absolute necessity for
doing it, my first work was to
find out a proper piece of ground,
where there was likely to be
herbage for them to eat, water for
them to drink, and cover to keep
them from the sun. Those who understand such enclosures
will think I had very little
contrivance when I pitched upon a
place very proper for all these
(being a plain, open piece of meadow
land, or savannah, as our
people call it in the western
colonies), which had two or three
little drills of fresh water in it,
and at one end was very woody -
I say, they will smile at my
forecast, when I shall tell them I
began by enclosing this piece of
ground in such a manner that, my
hedge or pale must have been at
least two miles about. Nor was the
madness of it so great as to the
compass, for if it was ten miles
about, I was like to have time
enough to do it in; but I did not
consider that my goats would be as
wild in so much compass as if
they had had the whole island, and I
should have so much room to
chase them in that I should never
catch them. My hedge was begun and carried on, I
believe, about fifty yards
when this thought occurred to me; so
I presently stopped short,
and, for the beginning, I resolved
to enclose a piece of about one
hundred and fifty yards in length,
and one hundred yards in
breadth, which, as it would maintain
as many as I should have in
any reasonable time, so, as my stock
increased, I could add more
ground to my enclosure. This was acting with some prudence,
and I went to work with
courage. I was about three months
hedging in the first piece; and,
till I had done it, I tethered the
three kids in the best part of
it, and used them to feed as near me
as possible, to make them
familiar; and very often I would go
and carry them some ears of
barley, or a handful of rice, and
feed them out of my hand; so that
after my enclosure was finished and
I let them loose, they would
follow me up and down, bleating
after me for a handful of corn. This answered my end, and in about a
year and a half I had a flock
of about twelve goats, kids and all;
and in two years more I had
three-and-forty, besides several
that I took and killed for my
food. After that, I enclosed five
several pieces of ground to feed
them in, with little pens to drive
them to take them as I wanted,
and gates out of one piece of ground
into another. But this was not all; for now I not
only had goat's flesh to feed
on when I pleased, but milk too - a
thing which, indeed, in the
beginning, I did not so much as
think of, and which, when it came
into my thoughts, was really an
agreeable surprise, for now I set
up my dairy, and had sometimes a
gallon or two of milk in a day.
And as Nature, who gives supplies of
food to every creature,
dictates even naturally how to make
use of it, so I, that had never
milked a cow, much less a goat, or
seen butter or cheese made only
when I was a boy, after a great many
essays and miscarriages, made
both butter and cheese at last, also
salt (though I found it partly
made to my hand by the heat of the
sun upon some of the rocks of
the sea), and never wanted it
afterwards. How mercifully can our
Creator treat His creatures, even in
those conditions in which they
seemed to be overwhelmed in
destruction! How can He sweeten the
bitterest providences, and give us
cause to praise Him for dungeons
and prisons! What a table was here
spread for me in the
wilderness, where I saw nothing at
first but to perish for hunger! |
