The life and strange adventures of Robinson Crusoe

THE LIFE OF
ROBINSON CRUSOE

IN FOUR VOLUMES
VOLUME II

r

Plate VII

THE LIFE AND STRANGE
SURPRISING ADVENTURES

OF

Robinfon Crufoe

BY DANIEL DEFOE

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE
DESIGNS BY STOTHARD

VOL. II

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

MCMVIII

COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

ROBINSON CRUSOE

ROBINSON CRUSOE

CHAPTER XVII

It happened one day, about noon, going towards
my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the
print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which
was very plain to be seen in the sand. I stood like
one thunderstruck, or as if I had seen an appari-
tion : I listened, I looked round me, but I could
hear nothing, nor see anything ; I went up to a ris-
ing ground, to look farther ; I went up the shore
and down the shore, but it was all one ; I could see
no other impression but that one. I went to it again
to see if there were any more, and to observe if it
might not be my fancy ; but there was no room for
that, for there was exactly the print of a foot, toes,
heel, and every part of a foot. How it came thither
I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine ; but,
after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man
perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home
to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, the ground
I went on, but terrified to the last degree ; looking
behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking
every bush and tree, and fancying every stump at

i THE ADVENTURES OF

a distance to be a man. Nor is it possible to de-
scribe how many various shapes my affrighted imag-
ination represented things to me in, how many wild
ideas were found every moment in my fancy, and
what strange unaccountable whimsies came into my
thoughts by the way.

When I came to my castle (for so I think I
called it ever after this), I fled into it like one pur-
sued ; whether I went over by the ladder, as first
contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which
I had called a door, I cannot remember ; no, nor
could I remember the next morning; for never
frightened 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 appre-
hensions were ; which is something contrary to the
nature of such things, and especially to the usual
practice of all creatures in fear ; but I was so em-
barrassed with my own frightful ideas of the thing
that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations to
myself, even though I was now a great way off it.
Sometimes I fancied it must be the Devil, and rea-
son joined in with me upon this supposition ; for
how should any other thing in human shape come
into the place ? Where was the vessel that brought
them ? What marks were there of any other foot-
steps ? And how was it possible a man should come
there ? But then, to think that Satan should take
human shape upon him in such a place, where there
could be no manner of occasion for it but to leave

ROBINSON CRUSOE 3

the print of his foot behind him, and that even for
no purpose too, for he could not be sure I should
see it, — this was an amusement the other way. I
considered that the Devil might have found out
abundance of other ways to have terrified me than
this of the single print of a foot ; that as I lived
quite on the other side of the island, he would
never have been so simple as to leave a mark in
a place where it was ten 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 incon-
sistent with the thing itself, and with all the notions
we usually entertain of the subtlety of the Devil.

Abundance of such things as these assisted to
argue me out of all apprehensions of its being the
Devil ; and I presently concluded, then, that it must
be some more dangerous creature, viz., that it must
be some of the savages of the main land 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.

While these reflections were rolling upon my
mind, I was very thankful in my thoughts that I
was so happy as not to be thereabouts at that time,
or that they did not see my boat, by which they
would have concluded that some inhabitants had
been in the place, and perhaps have searched farther

4 THE ADVENTURES OF

for me : then terrible thoughts racked my imagina-
tion 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, and carry away all
my flock of tame goats, and I should perish at last
for mere want.

Thus my fear banished all my religious hope,
all that former confidence in God, which was founded
upon such wonderful experience as I had had of
his goodness, as if he that had fed me by miracle
hitherto could not preserve, by his power, the pro-
vision which he had made for me by his goodness.
I reproached myself with my laziness, that would
not sow any more corn one year than would just
serve me till the next season, as if no accident would
intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that was
upon the ground; and this I thought so just a re-
proof 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 chequer-work of Providence is
the life of man ! and by what secret different springs
are the affections hurried about, as different circum-
stances present ! To-day we love what to-morrow
we hate ; to-day we seek what to-morrow we shun ;
to-day we desire what to-morrow we fear, nay, even
tremble at the apprehensions of; this was exempli-
fied in me, at this time, in the most lively manner

ROBINSON CRUSOE 5

imaginable; for I, whose only affliction was that
I seemed banished from human society, that I was
alone, circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut
off from mankind, and condemned to what I called
silent life; that I was as one whom Heaven thought
not worthy to be numbered among the living, or
to appear among the rest of his creatures ; that to
have seen one of my own species would have
seemed to me a raising me from death to life, and
the greatest blessing that Heaven itself, next to the
supreme blessing of salvation, could bestow ; I say,
that I should now tremble at the very apprehen-
sions of seeing a man, and was ready to sink into
the ground at but the shadow or silent appearance
of a 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 after-
wards, when I had a little recovered my first sur-
prise. I considered that this was the station of life
the infinitely wise and good providence of God had
determined for me ; that as I could not foresee what
the ends of divine wisdom might be in all this, so
I was not to dispute his sovereignty, who, as I was
his creature, had an undoubted right, by crea-
tion, to govern and dispose of me absolutely as he
thought fit; and who, as I was a creature that
had offended him, had likewise a judicial right to
condemn me to what punishment he thought fit;
and that it was my part to submit to bear his in-
dignation, because I had sinned against him. I
then reflected that as God, who was not only right-

6 THE ADVENTURES OF

eous but omnipotent, had thought fit thus to
punish and afflict me, so he was able to deliver me;
that if he did not think fit to do so, it was my
unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and
entirely to his will ; and, on the other hand, it was
my duty also to hope in him, pray to him, and
quietly to attend the dictates and directions of his
daily providence.

These thoughts took me up many hours, days,
nay, I may say, weeks and months ; and one par-
ticular effect of my cogitations on this occasion I
cannot omit. One morning early, lying in my bed,
and filled with thoughts about my danger from the
appearance of savages, I found it discomposed me
very much ; upon which these words of the Scrip-
ture came into my thoughts : " Call upon me in
the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify me." Upon this, rising cheerfully out
of my bed, my heart was not only comforted, but
I was guided and encouraged to pray earnestly to
God for deliverance : when I had done praying, I
took up my Bible, and opening it to read, the first
words that presented to me were, "Wait on the
Lord, and be of good cheer, and he shall strengthen
thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord." It is impos-
sible to express the comfort this gave me. In
answer, I thankfully laid down the book, and was
no more sad, at least on that occasion.

In the middle of these cogitations, apprehen-
sions, and reflections, it came into my thoughts
one day that all this might be a mere chimera of

ROBINSON CRUSOE 7

my own, and that this foot might be the print 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 I
not come that way from the boat as well as I was
going that way to the boat? Again, I considered
also that I could by no means tell, for certain,
where I had trod, and where I had not ; and that
if, at last, this was only the print of my own foot,
I had played the part of those fools who try to
make stories of spectres and apparitions, and then
are frightened at them more than anybody.

Now I began to take courage, and to peep
abroad again, for I had not stirred out of my cas-
tle for three days and nights, so that I began to
starve for provisions; 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 incon-
venience for want of it; and, indeed, it almost
spoiled some of them, and almost dried up their
milk. Encouraging myself, therefore, with the
belief that this was nothing but the print of one
of my own feet, and that I might be truly said to
start at my own shadow, I began to go abroad again,
and went to my country-house to milk my flock :
but to see with what fear I went forward, how often
I looked behind me, how I was ready, every now
and then, to lay down my basket, and run for my ■

8 THE ADVENTURES OF

life, it would have made any one think I was
haunted with an evil conscience, or that I had been
lately most terribly frightened ; and so, indeed, I
had. However, as I went down thus two or three
days, and having seen nothing, I began to be a lit-
tle bolder, and to think there was really nothing
in it but my own imagination ; but I could not per-
suade myself fully of this till I should go down to
the shore again, and see this print of a foot and
measure it by my own, and see if there was any
similitude or fitness, that 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
vapours again to the highest degree, so that I shook
with cold like one in an ague; and I went home
again, filled with the belief that some man or men
had been on shore there; or, in short, that the
island was inhabited, and I might be surprised
before I was aware; and what course to take for
my security I knew not.

O what ridiculous resolutions men take when
possessed with fear ! It deprives them of the use
of those means which reason offers for their relief.
The first thing I proposed to myself was to throw
down my enclosures, and turn all my tame cattle
wild into the woods, lest the enemy should find

ROBINSON CRUSOE 9

them, and then frequent the island in prospect of
the same or the like booty ; then to the simple thing
of digging up my two corn-fields, lest they should
find such a grain there, and still be prompted to fre-
quent the island ; then to demolish my bower and
tent, that they might not see any vestiges of hab-
itation, and be prompted to look farther, in order
to find out the persons inhabiting.

These were the subject of the first night's cog-
itations 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 vapours,
as above. Thus fear of danger is ten thousand times
more terrifying than danger itself when apparent
to the eyes ; and we find the burden of anxiety
greater, by much, than the evil which we are anx-
ious about ; and, which was worse than all this, I
had not that relief in this trouble from the resigna-
tion I used to practise, 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 of my thoughts kept me awake
all night; but in the morning I fell asleep; and
having, by the amusement of my mind, been as it

io THE ADVENTURES OF

were tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very
soundly and waked much better composed than I
had ever been before. And now I began to think
sedately ; and, upon the utmost debate with myself,
I concluded that this island, which was so exceed-
ing pleasant, fruitful, and no farther from the main
land than as I had seen, was not so entirely aban-
doned 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 was prob-
able they went away again as soon as ever they
could, seeing they had never thought fit to fix here
upon any occasion ; that the most I could suggest
any danger from was from any casual accidental
landing of straggling people from the main, who, as
it was likely, if they were driven hither, were here
against their wills, so they made no stay here, but
went off again with all possible speed; seldom stay-
ing one night on shore, lest they should not have
the help of the tides and daylight back again; and
that, therefore, I had nothing to do but to consider
of some safe retreat, in case I should see any sav-
ages land upon the spot.

Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug
my cave so large as to bring a door through again,

ROBINSON CRUSOE n

which door, as I said, came out beyond where my
fortification joined to the rock: upon maturely con-
sidering this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a
second fortification, in the same manner of a semi-
circle, at a distance from my wall, just where I had
planted a double row of trees about twelve years
before, of which I made mention. These trees hav-
ing been planted so thick before, they wanted but
few piles to be driven between them that they might
be thicker and stronger, and my wall would be soon
finished : so that I had now a double wall ; and my
outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old
cables, and everything I could think of, to make it
strong, having in it seven little holes about as big
as I might put my arm out at. In the inside of this,
I thickened my wall to about ten feet thick, with
continually bringing earth out of my cave, and lay-
ing it at the foot of the wall, and walking upon it;
and through the seven holes I contrived to plant
the muskets, of which I took notice that I had got
seven on shore out of the ship; these I planted
like my cannon, and fitted them into frames, that
held them like a carriage, so that I could fire all the
seven guns in two minutes' time. This wall I was
many a weary month in finishing, and yet never
thought myself safe till it was done.

When this was done, I stuck all the ground
without my wall, for a great length every way, as
full with stakes, or sticks, of the osier-like wood,
which I found so apt to grow, as they could well
stand ; insomuch that I believe I might set in near

i2 THE ADVENTURES OF

twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty large
space between them and my wall, that I might have
room to see an enemy, and they might have no
shelter from the young trees, if they attempted to
approach my outer wall.

Thus, in two years' time, I had a thick grove ;
and in five or six years' time I had a wood before my
dwelling, growing so monstrous thick and strong
that it was indeed perfectly impassable; 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 broke in, and left
room to place another ladder upon that : so when
the two ladders were taken down, no man living
could come down to me without doing himself mis-
chief; and if they had come down, they were still
on the outside of my outer wall.

Thus I took all the measures human prudence
could suggest for my own preservation ; and it will
be seen, at length, that they were not altogether
without just reason, though I foresaw nothing at
that time more than my mere fear suggested to me.

While this was doing, I was not altogether care-
less of my other affairs : for I had a great concern
upon me for my little herd of goats ; they were not
only a ready supply to me on every occasion, and
began to be sufficient for me, without the expense
of powder and shot, but also without the fatigue

ROBINSON CRUSOE 13

of hunting after the wild ones ; and I was loth to
lose the advantage of them, and to have them all
to nurse up over again.

For this purpose, after long consideration, I
could think of but two ways to preserve them : one
was, to find another convenient place to dig a cave
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 gen-
eral, I might be able to raise them again with little
trouble and time ; and this, though it would require
a great deal of time and labour, I thought was the
most rational design.

Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the
most retired parts of the island; and I pitched
upon one which was as private, indeed, as my heart
could wish for : it was a little damp piece of ground,
in the middle of the hollow and thick woods, where,
as is observed, I almost lost myself once before,
endeavouring to come back that way from the east-
ern part of the island. Here I found a clear piece
of land, near three acres, so surrounded with woods
that it was almost an enclosure by nature ; at least,
it did not want near so much labour to make it
so as the other pieces of ground I had worked so
hard at.

CHAPTER XVIII

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 further de-
lay, I removed ten young she-goats and two he-
goats to this piece; and when they were there, I
continued to perfect the fence till I had made it as
secure as the other, which, however, I did at more
leisure, and it took me up more time by a great
deal. All this labour I was at the expense of purely
from my apprehensions on the account of the print
of a man's foot which I had seen; for, as yet, I never
saw any human creature come near the island ;
and I had now lived two years under this uneasi-
ness, which, indeed, made my life much less com-
fortable than it was before, as may be well im-
agined 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

ROBINSON CRUSOE 15

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 can-
nibals 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 press-
ure of mind, surrounded with danger, and in ex-
pectation every night of being murdered and de-
voured before morning; and I must testify from
my experience that a temper of peace, thankful-
ness, love, and affection is much the more proper
frame for prayer than that of terror and discom-
posure; and that, under the dread of mischief im-
pending, a man is no more fit for a comforting
performance of the duty of praying to God than
he is for a repentance on a sick-bed ; for these dis-
composures affect the mind, as the others do the
body ; and the discomposure of the mind must
necessarily be as great a disability as that of the
body, and much greater : praying to God being
properly an act of the mind, not of the body.

But to go on : after I had thus secured one part
of my little living stock, I went about the whole
island, searching for another private place to make
such another deposit; when, wandering more to
the west point of the island than I had ever done
yet, and looking out to sea, I thought I saw a boat
upon the sea, at a great distance. I had found a per-
spective glass or two in one of the seaman's chests

16 THE ADVENTURES OF

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 look any longer.
Whether it was a boat or not, I do not know, but
as I descended from the hill I could see no more
of it; so I gave it over; only I resolved to go no
more out without a perspective glass in my pocket.
When I was come down the hill to the end of the
island, where, indeed, I had never been before, I
was presently convinced that the 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 hap-
pened to be a little too far out at sea, to shoot over
to that side of the island for harbour; likewise, as
they often met and fought in their canoes, the
victors, having taken any prisoners, would bring
them 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 south-west point of the
island, I was perfectly confounded and amazed ; nor
is it possible for me to express the horror of my
mind at seeing the shore spread with skulls, hands,
feet, and other bones of human bodies ; and, par-
ticularly, I observed a place where there had been

ROBINSON CRUSOE 17

a fire made, and a circle dug in the earth, like a
cock-pit, where I supposed the savage wretches had
sat down to their inhuman feastings upon the bodies
of their fellow-creatures.

I was so astonished with the sight of these things
that I entertained no notions of any danger to my-
self from it for a long while : all my apprehensions
were buried in the thoughts of such a pitch of
inhuman, hellish brutality, and the horror of the
degeneracy of human nature, which, though I had
heard of it often, yet I never had so near a view of
before : in short, I turned away my face from the
horrid spectacle ; my stomach grew sick, and I was
just at the point of fainting when nature discharged
the disorder from my stomach : and having vom-
ited with 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,
recovering myself, I looked up with the utmost
affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in
my eyes, gave God thanks that had cast my first lot
in a part of the world where I was distinguished
from such dreadful creatures as these ; and that,
though I had esteemed my present condition very
miserable, had yet given me so many comforts in
it that I had still more to give thanks for than to
complain of: and this, above all, that I had, even
in this miserable condition been comforted with

1 8 THE ADVENTURES OF

the knowledge of himself, and the hope of his
blessing, which was a felicity more than sufficiently-
equivalent to all the misery which I had suffered
or could suffer.

In this frame of thankfulness I went home to
my castle, and began to be much easier now, as
to the safety of my circumstances, than ever I was
before: for I observed that these wretches never
came to this island in search of what they could get ;
perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or not expecting,
anything here, and having often, no doubt, been up
in the covered woody part of it, without finding
anything to their purpose. I knew I had been here
now almost eighteen years, and never saw the least
footsteps of human creature there before ; and I
might be eighteen years more as entirely concealed
as I was now if I did not discover myself to them,
which I had no manner of occasion to do; it being
my only business to keep myself entirely concealed
where I was, unless I found a better sort of crea-
tures than cannibals to make myself known to.
Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage
wretches that I have been speaking of, and of the
wretched inhuman custom of their devouring and
eating one another up, that I continued pensive
and sad, and kept close within my own circle, for
almost two years after this. When I say my own
circle, I mean by it my three plantations, viz., my
castle, my country-seat, which I called my bower,
and my enclosure in the woods ; nor did I look
after this for any other use than as an enclosure for

ROBINSON CRUSOE 19

my goats ; for the aversion which nature gave me
to these hellish wretches was such that I was as
fearful of seeing them as of seeing the Devil him-
self. I did not so much as go to look after my
boat 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 by these
people, began to wear off my uneasiness about
them ; and I began to live just in the same com-
posed manner as before, only with this difference,
that I used more caution, and kept my eyes more
about me, than I did before, lest I should happen
to be seen by any of them ; and particularly, I was
more cautious of firing my gun, lest any of them
being on the island should happen to hear it. It
was therefore a very good providence to me that
I had furnished myself with a tame breed of goats,
and that I had no need to hunt any more about
the~woods, or shoot at them ; and if I did catch
any of them after this, it was by traps and snares,
as I had done before ; so that for two years after
this, I believe I never fired my gun once off,
though I never went out without it ; and, which
was more, as I had saved three pistols out of the
ship, I always carried them out with me, or at

ao THE ADVENTURES OF

least two of them, sticking them in my goat's-skin
belt. I also furbished up one of the great cutlasses
that I had out of the ship, and made me a belt to
hang it on also ; so that I was now a most formid-
able fellow to look at when I went abroad, if you
add to the former description of myself the par-
ticular of two pistols, and a great broad sword hang-
ing at my side in a belt, but without a scabbard.

Things going on thus, as I have said, for some
time, I seemed, excepting these cautions, to be re-
duced to my former calm sedate way of living. All
these things tended to show me, more and more,
how far my condition was from being miserable,
compared to some others ; nay, to many other par-
ticulars of life which it might have pleased God to
have made my lot. It put me upon reflecting how
little repining there would be among mankind at
any condition of life if people would rather com-
pare their condition with those that were worse, in
order to be thankful, than be always comparing them
with those which are better, to assist their murmur-
ings and complainings.

As in my present condition there were not really
many things which I wanted, so, indeed, I thought
that the frights I had been in about these savage
wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own
preservation, had taken off the edge of my inven-
tion for my own conveniences ; and I had dropped
a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts
too much upon, and that was to try if I could not
make some of my barley into malt, and then try

ROBINSON CRUSOE 21

to brew myself some beer. This was really a whim-
sical thought, and I reproved myself often for the
simplicity of it ; for I presently saw there would
be the want of several things necessary to the
making my beer, that it would be impossible for
me to supply ; as, first, casks to preserve it in,
which was a thing that, as I had observed already,
I could never compass ; no, though I spent not
only many days, but weeks, nay, months, in at-
tempting it, but to no purpose. In the next place,
I had no hops to make it keep, no yeast to make
it work, no copper or kettle to make it boil ; and
yet, with all these things wanting, I verily believe,
had not the frights and terrors I was in about the
savages intervened, I had undertaken it, and per-
haps brought it to pass too; for I seldom gave any-
thing over without accomplishing it, when once I
had it in my head to begin it. But my invention
now ran quite another way ; for, night and day, I
could think of nothing but how I might destroy
some of these monsters in their cruel, bloody en-
tertainment, and, if possible, save the victim they
should bring hither to destroy. It would take up
a larger volume than this whole work is intended
to be, to set down all the contrivances I hatched,
or rather brooded upon, in my thoughts, for the
destroying these creatures, or at least frightening
them so as to prevent their coming hither any
more ; but all this was abortive; nothing could be
possible to take effect, unless I was to be there to
do it myself; and what could one man do among

22 THE ADVENTURES OF

them, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty
of them together, with their darts, or their bows and
arrows, with which they could shoot as true to a
mark as I could with my gun?

Sometimes I thought of digging a hole under
the place where they made their fire, and putting
in five or six pounds of gunpowder, which, when
they kindled their fire, would consequently take
fire, and blow up all that was near it ; but as, in
the first place, I should be unwilling to waste so
much powder upon them, my store being now
within the quantity of one barrel, so neither could
I be sure of its going-ofF at any certain time, when
it might surprise them : and, at best, that it would
do little more than just blow the fire about their
ears and fright them, but not sufficient to make
them forsake the place. So I laid it aside, and then
proposed that I would place myself in ambush in
some convenient place, with my three guns all
double-loaded, and, in the middle of their bloody
ceremony, let fly at them, when I should be sure
to kill or wound perhaps two or three at every
shot : and then falling in upon them with my three
pistols, and my sword, I made no doubt but that,
if there were twenty, I should kill them all. This
fancy pleased my thoughts for some weeks ; and I
was so full of it that I often dreamed of it, and
sometimes that I was just going to let fly at them
in my sleep. I went so far with it in my imagina-
tion that I employed myself several days to find
out proper places to put myself in ambuscade, as

ROBINSON CRUSOE 23

I said, to watch for them ; and I went frequently to
the place itself, which was now grown more famil-
iar to me. But while my mind was thus filled with
thoughts of revenge, and 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 wait till I saw any of their boats coming;
and might then, even before they would be ready
to come on shore, convey myself, unseen, into some
thickets of trees, in one of which there was a hollow
large enough to conceal me entirely; and there I
might sit and observe all their bloody doings, and
take my full aim at their heads, when they were so
close together as that it would be next to impossi-
ble that I should miss my shot, or that I could fail
wounding three or four of them at the first shot. In
this place, then, I resolved to fix my design ; and,
accordingly, I prepared two muskets and my ordin-
ary fowling-piece. The two muskets I loaded with
a brace of slugs each, and four or five smaller bul-
lets, about the size of pistol-bullets ; and the fowl-
ing-piece I loaded with near a handful of swan-shot
of the largest size : I also loaded my pistols with
about four bullets each; and in this posture, well
provided with ammunition for a second and third
charge, I prepared myself for my expedition.

After I had thus laid the scheme of my design,
and, in my imagination, put it in practice, I con-

24 THE ADVENTURES OF

tinually made my tour every morning up to the top
of the hill, which was from my castle, as I called it,
about three miles, or more, to see if I could observe
any boats upon the sea, coming near the island, or
standing over towards it: but I began to tire of this
hard duty, after I had, for two or three months,
constantly kept my watch, but came always back
without any discovery : there having not, in all that
time, been the least appearance, not only on or near
the shore, but on the whole ocean, so far as my eyes
or glasses could reach every way.

As long as I kept my daily tour to the hill to look
out, so long also I kept up the vigour of my design,
and my spirits seemed to be all the while in a suit-
able form for so outrageous an execution as the kill-
ing twenty or thirty naked savages, for an offence
which I had not at all entered into a discussion of
in my thoughts, any further than my passions were
at first fired by the horror I conceived at the un-
natural custom of the people of that country, who,
it seems, had been suffered by Providence, in his
wise disposition of the world, to have no other guide
than that of their own abominable and vitiated pas-
sions ; 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 by Heaven, and actu-
ated 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

ROBINSON CRUSOE 25

my opinion of the action itself began to alter ; and
I began, with cooler and calmer thoughts, to con-
sider what I was going to engage in : what authority
or call I had to pretend to be judge and executioner
upon these men as criminals, whom Heaven had
thought fit, for so many ages, to suffer, unpunished,
to go on, and to be, as it were, the executioners of
his judgments one upon another; how far these
people were offenders against me, and what right
I had to engage in the quarrel of that blood which
they shed promiscuously one upon another. I de-
bated this very often with myself, thus : How do
I know what God himself judges in this particular
case ? It is certain these people do not commit this
as a crime; it is not against their own consciences
reproving, or their light reproaching them ; they do
not know it to be an offence, 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 I considered this a little, it followed nec-
essarily that I was certainly in the wrong in it ; that
these people were not murderers in the sense that
I had before condemned them in my thoughts, any
more than those Christians were murderers who
often put to death the prisoners taken in battle ; or
more frequently, upon many occasions, put whole
troops of men to the sword, without giving quarter,
though they threw down their arms and submitted.

i6 THE ADVENTURES OF

In the next place, it occurred to me that, although
the usage they gave one another was thus brutish
and inhuman, yet it was really nothing to me; these
people had done me no injury; that if they at-
tempted me, or I saw it necessary, for my immedi-
ate preservation, to fall upon them, something might
be said for it ; but that I was yet out of their power,
and they really had no knowledge of me, and conse-
quently 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 bar-
barities practised in America, where they destroyed
millions of these people ; who, however they were
idolaters and barbarians, and had several. bloody
and barbarous rites in their customs, such as sacri-
ficing human bodies to their idols, were yet, as to
the Spaniards, 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 in Europe, as a mere butchery,
a bloody and unnatural piece of cruelty, unjusti-
fiable either to God or man, and for which the very
name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be frightful and
terrible to all people of humanity, or of Christian
compassion, — as if the kingdom of Spain were
particularly eminent for the produce of a race of
men who were without principles of tenderness, or
the common bowels of pity to the miserable, which
is reckoned to be a mark of generous temper in the
mind.

ROBINSON CRUSOE iy

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 my design, and to conclude
I had taken wrong measures in my resolution to
attack the savages ; and that it was not my busi-
ness to meddle with them, unless they first attacked
me; and that it was my business, if possible, to
prevent; but that if I were discovered and at-
tacked by them, I knew my duty. On the other
hand, I argued with myself that this really was the
way not to deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and
destroy myself; for unless I was sure to kill every
one that not only should 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 revenge the death of their
fellows, and I should only bring upon myself a
certain destruction, which, at present, I had no
manner of occasion for. Upon the whole I con-
cluded that neither in principle nor in policy I
ought, one way or other, to concern myself in this
affair ; that my business was, by all possible means,
to conceal myself from them, and not to leave the
least 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
resolution, and I was convinced now, many ways,
that I was perfectly out of my duty when I was
laying all my bloody schemes for the destruction
of innocent creatures, I mean innocent as to me.

28 ROBINSON CRUSOE

As to the crimes they were guilty of towards one
another, I had nothing to do with them ; they
were national, and I ought to leave them to the
justice of God, who is the governor of nations,
and knows how, by national punishments, to make
a just retribution for national offences, and to bring
public judgments upon those who offend in a pub-
lic manner, by such ways as best please him. This
appeared so clear to me now that nothing was a
greater satisfaction to me than that I had not been
suffered to do a thing which I now saw so much
reason to believe would have been no less a sin
than that of wilful murder, if I had committed it ;
and I gave most humble thanks on my knees to
God that had thus delivered me from blood-guilti-
ness; 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.

CHAPTER XIX

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 shore there or
not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of
my contrivances against them, or be provoked,
by any advantage which might present itself, to
fall upon them. Only this I did: I went and re-
moved my boat, which I had on the other side of
the island, and carried it down to the east end
of the whole island, where I ran it into a little cove
which I found under some high rocks, and where
I knew, by reason of the currents, the savages durst
not, at least would not, come with their boats upon
any account whatever. 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 which, indeed, could

3o THE ADVENTURES OF

not be called either anchor or grapnel; however, it
was the best I could make of its kind; all these I
removed, that there might not be the least shadow
of any discovery, or any appearance of any boat,
or of any human habitation, upon the island. Be-
sides 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 find-
ing anything here, and consequently never wan-
dered 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. I ndeed, I looked back with some hor-
ror upon the thoughts of what my condition would
have been if I had popped upon them and been
discovered before that, when, naked and unarmed,
except with one gun, and that loaded often only
with small shot, I walked everywhere, peeping and
peering about the island to see what I could get;
what a surprise should I have been in if, when
I discovered the print of a man's foot, I had, in-
stead of that, seen fifteen or twenty savages, and
found them pursuing me, and, by the swiftness of
their running, no possibility of my escaping them ?
The thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul
within me, and distressed my mind so much that

ROBINSON CRUSOE 31

I could not soon recover it, to think what I should
have done, and how I should not only have been
unable to resist them, but even should not have
had presence of mind enough to do what I might
have done, much less what now, after so much con-
sideration and preparation, I might be able to do.
Indeed, after serious thinking on these things, I
would be very melancholy, and sometimes it would
last a great while ; but I resolved it all, at last, into
thankfulness to that Providence which had deliv-
ered me from so many unseen dangers, and had
kept from me those mischiefs which I could have
no way been the agent in delivering myself from,
because I had not the least notion of any such
thing depending, or the least supposition of its be-
ing 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 quan-
dary, as we call it) a doubt or hesitation, whether
to go this way, or that way, a secret hint 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
overrule us to go this way ; and it shall afterwards
appear that had we gone that way which we should
have gone, and even to our imagination ought to

32 THE ADVENTURES OF

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 mind, to
doing or not doing anything that presented, or
going this way or that way, I never failed to obey
the secret dictate ; though I knew no other reason
for it than that such a pressure, or such a hint,
hung upon my mind. I could give many examples
of the success of this conduct in the course of my
life, but more especially in the latter part of my in-
habiting this unhappy island ; besides many occa-
sions which it is very likely I might have taken
notice of if I had seen with the same eyes then
that I see with now. But it is never too late to be
wise ; and I cannot but advise all considering men,
whose lives are attended with such extraordinary
incidents as mine, or even though not so extraor-
dinary, not to slight such secret intimations of
Providence, let them come from what invisible
intelligence they will. That I shall not discuss and
perhaps cannot account for; but certainly they are
a proof of the converse of spirits, and a secret com-
munication 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.

I believe the reader of this will not think it strange
if I confess that these anxieties, these constant dan-
gers I lived in, and the concern that was now upon

ROBINSON CRUSOE 33

me, put an end to all invention, and to all the con-
trivances that I had laid for my future accommoda-
tions and conveniences. I had the care of my safety
more now upon my hands than that of my food. I
cared not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood
now,for fear the noise I might make should be heard ;
much less would I fire a gun, for the same reason :
and, above all, I was intolerably uneasy at making
any fire, lest the smoke, which is visible at a great
distance in the day,should betray me. For this reason
I removed that part of my business which required
fire, such as burning of pots and pipes, etc., into my
new apartment in the woods; where, after I had been
some time, I found, to my unspeakable consolation,
a mere natural cave in the earth, 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.

The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of
a great rock, where by mere accident (I would say,
if I did not see abundant reason to ascribe all such
things now to Providence) I was cutting down some
thick branches of trees to make charcoal. And, be-
fore I go on, I must observe the reason of my mak-
ing this charcoal, which was this : I was afraid of
making a smoke about my habitation, as I said be-
fore ; and yet I could not live there without baking
my bread, cooking my meat, etc. ; so I contrived
to burn some wood here, as I had seen done in Eng-

34 THE ADVENTURES OF

land, under turf, till it became chark, or dry coal :
and then putting the fire out, I preserved the coal
to carry home, and perform the other services for
which fire was wanting, without danger of smoke.
But this is by the by. While I was cutting down
some wood here, I perceived that, behind a very
thick branch of low brushwood or underwood, there
was a kind of hollow place. I was curious to look
in it, and getting with difficulty into the mouth of
it, I found it was pretty large, that is to say, suf-
ficient for me to stand upright in it, and perhaps
another with me ; but I must confess to you that I
made more haste out than I did in, when, looking
farther into the place, 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 mouth
shining directly in, and making the reflection. How-
ever, after some pause, I recovered myself, and
began to call myself a thousand fools, and to think
that he that was afraid to see the Devil was not fit
to live twenty years in an island all alone ; and that
I might well think there was nothing in this cave
that was more frightful than myself. Upon this,
plucking up my courage, I took up a firebrand,
and in I rushed again, with the stick flaming in
my hand. I had not gone three steps in but I was
almost as much frightened 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 of
words half-expressed, and then a deep sigh again.

ROBINSON CRUSOE 35

I stepped back, and was indeed struck with such
a surprise that it put me into 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 en-
couraging myself a little with considering that the
power and presence of God was everywhere, and
was able to protect me, upon this I stepped for-
ward again, and by the light of the firebrand, hold-
ing it up a little over my head, I saw 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. I stirred him
a little to see if I could get him out, and he es-
sayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself;
and I thought with myself he might even lie there;
for if he had frightened me, so he would certainly
fright any of the savages if any of them should be
so hardy as to come in there while he had any life
in him.

I was now recovered from my surprise, and began
to look round me, when I found the cave was very
small, that is to say, it might be about twelve feet
over, but in no manner of shape, neither round nor
square, no hands having ever been employed in
making it but those of mere Nature. I observed
also that there was a place at the farther side of it
that went in further, but was so low that it required
me to creep upon my hands and knees to go into
it, and whither it went I knew not ; so having no
candle, I gave it over for that time ; but resolved

36 THE ADVENTURES OF

to come again the next day, provided with candles
and a tinder-box which I had made of the lock
of one of the muskets, with some wildfire in the
pan.

Accordingly, the next day I came provided with
six large candles of my own making (for I made
very good candles now of goat's tallow, but was hard
set for candle-wick, using sometimes rags or rope-
yarn, and sometimes the dried rind of a weed like
nettles) ; and going into this low place I was obliged
to creep upon all fours, as I have said, almost ten
yards ; which, by the way, I thought was a venture
bold enough, considering that I knew not how far
it might go, nor what was beyond it. When I had
got through the strait, I found the roof rose higher
up, I believe near twenty feet ; but never was such
a glorious sight seen in the island, I dare say, as it
was to look round the sides and roof of this vault
or cave ; the wall 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 de-
lightful cavity or grotto of its kind, as could be ex-
pected, though perfectly dark ; the floor was dry and
level, and had a sort of a small loose gravel upon
it, so that there was no nauseous or venomous crea-
ture to be seen, neither was there any damp 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

ROBINSON CRUSOE 37

that was a convenience ; so that I was really re-
joiced 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 re-
solved to bring hither my magazine of powder, and
all my spare arms, viz., two fowling-pieces,for I had
three in all, and three muskets, for of them I had
eight in all ; so I kept at my castle only 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 re-
moving my ammunition, I happened to open the
barrel of powder which I took up out of the sea,
and which had been wet ; and I found that the
water had penetrated about three or four inches
into the powder on every side, which caking and
growing hard, had preserved the inside like
a kernel in the shell ; so that I had near sixty
pounds of very good powder in the centre of the
cask. This was a very agreeable discovery to me
at that time; so I carried all away thither, never
keeping above two or three pounds of powder
with me in my castle for fear of a surprise of any
kind ; I also carried thither all the lead I had left
for bullets.

I fancied myself now like one of the ancient
giants, which were said to live in caves and holes
in the rocks, where none could come at them ; for
I persuaded myself, while I was here, that if five
hundred savages were to hunt me, they could never
find me out ; or if they did, they would not ven-

38 THE ADVENTURES OF

ture to attack me here. The old goat, whom I found
expiring, died in the mouth of the cave the next
day after I made this discovery ; and I found it
much easier to dig a great hole there, and throw
him in and cover him with earth, than to drag him
out ; so I interred him there, to prevent offence to
my nose.

I was now in the twenty-third year of my resid-
ence in this island, and was so naturalized to the
place and the manner of living that, could I have
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 I
had 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 a great
deal more pleasantly with me 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 ; for I believe no bird ever spoke plainer ; and
he lived with me no less than six-and-twenty years.
How long he might have lived afterwards I know
not, though I know they have a notion in the Bra-
zils that they live a hundred years. My dog was a
very pleasant and loving companion to me for no
less than sixteen years of my time, and then died
of mere old age. As for my cats, they multiplied,
as I have observed, to that degree, that I was
obliged to shoot several of them at first, to keep

ROBINSON CRUSOE 39

them from devouring me and all I had ; 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 favourites, which I kept tame, and
whose young, when they had any, I always drowned ;
and these were part of my family. Besides these, I
always kept two or three household kids about me,
which 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 I take the pains with any
of them that I had done with him. I had also sev-
eral tame seafowls, whose names I knew not, that
I caught upon the shore, and cut their wings ; and
the little stakes which I had 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 I said above, I began to be very well
contented with the life I led, if I could have been
secured from the dread of the savages. But it was
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, is the most dreadful to us, is oftentimes the
very means or door of our deliverance, by which
alone we can be raised again from the affliction we

4o ROBINSON CRUSOE

are fallen into. I could give many examples of 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.

CHAPTER XX

It was now the month of December, as I said
above, in my twenty-third year; and this 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 see-
ing a light of some fire upon the shore, at a dis-
tance from me of about two miles, towards the end
of the island where I had observed some savages
had been, as before; and not on the other side, but,
to my great affliction, it was on my side of the
island.

I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and
stopped short within my grove, not daring to go
out, lest I might be surprised ; and yet I had no
more peace within, from the apprehensions I had
that if these savages, in rambling over the island,
should find my corn standing or cut, or any of my
works and improvements, they would immediately
conclude that there were people in the place, and

42 THE ADVENTURES OF

would then never give over till they had found me
out. In this extremity, I went back directly to my
castle, pulled up the ladder after me, and made all
things without look as wild and natural as I could.
Then I prepared myself within, putting myself
in a posture of defence : I loaded all my cannon,
as I called them, that is to say, my muskets, which
were mounted upon my new fortification, 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. I continued in this posture about two
hours ; and began to be mighty impatient for in-
telligence abroad, for I had no spies to send out.
After sitting a while longer, and musing what I
should do in this, 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 a flat place, as
I observed before, and then pulling the ladder up
after me, I set it up again, 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 were no less than
nine naked savages, sitting round a small fire they
had made, not to warm them, for they had no need
of that, the weather being extremely hot, 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 tell.

ROBINSON CRUSOE 43

They had two canoes with them, which they had
hauled up upon the shore ; and as it was then 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, espe-
cially seeing them come on my side of the island,
and so near me too ; but when I considered their
coming must be always with the current of the ebb,
I began, afterwards, to be more sedate in my mind,
being satisfied that I might go abroad with safety
all the time of the tide of flood, if they were not on
shore before ; 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) away. I
should have observed that, for an hour or more be-
fore they went off, they went a-dancing ; and I could
easily discern their postures and gestures by my
glass. I could not perceive, by my nicest observa-
tion, but that they were stark naked, and had not
the least covering upon them ; but whether they
were men or women, I could not distinguish.

As soon as I saw them shipped and gone, I took
two guns upon my shoulders, and two pistols in
my girdle, and my great sword by my side, without
a scabbard, and with all the speed I was able to
make, went away to the hill where I had discovered
the first appearance of all ; and as soon as I got
thither, which was not in less than two hours (for

44 THE ADVENTURES OF

I could not go apace, being so loaden with arms
as I was), I perceived there had been three canoes
more of savages at that place ; and looking out far-
ther, I saw they were all at sea together, making
over for the main. This was a dreadful sight to me,
especially as, going down to the shore, I could see
the marks of horror which the dismal work they
had been about had left behind it, viz., the blood,
the bones, and part of the flesh of human bodies,
eaten and devoured by those wretches with merri-
ment and sport. I was so filled with indignation
at the sight that I now began to premeditate the
destruction of the next that I saw there, let them
be whom or how many soever. It seemed evident
to me that the visits which they made thus to this
island were not very frequent, for it was above fif-
teen months before any more of them came on
shore there again ; that is to say, I neither saw them,
nor any footsteps or signals of them, in all that
time ; for, as to the rainy seasons, then they are
sure not to come abroad, at least not so far ; yet
all this while I lived uncomfortably, by reason of
the constant apprehensions of their coming upon
me by surprise ; from whence I observe that the
expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffer-
ing, especially if there is no room to shake off that
expectation, or those apprehensions.

During all this time I was in the murdering hu-
mour, 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

ROBINSON CRUSOE 45

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 ten or a dozen, I was still the next day,
or week, or month, to kill another, and so another,
even ad infinitum, till I should be at length no less
a murderer than they were in being man-eaters, and
perhaps much more so. I spent my days now in
great perplexity and anxiety of mind, expecting that
I should, one day 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 island where
they usually came, lest I should alarm the savages ;
and if they had fled from me now, I was sure to
have them come 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, and then I found them again, as I
shall soon observe. It is true, they might have
been there once or twice, but either they made no
stay, or at least I did not see 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.
The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen

46 THE ADVENTURES OF

or sixteen months' interval, was very great : I slept
unquiet, dreamed always frightful dreams, and often
started out of my sleep in the night ; in the day,
great troubles overwhelmed my mind ; and in the
night, I dreamed often of killing the savages, and
of the reasons why I might justify the doing of it.
— But to waive all this for a while. It was in 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
on the sixteenth of May that it blew a very great
storm of wind all day, with a great deal of lightning
and thunder, and a very foul night it was after it.
I knew not what was the particular occasion of it,
but as I was reading in the Bible, and taken up with
very serious thoughts about my present condition,
I was surprised with the noise of a gun, as I thought,
fired at sea. This was, to be sure, a surprise quite
of a different nature from any I had met with be-
fore ; for the notions this put into my thoughts
were quite of another kind. I started up in the
greatest haste imaginable, and, in a trice, clapped
my ladder to the middle place of the rock, and
pulled 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 that 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

ROBINSON CRUSOE 47

comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired
these guns for signals of distress, and to obtain
help. I had the presence of mind, at that minute,
to think that, though I could not help them, it
might be they might help me : so I brought to-
gether all the dry wood I could get at hand, and
making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire upon
the hill. The wood was 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, all from the same quarter. I plied my fire
all night long, till daybreak ; and when it was broad
day, and the air cleared up, I saw 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 glass ; the distance was so great, and the weather
still something hazy also ; at least it was so out at
sea.

I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon
perceived that it did not move ; so I presently con-
cluded that it was a ship at anchor ; and being eager,
you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in
my hand, and ran towards the south side of the
island, to the rocks where I had formerly been car-
ried 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 night upon those con-

48 THE ADVENTURES OF

cealed rocks which I found when I was out in my
boat; and which rocks, 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 ENE. Had they seen the island,
as I must necessarily suppose they did not, they
must, as I thought, have endeavoured to have
saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat ;
but their firing-ofF guns for help, especially when
they saw, as I imagined, my fire, filled me with many
thoughts. First, I imagined that, upon seeing my
light, they might have put themselves into their
boat and endeavoured to make the shore ; but that
the sea going very high, they might have been cast
away ; other times I imagined 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 obliges men
to stave, or take in pieces, their boat, and some-
times to throw it overboard with their own hands ;
other times I imagined they had some other ship
or ships in company, who, upon the signals of dis-
tress they had made, had taken them up and car-
ried them off; other times I fancied they were all
gone off to sea in their boat, and being hurried

ROBINSON CRUSOE 49

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 be starving, and
in a condition to think of eating one another.

As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in
the condition I was in, I could do no more than
look upon the misery of the poor men, and pity
them ; which had still this good effect on my side
that it gave me more and more cause to give thanks
to God, who had so happily and comfortably pro-
vided for me in my desolate condition ; and that,
of two ship's companies who 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 others in worse circum-
stances than our own. Such certainly was the case
of these men, of whom I could not so much as see
room to suppose any of them were saved ; nothing
could make it rational so much as to wish or ex-
pect that they did not all perish there, except the
possibility only of their being taken up by another
ship in company; and this was but mere possibility
indeed ; for I saw not the least sign or appearance
of any such thing. I cannot explain, by any pos-
sible energy of words, what a strange longing or
hankering of desires I felt in my soul upon this
sight, breaking out sometimes thus : " O that there

50 ROBINSON CRUSOE

had been but one or two, nay, or but one soul saved
out of this ship, to have escaped to me, that I
might 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.

CHAPTER XXI

There are some secret moving springs in the
affections, which, when they are set a-going
by some object in view, or, though not in view,
yet rendered present to the mind by the power of
imagination, that motion carries out the soul, by
its impetuosity, to such violent, eager embracings
of the object that the absence of it is insupport-
able. Such were these earnest wishings that but
one man had been saved. I believe I repeated the
words, " O that it had been but one ! " a thousand
times; and my desires were so moved by it that
when I spoke the words my hands would clinch
together, and my fingers would press the palms of
my hands so that if I had had any soft thing in my
hand it would have crushed it involuntarily; and
the 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 nat-
uralists explain these things, and the reason and
manner of them ; all I can say to them is, to de-
scribe the fact, which was even surprising to me,

52 THE ADVENTURES OF

when I found it, though I knew not from whence
it proceeded; it was doubtless the effect of ardent
wishes, and of strong ideas formed in my mind,
realising the comfort which the conversation of
one of my fellow-Christians would have been to
me. But it was not to be ; either their fate or mine,
or both, forbade 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 no
clothes on but a seaman's waistcoat, a pair of open-
kneed linen drawers, and a blue linen shirt ; but
nothing to direct me so much as to guess what
nation he was of; he had nothing in his pockets
but two pieces-of-eight and a tobacco-pipe, — the
last was to me of ten times more value than the
first.

It was now calm, and I had a great mind to ven-
ture out in my boat to this wreck, not doubting
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

ROBINSON CRUSOE 53

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.

Under the power of this impression, I hastened
back to my castle, prepared everything for my
voyage, took a quantity of bread, a great pot of
fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum
(for I had still a great deal of that left), and a
basket of raisins ; and thus loading myself with
everything necessary, I went down to my boat, got
the water out of her, put her afloat, loaded all my
cargo in her, and then went home again for more.
My second cargo was a great bag of rice, the um-
brella to set up over my head for a shade, another
large pot 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 labour and sweat, I carried to my boat ;
and praying to God to direct my voyage, I put
out; and rowing, or paddling, the canoe along
the shore, came at last to the utmost point of the
island on the north-east side. And now I was to
launch out into the ocean, and either to venture or
not to venture. I looked on the rapid currents
which ran constantly on both sides of the island at
a distance, and which were very terrible to me, from
the remembrance of the hazard I had been in
before, and my heart began to fail me ; for I fore-
saw that if I was driven into either of those cur-
rents, I should be carried a great way out to sea,

54 THE ADVENTURES OF

and perhaps out of my reach, or sight of the island
again; and that then, as my boat was but small,
if any little gale of wind should rise, I should be
inevitably lost.

These thoughts so impressed 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 upon a rising bit of
ground, very pensive and anxious, between fear
and desire, about my voyage; when, as I was mus-
ing, I could perceive that the tide was turned, and
the flood come on ; upon which my going was
impracticable for so many hours. Upon this, pre-
sently, it occurred to me that I should go up to the
highest piece of ground I could find, and observe,
if I could, 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 rapid-
ness of the currents. This thought was no sooner
in my head than 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 the current of the flood set in close
by the shore of the north side ; and that I had no-
thing to do but to keep to the north side of the
island in my return, and I should do well enough.

Encouraged with this observation, I resolved, the

ROBINSON CRUSOE 55

next morning, to set out with the first of the tide ;
and reposing myself for the night in my canoe,
under the great watchcoat I mentioned, I launched
out. I first made 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 the current on the south
side had done before, so as to take from me all gov-
ernment of the boat ; but having a strong steerage
with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly for
the wreck, and in 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
were beaten to pieces with the sea ; and as her fore-
castle, which stuck in the rocks, had run on with
great violence, her mainmast and foremast were
brought by the board, that is to say, broken short
off; but her bowsprit was sound, and the head and
bow appeared firm. When I came close to her, a
dog appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming,
yelped and cried ; and as soon as I called him,
jumped into the sea to come to me. I took him
into the boat, but found him almost dead with hun-
ger and thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, and
he devoured 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 cook-room,

56 THE ADVENTURES OF

or forecastle of the ship, with] their arms fast about
one another. I concluded, 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 brandy I knew not, which lay lower
in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out,
I could see ; but they were 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 forepart
broken off, I am persuaded I might have made a
good voyage : for, by what I found in these two
chests, I had room to suppose the ship had a great
deal of wealth on board ; and, if I may guess from
the course she steered, she must have been bound
from Buenos Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the
south part of America, beyond the Brazils, to the
Havanna, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps
to Spain. She had, no doubt, a great treasure in her,
but of no use, at that time, to anybody; and what
became of her crew, I then knew not.

I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of
liquor, of about twenty gallons, which I got into my
boat with much difficulty. There were several mus-

ROBINSON CRUSOE 57

kets in the cabin, and a great powder-horn, with
about four pounds of powder in it : as for the mus-
kets, I had no occasion for them, so I left them, but
took the powder-horn. I took a fire-shovel 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 harbour what I had
got in my new cave, and not carry it home to my
castle. After refreshing myself, I got all my cargo
on shore, and began to examine the particulars.
The cask of liquor I found to be a kind of rum,
but not such as we had at the Brazils, and, in a word,
not at all good ; but when I came to open the chests,
I found several things of great use to me : for ex-
ample, I found in one a fine case of bottles, of an
extraordinary kind, and filled with cordial waters,
fine and very good : the bottles held about three
pints each, and were tipped with silver. I found two
pots of very good succades or sweetmeats, so fast-
ened also on the 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 a half of white linen handkerchiefs and coloured
neckcloths ; the former were also very welcome,
being exceeding refreshing to wipe my face in a hot

58 THE ADVENTURES OF

day. Besides this, when I came to the till in the
chest, I found there three great bags of pieces-of-
eight, which held about eleven hundred pieces in
all ; and in one of them, wrapped up in a paper, six
doubloons of gold and some small bars or wedges
of gold ; I suppose they might all weigh near a
pound. In the other chest were some clothes, but
of little value; but, by the circumstances, it must
have belonged to the gunner's mate; though there
was no powder in it, except two pounds of fine
glazed powder, in three small flasks, kept, I sup-
pose, 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 stock-
ings, which were things I greatly wanted, but had
none on my feet for many years. I had indeed got
two pair of shoes now, which I took off 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, being
rather what we call pumps than shoes. I found in
this seaman's chest about fifty pieces-of-eight in rials,
but no gold: I suppose this belonged to a poorer
man than the other, which seemed to belong to
some officer. Well, however, I lugged this money
home to my cave, and laid it up, as I had done that
before which I brought from our own ship : but it

ROBINSON CRUSOE 59

was a great pity, as I said, that the other part of this
ship had not come to my share; for I am satisfied
I might have loaded my canoe several times over
with money; and, thought I, if I ever escape to
England, it might lie here safe enough till I may
come again and fetch it.

Having now brought all my things on shore, and
secured them, I went back to my boat, and rowed
or paddled her along the shore, to her old harbour,
where I laid her up, and made the best of my way
to my old habitation, where I found everything
safe and quiet. I began now to repose myself, live
after my old fashion, and take care of my family
affairs ; and, for a while, I lived easy enough, only
that I was more vigilant than I used 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 the east 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. I lived in
this condition near two years more; but my un-
lucky head, that was always to let me know it was
born to make my body miserable, was all these two
years filled with projects and designs, how, if it were
possible, I might 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 ;

60 THE ADVENTURES OF

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 plague of mankind,
whence, for aught I know, one half of their mis-
eries flow: I mean that of not being satisfied with
the station wherein God and nature hath placed
them ; for, not to look back upon my primitive con-
dition, and the excellent advice of my father, the
opposition to which was, as I may call it, my orig-
inal sin, my subsequent mistakes of the same kind
had been the means of my coming into this mis-
erable condition ; for had that Providence, which
so happily seated me at the Brazils as a planter,
blessed me with confined desires, and I could have
been contented to have gone on gradually, I might
have been by this time, I mean in the time of my
being in this island, one of the most considerable
planters in the Brazils ; nay, I am persuaded that,
by the improvements I had made in that little time
I lived there and the increase I should probably
have made if I had remained, I might have been
worth a hundred thousand moideres. And what
business had I to leave a settled fortune, a well-
stocked plantation, improving and increasing, to
turn supercargo to Guinea to fetch negroes, when
patience and time would have so increased our
stock at home that we could have bought them at
our own door from those whose business it was to
fetch them ; and though it had cost us something

ROBINSON CRUSOE 61

more, yet the difference of that price was by no
means worth saving at so great a hazard. But as
this is usually the fate of young heads, so reflection
upon the folly of it is as commonly the exercise
of more years, or of the dear-bought experience of
time; so it was with me now; and yet so deep had
the mistake taken root in my temper that I could
not satisfy myself in my station, but was continually
poring upon the means and possibility of my es-
cape from this place. And that I may with the
greater pleasure to the reader bring on the remain-
ing 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.

I am now to be supposed retired into my castle,
after my late voyage to the wreck, my frigate laid
up and secured under water, as usual, and my con-
dition restored to what it was before ; I had more
wealth, indeed, than I had before, but was not at
all the richer; for I had no more use for it than the
Indians of Peru had before the Spaniards came
there. It was one of the nights in the rainy season
in March, the four-and-twentieth year of my first
setting foot in this island of solitude, I was lying
in my bed, or hammock, awake; very well in health,
had no pain, no distemper, no uneasiness of body,
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, other-
wise than as follows: It is impossible to set down

62 THE ADVENTURES OF

the innumerable crowd of thoughts that whirled
through that great thoroughfare of the brain, the
memory, in this night's time; I ran over the whole
history of my life in miniature, or by abridgment,
as I may call it, to my coming to this island, and
also of that 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 com-
paring 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 in ever
since I had seen the print of a foot in the sand; not
that I did not believe the savages had frequented
the island even all the while, and might have been
several hundreds of them at times on shore there ;
but I had never known it, and was incapable of
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 govern-
ment of mankind, such narrow bounds to his sight
and knowledge of things ; and though he walks in
the midst of so many thousand dangers, the sight
of which, if discovered to him, would distract his
mind and 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.

ROBINSON CRUSOE 63

After these thoughts had for some time enter-
tained me, I came to reflect seriously upon the real
danger I had been in for so many years in this very
island, and how I had walked about in the greatest
security, and with all possible tranquillity, even when
perhaps nothing but the brow of a hill, a great tree,
or the casual approach of night, had been between me
and the worst kind of destruction, viz., that of falling
into the hands of cannibals and savages, who would
have seized on me with the same view as I would on
a goat or a turtle, and have thought it no more a
crime to kill and devour me than I did a pigeon or
curlew. I would unjustly slander myself if I should
say I was not sincerely thankful to my great Pre-
server, to whose singular protection I acknowledged
with great humility all these unknown deliverances
were due, and without which I must inevitably have
fallen into their merciless hands.

When these thoughts were over, my head was for
some time taken up in considering the nature of
these wretched creatures, I mean the savages, and
how it came to pass in the world that the wise Gov-
ernor of all things should give up any of his creatures
to such inhumanity, nay, to something so much be-
low even brutality itself, as to devour its own kind;
but as this ended in some (at that time) fruitless spec-
ulations, 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 ventured
over so far from home for ? what kind of boats they
had ? and why I might not order myself and my

64 THE ADVENTURES OF

business so that I might be as able to go over
thither as they were to come to me.

I never so much as troubled myself to consider
what I should do with myself when I went thither,
what would become of me if I fell into the hands of
the savages, or how I should escape from them, if
they attacked me : no, nor so much as how it was
possible for me to reach the coast, and not be at-
tacked by some or other of them, without any pos-
sibility of delivering myself; and if I should not fall
into their hands, what I should do for provision,
or whither I should bend my course; none of these
thoughts, I say, so much as came in my way; but my
mind was wholly bent upon the notion of my passing
over in my boat to the main land. I looked upon
my present condition as the most miserable that
could possibly be; that I was not able to throw my-
self into anything, but death, that could be called
worse ; and if I reached the shore of the main, I
might perhaps meet with relief, or I might coast
along, as I did on the African shore, till I came to
some inhabited country, and where I might find
some relief; and after all, perhaps, I might fall in
with some Christian ship that might take me in; and
if the worst 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 desperate, as it were, by the
long continuance of my troubles, and the disap-
pointments I had met in the wreck I had been on
board of, and where I had been so near obtaining

ROBINSON CRUSOE 65

what I so earnestly longed for, viz., somebody to
speak to, and to learn some knowledge from them
of the place where I was, and of the probable means
of my deliverance. I was agitated wholly by these
thoughts ; all my calm of mind, in my resignation
to Providence, and waiting the issue of the disposi-
tions 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 if
I had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary
fervour 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 little thick grove before my
fortification, to hide himself; and that I, seeing him
alone, and not perceiving that the others sought him
that way, showed myself to him, and smiling upon

66 THE ADVENTURES OF

him, encouraged him: that he kneeled down to me,
seeming to pray me to assist him ; upon which I
showed him my ladder, made him go up, and carried
him into my cave, and he became my servant; and
that as soon as I had got this man, I said to myself,
"Now I may certainly venture to the main land ;
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
places to venture into, and what to shun." I waked
with this thought; and was under such inexpressible
impressions of joy at the prospect of my escape in
my dream that the disappointments which I felt
upon coming to myself, and finding that it was no
more than a dream, were equally extravagant the
other way, and threw me into a very great dejection
of spirits.

Upon this, however, I made this conclusion : that
my only way to go about to attempt an escape was,
if possible, to get a savage into my possession ;
and, if possible, it should be one of their prisoners
whom they had condemned to be eaten, and should
bring hither to kill. But these thoughts still 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 law-
fulness of it to myself, and my heart trembled at
the thought of shedding so much blood, though
it was for my deliverance. I need not repeat the

ROBINSON CRUSOE 67

arguments which occurred to me against this, they
being the same mentioned before; but though I
had other reasons to offer now, viz., that those men
were enemies to my life, and would devour me if
they could; that it 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 deliver-
ance were very terrible to me, and such as I could
by no means reconcile myself to for a great while.
However, at last, after many secret disputes with
myself, and after great perplexities about it (for all
these arguments, one way and another, struggled
in my head a long time), the eager prevailing de-
sire of deliverance at length mastered all the rest ;
and I resolved, if possible, to get one of those sav-
ages into my hands, cost what it would. My next
thing was to contrive how to do it, and this indeed
was very difficult to resolve on ; but as I could pitch
upon no probable means for it, so I resolved to put
myself upon the watch, to see them when they
came on shore, and leave the rest to the event,
taking such measures as the opportunity should
present, let what would be.

With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set
myself upon the scout as often as possible, and in-
deed so often, that I was heartily tired of it; for it
was above a year and a half that I waited ; and for
great part of that time went out to the west end,

68 ROBINSON CRUSOE

and to the south-west corner, of the island, almost
every day, to look 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) 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 shun the
sight of these savages, and avoid being seen by
them, as I was now eager to be upon them. Be-
sides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay,
two or three savages, if I had them, so as to make
them entirely slaves to me, to do whatever I should
direct them, and to prevent their being able at any
time to do me any hurt. It was a great while that
I pleased 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.

CHAPTER XXII

About a year and a half after I entertained
these notions (and by long musing had, as
it were, resolved them all into nothing, for want
of an occasion to put them into execution), I was
surprised, one morning early, with seeing no less
than five canoes all on shore together on my 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 at-
tack twenty or thirty men single-handed ; so lay
still in my castle, perplexed and discomforted.
However, I put myself into all the same postures
for an attack that I had formerly provided, and
was just ready for action, if anything had pre-
sented. Having waited a good while, listening to
hear if they made any noise, at length, being very
impatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder,
and clambered up to the top of the hill, by my two

70 THE ADVENTURES OF

stages, as usual ; standing so, however, that my
head did not appear above the hill, so that they
could not perceive me by any means. Here I ob-
served, by the help of my perspective glass, that
they were no less than thirty in number ; that they
had a fire kindled, and that they had meat dressed.
How they had cooked it 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 dragged
from the boats, where, it seems, they were laid by,
and were now brought out for the slaughter. I per-
ceived one of them immediately fall, 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 him-
self a little at liberty, and unbound, nature inspired
him with hopes of life, and he started away from
them, and ran with incredible swiftness along the
sands, directly towards me, I mean towards that
part of the coast where my habitation was. I was
dreadfully frightened, I must acknowledge, when
I perceived him run my way, and especially when,
as I thought, I saw him pursued by the whole
body ; and now I expected that part of my dream
was coming to pass, and that he would certainly

ROBINSON CRUSOE 71

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, and my spirits began to recover, when I
found that there was not above three men that fol-
lowed 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.

There was between them and my castle the
creek, which I mentioned often in the first part
of my story, where 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
others, but went no farther, and soon after went
softly back again ; which, as it happened, was very
well for him in the end. I observed that the two
who swam were yet more than twice as long swim-
ming over the creek as the fellow was that fled
from them. It came now very warmly upon my
thoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was

72 THE ADVENTURES OF

the time to get me a servant, and perhaps a com-
panion or assistant, and that I was called plainly
by Providence to save this poor creature's life. I
immediately ran down the ladders with all possible
expedition, fetched my two guns, for they were
both 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 toward the sea, and
having a very short cut, and all down-hill, placed
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 fright-
ened at me as at them. But I beckoned with my
hand to him to come back ; and, in the mean time,
I slowly advanced towards the two that followed ;
then, rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked
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 him stopped, as if he had been
frightened, and I advanced apace towards him ;
but as I came nearer, I perceived presently he had
a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at
me : so I was then necessitated to shoot at him
first, which I did, and killed him at the first shot.
The poor savage who fled but had stopped,
though he saw both his enemies fallen and killed,
as he thought, yet was so frightened with the fire

Plate VIII

ROBINSON CRUSOE 73

and noise of my piece that he stood stock-still,
and neither came forward nor went backward,
though he seemed rather inclined still to fly 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 farther, 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 to him again
to come to me, and gave him all the signs of en-
couragement that I could think of; and he came
nearer and nearer, kneeling down every ten or
twelve steps, in token of acknowledgment for sav-
ing his life. I smiled at him, and looked pleasantly,
and beckoned to him to come still 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 for ever. 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 per-
ceived 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 showed
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

74 THE ADVENTURES OF

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 sav-
age began to be afraid ; but when I saw that, I pre-
sented my other piece at the man, as if I would
shoot him. Upon this my savage, for so I call him
now, made a motion to me to lend him my sword
which hung naked in a belt by my side, which I
did. He no sooner had it but he runs to his
enemy, and at one blow cut off his head so cleverly
no executioner in Germany could have done it
sooner or better; which I thought very strange
for one who, I had reason to believe, never saw a
sword in his life before, 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 with them, aye, and arms, and that at
one blow, too. When he had done this, he comes
laughing to me, in sign of triumph, and brought
me the sword again, and with abundance of ges-
tures, which I did not understand, laid it down,
with the head of the savage that he had killed, just
before me.

But that which astonished him most was to know
how I killed the other Indian so far off; so point-
ing 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, look-

ROBINSON CRUSOE 75

ing at him, turning him first on one side, then on
the 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 go away,
and beckoned him to follow me, making signs to
him that more might come after them. Upon
this, he made signs to me that he should bury
them with sand, that they might not be seen by
the rest, if they followed ; and so I made signs to
him again to do so. He fell to work; and, in an
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
by the other also ; I believe he had buried them
both in a quarter of an hour. Then calling him
away, I carried him, not to my castle, but quite
away, to my cave, on the farther part of the island ;
so I did not let my dream come to pass in that
part, viz., that he came into my grove for shelter.
Here I gave him bread and a bunch of raisins to
eat, and a draught of water, which I found he
was indeed in great distress for, by his running ;
and having refreshed him, I made signs for him
to go and lie down to sleep, showing him a place
where I had laid some rice-straw, and a blanket
upon it, which I used to sleep upon myself some-
times; so the poor creature lay down, and went
to sleep.

76 THE ADVENTURES OF

He was a comely, handsome fellow, perfectly
well-made, with straight, strong limbs, not too large,
tall and well-shaped, and, as I reckon, about twenty-
six years of age. He had a very good countenance,
not a fierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have
something very manly in his face; and yet he had
all the sweetness and softness of an European in
his countenance too, especially when he smiled.
His hair was long and black, not curled like wool;
his forehead very high and large, and a great vivac-
ity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The col-
our of his skin was not quite black, but very tawny ;
and yet not 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-
colour, 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 as white as ivory.

After he had slumbered, rather than slept, about
half an hour, he awoke again, and came out 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, with all the possible signs of an
humble, thankful disposition, making a great many
antic gestures 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 subjec-

ROBINSQN CRUSOE 77

tion, servitude, and submission imaginable, to let
me know how he would serve me as long as he lived.
I understood him in many things, and let him know
I was 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 let 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 of them.
I gave him some milk in an earthen pot, and let
him see me drink it before him, and sop my bread
in it; and gave him a cake of bread to do the like,
which he quickly complied with, and made signs
that it was very good. I kept there with him all that
night; but as soon as it was day, I beckoned to him
to come with 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 abhor-
rence 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 sub-
mission. I then 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

78 THE ADVENTURES OF

they had been, but no appearance of them or their
canoes; so that it was plain that they were gone,
and had left their two comrades behind them, with-
out any search after them.

But I was not content with this discovery ; but
having now more courage, and consequently more
curiosity, I took my man Friday with me, giving
him the sword in his hand, with the bow and ar-
rows 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 I came 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, and great
pieces of flesh left here and there, half-eaten, man-
gled, and scorched ; and, in short, all the tokens of
the triumphant feast they had been making there,
after a victory over their enemies. I saw three sculls,
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, point-
ing to himself, was the fourth; that there had been
a great battle between them and their next king,
whose subjects, it seems, he had been one of, and

ROBINSON CRUSOE 79

that they had taken a great number 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 caused Friday to gather up all the sculls, bones,
flesh, and whatever remained, and lay them to-
gether in 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; but I dis-
covered so much abhorrence at the very thoughts
of it, and at the least appearance of it, that he durst
not discover it; for I had, by some means, let him
know that I would kill him if he offered it.

When he 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 1 men-
tioned which I found in the wreck ; and which, with
a little alteration, fitted him very well, and then I
made him a jerkin of goat's skin, as well as my
skill would allow (for I was now grown a tolerable
good tailor); and I gave him a cap, which I made
of hare's skin, very convenient and fashionable
enough; and thus he was clothed for the 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 those clothes at first:
wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and
the sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoul-

80 THE ADVENTURES OF

ders, and the inside of his arms ; but after a little
easing them where he complained they hurt him,
and using himself to them, he took to them at
length 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.
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 in 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 mak-
ing so much noise in getting over that it must needs
waken me; for my first wall had now a complete roof
over it of long poles, covering all my tent, and lean-
ing up to the side 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
place which was left to go in or out by the ladder, I
had placed a kind of trap-door, which, if it had been
attempted on the outside, would not have opened
at all, but would have fallen down, and made a great
noise; as to weapons, I took them all into my side
every night. But I needed none of all this precau-
tion, for never man had a more faithful, loving, sin-

ROBINSON CRUSOE 81

cere servant than Friday was to me; without pas-
sions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and
engaged — his very affections were tied to me, like
those of a child to a father; and I dare say he would
have sacrificed his life for the saving mine upon any
occasion whatsoever: the many testimonies he gave
me of this put it out of doubt, and soon convinced
me that I needed to use 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 a part of
the world of his creatures the best uses to which
their faculties and the powers of their souls 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 all
the capacities of doing good, and receiving good,
that he has given to us ; and that when he pleases
to offer them occasions of exerting these, they are
as ready, nay, more ready, to apply them to the
right uses for which they were bestowed than we
are. This made me very melancholy sometimes, in
reflecting, as the several occasions presented, how
mean a use we make of all these, even though we
have these powers enlightened by the great lamp
of instruction, the Spirit of God, and by the know-
ledge of his word added to our understanding; and

82 THE ADVENTURES OF

why it has pleased God to hide the like saving know-
ledge from so many millions of souls, who, if I might
judge by this poor savage, would make a much bet-
ter use of it than we did. From hence I was some-
times led too far, to invade the sovereignty of
Providence, and as it were arraign the justice of so
arbitrary a disposition of things, that should hide
that light from 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 as God was neces-
sarily, and by the nature of his being, infinitely holy
and just, so it could not be but if these creatures
were all sentenced to absence from himself, it was on
account of sinning against that light, which, as the
Scripture 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, secondly, that still, as we all are 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 business
to teach him everything that was proper to make
him useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to
make him speak, and understand me when I spoke ;
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

ROBINSON CRUSOE 83

to me to talk to him. 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 where
I lived*

CHAPTER XXIII

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 of other flesh ; so I took him out with
me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed, in-
tending to kill a kid out of my own flock, and bring
it 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," said 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, nor 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 shot at, or perceive I had killed it,
but ripped up his waistcoat, to feel whether he was
not wounded, and, as I found presently, thought I

ROBINSON CRUSOE 85

was resolved to kill him ; for he came and kneeled
down to me, and, embracing my knees, said a great
many things I did not understand; but I could
easily see the meaning was, to pray me not to kill
him.

I soon found away 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 wandering, and looking
to see how the creature was killed, I loaded my gun
again. By and by, I saw a great fowl, like a hawk,
sitting upon a tree, within shot ; so, to let Friday
understand a little what I would do, I called him
to me again, pointed 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 would
make it fall, I made him understand that I would
shoot and kill that bird: accordingly I fired and
bade him look, and immediately he saw the parrot
fall. He stood like one frightened again, notwith-
standing all I had said to him ; and I found he was
the more amazed, because he did not see me put
anything into the gun, but thought that there must
be some wonderful fund of death and destruction
in that thing, able to kill man, beast, or bird, or
anything near or far off; and the astonishment this
created in him was such as could not wear off for
a long time ; and I believe, if I would have let him,
he would have worshipped me and my gun. As for

86 THE ADVENTURES OF

the gun itself, he would not so much as touch it
for several days after ; but he 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, I pointed to
him to run and fetch the bird I had shot, which he
did, but stayed some time; for the parrot, not be-
ing quite dead, had fluttered away a good distance
from the place 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 to let him see me do it, that I might 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 fit
for that purpose, I boiled or stewed some of the
flesh, and made some very good broth. After I had
begun to eat some, I gave some to my man, who
seemed very glad of it, and liked it very well ; but
that which was strangest to him was to see me eat
salt with it. He made a sign to me that the salt
was not good to eat ; and putting a little into his
mouth, he seemed to nauseate it, and would spit
and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh
water after it : on the other hand, I took some
meat into my mouth without salt, and I pretended
to spit and sputter for want of salt, as fast as he
had done at the salt ; but it would not do : he

ROBINSON CRUSOE 87

would never care for salt with his meat or in his
broth ; at least, hot for a great while, and then but
very little.

Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth,
I was resolved to feast him the next day with roast-
ing a piece of kid ; this I did by hanging it before
the fire on a string, as I had seen many people do
in England, setting two poles up, one on each side
of the fire, and one across on the top, and tying
the string to the cross-stick, letting the meat turn
continually. 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,
as well as he could, he would never eat man's flesh
any more, which I was very glad to hear.

The next day I set him to work to beating some
corn out, and sifting it in the manner I used to do,
as I observed 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 it : for after that I let him see me make my bread,
and bake it too ; and in a little time Friday was able
to do all the work 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 ground
for my harvest, and plant a larger quantity of corn
than I used to do ; so I marked out a larger piece
of land, and began the fence in the same manner as
before, in which Friday worked not only very will-

88 THE ADVENTURES OF

ingly 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 have enough for him and myself too.
He appeared very sensible of that part, and let me
know that he thought I had much more labour
upon me on his account than I had for myself, and
that he would work the harder for me if I would
tell him what to do.

This was the pleasantest year of all the life I led
in this place. Friday began to talk pretty well,
and understand the names of almost everything
I had occasion to call for and of every place I had
to send him to, and talked a great deal to me ; so
that, in short, I began now to have some use for
my tongue again, which, indeed, I had very little
occasion for before, that is to say, about speech.
Besides the pleasure of talking to him, I had
a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself: his
simple, unfeigned honesty appeared to me more
and more every day, and I began 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 hanker-
ing inclination to his own country again ; and hav-
ing taught him English so well that he could answer
me almost any question, I asked him whether the
nation that he belonged to never conquered in bat-
tle ? At which he smiled, and said, " Yes, yes, we
always fight the better " ; that is, he meant, always

ROBINSON CRUSOE 89

get the better in fight ; and so we began the follow-
ing discourse :

Master. You always fight the better? how came
you to be taken prisoner then, Friday ?

Friday. My nation beat much, for all that.

Master. How beat ? If your nation beat them,
how came you to be taken ?

Friday. They more many than my nation in
the place where me was ; they take one, two, three,
and me ; my nation overheat them in the yonder
place, where me no was ; there my nation take one,
two, great thousand.

Master. But why did not your side recover
you from the hands of your enemies, then ?

Friday. They run one, two, three, and me, and
make go in the canoe ; my nation have no canoe
that time.

Master. Well, Friday, and what does your
nation do with the men they take ? Do they carry
them away and eat them, as these did ?

Friday. Yes, my nation eat mans too ; eat all up.

Master. Where do they carry them ?

Friday. Go to other place, where they think.

Master. Do they come hither ?

Friday. Yes, yes, they come hither; come other
else place.

Master. Have you been here with them ?

Friday. Yes, I have been here. (Points to the
north-west side of the island, which, it seems, was
their side.)

By this I understood that my man Friday had

9o THE ADVENTURES OF

formerly been among the savages who used to come
on shore on the farther part of the island, on the
same man-eating occasions he was 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 he numbered them by laying so
many stones in a row, and pointing to me to tell
them over.

I have told this passage because it introduces what
follows : that after I had this discourse with him, I
asked him how far it was from our island to the shore,
and whether the canoes were not often lost. He told
me there was no danger, no canoes ever lost; but
that, after a little way out to sea, there was a current
and 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 draft and reflux of the mighty river Oroo-
noko,in the mouth or gulf of which river, as I found
afterwards, our island lay; and that this land which
I perceived to the west and north-west 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 peo-

ROBINSON CRUSOE 91

pie, but could get no other name than Caribs ; from
whence I easily understood that these were the Ca-
ribbees, which our maps place on the part of America
which reaches from the mouth of the river Oroo-
noko 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 west from their country, there dwelt white,
bearded men, like me, and pointed to my great
whiskers, which I mentioned before ; and that they
had killed much "mans," that was his word ; by all
which I understood he meant the Spaniards, whose
cruelties in America had been spread over the whole
country, and were remembered by all the nations,
from father to son. I inquired if he could tell me
how I might go from this island and get among
those white men ; he told me, " Yes, yes, you may
go in two canoe." I could not understand what he
meant, 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 boat, as
big as two canoes. This part of Friday's discourse
began to relish with me very well ; and from this
time I entertained some hopes that, one time or
other, I might find an opportunity to make my
escape from this place, and that this poor savage
might be a means to help me.

During the long time that Friday had now been
with me, and that he began to speak to me and
understand me, I was not wanting to lay a founda-
tion of religious knowledge in his mind ; partic-

92 THE ADVENTURES OF

ularly I asked him, one time, who made him ? The
poor creature did not understand me at all, but
thought I had asked him who was his father; but
I took it up 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 Bena-
muckee, 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 ? He looked very grave,and
with a perfect look of innocence said, "All things
say cO' to 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 ate up went thither
too ? He said, " Yes." From these things I began
to instruct him in the knowledge of the true God :
I told him that the great Maker of all things lived
up there, pointing up towards heaven; that he gov-
erned the world by the same power and providence
by which he made it ; that he was omnipotent, and
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 atten-
tion, and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus
Christ being sent to redeem us, and of the man-
ner of making our prayers to God, and his being
able to hear us, even in heaven. He told me one
day that, if our God could hear us up beyond the

ROBINSON CRUSOE 93

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 ever he went thither to speak to him ?
He said, no, they never went that were young
men ; none went thither 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 I observed that there is
priestcraft even among the most blinded, ignorant
pagans in the world ; and the policy of making a
secret of religion, in order to preserve the venera-
tion of the people to the clergy, is not only to be
found in the Roman, but perhaps among all relig-
ions in the world, even among the most brutish
and barbarous savages.

I endeavoured 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 bringing
word from thence what he said was much more so ;
that if they met with any answer, or spake 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 him-
self up in the dark parts of the world to be wor-
shipped instead of God, and as God, and the many

94 THE ADVENTURES OF

stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to
their ruin ; how he had a secret access to our pas-
sions and to our affections, and to adapt his snares
to our inclinations, so as to cause us even to be our
own tempters, and run upon our destruction by
our own choice.

I found it was not so easy to imprint right no-
tions in his mind about the Devil as it was about
the being of a God ; nature assisted all my arguments
to evidence to him even the necessity of a great
First Cause and overruling, governing Power, a
secret, directing Providence, and of the equity and
justice of paying homage to him that made us, and
the like ; but there appeared nothing of this kind
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
scarce knew what to say to him. I had been talk-
ing a great deal to him of the power of God, his
omnipotence, his aversion to sin, his being a con-
suming fire to the workers of iniquity ; how, as he
had made us all, he could destroy us and all the
world in a moment; and he listened with great se-
riousness 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,

ROBINSON CRUSOE 95

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 to tread him down
under our feet, and enable us to resist his tempta-
tions, and quench his fiery darts." " But," says he
again, "if God much stronger, much might as the
Devil, why God no kill the Devil, so make him no
more do wicked ? " I was strangely surprised at this
question ; and, after all, though I was now an old
man, yet I was but a young doctor, and ill quali-
fied for a casuist, 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 ques-
tion, so that he repeated it in the very same broken
words as above. By this time I had recovered my-
self a little, and I said, " God will at last punish
him severely; he is reserved for the judgment, and
is to be cast into the bottomless pit, to dwell with
everlasting fire." This did not satisfy Friday; but
he returns upon 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 me when we do wicked things here that offend
him. We are preserved to repent and be pardoned."
He mused some time on 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

96 THE ADVENTURES OF

degree ; and it was a testimony to me how the mere
notions of nature, though they will guide reason-
able 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 no-
thing but divine revelation can form the knowledge
of Jesus Christ, and of redemption 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
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I mean the
Word of God, and the Spirit of God, promised
for the guide and sanctifier of his people, are the
absolutely necessary instructors of the souls of men
in the saving knowledge of God, and the means of
salvation.

I therefore diverted the present discourse be-
tween 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, re-
conciling him to himself, and would guide me to
speak so to him from the word of God as his con-
science might be convinced, his eyes opened, and
his soul saved. When he came again to me I en-
tered into a long discourse with him upon the
subject of the redemption of man by the Saviour

ROBINSON CRUSOE 97

of the world, and of the doctrine of the gospel
preached from heaven, viz., of repentance towards
God, and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. 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 know-
ledge in all the methods I took for this poor crea-
ture's instruction, and must acknowledge, what I
believe all that act upon the same principle will
find, that in laying things open to him I really in-
formed and instructed myself in many things that
either I did not know, or had not fully considered
before, but which occurred naturally to my mind
upon searching into them, for the information of
this poor savage ; and I had more affection in my
inquiry after things upon this occasion than ever
I felt before, so that, whether this poor wild wretch
was the better for me or no, I had great reason to
be thankful that ever he came to me. My grief
sat lighter upon me ; my habitation grew comfort-
able 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 to look up to
Heaven myself, and to seek the hand that had
brought me here, but was now to be made an in-
strument, under Providence, to save the life, and,
for aught I knew, the soul, of a poor savage, and

98 THE ADVENTURES OF

bring him to the true knowledge of religion and of
the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ
Jesus, in whom is life eternal ; I say, when I re-
flected upon all these things, a secret joy ran 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.

I continued in this thankful frame all the re-
mainder of my time ; and the conversation which
employed the hours between Friday and me 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. This 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, restored peni-
tents. We had here the word of God to read, and
no farther off from his Spirit to instruct than if
we had been in England. I always applied myself,
in reading the Scriptures, to let him know, as well
as I could, the meaning of what I read ; and he
again, by his serious inquiries and questionings,
made me, as I said before, a much better scholar
in the Scripture-knowledge than I should ever have
been by my own private reading. Another thing
I cannot refrain from observing here also, from
experience in this retired part of my life, viz., how
infinite and inexpressible a blessing it is that the
knowledge of God, and of the doctrine of salva-

ROBINSON CRUSOE 99

tion by Christ Jesus, is so plainly laid down in the
word of God, so easy to be received and under-
stood, that, as the bare reading the Scripture made
me capable of understanding enough of my duty
to carry me directly on to the great work of sin-
cere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of a
Saviour for life and salvation, to a stated reforma-
tion in practice, and obedience to alt God's com-
mands, and this without any teacher or instructor,
I mean human ; so, the same plain instruction suf-
ficiently 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, wrangling, strife, and con-
tention, which have happened in the world about
religion, whether niceties in doctrines, or schemes
of church government, they were all perfectly use-
less to us, and, for aught I can yet see, they have
been so to the rest of the world. We had the sure
guide to heaven, viz., the word of God, and we had,
blessed be God, comfortable views of the Spirit of
God teaching and instructing us by his word, lead-
ing 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 of religion, which have made
such confusions in the world, would have been to
us, if we could have obtained it. — But I must go
on with the historical part of things, and take every
part in its order.

CHAPTER XXIV

After Friday and I became more intimately
acquainted, and that he could understand
almost all I said to him, and speak pretty fluently,
though in broken English, to me, I acquainted him
with my own history, or at least so much of it as
related to my coming to this place: how I had lived
here, 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 delighted with ; and I made him
a belt with a frog hanging to it, such as in England
we wear hangers in ; and in the frog, instead of a
hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was not only
as good a weapon, in some cases, but much more
useful upon other occasion.

I described to him the country of Europe, par-
ticularly^England, which I came from ; how we lived,
how we worshipped God, how we behaved to one
another; and how we traded in ships to all parts
of the world. I gave him an account of the wreck
which I had been on board of, and showed him, as

ROBINSON CRUSOE 101

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, Friday stood musing a great
while, and said nothing. I asked him what it was
he studied 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 farther into it, I understood by him
that a boat, such as that had been, came on shore
upon the country where he lived; that is, as he ex-
plained it, was driven thither by stress of weather.
I presently imagined that some European ship must
have been cast away upon their coast, and the boat
might get loose, and drive ashore ; but was so dull
that I never once thought of men making their
escape from a wreck thither, much less whence they
might come : so I only 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 I presently asked him if
there were any white mans, as he called them, in the
boat? " Yes," he said; "the boat full of white mans."
I asked him how many ? He told upon his fingers
seventeen. I asked him then what became of them ?
He told me, "They live, they dwell at my nation."

This put new thoughts into my head; for I pre-

ioa THE ADVENTURES OF

sently imagined that these might be the men be-
longing to the ship that was cast away in the sight of
my island, as I now called it; and who, 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 lived still
there ; that they had been there about four years ;
that the savages let them alone, and gave them vict-
uals to live on. 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 then he added, " They
no eat mans but when make the war fight"; that
is to say, they never eat any men but such as come
to fight with them, and are taken in battle.

It was after this some considerable time that be-
ing upon the top of the hill, at the east side of the
island, from whence, as I have said, I had, in a clear
day, discovered the main or continent of America,
Friday, the weather being very serene, looks very
earnestly towards the main land, and in a kind of
surprise falls a-jumping and dancing, and calls out
to me, for I was at some distance from him. I asked
him what was the matter? "O joy!" says he, "O
glad! there see my country, there my nation !" I
observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure ap-
peared in his face, and his eyes sparkled, and his
countenance discovered a strange eagerness, as if he
had a mind to be in his own country again. This

ROBINSON CRUSOE 103

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 relig-
ion, but all his obligation to me, and would be for-
ward 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 which
he might be as merry as he used to be with those of
his enemies, when they were taken in war. But I
wronged 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 wrong, too; the honest, grateful creature having
no thought about it but what consisted with the
best principles, both as a religious Christian, and
as a grateful friend, as appeared afterwards to my
full satisfaction.

While my jealousy of him lasted, you may be
sure I was every day pumping him, to see if he 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 un-
easiness, he made me at last entirely his own again ;
nor did he, in the least, perceive that I was uneasy,
and therefore I could not suspect him of deceit.

One day, walking up the same hill, but the

104 THE ADVENTURES OF

weather being hazy at sea, so that we could not see
the continent, I called to him, and said, " Friday,
do not you wish yourself in your own country, your
own nation ?" "Yes," he said, "I be much O glad
to be at my 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 be-
fore ? " 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, 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 came in the
boat. Then I asked him if he would go back to
them. He smiled at that, and told me that he could
not swim so far. I told him I would make a canoe
for him. He told me he would go if I would 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 had killed his
enemies and saved his life, and so he would make
them love me. Then he told me, as well as he could,
how kind they were to seventeen white men, or
bearded men, as he called them, who came on shore
there in distress.

From this time I confess I had a mind to ven-
ture over, and see if I could possibly join with those

ROBINSON CRUSOE 105

bearded men, who, I made no doubt, were Span-
iards, and 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 him to my frigate, which lay on the other
side of the island, and having cleared it of water
(for I always kept it sunk in water) I brought it out,
showed it him, and we both went into it. I found
he was a most dexterous fellow at managing it, and
would make it go almost as swift again as I could.
So when he was in, I said to him, " Well, now, Fri-
day, shall we go to your 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 then
told him 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 the water. He
said that was big enough: but then, as I had taken
no care of it, and it had lain two- or three-and-
twenty years there, the sun had split and dried it,
that it was in a manner rotten. Friday told me such
a boat would do very well, and would carry "much
enough vittle, drink, bread " ; that was his way of
talking.

Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon
my design of going over with him to the continent

106 THE ADVENTURES OF

that I told 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, "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 ? " says he, repeating the words several times ;
"why send Friday home away to my nation?"
" Why," says I, " Friday,did not you 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 with-
out me. " I go there, Friday ! " says I ; "what shall
I do there ? " He returned very quick upon me at
this : " You do great deal much good," says he ;
"you teach wild mans 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 man my-
self." "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 hatch-
ets which he used to wear, he takes it up hastily, and
gives it to me. "What must I do with this? " says
I to him. "You take kill Friday," says he. "What
must I kill you for ? " said I again. He returns very
quick. "What you send Friday away for ? Take kill
Friday, no send Friday away." This he spoke so

ROBINSON CRUSOE 107

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 inten-
tion, 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 bearded
men there ; and, therefore, without any more delay,
I went to work with Friday to find out a great tree
proper to fell, and make a large periagua, or canoe,
to undertake the voyage. There were trees enough
in the island to have built a little fleet, not of peri-
aguas, or canoes, 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 I found he
knew much better than I what kind of wood was
fittest for it ; nor can I tell, to this day, what wood
to call the tree we cut down, except that it was very
like the tree we call fustic, or between that and the
Nicaragua wood, for it was much of the same colour

108 THE ADVENTURES OF

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 to cut it with tools ; which, after
I had showed him how to use, he did very handily:
and in about a month's hard labour we 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 fort-
night's time to get her along, as it were inch by
inch, upon great 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, and
how swift, my man Friday would manage her, turn
her, and paddle her along. So I asked him if he
would, and if we might, venture over in her. "Yes/'
he said, "we venture over in her very well, though
great blow wind." However, I had a further de-
sign, that he knew nothing of, and that was to
make a mast and a sail, and to fit her with an an-
chor and cable. As to a mast, that was easy enough
to get: so I pitched upon a straight young cedar
tree, which I found near the place, and which there
were great plenty of in the island ; and I set Fri-
day to work to cut it down, and gave him direc-
tions how to shape and order it. But as to the sail,
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 six-and-twenty years by me, and

Plate IX

ROBINSON CRUSOE 109

had not been very careful to preserve them,, not
imagining that I should ever have this kind of use
for them, I did not doubt but they were all rotten,
and, indeed, most of them were so. However, I
found two pieces, which appeared pretty good, and
with these I went to work ; and with a great deal
of pains, and awkward 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, such as
usually our ship's long-boats sail with, and such as
I best knew how to manage, as it was such a one
I had to the boat in which I made my escape from
Barbary, as related in the first part of my story.

I was near two months performing this last
work, viz., rigging and fitting my mast and sails ;
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. I was but a bungling shipwright, yet, as I
knew the usefulness, and even necessity, of such
a thing, I applied myself with so much pains to do
it that at last I brought it to pass ; though, con-
sidering the many dull contrivances I had for it that
failed, I think it cost me almost as much labour
as making the boat.

After all this was done, I had my man Friday
to teach as to what belonged to the navigation of
my boat ; for, though he knew very well how to

no THE ADVENTURES OF

paddle a canoe, he knew nothing what belonged
to a sail and a rudder ; and was the most amazed
when he saw me work the boat to and again in the
sea by the rudder, and how the sail gibed, and
filled this way, or that way, as the course we sailed
changed; I say, when he saw this, he stood like
one astonished and amazed. However, with a lit-
tle use, I made all these things familiar to him,
and he became an expert sailor, except that, as to
the compass, I could make him understand very
little of that. On the other hand, as there was very
little cloudy weather, and seldom or never any fogs
in those parts, there was the less occasion for a
compass, seeing the stars were always to be seen
by night, and the shore by day, except in the rainy
seasons, 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 hab-
itation being quite of another kind than in all the
rest of the time. I kept the anniversary of 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 I should

ROBINSON CRUSOE in

not be another year in this place. I went on, how-
ever, with my husbandry, digging, planting, and
fencing, as usual. I gathered and cured my grapes,
and did every necessary thing as before.

The rainy season was, in the mean time, upon
me, when I kept more within-doors than at other
times. We had stowed our own vessel as secure as
we could, bringing her up into the creek, where,
as I said in the beginning, I landed my rafts from
the ship ; and hauling her up to the shore, at high-
water mark, I made 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, we made a strong
dam across the end of it, to keep the water out ;
and so she lay dry, as to the tide, from the sea ;
and to keep the rain off, we laid a great many
boughs of trees, so thick that she was as well
thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the
months 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 design returned with the fair
weather, I was preparing daily for the voyage, and
the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quan-
tity 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 I called to Friday, and bid him go to the
sea-shore, and see if he could find a turtle, or tor-

ii2 THE ADVENTURES OF

toise, a thing which we generally got once a week,
for the sake of the eggs as well as the flesh. Fri-
day had not been long gone when he came run-
ning back, and flew over my outer wall, or fence,
like one that felt not the ground, or the steps he
set his feet on ; and before I had time to speak to
him, he cries out to me, "O master! O master! O
sorrow ! O bad ! " "What 's the matter, Friday ? "
says I. " O yonder, there," says he, " one, two,
three canoe : one, two, three ! " By this way of
speaking I concluded there were six; but, on in-
quiry, I found it was but three. " Well, Friday/'
says I, "do not be frightened ! " 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," says 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 to defend him, he would defend me, and
stand by me; and do just as I bid him. He said,
"Me die, 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

ROBINSON CRUSOE

"3

had a great deal left. When he drank it, I made
him take the two fowling-pieces, which we always
carried, and loaded them with large swan-shot, as
big as small pistol-bullets; then I took four mus-
kets, 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, n aked by my side, and gave Friday his hatchet.
When I had thus prepared myself, I took my per-
spective 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-twenty sav-
ages, three prisoners, and three canoes ; and that
their whole business seemed to be the triumphant
banquet upon these three human bodies ; a bar-
barous feast indeed ! but nothing more than, as I
had observed, was usual with them. I observed also
that they were landed, not where they had done
when Friday made his escape, but nearer to my
creek, where the shore was low, and where a thick
wood came almost close down to the sea. This,
with the abhorrence of the inhuman errand these
wretches came about, filled me with such indigna-
tion that I came down again to Friday, and told
him I was resolved to go down to them and kill
them all ; and asked him if he would stand by me.
He had now got 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.

In this fit of fury, I took and divided the arms

ii4 THE ADVENTURES OF

which I had charged, as before, between us : 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 guns myself; and in this posture we
marched out. I took a small bottle of rum in my
pocket, and gave Friday a large bag with more
powder and bullets ; and, as to orders, I charged
him to keep close behind me, and not to stir, or
shoot, or do anything, till I bid him ; and, in the
mean time, not to speak a word. In this posture,
I fetched a compass to my right hand of near a
mile, as well to get over the creek as to get into the
wood, so that I might come within shot of them
before I should be discovered, which I had seen, by
my glass, it was easy to do.

While I was making this march, my former
thoughts returning, I began to abate my resolu-
tion : 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 and dip my hands in blood,
to attack people who had neither done nor intended
me any wrong ; who, as to me, were innocent, and
whose barbarous customs were their own disaster;
being, in 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 be
a judge of their actions, much less an executioner of

ROBINSON CRUSOE 115

his justice ; that, whenever he thought 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 mean time, 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 myself. 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 fol-
lowing close at my heels, I marched till I came to
the skirt of the wood, on the side which was next
to them, only that one corner of the wood lay be-
tween 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 bade him go to the tree, and
bring me word if he could see there plainly what
they were doing. He did so, and came immediately
back to me, and told me they might be plainly
viewed there; that they were all about their fire,
eating the flesh of one of their prisoners, and that
another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them,
which, he said, they would kill next, and which fired

n6 ROBINSON CRUSOE

all the very soul within me. He told me it was not
one of their nation, but one of the bearded men 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 his feet tied
with flags, or things like rushes, and that he was an
European, and had clothes on.

There was another tree, and a little thicket be-
yond it, about fifty yards nearer to them than the
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 a shot of them ; so I with-
held 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 came to
a little rising ground, which gave me a full view of
them, at the distance of about eighty yards.

CHAPTER XXV

Ihad now not a moment to lose, for nineteen
of the dreadful wretches sat upon the ground,
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 stooping down to untie the bands at his feet.
I turned to Friday — "Now, Friday," said I, " do
as I bid thee." Friday said he would. "Then, Fri-
day," 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 the other musket I
took my aim at the savages, bidding him to do the
like; then asking him if he 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 three more ; and on my side, I killed
one and wounded two. They were, you may be
sure, in a dreadful consternation; and all of them

n8 THE ADVENTURES OF

who were not hurt jumped upon their feet, but did
not immediately know which way to run, or which
way to look, for they knew not from which their
destruction came. Friday kept his eyes close upon
me that, as I had bid 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 saw me cock and
present; he did the same again. "Are you ready,
Friday ? " said I. " Yes," says he. " Let fly, 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 loaden with
what I called swan-shot, or small pistol-bullets, we
found only two drop, but so many were wounded
that they ran about yelling and screaming like mad
creatures, all bloody, and most of them miserably
wounded, whereof three more fell quickly after,
though not quite dead.

" Now, Friday," says I, laying down the dis-
charged pieces, and taking up the musket which
was yet loaden, "follow me"; which he did, with
a great deal of courage ; 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 do
so too ; and running as fast as I could, which, by
the way, was not very fast, being loaded 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

ROBINSON CRUSOE

119

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 sea-side, and had
jumped into a canoe, and three more of the rest
made the same way. I turned to Friday, and bade
him step forwards and fire at them; he understood
me immediately, and running about forty yards,
to be nearer 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 ate. 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. " Signor," said I, with as much
Spanish as I could make up, "we will talk after-
wards, but we must fight now: if you have any
strength left, take this pistol and sword, and lay
about you." He took them very thankfully ; and

i2o THE ADVENTURES OF

no sooner had he the arms in his hands but, as if
they had put new vigour into him, he flew upon his
murderers like a fury, and had cut two of them in
pieces in an instant ; for the truth is, as the whole
was a surprise to them, so the poor creatures were
so much frightened with the noise of our pieces
that they fell down for mere amazement and fear,
and had no more power to attempt their own es-
cape 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 him run up to the
tree from whence we first fired, and fetch the arms
which lay there that had been discharged, which
he did with great swiftness ; and then giving him
my musket, I sat down myself to load all the rest
again, and bade them come to me when they
wanted. While I was loading these pieces, there
happened a fierce engagement between the Spaniard
and one of the savages, who made at him with one
of their great wooden swords, the same-like weapon
that was to have killed him before, if I had not
prevented it. The Spaniard, who was as bold and
brave as could be imagined, though weak, had
fought this 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

ROBINSON CRUSOE 121

thrown him down, being faint, and was wringing
my sword out of his hand ; when the Spaniard,
though undermost, wisely quitted 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 dispatched 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 pur-
sued two of the savages, and wounded them both;
but, as he was not able to run, they both got from
him into the wood, where Friday pursued them,
and killed one of them, but the other was too
nimble for him ; and though he was wounded, yet
had plunged himself into the sea, and swam, with
all his might, off to those two who were left in the
canoe, which three in the canoe, with one wounded,
that we knew not whether he died or no, were all
that escaped our hands of one-and-twenty. The
account of the whole is as follows : three killed at
our first shot from the tree ; two killed at the next
shot ; two killed by Friday in the boat ; two killed
by Friday of those at first wounded ; one killed by
Friday in the wood ; three killed by the Spaniard ;
four killed, being found dropped here and there
of their wounds, or killed by Friday in his chase

122 THE ADVENTURES OF

of them ; four escaped in the boat, whereof one
wounded, if not dead, — twenty-one 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 take
one of their canoes and pursue them ; and indeed,
I was very anxious about their escape, lest, carry-
ing the news home to their people, they should
come back perhaps with two or three hundred of
the canoes, and devour us by mere multitude ; so
I consented to pursue them by sea, and running
to one of their canoes, I jumped in and bade Fri-
day follow me ; but when I was in the canoe, I was
surprised to find another poor creature lie there,
bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, for the
slaughter, and almost dead with fear, not knowing
what was the matter, 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 immedi-
ately cut the twisted flags or rushes, which they
had bound him with, and would have helped him
up ; but he could not stand or speak, but groaned
most piteously, 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, pulling out my bottle, made
him give the poor wretch a dram ; which, with the
news of his being delivered, revived him, and he sat
up in the boat. But when Friday came to hear him

ROBINSON CRUSOE 123

speak, and look in his face, it would have moved
any one into 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 dis-
tracted creature. It was a good while before I could
make him speak to me, or tell me what was the
matter; but when he came a little to himself, he
told me that it was his father.

It is not easy for me to express how it moved me
to see what ecstasy and filial affection had worked
in this poor savage at the sight of his father, and
of his being delivered from death ; nor, indeed, can
I describe half the extravagancies of his affection
after this ; for he went into the boat and out of the
boat a great many times ; when he went into him,
he would sit down by him, open his breast, and
hold his father's head close to his bosom for many
minutes together, to nourish it ; then he took his
arms and ankles, which were numbed and stiff with
the binding, and chafed and rubbed them with his
hands; and I, perceiving what the case was, gave
him some rum out of my bottle to rub them with,
which did them a great deal of good.

This affair put an end to our pursuit of the canoe
with the other savages, who were got now almost
out of sight; and it was happy for us that we did
not, for it blew so hard within two hours after, and
before they could be got a quarter of their way,
and continued blowing so hard all night, and that

124 THE ADVENTURES OF

from the north-west, which was against them, that
I could not suppose their boat could live, or that
they ever reached their own coast.

But to return to Friday : he was so busy about
his father that I could not find in my heart to take
him off for some time; but after I thought he could
leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came
jumping and laughing, and pleased to the highest
extreme. Then I asked him if he had given his
father any bread. He shook his head, and said,
" None; ugly dog eat all up self." I then gave him
a cake of bread, out of a little pouch I carried on
purpose ; I also gave him a dram for himself, but
he would not taste it, but carried it to his father. I
had in my pocket two or three bunches of raisins,
so I gave him a handful of them for his father. He
had no sooner given his father these raisins but I
saw him come out of the boat, and run away as if
he had been bewitched, he ran at such a rate ; for
he was the swiftest fellow on his feet that ever I
saw ; I say, he ran at such a rate that he was out
of sight, as it were, in an instant ; and though I
called and hallooed out, too, after him, it was all
one, away he went ; and in a quarter of an hour I
saw him come back again, though not so fast as he
went; and as he came nearer, I found his pace
slacker, because he had something in his hand.
When he came up to me, I found he had been
quite home for an earthen jug, or pot, to bring his
father some fresh water, and that he had two more
cakes or loaves of bread. The bread he gave me,

ROBINSON CRUSOE 125

but the water he carried to his father ; however, as
I was very thirsty too, I took a little sup of it.
The water revived his father more than all the
rum or spirits I had given him, for he was just
fainting with thirst.

When his father had drunk, I called to him to
know if there was any water left ; he said " Yes " ;
and I bade him give it to the poor Spaniard, who
was in as much want of it as his father ; and I sent
one of the cakes that Friday brought to the Span-
iard, too, who was indeed very weak, and was re-
posing himself upon a green place under the shade
of a tree ; and whose limbs were also very stiff, and
very much swelled with the rude bandage he had
been tied with. When I saw that, upon Friday's
coming to him with the water, he sat up and drank,
and took the bread, and began to eat, I went to him
and gave him a handful of raisins : he looked up in
my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thank-
fulness that could appear in any countenance ; but
was so weak, notwithstanding he had so exerted
himself in the fight, that he could not stand up upon
his feet; he tried to do it two or three times, but
was really not able, his ankles were so swelled and
so painful to him ; so I bade him sit still, and caused
Friday to rub his ankles, and bathe them with rum,
as he had done his father's.

I observed the poor affectionate creature, every
two minutes, or perhaps less, all the while he was
here, turn his head about to see if his father was
in the same place and posture as he left him sit-

126 THE ADVENTURES OF

ting; and at last he found he was not to be seen; at
which he started up, and, without speaking a word,
flew with that swiftness to him that one could scarce
perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went ;
but when he came, he only found he had laid him-
self down to ease his limbs, so Friday came back to
me presently ; and then I spoke to the Spaniard to
let Friday help him up, if he could, and lead him
to the boat, and then he should carry him to our
dwelling, where I would take care of him. But Fri-
day, a lusty strong fellow, took the Spaniard quite
up upon his back, and carried him away to the boat,
and set him down softly upon the side or gunnel
of the canoe, with his feet in the inside of it; and
then, lifting him quite in, he set him close to his
father; and presently stepping out again, launched
the boat off, and paddled it along the shore faster
than I could walk, though the wind blew pretty hard
too ; so he brought them both safe into our creek,
and leaving them in the boat, ran away to fetch the
other canoe. As he passed me, I spoke to him, and
asked him whither he went. He told me, " Go fetch
more boat " ; so away he went like the wind, for sure
never man or horse ran like him; and he had the
other canoe in the creek almost as soon as I got to
it by land ; so he wafted me over, and then went to
help our new guests out of the boat, which he did;
but they were neither of them able to walk, so that
poor Friday knew not what to do.

To remedy this, I went to work in my thought,
and calling to Friday to bid them sit down on the

ROBINSON CRUSOE 127

bank while he came to me, I soon made a kind
of a hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I
carried them both up together upon it, between us.
But when we got them to the outside of our wall,
or fortification, we were at a worse loss than before,
for it was impossible to get them over, and I was
resolved not to break it down. So I set to work
again ; and Friday and I, in about two hours' time,
made a very handsome tent, covered with old sails,
and above that with boughs of trees, being in the
space without our outward fence, and between that
and the grove of young wood which I had planted;
and here we made them two beds of such things as
I had, viz., of good rice-straw, with blankets laid
upon it, to lie on, and another, to cover them, on
each bed.

My island was now peopled, and I thought my-
self rich in subjects; and it was a merry reflection,
which I frequently made, how like a king I looked.
First of all, the whole country was my own mere
property, so that I had an undoubted right of do-
minion. Secondly, my people were perfectly sub-
jected; I was absolutely lord and lawgiver; they all
owed their lives to me, and were ready to lay down
their lives, if there had been occasion for it, for me.
It was remarkable, too, I had but three subjects,
and they were of three different religions; my man
Friday was a Protestant, his father was a Pagan and
a cannibal, and the Spaniard was a Papist; however,
I allowed liberty of conscience throughout my
dominions. — But this is by the way.

128 THE ADVENTURES OF

As soon as I had secured my two weak rescued
prisoners, and given them shelter, and a place to
rest them upon, I began to think of making some
provision for them ; and the first thing I did, I or-
dered Friday to take a yearling goat, betwixt a kid
and a goat, out of my particular flock, to be killed ;
when I cut off the hinder quarter, and chopping it
into small pieces, I set Friday to work to boiling
and stewing, and made them a very good dish, I as-
sure you, of flesh and broth, having put some bar-
ley and rice also into the broth. And as I cooked
it without-doors, for I made no fire within my inner
wall, so I carried it all into the new tent, and hav-
ing set a table there for them, I sat down, and ate
my dinner also with them, and, as well as I could,
cheered them, and encouraged them. Friday was
my interpreter, especially to his father, and, indeed,
to the Spaniard too; for the Spaniard spoke the
language of the savages pretty well.

After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered
Friday to take one of the canoes, and go and fetch
our muskets and other fire-arms, which, for want of
time, we had left upon the place of battle ; and, the
next day, I ordered him to go and bury the dead
bodies of the savages, which lay open to the sun,
and would presently be offensive. I also ordered
him to bury the horrid remains of their barbarous
feast, which I knew were pretty much, and which
I could not think of doing myself; nay, I could
not bear to see them, if I went that way ; all which
he punctually performed, and effaced the very ap-

ROBINSON CRUSOE 129

pearance of the savages being there ; so that when
I went again, I could scarce know where it was,
otherwise than by the corner of the wood pointing
to the place.

I then began to enter into a little conversation
with my two subjects: and, first, I set Friday to
inquire of his father what he thought of the escape
of the savages in that canoe, and whether we might
expect a return of them, with a power too great for
us to resist. His first opinion was, that the savages
in the boat could never live out the storm which
blew that night they went off, but must of necess-
ity be drowned, or driven south to those other
shores, where they were as sure to be devoured as
they were to be drowned, if they were cast away ;
but, as to what they would do, if they came safe on
shore, he said he knew not; but it was his opinion
that they were so dreadfully frightened with the
manner of their being attacked, the noise, and the
fire, that he believed they would tell the people
they were all killed by thunder and lightning, not
by the hand of man ; and that the two which
appeared, viz., Friday and I, were two heavenly
spirits, or furies, come down to destroy them, and
not men with weapons. This, he said, he knew;
because he heard them all cry out so, in their lan-
guage, one to another ; for it was impossible for
them to conceive that a man could dart fire, and
speak thunder, and kill at a distance, without lift-
ing up the hand, as was done now ; and this old
savage was in the right ; for, as I understood since,

i3o THE ADVENTURES OF

by other hands, the savages never attempted to go
over to the island afterwards, they were so terrified
with the accounts given by those four men (for, it
seems, they did escape the sea) that they believed
whoever went to that enchanted island would be
destroyed by fire from the gods. This, however, I
knew not ; and therefore was under continual ap-
prehensions for a good while, and kept always upon
my guard, with all my army : for as there were now
four of us, I would have ventured upon a hundred
of them, fairly in the open field, at any time.

Iha little time, however, no more canoes appear-
ing, the fear of their coming wore off; and I began
to take my former thoughts of a voyage to the main
into consideration ; being likewise assured, by Fri-
day's father, that I might depend upon good usage
from their nation, on his account, if I would go.
But my thoughts were a little suspended when I
had a serious discourse with the Spaniard, and when
I understood that there were sixteen more of his
countrymen and Portuguese, who, having been cast
away and made their escape to that side, lived there
at peace, indeed, with the savages, but were very
sore put to it for necessaries, and indeed for life.
I asked him all the particulars of their voyage, and
found they were a Spanish ship, bound from the
Rio de la Plata to the Havanna, being directed to
leave their loading there, which was chiefly hides
and silver, to bring back what European goods
they could meet with there ; that they had five Por-
tuguese seamen on board, whom they took out of

ROBINSON CRUSOE 131

another wreck ; that five of their own men were
drowned, when first the ship was lost, and that
these escaped through infinite dangers and hazards,
and arrived, almost starved, on the cannibal coast,
where they expected to have been devoured every
moment. He told me they had some arms with
them, but they were perfectly useless, for that they
had neither powder nor ball, the washing of the sea
having spoiled all their powder but a little, which
they used at their first landing, to provide them-
selves some food.

I asked what he thought would become of them
there, and if they had formed no design of making
any escape. He said they had many consultations
about it; but that having neither vessel, nor tools
to build one, nor provisions of any kind, their coun-
cils always ended in tears and despair. I asked him
how he thought they would receive a proposal from
me, which might tend towards an escape ; and
whether, if they were all here, it might not be done.
I told him, with freedom, I feared mostly their
treachery and ill usage of me, if I put my life in
their hands, for that gratitude was no inherent
virtue in the nature of man, nor did men always
square their dealings by the obligations they had
received, so much as they did by the advantages
they expected. I told him it would be very hard
that I should be the instrument of their deliver-
ance, and that they should afterwards make me
their prisoner in New Spain, where an Englishman
was certain to be made a sacrifice, what necessity or

132 THE ADVENTURES OF

what accident soever brought him thither; and that
I had rather be delivered up to the savages, and
be devoured alive, than fall into the merciless claws
of the priests, and be carried into the Inquisition.
I added, that otherwise I was persuaded, if they
were all here, we might, with so many hands, build
a bark large enough to carry us all away, either
to the Brazils, southward, or to the islands, or
Spanish coast, northward ; but that if, in requital,
they should, when I had put weapons into their
hands, carry me by force among their own people,
I might be ill used for my kindness to them, and
make my case worse than it was before.

He answered, with a great deal of candour and
ingenuousness, that their condition was so misera-
ble, and they were so sensible of it, that he believed
they would abhor the thought of using any man
unkindly that should contribute to their deliver-
ance ; and that if I pleased, he would go to them with
the old man, and discourse with them about it, and
return again, and bring me their answer ; that he
would make conditions with them, upon their sol-
emn oath, that they should be absolutely under my
leading, as their commander and captain ; and that
they should swear, upon the holy sacraments and
gospel, to be true to me, and go to such Christian
country as that I should agree to, and no other,
and to be directed wholly and absolutely by my
orders, till they were landed safely in such country
as I intended ; and that he would bring a contract
from them, under their hands, for that purpose.

ROBINSON CRUSOE 133

Then he told me he would first swear to me him-
self that he would never stir from me as long as he
Jived, till I gave him orders ; and that he would take
my side to the last drop of his blood, if there should
happen the least breach of faith among his country-
men. He told me they were all of them very civil,
honest men, and they were under the greatest distress
imaginable, having neither weapons, nor clothes,
nor any food, but at the mercy and discretion of
the savages ; out of all hopes of ever returning to
their own country ; and that he was sure, if I would
undertake their relief, they would live and die by me.
Upon these assurances, I resolved to venture to
relieve them, if possible, and to send the old savage
and this Spaniard over to them to treat. But when
we had got all things in readiness to go, the Spaniard
himself started an objection, which had so much
prudence in it, on one hand, and so much sincerity,
on the other hand, that I could not but be very well
satisfied in it ; and, by his advice, put off the de-
liverance of his comrades for at least half a year.
The case was thus : He had been with us now about
a month, during which time I had let him see in what
manner I had provided, with the assistance of Pro-
vidence, for my support, and he saw evidently what
stock of corn and rice I had laid up ; which, though
it was more than sufficient for myself, yet it was not
sufficient, without good husbandry, for my family,
now it was increased to four ; but much less would
it be sufficient if his countrymen, who were, as he
said, sixteen, still alive, should come over ; and least

i34 THE ADVENTURES OF

of all would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, if
we should build one, for a voyage to any of the
Christian colonies of America; so he told me he
thought it would be more advisable to let him and
the other two dig and cultivate some more land,
as much as I could spare seed to sow, and that we
should wait another harvest, that we might have a
supply of corn for his countrymen, when they should
come ; for want might be a temptation to them to
disagree, or not to think themselves delivered, other-
wise than out of one difficulty into another. "You
know," says he, "the children of Israel, though
they rejoiced at first for their being delivered out
of Egypt, yet they rebelled even against God him-
self, that delivered them, when they came to want
bread in the Wilderness." His caution was so sea-
sonable, and his advice so good, that I could not but
be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as
I was satisfied with his fidelity : so we fell to dig-
ging, all four of us, as well as the wooden tools we
were furnished with permitted ; and in about a
month's time, by the end of which it was seed-time,
we had got as much land cured and trimmed up as
we sowed two-and-twenty bushels of barley on, and
sixteen jars of rice ; which was, in short, all the seed
we had to spare : nor, indeed, did we leave ourselves
barely sufficient for our own food for the six months
that we had to expect our crop ; that is to say,
reckoning from the time we set our seed aside for
sowing; for it is not to be supposed it is six months
in the ground in that country.

ROBINSON CRUSOE 135

Having now society enough, and our number
being sufficient to put us out of fear of the sav-
ages, if they had come, unless their number had
been very great, we went freely all over the island,
whenever we found occasion : and as here we had
our escape or deliverance upon our thoughts, it was
impossible, at least for me, to have the means of it
out of mine. For this purpose, I marked out sev-
eral trees which I thought fit for our work, and I
set Friday and his father to cutting them down;
and then I caused the Spaniard, to whom I imparted
my thought on that affair, to oversee and direct
their work. I showed them with what indefatigable
pains I had hewed a large tree into single planks,
and I caused them to do the like, till they had made
about a dozen large planks of good oak, near two
feet broad, thirty-five feet long, and from two inches
to four inches thick ; what prodigious labour it took
up, any one may imagine.

At the same time, I contrived to increase my
little flock of tame goats as much as I could ; and,
for this purpose, I made Friday and the Spaniard
go out one day, and myself with Friday the next
day (for we took our turns), and by this means we
got about twenty young kids to breed up with the
rest ; for whenever we shot the dam, we saved the
kids, and added them to our flock. But, above all,
the season for curing the grapes coming on, I caused
such a prodigious quantity to be hung up in the sun
that I believe, had we been at Alicant, where the
raisins of the sun are cured, we could have filled

136 THE ADVENTURES OF

sixty or eighty barrels ; and these, with our bread,
was a great part of our food, and was very good
living, too, I assure you, for it is exceedingly nour-
ishing.

It was now harvest, and our crop in good order:
it was not the most plentiful increase I had seen in
the island, but, however, it was enough to answer
our end ; for from twenty-two bushels of barley we
brought in and threshed out above two hundred
and twenty bushels, and the like in proportion of
the rice : which was store enough for our food to
the next harvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards
had been on shore with me ; or if we had been ready
for a voyage, it would very plentifully have vict-
ualled our ship to have carried us to any part of the
world, that is to say, any part of America. When
we had thus housed and secured our magazine of
corn, we fell to work to make more wicker-ware,
viz., great baskets in which we kept it ; and the
Spaniard was very handy and dexterous at this part,
and often blamed me that I did not make some
things for defence of this kind of work ; but I saw
no need of it.

And now, having a full supply of food for all the
guests I expected, I gave the Spaniard leave to go
over to the main, to see what he could do with
those he had left behind him there. I gave him a
strict charge not to bring any man with him who
would not first swear, in the presence of himself
and the old savage, that he would no way injure,
fight with, or attack the person he should find in

ROBINSON CRUSOE 137

the island, who was so kind as to send for them in
order to their deliverance ; but that they would
stand by him, and defend him against all such at-
tempts, and wherever they went would be entirely
under and subjected to his command; and that this
should be put in writing and signed with their hands.
How they were to have done this, when I knew
they had neither pen nor ink, was a question which
we never asked. Under these instructions, the
Spaniard and the old savage, the father of Friday,
went away in one of the canoes which they might
be said to come in, or rather were brought in, when
they came as prisoners to be devoured by the sav-
ages. I gave each of them a musket, with a firelock
on it, and about eight charges of powder and ball,
charging them to be very good husbands of both,
and not to use either of them but upon urgent oc-
casions.

This was a cheerful work, being the first measures
used by me, in view of my deliverance, for now
twenty-seven years and some days. I gave them
provisions of bread, and of dried grapes, sufficient
for themselves for many days, and sufficient for all
the Spaniards for about eight days' time ; and wish-
ing them a good voyage, I saw them go ; agreeing
with them about a signal they should hang out at
their return, by which I should know them again,
when they came back, at a distance, before they
came on shore. They went away with a fair gale,
on the day that the moon was at full, by my ac-
count in the month of October ; but as for an exact

138 THE ADVENTURES OF

reckoning of days, after I had once lost it, I could
never recover it again ; nor had I kept even the
number of years so punctually as to be sure I was
right; though, as it proved, when I afterwards
examined my account, I found I had kept a true
reckoning of years.

It was no less than eight days I had waited for
them, when a strange and unforeseen accident
intervened, of which the like has not perhaps been
heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch
one morning, when my man Friday came running
in to me, and called aloud, " Master, master, they
are come, ,they are come! " I jumped up, and, re-
gardless of danger, I went out as soon as I could
get my clothes on, through my little grove, which,
by the way, was by this time grown to be a very
thick wood ; I say, regardless of danger, I went
without my arms, which it was not my custom to
do ; but I was surprised, when, turning my eyes
to the sea, I presently saw a boat about a league
and a half distance, standing in for the shore, with
a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and the
wind blowing pretty fair to bring them in; also I ob-
served presently that they did not come from that
side which the shore lay on, but from the southern-
most end of the island. Upon this, I called Friday
in, and bade him lie close, for these were not the
people we looked for, and that we might not know
yet whether they were friends or enemies. In the
next place, I went in to fetch my perspective glass,
to see what I could make of them ; and having

ROBINSON CRUSOE 139

taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the top of
the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive
of anything, and to take my view the plainer with-
out being discovered. I had scarce set my foot
upon the hill, when my eye plainly discovered a
ship lying at an anchor, at about two leagues and
a half distance from me, SSE., but not above a
league and a half from the shore. By my observa-
tion, it appeared plainly to be an English ship, and
the boat appeared to be an English long-boat.

I cannot express the confusion I was in, though
the joy of seeing a ship, and one that I had reason
to believe was manned by my own countrymen,
and, consequently, friends, was such as I cannot de-
scribe ; but yet I had some secret doubts hang about
me — I cannot tell from whence they came, bid-
ding me to keep upon my guard. In the first place,
it occurred to me to consider what business an
English ship could have in that part of the world,
since it was not the way to or from any part of the
world where the English had any traffic ; and I
knew there had been no storms to drive them in
there, as in distress ; and that if they were really
English, it was most probable that they were here
upon no good design ; and that I had better con-
tinue as I was than fall into the hands of thieves
and murderers.

Let no man despise the secret hints and notices
of danger, which sometimes are given him when
he may think there is no possibility of its being
real. That such hints and notices are given us, I

140 THE ADVENTURES OF

believe few that have made any observations of
things can deny ; that they are certain discoveries
of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we
cannot doubt ; and if the tendency of them seems
to be to warn us of danger, why should we not
suppose they are from some friendly agent (whether
supreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the
question), and that they are given for our good ?
The present question abundantly confirms me
in the justice of this reasoning ; for had I not been
made cautious by this secret admonition, come it
from whence it will, I had been undone inevitably,
and in a far worse condition than before, as you
will see presently. I had not kept myself long in
this posture but I saw the boat draw near the
shore, as if they looked for a creek to thrust in at,
for the convenience of landing ; however, as they
did not come quite far enough, they did not see
the little inlet where I formerly landed my rafts,
but run their boat on shore upon the beach, at
about half a mile from me, which was very happy
for me ; for otherwise they would have landed just
at my door, as I may say, and would soon have
beaten me out of my castle, and perhaps have plun-
dered me of all I had. When they were on shore,
I was fully satisfied they were Englishmen, at least
most of them ; one or two I thought were Dutch,
but it did not prove so ; there were in all eleven
men, whereof three of them I found were un-
armed, and, as I thought, bound ; and when the
first four or five of them were jumped on shore,

ROBINSON CRUSOE 141

they took those three out of the boat as prisoners ;
one of the three I could perceive using the most
passionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and de-
spair, even to a kind of extravagance ; the other
two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands some-
times, and appeared concerned, indeed, but not to
such a degree as the first. I was perfectly con-
founded at the sight, and knew not what the mean-
ing of it should be. Friday called out to me in
English, as well as he could, " O master ! you see
English mans eat prisoner as well as savage mans."
" Why, Friday," says I, cc do you think they are
going to eat them ? " cc Yes," says Friday, " they
will eat them." " No, no," says I, " Friday; I am
afraid they will murder them, indeed, but you may
be sure they will not eat them."

All this while I had no thought of what the mat-
ter really was, but stood trembling with the horror
of the sight, expecting every moment when the
three prisoners should be killed ; nay, once I saw
one of the villains lift up his arm with a great cut-
lass, as the seamen call it, or sword, to strike one
of the poor men ; and I expected to see him fall
every moment ; at which all the blood in my body
seemed to run chill in my veins. I wished heartily
now for my Spaniard, and the savage that was gone
with him, or that I had any way to have come un-
discovered within shot of them, that I might have
rescued the three men, for I saw no fire-arms they
had among them: but it fell out to my mind an-
other way. After I had observed the outrageous

142 ROBINSON CRUSOE

usage of the three men by the insolent seamen, I
observed the fellows run scattering about the island,
as if they wanted to see the country. I observed
that the three other men had liberty to go also
where they pleased; but they sat down all three
upon the ground, very pensive, and looked like
men in despair. This put me in mind of the first
time when I came on shore, and began to look
about me : how I gave myself over for lost ; how
wildly I looked around me ; what dreadful appre-
hensions I had ; and how I lodged in the tree all
night, for fear of being devoured by wild beasts.
As I knew nothing that night of the supply I was
to receive by the providential driving of the ship
nearer the land by the storms and tide, by which I
have since been so long nourished and supported,
so these three poor desolate men knew nothing
how certain of deliverance and supply they were,
how near it was to them, and how effectually and
really they were in a condition of safety, at the same
time that they thought themselves lost, and their
case desperate. So little do we see before us in the
world, and so much reason have we to depend
cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world,
that he does not leave his creatures so absolutely
destitute but that, in the worst circumstances, they
have always something to be thankful for, and
sometimes are nearer their deliverance than they
imagine; nay, are even brought to their deliver-
ance by the means by which they seem to be brought
to their destruction.

CHAPTER XXVI

It was just at the top of high water when these
people came on shore ; and partly while they
rambled about to see what kind of a place they
were in, they had carelessly stayed till the tide was
spent, and the water was ebbed considerably away,
leaving their boat aground. They had left two men
in the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having drunk
a little too much brandy, fell asleep; however, one
of them waking a little sooner than the other, and
finding the boat too fast aground for him to stir
it, hallooed out for the rest, who were straggling
about ; upon which they all soon came to the boat:
but it was past all their strength to launch her, the
boat being very heavy, and the shore on that side
being a soft oozy sand, almost like a quicksand. In
this condition, like true seamen, who are perhaps
the least of all mankind given to forethought, they
gave it over, and away they strolled about the
country again ; and I heard one of them say aloud
to another, calling them off from the boat, "Why,
let her alone, Jack, can't you ? she '11 float next

144 THE ADVENTURES OF

tide" : by which I was fully confirmed in the main
inquiry of what countrymen they were. All this
while I kept myself very close, not once daring to
stir out of my castle, any farther than to my place
of observation, near the top of the hill ; and very
glad I was to think how well it was fortified. I
knew it was no less than ten hours before the boat
could float again, and by that time it would be
dark, and I might be at more liberty to see their
motions, and to hear their discourse, if they had
any. In the mean time, I fitted myself up for a bat-
tle, as before, though with more caution, knowing
I had to do with another kind of enemy than I had
at first. I ordered Friday also, whom I had made
an excellent marksman with his gun, to load him-
self with arms. I took myself two fowling-pieces,
and I gave him three muskets. Myiigure, indeed,
was very fierce ; I had my formidable goats'-skin
coat on, with the great cap I have mentioned, a
naked sword by my side, two pistols in my belt,
and a gun upon each shoulder.

It was my design, as I said above, not to have
made any attempt till it was dark : but about two
o'clock, being the heat of the day, I found that, in
short, they were all gone straggling into the woods,
and as I thought, laid down to sleep. The three
poor distressed men, too anxious for their condi-
tion to get any sleep, were, however, sat down under
the shelter of a great tree, at about a quarter of a
mile from me, and, as I thought, out of sight of any
of the rest. Upon this I resolved to discover myself

ROBINSON CRUSOE 145

to them, and learn something of their condition ;
immediately I marched in the figure as above, my
man Friday at a good distance behind me, as for-
midable for his arms as I, but not making quite so
staring a spectre-like figure as I did. I came as near
them undiscovered as I could, and then, before any
of them saw me, I called aloud to them in Spanish,
"What are ye, gentlemen ? " They started up at the
noise; but were ten times more confounded when
they saw me, and the uncouth figure that I made.
They made no answer at all, but I thought I per-
ceived them just going to fly from me, when I spoke
to them in English : " Gentlemen," said I, "do not
be surprised at me; perhaps you may have a friend
near, when you did not expect it." "He must be
sent directly from Heaven then," said one of them
very gravely to me, and pulling off his hat at the
same time to me; "for our condition is past the
help of man." "All help is from Heaven, sir,"
said I. " But can you put a stranger in the way how
to help you? for you seem to be in some great dis-
tress. I saw you when you landed; and when you
seemed to make supplication to the brutes that came
with you, I saw one of them lift up his sword to
kill you."

The poor man, with tears running down his face,
and trembling, looking like one astonished, re-
turned, "Am I talking to God or man? Is it a real
man or an angel?" "Be in no fear about that,
sir," said I; "if God had sent an angel to relieve
you, he would have come better clothed, and armed

146 THE ADVENTURES OF

after another manner than you see me: pray lay
aside your fears; I am a man, an Englishman, and
disposed to assist you : you see I have one servant
only ; we have arms and ammunition ; tell us freely,
can we serve you? What is your case?" "Our
case," said he, "sir, is too long to tell you, while our
murderers are so near us; but, in short, sir, I was
commander of that ship, my men have mutinied
against me ; they have been hardly prevailed on not
to murder me; and at last have set me on shore in
this desolate place, with these two men with me, one
my mate, the other a passenger, where we expected
to perish, believing the place to be uninhabited, and
know not yet what to think of it." "Where are
these brutes, your enemies ? " said I. " Do you know
where they are gone? " "There they lie, sir," said
he, pointing to a thicket of trees; "my heart trem-
bles for fear they have seen us, and heard you speak ;
if they have, they will certainly murder us all."
" Have they any fire-arms?" said I. He answered
they had only two pieces, one of which they left in
the boat. "Well, then," said I, "leave the rest to
me; I see they are all asleep, it is an easy thing to
kill them all: but shall we rather take them pris-
oners?" He told me there were two desperate vil-
lains among them, that it was scarce safe to show
any mercy to; but if they were secured, he believed
all the rest would return to their duty. I asked him
which they were? He told me he could not at that
distance distinguish them, but he would obey my
orders in anything I would direct. "Well," says I,

ROBINSON CRUSOE 147

"let us retreat out of their view or hearing, lest they
awake, and we will resolve further." So they will-
ingly went back with me, till the woods covered us
from them.

" Look you, sir," said I, " if I venture upon
your deliverance, are you willing to make two con-
ditions with me? " He anticipated my proposals,
by telling me that both he and the ship, if recov-
ered, should be wholly directed and commanded
by me in everything; and, if the ship was not
recovered, he would live and die with me in what
part of the world soever I would send him ; and
the two other men said the same. " Well," says I,
" my conditions are but two : first, that while you
stay in this island with me, you will not pretend
to any authority here ; and if I put arms in your
hands, you will, upon all occasions, give them up
to me, and do no prejudice to me or mine upon
this island, and, in the mean time, be governed by
my orders : secondly, that if the ship is, or may be
recovered, you will carry me and my man to Eng-
land, passage free."

He gave me all the assurances that the invention
or faith of man could devise that he would com-
ply with these most reasonable demands ; and, be-
sides, would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it
upon all occasions, as long as he lived. "Well,
then," said I, " here are three muskets for you, with
powder and ball : tell me next what you think is
proper to be done." He showed me all the testi-
monies of his gratitude that he was able, but offered

148 THE ADVENTURES OF

to be wholly guided by me. I told him I thought it
was hard venturing anything; but the best method
I could think of was to fire upon them at once, as
they lay, and if any was not killed at the first vol-
ley, and offered to submit, we might save them,
and so put it wholly upon God's providence to
direct the shot. He said very modestly that he was
loath to kill them, if he could help it : but that
those two were incorrigible villains, and had been
the authors of all the mutiny in the ship, and if
they escaped, we should be undone still ; for they
would go on board and bring the whole ship's com-
pany, and destroy us all. "Well then," says I, " ne-
cessity legitimates my advice, for it is the only way
to save our lives." However, seeing him still cau-
tious of shedding blood, I told him they should go
themselves and manage as they found convenient.
In the middle of this discourse we heard some of
them awake, and soon after we saw two of them
on their feet. I asked him if either of them were
the heads of the mutiny ? He said, " No." "Well
then," said I, "you may let them escape; and Provi-
dence seems to have awakened them on purpose to
save themselves. Now," says I, " if the rest escape
you, it is your fault." Animated with this, he took
the musket I had given him in his hand, and a pis-
tol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, with
each a piece in his hand ; the two men who were
with him going first, made some noise, at which one
of the seamen who was awake turned about, and
seeing them coming, cried out to the rest ; but it

ROBINSON CRUSOE 149

was too late then, for the moment he cried out
they fired ; I mean the two men, the captain wisely
reserving his own piece. They had so well aimed
their shot at the men they knew, that one of them
was killed on the spot, and the other very much
wounded ; but not being dead, he started up on .his
feet and called eagerly for help to the others ; but
the captain, stepping to him, told him it was too
late to cry for help, he should call upon God to for-
give his villainy ; and with that word knocked him
down with the stock of his musket, so that he never
spoke more ; there were three more in the company,
and one of them was also slightly wounded. By this
time I was come ; and when they saw their danger,
and that it was in vain to resist, they begged for
mercy. The captain told them he would spare their
lives, if they would give him any assurance of their
abhorrence of the treachery they had been guilty of,
and would swear to be faithful to him in recover-
ing the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to
Jamaica, from whence they came. They gave him
all the protestations of their sincerity that could be
desired, and he was willing to believe them, and
spare their lives, which I was not against, only that
I obliged him to keep them bound hand and foot
while they were on the island.

While this was doing, I sent Friday with the cap-
tain's mate to the boat, with orders to secure her,
and bring away the oars and sails, which they did:
and by and by the three straggling men, that were
(happily for them) parted from the rest, came back

150 THE ADVENTURES OF

upon hearing the guns fired, and seeing the captain,
who before was their prisoner, now their conqueror,
they submitted to be bound also ; and so our vic-
tory was complete.

It now remained that the captain and I should
inquire into one another's circumstances : I began
first, and told him my whole history, which he heard
with an attention even to amazement; and particu-
larly at the wonderful manner of my being furnished
with provisions and ammunition; and, indeed, as
my story is a whole collection of wonders, it affected
him deeply. But when he reflected from thence upon
himself, and how I seemed to have been preserved
there on purpose to save his life, the tears ran down
his face, and he could not speak a word more. After
this communication was at an end, I carried him and
his two men into my apartment, leading them in
just where I came out, viz., at the top of the house,
where I refreshed them with such provisions as I
had, and showed them all the contrivances I had
made, during my long, long inhabiting that place.

All I showed them, all I said to them, was per-
fectly amazing; but, above all, the captain admired
my fortification, and how perfectly I had concealed
my retreat with a grove of trees, which, having been
now planted near twenty years, and the trees grow-
ing much faster than in England, was become a little
wood, and so thick that it was impassable in any
part of it but at that one side where I had reserved
my little winding passage into it. I told him this
was my castle and my residence, but that I had a

ROBINSON CRUSOE 151

seat in the country, as most princes have, whither I
could retreat upon occasion, and I would show him
that too another time; but at present our business
was to consider how to recover the ship. He agreed
with me as to that; but told me he was perfectly at
a loss what measures to take, for that there were still
six-and-twenty hands on board, who, having entered
into a cursed conspiracy, by which they had all for-
feited their lives to the law, would be hardened in it
now by desperation, and would carry it on, knowing
that, if they were subdued, they would be brought
to the gallows as soon as they came to England, or
to any of the English colonies; and that, therefore,
there would be no attacking them with so small a
number as we were.

I mused for some time upon what he had said,
and found it was a very rational conclusion, and that,
therefore, something was to be resolved on speedily,
as well to draw the men on board into some snare
for their surprise, as to prevent their landing upon
us, and destroying us. Upon this, it presently oc-
curred to me that in a little while the ship's crew,
wondering what was become of their comrades, and
of the boat, would certainly come on shore in their
other boat, to look for them ; and that then, perhaps,
they might come armed, and be too strong for us :
this he allowed to be rational. Upon this, I told him
the first thing we had to do was to stave the boat,
which lay upon the beach, so that they might not
carry her off; and taking everything out of her,
leave her so far useless as not to be fit to swim : ac-

152 THE ADVENTURES OF

cordingly we went on board, took the arms which
were left on board out of her, and whatever else we
found there, which was a bottle of brandy, and an-
other of rum, a few biscuit cakes, a horn of pow-
der, and a great lump of sugar in a piece of canvas
(the sugar was five or six pounds) ; all which was
very welcome to me, especially the brandy and sugar,
of which I had none left for many years.

When we had carried all these things on shore
(the oars, mast, sail, and rudder of the boat were car-
ried away before, as above), we knocked a great hole
in her bottom, that if they had come strong enough
to master us, yet they could not carry ofFthe boat.
Indeed, it was not much in my thoughts that we
could be able to recover the ship ; but my view was,
that if they went away without the boat, I did not
much question to make her fit again to carry us to
the Leeward Islands, and call upon our friends the
Spaniards in my way ; for I had them still in my
thoughts.

While we were thus preparing our designs, and
had first, by main strength, heaved the boat upon
the beach so high that the tide would not float her
ofFat high-water mark, and besides had broke a hole
in her bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and
were set down musing what we should do, we heard
the ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft with her
ensign as a signal for the boat to come on board : but
no boat stirred ; and they fired several times, making
other signals for the boat. At last, when all their
signals and firing proved fruitless, and they found

ROBINSON CRUSOE 153

the boat did not stir, we saw them, by the help of my
glasses, hoist another boat out, and row towards the
shore ; and we found, as they approached, that there
were no less than ten men in her, and that they had
fire-arms with them.

As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore,
we had a full view of them as they came, and a plain
sight even of their faces ; because the tide having set
them a little to the east of the other boat, they rowed
up under shore, to come to the same place where the
other had landed, and where the boat lay ; by this
means, I say, we had a full view of them, and the cap-
tain knew the persons and characters of all the men
in the boat, of whom, he said, there were three very
honest fellows, who, he was sure, were led into this
conspiracy by the rest,beingoverpowered and fright-
ened; but that, as for the boatswain, who, it seems,
was the chief officer among them, and all the rest,
they were as outrageous as any of the ship's crew,
and were no doubt made desperate in their new en-
terprise ; and terribly apprehensive he was that they
would be too powerful for us. I smiled at him, and
told him that men in our circumstances were past
the operation of fear ; that seeing almost every con-
dition that could be was better than that which we
were supposed to be in, we ought to expect that the
consequence, whether death or life, would be sure
to be a deliverance. I asked him what he thought of
the circumstances of my life, and whether a deliver-
ance were not worth venturing for? "And where,
sir," said I, "is your belief of my being preserved

154 THE ADVENTURES OF

here on purpose to save your life, which elevated
you a little while ago ; for my part," said I, " there
seems to me but one thing amiss in all the prospect
of it." "What is that?" says he. "Why," says I, "it
is, that as you say there are three or four honest
fellows among them, which should be spared;
had they been all of the wicked part of the crew,
I should have thought God's providence had
singled them out to deliver them into your hands ;
for, depend upon it, every man that comes ashore
are our own, and shall die or live as they behave to
us." As I spoke this with a raised voice and cheer-
ful countenance, I found it greatly encouraged
him ; so we set vigorously to our business.

We had, upon the first appearance of the boat's
coming from the ship, considered of separating our
prisoners; and we had, indeed, secured them ef-
fectually. Two of them, of whom the captain was
less assured than ordinary, I sent with Friday, and
one of the three delivered men, to my cave, where
they were remote enough, and out of danger of
being heard or discovered, or of finding their way
out of the woods if they could have delivered them-
selves : here they left them bound, but gave them
provisions ; and promised them, if they continued
there quietly, to give them their liberty in a day
or two ; but that, if they attempted their escape,
they should be put to death without mercy. They
promised faithfully to bear their confinement with
patience, and were very thankful that they had such
good usage as to have provisions and light left

ROBINSON CRUSOE 155

them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we
made ourselves) for their comfort; and they did
not know but that he stood sentinel over them at
the entrance.

The other prisoners had better usage : two of
them were kept pinioned, indeed, because the
captain was not free to trust them ; but the other
two were taken into my service, upon the captain's
recommendation, and upon their solemnly engag-
ing to live and die with us ; so with them and the
three honest men we were seven men well armed;
and I made no doubt we should be able to deal
well enough with the ten that were coming, con-
sidering that the captain had said that there were
three or four honest men among them also. As
soon as they got to the place where their other boat
lay, they ran their boat into the beach, and came
on shore, hauling the boat up after them, which I
was glad to see ; for I was afraid they would rather
have left the boat at an anchor, some distance from
the shore, with some hands in her to guard her,
and so we should not be able to seize the boat.
Being on shore, the first thing they did, they ran
all to their other boat; and it was easy to see they
were under a great surprise to find her stripped, as
above, of all that was in her, and a great hole in
her bottom. After they had mused a while upon
this, they set up two or three great shouts, halloo-
ing with all their might, to try if they could make
their companions hear; but all was to no purpose:
then they came all close in a ring, and fired a vol-

1 56 THE ADVENTURES OF

ley of their small arms, which, indeed, we heard,
and the echoes made the woods ring; but it was
all one: those in the cave we were sure could not
hear ; and those in our keeping, though they heard
it well enough, yet durst give no answer to them.
They were so astonished at the surprise of this,
that, as they told us afterwards, they resolved to
go all on board again to their ship, and let them
know that the men were all murdered, and the
long-boat staved ; accordingly, they immediately
launched their boat again, and got all of them on
board.

The captain was terribly amazed and even con-
founded at this, believing they would go on board
the ship again, and set sail, giving their comrades
over for lost, and so he should still lose the ship,
which he was in hopes we should have recovered ;
but he was quickly as much frightened the other
way.

They had not been long put off with the boat
but we perceived them all coming on shore again ;
but with this new measure in their conduct, which
it seems they consulted together upon, viz., to leave
three men in the boat and the rest to go on shore,
and go up into the country to look for their fel-
lows. This was a great disappointment to us, for
now we were at a loss what to do ; as our seizing
those seven men on shore would be no advantage
to us, if we let the boat escape ; because they would
then row away to the ship, and then the rest of
them would be sure to weigh and set sail, and so

ROBINSON CRUSOE 157

our recovering the ship would be lost. However,
we had no remedy but to wait and see what the
issue of things might present. The seven men came
on shore, and the three who remained in the boat
put her off to a good distance from the shore, and
came to an anchor to wait for them : so that it was
impossible for us to come at them in the boat.
Those that came on shore kept close together,
marching towards the top of the little hill under
which my habitation lay ; and we could see them
plainly, though they could not perceive us. We
could have been very glad they would have come
nearer to us, so that we might have fired at them,
or that they would have gone farther off, that we
might have come abroad. But when they were come
to the brow of the hill, where they could see a great
way into the valleys and woods, which lay towards
the north-east part, and where the island lay low-
est, they shouted and hallooed till they were weary ;
and not caring, it seems, to venture far from the
shore, nor far from one another, they sat down
together under a tree, to consider it. Had they
thought fit to have gone to sleep there as the other
part of them had done, they had done the job for
us; but they were too full of apprehensions of dan-
ger to venture to go to sleep, though they could not
tell what the danger was they had to fear neither.
The captain made a very just proposal to me
upon this consultation of theirs, viz., that perhaps
they would all fire a volley again, to endeavour to
make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally

158 THE ADVENTURES OF

upon them, just at the juncture when their pieces
were all discharged, and they would certainly yield,
and we should have them without bloodshed. I
liked this proposal, provided it was done while we
were near enough to come up to them before they
could load their pieces again. But this even did not
happen; and we lay still a long time, very irre-
solute what course to take. At length I told them
there would be nothing done, in my opinion, till
night; and then, if they did not return to the boat,
perhaps we might find a way to get between them
and the shore, and so might use some stratagem
with them in the boat to get them on shore. We
waited a great while, though very impatient for
their removing ; and were very uneasy, when, after
long consultations, we saw them all start up, and
march down towards the sea: it seems they had
such dreadful apprehensions upon them of the
danger of the place that they resolved to go on
board the ship again, give their companions over
for lost, and so go on with their intended voyage
with the ship.

As soon as I perceived them to go towards the
shore, I imagined it to be, as it really was, that they
had given over their search, and were for going back
again ; and the captain, as soon as I told him my
thoughts, was ready to sink at the apprehensions
of it : but I presently thought of a stratagem to fetch
them back again, and which answered my end to a
tittle. I ordered Friday and the captain's mate to
go over the little creek westward, towards the place

ROBINSON CRUSOE 159

where the savages came on shore when Friday was
rescued, and as soon as they came to a little rising
ground, at about half a mile distance, I bade them
halloo out, as loud as they could, and wait till they
found the seamen heard them ; that as soon as ever
they heard the seamen answer them, they should
return it again ; and then keeping out of sight, take
a round, always answering when the others hallooed,
to draw them as far into the island, and among the
woods, as possible, and then wheel about again to
me, by such ways as I directed them.

They were just going into the boat when Friday
and the mate hallooed : and they presently heard
them, and answering, run along the shore westward,
towards the voice they heard, when they were pre-
sently stopped by the creek, where the water being
up, they could not get over, and called for the boat
to come up and set them over ; as, indeed, I ex-
pected. When they had set themselves over, I ob-
served that the boat being gone a good way into the
creek, and, as it were, in a harbour within the land,
they took one of the three men out of her, to go
along with them, and left only two in the boat, hav-
ing fastened her to the stump of a little tree on the
shore. This was what I wished for ; and immedi-
ately leaving Friday and the captain's mate to their
business, I took the rest with me, and crossing the
creek out of their sight, we surprised the two men
before they were aware ; one of them lying on the
shore, and the other being in the boat. The fellow
on shore was between sleeping and waking, and

i6o THE ADVENTURES OF

going to start up; the captain, who was foremost,
ran in upon him, and knocked him down; and then
called out to him in the boat to yield, or he was
a dead man. There needed very few arguments to
persuade a single man to yield, when he saw five
men upon him, and his comrade knocked down;
besides, this was, it seems, one of the three who were
not so hearty in the mutiny as the rest of the crew,
and therefore was easily persuaded not only to yield,
but afterwards to join very sincerely with us. In the
mean time, Friday and the captain's mate so well
managed their business with the rest that they drew
them, by hallooing and answering, from one hill to
another, and from one wood to another, till they
not only heartily tired them, but left them where
they were very sure they could not reach back to
the boat before it was dark ; and, indeed, they were
heartily tired themselves also, by the time they came
back to us.

We had nothing now to do but to watch for them
in the dark, and to fall upon them, so as to make
sure work with them. It was several hours after
Friday came back to me before they came back to
their boat; and we could hear the foremost of them,
long before they came quite up, calling to those
behind to come along ; and could also hear them
answer, and complain how lame and tired they were,
and not able to come any faster, which was very
welcome news to us. At length they came up to the
boat : but it is impossible to express their confusion
when they found the boat fast aground in the creek,

ROBINSON CRUSOE 161

the tide ebbed out, and their two men gone. We
could hear them call to one another in a most
lamentable manner, telling one another they were
got into an enchanted island : that either there were
inhabitants in it, and they should all be murdered,
or else there were devils and spirits in it, and they
should be all carried away and devoured. They
hallooed again, and called their two comrades by
their names a great many times; but no answer.
After some time, we could see them, by the little
light there was, run about, wringing their hands like
men in despair ; and that sometimes they would go
and sit down in the boat, to rest themselves ; then
come ashore again, and walk about again, and so the
same thing over again. My men would fain have
had me give them leave to fall upon them at once
in the dark ; but I was willing to take them at some
advantage, so to spare them, and kill as few of them
as I could ; and especially I was unwilling to hazard
the killing any of our men, knowing the others were
very well armed. I resolved to wait, to see if they
did not separate ; and, therefore, to make sure of
them, I drew my ambuscade nearer, and ordered
Friday and the captain to creep upon their hands
and feet, as close to the ground as they could, that
they might not be discovered, and get as near them
as they could possibly, before they offered to fire.
They had not been long in that posture, when
the boatswain, who was the principal ringleader of
the mutiny, and had now shown himself the most
dejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking

i62 THE ADVENTURES OF

towards them, with two more of the crew: the captain
was so eager at having this principal rogue so much
in his power that he could hardly have patience to
let him come so near as to be sure of him, for they
only heard his tongue before: but when they came
nearer, the captain and Friday, starting up on their
feet, let fly at them. The boatswain was killed upon
the spot; the next man was shot in the body, and
fell just by him, though he did not die till an hour
or two after; and the third ran for it. At the noise
of the fire, I immediately advanced with my whole
army, which was now eight men, viz., myself, gen-
eralissimo ; Friday, my lieutenant-general ; the cap-
tain and his two men, and the three prisoners of
war, whom we had trusted with arms. We came
upon them, indeed, in the dark, so that they could
not see our number; and I made the man they had
left in the boat, who was now one of us, to call them
by name, to try if I could bring them to a parley,
and so might perhaps reduce them to terms ; which
fell out just as we desired : for, indeed, it was easy
to think, as their condition then was, they would be
willing to capitulate. So he calls out, as loud as he
could, to one of them, "Tom Smith! Tom Smith!"
Tom Smith answered immediately, "Is that Rob-
inson ?" For it seems he knew the voice. The other
answered, "Aye, aye; for God's sake, Tom Smith,
throw down your arms and yield, or you are all
dead men this moment." "Who must we yield to?
Where are they?" says Smith again. "Here they
are," says he; "here *s our captain and fifty men

ROBINSON CRUSOE 163

with him, have been hunting you these two hours:
the boatswain is killed, Will Fry is wounded, and
I am a prisoner ; and if you do not yield you are
all lost" "Will they give us quarter then," says
Tom Smith, "and we will yield ? " "I will go ask
if you promise to yield," says Robinson : so he asked
the captain; and the captain himself then calls out,
"You, Smith, you know my voice; if you lay down
your arms immediately,and submit, you shall have
your lives, all but Will Atkins."

CHAPTER XXVII

Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's
sake, captain, give me quarter ; what have I
done ? They have all been as bad as I ": which, by
the way, was not true neither ; for, it seems, this
Will Atkins was the first man that laid hold of the
captain when they first mutinied, and used him
barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him
injurious language. However, the captain told him
he must lay down his arms at discretion, and trust
to the governor's mercy : by which he meant me,
for they all called me governor. In a word, they
all laid down their arms, and begged their lives;
and I sent the man that had parleyed with them,
and two more, who bound them all; and then my
great army of fifty men, which, particularly with
those three, were in all but eight, came up and
seized upon them, and upon their boat; only that
I kept myself and one more out of sight for reasons
of state.

Our next work was to repair the boat, and think
of seizing the ship : and as for the captain, now he

ROBINSON CRUSOE 165

had leisure to parley with them, he expostulated
with them upon the villainy of their practices with
him, and at length upon the further wickedness of
their design, and how certainly it must bring them
to misery and distress in the end, and perhaps to
the gallows. They all appeared very penitent, and
begged hard for their lives. As for that, he told
them they were none of his prisoners, but the com-
mander's of the island; that they thought they had
set him on shore on a barren, uninhabited island ;
but it had pleased God so to direct them, that it was
inhabited, and that the governor was an English-
man ; that he might hang them all there, if he
pleased ; but as he had given them all quarter, he
supposed he would send them to England, to be
dealt with there as justice required, except Atkins,
whom he was commanded by the governor to
advise to prepare for death, for that he would be
hanged in the morning.

Though all this was but a fiction of his own, yet
it had its desired effect: Atkins fell upon his knees,
to beg the captain to intercede with the governor
for his life ; and all the rest begged of him, for God's
sake, that they might not be sent to England.

It now occurred to me that the time of our
deliverance was come, and that it would be a most
easy thing to bring these fellows in to be hearty in
getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the
dark from them, that they might not see what kind
of a governor they had, and called the captain to
me: when I called, as at a good distance, one of the

166 THE ADVENTURES OF

men was ordered to speak again, and say to the cap-
tain, " Captain, the commander calls for you " ; and
presently the captain replied, " Tell his excellency
I am just a-coming." This more perfectly amused
them, and they all believed that the commander
was just by with his fifty men. Upon the captain's
coming to me, I told him my project for seizing
the ship, which he liked wonderfully well, and re-
solved to put it in execution the next morning.
But, in order to execute it with more heart, and to
be secure of success, I told him we must divide the
prisoners, and that he should go and take Atkins
and two more of the worst of them, and send them
pinioned to the cave where the others lay. This
was committed to Friday and the two men who
came on shore with the captain. They conveyed
them to the cave as to a prison : and it was, indeed,
a dismal place, especially to men in their condition.
The others I ordered to my bower, as I called it, of
which I have given a full description : and as it was
fenced in, and they pinioned, the place was secure
enough, considering they were upon their behaviour.
To these in the morning I sent the captain, who
was to enter into a parley with them ; in a word, to
try them, and tell me whether he thought they
might be trusted or no to go on board and sur-
prise the ship. He talked to them of the injury
done him, of the condition they were brought to,
and that though the governor had given them quar-
ter for their lives as to the present action, yet that
if they were sent to England, they would all be

ROBINSON CRUSOE 167

hanged in chains, to be sure; but that if they would
join in so just an attempt as to recover the ship,
he would have the governor's engagement for their
pardon.

Any one may guess how readily such a proposal
would be accepted by men in their condition ; they
fell down on their knees to the captain, and pro-
mised, with the deepest imprecations, that they
would be faithful to him to the last drop, and that
they should owe their lives to him, and would go
with him all over the world ; that they would own
him as a father as long as they lived. "Well," says
the captain, " I must go and tell the governor what
you say, and see what I can do to bring him to con-
sent to it." So he brought me an account of the tem-
per he found them in, and that he verily believed
they would be faithful. However, that we might be
very secure, I told him he should go back again and
choose out those five, and tell them that they might
see he did not want men, that he would take out
those five to be his assistants, and that the gov-
ernor would keep the other two, and the three that
were sent prisoners to the castle (my cave) as host-
ages for the fidelity of those five; and that if they
proved unfaithful in the execution, the five hostages
should be hanged in chains alive on the shore. This
looked severe, and convinced them that the gov-
ernor was in earnest: however, they had no way left
them but to accept it; and it was now the business
of the prisoners, as much as of the captain, to per-
suade the other five to do their duty.

168 THE ADVENTURES OF

Our strength was now thus ordered for the ex-
pedition : first, the captain, his mate, and passenger;
second, the two prisoners of the first gang, to whom,
having their character from the captain, I had given
their liberty, and trusted them with arms; third,
the other two that I had kept till now in my bower
pinioned, but, on the captain's motion, had now
released ; fourth, these five released at last ; so that
they were twelve in all, besides five we kept pris-
oners in the cave for hostages.

I asked the captain if he was willing to venture
with these hands on board the ship : but as for me
and my man Friday, I did not think it was proper
for us to stir, having seven men left behind; and
it was employment enough for us to keep them
asunder, and supply them with victuals. As to the
five in the cave, I resolved to keep them fast, but
Friday went in twice a day to them, to supply them
with necessaries ; and I made the other two carry
provisions to a certain distance, where Friday was
to take it.

When I showed myself to the two hostages, it
was with the captain, who told them I was the person
the governor had ordered to look after them ; and
that it was the governor's pleasure they should not
stir anywhere but by my direction ; that if they did,
they would be fetched into the castle, and be laid
in irons : so that as we never suffered them to see
me as a governor, I now appeared as another per-
son, and spoke of the governor, the garrison, the
castle, and the like, upon all occasions.

ROBINSON CRUSOE 169

The captain now had no difficulty before him
but to furnish his two boats, stop the breach of one,
and man them. He made his passenger captain of
one, with four of the men ; and himself, his mate,
and five more, went in the other ; and they con-
trived their business very well, for they came up to
the ship about midnight. As soon as they came
within call of the ship, he made Robinson hail them,
and tell them they had brought off the men and
the boat, but that it was a long time before they
had found them, and the like, holding them in a
chat till they came to the ship's side ; when the cap-
tain and the mate, entering first, with their arms,
immediately knocked down the second mate and
carpenter with the butt end of their muskets, being
very faithfully seconded by their men ; they secured
all the rest that were upon the main and quarter
decks, and began to fasten the hatches, to keep them
down that were below; when the other boat and
their men, entering at the fore-chains, secured the
forecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went
down into the cook-room, making three men they
found there prisoners. When this was done, and all
safe upon deck, the captain ordered the mate, with
three men, to break into the round-house, where
the new rebel captain lay, who, having taken the
alarm, had got up, and with two men and a boy
had got fire-arms in their hands ; and when the mate,
with a crow, split open the door, the new captain
and his men fired boldly among them, and wounded
the mate with a musket-ball, which broke his arm,

170 THE ADVENTURES OF

and wounded two more of the men, but killed no-
body. The mate, calling for help, rushed, however,
into the round-house, wounded as he was, and with
his pistol shot the new captain through the head,
the bullet entering at his mouth, and came out again
behind one of his ears, so that he never spoke a
word more : upon which the rest yielded, and the
ship was taken effectually, without any more lives
lost.

As soon as the ship was thus secured the captain
ordered seven guns to be fired, which was the
signal agreed upon with me to give me notice of
his success, which you may be sure I was very glad
to hear, having sat watching upon the shore for it
till near two o'clock in the morning. Having thus
heard the signal plainly, I laid me down ; and it
having been a day of great fatigue to me, I slept
very sound, till I was something surprised with the
noise of a gun ; and presently starting up, I heard
a man call me by the name of " Governor, Gov-
ernor/' and presently I knew the captain's voice ;
when climbing up to the top of the hill, there he
stood, and pointing to the ship he embraced me in
his arms, " My dear friend and deliverer," says he,
" there 's your ship, for she is all yours, and so are
we, and all that belong to her." I cast my eyes to
the ship, and there she rode within a little more
than half a mile of the shore ; for they had weighed
her anchor as soon as they were masters of her, and
the weather being fair, had brought her to an anchor
just against the mouth of the little creek ; and the

ROBINSON CRUSOE 171

tide being up, the captain had brought the pinnace
in near the place where I had first landed my rafts,
and so landed just at my door. I was at first ready
to sink down with surprise ; for I saw my deliver-
ance, indeed, visibly put into my hands, all things
easy, and a large ship just ready to carry me away
whither I pleased to go. At first, for some time, I was
not able to answer him one word ; but as he had
taken me in his arms, I held fast by him, or I should
have fallen to the ground. He perceived the sur-
prise, and immediately pulls a bottle out of his
pocket, and gave me a dram of cordial, which he
had brought on purpose for me. After I had drank
it, I sat down upon the ground ; and though it
brought me to myself, yet it was a good while
before I could speak a word to him. All this time
the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only
not under any surprise, as I was ; and he said a
thousand kind and tender things to me, to com-
pose and bring me to myself: but such was the
flood of joy in my breast that it put all my spirits
into confusion : at last it broke out into tears ; and
in a little while after I recovered my speech. I then
took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer,
and we rejoiced together. I told him I looked upon
him as a man sent from Heaven to deliver me,
and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain
of wonders ; that such things as these were the
testimonies we had of a secret hand of providence
governing the world, and an evidence that the eye
of an infinite power could search into the remotest

172 THE ADVENTURES OF

corner of the world, and send help to the miser-
able whenever he pleased. I forgot not to lift up
my heart in thankfulness to Heaven ; and what
heart could forbear to bless him, who had not only
in a miraculous manner provided for me in such
a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but
from whom every deliverance must always be ac-
knowledged to proceed ?

When we had talked a while, the captain told me
he had brought me some little refreshment, such as
the ship afforded, and such as the wretches that had
been so long his masters had not plundered him of.
Upon this he called aloud to the boat, and bade his
men bring the things ashore that were for the gov-
ernor ; and, indeed, it was a present as if I had been
one that was not to be carried away with them, but
as if I had been to dwell upon the island still. First,
he had brought me a case of bottles full of excel-
lent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira
wine (the bottles held two quarts each), two pounds
of excellent good tobacco, twelve good pieces of
the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of
peas, and about a hundredweight of biscuit: he also
brought me a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag
full of lemons, and two bottles of lime juice, and
abundance of other things. But, besides these,
and what was a thousand times more useful to me,
he brought me six new clean shirts, six very good
neckcloths, two pair of gloves, one pair of shoes,
a hat, and one pair of stockings, with a very good
suit of clothes of his own, which had been worn but

ROBINSON CRUSOE 173

very little ; in a word, he clothed me from head to
foot. It was a very kind and agreeable present, as
any one may imagine, to one in my circumstances ;
but never was anything in the world of that kind
so unpleasant, awkward, and uneasy, as it was to
me to wear such clothes at first.

After these ceremonies were past, and after all
his good things were brought into my little apart-
ment, we began to consult what was to be done
with the prisoners we had ; for it was worth con-
sidering whether we might venture to take them
away with us or no, especially two of them, whom
we knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the
last degree ; and the captain said he knew they
were such rogues that there was no obliging them,
and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons,
as malefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the
first English colony he could come at; and I found
that the captain himself was very anxious about it.
Upon this I told him that, if he desired it, I would
undertake to bring the two men he spoke of to
make it their own request that he should leave
them upon the island. " I should be very glad
of that," says the captain, " with all my heart."
" Well," says I, " I will send for them up, and
talk with them for you." So I caused Friday and
the two hostages, for they were now discharged,
their comrades having performed their promise ;
I say, I caused them to go to the cave, and bring
up the five men, pinioned, as they were, to the
bower, and keep them there till I came. After some

174 THE ADVENTURES OF

time, I came thither dressed in my new habit; and
now I was called Governor again. Being all met,
and the captain with me, I caused the men to be
brought before me, and I told them I had got a
full account of their villanous behaviour to the
captain, and how they had run away with the ship,
and were preparing to commit farther robberies,
but that Providence had ensnared them in their
own ways, and that they were fallen into the pit
which they had dug for others. I let them know
that by my direction the ship had been seized ; that
she lay now in the road; and they might see, by
and by, that their new captain had received the re-
ward of his villainy, and that they would see him
hanging at the yard-arm : that as to them, I wanted
to know what they had to say why I should not
execute them as pirates, taken in the fact, as by my
commission they could not doubt but I had author-
ity so to do. One of them answered in the name
of the rest that they had nothing to say but this,
that when they were taken, the captain promised
them their lives, and they humbly implored my
mercy. But I told them I knew not what mercy to
show them ; for as for myself I had resolved to quit
the island with all my men, and had taken passage
with the captain to go for England ; and as for the
captain he could not carry them to England other
than as prisoners, in irons, to be tried for mutiny,
and running away with the ship ; the consequence
of which, they must needs know, would be the gal-
lows; so that I could not tell what was best for them,

ROBINSON CRUSOE 175

unless they had a mind to take their fate in the
island : if they desired that, as I had liberty to leave
the island, I had some inclination to give them
their lives, if they thought they could shift on
shore. They seemed very thankful for it, and said
they would much rather venture to stay there than
be carried to England to be hanged : so I left it
on that issue.

However, the captain seemed to make some
difficulty of it, as if he durst not leave them there.
Upon this I seemed a little angry with the cap-
tain, and told him that they were my prisoners, not
his ; and seeing that I had offered them so much
favour, I would be as good as my word ; and that
if he did not think fit to consent to it, I would set
them at liberty, as I found them ; and if he did
not like it, he might take them again if he could
catch them. Upon this they appeared very thank-
ful, and I accordingly set them at liberty, and bade
them retire into the woods to the place whence
they came, and I would leave them some fire-
arms, some ammunition, and some directions how
they should live very well, if they thought fit.
Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship ;
but told the captain I would stay that night to pre-
pare my things, and desired him to go on board,
in the mean time, and keep all right in the ship,
and send the boat on shore next day for me ; or-
dering him, at all events, to cause the new captain,
who was killed, to be hanged at the yard-arm, that
these men might see him.

176 THE ADVENTURES OF

When the captain was gone, I sent for the men
up to me to my apartment, and entered seriously
into discourse with them on their circumstances.
I told them I thought they had made a right
choice ; that if the captain had carried them away,
they would certainly be hanged. I showed them the
new captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship,
and told them they had nothing less to expect.

When they had all declared their willingness to
stay, I then told them I would let them into the
story of my living there, and put them into the
way of making it easy to them : accordingly, I gave
them the whole history of the place, and of my
coming to it ; showed them my fortifications, the
way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured my
grapes ; and, in a word, all that was necessary to
make them easy. I told them the story also of the
seventeen Spaniards that were to be expected, for
whom I left a letter, and made them promise to
treat them in common with themselves. Here it
may be noted, that the captain had ink on board,
who was greatly surprised that I never hit upon a
way of making ink of charcoal and water, or of
something else, as I had done things much more
difficult.

I left them my fire-arms, viz., five muskets,
three fowling-pieces, and three swords. I had above
a barrel and a half of powder left; for after the first
year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I
gave them a description of the way I managed the
goats, and directions to milk and fatten them, and

ROBINSON CRUSOE 177

to make both butter and cheese : in a word, I gave
them every part of my own story, and told them
I should prevail with the captain to leave them
two barrels of gunpowder more, and some garden-
seeds, which I told them I would have been very
glad of: also I gave them the bag of peas which
the captain had brought me to eat, and bade them
be sure to sow and increase them.

Having done all this, I left them the next day,
and went on board the ship. We prepared imme-
diately to sail, but did not weigh that night. The
next morning early, two of the five men came
swimming to the ship's side, and, making a most
lamentable complaint of the other three, begged to
be taken into the ship, for God's sake, for they
should be murdered, and begged the captain to
take them on board, though he hanged them im-
mediately. Upon this, the captain pretended to
have no power without me ; but after some dif-
ficulty, and after their solemn promises of amend-
ment, they were taken on board, and were some
time after soundly whipped and pickled : after
which they proved very honest and quiet fellows.

Some time after this, the boat was ordered on
shore, the tide being up, with the things promised
to the men ; to which the captain, at my interces-
sion, caused their chests and clothes to be added,
which they took, and were very thankful for. I
also encouraged them, by telling them that if it
lay in my power to send any vessel to take them
in, I would not forget them.

178 ROBINSON CRUSOE

When I took leave of this island, I carried on
board, for reliques, the great goat-skin cap I had
made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots ; also
I forgot not to take the money I formerly men-
tioned, which had laid by me so long useless that
it was grown rusty or tarnished, and could hardly
pass for silver till it had been a little rubbed and
handled ; as also the money I found in the wreck
of the Spanish ship. And thus I left the island,
the 19th of December, as I found by the ship's
account, in the year 1686, after I had been upon it
eight-and-twenty years, two months, and nineteen
days ; being delivered from this second captivity
the same day of the month that I first made my
escape in the long-boat, from among the Moors of
Sallee. In this vessel, after a long voyage, I ar-
rived in England the nth of June, in the year
1687, having been thirty -five years absent.

CHAPTER XXVIII

When I came to England, I was as perfect a
stranger to all the world as if I had never
been known there. My benefactor and faithful
steward, whom I had left my money in trust with,
was alive, but had had great misfortunes in the
world ; was become a widow the second time, and
very low in the world. I made her very easy as
to what she owed me, assuring her I would give
her no trouble ; but on the contrary, in gratitude
for former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved
her as my little stock would afford ; which, at
that time, would indeed allow me to do but little
for her ; but I assured her I would never forget
her former kindness to me ; nor did I forget her
when I had sufficient to help her, as shall be ob-
served in its proper place. I went down afterwards
into Yorkshire : but my father and mother were
dead, and all the family extinct, except that I found
two sisters, and two of the children of one of my
brothers ; and as I had been long ago given over
for dead, there had been no provision made for

i8o THE ADVENTURES OF

me : so that, in a word, I found nothing to relieve
or assist me ; and that the little money I had would
not do much for me as to settling in the world.

I met with one piece of gratitude, indeed, which
I did not expect ; and this was that the master of
the ship whom I had so happily delivered, and by
the same means saved the ship and cargo, having
given a very handsome account to the owners of
the manner how I had saved the lives of the men,
and the ship, they invited me to meet them, and
some other merchants concerned, and all together
made me a very handsome compliment upon the
subject, and a present of almost two hundred
pounds sterling.

But after making several reflections upon the
circumstances of my life, and how little way this
would go towards settling me in the world, I re-
solved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come
by some information of the state of my plantation
in the Brazils, and of what was become of my part-
ner, who, I had reason to suppose, had some years
past given me over for dead. With this view I took
shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in April follow-
ing ; my man Friday accompanying me very honestly
in all these ramblings, and proving a most faithful
servant upon all occasions. When I came to Lisbon,
I found out, by inquiry, and to my particular satis-
faction, my old friend the captain of the ship who
first took me up at sea off the shore of Africa. He
was now grown old, and had left off going to sea,
having put his son, who was far from a young man,

ROBINSON CRUSOE 181

into his ship, and who still used the Brazil trade.
The old man did not know me: and, indeed, I
hardly knew him: but I soon brought him to my
remembrance, and as soon brought myself to his
remembrance, when I told him who I was.

After some passionate expressions of the old ac-
quaintance between us, I inquired, you may be sure,
after my plantation and my partner. The old man
told me he had not been in the Brazils for about
nine years ; but that he could assure me that when
he came away my partner was living; but the trust-
ees, whom I had joined with him to take cogniz-
ance of my part, were both dead: that, however, he
believed I would have a very good account of the
improvement of the plantation ; for that upon the
general belief of my being cast away and drowned,
my trustees had given in the account of the pro-
duce of my part of the plantation to the procurator-
fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case I never came
to claim it, one third to the king, and two thirds
to the monastery of St. Augustine, to be expended
for the benefit of the poor, and for the conversion of
the Indians to the Catholic faith; but that if I ap-
peared, or any one for me, to claim the inheritance,
it would be restored : only that the improvement, or
annual production, being distributed to charitable
uses, could not be restored; but he assured me that
the steward of the king's revenue from lands and the
proviedore or steward of the monastery had taken
great care all along that the incumbent, that is to
say, my partner, gave every year a faithful account

i8a THE ADVENTURES OF

of the produce, of which they had duly received
my moiety. I asked him if he knew to what height
of improvement he had brought the plantation, and
whether he thought it might be worth looking after;
or whether, on my going thither, I should meet
with any obstruction to my possessing my just right
in the moiety. He told me he could not tell exactly
to what degree the plantation was improved, but
this he knew, that my partner was grown exceed-
ing rich upon the enjoying his part of ft; and that,
to the best of his remembrance, he had heard that
the king's third of my part, which was, it seems,
granted away to some other monastery or religious
house, amounted to above two hundred moidores
a year; that as to my being restored to a quiet pos-
session of it, there was no question to be made of
that, my partner being alive to witness my title,
and my name being also enrolled in the register of
the country: also he told me that the survivors of
my two trustees were very fair honest people, and
very weal thy; and he believed I would not only have
their assistance for putting me in possession, but
would find a very considerable sum of money in
their hands for my account, being the produce of the
farm while their fathers held the trust, and before
it was given up, as above; which, as he remem-
bered, was for about twelve years.

I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy
at this account, and inquired of the old captain how
it came to pass that the trustees should thus dis-
pose of my effects, when he knew that I had made

ROBINSON CRUSOE 183

my will, and had made him, the Portuguese captain,
my universal heir, etc.

He told me that was true; but that, as there was
no proof of my being dead, he could not act as
executor, until some certain account should come
of my death ; and, besides, he was not willing to
intermeddle with a thing so remote ; that it was true
he had registered my will, and put in his claim;
and could he have given any account of my being
dead or alive, he would have acted by procuration,
and taken possession of the ingenio (so they called
the sugar-house), and have given his son, who was
now at the Brazils, orders to do it. " But," says the
old man, "I have one piece of news to tell you,
which, perhaps, may not be so acceptable to you
as the rest; and that is, believing you were lost,
and all the world believing so also, your partner
and trustees did offer to account with me, in your
name, for six or eight of the first years' profits,
which I received. There being at that time great
disbursements for increasing the works, building
an ingenio, and buying slaves, it did not amount
to near so much as afterwards it produced ; how-
ever," says the old man, " I shall give you a true
account of what I have received in all, and how
I have disposed of it."

After a few days' further conference with this
ancient friend, he brought me an account of the
first six years' income of my plantation, signed by
my partner and the merchant trustees, being always
delivered in goods, viz., tobacco in roll, and sugar

1 84 THE ADVENTURES OF

in chests, besides rum, molasses, etc., which is the
consequence of a sugar-work ; and I found, by this
account, that every year the income considerably
increased; but, as above, the disbursements being
large, the sum at first was small : however, the old
man let me see that he was debtor to me four hun-
dred and seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty
chests of sugar, and fifteen double rolls of tobacco,
which were lost in his ship ; he having been ship-
wrecked coming home to Lisbon, about eleven years
after my leaving the place. The good man then
began to complain of his misfortunes, and how he
had been obliged to make use of my money to re-
cover his losses, and buy him a share in a new ship.
" However, my old friend," says he, "you shall not
want a supply in your necessity; and as soon as my
son returns you shall be fully satisfied." Upon this,
he pulls out an old pouch, and gives me one hun-
dred and sixty Portugal moidores in gold ; and giv-
ing the writings of his title to the ship, which his
son was gone to the Brazils in, of which he was a
quarter-part owner, and his son another, he puts
them both into my hands, for security of the rest.
I was too much moved with the honesty and
kindness of the poor man to be able to bear this ;
and remembering what he had done for me, how
he had taken me up at sea, and how generously he
had used me on all occasions, and particularly how
sincere a friend he was now to me, I could hardly
refrain weeping at what he had said to me ; there-
fore I asked him if his circumstances admitted him

ROBINSON CRUSOE 185

to spare so much money at that time, and if it would
not straiten him ? He told me he could not say but
it might straiten him a little ; but, however, it was
my money, and I might want it more than he.

Everything the good man said was full of affec-
tion, and I could hardly refrain from tears while he
spoke ; in short, I took one hundred of the moi-
dores, and called for a pen and ink to give him a
receipt for them : then I returned him the rest, and
told him if ever I had possession of the plantation,
I would return the other to him also (as, indeed, I
afterwards did) ; and that as to the bill of sale of his
part in his son's ship, I would not take it by any
means : but that if I wanted the money, I found he
was honest enough to pay me ; and if I did not, but
came to receive what he gave me reason to expect,
I would never have a penny more from him.

When this was past, the old man asked me if he
should put me into a method to make my claim to
my plantation ? I told him I thought to go over to
it myself. He said I might do so if I pleased; but
that, if I did not, there were ways enough to secure
my right, and immediately to appropriate the pro-
fits to my use : and as there were ships in the river
of Lisbon just ready to go away to Brazil, he made
me enter my name in a public register, with his affi-
davit, affirming, upon oath, that I was alive, and that
I was the same person who took up the land for
the planting the said plantation at first. This being
regularly attested by a notary, and a procuration
affixed, he directed me to send it, with a letter of

1 86 THE ADVENTURES OF

his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the
place; and then proposed my staying with him till
an account came of the return.

Never was anything more honourable than the
proceedings upon this procuration ; for in less than
seven months I received a large packet from the
survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose
account I went to sea, in which were the following
particular letters and papers enclosed.

First, there was the account-current of the pro-
duce of my farm or plantation, from the year when
their fathers had balanced with my old Portugal
captain, being for six years : the balance appeared
to be one thousand one hundred and seventy-four
moidores in my favour.

Secondly, there was the account of four years
more, while they kept the effects in their hands,
before the government claimed the administration,
as being the effects of a person not to be found,
which they called civil death ; and the balance of this,
the value of the plantation increasing, amounted to
nineteen thousand four hundred and forty-six cru-
sadoes, being about three thousand two hundred
and forty moidores.

Thirdly, there was the prior of Augustine's ac-
count, who had received the profits for above four-
teen years ; but not being to account for what was
disposed of by the hospital, very honestly declared
he had eight hundred and seventy-two moidores
not distributed, which he acknowledged to my ac-
count: as to the king's part, that refunded nothing.

ROBINSON CRUSOE 187

There was a letter of my partner's, congratulat-
ing me very affectionately upon my being alive,
giving me an account how the estate was improved,
and what it produced a year ; with a particular of
the num ber of squares or acres that it contained, how
planted, how many slaves there were upon it, and,
making two and twenty crosses for blessings, told
me he had said so many Ave Marias to thank the
Blessed Virgin that I was alive ; inviting me very
passionately to come over and take possession of
my own ; and, in the mean time, to give him orders
to whom he should deliver my effects, if I did not
come myself; concluding with a hearty tender of
his friendship and that of his family; and sent me,
as a present, seven fine leopards' skins, which he
had, it seems, received from Africa, by some other
ship that he had sent thither, and who, it seems, had
made a better voyage than I. He sent me also five
chests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces
of gold uncoined, not quite so large as moidores.
By the same fleet, my two merchant trustees shipped
me one thousand two hundred chests of sugar, eight
hundred rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole
account in gold.

I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end
of Job was better than the beginning. It is im-
possible to express the flutterings of my very heart
when I found all my wealth about me ; for as the
Brazil ships come all in fleets, the same ships which
brought my letters brought my goods : and the
effects were safe in the river before the letters came

1 88 THE ADVENTURES OF

to my hand. In a word, I turned pale. and grew sick ;
and had not the old man run and fetched me a cor-
dial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy had over-
set nature, and I had died upon the spot : nay, after
that, I continued very ill, and was so some hours,
till a physician being sent for, and something of
the real cause of my illness being known, he or-
dered me to be let blood ; after which I had relief,
and grew well : but I verily believe, if I had not been
eased by a vent given in that manner to the spirits,
I should have died.

I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five
thousand pounds sterling in money, and had an
estate, as I might well call it, in the Brazils of above
a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate of
lands in England; and, in a word, I was in a con-
dition which I scarce knew how to understand, or
how to compose myself for the enjoyment of it.
The first thing I did was to recompense my orig-
inal benefactor, my good old captain, who had been
first charitable to me in my distress, kind to me
in my beginning, and honest to me at the end. I
showed him all that was sent to me ; I told him
that next to the providence of Heaven, which dis-
posed all things, it was owing to him; and that it
now lay on me to reward him, which I would do a
hundred-fold: so I first returned to him the hun-
dred moidores I had received of him ; then I sent
for a notary, and caused him to draw up a general
release or discharge from the four hundred and
seventy moidores, which he had acknowledged he

ROBINSON CRUSOE 189

owed me, in the fullest and firmest manner pos-
sible. After which I caused a procuration to be
drawn, empowering him to be my receiver of the
annual profits of my plantation, and appointing my
partner to account with him, and make the returns
by the usual fleets to him in my name; and a clause
in the end, being a grant of one hundred moidores
a year to him during his life, out of the effects, and
fifty moidores a year to his son after him, for his
life : and thus I requited my old man.

I was now to consider which way to steer my
course next, and what to do with the estate that
Providence had thus put into my hands ; and, in-
deed, I had more care upon my head now than I
had in my silent state of life in the island, where I
wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothing
but what I wanted; whereas I had now a great
charge upon me, and my business was how to se-
cure it. I had never a cave now to hide my money
in, or a place where it might lie without lock or key,
till it grew mouldy and tarnished, before anybody
would meddle with it; on the contrary, I knew not
where to put it, or whom to trust with it. My old
patron, the captain, indeed, was honest, and that was
the only refuge I had. In the next place, my inter-
est in the Brazils seemed to summon me thither;
but now I could not tell how to think of going
thither till I had settled my affairs, and left my
effects in some safe hands behind me. At first I
thought of my old friend the widow, who I knew
was honest, and would be just to me ; but then she

i9o THE ADVENTURES OF

was in years, and but poor, and for aught I knew,
might be in debt: so that, in a word, I had no way
but to go back to England myself, and take my
effects with me.

It was some months, however, before I resolved
upon this ; and, therefore, as I had rewarded the old
captain fully, and to his satisfaction, who had been
my former benefactor, so I began to think of my
poor widow, whose husband had been my first bene-
factor, and she, while it was in her power, my faith-
ful steward and instructor. So the first thing I did,
I got a merchant in Lisbon to write to his corre-
spondent in London, not only to pay a bill, but to
go find her out, and carry her in money a hundred
pounds for me, and to talk with her, and comfort
her in her poverty; by telling her she should, if
I lived, have a further supply : at the same time
I sent my two sisters in the country a hundred
pounds each, they being, though not in want, yet
not in very good circumstances; one having been
married and left a widow, and the other having a
husband not so kind to her as he should be. But
among all my relations or acquaintances, I could
not yet pitch upon one to whom I durst commit
the gross of my stock, that I might go away to the
Brazils, and leave things safe behind me ; and this
greatly perplexed me.

I had once a mind to have gone to the Brazils,
and have settled myself there; for I was, as it were,
naturalized to the place; but I had some little
scruple in my mind about religion, which insensibly

ROBINSON CRUSOE 191

drew me back. However, it was not religion that
kept me from going there for the present; and
as I had made no scruple of being openly of the
religion of the country all the while I was among
them, so neither did I yet; only that, now and then,
having of late thought more of it than formerly,
when I began to think of living and dying among
them, I began to regret my having professed my-
self a Papist, and thought it might not be the best
religion to die with.

But, as I have said, this was not the main thing
that kept me from going to the Brazils, but that
really T did not know with whom to leave my effects
behind me: so I resolved, at last, to go to England
with it, where, if I arrived, I concluded I should
make some acquaintance, or find some relations that
would be faithful to me; and, accordingly, I pre-
pared to go to England with all my wealth.

In order to prepare things for my going home,
I first, the Brazil fleet being just going away, re-
solved to give answers suitable to the just and faith-
ful account of things I had from thence; and, first,
to the prior of St. Augustine I wrote a letter full
of thanks for their just dealings, and the offer of
the eight hundred and seventy-two moidores which
were undisposed of, which I desired might be given,
five hundred to the monastery, and three hundred
and seventy-two to the poor, as the prior should
direct; desiring the good padre's prayers for me,
and the like. I wrote next a letter of thanks to my
two trustees, with all the acknowledgment that so

i92 THE ADVENTURES OF

much justice and honesty called for; as for sending
them any present, they were far above having any
occasion for it. Lastly, I wrote to my partner,
acknowledging his industry in the improving the
plantation, and his integrity in increasing the stock
of the works; giving him instructions for his future
government of my part, according to the powers
I had left with my old patron, to whom I desired
him to send whatever became due to me, till he
should hear from me more particularly; assuring
him that it was my intention not only to come to
him, but to settle myself there for the remainder
of my life. To this I added a very handsome pre-
sent of some Italian silks for his wife and two
daughters, for such the captain's son informed me
he had ; with two pieces of fine English broadcloth,
the best I could get in Lisbon, five pieces of black
baize, and some Flanders lace of a good value.

Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo,
and turned all my effects into good bills of ex-
change, my next difficulty was, which way to go to
England : I had been accustomed enough to the
sea, and yet I had a strange aversion to go to Eng-
land by sea at that time ; and though I could give
no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon
me so much, that though I had once shipped my
baggage, in order to go, yet I altered my mind, and
that not once, but two or three times.

It is true, I had been very unfortunate by sea,
and this might be some of the reasons ; but let no
man slight the strong impulses of his own thoughts

ROBINSON CRUSOE 193

in cases of such moment : two of the ships which
I had singled out to go in, I mean more particu-
larly singled out than any other, having put my
things on board one of them, and in the other to
have agreed with the captain ; I say, two of these
ships miscarried, viz., one was taken by the Alge-
rines, and the other was cast away on the Start, near
Torbay, and all the people drowned, except three;
so that in either of those vessels I had been made
miserable.

Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my
old pilot, to whom I communicated everything,
pressed me earnestly not to go by sea, but either
to go by land to the Groyne (Corunna), and cross
over the Bay of Biscay to Rochelle, from whence
it was but an easy and safe journey by land to Paris,
and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to Madrid,
and so all the way by land through France. In a
word, I was so prepossessed against my going by
sea at all, except from Calais to Dover, that I re-
solved to travel all the way by land ; which, as I
was not in haste, and did not value the charge, was
by much the pleasanter way: and to make it more
so, my old captain brought an English gentleman,
the son of a merchant in Lisbon, who was willing
to travel with me; after which we picked up two
more English merchants also, and two young Por-
tuguese gentlemen, the last going to Paris only; so
that in all there were six of us, and five servants,
the two merchants and the two Portuguese con-
tenting themselves with one servant between two,

i94 THE ADVENTURES OF

to save the charge ; and as for me, I got an Eng-
lish sailor to travel with me as a servant, besides
my man Friday, who was too much a stranger to
be capable of supplying the place of a servant on
the road.

In this manner I set out from Lisbon ; and our
company being very well mounted and armed, we
made a little troop, whereof they did me the hon-
our to call me captain, as well because I was the
oldest man as because I had two servants, and, in-
deed, was the original of the whole journey.

As I have troubled you with none of my sea
journals, so I shall trouble you now with none of
my land journal ; but some adventures that hap-
pened to us in this tedious and difficult journey
I must not omit.

When we came to Madrid, we, being all of us
strangers to Spain, were willing to stay some time
to see the Court of Spain, and to see what was worth
observing; but it being the latter part of the sum-
mer, we hastened away, and set out from Madrid
about the middle of October; but when we came
to the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed, at several
towns on the way, with an account that so much
snow was fallen on the French side of the moun-
tains that several travellers were obliged to come
back to Pampeluna, after having attempted, at an
extreme hazard, to pass on.

When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it
so, indeed; and to me, that had been always used
to a hot climate, and to countries where I could

ROBINSON CRUSOE 195

scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insuffer-
able : nor, indeed, was it more painful than surpris-
ing to come but ten days before out of Old Castile,
where the weather was not only warm but very hot,
and immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenean
Mountains, so very keen, so severely cold, as to be
intolerable, and to endanger the benumbing and
perishing of our fingers and toes.

Poor Friday was really frightened when he saw
the mountains all covered with snow, and felt cold
weather, which he had never seen or felt before in
his life. To mend the matter, when we came to
Pampeluna it continued snowing with so much
violence, and so long, that the people said winter
was come before its time, and the roads, which were
difficult before, were now quite impassable ; for, in
a word, the snow lay in some places too thick for
us to travel, and being not hard frozen, as is the
case in the northern countries, there was no going
without being in danger of being buried alive every
step. We stayed no less than twenty days at Pam-
peluna ; when seeing the winter coming on, and no
likelihood of its being better, for it was the severest
winter all over Europe that had been known in the
memory of man, I proposed that we should all go
away to Fontarabia, and there take shipping for
Bourdeaux, which was a very little voyage. But
while I was considering this, there came in four
French gentlemen, who, having been stopped on
the French side of the passes as we were on the
Spanish, had found out a guide, who, traversing the

196 THE ADVENTURES OF

country near the head of Languedoc, had brought
them over the mountains by such ways that they
were not much incommoded with the snow ; for
where they met with snow in any quantity, they
said it was frozen hard enough to bear them and
their horses. We sent for this guide, who told us
he would undertake to carry us the same way with
no hazard from the snow, provided we were armed
sufficiently to protect ourselves from wild beasts :
for, he said, upon these great snows it was frequent
for some wolves to show themselves at the foot
of the mountains, being made ravenous for want of
food, the ground being covered with snow. We
told him we were well enough prepared for such
creatures as they were, if he would insure us from
a kind of two-legged wolves, which, we were told,
we were in most danger from, especially on the
French side of the mountains. He satisfied us that
there was no danger of that kind in the way that
we were to go : so we readily agreed to follow him,
as did also twelve other gentlemen, with their serv-
ants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I said,
had attempted to go, and were obliged to come
back again.

Accordingly, we set out from Pampeluna, with
our guide, on the 15th of November ; and, indeed,
I was surprised when, instead of going forward, he
came directly back with us on the same road that
we came from Madrid, about twenty miles ; when,
having passed two rivers, and come into the plain
country, we found ourselves in a warm climate

ROBINSON CRUSOE 197

again, where the country was pleasant, and no snow
to be seen; but on a sudden turning to his left, he
approached the mountains another way, and though
it is true the hills and precipices looked dreadful,
yet he made so many tours, such meanders, and
led us by such winding ways, that we insensibly
passed the height of the mountains without being
much incumbered with the snow; and, all on a sud-
den, he showed us the pleasant fruitful provinces
of Languedoc and Gascony, all green and flourish-
ing, though, indeed, at a great distance, and we had
some rough way to pass still.

We were a little uneasy, however, when we found
it snowed one whole day and a night, so fast that
we could not travel ; but he bid us be easy ; we
should soon be past it all : we found, indeed, that
we began to descend every day, and to come more
north than before ; and so, depending upon our
guide, we went on.

CHAPTER XXIX

It was about two hours before night when, our
guide being something before us, and not just
in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, and
after them a bear, out of a hollow way, adjoining
to a thick wood ; two of the wolves made at the
guide, and had he been far before us, he would have
been devoured before we could have helped him;
one of them fastened upon his horse, and the other
attacked the man with that violence, that he had
not time, or presence of mind enough, to draw his
pistol, but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily.
My man Friday being next me, I bade him ride
up, and see what was the matter. As soon as Fri-
day came in sight of the man, he hallooed out as
loud as the other, " O master ! O master ! " but,
like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the poor man,
and with his pistol shot the wolf, that attacked him,
in the head.

It was happy for the poor man that it was my
man Friday; for he having been used to such crea-
tures in his country, he had no fear respecting

ROBINSON CRUSOE 199

them, but went close up to him and shot him as
above ; whereas any other of us would have fired
at a greater distance, and have perhaps either
missed the wolf, or endangered shooting the
man.

But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man
than I, and, indeed, it alarmed all our company,
when, with the noise of Friday's pistol, we heard
on both sides the most dismal howling of wolves ;
and the noise, redoubled by the echo of the moun-
tains, appeared to us as if there had been a prodi-
gious number of them ; and, perhaps, there was not
such a few as that we had no cause of apprehensions:
however, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other
that had fastened upon the horse left him imme-
diately, and fled, without doing him any damage,
having happily fastened upon his head, where the
bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth. But the
man was most hurt ; for the raging creature had
bit him twice, once in the arm, and the other time
a little above his knee; and though he had made
some defence, he was just as it were tumbling down
by the disorder of his horse, when Friday came up
and shot the wolf.

It is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday's
pistol we all mended our pace, and rode up as fast
as the way, which was very difficult, would give us
leave, to see what was the matter. As soon as we
came clear of the trees, which blinded us before, we
saw clearly what had been the case, and how Fri-
day had disengaged the poor guide, though we did

200 THE ADVENTURES OF

not presently discern what kind of creature it was
he had killed.

But never was a fight managed so hardily, and
in such a surprising manner, as that which followed
between Friday and the bear, which gave us all,
though at first we were surprised and afraid for him,
the greatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is a
heavy, clumsy creature, and does not gallop as the
wolf does, who is swift and light, so he has two par-
ticular qualities, which generally are the rule of his
actions : first, as to men, who are not his proper
prey (he does not usually attempt them, except
they first attack him, unless he be excessively hun-
gry, which it is probable might now be the case, the
ground being covered with snow), if you do not
meddle with him, he will not meddle with you : but
then you must take care to be very civil to him and
give him the road, for he is a very nice gentleman ;
he will not go a step out of his way for a prince ;
nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to look
another way, and keep going on ; for sometimes,
if you stop, and stand still, and look steadfastly at
him, he takes it for an affront ; but if you throw or
toss anything at him, and it hits him, though it
were but a bit of stick as big as your finger, he thinks
himself abused, and sets all other business aside to
pursue his revenge, and will have satisfaction in
point of honour, — this is his first quality : the next
is, if he be once affronted, he will never leave you,
night nor day, till he has his revenge, but follows,
at a good round rate, till he overtakes you.

ROBINSON CRUSOE 201

My man Friday had delivered our guide, and
when we came up to him he was helping him off"
from his horse, for the man was both hurt and
frightened, when, on a sudden, we espied the bear
come out of the wood, and a vast, monstrous one
it was, the biggest by far that ever I saw. We were
all a little surprised when we saw him ; but when
Friday saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage
in the fellow's countenance ; " O, O, O !" says Fri-
day, three times, pointing to him ; " O master, you
give me te leave, me shakee te hand with him ; me
makee you good laugh."

I was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased :
" You fool," says I, " he will eat you up." "Eatee
me up ! eatee me up ! " says Friday, twice over
again ; " me eatee him up ; me makee you good
laugh : you all stay here, me show you good laugh."
So down he sits, and gets off his boots in a mo-
ment, and puts on a pair of pumps (as we call the
flat shoes they wear, and which he had in his pocket),
gives my other servant his horse, and with his gun
away he flew, swift like the wind.

The bear was walking softly on, and offered to
meddle with nobody, till Friday, coming pretty
near, calls to him, as if the bear could understand
him, "Hark ye, hark ye," says Friday, "me speakee
with you." We followed at a distance; for now,
beingcome down on the Gascony side of the moun-
tains, we were entered a vast great forest, where the
country was plain and pretty open, though it had
many trees in it scattered here and there. Friday,

202 THE ADVENTURES OF

who had, as we say, the heels of the. bear, came up
with him quickly, and takes up a great stone and
throws it at him, and hit him just on the head, but
did him no more harm than if he had thrown it
against a wall ; but it answered Friday's end, for
the rogue was so void of fear that he did it purely
to make the bear follow him, and show us " some
laugh," as he called it. As soon as the bear felt the
blow, and saw him, he turns about, and comes after
him, taking devilish long strides, and shuffling on
at a strange rate, such as would have put a horse to
a middling gallop ; away runs Friday, and takes his
course as if he run towards us for help ; so 'we all
resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver
my man ; though I was angry at him heartily for
bringing the bear back upon us, when he was go-
ing about his own business another way ; and
especially I was angry that he had turned the bear
upon us, and then run away ; and I called out,
" You dog, is this your making us laugh ? Come
away, and take your horse, that we may shoot the
creature." He heard me, and cried out, " No shoot,
no shoot ; stand still, and you get much laugh " ; and
as the nimble creature ran two feet for the bear's
one, he turned on a sudden, on one side of us, and
seeing a great oak tree fit for his purpose, he beck-
oned to us to follow ; and doubling his pace, he
gets nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon
the ground, at about five or six yards from the
bottom of the tree. The bear soon came to the tree,
and we followed at a distance: the first thing he

ROBINSON CRUSOE 203

did, he stopped at the gun, smelt to it, but let it
lie, and up he scrambles into the tree, climbing like
a cat, though so monstrous heavy. I was amazed at
the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not
for my life see anything to laugh at yet, till, seeing
the bear get up the tree, we all rode near to him.
When we came to the tree, there was Friday got
out to the small end of a large branch, and the bear
got about halfway to him. As soon as the bear got
out to that part where the limb of the tree was
weaker, — " Ha ! " says he to us, " now you see me
teachee the bear dance" ; so he falls a-jumping and
shaking the bough, at which the bear began to tot-
ter, but stood still, and began to look behind him,
to see how he should get back ; then, indeed, we
did laugh heartily. But Friday had not done with
him by a great deal; when, seeing him stand still,
he calls out to him again, as if he had supposed the
bear could speak English, " What, you come no far-
ther ? pray you come farther" ; so he left jumping
and shaking the tree, and the bear, just as if he
understood what he said, did come a little farther;
then he fell a-jumping again and the bear stopped
again. We thought now was a good time to knock
him on the head, and called to Friday to stand still,
and we would shoot the bear ; but he cried out
earnestly, " O pray ! O pray ! no shoot, me shoot
by and then." He would have said " by and by."
However, to shorten the story, Friday danced so
much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had
laughing enough, but still could not imagine what

204 THE ADVENTURES OF

the fellow would do : for first we thought he de-
pended upon shaking the bear off, and we found the
bear was too cunning for that too ; for he would not
go out far enough to be thrown down, but clings
fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we
could not imagine what would be the end of it, and
what the jest would be at last. But Friday puts us
out of doubt quickly : for seeing the bear cling fast
to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded
to come any farther, — " Well, well," says Friday,
"you no come farther, me go; you no come to me,
me come to you " : and upon this he goes out to
the smaller end of the bough, where it would bend
with his weight, and gently lets himself down by it,
sliding down the bough, till he came near enough to
jump down on his feet, and away he runs to his gun,
takes it up, and stands still. " Well," said I to him,
" Friday, what will you do now ? Why don't you
shoot him?" "No shoot," says Friday, "no yet;
me no shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one
more laugh." And, indeed, so he did, as you will
see presently; for when the bear saw his enemy
gone, he comes back from the bough where he
stood, but did it mighty cautiously, looking behind
him every step, and coming backward till he got
into the body of the tree; then, with the same
hinder-end foremost, he came down the tree, grasp-
ing it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time,
very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before
he could set his hind-foot on the ground, Friday
stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle of his

ROBINSON CRUSOE 205

piece into his ear, and shot him dead. Then the
rogue turned about, to see if we did not laugh ; and
when he saw we were pleased, by our looks, he falls
a-laughing himself very loud. " So we kill bear in
my country," says Friday. " So you kill them ? "
says I ; " why you have no guns." " No," says he,
" no gun, but shoot great much long arrow." This
was a good diversion to us ; but we were still in a
wild place, and our guide very much hurt, and what
to do we hardly knew : the howling of wolves run
much in my head ; and, indeed, except the noise I
once heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have
said something already, I never heard anything that
filled me with so much horror.

These things, and the approach of night, called
us off, or else, as Friday would have had us, we
should certainly have taken the skin of this mon-
strous creature off, which was worth saving ; but
we had near three leagues to go, and our guide
hastened us, so we left him, and went forward on
our journey.

The ground was still covered with snow, though
not so deep and dangerous as on the mountains ;
and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards,
were come down into the forest and plain country,
pressed by hunger, to seek for food, and had done
a great deal of mischief in the villages, where they
surprised the country people, killed a great many
of their sheep and horses, and some people too.
We had one dangerous place to pass, of which our
guide told us, if there were more wolves in the

206 THE ADVENTURES OF

country, we should find them there; and this was a
small plain, surrounded with woods on every side,
and a long narrow defile, or lane, which we were to
pass to get through the wood, and then we should
come to the village where we were to lodge. It was
within half an hour of sunset when we entered the
first wood, and a little after sunset when we came
into the plain. We met with nothing in the first
wood, except that, in a little plain within the wood,
which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five
great wolves cross the road, full speed one after
another, as if they had been in chase of some prey,
and had it in view; they took no notice of us, and
were gone out of sight in a few moments. Upon
this our guide, who, by the way, was but a faint-
hearted fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture, for
he believed there were more wolves a-coming. We
kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us ; but we
saw no more wolves till we came through that wood,
which was near half a league, and entered the plain.
As soon as we came into the plain, we had occa-
sion enough to look about us: the first object we
met with was a dead horse, that is to say, a poor
horse which the wolves had killed, and at least a
dozen of them at work, we could not say eating of
him, but picking of his bones rather: for they had
eaten up all the flesh before. We did not think fit
to disturb them at their feast; neither did they
take much notice of us. Friday would have let fly
at them, but I would not suffer him by any means;
for I found we were like to have more business

ROBINSON CRUSOE 207

upon our hands than we were aware of. We were
not gone half over the plain, when we began to hear
the wolves howl in the wood on our left in a fright-
ful manner, and presently after we saw about a hun-
dred coming on directly towards us, all in a body,
and most of them in a line, as regularly as an army
drawn up by an experienced officer. I scarce knew
in what manner to receive them, but found to draw
ourselves in a close line was the only way; so we
formed in a moment: but that we might not have
too much interval, I ordered that only every other
man should fire, and that the others who had not
fired should stand ready to give them a second vol-
ley immediately, if they continued to advance upon
us ; and then that those who had fired at first should
not pretend to load their fusees again, but stand
ready every one with a pistol, for we were all armed
with a fusee and a pair of pistols each man ; so we
were, by this method, able to fire six volleys, half
of us at a time. However, at present we had no
necessity : for upon firing the first volley, the enemy
made a full stop, being terrified as well with the
noise as with the fire; four of them, being shot in
the head, dropped; several others were wounded,
and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow.
I found they stopped, but did not immediately re-
treat ; whereupon, remembering that I had been
told that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the
voice of a man, I caused all the company to halloo
as loud as we could; and I found the notion not
altogether mistaken; for upon our shout they

208 THE ADVENTURES OF

began to retire and turn about. I then ordered a
second volley to be fired in their rear, which put
them to the gallop, and away they went to the
woods. This gave us leisure to charge our pieces
again ; and that we might lose no time, we kept
going; but we had but little more than loaded our
fusees, and put ourselves in readiness, when we
heard a terrible noise in the same wood, on our left,
only that it was farther onward, the same way we
were to go.

The night was coming on, and the light began
to be dusky, which made it worse on our side; but
the noise increasing, we could easily perceive that
it was the howling and yelling of those hellish crea-
tures ; and on a sudden we perceived two or three
troops of wolves, one on our left, one behind us,
and one in our front, so that we seemed to be sur-
rounded with them : however, as they did not fall
upon us, we kept our way forward, as fast as we
could make our horses go, which, the way being
very rough, was only a good hard trot. In this man-
ner we came in view of the entrance of the wood,
through which we were to pass, at the farther side
of the plain ; but we were greatly surprised, when,
coming nearer the lane or pass, we saw a confused
number of wolves standing just at the entrance.
On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we
heard the noise of a gun, and looking that way out
rushed a horse, with a saddle and a bridle on him
flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen wolves
after him full speed ; indeed, the horse had the heels

ROBINSON CRUSOE 209

of them, but as we supposed that he could not hold
it at that rate, we doubted not but they would get
up with him at last; no question but they did.

But here we had a most horrible sight ; for rid-
ing up to the entrance where the horse came out,
we found the carcasses of another horse and of two
men, devoured by the ravenous creatures ; and one
of the men was no doubt the same whom we heard
fire the gun, for there lay a gun just by him, fired
off; but as to the man, his head and the upper
part of his body were eaten up. This filled us with
horror, and we knew not what course to take; but
the creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered
about us presently, in hopes of prey ; and I verily
believe there were three hundred of them. It hap-
pened very much to our advantage that at the en-
trance into the wood, but a little way from it, there
lay some large timber trees, which had been cut
down the summer before, and I suppose lay there
for carriage. I drew my little troop in among those
trees, and, placing ourselves in a line behind one
long tree, I advised them all to alight, and keeping
that tree before us for a breastwork, to stand in
a triangle or three fronts enclosing our horses in
the centre. We did so, and it was well we did ; for
never was a more furious charge than the creatures
made upon us in this place. They came on with a
growling kind of noise, and mounted the piece of
timber, which, as I said, was our breastwork, as if
they were only rushing upon their prey; and this
fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned

210 THE ADVENTURES OF

by their seeing our horses behind us. I ordered our
men to fire as before, every other man : and they
took their aim so sure that they killed several of
the wolves at the first volley; but there was a ne-
cessity to keep a continual firing, for they came on
like devils, those behind pushing on those before.
When we had fired a second volley of our fusees,
we thought they stopped a little, and I hoped
they would have gone off; but it was but a mo-
ment, for others came forward again : so we fired
two volleys of our pistols ; and I believe in these
four firings we had killed seventeen or eighteen of
them, and lamed twice as many, yet they came on
again. I was loth to spend our shot too hastily ; so I
called my servant, not my man Friday, for he was
better employed, for, with the greatest dexterity
imaginable, he had charged my fusee and his own
while we were engaged: but as I said, I called my
other man, and giving him a horn of powder, I bade
him lay a train all along the piece of timber, and let
it be a large train. He did so; and had but just time
to get away, when the wolves came up to it, and some
got upon it, when I, snapping an uncharged pistol
close to the powder, set it on fire : those that were
upon the timber were scorched with it; and six
or seven of them fell or rather jumped in among
us, with the force and fright of the fire : we dis-
patched these in an instant, and the rest were so
frightened with the light, which the night, for it was
now very near dark, made more terrible, that they
drew back a little ; upon which I ordered our last

ROBINSON CRUSOE 211

pistols to be fired off in one volley, and after that
we gave a shout: upon this the wolves turned tail,
and we sallied immediately upon near twenty lame
ones, that we found struggling on the ground, and
fell a-cutting them with our swords, which an-
swered our expectation ; for the crying and howl-
ing they made was better understood by their fel-
lows; so that they all fled and left us.

We had, first and last, killed about threescore
of them ; and had it been daylight, we had killed
many more. The field of battle being thus cleared,
we made forward again, for we had still near a
league to go. We heard the ravenous creatures
howl and yell in the woods as we went, several times,
and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them,
but the snow dazzling our eyes, we were not cer-
tain : in about an hour more we came to the town
where we were to lodge, which we found in a ter-
rible fright, and all in arms ; for, it seems, the night
before, the wolves and some bears had broke into
the village, and put them in such terror that they
were obliged to keep guard night and day, but
especially in the night, to preserve their cattle, and,
indeed, their people.

The next morning our guide was so ill, and his
limbs swelled so much with the rankling of his two
wounds, that he could go no farther; so we were
obliged to take a new guide here, and go to Thou-
louse, where we found a warm climate, a fruitful
pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, nor any-
thing like them; but when we told our story at

212 THE ADVENTURES OF

Thoulouse, they told us it was nothing but what
was ordinary in the great forest at the foot of the
mountains, especially when the snow lay on the
ground; but they inquired much what kind of a
guide we had got, who would venture to bring us that
way in such a severe season ; and told us it was sur-
prising we were not all devoured. When we told
them how we placed ourselves, and the horses in the
middle, they blamed us exceedingly, and told us
it was fifty to one but we had been all destroyed ;
for it was the sight of the horses which made the
wolves so furious, seeing their prey : and that, at
other times, they are really afraid of a gun; but be-
ing excessive hungry, and raging on that account,
the eagerness to come at the horses had made them
senseless of danger; and that if we had not, by the
continued fire, and at last by the stratagem of the
train of powder, mastered them, it had been great
odds but that we had been torn to pieces : whereas,
had we been content to have sat still on horseback,
and fired as horsemen, they would not have taken
the horses so much for their own, when men were
on their backs, as otherwise; and withal they told
us, that, at last, if we had stood altogether, and left
our horses, they would have been so eager to have
devoured them that we might have come off safe,
especially having our fire-arms in our hands, and
being so many in number. For my part, I was
never so sensible of danger in my life ; for seeing
above three hundred devils come roaring and open-
mouthed to devour us, and having nothing to shel-

ROBINSON CRUSOE 213

ter us, or retreat to, I gave myself over for lost; and,
as it was, I believe I shall never care to cross those
mountains again: I think I would much rather go
a thousand leagues by sea, though I was sure to
meet with a storm once a week.

I have nothing uncommon to take notice of in
my passage through France, nothing but what other
travellers have given an account of, with much
more advantage than I can. I travelled from Thou-
louse to Paris, and without any considerable stay
came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover, the 14th
of January, after having a severe cold season to
travel in.

I was now come to the centre of my travels, and
had in a little time all my new discovered estate safe
about me ; the bills of exchange which I brought
with me having been very currently paid.

My principal guide and privy counsellor was
my good ancient widow, who, in gratitude for the
money I had sent her, thought no pains too much,
nor care too great, to employ for me ; and I trusted
her so entirely with everything that I was per-
fectly easy as to the security of my effects: and,
indeed, I was very happy from the beginning, and
now to the end, in the unspotted integrity of this
good gentlewoman.

I now resolved to dispose of my plantation in
the Brazils, if I could find means. For this pur-
pose, I wrote to my old friend at Lisbon, who hav-
ing offered it to the two merchants, the survivors
of my trustees, who lived in the Brazils, they ac-

2i4 THE ADVENTURES OF

cepted the offer, and remitted thirty-three thou-
sand pieces-of-eight to a correspondent of theirs
at Lisbon, to pay for it. Having signed the in-
strument of sale, and sent it to my old friend, he
remitted me bills of exchange for thirty-two thou-
sand eight hundred pieces-of-eight for the estate,
reserving the payment of a hundred moidores a
year to himself during his life, and fifty moidores
afterwards to his son for life, which I had pro-
mised them.

Though I had sold my estate in the Brazils, yet
I could not keep the country out of my head ; nor
could I resist the strong inclination I had to see my
island. My true friend, the widow, earnestly dis-
suaded me from it, and so far prevailed with me
that, for almost seven years, she prevented my run-
ning abroad; during which time I took my two
nephews, the children of one of my brothers, into
my care: the eldest having something of his own,
I bred up as a gentleman, and gave him a settle-
ment of some addition to his estate, after my de-
cease. The other I put out to a captain of a ship ;
and after five years, finding him a sensible, bold,
enterprising young fellow, I put him into a good
ship, and sent him to sea: and this young fellow
afterwards drew me in, old as I was, to further
adventures myself.

In the mean time, I in part settled myself here;
for, first of all, I married, and that not either to my
disadvantage or dissatisfaction, and had three
children, two sons and one daughter; but my wife

ROBINSON CRUSOE 215

dying, and my nephew coming home with good
success from a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go
abroad and his importunity prevailed, and engaged
me to go in his ship as a private trader to the East
Indies: this was in the year 1694.

But these things, with some very surprising in-
cidents in some new adventures of my own, for ten
years more, I may perhaps give a further account
of hereafter.

END OF VOLUME II