THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE, OF YORK, MARINER. 

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF

HIS TRAVELS ROUND THREE PARTS OF THE GLOBE. 

_WRITTEN BY HIMSELF_. 

IN TWO VOLUMES. 

VOL. I. 

BY C. WHITTINGHAM;

FOR J. CARPENTER, OLD BOND STREET; J. BOOKER, NEW BONDSTREET; SHARPS AND HAILES, MUSEUM, PICCADILLY; ANDGALE, CURTIS, AND FENNER, PATERNOSTER ROW; LONDON. 

1812. 

THE LIFE OF

_DANIEL DE FOE_. 

Daniel De Foe was descended from a respectable family in the county ofNorthampton, and born in London, about the year 1663. His father, JamesFoe, was a butcher, in the parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, and aprotestant dissenter. Why the subject of this memoir prefixed the _De_to his family name cannot now be ascertained, nor did he at any periodof his life think it necessary to give his reasons to the public. Thepolitical scribblers of the day, however, thought proper to remedy thislack of information, and accused him of possessing so little of the_amor patriae_, as to make the addition in order that he might not betaken for an Englishman; though this idea could have had no otherfoundation than the circumstance of his having, in consequence of hiszeal for King William, attacked the prejudices of his countrymen in his"Trueborn Englishman. "

After receiving a good education at an academy at Newington, young DeFoe, before he had attained his twenty-first year, commenced his careeras an author, by writing a pamphlet against a very prevailing sentimentin favour of the Turks, who were at that time laying siege to Vienna. This production, being very inferior to those of his maturer years, wasvery little read, and the indignant author, despairing of success withhis pen, had recourse to the sword; or, as he termed it, when boastingof the exploit in his latter years, "displayed his attachment to libertyand protestanism, " by joining the ill-advised insurrection under theDuke of Monmouth, in the west. On the failure of that unfortunateenterprise, he returned again to the metropolis; and it is notimprobable, but that the circumstance of his being a native of London, and his person not much known in that part of the kingdom where therebellion took place, might facilitate his escape, and be the means ofpreventing his being brought to trial for his share in the transaction. With the professions of a writer and a soldier, Mr. De Foe, in the year1685, joined that of a trader; he was first engaged as a hosier, inCornhill, and afterwards as a maker of bricks and pantiles, near TilburyFort, in Essex; but in consequence of spending those hours in thehilarity of the tavern which he ought to have employed in thecalculations of the counting-house, his commercial schemes provedunsuccessful; and in 1694 he was obliged to abscond from his creditors, not failing to attribute those misfortunes to the war and the severityof the times, which were doubtless owing to his own misconduct. It ismuch to his credit, however, that after having been freed from his debtsby composition, and being in prosperous circumstances from KingWilliam's favour, he voluntarily paid most of his creditors both theprincipal and interest of their claims. This is such an example ofhonesty as it would be unjust to De Foe and to the world to conceal. Theamount of the sums thus paid must have been very considerable, as heafterwards feelingly mentions to Lord Haversham, who had reproached himwith covetousness; "With a numerous family, and no helps but my ownindustry, I have forced my way through a sea of misfortunes, and reducedmy debts, exclusive of composition, from seventeen thousand to less thanfive thousand pounds. "

At the beginning of the year 1700, Mr. De Foe published a satire inverse, which excited very considerable attention, called the "TruebornEnglishman. " Its purpose was to furnish a reply to those who werecontinually abusing King William and some of his friends as_foreigners_, by showing that the present race of Englishmen was a mixedand heterogeneous brood, scarcely any of which could lay claim to nativepurity of blood. The satire was in many parts very severe; and though itgave high offence, it claimed a considerable share of the publicattention. The reader will perhaps be gratified by a specimen of thisproduction, wherein he endeavours to account for--

 "What makes this discontented land appear Less happy now in times of peace, than war; Why civil fends disturb the nation more, Than all our bloody wars had done before: Fools out of favour grudge at knaves in place, And men are always honest in disgrace: The court preferments make men knaves in course, But they, who would be in them, would be worse. 'Tis not at foreigners that we repine, Would foreigners their perquisites resign: The grand contention's plainly to be seen, To get some men put out, and some put in. "

It will be immediately perceived that De Foe could have no pretensionsto the character of a _poet_; but he has, notwithstanding, some nervousand well-versified lines, and in choice of subject and moral he is ingeneral excellent. The Trueborn Englishman concludes thus:

 Could but our ancestors retrieve their fate, And see their offspring thus degenerate; How we contend for birth and names unknown, And build on their past actions, not our own; They'd cancel records, and their tombs deface, And openly disown the vile degenerate race. For fame of families is all a cheat; 'TIS PERSONAL VIRTUE ONLY MAKES US GREAT. 

For this defence of foreigners De Foe was amply rewarded by KingWilliam, who not only ordered him a pension, but, as his opponentsdenominated it, appointed him _pamphlet-writer general to the court_; anoffice for which he was peculiarly well calculated, possessing, with astrong mind and a ready wit, that kind of yielding conscience whichallowed him to support the measures of his benefactors, though convincedthey were injurious to his country. De Foe now retired to Newington withhis family, and for a short time lived at ease; but the death of hisroyal patron deprived him of a generous protector, and opened a scene ofsorrow which probably embittered his future life. 

He had always discovered a great inclination to engage in religiouscontroversy, and the furious contest, civil and ecclesiastical, whichensued on the accession of Queen Anne, gave him an opportunity ofgratifying his favourite passion. He therefore published a tract, entitled "The shortest Way with the Dissenters, or Proposals for theEstablishment of the Church, " which contained an ironical recommendationof persecution, but written in so serious a strain, that many persons, particularly Dissenters, at first mistook its real intention. The highchurch party however saw, and felt the ridicule, and, by theirinfluence, a prosecution was commenced against him, and a proclamationpublished in the Gazette, offering a reward for his apprehension[1]. When De Foe found with how much rigour himself and his pamphlet wereabout to be treated, he at first secreted himself; but his printer andbookseller being taken into custody, he surrendered, being resolved, ashe expresses it, "to throw himself upon the favour of government, ratherthan that others should be ruined for his mistakes. " In July, 1703, hewas brought to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to be imprisoned, tostand in the pillory, and to pay a fine of two hundred marks. Heunderwent the infamous part of the punishment with great fortitude, andit seems to have been generally thought that he was treated withunreasonable severity. So far was he from being ashamed of his fatehimself, that he wrote a hymn to the pillory, which thus ends, alludingto his accusers:

 Tell them, the men that plac'd him here Are scandals to the times; Are at a loss to find his guilt, And can't commit his crimes. 

Pope, who has thought fit to introduce him in his Dunciad, (probablyfrom no other reason than party difference) characterizes him in thefollowing line:

 Earless on high stood unabash'd De Foe. 

This is one of those instances of injustice and malignity which sofrequently occur in the Dunciad, and which reflect more dishonour on theauthor than on the parties traduced. De Foe lay friendless anddistressed in Newgate, his family ruined, and himself without hopes ofdeliverance, till Sir Robert Harley, who approved of his principles, andforesaw that during a factious age such a genius could be converted tomany uses, represented his unmerited sufferings to the Queen, and atlength procured his release. The treasurer, Lord Godolphin, also sent aconsiderable sum to his wife and family, and to him money to pay hisfine and the expense of his discharge. Gratitude and fidelity areinseparable from an honest man; and it was this benevolent act thatprompted De Foe to support Harley, with his able and ingenious pen, whenAnne lay lifeless, and his benefactor in the vicissitude of party waspersecuted by faction, and overpowered, though not conquered, by violence. 

The talents and perseverance of De Foe began now to be properlyestimated, and as a firm supporter of the administration, he was sent byLord Godolphin to Scotland, on an errand which, as he says, was far frombeing unfit for a sovereign to direct, or an honest man to perform. Hisknowledge of commerce and revenue, his powers of insinuation, and, aboveall, his readiness of pen, were deemed of no small utility in promotingthe union of the two kingdoms; of which he wrote an able history in1709, with two dedications, one to the Queen, and another to the Duke ofQueensbury. Soon afterwards he unhappily, by some equivocal writings, rendered himself suspected by both parties, so that he once more retiredto Newington, in hopes of spending the remainder of his days in peace. His pension being withdrawn, and wearied with politics, he began tocompose works of a different kind. --The year 1715 may therefore beregarded as the period of De Foe's political life. Faction henceforthfound other advocates, and parties procured other writers to disseminatetheir suggestions, and to propagate their falsehoods. 

In 1715 De Foe published the "Family Instructor;" a work inculcating thedomestic duties in a lively manner, by narration and dialogue, anddisplaying much knowledge of life in the middle ranks of society. "Religious Courtship" also appeared soon after, which, like the "FamilyInstructor, " is eminently religious and moral in its tendency, andstrongly impresses on the mind that spirit of sobriety and privatedevotion for which the dissenters have generally been distinguished. Themost celebrated of all his works, "The Life and Adventures of RobinsonCrusoe, " appeared in 1719. This work has passed through numerouseditions, and been translated into almost all modern languages. Thegreat invention which is displayed in it, the variety of incidents andcircumstances which it contains, related in the most easy and naturalmanner, together with the excellency of the moral and religiousreflections, render it a performance of very superior and uncommonmerit, and one of the most interesting works that ever appeared. It isstrongly recommended by Rosseau as a book admirably calculated topromote the purposes of natural education; and Dr. Blair says, "Nofiction, in any language, was ever better supported than the Adventuresof Robinson Crusoe. While it is carried on with that appearance of truthand simplicity, which takes a strong hold of the imagination of allreaders, it suggests, at the same time, very useful instruction; byshowing how much the native powers of man may be exerted forsurmounting the difficulties of any external situation. " It has beenpretended, that De Foe surreptitiously appropriated the papers ofAlexander Selkirk, a Scotch mariner, who lived four years alone on theisland of Juan Fernandez, and a sketch of whose story had beforeappeared in the voyage of Captain Woodes Rogers. But this charge, thoughrepeatedly and confidently brought, appears to be totally destitute ofany foundation. De Foe probably took some general hints for his workfrom the story of Selkirk, but there exists no proof whatever, nor is itreasonable to suppose that he possessed any of his papers or memoirs, which had been published seven years before the appearance of RobinsonCrusoe. As a farther proof of De Foe's innocence, Captain Rogers'Account of Selkirk may be produced, in which it is said that the latterhad neither preserved pen, ink, or paper, and had, in a great measure, lost his language; consequently De Foe could not have received anywritten assistance, and we have only the assertion of his enemies toprove that he had any verbal. 

The great success of Robinson Crusoe induced its author to write anumber of other lives and adventures, some of which were popular intheir times, though at present nearly forgotten. One of his latestpublications was "A Tour through the Island of Great Britain, " aperformance of very inferior merit; but De Foe was now the garrulousold man, and his spirit (to use the words of an ingenious biographer)"like a candle struggling in the socket, blazed and sunk, blazed andsunk, till it disappeared at length in total darkness. " His laboriousand unfortunate life was finished on the 26th of April, 1731, in' theparish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. 

Daniel De Foe possessed very extraordinary talents; as a commercialwriter, he is fairly entitled to stand in the foremost rank among hiscontemporaries, whatever may be their performances or their fame. Hisdistinguishing characteristics are originality, spirit, and a profoundknowledge of his subject, and in these particulars he has seldom beensurpassed. As the author of Robinson Crusoe he has a claim, not only tothe admiration, but to the gratitude of his countrymen; and so long aswe have a regard for supereminent merit, and take an interest in thewelfare of the rising generation, that gratitude will not cease toexist. But the opinion of the learned and ingenious Dr. Beattie will bethe best eulogium that can be pronounced on that celebrated romance:"Robinson Crusoe, " says the Doctor, "must be allowed, by the most rigidmoralist, to be one of those novels which one may read, riot only withpleasure, but also with profit. It breathes throughout a spirit ofpiety and benevolence; it sets in a very striking light the importanceof the mechanic arts, which they, who know not what it is to be withoutthem, are so apt to under-value; it fixes in the mind a lively idea ofthe horrors of solitude, and, consequently, of the sweets of sociallife, and of the blessings we derive from conversation and mutual aid;and it shows how, by labouring with one's own hands, one may secureindependence, and open for one's self many sources of health andamusement. I agree, therefore, with Rosseau, that it is one of the bestbooks that can be put into the hands of children. "

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: _St. James's, January 10, 1702-5. _ "Whereas Daniel De Foe, alias De Fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditiouspamphlet, entitled 'The shortest Way with the Dissenters:' he is amiddle-sized spare man, about 40 years old, of a brown complexion, anddark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig, a hooked nose, a sharp chin, grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth, was born in London, and formany years was a hose-factor, in Freeman's Yard, in Cornhill, and now isowner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury Fort, in Essex;whoever shall discover the said Daniel De Foe, to one of her Majesty'sPrincipal Secretaries of State, or any of her Majesty's Justices ofPeace, so as he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of £50, whichher Majesty has ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery. "_London Gaz. _ No. 3879. ]

THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE. 

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of Bremen, whosettled first at Hull: he got a good estate by merchandise, and leavingoff his trade, lived afterwards at York; from whence he had married mymother, whose relations were named Robinson, a very good family in thatcountry, and from whom I was called Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by theusual corruption of words in England, we are now called, nay we callourselves, and write, our name Crusoe; and so my companions alwayscalled me. 

I had two elder brothers, one of whom was lieutenant-colonel to anEnglish regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famousColonel Lockhart, and was killed at the battle near Dunkirk against theSpaniards. What became of my second brother I never knew, any more thanmy father or mother did know what was become of me. 

Being the third son of the family, and not bred to any trade, my headbegan to be filled very early with rambling thoughts: my father, who wasvery ancient, had given me a competent share of learning, as far ashouse-education and a country free-school generally go, and designed mefor the law; but I would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea; andmy inclination to this led me so strongly, against the will, nay, thecommands of my father, and against all the entreaties and persuasions ofmy mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal inthat propension of nature, tending directly to the life of misery whichwas to befall me. 

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counselagainst what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into hischamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmlywith me upon this subject: he asked me what reasons more than a merewandering inclination I had for leaving my father's house and my nativecountry, where I might be well introduced, and had a prospect of raisingmy fortune by application and industry, with a life of ease andpleasure. He told me it was for men of desperate fortunes on one hand, or of aspiring, superior fortunes on the other, who went abroad uponadventures, to rise by enterprise, and make themselves famous inundertakings of a nature out of the common road; that these things wereall either too far above me, or too far below me; that mine was themiddle state, or what might be called the upper station of low life, which he had found, by long experience, was the best state in the world, the most suited to human happiness, not exposed to the miseries andhardships, the labour and sufferings of the mechanic part of mankind, and not embarrassed with the pride, luxury, ambition, and envy of theupper part of mankind. He told me, I might judge of the happiness ofthis state by one thing, viz. That this was the state of life which allother people envied; that kings have frequently lamented the miserableconsequences of being born to great things, and wish they had beenplaced in the middle of the two extremes, between the mean and thegreat; that the wise man gave his testimony to this, as the juststandard of true felicity, when he prayed to have neither povertynor riches. 

He bid me observe it, and I should always find, that the calamities oflife were shared among the upper and lower part of mankind; but that themiddle station had the fewest disasters, and was not exposed to so manyvicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were notsubjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body ormind, as those were, who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances, on one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean andinsufficient diet, on the other hand, bring distempers upon themselvesby the natural consequences of their way of living; that the middlestation of life was calculated for all kind of virtues and all kind ofenjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids of a middlefortune; that temperance, moderation, quietness, health, society, allagreeable diversions, and all desirable pleasures, were the blessingsattending the middle station of life; that this way men went silentlyand smoothly through the world, and comfortably out of it, notembarrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold tothe life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with perplexedcircumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the body of rest; notenraged with the passion of envy, or secret burning lust of ambition forgreat things; but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through theworld, and sensibly tasting the sweets of living, without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and learning by every day's experience toknow it more sensibly. 

After this, he pressed me earnestly, and in the most affectionatemanner, not to play the young man, not to precipitate myself intomiseries which nature, and the station of life I was born in, seemed tohave provided against; that I was under no necessity of seeking mybread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter me fairlyinto the station of life which he had been just recommending to me; andthat if I was not very easy and happy in the world, it must be my merefate or fault that must hinder it; and that he should have nothing toanswer for, having thus discharged his duty in warning me againstmeasures which he knew would be to my hurt: in a word, that as he woulddo very kind things for me if I would stay and settle at home as hedirected, so he would not have so much hand in my misfortunes, as togive me any encouragement to go away: and to close all, he told me I hadmy elder brother for an example, to whom he had used the same earnestpersuasions to keep him from going into the Low Country wars, but couldnot prevail, his young desires prompting him to run into the army, wherehe was killed; and though he said he would not cease to pray for me, yethe would venture to say to me, that if I did take this foolish step, Godwould not bless me, and I would have leisure hereafter to reflect uponhaving neglected his counsel, when there might be none to assist inmy recovery. 

I observed in this last part of his discourse, which was trulyprophetic, though I suppose my father did not know it to be so himself;I say, I observed the tears run down his face very plentifully, andespecially when he spoke of my brother who was killed: and that when hespoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was somoved, that he broke off the discourse, and told me, his heart was sofull he could say no more to me. 

I was sincerely affected with this discourse, as indeed who could beotherwise? and I resolved not to think of going abroad any more, but tosettle at home according to my father's desire. But, alas! a few dayswore it all off; and, in short, to prevent any of my father's furtherimportunities, in a few weeks after I resolved to run quite away fromhim. However, I did not act so hastily neither as my first heat ofresolution prompted, but I took my mother, at a time when I thought hera little pleasanter than ordinary, and told her, that my thoughts wereso entirely bent upon seeing the world, that I should never settle toany thing with resolution enough to go through with it, and my fatherhad better give me his consent than force me to go without it; that Iwas now eighteen years old, which was too late to go apprentice to atrade, or clerk to an attorney; that I was sure, if I did, I shouldnever serve out my time, and I should certainly run away from my masterbefore my time was out, and go to sea; and if she would speak to myfather to let me go one voyage abroad, if I came home again, and did notlike it, I would go no more, and I would promise, by a double diligence, to recover that time I had lost. 

This put my mother into a great passion: she told me, she knew it wouldbe to no purpose to speak to my father upon any such subject; that heknew too well what was my interest to give his consent to any such thingso much for my hurt; and that she wondered how I could think of any suchthing after such a discourse as I had had with my father, and such kindand tender expressions as she knew my father had used to me; and that, in short, if I would ruin myself, there was no help for me; but I mightdepend I should never have their consent to it: that for her part, shewould not have so much hand in my destruction; and I should never haveit to say, that my mother was willing when my father was not. 

Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet, as I have heardafterwards, she reported all the discourse to him, and that my father, after showing a great concern at it, said to her with a sigh, "That boymight be happy if he would stay at home; but if he goes abroad, he willbe the most miserable wretch that was ever born; I can give noconsent to it. "

It was not till almost a year after this that I broke loose, though, inthe mean time, I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settlingto business, and frequently expostulating with my father and motherabout their being so positively determined against what they knew myinclinations prompted me to. But being one day at Hull, where I wentcasually, and without any purpose of making an elopement at that time;but, I say, being there, and one of my companions then going by sea toLondon, in his father's ship, and prompting me to go with them, with thecommon allurement of seafaring men, viz. That it should cost me nothingfor my passage, I consulted neither father or mother any more, not somuch as sent them word of it; but leaving them to hear of it as theymight, without asking God's blessing, or my father's, without anyconsideration of circumstances or consequences, and in an ill hour, Godknows, on the first of September, 1651, I went on board a ship boundfor London. Never any young adventurer's misfortunes, I believe, begansooner, or continued longer than mine. The ship was no sooner gotten outof the Humber, but the wind began to blow, and the waves to rise in amost frightful manner; and, as I had never been at sea before, I wasmost inexpressibly sick in body, and terrified in mind. I began nowseriously to reflect upon what I had done, and how justly I wasovertaken by the judgment of Heaven for wickedly leaving my father'shouse, and abandoning my duty. All the good counsel of my parents, myfather's tears and my mother's entreaties, came now fresh into my mind;and my conscience, which was not yet come to the pitch of hardness towhich it has been since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, andthe breach of my duty to God and my father. 

All this while the storm increased, and the sea, which I had never beenupon before, went very high, though nothing like what I have seen manytimes since; no, nor like what I saw a few days after: but it was enoughto affect me then, who was but a young sailor, and had never known anything of the matter. I expected every wave would have swallowed us up, and that every time the ship fell down, as I thought, in the trough orhollow of the sea, we should never rise more; and in this agony of mindI made many vows and resolutions, that if it would please God here tospare my life this one voyage, if ever I got once my foot upon dry landagain, I would go directly home to my father, and never set it into aship again while I lived; that I would take his advice, and never runmyself into such miseries as these any more. Now I saw plainly thegoodness of his observations about the middle station of life, howeasy, how comfortably he had lived all his days, and never had beenexposed to tempests at sea, or troubles on shore; and I resolved that Iwould, like a true repenting prodigal, go home to my father. 

These wise and sober thoughts continued during the storm, and indeedsome time after; but the next day, as the wind was abated, and the seacalmer, I began to be a little inured to it: however, I was very gravefor all that day, being also a little sea-sick still; but towards nightthe weather cleared up, the wind was quite over, and a charming fineevening followed; the sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so thenext morning; and having little or no wind, and a smooth sea, the sunshining upon it, the sight was, as I thought, the most delightful thatI ever saw. 

I had slept well in the night, and was now no more sea-sick, but verycheerful, looking with wonder upon the sea that was so rough andterrible the day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in alittle time after. And now, lest my good resolutions should continue, mycompanion, who had indeed enticed me away, came to me and said, "Well;Bob, " clapping me on the shoulder, "how do you do after it? I warrantyou were frightened, wa'n't you, last night, when it blew but a cap-fullof wind?"--"A cap-full do you call it?" said I; "it was a terriblestorm. "--"A storm, you fool you, " replied he, "do you call that astorm? why it was nothing at all; give us but a good ship and sea-room, and we think nothing of such a squall of wind as that; but you're but afresh-water sailor. Bob, Come, let us make a bowl of punch, and we'llforget all that; do you see what charming weather it is now?" To makeshort this sad part of my story, we went the old way of all sailors; thepunch was made, and I was made drunk with it; and in that one night'swickedness I drowned all my repentance, all my reflections upon my pastconduct, and all my resolutions for my future. In a word, as the sea wasreturned to its smoothness of surface and settled calmness by theabatement of that storm, so the hurry of my thoughts being over, myfears and apprehensions of being swallowed up by the sea beingforgotten, and the current of my former desires returned, I entirelyforgot the vows and promises that I made in my distress. I found, indeed, some intervals of reflection; and serious thoughts did, as itwere, endeavour to return again sometimes; but I shook them off, androused myself from them as it were from a distemper, and applying myselfto drinking and company, soon mastered the return of those fits, for soI called them; and I had in five or six days got as complete a victoryover conscience, as any young fellow that resolved not to be troubledwith it, could desire: but I was to have another trial for it still; andProvidence, as in such cases generally it does, resolved to leave meentirely without excuse: for if I would not take this for a deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the worst and most hardened wretchamong us would confess both the danger and the mercy of. 

The sixth day of our being at sea we came into Yarmouth Roads; the windhaving been contrary, and the weather calm, we had made but little waysince the storm. Here we were obliged to come to anchor, and here welay, the wind continuing contrary, viz. At south-west, for seven oreight days, during which tune a great many ships from Newcastle cameinto the same roads, as the common harbour where the ships might waitfor a wind for the River. 

We had not, however, rid here so long, but should have tided it up theriver, but that the wind blew too fresh; and, after we had lain four orfive days, blew very hard. However, the roads being reckoned as good asa harbour, the anchorage good, and our ground tackle very strong, ourmen were unconcerned, and not in the least apprehensive of danger, butspent the time in rest and mirth, after the manner of the sea; but theeighth day in the morning the wind increased, and we had all hands atwork to strike our top-masts, and make every thing snug and close, thatthe ship might ride as easy as possible. By noon the sea went very highindeed, and our ship rode forecastle in, shipped several seas, and wethought once or twice our anchor had come home; upon which our masterordered out the sheet anchor; so that we rode with two anchors a-head, and the cables veered out to the better end. 

By this time it blew a terrible storm indeed; and now I began to seeterror and amazement in the faces even of the seamen themselves. Themaster, though vigilant in the business of preserving the ship, yet ashe went in and out of his cabin by me, I could hear him softly say tohimself several times, "Lord, be merciful to us! we shall be all lost;we shall be all undone!" and the like. During these first hurries I wasstupid, lying still in my cabin, which was in the steerage, and cannotdescribe my temper: I could ill reassume the first penitence which I hadso apparently trampled upon, and hardened myself against. I thought thebitterness of death had been past, and that this would be nothing likethe first: but when the master himself came by me, as I said just now, and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted: I got up butof my cabin, and looked out; but such a dismal sight I never saw; thesea went mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes:when I could look about, I could see nothing but distress around us: twoships that rid near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deep laden; and our men cried out, that a ship which rid about amile a-head of us was foundered. Two more ships being driven from theiranchors, were run out of the roads to sea, at all adventures, and thatwith not a mast standing. The light ships-fared the best, as not so muchlabouring in the sea; but two or three of them drove, and came close byus, running away with only their spritsail out before the wind. 

Towards evening the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship tolet them cut away the fore-mast, which he was very unwilling to do: butthe boatswain protesting to him, that if he did not, the ship wouldfounder, he consented; and when they had cut away the-fore-mast, themain-mast stood so loose, and shook the ship so much, they were obligedto cut her away also, and make a clear deck. 

Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who wasbut a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but alittle. But if I can express at this distance the thoughts that I hadabout me at that time, I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon accountof my former convictions, and the having returned from them to theresolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself;and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me in such a condition, that I can by no words describe it. But the worst was not come yet; thestorm continued with such fury, that the seamen themselves acknowledgedthey had never known a worse. We had a good ship, but she was deepladen, and wallowed in the sea, that the seamen every now and then criedout, she would founder. It was my advantage in one respect, that I didnot know what they meant by _founder_, till I inquired. However, thestorm was so violent, that I saw what is not often seen, the master, theboatswain, and some others more sensible than the rest, at theirprayers, and expecting every moment when the ship would go to thebottom. In the middle of the night, and under all the rest of ourdistresses, one of the men that had been down on purpose to see, criedout, we had sprung a leak; another said, there was four foot water inthe hold. Then all hands were called to the pump. At that very word myheart, as I thought, died within me, and I fell backwards upon the sideof my bed where I sat, into the cabin. However, the men roused me, andtold me, that I, that was able to do nothing before, was as well able topump as another; at which I stirred up, and went to the pump and workedvery heartily. While this was doing, the master seeing some lightcolliers, who, not able to ride out the storm, were obliged to slip andrun away to sea, and would not come near us, ordered us to fire a gun asa signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what that meant, was sosurprised, that I thought the ship had broke, or some dreadful thing hadhappened. In a word, I was so surprised, that I fell down in a swoon. Asthis was a time when every body had his own life to think of, nobodyminded me, or what was become of me; but another man stept up to thepump, and thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, thinking I hadbeen dead; and it was a great while before I came to myself. 

We worked on; but the water increasing in the hold, it was apparent thatthe ship would founder; and though the storm began to abate a little, yet as it was not possible she could swim till we might run into a port, so the master continued firing guns for help; and a light ship, who hadrid it out just a-head of us, ventured a boat out to help us. It waswith the utmost hazard the boat came near us, but it was impossible forus to get on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship's side, till atlast the men rowing very heartily, and venturing their lives to saveours, our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy to it, andthen veered it out a great length, which they, after great labour andhazard, took hold of, and we hauled them close under our stern, and gotall into their boat. It was to no purpose for them or us, after we werein the boat, to think of reaching to their own ship; so all agreed tolet her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore as much as wecould; and our master promised them, that if the boat was staved uponshore he would make it good to their master: so partly rowing and partlydriving, our boat went away to the northward, sloping towards the shorealmost as far as Winterton Ness. 

We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship but wesaw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what was meant bya ship foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I had hardly eyes tolook up when the seamen told me she was sinking; for from that momentthey rather put me into the boat, than that I might be said to go in; myheart was, as it were, dead within me, partly with fright, partly withhorror of mind, and the thoughts of what was yet before me. 

While we were in this condition, the men yet labouring at the oar tobring the boat near the shore, we could see (when, our boat mounting thewaves, we were able to see the shore) a great many people running alongthe strand to assist us when we should come near; but we made but slowway towards the shore; nor were we able to reach it, till, being pastthe light-house at Winterton, the shore falls off to the westward, towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a little the violence of thewind. Here we got in, and, though not without much difficulty, got allsafe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth, where, asunfortunate men, we were used with great humanity, as well by themagistrates of the town, who assigned us good quarters, as by particularmerchants and owners of ships, and had money given us sufficient tocarry us either to London or back to Hull, as we thought fit. 

Had I now had the sense to have gone back to Hull, and have gone home, Ihad been happy, and my father, an emblem of our blessed Saviour'sparable, had even killed the fatted calf for me; for hearing the ship Iwent away in was cast away in Yarmouth Roads, it was a great whilebefore he had any assurance that I was not drowned. 

But my ill fate pushed me on now with an obstinacy that nothing couldresist; and though I had several times loud calls from my reason, and mymore composed judgment, to go home, yet I had no power to do it. I knownot what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret overrulingdecree that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyesopen. Certainly, nothing but some such decreed unavoidable miseryattending, and which it was impossible for me to escape, could havepushed me forward against the calm reasonings and persuasions of my mostretired thoughts, and against two such visible instructions as I had metwith in my first attempt. 

My comrade, who had helped to harden me before, and who was the master'sson, was now less forward than I. The first time he spoke to me after wewere at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for we wereseparated in the town to several quarters; I say, the first time he sawme, it appeared his tone was altered, and looking very melancholy, andshaking his head, asked me how I did, and telling his father who I was, and how I had come this voyage only for a trial, in order to go fartherabroad; his father turning to me with a very grave and concerned tone, "Young man, " says he, "you ought never to go to sea any more; you oughtto take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be aseafaring man, "--"Why, Sir, " said I, "will you go to sea no more?" "Thatis another case, " said he; "it is my calling, and therefore my duty; butas you made this voyage for a trial, you see what a taste Heaven hasgiven you of what you are to expect if you persist. Perhaps this has allbefallen us on your account, like Jonah in the ship of Tarshish. Pray, "continues he, "what are you; and on what account did you go to sea?"Upon that I told him some of my story; at the end of which he burst outwith a strange kind of passion; "What had I done, " says he, "that suchan unhappy wretch should come into my ship? I would not set my foot inthe same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds, " This indeed was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by thesense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely to me, exhorting me to goback to my father, and not tempt Providence to my ruin; told me I mightsee a visible hand of Heaven against me. "And young man, " said he, "depend upon it, if you do not go back, wherever you go, you will meetwith nothing but disasters and disappointments, till your father's wordsare fulfilled upon you. "

We parted soon after; for I made him little answer, and I saw him nomore: which way he went, I know not. As for me, having some money in mypocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as well as on theroad, had many struggles with myself, what course of life I shouldtake, and whether I should go home, or go to sea. 

As to going home, shame opposed the best notions that offered to mythoughts; and it immediately occurred to me how I should be laughed atamong the neighbours, and should be ashamed to see, not my father andmother only, but even every body else; from whence I have since oftenobserved, how incongruous and irrational the common temper of mankindis, especially of youth, to that reason which ought to guide them insuch cases, viz. That they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamedto repent; nor ashamed of the action for which they ought justly to beesteemed fools, but are ashamed of the returning, which only can makethem be esteemed wise men. 

In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain whatmeasures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irresistiblereluctance continued to going home; and as I stayed a while, theremembrance of the distress I had been in wore off; and as that abated, the little notion I had in my desires to a return wore off with it, tillat last I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out fora voyage. 

That evil influence which carried me first away from my father's house, that hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising myfortune; and that impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me, as tomake me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties and even thecommands of my father: I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented the most unfortunate of all enterprises to my view; and Iwent on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailorsvulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea. 

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not shipmyself as a sailor; whereby, though I might indeed have worked a littleharder than ordinary, yet at the same time I had learnt the duty andoffice of a foremast-man; and in time might have qualified myself for amate or lieutenant, if not for a master. But as it was always my fate tochoose for the worse, so I did here; for having money in my pocket, andgood clothes upon my back, I would always go on board in the habit of agentleman; and so I neither had any business in the ship, or learntto do any. 

It was my lot first of all to fall into pretty good company in London, which does not always happen to such loose and unguided young fellows asI then was; the devil generally not omitting to lay some snare for themvery early: but it was not so with me. I first fell acquainted with themaster of a ship who had been on the coast of Guinea; and who, havinghad very good success there, was resolved to go again; and who taking afancy to my conversation, which was not at all disagreeable at thattime, hearing me say I had a mind to see the world, told me if I wouldgo the voyage with him I should be at no expense; I should be hismessmate and his companion; and if I could carry any thing with me, Ishould have all the advantage of it that the trade would admit; andperhaps I might meet with some encouragement. 

I embraced the offer; and entering into a strict friendship with thiscaptain, who was an honest and plain-dealing man, I went the voyage withhim, and carried a small adventure with me, which, by the disinterestedhonesty of my friend the captain, I increased very considerably; for Icarried about £40 in such toys and trifles as the captain directed me tobuy. This £40 I had mustered together by the assistance of some of myrelations whom I corresponded with, and who, I believe, got my father, or at least my mother, to contribute so much as that to my firstadventure. 

This was the only voyage which I may say I was successful in all myadventures, and which I owe to the integrity and honesty of my friendthe captain; under whom also I got a competent knowledge of themathematics and the rules of navigation, learnt how to keep an accountof the ship's course, take an observation, and, in short, to understandsome things that were needful to be understood by a sailor: for, as hetook delight to instruct me, I took delight to learn; and, in a word, this voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant: for I brought homefive pounds nine ounces of gold-dust for my adventure, which yielded mein London at my return almost £300, and this filled me with thoseaspiring thoughts which have so completed my ruin. 

Yet even in this voyage I had my misfortunes too; particularly, that Iwas continually sick, being thrown into a violent calenture by theexcessive heat of the climate; our principal trading being upon thecoast, from the latitude of 15 degrees north even to the line itself. 

I was now set up for a Guinea trader; and my friend, to my greatmisfortune, dying soon after his arrival, I resolved to go the samevoyage again, and I embarked in the same vessel with one who was hismate in his former voyage, and had now got the command of the ship. Thiswas the unhappiest voyage that ever man made; for though I did not carryquite £100 of my new-gained wealth, so that I had £200 left, and which Ilodged with my friend's widow, who was very just to me, yet I fell intoterrible misfortunes in this voyage; and the first was this, viz. Ourship making her course towards the Canary Islands, or rather betweenthose islands and the African shore, was surprised in the grey of themorning by a Turkish rover, of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all thesail she could make. We crowded also as much canvass as our yards wouldspread, or our masts carry to have got clear; but finding the pirategained upon us, and would certainly come up with us in a few hours, weprepared to fight; our ship having twelve guns, and the rover eighteen. About three in the afternoon he came up with us, and bringing to, bymistake, just athwart our quarter, instead of athwart our stern, as heintended, we brought eight of our guns to bear on that side, and pouredin a broadside upon him, which made him sheer off again, after returningour fire, and pouring in also his small-shot from near 200 men which hehad on board. However, we had not a man touched, all our men keepingclose. He prepared to attack us again, and we to defend ourselves; butlaying us on board the next time upon our other quarter, he enteredsixty men upon our decks, who immediately fell to cutting and hackingthe sails and rigging. We plied them with small-shot, half-pikes, powder-chests, and such like, and cleared our deck of them twice. However, to cut short this melancholy part of our story, our ship beingdisabled, and three of our men killed and eight wounded, we were obligedto yield, and were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belongingto the Moors. 

The usage I had there was not so dreadful as at first I apprehended; norwas I carried up the country to the emperor's court, as the rest of ourmen were, but was kept by the captain of the rover as his proper prize, and made his slave, being young and nimble, and fit for his business. Atthis surprising change of my circumstances, from a merchant to amiserable slave, I was perfectly overwhelmed; and now I looked back uponmy father's prophetic discourse to me, that I should be miserable, andhave none to relieve me, which I thought was now so effectually broughtto pass, that I could not be worse; that now the hand of Heaven hadovertaken me, and I was undone without redemption: but, alas! this wasbut a taste of the misery I was to go through, as will appear in thesequel of this story. 

As my new patron, or master, had taken me home to his house, so I was inhopes that he would take me with him when he went to sea again, believing that it would sometime or other be his fate to be taken by aSpanish or Portugal man of war; and that then I should be set atliberty. But this hope of mine was soon taken away; for when he went tosea, he left me on shore to look after his little garden, and do thecommon drudgery of slaves about his house; and when he came home againfrom his cruise, he ordered me to lie in the cabin to look afterthe ship. 

Here I meditated nothing but my escape, and what method I might take toeffect it, but found no way that had the least probability in it:nothing presented to make the supposition of it rational; for I hadnobody to communicate it to that would embark with me, no fellow slave, no Englishman, Irishman, or Scotchman there but myself; so that for twoyears, though I often pleased myself with the imagination, yet I neverhad the least encouraging prospect of putting it in practice. 

After about two years an odd circumstance presented itself, which putthe old thought of making some attempt for my liberty again in my head. My patron lying at home longer than usual without fitting out his ship, which, as I heard, was for want of money, he used constantly, once ortwice a week, sometimes oftener, if the weather was fair, to take theship's pinnace, and go out into the road a-fishing; and as he alwaystook me and a young Moresco with him to row the boat, we made him verymerry, and I proved very dexterous in catching fish; insomuch thatsometimes he would send me with a Moor, one of his kinsmen, and theyouth of Moresco, as they called him, to catch a dish of fish for him. 

It happened one time, that going a-fishing in a stark calm morning, afog rose so thick, that though we were not half a league from the shorewe lost sight of it; and rowing we knew not whither or which way, welaboured all day, and all the next night, and when the morning came wefound we had pulled off to sea instead of pulling in for the shore; andthat we were at least two leagues from the shore: however, we got wellin again, though with a great deal of labour and some danger; for thewind began to blow pretty fresh in the morning; but particularly we wereall very hungry. 

But our patron, warned by this disaster, resolved to take more care ofhimself for the future; and having lying by him the long-boat of ourEnglish ship he had taken, he resolved he would not go a-fishing anymore without a compass and some provision; so he ordered the carpenterof his ship, who also was an English slave, to build a littlestate-room, or cabin, in the middle of the long-boat, like that of abarge, with a place to stand behind it to steer and haul home themain-sheet; and room before for a hand or two to stand and work thesails: she sailed with what we call a shoulder of mutton sail; and theboom gibbed over the top of the cabin, which lay very snug and low, andhad in it room for him to lie, with a slave or two, and a table to eaton, with some small lockers to put in some bottles of such liquor as hethought fit to drink; and particularly his bread, rice, and coffee. 

We went frequently out with this boat a-fishing, and as I was mostdexterous to catch fish for him, he never went without me. It happenedthat he had appointed to go out in this boat, either for pleasure or forfish, with two or three Moors of some distinction in that place, and forwhom he had provided extraordinarily, and had therefore sent on boardthe boat over-night a larger store of provisions than ordinary; and hadordered me to get ready three fuzees with powder and shot, which were onboard his ship; for that they designed some sport of fowling as wellas fishing. 

I got all things ready as he had directed, and waited the next morningwith the boat washed clean, her ensign and pendants out, and every thingto accommodate his guests; when by and by my patron came on board alone, and told me his guests had put off going, upon some business that fellout, and ordered me with the man and boy, as usual, to go out with theboat and catch them some fish, for that his friends were to sup at hishouse; and commanded that as soon as I got some fish I should bring ithome to his house; all which I prepared to do. 

This moment my former notions of deliverance darted into my thoughts, for now I found I was like to have a little ship at my command; and mymaster being gone, I prepared to furnish myself, not for fishingbusiness, but for a voyage; though I knew not, neither did I so much asconsider, whither I should steer; for any where, to get out of thatplace, was my way. 

My first contrivance was to make a pretence to speak to this Moor, toget something for our subsistence on board; for I told him we must notpresume to eat of our patron's bread; he said, that was true: so hebrought a large basket of rusk or biscuit of their kind, and three jarswith fresh water, into the boat. I knew where my patron's case ofbottles stood, which it was evident, by the make, were taken out of someEnglish prize, and I conveyed them into the boat while the Moor was onshore, as if they had been there before for our master: I conveyed alsoa great lump of bees-wax into the boat, which weighed above half ahundred weight, with a parcel of twine or thread, a hatchet, a saw, anda hammer, all which were of great use to us afterwards, especially thewax to make candles. Another trick I tried upon him, which he innocentlycame into also; his name was Ismael, whom they call Muley, or Moley; soI called him: "Moley, " said I, "our patron's guns are on board the boat;can you not get a little powder and shot? it may be we may kill somealcamies (a fowl like our curlews) for ourselves, for I know he keepsthe gunner's stores in the ship. "--"Yes, " says he, "I'll bring some;"and accordingly he brought a great leather pouch which held about apound and a half of powder, or rather more; and another with shot, thathad five or six pounds, with some bullets, and put all into the boat: atthe same time I had found some powder of my master's in the great cabin, with which I filled one of the large bottles in the case, which wasalmost empty, pouring what was in it into another; and thus furnishedwith every thing needful, we sailed out of the port to fish. The castle, which is at the entrance of the port, knew who we were, and took nonotice of us: and we were not above a mile out of the port before wehauled in our sail, and set us down to fish. The wind blew from theN. N. E. Which was contrary to my desire; for had it blown southerly, Ihad been sure to have made the coast of Spain, and at least reached tothe bay of Cadiz; but my resolutions were, blow which way it would, Iwould be gone from that horrid place where I was, and leave the restto fate. 

After we had fished some time and catched nothing, for when I had fishon my hook I would not pull them up, that he might not see them, I saidto the Moor, "This will not do; our master will not be thus served; wemust stand farther off. " He, thinking no harm, agreed, and being in thehead of the boat set the sails; and as I had the helm I run the boat outnear a league farther, and then brought her to as if I would fish; whengiving the boy the helm, I stepped forward to where the Moor was, andmaking as if I stooped for something behind him, I took him by surprisewith my arm under his waist, and tossed him clear overboard into thesea. He rose immediately, for he swam like a cork, and called to me, begged to be taken in, told me he would go all over the world with me. He swam so strong after the boat, that he would have reached me veryquickly, there being but little wind; upon which I stepped into thecabin, and fetching one of the fowling-pieces, I presented it at him, and told him, I had done him no hurt, and if he would be quiet I woulddo him none: "But, " said I, "you swim well enough to reach to the shore, and the sea is calm; make the best of your way to shore, and I will doyou no harm; but if you come near the boat I'll shoot you through thehead, for I am resolved to have my liberty. " so he turned himself about, and swam for the shore, and I make no doubt but he reached it with ease, for he was an excellent swimmer. 

I could have been content to have taken this Moor with me, and havedrowned the boy, but there was no venturing to trust him. When he wasgone I turned to the boy, whom they called Xury, and said to him, "Xury, if you will be faithful to me I'll make you a great man; but ifyou will not stroke your face to be true to me, " that is, swear byMahomet and his father's beard, "I must throw you into the sea too. " Theboy smiled in my face, and spoke so innocently, that I could notmistrust him; and swore to be faithful to me, and go all over theworld with me. 

While I was in view of the Moor that was swimming, I stood out directlyto sea with the boat, rather stretching to windward, that they mightthink me gone towards the Straits' mouth; (as indeed any one that hadbeen in their wits must have been supposed to do) for who would havesupposed we were sailed on to the southward to the truly Barbariancoast, where whole nations of Negroes were sure to surround us with thecanoes, and destroy us; where we could never once go on shore but weshould be devoured by savage beasts, or more merciless savages ofhuman kind?

But as soon as it grew dusk in the evening, I changed my course, andsteered directly south and by east, bending my course a little towardthe east, that I might keep in with the shore; and having a fair, freshgale of wind, and a smooth, quiet sea, I made such sail that I believeby the next day at three o'clock in the afternoon, when I first made theland, I could not be less than 150 miles south of Sallee; quite beyondthe Emperor of Morocco's dominions, or indeed of any other kingthereabout, for we saw no people. 

Yet such was the fright I had taken at the Moors, and the dreadfulapprehensions I had of falling into their hands, that I would not stop, or go on shore, or come to an anchor; the wind continuing fair till Ihad sailed in that manner five days; and then the wind shifting to thesouthward, I concluded also that if any of our vessels were in chase ofme, they also would now give over; so I ventured to make to the coast, and come to an anchor in the mouth of a little river, I knew not what, or where; neither what latitude, what country, what nation, or whatriver: I neither saw, or desired to see any people; the principal thingI wanted was fresh water. We came into this creek in the evening, resolving to swim on shore as soon as it was dark, and discover thecountry; but, as soon as it was quite dark, we heard such dreadfulnoises of the barking, roaring, and howling of wild creatures, of weknew not what kinds, that the poor boy was ready to die with fear, andbegged of me not to go on shore till day. "Well, Xury, " said I, "then Iwon't; but it may be we may see men by day, who will be as bad to us asthose lions. "--"Then we give them the shoot gun, " says Xury, laughing, "make them run wey. " Such English Xury spoke by conversing among usslaves. However I was glad to see the boy so cheerful, and I gave him adram (out of our patron's case of bottles) to cheer him up. After all, Xury's advice was good, and I took it; we dropped our little anchor, andlay still all night; I say still, for we slept none; for in two or threehours we saw vast great creatures (we knew not what to call them) ofmany sorts, come down to the sea-shore and run into the water, wallowingand washing themselves for the pleasure of cooling themselves; and theymade such hideous howlings and yellings, that I never indeed heardthe like. 

Xury was dreadfully frightened, and indeed so was I too; but we wereboth more frightened when we heard one of these mighty creatures comeswimming towards our boat; we could not see him, but we might hear himby his blowing to be a monstrous huge and furious beast; Xury said itwas a lion, and it might be so for aught I know; but poor Xury cried tome to weigh the anchor and row away: "No, " says I, "Xury; we can slipour cable with the buoy to it, and go off to sea; they cannot follow usfar. " I had no sooner said so, but I perceived the creature (whatever itwas) within two oars' length, which something surprised me; however, Iimmediately stepped to the cabin-door, and taking up my gun, fired athim; upon which he immediately turned about, and swam towards theshore again. 

But it is impossible to describe the horrible noises, and hideous criesand howlings, that were raised, as well upon the edge of the shore ashigher within the country, upon the noise or report of the gun, a thingI have some reason to believe those creatures had never heard before:this convinced me that there was no going on shore for us in the nightupon that coast, and how to venture on shore in the day was anotherquestion too; for to have fallen into the hands of any of the savages, had been as bad as to have fallen into the hands of lions and tigers; atleast we were equally apprehensive of the danger of it. 

Be that as it would, we were obliged to go on shore somewhere or otherfor water, for we had not a pint left in the boat; when or where to getit, was the point: Xury said, if I would let him go on shore with oneof the jars, he would find if there was any water, and bring some to me. I asked him why he would go? why I should not go, and he stay in theboat? The boy answered with so much affection, that made me love himever after. Says he, "If wild mans come, they eat me, you gowey. "--"Well, Xury, " said I, "we will both go, and if the wild manscome, we will kill them, they shall eat neither of us. " So I gave Xury apiece of rusk bread to eat, and a dram out of our patron's case ofbottles which I mentioned before; and we hauled the boat in as near theshore as we thought was proper, and so waded to shore; carrying nothingbut our arms, and two jars for water. 

I did not care to go out of sight of the boat, fearing the coming ofcanoes with savages down the river: but the boy seeing a low place abouta mile up the country, rambled to it; and by and by I saw him comerunning towards me. I thought he was pursued by some savage, or frightedwith some wild beast, and I run forward towards him to help him, butwhen I came nearer to him, I saw something hanging over his shoulders, which was a creature that he had shot, like a hare, but different incolour, and longer legs; however, we were very glad of it, and it wasvery good meat; but the great joy that poor Xury came with, was to tellme he had found good water, and seen no wild mans. 

But we found afterwards that we need not take such pains for water, fora little higher up the creek where we were, we found the water freshwhen the tide was out, which flows but a little way up; so we filledour jars, and feasted on the hare we had killed, and prepared to go onour way, having seen no footsteps of any human creature in that part ofthe country. 

As I had been one voyage to this coast before, I knew very well that theislands of the Canaries, and the Cape de Verd islands also, lay not faroff from the coast. But as I had no instruments to take an observationto know what latitude we were in, and not exactly knowing, or at leastremembering what latitude they were in, and knew not where to look forthem, or when to stand off to sea towards them; otherwise I might noweasily have found some of these islands. But my hope was, that if Istood along this coast till I came to that part where the Englishtraded, I should find some of their vessels upon their usual design oftrade, that would relieve and take us in. 

By the best of my calculation, that place where I now was, must be thatcountry, which, lying between the emperor of Morocco's dominions and theNegroes, lies waste, and uninhabited, except by wild beasts; the Negroeshaving abandoned it, and gone farther south for fear of the Moors; andthe Moors not thinking it worth inhabiting, by reason of its barrenness;and indeed both forsaking it because of the prodigious numbers oftigers, lions, and leopards, and other furious creatures which harbourthere; so that the Moors use it for their hunting only, where they golike an army, two or three thousand men at a time; and indeed for nearan hundred miles together upon this coast, we saw nothing but a waste, uninhabited country by day, and heard nothing but howlings and roaringof wild beasts by night. 

Once or twice in the day-time I thought I saw the Pico of Teneriffe, being the high top of the Mountain Teneriffe in the Canaries; and had agreat mind to venture out, in hopes of reaching thither; but havingtried twice, I was forced in again by contrary winds, the sea also goingtoo high for my little vessel; so I resolved to pursue my first design, and keep along the shore. 

Several times I was obliged to land for fresh water, after we had leftthis place; and once in particular, being early in the morning, we cameto an anchor under a little point of land which was pretty high; and thetide beginning to flow, we lay still to go farther in. Xury, whose eyeswere more about him than it seems mine were, calls softly to me, andtells me that we had best go farther off the shore; "for, " says he, "look yonder lies a dreadful monster on the side of that hillock fastasleep. " I looked where he pointed, and saw a dreadful monster indeed, for it was a terrible great lion that lay on the side of the shore, under the shade of a piece of the hill that hung as it were a littleover him. "Xury, " says I, "you shall go on shore and kill him. " Xurylooked frightened, and said, "Me kill! he eat me at one mouth;" onemouthful he meant: however, I said no more to the boy, but bad him liestill, and I took our biggest gun, which was almost musket-bore, andloaded it with a good charge of powder, and with two slugs, and laid itdown; then I loaded another gun with two bullets; and the third (for wehad three pieces) I loaded with five smaller bullets. I took the bestaim I could with the first piece to have shot him in the head, but helay so with his leg raised a little above his nose, that the slugs hithis leg about the knee, and broke the bone. He started up, growling atfirst, but finding his leg broke, fell down again, and then got up uponthree legs, and gave the most hideous roar that ever I heard. I was alittle surprised that I had not hit him on the head; however, I took upthe second piece immediately, and, though he began to move off, firedagain, and shot him in the head, and had the pleasure to see him drop, and make but little noise, but lie struggling for life. Then Xury tookheart, and would have me let him go on shore; "Well, go, " said I; so theboy jumped into the water, and taking a little gun in one hand, swam toshore with the other hand, and coming close to the creature, put themuzzle of the piece to his ear, and shot him in the head again, whichdispatched him quite. 

This was game indeed to us, but this was no food; and I was very sorryto lose three charges of powder and shot upon a creature that was goodfor nothing to us. However, Xury said he would have some of him; so hecomes on board, and asked me to give him the hatchet. "For what, Xury?"said I, "Me cut off his head, " said he. However, Xury could not cut offhis head, but he cut off a foot, and brought it with him, and it was amonstrous great one. 

I bethought myself however, that perhaps the skin of him might one wayor other be of some value to us; and I resolved to take off his skin ifI could. So Xury and I went to work with him; but Xury was much thebetter workman at it, for I knew very ill how to do it. Indeed it tookus both up the whole day, but at last we got off the hide of him, andspreading it on the top of our cabin, the sun effectually dried it intwo days' time, and it afterwards served me to lie upon. 

After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten ortwelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which began to abatevery much, and going no oftener into the shore than we were obliged tofor fresh water: my design in this was, to make the river Gambia orSenegal, that is to say, any where about the Cape de Verd, where I wasin hopes to meet with some European ship; and if I did not, I knew notwhat course I had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish thereamong the Negroes, I knew that all the ships from Europe, which sailedeither to the coast of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, madethis Cape, or those islands; and in a word, I put the whole of myfortune upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship, or must perish. 

When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I havesaid, I began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two or threeplaces, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look atus; we could also perceive they were quite black, and stark naked. I wasonce inclined to have gone off shore to them; but Xury was my bettercounsellor, and said to me, "No go, no go. " However, I hauled in nearerthe shore that I might talk to them, and I found they run along theshore by me a good way: I observed they had no weapons in their hands, except one, who had a long slender stick, which Nury said was a lance, and that they would throw them a great way with a good aim; so I keptat a distance, but talked with them by signs as well as I could; andparticularly made signs for something to eat; they beckoned to me tostop my boat, and they would fetch me some meat. Upon this I lowered thetop of my sail, and lay by, and two of them ran up into the country, andin less than half an hour came back, and brought with them two pieces ofdry flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their country; but weneither knew what the one or the other was: however, we were willing toaccept it, but how to come at it was our next dispute, for I was not forventuring on shore to them, and they were as much afraid of us: but theytook a safe way for us all, for they brought it to the shore and laid itdown, and went and stood a great way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to us again. 

We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make them amends;but an opportunity offered that very instant to oblige them wonderfully;for while we were lying by the shore came two mighty creatures, onepursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the mountainstowards the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the female, or whetherthey were in sport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we couldtell whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter;because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear butin the night; and in the second place, we found the people terriblyfrightened, especially the women. The man that had the lance or dart didnot fly from them, but the rest did; however, as the two creatures randirectly into the water, they did not seem to offer to fall upon any ofthe Negroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and swam about, as ifthey had come for their diversion: at last, one of them began to comenearer our boat than I at first expected; but I lay ready for him, for Ihad loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load boththe others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach, I fired, and shothim directly in the head: immediately he sunk down into the water, butrose instantly, and plunged up and down, as if he was struggling forlife, and so indeed he was: he immediately made to the shore; butbetween the wound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of thewater, he died just before he reached the shore. 

It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures, atthe noise and fire of my gun; some of them were even ready to die forfear, and fell down as dead with the very terror; but when they saw thecreature dead, and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to them tocome to the shore, they took heart and came to the shore, and began tosearch for the creature. I found him by his blood staining the water;and by the help of a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the Negroesto haul, they dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curiousleopard, spotted, and fine to an admirable degree; and the Negroes heldup their hands with admiration, to think what it was I had killedhim with. 

The other creature, frightened with the flash of fire and the noise ofthe gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the mountains fromwhence they came; nor could I, at that distance, know what it was. Ifound quickly the Negroes were for eating the flesh of this creature, soI was willing to have them take it as a favour from me; which, when Imade signs to them that they might take him, they were very thankfulfor. Immediately they fell to work with him; and though they had noknife, yet, with a sharpened piece of wood, they took off his skin asreadily, and much more readily, than we could have done with a knife. They offered me some of the flesh, which I declined, making as if Iwould give it them, but made signs for the skin, which they gave me veryfreely, and brought me a great deal more of their provisions, which, though I did not understand, yet I accepted. I then made signs to themfor some water, and held out one of my jars to them, turning it bottomupward, to show that it was empty, and that I wanted to have it filled. They called immediately to some of their friends, and there came twowomen, and brought a great vessel made of earth, and burnt, as Isuppose, in the sun; this they set down to me, as before, and I sentXury on shore with my jars, and filled them all three. The women were asstark naked as the men. 

I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and water; andleaving my friendly Negroes, I made forward for about eleven days more, without offering to go near the shore, till I saw the land run out agreat length into the sea, at about the distance of four or five leaguesbefore me; and the sea being very calm, I kept a large offing, to makethis point. At length, doubling the point, at about two leagues fromthe land, I saw plainly land on the other side, to seaward: then Iconcluded, as it was most certain indeed, that this was the Cape deVerd, and those the islands, called, from thence, Cape de Verd Islands. However, they were at a great distance, and I could not well tell what Ihad best to do; for if I should be taken with a gale of wind, I mightneither reach one nor the other. 

In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the cabin, andsat me down, Xury having the helm; when, on a sudden, the boy cried out, Master, master, a ship with a sail! and the foolish boy was frightenedout of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master's shipssent to pursue us, when I knew we were gotten far enough out of theirreach. I jumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only theship, but what she was, viz. That it was a Portuguese ship, and, as Ithought, was bound to the coast of Guinea, for Negroes. But, when Iobserved the course she steered, I was soon convinced they were boundsome other way, and did not design to come any nearer to the shore: uponwhich, I stretched out to sea as much as I could, resolving to speakwith them, if possible. 

With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able to come intheir way, but that they would be gone by before I could make any signalto them: but after I had crowded to the utmost, and began to despair, they, it seems, saw me, by the help of their perspective glasses, andthat it was some European boat, which, they supposed, must belong tosome ship that was lost; so they shortened sail, to let me come up. Iwas encouraged with this, and as I had my patron's ensign on board, Imade a waft of it to them, for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw; for they told me they saw the smoke, though theydid not hear the gun. Upon these signals, they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me; and in about three hours' time I came up with them. 

They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in Spanish, and in French, but I understood none of them; but, at last, a Scotch sailor, who was onboard, called to me, and I answered him, and told him I was anEnglishman, that I had made my escape out of slavery from the Moors, atSallee: they then bade me come on board, and very kindly took me in, andall my goods. 

It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will believe, that Iwas thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from such a miserable, and almosthopeless, condition as I was in; and I immediately offered all I had tothe captain of the ship, as a return for my deliverance; but hegenerously told me, he would take nothing from me, but that all I hadshould be delivered safe to me, when I came to the Brazils. "For, " sayshe, "I have saved your life on no other terms than I would be glad to besaved myself; and it may, one time or other, be my lot to be taken up inthe same condition. Besides, " continued he, "when I carry you to theBrazils, so great a way from your own country, if I should take from youwhat you have, you will be starved there, and then I only take away thatlife I have given. No, no, Seignior Inglese, " (Mr. Englishman, ) says he;"I will carry you thither in charity, and these things will help to buyyour subsistence there, and your passage home again. "

As he was charitable, in this proposal, so he was just in theperformance, to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen, that none shouldoffer to touch any thing I had: then he took every thing into his ownpossession, and gave me back an exact inventory of them, that I mighthave them, even so much as my three earthen jars. 

As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw, and told me hewould buy it of me for the ship's use; and asked me what I would havefor it? I told him, he had been so generous to me in every thing, that Icould not offer to make any price of the boat, but left it entirely tohim: upon which, he told me he would give me a note of hand to pay meeighty pieces of eight for it at Brazil; and when it came there, if anyone offered to give more, he would make it up. He offered me also sixtypieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which I was loth to take; not thatI was not willing to let the captain have him, but I was very loth tosell the poor boy's liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully inprocuring my own. However, when I let him know my reason, he owned it tobe just, and offered me this medium, that he would give the boy anobligation to set him free in ten years, if he turned Christian: uponthis, and Xury saying he was willing to go to him, I let thecaptain have him. 

We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and arrived in the Bay deTodos los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in about twenty-two days after. And now I was once more delivered from the most miserable of allconditions of life; and what to do next with myself, I was nowto consider. 

The generous treatment the captain gave me, I can never enough remember:he would take nothing of me for my passage, gave me twenty ducats forthe leopard's skin, and forty for the lion's skin, which I had in myboat, and caused every thing I had in the ship to be punctuallydelivered to me; and what I was willing to sell, he bought of me; suchas the case of bottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump ofbees-wax, --for I had made candles of the rest: in a word, I made abouttwo hundred and twenty pieces of eight of all my cargo; and with thisstock, I went on shore in the Brazils. 

I had not been long here, before I was recommended to the house of agood honest man, like himself, who had an ingeino as they call it, (thatis, a plantation and a sugar-house. ) I lived with him some time, andacquainted myself, by that means, with the manner of planting and makingof sugar: and seeing how well the planters lived, and how they got richsuddenly, I resolved, if I could get a licence to settle there, I wouldturn planter among them: endeavouring, in the mean time, to find outsome way to get my money, which I had left in London, remitted to me. Tothis purpose, getting a kind of a letter of naturalization, I purchasedas much land that was uncured as my money would reach, and formed a planfor my plantation and settlement; such a one as might be suitable to thestock which I proposed to myself to receive from England. 

I had a neighbour, a Portuguese of Lisbon, but: born of English parents, whose name was Wells, and in much such circumstances as I was. I callhim my neighbour, because his plantation lay next to mine, and we wenton very sociably together. My stock was but low, as well as his; and werather planted for food than any thing else, for about two years. However, we began to increase, and our land began to come into order; sothat Ihe third year we planted some tobacco, and made each of us a largepiece of ground ready for planting canes in the year to come: but weboth wanted help; and now I found, more than before, I had done wrong inparting with my boy Xury. 

But, alas! for me to do wrong, that never did right, was no greatwonder. I had no remedy, but to go on: I had got into an employmentquite remote to my genius, and directly contrary to the life I delightedin, and for which I forsook my father's house, and broke through all hisgood advice: nay, I was coining into the very middle station, or upperdegree of low life, which my father advised me to before; and which, ifI resolved to go on with, I might as well have staid at home, and neverhave fatigued myself in the world, as I had done: and I used often tosay to myself, I could have done this as well in England, among myfriends, as have gone five thousand miles off to do it among strangersand savages, in a wilderness, and at such a distance as never to hearfrom any part of the world that had the least knowledge of me. 

In this manner, I used to look upon my condition with the utmost regret. I had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neighbour; no workto be done, but by the labour of my hands: and I used to say, I livedjust like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobodythere but himself. But how just has it been! and how should all menreflect, that when they compare their present conditions with othersthat are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and beconvinced of their former felicity by their experience: I say, how justhas it been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on, in an islandof mere desolation, should be my lot, who had so often unjustly comparedit with the life which I then led, in which, had I continued, I had, inall probability, been exceeding prosperous and rich. 

I was, in some degree, settled in my measures for carrying on theplantation, before my kind friend, the captain of the ship that took meup at sea, went back; for the ship remained there, in providing hislading, and preparing for his voyage, near three months; when, tellinghim what little stock I had left behind me in London, he gave me thisfriendly and sincere advice: "Seignior Inglese, " says he, for so healways called me, "if you will give me letters, and a procuration herein form to me, with orders to the person who has your money in London, to send your effects to Lisbon, to such persons as I shall direct, andin such goods as are proper for this country, I will bring you theproduce of them, God willing, at my return; but, since human affairs areall subject to changes and disasters, I would have you give orders forbut one hundred pounds sterling, which, you say, is half your stock, andlet the hazard be run for the first, so that if it come safe, you mayorder the rest the same way; and, if it miscarry, you may have the otherhalf to have recourse to for your supply. "

This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that I could notbut be convinced it was the best course I could take; so I accordinglyprepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I left my money, and aprocuration to the Portuguese captain, as he desired me. 

I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all my adventures;my slavery, escape, and how I had met with the Portuguese captain atsea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what condition I was now in, with all other necessary directions for my supply; and when this honestcaptain came to Lisbon, he found means, by some of the English merchantsthere, to send over, not the order only, but a full account of my storyto a merchant at London, who represented it effectually to her:whereupon she not only delivered the money, but, out of her own pocket, sent the Portuguese captain a very handsome present for his humanity andcharity to me. 

The merchant in London, vesting this hundred pounds in English goods, such as the captain had wrote for, sent them directly to him at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to me at the Brazils: among which, withoutmy direction, (for I was too young in my business to think of them, ) hehad taken care to have all sorts of tools, iron work, and utensils, necessary for my plantation, and which were of great use to me. 

When this cargo arrived, I thought my fortune made, for I was surprisedwith the joy of it; and my good steward, the captain, had laid out thefive pounds, which my friend had sent him as a present for himself, topurchase and bring me over a servant, under bond for six years' service, and would not accept of any consideration, except a little tobacco, which I would have him accept, being of my own produce. 

Neither was this all: but my goods being all English manufactures, suchas cloths, stuffs, baize, and things particularly valuable and desirablein the country, I found means to sell them to a very great advantage; sothat I might say, I had more than four times the value of my firstcargo, and was now infinitely beyond my poor neighbour, I mean in theadvancement of my plantation: for the first thing I did, I bought me aNegro slave, and ail European servant also; I mean another besides thatwhich the captain brought me from Lisbon. 

But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of ouradversity, so was it with me. I went on the next year with great successin my plantation; I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco on my ownground, more than I had disposed of for necessaries among my neighbours;and these fifty rolls, being each of above a hundred weight, were wellcured, and laid by against the return of the fleet from Lisbon: and now, increasing in business and in wealth, my head began to be full ofprojects and undertakings beyond my reach; such as are, indeed, oftenthe ruin of the best heads in business. Had I continued in the stationI was now in, I had room for all the happy things to have yet befallenme, for which my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life, and which he had so sensibly described the middle station of life to befull of: but other things attended me, and I was still to be the wilfulagent of all my own miseries; and, particularly, to increase my fault, and double the reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows Ishould have leisure to make, all these miscarriages were procured by myapparent obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination, of wanderingabout, and pursuing that inclination, in contradiction to the clearestviews of doing myself good in a fair and plain pursuit of thoseprospects, and those measures of life, which nature and Providenceconcurred to present me with, and to make my duty. 

As I had once done thus in breaking away from my parents, so I could notbe content now, but I must go and leave the happy view I had of being arich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash andimmoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the thingadmitted; and thus I cast myself down again into the deepest gulph ofhuman misery that ever man fell into, or perhaps could be consistentwith life, and a state of health in the world. 

To come, then, by just degrees, to the particulars of this part of mystory:--You may suppose, that having now lived almost four years in theBrazils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon myplantation, I had not only learned the language, but had contracted anacquaintance and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as amongthe merchants at St. Salvador, which was our port; and that, in mydiscourses among them, I had frequently given them an account of my twovoyages to the coast of Guinea, the manner of trading with the Negroesthere, and how easy it was to purchase on the coast for trifles--suchas beads, toys, knives, scissars, hatchets, bits of glass, and thelike--not only gold dust, Guinea grains, elephants' teeth, &c. ButNegroes, for the service of the Brazils, in great numbers. 

They listened always very attentively to my discourses on these heads, but especially to that part which related to the buying Negroes; whichwas a trade, at that time, not only not far entered into, but, as far asit was, had been carried on by the assientos, or permission of the kingsof Spain and Portugal, and engrossed from the public; so that fewNegroes were bought, and those excessive dear. 

It happened, being in company with some merchants and planters of myacquaintance, and talking of those things very earnestly, three of themcame to me the next morning, and told me they had been musing very muchupon what I had discoursed with them of the last night, and they came tomake a secret proposal to me: and, after enjoining me to secrecy, theytold me that they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to Guinea; thatthey had all plantations as well as I, and were straitened for nothingso much as servants; that as it was a trade that could not be carriedon, because they could not publicly sell the Negroes when they camehome, so they desired to make but one voyage, to bring the Negroes onshore privately, and divide them among their own plantations: and, in aword, the question was, whether I would go their supercargo in the ship, to manage the trading part upon the coast of Guinea; and they offered methat I should have an equal share of the Negroes, without providing anypart of the stock. 

This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made to anyone that had not a settlement and plantation of his own to look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be very considerable, and with agood stock upon it. But for me, that was thus entered and established, and had nothing to do but go on as I had begun, for three or four yearsmore, and to have sent for the other hundred pounds from England; andwho, in that time, and with that little addition, could scarce havefailed of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling, and thatincreasing too; for me to think of such a voyage, was the mostpreposterous thing that ever man, in such circumstances, could beguilty of. 

But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist theoffer, than I could restrain my first rambling designs, when my father'sgood counsel was lost upon me. In a word, I told them I would go withall my heart, if they would undertake to look after my plantation in myabsence, and would dispose of it to such as I should direct, if Imiscarried. This they all engaged to do, and entered into writings orcovenants to do so; and I made a formal will, disposing of my plantationand effects, in case of my death; making the captain of the ship thathad saved my life, as before, my universal heir; but obliging him todispose of my effects as I had directed in my will; one half of theproduce being to himself, and the other to be shipped to England. 

In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects, and tokeep up my plantation: had I used half as much prudence to have lookedinto my own interest, and have made a judgment of what I ought to havedone and not to have done I had certainly never gone away from soprosperous an undertaking, leaving all the probable views of a thrivingcircumstance, and gone a voyage to sea, attended with all its commonhazards, to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particularmisfortunes to myself. 

But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy, rather than my reason: and accordingly, the ship being fitted out, andthe cargo furnished, and all things done as by agreement, by my partnersin the voyage, I went on board in an evil hour again, the 1st ofSeptember, 1659, being the same day eight years that I went from myfather and mother at Hull, in order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool to my own interest. 

Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden, carried six guns, and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and myself; we had onboard no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit for ourtrade with the Negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and oddtrifles, especially little looking-glasses, knives, scissars, hatchets, and the like. 

The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the northwardupon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the African coast. When they came about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude, which, it seems, was the manner of their course in those days, we had very goodweather, only excessive hot all the way upon our own coast, till we cameto the height of Cape St. Augustino; from whence, keeping farther off atsea, we lost sight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the isleFernando de Noronha, holding our course N. E. By N. And leaving thoseisles on the east. In this course we passed the line in about twelvedays' time, and were by our last observation, in 7 degrees 22 minutesnorthern latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us quiteout of our knowledge: it began from the south-east, came about to thenorth-west, and then settled in the north-east; from whence it blew insuch a terrible manner, that for twelve days together we could donothing but drive, and, scudding away before it, let it carry us whitherever fate and the fury of the winds directed; and, during these twelvedays, I need not say that I expected every day to be swallowed up; nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect to save their lives. 

In this distress, we had, besides the terror of the storm, one of ourmen died of the calenture, and one man and a boy washed overboard. Aboutthe twelfth day, the weather abating a little, the master made anobservation as well as he could, and found that he was in about 11degrees north latitude, but that he was 22 degrees of longitudedifference, west from Cape St. Augustino; so that he found he was gotupon the coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the riverAmazons, toward that of the river Oroonoque, commonly called the GreatRiver; and began to consult with me what course he should take, for theship was leaky and very much disabled, add he was going directly back tothe coast of Brazil. 

I was positively against that; and looking over the charts of thesea-coast of America with him, we concluded there was no inhabitedcountry for us to have recourse to, till we came within the circle ofthe Caribbee islands, and therefore resolved to stand away forBarbadoes; which by keeping off to sea, to avoid the in-draft of the bayor gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in aboutfifteen days' sail; whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to thecoast of Africa without some assistance, both to our ship and ourselves. 

With this design, we changed our course, and steered away N. W. By W. Inorder to reach some of our English islands, where I hoped for relief:but our voyage was otherwise determined; for being in the latitude of 12degrees 18 minutes, a second storm came upon us, which carried us awaywith the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very wayof all human commerce, that had all our lives been saved, as to the sea, we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than everreturning to our own country. 

In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men earlyin the morning cried out, Land! and we had no sooner run out of thecabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were, but the ship struck upon a sand, and in a moment, her motion being sostopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner, that we expected weshould all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driveninto our close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and sprayof the sea. 

It is not easy for any one, who has not been in the like condition, todescribe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances; weknew nothing where we were, or upon what land it was we were driven, whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or not inhabited; andas the rage of the wind was still great, though rather less than atfirst, we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes, without breaking in pieces, unless the wind, by a kind of miracle, should immediately turn about. In a word, we sat looking upon oneanother, and expecting death every moment, and every man actingaccordingly, as preparing for another world; for there was little ornothing more for us to do in this: that which was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had, was, that, contrary to our expectation, theship did not break yet, and that the master said the wind beganto abate. 

Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the shiphaving thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to expecther getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had nothingto do but to think of saving our lives as well as we could. We had aboat at our stern just before the storm, but she was first staved bydashing against the ship's rudder, and, in the next place, she brokeaway, and either sunk, or was driven off to sea; so there was no hopefrom her: we had another boat on board, but how to get her off into thesea was a doubtful thing; however, there was no room to debate, for wefancied the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some told usshe was actually broken already. 

In this distress, the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat, and withthe help of the rest of the men, they got her flung over the ship'sside; and getting all into her, let her go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to God's mercy, and the wild sea: for though thestorm was abated considerably, yet the sea went dreadful high upon theshore, and might be well called _den wild zee_, as the Dutch call thesea in a storm. 

And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw plainly, thatthe sea went so high, that the boat could not live, and that we shouldbe inevitably drowned. As to making sail, we had none; nor, if we had, could we have done any thing with it; so we worked at the oar towardsthe land, though with heavy hearts, like men going to execution; for weall knew that when the boat came nearer to the shore, she would bedashed in a thousand pieces by the breach of the sea. However, wecommitted our souls to God in the most earnest manner; and the winddriving us towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our ownhands, pulling as well as we could towards land. 

What the shore was--whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal--weknew not; the only hope that could rationally give us the least shadowof expectation, was, if we might happen into some bay or gulf, or themouth of some river, where by great chance we might have run our boatin, or got under the lee of the land, and perhaps made smooth water. Butthere was nothing of this appeared; and as we made nearer and nearer theshore, the land looked more frightful than the sea. 

After we had rowed, or rather driven, about a league and a half, as wereckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the _coup de grace_. In a word, it took uswith such a fury, that it overset the boat at once; and separating us, as well from the boat as from one another, gave us not time hardly tosay, "O God!" for we were all swallowed up in a moment. 

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt, when I sunkinto the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not delivermyself from the waves so as to draw my breath, till that wave havingdriven me, or rather carried me, a vast way on towards the shore, andhaving spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry, but half dead with the water I took in. I had so much presence of mind, as well as breath left, that seeing myself nearer the main land than Iexpected, I got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards theland as fast as I could, before another wave should return and take meup again; but I soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I saw thesea come after me as high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy, which I had no means or strength to contend with: my business was tohold my breath, and raise myself upon the water, if I could; and so, byswimming, to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible; my greatest concern now being, that the wave, as it wouldcarry me a great way towards the shore when it came on, might not carryme back again with it when it gave back towards the sea. 

The wave that came upon me again, buried me at once twenty or thirtyfeet deep in its own body; and I could feel myself carried with a mightyforce and swiftness towards the shore a very great way; but I held mybreath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. Iwas ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself risingup, so, to my immediate relief, I found my head and hands shoot outabove the surface of the water; and though it was not two seconds oftime that I could keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave mebreath, and new courage. I was covered again with water a good while, but not so long but I held it out; and finding the water had spentitself, and began to return, I struck forward against the return of thewaves, and felt ground again with my feet. I stood still a few moments, to recover breath, and till the water went from me, and then took to myheels, and ran with what strength I had farther towards the shore. Butneither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which camepouring in after me again; and twice more I was lifted up by the wavesand carried forwards as before, the shore being very flat. 

The last time of these two had well nigh been fatal to me; for the seahaving hurried me along, as before, landed me, or rather dashed me, against a piece of a rock, and that with such force, that it left mesenseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the blowtaking my side and breast, beat the breath, as it were, quite out of mybody; and had it returned again immediately, I must have been strangledin the water: but I recovered a little before the return of the waves, and seeing I should again be covered with the water, I resolved to holdfast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible, tillthe wave went back. Now as the waves were not so high as the first, being nearer land, I held my hold till the wave abated, and then fetchedanother run, which brought me so near the shore, that the next wave, though it went over me, yet did not so swallow me up as to carry meaway; and the next run I took, I got to the main land; where, to mygreat comfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the shore, and sat me downupon the grass, free from danger, and quite out of the reach ofthe water. 

I was now landed, and safe on shore, and began to look up and thank Godthat my life was saved, in a case wherein there were, some minutesbefore, scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to express, to the life, what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are, when itis so saved, as I may say, out of the grave: and I did not wonder now atthe custom, viz. That when a malefactor, who has the halter about hisneck, is tied up, and just going to be turned off, and has a reprievebrought to him; I say, I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon withit, to let him blood that very moment they tell him of it, that thesurprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart, andoverwhelm him. 

 For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first. 

I walked about on the shore, lifting up my hands, and my whole being, asI may say, wrapt up in the contemplation of my deliverance; making athousand gestures and motions, which I cannot describe; reflecting uponmy comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be one soulsaved but myself; for, as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or anysign of them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes thatwere not fellows. 

I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel--when the breach and froth of thesea being so big I could hardly see it, it lay so far off--andconsidered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore?

After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my condition, Ibegan to look round me, to see what kind of a place I was in, and whatwas next to be done; and I soon found my comforts abate, and that, in aword, I had a dreadful deliverance: for I was wet, had no clothes toshift me, nor any thing either to eat or drink, to comfort me; neitherdid I see any prospect before me, but that of perishing with hunger, orbeing devoured by wild beasts: and that which was particularlyafflicting to me was, that I had no weapon, either to hunt and kill anycreature for my sustenance, or to defend myself against any othercreature that might desire to kill me for theirs. In a word, I hadnothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe, and a little tobacco in abox. This was all my provision; and this threw me into such terribleagonies of mind, that, for a while, I ran about like a madman. Nightcoming upon me, I began, with a heavy heart, to consider what would bemy lot if there were any ravenous beasts in that country, seeing atnight they always come abroad for their prey. 

All the remedy that offered to my thoughts; at that time, was, to get upinto a thick bushy tree, like a fir, but thorny--which grew near me, andwhere I resolved to sit all night--and consider the next day what deathI should die, for as yet I saw no prospect of life. I walked about afurlong from the shore, to see if I could find any fresh water to drink, which I did, to my great joy; and having drank, and put a littletobacco into my mouth to prevent hunger, I went to the tree, and gettingup into it, endeavoured to place myself so, as that if I should fallasleep, I might not fall; and having cut me a short stick, like atruncheon, for my defence, I took up my lodging; and having beenexcessively fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept as comfortably as, Ibelieve, few could have done in my condition; and found myself the mostrefreshed with it that I think I ever was on such an occasion. 

When I waked it was broad day, the weather clear, and the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as before; but that whichsurprised me most was, that the ship was lifted off in the night fromthe sand where she lay, by the swelling of the tide, and was driven upalmost as far as the rock which I at first mentioned, where I had beenso bruised by the wave dashing me against it. This being within about amile from the shore where I was, and the ship seeming to stand uprightstill, I wished myself on board, that at least I might save somenecessary things for my use. 

When I came down from my apartment in the tree, I looked about me again, and the first thing I found was the boat; which lay, as the wind and thesea had tossed her up, upon the land, about two miles on my right hand. I walked as far as I could upon the shore to have got to her; but founda neck, or inlet, of water between me and the boat, which was about halfa mile broad; so I came back for the present, being more intent upongetting at the ship, where I hoped to find something for my presentsubsistence. 

A little after noon, I found the sea very calm, and the tide ebbed sofar out, that I could come within a quarter of a mile of the ship: andhere I found a fresh renewing of my grief; for I saw evidently, that ifwe had kept on board, we had been all safe; that is to say, we had allgot safe on shore, and I had not been so miserable as to be leftentirely destitute of all comfort and company, as I now was. This forcedtears from my eyes again; but as there was little relief in that, Iresolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so I pulled off my clothes, for the weather was hot to extremity, and took the water; but when Icame to the ship, my difficulty was still greater to know how to get onboard; for as she lay aground, and high out of the water, there wasnothing within my reach to lay hold of. I swam round her twice, and thesecond time I spied a small piece of a rope, which I wondered I did notsee at first, hang down by the fore-chains so low, as that with greatdifficulty, I got hold of it, and by the help of that rope got into theforecastle of the ship. Here I found that the ship was bulged, and had agreat deal of water in her hold; but that she lay so on the side of abank of hard sand, or rather earth, that her stern lay lifted up uponthe bank, and her head low, almost to the water. By this means all herquarter was free, and all that was in that part was dry; for you may besure my first work was to search and to see what was spoiled and whatwas free: and, first, I found that all the ship's provisions were dryand untouched by the water; and, being very well disposed to eat, I wentto the bread-room, and filled my pockets with biscuit, and eat it as Iwent about other things, for I had no time to lose. I also found somerum in the great cabin, of which I took a large dram, and which I hadindeed need enough of, to spirit me for what was before me. Now I wantednothing but a boat, to furnish myself with many things which I foresawwould be very necessary to me. 

It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not to be had, andthis extremity roused my application: we had several spare yards, andtwo or three large spars of wood, and a spare top-mast or two in theship; I resolved to fall to work with these, and flung as many overboardas I could manage for their weight, tying every one with a rope, thatthey might not drive away. When this was done, I went down the ship'sside, and pulling them to me, I tied four of them fast together at bothends, as well as I could, in the form of a raft, and laying two or threeshort pieces of plank upon them, crossways, I found I could walk upon itvery well, but that it was not able to bear any great weight, the piecesbeing too light: so I went to work, and with the carpenter's saw I cut aspare top-mast into three lengths, and added them to my raft, with agreat deal of labour and pains. But the hope of furnishing myself withnecessaries, encouraged me to go beyond what I should have been able tohave done upon another occasion. 

My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight. My nextcare was what to load it with, and how to preserve what I laid upon itfrom the surf of the sea; but I was not long considering this. I firstlaid all the planks or boards upon it that I could get, and havingconsidered well what I most wanted, I got three of the seamen's chests, which I had broken open and emptied, and lowered them down upon my raft;these I filled with provisions, viz. Bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goats' flesh, (which we lived much upon, ) and alittle remainder of European corn, which had been laid by for some fowlswhich we had brought to sea with us, but the fowls were killed. Therehad been some barley and wheat together, but, to my greatdisappointment, I found afterwards that the rats had eaten or spoiled itall. As for liquors, I found several cases of bottles belonging to ourskipper, in which were some cordial waters; and, in all, about five orsix gallons of rack. These I stowed by themselves, there being no needto put them into the chests, nor any room for them. While I was doingthis, I found the tide began to flow, though very calm; and I had themortification to see my coat, shirt, and waistcoat, which I had left onshore, upon the sand, swim away; as for my breeches, which were onlylinen, and open-knee'd, I swam on board in them, and my stockings. However, this put me upon rummaging for clothes, of which I foundenough, but took no more than I wanted for present use, for I had otherthings which my eye was more upon; as, first, tools to work with onshore and it was after long searching that I found the carpenter'schest, which was indeed a very useful prize to me, and much morevaluable than a ship-lading of gold would have been at that time. I gotit down to my raft, even whole as it was, without losing time to lookinto it, for I knew in general what it contained. 

My next care was for some ammunition and arms. There were two very goodfowling-pieces in the great cabin, and two pistols; these I securedfirst, with some powder-horns and a small bag of shot, and two old rustyswords. I knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but knewnot where our gunner had stowed them; but with much search I found them, two of them dry and good, the third had taken water. Those two I got tomy raft, with the arms. And now I thought myself pretty well freighted, and began to think how I should get to shore with them, having neithersail, oar, nor rudder; and the least cap-full of wind would have oversetall my navigation. 

I had three encouragements: 1st, A smooth, calm sea: 2dly, The tiderising, and setting in to the shore: 3dly, What little wind there was, blew me towards the land. And thus, having found two or three brokenoars belonging to the boat, and besides the tools which were in thechest, I found two saws, an axe, and a hammer; and with this cargo I putto sea. For a mile, or thereabouts, my raft went very well, only that Ifound it drive a little distant from the place where I had landedbefore; by which I perceived that there was some indraft of the water, and consequently I hoped to find some creek or river there, which Imight make use of as a port to get to land with my cargo. 

As I imagined, so it was: there appeared before me a little opening ofthe land, and I found a strong current of the tide set into it; so Iguided my raft, as well as I could, to get into the middle of thestream. But here I had like to have suffered a second shipwreck, which, if I had, I think verily would have broken my heart; for knowing nothingof the coast, my raft ran aground at one end of it upon a shoal, and notbeing aground at the other end, it wanted but a little that all my cargohad slipped off towards that end that was afloat, and so fallen into thewater. I did my utmost, by setting my back against the chests, to keepthem in their places, but could not thrust off the raft with all mystrength; neither durst I stir from the posture I was in, but holding upthe chests with all my might, I stood in that manner near half an hour, in which time the rising of the water brought me a little more upon alevel; and a little after, the water still rising, my raft floatedagain, and I thrust her off with the oar I had into the channel, andthen driving up higher, I at length found myself in the mouth of alittle river, with land on both sides, and a strong current or tiderunning up. I looked on both sides for a proper place to get to shore, for I was not willing to be driven too high up the river; hoping, intime, to see some ship at sea, and therefore resolved to place myself asnear the coast as I could. 

At length I spied a little cove on the right shore of the creek, towhich, with great pain and difficulty, I guided my raft, and at last gotso near, as that reaching ground with my oar, I could thrust herdirectly in; but here I had like to have dipped all my cargo into thesea again; for that shore lying pretty steep, that is to say, sloping, there was no place to land, but where one end of my float, if it ran onshore, would lie so high, and the other sink lower, as before, that itwould endanger my cargo again. All that I could do, was to wait till thetide was at the highest, keeping the raft with my oar like an anchor, tohold the side of it fast to the shore, near a flat piece of ground, which I expected the water would flow over; and so it did. As soon as Ifound water enough, for my raft drew about a foot of water, I thrust herupon that flat piece of ground, and there fastened or moored her, bysticking my two broken oars into the ground; one on one-side, near oneend, and one on the other side, near the other end: and thus I lay tillthe water ebbed away, and left my raft and all my cargo safe on shore. 

My next work was to view the country, and seek a proper place for myhabitation, and where to stow my goods, to secure them from whatevermight happen. Where I was, I yet knew not; whether on the continent, oron an island; whether inhabited, or not inhabited; whether in danger ofwild beasts, or not. There was a hill, not above a mile from me, whichrose up very steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some otherhills, which lay as in a ridge from it, northward. I took out one of thefowling-pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder; and thusarmed, I travelled for discovery up to the top of that hill; where, after I had, with great labour and difficulty, got up to the top, I sawmy fate, to my great affliction, viz. That I was in an island, environedevery way with the sea, no land to be seen, except some rocks, which laya great way off, and two small islands, less than this, which lay aboutthree leagues to the west. 

I found also that the island I was in was barren, and, as I saw goodreason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild beasts, of whom, however, I saw none; yet I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their kinds;neither, when I killed them, could I tell what was fit for food, andwhat not. At my coming back, I shot at a great bird, which I saw sittingupon a tree, on the side of a great wood. I believe it was the first gunthat had been fired there since the creation of the world: I had nosooner fired, but from all the parts of the wood there arose aninnumerable number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused screaming, and crying, every one according to his usual note; but not one of themof any kind that I knew. As for the creature I killed, I took it to be akind of a hawk, its colour and beak resembling it, but had no talons orclaws more than common. Its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing. 

Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, and fell to workto bring my cargo on shore, which took me up the rest of that day: whatto do with myself at night I knew not, nor indeed where to rest: for Iwas afraid to lie down on the ground, not knowing but some wild beastmight devour me; though, as I afterwards found, there was really no needfor those fears. 

However, as well as I could, I barricadoed myself round with the chestsand boards that I had brought on shore, and made a kind of a hut forthat night's lodging. As for food, I yet saw not which way to supplymyself, except that I had seen two or three creatures, like hares, runout of the wood where I shot the fowl. 

I now began to consider, that I might yet get a great many things out ofthe ship, which would be useful to me, and particularly some of therigging and sails, and such other things as might come to land; and Iresolved to make another voyage on board the vessel, if possible. And asI knew that the first storm that blew must necessarily break her all inpieces, I resolved to set all other things apart, till I got every thingout of the ship that I could get. Then I called a council, that is tosay, in my thoughts, whether I should take back the raft; but thisappeared impracticable: so I resolved to go as before, when the tide wasdown; and I did so, only that I stripped before I went from my hut;having nothing on but a chequered shirt, a pair of linen drawers, and apair of pumps on my feet. 

I got on board the ship as before, and prepared a second raft; andhaving had experience of the first, I neither made this so unwieldy, norloaded it so hard, but yet I brought away several things very useful tome: as, first, in the carpenter's stores, I found two or three bags ofnails and spikes, a great screw-jack, a dozen or two of hatchets; and, above all, that most useful thing called a grind-stone. All these Isecured together, with several things belonging to the gunner;particularly two or three iron crows, and two barrels of musket bullets, seven muskets, and another fowling-piece, with some small quantity ofpowder more; a large bag-full of small shot, and a great roll ofsheet-lead; but this last was so heavy, I could not hoist it up to getit over the ship's side. 

Besides these things, I took all the men's clothes that I could find, and a spare fore-top sail, a hammock, and some bedding; and with this Iloaded my second raft, and brought them all safe on shore, to my verygreat comfort. 

I was under some apprehensions, during my absence from the land, that atleast my provisions might be devoured on shore: but when I came back, Ifound no sign of any visitor; only there sat a creature like a wild cat, upon one of the chests, which, when I came towards it, ran away a littledistance, and then stood still. She sat very composed and unconcerned, and looked full in my face, as if she had a mind to be acquainted withme. I presented my gun to her, but, as she did not understand it, shewas perfectly unconcerned at it, nor did she offer to stir away; uponwhich I tossed her a bit of biscuit, though, by the way, I was not veryfree of it, for my store was not great: however, I spared her a bit, Isay, and she went to it, smelled of it, and ate it, and looked (aspleased) for more; but I thanked her, and could spare no more: so shemarched off. 

Having got my second cargo on shore--though I was fain to open thebarrels of powder, and bring them by parcels, for they were too heavy, being large casks--I went to work to make me a little tent, with thesail, and some poles, which I cut for that purpose; and into this tent Ibrought every thing that I knew would spoil either with rain or sun; andI piled all the empty chests and casks up in a circle round the tent, tofortify it from any sudden attempt either from man or beast. 

When I had done this, I blocked up the door of the tent with some boardswithin, and an empty chest set up on end without; and spreading one ofthe beds upon the ground, laying my two pistols just at my head, and mygun at length by me, I went to bed for the first time, and slept veryquietly all night, for I was very weary and heavy; for the night beforeI had slept little, and had laboured very hard all day, as well to fetchall those things from the ship, as to get them on shore. 

I had the biggest magazine of all kinds now that ever was laid up, Ibelieve, for one man: but I was not satisfied still: for while the shipsat upright in that posture, I thought I ought to get every thing out ofher that I could: so every day, at low water, I went on board, andbrought away something or other; but particularly the third time I went, I brought away as much of the rigging as I could, as also all the smallropes and rope-twine I could get, with a piece of spare canvass, whichwas to mend the sails upon occasion, and the barrel of wet gunpowder. In a word, I brought away all the sails first and last; only that I wasfain to cut them in pieces, and bring as much at a time as I could; forthey were no more useful to be sails, but as mere canvass only. 

But that which comforted me still more, was, that, last of all, after Ihad made five or six such voyages as these, and thought I had nothingmore to expect from the ship that was worth my meddling with; I say, after all this, I found a great hogshead of bread, and three largerunlets of rum or spirits, and a box of sugar, and a barrel of fineflour; this was surprising to me, because I had given over expecting anymore provisions, except what was spoiled by the water. I soon emptiedthe hogshead of that bread, and wrapped it up, parcel by parcel, inpieces of the sails, which I cut out; and, in a word, I got all thissafe on shore also. 

The next day I made another voyage, and now having plundered the ship ofwhat was portable and fit to hand out, I began with the cables, andcutting the great cable into pieces, such as I could move, I got twocables and a hawser on shore, with all the iron-work I could get; andhaving cut down the spritsail-yard, and the mizen-yard, and every thingI could, to make a large raft, I loaded it with all those heavy goods;and came away; but my good luck began now to leave me; for this raft wasso unwieldy, and so overladen, that after I was entered the little cove, where I had landed the rest of my goods, not being able to guide it sohandily as I did the other, it overset, and threw me and all my cargointo the water; as for myself, it was no great harm, for I was near theshore; but as to my cargo, it was a great part of it lost, especiallythe iron, which I expected would have been of great use to me: however, when the tide was out, I got most of the pieces of cable ashore, andsome of the iron, though with infinite labour; for I was fain to dip forit into the water, a work which fatigued me very much. After this I wentevery day on board, and brought away what I could get. 

I had been now thirteen days ashore, and had been eleven times on boardthe ship; in which time I had brought away all that one pair of handscould well be supposed capable to bring; though I believe verily, hadthe calm weather held, I should have brought away the whole ship, pieceby piece; but preparing the twelfth time to go on board, I found thewind began to rise: however, at low water, I went on board; and though Ithought I had rummaged the cabin so effectually, as that nothing couldbe found, yet I discovered a locker with drawers in it, in one of whichI found two or three razors, and one pair of large scissars with someten or a dozen of good knives and forks; in another I found aboutthirty-six pounds value in money, some European coin, some Brazil, somepieces of eight, some gold, and some silver. 

I smiled to myself at the sight of this money: "O drug!" said I aloud, "what art thou good for? Thou art not worth to me, no, not the takingoff the ground; one of those knives is worth all this heap: I have nomanner of use for thee; e'en remain where thou art, and go to thebottom, as a creature whose life is not worth saving. " However, uponsecond thoughts, I took it away; and wrapping all this in a piece ofcanvass, I began to think of making another raft; but while I waspreparing this, I found the sky over-cast, and the wind began to rise, and in a quarter of an hour it blew a fresh gale from the shore. Itpresently occurred to me, that it was in vain to pretend to make a raftwith the wind off shore; and that it was my business to be gone beforethe tide of flood began, or otherwise I might not be able to reach theshore at all. Accordingly I let myself down into the water, and swamacross the channel which lay between the ship and the sands, and eventhat with difficulty enough, partly with the weight of the things I hadabout me, and partly the roughness of the water; for the wind rose veryhastily, and before it was quite high water it blew a storm. 

But I was got home to my little tent, where I lay, with all my wealthabout me very secure. It blew very hard all that night, and in themorning, when I looked out, behold, no more ship was to be seen! I was alittle surprised, but recovered myself with this satisfactoryreflection, viz. That I had lost no time, nor abated no diligence, toget every thing out of her that could be useful to me, and that, indeed, there was little left in her that I was able to bring away, if I had hadmore time. 

I now gave over any more thoughts of the ship, or of any thing out ofher, except what might drive on shore, from her wreck; as, indeed, divers pieces of her afterwards did; but those things were of smalluse to me. 

My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself againsteither savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any were in theisland; and I had many thoughts of the method how to do this, and whatkind of dwelling to make, whether I should make me a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the earth: and in short, I resolved upon both; the mannerand description of which, it may not be improper to give an account of. 

I soon found the place I was in was not for my settlement, particularlybecause it was upon a low, moorish ground, near the sea, and I believedit would not be wholesome; and more particularly because there was nofresh water near it: so I resolved to find a more healthy and moreconvenient spot of ground. 

I consulted several things in my situation, which I found would beproper for me: 1st, Health and fresh water, I just now mentioned: 2dly, Shelter from the heat of the sun: 3dly, Security from ravenouscreatures, whether men or beasts: 4thly, A view to the sea, that if Godsent any ship in sight, I might not lose any advantage for mydeliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all myexpectation yet. 

In search for a place proper for this, I found a little plain on theside of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was steepas a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me from the top. On the side of this rock there was a hollow place, worn a little way in, like the entrance or door of a cave; but there was not really any cave, or way into the rock, at all. 

On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I resolved topitch my tent. This plain was not above a hundred yards broad, and abouttwice as long, and lay like a green before my door; and, at the end ofit, descended irregularly every way down into the low ground by the seaside. It was on the N. N. W. Side of the hill; so that it was shelteredfrom the heat every day, till it came to a W. And by S. Sun, orthereabouts, which, in those countries, is near the setting. 

Before I set up my tent, I drew a half-circle before the hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its semi-diameter from the rock, andtwenty yards in its diameter, from its beginning and ending. 

In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving theminto the ground till they stood very firm like piles, the biggest endbeing out of the ground about five feet and a half and sharpened on thetop. The two rows did not stand above six inches from one another. 

Then I took the pieces of cable which I cut in the ship, and laid themin rows, one upon another, within the circle, between these two rows ofstakes, up to the top, placing other stakes in the inside, leaningagainst them, about two feet and a half high, like a spur to a post; andthis fence was so strong, that neither man nor beast could get into itor over it. This cost me a great deal of time and labour, especially tocut the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and drive them intothe earth. 

The entrance into this place I made to be not by a door, but by a shortladder to go over the top; which ladder, when I was in, I lifted overafter me; and so I was completely fenced in and fortified, as I thought, from all the world, and consequently slept secure in the night, whichotherwise I could not have done; though, as it appeared afterwards, there was no need of all this caution from the enemies that Iapprehended danger from. 

Into this fence, or fortress, with infinite labour, I carried all myriches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which you have theaccount above; and I made a large tent, which, to preserve me from therains, that in one part of the year are very violent there, I madedouble, viz. One smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it, andcovered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which I had saved amongthe sails. 

And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had brought onshore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very good one, and belongedto the mate of the ship. 

Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and every thing that wouldspoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all my goods, I made up theentrance which till now I had left open, and so passed and repassed, asI said, by a short ladder. 

When I had done this, I began to work my way into the rock, and bringingall the earth and stones that I dug down out through my tent, I laidthem up within my fence in the nature of a terrace, so that it raisedthe ground within about a foot and an half; and thus I made me a cave, just behind my tent, which served me like a cellar to my house. It costme much labour and many days, before all these things were brought toperfection; and therefore I must go back to some other things which tookup some of my thoughts. At the same time it happened, after I had laidmy scheme for the setting up my tent, and making the cave, that a stormof rain falling from a thick, dark cloud, a sudden flash of lightninghappened, and after that, a great clap of thunder, as is naturally theeffect of it. I was not so much surprised with the lightning, as I waswith a thought, which darted into my mind as swift as the lightningitself: O my powder! My very heart sunk within me when I thought, thatat one blast, all my powder might be destroyed; on which, not my defenceonly, but the providing me food, as I thought, entirely depended. I wasnothing near so anxious about my own danger, though, had the powder tookfire, I had never known who had hurt me. 

Such impression did this make upon me, that after the storm was over, Ilaid aside all my works, my building and fortifying, and applied myselfto make bags and boxes, to separate the powder, and to keep it a littleand a little in a parcel, in hope that whatever might come, it might notall take fire at once; and to keep it so apart, that it should not bepossible to make one part fire another. I finished this work in about afortnight; and I think my powder, which in all was about 240 lb. Weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels. As to the barrel thathad been wet, I did not apprehend any danger from that; so I placed itin my new cave, which, in my fancy, I called my kitchen, and the rest Ihid up and down in holes among the rocks, so that no wet might come toit, marking very carefully where I laid it. 

In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out at least onceevery day with my gun, as well to divert myself, as to see if I couldkill any thing fit for food; and, as near as I could, to acquaint myselfwith what the island produced. The first time I went out, I presentlydiscovered that there were goats upon the island, which was a greatsatisfaction to me; but then it was attended with this misfortune to me, viz. That they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot, that it wasthe most difficult thing in the world to come at them: but I was notdiscouraged at this, not doubting but I might now and then shoot one, asit soon happened; for after I had found their haunts a little, I laidwait in this manner for them: I observed, if they saw me in the valleys, though they were upon the rocks, they would run away as in a terriblefright; but if they were feeding in the valleys, and I was upon therocks, they took no notice of me; from whence I concluded, that by theposition of their optics, their sight was so directed downward, thatthey did not readily see objects that were above them: so, afterwards, Itook this method--I always climbed the rocks first, to get above them, and then had frequently a fair mark. The first shot I made among thesecreatures, I killed a she-goat, which had a little kid by her, which shegave suck to, which grieved me heartily; but when the old one fell, thekid stood stock still by her, till I came and took her up; and not onlyso, but when I carried the old one with me, upon my shoulders, the kidfollowed me quite to my enclosure; upon which, I laid down the dam, andtook the kid in my arms, and carried it over my pale, in hopes to havebred it up tame; but it would not eat; so I was forced to kill it, andeat it myself. These two supplied me with flesh a great while, for I atesparingly, and preserved my provisions (my bread especially) as much aspossibly I could. 

Having now fixed my habitation, I found it absolutely necessary toprovide a place to make a fire in, and fuel to burn; and what I did forthat, as also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I made, Ishall give a full account of in its proper place: but I must first givesome little account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which, it may well be supposed, were not a few. 

I had a dismal prospect of my condition; for as I was not cast away uponthat island without being driven, as is said, by a violent storm, quiteout of the course of our intended voyage; and a great way, viz. Somehundreds of leagues, out of the ordinary course of the trade of mankind, I had great reason to consider it as a determination of Heaven, that inthis desolate place, and in this desolate manner, I should end my life. The tears would run plentifully down my face when I made thesereflections; and sometimes I would expostulate with myself whyProvidence should thus completely ruin its creatures, and render them soabsolutely miserable; so abandoned without help, so entirely depressed, that it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a life. 

But something always returned swift upon me to check these thoughts, andto reprove me: and particularly, one day, walking with my gun in myhand, by the sea side, I was very pensive upon the subject of my presentcondition, when reason, as it were, expostulated with me the other way, thus: "Well, you are in a desolate condition, it is true; but, prayremember, where are the rest of you? Did not you come eleven of you intothe boat? Where are the ten? Why were not they saved, and you lost? Whywere you singled out? Is it better to be here or there?" And then Ipointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered with the good that isin them, and with what worse attends them. 

Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for mysubsistence, and what would have been my case if it had not happened(which was a hundred thousand to one) that the ship floated from theplace where she first struck, and was driven so near to the shore, thatI had time to get all these things out of her: what would have been mycase, if I had been to have lived in the condition in which I at firstcame on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries to supply andprocure them? "Particularly, said I aloud (though to myself, ) whatshould I have done without a gun, without ammunition, without any toolsto make any thing, or to work with, without clothes, bedding, a tent, orany manner of covering?" and that now I had all these to a sufficientquantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in such a manner as tolive without my gun, when my ammunition was spent: so that I had atolerable view of subsisting, without any want, as long as I lived; forI considered, from the beginning, how I should provide for the accidentsthat might happen, and for the time that was to come, not only after myammunition should be spent, but even after my health or strengthshould decay. 

I confess, I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition beingdestroyed at one blast, I mean my powder being blown up by lightning;and this made the thoughts of it so surprising to me, when it lightenedand thundered, as I observed just now. 

And now being to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of silentlife, such, perhaps, as was never heard of in the world before, I shalltake it from its beginning, and continue it in its order. It was, by myaccount, the 30th of September, when, in the manner as above said, Ifirst set foot upon this horrid island; when the sun being to us in itsautumnal equinox, was almost just over my head: for I reckoned myself, by observation, to be in the latitude of 9 degrees 22 minutes northof the Line. 

After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it came into mythoughts that I should lose my reckoning of time for want of books, andpen and ink, and should even forget the sabbath days from the workingdays: but, to prevent this, I cut it with my knife upon a large post, incapital letters; and making it into a great cross, I set it up on theshore where I first landed, viz. "I came on shore here on the 30th ofSeptember, 1659. " Upon the sides of this square post I cut every day anotch with my knife, and every seventh notch was as long again as therest, and every first day of the month as long again as that long one:and thus I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoningof time. 

But it happened, that among the many things which I brought out of theship, in the several voyages which, as above mentioned, I made to it, Igot several things of less value, but not at all less useful to me, which I found, some time after, in rummaging the chests; as, inparticular, pens, ink, and paper; several parcels in the captain's, mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keeping; three or four compasses, somemathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and books ofnavigation; all which I huddled together, whether I might want them orno: also I found three very good bibles, which came to me in my cargofrom England, and which I had packed up among my things; some Portuguesebooks also, and, among them, two or three popish prayer books, andseveral other books, all which I carefully secured. And I must notforget, that we had in the ship a dog, and two cats, of whose eminenthistory I may have occasion to say something, in its place: for Icarried both the cats with me; and as for the dog, he jumped out of theship himself, and swam on shore to me the day after I went on shore withmy first cargo, and was a trusty servant to me for many years: I wantednothing that he could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up tome, I only wanted to have him talk to me, but that would not do. As Iobserved before, I found pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them tothe utmost; and I shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept thingsvery exact, but after that was gone I could not; for I could not makeany ink, by any means that I could devise. 

And this put me in mind that I wanted many things, notwithstanding allthat I had amassed together; and of these, this of ink was one; as alsoa spade, pick-axe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles, pins, and thread: as for linen, I soon learned to want that without muchdifficulty. 

This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily; and it was neara whole year before I had entirely finished my little pale, orsurrounded my habitation. The piles or stakes, which were as heavy as Icould well lift, were a long time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and more, by far, in bringing home; so that I spent sometimes two daysin cutting and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day indriving it into the ground; for which purpose, I got a heavy piece ofwood at first, but at last bethought myself of one of the iron crows;which, however, though I found it, yet it made driving these posts orpiles very laborious and tedious work. But what need I have beenconcerned at the tediousness of any thing I had to do, seeing I had timeenough to do it in? nor had I any other employment, if that had beenover, at least that I could foresee, except the ranging the island toseek for food; which I did, more or less, every day. 

I now began to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstance Iwas reduced to; and I drew up the state of my affairs in writing, not somuch to leave them to any that were to come after me (for I was like tohave but few heirs, ) as to deliver my thoughts from daily poring uponthem, and afflicting my mind: and as my reason began now to master mydespondency, I began to comfort myself as well as I could, and to setthe good against the evil, that I might have something to distinguish mycase from worse; and I stated very impartially, like debtor andcreditor, the comforts I enjoyed against the miseries I suffered, thus:

 EVIL. 

 I am cast upon a horrible, desolate island, void of all hope of recovery. 

 I am singled out and separated, as it were, from all the world, to be miserable. 

 I am divided from mankind, a solitaire; one banished from human society. 

 I have no clothes to cover me. 

 I am without any defence, or means to resist any violence of man or beast. 

 I have no soul to speak to, or relieve me. 

 GOOD. 

 But I am alive; and not drowned, as all my ship's company were. 

 But I am singled out too from all the ship's crew, to be spared from death; and he that miraculously save me from death, can deliver me from this condition. 

 But I am not starved, and perishing in a barren place, affording no sustenance. 

 But I am in a hot climate, where, if I had clothes, I could hardly wear them. 

 But I am cast on an island where I see no wild beast to hurt me, as I saw on the coast of Africa: and what if I had been shipwrecked there?

 But God wonderfully sent the ship in near enough to the shore, that I have got out so many necessary things as will either supply my wants, or enable me to supply myself, even as long as I live. 

Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that there was scarceany condition in the world so miserable, but there was somethingnegative, or something positive, to be thankful for in it: and let thisstand as a direction, from the experience of the most miserable of allconditions in this world, that we may always find in it something tocomfort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and evil, on the credit side of the account. 

Having now, brought my mind a little to relish my condition, and givenover looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a ship; I say, givingover these things, I began to apply myself to accommodate my way ofliving, and to make things as easy to me as I could. 

I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the sideof a rock, --surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables; but Imight now rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall against itof turfs, about two feet thick on the outside: and after some time (Ithink it was a year and a half) I raised rafters from it, leaning to therock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such thingsas I could get, to keep out the rain; which I found, at some times ofthe year, very violent. 

I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale, andinto the cave which I had made behind me. But I must observe, too, thatat first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they lay in noorder, so they took up all my place; I had no room to turn myself: so Iset myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth; for itwas a loose, sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I bestowedon it: and when I found I was pretty safe as to the beasts of prey, Iworked sideways, to the right hand, into the rock, and then turning tothe right again, worked quite out, and made me a door to come out in theoutside of my pale or fortification. 

This gave me not only egress and regress, as it were, a back-way to mytent and to my storehouse, but gave me room to stow my goods. 

And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as I foundI most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these I wasnot able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world; I could notwrite, or eat, or do several things with so much pleasure, without atable: so I went to work. And here I must needs observe, that as reasonis the substance and original of the mathematics, so by stating, andsquaring every thing by reason, and by making the most rational judgmentof things, every man may be, in time, master of every mechanic art. Ihad never handled a tool in my life; and yet, in time, by labour, application, and contrivance, I found, at last, that I wanted nothingbut I could have made, especially if I had had tools. However, I madeabundance of things, even without tools; and some with no more toolsthan an adze and a hatchet, which perhaps were never made that waybefore, and that with infinite labour. For example, if I wanted a board, I had no other way but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with my axe, till I had brought it to beas thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, bythis method I could make but one board of a whole tree; but this I hadno remedy for but patience, any more than I had for a prodigious deal oftime and labour which it took me up to make a plank or board: but mytime or labour was little worth, and so it was as well employed one wayas another. 

However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above, in thefirst place; and this I did out of the short pieces of boards that Ibrought on my raft from the ship. But when I wrought out some boards, asabove, I made large shelves, of the breadth of a foot and a half, oneover another, all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and iron-work on; and, in a word, to separate every thing at large intheir places, that I might easily come at them. I knocked pieces intothe wall of the rock, to hang my guns, and all things that would hangup: so that had my cave been seen, it looked like a general magazine ofall necessary things; and I had every thing so ready at my hand, that itwas a great pleasure to me to see all my goods in such order, andespecially to find my stock of all necessaries so great. 

And now it was that I began to keep a journal of every day's employment;for, indeed, at first, I was in too much hurry, and not only hurry as tolabour, but in much discomposure of mind; and my journal would, too, have been full of many dull things: for example, I must have saidthus--"_Sept_. 30th. After I had got to shore, and had escaped drowning, instead of being thankful to God for my deliverance, having firstvomited, with the great quantity of salt water which was gotten into mystomach, and recovering myself a little, I ran about the shore, wringingmy hands, and beating my head and face, exclaiming at my misery, andcrying out, 'I was undone, undone!' till, tired and faint, I was forcedto lie down on the ground to repose; but durst not sleep, for fear ofbeing devoured. "

Some days after this, and after I had been on board the ship, and gotall that I could out of her, I could not forbear getting up to the topof a little mountain, and looking out to sea, in hopes of seeing a ship:then fancy that, at a vast distance, I spied a sail, please myself withthe hopes of it, and, after looking steadily, till I was almost blind, lose it quite, and sit down and weep like a child, and thus increase mymisery by my folly. 

But, having gotten over these things in some measure, and having settledmy household-stuff and habitation, made me a table and a chair, and allas handsome about me as I could, I began to keep my journal: of which Ishall here give you the copy (though in it will be told all theseparticulars over again) as long as it lasted; for, having no more ink, Iwas forced to leave it off. 

 * * * * *

THE JOURNAL. 

_September_ 30th, 1659. I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, beingshipwrecked, during a dreadful storm, in the offing, came on shore onthis dismal unfortunate island, which I called the ISLAND OF DESPAIR;all the rest of the ship's company being drowned, and myselfalmost dead. 

All the rest of that day I spent in afflicting myself at the dismalcircumstances I was brought to, viz. I had neither food, house, clothes, weapon, nor place to fly to: and, in despair of any relief, saw nothingbut death before me; that I should either be devoured by wild beasts, murdered by savages, or starved to death for want of food. At theapproach of night I slept in a tree, for fear of wild creatures; butslept soundly, though it rained all night. 

_October_ 1. In the morning I saw, to my great surprise, the ship hadfloated with the high tide, and was driven on shore again much nearerthe island; which, as it was some comfort on one hand (for seeing hersit upright, and not broken in pieces, I hoped, if the wind abated, Imight get on board, and get some food and necessaries out of her for myrelief, ) so, on the other hand, it renewed my grief at the loss of mycomrades, who, I imagined, if we had all staid on board, might havesaved the ship, or, at least, that they would not have been all drowned, as they were; and that, had the men been saved, we might perhaps havebuilt us a boat, out of the ruins of the ship, to have carried us tosome other part of the world. I spent great part of this day inperplexing myself on these things; but, at length, seeing the shipalmost dry, I went upon the sand as near as I could, and then swam onboard. This day also it continued raining, though with no wind at all. 

From the 1st of _October_ to the 24th. All these days entirely spent inmany several voyages to get all I could out of the ship; which I broughton shore, every tide of flood, upon rafts. Much rain also in these days, though with some intervals of fair weather: but, it seems, this was therainy season. 

_Oct_. 20. I overset my raft, and all the goods I had got upon it; butbeing in shoal water, and the things being chiefly heavy, I recoveredmany of them when the tide was out. 

_Oct_. 25. It rained all night and all day, with some gusts of wind;during which time the ship broke in pieces (the wind blowing a littleharder than before) and was no more to be seen, except the wreck of her, and that only at low water. I spent this day in covering and securingthe goods which I had saved, that the rain might not spoil them. 

_Oct_. 26. I walked about the shore almost all day, to find out a placeto fix my habitation; greatly concerned to secure myself from any attackin the night, either from wild beasts or men. Towards night I fixed upona proper place, under a rock, and marked out a semi-circle for myencampment; which I resolved to strengthen with a work, wall, orfortification, made of double piles, lined within with cables, andwithout with turf. 

From the 26th to the 30th, I worked very hard in carrying all my goodsto my new habitation, though some part of the time it rainedexceedingly hard. 

The 31st, in the morning, I went out into the island with my gun, to seefor some food, and discover the country; when I killed a she-goat, andher kid followed me home, which I afterwards killed also, because itwould not feed. 

_November_ 1. I set up my tent under a rock, and lay there for the firstnight; making it as large as I could, with stakes driven in to swing myhammock upon. 

_Nov_. 2. I set up all my chests and boards, and the pieces of timberwhich made my rafts; and with them formed a fence round me, a littlewithin the place I had marked out for my fortification. 

_Nov_. 3. I went out with my gun, and killed two fowls like ducks, whichwere very good food. In the afternoon I went to work to make me a table. 

_Nov_. 4. This morning I began to order my times of work, of going outwith my gun, time of sleep, and time of diversion; viz. Every morning Iwalked out with my gun for two or three hours, if it did not rain; thenemployed myself to work till about eleven o'clock; then ate what I hadto live on; and from twelve to two I lay down to sleep, the weatherbeing excessive hot; and then, in the evening, to work again. Theworking part of this day and the next was wholly employed in making mytable, for I was yet but a very sorry workman: though time and necessitymade me a complete natural mechanic soon after, as I believe they wouldany one else. 

_Nov. 5. _ This day went abroad with my gun and dog, and killed a wildcat; her skin pretty soft, but her flesh good for nothing: of everycreature that I killed I took off the skins, and preserved them. Comingback by the sea-shore, I saw many sorts of sea-fowl which I did notunderstand: but was surprised, and almost frightened, with two or threeseals; which, while I was gazing at them (not well knowing what theywere) got into the sea, and escaped me for that time. 

_Nov. 6. _ After my morning walk, I went to work with my table again, andfinished it, though not to my liking: nor was it long before I learnedto mend it. 

_Nov. 7. _ Now it began to be settled fair weather. The 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, and part of the 12th (for the 11th was Sunday, according to myreckoning) I took wholly up to make me a chair, and with much ado, brought it to a tolerable shape, but never to please me; and, even inthe making, I pulled it in pieces several times. 

_Note. _ I soon neglected my keeping Sundays; for, omitting my mark forthem on my post, I forgot which was which. 

_Nov. 13. _ This day it rained; which refreshed me exceedingly, andcooled the earth: but it was accompanied with terrible thunder andlightning, which frightened me dreadfully, for fear of my powder. Assoon as it was over, I resolved to separate my stock of powder into asmany little parcels as possible, that it might not be in danger. 

_Nov. 14, 15, 16. _ These three days I spent in making little squarechests or boxes, which might hold about a pound, or two pounds at most, of powder: and so, putting the powder in, I stowed it in places assecure and as remote from one another as possible. On one of these threedays I killed a large bird that was good to eat; but I knew not whatto call it. 

_Nov. 17. _ This day I began to dig behind my tent, into the rock, tomake room for my farther convenience. 

_Note. _ Three things I wanted exceedingly for this work, viz. Apick-axe, a shovel, and a wheel-barrow, or basket; so I desisted from mywork, and began to consider how to supply these wants, and make me sometools. As for a pick-axe, I made use of the iron crows, which wereproper enough, though heavy: but, the next thing was a shovel or spade;this was so absolutely necessary, that, indeed, I could do nothingeffectually without it; but what kind of one to make I knew not. 

_Nov. 18. _ The next day, in searching the woods, I found a tree of thatwood, or like it, which, in the Brazils, they call the iron tree, fromits exceeding hardness: of this, with great labour, and almost spoilingmy axe, I cut a piece; and brought it home, too, with difficulty enough, for it was exceeding heavy. The excessive hardness of the wood, and myhaving no other way, made me a long while upon this machine; for Iworked it effectually, by little and little, into the form of a shovelor spade; the handle exactly shaped like ours in England, only that thebroad part having no iron shod upon it at bottom, it would not last meso long: however, it served well enough for the uses which I hadoccasion to put it to; but never was a shovel, I believe, made afterthat fashion, or so long a-making. 

I was still deficient: for I wanted a basket, or a wheel-barrow. Abasket I could not make by any means, having no such things as twigsthat would bend to make wicker-ware; at least, none yet found out: andas to the wheel-barrow, I fancied I could make all but the wheel, butthat I had no notion of; neither did I know how to go about it: besides, I had no possible way to make iron gudgeons for the spindle or axis ofthe wheel to run in; so I gave it over: and, for carrying away the earthwhich I dug out of the cave, I made me a thing like a hod, which thelabourers carry mortar in for the brick-layers. This was not sodifficult to me as the making the shovel: and yet this and the shovel, and the attempt which I made in vain to make a wheel-barrow, took me upno less than four days; I mean, always excepting my morning walk with mygun, which I seldom omitted, and very seldom failed also bringing homesomething fit to eat. 

_Nov. 23. _ My other work having now stood still, because of my makingthese tools, when they were finished I went on; and working every day, as my strength and time allowed, I spent eighteen days entirely inwidening and deepening my cave, that it might hold my goodscommodiously. 

_Note. _ During all this time, I worked to make this room, or cave, spacious enough to accommodate me as a warehouse or magazine, a kitchen, a dining-room, and a cellar. As for a lodging, I kept to the tent;except that sometimes, in the wet season of the year, it rained so hardthat I could not keep myself dry; which caused me afterwards to coverall my place within my pale with long poles, in the form of rafters, leaning against the rock, and load them with flags and large leaves oftrees, like a thatch. 

_December 10. _ I began now to think my cave or vault finished; when on asudden (it seems I had made it too large) a great quantity of earth felldown from the top and one side: so much, that, in short, it frightenedme, and not without reason too; for if I had been under it, I shouldnever have wanted a grave-digger. Upon this disaster, I had a great dealof work to do over again, for I had the loose earth to carry out; and, which was of more importance, I had the ceiling to prop up, so that Imight be sure no more would come down. 

_Dec. 11. _ This day I went to work with it accordingly; and got twoshores or posts pitched upright to the top, with two pieces of boardacross over each post; this I finished the next day; and setting moreposts up with boards, in about a week more I had the roof secured; andthe posts, standing in rows, served me for partitions to part offmy house. 

_Dec. 17. _ From this day to the 30th, I placed shelves, and knocked upnails on the posts, to hang every thing up that could be hung up: andnow I began to be in some order within doors. 

_Dec. 20. _ I carried every thing into the cave, and began to furnish myhouse, and set up some pieces of boards, like a dresser, to order myvictuals upon; but boards began to be very scarce with me: also I mademe another table. 

_Dec. 24. _ Much rain all night and all day: no stirring out. 

_Dec. 25. _ Rain all day. 

_Dec. 26. _ No rain; and the earth much cooler than before, andpleasanter. 

_Dec. 27. _ Killed a young goat; and lamed another, so that I catched it, and led it home in a string: when I had it home, I bound and splinteredup its leg, which was broke. 

_N. B. _ I took such care of it that it lived; and the leg grew well, andas strong as ever: but, by nursing it so long, it grew tame, and fedupon the little green at my door, and would not go away. This was thefirst time that I entertained a thought of breeding up some tamecreatures, that I might have food when my powder and shot was all spent. 

_Dec. 28, 29, 30, 31. _ Great heats, and no breeze; so that there was nostirring abroad, except in the evening, for food: this time I spent inputting all my things in order within doors. 

_January 1. _ Very hot still; but I went abroad early and late with mygun, and lay still in the middle of the day. This evening, going fartherinto the vallies which lay towards the centre of the island, I foundthere was plenty of goats, though exceeding shy, and hard to come at;however, I resolved to try if I could not bring my dog to hunt themdown. Accordingly, the next day, I went out with my dog, and set himupon the goats: but I was mistaken, for they all faced about upon thedog: and he knew his danger too well, for he would not come near them. 

_Jan. 3. _ I began my fence or wall; which, being still jealous of mybeing attacked by somebody, I resolved to make very thick and strong. 

_N. B. _ This wall being described before, I purposely omit what was saidin the journal: it is sufficient to observe, that I was no less timethan from the 3d of January to the 14th of April, working, finishing, and perfecting this wall; though it was no more than about 25 yards inlength, being a half-circle, from one place in the rock to anotherplace, about twelve yards from it, the door of the cave being in thecentre, behind it. 

All this time I worked very hard; the rains hindering me many days, nay, sometimes weeks together: but I thought I should never be perfectlysecure till this wall was finished; and it is scarce credible whatinexpressible labour every thing was done with, especially the bringingpiles out of the woods, and driving them into the ground; for I madethem much bigger than I needed to have done. 

When this wall was finished, and the outside double-fenced, with aturf-wall raised up close to it, I persuaded myself that if any peoplewere to come on shore there they would not perceive any thing like ahabitation: and it was very well I did so, as may be observed hereafter, upon a very remarkable occasion. 

During this time, I made my rounds in the woods for game every day, when the rain permitted me, and made frequent discoveries, in thesewalks, of something or other to my advantage; particularly, I found akind of wild pigeons, who build, not as wood-pigeons, in a tree, butrather as house-pigeons, in the holes of the rocks: and, taking someyoung ones, I endeavoured to breed them up tame, and did so; but whenthey grew older, they flew all away; which, perhaps, was at first forwant of feeding them, for I had nothing to give them: however, Ifrequently found their nests, and got their young ones, which were verygood meat. And now, in the managing my household affairs, I found myselfwanting in many things, which I thought at first it was impossible forme to make; as indeed, as to some of them, it was: for instance, I couldnever make a cask to be hooped. I had a small runlet or two, as Iobserved before; but I could never arrive to the capacity of making oneby them, though I spent many weeks about it: I could neither put in theheads, nor join the staves so true to one another as to make them holdwater; so I gave that also over. In the next place, I was at a greatloss for candle; so that as soon as it was dark, which was generally byseven o'clock, I was obliged to go to bed. I remember the lump ofbees-wax with which I made candles in my African adventure; but I hadnone of that now; the only remedy I had was, that when I had killed agoat, I saved the tallow; and with a little dish made of clay, which Ibaked in the sun, to which I added a wick of some oakum, I made me alamp; and this gave me light, though not a clear steady light like acandle. In the middle of all my labours it happened, that in rummagingmy things, I found a little bag; which, as I hinted before, had beenfilled with corn, for the feeding of poultry; not for this voyage, butbefore, as I suppose, when the ship came from Lisbon. What littleremainder of corn had been in the bag was all devoured with the rats, and I saw nothing in the bag but husks and dust; and being willing tohave the bag for some other use (I think, it was to put powder in, whenI divided it for fear of the lightning, or some such use, ) I shook thehusks of corn out of it, on one side of my fortification, underthe rock. 

It was a little before the great rain just now mentioned, that I threwthis stuff away; taking no notice of any thing, and not so much asremembering that I had thrown any thing there: when about a month after, I saw some few stalks of something green, shooting out of the ground, which I fancied might be some plant I had not seen; but I was surprised, and perfectly astonished, when, after a little longer time, I saw aboutten or twelve ears come out, which were perfect green barley of the samekind as our European, nay, as our English barley. 

It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of mythoughts on this occasion: I had hitherto acted upon no religiousfoundation at all; indeed, I had very few notions of religion in myhead, nor had entertained any sense of any thing that had befallen me, otherwise than as chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases God;without so much as inquiring into the end of Providence in these things, or his order in governing events in the world. But after I saw barleygrow there, in a climate which I knew was not proper for corn, andespecially as I knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely;and I began to suggest, that God had miraculously caused this grain togrow without any help of seed sown, and that it was so directed purelyfor my sustenance, on that wild miserable place. 

This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes; and Ibegan to bless myself that such a prodigy of nature should happen uponmy account: and this was the more strange to me, because I saw near itstill, all along by the side of the rock, some other straggling stalks, which proved to be stalks of rice, and which I knew, because I had seenit grow in Africa, when I was ashore there. 

I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence for mysupport, but, not doubting that there was more in the place, I went overall that part of the island where I had been before, searching in everycorner, and under every rock, for more of it; but I could not find any. At last it occurred to my thoughts, that I had shook out a bag ofchicken's-meat in that place, and then the wonder began to cease: and Imust confess, my religious thankfulness to God's providence began toabate too, upon the discovering that all this was nothing but what wascommon; though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange andunforeseen a providence, as if it had been miraculous: for it was reallythe work of Providence, as to me, that should order or appoint that tenor twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled, when the rats haddestroyed all the rest, as if it had been dropt from heaven; as also, that I should throw it out in that particular place, where, it being inthe shade of a high rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas, if I hadthrown it any where else, at that time, it would have been burnt up anddestroyed. 

I carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, in theirseason, which was about the end of June; and, laying up every corn, Iresolved to sow them all again; hoping, in time, to have some quantitysufficient to supply me with bread. But it was not till the fourth yearthat I could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat, and eventhen but sparingly, as I shall show afterwards, in its order; for I lostall that I sowed the first season, by not observing the proper time; asI sowed just before the dry season, so that it never came up at all, atleast not as it would have done; of which in its place. 

Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks ofrice, which I preserved with the same care; and whose use was of thesame kind, or to the same purpose, viz. To make me bread, or ratherfood; for I found ways to cook it up without baking, though I did thatalso after some time. --But to return to my Journal. 

I worked excessively hard these three or four months, to get my walldone; and the 14th of April I closed it up; contriving to get into it, not by a door, but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might be nosign on the outside of my habitation. 

_April 16. _ I finished the ladder; so I went up with the ladder to thetop, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down in the inside: thiswas a complete enclosure to me; for within I had room enough, andnothing could come at me from without, unless it could first mountmy wall. 

The very next day after this wall was finished, I had almost all mylabour overthrown at once, and myself killed; the case was thus:--As Iwas busy in the inside of it, behind my tent, just at the entrance intomy cave, I was terribly frightened with a most dreadful surprising thingindeed; for, all on a sudden, I found the earth come crumbling down fromthe roof of my cave, and from the edge of the hill over my head, and twoof the posts I had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner. Iwas heartily scared; but thought nothing of what really was the cause, only thinking that the top of my cave was falling in, as some of it haddone before: and for fear I should be buried in it, I ran forward to myladder, and not thinking myself safe there neither, I got over my wallfor fear of the pieces of the hill which I expected might roll down uponme. I had no sooner stepped down upon the firm ground, than I plainlysaw it was a terrible earthquake; for the ground I stood on shook threetimes at about eight minutes distance, with three such shocks as wouldhave overturned the strongest building that could be supposed to havestood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock, which stoodabout half a mile from me, next the sea, fell down, with such a terriblenoise as I never heard in all my life. I perceived also that the verysea was put into a violent motion by it; and I believe the shocks werestronger under the water than on the island. 

I was so much amazed with the thing itself (having never felt the like, nor discoursed with any one that had) that I was like one dead orstupified; and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick, like onethat was tossed at sea: but the noise of the falling of the rock awakedme, as it were; and rousing me from the stupified condition I was in, filled me with horror, and I thought of nothing but the hill fallingupon my tent and my household goods, and burying all at once; this sunkmy very soul within me a second time. 

After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some time, Ibegan to take courage; yet I had not heart enough to go over my wallagain, for fear of being buried alive, but sat still upon the groundgreatly cast down, and disconsolate, not knowing what to do. All thiswhile, I had not the least serious religious thought; nothing but thecommon _Lord, have mercy upon me!_ and when it was over, that wentaway too. 

While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and grow cloudy, as if itwould rain; and soon after the wind rose by little, and little, so thatin less than half an hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane: the seawas, all on a sudden, covered with foam and froth; the shore was coveredwith a breach of the water; the trees were torn up by the roots; and aterrible storm it was. This held about three hours, and then began toabate; and in two hours more it was quite calm, and began to rain veryhard. All this while I sat upon the ground, very much terrified anddejected; when on a sudden it came into my thoughts, that these windsand rain being the consequence of the earthquake, the earthquake itselfwas spent and over, and I might venture into my cave again. With thisthought my spirits began to revive; and the rain also helping topersuade me, I went in, and sat down in my tent; but the rain was soviolent, that my tent was ready to be beaten down with it; and I wasforced to get into my cave, though very much afraid and uneasy, for fearit should fall on my head. This violent rain forced me to a new work, viz. To cut a hole through my new fortification, like a sink, to let thewater go out, which would else have drowned my cave. After I had been inmy cave for some time, and found no more shocks of the earthquakefollow, I began to be more composed. And now to support my spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, I went to my little store, and took asmall sup of rum; which, however, I did then, and always, verysparingly, knowing I could have no more when that was gone. It continuedraining all that night, and great part of the next day, so that I couldnot stir abroad; but my mind being more composed, I began to think ofwhat I had best do; concluding, that if the island was subject to theseearthquakes, there would be no living for me in a cave, but I mustconsider of building me some little hut in an open place, which I mightsurround with a wall, as I had done here, and so make myself secure fromwild beasts or men; for if I staid where I was, I should certainly, onetime or other, be buried alive. 

With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the place whereit now stood, being just under the hanging precipice of the hill, andwhich, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent. I spent the two next days, being the 19th and 20th of April, incontriving where and how to remove my habitation. The fear of beingswallowed alive affected me so, that I never slept in quiet; and yet theapprehension of lying abroad, without any fence, was almost equal to it:but still, when I looked about, and saw how every thing was put inorder, how pleasantly I was concealed, and how safe from danger, it mademe very loth to remove. In the mean time, it occurred to me that itwould require a vast deal of time for me to do this; and that I must becontented to run the risk where I was, till I had formed a convenientcamp, and secured it so as to remove to it. With this conclusion Icomposed myself for a time; and resolved that I would go to work withall speed to build me a wall with piles and cables, &c. In a circle asbefore, and set up my tent in it when it was finished; but that I wouldventure to stay where I was till it was ready, and fit to remove to. This was the 21st. 

_April_ 22. The next morning I began to consider of means to put thismeasure into execution; but I was at a great loss about the tools. I hadthree large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchetsfor traffic with the Indians;) but with much chopping and cutting knottyhard wood, they were all full of notches, and dull; and though I had agrind-stone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too. This caused meas much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand pointof politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man. At length Icontrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I mighthave both my hands at liberty. 

_Note. _ I had never seen any such thing in England, or at least not totake notice how it was done, though since I have observed it is verycommon there: besides that, my grind-stone was very large and heavy. This machine cost me a full week's work to bring it to perfection. 

_April 28, 29. _ These two whole days I took up in grinding my tools, mymachine for turning my grind-stone performing very well. 

_April 30. _ Having perceived that my bread had been low a great while, Inow took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit-cake a day, which made my heart very heavy. 

_May 1. _ In the morning, looking toward the sea-side, the tide beinglow, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary, and itlooked like a cask: when I came to it, I found a small barrel, and twoor three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore bythe late hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought itseemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to do. I examined thebarrel that was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel ofgunpowder; but it had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as astone: however, I rolled it farther on the shore for the present, andwent on upon the sands, as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, tolook for more. 

When I came down to the ship, I found it strangely removed. Theforecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at least sixfeet: and the stern (which was broke to pieces, and parted from therest, by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging of her)was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on one side: and the sand wasthrown so high on that side next her stern, that I could now walk quiteup to her when the tide was out; whereas there was a great piece ofwater before, so that I could not come within a quarter of a mile of thewreck without swimming. I was surprised with this at first, but soonconcluded it must be done by the earthquake; and as by this violence theship was more broke open than formerly, so many things came daily onshore, which the sea had loosened, and which the winds and water rolledby degrees to the land. 

This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing myhabitation; and I busied myself mightily, that day especially, insearching whether I could make any way into the ship: but I foundnothing was to be expected of that kind, for all the inside of the shipwas choked up with sand. However, as I had learned not to despair of anything, I resolved to pull every thing to pieces that I could of theship, concluding that every thing I could get from her would be of someuse or other to me. 

_May 3. _ I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through, which Ithought held some of the upper part or quarter deck together; and when Ihad cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I could from theside which lay highest; but the tide coming in, I was obliged to giveover for that time. 

_May 4. _ I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport; when, just going to leave off, I caught ayoung dolphin. I had made me a long line of some rope-yarn, but I had nohooks; yet I frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat;all which I dried in the sun, and ate them dry. 

_May 5. _ Worked on the wreck; cut another beam asunder, and broughtthree great fir-planks off from the decks; which I tied together, andmade swim on shore when the tide of flood came on. 

_May 6. _ Worked on the wreck; got several iron bolts out of her, andother pieces of iron-work; worked very hard, and came home very muchtired, and had thoughts of giving it over. 

_May 7. _ Went to the wreck again, but not with an intent to work; butfound the weight of the wreck had broke itself down, the beams beingcut; that several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose; and the insideof the hold lay so open that I could see into it; but almost full ofwater and sand. 

_May 8. _ Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench up thedeck, which lay now quite clear of the water and sand. I wrenched up twoplanks, and brought them on shore also with the tide. I left the ironcrow in the wreck for next day. 

_May 9. _ Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into the body ofthe wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened them with the crow, butcould not break them up. I felt also a roll of English lead, and couldstir it; but it was too heavy to remove. 

_May 10--14. _ Went every day to the wreck; and got a great many piecesof timber, and boards, or plank, and two or three hundred weightof iron. 

_May 15. _ I carried two hatchets, to try if I could not cut a piece offthe roll of lead, by placing the edge of one hatchet, and driving itwith the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, Icould not make any blow to drive the hatchet. 

_May 16. _ It had blown hard in the night, and the wreck appeared morebroken by the force of the water; but I staid so long in the woods, toget pigeons for food, that the tide prevented my going to the wreckthat day. 

_May 17. _ I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a greatdistance, two miles off me, but resolved to see what they were, andfound it was a piece of the head, but too heavy for me to bring away. 

_May 24. _ Every day, to this day, I worked on the wreck; and with hardlabour I loosened some things so much with the crow, that the firstblowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the seamen's chests:but the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came to land that day butpieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had some Brazil pork in it; butthe salt-water and the sand had spoiled it. I continued this work everyday to the 15th of June, except the time necessary to get food; which Ialways appointed, during this part of my employment, to be when the tidewas up, that I might be ready when it was ebbed out: and by this time Ihad gotten timber, and plank, and iron-work, enough to have built agood boat, if I had known how: and I also got, at several times, and inseveral pieces, near one hundred weight of the sheet-lead. 

_June 16. _ Going down to the sea-side, I found a large tortoise, orturtle. This was the first I had seen; which, it seems, was only mymisfortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity: for had I happenedto be on the other side of the island, I might have had hundreds of themevery day, as I found afterwards; but perhaps had paid dear enoughfor them. 

_June 17. _ I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in her threescoreeggs: and her flesh was to me, at that time, the most savoury andpleasant that I ever tasted in my life; having had no flesh, but ofgoats and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place. 

_June 18. _ Rained all that day, and I staid within. I thought, at thistime, the rain felt cold, and I was somewhat chilly; which I knew wasnot usual in that latitude. 

_June 19. _ Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been cold. 

_June 20. _ No rest all night; violent pains in my head, and feverish. 

_June 21. _ Very ill; frightened almost to death with the apprehensionsof my sad condition, to be sick, and no help: prayed to God, for thefirst time since the storm off Hull; but scarce knew what I said, orwhy, my thoughts being all confused. 

_June 22. _ A little better; but under dreadful apprehensions ofsickness. 

_June 23. _ Very bad again; cold and shivering, and then a violenthead-ache. 

_June 24. _ Much better. 

_June 25. _ An ague very violent: the fit held me seven hours; cold fit, and hot, with faint sweats after it. 

_June 26. _ Better; and having no victuals to eat, took my gun, but foundmyself very weak: however, I killed a she-goat, and with much difficultygot it home, and broiled some of it, and ate. I would fain have stewedit, and made some broth, but had no pot. 

_June 27. _ The ague again so violent that I lay a-bed all day, andneither ate nor drank. I was ready to perish for thirst; but so weak, Ihad not strength to stand up, or to get myself any water to drink. Prayed to God again, but was light-headed: and when I was not, I was soignorant that I knew not what to say; only lay and cried, "Lord, lookupon me! Lord, pity me! Lord, have mercy upon me!" I suppose I didnothing else for two or three hours; till the fit wearing off, I fellasleep, and did not wake till far in the night. When I awoke, I foundmyself much refreshed, but weak, and exceeding thirsty: however, as Ihad no water in my whole habitation, I was forced to lie till morning, and went to sleep again. In this second sleep I had this terrible dream:I thought that I was sitting on the ground, on the outside of my wall, where I sat when the storm blew after the earthquake, and that I saw aman descend from a great black cloud, in a bright flame of fire, andlight upon the ground: he was all over as bright as a flame, so that Icould but just bear to look towards him: his countenance was mostinexpressibly dreadful, impossible for words to describe: when hestepped upon the ground with his feet, I thought the earth trembled, just as it had done before in the earthquake; and all the air looked, tomy apprehension, as if it had been filled with flashes of fire. He hadno sooner landed upon the earth, but he moved forward towards me, with along spear or weapon in his hand, to kill me; and when he came to arising ground, at some distance, he spoke to me, or I heard a voice soterrible that it is impossible to express the terror of it: all that Ican say I understood, was this: "Seeing all these things have notbrought thee to repentance, now thou shalt die;" at which words Ithought he lifted up the spear that was in his hand, to kill me. 

No one that shall ever read this account, will expect that I should beable to describe the horrors of my soul at this terrible vision; I mean, that even while it was a dream, I even dreamed of those horrors; nor isit any more possible to describe the impression that remained upon mymind when I awaked, and found it was but a dream. 

I had, alas! no divine knowledge: what I had received by the goodinstruction of my father was then worn out, by an uninterrupted series, for eight years, of seafaring wickedness, and a constant conversationwith none but such as were, like myself, wicked and profane to the lastdegree. I do not remember that I had, in all that time, one thought thatso much as tended either to looking upward towards God, or inwardtowards a reflection upon my own ways: but a certain stupidity of soul, without desire of good, or consciousness of evil, had entirelyoverwhelmed me; and I was all that the most hardened, unthinking, wickedcreature among our common sailors, can be supposed to be; not havingthe least sense, either of the fear of God, in danger, or ofthankfulness to him, in deliverances. 

In the relating what is already past of my story, this will be the moreeasily believed, when I shall add, that through all the variety ofmiseries that had to this day befallen me, I never had so much as onethought of its being the hand of God, or that it was a just punishmentfor my sin; either my rebellious behaviour against my father, or mypresent sins, which were great; or even as a punishment for the generalcourse of my wicked life. When I was on the desperate expedition on thedesert shores of Africa, I never had so much as one thought of whatwould become of me; or one wish to God to direct me whither I should go, or to keep me from the danger which apparently surrounded me, as wellfrom voracious creatures as cruel savages: but I was quite thoughtlessof a God or a Providence; acted like a mere brute, from the principlesof nature, and by the dictates of common sense only; and indeed hardlythat. When I was delivered and taken up at sea by the Portuguesecaptain, well used, and dealt with justly and honourably, as well ascharitably, I had not the least thankfulness in my thoughts. When, again, I was shipwrecked, ruined, and in danger of drowning, on thisisland, I was as far from remorse, or looking on it as a judgment: Ionly said to myself often, that I was an unfortunate dog, and born to bealways miserable. 

It is true, when I first got on shore here, and found all my ship's crewdrowned, and myself spared, I was surprised with a kind of ecstasy, andsome transports of soul, which, had the grace of God assisted, mighthave come up to true thankfulness; but it ended where it began, in amere common flight of joy; or, as I may say, being glad I was alive, without the least reflection upon the distinguished goodness of the handwhich had preserved me, and had singled me out to be preserved when allthe rest were destroyed, or an inquiry why Providence had been thusmerciful to me: just the same common sort of joy which seamen generallyhave, after they are got safe ashore from a shipwreck; which they drownall in the next bowl of punch, and forget almost as soon as it is over:and all the rest of my life was like it. Even when I was, afterwards, ondue consideration, made sensible of my condition, --how I was cast onthis dreadful place, out of the reach of human kind, out of all hope ofrelief, or prospect of redemption, --as soon as I saw but a prospect ofliving, and that I should not starve and perish for hunger, all thesense of my affliction wore off, and I began to be very easy, appliedmyself to the works proper for my preservation and supply, and was farenough from being afflicted at my condition, as a judgment from Heaven, or as the hand of God against me: these were thoughts which very seldomentered into my head. 

The growing up of the corn, as is hinted in my Journal, had, at first, some little influence upon me, and began to affect me with seriousness, as long as I thought it had something miraculous in it; but as soon asthat part of the thought was removed, all the impression which wasraised from it wore off also, as I have noted already. Even theearthquake, though nothing could be more terrible in its nature, ormore immediately directing to the invisible Power which alone directssuch things, yet no sooner was the fright over, but the impression ithad made went off also. I had no more sense of God, or his judgments, much less of the present affliction of my circumstances being from hishand, than if I had been in the most prosperous condition of life. Butnow, when I began to be sick, and a leisure view of the miseries ofdeath came to place itself before me; when my spirits began to sinkunder the burden of a strong distemper, and nature was exhausted withthe violence of the fever; conscience, that had slept so long, began toawake; and I reproached myself with my past life, in which I had soevidently, by uncommon wickedness, provoked the justice of God to lay meunder uncommon strokes, and to deal with me in so vindictive a manner. These reflections oppressed me for the second or third day of mydistemper; and in the violence, as well of the fever as of the dreadfulreproaches of my conscience, extorted from me some words like praying toGod: though I cannot say it was a prayer attended either with desires orwith hopes; it was rather the voice of mere fright and distress. Mythoughts were confused; the convictions great upon my mind; and thehorror of dying in such a miserable condition, raised vapours in my headwith the mere apprehension: and, in these hurries of my soul, I knew notwhat my tongue might express: but it was rather exclamation, such as, "Lord, what a miserable creature am I! If I should be sick, I shallcertainly die for want of help; and what will become of me?" Then thetears burst out of my eyes, and I could say no more for a good while. Inthis interval, the good advice of my father came to my mind, andpresently his prediction, which I mentioned at the beginning of thisstory, viz. That if I did take this foolish step, God would not blessme; and I should have leisure hereafter to reflect upon having neglectedhis counsel, when there might be none to assist in my recovery. "Now, "said I, aloud, "my dear father's words are come to pass; God's justicehas overtaken me, and I have none to help or hear me. I rejected thevoice of Providence, which had mercifully put me in a station of lifewherein I might have been happy and easy; but I would neither see itmyself, nor learn from my parents to know the blessing of it. I leftthem to mourn over my folly; and now I am left to mourn under theconsequences of it: I refused their help and assistance, who would havepushed me in the world, and would have made every thing easy to me; andnow I have difficulties to struggle with, too great for even natureitself to support; and no assistance, no comfort, no advice. " Then Icried out, "Lord, be my help, for I am in great distress. " This was thefirst prayer, if I may call it so, that I had made for many years. But Ireturn to my Journal. 

_June 28. _ Having been somewhat refreshed with the sleep I had had, andthe fit being entirely off, I got up; and though the fright and terrorof my dream was very great, yet I considered that the fit of the aguewould return again the next day, and now was my time to get something torefresh and support myself when I should be ill. The first thing I didwas to fill a large square case-bottle with water; and set it upon mytable, in reach of my bed: and to take off the chill or aguishdisposition of the water, I put about a quarter of a pint of rum intoit, and mixed them together. Then I got me a piece of the goat's flesh, and broiled it on the coals, but could eat very little. I walked about;but was very weak, and withal very sad and heavy-hearted under a senseof my miserable condition, dreading the return of my distemper the nextday. At night, I made my supper of three of the turtle's eggs; which Iroasted in the ashes, and ate, as we call it, in the shell: and this wasthe first bit of meat I had ever asked God's blessing to, as I couldremember, in my whole life. After I had eaten, I tried to walk; butfound myself so weak, that I could hardly carry the gun (for I neverwent out without that;) so I went but a little way, and sat down uponthe ground, looking out upon the sea, which was just before me, and verycalm and smooth. As I sat here, some such thoughts as these occurred tome: What is this earth and sea, of which I have seen so much? Whence isit produced? And what am I, and all the other creatures, wild and tame, human and brutal? Whence are we? Surely, we are all made by some secretpower, who formed the earth and sea, the air and sky. And who is that?Then it followed most naturally, It is God that has made all. Well, butthen, it came on strangely, if God has made all these things, he guidesand governs them all, and all things that concern them; for the powerthat could make all things, must certainly have power to guide anddirect them: if so, nothing can happen in the great circuit of hisworks, either without his knowledge or appointment. 

And if nothing happens without his knowledge, he knows that I am here, and am in this dreadful condition: and if nothing happens without hisappointment, he has appointed all this to befall me. Nothing occurred tomy thought, to contradict any of these conclusions: and therefore itrested upon me with the greatest force, that it must needs be that Godhad appointed all this to befall me; that I was brought to thismiserable circumstance by his direction, he having the sole power, notof me only, but of every thing that happens in the world. Immediately itfollowed, Why has God done this to me? What have I done to be thus used?My conscience presently checked me in that inquiry, as if I hadblasphemed; and methought it spoke to me like a voice, "Wretch! dost_thou_ ask what thou hast done? Look back upon a dreadful misspent life, and ask thyself, what thou hast _not_ done? Ask, why is it that thouwert not long ago destroyed? Why wert thou not drowned in YarmouthRoads; killed in the fight when the ship was taken by the Sallee man ofwar; devoured by the wild beasts on the coast of Africa; or drowned_here_, when all the crew perished but thyself? Dost _thou_ ask whatthou hast done?" I was struck dumb with these reflections, as oneastonished, and had not a word to say; no, not to answer to myself; and, rising up pensive and sad, walked back to my retreat, and went over mywall, as if I bad been going to bed: but my thoughts were sadlydisturbed, and I had no inclination to sleep; so I sat down in thechair, and lighted my lamp, for it began to be dark. Now, as theapprehension of the return of my distemper terrified me very much, itoccurred to my thought, that the Brazilians take no physic but theirtobacco for almost all distempers; and I had a piece of a roll oftobacco in one of the chests, which was quite cured; and some also thatwas green, and not quite cured. 

I went, directed by Heaven no doubt: for in this chest I found a cureboth for soul and body. I opened the chest, and found what I looked for, viz. The tobacco; and as the few books I had saved lay there too, I tookout one of the Bibles which I mentioned before, and which to this time Ihad not found leisure, or so much as inclination, to look into. I say, Itook it out, and brought both that and the tobacco with me to the table. What use to make of the tobacco I knew not, as to my distemper, norwhether it was good for it or not; but I tried several experiments withit, as if I was resolved it should hit one way or other. I first took apiece of a leaf, and chewed it in my mouth; which, indeed, at first, almost stupified my brain; the tobacco being green and strong, and suchas I had not been much used to. Then I took some and steeped it an houror two in some rum, and resolved to take a dose of it when I lay down:and, lastly, I burnt some upon a pan of coals, and held my nose closeover the smoke of it as long as I could bear it; as well for the heat, as almost for suffocation. In the interval of this operation, I took upthe Bible, and began to read; but my head was too much disturbed withthe tobacco to bear reading, at least at that time; only, having openedthe book casually, the first words that occurred to me were these: "Callon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee, and thou shaltglorify me. " These words were very apt to my case; and made someimpression upon my thoughts at the time of reading them, though not somuch as they did afterwards; for, as for being _delivered_, the word hadno sound, as I may say, to me; the thing was so remote, so impossible inmy apprehension of things, that, as the children of Israel said whenthey were promised flesh to eat, "Can God spread a table in thewilderness?" so I began to say, Can even God himself deliver me fromthis place? And as it was not for many years that any hopes appeared, this prevailed very often upon my thoughts: but, however, the words madea great impression upon me, and I mused upon them very often. It nowgrew late; and the tobacco had, as I said, dozed my head so much, that Iinclined to sleep: so I left my lamp burning in the cave, lest I shouldwant any thing in the night, and went to bed. But before I lay down, Idid what I never had done in all my life; I kneeled down, and prayed toGod to fulfil the promise to me, that if I called upon him in the day oftrouble, he would deliver me. After my broken and imperfect prayer wasover, I drank the rum in which I had steeped the tobacco; which was sostrong and rank of the tobacco, that indeed I could scarce get it down:immediately upon this I went to bed. I found presently the rum flew upinto my head violently; but I fell into a sound sleep, and waked nomore till, by the sun, it must necessarily be near three o'clock in theafternoon the next day: nay, to this hour I am partly of opinion, that Islept all the next day and night, and till almost three the day after;for otherwise, I know not how I should lose a day out of my reckoning inthe days of the week, as it appeared some years after I had done; for ifI had lost it by crossing and re-crossing the Line, I should have lostmore than one day; but certainly I lost a day in my account, and neverknew which way. Be that, however, one way or the other, when I awaked Ifound myself exceedingly refreshed, and my spirits lively and cheerful:when I got up, I was stronger than I was the day before, and my stomachbetter, for I was hungry; and, in short, I had no fit the next day, butcontinued much altered for the better. This was the 29th. 

The 30th was my well day, of course; and I went abroad with my gun, butdid not care to travel too far. I killed a sea-fowl or two, somethinglike a brand goose, and brought them home; but was not very forward toeat them; so I ate some more of the turtle's eggs, which were very good. This evening I renewed the medicine, which I had supposed did me goodthe day before, viz. The tobacco steeped in rum; only I did not take somuch as before, nor did I chew any of the leaf, or hold my head over thesmoke: however, I was not so well the next day, which was the 1st ofJuly, as I hoped I should have been; for I had a little of the cold fit, but it was not much. 

_July 2. _ I renewed the medicine all the three ways; and dosed myselfwith it as at first, and doubled the quantity which I drank. 

_July 3. _ I missed the fit for good and all, though I did not recover myfull strength for some weeks after. While I was thus gathering strength, my thoughts ran exceedingly upon this scripture, "I will deliver thee;"and the impossibility of my deliverance lay much upon my mind, in bar ofmy ever expecting it: but as I was discouraging myself with suchthoughts, it occurred to my mind that I pored so much upon mydeliverance from the main affliction, that I disregarded the deliveranceI had received; and I was, as it were, made to ask myself such questionsas these, viz. Have I not been delivered, and wonderfully too, fromsickness; from the most distressed condition that could be, and that wasso frightful to me? and what notice have I taken of it? Have I done mypart? God has delivered me, but I have not glorified him; that is tosay, I have not owned and been thankful for that as a deliverance: andhow can I expect a greater deliverance? This touched my heart very much;and immediately I knelt down, and gave God thanks aloud for my recoveryfrom my sickness. 

_July 4. _ In the morning I took the Bible; and beginning at the NewTestament, I began seriously to read it; and imposed upon myself to readawhile every morning and every night; not binding myself to the numberof chapters, but as long as my thoughts should engage me. It was notlong after I set seriously to this work, that I found my heart moredeeply and sincerely affected with the wickedness of my past life. Theimpression of my dream revived; and the words, "All these things havenot brought thee to repentance, " ran seriously in my thoughts. I wasearnestly begging of God to give me repentance, when it happenedprovidentially, the very same day, that, reading the scripture, I cameto these words, "He is exalted a Prince and a Saviour; to giverepentance, and to give remission. " I threw down the book; and with myheart as well as my hands lifted up to heaven, in a kind of ecstasy ofjoy, I cried out aloud, "Jesus, thou son of David! Jesus, thou exaltedPrince and Saviour! give me repentance!" This was the first time in allmy life I could say, in the true sense of the words, that I prayed; fornow I prayed with a sense of my condition, and with a true scriptureview of hope, founded on the encouragement of the word of God: and fromthis time, I may say, I began to have hope that God would hear me. 

Now I began to construe the words mentioned above, "Call on me, and Iwill deliver thee, " in a different sense from what I had ever donebefore; for then I had no notion of any thing being called_deliverance_, but my being delivered from the captivity I was in: forthough I was indeed at large in the place, yet the island was certainlya prison to me, and that in the worst sense in the world. But now Ilearned to take it in another sense: now I looked back upon my past lifewith such horror, and my sins appeared so dreadful, that my soul soughtnothing of God but deliverance from the load of guilt that bore down allmy comfort. As for my solitary life, it was nothing; I did not so muchas pray to be delivered from it, or think of it; it was all of noconsideration, in comparison with this. And I add this part here, tohint to whoever shall read it, that whenever they come to a true senseof things, they will find deliverance from sin a much greater blessingthan deliverance from affliction. But, leaving this part, I return tomy Journal. 

My condition began now to be, though not less miserable as to my way ofliving, yet much easier to my mind: and my thoughts being directed, byconstantly reading the Scripture and praying to God, to things of ahigher nature, I had a great deal of comfort within, which, till now, Iknew nothing of; also, as my health and strength returned, I bestirredme to furnish myself with every thing that I wanted, and make my way ofliving as regular as I could. 

From the 4th of July to the 14th, I was chiefly employed in walkingabout with my gun in my hand, a little and a little at a time, as a manthat was gathering up his strength after a fit of sickness: for it ishardly to be imagined how low I was, and to what weakness I was reduced. The application which I made use of was perfectly new, and perhaps whathad never cured an ague before; neither can I recommend it to any one topractise, by this experiment: and though it did carry off the fit, yetit rather contributed to weakening me; for I had frequent convulsions inmy nerves and limbs for some time: I learned from it also this, inparticular; that being abroad in the rainy season was the mostpernicious thing to my health that could be, especially in those rainswhich came attended with storms and hurricanes of wind; for as the rainwhich came in the dry season was almost always accompanied with suchstorms, so I found that this rain was much more dangerous than the rainwhich fell in September and October. 

I had now been in this unhappy island above ten months: all possibilityof deliverance from this condition seemed to be entirely taken from me;and I firmly believed that no human shape had ever set foot upon thatplace. Having secured my habitation, as I thought, fully to my mind, Ihad a great desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island, andto see what other productions I might find, which I yet knew nothing of. 

It was on the 15th of July that I began to take a more particular surveyof the island itself. I went up the creek first, where, as I hinted, Ibrought my rafts on shore. I found, after I came about two miles up, that the tide did not flow any higher; and that it was no more than alittle brook of running water, very fresh and good: but this being thedry season, there was hardly any water in some parts of it; at least, not any stream. On the banks of this brook I found many pleasantsavannahs or meadows, plain, smooth, and covered with grass: and on therising parts of them, next to the higher grounds (where the water as itmight be supposed, never overflowed, ) I found a great deal of tobacco, green, and growing to a very great and strong stalk: and there weredivers other plants, which I had no knowledge of, or understandingabout, and that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which Icould not find out. I searched for the cassava root, which the Indians, in all that climate, make their bread of; but I could find none. I sawlarge plants of aloes, but did not understand them. I saw severalsugar-canes, but wild; and, for want of cultivation, imperfect. Icontented myself with these discoveries for this time; and came back, musing with myself what course I might take to know the virtue andgoodness of any of the fruits or plants which I should discover; butcould bring it to no conclusion; for, in short, I had made so littleobservation while I was in the Brazils, that I knew little of the plantsin the field; at least, very little that might serve me to any purposenow in my distress. 

The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way again; and after goingsomething farther than I had gone the day before, I found the brook andthe savannahs begin to cease, and the country become more woody thanbefore. In this part I found different fruits; and particularly I foundmelons upon the ground, in great abundance, and grapes upon the trees:the vines, indeed, had spread over the trees, and the clusters of grapeswere now just in their prime, very ripe and rich. This was a surprisingdiscovery, and I was exceedingly glad of them, but I was warned by myexperience to eat sparingly of them; remembering that when I was ashorein Barbary, the eating of grapes killed several of our Englishmen, whowere slaves there, by throwing them into fluxes and fevers. I found, however, an excellent use for these grapes; and that was, to cure or drythem in the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept;which I thought would be (as indeed they were) as wholesome and asagreeable to eat, when no grapes were to be had. 

I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my habitation;which, by the way, was the first night, as I might say, I had lain fromhome. At night, I took my first contrivance, and got up into a tree, where I slept well; and the next morning proceeded on my discovery, travelling near four miles, as I might judge by the length of thevalley; keeping still due north, with a ridge of hills on the south andnorth sides of me. At the end of this march I came to an opening, wherethe country seemed to descend to the west; and a little spring of freshwater, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the otherway, that is, due east; and the country appeared so fresh, so green, soflourishing, every thing being in a constant verdure, or flourish ofspring, that it looked like a planted garden. I descended a little onthe side of that delicious vale, surveying it with a secret kind ofpleasure (though mixed with other afflicting thoughts, ) to think thatthis was all my own; that I was king and lord of all this countryindefeasibly, and had a right of possession; and, if I could convey it, I might have it in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor inEngland. I saw here abundance of cocoa trees, and orange, lemon, andcitron trees, but all wild, and very few bearing any fruit; at least notthen. However, the green limes that I gathered were not only pleasant toeat, but very wholesome; and I mixed their juice afterwards with water, which made it very wholesome, and very cool and refreshing. I found nowI had business enough to gather and carry home; and I resolved to lay upa store, as well of grapes as limes and lemons to furnish myself for thewet season, which I knew was approaching. In order to this, I gathered agreat heap of grapes in one place, a lesser heap in another place; and agreat parcel of limes and melons in another place; and, taking a few ofeach with me, I travelled homeward; and resolved to come again, andbring a bag or sack, or what I could make to carry the rest home. Accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, I came home (so Imust now call my tent and my cave:) but before I got thither, the grapeswere spoiled; the richness of the fruits, and the weight of the juice, having broken and bruised them, they were good for little or nothing: asto the limes, they were good, but I could bring only a few. 

The next day, being the 19th, I went back, having made me two small bagsto bring home my harvest; but I was surprised, when, coming to my heapof grapes, which were so rich and fine when I gathered them, I foundthem all spread about, trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten and devoured. By this I concluded therewere some wild creatures thereabouts which had done this, but what theywere I knew not. However, as I found there was no laying them up inheaps, and no carrying them away in a sack; but that one way they wouldbe destroyed, and the other way they would be crushed with their ownweight; I took another course: I then gathered a large quantity of thegrapes, and hung them upon the out-branches of the trees, that theymight cure and dry in the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, Icarried as many back as I could well stand under. 

When I came home from this journey, I contemplated with great pleasurethe fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasantness of the situation;the security from storms on that side; the water and the wood: andconcluded that I had pitched upon a place to fix my abode in, which wasby far the worst part of the country. Upon the whole, I began toconsider of removing my habitation, and to look out for a place equallysafe as where I was now situate; if possible, in that pleasant fruitfulpart of the island. 

This thought ran long in my head; and I was exceeding fond of it forsome time, the pleasantness of the place tempting me: but when I came toa nearer view of it, I considered that I was now by the sea-side, whereit was at least possible that something might happen to my advantage, and, by the same ill fate that brought me hither, might bring some otherunhappy wretches to the same place; and though it was scarce probablethat any such thing should ever happen, yet to enclose myself among thehills and woods in the centre of the island, was to anticipate mybondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable, butimpossible; and that therefore I ought not by any means to remove. However, I was so enamoured of this place, that I spent much of my timethere for the whole remaining part of the month of July; and though, upon second thoughts, I resolved, as above stated, not to remove; yet Ibuilt me a little kind of a bower, and surrounded it at a distance witha strong fence, being a double hedge, as high as I could reach, wellstaked, and filled between with brush-wood. Here I lay very secure, sometimes two or three nights together; always going over it with aladder, as before: so that I fancied now I had my country and mysea-coast house. This work took me up till the beginning of August. 

I had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my labour, whenthe rains came on, and made me stick close to my first habitation: forthough I had made a tent like the other, with a piece of sail, andspread it very well, yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep me fromstorms, nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the rains wereextraordinary. 

About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished my bower, andbegan to enjoy myself. The 3d of August, I found the grapes I had hungup were perfectly dried, and indeed were excellent good raisins of thesun: so I began to take them down from the trees; and it was very happythat I did so, as the rains which followed would have spoiled them, andI should have lost the best part of my winter food; for I had above twohundred large bunches of them. No sooner had I taken them all down, andcarried most of them home to my cave, but it began to rain: and fromhence, which was the 14th of August, it rained, more or less, every daytill the middle of October; and sometimes so violently, that I could notstir out of my cave for several days. 

In this season, I was much surprised with the increase of my family. Ihad been concerned for the loss of one of my cats, who ran away from me, or, as I thought, had been dead; and I heard no more of her, till, to myastonishment, she came home with three kittens. This was the morestrange to me, because, about the end of August, though I had killed awild cat, as I called it, with my gun, yet I thought it was quite adifferent kind from our European cats: yet the young cats were the samekind of house-breed as the old one; and both of my cats being females, Ithought it very strange. But from these three, I afterwards came to beso pestered with cats, that I was forced to kill them like vermin, orwild beasts, and to drive them from my house as much as possible. 

From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain; so that I could notstir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. In this confinement, I began to be straitened for food; but venturing out twice, I one daykilled a goat, and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very largetortoise, which was a treat to me. My food was now regulated thus: I atea bunch of raisins for my breakfast; a piece of the goat's flesh, or ofthe turtle, broiled, for my dinner (for, to my great misfortune, I hadno vessel to boil or stew any thing;) and two or three of the turtle'seggs for my supper. 

During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I worked daily two orthree hours at enlarging my cave, and by degrees worked it on towardsone side, till I came to the outside of the hill; and made a door, orway out, which came beyond my fence or wall: and so I came in and outthis way. But I was not perfectly easy at lying so open: for as I hadmanaged myself before, I was in a perfect enclosure; whereas now, Ithought I lay exposed; and yet I could not perceive that there was anyliving thing to fear, the biggest creature that I had yet seen upon theisland being a goat. 

_September_ 30. I was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my landing. I cast up the notches on my post, and found I had been on shore threehundred and sixty-five days. I kept this day as a solemn fast; settingit apart for religious exercise, prostrating myself on the ground withthe most serious humiliation, confessing my sins to God, acknowledginghis righteous judgments upon me, and praying to him to have mercy on methrough Jesus Christ; and having not tasted the least refreshment fortwelve hours, even till the going down of the sun, I then ate a biscuitand a bunch of grapes, and went to bed, finishing the day as I began it. I had all this time observed no sabbath-day; for as at first I had nosense of religion upon my mind, I had, after some time, omitted todistinguish the weeks, by making a longer notch than ordinary for thesabbath-day, and so did not really know what any of the days were: butnow having cast up the days, as above, I found I had been there a year;so I divided it into weeks, and set apart every seventh day for asabbath: though I found, at the end of my account, I had lost a day ortwo in my reckoning. A little after this, my ink beginning to fail me, Icontented myself to use it more sparingly; and to write down only themost remarkable events of my life, without continuing a daily memorandumof other things. 

The rainy season and the dry season began now to appear regular to me, and I learned to divide them so as to provide for them accordingly; butI bought all my experience before I had it; and what I am going torelate was one of the most discouraging experiments that I had madeat all. 

I have mentioned that I had saved the few ears of barley, and rice, which I had so surprisingly found sprung up, as I thought, ofthemselves. I believe there were about thirty stalks of rice, and abouttwenty of barley; and now I thought it a proper time to sow it after therains; the sun being in its southern position, going from me. Accordingly I dug a piece of ground, as well as I could, with my woodenspade; and dividing it into two parts, I sowed my grain; but, as I wassowing, it casually occurred to my thoughts that I would not sow it allat first, because I did not know when was the proper time for it; so Isowed about two-thirds of the seed, leaving about a handful of each: andit was a great comfort to me afterwards that I did so, for not one grainof what I sowed this time came to any thing; for the dry monthfollowing, and the earth having thus had no rain after the seed wassown, it had no moisture to assist its growth, and never came up at alltill the wet season had come again, and then it grew as if it had beenbut newly sown. Finding my first seed did not grow, which I easilyimagined was from the drought, I sought for a moister piece of ground tomake another trial in; and I dug up a piece of ground near my new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed in February, a little before the vernalequinox. This having the rainy month of March and April to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a very good crop; but having onlypart of the seed left, and not daring to sow all that I had, I got but asmall quantity at last, my whole crop not amounting to above half a peckof each kind. But by this experiment I was made master of my business, and knew exactly when was the proper time to sow; and that I mightexpect two seed-times, and two harvests, every year. 

While this corn was growing, I made a little discovery, which was of useto me afterwards. As soon as the rains were over, and the weather beganto settle, which was about the month of November, I made a visit up thecountry to my bower; where, though I had not been some months, yet Ifound all things just as I left them. The circle or double hedge that Ihad made was not only firm and entire, but the stakes which I had cutout of some trees that grew thereabouts, were all shot out, and grownwith long branches, as much as a willow-tree usually shoots the firstyear after lopping its head; but I could not tell what tree to call itthat these stakes were cut from. I was surprised, and yet very wellpleased, to see the young trees grow; and I pruned them, and led them togrow as much alike as I could: and it is scarce credible how beautiful afigure they grew into in three years: so that, though the hedge made acircle of about twenty-five yards in diameter, yet the trees, for such Imight now call them, soon covered it, and it was a complete shade, sufficient to lodge under all the dry season. This made me resolve tocut some more stakes, and make me a hedge like this, in a semi-circleround my wall (I mean that of my first dwelling, ) which I did; andplacing the trees or stakes in a double row, at about eight yardsdistance from my first fence, they grew presently; and were at first afine cover to my habitation, and afterwards served for a defence also;as I shall observe in its order. 

I found now that the seasons of the year might generally be divided, notinto summer and winter, as in Europe, but into the rainy seasons and thedry seasons, which were generally thus: From the middle of February tothe middle of April, rainy; the sun being then on or near the equinox. From the middle of April till the middle of August, dry; the sun beingthen north of the line. From the middle of August till the middle ofOctober, rainy; the sun being then come back to the line. From themiddle of October till the middle of February, dry; the sun being thento the south of the line. 

The rainy seasons held sometimes longer and sometimes shorter, as thewinds happened to blow; but this was the general observation I made. After I had found, by experience, the ill consequences of being abroadin the rain, I took care to furnish myself with provisions beforehand, that I might not be obliged to go out: and I sat within doors as much aspossible during the wet months. In this time I found much employment, and very suitable also to the time; for I found great occasion for manythings which I had no way to furnish myself with, but by hard labour andconstant application: particularly, I tried many ways to make myself abasket: but all the twigs I could get for the purpose proved so brittle, that they would do nothing. It proved of excellent advantage to me now, that when I was a boy, I used to take great delight in standing at abasketmaker's in the town where my father lived, to see them make theirwicker-ware; and being, as boys usually are, very officious to help, anda great observer of the manner how they worked those things, andsometimes lending a hand, I had by these means full knowledge of themethods of it, so that I wanted nothing but the materials; when it cameinto my mind, that the twigs of that tree from whence I cut my stakesthat grew might possibly be as tough as the sallows, willows, andosiers, in England; and I resolved to try. Accordingly, the next day, Iwent to my country house, as I called it; and cutting some of thesmaller twigs, I found them to my purpose as much as I could desire:whereupon I came the next time prepared with a hatchet to cut down aquantity, which I soon found, for there was great plenty of them. TheseI set up to dry within my circle or hedge; and when they were fit foruse, I carried them to my cave: and here, during the next season, Iemployed myself in making, as well as I could, several baskets; both tocarry earth, or to carry or lay up any thing as I had occasion for. Though I did not finish them very handsomely, yet I made themsufficiently serviceable for my purpose: and thus, afterwards, I tookcare never to be without them; and as my wicker-ware decayed, I mademore; especially strong deep baskets, to place my corn in, instead ofsacks, when I should come to have any quantity of it. 

Having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world of time about it, I bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to supply two other wants. Ihad no vessel to hold any thing that was liquid, except two runlets, which were almost full of rum; and some glass bottles, some of thecommon size, and others (which were case-bottles) square, for theholding of waters, spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to boilanything; except a great kettle, which I saved out of the ship, andwhich was too big for such use as I desired it, viz. To make broth, andstew a bit of meat by itself. The second thing I would fain have had, was a tobacco-pipe; but it was impossible for me to make one; however, Ifound a contrivance for that too at last. I employed myself in plantingmy second row of stakes or piles, and also in this wicker-working, allthe summer or dry season; when another business took me up more timethan it could be imagined I could spare. 

I mentioned before, that I had a great mind to see the whole island; andthat I had travelled up the brook, and so on to where I had built mybower, and where I had an opening quite to the sea, on the other side ofthe island. I now resolved to travel quite across to the sea-shore, onthat side: so taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog, and a largerquantity of powder and shot than usual; with two biscuit-cakes, and agreat bunch of raisins in my pouch, for my store; I began my journey. When I had passed the vale where my bower stood, as above, I came withinview of the sea, to the west; and it being a very clear day, I fairlydescried land, whether an island or continent I could not tell; but itlay very high, extending from W. To W. S. W. At a very great distance; bymy guess, it could not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off. 

I could not tell what part of the world this might be; otherwise thanthat I knew it must be part of America; and, as I concluded, by all myobservations, must be near the Spanish dominions; and perhaps was allinhabited by savages, where, if I should have landed, I had been in aworse condition than I was now. I therefore acquiesced in thedispositions of Providence, which I began now to own and to believeordered every thing for the best; I say, I quieted my mind with this, and left off afflicting myself with fruitless wishes of being there. 

Besides, after some pause upon this affair, I considered that if thisland was the Spanish coast, I should certainly, one time or other, seesome vessel pass or repass one way or other; but if not, then it was thesavage coast between the Spanish country and the Brazils, whoseinhabitants are indeed the worst of savages; for they are cannibals, ormen-eaters, and fail not to murder and devour all human beings that fallinto their hands. 

With these considerations, walking very leisurely forward, I found thisside of the island, where I now was, much pleasanter than mine; the openor savannah fields sweetly adorned with flowers and grass, and full ofvery fine woods. I saw abundance of parrots; and fain would have caughtone, if possible, to have kept it to be tame, and taught it to speak tome. I did, after taking some pains, catch a young parrot: for I knockedit down with a stick, and, having recovered it, I brought it home: butit was some years before I could make him speak; however, at last Itaught him to call me by my name very familiarly. But the accident thatfollowed, though it be a trifle, will be very diverting in its place. 

I was exceedingly amused with this journey. I found in the low groundshares, as I thought them to be, and foxes: but they differed greatlyfrom all the other kinds I had met with; nor could I satisfy myself toeat them, though I killed several. But I had no need to be venturous:for I had no want of food, and of that which was very good too;especially these three sorts, viz. Goats, pigeons, and turtle, ortortoise. With these, added to my grapes, Leadenhall-Market could nothave furnished a table better than I, in proportion to the company; andthough my case was deplorable enough, yet I had great cause forthankfulness; as I was not driven to any extremities for food; but hadrather plenty, even to dainties. 

I never travelled on this journey above two miles outright in a day, orthereabouts; but I took so many turns and returns, to see whatdiscoveries I could make, that I came weary enough to the place where Iresolved to sit down for the night; and then I either reposed myself ina tree, or surrounded myself with a row of stakes, set upright in theground, either from one tree to another, or so as no wild creature couldcome at me without waking me. 

As soon as I came to the sea-shore, I was surprised to see that I hadtaken up my lot on the worst side of the island: for here indeed theshore was covered with innumerable turtles; whereas, on the other side, I had found but three in a year and a half. Here was also an infinitenumber of fowls of many kinds; some of which I had seen, and some ofwhich I had not seen before, and many of them very good meat; but suchas I knew not the names of, except those called Penguins. 

I could have shot as many as I pleased, but was very sparing of mypowder and shot; and therefore had more mind to kill a she-goat, if Icould, which I could better feed on. But though there were many goatshere, more than on my side the island, yet it was with much moredifficulty that I could come near them; the country being flat and even, and they saw me much sooner than when I was upon a hill. 

I confess this side of the country was much pleasanter than mine; yet Ihad not the least inclination to remove; for as I was fixed in myhabitation, it became natural to me, and I seemed all the while I washere to be as it were upon a journey, and from home. However, Itravelled along the sea-shore towards the east, I suppose about twelvemiles; and then setting up a great pole upon the shore for a mark, Iconcluded I would go home again; and that the next journey I took shouldbe on the other side of the island, east from my dwelling, and so roundtill I came to my post again: of which in its place. 

I took another way to come back than that I went, thinking I couldeasily keep so much of the island in my view, that I could not miss myfirst dwelling by viewing the country: but I found myself mistaken; forbeing come about two or three miles, I found myself descended into avery large valley, but so surrounded with hills, and those hills coveredwith wood, that I could not see which was my way by any direction butthat of the sun, nor even then, unless I knew very well the position ofthe sun at that time of the day. And it happened to my farthermisfortune, that the weather proved hazy for three or four days while Iwas in this valley; and not being able to see the sun, I wandered aboutvery uncomfortable, and at last was obliged to find out the sea-side, look for my post, and come back the same way I went; and then by easyjournies I turned homeward, the weather being exceeding hot, and my gun, ammunition, hatchet, and other things very heavy. 

In this journey, my dog surprised a young kid, and seized upon it; andrunning to take hold of it, I caught it, and saved it alive from thedog. I had a great mind to bring it home if I could; for I had oftenbeen musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid or two, and soraise a breed of tame goats, which might supply me when my powder andshot should be all spent. I made a collar for this little creature, andwith a string which I had made of some rope-yarn, which I always carriedabout me, I led him along, though with some difficulty, till I came tomy bower, and there I enclosed him and left him; for I was veryimpatient to be at home, from whence I had been absent above a month. 

I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my oldhutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed. This little wandering journey, without a settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that myown house, as I called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me, compared to that; and it rendered every thing about me so comfortable, that I resolved I would never go a great way from it again, while itshould be my lot to stay on the island. 

I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my longjourney: during which, most of the time was taken up in the weightyaffair of making a cage for my Pol, who began now to be more domestic, and to be mighty well acquainted with me. Then I began to think of thepoor kid which I had penned within my little circle, and resolved tofetch it home, or give it some food: accordingly I went, and found itwhere I left it (for indeed it could not get out, ) but was almoststarved for want of food. I went and cut boughs of trees, and branchesof such shrubs as I could find, and threw it over, and having fed it, Itied it as I did before, to lead it away; but it was so tame with beinghungry, that I had no need to have tied it, for it followed me like adog: and as I continually fed it, the creature became so loving, sogentle, and so fond, that it was from that time one of my domesticsalso, and would never leave me afterwards. 

The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and I kept the30th of September in the same solemn manner as before, being theanniversary of my landing on the island; having now been there twoyears, and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day I camethere. I spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledgments forthe many wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attendedwith, and without which it might have been infinitely more miserable. Igave humble and hearty thanks to God for having been pleased to discoverto me, that it was possible I might be more happy even in this solitarycondition, than I should have been in the enjoyment of society, and inall the pleasures of the world: that he could fully make up to me thedeficiencies of my solitary state, and the wont of human society, by hispresence, and the communications of his grace to my soul; supporting, comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon his providence here, andto hope for his eternal presence hereafter. 

It was now that I began sensibly to feel how much more happy the life Inow led was, with all its miserable circumstances, than the wicked, cursed, abominable life I led all the past part of my days: and now Ichanged both my sorrows and my joys: my very desires altered, myaffections changed their gusts, and my delights were perfectly new fromwhat they were at my first coming, or indeed for the two years past. 

Before, as I walked about, either on my hunting, or for viewing thecountry, the anguish of my soul at my condition would break out upon meon a sudden, and my very heart would die within me, to think of thewoods, the mountains, the deserts I was in; and how I was a prisoner, locked up with the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in anuninhabited wilderness, without redemption. In the midst of the greatestcomposures of my mind, this would break out upon me like a storm, andmake me wring my hands, and weep like a child: sometimes it would takeme in the middle of my work, and I would immediately sit down and sigh, and look upon the ground for an hour or two together: this was stillworse to me; but if I could burst into tears, or give vent to myfeelings by words, it would go off; and my grief being exhausted, would abate. 

But now I began to exercise myself with new thoughts; I daily read theword of God, and applied all the comforts of it to my present state. Onemorning, being very sad, I opened the Bible upon these words, "I willnever leave thee, nor forsake thee:" immediately it occurred that thesewords were to me; why else should they be directed in such a manner, just at the moment when I was mourning over my condition, as oneforsaken of God and man? "Well then, " said I, "if God does not forsakeme, of what ill consequence can it be, or what matters it, though theworld should forsake me; seeing on the other hand, if I had all theworld, and should lose the favour and blessing of God, there would be nocomparison in the loss?"

From this moment I began to conclude in my mind, that it was possiblefor me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition, than itwas probable I should ever have been in any other particular state inthe world; and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God forbringing me to this place. I know not what it was, but something shockedmy mind at that thought and I durst not speak the words. "How canst thoube such a hypocrite, " said I, even audibly, "to pretend to be thankfulfor a condition, which, however thou mayest endeavour to be contentedwith, thou wouldest rather pray heartily to be delivered from?" Here Istopped: but though I could not say I thanked God for being here, yet Isincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes, by whatever afflictingprovidences, to see the former condition of my life, and to mourn for mywickedness, and repent. I never opened the Bible, or shut it, but myvery soul within me blessed God for directing my friend in England, without any order of mine, to pack it up among my goods; and forassisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship. 

Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year; and thoughI have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an account ofmy works this year as the first, yet in general it may be observed, thatI was very seldom idle; but having regularly divided my time, accordingto the several daily employments that were before me; such as, first, Myduty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which I constantly setapart some time for, thrice every day: secondly, Going abroad with mygun for food, which generally took me up three hours every morning, whenit did not rain: thirdly, Ordering, curing, preserving, and cooking whatI had killed or catched for my supply: these took up great part of theday; also it is to be considered, that in the middle of the day, whenthe sun was in the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great tostir out; so that about four hours in the evening was all the time Icould be supposed to work in; with this exception, that sometimes Ichanged my hours of hunting and working, and went to work in themorning, and abroad with my gun in the afternoon. 

To this short time allowed for labour, I desire may be added theexceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours which, for want oftools, want of help, and want of skill, every thing I did took up out ofmy time: for example, I was full two and forty days making me a boardfor a long shelf, which I wanted in my cave; whereas, two sawyers, withtheir tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six of them out of the sametree in half a day. 

My case was this; it was a large tree which was to be cut down, becausemy board was to be a broad one. This tree I was three days cutting down, and two more in cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to a log, orpiece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing, I reduced boththe sides of it into chips, till it was light enough to move; then Iturned it, and made one side of it smooth and flat as a board, from endto end; then turning that side downward, cut the other side, till Ibrought the plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth on bothsides. Any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a piece of work;but labour and patience carried me through that, and many other things:I only observe this in particular, to show the reason why so much of mytime went away with so little work, viz. That what might be a little tobe done with help and tools, was a vast labour, and required aprodigious time to do alone, and by hand. Notwithstanding this, withpatience and labour I went through many things; and, indeed, every thingthat my circumstances made necessary for me to do, as will appear bywhat follows. 

I was now in the months of November and December, expecting my crop ofbarley and rice. The ground I had manured or dug up for them was notgreat; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not above the quantity ofhalf a peck, having lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry season: butnow my crop promised very well; when, on a sudden, I found I was indanger of losing it all again by enemies of several sorts, which it wasscarce possible to keep from it; as, first, the goats, and wildcreatures which I called hares, who, tasting the sweetness of the blade, lay in it night and day, as soon as it came up, and ate it so close, that it could get no time to shoot up into stalk. 

I saw no remedy for this, but by making an enclosure about it with ahedge, which I did with a great deal of toil; and the more, because itrequired speed. However, as my arable land was but small, suited to mycrop, I got it tolerably well fenced in about three weeks' time; andshooting some of the creatures in the day-time, I set my dog to guard itin the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate, where he would standand bark all night long; so in a little time the enemies forsook theplace, and the corn grew very strong and well, and began to ripen apace. 

But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in the blade, sothe birds were as likely to ruin me now, when it was in the ear: forgoing along by the place to see how it throve, I saw my little cropsurrounded with fowls, I know not of how many sorts, who stood, as itwere, watching till I should be gone. I immediately let fly among them(for I always had my gun with me;) I had no sooner shot, but there roseup a little cloud of fowls, which I had not seen at all, from among thecorn itself. 

This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a few days they woulddevour all my hopes; that I should be starved, and never be able toraise a crop at all; and what to do I could not tell: however, Iresolved not to lose my corn, if possible, though I should watch itnight and day. In the first place, I went among it, to see what damagewas already done, and found they had spoiled a good deal of it; but thatas it was yet too green for them, the loss was not so great, but thatthe remainder was likely to be a good crop, if it could be saved. 

I staid by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I could easily seethe thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they only waitedtill I was gone away; and the event proved it to be so; for as I walkedoff, as if gone, I was no sooner out of their sight, than they droptdown, one by one, into the corn again. I was so provoked, that I couldnot have patience to stay till more came on, knowing that every grainthey eat now was, as it might be said, a peck-loaf to me in theconsequence; so coming up to the hedge, I fired again, and killed threeof them. This was what I wished for; so I took them up, and served themas we serve notorious thieves in England, viz. Hanged them in chains, for a terror to others. It is impossible to imagine that this shouldhave such an effect as it had; for the fowls not only never came to thecorn, but, in short, they forsook all that part of the island, and Icould never see a bird near the place as long as my scare-crows hungthere. This I was very glad of, you may be sure; and about the latterend of December, which was our second harvest of the year, I reapedmy corn. 

I was sadly put to it for a scythe or sickle to cut it down: and all Icould do was to make one as well as I could, out of one of the broadswords, or cutlasses, which I saved among the arms out of the ship. However, as my first crop was but small, I had no great difficulty tocut it down: in short, I reaped it my way, for I cut nothing off but theears, and carried it away in a great basket which I had made, and sorubbed it out with my hands; and at the end of all my harvesting, Ifound that out of my half peck of seed I had near two bushels of rice, and above two bushels and a half of barley; that is to say, by my guess, for I had no measure. 

However, this was great encouragement to me; and I foresaw that, intime, it would please God to supply me with bread; and yet here I wasperplexed again; for I neither knew how to grind, or make meal of mycorn, or indeed how to clean it and part it; nor if made into meal, howto make bread of it; and if how to make it, yet I knew not how to bakeit: these things being added to my desire of having a good quantity forstore, and to secure a constant supply, I resolved not to taste any ofthis crop, but to preserve it all for seed against the next season; and, in the mean tune, to employ all my study and hours of working toaccomplish this great work of providing myself with corn and bread. 

It might be truly said, that now I worked for my bread. It is a littlewonderful, and what I believe few people have thought much upon, viz. The strange multitude of little things necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making, and finishing this one articleof bread. 

I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to my dailydiscouragement, and was made more sensible of it every hour, even afterI had got the first handful of seed-corn which, as I have said, came upunexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise. 

First, I had no plough to turn up the earth; no spade or shovel to digit: well, this I conquered by making a wooden spade, as I observedbefore; but this did my work but in a wooden manner; and though it costme a great many days to make it, yet, for want of iron, it not only woreout the sooner, but made my work the harder, and performed it muchworse. However, this I bore with, and was content to work it out withpatience, and bear with the badness of the performance. When the cornwas sown, I had no harrow, but was forced to go over it myself, and draga great heavy bough of a tree over it, to scratch it, as it may becalled, rather than rake or harrow it. When it was growing and grown, Ihave observed already how many things I wanted to fence it, secure it, mow or reap it, cure and carry it home, thrash, part it from the chaff, and save it: then I wanted a mill to grind it, sieves to dress it, yeastand salt to make it into bread, and an oven to bake it; and yet allthese things I did without, as shall be observed; and the corn was aninestimable comfort and advantage to me: all this, as I said, made everything laborious and tedious to me, but that there was no help for;neither was my time so much loss to me, because, as I had divided it, acertain part of it, was every day appointed to these works; and as Iresolved to use none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quantityby me, I had the next six months to apply myself wholly, by labour andinvention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing allthe operations necessary for making corn fit for my use. 

But now I was to prepare more land; for I had seed enough to sow abovean acre of ground. Before I did this, I had a week's work at least tomake me a spade; which, when it was done, was but a sorry one indeed, and very heavy, and required double labour to work with it: however, Iwent through that, and sowed my seed in two large flat pieces of ground, as near my house as I could find them to my mind, and fenced them inwith a good hedge; the stakes of which were all cut off that wood whichI had set before, and knew it would grow; so that, in one year's time, Iknew I should have a quick or living hedge, that would want but littlerepair. This work took me up full three months; because a great part ofthe time was in the wet season, when I could not go abroad. Withindoors, that is, when it rained, and I could not go out, I foundemployment on the following occasions; always observing, that while Iwas at work, I diverted myself with talking to my parrot, and teachinghim to speak; and I quickly learned him to know his own name, and atlast to speak it out pretty loud, Pol; which was the first word I everheard spoken in the island by any mouth but my own. This, therefore, wasnot my work, but an assistant to my work; for now, as I said, I had agreat employment upon my hands, as follows: I had long studied, by somemeans or other, to make myself some earthen vessels, which indeed Iwanted much, but knew not where to come at them: however, consideringthe heat of the climate, I did not doubt but if I could find out anyclay, I might botch up some such pot as might, being dried in the sun, be hard and strong enough to bear handling, and to hold any thing thatwas dry, and required to be kept so; and as this was necessary in thepreparing corn, meal, &c. Which was the thing I was upon, I resolved tomake some as large as I could, and fit only to stand like jars, to holdwhat should be put into them. 

It would make the reader pity me, or rather laugh at me, to tell howmany awkward ways I took to raise this pastil; what odd, misshapen, uglythings I made; how many of them fell in, and how many fell out, the claynot being stiff enough to bear its own weight; how many cracked by theover violent heat of the sun, being set out too hastily; and how manyfell in pieces with only removing, as well before as after they weredried: and, in a word, how, after having laboured hard to find theclay, to dig it, to temper it, to bring it home, and work it, I couldnot make above two large earthen ugly things (I cannot call them jars)in about two months' labour. 

However, as the sun baked these two very dry and hard, I lifted themvery gently up, and set them down again in two great wicker baskets, which I had made on purpose for them, that they might not break; and asbetween the pot and the basket there was a little room to spare, Istuffed it full of the rice and barley-straw; and these two pots beingto stand always dry, I thought would hold my dry corn, and perhaps themeal, when the corn was bruised. 

Though I miscarried so much in my design for large pots, yet I madeseveral smaller things with better success; such as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any thing my hand turned to; andthe heat of the sun baked them very hard. 

But all this would not answer my end, which was to get an earthen pot tohold liquids, and bear the fire, which none of these could do. Ithappened some time after, making a pretty large fire for cooking mymeat, when I went to put it out after I had done with it, I found abroken piece of one of my earthen-ware vessels in the fire, burnt ashard as a stone, and red as a tile. I was agreeably surprised to see it;and said to myself, that certainly they might be made to burn whole, ifthey would burn broken. 

This set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make it burn somepots. I had no notion of a kiln, such as the potters burn in, or ofglazing them with lead, though I had some lead to do it with; but Iplaced three large pipkins and two or three pots in a pile, one uponanother, and placed my fire-wood all round it, with a great heap ofembers under them. I plied the fire with fresh fuel round the outside, and upon the top, till I saw the pots in the inside red-hot quitethrough, and observed that they did not crack at all: when I saw themclear red, I let them stand in that heat about five or six hours, till Ifound one of them, though it did not crack, did melt or run; for thesand which was mixed with the clay melted by the violence of the heat, and would have run into glass, if I had gone on; so I slacked my firegradually, till the pots began to abate of the red colour; and watchingthem all night, that I might not let the fire abate too fast, in themorning I had three very good, I will not say handsome, pipkins, and twoother earthen pots, as hard burnt as could be desired; and one of themperfectly glazed with the running of the sand. 

After this experiment, I need not say that I wanted no sort ofearthen-ware for my use; but I must needs say, as to the shapes of them, they were very indifferent, as any one may suppose, as I had no way ofmaking them but as the children make dirt pies, or as a woman would makepies that never learned to raise paste. 

No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine, when Ifound I had made an earthen pot that would bear the fire; and I hadhardly patience to stay till they were cold, before I set one on thefire again, with some water in it, to boil me some meat, which it didadmirably well; and with a piece of a kid I made some very good broth;though I wanted oatmeal, and several other ingredients requisite to makeit so good as I would have had it been. 

My next concern was to get a stone mortar to stamp or beat some corn in;for as to the mill, there was no thought of arriving to that perfectionof art with one pair of hands. To supply this want I was at a greatloss; for, of all trades in the world, I was as perfectly unqualifiedfor a stonecutter, as for any whatever; neither had I any tools to goabout it with. I spent many a day to find out a great stone big enoughto cut hollow, and make fit for a mortar; but could find none at all, except what was in the solid rock, and which I had no way to dig or cutout: nor, indeed, were the rocks in the island of sufficient hardness, as they were all of a sandy crumbling stone, which would neither bearthe weight of a heavy pestle, nor would break the corn without fillingit with sand: so, after a great deal of time lost in searching for astone, I gave it over, and resolved to look out a great block of hardwood, which I found indeed much easier; and getting one as big as I hadstrength to stir, I rounded it, and formed it on the outside with my axeand hatchet; and then, with the help of fire, and infinite labour, madea hollow place in it, as the Indians in Brazil make their canoes. Afterthis, I made a great heavy pestle, or beater, of the wood callediron-wood; and this I prepared and laid by against I had my next crop ofcorn, when I proposed to myself to grind, or rather pound, my corn intomeal, to make my bread. 

My next difficulty was to make a sieve, or searce, to dress my meal, and to part it from the bran and the husk, without which I did not seeit possible I could have any bread. This was a most difficult thing, even but to think on; for I had nothing like the necessary thing to makeit; I mean fine thin canvass or stuff, to searce the meal through. HereI was at a full stop for many months; nor did I really know what to do;linen I had none left, but what was mere rags; I had goats'-hair, butneither knew how to weave it nor spin it; and had I known how, here wereno tools to work it with: all the remedy I found for this was, at lastrecollecting I had, among the seamen's clothes which were saved out ofthe ship, some neckcloths of calico or muslin, with some pieces of theseI made three small sieves, proper enough for the work; and thus I madeshift for some years: how I did afterwards, I shall show in its place. 

The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how I shouldmake bread when I came to have corn: for, first, I had no yeast: as tothat part there was no supplying the want, so I did not concern myselfmuch about it; but for an oven I was indeed puzzled. At length I foundout an expedient for that also, which was this; I made some earthenvessels, very broad, but not deep, that is to say, about two feetdiameter, and not above nine inches deep: these I burned in the fire, asI had done the other, and laid them by; and when I wanted to bake, Imade a great fire upon my hearth, which I had paved with some squaretiles, of my own making and burning also; but I should not callthem square. 

When the fire-wood was burned into embers, or live coals, I drew themforward upon the hearth, so as to cover it all over, and there let themlie till the hearth was very hot; then sweeping away all the embers, Iset down my loaf, or loaves, and covering them with the earthen pot, drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in and add tothe heat; and thus, as well as in the best oven in the world, I baked mybarley-loaves, and became, in a little time, a good pastry-cook into thebargain; for I made myself several cakes and puddings of the rice; butmade no pies, as I had nothing to put into them except the flesh offowls or goats. 

It need not be wondered at, if all these things took me up most part ofthe third year of my abode here; for, it is to be observed, in theintervals of these things, I had my new harvest and husbandry to manage:I reaped my corn in its season, and carried it home as well as I could, and laid it up in the ear, in my large baskets, till I had time to rubit out; for I had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument to thrashit with. 

And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really wanted to buildmy barns bigger: I wanted a place to lay it up in; for the increase ofthe corn now yielded me so much, that I had of the barley about twentybushels, and of rice as much, or more, insomuch that now I resolved tobegin to use it freely; for my bread had been quite gone a great while:I resolved also to see what quantity would be sufficient for me a wholeyear, and to sow but once a year. 

Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley and rice weremuch more than I could consume in a year; so I resolved to sow just thesame quantity every year that I sowed the last, in hopes that such aquantity would fully provide me with bread, &c. 

All the while these things were doing, you may be sure my thoughts ranmany times upon the prospect of land which I had seen from the otherside of the island; and I was not without some secret wishes that I wason shore there; fancying, that seeing the main land, and an inhabitedcountry, I might find some way or other to convey myself farther, andperhaps at last find some means of escape. 

But all this while I made no allowance for the dangers of such acondition, and that I might fall into the hands of savages, and perhapssuch as I might have reason to think far worse than the lions and tigersof Africa; that if I once came in their power, I should run a hazard ofmore than a thousand to one of being killed, and perhaps of being eaten;for I had heard that the people of the Caribbean coast were cannibals, or man-eaters; and I knew, by the latitude, that I could not be far offfrom that shore. Then supposing they were not cannibals, yet that theymight kill me, as they had many Europeans who had fallen into theirhands, even when they have been ten or twenty together; much more I, whowas but one, and could makee little or no defence; all these things, Isay, which I ought to have considered well of, and did cast up in mythoughts afterwards, took up none of my apprehensions at first; yet myhead ran mightily upon the thought of getting over to the shore. 

Now I wished for my boy Xury, and the long-boat with theshoulder-of-mutton sail, with which I sailed above a thousand miles onthe coast of Africa; but this was in vain: then I thought I would go andlook at our ship's boat, which, as I have said, was blown up upon theshore a great way, in the storm, when we were first cast away. She laynearly where she did at first, but not quite; having turned, by theforce of the waves and the winds, almost bottom upward, against a highridge of beachy rough sand; but no water about her, as before. If I hadhad hands to have refitted her, and to have launched her into the water, the boat would have done very well, and I might have gone back into theBrazils with her easily enough; but I might have foreseen, that I couldno more turn her and set her upright upon her bottom, than I couldremove the island; however, I went to the woods, and cut levers androllers, and brought them to the boat, resolving to try what I could do;suggesting to myself, that if I could but turn her down, and repair thedamage she had received, she would be a very good boat, and I mightventure to sea in her. 

I spared no pains, indeed, in this piece of fruitless toil, and spent, Ithink, three or four weeks about it: at last, finding it impossible toheave her up with my little strength, I fell to digging away the sand, to undermine her, and so as to make her fall down, setting pieces ofwood to thrust and guide her right in the fall. 

But when I had done this, I was unable to stir her up again, or to getunder her, much less to move her forward towards the water; so I wasforced to give it over: and yet, though I gave over the hopes of theboat, my desire to venture over the main increased, rather thandiminished, as the means for it seemed impossible. 

At length, I began to think whether it was not possible to make myself acanoe, or periagua, such as the natives of those climates make, evenwithout tools, or, as I might say, without hands, of the trunk of agreat tree. This I not only thought possible, but easy, and pleasedmyself extremely with the idea of making it, and with my having muchmore convenience for it than any of the Negroes or Indians; but not atall considering the particular inconveniences which I lay under morethan the Indians did, viz. The want of hands to move it into the waterwhen it was made, a difficulty much harder for me to surmount than allthe consequences of want of tools could be to them: for what could itavail me, if, after I had chosen my tree, and with much trouble cut itdown, and might be able with my tools to hew and dub the outside intothe proper shape of a boat, and burn or cut out the inside to make ithollow, so as to make a boat of it; if, after all this, I must leave itjust where I found it, and was not able to launch it into the water?

One would imagine, if I had had the least reflection upon my mind of mycircumstances while I was making this boat, I should have immediatelythought how I was to get it into the sea: but my thoughts were so intentupon my voyage in it, that I never once considered how I should get itoff the land; and it was really, in its own nature, more easy for me toguide it over forty-five miles of sea, than the forty-five fathoms ofland, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water. 

I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man did, who had any of his senses awake. I pleased myself with the design, without determining whether I was able to undertake it; not but that thedifficulty of launching my boat came often into my head; but I put astop to my own inquiries into it, by this foolish answer: Let me firstmake it; I warrant I will find some way or other to get it along whenit is done. 

This was a most preposterous method; but the eagerness of my fancyprevailed, and to work I went. I felled a cedar tree, and I questionmuch whether Solomon ever had such a one for the building of the Templeat Jerusalem; it was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower partnext the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end oftwenty-two feet, where it lessened, and then parted into branches. Itwas not without infinite labour that I felled this tree; I was twentydays hacking and hewing at the bottom, and fourteen more getting thebranches and limbs, and the vast spreading head of it, cut off: afterthis, it cost me a month to shape it and dub it to a proportion, and tosomething like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright as itought to do. It cost me near three months more to clear the inside, andwork it out so as to make an exact boat of it: this I did, indeed, without fire, by mere mallet and chisel, and by the dint of hard labour, till I had brought it to be a very handsome periagua, and big enough tohave carried six and twenty men, and consequently big enough to havecarried me and all my cargo. 

When I had gone through this work, I was extremely delighted with it. The boat was really much bigger than ever I saw a canoe or periagua, that was made of one tree, in my life. Many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be sure; and there remained nothing but to get it into thewater; which, had I accomplished, I make no question but I should havebegun the maddest voyage, and the most unlikely to be performed, thatever was undertaken. 

But all my devices to get it into the water failed me; though they costme inexpressible labour too. It lay about one hundred yards from thewater, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was up hilltowards the creek. Well, to take away this discouragement, I resolved todig into the surface of the earth, and so make a declivity: this Ibegun, and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains; (but who grudge painsthat have their deliverance in view?) when this was worked through, andthis difficulty managed, it was still much the same, for I could no morestir the canoe than I could the other boat. Then I measured the distanceof ground, and resolved to cut a dock or canal, to bring the water up tothe canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe down to the water. Well, Ibegan this work; and when I began to enter upon it, and calculate howdeep it was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff was to be thrown out, Ifound by the number of hands I had, having none but my own, that it musthave been ten or twelve years before I could have gone through with it;for the shore lay so high, that at the upper end it must have been atleast twenty feet deep; this attempt, though with great reluctancy, Iwas at length obliged to give over also. 

This grieved me heartily; and now I saw, though too late, the folly ofbeginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightlyof our own strength to go through with it. 

In the middle of this work, I finished my fourth year in this place, andkept my anniversary with the same devotion, and with as much comfort asbefore; for, by a constant study and serious application to the word ofGod, and by the assistance of his grace, I gained a different knowledgefrom what I had before; I entertained different notions of things; Ilooked now upon the world as a thing remote, which I had nothing to dowith, no expectation from, and, indeed, no desires about: in a word, Ihad nothing to do with it, nor was ever likely to have; I thought itlooked, as we may perhaps look upon it hereafter, viz. As, a place I hadlived in, but was come out of it; and well might I say, as fatherAbraham to Dives, "Between me and thee is a great gulf fixed. "

In the first place, I was here removed from all the wickedness of theworld; I had neither the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, nor thepride of life. I had nothing to covet, for I had all that I was nowcapable of enjoying: I was lord of the whole manor; or, if I pleased, Imight call myself king or emperor over the whole country which I hadpossession of; there were no rivals; I had no competitor, none todispute sovereignty or command with me: I might have raisedship-loadings of corn, but I had no use for it; so I let as little growas I thought enough for my occasion. I had tortoise or turtle enough, but now and then one was as much as I could put to any use: I had timberenough to have built a fleet of ships; and I had grapes enough to havemade wine, or to have cured into raisins, to have loaded that fleet whenit had been built. 

But all I could make use of was all that was valuable: I had enough toeat and supply my wants, and what was the rest to me? If I killed moreflesh than I could eat, the dog must eat it, or vermin; if I sowed morecorn than I could eat, it must be spoiled; the trees that I cut downwere lying to rot on the ground; I could make no more use of them thanfor fuel, and that I had no other occasion for but to dress my food. 

In a word, the nature and experience of things dictated to me, upon justreflection, that all the good things of this world, are of no farthergood to us than for our use; and that whatever we may heap up to giveothers, we enjoy only as much as we can use, and no more. The mostcovetous griping miser in the world would have been cured of the vice ofcovetousness, if he had been in my case; for I possessed infinitely morethan I knew what to do with. I had no room for desire, except it was forthings which I had not, and they were comparatively but trifles, thoughindeed of great use to me. I had, as I hinted before, a parcel of money, as well gold as silver, about thirty-six pounds sterling. Alas! therethe nasty, sorry, useless stuff lay: I had no manner of business forit; and I often thought within myself, that I would have given a handfulof it for a gross of tobacco-pipes, or for a hand-mill to grind my corn;nay, I would have given it all for sixpenny-worth of turnip and carrotseed from England, or for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle ofink. As it was, I had not the least advantage by it, or benefit from it;but there it lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp of the cavein the wet seasons; and if I had had the drawer full of diamonds, it hadbeen the same case, --they had been of no manner of value to me becauseof no use. 

I had now brought my state of life to be much more comfortable in itselfthan it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well as to my body. I frequently sat down to meat with thankfulness, and admired the hand ofGod's providence, which had thus spread my table in the wilderness: Ilearned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less uponthe dark side, and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what Iwanted: and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannotexpress them; and which I take notice of here, to put those discontentedpeople in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has giventhem, because they see and covet something that he has not given them. All our discontents about what we want, appeared to me to spring fromthe want of thankfulness for what we have. 

Another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless would be so toany one that should fall into such distress as mine was; and this was, to compare my present condition with what I at first expected it wouldbe; nay, with what it would certainly have been, if the good providenceof God had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up near to theshore, where I not only could come at her, but could bring what I gotout of her to the shore, for my relief and comfort; without which, I hadwanted for tools to work, weapons for defence, and gunpowder and shotfor getting my food. 

I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing to myself, inthe most lively colours, how I must have acted if I had got nothing outof the ship. I could not have so much as got any food, except fish andturtles; and that, as it was long before I found any of them, I musthave perished; that I should have lived, if I had not perished, like amere savage; that if I had killed a goat or a fowl, by any contrivance, I had no way to flay or open it, or part the flesh from the skin and thebowels, or to cut it up; but must gnaw it with my teeth, and pull itwith my claws, like a beast. 

These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of Providence tome, and very thankful for my present condition, with all its hardshipsand misfortunes: and this part also I cannot but recommend to thereflection of those who are apt, in their misery, to say, Is anyaffliction like mine? Let them consider how much worse the cases of somepeople are, and their case might have been, if Providence hadthought fit. 

I had another reflection, which assisted me also to comfort my mind withhopes; and this was comparing my present condition with what I haddeserved, and had therefore reason to expect from the hand ofProvidence. I had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of theknowledge and fear of God. I had been well instructed by my father andmother; neither had they been wanting to me, in their endeavours toinfuse an early religious awe of God into my mind, a sense of my duty, and what the nature and end of my being required of me. But, alas!falling early into the seafaring life, which, of all lives, is the mostdestitute of the fear of God, though his terrors are always before them;I say, falling early into the seafaring life, and into seafaringcompany, all that little sense of religion which I had entertained waslaughed out of me by my messmates; by a hardened despising of dangers, and the views of death, which grew habitual to me; by my long absencefrom all manner of opportunities to converse with any thing but what waslike myself, or to hear any thing that was good, or tending towards it. 

So void was I of every thing that was good, or of the least sense ofwhat I was, or was to be, that in the greatest deliverances I enjoyed(such as my escape from Sallee, my being taken up by the Portuguesemaster of a ship, my being planted so well in the Brazils, my receivingthe cargo from England, and the like, ) I never had once the words, ThankGod, so much as on my mind, or in my mouth; nor in the greatest distresshad I so much as a thought to pray to him, or so much as to say, Lord, have mercy upon me! no, nor to mention the name of God, unless it was toswear by, and blaspheme it. 

I had terrible reflections upon my mind for many months, as I havealready observed, on account of my wicked and hardened life past; andwhen I looked about me, and considered what particular providences hadattended me since my coming into this place, and how God had dealtbountifully with me, --had not only punished me less than my iniquity haddeserved, but had so plentifully provided for me, --this gave me greathopes that my repentance was accepted, and that God had yet mercies instore for me. 

With these reflections, I worked my mind up, not only to a resignationto the will of God in the present disposition of my circumstances, buteven to a sincere thankfulness for my condition; and that I, who was yeta living man, ought not to complain, seeing I had not the due punishmentof my sins; that I enjoyed so many mercies which I had no reason to haveexpected in that place, that I ought never more to repine at mycondition, but to rejoice, and to give daily thanks for that dailybread, which nothing but a crowd of wonders could have brought; that Iought to consider I had been fed by a miracle, even as great as that offeeding Elijah by ravens; nay, by a long series of miracles: and that Icould hardly have named a place in the uninhabitable part of the worldwhere I could have been cast more to my advantage; a place where, as Ihad no society, which was my affliction on one hand, so I found noravenous beasts, no furious wolves or tigers, to threaten my life; novenomous or poisonous creatures which I might feed on to my hurt; nosavages to murder and devour me. In a word, as my life was a life ofsorrow one way, so it was a life of mercy another; and I wanted nothingto make it a life of comfort, but to make myself sensible of God'sgoodness to me, and care over me in this condition; and after I did makea just improvement of these things, I went away, and was no more sad. 

I had now been here so long, that many things which I brought on shorefor my help were either quite gone, or very much wasted, and near spent. 

My ink, as I observed, had been gone for some time, all but a verylittle, which I eked out with water, a little and a little, till it wasso pale, it scarce left any appearance of black upon the paper. As longas it lasted, I made use of it to minute down the days of the month onwhich any remarkable thing happened to me: and, first, by casting uptimes past, I remember that there was a strange concurrence of days inthe various providences which befel me, and which, if I had beensuperstitiously inclined to observe days as fatal or fortunate, I mighthave had reason to have looked upon with a great deal of curiosity. 

First, I had observed, that the same day that I broke away from myfather and my friends, and ran away to Hull, in order to go to sea, thesame day afterwards I was taken by the Sallee man of war, and made aslave: the same day of the year that I escaped out of the wreck of theship in Yarmouth Roads, that same day-year afterwards I made my escapefrom Sallee in the boat: and the same day of the year I was born on, viz. The 30th of September, that same day I had my life so miraculouslysaved twenty-six years after, when I was cast on shore in this island:so that my wicked life and my solitary life began both on one day. 

The next thing to my ink being wasted, was that of my bread, I mean thebiscuit which I brought out of the ship; this I had husbanded to thelast degree, allowing myself but one cake of bread a day for above ayear; and yet I was quite without bread for near a year before I got anycorn of my own; and great reason I had to be thankful that I had any atall, the getting it being, as has been already observed, next tomiraculous. 

My clothes, too, began to decay mightily: as to linen, I had none for agreat while, except some chequered shirts which I found in the chests ofthe other seamen, and which I carefully preserved, because many times Icould bear no clothes on but a shirt; and it was a very great help to methat I had, among all the men's clothes of the ship, almost three dozenof shirts. There were also, indeed, several thick watch-coats of theseamen's which were left, but they were too hot to wear: and though itis true that the weather was so violently hot that there was no need ofclothes, yet I could not go quite naked, no, though I had been inclinedto it, which I was not, nor could I abide the thought of it, though, Iwas all alone. The reason why I could not go quite naked was, I couldnot bear the heat of the sun so well when quite naked as with someclothes on; nay, the very heat frequently blistered my skin: whereas, with a shirt on, the air itself made some motion, and whistling underthe shirt, was twofold cooler than without it. No more could I everbring myself to go out in the heat of the sun without a cap or hat; theheat of the sun beating with such violence as it does in that place, would give me the head-ach presently, by darting so directly upon myhead, without a cap or hat on, so that I could not bear it; whereas, ifI put on my hat, it would presently go away. 

Upon these views, I began to consider about putting the few rags I had, which I called clothes, into some order: I had worn out all thewaistcoats I had, and my business was now to try if I could not makejackets out of the great watch-coats that I had by me, and with suchother materials as I had; so I set to work a tailoring, or rather, indeed; a botching, for I made most piteous work of it. However, I madeshift to make two or three new waistcoats, which I hoped would serve mea great while: as for breeches or drawers, I made but a very sorry shiftindeed till afterwards. 

I have mentioned, that I saved the skins of all the creatures that Ikilled, I mean four-footed ones; and I had hung them up, stretched outwith sticks, in the sun, by which means some of them were so dry andhard that they were fit for little, but others I found very useful. Thefirst thing I made of these was a great cap for my head, with the hairon the outside, to shoot off the rain; and this I performed so well, that after this I made me a suit of clothes wholly of the skins, that isto say, a waistcoat, and breeches open at the knees, and both loose; forthey were rather wanting to keep me cool than warm. I must not omit toacknowledge that they were wretchedly made; for if I was a badcarpenter, I was a worse tailor. However, they were such as I made verygood shift with; and when I was abroad, if it happened to rain, the hairof my waistcoat and cap being uppermost, I was kept very dry. 

After this I spent a great deal of time and pains to make me anumbrella: I was indeed in great want of one, and had a great mind tomake one; I had seen them made in the Brazils, where they were veryuseful in the great heats which are there; and I felt the heats everyjot as great here, and greater too, being nearer the equinox: besides, as I was obliged to be much abroad, it was a most useful thing to me, aswell for the rains as the heats. I took a world of pains at it, and wasa great while before I could make any thing likely to hold; nay, after Ithought I had hit the way, I spoiled two or three before I made one tomy mind; but at last I made one that answered indifferently well; themain difficulty I found was to make it to let down: I could make itspread, but if it did not let down too, and draw in, it was not portablefor me any way but just over my head, which would not do. However, atlast, as I said, I made one to answer, and covered it with skins, thehair upwards, so that it cast off the rain like a pent-house, and keptoff the sun so effectually, that I could walk out in the hottest of theweather with greater advantage than I could before in the coolest; andwhen I had no need of it, could close it, and carry it under my arm. 

Thus I lived mighty comfortably, my mind being entirely composed byresigning to the will of God, and throwing myself wholly upon thedisposal of his providence. This made my life better than sociable; forwhen I began to regret the want of conversation, I would ask myself, whether thus conversing mutually with my own thoughts, and, as I hope Imay say, with even God himself, by ejaculations, was not better than theutmost enjoyment of human society in the world?

I cannot say that after this, for five years, any extraordinary thinghappened to me, but I lived on in the same course, in the same postureand place, just as before; the chief things I was employed in, besidesmy yearly labour of planting my barley and rice, and curing my raisins, of both which I always kept up just enough to have sufficient stock ofone year's provision beforehand; I say, besides this yearly labour, andmy daily pursuit of going out with my gun, I had one labour, to make mea canoe, which at last I finished: so that by digging a canal to it ofsix feet wide, and four feet deep, I brought it into the creek, almosthalf a mile. As for the first, which was so vastly big, as I made itwithout considering beforehand, as I ought to do, how I should be ableto launch it, so, never being able to bring it into the water, or bringthe water to it, I was obliged to let it lie where it was, as amemorandum to teach me to be wiser the next time: indeed, the next time, though I could not get a tree proper for it, and was in a place where Icould not get the water to it at any less distance than, as I have said, near half a mile, yet as I saw it was practicable at last, I never gaveit over: and though I was near two years about it, yet I never grudgedmy labour, in hopes of having a boat to go off to sea at last. 

However, though my little periagua was finished, yet the size of it wasnot at all answerable to the design which I had in view when I made thefirst; I mean, of venturing over to the _terra firma_, where it wasabove forty miles broad; accordingly, the smallness of my boat assistedto put an end to that design, and now I thought no more of it. As I hada boat, my next design was to make a cruise round the island; for as Ihad been on the other side in one place, crossing, as I have alreadydescribed it, over the land, so the discoveries I made in that littlejourney made me very eager to see other parts of the coast; and now Ihad a boat, I thought of nothing but sailing round the island. 

For this purpose, that I might do every thing with discretion andconsideration, I fitted up a little mast in my boat, and made a sail toit out of some of the pieces of the ship's sails which lay in store, andof which I had a great stock by me. Having fitted my mast and sail, andtried the boat, I found she would sail very well: then I made littlelockers, or boxes, at each end of my boat, to put provisions, necessaries, ammunition, &c. Into, to be kept dry, either from rain orthe spray of the sea; and a little long hollow place I cut in the insideof the boat, where I could lay my gun, making a flap to hang down overit, to keep it dry. 

I fixed my umbrella also in a step at the stern, like a mast, to standover my head, and keep the heat of the sun off me, like an awning; andthus I every now and then took a little voyage upon the sea, but neverwent far out, nor far from the little creek. At last, being eager toview the circumference of my little kingdom, I resolved upon my cruise;and accordingly I victualled my ship for the voyage, putting in twodozen of loaves (cakes I should rather call them) of barley bread, anearthen pot full of parched rice (a food I ate a great deal of, ) alittle bottle of rum, half a goat, and powder and shot for killing more, and two large watch-coats, of those which, as I mentioned before, I hadsaved out of the seamen's chests; these I took, one to lie upon, and theother to cover me in the night. 

It was the 6th of November, in the sixth year of my reign, or mycaptivity, which you please, that I set out on this voyage, and I foundit much longer than I expected; for though the island itself was notvery large, yet when I came to the east side of it, I found a greatledge of rocks lie out about two leagues into the sea, some above water, some under it; and beyond that a shoal of sand, lying dry half a leaguemore, so that I was obliged to go a great way out to sea to doublethe point. 

When first I discovered them, I was going to give over my enterprise, and come back again, not knowing how far it might oblige me to go out tosea, and, above all, doubting how I should get back again; so I came toan anchor; for I had made me a kind of an anchor with a piece of abroken grappling which I got out of the ship. 

Having secured my boat, I took my gun and went on shore, climbing up ona hill, which seemed to overlook that point, where I saw the full extentof it, and resolved to venture. 

In my viewing the sea from that hill where I stood, I perceived astrong, and indeed a most furious current, which ran to the east, andeven came close to the point; and I took the more notice of it, becauseI saw there might be some danger, that when I came into it, I might becarried out to sea by the strength of it, and not be able to make theisland again: and, indeed, had I not got first upon this hill, I believeit would have been so; for there was the same current on the other sidethe island, only that it set off at a farther distance, and I saw therewas a strong eddy under the shore; so I had nothing to do but to get outof the first current, and I should presently be in an eddy. 

I lay here, however, two days, because the wind blowing pretty fresh atE. S. E. And that being just contrary to the said current, made a greatbreach of the sea upon the point; so that it was not safe for me to keeptoo close to the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off because ofthe stream. 

The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated over-night, thesea was calm, and I ventured: but I am a warning piece again to allrash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner was I come to the point, when Iwas not even my boat's length from the shore, but I found myself in agreat depth of water, and a current like the sluice of a mill; itcarried my boat along with it with such violence, that all I could docould not keep her so much as on the edge of it; but I found it hurriedme farther and farther out from the eddy, which was on my left hand. There was no wind stirring to help me, and all I could do with mypaddles signified nothing: and now I began to give myself over for lost;for as the current was on both sides of the island, I knew in a fewleagues distance they must join again, and then I was irrecoverablygone; nor did I see any possibility of avoiding it; so that I had noprospect before me but of perishing, not by the sea, for that was calmenough, but of starving for hunger. I had indeed found a tortoise on theshore, as big almost as I could lift, and had tossed it into the boat;and I had a great jar of fresh water, that is to say, one of my earthenpots; but what was all this to being driven into the vast ocean, where, to be sure, there was no shore, no main land or island, for a thousandleagues at least?

And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of God to make even themost miserable condition of mankind worse. Now I looked back upon mydesolate solitary island, as the most pleasant place in the world; andall the happiness my heart could wish for was to be but there again. Istretched out my hands to it, with eager wishes: "O happy desert!" saidI, "I shall never see thee more. O miserable creature! whither am Igoing!" Then I reproached myself with my unthankful temper, and how Ihad repined at my solitary condition; and now what would I give to be onshore there again! Thus we never see the true state of our conditiontill it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to valuewhat we enjoy, but by the want of it. It is scarce possible to imaginethe consternation I was now in, being driven from my beloved island (forso it appeared to me now to be) into the wide ocean, almost two leagues, and in the utmost despair of ever recovering it again. However, I workedhard, till indeed my strength was almost exhausted, and kept my boat asmuch to the northward, that is, towards the side of the current whichthe eddy lay on, as possibly I could; when about noon, as the sun passedthe meridian, I thought I felt a little breeze of wind in my face, springing up from S. S. E. This cheered my heart a little, and especiallywhen, in about half an hour more, it blew a pretty gentle gale. By thistime I was got at a frightful distance from the island, and had theleast cloudy or hazy weather intervened, I had been undone another waytoo; for I had no compass on board, and should never have known how tohave steered towards the island, if I had but once lost sight of it; butthe weather continuing clear, I applied myself to get up my mast again, and spread my sail, standing away to the north as much as possible, toget out of the current. 

Just as I had set my mast and sail, and the boat began to stretch away, I saw even by the clearness of the water some alteration of the currentwas near; for where the current was so strong, the water was foul; butperceiving the water clear, I found the current abate; and presently Ifound to the east, at about half a mile, a breach of the sea upon somerocks: these rocks I found caused the current to part again, and as themain stress of it ran away more southerly, leaving the rocks to thenorth-east, so the other returned by the repulse of the rocks, and madea strong eddy, which ran back again to the north-west, with a verysharp stream. 

They who know what it is to have a reprieve brought to them upon theladder, or to be rescued from thieves just going to murder them, or whohave been in such-like extremities, may guess what my present surpriseof joy was, and how gladly I put my boat into the stream of this eddy;and the wind also freshening, how gladly I spread my sail to it, runningcheerfully before the wind, and with a strong tide or eddy under foot. 

This eddy carried me about a league in my way back again, directlytowards the island, but about two leagues more to the northward than thecurrent which carried me away at first: so that when I came near theisland, I found myself open to the northern shore of it, that is to say, the other end of the island, opposite to that which I went out from. 

When I had made something more than a league of way by the help of thiscurrent or eddy, I found it was spent, and served me no farther. However, I found that being between two great currents, viz. That on thesouth side, which had hurried me away, and that on the north, which layabout a league on the other side; I say, between these two, in the wakeof the island, I found the water at least still, and running no way; andhaving still a breeze of wind fair for me, I kept on steering directlyfor the island, though not making such fresh way as I did before. 

About four o'clock in the evening, being then within a league of theisland, I found the point of the rocks which occasioned this disaster, stretching out, as is described before, to the southward, and castingoff the current more southerly, had, of course, made another eddy to thenorth, and this I found very strong, but not directly setting the way mycourse lay, which was due west, but almost full north. However, having afresh gale, I stretched across this eddy, slanting north-west: and, inabout an hour, came within about a mile of the shore, where, it beingsmooth water, I soon got to land. 

When I was on shore, I fell on my knees, and gave God thanks for mydeliverance, resolving to lay aside all thoughts of my deliverance by myboat; and refreshing myself with such things as I had, I brought my boatclose to the shore, in a little cove that I had spied under some trees, and laid me down to sleep, being quite spent with the labour and fatigueof the voyage. 

I was now at a great loss which way to get home with my boat: I had runso much hazard, and knew too much of the case, to think of attempting itby the way I went out; and what might be at the other side (I mean thewest side) I knew not, nor had I any mind to run any more ventures; so Ionly resolved in the morning to make my way westward along the shore, and to see if there was no creek where I might lay up my frigate insafety, so as to have her again, if I wanted her. In about three miles, or thereabouts, coasting the shore, I came to a very good inlet or bay, about a mile over, which narrowed till it came to a very little rivuletor brook, where I found a very convenient harbour for my boat, and whereshe lay as if she had been in a little dock made on purpose for her. Here I put in, and having stowed my boat very safe, I went on shore, tolook about me, and see where I was. 

I soon found I had but a little passed by the place where I had beenbefore, when I travelled on foot to that shore; so taking nothing out ofmy boat but my gun and umbrella, for it was exceeding hot, I began mymarch. The way was comfortable enough after such a voyage as I had beenupon, and I reached my old bower in the evening, where I found everything standing as I left it; for I always kept it in good order, being, as I said before, my country house. 

I got over the fence, and laid me down in the shade, to rest my limbs, for I was very weary, and fell asleep: but judge you, if you can, thatread my story, what a surprise I must be in, when I was awaked out of mysleep by a voice, calling me by my name several times, "Robin, Robin, Robin Crusoe; poor Robin Crusoe! Where are you, Robin Crusoe? Where areyou? Where have you been!"

I was so dead asleep at first, being fatigued with rowing, or paddling, as it is called, the first part of the day, and with walking the latterpart, that I did not wake thoroughly; but dozing between sleeping andwaking, thought I dreamed that somebody spoke to me; but as the voicecontinued to repeat Robin Crusoe, Robin Crusoe, at last I began to wakemore perfectly, and was at first dreadfully frightened, and started upin the utmost consternation; but no sooner were my eyes open, but I sawmy Pol sitting on the top of the hedge; and immediately knew it was hethat spoke to me; for just in such bemoaning language I had used to talkto him, and teach him; and he had learned it so perfectly, that he wouldsit upon my finger, and lay his bill close to my face, and cry, "PoorRobin Crusoe! Where are you? Where have you been? How came you here?"and such things as I had taught him. 

However, even though I knew it was the parrot, and that indeed it couldbe nobody else, it was a good while before I could compose myself. First, I was amazed how the creature got thither, and then, how heshould just keep about the place, and no where else: but as I was wellsatisfied it could be nobody but honest Pol, I got over it; and holdingout my hand, and calling him by his name, Pol, the sociable creaturecame to me, and sat upon my thumb, as he used to do and continuedtalking to me, Poor Robin Crusoe! and how did I come here? and where hadI been? just as if he had been overjoyed to see me again: and so Icarried him home along with me. 

I now had enough of rambling to sea for some time, and had enough to dofor many days, to sit still, and reflect upon the danger I had been in. I would have been very glad to have had my boat again on my side of theisland; but I knew not how it was practicable to get it about. As to theeast side of the island, which I had gone round, I knew well enoughthere was no venturing that way; my very heart would shrink, and my veryblood run chill, but to think of it; and as to the other side of theisland, I did not know how it might be there; but supposing the currentran with the same force against the shore at the east as it passed by iton the other, I might run the same risk of being driven down the stream, and carried by the island, as I had been before of being carried awayfrom it; so, with these thoughts, I contented myself to be without anyboat, though it had been the product of so many months' labour to makeit, and of so many more to get it into the sea. 

In this government of my temper I remained near a year, lived a verysedate, retired life, as you may well suppose; and my thoughts beingvery much composed, as to my condition, and fully comforted in resigningmyself to the dispositions of Providence, I thought I lived really veryhappily in all things, except that of society. 

I improved myself in this time in all the mechanic exercises which mynecessities put me upon applying myself to; and I believe I could, uponoccasion, have made a very good carpenter, especially considering howfew tools I had. 

Besides this, I arrived at an unexpected perfection in my earthen-ware, and contrived well enough to make them with a wheel, which I foundinfinitely easier and better; because I made things round and shapable, which before were filthy things indeed to look on. But I think I wasnever more vain of my own performance, or more joyful for any thing Ifound out, than for my being able to make a tobacco-pipe; and though itwas a very ugly clumsy thing when it was done, and only burnt red, likeother earthen-ware, yet as it was hard and firm, and would draw thesmoke, I was exceedingly comforted with it, for I had been always usedto smoke: and there were pipes in the ship, but I forgot them at first, not thinking that there was tobacco in the island; and afterwards, whenI searched the ship again, I could not come at any pipes at all. 

In my wicker-ware also I improved much, and made abundance of necessarybaskets, as well as my invention showed me; though not very handsome, yet they were such as were very handy and convenient for my layingthings up in, or fetching things home. For example, if I killed a goatabroad, I could hang it up in a tree, flay it, dress it, and cut it inpieces, and bring it home in a basket; and the like by a turtle: I couldcut it up, take out the eggs, and a piece or two of the flesh, which wasenough for me, and bring them home in a basket, and leave the restbehind me. Also large deep baskets were the receivers of my corn, whichI always rubbed out as soon as it was dry, and cured, and kept it ingreat baskets. 

I began now to perceive my powder abated considerably; this was a wantwhich it was impossible for me to supply, and I began seriously toconsider what I must do when I should have no more powder; that is tosay, how I should do to kill any goats. I had, as is observed, in thethird year of my being here, kept a young kid, and bred her up tame, andI was in hopes of getting a he-goat: but I could not by any means bringit to pass, till my kid grew an old goat; and as I could never find inmy heart to kill her, she died at last of mere age. 

But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and, as I have said, my ammunition growing low, I set myself to study some art to trap andsnare the goats, to see whether I could not catch some of them alive;and particularly, I wanted a she-goat great with young. For thispurpose, I made snares to hamper them; and I do believe they were morethan once taken in them; but my tackle was not good, for I had no wire, and I always found them broken, and my bait devoured. At length Iresolved to try a pitfall: so I dug several large pits in the earth, inplaces where I had observed the goats used to feed, and over those pitsI placed hurdles, of my own making too, with a great weight upon them;and several times I put ears of barley and dry rice, without setting thetrap; and I could easily perceive that the goats had gone in and eatenup the corn, for I could see the marks of their feet. At length I setthree traps in one night, and going the next morning, I found them allstanding, and yet the bait eaten and gone; this was very discouraging. However, I altered my traps; and, not to trouble you with particulars, going one morning to see my traps, I found in one of them a large oldhe-goat, and in one of the others three kids, a male and two females. 

As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him; he was so fierce, Idurst not go into the pit to him; that is to say, to go about to bringhim away alive, which was what I wanted: I could have killed him, butthat was not my business, nor would it answer my end; so I even let himout, and he ran away, as if he had been frightened out of his wits. ButI did not then know what I afterwards learnt, that hunger will tame alion. If I had let him stay there three or four days without food, andthen have carried him some water to drink, and then a little corn, hewould have been as tame as one of the kids; for they are mightysagacious, tractable creatures, where they are well used. 

However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better at that time:then I went to the three kids, and taking them one by one, I tied themwith strings together, and with some difficulty brought them all home. 

It was a good while before they would feed; but throwing them some sweetcorn, it tempted them, and they began to be tame. And now I found thatif I expected to supply myself with goat's flesh when I had no powder orshot left, breeding some up tame was my only way; when, perhaps, I mighthave them about my house like a flock of sheep. But then it occurred tome, that I must keep the tame from the wild, or else they would alwaysrun wild when they grew up: and the only way for this was, to have someenclosed piece of ground, well fenced, either with hedge or pale, tokeep them in so effectually, that those within might not break out, orthose without break in. 

This was a great undertaking for one pair of hands; yet as I saw therewas an absolute necessity for doing it, my first work was to find out aproper piece of ground, where there was likely to be herbage for themto eat, water for them to drink, and cover to keep them from the sun. 

Those who understand such enclosures will think I had very littlecontrivance, when I pitched upon a place very proper for all these(being a plain open piece of meadow land, or savannah, as our peoplecall it in the western colonies, ) which had two or three little drillsof fresh water in it, and at one end was very woody; I say, they willsmile at my forecast, when I shall tell them, I began my enclosing thispiece of ground in such a manner, that my hedge or pale must have beenat least two miles about. Nor was the madness of it so great as to thecompass, for if it was ten miles about, I was like to have time enoughto do it in; but I did not consider that my goats would be as wild in somuch compass as if they had had the whole island, and I should have somuch room to chase them in, that I should never catch them. 

My hedge was begun and carried on, I believe about fifty yards, whenthis thought occurred to me; so I presently stopped short, and, for thefirst beginning, I resolved to enclose a piece of about 150 yards inlength, and 100 yards in breadth; which, as it would maintain as many asI should have in any reasonable time, so, as my stock increased, I couldadd more ground to my enclosure. 

This was acting with some prudence, and I went to work with courage. Iwas about three months hedging in the first piece; and, till I had doneit, I tethered the three kids in the best part of it, and used them tofeed as near me as possible, to make them familiar; and very often Iwould go and carry them some ears of barley, or a handful of rice, andfeed them out of my hand: so that after my enclosure was finished, and Ilet them loose, they would follow me up and down, bleating after me fora handful of corn. 

This answered my end; and in about a year and a half I had a flock ofabout twelve goats, kids and all; and in two years more, I had three andforty, besides several that I took and killed for my food. After that Ienclosed five several pieces of ground to feed them in, with little pensto drive them into, to take them as I wanted, and gates out of one pieceof ground into another. 

But this was not all; for now I not only had goat's flesh to feed onwhen I pleased, but milk too; a thing which, indeed, in the beginning, Idid not so much as think of, and which, when it came into my thoughts, was really an agreeable surprise: for now I set up my dairy, and hadsometimes a gallon or two of milk in a day. And as nature, who givessupplies of food to every creature, dictates even naturally how to makeuse of it, so I, that had never milked a cow, much less a goat, or seenbutter or cheese made, only when I was a boy, after a great many essaysand miscarriages, made me both butter and cheese at last, and also salt(though I found it partly made to my hand by the heat of the sun uponsome of the rocks of the sea, ) and never wanted it afterwards. Howmercifully can our Creator treat his creatures, even in those conditionsin which they seemed to be overwhelmed in destruction! How can hesweeten the bitterest providences, and give us cause to praise him fordungeons and prisons! What a table was here spread for me in awilderness, where I saw nothing, at first, but to perish for hunger!

It would have made a stoic smile, to have seen me and my little familysit down to dinner: there was my majesty, the prince and lord of thewhole island; I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command;I could hang, draw, give liberty, and take it away; and no rebels amongall my subjects. Then to see how like a king I dined too, all alone, attended by my servants! Pol, as if he had been my favourite, was theonly person permitted to talk to me. My dog, who was now grown very oldand crazy, and had found no species to multiply his kind upon, satalways at my right hand; and two cats, one on one side of the table, andone on the other, expecting now and then a bit from my hand, as a markof special favour. 

But these were not the two cats which I brought on shore at first, forthey were both of them dead, and had been interred near my habitation bymy own hand; but one of them having multiplied by I know not what kindof creature, these were two which I had preserved tame; whereas the restrun wild in the woods, and became indeed troublesome to me at last; forthey would often come into my house, and plunder me too, till at last Iwas obliged to shoot them, and did kill a great many; at length theyleft me. --With this attendance, and in this plentiful manner, I lived;neither could I be said to want any thing but society: and of that, sometime after this, I was like to have too much. 

I was something impatient, as I have observed, to have the use of myboat, though very loth to run any more hazards; and therefore sometimesI sat contriving ways to get her about the island, and at other times Isat myself down contented enough without her. But I had a strangeuneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the island, where, as Ihave said, in my last ramble, I went up the hill to see how the shorelay, and how the current set, that I might see what I had to do: thisinclination increased upon me every day, and at length I resolved totravel thither by land, following the edge of the shore. I did so; buthad any one in England been to meet such a man as I was, it must eitherhave frightened him, or raised a great deal of laughter: and as Ifrequently stood still to look at myself, I could not but smile at thenotion of my travelling through Yorkshire, with such an equipage, and insuch a dress. Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure, as follows:

I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat's skin, with a flaphanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me as to shoot therain off from running into my neck: nothing being so hurtful in theseclimates as the rain upon the flesh, under the clothes. 

I had a short jacket of goat's skin, the skirts coming down to about themiddle of the thighs, and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the same; thebreeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung downsuch a length on either side, that, like pantaloons, it reached to themiddle of my legs; stockings and shoes I had none, but had made me apair of somethings, I scarce know what to call them, like buskins, toflap over my legs, and lace on either side like spatterdashes: but of amost barbarous shape, as inded were all the rest of my clothes. 

I had on a broad belt of goat's skin dried, which I drew together withtwo thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and in a kind of a frog oneither side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a little sawand a hatchet; one on one side, and one on the other. I had anotherbelt, not so broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over myshoulder; and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, both made of goat's skin too; in one of which hung my powder, in theother my shot. At my back I carried my basket, and on my shoulder mygun; and over my head a great clumsy ugly goat's skin umbrella, butwhich, after all, was the most necessary thing I had about me, next tomy gun. As for my face, the colour of it was really not so mulatto-likeas one might expect from a man not at all careful of it, and livingwithin nine or ten degrees of the equinox. My beard I had once sufferedto grow till it was about a quarter of a yard long; but as I had bothscissars and razors sufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except whatgrew on my upper lip, which I had trimmed into a large pair of Mahometanwhiskers, such as I had seen worn by some Turks at Sallee; for the Moorsdid not wear such, though the Turks did: of these mustachios orwhiskers, I will not say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them, but they were of a length and shape monstrous enough, and such as, inEngland, would have passed for frightful. 

But all this is by the bye; for, as to my figure, I had so few toobserve me that it was of no manner of consequence; so I say no more tothat part. In this kind of figure I went my new journey, and was outfive or six days. I travelled first along the sea-shore, directly to theplace where I first brought my boat to an anchor, to get upon the rocks;and having no boat now to take care of, I went over the land, a nearerway, to the same height that I was upon before; when looking forward tothe point of the rocks which lay out, and which I was obliged to doublewith my boat, as is said above, I was surprised to see the sea allsmooth and quiet; no rippling, no motion, no current, any more therethan in any other places. I was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved to spend some time in the observing it, to see if nothingfrom the sets of the tide had occasioned it; but I was presentlyconvinced how it was, viz. That the tide of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current of waters, from some great river on theshore, must be the occasion of this current; and that according as thewind blew more forcibly from the west, or from the north, this currentcame nearer, or went farther from the shore; for waiting thereaboutstill evening, I went up to the rock again, and then the tide of ebbbeing made, I plainly saw the current again as before, only that it ranfarther off, being near half a league from the shore; whereas in mycase, it set close upon the shore, and hurried me and my canoe alongwith it; which, at another time, it would not have done. 

This observation convinced me, that I had nothing to do but to observethe ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and I might very easily bring myboat about the island again: but when I began to think of putting it inpractice, I had such a terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of thedanger I had been in, that I could not think of it again with anypatience; but, on the contrary, I took up another resolution, which wasmore safe, though more laborious; and this was, that I would build, orrather make me another periagua or canoe; and so have one for one sideof the island, and one for the other. 

You are to understand, that now I had, as I may call it, two plantationsin the island; one, my little fortification or tent, with the wall aboutit, under the rock, with the cave behind me, which, by this time, I hadenlarged into several apartments or caves, one within another. One ofthese, which was the driest and largest, and had a door out beyond mywall or fortification, that is to say, beyond where my wall joined tothe rock, was all filled up with the large earthen pots, of which I havegiven an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, whichwould hold five or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores ofprovision, especially my corn, some in the ear, cut off short from thestraw, and the other rubbed out with my hand. 

As for my wall, made, as before, with long stakes or piles, those pilesgrew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big, and spread sovery much, that there was not the least appearance, to any one's view, of any habitation behind them. 

Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land, andupon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn land, which I kept dulycultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in itsseason: and whenever I had occasion for more corn, I had more landadjoining as fit as that. 

Besides this, I had my country seat; and I had now a tolerableplantation there also: for, first, I had my little bower, as I calledit, which I kept in repair; that is to say, I kept the hedge whichencircled it in constantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladderstanding always in the inside: I kept the trees, which at first were nomore than my stakes, but were now grown very firm and tall, always cutso, that they might spread and grow thick and wild, and make the moreagreeable shade; which they did effectually to my mind. In the middle ofthis I had my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread overpoles, set up for that purpose, and which never wanted any repair orrenewing; and under this I had made me a squab or couch, with the skinsof the creatures I had killed, and with other soft things; and a blanketlaid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which I had saved, and a great watch-coat to cover me; and here, whenever I had occasion tobe absent from my chief seat, I took up my country habitation. 

Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say, mygoats; and as I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence andenclose this ground, I was so anxious to see it kept entire, lest thegoats should break through, that I never left off, till, with infinitelabour, I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, andthere was scarce room to put a hand through between them; whichafterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainyseason, made the enclosure strong like a wall, --indeed, strongerthan any wall. 

This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared no painsto bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable support;for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at myhand would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and cheese forme as long as I lived in the place, if it were to be forty years; andthat keeping them in my reach depended entirely upon my perfecting myenclosures to such a degree, that I might be sure of keeping themtogether; which, by this method, indeed, I so effectually secured, thatwhen these little stakes began to grow, I had planted them so verythick, that I was forced to pull some of them up again. 

In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally dependedon for my winter store of raisins, and which I never failed to preservevery carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of my whole diet:and indeed they were not only agreeable, but medicinal, wholesome, nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree. 

As this was also about half-way between my other habitation and theplace where I had laid up my boat, I generally stayed and lay here in myway thither; for I used frequently to visit my boat; and I kept allthings about, or belonging to her, in very good order: sometimes I wentout in her to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages would I go, nor scarce ever above a stone's cast or two from the shore, I was soapprehensive of being hurried out of my knowledge again by the currentsor winds, or any other accident. But now I come to a new scene ofmy life. 

It happened one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I wasexceedingly 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 onethunder-struck, or as if I had seen an apparition; I listened, I lookedround me, but I could hear nothing, nor see any thing; I went up to arising 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 wentto it again to see if there were any more, and to observe if it mightnot be my fancy; but there was no room for that, for there was exactlythe print of a foot, toes, heel, and every part of a foot: how it camethither I knew not, nor could I in the least imagine; but, afterinnumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man perfectly confused and outof myself, I came home to my fortification, not feeling, as we say, theground I went on, but terrified to the last degree: looking behind me atevery two or three steps, mistaking every bush and tree, and fancyingevery stump at a distance to be a man. Nor is it possible to describehow many various shapes my affrighted imagination represented things tome in, how many wild ideas were found every moment in my fancy, and whatstrange 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, ) Ifled into it like one pursued; whether I went over by the ladder, asfirst contrived, or went in at the hole in the rock, which I had calleda door, I cannot remember; no, nor could I remember the next morning;for never frightened hare fled to cover, or fox to earth, with moreterror of mind than I to this retreat. 

I slept none that night; the farther I was from the occasion of myfright, the greater my apprehensions were; which is something contraryto the nature of such things, and especially to the usual practice ofall creatures in fear; but I was so embarrassed with my own frightfulideas of the thing, that I formed nothing but dismal imaginations tomyself, even though I was now a great way off it. Sometimes I fancied itmust be the Devil, and reason joined in with me upon this supposition;for how should any other thing in human shape come into the place? Wherewas the vessel that brought them? What marks were there of any otherfootsteps? And how was it possible a man should come there? But then tothink that Satan should take human shape upon him in such a place, wherethere could be no manner of occasion for it, but to leave the print ofhis foot behind him, and that even for no purpose too, for he could notbe sure I should see it, --this was an amusement the other way. Iconsidered that the Devil might have found out abundance of other waysto have terrified me than this of the single print of a foot; that as Ilived quite on the other side of the island, he would never have been sosimple as to leave a mark in a place where it was ten thousand to onewhether I should ever see it or not, and in the sand too, which thefirst surge of the sea, upon a high wind, would have defaced entirely:all this seemed inconsistent with the thing itself, and with all thenotions we usually entertain of the subtilty of the Devil. 

Abundance of such things as these assisted to argue me out of allapprehensions of its being the Devil; and I presently concluded then, that it must be some more dangerous creature, viz. That it must be someof the savages of the main land over against me, who had wandered out tosea in their canoes, and either driven by the currents or by contrarywinds, had made the island, and had been on shore, but were gone awayagain to sea; being as loth, perhaps, to have stayed in this desolateisland as I would have been to have had them. 

While these reflections were rolling upon my mind, I was very thankfulin my thoughts that I was so happy as not to be thereabouts at thattime, or that they did not see my boat, by which they would haveconcluded that some inhabitants had been in the place, and perhaps havesearched farther for me: then terrible thoughts racked my imaginationabout their having found my boat, and that there were people here; andthat 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 awayall 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 confidencein God, which was founded upon such wonderful experience as I had had ofhis goodness, as if he that had fed me by miracle hitherto could notpreserve, by his power, the provision which he had made for me by hisgoodness. I reproached myself with my laziness, that would not sow anymore corn one year than would just serve me till the next season, as ifno accident would intervene to prevent my enjoying the crop that wasupon the ground; and this I thought so just a reproof, that I resolvedfor the future to have two or three years' corn beforehand; so thatwhatever might come, I might not perish for want of bread. 

How strange a chequer-work of Providence is the life of man! and by whatsecret different springs are the affections hurried about, as differentcircumstances present! To-day we love what to-morrow we hate; to-day weseek what to-morrow we shun; to-day we desire what to-morrow we fear, nay, even tremble at the apprehensions of; this was exemplified in me, at this time, in the most lively manner imaginable; for I, whose onlyaffliction was that I seemed banished from human society, that I wasalone, circumscribed by the boundless ocean, cut off from mankind, andcondemned to what I called silent life; that I was as one whom Heaventhought not worthy to be numbered among the living, or to appear amongthe rest of his creatures; that to have seen one of my own species wouldhave seemed to me a raising me from death to life, and the greatestblessing that Heaven itself, next to the supreme blessing of salvation, could bestow; I say, that I should now tremble at the very apprehensionsof seeing a man, and was ready to sink into the ground at but the shadowor 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 manycurious speculations afterwards, when I had a little recovered my firstsurprise. I considered that this was the station of life the infinitelywise and good providence of God had determined for me; that as I couldnot foresee what the ends of divine wisdom might be in all this, so Iwas not to dispute his sovereignty, who, as I was his creature, had anundoubted right, by creation, to govern and dispose of me absolutely ashe thought fit; and who, as I was a creature that had offended him, hadlikewise a judicial right to condemn me to what punishment he thoughtfit; and that it was my part to submit to bear his indignation, becauseI had sinned against him. I then reflected, that as God, who was notonly righteous, but omnipotent, had thought fit thus to punish andafflict me, so he was able to deliver me; that if he did not think fitto do so, it was my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely andentirely to his will; and, on the other hand, it was my duty also tohope in him, pray to him, and quietly to attend the dictates anddirections of his daily providence. 

These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say, weeks andmonths; and one particular effect of my cogitations on this occasion Icannot omit: One morning early, lying in my bed, and filled withthoughts about my danger from the appearances of savages, I found itdiscomposed me very much; upon which these words of the Scripture cameinto my thoughts, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I willdeliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. " Upon this, rising cheerfullyout of my bed, my heart was not only comforted, but I was guided andencouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance: when I had donepraying, I took up my Bible, and opening it to read, the first wordsthat presented to me were, "Wait on the Lord, and be of good cheer, andhe shall strengthen thy heart; wait, I say, on the Lord. " It isimpossible to express the comfort this gave me. In answer, I thankfullylaid down the book, and was no more sad, at least on that occasion. 

In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, itcame into my thoughts one day, that all this might be a mere chimera ofmy own, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when Icame on shore from my boat: this cheered me up a little too, and I beganto persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing else butmy own foot: and why might I not come that way from the boat, as well asI was going that way to the boat? Again, I considered also, that I couldby 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 hadplayed the part of those fools who try to make stories of spectres andapparitions, and then are frightened at them more than any body. 

Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I had notstirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so that I began tostarve for provisions; for I had little or nothing within doors but somebarley-cakes and water: then I knew that my goats wanted to be milkedtoo, which usually was my evening diversion; and the poor creatures werein great pain and inconvenience for want of it; and, indeed, it almostspoiled some of them, and almost dried up their milk. Encouragingmyself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing but the printof one of my own feet, and that I might be truly said to start at my ownshadow, I began to go abroad again, and went to my country-house to milkmy flock: but to see with what fear I went forward, how often I lookedbehind me, how I was ready, every now and then, to lay down my basket, and run for my life, it would have made any one have thought I washaunted with an evil conscience, or that I had been lately most terriblyfrightened; and so, indeed, I had. However, as I went down thus two orthree days, and having seen nothing, I began to be a little bolder, andto think there was really nothing in it but my own imagination; but Icould not persuade myself fully of this till I should go down to theshore again, and see this print of a foot, and measure it by my own, andsee if there was any similitude or fitness, that I might be assured itwas my own foot: but when I came to the place, first, it appearedevidently to me, that when I laid up my boat, I could not possibly be onshore any where thereabouts: secondly, when I came to measure the markwith my own foot, I found my foot not so large by a great deal. Boththese things filled my head with new imaginations, and gave me thevapours again to the highest degree, so that I shook with cold like onein an ague; and I went home again, filled with the belief that some manor men had been on shore there; or, in short, that the island wasinhabited, and I might be surprised before I was aware; and what courseto take for my security I knew not. 

O what ridiculous resolutions men take when possessed with fear! Itdeprives them of the use of those means which reason offers for theirrelief. The first thing I proposed to myself was, to throw down myenclosures, and turn all my tame cattle wild into the woods, lest theenemy should find them, and then frequent the island in prospect of thesame or the like booty: then to the simple thing of digging up my twocorn fields, lest they should find such a grain there, and still beprompted to frequent the island: then to demolish my bower and tent, that they might not see any vestiges of habitation, and be prompted tolook farther, in order to find out the persons inhabiting. 

These were the subject of the first night's cogitataions after I wascome home again, while the apprehensions which had so over-run my mindwere fresh upon me, and my head was full of vapours, as above. Thus fearof danger is ten thousand times more terrifying than danger itself, whenapparent to the eyes; and we find the burthen of anxiety greater, bymuch, than the evil which we are anxious about: and, which was worsethan all this, I had not that relief in this trouble from theresignation I used to practise, that I hoped to have. I looked, Ithought, like Saul, who complained not, only that the Philistines wereupon him, but that God had forsaken him; for I did not now take due waysto compose my mind, by crying to God in my distress, and resting uponhis providence, as I had done before, for my defence and deliverance;which, if I had done, I had at least been more cheerfully supportedunder this new surprise, and perhaps carried through it with moreresolution. 

This confusion of my thoughts kept me awake all night; but in themorning I fell asleep; and having, by the amusement of my mind, been, asit were, tired, and my spirits exhausted, I slept very soundly, andwaked much better composed than I had ever been before. And now I beganto think sedately; and, upon the utmost debate with myself, I concludedthat this island, which was so exceeding pleasant, fruitful, and nofarther from the main land than as I had seen, was not so entirelyabandoned as I might imagine; that although there were no statedinhabitants who lived on the spot, yet that there might sometimes comeboats off from the shore, who, either with design, or perhaps never butwhen they were driven by cross winds, might come to this place; that Ihad lived here fifteen years now, and had not met with the least shadowor figure of any people yet; and that if at any time they should bedriven here, it was probable they went away again as soon as ever theycould, seeing they had never thought fit to fix here upon any occasion;that the most I could suggest any danger from, was from any casualaccidental landing of straggling people from the main, who, as it waslikely, if they were driven hither, were here against their wills, sothey made no stay here, but went off again with all possible speed;seldom staying one night on shore, lest they should not have the help ofthe tides and daylight back again; and that, therefore, I had nothing todo but to consider of some safe retreat, in case I should see anysavages land upon the spot. 

Now I began sorely to repent that I had dug my cave so large as to bringa door through again, which door, as I said, came out beyond where myfortification joined to the rock: upon maturely considering this, therefore, I resolved to draw me a second fortification, in the samemanner of a semi-circle, at a distance from my wall, just where I hadplanted a double row of trees about twelve years before, of which I mademention: these trees having been planted so thick before, they wantedbut few piles to be driven between them, that they might be thicker andstronger, and my wall would be soon finished: so that I had now a doublewall; and my outer wall was thickened with pieces of timber, old cables, and every thing I could think of, to make it strong; having in it sevenlittle holes, about as big as I might put my arm out at. In the insideof this, I thickened my wall to about ten feet thick, with continuallybringing earth out of my cave, and laying it at the foot of the wall, and walking upon it; and through the seven holes I contrived to plantthe muskets, of which I took notice that I had got seven on shore out ofthe 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 gunsin 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 greatlength every way, as full with stakes, or sticks, of the osier-likewood, which I found so apt to grow, as they could well stand; insomuch, that I believe I might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving apretty large space between them and my wall, that I might have room tosee an enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees, ifthey 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 andstrong, that it was indeed perfectly impassable; and no men, of whatkind soever, would ever imagine that there was any thing beyond it, muchless a habitation. As for the way which I proposed to myself to go inand out (for I left no avenue, ) it was by setting two ladders, one to apart of the rock which was low, and then broke in, and left room toplace another ladder upon that; so when the two ladders were taken down, no man living could come down to me without doing himself mischief; andif 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 ownpreservation; and it will be seen, at length, that they were notaltogether without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that timemore than my mere fear suggested to me. 

While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my other affairs;for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd of goats; they werenot only a ready supply to me on every occasion, and began to besufficient for me, without the expense of powder and shot, but alsowithout the fatigue of hunting after the wild ones; and I was loth tolose the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse upover again. 

For this purpose, after long consideration, I could think of but twoways to preserve them: one was, to find another convenient place to diga cave under ground, and to drive them into it every night; and theother was, to enclose two or three little bits of land, remote from oneanother, and as much concealed as I could, where I might keep about halfa dozen young goats in each place; so that if any disaster happened tothe flock in general, I might be able to raise them again with littletrouble and time: and this, though it would require a great deal of timeand labour, I thought was the most rational design. 

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

I immediately went to work with this piece of ground, and in less than amonth's time I had so fenced it round, that my flock, or herd, call itwhich you please, who were not so wild now as at first they might besupposed to be, were well enough secured in it: so, without any fartherdelay, 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 hadmade 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 atthe expense of, purely from my apprehensions on the account of the printof a man's foot which I had seen; for, as yet, I never saw any humancreature come near the island; and I had now lived two years under thisuneasiness, which, indeed, made my life much less comfortable than itwas before, as may be well imagined by any who know what it is to livein the constant snare of the fear of man. And this I must observe, withgrief too, that the discomposure of my mind had too great impressionsalso upon the religious part of my thoughts: for the dread and terror offalling into the hands of savages and cannibals lay so upon my spirits, that I seldom found myself in a due temper for application to my Maker, at least not with the sedate calmness and resignation of soul which Iwas wont to do: I rather prayed to God as under great affliction andpressure of mind, surrounded with danger, and in expectation every nightof being murdered and devoured before morning; and I must testify frommy experience, that a temper of peace, thankfulness, love, andaffection, is much the more proper frame for prayer than that of terrorand discomposure; and that under the dread of mischief impending, a manis no more fit for a comforting performance of the duty of praying toGod, than he is for a repentance on a sick bed; for these discomposuresaffect the mind, as the others do the body; and the discomposure of themind must necessarily be as great a disability as that of the body, andmuch greater; praying to God being properly an act of the mind, notof the body. 

But to go on: after I had thus secured one part of my little livingstock, I went about the whole island, searching for another privateplace to make such another deposit; when, wandering more to the westpoint of the island than I had ever done yet, and looking out to sea, Ithought I saw a boat upon the sea, at a great distance. I had found aperspective-glass or two in one of the seamen's chests, which I savedout of our ship, but I had it not about me; and this was so remote, thatI could not tell what to make of it, though I looked at it till my eyeswere not able to hold 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 ofit; so I gave it over; only I resolved to go no more out without aperspective-glass in my pocket. When I was come down the hill to the endof the island, where, indeed, I had never been before, I was presentlyconvinced that the seeing the print of a man's foot was not such astrange thing in the island as I imagined: and, but that it was aspecial providence that I was cast upon the side of the island where thesavages never came, I should easily have known that nothing was morefrequent than for the canoes from the main, when they happened to be alittle too far out at sea, to shoot over to that side of the island forharbour: likewise, as they often met and fought in their canoes, thevictors, having taken any prisoners, would bring them over to thisshore, 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 theS. W. Point of the island, I was perfectly confounded and amazed; nor isit possible for me to express the horror of my mind, at seeing the shorespread with skulls, hands, feet, and other bones of human bodies; andparticularly, I observed a place where there had been a fire made, and acircle dug in the earth, like a cock-pit, where I supposed the savagewretches had sat down to their inhuman feastings upon the bodies oftheir fellow creatures. 

I was so astonished with the sight of these things, that I entertainedno notions of any danger to myself from it for a long while: all myapprehensions 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 ofbefore: in short, I turned away my face from the horrid spectacle; mystomach grew sick, and I was just at the point of fainting, when naturedischarged the disorder from my stomach; and having vomited withuncommon violence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stayin the place a moment; so I got me up the hill again with all the speedI could, and walked on towards my own habitation. 

When I came a little out of that part of the island, I stood stillawhile, as amazed, and then recovering myself, I looked up with theutmost affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in my eyes, gaveGod thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world where Iwas distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and that, though I had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet givenme so many comforts in it, that I had still more to give thanks for thanto complain of: and this, above all, that I had, even in this miserablecondition, been comforted with the knowledge of Himself, and the hope ofHis blessing; which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent toall the misery which I had suffered, or could suffer. 

In this frame of thankfulness, I went home to my castle, and began to bemuch easier now, as to the safety of my circumstances, than ever I wasbefore: for I observed that these wretches never came to this island insearch of what they could get; perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or notexpecting, any thing here; and having often, no doubt, been up in thecovered, woody part of it, without finding any thing to their purpose. Iknew I had been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the leastfootsteps of human creature there before; and I might be eighteen yearsmore as entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not discover myself tothem, which I had no manner of occasion to do; it being my only businessto keep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless I found a bettersort of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to. Yet Ientertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that I have beenspeaking of, and of the wretched inhuman custom of their devouring andeating one another up, that I continued pensive and sad, and kept closewithin my own circle, for almost two years after this; when I say myown circle, I mean by it my three plantations, viz. My castle, mycountry-seat, which I called my bower, and my enclosure in the woods:nor did I look after this for any other use than as an enclosure for mygoats; for the aversion which nature gave me to these hellish wretcheswas such, that I was as fearful of seeing them as of seeing the Devilhimself. 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 ofever making any more attempts to bring the other boat round the islandto me, lest I should meet with some of these creatures at sea; in whichif I had happened to have fallen into their hands, I knew what wouldhave been my lot. 

Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no danger ofbeing discovered by these people, began to wear off my uneasiness aboutthem; and I began to live just in the same composed manner as before;only with this difference, that I used more caution, and kept my eyesmore about me, than I did before, lest I should happen to be seen by anyof them; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing my gun, lestany of them being on the island should happen to hear it. It wastherefore a very good providence to me that I had furnished myself witha tame breed of goats, and that I had no need to hunt any more about thewoods, or shoot at them; and if I did catch any of them after this, itwas by traps and snares, as I had done before: so that for two yearsafter this, I believe I never fired my gun once off, though I never wentout without it; and, which was more, as I had saved three pistols outof the ship, I always carried them out with me, or at least two of them, sticking them in my goat-skin belt. I also furbished up one of the greatcutlasses that I had out of the ship, and made me a belt to hang it onalso; so that I was now a most formidable fellow to look at when I wentabroad, if you add to the former description of myself, the particularof two pistols, and a great broad-sword hanging at my side in a belt, but without a scabbard. 

Things going on thus, as I have said, for some time, I seemed, exceptingthese cautions, to be reduced to my former calm sedate way of living. All these things tended to show me, more and more, how far my conditionwas from being miserable, compared to some others; nay, to many otherparticulars of life, which it might have pleased God to have made mylot. It put me upon reflecting how little repining there would be amongmankind at any condition of life, if people would rather compare theircondition with those that were worse, in order to be thankful, than bealways comparing them with those which are better, to assist theirmurmurings and complainings. 

As in my present condition there were not really many things which Iwanted, so, indeed, I thought that the frights I had been in about thesesavage wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own preservation, had taken off the edge of my invention for my own conveniences; and Ihad dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts too muchupon, and that was, to try if I could not make some of my barley intomalt, and then try to brew myself some beer. This was really a whimsicalthought, and I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it; for Ipresently saw there would be the want of several things necessary to themaking 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 have observedalready, I could never compass; no, though I spent not only many days, but weeks, nay, months, in attempting it, but to no purpose. In the nextplace, I had no hops to make it keep, no yeast to make it work, nocopper or kettle to make it boil; and yet, with all these thingswanting, I verily believe, had not the frights and terrors I was inabout the savages intervened, I had undertaken it, and perhaps broughtit to pass too; for I seldom gave any thing over without accomplishingit, when once I had it in my head to begin it. But my invention now ranquite another way; for, night and day, I could think of nothing but howI might destroy some of these monsters in their cruel, bloodyentertainment, and, if possible, save the victim they should bringhither to destroy. It would take up a larger volume than this whole workis intended to be, to set down all the contrivances I hatched, or ratherbrooded upon, in my thoughts, for the destroying these creatures, or atleast 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 doamong them, when perhaps there might be twenty or thirty of themtogether, with their darts, or their bows and arrows, with which theycould shoot as true to a mark as I could with my gun?

Sometimes I thought of digging a hole under the place where they madetheir fire, and putting in five or six pounds of gunpowder, which, whenthey kindled their fire, would consequently take fire, and blow up allthat was near it: but as, in the first place, I should be unwilling towaste so much powder upon them, my store being now within the quantityof one barrel, so neither could I be sure of its going off at anycertain time, when it might surprise them; and, at best, that it woulddo little more than just blow the fire about their ears, and frightthem, but not sufficient to make them forsake the place: so I laid itaside; and then proposed that I would place myself in ambush in someconvenient place, with my three guns all double-loaded, and, in themiddle of their bloody ceremony, let fly at them, when I should be sureto kill or wound perhaps two or three at every shot; and then falling inupon them with my three pistols, and my sword, I made no doubt but thatif there were twenty I should kill them all. This fancy pleased mythoughts for some weeks; and I was so full of it, that I often dreamedof it, and sometimes that I was just going to let fly at them in mysleep. I went so far with it in my imagination, that I employed myselfseveral days to find out proper places to put myself in ambuscade, as Isaid, to watch for them; and I went frequently to the place itself, which was now grown more familiar to me: but while my mind was thusfilled with thoughts of revenge, and a bloody putting twenty or thirtyof 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, abetted my malice. Well, at length, I found a place in the side of thehill, where I was satisfied I might securely wait till I saw any oftheir boats coming: and might then, even before they would be ready tocome on shore, convey myself, unseen, into some thickets of trees, inone of which there was a hollow large enough to conceal me entirely andthere I might sit and observe all their bloody doings, and take my fullaim at their heads, when they were so close together as that it would benext to impossible that I should miss my shot, or that I could failwounding three or four of them at the first shot. In this place, then, Iresolved to fix my design; and, accordingly, I prepared two muskets andmy ordinary fowling-piece. The two muskets I loaded with a brace ofslugs each, and four or five smaller bullets, about the size ofpistol-bullets; and the fowling-piece I loaded with near a handful ofswan-shot, of the largest size: I also loaded my pistols with about fourbullets each; and in this posture, well provided with ammunition for asecond 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 continually made my tour every morning up to thetop of the hill, which was from my castle, as I called it, about threemiles, or more, to see if I could observe any boats upon the sea, comingnear the island, or standing over towards it: but I began to tire ofthis hard duty, after I had, for two or three months, constantly keptmy watch, but came always back without any discovery; there having not, in all that time, been the least appearance, not only on or near theshore, but on the whole ocean, so far as my eyes or glasses could reachevery way. 

As long as I kept my daily tour to the hill to look out, so long also Ikept up the vigour of my design, and my spirits seemed to be all thewhile in a suitable form for so outrageous an execution as the killingtwenty or thirty naked savages, for an offence which I had not at allentered into a discussion of in my thoughts, any farther than mypassions were at first fired by the horror I conceived at the unnaturalcustom of the people of that country; who, it seems, had been sufferedby Providence, in his wise disposition of the world, to have no otherguide than that of their own abominable and vitiated passions; and, consequently, were left, and perhaps had been so for some ages, to actsuch horrid things, and receive such dreadful customs, as nothing butnature, entirely abandoned by Heaven, and actuated by some hellishdegeneracy, could have run them into. But now, when, as I have said, Ibegan to be weary of the fruitless excursion which I had made so longand so far every morning in vain, so my opinion of the action itselfbegan to alter; and I began, with cooler and calmer thoughts, toconsider what I was going to engage in; what authority or call I had topretend to be judge and executioner upon these men as criminals, whomHeaven had thought fit, for so many ages, to suffer, unpunished, to goon, and to be, as it were, the executioners of his judgments one uponanother. How far these people were offenders against me, and what rightI had to engage in the quarrel of that blood which they shedpromiscuously upon one another, I debated this very often with myself, thus: How do I know what God himself judges in this particular case? Itis certain these people do not commit this as a crime; it is not againsttheir own consciences reproving, or their light reproaching them; theydo not know it to be an offence, and then commit it in defiance ofdivine justice, as we do in almost all the sins we commit. They think itno more a crime to kill a captive taken in war, than we do to kill anox; nor to eat human flesh, than we do to eat mutton. 

When I considered this a little, it followed necessarily that I wascertainly in the wrong in it; that these people were not murderers inthe sense that I had before condemned them in my thoughts, any more thanthose Christians were murderers who often put to death the prisonerstaken in battle; or more frequently, upon many occasions, put wholetroops of men to the sword, without giving quarter, though they threwdown their arms and submitted. In the next place, it occurred to me, that although the usage they gave one another was thus brutish andinhuman, yet it was really nothing to me; these people had done me noinjury: that if they attempted me, or I saw it necessary, for myimmediate preservation, to fall upon them, something might be said forit; but that I was yet out of their power, and they really had noknowledge of me, and consequently no design upon me; and therefore itcould not be just for me to fall upon them: that this would justify theconduct of the Spaniards in all their barbarities practised in America, where they destroyed millions of these people: who, however they wereidolaters and barbarians, and had several bloody and barbarous rites intheir customs, such as sacrificing human bodies to their idols, wereyet, as to the Spaniards, very innocent people; and that the rootingthem out of the country is spoken of with the utmost abhorrence anddetestation by even the Spaniards themselves at this time, and by allother Christian nations in Europe, as a mere butchery, a bloody andunnatural piece of cruelty, unjustifiable either to God or man; and forwhich the very name of a Spaniard is reckoned to be frightful andterrible to all people of humanity, or of Christian compassion; as ifthe kingdom of Spain were particularly eminent for the produce of a raceof men who were without principles of tenderness, or the common bowelsof pity to the miserable, which is reckoned to be a mark of generoustemper in the mind. 

These considerations really put me to a pause, and to a kind of a fullstop; and I began, by little and little, to be off my design, and toconclude I had taken wrong measures in my resolution to attack thesavages; and that it was not my business to meddle with them, unlessthey first attacked me; and this it was my business, if possible, toprevent; but that if I were discovered and attacked by them, I knew myduty. On the other hand, I argued with myself, that this really was theway not to deliver myself, but entirely to ruin and destroy myself; forunless I was sure to kill every one that not only should be on shore atthat time, but that should ever come on shore afterwards, if but one ofthem escaped to tell their country-people what had happened, they wouldcome over again by thousands to revenge the death of their fellows, andI should only bring upon myself a certain destruction, which, atpresent, I had no manner of occasion for. Upon the whole, I concluded, that neither in principle nor in policy, I ought, one way or other, toconcern myself in this affair: that my business was, by all possiblemeans, to conceal myself from them, and not to leave the least signal tothem to guess by that there were any living creatures upon the island, Imean of human shape. Religion joined in with this prudential resolution;and I was convinced now, many ways, that I was perfectly out of my dutywhen I was laying all my bloody schemes for the destruction of innocentcreatures, I mean innocent as to me. As to the crimes they were guiltyof towards one another, I had nothing to do with them; they werenational, and I ought to leave them to the justice of God, who is thegovernor of nations, and knows how, by national punishments, to make ajust retribution for national offences, and to bring public judgmentsupon those who offend in a public manner, by such ways as best pleasehim. This appeared so clear to me now, that nothing was a greatersatisfaction to me than that I had not been suffered to do a thing whichI now saw so much reason to believe would have been no less a sin thanthat of wilful murder, if I had committed it; and I gave most humblethanks on my knees to God, that had thus delivered me fromblood-guiltiness; beseeching him to grant me the protection of hisprovidence, that I might not fall into the hands of the barbarians, orthat I might not lay my hands upon them, unless I had a more clear callfrom Heaven to do it, in defence of my own life. 

In this disposition I continued for near a year after this; and so farwas I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these wretches, that inall that time I never once went up the hill to see whether there wereany of them in sight, or to know whether any of them had been on shorethere or not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of mycontrivances against them, or be provoked, by any advantage which mightpresent itself, to fall upon them: only this I did, I went and removedmy boat, which I had on the other side of the island, and carried itdown to the east end of the whole island, where I ran it into a littlecove, which I found under some high rocks, and where I knew, by reasonof the currents, the savages durst not, at least would not come, withtheir boats, upon any account whatever. With my boat I carried awayevery thing that I had left there belonging to her, though not necessaryfor the bare going thither, viz. A mast and sail which I had made forher, and a thing like an anchor, but which, indeed, could not be calledeither anchor or grapnel; however, it was the best I could make of itskind: all these I removed, that there might not be the least shadow ofany discovery, or any appearance of any boat, or of any humanhabitation, upon the island. Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than ever, and seldom went from my cell, other than upon myconstant employment, viz. To milk my she-goats, and manage my littleflock in the wood, which, as it was quite on the other part of theisland, was quite out of danger; for certain it is, that these savagepeople, who sometimes haunted this island, never came with any thoughtsof finding any thing here, and consequently never wandered off from thecoast; and I doubt not but they might have been several times on shoreafter my apprehensions of them had made me cautious, as well as before. Indeed, I looked back with some horror upon the thoughts of what mycondition would have been if I had chopped upon them and been discoveredbefore that, when, naked and unarmed, except with one gun, and thatloaded often only with small shot, I walked every where, peeping andpeering about the island to see what I could get; what a surprise shouldI have been in, if, when I discovered the print of a man's foot, I had, instead of that, seen fifteen or twenty savages, and found them pursuingme, and by the swiftness of their running, no possibility of my escapingthem! The thoughts of this sometimes sunk my very soul within me, anddistressed my mind so much, that I could not soon recover it, to thinkwhat I should have done, and how I should not only have been unable toresist them, but even should not have had presence of mind enough to dowhat I might have done; much less what now, after so much considerationand preparation, I might be able to do. Indeed, after serious thinkingof these things, I would be very melancholy, and sometimes it would lasta great while; but I resolved it all, at last, into thankfulness to thatProvidence which had delivered me from so many unseen dangers, and hadkept from me those mischiefs which I could have no way been the agent indelivering myself from, because I had not the least notion of any suchthing depending, or the least supposition of its being possible. Thisrenewed a contemplation which often had come to my thoughts in formertime, when first I began to see the merciful dispositions of Heaven, inthe dangers we run through in this life; how wonderfully we aredelivered when we know nothing of it; how, when we are in a quandary, (as we call it) a doubt or hesitation, whether to go this way, or thatway, a secret hint shall direct us this way, when we intended to go thatway: nay, when sense, our own inclination, and perhaps business, hascalled to go the other way, yet a strange impression upon the mind, fromwe know not what springs, and by we know not what power, shall over-ruleus to go this way; and it shall afterwards appear, that had we gone thatway which we should have gone, and even to our imagination ought to havegone, we should have been ruined and lost. Upon these, and many likereflections, I afterwards made it a certain rule with me, that wheneverI found those secret hints or pressings of mind, to doing or not doingany thing that presented, or going this way or that way, I never failedto obey the secret dictate; though I knew no other reason for it thanthat such a pressure, or such a hint, hung upon my mind. I could givemany examples of the success of this conduct in the course of my life, but more especially in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappyisland; besides many occasions which it is very likely I might havetaken notice of, if I had seen with the same eyes then that I see withnow. But it is never too late to be wise; and I cannot but advise allconsidering men, whose lives are attended with such extraordinaryincidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, not to slightsuch secret intimations of Providence, let them come from what invisibleintelligence they will. That I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannotaccount for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits, and a secret communication between those embodied and those unembodied, and such a proof as can never be withstood; of which I shall haveoccasion to give some very remarkable instances in the remainder of mysolitary residence in this dismal place. 

I believe the reader of this will not think it strange if I confess thatthese anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in, and the concern thatwas now upon me, put an end to all invention, and to all thecontrivances that I had laid for my future accommodations andconveniences. I had the care of my safety more now upon my hands thanthat of my food. I cared not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of woodnow, for fear the noise I might make should be heard: much less would Ifire a gun, for the same reason: and, above all, I was intolerablyuneasy at making any fire, lest the smoke, which is visible at a greatdistance in the day, should betray me. For this reason I removed thatpart of my business which required fire, such as burning of pots andpipes, &c. Into my new apartment in the woods; where, after I had beensome time, I found, to my unspeakable consolation, a mere natural cavein the earth, which went in a vast way, and where, I dare say, nosavage, had he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venturein; nor, indeed, would any man else, but one who, like me, wantednothing so much as a safe retreat. 

The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where bymere accident (I would say, if I did not see abundant reason to ascribeall such things now to Providence, ) I was cutting down some thickbranches of trees to make charcoal; and before I go on, I must observethe reason of my making this charcoal, which was thus: I was afraid ofmaking a smoke about my habitation, as I said before; and yet I couldnot live there without baking my bread, cooking my meat, &c. ; so Icontrived to burn some wood here, as I had seen done in England, underturf, 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 forwhich fire was wanting, without danger of smoke. But this is by theby:--While I was cutting down some wood here, I perceived that behind avery thick branch of low brush-wood, or under-wood, there was a kind ofhollow place: I was curious to look in it, and getting with difficultyinto the mouth of it, I found it was pretty large: that is to say, sufficient for me to stand upright in it, and perhaps another with me: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, Isaw two broad shining eyes of some creature, whether devil or man I knewnot, which twinkled like two stars; the dim light from the cave's mouthshining directly in, and making the reflection. However, after somepause, 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 tolive twenty years in an island all alone; and that I might well thinkthere was nothing in this cave that was more frightful than myself. Uponthis, plucking up my courage, I took up a firebrand, and in I rushedagain, 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 veryloud sigh, like that of a man in some pain, and it was followed by abroken noise, as of words half-expressed, and then a deep sigh again. Istepped back, and was indeed struck with such a surprise, that it put meinto a cold sweat; and if I had had a hat on my head, I will not answerfor it, that my hair might not have lifted it off. But still plucking upmy spirits as well as I could, and encouraging myself a little withconsidering that the power and presence of God was every where, and wasable to protect me, upon this I stepped forward again, and by the lightof the firebrand, holding it up a little over my head, I saw lying onthe ground a most monstrous, frightful, old he-goat just making hiswill, as we say, and gasping for life; and dying, indeed, of mere oldage. I stirred him a little to see if I could get him out, and heessayed to get up, but was not able to raise himself; and I thought withmyself he might even lie there; for if he had frightened me, so he wouldcertainly fright any of the savages, if any one of them should be sohardy 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 Ifound the cave was but very small, that is to say, it might be abouttwelve feet over, but in no manner of shape, neither round nor square, no hands having ever been employed in making it but those of mereNature. I observed also that there was a place at the farther side of itthat went in further, but was so low that it required me to creep uponmy hands and knees to go into it, and whither it went I knew not: sohaving no candle, I gave it over for that time; but resolved to comeagain the next day, provided with candles and a tinder-box, which I hadmade of the lock of one of the muskets, with some wild fire in the pan. 

Accordingly, the next day I came provided with six large candles of myown making (for I made very good candles now of goats' tallow, but washard set for candle-wick, using sometimes rags or rope-yarn, andsometimes the dried rind of a weed like nettles;) and going into thislow place, I was obliged to creep upon all fours, as I have said, almostten 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, Ibelieve near twenty feet; but never was such a glorious sight seen inthe island, I dare say, as it was, to look round the sides and roof ofthis vault or cave; the wall reflected an hundred thousand lights to mefrom my two candles. What it was in the rock, whether diamonds, or anyother precious stones, or gold, which I rather supposed it to be, Iknew not. The place I was in was a most delightful cavity or grotto ofits kind, as could be expected, though perfectly dark; the floor was dryand level, and had a sort of a small loose gravel upon it, so that therewas no nauseous or venomous creature to be seen, neither was there anydamp or wet on the sides or roof: the only difficulty in it was theentrance; which, however, as it was a place of security, and such aretreat as I wanted, I thought that was a convenience; so that I wasreally rejoiced at the discovery, and resolved, without any delay, tobring some of those things which I was most anxious about to this place;particularly, I resolved to bring hither my magazine of powder, and allmy spare arms, viz. Two fowling-pieces, for I had three in all, andthree muskets, for of them I had eight in all: so I kept at my castleonly five, which stood ready-mounted, like pieces of cannon, on myoutmost fence; and were ready also to take out upon any expedition. Uponthis occasion of removing my ammunition, I happened to open the barrelof powder, which I took up out of the sea, and which had been wet; and Ifound that the water had penetrated about three or four inches into thepowder on every side, which, caking, and growing hard, had preserved theinside like a kernel in the shell; so that I had near sixty pounds ofvery good powder in the centre of the cask: this was a very agreeablediscovery to me at that time; so I carried all away thither, neverkeeping above two or three pounds of powder with me in my castle, forfear of a surprise of any kind: I also carried thither all the lead Ihad left for bullets. 

I fancied myself now like one of the ancient giants, which were said tolive in caves and holes in the rocks, where none could come at them; forI persuaded myself, while I was here, that if five hundred savages wereto hunt me, they could never find me out; or, if they did, they wouldnot venture to attack me here. The old goat, whom I found expiring, diedin the mouth of the cave the next day after I made this discovery: and Ifound it much easier to dig a great hole there, and throw him in andcover him with earth, than to drag him out; so I interred him there, toprevent offence to my nose. 

I was now in the twenty-third year of my residence in this island; andwas so naturalized to the place, and the manner of living, that could Ihave but enjoyed the certainty that no savages would come to the placeto disturb me, I could have been content to have capitulated forspending the rest of my time there, even to the last moment, till I hadlaid me down and died, like the old goat in the cave. I had also arrivedto some little diversions and amusements, which made the time pass agreat deal more pleasantly with me than it did before: as, first, I hadtaught my Pol, 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 lessthan six and twenty years: how long he might have lived afterwards Iknow not, though I know they have a notion in the Brazils that theylive a hundred years. My dog was a very pleasant and loving companion tome for no less than sixteen years of my time, and then died of mere oldage. As for my cats, they multiplied, as I have observed, to thatdegree, that I was obliged to shoot several of them at first, to keepthem from devouring me and all I had; but, at length, when the two oldones I brought with me were gone, and after some time continuallydriving them from me, and letting them have no provision with me, theyall ran wild into the woods, except two or three favourites, which Ikept tame, and whose young, when they had any, I always drowned; andthese were part of my family. Besides these, I always kept two or threehousehold kids about me, whom I taught to feed out of my hand; and I hadtwo more parrots, which talked pretty well, and would all call RobinCrusoe, but none like my first; nor, indeed, did I take the pains withany of them that I had done with him. I had also several tame sea-fowls, whose names I knew not, that I caught upon the shore, and cut theirwings; and the little stakes which I had planted before my castle wallbeing now grown up to a good thick grove, these fowls all lived amongthese low trees, and bred there, which was very agreeable to me; sothat, as I said above, I began to be very well contented with the life Iled, if I could have been secured from the dread of the savages. But itwas otherwise directed; and it may not be amiss for all people who shallmeet with my story, to make this just observation from it, viz. Howfrequently, in the course of our lives, the evil which in itself we seekmost to shun, and which, when we are, fallen into, is the most dreadfulto us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance, by whichalone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen into. Icould give many examples of this in the course of my unaccountable life;but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable than in thecircumstances of my last years of solitary residence in this island. 

It was now the month of December, as I said above, in my twenty-thirdyear; and this, being the southern solstice (for winter I cannot callit, ) was the particular time of my harvest, and required my being prettymuch abroad in the fields: when going out pretty early in the morning, even before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing alight of some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of about twomiles, towards the end of the island where I had observed some savageshad been, as before, and not on the other side; but, to my greataffliction, it was on my side of the island. 

I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped short withinmy grove, not daring to go out, lest I might be surprised, and yet I hadno more peace within, from the apprehensions I had that if thesesavages, in rambling over the island, should find my corn standing orcut, or any of my works and improvements, they would immediatelyconclude that there were people in the place, and would then never giveover till they had found me out. In this extremity, I went back directlyto my castle, pulled up the ladder after me, and made all things withoutlook 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, andresolved to defend myself to the last gasp; not forgetting seriously tocommend myself to the divine protection, and earnestly to pray to God todeliver me out of the hands of the barbarians. I continued in thisposture about two hours; and began to be mighty impatient forintelligence abroad, for I had no spies to send out. After sittingawhile longer, and musing what I should do in this, I was not able tobear sitting in ignorance any longer; so setting up my ladder to theside 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 mountedto the top of the hill; and pulling out my perspective-glass, which Ihad taken on purpose, I laid me down flat on my belly on the ground, andbegan to look for the place. I presently found there were no less thannine naked savages, sitting round a small fire they had made, not towarm them, for they had no need of that, the weather being extremelyhot, but, as I supposed, to dress some of their barbarous diet of humanflesh, which they had brought with them, whether alive or dead, Icould not tell. 

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 returnof the flood to go away again. It is not easy to imagine what confusionthis sight put me into, especially seeing them come on my side of theisland, and so near me too; but when I considered their coming must bealways with the current of the ebb, I began, afterwards, to be moresedate in my mind, being satisfied that I might go abroad with safetyall the time of the tide of flood, if they were not on shore before: andhaving made this observation, I went abroad about my harvest-work withthe more composure. 

As I expected, so it proved; for as soon as the tide made to thewestward, 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 before they wentoff, they went a dancing; and I could easily discern their postures andgestures by my glass. I could not perceive, by my nicest observation, but that they were stark naked, and had not the least covering uponthem; 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 myshoulders, 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 awayto the hill where I had discovered the first appearance of all; and assoon as I got thither, which was not in less than two hours (for I couldnot go apace, being so loaden with arms as I was, ) I perceived there hadbeen three canoes more of savages at that place; and looking outfarther, 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 beenabout had left behind it, viz. The blood, the bones, and part of theflesh, of human bodies, eaten and devoured by those wretches withmerriment and sport. I was so filled with indignation at the sight, thatI 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 thevisits which they made thus to this island were not very frequent, forit was above fifteen months before any more of them came on shore thereagain; that is to say, I neither saw them; nor any footsteps or signalsof them, in all that time; for, as to the rainy seasons, then they aresure not to come abroad, at least not so far: yet all this while I liveduncomfortably, by reason of the constant apprehensions of their comingupon me by surprise: from whence I observe, that the expectation of evilis more bitter than the suffering, especially if there is no room toshake off that expectation, or those apprehensions. 

During all this time I was in the murdering humour, and took up most ofmy hours, which should have been better employed, in contriving how tocircumvent and fall upon them, the very next time I should see them;especially if they should be divided, as they were the last time, intotwo 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, tokill another, and so another, even _ad infinitum_, till I should be atlength no less a murderer than they were in being man-eaters, andperhaps much more so. I spent my days now in great perplexity andanxiety of mind, expecting that I should, one day or other, fall intothe hands of these merciless creatures; and if I did at any timeventure abroad, it was not without looking round me with the greatestcare and caution imaginable. And now I found, to my great comfort, howhappy it was that I had provided a tame flock or herd of goats; for Idurst not, upon any account, fire my gun, especially near that side ofthe island where they usually came, lest I should alarm the savages; andif they had fled from me now, I was sure to have them come again, withperhaps two or three hundred canoes with them, in a few days, and then Iknew what to expect. However, I wore out a year and three months morebefore 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 ortwice, but either they made no stay, or at least I did not see them: butin the month of May, as near as I could calculate, and in my four andtwentieth year, I had a very strange encounter with them; of which inits place. 

The perturbation of my mind, during this fifteen or sixteen months'interval, was very great; I slept unquiet, dreamed always frightfuldreams, and often started out of my sleep in the night: in the day greattroubles overwhelmed my mind; and in the night, I dreamed often ofkilling the savages, and of the reasons why I might justify the doing ofit. But, to wave all this for a while. --It was in the middle of May, onthe sixteenth day, I think, as well as my poor wooden calendar wouldreckon, for I marked all upon the post still; I say, it was on thesixteenth of May that it blew a very great storm of wind all day, with agreat deal of lightning and thunder, and a very foul night it was afterit. I knew not what was the particular occasion of it, but as I wasreading in the Bible, and taken up with very serious thoughts about mypresent condition, I was surprised with the noise of a gun, as Ithought, fired at sea. This was, to be sure, a surprise quite of adifferent nature from any I had met with before; for the notions thisput into my thoughts were quite of another kind. I started up in thegreatest haste imaginable, and, in a trice, clapped my ladder to themiddle place of the rock, and pulled it after me; and mounting it thesecond time, got to the top of the hill the very moment that a flash offire bid me listen for a second gun, which accordingly, in about half aminute, I heard; and, by the sound, knew that it was from that part ofthe sea where I was driven down the current in my boat. I immediatelyconsidered that this must be some ship in distress, and that they hadsome comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired these guns forsignals of distress, and to obtain help. I had the presence of mind, atthat minute, to think, that though I could not help them, it might bethey might help me: so I brought together all the dry wood I could getat hand, and making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire upon thehill. The wood was dry, and blazed freely; and though the wind blew veryhard, yet it burnt fairly out, so that I was certain, if there was anysuch thing as a ship, they must needs see it, and no doubt they did; foras soon as ever my fire blazed up I heard another gun, and after thatseveral others, all from the same quarter, I plied my fire all nightlong, 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; atleast it was so out at sea. 

I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it didnot move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor; andbeing 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 hadformerly been carried away with the current; and getting up there, theweather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to mygreat sorrow, the wreck of a ship, cast away in the night upon thoseconcealed rocks which I found when I was out in my boat; and whichrocks, as they checked the violence of the stream, and made a kind ofcounter-stream, or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering from themost desperate, hopeless condition that ever I had been in, all my life. Thus, what is one man's safety is another man's destruction; for itseems these men, whoever they were, being out of their knowledge, andthe rocks being wholly under water, had been driven upon them in thenight, the wind blowing hard at E. N. E. Had they seen the island, as Imust necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I thought, haveendeavoured to have saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat;but their firing off guns for help, especially when they saw, as Iimagined, my fire, filled me with many thoughts: first, I imagined thatupon 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 mighthave lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways; as, particularly, by the breaking of the sea upon their ship, which manytimes obliges men to stave, or take in pieces, their boat, and sometimesto throw it overboard with their own hands: other times I imagined theyhad some other ship or ships in company, who, upon the signals ofdistress they had made, had taken them up and carried them off: othertimes I fancied they were all gone off to sea in their boat, and beinghurried away by the current that I had been formerly in, were carriedout into the great ocean, where there was nothing but misery andperishing; and that, perhaps, they might by this time think of starving, and of being in a condition to eat one another. 

As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition I wasin, I could do no more than look on upon the misery of the poor men, andpity them; which had still this good effect on my side, that it gave memore and more cause to give thanks to God, who had so happily andcomfortably provided for me in my desolate condition; and that of twoships' companies who were now cast away upon this part of the world, notone 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 anycondition of life so low, or any misery so great, but we may seesomething or other to be thankful for, and may see others in worsecircumstances than our own. Such certainly was the case of these men, ofwhom 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 expect that theydid not all perish there, except the possibility only of their beingtaken up by another ship in company; and this was but mere possibilityindeed, for I saw not the least sign or appearance of any such thing. Icannot explain, by any possible energy of words, what a strange longingor hankering of desires I felt in my soul upon this sight, breaking outsometimes thus: "O that there had been but one or two, nay, or but onesoul, saved out of this ship, to have escaped to me, that I might buthave had one companion, one fellow-creature to have spoken to me, and tohave conversed with!" In all the time of my solitary life, I never feltso earnest, so strong a desire after the society of my fellow-creatures, or so deep a regret at the want of it. 

There are some secret moving springs in the affections, which, when theyare set a going by some object in view, or, though not in view, yetrendered present to the mind by the power of imagination, that motioncarries out the soul, by its impetuosity, to such violent, eagerembracings of the object, that the absence of it is insupportable. Suchwere these earnest wishings that but one man had been saved. I believe Irepeated the words, "O that it had been but one!" a thousand times; andmy desires were so moved by it, that when I spoke the words my handswould clinch together, and my fingers would press the palms of myhands, so that if I had had any soft thing in my hand, it would havecrushed it involuntarily; and the teeth in my head would striketogether, and set against one another so strong, that for some time Icould not part them again. Let the naturalists explain these things, andthe reason and manner of them: all I can say to them is, to describe thefact, which was even surprising to me, when I found it, though I knewnot from whence it proceeded: it was doubtless the effect of ardentwishes, and of strong ideas formed in my mind, realizing the comfortwhich the conversation of one of my fellow-christians would have been tome. --But it was not to be; either their fate or mine, or both, forbadeit: for, till the last year of my being on this island, I never knewwhether any were saved out of that ship or no; and had only theaffliction, some days after, to see the corpse of a drowned boy come onshore at the end of the island which was next the shipwreck. He had noclothes 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 guesswhat nation he was of: he had nothing in his pockets but twopieces-of-eight and a tobacco-pipe;--the last was to me of ten timesmore value than the first. 

It was now calm, and I had a great mind to venture out in my boat tothis wreck, not doubting but I might find something on board that mightbe useful to me: but that did not altogether press me so much as thepossibility that there might be yet some living creature on board, whoselife I might not only save, but might, by saving that life, comfort myown to the last degree; and this thought clung so to my heart, that Icould not be quiet night or day, but I must venture out in my boat onboard this wreck; and committing the rest to God's providence, I thoughtthe impression was so strong upon my mind that it could not be resisted, that it must come from some invisible direction, and that I should bewanting to myself if I did not go. 

Under the power of this impression, I hastened back to my castle, prepared every thing for my voyage, took a quantity of bread, a greatpot of fresh water, a compass to steer by, a bottle of rum (for I hadstill a great deal of that left, ) and a basket of raisins: and thus, loading myself with every thing necessary, I went down to my boat, gotthe water out of her, put her afloat, loaded all my cargo in her, andthen went home again for more. My second cargo was a great bag of rice, the umbrella to set up over my head for a shade, another large pot offresh 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 todirect my voyage, I put out; and rowing, or paddling, the canoe alongthe shore, came at last to the utmost point of the island on thenorth-east side. And now I was to launch out into the ocean, and eitherto venture or not to venture. I looked on the rapid currents which ranconstantly on both sides of the island at a distance, and which werevery terrible to me, from the remembrance of the hazard I had been inbefore, and my heart began to fail me; for I foresaw that if I wasdriven into either of those currents, I should be carried a great wayout to sea, 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 windshould rise, I should be inevitably lost. 

These thoughts so oppressed my mind, that I began to give over myenterprise; 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 pensiveand anxious, between fear and desire, about my voyage; when, as I wasmusing, I could perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood comeon; upon which my going was impracticable for so many hours. Upon this, presently it occurred to me, that I should go up to the highest piece ofground 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, ifI was driven one way out, I might not expect to be driven another wayhome, with the same rapidness of the currents. This thought was nosooner in my head than I cast my eye upon a little hill, whichsufficiently overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a clearview of the currents, or sets of the tide, and which way I was to guidemyself in my return. Here I found, that as the current of the ebb setout close by the south point of the island, so the current of the floodset in close by the shore of the north side; and that I had nothing todo but to keep to the north side of the island in my return, and Ishould do well enough. 

Encouraged with this observation, I resolved, the next morning, to setout with the first of the tide; and reposing myself for the night in mycanoe, under the great watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out. I firstmade a little out to sea, full north, till I began to feel the benefitof the current, which set eastward, and which carried me at a greatrate; and yet did not so hurry me as the current on the south side haddone before, so as to take from me all government of the boat; buthaving a strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate directlyfor the wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to it. It was adismal sight to look at: the ship, which, by its building, was Spanish, stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks; all the stern and quarter ofher were beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her forecastle, whichstuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast andforemast 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 Icame 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 tocome to me; I took him into the boat, but found him almost dead withhunger and thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, and he devoured itlike a ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow: Ithen gave the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I wouldhave 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, orforecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one another. Iconcluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being ina storm, the sea broke so high, and so continually over her, that themen were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constantrushing 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; norany goods, that I could see, but what were spoiled by the water. Therewere some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew not, which laylower 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 Ibelieved belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two of them into theboat, without examining what was in them. Had the stern of the ship beenfixed, and the fore-part broken off, I am persuaded I might have made agood voyage; for, by what I found in these two chests, I had room tosuppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and, if I mayguess from the course she steered, she must have been bound from BuenosAyres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond theBrazils, 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 any body; and what became of her crew, I then knew not. 

I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of abouttwenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficulty. Therewere several muskets in the cabin, and a great powder-horn, with aboutfour pounds of powder in it; as for the muskets, I had no occasion forthem, so I left them, but took the powder-horn. I took a fireshovel andtongs, which I wanted extremely; as also two little brass kettles, acopper pot to make chocolate, and a gridiron: and with this cargo, andthe dog, I came away, the tide beginning to make home again; and thesame 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 allmy cargo on shore, and began to examine the particulars. The cask ofliquor I found to be a kind of rum, but not such as we had at theBrazils, and, in a word, not at all good; but when I came to open thechests, I found several things of great use to me: for example, I foundin one a fine case of bottles, of an extraordinary kind, and filled withcordial waters, fine and very good; the bottles held about three pintseach, and were tipped with silver. I found two pots of very goodsuccades, or sweetmeats, so fastened also on the top, that the saltwater had not hurt them; and two more of the same, which the water hadspoiled. I found some very good shirts, which were very welcome to me;and about a dozen and a half of white linen handkerchiefs and colouredneckcloths; the former were also very welcome, being exceedingrefreshing to wipe my face in a hot day. Besides this, when I came tothe till in the chest, I found there three great bags ofpieces-of-eight, which held about eleven hundred pieces in all; and inone of them, wrapped up in a paper, six doubloons of gold, and somesmall bars or wedges of gold; I suppose they might all weigh near apound. In the other chest were some clothes, but of little value; but, by the circumstances, it must have belonged to the gunner's mate; thoughthere was no powder in it, except two pounds of fine glazed powder, inthree small flasks, kept, I suppose, for charging their fowling-pieceson occasion. Upon the whole, I got very little by this voyage that wasof any use to me; for, as to the money, I had no manner of occasion forit; it was to me as the dirt under my feet; and I would have given itall for three or four pair of English shoes and stockings, which werethings I greatly wanted, but had none on my feet for many years. I hadindeed got two pair of shoes now, which I took off the feet of the twodrowned men whom I saw in the wreck, and I found two pair more in one ofthe chests, which were very welcome to me; but they were not like ourEnglish shoes, either for ease or service, being rather what we callpumps than shoes. I found in this seaman's chest about fiftypieces-of-eight in rials, but no gold: I suppose this belonged to apoorer 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 haddone that before which I brought from our own ship: but it was a greatpity, as I said, that the other part of this ship had not come to myshare; for I am satisfied I might have loaded my canoe several timesover with money; and, thought I, if I ever escape to England, it mightlie here safe enough till I may come again and fetch it. 

Having now brought all my things on shore, and secured them, I went backto my boat, and rowed or paddled her along the shore to her oldharbour, where I laid her up, and made the best of my way to my oldhabitation, where I found every thing safe and quiet. I began now torepose myself, live after my old fashion, and take care of my familyaffairs; and, for a while, I lived easy enough, only that I was morevigilant than I used to be, looked out oftener, and did not go abroad somuch; and if at any time I did stir with any freedom, it was always tothe east part of the island, where I was pretty well satisfied thesavages 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 Iwent the other way. I lived in this condition near two years more; butmy unlucky head, that was always to let me know it was born to make mybody miserable, was all these two years filled with projects anddesigns, how, if it were possible, I might get away from this island:for, sometimes I was for making another voyage to the wreck, though myreason told me that there was nothing left there worth the hazard of myvoyage; sometimes for a ramble one way, sometimes another; and I believeverily, if I had had the boat that I went from Sallee in, I should haveventured to sea, bound any where, I knew not whither. I have been, inall my circumstances, a _memento_ to those who are touched with thegeneral plague of mankind, whence, for aught I know, one half of theirmiseries flow; I mean that of not being satisfied with the stationwherein God and nature hath placed them: for, not to look back upon myprimitive condition, and the excellent advice of my father, theopposition to which was, as I may call it, my _original sin_, mysubsequent mistakes of the same kind had been the means of my cominginto this miserable condition; for had that Providence, which so happilyseated 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 havebeen, by this time, I mean in the time of my being in this island, oneof 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 mighthave been worth a hundred thousand moidores: and what business had I toleave a settled fortune, a well-stocked plantation, improving andincreasing, to turn supercargo to Guinea to fetch negroes, when patienceand time would have so increased our stock at home, that we could havebought them at our own door from those whose business it was to fetchthem? and though it had cost us something more, yet the difference ofthat price was by no means worth saving at so great a hazard. But asthis is usually the fate of young heads, so reflection upon the folly ofit is as commonly the exercise of more years, or of the dear-boughtexperience of time: so it was with me now; and yet so deep had themistake taken root in my temper, that I could not satisfy myself in mystation, but was continually poring upon the means and possibility of myescape from this place: and that I may, with the greater pleasure to thereader, bring on the remaining part of my story, it may not be improperto give some account of my first conceptions on the subject of thisfoolish 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 tothe wreck, my frigate laid up and secured under water, as usual, and mycondition 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 usefor 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 andtwentieth year of my first setting foot in this island of solitude, Iwas lying in my bed, or hammock, awake; very well in health, had nopain, 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 asto sleep; no, not a wink all night long, otherwise than as follows:--Itis impossible to set down the innumerable crowd of thoughts that whirledthrough that great thoroughfare of the brain, the memory, in thisnight's time: I ran over the whole history of my life in miniature, orby abridgment, as I may call it, to my coming to this island, and alsoof that part of my life since I came to this island. In my reflectionsupon the state of my case since I came on shore on this island, I wascomparing the happy posture of my affairs in the first years of myhabitation here, compared to the life of anxiety, fear, and care, whichI 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 evenall the while, and might have been several hundreds of them at times onshore there; but I had never known it, and was incapable of anyapprehensions about it; my satisfaction was perfect, though my dangerwas the same, and I was as happy in not knowing my danger as if I hadnever really been exposed to it. This furnished my thoughts with manyvery profitable reflections, and particularly this one: How infinitelygood that Providence is, which has provided, in its government ofmankind, such narrow bounds to his sight and knowledge of things; andthough he walks in the midst of so many thousand dangers, the sight ofwhich, if discovered to him, would distract his mind and sink hisspirits, he is kept serene and calm, by having the events of things hidfrom his eyes, and knowing nothing of the dangers which surround him. 

After these thoughts had for some time entertained me, I came to reflectseriously upon the real danger I had been in for so many years in thisvery island, and how I had walked about in the greatest security, andwith all possible tranquillity, even when perhaps nothing but the browof a hill, a great tree, or the casual approach of night, had beenbetween me and the worst kind of destruction, viz. That of falling intothe hands of cannibals and savages, who would have seized on me with thesame view as I would on a goat or a turtle, and have thought it no morea crime to kill and devour me, than I did of a pigeon or curlew. I wouldunjustly slander myself, if I should say I was not sincerely thankful tomy great Preserver, to whose singular protection I acknowledged, withgreat humility, all these unknown deliverances were due, and withoutwhich I must inevitably have fallen into their merciless hands. 

When these thoughts were over, my head was for some time taken up inconsidering the nature of these wretched creatures, I mean the savages, and how it came to pass in the world, that the wise Governor of allthings should give up any of his creatures to such inhumanity, nay, tosomething so much below even brutality itself, as to devour its ownkind: but as this ended in some (at that time) fruitless speculations, it occurred to me to inquire, what part of the world these wretcheslived in? how far off the coast was, from whence they came? what theyventured over so far from home for? what kind of boats they had? and whyI might not order myself and my business so, that I might be as able togo over thither as they were to come to me?

I never so much as troubled myself to consider what I should do withmyself when I went thither; what would become of me, if I fell into thehands of the savages; or how I should escape from them, if they attackedme; no, nor so much as how it was possible for me to reach the coast, and not be attacked by some or other of them, without any possibility ofdelivering myself; and if I should not fall into their hands, what Ishould do for provision, or whither I should bend my course: none ofthese thoughts, I say, so much as came in my way; but my mind was whollybent upon the notion of my passing over in my boat to the main land. Ilooked upon my present condition as the most miserable that couldpossibly be; that I was not able to throw myself into any thing, butdeath, that could be called worse; and if I reached the shore of themain, I might perhaps meet with relief, or I might coast along, as I didon the African shore, till I came to some inhabited country, and where Imight find some relief; and after all, perhaps, I might fall in withsome Christian ship that might take me in; and if the worst came to theworst, I could but die, which would put an end to all these miseries atonce. Pray note, all this was the fruit of a disturbed mind, animpatient temper, made desperate, as it were, by the long continuance ofmy troubles, and the disappointments I had met in the wreck I had beenon board of, and where I had been so near obtaining what I so earnestlylonged for, viz. Somebody to speak to, and to learn some knowledge fromthem of the place where I was, and of the probable means of mydeliverance. I was agitated wholly by these thoughts; all my calm ofmind, in my resignation to Providence, and waiting the issue of thedispositions of Heaven, seemed to be suspended; and I had, as it were, no power to turn my thoughts to any thing but to the project of a voyageto the main; which came upon me with such force, and such an impetuosityof desire, that it was not to be resisted. 

When this had agitated my thoughts for two hours or more, with suchviolence that it set my very blood into a ferment, and my pulse beat asif I had been in a fever, merely with the extraordinary fervour of mymind about it, nature, as if I had been fatigued and exhausted with thevery thought of it, threw me into a sound sleep. One would have thoughtI should have dreamed of it, but I did not, nor of any thing relatingto it: out 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 savagescoming to land, and that they brought with them another savage, whomthey were going to kill, in order to eat him; when, on a sudden, thesavage 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 thickgrove before my fortification, to hide himself; and that I, seeing himalone, and not perceiving that the others sought him that way, showedmyself to him, and smiling upon him, encouraged him: that he kneeleddown to me, seeming to pray me to assist him; upon which I showed him myladder, made him go up, and carried him into my cave, and he became myservant: and that as soon as I had got this man, I said to myself, "NowI may certainly venture to the main land; for this fellow will serve meas a pilot, and will tell me what to do, and whither to go forprovisions, and whither not to go for fear of being devoured; whatplaces to venture into, and what to shun. " I waked with this thought;and was under such inexpressible impressions of joy at the prospect ofmy escape in my dream, that the disappointments which I felt upon comingto myself, and finding that it was no more than a dream, were equallyextravagant the other way, and threw me into a very great dejectionof spirits. 

Upon this, however, I made this conclusion; that my only way to go aboutto attempt an escape was, if possible, to get a savage into mypossession; and, if possible, it should be one of their prisoners whomthey had condemned to be eaten, and should bring hither to kill. Butthese thoughts still were attended with this difficulty, that it wasimpossible to effect this without attacking a whole caravan of them, andkilling them all; and this was not only a very desperate attempt, andmight miscarry, but, on the other hand, I had greatly scrupled thelawfulness of it to myself; and my heart trembled at the thoughts ofshedding so much blood, though it was for my deliverance. I need notrepeat the arguments which occurred to me against this, they being thesame 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 theycould; that it was self-preservation, in the highest degree, to delivermyself from this death of a life, and was acting in my own defence asmuch as if they were actually assaulting me, and the like; I say, thoughthese things argued for it, yet the thoughts of shedding human blood formy deliverance were very terrible to me, and such as I could by no meansreconcile myself to for a great while. However, at last, after manysecret disputes with myself, and after great perplexities about it (forall these arguments, one way and another, struggled in my head a longtime, ) the eager prevailing desire of deliverance at length mastered allthe rest; and I resolved, if possible, to get one of those savages intomy hands, cost what it would. My next thing was to contrive how to doit, and this indeed was very difficult to resolve on: but as I couldpitch upon no probable means for it, so I resolved to put myself uponthe watch, to see them when they came on shore, and leave the rest tothe event; taking such measures as the opportunity should present, letwhat would be. 

With these resolutions in my thoughts, I set myself upon the scout asoften as possible, and indeed 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 ofthat time went out to the west end, and to the south-west corner of theisland, almost every day, to look for canoes, but none appeared. Thiswas very discouraging, and began to trouble me much; though I cannot saythat it did in this case (as it had done some time before) wear off theedge 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 toshun the sight of these savages, and avoid being seen by them, as I wasnow eager to be upon them. Besides, I fancied myself able to manage one, nay, two or three savages, if I had them, so as to make them entirelyslaves to me, to do whatever I should direct them, and to prevent theirbeing able at any time to do me any hurt. It was a great while that Ipleased myself with this affair; but nothing still presented; all myfancies and schemes came to nothing, for no savages came near me for agreat while. 

About a year and a half after I entertained these notions (and by longmusing had, as it were, resolved them all into nothing, for want of anoccasion to put them into execution, ) I was surprised, one morningearly, with seeing no less than five canoes all on shore together on myside the island, and the people who belonged to them all landed, and outof my sight. The number of them broke all my measures; for seeing somany, 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 mymeasures, to attack twenty or thirty men single-handed; so lay still inmy castle, perplexed and discomforted: however, I put myself into allthe same postures for an attack that I had formerly provided, and wasjust ready for action, if any thing had presented. Having waited a goodwhile, listening to hear if they made any noise, at length, being veryimpatient, I set my guns at the foot of my ladder, and clambered up tothe top of the hill, by my two stages, as usual; standing so, however, that my head did not appear above the hill, so that they could notperceive me by any means. Here I observed, by the help of myperspective-glass, that they were no less than thirty in number; thatthey had a fire kindled, and that they had meat dressed. How they hadcooked it I knew not, or what it was; but they were all dancing, in Iknow 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, twomiserable wretches dragged from the boats, where, it seems, they werelaid by, and were now brought out for the slaughter. I perceived one ofthem immediately fall, being knocked down, I suppose, with a club orwooden sword, for that was their way, and two or three others were atwork immediately, cutting him open for their cookery, while the othervictim was left standing by himself, till they should be ready for him. In that very moment, this poor wretch seeing himself a little atliberty, and unbound, nature inspired him with hopes of life, and hestarted away from them, and ran with incredible swiftness along thesands, directly towards me, I mean towards that part of the coast wheremy habitation was. I was dreadfully frightened, I must acknowledge, whenI perceived him run my way, and especially when, as I thought, I saw himpursued by the whole body: and now I expected that part of my dream wascoming to pass, and that he would certainly take shelter in my grove:but I could not depend, by any means, upon my dream for the rest of it, viz. That the other savages would not pursue him thither, and find himthere. However, I kept my station, and my spirits began to recover, whenI found that there was not above three men that followed him; and stillmore was I encouraged when I found that he outstripped them exceedinglyin running, and gained ground of them; so that if he could but hold itfor 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 oftenin the first part of my story, where I landed my cargoes out of theship; and this I saw plainly he must necessarily swim over, or the poorwretch 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 onwith exceeding strength and swiftness. When the three persons came tothe creek, I found that two of them could swim, but the third couldnot, and that, standing on the other side, he looked at the others, butwent no farther, and soon after went softly back again; which, as ithappened, was very well for him in the end. I observed, that the two whoswam were yet more than twice as long swimming over the creek as thefellow was that fled from them. It came now very warmly upon mythoughts, and indeed irresistibly, that now was the time to get me aservant, and perhaps a companion or assistant, and that I was calledplainly by Providence to save this poor creature's life. I immediatelyran 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, andgetting up again, with the same haste, to the top of the hill, I crossedtowards the sea, and having a very short cut, and all down hill, placedmyself in the way between the pursuers and the pursued, hallooing aloudto him that fled, who, looking back, was at first, perhaps, as muchfrightened at me as at them; but I beckoned with my hand to him to comeback; and, in the mean time, I slowly advanced towards the two thatfollowed; then rushing at once upon the foremost, I knocked him downwith the stock of my piece. I was loth to fire, because I would not havethe rest hear; though, at that distance, it would not have been easilyheard, and being out of sight of the smoke too, they would not haveeasily known what to make of it. Having knocked this fellow down, theother who pursued him stopped, as if he had been frightened, and Iadvanced apace towards him: but as I came nearer, I perceived presentlyhe had a bow and arrow, and was fitting it to shoot at me; so I wasthen necessitated to shoot at him first, which I did, and killed him atthe first shot. The poor savage who fled, but had stopped, though he sawboth his enemies fallen and killed, as he thought, yet was so frightenedwith the fire and noise of my piece, that he stood stock-still, andneither came forward nor went backward, though he seemed rather inclinedstill to fly, than to come on. I hallooed again to him, and made signsto come forward, which he easily understood, and came a little way; thenstopped again, and then a little farther, and stopped again; and I couldthen 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 tohim again to come to me, and gave him all the signs of encouragementthat I could think of; and he came nearer and nearer, kneeling downevery ten or twelve steps, in token of acknowledgment for saving hislife. I smiled at him, and looked pleasantly, and beckoned to him tocome still nearer: at length he came close to me; and then he kneeleddown again, kissed the ground, and laid his head upon the ground, andtaking me by the foot, set my foot upon his head; this, it seems, was intoken of swearing to be my slave for ever. I took him up, and made muchof him, and encouraged him all I could. But there was more work to doyet; for I perceived the savage whom I knocked down was not killed, butstunned with the blow, and began to come to himself: so I pointed tohim, and showed him the savage, that he was not dead; upon this he spokesome words to me, and though I could not understand them, yet I thoughtthey were pleasant to hear; for they were the first sound of a man'svoice that I had heard, my own excepted, for above twenty-five years. But there was no time for such reflections now; the savage who wasknocked down recovered himself so far as to sit up upon the ground, andI perceived that my savage began to be afraid; but when I saw that, Ipresented my other piece at the man, as if I would shoot him: upon thismy savage, for so I call him now, made a motion to me to lend him mysword, which hung naked in a belt by my side, which I did. He no soonerhad it, but he runs to his enemy, and, at one blow, cut off his head socleverly, no executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better;which I thought very strange for one who, I had reason to believe, neversaw a sword in his life before, except their own wooden swords: however, it seems, as I learned afterwards, they make their wooden swords sosharp, so heavy, and the wood is so hard, that they will cut off headseven with them, aye, and arms, and that at one blow too. When he haddone this, he comes laughing to me, in sign of triumph, and brought methe sword again, and with abundance of gestures, which I did notunderstand, laid it down, with the head of the savage that he hadkilled, just before me. But that which astonished him most, was to knowhow I killed the other Indian so far off: so pointing to him, he madesigns to me to let him go to him; so I bade him go, as well as I could. When he came to him, he stood like one amazed, looking at him, turninghim first on one side, then on the other, looked at the wound the bullethad made, which, it seems, was just in his breast, where it had made ahole, and no great quantity of blood had followed; but he had bledinwardly, for he was quite dead. He took up his bow and arrows, and cameback; so I turned to go away, and beckoned him to follow me, makingsigns to him that more might come after them. Upon this, he made signsto me that he should bury them with sand, that they might not be seen bythe 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 sandwith his hands, big enough to bury the first in, and then dragged himinto it, and covered him; and did so by the other also: I believe he hadburied them both in a quarter of an hour. Then calling him away, Icarried him, not to my castle, but quite away to my cave, on the fartherpart 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 anda bunch of raisins to eat, and a draught of water, which I found he wasindeed 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 placewhere I had laid some rice-straw, and a blanket upon it, which I used tosleep upon myself sometimes; so the poor creature lay down, and wentto sleep. 

He was a comely handsome fellow, perfectly well made, with straightstrong 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 afierce and surly aspect, but seemed to have something very manly in hisface; and yet he had all the sweetness and softness of an European inhis countenance too, especially when he smiled. His hair was long andblack, not curled like wool; his forehead very high and large; and agreat vivacity and sparkling sharpness in his eyes. The colour of hisskin was not quite black, but very tawny; and yet not an ugly, yellow, nauseous tawny, as the Brazilians and Virginians, and other natives ofAmerica are, but of a bright kind of a dun olive colour, that had in itsomething very agreeable, though not very easy to describe. His face wasround and plump; his nose small, not flat like the Negroes; a very goodmouth, 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 awokeagain, 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 camerunning to me, laying himself down again upon the ground, with all thepossible signs of an humble thankful disposition, making a great manyantic gestures to show it. At last, he lays his head flat upon theground, close to my foot, and sets my other foot upon his head, as hehad done before; and after this, made all the signs to me of subjection, servitude, and submission, imaginable, to let me know how he would serveme so long as he lived. I understood him in many things, and let himknow I was very well pleased with him. In a little time I began to speakto him, and teach him to speak to me; and, first, I let him know hisname should be FRIDAY, which was the day I saved his life: I called himso for the memory of the time. I likewise taught him to say Master; andthen let him know that was to be my name: I likewise taught him to sayYes and No, and to know the meaning of them. I gave him some milk in anearthen pot, and let him see me drink it before him, and sop my bread init; and gave him a cake of bread to do the like, which he quicklycomplied with, and made signs that it was very good for him. I keptthere with him all that night; but as soon as it was day, I beckoned tohim to come with me, and let him know I would give him some clothes; atwhich he seemed very glad, for he was stark naked. As we went by theplace 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, makingsigns to me that we should dig them up again, and eat them. At this Iappeared very angry, expressed my abhorrence of it, made as if I wouldvomit at the thoughts of it, and beckoned with my hand to him to comeaway; which he did immediately, with great submission. I then led him upto the top of the hill, to see if his enemies were gone; and pulling outmy glass, I looked, and saw plainly the place where they had been, butno appearance of them or their canoes; so that it was plain they weregone, and had left their two comrades behind them, without any searchafter 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, givinghim the sword in his hand, with the bow and arrows at his back, which Ifound 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 thesecreatures had been; for I had a mind now to get some fuller intelligenceof 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, itwas a dreadful sight, at least it was so to me, though Friday madenothing of it. The place was covered with human bones, the ground dyedwith their blood, and great pieces of flesh left here and there, half-eaten, mangled, and scorched; and, in short, all the tokens of thetriumphant feast they had been making there, after a victory over theirenemies. I saw three skulls, five hands, and the bones of three or fourlegs and feet, and abundance of other parts of the bodies; and Friday, by his signs, made me understand that they brought over four prisonersto feast upon; that three of them were eaten up, and that he, pointingto himself, was the fourth; that there had been a great battle betweenthem and their next king, whose subject, it seems, he had been one of, and that they had taken a great number of prisoners; all which werecarried to several places by those who had taken them in the fight, inorder to feast upon them, as was done here by these wretches upon thosethey brought hither. 

I caused Friday to gather all the skulls, bones, flesh, and whateverremained, and lay them together in a heap, and make a great fire uponit, and burn them all to ashes. I found Friday had still a hankeringstomach after some of the flesh, and was still a cannibal in his nature;but I discovered so much abhorrence at the very thoughts of it, and atthe least appearance of it, that he durst not discover it: for I had, bysome 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 towork for my man Friday: and, first of all, I gave him a pair of linendrawers, which I had out of the poor gunner's chest I mentioned, which Ifound in the wreck; and which, with a little alteration, fitted him verywell: and then I made him a jerkin of goat's-skin, as well as my skillwould allow (for I was now grown a tolerable good tailor;) and I gavehim a cap, which I made of hare's-skin, very convenient and fashionableenough: and thus he was clothed for the present, tolerably well, and wasmighty well pleased to see himself almost as well clothed as his master. It is true, he went awkwardly in these clothes at first; wearing thedrawers was very awkward to him; and the sleeves of the waistcoatgalled his shoulders, and the inside of his arms; but a little easingthem where he complained they hurt him, and using himself to them, hetook to them at length very well. 

The next day after I came home to my hutch with him, I began to considerwhere I should lodge him; and that I might do well for him, and yet beperfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in the vacant placebetween my two fortifications, in the inside of the last and in theoutside of the first. As there was a door or entrance there into mycave, I made a formal framed door case, and a door to it of boards, andset it up in the passage, a little within the entrance; and causing thedoor to open in the inside, I barred it up in the night, taking in myladders too; so that Friday could no way come at me in the inside of myinnermost wall, without making so much noise in getting over that itmust needs waken me; for my first wall had now a complete roof over itof long poles, covering all my tent, and leaning up to the side of thehill; which was again laid across with smaller sticks, instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thickness with the rice-straw, which wasstrong, like reeds; and at the hole or place which was left to go in orout by the ladder, I had placed a kind of trap-door, which, if it hadbeen attempted on the outside, would not have opened at all, but wouldhave fallen down, and make a great noise: as to weapons, I took them allinto my side every night. But I needed none of all this precaution; fornever man had a more faithful, loving, sincere servant, than Friday wasto me; without passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged andengaged; his very affections were tied to me, like those of a child to afather; and I dare say, he would have sacrificed his life for the savingmine, upon any occasion whatsoever: the many testimonies he gave me ofthis put it out of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed to use noprecautions, as to my safety on his account. 

This frequently gave me occasion to observe, and that with wonder, thathowever it had pleased God, in his providence, and in the government ofthe works of his hands, to take from so great a part of the world of hiscreatures the best uses to which their faculties and the powers of theirsouls are adapted, yet that he has bestowed upon them the same powers, the same reason, the same affections, the same sentiments of kindnessand obligation, the same passions and resentments of wrongs, the samesense of gratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities of doinggood, and receiving good, that he has given to us; and that when hepleases to offer them occasions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more ready, to apply them to the right uses for which they werebestowed, than we are. This made me very melancholy sometimes, inreflecting, as the several occasions presented, how mean a use we makeof all these, even though we have these powers enlightened by the greatlamp of instruction, the Spirit of God, and by the knowledge of his wordadded to our understanding; and why it has pleased God to hide the likesaving knowledge from so many millions of souls, who, if I might judgeby this poor savage, would make a much better use of it than we did. From hence, I sometimes was led too far, to invade the sovereignty ofProvidence, and as it were arraign the justice of so arbitrary adisposition of things, that should hide that light from some, and revealit 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 notknow by what light and law these should be condemned; but that as Godwas necessarily, and, by the nature of his being, infinitely holy andjust, so it could not be, but if these creatures were all sentenced toabsence from himself, it was on account of sinning against that light, which, as the Scripture says, was a law to themselves, and by such rulesas their consciences would acknowledge to be just, though the foundationwas not discovered to us; and, secondly, That still, as we all are theclay in the hand of the potter, no vessel could say to him, "Why hastthou formed me thus?"

But to return to my new companion:--I was greatly delighted with him, and made it my business to teach him every thing that was proper to makehim useful, handy, and helpful; but especially to make him speak, andunderstand me when I spoke: and he was the aptest scholar that ever was;and particularly was so merry, so constantly diligent, and so pleasedwhen he could but understand me, or make me understand him, that it wasvery pleasant 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 moresavages, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place whereI lived. 

After I had been two or three days returned to my castle, I thoughtthat, in order to bring Friday off from his horrid way of feeding, andfrom the relish of a cannibal's stomach, I ought to let him taste otherflesh; so I took him out with me one morning to the woods. I went, indeed, intending to kill a kid out of my own flock, and bring it homeand dress it; but as I was going, I saw a she-goat lying down in theshade, and two young kids sitting by her. I catched hold ofFriday;--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. Thepoor 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, wassensibly surprised, trembled and shook, and looked so amazed, that Ithought he would have sunk down. He did not see the kid I shot at, orperceive I had killed it, but ripped up his waistcoat, to feel whetherhe was not wounded; and, as I found presently, thought I was resolved tokill 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 seethe meaning was, to pray me not to kill him. 

I soon found a way to convince him that I would do him no harm; andtaking him up by the hand, laughed at him, and pointing to the kid whichI had killed, beckoned to him to run and fetch it, which he did: andwhile he was wondering, 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 littlewhat I would do, I called him to me again, pointed at the fowl, whichwas 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 theparrot, to let him see I would make it fall, I made him understand thatI would shoot and kill that bird; accordingly, I fired, and bade himlook, and immediately he saw the parrot fall. He stood like onefrightened again, notwithstanding all I had said to him; and I found hewas the more amazed, because he did not see me put any thing into thegun, but thought that there must be some wonderful fund of death anddestruction in that thing, able to kill man, beast, bird, or any thingnear or far off; and the astonishment this created in him was such, ascould not wear off for a long time; and I believe, if I would have lethim, he would have worshipped me and my gun. As for the gun itself, hewould not so much as touch it for several days after; but he would speakto it, and talk to it, as if it had answered him, when he was byhimself; which, as I afterwards learned of him, was to desire it not tokill him. Well, after his astonishment was a little over at this, Ipointed to him to run and fetch the bird I had shot, which he did, butstaid some time; for the parrot, not being quite dead, had flutteredaway a good distance from the place where she fell: however, he foundher, took her up, and brought her to me; and as I had perceived hisignorance about the gun before, I took this advantage to charge the gunagain, and not to let him see me do it, that I might be ready for anyother mark that might present; but nothing more offered at that time: soI brought home the kid, and the same evening I took the skin off, andcut it out as well as I could; and having a pot fit for that purpose, Iboiled or stewed some of the flesh, and made some very good broth. AfterI had begun to eat some, I gave some to my man, who seemed very glad ofit, and liked it very well; but that which was strangest to him, was tosee me eat salt with it. He made a sign to me that the salt was not goodto eat; and putting a little into his own mouth, he seemed to nauseateit, and would spit and sputter at it, washing his mouth with fresh waterafter it: on the other hand, I took some meat into my mouth withoutsalt, and I pretended to spit and sputter for want of salt, as fast ashe had done at the salt; but it would not do; he would never care forsalt with his meat or in his broth; at least, not for a great while, andthen but a very little. 

Having thus fed him with boiled meat and broth, I was resolved to feasthim the next day with roasting a piece of the kid: this I did, byhanging it before the fire on a string, as I had seen many people do inEngland, setting two poles up, one on each side of the fire, and oneacross on the top, and tying the string to the cross stick, letting themeat turn continually. This Friday admired very much; but when he cameto taste the flesh, he took so many ways to tell me how well he likedit, that I could not but understand him: and at last he told me, as wellas he could, he would never eat man's flesh any more, which I was veryglad to hear. 

The next day, I set him to work to beating some corn out, and sifting itin the manner I used to do, as I observed before; and he soon understoodhow to do it as well as I, especially after he had seen what themeaning of it was, and that it was to make bread of; for after that Ilet him see me make my bread, and bake it too; and in a little timeFriday was able to do all the work for me, as well as I could doit 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 quantityof corn than I used to do; so I marked out a larger piece of land, andbegan the fence in the same manner as before, in which Friday worked notonly very willingly and very hard, but did it very cheerfully: and Itold 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 andmyself too. He appeared very sensible of that part, and let me know thathe thought I had much more labour upon me on his account, than I had formyself; and that he would work the harder for me, if I would tell himwhat 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 almostevery thing I had occasion to call for, and of every place I had to sendhim to, and talked a great deal to me; so that, in short, I began now tohave some use for my tongue again, which, indeed, I had very littleoccasion for before, that is to say, about speech. Besides the pleasureof talking to him, I had a singular satisfaction in the fellow himself:his simple unfeigned honesty appeared to me more and more every day, andI began really to love the creature; and, on his side, I believe heloved me more than it was possible for him ever to love anything before. 

I had a mind once to try if he had any hankering inclination to his owncountry again; and having taught him English so well that he couldanswer me almost any question, I asked him whether the nation that hebelonged to never conquered in battle? At which he smiled, and said, "Yes, yes, we always fight the better:" that is, he meant, always getthe better in fight; and so we began the following discourse:

_Master_. You always fight the better; how came you to be taken prisonerthen, 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; theytake one, two, three, and me: my nation over-beat them in the yonderplace, 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 yourenemies then?

_Friday_. They run one, two, three, and me, and make go in the canoe; mynation have no canoe that time. 

_Master_. Well, Friday, and what does your nation do with the men theytake? 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 N. W. Side of the island, which, it seems, was their side. )

By this I understood that my man Friday had formerly been among thesavages who used to come on shore on the farther part of the island, onthe same man-eating occasions he was now brought for; and, some timeafter, when I took the courage to carry him to that side, being the sameI formerly mentioned, he presently knew the place, and told me he wasthere once when they eat up twenty men, two women, and one child: hecould not tell twenty in English, but he numbered them, by laying somany stones in a row, and pointing to me to tell them over. 

I have told this passage, because it introduces what follows; that afterI had this discourse with him, I asked him how far it was from ourisland to the shore, and whether the canoes were not often lost. He toldme there was no danger, no canoes ever lost; but that, after a littleway out to sea, there was a current and wind, always one way in themorning, the other in the afternoon. This I understood to be no morethan the sets of the tide, as going out or coming in; but I afterwardsunderstood it was occasioned by the great draft and reflux of the mightyriver Oroonoko, in the mouth or gulf of which river, as I foundafterwards, our island lay; and that this land which I perceived to theW. And N. W. Was the great island Trinidad, on the north point of themouth of the river. I asked Friday a thousand questions about thecountry, the inhabitants, the sea, the coast, and what nations werenear: he told me all he knew, with the greatest openness imaginable. Iasked him the names of the several nations of his sort of people, butcould get no other name than Caribs: from whence I easily understood, that these were the Caribbees, which our maps place on the part ofAmerica which reaches from the mouth of the river Oroonoko to Guiana, and onwards to St. Martha. He told me that up a great way beyond themoon, that was, beyond the setting of the moon, which must be west fromtheir country, there dwelt white bearded men, like me, and pointed to mygreat whiskers, which I mentioned before; and that they had killed muchmans, that was his word: by all which I understood, he meant theSpaniards, whose cruelties in America had been spread over the wholecountry, 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 getamong those white men; he told me, Yes, yes, you may go in two canoe. Icould not understand what he meant, or make him describe to me what hemeant by two canoe; till, at last, with great difficulty, I found hemeant it must be in a large boat, as big as two canoes. This part ofFriday's discourse began to relish with me very well; and from this timeI entertained some hopes that, one time or other, I might find anopportunity to make my escape from this place, and that this poor savagemight be a means to help me. 

During the long time that Friday had now been with me, and that he beganto speak to me, and understand me, I was not wanting to lay a foundationof religious knowledge in his mind: particularly I asked him one time, Who made him? The poor creature did not understand me at all, butthought I had asked him who was his father: but I took it up by anotherhandle, and asked him who made the sea, the ground we walked on, and thehills and woods? He told me, it was one old Benamuckee, that livedbeyond all; he could describe nothing of this great person, but that hewas very old, much older, he said, than the sea or the land, than themoon or the stars. I asked him then, if this old person had made allthings, why did not all things worship him? He looked very grave, andwith a perfect look of innocence said, All things say O to him. I askedhim if the people who die in his country went away any where? He said, Yes; they all went to Benamuckee: then I asked him whether these theyeat up went thither too? He said, Yes. 

From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the trueGod: I told him that the great Maker of all things lived up there, pointing up towards heaven; that he governed the world by the same powerand providence by which he made it; that he was omnipotent, and could doevery thing for us, give every thing to us, take every thing from us;and thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with greatattention, and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ beingsent to redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to God, andhis being able to hear us, even in heaven. He told me one day, that ifour God could hear us up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater Godthan their Benamuckee, who lived but a little way off, and yet could nothear till they went up to the great mountains where he dwelt to speak tohim. 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 calledsaying prayers, ) and then came back, and told them what Benamuckee said. By this I observed, that there is priestcraft even among the mostblinded, ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secretof religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to theclergy, is not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps among allreligions in the world, even among the most brutish andbarbarous 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 totheir god Benamuckee was a cheat; and their bringing word from thencewhat he said was much more so; that if they met with any answer, orspake with any one there, it must be with an evil spirit: and then Ientered into a long discourse with him about the devil, the original ofhim, his rebellion against God, his enmity to man, the reason of it, hissetting himself up in the dark parts of the world to be worshippedinstead of God, and as God, and the many stratagems he made use of todelude mankind to their ruin; how he had a secret access to ourpassions and to our affections, and to adapt his snares to ourinclinations, so as to cause us even to be our own tempters, and runupon our destruction by our own choice. 

I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind aboutthe devil, as it was about the being of a God: nature assisted all myarguments to evidence to him even the necessity of a great First Cause, and over-ruling, governing Power, a secret, directing Providence, and ofthe equity and justice of paying homage to him that made us, and thelike; but there appeared nothing of this kind in the notion of an evilspirit; of his original, his being, his nature, and, above all, of hisinclination to do evil, and to draw us in to do so too: and the poorcreature puzzled me once in such a manner, by a question merely naturaland innocent, that I scarce knew what to say to him. I had been talkinga great deal to him of the power of God, his omnipotence, his aversionto sin, his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity; how, ashe had made us all, he could destroy us and all the world in a moment;and he listened with great seriousness to me all the while. After this, I had been telling him how the devil was God's enemy in the hearts ofmen, and used all his malice and skill to defeat the good designs ofProvidence, and to ruin the kingdom of Christ in the world, and thelike. "Well, " says Friday, "but you say God is so strong, so great; ishe not much strong, much might as the devil?"--"Yes, yes, " says I, "Friday, God is stronger than the devil: God is above the devil, andtherefore we pray to God to tread him down under our feet, and enable usto resist his temptations, and quench his fiery darts. "--"But, " says heagain, "if God much stronger, much might as the devil, why God no killthe devil, so make him no more do wicked?" I was strangely surprised atthis question; and, after all, though I was now an old man, yet I wasbut a young doctor, and ill qualified for a casuist, or a solver ofdifficulties; and, at first, I could not tell what to say; so Ipretended not to hear him, and asked him what he said; but he was tooearnest for an answer, to forget his question, so that he repeated it inthe very same broken words as above. By this time I had recovered myselfa little, and I said, "God will at last punish him severely; he isreserved for the judgment, and is to be cast into the bottomless pit, todwell with everlasting fire. " This did not satisfy Friday; but hereturns upon me, repeating my words, "_Reserve at last_! me nounderstand: but why not kill the devil now; not kill great ago?"--"Youmay as well ask me, " said I, "why God does not kill you and me, when wedo wicked things here that offend him: we are preserved to repent and bepardoned. " He mused some time on this: "Well, well, " says he, mightyaffectionately, "that well: so you, I, devil, all wicked, all preserve, repent, God pardon all. " Here I was run down again by him to the lastdegree; and it was a testimony to me, how the mere notions of nature, though they will guide reasonable creatures to the knowledge of a God, and of a worship or homage due to the supreme being of God, as theconsequence of our nature, yet nothing but divine revelation can formthe knowledge of Jesus Christ, and of redemption purchased for us, of aMediator of the new covenant, and of an Intercessor at the footstool ofGod's throne; I say, nothing but a revelation from Heaven can form thesein the soul; and that, therefore, the gospel of our Lord and SaviourJesus Christ, I mean the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, promisedfor the guide and sanctifier of his people, are the absolutely necessaryinstructors of the souls of men in the saving knowledge of God, and themeans of salvation. 

I therefore diverted the present discourse between me and my man, risingup hastily, as upon some sudden occasion of going out; then sending himfor something a good way off, I seriously prayed to God that he wouldenable me to instruct savingly this poor savage; assisting, by hisSpirit, the heart of the poor ignorant creature to receive the light ofthe knowledge of God in Christ, reconciling him to himself, and wouldguide me to speak so to him from the word of God, as his consciencemight be convinced, his eyes opened, and his soul saved. When he cameagain to me, I entered into a long discourse with him upon the subjectof the redemption of man by the Saviour of the world, and of thedoctrine of the gospel preached from heaven, viz. Of repentance towardsGod, and faith in our blessed Lord Jesus. I then explained to him aswell as I could; why our blessed Redeemer took not on him the nature ofangels, but the seed of Abraham; and how, for that reason, the fallenangels had no share in the redemption; that he came only to the lostsheep of the house of Israel, and the like. 

I had, God knows, more sincerity than knowledge in all the methods Itook for this poor creature's instruction, and must acknowledge, what Ibelieve all that act upon the same principle will find, that in layingthings open to him, I really informed and instructed myself in manythings that either I did not know, or had not fully considered before, but which occurred naturally to my mind upon searching into them, forthe information of this poor savage; and I had more affection in myinquiry after things upon this occasion than ever I felt before: sothat, whether this poor wild wretch was the better for me or no, I hadgreat reason to be thankful that ever he came to me; my grief satlighter upon me; my habitation grew comfortable to me beyond measure:and when I reflected, that in this solitary life which I had beenconfined to, I had not only been moved to look up to heaven myself, andto seek to the hand that had brought me here, but was now to be made aninstrument, under Providence, to save the life, and, for aught I knew, the soul, of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowledge ofreligion, and of the Christian doctrine, that he might know ChristJesus, in whom is life eternal; I say, when I reflected upon all thesethings, a secret joy ran through every part of my soul, and I frequentlyrejoiced that ever I was brought to this place, which I had so oftenthought the most dreadful of all afflictions that could possibly havebefallen me. 

I continued in this thankful frame all the remainder of my time; and theconversation which employed the hours between Friday and me was such, as made the three years which we lived there together perfectly andcompletely happy, if any such thing as complete happiness can he formedin a sublunary state. This savage was now a good Christian, a muchbetter than I; though I have reason to hope, and bless God for it, thatwe were equally penitent, and comforted, restored penitents. We had herethe 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 theScriptures, to let him know, as well as I could, the meaning of what Iread; and he again, by his serious inquiries and questionings, made me, as I said before, a much better scholar in the Scripture-knowledge thanI should ever have been by my own mere private reading. Another thing Icannot refrain from observing here also, from experience in this retiredpart of my life, viz. How infinite and inexpressible a blessing it isthat the knowledge of God; and of the doctrine of salvation by ChristJesus, is so plainly laid down in the word of God, so easy to bereceived and understood, that, as the bare reading the Scripture made mecapable of understanding enough of my duty to carry me directly on tothe great work of sincere repentance for my sins, and laying hold of aSaviour for life and salvation, to a stated reformation in practice, andobedience to all God's commands, and this without any teacher orinstructor, I mean human; so the same plain instruction sufficientlyserved to the enlightening this savage creature, and bringing him to besuch a Christian, as I have known few equal to him in my life. 

As to all the disputes, wrangling, strife, and contention which havehappened in the world about religion, whether niceties in doctrines, orschemes of church-government, they were all perfectly useless to us, and, for aught I can yet see, they have been so to the rest of theworld. We had the sure guide to heaven, viz. The word of God; and wehad, blessed be God, comfortable views of the Spirit of God teaching andinstructing us by his word, leading us into all truth, and making usboth willing and obedient to the instruction of his word. And I cannotsee the least use that the greatest knowledge of the disputed points ofreligion, which have made such confusions in the world, would have beento us, if we could have obtained it. --But I must go on with thehistorical part of things, and take every part in its order. 

After Friday and I became more intimately acquainted, and that he couldunderstand almost all I said to him, and speak pretty fluently, thoughin broken English, to me, I acquainted him with my own history, or atleast so much of it as related to my coming to this place; how I hadlived here, and how long: I let him into the mystery, for such it was tohim, of gunpowder and bullet, and taught him how to shoot. I gave him aknife; 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 inthe frog, instead of a hanger, I gave him a hatchet, which was not onlyas good a weapon, in some cases, but much more useful upon otheroccasions. 

I described to him the country of Europe, particularly England, which Icame from; how we lived, how we worshipped God, how we behaved to oneanother, and how we traded in ships to all parts of the world. I gavehim an account of the wreck which I had been on board of, and showedhim, as near as I could, the place where she lay; but she was all beatenin pieces before, and gone. I showed him the ruins of our boat, which welost when we escaped, and which I could not stir with my whole strengththen; 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 itwas he studied upon? At last, says he, "Me see such boat like come toplace at my nation. " I did not understand him a good while; but, atlast, when I had examined farther into it, I understood by him, that aboat, such as that had been, came on shore upon the country where helived; that is, as he explained it, was driven thither by stress ofweather. I presently imagined that some European ship must have beencast away upon their coast, and the boat might get loose, and driveashore; but was so dull, that I never once thought of men making theirescape from a wreck thither, much less whence they might come: so I onlyinquired after a description of the boat. 

Friday described the boat to me well enough; but brought me better tounderstand him when he added with some warmth, "We save the white mansfrom 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 whitemans. " I asked him how many? He told upon his fingers seventeen, Iasked him then what became of them? He told me, "They live, they dwellat my nation. "

This put new thoughts into my head; for I presently imagined that thesemight be the men belonging to the ship that was cast away in the sightof my island, as I now called it; and who, after the ship was struck onthe rock, and they saw her inevitably lost, had saved themselves intheir boat, and were landed upon that wild shore among the savages. Uponthis, I inquired of him more critically what was become of them; heassured me they lived still there; that they had been there about fouryears; that the savages let them alone, and gave them victuals to liveon. I asked him how it came to pass they did not kill them, and eatthem? He said, "No, they make brother with them;" that is, as Iunderstood him, a truce; and then he added, "They no eat mans but whenmake the war fight;" that is to say, they never eat any men but such ascome to fight with them, and are taken in battle. 

It was after this some considerable time, that being upon the top of thehill, at the east side of the island, from whence, as I have said, Ihad, in a clear day, discovered the main or continent of America, Friday, the weather being very serene, looks very earnestly towards themain land, and, in a kind of surprise, fells a jumping and dancing, andcalls out to me, for I was at some distance from him. I asked him whatwas the matter? "O joy!" says he; "O glad! there see my country, theremy nation!" I observed an extraordinary sense of pleasure appeared inhis face, and his eyes sparkled, and his countenance discovered astrange eagerness, as if he had a mind to be in his own country again. This observation of mine put a great many thoughts into me, which mademe at first not so easy about my new man Friday as I was before; and Imade no doubt but that if Friday could get back to his own nation again, he would not only forget all his religion, but all his obligation to me, and would be forward enough to give his countrymen an account of me, andcome back perhaps with a hundred or two of them, and make a feast uponme, at which he might be as merry as he used to be with those of hisenemies, when they were taken in war. But I wronged the poor honestcreature very much, for which I was very sorry afterwards. However, asmy jealousy increased, and held me some weeks, I was a little morecircumspect, and not so familiar and kind to him as before: in which Iwas certainly in the wrong too; the honest, grateful creature, having nothought about it, but what consisted with the best principles, both as areligious 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 pumpinghim, to see if he would discover any of the new thoughts which Isuspected were in him: but I found every thing he said was so honest andso innocent, that I could find nothing to nourish my suspicion; and, inspite of all my uneasiness, he made me at last entirely his own again;nor did he, in the least, perceive that I was uneasy, and therefore Icould not suspect him of deceit. 

One day, walking up the same hill, but the weather being hazy at sea, sothat 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 dothere?" said I: "would you turn wild again, eat men's flesh again, andbe a savage as you were before?" He looked full of concern, and shakinghis head, said, "No, no, Friday tell them to live good; tell them topray God; tell them to eat corn-bread, cattle-flesh, milk; no eat managain. "--"Why then, " said I to him, "they will kill you. " He lookedgrave at that, and then said, "No, no; they no kill me, they willinglove 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 Iasked him if he would go back to them. He smiled at that, and told methat 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 noeat you; me make they much love you, " He meant, he would tell them how Ihad killed his enemies, and saved his life, and so he would make themlove me. Then he told me, as well as he could, how kind they were toseventeen white men, or bearded men, as he called them, who came onshore there in distress. 

From this time, I confess I had a mind to venture over, and see if Icould possibly join with those bearded men, who, I made no doubt, wereSpaniards and Portuguese: not doubting but if I could, we might findsome method to escape from thence, being upon the continent, and a goodcompany together, better than I could from an island forty miles off theshore, and alone, without help. So, after some days, I took Friday towork again, by way of discourse; and told him I would give him a boat togo 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 ofwater (for I always kept it sunk in water, ) I brought it out, showed ithim, and we both went into it. I found he was a most dexterous fellow atmanaging it, and would make it go almost as swift again as I could. Sowhen he was in, I said to him, "Well, now, Friday, shall we go to yournation?" He looked very dull at my saying so; which, it seems, wasbecause he thought the boat too small to go so far: I then told him Ihad a bigger; so the next day I went to the place where the first boatlay which I had made, but which I could not get into the water. He saidthat was big enough: but then, as I had taken no care of it, and it hadlain two or three and twenty years there, the sun had split and driedit, that, it was in a manner rotten. Friday told me such a boat would dovery well, and would carry "much enough vittle, drink, bread;" that washis way of talking. 

Upon the whole, I was by this time so fixed upon my design of going overwith him to the continent, that I told him we would go and make one asbig as that, and he should go home in it. He answered not one word, butlooked very grave and sad. I asked him what was the matter with him? Heasked me again, "Why you angry mad with Friday? what me done?" I askedhim what he meant: I told him I was not angry with him at all. "Noangry!" says he, repeating the words several times, "why send Fridayhome away to my nation?"--"Why, " says I, "Friday, did not you say youwished you were there?"--"Yes, yes, " says he, "wish be both there; nowish Friday there, no master there. " In a word, he would not think ofgoing there without me. "I go there, Friday!" says I, "what shall I dothere?" He returned very quick upon me at this: "You do great deal muchgood, " says he; "you teach wild mans be good, sober, tame mans; you tellthem know God, pray God, and live new life. "--"Alas! Friday, " says I, "thou knowest not what thou sayest; I am but an ignorant manmyself. "--"Yes, yes, " says he, "you teachee me good, you teachee themgood. "--"No, no, Friday, " says I, "you shall go without me; leave mehere to live by myself, as I did before. " He looked confused again atthat word; and running to one of the hatchets which he used to wear, hetakes 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 youfor?" said I again. He returns very quick, "What you send Friday awayfor? Take kill Friday, no send Friday away. " This he spoke so earnestly, that I saw tears stand in his eyes: in a word, I so plainly discoveredthe utmost affection in him to me, and a firm resolution in him, that Itold him then, and often after, that I would never send him away fromme, if he was willing to stay with me. 

Upon the whole, as I found, by all his discourse, a settled affection tome, and that nothing should part him from me, so I found all thefoundation of his desire to go to his own country was laid in his ardentaffection 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, orintention, or desire of undertaking it. But still I found a stronginclination to my attempting an escape, as above, founded on thesupposition gathered from the discourse, viz. That there were seventeenbearded men there: and, therefore, without any more delay, I went towork with Friday, to find out a great tree proper to fell, and make alarge periagua, or canoe, to undertake the voyage. There were treesenough in the island to have built a little fleet, not of periaguas, orcanoes, but even of good large vessels: but the main thing I looked atwas, to get one so near the water that we might launch it when it wasmade, to avoid the mistake I committed at first. At last, Friday pitchedupon a tree; for I found he knew much better than I what kind of woodwas fittest for it; nor can I tell, to this day, what wood to call thetree 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 samecolour and smell. Friday was for burning the hollow or cavity of thistree out, to make it for a boat, but I showed him how to cut it withtools; 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 veryhandsome; especially when, with our axes, which I showed him how tohandle, we cut and hewed the outside into the true shape of a boat. After this, however, it cost us near a fortnight's time to get heralong, as it were inch by inch, upon great rollers into the water; butwhen 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 tosee 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 wemight venture over in her. "Yes, " he said, "we venture over in her verywell, though great blow wind. " However, I had a farther design that heknew nothing of, and that was to make a mast and a sail, and to fit herwith an anchor and cable. As to a mast, that was easy enough to get; soI pitched upon a straight young cedar tree, which I found near theplace, and which there were great plenty of in the island: and I setFriday to work to cut it down, and gave him directions how to shape andorder it. But as to the sail, that was my particular care. I knew I hadold sails, or rather pieces of old sails enough; but as I had had themnow six and twenty years by me, and had not been very careful topreserve them, not imagining that I should ever have this kind of usefor them, I did not doubt but they were all rotten, and, indeed, most ofthem 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, andawkward stitching, you may be sure, for want of needles, I, at length, made a three-cornered ugly thing, like what we call in England ashoulder of mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a little shortsprit at the top, such as usually our ships' long-boats sail with, andsuch as I best knew how to manage, as it was such a one I had to theboat in which I made my escape from Barbary, as related in the firstpart of my story. 

I was near two months performing this last work, viz. Rigging andfitting my mast and sails; for I finished them very complete, making asmall stay, and a sail, or fore-sail, to it, to assist, if we shouldturn to windward; and, which was more than all, I fixed a rudder to thestern of her to steer with. I was but a bungling shipwright, yet, as Iknew the usefulness, and even necessity of such a thing, I appliedmyself with so much pains to do it, that at last I brought it to pass;though, considering 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 whatbelonged to the navigation of my boat; for, though he knew very well howto 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 thesea by the rudder, and how the sail gibbed, and filled this way, or thatway, as the course we sailed changed; I say, when he saw this, he stoodlike one astonished and amazed. However, with a little use, I made allthese things familiar to him, and he became an expert sailor, exceptthat 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 seldomor never any fogs in those parts, there was the less occasion for acompass, seeing the stars were always to be seen by night, and the shoreby day, except in the rainy seasons, and then nobody cared to stirabroad, either by land or sea. 

I was now entered on the seven and twentieth year of my captivity inthis place; though the three last years that I had this creature with meought rather to be left out of the account, my habitation being quite ofanother kind than in all the rest of the time. I kept the anniversary ofmy landing here with the same thankfulness to God for his mercies as atfirst; and if I had such cause of acknowledgment at first, I had muchmore so now, having such additional testimonies of the care ofProvidence over me, and the great hopes I had of being effectually andspeedily delivered; for I had an invincible impression upon my thoughtsthat my deliverance was at hand, and that I should not be another yearin this place. I went on, however, with my husbandry; digging, planting, and fencing, as usual. I gathered and cured my grapes, and did everynecessary thing as before. 

The rainy season was, in the mean time, upon me, when I kept more withindoors than at other times. We had stowed our new vessel as secure as wecould, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I said in thebeginning, I landed my rafts from the ship; and hauling her up to theshore, at high-water mark, I made my man Friday dig a little dock, justbig enough to hold her, and just deep enough to give her water enough tofloat in; and then, when the tide was out, we made a strong dam acrossthe end of it, to keep the water out; and so she lay dry, as to thetide, from the sea; and to keep the rain off, we laid a great manyboughs of trees, so thick, that she was as well thatched as a house; andthus we waited for the months of November and December, in which Idesigned to make my adventure. 

When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my designreturned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for the voyage:and the first thing I did was to lay by a certain quantity ofprovisions, being the stores for our voyage: and intended, in a week ora fortnight's time, to open the dock, and launch out our boat. I wasbusy 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, ortortoise, a thing which we generally got once a week, for the sake ofthe eggs as well as the flesh. Friday had not been long gone, when hecame running back and flew over my outer-wall, or fence, like one thatfelt not the ground, or the steps he set his feet on; and before I hadtime 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, " sayshe, "one, two, three canoe; one, two, three!" By this way of speaking, Iconcluded there were six; but, on inquiry, I found it was but three. "Well, Friday, " says I, "do not be frightened. " So I heartened him upas well as I could: however, I saw the poor fellow was most terriblyscared; for nothing ran in his head but that they were come to look forhim, and would cut him in pieces, and eat him; and the poor fellowtrembled so, that I scarce knew what to do with him. I comforted him aswell as I could, and told him I was in as much danger as he, and thatthey would eat me as well as him. "But, " says I, "Friday, we mustresolve 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 dojust as I bid him. He said, "Me die, when you bid die, master. " So Iwent and fetched a good dram of rum and gave him; for I had been so gooda husband of my rum, that I had a great deal left. When he drank it, Imade him take the two fowling-pieces, which we always carried, andloaded them with large swan-shot, as big as small pistol-bullets; then Itook four muskets, and loaded them with two slugs, and five smallbullets each; and my two pistols I loaded with a brace of bullets each;I hung my great sword, as usual, naked by my side, and gave Friday hishatchet. When I had thus prepared myself, I took my perspective-glass, and went up to the side of the hill, to see what I could discover; and Ifound quickly, by my glass, that there were one and twenty savages, three prisoners, and three canoes; and that their whole business seemedto be the triumphant banquet upon these three human bodies; a barbarousfeast indeed! but nothing more than, as I had observed, was usual withthem. I observed also, that they were landed, not where they had donewhen Friday made his escape, but nearer to my creek: where the shore waslow, 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 indignation, that I came down again to Friday, andtold him I was resolved to go down to them, and kill them all; and askedhim if he would stand by me. He had now got over his fright, and hisspirits being a little raised with the dram I had given him, he was verycheerful, and told me, as before, he would die when I bid die. 

In this fit of fury, I took and divided the arms which I had charged, asbefore, between us: I gave Friday one pistol to stick in his girdle, andthree guns upon his shoulder; and I took one pistol, and the other threeguns, myself; and in this posture we marched out. I took a small bottleof rum in my pocket, and gave Friday a large bag with more powder andbullets; and, as to orders, I charged him to keep close behind me, andnot to stir, or shoot, or do any thing, till I bid him; and, in the meantime, not to speak a word. In this posture, I fetched a compass to myright hand of near a mile, as well to get over the creek as to get intothe wood, so that I might come within shot of them before I should bediscovered, which I had seen, by my glass, it was easy to do. 

While I was making this march, my former thoughts returning, I began toabate my resolution: I do not mean that I entertained any fear of theirnumber; for, as they were naked, unarmed wretches, it is certain I wassuperior to them; nay, though I had been alone. But it occurred to mythoughts, 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 doneor intended me any wrong? Who, as to me, were innocent, and whosebarbarous customs were their own disaster; being, in them, a tokenindeed of God's having left them, with the other nations of that part ofthe world, to such stupidity, and to such inhuman courses; but did notcall me to take upon me to be a judge of their actions, much less anexecutioner of his justice; that, whenever he thought fit, he would takethe cause into his own hands, and, by national vengeance, punish them, as a people, for national crimes; but that, in the mean time, it wasnone of my business; that, it was true, Friday might justify it, becausehe was a declared enemy, and in a state of war with those veryparticular people, and it was lawful for him to attack them; but I couldnot say the same with respect to myself. These things were so warmlypressed upon my thoughts all the way as I went, that I resolved I wouldonly go and place myself near them, that I might observe their barbarousfeast, and that I would act then as God should direct; but that, unlesssomething offered that was more a call to me than yet I knew of, I wouldnot meddle with them. 

With this resolution I entered the wood; and, with all possibleweariness and silence, Friday following close at my heels, I marchedtill I came to the skirt of the wood, on the side which was next tothem, only that one corner of the wood lay between me and them. Here Icalled softly to Friday, and showing him a great tree, which was just atthe corner of the wood, I bade him go to the tree, and bring me word ifhe could see there plainly what they were doing. He did so; and cameimmediately 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 theirprisoners, and that another lay bound upon the sand, a little from them, which, he said, they would kill next, and which fired the very soulwithin me. He told me it was not one of their nation, but one of thebearded men he had told me of, that came to their country in the boat. Iwas 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 uponthe beach of the sea, with his hands and his feet tied with flags, orthings like rushes, and that he was an European, and had clothes on. 

There was another tree, and a little thicket beyond it, about fiftyyards nearer to them than the place where I was, which, by going alittle way about, I saw I might come at undiscovered, and that then Ishould be within half a shot of them: so I withheld my passion, though Iwas indeed enraged to the highest degree; and going back about twentypaces, I got behind some bushes, which held all the way till I came tothe other tree; and then came to a little rising ground, which gave me afull view of them, at the distance of about eighty yards. 

I had now not a moment to lose, for nineteen of the dreadful wretchessat upon the ground, all close huddled together, and had just sent theother two to butcher the poor Christian, and bring him, perhaps, limb bylimb, to their fire; and they were stooping down to untie the bands athis feet. I turned to Friday--"Now, Friday, " said I, "do as I bid thee. "Friday said he would. "Then, Friday, " says I, "do exactly as you see medo; fail in nothing. " So I set down one of the muskets and thefowling-piece upon the ground, and Friday did the like by his; and withthe other musket I took my aim at the savages, bidding him to do thelike: then asking him if he was ready, he said, "Yes. " "Then fire atthem, " said I; and the same moment I fired also. 

Friday took his aim so much better than I, that on the side that heshot, he killed two of them, and wounded three more; and on my side, Ikilled one, and wounded two. They were, you may be sure, in a dreadfulconsternation; and all of them who were not hurt jumped upon their feet, but did not immediately know which way to run, or which way to look, forthey knew not from whence their destruction came. Friday kept his eyesclose 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 upthe 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 firedagain among the amazed wretches, and so did Friday; and as our pieceswere 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 aboutyelling and screaming like mad creatures, all bloody, and most of themmiserably wounded, whereof three more fell quickly after, though notquite dead. 

"Now, Friday, " says I, laying down the discharged pieces, and taking upthe musket which was yet loaden, "follow me;" which he did with a greatdeal 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, Ishouted as loud as I could, and bade Friday do so too; and running asfast as I could, which, by the way, was not very fast, being loaded witharms as I was, I made directly towards the poor victim, who was, as Isaid, lying upon, the beach, or shore, between the place where they satand the sea. The two butchers, who were just going to work with him, hadleft him at the surprise of our first fire, and fled in a terriblefright to the sea-side, and had jumped into a canoe, and three more ofthe rest made the same way. I turned to Friday, and bade him stepforwards, and fire at them; he understood me immediately, and runningabout forty yards, to be nearer them, he shot at them, and I thought hehad 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 ofthem, and wounded the third so, that he lay down in the bottom of theboat as if he had been dead. 

While my man Friday fired at them, I pulled out my knife and cut theflags that bound the poor victim; and loosing his hands and feet, Ilifted him up, and asked him in the Portuguese tongue, what he was. Heanswered in Latin, Christianus; but was so weak and faint that he couldscarce stand or speak. I took my bottle out of my pocket, and gave ithim, making signs that he should drink, which he did; and I gave him apiece of bread, which he eat. Then I asked him what countryman he was:and he said, Espagniole; and being a little recovered, let me know, byall the signs he could possibly make, how much he was in my debt for hisdeliverance. "Seignior, " said I, with as much Spanish as I could makeup, "we will talk afterwards, but we must fight now: if you have anystrength left, take this pistol and sword, and lay about you. " He tookthem very thankfully; and no sooner had he the arms in his hands, but, as if they had put new vigour into him, he flew upon his murderers likea fury, and had cut two of them in pieces in an instant; for the truthis, as the whole was a surprise to them, so the poor creatures were somuch frightened with the noise of our pieces, that they fell down formere amazement and fear, and had no more power to attempt their ownescape, than their flesh had to resist our shot: and that was the caseof those five that Friday shot at in the boat; for as three of them fellwith 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 keepmy 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 wefirst fired, and fetch the arms which lay there that had beendischarged, which he did with great swiftness; and then giving him mymusket, I sat down myself to load all the rest again, and bade them cometo me when they wanted. While I was loading these pieces, there happeneda fierce engagement between the Spaniard and one of the savages, whomade at him with one of their great wooden swords, the same-like weaponthat was to have killed him before, if I had not prevented it. TheSpaniard, 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 onhis head; but the savage being a stout, lusty fellow, closing in withhim, had thrown him down, being faint, and was wringing my sword out ofhis hand; when the Spaniard, though undermost, wisely quitting thesword, drew the pistol from his girdle, shot the savage through thebody, and killed him upon the spot, before I, who was running to helphim, could come near him. 

Friday being now left to his liberty, pursued the flying wretches, withno weapon in his hand but his hatchet; and with that he dispatched thosethree, who, as I said before, were wounded at first, and fallen, and allthe rest he could come up with: and the Spaniard coming to me for a gun, I gave him one of the fowling-pieces, with which he pursued two of thesavages, and wounded them both; but, as he was not able to run, theyboth got from him into the wood, where Friday pursued them, and killedone of them, but the other was too nimble for him; and though he waswounded, yet had plunged himself into the sea, and swam, with all hismight, off to those two who were left in the canoe, which three in thecanoe, with one wounded, that we knew not whether he died or no, wereall that escaped our hands of one and twenty; the account of the wholeis as follows: three killed at our first shot from the tree; two killedat the next shot; two killed by Friday in the boat; two killed by Fridayof those at first wounded; one killed by Friday in the wood; threekilled by the Spaniard; four killed, being found dropped here and there, of their wounds, or killed by Friday in his chase of them; four escapedin the boat, whereof one wounded, if not dead. --Twenty-one in all. 

Those that were in the canoe worked hard to get out of gun-shot, andthough Friday made two or three shots at them, I did not find that hehit any of them. Friday would fain have had me take one of theircanoes, and pursue them; and, indeed, I was very anxious about theirescape, lest carrying the news home to their people, they should comeback perhaps with two or three hundred of the canoes, and devour us bymere multitude; so I consented to pursue them by sea, and running to oneof their canoes, I jumped in, and bade Friday follow me; but when I wasin the canoe, I was surprised to find another poor creature lie there, bound hand and foot, as the Spaniard was, for the slaughter, and almostdead with fear, not knowing what was the matter; for he had not beenable to look up over the side of the boat, he was tied so hard neck andheels, and had been tied so long, that he had really but little lifein him. 

I immediately cut the twisted flags or rushes, which they had bound himwith, and would have helped him up; but he could not stand or speak, butgroaned most piteously, believing, it seems, still, that he was onlyunbound in order to be killed. When Friday came to him, I bade him speakto 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 beingdelivered, revived him, and he sat up in the boat. But when Friday cameto hear him speak, and look in his face, it would have moved any one totears 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 jumpedabout again, like a distracted creature. It was a good while before Icould make him speak to me, or tell me what was the matter; but when hecame 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 andfilial affection had worked in this poor savage at the sight of hisfather, and of his being delivered from death; nor, indeed, can Idescribe half the extravagances of his affection after this; for he wentinto 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'shead close to his bosom for many minutes together, to nourish it; thenhe took his arms and ancles, which were numbed and stiff with thebinding, and chafed and rubbed them with his hands; and I, perceivingwhat 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 othersavages, who were now got almost out of sight; and it was happy for usthat we did not, for it blew so hard within two hours after, and beforethey could be got a quarter of their way, and continued blowing so hardall night, and that from the north-west, which was against them, that Icould not suppose their boat could live, or that they ever reached theirown coast. 

But, to return to Friday; he was so busy about his father, that I couldnot find in my heart to take him off for some time: but after I thoughthe could leave him a little, I called him to me, and he came jumping andlaughing, and pleased to the highest extreme; then I asked him if hehad given his father any bread. He shook his head, and said, "None; uglydog eat all up self, " I then gave him a cake of bread, out of a littlepouch I carried on purpose; I also gave him a dram for himself, but hewould not taste it, but carried it to his father. I had in my pocket twoor three bunches of raisins, so I gave him a handful of them for hisfather. He had no sooner given his father these raisins, but I saw himcome out of the boat, and run away, as if he had been bewitched, he ranat such a rate; for he was the swiftest fellow on his feet that ever Isaw: 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, itwas all one, away he went; and in a quarter of an hour I saw him comeback again, though not so fast as he went; and as he came nearer, Ifound his pace slacker, because he had something in his hand. When hecame up to me, I found he had been quite home for an earthen jug, orpot, to bring his father some fresh water, and that he had two morecakes or loaves of bread; the bread he gave me, but the water he carriedto his father; however, as I was very thirsty too, I took, a little supof it. The water revived his father more than all the rum or spirits Ihad given him, for he was just fainting with thirst. 

When his father had drank, I called to him to know, if there was anywater 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 thecakes, that Friday brought, to the Spaniard too, who was indeed veryweak, and was reposing himself upon a green place under the shade of atree; and whose limbs were also very stiff and very much swelled withthe rude bandage he had been tied with. When I saw that, upon Friday'scoming 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: helooked up in my face with all the tokens of gratitude and thankfulnessthat could appear in any countenance; but was so weak, notwithstandinghe had so exerted himself in the fight, that he could not stand up uponhis feet; he tried to do it two or three times, but was really not able, his ancles were so swelled and so painful to him; so I bade him sitstill, and caused Friday to rub his ancles, and bathe them with rum, ashe had done his father's. 

I observed the poor affectionate creature, every two minutes, or perhapsless, all the while he was here, turn his head about, to see if hisfather was in the same place and posture as he left him sitting; and atlast 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 couldscarce perceive his feet to touch the ground as he went: but when hecame, he only found he had laid himself down to ease his limbs, soFriday came back to me presently; and then I spoke to the Spaniard tolet Friday help him up, if he could, and lead him to the boat, and thenhe should carry him to our dwelling, where I would take care of him: butFriday, 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 sideor gunnel of the canoe, with his feet in the inside of it; and thenlifting him quite in, he set him close to his father; and presentlystepping out again, launched the boat off, and paddled it along theshore faster than I could walk, though the wind blew pretty hard too: sohe 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, andasked him whither he went. He told me, "Go fetch more boat:" so away hewent like the wind, for sure never man or horse ran like him; and he hadthe other canoe in the creek almost as soon as I got to it by land; sohe 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 poorFriday knew not what to do. 

To remedy this, I went to work in my thought, and calling to Friday tobid them sit down on the bank while he came to me, I soon made a kind ofa hand-barrow to lay them on, and Friday and I carried them both uptogether upon it, between us. 

But when we got them to the outside of our wall, or fortification, wewere at a worse loss than before, for it was impossible to get themover, 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 inthe space without our outward fence, and between, that and the grove ofyoung wood which I had planted: and here we made them two beds of suchthings 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 myself very rich in subjects;and it was a merry reflection, which I frequently made, how like a kingI looked. First of all, the whole country was my own mere property, sothat I had an undoubted right of dominion. Secondly, my people wereperfectly subjected; I was absolutely lord and lawgiver; they all owedtheir lives to me, and were ready to lay down their lives, if there hadbeen occasion for it, for me. It was remarkable, too, I had but threesubjects, and they were of three different religions: my man Friday wasa Protestant, his father was a Pagan and a cannibal, and the Spaniardwas a Papist: however, I allowed liberty of conscience throughout mydominions:--But this is by the way. 

As soon as I had secured my two weak rescued prisoners, and given themshelter, and a place to rest them upon, I began to think of making someprovision for them; and the first thing I did, I ordered Friday to takea 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 intosmall pieces, I set Friday to work to boiling and stewing, and made thema very good dish, I assure you, of flesh and broth, having put somebarley 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 thenew tent, and having set a table there for them, I sat down, and eat mydinner also with them, and, as well as I could, cheered them, andencouraged them. Friday was my interpreter, especially to his father, and, indeed, to the Spaniard too; for the Spaniard spoke the language ofthe savages pretty well. 

After we had dined, or rather supped, I ordered Friday to take one ofthe canoes, and go and fetch our muskets and other fire-arms, which, forwant of time, we had left upon the place of battle: and, the next day, Iordered him to go and bury the dead bodies of the savages, which layopen to the sun, and would presently be offensive. I also ordered him tobury the horrid remains of their barbarous feast, which I knew werepretty much, and which I could not think of doing myself; nay, I couldnot bear to see them, if I went that way; all which he punctuallyperformed, and effaced the very appearance of the savages being there;so that when I went again, I could scarce know where it was, otherwisethan by the corner of the wood pointing to the place. 

I then began to enter into a little conversation with my two newsubjects: and, first, I set Friday to inquire of his father what hethought of the escape of the savages in that canoe, and whether we mightexpect a return of them, with a power too great for us to resist. Hisfirst opinion was, that the savages in the boat never could live out thestorm which blew that night they went off, but must, of necessity, bedrowned, or driven south to those other shores, where they were as sureto 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 knewnot; but it was his opinion, that they were so dreadfully frightenedwith the manner of their being attacked, the noise, and the fire, thathe believed they would tell the people they were all killed by thunderand 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 todestroy them, and not men with weapons. This, he said, he knew; becausehe heard them all cry out so, in their language, one to another; for itwas impossible for them to conceive that a man could dart fire, andspeak thunder, and kill at a distance, without lifting up the hand, aswas done now: and this old savage was in the right; for, as I understoodsince, by other hands, the savages never attempted to go over to theisland afterwards, they were so terrified with the accounts given bythose four men (for, it seems, they did escape the sea, ) that theybelieved whoever went to that enchanted island would be destroyed withfire from the gods. This, however, I knew not; and therefore was undercontinual apprehensions for a good while, and kept always upon my guard, with all my army: for, as there were now four of us, I would haveventured upon a hundred of them, fairly in the open field, at any time. 

In a little time, however, no more canoes appearing, the fear of theircoming wore off; and I began to take my former thoughts of a voyage tothe main into consideration; being likewise assured, by Friday'sfather, that I might depend upon good usage from their nation, on hisaccount, if I would go. But my thoughts were a little suspended when Ihad a serious discourse with the Spaniard, and when I understood thatthere were sixteen more of his countrymen and Portuguese, who, havingbeen cast away, and made their escape to that side, lived there atpeace, indeed, with the savages, but were very sore put to it fornecessaries, and indeed for life. I asked him all the particulars oftheir voyage, and found they were a Spanish ship, bound from the Rio dela Plata to the Havanna, being directed to leave their loading there, which was chiefly hides and silver, and to bring back what Europeangoods they could meet with there; that they had five Portuguese seamenon board, whom they took out of another wreck; that five of their ownmen were drowned, when first the ship was lost, and that these escaped, through infinite dangers and hazards, and arrived, almost starved, onthe cannibal coast, where they expected to have been devoured everymoment. He told me they had some arms with them, but they were perfectlyuseless, for that they had neither powder nor ball, the washing of thesea having spoiled all their powder, but a little, which they used, attheir first landing, to provide themselves some food. 

I asked him what he thought would become of them there, and if they hadformed any design of making their escape. He said they had manyconsultations about it; but that having neither vessel, nor tools tobuild one, nor provisions of any kind, their councils always ended intears and despair. I asked him how he thought they would receive aproposal from me, which might tend towards an escape; and whether, ifthey were all here, it might not be done. I told him with freedom, Ifeared mostly their treachery and ill usage of me, if I put my life intheir hands; for that gratitude was no inherent virtue in the nature ofman, nor did men always square their dealings by the obligations theyhad received, so much as they did by the advantages they expected. Itold him it would be very hard that I should be the instrument of theirdeliverance, and that they should afterwards make me their prisoner inNew Spain, where an Englishman was certain to be made a sacrifice, whatnecessity, or what accident soever brought him thither; and that I hadrather be delivered up to the savages, and be devoured alive, than fallinto the merciless claws of the priests, and be carried into theInquisition. I added, that otherwise I was persuaded, if they were allhere, we might, with so many hands, build a bark large enough to carryus all away, either to the Brazils, southward, or to the islands, orSpanish coast, northward; but that if, in requital, they should, when Ihad put weapons into their hands, carry me by force among their ownpeople, I might be ill used for my kindness to them, and make my caseworse than it was before. 

He answered, with a great deal of candour and ingenuousness, that theircondition was so miserable, and that they were so sensible of it, that, he believed, they would abhor the thought of using any man unkindly thatshould contribute to their deliverance; and that if I pleased, he wouldgo to them with the old man, and discourse with them about it and returnagain, and bring me their answer; that he would make conditions withthem upon their solemn oath, that they should be absolutely under myleading, as their commander and captain; and that they should swear uponthe holy sacraments and gospel, to be true to me, and go to suchChristian country as that I should agree to, and no other, and to bedirected wholly and absolutely by my orders, till they were landedsafely in such country as I intended; and that he would bring a contractfrom them, under their hands, for that purpose. Then he told me he wouldfirst swear to me himself, that he would never stir from me as long ashe lived, till I gave him orders; and that he would take my side to thelast drop of his blood, if there should happen the least breach of faithamong his countrymen. He told me they were all of them very civil, honest men, and they were under the greatest distress imaginable, havingneither weapons or clothes, nor any food, but at the mercy anddiscretion of the savages; out of all hopes of ever returning to theirown 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, ifpossible, and to send the old savage and this Spaniard over to them totreat. But when we had got all things in readiness to go, the Spaniardhimself started an objection, which had so much prudence in it, on onehand, and so much sincerity on the other hand, that I could not but bevery well satisfied in it; and, by his advice, put off the deliveranceof his comrades for at least half a year. The case was thus: He had beenwith us now about a month, during which time I had let him see in whatmanner I had provided, with the assistance of Providence, for mysupport; 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 notsufficient, without good husbandry, for my family, now it was increasedto four; but much less would it be sufficient if his countrymen, whowere, as he said, sixteen, still alive, should come over; and, least ofall, would it be sufficient to victual our vessel, if we should buildone, for a voyage to any of the Christian colonies of America; so hetold me he thought it would be more adviseable to let him and the othertwo dig and cultivate some more land, as much as I could spare seed tosow, and that we should wait another harvest, that we might have asupply of corn for his countrymen, when they should come; for want mightbe a temptation to them to disagree, or not to think themselvesdelivered, otherwise than out of one difficulty into another. "Youknow, " says he, "the children of Israel, though they rejoiced at firstfor their being delivered out of Egypt, yet rebelled even against Godhimself, that delivered them, when they came to want bread in thewilderness. "

His caution was so seasonable, and his advice so good, that I could notbut be very well pleased with his proposal, as well as I was satisfiedwith his fidelity: so we fell to digging all four of us, as well as thewooden tools we were furnished with permitted; and in about a month'stime, by the end of which it was seed-time, we had got as much landcured 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 tospare: nor, indeed, did we leave ourselves barley sufficient for our ownfood, 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 notto be supposed it is six months in the ground in that country. 

Having now society enough, and our number being sufficient to put us outof fear of the savages, if they had come, unless their number had beenvery great, we went freely all over the island, whenever we foundoccasion; and as here we had our escape or deliverance upon ourthoughts, it was impossible, at least for me, to have the means of itout of mine. For this purpose, I marked out several trees which Ithought fit for our work, and I set Friday and his father to cuttingthem down; and then I caused the Spaniard, to whom I imparted mythoughts on that affair, to oversee and direct their work. I showed themwith what indefatigable pains I had hewed a large tree into singleplanks, and I caused them to do the like, till they had made about adozen large planks of good oak, near two feet broad, thirty-five feetlong, and from two inches to four inches thick: what prodigious labourit took up, any one may imagine. 

At the same time, I contrived to increase my little flock of tame goatsas much as I could; and, for this purpose, I made Friday and theSpaniard go out one day, and myself with Friday the next day (for wetook our turns, ) and by this means we got about twenty young kids tobreed 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 thegrapes coming on, I caused such a prodigious quantity to be hung up inthe sun, that, I believe, had we been at Alicant, where the raisins ofthe sun are cured, we could have filled sixty or eighty barrels; andthese, with our bread, was a great part of our food, and was very goodliving too, I assure you, for it is exceeding nourishing. 

It was now harvest, and our crop in good order: it was not the mostplentiful increase I had seen in the island, but, however, it was enoughto answer our end; for from twenty-two bushels of barley we brought inand threshed out above two hundred and twenty bushels, and the like inproportion of the rice; which was store enough for our food to the nextharvest, though all the sixteen Spaniards had been on shore with me; orif we had been ready for a voyage, it would very plentifully havevictualled our ship to have carried us to any part of the world, that isto say, any part of America. When we had thus housed and secured ourmagazine of corn, we fell to work to make more wicker-ware, viz. Greatbaskets, in which we kept it; and the Spaniard was very handy anddexterous at this part, and often blamed me that I did not make somethings 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, Igave the Spaniard leave to go over to the main, to see what he could dowith those he had left behind them there. I gave him a strict charge notto bring any man with him who would not first swear, in the presence ofhimself and the old savage, that he would no way injure, fight with, orattack the person he should find in the island, who was so kind as tosend for them in order to their deliverance; but that they would standby him, and defend him against all such attempts, and wherever theywent, would be entirely under and subjected to his command; and thatthis should be put in writing, and signed with their hands. How theywere to have done this, when I knew they had neither pen nor ink, was aquestion which we never asked. Under these instructions, the Spaniardand the old savage, the father of Friday, went away in one of the canoeswhich they might be said to come in, or rather were brought in, whenthey came as prisoners to be devoured by the savages. I gave each ofthem a musket, with a firelock on it, and about eight charges of powderand ball, charging them to be very good husbands of both, and not to useeither of them but upon urgent occasions. 

This was a cheerful work, being the first measures used by me, in viewof my deliverance, for now twenty-seven years and some days. I gave themprovisions of bread, and of dried grapes, sufficient for themselves formany days, and sufficient for all the Spaniards for about eight days'time; and wishing them a good voyage, I saw them go; agreeing with themabout a signal they should hang out at their return, by which I shouldknow them again, when they came back, at a distance, before they came onshore. They went away with a fair gale, on the day that the moon was atfull, by my account in the month of October; but as for an exactreckoning of days, after I had once lost it, I could never recover itagain; nor had I kept even the number of years so punctually as to besure I was right; though, as it proved, when I afterwards examined myaccount, 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 andunforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has not perhaps beenheard of in history. I was fast asleep in my hutch one morning, when myman Friday came running in to me, and called aloud, "Master, master, they are come, they are come!" I jumped up, and, regardless of danger, Iwent 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; Isay, regardless of danger, I went without my arms, which was not mycustom to do: but I was surprised, when turning my eyes to the sea, Ipresently saw a boat at about a league and a half distance, standing infor the shore, with a shoulder of mutton sail, as they call it, and thewind blowing pretty fair to bring them in: also I observed presently, that they did not come from that side which the shore lay on, but fromthe southernmost end of the island. Upon this, I called Friday in, andbade him lie close, for these were not the people we looked for, andthat we might not know yet whether they were friends or enemies. In thenext place, I went in to fetch my perspective-glass, to see what I couldmake of them; and having taken the ladder out, I climbed up to the topof the hill, as I used to do when I was apprehensive of any thing, andto take my view the plainer, without being discovered. I had scarce setmy foot upon the hill, when my eye plainly discovered a ship lying at ananchor, at about two leagues and a half distance from me, S. S. E. But notabove a league and a half from the shore. By my observation, it appearedplainly to be an English ship, and the boat appeared to be an Englishlong-boat. 

I cannot express the confusion I was in; though the joy of seeing aship, and one that I had reason to believe was manned by my owncountrymen, and consequently friends, was such as I cannot describe; butyet I had some secret doubts hung about me, I cannot tell from whencethey came, bidding me keep upon my guard. In the first place, itoccurred to me to consider what business an English ship could have inthat part of the world, since it was not the way to or from any part ofthe world where the English had any traffic; and I knew there had beenno storms to drive them in there, as in distress; and that if they werereally English, it was most probable that they were here upon no gooddesign; and that I had better continue as I was, than fall into thehands of thieves and murderers. 

Let no man despise the secret hints and notices of danger, whichsometimes are given him when he may think there is no possibility of itsbeing real. That such hints and notices are given us, I believe few thathave made any observations of things can deny; that they are certaindiscoveries of an invisible world, and a converse of spirits, we cannotdoubt; and if the tendency of them seems to be to warn us of danger, whyshould we not suppose they are from some friendly agent (whethersupreme, or inferior and subordinate, is not the question, ) and thatthey are given for our good?

The present question abundantly confirms me in the justice of thisreasoning; 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 farworse condition than before, as you will see presently. I had not keptmyself long in this posture, but I saw the boat draw near the shore, asif they looked for a creek to thrust in at, for the convenience oflanding; however, as they did not come quite far enough, they did notsee the little inlet where I formerly landed my rafts, but run theirboat on shore upon the beach, at about half a mile from me, which wasvery 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, andperhaps have plundered me of all I had. When they were on shore, I wasfully satisfied they were Englishmen, at least most of them; one or twoI thought were Dutch, but it did not prove so; there were in all elevenmen, whereof three of them I found were unarmed, and, as I thought, bound; and when the first four or five of them were jumped on shore, they took those three out of the boat, as prisoners: one of the three Icould perceive using the most passionate gestures of entreaty, affliction, and despair, even to a kind of extravagance; the other two, I could perceive, lifted up their hands sometimes, and appearedconcerned, indeed, but not to such a degree as the first. I wasperfectly confounded at the sight, and knew not what the meaning of itshould be. Friday called out to me in English, as well as he could, "Omaster! you see English mans eat prisoner as well as savagemans. "--"Why, Friday, " says I, "do you think they are going to eat themthen?"--"Yes, " says Friday, "they will eat them. "--"No, no, " says I, "Friday; I am afraid they will murder them, indeed, but you may be surethey will not eat them. "

All this while I had no thought of what the matter really was, but stoodtrembling with the horror of the sight, expecting every moment when thethree prisoners should be killed; nay, once I saw one of the villainslift up his arm with a great cutlass, as the seamen call it, or sword, to strike one of the poor men; and I expected to see him fall everymoment; at which all the blood in my body seemed to run chill in myveins. I wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the savage that wasgone with him, or that I had any way to have come undiscovered withinshot of them, that I might have rescued the three men, for I saw nofire-arms they had among them; but it fell out to my mind another way. After I had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by theinsolent seamen, I observed the fellows run scattering about the island, as if they wanted to see the country. I observed that the three othermen had liberty to go also where they pleased; but they sat down allthree 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 tolook about me; how I gave myself over for lost; how wildly I lookedround me; what dreadful apprehensions I had; and how I lodged in thetree all night, for fear of being devoured by wild beasts. As I knewnothing, that night, of the supply I was to receive by the providentialdriving of the ship nearer the land by the storms and tide, by which Ihave since been so long nourished and supported; so these three poordesolate men knew nothing how certain of deliverance and supply theywere, how near it was to them, and how effectually and really they werein a condition of safety, at the same time that they thought themselveslost, and their case desperate. So little do we see before us in theworld, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the greatMaker of the world, that he does not leave his creatures so absolutelydestitue, but that, in the worst circumstances, they have alwayssomething to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer their deliverancethan they imagine; nay, are even brought to their deliverance by themeans by which they seem to be brought to their destruction. 

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 theywere in, they had carelessly staid till the tide was spent, and thewater was ebbed considerably away, leaving their boat aground. They hadleft two men in the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having drank alittle too much brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking alittle sooner than the other, and finding the boat too fast aground forhim 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 theirstrength to launch her, the boat being very heavy, and the shore on thatside being a soft oozy sand, almost like a quicksand. In this condition, like true seamen, who are perhaps the least of all mankind given toforethought, they gave it over, and away they strolled about the countryagain; and I heard one of them say aloud to another, calling them offfrom the boat, "Why, let her alone, Jack, can't you? she'll float nexttide:" by which I was fully confirmed in the main inquiry of whatcountrymen they were. All this while I kept myself very close, not oncedaring to stir out of my castle, any farther than to my place ofobservation, near the top of the hill; and very glad I was to think howwell it was fortified. I knew it was no less than ten hours before theboat could float again, and by that time it would be dark, and I mightbe at more liberty to see their motions, and to hear their discourse, ifthey had any. In the mean time, I fitted myself up for a battle, asbefore, though with more caution, knowing I had to do with another kindof enemy than I had at first. I ordered Friday also, whom I had made anexcellent marksman with his gun, to load himself with arms. I tookmyself two fowling-pieces, and I gave him three muskets. My figure, indeed, was very fierce; I had my formidable goat-skin coat on, with thegreat cap I have mentioned, a naked sword by my side, two pistols in mybelt, and a gun upon each shoulder. 

It was my design, as I said above, not to have made any attempt till itwas dark: but about two o'clock, being the heat of the day, I foundthat, in short, they were all gone straggling into the woods, and, as Ithought, laid down to sleep. The three poor distressed men, too anxiousfor their condition to get any sleep, were, however, sat down under theshelter of a great tree, at about a quarter of a mile from me, and, as Ithought, out of sight of any of the rest. Upon this I resolved todiscover myself to them, and learn something of their condition;immediately I marched in the figure as above, my man Friday at a gooddistance behind me, as formidable for his arms as I, but not makingquite so staring a spectre-like figure as I did. I came as near themundiscovered as I could, and then, before any of them saw me, I calledaloud to them in Spanish, "What are ye, gentlemen?" They started up atthe noise; but were ten times more confounded when they saw me, and theuncouth figure that I made. They made no answer at all, but I thought Iperceived them just going to fly from me, when I spoke to them inEnglish: "Gentlemen, " said I, "do not be surprised at me: perhaps youmay have a friend near, when you did not expect it. "--"He must be sentdirectly from Heaven then, " said one of them very gravely to me, andpulling off his hat at the same time to me; "for our condition is pastthe help of man. "--"All help is from Heaven, Sir, " said I: "But can youput a stranger in the way how to help you? for you seem to be in somegreat distress. I saw you when you landed; and when you seemed to makeapplication to the brutes that came with you, I saw one of them lift uphis sword to kill you. "

The poor man, with tears running down his face, and trembling, lookinglike one astonished, returned, "Am I talking to God or man? Is it a realman or an angel?"--"Be in no fear about that, Sir, " said I; "if God hadsent an angel to relieve you, he would have come better clothed, andarmed after another manner than you see me: pray lay aside your fears; Iam a man, an Englishman, and disposed to assist you: you see I have oneservant only; we have arms and ammunition; tell us freely, can we serveyou? What is your case?"--"Our case, " said he, "Sir, is too long to tellyou, while our murderers are so near us; but, in short, Sir, I wascommander of that ship, my men have mutinied against me; they have beenhardly prevailed on not to murder me; and at last have set me on shorein this desolate place, with these two men with me, one my mate, theother a passenger, where we expected to perish, believing the place tobe uninhabited, and know not yet what to think of it. "--"Where are thesebrutes, your enemies?" said I: "Do you know where they aregone?"--"There they lie, Sir, " said he, pointing to a thicket of trees;"my heart trembles for fear they have seen us, and heard you speak; ifthey have, they will certainly murder us all. "--"Have they anyfire-arms?" said I. He answered, "they had only two pieces, one of whichthey left in the boat. " "Well then, " said I, "leave the rest to me; Isee they are all asleep, it is an easy thing to kill them all: but shallwe rather take them prisoners?" He told me there were two desperatevillains among them, that it was scarce safe to show any mercy to; butif they were secured, he believed all the rest would return to theirduty. I asked him which they were? He told me he could not at thatdistance distinguish them, but he would obey my orders in any thing Iwould direct. "Well, " says I, "let us retreat out of their view orhearing, lest they awake, and we will resolve further. " So theywillingly went back with me, till the woods covered us from them. 

"Look you, Sir, " said I, "if I venture upon your deliverance, are youwilling to make two conditions with me?" He anticipated my proposals, bytelling me, that both he and the ship, if recovered, should be whollydirected and commanded by me in every thing; and, if the ship was notrecovered, he would live and die with me in what part of the worldsoever 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 thisisland with me, you will not pretend to any authority here; and if I putarms 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 meantime, be governed by my orders: secondly, That if the ship is, or may berecovered, you will carry me and my man to England, passage free. "

He gave me all the assurances that the invention or faith of man coulddevise, that he would comply with these most reasonable demands; and, besides, would owe his life to me, and acknowledge it upon alloccasions, as long as he lived. "Well then, " said I, "here are threemuskets for you, with powder and ball: tell me next what you think isproper to be done. " He showed all the testimonies of his gratitude thathe was able, but offered to be wholly guided by me. I told him I thoughtit was hard venturing any thing; but the best method I could think ofwas to fire upon them at once, as they lay, and if any were not killedat the first volley, and offered to submit, we might save them, and soput it wholly upon God's providence to direct the shot. He said verymodestly, that he was loath to kill them, if he could help it: but thatthose two were incorrigible villains, and had been the authors of allthe 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 company, anddestroy us all. "Well then, " says I, "necessity legitimates my advice, for it is the only way to save our lives. " However, seeing him stillcautious of shedding blood, I told him they should go themselves, andmanage as they found convenient. 

In the middle of this discourse we heard some of them awake, and soonafter we saw two of them on their feet. I asked him if either of themwere the heads of the mutiny? He said, No. "Well then, " said I, "you maylet them escape; and Providence seems to have awakened them on purposeto save themselves. --Now, " says I, "if the rest escape you, it is yourfault. " Animated with this, he took the musket I had given him in hishand, and a pistol in his belt, and his two comrades with him, with eacha piece in his hand; the two men who were with him going first, madesome noise, at which one of the seamen who was awake turned about, andseeing them coming, cried out to the rest; but it was too late then, forthe moment he cried out they fired; I mean the two men, the captainwisely reserving his own piece. They had so well aimed their shot at themen they knew, that one of them was killed on the spot, and the othervery much wounded; but not being dead, he started up on his feet, andcalled eagerly for help to the other; but the captain stepping to him, told him it was too late to cry for help, he should call upon God toforgive his villany; and with that word knocked him down with the stockof his musket, so that he never spoke more: there were three more in thecompany, and one of them was also slightly wounded. By this time I wascome; 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 thetreachery they had been guilty of, and would swear to be faithful to himin recovering the ship, and afterwards in carrying her back to Jamaica, from whence they came. They gave him all the protestations of theirsincerity that could be desired, and he was willing to believe them, andspare their lives, which I was not against, only that I obliged him tokeep them bound hand and foot while they were on the island. 

While this was doing, I sent Friday with the captain's mate to the boat, with orders to secure her, and bring away the oars and sails, which theydid: and by and by three straggling men, that were (happily for them)parted from the rest, came back upon hearing the guns fired; and seeingthe captain, who before was their prisoner, now their conqueror, theysubmitted to be bound also; and so our victory was complete. 

It now remained that the captain and I should inquire into one another'scircumstances: I began first, and told him my whole history, which heheard with an attention even to amazement; and particularly at thewonderful manner of my being furnished with provisions and ammunition;and, indeed, as my story is a whole collection of wonders, it affectedhim deeply. But when he reflected from thence upon himself, and how Iseemed to have been preserved there on purpose to save his life, thetears ran down his face, and he could not speak a word more. After thiscommunication was at an end, I carried him and his two men into myapartment, leading them in just where I came out, viz. At the top of thehouse, where I refreshed them with such provisions as I had, and showedthem all the contrivances I had made, during my long, long inhabitingthat place. 

All I showed them, all I said to them, was perfectly amazing; but, above all, the captain admired my fortification, and how perfectly I hadconcealed my retreat with a grove of trees, which, having been nowplanted near twenty years, and the trees growing much faster than inEngland, was become a little wood, and so thick, that it was impassablein any part of it, but at that one side where I had reserved my littlewinding passage into it. I told him this was my castle and my residence, but that I had a seat in the country, as most princes have, whither Icould 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. Heagreed with me as to that; but told me, he was perfectly at a loss whatmeasures to take, for that there were still six and twenty hands onboard, who having entered into a cursed conspiracy, by which they hadall forfeited their lives to the law, would be hardened in it now bydesperation, 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, orto any of the English colonies; and that, therefore, there would be noattacking them with so small a number as we were. 

I mused for some time upon what he had said, and found it was a veryrational conclusion, and that, therefore, something was to be resolvedon speedily, as well to draw the men on board into some snare for theirsurprise, as to prevent their landing upon us, and destroying us. Uponthis, it presently occurred to me, that in a little while the ship'screw, 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 wehad to do was to stave the boat, which lay upon the beach, so that theymight not carry her off: and taking every thing out of her, leave her sofar useless as not to be fit to swim: accordingly we went on board, tookthe arms which were left on board out of her, and whatever else we foundthere, which was a bottle of brandy, and another of rum, a fewbiscuit-cakes, a horn of powder, and a great lump of sugar in a piece ofcanvass (the sugar was five or six pounds;) all which was very welcometo me, especially the brandy and sugar, of which I had none left formany years. 

When we had carried all these things on shore, (the oars, mast, sail, and rudder of the boat were carried away before, as above, ) we knocked agreat hole in her bottom, that if they had come strong enough to masterus, yet they could not carry off the boat. Indeed, it was not much in mythoughts 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 makeher fit again to carry us to the Leeward Islands, and call upon ourfriends the Spaniards in my way; for I had them still in my thoughts. 

While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first, by mainstrength, heaved the boat upon the beach so high, that the tide wouldnot float her off at high water mark, and besides, had broke a hole inher bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were set down musing whatwe should do, we heard the ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft withher ensign as a signal for the boat to come on board: but no boatstirred; and they fired several times, making other signals for theboat. At last, when all their signals and firing proved fruitless, andthey found the boat did not stir, we saw them, by the help of myglasses, hoist another boat out, and row towards the shore; and wefound, 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 ofthem as they came, and a plain sight even of their faces; because thetide having set them a little to the east of the other boat, they rowedup 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 ofthem, and the captain knew the persons and characters of all the men inthe 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 frightened; but that as for the boatswain, who, itseems, was the chief officer among them, and all the rest, they were asoutrageous as any of the ship's crew, and were no doubt made desperatein their new enterprise; and terribly apprehensive he was that theywould be too powerful for us. I smiled at him, and told him that men inour circumstances were past the operation of fear; that seeing almostevery condition that could be was better than that which we weresupposed to be in, we ought to expect that the consequence, whetherdeath or life, would be sure to be a deliverance, I asked him what hethought of the circumstances of my life, and whether a deliverance werenot worth venturing for? "And where, Sir, " said I, "is your belief of mybeing preserved here on purpose to save your life, which elevated you alittle while ago? For my part, " said I, "there seems to me but one thingamiss in all the prospect of it. "--"What is that?" says he. "Why, " saidI, "it is, that as you say there are three or four honest fellows amongthem, which should be spared, had they been all of the wicked part ofthe crew I should have thought God's providence had singled them out todeliver them into your hands; for depend upon it, every man that comesashore are our own, and shall die or live as they behave to us. " As Ispoke this with a raised voice and cheerful countenance, I found itgreatly 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 themeffectually. Two of them, of whom the captain was less assured thanordinary, I sent with Friday, and one of the three delivered men, to mycave, where they were remote enough, and out of danger of being heard ordiscovered, or of finding their way out of the woods if they could havedelivered themselves: here they left them bound, but gave themprovisions; and promised them, if they continued there quietly, to givethem their liberty in a day or two; but that if they attempted theirescape, they should be put to death without mercy. They promisedfaithfully to bear their confinement with patience, and were verythankful that they had such good usage as to have provisions and lightleft them; for Friday gave them candles (such as we made ourselves) fortheir comfort; and they did not know but that he stood centinel overthem 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 othertwo were taken into my service, upon the captain's recommendation, andupon their solemnly engaging to live and die with us; so with them andthe three honest men we were seven men well armed; and I made no doubtwe should be able to deal well enough with the ten that were coming, considering that the captain had said there were three or four honestmen among them also. As soon as they got to the place where their otherboat lay, they ran their boat into the beach, and came all on shore, hauling the boat up after them, which I was glad to see; for I wasafraid they would rather have left the boat at an anchor, some distancefrom the shore, with some hands in her, to guard her, and so we shouldnot 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 undera 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, hallooing with all their might, to try if they could make their companions hear; but all was to nopurpose: then they came all close in a ring, and fired a volley of theirsmall arms, which, indeed, we heard, and the echoes made the woodsring; 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 durstgive 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 boardagain, to their ship, and let them know that the men were all murdered, and the long-boat staved; accordingly, they immediately launched theirboat again, and got all of them on board. 

The captain was terribly amazed, and even confounded at this, believingthey would go on board the ship again, and set sail, giving theircomrades over for lost, and so he should still lose the ship, which hewas in hopes we should have recovered; but he was quickly as muchfrightened the other way. 

They had not been long put off with the boat, but we perceived them allcoming on shore again; but with this new measure in their conduct, whichit seems they consulted together upon, viz. To leave three men in theboat, and the rest to go on shore, and go up into the country to lookfor their fellows. This was a great disappointment to us, for now wewere at a loss what to do; as our seizing those seven men on shore wouldbe no advantage to us, if we let the boat escape; because they wouldthen row away to the ship, and then the rest of them would be sure toweigh and set sail, and so our recovering the ship would be lost. However, we had no remedy but to wait and see what the issue of thingsmight present. The seven men came on shore, and the three who remainedin the boat put her off to a good distance from the shore, and came toan anchor to wait for them; so that it was impossible for us to come atthem in the boat. Those that came on shore kept close together, marchingtowards the top of the little hill under which my habitation lay; and wecould see them plainly, though they could not perceive us. We could havebeen very glad they would have come nearer to us, so that we might havefired at them, or that they would have gone farther off, that we mighthave come abroad. But when they were come to the brow of the hill, wherethey could see a great way into the valleys and woods, which lay towardsthe north-east part, and where the island lay lowest, they shouted andhallooed till they were weary; and not caring, it seems, to venture farfrom the shore, nor far from one another, they sat down together under atree, to consider of it. Had they thought fit to have gone to sleepthere, as the other part of them had done, they had done the job for us;but they were too full of apprehensions of danger to venture to go tosleep, though they could not tell what the danger was they had tofear neither. 

The captain made a very just proposal to me upon this consultation oftheirs, viz. That perhaps they would all fire a volley again, toendeavour to make their fellows hear, and that we should all sally uponthem, just at the Juncture when their pieces were all discharged, andthey would certainly yield, and we should have them without bloodshed. Iliked this proposal, provided it was done while we were near enough tocome up to them before they could load their pieces again. But thisevent did not happen; and we lay still a long time, very irresolute whatcourse to take. At length I told them there would be nothing done, in myopinion, 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 somight use some stratagem with them in the boat to get them on shore. Wewaited a great while, though very impatient for their removing; and werevery uneasy, when, after long consultations, we saw them all start up, and march down towards the sea: it seems they had such dreadfulapprehensions upon them of the danger of the place, that they resolvedto go on board the ship again, give their companions over for lost, andso go on with their intended voyage with the ship. 

As soon as I perceived them to go towards the shore, I imagined it tobe, as it really was, that they had given over their search, and werefor going back again; and the captain, as soon as I told him mythoughts, was ready to sink at the apprehensions of it: but I presentlythought of a stratagem to fetch them back again, and which answered myend to a tittle. I ordered Friday and the captain's mate to go over thelittle creek westward, towards the place where the savages came on shorewhen Friday was rescued, and as soon as they came to a little risingground, at about half a mile distance, I bade them halloo out, as loudas they could, and wait till they found the seamen heard them; that assoon as ever they heard the seamen answer them, they should return itagain; and then keeping out of sight, take a round, always answeringwhen the others hallooed, to draw them as far into the island, and amongthe woods, as possible, and then wheel about again to me, by such waysas 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 shorewestward, towards the voice they heard, when they were presently stoppedby the creek, where the water being up, they could not get over, andcalled for the boat to come up and set them over; as, indeed, Iexpected. When they had set themselves over, I observed that the boatbeing gone a good way into the creek, and, as it were, in a harbourwithin the land, they took one of the three men out of her, to go alongwith them, and left only two in the boat, having fastened her to thestump of a little tree on the shore. This was what I wished for; andimmediately leaving Friday and the captain's mate to their business, Itook the rest with me, and crossing the creek out of their sight, wesurprised the two men before they were aware; one of them lying on theshore, and the other being in the boat. The fellow on shore was betweensleeping and waking, and going to start up; the captain, who wasforemost, ran in upon him, and knocked him down; and then called out tohim in the boat to yield, or he was a dead man. There needed very fewarguments to persuade a single man to yield, when he saw five men uponhim, and his comrade knocked down; besides, this was, it seems, one ofthe 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 tojoin very sincerely with us. In the mean time, Friday and the captain'smate so well managed their business with the rest, that they drew them, by hallooing and answering, from one hill to another, and from one woodto another, till they not only heartily tired them, but left them wherethey were very sure they could not reach back to the boat before it wasdark; and, indeed, they were heartily tired themselves also, by the timethey came back to us. 

We had nothing now to do but to watch for them in the dark, and to fallupon them, so as to make sure work with them. It was several hours afterFriday came back to me before they came back to their boat; and we couldhear the foremost of them, long before they came quite up, calling tothose behind to come along; and could also hear them answer, andcomplain 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 boatfast aground in the creek, 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 eitherthere were inhabitants in it, and they should all be murdered, or elsethere were devils and spirits in it, and they should be all carried awayand devoured. They hallooed again, and called their two comrades bytheir names a great many times; but no answer. After some time, we couldsee them, by the little light there was, run about, wringing theirhands like men in despair; and that sometimes they would go and sit downin the boat, to rest themselves: then come ashore again, and walk aboutagain, and so the same thing over again. My men would fain have had megive them leave to fall upon them at once in the dark; but I was willingto take them at some advantage, so to spare them, and kill as few ofthem as I could; and especially I was unwilling to hazard the killingany of our men, knowing the others were very well armed. I resolved towait, to see if they did not separate; and, therefore, to make sure ofthem, I drew my ambuscade nearer, and ordered Friday and the captain tocreep 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 couldpossibly, before they offered to fire. 

They had not been long in that posture, when the boatswain, who was theprincipal ringleader of the mutiny, and had now shown himself the mostdejected and dispirited of all the rest, came walking towards them, withtwo more of the crew: the captain was so eager at having this principalrogue so much in his power, that he could hardly have patience to lethim come so near as to be sure of him, for they only heard his tonguebefore: but when they came nearer, the captain and Friday, starting upon 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 didnot die till an hour or two after; and the third run for it. At thenoise of the fire, I immediately advanced with my whole army, which was now eight men, viz. Myself, generalissimo; Friday, mylieutenant-general; the captain and his two men, and the three prisonersof war, whom we had trusted with arms. We came upon them, indeed, in thedark, so that they could not see our number; and I made the man they hadleft in the boat, who was now one of us, to call them by name, to try ifI could bring them to a parley, and so might perhaps reduce them toterms; which fell out just as we desired: for indeed it was easy tothink, as their condition then was, they would be very willing tocapitulate. So he calls out as loud as he could, to one of them, "TomSmith! Tom Smith!" Tom Smith answered immediately, "Is that Robinson?"For it seems he knew the voice. The other answered, "Aye aye; for God'ssake, Tom Smith, throw down your arms and yield, or you are all dead menthis moment. "--"Who must we yield to? Where are they?" says Smith again. "Here they are, " says he; "here's our captain and fifty men with him;have been hunting you these two hours: the boatswain is killed, Will Fryis wounded, and I am a prisoner; and if you do not yield, you are alllost. "--"Will they give us quarter then?" says Tom Smith, "and we willyield. "--"I'll go and ask, if you promise to yield, " says Robinson: sohe asked the captain; and the captain himself then calls out, "You, Smith, you know my voice; if you lay down your arms immediately, andsubmit, you shall have your lives, all but Will Atkins. "

Upon this Will Atkins cried out, "For God's sake, captain, give mequarter; what have I done? They have all been as bad as I:" which, bythe way, was not true neither; for, it seems, this Will Atkins was thefirst man that laid hold of the captain, when they first mutinied, andused him barbarously, in tying his hands, and giving him injuriouslanguage. However, the captain told him he must lay down his arms atdiscretion, 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 theirarms, and begged their lives; and I sent the man that had parleyed withthem, and two more, who bound them all; and then my great army of fiftymen, which, particularly with those three, were in all but eight, cameup and seized upon them, and upon their boat; only that I kept myselfand one more out of sight for reasons of state. 

Our next work was to repair the boat, and think of seizing the ship: andas for the captain, now he had leisure to parley with them, heexpostulated with them upon the villany of their practices with him, andat length upon the further wickedness of their design, and how certainlyit must bring them to misery and, distress in the end, and perhaps tothe gallows. They all appeared very penitent, and begged hard for theirlives. As for that, he told them they were none of his prisoners, butthe commander's of the island; that they thought they had set him onshore in a barren, uninhabited island; but it had pleased God so todirect them, that it was inhabited, and that the governor was anEnglishman; that he might hang them all there, if he pleased; but as hehad given them all quarter, he supposed he would send them to England, to be dealt with there as justice required, except Atkins, whom he wascommanded by the governor to advise to prepare for death, for that hewould be hanged in the morning. 

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

It now occurred to me, that the time of our deliverance was come, andthat it would be a most easy thing to bring these fellows in to behearty in getting possession of the ship; so I retired in the dark fromthem, that they might not see what kind of a governor they had, andcalled the captain to me: when I called, as at a good distance, one ofthe men was ordered to speak again, and say to the captain, "Captain, the commander calls for you;" and presently the captain replied, "Tellhis excellency I am just a coming. " This more perfectly amused them, andthey 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 theship, which he liked wonderfully well, and resolved to put it inexecution the next morning. But, in order to execute it with more art, 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 ofthem, and send them pinioned to the cave where the others lay. This wascommitted 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, adismal place, especially to men in their condition. The others Iordered to my bower, as I called it, of which I have given a fulldescription; and as it was fenced in, and they pinioned, the place wassecure enough, considering they were upon their behaviour. 

To these in the morning I sent the captain, who was to enter into aparley with them; in a word, to try them, and tell me whether he thoughtthey might be trusted or no to go on board and surprise the ship. Hetalked to them of the injury done him, of the condition they werebrought to, and that though the governor had given them quarter fortheir lives as to the present action, yet that if they were sent toEngland, they would all be hanged in chains, to be sure; but that ifthey would join in so just an attempt as to recover the ship, he wouldhave the governor's engagement for their pardon. 

Any one may guess how readily such a proposal would be accepted by menin their condition; they fell down on their knees to the captain, andpromised, with the deepest imprecations, that they would be faithful tohim to the last drop, and that they should owe their lives to him, andwould go with him all over the world; that they would own him as afather as long as they lived. "Well, " says the captain, "I must go andtell the governor what you say, and see what I can do to bring him toconsent to it. " So he brought me an account of the temper he found themin, and that he verily believed they would be faithful. However, that wemight be very secure, I told him he should go back again and choose outthose five, and tell them, that they might see he did not want men, thathe would take out those five to be his assistants, and that thegovernor would keep the other two, and the three that were sentprisoners to the castle (my cave) as hostages for the fidelity of thosefive; and that if they proved unfaithful in the execution, the fivehostages should be hanged in chains alive on the shore. This lookedsevere, and convinced them that the governor was in earnest: however, they had no way left them but to accept it; and it was now the businessof the prisoners, as much as of the captain, to persuade the other fiveto do their duty. 

Our strength was now thus ordered for the expedition: first, Thecaptain, his mate, and passenger: second, Then the two prisoners of thefirst gang, to whom, having their character from the captain, I hadgiven their liberty, and trusted them with arms: third, The other twothat I had kept till now in my bower pinioned, but, on the captain'smotion, had now released: fourth, These five released at last: so thatthey were twelve in all, besides five we kept prisoners in the cavefor hostages. 

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

When I showed myself to the two hostages, it was with the captain, whotold 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 any wherebut by my direction; that if they did, they would be fetched into thecastle, and be laid in irons: so that as we never suffered them to seeme as a governor, I now appeared as another person, and spoke of thegovernor, the garrison, the castle, and the like, upon all occasions. 

The captain now had no difficulty before him, but to furnish his twoboats, stop the breach of one, and man them. He made his passengercaptain of one, with four of the men; and himself, his mate, and fivemore, went in the other; and they contrived their business very well, for they came up to the ship about midnight. As soon as they came withincall of the ship, he made Robinson hail them, and tell them they hadbrought off the men and the boat, but that it was a long time beforethey had found them, and the like, holding them in a chat till they cameto the ship's side; when the captain and the mate entering first, withtheir arms, immediately knocked down the second mate and carpenter withthe but end of their muskets, being very faithfully seconded by theirmen; they secured all the rest that were upon the mainland quarterdecks, and began to fasten the hatches, to keep them down that were below; whenthe other boat and their men entering at the fore-chains, secured theforecastle of the ship, and the scuttle which went down into thecook-room, making three men they found there prisoners. When this wasdone, and all safe upon deck, the captain ordered the mate, with threemen, to break into the round-house, where the new rebel captain lay, whohaving taken the alarm, had got up, and with two men and a boy had gotfire-arms in their hands; and when the mate, with a crow, split open thedoor, the new captain and his men fired boldly among them, and woundedthe mate with a musket ball, which broke his arm, and wounded two moreof the men, but killed nobody. The mate calling for help, rushed, however, into the round-house, wounded as he was, and with his pistolshot 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 wordmore: 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 tobe fired, which was the signal agreed upon with me to give me notice ofhis success, which you may be sure I was very glad to hear, having satwatching 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 beena day of great fatigue to me, I slept very sound, till I was somethingsurprised with the noise of a gun; and presently starting up, I heard aman call me by the name of Governor, Governor, and presently I knew thecaptain's voice; when climbing up to the top of the hill, there hestood, and pointing to the ship, he embraced me in his arms. "My dearfriend and deliverer, " says he, "there's your ship, for she is allyour's, and so are we, and all that belong to her. " I cast my eyes tothe ship, and there she rode within little more than half a mile of theshore; for they had weighed her anchor as soon as they were masters ofher, and the weather being fair, had brought her to an anchor justagainst the mouth of the little creek; and the tide being up, thecaptain had brought the pinnace in near the place where I at firstlanded my rafts, and so landed just at my door, I was at first ready tosink down with the surprise; for I saw my deliverance, indeed, visiblyput into my hands, all things easy, and a large ship just ready to carryme away whither I pleased to go. At first, for some time, I was not ableto answer him one word; but as he had taken me in his arms, I held fastby him, or I should have fallen to the ground. He perceived thesurprise, and immediately pulls a bottle out of his pocket, and gave mea dram of cordial, which he had brought on purpose for me. After I haddrank it, I sat down upon the ground; and though it brought me tomyself, yet it was a good while before I could speak a word to him. Allthis time the poor man was in as great an ecstasy as I, only not underany surprise, as I was; and he said a thousand kind and tender things tome, to compose and bring me to myself: but such was the flood of joy inmy breast, that it put all my spirits into confusion; at last it brokeout into tears; and in a little while after I recovered my speech. Ithen took my turn, and embraced him as my deliverer, and we rejoicedtogether. I told him I looked upon him as a man sent from Heaven todeliver me, and that the whole transaction seemed to be a chain ofwonders; that such things as these were the testimonies we had of asecret hand of Providence governing the world, and an evidence that theeye of an infinite power could search into the remotest corner of theworld, and send help to the miserable whenever he pleased. I forgot notto lift up my heart in thankfulness to Heaven; and what heart couldforbear to bless him, who had not only in a miraculous manner providedfor me in such a wilderness, and in such a desolate condition, but fromwhom every deliverance must always be acknowledged to proceed?

When we had talked a while, the captain told me he had brought me somelittle refreshment, such as the ship afforded, and such as the wretchesthat had been so long his masters had not plundered him of. Upon this hecalled aloud to the boat, and bade his men bring the things ashore thatwere for the governor; and, indeed, it was a present as if I had beenone that was not to be carried away with them, but as if I had been todwell upon the island still. First, he had brought me a case of bottlesfull of excellent cordial waters, six large bottles of Madeira wine, (the bottles held two quarts each, ) two pounds of excellent goodtobacco, twelve good pieces of the ship's beef, and six pieces of pork, with a bag of peas, and about an hundred weight of biscuit: he alsobrought me a box of sugar, a box of flour, a bag full of lemons, and twobottles of lime juice, and abundance of other things. But, besidesthese, and what was a thousand times more useful to me, he brought mesix new clean shirts, six very good neckcloths, two pair of gloves, onepair of shoes, a hat, and one pair of stockings, with a very good suitof clothes of his own, which had been worn but very little; in a word, he clothed me from head to foot. It was a very kind and agreeablepresent, as any one may imagine, to one in my circumstances; but neverwas any thing in the world of that kind so unpleasant, awkward, anduneasy, as it was to me to wear such clothes at first. 

After these ceremonies were past, and after all his good things werebrought into my little apartment, we began to consult what was to bedone with the prisoners we had; for it was worth considering whether wemight venture to take them away with us or no, especially two of them, whom he knew to be incorrigible and refractory to the last degree; andthe captain said he knew they were such rogues, that there was noobliging them; and if he did carry them away, it must be in irons, asmalefactors, to be delivered over to justice at the first English colonyhe could come at; and I found that the captain himself was very anxiousabout it. Upon this I told him, that if he desired it, I would undertaketo bring the two men he spoke of to make it their own request that heshould leave them upon the island. "I should be very glad of that, " saysthe captain, "with all my heart. "--"Well, " says I, "I will send forthem up, and talk with them for you, " So I caused Friday and the twohostages, for they were now discharged, their comrades having performedtheir promise; I say, I caused them to go to the cave, and bring up thefive men, pinioned as they were, to the bower, and keep them there tillI came. After some time, I came thither dressed in my new habit; and nowI was called governor again. Being all met, and the captain with me, Icaused the men to be brought before me, and I told them I had got a fullaccount of their villanous behaviour to the captain, and how they hadrun away with the ship, and were, preparing to commit farther robberies, but that Providence had ensnared them in their own ways, and that theywere fallen into the pit which they had dug for others. I let them knowthat by my direction the ship had been seized; that she lay now in theroad; and they might see, by and by, that their new captain had receivedthe reward of his villany, and that they would see him hanging at theyard-arm: that as to them, I wanted to know what they had to say why Ishould not execute them as pirates, taken in the fact, as by mycommission they could not doubt but I had authority so to do. 

One of them answered in the name of the rest, that they had nothing tosay but this, that when they were taken, the captain promised them theirlives, and they humbly implored my mercy. But I told them I knew notwhat mercy to show them; for as for myself, I had resolved to quit theisland with all my men, and had taken passage with the captain to go forEngland; and as for the captain, he could not carry them to Englandother than as prisoners, in irons, to be tried for mutiny, and runningaway with the ship; the consequence of which, they must needs know, would be the gallows; so that I could not tell what was best for them, unless they had a mind to take their fate in the island; if they desiredthat, as I had liberty to leave the island, I had some inclination togive them their lives, if they thought they could shift on shore. Theyseemed very thankful for it, and said they would much rather venture tostay there than be carried to England to be hanged: so I left it onthat issue. 

However, the captain seemed to make some difficulty of it, as if hedurst not leave them there. Upon this I seemed a little angry with thecaptain, and told him that they were my prisoners, not his; and thatseeing 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 atliberty, as I found them; and if he did not like it, he might take themagain if he could catch them. Upon this they appeared very thankful, andI accordingly set them at liberty, and bade them retire into the woodsto the place whence they came, and I would leave them some fire-arms, some ammunition, and some directions how they should live very well, ifthey thought fit. Upon this I prepared to go on board the ship; but toldthe captain I would stay that night to prepare my things, and desiredhim 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; ordering 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. 

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. Itold them I thought they had made a right choice; that if the captainhad carried them away, they would certainly be hanged. I showed them thenew captain hanging at the yard-arm of the ship, and told them they hadnothing less to expect. 

When they had all declared their willingness to stay, I then told them Iwould let them into the story of my living there, and put them into theway of making it easy to them: accordingly, I gave them the wholehistory of the place, and of my coming to it; showed them myfortifications, the way I made my bread, planted my corn, cured mygrapes; and, in a word, all that was necessary to make them easy. I toldthem 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 commonwith themselves. Here it may be noted, that the captain had ink onboard, who was greatly surprised that I never hit upon a way of makingink of charcoal and water, or of something else, as I had done thingsmuch more difficult. 

I left them my fire-arms, viz. Five-muskets, three fowling-pieces; andthree swords. I had above a barrel and a half of powder left; for afterthe first year or two I used but little, and wasted none. I gave them adescription of the way I managed the goats, and directions to milk andfatten them, and to make both butter and cheese: in a word, I gave themevery part of my own story; and told them I should prevail with thecaptain to leave them two barrels of gunpowder more, and some gardenseeds, which I told them I would have been very glad of: also I gavethem the bag of peas which the captain had brought me to eat, and badethem be sure to sow and increase them. 

Having done all this, I left them the next day, and went on board theship. We prepared immediately to sail, but did not weigh that night. Thenext morning early, two of the five men came swimming to the ship'sside, and making a most lamentable complaint of the other three, beggedto 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 themimmediately. Upon this, the captain pretended to have no power withoutme; but after some difficulty, and after their solemn promises ofamendment, they were taken on board, and were some time after soundlywhipped and pickled: after which they proved very honest andquiet 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 myintercession, caused their chests and clothes to be added, which theytook, and were very thankful for. I also encouraged them, by tellingthem that if it lay in my power to send any vessel to take them in, Iwould not forget them. 

When I took leave of this island, I carried on board, for reliques, thegreat goat-skin cap I had made, my umbrella, and one of my parrots; alsoI forgot not to take the money I formerly mentioned, which had lain byme so long useless, that it was grown rusty or tarnished, and couldhardly pass for silver, till it had been a little rubbed and handled; asalso the money I found in the wreck of the Spanish ship. And thus I leftthe island, the 19th of December, as I found by the ship's account, inthe year 1686, after I had been upon it eight and twenty years, twomonths, and nineteen days; being delivered from this second captivitythe 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, Iarrived in England the 11th of June, in the year 1687, having beenthirty-five years absent. 

When I came to England, I was as perfect a stranger to all the world asif 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 greatmisfortunes in the world; was become a widow the second time, and verylow in the world. I made her very easy as to what she owed me, assuringher I would give her no trouble; but on the contrary, in gratitude forher former care and faithfulness to me, I relieved her as mylittle-stock would afford; which, at that time, would indeed allow me todo but little for her; but I assured her I would never forget her formerkindness to me; nor did I forget her when I had sufficient to help her, as shall be observed in its proper place. I went down afterwards intoYorkshire; but my father was dead, and my mother and all the familyextinct, except that I found two sisters, and two of the children of oneof my brothers; and as I had been long ago given over for dead, therehad been no provision made for me: so that, in a word, I found nothingto relieve or assist me; and that the little money I had would not domuch for me as to settling in the world. 

I met with one piece of gratitude, indeed, which I did not expect; andthis 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 veryhandsome account to the owners of the manner how I had saved the livesof the men, and the ship, they invited me to meet them, and some othermerchants concerned, and all together made me a very handsome complimentupon the subject, and a present of almost £200 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, Iresolved to go to Lisbon, and see if I might not come by someinformation of the state of my plantation in the Brazils, and of whatwas become of my partner, who, I had reason to suppose, had some yearspast given me over for dead. With this view I took shipping for Lisbon, where I arrived in April following; my man Friday accompanying me veryhonestly in all these ramblings, and proving a most faithful servantupon all occasions. When I came to Lisbon, I found out, by inquiry, andto my particular satisfaction, my old friend the captain of the ship whofirst 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 ayoung man, into his ship, and who still used the Brazil trade. The oldman did not know me; and, indeed, I hardly knew him: but I soon broughthim 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 acquaintance between us, Iinquired, you may be sure, after my plantation and my partner. The oldman told me he had not been in the Brazils for about nine years; butthat he could assure me, that when he came away my partner was living;but the trustees, whom I had joined with him to take cognizance of mypart, were both dead: that, however, he believed I would have a verygood account of the improvement of the plantation; for that upon thegeneral belief of my being cast away and drowned, my trustees had givenin the account of the produce of my part of the plantation to theprocurator-fiscal, who had appropriated it, in case I never came toclaim 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 theconversion of the Indians to the Catholic faith; but that if I appeared, or any one for me, to claim the inheritance, it would be restored; onlythat the improvement or annual production, being distributed tocharitable uses, could not be restored: but he assured me that thesteward of the king's revenue from lands, and the provedore, or stewardof the monastery, had taken great care all along that the incumbent, that is to say, my partner, gave every year a faithful account of theproduce, of which they had duly received my moiety. I asked him if heknew to what height of improvement he had brought the plantation, andwhether he thought it might be worth looking after; or whether, on mygoing thither, I should meet with any obstruction to my possessing myjust right in the moiety. He told me he could not tell exactly to whatdegree the plantation was improved; but this he knew, that my partnerwas grown exceeding rich upon the enjoying his part of it; and that, tothe best of his remembrance, he had heard that the king's third of mypart, which was, it seems, granted away to some other monastery orreligious house, amounted to above two hundred moidores a year: that asto my being restored to a quiet possession of it, there was no questionto be made of that, my partner being alive to witness my title, and myname being also enrolled in the register of the country; also he toldme, that the survivors of my two trustees were very fair honest people, and very wealthy; and he believed I would hot only have their assistancefor putting me in possession, but would find a very considerable sum ofmoney in their hands for my account, being the produce of the farm whiletheir fathers held the trust, and before it was given up, as above;which, as he remembered, was for about twelve years. 

I showed myself a little concerned and uneasy at this account, andinquired of the old captain how it came to pass that the trustees shouldthus dispose of my effects, when he knew that I had made my will, andhad made him, the Portuguese captain, my universal heir, &c. 

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

After a few days' farther conference with this ancient friend, hebrought me an account of the first six years' income of my plantation, signed by my partner and the merchant-trustees, being always deliveredin goods, viz. Tobacco in roll, and sugar in chests, besides rum, molasses, &c. Which is the consequence of a sugar-work; and I found, bythis account, that every year the income considerably increased; but, asabove, the disbursements being large, the sum at first was small:however, the old man let me see that he was debtor to me four hundredand seventy moidores of gold, besides sixty chests of sugar, and fifteendouble rolls of tobacco, which were lost in his ship; he having beenshipwrecked coming home to Lisbon, about eleven years after my leavingthe place. The good man then began to complain of his misfortunes, andhow he had been obliged to make use of my money to recover 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 sonreturns, you shall be fully satisfied. " Upon this, he pulls out an oldpouch, and gives me one hundred and sixty Portugal moidores in gold; andgiving the writings of his title to the ship, which his son was gone tothe Brazils in, of which he was a quarter-part owner, and his sonanother, 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 beable to bear this; and remembering what he had done for me, how he hadtaken 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 hardlyrefrain weeping at what he had said to me; therefore I asked him if hiscircumstances admitted him to spare so much money at that time, and ifit would not straiten him? He told me he could not say but it mightstraiten him a little; but, however, it was my money, and I might wantit more than he. 

Every thing the good man said was full of affection, and I could hardlyrefrain from tears while he spoke; in short, I took one hundred of themoidores, 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 ofthe plantation, I would return the other to him also, (as, indeed, Iafterwards did;) and that as to the bill of sale of his part in hisson's ship, I would not take it by any means; but that if I wanted themoney, I found he was honest enough to pay me; and if I did not, butcame to receive what he gave me reason to expect, I would never have apenny more from him. 

When this was past, the old man asked me if he should put me into amethod to make my claim to my plantation? I told him I thought to goover to it myself. He said I might do so if I pleased; but that if I didnot, there were ways enough to secure my right, and immediately toappropriate the profits to my use: and as there were ships in the riverof Lisbon just ready to go away to Brazil, he made me enter my name in apublic register, with his affidavit, affirming, upon oath, that I wasalive, and that I was the same person who took up the land for theplanting the said plantation at first. This being regularly attested bya notary, and a procuration affixed, he directed me to send it, with aletter of his writing, to a merchant of his acquaintance at the place;and then proposed my staying with him till an account came ofthe return. 

Never was any thing more honourable than the proceedings upon thisprocuration; for in less than seven months I received a large packetfrom the survivors of my trustees, the merchants, for whose account Iwent to sea, in which were the following particular letters andpapers enclosed. 

First, There was the account-current of the produce of my farm orplantation, from the year when their fathers had balanced with my oldPortugal captain, being for six years; the balance appeared to be onethousand one hundred and seventy-four moidores in my favour. 

Secondly, There was the account of four years more, while they kept theeffects in their hands, before the government claimed theadministration, as being the effects of a person not to be found, whichthey called civil death; and the balance of this, the value of theplantation increasing, amounted to nineteen thousand four hundred andforty-six crusadoes, being about three thousand two hundred andforty moidores. 

Thirdly, There was the prior of Augustine's account, who had receivedthe profits for above fourteen years; but not being to account for whatwas disposed of by the hospital, very honestly declared he had eighthundred and seventy-two moidores not distributed, which he acknowledgedto my account: as to the king's part, that refunded nothing. 

There was a letter of my partner's, congratulating me veryaffectionately upon my being alive, giving me an account how the estatewas improved, and what it produced a year; with a particular of thenumber of squares or acres that it contained, how planted, how manyslaves there were upon it, and making two and twenty crosses forblessings, told me he had said so many _Ave Marias_ to thank the blessedVirgin that I was alive; inviting me very passionately to come over andtake possession of my own; and, in the mean time, to give him orders towhom he should deliver my effects, if I did not come myself; concludingwith a hearty tender of his friendship, and that of his family; and sentme, as a present, seven fine leopards' skins, which he had, it seems, received from Africa, by some other ship that he had sent thither, andwho, it seems, had made a better voyage than I. He sent me also fivechests of excellent sweetmeats, and a hundred pieces of gold uncoined, not quite so large as moidores. By the same fleet, my twomerchant-trustees shipped me one thousand two hundred chests of sugar, eight hundred rolls of tobacco, and the rest of the whole accountin gold. 

I might well say now, indeed, that the latter end of Job was better thanthe beginning. It is impossible to express the flutterings of my veryheart when I found all my wealth about me; for as the Brazil ships comeall in fleets, the same ships which brought my letters brought my goods:and the effects were safe in the river before the letters came to myhand. In a word, I turned pale, and grew sick; and had not the old manrun and fetched me a cordial, I believe the sudden surprise of joy hadoverset nature, and I had died upon the spot: nay, after that, Icontinued very ill, and was so some hours till a physician being sentfor, and something of the real cause of my illness being known, heordered me to be let blood; after which I had relief, and grew well: butI verily believe, if I had not been eased by a vent given in that mannerto the spirits, I should have died. 

I was now master, all on a sudden, of above five thousand poundssterling in money, and had an estate, as I might well call it, in theBrazils, of above a thousand pounds a year, as sure as an estate oflands in England; and, in a word, I was in a condition which I scarceknew how to understand, or how to compose myself for the enjoyment ofit. The first thing I did was to recompense my original benefactor, mygood 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 himall that was sent to me; I told him, that next to the providence ofHeaven, which disposed all things, it was owing to him; and that it nowlay on me to reward him, which I would do a hundredfold: so I firstreturned to him the hundred moidores I had received of him; then I sentfor a notary, and caused him to draw up a general release or dischargefrom the four hundred and seventy moidores, which he had acknowledged heowed me, in the fullest and firmest manner possible. After which Icaused a procuration to be drawn, empowering him to be my receiver ofthe annual profits of my plantation, and appointing my partner toaccount with him, and make the returns by the usual fleets to him in myname; and a clause in the end, being a grant of one hundred moidores ayear to him during his life, out of the effects, and fifty moidores ayear 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 dowith the estate that Providence had thus put into my hands; and, indeed, I had more care upon my head now than I had in my silent state of lifein the island, where I wanted nothing but what I had, and had nothingbut what I wanted; whereas I had now a great charge upon me, and mybusiness was how to secure it. I had never a cave now to hide my moneyin, or a place where it might lie without lock or key, till it grewmouldy and tarnished before any body would meddle with it: on thecontrary, I knew not where to put it, or whom to trust with it. My oldpatron, the captain, indeed, was honest, and that was the only refuge Ihad. In the next place, my interest in the Brazils seemed to summon methither; but now I could not tell how to think of going thither till Ihad settled my affairs, and left my effects in some safe hands behindme. At first I thought of my old friend the widow, who I knew washonest, and would be just to me; but then she was in years, and butpoor, and, for aught. I knew, might be in debt; so that, in a word, Ihad no way but to go back to England myself, and take my effectswith 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, whohad been my former benefactor, so I began to think of my poor widow, whose husband had been my first benefactor, and she, while it was in herpower, my faithful steward and instructor. So the first thing I did, Igot a merchant in Lisbon to write to his correspondent in London, notonly to pay a bill, but to go find her out, and carry her in money ahundred pounds from me, and to talk with her, and comfort her in herpoverty, 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 goodcircumstances; one having been married and left a widow; and the otherhaving a husband not so kind to her as he should be. But among all myrelations or acquaintances, I could not yet pitch upon one to whom Idurst commit the gross of my stock, that I might go away to theBrazils, 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 myselfthere, for I was, as it were, naturalized to the place; but I had somelittle scruple in my mind about religion, which insensibly drew me back. However, it was not religion that kept me from going there for thepresent; and as I had made no scruple of being openly of the religion ofthe country all the while I was among them, so neither did I yet; onlythat, 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 regretmy having professed myself a papist, and thought it might not be thebest religion to die with. 

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

In order to prepare tilings for my going home, I first, the Brazil fleetbeing just going away, resolved to give answers suitable to the just andfaithful account of things I had from thence; and, first, to the priorof St. Augustine I wrote a letter full of thanks for their justdealings, and the offer of the eight hundred and seventy-two moidoreswhich were undisposed of, which I desired might be given, five hundredto the monastery, and three hundred and seventy-two to the poor, as theprior should direct; desiring the good padre's prayers for me, and thelike. I wrote next a letter of thanks to my two trustees, with all theacknowledgment that so much justice and honesty called for; as forsending them any present, they were far above having any occasion forit. Lastly, I wrote to my partner, acknowledging his industry in theimproving the plantation, and his integrity in increasing the stock ofthe, works; giving him instructions for his future government of mypart, according to the powers I had left with my old patron, to whom Idesired him to send whatever became due to me, till he should hear fromme more particularly; assuring him that it was my intention not only tocome to him, but to settle myself there for the remainder of my life. Tothis I added a very handsome present of some Italian silks for his wifeand two daughters, for such the captain's son informed me he had; withtwo pieces of fine English broad-cloth, 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 effectsinto good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was, which way to go toEngland: I had been accustomed enough to the sea, and yet I had astrange aversion to go to England by sea at that time; and though Icould give no reason for it, yet the difficulty increased upon me somuch, that though I had once shipped my baggage in order to go, yet Ialtered 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 someof the reasons; but let no man slight the strong impulses of his ownthoughts in cases of such moment: two of the ships which I had singledout to go in, I mean more particularly singled out than any other, having put my things on board one of them, and in the other to haveagreed with the captain; I say, two of these ships miscarried, viz. Onewas taken by the Algerines, and the other was cast away on the Start, near Torbay, and all the people drowned, except three; so that in eitherof those vessels I had been made miserable. 

Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom Icommunicated every thing, pressed me earnestly not to go by sea, buteither to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of Biscay toRochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey by land toParis, and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to Madrid, and so all theway by laud through France. In a word, I was so prepossessed against mygoing by sea at all, except from Calas to Dover, that I resolved totravel all the way by land; which, as I was not in haste, and did notvalue the charge, was by much the pleasanter way: and to make it moreso, my old captain brought an English gentleman, the son of a merchantin Lisbon, who was willing to travel with me; after which we picked uptwo more English merchants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, thelast going to Paris only; so that in all there were six of us, and fiveservants; the two merchants and the two Portuguese contenting themselveswith one servant between two, to save the charge; and as for me, I gotan English 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 aservant on the road. 

In this manner I set out from Lisbon; and our company being very wellmounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof they did me thehonour to call me captain, as well because I was the oldest man, asbecause I had two servants, and, indeed, was the original of thewhole journey. 

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

When we came to Madrid, we being all of us strangers to Spain, werewilling to stay some time to see the court of Spain, and to see what wasworth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer, we hastenedaway, and set out from Madrid about the middle of October; but when wecame to the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed, at several towns on theway, with an account that so much snow was fallen on the French side ofthe mountains, that several travellers were obliged to come back toPampeluna, after having attempted, at an extreme hazard, to pass on. 

When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it so indeed; and to me, thathad been always used to a hot climate, and to countries where I couldscarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable: nor, indeed, wasit more painful than surprising, to come but ten days before out of OldCastile, where the weather was not only warm, but very hot, andimmediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenean mountains so very keen, soseverely cold, as to be intolerable, and to endanger benumbing andperishing of our fingers and toes. 

Poor Friday was really frightened when he saw the mountains all coveredwith snow, and felt cold weather, which he had never seen or felt beforein his life. To mend the matter, when we came to Pampeluna, it continuedsnowing with so much violence, and so long, that the people said winterwas come before its time; and the roads, which were difficult before, were now quite impassable; for, in a word, the snow lay in some placestoo thick for us to travel, and being not hard frozen, as is the case inthe northern countries, there was no going without being in danger ofbeing buried alive every step. We stayed no less than twenty days atPampeluna; when seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of itsbeing better, for it was the severest winter all over Europe that hadbeen known in the memory of man, I proposed that we should all go awayto Fontarabia, and there take shipping for Bourdeaux, which was a verylittle voyage. But while I was considering this, there came in fourFrench gentlemen, who having been stopped on the French side of thepasses, as we were on the Spanish, had found out a guide, who, traversing the country near the head of Languedoc, had brought them overthe mountains by such ways, that they were not much incommoded with thesnow; for where they met with snow in any quantity, they said it wasfrozen hard enough to bear them and their horses. We sent, for thisguide, who told us he would undertake to carry us the same way with nohazard from the snow, provided we were armed sufficiently to protectourselves from wild beasts; for, he said, upon these great snows it wasfrequent for some wolves to show themselves at the foot of themountains, being made ravenous for want of food, the ground beingcovered with snow. We told him we were well enough prepared for suchcreatures as they were, if he would ensure us from a kind of two-leggedwolves, which, we were told, we were in most danger from, especially onthe French side of the mountains. He satisfied us that there was nodanger of that kind in the way that we were to go: so we readily agreedto follow him, as did also twelve other gentlemen, with their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I said, had attempted to go, and wereobliged to come back again. 

Accordingly, we set out from Pampeluna, with our guide, on the 15th ofNovember; 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 theplain country, we found ourselves in a warm climate again, where thecountry was pleasant, and no snow to be seen; but on a sudden, turningto his left, he approached the mountains another way: and though it istrue the hills and precipices looked dreadful, yet he made so manytours, such meanders, and led us by such winding ways, that weinsensibly passed the height of the mountains without being muchencumbered with the snow; and, all on a sudden, he showed us thepleasant fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gascony, all green andflourishing, though, indeed, at a great distance, and we had some roughway to pass still. 

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

It was about two hours before night, when our guide being somethingbefore us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, andafter them a bear, out of a hollow way adjoining to a thick wood: two ofthe wolves made at the guide, and had he been far before us, he wouldhave been devoured before we could have helped him; one of them fastenedupon his horse, and the other attacked the man with that violence, thathe had not time, or presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, buthallooed 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 Friday camein sight of the man, he hallooed out as loud as the other, "O master! Omaster!" but, like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the poor man, andwith 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 havingbeen used to such creatures in his country, he had no fear upon him, butwent close up to him and shot him, as above; whereas any other of uswould have fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps either missedthe wolf, or endangered shooting the man. 

But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I; and, indeed, italarmed all our company, when, with the noise of Friday's pistol, weheard on both sides the most dismal howling of wolves; and the noise, redoubled by the echo of the mountains, appeared to us as if there hadbeen a prodigious number of them; and perhaps there was not such a fewas that we had no cause of apprehensions: however, as Friday had killedthis wolf, the other that had fastened upon the horse left himimmediately, and fled, without doing him any damage, having happilyfastened upon his head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in histeeth. But the man was most hurt; for the raging creature had bit himtwice, once in the arm, and the other time a little above his knee; andthough he had made some defence, he was just as it were tumbling down bythe 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 mendedour 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 cameclear of the trees, which blinded us before, we saw clearly what hadbeen the case, and how Friday had disengaged the poor guide, though wedid not presently discern what kind of creature it was he had killed. 

But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprisingmanner, as that which followed between Friday and the bear, which gaveus all, though at first we were surprised and afraid for him, thegreatest 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 hastwo particular qualities, which generally are the rule of his actions:first, as to men, who are not his proper prey, (he does not usuallyattempt them, except they first attack him, unless he be excessivehungry, which it is probable might now be the case, the ground beingcovered with snow, ) if you do not meddle with him, he will not meddlewith you; but then you must take care to be very civil to him, and givehim the road, for he is a very nice gentleman; he will not go a step outof his way for a prince; nay, if you are really afraid, your best way isto look another way, and keep going on; for sometimes if you stop, andstand still, and look steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront;but if you throw or toss any thing at him, and it hits him, though itwere 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 havesatisfaction in point of honour;--this is his first quality: the nextis, if he be once affronted, he will never leave yon, night nor day, till he has his revenge, but follows, at a good round rate, till heovertakes yon. 

My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to him, hewas helping him off from his horse, for the man was both hurt andfrightened, 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. Wewere 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 Friday, three times, pointing to him; "O master! you give mete 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, twiceover again; "me eatee him up; me' makee you good laugh; you all stayhere, me show you good laugh. " So down he sits, and gets off his bootsin a moment, and puts on a pair of pumps, (as we call the flat shoesthey wear, and which he had in his pocket, ) gives my other servant hishorse, and with his gun away he flew, swift like the wind. 

The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody, tillFriday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear could understandhim, "Hark ye, hark ye, " says Friday, "me speakee with you. " We followedat a distance; for now being come down on the Gaseony side of themountains, we were entered a vast great forest, where the country wasplain and pretty open, though it had many trees in it scattered here andthere. Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up withhim quickly, and takes up a great stone and throws it at him, and hithim just on the head, but did him no more harm than if he had thrown itagainst a wall; but it answered Friday's end, for the rogue was so voidof fear that he did it purely to make the bear follow him, and show ussome laugh, as he called it. As soon as the bear felt the blow, and sawhim, he turns about, and comes after him, taking devilish long strides, and shuffling on at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse to amiddling gallop: away runs Friday, and takes his course as if he runtowards 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 thebear back upon us, when he was going about his own business another way:and especially I was angry that he had turned the bear upon us, and thenrun away; and I called out, "You dog, is this your making us laugh? Comeaway, 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 muchlaugh:" and as the nimble creature ran two feet for the bear's one, heturned on a sudden, on one side of us, and seeing a great oak tree fitfor his purpose, he beckoned to us to follow; and doubling his pace, hegets nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at aboutfive or six yards from the bottom of the tree. The bear soon came to thetree, and we followed at a distance: the first thing he did, he stoppedat the gun, smelt to it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into thetree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrous heavy. I was amazed atthe 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 rodenear to him. 

When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end of alarge branch, and the bear got about half way to him. As soon as thebear 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 ajumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to totter, butstood still, and began to look behind him, to see how he should getback; then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. But Friday had not done withhim by a great deal; when seeing him stand still, he calls out to himagain, as if he had supposed the bear could speak English, "What, youcome no farther? pray you come farther:" so he left jumping and shakingthe tree; and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did comea little farther; then he fell a jumping again, and the bear stoppedagain. We thought now was a good time to knock him in the head, andcalled to Friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear: but hecried 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, Fridaydanced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughingenough, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do: for firstwe thought he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bearwas too cunning for that too; for he would not go out far enough to bethrown down, but clings fast with his great broad claws and feet, sothat we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and what the jestwould be at last. But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing thebear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to comeany farther, "Well, well, " says Friday, "you no come farther, me go; youno come to me, me come to you:" and upon this he goes out to the smallerend of the bough, where it would bend with his weight, and gently letshimself down by it, sliding down the bough, till he came near enough tojump down on his feet, and away he runs to his gun, takes it up, andstands still. "Well, " said I to him, "Friday, what will you do now? Whydon't you shoot him?"--"No shoot, " says Friday, "no yet; me 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, hecomes back from the bough where he stood, but did it mighty cautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he got into thebody of the tree; then with the same hinder end foremost, he came downthe tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely. At this juncture, and just before he could set his hindfoot on the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzleof his piece into his ear, and shot him dead. Then the rogue turnedabout to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased, byour looks, he falls a laughing himself very loud. "So we kill bear inmy country, " says Friday. "So you kill them?" says I: "why, you have noguns. "--"No, " says he, "no gun, but shoot great much long arrow. " Thiswas a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and ourguide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew: the howling ofwolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise I once heardon the shore of Africa, of which I have said something already, I neverheard any thing that filled me with so much horror. 

These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, asFriday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin ofthis monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had nearthree leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him, and wentforward on our journey. 

The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerousas on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards, were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, toseek for food, and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages, where they surprised the country people, killed a great many of theirsheep and horses, and some people too. We had one dangerous place topass, which our guide told us, if there were more wolves in the countrywe should find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded withwoods on every side, and a long narrow defile, or lane, which we were topass to get through the wood, and then we should come to the villagewhere we were to lodge. It was within half an hour of sunset when weentered the first wood, and a little after sunset when we came into theplain; we met with nothing in the first wood, except that, in a littleplain within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we sawfive great wolves cross the road, full speed, one after another, as ifthey had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they took nonotice of us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments. Upon this ourguide, who, by the way, was but a fainthearted fellow, bid us keep in aready posture, for he believed there were more wolves a coming. We keptour arms ready, and our eyes about us; but we saw no more wolves till wecame through that wood, which was near half a league, and entered theplain. As soon as we came into the plain, we had occasion enough to lookabout 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 themat work, we could not say eating of him, but picking of his bonesrather; for they had eaten up all the flesh before. We did not think fitto 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 anymeans; for I found we were like to have more business upon our handsthan we were aware of. We were not gone half over the plain, when webegan to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left in a frightfulmanner, and presently after we saw about a hundred coming on directlytowards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line, as regularly asan army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in what mannerto receive them, but found, to draw ourselves in a close line was theonly way; so we formed in a moment: but that we might not have, toomuch interval, I ordered that only every other man should fire, and thatthe others who had not fired should stand ready to give them a secondvolley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us; and then thatthose who had fired at first should not pretend to load their fuseesagain, but stand ready every one with a pistol, for we were all armedwith 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 wehad no necessity; for upon firing the first volley, the enemy made afull stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the fire; fourof them being shot in the head, dropped; several others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I found theystopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering that Ihad been told that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice ofa man, I caused all the company to halloo as loud as we could; and Ifound the notion not altogether mistaken; for upon our shout they beganto retire, and turn about. I then ordered a second volley to be fired intheir rear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to thewoods. This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and that wemight lose no time, we kept going: but we had but little more thanloaded our fusees, and put ourselves in readiness, when we heard aterrible noise in the same wood, on our left, only that it was fartheronward, the same way we were to go. 

The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, which made itworse on our side; but the noise increasing, we could easily perceivethat it was the howling and yelling of those hellish creatures; and, ona 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 surroundedwith them: however, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our wayforward, as fast as we could make our horses go, which, the way beingvery rough, was only a good hard trot. In this manner we came in view ofthe entrance of a wood, through which we were to pass, at the fartherside of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when coming nearer thelane or pass, we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at theentrance. On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard thenoise of a gun, and looking that way, out rushed a horse, with a saddleand a bridle on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeenwolves after him, full speed; indeed the horse had the heels of them, but as we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate, we doubtednot but they would get up with him at last; no question but they did. 

But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to the entrancewhere the horse came out, we found the carcasses of another horse and oftwo men, devoured by the ravenous creatures; and one of the men was nodoubt the same whom we heard fire the gun, for there lay a gun just byhim fired off; but as to the man, his head and the upper part of hisbody were eaten up. This filled us with horror, and we knew not whatcourse to take; but the creatures resolved us soon, for they gatheredabout us presently, in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there werethree hundred of them. It happened very much to our advantage, that atthe entrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there lay somelarge timber-trees, which had been cut down the summer before, and Isuppose lay there for carriage. I drew my little troop in among thosetrees, and placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree, I advisedthem all to alight, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, tostand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in thecentre. We did so, and it was well we did; for never was a more furiouscharge than the creatures made upon us in this place. They came on witha growling kind of noise, and mounted the piece of timber, which, as Isaid, was our breastwork, as if they were only rushing upon their prey;and this fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by theirseeing our horses behind us. I ordered our men to fire as before, everyother man; and they took their aim so sure, that they killed several ofthe wolves at the first volley; but there was a necessity to keep acontinual firing, for they came on like devils, those behind pushing onthose before. 

When we had fired a second volley of our fusees, we thought they stoppeda little, and I hoped they would have gone off, but it was but a moment, 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 eighteenof them, and lamed twice as many, yet they came on again. I was loath tospend 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 Isaid, I called my other man, and giving him a horn of powder, I bade himlay 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 toit, and some got upon it, when I, snapping an uncharged pistol close tothe powder, set it on fire: those that were upon the timber werescorched with it, and six or seven of them fell, or rather jumped inamong us, with the force and fright of the fire; we dispatched these inan instant, and the rest were so frightened with the light, which thenight, for it was now very near dark, made more terrible, that they drewback a little; upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off inone volley, and after that we gave a shout: upon this the wolves turnedtail, and we sallied immediately upon near twenty lame ones, that wefound struggling on the ground, and fell a cutting them with ourswords, which answered our expectation; for the crying and howling theymade was better understood by their fellows; so that they all fledand left us. 

We had, first and last, killed about threescore of them; and had it beendaylight, we had killed many more. The field of battle being thuscleared, we made forward again, for we had still near a league to go. Weheard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we went, several times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them, but thesnow dazzling our eyes, we were not certain: in about an hour more wecame to the town where we were to lodge, which we found in a terriblefright, and all in arms; for, it seems, the night before, the wolves andsome bears had broke into the village, and put them in such terror, thatthey were obliged to keep guard night and day, but especially in thenight, to preserve their cattle, and, indeed, their people. 

The next morning our guide was so ill, and his limbs swelled so muchwith the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther; so wewere obliged to take a new guide here, and go to Thoulouse, where wefound a warm climate, a fruitful pleasant country, and no snow, nowolves, nor any thing like them: but when we told our story atThoulouse, they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary in thegreat forest at the foot of the mountains, especially when the snow layon 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 toldus it was surprising we were not all devoured. When we told them how weplaced ourselves, and the horses in the middle, they blamed usexceedingly, and told us it was fifty to one but we had been alldestroyed; for it was the sight of the horses which made the wolves sofurious, seeing their prey; and that, at other times, they are reallyafraid of a gun; but being 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 thestratagem of the train of powder, mastered them, it had been great oddsbut that we had been torn to pieces: whereas, had we been content tohave sat still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, they would not havetaken the horses so much for their own, when men were on their backs, asotherwise; and withal they told us, that at last, if we had stood alltogether, and left our horses, they would have been so eager to havedevoured them, that we might have come off safe, especially having ourfire-arms in our hands, and being so many in number. For my part, I wasnever so sensible of danger in my life; for seeing above three hundreddevils come roaring and open-mouthed to devour us, and having nothing toshelter 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 Iwould much rather go a thousand leagues by sea, though I was sure tomeet 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 muchmore advantage than I can. I travelled from Thoulouse to Paris, andwithout any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover, the 14th of Jan. 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 allmy new-discovered estate safe about me; the bills of exchange which Ibrought 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 withevery thing, that I was perfectly easy as to the security of my effects:and, indeed, I was very happy from the beginning, and now to the end, inthe unspotted integrity of this good gentlewoman. 

And now having resolved to dispose of my plantation in the Brazils, Iwrote to my old friend at Lisbon; who having offered it to the twomerchants, the survivors of my trustees, who lived in the Brazils, theyaccepted the offer, and remitted thirty-three thousand pieces-of-eightto a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon, to pay for it. 

In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which they sentfrom Lisbon, and sent it to my old man, who sent me the bills ofexchange for 32, 800 pieces-of-eight for the estate; reserving thepayment of 100 moidores a year to him (the old man) during his life, and50 moidores afterwards to his son for his life, which I had promisedthem; and which the plantation was to make good as a rent-charge. Andthus I have given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure, alife of Providence's chequer-work, and of a variety which the world willseldom be able to show the like of: beginning foolishly, but closingmuch more happily than any part of it ever gave me leave so much asto hope for. 

Any one would think, that in this state of complicated good fortune, Iwas past running any more hazards, and so indeed I had been, if othercircumstances had concurred: but I was inured to a wandering life, hadno family, nor many relations; nor, however rich, had I contracted muchacquaintance; and though I had sold my estate in the Brazils, yet Icould not keep that country out of my head, and had a great mind to beupon the wing again; especially I could not resist the stronginclination I had to see my island, and to know if the poor Spaniardswere in being there. My true friend, the widow, earnestly dissuaded mefrom it, and so far prevailed with me, that, for almost seven years, sheprevented my running abroad; during which time I took my two nephews, the children of one of my brothers, into my care: the eldest havingsomething of his own, I bred up as a gentleman, and gave him asettlement of some addition to his estate, after my decease. The other Iput out to a captain of a ship: and after five years, finding him asensible, bold, enterprising young fellow, I put him into a good ship, and sent him to sea: and this young fellow afterwards drew me in, as oldas I was, to farther adventures myself. 

In the mean time, I in part settled myself here; for, first of all, Imarried, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction, andhad three children, two sons and one daughter; but my wife dying, and mynephew coming home with good success from a voyage to Spain, myinclination to go abroad, and his importunity, prevailed, and engagedme to go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies: this was inthe year 1694. 

In this voyage I visited my new colony in the island, saw my successorsthe Spaniards, had the whole story of their lives, and of the villains Ileft there; how at first they insulted the poor Spaniards, how theyafterwards agreed, disagreed, united, separated, and how at last theSpaniards were obliged to use violence with them; how they weresubjected to the Spaniards; how honestly the Spaniards used them; anhistory, if it were entered into, as full of variety and wonderfulaccidents as my own part: particularly also as to their battles with theCaribbeans, who landed several times upon the island, and as to theimprovement they made upon the island itself; and how five of them madean attempt upon the main land, and brought away eleven men and fivewomen prisoners; by which, at my coming, I found about twenty youngchildren on the island. 

Here I stayed about twenty days; left them supplies of all necessarythings, and particularly of arms, powder, shot, clothes, tools, and twoworkmen, which I brought from England with me; viz. A carpenter anda smith. 

Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with them, reserved tomyself the property of the whole, but gave them such parts respectively, as they agreed on; and, having settled all things with them, and engagedthem not to leave the place, I left them there. 

From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I sent a bark, whichI bought there, with more people, to the island; and in it, besidesother supplies, I sent seven women, being such as I found proper forservice, or for wives to such as would take them. As to the Englishmen, I promised them to send them some women from England, with a good cargoof necessaries, if they would apply themselves to planting; which Iafterwards could not perform: the fellows proved very honest anddiligent, after they were mastered, and had their properties set apartfor them. I sent them also from the Brazils five cows, three of thembeing big with calf, some sheep, and some hogs, which, when I came againwere considerably increased. 

But all these things, with an account how three hundred Caribbees cameand invaded them, and ruined their plantations, and how they fought withthat whole number twice, and were at first defeated and one of themkilled; but at last a storm destroying their enemies canoes, theyfamished or destroyed almost all the rest, and renewed and recovered thepossession of their plantation, and still lived upon the island. 

All these things, with some very surprising incidents in some newadventures of my own, for ten years more, I shall give a farther accountof in another volume. 

END OF, VOL. I.